-Then There Were Ten (Ben 10/WORM SI)-
-CHAPTER 4: Greg IV-
"…help!"
"…please!"
"…Boom!"
"…bark!"
Distant echoes rang through my head as I came to. I squint opened my eyes as my head throbbed in pain.
"Agh!" What ran me over?
Looking around I found myself in a closed small opening (barely enough to move) between broken bricks, metal rods, and a bunch of dust. Cement. It's cement. I realized.
But then the memories came. Of the loud explosion before the ceiling of my apartment had collapsed upon me.
I grimaced. "Fuck!" My house was kind of my only belonging. And I'm pretty sure that my- or Greg's –Grandmother wouldn't buy me another house to live in.
PRT should provide some kind of support right? They wouldn't leave a kid to be homeless right?
Even I couldn't stop myself letting out a bitter chuckle at that. Even if they that much about a random civilian they don't have the funds to provide every person with a home. At most they'll chuck me into a refuge center…
This meant- on top of everything- I had to find a way to provide for myself after I get out of here.
At this point I was truly considering- and kind of regretting -my choice of not hightailing out of this city the first chance I had gotten.
It was just my luck that my apartment building would get caught up in Bakuda's bombing spree. Because what else could it be? Leviathan (or any Endbringer) would still have a month left before they act. And unless Empire suddenly decided to bomb an apartment mostly filled with white people (there were Asians and Blacks too but logically they wouldn't bomb the whole building if they wanted to get rid of them) this was the clear work of Bakuda as it was supposed to happen in canon.
I exhaled and tried to sit up. I need to get out of here, who knows how long it would take for rescue to arrive…
"Argh!" I howled as my chest and right leg throbbed in sharp pain. So my ribs and leg are broken… Just great!
Everything was going just swimmingly wasn't it?! I grit my teeth in frustration but sighed.
Think calmly. I wouldn't be getting out of here if I let my emotions run wild.
Still, at least I was still alive. Not many people would survive a building collapsing upon them. I was fortunate enough to have just finished my enhancement when it all came down.
And I was wholly unaccustomed to pain. Even in my past life I didn't have many injuries and never broke a bone because I was always too careful with things that could end up with me having injuries. So gritted my teeth and used my superhuman strength to try and push the boulder trapping my right leg aside.
SCREECH! My eyes widened and I braced myself as the rocks and bricks surrounding me shook from my action.
This… This was a Jenga tower, if I moved even a small rock the whole thing could come down upon me! I gulped but sighed in relief when the shaking stopped.
At least my leg got free. But I visibly grimaced when I saw the state of it. It was too gored to look at. I could barely even feel it right now.
This just proved to me that I would die if I stayed here. Either from suffocation or blood loss.
But…The weight upon me was too much- tons – and without my leg to support me it was impossible to remove the rocks trapping me here and endure the dominos that would fall alongside it.
With my enhanced sense of hearing, I was able to know that wherever I was, I was near the surface.
But waiting for a recue wasn't an option because of the blood loss.
So I looked down. Upon the high-tech watch upon my left wrist, Omnitrix, a device with potential to be the most powerful in the universe, faintly growing green as if knowing it was my only option. Let's what I can do…
…
My first purchase as a Tinker was a multi-purpose tool- a Swiss Army one to be precise –that I always carried it with me everywhere. After all, in a world like this, who knows when you might need it?
I was so glad that my general paranoia was coming in handy right now.
"Mainframe: Open." I started after I used the multi-tool to open the watch and access the programming dock.
"Access Code Accepted. Password Required." The neutral robotic voice said.
"One-Who-Is-Ten."
"Password Accepted. Welcome Greg. Opening Mainframe…" A holographic screen opened above the watch as I started tinkering.
"Battery charge?" I asked.
"Battery at 56%."
I bit my lip and nodded. It's less than I thought… But the enhancement procedure was pretty energy extensive, so I was lucky that in the time I was unconscious the watch had recharged a little.
And that would have to be enough.
Countless ideas went through my mind and were discarded either because of the energy extensiveness of them or because it would need parts that I currently didn't have.
Finally I settled on one, and started programming it into the watch.
Luckily, it seemed that Bakuda had been satisfied after bombing down the whole building because while I heard some loud explosions from around me they were far enough that I was able to do my tinkering in relative peace.
Who knows how much time later (because despite being a watch Omnitrix did not tell time) I stopped and exhaled as my work was finished.
By now my leg had started to go cold and was numb to the touch, if I was normal then there was no doubt that it would be lost. But now I have a solution. I thought as I pressed enter.
Zing!
A metallic alien sound went thought the watch as green sparks ran across it. "New Program Detected! Program: Patchbody Accepted!"
I sighed in relief as it seemed that the crucial time I spent on this did not go to waste.
"Scanning Host…! Critical Injuries Detected! Commence Program: Patchbody?"
"Yes." I nodded as I fought to stay awake. I had put every little last drop of concentration I had into making the program so I was feeling oh so tired.
It was a primal feeling almost. My body was screaming for rest and sustenance. I feel so hungry… I could almost see my half-eaten, deliciously juicy burger in my hand.
…It seems that the blood loss was more serious than I thought. But I knew if I fell asleep right now then I was doomed.
"Program: Patchbody Activated!" Omnitrix pulsed as a wave of green spark exploded out from it.
ZING~!
Crack! Crack! Pop!
"Agh!" I gritted my teeth as my leg and ribs snapped back into place. My wounds patched themselves back up
Patchbody was an extra program for Omnitrix. It scans and detects if a biological lifeform within a meter of it has critical injuries and with the Administrator's permission it uses a quarter of the battery to patch those injuries up.
It was basically like putting duct tape on a sinking boat. Because for whatever reason it doesn't regenerate blood.
It was amateurish, it was barely usable in the long-term but it was the best I could do right now.
And I can't use I again for a while. Because the battery was now-
"Battery left- 25%" A percent went while programming the feature and a quarter went when applying it.
But I was now for all purposes fixed… enough.
"I think I've got enough of this place for a while…" I muttered as I took a deep breath and settled into a crouched position. I used my legs, back and shoulders- distributing the enormous weight equally -and lifted the boulder above me.
Screech! I grit my teeth as I lifted who knows how many tones upon my back. In both my lives this would normally be a marvelous moment but unfortunately I was too busy trying to stay alive to think about those thoughts.
It was enormous. Enough for to almost think that I would be crushed… But my super strength held loyally and I started moving between the crevices made by the movements of the boulders.
BAM! BOOM! Almost instantly the rocks around me came tumbling down from all sides, intending to fill the hole that I had made with my movement. But I endured with my superhuman toughness, dug in, jumped, and used the metal rods to dig my way up. Out of the grave made for me by the scum of this city.
And finally-!
For the first time in hours… I saw light.
"I'M FREE!" I yelled out in pure joy as my arm breached the surface. If someone was observing me right now, there was no doubt they would think I'm a zombie or something.
I punched out my other arm and pulled myself fully out of the ground, and breathed the air of the surface. Hoooo…
The dirty polluted, smelly air that was tinged with the smell of a great fire…
My eyes snapped open and I finally looked around at the great and terrible destruction around me…
Buildings destroyed… Fires everywhere… People trying to rescue their loved ones… Police and fire brigade trying to douse the fires… Crushed bodies…
My happiness and relief at getting out were instantly dashed as I came face to face with the horrors of this enormous act of terrorism.
I closed my eyes and counted to ten as I strengthened my heart. It was not my first time seeing somebody die. The mines I worked at in my past life were not a gentle place and many people dies throughout the years I worked there; I had even seen a friend be crushed to death by a cave in as he tried to mine oil… A friend with whom I was eating lunch not ten minutes before.
Still... That was an accident and this was not.
It made me feel a small and low burning in my chest which made me frown heavily as I realized that I did not like it.
These people were sacrificed just so another superpowered villain could escape justice and wreak mayhem… Hundreds of lives uprooted just like that…
Sure, I did not know any of them. Who knows what kind of people they were? Some of them may have even deserved to die… But who decided that? Who decided that these people deserved to die?
Honestly, it was such a philosophical question that an uneducated person like me was way out of his pay-grade to answer it.
So I settled for a much simpler question for myself…
What would I do if my siblings were here? What would the morals taught to me by my father and mother tell me to do? If they could see me now, what would they be proud of to see me do in this situation?
And I arrived on the answer in a heartbeat.
"I wish I had more time to prepare…" I sighed as a wry smile spread across my face.
But when duty and responsibility calls, you answer. I sat up, dusted off my clothes and ran towards the rescue teams as I muttered.
"I guess it is time to be a hero."
…
[EDITED FOR SPELLING MISTAKES]
…
It's hero time baby.
1948 Words.
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