[A/N Sorry for the long ass wait. I ended up having writers block and I would often write something down only to stop halfway. Plus, it's hard to write on a phone. Thank you for your patience and enjoy the chapter]
Ben POV
Gwen is practically pulling grandpa Max and me into a school we stopped at. We've been on the road for a while and I already forgot which state we are in.
"Okay, what's so special about this school?" I asked in a grumbling tone.
Don't blame me, I'm having a hard time focusing and rough nights where I can't sleep. I still can't remember why.
"What's so 'special'? It's Bancroft Academy. One of the most prestigious schools in the country," Gwen said, sounding rather indignant.
"Yeah, I must have missed the infomercial," I quipped as my eyes wandered the campus.
"Come on, Ben. Let's be at least a little excited for Gwen," grandpa said, trying to get me to focus.
"Grandpa, she's had every chance to pick where we can go. The only exciting times were when Hex and Charmcaster appeared. I want a turn to pick our next stop," I complained as we walked together.
As we walked I saw two girls arguing. One had dark skin and the other had pale white, like a ghost.
…
"I have a bad feeling about today," I grumbled when the word ghost passed my mind.
"Hello, welcome to Bancroft Academy," said the dark skinned girl. She seemed to have an African accent.
"Oh, I like your accent," I commented genuinely, only to get an elbow to my side courtesy of Gwen.
"Thank you. I like yours too," said the African(?) girl as she shook all of our hands.
"I don't have a…" I said only to think about how I've been told by my dad how I sound a lot like my mom, and how she has a slight Mexican accent.
"Well now. I haven't seen you in a while. How have you been, Shuri?" asked grandpa Max as he took Shuri into a hug.
"Pause," I said as I took a step back and took a good look at the girl before looking around for the bald woman who was her guard.
"Gwen, Ben. This is Shuri. Daughter of king T'Chaka and princess of Wakanda," grandpa informed us as he presented us to the little princes.
"Wait, a real princess? Should I bow, kneel, or kiss your feet?" I asked half jokingly. "I seriously have no idea what to do in front of royalty."
Grandpa Max and Shuri laughed at my words while Gwen held her head in annoyance.
"Ahem!" the pale girl said, clearly annoyed at the fact she was being ignored. "Hello, you must be the Tennyson family. I'm Tiffany, the student council vice president, and I'll be your guide through the school. And you clearly know Shuri."
I ignored the clearly snobby girl in favor of the princess of a foreign country. "So, what brings the princess of a far away country to a snobby school like this anyway?" I asked as I tried to locate her bodyguard.
"What else? For a perfect education. But you might be right. I think I chose the wrong one," she said as she looked at Tiffany.
"If you would please follow me. We wouldn't want the small minded getting lost," Tiffany said with a clear disdain for us while glaring at me and Shuri specifically.
"Eish," Shuri said in clear exasperation, causing grandpa Max to laugh.
While Tiffany gave us a tour, I ignored her and started a conversation with Shuri.
"Hey, don't princesses usually have a body guard with them?"
"Who says I don't have one?" Shuri said as she walked beside me. She then looked at grandpa with a meaningful look.
"The Wakandan royal family have personal guards called the 'Dora Milaje'. They are a group of powerful warrior women," grandpa informed me while ignoring Shuri's look.
"Yes, we are," said a woman right behind me. The shock caused me to jump in fright and nearly scream.
"Oh, jeez," I said as I leaned against grandpa Max while clutching my chest. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"
Shuri and grandpa laughed at me while the woman just gave me an appraising look.
She was tall and bald, but instead of wearing either traditional clothes or a suit, she wore a nice dress that hugged her figure nicely but allowed free movement.
"Aneka, be nice," Shuri said, but not really feeling sorry for me.
"Forgive me, princess. It is good to see you again, Max," she said, giving grandpa a different kind of look.
"Grandpa got around- Ow!" I tried to joke only to get whacked on the back of the head by grandpa.
"How have you been Aneka?" grandpa asked, ignoring my current state.
I watched them talk for a bit until I noticed three people I know shouldn't be here.
"I'm going to get some water," I said as I casually walked away.
Frightwig POV
Me and my brothers are entering a rich kids' school, looking for something to steal.
"See what I mean? We hit the jackpot," Acid Breath said, corrosive vapors escaped his mouth with each breath he let out.
We stared at the trophy display. Protective glass guarded the little bit of gold this school has. We smiled only to hear a side door open.
"Hey! This area is off limits without an escort!" A guard said as he reached for a baton causing us to smirk.
I caught the guard in my hair while Tumbskull broke the display letting Acid Breath grab the trophies with real gold.
"How 'bout we have some fun?" I asked as I carried the security guard into the gym.
My brothers followed me and we laughed as I tied the man up in the rafters with the school banners.
"Looks like you guys haven't learned your lesson," I heard, causing us to turn to the door and see the kid that killed Zombozo.
"It's the kid!" Thumbskull said as he went to grab a section of the bleachers.
Flash
Suddenly, the kid hit his watch and turned into a ghost.
"No! Not this guy! Stupid watch!" the kid complained as he looked at his body.
"Neet trick," Acid Breath said as Thumbskull ripped a section of the bleachers and threw it at the ghost.
As the bleachers slammed onto the ghost, Acid Breath spat out a large amount of acid on top of both the bleachers and the ghost.
We smirked thinking we won with ease only for the ghost to float out of the floor.
"Now, it's my turn."
And with those words, he attacked us.
Thumbskull charged first but the ghost just went through his strikes and inserted his hand into his head. I wasn't sure what he was doing, but whatever it was caused Thumbskull to collapse.
Acid Breath tried to attack next, but the kid went into the floor then pushed the mat Acid Breath was on. He then launched the mat and Acid Breath into the wall like a rag doll.
I tried to attack next. I first whipped my hair at the specter and did a couple of flips to get close. However, when I tried to wrap my hair around him, he extended his arm in the way to catch my hair and pulled me in for a hard punch. As I tried to stand, he went into the ground and pulled my head into the floor causing a loud slam to sound off before I passed out.
~~Line Break~~
Shuri POV
I was expecting many things when I came to Bancroft Academy. Like meeting someone who can challenge me intellectually, the rebellious nature of Americans, or maybe I'd just graduate early to annoy the other students. I was not expecting to see a specter fighting a group of circus performers.
Maxwell is brave, so I knew he wouldn't be afraid of that thing. But his granddaughter not being afraid surprised me.
"What is that?!" I cried as Aneka got between me and the specter while drawing the daggers of vibranium I made for her.
"Ben, stop!" Gwen said as she went up to the thing.
"Ben?"
"Benjamin is not here!" the specter said as it got into Gwen's face.
Aneka quickly charged and got between them as she tried to slash the ghost. He floated back to avoid her then disappeared into thin air.
"Maxwell, what is going on?!" I demanded of the man I thought had all of the answers.
"It's a long story, Your Highness," Max admitted in a sigh.
~~Line Break~~
Third person POV
Ghostfreak floated out of the gym and went off until the Omnitrix started to beep and flash red.
"NO! I'M NOT GOING BACK!" it rasped as the Omnitrix warned the end of the transformation.
Ben POV
I finally turned back to human. My head pounded like a drum as I tried to stand up.
"Thank the One Above All that's over," I grumbled as I stood.
"Aw. And here I thought we were close," I heard the rasping sound of Ghostfreak say as I looked up.
"This isn't happening," I muttered as I took a step back. "I knew you were wrong, but this can't be happening."
"Oh, but it is happening. I'm no longer trapped in that cursed device, nor under your control. I am finally free," he proclaimed as he stretched his body unnaturally. "What's the matter Tennyson? Don't like what was inside you the whole time?" He asked with sickening glee.
"Shut up! Who are you?! You're definitely not me!"
"Of course not! I was never you! An Ectonurite's consciousness exists even in a few strands of DNA! When the sample was taken for the Omnitrix, I was trapped inside! But now, I can reveal my true self!"
"And I thought you were ugly before," I grumbled as I got a front row seat to him ripping his skin off to reveal an upside-down, skull-like head with one eye, while his skin was a rotting kind of purple with black veins. The facet joints on his back are large and curved, he has sharp claw-like nails, and striped tentacles coming out of his chest. "Okay Ghostfreak, who the hell are you, and what do you want?!" I yelled, demanding to know who this alien was.
"Watch your language child. You are in the presence of the great echto-lord Zs'Skayr," he proclaimed as he spread his grotesque limbs as if expecting to be praised.
"Yeah, I'm probably just gonna call you Ghostfreak since that's what you are," I said as I took a step back.
"Now, all I need is the power of the Omnitrix to make me whole again. And I can only do that by taking over your body."
As Zs'Skayr reached out towards me, I pulled back to the sunlight and watched as his body sizzled under the light.
"ARGH!" was the last thing he cried before he went into the shadows and disappeared.
~~~~
"Let's see," I said as I started working on the mobile lab in the Rust Bucket.
SLAM
"There you are!" Gwen exclaimed as she entered the RV. "You have a lot of nerve hiding here after the stunt you pulled."
"You're finally back. Perfect, I need help," I said as I rolled my chair to grab materials.
"Ben, what happened?" Grandpa asked as he entered with Shuri while Aneka guarded the door.
"It's Ghostfreak. He got out of the watch and called himself Zs'Skayr," I said rapidly while I pulled up a hologram of a pistol from an underrated video game.
"THIS IS AMAZING!" Shuri exclaimed as she practically bounced around the RV to look at everything.
"Deal with you later," I said, pointing at Shuri as I used a device on the workbench to mold the plastics, metal, and glass into shape.
"You're making no sense Ben! What do you mean Ghostfreak is out of the watch?" Gwen demanded as she looked at the weird gun I was making.
"I can't really explain it. But for a while, Ghostfreak has been bothering my dreams. And he kept saying he wanted out," I said, unable to stop my rambling as I explained how Ghostfreak escaped the watch.
"Ben, what is that?" Grandpa asked as he pulled Shuri away from the RV steering wheel and pointed at the gun I was making.
"Something to stop Zs'Skayr. He seems to have a weakness to sunlight so I made a gun that can shoot beams of sunlight. I call it the Gun del Sol," I said ceremoniously as I put the pieces together.
A gun frame with a battery port instead of a magazine well, a special lightbulb made to release the same light the sun did, and a special focusing lens to make the light into beams.
"I'm confused. What is going on?" Shuri asked as she looked around.
"It's a long story," Grandpa admitted as he let her go and checked the schematics of my gun.
Frightwig POV
I've had many dreams before. Most of the time my brothers took me in when I was a child and Zombozo taught us our tricks.
This dream was different. Zombozo took us to a weird lab where they drew some of my blood and gave it to my brothers.
Odd flashes of light, strange smelling gasses, and then it all goes black before I woke up.
~~Lined Break~~
My eyes flutter as I slowly regain consciousness. Thumbskull is carrying me in his arms while Acid Breath is guiding the way.
"What happened?" I grumbled as I pushed off my brother to stand up.
"The kid got the better of us again," Acid Breath hissed as we stopped under the shadows of a corridor.
With those words we just stayed silent, trying to come up with an idea to disappear.
"Maybe, I can help," hissed a kid from the school. His sclera are black and his pupils are purple; the veins around his eyes were visible and black.
"Get lost kid. We don't need your help," Thumbskull growled only to see a strange specter like the kid's transformation come out of the kid.
"Ah!" the possessed kid yelled as he ran away as soon as the ghost left his body.
"Thumb, get back," I hissed as I raised my hair, ready to fight.
"Oh my dear. There is no need for that," the ghost said as he floated around us. "I can offer you so much. Power, riches, anything your hearts desire."
"And what if we refuse?" Thumbskull asked only to get possessed and forced to punch himself and slam his head against the walls until he collapsed.
"When do we start?" Acid Breath asked as I dropped my hair and listened attentively.
Ben POV
"Will these things actually work?" Gwen asked as she turned over a cylinder I gave her.
"They will. It has only a 11% probability of malfunctioning," I admitted as I led the way through the school. "Now remember, when you see him just push the button. I'm betting he'll act like a real ghost and hide in the shadows or possess someone to hide from the light."
"You know me too well, it seems," someone hissed as we reached the courtyard.
"Frightwig?" I questioned as we saw the Circus Trio standing on the top of the stairs in front of the main building.
"Not quiet," she gasped as Zs'Skayr exited her body. "Hello again, Tennyson."
"Aneka," Shuri called out as her guard stood in front of her protectively with a dagger in one hand and a special flashlight in the other.
"Is that your plan? Possess everyone until you get to me?" I mocked as I stood in front of everyone.
"If that is what it takes," Zs'Skayr rasped as he slowly floated towards me.
"Then you better have a plan B. NOW!"
At my command, grandpa Max brought out the 'Gun de Sol' and shot Zs'Skayr with the beam of light.
"¡AAAGGGHHH!"
Zs'Skayr immediately went into Thumbskull and angrily charged at grandpa while Acid Breath and Frightwig charged alongside him.
I transformed into Four Arms and caught the possessed Thumbskull while Aneka intercepted the others with grandpa Max.
"Too bad, Ghostfreak. Looks like I was better prepared than you thought," I mocked while I lifted Thumbskull and threw him into the ground.
The sound of battle filled the courtyard. A cacophony of tremors, the air cracking, the hissing sound of acid, and the occasional sound of energy being released from grandpa and Aneka's weapons. All this while Gwen and Shuri ducked for cover.
Gwen POV
"We have to help!" Shuri called out as I pulled her around a corner for cover.
"The only way we can help is if we stay out of the way," I reminded as I held her back. I held the odd cylinder that Ben made along with the 'Gun de Sol' he made.
As we heard the fight go on, I noticed something was wrong. When Thumbskull was possessed, he fought like a brawler. Guarding against Ben's attacks while throwing quick jabs and doing a few grapples. But now, he started fighting like a wrestler again.
"Hello children."
I froze when I heard that rasping voice. Forgetting about the cylinder in my hand and all the practice drills I had with grandpa Max. Ghostfreak was behind me and I was too scared to do anything.
"Move!" Shuri yelled as she tackled me away from the specter while grabbing the cylinder from my hand and pulling the pin.
FLASH
"¡AAAGGGHHH!"
The cylinder didn't explode like a grenade, but a burst of light appeared from its two ends. A light that seemed to burn Ghostfreak's skin.
"Girls!" "Princess!" "Gwen! Shuri!"
I heard the others call out as they disengaged the Circus Freaks while running to rescue Shuri and me.
As Shuri and I tried to get away from Ghostfreak, he suddenly backhanded us causing the light flare to be sent flying out of Shuri's hands.
Meanwhile, Thumbskull was flying over us and crashed into Ghostfreak while Ben came running towards us.
Ben POV
This is bad. Not in a desperate kind of way, but still bad. I didn't expect Zs'Skayr to go around us and attack the non combatants while we were distracted.
Going off gut feeling, the Omnitrix will soon timeout and we lost one of our weapons to fight Zs'Skayr off.
"That was a mistake, Ghostfreak," I growled at Zs'Skayr as I stood between him, Shuri and Gwen.
"You say that. But I know you better than you think. After all, I've seen some interesting things in that head of yours," he rasped as he slowly rose off the ground.
Chills
A cold sweat ran down my spine as I finally realized the worst case actually came true. He knows what I know.
The question being, ¿how much does he know? ¿Does he know about the future I've been preparing for? ¿Does he only know about what I wrote in my journal? ¿Or does he know about my past life?
SLAM
Shit, forgot about the Circus Freaks.
Thumbskull tackled me away, Frightwig restrained my limbs, and Acid Breath started spewing acidic vile onto my body that hurt like hell.
"DON'T KILL HIM! I STILL NEED HIM!"
I groaned as I fell to my knees as Zs'Skayr waited for the watch to time out while the Circus Freaks held me down.
"Claws off my grandson!" Grandpa Max ordered as he set the 'Gun de Sol' on a focused beam and shot Zs'Skayr while Aneka tried to free me from the Circus Freaks.
BEEP BEEP BEEP FLASH
"Too late," Zs'Skayr hissed as the Omnitrix timed out and quickly tried to possess me.
I groaned in agony as Zs'Skayr entered my body. It felt horrible, like oil slipping through my pores and trying to enter my bloodstream. For a moment our minds meld together, and I could see what he did after escaping the watch. I even saw the memories of those he possessed.
A kid in the school's marching band preparing for a demonstration at a bandfest.
Thumbskull and his rather simple thoughts.
Acid Breath and his kleptomania that actually explained why he so eagerly convinces the others to rob with him.
Then Frightwig, and her mind seemed more fragmented. But there was a particularly clear memory of a girl with bright red hair playing with another kid who was silent and their rather large dog.
BEEP BEEP
"HOST IN DANGER! SAFETY PROTOCOL ENGAGED!"
FLASH
The Omnitrix cried out as I transformed into Grey Matter and got spit out by Zs'Skayr.
"Ugh, trust me pal, that was nasty for me too," I grumbled as I stood on shaky legs.
"TENNYSON!" Zs'Skayr growled in a raspy roar as he charged at me.
I jumped desperately to the clock tower of the school with Zs'Skayr following me while grandpa Max, Aneka, Shuri and Gwen fought off the Circus Freaks.
"Got to think. Come on Ben, you're currently the smartest being in this galaxy. There has to be a way to beat Zs'Skayr."
I could hear the battle between grandpa Max, Aneka and the Circus Freaks. Meanwhile here I am playing the worst version of cat and mouse with a spectral psychopath that will go through walls to catch me.
Gwen POV
"We have to help them!" Shuri yelled as she got ready to go help grandpa and Aneka.
"But we don't have anything. We don't have any powers and we lost our only weapon," I protested as I grabbed her hand to stop her.
"Not exactly. I actually built this while we were in your mobile home," she then brought out strange disks as she broke free from my grip.
Shuri went running to the fight and kept a short distance from the fight.
"Aneka!"
On Shuri's signal, Aneka tripped Acid Breath while Shuri threw the disk at him. Upon contact, the disk released an electric discharge while wrapping him in metal wires.
Watching them fight, I made my decision and went to grab the flare we lost.
"Hang on Ben," I whispered as