Chasing Happiness

Chapter 1: The visit and the offer

Author's Note: Hi everyone so there are a few things that need to be cleared up before the story can begin. First of all as this story is alternate universe I have decided to take quite the liberty of changing many things. In this universe the Tennyson kids and Kevin were never working together and only ran into each other a few times. Max and Kevin met and became friends after Max caught him trying to steal high capacity batteries from the headquarters and essentially taught him how to build them for himself, Max is like a mentor to him. Supernova, known commonly as Nova, has been with Kevin since he was 8 and on the streets, her age is assumed to be the same as Kevin's.

P.S. This story is NOT an epic there will not be fights for the universe and some the characters are OOC. This will be kind of a slice of life story with very occasional fight scenes.

~Ace

Kevin's POV

The soft light under the car was a welcome addition to his work, he loved working on cars, usually by himself but the blue Anodite's presence was pleasant. "Okay try now," he asks and using one of her curled tendrils she turns on the car, it roars to life and Kevin smirks, his car was officially up and running. Kevin had spent the last 6 months updating his baby with the most up to date Plumber technology when it gave out from the strain but after changing the entire engine and the fuel source 'Glad babe agreed'. He'd been working for the past week on making the muscle car compatible with Anodite energy, almost blew up the garage in the process when Max stopped by this morning and offered to help.

Max was a great friend especially when Earth became alien-friendly and some traffickers tried to kidnap his girlfriend. Max stopped by occasionally and they would have lunch, talk about Plumber things or go fishing. Nova and Max were heading into the house as Max was used to using their kitchen, making his own unique dishes or exotic ones from planets that he had visited, cleaning up Kevin went to take a shower. Hearing their laughter as he went up the stairs reminded him of how little Nova got to talk to Max, he was their only friend that they still saw socially. The water muffles sounds downstairs and he thinks about a conversation he and Max had last week about him working with the Plumbers more often. Turning up the hot water he couldn't ignore the fact that he only had this house because of the freelance work he did with the Plumbers, it was a good deal but he had Nova to think about. While the Plumbers paid well they also had a lot of people that might try to take advantage of his Nova, he didn't leave her alone for long periods of time anymore as they didn't like being apart and he hated when she was in stasis. Occasionally she would expend most of her energy and put herself in stasis in his tiny power bank that he had disguised as a padlock but it was hard for her to be aware of the world around though.

Shutting off the water he went downstairs, Max was sharing out food that had tentacles in it, 'Well everything he makes is usually pretty good so I'll give it a shot.' "Kevin, come sit down, I've just finished cooking up you and Supernova a treat, that undertown market I go to was freshly stocked today so I was able to make some stew with those Amber Ogia fruits you love so much. Max shared out the gloopy stew as Kevin took a seat at the kitchen counter with Nova, "Looks great Max, you know I almost don't need to cook now, you made enough for the next week," he said in jest as the Senior Plumber always made way too much knowing that he wasn't the best cook and Nova didn't even know how. Taking off his apron and laughing heartily at how Nova was digging in to the glowing red stew at a fast pace making delighted sounds as her hair expanded into large ringlets and she floated off her seat, "Well don't get too excited this is Nova's third bowl at this pace she might take your bowl too!"

Kevin and Max were planning their next fishing trip whilst ignoring how the tendrils of Mana slowly pulled at Kevin's stool and wrapped around him. Kevin kept an eye on his bowl as the 'hair' started reaching for it, "So Max, uh, how're the grandkids going?" he hated souring the atmosphere but he had to ask. Max's smile dropped slightly as he carefully thought out his answer, "Well Gwen and Ben are still in high school, Azmuth thinks I should include Ben in some diplomatic Plumber missions, so I'm thinking about having them spend some time at the headquarters, to, you know feel things out and over summer break I'll see what I could put them onto." The young mutant heard the unstated, "I don't want to but I understand how advertising the Omnitrix would benefit the Plumbers," he also knew that Max would never even give the appearance of favouring one grandchild over another so he would include Gwen and not mention that it was at Azmuth's request that they were there at all.

Getting another bowl as Max and Nova spoke about the new chop-shop in the undertown that Max thought that she and Kevin might want to go to, he thought about the Tennyson cousins. Ben was the guy that had the Omnitrix, the prized creation of the Galvan scientist, Azmuth, Kevin knew of him after he got a mission from the plumbers to steal one of his inventions back from some space pirates that were trying to sell it. Kevin also knew that the Omnitrix was meant for MAX Tennyson and not Ben but for some reason Max never had Azmuth remove it from Ben. He didn't know the kid very well but they met a few times on summers that they spent on the road with their grandfather, usually when he was trying to steal something and he didn't seem to even know what he was doing or how the world worked. He never had anything as powerful as the Omnitrix but if he did he wouldn't be goofing off and from what he heard from Max in the last 5 years he hadn't gotten any better at using it and frequently the problems he solved he caused in the first place. Kevin wasn't really in a rush to have that kid around.

Gwen was the one he was less worried about from talking to Max and the few times they ran into each other, she seemed like the more level headed one. The underdeveloped Anodite was a bit of a surprise to see but he heard that their grandmother was an Anodite and that they just found out last summer. He was weary of her when they first met as he thought that she was from Anodyne and came to convince Blue to leave with her. He saw though that she was a lot like her cousin with how reckless she was sometimes, her pride and 'I'm so much better than you at everything attitude' he knew had to be a headache to deal with.

By now Nova had swiped his bowl and Max was packing the left overs into some containers for us to have later giving Nova a hug and patting Kevin on the back. On his way out Max over his shoulder and said, "Hey Kevin, you think about that offer okay?" all he ended up doing was giving him a nod as he walked out. Shutting the door behind him Kevin thinks about what he asked, 'Being on a long-term contract would give me more work and I wouldn't have to go slumming for jobs,' he thought. Hearing Nova humming in the living room he thought, 'Nova could spend the day with me too if we sign as a team, she knows enough to help.'

He sat in the living room just watching the spacey glutton float, soft humming taking away from his unease. He would ask her later but was pretty sure that the contract would keep them afloat for quite a while. "Blue! What do you say we take the car for a spin, see how it runs on the new source?" he smirked a bit at her squeal; she was super excited to be in the new car. He reached the garage just in time to see her jump into the car's and instead of sitting in the passenger seat she enters the engine through the port he made for her and the car roars to life, the car visibly glowing her signature blue as she takes over. He doesn't even have to open the door as she does so for him and revs the engine as if to hurry him up, radio already on their favourite station, he gets in and they take off down the road at top speed.

AN: Well that was the first chapter, let me know if you would like the future chapters to be longer, the main three characters were established and the Tennyson grandkids are hinted to be not that great hero-wise. The next chapter is already finished but future situations can be decided by YOU! Read and review, especially if you want to make a suggestion!

~Ace