Chapter 4 – Recursion

- (X) -

July 9th, 2010

Painted Rock at the Carrizo Plain National Monument
San Luis Obispo County, California

"Walter, I am standing here before what has become a massive protest by hundreds if not thousands of Californians, Nevadans, Arizonians, and, especially Native Americans from several tribes."

The young, blonde reporter gestured behind her at the many people gathered around a tall, forty-foot tall stone outcropping in the middle of a largely flat plain. She shined her white teeth and blinked her blue eyes in scripted pride. "They have gathered here from all around to stand against the Arlea Company, who intends to drill heavily in this area looking for large oil deposits scientists now believe lie buried here near to the San Andreas Fault. The drilling, the protesters claim, will damage the area irrevocably including the heritage site of Painted Rock."

The reporter turned to the side to let the cameraman get a wide view of the scene while keeping her just within frame. "Painted Rock has been a ceremony site for many Native American tribes going back hundreds of years but has suffered significant damage in the modern era due to explorers and vandals alike. Only a handful of years ago did the site come under the protection of the US Government, who has heavily regulated visitors to the location ever since. Tonight, however, they'll have a hard time getting these protesters to leave, as they've set in deep and are ready to bear tonight's cold snap with blankets, sleeping bags, and tents."

- (X) -

Ben stepped between crowds by the rock with Gwen, Julie, and Kevin following closely behind. They were dressed up in what they believed a camera crew would wear: plain clothes with lots of pockets and equipment hung from their belts. Kai had made some comment about Batman's utility belt, but Ben ignored it. He'd seen a lot of reporters and camera crews since news of his heroic activities went public, and he was well aware that fashion was not always the top priority when chasing a story.

The large camera in his hands was the only real thing he needed to sell the costume to any other reporters.

The crowd, however, was not quite as easy to deal with.

"Ooh, interview me! Interview me!"

"Is this going on TV? This needs to go on TV!"

"You need to tell the man he has to find his black death elsewhere because he can't get it here!"

"Yeah! Yeah! My people died for this land! Some company can't take it away!"

"That's not what's going on here, moron! Besides, you're Dutch-Irish!"

"My spirit is Okonkwan."

"That's not a Native American tribe! That's a character from a novel!"

"Is not!"

Ben sighed and slipped away from the crowd, pushing his way towards the edge of the rock. Kevin, Gwen, and Julie managed to squeeze through to join him after a minute.

"This isn't a protest, it's a concert," said Kevin. "I think I saw a mosh pit over there."

Julie had her hands on her hips as she looked over the crowd. "If they were trying to get people's attention, though, they've done a good job. I counted eleven other news trucks."

"Which just means it'll never calm down here," said Gwen. "Chances are that lumerian is not going to wait for the place to clear out."

"Which means these people are in danger," said Ben with a serious face. "We have to convince them to leave."

"Pfft," said Kevin. "Good luck with that one. It'd be like trying to reason with an ant farm."

"We have to do something," said Ben.

"How about we try to get to this alien before they get here," suggested Julie. "We know what direction he's coming from."

"Generally, we do," said Gwen. "But if he was coming straight here he should have gotten here first, so there's no telling what path the alien took or when he's planning on attacking."

"Or even what he's looking for," said Kevin, shaking his head. "We've already got Pierce in the space station looking for signs of the alien, but our sensors aren't that great, and Lumerians have absorption abilities that make them hard to find with active scanners."

"Whatever it is he wants, it's got to be under Painted Rock," said Ben.

"Not necessarily," said Gwen. "He clearly looked in several places before heading this way, this could be just another dead end."

"We have to make some assumptions or we won't be able to plan," said Kevin, irritated.

"If we plan on false assumptions, then we'd be worse off if we did nothing and just waited," said Gwen.

"That's all it looks like we'll be able to do unless we get some new information!" said Kevin.

"Then that's all we should do!"

Kevin and Gwen crossed their arms and stared at each other. Julie looked uncomfortably to the side.

"I have an idea," Ben said. "Assuming that's okay with you two."

Kevin rolled his eyes. Gwen nodded.

"I'll go intangible with Big Chill and just look to see if there's anything under this rock."

Kevin stared. "That's..."

"Not a bad idea, actually," finished Gwen.

"Don't you wan to avoid attracting attention?" asked Julie. "Transforming out here is probably not a good idea."

Ben grinned. "I'll be discrete."

Julie watched him raise his hand over the Ultimatrix. "Do you even know what that word means?"

"Just keep an eye out," said Ben. He twisted the dial seven clicks to the left and slapped it hard.

The rush of change swept over him and he felt his body twist and deform to take on the new state as defined by the codon stream received by the Ultimatrix. His arms and legs lengthened, his chest broadened, his eyes grew larger and angular, his nose stretched out into a long snout, he grew long hair over all of his—

"Oh, crap," said Benwolf.

- (X) -

Wes lay on a ridge on the Carrizo Plain and looked over his shoulder at the distant lights around Painted Rock. He tilted his head slightly and then frowned. "Something just happened," he said. "Suddenly got louder."

"Probably Ben," said Max as he stared through binoculars in the opposite direction of the ceremony site. "He has the tendency to cause a fuss."

"So much for disguises," said Wes.

"It's his way," chuckled Max. He looked up from the binoculars. "He does a good job on much less than the Air Force training I had before getting into the Plumbers."

"Better than the legendary Max Tennyson?"

Max smiled. "Almost assuredly." He looked back through the binoculars. "He tries to rely on me more than I think he should, but he never needs to. I think he just humors his old grandfather."

"Don't sell yourself short, I still hear your name on the grapevine," said Wes. He raised his own binoculars and looked through them. He stared in a direction slightly to the left of Max's. "I understand you're the reason for the recent reform in the Null Void."

"Maybe," said Max. "I just made the best of a bad situation, really. Those DNAliens turned out to be trickier than I expected. Must be getting slow in my old age."

Wes just continued to shake his head. How his old friend could put himself down so persistently given his accomplishments was a mystery to him. Wes wasn't there for the fall of Vilgax – at least the first time – so he didn't get to see 'Max's Moment' as the Plumbers called it. But he'd heard about it. Heard how Max banished the squid-face to dark space. Heard how he miraculously did so with no time and with no surprise. Heard about the high body count.

Max was never the same after that. His retreat from Plumber matters afterwards was the most obvious sign, but Wes noticed his melancholy too. His bravado had faded, which for Max was nearly as legendary as his accomplishments. Wes hesitated to say he was broken afterwards, but he had certainly altered his life outlook, enough that he abandoned most of what he'd done in his life up to that point and decided to focus on his mundane family.

At least, everyone thought they were mundane until the stories of Ben Tennyson arose.

"Following in your footsteps, is he?" asked Wes in a calculating move.

"I hope not," said Max. "Though he could do with a few less lady friends."

Wes laughed.

"Incoming!" Max suddenly shouted. Wes snapped his head up and scanned the horizon with his binoculars. "Ten o'clock!" Max added. Wes turned slightly to the right and saw him.

The creature was just a shadow at this point, the fading light of day was not enough to fully light his feature, but he was leaping miles at a time, closing on their position fast. Wes noted the figures silhouette against the sky as he jumped and blinked.

"Kevin's right," Wes said. "He does look Lumerian."

"Never heard of a Lumerian bruiser before," said Max. He lowered his binoculars and pulled out his plumber's badge. He tapped the logo once. "He's coming your way, Ben. Get ready."

"Ah! Uh, right, right! I'll be – we'll be ready!"

Wes rose an eyebrow at the badge. "He sounded a little pre-occupied."

Max grunted quietly as he got back onto his feet then pulled out a rather large, alien-looking gun. "Then let's see if we can give him a few minutes to collect his thoughts."

"Just like old times," said Wes as he pulled out a smaller gun and aimed it towards the sky.

- (X) -

"—And what do you have to say to claims that the collateral damage you caused to the Golden Gate bridge far exceeds any of that the alien posed?"

Benwolf snarled angrily at the reporter beside the large camera. "I was commended by the Mayor for what I did!"

"Commendations don't build bridges," said the reporter, a snarky dark haired woman with pale skin and a piercing glare.

"Hey!" yelled Kevin. "What would you have him do? Leave that oversized carp to tear up the countryside? He had to be stopped."

"And what about you?" asked the reporter. "Our investigative journalism team found you have a sealed Juvie record a mile long. Care to comment on what might be in there?"

Kevin blinked. "Uh, a lot of trial and error?" He looked awkwardly at the huge crowd of people surrounding them and the camera crews filming him. "Look, nobody is perfect."

"That's for sure," said the reporter.

Benwolf sniffed the air suddenly and looked towards where Grandpa Max and Wes were supposed to be on lookout. "Something isn't right," he said.

"What isn't right is vigilante justice," said the reporter, pointing the microphone at Benwolf again. "What right do you have to tear up the city to go after aliens that are probably only here because of you?"

Benwolf glared at the reporter again. "Is there an Anti-Ben Club you reporters are all in? First Will Harangue and now... uh, what was your name again?"

"Can't spare time to learn the names of the little people?" replied the reporter.

Gwen rolled her eyes at that. "Listen, we don't have time for this. There is a very real danger approaching right this minute and it would probably be best for everyone if you calmly evacuated the area."

"Evacuated?" asked the reporter. "Are you on the side of the Arlea Company? Have they paid Ben 10 to do their dirty work now?" She shook her head dramatically then quickly continued before Gwen could reply. "So, you're heroes for hire now, are you? Not very heroic, is it?"

"What?" Gwen said in the loudest voice possible. "That's preposterous!"

"That's what you say, but why else would you be here advocating Arlea Company's goals?"

"Oh, because there's a giant alien coming this way and probably won't give two thoughts to a group of suits or protestors," said Kevin, angrily.

"Says the juvenile delinquent," the reporter said without sparing Kevin a glance.

"All right, all this ad hominem really has to stop," Kevin said.

"What's that? Are you trying to use strange alien languages on us?"

"That's Latin," said Gwen.

The Ultimatrix flashed once and then Grandpa Max's voice emitted from the glowing symbol. "He's coming your way, Ben. Get ready."

Benwolf sighed. He had no idea how he was going to get all these people out of harms way fast enough. "Ah! Uh, right, right! I'll be -" he hesitated when he felt Julie poke him in the leg. "We'll be ready!"

"Okay, everyone, you heard him," said Kevin. "Big baddie heading this way so you all have to clear out or harmful things will happen. Got it?"

The crowd stared in exactly the way an evacuating group doesn't.

"This is a really off day for me," Kevin mumbled.

"Who is coming?" asked the reporter.

Gwen looked at her skeptically then turned to address the crowd. "It's a dangerous alien called a Lumerian that has been tearing up Native American ceremony sites across the country. We've come here to stop it but it'll be hard to do if we have to protect all of you as well." Gwen turned and looked directly at the camera. "So if you really do care about these historical sites, and not just here to be hip, please get clear so we can take this bad guy down!"

The crowd seemed as unmoved as they were at Kevin's pleas, then, low mutterings came from the group and, slowly, they began back away from Painted Rock. The reporters were the resistant ones at first but soon they too backed off and began aggressively trying to interview the people leaving, implying they were cowing to authority.

"Wow," said Kevin.

"Who'd have thought the truth would actually work," Julie said with a shrug.

"Probably something you should try more often," said Kai with a smirk. "Unless we don't manage to save the site."

"Gwen," said Benwolf. "Can you pinpoint what direction the alien's coming in?"

Gwen closed her eyes briefly then opened them, exposing a magenta glow. "Something very powerful is approaching from the east. From..." she pointed. "That direction." She narrowed her eyes and the glow faded. "There's something odd about it though. He's got way more mana flowing through him than I would have thought. He almost glows like a beacon in my sight."

"What does that mean?" asked Kevin. "He's a magic user?"

"Possibly," said Gwen. "It almost feels like Charmcaster, though much stronger. Maybe another spell user, perhaps?"

"Great, those guys are always fun," said Benwolf.

"Something's on its way down!" shouted Julie as she looked at the skyline.

With a loud thump, the ground shook and cloud of dust flew into the air around a spot about forty feet from the group. The cloud hung in the air for several second before a tall alien figure emerged, matching the image Jimmy showed them in Kevin's car with one exception: the limp body held in its hand.

"GRANDPA!" yelled Benwolf.

The alien laughed a deep, echoing cackle that belied his slim form. "Of course! Where one ancient Tennyson lies, so does a younger not far away!" The lower half of the alien's head cracked open revealing a brilliant white row of evenly aligned teeth. The sides of his mouth stretched upwards into a smile. "I knew sooner or later you'd show up," he said, although his mouth didn't move to match.

"You expected us?" asked Gwen. She had her hands up in a defensive position and balls of glowing purple energy hung suspended around her. Kevin was beside her, covered in dark stone, while Julie quickly summoned Ship to create her powered armor. Kai, without a power, simply stood with her legs slightly apart, ready to run if necessary.

"I can smell your blood," said the alien thickly. "Your essence glows in the night. I would cross the galaxy to find you! No one else will have the joy."

"What joy?" asked Benwolf.

The alien held up Max's body. "The joy of wiping out your line!" He flung Max's body at Ben and Gwen, startling them. Gwen acted quickly and used her magic to gently catch the motionless form while Benwolf charged forward at the alien.

"What do you want?" asked Benwolf as he tackled into the alien. The lanky looking form belied its weight and strength, however, and the alien only took a step backwards form the impact, then grabbed Benwolf around his torso and flipped him over his head.

Benwolf twisted in midair and landed squarely on his hind legs, just in time to catch the alien's fist to his head. Benwolf went flying again from the impact and hit the ground hard, sliding up a nearby hill. The alien turned to stalk slowly towards him while chuckling.

"Don't turn your back on us, punk!" yelled Kevin as he turned his fist into a large mace and swung it into the alien's back. The impact send the enemy to the ground and Julie used the opening to let loose a salvo of a dozen missiles from her power armor. They all sailed up and tracked onto the alien body, impacting at once and exploding in a cloud of gray and red smoke.

Benwolf got back to his feet and tried to peer through the cloud to see if Julie's attack did its job. He squinted and looked into the slowly growing dust cloud. "Do you see him?" he called out.

"No," yelled back Kevin.

"How's grandpa?" asked Benwolf.

"He's just unconscious," called Gwen from the other side of the cloud. Benwolf heard her taking to Kai. "Get him far away from here. I don't want to see him get any more hurt."

"What happened to my Grandpa?" asked Kai with a worried tone.

"I'm sure he's just over the ridge," said Gwen with confidence that Benwolf knew she couldn't have. "We'll find him after we deal with this alien."

"I'm going in," said Kevin as he raised his mace and vanished into the cloud.

"Kevin!" Gwen called out, alarmed, but not moving to intercept. Kai grabbed Max and began dragging him away from the fight in the direction the rest of the crowd moved.

Second ticked past that felt like hours.

"UGH!" came a grunt and then a form launched up from the top of the cloud and was silhouetted in the moonlight. Two figures were wrestling in midair and their very different forms made it easy to pick out who was who, especially when Kevin's form abruptly went flying into the ground. The impact shook the ground.

Benwolf dashed through the cloud, anticipating what was going to happen next.

Gwen opened her mouth to call out for Kevin again but the alien was almost on top of her before she could catch her breath. Her purple energy barriers came up instinctually, but the alien's fist cracked them on the first hit.

Julie fired off more missiles but the alien shrugged them off. A second later, Benwolf reached them and once again tackled the alien. This time he had adjusted his angle to go for the bend in the aliens back and was able to shove him to the side away from his girlfriend and Gwen.

The two aliens tumbled across the ground before impacting against Painted Rock, causing it to fracture.

The alien smiled up at Benwolf while they wrestled. "This is laughable, you know," he growled while grabbing at tuft of Benwolf's fur. "Your ancestors put up a much better fight."

"Grandpa Max is the best there ever was," said Benwolf as he slammed the cackling alien's head against the ground. It appeared to have no effect.

"His grandfather was better," said the alien.

Benwolf punched the alien in the gut once and then hesitated on the wind up. "What?" he said. "Max's grandfather?"

The alien used the hesitation to grab Benwolf by the arm and flung him towards the quickly approaching Julie. The impact sent both of them to the ground.

Rolling off of Julie, Benwolf allowed himself a second to sigh. "This would be easier if I didn't have to be Benwolf," he grumbled. He slapped the Omnitrix on his chest for emphasis and felt the rush of change suddenly flow across him. He looked down and saw he had the four muscular arms and red skin of a tetramand.

- (X) -

"What?" said Four Arms, in disbelief. "Why is it working now?"

"Worry about it later!" yelled Julie as she got back to her feet and helped Ben stand.

Four Arms nodded and ran back towards the alien, winding his fists up for a double punch. Julie watched and tried to find a good angle to launch an attack on the alien. She narrowed her eyes to try and avoid hitting Four Arms.

As Julie watched a large chunk of Painted Rock snapped off and rolled to the side with a dull thud. She sighed silently as another historical treasure was being destroyed by rampaging aliens. Then she noticed a human shadow holding something large in its hands suddenly scurry away from the broken piece and hide within the cave formed by the rock.

Julie frowned and quickly scanned the battlefield. She could account for everyone except for Wes Green, but she imagined he was still on the ridge where he was on lookout with Max. Since the alien didn't grab him like he did Max, she hoped the best for him but assume he was still there. So who was the shadow?

Julie skirted the ongoing battle just as she saw Kevin launch back into the fray with Gwen supporting his downwards strike with several mana blasts from her hands. Four Arms was doing his best to hold the alien down, but even with the increase muscle mass, the alien was clearly stronger. This battle could go either way, in Julie's opinion, so if there was a civilian hanging out, she had to get them clear.

Using the rockets in her Ship-built powered armor, Julie jumped over the top of Painted Rock and landed inside. She noticed the figure immediately. It was a tall man in a long ragged coat peering round the corner of the broken off piece of stone and holding a staff with a gnarled end. Julie assumed he was one of the tribal protestors.

"Hey," she said using the amplifiers in her suit. "You have to get out of here or you'll get hurt."

The man spun on his foot, startled, and revealed a drawn and heavily bruised face that had been a painted gray except around the eyes. The man was clutching a staff inscribed with glowing runes.

The man's eyes widened, then he pointed his staff at Julie and white light erupted from the tip, forming three large rings that bound themselves around Julie and crackled with energy. The screens inside of her power armor flared white and she could hear whimpering coming from Ship.

"Sorry, girlie, I don't have time for you right now," said Hex, frowning. He turned back to the broken edge of the stone and then swung the staff into the rock, causing another large piece of Painted Rock to crack and come tumbling down. He leapt away quickly and then shined a purple light onto the newly exposed edge.

Julie struggled against the magical bonds but kept an eye on Hex. They were tucked away enough into U-shape of Painted Rock that she couldn't see the battle with the alien, only hear the thunderous cracks of Four Arms' fists or Kevin's mace striking the ground.

The light from Hex's staff revealed shiny metal beneath the stone with what looked like black lettering. Julie was too far to read it but it looked like English.

"Finally, we found it," said Hex with a very relieved-sounding sigh. He wiped his brow, which Julie noticed was covered in sweat. Then he raised his staff up and it glowed purple. The metal structure beneath the stone covering suddenly lit up with purple runes that were similar, if not exactly the same, as the ones on Hex's staff.

Purple crackling magic jumped between the staff and the metal structure and after a moment a surge of energy flew out of the rock and struck Hex in the chest, throwing him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him.

Hex rubbed his chest – which now had a huge black mark on it – and stared in shock at the metal object. "Charmcaster?" he said softly.

The magician shook his head and then steeled himself once more. He stood up and held his staff high into the air and began loudly chanting. Julie didn't recognize the language at all, nor did even its origins, and she assumed it was some arcane ritual.

A bolt of lighting suddenly came down from above and struck Hex's staff, causing it to glow bright white and similar energy to shine from his eyes and mouth. The shockwave from the lightning strike slammed into Julie and toppled her onto her back. She could see cracks forming across all of Painted Rock as she struggled to roll over and see what was happening with Hex.

By the time she got herself back onto her side and could see, Hex was no longer glowing and the purple runes on the metal object were slowly being drawn out and absorbed into Hex's staff. The magician himself was gritting his teeth and looked to be struggling heavily with effort. It was only a few seconds later that the last rune peeled away from the object within Painted Rock and vanished into the staff. Hex sighed deeply after it was done and leaned on his staff.

Then he was struck in the side with purple mana and went flying into the rockface. He impacted near Julie and the slid to the ground in a heap. At the same time, the magical binds around Julie vanished and she tried to get back onto her feet. Ship moaned dreadfully and once Julie was balanced on her heels again, Ship slid off her body and returned to its blob-like shape beside her. It looked dreadfully sad as it did so.

"Thank you, boy," said Julie, patting Ship on the head.

"Julie! Are you okay?" Gwen was running across purple glowing platforms to get down to where Hex and Julie were. "What was Hex doing here?"

"I don't know but it's here," said Julie, excitedly.

"What is?" asked Gwen.

"The thing, whatever it is they were looking for," said Julie. She pointed at the exposed metal beneath the rock face. "It's here. Hex was casting some spell on it."

"I saw the lightning," said Gwen as she peered at the metal. "What did he do?"

Suddenly a large figure flew between Gwen and Julie and slammed into the inner loop of Painted Rock. Julie looked over. "BEN!" she yelled and ran toward Four Arms.

A cackle echoed between the stone and Gwen looked in the opposite direction to see the alien walking over, this time holding a struggling Kevin in his hand. The alien looked at the metal and grinned. "He opened it." Casually, the alien threw Kevin into the air far above the rock.

Gwen instinctive threw her hands out and created a slide of mana to catch her boyfriend and bring him down the ground again.

Ben reverted back to himself as Julie helped him sit up just in time to see the alien slam his fist into the exposed metal, tearing a hole and revealing glowing green circuitry beneath. With two hands, the alien gripped the sides of the hole and pulled, tearing away at the metal and causing the ground to shake.

Chunks of stone from Painted Rock fell and shattered against the ground nearby. Kevin picked himself up and swung his arm around to break larger chucks that threatened to hit the team. "Move!" he yelled.

Ben, Gwen, and Julie took the hint and ran through the shower of stones to get away from the crumbling ritual grounds. As they ran clear they turned back and stared.

The stone was crumbling all around the alien but revealing a huge metal structure that looked like a giant metal ring with a cylinder in the middle. The horseshoe shape of Painted Rock was clearly just one half of the larger structure, which was now shaking and freeing itself from the earth. The alien's constant tearing of metal and ripping of circuitry suddenly cause the ring to glow and lift itself out of the ground, hovering five or ten feet above the head of the alien.

"That's Plumber tech," said Kevin suddenly. He frowned. "It's a containment pod."

"That's plumber tech?" asked Ben. "It's huge!"

"I don't know what the ring is about, but the cylinder in the middle is a Class 7 containment vessel," said Kevin. "It's used to transport high-energy prisoners to the Null Void."

"We've never seen one," said Gwen.

"It's an old model," shrugged Kevin. "Fifties tech at best. Suppressors are more common now."

"How is that possible?" asked Julie. "Painted Rock has been here for millions of years!"

Kevin shook his head but said nothing.

"Shouldn't we be... stopping him?" asked Julie.

The alien beneath the containment vessel leapt into the air and landed on top of the cylinder in the middle of the device. With a dramatic wind up, the alien punched into the center of the containment vessel releasing a huge blue-white wave of energy into the sky. The machine began to wobble and emitted a deep whirring noise before suddenly going dark and crashing into the ground again.

The ground shook beneath everyone's feet again and Julie grabbed on to Ben to help keep her balance. They all watched as a cloud of dust sprang up around the machine obscuring the view of the alien again.

"What happened?" asked Ben.

"We've got to go check it out," said Kevin. "Who knows what was inside there?"

Ben went first, approaching the machine's ruined ring, with Gwen, Julie, and Kevin behind him. The debris from the machine was scattered over an area half a mile across. They stepped carefully between pieces, moving in a row over the remains of the ring and towards where the center cylinder lay.

The creaking of metal startled Ben and he looked up to see the alien again, pulling off the top of the cylinder and throwing it aside. The sound of creaking metal returned but this time the alien was not moving.

Then a large scaled hand reached out of the cylinder and gripped the side of the containment vessel. It was quickly joined by a second and then a hulking, lizard-like beast pulled itself up and out of the cylinder. The beast was large enough that Ben wondered how it fit inside the small container. It stood on top of the remains of its prison with a hunched back and black eyes that stared at the other alien suspiciously.

"Who—" started the lizard-like alien.

"There is no time," said the Lumerian. "You have work to do. Complete the loop, or this will be meaningless."

The Lumerian shimmered for a second, seeming to fade away from existence for several seconds before snapping back to become solid again. His form had changed, however, and instead of being a tall, thin, alien, he looked like an average, middle aged man, with black, goggles, and a labcoat.

"Paradox?" Ben said.

The lizard-like alien looked over at Ben with an angry expression but Paradox simply grabbed his chin and pulled it back to face him. "Forget them," said Paradox. "Listen carefully. Steal from the man who looks like me. Everything will be clear after that."

"Who looks like-?" started the lizard-like alien but then Paradox placed his hand on the alien's chest. In a flash of light the lizard alien was gone.

"What was that all about Professor Paradox?" asked Gwen. She began stomping forward, ready to demand an explanation.

Kevin grabbed her roughly and held her back. "Don't," he said simply. He had a frown and wouldn't take his eyes off of Paradox.

"My word, you children know nothing, do you?" said Paradox looking down at them. "Haven't your elders taught you anything? But, no, of course not. Because they choose to forget."

"Who are you?" asked Ben, realizing what Kevin had moments before.

"You see? You would know if they weren't so embarrassed," said Paradox with a smile. "So eager to forget about me and the good times we've had."

"What do you mean?" asked Gwen. "What just happened? Who was that alien?"

Paradox shook his head. "So ignorant. It's not even worth it to finish you off anymore." He turned on his foot and looked towards the sky. "I'll let you share the fate of your miserable planet." Then, in a flash, he was gone.

Julie looked around. "Does anyone know what just happened?" she asked.

Another flash of light appeared behind the group and they turned to see a sleek black and silver colored jet, with a tinted-green pilots hatch. Two large circular glowing engines on either side of the fuselage were glowing white but then quickly faded. The hatch opened and two figures jumped out. One of whom Gwen immediately recognized as Charmcaster.

"Damn, it looks like we're too late," said the older man in a tactical vest and armor.

Charmcaster slammed her fist into the side of the jet. "I told you the math was wrong!"

"Hey, I'm not going to question a Galvan when it comes to science!" yelled the older man.

"Hey!"

The two new arrivals stopped and turned towards Ben, who was the source of the shout.

"Will either of you explain what's going on?" demanded Ben with a frown.

"Hey, Ben, Gwen, good to see ya!" said the man with a casual smile.

Ben stared at the man but couldn't place him.

"It's me, Phil," said the man. "Your Grandpa Max's old partner in the Plumbers."

"Phil?" said Gwen, confused. "I thought you were serving time in the Null Zone."

"Eh, I got an early release," shrugged Phil.

"Who arranged that?" asked Kevin, skeptical.

"An old man named Paradox."

"We just saw him," said Ben. "He caused all of this!" He motioned at the wreckage around them.

"That wasn't Paradox," said Charmcaster, solemnly. She looked squarely at Ben. "That was Brozz."

Everyone stared at her.

"Who's Brozz?" asked Ben.

- (X) -