Ben 10: Purple Scars

CHAPTER 6: HORRORCALYPSE PART 1

(You can find illustrations for the main characters at the end of each chapter or on my Instagram: Toonmnoh)

PART 1: CHILDHOOD ENDS

Ben stands up from the bed, his cousin looks at him and does the same "Hey, is everything okay?" She asks.

The boy with the Omnitrix shakes his head "Yeah, I just need to walk a bit, do you mind?" And then he puts his shoes and purple jacket on.

Gwen follows him as he leaves his bedroom, the sudden need to go outside almost makes her anxious as she wasn't expecting to do that now.

The two leave the apartment and walk down the stairs, Ben opens the main entrance of the building and closes his eyes feeling the sunlight on his face and the wind through his hair.

The girl with freckles start to walk by his side, she can't help but look a bit worried, she hasn't seen her cousin for seven long years and he doesn't seem to be doing that well, nobody is, actually.

Her green eyes go down on the Omnitrix, it has become much bigger than it used to be when Ben first found it, it now covers basically the entirety of his forearm, it has more of those DNA transporting tubes and even some digital bars, like a battery indicator.

The watch isn't just a better version of its former self, though, it also has some parts that almost look alive, like purple veins coming out of it and merging with Ben's flesh.

Gwen doesn't know why or how the Omnitrix did change into this, but she's scared to ask.

Ben looks at her and notices what she's looking at, so without needing her to directly make the question, he just answers: "Yeah, it started growing after a while, the more I used it, the more it grew, it also developed some new features all by itself... crazy, right? It would have been cool if it wasn't also consuming me like a parasite, heh" Ben tries to smile lightly but it's obvious that he's worried about himself as well.

The cousins keep walking on the sidewalk, they stay in silence for a bit, it's weird for both of them to be together once again, this inevitably reminds them of the good old times and the comparison is just hurtful.

"If we..." Gwen starts talking but immediately stops, Ben looks at her raising an eyebrow.

The girls takes a deep breath and starts talking again "If we manage to save Kevin, we'd be just like then, with a bunch of extra problems, true, but we could still get at least that feeling back...".

Just as she says this, a couple of alien girls come out from a corner and start screaming in excitement, they jump on Ben with their weird looking electronic devices on their hands "Oh gosh!! Ben Ten!!! Can we take a pic, pretty please???".

Ben smiles as the flash of the camera illuminates their faces for a fraction of second, then the two leave all excited, thanking him.

He now turns to Gwen losing that smile and getting a more bored expression on his face "Would that really be the same?" He asks.

In that moment, the girl with red hair has to hold back her tears, thinking of how much things have changed and that even if they somehow manage to get the trio back together it would never feel the same.

Her cousin notices all the sadness she's feeling right now and puts his left hand on her left shoulder trying to cheer her up "Hey... I'm sorry I didn't mean that we can't enjoy doing stuff together anymore! Of course we can! But...! It won't be like the old times anyway, it will be a new thing, completely new and I promise you it'll be even better!".

Gwen smiles and wipes her eye, all shiny and humid "Hey, Ben, what if we visit our old school? It's been so long... ".

Her cousin seems to like the idea, he nods "I generally don't like visiting schools, but this time I'll make an exception for you, cousin" then they both start to laugh.