Hidden inheritance

Chapter 5: The Framed's Testimony

The Rustbucket used to be less quiet before.

Ben would leave his dirty clothes around, making Gwen complain. Gwen would suggest another place for nerds like her, and Ben would disapprove. Max would make one of his special meals, and the kids could be heard moaning in disgust at the sight of the monstrosity their grandfather had cooked.

Yet tonight wasn't as lively of a night as the others.

Kevin had come back, and stole his identity! After last time, Ben discovered that Kevin had absorbed the energy from the watch and turned into an alien hybrid mess, and he had tried to ruin Ben's reputation with his aliens and causing harm to others. He had crossed a line by harming everyone for the reason he was hurt, and Ben felt it wasn't that good of an excuse. Yet again, he felt pretty mad too when he met Vilgax, but it wasn't a reason to go psycho on the whole town.

And it bothered Ben so much, because if Kevin proved himself to be a bad guy, he couldn't forget he liked him when they first met.

It still really hurt that Kevin turned out to be that resentful, because Ben felt Kevin could've related to what Ben had. Kevin was a mutant, Ben was actually an alien. Kevin had absorbing powers, Ben had the Omnitrix. Kevin liked Sumo Slammers, and so did Ben. Kevin wasn't such a pain to listen to like Gwen was, and Ben appreciated that. Kevin was thrown away by his parents (if what he told him the first time was accurate), and Ben was kidnapped by his grandfather (or who he thought was his grandpa), before being given to the people he thought were his parents.

OK, maybe Kevin wouldn't have understood something that heavy to take in, but at least Ben felt it was nice to have someone else who knew how being a superpowered freak could be. Even if Kevin hadn't mentioned anything about having alien parents...

And Kevin knew what it was like to be an outcast like him among other kids, everyone making fun of him, teasing him and bullying him. Ben had felt that a lot at school, ever since JT had left him to hang out with Cash instead.

It would've been cool if Ben didn't lose another friend who decided harming him was fun.

'That's what you get for not being a perfect know-it-all like Gwen, I guess.'

Kevin aside, Ben wasn't really happy with how Max and Gwen reacted to his framing.

Gwen had jumped to the conclusion her cousin was responsible and it took seeing him and Kevin at the same place and the same time to believe he was innocent, disregarding that Tetrax and the Wildmutts they fought still existed, and that Ben wasn't the only alien kid on Earth. It reminded him of how actually negative their cousin relationship was all this time, and that he shouldn't have expected her to trust his word if she thought she saw him causing trouble, especially after that he had called out Max.

Max had taken Ben's side, but he agreed with Gwen. It didn't help that Kevin's alien forms wore the same clothes as he did, and Ben felt being judged guilty by someone who still helped him through a good chunk of his life was disappointing. He hadn't told Max about helping Vilgax escape, he hadn't told him how he got rid of Phil, he even tried to let some of the things that annoyed him about Max's attitude slide, even keeping a low profile when cleaning the RV the day a giant tick tried to eat everyone and he got Cannonbolt.

He still felt Max was terribly at wrong, even if Vilgax seemed like a bad guy. Hiding his Plumber career, lying to everyone, leading him and Gwen on. Was it that hard to be sincere with his family if he cared so much? Ben didn't know what to believe anymore.

A close relative had broken his trust, a guy he thought of as a friend backstabbed him, Gwen showed she still didn't have that much faith in him... Ben wasn't sure this was what being a hero entailed.