(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.
The two walk to the school while talking about lighter topics, they somehow get to relax a bit together without having to think about anything worrying.
"I can't believe you're still so much into Sumo Slammer, isn't it a kids franchise?" Gwen asks with a sarcastic tone of voice.
Ben crosses his arms "Of course not! Sumo Slammer is very deep! You would know if you did follow the TV series, or the videogames, or the cards... You see, there's a really complicated lore that connects everything together and..." But she stops him "Okay, okay, I believe you, nerd!".
After that, they look ahead and see the school in front of them, the building looks like it hasn't been utilized in a long time.
"Madison Elementary School of Bellwood... it stayed the same all this time" Gwen comments while looking at it.
Ben puts both his hands behind his head "Of course, it closed after... the incident, at first they wanted to make a museum out of it, so they reconstructed all the collapsed section, but then they stopped the project for some reasons so the school is basically the same of that day...".
The girl tilts her head to the side with her eyes still on the building "I'm glad they didn't turn it into a museum, it wouldn't have felt right..." She now looks at the courtyard and is able to see the ghosts of her, Ben and Kevin as kids, paying around with not a single problem on their minds "I don't want this place to change".
Suddenly, Ben pricks up his ears "Wait... did you hear that?".
Gwen looks confused for a second, but now that he mentions that, she tries not to let her emotions overwhelm her and focuses on the school "I... perceive three people inside the school... how could I not notice this earlier...".
"Something tells me it's not the janitors cleaning the floor..." Ben says as he looks at the bricks wall hinting at jumping over it.
Inside the building, three figures walk through the hallways, seems like they're looking for something.
They are two men and a woman, they all have very different builds as one of them is buff and robust, another one is thin and frail and the woman is fit and a bit shorter.
They are all wearing tight, black latex suits with striped black and white sleeves.
The big one also has his whole head covered by the suit, with zips for his eyes, nostrils and mouth only, other than a big bony growth on his forehead; The slim one has a muzzle on his mouth while the woman has each lock of her hair ending in a metallic ball.
They are destroying everything that comes in their way with heir bare hands, removing the floor with acid breath and demolishing walls with hair used as whips.
A single voice echoes in the hallway making the three look back "Hey! What the hell are you freaks doing here!?" Ben looks at them from the distance with a pissed expression on his face.
"Hey, if it isn't the ex-hero with a decomposing arm!" The woman mocks him making the other two laugh.
"Ex-hero? Oh, I'll show you if I'm still a hero or not... you devastated this place... I won't let this one pass...".
As Ben says this, Gwen looks around to see every room and every corner completely destroyed.
All the memories of her and her friends running around the place fade away as they're replaced with broken walls, holes in the ground and other destruction.
She almost starts crying again, but then her sadness turns into anger, her eyes glow in a pink light and her hands start to emanate an aura of destructive energy.
