Ben 10: Marvelverse

Chapter 15: Rath vs the Wolverine

When the sun rose the next day the Tennysons woke up at the hotel. They got dressed and ready before going out for breakfast. Carl and Sandra had to pass Max's offer to cook for them. They knew as well as anyone in the family not to eat his cooking. Afterwards they returned to the mansion in the hopes of seeing Ben again. When they went to knock Charles opened the door having noticed their presence as they arrived. 

"Welcome. Ben just started an early morning exercise class. They'll be out back. Follow me." Charles said before leading them. Together they went out to the pool behind the mansion. Going to the edge there was a path for Charles wheelchair to follow along. From there they quickly noticed the group of young people running around a lake. Ben was leading them along with several of the staff who seemed to enjoy the exercise. Scott, Hank, Colossus seemed perfectly fine. Jennifer was also there. Ben had told her about these morning exercise classes and would show up occasionally. Emma was behind them seemingly hating it. She said she wanted to remain healthy and thought this would be good for her. Doesn't mean she exactly liked it. A lot of the students were right there with Emma. Including Lorna, Wanda, Laura, Ruby, and Rogue. Ben had purposefully woken her up by knocking on her door to come to this. His way of looking out for her. Ben thought Wanda should be in this class because healthy exercise could be helpful for fostering a healthy mind. Laura, Ruby, and Rogue had been coming to this class since before Ben was teaching it so it was normal for them. Ben 10k was also there along with the other Ben's and Gwen. The younger three, Ben 10, Ben 23, and Gwen seemed miserable. Benjamin looked alright. Ben 10k looked as if this was just a warm up. Ben was obviously fine with it since he was leading it all. When they came to a stop Ben noticed his parents and Grandpa Max. But showed no reaction as he continued the class. After the run Ben had everyone start doing push ups, sit ups, and other exercises. While he was going through them Ben's mind was wandering to the previous night. 

Ben had a nightmare. He was 10 years old again. One second he was standing in a space with a black ground and a white sky. At the edge of the horizon far away were two figures. Ben reached out to them, taking a few steps. Suddenly his feet became heavy. Looking down his feet were sinking into the ground as if it was a swamp. Ben was quickly sinking. He tried his best to stay above but couldn't stop. After he was completely submerged it felt like Ben was sinking faster. What little light was above started to disappear. As he sank he was obviously drowning. He couldn't breath. What was strange was that he wasn't drowning on water or some liquid. He was drowning in anger, rage, pain, and his own suffering. All of these emotions were drowning him. He wished to breath in air to erase this feeling of drowning. But all he got was more emotions. As he was drowning Ben screamed hoping those above would hear him... Save him. But no one heard him. More and more negative emotions were pushing their way inside. Causing him to only scream and struggle more and more. Then his screams changed from screams for help, into screams of rage. Ben was filled with so much negative emotion that he felt like a bottle that was about to explode. He knew he was going to explode. He wanted it. Ben was slowly covered in fire as he continued to scream in rage. The fire soon covered Ben from head to toe. Clenching his fist he finally let it all go, letting loose all the rage he felt into the space around him. It was only then, when he let loose his fiery fury in an explosion of rage that he had woke up. Ben suspected that if he hadn't been made of diamonds and was human he would have been soaked in sweat. 

Now he did everything he could to just make it through the next hour without a mental breakdown. Seeing his parents again.... It wasn't helping him. Ben made it through the rest of the morning exercise class fine. At the end he changed into XLR8 and sped off faster then Charles or the Tennyson's could see. The Tennyson's looked off in the direction that he left. The Ben's and Gwen walked over to them after seeing their expression. They wanted to be of some comfort. Ben meanwhile found himself sitting in a tree by himself as Wildmutt. His tail hanging from the tree swishing back and forth. Ben had some time before his next class. He figured he'd spend it alone. Since Vulpimancers couldn't speak, it made it a little easier. As Ben was laying in the tree something in the wind caught his attention. Lifting his head, Ben began to use his sonar more actively. Following the flow of the wind, Ben found it was coming from someone on a motorcycle. What ben found strange was that they smelled strange, yet familiar. Standing up Ben jumped down from the tree and started walking to the drive way. Ben quickly noticed he wasn't the only one. Laura was also moving to the drive way. She quickly noticed him.