Chapter 12 - Chapter 12

Chapter 12



On that night, Ben lived through the same nightmare. He was ten again, but with his present knowledge. There was Kevin, trying to kill his grandfather. He knew he could stop him. He changed into Fourarms and ran to attack Kevin. Suddenly, he transformed into something else, bigger, stronger and more vicious than ever. He killed Max, before Ben could intervene. As he rampaged there with vengeance, a black tentacle of Kevin grabbed him. As it touched Fourarms, he reverted to Ben. He couldn’t get out of the deadly squeeze. Kevin looked into his eye once more, then grinned. He killed Ben as well.
A moment later Ben startled out of his sleep. It was dark in the room; he saw nothing except the green light of the omnitrix.
He lied watchfully in his bed. He felt, he cannot sleep back, but he didn’t want to wake the others. So he stayed quiet and slowly fell asleep again. Next day, he was walking back and forth nervously.
- Ben, what’s the matter? - asked him Gwen.
- I don’t know. Something’s wrong. – replied Ben angrily.
- What depresses you?
Ben told her about his nightmare.
- It’s just a dream I had hundreds of nightmares, since you’ve left. – said Gwen.
- No, you do not understand... I had the same kind of dream, the night before he killed grandpa! It’s a prediction, I tell ya! – yelled Ben.
- I believe you. – assured him Gwen.
Ben smiled at her, she smiled back.

It was late afternoon; Ben was having a conversation with Gwen. Suddenly, they heard a loud bang. Their eyes met.
- What was that? – asked Gwen.
Ben had already gone Xlr8 and ran to the noise’s direction.
Tetrax and Lantara were playing chess, when Xlr8 whooshed beside them.
Tetrax! – said he, without even stopping.
The petrosapien quickly stood up and followed Ben. Lantara did the same. Gwen was running behind them.
Xlr8 soon found the source of the noise. Something had broken a window. Small pieces of glass were glittering everywhere.
- We’re not alone! – determined Lantara, pointing to the floor. There were footprints on the dusty parquet.
- Let’s see who’s here! – said Xlr8 and changed into Wildmutt. He sniffed around in the air, then on the floor. His gills on his neck opened as he scanned the area. He didn’t find anything suspicious. He reverted to his original shape.
- That’s strange. I should have sniffed out the intruder, with Wildmutt’s heat vision. – scratched his head Ben.
- Maybe our little guest isn’t here anymore. – speculated Lantara.
- Or, you didn’t recognize him because... – started Gwen.
- He’s cold as the walls here! Gwen! Duck! – shouted Ben, as he saw something black evolving behind her As, Gwen crunched, he raised his hands and created Heatblast’s fire beam. Tetrax shot hundreds of projectiles at the creature, but it was gone.
- Where is it? – The males surprised.
Suddenly it grabbed Lantara and tried to pull her in the shadows, but she changed her protoplasma.
- Hands off! – yelled she and her tentacles coiled around the creatures arms. Then she fired an energy beam. The black creature hit the floor. Somehow it got rid of the ectonurite and disappeared from her eyes.
- Our friend is quite brisk! – declared Tetrax.
- Where did it go? – asked Gwen.
- Form a circle, lean your back to the others! – suggested Ben, as Benwolf.
Everyone found that a good idea.
- It’s still around here somewhere. Keep your eyes open! – said Lantara.
Something ran beside them, they could hear it’s steps on the parquet. Tetrax shot a crystal there. Then they heard the same noise, but from the other side. Lantara fired a beam, but it only destroyed a few planks.
He’s sizing us up, trying to find our weakest point, where he can attack! Ben said telepathically and sent the thought to the others. They surprised by hearing Ben’s voice in their heads, but quickly realized what the situation was.
Gwen, change places with me! Ben thought. Gwen obeyed, they quietly changed sides.
A second later, the black creature jumped down from an upper plank, but he was struck down by Benwolf’s howl. He transformed into himself.
- What did I tell you? – smiled Ben. They heard a rasping sound. The creature has disappeared once more. But Gwen recognized him in the shadows.
- There! – said she and pointed to the pair of glowing eyes.
Ben stepped closer.
- Be careful, Ben! – said Tetrax from behind, ready to intervene.
- Who are you? – Ben asked the creature.
It just laughed, but it was more like a rattling.
- You still haven’t figured it out? – said a familiar, raucous voice. The creature turned his head to a window. Ben followed it’s visage. The others too. They all saw the setting sun.
Ben looked back at the creature. Then his eyes grew large because of the recognition.
- Isn’t it beautiful? – rasped the creature, as the environment became darker and darker.
Suddenly, something came out from the creature. Something, Ben knew about way too much.
- Ghostfreak???! – Ben and Gwen yelled together.
- Muhahahaha! It has been a very long time! How are you Ben? – asked Ghostfreak.
- I can’t believe it! I fried you two times! How can you be alive?! – shouted Ben.
- Yes, you did! But Kevin has resurrected me, to destroy you! – explained Ghostfreak.
- That’s impossible, no one has your DNA, but me!
- Wrong again! When Kevin sucked up the energy from the omnitrix, he obtained my DNA as well!
Then he looked at Lantara.
- Lantara, is that you? – asked Ghostfreak.
- What?! You know him? – surprised Ben.
- Why don’t you explain to our old friend? – laughed Ghostfreak.
- Of course, I know him! Everyone knows him on Anur Phaetos! – shouted Lantara.
- Oh, you know that’s not all, my love!
- My love? What the heck is he talking about? – questioned her Ben.
- I had a relationship with him. – admitted Lantara.
- What?! How could you have a... Why didn’t you tell me about this? – asked Ben.
- I was young and naive and he was so attractive! I didn’t know he was a criminal, when I first met him! – explained the ectonurite.
- After I told you my secret, you didn’t do anything! Wait, that’s not true, you played up with me, for a long time! – said Ghostfreak.
Ben looked into Lantara’s eye.
- I don’t understand... How could you held this back from me? I thought we know everything about each other. – stuttered Ben.
- I’m sorry Ben. I should have told you... But I’d never thought I’ll see him again. Yes, he was a criminal, he committed many terrible things and I even helped him... He just used me, he doesn’t have emotions! After I realized that, I’ve left him. Then he disappeared. Everyone believed, he’s dead....
- How romantic! I don’t mean to interrupt this lovely chat, but Ben has a date with his doom! – shouted Ghostfreak and grew bigger and stronger as he reached his full potential.
- I won’t let you do this! – yelled Lantara.
- It’s not in your hands! – roared Ghostfreak and grabbed her with his tentacles. Before Lantara could change her protoplasma, he shot her down with an energy blast. She fell on the ground unconsciously.
- You will regret doing that! – hissed Ben and changed into Heatblast.
- Gwen! Take care of her! – said the pyronite as ha ran to face Ghostfreak. Gwen dragged Lantara away from the battle.
- Eat this! – Yelled Heatblast and he shot a massive fire beam. Tetrax emerged from behind him, and unexpectedly punched Ghostfreak’s head, but the ectonurite’s tentacles turned black and green, like Upgrade. The new tentacles grabbed Tetrax and knocked him out with electricity. Heatblast raised his hands, creating a deadly rain of fire. Ghostfreak avoided the menace; the fireballs went through his body. He counterattacked and shot a powerful energy beam at Heatblast. Before it could reach him, he evaded it with Xlr8’s velocity. Then he turned into Brainstorm.
- You won’t stop me this time, Ben! – laughed Ghostfreak and fired another beam. Brainstorm’s green aura surrounded the purple beam as he telekinetically modified it’s course. It turned around in the air headed to Ghostfreak. He was struck down by his own weapon. But he wasn’t defeated and continued the battle. He opened his mouth and made an ultrasonic howl. Brainstorm formed a dome shield around him and avoided the attack.
- How can you do that? – surprised he.
- Kevin shared a few clever tricks with me! – grinned Ghostfreak. Suddenly dozens of small, sharp crystals began to rain at him. Tetrax was attacking him from below.
- Die, petrosapien! – roared the ectonurite and created a stronger howl. Brainstorm went Shockwave and stood against it’s way. He clapped his hands and his far more powerful soundwave annihilated Ghostfreak’s. Shockwave changed into Fourarms. Ghostfreak floated in front of him, planning to defeat the tetramand in a scrum. They were struggling, muscle against muscle. Fourarm’s hands were all occupied with Ghostfreak’s hands and tentacles; he couldn’t do anything, when the ectonurite shot him down with an energy beam. He fell on the ground, but his opponent was already above him. He grabbed his hands, with the new Upgrade tentacles, and forced him to the floor. Ben had a random idea.
- Time to fight you with your own kind! – yelled Fourarms. After the green flash, he became Ghostfreak.
The original Ghostfreak with the Upgrade tentacles looked at him in surprise. Ben Ghostfreak smiled. Suddenly, the omni-symbol on him sparked. Many green electrical lightning came out from it, accompanied by a humming sound, which grew stronger and more earsplitting as the electric discharges grew bigger. The two ectonurites wanted to release each other, but they couldn’t.
- What is this?! – shouted Ghostfreak despairingly.
- Ben! Change into something else! There are too many identical DNAs in a too short distance! – yelled Tetrax.
Ben wanted to do as the petrosapien’s said, so he thought of Diamondhead, but the omnitrix didn’t do anything. He wanted Cannonbolt, then, but he remained in his ectonurite form.
- Tetrax! I can’t! – cried Ben. The sparks, electric discharges and the humming grew more intense every second. He relized, his hand merged with Ghostfreak’s.
- Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrgh! – shouted Ben Ghostfreak and the original Ghostfreak together in pain.
Then, there was a big, powerful, green explosion. The shockwave forced everyone to the floor. Ben and Ghostfreak finally ripped apart, and flew back to the opposite directions. With a red flash, the omnitrix transformed Ben back to his original form. He hit the ground, such as the original Ghostfreak on the other side of the room. But there was no room. In about a two hundred feet wide circle, everything had been destroyed. Tetrax released Gwen and Lantara. His diamond-hard skin protected them; otherwise, the explosion would have killed them both.
Ben! - yelled Gwen and ran to him. Tetrax and Lantara followed her.
Before they could reach Ben, a strange noise got their attention. They looked at the original Ghostfreak on the other side of the former room. He was still alive, but not for long. His body was black, he couldn’t move, just crawled on the floor. He moaned something. He called Lantara’s name. he wanted to raise his hand to reach her, but he couldn’t. Then he turned into black dust. He extinct. Lantara watched his demise with a rigid eye.
Ben came to.
- What happened?
- You’re alive! – Gwen and Lantara hugged him.
As Tetrax stood there, suddenly he began to smile first; then he broke out in a loud laughter.
- What’s so funny? – asked him Gwen.
-I’m sorry... Haha... i’ve just realized... what happened, hahaha! – stuttered the petrosapien.
All the others had a questioning eye. Tetrax went serious.
- As I said, there were too many identical genetic samples in a short distance. The original Ghostfreak supposed to be dead. When Ben turned into his ectonurite form, the omnitrix couldn’t handle the same DNA. That led to a discharge, and then to an explosion. When the omnitrix absorbs the same genetic composition, it only keeps the stronger one and deletes the weaker one. You’re lucky, you proved to be stronger than the original Ghostfreak. That’s why you stayed alive, when he didn’t. – jabbered the petrosapien.
- Slow down, pal... That’s too much for one round... – joked Ben. The girls helped him to stand up. They went to the other half of the theatre, which remained undamaged. They put Ben into a bed, he immediately fell asleep. The others had a short conversation, then they also went to sleep.
The encounter with Ghostfreak exhausted Ben and the others as well. They can rest for now, but not for long. Soon, they will have to fight for their lives...

In New York, Charmcaster finished gazing into her crystal ball. She almost healed from her injury, although she still had a crippled foot. She didn’t recognize Kevin, who was in the door.
- See anything mentionable? – asked he.
- Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you! – apologized Charmcaster.
- I asked something. – Declared Kevin shortly.
- Oh, yes... Ghostfreak have failed, Master. Tennyson is still alive.
- I know. He supposed to fail. He was merely an instrument to weaken Benjie! – grinned he.
- But I thought...
- Do not interrupt me, Charmcaster! – hissed Kevin.
- I’m sorry Master!
- Did you really think that loser would kill Ben? He already defeated that goof two times! I knew he’ll fall.
- Oh, I see. But why is that good for us? – asked Charmcaster.
Kevin ran inside the room, with Xlr8’s speed and stopped in front of her.
- Have you learned nothing?! He’s weak now, like a flower. Now’s my best chance to destroy him once and for all! – said he angrily.
Charmcaster smiled. Kevin kissed her lips.
- Tomorrow, I will summon all my aliens and we shall visit my old pal, Benjie! Mu ha ha ha ha ha! – his devilish laughter echoed all around the place.

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