BEN 10

out of this world masterlist.

maybe — ben/fem reader, 4.9k words.

not fit — gwen & fem reader, 2.1k words.

scarlet witch — ben/fem reader, 1.6k words.

jealousy — ben prime & ben twenty-three/fem reader, 1.7k words.

slow — ben/masc reader, 1.8k words.

late night — ben/fem reader, 1.1k words.

assistant — ben 10.000/fem reader, 1.4k words.

avatar — ben/masc reader, 3.1k words.

captive — ben/masc reader, 1.4k words.

miss martian — ben/fem reader, 1.3k words.

converse — ben & gwen, 507 words.

childhood flame — ben/masc reader, 2.5k.

SONIC

bed rest — sonic/gn reader, 900 words.

r and r — sonic/gn reader, 670 words.

dysphoric — sonic/transmasc reader, 870 words.

red delicious — sonic/gn reader, 780 words.

new to this — sonic/gn reader, 1k words.

faux stoicism — shadow/fem reader, 830 words.

take it slow — sonic/masc reader, 790 words.

heart on your sleeve — knuckles/gn reader, 1k words.

degloved — sonic/gn reader, 714 words.

artistry — knuckles & gn reader, 690 words.

party for you — shadow/transfem reader, 1k words.

fashionable — sonic/masc reader, 637 words.

temper, temper — shadow/fem reader, 513 words.

baby, it's cold outside — sonic/gn reader, 637 words.

one or the other — knuckles/gn reader/rouge, 1.3k words.

messy feelings — knuckles/gn reader, 2k words.

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

northern lights — hiccup/gn reader, 690 words.

DANNY PHANTOM

cemetery girl masterlist.

graveyard shift — danny phantom/fem reader, 850 words.

DELTARUNE

butterscotch remedy — kris dreemur/fem reader, 855 words.

THOMAS & FRIENDS

it comes with age — edward/gn reader, 460 words.

helping hand — henry/gn reader, 690 words.

tradition — james/gn reader, 628 words.

colored pink — james ( / or & ) gn reader, 800 words.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

saturation masterlist.

     "Change it!"

     "No way! You change yours!"

     "It's your turn!"

     "Sorry, but I already picked the cake, color-coordinated the balloons, and sent the invitations! By the way, here's yours."

     "Why're you up here?"

     [name] stops idly listening to Ben and Gwen argue about their birthday parties and staring into the dreary forest they were driving through. Belatedly, she realizes it was Max talking to her, not telling the cousins to cut it out. "I was scared they were going to drag me into it," she answers, shifting to pull her feet up into the passenger seat. Afterward, she adjusts the blanket in her lap to cover her shoulders, her head leaning against the window. They hadn't had reason to leave the Rustbucket all day, allowing her to get dressed in another set of pajamas after taking a shower. Max had tried to get her into outside clothes "just in case they broke down," or something — but it'd been raining all day, and it had her feeling tired. "I dipped once she brought out the agenda."

     Max huffs out a laugh. The windshield wipers stop in the middle of a cycle, which quickly ruins his amusement. Thumping his fist against the dashboard close to the window, then turns the wipers off and on for the nth time that day. "Damn."

     "Oh, Ancient Ones," she grumbles, slipping further down into the seat. "You cursed us because you didn't get the wipers fixed the last time you were at a repair shop."

     Confused, Max glances at her from the corner of his eye. "What do you mean?"

     "Every time we stop or something with the Rustbucket stops working, something happens."

     "Not every time. It's just some times."

     "Day one at camp, when we stopped at the store and met Animo, Auntie Vera's, the bounty hunters, New York, Rojo, Zombozo's —"

     "Okay, I get it!" Max holds the wheel with just his thumbs while the rest of his fingers raise, showing his submission. "What do you suggest we do to keep that from happening, then?"

     [name] shrugs. "All I'm saying is that I am very cozy right now and probably won't help with anything," she hums, burying herself into the blanket to further prove her point.

     "What if your brother shows up? Or some other intergalactic threat that needs both of our expertise?"

     "You've fought him before and Ben's.. okay.. at hand-to-hand as a human, so you two should be fine."

     "Two?"

     "Gwen's obviously gonna stay behind with me? You're you, and he's your grandson. You can —"

     "Last time I checked, Grandpa said he was gonna spend my birthday with me at the Sumo Slammers: Last Rites premiere, then at the amusement park with my team after!"

     "You must be delusional if you think Grandpa is gonna miss my murder-mystery party! Do you know how long it took for my friends to make the guest list, figure out the meal plan, and then plot everything so there weren't any holes?"

     Rubbing a hand down his face, Max taps his foot on the brake just enough to catch Ben and Gwen's attention without causing the inertia to make [name] fall out of her seat. "You two have shared the same birthday for seventeen years, and if you don't stop arguing, neither of you is making it eighteen."

     Gwen calms as she considers their options, clasping her hands in front of her mouth and resting her elbows on the table. "I take [name], and you can have Grandpa. We switch during my intermission, and when you all go to the park."

     "Are we the children of divorce? What is wrong with you two?" [name] turns around in her seat to glare at them, but neither of them pays attention to her.

     "I won't lie," Ben starts while stroking his chin, "that might be the only thing you've said all summer that I can fully agree with."

     "Hello?"

     "Hi," Gwen chirps, addressing [name] with a grin. "Ken and I can come pick you up at three, then you drive with us to the hotel!"

     Nodding along, Ben fixes himself on the bench so he can see [name] without craning his neck. "Gwen said the convention was just past the hotel, so that we can drop Grandpa off and get you in the limo!"

     [name]'s tendrils curl at the ends with her uncertainty. It wasn't because she didn't want to go to either of their parties — she'd love to go to both — but the way they casually suggested splitting custody of her and Max without input from her was shocking. Did she not have room for argument? Why was Max not saying anything?

     Looking to him for support, he only shakes his head. Did he really think this was the best solution that pleased everybody?

     "Okay, but what if I have a.." She grasps at the air, trying to ignore the same look they both give her. They knew whatever she was about to come up with either wouldn't happen, or she was bringing it up as an excuse. ".. an important diplomatic meeting to stop two species from waging war and wiping each other off the radar, leaving the surrounding planets as collateral?"

     "They can wait," Gwen shrugs.

     "There's no way that's more important than celebrating our eighteenth birthday," Ben scoffs.

     "And, speaking of birthdays, you never told me yours." Gwen squints at [name] like she's trying to figure out her entire life story, as though she hadn't told her the most important parts. "Do you turn seventeen this year, or next year? What're you doing for your birthday?"

     "Uhm.. Y'know, I don't think the date really translates into the Earth calendar.." She speaks fast, eyes trailing out to the windows for some distraction, which she quickly finds in the form of a kid in a bright green shirt running towards them. "Woah! Would you look at that! It's dangerous to be out in this weather wearing a t-shirt and shorts, right? We should probably help that kid because you humans get sick from literally everything."

     Ben cocks his head. "Don't tell me you're trying to get out of answering the question. Are you one of those people who —"

     "Where did he come from?" Max slows the Rustbucket down, looking into the rearview mirror to watch the kid now approaching from behind.

     Standing and wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, [name] makes her way to the door and very purposely avoids eye contact with the cousins. "I'll go get him. Wouldn't want him to slip in this weather."

     Between a jog and a nonsuspicious walk, she steps out of the RV and picks up her pace to reach the boy, wrapping her blanket around him while making sure to cover his head before picking him up and hurrying back to the Rustbucket. She sets him down on the bench that Gwen previously sat on, given that she was currently making him a mug of herbal tea. Ben had gotten up to get the boy a pair of his sweatpants and hoodie, and Max busied himself with cranking up the heat.

     Ben comes back first, directing him to the bathroom. "Did you eat dirt on the way here?" His face is twisted into a cringe as he mutters to [name], showing her the muddy side. "You were out there for twenty seconds max! How is it this bad?"

     She sucks her tongue. "I really like that one, too."

     "You.. You do know you can just wash it, right?" Gwen looks at the two from over her shoulder, pouring the boiling water from the electric kettle into the cup.

     "He almost took it with him into the bathroom," Ben says with a suck of his tongue. "I think he'll wanna keep it."

     "I'd feel bad if I didn't give it to him."

     Max's brows furrow, scooting past the three and to the bunks to adjust the vents back there. "You three got one for each of you, right? Can we get another one at a different store?"

     "I think it's really funny you think I'm above just taking Ben's."

     Ben scoffs. "Why mine?"

     "Women's solidarity," Gwen shrugs, bumping her hip against [name]'s when she nods.

     The boy leaves the bathroom and collapses on Ben's bunk without a second thought or talking to any of the four. Max comes up to worriedly tap him on the back when it doesn't move with his breathing, only to flinch at the way he suddenly starts snoring. "I guess we just have to start making some educated guesses, then. What was the name on that camp sign we passed a little ways back?"

     "Opinicon?" Gwen's voice is unsure as she speaks, setting the mug down and reaching under the sink to grab a plastic bag. [name] takes it from her and collects the boy's clothes from the bathroom floor for her. "I can look it up and see if I can find anything."

     Coming out and tying the bag closed, [name] sets it between the bunks and bathroom door. "His name is Gilbert."

     Max has to keep himself from reacting to the information, coughing into his fist, and walking back to the driver's seat. "Well, Gilbert —" another cough, certainly because of how outdated the name is. Ben was faring much worse. " — only has a few scrapes and bruises. A low-grade fever, too. One of you make sure he doesn't get any worse."

     Looking down at Gilbert, one of Ben's eyebrows quirks. "Worse than this scary-looking rash?" He pokes at a large purple blotch on his hand, nose scrunching at the texture.

     ".. That's not a bruise..?"

     Ben looks at [name] from the corner of his eye, finding her staring intently at the rash. She was feeling a combination of horror and morbid curiosity that was definitely showing on her face.

     "It's probably not contagious to you," he offers with a stilted pat on her shoulder. "If it is for us, just know I want you to take Sumo if it kills us."

     "Your dog?"

     "My dog," he nods.

     "You irritate me greatly."

     "Aww, I love you, too."

     "I could've sworn you said you weren't gonna help us," Max hums as he and [name] take the front, looking for signs of life in the camp. So far, they'd found nothing. "What happened to you being cozy?"

     "The rash." [name]'s voice is flat as she responds. Diligent is an understatement for how she was acting, considering she was constantly looking for the source of the rash.

     From behind them, Ben fiddles with the Omnitrix mindlessly in an attempt to keep his hands warm and moving. The rain still hadn't let up, forcing everyone into a jacket and under an umbrella. "You're still on that? I was joking! It's probably just from some plant."

     Max sucks his tongue, leading them out of the main building and to the dining hall. He takes a moment to run the flashlight's beam over every visible nook and cranny of the room to check for anything dangerous before letting everyone else enter behind him. "It does look like that virus from a few years back, huh?"

     "Exactly."

     Gwen speeds until she can look them both in the eye. "Virus? What do you mean virus?"

     "It was like kudzu and spread over a ton of systems like wildfire. It was a real pain getting rid of it."

     Nodding along to Max's explanation, [name]'s tendrils raise like hackles as she shudders at the memory. "It got on my brother's ship once. He couldn't come home for a year and got sick from it, too. It felt like he was dying."

     "Great," Gwen gulps. "We're stuck in some freaky, abandoned camp to help some kid who shows up out of nowhere, and we might have to deal with some invasive alien bacteria? This is exactly how I wanted to spend my summer.."

     "Heavy is the heart that saves people," Max rebuts, holding his hand over a plate of spaghetti. His brows raise at his finding, holding both over it. "Food's still warm. Looks like they must've left in a hurry."

     Ben stares at the plate for a long while before turning his attention to the kitchen. ".. Do you think they have anything else back there..?"

     Disgusted by the idea of any of them eating anything in the camp that's fallen victim to an unknown event, Gwen grabs his hoodie in a vice-like grip to keep him from eating the spaghetti or raiding their kitchen. "Why didn't you eat before we left?"

     "Last time I checked you were on dinner duty tonight. It's already —"

     A giant crash of lightning precedes the lights going out, the whole room plunging into darkness. Max already has one flashlight out and on while holding the other off to Ben and-or Gwen. "Here," he says, tossing it and watching — unamused — as they scramble to be the one to hold it. "You two can share."

     Sharing a look of disgust with him, Gwen snatches the light from Ben and stands on her toes to keep it out of his reach. "Come on, Grandpa! Why can't one of us share with you and [name] instead? It'd make things go a whole lot smoother, wouldn't it?"

     "We share enough already, don't we? A birthday, this summer, you, [name] — Isn't that proof enough that we can share, and that we deserve not to just this once?" Ben tacts on while pretending he wasn't stepping on Gwen's toes, trying to reach the flashlight.

     Max sends a glance to [name], which makes her shift her weight from one foot to the other. He was silently asking her to say something that would guilt or encourage them into working together, but what was she supposed to say? Compare them to her and her brother? Ben and Gwen were only cousins, not genetic copies of each other. Naturally, they wouldn't have the same synchronization she and Vilgax had. Why was she the one who had to say something anyway? Weren't they his grandkids? He might've had this conversation with them hundreds of times, and they both liked her more than enough to listen to a lot of what she had to say, but this seemed to run deeper than what she could've reached.

     Another glance her way has her letting out a shaky sigh.

     ".. You.. Your teamwork and cooperation skills with each other are abysmal," she starts, immediately regretting it. Her eyes flicker between Ben and Gwen unsurely, and Max for quiet reassurance in his nods. "If there's.. ever a situation where Max and I aren't here, I'm willing to bet that you two would —" Max begins to subtly shake his head, telling her to pivot the sentence elsewhere, "— do more harm.. than good..?" A nod. "Do better..?"

     The way the two stare at her for an unnecessary amount of time afterward starts to make her nervous. She needed an out before either of them jumped her.

     A quiet shuffling in the kitchen catches her attention, and she snatches the chance.

     Shuffling backward, [name] thins her lips as all three of their eyes track her like hawks. "I heard something in the kitchen. You three should.. stay here, and let me go check it out because.. I don't want you to come with me if you're all gonna look like that."

     Further silence.

     Sending one of her tendrils out, she takes the flashlight from Max and turns it off so she won't scare whoever is in the kitchen. "Bye," she rushes out, pivoting on her heel and opening the window shudder separating the kitchen from the dining room. Once over it, she drops her hand and lets it shut behind her, shaking herself off to remove her nervousness.

     ("I thought it was a good speech," she hears Max's muffled voice say. "Then you went and scared the poor girl."

     Gwen scoffs. "You coerced her! Don't think we didn't see you nodding and shaking your head! I don't know about him, but I feel like my heart dropped out of my body!"

     There's a thump on the ground. [name] assumes it's Ben being dramatic by falling to his knees. "Oh, I hated that. We look like losers. Oh, my God."

     "Maybe if you two could —"

     "WE GET IT.")

     [name] knows she heard the shuffling come from somewhere near the back of the kitchen. There'd been the sound of the cabinet door opening, closing, and whatever was inside getting moved around to make space for whoever hid in it.

     Reaching the end, she finds a pantry door with a small crack in it. Though the cabinet's shade was only multiplied by the building being pitch dark, she could still see two children tucked into the space, posing themselves so both could have an eye outside the room, even if they couldn't see anything.

     Kneeling silently a few steps away from the pantry, she doesn't turn the flashlight on yet. If she suddenly pointed it at them or herself, it'd make them scream without a doubt. "I'm not a monster, and I don't want to hurt you," she begins in a low, steady voice. The kids jump and cover each other's mouths with one of their hands, the other gripping their hands together like a knot. "My name's [name], and I'm here with my friends. One of yours left camp earlier, right? Gilbert? We want to help him and you two. If I turn on my light, can you both stay calm?"

     "Only —"

     "— a —"

     "— monster —"

     "— would —"

     "— say —"

     "— that."

     They were the freaky twins trope. Great.

     "It was either this, or I put the light up like I was telling a scary story," she hums amusedly, flicking the light on and pointing it at her face front on before holding it from below. Every couple of seconds, she swaps between there, holding it, making the kids quietly giggle. "Which one would you prefer?"

     "You're —"

     "— silly!"

     Sticking out her tongue at them makes them giggle more, and she figures she's endeared them enough for them to be comfortable with her. Still, she doesn't want to test her luck, which means she doesn't open the cabinet door. "Can I see you two? Just to make sure you're not hurt. Gilbert had a few cuts and bruises when we found him, but he also had a large, purple rash on him. Do you know where that came from?"

     They look at each other and share a nod. The girl pushes the door open, but the boy steps out first, helping his sister. "We're okay," he starts, his sister finishing with, "for now." Hand-in-hand, the watch [name] put the flashlight on the counter and angled it so all three of them were well lit. Each put a hand in hers when she held both of hers out, sniffling as they checked over their arms, then their legs. The sister starts with, "We — We don't know.. We heard something outside, but," letting the brother finish with, "we were too scared to come out.."

     Both were unharmed and clean, thankfully. The only concerning thing was that they were just about as cold as Gilbert was. If they weren't sharing body heat, they would've been worse off.

     "That's good. You're both very smart," she praises, shrugging off her (read: Ben's oversized yet fit perfectly on her) jacket and holding it behind them. "Put this on. We'll get you somewhere nice and warm. What're your names?"

     Obediently, each slips an arm into one arm of the jacket, letting [name] zip it up and put the hood over their heads. "I'm Andy," the boy hums, his sister adding, "and I'm Mandy."

     "Well, Andy and Mandy, would you rather walk to our RV, or do you want me to carry you both? We couldn't get it through the mud, so it's right on the entrance to the camp."

     Andy and Mandy look at each other, seemingly having a telepathic conversation that ends in them shuffling behind her and climbing onto their back with surprising efficiency. Standing with one arm supporting one twin, she doesn't even have to ask them to grab the flashlight, because Andy is already reaching for it and handing it to Mandy.

     [name] reenters the dining hall by stepping onto the lip of the kitchen counter, kicking up the shudder with her foot, and hopping down on the other side fast enough that none of their heads got bumped by the shudder dropping down.

     "Landlines and service are down, so it looks like we're — Oh!" Max's back is to [name], Andy, and Mandy when he addresses them, leaving him surprised by the twins' appearance. "Hello!"

     "Hi," they say in sync, tucking themselves under [name]'s tendrils when a strike of lightning shakes the building. "I'm Andy," then, "I'm Mandy."

     "Where's the camp nurse?"

     "G — G — Gone," Mandy answers, first leaning closer into [name] and her brother. Andy does the same while saying, "With all the others. Are they in time out?"

     Looking at Ben and Gwen sitting beside each other at a table, they both had their arms folded on it, their heads resting on them.

     Max coughs, then mutters, "They did it to themselves. Probably embarrassed."

     "Definitely embarrassed," [name] whispers, hitching the twins further up. "It's your fault, by the way."

     Understanding that she was teasing and embarrassed herself, Max pats her on the head and gratefully takes the flashlight from Mandy. "Maybe now they'll stop it." He doesn't pay mind to the way she knowingly sucks her tongue, calling for the cousins' attention as he nudges [name] to follow him to the door. "Let's go, you two! We'll drive back into town, get some food, and come back later."

     Oddly, Andy and Mandy trail [name] around the Rustbucket like ducklings after they've changed into a pair of Gwen's clothes. They insist on helping her make cups of tea for everyone, finally listening to her when she asks them to sit down once they're done.

     What's worse is that the RV had sputtered when Max revved it. He and Ben had gone outside to see what was wrong with it, only to come back inside almost immediately with looks of confusion and disappointment.

     Was something in the woods behind them?

     "The engine's covered in that fungus Gilbert has," Max explains, nodding his head in thanks for the towel [name] hands him and Ben. "We'll have to hunker down here for a little while."

     Gwen's brows furrow. She doesn't put her mug down when she stands, clutching it tightly to warm her further up while making her way to the front of the Rustbucket, searching for anything that could've brought the fungus to the RV. "How does that even happen? He didn't touch it, did he?"

     "Couldn't have. He's been asleep the whole time, hasn't he?" Ben stops ruffling his hair to dry it, instead grabbing his mug off the counter. He sniffs it, gags once, then forces himself to swallow a mouthful.

     Looking back at the boy, he takes his own once [name] hands it off to his as well. "Looks like it. You both touched him, didn't you? Is any on you, Ben? [name]?"

     Giving himself a once-over, Ben's heart tilts from side to side. "My foot itches, but that's it."

     "Is it athlete's foot?" Mandy stops sipping her tea to speak while Andy drinks his, the two swapping so he can say, "Everyone gets it here."

     Ben takes a heaving breath. "That's great."

     Due to her lack of input, Gwen looks over to [name], who hasn't moved from where she looked out the door window. ".. Are you okay, [name]?"

     No. Further examining the woods, she'd seen dozens upon dozens of eyes and mouths between the trees. Though the shrubbery was mostly concealing them, she could make out that whatever was hiding between them was short but plentiful. Were they the ones spreading the fungus? From the hissing she could barely hear from under the pelting rain, she felt comfortable assuming so.

     Logically speaking, she could carry the Rustbucket back into town with everybody inside it without any problem — but she didn't want to walk outside alone. Less because she was scared, and more because she wanted all her angles covered. What if one of the little things attacked her from behind? She couldn't exactly avoid that by making the trip easier by leaping. Everyone inside would make what should be a smooth ride feel like an uncontrollable roller coaster.

     Carrying the Rustbucket closer to the camp was also out of the question. Once again, what if she were attacked? What if the entire Rustbucket was covered in fungus? If the little things were only covering the engine to keep them from leaving, they had no reason to suspect the RV was anything but a regular vehicle.

     ".. Yep," [name] eventually answers, popping the P. "I'm clean."

     Rounding her side, Ben looks out the window to try to see what she did. "What're you looking at?"

     "Nothing."

     "Said every horror movie character ever," he scoffs.

     Stepping back, [name]'s moves until she's behind the twins. "It was nothing, I promise." She taps her hand as she speaks, pointing to Gilbert, then the woods. Max, Ben, and Gwen seem to get the message and have enough sense not to look out the window again. "It was just my eyes playing tricks on me."

     "Hand it over!"

     "You need it just about as much as a fish needs air!"

     "So?"

     "So I should be the one getting it!"

     The camp's beds were unreasonably uncomfortable. How anyone was able to get any sleep in them amazed [name].

     It's not like she wanted to be lying in it. Because she was the one who carried Andy, Mandy, and Gilbert back to the cabins, the twins had been insistent that she lie down. Something about her needing to take a load off, even if she wasn't winded or aching.

     "Who's the one who's been going around all of America saving —"

     " — Ssshut up! Remember our audience, idiot!"

     "Okay? That doesn't really matter because you know I'm right!"

     "That doesn't matter either! How have you learned nothing about humility and being humble?"

     Andy and Mandy sat on either side of [name], telling her what they've done so far this summer. Alongside that, they'd gotten out their care packages from under the bunk, sharing their water and granola bars that their parents had packed for them. Had they let her, she would've let them keep the untouched fuzzy, glow-in-the-dark socks they gave her just because of the way they made her fit itch, but they'd put her sneakers back on for her before she got the chance.

     "Once again: all of America!"

     "Oh, I'll show you some all of America! —"

     Also, Ben and Gwen were arguing — now fighting — over the care package that was under Gilbert's bunk. That was important to mention, she felt.

     [name] had been ignoring them for the most part. Their bickering, alongside the haunting presence of whatever was in the forest and the steel-bar mattress, counteracted how tired the sound of the rain made her feel. She's sure that if Max were here and not in the kitchen looking for something, they all could eat, he would've nipped it in the bud, and she would be out like a light.

     To be entirely truthful, she didn't hate the way Ben and Gwen argued. She knew there were no hard feelings, even if it looked like one or the other was a smart comment away from a punch or a kick to any available body part. If anything, it reminded her of her interactions with Vilgax when she was younger. While, yes, he often held her upside down by her foot just enough out of reach that her arms or tendrils couldn't reach him, she still had quite a number of wins under her belt against him.

     Looking at it now, Ben and Gwen were just like [name] and Vilgax, if they were the same age, with human-level weakness, not a genetic copy automatically inheriting the benefits (and sometimes disadvantages) of whatever genetic experiment or cybernetic augmentation the other had.

     Turning onto her side to watch them now tussle around on the floor, her brow furrows.

     Did neither of them realize that, at some point, the package had been dropped and accidentally knocked away?

     Begrudgingly sitting up, she swipes the baggie up. Inside is a sad display, to say the least. Kids' show themed Band-Aids, a flashlight, letters from family, a letter from a cat, sunscreen, aloe vera, sunglasses, (what she thinks is) a cyberdeck inside an Altoids tin, stationery, walkie-talkies — was that a pack of cards?

     "How do you two feel about possibly winning yourselves some candy, and do you two know any games we could play with these? .. Preferably one with four players..?" [name] holds up the deck and shows the twins, to which they nod.

     Handing them off for the two to set up, she stands and examines the odd, writhing ball the cousins had made. Gwen was on top of Ben, both trying to block his uncoordinated kicks while also trying to get in a few jabs of her own. Neither of them was putting full force or effort into their attacks, but the snarls and sneers they both wore would make anyone think they were.

     [name] plucks Gwen up by the back of her shirt and tosses her on her shoulder to stop her, catching Ben by the foot before he can properly stop himself, given he'd already committed to the attack. To be fair to the currently immobilized Gwen, she lifts her arm until she's holding up the entirety of his weight.

     Both struggle in her hold, Ben grabbing at her pants for extra stability as his other leg falls over her free shoulder. Gwen beats on her back with one fist at the same time, the other holding her up so she didn't have to rely solely on her core strength. They're gasping in shock and questioning why they're being manhandled without the gentler care they're used to from her.

     "I wanna see something," [name] tells them, carefully setting them down on the bed. Andy and Mandy were still setting out whatever game they had chosen, nearly done now. Adjusting the four, she moves the twins to one end of the bed and the cousins to the other, the pairs sitting side by side.

     Pushing himself away from Gwen to sit with his back against the wall, Ben scoffs at her. "You want us to play a —"

     "Yes. Teams of two, no changing."

     Hiding her mouth from Andy and Mandy, Gwen mouths against the freaky twins?

     "I think you two could have better synergy in other scenarios that aren't life or death. You both share a combative nature that's fueled by your competitiveness and possessiveness, which I think, more often than not, leads to the two of you fighting over little things like who gets what plate, making sure you're not vaguely matching outfits, which movie we watch, whose color-coded phone charger is whose, etcetera."

     Andy and Mandy seem interested in the idea, perking up and divvying each person's cards of seven faster.

     "What if we don't play?" Ben folds his arms to prove further that he'd rather die than participate.

     "I was going to say that if you two win, once we stop in a city, we could all have a day out as we did in New York and Texas — or, something else if you want."

     At that, the two look at each other with genuine interest. Gwen's the one to address [name] next, picking up her cards and looking them over. "What if we lose?"

     "I stop turning off the stove and ordering DoorDash when Max wants to cook any of his specialties for dinner."

     Ben straightens himself up and slides until he can see Gwen's cards, picking up his own to show her as well. "What game did you say this was again? How many rounds are we doing? Can we call timeouts to fix our game plan?"

     Sitting on the bed — Gilbert still asleep on with her blanket over him — [name] lets out a thoughtful hum, trying to make herself comfortable on the stiff mattress. "Five rounds. If you work together, sure."

     "It's Uno with the basic rules! We'll go first since we're youngest," Andy says, followed by Mandy explaining, "Black kings are draw four, red kings are draw two, queens are wild cards, aces are skips, and jokers are reverse!"

     Kevin is being an issue, as he usually is.

     Ben, currently transformed into Diamondhead, braces himself when he's knocked back into a windmill. He recovers quickly as Kevin comes flying after him, creating a crystal wall that acts as both a barrier and offensive spikes.

     "You are one sorry sight, Rock-Head!" When Kevin comes bursting through the structure, Diamondhead has moved to flank him, shooting shards at him as he lunges. In retaliation, he shoots Stinkfly's goop that stops the onslaught.

     "It's Diamondhead," Ben scowls, lowering the barrier and pacing forward so he wasn't up against a wall. "And, speaking of sorry sights, have you looked in the mirror lately?"

     "It's payback time for turning me into a freak!"

     "You were always a freak, Kevin. It's just now the ugly's on the outside too."

     (An equally hideous smirk makes its way onto his face, making Ben cringe terribly. Was it Ripjaws' fangs that were currently covered in more saliva than necessary or natural, or was it Wildmutt's? The girls loved to complain about his slobber getting everywhere when he was the beast — was it where the smell came from, too?)

     Kevin jabs a finger into his chest and points it out to Ben as he speaks. "Diss me all you want! I'm still ten times better than you! I've got all your powers, plus my own!" The arm he currently has out is the one based on Diamondhead's, which morphs to replicate his diamond canon.

     When he shoots them, they all shatter on impact.

     "Oh," Ben says in a bored voice. "Ow. That hurt so bad. It's almost like you don't only have a tenth of my power."

     The mouthful of Stinkfly gloop Kevin lands on his face both confirms his suspicions and fixes his attitude in an instant.

     "YOU — ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THIS IS —"

     The next thing Ben knows, he's getting flown into the air and thrown into a windmill fan. As Kevin laughs, he clears his face and grabs onto one of the broken blades, getting back on his feet and throwing it at him like a disc. It knocks him to the ground, allowing Ben the chance to limp his way over to him.

     Kevin recovers in enough time that they're not within arm's reach of each other yet, but can look each other clearly in the eye. There's a mutual agreement; only hand-to-hand, nothing outrageously disgusting, and only take a dirty shot when the chance pops up.

     They nod, start charging, and —

     When [name] finally gets Max and Gwen out of the currently overturned Rustbucket without further damaging it, she's quick to turn her attention to the road and to the field Ben and Kevin were fighting in. Ben had told her to focus on helping the other two rather than letting her go after Kevin alone — something to do with the weight of responsibility when it came to the unfortunately ugly transformation.

     Neither of the two was there.

     "[name]," she hears Max call out to her from where he and Gwen were checking each other over, "how's it looking over there?"

     "They're gone."

     "Gone?"

     "Gone," she confirms.

     Gwen pokes her head out from behind the RV, leaning out further when she gets visual confirmation that the two were, in fact, missing. "Well, where'd they go?"

     Making her way back to them, [name] feels her tendrils twitch in agitation at the circumstances. "I might.. have an idea.." She's unsure herself, and yet something tells her to look into the sky. There's the unmistakable sight of something moving at lightspeed among the stars, a bright orange color that she could recognize from any world at any time of day. "I just don't want to be right about it."

     "He was kidnapped? Kevin, too?" Max hitches his hands on his hips from where he stands at the front of the Rustbucket, trying to examine the damage. From what she can see, and remembering what he taught her specifically about Plumbers-issued vehicles, it wasn't completely undrivable. It would need more than a few repairs, most of them cosmetic, and should be back in the condition it was in before Kevin jumped on and overturned it. "By who?"

     "Uhm." Did [name] want to answer that? Tell him that his favorite grandson (out of two, as she had recently learned) was beamed up to fight in one of those gladiator battles where they took an alien from every planet and put them in atrocious conditions when not in a fight? What about the fact that, when the Omnitrix inevitably timed out, Ben very likely could be beaten until he was paper-thin, even despite the little training she's given him?

     "I can worry about that," she instead offers. Quickly, she makes her way over to the roof of the Rustbucket. Turning it over back onto its wheels is as easy as breathing, and so is ushering (read: pushing with enough force to actually move) Max and Gwen inside. "You two should worry about getting the Rustbucket fixed. I'll have him back before dinner."

     Gwen squints from where she stands in the middle of the walkway. She even plants her feet firmly on the ground to stop [name] from moving her to the passenger seat, as though the extra stability would be enough to dissuade her. "And why don't you want us to come with you?"

     "Very nicely, you would both get in the way."

     Max turns back to look at her. "It's somewhere dangerous?"

     "Not exactly human-friendly," she both corrects and fibs. "It'll be quicker if I don't have to watch him and you two."

     Max's brows furrow. "You're taking your ship?"

     "It's the fastest way."

     "Your ship," he further clarifies.

     "My ship," she confirms.

     Gwen moves herself so she's the only one in [name]'s sights. "You have your own ship?"

     "Of course."

     "Of course," Gwen parrots, "I want to see it! — When you get back, I mean!"

     [name] snickers. "Alright. Just don't be surprised that it's smaller than my brother's."

     "I'd prefer yours to any other one any day."

     Not a Chimera Sui Generis, nor a Human when she and her three Bioids squeezed their way into the section with the fairly rich but not noble or royalty members of the audience, [name] had chosen to disguise herself and her two foot soldiers as a different species entirely. They were a fairly well-known group in the galaxy, but reclusive enough that she didn't have to worry about anyone from or outside the species asking questions. What's more, she even put a cloak over the Chimeran Covenant — her ship — so it'd be just as unrecognizable.

     It was her smartest — if not only — choice where she wasn't immediately recognized as [name], princess of Vilgaxia, namesake of its largest moon, genetic copy yet exact opposite of the evil emperor Vilgax, who just so happened to be Slix Vigma's idol. The last thing she wanted to do was receive the empress's treatment, ask that Ben (and maybe Kevin) be released into their custody, whether she had to pay a fine or not, be told no, then have to threaten to have her brother threaten to decimate the ship. As far as she was aware, some of the fighters, while not the majority, had come onto the Megacruiser of their own volition, even if it was barely better than a prison.

     They'd arrived at the tail end of Ben's fight against an Utatron. Because of where they sat, they were towards the middle of the five-section arena, but on the opposite side of the match she was most concerned with. The only reason [name] had any semblance of what was going on was thanks to the tallest Bioid in her entourage giving her a quiet play-by-play.

     He manages to give the droid a handicap by shooting shards at the droid's knees, sending its torso leaning backward until it clangs against the ground. Oddly, she can't help but note, he doesn't celebrate the partial victory while his opponent tries to right itself. Belatedly, she realizes it's because he's looking out of the nearest windshield and watching as they rapidly move further away from Earth.

     As soon as the droid starts trying to crawl towards him, Ben picks up the torso with one hand and ignores the hits it rains down on him with its cleaver — up until the Omnitrix times out, naturally.

     He dodges it when it starts to drop down on him, sprinting for one of its scalpels and using it to stab it, finally granting him the victory. At the same time, Kevin wins his own fight (which she only realizes because of how loud he is), making Slix Vigma lower the dividers between their courts.

     Now in the same arena together, Kevin stops his gloating after an extended period of time, sneering down at Ben. They're saying something to each other that [name] nor her Bioids can hear because of the roaring from the rest of the audience.

     Kevin clasps his topmost arms together, hopping and using the airtime to slam all his weight down into the spot Ben stood in, missing when he rolls out of the way. Kevin recovers quickly and reels an arm back with Ben still recovering on the ground, only to be interrupted by the tell-tale red beam of them being taken to the fighters' quarters.

     "I need to arrange a meeting with the overseer," [name] murmurs in the appropriate language as soon as the light is gone, just off enough that, on the off chance anyone could understand it, they would think it's a dialect from a different region. The Bioids follow dutifully behind her when she shimmies her way out of the seat and into the halls. She had the vaguest of ideas of the layout of the entire ship, all of it mainly stemming from descriptions she'd memorized over the years.

     Addressing the Bioids, she notes how one was dressed as a handmaiden and the other two were guards. Surely she could use this to her advantage. One could investigate possible weaknesses around the ship, another could figure out how tightly the fighters were under lock and key, and the last could disguise themself as one of the enforcers around just about every corner of the Megacruiser.

     It's the plan she ends up conveying to them after going through the rest of her options. This was far from their first retrieve-and-leave plan that they've executed, but it hadn't been in such a secure space with so many civilians present.

     The four separate and put the plan into action. [name]'s only able to figure out where and how to get into contact with Slix Vigma after getting the attention of a more sociable noble. All she needed to do was find his office, which they also politely offered after a little more prodding.

     Approaching his door, she takes a steadying breath.

     What was she supposed to say to him? That she wanted to buy the shapeshifter he just acquired, and that she was willing to pay him whatever fee he had? That she would love a personal tour of the ship and to meet the fighters because she'd wanted to come aboard the Megacruiser for years?

     (Would it be ethical for her to leave Kevin? She did have room for him on the Covenant, technically. It would be in a small hall of cells that Vilgax forced the builders to attach to the back of the ship. He'd be unconscious the entire time if he did come along.)

     Before she's really ready, the door is sliding open, and Slix Vigma is staring down at her.

     "Hello," she's purring before she knows it, "I was wondering if I could see one of your gladiators! I was a very big fan of his performance tonight."

     Thankful isn't how Ben felt when he and Kevin are transported somewhere else.

     Yes, he wasn't exactly hurting to get into another fight with the reigning champion of the colosseum or eat whatever purple goop that was being served.

     No, he wasn't interested in being in a space with Kevin so close by, especially if they were both forced to the ground directly beside each other and with spears pointed into their backs.

     Then again, he couldn't really do anything about it given the circumstances.

     "I," an incredibly slithery and slimy voice starts, "am Slix Vigma. This is the Megacruiser. Everything on this ship belongs to me, including you."

     Eyes rising from where they'd previously been dropped to the ground, Ben looks up at the alien with a strong cringe on his face. He didn't know where to start with describing him. He sounded awfully organic for what he thinks is a robotic alien. Not only that, but the ship's guards were just as, if not more, robotic than the head honcho and had a samurai-like appearance. Were the guards hollow? Would they be hard to fight? Could he get Kevin and a few other gladiators to help him try it? What kind of powers did Slix have?

     As Ben thinks, his gaze wanders over the alien not too far from Slix as Kevin gets shocked. They were another species of alien he had no idea the name or abilities they had, which was a given because he'd only encountered nineteen of them, excluding the ones he'd seen today and including the eleven he could turn into. What's more, he couldn't help but notice that they were staring freakishly intently at him.

     The last thing was, as much as he didn't want to assume, he knew that shade of blue and green that they were wearing.

     As small as they were compared to the mostly white outfit that screamed royalty, wasn't that the same shade he and Gwen had decided to get painted on [name]'s nails back in New York? If he checked the group chat he, [name], and Gwen made with each other, couldn't he scroll back and find those exact colors with that exact pattern on those clothes?

     Alongside that, he could recognize that set of moles out of a lineup of a thousand people! She did say that, while she could alter everything about herself, her moles were the only thing she couldn't change.

     (Eugh. Look at him, feeling all warm and giddy at the thought of the alien friend he met a month ago coming to save him from being forced to fight in an arena until he either threw a mutiny or died. He doesn't think he's paid this much attention to the little details of anything that wasn't Sumo Slammers or soccer.)

     Ben doubted she would bring Grandpa Max and Gwen for something like this. She'd explained to him that Humans didn't even have the bare minimum when it came to protecting or defending themselves when she taught him how to hold his own against Vilgax. Even if she didn't bring them along to play some role, she wouldn't want to risk either of them getting hurt or blowing her cover.

     Did she bring any support? If she was able to get here so fast, surely she had to have a ship and was probably equally as likely to have Bioids manning it the same way her brother did. Were they disguised as guards? Gladiators? Sneaking around trying to find something that could give them the upper hand?

     His eyes quickly jump back to Slix. While he was thinking, he had said something like, "these eyes see everything on this ship, and these hands control everything on this ship," hadn't he? Did [name] already account for that?

     " — I have decided that your.. relationship.. will make you an entertaining team in the arena."

     "Team?" Ben speaks before the words even register, both he and Kevin looking behind just as one of the guards attaches a shackle to his right ankle and Kevin's left.

     Jumping up to his feet, Kevin points his crystal arm in Ben's face, yet doesn't ready it to stab or shoot him. "I'm not going to be on a team with some stick-armed, good-for-nothing, Quarter-pint —"

     "QUARTER-PINT?" Ben means to scoff, but the insult rubs him so badly, he's already getting himself off the floor and stepping into Kevin's face. "I could take you any day, any alien, anywhere, and you know I'd win every time! If I had a dollar for every —"

     "You'd have to take it and fly away, I promise you! I haven't even had your powers for a month and —"

     "You used them to try and get people killed! You're the last person who should —"

     The door to the room slides open, and [name] takes it as her cue to clear her throat. She takes a step towards Slix as an alien that looks like they could be her servant passes by them and stops at her side. "If I could look at the shapeshifter now, please." The tone she uses is one Ben thinks he's heard a few times before on a lesser scale. She was getting annoyed and trying to hide it. Nodding towards her assumed servant (a Bioid, he wonders) who lifts their wrist to show an expensive-looking bracelet, she says a word he doesn't think can translate into English before continuing with, "The full amount will be yours if he's undamaged and trained. I'll add double the amount for the mutant, if necessary."

     From the bracelet, a hologram appears. Without taking his remaining attention off the fight Kevin was still trying to pick (now pushes, jabs, and snide comments), he can make out a contract and an impossibly large sum of money in the written common language of space. She and Grandpa Max were trying to teach Ben and Gwen the basics of it in another one of those probably, hopefully won't happen but just in case scenarios, but he wasn't the best at making it out compared to Gwen.

     Something, something, I swear to exchange the shapeshifting alien from Earth in exchange for — what? A couple of hundred billion? Trillion? Was she willing to spend that much to get him out of here?

     The smirk in Slix's voice is audible. "Of course, Countess," he hums, the guards separating Ben and Kevin, the one holding Ben roughly guiding him into a side room. "Please, take your time."

     "Yo, gnome."

     "The next fight we're in, I'm using you like a mace."

     "What'd that chick say when you three went in that room?"

     Ben looks over to Kevin, who was currently inhaling three trays of purple goo like he had no home training. "What?"

     "Don't act stupid," he says, swiping at the back of his head with the closest Wildmutt arm. "That lady and her whatever. The one who said she'd buy us. What'd she say?"

     "Oh," Ben hums, "I don't know."

     He did know, actually. As soon as the guard shut the door behind them, [name] had started circling and inspecting him. "The Omnitrix is translating everything I say; you and the Bioids are the only ones who understand me. Don't say anything, don't act as if you can understand me, I'm talking to the Bioid," was the first thing she said before Ben could even open his mouth. "Plan A is I buy you, and maybe Kevin, plan B is we blow up the ship and free everyone. Ask how much you're worth for the first one, or when you can go home for the first one for the second."

     Naturally, he chose the second.

     Her immediate disappointment wasn't directed at his choice — that was mostly exhaustion —, but at the fact that he was "damaged goods," she'd said as soon as he turned back into a human and tried transforming him into something else, storming out and presenting him to Slix by the Omnitrix after more examining and planning. "Surely you can't expect me to spend so much on such a faulty Earthling."

     Another swipe. 'You do! You had this look on you when you got dropped back here."

     "Look?"

     "Like you were planning something."

     "I mean, I am, but just not what you're thinking."

     Kevin's Stinkfly eye squints into a glare. "What're you talking about?"

     "Can you work with me so we can all get out of here?"

     He did, to an extent, thankfully.

     Currently riding in the commander's seat of [name]'s ship, which he was insanely too small to fit in, Ben was fighting his nerves.

     The door leading to the cockpit hisses open, making him lean over the arm of the chair to see [name] entering in her humanoid form while stretching. "All that's left of the Megacruiser are pieces of scrap, nobody's dead and escaped without issue, Technorg's pod just set off for his planet, and Kevin's pod was definitely shot off.. somewhere," she relays before being cut off by a yawn. "My body feels like twenty-five hundred tons, and I think the next time you get kidnapped, I'm Cashapping the bounty, bond, bail, whatever, and calling it a day."

     Ben lets her push him into one side of the chair so she can sit in the other. Still, there was enough room for them to fit a third or fourth person on it and remain comfortable, but she makes a point of leaning into him despite that.

     Draping his arm over her shoulder, he lets out a quiet laugh that she raises a brow at.

     "What's wrong with you?" She doesn't take her eyes off him while she taps something into the arm of the chair. Whatever she did, a cushioned ottoman rose from a panel in front of them, both kicking their feet up onto it. "Nothing bad is gonna happen to Kevin. I put him in a pod that'll keep him stimulated and fed until someone finds him, and Technorg's should get him back the same time we do. Plus, I told you that you can downsize the chair if you want."

     Ben shakes his head. "It's not that.. It's just —" He looks over at her for less than a second before flicking his gaze back to the window shield. There were three Bioids, different from the ones that went through the Megacruiser with [name], seated closer to it, carefully piloting the ship through space debris before sending it into hyperdrive.

     "Were you really gonna pay that much to get me back?"

     From the corner of his eye, he doesn't miss the are you stupid look she instinctively gets before she schools it.

     "That's what the Omnitrix is worth. You alone? Some pocket lint, at most."

     "Wow, [name]," Ben huffs, pinching one of her tendrils between his fingers. "I feel so loved."

     Sucking her tongue, she slaps his hand with the same braid. "That's not to say I wouldn't," she scoffs, "I like you just enough that I'm willing to throw that much down."

     "Nothing more?"

     "Maybe more."

     Head leaning its weight on her's, those same nerves from before settle themselves deeper in his bones.

     [name] had been entertaining herself with Ben's handheld for an hour now. She'd vaguely remembered how the controls went when he first showed her how to play it and from then on, but she wasn't really paying attention to what his fingers were doing. The chaos on display was much more interesting.

     She didn't know what she was playing now. Super Legend of something that he'd told her about one time. He'd said it was fine if she played them so long as she made a new save file— encouraged it, actually—, which is what she'd been doing with the dozen or so games she's tried so far.

     Ben wasn't awake to see any of her attempts at getting into the games, much too busy tossing and turning in his bunk. [name] had considered waking him when they were still a full RV, but all that got her was an elbow to the face and a knee to Gwen's gut. They'd both quickly backed away while Max steered the RV into the next state.

     Gwen and Max had gone to a computer convention she'd found on the way to their next destination, so they'd pulled over at a stadium for that. [name] had chosen not to go because, as much as the opposite may seem to be true, she didn't care for Earthly technology. It was too primitive for her tastes. Gwen had only let her stay behind because she promised to teach her about the technology on Vilgaxia.

     ("Isn't that egotistical," Gwen had said once [name] had mentioned to planet's name.

     "He named a moon after me, too," she'd laughed.

     "I've never met a stranger family.")

     It was almost the afternoon now. Ben had been asleep since three in the morning, which wasn't out of the ordinary for him, but she still grew concerned over his continuous kicking. While yes, she was no stranger to his night terrors— they'd happened just before his big fight with Vilgax, whenever they'd watched a particularly traumatizing movie behind Max's back (The Terrifier and Texas Chainsaw Massacre series when driving through Texas was a notable time), and if he couldn't beat a mission on one of his games— it was just that, usually they weren't this violent.

     Another You are Dead pops up on the screen and [name] sets the handheld down on the table. She stands from the booth and moves herself to the fridge. It's not that she was debilitatingly hungry; she'd eaten breakfast with Gwen and Max, and Ben's food was in a pan on the stove that she knew he wouldn't mind if she pecked at it. That didn't negate the fact that he had the appetite of a black hole, and she still had the stomach of Chimera Sui Generis' youth compacted into a disproportionate body.

     Cooking wasn't one of [name]'s strong suits. It's not as though she couldn't; she'd been watching Gwen and Max whenever they cooked and helping whenever they asked. There were also the times she'd watched the chefs on Vilgaxia or the Bioids on her own personal ship cook, even if the ingredients were entirely different. She was experienced enough to know the basics of both cultures, but was she knowledgeable about anything beyond that?

     She could make a few burned grilled cheeses, at best.

     Halfway through making the third sandwich and picking the entirety of his cheesy grits off his heated pan of a plate, Ben wakes violently and loudly enough that it makes [name] jump. His right hand is clutching the Omnitrix, with the left pressing the heel of his palm against his forehead. Breath terribly paced, eyes clenched shut, and jaw set so tightly it's a wonder that his teeth haven't cracked because of it, [name] would think that his mental agony was physical if not for the lack of whimpering.

     Flipping the grilled cheese currently cooking and turning off the stove before she forgot, she makes her way to the bunk beds, stopping herself when instinct tells her to sit beside him. She settles for squatting beside instead. "Are you.. okay?" Her voice is soft, and her touch is feather-light even when she pries his hands away from his face.

     Ben doesn't speak for a short while. [name] doesn't rush him. He keeps his eyes closed when he does, hands wrapping around one of hers in an iron-tight grip he knows she can handle while bringing it below his chin.

     "I need you to teach me how to fight."

     His voice is scarily steady for someone who just woke up from a nightmare that left him looking and acting how he did. She'd be more terrified if he were looking her in the eye.

     "What?—" Words couldn't articulate how confused she was by the request. Why would he want her to teach her how to fight? While she knew well that he couldn't use the Omnitrix for every little thing, he'd gotten better at incorporating techniques from the aliens when not transformed, both in and out of combat. "Where's this coming from?"

     He not-so-gently pulls her up beside him with the same hand he held, arms moving to wrap around her waist while he fixes himself so their heads are ear-to-ear, and the weight of his falls onto her shoulder. "I had a dream— a nightmare— and I want you to teach me how to fight."

     [name] makes a face at that. "Wouldn't Max or Gwen be better? Your grandpa is like.. the prime of your species, and my brother worked and trained so we were the prime of ours. There is a very, very large difference between the way we—"

     "That's an even better reason!" Ben pulls away and finally looks her in the eye, hands moving to grapple onto her shoulders. She doesn't know if she'd describe the look on his face as manic or determined. It wasn't that she meant it negatively by any means. It's just the fact that she felt a little ambushed, admittedly. "If I ever need to fight Vilgax and can't use the Omnitrix, I can just use what you taught me!"

     She stifles the laugh that tries to leave. Ben wasn't even half of Vilgax's height and couldn't handle one of her punches even if she was holding back. His human body was too weak for him to even dream of going toe-to-toe with either of them without some handicap or assist. She didn't think that was something she'd need to spell out for him in vivid detail.

     "That will never happen, I promise you," [name] hums. To try and further convince him, she cradles his face between her hands and rubs her thumbs over his jawline. It wasn't a sign of affection they had on Vilgaxia— but she'd seen it in a lot of the movies she'd seen while learning English. She's not sure if it was effective, given the way his cheeks turn pink. "I'm your best when it comes to fighting him, and I don't see myself leaving anytime soon."

     Ben lies back down with a strength that causes the bed frame to creak. He holds the Omnitrix in a way that makes her think that he's doing it subconsciously. That, paired with the empty look in his eyes, she can't help but finally bite the hook.

     "What was your nightmare about?"

     His head turns to watch her when she stands, nose sniffling once, then twice as he realizes the RV smelled of grilled cheese. He doesn't move to the booth like he usually would at the smell of food. "Gwen got the Omnitrix instead of me, and the four of us speedran our fight against Vilgax."

     That didn't seem horribly traumatizing to [name]. She suspects the reason he was so adamant about learning how to fight was that, without the Omnitrix, he wasn't exactly capable in a fight. He'd told her and Gwen (not Max, because the one time he implied he did, he got a disappointed look for a few minutes before the topic changed) about the fights he's gotten into— more scraps than anything by the way he described them if you asked her— he'd never gotten away with less than a few bruises, a blood nose, and a saved bullying victim.

     [name] lets out a sympathetic hum as she piles the grilled cheese in the pan atop the others. She got the sense that he had more to say, even if he did seem hesitant to do so.

     "You two were so.."

     Ben doesn't finish the train of thought when she looks away from the new sandwich she's making to glance at him.

     ".. Yeah."

     Another hum, this time more of an acknowledgement, and she's using one of her braids to pick up the pan holding his breakfast to show it to him. "Well, nothing can be scarier than you of all people going so long without eating. I'm shaking in my boots just thinking about you letting all your hanger out on me when I start training you."

     His face brightens when her words register. "Are you being serious?"

     "Mhm," [name] nods. She moves the pan out of his reach when he sits up to reach for it, expression and tone becoming serious. "You just need to sign the metaphorical waiver."

     Ben's brows furrow. "Metaphorical waiver?"

     "That you won't go up to Vilgax guns blazing just because I do this. At most, this is.. me teaching you how to buy time until someone more on par can take over."

     "You think I can't beat him?"

     "Do you really want to test it with me?"

     "A little bit— just so I know what I'm going—"

     All in less than a blink, [name] grabs one of Ben's arms and wraps her free hand under his other arm, holding onto the back of Ben's head to cushion the impact. She doesn't need to knock him off his balance; she only has to use her strength to knock him back down onto his bed and expel the air from his lungs.

     Because her weight keeps him pinned down, he can only kick his legs into what he can reach of her once he realizes what's happened. He keeps trying while taking heaving breaths, while still trying to escape her clutches.

     "Uncle! Uncle!"

     "Uncle?"

     "I give up!"

     Letting go and straightening up, [name] offers him the still-warm pan that she'd been careful not to spill. "That was me keeping a human shape and holding back," she says, trying to hold back her laughter. "He'll fight dirty with you, so you have to be ready for anything with him."

     Ben, unable to do more than pant as he sits himself up against the wall, gives her a thumbs up as he takes the pan. He sits it in his lap while his breath slowly becomes steadier. "Can I get a—"

     "No," she says, another tendril handing off a fork before making her way back to the stove.

     "Why do you look like.."

     "Shut up."

     "No, no. I'm curious too."

     "He's a goalie who can't keep—"

     "I thought you were on my side?"

     [name] shakes her head, pressing ice against the bruise on the spot of Ben's back that he can't reach. "I'm a neutral third-party until there's a side I find funnier."

     "That doesn't answer our question," Max's arm cross after he sets Gwen's haul (charms, business card— and a few other items when she'd burst into the Rustbucket in a flurry) on the booth table. "Why do you look like," he makes a vague gesture at Ben now that his arms are free, squinting at the variety of bruises that litter his body, "that?"

     "She was merciless," Ben scoffs.

     [name] shakes her head again. "He wanted to learn how to actually fight. I was trying to figure out what his limits were," she clarifies, moving the ice to another spot. "It's not like I'm used to going against a species as delicate as you all."

     "He has no strength in his arms, it's all in his legs." Gwen sits beside Ben and pokes at a bruise on his stomach, snickering when he flinches and swats her away. She's gentler the second go around, sucking her tongue at how mean it looks. "That, plus the fact that he's learning as he goes, is a huge reason why he loses against me all the time."

     Max strokes his chin as he steps into the bathroom when Ben stretches his arm once and winces. He searches through the medicine cabinet for a pain reliever, tossing it for one of the three to catch (Gwen does and ignores the way Ben flinches when he thinks she'll accidentally hit him) so he can get a cup of water. "When I was your age, that same thing happened to me! Of course, that was when I joined the Air Force, then the Plumbers. Boy, I remember how—"

     "Grandpa," Ben sighs, nodding his head to Gwen in thanks when she takes the cup from Max to hand to him, "I'm pretty sure whoever trained you didn't bodyslam you into the dirt just to prove that she could."

     "I did it to try and make you work on your reflexes. Honestly, I was a lot nicer with you than my brother was with me," [name] huffs. "He used to make me practice the same move over and over again for months before doing the same with the next."

     "How lucky I am," Ben sighs, downing three pills and a mouthful of water.

     When Ben wakes, it's with a start.

     The usual noise that comes with four people being cramped into an RV the size of a hallway isn't there. He knows he hasn't woken up before everyone else because he's just never done that period if someone else hadn't put in the effort to wake him up, and the sun is currently beating down on his face from both windshields and every window on the Rustbucket.

     Forcing himself up, he can see that they're parked at a gas station. Grandpa Max's head is poking over from where a gas pump is. The girls are leaving a smoothie shop across the street, each holding two cups and sipping from one while talking. Their arms are locked with one another, which, in and of itself, wasn't strange— it'd be weird to see the two not touching each other—, but they just seemed closer than how they usually are. Shoulder-to-shoulder, hip-to-hip, elbow-to-elbow— if you asked Ben, he'd think that they were trying to get in the other's skin.

     What were they? Dating now? He wouldn't think that a change that drastic would happen while he was asleep.

     While [name] wasn't as touchy with him as she was with her, she showed an equal amount of affection when he let her. A tight hug there, a hand hold there— he found it hard to believe they'd managed to graduate to girlfriends when she treated them exactly the same.

     Ben considers leaving the comfort of his bunk to get whatever they ordered for him. Though he hadn't been awake long, he could feel how dry and gross his mouth felt. He only decides against it and goes with collapsing back in bed when [name] peels away from Gwen to enter the Rustbucket, waving with a hand after moving a cup to her elbow when she finds him looking at her expectantly.

     "G'morning, sleeping beauty," she hums with a laugh. Standing by his bed, she hands off his cup and lets her laugh calm into a snicker when he sits up on an elbow to drink it like a man starved. "Max said you probably wouldn't be up until tonight."

     Sucking his teeth, Ben sucks his tongue at both the drink and sentiment. Though he didn't mind strawberry flavor, it wasn't his go-to, and he'd think that she'd know that by now. He'd forced her to listen to his hour-long tangents about which flavors were best at which times, that she should've memorized them all by now. Was Gwen the one who ordered the drinks, then? He hadn't been able to get her to listen to his explanation yet.

     "Hey! I've been getting up earlier since we got on the road! You three getting up before the sun has been rubbing off on me!"

     He doesn't like the look that she gives him.

     "..Okay..!"

     Squinting up at her, Ben can't help but tilt his head into his shoulder. "What's that supposed to mean? You know I have! All three of you've said something about it!"

     ".. I—"

     "Hey!"

     Gwen's yelp makes Ben and [name] jump and scurry to look out the window. She's red in the face and pointing down at her spilled smoothie. "That was a mega— uhm.." Going quiet when a robber in a skull mask turns to glare down at her, she weighs her options while he continues to try to intimidate her.

     "Gwen," Grandpa Max calls out, hastily shoving the gas pump back into its slot to aid her, "run!"

     "Let's go, idiot!" The other robber, in a gorilla mask, huffs as he hops onto their motorcycle, ripping off his gorilla mask after a few attempts to rev the engine result in nothing. "It won't start! Help me out!"

     Ben's already shoving his drink into [name]'s hand and sprinting in front of the bike. "What's it gonna take for guys like you to learn crime doesn't pay?" Arms folded over his chest, he tuts his tongue like a disappointed parent. "I just don't know who's gonna give you the lesson. Heatblast? Diamondhead? Four Arms?"

     Skull-mask finally joins his accomplice, swatting the back of his head as he hops behind him on the motorcycle. "You moron! The kid saw you!"

     "Kid?" The idea that Ben could be mistaken for someone barely older than thirteen offended him, as often as that happened. Just because he was shorter than the average height for a seventeen-year-old boy didn't mean he was a kid. "You put together a whole gas station heist— not even street-tier, by the way— and, somehow, your eyes are so bad that you think I'm a kid? Oh, I'm so gonna enjoy this."

     "Ben! Get back inside!"

     Only responding to Grandpa Max with a wave of his arm, Ben lets muscle memory lift his left arm. His right hand cups over the face of the device like he'd been doing every day for the past month, eyes widening when he doesn't feel the familiar material.

     "This is not happening."

     The robbers grin down at him when they realize he's powerless, revving the engine before Max manages to knock skull-mask off the bike by throwing the pump hose at him. Gorilla mask is already barrelling his way at Ben, who stands before him, unsure of what to do.

     While he wasn't entirely defenseless, this is the first time since he got the watch that he's had to rely on his human strength to get himself out of danger. He could duck out of the way easily enough— being a goalie was helpful for that, thank God, but after that? Try to kick the bike over and pray he didn't break his leg?

     That was stupid.

     [name] tackles Ben out of the way, rolling onto her back so he doesn't skid across the asphalt. She lets out a hiss at the contact but doesn't make her pain known any other way, instead looking him over while sitting up. "Are you okay?" She speaks fast, all but telling him that she'd like his answer yesterday so she can continue helping Grandpa Max stop the robbers.

     "Yeah, I'm good," he affirms, pushing himself off of her and forcefully averting his eyes to the action, "you just go help Grandpa with your alien strength!"

     She stumbles while standing. The look she gives him from the corner of her eye is fearful more than anything before she manages to recollect herself. "Yeah.. Yeah, okay."

     Why was [name] acting like they hadn't spent the entirety of May bonding? Why was she acting like he wasn't supposed to know she was an alien? Where was the Omnitrix?

     "I went back in time."

     "Oh, boy, here we go again."

     "Don't oh, boy me! Grandpa took us here the first night, then he tried getting us to eat some grub, then once he left, we—" Ben cuts himself off so Grandpa Max doesn't hear, leaning into the booth and lowering his voice to a whisper, "[name] said she could get us Doordash because she knew some people. We all shared an Oreo Brownie Chocolate Frosty Fusion from Wendy's! How do none of you remember that?"

     "You got me to share an Oreo Brownie Chocolate Frosty Fusion with you?" Gwen's arms cross, and she looks at [name], not bothering to hide the way she swirls a finger around her ear. Most of the time, he wouldn't have minded it because that's usually how they banter, but now he did feel like he was a part of some sick joke. "Even though we're the same blood type, I wouldn't even share it with you if you were dying, so I don't know how you managed to get me to do that."

     [name] holds her hands up hastily when Ben snaps his face to look at her. "I've never had Wendy's, and I don't know what a.. Oreo.. chocolate.. whatever even is."

     Gwen places a hand on her shoulder, sliding it to her shoulder blade and rubbing it. "You will one day. It's my favorite cheat treat!"

     "No, it's not. You said that it was the lemonade from Chick-fil-A, not even a week before our fight with Vilgax."

     As if they were the hackles of a cat or dog, the braids at the back of [name]'s head raise the slightest bit before she forces them to relax. That doesn't stop the wide-eyed look she gives him from appearing.

     Grandpa Max pulls the Rustbucket into their campsite and makes quick work of pulling everything out with the help of the three. He looks equally as on-edge as [name] when she briefly whispers something to him, both eyeing Ben like he spilled national secrets before abruptly separating.

     Managing to corner Grandpa Max as they set up the tents, Ben doesn't hesitate to address the elephant in the room that only he can see. "You do know I'm not making anything up, right, Grandpa? You thought you took out Vilgax with some super-high-tech-weapon-thing years and years ago, then invited [name] on our trip to get away from her that PR nightmare! You know I'm not making it up!"

     "Augh!" Grandpa Max accidentally brings the mallet down on one of his fingers instead of the stake. He hisses at the pain and holds the finger, looking at Ben in that same, weird way that he and [name] have been doing since he first mentioned her alien traits. "We're short a stake," he says in a way that tells him they're really not; he just wanted the topic to change. "It must be in the back of the RV. Be right back."

     Conveniently, after he scurries away, Ben spots a shooting star soar across the sky. He jumps up and chases after it, letting his feet and muscle memory lead him to the crater once the tree starts obscuring his vision.

     "— you're fine, Gwen. Look at me. You're not hurt, you'll be okay, it'll wear off in ten minutes, I promise you."

     If it wouldn't be humiliating to do so, Ben would drop to his knees and clutch at his hair. He knew that soothing, talking-down-a-scared-animal tone from anywhere because [name] used it on him when he first turned into Heatblast. She'd mentioned Gwen by name, so that must have meant that she was currently going through the same predicament he was.

     Ben was going to scream.

     "What is going on? Why do I look worse than Ben on a good day?"

     What a low blow. If it weren't guaranteed that he'd get burns of various degrees, Ben would tackle her to the ground, the fact that he'd immediately lose be damned. "Gwen! You doofus! You're Heatblast!— A Pyronite, right, [name]? You can control fire, fireballs, fire breath, fire everything!"

     [name]'s tentacles raise again when she looks at Ben at the top of the crater. "How do you know this?" The grip she has on Gwen's hands tightens until she becomes aware of her strength, letting her go to instead place one on her back, gently nudging her up the walls and to where Ben stood. "Your Grandpa said neither of you has interacted with aliens before, so how do you know about the Omnitrix, Vilgax, or Pyronites?"

     "I told you! I went—"

     "Impossible. There's only one person alive who can travel through time, and I promise you, he's never interacted with you."

     ".. Huh?"

     Gwen's gasp pulls the two out of their tense interrogation. She's pointing up in the sky when they look over to her, a giant GWEN made of flames at the end of her finger. "I think I've totally got the hang of this!"

     Stumbling past [name], Ben is caught between glaring at Gwen and giving her wide eyes. "How'd you do that?" His hands come up as though he wants to throttle her, only stopping himself when he feels the heat emitting from her. "It took me, like, a month to learn how to do that!"

     "Hey, when you've got it, you've got it.. and it looks like I've got this down," Gwen hums with a relaxed shrug. She helps [name] get out of the crater before realizing she was made out of molten fire, flinching away when it hits her. She's only calmed when [name] shows her her hand, revealing a burn that rapidly heals. "Can the watch turn me into anything else?"

     Scurrying up [name]'s leg for protection, Gwen, now Grey Matter, trembles as the raccoons surrounding try to grab at her. "Ben!" She hisses and only slightly calms when [name] scoops her up and places her on her shoulder. "That wasn't funny! I could've died!"

     "You would've been fine! We weren't gonna let you die!" He's still losing his breath while leaning on [name]'s shoulder not occupied by Gwen. His face is buried in her braids as he tries to regain his breath. He'd started initially using her as a stand after his knees buckled from his first round of laughter, his knees having buckled while Gwen was getting chased around by the raccoons. "And this is peak comedy!"

     "You're insane," [name] says with an exasperated sigh, slipping an arm under Ben's arm to guide him away. "We're going back to the campsite. Your grandpa needs to know about this."

     Lungs still burning and gratefully accepting her help— even with the way Gwen tries pinching his wrist with as much force as she can manage when he slings his arm over her shoulder, mindful not to displace her— Ben lets out a thoughtful hum. "I guess you're right. When I got the watch, at this point, your brother sent down those mechadroids!"

     When the girls turn their heads to look at him, it's slow and filled with a contained horror.

     "Mechadroid?" Gwen's brows would be furrowed if she had them.

     "I forgot.." [name]'s braids begin to writhe. "We need to hurry up."

     When Ben drops his arm to instead hold onto her hand, [name] sweeps one arm under his legs while the other shifts to cradle his back. At the same time, one of her braids wraps around Gwen's body before carefully dropping her on his chest.

     The leaps she takes mean that they reach a campsite with several RVs parked around, the same area that Ben and [name] had to fight the mechadroids in. She lands just outside of it, a braid picking Gwen back up as she sets him down. Hands now free, she maneuvers Gwen so she can look at the Omnitrix on her back. Her fingers extend into claws as she presses around on it, turning her into Diamondhead, lingering for a little longer than necessary.

     Ben squints when she finally forces herself to pull away.

     "This is probably your best bet," she says, stepping away as Gwen transforms, "you can fight from any distance if you need."

     Ben nods, taking a fire ax from a nearby emergency kit. "You can control crystals! The type attached to your body and just making them out of the environment! Just be careful and make sure you don't attack without thinking!"

     "Not everyone's as reckless as you, y'know," Gwen scoffs, already running at the droid currently holding a park ranger in the air.

     Taking the ax from Ben because she surely thinks it's more of a hazard in his hands than anyone else's, [name] pushes him away with enough force to make him stumble but not fall. "Stay out of the fight in case your Grandpa comes around— tell him that Gwen has the Omnitrix. If it doesn't put you in danger, help evacuate everyone."

     What? Did she think he was totally incapable of fighting because he didn't have the same level of martial art excellence and alien experience as Gwen and Grandpa Max? Yes, he's never had to fight a non-human without the Omnitrix, but he's watched them all enough that he could figure out how to operate.

     Whatever way he felt, he knew better than to fight against [name].

     "Fine," he huffs after worrying his lip for a few precious seconds. "Just— stay safe!"

     She scoffs at the idea. "Like mechadroids are enough to take me down." [name] ruffles his hair after that, running off to help Gwen and leaving Ben's eyes following her.

     He doesn't like the pit in his stomach.

     Phil was only around because he wanted "job security," for some odd reason. Why he was so steadfast on hanging onto the past was an answer that evaded Ben as he handled the alien Phil released from the handheld portal-maker— a Null Void projector, he heard Max say right before he sped in.

     Did Ben get knocked out by a plank mid-detransformation? Yes. Did he almost pass out when Max used a few thrusters to make the Rustbucket faster? Humiliatingly yes. Were the girls very briefly kidnapped by Phil and almost dropped off a ledge when Ben (as Greymatter) commandeered a bat-tentacle hybrid alien into his car? Also yes.

     None of those events really mattered now, though. He'd unlocked a new alien on the Omnitrix and found that it was mobility and defense-based after an attempted purification by a tick-looking thing that involved sucking all the life off of the planet. The trial and error in trying to kill the thing when it was as gross as it was definitely..

     Truthfully, Ben didn't even want to call it an experience. He'd stayed in the shower for hours until he finally managed to rid himself of the feeling of goo sticking to his skin.

     One week later and back in civilization, it was inevitable that he'd found his way to the first game store that they'd come across. Sumo Slammer 2.1 release date had just so happened to coincide with their trip to town (or, really, his begging had finally managed to wear down Grandpa Max enough) for him to find himself close enough to the front of the line right before opening hours. Grandpa Max, [name], and Gwen had abandoned him to stand in line and buy the game himself after complaining about the heat, finding refuge in a nearby library.

     That'd been thirty minutes ago now.

     He'd sprinted straight back to the Rustbucket as soon as he'd handed the cash over the the cashier, sliding the cartridge into his handheld and had been gaming since then. That's part of the reason why he's lost when the three storm into the RV with [name] snatching up his left wrist to look at the Omnitrix, Gwen immediately flying off the handle and nagging "are you demented," and "going alien just to get a stupid video game," and Max standing behind them both in silent disappointment.

     "I literally have no idea what you're talking about," is his only rebuttal.

     "You went four-arm-freaky in front of the store! We all just saw you—"

     "It wasn't him."

     Gwen, red in the face, snaps her head to [name]. "Don't start defending him! I know you—"

     "The watch would be timed out," [name] hums, popping the disc out and dragging his hand to show the other two as further proof. "Besides, the Four Arms we saw was the wrong color and didn't have the Omnitrix on his shoulder."

     Ben nudges [name] to the side so that he can stand up, trying to pull his hand back. "Now that that's solved, can I get my wrist back?" He leaves his handheld on the table after giving it a longing look, then presses and holds the power button to turn it off. Tugging to try and get his wrist free one more time, Ben lets out a heaving sigh at the squinted look she gives him. "I'll go check it out and see what's going on. For my.. public image, or something, I guess."

     Gwen sucks her tongue. "Not for the safety of the people?"

     "And that too, sure."

     "What are we? Scooby-Doo?"

     "I wanna be Shaggy."

     "[name], no— You're Daphne, I'm Velma, Ben's Scooby, and Grandpa's Shaggy. You're both the Fred-type, though, so—"

     "Why am I Scooby? There's a whole—" Ben suddenly stands from where he was looking at the scene of the crime, rubbing both hands down his face before suddenly pointing his finger at the girls. "Both of you shut up! I'm trying to solve a mystery here."

     [name] only lasts so long before she leans into Gwen while lowering her voice into a barely contained whisper. "Is it because he can turn into aliens?"

     "Yeah," Gwen answers, not bothering to hide her snicker. "But have you seen the stuff those two eat?"

     "Now—" Grandpa Max interrupts Ben before he can toss the brick in his hand in Gwen's direction. He has a cardboard cup holder in his hand, dishing three of the drinks out to everyone before taking his own out and discarding the holder nearby. "— what do you expect to find that everyone else couldn't?"

     "The criminal always returns to the scene of the crime," Ben and Gwen say in unison. The implication that she meant he was the one who started this to begin with wasn't lost on him. If not for the fact that he just heard rustling in an alleyway not far away. Instead, he shoves his drink into her hands as he goes to investigate the noise.

     They were both right, at least, him more than her.

     He makes eye contact with the fraud right as it sprints around the corner. "That's what I was looking for!" He runs after them before anyone can question what he means, making the turn and jumping the fence after them. Once his feet are planted on the ground, he presses on the button beneath the dial and twists it as soon as he's able, searching for XLR8. When it takes him too long to find it, he gives up with a groan, leaving it to chase on foot.

     The alley funnels into an open area, making Ben stop just long enough to catch his breath and figure out where the imposter went. He scoffs when he spots them on top of a white building labeled U. S. MINT. He sprints inside the building despite hearing Max yell out for him to wait up for them. As soon as he sets foot inside, glass breaks near the top floor of the factory. He can only assume that it's the fraud breaking in. The huff that leaves him is loud and heavy as he makes his way up the nearest set of stairs, just for them to come plummeting down to the ground floor as Heatblast once he's a third of the way up.

     "Hothead, use your brain for once!" Gwen scowls at the imposter from where she, [name], and Grandpa Max stood near the entrance. "Stop it before someone gets hurt! If you—"

     [name] spear-tosses a rod at the fraud while yanking her away. "Not Ben," she notes while pointing at their chest, "no Omnitrix."

     Teeth clenching together, Gwen steps behind her. "Then where's Ben? And who're you?"

     "Me? I'm a hottie!" The imposter flexes their muscles as they slowly approach the three, arm thrusting in their direction as [name] moves to cover both Gwen and Grandpa Max. "Can't you tell?"

     Ben's already turned into Diamondhead by the time he reaches the three, creating a wall to shield them from the blast the fraud aims at them. "I'm not going to say it," he starts, fixing his arm to fire crystals at the imposter, lowering the wall and immediately firing once they're done, "but I'm definitely thinking it!"

     (Gwen tries to get out an annoyed "oh, can it, rocks for brains," before [name] pointedly pushes her in the direction of the fleeing workers, motioning for her and Grandpa Max to help them evacuate.)

     While Ben assaults the fraud with all he can give while [name] rushes to their side, hair slipping out of her twists to instead wrap around their arms. She forces them down to their sides before they can try and fire off another blast at either of them, Ben taking the opening to rush at the imposter, adding extra shielding to his shoulder while growling, "you're giving aliens a bad name, y'know!"

     They scoff, burning hot enough that it even makes [name] flinch and loosen her grip on them. "So why don't you cry about it? Or are you gonna go run and tell on me to Grandpa Max?" Shoving their palms down and putting power into them, the fraud launches themselves into the air with a stream of fire, avoiding Ben's charge and almost making him pummel her like a linebacker.

     "Who are you?" Ben can't help but ask as he forces himself to stop. He gives [name] a brief look over because she apparently refused to, only stopping when he finds no injuries and the imposter lets out a maniacal laugh.

     "What? You still haven't figured it out? Maybe this'll help.."

     From Heatblast, they turn into Stinkfly, then Diamondhead, Upgrade, and finally—

     "Kevin?" Letting out a confused scoff, Ben scratches at his head. "I don't get it. I thought you were drained of all the Omnitrix's powers back in New York!"

     Kevin rolls his eyes at the idea. "Turns out I absorbed enough of that thing's energy that if I put enough thought into it, I could turn into any of those aliens inside of it." He gets a pensive look once he finishes, looking down at his hand in a way that Ben can only assume he's longing. "Only problem is, I can only stay human for a short time. You made me into this freak."

     "It's my fault you tried draining it?"

     "If I wasn't gonna use you as my scapegoat, I'd kill you, Tennyson." Kevin glares as his body morphs back into Stinkfly's. His expression only slightly relaxes when the windows to the factory explode, special agents rappelling inside as [name] grabs Ben by his arm, narrowly avoiding a blast from Kevin and digging her claw into the Omnitrix on his chest. "You could probably use all this change to pay your bail! Gotta fly!"

     As more agents filter into the building and Kevin makes his escape, [name] pulls Ben flush against her side. She launches them both up with a single jump, landing on the catwalks near the ceiling. Her finger (shaped like a claw, now that he's actually looking at it) keeps poking and prodding at the Omnitrix before it finally transforms him back into a human. Before the tendrils on her head can return to a human-looking hairstyle, one grabs a hefty-looking box from nearby and throws it at a wall, creating a hole large enough for Diamondhead to fit through.

     "How come you were so quiet?"

     "Huh?"

     "With Kevin. How come you were so quiet?"

     "Uhm.." Her gaze averts elsewhere, body leaning until she can watch as the agents hurriedly make their way towards them. "Didn't wanna interrupt you two's flirting— plus," she cuts Ben off before he can argue, pressing a hand over his mouth, "I was trying to figure out how to turn you back. I was fighting for my life."

     His brows furrow. "Against what?"

     She taps a claw against her temple and Ben groans. "So, he knows the ins and outs of this thing and you have to bargain to get him to tell you?"

     "Unfortunately."

     "Your brother sucks."

     The amused scoff she lets out makes him grin.

     Why Kevin was so quickly trying to get himself recognized as America's most wanted terrorist, Ben didn't know. Was it because he wanted him in jail that badly?

     Probably.

     It's not as though Ben was making it any harder for him. Originally meaning to turn into Upgrade to try and overpower the cable car Kevin was currently controlling, he'd accidentally turned himself into Wildmutt. He'd gotten [name] to hop on his back before he jumped out of the Rustbucket, and she'd been quick to tell him that she'd only come along to keep him out of trouble with the agents that had followed them, keeping up with him on the rooftops.

     Inside the car after almost getting impaled by Kevin on the roof, everyone inside is giving off a palpable amount of fear that almost distracts Ben from his current mission.

     "Peek-a-booo!" Kevin gives him an uppercut via fist from the floor, adding a bench to the combo after shoving off whoever was sitting on it. He refastens it to the floor after pinning Ben beneath it with a maniacal "heel, boy! Heel! That's a good little hero." He peels himself from the car, then reappears on the roof. The car is still hurtling down the road— given how Kevin ripped the brakes from it— and is currently headed towards a large body of water. He's muttering something to himself that Ben doesn't care to listen in on outside of "my work here is done," once he turns into Stinkfly and flies away.

     Grandpa Max pulls the Rustbucket close behind the car as [name] jumps in front of it (in her alien form, if his senses stood correctly). She manages to slow it by digging her feet into the asphalt hard enough to make it crack, but it doesn't stop it entirely.

     Freeing himself from beneath the bench, Ben makes his way to the back after Grandpa Max calls out for him. "Attach the bottom of the line to the RV!" He points to the winch line attached to the car, in case he missed it, and brings his arm back inside to line the Rustbucket up with the car.

     He gathers it in his mouth, leaping onto the hood of the RV and awkwardly bending himself until he can hook the line. Jumping his way to the front of the car after giving Grandpa Max a nod, Ben helps [name] hold it back now that he wasn't guaranteed to become roadkill with him stepping on the brakes.

     "You're my old and decrepit dog," [name] hisses before the car comes to a complete stop, changing herself to look more human while hopping back on his back. "Slobber if you can."

     There's no doubt that she's saying all that because of the agents. Ben could smell them closing in even while she ruffled his fur to make his gills less noticeable, gestures quickly switching to scratching instead once she deems it good enough. "Good boy!" She coos in a way that makes him wince. It's right in his ear canal, but he can't deny the fact that he does enjoy the praise. "Who's my good and outrageously oversized boy? You are! You—"

     Wholly unnecessary, Ben thinks with a roar, and eugh.

     "FREEZE!"

     [name] only tucks herself further against Ben's back when the agents approach with their guns drawn. Her hand presses on the Omnitrix on his shoulder a few times, probably extending the time that he can stay Wildmutt. Once she finishes, she wraps it tightly around his neck while her hair drops to cover the emblem.

     "One wrong move and you're Swiss cheese," Steele announces. He moves in front of the agents surrounding them, standing uncomfortably close to them. "You have two choices," he starts again, glancing between the two in a way that makes [name] return to scratching along his fur, "either you tell me what you and your group have to do with these aliens, or get measured for prison uniforms."

     Tutting, her head shakes. "It was the wrong place, wrong time. My dog—" she gives Ben's side a strong pat for emphasis, "— just helped save me this time."

     Steel scoffs. "Sorry to break it to you, girl, but that thing is an alien."

     "He had to get his eyes and ears removed because of cancer, we like to dye him fun colors, and he's a large breed— but we saved him from euthanasia, so we don't know which one."

     "And its nose?"

     "They're small, but he has nostrils, I promise."

     Just as he's about to interrogate her further, a voice crackles through from one of their radios. "Sir, we're getting reports of a crystal alien rampaging on the Golden Gate," it warns, making Steel turn away, "it looks like it could bring down the whole bridge if it isn't stopped!"

     "Falcon One, pick up at my twenty," Steel responds after yanking a radio from one of the agents, keeping his back to Ben and [name] but looking at them from over his shoulder after he tosses the radio back. "Just know we're not done."

     The agents disperse as a helicopter appears overhead. [name] takes it as her sign to tug on the fur on one side of Ben's body, directing him to start moving towards the Rustbucket. Her claw is already tapping against the Omnitrix when Gwen throws open the door and closes it behind them, sliding off of his back before he detransforms.

     "So," he starts while stretching, "I guess we're headed for the Golden Gate now."

     "I hadn't realized Vilgax was still alive until [name] showed up at the door with a sorry basket in hand.. how many years ago?"

     "Nine."

     Max chances a glance into the rearview mirror. He chuckles at the way Ben and Gwen crowd around [name] on the bottom bunk. She sat as a more accurate representation of a Chimera Sui Generis, the only difference between her and Vilgax being the orientation of her tentacles and the mole just below her lip. How she managed to stay so tolerant of the way they poked and prodded around her body like she was some prized show pet eluded them both.

     Gwen only speaks once she pulls her hands away, fingers testing the viscosity of the mucus that coated her entire body. "Excuse me, but what exactly was that job?" Her brows raise at the way the substance quickly absorbs into her skin and leaves it feeling more than moisturized.

     "The Plumbers worked in the shadows," [name] answers when Max takes a moment to think. She swats Ben's hand away when he pokes at the twin sacs at the top of her head, forcing herself not to flinch at the sensitivity of the organs. "Officially, they didn't exist. They fixed the problems no one else could.

     "Extraterrestrial," Max hums.

     "Extrasensory," [name] adds.

     "Extraordinary," they say in sync.

     "That was terrifying," Ben and Gwen scoff as though they haven't been doing it for the past month.

     Neither acknowledges the irony of it and Ben turns his attention to the way multiple tentacles wrap around each other to form her arms. He tries to unravel the one closest to him and gasps at the individual limbs writhing idly. "So, what? I'm, like, a Plumber-in-training?"

     Gwen captures [name]'s face in her hands, forced to use both from their more than obvious difference in size and strength. "We knew you knew about the watch," she says pointedly while examining her face by twisting it this way and that. Her next words are aimed towards Max when she huffs, "but you too, Grandpa? The whole time?"

     "Rumor and scuttlebutt. I was surprised as everyone here when it turned up on Ben's wrist." Pulling over when sirens wail behind him, all four watch as ambulances and police cars speed by without care. Ben lets out a curious noise and Gwen pulls out her phone to investigate, both still leaving one of their hands lingering on [name]. "All we figured out was that it was the most powerful weapon in the universe."

     "Tool," [name] corrects as she rises. The tentacles that make up her limbs and are on her head wildly unravel, about to accidentally hit the cousins, had they not ducked back. "Azmuth created it to be a tool to bring all species of the universe together." Before either of them knew it, she was standing before them as she had for the past month. A human skin tone, five fingers and toes on each hand and foot, less dramatic claws that could be passed off as nails, hair resembling locs, and no longer towering over everyone in the RV.

     Ben pops up beside her and is already fiddling with the face of the Omnitrix when Gwen turns her phone to show them what's happened. There's a creature running rampant inside a hotel, only fueling his excitement while he cycles through his options. "Well, I guess this is a chance for the Plumbers to get back to work! We could be a family business!" Settling on XLR8, he grabs [name]'s wrist and pulls her to the door. There's an attempted argument from Max, Gwen, and her— Max even goes as far as slamming on the brakes when he opens it and jumps out and onto the road.

     "There is no family business!" Max leans in his seat so he can see the two, flinching when the telltale, bright, green light flashes and Ripjaws stands in Ben's place. "My hero days ended a long time ago!"

     "Mine are just getting—" Ben cuts himself off when he realizes his voice is less XLR8 and more Ripjaws. He looks into the sideview mirror and hisses when he realizes the Omnitrix gave him the wrong option again. "Not to a good start, but it's starting! [name] can you—"

     "I'm riding a firetruck," she answers before he can put a hand on her shoulder. Her nose scrunches when he gives her an unimpressed look. "It's on my bucket list."

     The sigh that he lets out is loud, only followed by an exasperated "okay," when one finally rolls up.

     A Hyper-Weasel is throwing rubble at people when the two finally arrive at the hotel. [name] is keeping the authorities at bay while Ben handles the little problem— literally, because they're only two feet tall. She would kill to be in there instead (if only because she always wanted one as a pet), but Ben had been adamant that he had everything covered.

     (When she asked if he could find a way to capture it, he'd scoffed and said that he "would absolutely not be doing that. If Grandpa didn't let Gwen keep the bird, why'd he let you keep that thing?" She'd quickly rebutted that he sounded just like her. He sucked his teeth, turned on his heel at that, grumbling that she'd better have some kind of cage for it off-world.)

     The Rustbucket pulls up and Gwen comes flying out of it while Max finds somewhere to park that won't make it unnecessarily hard to leave through the throngs of people. "How long has he been in there?"

     "Longer than you'd think for something that barely passes his knee."

     Gwen giggles, coughing to cover it up once Max can catch up. He turns to the crowd and does a motion for them to back up that they actually listen to, hovering a hand over the girls' backs as a way to tell them to get inside. Ben is running to the entrance when they push through the front door, shoving his way behind Max and using the girls as further barriers at his sides.

     "That guy tried roasting me!"

     Max angles an arm behind him and places it on Ben's shoulder in comfort. He opens his mouth to say something, but stops when a bulky shadow comes around the corner. The nozzle of the flamethrower comes into view before the man does, angled at the group with his finger on the trigger. He's about to press it before his eyes catch on the fact that they're humans (or, presenting as one, in [name]'s case), gaze jumping over them all before landing and staying on—

     "MAX?"

     "Phil!"

     Suddenly exposed now that the two men are running for each other, Ben steps behind [name]. "Please don't tell you know this guy, Grandpa! He just tried killing me!"

     "My bad," Phil apologizes with a laugh, hugging Max. "Me and your old man here used to be partners!"

     The new information doesn't comfort Ben, Gwen, or [name], but they can only follow uncomfortably when Phil pulls Max outside to his vintage blue car. If it were twenty years earlier, [name]'s sure it would be in style from what Ben's shown her. How it wasn't a few miles away from breaking apart and crumbling to dust was beyond her.

     "She may not be much to look at, but it's a hell of a lot better than that old rustbucket of an RV you used to drive!" The argument is flimsy. Why he would try and dunk on something as reliable as the Rustbucket was stupid, no matter the reason. Was she not a model made specifically by the Plumbers? The same organization that Max and himself used to work under before it disbanded?

     Max rolls his eyes. Not quite as baffled at the comment as [name] and able to get amusement out of it. "So, how are you?"

     "Pretty good," Phil rubs at his chin as he speaks, depositing his flamethrower and caged alien into the trunk, "especially considering I just bagged a Havoc Beast. Seems like old times, if you ask me."

     [name] flinches at the fact and Ben scowls. "You bagged it? You're kidding! It was—"

     Slapping a hand over Ben's mouth, Max indiscreetly pushes him back. "A Havoc Beast, huh? I haven't seen one of those since the one we caught terrorizing Denver all those years ago!"

     Phil nods and closes the trunk. "Yeah, well, good thing I was around. You know, once a Plumber, always a Plumber! You ever think about getting back in the game, Max? Y'know, relive the glory days?"

     He whuffs at the idea. "No thanks. I'm retired— and so are the Plumbers."

     Moving back to his side, Phil claps a hand on Max's shoulder. "Yeah! Thanks to you! Once you took Vilgax out of the picture, the work seemed to dry up."

     (The look Max gives [name] from the corner of his eye warns her not to let her less-than-human heritage out of the bag. She can feel her hair curl at the ends before relaxing and changing to resemble actual braids.)

     Phil's eyes drift behind them and over Ben, Gwen, and [name]. Eventually, they lowered to Ben's wrist, glaring down at the Omnitrix. "Cool watch," he hums, forcing his face to relax. "It looks real familiar."

     Ben's gaze jumps from Phil, to Max, and back to Phil. "Grandpa, we have that.. thing.. to get to don't we? That dweeb convention or something, for Gwen?"

     No one comments on the way his left eye twitches or how he tucks the Omnitrix under the back of his shirt, but Gwen does shove an elbow into his side. Max turns to face the three and turns them around, calling out "nice catching up with you, Phil, happy plumbing," and ignoring his raised brow while guiding them to the Rustbucket.

     "Why haven't I met him before now," [name] mutters once she deems they're far enough away. "Even before—" her tendrils flick out on their own to finish her sentence.

     "He's not exactly the most.. .. open-minded, if you get what I mean."

     Gwen sucks her teeth. "He's weird. Weirder than that weirdo," a thumb over to Ben, "right there."

     "He's just passionate."

     "Egocentric, more like."

     "Pot, kettle," Gwen and [name] scoff.

     It's barely an hour later when Phil's face pops up from the drink compartment, calling for Max to join him at a processing plant under the threat of Vulpimancers. Ben had been excited to continue the family business, only slightly dampened by the fact Phil would be present— though, that had been ignored when he found out they were the same species as Widlmutt.

     [name] had half the mind to tell him that they weren't social creatures in the slightest bit. The only reason the two present were together was because they were bonded.

     She found it funnier watching him scurry away.

     "Sonic pitch whistle," Max huffs, out of breath from one of the Vulpimancer's attacks. Now all of them (Ben included, unfortunately) are writhing and recovering from the piercing noise. "A classic."

     Phil ignores him in favor of crowding around Ben as soon as he detransforms, still clutching his head in pain. "So.. All the stories are true! The Omnitrix really does exist!" He pulls him up by his elbow, forcing him to stand on unsteady feet. "And Ben, pretty good moves out there! You remind me of your grandfather back in the day!"

     Suddenly healed from his previous tinnitus, Ben's face lights up. "Really?"

     "PHIL!—"

     One of the aliens rises and bats at Phil, knocking the whistle out of his hand before stomping on it with a paw. The second one joins its accomplice and roars at the two before drawing back to pounce.

     [name] slide-kicks into one's leg, sending it falling onto her stomach. She doesn't respond to the would-be pain or winded sensation, instead looping her arms under its body and thrusting her knee into its side. It makes the Vulpimancer whimper and its pair growls in response, only to have a similar response when Max drives the prongs of a forklift into its side. He jumps out of the vehicle once it drives and crashes the alien into another room, calling out for [name] to throw the other inside with it while waving a remote in his hand. It slams shut, locking the two inside.

     "Just like old times, eh?"

     Max hesitantly takes the hand that Phil offers.

     "This suite is awfully.. ritzy.. Must've cost a pretty penny.."

     Phil chuckles from his loveseat in the hotel room, arm thrown over the back. "Just a little thank you I negotiated for helping the manager out with his little alien problem— and trust me, this is just the tip of the ol' alien iceberg! Y'know, Ben, you'd make a great Plumber!"

     Looking up from his bowl of shrimp, Ben stops shoveling them in his mouth by the handful. "Ree-y?" He holds a hand up in apology when the girls (more so to [name] than Gwen) gag in disgust, speaking again once he's swallowed. "You really think so?"

     "Sure! You, me, Max, and [name]—" she shakes her head at that, an effective rejection, "with Gwen as our computer girl?—" a nose cringe, "We'd all make a good team— unstoppable even! What do you think?"

     Max leans against a wall and crosses his arms. He can't help the squint he gives Phil; it's a habit. "I'm starting to think of what a coincidence for a hyper weasel and two megamutts to turn up on the same day."

     "Aliens," Phil snorts. "Go figure!"

     A deeper squint this time. "I, ugh, need some fresh air."

     Phil is hot on Max's heels when he leaves the room, only calling "order whatever you'd want off the room service menu, kids," over his shoulder like Max wasn't about to tear his entire (current) livelihood apart.

     Ben is more than enthusiastic about the offer, pumping his fist into the air and already reaching for the little card to skim through the options. Gwen, on the other hand, keeps her eyes on Phil until after he closes the door, immediately turning her attention to [name] who looks just as uncomfortable— if not more— than her. "Something's wrong with him. We should go investigate."

     "Agreed." Standing, [name] snatches the slip out of Ben's hands and hitches the other on her hip. "If you turn into XLR8, we can cover more ground than if I take us."

     Leaning his head back, Ben whines. "We're lucky to be in a hotel twice in one month! You know Grandpa! And it's a luxury one! Why can't we—"

     "Man, I guess you're right.." Gwen crosses her arms and lets her chin fall as she pretends to think. "I guess it's just some super secret Plumbers' mission.. It'd be better if we stay here and safe, huh?"

     [name] has to hide her laughter when she joins in, holding the menu back out to Ben. "And it's not like seeing the base back at Mount Rushmore is better than a luxury, five-star hotel."

     "Maybe we can convince Grandpa to bring us back before Summer ends and give us the grand tour..!"

     "A nice, downy feather, king-sized bed does beat missing out on bringing the whole company out of retirement.."

     "You two are evil," Ben scowls, knocking [name]'s hand away as he rocks himself to his feet. He taps the button below the dial of the Omnitrix and fiddles with it after it pops up, twisting and turning until he selects XLR8. He presses it down while glaring at the two, hitching [name] onto his back and carrying Gwen in his arms at the front after transforming. "Pure evil."

     Whatever response the two scoff at him is lost in the wind when he skates off.

It’s rare that Valerie’s dad drops her off at school, even more so given the fact that all the girls had spent the night at her house, but that was what the day presented itself with. Mr. Damon pulls off after bidding the four goodbye and good luck, speeding out of the parking lot so he wouldn’t get caught in the already slow school traffic and be late for work.

(The football team had a boys’ night of their own, and Dash didn’t want them — mostly [name] — stranded in case he or Quan got too caught up in their own shenanigans, which they did.)

Once sure that he’s out of ear and eyeshot, Star links arms with [name] and points a very obvious finger to the front entrance of the school. “Isn’t that Romeo’s friend?”

Following her guide, the other three catch sight of a girl rejecting Tucker and barely stopping herself from slapping him. He looks dejected, so there’s no doubt that he’s at least twelve rejections deep into his mission.

“Oh, my God,” Valerie cringes. Her nose crinkles in that way it always does when she’s between disgust and begrudging respect. “Don’t tell me he’s been doing that all morning.”

“He has,” Paulina confirms confidently, despite being present just as long as the others.

Star adjusts her hold on [name]’s arm so that she’s hugging it instead. “Magic,” she whines the childhood nickname with a twinge of pity, her big, blue eyes telling her everything she didn’t say aloud. In most scenarios, it was enough alone to make any of the three give in and make her every wish come true; this one being that maybe she find literally anyone else to go with as a date.

This, however, was a very different scenario.

“How his friend acts isn’t a representation of how he acts,” [name] scoffs.

They all watch as he trudges his way back to Danny and Sam while they make their way to their tree. Paulina doesn’t wait for [name] to shrug her bookbag off her shoulder and onto the ground before grappling onto her shoulders with a white-knuckle grip. “.. Girl..”

It’s impossible not to roll her eyes as [name] lowers them both to the grass. While far from the first time that Paulina has chastised her for her taste in men — as supportive as she was when she wasn’t — it quickly started getting old. “I don’t wanna hear it, Paulie,” she says through gritted teeth, holding onto the other girl’s waist when she tries to scamper away. “Not everyone can get a date as easily as you, little Miss Perfect.”

“Ow-uh! Y’don’t know how hard it was for me to actually get Trey to pick up my fifty million hints!” Following [name] as she moves to lean against the tree, Paulina makes herself comfortable lying against her chest and stomach, hands dropping to play with the ends of her hair.

Valerie raises a brow. “Knowing you?” She shifts to lay her head against [name]’s shoulder, arms opening so Star can situate herself similarly to Paulina. “All you did was start dropping loud hints on what your favorite color, flower, and suit style were, and he ran with it.”

“I did,” Paulina giggles.

Star, still enamored with watching Tucker sulk following his collapse to the ground, an inch or two out of the way of Danny and Sam, who scramble to avoid impact and barely put in the effort to catch him, seems to have a lightbulb light up behind her eyes. “We could probably still get you a date with him!”

“Were you not just trying to convince me to go with someone else?”

“He’s looking over here!”

While Paulina and Valerie immediately snap their gazes to the trio, [name] instead leans her head up and starts to slip down the trunk until she’s lying on the ground, ignoring Paulina’s yelp. “And you three think staring is going to help my case?”

“We’re just returning the energy,” Valerie hums. “I mean, guys are crashing into trees and falling into the fountain looking at us, and we’re looking at them.”

“Sam is going to skin me alive.”

Star tuts, “turn her into a frog! — Or, no! A bat! She’d probably like that better, wouldn’t she?”

“She’d suck me of all my —“

“Girls,” Paulina hisses, moving herself from atop [name] so she can instead sit by her head and manhandle it into her lap, “look presentable! He’s on his way.”

“Is Tucker with him? He is, isn’t he?” [name] continues to refuse to let her line of sight leave the leaves and branches above them.

“Yeah,” Valeries answers in a murmur, “but the goat is leading.”

Star’s brows furrow. “Is that his codename now? Wet goat?”

Paulina squints. “Looking at him now, he reminds me of a Whippet.”

“Stars above, strike me down now,” [name] prays.

When they finally reach them, Danny, with an encouraging pat on the shoulder from Tucker that also pushes him forward, stumbles to the side of [name] and Paulina, resulting in him leaning against the tree so he doesn’t faceplant into it. “.. .. Hi..”

“Hey,” [name] greets, trying her best not to let her embarrassment show. Briefly, her eyes flit over to Tucker, who was attempting to woo Valerie and-or Star to no success, then to Paulina, who had her sights set strictly on [name] with a look that said, “don’t you dare mess this up!”

Like her, Danny quickly glances at Tucker for some sort of support. The equally unhelpful, “dude, you’re on your own, you see me trying to work my magic,” face he receives in turn is incredibly obvious.

“So,” he starts to continue after taking a steadying breath, “I don’t know if you and —“

His hand slips, making him fall face-first into the ground regardless of his previous attempt to prevent that from happening. [name] shoots up, scooting over to help him while Paulina scoffs with a scowl.

“Please! Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly fallen for her. That line is so last semester.”

Rolling onto his back with the help of [name], anyone would assume Danny was petrified still if not for the fact that his mouth moved. “Yeah! I — I mean no! That’s not — not at all! I just —“

From the sound of the fall alone, [name] would think he had broken, if not fractured, his nose. Miraculously, it wasn’t anything of the sort. Bruised, maybe, with some blood starting to trickle out. Her hand gingerly prods around the bruising, softly apologizing when he flinches, the other blindly reaching for her lunchbox, which Paulina dutifully hands her. “It’s not bad,” she notes, opening the zipper and taking out the icepack and a tissue. Another blind reach has Paulina handing her the bandana she saved for cheerleading practice, in case she didn’t have a hair tie.

Wrapping the icepack in the bandana so the frigid item wouldn’t touch bare skin, she places two quick enchantments on it with a subtle wave of her hand. The first was a slow-acting healing one, and the other was to keep it colder for longer.

She offers him the napkin first for the blood, guiding him into sitting up. “I don’t think the nurse can do you any better than this.”

“Thanks — Thank you,” Danny sniffles, voice nasally from him both pinching and wiping his nose. “I’ll give it back to you at lunch.”

[name] shakes her head, pulling his hand down once his face is clean enough to replace it with the wrapped icepack. “Don’t worry about it. It’s the least I can do for literally everything you do.”

Was his face red from the bruise or the compliment? She was willing to bet it was from the latter more than the former.

Eyes darting everywhere that isn’t [name], Danny’s mouth poses to say something, but is cut off by Sam’s slow clapping. “Kudos, Danny. You just set an all-time speed record for drowning in the shallow and plastic-filled end of the gene pool.”

Paulina scoffs in disbelief, looking between Sam, [name], Valerie, and Star. “Please tell me that she didn’t just say what I think she did.”

“Do you wanna tell us what you mean by that?” Star is the first to stand, hands hitched on her hips and head cocked to the side. She didn’t fully understand what was being insinuated, which, put lovingly, was to be expected of her. Most of the student body spoke of her most kindly out of the four.

“I mean,” Sam huffs, puffing her chest out and taking a step forward, “if I can stand in a puddle full of the four of you and not get my feet wet, then yeah, you’re shallow.”

It’s Paulina’s turn to stand up, much more aggressively than Star did. “If you think —“

“I see the boys,” [name] pointedly interrupts, helping Valerie to her feet and drumming her fingers against her thigh soothingly. “Plus, it’s getting late. We need to start heading to class.”

Paulina spins on her heel to convince her to let her place some sort of curse on Sam, only to quickly get shut down by Valerie gripping onto her bicep and pulling her away. Star lingers behind with [name] to collect their bookbags, trying to school her face and keep herself from scowl-pouting. “Hope your nose gets better soon,” [name] says with a clear of her throat, letting Star link their arms together again once they’re done.

Neither stays long enough for any of the trio to slip anything more in.

The next day, Paulina forces herself to ignore the way Sam makes her blood boil in favor of going through with her master plan.

Dragging is nowhere close to the word [name] would use when it came to Paulina taking her to Danny’s locker, where he and Tucker stood. She had the sweetest smile she could muster on her face while paying no mind to the lovestruck sighs the students let out as they passed by, throwing up a hand not currently death-gripping [name]’s to catch the trio’s attention.

“Yoo-hoo, Danny!” She doesn’t have to yell, even with the number of people crowding the hallway, because they were too busy being captivated by her to make any noise.

Danny visibly freezes. His back straightens as he turns to look at [name] and Paulina from the corner of his eye, muttering something to Tucker, who nods smugly, steps away, then rushes back to say something else before really leaving.

“Hey, you,” Paulina hums once close enough. She shoves [name] in front of her, hands hooking onto her shoulders while she leans her head against hers. “I remembered you were gonna ask her something yesterday, but couldn’t, and she didn’t mention anything about it last night, so I’m just gonna assume you didn’t! I think that —“

Dash slams Danny into his locker and shuts it with a quickness that leaves neither girl the time to react.

Leaning against the locker door so Danny can’t get out, Dash gives his signature smirk to them and reaches out for [name]’s hand, planting a kiss on the back of it. “We should go out sometime? I was thinking the same thing,” he suggests, incorrectly finishing Paulina’s sentence. “We should hit up that bowling spot we always went to when we were kids! When’s the last time you were — in Dash’s body?”

Paulina’s grip on [name]’s shoulders loosens from shock. Her hands come up to cover her mouth, and her eyes dart between Dash and [name]. “You —”

“NO?” [name]’s voice is louder than she intends, but the absurdity of Dash’s sudden shift in behavior, Paulina’s assumption, and her own befuddlement have her out of sorts. “No! We don’t — We haven’t — Dash, what is wrong with you?” The words come out as a hiss, pulling him out of his own astonished thoughts.

“I didn’t mean that. I just — Someone was being weird. I heard it. Uhm.” Uncomfortably, he keeps intense eye contact with her, and there’s a witchy instinct in [name]’s brain saying: “that isn’t him.” Why? She couldn’t figure it out. Of course, that wasn’t including the fact that he had a slip-up that bad and stuttered. While it wasn’t downright impossible for him to do either, it really only ever happened when he was caught off-guard, and nothing had happened for him to feel so.

Though something in her gut was telling her it was a possession, it didn’t make sense. It was rare for ghosts to do so without wreaking some kind of havoc, and it was even rarer for them to know their host’s name. What’s more, Phantom would be somewhere nearby to suck the ghost into his thermos and send them back to the Ghost Zone.

Then again, who was she not to trust said instinct?

The issue with acting on it arises when Paulina lets out a quiet squeak. “You.. You do know that you two aren’t staying together the whole night, right, Dash? Why can’t the Whippet ask her out?”

“Paulina,” [name] warns.

“The Whippet?”

“Y’know! The,” Paulina makes a gesture towards Danny’s locker.

Dash looks annoyed for the briefest of moments before his face calms. “Oh.” He glances at the locker, eyes squinting at it before he says, “Yeah, sure. I need to, ugh, go.. check and make sure I won’t fail biology again.”

With that, Dash steps away and whatever possessed him leaves, holding his head as though dazed and muttering under his breath. [name] watches him for several steps worriedly, naturally, but he seems fine now.

Paulina opening the locker door reminds [name] of Danny’s current predicament. She turns on her heel to help him out just as he’s about to fall flat on his face. Decidedly ignoring the way his hands are trembling and are clammy when he offers a shaky, “thank you.”

“Oh! What’s this?”

Eyes turning to his locker, they both find Paulina a necklace that makes [name]’s heart drop. She didn’t have a clue why that was, unlike Dash’s possession. Because she was no stranger to magically enchanted objects, her only reasonable assumption would be to say that it’s something related to a ghost, which was the opposite of her expertise.

Why would Danny of all people have something that’s haunted? Yes, his parents were fanatic ghost-hunters who usually failed at it (usually used because Phantom found some of the items he stole from them useful). Still, he told everyone and their mother that the last thing he had any interest in was following in their footsteps. How could his parents not pick up on the fact that the item could likely be cursed, either?

Wiping his hands down his pants to get rid of some of the sweat, Danny takes the necklace from Paulina and examines it as though it’s his first time seeing it. “This? Ugh, it’s a.. uhm.. Do either of you like it?”

Paulina gives [name] an incredibly pointed look.

“It’s.. uhm..” [name] knew exactly what Paulina wanted her to say. Compliment it, subtly ask if it was for her, accept it, then say that she’d gladly go with Danny to the dance. The issue was that the thing was haunted and the last thing she wanted to do was risk her own or anybody else’s safety by taking it.

Paulina had been in [name]’s coven since they were kids, and the same could be said for the rest of the A-listers, even if some were more inclined to notice magic than others. That being said, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for certain members to be more skilled in certain areas than others, regardless of whether they were born with magic or not. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Paulina wasn’t able to notice the power within the necklace because her specialty was making illusions with makeup — enchanted and cursed items were more Valerie’s forte, given her dad’s position at Axion, whereas Star’s was more attuned to animals.

Needless to say, Paulina willingly ignores the hint.

“It’s so beautiful, Danny,” [name] hums, trying to suppress the unease in her voice. She takes the necklace from him when he extends it towards her, looking it over carefully and trying to keep her smile from dropping. “Where’d you get it?”

Eyes focusing just below her own, Danny takes a moment to answer. “The.. ugh.. The mall. I found and thought of.. you,” he eventually answers, not convinced of it himself. “But, it’s good that you like it! Since I did — ugh — get it for you.”

“Oh.” [name] doesn’t know whether or not she believes that. The hopeful part of her wants to believe him, especially since she’d been fiending for it since the dance was announced — and yet the logical part of her knows that something was undoubtedly wrong with the necklace and Danny’s explanation. “I just —“ She sends another hopeful glance to Paulina, but is only met with a fierce look. “I don’t know if it’ll go with my dress..”

Danny’s jump from [name], to the necklace, and then back to her neck specifically. “You don’t have to wear it with your dress! You could wear it now — only if you, uhm, wanted to, of course! I — I got it in case I ever got the nerve to ask you to the dance, and you said yes, I thought I’d want to give you something, and it’s — it’s for you, but I can go and get you another one if you want!”

“No, no, this is fine!” [name] unclasps it, handing it to Danny before turning her back to him and moving her hair out of the way. “I’d love to go with you.”

Internally, she’s clawing at her brain for accidentally talking herself into owning and now wearing a possessed item. What was her Grandaddy going to say? Even if he didn’t mind, he would still ask her a million and one questions on how she got it, if she knew what it did, and why she even took it in the first place. She either needed to learn more about it with the girls once school was over, or she needed to show it to Phantom and ask for his thoughts.

Paulina moves in [name] peripheral vision as Danny slips the necklace in front of her neck. She’s making that face she always does when she’s excited about something, her index finger shaped like a hook and covering her mouth so her grin is barely visible.

It’s possessed, she’s finally able to mouth now that Danny couldn’t see her face anymore.

Her expression drops, but she manages to bring it back up long enough that, when he finishes and steps around to make sure the necklace sits nicely, Danny doesn’t notice anything different.

“Thank you,” [name] hums, bringing Danny in for a hug. “I love it.”

Paulina mouths from behind Danny, What’re you gonna do?

Her face briefly scrunches, saying, To be figured out.

After a moment, Danny’s hands finally rest on her back and shoulder after being frozen, patting once before letting them rest on the surface. “N — No, ugh, no problem.”

[name] pulls away sooner than she would have liked in any other scenario, stepping away and linking an arm with Paulina. “I’ll see you later,” she says with a wave and a turn of her heel.

“B — Bye,” he mutters.

“What do you mean you don’t know yet,” Paulina huffs into [name]’s ear once they’re far away enough.

Shrugging her shoulders with a shaky sigh, her head shakes. “I mean, I don’t want him to have it! What if he gets possessed? It’s better if I have it than him.”

“Girl, you are hypnotized by a loser.”

“I’m sorry for having a sense of morality, Paula.”

There’s a look of unease on Paulina’s face. It’s too delayed to be from what [name] said (even if it was less than a second after), and yet she had been looking her in the eye when it did flash. That same logical part of her mind tells her that she should ask about it — but the queasy feeling in her entire body keeps her from doing so.

“I like your necklace.”

There’d been a long, comfortable silence between [name] and Phantom as they worked around the graveyard. There was no one to look for specifically and no ghost for him to thwart away (aside from Box Ghost, but he’s as harmful as a gnat), and they’d gone through every possible topic about two hours earlier.

Looking down at the jewelry, she looks down and notices that it’s fallen out of where she had it tucked into her shirt. She’d only felt the need to keep it hidden because there had been an incident with Paulina, Valerie, and Star at cheerleading practice, then Dash during the drive home, where they tried taking it off of her. Why wouldn’t she try her hardest to keep any of them from doing so? It was probably the most forward Danny had ever been when it came to either of their feelings, and she planned to wear it for a good long while, no matter how much it clashed with her outfits.

“Thanks,” she purrs, running a finger over the jewel. It’s a comforting gesture, and she can only assume it’s for the same reason she refused to take it off. “Everybody keeps saying that it’s possessed, but I think it’s just because I got it from my date.”

“What.”

[name] laughs at the way he blanches, slipping her fingers under the jewel and holding it out for him to get a better look. “Yeah! Normally, they’re not so.. weird about us being openly romantic — not my boyfriend, though, he has his reputation and whatnot — but I do remember getting this bad feeling when he first pulled it out and put it on me. I’m just glad that it went away after a while.”

Phantom stares blankly at the necklace, not even breathing (a habit he said he could never grow out of, even after dying). He stays like that for a good long while, enough so that [name] returns to their work on cleaning off a headstone belonging to a late librarian, a Roman Riley.

“Your date gave you a.. a possessed amulet..” Phantom manages to start, moving again if only to be closer to her. “And even after your coven tried taking it off, you’re still wearing it..?”

“I am.”

“And you don’t think that’s.. cause for concern..?”

“Well, they’re not full witches, so it’s not like you can really trust their instincts the same way you can mine.”

“Can I.. Can I look at it?”

A noise of consideration leaves [name] before she can stop it. “Maybe after the dance,” she offers, swatting at his hand when he reaches out to touch it. “I just don’t want anything to happen to it.”

“What if he asks for it back?” Phantom doesn’t stop warily eyeing her, then the necklace.

“Well, he said he got it for me, so I don’t think he will.”

“But if he does?”

“I don’t think I could,” she sighs.

“That’s,” Phantom starts to speak through gritted teeth and a low voice, hands clenching and unclenching as his temperature lowers enough for [name] to really feel it, “great. That’s really great.”