Chapter Text
Chapter 13: Maximum Effort
I didn't know what to say. After searching for him, after finding his message telling us to put together a team, after still wondering exactly where he was, his Grandfather was standing right in front of him. It almost felt unreal. I could tell Grandpa had been through quite a lot since I'd last seen him. Sure, there was a smile on his face, but it was contrasted by the bags under his eyes. The next thing I noticed was his missing Hawaiian shirt. He just had on a tank top, and his usual khakis had a few extra tears in them, and a large brown satchel hung over his shoulder.
"Grandpa Max?" I said in disbelief. They were the only words that would come to me at that moment.
"Ben, Gwen, it's good to see you. You too, Kevin."
Kevin nodded, but I couldn't help but notice some tension in that nod.
"And…Oh, I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met."
"I'm Julie, Julie Yamamoto." Julie greeted him.
There was a brief bit of hesitation before Grandpa responded.
"Ah, Mali's stepdaughter. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, too." Julie replied with a smile.
My Grandfather's sudden appearance still shook me. Words didn't want to escape my mouth other than saying 'Grandpa Max' again. Thankfully, Gwen was able to follow up with some actual questions.
"What are you doing here? What is going on? Why is Ken's van here?"
"It's a long story." Grandpa replied, there was a hint of tiredness in his voice. "There's a lot I want to explain right now. To all of you, but if what I fear is true, then we need to hurry if we're going to save Ken. So, I'll give you the short version. Ken was working with me. His road trip was just a cover to help gather information on the Highbreed invasion."
"But why?" Gwen interjected. "Why would you send him to gather information alone? He's…"
"He's a Plumber, Gwen." Grandpa replied. "He has been for the past year."
"What? Why didn't you tell us? Why didn't he…"
"That's part of a longer story. Ken can fill you in on that after we rescue him." Grandpa replied in a soft but authoritative tone that only he could manage, which suggested he was done answering questions about that.
"I had discovered some urgent information about the DNAliens that needed to be given to you, so I asked Ken to deliver it to you. Ken was supposed to send me a signal when he arrived home, but I never received it. That's when I knew something went wrong. They must have somehow caught wind of our plan and set a trap for him."
"But how did you know they brought him here?" I asked.
"Ken has an emergency locator that only I can track. It says he's somewhere in this factory. I arrived in town a little before you did. They had tried to set a trap for me, too."
Grandpa said as he walked over to a nearby hedge and pulled out the body of a Brainguts.
"It was posing as a Diner waitress."
"Did they really try to set a trap for you with just one Brainguts?" I asked. "They really underestimated you."
"I guess that they thought they could catch me just unaware enough to put this on me." Grandpa replied as he took something out of his satchel that resembled a tiny Brainguts with tentacles in place of a body.
"What is that thing?" Kevin asked.
"This is why we need to find Ken as soon as possible. This one had just told me where the entrance was before I knocked it out. That's when you arrived."
"This place should have a few side entrances that shouldn't be too hard to get into." Kevin replied
"They're not keeping him in the factory. They're keeping him below it." Grandpa replied as he spread apart the hedge to reveal an elevator platform.
"This should take us down into a tunnel that will lead us into the factory's sub-area. I hope you're all ready because we need to move now." Grandpa said as he stepped onto the platform
Gwen, Kevin, and I nodded as we stepped onto the platform, too. Julie nodded as well and went to step onto the platform, too, but Kevin held out an arm to stop her.
"Maybe you should wait in the car." Kevin said, concerned. "Things could get pretty dicey down there."
"Kevin, it's sweet that you care, but I'm not weak. Morningstar may have gotten the better of me the other day, but he got Gwen, too, and she has powers. I'm part of this team now, too, remember?"
"...Alright, get on." Kevin relented as he let Julie on the platform.
"Thanks, and besides, I didn't exactly come alone." Julie smirked as Grandpa pressed the down button.
As we began descending the elevator shaft, something inside Julie's backpack started wiggling, causing the entire thing to shake, and, to my, Gwen's, and even Grandpa Max's surprise, a little tiny dog-like Upgrade burst out of the backpack.
"Ship! Ship! Ship!" The little Upgrade shouted as it happily bounced around the platform, its pointed back half shaking like a dog's tail, as the ground above us closed.
"Ah, Ship. You could have waited until I unzipped the backpack first. You almost broke the zipper.
"You brought Ship with you?" Kevin said, somewhat surprised, but he was obviously familiar with the little guy.
"You have a pet Upgrade!?" I exclaimed.
"You mean Ship? Yeah, this little mechamorph crashed Kevin and mine's date."
"You really have to give me the full details of that night." I said to Kevin.
"I'll fill you in eventually." Kevin replied.
"Well, after that night, I spent some time getting to know Ship, and learning what he could do."
Julie looked at Ship and nodded. Ship picking up on the visual cue leaped at Julie and began to transform into a gauntlet that attached itself to Julie's right hand and forearm.
"That looks like an M-II Laser Gauntlet?" Kevin observed.
"Yeah, Ship can transform into any technology he's merged with. So, I had him touch some Plumber tech Mali keeps in the house."
"That is so cool!" I exclaimed.
"Cool or not, as long as it's useful." Grandpa replied. "Because we may need all the firepower we can get."
"What are we heading into?" Ben asked.
"As you may have figured out, there wasn't a chemical accident. It was just a cover so that the Highbreed could set up a base of operations here. I knew it was a risk to have Kenny pass through this area, but I thought we had covered our bases well enough to avoid detection. I guess not."
Ben noticed Kevin tense up at the moment. My powers of observation may not be as keen as his, but even I could pick up on that.
"Something wrong, Kevin?" I asked.
"It's nothing…" Kevin replied, failing to hide the tension in his voice.
"Kevin, I know we have some things to discuss." Grandpa spoke up. "A lot of things actually…"
"What things?" Ben asked. "What are you talking about, Grandpa?"
"It's…a long story, Ben."
"Oh, another long story…" I replied, failing to hide the slight irritation in my voice
"Ben…"
I thought about probing further. I wanted to. First with Ken and now something with Kevin. I mean, what could they possibly have to talk about? Those thoughts were all put aside, however, when the lift suddenly stopped; according to the indicator, we were only halfway down.
"What gives? Why did the elevator stop?" I wondered.
A computerized voice then kindly gave me the answer.
"Please enter verification to continue." The voice demanded before the panel on the elevator's console opened up to reveal a hand scanner in the shape of a Brainguts hand, and a countdown timer. You have 60 seconds."
"What are we going to do now?" Julie asked.
"Does anyone have a spare Brainguts hand on them?" Kevin quipped.
"Brainguts?" Grandpa curiously replied
"It's what we call the DNAliens." Gwen replied.
"Ah, well, unfortunately, I left mine up there." Grandpa replied as he pointed upward.
"Well, we need to do something fast." Julie stated.
"Hmm, maybe he can figure something out." I thought out loud.
"Who?" Gwen asked as I began selecting an alien on the Omnitrix.
I smirked as I began to bring my hand down on the Omnitrix before stopping as another thought occurred to me.
"Oh, you may want to stand to the side. This one's a little wide."
Everyone did as I asked, with Kevin and Julie on one side of the platform and Grandpa and Gwen on the other.
"Gwen, ask me who, again."
"What?" Gwen replied.
"Just do it."
"Alright. Who?"
As Gwen asked the question, I brought my hand down on the Omnitrix, transforming him into a large, bright orange, six-legged, crab-like alien with black and silver markings on what was essentially its neck, right below its most prominent feature, its massive cranium. This is why I couldn't name it anything other than…
"BRAINSTORM!"
"Okay, 'Brainstorm'. What can you do to get us out of here?" Kevin asked skeptically.
"I beseech a moment of quietude as I pontificate on this precipitous quandary in which we currently find ourselves." Brainstorm replied.
Certain aliens affect my personality a bit more than others when I transform into them. Brainstorm is one of those. He's a bit…verbose.
Brainstorm popped up the left side of his dual-plated cranium, exposing that side of its enormous brain, scratching it with one of its pincered hands, as he thought of a solution.
A cursory glance at the elevator's control console revealed a removable panel that had several screws holding it in place, and since Brainstorm didn't have a screwdriver, he just pried it off with one of his pincers.
I'll tell ya, it is a weird experience being in the body of another being with hyper-intelligence. To my own brain, what I was looking at would have been just a jumble of wires and circuits, but to Brainstorm, it was just an equation to be solved.
"Mmm, I see. Given the configuration of this rather rudimentary circuitry. I deduce that disuniting this wire, uncoupling this lead, and connecting this to that, and now we add a scintilla of electricity."
A small stream of electricity shot forth from the still-open side of Brainstorm's head at the exposed circuitry.
"Verification confirmed." The computer voice rang out with five seconds left on the timer, as the elevator resumed its descent.
"EXCELSIOR!" Brainstorm exclaimed before tapping the Omnitrix symbol on my chest, turning me back to normal.
"That one likes to talk big, I see." Gwen pointed out.
"Yeah, he can be an acquired taste." I chuckled.
Some floors later, the elevator came to a stop. We came out to an area very similar to the facility in Grover's Mill. Strange otherworldly walls clearly made of material not found on Earth. But there was something else: large transparent tubes filled with green liquid that lined the upper portions of the walls. All the tubes seemed to lead upwards to a higher level.
"Everyone, stick close," Grandpa commanded as they stepped out of the elevator. "According to my tracker, he's close by, but keep your guards up, we don't know how well he's going to be guarded."
To my surprise, however, security was pretty light. Just a few two or three guard patrols wandering the winding, twisting hallways of this strange facility.
Reaching Ken's location was a cakewalk. A little bit of ducking behind walls here and there, it was almost too easy, and it wasn't long before we came to a strange, membranous-like door.
"He's right behind here."
The door automatically opened to a horrifying sight. Ken, alone, strapped to a chair, most of his body transformed into…a Brainguts—all except for a small portion of his face. Seeing my cousin like that, I didn't even have to process the fact that the Brainguts we'd been fighting this entire time were people. Julie was the first person to
"They're…They're people." Julie said softly, almost choking on her words.
"Yes, that thing I showed you was a Xenocite. The Highbreed created them to turn beings from other worlds into their willing servants, including humans."
"...That's fucked up." Kevin muttered.
Meanwhile, Gwen had slowly begun to make her way towards Ken.
"...Ken." A horrified Gwen muttered as she slowly approached her older brother.
"Gwen, be careful." I said as I followed close behind her.
"I know…"
"Gwen?" Kevin said weakly,
"Yeah, Ken. It's me. We're going to help you, okay? I don't know how but…"
"G…Gwen…G…G" The sense of recognition in Ken's eyes quickly began to fade as he continued to repeat…G…G…G as if trying to fight the transformation by holding onto his memories, but it seemed to be a losing battle…and then "G..G…G…G…GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Ken!" Gwen shouted as Ken screamed in agony . "Ben, we have to do something!"
As Ken continued to scream in agony, he suddenly broke free from the restraint binding his left wrists and ankles, and before any of us could react, grabbed Gwen by the throat.
"Gwen!" Ben shouted as he prepared to arm the Omnitrix.
"Wait!" Gwen communicated via the ICD before any of us could make a move.
"K…Kenny." Gwen was all Gwen managed to utter while her throat was being grabbed by Ken's transformed hand.
But Gwen didn't need words. Gwen was looking into Ken's still visible human eye. It was as if she was communicating to Ken, not via words or ICD, but through some other means.
Whatever the means, it seemed to have some effect on Ken. His grip seemed to loosen slightly.
'It's working…' Gwen communicated to me. 'I'm getting through to him.'
'What's working? How are you getting through to him?' Ben asked.
'I…don't quite know, myself…But he needs an extra push…Ben, try saying something to him.'
"Ken, it's me, Ben."
"B…Ben?"
"Yeah, it's me, Ken. You need to let her go."
"W…who?"
"Gwen." Ben answered. "You need to let Gwen go."
"G…wen…"
It was then that the sense of recognition began to return to his visible eye.
"That's right, cuz. Remember who you are. Remember who your family is. That's your family you're hurting."
"Gwen!" Ken shouted in pain as he finally released his grip, causing Gwen to drop to her knees, and without a second thought, I rushed to check on her.
"Gwen, are you alright?"
"Yeah…" Gwen raspily replied.
"Ben…I can't hold on much longer…" Ken groaned as whatever this thing was slowly continued to engulf the rest of his face."
"Aaaaaah! It hurts! I can't fight it! I…."
"Oh god, what are we going to do?" Gwen wondered.
"Grandpa, is there any way to stop this?" Ben asked.
"Not that I've found…" Grandpa, unfortunately, replied.
I couldn't think of anything except my last resort: using the Omnitrix to take Ken down once he's transformed.
I raised my arm to ready the Omnitrix when the Omnitrix's voice suddenly spoke up.
"Genetic abnormality detected. Shall I attempt repairs?"
"Uh, yes," I replied. "If that'll help Ken, then yes, please!"
The Omnitrix's display popped up on its own, and a dark green beam shot forth from the Omnitrix and engulfed Ken. For me, it was like I was transported somewhere else—Inside Ken's mind or maybe even the DNAlien parasite's mind itself. I could see Ken. I could see the parasite on his face. I could feel myself being pulled towards it. I reached out for it and yanked it off his face as hard as I could.
In reality, the beam lasted for just a few seconds, and when it stopped, any trace of Brainguts was gone, except for the lifeless Xenocite that I was now holding in my hand. There was silence for several seconds afterward. I guess everyone was stunned by the Omnitrix's sudden new ability.
Grandpa was the first to speak up.
"Ben, what was that?"
"I don't know. It's never done that before."
"Could this mean we can cure the rest of them?" Gwen wondered. "All the people that have been turned into DNAliens?"
"Maybe." I replied. "But even then…"
"Uggh, my head…"
Discussing plans to cure the rest of the Brainguts would have to wait as Ken came too.
"Kenny, are you alright?"
"Yeah, Grandpa, I'll be fine…I think they were telling me things before they put that thing on my face…It's all fuzzy, I can't…"
"If it's too much, don't try to force the memories." Gwen suggested
"Right…Gwen, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. That wasn't you." Gwen replied as she put a hand on his shoulder.
"Thanks." Ken smiled before changing his expression to a more concerned look. "I think so…I take it Grandpa filled you in on…"
"The fact that you're a Plumber." I replied.
"Yeah…"
"Why didn't you tell us?" Gwen asked.
"It's complicated."
"As much as I'd love to stand here let you guys hash this out, we should probably get movin'." Kevin spoke up.
"Ah, you must be Kevin." Ken replied, glancing at Kevin. "I've heard a lot about you.
"Positive things, I hope."
"Not really…" Ken replied before his serious expression softened. "But, I know you've been working with my lil' sister and cousin, and if they trust you, then so do I."
"Good enough for me."
"I thought the Brainguts were disturbing enough on their own," I said as I stared at the lifeless Xenocite still in my hand. "But this thing would make Ridley Scott shudder."
"And there's a lot more where that came from." Grandpa replied. "That's what Ken was on his way to tell you. This facility is a breeding ground for the Xenocites. And they plan to ship a lot more within the next week."
"We haven't informed the rest of the Plumbers about this? You said, Be careful who we trust? Why?"
"That's complicated. I'll explain more once we get out of here. But the short of it is…"
Grandpa cut his sentence short as all of us noticed a strange look on Ken's face as if he was starting to recall something.
"Oh no…"
"Kenny, what's wrong?"
"It just came back to me." What they told me. They accelerated their plans. We don't have a week. They're shipping the Xenocites tonight. But that's not all…They knew who I was. They knew you'd be coming for me. They let you get here…It's..IT'S A TRAP!"
As if someone with a great sense of dramatic timing was watching us, the room began rapidly filling with purple smoke.
"This again!?" I shouted remembering a similar event in Grover's Mill.
"Everyone, stay close!" Gwen shouted.
We all gathered around her as she put a barrier around us, but it was too late, the smoke had spread much faster than in Grover's Mill and was already half filling the room by the time Gwen could fully seal the barrier. I couldn't even select anything on my Omnitrix as I could already feel the effects of the gas effecting my motor skills
Holding our breath was useless. None of us had the lung capacity to outlast the smoke, and one by one we all fell unconscious.
I was the first to awaken. The fog in my head slowly cleared as I tried to move my arms, but found each of my limbs individually bound by a large machine. Within a few minutes, one by one, everyone else began coming too. It was then that I truly began to notice my surroundings. It was less alien than before. The strange material that had made up the walls of our previous location was still present, but it was almost like it had been patched on, and traces of the plant's walls could still be seen.
"G…Gwen…Grandpa…Kevin…Julie…"
"Ben?" Gwen answered first. "What happened?"
"They got us…" Kevin replied.
"What…are we going to do?" Julie wondered.
"We stay calm for now." Grandpa assured her.
Before the conversation could continue further, a large monitor descended from the ceiling. On it was a live feed of a Highbreed commander. I couldn't make out much visually, but I could hear the whirring of machinery.
"Look at this. The great Tennysons and their allies all captured and laid out before me.
"Get a good look. We don't plan on staying like this for long." Ben retorted.
"Ah, Ben 10, ever the defiant one. If it were up to me, I'd turn you and the rest of you into DNAliens or maybe just have you killed. But unfortunately, some wish to deal with you differently. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an important operation to oversee."
With that, the monitor turned off and rose back into the ceiling.
"Well, until we come up with a way to get out of these machines. Maybe it's time to address the elephant in the room." Ben
"Ben, I…" Ken began to speak up.
"I'm not talking about you, Ken. We'll have that discussion later. I'm more curious about what's going on with Kevin and Grandpa."
"What are you talkin' about, Ben?" Kevin replied with feigned ignorance. "There's nothin'...
"Don't lie, Kevin." Gwen interrupted. "I've noticed it too. The thousand-yard glares you've been giving my Grandfather, and that tinge of remorse on Grandpa's face every time you do it."
"So what gives? What's going on between you two, Grandpa?" Ben asked.
"It's…" Grandpa began to say.
"My father was his partner." Kevin interjected.
"But I thought Phil Billings was your partner?" Gwen replied.
"He was on Earth, but after the Plumber's Earth branch was temporarily shut down, I joined the intergalactic division. That's when Ethan Levin became my partner."
"That means you knew…This entire time…All these years. Every time we went up against Kevin in the past. You had to have known. Why didn't you say anything!"
"I…"
"He couldn't." Kevin replied.
"What do you mean he couldn't?" Gwen wondered.
"A lot of the missions we went on were highly classified. Including our last one."
"Your last one?"
"The one where my father died…"
There was no longer a mere hint of remorse on Grandpa's face as Kevin said those words. It was now filled with regret and sorrow.
"We'd faced several otherworldly threats during our time, but this was supposed to be an easy assignment—a peace treaty between warring planets. The meeting was held in secret on a nearby moon; only the top officials from each planet were supposed to know about it, but somehow the information was leaked. Radical members from each planet crashed the negotiations, and a fierce battle broke out. We were caught completely off guard. During the struggle, many lives were lost, including Ethan's…he died taking a shot aimed at me."
Everyone's faces were stunned at this revelation, save for Kevin's, whose expression was much harder to read.
"After the dust settled, a peace treaty was eventually signed. But knowledge of what went on that day was deemed to be never spoken of again. I was forbidden from mentioning the mission or anything related to it, including Ethan Levin, or risk facing severe penalties for my family and me. Believe me, Kevin. I wanted to tell you. I wrestled with it every time. I don't expect you to forgive me, but…"
"I do." Kevin simply replied to Grandpa's surprise.
"You do?"
"I've had a lot of time to think about what I'd say to you the next time I saw you. There were several occasions where I thought about just deckin' you, but that wouldn't be right. I realize you had a lot on your plate keeping those secrets, and I know my father's death wasn't your fault. He died a hero saving you. So I'm going to choose to honor his memory by wiping the slate clean. I forgive you, Mr. Tennyson."
"Thank you, Kevin, and please call me Max."
"As sweet as that all was." I said sincerely, "We need to find a way out of here and fast."
I then noticed Julie staring at a nearby table that held stuff taken from us while we were unconscious, including Grandpa's satchel and Julie's…
"Your backpack!"
"Exactly. I don't feel Ship on my hand anymore. With any luck, he managed to hide in there before we were captured. Ship? Ship are you in there?"
"Ship! Ship! Ship!"
"We need your help, buddy."
With little effort, Ship, who had in fact managed to avoid detection by hiding in Julie's backpack, busted out and made a beeline straight towards Julie.
"Ship, you think you can get us out of here?"
"Ship! Ship! Ship!"
One by one, Ship took possession of the machines holding us in place and short-circuited them.
"Ah, it's good to be free!" Ben exclaimed. "Thanks, Ship!"
Ship wagged his rear end in excitement like a dog wagging its tail for accomplishing his good deed.
"So what's the plan now, Grandpa?" Ben asked just before an automated voice came over a loudspeaker.
"Attention, a malfunction has been detected in the containment area. Please send a containment squad immediately."
"It seems we have no choice but to fight our way to the egg chamber." Grandpa replied as he tapped his watch a few times, which brought up a map of our location. "It looks like we're on the same floor as the egg chamber."
Grandpa walked over to his satchel and reequipped it, then pulled out a laser pistol.
"Everybody get ready."
"On it." I smiled as I selected an alien on his Omnitrix, selecting "Humungousaur!"
Everyone else readied as well. Gwen's hands glowed with energy, Ship transformed into the gauntlet she had demonstrated earlier, and Kevin absorbed the alien material from the factory wall. At the same time, Ken reached into his jeans' pocket and pulled out a handful of small trinkets.
"Talismans?" A surprised Gwen observed. "You can use magic?"
"Yeah." Ken sheepishly replied to the revelation of another secret he'd been keeping from his sister.
"When this is done, you and I are going to have a long talk." Gwen chided as the sounds of marching footsteps approached.
"Everyone, follow my lead. Go for non-lethal blows.." Grandpa commanded as we made our way out into the hallway, being greeted by swarms of Brainguts coming from multiple hallways.
We attempted to make our way through the seemingly endless swarms of Brainguts. Gwen knocked down several with her energy blasts, Grandpa demonstrated his skill with the laser pistols hip firing them with ease and precision, Kevin punched faces, knocked heads together and even threw in a few clotheslines here and there, Julie's Ship gauntlet had a triple shot feature that allowed her to take down three Brainguts at a time, and Ken's talismans were particularly interesting. He threw them at the Brainguts, causing various effects. Some would be wrapped in vines, others would be frozen in, and some would be turned to stone. Meanwhile, I took out several with the brute force of Humungousaur's strength.
We made our way through multiple corridors, all while fighting off the seemingly endless hordes of Brainguts. Eventually, we came to a hallway with a door at the end.
"There it is!" Grandpa declared.
But even though we were that close, the sheer number of Brainguts began to overwhelm us, too. Even with Humungousaur, I could feel heavy fatigue start to set in.
"This is too much!" Julie shouted.
"Yeah, I don't know how much longer I can hold on." Kevin yelled as pieces of his skin began to become visible.
"I have an idea!" Gwen shouted. Everyone, gather round!
Everyone gathered close to Gwen as she erected a barrier around us, being careful to keep the DNAliens out. "We move together on three! One! Two! Three!"
Everyone began to move at Gwen's pace towards the egg chamber. The Brainguts pounded relentlessly on her barrier, but to no avail, as it remained strong until we eventually reached the sealed chamber door.
"Looks like it's locked shut." Grandpa observed. "Gwen, I need you to open this side of the barrier."
"Got it." Gwen complied as she opened a hole.
Grandpa took a small disk out of his satchel, but just as he was about to place it against the door, it suddenly opened to a dark room. Just as suddenly, a massive pair of black alien hands reached through the darkness and grabbed hold of Grandpa, pulling him into the darkness before anyone could react, as the door slammed shut.
"GRANDPA!" Gwen, Ken, and I shouted.
"Mr. Tennyson!" Julie and Kevin shouted.
And if that wasn't bad enough to make matters worse, the countdown timer on the Omnitrix began to beep.
"DAMN IT, NOT NOW! EVERYONE STAND BACK!" I yelled as I expanded in size, leaving everyone practically pressed up against Gwen's barrier.
With all my might, I punched the egg chamber door. However, the punch wasn't enough to break the durable alien metal, though it did leave a rather sizable dent. Undeterred, I hit the door again, this time nearly punching it in, so once more I reeled my arm back and with the third blow the door flew inward just before I reverted to normal.
"LET'S GO!" I shouted as he ran into the room.
Everyone quickly followed behind. The DNAliens, still pounding on Gwen's barrier, attempted to follow suit, but Gwen, thinking fast, put up an energy wall to stop them.
We made our way through one final corridor that led out into the egg chamber.
It was larger than I had imagined. Several conveyor belts stretched as far as the eye could see. Above the conveyor belts, several tubes with traces of green liquid dripping from them deposited Xenocites. The conveyor belts led to an array of trucks that were clearly preparing to leave once they were filled up.
But all of that may have been irrelevant to me at that moment, because my primary focus was directly in front of us.
A highbreed held Grandpa Max high in the air, gripping his torso tight with both hands, leaving my Grandpa's arms dangling.
"LET HIM GO!" I demanded.
"BEN 10! I was hoping you'd make it in time to see me squeeze the life out of your precious Grandfather. I know I was ordered not to harm any of you, but this is just too precious an opportunity to snuff out the life of the legendary Max Tennyson in front of his precious pain in the ass grandson, and after I'm done crushing him. I'll crush every one of…"
Suddenly, Grandpa Max started to chuckle.
What's so funny!?"
"This is."
"What!?"
During his monologue, Grandpa had managed to reach into his satchel and pull out…
"A null void projector? You plan to trap me? So what? These trucks are mere minutes away from shipping out. Even if you take me out, that won't stop what we have already set in motion. WE ARE AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE!"
"Not just you." Grandpa chuckled as he pulled the lens off the null-void projector, causing energy to surge wildly around it.
"What are you…"
"Without the focusing lens, it makes a pretty handy explosive. It will certainly be enough to take out this whole building."
"Grandpa! NO!" I protested
"GRANDPA!" Gwen did as well.
"Ben, Gwen, you two take care of each other. I know you'll both make me proud. Kenny, you keep an eye on them for me, will you? And Kevin, I know your father would be proud of you. He would have loved to have met you, Julie. I believe in you, in all of you."
Gwen, fighting back tears, nodded and put up a barrier around everyone.
"GRANDPA! NOOOO!"
"And one last thing." Grandpa said as he reached into his satchel one last time before tossing me a message disc.
Gwen opened a small hole in her barrier, allowing me to catch it.
"Watch that after I'm gone. Goodbye."
"YOU FOOL!" was all the Highbreed managed to let out as a massive wave of energy burst forth from the unfocused null void projector.
Within a span of just a few seconds, the entire building was engulfed in the energy, taking everything but the gang with it, leaving only a massive crater in its wake.
Gwen released her barrier, the sound of dirt crunched beneath them, a seemingly innocuous sound made ever so louder by the absence of what was once there.
I dropped to my knees, and equal parts grief and disbelief clouded my mind. The grief, however, soon turned to anger, not at the DNAliens or the Highbreed, but at myself.
I began to punch the ground in anger, my right hand becoming increasingly scraped and bloody with each strike. Everything around me became muted; if any of my friends were telling me to stop, I couldn't hear it. I couldn't even count how many times I had hit the ground. Everything felt meaningless, everything, until he felt a soft hand grab his arm, and just after, I felt familiar arms wrap around him.
"Ben…please stop." Gwen pleaded.
I pulled my head back to see Gwen, tears streaming down her face, not solely from mourning but from watching Ben hurt himself over it.
"I know how you're feeling. I do. But we need to stay strong, not just for Grandpa, but for each other. I'm still here. Ken's still here. Kevin and Julie, too. We can't fall apart now. I don't know where we go from here, but I do know wherever that is, we need to stay strong and together."
The warmth of Gwen's embrace, the comfort of her voice, and the wisdom of her words eased my pain both mentally and physically.
"You're right." Ben replied as he somewhat reluctantly let himself out of Gwen's embrace.
We rose to our feet together. It was then that I got a good look at everyone else. Ken tried to keep a brave face for his family, but I saw right through it. The signs of tears that had been wiped away during mine and Gwen's conversation were a dead giveaway. Kevin likewise tried and was more successful at keeping a stern face, but even then, there was hurt and regret in his eyes, too. Julie's expression seemed hauntingly vacant, as if she were recalling something deep within her mind.
Kevin seemed to pick up on this as well and put an arm around her, causing her expression to revert to something more neutral.
"You okay?" Kevin asked.
"Yeah, I just…this isn't the first time…never mind."
Kevin thought about asking her to elaborate further, but he knew now wasn't the time. Instead, he chose to focus his attention on the approaching Ben and Gwen.
"You good, man?" Kevin asked.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I…"
"No need to apologize." Kevin interrupted. "I get it."
"You needed to let it out," Ken spoke up. "It's understandable. I'm fighting back a lot myself right now."
"Thanks, guys. Listen, I don't know where we go from here, but I do know we need to stick together. I have a feeling this isn't over. The highbreed said they were an unstoppable force. Well, we'll have to counter them with a force of our own. Whatever they throw at us next, and any other threats to this world. We'll be ready. Ken, we could really use you. Are you in?"
"Do you even have to ask?" Ken replied.
"You're right, that was a dumb question." I chucked as he put his hand out.
Gwen placed her hand on mine, followed by Kevin, then Julie, and lastly Ken.
"Alright on three. Go alien force!"
"Alien Force? Really?" Kevin groaned.
"Come on, just go with it." I insisted.
"I think it fits." Julie agreed.
"Sure, why not?" Kevin acquiesced.
"One, Two, Three…"
"GO ALIEN FORCE!" Everyone shouted in unison.
"Now let's get out of this crater so I can go get my…"
Kevin looked around and entirely took in the size of the crater."
"MY CAR!" Kevin shouted in panic, followed instantly by Ken's equally panicked "MY VAN!"
The duo quickly sprinted towards what was presumably the direction of the parking lot, both scaling their way out of the several-foot-high crater with surprising ease.
Gwen, Julie, and I followed them shortly afterward at a more casual pace. The explosion had stretched even to the parking lot, taking most of it. The trio saw a very relieved Kevin hugging his precious car, which was just outside of the blast radius. Kevin then turned his attention to a visibly distraught Ken, who mourned the Radmobile, half of which was gone from the front to the back.
"Radmobile…"
"That's rough, buddy."
As much as I wanted to comfort my cousin on the loss of his beloved van. I couldn't help but think about how cramped the ride home was going to be.
"Dibs on shotgun!" I exclaimed.