Chapter 22: Hunted: Part 2

I Don't Own Ben 10 or Any of the Respective Characters, The Rights Belong to Man of Action Studios and Cartoon Network

Author's Note:

* Hello and welcome to Chapter 22!

* So, we will be wrapping up Hunted in this chapter. I don't really have anything else to say, so let's get into the chapter!

Ben

Tuesday, April 24th, 2018

Bellwood

After school that day, I went straight home. Gwen may have wanted to talk to me in regards to what had happened at lunch that day, but I didn't stick around to find out. I had no interest in listening to her explain her boyfriend's behavior to me. Anyway, I went home, studied my notes and textbooks, had dinner, studied some more, and then finally "turned in" for bed. I waited a bit and then got out of bed to sneak out my bedroom window.

I couldn't take my car and risk either of my parents hearing me. So, that meant I had to use the Omnitrix to make it to the currently defunct construction site. I dialed it up and transformed into XLR8, before I made my way in that direction. I arrived at fence line of the site and wasn't really surprised to see that Shard was already here.

"You're early." Was all he said.

"Best to get this over quick as we can, right?" I asked.

"I suppose there is merit in that."

"So, how do we do this thing?"

"Well, we start with waiting for the Omnitrix to time you out. After that, I make it look like I've captured you and we head for Crab and SixSix. From there, we wait for a moment to present itself and we spring our trap on them."

Right then, as if on cue, the Omnitrix began to flash red. And a few seconds later, I had reverted back to my human form.

"Cool, but how am I supposed to help you if I can't use the Omnitrix to transform?"

Without answering my question, he bent over slightly and hovered over me, before tapping the hourglass on the Omnitrix. I watched as the ring popped back up and began to slowly rotate, before it went down and clicked back into place, then turning green again a couple seconds later, accompanied by a chirping sound.

"Wow! How'd you do that?"

"The Omnitrix has a near infinite supply of energy, said energy empowers your transformations. While it does need to recharge, it's more for the wielder, so that the constant transforming won't cause strain on the host body."

"So, I could use the Omnitrix infinitely?"

"I can't recommend that, but I suppose that would be correct."

"Can you teach me how to do that?"

"No time for that now. That's not what's important right now."

"Okay, so what now?"

Without warning, he grabbed the back of my shirt and lifted me up from the ground.

"We have to make them think that I've really captured you."

"And once they think the three of you are going to return me to your employer, we'll jump them?"

"That's the plan, is it not?"

Why am I beginning to get the feeling that I shouldn't have been so quick to trust you?

"Uh, sure. Let's just make sure that we stick to the plan."

"Am I detecting doubt in your voice?"

"Maybe a little bit. Hard to put all my trust in you when I hardly know anything about you."

"I already gave you my reasons for wanting to double cross my colleagues!"

"Sorry. I guess I'll just have to believe it when I see it."

Shard looked at me as if he were thinking about my words. At last, we finally started moving. We entered the construction site and I wasn't all that surprised to see that Crab and SixSix were already here. Shard came to a stop about ten or fifteen feet away from the two bounty hunters.

"Ah, there you are!" Crab exclaimed. "Found the little bastard, did you?"

"Yep." Shard replied. "Found him wandering the streets while you two were here, waiting for me. It was easier that way."

"I see."

"Well, we should get him into the restraints and return him to our employer off-planet, right?"

"Yeah, about that, Shard—"

Wait, did these two know about the ambush?

As Crab spoke, SixSix pulled out two identical alien-looking pistols, holding one in each hand.

Oh, yeah. They definitely knew about the ambush.

SixSix pointed both of his pistols at us before Crab continued speaking.

"—We've decided to split the reward between the two of us. That kid you got caused us some significant damage and splitting it 50-50 leaves more for the both of us. This is just business, has nothing to do with you."

Shard didn't take kindly to this.

"Our employer isn't going to like this."

Crab seemed to make a shrugging motion.

"What our employer thinks is irrelevant. We can just tell him that you were overpowered and we had to leave you for dead. You're right, I suppose. He may not like it, but after all, business is business, yes?"

Shard didn't reply to that. I turned my head to look at him.

"What's the matter, bud? Didn't expect to be the one being double crossed here?"

I heard a low grumble from somewhere in his throat.

"The possibility seems to have escaped me." He said before he put me down on the ground. "Stay here."

"But I can help you!"

"You will stay put. I can handle these two on my own. This won't take long."

So, I watched Shard walk forward to engage his two former colleagues. SixSix kept his twin pistols trained on Shard as he approached and Crab seemed to be moving like he was going to attempt flanking him. I watched as Shard's gloves retracted and I saw hands made of green, crystalline material. Within a second, they narrowed out into sharp, pointed ends.

Wait, is he a—? No way!

SixSix started firing at my new ally and he deflected the shots like a Jedi deflecting blaster bolts with their lightsaber in a Star Wars movie. I watched all of this happen in awe, glued to the spot and unable to do anything else. However, my watching this didn't last for very long. While ol' SixSix was keeping Shard busy, it seemed that Crab had turned his attention to me. I thought that he was trying to flank me, but I had been wrong. He diverted from Shard's side and started blasting me with his claw hand without warning. Somehow I managed to dodge the first couple of blasts.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I exclaimed as I continued dodging. "I thought the two of you were supposed to be splitting the reward?!"

"Did you miss the memo or are you just that stupid, kid?" Crab exclaimed in his robotic voice between energy blasts. "We don't need you, we just need the Omnitrix. You're useless to us, so there's no reason for us to keep you alive."

"Well, that's just dandy!"

I continued to dodge his shots, but I wouldn't be able to do that for much longer. I had to do something. And whatever I did, I had to be smart about it. I had tried to use force last night and that wasn't enough. I dialed up the Omnitrix and picked out my most unlikely choice in this scenario. I pressed down on the ring and transformed into Greymatter, a tiny, but highly intelligent alien. Last night I had partly smashed in Crab's dome, but it was going to take more than that tonight. As soon as I transformed, Crab continued toward me as he spoke.

"It doesn't matter what form or the size of the form that you pick, kid. I'll still kill you just as dead!"

I scoffed.

"You'll kill me just as dead? You sound like you're in an old western movie!"

Crab let out a robotic scream of frustration as he slammed down his claw onto the ground, leveling his blaster barrel mere inches from my face.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot. You don't know what that is."

I saw his blaster begin to warm up, but I had already flipped myself over onto the other side of his claw and was moving up his arm. He screamed with frustration once more as he tried to swat me away with his free hand, but I was quicker than that. After another couple of seconds, I had reached his shoulder. I looked down and saw a small crevice that descended beneath Crab's armored shell, no doubt where his robotic and mechanical innards lay. Without even thinking, I shoved my hand deep inside the crevice.

"Hey—Get out of there, you runt!"

I ignored him and dug through the crevice as best I could. I finally felt my hands close around a small bundle of wires. And so, I began to pull on them until they appeared out from the crevice in the armor.

"These look important."

I pulled some more until the wires ripped apart, accompanied by electric sparks. This immediately caused Crab to start malfunctioning. He spun around on his axis by 360 degrees and his blaster started firing without his input. One of those runaway shots nailed SixSix right in the chest, earning a frustrated alien cry from his partner.

"Don't look me, you idiot! I'm clearly not in control of myself!"

I remained on Crab's shoulder and reached my hand back down once again. Out I pulled more wires and pulled until they severed from their placements. Crab spun even faster, fired more shots wildly and let out one more robotic, staticky stream of obscenities before he fell over. My robotic crustacean pal had fallen. Now that that had happened, I turned my attention back to Shard and SixSix.

My ally was holding his own against the remaining bounty hunter. After being hit by that runaway shot from Crab's blaster, it made SixSix even easier to contend with. Shard was continuing to deflect shots from his blasters, before finally knocking both of them out of his hands and kicking him to the ground. He then extended one of his arms into long, sharp, pointed end as he stood over SixSix and I immediately knew what he was thinking.

Oh, no.

I began to run toward them as fast as my tiny legs would carry me.

Can't let him do this, can't let him do this, can't let him do this!

I managed to reach them just before Shard's blade reached SixSix. I climbed up onto the armored alien's torso and stood there, my legs spread wide and my arms out on either side of me, as if my tiny, alien form was going to protect my enemy. But to my surprise, Shard took notice of me and lowered his blade, eventually reverting his arm back to its normal form.

He didn't acknowledge me, but he didn't have to. I hoped that he had gotten my silent message. I was so deep in thought that I didn't hear when SixSix reached for one of his pistols, but he heard it and saw it. I felt the heat of the blast against my back and my small body was sent flying.

"No!" Shard shouted with anger.

He immediately turned around to face SixSix, made a blade out of his arm and straight up cut off his forearm. SixSix cried out with agony in his foreign language. He then picked up SixSix's other pistol and used a blast of it's energy to cauterize our enemy's wound. Even though I was a bit unhappy that Shard had ignored what I wanted, I was at least pleased that he decided to do that. He turned to look at me.

"He'll live." He said in a dry tone.

Almost immediately after this, maybe due to the wound itself, SixSix stopped trying to move. Shard walked away from the downed bounty hunter and grabbed Crab, before pulling him over to where SixSix's unmoving form rested. He then pulled out what looked like an alien blaster and pointed it at both of them. This caused me to freak out.

"What the hell are you—"

"Relax." Shard cut me off in a simple tone.

Much to my surprise, when he "fired" the device, a big, green cube of some kind flew out to where the two downed bounty hunters laid on the ground. It seemed to consume the both of them and then the cube itself shrank, leaving no trace of either one of them.

"Pretty interesting device." I said. "How does it work?"

"It fires an entrapment cage and shrinks down any targets trapped inside for transport."

"I see."

He pulled out a device that looked like a tablet and turned its screen on. All of the words on the screen appeared to be in an alien language, except for three names on the list: Tetrax Shard, SixSix, Kraab.

So, that bounty hunter's name is spelled K-R-A-A-B? Interesting. And is Tetrax Shard's first name or something?

He then crushed the tablet with his hand and tossed what was left aside. He turned to me.

"That was a very interesting strategy you used against Kraab. Not bad for a human."

"Someone very important to me once told me that when you're dealing with something, anything, you have to think before you act. Might is not always right."

"A wise strategy."

I nodded at him. Just then, the hourglass symbol on my back began to flash red. Then the Omnitrix reverted me back to my human form. He then retracted his helmet and my thoughts were confirmed.

"You're a Diamondhead?" I asked.

"A what?"

"I… uh… that's just what I call your species. I have you in the Omnitrix as one of my forms."

"Oh, I see. No, I'm a noble warrior. Our species are called Petrosapiens."

"Ah."

"May I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Why did you protect your enemy like that? Someone who tried to cause you harm?"

I took a deep breath.

"Thou shalt not kill."

The look on his face told me that he didn't understand what I was saying.

"What?"

I considered telling him about the bible passage, but he wouldn't understand what that is. I had to word it in a way he would get my message.

"I'm a hero. And I believe that when you help people or fight crime, you do no further harm yourself. You do what you can to help, but do no harm. You don't kill, not even your enemies."

"I think I might understand. You have what some call a strong moral compass, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. And I believe what I stand for."

I didn't know what else to do, so I offered my hand.

"My name's Ben. Ben Tennyson."

He took my hand in return and we shook.

"Tetrax Shard."

We only shook hands for a few seconds before our hands departed.

"So, what will you do now?"

He tapped the pistol device now hanging back from his utility belt.

"Well, I'll have to get off world and see to it that these two are put away for a long time."

"Well, that's great, but what about me? What about the Omnitrix?"

"It will do just fine in your hands until I am able to return to Earth."

"And then what?"

"Well, my employer, former employer, I should say, won't be pleased about this. He'll send his cronies after me, but most importantly, he may send more after you. And we'll have to prepare for the coming fight."

"And what fight is that?"

"The Good Fight."

Right, fight the "good fight" and all that.

"Okay, then. I suppose there's reason in that."

What else could I say?

"I'll have to leave you to get off the planet now. You can go back to your life, but watch yourself."

Thanks. What a thing to say to me.

He began to walk away from me, but after a few seconds, he came to a stop.

"And Ben?"

I turned to look at him without moving.

"What?"

"You have a strong moral compass."

Yeah, you're the one who asked me this.

"Yeah, so?"

"I think a person like you could end the power struggle that I spoke of."

What? Are you saying that I'm sort of "chosen one"?

I just nodded at him.

"Oh, great."

I turned away from him without saying anything else. I didn't know what else to say anyway.

Epilogue

?

Unknown Location

I stared at my status screen, contemplating my next actions minutes after my three employees had vanished from the screen. One of my drones approached my command chair and began to speak in a robotic tone.

"Sire, Tetrax has incapacitated the other two mercenaries and has gone rogue."

I raised my finger and signaled for him to come closer. He did so and once within range, I grabbed his head and pulled him closer.

"Do you honestly think I didn't know of this? I was well aware." I said as I crushed his head to bits in my hand. "You are useless."

I tossed his now defective body to the side and just sat there for a second or two. I then slammed my arm onto the arm rest as I stood up.

"Fine. I'll do it myself!"

Author's Note:

* And that's it for this chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it.

* So, what did you guys think of my version of Hunted? Did you like how Ben would not allow Tetrax to kill SixSix, before quoting "thou shalt not kill" later? Any opinions on how Tetrax cut off SixSix's arm in response to him trying to kill Ben?

* Do you like how I wrapped up their first encounter, with Tetrax telling Ben that the Omnitrix is in safe hands for now, before later telling him that they'll need to be ready to fight the "good fight"?

* Anyway, those are all my questions. Let me know if you have any of your own in either a review or private message. Please don't be shy, your feedback is important to me. Well, that's going to do it for me. Have a fantastic day and bye.

Review Responses

adriandragonus (Chapter 21): Happy New Year to you! I was concerned that Ben was going to face off with SixSix and Kraab right after seeing Gwen goinv out with another guy. I thought that he was gonna either fumble it due to him being emotionally distracted or even brutally beat up those mercenaries to let off some steam. I am glad that it worked well at the end of the day! And now with Tetrax within the story, the story might got an interesting turn of event!

Thank you, Adrian. So, the way I see it, Ben was using the situation with the bounty hunters/mercenaries to distract him from what's going on between Gwen and Brad right now. We will eventually see Ben give into bloodlust while fighting his enemies, but that's a long ways away. Yes, now that Tetrax has been introduced, I'm hoping for the story to begin picking up a bit more. Thanks for the review, as always.

cherrypie990 (Chapter 21): I like that you decided to include a love triangle in this version, And over 100 chapters planned? That's amazing. I think its a nice idea to stick to bimonthly updates, they are much easier to handle so that you dont get overwhelmed. Anyways, glad to see tetrax has become a trusted ally for Ben. Wonder if lucky girl will make an appearance. Thanks for the update. Good luck and Happy New Year.

Thank you, Cherry, and Happy New Year to you, too. I wouldn't necessarily call it a love triangle. I'm hoping that it'll be seen as complicated as we move forward, but we'll see. Yes, the story will be over one hundred at least. I know all of my major events and a decent chunk of my minor events in between, but nothing is concrete yet. As of right now, I don't have a final plan. I'm not sure that Ben sees Tetrax as a trusted ally, I think he's keep him at arm's length, just for now. Thanks for the review, as always.

jasongd (Chapter 20): And another great chapter congrats BWEN FOREVER

Thanks, Jason. Glad to see you're enjoying the story. Thanks for the review, as always.

jasongd (Chapter 21): And another great chapter congrats I'll be waiting for next chapter BWEN FOREVER

Thank you, Jason, once again for the review, as always.

Next Chapter: The next day at school, Ben gets into an altercation with Brad. And to makes matters worse, he has an argument with Gwen.