Reconciliation

Chapter 26

Turning the Tide

With their new reinforcements Ben and Pierce’s teams and the Plumbers gradually began to turn the tide against their attackers. But, they still had to face the worst of their adversaries, the big squid himself, Vilgax.  

They knew he was somewhere ahead they were encountering stiffer resistance from his drone troopers, fortunately the tight confines of the space station were too tight for him to be able to bring any of his giant assassin droids in here.

Finally, they encountered him and he wasn’t alone, flanking him were some of the worst of Ben’s enemies. Sunder, Zs’Skayr, Dr. Viktor, Khyber and Aggregor.

The young heroes braced themselves for their next challenge.

They didn’t need to wait very long, “Where are Tennyson’s offspring, I want them now,” Vilgax was acting true to form, and looking at his own interests ahead of anyone’s even his supposed allies.

“Albedo, did you hear that, the way squid-face was talkin.’” Kevin whispered.

“Indeed, I did we may be able to use that against our opponents.”

“Just what I was thinkin’” Kevin agreed with a wink.

“I’m sure your pals might have somethin’ ta say about you getting your hands on the kids all for yourself, calamari-for-brains!” Kevin taunted.

“Did Vilgax mention that he once allied himself with me to defeat Ben. Of course, he ultimately betrayed me, as he will betray you!”

Albedo and Kevin’s ploy was working, these villains had to much ego and too little willingness to compromise for them to be able to cooperate for long.

“I know what you are trying to do Levin you are attempting to turn us against each other,” Vilgax accused him.

“It looks like it’s workin’ Squid-face,” Kevin taunted him.

The hostile aliens quickly turned their attention from attacking Ben’s allies and the Plumbers to each other.

They abruptly found themselves corralled by a wall of fire courtesy of Alan Albright, another young Plumber trainee who was half human half Pyronite*, he pushed them backwards towards a portable projector devised by Max and Cooper.

When activated, it pulled Vilgax, and the others interdimensionally to the Null Void.

With their leaders gone, the remaining attackers quickly surrendered, and the worst attack in the history of the Plumbers was over.

Albedo took a moment to catch his breath, and then rushed down to the infirmary with Kevin, Gwen and Max hot on his heels.

Ben was sitting up in his hospital bed with a portable monitor so he could follow the progress of the fighting. He had an alien medical device attached to his left side feeding anti-biotics and painkillers into his wound.

“How’d we do, Grandpa,” he asked Max.

“We did O.K. Ben, not great just O.K., we lost a lot of good people, including Manny.

Ben felt a lump form in his throat and he swallowed heavily, Albedo grasped his hand; Gwen began to cry and Kevin wrapped his arms around her. Max leaned against a wall trying valiantly not to cry and failing.

Manny’s team-mates, Helen and her brother Pierce; Alan and Cooper embraced and wept.

Yes, it had been a victory, Ben, Albedo and their children were safe, but it had been a costly one.

* Heat-Blast’s species