Chapter 31: Not So Sparkly Vampires
Guys, how would you feel if I did an Alice in Wonderland parody? It's been rattling along in my head for a while now, and I think it could work. Don't worry, though, it won't happen right away. I have to wait until Albedo comes up, and even then it won't happen for ages.
If you're not sold on the idea, just think of this: Alice. In Wonderland. With chainsaws. And possibly flamethrowers.
...Yes, there is something wrong with me. What are you gonna do about it?
Evan was not a morning person. Then again, maybe he shouldn't stay up past midnight. That could help.
Evan groaned as he got out of bed and grabbed his rimless glasses. He then put on his usual outfit of belted jeans, old Van sneakers, and a black long-sleeved shirt under a green t-shirt with a silver dragon design on the front. He quickly put a comb through his loose brown hair and put a hair band in his pocket. And then he grabbed some paper and a pencil and went downstairs.
Evan's step sister wasn't up yet. Thank Erda; Nancy was even less of a morning person than Evan was, and she always got eight to nine hours of sleep. His stepmom Angela should be at work by now and Evan's dad Michelangelo wasn't supposed to be home for another week or so. That meant that for the time being he had the place to himself.
…Unless, of course, Sam or Carter called and interrupted his thinking. Evan honestly loved those girls to death, but sometimes he wanted them to leave him alone.
Evan stopped in the middle of the hallway and shook his head in disgust. No, he didn't want them to leave him alone, not even for a minute. The three of them had been through so much together. They shared each other's pain, each other's happiness, each other's anger. They were inseparable, no matter what life threw their way. To be apart from them would be like ripping Evan's soul apart. He was certain the girls felt the same way.
They were more than just friends. They depended on each other. To be torn apart was simply unthinkable.
Evan walked into the clean high-tech kitchen and grabbed a bagel. He put the papers on the table and slowly thought as he ate his breakfast. First he wondered how the others were holding up after Magister Ghilhil's orders. He, Sam, and Carter would still continue their recon on the High Breed threat, but there was no way Ben and Gwen would sit by and let other people do the work for them. They were similar that way.
Kevin was a wild card though. From what info the Slayer intelligence network gathered on him, Evan knew that Kevin got his powers from his real father, Devin Levin. He had died on a Plumber mission and left his son and wife behind. His mother remarried, but since there was no one to teach Kevin how to use his powers, he felt hated by his family and eventually ran away, leeching power and becoming more and more sociopathic before Ben apprehended him in New York.
Kevin would feel obligated to follow in his father's footsteps, but due to his criminal record he might not make the cut. And then attacking an officer (he'd been provoked, but the law won't see it that way) and getting his badge taken away really put the icing on the cake. Kevin would try to help, but he'd be too conflicted to be of much use. Evan would have to fix that.
Evan had been trained to be a great leader for most of his life. He had been taught to use every possible resource, be it friend or foe. He would no doubt find a loophole in Ghilhil's orders. Besides, the magister had no control over the Pride. If he had a problem, he would have to take it up with Cordelia, and there was no way he was going to do that. For the time being, the Pride had some leeway.
Evan finished his bagel and put pen to paper. He had some calculations to figure out.
"Why do we always have to hang out at Mr. Smoothies?" Sam asked as she observed the inside of her cup. "If we frequent a spot too much it becomes a target for attacks."
"Have you been playing my strategy videogames again?" Evan asked as he and Ben walked across the parking lot with the other orders. Evan's hair was back in its normal ponytail and he had put his contacts in again.
"No it's common sense."
Ben, noticing how the others were, handed them their drinks. "Cheer up; Mr. Smoothy makes everything better."
Kevin took one sip before spitting it out. "Yuck! How does turnip and wheatgrass sludge cheer anyone up?"
"I like it." Ben shrugged. "Besides, it's also got ginger in it."
"Yes, because it totally makes it taste better," Carter said sardonically.
"Yeah, and it solves all of our problems," Kevin said sarcastically, because Carter wasn't being bitchy enough.
"Seriously, Ben, Magister Ghilhil pretty much just put us out of business," Gwen said.
"Not necessarily," Sam pointed out. "We're technically not supposed to get directly involved in Plumber business, but we can still snoop around. We'll keep you posted."
"Yeah, but you can get in trouble."
"Never stopped us before," Evan said. "Haven't you heard? We don't listen to each other."
"Doesn't matter." Ben wedged himself in between Sam and Kevin on the car hood. "Because we're going to do what we've always been doing; find the aliens, beat the bad guy."
Kevin poured his drink onto the ground sullenly.
"He said he'd put us in the Null Void," Gwen pointed out.
"He also said Plumbers never come around here anymore," Ben noted. "I'd include the Slayers, but I don't think they'd care."
"Of course not," Sam agreed. "We care too much about our objective to bother."
"So we'll worry about when or if he ever shows up again."
"He took my badge!" Kevin suddenly growled. That got everyone's attention.
"Badges?" Ben said in his best cowboy voice. "We don't need no stinkin' badges!"
And then to the alarm of everyone, Kevin grabbed Ben by the collar and screamed, "You think this is a joke?!"
"Put him down, Kevin!" Evan ordered sharply. The other two had their hands on their left wrists.
Kevin threw Ben back onto the car. Ben bounced on his back and groaned in pain before snapping, "Dude!"
"I wanna be a Plumber, okay?" Kevin shamefully looked away from the others. He choked out, "When I was little, my mom used to tell me stories about my dad. How he was a Plumber and did all this cool stuff."
Sam put a hand on his shoulder. "And now you want to follow in his footsteps."
Kevin smiled bitterly. "Stupid, huh? I never met the guy but I want to be like him."
"Nothing about that is stupid," Carter said seriously.
"That's why you know so much about the Plumbers and alien technology and everything," Gwen realized.
"It's why I agreed to help you guys in the first place," Kevin admitted. Sam bristled inwardly at that. She was almost certain that the real reason was because Gwen was there. And then after he and Sam started dating he must have found a different purpose. She honestly didn't expect this.
Kevin shook Sam off and climbed into his car. Before closing the door he said, "I need my badge, Ben. It's the only thing that matters." He slammed the car door shut and started up the engine. Ben quickly jumped off the hood of the car just as Kevin jerked out of his parking spot and drove away.
The High Breed headquarters was a dark place full of egg-shaped blue computers and alien pods. DNAliens were bustling about doing their jobs. The entire place had an underground feeling to it.
And then a DNAlien heard footsteps coming from one of the underground passages. He alerted the guy next to him and both saw a figure walk into the cavernous room. He was cloaked in black with a black caplet on his shoulders, and a silver skull-like mask covered his face.
The DNAliens herded together and one of them ordered an attack. Four of them spit out green slime at the intruder. Said intruder used black energy to disintegrate three of the blasts. He simply dodged the fourth.
He then used his power to swipe the DNAliens off their feet. They landed painfully on the ground, suddenly too weak to stand and fight. Skull Face strolled past them, his pace quick.
Skull Face ripped the round door off its hinges and used some more energy attacks on the bodyguards. They tried to shoot at him only to get hit by that black stuff. Like their brethren, they couldn't stand up.
Skull Face barged into the blue High Breed command center and walked up to the giant beast.
"Who are you?" the High Breed roared. "What insignificant alien speck dares to enter the command center of a High Breed lord?"
Skull Face stopped in front of the alien. "It doesn't matter," the High Breed continued. "Dead men don't need names." He then bitch slapped Skull Face into the wall. Smoke puffed out of the wreckage, but Skull Face wasn't done yet. He lifted a column of rock over his head.
"Nice shot," he said. "You're just as strong as I heard." The High Breed hissed and revealed orange wing-like skin flaps attached to his arms. Skull Face threw the column at the alien and watched as it pinned him down.
The High Breed threw off the debris and prepared his counterattack when Skull Face said, "That's it. Show me all of your power." Showing off a glowing hand of dark energy, he shot an energy beam at the alien and began to absorb some of its power. The High Breed screamed in agony and black electricity encircled him like a cage.
"Give me your strength." The torture only stopped when the High Breed was lying on the ground.
"What do you want from me?" the High Breed asked his voice tiny.
"I want to make a deal."
That same night
Sam found Kevin in some auto shop garage, working on his car. It was nice to see that some things never change.
Kevin must had heard her walk up, because he said, "Who's out there?" and got out from under his car.
"Me with a peace offering." Sam held out the blue beverage container. Kevin looked at it suspiciously. "It's just soda. Honest."
He still looked at it like it was poison. Sam rolled her eyes and took a sip. "See? It's safe." She knelt down and offered it to Kevin, who took it. As he began gulping it down, she asked, "Are you doing okay?"
"Fine," he snapped, totally not okay. His gaze softened. "Listen, I don't want to talk about my dad."
"I didn't want to talk about that," Sam said.
"Then why are you here?"
"To see how you were doing and give a little present." Sam held out a small brown bag and tossed it to Kevin. He opened it and picked out of wooden bearing.
"I know Osmosians need a lot of a substance to absorb if they ever get in a fight, but I figured something small might help in a jam," Sam explained. "I figured less is more in this case."
Kevin absorbed some of the wood so that only his hand was covered in the armor. "Thank you, that's really thoughtful of you. But what exactly makes you think I'm still helping you guys anyway?"
"Because I know what you're going through." Sam held onto Kevin's hand and watched as his wooden armor slid off him. "I know what it's like to be judged for something you did in the past. It completely goes against Slayer code to give others a second chance, but you of all people need that right now."
"But why are you still helping?" Kevin asked, curious. "The magister treated you and the Pride like dirt. Why are you still helpin' the Plumbers?"
"A soldier finishes the orders his superior gave him no matter what," Sam said matter-of-factly, gaze hard as steel. Her eyes then softened. "Besides, I want to fix the rift between the Slayers and the Plumbers. I think we could learn something from each other, but the only way to do that is to put our differences aside. It's hard, but it'll be worth it in the end."
Kevin gripped her hand tightly. "That's awesome."
"But the only way to do that is if you help," Sam said sternly. Kevin averted his eyes.
"I'm on parole. The magister can put me back in that Null Void at any time."
"We'll figure it out," Sam declared. "Evan's already got a plan. All we have to do is wait."
"You're totally confident this is going to work."
"You need me to be." Sam swooped in and kissed Kevin right on the lips. He widened his eyes in surprise and then fell into it. Electricity was buzzing in him like energy absorption, and he loved it. He didn't like it when Sam finally stopped it. But he was happy to see her blush and smile like that.
Aw, young love! Kirche teased in Sam's head. And then she said, Head's up!
A crashing sound rang through the garage. A giant hole was now in the wall, and through it was an actual High Breed.
"HUMAN SCUM!" it roared. "I WILL CLEANSE THE WORLD OF YOUR FILTH!"
Sam got out her broadswords while Kevin absorbed the metal of his car. "Looks like I picked a bad day to quit fightin' monsters."
"They're too strong for just two of us to fight," Sam said. "We have to call for backup."
"You do that while I take care of ugly." Kevin slid on the ground and absorbed the ground before roundhouse kicking the High Breed in the head. Sam got out her phone and sent a preprogrammed emergency signal to Carter and Evan. Hopefully they would get here in time.
The High Breed then punched Kevin away. He rolled around and around in the air before painfully landing on his beloved car. Sam ran up to the alien and took two slices at its arm, making it back away. She then roundhouse kicked it in the gut before back flipping away. Before the High Breed could retaliate, she tried to lodge her broadswords into its stomach, hoping it would kill it.
The High Breed, fed up that this infernal insect was trying to kill it, slammed its palms and trapped the swords between them. Sam heated up her swords so the monster had to let go. With a hiss of pain it slapped her away, sending her crashing to the ground. Her broadswords were sent skittering away from her, useless.
The High Breed loomed over her. Sam willed her shield and stood on one knee just as the alien started to punch her. The force of the attack sent her sliding somewhat across the floor. She then whipped up a wall of fire and the High Breed hesitated.
"That won't save you now," it said before punching through the flames. With a guttural noise, Sam braced for the next attack.
…Only to have Kevin act as a human shield. He slid out in front of her just as the fist hit the shield. The force of the blast was worse than usual; the shield made from powerful Slayer metal flattened into a pancake, and Kevin's armor crumbled as he fell into unconsciousness. Sam quickly set him aside before turning her sights back on the High Breed.
With a ferocious animal growl, Sam's hair set itself on fire and her eyes glowed red. But before she could launch herself at the monster, an orange, scaly hand wrapped itself around the High Breed's fist.
Ben Tennyson had come at last.
"Hey, ugly!" Humungousaur called out. "Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" He threw the High Breed through the roof just as Carter and Evan lifted Kevin off the ground. As Humungousaur walked out of the garage to finish off the monster, Evan and Carter got Kevin outside so Carter could fix him.
The High Breed had landed thirty feet away from the auto shop, creating a huge crater when it landed. When it finally woke up, it held its head in its hands and saw Humungousaur, Kevin, Gwen, and the Pride standing over him.
"I wouldn't if I were you," Humungousaur warned. The High Breed growled something, but it was lost in translation. And then a white transporter beam appeared beside the crater. Magister Ghilhil had arrived.
"Didn't take you kids long to get yourselves into trouble again, did it?" were the Magister's first words.
"Us?" Humungousaur said indignantly. "We were just-"
"Attacking me for no reason!" the High Breed said.
"Bullshit!" Sam cried out.
"He's one of the aliens we told you about," Humungousaur explained. "He's attacking the Earth!"
"Sure, kid, how about some proof?" Magister Ghilhil crossed his arms and glared at them.
"We have proof; you just won't look at it!" Carter snarled despite looking gray in the face. Ghilhil ignored her as the High Breed pointed an accusing finger at them.
"They attacked me for no reason! They said they were Plumbers!"
Ghilhil patted him reassuringly on the back. "I've heard enough. You six are under arrest. And you-" he glared at the High Breed- "I don't know what's going on with you, but I'm gonna find out. You're coming with me for questioning."
"I beg to differ," a voice said from the side. It was Skull Face, standing like he had all the time in the world.
"Nobody's going anywhere. Not until I make your powers my own." He revealed two hands glowing with black energy, not unlike Gwen's powers. He shot lasers at the group, enveloping them in a dark cloud of electricity. Only Gwen was able to whip up a mana shield to protect herself from the absorption.
The High Breed struggled into a sitting position and looked at Skull Face. "You promised me that if I helped you…" His voice was cut off by his own groaning as he slumped weakly to the ground.
"I can't be trusted," Skull Face said almost jovially.
The Pride's eyes began to glow, standing out from the blackness. Their teeth sharpened into needle points, and they let out animalistic growls as they launched themselves at Skull Face. Skull Face doubled the strength of his energy absorption and the three of them fell to the ground at his feet, writhing in pain.
Sam, who was exhausted from the High Breed attack, was the first to go unconscious. With their last remaining strength Carter and Evan wrapped their arms around her and each other before blacking out.
"Aw, what a touching moment," Skull Face said condescendingly. "Why don't the rest of you join them?" He upped the ante of his powers, and everyone but Humungousaur fell to the ground, unconscious.
Humungousaur tried to grow bigger to fend off the attack, and he struggled to get near Skull Face. "I almost forgot how strong you are, Ben," Skull Face noted. His absorption escalated exponentially, and Humungousaur was forced to drop on his knees. And then he reverted back to Ben, who was kneeling in front of Skull Face in a bow.
"How do you know my name?" Ben asked as tried to keep his eyes open. And then he realized just who he was dealing with. "GWEN, RUN!"
Gwen, who was still averting the attacks with her mana shield, looked at her cousin like he was crazy. "What?"
"You've got to get away! You're our only hope!" With that final statement, he slumped to the ground.
Gwen fused her shield into a giant ball and flung it at Skull Face. The energy ball exploded in front of him, creating a smoke screen that sent him into a blind coughing fit. Gwen used that moment to run as far as she could away from the creep, all the way to the guard wall. She used her powers to launch herself like a rocket over the wall and wrapped a pink shield around her to protect her from the landing.
"You can't run forever, lovely Gwen," Skull Face called out. "I'll have my revenge on you, too."
At the hydroelectric dam outside Bellwood
"Never thought I'd be back here," Sam mused. She and the other captured souls were chained up and floating in some sort whitish-blue prison cell-clearly alien technology.
"I don't understand what's going on," Ghilhil admitted. "That's the guy who tipped me off that you guys were impersonating Plumbers."
"Yeah, and he scammed big ugly too," Kevin joked meanly. The High Breed snarled at him. "Hey, don't snarl at me."
"Well this bites," Evan said with a great sigh. "I thought for sure it was a High Breed, or at least a DNAlien."
"Wait, you knew?" Kevin asked incredulously.
Evan shrugged despite the chains. "I didn't know for sure. While I was going over some calculations Carter pointed out that the magister had been getting reports on us for months, but he didn't do anything about it until now. I figured someone tipped him off so we'd stop. It's not really their style, but I thought for sure it was a High Breed. No offense."
"Offense taken, you insignificant worm!"
"Wait, you two were scheming without me?" Sam cried out in shock. "You suck!"
"We're being chained up by some madman. Is this really the time for that?" Carter pointed out.
"I'm hurt," Skull Face purred as he exited from the shadows. "I expected better from a Valentine."
"You clearly don't know Cordelia," Carter said.
"Forget that! I know who he is!" Ben interjected angrily. He was not in the mood for idle chitchat.
"Do you really?" Skull Face inquired.
"You had to be somebody who knows all about the Plumbers and the High Breed," Ben explained, more calm now. "But most importantly, you had to be somebody who has a grudge against us. Why don't you take off the dopey mask, Michael?"
"Wait, that's Michael Morningstar?" Kevin stared at him. "The creep who sucked the life out of those girls at his prep school and Gwen?"
"Why didn't we finish you off when we had the chance?" Sam groaned to herself. Carter and Evan silently agreed with her.
"When you ruined my plan, you nearly destroyed me," Michael explained. "But over the weeks, my powers returned, stronger than ever. And so did my hunger. My old method of feeding is no longer sufficient."
"High school girls to tough for you, huh?" Ben said.
"To the contrary," Michael said. "I need more power than they can supply. Michael Morningstar no longer exists." He pulled off his mask and let it drop to the floor. "Now, I am Dark Star."
"OH GOD IT'S HIDEOUS!" Evan screeched at the top of his lungs. Everyone shared their sentiments with gasps of their own. No longer was there a handsome blonde Michael. Instead there was the gray skinned, dark eyed monstrosity with tufts of pale hair attached to his scalp.
"You did this to me. And now you will pay!" Dark Star sent out black energy to the captives, sucking the strength they regained out of them. They all cried out in pain-except for the Pride, who howled ferociously as their teeth sharpened once again.
"I will take your strength and make it my own until you have no more to give!" Michael said triumphantly. He could feel the delicious energy swirling within him, feeding him.
"If you can reach your Omnitrix, maybe Alien X…" Kevin whispered to Ben.
"No. If he absorbed all of that power, nothing could stop him!"
Ben, you need to get out of there, Ventus warned from inside Ben's head. The others and I have been able to fend off Morning- I mean, Dark Star's feelers for now, but we can't hold out much longer. If he continues, he can get our powers as well, and then he'd really be unstoppable.
"Eventually, I'll have it all anyway," Michael said. It was like he could hear the voice in Ben's head.
"Michael!" Gwen called out. Michael stopped his feeding long enough to see the redhead standing in the middle of the dam, looking pretty miffed.
She took one look at Dark Star and said, "Ew! I swear you were better looking when we used to go out."
"Laugh while you can," Dark Star told her. "I've got all the power of your teammates, plus the High Breed and the Plumber. How can you possibly hope to defeat me alone?"
"Who said anything about alone?"
With that statement, DNAliens crashed through the windows of the dam, making glass rain down. They swarmed through the dam, dozens of them milling around Gwen, ready to attack.
"They're pretty mad about you kidnapping their boss," Gwen said as two of the DNAliens walked past her. More were behind her, showing off the army she had gathered.
At once, they attacked. The first wave fell instantly to a minor absorption attack. The second wave got next to Dark Star, but then he grabbed hold of them and sucked out their energy like a vampire. As he busied himself with feeding, Gwen ran up to the tractor-beam prison and used her mana to destroy it. The top of the cell fell apart, and the whitish-blue glow of the walls fell apart. The captives fell to the ground in a heap.
Kevin absorbed the metal of the chains and broke free of his restraints. Then he broke off Tennyson's and the Plumber's. He was about to do the same with the Pride only to see them use their super strength to break free.
"Since when were you super strong?" Kevin asked as he helped Sam up.
"Since we got our powers," she said simply. She turned to the other two. "Ready to kick butt?"
"You seriously have to ask?" Evan said with a smirk.
"What about me?" inquired the forgotten High Breed.
Ben smiled and said, "Hang in there."
While they were busy, Dark Star was starting to tire of feeding off the DNAliens. "Too many to absorb," he panted as he flung two shriveled corpses away from him.
"And the bad news keeps on coming." Gwen slammed an energy disk at him, sending him back skidding across the floor. Fire was thrown at him, which he unfortunately absorbed. Vines were suddenly snaking around him, catching him in midflight. Icicles flew at him; he used his powers to deflect him.
A ray of green light, and Echo Echo screamed at him. Ghilhil shot a red laser at the sound waves, sending Dark Star high into the air. Spidermonkey kicked him to Kevin, who falcon punched the creep back at Spidermonkey, who turned into Jetray. With a powerful laser from his eyes, the bad guy was sent crashing to the ground.
And then Jetray turned into Humungousaur, who fell right on top of Dark Star. He never stood a chance.
The impact created a crater in the ground, and the sound waves destroyed all of the remaining windows. Smoke and debris billowed out of the building.
Gwen had whipped up a shield over everyone except Ben. When the smoke cleared, they saw that the High Breed was gone. The DNAliens had taken their boss while the others had dealt with Dark Star.
Humungousaur quickly turned back into Ben, who had his hands on his knees. "Never knew you could fight like that," Carter said appraisingly.
"Well, when you have the right incentive…" Ben fell to the ground in a half-conscious. Gwen quickly gathered him in her arms as Carter calmly put a glowing hand to his forehead.
"Is he okay?" The magister said worriedly.
"Everything…spinning…going dim…need….smoothie…."
"He'll be fine," Gwen said as Ben closed his eyes.
Outside the dam, Morningstar was finally in handcuffs, stuck in a glowing prison with the magister right next to him. It was a good day.
"You sure that rig will hold 'im?" Kevin asked suspiciously.
"Its level six technology, son," Ghilhil said. "He isn't going anywhere but the Null Void."
"What about us?" Ben asked. Thanks to Carter he was more than fine.
"I've been giving that some thought," the magister revealed. "You guys made a difference today."
"And…" Ben wanted him to continue.
"Maybe I don't need to reassign good men to this quadrant." He smiled. "Maybe they're already here."
"What's that mean?" Kevin inquired.
Ghilhil gave him his badge back. "You've been drafted." He gave Gwen one too. Ben smiled and held out his hand. "Don't push it kid. You've already got the Omnitrix."
He then turned to the Pride, his gaze no longer judgmental. "As for your proof, I'll look into it thoroughly."
"And we'll stick to our orders," Carter said with a smile. Ghilhil gave them a small smile back before turning to Ben's team.
"As of now, you're the only law in the quadrant. Do a good job." With that, the magister teleported out of there with Dark Star in tow.
Kevin took another look at his badge before walking away. "Hey, where you going?" Ben called after him.
Kevin showed off the badge. "I gotta tell my mom."
Like I said, I won't write the Alice in Wonderland spoof for a long time. I just want your input on it until then. If you say it's stupid, I won't do it. But if a lot of you say you want to read it despite the odd one out, I'll write it for the majority. And if no one says anything at all, I'll write it anyway.