No Grandpa! Don't Eat Those Ants!
by crystalquirt
[[[[[[[[[[Ben10AF]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
Requested fanfic for Mentoria. Name: Mentoria
I realize its not exactly how you pictured it, but this is what came out of my small brain :D I hope you like it :D
Ben 10 universe, when Ben and Gwen were just ten years old is the setting. Dr Animo and eleven-year-old Kevin E, Levin were both after Ben and showed up at the Rust Bucket, at the same time. Gwen tried to help during the fight, but she, and Kevin went missing.
Ben searched for Gwen, very worried, until he called her house and his mother mistakenly told him that Gwen was home, but couldn't come to the phone because she was taking a bath. Ben doesn't realize that his enemy and cousin were fighting for their lives, right under his feet, and later, between his teeth.
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Eleven-year-old, Kevin E, Levin stood in the driveway along side Grandpa Max's, Rust Bucket, watching. Grandpa Max wasn't home at the time, but Gwen had come to see Ben.
"Being here alone, I just wanted to make sure you hadn't gotten yourself in trouble, Ben."
"Who me? No way. Grandpa only went to rent us a movie and get popcorn for tonight – You're gonna miss out on, "The creature from the black lagoon!"
"Oh . . . darn, I have plans, but wow, thanks for inviting me."
"Who was inviting you? I said you would MISS OUT on the fun."
"Fun . . . Right." Gwen replied sarcastically.
Ben's parents, Sandra and Carl had gone on a weekend meditation retreat and Ben was staying with Grandpa Max. Gwen pulled her laptop out of the closet that was hers when they were traveling, intending to take it home with her. "What are you doing Gwen?"
"Taking my computer home, so you don't get your cooties all over it this weekend."
"Oh come on I was gonna play Sumo Slammers!"
"Just as I thought. Use your game thingy."
"But the screen's so small."
Their voices sounded soft from where Kevin was, but he could understand them. They were fussing about trivial things, things that didn't matter, but also things that reminded him that he was alone. He wished he had family so he could argue with them about that meaningless stuff too. The Tennysons had no idea that Kevin was watching them and when they finally heard his voice, it sent chills up their spines.
"Ben! Come out and face me!"
Ben went out first, not because he was told to, but because he didn't really believe his ears and had to see who it was. Gwen followed Ben, but stayed behind him. Ben frowned when he saw that he was right about who it was. "Kevin! What are you doing here?"
Kevin, in his human-kid form, was glaring at him from out in the driveway. "I want some revenge on you Ben. And I want your watch!"
"How did you even get here? Weren't you in New York last we saw you?"
"I've been hitchhiking and hopping trains."
"Don't you know its dangerous to hitchhike and hop trains?"
"Not when I can still do this." Kevin turned into an amalgam of Ben's aliens. When the transformation was complete, he continued, "Nobody messes with me, but I want that watch! I want to be able to control these alien bodies like you can! I don't want to be a monster anymore. I want the real power, like you have."
"Forget it Kevin, I wouldn't give you the Omnitrix, even if it would come off. You would do nothing but hurt people with it."
"You bet I would. I would have anything I wanted, no one would be able to stop me!" Kevin charged Ben swinging his Fourarms fists and spitting Stinkfly goo. Ben jumped to the side and rolled, he came up with his hand poised over the Omnitrix. Gwen dove under the Rust Bucket, narrowly avoiding a glob of goo.
Ben was distracted from going alien just that second. As if things weren't bad enough with Kevin, another enemy arrived. Dr. Animo showed up riding a giant mosquito-squid type creature of his own creation.
Gwen whined impatiently, "What is this - a convention of 'Who-hates-my-cousin'?"
"Dr. Animo!" Ben cried as he ran from Kevin's last attack, finally slapping his Omnitrix. There was a flash of light and Wildvine appeared.
Kevin yelled at Dr. Animo, "I don't know who or even 'what' you are, old man - but get out of my way. Ben's watch is mine!"
"OLD MAN! You mean less than SNOT to me! Just another snot-nosed brat, even if you are an ugly alien, snot-nosed brat – I'm here for my revenge on Ben Tennyson, but don't leave – looks like you have some interesting DNA of your own!" Dr Animo fired a laser gun, trying to hit Ben, but Kevin was in the way too. Dr. Animo didn't care if he shot both of them.
Gwen cried, "Duck!" afraid for Ben. She wouldn't have minded so much if Kevin was blasted. Thanks to her warning, Ben-Wildvine pulled himself out of the way on his vines. Kevin-Alien rolled the other way and came up spitting Stinkfly goo at Dr. Animo.
Gwen was a little relieved, but only for a second, they weren't safe yet. "Two against one isn't fair! Wait - it doesn't have to be two against one – does it?" Gwen smiled and crawled out from under the Rust Bucket. She took her spell book out of her pocket.
Dr Animo was getting ready to fire at Wildvine again. Kevin jumped at Ben, at the same time and at exactly the same time, Gwen chanted, "Inspera Dispedia," to try and stop the energy from Dr. Animo's weapon. Gwen hoped that the energy it produced was like magical energy and could be reversed, so that was the spell she used. As she yelled out the spell, she jumped between Ben, Kevin and Dr Animo with her hands out – intending to reverse the energy and stop Animo.
There was a blinding flash of blue-green light and after, the mess of aliens that was Kevin, was gone. "Great Gwen! - But I got this – stay out of the way!" When Wildvine looked around, he saw that Gwen was gone too, but he didn't have time to wonder what happened to her right then. Dr. Animo kept blasting his weapon at him. Wildvine had one of his vines blown off before he could duck behind a nearby tree.
He cried, "Hey! Ow - wait – that didn't actually hurt – but still Ow! ANIMO!"
Wildvine grew a new vine to replace the missing one very quickly, but Dr Animo kept shooting, and knocked off another and another, keeping Wildvine trapped behind the tree. "What are you trying to do – make salad out of me?"
Dr. Animo bragged, "No, I don't have any croutons or dressing, boy. This ray gun will blow your DNA up – literally – I'll be able to pick up chunks of pure DNA with my fingers and create blown-up versions of all of your aliens. They will be just like your alien species, but thirty feet tall when I am finished creating them!"
"You really are nuts - you know that Doc?" Another blast blew the Rust Bucket's front tire off. "You are a terrible shot! Grandpa is going to be so mad at you!"
"Like I care." Animo fired again.
Thinking of Gwen, Ben yelled, "What happens if you shoot a human with your little toy gun?"
"This is no toy, as I thought you had already figured out – but I'll tell you - a human would be blasted in to huge chunks of DNA too. I will be spending all day picking up your DNA. But why would I want boring old human DNA? Giant humans would only be more expensive to feed. No good for taking over the world."
"Enough Dr. Animo, I didn't need your life story." Ben tried to shoot out another vine from behind a tree, but Dr. Animo saw the movement and shot at it. The vine blew apart, and just as Animo said, that time Ben saw large disc-shaped chunks fall into the grass.
"What good will taking me a piece at a time do for ya?"
"Not much, but first chance I get, I will shoot that symbol on your chest, I will get giant DNA samples of all of your aliens at once and you will be totally destroyed."
When Ben-Wildvine heard what Dr. Animo's plan was he wrapped heaviest vines around his chest, making sure the Omnitrix was covered while he tried to think of a way out. The Omnitrix chose that time to blink and deactivate. Ben changed back to human boy whether he wanted to or not. "I hate this watch sometimes."
Now that he was no threat at all, Dr. Animo spurred his creature forward and it grabbed Ben with its squid tentacles. Ben screamed and tried to crawl away pushing on the tentacle around his legs. "No! Let me go!"
"Don't be silly boy – I finally have what I came for. I can even get some revenge for what you've done, now that you're in your human form. The mosquito-squid picked Ben up by his legs and caught his right arm with another tentacle. Ben was stretched and held up before Dr Animo so he couldn't fight. The Doctor caught Ben's left wrist and started prying on the Omnitrix, not caring that he was hurting Ben's arm while he dug at it. Ben screamed and wiggled a little, but the tentacles kept him stretched.
Just in time, Grandpa Max showed up with one of his alien bazooka's and blasted Dr Animo and his monster. Ben fell from the tentacles to the grass, holding his arm and groaning. Dr. Animo jumped back up onto his creature and spurred the mosquito-squid to fly away fast.
Grandpa Max ran to his grandson, "Ben, are you alright?"
"Yeah Grandpa. I thought he was going to tear my arm off!" Grandpa put his hand behind Ben's back and helped him sit up. "Grandpa! Kevin was here too and so was Gwen, but they were gone after a strange blast from Dr. Animo's gun!"
"Wow, you sure have been popular. Dr. Animo and Kevin on the same day. I guess you should have come with me to get the movie. Where do you think Gwen went?"
"I don't know Grandpa . . . I heard her shout a spell at the same time as Dr. Animo fired some kind of weapon and when Kevin disappeared, Gwen was gone too. Do you think she got mad at me and went home or something?"
"That wouldn't be like her to leave while you're in danger, Ben – even if she was mad at you. Better try to find her."
Gwen's bike was still leaning against the front of the Rust Bucket. They started there and searched the park. There was no sign of Gwen or Kevin. Ben was really worried, but he tried not to show it.
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Kevin returned to his human self when he hit the ground. Gwen landed a short distance away on her butt. She groaned and rubbed her lower back before she got up. Keven glared at her. Confused and not quite believing what just happened, "Did you just . . . save me?"
"Well I was trying to save my cousin, but you got in the way – so yeah. I guess I did."
"Well, um . . . thanks."
"No problem, I wonder where Ben is though? Or Dr. Animo!" Gwen looked around quickly for them, but realized they weren't near the Rust Bucket anymore. It was shady, like heavy clouds had rolled in, as far as they could see. The trees looked weird, more like long, single leaf plants of some sort, like they were in a jungle. Gwen continued, "Or where are we? Did Dr Animo do something that sent us to another dimension?"
"That's impossible, dumb girl." Kevin smirked.
"Not really . . . DUMB BOY. Ben and I have been to other dimensions, other planets and a really scary place called the Null Void. I'm thinking these days that nothing is impossible."
"Well, where are we then, Miss. Been everywhere-Seen everything?"
Gwen climbed up one of the large long leaves and looked up. She recognized the dark sky wasn't sky at all, but the underside of the Rust Bucket, way above their heads. Surprised, Gwen let out a yelp and slid back down.
Landing on her feet, she took steps backwards. Her mind was telling her to run, but she knew running wouldn't help.
"Well – where are we?" Kevin insisted.
"It's not the location that changed – we did, this is a blade of grass and we're still at Grandpa's campsite – only we're under the Rust Bucket! We must be tiny! . . . Like 'ant' tiny!"
"No way, how can that be? . . .I know I know, anything's possible."
"I'm not sure how it happened, but Dr Animo fired his weapon and I tried a reversal spell. I don't know why he would want to shrink Ben. That wouldn't help him get the Omnitrix. In fact if the Omnitrix were this small, it would be more likely to put it out of Dr. Animo's reach." Gwen thought for a second more. "Wait - 'reversal' spell, Dr Animo's ray would have had to made Ben huge or something and my spell reversed it, making us small! But that still makes no sense, why would Animo want Ben to be bigger?"
"Who knows, maybe he wanted more of him to hurt! Like I do!"
Gwen ignored him but continued her thoughts, "Oh no! Ben! He's not here, and if he was shrunken too, he's somewhere alone. What if he's hurt? I mean, He's an idiot – but he's my cousin you know? I don't want him hurt, not really."
Kevin rolled his eyes, "Why are you telling me? I want him more than hurt! I want him dead."
"Well . . . you're just a jerk. I'm trying to figure this out. I tried to block Dr. Animo's blast with a spell . . . my book!"
Gwen looked around, and found her spell book had been shrunken with her. "At least I have this. Can you still go into that weird mess of aliens?"
Kevin paused for a moment to try, "No, something's wrong."
"Great, I was hoping you could fly us up to show Grandpa what happened to us. And if you could fly, we could cover more ground to find Ben faster."
"No way – I wouldn't want your Grandpa to know I was this tiny! He would just squish me. What makes you think I'm helping you?"
"Grandpa Max is not like that. He doesn't run around hurting others just for greed or revenge. And if we stick together we have a better chance of surviving this."
Kevin looked away and changed the subject. "Well, can't you do a flying spell or something?"
"I doubt it, I've never even try it before. Maybe I could find something to lift us with, or even a growing spell." Gwen was flipping pages in her book trying to find something that would help. In moments though, she got impatient and gave up. "I guess we have to climb."
"Well, the closest tire then, or do the motor-home's steps touch the grass?"
"I don't know about the steps, and how would we get from the tire, to the inside? That would take for ever."
"Well, I'm not staying here. I'm going." Kevin announced like the decision was made.
"Wait, you don't even know which way to go, or where we're going for that matter."
"I'm going this way, I don't care where you go."
Kevin turned and hadn't even taken two steps when he saw a giant, black widow spider was just in front of him. Really the spider was normal sized, but to Kevin in his present size, the spider looked huge . . . and it was looking back at him like he was lunch.
"Aahhh!" Kevin turned to run away, the spider jabbed at him with its foremost legs and knocked him down. It kept poking at him, rolling him around even after he fell to keep him down. Kevin screamed some more and kicked so hard he lost a shoe. He rolled over and saw he was right under the red, hourglass-shaped marking on the spider's abdomen. Kevin fought frantically, kicking the red hourglass like it was meant as a target.
The spider was determined to not let diner get away, and was not going to let the toughest ant she had ever encountered escape. Kevin managed to turn onto his stomach and was trying to crawl away. It looked for a moment like he was gonna succeed and Gwen dared to breathe, but at the last second, Kevin went down again, with white webbing tangled around his legs. The spider started reeling him in like he was the catch of the day. "Ahhhhh! Help!" he cried.
Seeing that Kevin was helpless, Gwen quickly opened her spell book, flipped a couple of pages and yelled "Emocha Objectia!" A bright blue light flashed under the spider, near Kevin. He covered his head. The spider was lifted off the ground and thrown over the nearest blades of grass. Gwen ran to Kevin and helped him pull the web off of his legs. She even found his shoe for him and put it back on his foot.
"Um, thanks. That was really scary. But why would you save me, knowing I want to kill your cousin?"
"I saved you cause I didn't want to see you hurt. Why are you such a jerk anyway?"
"I'm not a jerk. I just know what I need and'ave learned I have to get it the hard way most of the time."
"But - you hurt others."
"It's them or me. Look - I don't want to play twenty questions. Lets just get out of here and figure out how to get big again."
"Maybe it will just wear off. My spells just wear off after a while and I think this happened because of some kind of weird reaction between my spell and Animo's weapon, If I'm right, we should be okay without us having to do anything."
"How long will it take to wear off?"
"I don't know. This has never happened before."
"Well, that's not much help. Too many 'ifs' and 'maybes' and I don't want to be some bug's diner."
"Lets go."
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After Ben and Grandpa Max looked everywhere they could think of to look for Gwen, Ben called Gwen's house to tell his mom he couldn't find her. Her mother answered, "But Ben, I'm sure she's home. She's upstairs taking a bath."
"Well then, she just left! Did she say she was mad at me or anything?"
"No, last I saw her she seemed fine. What's going on Ben?"
"I guess nothing . . . are you sure she's home?"
"Yes Ben, Gwen wouldn't go out again without telling me. Do you want me to have her call you when she comes downstairs?"
"Yes please . . . thank-you."
Ben hung up, still a little confused.
Gwen's mother went upstairs when she finished unloading the dishwasher, to gather dirty laundry for a load. She knocked on the bathroom door and when there was no answer, opened it and looked in. "Oh, well, Gwen isn't here after all. Silly kids, they will find each other." She gathered the dirty towels and added them to the laundry basket.
Accepting that Gwen's mom was right, Ben and Grandpa Max went about their day. Ben was playing his game on his 'tiny' screen. Grandpa was at the stove cooking something that smelled really good. "What are you cooking Grandpa?"
"Not really cooking, I'm melting chocolate."
"Oh great – I'll get a spoon."
"No, its not to eat like soup. You can lick the pot when I'm done though."
"Okay." Ben went back to his game. Unseen by Ben, a line of ants made their way inside the Rust Bucket and up on the table while he played. The ants found their way up his arms. He didn't notice until they started biting him! He freaked out with the creepy crawling insects on him. Grandpa turned off the burner under the chocolate, and looked to see what Ben was doing.
"Aahjhh! ANTS!" Ben ran and jumped in the shower with his clothes on to wash the ants off. Grandpa looked around where Ben had been sitting and exclaimed, "Oh, my ingredients for the candy are coming to me! We have a bunch of volunteers!" Grandpa grabbed a jar and went out, following the trail of ants through the grass.
Ben cam out of the tiny bathroom, fully clothed and soaking wet. He saw grandpa out in the yard with a jar, but didn't stop to think too much about what he was doing. Seeing that he was greatly outnumbered, even if only by ants, Ben got the jar of Vaseline and went around smearing it on each tire and even on the steps thinking that would stop the ants from coming back inside. "Creepy crawlies – you can't defeat Ben Tennyson! Stay out or I'll break out Heatblast all over ya!"
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Kevin and Gwen made it to the Rust Bucket's steps and thankfully found a tall weed growing just under the edge of the bottom step. They used it to climb up to the step, Gwen first. Suddenly she cried out, and Kevin looked up at her. "Eeeeee! Help! Kevin – I'm stuck!"
Kevin was laughing so hard he fell off he leaf he was climbing on to the leaf below. "Tennyson must have left some kind of goo on the steps - and you're stuck in it!"
"What makes you think Ben did it?"
"Oh come on, who else would? Hahahaha!"
"Stop laughing and help me! If someone comes out, I'll be squished!"
"Yeah, just like a bug."
Even though he was still teasing her, he was planning how to rescue her. He found a piece of a leaf and held it out for her to grab. She did, and it broke before he could pull her out. "Kevin! Help! - I don't want to die in Vaseline!"
"Uh Oh." Kevin said out loud. "What Now?" Gwen squealed. He pointed. Gwen saw that there were ants all around them. But they weren't paying any attention to the tiny kids. The ants were marching all around them, all in the same direction taking different paths up the steps. Of course, none of the ants were foolish enough to get stuck in the petroleum jelly.
To save Gwen and get out of the ants path, Kevin tried again to turn into Alien-Kevin. This time there was a flash of light and it worked! Gwen grumbled, "Ewe Kevin."
"Hey, be glad it worked," Kevin held a stinkfly wing over for Gwen to grab.
"Thanks, I know – but it just looks too weird so see such a combination of all of Ben's aliens. You're much cuter when you're a human."
"Hehe, you think I'm cute? I wish this form was different, more like what Ben can change into. I've been stuck like this many times and couldn't change back to human. Once I had to hide for a month until I could finally change back. I don't know what gets me stuck sometimes. And sometimes I'm stuck 'alien' and sometimes I'm stuck human, and it seems to be getting worse, which is why I came to find Ben. I was hoping if I get the Omnitrix I can figure it out."
While he talked, he had been getting Gwen out of the petroleum jelly and once she was free, they found themselves running against the flow of ants going up. They were going down to get out of the way and come up with another plan, when Gwen looked up suddenly and screamed. A huge glass jar was coming at them, open top first. Kevin pushed Gwen out of the way at the last second, but he was scooped up with the ants.
"Kevin!" Gwen started screaming spells, but being too tiny, her spells were too tiny too. A voice that sounded like a god's booming voice said, "MMMmmm – Chocolate-covered ants!"
"NO – Grandpa – NO!" Gwen screamed and jumped up and down, "NO Grandpa! Don't eat those ants!" But Grandpa Max couldn't hear her.
In the jar, Kevin was already battling for his life. The ants were panicked and trying to eat each other, and Kevin too! With is alien powers he threw them away from him as fast as he could, but there was a never-ending pile of ants under and all around him. All he could do was try to keep up with stopping their jaws from grabbing onto his more tender alien parts.
Gwen sank to her knees and cried for a moment before she regained control and started climbing up the steps again to try and save Kevin.
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By the time Ben changed his clothes and got dried off, Grandpa was finished cooking. Max brought him a tray of small, cooling chocolate balls. "Hey Ben! Try these."
Excited anytime there was candy involved, Ben looked at them, a little drool in the corner of his mouth. "They look like chocolate-covered raisins - oh - or maybe sunflower seeds, they're so small."
Ben didn't wait for Grandpa to answer and threw a handful in his mouth. You would think he would know better than to just throw something Max gave him into his mouth without full investigation. But it was chocolate – how weird could Max make chocolate? Ben found out.
"They're chocolate covered ants - do you like 'em?"
"Oh Gross! Ben covered his mouth with both hands and ran over to a tree to barf. Grandpa Max jogged over to him to be sure he was okay, but he smiled the whole time. Grandpa gently held Ben's sides as his muscles strained and contracted, trying to empty all the ants from his stomach. When he caught his breath, still in the barf position, he cried, "What a way to ruin good chocolate."
"Are you okay Ben? You might not have liked them, but I didn't think you'd throw up."
Ben heard his Grandpa, but also heard faint yelling that sounded more like squeaking. He stayed on his hands and knees, looking for the source of the sound. "Grandpa I need a magnifying glass!" Max found one nearby in the tool box under the Rust Bucket and handed it to him. After looking through it for a few seconds Ben yelled, "Kevin?"
A tiny Kevin, with his ten different alien parts soaked with goo, lie in the lumpy, stinky, chewed ant-chocolate slime that Ben had just barfed. He stood up and shook off as much as he could and raised his fist, yelling at Ben.
"I'm covered in Tennyson barf! You'll pay for this!" Ben held a stick down and Kevin hung onto it so Ben could lift him out of the stomach slime. "Hey Kev, at least I'm rescuing you - you jerk. Where's Gwen?" He put Kevin and the tiny stick on the magnifying glass and glared at him. Kevin yelled back, "I don't know where Gwen is! She was in the bowl with me, she's probably covered in chocolate and stuck between you're teeth."
"Oh NO!" Ben cried.
"Hahaha you probably just ate you're cousin! - I only survived because I went alien!"
"No! Grandpa!" Ben cried. "Did you hear what he said?" He dropped Kevin and the magnifying glass back in the barf. Kevin was stranded on the glass like an island in the slime.
"Grandpa! Oh man - what if we can't find her – you don't think . . . ?"
"Now Ben, don't panic – don't think the worst. We'll find her!" In spite of his brave words, Max couldn't remember the last time he was this scared. Nothing in the null void scared him this badly. Even losing a family member . . . but to have one child eat another child, that was just too much to stand.
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Ben ran back inside the rust bucket, with Grandpa right behind him. First he looked in the jar that grandpa used to catch the ants. There were two ants still crawling around, but no Gwen. "Oh man, if she is as tiny as Kevin, the ants could have eaten her even before they were chocolate covered."
"Ben . . . " Grandpa started but Ben kept talking, "How will we get her out of one of the chocolates without squishing her?" Ben picked one up and started picking at it with a fingernail.
"Ben, if she's been covered in chocolate, I mean, there would be no air."
"Grandpa! NO!"
Grandpa saw a flash outside. Kevin returned to his normal alien size. And in another flash right away, Kevin became human. He dropped to his knees and started coughing and gagging himself. "That was so gross! EPICALLY gross!"
"Well I think Kevin's okay." Grandpa reported
"Grandpa! NO! Its not fair – Gwen has to be okay too!" Ben had tears in his eyes. Just as tears started to spill down his cheeks, there was a flash in the motor home. Ben wiped his eyes and looked. Gwen was sitting on the counter smiling at him. "Nice to know you care so much, dweeb."
"Gwen!" Ben jumped over to her and pulled her down off the counter hugging her. After a moment he pushed her away. "Wait - you were there the whole time, listening?"
"Yep, I almost made it to the jar, but Grandpa poured the ants, and Kevin into the chocolate. Being so tiny I couldn't get Grandpa's attention."
"I'm sorry Gwen, the next time I make bugs for dessert, I'll make sure I know where both of you are before I start."
"Umm - thanks Grandpa – I guess."
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Ben ran back out in the yard and up to Kevin. "So, do you still want to fight?"
"No way! I'm not fighting you while I'm covered in your stinky puke!"
"Pussy! Stop whining."
Grandpa butted in, "Now Ben don't start a fight that isn't there."
"He started it!"
"Yeah, and someday, I'll finish it."
"Come on you two, it was really intense there for a few minutes, its amazing you all got out of it alive."
Ben replied, "Well at least no one got hurt."
Kevin gasped and yelled at him, "NOT HURT! -
Tennyson you ATE me! -
And then you BARFED me –
you didn't just puke ON me – You PUKED me! -
My actual body – PUKED!" -
"This is like – Arrrgh! Yuck Yuck Yuck – this is the most Awful thing you could have done to me!"
"Hey - thanks Kevin. And I didn't even have to try that hard – I puke all the time."
"Grrrr – I'll get you back if its the last thing I ever do! Right now I can think of anything I could do to you that would be worse! -YUCK! It would have been better if you had just kicked my butt in a fight."
"Yeah and I've already done that too! Toughen up Kevin. The way you are, you will probably experience way worse than a little puke before long."
Max interrupted. "I think you should leave now Kevin. I don't want to see you around here again." Grandpa put his arm around Ben's shoulders to lead him away. He waited for Gwen too, but she wasn't following. "I'll be there in a minute Grandpa, Kevin saved me while we were tiny. I wanna talk to him a minute."
"Alright Gwen."
"No way – we can't leave her alone with him!" Ben complained but Grandpa hurried him away. "They were alone the whole time they were small, it will be fine."
"But - Grandpa!"
Gwen listened for a second to Ben complaining, but once she was sure they couldn't hear she said, "Thanks for saving me Kevin."
"No sweat. Thanks for helping me out back there too."
"Don't you think that someday you might want to use your powers to do good stuff? Maybe you could even join us?"
"No way! Sounds boring, and you wouldn't really want me around."
"I would, if you weren't hurting others or yourself. Maybe we could help you find the good that I know has to be in ya."
"Don't bother, no one will ever accept me, or won't be afraid of me."
"I'm not afraid of you."
"But I'm a monster . . . Bye." Kevin ended it, and turned to walk away. Gwen though about following him, but didn't. "Dumb boy." she angrily stomped her foot. She thought about him some more on her way back to the Rust Bucket, "Dumb, CUTE boy."
[End]
