After a nice, long vacation from fanficing, Ben 10 AF Season 3 has finally pulled this Thing out of it's cave! I'm really sorry I left for so long. I just kind of... lost interest for a while. But no matter, the show's back again. Happy is I! So I shall celebrate with a strange, strange story that makes it extremely obvious I've been reading way to much Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And TV Tropes. Fun times.

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING! *runs away*

"Hey, Gwen!"

Ben grabbed his cousin's arm and pulled her away from the door of her Karate studio, which she was just walking out of. She stumbled, eyes wide with shock, along the wall. The second she realized what just happened, she planted her feet in the ground and stopped him in his tracks.

"Ben," she said, slightly annoyed, "what are you doing?"

"Plumber business," he explained. She yanked her arm out of his hand and followed him to an isolated corner of the parking lot.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Okay, so I was playing with the Omnitrix last night-"

She glared at him.

"What? Good thing have come out of it before," he reminded her. "Remember Cannonbolt?"

She sighed and shook her head. "Forget it. Go on."

"So I was playing with the Omnitrix last night," he continued, "and I found I new alien!"

Her face lit up a bit. "Really? What does it do?"

"No clue," he admitted. "Want to come test it out with me? I'll need backup."

"Sure," she agreed. "I'll call Kevin."

Ben was about to interject, explaining that calling Kevin wouldn't be the best idea since he wouldn't want to come because he was in a really bad mood for reasons Ben could only begin to guess, but if he was going to guess he would say that it either had something to do with that Justice Don guy who hit in one the head with a gavel or the fact that he was currently made out of quarts and steel and wood and such, but then he realized that Kevin's "ride" was their only chance of getting anywhere remotely remote enough to test the new alien. He closed his mouth.

Fifteen minutes later, they were driving off with a very disgruntled Kevin behind the wheel, with Ben and Gwen arguing about where they should go. Ben said that they should go test it in his basement, so there was no chance of anyone but his parents stumbling in on him going hero. Gwen, on the other hand, thought he could very easily destroy his house in the process, and that they should find a deserted building or area outside of town for him to test without risk of property damage. Kevin couldn't care less, and dropped both of them off near a big boulder a few miles out of town before they could finish. He only went with Gwen's idea was because they were dating.

"Aren't you coming?" Ben asked him once he got out of the car.

Kevin reached over the passenger seat and grabbed the door handle. "No." He slammed it shut, hit the gas, and left them for dead.

The two cousins wandered behind the boulder, minds set on their friend's reaction rather than the task at hand. After a few minutes to leaning against the rock in silence, Gwen finally spoke up.

"Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," she grunted.

"Can we get on with this?" Ben asked.

"Sure."

He put some distance between him and the rock, in case this alien was bigger than he thought, and pressed a few buttons on the Omnitrix. He twisted the knob until it projected a blurred hologram of the new guy, puffed up his chest, and slammed it down in an overly dramatic, what-do-you-mean-it's-not-awesome fashion. There was a flash.

And then there was silence.