Chapter 11: In pursuit
THE NULL VOID
"Ben, they've taken her away"
Ben, who flew down from the ceiling of the hangar, transformed back into himself from Ultimate Big Chill and ran to where Kevin was standing.
"What?" said Ben frustrated; he hated it when the enemy got the best of him.
"Gwen, they've taken here with them, we need to go after them right now" said Kevin urgently.
"Oh my God, we need to tell the rest of the plumbers"
"There's no time for that, we'll lose them and we don't know where they're going"
Ben contemplated this for a while before nodding his head at Kevin. "Okay, let's go, we'll explain to them later" he said as he and Kevin ran back to the courtyard.
"Now, we need to find Cooper, so he can fly us there" said Ben as calmly as he could manage even though the panic was threatening to overwhelm him. He and Kevin searched frantically through the crowd of plumbers, criminals, prostitutes, and the fake warden running away and fighting with the law until Kevin, being slightly taller than Ben, spotted him trying to force a prisoner onto the ground. Kevin ran as fast as he could to Cooper.
"Cooper, we need to get out of here now, Gwen's been kidnapped by two of the escaped gangsters and we need to give chase right now".
Cooper with a shocked face, forced the criminal into the hands of another nearby plumber and said "Here, I need to go somewhere" and took off with Kevin, and Ben followed after them.
"Where did you guys land when you got here?" asked Kevin still running with Ben and Cooper.
"Just outside the teleporter beam" said Cooper.
"What?" said Kevin stopping immediately
"What's wrong?" asked Cooper
Kevin shook his head in alarm, "We can't get out of here then if you landed outside the teleporter beam".
"Why not?" asked Cooper.
"Because, It only goes one way, we can beam in but not out" said Ben remembering when he and Gwen came to the prison to find Kevin as a monster trying to get revenge on Morgg.
"Can't we go to the hangar and go around?".
"That'll take too long" said Kevin panicking; there was nothing more frustrating to him than being in a rush and having things to do that take too long…
EN ROUTE TO PLANET MECKA
Gwen struggled against the ropes binding her to a chair in a spaceship she didn't recognise. She had been kidnapped by Revenna when she threw a bomb at her in the Null Void courtyard along with a young prostitute that Igazi had kidnaped because she swallowed his golden money cube. Now she was bound up in the far corner of the ship, where she heard her captor having a heated argument about something.
"…All your fault, you didn't kill Kevin Eleven, and now once again because of your fuck ups, we'll be punished! I'm tired of your failures, it's not like you" said an angry Igazi
"It wasn't my duty to make sure someone killed him, you were told to bring his head back to Mecka, besides I've got his girlfriend, so he'll be back for her" said Revenna
"We're screwed, Revenna, 'Sir' will kill us for sure"
"It doesn't have to be that way" she said looking at him in the eyes, "We don't have to go back to him, look we've got the golden cube inside that whore" she pointed to the prostitute sitting in another chair. "This means we'll have all the money we want, forever".
"Don't be a stupid bitch, Revenna, Morgg will find us in a heartbeat, you know he hates traitors more than anything" he said slapping her hands off of his charred face.
"I can't do this anymore Igazi, I don't—
"What are you saying?" he interrupted "Choose your words wisely" he said in a dangerous tone.
She was about to respond but screamed out in pain and clutched her abdomen; she fell of her chair and lay crumpled in a ball on the cold floor of the ship. "Fuck, that bastard Morgg killed my insides" she yelled in pain.
"You deserve it, you failed him" said Igazi simply sitting on his chair and flying the ship, not even trying to help her.
Gwen tried with all her might to reach her plumber's badge inside her school satchel but the rope binding her was too tight. After struggling for a while, she wanted to give up but, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a jagged piece of metal sticking out of the stand where a fire hydrant was placed, but it was too far for her to reach with her body, but it was close enough for the other woman to reach.
"Pssst, hey, excuse me" she whispered to the terrified prostitute.
The woman just looked at her but didn't respond. "There is a piece of metal right next to you, try and cut your rope with it" she whispered. The young woman looked at the piece of metal and turned back to Gwen and shook her head at her.
"Ei can' doo eet , no!" she said in a thick accent and in broken English. Her entire body was literally shaking in fear.
"Why not? Asked Gwen still whispering. The woman just shook her head and tears started falling from her face; Gwen could see that she was way beyond afraid and that she felt hopeless; all the bravery she needed to carry out her work as a sex worker didn't prepare her for the bravery she needed right at that moment.
"What the fuck are you two talking about back there?" asked Revenna after stabbing herself with another needle. She stood up looking much better and out of pain and approached the two of them. Gwen looked away from her but she still didn't feel afraid of her. Revenna looked at the prostitute and then at Gwen; she lifted Gwen's face and observed her for a while.
"I don't know what Kevin sees in you, you're nothing but a plain, preppy girl. Daddy will be so worried about his little girl you when you don't come home won't he? That's what Kevin probably sees in you all the money you have, he just wants all the money you private school paying parents have, and your piece of ass". Gwen didn't look at Revenna but she tried to control her anger.
"Revenna get back in your seat, we'll be landing soon" said Igazi from the front of the ship.
Revenna looked one last time at Gwen and punched her in the face, and went to the prostitute and did the same thing, knocking them out both before taking her seat for landing…
THE NULL VOID PRISON
"What are we gonna do now, we can't stop or we'll lose them" said Ben still trying not to let panic get to him. Kevin covered his hands in his face in frustration before he thought of a plan.
"The warden" he said simply
"What about him? He's a fake" said Cooper.
"Yes but he'll know how to override the system so the teleporter will go both ways, stay here, I'm coming back" he said already sprinting away leaving a confused Ben and Cooper behind...
Kevin knew exactly where he might find the corrupt warden if he was trying to escape. He ran down to the mine shafts hidden to the plumbers until Morgg's arrest a while ago and pressed level '-1' on the elevator. When he got down he sprinted towards the hidden tunnel he used to escape the prison years ago with Kwarrel's help, and heard footsteps hurrying to get away. He absorbed the concrete wall and revealed himself to the fake fat warden.
"Freeze, don't take one more step imposter" he said behind the fake warden.
The warden turned around and fired a shot directly at Kevin but it only grazed him because of his absorption of the concrete.
"What are you?" he asked afraid now of Kevin's powers.
"I'm a human-osmosian plumber, Kevin Ethan Levin and you're coming with me, right now" he said advancing on the warden and taking his laser gun away. "Get moving"
After what felt like an eternity, Kevin arrived back to Ben and Cooper with the warden walking in front of him with his hands in the air and Kevin behind him pointing his gun at him.
"I found him in the underground tunnel where Morgg had prisoners mining drugs again" said Kevin to Ben and Cooper.
"Now, let us out of here" he said threateningly to the fake warden.
"You can't do that, It only goes one way" he said spitefully.
"Why do you think we brought you here?" asked Kevin, "Now do it"
"You guys are plumbers, I know you won't shoot me" said the fake warden feeling confident.
Kevin fired a shot at him with the wardens own gun he had confiscated from him and it hit him in the foot with a single BANG! echoing through he halls, and the fake warden howled in pain; even Ben and Cooper didn't think he would do it.
"Kevin, we can't shoot criminals unless they're going to kill us, you're going too far" said Cooper by the book.
"DO YOU THINK I CARE? I'M TIRED OF THESE GANGSTERS RUINING MY LIFE AND WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW" yelled Kevin, letting out all the anger and frustration he had been harboured for a while.
"Get going" he yelled to the warden who limped to the control desk in pain and took out a card from his pocket and ran it through the scanner. Immediately, the teleporter beam lit up.
"It's working let's go" said Ben as all three young plumbers stood on the platform and the teleporter beamed them outside.
"There's the ship" said Ben but Cooper stopped them.
"No let's take my ship, it's smaller and faster than the bigger plumber ships" he said pointing to a ship a distance away.
They ran to the ship and immediately got to action. Cooper fired up the ship and blasted a hole in the dimension of the Null Void prison to get them out. Once they were out, they rocketed out of Earth's orbit and into space. Once there Cooper tried to locate the ship that Igazi was flying.
"Can we get a signal from their ship?" asked Ben.
"I'm trying to isolate it to find it; there are millions of other ships flying in this universe and I need to find the right one".
"We'll hurry up, they could be torturing her by now, or they could necklace her because she's a plumber!" said Kevin frustrate again.
"I'm trying; I can't fly and try to find their ship".
"Give me the wheel" said Kevin standing next to Cooper who took off his seatbelt and walked to the giant radar screen.
"Guys I know that we're stressed but we need to calm down, so we can think rationally, of which I just did" he said only then thinking of a brilliant idea.
"What is it?" asked Kevin and Cooper at the same time.
"We can track her through her plumber's badge, unlike Kevin who left his behind so we couldn't track him, Gwen has hers with her".
They both looked at Ben with extreme delight.
"Tennyson, I could kiss you right now" said Kevin enthusiastically.
"Yeah, me too" said Ben displaying his ego. After getting the coördinates from Kevin and Cooper's plumber's badge, they finally found where she was heading.
"There, it is, but it looks like the ship that her kidnappers landed on, is in empty space" said Cooper.
"Yes, it's the hidden planet that I asked you to find for us, do you still have its location?" asked Ben.
"Yes, and I know exactly how we're going to get inside" said Cooper confidently. But before anyone could say anything else, someone appeared on Cooper's screen. It was Helen and she looked like a woman on a mission.
"Guys, everyone here at the plumber's academy is buzzing about a raid that you're carrying out at the Null Void prison". She said to them.
"Yes, but we're not there anymore, were actually on our way to get some of the gangsters right now" said Ben.
"I want in, I want to help" she said sounding determined. They all looked at each other reluctantly before Ben said "Helen, this is dangerous and you're still a rookie".
"These people killed my brother in the most merciless way and I want to help take them down" she said ready to start a fight with them if they refused her.
"Then you know that you can't do this because it's too personal, and it might interfere with your professionalism, this isn't about revenge" said Cooper.
"Too late, I'm already behind you guys" she said and they all looked at the radar screen to find her ship flying behind them. They couldn't argue with her anymore because she wasn't about to listen to them but they had to keep an eye on her so she didn't get consumed by her anger and thirst for revenge…