Chapter 22: The Power of Suggestion

To guest reviewer Calvin: I'm so glad you like the story! Now about those questions:

1) I made a brief mention of Ben's training with Phineas a few chapters ago. He's still training, but it's not very often because Ben has school and soccer and the band and the DNAlien thing. I will make more mentions of this eventually.

2) This one wasn't really a question, but I'll answer it anyway. Ventus may be stuck in Ben's head, but he wants Ben to have his own life without having to worry about some godly parent constantly looking over his shoulder (so to speak). He does talk to him, but it'll probably be when Ben's in danger or when he needs advice. Besides, Ben has the Omnitrix, which is a seriously powerful device. Ventus can't often talk because the Omnitrix is blocking him.

3) This one is a spoiler alert: There are a LOT of Slayers, but not a lot of Slayer gods. Not all of them have powers, and some only have powers because they're related in some way to a god. Whenever the Pride or Ben use their powers, they borrow power from their godly counterpart. It's kind of the same thing when some other Slayer uses their power. And no, they're not masters yet; most of the vessels are teenagers after all. And the take over thing happens when either the vessel is in serious mortal danger or when the vessel allows the god to take over. You'll see it in this chapter.

"What kind of heroes ride a hearse?" Gwen complained as James the Awesome Chauffeur weaved through traffic to get to Kevin and Sam.

"The kind who doesn't have a drivers' license yet," Carter said calmly as she and Evan leaned back in the black leather seats. Unlike Ben and Gwen across from them, they had ridden in this vehicle since they were children. They were used to how ghoulish it looked against Bellwood's cheery backdrop.

"And besides, no one really considers the Slayers as heroes," Evan said almost bitterly. That made the Tennysons' stare at him. "And why not?" Ben inquired. "I mean, yes, you kill people, but your reasons are usually pretty decent."

"How are they decent?" Gwen asked hotly, completely forgetting who was in the car. It wasn't until Carter gave a not-so-nonchalant cough that she remembered. "Sorry," she said, mollified.

"Its fine," Carter assured her. "It's just that Slayers represent the evil in everyone and people don't like to be reminded of it."

Gwen raised an eyebrow. "'Evil in everyone'?"

Carter shrugged her shoulders. "Well, yeah. You know how in the past, evil overlords and bands of baddies would go around the country taking over land, raping and pillaging the towns they came across and basically being savage, brutal murderers?"

"Yeah…"

"That part of humanity never went away; it's in our DNA. Humans are capable of committing the evilest crimes, the vilest acts. And for what reason? Maybe they were bat shit crazy; maybe they didn't like someone; or maybe they just had a real bad case of indigestion. Humans don't need a reason to give into their dark side, they just can. They can take lives without a second thought and not give two fucks about the consequences. And that's what Slayers are. We are the representation of madness and evil, and we are hated for never bothering to hide it."

Evan continued on. "You see, people hate getting reminded of how evil they can be, so they direct their anger at us. And we let them. As the representation of the dark side, we let them hate us because humans are supposed to abhor their dark sides. And I'm not just talking about humans; I'm talking about every single person in the universe. No matter how advanced a species is, no matter how peaceful it is, no matter how against violence they act, every single person is capable of unspeakable evil, and they hate us for reminding them." Evan smirked at the Tennyson cousins. "Does that answer your question?"

Gwen averted her eyes as quickly as she could. This was a lot to take in…but it made a lot of sense. The Slayers assassinated people for decent reasons, but the Plumbers hated them because...because they wanted to do it themselves! If what Evan and Carter said was true, then all the Plumbers had a dark side that was telling them to kill all the notoriously despicable criminals, but they forced themselves to listen to their good side so they wouldn't have blood on their hands. And they hated the Slayers for shirking their consciences in favor of the madness in them.

Gwen took a risk and looked at Evan and Carter. Carter was looking coolly at them, legs crossed and hands clasped like a queen. Evan also had his legs crossed, hands clasped together, but he was smirking, a nasty thing to see on his face. Gwen was so used to him being a dramatic goofball that it was unnerving to see him so serious and arrogant.

"Um, question?" Ben was waving his hand in the air like he was in school. "If what you said is true, then why is Cordelia trying to bring the Slayers and Plumbers together?"

That was news to Gwen. She turned to Carter, who was frowning. "I'm not sure what Cordelia is thinking, exactly. She's kind of…unstable."

"Unstable," Gwen stated in a flat voice.

"One minute she's a parent who fails at being a role model and who tries in her own way to be a warm person, and the next she's planning something that could destroy the whole world as we know it."

"Yep, definitely unstable," Evan joked, the nasty smirk off his face. Whatever tension Gwen felt left her immediately. She had missed the Evan she knew.

"Aliens headed this way," Helen announced after she looked at the scanner. Manny spun his laser guns in his four hands and put them into their holsters on his back. Smiling, Helen used her super speed to grab her own gun and an energy lass.

"Okay," Manny said, grinning. "Let's move out."

A few minutes later, Helen and Manny were outside their headquarters. "How close are they?" Manny asked Helen.

"Aw, where you waiting for us?" Evan mocked from twenty feet away. Ben and his friends had arrived, and they did not look happy. Except for Evan, who had that annoying smirk on his face.

"Now give us back our friends and no one gets hurt," Carter warned as Gwen's hands glowed pink and Ben's hand hovered over the Omnitrix threateningly.

Manny and Helen immediately started shooting at them, and Gwen created a shield to cover them. Evan took a deep breath, spread out his legs and brought his hands up, palms up to the sky. On Manny and Helens side, the earth underneath them shook, and under Manny's feet a pillar of rock was created, lifting him screaming up into the air. Helen watched helplessly as the pillar zoomed towards the sky.

But Manny wasn't about to give up. With some quick thinking he shot a laser at the end of the building where Ben was, hooting triumphantly as a part of the building crumbled and landed on his head.

"Ben!" Carter and Gwen cried out worriedly as the boy fell to the ground, unconscious. Carter immediately swooped down to heal him as Gwen returned fire, blasting Helen with a beam of bright pink energy and making her crash to the ground.

Manny jumped down from the huge pillar and started blasting at the shield, creating large cracks that Gwen desperately tried to fill.

Inside headquarters, Kevin was beginning to wake up. He could see with his bleary eyes Sam cradling his head in her lap, her face no longer caked with dry blood. "What happened to your face?" Kevin slurred.

"That Helen girl gave me a rag." Sam slowly helped Kevin up by holding his hands. They could hear lasers and the sounds of fighting coming from outside. "Weird; Carter and Evan should have infiltrated this place by now," Sam noted anxiously.

"In other words, our rescue team needs rescuing." Kevin looked at the bottom of their cell and smiled. He turned to Sam. "You got any metal?"

Sam willed out her shield from her bracelet and strapped it onto her arm so it was covering her entire torso. "How do you do that?" Kevin asked.

"I bend energy into these charms and out pops a weapon. It's basic Slayer tech." Sam held out her left wrist, which held a charm bracelet with six charms: two broadswords, a gun, a ninja sword, a carving knife, and a chainsaw.

"Cool," Kevin remarked.

"Slayer metal is some of the best in the universe," Sam said proudly. "You can use it in battle numerous times and it almost never gets damaged."

"Nice!" Kevin immediately touched the cool metal and absorbed it, completely coating his entire arm. He punched the bottom of the yellow energy cell and bolts of energy swarmed his arm. Sam willed her shield away and wished she could conduct the energy, but since it wasn't a heat source…

Ignoring the pain, Kevin grabbed the canister that was spilling out the energy and crushed it, destroying the prison around them. "Four armed freak isn't the only tough guy around," Kevin gloated as he got up. He turned to Sam. "Ready to bust some heads?"

You seriously have to ask?"

Sam used her powers to create a small explosion, destroying a part of the wall and leaving a gaping, smoking hole. When she walked out, she saw a rock shield covering Gwen and the others, and Evan was launching rocks at the bad guys when he wasn't dodging lasers.

But when they heard the explosion, Helen and Manny ignored him and turned to gape at Sam. "'Sup, bitches?" Sam said, slowly walking towards them, her eyes glowing red.

"I told you she was a freak!" Manny yelled at Helen. The two of them immediately split up, Manny after Sam and Helen after Evan. But Sam's entrance had given Evan enough time to say a certain spell. "Herbarum virtus mundum (Create a world of plants and power)!"

Instantly flowers started blooming around Helen, their sudden appearance distracting her. The flowers grew in size, their stems elongating into vines and wrapping around Helen's ankles. Unable to speed out of there, she shot at the vines, only to have the destroyed ones taken over by more flowers. Helen began to scream as the vines wrapped around her waist, slowly creeping up to her neck.

Evan, tired after saying such an intense spell, retreated to the rock shelter he created to cover Gwen and Carter as the latter fixed Ben up.

Manny would have gone to Helen's rescue is Sam wasn't trying to roast him. She was laughing slightly as Manny dodged fire bolts. An armored Kevin grabbed her arms and stopped her from firing any more. "Sam, your kind of scaring me here."

"But I thought you didn't like him."

"I don't, but your acting crazy."

Sam bit her lip and looked away from him. Damn it, she had let loose again!

I don't see what the problem is, Kirche drawled in Sam's mind.

I don't want Kevin to see me go crazy!

Kirche sighed audibly. You're nowhere near crazy, sweetie. And if he doesn't like you for who you are, then dump his ass.

But-

"Sam?" Kevin asked as his girlfriend went silent. Manny was getting out his lasers. "Go and beat him up," Sam told Kevin as she walked towards the sidelines. Kevin was supposed to go and see what he did to make her so upset, but he was too busy looking forward to kicking Manny's ass. As Kevin laid into him, Sam went to check on her friends.

"I have got to start wearing a helmet," Sam heard Ben say when he finally decided to wake up.

"You'd look silly if you did that," Sam said as she took in her rescue team. Evan and Ben looked pretty weak, one from his injury and the other from his spell. Only Gwen and Carter looked like they could fight.

"You okay?" Sam asked Carter, who would normally be pretty tired after a healing session.

"I'm fine; head injuries aren't a problem for me," Carter said, answering Sam's hidden question. "But do we have to?" The girls looked over the rock shield to see Helen panicking as the vines finally wrapped around her arms. The vines tightened themselves like ropes, and Helen fell to the ground in a full body bind.

Only Kevin looked like he was having some trouble with Manny. The Tetramand had four hands to Kevin's two, but Kevin was a lot stronger than his opponent. It was a total deadlock with no winner in sight.

At least, until they saw Evan slowly walk towards Manny. The girls looked behind them to see only Ben back there, still resting. "What is he thinking?" Carter hissed as she watched Evan. "He's too weak to use a spell so soon!" She shot out of the shelter with Sam right behind her, trying to catch up to Evan before he did anything stupid. Gwen helped Ben up and they slowly made their way to the others, wanting to get there in time in case anything happened.

After Kevin slammed Manny into the wall, he accidentally broke the bricks, making a part of the wall fall and narrowly miss Evan. "Evan, get out of here!" Kevin shouted, alarmed. But Evan wasn't listening. He was muttering something under his breath; another incantation?

Manny got out an alien device and activated it, making the truck with the Null Void projector come towards him. The back opened, revealing the red, swirling portal to Hell. Papers and other clutter were getting sucked into it like it was a vacuum.

As quick as lightning, Manny grabbed Evan and held him like a shield. "Nobody move," he said slowly, right before he threw the boy into the portal using all four arms. Evan went headfirst into the portal, but he didn't scream. In fact, he looked determined.

Not that it comforted the others.

"NO!" Everyone cried out. Kevin tried to tackle Manny to the ground, but the Tetramand was too quick. He ducked out of the way and made a grab for Helen, who was struggling to free herself. Sam's hair lit itself on fire and her teeth turned into fangs. "Don't bother, it doesn't change a thing," Carter said hopelessly. She looked like she was trying not to cry.

Like that would stop Sam. Or Ben, who was trying to get out of his injured fog and was pawing at the Omnitrix.

As Helen began to free herself, Manny gloated. "It may be a museum piece, but it gets the job done."

And then he saw the hands coming out the portal. They gripped the sides, and a man hoisted himself out of the projector. He looked like Evan, but he was an adult wearing a green toga and Roman-style leather sandals. A purple cape was draped over his shoulders, and a Civic Crown of oak leaves was in his brown hair. Instead of Evan's usual ponytail, his hair was down, with a scruffy beard on his face. His entire body looked like it was chiseled out of rock, and instead of dark forest green eyes, his eyes were brown, wise with age.

Erda had taken over.

"Who are you? Where's Evan?" Gwen asked Erda. He slowly looked at her, and she suddenly couldn't look him in the eyes. They looked aged and earthy, like he had seen too much for a man in his late twenties.

"Evan is fine. I've taken over for him," the leader of the Slayer gods spoke, his voice prim and deep. He looked at Manny and Helen, who were gaping at him and just standing there like sitting ducks. Erda frowned at them. "This won't take long."

Manny, too hotheaded to realize who he was dealing with, immediately tried to attack him. Helen, being the smarter of the two, yelled, "DON'T!"

But Manny wouldn't listen. He was about to punch Erda, only to have him block it with one hand. With his other, he grabbed the Tetramand by his collar and hoisted him up, feet dangling from the ground. Erda easily threw Manny against the wall, making the wall crack from the impact.

Erda turned to Manny, eyes glowing green. The ground rumbled beneath them, and pieces of earth lifted themselves from the ground, some the size of pebbles, others the size of small cars. Even the fallen bricks from the headquarters building followed its brethren into the air. Hundreds of them were surrounding Manny, ready to impale the frightened Tetramand.

Suddenly, the ground stopped shaking, and the thousands of rock fell to the ground with a large crash, creating a thin smog of dust. Once it cleared, it showed Erda smiling at Manny, who looked ready to pee his pants.

"Are you willing to talk now?" Erda said to Manny.

"So we're all aliens?" Helen asked Ben after he explained everything. Everyone was crowding around them, weaponless and with armors off, though Erda was still in control of Evan's body.

"Kind of," Ben admitted. "One of your parents must have been human. The other…not so much."

"Yeah?" Manny said gruffly. "Then how can you switch back and we can't?"

"Luck of the draw?"

"Look at it this way," Kevin said. "Your human version is probably even uglier."

Manny got all up in Kevin's face and spat out, "You wanna go another round?"

"Anytime!"

Helen used her super speed to get near Sam. "Tell your boyfriend to back off!"

"I'll tell my boyfriend that when you tell your boyfriend to back off!"

"He is not my boyfriend!"

"Think you're a comedian?" Manny.

"You sure act like one! At least you got the face for it!" Kevin.

"Boy, you are really asking for it!"

"I'm begging for it! Who's gonna give it to me?"

"Me, with three hands tied behind my back!"

Ben, seriously irritated, shouted, "Will you all stop? You're acting like kids! What am I, your babysitter?"

"You sound just like my brother," Helen said wistfully.

"Really," Gwen said skeptically.

"Pierce was the one who always kept us grounded," Helen continued, completely ignoring Gwen. And then she disappeared, only to come back with a video journal in her hands. "This is what he was talking about." Helen pressed the ON button, and everyone could see a picture of Pierce on the screen.

It immediately cut to a list of aliens he and his adoptive family had "destroyed" over the years. "You captured a bunch of other aliens besides DNAliens?" Sam asked.

"We didn't know it at them time," Helen explained, handing her the journal. Sam held it out to Ben and the others and asked, "You recognize any of them?"

Ben looked at a few of them and announced, "Some of these are Plumbers' kids, just like you." He handed the journal back to Helen, where it belonged.

"Okay, in that case we have to go into that, uh, what did you call it?" Helen inquired.

"Null Void," answered Kevin.

"Right, Null Void. We'll find the ones we captured and free all the ones who shouldn't be there." Helen looked at Manny.

"Not a chance!" he said.

"Well, Manny, I'm doing it, whether your coming with me or not."

"What, why?"

"Because it's what Pierce would do."

Manny sighed, and then smiled. "All right. For Pierce."

After getting ready, Manny and Helen stood aside the Null Void projector with Ben's team plus Erda watching them leave. As the projector sprang back to life, Helen said a final goodbye. "Thanks, and sorry about, you know…"

"Apology accepted," Kevin said with no hard feelings.

"Be careful!" Carter called out to them.

"And good luck!" said Erda right before Manny and Helen jumped into the portal. In a flash of red light, they were gone. Erda took the chance to switch back into Evan, creating such a bright light that everyone had to close their eyes, lest they be blinded.

When they opened their eyes, they saw an empty projector with no Manny and Helen nearby. "That is so not gonna go well," Kevin said what everyone was thinking.

"I don't know," Carter said. "On paper, the six of us don't make such a great team either."

"True. Now if you excuse me, I'm gonna go swipe some of their equipment." Kevin turned around and nearly stepped on a sleeping Evan, who was curled up on the ground like a cat.

Gwen turned to Carter and Sam. "Mind explaining to us what that was all about?"

"That was Erda," Sam explained. "I guess you can say he's Evan's final form."

"Evan is a container for a large body of power," Carter continued. "And sometimes, when he's panicking, it…comes out of him and takes over his mind, becoming the emperor you saw earlier."

"Emperor?" Kevin asked.

"Well, yeah. Didn't you see the crown on his head?"

"Must have slipped my mind." Kevin knelt down to Evan and nudged his shoulder, trying to shake him awake. Evan groaned and tried to roll over onto his other side, a gesture that clearly meant five more minutes, mom!

"Don't bother; he's not waking up soon." Sam walked over to him and picked Evan up as gently as she could. Cradling him in her arms, she announced, "I'm taking him back to the hearse. Kevin, I'll go call someone to get your car. I don't think it's too damaged from Manny's attack. I'll see if I can get it over here."

"Awesome," Kevin said, walking away to the headquarters building. "Are you still going to through with that?" Carter asked him rhetorically.

It was about an hour later. Someone had collected Kevin's car and brought it over to Manny and Helen's headquarters. Carter and the others left with Evan in the hearse; she would make sure everyone got home. Sam had opted to stay with Kevin. Besides, only four people could fit in the back of that hearse.

"You didn't have to stay with me, you know," Kevin said as he put the last of the stolen equipment in the trunk of his beloved car.

"It was too crowded in the hearse, and Evan needs all the room he can get," Sam answered casually.

Slamming the trunk closed, Kevin asked, "Are you mad at me?" Sam looked at him, bewildered. "Why would I be mad at you?"

"I don't know, you just seem mad."

"Well I'm not mad." Sam looked away. "I'm not mad," she said quietly, almost like a whisper. Raising an eyebrow, Kevin stood next to her as she leaned against the car. "Do you want to talk about it?" He remembered Carter's fevered speech from a while ago.

"Do I scare you?" That took Kevin by surprise. He was about to joke about how she was really scary when he saw the terrified, deer-in-headlights look she was giving him.

"Yeah, you scare me. But only when you're angry."

"And today, when I wasn't angry."

"Okay, well, yeah." Kevin stopped. "Wait, how were you not angry? You got kidnapped."

"Something like that isn't important to me."

"What?"

Sam stared at him. "Dude, I'm a Slayer. No matter how bad the situation is, I'm supposed to remain calm. And besides, my element is fire. If I'm not calm, I could accidently do a lot of damage."

That would explain the lack of emotion she showed normally. "So, if you weren't angry, what made you try to barbeque that guy earlier?"

Sam bit her lip and looked at the night sky. "I wanted to see him hurt."

"So did I."

"But you had a reason."

"And you didn't?" Kevin couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Look, Sam, I don't get what you're sayin' right now-"

"I'm probably insane."

Well, that came out of nowhere. Kevin could hear Carter's words ringing in his ears, how Sam might have convinced herself she was crazy all because some childhood bullies called her that. "You are not-"

"I have ancestors who were crazy." Kevin didn't know what to say to that. Instead he listened.

It took a minute for Sam to open up more; she was still staring at the constellations in the sky, like she was refusing to look at Kevin. "Some of my family's history is muddled, but there are stories about how some of them went insane and started doing arson. There's no proof, but when you live in a town where all the families know each other and everyone knows about you before they even get to know you, the parents tell the kids and the kids make you suffer."

"Kids are cruel," Kevin said softly.

"You have no idea. They called me names, but the one that stuck was 'Psycho.' And they always called me that; there was no end. It didn't matter if I told them to stop or if I told a teacher, they wouldn't stop. Who wanted to help a DuBaer anyway? Well, Carter and Evan did, but they were in the same boat as me. We had to stick together.

"And sometimes I wonder if they're right, if I really am some insane person who's waiting to break out and kill people. I've already been tested and everything, and I hate the idea of hurting innocent people, but let's face it, the power of suggestion doesn't just go away." Sam looked at Kevin now, and he was surprised to see how calm she looked. There was no anger or sadness in her eyes, just a brutal acceptance.

"Sam, you're not insane," Kevin said. "You just said that you hate hurtin' innocent people. If you really were crazy, you wouldn't think that way. Just because some old family member decided to do arson doesn't mean you'll do the same."

Sam thought for a moment. "Yeah, I figured."

"See-wait, what?"

"I've had a long time to think about this, Kevin. I've even been tested for insanity, for Christ's sake! If that wasn't a pretty good indicator, I don't know what is."

"But you just said-"

"The power of suggestion, Kevin. Even if I know I'm sane, it doesn't mean the thought just goes away."

Kevin groaned and pulled Sam in for a hug. "You are so confusing sometimes."

Sam giggled. "I know."

So, Calvin, does this answer all your questions? I hope it does, because I don't like revealing spoilers. Now, I have a question for you: Why don't you get an account? That way I can PM you all the answers to your questions and you don't have to wait two weeks for the next chapter.