Hey everyone, it's been a month, that's for sure. Mom has gotten a patch or whatever it's called put in because her veins are small and it'll make it easier for doctors to give her medicine and draw blood, however that also means she has an open wound from surgery for a while. We think we got rid of the bed bugs when we bombed but obviously we're not sure, so that's a bit worrying. Right after that she had her first chemo treatment, I'm obviously not going to say when or anything specific but she's feeling okay so far, we need to wait a few days to see how it effects her but so far she's doing okay, also she's definitely going to be losing her hair before her next appointment, apparently the nurse just said that was a fact based on how strong her treatment is going to be or something like that IDK.
Most worrying though is how we got a letter from the water company, apparently we have lead in our pipes and it's our responsibility to get it fixed, which is thousands of dollars we don't have so obviously we'll just have to make do until some option comes up.
Then to ruin my week just that little bit extra I ended up getting sick and spending 5~6 days shitting my organs out, don't know why, food poisoning or a stomach bug maybe? Your guess is as good as mine.
I'm just deeply fucking annoyed honestly, can't even say I'm angry or worried, at this moment I'm just irritated and wondering who's going to be the next big bitch to cause problems in my life.
Anyway, deep breaths people, deep breaths. Let this be a lesson to everyone, it's perfectly fine to bitch and complain when everything is shit as long as you don't let it become your mindset, it's healthy to get the emotions out but you can't let it frame how you view everything, it's just a moment in time.
On to more positive notes.
We're going to be getting our first step into magic now, some characters will be tested and some progress will be made in terms of Ben's capabilities.
Also yes that's right, this is in fact a two parter! When I set out to write this I knew I wasn't going to be able to squeeze everything I wanted into even a dozen thousand words like I usually do so I decided the best route would be to split them in two, figuring out where I wanted to split it was actually the hardest part of this not going to lie.
And a genuine question, what do you guys think about the length of my chapters? I see some authors post only 1~2.k words while others post like 9.k, originally I was more consistently getting 4~5.k on average but I noticed I'm averaging around 10.k now. So would I be considered one of those authors who posts mega chapters? Since it takes me about a month to post a chapter usually I sometimes wonder if that's considered 'good' time for the amount I write or not.
Just me being curious mostly. Nothing really deep about it lol.
This chapter's kink'sSpoiler: Kink's
Louisiana/8:35pm/Museum Grand Opening Celebration
It's been three days since the fight with Rojo and I've been a bit busy.
The first day I tackled the biggest problem and tried recalibrating the dial and emitter in Gwen's bracelets, hadn't worked as well as I'd hoped since it was fundamentally just something I threw together but the fixes I'd made would keep the power from fluctuating too wildly. It wouldn't randomly shoot up or down two levels anymore, instead it would just be slightly more or less effective occasionally and the beam wouldn't have as good of a range as it could have, however I was going to start giving it a weekly inspection so it should improve further over time.
Then yesterday I'd sat down and started cross referencing the tech in the hoverboard with the antigravity tech in the robot drones, using the two I'd figured out the way to build a machine to produce anti-gravitons, I was still working on figuring out the actual scientific principles behind the machine and the anti-graviton particle and then figuring out graviton's, but I now at least understand the mechanical process to produce them.
Progress.
Using Grey Matter I'd then built a proper gravity producer and added it with my Ionizer design to create a miniature Iron man style glove, it was black fabric with intentionally goofy looking green plates. If I made a hand motion like a palm strike and flexed my fingers in the correct way it would flash a silly light and make noise, if I rotated the projector on my palm with my thumb though then it would fire a tight beam of ionizing energy contained inside a graviton sheath. I had no clue how it functionally worked since I'd had Grey Matter make it but I knew it would work, so it was a fair trade in my opinion.
We'd made good time and gotten all the way down to Louisiana, now on the third day Grandpa had insisted we take a break and relax, so after looking around Gwen had pointed us towards a big time museum's grand opening after some sorta fire or something caused it to shut down for repairs a couple years ago.
Apparently the community had helped a lot in donations and labor so it was a big deal, they'd even found a whole circus that was willing to set up nearby.
Magic was supposed to be real in this universe so why wouldn't I want to go see the 'Museum of Witchcraft and Mysticism'? Sounded pretty neat at least to me.
Walking with the tour group by the snack bar I take a moment to tighten my new glove, the strap would need to be refitted later and maybe I'd add some padding on the palm, it's always a lack of padding with these sortsa things. I grab a big bowl of popcorn for ten bucks and take a handful, sighing at the semi-warm buttery goodness, just wish I had some parmesan powder to sprinkle over it, that shit was amazing.
"I will admit the variety of human food is both fascinating and oddly pleasant from a humans perspective"
"Ooh~ Look at this mask!" Kayden grinned, pointing at a carved wooden mask of a laughing demon.
"Cool" I say casually looking it over, holding out the bowl for Kayden to grab a handful of popcorn.
Gwen on my opposite side grabs her own handful, saying in-between bites. "What? Don't like ritual masks? Not exciting enough for you?"
I eat a bite of popcorn and shrug. "Firstly it's a mask, not exactly that magical, unless Loki is secretly stuck in there. Secondly I'm pretty sure all this junk is stolen from like burial sites and sacred resting spots or some shit, you know like how the British museum does"
"Hey!" Gwen complains when I grab her soda and pull it close to take a drink, going red with anger, she glares at me. "Gross! Doofus cooties!"
I look at her flatly and eat some more popcorn. "Right, last I checked we're cousins, you're not going to catch anything. My point being is I don't really find this exciting"
"Isn't it taboo for humans to kiss their cousins? At least outside of Alabooma or whatever? Or does an 'indirect kiss' follow different rules?"
Leaning forward Kayden straight up took a huge bite of popcorn straight from the bowl, I jerked it back. "Oi! The fucks the matter with you! Were you raised in the street!?"
"...Ben, shut the fuck up you hypocrite, you literally just did the same thing to your cousin"
"Well I mean-" Gwen trailed off with a grin.
Pausing, I nodded. "Right, I forgot. She wasn't raised at all"
Gwen shakes her head. "Pity, those poor raccoons and New York rats, such a poor example of manners for them to learn from"
Gwen and I nod in sync while Kayden stares at us, her tone dry as she deadpans. "You two have to be bipolar, I swear. You switch targets from each other to everyone else faster than my Mother was at blaming me for..well…anything really"
"Uggh~" Gwen groaned sympathetically. "Tell me about it, my Mom's always on my ass"
I smirk smugly. "Heh~ Couldn't tell you what that's like, my parents are hippies. The most I've ever been forced to do is take tap when I was six"
I hold out the bowl and Kayden grabs some, rolling her eyes Gwen grabs a handful of her own. Kayden looking at her with puppy dog eyes makes Gwen reluctantly let Kayden have a sip of her soda.
"Ahh~" Kayden sighed before chuckling. "Wait, do you mean like tap dancing?"
I slumped as Gwen giggled and nodded. "Yep, doofus slipped and fell in the first two seconds, cracked his nose and everything. Total pair of two left feet"
"What can I say? Outside of fighting I'm just not that coordinated" I said defensively.
Kayden and Gwen giggled at my expense, I rolled my eyes and huffed. I was about to get my revenge by mentioning our eighth birthday party, when afterwards Gwen and I ended up sharing a hotel room and she wet the bed because we'd raided the hotel kitchen's store of soda, but right as I began to speak Gwen gasped and grabbed our hands with a big grin. "Look! They're about to talk about the main exhibit, come on!"
I rolled my eyes affectionately as the old museum lady started speaking. "-and behind this piece of impenetrable glass is the recently discovered and only known existing copy of the Archamada book of spells! It contains ancient witchcraft and rituals from the late sixteen hundreds…"
"It contains ancient witchcraft and rituals from the late sixteen hundreds" Gwen having said the exact same thing as the tour guide, who looked at her with a grimace and said in a rude tone. "Maybe YOU should work here…dear"
"Isn't it your job to teach? Shouldn't you be happy when someone knows this stuff?"
I frowned at the bitch, fake confusion in my tone as I say to Gwen. "Hey, where's the tour guide? Isn't it their job to put the mummy's back to sleep when they start walking around"
Kayden popped her knuckles. "I can give her some shut-eye alright"
I froze right as Gwen giggled as my rage lowered(Honestly who the fuck bully's a ten year old for being smart?!) enough that I could think about whatever sounded familiar to me at the moment, I turned to the exhibit and my eyes widened, oh fuck Hex-!
BOOOM!
I turned as crimson smoke smashed through one of the windows, before anyone could do more than scream in shock gravity reversed and everyone was dragged upwards twenty, thirty feet before being stuck to the ceiling with grunts, our limbs inexplicably being stuck to the roof like they were welded in place. I stared down as the pillar of smoke unfolded and solidified, I caught sight of Hex and..Charmcaster?!
"Magic? Yeah, no. Fuck this, I'm going back to sleep"
Spoiler: Hex, Charmcaster(mix of 1&2)
Uuh, what the hell?!
Hex looked gaunt and almost ghoulish, but the biggest surprise was Charmcaster. I couldn't see properly from this distance but compared to Hex she looked small and young, like almost thirteen or something. Her skin was dark instead of pale, her silver grey shoulder-length hair had one large bang on the right side of her face. She was wearing her usual dark purple leather long coat, long wide brimmed sleeves covered her arms along with an additional overhanging…flappy-thing of fabric that cover her shoulders and chest, the front of the coat split open at the bottom below the belt to show a frilly white skirt over dark leggings, her iconic bag hung at her hip from a leather strap that went over her chest.
I gulped instinctively, feeling my face grow hot as the hormones I'd only recently realized I'd been getting started to go in overdrive, the second go around making the onset of early puberty very clear, my young body and mind not exactly helping with the fact that my head immediately compared her face to that of my ex from my previous life. That girl had gotten me completely wrapped around her finger for nearly five years and it had been a long while before I could forget about her and move on.
Uuuhh..
Hex! Shit!
Right! Okay, sooo why the fuck is he here again?
Something something book and charms?
And why the fuck is Charmcaster so different? She's a different ethnicity and age and she's not even supposed to show up yet?
My thoughts were interrupted by Charmcaster holding up a hand that was glowing blue with lighter blue symbols circling around her hand, she spoke in a respectful tone that had a hint of satisfaction. "The levitation and imprisoning charm is stable Uncle! No one is going to be causing trouble"
"Good~" Hex said with a tone that made me uncomfortable having him looking after a child. "Your abilities are improving remarkably but remember to stay focused my niece, your talent will only make it easier, you still must keep equal focus on both interwoven charms"
"I know Uncle" Charmcaster said with the tone of someone who'd been told something multiple times but had to stay respectful.
I got an idea and grinned, started to collect saliva in my mouth and swish it around as Hex aimed his hand at the case. "Fahta-me-doof!"
Booom!
Pah-too!
"Heh, charming and heroic to the girls I'm sure"
As the case exploded onto shards I breathed in and spit as hard as I could, luckily Gwen, Kayden and I had been right next to the case and thus I was right above Charmcaster.
My loogie hit her right on the forehead with a gross splat, instantly the girl looked up at me grinning from my spot on the ceiling, wide eyed, her face turned to horror as she shrieked and started wiping at her head, the blue glow at her hand snapping out like someone cut the power.
I tuned back in to everyone else as we began falling, Kayden cackled having already absorbed a layer of the wooden ceiling as armor, Gwen and everyone else screaming as they fell. I pressed the button while holding the dial down, instantly triggering a random transformation as I thought. 'Come on watch, I need a way to keep everyone from getting hurt!'
A flash of green light-
Spoiler: "XLR8!"
The air trails sparks as everything freezes and I move, pushing hard enough with XLR8's inherent ability to manipulate friction that I for a short time push against the air itself, racing towards the ground and then running to move a large banner from the wall, cutting its tethers and tying them to displays to act as a ramp. The crowd falling and sliding down safely.
I raced over to the group as they picked themselves up and spoke just slow enough that they could understand me. "Grandpa, get everyone out of here. Gwen, Kayden, you two deal with Sabrina the tween bitch while I handle Mr ghoulish and proud"
"Right!"
"Okay!"
"You kids be safe!"
I raced over, tired from forcing my power to go so hard and moving so quickly, I was going slower now, so slow that Hex gets to aim his staff and mutter out some spell. Red-glowing crystal shards shoot from the mouth of his red glowing staff as his eyes glow a woody brown, Charmcaster looked about to help only to be distracted as she was shot by Gwen.
Focusing on my own fight, I'm too slow right now to properly move around the crystals, so instead I slide under and move around in zigzags which quickly proves to be the smart choice as when the shards hit the ground they each crack and explode into a fire ball.
Grabbing a shard of glass off the floor in the lul as Hex's spell dies, I twist and launch it with a whip of my arm, the tip of my arm cracking loudly like a whip.
Hex flinches back as a harsh jagged line of red instantly opens along his right arm, jerking back for just a moment before one of the charms at his collar glows and time seems to rewind as the skin closes on its own, yet that buys me enough time to send the next shard.
And the next.
And so on.
—
"Hhh-YAAH!"
Breathing deep and twisting with her hips like Red had shown her, she put her body weight and momentum in a punch to the stone floor, fracturing it and kicking up dust to block the silver haired bitch's line of sight, the stinging pins and needles that had been prickling her skin even through her armor fading immediately as she rolled away.
While she headed forward, keeping the witches attention, pushing to keep her on the back foot and smashing up the weird rock dogs. Gwen stayed further back, keeping one shield up as she sniped and distracted the enemy, they'd been practicing this kinda teamwork for the last few days while Ben was buzzing away in nerdvil.
"RRRHGH!~ You stupid fu-BRATS! Why'd you have to spit on me!? You absolute pigs! I'm going to turn you both into miniaturized charm figures!" The girl kept yelling, her face red with anger as she flung blue sparkling bolts of energy at them.
They'd been lucky enough to be training to dodge on instinct at this point since they'd found those bolts seemed to ignore their defenses to a degree.
Ben had been clear when he'd taken brakes to help with her training, dodge everything with as little effort as you can, deflect or parry if you have too and tank something only if you're prepared to get hurt, there's never any telling what an enemy is throwing around or what it'll do to you. Red had made a similar point in that it was good to move around and keep up steady pressure in a fight but you also had to be patient and let your opponent make moves, stay prepared and simply be ready as you wait, let them get frustrated and push at you then capitalize on it by leading them where you want.
She hadn't really understood till the third time Red had simply used her taekwondo or whatever and kept moving away from her, tiring her out and leading her into punching nothing but air or trees, before moving in and leaving her spinning around to the floor as she was put in a joint lock and give quite a few bruises, then later Red and Ben had sparred and spent just the first ten minutes bouncing around each other and throwing light jabs and shit till one of them ended up breaking the pattern, then it was over before she could blink, Ben with two wins and Red with three.
She blinked and shook herself out of her daydream as she grabbed one of the little rock dogs with both hands, smashed it into a second, then a third before pulling and splitting the thing in two.
She flung the stones at little Miss Sabrina and smirked, she called out. "Hey don't blame us you're inexperienced trading spit with a boy, you're meant to aim for each other's lips, not your fat forehead"
The rock paused mid air, glowing blue then shifted into spiked balls before the witch blushed even redder and grit her teeth, one ball was flung haphazardly at her which she dodged easily, the other broke up as the witch screamed in fury.
Red taking the opportunity to shoot the bitch in the leg as her attention wavered and the floating shields she had flickered briefly, moving closer she started throwing jabs in her rough boxer stance, trying to match the foot work Ben and Gwen had drilled into her but finding it difficult as she briefly drifted off to the thought of how the two had casually pushed and pulled her into position and instructed her and so cutely worked together, Ben being cute as he explained the technique and reasoning for stuff, while Gwen got so serious and tried more successfully to just show her…
The witch ducked her left cross and spoke some words, jerking her hand the floor rose and slammed into her stomach, coughing she backed up which gave the bitch the chance to hop backwards out of punching range before she caught her breath.
God damn it, she's going to get roped into more sparring with Red for that fuck up, her poor shoulders.
—
"Tabesco caix!"
Hex slams the butt of his staff into the ground, a ripple of pink energy bursts out and in slow motion the butt of his staff sinks into the stone floor as it ripples, my feet skidding as liquid stone splashes and I act on pure instinct.
Something in my brain tells me to.
I hop into the air, tapping the dial and feeling what I need to be, what I am, just like how I imagine my human body when transforming. There's a jolt in my brain like a spark jumping a connection, something clicks into place, then a flash of green light-
Spoiler: "Stinkfly!"
I gasp as the ground under me ripples from my wing beats, my momentum carrying me faster as my eyes shift, tear ducts open and my eyes move back, then as I pass by I spray Stinkfly goo into Hex's face.
"Aahghaaa!" Hex cried out as he was blinded from my passing by.
I turned and used the tip of my tail to knock the staff out of his hand, landing carefully as he fell back.
Hex clawed at the mucus slime covering his face, trying to tear it off, I wouldn't give him the opportunity. I reached up and pressed the dial on my face, thinking about what I'd done a moment before and the feeling of that sensation my body was overtaken by green light, my form shifting as cells were remade on the molecular level.
The ground tore up as I moved quickly, now in the form of XLR8 again, hitting Hex repeatedly as I moved in circles around him. The air traveled with me in the wake of my movement, the circular motions began to form a twister and Hex was lifted off the ground, unable to speak and completely overwhelmed as I systematically tore off each of the charms and knocked away the book from him.
Controlling the angle of the miniature tornado took some finagling, but I sent it U-turning back into the floor with a mighty crash and burst of stone dust that would have fractured the bones of a regular human, luckily it seemed magic users where more durable so Hex was simply left groaning on the floor with only a few broken bones.
"UNCLE HEX!" Charmcaster yelled and ran over, using a burst of blue energy to blind Gwen and Kayden.
I kept a grip on the charms and raced to grab Hex's staff, my tail grabbing the book as Charmcaster raced past, keeping them away from her grip as she grabbed onto her uncle and they both exploded into a fog of red smoke before disappearing without a trace.
The muscles in my skull/visor/helmet flex and the face covering pulls upwards to free my face, I take a refreshing breath of air as the elderly tour guide runs over, I carefully move my tail to hide the book out of her line of sight before she can catch a glance at it.
"Oh thank you, thank you for saving everyone! You're a hero!" She said with a large grateful smile.
I gave my best approximation of a grin, feeling just a tad guilty as I nod. "It's all in a day's work Ma'am, I'm sorry I couldn't stop them from grabbing the book at the last moment. But please could you lead everyone outside so they can be checked on once the authorities arrive? It's better to make sure no one got hurt and I'm not sure if the fighting may have damaged the building or something"
The lady looked startled for a moment before nodding seriously. "Yes! Right, of course!"
As she quickly moved and started calling everyone into forming orderly lines outside Grandpa quickly came over and grabbed my arm, his teeth grit and voice low. "Ben! What are you doing?! You can't seriously be stealing the book?"
I look him in the eye and say in an equally quiet and serious whisper. "I can and am Grandpa. I have no clue what this book is but that guy obviously wants it and will be after it again! It is clearly dangerous and I have no clue how many people he'd hurt with it but I do know that he'll hurt the people here if we leave it!"
Grandpa Max looked conflicted but I didn't have time to worry as I yanked my arm from his grip, the Omnitrix beeping as I spoke. "I don't like doing it but it's the best option I have"
Before he could reply I'd already raced away towards the Rustbucket, feeling bad but unwilling to compromise when this wasn't a game, people could be killed over this fucking book.
—
The Rustbucket rumbled to a stop, the inside quiet except for the click-clack of my fingers on Gwen's laptop.
Grandpa Max sighs and turns off the RV, his voice is quiet and tight, strained with conflicting emotions. "Ben. I'm very disappointed in you, you know you shouldn-
"I don't care" I interrupted blandly without looking up.
"BENJAMIN KIRBY TENNYSON!"
"Holy-mmhm!?"
I type for a few more moments before stopping and looking up. Grandpa is standing, his face red and his eyes wide, gripping the headrest in a white knuckle grip. Gwen across from me had quickly covered Kayden's mouth and the two were shrunk back, trying to not get involved obviously as they looked between me and Grandpa.
Silently I grab the laptop and twist it around so they can see the screen, my voice not changing as I stare Grandpa in the eye unflinchingly. "I used pictures of these charms and cross referenced them with some words I found in the book. Supposedly their apart of a set of magical artifacts called the Charms of Bezel, there's ones for luck, fire, levitation, reincarnation, and this book apparently holds thousands of dark magic spells that only grow stronger with each of these charms"
"Let me be clear. I don't care about whatever the law says or if other people agree with my morals, it's all words on paper to me" I wave my hand in a dismissive flick for emphasis. "I care about doing what I think is right"
"You think stealing is alright?!" Grandpa demanded.
I shrugged. "If it saves lives, sure. Besides the museum isn't exactly innocent, I'm not sure whosever corpse those mummies were consented to having all their stuff in their tombs stolen and then getting displayed like a trophy. Similarly I'm fairly certain this book is almost definitely stolen from an old burial site in Massachusetts"
"You've been like this all summer, I was willing to let it pass because I trusted you but-" Grandpa hesitates, not sure of his wording before apparently deciding. "You've been repeatedly defiant, charging head first into danger on multiple occasions and now this, I can't keep letting you behave like this"
"Respectfully, you can't stop me"
"Ben!" Gwen screeched in horror and was subsequently ignored.
I leaned back, arms crossed and resolute, Grandpa staring in shock at me, then his face grew hard and he stepped forward, leaning and resting his hands on the table as he spoke. "Excuse me?"
However, I wasn't a child and couldn't be intimidated. "I love you Grandpa but you're not my Father and even if you were, if you tell me to do something I think is going to get people killed then I'm not going to do it. Leaving the book at the museum would give Hex or whatever his name is reason to come back, and without us there he'll have free reign, there's no guarantee he'll be as merciful to whoever is around after losing once already"
I leaned forward and asked seriously. "Tell me honestly. Do you think he wouldn't just blow open the wall, start shooting those magic exploding crystals he used on me and kill everybody then grab the book from the rubble?"
Grandpa reared back, his eyes widening at my mildly graphic imagination, then he closed his eyes and rubbed his face.
He whispered low enough that I barely heard him. "...Max, you're fighting with a ten year old.."
Well that's demeaning but sure.
"Look Ben" Grandpa Max said after a moment, straightening up. "I..I understand you're trying to keep people safe, I think you doing that is very respectable. However you cannot solve your problems by just taking the book for yourself, I may not be your Father but I am your Grandfather and this is my home, while you have good intentions your actions and defiance are not the way to go about it. You're grounded from performing anymore experiments, inventing or using your aliens outside of saving people from immediate danger for a week"
I raised an eyebrow but decided I didn't care enough to continue, instead I just stood up and started gathering everything up, though I couldn't help myself but let out a parting shot. "Whatever, guess next time I'll just leave a problem that I know will get people killed while I wait for your morals to decide how to handle it. I'm going to figure out where to store this stuff"
Grandpa flinched at my biting tone and insult, however he just turned and headed back to the front of the RV.
Gwen blinked in surprise. "Wait, he just gets to keep them?! After all that complaining about him stealing he still gets the cool souvenirs?"
"Yeah. He knows I'm right and is just mad about it" I grumble angrily, Grandpa Max doesn't look back or say anything but he does sit down very forcefully
Before I turned away as well I grabbed the Charm of Luck and flicked it towards Gwen, who quickly caught it with a startled and confused sound, I smirked. "There you go Gwen. A souvenir of your own, for luck"
"H-huh?..t-thanks?" Gwen blushes embarrassed for some reason and I shrug.
"Ehh. Someone deserves something good from all this" I say as I head to the back to find somewhere to put everything.
"Eww!" Gwen pulls her spit covered hand off Kayden's mouth, who proceeds to pout and cross her arms muttering. "I didn't get any souvenir"
Street Market/12:27am/Later
So yeah Grandpa and I had a fight. But at least we got to still go out to the street market and eat, since it was already late enough that no one wanted to cook and he didn't feel like 'us getting in an argument was a reasonable reason to keep Gwen and Kayden from having fun out', which I agreed with.
Gwen and Kayden had both gotten to play a game of 'knock over the pyramid of cups' and won some weird masks, a black and purple half face cat mask for Gwen and a mainly gun-metal grey demon mask for Kayden with some red highlights(she just had to be extra about it).
Then they'd made their way over to a seafood restaurant having a special discount on crawfish, so they'd chosen to eat there. It was actually a fairly fancy place with waiters and waitresses wearing tux's and fancy dress uniforms, they had like a dozen different silverware that I ignored and Kayden looked like a startled cat as she hesitantly picked at her food with a fork unsure what to do.
I snickered and stole a crawfish off her plate, giving an angry glare at me she complained. "Hey! That's mine you thief!"
"Heh~ Really? Cause from what I saw little miss delinquent looked like she wasn't sure how to act with manners~" I teased making her growl angrily till I waved my hand. "No no. It's very cute, makes you look adorable when you're all confused and trying to be fancy"
Kayden blushed even brighter red and growled, angrily she fired back. "Y-yeah? Well what about you huh? Of course the dork knows all about fancy silverware and how to eat with your pinkie out or whatever!"
"Oh I know Jack all about any of this" I admit with a shrug before going in for the kill. "I'm just confident and don't care what others think, you should try it. You're far more beautiful looking when you act confident~"
Kayden gapes and her jaw moves silently, steam almost coming from her forehead as she turns into the same shade of red as our food. When her voice comes back she turns away in an embarrassed huff. "..W-whatever. Of course an idiot like you has to fake knowing stuff and get by on confidence, just wait till I beat you up. Then you'll be lucky if you know your own name.."
"And yet I'd never forget your name…uhh..Kaley?" At the first part Kayden goes back to staring in silent embarrassment, then it turns to anger as I pretend to forget her name making me laugh as she punches me in the arm. "No no, don't worry. Such a beautiful name deserves to be remembered. Kayden~ Kay~ Kay-ay~ Kay-Kay~-
Kayden slugs me in the arm again and covers her face, groaning. "Shut the fuck up"
Smirking smugly I eat the last crawfish off my plate, I see Gwen staring at me and turn to her, she's frowning angrily.
At my confused look she says. "I've been counting and you've had almost thirty crawfish to my nine and Kayden's thirteen, you've had almost as much as Grandpa. Soon you're going to be the only hero rolling into battle"
I just go to grab the last crawfish off the center plate. "May as well make it a full thirty then, I can work off the calories in my morning workout"
"Hey no! That's mine damn it!" Kayden complained and jumped forward for it.
I was distracted as the charm around Gwen's neck glowed and we bumper into each other, I lost my footing as I tipped backward, slipping I grunted as I fell into Gwen's lap. I missed what happened next beyond hearing a commotion as I ended up looking up at a blushing Gwen, I chuckled. "Heh~ Hey, act as a landing pad often?"
"You better not make it a habit doofus" Gwen huffed, rolling her eyes as she looked away.
"EEEEHHHEE~AAAHHH!"
Only for Gwen's eyes to widen in shock as I heard Kayden squeal, turning to look as well I see a bowl of crawfish dumped on her head and her fighting desperately to pull one of the squirming things out of her nose where it had dug itself, Gwen and I begin laughing uncontrollably.
"-FUCK! FUCK! IT'S IN MY NOSE! FUCKIN-CHRIST'S OVER USED CUNT!-" Kayden yelled and whined repeatedly as she pawed at herself.
"Hehehahahe~ Kayden, kiddo, please hold still. Hehahaaha" Grandpa Max's shoulders were shaking as he got up and started trying to help Kayden.
People were staring, a waitress ran over to help looking mortified, a waiter was very slowly sneaking away.
Meanwhile Gwen and I were damn near pissing ourselves, Gwen was sitting so she couldn't fall but from where I'd fallen I had to wrap my arm around her shoulder to keep from tipping over, her hands bunched up in my hoodie, tears where running down my face and Gwen was grinning as she snorted unable to help herself, a red blush coloring her cheeks.
CRASH!!
"HANDS IN THE FUCKING AIR! THIS IS A ROBBERY!"
Everyone jumps in shock when the door to the restaurant gets bashed in by a group of three teenagers, one was a skinny blonde white boy that screamed 'spoiled teen rebel' with a metal pipe, behind him were two larger teens, one fat black boy with bleached blonde hair and the other a white boy with dyed blue hair that was built like a brick shit-house, both easily six foot plus.
I quickly jumped to my feet only to discover a few problems. I was still laughing, Gwen was still holding on to me and my shoe stepped down on a crawfish as I stood and turned. Thus this caused me to trip and fall back against the table, flipping it, crashing onto the floor and pulling Gwen down onto me.
There was a yell and a loud crash followed by the sounds of fighting but I was too distracted to think about that, instead I was stuck looking up wide eyed at Gwen, nose to nose as we stared into matching emerald eyes.
Gwen blushed and I chuckled. "Well, I'm lucky it was only nine crawfish or I'd be the flattest hero. Hehe~"
Gwen glared and swatted my chest before sitting up. "Tch~ Whatever, you're lucky you are useful as a cushion of lard"
I chuckle and sit up, rubbing my aching head. Gwen and I glance around to see Grandpa has one of the boys in a head lock, the other skinny one is laying on the floor with a bunch of food and plates all smashed over his head, the buff third one though seemed to have tripped and ended up with a potted plant falling on top of his head.
…ouch.
I glanced over at Gwen's necklace. Yeah, I'd forgotten how absolutely cracked that charm was…there had to be some sorta activation condition or something, right?
"Here dweeb" I said, holding out a hand to Gwen as I got to my feet.
Gwen let me pull her up and she huffed. "Thanks doofus"
We glanced around to see the staff were directing everyone to stay calm while calling the cops and Grandpa was keeping the teens restrained, I could see some waiters and waitresses head outside to probably wait for the cops. Did I need to do anything here, I didn't think so.
I heard Gwen sigh and turned as she walked past me, only to blink as I realized she was grabbing Kayden, who was still covered in crawfish and pulling her towards the bathroom.
…
Why did it look like Kayden was sniffling though?
—
"-move a bit to the left-my left-thats it-" Gwen directed Kayden as they stood in the empty girls bathroom.
Kayden was missing her shorts and shirt at the moment, Gwen had gotten her out of those so they could shake them out later, and now she was carefully helping Kayden brush off the crawfish and get a few stubborn ones out of her hair.
Kayden's eyes were ringed red along with her cheeks, she sniffled and looked away, it was clear that she and Ben had been a bit too enthusiastic about laughing.
"I'm sorry" She apologized. "Ben and I mess with each other a lot and laugh it off all the time, we're used to laughing at each other and it's not that big a deal for us. I didn't mean to be hurtful, I know Ben definitely didn't, we just kinda forgot that you weren't totally used to our routine, you're..so good with Ben that I forget you haven't actually been here that long"
Kayden sniffled and grabbed her shorts, she started flapping and smacking them, getting any more crawfish off them before carefully looking them over, sullenly she said. "I..I hate stupid slimy, wriggly critters…I've been 'the freak' so much, my family, friends I make, random people living near me on the street, I've always had to be concerned about my powers and how people see me. Even with you guys, I have to tell myself that it's just in my head…Ben acts like I'm interested, like I'm one of his cool machines that absolutely fascinates him…but that makes me feel like if I don't fascinate him then..he'll just move on…"
Gwen couldn't help snorting and shaking her head. "Yeah you're probably not wrong. He's an idiot and easily distracted but that doesn't mean he doesn't care, he'll figure something out then immediately jump to something else, he'll get lost in whatever it is and then just forget about people"
Kayden sniffled again and tried to turn away but she grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face her again. "BUT, there's two important things you have to remember. One is that he's an introvert and a buzz kill, he needs time by himself to recharge and someone who can grab him and pull him away to go do stuff before he becomes all depressed and alone. And two, the only thing he enjoys more than figuring stuff out is trying to figure out how to explain and teach stuff to someone who is interested in what he's doing, so he'd always pop back up to tell you about something nerdy"
Kayden smiled faintly and chuckled wetly.
Gwen sighed and scratched at her cheek, blushing as she glared and said. "I'm going to admit something embarrassing, something I've never told anyone. You tell Ben and I'll beat your fucking ass, got it?"
Kayden held up her hands in mock surrender.
Gwen sighed again and found herself beginning to speak. "Ben and I have known each other our whole lives, there's pictures of us hitting each other over the head with blocks when we were in diapers for Pete's sake. And…in all that time Ben's always been the confident one, the brazen and stubborn one, he's always been…smart, smarter than any other kid or hell even most adults, the favorite star of his parents and the one my parents pushed me to be like"
"The only reason my parents don't constantly praise him is because of how unrepentantly..BEN he is!" She hissed in frustration, her eyes tracing the tiled floor. Ben probably fucking knew how to do tiled flooring or some shit. "He curses and is defiant and he's somehow the laziest asshole I've ever met, yet he'll fight anyone if he sees a problem. I've seen him argue with his and my parents, fight bullies twice his size and scold mean teachers, hell I once saw him cuss out a teacher for being mean to a kid in a wheelchair"
Kayden giggled next to her and Gwen realized she was smirking and her eyes were wet, huffing embarrassed she wiped at her eyes. "Bastard. My parents are always "Why did you get a B? Ben didn't even try and he got an A, you need to work harder" or "You're so well behaved, much more preferable to being intelligent and obnoxious like Ben"... and then he'd come by and help me with my homework or give one of the popular girls who stole my lunch an atomic wedgie, he's always an asshole and I can't even be mad because of how nice he is about it"
Shyly she looked at Kayden who was looking at her with a look of concern, she sniffled and felt embarrassed at making this about her when she'd been trying to relate. "M-my point is that…I'm 'the responsible one', it's how I was raised to be and how I've always been. I'd call Ben 'the perfect one' if he wasn't SO…HIMSELF! Hahhh~ That's largely what I'd call him, 'the Ben one'"
She put a hand on Kayden's shoulder and looked into her eyes. "That's the main thing I've learned from him, even if I can't do it very well myself, it's to be utterly unrepentantly, disgustingly yourself and completely unashamed about it. That you can learn from mistakes and improve without changing yourself, no matter how embarrassing or awkward or how much people dislike it, being enthusiastically you and telling everyone else to fuck off is okay"
Kayden stared at her for a long moment, emotions swirling in her dark brown eyes, Kayden smirks and giggles before leaning towards her.
Mwah~
Gwen freezes, blushing as she feels Kayden kiss her on the cheek, staring at the slightly taller girl slack jawed.
Kayden steps back and grabs her shirt, starts flapping it and cleaning it off just like with her shorts, speaking in a teasing tone as she slips it on. "You both are such dorks. Hehe~ Thanks!"
Kayden waved before quickly running out of the bathroom, the dark room lit faintly by her glowing necklace that reflected off the mirrors…
…
"…Eeeehhhuuugghhh~"
Gwen whines and covered her face mortified, both from the kiss and because she figured that based on how things have gone that this charm was the one that messed with luck or whatever, so this was a lucky turn of events for her huh?
So embarrassing!
Rest Stop/7:45am/Next Morning
I groaned tiredly in bed, turning into my pillow to try and cover my ears from Grandpa's snoring and the repeated sound of a ball being thrown outside, in my ear a weird faint hissing sound can be heard.
"-can youhh go an-o be qui-"
Pulling my head out of my pillow with a confused groan I look around, Grandpa still snoring away and Kayden looks to still be laying in Gwen's bed, glancing outside I see Gwen is outside playing ball.
"...Did you just fucking hear me?!"
Frowning, I ask tiredly. "Kayden, you say something?"
"Huugh~? Yeheah shurh" Kayden mumbled before rolling over.
I glanced down at the Omnitrix on my wrist and narrowed my eyes suspiciously. Frowning, I sat up and started digging into the drawers under my bed, taking out a fresh pair of clothes and slipping them on.
Once I put on my shoes I glanced down at my wrist and glared. "If you're in there you halloween reject then you better stay there, you're in my head so you know what I'll do to you"
"Bring it on brat. When I get out of here I'll teach you what a true body snatcher can do"
I pull open the Rustbucket door and head outside only to pause and stare as Gwen while facing away from the basketball hoop throws the ball behind her, it bounces off a bench, lands on a telephone line and proceeds to roll before tipping over and falling directly through the net.
"Nothing but the bottom of the net again!" Gwen cheered.
I walked over and picked up the ball then headed over to her, giving her a flat look I asked dryly. "I'm going to hazard a guess that that charm is definitely the one for luck"
"Yeah, it just seems like whenever it glows everything goes my way" Gwen said with a wide grin.
Until I pointed something out. "Except it didn't help Hex"
I act like I'm going to throw the ball high and Gwen jumps with her arms up to catch it only for me to lower my arms and throw it at her face, her eyes widened and her head cracked back as the ball smacked against her face.
She landed on her feet and grabbed her nose, groaning at how it was probably bruised. "Ow! You fucking dick! What was that for?"
I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms. "Luck didn't help you much did it?"
Gwen's eyes widened and I continued to press my point. "And you didn't hit that net, the charm did"
"Hey! Well, you don't do any of those heroics! It's just your stupid watch" Gwen said getting defensive.
I shake my head. "No, the watch transforms me but I'm still the one who has to do all the tricks, I do everything and the watch just gives me more paths, all the fighting, all the planning. You're using that charm as a crutch"
"You are just as skilled as I am even if I'm more diverse, you should have easily caught that ball" I pointed at the ball then at the hoop. "And I know for a fact you can make that shot, I've seen you do it before. You're bumbling around and letting the charm do everything while you just follow along, anyone could do what you're doing right now and that's not like you, you're just as skilled as me damn it, ACT like it"
Gwen blushed, gritting her teeth she complained. "I'm just goofing around"
"Yes but you won't be when you're out saving people, you are going to be helping save people I assume?" Gwen looks back at me with a look of shock and wonder, like she's surprised I'd let her help or something. "You need to have a plan when you do stuff, even I always loosely have an idea of what I'm going to do, your charm should only ever be a tool that you utilize to make things easier and fill in gaps where necessary, not blindly trusting it to solve everything. Luck cannot fix the impossible, Hex fought me and I don't remember that charm even blinking, so first lesson as a hero"
I step closer to Gwen and poke her charm then my watch. "These are just tools, if you don't make use of your natural abilities and use these things to enhance what you could already do you'll find yourself in a situation where you're without them and have absolutely no clue how to get out"
Gwen stared at me for a moment, silently, before slumping her shoulders and sighing. "God I hate when you actually give good advice~"
"Yeah, yeah, you can complain while you're alive to do so" I say before turning to go grab the ball.
I knew I was going to lose the game, hell I was going to get embarrassed, after all I'd hopefully just taught her how to properly apply her powers and I already was terrible at the game anyway. However it would give her a chance to practice her powers and she deserved something to cheer her up, also it was sorta fun to act like a salty bitch with family when you lost a game or they pissed you off and just enjoy the moment, you gotta enjoy all aspects of life after all.
I picked up the ball and called out. "Alright, let's play a round or two"
Gwen and I turn as the RV opens and Kayden rushes out, we'd gone to the store and gotten her some cheap black tops which she seemed to prefer, she called out. "Hey! We about to play a game of basketball? Count me in!"
Gwen smiled brightly. "Sure! Come on"
"Yeah you can be on my team, Gwen has her charm so you can get embarrassed right alongside me" I said cheerfully.
Suddenly Kayden looked less sure. "Uhh~ Maybe I can be on her team instead? 'If you can't beat them' and all that right? What's the point in fighting the inevitable?"
I just laughed and patted her on the shoulder. "Kayden you're a hero now, the whole point is fighting and delaying the inevitable, giving people one more day. So come on and let's make Gwen work for her win"
"Oh yeah!" Kayden roared, my little inspirational speech seemingly putting fire in her eyes.
The three of us laughed and turned to the basketball court, ready to have some fun. Of course, then the universe had to fuck it up.
BOOM!
CRASH!
We turned and stared at the nearby construction site as the crane finished slamming into the scaffolding, somewhere in the building something must have been damaged because I could see fire and two workers desperately trying to hold on as the lift they were in began swinging, above them the metal cord that held them up was beginning to fray.
I start looking through my aliens, turning the dial and considering different approaches.
Behind me I hear the RV open and Grandpa comes stumbling out, obviously having been woken up, he takes one look and says in a hurried voice. "Ben! Those people are going to fall! Go save them!"
"Really? You sure it's not some stunt or maybe there's some city law about proper procedure for something like this? Maybe we should call a lawyer first, I'd hate to break the law" I say sarcastically with all of the bitchy attitude that would fit in a ten year old.
Turning to Kayden and Gwen I speak more seriously. "You two figure out some way of stopping that crane and helping whoever is running it, try and do it without exposing yourselves. I'll handle the workers"
"Uhh..oka-Aaahhh!" Kayden said unsurely before getting grabbed by Gwen pulled towards the RV, Gwen calling back. "We'll handle it! We have to get changed into our costumes first!"
"Costumes?!" Kayden squaked before the RV door slammed closed.
That taken care of and a plan in my head I pressed down on the dial, the familiar feeling of being reborn taking hold through a green flash of light.
Spoiler: "Stinkfly!"
I breathe, my wings flap and with barely a hop I'm dancing on air, my four eyestalks fanning out to get a wide view of the construction site as I drew close.
Glancing behind me I could already see Gwen and Kayden running out of the RV in clothes I couldn't exactly see well, just that they were dark purple and black for Gwen while Kayden had a more gunmetal grey and red color scheme.
My eyes slide back, a gland tenses and similar to a mix of unfocusing your vision and sneezing on command, thick viscous mucus shoots as four shots into the flames causing them to back off.
The two workers glance up at me in shock and panic, scrambling to get a firmer grip due to their fear of the giant fuck off bug. I land myself on one of the fraying wires and grab the two ends, holding them tight and using the surprising amount of force Stinkfly can produce in short bursts in order to give the damaged part some slack, I yelled down to the two scrambling men.
"Hey! You two idiots! I'm here to help you, so quit panicking and flailing or you're going to fall!" I said, causing the two to completely freeze as they slowly looked up at me in horror, sigh, guess the girl was a one-off. "Try and stand up so I can grab you!"
The two men looked at each other until the whole scaffolding box or whatever shook and I yelled at them. "Hurry the fuck up! I don't have human stamina and endurance, I can only do this for another minute max!"
It was actually fairly interesting, humans before being owners of the planet had been apex predators for two reasons, our ability as craftsman letting us create tools for things we couldn't do naturally and secondly, our ability to sweat and adapt to intense strain leading to a massive level of endurance, we had the highest stamina of any animal on earth with us being able to potentially go days performing straining activities like running down game in the wild.
There was a reason horror movies always had chase scenes and why they instinctively scared us, because that was our brains telling us we were being hunted.
I'd noticed it when transforming into other aliens, many of them didn't have much stamina, Heatblast and Diamondhead were the big exceptions with them both having massive amounts of endurance that made me feel like I just didn't get tired at all, but with XLR8 when it started to get close to the ten minute mark my joints would start hurting and I'd feel sluggish like coming down from a sugar high or like I needed a sandwich.
With Fourarms he was weird, he had stamina but only when he was still, it felt like I'd stored away fat for the winter whenever I was idle, but the moment I moved it was like a rush, bursting with chemicals and rushes of intense energy with every muscle movement, so much so my body felt warm from it.
Why was this important?
Because Stinkyfly was the genetic peak of a relative ten year old of his species, the peak physical and mental condition of what was genetically possible, and I could only handle holding this wire slack for maybe two minutes total before I simply couldn't, I wasn't sure if the wire wouldn't immediately snap from the strain but it was frayed enough that I didn't trust it wouldn't just unravel.
Luckily the two guys pulled each other up enough to plant their feet and reach up towards me, I lowered down my tail and ordered them. "Grab my tail and I'll lift you up to grab you!"
They hesitated for just a second before jumping up and grabbing on to my sensitive tail!
Hissing I flapped my wings and began lifting myself upwards, letting go of the cable I was proven right to worry as the cable immediately snapped and the two men lost their footing, their grips on my tail growing painful as I began flying down slowly and curling my tail upwards to grab a hold of them and pull them up into my arms.
They grabbed on tight, the two men were pale and sweaty with clear looks of panic still but they were doing well controlling themselves, they were far braver than many would be in their situation.
Dust and debris were kicked up as I gently set down and let the two men go, turning and racing off back into the air without a word, I turned back towards the building. There was still a fire that needed to be put out.
I headed towards one of the unfinished open walls that fire was pouring from and began spraying it down with mucus to smother the flames, the slime having the feeling and texture that was a mix of rubber, wet cement and warm oatmeal.
Landing gracefully once I'd cleared a space for myself I reached up and pressed the Omnitrix dial, thinking back to before on what I'd instinctively done, the feeling of changing and the feeling of the form I wanted.
I pushed through that feeling of changing and simply believed I was that form, feeling it as fact with the certainty of having had that body before, then I was swallowed in green light.
Spoiler: "Heatblast!"
And I began to get started on absorbing the flames.
—
"God I feel silly" Kayden whined.
She shook her head and pushed her out the door. "You look fine, now come on!"
"Gwen? Kayden?" Grandpa asked, turning towards them with a confused look.
"It's Lucky Girl Grandpa!" She said with a grin.
With Kayden's help and the few trinkets they'd bought recently she'd thrown on a quick costume, it was a black full body jumpsuit with a purple sash around her waist, black gloves protected her hands while she wore black flats that she'd gotten ages ago and never worn. To cover her face she was wearing the black and purple cat mask she'd bought from the market, it had purple satin ribbons that held it to her face and matched her sash.
Kayden meanwhile had grabbed a pair of plain gray jogging pants, boots, a thick baggy long sleeve shirt to 'break up her profile' and a gray and red demon mask. Oh and she had her anti-crazy bracelets and tiara or whatever.
"Uhh…" Kayden floundered for a second trying to think up a name. "..Absorbing Girl?"
Gwen felt herself slouch as the atmosphere was ruined. "Ben and I will grab a dictionary and we can think up good names later"
"Yeah, that'd be good" Kayden nodded before they both began running.
"OVER HERE! SOMEBODY!?"
They turned to go help a guy who was stuck in a truck, one of the metal construction beams having fallen onto his truck and trapped him.
"Don't worry! We'll get you out!" She called as they ran up to him.
Kay-Absorbing Girl glanced around. "How? Any ideas Red?"
Uhh..She looked it over, looked around.
Doofus saving the two guys about to fall.
Cement mixer truck.
Crane driving back away from the building.
How could they move the metal beam-?
Ohh~ Right, she's an idiot.
"Alright Absorbing Girl, absorb the metal beam and pull it like this, make it roll backwards off the truck, carefully" She instructed, gesturing and mainly going off what she guessed would work to keep the guy from getting hurt.
"Sounds like a plan!" Absorbing Girl grinned and grabbed the metal beam.
The worker looked like he was about to say something only for him to stop and stare wide eyed and slack jawed as metal quickly covered AG's hands, sliding smoothly down her forearms, soaking into her clothes and within a moment she gleamed like a living statue.
AG grunted and pulled, the beam rolling onto its side and slipping off towards the back of the truck with a crash, the vehicle rocked and metal groaned before a pop rang out, the frame of the door literally stretching out. Grinning AG didn't need any directions and just grabbed the door and tore it off.
She held out her hand and helped the man out as he thanked them, nodding and pointing towards where civilians were gathering. "You're welcome Sir. Please hurry over there were it's safe"
The man nodded and ran, quickly joined by the two people Ben had just saved, the jerk didn't even glance at them and flew back towards the building, probably to deal with the fire.
"AAAAHHHHHUUGHHH!"
She turned to see one of the workers pointing at the crane, it had stopped driving backwards luckily, a bit of metal having fallen from the building and stabbed through the left most tread while they were working, but it seemed the driver was panicking inside, trying to turn it off and only making things worse as it spun slowly back around.
"Absorbing Girl!" She pointed to the base of the crane where it spun. "Pick up that beam again and get ready to launch it right there at the crane when I tell you!"
She took off without paying attention to the affirmative, instead thinking of how she was going to get onto the crane.
She moved quickly, strength filling her as she jumped up on some fallen construction supplies and ran over them as a ramp, front flipping end over end before sticking the landing gracefully.
Wide eyed, she giggled as she kept her careful balance on the moving vehicle, she grabbed and pulled open the already slightly ajar door, the panicking worker turned to her. "Huh?! Little lady you ain't suppo-!"
"Shut up you idiot! We need to move!" She glared and yelled at the dumbass, frowning for a moment before she couldn't help grinning.
Before he could say anything else she grabbed him, pulled while twisting her hips and jumped, using the principals of judo and the man's weight to send them tumbling away.
As they rolled she yelled out. "Absorbing Girl! Now!"
They came to a stop between two work benches that they crashed into, the benches sliding to cover them as she saw AG grunt and launch the metal beam with a screeching wrench of metal and a twisting whip of her arm, like she was throwing a fast ball.
The metal beam slid on top of the smashed truck before sailing like a high speed spear, in a fraction of a second it smashed into the space between the crane's tread and door, where it spun around, the whole thing instantly stalled and almost twisted under its own weight.
The crane tilted and tore from its base, falling on its side, the beams it had been carrying were taken with the momentum and tipped, instead of smashing into the building they fell and planted themselves into the dirt as the crane landed with a crash.
She coughed and waved her hand in front of her face, the dust kicked up from the crash blocking her vision for a moment as she wiped at her eyes.
"Hey! Gw-Great job! Lucky girl! You good under there?" Absorbing Girl could be heard along with the sound of her running over.
The two benches that had kept any little bits of metal or rock from hitting them were moved aside and she looked up at her partner, giving the girl a deadpan stare as AG tried to grin.
She replied flatly as she started to stand up. "Perfectly fine Absorbing Girl"
AG winced and held her hands up, the metal coating crumbling away. Gwen glanced down to see the worker was groaning and pale but looked fine, she then glanced around, she didn't see anyone hurt but some construction workers and civilians were slowly heading back inside the site now that everything looked safe along with a news crew that was rushing over.
The sharp jet sound could be heard as those people slowed down with nervous expressions, unconcerned she and AG turned to see Ben flying, fucking flying, down as Heatblast.
He tapped the dial and transformed into XLR8 before looking them over.
"I'm Lucky Girl, she's Absorbing Girl" She told him quietly.
"Good job with the rescue work, names are ass though" The professional critic says.
"Excuse me! Excuse me! Yes, how did you three pull off this amazing rescue if you don't mind me asking?" Before they could go into their usual bickering a camera man and female news reporter ran up.
They turned, Ben taking center place with her on his right and AG on his left, he put a clawed hand on each of their shoulders casually, his visor sliding up to show an alien grin. "Teamwork and skill"
"And a bit of luck" She added in cheerfully with a bit of smugness, now that she felt the adrenaline coming down enough that she could even notice it she found herself excited as fuck.
Getting to be so spontaneous and loud was so fucking fun, way more refreshing than school...she was going to start doing this just as stress relief if nothing else.
Absorbing Girl lifted an arm and flexed, which did nothing since her shirt was too baggy. "Don't forget about a bit of super strength!"
The news woman spoke clearly towards the camera. "Well, you heard it here first. The day is saved by our very own…?"
"Lucky Girl!" She announced and AG quickly followed. "Absorbing Girl!"
Ben stayed silent for a moment before calmly saying in a serious all business tone. "Ultra, your resident shape shifter"
…
Was he seriously doing the whole 'hero work is a responsibility' stick he'd been on occasionally this summer? He was sometimes a bore and acted all mature but usually he at least tried to make stuff fun, don't tell her he's going to be all business when they're out saving people?
It was weird and honestly sorta unnerving, Ben had always been super uncaring and lazy, never bothered by anything and the most maturity he showed was his intelligence and how he didn't ever let anyone bully anyone else. But now that he had that watch he wasn't just being the nerdy dork that talked about science while failing his chemistry test, no he was proactive and focused, he hadn't been lazy at all this summer, building stuff and randomly transforming into his aliens to test different things.
He'd mentioned and acted really invested in this stuff. Don't get her wrong, she did respect her cousin's intelligence and the work he put into the things that truly made him passionate like cooking or fighting but..why couldn't he keep acting like her fucking idiot goof?
…
..hmmm~
Hehe~ Well, maybe she could get him to at least crack a smile?
She leaned in and flashed a big V victory sign, grinning excitedly and this time didn't stop herself from being as smug and giddy as she liked, taking a cue from years with Ben on how to be an unrepentant little shit. "Heroes extraordinar, spending the summer solving trouble around the country! WHOOO'S YOUR HERO?!"
Out of the corner of her eye she could see 'Ultra' being all tight lipped, however she could also feel shaking from the arm around her shoulder and against his chest that told her he was desperately trying to keep from showing any amusement,
Whelp looks like she'd done her job well.
—
I trusted Gwen and Kayden to deal with the crowd so I stepped away, I still had a few minutes of charge left and I wanted to use them wisely, so I looked around for a bit before I found who I was looking for.
The man was older with hair beginning to gray at the tips, he was well built and probably fairly tall like a fridge with a bit of a gut, his clothes were dirty and damaged from hard labor but still kept in a way that held the dignity of an old man in an honest life long profession instead of just haphazardly put on with stains and tears that showed someone uncaring of their appearance.
It was easy to tell this guy was the one in charge and that he attempted to make himself look as presentable as you could at a job site, well usually anyway, at the moment he had sat himself down on some bags of concrete and had his head in his hands, looking overwhelmed.
I stepped close enough to glance at his name tag. "John? You're the foreman here correct?"
He looked up at me, his face was covered in dust and sweat and his eyes widened, his back straightened and he nodded sharply as he gathered himself. "Y-yeah, that's me. You're the one who saved my boys from falling right? And then stopped the fire"
"Yes. Ultra" I nodded.
"Well, thank you for that, honest. But what else do you need?" He asked, looking confused, which was understandable. "The police will be here soon and God the paperwork alone is going to have my ass."
I couldn't help laughing in a feeling of schadenfreude, to which he glared half heartedly. "I'm sorry for the trouble you'll be in, however I was worried more about the crane operator, what happened to cause this? Has he said anything yet?"
John's face pinched in a look of pain, he sighed. "That idiot, his name is Danny. He's probably going to lose his job over this fiasco, he nearly got my son's killed and that hit he did smashed a generator that we were using on the top floor, it was what caused the fire, thousands of dollars in fire damages and almost killed another dozen people, it's only because of you no one had to go to the hospital….and that's all before we even replace the truck or crane"
I gave him a moment as he rubbed his face. "He..the only excuse we could get out of him before the adrenaline wore off and he passed out was that he was exhausted, that he didn't get any sleep last night because he was at some circus…what kinda stupid ass excuse is that?"
I tilted my head. "Wait? A circus? And he passed out exhausted? That doesn't sound normal at all, do you know what circus it was?"
"Huh? Wha-you think someone did something to him?" John straightened.
I shook my head. "I'm not going to say anything, I need to do some investigating but it sounds suspicious and obviously the world isn't as simple as many believe it is"
The man chuckles as I motion to myself and he nods. "Well..I don't know, it was some traveling circus here because of that museum opening or whatever, it's uhh..some-bozos Traveling Circus of chuckles or whatev-
"Zombozo's Traveling Circus of Laughs" My eyes widened and stood straight.
"Yeah, that guy!" John nodded with a snap of his fingers.
My eyes narrowed and I frowned, nodding to the man I spoke quickly. "Before you fire the man have him and everyone else sent to the hospital, have them checked for injuries and have Danny checked to see how tired he is exactly, if he's just an idiot who needed a cup of coffee then do what you have to but if something was done to leave him barely coherent-
"I wouldn't fire him then, then I'd be looking for whichever fuck wit endangered my son's and boys and needs my hammer across their skull" John growled angrily, he nodded sharply. "Okay Ultra, I'll talk to the boss and try to buy Danny a week or two..but I don't know if I'll be able to do more"
I nodded. "Understood. Thank you for your help, I have to go now"
I quickly raced away, grabbing Gwen and Kayden and dragging them off towards the RV, not bothering on speaking another word. A bad feeling in my gut as we stopped inside the Rustbucket, I set down the girls and transformed back in a flash of red light.
Grandpa stood up from the bench with a look of worry. "Kids! You're all okay?"
Gwen and Kayden both stumbled, Kayden grabbing onto the fridge looking slightly green. "Ughh, I think I hate super speed…but otherwise I'm fine Grandpa"
"Hey!" Gwen though caught herself much quicker and glared at me. "We were in the middle of an interview, Ben! I was explaining that we were new and just passing through so our names and costumes weren't exactly finished"
I shook my head. "Doesn't matter, I've got a lead"
I got their attention as Gwen asked. "Wait, you've figured out what caused it?"
"What did you find?" Grandpa asked.
I explained how I'd talked to the foreman about what happened, how the crane operator had gone to a circus and left feeling exhausted. "-I think we should go to this circus tonight and investigate, there's definitely something fishy going on right?"
Grandpa and Gwen nodded while Kayden sighed and asked, still looking a bit sick. "Yeah..not getting it…uhh? Why's it matter?"
"Because when you leave a circus you're usually tired and get to bed late, maybe be a bit clumsy the next morning. However you still have enough sense not to do anything too difficult or start wrecking things in a big piece of construction equipment, just losing a single night of sleep usually isn't enough to have someone passing out, especially a seasoned construction worker. Ben's right that this is odd " Grandpa said.
I turned and looked at Gwen and Kayden before shaking my head. "Also you need to start carrying that hoverboard on you all the time, and I'm making you a costume. You two can not be walking around like that"
Gwen glared at me. "What is wrong with our costumes huh? At least we have something!"
I stared at Gwen before pointing to her shoulder. "Gwen, your jumpsuit is so tight I can see your bra strap on your shoulder, you're lucky it's so dark or it might as well be transparent"
Gwen glanced at her shoulder and blushed bright red, since you could definitely see once you were close that there was a slight bump on her shoulder from a strap, it was just subtle enough that with the dark material it wasn't visible but still, that shit was definitely far too tight, it'd be showing pantie lines if it was a brighter material.
Though on more prevalent matters.
I was happy I didn't have to convince them to go because in truth I was worried, I'd already figured out my memories weren't reliable since Kevin was Kayden and even before then I'd put little faith in stuff turning out the way they'd been, since I'd already been living here as Ben for ten years and no doubt caused billions of butterflies, it just wasn't feasible that things would turn out like they did in canon. But this was the first time something was so dramatically and starkly different, a direct contradiction since I distinctly remember Zombozo having his own episode and not being in any way related to Hex…
I had actually no fucking clue what was going on.
What the fuck?
Yeah I found some cute images of a young Charmcaster so I decided to mix them together a bit to make a unique design, I think I explained it well enough to give a decent mental image of her right? This also makes her closer to Gwen in age and thus makes it easier for them to be rivals, in canon Charmcaster is like five years older then Gwen while here she's only 13 so three years older than Ben and Gwen and two years older than Kayden.
Also I've found as I'm writing Kayden that a bit of organic characterization just sorta developed, she prefers using her nicknames while using actual names as something more close and intimate, like a shield to keep distance while also controlling exactly how close she is with someone. With Ben she generally doesn't use any nicknames except nerd, dork etc and rarely so at that, she keeps a closer and more open/easy relationship with Ben with nicknames mainly used as a shy or teasing way to refer to him when he does something smart as she finds intelligence attractive. Gwen meanwhile is almost exclusively called Red with Gwen being something used to add more emphasis or emotion, often when mentioning Gwen and Ben in the same sentence she'll also drop the nickname as well. Oh and she refers to Max as Grandpa, I'm sure that's not important at all.
Someone could probably make a pretty good character analysis from this lol, I know I won't be.
Old movie reference is a movie reference, whoever figures it out gets an imaginary cookie.
To be clear on the small fight between Ben and Max, Ben is not a reliable narrator and can be biased(there are alternatives that Ben could have used but he wanted to get the book for himself and Gwen, thus he was been partially selfish), both of them have very strong senses of right and wrong along with strong personalities, considering Grandpa has been hiding he's a Plumber and Ben constantly acting the way he has been a fight has been building between them for a bit, while it hasn't fully come to a head yet it will soon. They're both trying to do what they think is right and unwilling to compromise, thus tension is going to build until they can find common ground, luckily they're both at least sensible enough and love each other enough to not do or say anything so it doesn't go too far.
And then we have Kayden and Gwen getting a little heart to heart, with a bit of help from the charm of luck. Gwen and Ben were constantly around each other as kids in canon even when they fought heavily, here Ben while still being a kid isn't going to pick fights with Gwen nearly as much as in canon and combine that with him being far more knowledgeable, willing to use the full scope of intelligence we occasionally see in canon and his overall personality and it makes sense that Gwen's perfectionist parents would push her hard to be as successful as she can be.
She gets a little bit of peace since she's so well behaved usually and because she's genuinely very smart but honestly if Ben wasn't as nice or understanding as he was there's a good chance Gwen would have absolutely hated him, even then I've been careful to occasionally show bits of resentment from Gwen. She doesn't hate him of course but she can't help but be envious of how easily and casually Ben can seemingly live his life.
As an extension of this in canon whenever Gwen acts as Lucky Girl she changes, she acts a lot more energetic and goofy then she normally does, it's not too apparent since she only does it a handful of times but even then it is slightly noticeable, especially in the Lucky Girl episode. So yeah in here Gwen uses the mask and identity of Lucky Girl as a sort of escape, she's not Gwen Tennyson so she can act less reserved and responsible and instead be free spirited especially since Ben's going to be taking the role of the more responsible person, I'm going to be having fun with this.
Also also, I will freely admit that this is inspired by another Bwen writer that put this concept in my head years ago, a fic called 'Playing the odds' by Nate-Mihael which was one of the first Ben 10 fics I ever read and an absolute treasure. It's only 9 chapters and I definitely recommend it even if it isn't finished, it definitely influenced how I write Ben and Gwen to an extent.
Surprise. Bet you all weren't expecting a cliffhanger or Zombozo mention hehe~
Also question for later on, I wanted to ask your guys opinion on Ultimos and the Galactic Enforcers? How much do you guys care about them? Because I've got a couple ideas for how I want to handle them, Ultimo in particular which will lead into some other very interesting and important changes.
Remember to like, comment and let me know what you thought, remember that discussion feeds my motivation.