I know this is late, I apologize, but I leapt at the chance to be able to hang out with my friend again who, despite the fact

I know this is late, I apologize, but I leapt at the chance to be able to hang out with my friend again that, despite the fact that it's summer, I couldn't see very often. Okay, this chapter… I like your idea 'UnderxGravity', it's one of my favorite things to read but don't think I'll be going with that angle though. But maybe I will! You never know until I get there. And with that, I end my A/N so you can read.

Chapter 6

Ben's facial features couldn't seem to decide upon an emotion. At one point it looked like anger had dominated when a look of hopelessness replaced it followed by a quick change to guilty and so on. Gwen remained aware lest she see how his room had become as messy as it was. Besides a muscle tick in his eye his face had decided upon blank as its main feature, making them unsure as to how he really felt besides the assumed sense of feeling awful. Kevin opened his mouth to say something, probably inappropriate at that moment, to garner a reaction from him but Ben found his voice first.

"Are there any options?" He croaked, his voice cracking from the pressure.

"Analysis." The watch answered monotonously, unaware that it was causing its wearer a fair amount of distress. Ben seemed to lose his voice again until Gwen spoke.

"What can you tell us?" She asked it, hoping that some clue might present itself through the analysis option it gave them. The Omnitrix was silent for half a second before beginning to tell them what it knew about its owner.

"Foreign DNA has presented itself in the user's DNA."

"Can you repair?" Ben asked, a small amount of hope in his voice.

"Negative. Upon entry, it bonded with the user's DNA making separation impossible." It seemed to pause to let the information sink in before going into what the invasive DNA was. "DNA compound from the alien being Ectonurite. From the planet Anur Phaetos, a sentient being that lives in perpetual darkness. A main…" Ben pushed the miniscule button on the side of it, deactivating the watch to silence it. At this point, none of that information mattered except to irritate him further at how his DNA was now bonded with basically the darkest alien in the universe. He sighed and plopped down onto the bed, feeling weary with the overwhelming turn fate had decided to slap him with. He felt the spot next to him sink slightly as someone sat next to him.

"Ben…" It was more of a coo of comfort than anything as Gwen put an arm around her cousin's shoulders, understanding that this was a devastating blow to the usually optimistic side of him. Kevin moved and sat next to Gwen, staring at the wall opposite of them.

"You know, it could be worse…" He said without looking at them, finding the dent in the wall more interesting.

"Point?" Gwen said a little exasperatedly, unable to see how that would cheer Ben up.

"None really. I just thought the situation called for somethin' like that." Kevin shrugged, hoping the gain a smile from one of them. Gwen scowled at him for being so unsympathetic when a small choked laugh came from her right. Ben had his head up but had both his hands covering the lower half of his face while his eyes remained shut. The way he looked, it didn't seem like the laugh had come from him, but his shoulders still shook slightly in silent laughter. He looked to the left to see both of them staring at him.

"I wasn't laughing at you." Ben stated, a small smile lighting his lips in some dark humor he seemed to discover. "I was laughing at the irony of all this." Gwen opened her mouth to protest this unnecessary thought until Ben continued. "It's like in the movies, when the hero has to fight some dark monster and some how becomes the bastard he was fighting. It's all just so ironic…" The use of a swear word had thrown Gwen off as her cousin usually kept his language pretty clean, but she didn't focus on that so much as the point he had.

"Funny how that works, huh?" Kevin commented, a different kind of smirk on his face as he stared at the two people he sat next to. "I mean, I used to hate you. But you ended up turnin' me around, for the most part. You all sure we didn't fall into some alternate universe where movies are real?"

"That's no way to think about this. This isn't a movie so our ending isn't set. Let's take it a step at a time and I'm sure we'll find something to fix all of this." Gwen said confidently, looking for confirmation in the people around her. Ben looked like he knew the first step and he didn't look at all happy.

"…What am I going to tell my parents…?" Ben frowned, running a hand through his chocolate colored hair. His heart nearly stopped when a voice came from his doorway.

"You don't have to say anything." All three of them whipped around to see two adults standing in the doorway. Ben stood, his face and body rigid with shock at the fact that his parents had been eavesdropping on them.

"My poor baby…" Ben's mother, Sandra, cooed, walking around them to pull her son into a hug. Ben was glad to feel something other than regret or anger, but wasn't too thrilled when he realized that it was embarrassment by this sign of affection in front of his friend and cousin. None-the-less, the comfort felt good. He was also lucky he hadn't seen Kevin snickering slightly behind him.

"Well, at least we don't have to explain it now." Kevin said, standing and moving to a more open part of the room with Gwen.

"No, you owe us an explanation as to how it happened." Ben's father, Carl, said, stepping into the room. Neither of them knew how to start, but Gwen made an attempt.

"Well, we, um…"

"We saw a space ship crash in the desert and went to see if it was potentially dangerous." Ben had managed to pull away from his mother to recount what had happened but Sandra seemed to refuse to entirely release him and still held onto his shoulders. "I got there first and was stupid enough to go in without them. There was this room that had a DNA regenerating device and, well, I grazed it with my elbow and it sent a current of energy into me as well as a little bit of… alien DNA."

"And obviously, the Omnitrix is unable to fix it." Carl completed. Ben nodded while Kevin looked confusedly at his father.

"How do you know about the watch?" He asked a little suspiciously.

"Ben doesn't lie about what he does." Sandra announced proudly, causing Ben to give a sheepish smile at the threatening glare Kevin threw at him.

"Well, there really was no point trying to hide it after Galbatorix attacked." Ben shrugged.

"That's beside the point." Carl frowned. "You can't reverse the regenerator?"

"We figured if the Omnitrix couldn't fix it, nothing could. That and none of us are good alien mechanics." Gwen answered, a slightly guilty look on her face.

"We could probably find someone who could fix it. After Galbatorix, we delved a little into the Plumbers business." Sandra smiled as Ben's shoulders slumped.

"You heard it though. It's already bonded with my DNA."

"Only so that the Omnitrix can't fix it, sweetie. Something else could. Something built exactly for that job." The pet names served to embarrass Ben more, but what she said gave him more hope.

"I'll bet your grandfather would have something perfect for the job." Carl commented. The air in the room seemed to thicken as the trio remembered what had happened with there first Highbreed encounter.

"U-uh, yeah…" Ben stuttered, nodding at him. He didn't feel he was ready to tell him that Grandpa Max was gone. His parents didn't seem to notice as they kept smiles on their faces.

"We'll get to work on that, so why don't you go out and keep yourselves preoccupied until then." Kevin liked that idea; then again, he liked any idea that involved going somewhere in his car. Ben, however, looked a little reluctant to go back out yet. Gwen gave him a look and he sighed and agreed with the idea. There was a slight fuss between Ben and his mother over his injured hand, so he allowed her to bandage it before letting him go.

"Don't forget your cell phone." His father reminded him. Ben pointed to his pocket and waved goodbye as he was pulled out of the door by Gwen.

"What are we going to do?" Gwen asked as she got into the backseat after forcing Ben into shotgun. Kevin smiled as he started the car.

"I dunno about you guys, but I could go for a smoothie."

Ten minutes later and they had made it to their favorite smoothie place, Mr. Smoothie. They had found a table and Gwen went to get the smoothies. Kevin rested his arms on the table, looking at the other groups of teens around him until his eyes rested on the brown haired teen in front of him. Ben had his head down on his arms, looking a lot like he was sleeping. Of course, Kevin wasn't going to let him.

"How's your broken head?" Kevin asked casually, poking Ben playfully on the top of his head.

"Still looks like you're trapped in a fog. Are you bored?" Ben looked up at him curiously.

"Why?"

"You're basically asking me how I am. You don't ever do that." Kevin looked a little insulted.

"I'm not just black and white you know." He said turning his body and crossing his arms to emphasize his point. Ben couldn't help smiling at him as Gwen returned carrying three styrofoam cups.

"Alright, one chocolate," She handed on cup to Kevin. "One nectarine," She gave one to Ben. "And a strawberry for me." She smiled, sitting beside Kevin. Ben took one sip and began playing with the straw absently. Gwen made to say something when someone called out. They looked and saw J.T. running toward them. He stopped to catch his breath when he reached the table.

"What do you want?" Kevin scowled at him, rising from the table incase he had to beat some sense into him.

"Well, Cash is, uh… He's…" J.T. stuttered, trying to relay the message.

"Trying to call us out again?" Gwen finished for him, eyebrow raised. J.T. nodded, looking nervous.

"Ben beat the crap out of him last time and he still thinks he can challenge us?"

"Well, he's not exactly happy about last week… Especially with you Kevin." J.T. pointed out, recalling the near fist fight. Cash had been neutral toward them until Kevin decided to say something which brought back the anger in a rush. It was too bad that Ben had had to embarrass him verbally yet again to stop him. So, naturally, Cash was pissed.

"So, what? Are we meeting him somewhere? I hope he likes bruises." Kevin grinned, smacking a fist into his other hand. Gwen noticed the guilty look on J.T.'s face.

"J.T…. is there something you're not telling us?" J.T. flinched a little, rubbing a hand up and down his shoulder.

"Maybe… We, uh, found some other weird tech. It's not so much that it shoots lasers, but it increases the wearer's strength by about twenty percent." J.T. looked to Ben to see how he was reacting to this. He wasn't. It looked like he hadn't noticed him at all as he was still spacing. J.T. tried to get his attention by appealing to his better, people helping nature.

"Please? You guys know how bent he can get over things and I think he's really in trouble again." Ben looked at him thoughtfully, knowing what J.T. was doing and listening all the same.

"Yeah, we realize. That's why I'm going to give him the butt whooping of the century." Kevin commented. They looked to Ben as he sighed and rose from the table.

"Alright, we'll come, but you have to promise not to mess with anymore weird tech, got it?" J.T. nodded earnestly as they began to follow him back to the old mannequin factory. The building had not recovered from their last fight between robot enhanced Cash and Kevin, who still was ready to jump at the chance to beat Cash senseless from that.

As they neared the builidng, Ben felt an odd sensation welling up within him. He chalked it up to a strange surge of confidence, but he wasn't sure.

"Yo, Cash! We answered your little curtain call, so come out so I can wail on ya!" Kevin called cockily. He received no answer, so he ran ahead and entered the building.

"Kevin!" Gwen called exasperatedly before running in after him.

"It'd probably be best if you stayed here." Ben said to J.T. before running after the other two. He had to jump over bits of crumbled building before he caught up with them. He found Gwen chastising Kevin for being so reckless, before a voice made them all freeze.

"So, you actually came. I didn't think you'd be so stupid." Cash's voice had no pinpoint. It just reverberated around the room, serving it's pupose so they wouldn't know where he was.

"Why don't you come say that to my face?" Kevin challenged, stepping forward. Ben didn't like the feel of this situation. It was too familiar with the time he had been possessed by the robot glove. There was silence before Cash suddenly appeared through a hole in the ceiling, delivering a flying kick into Kevin's chest that sent him flying into the other wall. As he landed, Ben was able to see the mechanism. It was a small silver box that had latched onto his back, along his spine. It was going to be risky to remove without damaging him, but they had to do something.

Cash turned his attention on Gwen as she wrapped a trendril of energy around him. Appearantly, she had seen the device as well as she was using a smaller tendril of energy to try and remove it. She suddenly received a shock through the energy, knocking her out. The energy faded around Cash and he smirked in triumph until Kevin charged at him, shouting a battle cry as he shouldered him into the wall across from them.

Ben ran over to Gwen, examining her to make sure she was alright. As he lokked her over, he felt that strange feeling of confidence that didn't quite feel like confidence anymore. He stood and looked over at Kevin and Cash who appeared to be locked into a power struggle. Ben wasn't sure what came over him, but he felt calm.

"Kevin!" He shouted. Kevin picked Cash up and threw him before looking at Ben.

"You're not going to face him like that, are you?" Kevin looked at him proudly as Ben raised his fists. He was growing up so fast. Kevin ran over to Gwen as Ben entered the fight. Cash walked up to him cooly, an amused smile in his face.

"Tennyson, is it your turn? You're not going to turn into one of your freaks? Then I hope you like broken bones." Ben flashed him a smile that would've made a vampire quiver in fear.

"Likewise." Was all he said. His utter calmness infuriated Cash as he charged forward, a fist raised. Ben met him head on, easily dodging his fist and kicking him in the gut. Cash staggered as Ben continued with a barrage of punches, elbows and kicks, eventually backing Cash into a wall. Cash smiled, it was just the leverage he needed. He kicked off the wall and into the air, coming down with bone crushing force.

Ben's smiled widened as he caught Cash by the arm and flipped him onto the ground, still using the momentum Cash had obtained in the air. The ending force was great enough to crack the floor and leave Cash momentarily unable to move. Pieces of silver littered the floor, but Ben hardly saw them as he landed another punch to Cash's face. A sickening crack was heard, signalling the breaking of his nose. Blood spurted from it, but that served to only amuse Ben further. He wasn't sure where his power had come from, but he liked it.

He raised a fist to deliver the final blow when someone grabbed him from behind and lifted him into the air. He kicked and struggled but the grip was unrelenting. He saw he was being held up by the same pink energy that held Cash earlier. He finally heard the yells that had not been getting through to him moments ago.

"Ben, stop! It's broken!" Gwen? Ben shook the fog from his mind and looked around. What had just come over him?

"That's not the only thing that's broken." That was Kevin. He looked down and saw Kevin inspecting Ben's work on Cash's face. Ben saw what he had done to Cash and shivered, unsure where the surge of agressiveness had come from. He felt some thing wet and sticky on his face and knew immediately that it was not his blood.

"Ben, what's going on? Why did you go all out on Cash?" Gwen asked, pulling him down to her level. Ben looked a little shocked himself.

"I-I don't know. I lost it again and I don't know why!" Ben looked like he could go into hysterics. He wasn't like this. He was a fairly passive person who only got serious when the situation called for it. This was past serious. It was more like a version of revenge than anything. Gwen looked uneasy. Perhaps the fusion of DNA had more of an effect than they thought?

"That's one hell of a hit. Good job, Ben." Kevin complimented, standing with a smirk on his face.

"This isn't a joke Kevin! This is a serious problem and we…"

"Uh, guys?" Ben interrupted, blinking as he stared past them. "I can see."

"Of course you can see. You're not blind." Kevin said, a strange look on his face. Gwen understood what he meant.

"Your vision's clear? But it shouldn't be better for a few more weeks…" Gwen let him down carefully. As soon as he was free, a wiped his sleeve on his face to rid it of the crimson substance, but when he moved his bandaged hand, it felt weird. He began to unwrap it, the bandages covered in spots of Cash's life source. He examined his hand and found it perfectly healed, the skin smooth as of there had never been a cut there.

Gwen saw this and grimaced. Strange temporary lapses of mentality and quick healing? More and more strange things were popping up and still, none of it connected.

There, extra long to make up for my lack of updating. Not much to say here except to please review and happy reading! -Xangabell