Chapter 25: In Which Ventus Helps Out for Once
Do you guys know why I haven't had Ben use his powers so much or had Ventus talk to him a lot? This chapter is the reason. Ben couldn't reveal himself to Gwen and Kevin, and now he has to. That's all I'm giving you as a spoiler.
To AnimeTL:I'm glad you're not hating on me. The reason for so many OC characters is because I'm introducing an entire society to Ben's team. Naturally I have to introduce quite a few characters to make it seem believable.
To Calvin: The chapters will always be over 4,000 words long. They may seem shorter to you because some chapters are way over the limit while some are closer to 4,000. Hope that clears it up.
"Will you stop replaying that?" Evan asked of Emperor Millius.
"I like to show the full impact of my threats," Millius responded.
"By showing it twice?"
"…I thought it would be funny."
"Forget that! He just blew up Pluto!" Carter yelled at Evan.
"Look on the bright side: it'll smooth out Neptune's orbit," Kevin reasoned. Sam smacked him upside the head.
"OW!"
"Sam, stop being abusive to your boyfriend."
"I am not abusive, mom." Sam glared at Carter, who was seriously wondering why she was "mother" of the group.
Did someone call for me? Aquaria joked in Carter's head.
Oh yeah.
"Excuse me!" Emperor Millius ordered. Everyone turned their attention on him. "Unless you find out who kidnapped Princess Attea, I'll blow up Earth into even smaller pieces."
"Why don't we just ask him?" Gwen pointed to SevenSeven, who had been lying there unconscious at Millius's feet.
Princess Attea and her father looked at each other.
Wanting to make this a little less awkward, Evan said, "We'll interrogate him."
"Why bother?" Carter asked. "He's probably the one who wanted the ransom."
"Question?" Sam raised her hand. "Does he even speak English?"
"…Good point," Kevin admitted. "But I got a universal transmitter in the trunk of my car. It should be fine."
SevenSeven made gargling sounds from the ground. "I think he's up," Princess Attea announced apathetically.
Sam cracked her knuckles. "Let's do this."
The Pride had asked for a separate room for the interrogation, since they didn't want Gwen or Kevin to see what they were about to do. SevenSeven laid in the corner of a closet, a ten by twelve foot room that didn't allow a lot of room for much.
Sam had done a number on the kidnapper: his pink armor had burnt holes in it, making it look like Swiss cheese, and a few of his ribs were broke.
"The guy's pretty tough," Sam said. "Most of the damage doesn't even show."
"You did break his ribs though," Carter pointed out helpfully. "That had to weaken some of the armor."
"The translator's working," Evan announced. He stood up and backed away from SevenSeven, who was snarling at them.
"Who sent you?" Carter asked. SevenSeven snarled again before answering, "No one." His voice was smoky yet slightly robotic, a strange combination.
"Is there a ransom?" Sam asked.
"Yes."
"Why?" Evan inquired.
If SevenSeven had a mouth, he would have sneered. "The Incursions can pay any price."
Something about this didn't feel right to Sam. There was something nibbling in the back of her mind, something that refused to quiet down. Only Sam couldn't put her finger on it.
"He's lying," Sam finally realized. Carter and Evan looked at her.
"How so?" Evan asked.
"This is too simple," Sam answered. "The kidnapping, the ransom…everything's too normal."
"Well, why shouldn't it be?" Carter pointed out. "Bad guy kidnaps princess, bad guy sends ransom note, king pays it. It seems pretty cut and dry to me."
"Yeah, it does," Evan said, beginning to cotton on. "It's so cut and dry that no one would guess that there's something else going on."
"Let's review," Sam said like a teacher in a classroom. "We find Princess Attea kicking butt at the dam. How could a girl like that get kidnapped?"
Carter raised her hand. "Element of surprise?"
"Could be, but why would she wait until she was near Bellwood to counterattack?"
"…It was planned," Evan said, smiling. "The entire thing was a set up. But who-"
"I think I got it." Carter glared at SevenSeven. "Princess Attea hired you to kidnap her, didn't she?"
Evan looked surprised, Sam looked triumphant (she had been right!), and SevenSeven growled like a feral animal.
"How?" SevenSeven asked.
"It's simple when you look at it," Sam began. "The princess must want to take over the Incursion Empire. Her father expanded it, and the princess might be in line to inherit it, but she's too impatient to wait for his death, or there's someone else in line for the throne."
"So she hires an experienced mercenary to kidnap her so her father would send someone to help," Evan continued. "The money she promised was the ransom money, wasn't it?"
SevenSeven just growled.
Carter went on like she didn't hear him. "Once you and Princess Attea chose a hiding spot, you make it look like she fought back because it would be suspicious if the Incursion princess didn't. One of the Emperor's men finds them, but they're no match for SevenSeven, who makes off with the Princess."
"Emperor Millius is so upset that he'll pay any ransom," Sam said. "By that time, Attea makes another promise with you: you help her overthrow her father and she'll give you all the money you want."
"The Princess must have made friends with her father's personal guard, so when the overthrow happens, they won't try to help him," Evan realized. "She must have made some serious promises to them to make them betray their king."
"Dude, it's an Incursion," Carter scoffed. "They're not known for mercy, even among their own men." Carter turned to SevenSeven. "Are we right?"
SevenSeven gave a begrudging nod. "Just one thing-Princess Attea is a master manipulator. She's been getting the troops riled up against their king for months. They'll never defend him now."
"Good to know," Evan said before turning to the girls. "But we don't have proof. Even with SevenSeven's confession, the princess can still probably spin this on us."
"I only got one idea left." Sam turned to SevenSeven. "We have to scare a confession out of him."
Carter and Evan straightened their backs. The pupils in their eyes became thin, like snake eyes.
Sam went over to SevenSeven and grabbed the top of his helmet, forcing him to look at her. "I got nothing personal against you, but my family's on Earth, and I don't want them to die. So unless we scare you, this won't work."
SevenSeven made a questioning noise as Sam put her hand flat against the metal covering his face. Her hands glowed a fiery red, and the inside of SevenSeven's helmet began to feel like the inside of an oven.
The heat intensified, evaporating all the saliva in SevenSeven's mouth. And then he saw it: a handprint of gooey metal was forming on the inside of his helmet, reaching out towards his face.
SevenSeven had never screamed with so much terror before.
To make their confession-argument more believable, they waited a few minutes so Sam could wipe the metal from her hand. She had to reheat it so it would slide off her hands, and she had to wipe it on the wall, making it sizzle, but it gave them all the time they needed.
Evan knocked on the door, alerting the Incursions guarding the outside that the interrogation was over. Carter was nearly dragging a shaking SevenSeven, and they all looked grim as they were led back to the throne room.
"Well?" Emperor Millius drawled, his daughter flanking his left. Gwen and Kevin looked at them expectantly.
"We got a confession," Carter announced. "It's an Incursion."
"What?!" the emperor roared, nearly getting out of his seat in anger. "Who?"
"It's someone in this very room," Evan revealed creepily, because he liked the suspense.
"Out with it," Kevin said, irritated.
"It's the person who claims to be the victim." Sam pointed to the king's left. "We accuse Princess Attea of treason against the Incursion crown."
Gasps were heard all around the room, even from the princess. Her father looked at her in shock, and she backed away slowly. But then she regained her composure and glared coldly at Sam. "Where's your proof?"
"The confession from SevenSeven, who you hired to kidnap you," Evan countered, pointing his finger at her dramatically. "You promised that if SevenSeven went along with your plan, not only would he get paid for the job, but he would become a well-paid officer in the Incursion army once you took the throne."
SevenSeven didn't say that, Erda said in Evan's head.
Dude, do you mind? I'm on a roll here.
"And it gets even better, you're Highness. Not only did she coerce SevenSeven, but she got most of your Royal Guard in on it, promising them riches if they could backstab you so she could take the throne!"
"That's right," Attea sang, snapping her fingers. In an instant, all the guards had their laser weapons pointed at Emperor Millius. The princess snatched the royal detonator out of her father's hands as some of the guards came over to arrest him.
After he calmed down from his initial shock, Millius said, "I gotta admit, it's a good plan. But why make it so elaborate?"
"I had to make sure nothing was suspicious. Now take him away!" Empress Attea ordered, and three of the guards took Millius out of the room.
"Okay, so now that you've overthrown your father, what're you going to do now?" Gwen asked hesitantly.
Empress Attea thought for a moment, looking at the royal detonator. "It's customary for the new emperor to celebrate with a show of force. The ends of your lively planet will make beautiful fireworks for my coronation. Raff, seize the prisoners."
"Let's move!" Kevin shouted, not that he needed it. Everyone ran towards the Dodge Challenger, and Kevin absorbed the rubber of his tires.
"Heads up!" Kevin, now in full armor mode, ran towards the Incursions, jumped, bounced up, and curled himself into a little ball. With great accuracy he bounced at Attea, slamming into her with an "OOF!" sound. The royal detonator fell out of her hands, and Kevin caught it.
Kevin then ran to the car with Incursion lasers firing at him, and he dove into the driver's seat. He started the car and slammed on the gas, the tires screeching as he made their getaway.
"Bellicus, Ben's upset; let's at least go back in session," Serena pleaded with Bellicus. Ben was crossing his arms and pouting childishly. Then again, he had good reason to.
"Oh, Ben, Ben, Ben; why don't you worry about me for a change?" Bellicus countered enviously.
"You know I do."
"I propose we come to a vote on saving the world," Ben cut in hopefully. If Serena was on his side…
"That's new business, kid," Bellicus snapped. "We still got old business from before you showed up."
"Well hurry!"
"Of course," Bellicus scoffed. He turned to Serena. "I would like to vote on tabled notion number eight million and three: to save the dinosaurs from extinction."
Ben face palmed. "He's against it," Serena told Bellicus softly.
"Wait, just listen!" Bellicus said hurriedly. "I'm sure I can win you over."
"I say we switch to new business until the Earth isn't in crisis," Ben said in a bout of quick thinking.
"Seconded!" Serena cried cheerfully. She and Ben looked at Bellicus expectantly.
"…Motion carried," Bellicus snarled begrudgingly.
Ben hovered away from the floating, green faces to think. "I propose we teleport the Incursion army a billion light years away. Yes or no?"
Bellicus and Serena looked at each other, and then said in cadence, "No!"
"Disable the Conquest Ray?"
"No!"
"We have to do something!"
"Well, we haven't heard arguments yet," Serena offered, looking at Bellicus.
"Haven't you guys ever decided anything before?" Ben asked exasperatedly.
"Well…"
"I'm going to be stuck here forever," Ben muttered to himself.
"Not if I can help it," said an all too familiar voice. Ben whirled his head to the left so fast he got a crick in his neck. Massaging it, he looked at Ventus, the blond surfer god in a breezy light blue toga that fell at his knees.
"Lookin' good, Serena,"Ventus flirted, winking. Serena giggled like a high school girl before giving an embarrassed, "Hi, Ventus."
"You!" Bellicus growled, glaring at the wind god. "What are you doing here? How did you get here?"
"Helping out my host-slash-vessel," Ventus answered truthfully. "And I can appear anywhere so long as it's considered godly territory; like this plane." Bellicus growled at that.
"Uh, Ventus?" Ben inquired hesitantly.
"Hmm?"
"You know them?" Ben gestured to the green faces.
"Oh, yeah, I know a lot of Celestialsapiens."
"…Celestialsapiens?"
"Yeah, they're like aliens, only omnipotent," Ventus explained glibly. "But enough about that; we got a planet to save." Ventus turned his serious gaze to Bellicus and Serena. "What do you propose we do about the Earth?"
Bellicus and Serena looked at each other. "I want to save it," Serena said finally.
"I don't really care," Bellicus said apathetically.
"And you can't decide how to do it?" Ventus asked Ben.
"They've never decided anything before," Ben cried exasperatedly.
Ventus pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is why I leave all the serious stuff to Erda," he muttered under his breath. Out loud he said, "I propose we let Ben out of his Alien X form so he can fight the Incursion army his way."
"No!" the two floating faces said in unison.
"And why not?"
"Because without me, they would be in eternal deadlock or something," Ben explained quickly.
Ventus crossed his arms and threw his head back in a thinking motion. He stood like that for a minute before yelling, "I got it!" He smiled at everyone. "You let me take over and I'll sort out this entire mess for you."
"I second it!" Ben cried happily.
"NO!" went the Celestialsapiens.
"If you take over we'll never get Ben back!" Serena added.
A dark shadow came over Ventus's normally happy expression. His normal carefree smile had a dark undertone, like he was about to crack and explode and take on the Celestialsapiens if he didn't get his way. And then Ventus's smile grew bigger, becoming an ugly, condescending sneer as he finished humoring the debaters.
"You know, I never did like arguing," he said through his ugly grin. "People yell at each other and say hurtful things and it's so hard to take it all back."
A sudden waft of wind came over Ben, something that didn't belong in space. It smelled like a thunderstorm, like dark clouds overtaking the sun and ready to unleash their electric fury on everything in its path.
"But I am so freaking fed up with staying on the sidelines and watching the world destroy itself because of some person's stupid mistake," Ventus continued, finally dropping that sneer. "And I don't want to sit around and listen to two old cronies bicker about the dinosaurs when I could be doing something right now."
"Old cronies?" Serena repeated, shocked.
"Damn right!" Ventus growled his voice venomous. "This is why the Slayer gods stay out of your arguments; we know when to stop fighting and to work together."
"Oh, yeah, like the Slayer Gods are such perfect beings," Bellicus said caustically. "You couldn't even save your home world, and yet you dare to speak out against us. And you question why no one ever listens to you."
Ventus's sky blue eyes became a dark, stormy gray, his pupils becoming vertical slashes in the middle of his eyes. His blond hair crackled with electricity, lighting up like a dangerous halo. The aura around him smelled like the air after a thunderstorm.
"I may be young, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid!" Ventus spat out, his teeth sharpened into needlepoint fangs. Bellicus and Serena looked at him, mouths agape.
"I see the things you want to keep under wraps. I see things from a different angle than you so-called adults. If you'd just shut up and listened to others instead of shooting your mouths off, the entire universe would be a better place. I know you can't do much because of your damn rules, but you could at least listen to what others have to say!"
"And we did, with Ben!" Bellicus interjected. "But what he's asking for is completely unreasonable!"
"COMPLETELY UNREASONABLE?!" Ventus roared. "What's so unreasonable about wanting to save your planet the easiest way possible? Why should there always be bloodshed and suffering? It never amounts to anything!"
"LIKE YOU'RE ONE TO TALK!" Bellicus bellowed back. "Look at what happened to Gaia! Because you refused to listen to your own subjects, you nearly destroyed them, all because of your own ignorance!"
"I think that's what he's trying to point out," Ben spoke out, his voice wavering. No one looked at him except Serena. Just as well; he didn't want to be at the receiving end of the other guys' anger.
"He learned from his mistakes, and he's trying not to let you make the same ones," Ben explained reasonably. Serena smiled because it made perfect sense to her.
But Bellicus was having none of it. "Like I'm going to take advice from a petulant child having a tantrum. Face it Ventus, unless you get diplomatic skills, no one will bother to listen to you."
The condescending smirk, the holier-than-thou attitude, even the way Bellicus was speaking to him made Ventus see himself as a child. It was like Bellicus was humoring him and his idealistic tirade, like how an adult pretended to take a child seriously before shooting him down with cynical realism.
A furious roar bellowed in his ears as Ventus willed balls of lightning into his hands. "I'm done arguing with you!" he shouted. "We do things my way!" With an angry, hurtful battle cry, Ventus slammed the balls of lightning together, creating a force field around him that was as bright as the sun.
"Ventus!" Ben cried as he covered his eyes. But his voice went unheard over the sound of lightning getting closer to him. The force field was growing larger by the second until all Ben could see was a bright light under his eyelids.
And as Ben was getting swallowed up by the light, a warning sounded in his ears. He should have seen it coming, but now it was far too late.
The wind cannot be contained, Benjamin.
"How, exactly, did we get caught?" Sam asked the others. They were in the cell back in the throne room, with Empress Attea sitting casually on her new throne, her feet hanging over the arm rest.
"They had huge-ass laser guns and all we had was Kevin's car. Not exactly the ideal situation," Carter said dryly.
"Don't make fun of my car!"
"She was just pointing out the obvious, Kevin," Evan pointed out tiredly.
And then Attea ordered her servants, "Aim for the molten core. I don't want any big chunks surviving." That brought everyone back to their dire predicament.
As Raff passed the servants, he bowed down at his Empress's feet, saying, "Emperor Attea, light of the Incursion Empire, destroyer of galaxies, keeper of the conquest way, all living creatures-"
"Skip it," Attea said, bored out of her mind. "Got any news for me?"
"Yes, well, SevenSeven is back to being your bodyguard, as you requested." Raff gestured to SevenSeven in the corner, his old helmet and suit fixed to perfection. It was like Sam hadn't nearly beaten him half to death before.
"All right, let's see some conquest!" Empress Attea said jovially, about to press the big red button on the royal detonator.
But just before she did, a blinding blue light came from within the cage, where Alien X stood. Everyone closed their eyes until the flash ended. When they opened them, there stood a muscular, tanned man with a surfer's body, blond wavy hair on his head with a matching scruffy beard. His blue toga was clasped together over his left shoulder with a dark blue broach, and his skirt ended just at his knees.
The Pride made sounds like a choking cat, making Gwen and Kevin look at them and see the looks of utter shock and fear on their faces.
"Who's that?" Kevin asked without thinking. The man slowly turned his face to him, his sky blue eyes cold and dark and menacing. With a jolt of fear, Kevin blanched and back away slowly, as much as the cage would let him.
Gwen searched the man's torso for the Omnitrix symbol, but came up short. "Ben, where's the Omnitrix symbol?" she asked quietly. Gwen didn't know why the others feared him so much, but something in the back of her mind told her that messing with him would be seriously bad.
The man turned to Evan without answering her. And then he did the strangest thing; he got down on one knee, put his left fist on the floor so the knuckles touched it, and bowed his head deeply. "Permission to kill, boss?"
Evan's back straightened and his face became stony, no sign of Normal Evan anywhere. "What do you think?" he asked Carter seriously.
"No," she choked out desperately. "Don't make him kill anyone."
"How 'bout you?" Evan inquired of Sam.
She shrugged. "I usually don't care, but for Ben's sake, I say just disable them."
Evan turned back to the man before him, who still had his head bowed. "I don't care how you do it, but make sure they live afterwards."
The man lifted his head up and gave Evan a dark smile. "I need to let off some steam anyway." He then stood up and cracked his knuckles.
"Hold up!" Kevin exclaimed. He and Gwen had just stood to the side and watched this little sideshow take place, and now they both wanted answers. "Why is Ben acting so weird? Why does he take orders from you? And why the hell is he wearing a dress?"
Ventus heaved a sigh and gave Kevin a look. "In order: I'm not Ben, I'm Ventus. We're two completely different people. I take orders from Evan here because he's my boss, and it's not a dress, it's a toga."
"What do you mean you're not Ben?" Gwen asked, completely confused.
"We don't have time for this," Ventus said exasperatedly. He quickly pushed through the crowd of teenagers and phased through the bars of the cell. Seriously, he just phased through it, like he was a ghost or something. It was weird.
Empress Attea, who had just stood there and watched the scene in the prison cell unfold, was now sneering, trying to hide the unnatural growing fear in her gut. Something about this guy was off to her, like he was a volatile bomb just aching to explode.
"Guards, attack!" Empress Attea ordered her men. Lasers immediately shot towards Ventus, who stood there confidently with a smile on his face.
With a snap of his fingers, the blue lasers stopped in midair, frozen orbs of light with a trail of white right behind them. And then they disappeared, becoming nothing in a blink of an eye.
Attea was about to issue another order when her men suddenly started to spasm, their arms flailing forward, their feet knocking and splaying in a macabre dance. The guards twisted and turned in circles, their eyes bugging out, their mouths gasping for air as their very limbs rebelled against them.
And in a second they fell to the floor like flies, gasping for air, little hints of yellow electricity buzzing around them before fizzling out.
With a relieved and carefree smile on his face, Ventus turned to Raff and SevenSeven. Raff looked at him, appalled, and stuck himself to the wall. SevenSeven looked at him, said something in alien to Attea, and ran out of the room.
Ventus walked up to Attea and kneeled before her respectively. He looked her straight in the eyes and asked pleasantly, "Can I please have that detonator?"
Attea threw the royal detonator at Ventus's head, and he caught it before it could hit him. Ventus stood up and allowed Attea to exit the throne room as quickly as she could.
He then heard the sounds of metal bending, a high-pitched, grinding sound that irritated his ears. He turned to see Carter and Evan freeing themselves from the cell, bending the bars to create a giant, gaping hole for even Kevin to walk through.
Ventus gingerly put the royal detonator on the seat of the throne and turned to Evan. "That good enough for you?"
"Perfect," Evan replied, a satisfied grin on his face.
"Now that the Earth isn't about to be destroyed and we're all safe, could someone please explain what's going on?" Gwen asked as politely as she could through gritted teeth.
"Can we mind wipe them?" Sam asked Evan worriedly. They had every right to know, but the Slayers had kept their heritage a secret for millennia. Just talking about it outside of respected circles was enough for people to start having panic attacks.
"I think they should know," Ventus whispered into Evan's ear. "Even if we mind wipe them, they'll always be times where I won't be able to control myself and take over. It'll be much harder to explain then."
"We'll let Cordelia decide," Carter suddenly spoke out. Everyone turned to her. "We still technically take orders from her, even you." Carter stared pointedly at Ventus. "And besides, she and Isaac have been alive longer than us; they're wiser than the three of us. They have a right to know."
"Good point," Evan said begrudgingly. "Think you can teleport us to the study?"
"Can I teleport you," Ventus repeated smugly. A flash of blue light surrounded everyone, and in a matter of seconds they were in a study with a single desk in the center, a large, ornate fireplace to the left, and a mile-long stretch of bookshelves filled with dusty old books.
At the desk were two people. One was sitting behind the desk wearing a prim, black, three-piece suit with a white dress shirt and a black tie that did nothing to hide the ripped muscles underneath the cloth. He had a chiseled face and a carefree smile that normally made people instantly trust him. He had his blond hair slicked back to a sharp point at the back of his head, and his calculating blue eyes seemed like pools of spring water, clear and cold and seemingly bottomless.
His companion was sitting on the desk at his left. She was wearing a black corset dress with tight black sleeves that showed off her white shoulders. Her skirt flowed towards her ankles, and it was slit thigh high on both sides of the skirt. Her long white hair was straight and fell to her waist, and a strange triangular bang completely hid the entire left half of her face, the sharp end curving ever so slightly underneath her pointed chin. Her face was thin and pointed, with small, blood-red lips and gray eyes that held a cunning light.
But that absolute strangest part of these two creatures was that they appeared ageless. They were neither young nor old, without a single wrinkle of age on their smooth faces. But their eyes told a different story; they seemed aged and wise, a complete contrast to how young they looked.
The woman's blood red lips curled into a smile, revealing sharp white teeth. "We've been expecting you."
And now Gwen and Kevin have to learn the truth. I wonder how that'll go. Until next time!