Chapter 41: Wartime Sparks

Since I'm uploading on Saturday, that means my schedule is back to normal. At least, for the time being. -.-'

At tploy: Thanks for the insight on Ben 10 VS. the Negative Ten! Unfortunately, while re-watching the episode, I really didn't see how Cooper has a crush on Gwen. True, I see some hints, but not enough to warrant such an amorous reaction in Alien Force. Sorry to disappoint.

At Streetfirre: Ah, a new writer! Sorry I didn't PM you this; I didn't actually get your review until just this morning! Anyway, to be honest, uploading stories is fairly easy. On your account, you go under the Publish column, click Doc Manager, and under Create New Document, you label your story title, file upload it or paste it from a word document, choose your format, then submit it. After proofreading your story, you go under Publish again, press New Story, then follow the directions there. After uploading, it'll take a while for the story to come up-about 30 minutes or so. If your story has multiple chapters, you upload the chapters in Doc Manager, then you click on your story, click Content/Chapters, click Post New Chapter, type in the chapter title, then upload it. Hope this helps!

Warning: for any Beck fans out there, you will most likely dislike/hate him in this chapter. I'M SO SORRY.

"You two are dating?" Beck's shrill question hung through the air as Carter removed the excess water from Kevin's face.

"Yep," Sam said callously to Beck's enraged face.

"And you didn't tell me?"

"You're stuck in your lab twenty-four hours a day. When was I supposed to tell you?"

Beck opened his mouth to answer, but then he closed it when he realized he couldn't. He fumed instead, steam literally billowing out from the top of his head. It was quite the comical sight.

Charlie meekly turned to Carter, who was absorbing water into her skin. "You aren't dating anyone, are you?"

"Yes, I am," she answered. She jerked a thumb at Ben, who waved and said, "Hi."

Charlie sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Figures."

Cooper took a look at angry Beck and dejected Charlie and said, "How are you two friends?"

"Same way Carter and Sam are," Evan said cheerfully before turning serious. "So what's our next plan of attack?"

"Go out there and bust heads," Beck growled as he made his way towards the door. Evan grabbed his shoulder and turned him around so he faced him.

"No, that's stupid. You're getting out of here," Evan ordered, glaring at the boy.

Beck jerked out of his grasp and growled, "I'm too angry; I need to take my anger out on someone."

"I say let him," Kevin said in a neutral tone. "He's heartbroken and frustrated. Knocking a few heads together might calm him down a little."

"That's a stupid idea and you know it," Gwen snapped at him. "What if he gets captured again? Our rescue attempt would have been pointless."

"It kind of already was." Sam pointed to the two unconscious DNAliens on the floor.

"I still need saving," Cooper pointed out, giving Gwen doe eyes.

"He's got a point," Charlie spoke up. "How about this: I take Cooper out of here using shadow travel while you guys find out what that arch is. Something tells me it's really bad and you need to put a stop to it."

"Sounds fair," Evan agreed. "One question though. Why, exactly, were you guys kidnapped?"

"My carbon generator," Beck began. "It's basically a way to turn ordinary carbon into a fuel source. The theory is sound, but there's no way of making it. Not yet, anyway. Why are you here?" He turned to Cooper. He flinched at his rough tone.

"I built the cloaking projector they're using. And they wanted me to use these Varsidium metals to build something." He held up a piece of metal that looked suspiciously like gold.

Kevin took it into his hands and examined it. "Kind of looks like the metal covering that arch we saw."

"So they've got you working on the arch," Gwen simplified. "Now we know your purpose."

"Doesn't that mean he knows how to break it then?" Charlie wondered out loud. Everyone turned to Cooper, who just shrugged his shoulders.

"In that case he has to come with us," Carter said with a sigh. "So much for rescuing."

"At least we get to beat people up," Beck said almost happily. "And isn't that what matters?" She gave him a look.

"You're totally going to crazy out there, aren't you?"

He gave an indignant scoff. "Like I can go crazy," he said as his left ear was suddenly lit on fire. It was only a small flame, but it encompassed his entire ear and made smoke waft to the ceiling.

Beck noticed everyone staring and said, "What?"

"Your…your ear is on fire," Gwen pointed out awkwardly. Beck patted his right ear.

"It's the other one," Cooper said just as awkwardly. Beck swatted at that one until the flame went out.

"Is it gone?"

"Uh-huh," Kevin said.

"Well okay then, let's go."

"Dude, get a treadmill," Beck snapped at a wheezing Cooper outside the lab. Said wheezing boy had his hands on his knees. He was still staring at Gwen though.

"We can't stay long," Ben said seriously. "It's only a matter of time before the DNAliens find out Cooper's missing."

"And it's only a matter of time before we're caught," Carter pointed out. "Unless we can slip through the cloaking generator undetected, that is."

"And we should probably destroy that arch while we're at it," Sam interjected.

"Or at least a weather tower or two," Evan said.

"None of you are helping!" Ben snapped at them. "Our mission is to get Cooper out of here! We can come back later and destroy everything."

"Can't we just do a massive shadow trip?" Charlie pointed out. "We got what, five, six Slayers here? If we all pool in our powers we can slip out to the outside of the shield no problem."

Carter, Sam, and Evan all collectively face palmed.

"Who are they?" a hissing voice sounded from behind them. They all whirled around to see a gang of DNAliens in front of them.

"Well, this is fan-tucking-fastic," Ben said caustically. But as he put a palm over the Omnitrix, Beck lashed out at the aliens with a fiery fist. It collided with a head, which popped off its neck. A second flaming fist slammed through an alien's chest, incinerating the insides. The third had its neck broken by a single roundhouse kick.

Beck quickly wiped the blood off his hands and said, "I feel better now."

Everyone stared in stupefied silence. There was a certain degree of horror intermingled with businesslike annoyance. The spell wasn't broken until Kevin joked:

"You really busted some heads."

Beck arched an eyebrow. "That was kind of the point."

"You just killed them in cold blood!" Gwen shrieked more outraged than terrified now. The young boy was simply so callous at his wanton destruction. He simply killed three people-aliens- without a second thought. And it was all to blow off some steam.

Charlie walked up to the bodies and said, "One's still twitching." He slammed his sneaker on the neck of the alien, and they could all here the sickening crunch of broken bones in the air.

"You-you guys are murderers," Cooper said, hiding behind Kevin.

Beck and Charlie stared at him. "They were going to kill us," Beck said, as if Cooper were slow.

"But you didn't have to kill them!"

"But they were going to kill us," Beck repeated.

Carter pinched the bridge of her nose and snapped, "Can we keep moving? What's done is done. We have a mission to complete."

And then they heard the sounds of more hissing in front of them. Outraged screams of the DNAliens hung through the air as they spied their fallen brethren. They were surrounding them, fingers like claws, single eyes narrowed in hatred.

Carter groaned. "Scratch that. You take Cooper and find that generator shield. We'll handle this." When Ben didn't move-he was still staring at the smoldering bodies-Carter pushed him. He staggered on his feet before running away with the others.

"They're so going to hate us for this," Evan said blithely as the DNAliens tightened the circle around the five.

"Maybe we can reason with them," Sam pointed out almost hopefully.

Carter smiled ruefully. "They're emotional people; we'll never get through to them."

With that they attacked.

Fire licked the ground as Sam ran over it, hair ablaze. Earth rumbled as Evan ducked to the ground. A wave of water washed over the enemy as Carter controlled it coldly. Beck and Charlie were back to back, fists of flame brought up in a defensive move. They grinned at the enemy before launching themselves at them.

Fists collided with faces. Fire burned through skin. Water drowned the victims. And earth swallowed aliens in a hole of misery. Blood flowed everywhere, a river of gore reaching out of the circle of hell.

A few DNAliens tried to escape. A wall of earth was brought before them, a tall structure that reached the roofs of the surrounding buildings. Sam stood behind them. She was covered head to foot in slime and blood. A nasty gash was on her cheek, blood dribbling onto the ground.

"Have mercy!" one of the trapped aliens cried. Sam sucked in a breath and blew out a roar of fire at them. The three aliens screamed in pain as the fire incinerated them, melting their bones until they died. Three lumps of charred flesh were all that remained.

The hole that opened up from the ground was pulling in DNAliens like a sand trap. Dirt was gripping their feet, toppling them over and sucking them into the sink hole. They screamed as the dirt smothered them, filling their mouths with earth as they drowned. Over by the side, Evan was nursing the large wound applied to his stomach.

Pain coursed out of Carter's face. She could tell that her nose was broken in one, maybe two places. That didn't stop her from bringing her hands up and controlling the DNAliens in front of her. Their blood turned against them, their nerves betraying them as the aliens stood stock still before their arms contorted. And then their heads went to the side in an awkward angle, the bones snapping before the bodies were dropped to the ground.

Beck and Charlie were pummeling the last DNAlien, pounding its face inside out before the fight went out of it. They stood up, drenched in green goo and blood. They were smiling.

"Well, I feel better," Beck said cheerfully. Charlie surveyed the carnage and looked at his sister.

"Something wrong, Sam?"

She glared at Beck with utmost hatred and said, "You need help."

Beck started and then glared. "So, what, the psychotic one's telling me to get help?"

"Yes," she hissed. "And when I tell you you need help, then there's really something wrong with you."

"You totally deserved that," Charlie said to Beck's stupefied face. The redhead ran up to his sister and caught her arm. "Are you mad at me?"

"…Did you find this fun?"

"…More like satisfying," Charlie answered honestly. "I mean, they were going to kill us, so I think this is just payback. But I'm not totally happy about it."

"Good. There's still hope for you," Sam said sadly, tears brimming in her eyes. She willed them back and said loudly, "Cover the evidence, Evan."

"On it," he said. Bringing his fists in, the ground opened up beneath the bodies, blood and slime falling into the pit with them. And then the earth covered them up again, leaving only the barest traces of a struggle when the earth resettled. Carter took care of the rest by summoning more snow to cover the blood spills.

Evan took a good look at Carter's face and said, "You need to reset that."

Carter sighed and prepared the painful journey of resetting her nose.

"Our friends are fucked up," Ben said in the jail cell. They had been caught by the generator. They had all fought valiantly, but it was for naught, since they were behind bars now.

"Don't talk like that," Gwen chided him. "And yes, they are."

"They did warn us about that," Kevin pointed out casually. "They kept telling us that they were bad news. Not sure why you're so surprised now."

"We just saw two thirteen year old kids kill three people. Aliens. You know what I mean!" Gwen cried. "How are we supposed to take that?"

"Okay, yeah, that was disturbing," Kevin admitted. "But wasn't Evan the same way back when he was thirteen?" Gwen's shoulders fell and she slumped in her seat.

Ben sat on the ground, hugging his knees. He could still feel where Carter pushed him, but instead of feeling the usual zaps of electricity, he felt an ugly buzzing where her hands connected with him. He felt repulsed by her touch. He shouldn't feel that way.

You really shouldn't, you know, Ventus said in Ben's head. She was just trying to keep you safe.

She killed people like that. When she was thirteen.

She killed people like that when she was ten. This shouldn't be a surprise.

And it shouldn't. Ben could see that. He had seen thirty men slain right before his eyes, and by the very people he considered his friends. But they had been sorry-or at least Carter had been. What was so different now?

"I really don't get why you're so shocked," Kevin stated, forcing Ben and Gwen to wake up from their stupor. Gwen glared at him.

"Your girlfriend is an accessory to murder. How are you not surprised?"

"Because we're talking about the DNAliens here," he explained. "We're at war, Gwen. Whatever happens to those DNAliens is just collateral damage."

"Collateral?!" Now Ben was yelling. "It's inhuman!"

"So is war," Kevin said bluntly. "Humans have been doing the same thing for thousands of years. The only difference here is that we're fighting a war against aliens." When he saw their unconvinced faces, he added, "What Beck did to those DNAliens was the same thing they were going to do to us: kill us and get on with their lives. It just makes sense to do the same to them."

When he saw that he was getting to them, he said, "I know this is hard for you guys to accept, but you gotta face facts: one day you're going to have to take a life. It may not be now, but it will happen one day. Until then we keep on fighting."

"We know that!" Gwen and Ben snapped in cadence. The fight drained out of them rapidly, leaving them slumped and dejected in their seats. "We know that…"

But they're your friends, and you thought they were harmless despite all their talk, Ventus said in Ben's head. He gave an irritated sigh. You can deal with this later. Right now you gotta get out of this cell.

Ben agreed; he didn't like the idea of Carter being a murderer. It simply went against the image he had of her. The murderer image went against all of them, in fact. But Ventus had a point. Now was the time to act like a team and get the hell out of this jail cell.

Ben got up from the floor and asked, "Does anyone know how we're getting out of here?"

"Think we can take out the arch?" Carter asked Evan as they hid in a building. Her nose was no longer broken, but it was still badly bruised.

"Doubtful," Evan said as he finished tying the bandage on his stomach. "That thing stretches over the entire base. Taking it out right now would take too much time. I say take out the weather towers and deal with the arch later."

"If there'll be a later," Sam said pessimistically. Carter glared at her.

"Pessimism's my thing. Don't steal."

"So how are we taking out the weather towers?" Charlie asked before things could get out of hand.

"Those things are built like statues," Beck pointed out. "It's going to take a lot of manpower to take out just one of them. And no doubt they'll be heavily guarded."

"But we just took out a good chunk of their forces," Charlie protested.

"Dude, there are a lot of DNAliens here and at least one High Breed," Beck said. "We can't take out one weather tower without all five of us working together."

"Dude, we're the Pride," Carter scoffed. "We don't need your help."

"Where would the High Breed be?" Sam inquired wiping blood off her cheek. "If it's at one of the weather towers we can just take that one and leave Beck and Charlie to deal with the others."

"You do know that we can't topple a weather tower, right?" Charlie pointed out. "We don't have that much strength yet."

"Actually, I have a plan," Evan began. "The Pride will go where the High Breed is and take it out along with a weather tower. You guys go to another and force it offline. If it loses power it's still a setback for the DNAliens. We'll meet at the final weather tower to finish the job."

"Track the High Breed and let the sparks fly." Sam was smirking, a certain glint in her eyes. She was exhausted; the gash on her cheek was bothering her, but the idea of dominating against the enemy filled her with pure, sweet adrenaline.

Evan grinned and put a hand over his stomach wound. It was minor now thanks to Carter's healing powers, but it still sent shockwaves of pain through his body if he moved too much. He'd have to suck it up for the upcoming fight. He put his free hand on the ground and let it glow green.

He sent his feelers out, letting them cover the military base. His vision was black but he could make out the white stencil designs that created the picture. He could feel the vibrations of people walking about-he recognized three of them running around the base-and he could sense the DNAliens milling about. But there was one malevolent presence that nearly overtook everything, and it was at-

"The eastern weather tower!" Evan opened his eyes and looked at the grim faces before him.

"We'll take the western and meet you guys in the middle," Beck said before he and Charlie sunk to the floor and disappeared. The Pride took one look at each other before turning into shadows themselves.

It didn't take long to get to the eastern weather tower. The High Breed was certainly there; he was ordering his troops around like the leader he was. Only this time he seemed annoyed, like something was interrupting his plans. Something like a group of humans.

"I got big and ugly," Sam declared. "You guys take out the rest." Carter and Evan went first, using the shadows to get in the middle of the fray. It wasn't long until the limbs started to fly. DNAliens shrieked in anger before going to attack the teenagers, since the teens couldn't fight in the shadows. The High Breed was yelling, telling his subordinates to get them before they took out the weather tower.

He never saw Sam coming.

She slid out of the darkness and grabbed his leg. The High Breed fell to his knees, toppling over himself. Sam gripped his ankle and lifted him sideways. Her muscles were straining, her wounds were screaming, her eyes were glowing red.

The High Breed slammed into the weather tower, his back arching backwards to connect with the base. The base rang out like a bell, wobbling from the impact. It sagged slightly, leaning just a little to the side.

Sam groaned and lifted the High Breed over her shoulder like a baseball bat. With an animalistic howl she slammed the High Breed into the tower again. She could hear something breaking-bones? Metal?

A crack appeared in the middle of the weather tower. The base splintered apart. Slowly, ever so slowly, the tower fell backwards.

"TIMBER!" Sam yelled at the top of her lungs and the tower toppled over with a colossal crash. Dust and wood fragments from crushed buildings lifted into the air before slowly setting themselves on the ground.

"Sam!" Carter cried out. Sam turned to see DNAliens running after her, their angry yells reaching her ears. She lifted the High Breed into the air and threw it on top of them. With a final THUD the last of the DNAliens were defeated.

"Hey, look!" Evan pointed to the western weather tower. Sparks were flying out of it and smoke was billowing from the top.

"Beck and Charlie never disappoint," Sam said almost fondly.

"Okay, guys, just one more tower and we're outta here," Carter said optimistically.

"Hey, optimism's my thing," Evan pointed out. "Don't steal."

Sam barked out a laugh as they fell to the shadows once more.

The final weather tower was devoid of DNAliens. This was worrisome.

"The hell happened here?" Evan asked rhetorically as he surveyed the deserted scene.

"Maybe they're at the generator," Carter said logically. "Ben's team could be trying to destroy it right now."

"Then we better destroy this first," Sam said. "They might need help."

"Way ahead of you," Beck voice wafted over them. He and Charlie were by the control panel at the base of the tower. Beck had the panel open and was fiddling with its insides. Instantly the top of the weather tower exploded with a fit of sparks and smoke.

"Take it down?" Carter asked the other two.

"Take it down," Evan said.

"Get out of the way!" Sam shouted at the two boys. They ran for cover while the Pride stood at the base. Three sets of hands were pushing against the tower. Their arms were screaming in protest but they persevered. The tower was uprooted and it rapidly fell down, down, narrowly missing the derelict houses next to it.

And then the air fizzled around them, an electromagnetic pulse spreading out. The snow stopped falling, and the moon peaked out of the clouds.

"The cloaking shield's offline," Beck announced. "They must have gotten to it."

"Let me see what's going on." Evan touched a glowing hand to the ground, letting the white stencil designs play at the back of his eyelids. He could make out the forms of Ben, Gwen, Kevin, and even Cooper running. They were surrounded by DNAliens-there were a good hundred left- and they were running towards the entrance. They madly dashed to the car, getting inside as Kevin started the engine. The aliens were upon them-they were reaching at the doors-

And then Kevin sped off into the distance, leaving the aliens in his wake.

"They destroyed the generator, but they were attacked by an army of DNAliens," Evan finally explained. "They had to escape with Cooper before they were killed."

"They just left us?!" Beck cried incredulously.

"They didn't have a choice," Evan insisted. "Besides, we're Slayers. We can escape from here no problem."

"And I don't think Kevin would appreciate us destroying the seats," Sam pointed out. "I mean, look at us. We're covered in blood and slime." She picked at her mutilated skirt for emphasis.

"We should probably leave now," Charlie remarked. "The aliens will be coming back to assess the damage any minute."

"We should leave a trail in the sky, to make sure they know we're okay," Evan said, referring to Ben's team.

"If they still care," Carter said grimly. Nevertheless, she and the others summoned their wings and launched themselves into the air. They streaked across the night sky, Sam in the middle, Beck to the far left, Charlie to the far right. The three of them became human torches as they flew over to the city.

"So let me get this straight," Cooper began. "There's an entire division of Plumbers that no one knows about?"

"They're called Slayers," Gwen said. "They're like this shadowy organization that deals with insider politics that normal Plumbers can't get to."

"They fight nefarious criminals with nefarious criminals," Kevin elaborated.

"So those two kids are Slayers?" Cooper asked. He was obviously referring to Beck and Charlie. "How?"

"Apparently you're born into the organization," Ben said. "They train you from the time you're born to be perfect killing machines. It's one of the reasons their separate organizations."

"So why are we teaming up now?"

"'Cuz the DNAliens are a threat to everyone and the Plumbers need all the help they can get," Gwen explained.

"Hey, what's that?" Cooper pointed out the window. Everyone shifted their gaze to the sky, where three streaks were flying through. The flames illuminated the forms of five bodies before the light was swallowed by the rising sun.

"Think they're mad we left them behind?" Kevin asked anxiously.

"Those guys seem logical," Cooper pointed out. "If we explain it to them, they'll understand."

Gwen gave him a look. "How do you know they're logical?"

Cooper shrugged. "Leaving people behind to save their own skins has survival written all over it. How else do you explain them killing those DNAliens?"

"You called them murderers before," Kevin noted.

"I was in shock."

"So they're doing this for their own survival?" Ben muttered under his breath. He never thought of it that way before.

"You say somethin'?" Kevin asked.

"Nothing. It's not important." But it was. Because it explained so much more.

I always figured Kevin as having the most worldly views in the original group. He's a crook hardened from his time in the Null Void; obviously he's seen things that Ben and Gwen could only imagine. And because I think Kevin is a child prodigy-he may have dropped out of school early on, but he still understands astrophysics and alien technology- he would be the most logical in the group concerning wartime.

As for the Slayer fight scenes, I'm quite proud of them. I really think I did a good job on them, but I would like some feedback. So could you guys leave a review telling me what you think?