Chapter 27 – Mess: Part 2

Omnitrix City; Tennyson Tower; January 28th, 2018.

Just as Gwen had gotten a good twenty-minute power nap, she realized that they were still doing scans and testing behind closed doors, apparently a full body scan really means full body. Though they were inside, and she could hear all three of them, the elevator rose up to their floor, she waited and instinctively placed a hand on her watch. The doors parted open, revealing a six-foot-three hunk of a man, it wasn't until he limped out of the elevator did she recognize him as an older version of Kevin Levin. The love of her teenage life in her own reality, just seeing his face, regardless of his age, was an immediate relief. Relief that wouldn't last long.

"Tenny- Tennysons!" he shouted coughing up blood with those words that splattered on the floor in front of him, without even looking around, Gwen stood up quickly as he wobbled, the medical doors sliding open just in time for them to watch Kevin collapse onto the ground face first, as a puddle of blood started to pool around him, they immediately rushed him into the med-bay a few feet away. Gwendolyn used her telekinetic prowess to lift him without hurting him any further, placing him on an examination table; a myriad of scanners ran across his body, shinning light into his pupils and x-raying his internal injuries.

Gwendolyn sighed unsure of herself ever since Prometheus started negating her healing abilities, she clapped her hands together summoning neon teal lighting between her fingers, "Let's hope this works, Perfecta Sanitas," she placed both of her hands atop his chest illuminated with a wave of metaphysical energy coursing over his body, surprisingly, almost all of his wounds healed instantly. The only injuries left were the ones dealt by a blade of sort, and considering they wouldn't heal even the slightest, there's only one person that could have done this to him. Gwendolyn turned to Ben who was hooked up to a device that was scanning his gauntlet, as Cooper was still in the middle of testing his new surfacing abilities, "Call Julie up to floor fifty-five, tell her it's an emergency…" he ordered to Cooper who left his side and sprinted towards the exit.

Cooper ran from the equipment and out of the medical room, passing Gwen on the way out as he reached his desk, quickly hitting a sort-of silent alarm style emergency alert that he could program to anyone's cellular phone. Gwen had tears running down her cheeks as she couldn't take her eyes away from him, seeing him in that condition, she knew it wasn't real, she knew it wasn't her real life but, it felt the same. Watching the man she loved in pain and near death was so surreal that it didn't matter that it wasn't her Kevin, he was still her little spitfire no matter what reality she was in, and no matter how buff and old he looked.

It was only a few more minutes before an oriental woman in a white nurse's outfit came in from the elevator with a metallic cart of highly advanced medical equipment and drugs, "He's lost a lot of blood," Gwendolyn noted first and foremost as Julie pulled her cart into the room, "Does being half Osmosion effect the possibility of a blood transfusion?" she asked.

Julie spoke as she prepped her equipment and materials, "His Mother was the human so he should be able to accept human blood without a problem, my issue would be properly suturing all of these wounds before he completely bleeds out," Julie grabbed a packet of bandages and handed them to Gwendolyn, "Start applying pressure…" she insisted.

"Where?"

Julie was getting a bit frustrated herself, looking over Kevin's condition, finding no specific area to start with, "Everywhere!" she reached into her duffle of different syringes and equipment, pulling out a device that monitored heart rates remotely, slapping it on his chest as they all started to hear the beat of his heart slowing down in rhythmic hums over the wireless speakers, his breath straining, "He's gonna code!" Julie shouted as she watched a holographic display of his vitals which were plummeting, pulling out a syringe and popping the cap with her teeth as she slammed the needle down precisely in the center of his chest, releasing a trapped blood clot into the plastic tube allowing his blood to flow to his heart properly again. Julie wiped her brow as his heart rate began to stabilize, "Okay, now we can focus on bandaging him up…" she finally spoke up, turning to find Gwen with tears streaming down her cheeks, looking back at the collapsed man in the hospital bed.

"Is he gonna be, okay?" Gwen asked looking up at her for a reassuring answer but, the oriental doctor had been considered one of the smartest women in her generation, and yet she still couldn't fathom what she was looking at.

"I… I… uh, you…" Julie turned to look back at Gwendolyn who continued to wrap Kevin's arm with a nervous smile, glancing back up at her.

"It's a really long story," she explained.

Cooper pulled up a large holographic display of the four-dimensional scan he took of the Omnitrix, to check if his theory was correct, and it was, "I knew I was right," he announced excitedly, "I knew it, I knew it!" pumping his fist in the air, the others were simply curious to figure out what he was so excited for but, he was only impressed by his own capability.

Gwendolyn continued to patch up Kevin across the room, not even looking in the technopath's direction as she spoke up, "Share with the class, you adorable nerd," she announced referring to his childlike giddy excitement, almost like a kid brother she never had, spite him being a tad older.

Cooper stood up and pulled the plugs that were still connected to the Omnitrix gauntlet out, severing the analyzer; Ben had only barely managed to get his pants back on after the full body scan once Kevin came landing at his feet, so he reached to grab his shirt and put it back on as well.

"Stop," Cooper practically ordered, turning around to face them as now both Julie and Gwendolyn were curious as to what he was doing, even Gwen stepped sheepishly into the room, "When was the last time you actually worked out, in your human form?" he asked the hero directly, the question was simple but, he couldn't really remember, it could have been months, maybe even a year.

"I haven't needed to in a while I guess, what does that matter?" Ben shrugged, still holding his t-shirt in his hand.

Cooper chuckled and pulled up the results he got from the blood sample and body scan, "Because, news flash my friend, you're getting super-powers!"

"I already have-" the display projected several more detailed scans and images, his muscle enzymes were through the roof, and his bone marrow was far more solid than a regular human's.

Cooper chuckled arrogantly, "No, real super powers, like ones you don't need a watch for, look here," highlighting all of the major points of his musculature system displayed before them, "All of your major muscles used for combat or even sports, have been dialed up to eleven… supraspinatus, the infraspinatus, the teres minor muscle, e-even the subscapularis are all virtually denser than concrete," the blonde young man walked over toward him and stood next to Ben who was a foot taller and broad chested like a quarterback, "I'm a forking year older than both of you and look at him, he's one step away from an eight-pack," he was referring to the eleven-months he had over the two cousins, still standing next to and gesturing toward Ben's bare abs, "Have you really ever seen a twenty-three year old this jacked without ever working out?" he asked the most obvious question that would appeal to their common sense.

"It's certainly not a natural development," Julie chimed in with her professional opinion.

Gwendolyn was silent with a small smile as she stared at his chest, holding down a bandage on Kevin's arm as Gwen caught her counterpart practically drooling at the confused and shirtless Tennyson boy, almost mortified, "What are you trying to say then?" Julie responded to Cooper since Ben's own girlfriend clearly couldn't speak up.

"R-Right, what's the point of all this?" Gwendolyn finally snapped out of her trance-like stare and shook her head a bit, looking back down at the wounds she was treating.

Swinging his hand over the holographic image swapped it with a different one, a four-foot-long display of the innerworkings of the Omnitrix, highlighting certain areas, "Look here," Coop reached out at the hard-light construct, pulling his fingers apart to zoom in as Ben put his shirt back on finally rounding the display to view it as they did. Focusing on the connection between the actual device and Ben's forearm, where the dial is implanted, and just beneath where it had clearly rooted itself into his arm like a living plant.

Ben raised his brow, looking down at the watch, he'd never felt even a single twinge of pain from it unless it was being forcibly ripped off but, the scans didn't lie as it certainly was bonded to his arm, though, that wasn't the problem. "Whenever he transforms, the Omnitrix releases something I've been calling omni-energy…"

"Calling it to who?"

"To myself," Cooper retorted quickly and confidently, "I've been studying the watch for years, it's the single most advanced piece of technology in the entire Galaxy, how could I not?" he bragged and snorted a bit as he returned to his main point, clearing his throat, "Anyways, each transformation releases omni-energy, and most of it dissipates in the emerald flash of light we see but, these roots," Cooper pointed up at them as the display demonstrated an example of Ben transforming, visually seeing the problem, "They're trickling genetic energy from an ocean of over a million different species right into your blood, eventually into your DNA."

Cooper shut down the hologram with a single gesture and walked passed them, exiting the medical room with a strut, and returning to his desk as they followed with more questions. "That explains your new Jetray beams, and you're enhanced strength and reflexes," Gwendolyn noted as Coop pressed a button on his glass desk which lit up upon his pressure, unlocking a drawer at his feet under his desk, pulling out a small plastic case.

Julie stayed by Kevin's side monitoring his vitals as Gwen did the same, the three friends began discussing their own private issues, being in an alternate reality was so confusing, all Gwen could do was put a hand on Kevin's and hope for the best. "I'm not sure who you are but, he's going to be okay, he's survived worse than this…" Julie explained with a comforting smile, noting the many times she'd patched up the Plumber after his missions, and his previous teenage experience fighting an alien war. This seemed to relieve Gwen of, at least some of her anxiety and lingering guilt. Smiling up at the nurse for the first time since they'd met.

"Thank you."

Ben leaned over Cooper's desk as he fiddled with the plastic case in his hands, opening it in front of them but, not looking up at them, "Does that mean I could get all my transformation's powers? That would be-"

Gwendolyn quickly reacted with a decade of experience, she anticipated his next words and slapped her hand over his mouth as softly as possible, "Before you even think about saying 'awesome' remember that most of your transformation's powers are physical mutations, and I don't plan on walking down the aisle to a fourarmed stinkfly combo platter," Though it was true, and she was right, he gasped at the last part of the sentence; she was just making a joke but, it obviously struck a cord.

Ben threw his arms up in defense, shaking his head in protest, "Nobody's walking down the aisle, what are you even… pfft, we don't even have an aisle, I-I don't even think I want to get married," he sputtered out rambling pure awkward desperation, leaving Gwendolyn quite stunned, blinking back at him, even Cooper raising his eyes to look up at them, "Wait, that might have come out wrong, it sounded different in my head-" he tried to reword is sentence but, before he could she cut him off by refocusing their attention elsewhere.

Gwendolyn scowled at him, shaking her head in a confused frustration, "We'll unpack that later I guess," she was stressed enough as it is with everything that was going on all at once, first Kai is cut down in cold blood, then Charmcaster secluded herself within Ledger Domain to grieve over Albedo, who was also just killed, an alternate version of herself is poking around their new headquarters aimlessly, and now Kevin comes toppling in almost just as dead as his ex-fiancé.

Gwendolyn couldn't be bothered with what he just said to her about marriage, which she was a really big deal for her emotionally, compartmentalizing everything one at a time, "Can you fix it?" she turned her head and looked back to Cooper placing all of her stress and anger into a box and locking it away.

"What do you think I've been doing in the last seven-hundred silently tense nanoseconds?" The technopath had been assembling a practically microscopic chip the entire time, using his abilities to intricately connect components tens of times smaller than a grain of sand without issue, they could barely see it forming as his technopathy illuminated it with a bright blue hue, allowing it to float in his palm, "Pop the dial for me."

Ben obliged and mentally triggered the core to pop out of its gauntlet for alien selection, lifting his forearm to level, Cooper took the chip and flipped his palm over, slapping it down on the core much like Ben once did before master-control.

His body exploded in a flash of omni-energy, however; the emerald light didn't change his appearance or transform him into any alien, "There's no real way to replace the parts of your DNA the Omnitrix already altered but, I just inserted a capacity limiter, it's going to help divert the excess genetic energy into your actual transformations," Cooper added the schematics for the device he just created to his software and filed it away in his personal super-computer. All while he explained it and with nothing but his mind.

Ben heard what he'd said and grinned like he was ten-years-old again, more so because of the implication that he assumed was being made, "Will that make them stronger too?" he asked excitedly, leaving Gwendolyn to shake her head almost in embarrassment, forcing herself not to facepalm.

Cooper chuckled sarcastically "No," he hadn't considered that even with his intelligence, "You might change forms faster, maybe?" he denied bluntly, folding his arms across his chest and giving it some more thought, using his super-intelligence to run complex algorithms in his head, "You still might see some abilities develop in the coming weeks, in your human form I mean, some of that energy is still coiled up in your genetic helix," he leaned back in his computer chair, looking up at the two as they freaked out.

Gwendolyn put her hands on the railing in front of Cooper, leaning closer to him, suddenly imagining what mutation Ben might undergo next and how she would handle that, "What are we talking here? Ripjaw's scales? Big Chill wings? Oh shit," She stopped and started thinking less like a cousin and more like a girlfriend, gasping to lean closer, whispering it in Coop's face, trying to block her lips with her hand as though Ben couldn't hear her from three feet away, "What happens to his-"

"Nothing! It could literally be nothing! It could be something as simple as the laser vision, no physical augmentation, just the omni-energy finding a way to manifest itself," Cooper insisted as he held his hands up in surrender, having no information left to give her, nor any desire to continue her line of questioning, "It's an incredibly unique energy signature, I'd say the only person who knows more about it would be Azmuth."

Gwendolyn glanced over at the med bay where Julie and Gwen were speaking over Kevin's unconscious form, Cooper had leaned back and reabsorbed himself into his computer his pupils flashing neon blue. Leaving Gwendolyn to grab Ben by the wrist, yanking him back towards the other side of the room, beside the forensics table, the replacement for the one he'd burned a hole through with his eyes.

"Now that we've got a few seconds, do you mind telling me exactly what that jab about not wanting to get married was about?" Gwendolyn folded her arms, brushing her hair back over her shoulder, and waiting for a response. Her body language said enough that she didn't at all agree with the concept, he very much dug himself a hole when he blurted out his excuse.

"What're you even… no, you must have miss heard me, I meant I don't want to get married anytime soon," Ben thought he'd saved himself but, this only seemed to anger her even more, raising a frustrated brow.

Not only could she tell he was lying to her face but, there was more to it than even that. "Excuse me? We've been dating for eight years, and you don't want to get married 'any time soon'? That doesn't make any sense," Gwendolyn started to feel hurt, as she thought they were heading up, and that it was only a matter of a few months before they tied the knot, "You better seriously reconsider that thought, Benjamin, because I'm not going to wait around for you forever and…" she huffed with an embarrassed blush, seeing a slight tinge in her eyes that showed real depth to her conviction, "I want marriage, I've dreamt about it since I was a kid, and I don't know how this will work if that's not something you want too."

Gwendolyn turned around and wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eye before it began its descent down her cheek, flicking it away; Ben simply groaned as she walked away back toward Kevin, running his hands through his hair as he turned facing the opposite direction.

They were interrupted before Ben could attempt to do more damage control, if that were even possible at this point, by Gwen wiping her tears with her sleeve, sniffling, and approaching them both with a serious expression, "I think I know where you can find Prometheus…" she huffed through an enraged breath.

"What are you talking about?"

Ben and Gwendolyn both turned toward her before she had gotten into the med-bay, waiting for an answer as Cooper listened in, "On my world, every time he would kick my ass, he would go back to the same exact place, an abandoned Plumber complex in Bellwood," hearing her explanation, Coop triangulated Plumber bases in their version of Bellwood and the only one inactive was the Bunker they had cleared out once Ben received his inheritance. "It was like he was daring me to come fight him."

"It's the Bunker," Cooper announced across the room at them, looking over the old security devices he left behind just in case, having a mind that could process terabytes of data in seconds with ease, "Motion detectors had someone going in and no one coming out over forty-minutes ago, if there was ever a time for you two to team up and catch him by surprise, it'd be now," Cooper referred to both watch wielding Tennyson's.

Though, Gwendolyn disagreed, turning and gripping Ben's bicep before he could walk passed her towards Coop's desk, pulling him a step closer to her instead, "You guys cant go, she's not strong enough, and he's already beaten you before," she was still emotional from their talk, huffing a deep breath, she placed her hands on his face feeling his smooth thin beard, trying to memorize every curve of his chiseled features, "I'm coming with you."

Cooper once again interjected with his genius level intellect, "Bad idea, Charmcaster learned the hard way that magic is useless against this guy, it has to be them two but, on the other hand, Gwendolyn is right… she isn't ready to fight him, and you already lost once," he paused as silence filled the room for a second or two, emphasizing his point one last time, "badly."

Gwen felt a tad insulted at their lack of faith in her, though, seeing how much control Ben Ten Thousand had over his Omnitrix while only being half a decade older than her, justified their apprehension. "She's just a bit rough around the edges, all she needs is a little help," Ben approached and grabbed her wrist quickly, pulling her a step towards him.

"I thought we've been through this, hands off the arm, dweeb," Gwen tried pulling away at first but, instead of holding tighter like he'd done when he first found her in the desert, his grip was only tight enough to keep her forearm steady. He twisted the dial three times to the left, four times to the right, pressed down on the activation button, and then slapped her Omnitrix core down himself. The device lit up on her wrist, strobing quickly for a moment, before letting out a nostalgic, fully charged chime, "What'd you do?" she asked as the light glittered off her eyes, staring down at the power in awe.

"I unlocked Master Control, in a few seconds you're going to start feeling that genetic energy-"

Cooper cut Ben off by correcting him with an announcement into their conversation again, "Omni-energy!"

Ben stopped for a second to glance understandably annoyed at him, "Omni energy… feeding you the information you need to control it with your thoughts, if you ever get stuck it always responds to vocal commands keyed to your voice." Ben stepped back and placed his hands on his hips, proud of himself, though Gwendolyn found herself still scowling at him. "What? You said she wasn't powerful enough, now she is. It'll be a piece of cake I'll watch her back, you can stay here and watch my back," he winked down at her as she couldn't help but smile a bit through her frown, especially once he leaned down and placed a loving kiss against her forehead. "There's no one I'd trust more to do this with."

Gwendolyn sighed solemnly, rolling her eyes in response to his obvious buttering-up, "Just not enough to marry me?"

Ben closed his eyes, exhaling through his nose, trying to figure out a good way to explain why he said what he said without giving away his plans, "I do want to marry you, it's just… I…" he paused as he couldn't think of a reason that would explain his sudden squeamishness to commitment, though it seemed he took too long.

Gwendolyn took a step back from his reach, looking away as her voice cracked, "I-If it's because we're cousins, it's fine, I get it… I just thought…" tears started to well up in her eyes again, as she wrapped her hands around her arms sheepishly, with a tear running down her left eye.

"Baby, please, that's not it," He tried reaching for her hand but, she yanked it back before he could even touch her fingers, "You're my everything, my world," she glanced up slowly and looked into his eyes, flooded with genetic energy that also welled with tears, "Please, don't ever forget that."

Gwendolyn nodded, wiping her own stream of tears away, "Yea," sniffling once or twice, "I'll be sure to remember that when I'm back sleeping in our apartment, alone," she walked off as Ben no longer debating his decision to act recklessly, hanging his head in defeat, leaving Gwen to approach from the side.

"I'm sorry about that, when are you going to tell her?" She asked, having seen the ring he purchased for Gwendolyn via Paradox's time manipulation. "I mean, you do want to ask her, don't you?"

Ben sighed, "It has to be special, it has to mean something, it cant be in the middle of…" he gestured around to the chaos of his powers effecting him mysteriously, Julie treating Kevin in the other room, Kai in cryofreeze downstairs, alternate counterparts confusing things even further, "I just have to wait for all this to be over."

Gwen nudged his shoulder, trying to cheer him up, "You just gave me Master Control, let's go take care of this ourselves right now, so you can propose to your soon to be fiancé tonight," suddenly pointing down at the ground referring to that very night. After giving it more thought and recalling her time with Kevin, she was rooting for them, especially after noticing just how much they cared about each other.

Ben looked around as Julie left the room for more supplies, Gwendolyn sat by Kevin's side, not even glancing in their direction as she waited for his say so, "Let's end this," he looked down at his young cousin doppelganger, nodding as they both exploded in a simultaneous flash of emerald and hot-pink omni-energy, both becoming speedsters who left the building before the glow could dissipate. Gwendolyn sighed with a saddened expression, walking away from Kevin, and sitting down next to Cooper at his desk, "Relationship's suck."

Cooper chuckled leaning back in his desk chair, she was surprised that he was still as lean as he was when they fought the DNAliens considering he spends most of his time sitting at computers, "I'd give you some sagely advice but, I only ever had one girlfriend in high school, and we only lasted like three months," he cracked his knuckles as Gwendolyn plopped her chin down on the desk, desperately unsure of her next move.

…

Bellwood; New York; Retired Bunker; January 28th, 2018.

XLR8 and Velocity promptly arrived at relatively the same time, Ben slowing down to allow the younger Kinceleran to catch up, once they had phased through the walls together, they faced the darkened empty base. Both transformed with a thought, simultaneously, as Fourarms and Prisma took their place; Prisma being her dubbed name for a Sugilite like Chromastone, using the cascaded colors of her rainbow aura encompassing her fists and horn to illuminate their surroundings. Prisma was identical to Chromastone other than a strange crystal bust over her torso, what purpose they served was unknown but, it distinguished her from her male counterpart. She took a few steps around the room, which wasn't excessively big, not enough to hide anyone anywhere out of sight; Fourarms did a quick sweep of the room himself before slumping his shoulders.

"Nobody's here," Fourarms snorted steam from his nose, frustrated by constantly missing his chance to take down this psychotic maniac of an enemy but, just as he thought all was lost, a holographic projector sprung up from the ground, illuminating the room further as it displayed a full body image recording of Prometheus fully armored up. Simultaneously, the reinforced steel doors behind them locked shut as the Bunker entered Babylon protocols. A designed last resort to lock in or keep out anyone, including Ben or Albedo, generating a force field that lined each inch of every wall in thermal wiring, Cooper's design.

The projected image chuckled arrogantly, "Even now, at the end, I'm still ten steps ahead and you don't even know what game we're playing," it was the first time he heard Prometheus laugh or emote in any way that wasn't violent or vaguely threatening, all the same Ben could tell he was smiling beneath that mask.

His fist tightened, taking a few steps towards the hologram, "When I find y-" but he didn't get the chance to finish.

The recording continued, "Before you waste your breath threatening me I should mention this is prerecorded and that I'm no where near you, in fact, South Dakota is quite the run from New York, I wonder if you'll make it in time," Prometheus stood there, nodding as the projection was almost over, tapping his forehead with a confident nod, "Remember, ten… steps…" the projection vanished as Fourarms stomped down on the silver holo-disc, crushing it.

"Let's just phase out with speedsters or phantom transformations…" Prisma suggested, already prepared to transform into Tundra again, before she could reach her Omnitrix dial, she was interrupted by her fellow shapeshifter.

Fourarms transformed back into his human state, sighing as he approached the main console that was the Danger Alert prototype; blowing a layer of dust off the glass keyboard, "Don't bother, this Bunker was meant to keep even me and my powers contained, the only way to disable it is with my key code and a retinal scan," he worked his way through the old system start-up process as his alternate cousin paced around the room still in her alien form.

"Every second we waste here; Prometheus could be doing who knows what?!" Prisma exclaimed, slapping her faceplate just to return to her human form, starting to breathe heavily as she looked around for anyway out. She could feel a panic attack ensuing as suddenly claustrophobia set in, the walls closing in around her.

Ben took a step back as the system rebooted, allowing him access to the server to shut down the safety protocol, noticing her distressed state as he turned to face her, "If you want to learn more from me than just how to twist that dial faster, than your first lesson is patience, freaking out wont solve the problem," he noted as the screen lit up and he began entering his passcodes, giving Gwen some semblance of peace.

…

Four Minutes Earlier

Gwendolyn was about to reconsider what she'd said to him earlier, figuring she should apologize when he returned, perhaps she was a bit too harsh and should have considered talking it out first before kicking him out of her bed, again; suddenly, before she could finish that thought she felt a thick wave of negative energy flow up around her, forcing her to stand abruptly as Cooper watched in confusion. She knocked her chair over on the motion upwards, clattering against the cold tile.

"You cool?" he asked casually.

Gwendolyn shook her head, taking a few steps forwards, approaching the holodeck in the center of the room, it felt as though something beneath the table had evil intensions, unless it wasn't underneath. Just as she figured this out, Prometheus dropped from above landing on his crouched feet and a fist planted which shattered the hologlass on impact. The projector light cast a menacing shadow over him that glitched out on a loop after his landing. Without time to prepare, Prometheus grabbed the railing and flipped his legs up, drop kicking Gwendolyn in the abdomen, knocking her ten feet back through a sheet of glass. Cooper quickly used his technopathic abilities to assemble a weapon from beneath his desk, out of the enemy's sight, even while showing Prometheus his hands as a sign of surrender.

Paying no attention to the technopath as he got to his feet, passing his desk into the med bay where Kevin was laid out unconscious, he didn't see it coming when Cooper finally force pulled out a quantum disassembler array through the air into his grasp from under his desk, which he quickly cocked back and fired into Prometheus' back. Forcing him to stumble forwards, "You like that?!" he cocked back the weapon and fired again like an energy pulse shotgun that would never jam, blasting him once again which this time forced him forwards several steps, turning around to face the technopath in response. He felt the sweat on his brow collecting beneath his blonde bangs before he cocked the barrel back once more with a determined glare and fired the pulse again.

This time Prometheus had enough, focusing the negative omni-energy coursing within him through his forearms, meeting and dispersing Cooper's energy attack as the beam dissipated across his Antitrix, as did the following shot, ending with him getting the weapon knocked out of his hands. The smoldering blaster hit the wall across the room, shattering to pieces, as Coop backed away with his hands burned slightly. Gwendolyn got back to her feet just in time to watch Cooper get hit in the face with a right hook, sending him to the ground unconscious.

Gwendolyn recovered from being thrown through the med-bay dividing glass installed into the wall, the cuts and knicks across her body slowly healing with the glow of her Death Charm. Julie watched as she was still for nearly half a minute, being the only one to bare witness to Cooper's failed attempt to defend himself. Forcing her palms underneath her, she pushed herself up, getting to her feet with her eyes firing up with teal mana light flooding her pupils.

Prometheus approached the unconscious Osmosion still lying in the hospital bed, before Gwendolyn got between him and his target, trying to fire a concussive blast of yellow kinetic energy with all of the power in the Alpha Rune and her Charms into his chest but, it simply bounced off a forcefield of crimson energy, dissipating her attacks into particles. "No!" She shouted as a Bezelian Seal formed in golden light above her summoning extra power from Ledger Domain, "Merchucus Verditis!"

Gwendolyn fired a bolt of bright blue lightning which Prometheus expertly cleaved in two with his mana negating blade. Hardly stalling him for more than a few seconds, quickly pulling two throwing stars from his belt faster than even she could see, hitting her in either shoulder as she fell backwards, falling unconscious at Julie's feet. The Oriental nurse gasped as the sparks flew and the body collapsed, powerless to stop him now that she was alone in the room.

Prometheus shook his head and swung his sword through the air signifying his victory, huffing as he returned to perch above Kevin, prepared to bring his katana back down, ready to impale him, and finish the job he'd started.

As the blade came swinging down, an iron fist caught his grip suddenly, Kevin's eyes snapped open as his opposing palm was clenching the medical bed's railing, "I'm not going into that sweet goodnight that easy, pal!" encasing his entire body in iron liquid metal, Kevin forced himself through the pain to break Prometheus' grip on his katana, sitting up and kicking him back several steps.

Gwendolyn tried sitting up but, first she struggled to pull out the throwing stars from her shoulder, finding that these new wounds weren't healing, shouting out to the Osmosion as the enemy recovered, "Kevin! The ground is solid steel!" she slapped the floor she couldn't pick herself up from, receiving a nod from the Plumber agent.

Prometheus was still injured from his last battle with Kevin, but he wasn't in the least bit intimidated either way, not that they could tell with his mask on, "It won't help you escape me," he noted through a modulated voice, as Kevin grazed the metallic grates of the med bay floor, the armor encasing him far more polished and durable.

"I did it once, I can do it again," He referred to the night prior where he did just that, Prometheus quickly avoided Kevin's lunge by leaping into a roll where he picked up his discarded katana, only barely meeting a downward slash from Kevin's serrated steel arm.

The two clashed as sparks flew around them, each strike coming closer and closer to the end, as Prometheus had Kevin on the ropes, he managed a lucky swing that sliced his abdomen apart through his suit. Prometheus shouted in pain, immediately glaring up with crimson energy welling in his eyes, using speed he hadn't witnessed before. Kevin watched as Prometheus leaped the distance between them in half a second, energizing his katana with his own crimson energy allowing it cut through his steel armor like butter.

Prometheus chuckled beneath his mask, looking at the fear and desperation on Gwendolyn's face after watching Kevin drop to his knees, hearing the device Julie planted on his pectoral flat-line completely, "Now things are finally starting to get fun," he noted pulling back his blade on the kevlar of arm, wiping it clean of the blood. Prometheus kicked his body over onto his side, bleeding out though his life had long since left his body.

Gwendolyn reset her fighting position, getting physically defend herself, even without her magic, she advanced forwards and sent a volley of strikes starting with a right straight to his face attempting to punch through his skull. Unfortunately, he was too agile even for her enhanced Keystone speed, dipping to the side and grabbing her by the wrist. Taking control of the fight, he used his superior strength to spin her around violently, bending her arm upwards to the point where her joints audibly cracked, her wrist nearly aligned with her shoulder blade, as she writhed in agony. Gwendolyn still didn't give him the satisfaction of a shout, only furiously growling through her teeth.

Suddenly, Prometheus could feel the two speedsters returning with their omni-energy hot on his trail, turning her around, he left-right cross combo jabbed her in the face, nearly breaking her nose as blood splattered over her cheeks and dripped down her face. Letting go of Gwendolyn's arm and kicking her in the chest forwards onto her back, sprawling out in a haze. XLR8 arrived first, dashing in as his visor slid up, scanning Kevin lying on the ground with his eyes wide open, staring at nothing, as the light had gone out behind his pupils.

Prometheus took a step forwards, intentionally placing a boot on Gwendolyn's shoulder, pressing down on the injured joints he'd pulled earlier, "Everyone in your orbit either suffers or dies, Ben Tennyson, you're a disease that plagues the Multiverse, and you're the filthiest of them all," Prometheus spoke directly to XLR8 without looking away from Gwendolyn's terrified expression, slowly healing herself and grabbing his ankle but, too weak to overpower him. Ben was too focused on Kevin's death and his loves situation to fight or argue, simply staring at the blade that still stuck out from his chest, pultruding from his back, "You're a murderer, a false god, a heretic who believes the only answer to the worlds problems is himself," Prometheus pressed down further on her shoulder as she groaned in pain, "Such selfishness," the sound of her voice in pain snapped him out of it, quickly darting his head back towards the masked figure.

Velocity arrived soon after only, she transformed into Ricoshell at eight-hundred miles-per-hour, her version of Cannonbolt, which looked identical save for a blue and pink color scheme. Intercepting the monologuing villain, he was caught off guard by her sudden lack of hesitation, tackling him at that speed with that much force knocked them through the wall and into an empty hall leading to the elevators. Ricoshell tore through the concrete and steel leaving a cloud of debris and dust covering the scene from his sight, XLR8 lowered his visor back down to scan the area.

Prometheus stepped out of the smoke menacingly following a forced pink flash of light, slowly strutting through the ashes with a human Gwen caught by the throat, choaking slightly as his grip had yet to tighten, "Even with Master Control, she's just as weak as you are… maybe weaker," he tossed her across the room with enough force to send her twenty feet away into Cooper's monitor equipment, wiping the desk clean off with her body, rolling over onto the ground unconscious.

XLR8 exploded in a flash of omni-energy, leaving his human form in its place, his glare was glowing with unbridled rage, slowly pointing at him with a quaking finger, "I swear I'm going to kill you," Ben muttered through his teeth and tears, looking up from Kevin's body, Gwendolyn's bloody condition, and Gwen's now unconscious form, "I swear it!" to face Prometheus directly. Without warning, Ben attempted to surprise his opponent by unleashing his optic energy blasts, twin beams of emerald were only quickly met with identical crimson energy, being equally matched for a second or two. Gwendolyn noticed him being slowly overwhelmed, using the opportunity of their beam-struggle to sprawl beneath their attacks and roll out of the way, getting behind Ben as quickly as she could.

He was losing the struggle as the beam crept closer to him, she leant him a boost in mana, channeling her mystic energy through her palms, placing them both on either side of his temples. "Translatio Potestatis," sending a pulse of her personal mana reserves, including her runes, sending him every last drop of her power. Since she couldn't use her mana on him directly, she figured amping up Ben's more effective attack was good enough though, she was wrong. Prometheus found this technique interesting so, he too upped the intensity of his attack with a simple grunt as the crimson energy coursing from his mask grew thicker and pushed further against the emerald beam. Even with Gwendolyn's extra mana boosting his ocular attack forming a swirled blast of emerald and teal energy, Ben shouted out of strain as they were still overwhelmed and pushed back so thoroughly that the beam struck Ben's chest dead center. Knocking both him, and subsequently Gwendolyn standing behind him, off their feet and through the air hitting the shattered holodeck on his back, with Gwendolyn mounted on top of him, struggling to lift herself up. Even in a state of agony to which he immediately passed out afterwards from, he still managed to angle their descent so that he could protect her impact.

Out of his pocket, a burgundy boxy slipped out, toppling to the ground at landing near the edge of the holodeck, noticed by nobody as each were far too busy.

Just as Gwen recovered, holding her throat in pain with Julie supporting her by the arm, Prometheus casually stepped through the wreckage of the mission room. He approached Ben and Gwendolyn who were still incapacitated as he reached his foot up and kicked her off him, letting gravity allow her to topple off the deck to the floor with a painful thud.

"I've been trying to educate you," he announced as Ben finally opened his eyes, noticing a sword already at his throat, cackling with crimson jolts of electricity, "But, you haven't been paying attention… it's time I enlighten you."

Prometheus had the dimensional shifter in hand, obviously having built more than one, he pressed the blade up against his neck, not hard enough to cut him but, just enough to make physical contact. A tap of his thumb vibrated their bodies rapidly, cutting through reality itself and vanishing in an instant flash of light taking Ben with him.

Julie was nearly hyperventilating, the medical professional had her work cut out for her; Cooper was down and unconscious, Kevin was already dead, and now the two most powerful heroes on the planet are missing and incapacitated.

Gwen covered her mouth at the horror show, still feeling the sting of having her throat gripped with such strength, unlike her counterpart she had no super-human abilities meaning she felt all of his attacks like any other seventeen-year-old girl would. It was all only getting worse; she couldn't help but simply conclude that he's unstoppable and that bringing this team of heroes into her fight was a mistake. He can't be outsmarted, trapped, reasoned with, or beaten physically; what hope could there be left against a force of nature like this, especially without this Earth's Ben Ten Thousand? Gwen recoiled steps away until her back was against the wall, sliding down in shock as tears slipped down her cheeks again, just as soon as she thought she had no tears left to weep. That panic attack she was fighting off came crashing down around her as sparks flew from damaged equipment and the lights above flickered from the power surges.

Suddenly, Gwendolyn's Charms of Bezel that were emblazoned on her kevlar sleeve illuminated with golden energy, Julie narrowed her eyes as she stared across the room at her limp body on the ground, specifically her arm which began to twitch. The Charm's of Death and Luck amped by the Alpha Rune allowed her to recover first, gasping as though she hadn't been breathing until the Charm did its work.

Julie tended to Cooper who only received a minor concussion from that enhanced hook he took to the face, nearly fracturing his jaw but, he got incredibly lucky. Tending to his injury as best she could, she moved him into the bed Kevin had occupied before he began fighting back, using pillows to support his head and bandages along with a cold compress to treat the simpler patient, while also trying her best to ignore the dead body lying behind her.

Gwendolyn slowly stood, scanning the room for Ben but, found no sign of him even as Julie approached to give her an update on the precious minutes she missed while unconscious, "Kevin didn't make it, and Prometheus took Ben with that dimensional thing," she sheepishly took her glass clipboard tablet and held it behind her back as she gave them a sympathetic expression, "S-Should I make arrangements to have Kevin's body moved downstairs?"

Gwendolyn's eyes weren't fixated on anything, just darting around the room, running her hands through her hair, "Y-Yea… Yea, whatever, just…" she took a deep breath and looked into Julie's eyes, "Just make sure he'd next to Kai in the cryochamber."

Julie nodded with a somber smile, "Of course, Ms. Tennyson," she turned around to begin her work on doing exactly that

Gwendolyn kept her eyes fixated on Kevin this time, lying limp on the medical table, he had managed to get away from Prometheus without getting injured by his aliens, just the katana, which was impressive to say the least. Besides being a friend and ally, he was one of their strongest teammates, with neither him nor Ben, what could she possibly do to stop the enemy?

"Thank you, Julie, for everything today…" Gwendolyn reassured her gratitude to the nurse with every drop of sincerity she had.

"You guys are saviors of the Universe," Julie declared before turning back around with the same sympathetic smile, "And my friends, I'm happy to help in any way I can," she finished softly as she walked back across the room towards the scene of the crime.

Gwen approached her counterpart who was still leaning against the holodeck, her injuries slowly healing herself back to full health; she watched as a cut across Gwendolyn's brow sealed itself over, leaving only a small mark of dry blood in its place, "This definitely didn't go as planned, what a freaking mess, what are we going to do?" the younger one asked.

Gwendolyn wiped a tear from the corner of her eyes, "I-I don't know, I'm so stupid… I'm so fucking stupid!" having the area to herself, considering her counter was herself, she turned around and slammed her fists down on the shattered hologlass, sending mystical bolts of teal electricity across it and the room, "If I hadn't gotten so angry with him, he might have reconsidered or… I could have stopped him," Gwen put a hand on her older self's shoulder from behind, trying to comfort her as best she could.

"It's okay, I'm sure he's fine, wherever he is… he's gotten through way worse than this before and only come out stronger," Gwen pulled back as Gwendolyn turned around as the mystical blue energy glittered down her tears, more than they every had before, surprising her younger self.

Gwendolyn ran her fingers through her long light auburn hair, trying to straighten it as best she could as just a nervous twitch while she anxiously paced passed Gwen towards the bed bay turning back around to face her again, "What if he's hurt or worse… how are we even going to find him?"

"Once Cooper's back on his feet he'll-" Gwen was interrupted when she noticed herself staring passed her own eyes down at the ground, her doppelgänger looking at something underneath the holodeck, "My shoes have been through hell, no need to stare…" she folded her arms as she took a step to the side, gasping as she noticed the burgundy box which Paradox had shown her in a cosmic timeline display.

"No, don't!" Gwen shouted as Gwendolyn quickly scooped it up with a telekinetic grip before she could reach it physically, pulling it into her palm, "Don't open that… not yet…" she tried her best to come up with a good reason, "It's Ben's."

Gwendolyn narrowed her eyes in suspicion, finding it odd that this just so happened to appear and that her counterpart was being so antsy about it. Not taking her own advice, she simply flipped open the case, finding that the inside of the velvet case read a message in cursive 'till death do us part' and beneath was a magnificent diamond ring embedded in the center. Without even saying a word or making a sound, tears began to stream down her face in regret, pulling the ring out of the case to look it over, her lip quivered.

"G plus B…" her voice cracked, staring down at the golden band in her fingers, slowly using her free hand to cup her mouth to avoid sobbing like a baby.

Gwen raised a brow, not understanding the last part of what she said, "Wait, what?"

Gwendolyn's hands dropped to her side, still holding the ring but, staring down at her twins identical eyes, flashing with the lights that sparked from the destroyed holodeck behind her, "It's engraved on the back, he was… he was gonna propose…" so much regret and guilt, the last thing she said to him was to find another place to sleep and now it wasn't a guarantee she'd ever see him again to say how wrong she was. To tell him how much she really loved him.

…

Chapter 27 End