Part one of the Alien Abduction arc. The rest will follow in a later chapter.
Chapter 14: The Paradox of Regret
The figure casually flips open his watch and then puts it away and then replies in his scholarly manner, "Mr. Wren I assume."
Holden turns around quickly and the man smiles and replies, "It's been some time since we last met."
Holden has a confused look on his face and responds in a bewildered voice, "Last met? I don't know who you are."
The man then says with a small laugh, "Quite right, my boy. This is your first meeting with me, but not mine, with you. You have been a massive help to Ben against Vilgax and his plan to make the Ultramatrix inoperable…Well you will be soon."
Holden scratches his head in confusion and comments, "Who are you?"
The man smiles and responds, "My name is Professor Paradox. I'm a time traveler like yourself, but I exist outside of time."
Holden nods and then asks inquisitively, "Do you need me to do something for you, Professor Paradox? From the sounds of it, you have a task that you know I have done; only I haven't even done it yet."
Paradox hands Holden a note and then replies, "Your task is explained in the note. I will meet you at City Station when you have collected all the items."
Paradox disappears in a flash of light. Holden opens the note to see what he has to do. The first item that he needed to obtain was the giant rubber bands ball.
At least it wouldn't be a waste of taros now, Holden thought. The next task on the paper said to acquire the Mecomorph called Ship from his owner Julie, who is in Genius Grove at the current time. Julie also happens to be Ben's girlfriend and she always wore a pink sweatshirt, so it would be easy to find her.
The third request on the sheet said to recover a book called the Archamada Book of Spell from Him. The book of magic is very powerful and in the hands of an inexperienced person it can be very dangerous. Holden lets out a loud groan.
Him just happened to be the first villain to have kidnapped Holden soon after his arrival to live with the Utoniums. It had been Buttercup's fault it happened in the first place. Buttercup didn't like the fact that Holden hadn't even heard of the Powerpuff Girls before and the girls were known worldwide. Buttercup had liked it even less when she found out Holden was going to start living with them.
She had caused him to feel miserable the first night he was there by threatening to hurt him if did anything to hurt Bubbles or Blossom. The event that lead up to Holden being kidnapped was Buttercup dumping a jar of finger paint on Holden, two weeks later at school. Holden had become so upset that he ran out of the kindergarten in tears and tried to run home only to be grabbed and put to sleep by Him. Holden was then used as bait to lure the girls to Townsville so Him could fight them and so he could feed off the chaos and fear that Holden would stir up when he awoke.
It just happened that during this battle, Buttercup called Holden her brother and thus being the first one of the girls to accept him as a new permanent member of the Utonium family. Holden hates Him because of that fact Him tried to use Holden to hurt his sisters.
Holden sighs deeply and Him would most likely make him do something that would cause chaos in order to obtain the book. Then again, Him might think that just giving it to Holden would be enough to cause some chaos, but the only thing is, Holden didn't even know where Him is. Holden decides he would ask the Professor when he arrives in Genius Grove.
Holden leaves the Cul-de-Sac and heads back to Park-N-Flush and locates the rubber band ball which he then places into his com for easier transport. Holden then turns around and walks off towards Genius Grove. Genius Grove is rather large, and trying to find a small alien and a person not by a house would definitely be hard.
Holden looks at his map, when out of the corner of his eye, he spots three Dexbots out near the power line tower firing on a few Tech Drones, trying to protect something. Holden runs in their direction, while firing on the Tech Drones and forcing their attention on him.
After several minutes, the last of the Tech Drones slink off and the lead Dexbot rolls up to him and replies, "Dexbot-013 reporting, this unit thanks you for the assistance, sir!"
Between the Dexbots stand a tiny mechanical life form and a teenage girl sitting next to it.
"Shiiippp! Shiiiipppppp!" is all the little mechanical alien says.
Holden bends down, pets the little alien and replies with a smile, "I guess you're the Mecomorph Paradox wants me to find."
The girl then says in an excited voice, "You know Professor Paradox? Would you by any chance know Ben too?"
Holden nods and then says pointing at Ship, "Paradox said I need to borrow him. I wasn't told what for, but I was told that Ship is to head to City Station and wait there."
Julie nods, sticks out her hand to shake Holden's and then replies, "I'll take him there, don't worry. Come on, let's go Ship."
Ship transforms into a small battle cruiser and Julie climbs aboard and they disappear into the sky.
Holden walks back to the street and thinks to himself, now, to find Him; this is going to be a pain…why couldn't it have been Mojo or even the Giant Blowfish…? Holden lets out reluctant sigh.
Several minutes later, Holden arrives outside Dexter's house, to find Professor Utonium sitting in a chair, drinking lemonade.
The Professor offers Holden a glass and says inquisitively, "What brings you over this way? I thought you would've headed back to the tree house after you helped Abby early this morning."
Holden drinks the lemonade hastily and then states, "Professor Paradox gave me an assignment. The good news is that I'm almost done, the bad news is I need to find Him."
The Professor frowns as he swooshes his lemonade around in his glass, "Him is over in Endsville, but why do you need to see him?"
Holden gives him a grim look and replies after several minutes, "He has a book that I need to collect. Paradox didn't explain why I need to do it thought."
Professor Utonium had heard about Paradox from Ben. He knew if Professor Paradox had contacted Holden, then it was something of vital importance.
The Professor closes his eyes for a moment and eventually responds, "If you get any trouble from Him come back here, and we'll come up with a new plan."
Holden smiles ands replies, "Thanks Professor. We'll see how things go."
As Holden leaves, the Professor brings up an armor design on his Nancom that he is working on with several others people.
The trip to Endsville didn't take long, but Holden has to go through a few heavily populated areas and at last, he finally arrives at where Him is living, which happens to be across the street from Billy's house.
Him gives a very devious smile when Holden approaches and says in a nasty tone, "So, the Powerpuffs have sent their little brother to bug me. WHAT DO THEY WANT?"
Holden frowns and replies in a confident tone, "Who said they wanted anything or even sent me?"
Him eye widen and is intrigued that Holden is here for something that for once isn't related to those annoying girls.
Him then asks in an inquisitive sly tone, "So what is it that you need then?"
Holden looks Him in the eyes and responds, "I want the Archamada Book of Spells."
Him laughs, smiles and gives Holden the book and then replies, "I acquired this tome from Hex and Charmcaster. I was going to use it to find a way to destroy your meddlesome sisters, but now I feel in your hands it can cause more chaos."
Him laughs again.
Holden barley walks ten steps away from Him's house, when he sees Billy petting a mini goo spawn.
"That's a good Runty." Billy says happily before he then goes into a repeat of saying Aren't you!" that lasts two minutes. Holden frowns and decides he would ask Dexter about this the next time he saw him. He slowly makes his back through Endsville and down to City Point where Dizzy World is.
The amusement park is of course an infected zone and the only people besides Mojo's flying service in the parking lot is Bloo and one fed up KND operative.
"HEY! YOU, PERSON ON THE HOVER BOARD, GET ME A JUICE BOX!" Bloo screams as he notices Holden pass by, but Holden keeps on going, ignoring the annoying imaginary friend's request.
Holden finally arrives at City Station and uses the jump pads and the elevators to get to the top. Holden spots Ship on part of the track that is now shut down. Holden slowly walks along the tracks and finds Paradox outside waiting.
Paradox has his watch out, flips it shut and replies with a smile, "Right on time, my boy. You have just helped get the Ultramatrix back in working shape…well you soon will."
The ramp from Ship drops and Ben, Kevin and Gwen walk down it.
Kevin looks at Paradox and replies in a semi nasty tone, "So, this future version of Vilgax is going back and forth through time huh? How is he even doing that?"
Paradox frowns and replies, "I wish I knew the answer, Mr. Levin. Maybe Holden here has an idea, since he was just there."
Holden blinks and thinks about it. He then realizes that he should have gotten the items that Vilgax had wanted. Holden would have just destroyed them in the end if he had done the task. Holden looks away, regretting he hadn't done anything and clenches his fist,
He then replies in a disgraced tone, "This is my fault. If it wasn't for me this wouldn't have happened."
Kevin touches the platform, absorbing the material. He turns a dark metallically blue, forms a ball with spikes from his hand, and then grabs Holden by the collar.
Holden gulps as Kevin brings the weapon close to his face and Kevin then says in a demanding voice, "What the hell did you do Holden? If you did something to help him..."
Gwen uses her power to force Kevin's arm down.
She has a stern look on her face and she replies in a clam manner, "Let him explain what happened, Kev."
Kevin drops Holden with a frown. Holden stands up and slowly recites what had transpired in the future.
Ben sighs and replies in a kind tone, "So if you had done what he wanted, this might have happened anyhow. So this isn't your…"
Holden interrupts Ben, "Of course it's my fault! I could have prevented this from happening. I'll set this right when we have a plan."
Paradox nods, smiles and comments, "Mr. Wren, you may feel that what has transpired is your fault, but in all honesty you did the right thing by turning Vilgax down. It took him a while to get those parts with the assistance of another person, but in the mean time, I suggest you all return to where you need to be. Ben, I'll look after Ship and Julie."
Ben nods, turns into Jetray and flies off towards Dexlabs. Gwen grabs Kevin's ear and drags him back onto Ship to have a nice long chat about something.
Holden walks back to the main City Station platform and boards the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. and flies back to Sector V. The day had been long and frustrating and Holden just wanted to sleep everything off. It isn't even past noon when it unexpectedly starts to rain.
figured that a lil more detail was needed on why Holden hates Him so much.