Chapter Text
The air tasted like burnt plastic and ozone.
Kevin spat dust out of his mouth and pushed himself up from the crater he’d been knocked into. His shoulder screamed in protest. Something was definitely hurting — maybe sprained — but he forced himself upright anyway.
Across the ruined construction site, violet energy lashed through steel beams like lightning.
The Null Void warbeasts roared, all jagged limbs and glowing fractures of alien light.
And Gwen stood directly in front of one.
“GWEN, MOVE!” Ben shouted, already slamming the Ultimatrix.
Too slow.
Kevin didn’t think.
He just moved.
No. Not again. I can`t-
The warbeast fired — a concentrated lance of energy screaming straight for Gwen’s chest.
Kevin launched himself across the broken concrete and slammed into her side, tackling her out of the blast path.
The energy hit him point blank.
There was no pain at first.
Just heat. Pressure against his armor.
Then everything exploded into white agony.
Kevin’s scream didn’t even sound human to his own ears.
He hit the ground and kept sliding, body tearing through gravel and rebar until he slammed head-first into a half-standing concrete pillar hard enough to spiderweb it.
The world rang.
Somewhere far away, he heard yelling.
Then everything went black.
Sound came back first.
Beeping.
Rhythmic.
Too steady.
Then weight. Blankets. Tape on his skin. Something tugging at his arm.
Kevin’s eyes opened slowly.
White ceiling.
Hospital smell.
His stomach dropped.
No. No, no, no.
He turned his head.
Tennyson sat in a chair beside the bed, asleep, chin on his chest. The cousin stood by the window, staring outside like she was trying to take her mind off something.
Kevin’s pulse spiked.
Of course. Of course it’s them.
He tried to sit up.
Pain detonated across his ribs.
A noise slipped out of his throat.
The redhead spun around instantly. “Kevin?”
Tennyson jerked awake.
They both rushed toward him.
Kevin’s heart hammered harder.
“Don’t,” he rasped.
They stopped.
Good.
“Get away from me.”
Silence stretched tight.
Tennyson blinked. “Kevin…?”
A Hospital.
A broken body.
Tennysons standing over him like a worried family.
Yeah. That tracks. Every. Single. Time.
He swallowed against the dryness in his throat. “If you two are here, something went to shit.”
The redhead flinched yet stepped closer anyway, slow, careful. “Kevin, you got hurt. You saved me.”
Saved her?
That didn’t sound right.
Did he…?
His memories felt… fuzzy.
Last thing he clearly remembered was working solo since his latest fight with Argit.
And obviously avoiding the Tennysons at all costs. Their lives were chaos magnets.
Pretty easy of a task when you are trapped in an alternate dimension.
Now this?
Hospital bed.
Machines.
Them looking like they belonged here.
“Yeah right, and I`m the President,” Kevin said sarcastically.
Tennyson frowned. “We’re not lying.”
He looks sincere.
That was even more annoying.
Kevin forced himself upright, ignoring the spinning room. “Let me guess. Big alien fight. I got wrecked. And now you feel guilty.”
Ben flinched.
Too easy.
Gwen’s voice went softer. “Kevin… you’ve been working alongside us for a while now.”
Kevin stared at her.
No.
He almost laughed, but it came out hollow. “Yeah. Sure. Keep tellin` yourself that. ”
The Tennysons turned around as they were whispering to each other.
Kevin’s stomach twisted.
He swung his legs off the bed. The floor tilted under him.
“Kevin, don’t —” The girl started.
“I’m leaving.”
He grabbed the IV line and yanked it out with his teeth clenched. Blood ran down his arm.
If he could just get out of here, get distance, get control—
Transform.
That was it.
Kevin stepped back, fists tightening.
He focused inward, reaching for that familiar monstrous shape. The strength. The armor. The safety of being something harder to break.
Nothing happened.
He tried harder.
Nothing.
Just his pale skin. Bones. Pain.
His breath hitched.
…Why can’t I—
A spike of cold fear stabbed through him before he could crush it.
“Kevin,” the redhead said, voice careful, like approaching a wounded animal. Her eyes were glowing a bright magenta.
Huh, she is a freak too.
“You`re hurt. You don’t need to do that anymore.”
He snapped his head toward her. “That’s how I stay alive, Princess.”
Tennyson shook his head. “Not anymore, man.”
”Not anymore?”
Like they’d decided that for him?
Like they’d taken something away.
Rage surged up, hot enough to drown the fear.
“Funny,” Kevin said, voice raising as his blood was dripping onto the floor, “I don’t remember ever givin` you permission to change me. YOU-”
The room`s door slammed open.
Medical staff.
Security.
Of course.
Knock down the freak. Typical.
“Sir, please return to the bed—”
Kevin swung at the nearest guard, but his body lagged.
The guard barely had to dodge.
Someone grabbed his arm.
Cold spread fast.
A needle. Shit.
Kevin’s knees buckled.
The Tennysons caught him.
Kevin tried to shove them away, but his arms felt like wet cement.
His vision blurred.
Kevin stared up at Ben’s face — guilt, fear, something deeper Kevin couldn’t name tugging at his expression.
Why does he look like that?
“…get…lost-” Kevin slurred.
Darkness crept in from the edges.
Kevin’s last thought before everything faded was sharp, bitter and scared all at once.
Being around a Tennyson never ends well.