Chapter 7 – Julie Picks a Fight
July 10th, 2010
Marian Medical Center
Santa Maria, California
- (X)-
Julie looked around the parking lot of the medical center at early morning, carefully walking between the rows of cars and occasionally hopping to see over the roofs. She walked one more row forward and peered behind a row of SUV's.
"Ben?" she called out again. She'd followed a vaguely Ben-like blur out of the hospital a few minutes earlier but had lost him while exiting the lobby. She couldn't see him anywhere on the large fields surrounding the hospital campus so she assumed he was somewhere in the parking lot. Though given his Ultimatrix, she could be looking for anything as small as Grey Matter or as big as... well, Way Big.
"Over here," came a gruff voice from around the back of a panel van. Given the timber of his voice, Julie had an idea of what had happened. She followed the summons one row further back.
"Ben," said Julie as she came across Benwolf sitting on the back bumper of a van looking out at the rising sun.
"Sorry," Benwolf said. "I've been trying to change back but something is stopping me. I thought getting further away might help, but it hasn't yet."
Julie sat down next to Benwolf. "Getting away from what?"
"I... don't know," admitted Benwolf. "Whatever it is that's making this happen."
"You think it's in the hospital?" asked Julie.
"It must be, it feels... less intense out here, but still enough to screw with the Ultimatrix." Benwolf sighed. "Someone must be carrying something that's doing it, but I can't figure out why it stopped for a while."
"Maybe you overcame it because of the battle," said Julie. "And now you just don't have enough motivation."
"Strength of will?" asked Benwolf. "I don't know, I think when Brozz first appeared I was way more motivated to change into something other than Benwolf than when we were lying beaten on the grass." He shook his head. "I just can't figure it out."
Julie paused and thought back over the last few days. It had started before coming to Painted Rock, so the containment vessel probably had nothing to do with it. Not to mention it was still there and working when Ben finally was able to turn into Four Arms. No, it was before that, when they were still in Bellwood right before Kai and her Uncle—
"Kai is causing it," said Julie, feeling stupid for not realizing it before. After Benwolf went all puppy-dog around her, she should have immediately put two and two together, but her anger always got in the way of logical thinking... not that she'd admit as much to anyone.
"What?" asked Ben. "It started before she showed up. And she was with us during the battle."
Julie shook her head, getting more confident by the moment. "No, Gwen sent her away with your Grandpa Max. She was gone when you finally transformed."
"Not far, though," said Ben. "She was still closer than when this all started."
Julie paused to consider that point, but it didn't affect her conclusion. "Maybe she's somehow controlling it, but it's too much of a coincidence to discard. She's the only new element."
Benwolf looked skeptically at Julie. "Are you sure you aren't just jealous?"
Julie felt her anger flare up again but she forced herself to ignore it. It was just ... impossible that Ben could be such an idiot when it came to her. Just because she lost her cool every now and then when she was angry, did not mean she spent all her time reacting irrationally to new people.
"No, Ben," Julie said with as much cool as she could muster. "I am not jealous. It makes sense."
"Except the parts that don't," pointed out Benwolf.
"Do you have a better idea?" asked Julie hotly. She was struggling to contain her frustration now. She needed to quickly reach the end of the conversation or it would result in her storming off and probably doing something stupid. "Something Kai has or is doing is causing you to be stuck on Benwolf, and I think the best to find out what is to ask her."
"I don't know—" started Benwolf.
"Okay, I don't think it's the best course, I know it is, okay?" said Julie. "Let's go talk to her and find out."
"Like this?" asked Benwolf, looking down at himself.
Julie stood up. "Unless you can figure out how to revert, yes. We can't wait around forever, and who knows when Brozz will show up again." She turned and started heading back to the hospital.
"Julie!" she could hear Ben calling from behind her, but she kept walking. Ben could be the most obtuse person in the world, but she knew how to get him walking. She lamented that such a combination of heroism and determination could be so plainly smothered by ego and bravado.
Then again, she really wished her own brain wouldn't fritz out on her every time Ben made her angry. She knew they both had their issues to work out and – against all reason – they seem to have become good influences on each other. She just chose to believe Ben's issues were more crippling than hers.
Ben had to be worse than her at something other than schoolwork, right?
- (X)-
Kai looked a little sheepish under the combined staring of Julie and Benwolf as they were in the hospital room with Wes Green and Grandpa Max. Occasionally a nurse would peer in the room suspiciously and eventually conclude that whatever was happening, they shouldn't get involved. It was one thing to know about Ben 10 and his amazing abilities, it was another thing altogether to actually witness a giant walking wolf in a tank top walk into a hospital and visit a patient.
Kevin was nearby, ostensibly not part of the conversation, but periodically looking up from his magazine to listen and adding to the mounting staring pressure.
"Me?" asked Kai quietly.
"You or something you have on you," said Julie. She was leading this conversation because she didn't trust Ben put the pressure on Kai. Not to mention, if she was causing the problem, then Ben could potentially have been influenced by her. This wouldn't be the case for Julie.
No, a small voice in her mind chirped up. You're only influenced by your desire to retain control of Ben. That's MUCH more sane.
Julie ignored the thought and continued her stare.
"How?" asked Kai, sounding genuinely confused.
Grandpa Max cleared his throat a little before speaking. "It does make a little bit of sense," he said. "If Julie is right, this started when you were on your way to Bellview. Possibly when you arrived there."
"But I don't know why," said Kai. "I don't even know how I would do such a thing."
"Did you get anything new recently?" asked Benwolf. "An artifact or piece of technology you just started carrying around recently?"
"How recently?" asked Kai. "I haven't seen you in years. You mean, anything I got during that time?"
Benwolf looked helplessly toward Julie.
"Let's consider within the last week or so," said Julie, diplomatically.
"Within the last week..." Kai mused. "I got a new tattoo, I guess."
"What?" Wes Green sat up in his hospital bed, then winced slightly.
"Uh, sorry Grandpa," said Kai, looking out of the corner of her eye. "I was going to tell you."
"Can we see?" asked Ben.
"No!" Kai said suddenly, then blushed slightly. "I mean, I can't. It's... in a... it's private."
Julie put her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes.
Ben frowned. "What do mean, it's private?" he asked.
"Good grief," said Julie. "Just... was anything different? Strange? Glowing ink, or weird devices? Did you walk away with an alien clinging to your back?"
Kai stared. "Nobody's told me if I have." She looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "I don't think anything was different. It hurt way more than I was expecting, but given where it... is ... I'm not surprised."
"Where is it?" asked Benwolf, still apparently confused. Kai looked embarrassingly away.
"Stop asking questions, Ben," said Julie, hoping to curtail more of these distractions. It did no good to push Kai into a humiliated ball when they needed answers. "So, nothing else? Just painful, but nothing else weird?"
"Nothing I can think of," said Kai, still looking away.
Julie sighed. She wasn't sure how to narrow this down short of tracing back Kai's steps to see if something alien appeared. She wasn't even the expert in alien things, that was Ben, Kevin, and Gwen. If something did look weird, would she be able to tell the difference between a human-weird thing and an alien-weird thing?
"What about your parents?" asked Kevin, his nose still in his magazine. The rest of the room turned towards him. "You told me you're half-alien."
"You're half alien?" asked Benwolf, surprised.
"Yeah," admitted Kai. "It doesn't show. Like you, I guess." She looked up at Benwolf. "Well, except for right now. Anyway, I don't have any abilities so I don't see-"
"What were your parents?" asked Kevin.
"I told you before, I don't know," said Kai. She turned to the hospital bed behind her. "Grandpa?"
Wes Green closed his eyes and sighed deeply. A very stern look crossed his face.
"Your mother was a Petrastill," said Max. Wes looked up suddenly and gave his old Plumber partner an angry look. Max noticed. "Don't be like that, Wes. Liwanu was a good man."
"Who abandoned his daughter," growled Wes.
"Placed his daughter in your care," said Max. "And went to protect his wife."
"And then vanished for all eternity," spat Wes.
Julie was shocked at the anger the mild mannered old man was showing, having seen nothing close to this level of emotion from him during the whole trip. She looked to Kai and saw a mixture of shock and pain cross her face. Julie presumed she wasn't comfortable hearing her parents being spoken of this way any more than Julie was.
"Grandpa," started Kai.
Wes seemed to suddenly realize Kai was right next to him because he instantly widened his eyes and then seemed to calm slightly. "I'm sorry, Kai," he said. "I'm just..." He sighed again. "Your mother was running from some dangerous people. If they found her here with you they'd have—well, they wouldn't have been kind."
Kai seemed shocked by this revelation. She opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out.
"The Petrastill are fighting a war for equality," said Max. "They have been for many years now. Most of the population suffers indentured servitude to the elite class, and those who rebel – like your mother did – are hunted down with extreme prejudice."
"That's awful," said Benwolf. It was hard to read his expressions in this form, but he looked horrified with his brow slightly creased and his jaw hanging open. "Why haven't the Plumbers done anything about it?"
"We can't rush in to every planet with a civil issue, Ben," said Max. "Lots of planets have real social problems to resolve but if the Plumbers got involved in all of them there wouldn't be anyone left over to deal with rampaging criminals or warlords conquering other planets. Besides, what right would we have to tell a planet what the right way is to treat their people?"
"Slavery is wrong," said Julie, resolutely. She couldn't believe Max could recite details of this planet from memory but hadn't ever done anything about it. "That's obvious."
"I don't necessarily disagree," said Max. "But there are still limits to the Plumbers' power. There must be or we become no different than the criminals we've been charged to apprehend. We do what we can for those who fall into our care, but if we were to actively try to help the Petrastill, it would most certainly start an interstellar war. And that would still be ignoring the fact that we don't have a right to change a planet that hasn't asked for our help."
"What does it take?" asked Julie. "Kai's mother was here, she must have asked for help. How many people have to flee in terror before you do something?" This was making her angry again for a whole different reason.
"It's a fine line, I'll admit," said Max. "And it's honestly a question far above my ability to answer. The Plumbers have a leadership, a Central Command, led by the Chairman, to make those decisions for the Plumbers at large. Even as a Magister my authority is limited to Earth, so I've always just focused on what I could do from here. Perhaps to some detriment, but I've never felt guilty because I've never turned away a request for help."
"Unless it was from a planet," said Julie angrily.
Max responded to her anger with a sad but kind smile. "I'm sorry, Julie. I wish the universe was simple. I'd like nothing more than to have a satisfying answer for you, but I don't have one. Some people are helped, and some are not, and sometimes... it' just not fair."
Julie grumbled, but realized there was nothing more to gained by arguing. She wasn't done with it, not by a long shot, but there were unfortunately other more urgent things to worry about.
See? That small voice in her head said. That's the decision Max made every time.
"So what are Petrastills?" asked Benwolf.
"Silver skinned energy controllers," said Kevin, finally putting down his magazine and getting up out of his chair. Julie's temper flared again as she realized that Kevin must have known about this planet too and never said anything. "They have the ability to neutralize any violent energy reaction. I once saw a dozen of them or so keeping the energy core of a massive pirate star cruiser from going nova."
"Not just neutralize," said Wes Green. "Stabilize. The core of their world is constantly undergoing geomagnetic reversal and much of the worker class is employed in keeping the reversal from happening, due to the catastrophic effect it would have on their ecosystem."
"They keep the planet from being destroyed?" asked Benwolf.
"Not from being destroyed, but from a change that would make it hard to support their people," said Wes.
"And as thanks for that, they're enslaved," said Julie flatly.
"Stabilizing violent energy reactions," said Benwolf idly. He looked down at the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest. "The codon stream is a pretty high energy change. It might be affected by your ability."
"But ... I can't do that," said Kai. "At all, I mean. I've never had any abilities."
"Have you ever tested that?" asked Kevin.
"How could I?" asked Kai, a little flustered. "If I'm doing this I don't even know how!"
"It's probably subconscious," said Kevin. "Your abilities could be latching onto something else you've been thinking about."
"What do you mean?" asked Kai.
"Well, how much have you been thinking about Ben lately?" asked Julie with an arched brow.
Kai looked at Julie and frowned slightly.
"What about Benwolf?" asked Kevin.
Kai swallowed. "Some."
Julie sighed.
"Really? Why?" asked Benwolf.
Julie punched him in the arm.
"Hey! What gives?"
"Try to imagine yourself letting Benwolf go," interrupted Kevin. He walked right up to Kai and stood in front of her. "Picture him like a butterfly in between your palms and then just open them up and release him."
Kai looked a little worried but slowly nodded and closed her eyes. "Like a butterfly being released," she repeated softly.
Benwolf suddenly shifted back into Ben.
Kai opened her eyes and stared. "Woah."
"Well, that answers that," said Kevin. He turned and headed back to his chair and magazine.
Julie stared at Kevin. "How did you know what to do?"
"I've had practice," said Kevin. "And a pretty slick teacher."
"Who?" asked Ben, a little surprised.
"Someone I knew in the Null Void," said Kevin. He looked distant for a moment. "He's gone now." He then shook his head and looked back down at his magazine.
Kai was staring at her hands in disbelief. "I'm ... an alien now?"
"Technically you always were," said Ben.
"But... I mean, I have a... a power."
Ben smiled uneasily. "Yeah, just try to not to use it on me anymore."
Kai lifted her head, her eyes bright with possibility.
"Oh, no," said Ben.
"What was that alien you were during the fight?" asked Kai energetically. "Four Arms you called him?"
"Yeah, bu—"
The rush of change flooded over Ben. He looked down and realized he was taller, muscular, had red skin, and four arms.
"Kai," Four Arms said warningly.
"Wicked!" cheered Kai. She looked at her hands with a broad smile. Then she pointed her finger like a gun at Four Arms. "Ha!" The wave of change turned him back into Benwolf.
"All right now," said Ben. "Please—"
"Wah!"
Now he was Four Arms.
"Kai—"
"Whoo!"
Regular Ben looked back, completely nonplussed. "Knock it off!"
"Pow!" shouted Kai as she pointed again, but this time there was no change. She looked at the tip of her finger. "Aww."
Ben pulled up his sleeve and looked at the Ultimatrix. The face dial was glowing red. "Well, she can't override the recharge cycle, apparently," he said. "Good to know." He looked at Kai. "Don't do that again."
Kai smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I just... I have a power!"
"We noticed," said Julie, devoid of humor.
"What power?"
Julie turned to see Gwen and Charmcaster walk in to the hospital room, looking more than a little tired. The bags under Gwen's eyes were particularly pronounced but Charmcaster didn't look very light in spirits either.
"Where have you two been all morning?" asked Kevin.
"Looking for Brozz," said Charmcaster. "Not with much luck. He's probably left this time and went forward."
"We think we have an idea of how to find him if he does emerge, though," said Gwen. "I can track him using the watch Paradox left behind whenever he's in that form. Assuming there isn't another Paradox running around."
"Another Paradox?" asked Ben.
"From another time," said Gwen. "Since he's a time traveler, it's possible there could be more than one of him in different places at a given moment."
"We think," added Charmcaster hastily.
"We think," nodded Gwen.
"So we just sit on our hands until then?" asked Kevin.
"We still need a way to capture him," said Wes. "Perhaps we can contact Azmuth."
"Good luck with that," said Ben. "He's worse than Paradox when it comes to helping when you want him to."
"What other options do we have?" asked Julie.
"We could drop him into the sun," said Charmcaster.
"Reasonable alternatives, please," said Gwen.
"What's so unreasonable about that?" asked Charmcaster, putting a hand on her hip. "Last time I was able to bind him near permanently into the containment vessel. We could then throw it into the sun where intense gravity would make sure he never gets out even if he survives."
"Except we don't have a containment vessel," said Kevin.
"And Central Command doesn't either," said Phil as he walked into the room with a grim look on his face. "They sent some schematics of what they think Azmuth built through the Plumber network but sixty years hasn't made this thing any easier to construct."
Kevin pulled his plumber badge out of his pocket and activated a holographic display. "Send them to me," he said.
Phil shrugged and pulled out a squared device with a green-tinted screen. He tapped on it three times, each time causing the device to emit a brief, melodic tone. A few seconds later a series of diagrams appeared on Kevin's display.
"Woah," said Kevin. "Titanium reinforced quantum reverberators, level fifteen simitek transponders, chinthium crystals!" He shook his head. "Only Azmuth could causally build something like this."
"I'm guessing that means the parts are rare?" said Ben.
"Rare, expensive, and impossible to find in this quadrant of space," said Kevin. "Azmuth had to been working on this for years just to gather the materials."
"Over ten years," said Phil. "Jeffrey Tennyson first got in contact with Azmuth in 1937 and it took another four years to finalize the design. Then it took seven to build, to which they were in the process of completing when Brozz attacked."
"Part of that time had to be taken up by smuggling equipment to earth," said Wes. "You can't get third level tech here without Central Command oversight. Though I suppose Azmuth could pull strings."
"Not back then he couldn't," said Phil. "Despite his age, Azmuth didn't get involved with the Plumbers until about a hundred years ago. He was still just a brilliant scientist until he built the containment vessel and successfully captured Brozz. Until then, he would have to go through normal channels – which wouldn't allow even one of those parts." He shrugged. "Or, as you said, he could smuggle. I imagine Jeffrey or Xylene helped with that."
"If Tennyson did, I'm impressed," said Kevin. "I consider myself quite resourceful but I don't think I could even get a Chinthium Crystal off the homeworld."
Max and Gwen frowned at Kevin.
"You know, back when I was a smuggler, and not... uh, a Plumber myself." Kevin swallowed, looking particularly unnerved by Gwen's glare.
"Anything else Command tell you?" asked Max, eyeing Phil.
"Uh, well, they're not too thrilled about either of us being jailbroken," started Phil. He motioned towards Charmcaster to his left. "But they've placed us on probation regardless. They 'reminded me' that I'm not allowed to call myself a Plumber under any circumstances either." He looked depressed.
"You're not a Plumber," said Gwen. "That should be obvious."
"I used to be!" said Phil, defensively. "And I... uh, I sorta regret what I did."
"'Sorta'?" asked Gwen.
Phil frowned. "Hey, it's not like I had the whole story, either. He told me the Earth Plumbers were disbanded!" He pointed at Max.
"They were," said Max.
"Yeah, right, and there were no opportunities for transfer?" Phil rolled his eyes. "Then once you had a need for them, you inducted your grandson and his friends but never thought of old Phil."
"Hey, we weren't Plumbers until after you started releasing criminals from the Null Void," said Ben. "And it wasn't Grandpa who made us Plumbers, it was Magister Gilhil."
"What?" said Phil, appearing to honestly be dumbstruck. "How can a Magister recruit Earth Plumbers?"
"The 'Earth Plumbers' we served are still gone, Phil," said Max. "The US government formed their own Alien Contact Unit a few years back when activity began to spike before the DNAlien invasion, but our old group is gone. The galactic Plumbers are still around of course and always have been."
"Semantics," spat Phil. "An easy way to screw a friend out of a job."
"We had no right to be out there, Phil," said Max. "We aren't a space faring culture, not to the level that we should be interacting with the rest of the galaxy on even footing. The purpose of the Earth Plumbers was to keep Earth safe from other aliens until we fell under the 34-315 Protection Act, at which point coming here from other Level 3 or above cultures became illegal."
"You're the one who decided that, Max," said Phil. "Not us. Maybe the government wanted to be free of our expensive division but that didn't mean we didn't have the right to try to move to another sector of space. Did it even occur to you that we didn't all share you humble view of humanity?"
Max looked conflicted for a moment, but his look eventually hardened. "It still doesn't excuse what you did."
"What I—" started Phil then he threw his hands up in the air. "No, it doesn't excuse it. You're right, about that. Except, I've already said that. I didn't make the right choice. I did tarnish the noble legacy we started. I regret it, Max. I was wrong." He pointed his finger towards Max. "But my mistake doesn't erase yours. You didn't have the right to make that choice for me. I'm here now because I'm atoning for what I did. I'm just looking for a sign that you are too."
Phil spun on his heel and walk quickly out of the room, slamming the door open as he passed through it.
Max sighed and shook his head. "Phil, Phil, Phil." He looked up at Wes. "You never felt that way, did you?"
Wes opened his mouth but then hesitated. "I had other things to occupy me at the time. And with Liwanu getting involved with an alien I knew I'd never be far from it. I don't know what I would have thought if I didn't have my son, though."
Max seemed to get older in that instant, his head subtly hung lower down, his shoulders hunched and he seemed just a little frailer to Julie's eyes.
"I don't disagree with you, old friend," added Wes. "We weren't ready to advance to that stage. We're still not ready, though it looks like the choice has been taken from us." He looked towards the Ultimatrix on Ben's wrist. "Either way, you're not responsible for what Phil did."
"Maybe not," said Max. "But maybe I could have avoided it."
The room fell into silence for several minutes and Julie found it uncomfortable to look anyone in the eye directly. After five minutes of this, however, Charmcaster clearly got frustrated.
"I better go find him," said Charmcaster, breaking the silence. "He tends to get in trouble on his own." She nodded to Ben and Gwen and then headed for the door.
"I doubt that we can build this quick enough," said Kevin, having turned back to the schematics. "Even with Azmuth's help."
"Then we have to find another way of capturing him," said Ben. "Or... defeating him permanently."
Julie's eyes widened at the statement from Ben. He seemed very stern and unsettled at the same time. She'd never heard him even imply that they'd have to kill someone before. She wondered how much of that was simply because Ben hid much of his battles from her.
"I'll see if there are any spells that might help," said Gwen. "Something Charmcaster and I can do together that she couldn't do on her own."
"There might be some ancient stories out here on how to deal with Chamatronians," said Kevin. "I'll put the word out, see if anything turns up." He turned off the display on his Plumber's badge and slipped it back into his pocket.
"I'll keep trying with Azmuth," said Ben. "He usually comes around when the Earth is at stake."
"There are other technologically advanced Plumber races," said Max. "I'll see if any of them have any ideas. The Thermians are particularly ingenious once they have a model to follow. Maybe they can improve on Azmuth's design."
Ben, Gwen, and Kevin got up and left the room while Max pulled a circular communicator out of... somewhere. Julie and Kai looked at each other and shrugged.
"Want a coffee?" asked Julie.
"Sure," said Kai.