Alien X! Alien X! Alien X!! I am so psyched to finally know what's going on with that alien! I'm probably one of the few people who know it's powers already, but that still doesn't make me any less excited! I know some of you are looking forward to it too. Anyways, I wanted to share one more discovery with you Ben 10 fans. Go to YouTube and type in Ben 10 Caramelldansen. It's so cute! And the song is pretty addictive so prepare to have it stuck in your head. Okay, I'll stop rambling and give you the chapter. Happy reading!

Chapter 9

Five minutes. It took five whole minutes to budge Kevin into awareness. He had tried speaking, that escalating to yelling after the first minute, then nudged him before irritatedly giving up and giving him a nice hard kick.

Kevin, startled, quickly raised his head, effectively whacking it on the wall he was leaned against. He looked up at his attacker and scowled as Ben smirked. Ben cocked his head as Kevin's scowl faded to be replaced by a look of confusion.

"Dude, what time did you wake up?"

"Uh, only five minutes ago. Why?"

"You look like hell."

"You're no prize either." Ben retaliated, frowning. He watched as Kevin began to stand up, groaning as the process moved muscles that had stiffened in his unorthodox sleeping position.

"Pale."

"Sore muscles."

"I'm not joking. Do you sleep walk or something?" Ben realized he was being serious and walked quickly to the upstairs bathroom. He centered himself in front of the mirror and, leaning on the sink for a closer look, examined his face. It was immediately noticeable what Kevin was talking about. He was ghostly pale with small dark circles around his eyes.

It didn't make sense! He slept for freaking twelve hours! He was, or should've been, more rested than half the people in Bellewood. He gripped the sink tightly with one hand while the other poked his face, willing it to be a trick of the light.

A sudden moaning made him whip around to witness Kevin walking slowly toward him, arms out in front of him, wrists slack, while his tongue lolled out of his mouth in obvious imitation of a zombie.

"It's not funny." Ben growled as Kevin chuckled.

"Just humor me and make a zombie noise."

"How about I just skip straight to biting you?"

"I can't leave you two alone for a minute." Gwen sighed, appearing in the doorway, arms crossed. Her expression immediately changed when she saw Ben. "Ben, are you okay?"

"Fine. I just seem to look… unrested." He threw a glare at Kevin, daring him to say zombie again. Kevin looked at the opposite wall, acting as though the thought had never crossed his mind.

"You seemed to sleep fine. An explosion wouldn't've woken you up." Ben rolled his eyes. So he'd been extraordinarily tired. "What did you dream about?" His gaze suddenly found the floor. For some reason it was extremely interesting.

Should he tell them about Ghostfreak? He had mentioned it briefly once, passing it off as stress. It definitely wouldn't help anyhting except give Gwen gray hair. She seemed worried enough as it was.

"I didn't. Just black until I woke up." Ben lied. Gwen didn't seem satisfied with this answer, but took it just the same. Kevin gave him a sideways glance, but had no comment until a thought crossed his mind.

"What time is it?"

"One hour to twelve. Don't worry, I've been keeping an eye on the clock."

"For what?" Ben asked curiously. The subject obviously excited Gwen as she gave him a huge smile before going on.

"Your parents found an expert in genetics! We're going to meet him in a few hours." Ben wasn't quite sure how to react. He hadn't even been aware his jaw had dropped until Kevin mention something similar to 'flies'.

"A-awesome…" He couldn't find a word to describe how he felt so he settled for the first one that came to mind. It didn't hinder Gwen's smile at all.

"Isn't it? We can finally end all this Ghostfreak business." That was the kind way to put it, but basically what it was.

"We gotta leave now if we want to make it." Kevin commented.

"Oh, are we obeying traffic laws now?" Gwen teased, moving so they could step out of the bathroom.

"Tell me how it goes then." Ben dismissed, turning to go back to his room.

"You're coming too, silly." Silly? Gwen must be extremely happy about this to add that to her vocabulary. But that was the least of his worries. He was a little afraid to go outside. Even if that whole ordeal with the sun was a fluke, the thought made him wince.

"Sure you need me for this?"

"I doubt he's going to just give it to us and be on his merry way. That's expensive tech." Kevin answered. "Problem?"

"Uh, no."

"Then come on." Ben followed unwillingly, making a face behind Kevin's back. They had all fallen asleep in street clothes, so there was no need to bother with changing except for a little hair combing. He didn't even bother with that as he was a little distracted. He stared at the door a little ruefully. What if it hadn't been a concidence? The thought of burning wasn't very appealing. Was he going to turn into the creature he hated the most in the universe? If he did, he decided he was going to take a dive of the highest building he could find.

"Hey, earth to Tennyson? Do you read? Get in the car." Kevin commanded, shoving him out the now open door onto the porch. He froze before hitting the sunlight, maintaining his balance so that his face was inches from the intense light. He stepped back a few feet before running into Kevin.

"What's the matter? You're not gonna melt." Kevin joked pushing him lightly away from him.

"Melting isn't the right word…" Ben muttered.

"Is something wrong?" Gwen asked, noticing his attitude toward the sun. Ben sighed, knowing this would've come up at one time anyway.

"Well… It would be easier to show you." Ben took a wary step forward and looked at his hand. He held it out, centimeters from the sunlight.

"Show us what?" Kevin asked impatiently. He didn't have to wait long for the reason why as Ben suddenly gasped and took a step back, clutching his hand. He turned to them and, with a grimace, showed them. It was burned badly like hot oil had been poured on it, where it was raw in some places. He shivered as the pain began to subside, making him a little nauseous.

"Whoa… I guess vampire would've been better than zombie." Gwen was beyond trying to control Kevin's mouth, rather absorbed in her cousin's latest symptom.

"How am I supposed to go anywhere?" Ben wondered out loud, lowering his hand. He knew it was going to heal like his concussion did. He couldn't help being a little sickened with himself utilizing the power the freakish alien had given him. Gwen looked sympathetic, thinking of a solution. He owned no hoodies, there was never a need as rain in Bellewood was already pretty rare, and umbrellas were out of the question for the same reason.

"Sunblock?" Kevin suggested, remembering a vampire movie he saw where the vampire had been able to hide among humans because of this. Ben recalled that one as it had been the first one they watched on scary movie night.

"Think it would've protected It?" He enounciated It like it was poison, obviously in substitution for Ghostfreak.

"Don't compare yourself to that monster." Gwen scolded harshly. It was bad enough he was plagued by it's DNA but to think he was like him on some level was just degrading and a bad state of mind to get into.

"Then what?" He already knew that would be dead end idea as sunblock couldn't prevent death. Gwen looked like she had an idea. She sent a wave of pinkish energy over his head, covering him like an umbrella, but it still remained attatched to Gwen's hand. Unlike the energy she used mostly, this was more on the opaque side so sun wouldn't be able to get through.

Ben looked unsure about this. He wasn't worried so much about the sun anymore so much as his pride. A pink energy wave over your head didn't exactly scream guy. But, he couldn't complain. He made it to the car without another singe, thankfully 'cause the last one had hurt like hell. He told Gwen to stop and just threw his jacket over his head.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure to hit every bump in attempts to ruin your little shield there." Ben knew Kevin didn't mean it. They had little spats everyday. He couldn't help gripping the jacket a little tighter though as, every so often, Kevin would actually implement some of his threats. He wasn't sure what happened after, due to the solid cloth in front of his eyes, but he was sure he heard a small 'ow', most likely from some form of pain from Gwen to get him to lay off.

Despite the delay, they arrived ten minutes early, but that was also helped by the method of ignorance to traffic laws. Ben was happy to find that it was shady. They were meeting this person behind the building, so there were no worries there.

They all kept watch for twenty minutes, silence surrounding them except for the occasional car. Finally, a shadow moved to their left and they knew he had arrived.

"You are Carl Tennyson?" A thick accent accompanied the words that were aimed at Kevin.

"No, we're here for him. You got the device?" Kevin, having more trade experience as he so loving called it, stepped forward to do the talking.

"Yes. My employer has it now." Another silhouette appeared beside the first. The other was considerably taller than the first and spoke in a language that none of them could understand. Four glowing red eyes were visible however.

"He asks what you need it for." The smaller accented silhouette translated. Ben got a bad taste in his mouth as he felt his brain frantically trying to process why the second shadow was so familiar in such a bad way. Gwen step aside, realizing that she had unconsciously stepped protectively in front of him.

"My cousin had a bad experience with some en… et…"

"Ectonurite DNA." Ben said for her, still unable to explain why he knew this man. The man seemed to know him, or something about them had angered him as he began chittering in that unknown language. It was then he remembered who he was.

"My employer has changed his mind." Kevin didn't like this.

"Why? We can pay for the use."

"He doesn't wish to help this human." He replied simply, as if he agreed.

"Because I almost destroyed him once. Hello SixSix." Ben greeted darkly, an angered frown on his face. The silhouetted figure stepped into a lighter shadow, still chittering in that irritated manner. Gwen looked at the figure in horror as Kevin remained indifferent having never met this creature before.

"He says he is no longer SixSix. He is SevenSeven and that he will kill you for mentioning that." No sooner than that was said, a gun of sorts became obvious in SevenSeven's hand. Gwen put up an energy field just in time to block the sudden red pulse that was aimed at them. It was strong enough to shatter the field, but did not make it through.

"How do we keep meeting up with people you know?" Kevin exclaimed angrily, obviously in displeasure about Ben's past.

"It's been five years! How the hell am I supposed to know what happened to them?" Ben retorted, both of them ducking from another three pulses.

"A little help!" Gwen shouted as Seven made another shot at her. Ben pushed the side button on the omnitrix and began trying to quickly pick one that fit the situation. He heard Kevin give a kind of battle cry, probably running up to him after absorbing some kind of substance.. There, Big Chill would be perfect. Freeze the bastard and be done with it. He made to slap the face down when he felt something thick and painful hit his chest. It knocked him off his feet and into a wall behind him.

Stars exploded in his vision as he tried to regain his senses. He heard another sound, a blow of some kind had been landed and he had heard a body fall. He felt the familiar tendrils of the evil power and tried to ward it off. He could do thid himself without a body count. He looked at the Omnitrix to see if his selected alien was still there but the watch had reset itself during his moment of unconcentration. He tried to quickly find it again but SevenSeven seemed hell bent on not letting him use the watch.

Another beam found his chest with marksman accuracy and consciousness was becoming fleeting. And suddenly, he felt fine. More than fine, he felt… powerful. A smile that was not his own spread across his face as he stood, ready to end the one who was trying to kill him. Two guns were pointed at him, ready to shoot him to death. His smile was not hindered by the threat of death.

SevenSeven fired six shots, enough to kill about two humans of Ben's stature. He calmly raised a hand and the pulses stopped before they reached him, stuck in the air before him. Another wave sent them back where they came from. Three nailing the robot alien in the head while the other three landed in his chest.

He skidded a few feet and doubled over. Even through the armor, SevenSeven felt the blow and showed it by swearing in whatever language it was that he used. This served to amuse him further. A small device rose on Seven's shoulder and minascule rockets shot from it. He heard a cry from somewhere to his left but payed it no heed as he used his power to make the rockets fly around him, blowing out a side of the wall. Not even the explosive force of wind budged him.

SevenSeven paused to consider his options. The human had gotten better over the five year span, much like he had, however, this new force about him seemed to be one not to be reckoned with. It was the Ectonurite, he was sure. He should've removed the DNA before challenging him, but he wasn't so sure the device would've separated such closely bonded DNA.

A chuckle forced him back into battle. Though, with his quick thinking, he had only been gone for a milisecond. Still, the human dared to laugh at him, the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy? A mere human child at that! No one ever laughed at him and lived to tell about it. He brought out a secret weapon in his arsenal, a last ditch effort weapon that would kill and be physically unavoidable. And the child waited patiently for him, mocking him in a way to say that nothing was strong enough to kill him. He would prove him wrong.

He could wait. He knew he could restrain himself long enough to make the being believe he had a chance before crushing him. He just wished he would hurry because the carefully restrained patience was quickly wearing thin.

It brought out another weapon, another gun. How drole. This was a hat trick used one too many times already. But, it was different somehow. He wasn't sure what it did, but he was sure he was going to find out what it did soon enough. It had a round end on it, solid, like it wasn't meant for shooting. He hoped it wasn't a sun gun. That could probably kill him.

SevenSeven aimed it at him, level with his chest. If all went well, the human's heart would all but explode. He fired it, the gun making a resounding deep boom like one from the bass on a stereo. The air shimmered in waves as the shot quickly closed in on it's supposedly unsuspecting target. It connected with something and the human winced. SevenSeven felt victorious when he suddenly felt himself lifted into the air by an invisible force. The human was smiling at him as he was held upside-down before being thrown into a wall behind him. Debris flew from the impact but it didn't end there. The alien was thrown to the ground several times beforebeing left there.

He tried to stand, possibly get another weapon out of the arsenal on his back when a pressure in his chest made him freeze. He couldn't breathe. The human was slowly crushing him, content to see him struggle for life before ending it all. He didn't have to wait long. The armor bent inward and a sickly purple-ish blue blood shot out, splattering about a near nine foot radius. It was over for the alien. He fell, life gone from his body, to the ground.

Ben retained a look of bemusment beforethe cold power released his mind once more. He gasped as if waking up from a bad dream and clutched his head as if it hurt. He staggared a few steps forward before falling to knees and, eventually, to the ground where unconscoiusness claimed him.

Gwen ran to her cousin, the force blocking her finally gone. She rolled him over and checked him. He was fine other than the slightly pained look he had. She shivered and rubbed her thumb gently across his checkbone, afraid for him rather than of him as any unsensible person would be. He was getting more malicious to the point where he had finally killed someone. It was frightnening, but what scared her most was that there may be no way to stop it.

There it is, chapter 9. I hope I didn't ruin anything for you guys. I had fun typing this chapter, but, then again, I always have fun typing stuff like this. Anyways, I hope you're having a good weekend and that Alien X doesn't disappoint you (Though I doubt he will, he's pretty awesome). 'Till the next chapter then! -Xangabell