World on fire 2

Bellwood, New York; December 20th, 2010; 10:32PM.

The last vestige of the Forever Knights within the state of New York had been dwindled down to almost zero thanks to Way Big's spectacle in Santa Mira and the prior parasitic take over; by this point, the entire organization had retreated into hiding in the abandoned warehouses of Bellwood, one small stronghold being the docks where they first smuggled in the problem-child that became the Xenocite and Vaxasaurian mutation that took dozens of lives to finally kill. What they hadn't realized was that before they exterminated the infected Vaxasaurian, he had managed to infect one of their own seamlessly.

These infected knights spent days, acting and talking as though they were totally normal but, started behaving oddly soon after until eventually it became clear that they were spreading, mutating, and something else was in control of their minds now; by then, the infestation had taken too many of them and they were forced to retreat from the Hatchery in very small numbers. They sent a faction of Knights with high tech weaponry to take the facility back by force or at least kill a few of them but, instead of never hearing from them again like one would expect… they were assimilated just like the rest and invited the other Knights for an obvious trap, which they logically declined. Eventually they were found and forced to abandon the docks as well, leaving them in even smaller numbers; the rest of the Knight's across the country have quarantined their New York ranks, they weren't getting any help.

Now there were only six or seven of the Knight's left in an underground basement, peddling crystal meth for extra money to rebuild their New York branch; they were hiding, tucked away in an old speakeasy from nearly a hundred years ago, beneath a shady hotel in the Bronx where they were just barely comfortable. There was a bar with barely any liquor on it as they didn't have too much money to freely spend left, they did have connections in the drug trade though which got them by for the last several months but not much longer as their resources slowly dwindled. They had no advanced or alien technology of any-kind left after the last raid by the DNAliens but, they did sport some impressive human weaponry like pistols and automatic firing weapons. Spending most of their time crushing up and snorting pills off their cell phones, smoking a multitude of substances that only started with marijuana, but it didn't seem like they were partying in the slightest. They usually didn't talk much and weren't having any fun, unless small talk between the few that knew each other already and otherwise deafening silence for hours was considered a party.

Ben and Gwen had been tracking this last group for weeks and once he had finally gotten a location, they hopped roof tops, practically parkour free-running across the low New York roof-tops; she noticed Ben was managing to keep up with her, even though she was using her Keystone's abilities to perform some of the moves she was landing. She smiled and leapt a ten-foot jump with ease as he landed with a roll behind her, jumping over an electrical box for the fun of it. A smile curved across her lips as they approached a fifteen-foot wall with no support, there was no way he could make the jump. She wanted to be able to show him up just for the sake of her old habits dying hard or her own pride as she took one step during her sprint to jump above the wall, front flipped through the air over it, and landing on the gravel roof top she'd ascended to. She was prepared to look down over the ledge to ask if he needed help but, instead decided to wait a few seconds longer.

Expecting to see an emerald flash of light, she heard grunts as she finally decided to approach the edge and watch him narrow his eyes, with the shadow of the building casting over him against the moon light she could have sworn she saw something bright-green flash in his pupils. It could have been some sort of trick of the light and the color of his eyes but, without time to consider, Ben jumped ten feet in the air stomping his foot on the side of miniscule edge between the wall and the end of the building. One slip and he could have fallen forty-stories but, his momentum and the grip of his boots managed to send him spinning horizontally upwards over the ledge barely landing on his back, knocking the wind out of his lungs for a brief second.

"That's gonna hurt tomorrow…"

Ben felt his ribcage as he took deep breaths, Gwen was still astonished by what she'd just seen, that was impossible, it should by all accounts be impossible but, what if it weren't? What if there was more to his abilities than the watch? "What're you starin at?" Ben asked innocently from the ground as he lied in the white gravel, looking up at her as she simply glanced between him and the jump.

Gwen shook her head, holding a quick hand out to help him up as she tried to forget what she'd just seen, he was pretty athletic and very lucky, so she chalked it up to that and moved on as they approached the glass sunroof to the Forever Knight hideout they'd finally decided to take down and possibly get answers about what happened at their processing plant in Santa Mira.

They approached slowly and found a perfectly sliced hole in the glass before they even got a chance to pry it open and jump in the roof; the hole in the glass was cut deliberately so that they didn't hear whoever cut it coming, not big enough for a full grown adult either.

Ben and Gwen gave an uneasy glance to one another before looking down into the dark room, "You first," Gwen muttered holding his shoulders from behind.

…

Kevin arrived on the rooftop ten minutes prior to the duo; looking down at the necklace littered with pieces of different rocks and shards across it, not all of them just types of metal, he took the single standard glock-17 out of the holster on the back of his belt, checking for a round in chamber before flipping the safety off. He didn't like to use it and preferred his necklace of matter and mineral, remembering the things he had to do to get them all, the person he had to become to survive in a prison like that at such a young age. The people he met and lost along the way. He managed to absorb some extra strength and speed from some of the inmates he encountered but, he found that if he took too much of their energy he lost his sanity when he gained their abilities, the more he absorbed the less reasoning he had left to work with. He held the pad-lock in the palm of his hand and stared down at it for a moment, pulling up his mask over his mouth and nose before grazing his fingers over a blue-crystal that was identical to the shards Diamondhead launched at him last they met. The lock was a symbol of the very first crime he ever committed, burning his house down by accident and running away in the panic, stealing a bike with that lock around it… after spending five years in prison, he just wanted to make things right again.

Petrosapien wasn't the only piece of DNA he had tied around his neck but, it was best when dealing with gun toting idiots, allowing it to encase him in Petrosapien crystal that armored his entire body, not just layering it but literally turning his skin and clothes into whatever material he was to absorb, including alien genetics; his fingertips sharpened as he learned to manipulate the teal-crystals at will over time, silently slicing a hole in the window perfectly as he pencil dived down through the hole without a sound.

Kevin landed in the corner with the only sound being made was his boots hitting the ground, the men almost immediately pulled their weapons to aim at and kill the child without hesitation or inhibition; that was enough to earn them his wrath alone, not that he didn't already know who they were and what they had already done during their times as Knights. Even now, they sold illegal drugs to minors for a profit and had teenagers dealing at street corners for them, they were filth.

"Back up! Hands in the air!" the closest men shouted, all of them with their weapons drawn, only hesitating because he was a child, yet it still didn't take more than a few seconds for one of them to fire a bullet into Kevin's chest which triggered a chain of six men firing their weapons after the first bounced off his armored chest, his body was totally bullet-proof, sparks flying as the metal shattered on contact with his skin and some of the projectiles ricocheted into the walls instead but, none did any visible damage.

They stopped for a second, looking over their smoking weapons as the loud ringing that now filled the room gave Kevin the perfect opportunity to act, his mouth curved into a smile under his mask as he took a step forward receiving bullet after bullet to his crystalline structured shoulder and torso until he was within arm's reach. He grabbed the end of the assailants gun with his hand, covering the barrel, as he fired it anyways and it only let a puff of smoke out from his palm, cracking the metal barrel and again dealing no damage.

He pulled the gun out of his hand, shredding it with his enhanced strength as the others still kept their weapons trained on him attempting to intimidate at the very least after what they'd just seen him to do. The man backed away but, he wouldn't get far before Kevin tossed the gun and grabbed his shoulder before he could run, crushing his deltoid and pulling him forcibly into a blade that he'd formed out of his jagged-crystal arm, faster than any of them could have seen until it was already pultruding from his back, slicked in blood.

They prepared their automatic weapons and the others stepped back to cover their partner's six o'clock as Kevin spun around forming a widened-shield of crystal out of his forearm deflecting thousands of rounds fired from the next three men just to keep the sparks from his eyes. Sprinting forward with his bladed arm as he impaled a man while a bullet bounced off his chest, using his strength to toss the man from his sword through the air and into a wooden table, shattering it.

He turned quickly catching the wrist of a man who was swinging down on him with an iron dagger from behind, not that it wouldn't have shattered on contact but, he broke the man's arm anyways, tossing him over his shoulder to finish off with an impalement through the left lung. The last one of the three looked sorry as he cowered for his life, dropping his weapon, like he would do anything to survive but, Kevin simply did a three-sixty-swing that chopped his head clean off his torso.

Kevin turned to face the others as the head toppled, rolling at his feet; when they tried escaping through the back door, he was already prepared for that contingency as the moment they got it open an incendiary device went off in their face sending them back into the bar. The door opener was killed on impact as the other two scrambled to get up or move but, it was pointless by now as he stood over them without mercy.

Since they were pinned by their dead friend, debris from the door, and most of all fear, Kevin decided to meld out of his crystal form and graze his hand around a rock that was hanging with the other materials. It was no ordinary black lava rock, it was from the corpse of a brave Pyronite he'd met in Incarcecon and it was a good sample of DNA for him to absorb on occasion, although; sticking to matter absorption was better for his mind, he decided to graze his fingers over the stone. Waves of electricity surged through his glowing blue eyes as they crackled until his skin was mutated, half of his body was completely on fire with skin like hardened-lava rock; his hair billowed in waves as flames engulfed the left side of his body, turning his entire face into a flaming skull of rock. His eyes and mouth were literally vacant holes of sentient flame as all he could see was a world on fire around him now, the heat in every person and place around him like a sixth sense.

"Sorry for the wait, I just wanted to watch you burn for a change," Kevin held his left arm out which was the arm encased in rock and lava but, the Knight's were entirely silent to their last breaths, as they were burned alive by a wave of fire just from the palm of one of his hands, totally engulfing the doorway and setting the door on fire. It took thirty seconds, only ten spent screaming, to turn their entire bodies to ash but, that was only because he didn't want to burn the entire building down. After several minutes of watching them burn out, he heard another set of footsteps outside and allowed the Pyronite DNA to subside in a wave of energy, remembering what he'd been taught about controlling his powers and emotions, his body and skin returned to normal with a single exhale.

"You first!" he heard a familiar female voice shout from above as another male chuckled, it wasn't until he heard the trademarked explosion of energy that sounded with every transformation that he knew it was them two. Instead of gracefully dropping in like he did, Chromastone dropped through the glass sunroof landing on one knee with his fist on the ground, cracking the concrete with his landing, slowly glancing up at the gory scene.

Kevin was only slightly intimidated but, didn't let it show in the slightest, quickly gliding his hand across a piece of taydenite that shrouded him in one of the densest naturally mined substances in the Milky Way; "How ya doin, hero…" He announced as Chromastone rose to his feet, looking around at the blood and slaughter around him not totally surprised but, still appalled by what he saw all the same.

"I'm coming down!" Gwen shouted ready to jump through and let her telekinesis catch her but, before she could do that, he spoke up loudly from below.

Chromastone was faster than he looked, dashing across the room and pinning the teen by his neck to the wall at the speed of sound, nearly putting him through the thin-concrete as he pulled back and shoved him into the dry-wall cracking the concrete behind it, "Don't bother! I'm coming up!" he used an ability he had learned while training with this new form, to keep his grip on Kevin's neck who didn't try very hard to get free, as Ben floated straight upwards at a slower speed and through the ceiling as if it weren't there.

He floated in the air with Kevin's neck in his right hand as concrete and dust rained down from their bodies in the moon light, "You've gone too far, too many times," Gwen noticed it was Kevin again and watched as Chromastone fired a rainbow-cascaded blast from his free hand into Kevin's chest letting go of him and sending him back down onto the roof, hitting an air conditioning unit. Denting it with his back before tumbling back into the common white-gravel rooftop dirt, "It ends tonight!" he announced as he landed slowly in front of him, touching down gently as he faced him still armored up and ready to fight, "You're going back to Incarcecon!"

Kevin shook his head, chuckling for a second as he found it ironic, they were on the same side this time and his ego couldn't let him see it, "I'm not going anywhere with you, my job here is done, so I'm leaving…" he tried to walk away but, Chromastone reached out and gripped his arm with enough force to shatter brick but his armor kept him safe.

"I'm not asking," he responded as Gwen floated over to stand by the air conditioning unit, it was a personal beef between the two that she usually didn't want to get into the middle of, or at least that's the way she remembered it. With three Charms glowing off her sleeve and a blue aura around her hands illuminating the rooftop around her, she waited to see if she was needed as Chromastone seemed to have the situation under his control.

"You'd better let go of me Tennyson, if you know what's good for you…" he turned his head over his shoulder and his pupils flashed that of an alien reptilian species for a moment, with horizontal iris' and yellow pupils, the electricity buzzing around his arms sent static into the air around them but, Chromastone wouldn't yield.

Kevin sighed in response, lowering his guard for a second, "I don't want to have to hurt you…" Chromastone responded with a grunt, tightening his grip on the teens arm with the thought of apprehending him in his mind, "But, I'd love for you to give me a reason!" without warning and with speed he didn't see coming, Kevin uppercutted Ben in the abdomen with enough force to crack his stone structure, followed by another uppercut to the chin forcing him to let go of his arm as the stone-alien went skating back on his heels. They both reeled back at the same time and punched the other's fist at the same time, the resulting collision created a shockwave from their punch sending a pressurized wave of air outward omnidirectionally, capable of leveling the entire building had they not controlled themselves.

Chromastone flew back into and through the stairwell entrance to the roof-access, it was heavily barricaded and locked until a six-hundred-pound purple stone creature flew into it, sending concrete debris across the roof. As he landed on his face and Kevin kept his approach, Ben quickly picked himself up as Kevin jumped twenty feet into the air over the rubble to land in front of him, not hesitating to right cross Chromastone in the face while he was down but, the next attack was blocked by a forearm before being incapable of avoiding a counter left hook from the hero that sent shards of his taden armor across the floor. Kevin ducked under a swing and used his momentum to round house kick Chromastone off his feet, sliding close to the edge of the roof but, the alien hero kept his distance by sending a few beams of energy at Kevin's feet as he took a breath. The explosions delayed him but, slowing him down was all they were good for as he eventually just walked through them.

"Getting slow, hero?" Kevin chuckled as this new unlocked alien of his failed to impress but, wasn't totally boring like most of his other transformations, "Gotta be careful how close I get to the dial, which alien you use… wouldn't want me to absorb anything dangerous…" Kevin grabbed Chromastone up by his neck parallel to how the fight started, standing him up on his feet so he could land a right-left cross combination to his face while he was still stunned. He caught the follow up kick from Kevin with one hand and turned on a dime with incredible versatility, launching him off the roof hundreds of feet away, hitting a billboard for a smoothie company as it nearly collapsed from the impact, denting the giant straw with his head.

Kevin fell ten feet to the rafters used by workers, standing up on the railing used to plaster the boards as he looked up at Chromastone flying toward him from above, picking him up off the billboard by his arm and tossing him into the air, right-hooking him in the chin down into yet another roof top where his back put a crater in the concrete, "agh…" he groaned as he turned over, using his focus to keep the taydenite armor up and regenerate the small amounts that cracked as he did his best to stand up.

Gwen watched as Chromastone took off flying into the sky leaving her alone on the damaged roof, she scoffed and folded her arms, "He always forget that I levitate, I don't fly…" she huffed and lifted off her feet, at a slow cruising pace she made her way to the building across the street before landing on the roof and running towards the billboard but, that's when she noticed in the background there were helicopters in bound from the east following the action, she couldn't tell if they were military or news choppers but, neither of them needed the exposure after what happened with the Government just a year or less prior.

Chromastone landed on the roof next to Kevin with his arms folded, as if he had the fight won already, "Got it out of your system?" he taunted as the older teen let both hands fall to his side for a second, only before forming them both into taden-scythes, both serrated for cutting through bone.

"Not even close," Kevin came into his close quarters quickly as Chromastone's skin itself was a weapon that could block even taydenite, not that it didn't hurt when he swung too hard, the first two swings he was able to avoid by just bobbing and weaving around his swings, as he ducked under a right horizontal swing, Ben was unexpectedly kicked in the chest and sent back on his feet. He was surprised but, not deterred as he quickly stretched his arm and stepped back in close for another round to finally subdue the teenager. Chromastone fired a beam from his horn that Kevin ducked under, responding with another cross slash along the front of his chest to match the one he gave him on his back only, it didn't cut nearly as deep as it had the first time Kevin successfully used that move on Diamondhead, It wouldn't leave a scar the way it had on his back.

Chromastone took the slash with gritted teeth, catching his wrists as Kevin used his superior agility and lifted himself up using his opponents grip to life his feet and drop-kick him in the chest with enough force to once again nearly send him off his feet, skating back on his feet through the gravel. He put a hand on the ground for recoil after firing his beam of kinetic energy from the horn pultruding from his head once again, this time though Kevin managed to catch the energy in one hand and redirect it back instead of merely absorbing it, hitting the ground at his feet and causing a small explosion knocking Chromastone back several steps. Kevin formed both blades into thick squared meat-hammer shaped weapons, as he found the alien in the smoke, Chromastone managed to dip back avoiding the first swing but, the second one caught him in the side of the face as he tried keeping his hands up. A third cross to the chin sent him stumbling back a bit, disoriented ad he was then uppercutted by the teen.

Chromastone turned and shook the delirium away bringing both fists down on the roof cratering it and missing his target as Kevin rolled out of the way, subsequently hopping on his back pounding on his neck with his hammers; this sent Ben down to his face, as he tried to get up and had a heavy boot placed on his neck, "You remember how this feels, Ben?" he pressed down on the stone neck with his own crystal heel, ready to end it with just a little more force but, he hesitated.

"Actually, I'm usually the one beating you…" Chromastone turned over just barely avoiding his swinging his leg down into the ground where his neck would have been, cracking the concrete; as his vision blurred, Chromastone threw a one-two jab combination that missed entirely as Kevin weaved through it, jumping to knee the Sugilite in the chest before keeping his hands around his neck, using incredible dexterity to flip over his head and land on both feet, tossing him by the neck over head and through the air, hitting another random electrical box back-first and upside down, even though the electrocution only gave him more power, that only managed to barely sustain him. He couldn't use it as a weapons because Kevin could simply send it back or absorb it, so he simply tried pumping his body with that energy to continue the fight as Kevin ducked under a right hook and tripped Ben onto his hands and knees.

"Nighty-night, Tennyson," Kevin used both of his fists formed into hammers to slam the crystal-alien's head into the ground, further cracking the rooftop concrete; Chromastone was barely conscious for a few seconds longer as a third and final strike finally knocked him unconscious but, also collapsed the entire roof they stood on into a closed department store.

The helicopters that approached appeared to be NYPD as Gwen stayed out of sight and used an illusionary spell to keep herself out of sight while still getting a good look at the scene.

The helicopters landed and she watched as twelve men were deployed from the two choppers, aiming their laser guided scopes and automatic rifles down into the hole made in the roof by the two alien heroes, "Negative, no sightings… I repeat, the vigilantes are gone…" her eyes went wide as she heard him shout this, was that good news or bad news? Either way she figured it had to be good news that Ben hadn't been captured by the Government and turned into a weapon but, if he had won the fight he would have called her by now with Kevin in hand… but after ten minutes he still didn't.

"Ben… please be okay…" she noted as she backed into the shadows of the investigation, deciding to use her mysticism to find him as she turned off her phone screen and walked away.

…

When he regained his senses, Ben was in his human form but, he didn't remember transforming back, it was probably automatic when he was knocked out; he tried getting up but, quickly realized he was restrained to a brick chimney by silver-cladded chains; he pulled but, the wrap was too tight and he couldn't even come close to reaching the dial to his Omnitrix, even if he popped the dial mentally, he had no way of pushing it down from his current position.

They were on a rooftop, somewhere else in the city where he could still see familiar buildings, only a few miles away most likely, doing his best to ascertain his location and his situation with the injuries he sustained to his head; Kevin clearly wasn't as injured as he was after their fight but, then again Ben clearly under estimated his opponent's abilities, for so long the only way Kevin had ever fought was as a psychotic hulking combination of aliens from his original ten… never so tactically precise, something he wasn't prepared for, he would be next time.

Ben looked around and gazed at the empty rooftop where Kevin stood at the end, looking over the city in the brisk air, he had a thermos beside him steaming with soup and on the ground by his feet, a red cloth was laid out with different crystals of different shapes and compositions, like a man cleaning his weapons in preparation for a fight, "Morning, sunshine."

Ben pulled on his chains with all of his strength but couldn't even get a centimeter of slack, he could feel them stressing so perhaps they were old but, he couldn't break them without transforming, "What the hell is this?" he asked the obvious question as he struggled.

Kevin reached down and grabbed the thermos, uncapping it and taking a sip before closing it up and letting out warm sigh of relief, "You've been getting in my way, Benji; this time you'll be a little too tied up to do anything about it…" He stood, taking care not to knock over his thermos as he used a pair of binoculars to scope out the warehouse below, his next target.

"Anything about what? What are you doing here Kevin?!" Ben struggled with his arms by his side, pushing as hard as he could against the chains but, nothing could get them to break even as he searched for a single weak link in them.

Kevin chuckled and placed the thermos back down, sitting in front of his crystals with his legs crossed again as he checked his watch for the time, "I think you have more important issues, the only way you get off this roof is if I let you off, simple as that," he organized each rock of different color and size by effective use with his most offensive materials hanging from the chain necklace around his neck.

Ben scoffed looking away in silence for a moment before speaking up, truly curious on how the mind of a psychopath worked, "How many will this make?" he asked the obvious question that would be on anyone's mind, anyone who hadn't been through what Kevin had seen in the Null Void prisons, "You must have done this ten, maybe fifteen times at least… Clancy… Hex…" Kevin didn't stop organizing his crystals as he placed one in a certain position and held another just to rub its smooth surface with his thumb, "You know you can stop now, nobody else has to die, you can walk away from this."

Kevin plopped the smooth crystal back on the rolled out crimson linen and scowled at Ben from across the roof, looking at him as if he had been spat in the face, "Walk away?" his expression became confused, as if he were speaking gibberish, "Could you do that, eh? Could you walk away…?" Kevin waited for an answer but, Ben simply put his head down as he raised his brow unsurprisingly in response, "Didn't think so…"

Ben chuckled, still struggling a bit but, he was laughing now as Kevin looked around for something funny, and he was clearly the one being laughed at, "That's rich, don't even pretend that you give a crap about anybody but yourself, you're out here killing the people nobody will miss, well guess what genius? That's still murder!" They had too much of a history to fight like anything but wayward siblings, it had been quite some time though since they had a real conversation.

Kevin uncapped his thermos and took a long sip of his soup before responding, letting steam billow out around his lips as he processed what he said, "What you're doing out there in the streets, Tennyson, it doesn't work, did you know that?" Putting the thermos down and looking over at the restrained hero, their glares creating a tension around them.

Ben scoffed with a smile, practically laughing at his rhetoric, giving him a counter example, "Oh, and what you're doing is so much better?"

Kevin sucked on his teeth and shook his head, focusing back down on the rocks and crystals in front of him, having become a sort of geology lover once discovering his ability to absorb matter by touch, "What I do I just do, out of necessity," he responded without even a sliver of remorse, feeling justified in killing the villains he fought without mercy, "I tell you what though, I'd do it again in a heartbeat, every time. They're a cancer to this city, a virus, and I'm the surgeon who's going to cut them out, ya know what I see every day now?"

"Yea? What's that," Ben asked sarcastically as Kevin took a glance around at the city surrounding him on the high-rise roof top.

"A world on fire…"

"Oh, please, give me a freakin-" Ben pulled on the chains harder now with a little extra anger to back it as he could almost feel as though they were starting to bend slowly, maybe a weak link in one of the chains did exist, "Break…" he said as he kept quiet about it and shifted in his sitting position.

He decided to change the subject on the hero, now that they were having a frank conversation about their two differing definitions of justice, the small questions needed answering too he figured, "What kind of name is Ben Ten anyways, huh? Your name and then… what, your age when you got the watch? The Ten in Tennyson?" Kevin chuckled as he joked at him with a mischievous grin, making fun of the restrained hero putting down the last of his rocks and focusing up on him, "Or I heard once you eventually go along to be called Ben Ten Thousand someday, now that's a name…" he chuckled sitting back and leaning against the ledge to the roof.

Ben turned his head at the sound of that name, finding himself becoming the person he saw in the future with every single day that passed was daunting enough but, he hated hearing it used as he tried looking at the ground by his feet which were also restrained in an impossible manner, "I didn't ask for that name," he responded with a lower mutter.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't see you running from it," Kevin announced grabbing one of the Tadens from his organized pile before standing up slowly, "Beating the daylights out of rapists without the watch might convince some people that you are but, the truth of the matter is that you can't outrun your destiny, nobody can," He absorbed it over his skin creating an armor and allowing him to phase-shift his arm like a liquid-metal into a sharpened blade, "Not even me…"

"I don't do this to hurt people!" Ben responded upwards trying to make a point with his shouting as Kevin approached with his weapon at his side, swinging it nonchalantly.

"Yeah, so what is that, just a job perk?" Kevin asked scraping the gravel with the end of his blade, slowly sounding a graining cut against concrete.

"Yea, well, I don't kill anyone…" Ben shouted back in his own defense, a moral code most heroes went by but, Kevin simply saw things from a totally different perspective.

Kevin was taken aback, scowling as he leaned back a bit, turning to face the city for a quick moment, the lights that sparkled across the sky-line, "Is that why you think you're better than me?" He asked approaching with the blade still dragging against the ground but, it hardly intimidated Ben after everything he'd seen and gone through, "Is that why you think you're a big hero?!"

Ben struggled against the chains once again, feeling that one link coming loose as he pulled again, "It doesn't matter what I think, or what I am, people don't have to die!" Kevin slashed the ground at his feet sending sparks into the air.

"And you believe that?" Kevin asked only to receive an agreeing nod, truly having faith in the simple hero code of keeping the death-toll to an absolute minimum, "Bullshit," he pulled the blade back and held it in his free hand, staring at his own reflection in its thin shine, "Somebody ask you to go out every night playing super hero or did you take that upon yourself?" He asked frustratedly, fed up with the conversation, Kevin approached with his bladed hand up against the end of Ben's throat ready to open it up at any given moment, "You know what I think of you, hero?"

"What's that?" Ben responded with a chuckled huff as the adrenaline started to flood his veins, they'd known each other for too long for it to be any other way between them at this point.

Kevin looked around and gave a grunt, "I think you're a half measure, I think you're a guy who cant get the job done, I think… you're a coward," he leaned in and took back the blade reforming it into a hand and shoving both of them into his pockets after melting away his armor, "Because the truth is… you're one bad day away from becoming me, and you know it," even Ben himself knew that much was true.

He rolled his eyes as Kevin leaned back, waiting for his old friend's response, "You seem to know everything these days; the psychiatric care must be shit at Incarcecon if you think for even half a second that any of what you're out here doing is justifiable!" Ben shouted back tearing at the chains as he lunged forward, still enraged as the brick started to crack a bit behind him, "Why do you even care?"

Kevin turned back around and shouted at him, clearly just as passionate as Ben was about New York only on a completely different level, with completely different rules, "Do I really have to spell it out for you? I'm disappointed, Benji," Kevin turned around and approached the nearby ledge where he looked down on the city streets, trash down every alley, people clutching their purses close as they walked to their cars, suspicious groups lingering under freeway bridges. He pulled the glock from its holster on the back of his belt, under his shirt, cocking it back as he aimed it at Ben, he stomped over and pressed the barrel against his forehead, "You feel that? You listening now, Ben? Are you listening?" Ben practically growled at him, turning his head as the line of fire was shifted from his forehead, if he wanted Ben dead, he'd be dead already… "I'm not a bad guy… Tennyson."

"You wanna explain that to the orphans and widows of the people you slaughtered in cold blood," Ben couldn't even finish the sentence before he had turned around, writing him off with a scoff as he continued putting the gun back in its holster with a shake of his head, "Killing isn't something you can take lightly, Kevin!" He shouted as he turned away from him, facing the city again but, looking down at the ground.

Kevin put his hands on his hips, looking down at the glistening gravel as late night dew settled on the rooftop, he turned back around and walked over to the ledge he was set up by, "So is that what you think? You think I'm just a nutjob going around impaling whoever I want?" he looked down at the abandoned circus theatre across the street where hookers roamed the corners, that warehouse was closed down decades ago, now it was the last known residence of one Zombozo's crime organization, after his Circus Freak enforcers were slaughtered, he was left with just random henchmen and a horribly kept lair.

"You think you're anything else? Really, Kevin!?" Ben responded as he pulled on the chains once more, stressing them with just a bit more effort as his anger started to grow, so did the force he used as the chains started to bend around the brick.

Kevin turned around, reabsorbing the taden and sharpening his hand, pointing it directly at Ben's nose only an inch away from cutting it off, "I think the people I kill need killing…" he said simply as Ben still wasn't intimidated in his quick reaction time to absorbing matter and using his abilities.

"You decapitated people, left them hanging from rafters by their own hair!" He shouted back, as if it were something obviously so inhumane that anyone should be able to see how deranged it was but, he wasn't grasping the full picture, "Murder and mutilation have different definitions!"

Kevin shook his head at the memory a job well done, "They got off easy, in my opinion…" bringing his blade back down to stab the ground through the gravel as he was clearly not scaring Ben with it, it grew in length via mental command, "Nobody got hurt that didn't deserve it," he reasoned, as if he did feel a level of shame but, also confidence that he had a lot of pride placed on.

Ben chuckled, the audacity, the irony, the unbelievable violence breeding moron was going to drive the city into a dark place where Ben Ten Thousand would be needed more than ever; he stressed the chains once again with all of his strength, this time he was glad that Kevin was distracted as he felt one of the links come completely loose this time, one more pull and he would be free, "Oh, yea? What happens one day when someone decides that you deserve it, Kev?" He asked up at Kevin who only took a few seconds to respond, letting his armor melt as he took another step forward and grabbed the handle of the gun from his belt, turning the safety off with a smile.

"They'd better not miss."

Ben laughed a bit out of raw fury, slowly going nuts as he waited for the perfect time to break free, his pupils flashed green once again in an almost imperceptible way, one that he couldn't properly express, but he was so angry he couldn't help but, continue the shouting match, "You are so full of yourself! You run around this city like it's no-mans-land killing anyon-"

Kevin interrupted with a shout, "Oh, yea!?" turning around to face him, approaching the ledge again and sitting down in front of his collection of crystals, "What do you do? What do you do!? You run around playing superhero with your girlfriend like the city's a god damned playground!" he pounded his fist into the roof ledge concrete, cracking it a bit but, it didn't disturb their argument, "Beat up the bullies with your fists and throw em' in jail and a month, a week, or even days later they're back on the street doing the exact same shit!" Looking into Ben's eyes with more conviction than he'd ever seen the boy display even from their distance and in the darkness, the tension their clashing ideologies created was palpable. It was a heated discussion because, objectively, both of them were right in certain respects and with their abilities and motivations, it brings in the question to debate on how that power should be used to help people.

"Right," Ben nodded as he responded quickly and sarcastically with a heated tone along with a chuckle, "So you just put em' in the morgue… problem solved!" he chided.

Kevin looked up at the sky and nodded, "Damn right I do…" he dropped the taden in the bunch and rolled up his collection, folding up the linen that kept the rocks from getting scratched, tossing the pouch into a nearby bag, approaching Ben as he sat across from him, crossing his legs as he looked him closer in the emerald eyes and grazed his hand over the gun in his hand, "Look around, Ben, this city… it stinks… it smells like sewer and I can't get the stink out of my nose," it was true raw emotion and passion for the place that he grew up which made it even more compelling to debate against, especially under these circumstances, "I think this city needs men willing to make the hard calls!"

"That's bullshit Kevin and you know it!" Ben shouted in response but unfortunately fell on deaf ears as Kevin continued anyways.

"I'm the guy that does the one thing that you can't; you hit them, and they get back up… I hit em'…" he emphasized his point by cocking and firing the gun into the ground with a loud crack of thunder following, "and they stay down, it's permanent. I make sure that they don't hurt anyone ever again and I take pride in that…" Kevin stood up checking the bullet in the chamber again, this time to make sure it would work when he needed it to instead of just for intimidation.

He took aim down at a truck in a row of abandoned-school buses parked outside of Zombozo's lair, he chuckled, even with his pistol he could get one of those buses to explode and that's all he needed, "I'm going to take pride in this too…" he tightened the grip on his finger and fired three rounds into one of the many vehicles, hitting the gas line with such precision that it caused an explosion that would lure the henchmen out, sending a truck up into the air in flames as Ben finally had enough of watching.

…

Gwen kept her legs crossed as she floated underneath the darkness of an old water-tower, it was almost dead-center in the city so, she used it as a point of reference to search for Ben's presence around her; the longer the distance, the harder it was to feel someone's energy even as her eyes and hands were glowing in a meditative position.

"Ostendo Specialis!" Like a radar she used her magical aura to send out a wave that would only bounce back from one person, she had the sleeve he made for her on so, tracking him was only a matter of time.

Gwen felt an immense burst of emotion coming from him when his signal bounced back to her, one that sent her to her knees breathing heavily, as if he were arguing with raw anger, passionate anger that someone would have had to challenge his very purpose to achieve. She knew Kevin is someone who had the means to bring him to a point this far into his anger, so she hurried to prepare a portal spell.

…

"Hagh!" Ben flexed his muscles as his rage poured through his muscles in an unfamiliar way, his eyes flashing green at a distinct angle that nobody could see, he suddenly let out all of his anger in a shout of strength which he used to shatter several chain-links, getting just free enough to press down on an already popped faceplate, igniting an emerald explosion in the process; one that temporarily blinded Kevin in the darkness of the night sky for the second or two before Snare-Oh emerged from the light mid-air as he lunged forwards, sending out his paper-thin appendages to restrain Kevin's hand before he could use the gun again, dropping it at his side. Before he allowed Kevin the few seconds he needed to absorb anything, he swung him around and out of sight to avoid fighting an all-out gang war, tossing him into the brick wall that had just restrained him.

"These were brand new, dick!" Kevin grazed his hand over a sample of a Petrosapien shard around his neck, as his skin mutated he gained some characteristics of Diamondhead as well as some of his abilities; using those abilities so quickly, both of his arms changed shape quickly into serrated blades as he allowed the crystal to spread through part of his body. Snare-Oh slapped his Omnitrix symbol as he was apprehensive to move forward until he stepped out of the subsequent explosion of light as a moth-man with black and blue wings coupled with his signature glowing green eyes, "I don't think you've met my other new friend, Big Chill!"

Kevin reached for his necklace of matter manipulating materials but, was stopped as the Necrofrigian had crossed the distance between them in a blur of super-natural speed, grabbing his wrist and turning intangible as he encased the entire boy in ice by walking right through him; he floated into the air and shot a blast of ice down at the tundra forming around him to fully keep him restrained.

He was still totally conscious as he looked around within his icy prison, his fingers only millimeters away from making contact with his necklace, using enhanced strength that even he himself was surprised at to crack through even without traction, grazing his finger against the piece of Pyronite charcoal which allowed him to mutate into something that could break free of the ice.

An explosion of steam was cast around the area when his molten-skin broke free of the ice, shrouding the entire roof in a foggy mist as he stepped from the steam slowly, Kevin was half mutated into Heatblast with the Pyronite side taking up the majority of his face, forming two orbs of flames in either hand which Big Chill had trained to more than maneuver against back at the Mount Rushmore training simulation.

He effortlessly danced through each volley of attacks one after the other, letting blazes of fire shoot right through him before weaving through another wildly shot orb of weaponized heat, as it combusted in the night sky above them it silhouetted them both against the mist.

Big Chill shot a beam of blue energy down at Kevin who countered with a wave of flames from both palms, even though one of his sides was clearly more mutated than the other, he still maintained his ability to manipulate the element with both hands shooting his most powerful wave of fire that he could muster into his breath.

The two blasts collided sending a shockwave and a burst of pressurized steam out around them even as the beam struggle went on, four separate waves of ice separated from the main beam and struck the ground at Kevin's feet. He ceased fire and began taking evasive maneuvers, leaping across the rooftop as blasts of energy would hit the ground like a liquid freezing instantaneously on contact, but he was inevitably trapped once again in a tundra of ice as another exhale from Big Chill practically sealed his fate within the ice.

This time struggling a bit harder to break free, Kevin used an omnidirectional explosion of heat from the pores of his charcoal-skin; shattering his iced prison but, his stamina was quickly decreasing as it took a lot of energy to use such small samples of DNA in such vicious capacities, of course, unless he started sacrificing his sanity. He formed a hopeless orb of fire in one of his hands and launched it upwards as he started to realize he couldn't keep up, phasing right through Big Chill's body and dispersing in the night-sky behind him.

"You can't win this now, we aren't playing games anymore like when we were kids," Big Chill retracted his wings and pencil dived through the air twenty-feet phasing through the roof where Kevin lost sight of him; as he searched his surroundings, the phantom came up from the ground behind him and froze him solid again effectively cutting off his Pyronite power. Using the very last of it just to survive the frostbite anyone else would have experienced, sending him to his hands and knees in a shivering huff, "You can't take me when I'm serious…" Ben answered as the Necrofrigian grabbed him by his throat and picked Kevin up cutting off his oxygen flow slowly.

Kevin was trying his best but, all he could feel was frozen air with every inhale that was tearing him apart from the inside, keeping him from doing more than gripping his single wrist, "Let's see… how close to death, you can get before you start to realize the value… in life," as if there was a bit more than just Ben speaking through the Necrofrigian's voice for the moment, it wasn't until he heard a voice announce itself from behind that he was deterred from what he was about to do.

"B-Ben?" Gwen floated down onto the gravel from a lower level of the roof top, trying her best to use her telekinesis to get her through short distances but, only finally finding them both after the initial fight ended mysteriously. She immediately felt that something wasn't the same, something wasn't right, as the cold air would have almost stroked into a blizzard around them had she not stepped into the fray, one step at a time.

Kevin choked as he could feel the inside of his throat freezing over, he was too tough to scream but, his vocal chords were being shredded and he would never have survived any of it at all had he been anyone else for even this long.

"Ben… you can stop now," Gwen reached out and tugged lightly on his blue robes that she knew very well were his hidden wings, grazing her hand up to touch his arm even though her fingers went numb from the cold when she did, it didn't matter, he mattered, "You can stop now…

Big Chill narrowed his eyes as he looked into Kevin's, one of a long history of violence, two different paths that had intersected one too many times for either of their tastes; something took over his better nature for a moment as a smile curved across the Necrofrigian's face, "No… No, I think he had a point…" his grip tightened as the frost was now visible on the outside of Kevin's neck as well, cascading over his skin.

"W-What point did he make?" Gwen looked up between Kevin and back up into Big Chill's eyes and for the first time in over a year, she looked into one of his many faces and couldn't see a shred of Ben Tennyson, as he smiled back at her he turned with clear masochistic restraint, "You're starting to scare me…"

Big Chill spread his wings outward suddenly in an almost defensive mechanism, accompanied by a sort of hissing of cold-steam billowing out from his mouth, "Such disregard for life… should be met only with a lesson… in death," he finished as he raised a clawed hand above his head and was prepared to decapitate the vigilante with nothing to stop him but a last minute surge of desperation, a flood of emotion that nothing could have predicted.

With his wings spread, Gwen took another step forward, risking the frostbite and the already numbing cold, in order to wrap her arms around his waist from behind, tightening her grasp on him, squeezing him like only she could squeeze her doofus, "I don't know what happened, or what you're feeling, or what he said but…" Big Chill glanced down for the first time, noticing the tears in her eyes that didn't crystallize on contact with the air, "Come back to me?" he reached one finger out, taking the single tear droplet into his hand, at the tip of his finger, and gazing at it like it were the Hope Diamond.

Big Chill dropped Kevin quickly, rather, his hand became intangible and the boy fell through his grip and onto his hands and knees choking as the ice melted immediately within him, if not for his accelerated healing he'd be dead, no hospital on Earth could ever repair the damage done to his hands by the frostbite though, "Gwen?" he looked between the droplet on his finger and her before discarding it completely and shaking his head.

Slapping the Omnitrix allowed Ben to instantly transform back into his human form again but, something had felt incredibly off about his last use of the watch, quickly losing his balance as different perspectives clouded his point of view briefly which sent him to his hands and knees right next to Kevin.

"Ben!" Gwen rounded him and started patting him down for injuries, internal or external but found little to no actual damage aside from what she'd seen Chromastone take earlier, trying to ensure that he hadn't been mortally wounded in their subsequent fights but, more importantly to ask a simple question as she leaned into his ear, "How do you feel?" He was still looking at the ground when she asked but, something felt odd about his sight as it was like someone was shinning a laser-light into one of his retinas as he held his head.

Ben looked back up into her eyes, this time it was clear to her that something was seriously wrong, "I-I think I'm good… I feel… like I might throw up though…" as one of his eyes were burning bright neon-green, brighter than the Omnitrix core on his wrist for a second even, while the other was its own timid normal green-shade. The Omnitrix was clearly taking some sort of toll on Ben, one that he may or may not have already been aware of, and now it was manifesting physically in the form of minor loss of self-awareness during his transformed state. A form of dissociative personality disorder turned up to eleven on steroids, clearly.

Even though Kevin couldn't move, his muscle fibers were all too burnt for the time being, he still managed to mutter, "Couldn't do… it… after all…" as the two heard him roll onto his back next to them, face up as his breath billowed out into the sky that snowed down on him with flashing lights and incoming choppers, basking in his own defeat.

Gwen wasn't sure what he meant by what he said but, quickly remembered that the Government and Police would soon be overhead covering the rooftop in more artillery than she could care to face, there was nothing more they could do for the wayward vigilante. Doing their best to get themselves out of sight from any helicopters which shun spotlights down on Kevin, the duo vanishing into the shadows of the opposing end of the rooftop.

Sirens echoed in the distance as Gwen picked Ben up by one arm helping him across one ledge to another, and from that one to another, floating over certain obstacles as they came but, her telekinesis wasn't as versatile yet to allow for two people to levitate at once, she was slowly learning that there was a lot about her telekinesis she needed to work on.

Ben and Gwen placed their backs against a thin iron-beam, connecting to one of the many water-towers that littered the city rooftops. As they caught their breath, Ben seemed to be catching up again as the light in his eye dimmed only a bit, she noticed it was in fluctuation with his emotions. She wasn't totally sure of what was happening to him yet but, it was clearly more than she was prepared to handle alone.

"Are you good?" Gwen asked frantically as she put a hand on his shoulder, him with his hands still on his knees taking deep breaths, before stretching out his back with a few loud snaps that sounded like adjustment.

"I think?" He stumbled forward as his sight clearly wasn't fully adjusted to the light, or the dark? His perception was being effected, "Is something shinning light into my-" he swatted at the air, looking around for whatever was flashing such a bright light into a single eye until Gwen caught his wrist, placing one of her hands over his right hand, guiding it up to cover his left eye for the time being.

"I don't know how to explain it yet but, just try to keep that eye closed… I guess," Gwen peeked out above her to make sure that the helicopters had only swarmed Kevin's position, god only knowing what the Government had in store for him should they decide not to toss him back into the Null Void. Shaking the thought, it was clear for her to grab Ben and dive to the next rooftop, which she didn't take a second thought on doing but, hindsight was twenty-twenty.

She miscalculated how far away the roof was as she ended up dropping them both twenty-stories into a green massive dumpster, their collision was a lucky one as it was filled to the brim with most bags tied off and the trash was only food and not jagged debris, "Gwen?" Ben was the first to speak up which, surprised her but, pleasantly as it meant he was regaining his senses.

"Over here," sticking her hand out of the trash, "Babe!" Gwen shouted back at the sound of his voice, practically singing the last word, trying desperately to cling onto the one thing that made sense out of any of this green eyed glowing, violent vigilante nonsense, him. It was his hand that pulled her out from under a heap of rotting trash and his body that cushioned her fall when they lazily toppled out of the dumpster, and finally him who helped her up as two head-lights flashed in front of them blinding them.

Gwen took a step instinctively in front of her more vulnerable partner, igniting her charms and aura as her eyes flashed bright blue in preparation for a decent fight or a quick escape; her expression was as serious as they came as she stood in between the lights and her boyfriend, "Babe, huh?" That voice was familiar if not a bit off putting, "Not that it doesn't explain a lot but… I think we have a lot to talk about," Gwen was still on edge until the headlights shut off and revealed not one but two familiar faces that allowed her to let her guard down finally.

Grandpa Max had an all but too familiar grin on his face, one that told her that he knew exactly what was going on between the two emotionally but, it was also clear that he'd seen bits and pieces of Ben and Kevin's fight on the news; the second guest, however, clued her in on the seriousness of the situation, "Thank goodness, Grandpa… and…" she stuttered not knowing exactly how to greet him.

"Ben Tennyson," Azmuth of the Galvan announced up from atop the Rustbucket's hood as they turned their attention to the distracted boy, staring deeply at the reflection of the energy cascading from his eyes onto his palms, "Benjamin, listen to me!"

Gwen managed to stir his delirious attention toward the Galvan, "Huh?" Ben looked between the two and back to Gwen as if he hadn't even noticed that Azmuth was there until that second, it certainly wasn't something that happened very often so it should have been something to notice on first sight, "I see so much… so many different codes… its beautiful," he spoke as if he were on a psychedelic drug but, it was far from it.

Azmuth shook his head, stroking his own whiskers as Gwen and Grandpa brought Ben front and center for Azmuth to look at face-to-face, "For the sake of your own sanity, I suggest not looking to carefully at that eye of yours, kid…"

Gwen held his hand with a concerned glance as he looked up at her, looking into her eyes with a smile, "It's a self-replicating material which is present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes. It's the carrier of genetic information," Ben muttered as he looked away, into the night sky, "A nigh-infinite spectrum of intelligent and non-intelligent life, Omnimatrix core f-function…" he stuttered as he convulsed a bit, the energy surging through his left eye at an even brighter level.

"What the hell is happening to him?" Maxwell asked abruptly as he didn't see any immediate bleeding so he wasn't out right panicking just yet, as Gwen seemed more concerned for the physical wellbeing of her cousin, helping him to keep his balance as Azmuth simply cared only about examining his left eye and left wrist. Grandpa tried his best to keep the boy supported but, in the most subtle of ways, Gwen had taken over completely in that regard seamlessly.

"Omnimatrix c-core function…" Ben repeated as he looked at the Galvan with a concerned expression, at this point he wasn't sure he knew what he was saying, he been been beaten, tossed off a building, and so any good news would be appreciated.

Azmuth simply shook his head, sucking his teeth in shame after hearing all of this, he'd assessed the cause and now pondered a subsequent trouble-shoot, "The resulting bio-energy feed back from your two Omnitrix core proximities being that six months ago, has further bonded this device to your Grandson's DNA to a lethal degree…" as if manifesting his objects from thin air, teleporting directly into the palm of his hands with a simple mental command, a syringe about the size of a human needle appeared in his hands, "This agent will only cure the symptoms, most symptoms; however, I don't believe now even I could remove the Omnitrix from his wrist."

Gwen sniffled as Ben seemed so delirious, looking around at all of the flashing lights getting even brighter now, after already going through so much that night, he seemed so tired, "He's getting stronger… without the watch, I can tell…" she grazed one of her fingers over his forehead, brushing a strand of messy brown hair from his one good eye with almost a proud smile through the watering eyes.

"One of the symptoms I can't cure outright is the minor genetic-reconstruction Albedo's interference caused, meaning he may retain some abilities your species would consider super-human…" For the first time since they'd known him, Azmuth gave a long exasperated sigh tapping into the emotions he wasn't totally sure he still had left after the last three hundred years of exile, "It's fair to say some of the geno-archetypal instincts could have taken control and should I not administer the serum, the effects will only worsen. He would slowly become as unhinged and unstable as my former assistant and the cause for all of this madness…" Azmuth looked down in shame at his personal failings, knowing that Albedo's interference was the cause of their current circumstance.

Ben's head fell limp into Gwen's shoulder, whether from the multiple concussions, the twenty-story fall, the mere exhaustion, or the current problem that still illuminated brightly from behind his closed left eyelid, "Please…" She muttered as Max had never seen her hold him so tight, her dainty arms wrapped around his limp neck, "Just make him better…" As if she wouldn't stop holding him until he was better, as if she didn't know what to do if it wasn't with him by her side.

Azmuth glanced up for consent with a raised brow toward Maxwell who nodded down at him in apprehensive approval; the Galvan proceeded to use his frog-like hands to place the device against his arm just on the rim of the Omnitrix's bonded reach to his skin, injecting the stabilizing agent so far advanced it alone outshined the highest grade medication on Earth by millions of times.

Ben sprung up with a gasp as the light in his left eye died down until it simmered behind his already fiery emerald-eyes, he looked down at his hands and back up at Gwen with a smile, "Hey, you…" he managed with a hum before losing his balance and backing into her, "We should stop for smoothies… smoothie date…" he managed to mutter before passing out again into her arms. As infuriating as this entire night had turned out to be, that goofy grin he gave her before passing out was one that warmed her heart and told her that he was going to be okay.

"If you have pertinent questions now would be the time to air them while I revel in the weather of your planet for a moment," the Galvan out-stretched his hand to feel the tiniest of snow fractals melt in the palm of his much larger hand in comparison.

Gwen let her doofus of a boyfriend fall into her lap, leaning on the ledge of a back alley curb for support as all she cared about was keeping him safe; his still throbbing head with trails of dry blood running down them cushioned in her lap, with her aura quickly igniting around her hands, rubbing his temples to heal his head injuries, "Sana me amans!" she wasn't sure where the words came from but, it was the passion she felt for him that generated an even more powerful healing spell than she'd ever cast before.

Max stepped away from them for the second, shoving one hand into his pockets as he grazed a thinning white beard he'd start to let grow out in the last few months with the other, "How often should I be expecting things like… this… to happen regarding your, ehm, expertise on the Omnitrix."

"The serum has made Ben one with the Omnitrix, even to say that I owned it before him now would be objectively incorrect; such is the repercussions of rushing a prototype…" Azmuth mentioned as he looked over at the healing Tennyson boy, limp in his cousins lap and in the care of his Grandfather, "If one domino tipped to another that led to these events, one of those would be not taking my time to fully perfect the Omnimatrix before going into exile… many modifications to be made but, now it seems at what end?"

Max hardly understood every fifth word the Galvan spoke but, managed to grasp the gist of what he meant on most occasions; this was not one of them, "From now on that truly is his Omnitrix; with a pretty decent head on its shoulders…" giving one glance over to the boy and his now infamous glowing invention, "Do me a favor, make sure he stays that way so I don't have keep coming down here and fixing your problems for you…" even though his snark was obvious, it also had a smile curved onto his face as he turned away, looking back up at the sky as the clouds parted and whisked the Galvan away once again.

Max turned with a sigh, never knowing exactly what to take away from those monologues of his, "So," he turned his head over to the simpler aspect of the situation, "Smoothie dates, huh?" he chuckled.

Gwen held Ben's unconscious head in her hands still as she gave him her best nervous smile followed by a shrug, "Yea… let's talk…"