Chapter 10: The Null Void breakdown
"Revenna?"
He tried walking to her and not surprisingly, the plumber let him do so after he uncuffed his hands. Revenna stood up slowly and leaned against the wall when she saw Kevin approach her. Kevin noticed that she didn't look much like herself; her unfocused red eyes looked up and down at him. She looked like she was in pain.
"Kevin Eleven, you thought that you could escape from us without paying the price and now the universe hates you" she said smiling up at him.
Kevin let his anger get the best of him as he closed his hand around Revenna's neck and pushed her head against the wall. "You and that gang of yours have ruined my life for the last time" he said to her.
"You look so good, I miss you, why you around aren't anymore baby?" she said placing her hand on his shoulder of which he smacked off, she looked delusional; like she was hallucinating or stoned. Suddenly, she let out a yelp of pain and clutched her lower abdomen, and scrunched her eyes in pain of which Kevin let go of her neck.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked surprised.
"Don't pretend like you give a shit about me when I know you don't, you never gave a shit about me before, so why start now?" she said taking out a syringe from her small utility bag and stabbing it in her pelvis.
"Officer what's going on here, why is she allowed in the men's section of the prison and why have you casually uncuffed me?" asked Kevin.
"None of your business now get moving" said the plumber.
This definitely confirmed what Kevin thought; the prison was corrupted by his old gang, and as he walked inside the courtyard, the sight of humans and aliens, some of whom were memebrs of the gang and some real criminals of the Null Void, enjoying themselves reminded him of the home planet of the 'Futha gang'. It definitely didn't look like a prison.
Some were gambling, drinking, playing loud music, having stabbing fights, tattooing each other. Most of the inmates were surrounded by scantily clad women from all over the universe; stuffing money into their underwear, bras and anywhere they had, and getting high on whatever they were inhaling, and all of them looked like they were selling themselves as services to the criminal all winked, smirked and flashed themselves at Kevin when he walked past. It made him feel sick looking at their exploitation. The level of corruption at the prison, he thought must have been brought about by Morgg himself.
The plumber led a uncuffed Kevin into the very middle of the courtyard, and turned him around to face the direction of a man standing on top of a table. Kevin didn't even need him to turn around for Kevin to see who it was. He was however grateful, that he wasn't at his mother's house and wanted revenge on him personally.
Igazi turned around and looked at the large crowd mixed with both criminals and gangsters, then looked directly at Kevin.
"Kevin, I see that you've been arrested like Revenna and me, for robbing planet 'Shayana'."I just wonder where the video footage came from that implicated you?..."
Kevin didn't even entertain it, he knew it was him and that Igazi was looking for revenge for escaping but he was ready for it.
"I've been told to ask you if you would join our gang one last time, so I'm asking best friend" he said jumping down and stepping closer to Kevin."Are you in or are you out?".
Kevin did not hesitate. "I'm out, I've been out and will stay out for good, forever" he said confidently.
Igazi stared at Kevin then walked back to the table and stood on top of it again. "inmates of the Null Void, I have with me here a suitcase of one solid piece of a gold cube from my boss, it has an unlimited amount of money loaded onto it from every planet in this universe, and it's tax-free" he said opening the suitcase and displaying a single cube that resembled the one he got from the Luodands' only it was much bigger.
"The first one to kill Kevin Eleven and bring his head to me, will get this cube…"
GWEN'S SCHOOL
After school, Ben drove up to Gwen's school in the upper middle class neighbourhood in Bellwood where her school was situated and tried to find her in the crowd of preppy students exiting the school. After searching for a while, he identified her a short distance away by her fiery red ponytail hair, wheeling her friend Emily out of the school gates and chatting.
"Hey, Gwen, can I talk to you, real quick?" he called out to her from his car parked on the street adjacent to the school.
Gwen looked in his direction and wheeled her friend towards the car but Emily took over and wheeled herself away after shooting Ben a nasty look.
"What do you want Ben?" she asked approaching him at his window.
"Erm lets just go for a drive for now please, I want to talk about Kevin"
After she sighed a tired sigh, she got into the car and he sped off with her. "What is it now?" she asked
"Kevin's been denied bail but we have to get him out, right now"
"It's called crime and punishment Ben"
"Can you at least pretend that you care about him for one second?" yelled Ben
"I do care about him, how can you even say that to me?" said Gwen stung.
"We'll you don't act like it, he's been counting on you to not give up on him and here you are going back to school like nothing's happened".
Gwen looked out the window for a while before replying to her cousin. "I was going to marry him, Kevin I mean"
"What?" asked Ben
"He proposed to me, after we found him in the Los Soledad desert, I said yes to him, we were both very emotional that night, it's the reason that I left home, because I showed my parents the ring he gave me"
"Oh my God, I never knew, what happened now?"
"I gave it back to him when he was arrested. I gave up my family, my friends, my grades for him, and he couldn't even tell me that he helped his former gang steal weapons for a gang fight"
"I'm so sorry Gwen but whatever's going on between the two of you has to be put aside for now, because something's going on with Kevin and that gang of his, that we don't have the full story of."
"Kevin and I said that we would never allow our relationship to interfere in our plumber work, but I guess it was inevitable"
"So, does that mean you'll help me?"
"I have karate later, but I can see that something's bothering you"
"Yes, it's the Galvin holding station where they're keeping Kevin; I don't have a good feeling about that place"
"Why what happened?"
"I don't really know, but the plumber there gave me a look that didn't say 'I love you Ben Ten' like all my other fans, straight after telling me that he was one of my biggest fans!" said Ben.
Gwen rolled her eyes "Okay so there's something wrong with him because he's no longer your biggest fan?"
"Not just that, he was wearing something around his neck, something shiny, and we know that when were on duty, especially in our uniforms, we can't wear any jewellery or anything that isn't part of the uniform"
"Something shiny? Like a necklace or a chain?"
Ben looked away deep in thought about what he might have seen or whether he had seen it before, until… it dawned on him. The no bail, the nasty look the fact that he didn't recognise the plumber and he wasn't wearing rookie clothing.
"Gwen, I think that Kevin might be in danger, we need to get to the Galvin station now" he said already heading in another direction and speeding off to Kevin's garage in the Bellwood city to the Rustbucket II spaceship.
'What do you mean, how do you know?"
"Don't you remember that day in Prosperity City, where we ran into Kevin's gang; do you remember what they were wearing around their necks?"
Gwen gasped as she realised just what Ben was talking about, she just hoped that they were mistaken...
THE GALVIN HOLDING STATION
They both ran into the station throwing their space protection suits off and heading to the reception area. Ben, who got there first yelled out of breath at the receptionist.
'Ma'am, I'm Ben Tennyson and I believe that one of the plumbers here is an imposter" yelled Ben out of breath.
The bewildered receptionist shot him a surprised look, 'Please Mr Tennyson, calm down, I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"When I came here to visit Kevin Levin, I spotted one of the plumbers acting suspiciously, and I think he might be out to get Kevin"
"I must tell you that we do not have any imposters here, and you don't have to worry about your friend, he was transferred last night"
Ben and Gwen looked at each other anxiously. "Do you know where they took him ma'am?" asked Gwen politely
'The Null Void Prison, the warden received a letter instructing him to transfer him there"
Ben and Gwen looked at her in shock and she was taken aback by their expressions. While Gwen ran back to the Rustbuckett and picking up her helmet for air, Ben stayed behind for a few seconds.
"Ma'am, please may I ask you to stay here and not talk to the warden about us anymore, we believe that he could be a criminal posing as a warden". The shocked look on her face reassured Ben that she would follow his instructions. He ran after Gwen into the Rustbuckett and towards the Null Void prison but before that they decided to stop over somewhere else, if their suspicions were correct, they needed more help.
THE NULL VOID PRISON
The inmates of the Null Void prison looked at the suitcase with their mouths hanging; they had never seen such riches before in their lives. They all turned toward Kevin and one by one looked at him hungrily with their greedy eyes. Kevin, sticking out amongst the inmates as he was the only one not wearing a prison outfit, saw that he was completely outnumbered by at least a few hundred to one. He slowly backed away but this only made the criminals charge after him all at once. "LET'S GO!"
A few hundred people came running at him which sent the prostitutes out of harm's way, and took out their weapons and started swinging knives, whips, and all sorts of dangerous weapons at him. One of the first aliens to reach Kevin, swung a steel knife at him of which Kevin grabbed his wrist to stop him and touched the steel to absorb it, and punched him away. Slowly, the criminals kept coming at him with weapons trying to kill, maim and hurt him. Kevin knew that he couldn't keep this up for ever, but he couldn't make his way out of the attacking crowd. Luckily he wouldn't need to as a loud 'BANG!' rang through the courtyard. All the criminals including Kevin turned to see who had fired the gunshot.
"EVERYONE FREEZE WHERE YOU ARE" yelled Magister Ghalil from the entrance of the courtyard holding a laser gun pointing in the air, alongside him was, to Kevin's relief, Ben, Gwen, Cooper and an entire army of plumbers.
The entire courtyard seemed to explode with chaos as criminals, instead of obeying orders, ran for their luck, whilst some remained behind to try and fight off the real plumbers. Even the prostitutes, fake plumbers and the fake warden scrambled away.
The real plumbers, including Magister Ghalil, ran after all the criminals trying to escape and fighting any of them who attacked. Igazi tried to pick up the suitcase containing the golden cube but had to fight off chance taking criminals who tried taking it from him. He got frustrated and pulled out his gun and started shooting at anyone who came near him. Slowly as gunshots were being fired and bodies were dropping, Kevin tried to make his way through the chaotic crowd towards his friends avoiding Igazi's firing shots. Unfortunately for Igazi while shooting off criminals around him, one of the prostitutes managed to seize the case from his arm, swallow the cube and make a run for it. As soon as Igazi noticed, he ran after her.
"Humongousaur!" came Ben as Kevin reached them.
"Ben we need to go after that Creep" said Kevin pointing to Igazi running after a woman in front of him.
"Okay, Gwen, Cooper, you two try and keep the criminals from escaping, there are various ships in the hangar that they can use to escape, and we can't let that happen, Kevin and I will go after that gangster" said Ben in his deep dinosaur voice.
Before Kevin ran off after Igazi, he glanced at Gwen who returned his look. But there was no time in that moment to say anything to each other. He reluctantly looked away from her as she ran with Cooper and he ran and joined Ben in his pursuit of Igazi.
"Perfect timing" came Kevin catching up to Ben.
"Like always" said Humongousaur.
They both carried on running until they almost caught up with Igazi, and Humongousaur swung his giant tail at Igazi who jumped up, avoiding it. An angry humongousaur smashed the ground whilst still running after Igazi which broke the floor, tripping Igazi a few steps ahead of them and he fell to the ground finally.
"Useless, pieces of shit, you can't do anything to me" Igazi said trying to get up.
He took out a gun and fired several shots at Kevin and Ben, who avoided the bullets by zigzagging around. Ben and Kevin were closing in on Igazi but before they could reach for him, Igazi finally grabbed the sex worker running away from him and pulled her in front of him. She screamed as Igazi forced the barrel of his gun inside her mouth.
"Don't come any closer Kevin Eleven, or I'll blow her brains out of her head" he said backing away.
"Ben stop!" said Kevin stretching out his arm to stop Ben as Humongousaur from going any further.
They both looked at Igazi as Ben turned back into himself, Igazi had a sadistic look on his face.
"It's just like all of you people isn't it, so may weaknesses, why are you willing to let me go to protect this whore, she's not a good girl at all is she, she's also a thief like me, you're all pathetic" he said shaking the woman with his free hand; tears were sliding down her face and she probably looked for the first time like an innocent woman.
He continued backing away from them and, when Ben flinched involuntarily towards his ultimatrix, Igazi pushed the barrel of the gun a further inside the prostitute's mouth and the woman looked like she was choking.
"Igazi stop please, we'll let you go if you just give her to us" begged Kevin seeing the frightened look on the woman's face.
"Unfortunately, she has something of mine inside of her and I need it back".
"She's a human being, not some of your cargo" said Ben trying to reason with him.
"Save your guilt tripping for someone with a heart, your making me sick, now if you come after me, I'll kill her" he said throwing the woman over his back.
Igazi turned around and ran with her on his back while Ben and Kevin stood helplessly watching furiously as Igazi made his way to the exit of the Null Void.
"Ben which one of your aliens can go invisible?" said Kevin desperately but before Ben could answer an explosion went off in the crowd of criminals caught in the chaos and they were both knocked off their feet. After getting back up, the courtyard was a mess of people trying to make sense of what just happened when… Kevin saw Cooper lying on the ground and Gwen, still conscious, being carried away on Revenna's back who had somehow gained her strength back and no longer looked in pain.
"KEVIN!" she screamed trying to fight Revenna off but her annodite powers weren't working on Revenna. Kevin felt his heart being pulled from his chest as he realised that Gwen was being taken away. He had no time to think, he just ran as fast as he could after Revenna who broke into a fast run, still in her pencil thin high heels, seeing Kevin after her. Kevin found it difficult to run as fast as he could through the large crowd some of who were also trying to get out of the prison and the plumbers who were trying to stop them.
Revenna ran left, out of the crowd, and towards the outside hangar and Kevin continued running after her and absorbed the concrete walls of the prison and broke pieces of the concrete of the walls and tried aiming them at Revenna's head. Gwen was still putting up a fight, trying to kick her or get herself loose enough to slip off of his back but he held onto her even tighter. "Let me go!" she said struggling against her captor.
Kevin decided last-minute not to throw the concrete slabs at Revenna in fear that he might hurt Gwen.
"GET BACK HERE REVENNA"he yelled after her
"Why don't you come and get me first, baby" she said to him still running in front of him.
Revenna made it to the hangar of the Null Void prison where Igazi was about to take off and Kevin saw Ben as Ultimate Big Chill flying towards the spaceship that Igazi was about to fly off in, with the woman he kidnapped inside the ship.
"C'mon, Revenna, let's go!" Igazi yelled after her, as she carried on running with Kevin almost on top of her, so she threw more bombs behind her which exploded as they hit the ground, slowing Kevin down to try and dodge them.
As Revenna made it onto the ship and closed the doors, Ultimate Big Chill blew fire from his breath that immediately froze the entire hangar, trapping the ship inside. But Igazi fired up the engine, which melted and broke off from the ice and the ship smashed out of the roof and took off in lightning speed, with a frustrated Ben and Kevin exclaiming out loud in anger. The 'Futha gang' had kidnapped his girlfriend and had another hostage with them, and he didn't know where they were headed…