Pre-chapter Author's Note: I'm truly sorry that I wasn't able to update this story that much over the past few months. Between college, watching and playing Pokemon(on the 3DS, not Pokemon Go), trying to make sense of why Kamen Rider Ex-Aid is video game themed when Zyuohger is already has that motif, to rewatching episodes of Ben 10 Alien Force, trying to get through season one of the show, I don't know if I've said it, but I don't like season one, with the exception of the episodes Paradox, Kevin's Big Score, What Little Girls Are Made Of, and X=Ben+2. My main problem with Alien Force season one was that the vast majority of it took place at night, making details hard to see. But I don't hate it, as it makes sense in context, seeing as they're not on summer vacation, they're saving the world on a school night, and Ben hasn't dropped out of school yet. No joke. I honestly think Ben dropped out of school by the time Omniverse rolled around. We never hear him complain about grades once. Unless he graduated early, which would only make sense if a) The school administrators didn't want to deal with the threat of the school being demolished on a regular basis; or b) Ben's a lot smarter than we give him credit for. *Looks at decisions Ben made during Alien Force season 3 and beyond* I got nothing. Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that with Jack, seeing as he's nineteen, and a senior in highschool. His plans for life after high school changed drastically when he got the Omnitrix back about a year ago IRL, only to go back to some semblance of normal in the aftermath of Shocker's defeat in Team Prime vs Shocker. But as to Jack being older, well that's actually rather minor compared to what I have in store for Beyond Prime(the title for the story that will combine the events of Omniverse and Drive). As to what I mean, I'm dropping a hint in this chapter. It's not gonna be hidden or anything. It's meant to be a joke between the Storyteller and one of the voices in his head(me). Oh shit! I really got off topic. Okay. Now that that's out of the way, on with the show.
Unknown location, nighttime...
A young woman wearing a white blouse and black shorts was standing on the front porch of a large mansion. "Let me in!" She shouted as she banged on the large wooden doors. "I need to see you." She fell to one knee. Her hand slid down the door. "Please."
The lights clicked on. The doors rumbled before creaking as they opened. Inside the mansion, it was dark. It was the perfect cover for the limbless horror that leaped out of the darkness and attacked the woman.
Later, in a suburban neighborhood...
Three teens, one girl and two boys, one of which was the girl's boyfriend, were standing under at the end of a driveway in front of one of their houses.
"So, um, I'll meet you guys at the library after dinner." One of the boys said. "About 7:30?"
Walking towards them was the girl from earlier, only she seemed a lot whiter than usual. Although her skin tone seemed to be more of a grey as opposed to white.
"You better." The girl said as the grey one stumbled towards them. "If I don't get a "B" on my next -" She stopped mid sentence when they heard the groaning that the grey skinned girl made as she staggered towards the three of them. They three young adults gasped and got out of the way, as to allow the creepy girl to walk between them so that they could ignore them.
"Aah!" They shouted as the girl passed them.
If one were to look at the grey one, they would find that her skin seemed to be wrinkled, almost as if she had the life drained out of her. They were black circles around her nearly dead eyes. She continued to wander aimlessly down the sidewalk, groaning as she did.
Meanwhile...
At a convenience store, Jack and Kevin were waiting by the car while Gwen was off doing something else. Kevin was leaning on the side of his car drinking a soda while Jack sat on the curb. He was once again listening to the message he had gotten from his grandfather a few days ago.
"You can't go it alone." The hologram of Max said. "By now you're probably meeting some of the other Plumbers' kids, but you have to find more. You need to put together a team." The message ended. Jack hit the play button to start it again. The disk beeped before the hologram played again. "If you found this message, you must be in pretty deep. There's a lot I can't reveal yet, but here's one thing I can - you can't go it alone. By now you're probably meeting some of the other Plumbers' kids, but you have to find more."
Gwen walked up to Kevin, who started to slurp his soda rather loudly. "Think we should be worried about him? He's been watching that thing for hours." Kevin asked before taking another sip. He slurped his soda before looking at Gwen, who seemed to be displeased. "Problem?"
"Why haven't you asked me out?" Gwen asked.
"What?!" Kevin asked, unsure as to why Gwen was asking this.
"You heard me." Gwen responded. "We spend all of our time together, and you obviously like me." She said. Kevin scoffed, trying to hide the truth to keep up his 'tough guy' facade. "You do."
"I see you mooning at me when you think I'm not looking."
"Mooning?" Kevin was just as confused as I was when it came to the wording the Gwen used.
"And I like you - most of the time." Gwen said, knowing that Kevin was pretty shady. "So I'm asking you again."
"See? That's the problem - you're asking me." Kevin said. Obviously he's never heard of a Sadie Hawkins dance. "A guy does the asking." Again, Sadie Hawkins dance.
{We interrupt this Power of Ten chapter for a breaking of the fourth wall.}
[Story Writer: Hey Storyteller, make sure you tell the kids about the other girl who has a thing for an oblivious guy. You know, the one who's trying to catch them all, but can never seem to get any?]
(Storyteller: Wish I could, but we're not to that point in the story. Could you try to get these chapters out faster than the decay rate of Sulfur-35? Wait. He never claimed to be trying to do that, but I gotta agree with you on that second one.)
[Story Writer: Been trying to. I've been busy is all. Also, let's agree to not bring that second one up ever again.]
(Storyteller: Agreed.)
Rook Sigma: Mister Storyteller, who are you talking to?
(Storyteller: The voice that controls all.)
"Yeah? When?" Gwen asked.
After a few moments of staring at eachother, Kevin responded. "Don't push me."
Gwen glared at Kevin slightly before saying: "Don't push me." In a mocking tone. Gwen then turned and walked off.
Kevin turned his attention to Jack, who was still listening to the message. "Jack."
"There's a lot I can't reveal yet. You can't go it alone." The hologram of Max repeated.
"You know, my dog used to gnaw at a spot on his butt over and over." Kevin said as Jack mindlessly watched the recording, trying to find some sort of meaning to the hologram. "The vet made us put a cone around his neck."
"You need to put together a team." The hologram said before Jack switched the message off.
"Easy does it." Jack said, turning his head to face Kevin. "I'm not the one you're mad at." He stood up and walked over to the trio's ride.
"Cut me a break here." Kevin said. "You want to go fight some aliens or something?" Kevin asked, wanting to do something else.
"Or something." Jack said, holding out his hand. "Let me see your Plumber's badge."
Kevin handed Jack the Omnitrix dial shaped device to Jack. He pressed the button that projected a map of the city and the nearby area. On it were several dots that were blinking.
"Each of these blips shows the location of another badge."
"Yep." Kevin leaned in to see the map more close up.
"And where there's a Plumber's badge, we'll find a Plumber - or, at least, a Plumber's kid." Jack pocketed the badge and got in passenger seat of Kevin's muscle car. "Come on. You're driving."
Before Kevin went to get in, he looked to see Gwen leaning against a lamp pole.
"You coming?" Kevin asked. Gwen turned her head. She walked over to the car and got in without saying a word.
Later, on the road...
"Plumber." Gwen said while Kevin focused on the road while Jack focused on the map. "Plumber, Plumber, Plumber." She repeated. "You ever notice that if you say a word enough times, it loses its meaning?" She asked, leaning forward a bit. "Like a chance to ask someone out." She said rather snarkily. "Every time that chance comes along, it has less and less meaning, until you don't have the chance anymore at all."
Kevin was beginning to get annoyed by Gwen's passive aggressive complaining, his eyes showing more and more frustration as she went on. "Oh, for crying out loud."
Turning his head to look at Gwen, Jack asked: "Are you guys having a fight?" That had been one of the few times in the past half hour where he had looked up from the map.
As they drove down the highway, a black girl walked down the sidewalk. She was going towards the long bridge that the that the Tennyson duo and Kevin were currently on.
Unsteady on her feet, the young woman's legs shook rapidly before they gave out. Fortunately, she was able to steady herself, but sadly, she had unconsciously turned to the left and started walking out into traffic.
The horn of a car blared as the driver of that car swerved suddenly to avoid ramming into her. The driver of that car drove off without incident, no doubt swearing about those 'god damn teenagers.'
However, the next vehicle to head in her direction would not be as easy to avoid.
Rolling around a turn in the road was a cab over engine style tractor trailer. The driver gasped when he saw the girl in the road. Turning the steering wheel rapidly, the tires screech as he fought to turn his rig so that he wouldn't have the death of a human on his conscious. However, it seems he thought too hard, as evident by the truck leaving the surface of the road and sliding into the support pillar that held a bridge up.
Traffic stopped when the road started to collapse. As parts of the bridge started to slowly crumble away, the occupants of the cars that they were on were stuck on there with no way of safely getting out of harm's way.
Jack, Gwen, and Kevin ran out of Kevin's car, which had stopped at the end of the group of cars that had yet to cross over the bridge. They ran over to the guard rail and saw what had happened.
They couldn't see it from their vantage point, nor could they hear it, but while they observed the disaster area, the driver of the crashed semi truck was breathing heavily. Kevin ran off to a ladder used for maintenance and sprinted over to the truck. Jack saw the bridge give way slightly, which caused one of the cars to slid towards the edge. "Gwen!" He shouted.
His cousin went into action instantly. She ran towards the collapsing section of bridge on platforms of mana.
She didn't make it to the car in time. The barrier gave way and the car fell. "Aaaaaah!" The young couple screamed as their vehicle fell.
"Heyah!" Gwen grunted as she generated a smooth plane of mana that allowed the car to slide down gently to the ground.
As the bridge collapsed more and more, people exited their cars, all the while motorists continued to drive past the crashed semi with no regard for the danger that they were placing themselves in.
The people who exited their cars walked towards Gwen. Suddenly, a section of concrete gave way, causing the man standing upon it to fall, but not before Gwen caught him with a slide of mana that she used to get him to ground level. The people used the suddenly appearing ramp to get off the bridge, as in this scenario, one would be large idiot to argue with good fortune.
The Omnitrix beeped as Jack selected one of his aliens. He turned the dial until he got to one that would probably help out. "Humungousaur!" The Vaxasaurian announced. He grunted as he jumped off of the bridge and landed on the ground before turning and heading down to the overpass and then headed to the part of the overpass that was suffering the most damage. He increased his size to hold the bridge up, the process of which was being caught on video by an unknown person.
Kevin, over at the the semi truck, turned his arms into steel before using his enhanced strength to pull the roof of the cab off.
Humungousaur grunted as the job got harder and harder for him to accomplish. "Get everyone down. I can't hold this together much longer." He said to Gwen.
As Gwen helped people off of the bridge, Gwen looked and saw the girl who had been the cause of this accident. "The girl!" She shouted.
"Jack!" Kevin shouted as he lifted the driver out of the cab.
"Handsfull!" Humungousaur grunted.
A man was driving down the road at the highway's normal speed limit. He gasped when he saw the girl just standing out in the middle of the street. He blared his horn as he slammed on the brakes. But that wouldn't be enough. He was gonna run her down. Or he would if she wasn't caught by a flying man who wore black, brown, and tan. He was flying not by mechanical means, but rather mystical ones, as evident by an aura that radiated around him that glowed the color of his hair, an electric gold.
When Humungousaur and Gwen saw what had happened, they looked at the flying man with awe. Admittedly, it's not something they're used to seeing. Flying robots, pretty normal for them. Flying aliens, Jack at one point could turn into several of those.
Kevin however was still getting the driver of the semi truck out of his rig, which was starting to catch fire. He had to work fast in order to get the driver to safety.
The last people were sliding down the ramp that Gwen made. When the last bystander was clear, Gwen said: "Everyone's okay."
Humungousaur grunted before he let the bridge collapse behind him, making sure to keep it from crushing any civilians. Knowing from multiple past experiences involving burning vehicles, Humungousaur allowed the rubble from the bridge to fall onto the burning big rig, proving that rock beats fire.[Hmmm I just got an idea. Be back in a sec. There. The first chapter of SCPT Secure Contain Protect Transform should be uploaded by now. Chapter one is gonna be on SCP-2984.] Humungousaur shruck back down to his normal size before reverting back to Jack. The teen ran over to where the flying man, named Michael Morningstar, landed.
The girl was sitting on the ground, he back held up by Michael. She opened her eyes and said with a stutter: "I-I have to get out of here. I was running, and I -" Her voice then became to shaky to understand.
"It's okay, Trina." Michael said, trying to reassure his friend [I hope Trina's his friend] that things were gonna be alright. "You're safe now. These guys saved you."
Always one to give credit to those who deserve it, Jack said: "Your friend's the one who saved you. He's just being modest."
After making sure that Trina could keep herself stable, Michael stood up and approached the Tennysons and their pet juvenile delinquent. "Whoever you guys are, whatever you are, thanks. Something strange has been happening to the girls at our school lately."
"Glad to help." Jack said. "We made a good team out there." Jack noticed something that was on Michael's waste. "You've got a Plumber's badge."
Michael tilted the badge up to view it. "Yeah, my dad gave it to me." Michael explained. "You guys know about the Plumbers?"
"At this point, we may as well be them." Kevin pulled the badge that he got off of Labrid's body out of his pocket.
"I'm Jack. This is Kevin and my cousin Gwen." Jack said while pointing at the two who were helping him in his hero work.
"Wait." Michael said. "Jack as in Jack Tennyson?" The half alien young adult was having a bit of a restrained fanboy moment. He approached Jack and raised his hand. "I am a huge fan of yours." The two of them shook hands. "But I heard you disappeared." Michael explained. "I'm Mike Morningstar." He shook hands with Kevin and then Gwen, the latter causing a rather strange reaction that caused literal sparks to come off of their hands.
"Oh! Wow." Gwen said in a manner that was less 'What the hell just happened?' but rather more along the lines of 'that was a thing.' Regardless, she responded in the absolute wrong way.
"That's never happened before." Michael said, making it rather convincing that he was confused.
"Maybe it's because we both have powers?" Gwen reasoned.
With a raised brow, Michael responded with: "That's a theory." It's a bad theory, but a theory nonetheless.
"Anyway, now that we all met." Kevin said in a manner that suggested that wanted to get done with this as soon as possible.
Glancing in Kevin's direction, Michael scowled slightly. "I should make sure Trina gets home okay." The group turned to see Trina rubbing her head. "But after that, why don't we meet up at my place and talk?" He asked.
"Sure." Jack said, giving Michael a thumbs up Kuuga style.
"Sounds good." Gwen shared her cousin's enthusiasm.
Due to Kevin's response of: "Can't wait." one could say that he was at least less than eager to go to this guy's house. Kevin scoffed as Michael walked over to Trini. He picked her up and flew off.
A strange, star shaped tattoo like mark was present on Trini's arm. However, said marking would be unnoticable under most circumstances.
Later, at the Morningstar estate...
"Mom and her new husband live in the main house." Michael explained as he led Jack and the gang past a large mansion. "They leave me alone, let me do what I want." Michael said after opening up the front door to a smaller mansion that was still pretty big if you compare it to the average house.
"Cool." Jack said, showing both his interest in Michael's situation where his mom wasn't bearing down on him like June did with him (although lately, June's let Jack off the leash so to speak). But Jack was also admiring the scale of Michael's house, it seeming incredibly big, with plenty of space.
"After you." Michael said, letting Gwen and Jack get in before slamming the door on Kevin, but as to whether or not it was intentional was unclear.
"Ugh!" Kevin groaned as the door struck him. He opened the door and stormed in, rubbing his nose while groaning: "Nice." under his breath. He slammed the door then followed the others.
The trio was lead to a large room that was set up as a sort of command center. "What is all this stuff?" Jack asked after looking around.
"Some of my dad's Plumber's gear." Michael responded. "I brought it over from his headquarters." He then leaned in towards Gwen slightly and said: "I could take you there later if you want."
"We'd all like to see it." Jack said, not taking into account Kevin's disdain for Michael.
"It'd make my day." Kevin half hissed, half growled.
"Here - let me show you something." Michael to hold of Gwen's wrist and guider her to what appeared to be a holographic screen. On it were various operations that were performing tasks of various levels of uselessness, as the computer wasn't in use at the moment."
While Michael walked Gwen over to the screen, Kevin looked at Michael with a mix of anger and jealousy.
"I'm patched into the central Plumbers monitoring network." Michael explained. He turned away from the trio to focus on the computer. "It's connected to everything - global and interplanetary internet, Earthbound law-enforcement frequencies - oh, and, of course, the badge communicator channel."
"Communicator channel?" Kevin asked, not knowing that the badges could function like that.
"Yeah. You did know the badges are communicators, didn't you?" Michael was unaware that technically, Kevin had stolen the badge that he was using.
Kevin remained quiet, not responding to the question.
Gwen broke the silence. "So, you keep an eye on things with this stuff and use your powers to help people?" She asked. "You're like your neighborhood's very own superhero."
"Never thought of it that way," Michael shrugged. "but I guess so."
"You know what I'm thinking?" Jack asked. He walked over to Michael and Gwen.
"I know what I'm thinking." Kevin grumbled.
"You should join our team." Jack offered. Hearing this caused a slight grin to appear on Michael's face.
"Don't you think we should - I don't know - get to know this guy a little more?" Kevin stumbled in his speech due to his distrust of Michael.
Jack on the other hand felt as though Kevin's fears were unfounded. "What's to know?" Jack asked. "He's got the powers. He's got the gear."
"He's got a sparkly trail when he flies." Kevin added, though one could question why that was brought up.
Jack added one more thing to his side of the argument. "And it's what grandpa told us to do." Jack turned to Michael and explained what he meant. "My Grandpa Max was a Plumber, and he disappeared looking into this big alien conspiracy that's going on against Earth." Jack said. "We're trying to find him so we can stop it. Want to help?"
Michael looked at Gwen, who smiled when he saw her. He responded with: "I'd love to."
An electric whirring was heard as the lights flickered. After several seconds of that, they went off, but came back on seconds later.
"Forgot to pay your electric bill?" Kevin asked in a mocking way.
"The electricity's been a little undependable lately." Michael explained. "No worries. My backup generator kicked in."
Jack knew that something wasn't quite right. "This isn't a brownout. Look at this spike in power usage at the local power substation." Jack said, pointing to the monitor. "The energy drain is enormous."
Michael was unaware that Jack had knowledge of such things and responded by asking: "Really?"
"You said something strange was happening in town. This definitely qualifies." The teen hero said.
"If you need to check it out, we'll help." Gwen said, offering to tag along.
"Thanks." Michael grinned. "We should."
As the four were about to exit the computer room and make their way out of the mansion, Gwen noticed in the corner of her eye, a blue mark on her right forearm. She turn her arm to see a blue circle that in the middle of it was an area that was shaped like an eight pointed star that was unmarked skin. Gwen gasped when she saw the marking.
Later at the substation...
Approaching a gate that had keep out sign, Jack grabbed the padlock that was attached to a chain. Normally it was supposed to be locked, but it wasn't. Someone, or something was at the power plant.
"Stay sharp. We've got company." Jack explained, keeping his voice soft to keep the element of surprise.
The sound of buzzing was heard. However, it wasn't bugs that were doing the buzzing, it was more electic in nature.
"Sounds like that buzzing sound you always hear in old monster movies." Michael said.
"Any time you hear a sound and your only reference is monster movies, it's a good idea to walk the other way." Kevin responded.
"Good rule of thumb." Jack said. "I'll keep that in mind next time Miko tells me she heard something in the base.
The buzzing intensified as the four of them made their way to the source of the noise. It reached it loudest when they got to a corner and saw a girl standing between what looked like two tesla coils, getting zapped by electricity while her arms were held up like lightning rods. The girl wore a white blouse and a black skirt. Her skin was grey and wrinkly and her hair black.
She removed her hands from the bolts of electricity when she saw Jack and co. She bent her back, couched a bit and groaned. She turned to the right and dashed over to a generator. She grabbed a hold of it and picked it up and lifted it over her head and threw it at Jack and the others.
Gwen stepped forward and waved her hand, creating a barrier of mana that she used to block the object from crushing the group.
Gwen stepped back when the, voodoo zombie girl started to walk towards them. She was joined by three more, who seemed to come out of nowhere. The four zombies grew nearer towards the heroes.
"The girls here - kind of weird." Jack said as the girls grew closer towards them.
"They're wearing uniforms from my school, but I don't recognize them." Michael added.
One of the girls grabbed a signpost and with a bit of effort, managed to pull it out of the ground. She was gonna use it as a weapon against the four.
Michael held out his hands and fired energy bolts at the girls' feet, they golden rays knocking them back a bit.
"Energy bolts - nice!" Jack was impressed with what Michael could do.
"Try not to hurt them!" Michael shouted. "Maybe we can reverse this whatever it is." He seemed all too eager to safeguard what were basically monsters that were most likely gonna kill them and consume their flesh. A thought that was most likely running through Kevin's mind.
All four of the girls hissed as they ran at the heroes. The one who was armed squng her makeshift mace at Kevin.
"Try not to hurt them?" Kevin asked with frustration as he narrowly avoided getting struck by the chunk of concrete.
Michael flew off. Gwen used a band of mana to toss the girl that attacked her away.
Jack ducked to avoid being clawed by one of them. He rolled to the side and got up to put some distance between himself and his attacker.
The one that was attacking Kevin kept swinging the pipe at him, none of the hits connecting.
Kevin was back against a pipe. While the girl got ready to swing at him again, Kevin touched the pipe and took on its properties. She swung at Kevin. The pipe only shook him abit. Kevin then grabbed the pipe in his metal hand and shook it, knocking the girl to the ground.
Jack's left arm was being grabbed by one of them. He was being forced back towards a generator, but he kicked his attacked off of him. Jack had his back towards the generator while his attacker was merely dazed.
She screeched before running him. Jack got out of the way, and he was glad he did. She punched the fuze box, her fist going right through it. With equal ease, she pulled the lid off of the fuze box and flung it to the side. She grabbed one of the cables and walked towards Jack with the sparking wire.
He activated the Omnitrix and transformed.
"Chromastone!" Jack announced in his crystalsapien form. The girl touched the cable to Cromastone's body, but it wasn't doing anything. "That's not going to work. I'm a conductor." Chromastone grabbed hold of the arm that held the cable. Due to that form's chemical properties, Chromastone was able to send the voltage of the cable through his arm and into whatever he touched, which zapped the zombie girl, and sent her back. When she landed, she gasped and wheezed a bit before passing out.
Michael was in the air, a golden aura surrounding him. He fired bolts of energy out of his hands at two of the zombies who were running towards Gwen.
The redhead grabbed them with four streams of mana which tied them up. However, that wouldn't work for long.
As Gwen's hand shook, the magenta beams turned to black, starting from around the two girls and heading to Gwen's hand. The binds crumbled, dropping the two that she had tried to restrain to the ground.
Gwen groaned as her legs gave out due to the power drain. Michael saw this and flew over to catch her to stop her from smashing her head on the concrete.
"Are you alright?" Michael asked while he helped Gwen back to her feet.
Gwen rubbed the side of her head while saying: "I don't know. I-I felt weak for a second." She looked at Michael. "I feel better now."
Michael glew gold. He grasped Gwen's hand with both of his. "Here - hold my hand. Use my energy."
Both of them were bathed in a golden aura that emanated in the space around them.
The two zombified girls hissed at Gwen and Michael before they charged at them. Gwen thrust her left hand forward, flinging twin bolts of mana at the two, sending them a good distance and knocking them off their feet.
Michael took air at a collection of ventilation pipes that were above the two girls. He fired a bolt of gold energy at it, causing a large amount of debris to fall between the two girls and Gwen and Michael. The feral teens hissed before turning and high tailed it out of there.
Kevin saw that the two of them were fleeing, and like most people knew that that was a bad thing. "Aw, nice going. They're getting away." He groaned, pointing at the fleeing duo.
"Sorry." Michael responded with a strange lack of concern.
Chromastone walked up to the three of them before reverting back to his human state. "It's okay. We all make mistakes." Jack said. "The important thing is, we stopped them from doing whatever it is they were doing." Jack said that with a rather unsteady word flow due to the confusion he had as to why they had even attacked to begin with. Kevin raised an eyebrow in mild frustration. "We'll get better as we work together more."
Turning to face Gwen, Michael said in response to Jack's statement: "We do make a good team."
Gwen rather simply responded with an: "Uh-huh."
Kevin came up to Gwen. "What happened just now?" He asked, showing aggressive concern. "You looked like you were gonna faint."
Gwen glanced at Kevin for a few seconds before responding to Michael. "I can't thank you enough for helping me."
"You could if you had dinner with me."
"Right now?" Gwen asked.
"I'm hungry now. How about you?"
"I was just gonna suggest the same thing."
Kevin glared at Morningstar. He kinda lost his cool. "Okay. What is up with you? You've been ignoring me ever since we got here, you were lousy in the fight, and now you're just acting goofy." Kevin vented.
"Why are you pretending to care?" Gwen mocked. She and Michael walked off. "Later."
"You just gonna stand there?" Kevin asked Jack as he just stood there and did nothing while that happened.
"No, I was going to go sit in the car." Jack said before walking away from Kevin.
Kevin fast walked to catch up to Jack. "I don't trust this guy, and I don't think you should have been so quick to make him one of the team."
Jack turned his head to to face Kevin. He had a grin on his face. "Admit it - you're just jealous because Gwen likes him."
"You know what? It's fine." Kevin said, a smile forming on his face.
Back at Michael's house.
Kevin and Jack exited the car. Kevin went up the steps and approached the door. Knowing that Michael most likely locked the door to his house, Kevin touched the doorknob and turned his hand into the metal that it wa made of. He stuck his now metal finger into the key hole and wiggled it around, trying to pick the lock.
Jack was actually shocked at what Kevin was doing. "This is why you changed your mind about Mike going off with Gwen - so we could spy on him?"
"Yep." Came Kevin's reply.
"Well just stop!" Jack loudly groaned.
"He ain't right, Jack." Kevin said. "You and the bots should know to not trust the new guy." Kevin brought up the incident with the fake Wheeljack. "And if you're not gonna check him out, I will."
"You're going about this the wrong way Kevin." Jack grabbed ahold of Kevin's forearm and dragged him away from the door. "Step away from the door and we can have Fowler looked at the guy."
Kevin was frustrated with how Jack was acting. "You really want to fight me over some new guy? That's how you're gonna build a team?" The door creaked as it opened. "And they said I didn't learn anything in prison."
"Kevin!" Jack hissed at Kevin.
"Is Mike home?" Jack and Kevin turned to see Trina, the girl that caused a massive traffic accident stumble into the light of a street lamp. "He hasn't called me back since you and that new girl showed up."
Kevin and Jack looked at each other then back to the teen. "Uh, Trina, right?" Trina nodded.
"Yeah, Morningstar ain't here right now." Trina took two steps forward. Her head tilted. Kevin had to come up with something that justified breaking into someone's house. "We're just picking up some stuff for him." Jack had an awkward smile on his face.
"Then you know where he is. Can you take me?" Trina asked, her voice showing desperation. She had walked up the steps and held out her hand, her arm shaking.
Jack had seen what addiction looked like due to his mom bringing him to work several times in the past. "No!" He shouted sharply. "I mean he's busy." He said in a softer, yet still firm tone.
Trina was very determined. "I need to see him." She said. "Why won't he see me?" To some, it was like Trina needed, or thought she needed to be around Morningstar.
Kevin looked at Trina's arm and saw the strange tattoo that was on Gwen. "Where did you get those marks on your arm?" Trina glanced to the right then shrugged. Kevin brought Jack closer and whispered: "I saw those same marks on that zombie girl that tried to tenderize me."
"I just want to see Mike." Trina moaned.
"Yeah, I get that." Kevin fumed at Trina. "Call me crazy, but is it possible Morningstar's the one making these girls this way?" He asked Jack.
Jack looked up before saying: "You're crazy."
Kevin glanced over his shoulder and saw that Trina had gotten closer. "'Scuse us." He and Jack went to the far end of the porch. "Look, it didn't really hit me till just now, but Gwen's been wearing her sleeves lower than usual. She was hiding something."
Jack looked at Trina and saw that her arms were covered in those marks. "You're saying Gwen has marks like that on her arms?"
Trina walked past Kevin and Jack and went into Michael's house.
"I didn't see them for sure, but it makes sense."
Jack paced back and forth while he thought it over. "Come to think of it, Trina was all weak and wobbly when we first saw her on the highway." In his mind, Jack was beginning to think that Kevin was right. "Gwen was the same way at the power plant. Gwen might have caught whatever bug is doing this."
"Yeah. And the bug's name is Mike Morningstar."
Meanwhile at a castle like structure that was built on a river.
Michael and Gwen were on their 'date'. Inside the castle, Gwen stood near the window overlooking the lake. Michael was at the top of a set of stairs.
"I'm really glad we met, Gwen." Morningstar said as he walked down.
"Me too." Gwen responded.
"I knew there was something special about you the first time we met." Michael said as he approached Gwen.
"I felt it, too."
"And now all those other girls mean nothing." Michael reached to grab Gwen's arms, only now in the palm of his hand there was a strange circular area that seemed like an additional mouth. It was read with what resembled white teeth.
Gwen gasped as energy was being sucked out of her and into Morningstar.
"Your energy is like nothing I've ever felt before." An evil grin formed on Michael's face. "When it flows into me, I feel invincible. Gwen closed her eyes as she and Michael were bathed in a golden aura. "From the moment I touched you, Gwen, I knew I'd found the only girl I'd ever need."
Michael had shown his true colors. Not those of a gentleman, but rather those of a charming serial killer, one who was merely using his charm to lure his victims into a trap.
Meanwhile, on the road...
Kevin and Jack were drivng to where they thought Morningstar and Gwen were. Kevin was deadset on taking him down, but Jack was still sceptical. "Fact is, you've been against Morningstar since the minute we met him." Jack said in protest to Kevin's behavior.
Kevin agreed with Jack, if only partially. "Yeah, but at first, it was just 'cause he's an arrogant, bragging rich kid."
"Who Gwen likes more than she likes you." Jack added.
"Yeah, some of that, but now Gwen's in trouble, and you're too stuck on following your grandpa's instructions to see it." Kevin said, telling Jack why he's wrong.
"If Mike's turning those girls into creatures, why isn't Trina one?" Jack asked.
Kevin then responded with: "I don't know! M-maybe it's like a vampire thing. Maybe it takes a while before they go all-zombie."
Jack remained unconvinced. "Are you listening to yourself?" He asked. "Mike's been helping us ever since we got here." Jack then brought up Morningstar's most recent actions. "Why did he fight them with us?"
Kevin smirked then said: "Ah, but he didn't, remember?" Kevin then explained to Jack what Michael did during that incident. "He told us not to hurt them. Then he accidentally blasted into the pipes and let them get away."
"Even if you're right, we don't know where they went for dinner." Jack had forgotten about the one thing that could track Michael without fail. "How are we supposed to find her?"
"Easy - we find him." Kevin held up his plumber badge and projected the map. He began heading towards the location that was closest to him.
Soon...
Jack and Kevin had come to the building that Michael and Gwen were at.
"The highway we found Trina on is that way." Kevin pointed down the tree lined road. "She didn't just wander out there by coincidence. She was trying to get away from Morningstar."
"Okay. Let's take a break from the crazy theories and just check on Gwen, okay?" Jack asked. He and Kevin walked away from the structure, heading in by walking down a flight of stairs.
Gwen and Morningstar were at the opposite end of the room. Only Gwen wasn't doing too good. Gwen's skin was grey and shriveled. She wasn't dead, just, empty. Michael had been syphoning energy out of her to such an extent that his physical appearance had changed. His skin turned gold due to the amount of power that was flowing through him.
"Gwen!" Kevin shouted as he and Jack ran to Gwen and Morningstar.
After hearing this, Morningstar set Gwen down gently, causing her to exhale heavily. Michael fired at Jack, his overcharge beams knocking Jack down.
"Get away from her!" Kevin kneeled down and touched the ground. His body took on the ground's properties. Morningstar fired a golden energy bolt at Kevin, knocking him off his feet and tossing him back. However, despite the force of the blow, Kevin was for the most part okay due to his stone skin.
Morningstar took aim at Jack. Right as he fired, Jack activated the Omnitrix and transformed into one of his alien forms. "Jetray!" The red manta ray like alien said as he flew away from the energy bolt before it hit.
As the Aerophibian flew up to try to get out of Morningstar's line of sight, the half alien took aim at him and fired, a beam of golden energy at Jetray, which the agile alien managed to avoid before returning fire by blasting Michael with bioenergy that was projected from his eyes and tail. It struck the hybrid, but Michael was unfazed by the blow.
"Go away!" Michael shouted as he sent a bolt of gold lightning back at Jetray. The Aerophibian was knocked out of the air and landed on the ground where he was forced to revert back to his human state. Jack groaned as he sat up. "Gwen's mine now." Jack looked up to see Morningstar floating above him, a bolt of energy aimed at him ready to be fired.
"Hey!" Michael looked up to see Kevin lunge at him. Kevin tackled Morningstar to the gorund. He threw a punch at the half alien youth, but the golden skinned one moved his head out of the way to avoid being hit. Michael reached up and grabbed Kevin's face. He flew up and then quickly dove down to the ground, dragging Kevin against the concrete. He then tossed Kevin, sending him cratering into the rock floor. Kevin got up and ran at Morningstar. He threw a punch, but that was effortlessly dodged. Kevin threw two more before Michael struck Kevin's face, causing the Osmosian to stumble back. Following up with as series of light punches, bits and pieces of Kevin's armor began to crack off. Michael fired a beam of energy at Kevin, removing the last bit of armor from him before knocking him back, causing Kevin to land near a half unconscious Jack.
"You're out of your league." Michael said as he flew back to where Gwen was lying down. "Why use your powers to help people when you can use them to get whatever you want?" He held his arms out as several of the zombie girls entered into the room from a set of doors behind Morningstar.
The girls groaned as they approached Morningstar and Gwen.
"All I ever wanted was power." Michael monologued. "And then you brought me Gwen."
Gwen groaned when she heard her name. She opened her eyes and saw what Michael was doing.
"Guess I should thank you." He looked up and saw a massive stone block that was on the ceiling above Jack and Kevin. "I know the perfect thing." He took aim at the block with his hands and fired a beam at it, but his arm was grabbed, causing the beam to disappear mid shot. He looked to see that Gwen had taken ahold of his arm and had woken up. Gwen stood up and grabbed onto both of Morningstar's arms. White light surrounded the two of them. "What are you doing?" Michael asked as he knew something bad was going to happen to him.
"Coming to my senses." Gwen said. The gold began to flake off of Michael as the color returned to Gwen's skin. But that wasn't the full extent to what was happening. Michael pointed one of his hands at Gwen, but the energy that he shot went up and avoided hitting Gwen.
"Stop this!" Michael panicked, losing control of the situation. "Aaaaaaaaah! Unh!" Michael was knocked off his feet and crashed on the ground.
Gwen turned around and saw Kevin and Jack. She ran up to them to try to help them up. "Kevin!" She shouted as she ran. She knelt down next to Kevin and helped him up. Jack sat up and rubbed his head. Kevin had a smile on his face when he saw Gwen.
Michael scowled when he looked at Gwen and Kevin. Michael hadn't walked away from this encounter scot free, his hair was now bone white and his skin was a dead looking grey as opposed to the peach that it used to be. "Girls Come here to me." Michael ordered what he assumed were still his servants under his control. The zombified girls approached him. "Give me your power. Help me. Feed me."
They all hissed at Morningstar when the approached him. The zombies grabbed onto him and dragged him to the ground.
"What? Wait! No!" Michael was mortified as he felt the last bit of energy drain out of him. "Aah! Aah! Aaaaaah!" In a flash of white light, the girls, who were now back to normal, were tossed back, landing on they backs. Besides a few bumps and bruises, they would be alright. They stood up and looked down at the one who had them under his control.
Morningstar looked like he had been aged many years. His hair was starting to fall out and his skin was wrinkled. He gasped as he layed on the ground.
Kevin, Gwen and Jack stood up and turned their attention Morningstar. Kevin stood up and walked over to where Michael laid. Jack and Gwen looked at each other and didn't know what Kevin might do to him.
He grabbed the plumber's badge that was on Michael's belt. "You don't deserve this." He said before turning his fist and arm into steel, allowing him to shatter the badge. He dropped it to the ground by Michael's head.
Later...
As the trio drove off, Jack broke the silence between the three of them. "Listen, guys. I'm sorry I took Morningstar's side over yours" He said to Kevin. Before turning his head to face Gwen. "And, more important, that I wasn't watching your back."
Gwen knew that her cousin's apology was genuine, but wanted to assure him that the blame wasn't all his. "It wasn't your fault. I guess Morningstar had some kind of control over me."
"It was my fault. I was in such a hurry to build our team, I ignored the danger." Jack said in spite of Gwen's sympathy. "If I'm going to be a good leader, I'm going to need to show better judgment."
"If you're gonna be a good leader, you need to stop sounding like such a jerk." Kevin said in agreeance with Jack, while using that as an excuse to make fun of him.
"Kevin!" Gwen didn't appreciate Kevin's criticism of Jack.
"No, that's okay. He's right - I'm a jerk." Jack agreed, mostly so that what he said next was dropped on Kevin with maximum bluntness. "So, Kevin, when you gonna ask Gwen out?"
Chapter end
Author's note: Sorry again that this took a while.