Chapter 4
"Don't you have any idea where they might have gone?" Young Ben whined for the eighth time, resting his head between his arms on the table. Since taking off, the van had been driving in circles. The few hints they'd gotten on the others' location proved useless as the whispers they'd heard mentioned them disappearing in the blink of an eye. And to make it worse, the older Benjamin and his friend had refused to explain anything until the others were found. Boredom and impatience were two things Ben got quick and couldn't tolerate and he was feeling both of them now.
"For the last time, NO!" Benjamin snapped, staring irritably at the ceiling. "The only ways we can track each other are through the communicators or through mental abilities of allies who aren't here. Of the four of us, Danny is the only one who sense anything and even he can only sense ghosts."
"What are these mental tracking abilities?" Gwen asked curiously, pulling her view away from the window for but a split second. "Are they magic?"
"Yep." Roxas nodded. "The ability to sense people's energy signature is possessed by two of us, one using magical version and the other using a Ki manipulation related one, and the third is telepathic. Though that ability also comes from her unique magic."
"Then there's Danny's less useful ability I mentioned before and another one of us has a magical pair of glasses that allow the wearer to see their future." Benjamin added. "But again, they're all in the future. It's too bad Namine's not here, her powers would be the most... that's it!" His eyes alight with realisation and excitement, Benjamin whipped his head towards Roxas. "Yours and Namine's powers at the most basic level are the same, right? So if she could develop her powers to alter the mind, you should be able to too!"
"Why didn't you just do that before then?" Ben asked exasperatedly, throwing his arms into the air as everyone, minus Max, stared pointed at the blond.
"It's not that easy." Roxas responded defensively, raising his hands. "Namine was born with her abilities the way they are. She and I do use the same type of magic in its basic form and thanks to our connection we can amplify each others' powers, but that doesn't mean that we are capable of using each others' abilities ourselves. The way our powers developed is still unique to each of us."
"Yeah, but it's magic and I've seen you going over spell books before." Benjamin replied rationally. "Your powers are adaptable right? You can learn to focus magic in a different way. I mean, you're not Jake or Rai who only have set abilities. Yours is more like magic in its raw form, the only boundaries to it being that it's the powers of light. Similar Gwen's."
"I thought your magic blades were what gave you your power." Gwen commented.
"No, it's only part of my power, though an extremely important part." Roxas muttered, frowning deeply in thought as he stared at the ground. "You might be right Benjamin. Namine mentioned that a living spell book told her there was much greater depths to her abilities at that wizards school, so it would make sense that it would be the same for me."
"The Freight Knight mentioned you having enormous hidden power too, according to Rai." Benjamin added, only to feel guilty when Roxas flinched at the memory. "Sorry."
"It's ok." Roxas shook his head, calming himself down. "Let's just see if this works." Closing his eyes, he racked his brain on how to do it. He'd talked to all the other Guardians about their sensing or telepathic abilities before, but didn't have a clue how to duplicate them. The only way that even seemed possible to him was when he was going over Gwen's...
"Maybe that'll work." He stated loudly, making everyone jump before turning to Gwen. "Could I borrow your spell book?"
"Um, ok sure." Gwen mumbled confusedly, pulling the small book out of her pocket.
"Thanks." Roxas said gratefully as he took it and quickly flipped through it. "Let's see, I know it's in here, but was it before shape shifting or after the transference spell?"
"He knows about the spells in my book?" Gwen asked, raising her eyebrow suspiciously at the older version of her cousin. Benjamin just grinned in response.
"Yep. You're the one who gave him the concept of spells."
"Found it!" Roxas cried triumphantly, settling on a page depicting a couple of figures with varying colours surrounding them. "It's not exactly what we want, but it's as close as I'm gonna get to sensing anytime soon and it's worth a try."
"And what is it exactly?" Max asked curiously over his shoulder while Ben just shot him a look of uncaring impatience.
"An aura spell." Roxas answered as he drew forth some of his power, his hands glowing white. "Ostendo sum aura, LIGHT!" The glow around his hands disappeared as light flashed from his eye, blinding everyone in the van and making Max thankful that they'd already stopped at a red light. As the pain receded and they were finally able clear their vision of white spots, Benjamin, Ben and Gwen turned to glare at Roxas, only to find him with a victorious smile on his face and a gentle, white glow covering his eyes.
"It worked." He cried triumphantly, laughing in sheer joy. "And thanks to the nature of my powers, even better than the book states. Not only can I see how good a person you are, I can see the exact balance between darkness and light and every ripple and alteration that comes with even the slightest movement or emotion. This is so cool! I can even see the alterations caused by powers. I don't know what's more amazing, that Gwen looks like she's made of magic or the various powers flooding through the Bens from the Omnitrix. There's so many I can even differentiate between them. Actually, I'm gonna stop look at you two, it's giving me a headache."
"Serves you right for blinding us." Ben stated irritably, rubbing his eyes again. "And as cool as that sounds, how does seeing our auras help find your friends exactly?"
"I'm not just seeing the four of you." Roxas grinned, staring around the walls of the van. "I'm seeing the auras of everyone in the area, even people outside my usual field of vision. The downside is that I can't see anything but auras, so if I walk around I'll bump into everything, walls included, but I can see everything far beyond..." His head snapped up at that moment, frowning as he stared at the ceiling to his left. "That is definitely Danny. I'd say about one and a half kilometres away."
"Got it." Max stated, making a quick turn the second the lights changed and tossing everyone bar himself and Roxas, the only two wearing seatbelts, to the floor.
"How can you tell?" Gwen asked, her confusion evident as she pulled herself back onto her seat, rubbing her back tenderly. "I know it's very different for you, seeing as all I ever saw was a few colours hovering around people, but I could only ever tell who I was looking at because I could still see their faces."
"Danny's aura is mixed with ectoplasmic energy, making it very unique." Roxas answered, craning his neck as he followed Danny's movements. "It gives off both the warmth of a good person, but is eerie at the same time. Plus, if that's not enough, it's a single aura up in the sky. Even a helicopter will usually have two people."
"Well, you can't argue with that." Ben said quickly, before any opposing opinions could be given. "Hit the pedal to the metal Grampa." Benjamin just chuckled at himself as Gwen sighed. Humouring the boy, Max picked up the speed and drove on, keeping one ear out for Roxas' directions.
...
Only the boys' determination to discover the identity of their target prevented Albedo's cover from being blown by that point. Crimson eyes glared heatedly at a smaller computer in the bridge as he scanned the Earth for a ghost on a rampage.
Since the arrival of the monk and the dragon had arrived, the trio had put all of their focus in the ghost files in the archives and had left 'Ben' to scan the Earth for attacks. They ignored his presence so much that he could have continued his work without them having a clue if he was the one on the main computer, so his facade had quickly slipped from his face.
Of all times for evil to take a lunch break, they choose now. Albedo scowled, still finding nothing. If I don't get rid of them soon, either the big brute will get impatient or these do-gooders will discover my plan.
It appeared that fate decided to give him a break as at that exact moment, a beeping came from the system. Finally! Putting the emotional mask back on, he quickly turned to the others.
"Guys, there's an attack in progress in Colorado." Albedo cried, bringing the situation up on the main screen. Replacing the file of Technus was a perfect view of Technorg tossing a car into a building before slamming his fist into the ground, laughing as he unearthed blue crystals.
"That is not the guy we're after. He's still alive." Raimundo commented before flinching as a ragged guy with a long, bloody slash down his leg was tossed away like a rag doll. "That had to hurt. Only the homeless would try to steal crystal from someone like that."
"We better move, his minions are getting in on the action." Jake stated as a swarm of shrimps in black and armed with pick axes charged into the scene.
"Right." Gohan nodded, tossing off his weighted cloak as he turned to 'Ben'. "We'll deal with them. You keep trying t figure out what happened."
"You got it. Be careful." Albedo called as convincingly as he could as they flew out the door. Cackling lowly as the door closed, he shut down the files completely and brought his work back up. "It won't be long now." He sneered as he bypassed the last of the Russian military base's firewalls.
...
Benjamin wasn't sure what bothered him more, constantly fly off of his seat or Ben's complaining. Everything minute or so, Roxas would give another shout and Max would instantly change direction. He was constantly countering his directions like a child who would constantly head for one ride, only to decide they wanted to ride another halfway there.
Not that he could blame the bond. Danny was clearly trying to find them and searching everywhere. And the resulting strain on Roxas wasn't pretty. His veins were growing very noticeable at his temples thanks to all the warping, blurred colours that kept crossing his vision and with the speed and positions he was constantly twisting his neck into, he was going to be in a lot of pain very shortly.
"AGH! This is ridiculous. Would the guy just stay still already?" Ben cried for the umpteenth time. "I mean, he could at least fly in circles so we could find a place to meet him. How is he expecting you to find him, by growing wings?"
"DUH! Why didn't I think of that?" Benjamin cried, hitting his forehead before moving the hand to the Omnitrix. "I'll bring him down."
"In that case, he just moved behind us. Mr Tennyson, please just park somewhere." Roxas grunted, rubbing his head and dropping it as the energy left his eyes. "And someone pass me some aspirin. I can't take this anymore."
Smiling sympathetically through the rear view mirror, Max parked in the first available space and cut the ignition before heading to the medical cabinet.
"I'll be back in a minute." Benjamin stated as he activated the Omnitrix and brought up the hologram of his winged form before turning a smirk to Ben. "I think you'll get a kick out of this one." With that he pushed the Omnitrix back down and in a flash of green, a crimson, humanoid stingray appeared in his place. "Jetray!"
"Whoa! That looks so cool." Ben cried excitedly. "I get to turn into that? What can he do?"
"Just watch." Jetray grinned. Opening the door, he shot into the air faster than anyone could see.
"Cool! He's almost as fast as Xlr8. Only he can fly."
Closing his eyes, Jetray took a moment to simply enjoy the air rushing past his face before shooting off in the direction Roxas gave him. It didn't take him long to find Danny zigzagging through the air.
"Come on, where are th-AH!" Danny cried, turning to find a red face with plain, green eyes staring holes into his head.
"You know, you make it very difficult to actually reach you for someone who's trying to meet up with us." Jetray commented emotionlessly before cracking into a mischievous grin. "And after the pain you've put Roxas through, remind me not to stand between you two. I don't want a light javelin up my backside."
"Wha... how could I have caused him pain?" Danny asked confusedly, his hands reflexively moving to protect his butt.
"Come on, I'll explain on the way." Jetray replied, turning back the way he came with a now invisible Danny following behind him.
...
Kim looked up as an old, unimpressive van rolled into the area, recognising it immediately as Max's rust bucket. Panicking at the sight, she jumped to her feet and was about to swing away on tree branches before a certain white haired boy phased right through the front, his face filled with terror as he hid behind Kim.
"Danny? What's wrong? Did something happen?" Kim asked worriedly, her head turning back to look at him while the rest of her body dropped into a defensive stance.
"Let's just say if you ever feel like giving someone a headache the size of Godzilla, make sure you're wearing really thick padding. And earplugs." Danny quivered as the van stopped, letting the others out. His whimpering turned into a full on scream as Roxas left the van, still rubbing his temples, causing Kim to jump in surprise, the Bens and Max to chuckle, Gwen to roll her eyes and Roxas to grab his head and clench his eyes before sending the half dead hero a look that could have finished the job.
"What's going on?" Kim asked, raising an expectant eyebrow towards Benjamin. "And by that I mean why are they here and why is Danny terrified of Roxas? Roxas would have to be the calmest and most harmless guy on the team."
"In order, they would have followed us anyway, they were too excited or suspicious not too, and Roxas figured out how to see people's auras and use them to find people and found Danny's but our hybrid's constant, changing movements resulted in Roxas gaining a migraine and neck pain." Benjamin answered, chuckling the whole time.
"And the whole trip back, we've been making him think that blondy had been promising all different ways of hurting him. His silent glares helped out too." Ben added, laughing loudly. However, a hand was placed almost instantly over his mouth and looking up, he found it came from his older self.
"It was fun and funny, but we better can the noise now. If you cause Roxas much more pain, I might cease to exist if you know what I mean."
"Ok, fun's over and you're all together now." Gwen called, getting everyone's attention. "Can we get an explanation now?"
...
"Wow, this is so cool." Ben cried, jumping up from his seat, his fists held high. "I'll be responsible for stopping an army invading the entire planet. Am I the best or what?"
"Partially responsible." Benjamin corrected calmly, bringing Ben back down. "And I hate to break it to you, but there were one or two others at that castle that are stronger than me."
"Guess you're not all powerful after all dweeb." Gwen smirked as he rounded on her.
"Hey, at least I made the greatest team on Earth. I don't see your future self rubbing elbows with the greats."
"Actually, Lucky Girl is the most powerful female member of the team." Kim cut in, causing Ben to turn to her slack jawed and Gwen to grin cockily. "She's our most powerful and unpredictable magic user. About as strong as Danny here."
"Though in the group that's not saying much." Danny admitted with a shrug. "Most of us are around my level. Gohan's the only one who exceeds my power by an actually noticeable amount."
"What makes him so tough?" Max asked, rubbing his chin. "I can't think of anyone who'd have much more power than Ben other than Vilgax. With so many different transformations, it's hard to find anyone who can outdo him."
"Grandma could." Benjamin smiled, getting a gasp from the other three Tennysons. "A woman who's made of magic and knows how t use it. Even with three against one, we couldn't come close to beating her."
"Wow, Grandma's a sorceress like Gwen?" Ben asked slowly. "So is that how this go guy is so much better than me? Because he's like Grandma?"
"Oh no, Gohan doesn't have a drop of magic in his body." Benjamin answered, shaking his head. "Gohan's half human and half Saiyan, a warrior race."
"SAIYANS are on EARTH?" Max yelled, jumping to his feet. "They'll end all life as we know it."
"Don't worry, the Saiyans on Earth only fight to protect the planet, not destroy it." Danny said reassuringly. "And Gohan would have to be the gentlest person you'll ever meet off the battlefield."
"Well, now that Ben's need to discover what 'greatness' the future has in store for him has been dealt with, how about we move on to why you're here?" Gwen asked as Max sat back down. "I mean, is there something you needed to change or something? Is Ben about to screw something up?"
"Hey, who says whatever it is isn't your fault? After all. How often do your spells actually do anything good?" Ben snapped, getting right up in Gwen's face, resulting in a glaring contest.
"Um, are we sure we're actually talking to Ben and Gwen Tennyson?" Kim asked, staring at the arguing duo amusedly. "They sure don't act like you guys."
"No kidding. You two are like best friends, not an old, married couple." Danny nodded in agreement as he turned to Benjamin.
"Us best friends?" Ben and Gwen cried simultaneously before turning their noses in opposite directions. "Never!"
"Yeah, that's us." Benjamin nodded, chuckling at the sight. "We've grown up a lot."
"Ok guys, enough messing around." Max ordered, putting the cousins' argument to rest and gaining everyone's attention. "We need you four back to your time before something happens to negatively alter history irreversibly. So why did you come back anyway?"
"Freak accident." The group looked up to find Roxas coming out of the trees. The blond had taken off in search of silence before and it looked like it did him good. His headache had finally disappeared and the death glare had left his face. "A molecular displacer's blast mixed with raw magic."
"That's not good." Max mumbled, resting his hand on his fist. "So I guess you guys have no way of getting home."
"Nope." Danny sighed. "I could have taken us to see Clockwork, but my parents haven't made our family's ghost portal yet and natural portals open and close randomly and don't last very long."
"I have a transformation that can alter time and space, but I can't control the form. It has two extra minds that always bicker with me and each other." Benjamin sighed, staring down at his watch.
"My portals don't cross time." Roxas muttered, making his hand glow. "And my knowledge of magic doesn't come close to Gwen's. But I guess that's expected, seeing as I'm technically not even two years old yet. Don't ask." He added, seeing the confused looks of Gwen, Ben and Max coming his way. "You won't believe the story anyway. Just wait for the even to happen in five years."
"Hmm, speaking of Gwen." Benjamin muttered, staring down at her ten year old version with a calculative look. "Your adult self once took us to the future. Did you ever find the spell for the time portal?"
"No. It's not in my spell book." Gwen replied sadly. "I must get it from another."
"Like maybe the book Hex stole from the museum when we first met him?" Ben asked. "You were ecstatic to see that pile of old scrap paper."
"Of course!" Gwen stated excitedly, jumping right out of her seat. "The Archamada Book of Spells! It contains all of the most powerful spells from the middle ages. It has to be in there."
"Too bad 'there' is in the hands of Hex." Benjamin stated, effectively killing the mood. "Who knows where he hid that book."
"Then we'll just have to head to a Plumbers base." Max decided, shocking everyone. "If alien tech had a part in bringing you here, than alien tech may have a part in your return home."
"Well, that's better than doing nothing." Danny agreed, getting to his feet. "Let's go."
"Oh man!" Ben sighed, sagging as everyone headed towards the van. "I was hoping they'd stick around for a while and kick more bad guy butt. I at least wanted to see how cool I've become."
"Get real dweeb, the longer they're here, the more damage is done to their timeline." Gwen said irritably. "Who knows exactly how much their presence has affected alread-"
"GET DOWN!" Kim screamed, pushing the kids to the ground just as a green energy arrow struck the van. When the resulting explosion and dust of the impacting disappeared, it revealed a large, burning hole in the side of the vehicle.
"Ok, that wasn't supposed to happen." Benjamin said calmly, suppressing his worry. Turning back to where the blast came from, he tensed at the sight of at least forty warriors, all of them clad in green ninja robes and either carrying metal staffs like bows or riding hover boards made of the same material. The one right in front, the biggest and dangerous one of the lot, wearing a cape and what was clearly the skull of a dragon, took a firm step forward and raised his staff high, the top glowing a menacing green.
"Magical creature, prepare to meet you end."