Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's in this. (No, this is not a BenXOC fic. Or, at least, that won't be the primary storyline. There will probably be a little bit of DexterXOC AND BenXOC, but that won't be the primary plotline, either, and the OC's are not the main characters, even though they may have moderately-sized roles.)

Chapter One

'I'll kill Gwen when I find her.'

An irate, brown-haired, green-eyed teenager stormed through the lobby of the towering DexLabs building. To say that Benjamin Tennyson was furious was a pathetically drastic understatement, but it would have to do, because there simply was not a word that correctly conveyed the level his fury was climbing toward.

The cause of his anger? Simple. His cousin had volunteered him to work training new recruits for the coming war against the approaching Planet Fuse. Dexter, the owner of DexLabs, had detected the coming threat and, though nothing had happened yet, Earth was not taking any chances. The different military powers of the world would train and prepare as many adults as they could.

The teenagers and children of the world had a different idea. The military had never faced a real invasion attempt, and neither had the children, but the children were the ones who seemed to put two and two together on the fact that training and discipline and soldiers who did nothing but follow orders to the letter were not the way to win this war.

It was probably a Kids Next Door (KND) operative who first realized this, now that Ben really thought about it. Whoever had first realized it deserved credit, though, because they were right. Following strict orders and nothing more would get them nowhere, even if the soldiers were well-trained and well-armed. What they needed was recklessness, energy, free thinking and creativity, some order and a little discipline, and, most of all, unpredictability.

And these were things that children had much more of than the adults (although the order and discipline were probably the exceptions).

Luckily, though, he had been able to avoid giving a speech at the rally the night before. If he had given a speech, he probably would have messed up, or stumbled over his words. At least, he was convinced he would have. Of course, arguing out his point with Abby Lincoln (Numbuh Five of the KND) and Mandy was practically a full out debate. He couldn't remember how he had succeeded, but he did know that he wanted to steer clear of Abby for at least a week and Mandy for at least three months.

Nigel Uno, Numbuh One of the KND, met him by the elevator. "You got roped into this, too, Ben?"

"My cousin volunteered me," he growled, hitting the 'down' arrow with much more force than was necessary. "And I plan on killing her for it."

Nigel made a face, following Ben through the doors into the elevator. After the doors closed and Ben punched another poor, unoffending button with undeserving force, Numbuh One cautiously made another inquiry.

"What did she volunteer you for?"

"Training new recruits, with you and Numbah Four. I wish she had volunteered me for the frontlines."

In Nigel's opinion, Ben's irritation was instantly understandable. They had been recruiting and training kids and (much to the disdain of the KND) teenagers since the first sign of Planet Fuse approaching, three months ago. Ben had temporarily assisted them at first, but had made excuses to get out of it not long after.

It was very easy to get very tired of some of the egos they ran into. Besides, he was not looking forward to arguing with the brattier kids about how playing war and fighting games with their friends outside and on the Wii didn't substitute for actual training.

The first kid who tried to argue with him that being the best paintball or Nerf gun war player in their hometown meant that they could skip the basics of gun-handling was getting kicked out. *Be a thirty-seventh degree black belt with military gun-handling training or something, then you can skip the basics,* Ben grumbled mentally, exaggerating the numbers. Heck, he didn't know how high a black belt went, and quite frankly, he didn't really care at the moment.

"I don't plan on letting them argue with me," Numbuh One said, breaking into Ben's thoughts. A smirk crossed his face. "Any who even try get to make a run in the obstacle room, with Numbuh Four yelling at them the whole time, and maybe even having one of the Kanker sisters chasing them through it. Or I could send them to the Scotsman, so that he can knock some sense into them through training."

They stopped a floor above their destination and a few people got on the elevator.

"Hey, wait! Hold the elevator!" A girl a few inches shorter than Ben with bright green eyes and shaggy-cut, shoulder-length, brown came running into the elevator just as the doors closed. She wore a blue kitten hoodie and black pants, with blue shoes. Ben and Numbuh One almost laughed at the girl, who looked to be about fifteen, since she had almost run into the doors, and then almost got caught in them.

Both boys had met this girl, Cody Xeneon, before. She had been in the earliest recruits, so Ben and Nigel had trained her. Since, at first, there hadn't been many trainees, the few they had were able to get a lot of training done in a short amount of time. Cody and three others had excelled quickly through the ranks, since they focused themselves on their training.

The doors opened and they were met by Wallabee Beetles (Numbuh Four of the KND) and a tan boy about Ben's height with dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, with messy bangs. He had crystal blue eyes and wore blue.

"Hey, Ray. You got pulled in, too?" Ben asked, while Nigel began an in depth conversation with Wally.

The boy grimaced. Ray Chemburn was Ben's age, sixteen, and very similar in his mannerisms, only a little less emotion driven, and not a smoothie addict.

"Unfortunately. Any sign of Cyril or Zara?" The blue-eyed boy looked almost desperate when he asked this. Cyril was his younger sister, age fourteen. Zara Cyberphoton, age sixteen, was Ray's best and closest friend. Ben, who had helped train both Cyril and Zara and knew them pretty well, shook his head.

"I've been checking every few hours, and when I can't check, I have someone else checking," Ben assured him. Ray hung his head. "Cyril'll be fine, Ray. Honestly, I feel bad for anything that gets in her way."

Cyril and Zara had participated in a time jump experiment conducted by Dexter, and messed up by DeeDee. Ray and Cody, and at least a hundred other kids and teens, had participated as well.

The time jump sequence had been messed up and they were all sent much too far into the future. Most of them had returned to this time by now, but they had all arrived in the future in a scattered sequence. Ray was one of the first to arrive the future, and one of the first to return to the past.

From the reports of the others who had more recently returned, Cyril and Zara hadn't arrived in the future yet.

"Well, let's get started, okay?" Nigel asked, purposely interrupting the conversation.

"Yeah, because we should try and get this over with," Wally added, eyeing the clearly incompetent new recruits.

"Good idea," Ben agreed, making a face.

I know it's not that great, but I'm still editing it. I'll probably be randomly sticking in some random characters at random points.

Constructive criticism is welcome. Flames are not and people who flame will be ignored.