Gathering Forces

"What!? What the fuck is Venom doing here!?" Ben shouted in surprise as he dodged a lunge from the symbiote. "I thought you said these were Moka's memories. Moka's never seen Venom before!" As Ben said this he held up his hands and stopped Venom from biting down on his head, "Phooo-IE! I tell you what, this thing definitely smells like Venom though." Ben pushed the alien away before sliding forward on a knee to put him in position for a counter, "SHO-RY-U-KEN!!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as he sent what would be a deadly uppercut to Venom's jaw making him bite down on his long, gross tongue.

"AAAAAAAGH!" Venom yelled "You mathe uths bite our tongue!"

"Oh, what's the matter Brock? Did I give you lithp, eh, Tyson?" Ben mocked.

Venom growled before wrapping his big arms around the trunk of a tree and lifting, uplifting the roots and pulling out whole, "Not Tyson! We're 'Hacksaw'!"

Ben cocked an eyebrow, "Did you just make a reference to the Jim 'Hacksaw' Duggan, 1980s WWE wrestler?" he asked trying to hold a chuckle. Venom's response was nothing short of a yell as he attempted to swing the tree. "Don't think so. DREAMQUEEN!"

"On it!" Dreamqueen appeared next to Venom. Using her succubus magic she was able to put the alien in a dazed state, giving Ben ample opportunity to act, "Get 'em, Ben!" Ben web zipped himself forward and sent several punches to Venom's face. Before he finished he shot out several bursts of impact webbing in Venom's chest. The impact webbing exploded and expanded out, forcing the symbiote off in different sections and the upper torso of Eddie Brock to be visible.

"Sorry, Eddie! Nothing personal, you just aren't real!" Ben yelled out as he launched forward again send a three hook combo before finished with a left straight that almost made Eddie leave the confines of the symbiote had the creature not broke free of the webbing and saved him. "Oh, still want more huh? Well bring it on you Spawn design reject!"

Venom let out a mighty roar before shooting out his own webbing to try and snag Ben. Ben, having his Spider Sense, was able to flip and weave to avoid getting stuck from the symbiote's stronger webbing substance. "You will not escape from us this time!" he roared, "Tomorrow's news headlines, 'Death of Peter Parker, The Masked Menace Named Spider-Man!'"

"Peter--?" Ben shook his head in confusion, "Eddie, are you fucking kidding me? It's me, Ben!" he shouted out, "Remember? Clone? I'm not Peter, we have no beef. That's why we're friends!"

"LIES! There is only one Spider-Man! And that is Peter Parker. Nobody else can be him." Venom growled.

Ben's eye twitched in frustration, "You son of a bitch." Ben began to, metaphorically, roll up his sleeves, "Okay. I didn't want to hurt you because we are friends in real life...but you have incredibly pissed me off. Whether you like it or not, I'm Spider-Man now! I've been Spider-Man for months, and I've done a damn good job at it. And not some fake-ass pseudo memory of an alien parasite is going to harass me and tell me otherwise!"

"PARASITE!?" Venom shouted.

"Oh, what's the matter faker? You get upset I called you a parasite?" Ben mocked, "Boo-fuckity-hoo!" he mocked more fake rubbing his eyes with his fists, "Cry me a river you horror show, guro ahegao face looking-ass!" Venom, obviously not to pleased with the insults, let out a roar and dove at Ben. Ben used his webs to slide under the alien, just narrowly avoiding getting cut by the claws of Venom. Ben got back to his feet quickly and performed a spin kick, but he was caught, "Uh-oh." Venom began slamming Ben into the ground several times before grabbing his head, attempting to crush it.

"Piss off, Eddie!" Ben shouted as he shot more Impact Webbing rounds into Venom's body. Venom screamed out as the webbing forced the symbiote off of the torso of Eddie Brock once more, the resulting surprise caused him to let go of Ben, "Dreamqueen, you wanna tag-team with me?"

"I'm a succubus, I'm always down for a tag-team!" Dreamqueen replied with a laugh as she sent a kick to Eddie's face while Ben sent a punch. Venom reformed once again, but that didn't matter to Ben who continued to repeatedly punch Venom's gut. Finally, the alien grabbed Ben's arm and used his free hand to repeatedly punch Ben's face. Venom then lifted Ben above his head and began to bend his body like he was going to break the metahuman's back. Dreamqueen thankfully came to Ben's aid and shoulder rammed Venom in the back. Venom dropped Ben and turned grab Dreamqueen, but Ben was quick to get in a grapple, "Leave my dream dealer alone!" Ben shouted as he suplexed the alien behind him.

Ben stood up and started to breath a little hard before coughing out some sort of black liquid, "God, I really hope that's from Venom and not my lungs." he groaned.

"Ben!" Dreamqueen yelled out as she quickly flew to his side and lifted him to his feet, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"That's my secret, Dreamqueen, I'm always hurt." Ben let out a slight chuckle as the succubus helped him up. Ben looked up Venom screaming in pain, his body going haywire before he was violently ripped into two separate entities. On the left was Venom, and on the right was Carnage. "Okay...fuck us, I guess." Ben rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck before getting back into a fighting stance, "So, I'll get Venom and you'll get Carnage?"

Dreamqueen nodded, "If I must. But that means you'll have to actually handle Venom on your own."

Ben scoffed, "Puh-leaze! I've done it before I can do it again." both got into a battle stance and faced the aliens, "You think if we die here we die in real life?"

"Better not chance it." Dreamqueen replied, "I'd like to get back to the comfort of your mind, thank you."

In Japan...

"I see." Mikogami, the Headmaster of Yokai Academy replied to Kokoa and Ruby after they had reported back on their findings in Yuki-Onna village, "So...this is Fairy Tale's plan." the Headmaster got up from his desk and moved to the window behind him where he looked out at the school that he and his friends worked so hard to create all those years ago. The school was created with the idea of bringing peace, and he could already tell that Fairy Tale was going to crush those dreams where they stood. A war was coming and he realized that he would have to prepare for a fight.

"Yeah, that's why we need you to get in contact with the Ghost Rider!" Kokoa said as she slammed her hands on the Headmaster's desk. "These guys are planning to pull out all the stops, their trying to punch down while our guard is down. We NEED as many heavy hitters as we can get."

Mikogami sighed, "I'm sorry, I unfortunately don't have a way to contact the Rider. Mr. Blaze is not someone you can easily get ahold of."

Kokoa growled in annoyance, "Don't you understand that they are going to kill Moka and Ben! We need as much help as we can get!" Mikogami didn't respond. Kokoa gritted her teeth and punched the desk, leaving a crack. "Fine. I'll do it myself then. Let's go, Ruby! We're heading to the human world."

"Huh!" Ruby looked to Kokoa as she stormed out of the Headmaster's office, "H-Hey, wait!" Ruby ran to the door but stopped before she turned to the Headmaster and bowed, "S-Sorry." and with that Ruby left to catch up to the young vampire.

Meanwhile, Headmaster Mikogami stayed behind and smirked, "The girl didn't even let me finish. So gun-ho that one is." he chuckled, "Did you get all of that, Mr. Strange?"

Presenting himself as an ethereal form was Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme. "Doctor, actually." he corrected, "If she waited for me to finish talking to you I could have explained things myself but..." he shrugged, "It is how it is. No matter. I figured this day was coming. I've been keeping in contact with a few different candidates. Reyes is out, unfortunately. He for some reason doesn't entirely trust me after the last 'incident' he helped me with. I don't see why. Even Reilly forgave me. Masterful chess player by the way, really is an intelligent kid." the Headmaster chuckled, "Good news, the Shuzen kid seems to have a similar idea to me. She's probably going to unknowingly do half my work for me. So that means...well...I'm going to have to find and convince Blaze. Shouldn't be too hard. I'm sure the Rider wants Fairy Tale finished as much as we do." the Sorcerer and the Headmaster looked to each other and nodded, "Get your team ready, and I'll get mine."

Thanks to the Bus Driver, Ruby and Kokoa were taken back to Marin's hostel which had a 'No Vacancy' sign overhead. Seems that SHIELD had not yet decided to pack up and leave town, which was good for Kokoa and Ruby. "RIGHT HERE!" Kokoa yelled out having the Bus Driver slow to a stop. Kokoa and Ruby stepped off the bus and approached the hostel only to be stopped by several SHIELD soldiers who were making sure nobody they didn't want to just came wandering in.

"Sorry miss, I'm afraid this is a restricted area right now." one of the soldiers said in perfect Japanese, likely one of the few translators they had.

"Back off, Yank, it's an emergency here!" Kokoa said as she walked past the soldier. The soldier immediately pressed their hands to their ear and began alerting that a potential threat was on the property.

"So sorry, she's very...determined." Ruby said with a slight chuckle before bowing to the soldier and continuing into the building behind Kokoa.

"Why didn't you stop them?" the other soldier asked.

"What do you want me to do? Shoot a little girl and her big sister? Do you know what kind of trouble I'd get it?" the first soldier replied.

"Well...you could have tried hand cuffing them."

"No way, man. I ain't falling for that shit again." the soldier said with a quick shake of his head, "Last time I tried that it turned out to be an Inhuman. I ain't about to get my ass handed to me by someone with super powers again. Let Bloodstone take care of this. She has powers."

Inside, Kokoa quickly walked down the hallways of the hostel in search of Elsa Bloodstone, the monster hunter. "God, how hard is it to find the one monster hunter they brought with them?" Kokoa asked herself in a frustrated tone. She continued looking through different rooms only to find them empty or just littered with clothing and supplies. "Geez, where is she?" Kokoa stopped when she saw the hallway in front of her get blocked by a couple of guards who weren't acting hostile, but one of them did already have their hand on their gun.

"Kokoa!" Ruby yelled out as she finally caught up with the vampire, "You can't just run ahead like that, you--" Ruby stopped and looked at the guards in front of them and gulped, "--could get us in trouble." she groaned. Kokoa grit her teeth and started reaching for Kou when Ruby stopped her by grabbing her wrist, "C'mon, this way." Ruby began leading Kokoa back the way they came only to be blocked off by more guards. Ruby gulped, "We...don't mean any harm. We are just here to see Ms. Monster Hunter. Uh...Kokoa, what was her name?"

"I don't know!" Kokoa replied in a frustrated tone, "I wasn't exactly paying attention. She's an American, she had red hair, and she had an ugly accent. More ugly than the typical American accent." The guards began getting closer and closer to the girls, it seemed apparent they wanted to apprehend them without a fight, but Kokoa wasn't going to let that happened, giving up wasn't in her blood after all. "Alright, Ruby. I hope you know how to fight. I don't think these guys feel like talking."

"WHAT!?" Ruby shouted as she tried he best to keep Kokoa from getting ahold of Kou and starting a confrontation against the humans, "Think, Kokoa, THINK! You know English don't you? Why don't you just talk to them! Explain to them we are friends of San, or even Ben!"

Kokoa stooped and blinked a few times. Of course. She thought with a frown, How could I forget one of the key lessons Ben taught me in our sparring. Key Rule 11, pick your fights, try talking. Kokoa took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. "Look," Kokoa started, switching to English, "We are friends of Be--Er...Spider-Man. We were here just before you guys showed up. We helped Marin and San fend off against that siren." she explained, "We are only here to talk, specifically with that monster hunter you guys brought along."

The guard that had his hand on his gun relaxed and clicked his tongue, "San, huh?" he asked, scratching his chin, "She's a good kid. I'd trust her judgment in allies." the soldier turned away and pulled out a walkie-talkie, "Bring San to my location real quick, she has guests. We are on floor two, north side." The guards stood in silence with the two monsters as they waited for another guard to escort San to their location. "You said you were Spider-Man's friends?" the guard asked.

"Uh, yeah..." Kokoa replied, "He's in the grade above me and...I'm pretty sure he's trying to get in my sister's skirt."

One of the other guards blinked a few times in confusion before smacking her partner on the chest a few times, "Did you catch that?" she asked, "I think that kid just said Spidey is a high schooler."

"Sir!" A new guard appeared and he was escorting San. Upon seeing Kokoa and Ruby, San clapped her hands in joy since she got to see a familiar face.

Kokoa and Ruby were able to explain the situation to San. The young siren understood why they suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and felt obligated to help. After all, it was thanks to them as well as the others that she was able to continue living a happy life with Marin at their hostel. "So you see, San," Kokoa continued, now able to get to the main reason they are there, "We are looking for the monster hunter that the SHIELD guys brought with them. Do you know where she is?" San blinked a few times before snapping her fingers and nodding.

San chuckled and motioned her hand for the two girls to follow her. They complied and followed San to what looked like some sort of lounging area. Inside the lounge there were cans upon cans of beer scattered throughout with Marin lying on couch, her hair messy and shirt wrinkled. And on the chair was Elsa who, similarly, had wrinkled clothes, her pants removed, and she was fast asleep with a bottle of hard liquor in her hand. San chuckled as she held up her notebook, "This is the only way they can communicate with each other." it read.

Kokoa frowned and marched over to the sleeping form of the monster hunter and shook her to wake her up, "Hey! Get up, American!"

Elsa practically jumped out of her skin from the sudden movement and ended up spilling the bottle that was in her lap, "Ah, shit. That was some decent bourbon too." Elsa rubbed her eyes to try and get her vision to straighten out, but she realized that she may have been a little buzzed still from her and Marin's drinking from early in the morning. Finally, she was able to make out the shape and form if Kokoa standing in front of her, "Oh...heeeeey. I remember you. You were one of those Yokai brats, right?" Elsa starred out her limbs and stretched, giving Kokoa full view of the front of her panties. "What can I do you for?"

Kokoa blushed and turned her head, "Well first you can put some pants on." she grumbled.

Elsa rubbed her eyes and looked down, "HA!" she laughed, "Hahahaha. Why so bashful for? We're all women here." Elsa stood up and cracked her neck before picking up a pair of orange pants. She put them on. She then grabbed her orange tank top and sniffed it, she thought it didn't smell great but shrugged all the same. She then opened up her guitar case and pulled out a red Gibson ES, and sat down again before she started tuning. "Okay, I'm now in pants. What do you need."

"Listen, monster hunter--"

"Elsa. Elsa Bloodstone." Elsa interrupted.

Kokoa rolled her eyes in annoyance, "Whatever, Elsa, we need your help. Fairy Tale is looking to make a move sooner rather than later and we need as much help as we can get!" Elsa suddenly stopped strumming while she was tuning and looked up at the vampire. She put the guitar down and leaned forward, showing she was much more interested now than she was a couple seconds earlier. "We recently learned that Fairy Tale has MUCH more strength than previously thought and we need people like you to help us."

Elsa sighed, "So...the time is finally coming, huh?"

"Please." Kokoa pleaded, "Fairy Tale is going to be moving in on my friends soon. They may take my sis and kill my..." Kokoa choked a little, "They may kill my best friend. So please, you have to help us. We need powerful allies. We need monster hunters who would be prepared for a situation like this. Something we may not be prepared for."

Elsa scoffed, "Kid. No need to keep talking. Fairy Tale has been on my radar for years. If they are finally making a move than so will I. Especially if they plan on starting a war." she stood up and held out her hand for Kokoa to shake, "From this point forth we are allies. And since you are giving me a freebie and leading me to Fairy Tale, I won't even charge you this time." she smirked. Kokoa smiled in return and the two shook hands.

"Thank you." Kokoa nodded, "If you're free. We have another stop when it comes to gathering our team."

"How many did you have in mind?"

Kokoa blushed and rubbed her head nervously, "Uh...three. B-But, they are all experienced monster hunters." she gulped, "W-Well...two now. The other we have no way of getting ahold of but...I'm sure things will work out!"

Elsa sighed, "That's just life isn't it." she chuckled, "Welp. No sense feeling down about the lack of numbers. Where to next?"

Kokoa's eyes lit up as she looked up to the monster hunter, "New York!"

"Oh, better put on the Red Socks jersey then." Elsa finished with a smile.

Ben...

"SON OF A BITCH!" Ben shouted out as he narrowly avoided getting his head chopped off from Carnage. "I thought we agreed. I have Venom, YOU have Carnage!" he complained as he ducked a double slice from Carnage's duel hand axes.

Dreamqueen flew backward to avoid being chomped down on by Venom, "Well excuuuuuuse me!" Dreamqueen sassed, "It isn't exactly my fault that the red one took a liking to you!" Dreamqueen used some of her magic to lift rocks off the ground and launch them at the alien.

"Hey hold on," Ben started as he avoided a slice from Carnage and used the weight against the alien as he tossed Carnage into Venom, "I just realized. You're a succubus, you should only have illusionary magic. How the hell do you have physical magic?"

With the two symbiotes together, Dreamqueen floated into the air, lifted the tree that Venom pulled from the roots earlier and smashed it on top of the two aliens. "I told you, I'm the daughter of Nightmare and a witch. And another thing, this is essentially the dream realm. I have all the power here! Here, I. AM. A. GOD!!" lighting struck around Dreamqueen and her eyes began to glow gold, scaring Ben slightly, "Whoopsies, sorry about that. That's my father talking."

The two heard screaming and the two symbiotes got up from the tree debris. "Brute force will not stop us!" Carnage yelled, "We will destroy you, and then we will eat you! And when we are done eating you we'll go around and eat everybody else! We shall bring carnage upon this world! Never ending, absolute CARNAGE!!"

Dreamqueen landed and tilted her head as she looked at the two aliens, "Well if you two are looking to eat us, do you think you could start from my lower half? It's been awhile. Really let that tongue work."

Ben dry heaved at the response, "Jesus Christ, keep it in your pants!" he yelled, "So fucking gross." he mumbled.

"OH PUH-LEAZE!" Dreamqueen yelled out, "Sure, when you, a MAN make a sex joke it's 'Ha ha, I'm so funny guys, I draw porn, aren't I quirky?' But when I, a WOMAN, who's a succubus make a sex joke it's 'Ew, icky, sex woman is talking about sex stuff, gross. Keep it to your job.'" she mocked.

"Oh cry me a river, that's not what I meant." Ben said with a roll of his eyes, "I meant it's gross because you're asking one of these things to eat your--"

"Enough talk!" Venom shouted, "It's dinner time. And it's time we feed." Venom licked his lips while he crouched low and got ready to fight again. "Come, Carnage, let us devour them!" The two aliens growled before charging at the heroes once again. Venom went after Dreamqueen again and Carnage after Ben. Venom pointed a fist forward and shot a web netting towards the succubus, however, Dreamqueen was quick on her feet and she formed a miniature wormhole that sucked up the webbing. A second wormhole opened up behind Carnage and the webs shot out and entangled him in a cocoon. Ben took this opportunity to send a right hook across Carnage's face. Using his momentum he then spun around and landed a round house kick that knocked Carnage through the wormhole and into Venom's face. "Carnage, get your act together you disgrace of a symbiote!" Venom growled as he threw Carnage to the side.

While Venom was distracted, Dreamqueen formed several dozen miniature wormholes around the alien, she then put another in front of herself and smirk, "It was foolish of you to turn your back on me. Now, DIE MONSTER, YOU DON'T BELONG IN THESE MEMORIES!" Dreamqueen then fired dozens of fireballs through the wormhole which ended up splitting along the multiples of wormholes and firing at Venom from all directions, making it nearly impossible for him to dodge.

"AAAAAGH!!!" Venom screamed out as he collapsed to the ground next to Carnage.

"Oh, nice going father. Really showing us who's boss." Carnage sassed. This time Carnage charged towards Dreamqueen, but was intercepted when he was hit by a barrage of impact webbing rounds. The webbing exploded and ripped the symbiote off the torso of its wearer, the skinny, red-headed, hot tempered, serial killer, Cletus Kasady. Ben then rushed forward and sent a ferocious punch that launched the man out of the alien suit. The symbiote screeched and hollered as it made its way to Cletus.

"Dreamqueen, stop that thing!" Ben yelled out. Dreamqueen nodded and lifted her left index and middle fingers, causing the earth below the symbiote to lift up. Then, with a push and a battle cry, Dreamqueen pushed the symbiote into Venom as it dove at Ben. "Oh, thanks for the save." Ben turned to the succubus and gasped, "Watch out!" Without even turning her head, Dreamqueen snapped her fingers and made the tree from earlier fly and crush Kasady as he tried to attack her.

"Too easy." she said with a wink. Dreamqueen then gasped as she looked ahead of her to see that Venom and Carnage were now fusing! The symbiotes began to wiggle and worm around each other forming one large, ugly, amalgamation of a symbiote creature. "Okay...ew."

"Oh what the fuck!" Ben complained, "Can't I get a damn break around here?" The creature looked down at the two heroes and let out a mighty roar. "Why can't the universe throw me a bone every once in a while?" Ben asked, "I'm not a bad guy, I don't ask for much, can't you give me some sort of sign that you're listening to me, God?"

The creature growled, "Now to finish you off!" it lifted up one of it's massive claws and went to smack down on the two. But before it could even move, a loud boom was heard across the sky. Not just any boom, but it sounded like something broke the sound barrier, and it caused ripples in the sky. Furthermore, every time the boom went off the ground began shake slightly. This boom that sounded off proved to be advantageous for Ben and Dreamqueen as the symbiotes reacted negatively to it, their amalgamation trying to hold its ears, but the suit still shook and screeched whenever the boom sounded off.

"Ben!" Dreamqueen shouted out.

"On it!" Ben began wrapping his webbing around the amalgamated symbiote, "You know, I've come to the realization that these things are fake and it wouldn't matter if we killed it. With that said, you think you could do anything?" Dreamqueen smirked and her eyes began to glow gold. She pointed to the ground where the symbiotes stood and made a glyph of some sort. Then, with a mighty battle cry she raised her arms and mighty fire tornado erupted from the glyph and incinerated the aliens. Their screams could be heard as they burnt and melted. When Dreamqueen was confident it was over, she stopped and the aliens were nowhere to be seen. "Hey, looks like we got a break for once." Ben smiled. As he said that the boom happened again and both him and Dreamqueen stumbled slightly.

"Those sonic booms are getting louder." Dreamqueen mentioned as she caught her foooting.

It happened again and again and Ben gritted his teeth, "More frequent too from the looks of it." He and Dreamqueen looked to each other and nodded, "Can you tell where it's coming from?"

The boom happened again and Dreamqueen closed her eyes and focused on where the energy was coming from. "There," she said pointing deeper in the forest, "It's coming from that way, no doubt about it."

"Then we should check it out." Ben replied as he cracked his neck and began to swing through the forest.

Kokoa...

"Boy, I sure am glad you can speak English kid!" Elsa laughed as she rode the bus with her, Kokoa and Ruby while on their way to New York. The Bus Driver drove through a tunnel and in a matter of seconds they were in New Jersey, "WOAH! That shit was wicked awesome!" she exclaimed, "So that was one of those fabled 'warp tunnels,' huh? I was told they were sealed up long ago, but to think there's one that's open. And so close to home too! Screw flights, I could just drive to the other side of the world now."

"Yes, yes. It's very fascinating. Will you focus!?" Kokoa scolded, "We're here to see a very specific person, so just...follow my lead. And don't say anything stupid that could offend him." The trio sat in silence as the bus crossed the bridge to get to Manhattan. Then they cut through the city, Ruby taking in the sights as they drove by, until they crossed the Queensborough bridge to make it to the boroughs. They then drove until they got to a small neighborhood where they found a small two story house that had a tan van and am old Corrola parked in the driveway, "RIGHT HERE!"

"Cool your horses, I know what house it is." The Bus Driver said through a puff of smoke from his cigar. "Make it snappy, don't want the locals calling the cops on an unknown bus."

Kokoa nodded and motioned to the other two, "Let's go." The trio stepped off the bus and walked to the front door of the house.

In the yard next door was a young red-headed woman watering flowers. She looked up to get a drink of water and caught sight of the trio approaching her neighbor's home. "Um, excuse me!" she called out causing the three to stop, "Hi, are you friends of Kaine or Ben? Because Ben isn't here right now. He's at school."

"I'm Ben's classmate, I need to talk to his brother." Kokoa replied leading the red-head to blink a few times in astonishment.

"REALLY!?" the woman tripped over her watering can as she rushed over to the girls. After catching herself she grabbed Kokoa's hands and cupped them between her own, "That means you're like..." she leaned forward and lowered her voice, "A monster, right?" she smiled, "You don't have to worry about me, I'm all caught up on the Ben Reilly lore. So don't worry about me like...spilling the beans or anything." she chuckled.

"R-Right." Kokoa blushed as she pulled her hands away, "Actually I need to talk to Kaine because...it's important. And also kinda private so could you--?"

"OPE, sorry!" the woman apologized, "I'm Mary Jane, by the way. When everything is said and done I would totally love the details. Have Ben or Kaine call me and fill me in on the deets, kay-kay?"

"Oh, totes, girlfriend." Elsa replied, "Kaine and Ben will let you know for sure!" Elsa gave a big smile and kept it until MJ walked back to her house, "Uuuuugh. You need to learn to hurry things up, kid." Elsa complained as her smile dropped. The trio continued walking up to the door of the house before ringing the doorbell. They stood for a couple of seconds, but eventually an older woman with graying hair answered.

"Hello?" she answered. She wasn't that old of a woman, but she was getting up there in age, mid-fifties, she had many wrinkles and bags under her eyes, "Can I help you?"

Kokoa cocked her eyebrow in confusion. She looked to her left at the driveway to make sure the van she saw was the same one she recognized from before, "Um...I'm sorry is Kaine here?" she asked.

The old woman's eyes widened slightly. She looked back and closed the door. "Wake up! You have guests here for you." the girls could hear the woman talking to someone on the other side of the door.

The door opened again to show Kaine Parker wearing a black tank top, "Oh, it's you. You're one of Ben's friends, right?" Kokoa nodded in response.

"Oh, yo! What's up, Kaine? Long time no see!" Elsa greeted with a smirk.

Kaine flicked his head, "Yeah, hey, Elsa." he scratched his head as he looked at the trio, "So...want to come in?" the trio nodded and entered the home, "Mind the smell, I put some icy hot on recently. Got my shit rocked by Scorpia."

"Language." May warned from the kitchen.

Kaine chuckled and grabbed a glass of water before downing it in one go. "My bad. Come on, let's go to the back." Kaine led the three girls to the back 'yard' which just consisted of a small fenced in concrete area and a door to the cellar. "Okay, what do you want to talk about?" he asked as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He hit the pack a few times with his palm before putting one of the cigarettes in his mouth. He held up the pack to Elsa and she took a cig as well. The two lit the cigarettes up and Kaine motioned to Kokoa to speak.

"Listen, I think there's something wrong with Ben!" she warned, "He's--" she stopped when Kaine held her mouth shut. He blew a cloud of smoke to his side before he motioned his finger to his mouth to tell Kokoa to be quiet.

"Continue." Kaine said, switching to Japanese.

Kokoa nodded and continued, "Listen, Ben's in big trouble. Fairy Tale is starting to make there move and I believe he may end up getting hurt, or even worse! We need as many people as we can get. Already I'm down an option because I have no way to contact them, so I'm kinda left with just you." Kokoa stopped and caught her breath, "So please, will you help us? Will you help us help Ben, big sis and fight Fairy Tale?"

Kaine took a long drag of his cigarette before blowing the smoke in the air. He had a blank look. Almost as if he was in deep thought about something. "No." he finally replied.

Kokoa's face scrunched up into a frown and in her frustration she grabbed Kaine's shirt, "Huh? What do you mean, 'No?' Did you not just hear what I said, asshole! Fairy Tale is making a move! Aren't you concerned!? Ben, your brother, is likely going to get killed! If not now then whenever he inevitably decides to fight back against them! Don't you care?"

"Kokoa!" Ruby said worriedly as she tried to pull the vampire off Kaine, but Kokoa just pushed her aside.

Kaine looked at Kokoa with half lidded eyes. He took the butt of his cigarette out of his mouth and pressed the burning end against Kokoa's hand, causing her to let go as she waved her hand in pain. "Now listen here." Kaine started, his tone much more sinister sounding, "You don't know a damn thing about me. A damn thing about what's going on. You think I'm not worried? I'm fucking terrified. I stuck my neck out for Ben so he could go back to school and now...things have gotten so dangerous. I mean the last time I saw him was after he tussled with one of those guys and he had a foot in the grave." he grimaced, "So don't tell me I'm not worried. Ben's the only brother I have left here." Kaine relaxed a little bit and leaned against the fence behind him, "Besides...I made a promise to him. That while he was at Yokai I would take care of the city and Aunt May. And if he saw me there trying to help him instead of here taking care of May," Kaine chuckled, "well, he may actually kill me. So no. I cannot with good conscience help you or my brother."

"But he's..." Kokoa stopped as she realized she was going to say something she shouldn't.

"He's dying. Right?" Kaine replied making Kokoa and especially Ruby gasp in surprise. "You knew?" he asked while pointing to Kokoa, and she slowly nodded. He then pointed to Ruby and she shook her head, "Yeah. Well...even more reason for me to stay here. I know his dying wish would be something sappy like 'Take care of May' or 'Take over the mantle.' And I really don't want that last one. I'm stressed as is. So, again, sorry. I won't help you." Kokoa had a saddened expression and Kaine noticed her lip began quivering, "But...I think I know a guy you can call. And he's far more invested in this Fairy Tale stuff than me." Kokoa looked up with a hopeful expression on her face.

Ben...

The booming kept occurring over and over again as Ben and Dreamqueen made their way towards its origin. The closer they got, the more intense the booming felt. It began to shake their bodies whole even when they were above the ground. For Ben, his Spider Sense became more and more intense as he got closer, tingling his skull in tandem to when the booming would come. The two finally stopped and Dreamqueen pointed to a small clearing. The two dropped down and approached the clearing, at this point Ben just started relying on his Spider Sense to guide the way. "...aaaaagh!"

"What was that?" Dreamqueen asked at the sudden sound.

"Sounds like someone yelling." Ben mentioned, "We should check it out." The two walked down the clearing, the screams becoming more apparent, until they reached a door in the middle of the clearing. That was it. Just a door. No building, no car, no entrance of any kind. Just a door in the middle of the grass. "This must be it." Ben said and Dreamqueen nodded. The two approached the door and Ben grabbed hold of the handle.

"Hurts! It hurts!" the yelling came from the other side.

Ben's eyes widened when he heard the voice, That sounds like...Ben opened the door and entered a darkroom full of different photographs of who knows what. At the center of the room was a girl on her knees, tears streaming down her face as she held her head in pain. The booming came again and it blasted from her head, nearly knocking Ben and Dreamqueen to the ground, "AAAAAAAGH! Hurts, it hurts so much!" the girl cried out, "Oh god, my head! It feels like it's going to explode!"

Dreamqueen gasped in surprise as the woman's face came into the light, "That's--"

"Yeah." Ben gulped, "That's Moka."

"PLEASE!" Moka cried out, "It hurts so much. Make it stop." The two walked into the dark room and the door shut behind them.

"Moka." Ben said quietly as he began walking past all the pictures. Dreamqueen looked at the different photographs, each had Moka present. Dreamqueen saw a picture of Sandman when he arrived in the human world, Moka's view when Ben briefly fought Robbie Reyes, her fight against Ben when Tsukune turned into a ghoul, when Lilith's Mirror arrived, finding Ben in the plant, Outer Moka with Ben, Kurumu and Yukari in Yuki-Onna when the 'snow monster' arrived, Outer Moka shortly before the arrival of Kahlua in Yuki-Onna, Moka and Ben fighting Kahlua, Moka before getting kidnapped in the human world as well as her view on Ben's fight with Taskmaster, the fight against the siren at Marin's hostel, the airplane when she dodged the falling bar shelf.

"What do all these photos have in common, I wonder." Dreamqueen asked herself as she cupped her chin.

"I know." Ben declared, "I figured this awhile ago, but this proves it." Ben walked to the screaming form of Moka as she still held her head in pain, the boom from her head turning into a light ringing. A ringing that would ring in tandem with Ben's Spider Sense. "Moka, I know what's going on." he assured as he crouched to a knee and gripped her shoulder. Moka's crying stopped and she looked up at Ben with wide eyes, "I know it hurts. I know it's hard. But it's something you have to overcome. It's something I'm confident you'll overcome. You may not realize or understand now, but this will be you're best weapon when the time is right."

"But it just hurts so much. Something is happening I can tell!" Moka retorted.

Ben nodded, "I know. And you're head will keep ringing as long as the danger persists. But I can help stop it." Moka stopped holding her head in pain as she looked at Ben, "I need you to trust me. I'll protect you, I'll protect everyone. So I need you to let me out if you can."

Moka shook her head, "No...No...you can't! Whatever this is, it hurts. It hurts so much more than anything else. More than when I fought you, more than Kahlua. It feels like my head is going to explode!" Moka asked as Ben grabbed her hands and cupped them in his.

"The pain won't go away...but I can alleviate it myself by holding this thing off. At least until you can help out. How about that? Does that sound like a compromise?" Ben smiled, "Do you trust me now?"

Moka darted her eyes back and forth, "Ben I...I..." Moka looked at Ben one last time before wrapping her arms around him for a hug, "I trust you." with that, this form of Moka broke off into particles of light and floated into the red light above.

"What the hell was that?" Dreamqueen asked, "How do all these pictures fit together? I don't understand."

Ben smirked slightly, "They all connect...because Moka is inheriting my Spider Sense." Dreamqueen's eyes widened in astonishment. "You're probably wondering how. Well, my best guess it's because by this point Moka's probably drank close to a dozen pints of my blood." he chuckled, "Like, that's a vampire ability. Receive the memories and abilities of the people who's blood they drink. She's the only vampire that actually drank my blood and didn't start puking." he laughed.

Dreamqueen's eyes widened in realization, "So...the memories of Venom and Carnage--"

"Not hers. I never told her about them. I don't think I've told anyone but Tsukune about Venom, and I doubt he remembers." Ben nodded.

"When did you figure it out?"

Ben clicked his tongue a few times before shrugging, "Yuki-Onna. I realized shortly before the snow monster arrived, which we know now to have been the Snow Priestess, Moka had gripped her head in pain the same time my Spider Sense went off. I started to really pay attention to her actions then. And every time it was the same. If I could see her and we were close to danger she always gripped her head. On the plane it was the same thing. That's why I stopped Tsukune from pushing her out of the way of the bar shelf. I wanted to test my theory." he smiled, "And she proved my hypothesis right. She dodged without help, without realizing it was even there and she moved...well, she didn't move like herself at all." he chuckled. "Now come on, my Spider Sense has been ringing, we need to help everyone back in the physical realm."

Dreamqueen nodded as she and Ben approached the light switch for the red light, "So, how do we leave?"

"Hold on." Ben replied, "It'll be a switch." as he said that Ben flipped the switch to the red room and everything went dark...

When Ben opened his eyes he was lying next to Tsukune in Touhou's mansion. Ben quickly jumped to his feet surprising those that weren't sucked into Moka's rosary which included the likes of Rinrin, FanFan, Kurumu and Yukari. "Woah, hey, BEN?" Kurumu asked, "How the hell are you up? Where are the others? How did you get up?"

"Yeah, hey, I'm Ben. I didn't see the others in there, I woke up because of Spider Sense." Ben replied, "FANFAN! Help me get the rest of my armor on."

"Oh, uh, yes!" FanFan hurried over and helped put the back piece to Ben's armor on while put on the chest and the pauldrons, "Ben, don't you think you are being a little overdramatic? I know there's danger, but father, mother and the rest of the family should be able to handle the intruders that arrived." he chuckled.

"And if they can't?" Ben asked with a serious expression. FanFan didn't have a response, he just stumbled over his words before looking down, feeling dejected. "This danger, whatever it is, it's worse than anything we've faced. Bigger than even Kahlua. So I will hold them off the best I can while you guys make sure everyone here wakes up."

"But Ben, if the trouble is as bad as you say, shouldn't you wait for them to wake up too? With Moka with us it'd be a lot easier." Yukari suggested.

"That's true, Yukari. But I'm afraid we just don't have that kind of time." Ben crouched and picked up his helmet, "Besides, I kinda made a promise already." With those words, Ben put on his helmet, completing the suit. Ben jumped forward and began making his way towards the main house where he could assist the family. "Alright Fairy Tale, who the fuck you got?"

To be continued...

A/N: Another chapter donerino. Little bit of action in this, little bit of exposition too. We see Kokoa doing her thing to help the others and we see Ben uncovering...or rather affirming the truth.

Now we have...not as great of a chapter coming up, lmao. I'll try to add action where I can, but man there is so much fucking exposition in these chapters. It's actually mind numbing.

Well, I don't really have anything to say other than that so...see you guys later, remember to review.