A story by Redbat132 and myself. Enjoy and no flames please.
In the quiet town of Staybrook, Lea was on her way to the Grant Mansion to visit her alien friends. Thanks to her Guardian friend Katherine's snow globes, she was able to come and go anywhere she pleased.
"I can't wait to see everyone again!" Lea said. She felt a little awkward talking to herself. She wished she had someone to talk to.
True, she could always talk to Nightlight, but Lea believed that she should work on connecting with regular people besides her own toy.
Just then, as if her wish was granted, she spotted a familiar face sitting on the curb of the sidewalk.
"Ben?" Lea asked, walking over to the Omnitrix Wielder.
Ben looked and saw Lea walked toward him. "Hey." he said numbly.
Lea was stunned by the flatness in his voice. "Um...you okay?"
"Not really."
"Anything I can do to help?"
"There's nothing you can do." Ben sighed. "Nothing anyone can do."
Lea sat next to Ben, looking at him in concern. "Maybe you could tell me what's wrong so I can understand why you think that. Talking to friends and family helps me."
Ben sighed, knowing he can't shake off Lea that easily. "Just another day when I wish I wasn't a hero." Ben said. "I just took down dozens of bad guys. Then, Chadzmuth came along and released them all. It's always like this. No matter what I do, nothing changes." He sighed again. "It's a cycle that never ends...there really is no such thing as peace in this world."
Lea looked at her friend in sadness, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Oh, Ben. I'm really sorry. Of course, there isn't such a thing as peace in this world. But that doesn't mean we should give up and accept everything is bad. I used to think the same when my grandparents passed away five years ago."
Ben rolled his eyes. "That's not surprising. All grandparents pass away eventually."
Lea gasped, taking her hand away from Ben's shoulder and standing up. "BEN! How could you say something like that?!" She was shocked and appalled by the boy's words.
"Lea, your problems have nothing to do with my problems." said Ben.
"Well, maybe not, but that doesn't give you a right to be so heartless!" Lea argued.
Ben sighed, shaking his head. "You just don't understand."
"Then maybe you should help her understand." said an unknown voice.
Ben and Lea looked around to see who said that. It sounded like a woman's voice.
"Who's there?" Lea asked, grabbing her hockey stick and ready to battle.
"Probably another bad guy I have to fight," Ben said, as he lazily got up.
"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that, young Benjamin," the voice continued to reveal herself out of the blue.
The woman appeared to be around her twenties, long, wavy, dark ginger hair held into a ponytail, and bluish-grey eyes. She also wore a yellow 1950's sock hop dress with white polka dots, a white ascot around her neck, white gloves, and black and white Mary Jane shoes. The ginger-haired woman carried around a book in one hand and a Sterling Silver Swan Walking Stick with Black Beechwood Shaft and Collar in the other.
Also, in Lea's opinion, this lady looked oddly familiar to her.
"Uh, Ben? Any chance you know her before or even sure if she's from your dimension?" Lea asked, still holding her hockey stick.
"Search me." Ben shrugged. "So, lady. What's your deal?"
"First of all, Benjamin, I would watch that tone of yours and learn not to be so rude to others," the woman sternly stated. "Second of all, I am here to help get yourself together and assist in having Lea understand better."
"Who are you?" Lea asked, a bit curious. "And how do you know our names?"
The woman gave a knowing smile on those questions. "You may call me Mary. Mary Poppins."
"Huh? Mary Poppins?" Ben said.
"As in the magical English nanny protagonist from P. L. Travers's Mary Poppins books?" Lea questioned, her eyes wide in surprise.
"Why, yes!" said Mary.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Ben interrupted. "I know what you're talking about! That's an old kid movie from back in the day!" He moved Lea away from the woman. "Sorry, lady! I don't know what your angle is, but we weren't born yesterday!"
"There is no angle, Benjamin. And I'll have you know that I was first mentioned way before there was a movie," Mary pointed out.
"She's actually right. P. L. Travers was very firm about Mary Poppins' appearance in the novel's illustrations," Lea replied, only to see Ben give a confused look on her with this knowledge. "What? I'm a fan of characters from children books and those who write them."
"Oookaaay." said Ben, now looking at the mysterious woman. "So, why are you here?"
"I already told you. I am here to help get yourself together and assist in having Lea understand better of your dilemma," Mary Poppins repeated. "You really need to pay attention and listen, Benjamin."
"And, out of curiosity, how exactly do you plan on doing that?" Lea questioned gently, now putting away her hockey stick.
"By taking a trip into the past." Mary answered. "What better way to understand someone?"
"So, what? You're a time traveler that always finds a silver lining and shows my life isn't as bad as you make it sound?" asked Ben. "Because I've already got one of those already."
Lea raised an eyebrow on that. "You have your own time traveler in this world?"
"He's referring to a certain time traveling scientist named Professor Paradox who can travel anywhere in space or time, within reason," Mary explained. "Normally, he shows up occasionally to assist Ben and or his friends and family on dire situations. Some usually include time interference. But the difference between him and myself is that I can only go back to the past of certain people's important moments and return to the present of their current timeline."
"So, you can actually travel to anyone's past lives that were considered memorable to them?" Lea questioned.
"That is correct, Lea. And it's all possible with my special book," Mary assured, waving the novel that's in her hand. "This allows to relive a person's story, along with a few other things."
The blonde teen grew thoughtful, wondering if she might use it for something that would mean a lot to her.
"Um, okay. Why don't you guys get acquainted while I do something far away from here?" Ben tried to leave, but Lea stopped him.
"Ben, Mary Poppins is clearly here to help you. And I don't think running away from your problems is going to solve anything," Lea reasoned. "Besides, what do you have to lose?"
Ben groaned, pinching between his eyes. "Alright, fine. Let's just get this over with."
"Excellent," Mary Poppins walked closer to the two teens and opened her book. "Let us begin this story."
The opened book glowed brightly. Ben and Lea felt the glow spread all over their bodies.
"Deja vu," Lea muttered, feeling this glow before.
"Well said," said Mary.
When the glow died down, the three friends found themselves in a barren room. They spotted a few boxes in the corner of the room.
"What is this place?" said Lea, unfamiliar with the empty room.
"Oh, man..." Ben breathed out. Lea looked over and was surprised to see the stupefied look on Ben's face.
Footsteps were heard and a boy wearing green overalls walked into the room.
"Awww! Who's that little cutie?" Lea cooed.
"It's me." Ben said, still in shock.
"That's you?!" Lea exclaimed.
"Yep. It's Ben, alright," Mary defined, smiling proudly.
"Oh, my goodness, you nearly look like my cousin, Jamie," Lea muttered.
Ben saw his younger self looking so sad. He turned and saw his parents Carl and Sandra Tennyson.
"Mommy, Daddy. Do we really have to move away?" asked Past Ben.
Sandra got down on one knee to be level with her boy. "I know this is a big change, Sweetie. But living in this kind of neighborhood is no place for a family like us."
Lea turned to her Ben with concern. "You had to move?"
Ben sighed. He let his parents answer for her.
"What do you mean a family like us? This is just a normal town." said young Ben.
Carl shook his head. "No, this is the city. There are all kinds of dangers out there we can't risk with you. So, we're moving to a nice, quiet, peaceful town called Bellwood. You're gonna love it!"
Ben scoffed. "If only they knew we'd be way better off in the city than Bellwood."
"Why? Isn't that where your adventures of being a hero started?" Lea questioned. "I mean, yeah, I can understand how hard it must be to move to a new town. Believe me, change can be hard. But it can still be the good kind when meeting the right people. That's what I learned when meeting the Guardians."
At that moment, the scene changed to a living room, decorated with party balloons and streamers. There were kids laughing and playing together while parents chit-chatted amongst themselves.
"Oh, noooo..." Ben groaned. He buries his face in his hands and walked away in shame.
"Ben?! What's wrong?!" asked Lea. "Where are we now?!"
"You mean, 'When are we now', Lea." Mary corrected. "This is Ben's cousin Gwen's 8th birthday party."
"His cousin's birthday? Why would Ben be upset about that?" Lea questioned. "Celebrating a family member's birthday, especially cousins, is a wonderful feeling."
"INCOMING!" Eight-year-old Ben whizzed right past Lea. Luckily, no one was able to see nor feel the time travelers.
Young Ben was riding on a green skateboard. He barely dodged innocent bystanders but managed to run into his cousin, Gwen Tennyson.
"OWWWW! What is the matter with you, Doofus?!" snapped Young Gwen.
"I'm not Ben! I'm Super Ben!" Young Ben said triumphantly. He was wearing a red superhero cape, a dirty green t-shirt, blue jean shorts, and filthy white sneakers.
"Awww! Now Ben reminds me of my little cousin, Sophie!" Lea replied, thinking how adorable little Ben was. "She always had an active imagination. Guess Ben's wish of being a hero actually came true in a few years."
But Lea's smile fell when Young Gwen shoved her cousin. "You are not super! You're my stupid cousin doing stupid things and messing things up like you always do! Don't you know how to act normal?!"
"Yeah, Ben! You're such a loser!" said one of Gwen's friends. "It's no wonder no one wanted to celebrate your birthday today!"
All the kids laughed. Even Gwen! Lea couldn't believe what she saw. Even though this was part of Ben's past, it was still hard to watch.
Young Ben felt his anger brewing over. His burning eyes glanced over to Gwen's birthday cake. He ran over to the dessert and smashed it with his skateboard
"BEN!" Gwen screeched. She chased after her cousin as Ben ran out the back door and kept running, not looking back.
"Oh, boy. I had no clue that Ben had such a rough past as a child," Lea replied, looking at the older woman with the time book. "Mary Poppins, how is any of this supposed to help cheer Ben up? I thought we were going to see Ben's good memories and boost his confidence, not make him feel worse."
Mary shrugged. "I suppose you're right. Let's find Ben and find some better memories to visit."
The girls went out the back and saw teenage Ben marching up to Mary. "I just saw young me running away! Mary, I've seen enough! Take me home!" Ben grabbed the book and tried to take it out of the woman's hands.
"Ben, stop! Give Mary one more chance!" Lea reasoned, trying to prevent the Omnitrix Wielder from taking Mary's book by pulling to her side.
"FORGET IT! Ben shouted. "I've had enough insanity for one day! So take me home NOW-"
RIP!
Ben fell backward and landed on his rear. He looked up and saw that Mary and Lea were nowhere to be seen. He looked in his left hand and saw a torn page from Mary's book.
"Aw, man! What did I do now?!" Ben groaned.
He threw the paper in the air. "I can't believe this! Why does this always happen to me?! Why?! Why?! Why?! WHY?! WHY-"
"Um...mister?"
Ben seized his ranting and saw his younger self staring at him blankly. "Are you okay?"
"Uh..." Ben was completely speechless now. Whatever he did, it not only got him stuck in his past but he can now be seen plus heard, too.
"Who are you?" asked Young Ben.
"Um...my name is..." Ben couldn't think of a name under this kind of pressure. Not wanting to avoid time issues, he got an idea. "I don't know!"
Young Ben gasped. "Do you have amnesia?!"
"I... think I do." Ben answered.
"Whoa!" gasped Young Ben.
The plan worked.
"I thought amnesia was just a myth! Like, armpit hair!"
Ben frowned. "I may have amnesia, but I do know armpit hair is real.
"Right. Keep telling yourself that," Young Ben remarked, rolling his eyes while folding his arms. "Oooh, cool watch! I've never seen one like that before."
Ben got up and took a step back. "Yeah, it's just a piece of junk I got online." He blinked. "I think. I don't remember."
"Well, if you ever get your memory back, can you tell me where to find something awesome like that? I definitely want one of those!" Young Ben exclaimed, wanting to get a better look at Ben's Omnitrix.
Ben held his young-self back with his hand on the boy's forehead. "Forget about the watch! How's about you go back to that house and leave me be?!"
Young Ben stopped, looking down and feeling upset. "I actually prefer that I didn't," he muttered.
Seeing his younger self-defeated and miserable, Ben's heart went out to the boy.
"I don't belong back there." He began wiping a tear from his eye. "I don't belong anywhere! Just because I'm a loser!" He started to cry.
Ben went down and placed a caring hand on Young Ben's shoulder. "Hey, you're not a loser. Just because your different, it doesn't mean you have to give up being yourself. And if they can't see that, then they're the ones who should change."
"Yeah, but-"
CRASH!
"What was that?!" Both Bens gasped.
"Stay here," Ben told his past self before investigating the noise.
After venturing further into the woods, Ben came upon a rather unusual sight. A sight that doesn't belong in this time period! It was a space ship! It had crashed into the ground and it looked like whatever was inside it made a giant hole to escape!
"This doesn't make sense!" said Ben. "I don't remember this happening!"
Forgetting his time issue, at the moment, Ben slides down the hole to get a better view on what he's dealing with. Even kept his hand near the Omnitrix, just in case.
"Huh. Whatever came out of this ship sure did a number on it." said Ben, getting a closer look at the alien space craft.
"WHOA! IS THAT A SPACE SHIP?!" said a voice all too familiar.
"Oh, no," Ben muttered in a deadpanned tone.
He then heard his past-self tumble down the crater before running and getting close to Ben.
"Awesome!" Young Ben exclaimed.
"I thought I told you to stay way back there where it's safe!" Ben argued.
"Hey, come on, dude! Don't count me out! This is the adventure of a lifetime!" Young Ben reasoned.
"This isn't an adventure! This is real danger! So, if were you, I'd turn around and go back to your normal life!"
Young Ben just scoffed. "What's the point of having a normal life if it will only treat me different? Besides, it beats dealing with my annoying cousin and her friends."
Ben sighed. "Listen, I know Gwen is a dweeb, but she's family. She's just really uptight and wants to look good for people. But you, you're comfortable with who you are. That's why you like to goof around. You just wanted to liven up Gwen's boring party!"
Young Ben stayed silent. Everything Ben said was true.
"I guess...Hey, wait a minute! How'd you know that my cousin's name is Gwen? Or that it involved a party?" Young Ben asked, raising an eyebrow at that. "I never even mentioned any of that."
Ben blinked. "Um, well, I-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
"That sounded like Gwen!" said Young Ben. "The aliens are gonna get her!" And the boy took off.
"BEN! WAIT!" Ben called out, running after his eight-year-old self.
"GWEN! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Young Ben hollered, not stopping.
"BEN! HEEEEEEELP!" Gwen's horrified screams of terror grew louder.
Young Ben followed Gwen's screams until he finally found her cousin. What he saw next made him scream.
Gwen was surrounded by four orange, dog-like creatures.
"Giant Weird Dog Things!" Young Ben exclaimed.
The Present Ben showed up and was shocked to see four Vulpimancers stocking around his Past Cousin. He could only guess that they must have been inside the ship and got out somehow. Which does explain what caused the giant hole.
"Ben! Stay away from-"
But Young Ben ran up to the aliens. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a package of turkey jerky. "HEY, ALIENS! COME GET SOME LUNCH!"
The Vulpimancers turned their heads directly at Ben.
"What are you doing?!" Present Ben nearly yelled.
"Leading them away from my cousin! Go help her!" Young Ben exclaimed, already making a run for it when the Vulpimancers started chasing him.
Young Gwen just stared in horror yet amazement. She couldn't believe that her own cousin is saving her, even after being so cruel to him.
Ben was amazed by his younger self and his bravery. But he had to pick the right alien to save Gwen, Young Ben, and stop the Vulpimancers. He activated the Omnitrix and became Pesky Dust.
"Perfect!" Pesky Dust squeaked.
Gwen turned her head at a weird green flashing light to see a short, fairy-like creature. "W-What?! First, four weird dogs, and now some kind of pixie!? This is the weirdest birthday ever!"
Pesky Dust zipped around the Vulpimancers and drizzled his sleeping dust all over them. Once they were out cold, the fairy-like alien flew over to Gwen. "Sorry you won't remember it, cuz!" He blasted Gwen with sleeping dust and the eight-year-old girl fell asleep instantly.
"Whoa! A colorful fairy?! And it took on the giant dogs and defeated them!? This is the most amazing day ever!" Young Ben exclaimed, already stopping to see what happened. "Hey, where did that guy with amnesia go? I thought he was looking after Gwen."
Before Ben could answer, the Omnitrix timed out and Ben was back to his human self.
Young Ben's jaw was so low, it nearly touched the ground. "You?! What?! Huh?! How!?"
Ben sighed. He opened his mouth to speak, but his younger self cut him off.
"WAIT! I know what's really going on here!"
Ben rolled his eyes, anticipating a completely dumb and random answer that had nothing to do with what was really going on.
Young Ben pointed at Ben. "You're me from the future!"
"WHAT?!" Ben tried to dissuade the correct answer. "NO!"
Young Ben just smiled confidently while folding his arms. "Oh, yeah? Then how else did you know me and my cousin? Along with that party we were having? You even took down those weird dog things the way a super hero would. That's exactly what I want to grow up to be! You even look like me but older! This is definitely the best day ever!"
It was too late to change things. Ben knew his younger self knew the truth. Perhaps...maybe he should tell him more. This could be his one shot to have a normal life.
"Well, then...I gotta tell you what'll happen in the future!"
"NOOOOOO!" Young Ben shouted, quickly covering his ears. "You can't tell me ANYTHING about the future! You'll make things worse than they are now! I've seen every time travel movie ever made!"
Ben became surprised on how smart his young-self was. Especially when it comes to the consequences of time travel. There didn't seem to be any point of telling Young Ben now.
"I better go help get Gwen back home before she wakes up. It was really awesome meeting you, Future-Me!" Young Ben said happily, already going to assist his knocked-out cousin and try carrying her. And by carrying her, he was actually dragging her. "Thanks for turning my bad day around! I can't wait to be an actual superhero, one day!"
And so, Ben watched in stunned silence as his past counterpart drags Gwen away.
"Now that's what I call a happy ending."
Ben turned and saw Mary Poppins behind him.
"Where were you?! Why didn't you stop him?! I mean, me! You know what I mean! What happened?!" Ben nearly yelled, throwing a million questions at Mary Poppins.
Mary raised a gloved hand. "Calm yourself, Ben. Your younger self won't remember a thing. But he will faintly remember that spark. The spark that creates eyes clear and true, unafraid of the unknown, never letting doubt and fear hold him back from his destiny. And don't worry about the Vulpimancers. Plumbers should be coming here in less than ten minutes to investigate the crashing and pick them up, as it should be."
Ben should say something snappy at the mysterious woman, but he was too dumbfounded.
"So, you had this all planned." Ben said, still in shock. "From the beginning to the end, you had this all planned out.
"Yes and no," Mary answered.
Ben looked at her in confusement, making her continue.
"I did plan on having you understand the moral lesson behind my methods, but not by ripping off the page of my book. Which, by the way, was uncalled for and rude," Mary stated sternly. "You were lucky that this stunt didn't erase us all out of history.
She held out her hand. "Now, my page, please?"
Ben blinked. "Oh, right." He took the torn page out of his pocket and returned it to its rightful owner. Mary opened her book and placed the page next to where it was torn. It glowed yellow and the page was good as new.
She sighed in relief. "Whole, once again. Now that it's fixed, we can work on the next problem."
"Next problem?" asked Ben.
"Unfortunately, that book tear did more than just revealed yourself in this timeline and separated me. It also separated Lea to somewhere in history that I have no idea where, unless the book is restored," Mary Poppins explained, already flipping the pages.
"Uh, oh..."
Mary Poppins exhaled. "It's fine, Ben. I blame myself for letting this happen more than you. Besides, I should have accounted for your impatience in quickly judging the negative parts of your past instead of seeing the positive behind them. It could have prevented this entire mishap."
The Young Woman appeared to be very frustrated and upset, as if she was close to screaming.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't blame yourself! This is all my fault! I know you were just trying to help me, but I made things worse!" He sighed. "If there's anyone you should be mad at, it's me. And I can take it. I deserve it."
"No, Ben. I'm not blaming you, nor mad at what you did. It's been ages since I last did this, and there were reasons why," Mary replied, trying to keep herself together while still flipping through the pages and not leaving her glaring eyes on the book. "I have done things that is not all singing, dancing, and chirping birds. Moments that I let my emotions get the better of me that nearly destroyed the stories of others. No one, not even myself, is perfect. You, of all people, should understand that kind of pain."
Ben felt realization grip his chest. "You're right. Nobody's perfect, no matter who or what they are. So...what do we do now?"
"The only thing we can do: find Lea and hope that she hasn't gotten herself into too much trouble as you have with those Vulpimancers," Mary answered, now stumbling upon a glowing page. "As luck would have it, I believe that I finally found what we're looking for."
"And what would that be?" asked Ben.
"The exact time and place Lea is right now," Mary answered, lending down her hand for Ben. "Get ready."
The two friends were sucked in by the book's bright light until they disappeared into searching for Lea.