Chapter 3: Magnetic
"That doesn't help us, tell us what we have to do" Gwen said trying to push herself out of Darkstar's arms with no success, he had her in a very tight hug that was starting to hurt. "Ah, I promised I would tell you what to do not how to do it…you didn't specify that part so that's something that you have to figure out on your own." he said tightening his grip slightly. "We should get out of here before we're all your worrying brings those aliens to us." He said letting Gwen out of his arms to only grab her by the arm and pull her toward the window.
Ben looked back toward the railing. He followed behind his cousin and rival and kept his eyes opened to make sure that they weren't being followed. "Gwen, I'm going to get Kevin back I promise and we'll come find you and get you back." He said smirking and taking a step backwards toward the railing as he dialed the faceplate till the holographic silhouette of the Arachnichimp aptly named Spidermonkey, slamming the faceplate down he turned into the large blue monkey. Scaling up the side of the wall he made his way back toward the hatchery.
Gwen looked back one more time before she was pushed to the window. She closed her eyes for a moment and created the mana stairs. Time seemed to move slowly a second seemed like an hour as Michael and Gwen walked down the stairs to the ground below. When her feet stuck solid earth, everything seemed to be moving at the same time once again.
"I may have misled you a bit but in all fairness you agreed to my terms before thinking it over." He whispered putting his arm around Gwen's waist. The young Anodite struggled and pulled away putting a foot of space in between them.
Michael chuckled "If you even think of running away lovely Gwen I'll be forced to hurt you and I would hate to hurt something so beautiful. On the other hand if you do decide to run you should know that I will drain the energy of every living thing I come across on this base and that includes your cousin and Levin" He said turning walking toward her and forcing Gwen to walk backwards into a wall. Gwen looked down at the cold ground below her feet. She was in deep thought for a moment before she smirked and looked up at Darkstar." Sorry but I don't take threats well" she said creating a mana orb and threw it at the boy hitting his square in the chest.
The armored teen went flying into a stack of empty wooden crates each one smashing under his body weight. By the time he freed himself from the broken crates Gwen had made it a good distance running from the young man. "How disappointing" he mumbled to himself as he shot deep black beam of energy at Gwen. She crumpled to the ground her hair draped around her like a veil.
Michael chuckled coldly as he strolled over to the red head he looked down at her. "That's something new I've been working on, a much stronger beam of energy that knocks a person out with a single hit." He said to himself as he lifted Gwen into his arms. "It's so effective, so I must apologize if it hurt you in any way since it was not my intention to hurt you" he said calmly as he walked out of the hidden base. The semi cool night air barely affected him under all his protection. Walking away from the base something caught his eye. He laughed when he saw Kevin's car sitting behind the rocks.
Walking over to the green and black striped sports car Michael put Gwen down gently on the ground before checking the doors he found that the door were still unlocked. After a moment of tinkering under the steering column he was able to get the car running. The armored teen got out of the car and lifted his new prize up into his arms and put in the back seat to rest. "Rest now lovely Gwen, we'll be home soon." He said softly as he reversed the car and got back on the highway and headed east.
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Ben moved down the wall out of sight until he was in position for his plan to work. When he was in place he squealed as he shot small bits of his web and trapping his friend against the wall. "Don't worry Kevin; you'll be back to your old self in no time… Now I just have to figure out how to change you back into your old annoying self." He squealed as he jumped to avoid the resin that was spit at him.
"Now that's not very nice, I'm trying to help you to be human again." He said moving up the wall. "Gwen will be upset that you're not fighting the alien that has taken over you instead of me." He said shooting another web at Kevin and sticking him to the wall. Ben took the opportunity and continued to fire the webs until Kevin was barely visible anymore. As he climbed down the wall Ben laughed and changed back into his human self.
Kevin struggled against the webs that were keeping him pinned to the wall. He managed to free one arm before the webs hardened even more making his movements even less than before. "Don't worry you're in good hands Kevin I'll get you back to normal soon. I just wish I knew how to fix… wait I wonder…if it work, it worked on Ken but that was only a partial take over at the time." Ben said to himself as he looked that the Omnitrix on his wrist. "Omnitrix is there any way to fix Kevin's DNA?" he asked the alien watch.
"DNA repairing is possible, omnitrix shut down for charging cycle is imminent" the watch replied. Ben looked at his friend and former rival "Do it" he said with s a smirk, he knew Kevin would finally owe him for saving him from being a DN Alien forever. The room was filled with a bright green light, when Ben opened his eyes back up Kevin was back to his old self finally.
Running over to his friend Ben ripped at the spider webs and freed Kevin "What the heck happened, why do I feels like I was hit by a truck?" Kevin asked rubbing his head. Ben laughed a bit. "I'll explain it to you later but first we need to get out of here without being caught." He said looking at the red face plate of the omnitrix as it recharged.
"So where's Gwen, she wasn't turned into a DN Alien was she?" Kevin asked looking around the hatchery. Ben laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Funny story, we ran into Mike Morningstar in the holding cell area, and well… Gwen agreed to a bargain of his, her freedom for information on how to free you." he said taking a step backwards away from the older teen.
Kevin was livid at that point "And you just let her do that, what kind of cousin are you? You let Gwen walk right into a trap." He said growling and heading for the back door. Kevin placed a good kick against the door and sent it flying. Ben whistled as the broken pieces of the door just hung from the small metal hinges.
Both teens stuck close together to avoid having to deal with a repeat of before. By the time they reached the edge of the wall they both let out a sigh of relief and made their way to Kevin's car. Ben looked around "It was right here…now Kevin, hitting me isn't going to fix anything" Ben said raising his hands in front of his face and backing up till he tripped backwards over a small rock.
Kevin cracked up and put his arms around his middle as he laughed at Ben got to his feet and dusted himself off. "So you're not mad that Morningstar is driving your car and that Gwen is with him?" Ben asked quizzically. Kevin's face went serious "Of course I'm mad, no one drives my car but me… and Gwen can take care of herself she knows how to deal with Morningstar." He said trying to hide the fact that his voice cracked a bit.
Ben looked around "So… how do we get back to Bellwood anyway?"He asked looking around he glanced at the omnitrix that was still charging. When Ben looked up Kevin was walking away in the general direction of Bellwood. "Kevin it's got to be like a four hour walk back home" Ben whined running after the older teen.
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Kevin's car purred as it idled for a moment outside a small mansion; it had been some time since Michael had actually been home, but his parents were never home so it wasn't like he was really missed. Reaching under the steering column he un-did the wires and killed the engine.
"We're home now" he said softly picking Gwen up and carrying her inside. He juggled the unconscious girl for a moment as he turned the main power on along with a high powered electromagnetic field for protection and security. Looking around the main foyer he chuckled at the fact it was just as how he left it. Walking up the stairs he headed for the guest room across the hall from his own room. Michael put Gwen on the bed carefully before leaving the room and closing the door quietly behind him.
Quietly he made his way down the stairs to the foyer once again, looking around he headed into the basement where he kept all the technology he had collected. Turning on the computers he took a seat at the monitors and started to type away trying to find a way to return himself back to his former good looks. His fingers danced over the keyboards as he worked trying to find a permanent solution to his problem. He typed in formula for an energy conversion to give him back his former looks and powers after making sure that it works the first time.
Above Michael on the second floor Gwen slowly woke up and looked around the bedroom she was in, the bed she was lying on was so soft and the silk sheets were very comfortable as they brushed against her skin. Gwen looked around the room carefully before she got up from the bed and started to look around the room.
The room was lavishly decorated with a large wood desk in the corner and large paintings on the walls. Her eyes fell on the wooden doors they were a rich dark color with the most beautiful carving of a garden scene that Gwen had ever seen she walked over to the doors and traced her fingers over carving of a fountain, it looked so real she expected the water droplets to be wet and the wooden carved birds to start singing.
Gwen placed her hand on the ornate door handle and pulled the door open with surprise. "He must not have expected me to wake up so soon" she whispered to herself as she made her way down the hall, her footsteps were muffled by the large carpet that covered most of the stone floor.
Keeping her guard up as she walked down the hall Gwen was practically holding her breath in anticipation for some sort of attack. When she reached the staircase she looked around for any signs of a security system. "For an evil guy he is sure lacking on high tech security systems" she whispered as she made her way down the stairs and across the large foyer toward the giant front doors.
When she reached the front doors she was careful in touching them since she had a feeling they were either locked or charged with electricity. Gwen reached over and touched the door handle finding it to be safe she pulled the door open and saw the stone stairs leading down to a familiar green sports car. She gave a small sigh of relief as she went down the stairs quickly, just as she came to the bottom of the stairs she felt a surge of energy shoot through her body and send her flying backward toward the stairs. Using her mana she caught herself and cushioned her fall.
"Very nice use of your powers, I must say I wasn't quite sure that the EM shield was going to keep you in. But now I am quite sure it will" he said chuckling "Now it's late and you should get some sleep. I'm sure you all ready know where your room is." he added sweeping his arm toward the front door.
Gwen growled under her breath as she stomped back inside, she thought of Kevin and Ben and wondered if Ben had succeeded in bringing the old Kevin back. She walks back up the stairs and went into her room and closed the door behind her. "I guess I am stuck in here for now" she said pulling her cell phone out of her pocket she tried to turn it on but it wasn't turning on "It must be fried… well that's just great" she said tossing it onto the bed. As Gwen walked around the bedroom she reached into her other pocket and found her plumber's badge and realized it was still working. "It will be a miracle if it reaches outside of this shield but it's worth a shot" she mumbled tapping the top once and put it down on the small table next to her as she took a seat in the chair.
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Ben and Kevin were walking on the side of the highway they had been only walking for an hour and they were exhausted. When they took a rest Ben noticed a muffled beeping sound "Hey Kevin can you explain why your butt is beeping?" he asked Kevin moved away from the rock he was leaning on and reached into his back pocket and pulled out his plumber's badge " So that's where I put it." He said chuckling a bit as Ben rolled his eyes.
"I think it might be Gwen's badge but I can't be sure really, and also we can't do much right now since we're still stuck in the desert and this badge signal is at least thirty miles away maybe less." Kevin said shoving the badge back into his pocket as he started to walk again.
Ben followed behind "Well shouldn't be going in the other direction?" he asked catching up to Kevin.
Kevin stopped short and turned around "Yeah that's a great idea, except there is one problem… we're stuck in the middle of the desert, it would take hours to walk there and what if it isn't Gwen calling for help then it would have been a big waste of time." He remarked huffing loudly and began walking again down the highway. Ben sighed and followed Kevin "Kevin what if we just called for someone to help us, maybe my cousin Ken" Ben said kicking a few small stones as he walked.
"Oh yeah how are you planning on explaining to him that his sister is being held against her will by a power hungry plumber's kid, yeah that is going to go over real well I'd love to hear that conversation. So go ahead and call him I'll wait" Kevin said stopping and looking over at Ben.
Ben pulled his cell phone out and turned in a circle. "It doesn't matter I'm not getting any service out here, so we're going to have to hike closer to Bellwood to get any service." Ben said as he continued to walk past Kevin. His feet were killing him but he knew he would have to walk through it until they got cell service.
"How much farther do we have to walk?" Ben asked as he dragged his feet in the dirt causing small dust clouds to be kicked up around his feet.
Kevin turned around "If you ask me that question anymore than right now I swear I will punch you so hard your children will have a black eye" he said looking around as he moved over to large boulder and sat down to rest his feet. Looking up at the sky Kevin looked at the stars and saw a shooting star fly across the sky. He knew that a shooting star was just space junk or rocks but from where he was sitting it was pretty amazing. Kevin immediately thought of Gwen as the shooting star disappeared.
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Gwen was curious she didn't want to stay in the bedroom any longer, she wasn't tired at all. Getting up from the chair she left her badge on the table and left the room. Her first stop was the bedroom across the hall, reaching for the handle she found that the door was locked. Leaving the second floor once again Gwen ventured downstairs once more and headed for a side room where she heard the clacking of computer keys.
"I thought you were asleep?" Darkstar asked turning around and looking at the young Anodite standing in the doorway, he knew that Gwen wasn't going to be attempting any more escape attempts any time soon. "I couldn't sleep, besides I thought you would want to keep an eye on me instead of sending me away." Gwen replied taking a small step into the room.
Michael chuckled "You and I are like magnets when you step closer to me I feel I must move closer. But when I move towards you, you back up away from me. Polar opposites, but I must confess even if you back away and despise me for my actions in the past I still feel this is right." He said moving back over to the computer and typing quickly. Gwen stood rooted to the spot she pushed a few strands of hair back behind her ear.
"You realize that Kevin and Ben will find us and figure out a way to get out of here." She remarked putting her arms around herself. Michael chuckled "That is if you want to leave…" he replied typing a few more keystrokes into the computer in front of him.