Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Before the Egg Cracks
Chapter Six: Everyone Fights in the Library
Gwendolyn looked exceedingly frustrated when Ben walked back into the -still mostly destroyed- kitchen later to make a smoothy. She was in the process of packing up her book and candles. The supplies she'd brought over to preform her time travel spell. He also noticed a decisive lack of Devlin. So, the boy still hadn't been recovered.
"I'm guess you didn't have much luck contacting Spanner." He concluded.
She paused in placing her candles in a box and glared up at him. "We remember Spanner coming to get him, so -obviously- Spanner got the message eventually. He just hasn't brought him back yet."
"Right, well," Ben assumed she would want to wait until Devlin was returned, "want a smoothy?"
The sorceress did not look pleased by the offer. If anything, she looked more annoyed. "Ben, do you remember who else showed up when Spanner came to collect Devlin?"
"No...?" He began. Thought. Remembered. "Oh! Right!"
"What did you do with the Null Grenade we put Maltruant in?" She demanded very, very calmly.
The Hero of the Universe gave an unconcerned shrug. Maltruant was a time traveling bad guy. There was no reason to assume that the same Maltruant who attacked them eleven years ago was the same Maltruant that attacked them today. It could have easily been the Maltruant native to that time, or another Maltruant from even father in the future. "I gave it to Grandpa Max to put in the Null Void."
"You didn't take care of it yourself." Gwendolyn concluded.
"Hey, I've finally learned to delegate." Ben scoffed.
"Grandpa is in his nineties. He should be taking mid-day naps and complaining about modern contemporary media." She reminded him. "Not cleaning up your alien messes for you."
Ben pouted with irritation. "Look, I get that it's your son that's missing and you're 'Maternal Insanity' mode, but can you chill for, like, five minutes."
No sooner had these words escaped the Hero's mouth than another explosion rocked the Headquarters.
Gwendolyn crossed her arms over her chest. "You were saying."
They ran to the Null Void chamber to find Max down on the ground, trying to push himself back up using his prosthetic arm, while coughing into his other hand. Both Hero and sorceress ran to his side.
"Are you alright!?" Asked Gwendolyn.
"What happened?" Ben wanted to know.
Max coughed again. "Subdora and Exo-Skull showed up. They freed Maltrunat before I could put in him in the Void. He escaped. I think he went back in time."
...
Rook was frying eggs -normal terrestrial chicken eggs- when Ben finally emerged from the bedroom. The Revonnahgander had let his partner take the bed while he slept on the living room couch.
Ben shambled into the living room and flopped down on that very couch -which had been made back up so neatly one couldn't tell anyone had slept on it the previous night. Then again, Rook always was meticulous and neat.
Speaking on his neatness, the Revonnahgander came out of the kitchen with a cloth napkin and laid it over Ben's lap. Then he set up a TV tray for the Hero of the Universe before disappearing back into the kitchen to fetch a place setting -fork and knife (with a second napkin, because this was Ben he was serving). Next came the actual food. Fried eggs, served with low-sodium bacon, toast, and a glass of orange juice. Rook was a very accommodating host.
"What's all this?" Ben could only blink at the spread laid out in front of him.
"Breakfast." Rook blinked back at the Hero. "You are not still drunk are you?"
"What? Oh, no. I was sober by the time I got up at midnight to pee." He looked back down at the food in front of him, then picked up his fork. "Ya know, no counting my parents and Grandpa Max, I don't think anyones ever made breakfast for me. Ever. Kai doesn't even cook for me -even when she is home. We usually just order take out or delivery."
He went for the bacon first. Taking a bite of the crispy, thick sliced, strip -then moaned with appreciation.
Once again, if Rook had come from a species that colored with their emotions as humans did, he would have blushed at the unspoken complement. As much of a handful as Ben was, as annoying, immature, self-centered, and slow to learn a lesson as Ben was, Rook liked making him happy.
"Ya know, I'm a little jealous of Rayona." Ben commented through a mouth full of bacon and eggs.
"Why?" Rook blinked. He hadn't thought of her in years.
"Well, you're still planning on marrying her, right? I'm jealous that she'll get to eat your great cooking every day."
"Right. That." That wasn't going to happen. Suddenly, Rook found that he didn't know what to say. So he did what he always did when Ben got him all twisted up into knots and he didn't know what to do or say. He retreated into the job. Their job. The one thing they would always share even if they weren't partners anymore. "Should we call Headquarters and see if any other mysterious travelers from the future have appeared?"
Ben was sipping the orange juice. He swallowed. Wiped his mouth. Scoffed. "I'm sure they would have called us already if that were the case. What we should actually do is go over the Gwendolyn's and see how Kevin's doing. See how bad his hangover is. Maybe take a few photos for blackmail material."
That was his immaturity talking.
"Or to check and see how the boy is doing." Rook reminded him. "Since he seemed very insistent of Kevin's villainy, he may not have felt very comfortable or at ease sharing a domicile with him."
"With Gwendolyn there? Nah." He snorted at his partner's concerns. "As soon as he sees her put the smackdown on Kevin, the Kid will know who the boss in that relationship is."
"I suppose..." The Revonnahgander did have to admit that Gwendolyn did have a very authoritative way of managing her mate and his mercurial moods. She was a very formidable woman. Then again, one had to be formidable to be a member of Ben's Team. Gwendolyn was probably the only female on Earth whom could handle Kevin Levin. Of course, Kevin Levin was formidable in his own right -also being a member of Ben's Team- and so, he was probably the only male on Earth capable of handling Gwendolyn Tennyson-Levin. ...No wonder their future child had sever emotional problems. With parents like them...
Ben scraped the last of the bacon and eggs crumbs off his plate and onto the toast, then bit into it loudly. He, at least, did not seem the least bit concerned about their mysterious visitor from the future or what his appearance might portent for the rest of them.
Rook sighed. For someone who had earned the title Hero of the Universe, the changling could be absurdly laid-back and flippant. Brushing off things that should be legitimate concerns.
"Relax." He swallowed his toast. "Gwendolyn's got time travel magic, remember? She'll send him home and everything will be back to normal by lunch time. Then we get to tease Kevin mercilessly for the next nine months or so. Ooh! I call dibs on being Godfather!"
Though some aspects of Eathling cultures still eluded him, Rook was pretty sure the title of 'Godfather' was an honor bestowed by the parents and wasn't something one could 'call dibs' on. The Revonnahgander sighed again.
Then another time traveler appeared in his living room.
Both Revonnahgander and Hero blinked at Spanner.
Ben sighed, suddenly regretting his assurance that everything would be just fine. "Or, the time traveling sentai that only shows up when there's trouble could appear in your living room and tell us just how bad things are."
Spanner glanced around. Noted that they were not in Plumbers HQ, and that Ben was still in his pajamas -'pajamas' here meaning just his underwear.
"He's not here." The time traveling sentai that only ever showed up when there was trouble concluded.
"I assume you are referring to the boy from the future." It was phrased like a statement, but Rook pitched it like a question. "If so, he is with Gwendolyn and Kevin."
"Gotcha. Thanks." Nodded Spanner. Then he was gone again.
Revonnahgander and Hero exchanged a look.
"Would you like to put clothing on?" Asked Rook.
"We should follow him, shouldn't we." Ben answered.
"It would be the responsible thing to do."
Ben sighed. "Okay. But make me some more bacon for the road." A pause. "Please."
…
Gwendolyn's library was amazing. Devlin had never seen so many book in one place in his life. He himself had only ever read one book. 'The Princess Bride', his father's book. But looking at all of Gwendolyn's books and assuming that she'd red all of them at least once, he began to really understand the scope of what it meant to be a sorceress-Plumber and High Magus. Then glanced at his father and had to ask himself how such an accomplished woman could ever have fallen for Kevin Levin?
The Osmosian shambled into her library. He was no longer wearing his vest over his head. He had instead shielded his eyes with a pair of sunglasses procured at the Friedkin student store, and was sipping coffee from a paper cup. He found the demist corner of the library and pulled a chair over to sit down. But even shrouded in shadow, Devlin could feel the older man's eyes on him. He wasn't even born yet on this end of the timeline and his father already didn't trust him.
Both Osmosians watched the sorceress leaf through the pages of a book she called the Archamada, looking for the time travel spell she promised would be able to return Devlin to his own time.
Kevin yawned.
Thinking his father was becoming frustrated and fearing what he might do, Devlin decided it was a great idea to break the silence. "Does it usually take this long?"
"No." Gwendolyn assured him.
"It usually takes longer." Kevin growled, then sipped his coffee.
"You hush." Gwendolyn jabbed a finger at the Osmosian.
She set the open book down on a library desk and pulled chalk and some candles out of a drawer. Only in a magical library at a magic school would you find a desk stocked with chalk and candles -and the matches to light them.
Gwendolyn did not light the candles. At least not right away. First she knelt down on the floor with the chalk to start drawing the sigil the spell required. A triangle by the looks of it.
"Should you be doing that if you're pregnant?" Kevin asked.
Pausing for a moment, the sorceress looked over her shoulder at him as if the most ridiculousness thing ever had just escaped his lips. "Yesterday we fought an insane geneticist and his mutated monster-pets, but you're worried about me bending down."
Devlin tried very hard not to snort at the absurdity of his father's question. Even he knew that women didn't suddenly and inexplicably turn into porcelain dolls the moment you found out they were pregnant. They were still people. The human body didn't change over night -only the Osmosian body did that.
"Yeah, but..." Kevin tried. "That was... I didn't know... before..."
Clearly, he had not quite learned this yet.
"Do you know how to properly draw a magical sigil? Would you like to do this for me? Since you seem to think bending down is so bad for me." Demanded the sorceress, offering him the chalk. Kevin didn't exactly answer, he just shrank back further into his shadowy corner. Gwendolyn nodded at the appropriateness of his reaction. "That's what I thought."
She went back to making sure her lines were perfectly straight.
That was when a fourth person appeared in the library. Dressed mostly in white. A helmet over their head with a dark visor obscuring their face. A long scarf worn more like a cape and green trim that seemed to be in keeping with the general color scheme of Ben's Team. But Devlin didn't know him.
He didn't come in through the door. They just appeared. First he wasn't there, and then suddenly he was. Between the tick and the tock of the grandfather clock against the far wall. The inexplicable appearance startled the younger Osmosian and he might have made an embarrassing noise that eleven-years-in-the-future-Kevin would not have approved of.
"Who're you!? How'd you get in here?"
Both adults looked up.
Neither of them seemed too concerned.
"Spanner?" Gwendolyn forgot her chalk and magic sigil for a moment, standing the face the mysterious time traveling sentai that only ever seemed to show up when there was trouble. "What are you doing here?"
"Ugh. This isn't gonna be some more Time War shit, is it?" Kevin growled from his dark corner. "'Cause I managed to keep myself out of that pretty well thus far."
Devlin looked from the adults to the newly appeared 'Spanner' person.
"No, no. No Time War today." The masked sentai assured them. "I'm actually here for him."
He pointed at Devlin. The young Osmosian took a step back. "M-me?"
What would a mysterious masked, time traveling sentai want with him? He knew about Spanner. His father had told him about the teen hero with the time travel device that helped Ben in the past (in the present?). That he always managed to show up right when trouble was going down -or about to go down. He was here for Devlin? Was he here to take the young Osmosian home? Did Ben send him? Or... or was the time traveling sentai here for him because he was the trouble?
Maybe his father was right? Maybe he was a monster, and a bad seed, and did nothing but ruin lives, and maybe things would be better if he was never born -or just disappeared with a masked time traveler.
"I knew it." Kevin growled, taking off the shades he was wearing over his eyes. "He's some kind of criminal from the future. Like I was at that age. What, did he escape the Null Void or something?"
"Kevin!" Gwendolyn snapped at him.
"What?" The older Osmosian looked genuinely confused by her reprimand. "You and Tennyson threw me in the Null Void when I was eleven."
"That was different!" She snapped.
"How?" He demanded back.
Spanner sensed that there were some unresolved resentments on that subject. He knew Uncle Kevin had been to the Null Void a couple times, he just never realized that he'd been in and out of the alternate dimensional prison starting from such a young age. No wonder Uncle Kevin was always so grumpy.
Aunt Gwendolyn was about to answer. But she was cut off suddenly by the inexplicable appearance of another time traveler.
Maltruant materialized in the library.
He saw Devlin first. High Magus Gwendolyn's only child. A high value bargaining chip that could play well into his megalomaniacle plans of multiversal domination. It was funny, he wouldn't have even know the child's significance if he hadn't gotten between the sorceress and the Chronosapien's temporal displacement attack. He made a lunge for the young Osmosian.
But Spanner got between them. "No!"
He shot the Chronosapien with his wrist blasters. It stunned him lightly, but didn't do much else.
Spanner looked over his shoulder and shouted. "Hey, Kevin! Since you seem in the mood to beat something, why not pound on this guy!"
The Osmosian growled. "I knew it, I'm finally getting pulled into Tennyson's stupid Time War."
He lowered himself into a crouch, hand flat against the library floor and absorbed the carpet. Realized that carpeting would be useless as armor, and shifted his hand to the nearest bookcase instead. Wood wasn't the best armor ever, but it was better than a rug.
Gwendolyn came up beside him, her magic sigil forgotten, her hands glowing, silent spells at the ready. "You alright there?"
"I'll be fine." Kevin snarled.
"Good." Gwendolyn nodded. "It'd be a real shame if your hangover was interfering with your ability to fight."
No sooner had she said this, than she raised her arms over her head and cast a spell that -while successfully knocking Maltruant back- also flooded the library with light. The Osmosian groaned, shutting his eyes and staggering backwards. His wood armor melted from his skin. Yep. His hangover was totally gonna get in the way of his usefulness in this fight. If Kevin was smart, he would just sit down and stay out of the way.
Gwendolyn shifted her position. Joining Spanner. Both of them placing themselves between Matruant and the mysterious boy from the future.
"My son isn't actually a criminal, right?" She hissed to time traveling sentai.
"No." Spanner assured her.
Gwendolyn nodded and turned her attention back to the fight at hand.
Maltruant took advantage of the small distraction that single-moment exchange provided and aimed an attack -not at either sentai or Anodite- but at the Osmosian -and adult Osmosian. Still grappling his hangover, his reflexes slow, Kevin was hit by the Chronosapien's attack. His figure turning dark with sepia tones as his body was frozen in time.
"Kevin!" Gwen exclaimed.
"We can fix him later!" Spanner informed her. "Right now, protect Devlin!"
"Who?" The sorceress blinked at the unfamiliar name.
Spanner realized his mistake the moment the question was out of her mouth. He was sharing to much information about the future again. He had a bad habit of letting things slip in the heat of a battle. Like when he accidentally called his dad 'Dad' -also while fighting Maltruant- and just totally and completely blew his secret identity. He really needed to watch that if he was gonna keep doing this. "The boy from the future!"
She nodded her understanding. The boy from the future. Her son. Devlin. Or, wait, was it Devin and she just misheard him? Devin would make more sense after all. That was the name of Kevin's father -who technically never actually existed... But it was a sweet idea to name their son after him anyway! False memory construct or not, Devin Levin was the perfect idea of what a father should be and Gwen hoped Kevin followed his example -even if he wasn't real.
"The would-be magus with toxic taste in mates, and the masked annoyance who just wants daddy's approval." Maltruant scoffed. "You think the two of you have any hope of defeating me without Ben Tennyson?"
Gwen did not dignify that with a response. Unless a rolling of the eyes counted as a response. It wasn't the first time someone accused her of not being able to defend the innocent or defeat an enemy without her absurdly over-rated cousin, and it wouldn't be the last time. In all honesty, it was probably Ben who couldn't defeat his enemies without her, or Rook, or Kevin, or Kai, or any of his other allies. For a 'Hero of the Universe' Ben was actually pretty useless on his own.
She sent two blasts of mana careening at the Chronosapien.
But just when it looked like they were about to hit, Maltruant flickered. As if shifting in and out of existence. That was right, he had the ability to 'skip' moments in time. So, any attack thrown at him him real time could be dodged just by him removing himself from that singular moment when said attack would have hit him. Gwen really hated time travel.
Spanner, however, in addition to his jet boots and wrist blasters had a Time Shift device given to him by Professor Paradox. He actually could keep up with Maltruant! -Not that he did a great job of keeping up with the rouge Chronosapien a few hours ago (his personal time) at Great-Grandpa Max's retirement ceremony.- But this was just the opertunity he needed to redeem himself!
The next time Aunt Gwendolyn shot her mana orbs at the Chronosapien, Spanner was ready. He shifted his time just a half second before Maltruant shifted. He didn't stop the clockwork villain, but he was able to actually hit him. Ramming into one of his shoulder plates in the morphose space between the tick and the tock of the clock.
Both sentai and Chronosapien groaned at the contact. Colliding in mid time-space continuum wasn't exactly comfortable.
Maltruant threw Spanner off himself and the masked time traveler would have collided with Devlin if the young Osmosian hadn't chosen that moment to transform. Instead of barreling into the temporally displaced child, he was instead caught by two of his mismatched mutant arms. Devlin 11 put Spanner back on his feet.
"Thanks, Dev." He said without thinking.
"Do I know you?" Asked the young Osmosian, still confused as to what exactly was going on, but -at this point- not really caring anymore. Maltruant was the bad guy, that much he remembered from when he and Great-Grandpa Max were first attacked, and it was abundantly clear that this 'Spanner' person was an ally. That was really all Devlin needed to know. It was just a little strange that Spanner would address him so informally, like they were best friends or something, when the Osmosian had never met him before this moment.
"Sort of." Spanner did not give any more explanation than that. "Wanna hit him with one of Diamondhead's crystals?"
"Diamondhead? Oh! You mean my Petrosapien power!" The Osmosian created two diamond projectiles and shot them at the Chronosapien.
Just as Gwendolyn blasted two more raw-mana attacks.
When Maltruant tried to shift again, Spanner shifted too, once again ramming into him mid-second.
He still didn't manage on keeping the Chronosapien in the same placing in time. That is, he still missed the moment where that attacks would have hit him. But this time the attacks at least grazed him. One of Devlin's diamond barbs scraping a long scratch into Maltruant's outer casing.
Amazingly, this seemed to piss him off. Megalomaniacal monsters with the ability to control time itself weren't exactly used to getting hurt.
"You plebeian scum!" He roared.
He spun the key-toggle on his head. Reversing time a few moments to when their attacks were still careening through the air. This time, when they crossed, the Chronosapien wasn't standing in their path and the diamond barbs and mana orbs pass each other by, each careening to the ally on the opposite side.
Gwendolyn had to throw up a mana shield quickly to prevent her future-son's attack from impaling her right through the heart -and the womb.
Meanwhile, Devlin couldn't quite get his arms up quickly enough to block the first mana orb. But the second one, he did manage to block. Actually, he caught it. Actually, he absorbed it.
She paused for a moment, staring at her future-son, momentarily worried. She hadn't intended for him to absorb her power. Now that he had a taste of her mana, was he about to prove Kevin's fears right and go crazy? Were they about to exchange one combat ally for another enemy they had to subdue?
But all the young Osmosian did was gasp, staring at the Vulpimancer paw he'd used to block and absorb the attack with. He flexed the clawed fingers, as if in confusion. His voice cracked when he said, "That tastes so familiar..."
"Touching." Maltruant scoffed.
He sent another attack at Gwendolyn. The same localized temporal freezing attack that he used to take Kevin out of the fight before it even began.
And just like he did when the Chronosapien attacked Plumbers Headquarters in Devlin's own time, the Osmosian rushed to put himself between the sorceress and the attack. Using his Kineceleran speed to intercept the blast before it could hit the woman Devlin was slowly being convinced actually was his mother.
The attack hit him instead, and the Osmosian was frozen in that moment.
Just getting a real taste of the sorceress' mana for the first time that he could remember, and realizing that her energy had a very familiar flavor to it. Not something he could recall consciously, but a memory his body possessed. Of being steeped in and enveloped by that strong, willful, and protective maternal power.
That was about the time Ben and Rook finally arrived on scene. Right when the giant, hulking monster that looked identical to Kevin back when he was 11 jumped in front of his cousin to protect her from an attack shot by the Chronosapien.
"What did we just walk in on!?" He exclaimed. Time travel shenanigans were all well and good. But where way the mysterious Kid from the future? Why was Kevin 11 here? Why did Kevin from back then protect Gwen? They didn't even like each other back then!
"No!" Gwen sobbed. She reached a hand up to stroke the frozen and sepia toned face of Kevin 11, his expression paused on an epic face that was halfway between panic and compassion. Since when did Kevin 11 ever feel compassion? "Devin..."
'Devin'? Wasn't that supposed to be the name of the fake memory construct Servantis made as a father figure for Kevin to idolize back when he was just a sleeper-cell placed in Ben's life? The Hero of the Universe shook his head. Sometimes it was just better to hold all questions for after the butt-kicking was done. Sometimes question got in the way more than they actually helped anything. If Gwen wanted to get Kevin 11 or 'Devin' unforzen, then they had to defeat Maltruant first!
"He'll go back to normal when we win!" The changeling reminded her.
"Kevin will too." Rook added, finally noticing the other Osmosian in the corner, also immobile and in sepia tones. "That Kevin, I mean. Both Kevins?"
Spanner shot Maltruant with his wrist blaster. Or, more accurately, attempted to shoot him with his wrist blasters. But the Chronosapien just temporal shifted again. Missing each moment when the blasts would have hit him. The masked sentai did a series of backflips that eventually brought him side-by-side with Ben. "Less talking, more transforming, please!"
"Huh. Oh! Right! This looks like a job for Clockwork!" And he slammed his hand down on the large, oversized watch-face of the arm bracer that was the Omnitrix's current incarnation. But the Omnitrix did not give him his sample of Chronosapien DNA. Instead, the Hero of the Universe changed into, "Graymatter! -Aw, hell."
Both Spanner and Rook shared an exasperated sigh.
"Hey, Graymatter is really smart!" The now diminutive Ben shouted up at them.
Neither Spanner nor Rook looked impressed.
Ben gave the Galvan equivalent of a huff. "To hell with you two. Hey, Gwen! Anodites are made of pure energy, remember! Energy doesn't obey the same temporal rules that solid matter does. You can use your mana to hold him!"
"That doesn't sound like a thing." Spanner informed him. After all, if that was a thing, why hadn't Aunt Gwendolyn just been doing that the whole time?
"I am afraid I must agree with Spanner." Rook added. "I do not believe energy and time behave in that way."
To their concerns, Ben only gave a very Galvan scoffed -no, not a Galvan scoff, an Asmuth scoff. "That's because you're simple minds can only think in three dimensions. Just try it."
Well, what was there to lose? Gwen shrugged to herself. Her husband and her future-son were already frozen. It wasn't like she had collateral t worry about, and if this was the only way to get them back...
Her hands glowed with star sapphire light. No spells. She didn't know if there was a spell for what Ben was suggesting. The sorceress just lashed out with raw power, encircling Maltruant in tight bonds of mana. Or rather, she tried to encircle him in tight bonds of pure magical energy. But in the half-moment before her power reaching him, he shifted again.
She growled in frustration.
"I got him!" Spanner shifted too.
Gwendolyn tried again, reaching out for Maltruant with her power.
This time, when the rouge Chronosapien tried to temporal shift, Spanner shifted at the same time to stop him. The sorceress was able to grab him and hold him with her energy.
"Hm. So this is how she learned to do that." Maltruant muttered to himself. Then, to her, "Please don't slam me into the floor this time."
Gwen tightened her hold on the time traveling megalomaniac. She was going to ask 'this time?', but reminded herself that he was a time traveler. He was probably referencing an altercation that hadn't happened on her end of the timeline yet, but was already old history for him. "I won't if you release Kevin and my son."
The Chronosapien looked from the motionless form of the mutated Osmosian spawn, to the mannequin-like figure of its father. Both still as statues, the color gone from their skin and clothing, replaced with sepia tones beige, ivory, and brown. "Alright. Fine."
He tried to lift a hand. Quickly realized that it was a pointless attempt when he was bound in mana like he was and just flexed his wrist instead.
Devlin was the first to recover. He staggered a little, disoriented and unsure of what exactly just happened to him. Everyone was in completely different positions than they were half a second ago, and since when did Ben and his Revonnahgander partner arrive? When did they defeat Maltruant? How did Gwendolyn trap him in her mana? Gwendolyn! The young Osmosian snapped his attention to the sorceress -his mother. The last he saw, the rouge Chronosapien had launched an attack at her. He tried to get to her in time to block it, but... he didn't what happened after that.
"You're alright!" He closed two of his mismatched arms around her in relief.
No sooner had the young Osmosian touched her, however, than they heard an angry shout from the other side of the room.
"Get away from her!"
And before anyone knew what exactly was going on, Kevin had crossed the space between them, grabbed Devlin by one Lepidopterran wing, pulled him off Gwen, and slammed the younger Osmosian into the ground. And Kevin wasn't even wearing armor, either. He had it with sheer bruit strength and force of will -no powers.
"What now?" Ben demanded.
"Kevin! That's our son!" Gwendolyn exclaimed.
The Osmosian glared up at her. He made no move to let the boy up when he said, "He was gonna absorb you!"
"No. He wasn't." She snapped back at him. "He was glad I was alright."
"Are you insane!?" He snarled back. "Look at him! He's mutated! He's what I was when I was Kevin 11! When I was an amoral sociopath who only cared about satisfying myself, and thought the answer to all life's problems was just to kill anyone who upset me! That's what he is right now! Look at him!"
"I am looking at him." Gwendolyn said, very, very calmly.
Kevin looked down at the boy he was holding down. The boy. Somewhere between being slammed into the floor, and being accused of being a sociopathic monster, the younger Osmosian had reverted back into his human form, turning back into a small boy. Kevin looked down at the child he was holding down. His hand so almost as big as the kid's whole head (not counting the pony tail). He lifted the hand that was pressing his face into the library carpet.
The boy made no move to get up. He stayed down. Body to the ground, staring up at Kevin. Eyes wide. Tears streaming from them. His expression wasn't shock, or betrayal, or any other similar emotion you'd expect to find on the face of a child that'd just been attacked by a parent. Instead it was an odd and heartbreaking kind of resignation. An acceptance of sorts. This was just the way things were. He was a monster. His father had told him so all his life. His father had thought as much since before he was born.
"Move!" Gwendolyn shoved her husband to the side, the Chronosapien her magic was holding completely forgotten. She knelt down next to her child. "Are you hurt."
That was when Devlin finally got up. Pushing himself into a sitting position. He closed his eyes, ashamed that they all saw his crying. "No." He croaked. "I'm fine."
Maltruant took advantage of their distraction. He raised both arms to launch an attack that would destroy all of them in one stroke. Gwendolyn Tennyson and her mercurial Osmosian mate, their unwanted mutant offspring, the Revonnahgander that was really the only one with any real brains in the whole group, and the ever and eternal thorn in his side, the perpetual roadblock to his plans, the so-called 'Hero of the Universe', Ben Tennyson!
At least, Maltruant thought he would get rid of them all in one stroke.
Something small and goldish rolled between his feet. The Chronosapian barely registered a Null Grenade before he found himself suddenly sucked inside it.
Spanner picked up the egg shaped chamber. Holding it on eye-level so he could see Maltruant inside, Kenny smirked behind his mask. "Not today."
He put the Null Grenade in a thigh pocket on his uniform and turned his attention to Devlin.
Kenny knew that Uncle Kevin was a really shitty dad when Dev was younger. When it was just the two of them and Uncle Kevin was half-insane from power-overload. Back when Uncle Kevin was Kevin 11,000 and Devlin had no idea Aunt Gwendolyn was his mother. Heck! Kenny was there when Uncle Kevin -no, not 'Uncle Kevin', he wasn't Uncle Kevin back then, he was Kevin 11,000- back when Kevin 11,000 threw Devlin across a room just for getting between him and Kenny's dad. But... it had been so long since then and Kevin was way, way, way better than he was back then. He was cool now. He and Devlin -Kenny's Devlin, the fifteen-year-old Devlin- they weren't exactly 'tight', but they could at least live in the same house without hating each other and Aunt Gwendolyn only had to break up fights, like, once or twice a month.
But still... it was still jarring to see again.
He held a hand out to the elevein-year-old Devlin. "Are you ready to go home?"
The young Osmosian looked at the extended hand skeptically -almost suspiciously. Kenny had to remind himself that Devlin didn't know him in this form. Even back in his own time, Dev didn't know that he was Spanner. He looked from Spanner's white-gloved hand up at Gwendolyn. From Gwendolyn to Kevin. Quickly decided there was no reason for him to stay here. He might as well take the hand of this stranger. At least Gwendolyn seemed to trust him. Plus, he did help them defeat Maltruant.
"Yeah. Okay." He took the sentai's hand.
"Bye, guys!" Spanner waved with his other hand.
"Always an experience." Ben waved back.
Then they were gone. Shifted through time. Traveling in the space between the tick and the tock of the clock.
…
They materialized back in the kitchen of the Plumber's Headquarters.
Someone had duct taped a tarp over the hole in the wall. Other than that, no other repairs or clean-up appeared to have been done. In fact, it looked like people had just tried to go about their normal routine even with a destroyed kitchen. There was a dirty blender with the remnants of smoothy that hadn't been there before.
"Well, here you are." Spanner informed him. "Your home for the first part of summer 2028."
"First part?" Devlin asked, startled. Was Ben not gonna keep him? That's right. They never planned to keep him. Ben and Max always planned ot return him to his biological mother. A mother that was, in all likelihood, Gwendolyn Tennyson.
The Osmosian's question didn't get answered. Spanner was already gone by the time he turned around.
Devlin forced himself not to worry about it to much. It had been a trying two days for him and he was exhausted. Mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. He could worry about what was gonna happen to him next later. Right now, all he wanted to do was find the bedroom Ben had given him and take a long nap.
He passed through the living room on his way to the bedrooms and heard someone snoring.
Peering over the back of the couch, he found Gwendolyn asleep. An open book laying forgotten on her belly, one hand clutched around the chain of a necklace of some kind. Coming around to the front of the couch, the Osmosian took a throw blanket and draped it over the sorceress. Ever if she wasn't his mother, when he was in the past, she was the one who trusted him implicitly and work hardest to make him feel safe, accepted and... wanted. It was nice. Gwendolyn was nice. He really, actually, did wish she was his mother.
'We've known Kevin since he was eleven years old. That's almost all his life. And, all his life, Kevin E. Levin has only ever loved one woman. I know who your mother is, Devlin. But its up to you whether or not you want to know too.'
The sensation of the new weight on her caused the sorceress to stir.
Gwendolyn looked at the blanket in confusion. Ben would never put a blanket over her. He'd never even think of it. It was more of a Grandpa Max thing to do. Then she turned to the side and saw the boy standing by the couch.
"Devlin!?"
"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." He assured her quickly, still not sure what his position in this... family really was.
"You're back!"
He was not expecting her to reach out with both arms and pull him into a tight bear-hug. It was okay, though. The Osmosian was kinda getting used to them now. It was actually kinda nice. Being hugged by someone who cares about you.
"I'm so glad you're home safe." She muttered into his hair.
Reluctantly, Devlin reached one arm up to -very loosely- hug her back. He took a deep breath. Taking in the scent of her hair and -yeah- maybe a little of the mana that just radiated off of her too. That delicious, flavor. But also that warm, protective, maternal, and familiar energy.
The Osmosiain screwed up his courage. He still had adrenaline from the fight in the library pumping through him. He better ask now before he lost the nerve to.
"I went to the past." He told her. It was actually easier this way. Asking mid-hug. That way he didn't have to see her face. He could talk to her shoulder instead. "I saw that you used to be married to my dad. Max says my dad only over loved one woman, and he was married to you. I never knew my mother. Dad never talked about her much except to tell me that I was dangerous to her and I was the reason he couldn't be with her. I don't- I don't know- I have to ask. Are you my mother?"
She pulled away from him enough to look the boy in the eyes, and Devlin was startled to see that she was crying.
"I honestly didn't know if I'd ever see you again." She told him, wiping her eyes. But the tears kept coming. "I didn't know what Kevin did with you, or what he was going to do with you, I-" Gwendolyn cleared her throat. She still hadn't technically answered his question. "Yes. Yes, Devlin, I'm your mother."
She leaned in for another hug.
This time Devlin hugged back with both arms. "I don't understand. What happened?"
Sobbing into his hair, she said, "It was the worst thing to happen in my life, but... You have a right to know."
…
END