Bellwood, New York, June 2nd, 2010; 3:36PM.
Ben and Gwen had enjoyed the first few months of their relationship so far, even if they kept it a total secret from friends and family, part of that only made it more appealing like a forbidden love, at least from Gwen's perspective. Being the end of the school year, both iconic cousins had more than enough time off from their individual responsibilities but, instead of taking that time to up their game as crime fighters… the two love birds couldn't help but embrace the beginning of their first summer vacation as a secret couple. The last supernatural threat to enter their lives was Charmcaster and they hadn't heard from her since that evening in the woods so, they were more than ready for three months of rest and relaxation, together.
After jumping off the bus, Gwen rushed through her house passing the kitchen to head into her room where she dropped her bag, quickly taking her shirt off leaving her just in her cotton white bra as she kicked the door shut behind her all in one movement. Her parents would be at work until at least four-thirty so that only gave her less than an hour to get ready. Opening her closet doors, she looked through her multitude of outfits but couldn't decide on a blouse to wear before her thoughts were interrupted by a buzzing in her jean pocket; she backed away from the closet to pull out her phone, stepping back and falling into her bed still topless as she read her texts from her doofus.
"Are you still coming over?" – Ben She thought it might have been a bit suspicious if anyone were to see it but, couldn't help but add the heart next to his contact name on her phone; even as strict as her parents were, they no longer went through her things without permission which made her feel a bit more comfortable with the idea.
She gave a slight smile as she pulled her phone closer to her face, rolling onto her side, typing quickly into the pad on her phone with a smile she didn't even know she was wearing, "Duh, getting dressed now, babe," After learning that Ben Cash and J.T, the only two people in either of their lives, that would forcibly go through their texts, she had gotten used to using cute nicknames with him. It was going to be their first public date today since they became an official couple in February, a movie date where they could cuddle in the anonymity of a late-afternoon dark theatre. She waited a minute or two for a response but, didn't get one before she lost interest, closing the phone, and focusing back up on her wardrobe.
She tossed it onto the bed behind her as Gwen sat up and looked at her closet, how could she decide what to wear? Was it too dark in a theatre to matter, just going with a casual shirt and his windbreaker? Or should she dress up to make a good impression in a nicer blouse with some jewelry and a jean jacket? Did her hair even look okay? At least the cut she'd gotten made it easier to manage but, how could she tell? All her insecurities rung through her brain like a thundering bell, dating was arguably more difficult than fighting off stone creatures or mutated squid monsters.
Gwen gave a long sigh walking up to the rack of clothes and staring at each one individually, imagining how it would look on her, taking the colors into account, the visibility of her bra, how it would match with her jeans or if she should even wear jeans in the first place. Putting a finger over her chin for a second, she got an idea for an outfit in her head, unclasping her bra and tossing it into the dirty hamper bin, she switched it out for one which had straps with a turquoise shade. Picking out a matching dark blue low-cut blouse that allowed one sleeve to fall half-way down her arm, showing off the bra strap purposefully. It matched her jeans and was bound to get a cute reaction from Ben, sitting down in her desk chair, she looked at the handheld mirror in front of her. Using it to apply a small amount of foundation and a maroon shaded lipstick that accentuated her lips as she puckered them a few times, which was better for kissing and she planned to take full advantage.
Before she had even put her shoes on, she heard the doorbell ring from across the flat, which was odd as anyone that she could be expecting had a key or could have called her to let them in; even the delivery man usually knocked rather than used the doorbell. She stood from her desk and grabbed her phone off the pillow it had landed on and found no new texts or missed calls, so naturally she rounded the corner pocketing her phone and walked through the hall to the door; looking through the peephole, it was Ben standing on her front porch but, why was he early? Gwen opened the door but, instead of greeting her he looked around the inside of her house in an odd manner.
"I thought we were gonna meet at your house, doofus?" Gwen spoke up first, still holding the door half-way open and leaning against it bringing Ben suddenly back to his senses.
Clearing his throat and giving her a half smile that she didn't recognize, he spoke up to explain himself, "Right, sorry, I forgot… something at the school and now I'm… here," he tried looking passed her again, as if he was looking for someone in the house with her, barely paying attention to her.
"Ben? Are you okay?" Gwen took a step forward, folding her arms in concern as she leaned against her door frame, "You're acting strange, even for you," she reached out for his hand to pull him into a hug but, he recoiled at her touch, "Did you change your mind about our plans?" she asked in confusion.
He backed away and tapped his fingers together as if thinking, "Our plans! Of course, no, I was just going to head to my home before we… we… went…" Ben looked up at the sky for a second as if trying to guess their plans, sounding it out; she glanced down at his Omnitrix and noticed the dial was bright crimson.
"To the movies…? Did you go hero again without me? I thought we talked about that," Gwen finished with an attitude as she stared at his watch, still glowing bright red normally signifying that it had recently times out.
"Why would yo-?" He started before looking down at his watch and suddenly recognizing what she was referring to, "Oh, of course, that's right, it needs to recharge because I used it to… patrol?" he said almost as if he was asking a question, as if he were improvising every line, giving Gwen pause for suspicion, "Just using the Kincel- I mean XLR8 to do a few sweeps… of the town; should we go now?" he seemed to be in some sort of rush to get to his own house for some reason, and she knew her doofus never really enjoyed hanging out there.
Gwen ignited the bright-blue aura in her eyes, which he backed away from as she glanced over his aura and it definitely was Ben Tennyson; she couldn't read his mind but, she could feel that he wasn't under any sort of hypnosis or external mind control, her eyes returned to normal as she reached out and pulled on his cheeks, "Are you sure you're you?" trying to remove the masks she'd seen the DNAliens wear while impersonating the Forever Knights.
Ben backed away again at her touch, as if it almost disgusted him swatting her hand away from his face, "Of course, I'm Ben Tennyson," he said with an attitude, over pronouncing his own name, turning around abruptly, "We were going to the movies but, first I need to stop by hi- my house…" he spoke without looking at her, but she only rolled her eyes as this wasn't totally something out of the normal for them.
"Well, come inside and wait while I finish getting ready…" Gwen suggested turning to leave the door opened for him as she walked away and rounded the corner in her house toward her room; he waited for her to be out of sight before slowly walking up the steps into her one story complex.
He took a glance around as if he'd never seen it before, he passed a wall of expensive dishes and collectible porcelain tea-pots, rows of framed pictures of Gwen and her parents on different trips; there were pictures of her successful achievements as a cheerleader in middle school, a gymnast, an academic scholar, an expert martial artist but, he only scoffed pretentiously.
Ben kept walking as he looked up at the ceiling for a moment, noticing the architectural structure of the interconnecting building; he passed another row of picture frames, the last of which was Maxwell, Gwen, and Ben Tennyson from when they were ten years old taken on that fateful summer trip… his hands shook with an unrivaled fury as he stared at the insipid device on the wrist of the boy in the picture. His eyes flashed crimson for the briefest instant as he placed his thumb over the glass, rubbing it slowly before pressing down, his eye twitched as he accidentally put too much pressure on the picture, cracking the glass in the frame.
"Alright, I'm ready to go!" Gwen announced from the hall as he put the picture frame back on the counter, placing it at the perfect angle so that she wouldn't notice the single crack running through the picture of Ben's face, "How do I look?"
He didn't bother to look, heading for the door the moment he heard she was ready, "Fine I guess, let's go."
"What is it you needed at your house again?" She shouted with a disappointed huff, he didn't even glance at her on the way out, even after all the work she put into her outfit and the thought she put into picking out each article of clothing, as he walked out the door that he'd left open without even commenting, "Uhm, the tickets… for the movie theatre, we need to pick them up…" He walked down the steps and looked around on the street, she couldn't put her finger on it but, Ben was either having a psychotic breakdown or maybe he was just as nervous as she was? "Are you coming?" He asked from the sidewalk.
Gwen raised her brow, feeling a bit smushed that she didn't receive a single compliment from her boyfriend on the outfit she painstakingly chose for their first real date but, she responded unenthusiastically anyways, "Yea, yea… I'm coming," she used her key to lock the door behind her before walking down the steps, reaching out to grab his hand as had become habit when they were relatively alone like now. Ben had admitted on several occasions that he loved holding her hand because it felt so small in his, even though she could bend him into a pretzel with the same hands.
However, before even managing to touch him, he started walking away from her a bit faster, leaving her flabbergasted as he didn't look back leaving her to just put her hands on her hips and followed behind him by a foot or two, "What, you're back to thinking I have cooties?" she asked frustratedly.
"What are you on about?" He responded as it seemed he was letting her lead the way while still managing to stay a few paces away from her.
Gwen stopped walking, folding her arms, and looking back toward the street nervously, "D-Did I do something wrong?" she asked in a light whisper.
Ben turned around with another unfamiliar half smile as they walked down several blocks, putting his hands on his own hips in confusion, "What're you talking about, cuz?" The two had practically banned that word from their vocabulary when they started dating, it felt too weird and only let it slide when it was out of their control like with family and friends from school.
She took a few steps forwards still hugging her own arms, slowly reaching out as her hand enveloped with a light blue aura, "Did you get into a fight and lose your memory or something?" Gwen put her hand on his forehead to feel his temperature and read his energy but, it didn't feel like he was suffering from a fever or any sort of amnesia.
"I'm fine," Ben whined as he swatted her away a bit and waited for Gwen to pass him as she turned into an alley that cut through two buildings leading to the sidewalk that would take them to his house only six or seven blocks away; he followed after her as he insisted, "What's got you so worked up anyways?"
"You won't hold my hand, you wont hug me, you didn't say a word about my outfit!" Gwen shouted as she counted off the reasons she was aggravated on her fingers, "And this is supposed to be our first real date…"
"H-Huh?" Ben responded as Gwen turned to look him in the eye with a simply floored expression… did she get dropped in some alternate reality or something? Or maybe she tripped and hit her head while doing her make up and this was all a dream…
As they walked through the alley, Gwen was going to start explaining to him all of the reasons she felt he was acting totally abnormal but before she could, four kids that she recognized from their school stepped out from either end of the alleyway, "I told you guys, Tennyson and his redneck girlfriend take this route to Ben's house all the time," Cash announced as he stepped up in front of them holding an iron rod in his hand, patting his opposing hand with it.
He had J.T with him holding a similar steel pipe along with two other unarmed kids she recognized but didn't know the names of still being relatively new to the school; Gwen took a few steps forwards, "What? Are you going to beat on a little girl too?"
"Pfft," Cash scoffed as the two unnamed burly eleventh graders approached her, cornering her between the wall and a dumpster but, she wasn't scared of them in the slightest, "We're just here for payback, breaking my nose and J.T's ankle, we're gonna teach you a lesson! The bloody way…"
Gwen looked Ben in the eye, shaking her head and signaling him to run as she saw his watch was still in the red from whatever he was doing before he got to her house but, instead she saw him mouthing something, "Four targets, two exits, two armed; incapacitate the firsts ability to retreat before disabling the second…" If Gwen hadn't been studying sign language and learning to read lips, she probably never would have made heads or tails of his personal whispers but, it was all said so fast, he never analyzed his surroundings like that before, not so comprehensively.
"What's that, loser?" Cash asked sarcastically.
Ben only blinked at them, as if he was wondering if this was some sort of joke or not, it wasn't until Cash took a few steps forward gripping the rod with both hands like a baseball bat that he demanded an answer; "I said, I advise against that course of action," he smiled at the bully with more confidence than Cash was expecting but, his eyes continued to glare intimidatingly as sweat trickled down the attackers temple.
The two unknown men didn't touch Gwen and wouldn't unless she attempted to intervene but, owed Cash a favor so they helped him anyways; she didn't make a move only because Ben definitely did not sound like himself just then and the way he was acting only made things more suspicious; even if it was the real Ben, he could handle a few bullies either way, he knew how to hold back his strength.
Cash reeled back and took his time getting ready to swing, trying to intimidate Ben as thoroughly as he could but, it didn't take and almost saw a yawn breaking out when he decided to go for the full swing. It could have taken his jaw clean off its hinges had it made contact but, instead Ben caught it in one hand without breaking eye contact before the swing landed, tearing it from his grip pretty easily, he looked over the rod, "You intended to bludgeon me with this primitive item; violence once sickened me but, now I see things…" he brushed his fingers across the rust on the rod before looking up at Cash who backed up in confusion, gripping it tightly and back handing him with it so hard it sent a splatter of blood across the ground and the boy to one knee, holding his face, "In a different light!" He practically shouted as he held the rod in both hands, forming a sinister smile, Gwen watched in horror as he adjusted his grip and impaled the bully through the back of his thigh with a blood curdling scream.
"Ben!? What the hell is wrong with you!?" Gwen shouted at the top of her lungs as the iron rod dug through his flesh and into the concrete below them, keeping the boy pinned and screaming; Ben had a bit of blood not his own splattered across his cheek and only smeared it away nonchalantly before ducking under a swing he couldn't possibly have seen coming.
J.T used the pipe he was holding as a weapon to swing more rapidly, not taking any chances on underestimating him after what he'd just seen. He swung for the head as Ben dipped backwards narrowly avoiding the strike, he then transitioned into ducking forward dodging the subsequent back swing. As he bobbed and weaved through his wild and untrained swings, he thought he was about to make contact when Ben caught him by the wrist, severing his radiocarpal joint from his radius and catching the pipe in his hand before it fell, J.T fell to one knee holding his now severely shattered wrist, shouting for mercy. Turning quickly, Ben back handed the boy in the right temple with the metal pipe, knocking him out cold and possibly causing brain damage.
He dragged the bloody pipe over to the still groaning and screaming Cash who was in between sobs and begging mumbles as spit and blood sputtered from his lips; "Apologies, it's to my understanding that you antagonize Ben Tennyson quite often, in fact, I have vivid memories of it…" it felt like he'd finally snapped, she heard that he'd beaten on them for calling them names but this was… masochistic… "I'm afraid I'll have to enlighten you myself in a manner your species seems to be the most familiar with… the bloody way, as you put it verbatim," Ben didn't hesitate to swing at Cash's head like a golf-ball with a full recoiled hit to the back of his head. It wasn't totally clear if he was dead or not but, Ben didn't seem to care either way, "Do either of you wish to be educated as well?" He let Cash's blood drip off the pipe he was holding as he pointed it at them, pools of crimson dripping towards his shoes.
They looked between one another, not even knowing Cash well enough to be involved, they slowly shifted away from Gwen, not daring to touch her now, as they sprinted back down the alley they came from heading towards the street; Ben tossed the bloody pipe which clattered on the ground next to them, as the blood soaked his hands as well, "Are we going to go to the movies or what?" he asked with a smile, blood still smeared across his left cheek.
Gwen was still backed into the corner between a dumpster and the wall, she only responded when her phone buzzed in her pocket, startling her from daze; something was clearly very wrong and she needed to call Grandpa as soon as possible, this buzzing was the perfect excuse to pull out her phone, "Yea, that's probably my Mom so I should text her back."
Ben gave her another half-smile, turning around as he kicked Cash's unconscious and bleeding out body lightly hearing a barely audible groan, "Sure thing…" he narrowed his eyes down at the body, as if disgusted by the very fact that it existed, "thirty-two percent chance you'll live… and dropping," He finished with a smile.
Gwen flipped her phone open and it was a text message from the last person she was expecting, "Hurry up, dweeb, our movie starts soon! – Ben" Her eyes widened as she glanced back up at the back of the now obvious imposter's head, she'd left her Charms and sleeve at home so, the only power she had was the magic she memorized and her martial arts. Was he another one of those hive-mind creatures pretending to be Ben with some high-tech disguise but, if this person was already impersonating him, why didn't they take his phone? In fact, why would they need to be practically led to his house? Gwen didn't have time to put it all together as she quickly looked back down to her phone.
Typing back as quickly as she could while he was distracted with Cash's unconscious body, texting back a ping with her current location along with the message, "Something isn't right! 911!" She managed to link two people to the text-chain being Ben and her Grandfather only barely managing to hit send before he suddenly caught her arm, forcing her to drop her phone to the ground as he proceeded to crush it beneath his boot.
"There's an eighty-nine percent chance you already know I'm not Ben Tennyson and a ninety-two point seven-five percent chance that you just contacted him," Ben reached up to his eyes and acted as though he were removing contacts, keeping her forearm in his hand tightly as he took them out with his index and thumb, "Hence, I don't need to hide my identity as his arrival is nigh…" as he pulled the sophisticated contact-lenses from his eyes obviously being far more advanced than the I.D masks the DNAliens were using, they turned a deep shade of crimson instead of emerald and sent a wave of bio-energy across his body that altered his appearance in only minor ways. His hair turned bright silver, his black hoodie with emerald trim became a white hoodie with crimson trim, and his shoes went from white sneakers to black ones.
"W-Who the hell are you?!" She shouted as she pulled from him trying to break his grip with her other arm but, he wasn't just as strong as Ben, he was stronger; maybe if she had her Keystone she could've broken free but, this was supposed to be a normal date.
He didn't respond, looking down the opposing end of the street, narrowing his eyes in wait, "It would be counterintuitive to explain now, in eight-point-three seconds, Ben Tennyson will run down that street in his Kineceleran form… he will undoubtedly ask the same questions you are so desperately considering…"
"How do you-" Before she could finish her question, a black and white blur sped through the alley, sending gusts of wind in and out of the area; in the blink of an eye, he dashed by both Cash and J.T, scooping them up to drop them at the nearest hospital, from Gwen's perspective, they just vanished in a burst of speed one by one. XLR8 finished his flurry of movements by whisking her off her feet and speeding to a halt across the alley facing the imposter who only smiled as he looked at his empty hand, turning to face them himself.
A flash of green light exploded as the velociraptor tapped the symbol on his chest, returning to his human form, "What's going on, are you okay? You look great by the way," Ben did his best to keep calm but, as he finished his sentence, she knew it was her doofus, the look in his eyes and the way he spoke, she couldn't help jumping into his arms for a warm hug.
"I'm okay, now that you're here…" Gwen whispered as she took a step back and turned to look at the inverted imposter but, Ben unexpectedly wrapped a hand around her waist, pulling her close to him as their hips touched, which only calmed her nerves as he turned to look his twin in the eye; he looked different enough so that they wouldn't get confused between the two but, that still left so many questions unanswered.
He stepped forward with his hands behind his back, he used a very formal stance as if he'd been in the military for decades, taking a distinguished strut forwards, obviously some sort of intellectual, "You have many questions, and although the device has altered your genetic code, you remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand, and some of them you will not. Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also… irrelevant."
Ben immediately started by asking the very first question that came to his mind, the same one the imposter predicted he would ask first, "Who are you?"
He gave a long exasperated sigh and closed his eyes, having predicted every single thing he could ask, it became quite underwhelming to answer when he was running out of time, "My name is Albedo, I'm naturally a Galvan species hailing from Galvan Prime but, I made a miscalculation when I was attempting to construct this," He held his arm up, pulling back his white sleeve to show them that the dial to his identical Omnitrix wasn't simply in recharge mode but, was illuminated crimson naturally instead, "I was Azmuth's most trusted assistant on the construction of the Omnimatrix prototype, if he is the father of the Omnitrix I would undoubtedly be its mother."
Ben scoffed and pulled Gwen a bit closer by her waist, making her heart skip a beat even though it was a horrible time for that, she was more than grateful that he was too busy listening to see the heat rising in her cheeks, "Good for you, that doesn't explain why you're walking around pretending to be me… I know I'm good looking but, most chicks are into individuality," Suddenly, he gave Albedo a goofy grin that Gwen was totally familiar with, like something she'd never known she needed till she lost it, if only briefly. It was the light that shun through the darkness that constantly plagued him and weighed him down, the cloud that hung over his head occasionally let sun-light through in the form of that damned smile.
"The core to my Omnimatrix is unstable and the efforts I've made to rectify this has damaged this form beyond repair, it's functionable but, I have odd cravings for cheese and popcorn… and for some reason I can't stop thinking about that Earth girl!" He shouted in anger, pointing directly at Gwen from across the alley, "Azmuth is the only being in the Universe to stabilize the core reaction within the codon connection; he's gone into self-imposed exile leaving me with only one other option…"
Ben raised his brow, his hand still wrapped around Gwen's waist as she placed a hand on his chest to comfort him, neither really fully understanding what he wanted, or at least, she didn't think they did as Ben spoke up, "You want to take the core of my Omnitrix to fix yours? Why would I ever give the most powerful weapon in the Universe to someone who just brutally attacked relatively innocent teenagers…?" He didn't want to give his former bullies too much credit.
Albedo chuckled as he thought of the rod penetrating Cash's flesh, the blood trickling out mixing with the small amount of rust, before shaking his head as his Omnitrix sparked with a jolt of red-electricity across his arm, "Erghh," his vision blurred for a moment with a ringing in his ears, sending him to rest his hands on his knees, taking deep breaths before he regained his composure, "That was an accident… sort of; the longer this unstable core remains bonded to my DNA, the less control I maintain over my senses," it only took him a few seconds as he took deep breaths to do the complicated mathematics in his head, "In approximately fifteen minutes I will lose all sense of reason and sanity I have left, unless you relinquish the Omnimatrix to me," he was shocked again, this time he convulsed in pain as he backed away a few steps, holding his chest as the watch electrocuted him.
He looked to be in serious pain, as if every moment he wore the watch hurt him physically, becoming more clear as the electrocution became more thorough; this Albedo was clearly being effected and subsequently damaged on the cellular level by the device bonded to his very DNA, "We have to try and help him…" Gwen noted.
Albedo chuckled ominously, a scary laugh that proved the point he was making earlier about his sanity, his eyes darting around him for a moment, "He-he-he, hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strengths, and your greatest weaknesses…" he shook his head again, regaining his composure momentarily.
Ben rolled his eyes and let go of her, slowly taking a step forwards as he folded his arms apprehensively, still not being able to stand watching someone suffer right in front of him, "What happened exactly?"
Albedo stretched his left arm as the electricity sparked just a bit, shocking his wrist, he moved to lean against the brick wall for support as Ben followed with his eyes, "My attempt to recreate the Omnimatrix was a success, but, I… I must have miscalculated…" he looked down to the malfunctioning device bonded to his skin, glowing crimson light shining into his face, "It imprinted the genetic make up for its base sample onto my deoxyribonucleic structure… that being you," he pointed directly at Ben to make his point as most of what he was saying was gibberish to him.
Ben raised his brow, thinking for only a second or two before turning around to give Gwen a confused glare that she knew all too well, "It means his Omnitrix being unstable made his body a copy of yours," she answered as he suddenly nodded in understanding, turning back to face his twin.
Albedo scoffed, ashamed of his stupidity and falling victim to his own hubris, he pulled on his white hoodie and felt appalled, "After my form was altered, I attempted to hack through the system firewalls Azmuth installed so I could access my Galvan form, my original form but, it only succeeded in damaging this physical body," he pushed himself off the wall after gaining his second wind, taking a few steps forward, "With those controls locked, my Omnitrix is synched to yours… I can't remain a Galvan even if I did stabilize my watch."
Ben took a reluctant step back as he raised his brow, keeping his arms folded in suspicion, "So, you need me to give you the core to my Omnitrix or you'll go insane? If I knew how to take it off, I might consider helping you out but…" he shrugged, pulling his own sleeve back to see how the device had fully bonded to his nervous-system.
Albedo looked at the asphalt at his feet, smiling a bit as he noticed the blood starting to dry on the gravel; he suddenly snapped as he growled and lunged at Ben, tackling him onto his back, grabbing his left arm and restraining it, "I wasn't requesting permission, give it to me now!" He was far physically stronger than Ben, pinning him down and mounting his waist as he tried reaching for the watch.
Gwen's eyes and hands ignited a bright blue aura as flames engulfed her fists, "You want the Omnitrix so badly, here!" Ben shouted using his mental connection to the watch to pop the dial before reeling back to slam the dial down on the ground activating the transformation; growing orange fur across his entire body, his spine shifted to a quadrupedal animal with six distinct darker toned tiger stripes down its back, Wildmutt now had sharper claws and fangs as well as a tail sprouting from his back side, "Raaaugh!" he roared as he used his incredibly powerful hind legs to kick Albedo straight up twenty feet into the air, landing on a closed metal dumpster before rolling off onto the ground.
Wildmutt got back onto all fours and shook his fur, sniffing around as it did a circle around Gwen before stopping and sitting next to her, practically heeling for her, "Awe, good boy!" she announced as she stroked the fur running down his back, a slobbering smile on his fanged-face.
Albedo started chuckling from the ground as he slowly pulled himself up onto his feet, he checked his lip with his thumb for a small trickle of blood but, only smeared it onto his white hoodie carelessly, "If you refuse to cooperate politely, I'll simply take drastic measures of my own!" He used the activation button to pop the crimson dial of his own Omnitrix, sounding a deeper hum than Ben's before only turning the dial two or three times and slapping it in an unfamiliar explosion of red light.
Wildmutt sniffed the air with his vision, similar to a thermograph; combined with his enhanced hearing, his senses took on the form of a radar or sonar, allowing him to still perceive his environment clearly. It was this advantage that allowed him to dodge a volley of crimson bioelectricity from a Negative Frankenstrike which narrowly missed Gwen by leaping to the left into the air, digging his claws into the brick as he used the alley wall as a spring-board to tackle the horror-film alien onto his back. He scratched at his opponent's chest with his sharpened claws before being thoroughly electrocuted as Negative Frankenstrike grabbed the Vulpamancer by the leg, using his superior strength to swing the animal through the alley and into a passing car. The car Wildmutt hit folded around his body as the airbags within deployed, skidding horizontally through the street until the rubber tires hit the median, knocking the vehicle onto its side.
Gwen heard the injured whimpering coming from the scene and smelt burning rubber in the air, as the hood caught fire she was prepared to step in until a green explosion erupted with her catching sight of Diamondhead tearing the door off the car and pulling out the female driver, "Run," he said to her bluntly as he put her down and faced Negative Frankenstrike, they waited a second or two for the woman to run screaming away from the scene as passer-byes began panicking as well. Staring each other down, Diamondhead sharpened one of his arms into a blade while keeping the other a solid fist. He rushed forwards with a downward slash that Frankenstrike side-stepped easily, catching the follow up right-hooked fist in his hand before electrocuting him and sending him stumbling backwards.
"I use advanced predictive calculus to create an algorithm in my head that feeds me da probability-data of which moves you'll use and in what ordah," Negative Frankenstrike chuckled in his deep hoarse accent as Diamondhead rushed in with a jab which was quickly deflected by a single palm effortlessly ducking under the follow up bladed left-cross, taking a single step back to avoid a crystal-uppercut and subsequently dipping back to avoid a roundhouse kick before using the microsecond before the Petrosapien's foot touched the ground to blast him back with a bright red bio-electric punch.
Diamondhead flew back into the same car he'd just pulled himself from, this time tearing through it and tumbling to his feet on the other side of the street; he swung his arm through the air launching shards of crystal at his opponents head, they struck the walls around him but, Negative Frankenstrike caught the one aimed for his head and shattered it in the palm of his hand simply by tightening his grip, "In otha words, I know what you are going to do before you do it!" he opened his palm and the crystal had been crushed into dust, "Hand ovah da Omnitrix, now!" his accent was a thick German dialect but, Ben understood him either way.
"In your dreams!" Diamondhead shouted as his other arm slowly shifted into a thick blade, now wielding two sharpened arms as weapons, "Come and get it!" He shouted gathering Albedo's attention as he noticed Gwen preparing a spell behind him, forming seals out of meta-physical energy in between her palms, she really was great at everything and he loved working as a team with her.
"Industria Trabem!" Gwen shouted as her glowing hands lit up bright white before emitting a blast of pure energy that focused into a beam hitting Frankenstrike in the shoulder, toppling him forward a step or two. Giving Diamondhead the opportunity to quickly reform his fists and rush in to land a vicious uppercut, with a follow up right and left cross combo before turning and side-kicking him in the chest, however; this last blow was caught by the ankle, sending the Petrosapien spinning off his feet and onto his back.
Negative Frankenstrike slapped the symbol on his chest, igniting an explosion of crimson energy that once cleared left a hulking Tetramand who walked passed the incapacitated Diamondhead, casually using one of his lower arms to grab him by the ankle, dragging him through the street as he groaned scarping the street with his crystal back, "You continue to fight me even though it has been made abundantly clear that you cannot win so tell me," he swung Diamondhead by the ankle into the side of a convenience store, cracking the concrete with his dense body before swinging him in the opposing direction as he made a trench in the asphalt with his landing, "Which foolish human concept have you clung to that keeps you so pure hearted?" Negative Fourarms quickly approached, grabbing Diamondhead by the collar of his black shirt, pulling him up to eye level before uppercutting him and right crossing him in the chin cracking even his diamond structured jaw, "Is it freedom or truth, perhaps peace – could it be for love? Illusions, vagaries of perception," Gwen covered her mouth in shock as Diamondhead missed a right-left-straight combo before being uppercutted again, gripped by the head by a thick crimson hand and lifted off his feet. Albedo was slowly going insane and was willing to do whatever he needed it took to get the Omnitrix core, even murder, his own prediction came true as all sense of reason left his mind.
Negative Fourarms used one of his free hands to uppercut Diamondhead once again only in the solar-plexus this time as he continued his rant, "Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose," He turned and tossed the beaten Petrosapien across the street, hitting a concrete barricade set up by the police and military nearly cracking it in two. They were now closing off the area to the public as helicopters surrounded them and camouflage SUV's started pulling in on either side of the street, "And all of them as artificial as the Omnimatrix itself… Although, only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love," Fourarms nearly spat when he referred to the emotions he displayed for Gwen who he noticed with all four of his eyes was still watching from the alleyway only a few hundred feet away, "Speaking of whom…" He slapped his crimson Omnitrix and exploded in a flash of light.
Diamondhead just barely picked himself up, falling to one knee as he looked around, the transformation leaving nothing in its place; Gwen kept her guard up as she backed away into the alley, that was futile as she felt a presence phase up from the ground behind her, not daring to turn until she felt incredibly long sharp claws grab hold of her shoulders, she wanted to scream seeing Ghostfreak again as she quickly fired another mystical beam right through him but, he only responded by opening up his chest and flashing a volley of stripped tentacles, hissing at her with a cackled laugh; though this was just Albedo trying to scare her, it still brought back the nightmares of Zs'Skayr and his mutated monstrous minions.
"Stay away from her!" Diamondhead shouted as he quickly pulled himself up with reserves of strength he didn't know he had left, launching a quarter dozen shards at him from his forearm but, they phased right through his ghostly body, piercing through the dumpster at the end of the alley instead.
Negative Ghostfreak was in his true form, a phantom with a mishappen greyish-purple body and an upside down skull with a single eye, Albedo knew the potential an Ectonurite had especially in a case like this; he cackled as he phased through Gwen, melding into her body and possessing it as she convulsed for a second, an unwelcomed familiar feeling that stressed every muscle in her body as she fought for control.
"No!" Diamondhead shouted as he approached the alleyway again as quickly as his injured body could.
The whites of her eyes flooded black and her pupils turned crimson-red as Albedo looked over Gwen's much smaller hands, the resistance finally settling, "This body could prove quite useful, above average human intelligence and-" he quickly did a back flip onto the dumpster he'd landed on earlier with ease, showing off her natural acrobatic talent, "I think she'll make a fine ragdoll to toss off a building!" he used his identical memories to Ben's for psychological warfare, if not just to have fun considering he was slowly losing his mind, using his fears against him was tactically effective.
Albedo used Gwen's body to summon her most basic energy manipulation spells, firing tiny concussive blasts at him from atop the dumpster as he shielded his face with his thick-crystal forearms; one of the blasts refracted back at the dumpster, knocking her onto her back but, still not off the giant metal receptacle.
"Get out of her!" Diamondhead shouted as he stampeded toward her, slapping his Omnitrix transforming mid-sprint in an explosion of emerald light into Big Chill as he turned intangible spreading his wings, flying through Gwen controlling his own abilities to keep from freezing her but, simultaneously forcing the Ectonurite out of its host as they struggled in the air, pushing against one another, claw to claw; "How did you know that would work?!" Negative Ghostfreak shouted in a raspy voice as he floated back, separating them by firing a beam of dark energy from within his tentacles before retreating into the shade beneath the fire-escape bolted the wall next to them.
"Intangible cancels out intangible, duh, genius," Big Chill announced as he stopped his momentum and sent a quick exhale of ice, freezing the entire alley way solid but, with no sign of a trapped Albedo; he likely phased through the attack to escape using his ghostly prowess to vanish for a quick strategic reprieve.
Gwen felt fatigued as she stood up and immediately fell back off the dumpster, only managing to avoid hitting the ground due to Big Chill landing behind her and catching her in his arms, "I always hated that…" she muttered and held her head fighting off a splitting headache that was forming under the bridge of her nose, his wings folded back into a cloak as he let her down to her feet, where she slowly stumbled.
"Are you okay?" He asked with a raspy exhale.
Gwen nodded with a half-smile, feeling a shiver run up her back from the unwilling body control, she hugged her arms and placed her back against the dumpster, looking up at him with pleading eyes, "Just finish this already so we can go to the movies!" she practically shouted in frustration, still clinging to the plans they likely wouldn't get to now, being freezing cold from the Necrofrigian's attack and thoroughly traumatized by the Ectonurites possession.
Big Chill transformed instantly at the sound of another identical genetic explosion, two versions of the Kineceleran known as XLR8 appeared to be facing each other now; one had crimson stripes and the other white, that being their only difference when both visors slid down to cover their faces. They took off in a burst of speed that forced Gwen to keep her blouse down with her hands; both traveling through the city at over two hundred times the speed of sound shattered glass on the surrounding buildings for miles, like blurs they tried swinging at one another as they ran. Running outside of the city in under half a second they were traveling hundreds of miles as they simultaneously fought, Negative XLR8 and XLR8 trying to catch one another in microsecond increments.
XLR8 finally managed to stop Negative XLR8 as they were running on a freeway, shoving him at their velocity into a car trying to pin him there as they both quickly went through a blur of combative martial arts; Ben ducked under a swing before being grabbed by Albedo with his claws and tossing him into the car adjacent to them at super speeds, with the latter pinning the former against a dented sedan, shattering the driver's side window. XLR8 managed to backhand his identical enemy hard enough to grant him the momentary advantage he needed to escape by dashing off towards the next city over, knowing exactly where he could fight uninterrupted.
…
New York City; New York; June 2nd, 2010; 5:46PM
The two speedsters made a race of their fight as Albedo was gaining on Ben quickly, he turned corner after corner, avoiding being caught by the smallest of chances; XLR8 turned a corner quickly enough to stop and leave his leg out, allowing Albedo to trip over it and tumble into a taxi at mach three before rolling onto the ground on his hands and knees.
XLR8 chuckled as his visor slid up briefly just to taunt his opponent, "You can't catch me," sticking his tongue out, he slid his visor down quickly and took off in a blur toward the Empire State Building as Negative XLR8 took the bait and followed him; the bystanders were shocked to see what they had seen but, had long since heard of the those alien heroes in the news so, they weren't thrown into a panic.
They both ran up the side of the tallest building in the city until they made it to the roof where they had a relatively expansive area to fight; although, due to the nature of their speed, it was only a vortex of white and crimson that could be seen once they dashed into action. They sped around one another fighting at velocities that moved beyond the human eyes ability to process information.
Eventually, seconds from the perspective of anyone who was looking on from outside of the two, XLR8 flew from the fray as an immensely powerful strike to the chest sent him through the air and into an electrical box, leaving a large dent in it with his body as sparks flew around them, his visor slid up only so he cloud spit blood into the white gravel. He looked down and noticed a cut on his shin, this was getting more out of hand than he was expecting, at least Gwen was safe though, that was all that mattered to him, "I can feel it, you know," Negative XLR8 shouted as his own red visor lifted to look XLR8 in the emerald eyes, "You're incredibly concerned for the safety of that cousin of yours, I can't tell why just yet but I can tell she means a lot to you…"
"Leave her out of this," He demanded as he got to one knee, still catching his breath from battling someone with every single one of his powers, he'd never fought another speedster as XLR8 before and had no experience dealing with an enemy of this versatility, "This is between you and me, pal."
"On the contrary, I believe she can be used as an effective bargaining chip…" Negative XLR8's red visor slid back down as he dashed off the rooftop in a blur of red and black leaving a cloud of white gravel dust in his wake; XLR8 wasn't too slow to follow but, took nearly an entire second before racing off after his evil twin.
…
Bellwood, New York, June 2nd, 2010; 5:47PM.
Gwen blinked as she looked down the street watching the speedsters fight an unbelievable speeds, they'd only been gone a single minute after turning the corner out of sight when they reappeared around the corner from the opposing side of the street, Negative XLR8 only slightly ahead of XLR8 but, Ben had enough determination to run up the wall around his opponent to pass the twin, scooping her up in the process just in time to keep him from her, "Like I said," XLR8 shouted as both Kineceleran raised their visors, "Leave her out of this!" She held on tightly to him, feeling his heartbeat racing as though he was out of breath, and she'd never seen XLR8 out of breath before.
Negative XLR8 transformed again into Negative Upchuck with a simple slap of his Omnitrix, not thinking twice before consuming the entire dumpster juxtaposed to him with XLR8 putting Gwen down so she could give him a nod and jog a block away to get to safety, Upchuck's mouth opening to an unnatural degree inhaling it all at once and also giving him a large supply of ammunition to use against his opponent.
XLR8 fell to his hands and knees, looking up at the green energy forming in the stomach of his enemy before slapping the Omnitrix symbol, transforming into Chromastone with an emerald explosion; standing up, he allowed the Murk Gourmand to fire several energy spheres which hit their targets being the center of his chest with unrivaled accuracy only, the energy redirected through the crystals on his back, and into his arms where he fired it back at the ground at his feet. Upchuck flew back through the air from the force into the wall at the end of the alley now that the dumpster was gone.
Firing two more orbs of emerald bio-energy at Chromastone was useless as even swatting them away allowed him to absorb the energy he was hit with; giving him his own ammunition to concentrate rainbow-cascaded energy across his stone body into a beam to fire back but, not at Negative Upchuck. That would just send them into a loop of absorption and redirection, instead he fired at the brick wall at the end of the alley above him collapsing ten tons of brick and stone on his head.
From within the rubble another flash of crimson light went off before Negative Eye-Guy used his enhanced strength to break free of the rubble sending debris out around him; he didn't say a word as four eyes melded together on his right arm to form a beam of ice that blasted at Chromastone, something he couldn't absorb.
He blocked the elemental beam by crossing his forearms and allowing the ice to flow over him, simply powering through it with raw momentum, finding that Chromastone could even rival Fourarms in physical strength, breaking the ice as he stepped through the beam; he countered with a rainbow-beam of reabsorbed kinetic energy totally over shadowing the ice beam and knocking Albedo back twenty feet.
Negative Eye-Guy stood slowly and flexed his muscles with a snarl, further proving he was losing himself in his transformations, before he sprinted forward with his fist out stretched leaving Chromastone to follow his example by reeling his own fist back, ready to collide with enough raw energy that the resulting shockwave would level the entire city block, however; Eye-Guy dropped his lowered his fist and stopped himself when a crimson explosion engulfed Ben and sent his watch into recharge mode… and sent him flying into the Opticoid's bare chest, toppling to the ground in front of him.
"See? Your Omnitrix has failed you! Leaving you open to-" Eye-Guy stopped suddenly; Surprisingly and ironically, an inverted emerald explosion went off as Albedo's Omnitrix also entered its own recharge mode, "No!" he shouted as the electrocution started more thoroughly this time, bringing him to his knees as Ben stood up.
He dusted off his hoodie as he looked up at the helicopters aiming cameras down at him, sighing and shaking his head, so much for his secret identity, "Duh, doofus! You said our watches were linked, you only transformed like a few seconds after I did…" whatever that watch was doing to him was obviously effecting his intelligence.
Albedo was shocked again by the crimson voltage surging from his Omnitrix as he convulsed for a moment and looked up at Ben with a blood lust, "This is all your fault! I don't need an Omnitrix to take yours!" he shouted as he jumped and right crossed Ben in the cheek, sending him back a few steps; Gwen was going to intervene but, right now the cameras were focused on him and he wanted it to stay that way. He motioned for her to stay hidden in the wreckage of the alley, he was really signaling for her to run from the scene entirely but, she could never leave him like that. She backed up behind the wreckage of the frozen fire-escape, looking over the shrapnel as Ben tried his best to fight off Albedo; maneuvering around a few of his attacks but, even though he had Ben's body, he still had minor enhanced strength, enough that his fists left imprints in the asphalt when he missed his target. Ben couldn't land a single hit as Albedo still had enough of his sanity to use calculus to predict his movements, "Relinquish it to me before I'm forced to kill you and take it!"
Gwen turned with her fists glowing with a faint aura at the sound of a vehicle approaching from behind but, her nerves calmed down when she noticed it was the Rustbucket pulling in from the other end of the alley. She huffed, putting her hands on her knees and letting her magic disperse, she was exhausted without the Keystone amping her stamina to unnatural degrees; Max stepped out of the vehicle, approaching his Granddaughter, "I got your text, pumpkin, what in blazes is going on here?! Are you okay?" he looked out into the street at Ben trying his best to keep up with the identical copy, he then spotted the choppers above them recording the scene.
"I'm fine… sorta, evil twin, two watches, lots of fighting…" Gwen spoke between deep breaths as just summoning powerful spells without her Charms or Spellbook taxed her body more than she cared to admit, something she would have to start working on, finally catching her breath, "Ben's Omnitrix needs to recharge, those cameras can see his face!" Gwen pointed up at one of the many news helicopters pointed down at the fist fight going on in the middle of the street, the police were now prepared to get involved but, Max knew he couldn't let that happen.
He turned on a dime without a second to waste or explain, he got into the back of the Rustbucket and turned over the counter underneath the new flatscreen he imbedded in the cabinet above; the counter once flipped had a silver panel with dials and switches lit up all across it, "Grandpa, what is all this?"
"An electro-magnetic-pulse generator that's going to fry every digital recording device within fifteen miles; I just have to make sure I don't knock helicopters out of the sky too," Max fiddled with each knob just a bit as he found the right frequency for each one, flipping specific switches in a specific order to target certain types of devices, "I hope you didn't like your cell-phone…" he noted as he grabbed hold of a large handle.
"It was crushed in the fighting already so, go for it," Gwen gave an exasperated sigh and a thumbs up as her focus shifted to the two twins going for blows out on the street between two police blockades; he pulled the lever down as a magnetic wave exploded outward omnidirectionally in an invisible field from the dish atop the Rustbucket that fried every single communicative or recording device including but not limited to cameras, computers, smartphones, and even satellite imaging saving Ben's identity from the general public for the time being.
Albedo tumbled in the street with Ben as suddenly their watches began to spark, now even the fully stable original Omnitrix was sending out emerald sparks that connected with the crimson ones already effecting the mutated Galvan; both of their watches magnetically connected by the dial, knocking them both over onto the ground, tumbling around on the street as an energy field formed around them.
"What did you do?!" Ben shouted as he tried to get on top but, was pulled back and forced to move over.
Albedo pulled on his arm but, was only tugged back down onto the ground, "Me?! its clear the proximity of the two cores somehow created a bio-energy feedback!" as the pulse grew in power the crimson/emerald energy surged as it surrounded them and exploded outward like a small hydrogen bomb, similar to the energy waves exerted when the Omnitrix was in self-destruct mode, leaving both teenagers unharmed but, toppling both ends of the police barricade along with a massive amount of smoke.
Gwen closed the door to the Rustbucket as they drove into the street, using the massive recreational vehicle to block the scene from reporters, police officers, and military personal, some of which he recognized on sight. As he parked, Max got out and faced the two still struggling in a seared crater in the asphalt that still smoked, "Get off!"
"You first!"
Suddenly, Albedo went quiet as he felt something that terrified him, an energy signature he hadn't felt in nearly a hundred years, the sky turned dark as the clouds overcast the sun and there was a loud clap of thunder that made them all cover their ears; the buildings vibrated as if quivering as the clouds parted and a beam of neon-green light cut through the sky hitting the ground fifteen feet away from them, narrowing to a much smaller size.
"He's here!" Albedo announced in fear, backing away a step or two with hesitation.
Max shielded his eyes from the light as he was the least informed of them all, "He, who?!" He shouted over the roar of the energy that teleported a Galvan into their presence from half-way across the Galaxy.
"Azmuth," Ben and Albedo announced simultaneously as the smoke cleared and from it stepped an old Galvan man with long tendril-like whiskers in a dark-green jumpsuit with the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. He held a cane in one hand and the other behind his back as the eight-inch tall frog-alien approached with his eyes closed.
"Yes, it is I, Azmuth; creator of the Omnitrix and smartest known being in the collective observable Universe, blah-blah," He kept with his approach, walking toward the two twins now connected at the wrist and on the ground, "Tumbling in the dirt, I knew humans were primitive but, when I left the Omnitrix with you I wasn't expecting… this," he gestured to the scene created by the fight that had just been waged.
Ben stuttered trying desperately not to look foolish or irresponsible, "Azmuth I can explain, he-"
"It is alright, kid, I've been made well aware of the bootlegged unstable inferior copy my former assistant made of my Omnitrix in spite of my many cautions," Azmuth approached them both and cleared his throat, looking directly at the two watches, "Proximity lock: disengage."
The Omnitrixes responded to his voice as they both suddenly separated, Albedo was prepared to get up and try his best to avoid them all, he was frozen in his tracks by a stunning electrocution when the unstable core fused to his wrist sent him to his knees; Azmuth just closed his eyes and shook his head, "I told you there would be disastrous consequences to attempting the delicate construction of a codon connection core, but you insisted on being the fools jester," As he convulsed in pain, Azmuth approached and twisted the dial on the counterfeit watch, three times to the left and twice to the right; whatever command he entered stopped the violent electrocution leaving his body near unconscious.
Ben stood up and backed away, looking around and finding Gwen watching from just outside the Rustbucket with a concerned look on her face, not only concerned but disappointed in the afternoon's result as not only was the sun going down but, they had completely missed their movie. She was so nervous about messing up their first public date and, it didn't even happen in the first place.
Max approached Azmuth and introduced himself simply by standing over him as he fiddled with Albedo's Omnitrix, "I'm Maxwell Tennyson, Ben's Grandfather, we didn't get to meet the last time-"
Azmuth didn't even look up at the retired Plumber, "Yes, yes, I know all about you Magister Tennyson," he tried pulling the unstable core from the bonded watch to at least keep him from using it but, the bio-energy feedback had fried the disengaging module, making it impossible to deactivate, "It seems that removing this device from his wrist would take effort I'm not willing to exert, however; I will provide you with these," he materialized from his own teleportation beam a set of Galvan made power-dampening cuffs that would bind his hands and wrists together as well keep him neutralized, "Level twelve binding cuffs, even someone with an above average intelligence like Albedo couldn't hack free of them."
Max pulled Albedo's recovering body onto its knees and forced his arms together so that Azmuth could shackle his wrists, covering the unstable device, "Above average? I am a genius second to no one! AGh!" he shouted and snarled as Max restrained his ankles tossing him into the Rustbucket, sedating him for the time being until he could get a trustworthy Plumber connection have him properly transferred.
Ben leaned up against the Rustbucket next to Gwen, he didn't say anything until Azmuth and Max had finally restrained Albedo but, he didn't say anything still; he just reached out and grabbed her hand that was hanging down by her side, intertwining his fingers with hers slowly. Gwen knew they couldn't exactly express how relieved they were to just be able to hold hands again but, she tightened her fingers around his a bit and smiled, even if it wasn't directly at him, he knew.
Gwen expected him to let go as Azmuth and Max faced them but, in fact, Ben tightened his grip fully holding her hand as they came to speak, "The only reason I came to clean up this mess is because I feel partially responsible for causing it, Albedo was my problem and I deal with my own problems…"
"Thanks," Ben muttered with a half-smile, scratching the back of his neck nervously realizing that was about as nice as Azmuth was going to get; he didn't bother to say goodbye, only giving a single wave as the sky cleared up when a bolt of energy shot down from the heavens whisking the genius away at millions of times the speed of light.
Max kept his eyes on the sky before turning to face the two cousins, still holding hands boldly, expecting to see some sort of reaction from their Grandpa, for him to at least question it but, he just gave a long sigh looking around at the damage, "I think we should get out of the street before the Government swoops in and starts asking questions, my EMP won't last forever…"
"EMP?" Ben asked as Gwen pulled his hand up the stairs of the Rustbucket, looking around only to realize a decent screen of smoke swept through the area from their previous discharge, allowing them to escape undetected closing the door behind him as they stepped in and Max drove off through the alley, avoiding the barricades and leaving the scene.
Max spoke up from the driver's seat without looking back, glancing to them in his rear-view mirror every now and then, "I managed to fry anything that could have possibly been recording your fight in the area, not even the Government will know it was you fighting in that street…"
"At least that's one thing I don't have to worry about," He said nonchalantly as he looked back over to Albedo still lying face first on the floor; he must really be a super-hero now, having an evil-twin was one of the most stereotypical tropes in modern comic-book history, and yet there he was, drooling into the carpet.
Max continued as he kept his eyes on the road, trying to cheer his grandson up, "Don't worry Ben, I have a Plumber contact that'll have him escorted off world to face trial on Galvan Prime, he wont be bothering us again…" it wasn't until they established this that Gwen realized the condition Ben was in.
He stood strong and didn't seem to be in any severe pain but, she could feel that he was holding back an exhale and that his knees were weak from the fight, tired to even be standing; that's when she noticed he had a long scrape down his shin that was obviously bleeding through his pants and his black hoodie had been thoroughly torn with minor scrapes across his arms which she could see through the hole in his sleeves.
"Here, let's get you cleaned up," Gwen led him to the bathroom of the Rustbucket where they opened the door and had him sit on the toilet, grabbing disinfectant wipes from the cupboard under the sink and pulling his pant-leg up to see the scrape across his shin, it was a decent gash but, the Omnitrix did a good job at healing the road-rash this was most likely a result of; she didn't look up at him as she dabbed the cut slowly.
Ben winced at the pain as she wiped away the blood with paper-towel and applied the anti-septic wipes afterward, knowing far more about treating his own wounds than he ever could, and still managing to smile through it as he leaned back on the toilet, "Not exactly the first date you were expecting, huh?" he muttered as he looked up at the familiar aluminum ceiling with a half-smile of his own.
"Most girls don't have to worry about if their boyfriend is an evil clone imposter or not but, I'm not complaining," Gwen's surprisingly calm composure along with her freckled cheeks heating up as she looked up into his eyes for the first time made him blush a bit too in response, "Sure, I would have loved to spend time with you in a theatre, with other people, to feel normal but…" she dabbed again a bit harder.
"Ow!" Ben shouted interrupting her when she pressed too hard on the cut with the wipe she was using.
Gwen chuckled a bit with a concerned expression, grabbing a bit of paper-towel to damage control the accident, "Sorry!" she reached out onto the counter for gauze and unraveled it, "I was just going to say that our lives are never going to be normal, so if being with you means I won't have a normal relationship anytime soon…?" Ben watched as she wrapped his leg in the gauze warmly, grazing his skin shrugging at him, "Worth it," she finished as she patted his leg on his wound purposefully as he winced again, pulling back a bit.
"Ow! That one was on-"
Gwen stood up and held her hand out to help him up, "That doesn't mean anything needs to change," she took his hand and pulled him off the toilet and into her personal space, which wasn't hard in the miniature restroom, caressing her thumb over a tiny cut across his cheek, "My hero… always saving the day," she wiped the miniscule trickle of blood away, noticing how much damage he'd actually taken... she grinned and leaned in closer as his eyes lowered a bit when he noticed her smooth pink lips approaching his. He pushed her up against the sink as he grabbed her wrist that caressed his cheek gently, pressing his lips against hers caused both of their faces to turn red hot. She tilted her head and closed her eyes once she noticed he had too, melting into the passion that she felt genuinely flooding the room with her empathy.
Wrapping an arm around his neck was almost instinctual with the other placed flat on his chest as he gently bit her bottom lip and pulled lightly, she let out a soft-moan which she controlled this time as the heat she usually felt in her cheeks spread down into her chest, her heart rate increasing as he pushed her up against the sink and put a hand against the mirror trapping her between his arm and his lush, irresistible lips. Gwen could feel the heat coming off his breath as he could probably feel the same for her each time they separated and reignited the spark between their lips, she reached up and ran her hands through his thick hair.
Ben pulled away slowly, lowering his arm as she took a deep breath, looking up into his eyes and noticing he still had her pinned against the sink with his abdomen; he leaned down and unexpectedly laid his forehead on hers, closing his eyes and taking a breath, "I missed you…" he whispered into her ear as he shuffled back and wrapped his arms around her lower waist, she closed her eyes as well. Gwen couldn't help but grin as he held her by the waist and put his head to hers, it reminded her that no matter how dangerous or how powerful he was, he was still human.
"I missed you too," Gwen muttered with a goofy grin she thought might start becoming contagious.
…
Albany, New York, June 5th, 2010; 2:47AM.
Albedo glared down at the cuffs that kept him from accessing his Omnitrix and then around to the interior of a multi-terrain Plumber vehicle that would transport him to an airfield scheduled to leave Earth in less than an hour; he sighed as he felt the wheels traveling on dirt below them, some of his intelligence was returning to him now that Azmuth managed to cut off the feedback he was receiving allowing him to restart his method of predicting patterns via his hyper-advanced calculus formulas.
He figured he only had the one chance to retrieve the core and escape before it was too late but, now there was nothing left to do but face the music; he was just lucky Azmuth felt it was too beneath him to deactivate his Omnitrix in the first place, his ego would be his own undoing. Albedo looked over at the lights of the airfield in the distance and sighed once again, only this time it was interrupted by an explosion coming from the SUV in front of them in the same convoy as another purple explosion went off from behind him, destroying the vehicle that tailed his prison escort. The vehicle came to a screeching halt as pink lights flashed from the small slits considered windows for an alien deportee, he heard heeled footsteps crunching down on the dirt road as well as larger bulkier footsteps behind them.
Albedo listened closely doing his best to deduce the situation as the two Plumber agents got out of their respective seats and shouted, most likely with their weapons drawn, "Freeze!" Clearly their warnings weren't heeded but, all he heard them shout next was, "What the hell are those?" As they open fired plasma bolts on what sounded like a brick-wall but, walking towards them with a distinct thumping; Albedo pulled on the chains keeping him subdued as he heard whatever was attacking the convoy slaughter the men outside.
"Please, I have a fami- hugh!" Suddenly, something cut off that last Plumber's voice as though they swung at his face mid sentence with a blunt object, not something he was unfamiliar with.
As their screams suddenly went silent the doors to the back of his prison transport were torn off by a seven-foot-tall stone creature with pink surging energy engraved into its body in intricate designs; "What is the meaning of this?" Albedo demanded as the creature tore the chains linking him to the vehicle quite easily and grabbed him by the waist, pulling him gently out and placing him down on his feet in the road, "Thank you?" he responded looking down to his encased hands and wrists still cuffed.
"Don't thank him, thank me," a female voice announced itself from behind the convoy as the familiar heels stepped through the gravel wiping dark-red blood from the end of the skull attached to the Staff of Ages, passing a set of legs lying limp on the ground next to her, "You are not an easy man to track down, Albedo."
He scoffed at her, pulling on the restraints still around his wrists, mainly focused on them, "You know what they say, I just have one of those faces…" he mocked his genetic dilemma as he turned away from her, "You are Charmcaster, aren't you? I have memories of you, what do you need with me?"
"Cute, it's not about you actually," Charmcaster swayed her hips and brushed her silver hair over her shoulder as she approached, putting hands on his shoulders as he was only slightly shorter than her, "It's about what I want, it always is," she stepped closer only a foot or two from him, tapping her fingers on the braces he couldn't get off as they were suddenly engulfed in pink energy, surrounding it and flowing through it as it sort circuited and fell apart. The glowing subsided and they opened up, falling off his arms and clattering on the ground, he was going to use his Omnitrix to escape but, something was compelling about her that kept him from backing away.
His mind wasn't a hundred percent restored from the damage his unstable Omnitrix had done to it, that along with her natural mystic prowess, Albedo found his primitive human body following the spiraling pink glow in her eyes no matter how she ran her hands over his chest and circled him like a vulture having found its prey; before he had time to protest what she was doing to him, Charmcaster leaned in, pressing her lips against his with a light giggle. As she pulled away slowly, her giggle got louder noticing the blank expression on Ben's face or rather, a face identical to Ben's.
"I'm going to take my revenge on Gwendolyn in the most painful way I possibly can," Charmcaster kept one hand propped up on the Staff of Ages as she ran the other hand's fingers through his silver head of hair, "Kneel."
Albedo didn't respond to her, only getting to his knees in front of her, looking up as if waiting for her next command, "If she can control an Omnitrix wearing cutie, so can I..." she kept rubbing her hands through his hair as she knelt down to press her lips against his again, as he melted into the hypnotic magic filling his mind, "Good, now transform into... Wildmutt..." she decided and took a step back as Albedo popped the dial on his watch, thankful for Azmuth stopping the feedback voltage as he transformed in an explosion of crimson light into a Vulpamancer with no eyes and a crimson dial.
Charmcaster smiled as pink electricity surged between her fingers, "Nectae Artis Magicus!" the pink lightning formed an energy construct as it wrapped harmlessly around Negative Wildmutt's neck, becoming a spiked energy collar that led to a chain she held in her right hand as he crawled up to her with his tongue out, "Good boy, just don't slobber on me, mutt..." one of the Plumber's who was still alive aimed his rifle at her back but, she didn't even try to act as though she noticed... she just aimed the Staff of Ages behind her and from it fired a beam of yellow light through the man's head, "C'mon, slave, it's time to have some fun..." she walked her new pet away from the scene with the moon-light as their only witness.
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