It was a rainy day. To be specific, it was the third day of rain Bellwood had been experiencing. When you woke up, it was raining. When you slept it was still raining. And the stupid rain had no intentions of letting up anytime soon.
A black and green car swiftly drove into an abandoned parking lot, close to an empty warehouse.
Ben Tennyson stepped out of it, and ran into the warehouse quickly. Even then, he was soaked.
"As Grandpa would say, 'it's a fine day for ducks.' But, unfortunately, I think even fishes would drown in this weather," he muttered, shaking his head. In applause to that action, water droplets sprayed around him.
"Well, genius, you know that fishes live in water, right? So, it's impossible for a fish to drown. Even in the metaphorical sense, your statement clearly betrays your stupidity," a familiar voice rang out from the shadows. Ben froze.
What the hell is he doing here? "Albedo, what are you doing here?" Ben readied himself to use the Omnitrix.
"Put down the weapon," Albedo said dryly, "I come in peace." He came out of the shadows with his arms raised halfheartedly.
Ben hesitated. It could be a trap, couldn't it? But somehow, he knew it wasn't. He relaxed his posture. In response, Albedo mirrored him. They both stared at each other for a few seconds. Nobody moved.
"Is there a light switch here, or do you have a flashlight? It's kind of dark…"
Albedo walked off some distance to the left. A 'click' noise was heard, and then a lone bulb turned on. There were a few more clicks, and soon the entire room was illuminated, excluding some far corners.
"Thanks," Ben said. Then he realized something. "Do you-"
He never got to finish the question. "Yes, I do live here." Albedo paused. "Part of the time."
Ben looked at him. "How can you live in a place 'part of the time'?"
Albedo silently cursed himself. "That's none of your business, Benjamin. Now I'd like to ask a question. Why are you here?"
"It isn't obvious? There's a window, for crying out loud. It's raining cats and dogs, and it was a miracle I was able to drive – the roads are completely flooded."
"It's that bad now?"
"It's a miracle the entire town isn't underwater!" As if to complement the statement, thunder boomed, and lightning followed.
"Drat." Ben looked at Albedo. Albedo was looking at the door. Specifically, he was looking at the water seeping in from a crack on the bottom of the door.
"Do you have anything to plug it?"
This town really is flooding, Albedo thought, ignoring Ben's question. He walked off and hot a stone from a corner of the room, then wedged it into the crack, effectively stopping the flow of water.
"That should do it, at least for now." He then returned to the topic of the original conversation. "You were driving in this weather? I'm no ally of yours, but you know you could have crashed? Maybe even died if you crashed hard enough. This weather has been going on for a while now. Shouldn't you have gone home before it started raining?"
"Hey pal, not everyone is busy plotting revenge schemes. I had a lot of things to do, and the weather forecast said it would just be a series of light showers, not heavy rainfall."
"First thing: meteorologists aren't perfect, and they can make mistakes. Second off, if I was plotting revenge, don't you think you'd know by now?"
Ben raised an eyebrow.
"I would have attacked you already, dimwit!" Thunder boomed.
"That doesn't make sense." Albedo resisted the urge to smack his palm over his face. Lightning flashed across the sky.
"The weather would make it difficult for you to locate me, and I'd be able to get away scot-free."
"Why are you telling me this? I'll be ready for your next attack; you're helping me."
"It isn't obvious that I've given up? How long has it been since I last tried anything?"
"About… half a year."
"And if I still intended malice, you'd have been unconscious the moment you fully got into this place."
"…True."
There was silence for a while. Albedo eventually sat down on the floor and booted up a laptop.
Ben was instantly suspicious. "You have a laptop?"
"I stole it." Albedo showed no sign of shame.
"Really? For what? And why would you even need one?"
"To research on human culture through the use of the internet. Since I'm stuck here, I have to do something."
"Why are you here, anyway? I thought Azmuth put you behind bars."
"He forgave me."
"Right."
Albedo raised an eyebrow. Then he turned his attention back to the laptop. He opened up Google Chrome and started searching on something.
"How the hell do you even have an internet connection?"
"Some poor fool around here always has his Wi-Fi on, and didn't bother to put a password on it." He shrugged. "The guy's technically sharing. I didn't manipulate it."
Ben blinked silently, processing that. "That's carelessness."
"You humans usually are careless."
"Hey!"
"It's the hard truth, live with it."
For a little while there was silence. Albedo continued his research and Ben looked out the window, waiting for the rain to lessen. Soon, however, he thought of a question to ask.
"So, how's the chili fry craving going?"
Albedo growled. "Very fine, thank you. I've gotten over it."
"Congrats."
"Indeed."
Ben decided to change the subject. "How long is the rain going to last?"
"For approximately the next five hours, if previous experiences are enough to go by."
"Great."