Omni Boys

by AUfan62

While fighting both Kevin and Vilgax at Niagara Falls both them and Ben get sucked into a portal created by the Null Void projector. Only it’s not the Null Void they land. They land in a world where Superheroes are just a bunch of corporate puppets and think they can do whatever they want. But no it’s a real Hero’s Time.

10. Chapter 10:Tower Rumble Reunion

Hello back again. Shoutout to my co-writer, they've been such a help with writing this story. Especially with things like the dialogue, pretty sure 50% of the best dialogue in this story comes from them.

Thanks for your comments, and just a reminder for the person who questioned about the Master Control. Ben doesn't fully have it, he had it when he entered the portal, but sort of lost by the time he got out. Until last chapter when he was captured he could be only one alien for as long as he wanted, but had to go back to being human for a while then be able to transform again. How you may ask, well go back to the first chapter and re-read it.

Anyway Enjoy

VNN Broadcast

Cameron Coleman is on screen and takes a breath. "Shock." He simply says. "That's the only word that I can think of that describes how I and the rest of America are feeling right now, at this very moment. Shock." He adds.

"Because unless you've been blind and deaf for the last few hours you all must be aware of the attack by Shifter." He continues as footage of Upgrade crashing Vought's announcement of Translucent's death/disappearance. "And no less than when Homelander, the great leader of the Seven, was delivering tragic news about everyone's favorite invisible hero Translucent." He then scoffs. "He didn't even give us time to mourn, before he started attacking the Heroes of this nation. Then turned the announcement of this tragic news into some child like circus." He rants, disgusted by this.

"Speaking of children, the even bigger news is that Shifter's identity has been revealed." Shows footage of Upgrade transforming back into Ben. "A child. A child has been the one attacking the Seven and their Super brothers and sisters. Perhaps nobody is more shocked than Homelander and his team." Scoffs as he continues his rant. "And now biased government institutions are blatantly accusing Homelander, his team and anyone they can think of that they knowingly harmed a child."

"I mean sure, there's no doubt that Shifter, real name still unknown, has had altercations with other heroes. But it's important to remember he attacked them, in nearly every instance. Not to mention he gave no indication he was under the age of eighteen. Not one scrap of evidence that the Seven or anyone in Vought knew that their attacker was so young." He elaborates, then takes a breath. "Totally unjustifiable."

A still image of one of Shifter's Aliens, Fourarms, appears only now with bars in photoshopped in front. "I mean come on, does that look like a child to you?" He scoffs momentarily before continuing. "What's more is that while he is being held in custody by Vought he's being viewed as a hostage now. And authorities of the NYPD, Social Services, Child Protection Services, along with the CIA, FBI, NSA are demanding he be released into their custodies. When none of them have the proper facilities to hold a dangerous criminal such as him."

"Just look at the property damage he caused during his attack." A slideshow of images begins playing, showing all kinds of destruction that happened during the fight. "That's billions of dollars in damages that have to be paid by you the taxpayer. Only silver lining is that his reckless endangerment miraculously did not result in any deaths, thanks in large part to our valiant Vought Heroes."

"Now just to show that we value all opinions I have Congresswoman Victoria Neuman here to tell us her thoughts." The Vought newscaster then says, shortly a video chat with said Congressman appears next to him.

"So Congresswoman Neuman tell us why do you want Shifter to just suddenly go free despite what he has done?" Cameron blatantly asks.

It takes a second for the politician to be relayed what she was just asked, but when she receives it her response is immediate. "Well that's a narrow minded view of what I, and many others want. We want Mr. Tennyson, that is his name, to be released to the proper authorities as those authorities investigate what happened to him." She tells him.

"So you think Vought is incapable of doing this?" Cameron redirects.

"That isn't what I said." Victoria tells him. "And while Vought is allowed autonomy to stop all kinds of threats, they have to turn the people responsible for these threats over to the authorities. It's part of Vought's own policy, I don't know why it's a problem now?" She counters.

Then before Cameron could ask another question, Victoria continues. "Also the CIA is currently holding Chimera, or Kevin as he was called, somewhere and he hasn't escaped. Nor did Vought demand he be taken into their custody, so it's clear they have a way to hold that kind of threat."

"Yes." The News reporter acknowledges. "But without telling us? I mean they're keeping his location hidden. Doesn't the public deserve a little transparency?"

"You got me there." The congresswoman agree's. "But isn't Vought keeping Mr. Tennyson's condition a secret."

"No, they're not!" Cameron denies.

"We don't know his health, we don't know where he's being held, if he's being treated according to protocols, or even what those protocols are." Miss Neuman lists off on her fingers. "Is he even in contact with a lawyer? Or alive for that matter?"

"Cut her Mic!" Cameron tells one of the workers and Victoria Neuman's voice is cut off and her image disappears from screen. "You see, no trust."

BBC Broadcast

A female anchor is sitting at her desk and begins talking in a calm tone. "The world is still in shock as the Hero, Shifter, who in the course of several weeks has made a name for himself by attacking Vought both politically and literally, turns out to be a boy, less than thirteen years old."

"Authorities from ranging from National security to child services are scrambling to figure out who he is and how he came upon such powers." An image of Vought tower appears on the screen. "Vought is holding him inside Seven Tower for the time being. And many are divided as people applaud Vought's methods while people believe their tactics to be Draconian for a boy his age."

Podcast

"So you actually met Shifter?" The host asks the guest, who was the girl Ben saved from Herogasm when Teenage Kix hosted.

"I did, he saved me from Ice Prince." Continues to tell her story.

YouTube Short

A group of fairly attractive women appeared to be fawning as the screen shifted to a picture of Diamondhead walking out of a burning pet store with bunnies in his arms. Then the screen shows a picture of Ben for a few seconds then goes back to them. The women are now pretending to vomit in barf bags.

TikTok

A TikToker was showing comparisons of Ben's fights and lines to that of multiple Transformers movies and series. This made them immensely popular with millions of views.

Instagram

An influencer with their Starbucks coffee was being reposted on someone else's account. But the post wasn't about them, on the next page of the post one of the people waiting in line was circled. It was Ben and the post was captioned. 'Hiding in plain sight.'

Twitter

A tweet by a user with the text 'Set Shifter Free he saved my sister's life.' It was then followed up by a video of a rollercoaster that was stuck upside down. What was really the focus was that a teenage girl was hanging on for her life on the hand rail. As a firefighter was trying to reach out and get her, the girl's grip slipped.

She would've fallen to her death, had it not been for Wildmutt who jumped in and grabbed her. Then brought her down, before taking off.

Facebook

A Facebook post with Shifter's logo (The Omnitrix insignia) was up with a black line running down the middle. The left side had the word 'Criminal' the right side had the word 'Hero' with the word 'or' in smaller text in the middle. Lastly it was captioned, 'Which one?"

Court

Lilly Choi was in court advocating for the release of Ben from Vought's custody. Her opposing counsel was a legal representative from Vought, a middle aged corporate career lawyer named Samuel Daniels. The honorable Judge Hector Ochoa was presiding.

"Your honor this is a waste of time, Vought has a legal agreement with the city and the authorities that should Vought deem someone a danger to the public Vought can hold them for up to a week while deciding who's custody to release them to." Daniels argue's.

"So you deem a child a threat to the people?" Lilly asks incredulously, and slightly amused.

"In case the Ms. Choi has been under a rock the whole world saw that Shifter-" The Vought lawyer tried to speak.

"Objection you're honor, since the defendant's identity has been revealed to the whole world he must be referred by the name he was given by his parents and not the public." Choi argues.

"And what name would that be?" The judge asks skeptically. "After all none of us know it, and he has never stated what his name was."

"His full name is Benjamin Kirby Tennyson." Lilly tells him. "Though if possible could we avoid using the middle name from here on out. I'm sure honor would understand."

"Very well." The Judge relents. "The court must now address the defendant by his actual name, any and all other aliases must be clarified before using them." He orders. "You may resume your argument Mr. Daniels."

"The whole world saw that Mr. Tennyson..." Daniels drags out while giving Choi a dirty look. "Attacked the Seven, endangered the public, caused a large amount of property damage and did this without any just cause, it was totally unprovoked."

"Bullshit!" Choi calls out.

"Excuse me?" The Vought lawyer says.

"Watch your language in my court Ms. Choi or I'll hold you in contempt." The Judge warns.

"Your Honor I submit as evidence from social media and street camera footage of when Ben, as the alien he calls Fourarms, first met Homelander." Lilly tells him as she turns on the court room television, displaying Fourarms and Homelander meeting for the first time. (Go back to Chapter 2 for reference)

Eventually the footage shows Homelander striking at Fourarms and the fight ensues. The video is then paused as Lilly resumes speaking. "As you can see Homelander clearly assaulted my client upon their first meeting. If he attacked Homelander he had good reason too, except we can't know that because we, including me his lawyer, haven't been able to get in contact with him." She states.

"Homelander was trying to carry out an arrest, and Shifter-" Daniels tried to argue.

"Objection!" Lilly called out.

"And Benjamin refused." The Vought lawyer continued.

"What were the charges?" The Judge asks. "Because it looks like Homelander is just upset his glory got stolen. If anything this evidence shows Mr. Tennyson can sue for assault." He adds.

"Except that may have been his first meeting with Homelander, but not with Vought." Daniels then reaches into his briefcase and pulls out a statement. "Here you'll find a full transcript of Homelander's announcement that Queen Maeve, A-Train and Black Noir were attacked by, and I quote "A giant F-word orange dog thing with no eyes, ear or F-word mouth."

"Ms Choi is this true?" The Judge asks.

"It is true a fight broke out." Lilly admits. "But as stated on Ben's Instagram profile, he states that he was in the form Wildmutt, which is unable to verbally communicate. And according to my client he only responded after he was attacked. So if anything it was self defense." She argues.

"That's hearsay." Daniels challenges.

"So is your argument." Lilly tells him then turns back to the Judge. "Your Honor neither side is able to properly establish what exactly happened since his clients are pleading the 5th and mine isn't even allowed to testify because he was wrongfully kidnapped by this asshole's boss."

"Watch it Ms. Choi you were warned." The Judge reminds her. "But you're right. Without concrete evidence I'm ruling that the first meeting involving the form called Wildmutt must not be submitted at all into evidence."

"So my client can be released?" Lilly asks with hope.

"No." The Judge tells her. "Unfortunately there's still the matter that he can be a danger to the public and is most definitely a flight risk."

"Also may I submit this your honor?" Daniels requested, reaching into his briefcase for a piece of paper and handing it to the Judge. "A portion of the official agreement Vought has with the city. You'll see there they have up to a week before Mr. Tennyson can be released, to determine if he's even allowed to be in the country since there's no record of a Benjamin Tennyson." He argues.

"He's stated repeatedly that he was born in another dimension." Lilly vainly argues.

"And unless he can prove that he needs to be properly investigated by Vought, as the law and the city allows it, to determine whether it's true or not. Among other things. If he's a terrorist-" The Vought Lawyer continues.

"You think a ten year old boy who's been saving the lives of literally hundreds, maybe thousands, is a terrorist. Ha!" Lilly laughs.

"Be that as it may Vought is allowed to hold him for the allotted time." Judge Ochoa says, slightly saddened by that fact.

"Except..." Lilly says, just as the Judge is about to bang his gavel. "That's only for adult criminals for crimes that involve in the direct deaths or injuries of civilians. Which he conveniently left out." She states. "And last I checked Ben is under the age of thirteen, with no parents, no available relatives and again no contact with his lawyer, ME." He adds.

"Mr. Daniels is this true?" The Judge asks, though he likely already knows the answers.

"Technically yes." The Vought lawyer says, deflated. "But-." He tries to argue.

"Save it!" Judge Ochoa tells him. "48 hours. That's how long until Mr. Tennyson is to be released in good health and with no injuries. Should he be held for a microsecond more I'm dismissing all charges Vought currently has against him."

"Your Honor Ben should be released into proper custody immediately." Lilly tells him. Though this is considered a win, she knows Ben is in danger every second he's in Vought.

"Unfortunately no matter how you slice it, legally Vought has a right to hold all criminals they get involved in for a certain time. Especially in such events as Mr. Daniels described earlier." The Judge reminds her, having had personal experience.

"Your Honor this whole thing is ridiculous. Per Wrench vs the NYPD-" Daniels still tries to argue.

"Your 48 hours have been reduced to 36." The Judge tells him extremely annoyed. "And what's ridiculous you trying to pull one over on me. I'm reporting you to the BAR for trying to hide evidence." Slams his gavel. "The 36 Hours start from the time Benjamin Kirby Tennyson was taken into Vought custody. This court is adjourned." Rises up and takes his leave.

Vought Tower

Ben wakes up to a room reminiscent of a jail cell. He's on a small mattress that was on the floor, that wasn't to uncomfortable. Sitting up their was a wall to his right and to his left metal bars holding him. Across from him was a decent sized TV on the wall.

He looked down at his left wrist where the Omnitrix resided, but saw it was covered by a metal brace. After a few vain attempts to pull it off he gave up and sighed. Shrugging his shoulders he went up to to find the remote for the TV, but couldn't.

Deciding to go old school he found the power button on the back and turned it on. What appeared was the Vought logo, so he immediately turned it off.

He then hears a door open and Ben turns to see Homelander, wearing a new clean suit and any marks on his face have been covered by cosmetics and makeup. The Seven leader walks into the room and looks at the restrained Ben. "What are you looking at?" The captured hero questions.

"A kid." Homelander say's. "A fucking ten year old kid. Gotta say, this does explain a lot." He begins pacing around with a smile as he walks back and forth along the bars. "They way you talked. Felt like something out of a cartoon. Looks like it might've been." He pauses. "I tell ya, I was ready to finish you off back there and then boom." He faces him, as he mimics explosions with his hands. "The techno-bubble thing that went all Michael Bay on us turns into a little kid. I'm not surprised often but that." He chuckles, he wags his finger a little. "Never coulda seen that coming."

Ben smirks as he replies. "I'll bet. Hows it feel knowing a ten year old kid has been kicking your butt?"

"I'll let you have that one." Homelander says as he steps stepped towards Ben, with the bars separating them. Bars he he could easily break. He looked at the restraint which wrapped around Ben's Omnitrix. "All because of that... where'd you get it?" He asks

"A cereal box." Ben quickly replies.

Homelander then uses his x-ray vision, he quickly see's past the metal brace and tries to see inside the Omnitrix. But when as he tries to look past it, he finds that he can't. He can see everyone of Ben's bones, organs and veins if he wanted in any other part of his body, but he couldn't see the watch.

"How long have I been in here?" Ben asks, but doesn't get an answer as Homelander is still trying to look past the black mass on Ben's wrist. "Helllllllo?" Ben calls out, snapping his fingers a bit.

Eventually Homelander gives up and asks. "Who are you working for? I mean unless you're some secret genius, which you're not, you clearly aren't working alone."

"Sorry my catchphrase is "Hero Time" not "Team Time" or "Heroes Time." Ben denies, knowing not to give them any information they might not have.

"You think you're so smart." Homelander says. "But I heard you." He reminds him. "You said 'We win' who's we?" Homelander questions.

"Plead the 5th." Ben says.

"What did they take?" The Seven leader asks.

"Who is 'they' anyway?" Ben plays dumb then asks. "What are you so worried about them taking anyway. Got something to hide? Like your weakness maybe?" He says with a smirk, knowing what they were looking for, despite not knowing if they got it.

"I don't have any." Homelander denies. "I'm perfect. Nothing can take me down." He adds with satisfaction.

"Didn't they say that about the Titanic?" Ben reminds him. "I mean I was never the best at school, but I definitely remember that. Then one iceberg and bam!" Claps his hands to emphasize his point. "Now it's just a hunk of junk bottom of the ocean."

"That was a boat." Homelander says with gritted teeth.

"Well what about the uh..." Ben tries to reply, but loses his train of thought. "Those bunker things in the beginning Saving Private Ryan? Weren't those supposed keep our army out of uh the place in France?" He questions.

"We had a better army." Homelander argues.

"Twin Towers?" Ben asks, remembering his mom taking him away from the TV years ago. (Ben 10 premiered 2005 and ended in 2008 so he can recall some of those events) I mean a bunch of dudes got passed the whole security or whatever and crashed four planes I think." Scratches his head. "I get why mine fell, but weren't you here?" Points to Homelander. "You failed, like big time."

Homelander then glared at Ben with disgust. While the captured hero smirked. "Now the world saw you get your butt handed to you by me. And the only reason you won was because of luck, not actual skill, which you don't have."

Homelander grits his teeth.

"And when I get out, I'm gonna find a way to stop you forever. Then you'll just be a has-been, like that guy from..." Ben continues, but pretends struggles to remember the persons name. "Who cares, you'll tell me when you join him." Ben finishes while crossing his arms and waiting for Homelander's strike.

But just as Homelander's eyes glow red and he's about to fire his heat vision the door open's. "Homelander stop!" The person calls out. "It's what he wants."

Homelander seems to realize this and takes a breath to calm down. He then turns around, as Ben looks over to see the blonde lady he met when Black Noir tried to attack Lilly Choi. Stillwell? Ben thinks her name is.

"I didn't touch him." Homelander says as he turns to Madelyn.

"Better not have." The senior VP says sternly. "The judge said we have 36 hours to hand him over." She informs him.

"What!?" Homelander a little surprised. "No way. He attacked us." He reminds hers.

"Actually you guys attacked me first?" Ben corrects them. "Remember your first little meet and beat down with me?"

"He's also a kid, totally different ball game then some junkie." Stillwell tells him as she walks over. "Edgar wants to talk to all of us in the conference room. Now." She adds.

As Homelander turns away from Ben annoyed and is about to walk out he remembers something someone else said. "Connect with the connect, find shared ground."

Homerlander turned back to Ben with his normal smile. "Tell me. What is it about me you have a problem with?"

Ben's reply is almost immediate. "Where do I begin. Your a liar, you think your better than everyone else and deserve praise-"

"Lets focus on those last two." Homelander spoke up as he took a step forward. "I am stronger than everyone else. Even among the strongest heroes on the planet. I'm on a whole fucking other level."

"Until I showed up." Ben reminds him.

Homelander ignores that remark and asks. "But tell me something, have you ever felt that way?"

"Huh?" Ben replies, a little surprised by that.

Homelander still smiles as he says. "Just an honest question. Have you ever thought that because of what you can do, that you mattered more and deserved more?"

Ben wanted to make a clever taunt. He wanted to make a joke. But all he could do was think back to the times he believed he was better than everyone else, or that all he did made him deserving of things he wanted.

Even though Ben didn't speak, Homelander got his answer. "Well what do you know. Common ground." He says then he goes to join Stillwell for their meeting, leaving Ben in his cell with just his thoughts.

Conference Room

The other five members of the Seven were in the conference room, with four sitting down while one nervously paced around. "We're fucked. We're fucked. We are so fucking FUCKED!" A-Train said as he paced back and forth in the Seven meeting room.

Maeve then groans as tells him. "Will you cut that shit out. Your giving me a fucking headache."

A-Train stops to reply. "Oh I'm sorry. Is me freaking out over our whole fucking careers getting blown to shit bothering you!?"

"Relax man Homelander will get us out of this." Deep tries to reassure.

"You mean us not you." A-Train tells him. "You're in the clear cause you didn't do shit except get your ass kicked." He adds, reminding the water themed supe of his more than lackluster performance during the fight.

"Can we focus on the fact we could've killed a kid?" Starlight requests, not believing they would be more concerned about their positions at Vought rather than Ben's health. "I mean Homelander, or any of us, could've killed him." She adds with concern.

"Like we could've done that." Maeve comments with a bored expression.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" A-Train asks, offended by that comment.

"It's means our asses got handed to us." Queen Maeve tells him. "Again by the same kid who was that dog thing, who was that speed lizard guy, and like five fucking minutes ago when everyone, but Homelander was knocked out." She then gets up and get's in his face. "AND he still wanted to fight even after he was thrown from FUCKING space." She let's him absorb what she says before adding. "If he wanted us dead he would've killed us already." Sits back down and her expression turns into one of guilt and/or sorrow.

Just then Homelander and Madelyn Stillwell come in. And as they do Noir holds up a sign that reads. "Information?"

"Didn't get any." Homelander says, then turns to Stillwell. "Cause someone said I had to come to a meeting."

"Yes." Stillwell agrees. "Our boss."

"And he's here." Edgar says, announcing his presence as he walks in the room. And for once Homelander can hear is heart beating out of it's normal rhythm. Though not enough for the heart attack he's hoping for. "Sit. All of you."

Those of the Seven who were standing took their seats.

"Mr. Edgar-" Madelyn tries to greet politely. But he's having none of that.

"Save it and shut up." Edgar says as he walks over to Homelander's sits to press a button that closes and locks the doors. When they do he wastes no time.

"In my entire tenure at Vought I've seen mistakes made, carlessness, causualties and flat out incompience. But this group... you have surpassed all of that." He tells them

Stillwell then tries to explain. "I know the situation is bad but we're worki-"

"I wasn't speaking to you Madlyn." Edgar said without looking at her, but kept his eyes on the remaining members of the Seven. "Aside from Coleman, every news station and blogger is talking about one thing. How the Seven, Earth's most mighty brutally beat a child to near death."

"It wasn't near-." Homelander tried to interrupt.

"I'm not finished!" Edgar said, aggressively, before going on. "You all are a bunch of reckless, idiotic, incompetent buffoons who should be very grateful that none of you have previously been charged any crimes."

He continues. "Not only did you all fail, time and time again to defeat Shifter, you let him humiliate you and this company. And the culmination point is when he proved to the world that without a shadow of doubt... he beat you."

"He didn't beat us." Homelander gritted.

"Like hell he didn't." The CEO argues. "The entire fight was all of you failing to take Shifter down as he fought as a giant Michael Bay reference. And the only times you had the advantage is when you all ganged up on him and even then got back up to beat you to the ground." He reminds them.

Edgar then turns to Deep. "You were in the fight for less than two minutes. Getting knocked out twice, within 10 seconds of each confrontation."

Looks towards Noir. "You normally have a spotless record, even when you were part of Payback. But now you repeatedly make mistakes." Then scoffs. "I mean your M.O is attacking from the shadows when you can't out muscle your opponent, you completely ignored your own strengths and tries to take Shifter head on. Did you forget or did you feel like being an idiot?" Black Noir looks down towards the table ashamed.

Edgar turns to Starlight. "And you little miss sunshine." He sarcastically says. "You just weren't strong enough, but my issue isn't entirely with your poor performance. It's how incredibly naive you still are."

"What are-?" The newest member of the Seven tried to ask.

"HE KNEW YOU!" The CEO states loudly. "He said "Sorry Annie" that shows he knows you personally. And the fact that you haven't connected the dots in that-." Stops to grabs his phone to show a still image from the Believe Expo where she briefly talks to Ben. "Proves how ignorant, naive and gullible you are." Puts his phone away and puts a still image of Hughie with the rest of the Boys as they walked to the front desk. "Not to mention one of the hooligans who infiltrated our records room and stole the case is a certain someone you've been seeing on a regular basis." Starlight just gapes in shock, trying to process this.

Edgar turns to Queen Maeve. "Your performance was lack luster at your best moments. You should be the Seven's expert in hand-to-hand combat, yet within moments in most of the engagement that you were involved you were swatted away like a fly. And according to social media you were 'hashtag dethroned.' You've also been skipping out on your training. More frequently than usual and you've purchased several cases of alcohol each week." Maeve say's nothing. "I don't care what problem you're trying to bury, or how you bury it, just so long as it doesn't affect your performance, which it has. So find a new coping mechanism or be done." He orders.

Edgar goes to A-Train. "I honestly wasn't surprised by you A-Train." He tells him.

"Really?" The Seven's speedster replied surprised.

"Yes. Thanks to the double dose of Compound V you took you performed exactly how I expected." Edgar answers, revealing that he knows A-Train's been doping. "Headfirst, stupid, reckless, clumsy with a few lucky shots before Shifter took you down cause you were to slow to realize that being faster doesn't make you smarter. Just never thought you were going to be outwitted by a child using movie references." He concludes.

Finally it's Homelander's turn. "And you." Dramatic pause. "You may have won in the end, but not before being beaten like a rag doll, getting blasted in multiple directions, and your entire conversations were caught on camera. And his rhetoric won more people over to his cause, while yours did nothing but remind your fans of your brand."

"So he quoted Optimus Prime, big whoop." Homelander sarcastically replies.

"The 'big whoop' isn't what he said it's that he got people to believe that he believes in what he said, therefore getting more people to believe in him." Edgar clarifies as he replays parts of the fight on one of the big screens.

The first image is of when Ben comes out of the fires as Optimus Prime.

"Stay down." Maeve grits. "Why the FUCK won't you just stay down?!" She yells.

"Because I have fought in many battles and fought far tougher opponents, and I shall never yield to those who abuse their powers for their own personal gain." Ben replies with Optimus's voice.

"You really think you can stop all of us?" Homelander asks with an amused smile as he gestures to his teammates. "Even if we go down, there are others who will take our place." He adds.

"I harbor no illusions about defeating your army single-handedly." Ben gestures to Vought tower. "But perhaps I can nullify their objective." Puts on the armor to protect the lower part of his face as he looks back at the Seven. "By removing it's head." He finished with a more menacing tone.

"You actually plan to beat all of us right here?" Homelander questions skeptically, then chuckles. "I just didn't think it would be now." He adds.

"Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing." Ben quotes, narrowing his optics (eyes) and clenching his fists.

"Look it doesn't have to end this way." Starlight speaks. To her she see's that he is just trying to do what he thinks is right, though through very different means. "We can talk, maybe even work together." She suggests.

"I'd sooner perish on my feet than live an eternity on my knees to serve a tyrant." Upgrade-Optimus replies as he reached behind his back and pulls out a pair of cannons.

Stan shuts the TV off.

"You see." He tells them. "Even I was slightly moved by that, and more importantly I actually believe that he believes in that pile of shit he just said." Edgar admits, then adds. "Now imagine what total strangers think of him after hearing that."

Pause as everyone processes this.

"But the pièce de résistance." Edgar resumes. "Is the obvious. You all essentially just committed child abuse." He tells them. "I don't care if you knew, and neither does the public. Cause we should've known, and since we didn't it makes us look incompetent, if we knew, but still did this anyway we'll be liable for well a slew of things." He informs.

"We have time." Stillwell tries to reassure. "We have until Tomorrow-" She was trying to say they have until tomorrow night, past midnight, but is again interrupted by Edgar.

"Morning." He says. "Noon actually. We captured him in the middle of the afternoon, we have until after midnight tomorrow to release him, but we're going to get ahead of that by releasing him around noon. That's when Homelander is gonna make the big announcement." He adds.

"What announcement?" The Seven leader asks.

"One of two things. If you can get something useful on Shifter you'll be announcing the names of the infiltrators that made off with one of the most valuable item in this tower." Edgar answers. "Has to be done without harming though, any previous injury to Mr. Tennyson can be seen as necessary since he was a danger blah blah blah for the safety of the public and all that bullshit."

"And the other thing?" A-Train asks.

"Should you fail to get any useful information from Shifter than you'll be announcing your retirement from Superhero work and the Seven will be disbanded." He tells them.

Numerous voices of shock are then exclaimed.

A-Train: "The Fuck!"

Deep: "What!"

Queen Maeve: Eyebrows raised.

Black Noir: Looks up at Edgar in surprise. (You can't see his face, but you know it's like stormtrooper)

Starlight: "Huh?"

Homelander: "Bullshit! You can't do that."

Madelyn Stillwell: "That's not necessary."

Edgar by now has his heart rate in control and replies. "I can and will." Edgar says firmly. "I did it to Payback I can do it just as easily to you all." He reminds them, particularly Homelander who's hero growing up was Soldier Boy. "If you want to keep your jobs then get something useful out of Shifter or tomorrow Homelander will announce-." Clears his throat. "That the Seven are so traumatized by the fact they nearly killed a child and that they are retiring." He says quoting what's gonna be on the Vought Instragram, News website, VNN, and whatever media outlet they have.

"I won't announce that." Homelander denies.

"Then I will." Edgar says then goes to Stillwell. "I almost forgot, once this blows over you're fired."

"What!" Stillwell replies in shock. "For what?" She knew she'd have to resign, but she was gonna announce her withdrawal in the next quarterly review.

"You let the people who infiltrated our company infiltrate it like it was some half baked version of Ocean's 11." Edgar answers. "You never put camera's in the hallway with the records, you never properly disposed of the hidden stairwell, just sealed it without considering the fact there were hidden entrances I warned you of. And worst of all they made off with Wrench's case."

Stillwell has a look a shock. "I didn't think it was necessary since nobody knew about any of that. And what case, what's in it?" She replies.

"Well they knew about and that case contained Wrench's greatest weapon." Edgar tells her in a miffed tone.

"Just how great of a weapon was it?" Homelander arrogantly asks.

"Makes the nuclear reactor look like a triple A battery." Edgar answered then calmly adds. "And now those boys have it, and if Shifter escapes he can open it for them and use it against us." He informs. "Now if you excuse me I have a company to run." Walks out towards his office.

The Boys Hideout

The boys and two girls walk inside their hideout slowly, it's been about an hour since they left Vought tower. No one has spoken a word. Immediately after getting inside Butcher dials Raynor.

"What do you want Butcher?" The deputy director asks, though she likely has an idea.

"Benji!" Butcher sternly says. "Get 'em out. Now." He orders.

"First off you prick, you don't give me orders." Susan replies, then adds. "And technically we don't have to demand his release until the day after tomorrow. He'll be released in 36 hours, to who's custody is anyone's fucking guess." She explains.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean? He'll be released dead in 36 hours." Butcher tells her as he paces around the area.

Hughie and Frenchie look at him curiously, Mother's Milk like he wants to rip his head off. While Kimiko takes Elena to the couch with an arm wrapped around her. While Monique, Janine and Wraith stay in another room, they were gonna go see them, but after seeing their state took the hint to give them space.

Raynor sighs. "Vought has a deal with the state where they can hold any criminal they capture for up to seven days. But apparently the kid's lawyer got it cut to 36 hours since he's a fucking kid who had the shit pounded out of him by Homelander after he was dropped from space."

Ignoring the fact Ben had a lawyer he never said anything about Butcher asked. "And if those cunts kill him?"

"They can't." Raynor tries to reassure. "If he comes out dead charges can be pressed and Vought can't have that. Comes out hurt same thing. Doesn't come out same thing. You're just gonna have to wait, unless you can overturn the Supreme Court before that." She tells him.

"There's gotta be something you can do? You owe us!" He nearly shouts.

"I don't owe any of you shit. I gave you intel, I told you it could be fucking nothing. This is your shit and you have to eat it. Now fuck off!" Raynor tells him as she hangs up.

Sighing Butcher puts his phone away, but as he turns to discuss their next course of action, MM decks him in the jaw. Butcher stumbles back as he rubs his right cheek where MM punched him. "This is your fucking fault!" MM shouts in anger as he marches towards him.

Nearby Hughie and Frenchie back away, knowing it's a bad idea to get in the middle of these two.

"Look MM." Butcher says, trying to calm him down, but it doesn't work as MM throws a left cross that hits it's mark.

"My family are wanted by Vought!" MM shouts as he picks up Butcher. "You dragged kids into this shit!" Throws him to a wall. "And Ben now has his ass in Vought prison cause you wanted more time to see if you could find YOUR DEAD FUCKING WIFE!" Shouts as he picks him up and tries to punch him.

Only Butcher gets his act together and ducks so MM hits the wall. The Brit then pushes Mother's Milk off of him and punches his face, forcing him to back up. "Don't EVER... fucking talk about my wife like that!" He tells him, while pointing a his finger.

"WHAT? THAT SHE'S DEAD!" MM shouts in response. "CAUSE SHE IS BUTCHER. SHE'S FUCKING DEAD AND WE'RE GONNA BE FUCKING DEAD CAUSE YOUR BITCH ASS FUCKED US ALL UP BIG TIME!"

"We'll get him out." Butcher tries to reassure.

"Then what?" MM asks. "We go on another once in a life time trip for you to screw us again? Hmm?" He asks. "Ben's fucked! My family is fucked! We're fucked! Stan fucking Edgar knows our faces. And Raynor can't help us." He lists the points to Butcher. "AND YOU AIN'T EVEN SORRY FOR IT, YOU FUCKING BRITISH PIECE OF SHIT!"

"I am sorry." Butcher admits. "Sorry that we couldn't get anything to take down Homelander or Vought."

"No you're not." Mother's Milk says. "You're probably fucking happy about this shit. Cause now you think you know Becca's alive." He tells him. "Cause you think that if you can get her back that every thing will be fucking sunshine, rainbows and ponies. It won't." He says. "You'll be the same miserable mother fucker who's wife walked out on him. And she's probably hoping you never find her."

Butcher then charges at MM and two resume their fight. Butcher tries to punch him, but MM grabs both of his fists, so Butcher headbutts him. This forces MM back and when Butcher tries to go in for another strike it's caught and MM spins so Butcher hits a wall.

Before the two can go at it again Kimiko grabs both of them by the ears, not with enough force to rip them off, but enough to hurt and stop them. She then grabs their heads and bashes them together, again holding back enough force to not do to much damage.

As the two rub their heads they focus on Kimiko glaring daggers at them. The Asian then holds up a single finger then mimes sipping her lips. She follows that up by holding up two fingers then mimicking slicing someone's throat. After that she walks back to Elena.

"What was that?" Hughie whispers.

""Shut the fuck up or I kill you."" Frenchie guesses.

As the two go to help Butcher and Mother's Milk back up, Butcher speaks up. "For the record I didn't mean for it to turn like this. It's just with Becca..." He drags, unsure of what to say.

"It's always about Becca." Mother's Milk interrupts. "Cause nothing else matters, not us, not Ben." He concludes.

"MM." Hughie tries to speak but is cut off.

"You're right." Butcher admits, surprising everyone especially Frenchie and MM who never heard him admit he was wrong. Even when he knew he was. "I'm sorry." He say's with sincerity. "For you, your family, Frenchie, Hughie and especially Len." The others raised an eyebrow at him getting Ben's name wrong.

"You mean 'Ben'?" Hughie corrected.

Butcher seemed to realize his mistake. "It's what I said." He denied then puts on his signature trench coat. "Sit tight I'll fix this." He says before leaving.

As the three men just stand in silence, Wraith comes in. "Sorry I know this a bad time." He announces his presence, gaining their attention. "But I'm doing a dark load so if you have dirty clothes can I have them?" He requests.

Mother's Milk obliges and goes to the pile of dirtied and bloody suits they wore for the infiltration. "Here ya go." He say's. "How's Janine and Monique?" He asks.

"Well apart from being terrified about not knowing what's going to happen they're just peachy." He says before floating to the washing machine. When he gets there he starts going through the pockets and when he gets to Frenchie's jacket he finds a small device with a small blinking red light.

Floating back to where the boys were he holds up the device. "Hey look what I found in Frenchie's jacket." He announces then stares at it. "Look it goes blink blink blink. Does it do something else?"

"Fucking shit!" Frenchie screams as he runs up to examine it. "It's a fucking tracker!" He shouts.

"Don't crush it." MM says. "Then they'll know we found it."

"We gotta get outta here!" Hughie states in a panic.

"No shit!" MM agree's as he loads his hand gun and grabs a few more ammo clips. "Wraith tell the girls the pack quick, and get ready to leave!" He orders before going to their murder board and tearing it up to prevent them from knowing what they know.

Wraith floats to Kimiko and Elena who are in another one of the rooms used for sleeping. Kimiko and Elena are sitting on the mattress with Kimiko's arms wrapped around Elena's. "We gotta go. Vought tracked us." He urged and Kimiko nodded.

Wraith floats to Mother's Milk's family. "I got good news and bad news." He tells them. "Which do you want to hear first?"

Janine who was reading about Namibia responded first. "Bad news."

"Bad news: Vought tracked us down and are probably on their way here to capture or kill us." He says.

Monique looks at him in shock. "What's the good news?"

Wraith's expression changes to more cheery. "You get to get out of here, just like you wanted."

He then floats back to the boys who are scrambling. "Got everything?" MM asks, as he burns whatever evidence he can in an oil drum they use for trash.

"Yup." Frenchie says as he grabs the knockout gas recipe.

"Does it fucking matter?!" Hughie states as he zipps a small duffle with some food in it.

Just then hard bangs on the door are heard.

Immediately the boys and girls are pause what their doing and proceed to leave through a manhole leading to the sewers. But Wraith stays.

"Wraith?" Janine asks, as she sits down and looks over at her ghost friend. The rest soon look at Wraith who's staring at the door as the, presumably, Vought soldier try to bust in. Thankfully they had the sense to jam it each time they come in for this exact reason.

"Go! I'll buy you some time." Wraith says. And reluctantly they leave him. After they do though, Wraith places a carpet and a chair over the cover to hide the exit for now.

BLAM!

The sound the door being broken open is heard and Wraith goes invisible. But not before taking a phone they left and getting it ready to have some fun.

As the Vought branded SWAT soldiers pour in with rifles ready they look around and do a quick in take. One see's the fire and he says. "They knew we were coming."

Another notices items left haphazardly. "Looks like they left in hurry, probably just missed them." A woman says.

"Definitely did." Another adds. "Looks like someone was doing laundry."

Music is then suddenly heard.

Boys and girls of every age

Wouldn't you like to see something strange?

They all look around as the music is echoing from above them.

Come with us and you will seeeee

This, our town of Halloween

"Are they messing with us?" One asks.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Pumpkins scream in the dead of night

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene

Trick or treat 'til the neighbors gonna die of fright

"It's not even Halloween yet."

It's our town, everybody scream

In this town of Halloween

"I haven't watch that movie in a long time."

I am the one hiding under your bed

Wraith invisibly grabs someone's leg and pulls, forcing them down.

Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red

They all tensely turn their guns around to find whoever is here or any traps left behind. But see no one and no traps.

I am the one hiding under your stairs

Wraith invisibly shoves another against the wall.

Fingers like snakes, and spiders in my hair.

Wraith creepily crawls his hands on one's back, making them turn around to also see nothing.

One looks up and fires once at the phone taped in a part of the room so the sound can echo. "WHO ARE YOU?" The leader demands to know.

"I am the 'who' when you go who's there?" Wraith eerily echo's into the room before flying through several them while adding. "I am the wind blowing through your hair."

"I am vengeance!" Wraith exclaims, as knocks one away. "I am darkness." Wraith grabs and throws one into a wall. "I am."

A flash bang is thrown in his direction and goes off. "AHHHH!" Wraith exclaims in brief pain as his body burns, like that of a pasty kid who's been at the beach for several hours with no sunscreen. (Believe me that hurts)

"Use the flash bangs!" Someone shouted. But before they could Wraith was already diving underground into the safety of the sewers.

Vought Tower

Edgar was on his way towards their captive when he got a call from his team. "You better have good news." He says. "Did you capture them?" Pause. "Of course you didn't. What's the excuse this time?" He asks, anticipating some lame explanation. However as the commander explains a 'freak ghost' thing messing with them he stopped and smirked. "Interesting. So that's where he is." Pause as he considers his next course of action. "You lucked out today." Hangs up.

Ashley then walks up to him holding a folder. "Uh sir I have the contract offer you requested, but um there seems to be a few complications." She tells the CEO nervously.

"Oh like what?" Edgar asks, he can't have something else go wrong now.

"W-well firstly legal..." Ashley carefully annunciates. "Needs to know why such a uh big offer." Chuckles nervously. "Even Homelander didn't have a contract this... generous."

"Oh. I guess it all comes down to money right." Edgar jokes, and Ashley nervously smiles to. "Well tell legal it won't affect are charts because if this deal is accepted then we get to release a lot of expensive dead weight. Which compared to this offer is nickels to the dollar." He tells her.

"Nickels?" Ashley replies confused, since the phrase is 'pennies on the dollar.'

"What my father called somewhat expensive long term investments." Chuckles at a memory. "He made my mother so mad when he bought that stock, then a month later we moved into an actual house that was nicer than all white people's." Smile then turns back to his standard business face. "Is that all?"

"Uh no." Ashley answers. "They also need to know when you want it to expire. Both the offer and the contract should they accept." She clarifies.

"Oh well 10 years for the renewal should they accept and for how long they have to accept... anytime." Edgar answers as Ashley writes that down.

"Sir?" She questions.

"Did I stutter?" Edgar asked, getting annoyed. But as Ashley stutters for a response he asks. "Is that all?"

"One last thing. The name of the person who we're contracting." She requests.

"Ben Tennyson is his name." He answers even while she writes that down.

Ashley then pauses when she remembers what she got from the courtroom report she handed Stillwell. "The Shifter!" She exclaims and turns to catch up to Edgar who was walked several paces away

"Indeed." Edgar tells her, before taking the folder. "And even if he doesn't accept Homelander and the rest of his merry band of mistakes will be out by tomorrow anyway. So worst case scenario we save some money we'll need for a PR campaign." Opens the folder, reads it and hands it back. "So just get those little details sorted quickly and we won't have a problem." Continues to walk as Ashley stops in her tracks, visibly shocked.

With Ben

Ben was just sitting on his mattress, bored out of his mind, when the door opened. Through it came an African-American man with grey hair, glasses and wearing a suit. "If you're one of the dudes in charge I'd like to launch a complaint." Ben tells him.

"My apologies that your stay with us has been disappointing." The man says. "But we'll get to that in a moment. First introductions are in order." He adds cordially. "I am Stan Edgar, CEO of Vought and you are?"

"Ben Tennyson." Ben replies. "Course you probably knew that."

"I did." Edgar replied as he studied Ben.

After a few moments Ben spoke. "You gonna stare at me like that all day? Cause I might start charging." He tell him.

"My apologies, I'm just so... impressed." Edgar tells him with an excited smile.

"Wait what?" Was Ben's, confused, response.

"I am." Edgar tells him. "I mean you appear out of nowhere and continuously hinder a multitude of our painstakingly planned and calculated operations simply by going with your natural instinct. Not to mention you put that overgrown man child in his place along with other Vought heroes." He adds with an upbeat tone.

"Uhhhhhh you sound kinda happy about that." Ben points out. Which is weird because normally the boss is at least annoyed when his plans get ruined.

"A true leader doesn't let defeat get to them for too long, otherwise they'll lose the next battle." Edgar explains and Ben can feel a speech or metaphor coming on. "A true leader in the face of defeat figures out what they did wrong, reorganizes his forces and changes things before trying again." Dramatic pause as Edgar turns to Ben. "Otherwise his army is stuck in the mud, like Haig and British at the Somme in 1916." He finishes.

"Is there gonna be a quiz, cause I got a C in History and that's only cause I copied off the kid next to me." Ben tells him.

Edgar pushes up his glasses before saying. "Perhaps I should be more direct. I'd like to propose an offer."

"Ok." Ben says in a bored tone as he goes to lie down.

Edgar is visibly surprised by this as he replies. "Hm I figured you reject what I had to say."

"Yeah cause I'm soooo busy." Ben sarcastically stated, while gesturing towards his cell. "Plus not like I can kick you out... yet." He adds.

Edgar smirks at the kid's attitude. "I'd like to offer you a position at Vought."

"For what, your next lame toy advertisement?" Ben questioned in a bored tone.

"For Homelanders position on the Seven." He clarifies.

"Say what now?" Ben says, visibly surprised by that offer.

"You heard me." Edgar tells him. But Ben still looks at him in surprise. "I see you're in shock so I'll just lay out the details." Clears his throat. "You'll get an enormous salary, with bonuses depending on how well you perform. Free reign on the Seven, if you wish to call it that, and decide who joins it. As well as primary decision making for any and all products relating to you and your team." He explains.

"What's the catch?" Ben asks, knowing there always is.

"Only that you work for Vought and discontinue your campaign against Vought." Edgar tells him. "Imagine all the fans you already have, amplify that with fans of Vought. You'll be loved by billions, make likely as much money with products, and never want for anything because you'll either have it or get it. And all you have to do is keep doing what you've done, just for Vought." He tries to convince him.

Ben thinks this over. 'The would be awesome.' He thinks while imagining living in a huge cliché mansion, with all the candy, video games and movies he wants. He also imagines walking into a movie premiere and hearing screams and shouts of his names while people take his picture. Then pictures stores filled with his own merchandise, complete with his face on them.

As he thinks this over he glances back at his left wrist, where the metal band was blocking the Omnitrix. His thoughts then drift back to Grandpa Max and Gwen and the reason why he had the Omnitrix in the first place.

"No." Ben simply says.

Edgar isn't disappointed with this and instead seems impressed with his answer. "Interesting. You took a few seconds, but still refused an offer that not even Homelander would get. Shows a strong will."

"Look I don't care who you are, before I came to this universe I was beating all kinds criminals, aliens, robots, monsters, and mutants. And now I can add all your lame supes to that pile." Ben informs him. "Have any of your lame supes ever fought an actual mad scientist, or robots, or mutated animals?" He rhetorically asks.

"Fortunately those have not had the pleasure of arriving to our planet. Unfortunately for us it requires us to stage such things for movies." Edgar replies.

"Exactly." Ben says, his point proven. "Being a Hero isn't about any of that crud, it's about doing the right thing. Which means you can take that offer and flush it down the toilet."

"Very well." Edgar says, slightly disappointed. "The offer doesn't expire by the way, so if you change your mind the conditions will still be the same."

"Just save the paper and get out before I bust out." Ben dismisses, and Edgar leaves.

Meanwhile in another Super Powered Prison

CIA Blacksite

The cell door opens and Raynor walks in with another person in protective body gear carrying a tray of food "Lunch time." She announces.

Kevin turns away from his TV and looks at the tray, meat, potatos and a glass of milk. "Thats it?" He asks, feeling annoyed with this pallet. His portions on that alien gladiator ship (See Grudge Match) were bigger.

"This isn't the Hilton. Human rights say you get food, but you barely count as human." Raynor tells him then shrugs her shoulders as he continues to brood. "Or you can just starve."

Kevin grit his teeth in anger, then turns to the newcomer. "Who's this guy?" He asks, gesturing with one of his thumbs.

Raynor then plainly replies. "He's your feeder." The guy approached, but paused and looked at Raynor "He won't gonna bite, even if he tries the gas will knock him out first." She tells him, as gas stops pouring inside his cell for a minute to allow the worker to drop off the food.

The three walls of extra strength reinforced glass then open entrances big enough for a person to walk through. The guy walks through them set's the tray down near him, just passing the line deemed the "danger zone." Kevin smirks, not able to resist, he speeds to him and opens his mouth which protruded Ripjaws razor sharp teeth. The man screamed and fell on his butt, before quickly scrambling backwards and out the cell and far away as possible as Kevin devoured the meal.

Raynor's eyes widend, as she hasn't seen him do that against the seven or shifter. What else could he do? She looked at Kevin whose mouth returned to normal. "Got ketchup?"

Raynor just looked at him as the feeder walked, almost ran, out of the room and said. "You're a real pain in the ass you know that?"

"Whats your problem?" Kevin asks.

Raynor just rolls her eyes and replies. "I spend my day trying to keep this country safe, while dealing with assholes who spend all day staring at my chest." She lists off.

Kevin scratches his head as he asks. "Why are they staring?"

Raynor raises an eyebrow, then something occurred to her. The shifter was just a kid, and these two knew each other. 'Could it?' She thought for a second. She unbuttoned the top buttons on her shirt showing the top of her clevage. She stood in front of Kevin. "Anthing?"

"Whats supposed to happen?" The mutated kid asks.

"Holy shit" Ryanor blinked before buttoning up her shirt. "You're a just a 10 year old to."

"I'm not ten." Kevin says. "I'm eleven." He clarified.

Raynor just rubs her face and groans. "Of course." She sighs before checking her watch. Time for her to go. "Well good night, so you tomorrow for our next chat." She tells him before walking away.

"You can't keep me here!" Kevin shouts. "I'll get out of here soon!"

Just outside his cell

Raynor meets with her boss who asks. "Anything?" Seeing as how she's been trying to get information out of him for days.

"Nothing." She tells him as they walk down together. "Either he's not telling us shit or he doesn't know shit. And honestly I can't tell which it is. Only thing I got was that he's an eleven year old kid."

"Jesus Christ, and I was worried about my kids hitting puberty." The CIA director replied. "See ya tomorrow." He said as they parted ways.

As Raynor gathered her things she received a text from her husband.

Andrew: Working late again? If so just so you know I made your favorite.

Susan: Not tonight. I'm coming home now.

She messages him back and leaves.

Scene Cut

Susan parked her car in her driveway and made her way in the house. Pressing the code to get inside without sounding the alarm she walked in and headed towards the dining room. "I'm home. Hope you saved some for me." She says as she walks, but freezes the moment she see's the table.

Her Husband is sitting in his usual spot just across from her son, who was sitting next to his sister, and across her was an empty seat for Susan. But at the head of the table sat William Butcher sitting back with an empty plate in front, as the other four still had food. Her family had frightened expressions as Butcher said. "They waited for ya, but I couldn't resist."

He then gestures to the seat directly across from him. "Have a seat, join us. You must be stressed." He says.

"Only if they can leave." Susan tells him.

"They ain't leaving." Butcher replies, then turns to her husband Andrew. "Tell her why Andy."

"He..." Andrew stutters to say. "He p-p-p-put pressure bombs on our chairs. We d-d-d-didn't know until we sat down." He informs.

"Any of 'em get up, kablooey. So either sit down or I press this." Butcher clarifies as he holds up the detonator. A Raynor complies Butcher notices the terrified looks and sniffling. "Oh cheer up kiddies, it'll be over in a few hours." He turns back to Susan. "So long as mommy just gives me a few things."

"I can't get him out even if I wanted to." Susan says, thinking she already knows what he wants.

"We'll get to that." Butcher says. "What's on Kraken Island?" He asks, remembering that's where Edgar told him Becca was.

"A surveillance unit looking out for Chinese and Korean ships or submarines or whatever. Why the fuck do you want to know that?" Susan answers, slightly confused by that request.

"Fuck." Butcher groans, knowing now that Edgar lied to him. 'Still why mention specifically that?' He thought.

"What's on there?" Susan asks.

"Where's Kevin?" Butcher ignores and continues.

"Who?" Raynor replies feigning confusion.

"Chimera." Butcher plays along. "Kevin Levin, the little cunt that took down a bunch of Vought cunts that Benji needed to do a team up in."

"Not my department." Susan tells him.

"Well I think it is." Butcher tells her and pulls out blown up pictures of her car dashboard. Specifically the total miles she travelled. "Unless you've been driving an extra 100 miles for fun than you're gonna need a new car soon." Pause. "So talk or boom."

With the Boys and Girls

"Told you I'd find a way out." Elena says as she leads them outside of the sewer near a construction site. "Told you guys I'd find a way out." She says.

"Yeah after the last five wrong turns." Hughie says, as he sniffs himself and makes a face of disgust.

"Let's find a place to lay low and clean up." MM says as he passes out hand sanitizer and wet wipes. Especially to his wife (possibly soon to be ex wife) and child, but see's Janine still inside. "Baby come on out."

"Waiting for Wraith." She tells him.

"And here I am." Wraith says as he floats in sight. "Thanks for the markers though we better move before they can track us." He suggests. "Might I recommend and Airbnb in Manhattan."

"They can track that." Frenchie tells him.

"Oh." Wraith sighs, as he steps out of the shadows as the sun finishes setting. "Well that's disappointing."

"Let's just find a motel or something. Criminals stay there all the time." Janine suggests. Having seen multiple crime shows.

And with that they moved to find a motel to hunker down for the night. And hopefully by morning they'll figure something out.

With Ben

Ben was sitting in his cell when the door opened up and in came Starlight and Queen Maeve. Since it was dangerous to leave Ben by himself, and any footage of his captivity may likely fall into the wrong hands, Homelander ordered that two members at a time should watch him.

Maeve walked over to one of the walls and leaned on it stoically, not making eye contact. Annie walked towards the cell with a sandwich and a water bottle. "I thought you might be hungry."

"Finally!" Ben cheered as he took the sandwich and began eating. "You guys are definitely getting a zero star." He says as he drinks his water. "I mean the service here stinks."

"So..." Annie drags, clearing her throat. "Can we talk?" She asks, and Ben knows it's going to be about Hughie.

Seven Conference Room

After Homelander dispatched Queen Maeve and Starlight to look after and interrogate Shifter the other four remaining members sat around and thought of their next move. So far nothing has come to mind. Even their most cunning supe, Black Noir, hasn't made a suggestion.

"He didnt know." Homelander said suddenly.

The others look at him curiously. "What?" Deep asks

Homelander continues. "He didnt know Translucent was dead. He thought he was locked up." He points out.

A-Train looks at him skeptically. "How do you know he wasn't just messing with us?" He questions.

Homelander gets up as he wags his finger. "No, it was in his voice. He really thinks Translucent is alive." Stops to look at the view of the city.

"So what does that mean?" The speedster asks.

Noir then holds up a sheet up paper reading 'muscle.'

Homelander nods and says. "Noir's right, it means the kid was just the muscle. There's a brain behind all this we haven't seen yet." Pauses as he thinks back to when those guys shot that has during the Chimera incident. "Or maybe we have."

Walking to the phone at the desk he calls Stillwell. "Madelyn I think I have something."

Back with Ben

"Sorry, doesn't ring a bell." Ben replies to Starlight.

"Look I know you're lying." Starlight tells him. "He came here with a bunch of other guys to steal something, that's why you attacked us, to be a distraction." She continues, figuring out the plan they had. The original at least.

"That does sound like an ok-ish plan, but only a bunch of idiot dweebs would fall for it." Ben admits. "But I guess you guys would fall for it, if that was the plan." He adds, taking a shot at them.

"The only way they could've known that we weren't gonna be at the tower cause you attacked us was if you guys planned it." Starlight points out.

"According to any lawyer show I've seen that is what is called circui-circumstantial evidence." Ben replies. "They could've just gotten lucky."

"No one's that lucky." Annie tells him.

"Don't people win like a zillion dollars on the lottery. Pretty sure you need luck for that, cause I doubt all those winners knew the exact winning numbers." Ben suggests. "Or a lot of guesses."

"Or they knew the numbers before they were called." Annie replies.

"I go back to my lawyer show comment." Ben reminds her. Then see's Maeve averting her eyes from him. "Uh do I have something on my face or something?" He asks.

No response.

"Back to Hughie." Starlight tries to continue.

"Helllllllo." Ben calls out to Maeve, who adjusts her vision towards one of the walls. "Ok I get I kicked your butt, but this is weird."

"Just shut up ok." Maeve tells him in an annoyed tone, finally looking at him.

"She speaks!" Ben says with fake astonishment.

"Where. Are. They?" Starlight asks, one word at a time.

"I. Don't. Know." Ben replies in the same manner. "Can. We. Talk. About. Something. Else. Please?"

Annie groans.

"Don't bother. He's not gonna talk." Maeve concludes. "If anything you're just giving him ammo." Leans her back against the wall.

"I actually wanna talk. Just not about that." Ben admitted. "I'm having a major crisis."

"More major than this?" Annie asks, gesturing to Ben's imprisonment.

"Eh." Ben shrugged, as he motioned his hand in a 'so so' gesture. "I've been captured like twice, both times on spaceships and I broke out both times." He dismisses. "One crashed near Mount Rushmore and blew up." He recalled.

"Anyway I'm trying to figure out my theme song, but I'm torn between something sci-fi or rock & roll." Ben continues with his original thought. "Which should I go with?"

"Wait what, go back?" Annie requests.

"It's not that complicated." Ben tells her. "Which one do I choose?"

"No about the spaceships and Mount Rushmore." Starlight clarified. "We definitely would've seen that."

Ben sighs, as if tired. "Cause it was in another dimension." Shakes his head. "Do I need to start a uh... (snaps his finger) a podcast? Do I need to start one, cause I said a million times I'm from another dimension."

Maeve chuckles in amusement. "Yeah right." She dismisses.

"I'm telling the truth your majesty." Ben tells her. "I mean tell me where on earth can I find a watch that turns me into a bunch of super cool alien dudes?"

Before the conversation could continue the door opened and Homelander came in. "Thank you ladies I got it from here."

"It's no problem, I can stay longer." Starlight tries to argue.

"Noooo." Homelander drags on as he glared daggers at Ben, who picks his left ear with his pinky finger. "This is just gonna be between us." He says, and the girls take their leave.

Just Outside

Annie sighed as the door was closed on her way out. "Upset your boyfriend was just using you. Well get used it, cause there's plenty more like him." Maeve bluntly tells her.

"What is with you?" Starlight asks, baffled by her. "First you hardly talk to Ben and now you wanna talk about Hughie."

"Hey I'm just trying to be honest." Maeve defends leisurely.

"You know I read your autobiography so many times that I wore it out. I had to buy a second one and I wanted to live my life exactly like yours." Starlight tells her. "Because you didn't just break all the bones in your right arm stopping that school bus from falling off of a bridge, but you also went to every kid's physical therapy afterwards. Just to show the world that they were heroes, too. You really stood for something." She continues to reminisce fondly.

"But now..." Annie resumes. "I'm pretty sure that was just written by the marketing guys."

As Annie is about to walk away, Maeve speaks. "What are you gonna do when you see your boy toy?" She asks, and as Starlight doesn't reply she adds. "Cause no way he didn't use something from you, even if he did like you." And Annie walks away to clear her head.

With Ben

"Great your back. Here we go again." Ben groans with a sigh, before moving back and getting comfortable.

"What do you mean?" Homelander asks.

"You're here to make me an offer of money and a spot in the Seven, right." Ben guess.

Homelander nods then gestures for the remote. "Before that let's watch some TV, something on the news you might find interesting." He tells Ben.

"But this is my favorite show." Ben say's while gesturing to the black screen. "I know it's a rerun, but it's better than what you got."

"You're gonna love it, trust me." Homelander tried to assure, while motioning his fingers to bring the remote.

"Whatever." Ben complies, tossing the remote to him earlier. "Just don't put on one of your movies, that's annoying and pathetic, even if they were good."

Homelander just fake smiles, before gritting his teeth, resisting the urge to laser Ben at his most vulnerable. He then turns on the TV and puts on VNN.

Vought News Network

Cameron Coleman smiles into the camera and says "Hello everyone and welcome to seven on seven, the most honest and unbiased news source there is."

He sighs before going on. "To say that the last few hours have been eventful would be an understatement. Just to recap: First Homelander takes the stage to inform us of the possible loss of his teamate and beloved hero Translucent. Then that touching moment was interrupted by the Shifter in his latest action against Vought and our nations heroes. He attacked the Seven, resulting in a huge fight that caused damage to the city. To no ones surprise Homelander came out on top, but this lead to the biggest surprise since the Shifters first appearance. That the Shifter is a literal child" The screen showed a picture of Ben after the fight when he had become human again.

"None were more shocked than the Seven." Picture of the sevens shock was on screen. "But being the heroes they are, they quickly went into action."

Footage shows Starlight moving through the hoards of reporters and check on Ben before picking him up and carrying him towards a Vought brand ambulance. Her teammates even cleared a path "The Shifter, or Tennyson as his name was revealed in his fight with the chimera a week ago, was then brought to Vought tower, where he recived top level medical treatment."

"Now I know there's a lot of questions. But we're about to get some answers. Thanks to our special guest, Senior Vice present of hero management at Vought, Madelyn Stillwell."

The camera panned out to see stillwell stitting next to him. "Thanks for having me Cameron." She says, with a bright smile.

"Pleasures all mine." Coleman replies.

Madelyn then begins talking. "I believe the best way to address this situation, is to tackle each of the biggest questions."

Coleman nods and replies. "Sounds like a plan."

"The first thing I'd like to address is the health of young Mr. Tennyson. I wanna assure to everyone that he is safe and receiving the best medical care we have to offer." She tries to reassure the audience, especially those vocal about child abuse and such.

Coleman then adds. "No surprise there. What do you think of the liberal left's growing demands that he be releashed."

Stillwell takes a moment to reply. "Well Cameron, the thing to remember is child or not. He has committed several crimes including trespassing, destruction of property, assault, obstruction of Justice and others. And while this is a truly unique situation we are following the law by detaining him until this can be sorted out. And given the power he has, there's nowhere else that could hold him." She answers.

Cameron nods approvingly before saying. "I'd also like to point out that unlike the CIA, who are holding chimera, Vought is being fully transparent with the situation. Finally, what do say about this one man, or should I say, one child and his war on Vought and it's heroes?"

"That is something we've been trying to understand since the beginning actually. And it baffled all of our minds, from top to bottom." Stillwell tells him. "But now, we have an answer." She takes out a framed picture of the Seven "Tell me, what do you see when you look at this?" She asks.

Coleman looks at it for a few seconds before listing off. "Protection. Justice. Heroes."

Stillwell nods and replies. "Exactly. And no one sees that more than children. Which raises the question why would a child who should be inspired by these heroes, think of them as villains. The reason? They've been lied to." She puts the picture away. "Can you play the footage?" She requests.

"Of course" Cameron agrees and turns to the camera "The following footage shows the end of chimeras rampage."

The video played showing the aftermath of Diamondhead and Groundhawk's double uppercut on Chimera. Then the black van shows up and the masked men fire the gas grenades that eventually knocks him out. The video pauses and the frame zooms in on them.

Stillwell then speaks. "If you zoom in, you can see the hourglass symbol on their maskes, the same that's present on all of the Shifter's forms."

"So these people weren't cia?" Coleman asks for clarification, though likely already knowing the answer.

Stillwell shakes her head. "No they weren't, far from it. These men had zinc sewn into their masks to prevent Homelander from discovering their identities. But thanks to the hard working minds at Vought mask's cant protect them now."

A new image shows the Boys with Kimiko and Elena, who has her face concealed with her hood, at Vought tower. The image is a still frame from when they infiltrated the tower.

She proceeds to name all the Boys. "These are William Butcher, Marvin T. Milk, Serge, Hugh Campbell." She says, putting up photos/mugshots of them. "These are the true villains of this story. Not only for scheming against our nations heroes. But for the manipulation of a confused child and brainwashing him to fight their battles for them."

Coleman just shakes his head in disapproval. "Horrible, just horrible." He says then looks back to the image of the Boys with Kimiko and Elena and asks. "But who are these two, one looks like another child, but who is that woman?" He asks.

"Well this where it gets darker." Stillwell admits then an image of the insignia of Shining Light Liberation Army terrorist group appears. "There are no records of who that woman is, but we know for sure that she at least was, maybe even still is, part of the Shining Light Liberation Army."

"A terrorist group?" Cameron asks for confirmation.

"Yes that's right." Stillwell answers with a nod.

"What is being done to handle this situation?" Coleman wonders.

"Well for security reasons I can't go into much detail, mainly cause I'm not a part of that specific effort." She begins. "But what I can tell you now is our Heroes are working on a plan to track down these fugitives, but it seems Mr. Tennyson was central to their plan, and with him rescued..." She trails off.

"Their plans are ruined." Coleman guesses.

Stillwell nods. "It would seem so, yes."

Cameron just smiles and begins concluding. "Well thank you so much for this enlightening interview." Turns to the camera. "And thank you for listening to the actual news."

With Ben

The TV shuts off and Homelander looks at Ben. "Millions of people are now seeing that." He points out.

"That's those cause millions of people are also dweebs." Ben shoots back. Then yawns. "Is that supposed to mean anything anyway?"

Before Homelander could respond, Ben continues. "Cause dude, you guys have been calling me a criminal for like weeks now. This feels like a step down on your part, making me a victim. What's next, you adopt me?" Ben teases. "Be like the son you never had." He mocks with a chuckle. "I'd pity someone with your DNA."

"It's more on your little buddies." Homelander points out out. "We and everyone else know who they are now. Who you are. Can't hide anymore." He reminds.

Ben just looks at him. "Let me guess, if I say yes to your demands you won't hurt them." He guesses.

"Not demands." Homelander tries to reason. "Just call it a deal."

Ben takes a moment to think. "Well you do know these deals... work better with leverage, and you don't have that." Ben points out. "You know you guys have terrible negotiating skills." He adds as Homelander walks out.

Outside the door

Deep and A-Train are there waiting for Homelander, who walks out and says. "You two keep an eye on him until I get back." The two nod and Homelander walks to where they've been keeping an old coworker.

As A-Train was about to go in, Deep stopped him. "Hey, mind if I take a crack at home alone?" He requests.

"You think you can get something out of him?" A-Train ask, slightly amused. "Even after Homelander walked out without a deal."

"Well all of you guys have a lot more bad blood, so..." Deep reasons. "And we just had that one fight before today."

"Where he whooped your ass." A-Train reminded.

"Did you beat him?" Deep asks, and the lack of a response is all he needs. "Come on, what do we have to lose by just letting me talk to him."

A-Train shrugs and holds his hands up in surrender. "Go ahead man." He agrees and Deep walks in.

Deep walked into the room Ben was locked in and walked up to the bars separating them. "Hello fishy fishy, shouldn't you be saving a dolphin or a whale, maybe a squid?"

Deep sighs and says. "Look kid, I know it's been a rough few hours, but I think I can help you out."

"Really?" Ben asks with skepticism.

Deep nods and replies. "Oh yeah, you see the thing is, I'm the unoficcial number 2 of the Seven." He says, using the same line that he used on Starlight.

Ben smiles with amusement and responds. "So you were the second person to join?"

Deep stutters as replies. "What? No that was Mr Marathan.. wait." He tries to remember the order each person was brought it. "What I mean is, I'm basically second in command, Homelanders right hand guy. Now you help me out a little, I help you."

"What kind of help?" Ben asks.

"How about some info on that watch of yours?" Deep suggests, feeling like he's getting somewhere.

Ben looked at the clasps covering the omnitrix and looked like he was thinking hard. "I could tell you who made it."

Deep smiled. "Now we're talking." He says

Minutes later

Deep steps out of the room and was met by A-Train. "How'd it go?" The speedster asks.

"I know who made his watch" Deep answers with excitement.

A-train looks at him, dumbfounded by this. "Bitch!Why would he tell you?"

"Cause unlike you, I'm great with kids" Deep replies as he held up the paper. "I'm gonna go see Edgar and Homelander." He went to move but A-Train stopped him.

"Whats the fucking name?" A-Train wondered.

"A german guy named "Ima Wie Ner." Deep answers, reading the paper.

A-train blinked, then just stared at him, before chuckling and taking out his phone.

"What?" Deep asks, as A-Train turns on the camera and starts recording.

"Ima Wie Ner" A-Train repeats.

"Yeah." Deep answers in slight confusion.

"Read it again." A-Train requested.

"Ima Wie Ner" not getting it." Deep tells him, still not getting it.

A-Train struggles to say his next words through his laughs. "Read it fast"

"Im a wiener." Deep said. Then there was a moment of silience. "Im a wiener." He says's.

A-Train bends forward laughing. "Man I needed that." He says as he takes the paper and crumples it up and tossed it before heading in.

As they do Ben greets them. "Hey The Dweeb is back with Lame train." He says cheerfully.

"You tricked me." Deep tells him.

"Wasn't that hard Dweeb." Ben replies.

"Hey! The Name is Deep." The aquatic supe reminds him.

Ben shrugs. "Yeah, thats what I said, the Dweeb."

"The Deep." The Seven member again corrects.

Ben: "The Dweeb."

Deep: "Deep!"

Ben: "Dweeb."

Deep: "DEEP!"

Ben: "Deep!"

"Dweeb!" Deep snapped. "I'm the Dweeb damnit!" He takes a few breaths and it dawns on him. Ben laughs. "Thats not funny you little shi-" He then notices A-Train was recording him on his phone. "Seriously!?"

A-train smiles and replies with a thumbs up and. "Keep going man, you're doing great."

Homelander

The Seven leader is talking to the medical examiner that looked over Translucent's remains when they were brought it. "It's a simple question, where's his body?" Homelander asked again.

"I'm sorry sir I don't know where it is." The examiner told him. "After he was brought in he was put in cold storage, then security took his remains elsewhere." He explains. "They didn't tell me."

"Stillwell's orders?" The Seven leader asks.

"Maybe. I don't know. I swear sir." Is the reply, and Homelander can tell. His heart rate is up, but not enough to warrant a lie. Plus he only started feeling that when he was being pressed, not when he walked in the room.

Homelander nods and walks out. Presumably to find Stillwell.

With Butcher

After finding out Kraken Island was a dead end Butcher sighed. "Where's Kevin?" He asks, instead.

"Who?" Raynor questions.

Butcher rolls his eyes. "Sorry. Where's Chimera? The cunt the kid fought with those other supes."

"His name is Kevin?" Aaron (The son) says.

"Aaron, quiet." Susan say's.

"No he's alright." Butcher says, then turns to the kid in question. "Feels like it should be for a cartoon don't it."

"What do you want with Kevin?" Raynor ask, trying to get his attention.

"To get Ben out of Vought." Butcher answers, then looks to Grace. "You remember him, the little tyke when we first met. He's the Shifter."

"What do you want!" Susan asks again.

"I want to know where Kevin is and how to get him out, so he can attack the cunts at Vought to get Benji out." Butcher tells her.

"No fucking way." She says.

Butcher then pulls out a gun and holds it to Grace's (the daughter) head, who cries out briefly before squeezing her eyes shut. However even though Raynor is worried for her children, she knows Butcher isn't gonna kill an innocent child. "You and I both know that's not in your area." She tells him.

"You're right." Butcher acknowledges, setting the gun down. "Figured I give you the easy way, before completely destroying your family."

Raynor's eyes then began to widen.

"Susan, what's he talking about?" Her husband Andrew asked.

"You see a ways back..." Butcher dragged out.

"Butcher so help me-" Susan tried to say, but was cut off.

"Your wife and I fucked a few times when we used to work together." Butcher plainly tells him. "Before we started working together again."

"You've been working with this lunatic?" Andrew asked.

Butcher looks at him curiously. "That's your question? Cause I figured you'd ask how many times or what positions, or if we still were doing it?" Butcher asked.

"I knew." Andrew told him, and Susan looked at her husband in surprise.

"I thought you didn't tell him." Butcher wonders.

"I didn't." She tells him.

"I could tell, it was after you came back from that extended work trip." Andrew explains, and looks his wife in the eye. "My father was the same when he cheated on my mom. Never stopped him from doing it again, but I know you've never done it again."

"Why didn't you say something?" Susan asks, knowing how hard it must've been to know she cheated and not say anything.

"It wasn't my secret to tell, I figured you'd tell me eventually. But then you didn't and started working less, working around your schedule." Andrew responds. "I wanted to bring it up, but then the kids came along, you changed your job to be with them and me... I didn't wanna punish you because of one mistake. One that you probably tell the therapist about."

"How did you know about my therapist?" Susan asks, knowing she had been careful hiding it.

"Debra told me." He said, mentioning the neighborhood gossiper. "She goes to the same one, thought we were getting couples counseling, or you were gonna divorce me."

There was a moment of silence, until Susan, with tears in her eyes, said. "I am so so sorry."

Andrew just nods.

Slow condescending clapping was then heard and they turned back to Butcher. "Fuck me, that was beautiful." Leans forward on the table. "This should be a fucking Lifetime movie, am I right?" He chuckles then sighs.

"Was really hoping I wouldn't have to do this." He adds with some regret. And before Susan can ask, he takes his knife and stabs Andrew in the left shoulder. He then pulls it out, so blood starts leaking out. Both making Andrew cry out in pain.

"Don't forget the bomb on you seats." Butcher reminds Susan, who almost instinctively gets up.

"Put pressure on it to stop the bleed." Susan orders.

"He's gonna do it to his leg to?" Butcher says before repeating the action on the left leg.

"AHHHHHH!" Andrew screams as the knife is pushed into his left leg, then pulled out.

"What's next, should I go for a jugular?" Butcher questions, then looks to the kids. "You two probably wished your cunt of a father would shut up right right?" Then prepares to stab the neck. "Well you're about to get your wish."

Just as he was about to.

"Passcode is 32-29-2-1-2-1-41-12!" Raynor says and Butcher halts his actions. "He's in an underground black ops site outside the city, that was built to hold super individuals. The passcode is to get into the front door."

"Where?" Butcher asks.

"It's disguised as "Al's junkyard" some hidden bunker that was leftover from the Cold War and the power is connected to the city's to keep it operating. While also connected to suburban grids." She explains. "Please help him."

"How do I get in?" Butcher asks instead.

"The code is to get in through the front, there's no back. If you wanna get in you gotta take the guard by surprise before he sounds the alarm." She explains. "After that you get into an elevator that's an porta potty. Cliché I know, but I know it was made years ago. Guards are pretty tense and will check you through each reinforced door."

"What's his cell like, how can I get him out?" Butcher asked, while wrapping andrew's wounds.

"I have an access card, it's turn off that smoke stuff that keeps him from breaking out. But there's a camera's so once you're inside it'll be minutes at most before they send people after you." She explains. "There will be an alarm once the smoke totally shuts off, and once they see my card being used and me not there."

"I'll be fucked." He guesses as he finishes patching Andrew up. "Don't worry only need a few minutes." Then starts walking out the door.

"Butcher the bombs." Raynor reminds him.

"They'll only be active for another couple hours." Butcher says, before pulling up one of the family tablets and setting it on the kitchen counter. "When the timer goes off you can get up." He informs setting it so they can see the count down is less than hours away. "Have a nice night, I'm sure you have quite a bit to discuss." He concludes before walking out and heading to "Al's Junkyard" as fast as he could.

With Ben

"So when you're that Velociraptor dude how in the hell do you go that fast?" A-Train asks, after a moment of silence. Wanting to know if he can increase his speed to remain the fastest.

Ben thinks for a second. "Velociraptor? Velocity? VelocityRaptor? XLR8 is still better, but I guess anything is better than A-Train." He responds.

"Whatever. So how do you run that fast? Drug? Power up?" A-Train questions again.

Ben shrugs. "I just run dude." He simply answers.

"Come on you turn into the guy." A-Train points. "You gotta know something."

"It's not like grew him in my basement. He's an alien somewhere in outer space, his kind probably can all run that fast. WITHOUT drugs." Ben tells him, emphasizing the last part.

"I don't do drugs." A-Train denies.

Ben Laughs. "Just like I didn't kick your butts like ten times over." He reminds them.

"JUST TELL ME HOW YOU THAT FAST!" A-Train demands to know.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Ben exclaims back. "You can drive a car, but can you fix the engine if it breaks." He compares.

"He actually doesn't have a license." Deep speaks up.

The young shapeshifter then looks baffled. "Dude you're like fifty how do you not have a license?" Ben replies.

"Why get one, I can run anywhere I want to go and be there" A-Train suddenly disappears and reappears behind Deep making him jump. "Like that."

"I don't know." Ben states dumbly. "Maybe so you don't run through a person." He points out getting a serious expression on his face.

"That was an accident." A-Train replies after a moment.

"That you didn't own up to, and didn't feel sorry for otherwise you'd be a guilty wreck. But you didn't even try to make it right. Hughie told me you just kept on going, lied about robbers, and tried to buy his silence so you could still be famous and make money." Ben states. "A real hero owns up to their mistake when do something wrong."

"I don't see you owning up to any shit?" A-Train shoots back.

Ben's response was almost immediate. "Only mistake I made… was not coming here sooner to save all the other people you guys hurt." Ben admits. "Cause last I checked." Lifts his cuffed Omnitrix hand. "Nobody died on my watch."

There was a moment of silence before someone spoke up.

"Wow that was good." Deep commented, before taking out his phone. "Mind if I use that?" He asks, planning to use it either way.

Ben doesn't reply, but A-Train does. "Really dude? That's your reaction?" He asks.

Deep shrugs and tells him. "Hey while some us are picking fights with mall cops, the rest of us are working."

A-train groaned. "I told you, he was following me around!"

Ben smirks and says. "What? I though you guys loved signing autographs."

A-Train. "Pffft." In disgust before adding. "That asshole wasn't a fan. I wasn't even in costume, didn't recognise me."

A-Train then recalls. " It was after what was supposed to be the race. My costume was wrecked after the fight, (turns to Ben) thanks a lot by the way."

"You're welcome." Ben simply replies.

"So I dressed in regular clothes and went to the mall to get... I don't even remember anymore. And I see this fucking asshole mall cop following me around, like I'm gonna rob the place."

Ben looks at him confused before asking. "If you didn't steal anything or commit a crime, then why did he follow you?" He wonders, not understanding.

"Maybe cause I'm black." A-Train simply explains.

Ben just looks at him, still not getting the message. "... and?" He drags on, hoping the speedster will further elaborate.

Atrain looks at him at when Deep taps his shoulder. "Sidebar." He says, and they walk off to the side. "I don't think he knows." He whispers.

A-Train just looks at him. "Knows what?"

"About... you know racism and all that shit." Deep explains.

A-Train scuffs. "Bitch please."

"I'm serious. Think about it." Deep requests. "He's like what, eight years old? I didn't know racism was a thing till I was like in highschool." He compares.

"No way, he's not that stupid." A-Train tells him.

"You know this is a small room, with a bit of an echo right?" Ben reminds them, hearing everything they said. "And are you talking about that stuff Martin Luther King stopped like years ago, the separate buses and drinking fountains?" He guesses.

"It was a bit more than that." Deep tells him.

"It was Doctor Martin Luther King Jr." A-Train educates him. "And there were other people. Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Thurgood Marshall... any of these ringing a bell?"

Ben stares blankly before saying. "One's last name is a letter?" He questions, scratching his head. "Seems weird."

A-Train takes off his goggles and goes to the cell and asks. "What does a white cop do when he pulls a black guy for speeding, the first ever stop. Does he give him a warning or write him a ticket?" Then waits for his response.

Ben just looks at him. "This a test?" He asks.

"What SHOULD he do?" A-Train asks, reiterating the question.

Ben shrugs. "Give the dude a warning if it's his first stop, unless he's done it a lot before then write him a ticket." A-Train just blankly stares at him. "Is that wrong?"

"No it's right." A-Train confirms. "But here, in the real world, a lot of cops use shitty excuses like that and next minute a brother is getting arrested for not complying with an officer. While a white dude would probably at worst get a ticket." A-Train explains.

"So wait." Ben tells him. "Just cause your skin is darker you get treated different here?" He asks, straight up for clarification, wanting to make sure he heard what A-Train.

"Exactly." A-Train nods. "Guessing you never see that in your perfect little universe or wherever the fuck you came from." He adds, putting his goggles back on, leaving Ben with his thoughts.

After several moments something came to Ben's mind though.

"Wait if you know this... then why haven't you done anything about it?" Ben wonders. He then turns to Deep. "I get him cause he's just the fish guy who's almost always useless."

"Hey." Deep replies offended by that statement.

"But you." Ben gestures back to A-Train. "You can literally run circles around the bad guys, so why don't you?" He asks.

"This." A-Train gestures to the building they're in. "I do anything without their say so and it backfires then I can lose everything man." He clarifies. "The cars, houses, clothes." He lists.

"You're pathetic!" Ben exclaims, interrupting him. "You know money isn't everything."

"Only one's who say that, are the ones who have money." A-Train shoots back.

"Look here slime ball!" Ben said aggressively, while getting up and grabbing the bars as tight as he could. "When I got the watch my base was my Grandpa's RV while on our summer road trip. You guys have a giant tower of people helping you!" Turns around and gestures to the ceiling.

"That's fair." Deep agree's.

"And I didn't ask to be here, away from my home, my friends, my family." Ben continued, then turns to the supes. "You guys just don't really care about helping anyone, unless it helps yourself. Tell me I'm wrong!" He accuses.

There's a tense silence. But before anyone else speaks.

Homelander walks in with a smile on his face and keys in his hand. "You say that's the keys to my heart, I'll barf on your tacky costume." Ben says, as Homelander goes up to the cage and unlocks the doors. "Can I have this off too?" Ben asks.

"No no no no." Homelander denies. "That's not how this is works. We're going upstairs to... talk."

"And what if I don't wanna go upstairs?" Ben questions, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

"Got anything better to do?" Homelander points.

"Fine, but don't touch me." Ben relents as he walks out, the others follow him, and they head for the elevators. When it open's there's a nervous looking 20 something intern or assistant, who gulps at the sight of the Seven and the Shifter. Ben steps in but the others don't. "Something wrong?" He asks as Homelander stops the doors closing.

"Do you mind?" Homelander says, requesting the intern/assistant to get out.

"Of course." She says, but Ben also steps out as they step in."

"What?" Homelander asks.

"Not going without her. I want a witness just in case you plan to secretly try and kill me." The Assistant/Intern eye's widen, even more when Ben add. "Again."

"We're not gonna do that." Homelander says.

"Good then she can join us the whole trip." Ben says, gesturing for her to go in. She hesitates while looking at Homelander who nods. They step inside, and the five of them get cozy inside.

"What floor?" Deep asks.

"Same as us." Ben answers, before she can. "Whole trip remember?" He says and Deep presses that after getting the go ahead from Homelander.

As they start going up Ben speaks. "I'm Ben by the way."

"Anika." The girl nervously answers.

"So what's your job here?" Ben wonders.

"Crime Analytics." She says.

"So you figure out crimes and relay it to their idiot executives, that tell them when jump and go fetch." Ben jokes, though he's the only one laughing. Anika just prays for the elevator ride to be over fast. "Does it pay well?" Ben asks.

"Pay is good, everything is good." Anika answers, her heart beating rapidly.

"If I pay you double the hourly rate here, would you work for me?" Ben asks.

Anika doesn't answer, since they reached their floor, the top one. Ben and the Seven members begin to step out, but as the door closes Ben stops it. "Offer is on the table, and also take the rest of the day off, gonna break out soon and good chance it will be messy." He tells her as she stares at him with her jaw hanging, he then let's the door start to close before adding. "Tell your coworkers!"

As Ben turns back to the others they stare at him. "What?" He questions.

"You're never getting out of here." Homelander tells him, completely convinced he won't escape, break out or be set free. "This is a fortress, your little friends can't help and you can't use your little toy can you."

"Of course I'm gonna break out." Ben replies like it's obvious, and when Homelander continues to glare at him he adds. "Dude I broke out of alien spaceships, and blew one of them up in the process." He tells then spins around to gesture to the building in general. "This is just another building... in planet earth... on the ground... with human security and technology." He points out.

"Is that so?" A new voice says, and they all turn to see Stan Edgar standing in the hallway. All why executives and other workers pass by them. "Perhaps you'd like to announce that to the company." He suggests opening a plastic case for an old cord phone that connects to an intercom to make announcements throughout the whole building.

"He's not gonna escape." Homelander tries to tell him.

"I was told he wasn't gonna be a problem. That was wrong." Edgar reminds him. "I was told it was gonna be over quickly. That was wrong. I was told it wasn't gonna cost us much money. That was wrong. Wanna shoot for four?" The CEO adds and Homelander relents with a sigh.

"Cool." Ben says as he goes to the phone. "BTW, still not taking your offer." He reminds the CEO, but this catches the ears of Homelander, who puts it away for now.

Scene cut

In the mail room several workers were doing their job when they heard the company intercom start. Following procedure they stopped working.

"Attention stooges, dweebs and honest people working at Vought this Ben Tennyson, but you probably know me as Shifter. Lame name FYI, I prefer to go by Ben 10, but Shifter caught on and I had to protect my identity which I don't need to anymore."

During this the workers looked at each other in a shock silence as to keep hearing what he had to say. But a million thoughts raced through their heads. 'Did he escape, is he taking over, what's going on?' One man is even taking out his phone to record the audio.

Scene Cut

In a floor dedicated to analyzing stocks people also stopped to listen. "Anyway this is a special announcement you do NOT wanna miss. Cause uh well it's important because you might get hurt or die."

People immediately started looking frightened or confused at each other.

Scene cut

In a conference room several lawyers were on each side of the table, they had been negotiating a deal when the announcement came on. Now they were silent as they listened.

"Yeah I'm about to go into the Seven conference room thingy or whatever it's called. They're probably gonna try to interrogate me, but so far that has failed so it's gonna fail again. Cause they have nothing to offer that I want except this company in ashes with those ashes burned and shot off in a rocket into the sun."

The lawyers look to their partners confused.

Scene Cut

In marketing teams had been working on idea's to increase interest in Vought merchandise. They too stopped.

"And I know most of you are just honest people, doing your jobs and trying to make a living so I wanted to tell you... That I'm gonna be breaking out soon, and wanted give you a heads up cause I'm very certain it's gonna get messy. And pretty sure I'm gonna go through a few floors, and almost 50 percent sure this building is gonna collapse."

They all look scared as hell, since they're in the building. Some even start to pack their things and walk out.

Scene Cut

In crime analytics Anika just walked in when she heard the announcement begin. Now she, and everyone else are still.

"So it's probably a good idea that you guys leave, I already told my new friend Anika to tell other people to cause it's definitely gonna get messy."

All eyes in the crime analytics department turned to the woman I question. Who was frozen with a half eaten Almond Joy.

Scene cut

In a design department, focused on making art, logos, games and the such for merchandise work stops. Be it drawing, designing or painting.

"Where was I... oh right. If you value your life and several of your limbs I recommend you just leave. Cause the less people that are working the less people will get hurt. Your life cannot be worth your paycheck. Especially if it's just minimum wage or less."

An assistant who spent years in art school put down the ridiculous drinks he had to bring. And started leaving without telling his boss.

Scene Cut

In the lobby workers and guests alike were staring up at the ceiling.

"Cause even if the building doesn't come down, I'm definitely gonna be going through floors. Hopefully I just bust out a window, but I can't control everything. I mean my first breakout involved space, Mount Rushmore and an alien ship being blown to smithereens."

Soon people, including all the visitors and several workers started exiting the building. Some even running.

Scene Cut

Ben is talking on the phone. "Sorry I know this isn't the news you wanted, but it's what's happing so. Anyway take care and I really no one gets hurt... except for Homelander, I wouldn't mind a building falling on top of him. Oh and make sure to check out my Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and all that, my friends put a lot of work into those. See ya later." Hangs up.

Ben then see's a bunch of executives and other higher up workers peek their heads out of their offices or stop moving in the hall. "You guys realize I can blow this floor up in like 3 seconds right? You might wanna..." Gestures for them to leave, and several comply immediately.

Homelander, who's been annoyed for a while now just starts walking. "Let's go." He orders. And the five head to the Seven meeting room, including Edgar. "We got this Stan." He tells him.

"I though I'd join in." The CEO replies. "See up close how you fail this time." He adds as he walks ahead.

Seven Conference Room

The only ones sitting are Maeve and Starlight, Stillwell and Ashley are standing off to the side, while another man in a suit with red hair and a beard was there too. Soon Ben and the others walk in. "Oh cool a reception committee." Ben says. "Sorry no autographs at this time." He then goes to the window. "Nice view. Very cliche villain or evil rich dude."

"Take a seat. Make yourself comfortable." Homelander offers and pulls the seat next to his, Translucent's old one.

"Thanks." Ben says then sits in Homelander's seat and leans back while kicking his feet up. "I gotta say this was more satisfying the other time I did it."

No one said anything as many were staring at Homelander, who was glaring at Ben. "Uh that's my chair." He points out, thinking Ben will take the hint.

"I know." Ben answers, putting his hands behind his head and not looking at the leader of the Seven. "I sat here on purpose in case you couldn't tell. You ok, you seem slower than usual." Ben adds, trying to press his buttons.

Homelander then orders. "Get out of my chair."

Ben looks at him and replies. "Why don't you make me?" With attitude.

Homelander's eyes start to glow red. "When you do that does it clear sand and the disgusting eye boogers you have too?" Ben asks, further poking the bear.

Homelander's eyes only grow brighter and everyone just stares. Except for Ben. "Dude get it through you thick skull to your pea sized brain. I'M. NOT. SCARED. OF. YOU." He annunciates. "I fought off giant robots, a crazy scientist who mutated animals and wanted to turn Washington D.C in Washington B.C, alien bounty hunters, rare animal hunters that were after a kraken, a kraken and a guy who controls bugs that almost caused a nuclear explosion." Ben lists off. "What have you fought off, your fans?"

Homelander continues to glare at Ben and thanks to his super hearing he can hear Ben's steady heartbeat. With the exception of Edgar, who never seems to react to anything, everyone else were racing. But this kid was pushing all his buttons and taunting him for no purpose other than his amusement and was cool as a cucumber. Who is he?

After several tense moments of silence Homelander calmed himself down enough so that his heat vision wasn't on the brink of firing. Instead he turns to the unknown person in the room. "Come and do your thing." He orders him.

"I'd like you to meet projector." Homelander says introducing the man. "He's not big but I'm sure you can guess what he does."

Ben just swirls the chair from side to side and replies. "Don't know, don't care." Stops and looks at Edgar. "Look if this is some torture to accept your deal it's almost working."

"What deal?" Homelander asks, pausing his presentation.

"The one where you guys are fired, I take your place and become the new Seven, after I find six more." Ben explains. This gets a gulp out of Ashley and Stillwell who tried to keep this news from Homelander.

"What?" Homelander wants know.

"Aren't you the one with super hearing?" Edgar asks from his position in the room.

"Yeah like how dumb are you?" Ben added. "I say yes and you lose everything. Now move on!" He continues. "The sooner you monologue the sooner I can breakout."

"How does that work?" Deep asks, not getting it.

"Uuugh!" Ben drags out a groan. "How many times do I need to say this?" Rubs his temples in frustration. "I've been captured before cause I'm the only one here with any real experience about being a Hero." Leans back with a sigh. "Now hurry up I'd rather break out myself before my friends do it."

For the umpteenth time today Homelander has to control his anger in order to not do something incredibly stupid. He turns to projector and says. "Show him." He orders.

The man just nods then stands next to Homelander and places his hand on his head. "The images become clearer and easier to show if you're thinking of it." The man tells Homelander and him close their eyes.

Homelander then focuses on his recent memory of seeing Translucent's corpse. Since he couldn't get the body, and they didn't take any photos or recordings for security, this was the next best thing they could do. Projector finds what he's looking for then opens his eyes, his eyes then shoot a light like a projector and a video showing him and Maeve examining Translucent's remains. (A season 1 deleted scene) Then the image flickers to him showing Stillwell and before that Deep coming to him with the news.

Reactions differ from the room. For those who have seen it they avert their eyes to not look at the disgusting image. For those seeing it for the first time are shocked and horrified. Ashley even has to barely hold back some vomit, Starlight gasps in shock, Deep looks away. Stillwell closes her eyes just like A-Train and Maeve. As expected Stan Edgar and Black Noir have no reaction.

Eventually though Projector deactivates his powers and his eyes return to normal. Homelander then opens his eyes and forms a smug look on his face. The death of Translucent, likely done behind his back, has to instill some kind of feeling of betrayal.

"Well, what do you think?" Homelander asks. "I mean my first thought was." Raises his eye brows in mock surprise. "Wow, someone actually did this. What's your first thought?" He questions with a smirk.

Ben scrunches his faces and hums as though he's thinking for a moment. "Sandwhich." He simply says, baffling everyone.

"What?" Homelander asks.

"Sandwich." Ben repeats like it was obvious, then seeing that it wasn't clicking he added. "Cause I can make a really good sandwich with all this boloney." With a smirk.

Then the most unexpected thing happened.

Stan Edgar, CEO of Vought International known as a cool and calculated man who never shows any emotion, chuckled. Those who turned to see him, saw that for several moments he struggled to contain his laughter into his fist. After this he composed himself and said. "Apologies, I just found that remark rather humorous."

"Finally someone with a good sense of humor." Ben says, then turns back to Homelander. "Any other fake deaths you wanna tell me about, or is that it?"

Homelander just blinks and doesn't reply. "That's what I came up here for?" Ben speaks. "I'm actually disappointed." He adds with a fake sad face.

Homelander, desperate for answers then grabs Ben's wrist and pulls him to Projector. "Don't hurt him!" Stillwell exclaims.

"Relax." Homelander dismisses. "He can take it." Turns to Projector. "I want all of his memories on that fucking thing NOW!" He orders.

"Sir that's gonna be tricky." Projector tries to explain. "Who knows what I'll find, especially if he's not willing to cooperate, it might just be useless."

"I don't care. Do it." Homelander tells him. "Get everything we can, then have the eggheads analyze every piece of shit we see."

Homelander then turns to a silent Ben. "What no dumb line or joke you wanna say?"

"I uh actually didn't see this coming." Ben replied, a little nervous. He was more afraid of what they could find on Butcher, Hughie and the rest of the team. Maybe even the hideout. Since unless they a dimensional teleporter they can't get to his family.

"Now let's see what makes you tick." Homelander says then gives the signal for Projector to do his stuff. Projector placed his hand on top of Ben's head and started to rifle through his mind.

Immediately Ben started to cringe and grunt under the mental strain. He tried desperately to keep him at bay but it was useless.

Inside Ben's memories

Ben inside the portal that brought him. Vilgax and Kevin were latched onto him.

"Grrrrrrrrrr." Flashback Diamondhead grunted in pain as he was flying through the portal, as well as Kevin. Vilgax, who was not see was heard via his roars of pain. What also followed was metal broken up and ripped to pieces.

Outside

The members of Vought watched blurred images of Ben's memories of the portal. The reason they were blurry is because he barely remembers the experience himself. Eventually he splits from the two blurred entities he was with and falls out of another portal and crashed into the ground.

The form of Diamondhead was in the middle of a crater groaning when the Omnitrix timed out and in a flash of red became Ben. "That smarts." The 10 year old groaned, while rubbing his head. He wasn't in too much pain, but his body was aching from fighting Vilgax and Kevin.

Ben then looked at the watch and saw it was red, indicating it needed to recharge. "Well looks like I'm back to the basics." He complained, apparently the recently unlocked master control was either temporary or traveling through the portal somehow messed it up.

Seeing as how he wasn't in the Null Void Ben assumed he could call Grandpa or Gwen. So taking out Gwen's emergency phone that he borrowed to play a game and forgot to put back he dialed Grandpa Max's number. However for some reason that number was not in service. Weird.

"Look at that thing, what is it 2006?" A-Train commented seeing the phone Ben was using. Those models now only seemed to be used by drug dealers today.

Next he tried his home number, but got a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles instead. He tried his parents personal phone numbers but got the customer service line for something called 'Instagram' and a 'Samaritan's Embrace' receptionist. This was getting weirder. He finally dialed aunt Vira from the desert retirement home in a last ditch effort.

"Aunt Vira?" He asked when the line was picked up. "Jeff what? That sounds made up." He told to the person he called. "Later Jeff Bozo." Hangs up.

"He actually talked to Jeff Bezos." Deep commented in surprise.

As Ben was about to leave the crater and go figure out where he was he heard the sound of whooshing twice. Looking around he saw nobody but then he heard. "For fucks sakes you know I hate that." From an angry woman.

It was coming from outside the crater. Without knowing if they were friend or foe he crept carefully up the crater.

"Look let's just get this shit over with. I gotta do a shoot for my new A-Trainers in like an hour. And I'm doing it with fine girl and she got a great ass." A man commented.

Thanks to the crater and ruble Ben was able to see they were. One was a dark skin man wearing a white and blue uniform with goggles. Another was a woman dressed like some Amazonian warrior/gladiator. The last was a person completely decked out in black from head to toe with kevlar and knives.

"Let me guess." The woman continued. "You wanna spend all of two seconds fucking. You can spare five minutes."

"With these hands." The Man says, holding up a few fingers. "A few seconds is all I need." He stated with complete confidence that it borders arrogance.

"Who are these guys?" Ben muttered to himself, but that was a mistake. Just as quickly as he uttered those words in a hushed whisper the man in black glanced towards his direction. The young hero ducked down and just in time as a knife was thrown at the rubble he was using for cover.

As they watched Wildmutt surprise the three Seven members sent to investigate Ben was trying to find out how to stop this.

Scene Change

Ben was now in the movies to see the first Sumo Slammers movie that he snuck out of school to see when he turned 10. Best day, he got to see the movie, missed a pop quiz and got away with it cause his parents disconnected the phone while setting up a new answering machine.

"The fuck is that?" Homelander asks, baffled by the sudden image change.

"Something called Sumo Slammers." Projector answers, while still showing the memory. "He's trying to throw us off by thinking of pointless things and cause it was such a vivid memory with more emotion for him it's easier to overtake." Projector then tries to shift the image, but it's stuck on Ben watching the sumo slammers movie.

"This memory is strong than him fighting us?" Maeve asks, baffled but this.

"He's ten he probably recite lines from this movie better than he can then remember half the Declaration of Independence." Annie points out.

"Even I can't say half of it." Deep speaks.

"No shit." A-Train comments.

"Try making him think of the watch." Stan pitches. "Projector's powers work better when they have a, shall we say, category." He explains.

"You heard the boss." Homelander said. "All memories related to that shit in his wrist, hopefully his memories will narrow with that." He reiterates.

Projector then focuses his powers and soon the image of Sumo Slammers began to blur out.

"GRRRRRRRRR." Ben gritted trying to keep any.

Soon the memory shifts to his first fight with Homelander and Maeve. Ben knows they'll see that he'll come in contact with Butcher for the first time. And maybe to the others. Who knows what they'll find out.

He can't let that happen.

Suddenly the screen shifts, right as Fourarms transforms back into Ben.

To the first day of summer.

"I'm gonna take a walk. Smell you around Gwen." Ben groaned as he walked into the woods.

A short while later. "Aw man this is gonna be the worst vacation ever. I might as well have gone to summer school."

"What now?" Homelander groaned as they saw Ben kicking dirt and moping around like most kids. "I thought you were only putting stuff related to the watch."

"I am, this is his earliest memory." Projector answers.

"What's that?" Annie asks, referring to a meteor or a shooting star.

A meteor shoots across the sky and catches Ben's eye. "Whoa! A shooting star!" Ben says in excitement, but then becomes terrified a the "shooting star" instantly changes course, aiming straight for him. Gasping Ben starts running away. The meteor crashes behind him, the shockwave launching Ben and sending smoke and debris in the air. As it clears, Ben looks on at it, getting to his feet for a closer look.

"That was close." A-Train points out, seeing Ben just barely avoid being killed.

"Not close enough." Homelander says to himself, though some do hear it.

"Looks like a - satellite or something." Ben comments as he gets a better look. The meteor's white-hot light fades. Ben leans in at the edge of the crater, but the ground he's standing on crumbles beneath him, sending him sliding down. Ben gets up; he now has a full view of the pod. It opens itself before him, and a green light in the shape of an hourglass shines from it.

Light extends from the hourglass, revealing it is attached to a cylindrical watch-like device. "A watch?" Ben says baffled by the discovery. "What's a watching doing in outer space?"

Ben smiles to himself, stepping closer to the pod, outstretching his arm to grab it. As he does the object leaps from the pod and onto his wrist, latching itself to Ben. "Ahh! Get off me! Get off, get off!" Ben shouts in terror while trying frantically to rip the Omnitrix off his wrist, to the point of losing balance and falling over. He quickly climbs out of the crater and starts running. "GRANDPA!" He calls out.

A short while later Ben tries to pry the Omnitrix apart from his wrist with a stick, but the stick breaks, angering him. He falls to his knees in defeat, and starts fumbling with the device. He accidentally hits a button on it and its faceplate springs up.

"Whoa." He says before glancknv around the woods. the faceplate's hourglass morphs into a diamond encasing a black silhouette. "Cool!"

"It's been like thirty seconds and he went from terrified to excited." Maeve says, baffled by his reaction.

Ben looks down at the faceplate, and his eyebrows raise before pressing it back down. Ben suddenly finds himself in a void, crimson rocks spreading across his skin, transforming him into something else. He emerges from the void, now a burning rock alien.

"AHHHH!" He shouts as he scans himself. "I'm on fire! I'm on fire!" He screams as he runs around.

This causes several of the audience to chuckle in amusement.

Soon Ben, as Heatblast, begins to calm down. "Hey... I'm on fire --and, I'm okay..." He says while going over his new body. "Check it out. I'm totally hot." He says and snickers at his own joke.

Ben turns to see a tree behind him that he can practice his new abilities on. "Oh yeah, uh-huh. Here goes!" Slinging his wrist, Ben shoots a fireball out of his pointer finger, blowing a branch off the tree entirely.

"That's what I'm talking about." He says pleased at the results.

Between his hands, Ben creates a larger fireball. "Liking it!..." Ben slings the fireball, unexpectedly through three trees instead of one, causing a fog of smoke around him. Ben's smile drops as he sees a fire created by him spreading to other trees.

"Wait! Stop! ... Uh-oh." Ben runs to the fire, and tries stomping out a flame with his fiery feet, only for it to erupt into a larger one. "Oh man, I am gonna get so busted for this." He says in fear.

"It feels like I'm watching cartoon." A-Train comments.

Ben is continuing trying to put out the fire, unsuccessfully. "This would be so cool, if it weren't so-- not cool!" He says to himself as he resumes his efforts, but then feels something hit his back. Turning around he see's Gwen who screams. "Look, I know I look weird, but there's no reason to be scared-"

Gwen clobbers Heatblast round the head with the extinguisher, knocking him down. When he tries to get up, Gwen sprays him, knocking out the flames surrounding his rock-like head for a brief moment. Ben coughs and says. "Hey!"

"Oooo that's gotta hurt." Deep comments.

"I don't know what you are- but you'll stay down there if you know what's good for you!" Gwen says aiming the fire extinguisher. Ben staying down, gestures to Gwen's shoe, setting a small flame on it with a chuckle as Gwen begins to hop on one foot for a moment before putting it out.

Once she does she raises the fire extinguisher for another swing. "I warned you."

"Wow." Annie says impressed by her fearlessness. It was a little girl staring face to face with an alien rock monster and was not paralyzed with fear. At least not for long.

"Don't even think about it freak." Heatblast tells her.

Suddenly she becomes less hostile and more confused. "Ben, is that you? What happened?" She asks not understanding how he turned into this fire being.

"Well, when I was walking, this meteor fell from the sky and almost smudged me, except that wasn't a meteor or a satellite, but this cool watch thing that jumped up onto my wrist, and when I tried to get it off, I suddenly was on fire, only it didn't hurt when I was accidentally starting this mega forest fire." Heatblast quickly explains just as Grandpa Max runs up to them.

"Gwen are you alri-" Stops himself upon seeing Hestblast. "What in blazes!"

"Who wears a shirt like that anymore?" A-Train asks seeing Max's iconic Hawaiian shirt.

"Really, that's your question?" Maeve replies, not believing he was more surprised by an old man's sense of style then everything else.

"Hey, Grandpa, guess who?" Gwen says, gesturing to Hearblast.

Waving Ben replies. "It's me, Grandpa!" Which seems to be enough to convince Max that it's his grandson.

"Ben? What happened to you?" Max questions not believing what he was seeing.

But as Ben starts to repeat himself Gwen cuts him off. "Erm, excuse me? Major forest fire burning out of control, remember?" She reminds them.

"What do we do?" Heatblast asks, panicking.

After a second or two of thinking Max answers. "Backfire. Start a new fire and let it burn into the old fire. They'll snuff each other out. Think you can do it, Ben?"

Hestblast smirks and replies. "Shooting flames? That I can definitely do." He says, more confident now that they have a plan. All three run out. Ben finds trees some distance away, then shoots them with a blast of fire, causing a new blaze. Eventually as Max predicted it snuffs out the old fire.

"Smart man." Edgar commented for the first time.

Later Heatblast joins up with his cousin and grandpa to explain how this happened. "And you say that this watch just jumped up and clamped onto your wrist?"

Gwen tosses a marshmallow to Heatblast who catches it. "Hey, this time it wasn't my fault." He puts the Marshmallow in his mouth. "I swear!"

"I believe you, Ben." Max assures him.

"Think he's gonna stay a monster forever?" Gwen asks.

"He's not a monster, he's an alien." Max says with the utmost certainty. Heatblast and Gwen stare at him inquisitively. "I-I mean, look at him. What else could he be?"

"Weird guy." Homelander says.

"He lived during the space race, UFO sightings and the original Star Wars and Star Trek." Edgar informs.

"How the do you know that?" Stillwell questions. But Edgar doesn't answer and they continue watching the show.

"Yeah, I don't wanna be 'fire guy' forever. How am I supposed to play Little League this fall if I charcoal the ball every time I catch a pop fly?" Heatblast complains.

"Don't worry Ben, We'll figure this thing out." Max assures him. Just then the Omnitrix on Heatblast's chest beeps red several times, before letting out a blinding red light towards Max and Gwen. When they open their eyes, Ben is standing in front of them, human and all.

"Hah! I'm me again!" Ben says, elated as he examined himself.

"Aw, too bad. I liked you better when you were a briquette." Gwen whined.

"It has a time limit?" Homelander says with confusion.

"No way he was that techno bubble thing way longer than, like what, ten maybe fifteen minutes." The Deep pointed out.

"Upgrade." Edgar corrected them. "He calls that one Upgrade. And Deep is right, he must've unlocked some new control of some sort since then." He adds.

The resume watching the memories and see Ben turn into Wildmutt and fight those robot drones. "Ok that's freaky." Starlight comments.

Soon they see him turn into Diamondhead and fight a much larger robot. "Record all of this." Stillwell tells Ashley who follows the order.

"Come on put one in here."Diamondhead dares the giant robot, pointing to his own chest. The robot fires the laser and Diamondhead holds his palms up and stands his ground. Eventually the laser and reflected back at the robot. "Try this you techno freak." He says before the robot explodes

Scenes then shifts to his adventures during the summer. Dealing with Animo at Washington DC.

"Ok that's messed up." A-Train says as Ben deals with a mutated pets and resurrected beasts created by a scientist obsessed with some award.

"The giant animals or the guy who made them?" Maeve asked.

"Both." Was the answer.

Scene then goes to him dealing with the Kraken and the fish hunters. "Oh we can do something like this for my next movie." Deep suggests, and for once Stillwell agreess, seeing the three way fight for the eggs.

Scene then goes Ben and his family going to his aunt Vera and dealing with the aliens who eat the elderly. "Aliens who abduct old people to eat them." Maeve sates. "Is this kid fucking real?"

Scene goes to when Ben had to fight off alien bounty hunters.

"Of COURSE it doesn't." Tetrax said after Ben told him the Omnitrix doesn't come off, his face covered by his mask. "It's power utilizes alien DNA, which binds to the host's own genetic structure. It cannot simply be removed like - taking off a hat..." He explains.

Edgar then speaks. "Another reason I shot down your idea's about cutting that thing off. Something that advanced has to have security features to prevent just any random individual from using it." He explains, since he personally ordered any and all personnel to NOT touch the watch. Especially after what happened with Novablast.

Diamondhead sneakily readies a blade and rushes to attack him. "Your choice of warriors is based SOLELY on brute strength, without regard for any strategy. Do you ever pause to consider your actions at all?" Tetrax says, while easily blocking all of Ben's attacks.

They soon see Ben turn into Grey Matter and defeat the bounty hunters using his mind instead of his muscle to win. "He's a quickly learner." Edgar states, impressed then turns to Homelander. "Unlike others."

The scene then shifts to when they visited Sparksville and they had to tackle the Megawatt. During which people turned when they heard Black Noir chuckle at several hilarious moments.

The Scene then goes to when he met and later fought Kevin. "What's with kids getting these crazy powers and then just... knowing how to use them. It took me forever to learn how to not close a door without breaking a knob and they figure their shit out in 2 seconds." Maeve says with frustration as she see's Ben and Kevin seemingly in control of their powers. Only exception is with Ben getting the wrong hero from time to time.

They soon see Kevin get knocked around by Fourarms during a seemingly one sided fight. Then as he tried to take the Omnitrix he gets blown away and seemingly loses his powers. "How did he turn into that thing then?" Homelander questions."

"We might find out soon." Maeve guesses.

Scene then shifts to when Ben fought Rojo who absorbed one of the downed drones as several aliens. More importantly they observed his guilt over his Grandpa Max getting hurt. "Poor kid." Annie says with sympathy.

As they see Ben defeat her as Upgrade they see his first 'meeting' with Vilgax. "That's the thing, what I've been telling you about." Deep says, with a slight panic in his tone.

"What are you referring too?" Edgar asks, intrigued.

"Well a while back some friends of mine-" Deep tried to explain.

"Some dumb fish saw a bigger fish and Deep keeps panicking." Homelander dismisses. "Nothing to worry about, I go it covered." He assures going back to viewing the memories.

"I'm sure you do." Edgar relies with no confidence. But also with no worry. He then crosses his arms briefly before feeling something in his chest pocket. It's a letter. Opening it he reads it, but then closes it within seconds, and either nobody noticed or nobody cared.

The memory then shifts to when Ben had to fight Zombozo and his circus freaks.

"Don't we have those guys in our own circus?" Homelander questions as he watches Ben, as Upgrade, merge with a baseball launcher as the circus freaks wreck some crates they thought he was hiding behind.

"You wanna play hardball? Game on!" Upgrade rapidly spits baseballs at Thumbskull, knocking him out. He starts shooting at Frightwig, whose hair deflects it back at him, forcing him to hide behind a box.

"That all you got?" She asks.

"Just warming up, lady!" Upgrade says, before popping his head up and spitting some balls at her hair. While she deflects it, Upgrade spits two carefully-aimed balls at her feet. She dodges one, but the other trips her up, making her spin in the air, her hair completely tying her body up. He spits one more at her face to knock her out. Acid Breath jumps up on the highest box and spits all around him at Upgrade. Upgrade flees behind Acid Breath's box.

"Didn't your mom ever tell you it's not polite to spit?" Ben taunts, getting his attention.

"Who do you think taught me in the first place?" Acid Breath replied. But as he readies another spit, Upgrade leaps in the air and perfectly shoots a ball into Acid Breath's mouth. Acid Breath's mouth is full, and therefore can't block the onslaught of balls Upgrade shoots at him. He is down.

Soon Ben goes inside Zombozo's tent and the Vought members witness what he went through. "Ok that shit is fucking terrifying." A-Train speaks what everyone is thinking as they see Zombozo take the form of several Jack in the boxes and even a spider.

Ben finds himself on the center floor of the main tent, back in reality. As he starts to get up, the genuine Zombozo calmly walks up to him. Ben sees ghosts reflected in the orbs on Zombozo's body, flying up to the large one on his top hat. Inside is Gwen, backlit by fire, laughing herself to death.

"Now don't tell me you're afraid of old Zombozo?" The clown asks.

Ben backs away and sits on his knees. "What do you want?" He asks with fear.

Zombozo snaps his fingers and a spotlight lights up the large machine in the tent. It is filled with screaming ghosts. The cable running out of the machine psionically links to Zombozo's back, lifting him in the air. "Only what every clown worth his floppy shoes wants, ta' make people laugh!" He then grotesquely slobbers. "THEN DRAIN THEIR POSITIVE ENERGY, LIKE A SPONGE IN A POOL PARTY! Is that so wrooong?"

"Is that the machine you use to suck the happiness out of your audience?" The ten year old hero asks.

"I call it the "Psyclown"! " Zombozo answers, proud of his creation. "Clever, eh? Soon I'll be taking my act to tha' big cities. Millions of people laughing for me! Feeding me...making me STRONGER!" He explains while feeling the power course through his body.

Ben lifts his head, mustering up some courage. "I want my cousin back!" He demands.

Zombozo gasps."Cousin? Didn't you hear? She ran away with the circus!" He tells her, showing him Gwen. She is lying on the floor off to the side, her body drained and frail, still coughing up a few faint laughs. Ben looks at her in shock, then at Zombozo in anger. He stands up and turns on the Omnitrix.

"Oh my god." Annie gasps, seeing the state Gwen was in.

Zombozo starts laughing, but Ben cuts him off, angry at seeing the state of his cousin. "Oh, you're funny." He begins as he dials up an alien. "But I'M gonna get the last laugh!" He slams down on the dial, turning into Ghostfreak.

"I know that guy now!" A-Train exclaims. "He's the one who attacked me and Noir at that house. Remember?" He turns to Noir who nods.

"That ghost thing?" Homelander chuckles. "Didn't it lose to that robot crab thing earlier?" He reminds them, during the memory of the alien bounty hunters.

"There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent." Edgar said, quoting the philosopher Lao Tzu.

"Nice try, kid. But I sell the tricks, I don't buy 'em!" Zombozo dismisses, while crossing his arms.

"I just figured out, there's something I'm even more afraid of than you..." Ghostfreak says, as he moves his eye through the cracks of his ghostly form. Ghostfreak then punches Zombozo in the face, briefly tangling him up in his machine's cable. Ghostfreak keeps talking however, somewhere in the tent, invisible. "Losing my family to some goofball emotional vampire! In other words..." He says as Zombozo tries to find him.

Ghostfreak then appears behind Zombozo and punches him square in the nose. The nose honks in slow motion as a fist print is now visible on his nose. "You're going down, clown." He adds.

Zombozo is now angry. He looks around. A wooden board suddenly comes careening towards him, smacking him into his machine and causing the blue nodes to spark and explode. "Souls" come flying out of the machine; one of them flies into Gwen, the rest release in a wave across the sky, returning all the drooling townspeople outside back to normal.

Zombozo gets up, and in a breaking voice says. "I'm warning you to back off!" He meekly threatens as Ghostfreak appears before him.

"You wanna see something really scary?" Ghostfreak asks before grabbing the two folds on his chest and ripping them open, exposing Zombozo to a horrifying sight. Zombozo's own cable jerks him backward in fear. He falls to the ground and panickingly backs up.

"Oh, now don't tell me you're afraid of old Ghostfreak?" Ben taunts, getting closer to the clown.

"Please...no more!" A tearful Zombozo begs, as he cowers in fear.

"Boo!" Ghostfreak says, then Zombozo's head suddenly expands like a balloon and his entire body explodes into confetti. Ghostfreak looks at his hands. "Woah! That kind of even freaked me out!" He says, both impressed and scared at what just transpired.

"Ok now I get why this kid isn't afraid or impressed by any of us." Maeve says. "I honestly wouldn't give a shit after seeing this." Maeve admits.

"Yeah same." Deep agreed.

Noir nodded in agreement as they all continued to watch the memories.

Scene Cut

Butcher is whistling as he walks down the long hall to get to Kevin's cell. There was no turning back now. That was actually more appropriate for when he hooked up the bombs at the Raynor household. But even if everything goes right, Butcher will be on the CIA's most wanted list. At a minimum.

After leaving Susan's house he headed for the scrapyard she told him and knocked out the front agent posing as a security guard, in a blind spot of the camera's. Then after using Susan's I.D. card he headed inside and threw several smoke grenades right away to give himself cover. As soon as he got to Kevin's first door he jammed it after going in. Great thing about reinforced metal doors designed to withstand nuke attacks... they become incredibly hard to open when their closed and locked.

Butcher eventually gets to another door and unlocks it. Opening it he see's Kevin, or Chimera as the most of the world knows him, behind three giant walls of reinforced glass, chained to a his cell with a steady stream of red gas coming from the vents.

"Hello sunshine." Butcher greets with a smile.

Kevin turns around and see's someone new for the first time in a while. "Who are you supposed to be?" He asks.

Butcher replies. "I'm the one whose gonna get you outta this shit hole. Unless you'd rather stay here."

Kevin narrowed his eye's. "Whats the catch?" He questions, knowing that Butcher wouldn't just do it out of the kindness of his heart.

"Aren't we clever." Butcher tells him. "I've got a problem, you agree to take care of this problem in a very violent fashsion, and I let you out."

"This problem got a name?" Kevin wonders.

"A right cunt called Homelander." The brit answers.

Kevin just blinked. "... Whats a cunt?"

Butcher sighed. "For fucks sake. The arsehole in the cape you beat the shit out of before." He informs.

Kevin then finally recalls his fight with Homelander and the Seven from before. "That loser? Ha! I could waste that guy in my sleep."

Butcher then looks through the small window on the door and see's they're cutting a hole through the first door. "Well we've got about thirty seconds before the CIA burst in here and put you down for some more shut eye. So, do we have a deal?

Kevin thinks for a moment then says. "Deal."

Butcher shuts off the machines pumping drugs into Kevin and he regains his strength to break free. But an alarm blares off. "Well we best be going now." Butcher says as he unlocks the doors leading into Kevin's cell.

Kevin laughs at this. "Ha! Whats this 'we' stuff?" He asks while igniting a fireball in his heatblast arm.

Butcher gasps at this, in faux shock. "Oh dear. Fuck me, I wasn't expecting this. You can go free. But I got somethin else you want. A runt with a special watch."

"Tennyson." Kevin growls in anger.

"I know his exact location. Which I'll gladly divulge, after you hold up end."

"Ha!" Kevin laughs. "You think I need help finding that little twerp!? I can just draw him out."

"And look how well that worked out last time. My way, you can take him by surprise." The brit points out.

Kevin shifts his Diamondhead arm into a blade. "Maybe I just make you tell me." He threatens

"I just fucking broke into a fucking secret CIA compound." Butcher reminds him in a firm tone "Torture away, but I gaurantee, without me, you're gonna end up right back in that box, only this time, nobody is gonna mad enough to break you out."

Kevin grit his teeth before blasting a hole in the ceiling and grabbed butcher and broke out of the compound. Using bursts of XLR8 speed he launched himself into the air and was flying away before the CIA could react. And when they came in all they saw was Raynor's badge.

Vought

At Vought Tower, specifically in the Seven conference room, Ben's memories were on display. They had just finished watching when he was Grey Matter for an extended period of time and the Forever Knights. Now they were watching him while fighting Clancy, the bug villian, while sick.

"Oh that's fucking disgusting." Maeve said, voicing everyone's thoughts as she saw Clancy cover himself with cockroaches at the Nuclear Power Plant.

However just as a new memory was beginning, the image began to blur and distort. Like when an older television lost signal. "What's going on?" Homelander wanted to know.

"Yes, something tells me we were on the verge of discovering something." Edgar chimed in.

"He's resisting." Projector simply explained, as he tried to get the connection back and while they don't get an image they get a voice.

"You hold the key to a power struggle so ancient, so vast, it is beyond your feeble comprehension. Picture an entire army, each in command of an Omnitrix and all... at my command." Said the voice of Vilgax, that nobody but Ben could recognize.

"Get... out... of my head." Ben gritted through his teeth while grabbing his head with both hands as he tried to resist Projector poking in too much. But Projector wasn't having it and tried to dig deeper and see's something. All the while a green light starts shining through the narrow openings of the cuff.

Flashback

Vilgax then attempts to remove the Omnitrix from Ben's wrist, but it emits a feedback which pushes Vilgax against a building.

Flashback over

What happens in Ben's head, and in the past, suddenly transpires in real life. A green pulse shoots from Ben's wrist, breaking the cuff that prevented his access to the Omnitrix. This sends Projector flying and hitting the window, which doesn't even crack, and then falling to the floor unconscious. The other members of the Seven as well as the regular employees duck, including Edgar.

As soon as it's over Ben recovers and is trying to dial a new alien. "Hero Time." He says as he turns the dial to an alien he hasn't used since before he landed in this dimension.

Homelander see's this and rises up. "Go ahead, I know all your little aliens and their tricks." He says, pointing that he's confronted several of them and saw him use those aliens in the memories.

"Not all of them." Ben says with a smirk then pushes the dial down.

In a green flash Ben became a hulking, broad-shouldered alien covered in natural, yellow armor plating on his back, shoulders, and the backs of his arms. He is mostly white with black on his upper half and has four claws on both of his hands, having a color scheme and claws similar to that of a panda.

An alien that Homelander and the rest of this world have yet to see in action.

"Meet Cannonbolt." The Arburian Pelarota introduced himself. "I think it's about time you get acquainted." Cannonbolt rolled up and launched himself at Homelander who quickly ducked. But Ben bounced off the wall and hit him in the back, sending him to the window overlooking the city. The window was reinforced so it withstood the hit, though it did crack.

But Cannonbolt didn't stop there, after hitting Homelander to the window he bounced back to the wall and hit him several more times. Each hit cracking the glass even further. On the fifth or sixth time the glass broke. Resulting in the two crashing onto the concrete below, just in front of the entrance.

Before the dust cleared Cannonbolt jump out of the crater he made with Homelander and unrolled himself into a standing position. Looking back up to where he broke out he smiled. "I'm actually little disappointed I didn't get to crash through the building." He says, remembering the multitude of times he said he was likely going to destroy, at least, part of Vought tower

"Let's fix that." The voice of Homelander said, before quickly flying out of the crater and punch Cannonbolt's back. This sends the alien crashing into the front steps where several people are quickly leaving, hoping to get out of any possible crossfire.

Cannonbolt rises back up and runs his head. "It's dark out." He says realizing it's night.

"Yup so lights out you yellow fucking armadillo." Homelander tells him as he flies up and fires his heat vision.

Cannonbolt reacts quickly and uses the armor plating on his left arm to deflect the beam away. Homelander tries again and Cannonbolt does the same thing with his right arm. Not giving up Homelander tried again and Ben lifted both his armored arms to block and the lasers deflected right back to it's sender. "Backatcha." Cannonbolt said as the beams hit Homelander.

"You lucky shit!" Homelander said before flying at Cannonbolt.

The Arburian Pelarota quickly curled up in a ball just before Homelander punched his shell into the ground. Cannonbolt's form was pushed down so he was half buried in rubble. But as Homelander went in for a second punch, Cannonbolt started rolling in reverse, which churned up the ground and shot pieces of rock at Homelander at the pace of a machine gun.

As Homelander was being jerked back Cannonbolt shot out and bounced off the side of the building, before bouncing off a car, then off of the statue of Soldier Boy before hitting Homelander square on. This caused the supe to be thrown inside of Vought with such force he made a small crater where the Vought logo would be above the service desk.

The lobby was thankfully empty, since Edgar had taken to ordering all employees to heed Ben's warnings. Though there were still a few personnel he couldn't just have leave in the middle of the day. But as far as board members and sales reps for sports drinks, and such they went home.

As Homelander pulled himself out his hair was disheveled and he was covered in dust and plaster. Coughing he sees Cannonbolt roll in, who stayed in ball form before saying. "Guess you can't roll with the punches." He quips.

Homelander growls at that, clearly annoyed. "Aw are you mad?" Cannonbolt sarcastically asks. "I thought we were having a ball. HA HA." He adds, laughing at his own joke.

"Fuck what Edgar says. You die today!" Homelander swears as he floats up with his eyes glowing red.

"Bring it Homie!" Cannonbolt tells him and starts to roll in place. After a few seconds the two move, Homelander flying down and Cannonbolt shooting up, for an attack.

Upstairs

A loud thunderous crash is heard and the building shakes a little.

"Are they for real?!" Deep asks with urgency, thinking it's crazy for them to fight in the tower so soon after the earlier fight. Which was only several hours old.

Another crash

"We have to stop them!" Annie speaks like it's obvious.

"No." Edgar says as he looks at his phone.

Everyone turns to the CEO in shock. "What do you mean no?" Stillwell asks in a panic, gestures to the ground. "We have the two strongest beings fighting below us, the tower could come down if we don't stop."

"Yeah why shouldn't we go help Homelander kick the kid's ass?" A-Train wants to know.

"He's a kid and you still wanna kick his ass?" Maeve asks, seeing offense to that.

Thunderous Crash followed by an explosion.

"Chimera is back and he's joined in for round 2." Edgar says showing security footage of the lobby and playing it back to show Kevin bursting through a wall. "You do NOT want to get in the middle of that." He says before calmly walking away. "We should probably get off this floor though."

Downstairs

Cannonbolt is bouncing off the walls to hit Homelander from multiple directions to keep him off balance and hopefully wear down his stamina. However Homelander soon saw that there was a pattern and turned his body so he was facing Cannonbolt's next attacked. Instead of hitting it he decided to catch it, so just before it was gonna hit him he clamped his arms to the sides of the spherical alien.

Homelander gritted his teeth as Cannonbolt kept spinning so fast that smoke was rising from Homelander's palms from the friction. When he stopped spinning the Seven leader threw him to the ground. But before he could go in for his next hit

CRASH

Kevin bursts through a wall and pushes Homelander into a wall, and holds him with his lower Wildmutt arms and his Heatlblast arm. "How the fuck did you get out?" Homelander wanted to know, knowing Butcher and his pals were wanted so the CIA wouldn't just let this guy out without a plan.

"Let's just say someone really... hates your guts." Kevin stated as he reeled back his Diamondhead arm readied with a blade. But before he could thrust it, Cannonbolt hit him in the side knocking him off and allowing Homelander to get some distance.

They all recovered and landed in a sort of triangle formation.

Boardwalk

Vilgax jumps out of the water and into the boardwalk where a carnival is happening. Immediately civilians either start running, hiding or filming/live-streaming. "TENNYSOOOOOON!" He shouts in rage, any water droplets on him shoot off from the intensity. He then turns to the people who haven't run yet and shouts. "Where is Ben Tennyson!?"

"V-V-Vought Tower." A scared civilian answers.

Vilgax looks and can't tell which building is Vought Tower. "Which one is it?!" He demands to know.

A Civilian pulls up a picture of it on their phone and shows Vilgax, who takes it, before running away. Vilgax then see's someone pointing a sort of rectangular device at him. "If you value you pathetic existence you'd run like the rest of your species." He offers in a small act of mercy

The civilian however is undeterred. "This is sick! My followers are gonna love this!" He says with excitement.

Vilgax walks up to him with intrigue. "What is that infernal contraption?"

"It's a phone dude, say hi to my followers." The man says, grinning like a fool.

Vilgax becomes curious and takes the device from him realizing it most be some sort of communication device. "Hey that's-." The civilian tries to protest but is cut off when Vilgax swings his arms and sends him into a hurdling towards a game tent.

Vilgax points the camera in the wrong direction momentarily before correcting it to point to himself and others point their own phones and cameras at him. "I am Vilgax, conquer of worlds, enslaver of species I have come here to retrieve an object that is rightfully mine. The Omnitrix. You may not know that name, but you'll surely you know the worthless worm that wields it. His name is Ben Tennyson, who uses the Omnitrix to transform into other species and try to defeat me."

Everyone watching now realizes he's talking about Shifter.

Vilgax continues. "If you insignificant little pests value your worthless pathetic lives then you shall do nothing to interfere. Many have tried to vanquish me and have repeatedly failed. And TENNYSONE if you're watching remember you cannot run, you cannot hide, if you don't reveal yourself soon I shall rip apart this miserable rock and its inhabitants bit... excruciating bit until I find you."

Vilgax breaks the phone and heads for Vought Tower as fast as he can.

Vought Tower

Ben, Kevin and Homelander stared at each other. Homelander and Ben confused, Kevin with excitement. "Nice! A two for one special." He says with glee readying shards and fire to shoot.

"What are you doing here Kevin?" Ben asks.

"Isn't obvious I'm here to pound you dweebs into the dirt." Kevin responded with a smile while punching his right Wildmutt fist into the other.

"How'd you know we'd both be here?" Homelander decides to ask.

"Well I knew where you were." Kevin answers Homelander, then turns to Cannonbolt. " But enough chit chat!" Kevin exclaimed. "I didn't come here to play twenty questions." He growls before firing flames and shards at Ben, who curls up and rolls out of the way. Increasing his speed he then launches himself at Kevin.

Kevin moved out of the way, but Ben bounces off the wall and hits him in the back, making him stumble forward. After hitting Kevin's back, Cannonbolt bounced up and after hitting the ceiling was on a course to smash Kevin from above.

But Homelander flew at him from an angle and punched him midway. Sending him flying out of the building, skipping across the pavement. However just as Homelander was going to fly after him, Kevin reached up to grab his leg and threw him on the ground. "He's mine blondie! Back off!" He orders before going after Ben.

Scene Cut

Kevin gets out of the building and looks around, but see's no sign of Cannonbolt. "You can't hide from me Tennyson!" He shouts as he looks around, to prevent himself from getting hit in different directions.

Nearby Ben, in his human form, was hiding behind a monument dedicated to the Flight 37 victims. After getting hit outside he realized he would need a bit more muscle. So he turned back and was waiting to go Fourarms. He was only Cannonbolt for a few minutes so hopefully he wouldn't have to wait long. Looking down at his wrist he saw the Omnitrix was still in the red. "Come on." He urged, knowing sooner or later he'll be found.

"Hi there." Ben heard and looked up to see Kevin's hulking figure above him.

Before Ben could respond he noticed something further back, towards the lobby they were in. "Uh you might wanna turn around." He warned.

"Nice try loser." Kevin replies, reeling a fist back and not turning around, thinking it's a desperate trick. "Like I'm gonna fall for that." Just as he said that, Homelander tackled him, shoving him at the concrete wall of a building across the street.

"That little punk is mine." Homelander said in a low turn in Kevin's ear, before throwing him on the pavement. But as he looked back to where Ben was hiding, all he saw was an empty space.

"Up hear!" Homelander hears, and looks up just in time to see Fourarms coming down from a high jump and using his namesake for a smash attack. A small crater was created, tossing up dust and smoke. As Fourarms raised his fists for another hit Kevin zoomed in for a two armed punch to his side. Kevin himself was then forced back when Homelander fired his heatvision at his chest.

Fourarms then ripped a car in half and threw one half at Kevin and the other half at Homelander. Kevin smash his away and Homelander lasered his piece in half. "YEEEOH!" Fourarms exclaimed smashing his arms on the ground creating a rock wave that was heading towards them.

In response the two just flew up to avoid the attack. But Fourarms just jumped up and tackled Kevin, forcing them to fall to the ground together. "How did you break out!?" Fourarms demanded to know.

"Had some help." Kevin replies, not knowing the name of the man who freed him.

Before they could continue their conversation Homelander flew in and punched Ben off Kevin, then fired his heatvision at Kevin. The mutated eleven year old raise his arms to block and fired Stinkfly goo from his mouth. Homelander stopped firing and jumped back to avoid being blinded and possibly blown up.

Kevin then used a burst of speed to get up and grab Homelander's face with his Diamondhead hand. Homelander was then thrown towards Ben, and blasted with a fire ball. As Homelander was hurdling towards Fourarms, the alien clothes lined him with his left arm before doing a double thunder clap at Kevin. Kevin crouched down and dug his hands and feet as the sound attack hit him, and while objects were blown back and glass shattered Kevin didn't appear to be affected to badly.

Behind Fourarms, Homelander recovered and tackled the alien from behind. He kept going until he also collided Kevin and the three tumbled to the ground in a struggle. As they were getting up, something crashed in the middle, sending the three flying back some distance in separate directions.

With the other Seven Members

Deep, Starlight, A-Train, Queen Maeve and Black Noir walked into the destroyed lobby when Deep got an alert on his phone. It was from one of his fans who leads an organization to protect and clean to the ocean. It was a video.

"It's here!" Deep says out of the blue, stopping just as they can see the fighting outside.

A- Train replies. "Yeah, no shit!" He gestures to Kevin.

"Not him." Deep tells him. "The fucking monster in the water I've been talking about! The cathulu looking thing."

"Cathu-what?" Maeve asked, just as they got within viewing range of the fight. Something crashed in the middle of them.

Scene Cut

As Homelander, Fourarms and Kevin recovered and the dust cleared they all saw what crashed. Or more accurately who.

Fourarms eyes go wide. "You've gotta be kidding me!" He exclaims in surprise and annoyance then adds. "What is this? The world's worst reunion special!"

Kevin looks at Vilgax in equal surprise. "Took you long enough! Were you on vacation or something."

"Tennyson! You have been a thorn in my side for too long now." Vilgax says to Fourarms.

"Nice to see you to squid face." Ben replies.

"And I see you lost our machine." Vilgax points out.

"It was ripped apart in that wormhole thing." Kevin tells him.

"No matter." Vilgax dismisses as he turns back to Ben. "It will make destroying you all the more rewarding. And I shall relish each and every one of your screams as I pry the device from that feeble human form of yours."

Seeing an opportunity Homelander got into a cliche heroic pose and began speaking. "Look pal you picked the wrong planet." Homelander said in a loud booming voice, hopeful that someone was watching.

Vilgax turns to Homelander with a look that conveys confusion and curiosity. "And what are you supposed to be?" He asks, looking at his apparel.

Homelander puffs his chest and puts his fists on his hips, as if he were modeling for a poster or a magazin. "I'm The Homelander." He proudly boasts, as if it were some royal title. "And this country, is under my protection, cause I am greatest hero the world has ever seen. Leader of the Seven. Earths most mighty, Champions of the innocent and I-the fuck!?" He was broken out of his self praising speech when Vilgax turned his attention back to Ben. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"Pathetic." Vilgax says without turning around. "You are nothing more than a sad fool, parading around like a savior. You're not even worth destroying." He tells him.

Homelander, feeling more disrespected than an Ottoman Sultan or a Roman Emperor, fires a brief blast of his heatvision at Vilgax's shoulder. The hit doesn't hurt him, but causes Vilgax to glance back. "Fucker I am the most powerful being on earth! Now surrender or I'll splatter you on the walls!" He demands.

Vilgax, now annoyed, fully turns his body to him "I surrender to no one! I will crush you! And afterward, I shall display your shattered skull to these pathetic humans of this world so they know to bow to their new master!"

As Ben was about to step in Kevin tackled him and the two were in a deadlock. "Nuh uh." Kevin shakes his hand as they each try to overpower the other. "We ain't done here Tennyson."

"Raaaah!" Fourarms grunts as he turns his body to throw Kevin to the side and they continue their fight.

With the Seven

Vilgax and Homelander stare at each other as the other members of the Seven stay some distance back. "Last chance. Surrender and you won't be hurt." Homelander offers.

"As if you possess the strength to harm me." Vilgax dismisses.

Annoyed by the response Homelander flies straight at Vilgax with the intention to punch him. However a backhand swing of Vilgax's right arm sends him flying back back and through the wall of a building.

"Please tell me I did not just see our biggest gun get slammed by a giant calamari in like three fucking seconds." A-Train says.

Homelander eventually picks himself up and out of the hole. "Is that the limit of the "Champion of the innocent?" Vilgax asks in a mocking tone.

Growling Homelander flies at Vilgax again, only for the alien conqueror to punch his attacker down on the concrete. "Pathetic." Vilgax states, just before kicking Homelander's body so hard it goes through the building he was just thrown into before and into the following structure.

Sensing the presence of others near him, he turns to the other members of the Seven. "Do you four wish to challenge me?" He asks.

"Four?" Annie questions then turns and see's Noir has disappeared.

Noir then suddenly appears from out of nowhere, coming down from above onto Vilgax's back and tries to stab him with a sword. Except the blade upon impact, doing no damage. "Gnat." Vilgax growls as he tries to reach and grab him, but Noir jumps out of his reach.

As he turns Vilgax see's Homelander flying at him, only he isn't prepared for the attack. Homelander delivers a punch which pushes Vilgax back some distance, though he still stands. "Is that the limit of your power?" Vilgax taunts.

Gritting his teeth Homelander flew at Vilgax again, but the bipedal squid like alien simply turned to avoid the hit. Then grabbed his leg as he flew by and threw him to the ground. "Weak." Throws him down several more times before letting go to raise his arms, preparing for a double his fisted smash. But as he brought his arms down, A-Train zoomed in and pulled Homelander out of there. So Vilgax hit nothing but the ground.

As he wondered where Homelander went he was blinded by light blasts from Starlight. They didn't hurt, but he was forced to close his eyes allowing Maeve to jump and deliver a swing to his face. Though it only made his head turn to the right, doing no real damage. Noir followed that up before throwing several explosive devices, which Vilgax blocked with his left arm.

A-Train then runs in and starts how rapidly punches Vilgax's left leg, but after a while he stops and exclaims. "AH FUCK!" As he shakes his hurt hands, with hiss of pain. Vilgax then swings one of his arms sending A-Train across the street to the wall of a building.

Noir shoots a cable from his wrist at Vilgax and tries to electrocute him with a high powered taser. But as the shock reaches the alien attacker, it does little to nothing. "Fool." He says he rips the cable and pulls on it, hoping to hit Noir as he flies forward.

But Starlight shoots another lightblast at him, blinding him and giving Noir an opening. Using that opening he vaults over Vilgax's arm, disconnects the taser cable and springs off his chest before dropping a smoke bomb.

Vilgax swings at the smoke and is frustrated when he see's Black Noir escaped. To towards Starlight he says. "I will extinguish your light as I crush your bones!" He runs at her, barely paying attention to her attempts to stop him and tries to bring his fist down on her to kill her but Maeve jumps in kicking Vilgax in the face causing his attack to miss. She kicked him again making him stumble back one step.

Vilgax looks at her with intrigue. "You remind me of the female warlords of Narzon III." Maeve didn't respond, not sure if that was a compliment or an insult. But then Vilgax clarfied for her. "But they were not so..." He continued as he looked her up and down. "Repulsive."

Maeve tries to jump up and punch him, but he grabs her fist. "And they had more skill." Turns and throws her at Noir, who again tried to jump down on him from above. After that the brown cylinder-like objects piercing his arms, activated and gave him larger and more muscular arms. He then slammed his arms down on the ground that created a shockwave, hitting Annie who retreated some distance back, and the oncoming A-Train and even Deep who had hung back unsure of what to do.

Vilgax turned to an oncoming Homelander and lifted his hand up to grab the high speed oncoming punch. Which only pushed him back a few feet in his loose stance position. "I grow tired of these games!" Vilgax says, annoyed as he spins and throws down Homelander, before stomping on his stomach then picks him up by the throat.

Homelander tries desperately to break free, but fails. "You're too weak." Vilgax tells him, before tossing him up slightly and punching him so hard he goes through Vought Tower and several other buildings. Miraculously just barely missing any people. He soon recovers in flies back.

"You're gonna die for that." He tells the squid faced alien.

"And I thought the child was a fool." Vilgax commented, as his arms returned to their normal state.

Homelander flies Vilgax who feels a fist back for a punch.

With Ben and Kevin

At another location, not far from Vilgax and his fight, Fourarms back hits a wall and he stays there briefly before landing on the ground. Looking up he see's Kevin flying down at him, with his Diamondhead arm in a blade to stab him. But timing it right, Fourarms moved to his left (Kevin's right) at the last moment so Kevin stabs the wall. Then Fourarms reaches for the back of his had and his back with his two left arms, while his right ones to hold Kevin's right arms down, and shoved his face against the wall several times Ben then pulls him out and throws him at a car, before charging.

Kevin quickly recovers and using his XLR8 speed, runs out of the way. So Fourarms fist merely goes through the car Kevin was thrown at. With grit teeth Fourarms turns to his right, just in time to see Kevin slam into him with a shoulder tackle.

Fourarms gets pushed back some distance, but stays on his feet and puts his left hands on the ground to keep him stable. "Is that all you got Kevin?" Fourarms asks.

"Oh I got plenty for you Tennyson." Kevin says increasing the flames on his Heatblast arm and readying the shards on his Diamondhead arm. "A triple special actually." He adds, before shooting fire, shards and goo. Fourarms crosses his namesake to block but gets blown away, literally, and is sent flying several blocks down.

As Ben gets back up Kevin comes over. "You're gonna have to do better if you wanna beat me Tennyson." Kevin says, before shooting a stream of flame at Ben, who jumps out of the way just in time.

Kevin follows that up with an XLR8 dash, attempting to again stab Ben with his Diamondhead arm. Fourarms managed to act quickly and grabs the blade just before it makes contact. "Guess you didn't get the point the last time's we fought." Fourarms said. "I've always gonna do better than you." He adds before tightening his grip and turning his body to throw Kevin at the wall of a nearby building.

As Kevin slams into the wall Fourarms takes a nearby car and tears it in half. And while Kevin is regaining his footing his met by an onslaught of punches as Fourarms uses the torn vehicle like a boxing gloves. With a little bit coming off with each punch, causing Kevin to stumble around a little bit.

Eventually enough of the car breaks apart that Fourarms is left with just a steering wheel. He still continues punching, keeping Kevin off balance with his relentless attacks. Soon enough though, Kevin regains is balance and catches the next punches. Again the two are in a deadlock.

"Just you wait Tennyson. I'm gonna pound you into the ground, then I'm gonna make it back to home and when I do, I'm gonna pay a little visit to your Grandpa and cousin. And maybe I'll take a trip to that dump Bellwood and introduce myself to your parents."

Fourarms eyes narrow. "Don't you touch them." He says, while trying to gain the upper hand. But what instead happens is that Kevin gives some slack on his left to throw Fourarms off balance and using his XLR8 speed, pushes him against a nearby wall and grabs his throat.

"Oh I wont touch em." Kevin smirks maliciously. "Ill just turn that stupid RV into one big coffin for the whole family!" He clarifies as he feels a fist back

Fourarms eyes widend before narrowing and with a rage filled yell drove one of his lower fists into Kevin's gut, the shock made him losen his grip, allowing Ben to head butt Kevin making him stumble backwards. He punched Kevin in the face a couple of times before puching him so hard he flew back slaming into the wall across the street.

As Kevin tries to get up and recover Fourarms runs up grabs the lure on his head and proceeded to punched Kevin in the face several times. Kevin raised his diamond arm and caught his fist, but Ben drove the lower fist into into Kevins gut making him double over. Fourarms then grabbed him and slammed him face first into the ground. He then lifted him up and with two punches of his lower fists spun and threw him further down the street.

As Kevin picks himself up and shakes his head he see's Fourarms coming at him. The four armed alien runs as fast as he can and delivers quadruple uppercut. Sending Kevin flying up several stories inside Vought tower.

At the same time

A-Train tries to run away from Vilgax after delivery a few hit, but the alien manages to grab him and throws him at a wall. He hits it and falls downs and joins Starlight, who was passed out on her stomach, in unconsciousness. Deep still was incapacitated from Vilgax's earlier attack.

Queen Maeve then tried flanking Vilgax, but was back handed into a nearby building. Vilgax then increased the power of his muscles with those cylinders and ran at a random building, punching the wall. Only it wasn't random as it caused a part of the building to partially collapse, bringing down the wall, and Black Noir on one of the floors. "Nuisance." The squid like alien growled.

Vilgax knew he still had one pest left to deal with before he can battle Ben. Turning his body he crossed his arms as Homelander flew in for another attack. The impact of Homelander's fist on Vilgax's crossed arms creates a shockwave that broke the apart pieces of the concrete nearby.

But Vilgax did not move a single inch.

After that Vilgax grabbed Homelander's throat and squeezed. "Annoying earthings!" He says.

Homelander fires his heat vision, hoping to hit Vilgax's face. But the alien merely raised his free hand to block the beams with his palm and reaches for his face to grab it. Vilgax let the hand holding Homelander's throat go and reeled it back and punched the supe in his torso, still holding onto his face. The impact created a shockwave that masked the cracking noise of Homelanders ribs. "Pathetic." Vilgax comments before punching him again. "Little." Punches again. "Being." Tosses him up in the air and punches with all his might, sending Homelander through several buildings with a.

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

CRASH

Crash

Crash

Crash

crash

And for those who could hear

SLAM!

Followed by a slump and fall.

Back with Vilgax

After beating Homelander and the rest of the Seven as if they were mosquito's Vilgax turned to look for Ben. And he saw him as a Tetramand quadruple uppercut Kevin up and in Vought Tower. "Ben Tennyson!" He exclaimed.

Fourarms turned to face Vilgax. "What's up squid face?" He responded.

"Enough talk." Vilgax says as he starts to run at Fourarms. "We end this now!"

"Yeah, and its gonna end with you at a sushi restaurant!" Fourarms exclaims as he runs at Vilgax.

As the two hulking beings run towards each other they get closer, and when they get closer they jump forward and raise their up fists. But as Vilgax raises his for a double smash attack, Fourarms catches the arms with his four hands. While the Tetramand manages to block the attack, the impact pushes him down and breaks up the ground and sends rocks flying.

Fourarms grips Vilgax's arms and turns to throw him down the street with all his might. Vilgax skips the ground twice, but adjust himself so he's crouching on his feet with his left arm digging into the ground to eventually stop. Rising up he charges at Ben once again, determined to beat him and take the Omnitrix.

Fourarms also charges at him again and they each throw a right punch that is caught by the other's left. But Fourarms had extra. So using his two lower arms he threw a series of punches at Vilgax's torso. Alone each one did little, but collectively could do some damage.

Gritting his teeth behind his mask Vilgax used their position and pulled Fourarms forward for a headbutt on his forehead. "Ah!" Fourarms grunted as he stumbled back, then was sent back further by a left swing from Vilgax.

Recovering immediately Fourarms ran at Vilgax with a roars. "Raaaaah!" As Vilgax took a step back to prepare for the attack. Fourarms jumped up and raised his fists while Vilgax prepared to block them. But as Fourarms slammed his arms down he used his lower arms to grab Vilgax's and push them wider so his upper arms could go down unimpeded.

The squid like Alien warlord saw this and leaned back a bit to avoid it. But as Fourarms smash attack missed he landed on the ground with a squat and from that position he jumped up for a double upppercut that made contact. Sending Vilgax flying and he landed some distance back hitting the side of a build. As he picked himself up and landed on the ground Fourarms jumped up and slammed the ground to make a rock wave attack.

Vilgax quickly moved out of the path of the rocks and activated the cylinders on his arms. Once again increasing their size and power. He then charged at Fourarms who jumped up towards him, hoping to attack him from above. And as they get closer Vilgax brings his hands together for a thunderclap. The shockwave is visible in the air as it sends Fourarms hurtling back and towards the ground. While Vilgax lands perfectly, and again runs at Ben.

Four Arms get's up and swings at Vilgax, but he catches the punch and throws Four Arms into a nearby building it. "It's over boy!" Vilgax calls out.

Four Arms gets up. "Not yet!" He gabs a stone pillar that broke off and runs at Vilgax, swinging it like a club. But Vilgax smashes it into pebbles.

Before Four arms could react Vilgax rushed forward and drove his fist into Bens stomach , lifting his feet off the ground and knocking the wind out of him. Four Arms fell on his hands and knees coughing as Vilgax towered over him. "Of all the beings who have been foolish enough to stand against me, you have been the most infuriating. But even with all the Omnitrix's power." He grabs Four Arms by the top of his head and lifts him off the ground. "You shall fall, just like like all the others." He pulls back his fist and with that he punched Ben so hard he flew threw the air and back into the lobby Vought tower.

"Uhhhhhhhh." Four Arms groaned as he slowly, and painfully gets up. A THUD sounds Vilgax lands from his jump to here.

"You can still get up." Vilgax says, impressed by Ben's resilience. "No matter." He dismissed as he walks towards Four Arms and whacks away a weak swing. "I assume you remember this." Vilgax says as his finger glows and he presses the Omnitrix insignia. In a flash Ben becomes human, and falls back on his hands and knees, breathing heavily.

"You won't... win." Ben wheezes out.

"I already have boy. You're kind is just to foolish to see." Vilgax responds, but as he starts to reaching for Ben.

BLAM

Homelander flies through the wall to tackle Vilgax from the front and back outside. Homelander flies, even while making a trench with Vilgax's body being dragged across the pavement. As he punches Vilgax repeatedly in the face he shouts. "YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SQUID SHIT! I'M GONNA FUCKING CUT YOU PIECE BY PIECE THEN FRY YOUR DICK AND SERVE IT WITH TARTAR SAUCE YOU FUCKING FUCK!"

Vilgax then digs his claws to stop himself and Homelander's grip slips and he keeps flying. Vilgax rises and narrows his eyes. "You still wish to be destroyed human?" He asks.

Homelander grits his teeth at being called human. So he flies straight at Vilgax again. "Very well." He says, just moments before tries to punch him with his right fist. Vilgax merely catches it with his left hand, his body not budging an inch.

Homelander tries to pull out, but Vilgax holds him tightly. "I shall happily send you to your doom." Vilgax tells him as he reels his right fist back then punches him. This creates another visible shockwave Homelander is hit so hard his body skips the pavement faster than a sports car on a straight open road.

Homelander straightens himself out slows to a stop at a kneeling position. But as he looked forward he couldn't see Vilgax. Then a small shadow on top of him started to get big and he looked up just in time to see Vilgax coming right on top of him, with his hands linked for a smash attack.

Homelander gets smashed into the pavement so hard, a crater formed as if a meteor hit. Inside the crater Vilgax was about to smash Homelander again, but the patriot supe fired his heat vision before he could. This caused Vilgax to jerk back, allowing Homelander to fly up and deliver a right uppercut, followed by left swing then a right at his face.

Vilgax then manages to lift up his hand and catch the next punch. Homelander tried to fire his heat vision, but Vilgax blocked this by grabbing his face with his other arm. "Fool! At least the child had some measure of skill." Vilgax says as throws Homelander back to the ground. "You're just weakling who doesn't know his place!" Lifts him up and throws him towards the direction of Vought.

With Ben

Ben finally caught enough breath to move and was able to see Homelander and Vilgax fighting. Though it was more like Homelander being used as Vilgax's sparing dummy. Ben cringed as he saw Homelander being repeatedly slammed against the wall of a build, then punched into it. "Yikes, that's gotta hurt."

Ben then witnesses Homelander's attempt at a counter attack fail. "Oh man that is just sad." He says, then sighs. "How do so beat him? XLR8, Diamondhead, Heatblast?" Ben thinks out loud, going over his options.

Hearing some groans nearby he see's the other knocked out Seven members coming to. He sighs again, as he see's Grey Matter's image come up on the Omnitrix. "Well desperate times." Ben goes over to them.

"Hey yo wake up." Ben tells a knocked out Annie.

"Wha-What?" Starlight said coming to.

Soon the others get up and Ben doesn't waste any time. "I'm gonna get straight to the point, we need to work together to beat him." He says.

"You can't be serious." Maeve says.

"Why the fuck should we work with you?" A-Train asks.

"Oh cause fighting Vilgax by yourselves is going well for you." Ben sarcastically replies, while gesturing his thumb to the side. There one can see Homelander swatted away like fly, before being stomped on like ant. "I think he's on the verge of breaking a sweat?" Ben adds as large crash is heard. "Right after he breaks Homelander like a cheap dollar store toy."

"So you know how to beat him?" Starlight asks, turning to Ben.

"I know we gotta work together." Ben says.

"Do you have a plan?" Maeve asks, glancing back at Homelander.

"I have... part of a plan." Ben clarifies. "But I'm sure the rest is gonna flow through in a minute." He adds.

"Fucking shit." Maeve scuffs pinching her bows.

"How much of the plan do you have?" Starlight asks, hoping it's a lot.

"What am I supposed to do math?" Ben replies then says. "Let's say 12 percent."

Noir then starts writing something and A-Train glances at it. "Who fucking cares if it's better than a 11 percent." He says.

"Ok raise you hand if you fought this guy before today, and if you fought super villains before now." Ben says, raising his own hand. "And no fighting me doesn't count, because I wasn't trying to kill you."

The Seven member look at each other and remember Ben's memories. Him fighting robots, criminals, aliens and super powered villains. "What do we do first?" Starlight asks, as they nod.

Just then a large SMASH is heard as Homelander is tackled inside a building, which is followed by CRASH as the building collapses on top of itself. And Vilgax walks out without a scratch. "Foolish human." He says wiping off some dust.

"No time to explain." Ben says as he activated and slams down the Omnitrix.

The Seven and Vilgax all look to see Ben turn into Grey Matter. The Seven are baffled. Vilgax is intrigued.

"Annie light him up!" Grey Matter orders.

"It's not gonna hurt him." Annie reminds him, knowing her blasts were not that effective. At least with the source of power she had to absorb.

"Who said anything about hurting him?" Grey Matter tells her, hoping she gets the hint. But when she gives the little alien with a big brain a confused look he sighs and clarifies. "Blind him!" Turns to Noir. "Give us some extra cover." Turns to A-Train. "Get us someplace you can run us all too in a few seconds that's away from him."

Annie then uses all her energy to make the brightest blast she could make. This makes Vilgax squint and raise his hands to block the intense light, effectively blinding. At the same time Noir throws down a smoke bomb to give them some extra cover as A-Train runs them one by one out of his line of sight.

Eventually Annie is the last one and when A-Train whisks her away the light dies down. But Vilgax eyes need a few moments to readjust. "You can run, but you will not escape my rath!"

With Ben and the Seven

"This was the best fucking place you could think of?" Maeve asks A-Train as she looks around one of the bathrooms in Vought.

"I'd say we have at most 6 minutes, and 17 seconds before he discovers us or starts a rampage to get our attention." Grey Matter says hopping off Annie's should to a sink. "Now let's go over my strategy, cause we only have time to go over it once." He tells him.

"Why are we listening to this little fuck again?" A-Train asks. "Didn't you only have like 12 percent of a plan."

"Yeah we couldn't beat that Calamari, how are you gonna do it?" Maeve asked.

"Look I get it." Grey Matter begins. "You hate me, and I couldn't care less about all of you, except Annie. You don't have any good reason to trust me other than the fact that we have a common enemy." Pause. "But none of that matters because if he don't defeat him innocent people are gonna get hurt, maybe killed. And alone we may not have the muscle to take him down, but with my brain and your abilities we can take him down." He tells them with a dramatic pause. "But you're gonna need to trust my plan, and I'm gonna need to trust you."

The Seven look at each other quietly.

"Now are you in or out?" Grey Matter asks. "Cause there's the door." Points to the door.

"I'm in." Starlight says with confidence.

"Same." Deep adds.

Noir nods and so does Maeve.

"(Sigh) Guess I'm in too." A-Train says.

"Good now listen up." Grey Matter begins. "Cause it's Hero Time."

With Vilgax

Vilgax's vision had cleared up and now he was looking for Ben and the Omnitrix again. Seeing as how he turned into a Galvin he knew the kid was up to something. But what it was remained to be seen. "It is futile to hide Tennyson. I will crush this entire city to find you!" Vilgax said as he walked through the streets of New York bellowing out his voice so all could hear.

Vilgax then sensed a presence above him, but looked to see nobody there. Narrowing his eyes he turned around and blocked an explosive throwing weapon of Black Noir with his palm. "Hey fucker!" Turning his head back Vilgax was just in time to Maeve, who had jumped, punch his face with her right fist.

Vilgax's head jerked, but he quickly recovered and tried to attack her as she landed. But A-Train ran in and got her out of there. So Vilgax hit nothing but air.

Whistle

Vilgax turns around and see's Starlight, who fires her light blast at his face. This blinds him more than hurt him, so he's barely phases as he goes in for an attack. But like before A-Train runs in to get her out of his path as Vilgax punches the ground.

This time though A-Train drops something. A belt with grenades attached to it, all with the pins pulled. These quickly blow up as A-Train opened them 3 seconds before arriving. With a lethal radius of 5 meters the explosion caused him to jerk his head up.

With A-Train

Just a short distance away from Vilgax, but out of his sight A-Train stops with Annie. "Guess that little grey snot's plan is working." A-Train says.

Flashback

Grey Matter was on the sink of the bathroom explaining his plan. "It's useless for any of us to attack him directly in a contest of brute force. So to achieve the probable outcome is to launch multiple assaults from a multitude of directions to keep his mind inattentive which must be done at a rapid pace. But knowing his combat experience he'll quickly realize what's happening so we'll have to make slight alternations to thus preventing him from-" Grey Matter see's their confused expressions and sighs.

"We need to hit him fast, strong, get out faster, and be unpredictable about it." Grey Matter simplifies.

"How do we do that?" Starlight asks.

"First Black Noir will attack to get his attention, then Maeve when he's distracted, followed by Starlight." Grey Matter begins to instruct. "After each hit A-Train will run in and get you out of Vilgax's line of sight."

"So I don't get to do any of the hitting?" A-Train incredulously, feeling as if his role is an insult.

"Your role is the key to their survival." Grey Matter states. "And this plan depends on their survival, so I'm depending on you." Grey Matter adds, boosting his ego slightly. "And I didn't say don't attack Vilgax, just don't do it the normal way."

"How?" A-Train questions.

Noir then draws something on his notepad and reveals it to A-Train. "For real?" Noir nods and gives a thumbs up. And one could almost see a smile, like a happy Storm Trooper.

Present

A-Train runs back inside a Vought armory and pulls a sledgehammer and runs back towards the fight. Just as Noir threw some more explosives at Vilgax, so his speed A-Train ran towards Vilgax, threw the sledge and pulled Noir away before Vilgax could attack. Naturally he blocked these, but unnaturally he didn't attack where he saw Noir was. Knowing he wasn't going to be there, Vilgax didn't think it worth the waste of energy.

Instead the squid like alien tried to sense the next attack. "It seems your not as foolish as I thought." Vilgax says as he turns around to grab Maeve, who tried to attack from behind. "But still no match compared to me." He tells her, while squeezing her torso.

He then throws her to the ground, but soon gets blinded by Noir as he throws a flashbang at his face while jumping off his shoulder. This allowed A-Train to run in and get Maeve out there, before he could strike again.

As Vilgax was looking around for the next attack he heard. "Over here squid fuck!" Behind him and saw A-Train with a machine gun he got from one of Vought's stores and fired until he emptied the clip.

Vilgax didn't even try to block as the bullets bounced off his body without leaving a scratch. "What was that supposed to accomplish?"

"Just making sure you didn't turn around." A-Train answers smugly, before running away.

Turning around Vilgax saw Starlight again who fired a more powerful blast. Which this time forced him to block, while also blinding him as well. This allowed Black Noir to fire a taser wire at Vilgax's armored parts, that was connected to the city's power. Noir sent even more volt's coursing through Vilgax than he did with Upgrade before.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Vilgax cries in pain before pulling the wire off, smoke coming off his body. "Effective, but trivial." He comments before punching the ground, causing the ground to shake and and pieces of the ground to fly up. Vilgax then clapped his hands creating a shock that sent them flying at Noir.

Speed Force Time (Basically when everything is going slowexcept speedsters)

As the rocks were getting closer and closer to hitting Black Noir, A-Train was running towards him. Going around the mid air rocks he grabs Black Noir by the torso and takes him away.

Present Time

A-Train stops as he takes Noir out of the line of fire and pants heavily. "How (breath) much longer (breath) do we have to do this? (Breath)?" A-Train asks through his ear piece.

With Grey Matter

In a robotics lab of Vought Grey Matter was working on something with Deep as his assistant when he heard A-Train's question. "You seem to forget what the entire first phase of the plan is."

Flashback

"Now remember this is not going to defeat him, just delay him long enough for phase two. And before you ask no I do not have time to explain." Grey Matter continues. "You'd likely wouldn't understand it and NOT because you all are simple minded, just because it requires an understanding of level 5 technology, this earth has barely passed level 2."

"How long do you need?" Starlight asks.

"I don't know. With the lack of proper equipment I cannot make a proper estimation." Grey Matter answers. "Just keep fighting and don't die."

"Jesus fucking Christ." Maeve groans then sighs. "Is that all?"

"No." Grey Matter tells her. "I need Deep to assist me as he is a key part of the plan."

"Me really?" Deep responds with a confused expression. "But we're not near water." He points out, since Vought only ever let him be involved with water crimes. Which this was not.

"Unless I'm mistaken you physiology allows you to breath out of water." Grey Matter states. "So unless you're too scared-"

"No-no I'm not." Deep assures him.

"Good, now let's go." Grey Matter tells them.

Flashback over

"How much more FUCKING TIME DO YOU NEED?!" Maeve demands to know and Deep looks to a TV which put up live video Maeve being hit towards a building after kicking Vilgax's back.

"Hmmmmm." Grey Matter calculates as he looks toward the metal headband with with circuits, wires and the sort on it. He then looks to the other pieces of equipment is going to use. "Several more minutes." He answers.

Back to the fight

Things were starting to look bad for the Seven again. Maeve managed to launch a kick at Vilgax's, but he didn't even budge as if he anticipated it. And as she was backing away he spun around and with a swing of his left arm sent her hurdling towards a building. Then thanks to the cylinders devices his arms and muscles increased once more and delivered a devastating thunderclap at her.

Speed Force Time

A-Train was heading towards Maeve to get her out of there before Vilgax took another shot at her. But in doing so ran straight to the Soundwave of the Vilgax's thunder clap and was blown to the building.

(Speed of Sound is about 760 mph or 1100 feet per second.)

Present time

A-Train lands right next to Maeve. "I think he caught onto us." He says in a groan.

"Fucking think so?" Maeve sarcastically replies as they get back on their feet. They then saw Starlight get hit away by Vilgax after hitting him with as much light as she could absorb.

"Times Square." They heard Grey Matter say in their ear pieces.

"Times Sqaure?" Maeve asks.

"Take Starlight to Times Square, then do what I say." Grey Matter instructs.

With Annie

As Starlight was recovering from her hit from Vilgax, she saw his towering form above her. "Weakling." He says as he is about to stomp on her. But A-Train whisks her away just in time.

Times Square

The normally busy commercial intersection, tourist destination and entertainment hub was empty. This because after Vilgax showed up authorities mandated people to go to their homes or seek shelter. This was sent out to the entire city.

Starlight looks around in surprise as to how she was brought to the empty Times Square, which still had all the lights on. "What the?" Turns to a panting A-Train.

"Charge up." He says before taking a deep breath. "I'll be back." He exhales but before running his arm is grabbed.

"Wait what's going on?" She asks.

"You didn't here Shifter?" A-Train replies, his breathing returning to normal.

"I think my ear piece got destroyed." Annie says, reaching for her ear to not find it there. "You know when he..."

"Charge up, as much as you can, too the max then I'll bring you back to light that fucker up." He explains.

"But I-" Annie tries to speak, but A-Train runs off. "Never took in this much energy." She says to nobody then looks around, feeling nervous. Then spots an advertisement to sell her costume, her original one. 'Want to be a Hero?' Was part of the advertisement.

Collecting herself Annie extended her arms wide and began taking in the light. All around the large screens and signs began to flicker and spark and Starlight started to glow while also floating up a few feet.

Back to the fight

A-Train came back just in time to grab Black Noir out of the way of one of Vilgax's enlarged fists. "We good now." He says to Noir and in the ear piece, signaling them to act on Grey Matter's earlier instructions.

A-Train then takes another breath before running towards Maeve who leapt on Vilgax's back to try to get to his neck and strangle him. But Vilgax just reached for her and threw her across the area towards a building. Likely one she was thrown in before.

But in mid air A-Train tan and grabbed her and ran away. Before Vilgax could wonder what the plan was Black Noir got his attention with several explosive throwing weapons at his back. Turning around he was hit in the face by two more objects. Only these weren't knives, bombs or electrical weapons, these were smoke bomb pellets that when detonated released a cloud of pepper spray.

"Ah!" Vilgax hissed as he was forced to close and rub his eyes to get the stinging substance out. Eyes were one of the universal weak spots of all creatures, no matter where they're from.

Meanwhile A-Train had run in a big circle, bringing Maeve and when he got back he slingshotted her towards him. Thanks to A-Train's speed Queen Maeve was able to hit her target with extra attack power. The back of Vilgax's leg. Using a lariat move she managed to make Vilgax stumble and forced him to kneel down in order not to fall. Though this did make her roll forward in the pavement for several moments.

Just then everyone had to squint and cover their eyes as A-Train brought in a fully charged Starlight. Though it was a struggle, even with his goggles he had a tough time seeing. Good thing the streets were basically empty of people.

Starlight floated in front of Vilgax, who was squinting and using his hands to block the light. Though this helped little. She then got closer and a sort of charging sound was heard.

Annie then fired a light blast stream at Vilgax, using all the power stored up from Times Square. When she did the area got even brighter, at least two or three times then just a moment ago. "GAAAAAAH." Vilgax grunted trying to block it, but was sent to the wall of a building, which was cracking with every second.

Annie then pulled her arms back a bit before thrusting them, in screaming her power and making the size of the light blast bigger. Blasting Vligax inside the building while still keeping it up.

Soon the power began to subside and the blast slowly got smaller and the light began to dim. Until eventually Annie stopped and lowered her arms while landing on the ground and her eyes going back to her normal shade. The other Seven members nearby gathered and looked at the hole of the building where Vilgax was blasted into.

"Think that did it?" Maeve asks.

"Sure as shit hope so." A-Train replies, hoping that it was.

"Yeah I think we did it." Annie speaks up, though the slight quiver in her voice didn't make her sound confident.

Noir took a step forward and as he turned his head back to the other he shook his head. At that moment the rumbling sound of rocks being moved was heard and the Vought supes took a step back and got in fighting stances.

Thunderous Boom

A blast erupted from the building Vilgax was thrown in and the four Seven members were blown back by the force. Their backs hit the ground just in front of the holes made when Kevin, Homelander and Ben were fighting one another.

As the smoke and dust cleared Vilgax was revealed and despite the hits he had taken still looked much better than his current opponents. In fact apart from a few scratches and marks, mostly on his armored part, he seemed relatively unscathed. "Enough of this!" He says as he starts to March forward. "Tell me where the Omnitrix is and I shall make your end swift and painless." He offers.

"Here!" A new voice shouts, and the Seven turn to see Deep coming with a weird helmet on his head with multiple circuits and wires on it.

"Where's Shifter?" Maeve asks.

"He said he did all he could and it's up to us." Deep said as he pressed a button on the helmet lighting it up. "And this?" He adds.

"What is that shit?" A-Train asks.

"No time to explain." Deep says, then adds. "Mostly cause it's all fucking gibberish but it's gonna hurt him... a lot... I hope." He then pulls out his ear piece and presses another button.

"Foolish humans. You should know your place." Vilgax says, as he steps forward to finish them off.

"This better fucking work." Deep says as he concentrates his powers to connect with Vilgax then puts the earpiece back in before pressing a button on it. "Ahhhhhhh!" He shouts in pain.

The other three members of the Seven with ear pieces join him in his pain briefly before throwing off their ear pieces. "What the fuck!" A-Train says, Noir then taps A-Trains shoulder and points to Vilgax.

"Grrrrrr." Vilgax grunted in pain, while grabbing his head with on of his hands.

Flashback

Grey Matter just finished explaining to A-Train, Maeve and Black Noir what they needed to do. "And we're done." Grey Matter said putting the last piece.

"That's it?" Deep asks.

"Affirmative." Grey Matter confirms then directs his attention back to the helmet. "Once you put this on activate it by pressing this." Points to a button in the helmet. "Then Vilgax's pain sensors will sync with yours, so what pain you feel he will to once you telepathically connect to him." Grey Matter explains with his back turned to Deep, who takes slow steps a nearby desk to grab something. "Then connect the Helmet with your earpiece and the frequency will generate a sound that will cause you immense pain."

"But he'll feel it too right?" Deep asks for confirmation coming back towards Grey Matter.

"Yes but he has a high tolerance than you so you'll-" Grey Matter gets cut off when glass suddenly surrounds him. "Huh?" He gasps in shock and looks to see Deep placing a thick note book of notes on top.

"Ha ha." Deep cheers as he takes the equipment. "Take that you little shit. We'll be back for you." He says as he runs out the door.

Present

Vilgax looks towards the Deep and realizes the helmet is causing him pain, though not as much as Deep is going through. "Rah." With roar he pushes forward, only slowed by the mutual pain of Deep.

Seeing that Vilgax was still coming at him Deep turned the volume up on his ear piece to the max. "GAAAAAAAAAH FUCKING SHIT MMMMMMMMM!" Deep cried in even more as the pain intensified.

"Uhhhhhhh!" Vilgax grunts as he grabs his head with both hands. But he quickly adapts and let's go of one as he focus his breathing. "Annoying... pests." He grunts as he takes a step forward.

Seeing that Vilgax wasn't slowing down Black Noir took his earpiece and quickly put it in Deep ear. Turning it up to the maximum volume, doubling pain Deep was feeling, thus doubling Vilgax's.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Deep shouted in immense pain and agony, which did not stop. He quickly got on his hands and knees with blood dripping from his nose every few seconds. All while resisting the urge to remove the devices.

"UGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Vilgax reciprocated as he fell on his left knee while closing his eyes and grabbing his head with both hands while reeling it back. And at least for the moment he was immobilized as he hunched forward with one hand keeping him propped up.

"Let's take this son of a bitch." A-Train said as ran in one random direction then back at Vilgax smashing something on his body. He then runs to grab another random object, be it a piece of debris or a tool or anything that's fairly heavy, and hitting Vilgax with it from different angles.

Queen Maeve and Starlight then went and shoulder tackled the arm that was Vilgax was using prop himself up. And as Vilgax alternated arms and used his now free arm to wildly swing, and miss, at the two Vought women Black Noir went in. When he got close he pulled a sword out of a scabbard and in the process flung blinding dust at Vilgax's eyes.

With his vision impaired and his brain waves feeling the same pain Deep was feeling Vilgax was suddenly helpless. And for several moments Vilgax could do nothing as Queen Maeve and Starlight punched and kicked his body, while Black Noir slashed at it with his sword and A-Train kept up his hits. All while Deep was keeping himself in excruciating pain in order for Vilgax to have the same feeling. Whose nose had bled so much that there was a sizeable puddle of blood beneath it that was growing larger by the minute.

And this continued until...

Homelander, who has finally recovered enough, joins in and flies by Deep so fast the helmet comes off. Deep welcomes this as he quickly takes off the ear pieces and breathes in relief as the pain and blood stop flowing. With the pain subsiding he lies on the ground taking deep breaths.

Homelander slams straight into Vilgax with such force he blows back his teammates some distance. The hit also sends Vilgax flying into the building Starlight blasted him into earlier. The Seven leader doesn't stop there as he uses his heat vision to cut through the main support structure, so the multi story building collapses right on top of the alien.

As the dust starts to settle Homelander, floating several feet high, takes deep breaths as he looks at the ruble. Because of his earlier fighting/beatdown, his suit is torn in multiple areas, his hair disheveled, and his own blood dots his face and body, with a stream from his nose that finally stopped. Despite using his super hearing and X-Ray vision he can't clearly tell if Vilgax is finally down.

BOOM

He gets his answer as Vilgax bursts out of the rubble, now no longer impeding by Grey Matters ingenuity and Deep's suffering. But before they could continue to throw down, several F-35 Fight Jets, along with Raptors fire all their rockets at them, not caring if Vought gets hit. To do this they fly below the tall skyscrapers to aim accurately. Despite the risks to civilians and the pilots it pays off, resulting in an explosion that could be heard City wide.

Scene cut

The Squadron leader of the jets was radioing his superiors. "This is Meteor, targets were hit as ordered. Commence follow up attack over."

Several AC-130J Gunships then began circling high above the area and before the smoke and dust even started to settle they lean their guns down began firing 30mm and 105mm High Explosive rounds after aiming with their laser guided targeting system.

As they operators were were doing their assigned tasks the ranking officer spoke up. "Every round!" He shouts. "We do not leave until we fired every fucking round or we'll be sent back to crash into that mother fucker." This was the case for the other ones.

Scene Cut

It was chaos.

Starlight, Queen Maeve, A-Train, The Deep and Black Noir were all flat on the ground as explosions were being heard around them. Even felt too by them. And they weren't even the main target. A-Train couldn't even run to get away because their was so much lead, shrapnel and rock splinters flying he would likely get hit trying to avoid them all. Homelander was closest to Vilgax, so likely was caught up in the main attack.

Scene Cut

On the roof of an apartment building a dozen or so people were watching the Gunships circle and fire down by Vought tower. A few were even recording or live-streaming it in real time.

Scene Cut

Closer to the fight a family was under table in their kitchen as their apartment shook and vibrated. They had tried to leave, but the National Guard and police were not only telling people to stay clear of the road they prevented them from leaving. Armoured vehicles blocked parking garage and after getting people out of their cars and trucks in a traffic jam they cleared a path by commandeering garbage trucks or any heavy vehicle and driving through the middle.

Scene Cut

On the ground people on the sidewalk or from their houses watched as an armored column were driving through. As per usual many were recording or live streaming it in shock as they drive by as fast as they could. Blackhawk and Sikorsky helicopters were also flying by them. All armed to the teeth and any visible soldiers faces were covered by a mask, but they still wore the standard US military uniform. Though their insignia was strange, it was the letter "G" with "3" followed by it.

Scene Cut

A news Helicopter, that should've been grounded, had been showing news footage of all the fighting was now filming the gunships bombardment. "It appears that the US military is now getting involved. We know the National Guard was mobilized, including reserves, but-" Pauses as chopper with "G3" on it flies in front of the camera.

The pilot of the news chopper speaks up. "I told you we weren't supposed to be up here."

The side of the helicopter opens up and a soldier and aims his gun, and fires. Only it shoots a cable line instead of a bullet. It pierced the piece of equipment and is pulled from his hand, the camera guy having to let go in order to not fall to his death. "HEY!" The news caster shouts as it's pulled.

The masked soldier then pulls out his pistol and fires a shot at the news helicopter, scaring the occupants. The door is then closed and they fly away. The pilot speaks up again. "Leaking fuel I gotta land." And they make an emergency landing.

Scene cut

The gunships eventually stop firing and start to fly away with orders to be ready to be deployed again if necessary.

Scene Cut

By Vought tower if one were to take a picture of the area it would look reminiscent of the ruins of cities like Stalingrad, Caen, Aachen, and so forth from the Second World War. When the bombardment stops the Seven members that aren't Homelander don't move. They wait and look around as they slowly get up with ringing in their ears, not believing they survived that. At least with their sanity.

A short distance Homelander is rising up with some pain. Like a sore body after one had just finished working out for the first time in a long time. His costume was dirtied and torn up even more than just moments ago. And he wasn't even the main target.

Vilgax, who had his arms crossed and kneeled down, was breathing heavy since he was the main target of the missiles and large caliber explosive rounds. But he could still stand and fight.

Choppers were then heard arriving as the touched down to drop men on the ground before flying up again. More men soon joined in on armored vehicles with 50 caliber machine guns mounted on. All were masked and with the "G3" insignia, they all had their weapons trained on Vilgax.

There was one man worthy of note. A white hair main wearing a black suit, goggles with red lenses, a black suit with a bit of red, with a large matching hat jumps out of a helicopter and lands in the middle of the soldiers circling Vilgax. And before the Alien could make a snide remark about humans being weak the man says. "Take him." In a calm voice and immediately every soldier fires their rifle, machine gun, rocket launcher, grenade launcher at him.

Vilgax initially takes the hits with ease but soon starts to feel drowsy as he see's bullets aren't being fired at him. Red bullet shaped capsules were that were breaking to release a gas that was used against Kevin during his fight with Diamondhead and the other Vought heroes. Separately they would do much with this concentration of firepower combine with the earlier fighting, Vilgax was slowly being worn down.

As Vilgax kneeled, but struggled to stay up the man pressed his finger to his right ear and said. "Give it everything you got!" And the helicopters fired their missiles, which were filled with the gas. "Pour it on." He added. And more red gas filled bullets, grenades, missiles and rockets were being fired even after Vilgax fell.

As he fell the firing stopped. "I didn't order a cease fire." The man says, once again pressing his ear piece. And once again the firing resumes and after another 30 seconds he orders. "Cease fire." And they stop.

Soon four more helicopters show up overhead and lines drop from them along with some soldiers who begin hooking up Vilgax.

Homelander see's this and is about to go, but the mysterious man steps in front of him, with some soldiers on his flanks. "It's ok we can take him." Homelander says, pretending to be polite.

"I'm afraid you're out of your jurisdiction." The man simply says with his hands in his trend trench coat pockets. "This is now a military matter. And last I checked (slight dramatic pause with a closeup of his face) you aren't military." He reminds.

"Who the fuck are you?" Homelander demands to know, his eyes glowing red.

Immediately the soldiers point their weapons at Homelander. And the others point their weapons at the other Seven members who stand with their hands up with various reactions.

"Someone with higher authority than you." The man answers.

"This is my city." Homelander says as his eyes return to normal. "I'm the hero, not you."

"By all means go ahead and be it. But we're still taking the Alien." The man says, before adding. "And unless you're our superior, you can't order us to do otherwise."

"Who is your superior?" Homelander demands to know.

"That's classified. But yours isn't." The man says as he pulls out a phone that's already speed dialing someone. "Edgar, tell your people to stand down or else-." He threatens.

"He's right." Stan voice comes. "I just spoke with the Governor, he has orders from the President that we no longer have a say in this matter." The man then hangs up.

"We'll be taking our prisoner now." The man tells him. "And unless you want to violate both National and International law I suggest you stay here." Pause. "But in my personal opinion I hope you try and stop us. Gives me a reason to shoot you down and I'd love nothing more than to do that."

Homelander keeps his mouth closed as he grits his teeth and his breaths through his nose like a bull ready to charge. "Now listen here-" Homelander begins to say as he points a finger at the man and steps forward.

But the man quickly pulls out a large tube looking pistol and fired a single shot. Firing a grenade of red gas that just knocked Vilgax out, only this was more concentrated. Backing up the man saw Homelander get dizzy. "NOW!" He ordered and several of the soldiers dropped silver sphere's that soon expanded, delivering both constant flash and sound wave in a certain frequency only Supes could hear. This let out an ear piercing sound like that of a dog whistle.

This went for several moments until the flash died down and the sound stopped. Then the spheres exploded. As soon as they got their vision back the Seven members looked and saw the Helicopters were carrying Vilgax far away already and the armored vehicles were already leaving. And that man was nowhere to be seen.

Homelander growled at this, but instead of flying after Vilgax and possibly start a war with governmental agency, one nobody even knew of before, he went towards Deep. "Please tell me we still have Shifter." He demands.

The Deep wipes his nose of remnant blood. "Yeah I got him trapped on the robotics lab a couple of floors up." He answers with confidence. "No way he got out."

Scene cut

"A cup." Homelander says as he looks at the table where a glass cup lay on it's side. "He was strong enough to fight all of us. and you thought you could trap him with a FUCKING cup." He says mad that the thorn in their side months was able to escape.

"I... put a book ontop of it." Deep says, hoping that adds more to his case. It does not.

"What's this?" Queen Maeve asks as she see's a folded piece of paper. "It's from the kid."

"What's it say?" A-Train asks.

"'Ha ha I escaped. Like I told you I would a bunch of times.'" Maeve reads and rolls her eyes. "Of course he's floating." Then resumes her reading. "'Next time you trap a tiny person in a cup make sure there's nothing they can use as lever. Like a wire attached to a heavy piece of machinery.'" They look to see a long red wire that was attached to some electrical equipment, so all Grey Matter had to do was pull and the wire acted as fulcrum lighting the cup to an angle so the weight on top slid off and he was able to just lift it up. "'PS to fish sticks. There was a setting on the helmet where you wouldn't have felt any pain, next time let the smart people finish you Dweeb.'" She concludes as Deep smacks himself in the face.

"But how did he get out?" Starlight asks.

"There's more." Maeve says and reads. "'P P S (ha ha) I got out through the vents, thanks for having those.'"

They look around to find any vents and find a small open one. Not nearly big enough for a person, but roomy for someone of Grey Matter's size.

Scene cut

Grey Matter exited the vents during the last moments of the fight, when mysterious military or government soldiers came in. Then as Homelander and the others were heading up to the elevator Grey Matter walked out. And once he was out of sight of any Vought supes, Police or anyone he transformed back.

Rubbing his back he groaned. "Finally." He said relieved to have escape though he is disappointed that Kevin escaped, he knows that Vilgax was taken by the CIA or whomever. "Now I just need to hide out for a bit." He says to himself as he starts walking... in a direction.

Shady Motel

All the boys and girls were crowded in a two person room of a somewhat clean but still shady motel that criminals and low lives use. They booked four separate ones with fakes names just in case, and they paid cash for each. Two were entirely separate, but they paid for another two that were next to each other and made a hole to connect them. In the other room Monique and Janine were sleeping with Wraith guarding them.

They had just finished watching a news recap of what happened near the tower, but it still left more questions than answers. Especially after those weird G3 people popped up.

"Think Ben got away?" Elena asks worried since they have yet to hear about him after Vilgax took down Four Arms.

"I'm sure he's fine." Hughie says, though he was unsure.

"One thing is for sure nobody from Vought made that helmet for Deep." Mother's Milk points out. "So even after Four Arms was knocked out Ben must've gone Grey Matter or Upgrade to make that." He concludes.

Knock knock

Knock knock knock

Knock

A certain pattern of knocks alerted drew their attention, despite knowing that it was what they should expect they still tensed. Kimiko got in front of Elena ready to attack any threat that came. MM and Frenchie pulled out their guns and gestured for Hughie go open the door. And as he took slow tentative steps to it a slightly muffled British voice spoke up. "Can one of you cunts just open the fucking door already."Hughie then opened it up to reveal Butcher.

Flashback

After breaking out of the CIA blacksite prison Kevin used his speed and flight to get them to a secluded part of the city. It was an old warehouse that was used by Homeless people to shelter in or drug dealers to meet people up for deals. "So where's Tennyson?" Kevin asked.

"Up bup bup. Remember you gotta take care of that cunt Homelander first, then I tell you." Butcher reminds him with a wag of his finger.

"Fine!" Kevin relents aggressively. "Where is that chump anyway?"

"Vought tower." Butcher answers as he pulls up a picture on his phone and shows him. "Shouldn't be to hard."

"No problem." Kevin says with a smile, thinking it was gonna be easy. He then runs off towards Vought Tower.

Flashback over

"And that's what happened." Butcher finished explaining what he did. Resulting in the dumbfounded expressions of the team.

"Sacré bleu!" Frenchie gasped in shock.

"You did what?" Hughie asked speaking.

"You fucking messed up Butcher." MM states.

"What I got Benji out didn't I." Butcher defends himself, but before they could continue another set of knocks interrupts them.

"Hey guys it's me Ben." The voice said.

Immediately Butcher goes to open the door, revealing a smiling Ben. "Sup." He greeted with a peace sign then walks in. "Sorry I took a while to get here, but I had to wait for the watch to recharge, then use a car computer to find you guys. PS if cops show up it's cause I took some dudes Fairy."

"Fairy?" Hughie questions.

"Yeah the Italian one with a horse." Ben clarifies, meaning he stole a Ferrari to get here.

Butcher just chuckles and says. "You got out."

Ben groans as he rubs his neck. "Barely." Recalling that he had to break free from projector, fight Homelander, then Homelander and Kevin for a bit, then just Kevin, then Vilgax. "How did Kevin even get out, wasn't Raynor holding him somewhere."

They just shared a knowing look with each other. "What?" Ben asked.

"Butcher you either tell him or I will." Mother's Milk says.

"Tell me what?" Ben says a bit worried about what it was.

The Brit takes a deep breath before saying. "I let him out." Almost slightly ashamed.

Ben's eyes widen in shock. "What! Why would you do that!?" He exclaims.

"It was to get you outta Vought's fucking castle full of Vought cunts." He responds before adding. "And it worked didn't it?"

"No!" Ben tells him. "I got out on my own. I was fighting Homelander before even Kevin showed up, then I had to fight both them, then Vilgax came in." He informs. "Three of the worst bad guys I've ever had to fight and I had to fight them back to back. And what's worse Kevin's on the loose again and who knows where he's gonna go and what he's gonna do!"

Butcher scoffs before saying. "Well it's too late to change things now. Besides you beat 'em once you'll do it again." He dismisses as if it were no big deal, except it was.

"But who knows how many people he could hurt." Ben suggests. "Not to mention how many people he could've hurt when you opened his jail cell." He points out.

"Nobody died-" Butcher tried to say, but was interrupted.

"Maybe this time, but who knows about next time, someone could really get hurt or killed." Ben cuts him off.

"Oh just FUCK off!" Ben exclaims in frustration. "Believe you me a whole lot worse was happening long before you showed up, and even if you were there it still would've happened." He begins. "With supes it's all fucked up, even with the good ones. FUCK em all, a bunch of them deserved to pounded in the Fucking ground and hacked into pieces with a chainsaw!" He rants.

Ben then recalls what Homelander showed him at the tower with Projector. "Did you kill Translucent?" He asks after a bit of silence.

The others looked at each other before looking at Hughie, the one who did the deed. Except for the girls who were unaware about that part. But no one says anything.

"Did you?" Ben questions again.

Before Hughie could say anything Butcher speaks up. "I did." Taking the fall.

Ben then looks at Butcher, a look that can only be compared to when a child is told Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are fictional. Or when a parent is disappointed in their child. "Why! We're the good guys. We don't do that!" The young hero exclaims with emotion.

"Well news flash kid this is the real world." Butcher responds with anger. "This ain't a isn't a fucking cartoon, or comic book, or some Disney shit." He lists. "This is real life and it's a fucking mess on a good day and sometimes you gotta be as messy clean it up! And anything to do with Supes is usually the case."

For several moments there's just silence.

"Not like that." Ben says in a low tone, and starts to turn away. "And not me." He adds before beginning to walk out.

"Where you going?" Butcher asks.

"Away from you." Ben says not even turning back. Elena quickly gets her backpack and runs to catch up.

As she gets out she turns back and says. "I joined you guys because I thought you were better than Vought." She simply says before going to Ben.

Kimiko then goes to join her sticking a middle finger at Butcher and Frenchie before leaving. "Should we stop them?" Frenchie asks.

"How?" Hughie asks, two out of three of them have powers and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

"You really fucked up now Butcher." MM says as he pulls out a burner phone.

"Calling Raynor?" Butcher asks with a sigh, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, I gotta get my family outta here and somewhere safe." He responds.

"Might wanna wait till morning it'll give her time to cool off." Butcher says with a sign, hoping to avoid mentioning how he found Kevin's cell.

Mother's Milk stops dialing and asks. "Why?" Turning his head back to Butcher.

Scene Cut

Raynor's family sat still as the bomb and explosive experts defused the devices beneath their seats. One saving Grace was that the one's under the children's table didn't even have a detonator. So one could hit with a hammer it and wouldn't explode. But Raynor's and her husband's lethal.

Scene Cut back to the Boys

Butcher just finished explaining what he did to Raynor and her family to find out where Kevin was held up. "So you wanna hit me again?" Butcher says, spreading his arms open as if accepting his fate.

"Believe me." MM says after a moment of silence. "Raynor is gonna do worse than me." Then goes to be with his family.

Silence follows until Frenchie says. "We are so fucking screwed."

With Ben, Elena and Kimiko

The three were walking the darkened streets of New York City with no clear direction. The hideout was found out by Vought, Ben's identity was ousted so they couldn't go back to his place and couldn't just go to hotel or motel. Photo's were blasted all over the internet and social media with Ben as Shifter, Elena as a missing child and Kimiko as a terrorist. And Chip was gone so they couldn't just hack into a random house or hotel room.

"I don't suppose you know someone that can help us?" Ben asks.

"Sorry only people I know work at Vought or we just left." Elena responds. "Only nice person was Anika and my mom used to have her babysit me." She answers.

"Crime Analytics?" Ben asks.

"How did you know?" Elena says, raising an eyebrow.

"Know where she lives?" Ben then asks having an idea.

"A couple miles away from Vought tower. Think she'll help us?" Elena said, not sure if it was a good idea.

"Let's find out." Ben says. "Walking or flying?" He asks offering a faster mode of transportation.

Scene Cut

In a condominium a couple miles away from Vought Anika was eating a pint of cookie dough ice cream and watching a rerun of Friends to distract herself from... the whole freaking day. All she wanted was not hear about Shifter for at least a few hours. She then heard a few knocks on her door and discarding the blanket she had on she went to the door. Opening it she saw the last thing she wanted to see today.

"Hello again?" Ben says with an awkward smile and wave.

"You again!" Anika exclaims in surprise then notices the other two. "Elena!?"

"Heeeeey." Elena awkwardly greets. "Remember when you said I could stay here any time I was having trouble?"

"I said that when you were like six and I was just starting out at Vought." Anika reminds her.

"Does that mean we can stay for a bit?" Ben asked. He could threaten her to let them stay, but that's not ethical.

Anika looked at the two vets who had pleading eyes then to Kimiko, who was glaring daggers at her as if threatening her. Gulping she steps aside and says. "Come in." And they do and Kimiko's expression softens as she passes by her, from glaring death stare to thankful.

"This is my life now." Anika sighs, having interacted with Stillwell, Homelander, Edgar and now Shifter.

Vought

Stillwell was in her office with Ashley as they went over the ratings of the Seven. FINALLY they had a good day. It may cost them tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars to repair the damaged parts of the tower, Vought private and public property as well as other expenses all points of the Seven shot up. Turns out a real life alien attacking was good for their business.

Fans were especially happy that all the members of the Seven were involved in the fighting, rather than just one or two. Deep was gaining special attention for his involvement, harming himself to give them other members a good opening was giving him status almost next to a martyr. A-Train too for how he repeatedly saved his teammates. Starlight, Black Noir and Maeve for their brilliant hits. And of course Homelander for his blows, while he was still ahead of everyone his numbers weren't that far from the others.

Scene cut

Stan Edgar was in his office having called construction company, one that's been in business since making suburban housing back in the 50's. They would begin immediately, coming in the morning to repair the damages to the tower and such. Thankfully the main structure was still intact, despite a few large holes in the walls.

Stan then turns to a photo on his desk, with his late wife and young daughter. Taking his phone he called his daughter, it went to voicemail as expected but he still decided to speak. "Rachel it's me your father... I know you don't like me calling you but I just wanted you to know I'm fine and I wasn't hurt... I love you and I hope to see you soon." Hangs up and sighs.

(I know he adopts Victoria, formerly Nadia, and he still does)

Edgar then takes out a letter he hadn't had time to read today. Opening it he quickly skims it and sighs again before burning it and dropping it in the trash. Then decided to go home. However he was a little haphazard in doing this and a portion of it fell to the ground that stopped burning.

Short while later

Madelyn Stilwell walks into his office discreetly. Thanks to all the damage the tower was running on backup power, so security systems weren't fully functioning. Including Edgar's.

She starts to go through things to find... something on him so she could keep her job. Or at least not make him push Homelander so much that he does something even more horrible than taking down an airplane of people.

Opening the drawers she finds... nothing. Well nothing incriminating. His computer is completely locked and password protected, even more so than the other board members. Plus someone that smart wouldn't leave anything incriminating on his work computer. Letting out a sound of frustration she noticed something by the garbage. Ashes of the letters he was always getting. She tried finding out how he kept getting them, she's checked with the mail and found that despite all the letters he get, NONE go through Vought costumes. And he always burns them entirely, turning it all to ash.

Except this time she might possibly have something. A piece managed to stay in tact and didn't fully burn. Picking it up she see's that it was a downward strip from the left side. Firs she reads the word "Dear", then below it is the word "Don't" then below that "plan" followed by "young" and "uni-" which was followed up by "almost" and last was almost two words "my frie-". Looking at the trash she takes the bag of ashes, which fortunately was the only thing inside and walks out with it.

It was a Hail Mary, but it was her only chance to keep her job and possibly even oust Edgar.

Secret Base underground in an unknown location

The commander of the "G3" soldiers watched as a comatose Vilgax was lowered into a clear tank of very very VERY VERY reinforced glass that was filled constantly with the special red knockout gas. "Commander Solomon sir the magister is requesting an update." One of the masked soldiers said bringing up a tablet for a video call, though no picture of the "Magister" was seen.

"Magister." The man now identified as Solomon greets with a salute. "We've recovered the alien and placed him in the tank in the facility, if you desire we'll start running tests immediately." He says with respect for his superior's authority.

"No." A man's distorted voice comes out. "Focus your efforts on strengthening our defenses and concealing the compounds location. Now that the public knows about us it may just be a matter of time before someone discovers it." He orders.

"Very well Magister." Solomon obeys. "Though with your permission might I suggest we bring confront Shifter? He give us clues as to why these things are here, perhaps even answers." He suggests.

"Your thinking is reasonable, but no Solomon." The 'Magister' denies. "Our secrecy is more important than ever now. We no longer have the element of surprise, at least to the previous degree. For now send a team to these coordinates, I have received intel that we may soon have new enemies to worry about.""I'll send a squad with air support." Solomon replies with a nod.

"Surveillance ONLY." The voice adds. "Under no uncertain terms are they to engage unless absolutely vital." Pause. "I do NOT want a repeat of Nicaragua." He sternly demands

"Of course, understood sir." Solomon salutes.

With that the call ends.

Outside the city

At an estate in the forest a woman was rewatching the battle involving Kevin, Ben, Vilgax and the Seven near Vought. She had a neutral expression that almost no person, if anyone, could read. As the screen shifted to the "G3" soldiers she commented to herself. "So you're still kicking you old bastard." Then turns off the tv.

With Kevin

Kevin was outside the city and he was holding a case with him. Opening it one would find vials of blue liquid, more commonly known by the higher ups of Vought as Compound V. Picking up one he smiled.

Flashback

After delivering a quadruple uppercut on Kevin the mutated eleven year old was sent flying to one of upper floors of Vought. After a brief recovery Kevin found himself in some sort of Chemistry lab, with a scared doctor in a corner. "What is this place?" Kevin asks.

He then looks around and thanks to his Grey Matter smart he could figure out he was making something powerful. Just not what. "What is this stuff?!" He asks the scared chemist.

"Compound V." The scared doctor says.

"And what is that?!" Kevin demands to know, forming a blade with his hand. And after the beans were spilled Kevin took a case full of it and thanks to all the fight snuck out of the city unnoticed.

Flashback Over

Opening up one vial Kevin drank it quickly, hoping to get a power or ability to beat Ben once and for all. And after a few suspenseful moments... nothing happened. Kevin looked over himself and growled before he started feeling funny.

He soon began stumbling about, hitting tree's, bushes, rocks and anything else. Grunting in pain he fell to the ground and as the moon shined his Shadow began morphing into something else.

FINALLY. Sorry that took soooooo long. But I hope this was worth it. It would've been done sooner but a couple time my draft wasn't saved properly so that delayed me. Not only is this chapter super long and OC it had A LOT of stuff going on. I hope I made it all fit properly and that you enjoyed it especially the fight scenes. Though some of my personal favorite moments are not even the fight scenes. Like that baloney part, I took that from an episode of Reba, that's how funny I thought it was.

Make sure to thank my co-writer who has been the biggest help. Star Saber21 is their name and great lines and ideas are their game.

I have seen Gen V and I do plan to maybe hint it in the story and do one later. Either that's connected to this on or Ben lands in near Godolkin the story goes from there.Or both. We'll see.

PS I don't know when my next update is gonna be but it's also gonna be OC so maybe a while.

Take care.