Author's Note; this is why we took a break. Special thanks to Tricia and Anarchy for their efforts on this.
Ben took a deep breath as he prepared his shot. The fate of everything relied on this next move; should he miss, everything he had ever worked for would end in flames. Should he hit it? Well, he could maybe salvage what was left and turn around with quite the upset. His hands tightened around his weapon-
"Take the shot," Ruby whispered, sounding rather confident. "If you're brave enough."
Ben lightly tapped his golf ball into the hole. "HA! Looks like I made par!"
"Oh, shut up!" Ruby frowned, a meter away from him. "I'll hit this ball into your stupid face hole, Tennyson!"
San Francisco was a beautiful city, with tall, colorful buildings and millions of fun activities to get done, but nothing compared to the piers. While Max had gone to the market to pick up something for that evening's dinner, Ben and Ruby decided to take it slow, just having some fun with the smaller activities before working their way up to the big stuff.
"Looks like we're tied," Ben said, filling out the score card. "And that's boring. Wanna make it interesting?"
"Oh, you know I do," Ruby said with a smirk, pulling Crescent Rose from out of nowhere. She set her ball down and shot at it, watched it ricochet off a few things...and then perfectly drop into the hole. Ben's jaw dropped.
"Beat that," Ruby said all smug-like.
"I meant lowering the par for each hole by one, but I like your style." Ben smirked, activating the Omnitrix. He twisted the dial to Diamondhead's icon and slapped it down. In an instant his body was covered in crystals, and soon the aforementioned alien stood where Ben stood.
"Check this out!" Ben bragged, shifting his hand into a golf club. He whacked the ball, and then formed some crystals to create a ramp that led the ball directly to the hole. "And that's what I call a hole on one!"
"Show off."
"Says the girl with the giant scythe."
"You really wanna call me out, chandelier face? That was less of an insult and more of a compliment."
"Chandelier face? Oh, you're FUNNY."
They were about to argue some more, but the rumbling and screams coming from the pier cut them off.
"I think that's our cue." Ruby said as she began to run.
Diamondhead nodded. "I totally won that argument, by the way!"
A few minutes before...
Max was just strolling through the marketplace, taking in the scent of salty air and listening to the waves crashing against the nearby rocks. He avoided the normal stands, immediately heading to the more exotic side of the bazaar. It was more expensive, but hey, it tasted good. (Though the kids had different ideas, they were so picky.) It was a good place to just wander around and take in the sites that few tourists got to see. Nothing could ruin his day. Especially with the surprise that was coming when the kids came back…
So, of course, that was when his day got a lot more complicated.
It was by chance that he saw Kevin, skulking through the crowd. He looked rougher than the last time, more confident too. He was also sporting a new outfit, either stolen or bought for cheap from thrift stores (if he was the runaway Max suspected him to be). He wore a dark gray short-sleeved hoodie, a black long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and black and white sneakers. Kevin didn't seem to notice Max, or maybe he did and was just playing dumb, hoping that the old man hadn't noticed him.
Max slowly walked through the crowd, keeping a close eye on him. Kevin really wasn't doing much. He probably was just admiring the city. Max wanted to know how he got out of New York, but perhaps he should let the kid do his own thing. Kevin looked happier than he did last month.
And then he approached a fruit stand.
"Hey, how fresh are these?" Kevin asked as he held up a ripe apple. It was a cheery red, big and perfect for eating.
The seller perked up. "Oh, they're straight from the orchard! Picked them yesterday. Takes time to grow these things, you know," he bragged.
"I see," Kevin smirked. And then he took a bite out of it.
"Y-young man, that wasn't a free sample," The man stammered. "You need to pay for it."
"Nah. I'm good." Kevin grinned.
"...d-do you not understand the concept of money?" The man asked. "And how much I need it?"
"Well, do you not realize who you're talking to?"
"...no?"
Kevin chuckled. "You know all those alien attacks you see in the news nowadays?"
Alien attacks? Max thought, cold dread pricking up his spine.
"Well, guess who's behind all of them?" Kevin began to transform into a familiar humanoid-insect alien- with some shark-like characteristics as well. On either side of his horn was a short antenna with a spherical tip. Kevin's forearms had a pair of spikes near the wrists, while its thighs had a single spike on both. It had two claws on each hand, and a single long claw on each foot. However, unlike Ben's form, it was bipedal, something Max thought unnatural.
The standowner fell unto the ground, mouth open in horror. Kevin glared at the man and, from deep in his throat, growled menacingly. The standowner quickly crawled out of the way, finding his legs and running away as fast as he could. Kevin laughed as he began to devour the stand with relative ease, humming as he relished the taste of freshly picked produce.
Max gulped silently and tried to merge with the diminishing crowd of people- not many had seen Kevin transform, but they all saw the alien devouring a fruit stand, and many were running as fast as possible. Max turned and began to run-
"You can show your face, old man," Kevin said, turning around. His voice echoed throughout the empty bazaar.
"And I'm pretty damn shocked you can show yours around here." Max said, putting down his groceries. "Thought you'd be out for a while considering what Ben did to you."
"Oh, come on! That was nothing," Kevin joked, shoving more produce into his mouth. Was it him, or was Kevin's Eatle growing in size? That wasn't something Ben's version could do. Then again, Ben's Spidermonkey wasn't a weird monster with spider legs coming out from its skull. "Besides, if you're around, that means that brat is too."
"Sorry, but I don't think we have time for a play date, kid." Max reached into his pocket and pulled out a blaster. Kevin's eyes widened and he backed up a bit.
"Ok, did not expect this."
"I'm not some old fuddy duddy, you know." Max smirked.
"And I'm not some pushover either!" Kevin shouted before he opened up his massive jaw. Max could see his enormous mouth filled with sharp teeth and a pair of tongues. It was like a lamprey, Max thought. But what could he really accomplish with his mouth? There really wasn't anything to eat.
And that's when Kevin started to spit out his teeth, each point as thin and deadly as a knife's blade. Max gasped as he rolled away from the mutated Eatle. And then he started running as Kevin rushed towards him. He fired his laser gun a few times, the blue energy only just missing Kevin. For such a huge guy, Kevin really got around, bulldozing everything in his path. There was no way Max could take this guy on his own.
"Hey, ugly!" Diamondhead's deep voice taunted. "Look over here!"
Kevin's head swerved to see Ben and Ruby glaring down at him. Kevin could barely react; shards of crystals and bullets began hitting his body, throwing him off guard. Kevin charged at them, knocking Ruby into a stand and ramming Ben with his massive horn, right into the side of a truck. Ben's spikes dug into the metal, sticking him in place.
"Gotta admit," Kevin chuckled. "Having your powers have been the biggest rush of my life."
"My powers? Who the heck...are…" Ben's heart sank as he realized who it was. He tried pulling himself out of the truck only to fail. Kevin laughed at him, his mouth curled into a sneer.
"That's right, hero. I'm back for round two. Let's see how much you like being on the other side of the coin." Kevin grimaced as he changed forms. His larger body shrunk down to become Echo Echo, although he looked way too different. He had grey metal skin, fifteen removable speaker-like components attached to his body, a more rounded design, and longer arms and legs. There was also the severe lack of eyes, which was just plain freaky.
Clones split from Kevin's body as they quietly assembled around Ben.
"I've been waiting for this moment for a long time," One of the clones taunted.
"Too bad I can't see your face under torture," another sighed wistfully. Ben struggled against the metal, but his spikes were dug deep into the truck.
"MERCILESS ONSLAUGHT!" The clones all cried, as deep sounding waves reverberated out of their throats. It felt less like sound waves and more like an earthquake hitting his crystalline body. He could feel immense pain coarse through his rough skin, his eardrums nearly bursting. Max actually fainted, face screwed up in pain with his hands clamped over his ears. The ground rumbled as the clones moved closer and closer-
Bang. A gunshot pierced Kevin's head- or at least, one of them. He vanished into thin air. The clones all stopped their screeching as they turned to the direction of the gunshot. Ruby stood there, Crescent Rose in hand and a smug smile on her lips.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I interrupting something?"
"What the fuck," One of the clones stated.
"I'm not sure why we're surprised anymore," another said while shaking its head.
"Giving away her location was a dumb move though," A random clone added.
Ben groaned as his body slowly reformed. "Not used to being on the other side of that move…"
Ruby rushed forward and slammed her scythe into the torso of one of the clones, swinging around to kick another in the face. Their blindness was hindering their ability to truly fight back. Ruby grinned as she jammed her blade into another clone-
And was greeted with the worst sound she'd ever heard. She felt sick just hearing the horrible ringing sound at full volume, bile creeping up her throat. But she was stubborn enough to resist fainting, cutting the clone down the middle, blessed silence hitting her ears. Ruby breathed heavily, ears hurting and balance thrown off. She was vulnerable right now, hands shaking and face gray. She didn't look as badass as she had been the last few weeks; instead, she looked like a weak and sickly little girl, holding a weapon she was too frail to wield.
Ben and Ruby were then blasted by a stream of water into another wall, soaking and further disorienting them. It was briny, mucky, and cold, and just over all unexpected and gross. Ben already knew what alien Kevin had turned into, and he glared at the opposing villain. Kevin's robotic form had changed; grey armor surrounded him. His hands became claws as holes started to form down his arms. His feet became long and pointy, as holes begin to appear up his leg. Two large water cannons appeared out of his back. The large hood covering his face opened up, and a crablike face was revealed.
"So, I'm guessing you don't call this one Water Hazard," Ben said with a frown. The mutated alien nodded.
"I prefer Dead Sea, if anything. Waterboard was almost a name, but I think Dead Sea is more menacing." Kevin smiled, or at least tried to. You couldn't really emote with that alien.
"Both are lame." Ruby frowned petulantly. "You're lame, actually."
Kevin turned to her. "Like I care about the opinion of some wannabe goth chick who desperately wants to be seen as edgy."
"I will fucking cut you."
"And I'll just cut you back!" Kevin threatened, right before he was knocked back into a truck by a blast of pink energy.
Ben blinked. "Ok, what just happened?"
"Might wanna ask her!" Ruby pointed to a strange woman that was casually floating in the air, her palm outstretched.
She was witch-like, with wild pink energy hair, glowing pink eyes, and light lavender skin. The woman was dressed in a black dress, the bottom rippling with lavender waves, a matching belt at her waist. She had a glittery shroud over her shoulders with a purple and black collar, and a round-cut amethyst attached to her chest. Ben swore she looked familiar, but couldn't really place why.
She didn't say anything. She just pointed her finger at Dead Sea and fired a small but powerful blast of energy. Kevin was sent flying into the air and smacked right into the ocean, his body plunging beneath the waves. The woman blew smoke off her finger before she descended to the ground. Her purple skin turned back into Caucasian white, and her hair back to gray, the locks shorter and in a more matronly style. Ben's eyes widened as he realized who just saved him.
"Grandma?"
Ruby blinked. "What."
"Hello, sweetie." Verdona smiled, helping Ben to his feet. "Long time no see."
Ben's mouth was agape. "...di...did you just…"
Verdona laughed as she ruffled his hair. "Good to see you, kiddo. Shame I couldn't join you and your Grandpa. You know how work is."
"Well, I just thought you traveled a lot," Ben shrugged. "Just...not the plumber way."
"Can we focus on the fact you just BLASTED ENERGY FROM YOUR HANDS?" Ruby asked loudly, jumping to her feet.
"Don't even question it, kid," a voice sighed. Ruby turned to see that weird lady from the camp. To reiterate, she was a tall brunette who usually wore black rimmed glasses, but now they were replaced by clear goggles. She wore brown lipstick set against her pretty, round, pale face, and her forest green eyes were complimented by somewhat thick, dark brown eyebrows. She wore a black and green duster with a black shirt underneath, dark-washed jeans and black boots. Under her arm was a blue book with golden sun, moon, and star imagery on it.
"Hey, you're that weird lady from last week!" Ben said, pointing at her.
"W-weird?" Anna looked hurt by that comment.
"What are you even doing here?"
Suddenly, a horrific looking Astrodactyl burst from out of the water, and screeched so loudly it rippled the waves beneath it. Ben covered his ears, his eardrums still sensitive from earlier.
"Yeah, he's what we're here about." Anna smirked.
It flew towards Ben at top speeds, its arms glowing a menacing red. Paper suddenly shot out from behind Anna, a thin white shield blocking them from view. Kevin shot at the barrier, smoke erupting upon impact-
Only to see a barely scorched paper wall.
"Ok, how strong is that paper?" Ben asked disbelievingly.
Good question, Kevin thought, flying around Anna. He carefully studied her movements.
Anna kept a critical eye on the alien, her green eyes sharp behind her goggles. Her duster flickered around her feet, colorful note paper circling her like a protection spell. And then, with barely a flick of her hand, thirty paper airplanes shot at Aerosmith. Kevin knew it'd be pointless to even stop them, but he could maybe use them to his advantage. He flew off, using his stronger jet pack to propel himself even faster than the paper airplanes, and zoomed toward Ben and Ruby. "If I can't destroy them, then you can't either!"
Anna raised an eyebrow. "Wow. How original."
And the paper airplanes splintered apart, fluttering uselessly in the air...
Before attacking Kevin's face. Kevin screeched, clearly overpowered. Adults were bad news, but the kids were easy to overpower. Maybe he could use that to his advantage-
"I think the fuck not, you trick ass bitch!" Anna yelled out, paper collecting underneath her and shooting her into the air. Paper flew around her like an angry blizzard. Kevin kept on hurling star energy from his hands, but each hit a paper wall. And for every star blast, he had to dodge thirty pages of knife-like paper, each sheet slicing through the air with a loud whistling sound.
"Ok, yeah! I'm out!" Kevin shouted, noping out of the situation. His jet pack lit up, and he blasted off at the speed of light.
Anna frowned as she lowered herself to the ground. Ruby stood there, her mouth agape.
"Can we trade powers?"
Anna dropped down onto the pier, papers disappearing into her duster. "Fuck no, I worked hard to get where I am. I'm not trading all that for some oversized gardening tool."
"What is with everyone dissing my Crescent Rose?!" Ruby snapped, throwing up her hands.
Max's cooking wasn't really a 'victory meal' Ben or Ruby would normally like, but Verdona was enjoying it. "Foreign cuisine is good, but it can't beat your cooking, sweetie," Verdona gushed as she kissed Max on the cheek. Ben pretended to gag as Ruby awkwardly moved her food around. Anna just ignored her meal and just wrote something down in her book.
"So, uh," Ben asked hesitantly, "what do you want with Kevin?"
"We're going to take him in," Anna said, eyes flickering from her journal. "His osmosian powers are too dangerous."
"And I'm already lost," Ben sighed wearily.
"Kevin and I are what you would call Osmosians," Verdona explained, carefully stirring her tea with her spoon. "Osmosians are humans with supernatural abilities, possessing anything you can see in comic books or graphic novels. It's incredible, really. For example!" Verdona opened the palm of her hand, revealing a small, glowing, purple orb. "My power involves manipulation of photons."
Anna nodded. "And you've already seen mine in action."
"Alright, that's easy to follow," Ben noted. "So, is Ruby an Osmosian?"
"Well, no." Ruby explained, "Semblances are kind of reflections of the soul. I wasn't born with it naturally, I had to unlock it somehow."
"Hm." Anna tapped her pen against her journal. "A good thing, really. There'd be problems if you were an Osmosian."
"What do you mean?" Ruby tilted her head quizzically.
Verdona's smile faded. "You see, at a young age, Osmosians have some behavioral disorders. Could be oppositional defiance, antisocial behavior, anxiety...they could easily be confused with any other human with it."
"The problem is their powers," Max added. "There's a high chance their situation could get worse should they leave it be. Early treatment is incredibly important."
"So, you're not here to capture Kevin, rather convince him?"
"His choices, his life," Verdona said solemnly. "His crimes have all been just for intervening in police operations, such as 'helping' them bust down a drug ring."
"The stuff I won't do," Ben said with a frown.
"He's trying to prove he's worthy of his power," Verdona said gently. "By doing the jobs you won't do, he feels like he's more deserving of the Omnitrix. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with what he's doing, but he's untrained and we're very concerned about his mental state."
Ben took a deep breath, and sighed. "Alright. I'll try my best to talk to him. Probably gonna involve some property damage, though."
Verdona chuckled. "As expected."
Ruby started to tug on Ben's arm. "Hey. Might wanna take a look at this." She pointed to the window, and Ben gasped. Some cable car had been going out of control, but not on its own volition. Something had ensnared it in red lines and black oil and was making it run way too fast.
"Boy must of gone Upgrade," Max growled, looking out the window.
Ben burst out of the RV. "Anything he can Upgrade, I can Upgrade better!" He grinned as he slapped down the faceplate. Ben slowly transformed into a crimson red bipedal, arthropod-like alien. A domed carapace formed on his head and back, his hands became large and clawed, and a section of exoskeleton formed around his body. Ben frowned as he slowly realized that this wasn't the right alien.
"Water Hazard?" Ben frowned. "Great. What am I gonna do, wash the dumb thing?"
Anna unlatched the window so he could hear her. "Improvise, kiddo," she said, sipping her tea.
"How?"
"I dunno. You're a walking isopod, and he's an overgrown circuit board. I'm pretty sure you'll short him out."
Ben huffed as one of his arms shot high pressure water right next to his feet, nearly lifting him into the air. He nearly lost balance but quickly regained footing. "This...this can work."
"Good. Now go kill," Anna said apathetically.
Ben started to propel himself down the road with his water blasters. As he came closer to the cable car, Ben tilted his streams of water upwards ever so slightly, and hopped onto the cable car. Upon closer inspection he realized something...Kevin had only taken over the front part of the cable car; his body wasn't stretchy enough to fit all over it, Ben assumed as he got inside. People screamed as he entered, and he assumed it was because he was a giant isopod alien. Or rather, it was the way Kevin was treating someone.
"Be honest with me. Be honest with everyone on this goddamn ride," he hissed. The form had a red circuitry board pattern that extended from his body, and a series of spikes that ran down his back. A single, whole red dot on the front of his head was his eye. His voice didn't sound like his own, to be honest, more like a sinister, well spoken villain.
"W-WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON HERE? WHO ARE YOU?" The man was being held against a wall by Kevin's sharp claws.
"Let him go, Kevin," Ben ordered, walking forward. Kevin's head turned ever so slightly.
"I don't think you get what the situation is, Tennyson," Kevin snarled.
Ben paused for a few seconds. "I don't need to know what's going on, we should be saving these people and asking questions later!" Ben fired some water at Kevin. He cringed in pain and lost his grip on the man.
Ben exited the train and headed to the front, angling his arms outward. A large spray of water barreled out of his limbs, blasting whatever portion of the train Kevin had taken over. Much to his dismay, it only slowed the train down.
Kevin's head suddenly formed on the front of the train. "Now it's personal, you oversized bug!"
"I'm sure I'm an isopod, but can we save this for later." Ben shot even more water to even less effect. Kevin stretched his body around the water blasts using his liquid-like form.
"You really don't get it, do you?"
"Get what, exactly?"
Kevin grunted. "That guy I was attacking? He deserved it. Got off scot free for rape."
"Wait, what?"
"How's it feel to have that blind eye opened, Tennyson?"
"What the hell are y-"
"I'm just saying. You're going from city to city and only solving one problem, what the hell kind of hero are you?" Kevin's fist punched Ben in the face. He winced, before he realized what had happened.
"Also, I'm way better at sneak attacks!" Kevin grinned. Kevin had upgraded a percentage of the train to jury rigg a makeshift mechanical fist. Ben widened his eyes.
"Look, Kevin! We'll talk! Just please, for the love of god, don't take out the entire train cause of one bastard!" Kevin took more from the train, forming a secondary fist and lunged at Ben. He moved out of the way. "Too slow!" Ben grinned, as he shot out ice cold water. The water froze upon contact with Kevin's makeshift arms, splintering them apart.
Kevin's eye slowly glared at Ben, before it let go of the train, flying away like a parachute. Ben gasped, before he heard a horn honk next to him.
"Ben!" Max yelled. "We'll handle the car! You go after Kevin!"
Ben nodded, and then propelled himself after Kevin.
"Alright, now we just have to take care of the train and-" Max was cut off by something blasting a side mirror off the RV. Max turned to see a squadron of red, box-shaped robots. Their eyes were glowing red and they had a white skull face emblemed onto their front. Their lasers immediately fired on the RV, swarming the vehicle like angry wasps.
"What do these guys want?!" Ruby yelled as she pulled out her weapon.
"Something tells me they want Kevin too," Anna said as she formed a paper sabre.
Verdona shook her head. "Or they already have him."
Everyone shared a grim look before they prepared for battle.
Somewhere far from San Francisco, a shadowy figure watched the footage of Ben and Kevin's current fight.
"They certainly are something else," a sinister voice whispered, "aren't they, master?"
Vilgax grunted in agreement. He really couldn't say much else.
"I'm glad you agree. They will serve useful in the future…"
