Hello yet again everyone. Thank you all for your awesome reviews. :D Man, I suck, I meant to get this finished weeks ago. I feel like I'm cheating on the Ben 10 fandom with Young Justice, lol.

Here's part two, or rather, chapter eight, where shit actually happens. Hold on to your hats and – what's that? Is that a sharp and pointy object sitting next to you? Why don't I just hold onto that for you right now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10. Don't sue me.

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Chapter Eight

Taking Ben's dulled sense of taste into consideration, Kevin added a couple extra scoops of hot cocoa mix into the mug of hot water.

They had decided against going to the police about their uneventful adventure of 'Follow that potential murderer's car,' which probably wasn't advisable for someone in their situation, but it was really the best course of action – or in this case, inaction – that they could take since Ben hadn't been all that sure if it had been the same guy he'd followed in the park, and Kevin knew for a fact that it was even more inadvisable to send the police on a wild goose-chase. At the very least though, Kevin would be sure to find out exactly who lived at that house. Maybe knowing that would be a step in the right direction.

Kevin had meant to drive Ben home after that, but he must have been more distracted by the whole thing than he thought because he drove back to his apartment instead. As his car pulled up into the garage connected to his apartment, Kevin had been about to mutter something along the lines of 'Whoops, sorry,' and then back his car out to drive Ben home, but before he had the chance, Ben was already climbing out of the vehicle – apparently having no problems with this unexpected detour – and heading over to the stairs leading up to Kevin's front door.

Kevin could think of nothing else to do other then follow after the other teen.

So here they were now – no words being exchanged between them after their brief discussion about not going to the cops – with Kevin in his kitchen mixing up some hot cocoa for the brunette teen who was slouched down on the living room couch. Ben's skin was chilled to the touch because it was only thirty degrees outside – nearly winter – and Ben hadn't bothered to wear a jacket or even a long-sleeved shirt that day.

For someone who claimed to be thinking logically, Ben could still be pretty stupid.

Frowning at the sound of the news playing on the television in the background, Kevin headed into the living room with the hot drink in hand. He stopped just behind the couch, his eyes resting on Ben who was sitting slumped over at one end of the couch. Head lying on the armrest, the brunette's attention was completely focused on the TV screen where the news was discussing their top story which was of course about Ben and the murder case.

It was an automatic reaction, moving without thinking, that caused Kevin to reach down with his free hand and rest it on Ben's shoulder. What he'd been attempting to do, he didn't exactly know – maybe it had simply been to get the other boy's attention, maybe he had meant it to be consoling. Whatever the reason, it didn't really matter because the action was completely lost on Ben whose attention was still focused on the television and didn't even know that Kevin's hand was there at all.

It was that fact that brought Kevin's mind back to reality in an 'Oh yeah, right,' sort-of-way, and even though this had been their reality for a couple of months now, it was still disconcerting to him that he could be this close, that he was touching Ben, but because he was out of the other boy's line-of-sight, Ben had no clue.

Which meant that anyone else could do the same, and that didn't sit right with Kevin because that someone else could have bad intentions in mind.

He briefly squeezed Ben's shoulder before pulling his hand away and clearing his throat. Dull green eyes glanced up at him and Kevin held out the mug of hot cocoa.

"Here," he said, and needlessly explained, "To warm you up."

Sitting up, Ben's lips pulled up into an awkward, forced smile as he gave a slightly over-enthusiastic thank-you. Compared to how Ben was that first month or so, the brunette really had improved his acting abilities quite a bit. To most people, Ben came off as sounding and acting almost completely normal, but to someone who knew Ben as closely as Kevin did, it was all too clear that there was a difference there, that something was off with most everything that Ben did or said.

Sipping at the hot cocoa, Ben's eyes traveled back over to the TV, and as soon as his green gaze rested on the screen, that fake smile dropped away completely.

Climbing over the back of the couch in favor of simply walking around it, Kevin sat down at the other end of the couch from Ben, his feet up on the cushion between them. He leaned against the armrest and discreetly looked back and forth between the television screen and Ben's face. The brunette's expression was pretty much neutral, and yet despite this, it was like there was something intangible floating about him, something that Kevin struggled to put his finger on.

"Quite frankly," someone on the television said, "no kid should have a weapon that powerful. That device should be confiscated."

The negative commentary continued, and though the neutral expression remained, Kevin noticed Ben's shoulders slump just-so-slightly. That's when it occurred to Kevin, a small possibility, but a possibility none-the-less. Although Ben didn't have his emotions – and that was all too clear even without Ben pointing it out to them – maybe there was something going on with the brunette.

What was the word? Subconscious?

Yeah, maybe there was something going on in Ben's subconscious, something buried so deep that Ben didn't even know about it himself, and likely didn't care to know about it. After all, seeing a mutilated body, being suspected of murder, and after having lived the life of a 'hero' for so long, was a pretty fucked up situation.

Plus, from the slump of Ben's shoulders and his posture – add to that the obsessive way he seemed to keep watching the news or any story that was about him – Kevin realized what this reminded him of, emotions or not.

"You're brooding," Kevin said, though it was spoken with a slightly teasing tone, an attempt to lighten the mood he supposed.

At the very least, it was possible that Ben was brooding on a subconscious level... maybe.

"What?" Ben questioned monotonously, clearly caught off guard, and he looked over at Kevin. A small frown forming on his face, Ben tried again, but this time with a confused tone as he repeated, "What?"

"You heard me," Kevin said simply, innocently.

Ben laughed. It was rough and forced. Then he smiled, and that was also forced.

"I'm not brooding," the brunette said, shaking his head.

"You totally are," Kevin insisted. Again, teasingly. "I mean, it's obvious that you are."

"I can't be brooding," Ben reminded him, his tone a weird mix between happy and frustrated. "It's impossible."

Holding his hands up, Kevin said, "No need to get defensive." and then he said with a shrug of his shoulders, "It's not like I'm saying there's anything wrong with brooding. Hell, if anyone deserves to be brooding right now, it's you, but you clearly are brooding."

Ben seemed to be at a loss for words, and so Kevin pressed on, reaching out to the couch cushion between them to snatch up the TV remote as he said, "I don't know if you know this, Ben, but brooding people shouldn't torture themselves with the very thing that's causing them to be brooding in the first place. It's kinda counterintuitive."

"Didn't know you even knew such a big word, Kevin," Ben said snappishly.

Kevin had to laugh despite the insult, "So you're an angry brooder, then?"

All joking aside, he really was serious about the whole 'Ben torturing himself' thing.

"It's not healthy to keep watching this crap," Kevin said, genuinely well-meaning. "It'll get into your head and mess with your mind."

"I'm fine, Kevin," Ben stubbornly insisted, taking another drink of his cocoa before setting it down on the end table.

Maybe Ben was fine. Maybe Kevin's mind just couldn't let go of the fact that in a normal situation with a normal Ben, the other boy wouldn't be alright, and now he was projecting what Ben in the past would be like onto Ben of the present, who genuinely should be fine since he had no emotions to be upset by what was going on.

Kevin still stood by what he said earlier about the TV though, and that was why he shut the damn thing off, cutting yet another negative comment about Ben off mid-sentence.

"Wha- Kevin, no," Ben protested, reaching over to try and snatch the remote out of Kevin's hands.

Ben grabbed Kevin's wrist when the older boy tried to hold the remote out of reach, struggling to pull the hand holding the remote closer to him.

"How can I defend myself against what they're saying if I don't know what they're saying about me?" Ben pointed out, pulling at Kevin's wrist with one hand while trying to pry the remote out of his grasp with the other.

Whatever Kevin had been about to say in response to that faded from his mind when he caught sight of Ben's hands and noticed something.

"Have you been biting your nails?" he asked the brunette curiously.

"I – huh?" Ben asked, distracted by the subject change.

The TV remote dropped onto the couch cushion between them, their battle over it forgotten as Kevin grabbed one of Ben's hands and leaned forward for a closer look to find that, yes, his nails had definitely been chewed down. Interestingly enough, Ben stared down at his hands as if this was the first time he was noticing it too.

Kevin frowned, letting go of Ben's hand with a statement of, "That's a really bad habit, you know."

"I didn't even know that I was doing it," Ben said, giving his fingernails a curious look before flexing his fingers in the air and then letting his hand drop to his side.

'So... what? Just a bad habit, or maybe Ben really is bothered by all of this?' Kevin wondered.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Ben snatched up the remote and turned the TV back on, and just in time to catch something that was actually news and not just negative commentary or opinion.

"Two more bodies were found today in the small pond next to Bellwood's park, making that a total of three victims, all of them female." the news anchor said, "As of yet, all of their identities remain a mystery, though it can be assumed that they're not from Bellwood as there haven't been any missing person's reports. Divers continue their search for more clues, and possibly even more victims."

Ben stared at the screen, completely silent, and Kevin struggled to come up with something positive to say to the other boy about this new information. In the end, the only thing he could think of to say was, "Well, it's not like they can pin three murders on you."

It was a weak statement at best, no where near being anything that was even slightly encouraging.

"If they pin even one of those murders on me, I'm pretty well screwed," Ben said.

"No you're not," Kevin said, both adamant and a little exasperated. "I already said before that I'm not letting you get arrested."

And he really meant it. If it came down to it, he would get Ben off Earth, help him go on the run, even break the other boy out of jail if it got that far, because Ben was his best friend and Kevin cared for the other boy, more then a friend should care for another friend, and he'd be damned if he let the brunette take the fall for something like this.

"Thanks Kevin," Ben said, rather insincerely, as he held up the remote and shut the TV off. Standing up from the couch, his thumbs hooking into his pants pockets, he had an evasive look about him as he said, "Think I'm gonna head home."

"Sure, I'll grab my keys," Kevin said, rising from the couch himself, but Ben shaking his head stopped him from actually walking off to get said car keys.

"You don't have to," Ben said, shoulder's hunched. "I figured I'd just walk back."

Folding his arms across his chest, Kevin fixed Ben with a raised eyebrow as he said rather bluntly, "Really now? Because that sounds like a stupid idea to me."

"What do you mean by that?" Ben asked, brow furrowing, his tone confused.

"There's a murderer out there, Ben," Kevin said as if it were obvious, and, well, it should be obvious. "And as far as we know, you've quite possibly poked around in his business twice."

"You were there for that second time too, which, by the way, we don't even know if it was the same guy so you can hardly count it as twice," Ben said. "And anyway, I'll be fine. It's not like this is the first time I've gone for a walk on my own since finding that body."

Kevin had said it once and he'll say it again: logical thinker, yet at times a complete moron.

"That was pretty stupid of you then, wasn't it," Kevin said disapprovingly.

Why didn't Ben get it? It was dangerous out there, what with a killer on the loose and the fact that Ben didn't have his omnitrix working for him to rely on. Kevin didn't know what he'd do if something else happened to Ben, especially after the last bad thing, Ben's short-term death experience. Couldn't Ben see that Kevin was concerned for him, that he wasn't just trying to be an annoying nag?

A cool green gaze and an indifferent expression was the only response Kevin got, so... apparently not.

"There are safety in numbers, Ben," Kevin finally said, holding back a sigh. "You shouldn't be walking around out there on your own. Not right now."

"But none of those 'numbers' even want to be around me right now," Ben stated plainly, as if it were a simple fact and not at all something to feel hurt by.

As harsh as that sounded, it was pretty much true. Ben was the new pariah of Bellwood – of a lot of places, really – and people preferred to keep their distance from him in a way that seemed overly exaggerated at times.

It was pretty freakin' ridiculous if you asked Kevin, and it was the main reason why he had taken to driving Ben to and from school when Ben's parents weren't able to. You couldn't keep your distance from each other on a bus, and the closed-quarters of a bus plus a bunch of jumpy teens was just a recipe for disaster, something that was easily avoided by Kevin simply driving Ben around.

"Screw the general public, they're all morons anyway," Kevin said. "I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about me and your family. We've got your back."

'We care about you. I care about you,' he thought, but couldn't bring himself to say it out-loud. It just sounded too... girly, and Kevin Levin was not girly.

"We're just looking out for you," Kevin said instead.

"Yeah, I get that," Ben said in a cheerful tone that sounded purposely fake, as if this was Ben's way of reminding Kevin that all of his emotions were, in fact, fake. Hearing that tone of voice made Kevin feel as if their entire conversation had been a waste of breath.

"I'm still driving you home," Kevin said stubbornly, deciding to put an end to their conversation on the matter with that one simple statement. He turned and headed into the kitchen, grabbing his car keys off the kitchen table.

"Kevin, wait," Ben said, following right behind him. The other boy tugged at his sleeve, saying, "I wasn't even going to go home, alright."

Kevin paused in the kitchen, turning to face the brunette.

"At least, not right away," Ben said, suddenly not sounding as insistent as he had before about his plan to 'walk home.'

"Where were you going to go?" Kevin asked suspiciously and Ben gave him a full-armed shrug.

"I dunno," Ben admitted.

"Not back to the pond?" Kevin asked, eyes narrowing.

"No, I'm not stupid."

Kevin held his tongue.

"I just wanted to walk around or something," Ben said. "Go somewhere other than home, just for a little while."

Maybe Ben wanted to get away from the insanity of it all. Though he wouldn't exactly be getting away from any of that out among the general public, but Kevin was sure he could keep away any annoyances.

"Fine, we'll go out somewhere before I take you home," Kevin said in a casual tone that insisted that it really was no big deal to him, and he was quick to add before Ben could even open his mouth, "And don't even bother arguing about me coming along because I'm not letting you go wandering off on your own."

The question now was where should they actually go.

'Mr. Smoothie's always an option,' Kevin mused.

And then his eyes rested on Ben's t-shirt, taking in the fact that the other boy was still jacket-less, when Kevin got an idea.

.

.

Ben slouched down in the passenger's seat, his head resting against the car door. He pretended to stare out the window, but in reality was watching Kevin's faint reflection in the glass.

"I don't need a new jacket," Ben voiced his protests for what was probably the third time since they left Kevin's house. "I have a jacket."

"Wearing your dad's old jacket doesn't count," Kevin insisted.

"It's still a jacket," Ben said, being sure to sound indignant.

He didn't understand Kevin's reasoning. A jacket was a jacket no matter what it looked like or who it had once belonged to, and buying a new one would just be a waste of money. "It keeps me warm... I think." he glanced over at the other boy. "What more does it need to do aside from that?"

"If it's so important to you, then why didn't you wear it today when it was supposed to be between twenty and thirty outside?" Kevin asked, being the clever bastard that he is.

"It's not like I even feel the cold," Ben said, though it was a weak excuse at best, and as expected, Kevin tore it down a second later.

"You can still get sick, you know, even if you can't feel the cold," Kevin said, and it was clear from the slightly smug look on his face that he knew that he had won the argument.

Ben was sure to give the appropriate 'pouting loser's' response though by sighing and suddenly reclining his seat back so that he was lying down and looking up at the car's metal ceiling rather than looking at Kevin. This put him out of the line-of-sight of any people that might look at Kevin's car as it drove by and it also almost put him outside of Kevin's peripheral vision.

It was win-win if you asked him.

"I don't even see what the big deal is," Kevin said, apparently ignoring the fact that Ben was quite obviously giving him the cold shoulder. "You said before that you would get a new one."

Ben had to admit that Kevin had a point, both about the jacket and about the cold and 'getting sick' thing.

'He's really been on fire today about this whole 'being right' thing,' Ben noted.

He'd probably be annoyed by this if it were still possible for him.

And really, why hadn't he gotten a new jacket yet? It wasn't like he wouldn't be able to find one just like his old one that he had bloodied up. Ever since his secret life went public, the style of his jacket had been mass-produced for anyone who wanted to look like him, which he had always kind of found disturbing in the past, although of course not right now.

He supposed he just hadn't cared if he got a new one or not. Sentimentality was kind of beyond him at the moment.

"I guess it just slipped my mind as unimportant," Ben said in response to Kevin's comment.

It wasn't that he was forgetful, he just didn't see the point in wasting time thinking about things that didn't matter, and getting a new jacket didn't matter. There was no reasoning with Kevin on the subject though, just like there was no reasoning with any of them, Kevin or his family, about the futility in faking his emotions around them.

They soon arrived at Bellwood's small, one and only mall. Walking through the shopping center, on their way to the only store that regularly sold his style of jacket, Ben couldn't help but compare the atmosphere of the mall to what his school was like. All around him was fear and apprehension, and while some looked away, most stared at him like he was an interesting car-wreck waiting to happen. He kept his gaze forward, pretending to ignore it as they walked, while Kevin chose a more direct approach and glared at everyone, the other boy's colors flaring red at anyone who stared for too long.

When they reached the small clothing store, it was no huge surprise that the 'Ben 10' style jackets were on sale for half-off. When they spotted the half-off signs, Kevin threw him a quick glance for some reason, like he should be bothered by it, but Ben understood the store's reasoning. No one wanted to dress up like a potential killer. Personally, Ben thought that the situation seemed like it should be more funny than anything else, like the store chain that sold his style of jacket was a small child stamping its feet and saying that Ben wasn't allowed to play in its clubhouse anymore.

"Less money that you have to spend," Ben pointed out reasonably.

"Excuse me, I'm paying for this?" Kevin asked, though with an amused smile on his face.

"You're the one who insisted I get a new one," Ben said. "I was perfectly fine with walking around in my t-shirt."

"Yeah, like a moron in the middle of winter," Kevin said, exasperated.

"Don't be ridiculous," Ben said, approaching the sales rack. "It's still fall. Winter isn't for another couple of weeks."

"Totally missing the point there."

Sifting through the jackets on the sales rack, Ben noticed that there weren't a lot of jackets in his style left, and he wondered if it was because people took advantage of the sale like he was, or if they had been bought up before and the store just hadn't bothered to order in a new shipment.

The two bands going around the upper right sleeve, the single stripe running up the left front of the jacket, the number ten patch, it was all the same on all of them, but there were different colors choices. Red like Albedo's jacket, blue, orange, pink, yellow, black, grey, and then –

"Here we go," Kevin said, pulling a classic bright green jacket off of the rack. "Looks to be about your size. Here, try it on."

Kevin tossed him the jacket and Ben slipped it on. He stretched out his arms, checking the length of the sleeves. It seemed to fit him fine. Not too big or too small. Ben walked over to one of the nearby mirrors for a better look because maybe he just wasn't feeling that it wasn't fitting him right.

He stepped in front of the mirror. The jacket of course fit him perfectly, just like his old one, and now the image was complete. There stood Ben Tennyson, exactly as he had been before his death– like spackling up a hole in a wall and painting over it, as if nothing had ever happened. He smiled a small smile because he knew that looked more like Ben Tennyson than the neutral expression he had on before.

He didn't need to be a genius to know that it didn't look quite right though.

The mask may be in place – the person who he was supposed to be, who everyone wanted him to be, or expected him to be – but he couldn't possibly do his past self justice. It was like he had been given the reins to someone else's life, some stranger, and was expected to make all of the right choices, and he had been doing a pretty crummy job of things so far, as everyone seemed to keep pointing out, even if indirectly or unintentionally. He felt like there should be a caption floating across his reflection saying 'Ben Tennyson: Ur doing in wrong.'

'If I ever get my emotions back, I'm probably going to be pretty pissed at myself by the end of this all.'

"Hey, it's perfect," Kevin said, coming up behind him and slapping a hand on his shoulder, apparently not seeing what Ben was seeing.

"I don't really know if green's my color anymore," Ben said with a doubtful tone.

"You look fine," Kevin said, insistent, and guided Ben away from the mirror. "Let's go check-out."

His gaze still on the mirror, Ben briefly shifted his smile into a frown before the neutral expression was back again. Looking away, he let Kevin lead him over to the cash register, slipping off the jacket so that the cashier could ring it up.

She stared at him with a kind of wide-eyed expression, the cashier who looked to be in her mid-twenties, and there was that usual tinge of fear, but not as much as most. If anything, she simply looked very interested, like she was watching the climax of a movie, and Ben had to giver her some credit for being able to stare at him unblinkingly and without turning away while also being able to ring-up his purchase.

Ben chose to ignore the staring, but Kevin, it seemed, could not.

"You got a problem, lady?" Kevin questioned with his usual tough-guy bravado.

The woman flushed and had the decency to look shamefaced as she said, "Uh, no, so sorry about that, sir." then she paused, seeming to be having an internal debate with herself before she looked over at Ben and blurted out, "Is it true that you threatened someone with a knife?"

Ben blinked, honestly not expecting that out of all the things that she could have said. Even Kevin looked taken aback, his tough-guy posturing dropped in exchange for pure bewilderment.

When the question finally registered with Ben's mind, he was quick to laugh it off and assure the woman with what he hoped was a smile on his face, "No, of course not. Where did you hear that?"

As the woman explained about the anonymous source that had come forward to the newspaper – she even had the article on hand, a crinkled and folded up piece of newspaper that she passed over to him and Kevin – Ben actually had to think back, and think carefully before-

'Oh... Ohhh.'

That shaman, spiritual expert guy. The one that had actually caused him to feel something, even if it was a brief moment of pain.

'I was just washing a knife.'

But apparently that's not what it looked like, not while he had been attempting to threaten the guy. All empty threats of course, but it seemed the guy had taken it to heart.

'Bet this wouldn't have been a problem if I had been washing a spoon.'

Ben didn't know if the woman believed him or not, but it didn't matter to him if she did, so for the most part he stayed silent, smiling (hopefully) while she sputtered out an apology and made some kind of comment about how she figured that it wasn't true. Kevin paid for his new (and yet old because it was the same) jacket and they left the mall soon after, both not really being one to wander around to the different stores, especially now that they had a continuous negative audience.

Aside from briefly saying that 'That was weird, huh?' Kevin didn't bring up the subject of the woman's accusation during the drive home, and as they pulled into the driveway to Ben's house, the brunette thought that maybe that would be the end of it.

Except apparently it wasn't because before Ben could get out of the car, Kevin was pulling the incriminating newspaper article out of his pocket – Ben hadn't even realized that Kevin had kept it – and he smoothed it out against the steering wheel with a curious look on his face.

"It just seems odd to me," Kevin said, tapping a finger against the article. "I mean, yeah, you've had bad press before, but usually there's some cause behind it. Something that someone's taking out of context. There's never been any straight-out lies like this. At least not in something that's supposed to be a reputable source."

"Guess I'm just unlucky, or whatever," Ben said, gaze dropping down to where his arm rested against the car door when Kevin looked over at him. He drummed his fingers against the car door for a moment before grabbing the handle and letting himself out. Pulling his backpack out of the back seat, he gave Kevin a brief, awkward wave as he said, "Well, I'll see you later, Kevin."

His dismissal was too abrupt though, too out-of-the-ordinary, because Kevin was getting out of the car too, saying, "Wait, what was that?"

Ben turned in place, giving the other boy a completely blank look as he walked backwards toward his front door, "What was what? I'm not doing anything."

Kevin's eyes narrowed at him as he closed the driver's side door. "Look, I may not be able to tell if you're lying from the eye twitch thing anymore, but I can tell when you're not saying something."

His colors were of doubt, of distrust, yet with a little bit of concern mixed in.

"It's not important, okay?" Ben said, turning away from Kevin and unlocking the front door of his house. His parents weren't home, but that wasn't unusual for them. There was a number of places they could be, but they were most likely out speaking with the lawyer. "Just, you know, like you said, stuff out of context."

Kevin blinked in surprise, and when Ben walked into his house, dropping his backpack near the front door, Kevin was quick to follow him inside.

"'Context?' So you mean..." Kevin trailed off, standing in the doorway for a moment before quickly closing the door shut behind him as he said, "Shit, Ben, you didn't seriously threaten some guy with a knife, did you?"

"Out of context!" Ben emphasized with as much exasperation as he could muster, throwing his arms in the air to further get his point across. "Meaning, not... exactly. Not on purpose... Except kind of on purpose."

He flopped over onto his couch, legs hanging over the armrest, and stretched an arm out to the coffee table to snatch up the remote. He hesitated for a second on turning the TV on, because they could be talking about the knife thing, which would only add more fuel to whatever fire Kevin seemed to have going, but he wanted to stay informed on what they were all saying about him, and he especially wanted to stay informed on the crime he was being accused of. For all he knew, there could be breaking new information on the whole thing.

He switched the TV on, quickly flipping through the channels until he reached a news station.

Kevin glared at the TV screen, all angry colors and looking like he wanted to start the argument up again about 'brooding' and 'not watching that crap,' or whatever nonsense it was that he had been spouting about to Ben before, but the other boy seemed determined not to get distracted from the conversation on hand, and instead asked, "Not on purpose, but actually on purpose?" Reaching down and grabbing Ben's wrists, Kevin pulled him up to his feet – as close to being eye-to-eye as they could get considering that he was shorter than Kevin – and continued, "What exactly did you do, Tennyson?"

"It was that stupid spirit-expert guy. The one who made me actually feel something," Ben finally said. "I didn't threaten him with a knife, I was washing a knife."

The angry colors faded just a bit, but the doubt was still there.

"That all sounds completely innocent," Kevin said before asking with a raised eyebrow, "What was the 'on purpose' part?"

Ben watched Kevin closely, trying to judge what the other boy's reaction might be and wondering if he should say anything at all, or if it would benefit him more to keep his mouth shut. Green eyes dropped down to the older boy's hands which were still wrapped around his wrists.

'He's not my parents, he can't ground me,' he thought to himself.

Noting, on top of that, that it would at least be helpful to sound like he cared, like he was sorry for what he had done, when his gaze darted back up to look Kevin in the eye, Ben said as sheepishly and as innocently as he could, "There may have been some threatening involved... while I just-so-happened to be cleaning a knife."

Kevin dropped his wrists, stepping back with a look on his face that was half exasperated and half 'you've-got-to-be-fucking-kidding-me.' The older boy slapped a hand to his forehead with a long-suffering sigh, shaking his head as he muttered something to himself.

"To be fair, this happened before the whole murder suspect thing," Ben felt the need to point out, because it wasn't like he could have predicted that the whole thing could have come back in such a way that only supported people's suspicions about him.

"That doesn't matter, Ben," Kevin said, arms thrown out to his sides before he turned away from Ben and started pacing, "You shouldn't threaten people, especially not normal civilians. I shouldn't even have to tell you this, it should be common sense."

Ben tracked the pacing with his eyes, noting how tense Kevin looked, the way his colors lashed about him as his body language and the subtle expressions on his face seemed to give off the sense that there was an entire conversation going on that Ben couldn't really follow or understand, like there were more words being spoken than what Kevin was actually saying to him. Ben took a couple of unsure steps towards the other teen, moving around the couch until it was to his back.

"You're making this into a bigger deal than it really is," Ben said, putting a hint of frustration into his tone as a way of saying that maybe they should just drop it because the damage had already been done and anything they say now isn't going to change that.

Ben remembered a time when Kevin would have laughed about something like this, and he wondered why things were different now. There was concern in Kevin's colors, doubts and disbelief, and the anger was back again, but why, for what purpose? It wasn't like they'd never been in crummy situations before, it wasn't like Ben had never made a mistake or screwed something up. It didn't make sense. What made now so different than before?

Whatever Kevin had been about to say in response to Ben's claims of him overreacting was cut off when the news reporters on the television went from discussing the weather forecast for the week to talking about Ben and the murder case and the newest development of Ben supposedly threatening someone with a knife. The news reporters thankfully weren't instantly demonizing him and were instead discussing the validity of the accusation – specifically why someone with a weapon on their wrist would need a knife – but the fact that they were even talking about the knife thing at all didn't exactly help defuse things between him and Kevin.

"See?" Kevin said, stopping in his pacing, "It doesn't matter about the knife or the fact that this happened before the murder case, it's the fact that you even threatened someone at all. You've known for a while now that you're on the media's radar, that a lot of people have been wary of you in the past. Well, people aren't just wary now, they're scared, and it's not just a couple people that are scared of you, it's a lot."

"Assuming that this is true," one news reporter said, "It's really not that big of a surprise, is it? A teenager with that much power; of course it's going to go to his head and he's going to try throwing his weight around."

"I'm just saying," Kevin continued. "You're not helping yourself any by threatening people, even if the guy was a douche bag and deserved it."

"Surprisingly, there's been no reports coming in of Tennyson threatening classmates," another reporter said. "Which is what one would usually expect from someone around his age, to feel more inclined to try and gain an edge over others his own age. One question that had been asked among our viewers is if Tennyson's school system should even wait for a threat to happen against other students or if some form of action should be taken now."

"I mean, just listen to that," Kevin said, gesturing at the television screen. "Taking action? Like what, kicking you out of school?"

"They're not going to kick me out," Ben said. "I haven't done anything. Not anything at school, at least."

"'Haven't done anything' should apply to everywhere, not just at your school," Kevin said, then sighed. "Look, I'm not blaming you for anything. Hell knows I've threatened lots of people before. You just... need to be more careful, okay? Now more than ever, when everyone's waiting for you to mess up. Just try and watch what you say, and be more careful about how you act around people, alright?"

There it was again. Watch what you say, be more careful. Because he wasn't acting right. Because he needed to be more normal, he needed to act more sincere.

"So if some other half-wit comes over to my house again," Ben began slowly, "and messes around with some magic thing that he has no idea how to do properly, I just need to be nice and... smile through it."

Kevin gave him a kind of peculiar look, and said, "Life's full of doing shit we don't want to do, but... if it's really something that's bothering you, you can always come hide out at my place."

"I'm not bothered," Ben immediately insisted, because he wasn't. He couldn't be. He didn't feel anything now, emotional or otherwise, and he didn't feel anything back when he threatened that guy. He was a completely blank slate just like always, and the things he did wasn't due to any emotional reason, it was all due to completely unemotional, logically thought-out reasons, or sometimes simply because it was something the old Ben would have done (which, when you thought about it, was a logical reason for him to do something).

"You seem bothered," Kevin said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Have you talked to your parents about all of these voodoo experts?"

"No, because there's nothing to talk about because I'm not bothered," he said, and now he was the one pacing, but not because he was bothered or because of any emotional reason, he was just... pacing. Did there really need to be a reason behind everything? "My parents are weird, and they do weird things like hire a shaman to do some sort of spiritual cleansing thing. It's just part of the norm around here, and I'm not bothered because it's impossible for me to be bothered by anything."

"Are you completely sure about that?" Kevin asked, unconvinced. "'Cause–"

"No," Ben cut him off. "I'm... myself. I'm completely blank as usual. It's just a matter of tolerating the shamans and the voodoo experts, and I just need to make sure I smile, and act normal and sincere."

And pretend like he cared about things when he really didn't, and be more courteous, and nicer, and above all, more emotional, but not too emotional, not over-emotional, just the right amount of emotions that didn't disturb people, because people were disturbed enough as it was, and he needed to stop making it worse.

Just be a better person. That's all, right?

Not to imply that he was currently anything less of a person.

Even though it certainly seemed like it.

And so many other people were acting like that was the case too.

"More on the Bellwood murder case tonight at eleven, and Ben Tennyson's potential involvement," the television blared.

What happened next occurred too quickly for Ben to really understand. There was a feeling, not a physical feeling, but a tiny spark of something inside that, if he were to give it more thought, was very reminiscent of the time not too long ago when his grandfather grounded him from Plumber duties.

Just like the time before, the small spark of something wasn't there for very long. It fizzled out almost instantly, but for the brief moment that it was there, it burned hot inside of him – not a physical burning feeling, mind you – and he suddenly found himself grabbing a lamp off the nearby end table and hurling it across the room at the television. Its cord ripped free from the outlet as the lamp collided with the television, its metal base shattering the screen and nearly knocking the bulky electronic device off its stand.

A sort of stunned silence descended over the room as Ben stared at the now broken TV and Kevin stared at him. Thinking to himself that he could probably safely count himself as grounded at this point, Ben walked around the couch to the TV and prodded at the broken glass with a sneakered foot.

"I didn't know I could throw that hard," Ben finally said, breaking the silence rather bluntly, and brought a hand up to press against his mouth – an unconscious gesture that he didn't really understand but went along with anyway.

Being all too aware that Kevin was still staring at him, Ben's gaze snapped over to the older boy. His hand dropped back down to his side, and – his voice rising without him even meaning it to – he asked, "What?"

Kevin held up his hands in a pacifying way and said quite calmly, considering the oddity of the situation, "Nothing. Clearly you have something you need to get off your chest, so go ahead. Talk."

"There's not really anything to talk about," Ben said, looking between Kevin and the broken television, "I don't even know why I did that."

"Well, it's one way of turning off a TV," Kevin remarked humorously, stepping forward to lean against the back of the couch. He briefly looked down at the broken glass before looking back up at Ben and saying, "And if I were to guess further, because this really isn't as complicated as you seem to think it is, I'd say that you're stressed."

"But I'm not," Ben said, "Being stressed is... anxiety and fear and all sorts of other emotions that I don't have."

Even taking into account that tiny spark of something – it had happened so quickly, was there and gone in a second – not nearly enough time to be stressed out by anything.

Kevin watched Ben carefully as if he could somehow detect some form of hidden emotions that weren't, in reality, there, and said, "Yeah, alright. Putting your condition aside for a moment though, what would be bothering you right now if you did have your emotions? The murder investigation? All these magic experts your parents keep sicking on you? I'm sure you have some idea of what's going on about what could be making you stressed, even if you don't feel stressed right now."

"There's the obvious, everything you mentioned," Ben said, his gaze drifting down to the broken glass at his feet, "And the way they keep talking about me on TV, and the way everyone keeps looking at me like I'm about to attack them. I guess it's possible that the old me, the way I was before, could be bothered by those things."

"Of course," Kevin said. "Who wouldn't be bothered by those things?"

"And then there's also..." Ben trailed off, shuffling in place.

"What?" Kevin asked curiously.

"It... doesn't really matter," Ben said as he turned away from Kevin and reached around the TV to unplug it from the wall. "Since... I'm not actually upset or bothered or stressed by anything."

Tossing the power cord to the ground, he walked back around the TV and knelt down next to the broken glass. As he reached out to start picking up the larger pieces – quite carefully, he might add – Kevin was quick to hop over the couch and wave his hands away, saying, "Jeez, stop, you're going to cut yourself."

Huffing out a breath, Ben smacked Kevin's hands away and said, "No, you stop. I... It's this. It's all of the stuff like this." Seeing the confused look Kevin was giving him, Ben was quick to elaborate, "Out of everything that's going on right now, if I really was stressed by anything – which I'm not, because it's impossible–"

"You're rambling."

"It's you guys," Ben finally said. "You, Gwen, my parents, Grandpa Max. If I was the old me right now, I'd say that you're driving me crazy. I'm perfectly capable of picking up glass on my own, and even without the omnitrix, I'm a good fighter and I can help out with alien problems, and most important of all, I don't need a constant critique from you guys on how to act more emotional and more human. If I want your advice, I'll ask for it, and... and, I keep telling you, I shouldn't even have to pretend to be normal around you guys at all. Seriously, you're gonna give me some kind of complex by the end of all this crap."

This was all said quite tonelessly, because the point of even telling Kevin this was that he shouldn't have to fake all the emotions someone would normally have when giving a rant, and it would seem that his monotonous words alone were enough to get his point across because Kevin looked taken-aback as if he had actually shouted all of this.

Kevin rose to his feet, looking away with one hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck as he muttered, "Shit."

Standing up as well, when Kevin paused, saying no more than that, Ben felt the need to go on and explain, "I get that I have to keep the act up around the rest of the world, because they don't know and they'll likely freak out even more, but around all of you–"

"No, you're right."

Kevin had never been all that great at apologies, and rarely apologized for much in the past, but when he sighed and looked back over at Ben, the younger boy could see the wordless apology there, and it was honestly more than Ben had been expecting from the Osmosian at all, along with Kevin saying that he was right.

"You shouldn't have to fake all of that around me and your family," Kevin continued. "I mean, we're like 'home base,' right? It should be a safe zone where you don't have to worry about jumping through hoops and pretending."

Holding back the need to say that he wasn't worried, Ben instead said, "Look, it's fine. You weren't even that bad about the whole thing."

Which was the truth, when he thought back on it. Sure, Kevin had seemed a little uncomfortable at first with Ben's emotionless state, but now more often than not, the other boy just seemed to go along with the flow of things. He wasn't really all that bad about correcting him on adjusting his mood or acting less like an emotionless brick wall.

"It's really more my family that's the problem," Ben said, more to himself than anything, but Kevin heard him anyway.

"I can talk to Gwen about it, no problem," Kevin said. "Your grandpa too, if you want me to, and you should really talk to your parents about this."

It was the short of discussion that should be between him and his parents, and even though Kevin offered, Ben figured that he should also be the one to talk to Grandpa Max as well.

But then he thought about what Grandpa Max had said to him before, about how his parents were worried about him, and about how pretending to have emotions around them would ease their stress, that it's even something that the old him would have wanted him to do.

"It would be... preferable to not have to fake around them, but my parents... Is it really worth adding the extra stress to their lives just to ease my own stress which probably doesn't even exist?" Ben asked – for some reason his arms came up to wrap around himself like a hug. "It's all just hypothetical anyway, the whole 'me being stressed' thing. You keep saying I'm stressed out when I'm not really, and when you think about it, it makes more sense to make sure their lives are less stressful than my own."

Hands crossing over his chest, clearly not looking at all swayed by what Ben said, Kevin asked, "Have you ever considered that maybe there is some part of you that's bothered by all of this, and maybe it's just buried somewhere so far down that you can't tell it's there?"

"It could be a possibility," Ben said slowly, because it wasn't like they knew all that much about his 'condition,' or what had even happened to his emotions. He was reminded of that little spark of something, of the two times it had sprung up and then disappeared in an instant, and he had to wonder if that had come from somewhere deep down like Kevin was suggesting or if it had just appeared from nowhere.

"There was this... something, that I kinda felt when I threw the lamp," Ben said after a moment's hesitation. "It was small, and very brief."

"Something? Like...?"

"An emotion, maybe?" Ben supplied, honestly not too sure himself. "It was kind of too quick to tell, but... maybe anger, or frustration?"

"Do you think they might be coming back? Your emotions?" Kevin asked with a quiet, cautious optimism.

"I don't know," Ben said, shaking his head. "I don't think it's something we should count on happening."

"Right," Kevin said, a bit dourly. Getting back to the discussion at hand, he said, "Look Ben, all I'm saying is, you threw that lamp for a reason, right? Don't you think your parents would want to know if they're doing something that's bothering you so much, whether it's hypothetical or not?"

His parents always have wanted the best for him in the past. This probably was something they'd want to know now.

Any further thoughts on the matter were interrupted by the sound of his front door opening as his mom and dad walked through, finally getting home for the night. It was only seconds before they both caught sight of the smashed television. As looks of shock and surprise passed over their faces, his mother's face especially, and Ben's automatic response was to blurt out a rather sincere, "I broke the TV, I'm so sorry."

Out of the corner of his eye, Ben could see Kevin watching him, a frown on the older boy's face, and it was apparent from the look Kevin was giving him that now would actually be a good time to talk to his parents about everything. That is, if he so chose to tell them at all... which he probably should, because they really would want to know.

"Except," Ben said, speaking before his parents could really respond to his apology. "I'm actually not sorry. At all. And..."

What did people usually say in situations like this?

"I need to talk to you guys about some stuff," Ben said. "Maybe we should sit down?"

Kevin clapped a hand on his shoulder, giving him an encouraging smile as he said, "Guess I'll leave you to it. Unless you need me for moral support?"

Ben waved away his offer, saying, "Nah. I'll be fine. See you later, Kevin."

Giving Ben a quick departing wave, and a courteous smile and nod to Ben's parents as he stepped around them on the way out, Kevin soon left, his car rumbling to life before fading away in the distance.

"Ben?" His mother said, looking curious, confused, and concerned all at the same time. "What's going on?"

The moment of truth.

They went into the kitchen to sit down, away from the mess in the living room that Ben planned to clean up afterwards. Hands tapping absentmindedly on the table top, he finally told them what he told Kevin, except more straightforward and not quite as blunt. They knew before that 'the spell' had messed with him, that he had lost his sense of touch and that he was severely lacking in the emotions department, but they didn't know just how emotionally dead inside he was, and while he wanted them to know that he didn't want to have to fake emotions around them, he didn't want them to know just how much he actually didn't care about them, or anything else for that matter.

"Ben, honey, don't ever feel like you have to pretend to be someone else around us," his mother said, resting one hand over his own. "And don't feel like you have to fake what you're feeling around us either."

What he was feeling, or lack thereof.

"I just didn't want to worry you guys," he said, but for once with his naturally dull tone.

"Now don't you forget, we're the parents here," his father said. "We take care of you, not the other way around."

Both his mother's and his father's colors were mostly of concern, but there were a couple other colors as well. They were all lighter colors; light red, light pink, a hint of lavender with just pure white light.

"We understand that you're feeling out-of-sorts and not quite yourself from this whole... magical mishap," his mother said. "But that'll get all worked out eventually. In the meantime, you don't have to worry about putting on a show for us."

Except there was always the chance that he was stuck this way forever, that things would never get worked out, but he didn't say any of this out loud. He did wonder though if they'd be singing the same tune years from now, when nothing had changed.

"Don't think you're off the hook about breaking the TV though," his dad said without missing a beat.

"That's fair," Ben said, having expected something of the sort about the TV to be said. "What's my punishment?"

.

.

No television for the next two weeks would have been a funny punishment (he was guessing) – considering the fact that the television was currently broken and he wouldn't have been able to watch it anyway – but then they added a 'no internet, no newspapers/tabloids/magazines of any sort' punishment on top of that, unless he needed it for school.

"Don't think we haven't noticed you obsessing over watching what they're saying about you on the news," his mother had said with her 'serious face.' "If something important comes up about the case that we think you need to know, then we'll tell you."

Otherwise, he was completely cut off from the media circus going on around him. Considering that both his parents' and Kevin's lecture on watching the news too much were fairly similar, and had even occurred on the same day, Ben almost wondered if the three had conspired against him. That wasn't really Kevin's style though, so he doubted it.

Despite the talk he'd had with his parents, the following morning when Ben had acted in what was a normal manner for himself, both expressionless and monotonous, he'd been half expecting some sort of negative reaction. After all, it wasn't unusual for people to say one thing and feel something else entirely, and not be able to control their reactions to their true feelings. He wouldn't have held it against his parents either, since the same could be said for him – the way he faked some kind of emotion around the people around him, and sometimes had trouble masking his complete lack of care.

That wasn't the case though, and his parents had gone about their morning as if there was nothing out of the ordinary. Ben kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the days went by and nothing happened. Sure, his mother would sometimes hug him a little bit longer than usual, and his dad would occasionally get this pinched look around his eyes, but that was pretty much it. Just subtle stuff – things that Ben couldn't really put a meaning to.

The world around him fell into a sort of routine. The murder case continued on in the background with no real developments (he was guessing, because neither his parents nor Kevin and Gwen told him of any recent developments. Plus, the staring from his classmates and the general public didn't lessen any). His parents were usually busy with either work or paperwork or talking with the lawyer, and Ben had to wonder if they were even getting anywhere, if it was even worth the battle, because it was hard to fight the system and actually win (but they wouldn't be his parents if they gave up in a fight against 'the man.').

Then there was Kevin, who continued to drive him to and from school when he could, which was most of the time. Ben shelled out gas money to him every now and then because it only seemed fair, and if Gwen wasn't too busy with one of the many projects, or extracurricular activities that she had going on (or researching about Ben's problem, because she was relentless), they'd go meet up with her and hang out.

"We won't be here when you get home today," his mother said as he was heading out the door to school that morning. "Your dad has work and I'm meeting up with the lawyer. I'll be bringing dinner back with me though, so don't snack too much when you get back."

"Alright," he said, grabbing his jacket. The honking of Kevin's car horn was nearly drowned out by the sound of raindrops beating against the living room window.

"Don't forget an umbrella!" his mother called out to him at the last minute.

"Right!" he called back, making a detour to the hall closet to grab one. It had honestly slipped his mind since rain wasn't really something that could bother him anymore.

"Bye," he said as he left, popping the umbrella open for the run between his front door and Kevin's car. He didn't really wait for a response. He was already running late as it was.

'Just another day.'

.

.

The best time to visit Mr. Smoothie was before the various Bellwood schools let out for the day, as Kevin had come to find. Since most of Mr. Smoothie's regulars were students, Kevin could avoid the usual crowds and having to wait in line by stopping at the smoothie joint before picking Ben up rather than after, although on a day like today, he doubted there'd be any real crowds even after school ended. Since the drive-through was currently out-of-order, not a lot of people would be willing to go out into the rain just to get a smoothie, even if it was only for a brief walk from their car to the front entrance.

'The things I do for the people I care about,' Kevin thought to himself.

Arms crossed over his chest, he leaned against the counter near the cash register, waiting for his drink order and glaring at the downpour currently going on outside. Between the heavy rain and the dark clouds passing by overhead, visibility outside was at an all-time low. If Ben wasn't about to get out of school, Kevin would have been perfectly content with waiting a bit to see if the rain would let up at all.

"Order thirty-seven," one of the Mr. Smoothie employees called out.

Kevin grabbed the cardboard carrier containing three drinks; two normal flavored ones for him and Gwen, who they were meeting up with afterwards, and one oddly-flavored one for Ben. How the other boy could continue to drink that stuff was still beyond Kevin.

Flipping the hood of his jacket up, and wishing he had an umbrella, Kevin stepped outside into the rain and made a run for his car. Passing by one of the outdoor tables that had an umbrella built into it, he caught sight of a teen sitting on the table and smoking a cigarette – someone skipping class, he guessed, or a drop-out like himself.

"Hey, Levin!" the teen called out to him as Kevin raced by.

The other boy wasn't anyone that Kevin knew, but a lot of people in Bellwood knew who he was without him actually knowing them, so it wasn't really a surprise. Kevin ignored the teen and continued on to his car, because he already had a good idea as to what the other boy wanted to talk to him about – something involving Ben. It had been happening quite frequently ever since Ben's involvement with the murder case was announced. People would come up to him to ask various questions about the omnitrix hero, thinking that maybe they could get an insider's look into the whole thing by talking to Kevin. As annoying as it was and as angry as it made Kevin, he had found that the best course of action to take was to just ignore the people and throw in a heated glare if they didn't take the hint (the effect of glaring was kind of ruined by all the rain at the moment though, so he just settled for ignoring the teen).

"Levin! Hold on for a sec!"

Kevin finally reached his car, and whatever else the teen had shouted over to him was cut off when he climbed inside his car and slammed the door shut. Rain drummed loudly against the car's metal body as he set the carton carrying the smoothies on the floor of the passenger's seat. Grumbling to himself about ungrateful morons, Kevin fished his keys out of his coat pocket and slid his car key into the ignition.

As he turned the keys in the ignition, he heard a noise – an odd click-click noise that didn't belong, yet it was a little familiar, recognizable as something.

His eyes widened.

And a split second later, his world was consumed by fire as his car blew up.

.

.

Ben flipped his cellphone closed as his third attempt at calling Kevin resulted in the call going straight to voicemail, and while his call to Gwen actually rang a few times, she hadn't picked up either.

He checked the time again on the phone's smaller second screen, absentmindedly thinking that maybe he should get a watch that actually tells time. Forty-seven minutes had passed since his school had let out, and from his spot standing under the overhang at the school's main front entrance, there was no sign of his friend's familiar green car. All of the buses had long since left along with any straggling students, and because all outdoor extracurricular activities had been canceled due to the rain, all of the sporting fields were completely empty.

Ben squinted out through the rain at the few cars that still remained in the parking lot, searching for a splotch of green that wasn't there. He wondered if Kevin had maybe been called away to some kind of emergency Plumber situation. Normally in that case, the other boy would have called him to let him know, but in their line of work, sometimes circumstances didn't allow that.

'A working omnitrix would be really helpful right about now,' he mused, his gaze switching from the parked cars to the rain itself. An umbrella was only so helpful in rain as heavy as this and with the omnitrix, he could have turned into an alien better suited for the current conditions and get himself home faster than he could walk as just his normal human self.

Gaze alternating between checking the time on his cellphone and watching for Kevin's car, he waited another fifteen minutes before calling it quits. Popping open his umbrella, he left the front entrance overhang and started walking. After all, Bellwood wasn't a huge town, so it wasn't like it'd take him a long time to walk home. In fact, if he had left as soon as he had gotten out of school instead of waiting around, he would have been home already.

He looped around to the back of the school where the second parking lot was. If he were to cut across the soccer field, he could shave a couple minutes off the time it would take him to walk home. As he headed toward the field, weaving around the cars and trucks still parked in the parking lot, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.

Pausing, twisting around to look, he could see a figure standing in the distance, right where he had just come from. A person, a guy it looked like, with the familiar grey colors that swallowed up any other colors, other emotions, that even attempted to shine through; a brief flash of the colors of anger before they were overtaken by grey, and then a splash of the colors of fear before they too were washed away by the grey.

He expected the person to flee, like they always did, but whoever it was didn't this time. The figure shuffled in place, took a small step back, but otherwise just stood there. As Ben took a step toward him – maybe even her, it was hard to tell in the rain – he thought, 'I shouldn't.'

It could be dangerous, like Kevin had said. Ben didn't know anything about this person, if it even was the same person. He didn't know anything about what their potential involvement might be in the murders. It would be stupid to go up to the person, to try following them when the omnitrix wasn't working, when he didn't have anything on him that he might be able to defend himself with, so he really, truly, shouldn't.

He took another half step forward, pausing, before taking a step back.

He wasn't a police officer, he wasn't a detective, and at the moment, he wasn't even a Plumber (who didn't even have jurisdiction right now because the murders were a very human crime). He was a teenager, and even though he frequently doubted the Bellwood Police Department's competency, he needed to leave this case up to them.

He took a couple more steps back.

'I shouldn't, so... I won't.'

Through the sound of falling rain pattering against the pavement and his umbrella, he could make out a faint noise behind him, the sound of something scuffing against wet pavement. Ben looked away from the figure in the distance, turning towards the source of the noise, and saw a second figure standing behind him. A man he didn't know – his form only slightly blurred by the rain – with one hand raised high, clutching a long thin object.

A tire iron.

Quicker than Ben could blink, the man swung the tool down.

And everything went black.

.

Hot damn, this chapter is over 11,000 words! So much editing to do. T.T

So yeah, I ended on a cliffhanger. I know I'm evil, but at least you all got a nice long chapter, huh? Sadly, I now have two part-time jobs to eat up my time, along with animation stuff to work on and other stories to update, so I don't know when I'll be able to get the next chapter written.

Reviews never hurt the process though, so review please and let me know what you think!