#watchless ben

Ben rushed through the thick dark forest, his white armor clearly visible, standing out against the shady green of his surroundings. In his arms he held a cowering Velosabre child. He dodged branch and tree and log as he raced to the edge of the forest. Out of nowhere, two murky green Florauna dropped to the ground and blocked his path. Ben stopped, unable to fight back with the child in his arms. He crouched slightly, preparing to dash if need be.

"Grab my gun," he whispered to the crying child.

"H-Huh?" the frightened alien squeaked back.

"Only put your finger on the trigger if you're aiming to fire. I'm not asking you to kill anyone. I just need covering fire to get us outta here."

The child carefully grabbed the strap around Ben's chest and unclipped it, pulling the gun from his back. Before the pair had a chance to act, a hail of orange laser fire rained past them onto the Florauna. Surprised, the child dropped Ben's rifle as the two assailants were torn to shreds by the attack. The Revonnahgander responsible arrived from behind Ben, holding her rifle carefully in both hands and wearing the same white armor.

She stopped firing for a second. "Run! Go!"

Barely giving thought to his dropped weapon, Ben turned and ran back into the forest to find a safer way out. The two barely-standing Florauna began to regenerate slowly before the Revonnahgander's second attack ensured they didn't get the chance to recover.

Before getting far, their path was cut off yet again, this time by a hulking brown Appoplexian charging another Florauna into a tree. It sparked and began to collapse. The tiger-like alien picked up the anthropomorphic plant and threw it at a tree behind Ben, who ducked to avoid it.

"AH! Hey!" Ben barked at him. "You're supposed to be on OUR side!"

The Appoplexian smirked before running off to find something else to punch. A lone Florauna emerged from inside a tree behind where the Appoplexian had been stood. A second emerged from another tree, followed by another and another.

Ben hesitated. He knew there were enemies behind him, and now their were enemies in front as well. He had nowhere to run.

His thoughts are cut off by one last interruption. "Hit the deck!"

Three smoldering rocks flew overhead and dropped onto the leaf litter in front of the Florauna.

"WAIT, NO!" Ben screamed, but it was already too late. He turned and dropped to the floor, covering the Velosabre child with his body. The smoking rocks suddenly exploded violently, severely burning the Florauna and launching rubble and dirt into the air. Some nearby trees began to burn. Ben climbed back to his feet, his armor scratched but otherwise unscathed, and helped the little girl up as well.

A short brown alien with orange lines running across their body emerged from their own hiding place among the trees. She was wearing the same white armor as the rest of them. "Sorry 'bout that. Gotcha outta that mess though, didn't I?"

"We don't score points for bringing back a dead child!" Ben snapped back at her before dashing off once more, searching for a way out of this dangerous ocean of trees.

The Pyronite narrowed her eyes. "Wish we did. It'd give us an excuse to finally get rid 'a you."

Putting one foot in front of the other, Ben marched hastily towards the edge of the treeline. The bright light from the safe open space bled through the edge of the dense forest. At long last, he finally reached it. The space around him is a bright white space devoid of detail. A loud overbearing voice interrupted Ben's relief of accomplishment.

[OBJECTIVE SECURED. SIMULATION COMPLETE. NORMALIZING.]

The white faded away and the forest disappeared. Ben found himself holding a metal endoskeleton--a robot that had previously been hiding beneath a holographic Velosabre disguise. He dropped the now-limp doll and looked around. The three aliens that--as little as they showed it--were on his side were standing a few hundred meters back, now holding their own limp robotic dolls, most of which had holes in them.

Standing among them as they walked back towards Ben were several Splixsons, which merged together as they approached the exit of the large, illusion-inducing room. The five stood side-by-side in a formal line as the large doors at the front of the room slid open.

"Atteeeeeen-SHUN!"

The five white-clad trainees stood straight to attention. A tall, maroon-skinned Vaxasaurian wearing the same, albeit modified, armor ducked under the doorway and entered the holodeck. He was followed by a grey-haired Max Tennyson, and you, a young senior cadet around Ben's age.

"Ladies and gentlemen. This is (Y/N). She'll be joining you in training from here on out," the Vaxasaurian announced you. "Well, introduce yourself."

As per routine, you stood straight in front of your new class, face stern. "My name is (Y/N) (L/N). Fourth Infantry, Milky Way Galaxy Battalion. I'll be overseeing you all from a senior perspective."

"Thank you, (Y/N)," a female Tetramand said before glaring at her troop. "Rookies, today is the first time I have seen your unit in action. Suffice to say, I am NOT impressed. What I have seen shows blatant disregard for protocol, safety of teammates, and communication. And on that last note, Rookie Tennyson, since you were the one who managed to secure the objective I'd like YOU to explain why there was no communication."

Ben, who had been eyeing you the whole time you were introducing yourself, snapped back to face his superior, trying not to look too disgruntled. "Comms were down, ma'am."

"I see. And why is that?"

Ben hesitated. "I-I don't know, ma'am."

You immediately suspected something was up. You craned your neck to address the Vaxasaurian. "If I might ask, Magister, was there a hidden challenge that required the trainees to have disabled comms without their knowledge?"

He shook his head. "No, I don't believe so."

You turned to Max next. "Magister Tennyson?"

Max shrugged. "First I've heard of it."

Just to be sure, you walked up to Ben. "Rookie Tennyson, let me look at your comms chip."

Ben reached inside the neck piece of his Plumber armor and pulled out a small wafer of metal. As he handed it to you, your fingers brushed. He winced and his cheeks tinged pink and quickly drew his hand back, trying not to show his embarrassment.

Your eye slightly twitched at his touch, but that was the bare minimum of what REALLY went through your mind. You gently pulled the device apart into two plates to reveal the device's guts, among which was an obviously disconnected wire. You proceeded to reconnect the wire and gave the device back to Ben. His teammates were smirking dumbly.

"And your equipment inspection earlier didn't uncover this easily fixed fault?" you asked, knowing you couldn't stray from your role as this boy's senior.

Ben's cheeks went even pinker. "Well--I, uhh..."

Your brow narrowed. "Or was there no inspection."

Ben didn't respond, but he could feel his heart sinking. All that effort just to be chewed out for basic protocol...

His teammates began snickering, but you weren't going to let them slide either. "Hold it! You there, Splixson! Now show me YOUR comms chip!"

The four silenced immediately. The Splixson carefully pulled his comms chip out of the inside of his neck piece and gave it to you, where you proceeded to pull it apart in the same manner as previously. Unlike last time, however, there was no loose wire.

"Oh look, no faults," you said flatly, having figured it out. You threw the device gently back to the Splixson, who caught it carefully. You stomped closer and towered over the already small alien. "So would you kindly explain to me, rookie, why you said sweet bugger all to your teammates for the entire duration of that exercise?"

The Splixson looked caught. "Well that's because uh...because I...was all over the forest! Yeah, I was using myself to relay information physically between teammates in case our comm lines were hacked into by the enemy!"

"Hacked into?" you said disbelievingly. "By training droids capable only of incredibly limited critical thinking and pre-programmed personality? Droids with no wireless capacity outside of their link to the holodeck itself? Droids that, as per your mission briefing, had no technology of any sort on them?"

The Tetramand Magister nodded approvingly of your efforts. "Not bad, (Y/N). Spoken like a real Plumber. Well, Rookie? What do you have to say for yourself?"

The Splixson paused, completely silent, as he tries to think of another retort. The Tetramand Magister shook her head in disgust.

"Oh don't you dare," she warned the alien cadet. "I can see the cogs turning in your head. Don't you DARE come up with another justification for why you weren't using comms to communicate--that isn't my problem with you. My problem is that you didn't communicate at all!"

The Splixson continued to be silent, a look of panic hidden beneath his shocked expression. Ben was doing a good job at hiding his satisfaction at this turnout.

"In case nobody told you, ANY of you, we record EVERYTHING you Rookies say during training missions. Magister Coronach, if you'd please."

The Vaxasaurian produced a small phone-like device from one of the pockets attached to his belt. He pressed a few buttons, and audio began to play. The Rookies, Ben excluded, could be heard saying "good luck" to each other briefly, followed by the sound of leaves rummaging. Changes in ambient noises excluded, the audio remained silent for an embarrassingly long time. Eventually, a relaxed groan could be heard, akin to someone relaxing after a hard day's work.

The Splixson's face went bright red as the playback stopped.

"Did you all hear that?" the Tetramand growled. "That's the sound of you five scrubbing the toilets for three hours first thing tomorrow. You ought to be ashamed."

"In his defense, sir, that only sounded like one of his clones relaxing," the Revonnahgander piped up. "He could still have been actively contributing to the mission."

The Tetramand put her hand to her ear hole and leaned condescendingly over to the female Rookie. "Is that the lovely voice of a Revonnahgander I hear? Oh. No, sorry, my mistake. That was the sound of you five scrubbing toilets for the ENTIRETY of tomorrow. Dismissed. Get out of my sight. (Y/N), supervise them and make sure these slackers don't weasel their way out."

The Appoplexian growled aggressively under his breath as the squad left the oversized training holodeck. You stared down at the Appoplexian and he stopped.

***

Ben and his squad mates were spread equidistant from each other in the clean white-tiled room. They stripped the lightweight Plumber armor from their bodies, some more gracefully than others. Decency projectors ensured that no one saw anything private that the others may not want seen. Ben kept to himself as he changed from his clunky uniform back into his signature white-and-green hoodie. As much as his teammates hated him, the feeling was mutual, Ben knew he could take solace in the fact that their schemes to make him look bad blew up in their faces just as much as they actually worked.

That wasn't the only thing Ben could take satisfaction in. He was happy that, for once, someone had stood up for him, in their own weird way. He couldn't help but cast a glance to the side, where a silhouette of your figure could be seen dimly against the surface of the decency projector.

But his warm feeling didn't last long. The Pyronite cadet looked over her shoulders with a devilish grin on her face. "Boy, that debrief sure woulda gone smoother if Ben hadn't been such as massive screw up."

Ben's already dull expression turned to an annoyed scowl, but he didn't dignify the insult by turning around. He continued keeping to himself.

All of his teammates were amused by the remark. The Revonnahgander decided to join in. "Yep. I've said it before and I'll say it again. There's no such thing as a decent HUMAN Plumber."

The Appoplexian laughed loudly at this, but the group seemed to have forgotten you were listening. You stepped out, fully clothed, raising an eyebrow at the rookies. "Haha. Funny thing is; at least our species has actually produced a decent Plumber before, unlike ANY of your species. No Revonnahganders, Appoplexians, Splixsons, or Pyronites have EVER been Magisters before. I wonder why that is?"

Ben peeked out from his decency projector in surprise. He hadn't expected someone to take a stand for him like that. You turned away to walk out, a little proud of that retort, not that you'd ever let on.

"What was that?" the Pyronite flickered threateningly. "I couldn't hear you over the flames."

That response was so confusing, it actually managed to make you turn around. You wished you hadn't, though, as you were met with a tiny fireball to the face, courtesy of the spiteful Pyronite. You fell to your knees and hissed sharply through your teeth as your skin reddened and bubbled. The rest of the room burst into open laughter.

"Lemme tell ya something, high-and-mighty human girl!" the Appoplexian snarled, towering over you. "You may be our senior out there, but in here? WE'RE the superiors, far superior to you weak humans!"

You tried to stand, another retort already crawling up your throat, but the Revonnahgander cadet stomped in front of you, winding up for a punch. "Did we say you could get up?"

You cringed, ready to feel the sting of the punch, but it never came. All you heard was a hard *thump* and a small gasp of surprise. You dared to open your eyes and you saw the human rookie there, shoulder now bruised purple from where he had taken the blow for you.

"Leave her alone!" Ben shouted back at his team, though his body trembled from the pain. "Is it any wonder we haven't graduated yet?! Look at the way you treat others!"

The Revonnahgander glared back at Ben, and for a moment you thought he had managed to talk his teammate down. Another punch and Ben falling to his knees, grasping his gut and wheezing for air said otherwise.

The aliens all walked past you two on their way out, mocking you as they did. The Revonnahgander was the last of them to leave, stopping as she passed Ben. "Do us all a favor, human. Don't show up tomorrow. Just drop out. Go away. Actually do something with your life instead of dragging us all down with you."

She walked away, leaving you both alone on the floor. After staring daggers at them, you immediately turned your attention to Ben. "You alright, rookie?"

Ben did his best to catch his breath. "Hah...I-I'm alright. I'm used to dealing with them." His eyes snapped open when he saw your scorched face. "H-Hey! What about you? You're hurt!"

Instinctively, his hand darted out to brush over your face, careful not to make contact with the wound directly. You relished in his gentle touch before he realized what he was doing and drew his hand back sharply, burning a crimson red. "S-Sorry! I just...um..."

"Don't worry about me," you smiled back, getting up off the floor and extending a hand for him to take. "I'm a senior cadet for a reason. I mean, I've lasted this long."

Ben couldn't help but return your smile as he took your hand and let you hoist him up. "Ha...yeah. Must've been hard, huh? Did your teammates give you a hard time?"

"A harder time, if you can believe it," you rolled your eyes. "But that's exactly what makes us the best kinds of Plumbers. Even without fire powers, or extreme agility, or anger issues, we always push on through. We keep fighting until we get there, with hardly anything to lean back on."

Ben looked unsure, as comforting and encouraging as your words were. "...You really think I could become a Plumber?"

You raised your eyebrow back at him playfully. "Well, that's why Magister Tennyson assigned me to your group, after all. I'm here to find out."

Ben's head tilted up at that comment, filled with fresh confidence. He'd often had his days were he considered dropping out entirely, thanks to his less-than-friendly teammates, but maybe with you around, things would get a lot easier. Clicking his heels together and straightening up, he saluted you. "I won't let you down, ma'am! Plumber's promise!"

You giggled a little at Ben's sudden decorum. "Oh, lay off the formalities, rookie. Just call me (Y/N). And don't mind those other guys. Stick with me and you'll be a Plumber in no time, okay?"

"R-Really?"

"Yeah, really. Now, what's YOUR name? If it's gonna be us against the world, 'Rookie' isn't gonna cut it,"

"...My name's...Ben. Ben Tennyson."