Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Growth

Chapter Four: New and Frightening

Kevin thought it was the most adorable thing in the world.

He could not stop laughing as he stared at Devlin, sitting in the school's office, arm half through a detached locker door, glaring up at his father looking all kinds of disgruntled and unhappy.

The locker door was detached by the very accommodating janitor. After that, they didn't really know what to do with Devlin. The school Nurse had already gone home for the day, and even if he was still on campus, what could he do? Take the kid's temperature and let his lay down for fifteen minutes? So, once the door was detached, the Devlin -and Kenny- was marched to the office to wait while the lone office assistant that was still on campus called one of the three names on his emergency contact list.

The young Osmosian was expecting Great-Grandpa Max to show up. He was not expecting him to bring Kevin along.

The older Osmosian lifted Devlin's arm by the elbow, examining the seem where skin met metal. "I've never seen anything like this. Hey, Max, take a picture. Gwen's gonna wanna see this!"

"Can you just fix me so we can go home." The boy growled. He was not finding this situation as amusing as his father was.

Kevin gave both his son's arm and the locker door a more critical examination. It was true what he said, he'd never seen anything like this before. Kevin's experience was limited to absorbing matter into his own body, copying it, and using it to form an armor-like sink over himself. He never even thought about trying to use his powers to pass through solid matter. "I don't know if I can fix you."

The boy stared up at him with the most betrayed expression on his face. You'd think Kevin had just blurted to that he really hadn't been under Servantis' control when he kidnapped Minie. His father couldn't fix him? Well, then what good was he? "Then why are you here?"

"Max said you needed me." Kevin shrugged. He lowered Devlin's arm. "What were you doing when this happened? Were you opening your locker and it just happened? Or were you actually trying to go through it?"

"Neither." The boy growled. "I was trying to absorb it."

"I suggested he try absorbing stuff the Devlin way instead of your way, Kevin." Kenny explained. He was still wearing his soccer uniform and hand both his own and Devlin's backpack thrown over one shoulder. "You two might have the same powers, but you've got very different ways of doing things. I thought it would help. But… this isn't what I had in mind."

And the young Tennyson seemed uncommonly disturbed by that. More disturbed than was warranted for thinking he was somehow responsible for his cousin now being stuck in a locker. But like, the idea of Devlin now being able to walk though walls was terrifying. But that couldn't be right. True, Kevin had only know the boy for a little over two weeks now, but he and Devlin were tight. They seemed to have this weird co-dependency thing that -truth be told, actually bothered Kevin a little- but also made them seem closer than brothers. So it couldn't be the fact that Devlin might be able to pass through solid objects that was so disturbing to Kenny. It had to be the idea that Devlin could get stuck in a wall or something. Yeah. That was it.

Kevin looked back at his son. It had been two weeks now that Kevin had been trying to teach the boy to absorb matter and he still couldn't seem to do it. Yet, he somehow managed to find a way to pass through solid matter instead. Well, Servantis did say that the OSM-1 gene manifested differently in different individuals. Two people with the same mutation might have different abilities. In this instance, that seemed very accurate. Kevin could absorb matter and Devlin couldn't. But Devlin could pass through matter and Kevin couldn't.

"Have you tried doing the same thing you were doing when this happened but in reverse?" Suggested the older Osmosian.

"Duh!" Devlin snapped, as if this should have been obvious. He wasn't an idiot. The problem was, he was so shocked, frustrated, and confused that he couldn't concentrate. He couldn't calm down enough to do what he did before.

"Well, talk me through it, then." Kevin suggested. "Maybe I can duplicate what you did."

He wrapped one hand around his son's wrist just below the locker door, and the other hand to the cool metal of the top.

Devlin looked skeptical. After all, if he couldn't absorb matter when Kevin explained it to him, how could Kevin pass through matter when Devlin explained it? Not to mention, Devlin himself still wasn't all to sure how exactly he managed to do this. It wasn't like it was what he was trying to do. It just sort of happened.

"I was thinking about what it felt like when I absorbed stuff." The younger Osmosian supplied, reluctantly. "Different stuff behaves differently when I absorb it. Raw energy like electricity or mana feels strong. Like an energy drink or dark coffee. Its potent and hits hard but it manageable. While,-" here Devlin paused, glanced awkwardly at the office attendant watching them, then leaned in closer to his father so that only Kevin could hear him whisper "-life energy is more wild, harder to control. Overpowering. Almost like it knows it used to be its own thing and recognizes us as predators. It fights against us."

That.

Right there.

That was probably the reason absorbing life energy made Osmosians go crazy. Kevin had just never been able to put it into words before.

Devlin, once again, looked at the office attendant to see if she had heard what he said. It was bad enough that everyone knew Kevin 11,000 was his father. It was worse that Kevin 11,000 was here, at his school, in the office. He didn't need it known that he'd already done one of the things that made Kevin 11,000 so evil -or even that he could do it in the first place.

"And what did the door feel like?" Kevin asked.

The younger man paused again, thinking back to what it felt like when his eyes were closed and he through he was absorbing the locker, not the other way around. "Matter it more passive. Its not fluid like raw energy, and its not feral like-" another glance at the office attendant "-like the other kind of energy. I couldn't just drink it in like I'm used to doing. So I tried to kinda ease it into me. Like a sponge. Guess it went the other way 'round."

"Clearly." Kevin commented. "Alright, lets see if I can figure this out."

Devlin was far more analytical than he was and while his explanations of what different energies and matter felt like when being absorbed, Kevin never really thought about it before. He never really thought about a thing as he was doing it. He didn't break it down and examine it. He just did the thing and it got done. Maybe that was the essential difference between them. Kevin was a doer, and Devlin was a thinker. He was very much like his mother in that respect. It wasn't enough to just be able to do a thing, he had to understand how he was doing. Kevin didn't care so much about the how so long as the thing was done.

He could not pass through solid matter. But he could manipulate it. It was a technique he leaned not long after reverting back from his second big mutation. The one where his body was stuck in a composite form of metal, wood, and Taydenite. That was when he learned to change the shape of his arms, and after he returned to normal, he learned to manipulate objects outside of himself -to a small extent- after absorbing a part of it.

Kevin wasn't about to absorb Devlin. But he could absorb the locker door he was stuck in.

Taking a bit of the metal into himself, just enough to cover his hands up to the wrist, Kevin tried to soften the metal of the door enough to ease his son's arm out of it. It was a little difficult. At the seem where flesh met metal, it sealed like Devlin and the door were fused together. Harder to separate. But Kevin pulled the surplus bits of metal out of his son, rather like he absorbed the surplus energy of Kenny's faux-Omnitrix out of him after the Rooters fiasco.

When it was done, Kevin held the locker door in one hand and Devlin's wrist in the other.

"Wha'd'ya know." He smile. "That wasn't to hard after all."

…

It was the only thing anyone talked about at the dinner table that night. Devlin's new power to pass through solid objects.

The young Osmosian tried to remind them that he had done it by accident and wasn't sure if he could replicate the process. There was no point in jumping to the conclusion that, that was something he could do on a regular basis now.

But nobody seemed to listen to that. They were all to thrilled that he finally had a power that he could appreciate. Something that didn't turn him into a giant monster or require him to absorb energy. That was what he always wanted, right? Devlin should be thrilled. He should love it!

Kenny hated it.

It took every once of limited self-control he possessed not to stand up and shout. Yell at them that they were idiots. This wasn't a good thing. This made Devlin more dangerous. It wasn't enough that now he could absorb the Omnitrix. Absorb all the powers and abilities of the aliens in said Omnitrix. Could absorb all the life out of them if he tried. But now he could walk through walls too. Not even a locked door could stop him.

What was to stop Devlin from coming into Kenny's room at night while he was asleep and finishing what he started at the Rooter's base?

Nothing. That's what.

Nothing but Devlin's own inhibitions.

Which, Kenny recently learned, were not as strict as his cousin lead people to believe.

Why couldn't any of the other adults in the family see that? Were they stupid? No. They weren't stupid. They just weren't thinking. They all saw Devlin as family. Nephew, great-grandson, or son. A child. No different from Kenny. Someone to support and encourage. Nurture and help grow. Kenny was the only one who saw him for what he really saw. A predator. Danger personified.

It took every ounce of strength Kenny had not to blur it out at the dinner table. That Devlin should be watched, not encouraged.

And it kept him up at night.

Sitting up in bed. Knees drawn up to his chest. Blanket held up to his chin. Eyes focused on his locked bedroom door.

Kenny had never locked his bedroom door before. Not even when he was masturbating. He just put a sock on the knob and was left alone. No lock required. But for the first time in his life, he actually used the tiny latch attacked to the knob and locked to door. Not like a lock could do anything anyway. Not now that Devlin could just walk through it as if it wasn't even there.

What could Kenny do?

If Devlin did come for him in the night, what could he do to protect himself? If Devlin absorbed the faux-Omnitrix again, then he would have the advantage. Kenny could fight back. And eh could try and run away. But Devlin would overpower him. Or catch him. Just like he did on the Rooters' base. Then Devlin would absorb him. All of him. Absorb him until there was nothing of Kenny left. Just an empty, lifeless body.

Kenny looked down at his wrist. Taking his eyes off the door just long enough for an idea to occur to him.

But if Devlin didn't absorb the faux-Omnitrix, then he wouldn't have all those extra powers. Sure, he would still have his regular mutant form, and be able to absorb energy, and now pass through walls. But -discounting that last one- Kenny knew how to handle all of those. He and Devlin had been together for as long as he could remember. They grew up together. Kenny lean red about Devlin's powers right alongside Devlin himself. He may not share any with his older cousin, but he knew as much about them as if he did. So long as Devlin didn't get the Omnitrix, Kenny could evade him long enough to get to help. Dad, or Aunt Gwendolyn, or even Kevin. After all, it was Kevin that saved him from Devlin on the Rooter's base.

(What did it say about them that Kenny felt he could trust Kevin 11,000 now more than he could trust Devlin whom he used to view as a brother?)

Once again taking his eyes off the door, Kenny focused on his watch. Accessing the little amount of Master Control his father allowed him access to, Kenny unclasped the watched and slipped it off his wrist. If he wasn't wearing it when (if) Devlin attacked him, then Devlin couldn't absorb it. And if he hid it, then Devlin couldn't find it and absorb before coming to eat him.

Climbing out of bed, Kenny picked a dirty sock up off his bedroom floor and stuffed the faux-Omnitrix inside. Then he wondered what he should do with it now.

He couldn't just throw it in his closet. Grandpa Max or Aunt Gwendolyn went through his room periodically to collect his dirty laundry. It wouldn't do if one of them pulled out the sock and found the Omnitrix. They'd take it straight to his father. Tell Ben that he wasn't wearing it anymore -and Kenny had never taken it off since he got it when he was ten years old. That would then raise the question of why he wasn't wearing it anymore. Then Kenny would have to explain that he was terrified of his cousin absorbing it again and took off to keep it out of the Osmosian's reach.

As nice as it sounded to come clean to Dad and Aunt Gwendolyn. Bear his soul of all his newly arisen fears abut Devlin. Make it someone else's problem and bask in the security and protection of his elders.

But Kenny knew that would just cause more problems than it would solve.

He had to handle this himself.

Somehow.

That meant hiding the Omnitrix in a place where someone in the house hold couldn't just stumble upon it casually. Kenny flicked the lights on and glanced around his room. His eyes falling on his mess of game console and corresponding video games. He almost never played the X-Box One anymore. Not since he got the Wii-finity. Crossing the room, Kenny tipped the X-box on its side and pulled out the hard drive. There was just enough space where it went to stuff the sock in.

Kenny hid the Omnitrix in the game console and set it back down in a way that concealed the missing hard drive. The hard drive itself, he tossed under the bed. It wasn't like there was any important information on it still. Just Halo. Nobody played Halo anymore.

That done, he turned the lights back off and crawled back into bed. He was back in bed, but he still couldn't get to sleep. Kenny had to laugh ruefully at the irony of his situation. It used to be, that when he couldn't sleep, he would go one door down the hall and crawl into bed with Devlin. When he had a nightmare, after a scary movie, when he was feeling sad, or just plain couldn't sleep, Kenny never asked to sleep with his parents (back when they were married), or his dad (after the divorce). He always went straight to Devlin. Hide under the blankets next to his giant monster-body. Safe and protected.

But not this time. This time Devlin was the thing he needed to be protected from.

…

The next day, it was all anyone talked about at school.

Having the entire soccer team witness your arm being shoved though a locker tended to do that. Add that to the fact that everyone there had their phones, and the entire student body now knew that Baby 11,000 got a new power.

Some people thought it was kinda cool. "He's like Shadow Cat! We've got a superhero going to our school!"

Others were not so impressed. "We've always had a superhero going to our school. Kenny Tennyson, remember? Devlin Levin's more likely gonna be his arch nemesis. Our resident super villain. Even his name sounds like a bad guy! 'Devlin', it sounds almost like 'devil' come on!"

Devlin tried to ignore them. It wasn't anything different than what he'd been hearing almost all his life. As soon as he gained a human form and was able to attend public school with Kenny, he heard people whispering about him. That his father was evil, so he must be evil. His mother named him 'Devlin' because his father's the Devil. Watch out or he'll absorb you! Devlin liked to think that the gossipers had lost interest him him by the time he got to his Junior year.

But between his father being newly released from the Null Void, that little altercation on the sports field last week, and not this. it seemed he was a hot topic once again.

To make matters worse, this time around he didn't even have the protection or support of Kenny. His cousin was still aloof and distant from him. Just like he had been ever since they came back from the Rooters' base. Devlin would have thought that yesterday's incident would have shocked Kenny out of whatever funk he was in and the younger boy would rise up and come to his aid. That was what always happened in the past.

Kenny had an almost fanatical obsession with protecting Devlin. Ever since the first day they attended school together and the teacher paused in roll-call. Stumbling over the name 'Levin' as if it were a dirty word. It didn't take the class long to figure out why. It was the digital age and every 10-year-old had a cell phone. A quick Google search of the name 'Levin' and suddenly everyone knew who Devlin was. That was when the bullying started.

It went on for days. But Devlin didn't say anything. Never complained, or cried to his mother. Because he was afraid she would overreact and pull him out of school. Return to having him home schooled instead. Locked up in the Plumbers Headquarters all day where it was safe. Safe, yes. Free? No. So, Devlin endured the name calling and taunts. His supplies being stolen, or his back pack being thrown in the trash. Because as terrible as the other kids were, Devlin wanted to stay with Kenny. Wanted to go to school with Kenny. Be a normal kid, like Kenny.

And Kenny wanted Devlin to stay too. Wanted him to stay in school, but hated watching him be bullied every day.

One day after school, Kenny snapped.

Using the faux-Omnitrix his father gave him, the younger boy transformed into one of his aliens and came to his older cousin's defense. He beat up the two kids who had thrown Devlin's backpack in the trash and then closed the lid when he climbed in to fish it out. Beat them up perhaps a bit harder than he should have. It was as Kenny was helping Devlin back out of the dumpster that a teacher showed up and saw the other two boys crying and bleeding on the ground.

Parents were called and punishments were dealt out. But since that day, Kenny had always been Devlin's self-appointed protector. His champion that fought for his honor and shielded him from the things that hurt him.

But that all changed after the Rooters fiasco.

Now Kenny didn't seem interested in helping Devlin at all. Now Kenny was keeping his distance. It was like now, Kenny was afraid of Devlin.

After all, his father was evil. So Devlin must be evil too. Right?

At least, that was the mentality.

But Kenny was always different. Kenny was family. Kenny was his cousin. They grew up together -closer than brothers. Devlin used to think he and Kenny would always be together. They completed each other in way no one else could. Kenny was light-hearted, empathetic, and compassionate. Devlin was cool, studious, and logical. Together, they made a perfect team. Complementing each others strengths and compensating for each others weaknesses. Perfect.

But it looked like that was over now.

Kenny had become just like everyone else.

As Devlin watched the younger boy climb into the passenger seat next to Kevin, he wondered if he might have actually killed his cousin after all. Not killed him in the literal sense, obviously. But killed something in him. His carefree and trusting nature, maybe. Or his gentle heart that kept him kind and allowed him to make friends easily. Or maybe it was just their relationship that he killed. Devlin didn't know. But Kenny was not the same and Devlin didn't recognize this new man his cousin was turning into.

Distant. Alone. Frightened. He wasn't Kenny anymore.

…