I do not own Ben 10, or any of the characters that have already or will debut in the series.
Note: This project ignores the events of "Race Against Time", "Ben 10 Versus Negative 10". "Goodbye and Good Riddance" and "Ben 10: Alien Force". I have other plans for Ben, Gwen, Charmcaster, Animo, and all the others.
Secondary note: For this project, benwolf is Howlrunner, benmummy is Underwraps, and benviktor is Boltneck.
"Whoa! Down, boy!"
Wildvine held onto the mutant monster his left vines were wrapped around. It was probably some kind of dog, he reasoned, before Animo had done whatever it was he did to them. Or a bear, or . . . something with fur. It was hard to tell what Animo started with sometimes. Whatever it was, it was on a rampage, and it needed a distraction while someone dealt with Animo. WIldvine had drawn distraction duty this time, and he intended to do it well.
While Wildvine was busy with the mutant animal, Max and Gwen were sneaking around behind Animo. At his signal, the two of them split up, trying to catch Animo in a pincer. The plan was sound, as was the logic behind it. But Gwen wanted to try something else. She was more than a little tired playing second fiddle to Ben and Max. Their last major encounter, she'd been hypnotized into fighting both of them. It was time they backed her up.
Jumping out, she raised her hands and said the words to a spell she'd read about in her spellbook. It was a simple thing, a bolt of eldritch energy that would knock Animo on his butt. However, nothing happened. She tried again, but the only thing that did was attract his attention. Animo raised one of his gloved hands, ready to do whatever it was he did to hyper-evolve creatures into monsters.
Before he could fire, the furry monster he'd let loose came crashing through the wall with Wildvine riding it like a cowboy. Animo leapt to the side before he was pulped by debris raining down around him. Gwen cast another spell, a barrier to protect herself. Fortunately, this one worked, so she stayed sheltered under an invisible shield while the warehouse collapsed. When the dust settled, Animo was pinned by Wildvine, while Max turned Animo's mutation ray on the furry creature, causing it to revert to its regular form. A job well done.
So why did she feel so bad?
Ben 10
Toil and Trouble
"Ben, you need to be more careful. There was no reason to destroy that building."
"Sorry, Grandpa. It wasn't like I could control it. Wildvine's powers don't include mind control. I'll try not to next time. Hey, Gwen, where were you during the whole fight?"
Gwen turned sharply away from the window to glare at Ben. He probably hadn't meant it the way it sounded, but it still made her mad.
"I was there. You just didn't see me, seeing as how you were trying to bring down the whole neighborhood."
"But, I mean, did you even do anything?"
Gwen dove on Ben, fist cocked back. She didn't care if she got in trouble, just so long as she could wipe the inquisitive look off her cousin's face. She actually managed to hit him once before Max could stop the Rust Bucket, come back and drag her off Ben. Gwen was heaving, wet ragged sobs. It took Ben a minute to realize that she was crying.
"It's not that easy, you creep! We don't all have super powers just falling out of the sky! Some of have to work for it, you-"
The rest of Gwen's tirade dissolved as she broke down. Twisting out of Max's grip, she ran for the door, leaving Max and Ben behind.
Max had given Gwen a few minutes to come back, and, when she didn't, he and Ben went searching for her. Max decided to have a little talk with Ben as they did so.
"You know, you really shouldn't have talked to Gwen like that. Remember, you had trouble with the Omnitrix when you first found it. In fact, you still have trouble with it."
"Hey, I didn't know she was going to freak out like that. Besides, it was a valid question. I didn't see her until after the fight."
"All the same, you could have worded the question differently. How's the eye, by the way?"
"It still stings a little. Hey, did any of your Plumber buddies do magic?"
"One of them did. Why do you ask?"
"Well, maybe you could call in a favor, get him to train Gwen a little."
"You know, that's not a bad idea. I bet Blaise would like that. That is, if she's still running that little school she set up. Just don't tell Gwen. I'd like to surprise her with this."
Gwen woke up to bright sunlight. Groaning, she rolled out of bed to look out the window. There was a large brick building outside, surrounded by statuary, fountains, and what looked like meditation gardens. It looked like paradise. The only question was, what were they doing here? She was about to ask when Max came back.
"Morning, Gwen. How are you doing today?"
"Fine, I guess. But, what is this place? And what are we doing here?"
"Well, Ben and I had an idea-"
"No, I had the idea. You just knew someone that fit what we were looking for."
"Whatever. Anyway, one of my old Plumber contacts started a summer school for young spellcasters, and I thought, if you wanted to, you could get a little extra training."
Gwen wrapped her arms around Max. After a minute or so, she released him, and then started shoving clothes into her backpack. It didn't take all that long, and soon, she was walking with Max up to the school, Ben trailing behind them. A girl about the same age as Gwen came bounding out to meet them. She had long, black hair and glasses, and was dressed in a dark brown robe.
"You have been anticipated. Mistress Ta-e-che will see you and your-"
She stopped, trying to figure out how precisely Gwen was related to Max. After about a minute, she decided it didn't matter.
"And your elder. Follow me, please."
The girl turned around and started walking towards the double doors. Gwen looked over her shoulder to say goodbye to Ben, but he wasn't there. She shrugged her shoulders and went into the building.
"I'm sorry, but no one knows where Mistress Alderwood went. She didn't show up at the beginning of the term, and I was chosen to serve as a replacement until she should return."
Ta-e-che, despite her Oriental-sounding name, was a slim woman of Greek origins. Gwen had no idea what would prompt her to take a name like Ta-e-che, but she obviously had her reasons. Gwen mulled this over while Max tried to find out where his Plumber friend had gone.
"I just talked to her a few months ago. She sounded fine, and-"
"Again, I apologize, but no one here has heard from her for months. Do you still wish to enroll your granddaughter?"
"Yes, I do."
"Very good. Phoebe, please show Miss Tennyson to her room."
The black-haired girl nodded, and then gestured for Gwen to follow her. Gwen hefted her backpack and left the office. She trailed Phoebe through the vast hallways of the school. Soon, she was watching the ceiling, caught up completely by the decorations: vast paintings, marble statuary, gilded columns. She was so taken in by this that she stopped watching where she was going, and ran into Phoebe.
"Oh, man, I'm sorry. I was just-"
"It's all right. Happens to everyone on their first day here. Now, you need to get fitted for a uniform."
"Uniform? What kind of uniform?"
Phoebe spread her arms, indicating the robe she was wearing.
"One of these. Frankly, I think they should do without, but, you know, the whole keeping everyone equal bull. Anyway, go in. I'll hold your stuff."
It took about five minutes to get fitted, and then Gwen was following Phoebe through the dormitories. Phoebe put a hand on one of the doors, which swung open silently. Gwen looked inside. The room was kind of small, with only one bed.
"Single-occupancy?"
"Yeah. Some of the kids that have been here for a long time request roommates, but first-year students get single rooms."
"Cool. So, I guess I'll see you around then?
"Yeah, sure. Whatever."
Phoebe turned around and hurried away from Gwen's room. Gwen began setting up her stuff. She had just finished setting up her laptop when she sensed a presence at the door. Turning around, she saw two other girls standing there.
The one on the left looked a lot like Phoebe, except she was a little taller and didn't have glasses. The one on the right was nowhere near as normal. Her hair was white. Not the light silver of Charmcaster's hair, but dead white. It took Gwen a moment to realize that her eyes were the same color as her hair, which left her looking a little creepy.
"Are you guys some kind of welcoming committee?"
"You could say that."
This came from the white-haired girl. Her voice was as dead as her hair color. Her expression reminded Gwen of a shark closing in on its prey: lethal and uncaring. While Gwen was trying to figure her out, she raised a hand.
There were no words, at least none that Gwen could hear. No flashy effect, nothing. The white-haired girl's spell caught in seconds, and Gwen found herself completely paralyzed. Sure, she could move her eyes, and she was still breathing, but other than that, her muscles had frozen. Now, the white-haired girl smiled, a predator's humorless grin at catching something. She raised her right hand, and a set of six-inch stilettos came out of her fingers.
"Don't worry, this isn't supposed to hurt, but feel free to scream if you want."
The white-haired girl plunged her hand into the point where Gwen's neck connected with her torso. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt at all. She definitely felt something there, but no pain. The white-haired girl's eyebrows raised a little, and she started dragging her hand around Gwen's torso, stopping at bellybutton level.
"Huh. Never found one here before. Rachel, give me the crystal."
The other girl pulled a large crystal on a chain from around her neck. An intricate gold net wrapped around the crystal, terminating about a millimeter short of the point nearest to the floor. The white-haired girl took it from her with her left hand while pulling her right hand out of Gwen's chest. She held up her hand, and Gwen saw a ball of light cradled delicately in the points of the claws. She put the light at the uncovered point on the crystal, and it dimmed while the crystal lit up. When she was satisfied with the crystal, she put it around her own neck, and then waved her hand, releasing Gwen from her paralysis.
"Wha-what did you do to me?"
"You're new here. I've been here for eight years. Traditionally, each of the eighth-year students chooses some lump of fresh meat as their personal whipping post, errand boy, you know, that sort of thing. I just took some insurance from you."
"What did you take?"
"Don't worry, I'll give it back when you leave."
"What. Did you. Take from me?"
"Figure it out for yourself. Let's go, Rachel."
Gwen dove for the white-haired girl. She was going to get the crystal from her, even if she had to use force to get it. She got close enough to take a swing, but she was blown backward by some sort of psychokinetic blast. She crashed into the bed, and by the time she recovered, both of the other girls were gone.
Selene rolled the crystal around in her hands as she walked. Rachel was walking behind her, saying nothing. Selene preferred it when her sisters didn't talk. It kept them from disrupting her train of thought. She was still considering the crystal when someone grabbed her by the arm. Selene was pulled around until she was looking Phoebe in the face.
"Let go."
"You didn't do it, did you?"
"Do what?"
"Can you at least get it back out?"
"Get what out?"
"You know, sis, that new kid's soul, the one you to-"
"Rachel, shut up!"
"Jeez, Selene. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should! Please tell me you can get it back out."
"Don't worry. The ashkerii can take anything from inside anywhere."
"Then pull it out and show me. Now, or I tell Ta-e-che."
"All right, all right, just let me-"
Selene's sentence went unfinished, interrupted by the squeal of claws running across crystal. Stunned, she tried to punch through again, only to be defeated a second time.
"Great. Just great. Out of all the people searching for one, you have the soul cage. And you're too stupid to make it work right."
"Fine. You try and open it."
"No one knows how to open one of those. No one even knows how to make those anymore. So, now we have to figure out a way to open a soul cage before-"
Phoebe stopped talking, and it took a moment for Selene to realize that someone was behind her. Turning around, she saw Ta-e-che standing there, with arms crossed and a stern look on her face.
"Selene, come with me. Now."
Selene had been in this office before, at least five or six times in the last month or so. Right now, it was for disciplinary reasons.
"So, you just decided to rip out someone's soul-"
"I didn't 'rip it out'. I carefully removed it. No ripping."
"Semantics. You don't even know who that was you assaulted, do you?"
As she said this, Ta-e-che was rummaging around in one of the drawers in her desk. When she raised her head from the desk, she was wearing a metal mask. It was the face of a woman, a heartless woman with a face like ice. Ta-e-che was no more. What stood in front of Selene was not entirely human. It was Hecate, former goddess of magic. Selene trembled a bit at this side of the headmistress.
"She is the granddaughter of one of the people that imprisoned me in this meat sack. Her cousin is the shapeshifter that has been appearing in the news. You remember what we had to do to Blaise Alderwood, don't you?"
"Y-yeah. I remember."
"Well, we may have to do it again, thanks to your incompetence. What news on the ritual?"
"We . . . we figured out the last part, I think. We'll need to do some checking, but-"
"No checking. We do this tonight, and I will regain my divinity before morning's first light. Begone with you."
Selene got up out of her chair, and Hecate removed her mask. Neither of them noticed the eyes watching from the vent.
Gwen was busy sorting her stuff when something dropped out of the vent. Her first instinct was to try and stomp it into oblivion. It wasn't until the third or fourth stomp that she recognized the lump on its back. She put her foot down slowly, and waited for Grey Matter to turn back into Ben.
"What are you doing here? When Grandpa Max finds out-"
"He's the one that told me to do some snooping around. He was suspicious of this Ta-e-che woman, and he had good reason."
"What are you talking about?"
"Her real name is Hecate and, according to her, she's a goddess that Grandpa and a couple of other Plumbers trapped in a mortal body. She's using a couple of the students to help her break out that body and become a god again."
"Wait, what? She'd need a lot of power to do that, and I don't think any of the students have that kind of power."
"I'd been poking around her desk. There were a lot of notes about some kind of line that they were going to tap into. I didn't really understand it."
"Line, line . . . leyline?"
"That might be it. But, we need to stop her tonight. That's what she said to Selene."
"Selene?"
"White-haired girl, wearing some kind of necklace. Kind of a creepy-looking kid."
"Come on, we need to make a pl-"
The door burst inward. Ben and Gwen split to avoid the shrapnel. Gwen looked up first, and saw a tattooed behemoth, tusked and grimy, standing by the doorway. Selene was standing next to it, left hand on the thing's right forearm.
"Good job, Spellslave. Now, grab them."
Gwen muttered a quick spell and appeared 15 feet down the hall. Selene jerked her head around, saw Gwen, and ran toward her. Gwen raised her hands to cast another spell, but didn't get it out. Something clapped over her ears, and she sank into unconsciousness.
Gwen came to with a headache. Groaning, she opened her eyes. She was in a stone room. Ben was lying across the room, arms stretched to either side so he couldn't use the Omnitrix. Gwen got up, and was able to get halfway across the cell before her left leg refused to come forward. Child's play. I'll have both of us free in no time. She raised her hands and cast a simple unlocking spell.
Nothing happened. Gwen tried it again. Again, nothing. That was when she heard the snickering from her left. She turned to see Selene staring at her.
"You've never heard of a restrictor? Go ahead, take a look at your left hand."
Gwen looked. There was a metal glove attached to her left hand. As she watched, the glove tightened around her hand. Gwen hissed in pain as it contracted.
"See, that turns off your magic. You're just another worthless mortal with one of those on. Ta-ta, Red."
Gwen was furious. Neither she nor Ben could do anything to stop Hecate. Balling her hand up in a fist, she punched the wall of the cell. All that did was hurt her hand. While she was trying to dull the pain, something walked up to the cell door and pulled it off. It was the monster that had attacked her and Ben in her room, but it looked different. None of the tattoos that had been on it earlier were there now. It moved over to Ben, and a brown-haired girl of about 15 came over to her.
"You're Max's, I presume?"
"Yeah, but . . . who are you?"
"Blaise Alderwood. And, before you ask, it was either go back to being a teenager or get vaporized by Selene and her sisters. There we go."
Gwen felt the chain on her ankle and the restrictor fall off. At the same time, Ben woke up, aided by a light slap from the hulking monster. When his head cleared, he dove away, only to be stopped in mid-roll by Blaise.
"Easy, kid. He's on our side now."
"Oh. Sorry, uh . . . what's his name?"
"That's not important right now, Ben! We need to stop Hecate and Selene!"
It took some time for them to find their way through the underground. When they did come up on a large enough cavern to perform rituals, Blaise motioned for them to stop. She poked her head around the corner, and brought it back almost immediately.
"All right. We only need to take one of the sisters out. Without all three, the ritual won't do anything. Ben, we need speed right now. Got anything that can provide?"
"Sure. XLR8, coming right up!"
There was a flash of green light, and Ben was replaced by XLR8.
"See you guys once I'm done!"
XLR8 shot around the corner. The closest witch to him was the one with glasses. He sped towards her, hoping to drag her away, when he hit something. There was cold laughter coming from what looked like an iron statue. It moved, and he realized that he was grossly outnumbered.
"So, little hero, think you that you can disrupt the rebirth of a god? I think not!"
As she said this, the ground buckled and broke all around the cavern. A crack expanded near the iron-clad woman. The crack was filled with pure light. Strands of it arced up towards the iron woman. She caught it in her hands.
"Tonight sees a god rebo-"
She stopped talking. The energy began to bleed through her left side, arcing towards Selene. She licked her lips as the power bled into her.
"You really thought I was doing this for you? With you as a channel for the leyline, I'll be invincible! Bow down before Selene, new goddess of magic!"
Blaise, Gwen and the monster had rounded the corner just in time to hear Selene's self-proclamation of divinity. Blaise flicked her hands, shooting a fireball at Selene. She simply raised a finger, and the fireball dissipated. The returning blast dissolved Blaise. This is bad. Really bad. Before he could try anything else, the monster grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Boy and girls must go now. I do what need be done to stop."
XLR8 grabbed Gwen and began running. While he was moving, he grabbed Phoebe and Rachel. Selene was laughing, shooting bolts of eldritch energy at anything that moved. She was so preoccupied with XLR8 that she failed to notice the monster until it had gotten to Hecate. He grabbed her and dove into the crevasse of light. That got Selene's attention.
"NO!"
Before she could say anything else, the cavern began to rain down on top of her. She raised her hands and disappeared. XLR8 shot through the underground labyrinth, dodging debris until they got to the surface. He dropped Phoebe and Rachel at the mouth of the cave and kept running with Gwen until the Omnitrix timed out. They lay on the grass for a minute, until Ben decided to break the silence.
"So, no telling Grandpa about this?"
"Sure. I'd just as soon forget this whole thing ever happened. Wait, what's that in your hand?"
Ben held it up. It was the crystal Selene had used on Gwen.
"Give me that! It's kind of mine anyway."
"Sure. Too gaudy to keep as a souvenir. And remember, not a word to Grandpa Max."
I'm going away for a couple of months, so I won't be able to write for a while. While I'm gone, I'd like some input on the next couple stories. I have Chapters 6, 7 and 8(Tech Wars, Lost and Mint Condition, respectively) already lined up. What I'd like you, the readers, to do is arrange the three chapters after that. To help you do that, I'll give you overviews on all three:
Godhead: A god has awakened within one of Ben's enemies. Can Ben stop this dark deity from destroying the world, or will this be the end of the Earth as we know it?
Hyde and Seek: Gwen's friend Janet(who we meet in Lost) is being tested for an experimental serum that might let her walk again. However, a monster is terrorizing the lab, and all fingers point to the project leader. What is his dark secret, and is the serum the key to the answers?
Through the Looking Glass: When an extradimensional being comes after Gwen, it's up to Ben to stop it. And how better to stop it than to bring the being's archenemy to help?
Also, I'm having a little trouble naming the swamp monster alien from Chapter 3. Just can't figure out a name that sounds like Ben would have thought of it. Pitch your ideas, and I'll choose one from the entries. Winner gets a thousand points. Please post all chapter arrangements and alien names as reviews. Thanks in advance for all help given.