Ben 10: Hero and Predator

Chapter 26: Midnight Madness

He trailed the alien to an abandoned warehouse far away from the mall. He turned invisible and watched the warehouse garage door opened. Upgrade released the clock and confronted a person who came out from the warehouse.

It's Sublimino, the hypnotist.

"Who are you? What happened to the guy who looked like a walking chandelier?" Sublimino inquired. "Oh well, who cares as long as you do what I say? Now get out of here before the cops see you!"

Upgrade merged with a nearby bulldozer and drove off. Hypnotick followed suit, trailing from behind.

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The next day, the team is watching the last night news while Ben sleeping on the couch with Ciel holding his head with her fingers to find Sublimino's suggestion that is hidden in his mind.

"So, Sublimino planted post hypnotic suggestion in his volunteers, turning then into an army of thieves." Max concluded.

"But the sound of the Omnitrix's timing out snapped Ben out of his trance." Gwen added.

"Well, he doesn't need to rely on it anymore." Ciel chimed in before pulling out a white mana out from Ben's head. "I just took the suggestion away."

"Looks like student has become the master." Gwen commented. "What are you gonna do with that?"

Ciel looked down to the floating mana in her hand. "This is Sublimino's hypnotic signature. Using this, I should be able to find all of his volunteers and undo their hypnosis in one go."

"Hold that plan." Y/n interjected.

"What is it, Y/n?" Max asked.

The boy stared at the news, specifically the mall manager in silence before rewinding the television back and forth to listen to his words.

"I need to confront the mall manager." Y/n stated. "Max, can you accompany me?"

"Uh, sure.." Max replied unsurely.

The two exited the vehicle and made their way into the mall.

"You know, you reminded me a lot about your dad." Max recalled.

"Really? What was he like back in the Plumbers?" Y/n asked in curiosity.

"Before the Plumber, Larry was a young brave soldier, putting others first before him. And the most of all, he's very observant."

"So I got his sharp observation." Y/n commented. "What about mom?"

"For your mom, Morgan was a science geek in college before the Plumbers recruited her. Or more like, she volunteered after the Plumber arrested her for learning the existence of an alien."

"That explained my obsession with theories." Y/n sweated.

Without them realizing it, they made it to the mall manager's office. They entered the room and confronted the manager.

"This was an isolated incident. The mall is open for business. Shopper's safety is our number one priority." The manager said after informing the impending danger.

"Yes, yes, you said that already." Max replied. "But I'm saying your shoppers are in danger."

The manager repeated what he said before with the same tone and the same words. Just Y/n expected, the manage fell into Sublimino's hypnosis.

A familiar scent caught Y/n's nostril. The boy gazed to the door next to the manager and approached it. After Standing in front of the door for a good minutes of silence, Y/n transformed into Ork and bashed through the door with his claw.

Then, he pulled his claw out with Sublimino getting caught by it. The green beast pinned the mastermind on the wall and roared out loud to his face as the later screamed in fear.

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The next day, the team returned to the road after Sublimino arrested by the law enforcements for his crimes. With her magic, Ciel undid the hypnosis on all of Sublimino's victims.

Y/n is sitting on the dining table while tinkering the hypnotist's pocket watch that he collected as a trophy to disarm it for good. Ciel's soft giggled caught his attention. He looked to his front and found the girl is playing with the teddy bear that he gave by petting it.

Her smile and cheerfulness somehow made Y/n to stop his works. He tidied up the mess and returned the trophy box and tool box back where they belong. He returned to the dining table and opened up a certain page in his journal where he's been quietly sketching Ciel's facial expressions since day one.