| Ben 10: Beyond Bellwood | |||||
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| Children of the Flesh | |
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| Air Date | 31/07/2023 |
| Written by | Amanda |
| General Information | |
| Primary Universe | Red Dwarf Universe |
| Secondary Universes | Earth-CDXI.411 |
Children of the Flesh is the fourth episode of Ben 10: Beyond Bellwood. It was written by Amanda on the 31st of July 2023.
Without You[]
The sun shone brightly over Bellwood. Clear skies, the sun glistening in the windows of distant skyscrapers. Out in the suburbs, the paved streets held the warmth and turned otherwise good weather into a sweltering heat.
But Ester enjoyed the heat. She did not sweat like a human would, for she was not human. A scorching day for us is a wonderful temperate day for her. She did not live out in the suburbs, nor anywhere close. She came here for one reason, and recently much less frequently. Today may well be the final time.
She walked up the uniform, indistinct front yard pathway. The driveway was empty, Sandra and Carl must be out for the day. The front door was not locked, it never was when Ben was home. Upstairs, first bedroom on the left.
Ben sat at his computer, headphones on.
"Ben?" Ester made herself known, "Ben?" she called again but louder. She wasn't going to embarrass herself by calling again. Ben was absorbed in some inane argument on the internet, again, typing furiously. Still stood in the doorway, Ester's elastic arms reached across the length of the room to pull the headphones off of his ears.
"Woah, hey! Mom what have I told you about- Oh. Hi Ester."
"Good morning Ben."
"What's up?"
"I finally got a letter back from Harvard!" she smiled, holding up a white envelope.
"And?"
"And," she was taken aback by the concern in his voice, her own expression changed as she charted out the entire rest of the conversation in her head, "they said yes. I'm going to Boston."
"Well, what about me? About us?"
"You can come with me, if you wanted."
"Ester, we've talked about this. I'm not moving to the other side of the country. And I'm not doing a long-distance relationship, I've told you that too. You won't be able to go. Did Bellwood U get back to you?"
"Ben, Harvard is one of the best universities on Earth. It's the best one with a xenosapien acceptance program."
"Bellwood U has a xenoacceptance program."
"Ben!" her tolerance snapped, "I don't want to live in Bellwood my whole life! I want to go to the best university in the country!"
"Why? What's so bad about Bellwood?"
"Maybe the part where I live in a slum beneath your sewers because you won't help me pay for an apartment!"
"I'm saving up for a house!"
Ester scoffed. She gestured towards all the- very expensive- crap lining the walls and shelves. Action figures in packaging, large busts, signed posters. All of it paid for on minimum wage. "Try again?"
"I am! I also have a job and family that I don't want to leave behind."
"Ben I moved half a galaxy away from my family. You won't even move a few thousand miles to be with the woman you love?"
"You don't need to go to Harvard!"
"I do, actually. If I want a future that makes me happy."
"You're happy now!"
"HAPPY?! That's what you think I am? No, Ben. I'm miserable! I hate being treated like a second-rate citizen in this backwater city and I hate living in damp, smelly rooms all my life!"
"Well what's the alternative? Leaving me?"
"You make it a very easy choice."
"of course I do," Ben stood up and stepped towards his girlfriend, "because we love each other."
"Love each other?!" She stepped forward one step, aggressively enough that Ben stopped where he was, "Do we love each other? Cos it feels to me like I've been convincing myself I'm in love with a man whose sole interest lies in his favourite celebrity!"
"Of course we love each other!"
"You have never once said you loved me first!"
"Ester, I love you." Ben said, and Ester scowled at him, "What? I do!"
"Only when you remember I exist. Do you even remember our last date?"
"Well yeah," he did not, "it was..."
"Two months ago. When your mom invited me over for dinner. And it's sad that I even have to count that."
"That's not true! We went on a date just two weeks ago!"
"Scouring every game store in Bellwood for a copy of the new Kevin 11 video game is not a damn date!"
The PC pinged, and Ben turned around to read the message he had just received. Ester stretched her arm out again, this time holding her finger down on the desktop's power button.
"Hey! That was important!" Ben complained.
"Oh, my mistake," she said sarcastically, "what's so important it couldn't wait?"
"This guy on the forums thinks Unlimited aliens are a terrible gimmick," Ben said with absolute conviction, "he says they're pointless transformations that basically just make aliens naked."
Ester nodded, "So once again you're more concerned with Kev 11 than you are with me?"
"Wait that's-"
"That's all you think about! Each and every day! New aliens this, theories that! When I think of the future, Ben, I used to think of me and you together. I used to think I'd finally met a human to show me this planet. To teach me its cultures and make me feel welcome. All you ever thought of was a future where you got that damn Omnitrix! It's like praying to win a lottery you aren't even entered into! It's depressing!"
Ben's phone began to ring.
"It's fantasy," he said, "can't I have that?"
"Not at the expense of reality, Ben. And the reality is I'm going to Harvard. Without you. I'm not wasting any more time with you." She turned to leave, nodding at his phone. "You should answer that."
"You're just saying that because you're angry!" The door closed, "You'll be back! You can't hide from your feelings!"
Angry now Ben finally answered his phone.
"What?! Oh, hi Mom. No I- Mom! Listen. Stop trying to smother me, I don't need to look for another job! I have a job! ...No, I have not been fired! Baumann's gonna call back any day now and invite me back for another shift. He just needs to calm down first. NO I- Stop! God! You're such a nag! I'm an adult, let me handle my life like an adult!" There was a thud. Ben threw his phone at the bed, probably.
Ester had heard the whole thing from the landing. Ben did not care about his family. Ben did not have a job. It had taken Ester four years to realise that he didn't care for her, either. She descended the stairs. As she reached the bottom of the front yard she placed her house keys into the letterbox before beginning her journey home. After about ten feet, she stopped. She turned back, tearing a necklace off of her neck and throwing it into the letterbox too.
Just before she could start her journey again she saw a familiar figure on the pavement behind her. It was staring at her.
"What do you want?" she challenged.
In one week, this universe would be destroyed by the Flesh.
Ben would never know he was the last person to ever see Ester alive.
Children of the Flesh[]
This is an SOS distress signal from the starship Red Dwarf operating on behalf of the Jupiter Mining Corporation.
A nuclear accident has killed the ship's crew.
The sole survivor, Dave Lister, was held in suspended animation at the time.
The only other souls on board are Arnold Rimmer, a hologram reanimation of a dead crewmate,
and a creature that has evolved from the ship's cat.
I am Holly, the ship’s supercomputer.
We are three million light years away from Earth and attempting the journey back home.
We are unsure if anything of humanity or the Earth still survives.
Message end
Additional:
I know Brexit means Brexit,
but three million light years seems a bit excessive?
Just a little bit of topical humour for you.
Alright. I'll see myself out.
Unlike Britain.
Boom. Hit you with a second Brexit joke.
Message End.
Aboard the Red Dwarf[]
The Red Dwarf was several miles long. It was an industrial sort of ship, very much built for purpose over aesthetics. Every sign he had seen was written in English first and Esperanto second. Ben did not speak Esperanto and was amazed to see these signs quickly becoming English and English- the Omnitrix translation systems at work. Even as quickly as Buzzshock could move through the framework of this ship, it took an agonising amount of time to locate the front of the ship. Throughout his entire journey he had failed to find any life whatsoever- strange, a ship of this scale must require a large crew. Buzzshock, in the form of sparks, flashed through the computers that made up the main Drive Room. He materialised and, with a tap of the dial on his chest, reverted to his human form.
He wandered for a few minutes more, searching room after room, before finally hearing the shuffling of cards and one-sided banter coming from within a cafeteria space. He came to the door and, wary of danger, waited and listened. Carefully peering in.
"Read 'em and weep suckers!" A man with glistening black skin sat at a round table opposite two robots. From the doorway, Ben could only see his gaudy purple suit and slick black hair. The waving of his tail caught Ben off guard- he had two twitching animalistic ears atop his head. Ben approached, carefully. Over the man's shoulders he could see that they were playing poker. He slammed two fives onto the table. In the middle were two aces, a nine, a ten, and a king.
The robots, who could surely see Ben by now, did not seem deterred. They were both little more than small platforms with arms strutting out of the tops- once again function over form. Their hands had small red eyes atop, and three fingers forming a clawed posture. They both slammed down their cards. One presented a third ace and a second nine- a Full House. The other had a queen and a jack- both of diamonds. Combined with the diamond ten, diamond nine, and diamond king already on the table gave it a Straight Flush.
The man looked rather meagre with his Two Pair.
He rose to his feet and straightened his jacket before pulling a pair of aces out of his sleeves and throwing them into the middle of the table.
"Y'all were cheating anyway," he announced before storming off. Each of the small robots had only three fingers- and each presented the man with the middle.
The robots watched as Ben returned to visibility- he had transformed the moment he thought the man might turn around. He had taken the form of a Merlinisapien, an alien Kev had called Invizard. It was a human-sized reptile with three RGB-coloured eyes and an advanced proactive capacity for camouflage. His hands and feet possessed the same 'sticky' characteristic of Earth geckos and allowed him to cling to walls and ceilings and the like. Ben was still thinking of what to call this form. Camo-Chameleon? Camo-meleon? Camo-alien? He would work on it.
He quietly and carefully followed the man until he stopped at an intersection and pulled out a comb and a small pocket mirror. He attended to his hair before continuing but Ben stopped at the sound of clattering behind them. Something else was skulking in the shadows of the Red Dwarf.
The shade approached. It was a humanoid figure, that much was obvious. Ben shifted to the side before placing his hands flatly against the walls and climbing up them. Safe on the ceiling, the figure would never touch him as it slowly tailed the suited man.
"Starchild" it called, carefully. Softly. "Starchild come to us."
"Who goes there?" The man turned on his heels, "I'm warning you- it ain't just my looks that are sharp! Hiss!"
"Join us, Starchild..."
"Show yourself! I ain't afraid to tussle!" A robed figure, hidden behind an inhuman mask, emerged from the shadows. In the darkness Ben saw a tail swaying- he was another cat person.
"We do not seek conflict."
"Really?" The suited man was steadfast, "me neither." Fast as lightning he bolted in the other direction. Ben had no hope of keeping up, not in this form. The robed figure did not follow him. He was old, his arms and legs gripping carefully to a tall staff.
"The whispers tell me I am still not alone," the man croaked, "who witnesses me?"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude." Ben clambered down the wall, his skin shimmering into its natural lilac shade.
"Your form is unusual, my child, name yourself."
"Uh, ChamAlien," better than any of the other names he had in mind, anyway, "I'm not from around here, but I've come to help."
"Your help is welcome but unneeded to the disciples of Cloister."
"Cloister?"
"You have not heard the teachings of the Promised One?"
"...No? Is he some kind of god?"
"Come, my child, I have much to show you."
The hooded man took ChamAlien’s hand and guided him towards an open ventilation shaft. In this form Ben could fit easily, but he worried how the man would get through. Despite his clear age, he actually crawled through the vent with surprising ease. Ben followed.
Elsewhere on Red Dwarf[]
"Listen just because you and the Cat are the only two living things aboard this ship doesn't mean we don't need to take inventory." The stern man in a blue suit paced about the bedroom apartment.
"How many people were aboard when the accident happened?" A second man, unshaven and unkempt, laid in bed fully clothed.
"One thousand one hundred and sixty five."
"With provisions to last how long?"
"Lister that doesn't change anything-"
"How long would the supplies last with a full crew?"
"One hundred years. But-"
"Alright then we have one hundred times a thousand years left worth of food. And you want me to count all that?"
"Someone has to do it."
"And who's been doing it for the last three millions years while I've been in stasis then?"
The suited man smiled in a 'gotcha' sort of way. "And what else has taken place in the interim that might affect the levels of supplies? Something perhaps related to the circumstances that put you in stasis in the first place?"
"Rimmer I don-"
"A whole species evolved and thrived and moved on while you were frozen. A species, you might recall, born from the cat you illegally brought aboard."
That was true.
Three million years ago, give or take a few months, the JMC Red Dwarf had set off on a routine mission from Saturn's moon Titan. The ship's computer Holly had been the first to detect a non-human lifeform aboard- a healthy black cat with beautiful green eyes and a calm, loving temperament. There is perhaps a chance that Dave Lister might've succeeded in his mission to smuggle 'Frankenstein' back to Earth had he not taken and distributed selfies of himself with the cat. With little foresight he stowed the cat in the ship's hold before facing punishment for his crime. Eighteen months suspended animation, to be held in stasis. He would not be paid for this time since he would in essence cease to exist in real time for the duration.
He woke up three million years afterwards, only after Holly had brought the background radiation of the Red Dwarf's upper sections down to a safe level. A drive plate had slipped in his absence, funnelling nuclear material through the inhabited areas of this ship. One thousand, one hundred, and sixty-five lives were lost immediately. Short but painful deaths.
"Gazpacho soup!" Lister's immediate petty superior Arnold Rimmer had groaned as his body was flooded with two thousand times the fatal dosage of Cadmium II. He died beside Captain Frank Hollister, Lister's unrequited love First Console Officer Kristine Kochanski, and a dozen of the ship's highest ranking officers.
The radiation leak was explosive, covering the entire inhabited portion of Red Dwarf in moments. Fortunately Holly was faster- and sealed the hold of the ship in time to contain the leak. A futile effort for saving the ship's employed population, Holly intended to preserve the resources that would later sustain Lister once he could safely be awoken from stasis. With no knowledge of the creature's location, Holly had sealed the heavily pregnant Frankenstein safely within the cargo hold. With enough resources to last them millions of years Frankenstein became the matriarch of a whole new species of felines- the Felis Sapiens.
The Felis Sapiens were an unusual species so far as cultural development goes. Their religious dogmas echo that of ancient Earth, but their technological development was entirely backwards and based primarily on what could be scavenged from the Red Dwarf. Their written language was unaffected by the everpresence of English and Esperanto writing found plentifully throughout the ship and instead they developed a system of 'writing' based entirely on scents and smell. Yet, strangely, their verbal language became fluent English.
The religion itself is also of great interest, having been passed on primarily through oral tradition directly from Lister's cat Frankenstein herself until the advent of literacy. The Cats worship their lord and saviour Cloister who froze himself in time so the Cats might live. When he returns, he would lead them to the beautiful land of Fuchal and establish a temple of endless banquet. But the cats could not console their differences in beliefs- the beliefs over what colour garments should be worn in the Promised Land. One faction demanded blue, the other red. After centuries of war and division, the Cats held a truce and stole two White Giant transport vessels from the Red Dwarf. Each held a different faction of believer, and each embarked on a separate quest for Fuchal about a decade or so before Lister was awoken from stasis.
This news was greatly disappointing to Lister, whose plan had been to establish a diner in Fiji with green uniforms.
"Alright, maybe you have a point," Lister admitted.
"Maybe I have a point? Maybe?" Arnold Rimmer berated him. Rimmer's hair was short and curly, but well kept. There was a metallic silver 'H' emblazoned on his forehead. It stood for 'hologram', having been resurrected in the form of a soft light hologram by Holly in order to best keep Lister sane. The Red Dwarf could only sustain one such hologram at a time. "A pencil maybe has a point, Lister. Company duties, on the other hand, exist for a reason."
"You can't even accept being right without being a smeghead about it, can you?" Lister emerged from his bunk, dropping barefoot to the floor. He dragged his jacket from beneath a pile of stinking dirty socks and put it on as Rimmer cringed. One benefit of being a hologram was that he didn't have to smell Lister's mess anymore. The jacket itself was decorated haphazardly with all sorts of patches including one of the Rolling Stones logo, most of them were symbols of rank taken from the belongings of the ship's dead sown chaotically so as not to appear as stolen valour.
"YYEEEEEEEEOOOOOWWW!" Cat sprinted into the room, sliding on the soles of his shoes as he came to a standstill, "Dang I look good! Look at this," he gestured to his smooth purple suit, "just ran for however long and not a single crease! Stunnin'." The last Felis Sapien left aboard the Red Dwarf, Cat had no name beyond what he was- a cat.
"Cat what're you doing?" Lister asked, exhausted that this was going to prolong the painful task ahead of him.
"What was I what?"
"The running, Cat," Rimmer was annoyed at him now as well, "why were you running?"
"Oh that? Some old man showed up near the cafeteria. Had to get out of there. Man was wearin' browns in the Spring. Couldn't have people associating us, you know?"
"There was a strange man onboard and your first concern was fashion?"
"Yeah that sounds on-brand," Lister turned to a black panel in the back wall of the room, "Holly is there someone else on board?" The screen did not respond, "Holly!"
The screen suddenly illuminated. Upon it was the 3D-rendered human face of a middle-aged man, balding quite severely, and wearing a red-and-white sleeping cap.
"Good morning, dudes," the face greeted them.
"Holly it's three in the afternoon." Lister informed him.
"Is it?" the computer was shocked, pulling up a classic metal analogue alarm clock and inspecting it incredulously, "my clock must be wrong then. Oh well. So, have you guys heard the news?"
"Would that happen to be the news of a new life form being detected on board this ship?" asked Rimmer, sarcastically.
"That's the one."
"That seems kind of important Holly, don't you think we needed to know that a bit sooner?" Lister chastised the computer.
"Hold on a minute, that's not right." Holly expressed to no one in particular.
"What isn't?"
"Well I was just looking over the security footage of the Cat's recent encounter and there's a second lifeform on board. Look." Holly's face was replaced by footage from overhead security cameras of the closing moments of Cat's poker game. There, just a few feet behind him, was Ben Tennyson. The three watchers were shocked when Ben vanished in a green glow. The footage sped up, following Cat down the corridor until his encounter with the bizarre robed Felis in the corridor.
"Another cat." Lister remarked, smiling at the realisation that another member of the species survived.
The footage continued as Cat ran off and ChamAlien appeared on the walls.
"Incredible. It's an alien, it has to be."
"Rimmer you always think it's aliens."
"Well what else could it be?"
"You thought a Red Dwarf disposal pod was aliens just a few weeks ago."
"Well yes because you didn't tell me it was from Red Dwarf."
"You didn't even think to check it for writin'. It said 'RED DWARF' on the side in big red letters. Besides, nothing else we've seen so far has been aliens, this probably isn't either."
"Holly, what else do we know about that creature?"
"It's about eight feet long from head to tail-end. But it vanished into a maintenance hatch behind the cat priest, so nothing else really." The computer responded.
"Sweet and sour bugger all, then," Lister remarked, "Alright. Both of you, follow me. Cat, you and me are getting bazookoids and we're goin' after that thing."
"Lister what makes you think that thing is dangerous? It didn't harm the Cat and it didn't harm the other cat."
"Oh you're right," Lister responded, "let's just walk up and shake hands shall we? Offer it dinner? Maybe find out whether it prefers eating people brain-first or liver-first."
"Alright, bazookoids it is then," Rimmer agreed.
Lister began on his way, pushing past the feline and the hologram as he went to leave the bedroom. Suddenly another catperson emerged from the doorway, brandishing a long staff with a bread knife duct-taped to the end. Unlike the other cats Lister had met, whose hair was slick and smoothed, this one had wild and frizzy hair. She wore a deep green scarf around her neck that obscured her mouth. Lister stepped back, hands in the air as he realised the knife was pointed to his neck,
"Woah, hold on a minute," he begged.
"Cloister?" she asked.
"Yeah? That's me."
The woman dropped to one knee, the spear held upright, "My Lord. Your faithful remain true."
Lister smirked dumbly. "I see that," he improvised, "rise, my feline friend. What is your name?" Aside from his friend Cat, Lister had met one other cat, a priest of the Cloister faith, before now. He was well aware of their beliefs, practices, and wars.
"Nyapeta Rosemeowry."
"Alright Nepeta Rosemary," Lister dropped the godly act almost immediately, "I thought all the cats had left on those ark-things, how come there are still some of you here?"
"Probably the lame and the elderly," said Rimmer, "the ones with too little to contribute to be worth taking. Like Cat."
"Hey!" Cat called, "I'll have you know I stayed behind because there wasn't room on those ship for my extensive wardrobe!"
"The truly faithful remained, waiting for you my Lord."
"Nice. My very own kingdom!"
"But heresy has seeded itself in our church. Only a few remain open to your truth. Please, if you come with me we might still be able to convince the others."
Cat swaggered his way across the room to the faithful zealot.
"Listen baby girl, this man right here? He's just a monkey. If you want something to worship you shou--" Nepeta slapped him before he could finish.
"Do not mistake your familiarity with Cloister as superiority over me."
"His name is Lister, actually." Rimmer corrected her.
"Lister? Is that true, my Lord?"
"Yeah, a little bit," Lister confirmed, "Cloister's close enough though, I guess."
"Then it is an honour to be the first to speak your true name." She bowed respectfully "Will you aid me in restoring your faith?"
The Omnitrix had timed out only a few minutes into their journey. The human Ben Tennyson now followed the elder as they neared the end of the maintenance hatch. He had already gone through the exhausting explanation of what he was and what he did- the man did not seem concerned. He spoke eagerly of the evolution of their faith;
"Alcohol and cigarettes and other artificial vices of times long since passed. The man we thought holy was nought but a belligerent slob," the robed man explained, Ben pretended to follow along, "but now that the true Cloister has shown himself, our faith is bolstered."
"So this Cloister is a real person then?"
"Suspended beyond time from the birth of our species until recently, as real as you and I."
"Then who could replace him?" Ben asked idly as the Omnitrix scanned the man for his feline DNA.
"A man of obvious wonder, you will find him agreeable. He shall guide us well."
Ben felt, distinctly, like he was wasting his time here. This universe was 'red' on the Chrono Navigator. The Flesh had to be here, somewhere. But his worries were amplified by the sounds of pained groaning ahead. He couldn't see past the man. He thought better than to ask now, and waited until they had left the shaft. The moans only grew louder as they approached. The man abruptly dropped out of sight. Carefully Ben reached where he had been, and realised that there was a 100 foot drop straight down into a huge open space. He scrolled through the aliens in his watch; Chromastone would break his fall into a slow hover. He leapt and slammed the dial.
Ben's skin turned to yellow metal as his body swelled to three times its size. He landed with a knee-buckling slam, unharmed save for the crater in the floor beneath him. Armodrillo, the hulking biomechanical alien, observed the damage around him before looking up at the wooden stakes lining the area.
He was in an intersection of gargantuan collections of cargo containers stretching in all directions as far as the eye could see, with the priest stood beside the new hole Ben had made. Ben's attention was fully captured by the regularly-spaced crucifixes decorating the area, each holding the bloodied, writhing bodies of other felines. Each draped in green rags, they clung to the wood and howled in agony.
"What the hell is this?" Ben demanded to know, turning with fury to the priest.
"This is justice. These are the heretics. The liars and the deceivers. This is-" the insane justification was cut short as Ben lifted the man aloft in one hand. The pneumatic pistons in his arms expanded before a rapid compression launched the man into a distant metal container. Ben immediately turned towards the crucified cats- who luckily were held aloft primarily by rope rather than nails- and began helping them down. This flash of anger had consumed him rapidly, faster even than he could catch himself, but he didn't worry. He moved on to the second cat, knowing he had done the right thing.
He heard a distant, wet, sound of movement. He brought the second cat to the ground;
"Can you walk?" He asked quietly. The cat nodded. "Help the others." Ben moved towards the noise. The crumpled body of the priest lay beside the container wall. Armodrillo watched as it returned to its feet. His black robes fell away and his mask now glistened in the light provided by the artificial suns overheard- it was the contorted visage of a mourning housecat. He pulled away the mask, taking his face with it. The man appeared flayed, skinless, and stared at Ben with lidless eyes.
"This 'Cloister'," Armodrillo asked sceptically, "wouldn't happen to be another word for 'Flesh', would it?"
"This form is a gift of Cloister." The man's body began to swell. He grew in size to match Armodrillo.
"Of course it is." Ben's hands changed from metal digits into single large pointed drills as he charged up to the monstrosity before him. He planted one of the drills into the creature's chest, digging deep but finding little resistance. The priest slammed him over the head and beat him away.
"You gave up your religion to a lie! Whatever this new Cloister told you is false! The Flesh only consumes!" Armodrillo shouted, dragging the creature's head to the floor.
"The heretics said the same! Your fate will be as theirs!" But Ben grabbed his face and, like a jackhammer, slammed the man's head into the ground over and over and over. Suddenly the head vanished, the Flesh creature stood upright on its arms and grabbed onto Armodrillo with its legs, the head reforming where its backside had been.
"Is that a metaph-" Ben was cut off as he was forced to the ground, beaten upon like a gorilla dispatching of a trespasser.
Ben picked himself back up, forcing the creature back before it grappled him.
"BLOODY HELL!" Someone shouted behind him with a distinct British accent, the kind that never made it into American movies, "Shoot it!" The same voice announced. Immediately Ben dragged the creature around so its back was towards the source of the voices- and just as soon as he did the creature exploded as two high-energy pellets collided with it. It roared in pain.
With just a moment of respite Ben could see a small group of humans had arrived, accompanied by one of the green-wearing cats.
But the moment was short-lived as the Flesh monster leapt away, scarpering away like a wounded animal. Armodrillo pursued. It threw itself into a small chamber and Armodrillo followed, slamming it into the far wall. The wireframe door closed behind them and it began to move, horizontally at first- it was some form of elevator. The creature kicked Ben away before setting into him with enormous teeth- not nearly strong enough to penetrate his metal exoskin. With a flurry of punches Ben beat the creature back, before grabbing its head in one hand and holding it against the metal wire walls. The Flesh, unconsciously, melted through and now scraped against the moving wall behind. Ben brought his other arm about- his hand transformed into a wide plate. He slammed it against the monster before engaging his hydraulics and jackhammering the creature into the grinding wall. It clawed at him, trying to gain purchase inside the metal of Ben's face. Its efforts died as the elevator continued on its journey, and Ben pulled his bloodied hands away from the awful mess.
What had he done? He had taken a life, with very little provocation, on the basis of association and a conviction of the people he was hurting- but not killing. What was worse was that this was the second time he had done so. By nothing shy of a miracle he had undone the last kill, but this one was stuck. He was Flesh, and Ben had to be satisfied in the conviction that that made him compliant in all the Flesh had done.
The elevator opened into another endless, identical grey passageway. Ben, human again, began walking. He would have to find his way back to the people he had just seen earlier- and make sure none of them could be hurt by the Flesh.
A piercing blue energy beam shone through the shadows, catching the piping just behind Ben's shoulder. He ducked and went for ground.
"Y'know he was one of my favourites." A confident and distinctly American voice called from the source of the attack. There stood a man clad entirely in metallic red armour, with a glistening blue core in his chest. His face was covered by a flat, mostly featureless golden mask. "But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't impressed."
A Few Minutes Prior[]
Dave Lister, the last human alive,
Arnold Rimmer, the reanimated hologram of Lister's deceased petty superior,
And two creatures evolved from the ship's cat- only one with any sense of urgency-
all marched as one unit down to the several-miles long cargo bay of the Red Dwarf. They came to a sealed doorway.
"Just be aware, the cargo bay is beyond my Supervision Field," the ship's supercomputer warned as the doorway slowly hissed open, "so try not to get yourselves killed. I can't bear another three million years on me own."
Dave Lister led the group into the feeding hall; a large hub area with branches leading off to the far-flung corners of the ship and littered with various heavy industrial vehicles for moving cargo. Doors twenty metres high and twice as wide began to pull apart; flanked by rolling alarms. Before the group could pass through, the green-wearing cats that Ben had rescued flooded through.
"Siblings!" Nepeta announced. The cats warily looked over their shoulders as they escaped the cargo hold- but froze in shock as they saw their god before them.
"Where were you lot off to in a hurry?" Lister asked.
"Permission to speak, m'lord?"
"You don't need permission, just tell me."
"We were liberated from the claws of the heretic," one answered.
"He tried to crucify us," another spoke, "but we were saved."
"Crucified?!" Rimmer exclaimed.
"The heretic accepted the false gifts, m'lord."
"You what?!"
"They are injured, my Lord Lister," Nepeta interrupted, "they need care."
"You're right," Lister agreed, "Rimmer get them to the medical bay."
"Hang on, why is that my job?"
"Oh I'm sorry, here, take a Bazookoid instead, I’ll do it." Lister placed one of the large tube-like weapons into Rimmer's arms, and it fell straight to the floor. As a hologram Rimmer was a construct of light. An image, nothing more.
"This is discrimination, you know. Deadist. That's what you are. Just because I can't hold a weapon, doesn't mean I'm useless."
"Your choice is going with them to the med bay, or with me to face the alien."
"It could be friendly!"
"And if it's friendly we can always bring it up to see you afterwards."
"Yeah, really we're just saving you the trouble of running away like a coward later," added Cat.
"Alright, fine," Rimmer relented bitterly, "Any cats with their fur ruffled, follow me." He led the way back and the host of cats followed him, including the bazookoid-wielding Cat. Lister grabbed his collar, holding him in place.
"Now we must confront the heretic, m'lord!" Nepeta announced, "And teach him the error of his ways!" She brandished her spear.
"Hang on," Lister went in front of her, maintaining his lead of the group, "no denominational smeg, alright? I just want this fighting to stop. These weapons are just for our protection, got it?".
He passed into the cargo hold at last, where before him he saw two immense creatures wrestling amongst the metal containers. One of glistening red meat held the other, a creature of yellow metal, in a binding headlock.
"BLOODY HELL!" Lister screamed, making the creatures aware of his presence, "Shoot it!" he commanded. As soon as he did the yellow creature swung about, shielding itself beneath its opponent. Lister and Cat brought their weapons to bear and each launched a blue energy pellet. These shots flew for some twenty feet before becoming heat-seeking, changing course and slamming into the Flesh monster with a roar.
The yellow creature paused as it studied Lister and the group, and Lister studied it in turn. Large, mechanical, and with a green and black hourglass symbol on its chest. The red monster took the window and fled and the yellow creature went with it; the pair vanishing into one of the omni-elevators in a far wall. Their fighting could still be heard as the elevator left, leaving behind a red smear as it did.
"I need to sit down," said Lister, bringing himself down to the floor, "What the hell was that?"
"I recognise that scent," Cat remarked to the befuddled Lister, "no doubt about it. That was the guy I met earlier."
"Which one?"
"The meat-thing," Nepeta Rosemary answered, "he took the gifts of the false Cloister. Things are worse than I thought."
Both Cat and Lister turned their heads slowly towards Rosemary, though she paid neither any attention. "No kidding?" Cat replied.
Ben did a double take; he recognised that iconic armour and the voice of famed actor Robert Downey Jr. There was no mistaking it;
"Iron Man?!" he blurted out.
"My legend precedes me." The golden mask slipped up, revealing a skinless face- little more than a skull held together by musculature.
"Jesus!" Ben screamed, jumping back.
Pink strands wrapped about the man's ruined face, rebuilding into something a little more human-like "Do you know how many universes I've been to where someone managed to take down a Monstrosity like that? Two. Mine and this one. Well done, kid."
"I'm on three. Get good."
"Snappy."
"You're not the real Tony Stark." Ben started proper, now that the adrenaline was wearing off, "You can't be. Tony Stark would never give himself to the Flesh."
It's difficult to believe now, from the present year of 2016, that Iron Man had ever been as obscure of a superhero as he was prior to the smash hit movie that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now with several blockbusters under his belt he was a household name and the face of a multimedia empire. He was THE Marvel superhero, having effortlessly dethroned Spider-Man from his darling spot held throughout the 2000s. Across his now six movies, Ben had watched this character grow from a selfish vaguely anti-establishment drunkard into someone worthy of the power he wielded, and someone with a strong sense of morality going beyond his own ego and power fantasy. Those movies had gone some way to defining what Ben thought of when he thought of what heroes would do- for better and for worse.
The metallic red armour, clearly distinct from the typical fashion of the Flesh, separated like a wrapper. It remained upright as Tony Stark stepped free of it. The abhorrent composure of Fleshkind stitched itself into the pristine image of a human male with slick black hair and a neat goatee, wearing a freshly pressed grey suit. It was like he had walked straight off of the silver screen. Ben noted that the Iron Man armour- probably the Mark 7 or whichever one appeared in The Avengers movie- remained upright without anyone inside of it. It reminded him of the Daleks he had seen just hours ago.
"Wouldn't he?" the almost-human Tony Stark asked, "Well I say he would. And I think I would win that argument, since I am he. What's wrong with the Flesh anyway? Every human on Earth kept alive and happy, and given experiences beyond anything normalcy could bestow. Paradise for all. An Earth that doesn't need the Avengers anymore. Shouldn't I have wanted that? Of course it makes me less special. No use for a billionaire genius when everyone else has access to your mind and no one has any need for money. But that's just a sacrifice I'm willing to make, since I'm so kind and benevolent and amazing."
"...Of course," he continued, "saving everyone becomes much easier when you know who's worth saving."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Well come on," Tony smirked dismissively, "an infinite multiverse. You can't save everyone. Now I know who I should save. It's efficient. Time saving. They're called anchors, heard of 'em?"
"They're the people who make the world turn, yeah I know what anchors are," Ben responded.
"Great, that'll save me some time. You know the phrase 'I think, therefore I am?' Well as it turns out, some people do not think. And, therefore, are not."
"What?"
"I know! Crazy, right? It turns out only anchors have souls, most other people exist only to fill out a universe. Knowing that, I can work on saving what's truly important. Why waste time saving a whole universe when I can save the dozen or so people who actually matter?" Ben was disgusted by this, but he was no philosopher. He had no idea how to argue with this proposal. How would you prove someone does or does not have a soul? Moreover, is it important? If you aren't supposed to be able to tell, then what's the difference between someone who is and isn't an anchor, aside from some unknowable, abstract, and ultimately irrelevant purpose?
"I'll let you mull that one over," the Armoured Avenger continued, "now I've got a question for you; you said three universes? Just who exactly are you?"
Ben thought on this one for a moment. He wouldn't just give his name, now was his chance to define himself. Kevin Levin had named himself Kev 11, a rhyming alias based on his ten original aliens plus his human form to a total of 11 bodies. Well, that's ten transformations and Ben started with that number, too. Ben 10 had a nice ring to it. "I'm Ben 10! I travel the multiverse, destroying the Flesh wherever I find it!"
"Interesting. You're the one that escaped then?"
"The one? There are others?"
"So many others. You're somehow both the one that drew the short stick, and the only one that got away. Normally it's just your watch that escapes. We got Bear Tennyson, but somehow not his watch. We got Forever Ben and we got his funny sword, but still no Omnitrix. And here you are with both." Tony grabbed the side of his head, rubbing it as though trying to dismiss a headache. "Just imagine what the Flesh could accomplish with access to such a device. Even the metal universes wouldn't be able to escape us then. At least we'd know how to use it, anyway."
"I have only had it for a few days."
"Maybe so, but you've been watching how it's used properly for a decade now. The fact you've left yourself exposed and timed out tells me you don't have master control yet," Ben looked back down to the watch, its face was still red, "and I've yet to see you use any of the Unlimited Forms Kevin prided himself on."
"I haven't figured out how to unlock them yet," Ben admitted.
"You haven't figured out how to hold the button down?" Stark mocked. Timed out, Ben couldn't test what he had just said but he doubted that the Flesh would give him such helpful advice. Up until now he'd only held down the activation button to force the scan function when the device needed to scan something new. It hadn't occurred to him to try it when the dial was green.
"No! I said- I said this universe was mine!" Tony Stark screamed suddenly, grasping for his own skull. Ben almost spoke but the Flesh Avatar held out a single finger- dismissing him. "Fine!! Fine! You can take over. Just- just have one of the Bodies collect my armour. It's worth more than this universe." Stark looked to Ben, his face and suit melting away, "Looks like you're popular, kid. I've got someone who wants to meet you." He collapsed into a bubbling, writhing lump of muscle. Whatever it was reforming into, Ben didn't want to wait around to find out. The Omnitrix chimed- its dial green once more. He considered, carefully, which alien he should try next. Upgrade or Buzzshock could escape through the ship's superstructure and try to regroup with the other Anchors. Gutrot could choke out the Flesh in the room with him. Or he could try an Unlimited alien. He held down the activation button. The dial jumped out of the device, further than it normally should, and a large handle protruded from the column. Iron Man was right- this was the Unlimited Function.
"You can never understand how much it pains me to see you wearing that watch," the Flesh spat. The voice sounded almost familiar, giving Ben a pause for thought. He knew, instantly, who it was. But it couldn't be. It couldn't possibly be.
He turned and ran.
Back Downstairs[]
"Holly!" Lister shouted, panting, "What the hell was that?"
"I've no idea what you're talking about," the omnipresent machine responded, "I told you; the cargo hold is beyond my supervision field." Lister, Cat, and Nepeta had made their way halfway back to the crew quarters before stopping for breath. Nepeta was not exhausted, rather quite restless that they were stopping again.
"That elevator shaft led to the upper levels- now that's well within your sight. What came out of it?"
"Oh yeah, that. Well I lost track of your cat-priest, that's for starters."
"Yeah," Lister stopped him, "he turned into this big skinless Hulk-looking thing. He looked like a Man United fan after Chelsea beats them 2-nil."
"That'll be the pile stinking up service elevator 57 then."
"Dead?" Nepeta clarified.
"Seems so. Looks like our shapeshifter killed him."
"Good," she asserted.
"And what about the shapeshifter?"
"Met someone else in the corridors before running off. I think he's looking for you."
"Direct it to the med ward, we'll meet it there."
"You want to meet that thing?" Cat questioned.
"That priest turned into a monster; whatever's going on here that shapeshifter knows better than we do. Besides it didn't attack you earlier, so I think it's on our side."
"You hope."
"Right," Holly announced, "I'll start sending 'im your way."
"That's the wrong way," Ben suddenly heard, stopping in his tracks. He knew the Flesh was someway behind him and, from the sounds of it, more than just the one monster he had abandoned.
"Hello?" He called out.
"Afternoon," Holly responded, "y'alright?"
"Sorry, who is this?"
"I'm the ship's computer, Holly." He answered flatly, with absolutely zero sense of urgency.
"Okay, so which way is the right way?" One of the doors just behind him hissed open, and Ben took it. "Alright computer-"
"My name's Holly."
"Sorry, Holly, how many people are on board this ship?"
"Not sure really."
"How can you not know?"
"Well my supervision field only covers the parts of the ship that are supposed to be inhabited. Up until yesterday the only people on board were Lister and the Cat, as well as me and the hologram of Arnold Rimmer."
"So you didn't know about that insane cultist in the vents?"
"Not until you did. Left here." Ben followed as instructed and turned left.
"Alright," Lister huffed, "I'm back."
Finally, the last human and the two felines made it to the med bay. There, at last, they could reconvene with Rimmer and the cats he had helped. Lister looked about the room as he regained his breath.
"Where's Rimmer?"
The other felines, some standing and some sat on the various plain flat beds of the medical ward, all looked to each other. Silent. Smiling.
"No, seriously, where is that walkin' pain in my ass?" asked Cat. He waited a moment before speaking again, "You guys can talk can't you?"
"They spoke earlier," Lister confirmed, carefully approaching one of the cats who stood slightly forward of the crowd. The feline watched him, a slight grin on its face and its pupils shaped like slits. But the grin was slightly too wide, and its eyes did not blink. Lister gripped his Bazookoid tightly.
Cat kept himself by the door, possessed of all of the bravery of a house cat seeing a vacuum cleaner come out, while Nepeta carefully followed Lister. Her spear raised in her almost human hands- she would protect her deity without question. Both of them sweating nervously- scared by basal instincts they needn't understand- causing their furless skin to glisten slightly.
The feline extended a furry hand.
As its claws parted they revealed a small shattered machine hidden in its palm.
This was what remained of a light bee- a small floating machine used to sustain holograms beyond the supervision field of the Red Dwarf and its supercomputer.
Lister looked up, horrified, to see the cat's jaw beginning to distend, still smiling, lined with teeth.
Lister and Rimmer were not friends. Lister had spent many nights resenting Rimmer's presence. Holly's choice of resurrecting Rimmer was based on wordcount alone, and Rimmer's penchant for serpentine self-preservation meant the remaining hologramatic discs had been hidden away somewhere Holly couldn't see and Lister couldn't reach.
But together they represented the only two human souls in existence.
They were not friends.
They were comrades and crewmates. Compatriots at the end of human history.
Without a second thought Lister raised his weapon and blasted the feline into a fine red mist.
Ben heard the commotion as he approached and, quick on the trigger, prepared his Omnitrix. He revved the newly appeared handle- ripping it around the central core and vanishing into white light.
He stopped for a moment and admired his new form. His body was made of blindingly hot molten rock, with the white Omnitrix dial sat on his chest. This was Unlimited Heatblast- a level beyond normal Omnitrix function, this transformation strengthened Heatblast by stripping away the cooled and frozen outer layers of his internal magmas.
He rounded the final corner and a bloodied mess splattered over his face. He responded with fire, burning for the mass of Flesh he found before him.
"Good timing!" the British voice from earlier called out.
"I can explain!" Ben pleaded as he cleared his eyes of the muck to see the human Dave Lister wielding a massive tube-shaped weapon.
"Don't bother," he seemed relieved to see Unlimited Heatblast.
"But I have to protect you m'Lord!" Nepeta whined as Lister refused to let her lunge for the Flesh bodies, pulling her behind himself.
"Not when I'm the one with the gun!" he fired another blast into what remained of the feline species, sending another one to oblivion. The swarming Flesh blocked the gap between Ben and the others.
"Get away, all of you!" Ben ordered through the crowd of bodies- no longer individuals, little more than primitive Flesh- before laying down a wave of fire over the messy hallway.
"Smeggin' hell!" Lister blurted as the heat hit him. The fire did its job, and the Flesh cowered from it. The bodies conceded and merged. Consolidating their strength and their biomass as they retreated from the attack.
"Get to the escape pods! Get out of here!" Heatblast continued to shout.
"What about you?" Lister responded.
"I'll be fine." Ben halted his blaze and watched the monster squirm away. His efforts had bought the Anchors their escape.
The abomination turned almost instantly around, slamming Unlimited Heatblast into the far wall of the corridor.
As he looked up, he saw what he had feared. A familiar face, matching the voice from earlier. He covered his head as a large arm of muscle attacked him again, picking him up and slamming him to the ground before tossing him away again. It was toying with him, almost, as it searched for a way past this alien's immense heat. But the attacks stopped there. Heatblast picked himself back up and faced the now single humanoid figure. This cannot be the entirety of what he had just fought, surely. But of greater concern were the eyes looking back at him- her eyes.
"You- YOU TOOK HER FACE!" he growled, the fires on his arms roaring with anger.
"And you stole four years of my life. The last four years of my life." She was calm. Direct. It was how Ester usually was. But it couldn't be her.
"Do you think this is funny? That this is a game? I won't speak with you while you continue to wear her face!"
"Then never speak again. That would suit me just fine. It'd be a relief, actually."
"I know you consumed my universe," Ben stated, hatred on his tongue, "my friends. My family! I know you took Ester. You used her body and turned it into Flesh. I don't doubt you took her memories and her face just as easily."
"The Flesh need not take what is willingly given."
"LIAR! Ester would never join you!"
"Like you know what I want?" she snapped back, "Like you ever cared what I want. But some things never change. You never change. That's why I dumped you."
"...Dumped?" Somehow that part had taken him most by surprise.
"I loved you because you made me feel special," she mockingly swooned before abruptly stopping, "Loved. Past tense. Because you made me feel small and insignificant. Like I was your partner of convenience. I was the one that settled for you. I was the one who tolerated being the second most important thing in your life after Kevin 11. Now our universe is gone and I still have to deal with you." She spoke with absolute venom- stinging Ben deeply. Enough of him had been convinced that this really was Ester, and those parts were cut badly by her words.
"We could've worked things out," he pleaded.
"Maybe. But I don't think you have the self-awareness or the compassion to ever have done so. You are, at your best, a deluded fanboy. And, at your worst, the man who would ruin my life for his own comfort."
"What have you done here?" Ben shouted, trying to ignore his shattered feelings.
"I gave them a choice; more than you ever gave me. I offered them freedom with the Flesh and they took it."
"You killed them!"
"I'm not the one that blasted into them with three inch calibre energy rounds, nor am I the one that dragged them across a moving wall until their nervous system was destroyed."
The Omnitrix made a new sound. Where normally when it ran out of power it would ring an alarm, now it screamed. The noise grew quieter over the course of only a second before red light returned Ben to his weak, defenceless human form. Horror consumed him.
"You're so easily distracted, Ben."
"What now?" he asked, nervously, fearing he already knew the answer.
"Now, my bodies will kill the last two Anchors in this universe, and it will be ours. I, on the other hand, will be killing you and saving us the trouble of ever having to deal with you again."
"Do you really hate me enough to fight me?"
"Do you?"
"I never hated you."
"Yeah, but you never loved me either."
Ester's hands turned to razor sharp claws, and she aimed them towards Ben. He'd spent long enough by her side to know what this meant- and he dodged just in time as her hands extended forwards like missiles. Her arms were slow and sluggish when extended out like this and Ben dodged again as she brought one of them down over him. It slammed into the floor, dislodging the metal grates that made it up.
Ben dashed though the doorway as she collected her limbs, and he slammed his fist into the sliding door's control pad. The door locked shut, the buttons damaged.
The Cat had already far outpaced Lister and Nepeta- coward that he is- and was already sat in the cockpit of a Starbug, ready to launch. It was a squat green ship, no more than thirty feet in length, and intended only for short scouting missions beyond the reach of the Red Dwarf. They were unsuitable for long-term habitation, lacking even the most basic of essentials. It had no food reserves, no toilets, and none of those little trolleys of snacks you'd see on a train or a plane. It hummed with life as Cat worked the controls.
"Start her up!" Lister called as he and Nepeta made it to the vessel.
"I am starting her up!" Lister jumped into the seat beside him. The Starbug favoured a crew of four, but two would have to do. Nepeta had never seen the interior of a Starbug before and remained in the doorway to the cockpit. The whole room shuddered as it lifted off of the docking bay floor.
"Alright, Holly," Lister began, "prepare the launch corridor."
Something splattered against the front of the ship.
"SMEG!" Lister screamed as the soulless eyes of a Flesh body peered at him through the windows of the Starbug. It had fallen from the ceiling overhead, through which it had travelled to try and get a drop on the crew before they made it this far. It began slamming against the windows in a futile effort to break in.
"Activating launch corridor," Holly announced as the Starbug suddenly jutted forwards. Like a rocket it launched through miles of metal tunnels- the Flesh creature now splattered against the windows by the force- before shooting out into open space. "Have a safe flight. Tea's on for six."
Cat sat in silent shock as Lister reached for the switch for the windscreen wipers.
Ben desperately searched through the med bay for something- anything- he could use to defend himself. Each bed- little more than an uncomfortable mattress atop a metal frame- had a bedside table. One had pills inside, another had empty sample tubes. After checking the second and finding nothing useful he resorted to flipping one of the beds and pushing it against the doorway. Even holding the Flesh for a moment would buy Ben another for himself.
The back of the room had two doors, each connected to one another via a loop around the back of the ward. Ben saw this space through its wide window- it was a store room. He slipped through one of the doors just as the table he had placed was sent flying through the air. He scrambled through the first cupboard he came across, no longer possessing the luxury of time enough to search for the no-doubt more lethal chemicals stored somewhere deeper into the area. All he found were rolls of bandage and gauze and a few bottles of clear liquid. There were no scalpels or tools of any sort, not even scissors to cut the bandage with. He picked up a bottle of liquid, presuming it heavy enough to throw.
Ester- or at least the Flesh that used her name- strode through the medical ward. She appeared, calmly, at the doorway that Ben had hidden beyond. Her form had almost returned to something normal-looking, the extremes of her body restored to typical Kraaho proportions and her face almost identical to what Ben had once known were it not for the exposed muscle.
"Be honest," Ben was frozen, crouched by the cupboard, as she spoke, "do you regret how you treated me yet?"
"Think fast!" Ben lobbed the bottle at her face- but she caught it easily. She moved it out of her way, pulling it close to herself casually, smiling at Ben's misfortune. She had been athletically inclined when she first came to Earth, but had long since put that behind her during her time with her now ex-boyfriend. She was rusty. Her fast reactions and reflexes were a gift restored to her by the Flesh.
As was her strength.
She crushed the bottle in her bone-clawed hands- spraying the fluid within all over herself.
She screamed fiercely- howls of abject, inhuman, suffering.
Surprised, Ben looked back at the cupboard but by now the both of them had realised what that liquid was- alcohol, for sterilising wounds. Ben slipped past her as she writhed there, struggling to hold any sort of form, blinded and agonised.
"I HATE YOU!!" she screamed.
"Ester's dead," he spat as he carefully backed out of the med bay, "stay that way!"
Outside in Starbug One[]
"Not to alarm you, bud, but something's following us." Cat leaned over to Lister
"You what?" he exclaimed as he checked the Starbug's instruments. Sure enough, a few kilometres behind them, a green speck was tailing them. Lister pushed a series of buttons, "This is Starbug One to Starbug whichever one you are, please respond. This is Starbug One to whoever you are, please identify."
"The false prophets are upon us, M'lord."
"I'd say that shapeshifter stands a better chance of being able to fly a Starbug than whatever those cats became," Lister reasoned, "and I really hope I'm right about that."
"I told her I'd be able to handle this myself," came a confident- if annoyed- voice mumbled by static, "but who am I to argue with young love?"
Lister flipped a few switches, pulling back on the Starbug's control column to slow his vessel to be within range of whoever they were talking with. "This is Starbug One, please identify." He began to smile. The voice was unmistakably human- it must be the shapeshifter.
And he was right, in a sense. As the picture cleared he did begin to see the human form of a shapeshifter. Slick black hair with a white stripe, a strong jawline accented with a trimmed goatee.
Ben flew through the seemingly endless metal tunnels of the Red Dwarf as fast as his legs could carry him. Holly had already explained the situation, and he was headed for the docking bays in an attempt to cut off the Flesh from pursuing the others. When he arrived he found himself too late. A second Starbug launched, having cut itself off from Holly's overriding control. Ben pulled up the Omnitrix, now green and ready to activate. He hovered over Jetray's hologram- and paused.
Jetray was fast and more than capable of outpacing the Starbugs even through open space. However he had no means of attacking them from the outside, and no means of getting inside. Then he considered Upgrade- if he took another Starbug he could give it weapons, or he could merge from one into another, or he could-
"Holly," he called out, "which way to the command deck?"
"Oh, you mean the Drive Room? Well..."
"Welcome back!" Lister congratulated him.
"You were expecting me?"
"Well yeah, of course, big fiery thing like you? Those cats didn't stand a chance. Even if they did look more like the Thing than a cat."
"Oh you mean those bodies of Flesh? No, they escaped. In fact they're in here with me now."
"You what?" A number of faceless figures appeared behind the man, emerging from the rear of his Starbug and just barely visible to the camera. Lister began accelerating, preparing to terminate the conversation, "Listen man I think we've got the wrong number here."
"No, we need to have a talk, you and I," Tony Stark growled, "I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding."
"Nah killing Rimmer like that does tend to send a pretty clear message."
"Why are we still talkin'?" asked Cat, "We gotta get outta here!"
"I'm tryin'," Lister whispered back, "I can't sever the call!"
"You could see her again, you know?" Stark stated.
"Oh yeah? Who?"
"Kochanski."
"Shut up..." Lister dismissed, caught in absolute disbelief.
"No it's true. In another version of events, she survived the disaster in the same way you did in this timeline." Stark turned to look over his shoulder towards the featureless Flesh soldiers behind him, "Come over here, sweetie."
"Hello, Lister," a picturesque brown-haired woman emerged from the mass, leaving Lister too stunned to speak, "It worked out in our universe, you know? When I awoke from stasis, Holly gave me your hologram. We lived together for years. We got along well. But I could never touch him, or hug him, or hold him. I certainly couldn't kiss him. Imagine, Davey. We could pick up right where we left off in my universe."
Cat glanced between Lister and the screen. "You can't seriously be considering this? I probably love women more than you do, but she looks like a smashed lasagne!"
"Ten minutes ago this would've been a slam-dunk. I'd have done anything you asked for a chance of being with her. But you aren't my Kochanski. And you definitely didn't need to kill Rimmer!" Lister swung hard on the control column, banking the starship sharply. The second Starbug roared past, barely avoiding a collision, as Lister headed towards the Red Dwarf. They'd left the Dwarf behind, and in theory it should be several kilometres away. Instead it was facing directly towards them and rapidly approaching. With quick thinking Lister ducked the Starbug through the net-like structure of the Red Dwarf's forward ramscoop.
"Holly!" Lister shouted, "What in the smeg are you doing?!"
"This is the JMC Green Dwarf broadcasting on all frequencies." Ben's voice sounded through the Starbug, drowning out their communication with the other ship and eventually overtaking it altogether. Upgrade's wireframe face appeared upon the console screen. "What does 'JMC' stand for, by the way?"
"Jupiter Mining Corporation," Holly's voice came through from Ben's end of the transmission.
"Oh so that's what these buttons are for."
The Dwarf approached the second Starbug, which suddenly found itself immobilised in space.
"Kid, what are you doing?" Asked Stark, panic in his voice. Stark knew everything Kochanski knew through the Flesh- and Kochanski knew what Ben was planning.
"Sorry, Iron Man," he taunted, "But Unlimited Upgrade is revoking your right to fly."
"I see the talk with Ester didn't go too well." The whole shuttle shuddered as the Red Dwarf's tractor beam grabbed hold of it, "Look maybe she wasn't the best person to talk to. I'm still willing to extend a peaceful hand, Ben. Do you think I'd have told you how to use those Unlimiteds if I meant you harm?" Beams of light dragged the Starbug into the immense maw of the mining ship.
"Well you sure meant harm to the hologram," Ben responded, "turns out you can learn a lot when you're more software than hardware. Breaking the light bee crashed the projector and corrupted the save data. Easily fixed, but he'll be missing a day or- oh, hang on, gotta go."
The transmission cut out. Lister, Cat, and Nepeta looked out from the forward windows of their shuttle and watched as the other Starbug was blasted into pieces by the Red Dwarf's rendering saws- huge beams of lasers that extended between the railings of the ramscoop in order to trim raw materials for processing. The Starbug had no defences against these powerful industrial tools and exploded violently as the beams cut through its fuel lines.
In The Drive Room[]
"We are NOT done here." Ester shambled into the Drive Room, bare skull exposed. Her musculature was hidden beneath bleached white bones. They were not human in shape, and Kraaho had cartilage rather than bone. These were something else. While Ben knew a lot of different species off the top of his head, none stood out as having skeletons that looked like this- he assumed they were some purpose-crafted creation of the Flesh.
"Why?" asked Ben as he emerged from the computer systems, rebuilding himself as a figure of translucent green light. Although no longer corporeal, in shape he was identical to the form of Upgrade. "Because you didn't get what you wanted? Isn't that why you left me in the first place?" He tried to hide the pain behind his snark.
"I'm not asking this time." Her stomach began to swell and distend- engorged with fluid.
"Gross," Ben recoiled. He melted into the floor, disappearing through Holly's neural network that surrounded the area, just as Ester heaved the gunk from her stomach all over where he had been stood. The foul liquid- yellow and murky- hissed and spat.
"BEN!" she screamed in frustration.
"Don't blame me for what happens next," he said as he ambled into the room behind Ester, having possessed the Iron Man armour abandoned where he first met Stark earlier, "But this is kinda your fault." Unlimited Upgrade's influence over software was incredible- he had simultaneously controlled the Red Dwarf, the Starbug, and the Iron Man armour and had walked it over to the drive room just in case.
Ester growled with savage, primitive hatred.
"It really is amazing what I can do with these new forms." Blue lightning crackled through the armour, "This is the only time I'm gonna thank the Flesh."
An overwhelming blue energy blast fired out from the ARC Reactor in the armours chest. It incinerated Ester's upper half and cut a hole through the back of the wall- something he had no doubt Holly would not appreciate. The still-standing legs collapsed, falling backwards into the pool of bile. They began to melt both as a result of contact with the acidic fluid, and a lack of Fleshmind to keep them in form. Unlimited Upgrade jumped out of the metal suit and stood by the drive room's main computers. The Omnitrix screamed once more as Ben ran out of time.
He looked out across the emptiness of space. Such was the size of the Red Dwarf that barely two of the ramscoops' prongs could be seen from his vantage point, the rest obscured behind miles of red-painted metal. A small green dot zoomed through the distance. Ben was touched almost by a sense of pride before he looked down at what remained of the creature that claimed to have been Ester. What little joy he had felt in his accomplishment died as he thought of her vitriol.
"Well that's that then," Holly cut in, "nothing from that other Starbug survived, I've resurrected Rimmer again with the others, and so far as I can tell you're the only living thing on board right now. Not that I have a great record of being right about that sort of thing."
Ben did not respond. He pulled out the Chrono Navigator.
"I never got your name?" Holly asked. He received no answer.
Ben Tennyson and Dave Lister were two men of very similar standing; grimly unsuccessful men with impossible dreams of grandeur before circumstances beyond their control made them the last living humans of their universe. Neither of them yet realised this, but they would finally find someone to relate to in each other. More importantly, Lister was an emotionally mature, outgoing, and friendly person. Ben was none of these, and would benefit greatly from a present figure to look up to. Now had the potential to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
A potential that would go forever unrealised.
He stood upon the grey and barren surface of the moon. Faint lines on the Navigator's face connected the universes Ben travelled between, almost like a history function. He had found only chaos alongside the Doctor so he opted instead to return to the universe of the ponies, where the only chaos was that which he brought with him. He had done all he felt that he needed to on the Red Dwarf. He could- even, should- have stayed behind to actually meet the people he had saved. But something gnawed at the back of his mind and he needed some space to figure it out.
So he chose to return to his banishment on the moon, where he would be able to set his mind straight. Instead all he could do was think about his failures. Ester represented the last surviving aspect of his home, and all she had for him was disdain. Before that, Captain Rosemary. Her death had been pointless and preventable, had Ben only stayed beside her instead of trying to reason with the unreasonable.
He looked about at the craters of this moon, with the continent of Equestria hanging overhead, a stark reminder of his shortcomings and the pain he had caused.
One Week Earlier[]
He looked about at the figures he had collected, as the door downstairs slammed, he was reminded of the latest addition to his collection. His bedroom was lined with the entirety of Kev 11's arsenal of aliens, save for one. In the drawer under his desk was a still-sealed action figure of Invizard. It was a rare toy, of a rarely-seen alien, but Ben couldn't bear to display it.
It only reminded him of his shortcomings and the pain he had caused.
| Ben 10: Beyond Bellwood | |||||
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Characters[]
- Ester (via flashback)
- Ben Tennyson
- Sandra Tennyson (off-screen cameo, via flashback)
- Holly
- Cat
- The Skutters
- Arnold Rimmer
- Dave Lister
- Frankenstein (cameo, via flashback)
- Kristine Kochanski (cameo, via flashback)
- Nepeta Rosemary
Villains[]
- The Flesh
- Puppets of the Flesh
- Robed Zealot
- Felis Sapiens
- Other Universe Kristine Kochanski
- Avatars of the Flesh
- Flesh Avatar Tony Stark
- Flesh Avatar Ester
- Bodies of the Flesh
- Puppets of the Flesh
Aliens used[]
- Buzzshock (off-screen cameo)
- ChamAlien (debut)
- Armodrillo (intended alien was Chromastone)
- Unlimited Heatblast (debut)
- Unlimited Upgrade (debut)
Aliens Acquired[]
- Unknown (Felis Sapien DNA sample)
Universes[]
The Red Dwarf Universe[]
A lonely and lifeless universe, three million years ahead of most others. There exists no alien life whatsoever- only the cast aside remnants of human expansion. The human race itself is functionally extinct, living on now only through their legacy and the surviving David Lister. Lister survives only thanks to extremely fortunate circumstances- having been held in stasis awaiting trial when a nuclear accident occurred aboard the starship Red Dwarf. His cat Frankenstein- whose presence aboard Red Dwarf was the cause of Lister's imprisonment- also survived, hiding in the cargo holds. However Holly had the ship drift deep into interstellar space after the incident, rather than risk exposing Earth to the radiation. Now the ship drifts at the very edge of mankind's expansion efforts, impossibly far from a lifeless Earth.
Trivia[]
- This episode takes place in between Red Dwarf II and Red Dwarf III (seasons 2 and 3, respectively), being placed some time after the crew met their alternate female selves in 'Parallel Universe' but before they recovered the android Kryten and had him join the team.
- Cat, and the rest of the Felis Sapiens, is described as having cat ears and tails. In the series, they have neither. Their only physical cat-like trait is their sharp canine teeth.
- Dave Lister is described as taking and distributing selfies of himself with his cat Frankenstein in the past. This is a misleading way of wording the event, as in the TV series he had sent these photos to the ship's lab to be processed when they were discovered.
- The Tony Stark that appears as a Flesh Avatar originates from Marvel Earth-199898. This universe is distinct from any Earth-199898 that may appear on this wiki as part of the Ben 10 multiverse.
- Despite being a mining ship in canon, the Red Dwarf has never ever been used as such on-screen. The description of the workings of the ramscoop is completely made up for the purpose of this episode.
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