newbienovelistRD asked for this one. Here you go, Amiga! Enjoy! :)

Ben 10 belongs to Cartoon Network and Man of Action. The movie "My Favorite Martian" belongs to Disney. I only own Rachel and Sasha.

The Fabric Of Friendship

Ben came into the Grant Mansion one day and found Rachel getting the furnaces lit for winter. Rook and Upgrade were helping her with making sure the furnaces were properly working. She turned to find Ben coming in. "Hi, Ben," she said.

"Hey," he said. "I didn't know the Mansion had a furnace."

"Three, actually," she said.

"Three?"

"One down in the To'kustars' quarters, one here in the middle of the Mansion and then one towards the upper floors," said Rook as he successfully lit the furnace and Upgrade gave the okay that it was working fine.

"Even with the fireplaces, this house gets cold in the winter time," the Mechamorph explained. "So we have to light the fires and turn on the furnaces when it gets too cold."

Ben nodded. "Do you guys want some help?" He asked.

"No, thank you," said Rachel. "This was the last one we needed to light. We did the one upstairs and Ultimate Way Big did the one under the Mansion already."

"Okay," said the hero.

Rook then noticed Ben looked tired. "Ben, is everything okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, just had to play referee for Gwen and Kevin," he said. "Kevin forgot to give Gwen something for their anniversary and she was really mad."

Rachel looked concerned. "How did you keep them apart?" She asked.

"Used Spidermonkey and had to listen to them yell at each other for over an hour."

"Ouch," Upgrade said sympathetically.

Rachel nodded in agreement. "Well, I'm going to start lunch soon, so why don't you rest a bit in the living room, Ben?" She said.

"Thanks," he said with a smile and headed down there.

Rachel turned to Upgrade and Rook. "You want us to go find Gwen and Kevin," said Rook with a knowing smile.

"Yes," she said. "Honey, if you can calm down Gwen, that would give Upgrade a chance to help Kevin make it up to Gwen."

The two aliens nodded and headed out while Rachel went to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Ben laid down on the couch and sighed, ready to take a nap when something began moving underneath his supine body. "Hey! Get off me!" Someone said.

"What the?!" Ben cried out and jumped up. He didn't recognize the voice and he knew if he had accidently sat on one of the aliens, they wouldn't have yelled at him.

To his shock, a silver pantsuit jumped up and dusted itself off. "Are you blind?! I was laying there!" It said to him.

Ben had seen a lot of freaky stuff since he dealt a lot with Zombozo and other creepy aliens, but this was something new. He backed up in shock, his brain thinking that there was an invisible man inside the suit, but then he noticed that the suit was thin like a pancake, which quickly ruled out the invisible man theory and gave way to another theory.

"A GHOST!" Ben screamed out. He could instantly tell it wasn't Ghostfreak because the voice was different and Ghostfreak had promised he wouldn't scare Ben after that one big scare he had done to Ben long ago that almost hadn't ended well.

"That's right, I'm a ghost!" The suit said and let out a roar that made Ben turn heel fast and run with the crazy suit hot on his trail.

Ben was really freaking out as he was very certain this was a ghost and ran into the rec room, but found he was cornered when the suit came in and gave an evil laugh. "You're trapped now!" The suit said. "Now to haunt you! I'm going to make you wear me!"

"No way!" Ben said and quickly got into a karate stance like Rachel had shown him and threw out a punch that hit the suit smack in the upper chest, but his fist also became somewhat engulfed in the fabric and he pulled his hand away sharply, but heard the suit giggling.

And it sounded just like the kind of giggling his nieces often would do when he was tickling them.

He's ticklish? Ben thought to himself and then grinned. Well, Rachel did tell me that Ghostfreak is ticklish and if an alien ghost can be ticklish, why not a real ghost?

With that thought, Ben grinned and suddenly charged, grabbing the suit. "Gotcha!" He said.

"Hey! Let go!" The suit cried out, trying to squirm, but Ben held on and curiously wiggled his fingers into the suit's side.

More giggling came from the suit. "So I wasn't imagining that giggle earlier," Ben said and began wiggling his fingers vigorously into the suit's sides, underarms, and stomach.

"NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The suit squirmed around desperately as Ben tickled it more.

"Wow, you're a really ticklish ghost," the hero said. "I wonder if Rachel knows she's got a ticklish ghost in the Mansion."

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'M NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOT A GHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOST! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Ben chuckled as he mentally decoded what the suit had said. "Really? Then what are you?" He asked curiously.

"He's an alien spacesuit," said another voice and Ben looked up to see Sasha standing in the doorway and she was laughing into her hand. Rachel came up beside her younger sister and laughed too.

"Zoot, we should have warned you. Ben is very clever at getting out of tight spots," said the older girl.

Zoot flailed about, still laughing until Ben decided to show some mercy and let the suit up. "You okay?" He asked.

"Yes," said Zoot. "Man, you give a mean tickle torture just like the girls."

"Shall we prove that, Zoot?" Sasha asked mischievously.

"Uh-oh!" Zoot went to move, but Ben pinned him down.

"He's all yours, girls," he said.

After about half-an-hour of tickling the alien spacesuit, the three decided to let him up and Rachel told Ben of how she and Sasha first met Zoot.

"So, he's really an alien spacesuit that can talk and move just like us," said Ben in amazement. "I think I've seen everything now."

"Maybe, but I'm one of a kind," said Zoot.

"In both clothing and a friend," Rachel said.

"You said it," said Sasha in agreement.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," said Ben as he and Zoot shook hands before following the girls to the kitchen for lunch.

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GoldGuardian2418