ToE chapter 2
Aug. 22nd, 2010 12:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameThe Theory of Everything
Chapter Two: Into That Good Night
Chapter Summary: The battle against Charmcaster begins, and at a terrible cost.
The Theory of Everything
Chapter Two: “Into That Good Night”
People screamed in terror as Diamondhead went flying through the crystal barrier he’d set up to close off the battle. He held back a curse as he pulled himself up. Forty years he’d been doing this, and he’d never understood why people stuck around and put themselves in danger in the middle of an attack.
“Get out of here!” he ordered.
A blast of energy came toward him and the civilians, and he quickly formed a shield to block it. Chunks of crystal fell to the ground from the attack, but it bought enough time for the people to escape. Hopefully, they would be sensible and evacuate.
Laughing, Charmcaster landed from where she’d been floating, striking the butt of her staff down on the comm link that had been knocked out of Ben’s ear early in the fight.
“I’m disappointed,” she taunted, pouting mockingly. “I thought you’d at least try to put up some kind of fight. You’re much less fun to play with than Gwen is.”
She leveled her staff at him and fired off another energy blast. Quickly changing to Spitter, Ben leapt backwards and flipped, avoiding the blast and spitting slime at her. A quick wave of the staff generated a shield to protect her, and Ben switched to Heatblast, bringing his hands together to launch a blast of fire at her. To his disappointment, however, she emerged from the flames unscathed.
“Better,” she answered, sounding bored. “But not your best. You’re getting old. You’re past your prime, and I’m at my peak.”
She held out the staff at him again, but a set of restraints hit her from behind, binding her arms to her sides and forcing her to drop the staff. Electricity encircled her, making her cry out in pain.
“Looks like we got here just in time,” announced Buzzshock as he landed to the ground in front of Heatblast.
Devlin ran over, one hand at his belt, which held several projectiles and Null Void containment capsules, the other hand in a guard position while gripping a crystal tonfa.
“You okay?” he asked.
“How sweet, you brought the kids!” Charmcaster teased. “I hope they’ll put up more of a fight, being full of youthful energy and all.”
Even through the heat of his own flames, Ben felt a chill run through him. “Ken, Devlin, get out of here now!”
“We can do this,” Ken insisted, his tone short as he transformed into Stinkfly. Getting high in the air above Charmcaster, he called out, “Dev, back me up!”
Devlin tossed a fire-bomb into the air as Stinkfly spat out a stream of liquid. The bomb ignited the liquid, and a stream of fire poured down on Charmcaster. But before either of them could celebrate the victory, there was a flash of green as Ben transformed into his Benmummy form. Bandages snared around both of the brothers, yanking them closer to their father.
“Dad, we’ve got this,” Ken argued.
“No, you don’t,” Ben insisted.
“We know what we’re doing,” Ken said. “God, you never trust us!”
“You’ve only got twenty aliens unlocked!”
“And whose fault is that, huh? Who limited me to ten in the first place, and never lets me fight?”
Movement within the inferno caught Devlin’s attention, and he looked over to see a form making its way out of the fire. Charmcaster had managed to free herself from the restraints and was walking toward them. Immediately, Devlin threw more grenades her way, but she held out her hands with a cry of “Tempestas!” and summoned a stream of water to protect herself. Moving her hand allowed her to send the stream toward the Tennysons, throwing them several feet. While Ken and Devlin were fine, Ben hit his head against the barrier he’d made to protect the civilians and lost consciousness, involuntarily returning to human form.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to keep a lady waiting?” Charmcaster asked.
Ken changed into one of his newer aliens, Arcticguana, and blasted ice at her. Smirking, she held out her hand and shouted, “Metacorpius!”
Ken was lifted into the air, and though he struggled and tried to change forms, he couldn’t escape, and he reverted to human form. Devlin rushed Charmcaster, guarding himself with both of his tonfa, but she stopped him when he was only a foot away and sent him flying into the wreckage of the crystal barrier. While he managed to remain conscious, it was a struggle, and he was certainly out of the fight.
“Devlin!” Ken shouted, but a jolt of pain silenced him. Charmcaster had recovered her staff, and she’d used it to send electricity toward him.
“You should be more worried about yourself,” she insisted, pointing the head of her staff toward the ground.
A circle of pink energy formed on the ground beneath Ken, crisscrossed by various lines and geometric patterns. As the array formed, Charmcaster summoned a book in front of her, which glowed briefly as pages flipped until she reached just the spell she needed. Ken recognized the book from files he’d hacked on the computer: the Archamada Book of Spells. Whatever this spell was, it was high-level, and he had to get out.
“Aww, now, don’t do that,” Charmcaster taunted as he renewed his struggles. “You’ll waste precious energy that way. And I want it all. Ars…”
As she started chanting, someone ran over, leapt into the air, and shoved Ken out of the way. Freed from the spell, Ken hit the ground, rolling several times until he’d lost his momentum and came to a stop several feet away, unconscious. Left in his place in the center of the array was his father, immobilized and glaring at Charmcaster.
“Looks like you still had some fight left in you after all,” Charmcaster judged. “I suppose it will be enough. Ars longa, vita brevis.”
A glowing aura of white energy formed around Ben’s body, pulsating in time with his heartbeat. Suddenly, pain gripped him, and threads of energy flowed from him to Charmcaster’s staff.
“Ex nihilo nihil fit.”
Ben bit back a cry of pain as more of his energy was drained. It felt like a heart attack, only going through every single one of his organs. Losing energy, his body was fighting desperately to stay alive, and it was a fight he knew he’d lose.
A twisted smirk formed on Charmcaster’s lips as she recited, “Beati possidentes.”
Ben tried to glare back at her, but he didn’t have the strength left in him. His vision wavered until his eyes finally shut against the burning glow of her staff.
But it was the same bright light from the staff that managed to wake Devlin completely. The more it shone, the harder it was to shut it out. He got to his feet, shaking his head to fight off the fuzzy feeling of half-consciousness. But his head cleared the moment he saw Ben caught in the array with Charmcaster torturing him. Without hesitation, he transformed one of his arms and held it out toward her.
“Memento mori,” Charmcaster read as Ben lost consciousness. She’d just about drained him entirely. Only a little more energy to go…
A blast of fire hit her from behind, and she half-turned to see Devlin standing where she’d thrown him, one of his arms in alien mode, blazing. His eyes drifted from her to the book, and he hurled another blast of fire at it.
“No, you idiot!” she shrieked.
But before she could stop it, the fireball hit the Archamada, setting the page on fire. The glow of her staff faded, and it collapsed to the ground, unable to hold itself up without the spell. And without her focus, the array vanished, causing Ben’s body to drop to the ground. Even without checking, she knew he was still alive. The process hadn’t finished—there was still energy she could drain out of him!
Devlin blasted more fire toward her, and Charmcaster knew she had to make a choice fast. While she hated having to leave the book behind, the staff was more important right now. She made a quick grab for it, then swung it out, releasing a blast of energy that Devlin had to block with his alien arm. He braced himself for the attack, managing to stand his ground, but it served its purpose. Charmcaster made a swipe with the staff, creating a fold in space, and promptly escaped, sealing it behind her.
Ken groaned as he started to stir, muttering, “Damnit, Dad,” as he lifted his head. As he pushed himself up, he called out, “Devlin?”
When he didn’t hear an answer, he turned to look for his brother, only to see him standing, frozen in shock, partially transformed. Immediately, Ken knew there was something wrong—Devlin had sworn years ago not to transform. If he didn’t focus or if he got too emotional, he often got stuck in the transformation, and it took nothing short of the Omnitrix to get him back to normal. In dread, Ken turned back to look for his father, only to see him lying face-down on the ground, completely still.
“Dad!”
Devlin couldn’t make himself move, as thoroughly immobilized by the shock as Ben had been by the array. Nothing seemed to register in his mind. Ben was lying on the ground, unmoving after the spell. Ken ran over to him, checked his pulse, and with a stricken look of horror on his face, started CPR. He could see everything that was going on, but it was all completely meaningless.
Because the meaning he didn’t want to face was that he’d failed, and now his father was paying the price.
Someone had gotten them all out of there. Devlin didn’t know who or how, but if he had to guess, he’d say that Great-Grandpa Max had pulled it all off. Ben was rushed to the complex’s medical ward, and the Plumbers had more or less taken over the case. The Magical Division and Investigations were handling the scene and all the evidence, but they were keeping everything as quiet as possible. The last thing they wanted was for any of the Tennysons’ enemies to know what had happened and take advantage of Ben’s condition or try to finish him off. With Charmcaster still loose, the risk of discovery was already high.
And with everything out of his hands, Devlin sat alone outside the medical ward, leaning forward in his chair. In his human hand, he fiddled with his locket, but his gaze was transfixed on the floor. He felt numb, his mind blank. He couldn’t believe this was happening.
“Hey,” Ken called weakly. Devlin didn’t look up at him. Ken pointed at his arm and said, “You got stuck again.” He lifted the Omnitrix and said, “Reset biofield,” before reaching out to place his hand on Devlin’s alien-form shoulder. Bright green bio-energy flashed from the watch, reverting his arm to normal. Ken’s hand lingered on Devlin’s shoulder for a moment, but unable to bear the feeling, Devlin pulled away.
“Listen,” Ken insisted. “Dad’s going to be…” Devlin looked up, challenging him to say “okay.” As weary blue eyes met red-rimmed green, Ken sighed and lowered his head.
“Dad’s alive, at least,” he said. “They’ve got him on life-support. Whatever Charmcaster did to him, his body doesn’t have the strength to work on its own.”
“I should have been faster,” Devlin said.
Ken shook his head, sighing, “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the one who was stupid enough to run into that battle. If Dad didn’t try to rescue me…”
“If I wasn’t completely useless…”
“That’s enough, both of you,” came a stern voice, and they both looked over to see Max exiting the medical ward, leaning heavily on his cane. The old man was over a hundred years old, and the years had certainly worn him down, but when he spoke with that kind of steel in his voice, nobody could help but listen. Max looked at his great-grandsons seriously, but not unkindly, and said, “Gwendolyn should be here soon to help, but in the meantime, blaming yourselves isn’t going to help your dad—or you.”
What he said made some sense, but Devlin couldn’t do much more than half-heartedly nod. Ken, on the other hand, was better had taking orders from Max, no matter the situation.
“Yeah,” he promised. “We’ll keep it together.”
“Good,” Max answered, and he looked over at Devlin. “You were the only one still conscious when Charmcaster used that spell. Do you remember anything about it?”
Devlin tried to focus, but the exercise was as futile as trying to stem the guilt clawing at his heart. He shook his head. “I might have heard a few words, but I can’t remember them now.”
Max nodded. “We’ll need to wait for Gwendolyn, then. She should be able to dredge it from your memory.” Devlin nodded, albeit reluctantly. Ten years, and he still didn’t feel any more comfortable around magic than he had before he joined the Tennyson family. Incidents like this always seemed to make that discomfort worse.
“We’ll figure this out,” Max promised. “I just need you two to hang in there. Ben needs you to.”
“All right,” Ken answered. “I’ll get to work on the security systems. See if there’s anything we can use to track down Charmcaster. You coming, Dev?”
“No, I’ll stay here a bit,” Devlin answered.
Ken nodded. “Okay. Great-Grandpa, I’m going to need your help with the computer.”
They walked away, heading toward the main computer control room. Devlin sighed and leaned back into his chair, resting his head against the wall and closing his eyes. With the world around him shut out, he could see the battle all over again. He clutched his locket tightly, fighting the sense of helplessness that had gripped him since Ben had fallen. He’d attacked the spellbook, burned it. And it hadn’t done anything to help. In fact, he might have made things worse.
He loosened his hold on the locket and opened his eyes, putting the necklace back on as he stood up. There was something he had to do right now, or else he’d have more regrets than he already did.
Ken dealt with stress best by keeping busy. Tinkering, programming—if his hands were occupied, so too was his mind, and he could stop focusing on the stress. And so, he was in Grey Matter’s form, in the wires of the main computer, trying to find a way to boost the connection to the Plumbers’ and the Galactic Enforcers’ networks. With Charmcaster currently on the Tennysons’ most wanted list, they needed every resource at their disposal in order to catch her.
Grey Matter looked over at the small, hovering, holographic screen next to him. “How’s the signal, Great-Grandpa?”
“Better for the Plumbers, but Synaptek’s systems aren’t compatible with ours,” Max replied. “I’m going to try to another sequencing code.”
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Grey Matter promised, but another portion of the screen caught his attention.
He dragged over the security footage in the medical ward, the video monitoring his dad’s condition. Devlin had walked into the room, just as quiet and depressed as he’d been when they left him. He held still for a moment as he looked at Ben, but finally, he made himself walk over. The mike caught his words:
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
Ken hurriedly turned off the screen, knowing he’d heard something he shouldn’t have. It was too private, too personal, and he had no right to witness it. Finishing his work, he climbed out of the control panel and transformed back, racing to help Max and trying to forget the words he didn’t mean to hear.
The title for this chapter comes from Dylan Thomas’s poem, known as “Do not go gentle into that good night,” which coincidentally, was written for the poet’s dying father. As I don’t speak any Latin, Charmcaster’s named spells either come from canon or are pieced together from Latin phrases off Wikipedia. The main spell (“Ars longa, vita brevis. Ex nihilo nihil fit. Beati possidentes. Memento mori.”) is strung together from four different phrases: “Art is long, live is short,” “nothing comes from nothing,” “blessed are those who possess,” and “remember your mortality/remember to die.” I figured these were completely fitting for such a spell, draining life energy from people to fuel your own magic. The term “biofield” (for “bio-electric/bio-energy field”) is shamelessly ripped from Power Rangers RPM.
Chapter Two: Into That Good Night
Chapter Summary: The battle against Charmcaster begins, and at a terrible cost.
Chapter Two: “Into That Good Night”
People screamed in terror as Diamondhead went flying through the crystal barrier he’d set up to close off the battle. He held back a curse as he pulled himself up. Forty years he’d been doing this, and he’d never understood why people stuck around and put themselves in danger in the middle of an attack.
“Get out of here!” he ordered.
A blast of energy came toward him and the civilians, and he quickly formed a shield to block it. Chunks of crystal fell to the ground from the attack, but it bought enough time for the people to escape. Hopefully, they would be sensible and evacuate.
Laughing, Charmcaster landed from where she’d been floating, striking the butt of her staff down on the comm link that had been knocked out of Ben’s ear early in the fight.
“I’m disappointed,” she taunted, pouting mockingly. “I thought you’d at least try to put up some kind of fight. You’re much less fun to play with than Gwen is.”
She leveled her staff at him and fired off another energy blast. Quickly changing to Spitter, Ben leapt backwards and flipped, avoiding the blast and spitting slime at her. A quick wave of the staff generated a shield to protect her, and Ben switched to Heatblast, bringing his hands together to launch a blast of fire at her. To his disappointment, however, she emerged from the flames unscathed.
“Better,” she answered, sounding bored. “But not your best. You’re getting old. You’re past your prime, and I’m at my peak.”
She held out the staff at him again, but a set of restraints hit her from behind, binding her arms to her sides and forcing her to drop the staff. Electricity encircled her, making her cry out in pain.
“Looks like we got here just in time,” announced Buzzshock as he landed to the ground in front of Heatblast.
Devlin ran over, one hand at his belt, which held several projectiles and Null Void containment capsules, the other hand in a guard position while gripping a crystal tonfa.
“You okay?” he asked.
“How sweet, you brought the kids!” Charmcaster teased. “I hope they’ll put up more of a fight, being full of youthful energy and all.”
Even through the heat of his own flames, Ben felt a chill run through him. “Ken, Devlin, get out of here now!”
“We can do this,” Ken insisted, his tone short as he transformed into Stinkfly. Getting high in the air above Charmcaster, he called out, “Dev, back me up!”
Devlin tossed a fire-bomb into the air as Stinkfly spat out a stream of liquid. The bomb ignited the liquid, and a stream of fire poured down on Charmcaster. But before either of them could celebrate the victory, there was a flash of green as Ben transformed into his Benmummy form. Bandages snared around both of the brothers, yanking them closer to their father.
“Dad, we’ve got this,” Ken argued.
“No, you don’t,” Ben insisted.
“We know what we’re doing,” Ken said. “God, you never trust us!”
“You’ve only got twenty aliens unlocked!”
“And whose fault is that, huh? Who limited me to ten in the first place, and never lets me fight?”
Movement within the inferno caught Devlin’s attention, and he looked over to see a form making its way out of the fire. Charmcaster had managed to free herself from the restraints and was walking toward them. Immediately, Devlin threw more grenades her way, but she held out her hands with a cry of “Tempestas!” and summoned a stream of water to protect herself. Moving her hand allowed her to send the stream toward the Tennysons, throwing them several feet. While Ken and Devlin were fine, Ben hit his head against the barrier he’d made to protect the civilians and lost consciousness, involuntarily returning to human form.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to keep a lady waiting?” Charmcaster asked.
Ken changed into one of his newer aliens, Arcticguana, and blasted ice at her. Smirking, she held out her hand and shouted, “Metacorpius!”
Ken was lifted into the air, and though he struggled and tried to change forms, he couldn’t escape, and he reverted to human form. Devlin rushed Charmcaster, guarding himself with both of his tonfa, but she stopped him when he was only a foot away and sent him flying into the wreckage of the crystal barrier. While he managed to remain conscious, it was a struggle, and he was certainly out of the fight.
“Devlin!” Ken shouted, but a jolt of pain silenced him. Charmcaster had recovered her staff, and she’d used it to send electricity toward him.
“You should be more worried about yourself,” she insisted, pointing the head of her staff toward the ground.
A circle of pink energy formed on the ground beneath Ken, crisscrossed by various lines and geometric patterns. As the array formed, Charmcaster summoned a book in front of her, which glowed briefly as pages flipped until she reached just the spell she needed. Ken recognized the book from files he’d hacked on the computer: the Archamada Book of Spells. Whatever this spell was, it was high-level, and he had to get out.
“Aww, now, don’t do that,” Charmcaster taunted as he renewed his struggles. “You’ll waste precious energy that way. And I want it all. Ars…”
As she started chanting, someone ran over, leapt into the air, and shoved Ken out of the way. Freed from the spell, Ken hit the ground, rolling several times until he’d lost his momentum and came to a stop several feet away, unconscious. Left in his place in the center of the array was his father, immobilized and glaring at Charmcaster.
“Looks like you still had some fight left in you after all,” Charmcaster judged. “I suppose it will be enough. Ars longa, vita brevis.”
A glowing aura of white energy formed around Ben’s body, pulsating in time with his heartbeat. Suddenly, pain gripped him, and threads of energy flowed from him to Charmcaster’s staff.
“Ex nihilo nihil fit.”
Ben bit back a cry of pain as more of his energy was drained. It felt like a heart attack, only going through every single one of his organs. Losing energy, his body was fighting desperately to stay alive, and it was a fight he knew he’d lose.
A twisted smirk formed on Charmcaster’s lips as she recited, “Beati possidentes.”
Ben tried to glare back at her, but he didn’t have the strength left in him. His vision wavered until his eyes finally shut against the burning glow of her staff.
But it was the same bright light from the staff that managed to wake Devlin completely. The more it shone, the harder it was to shut it out. He got to his feet, shaking his head to fight off the fuzzy feeling of half-consciousness. But his head cleared the moment he saw Ben caught in the array with Charmcaster torturing him. Without hesitation, he transformed one of his arms and held it out toward her.
“Memento mori,” Charmcaster read as Ben lost consciousness. She’d just about drained him entirely. Only a little more energy to go…
A blast of fire hit her from behind, and she half-turned to see Devlin standing where she’d thrown him, one of his arms in alien mode, blazing. His eyes drifted from her to the book, and he hurled another blast of fire at it.
“No, you idiot!” she shrieked.
But before she could stop it, the fireball hit the Archamada, setting the page on fire. The glow of her staff faded, and it collapsed to the ground, unable to hold itself up without the spell. And without her focus, the array vanished, causing Ben’s body to drop to the ground. Even without checking, she knew he was still alive. The process hadn’t finished—there was still energy she could drain out of him!
Devlin blasted more fire toward her, and Charmcaster knew she had to make a choice fast. While she hated having to leave the book behind, the staff was more important right now. She made a quick grab for it, then swung it out, releasing a blast of energy that Devlin had to block with his alien arm. He braced himself for the attack, managing to stand his ground, but it served its purpose. Charmcaster made a swipe with the staff, creating a fold in space, and promptly escaped, sealing it behind her.
Ken groaned as he started to stir, muttering, “Damnit, Dad,” as he lifted his head. As he pushed himself up, he called out, “Devlin?”
When he didn’t hear an answer, he turned to look for his brother, only to see him standing, frozen in shock, partially transformed. Immediately, Ken knew there was something wrong—Devlin had sworn years ago not to transform. If he didn’t focus or if he got too emotional, he often got stuck in the transformation, and it took nothing short of the Omnitrix to get him back to normal. In dread, Ken turned back to look for his father, only to see him lying face-down on the ground, completely still.
“Dad!”
Devlin couldn’t make himself move, as thoroughly immobilized by the shock as Ben had been by the array. Nothing seemed to register in his mind. Ben was lying on the ground, unmoving after the spell. Ken ran over to him, checked his pulse, and with a stricken look of horror on his face, started CPR. He could see everything that was going on, but it was all completely meaningless.
Because the meaning he didn’t want to face was that he’d failed, and now his father was paying the price.
Someone had gotten them all out of there. Devlin didn’t know who or how, but if he had to guess, he’d say that Great-Grandpa Max had pulled it all off. Ben was rushed to the complex’s medical ward, and the Plumbers had more or less taken over the case. The Magical Division and Investigations were handling the scene and all the evidence, but they were keeping everything as quiet as possible. The last thing they wanted was for any of the Tennysons’ enemies to know what had happened and take advantage of Ben’s condition or try to finish him off. With Charmcaster still loose, the risk of discovery was already high.
And with everything out of his hands, Devlin sat alone outside the medical ward, leaning forward in his chair. In his human hand, he fiddled with his locket, but his gaze was transfixed on the floor. He felt numb, his mind blank. He couldn’t believe this was happening.
“Hey,” Ken called weakly. Devlin didn’t look up at him. Ken pointed at his arm and said, “You got stuck again.” He lifted the Omnitrix and said, “Reset biofield,” before reaching out to place his hand on Devlin’s alien-form shoulder. Bright green bio-energy flashed from the watch, reverting his arm to normal. Ken’s hand lingered on Devlin’s shoulder for a moment, but unable to bear the feeling, Devlin pulled away.
“Listen,” Ken insisted. “Dad’s going to be…” Devlin looked up, challenging him to say “okay.” As weary blue eyes met red-rimmed green, Ken sighed and lowered his head.
“Dad’s alive, at least,” he said. “They’ve got him on life-support. Whatever Charmcaster did to him, his body doesn’t have the strength to work on its own.”
“I should have been faster,” Devlin said.
Ken shook his head, sighing, “You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the one who was stupid enough to run into that battle. If Dad didn’t try to rescue me…”
“If I wasn’t completely useless…”
“That’s enough, both of you,” came a stern voice, and they both looked over to see Max exiting the medical ward, leaning heavily on his cane. The old man was over a hundred years old, and the years had certainly worn him down, but when he spoke with that kind of steel in his voice, nobody could help but listen. Max looked at his great-grandsons seriously, but not unkindly, and said, “Gwendolyn should be here soon to help, but in the meantime, blaming yourselves isn’t going to help your dad—or you.”
What he said made some sense, but Devlin couldn’t do much more than half-heartedly nod. Ken, on the other hand, was better had taking orders from Max, no matter the situation.
“Yeah,” he promised. “We’ll keep it together.”
“Good,” Max answered, and he looked over at Devlin. “You were the only one still conscious when Charmcaster used that spell. Do you remember anything about it?”
Devlin tried to focus, but the exercise was as futile as trying to stem the guilt clawing at his heart. He shook his head. “I might have heard a few words, but I can’t remember them now.”
Max nodded. “We’ll need to wait for Gwendolyn, then. She should be able to dredge it from your memory.” Devlin nodded, albeit reluctantly. Ten years, and he still didn’t feel any more comfortable around magic than he had before he joined the Tennyson family. Incidents like this always seemed to make that discomfort worse.
“We’ll figure this out,” Max promised. “I just need you two to hang in there. Ben needs you to.”
“All right,” Ken answered. “I’ll get to work on the security systems. See if there’s anything we can use to track down Charmcaster. You coming, Dev?”
“No, I’ll stay here a bit,” Devlin answered.
Ken nodded. “Okay. Great-Grandpa, I’m going to need your help with the computer.”
They walked away, heading toward the main computer control room. Devlin sighed and leaned back into his chair, resting his head against the wall and closing his eyes. With the world around him shut out, he could see the battle all over again. He clutched his locket tightly, fighting the sense of helplessness that had gripped him since Ben had fallen. He’d attacked the spellbook, burned it. And it hadn’t done anything to help. In fact, he might have made things worse.
He loosened his hold on the locket and opened his eyes, putting the necklace back on as he stood up. There was something he had to do right now, or else he’d have more regrets than he already did.
Ken dealt with stress best by keeping busy. Tinkering, programming—if his hands were occupied, so too was his mind, and he could stop focusing on the stress. And so, he was in Grey Matter’s form, in the wires of the main computer, trying to find a way to boost the connection to the Plumbers’ and the Galactic Enforcers’ networks. With Charmcaster currently on the Tennysons’ most wanted list, they needed every resource at their disposal in order to catch her.
Grey Matter looked over at the small, hovering, holographic screen next to him. “How’s the signal, Great-Grandpa?”
“Better for the Plumbers, but Synaptek’s systems aren’t compatible with ours,” Max replied. “I’m going to try to another sequencing code.”
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Grey Matter promised, but another portion of the screen caught his attention.
He dragged over the security footage in the medical ward, the video monitoring his dad’s condition. Devlin had walked into the room, just as quiet and depressed as he’d been when they left him. He held still for a moment as he looked at Ben, but finally, he made himself walk over. The mike caught his words:
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
Ken hurriedly turned off the screen, knowing he’d heard something he shouldn’t have. It was too private, too personal, and he had no right to witness it. Finishing his work, he climbed out of the control panel and transformed back, racing to help Max and trying to forget the words he didn’t mean to hear.
The title for this chapter comes from Dylan Thomas’s poem, known as “Do not go gentle into that good night,” which coincidentally, was written for the poet’s dying father. As I don’t speak any Latin, Charmcaster’s named spells either come from canon or are pieced together from Latin phrases off Wikipedia. The main spell (“Ars longa, vita brevis. Ex nihilo nihil fit. Beati possidentes. Memento mori.”) is strung together from four different phrases: “Art is long, live is short,” “nothing comes from nothing,” “blessed are those who possess,” and “remember your mortality/remember to die.” I figured these were completely fitting for such a spell, draining life energy from people to fuel your own magic. The term “biofield” (for “bio-electric/bio-energy field”) is shamelessly ripped from Power Rangers RPM.