I do not own Ben 10, or any of the characters that have already or will debut in the series.
Note: This project ignores the events of "Race Against Time"
Secondary note: For this project, benwolf is Howlrunner, benmummy is Underwraps, and benviktor is Boltneck.
Jacqueline panted, out of breath. She hated playing tag with her friends. She wasn't very athletic, and she always ended up being It. After that happened, she could never catch anyone, and she got made fun of for it. They didn't mean to hurt her like that, but it did sting, a little. But this time would be different. She knew she would catch someone today. She just knew it.
Eventually, Jacqueline got up to the old sawmill. No one had worked here for ages, and she knew that someone would be hiding in here. Someone always did, and they told her that they did because they thought she could never get up the hill to it. But today, she had. Now, someone's going to get it.
Jacqueline pushed the door open, trying not to make too much noise. No point in expending all that energy getting here if you were going to scare everyone off with a little noise. Creeping didn't come naturally to Jacqueline, but she made a good show of it. At least, she did until she found her friends. And the monster that had gotten them first.
Ben 10
Bump in the Night
It's a fact: the weirder someone looks, the more likely that people will do anything to get rid of them. This was true for Leapfrog. Born looking like the unholy spawn of a giant frog and a human, he had soon found that people in his hometown would do anything to get rid of him. Sometimes this meant that he got free stuff, sometimes it meant he got chased away by gun-toting maniacs. He applied this lesson to everything he did. Like the bank robbery today. The tellers had practically fallen over themselves to get the money for him and his gang. Now to make a clean getaway of it.
Leapfrog pulled up short suddenly. The creature standing in front of him had blue fur all over its body, and glowing green eyes. The general shape of it was that of a wolf, but a wolf that had learned to stand on two legs. Leapfrog's first thought was that it was a werewolf. Never did it cross his mind that this creature was an alien. Nor did the name Howlrunner cross his mind. But then, only three people knew that this alien called itself Howlrunner, and they also knew that he was, in fact, not normally an alien, but a boy. Leapfrog never thought of any of this. He only thought that the werewolf might end up ruining his day.
"Give it up, scumbag, and maybe I'll let you hop away easy."
Howlrunner flexed his legs, jumping out of the way of the bullets Leapfrog's goons let fly in his direction. Realizing that he was outgunned, he decided to let fly with his own weapon. He stepped back out into the road, his snout opening four ways at once. When it was opened thus, he unleashed his sonic roar, blowing the goons down the street. Leapfrog, however, managed to jump over the blast, and came down, prodigious feet first, on Howlrunner's head, driving the remnants of the roar into the pavement. Before Howlrunner could grab him, he pushed off, turning a flip before landing well behind the lupine alien.
"You'll never take me alive, you creepy wolf-thing! I'm Leapfrog, and I'll always get awa-"
Leapfrog's triumphant speech was cut off as trash cans, loose trash, and other objects littering the street lifted off and soared straight towards him. No matter where Leapfrog leapt to, they followed him, battering him mercilessly. When they stopped, Leapfrog sighed in relief. Before he could capitalize on his newfound mercy, he found himself in a furry grip. Turning his head around, he caught a glimpse of Howlrunner. He chuckled nervously, and then fainted. Howlrunner waited until he could hear sirens, and then ran off.
An hour later, Ben Tennyson, holder of the Omnitrix, the most powerful 10-year-old in the known universe, stretched on his bed in his grandfather's RV. Turning into Howlrunner hadn't been his plan (in fact, he had wanted the Omnitrix to turn him into Diamond Head), but he'd managed to get the job done. Unfortunately, the fact that he'd needed help was something that his cousin Gwen wouldn't let him live down.
"Gwen, I could have gotten him by myself, it just would have taken a little longer for me to do it."
"A little- Ben, if I hadn't driven him back towards you, he have hop, hop, hopped his way out of town! Even if you could catch him, which you couldn't have done without using XLR8, he'd have just kicked you back into the dirt! Why can't you just face the fact that you actually needed my help?!"
"Maybe it's because you keep telling me that I needed your help. I'm telling you, I could have done it fine by myself!"
Before Gwen could retort, Grandpa Max stepped in.
"Kids, stop arguing. You both did great out there. And Ben, I have to agree with Gwen. Howlrunner couldn't have caught up with that frog-man, unless he had a head start. Sorry."
Gwen stuck her tongue out at Ben. Determined to ignore her, Ben made his way up to the front of the Rust Bucket. Sliding into the passenger's seat, he looked out at the road. Over their summer vacation, the three of them had stopped in a lot of major cities (as well as a great deal of small towns). During the trip, Ben had found the Omnitrix, a black and white watch that contained the DNA of ten aliens. The Omnitrix let Ben turn into those aliens for an amount of time (he was never certain how long he had each time he used it). Ben used it, for the most part, to fight the aliens, mutants, machines and other weird stuff he'd encountered during summer vacation. Another handy feature of the Omnitrix was that it could acquire samples of alien DNA, allowing him to collect a menagerie of alien forms he could use. At current count, he had somewhere between fifteen and twenty aliens, each with their own evolutionary quirks that provided him with a wide array of useful powers. Unfortunately, the Omnitrix didn't always turn him into the alien he wanted to become, case in point his fight with Leapfrog earlier today.
Ben was broken out of his thoughts when Grandpa Max pulled off the road into a trailer park. This was more often than not where they stayed during vacation; Ben could only remember one time that they'd stayed in a hotel, and that had been scammed by one of Grandpa Max's friends from back in the day. This one was a lot emptier than most of the trailer parks they found themselves in. As they pulled in, one family was packing up to leave. Max got out to talk to the man helping two children get ready to leave. Ben and Gwen got out to listen to the conversation.
"So, what's the rush to get out of here?"
The man looked at Max as though he was crazy.
"You haven't heard? There's some sort of monster lurking up in the hills there. Kids have gone missing, and the one that did come back was spouting off about vampires and shadows. We're getting out before our kids go missing. You should leave too, before your kids there get hurt."
With that, he climbed into his RV after his kids and started it up, pulling out in a hurry. Max watched him go, and then turned to look into the hills. Ben followed his gaze, as did Gwen. All three said the same thing.
"Let's check it out."
"So, Grandpa, you're the expert on weird stuff. Are there really vampires?"
It was late evening, and Ben, Gwen and Max were still searching the woods for any sign of the supposed monster. Gwen, who had asked the question, was behind Max, huddled in slightly. Ben noticed this, and laughed.
"Gwen's afraid of vampires! I mean, come on. Everyone knows there's no such thing as vampires."
"Just like there's no such thing as aliens? You should know better than to just assume something doesn't exist, Ben. And it's not fear; it's just a . . . a healthy respect. So, Grandpa, are there-"
"Honestly, I don't know. We found someone that we thought was one, but he disappeared before we could find out for sure. He could have been some sort of alien or mutant for all we know."
"Great. Just great. So, just in case, why couldn't this have waited until we could get our hands on some sort of stakes, or garlic, or stuff like that?"
"Because I don't think this is a vampire. Vampires are supposed to go after healthy young adults, not kids. Hey, what's that?"
Ben and Gwen followed the beam of Max's flashlight. It illuminated the corner of a roof. The roof looked dilapidated, worn down from years of disrepair. Sweeping the flashlight down around the corner revealed the rest of the building, as well as the dried up riverbed next to the one wall. Max got it first.
"It's a sawmill. It's seen better days, but that's definitely what it is. Ben, now would be a good time to go hero, in case anything decides to find us in there."
"All right. Time to shock and awe!"
Ben slammed down the dial of the Omnitrix, releasing a flash of green light. Max and Gwen averted their eyes to keep from being blinded. When they turned back to Ben, he was easily eight feet tall. His skin was a dull light green. His eyes were different sizes, and two turbines grew out of his shoulders. Gwen shook her head.
"You went Boltneck? The floorboards are probably rotted out in there. You'll be smashing through the floor with every step!"
"And when I kick the tar out of this mystery monster, you'll be taking that back. Just watch, dweeb."
With that, Boltneck rushed the door, punching it open. Max and Gwen followed, Gwen still huddled behind Max. Max shone his flashlight around as they went from room to room. They found nothing on the ground floor. Gwen and Max went up the stairs first, followed by Boltneck. He was still only halfway up the stairs when Gwen gasped in horror.
"Are . . . are they dead? They're just . . . just lying there . . . oh man, this was a bad idea. I vote we get out of here, now."
Boltneck cleared the stairs and found himself looking at a wide variety of children, ranging from a few years younger than himself to almost ten years older than him. Max had his fingers on the neck of the nearest one, a girl that looked about six.
"They're alive, but unconscious. Gwen, do you have any spells you can use to levitate them out of here?"
Gwen nodded, but she was shaking all over. Max patted her on the shoulder, and then turned to Boltneck.
"How many do you think you can carry at once? I can get two or three, but we're probably going to need to take at least two trips."
Before he could answer, Gwen shrieked. Both of them turned to see her pointing at a man-shaped creature on the stairs. It had white skin on its chest and head, with black everywhere else. Extending from hips to wrist, with some extra extending past the fingers, were a pair of red skin flaps like a manta ray's. Both fingers and toes were tipped with red claws, and its mouth was filled with red fangs. Gwen scooted backwards as the creature climbed the stairs. As soon as she hit the wall, she jumped into the air.
"Gwen, cast a spell!"
Max's words jolted Gwen partially out of her panic. Raising her hands, Gwen opened her mouth to speak an incantation. Before she could get it out, the creature leapt, spreading its arms and the skin flaps attached to them. Gliding through the air, it landed in front of Gwen, grabbing her by the face. It opened its mouth, loosing a hiss like a teapot, and Gwen slumped into unconsciousness. Satisfied that Gwen would be no trouble, the creature dropped her and turned to Max and Boltneck, emitting a warbling screech as it did so. This was enough for Boltneck.
"Fry, you freak!"
As he shouted, the turbines on his back crackled with energy. The energy ran down his arms, and he shot it out as a bolt of green lightning from his hands. In response, the creature swung one of its arms around in front of itself. As the arm moved, so did the shadows around it, forming a barrier that absorbed the energy from the lightning bolt. Boltneck followed the attack up with a charge, determined to punch through the shadow wall. He did this with surprising ease, only to find that the creature was no longer behind the barrier.
Before he could get his bearings, he was grabbed on the turbines. A wave of iciness washed through him, and he felt a massive current going from him into the creature. Swinging around, he caught something fleshy with his backhanded blow, just enough to knock it loose. Completing the turn, he found himself face-to-face with the creature. Somehow, it looked less distinct than it had when it came up the stairs. Gritting his teeth, Boltneck tried to fire a lightning bolt at it, but got nothing but sparks. Before he could draw any conclusions from this, he heard a familiar beeping. Oh, man, not now! Don't time out now! But his silent pleas were in vain. In a flash of red light, Ben was returned to his human form. His vision was blurry, and he could barely stand up. His last sight was the creature leaping towards him and grabbing him by the Omnitrix. Then, blackness.
Ben wiped the sleepiness out of his eyes. He'd had the weirdest dream. Boltneck was in it, and some kind of vampire monster. It had fought him and . . .
"Ben! You're all right!"
Max grabbed Ben in a bear hug. Ben found himself patting his grandfather on the shoulders awkwardly. Something was missing; he just couldn't place it yet. And then it hit him.
"Grandpa, where's Gwen?"
Max broke off from hugging Ben. It was then that Ben noticed that Grandpa Max had tears in his eyes.
"Ben, do you remember fighting something recently?"
"Well, I had a dream about fighting some kind of vampire thing, but that was just a-"
"It was no dream, Ben. You did fight that vampire, and got beaten. You've been asleep for two days."
"Two days? Man, how did it make me do that?"
"The alien is an energy-drainer. That's why it was attacking kids; kids are naturally more energetic than adults. Those kids were its food pantry"
"Wait, how do you know it was an alien?"
"It grabbed you by the Omnitrix to get a better taste of you, and you acquired it. Problem is, it drained the Omnitrix pretty much dry; check and see if it's still locked out."
Ben looked.
"No, it's fine. But, where's Gwen?"
"She's still with that alien. I couldn't get to her and still carry you out. I thought that you would have a better chance at beating that thing than she would, even with her magic."
"Well then, let's go and kick that thing's butt! The sun is shining. That's got to give us some kind of edge, so let's go!"
It was still early afternoon when Max and Ben found the abandoned sawmill again. They entered cautiously; despite Ben's brave words, they had no idea whether or not the alien actually slept, or if it was weakened by sunlight. When they got to the second floor, they found that all of the kids that were there the last time they had come were still there. But, there was no sign of the alien. Nor was there any sign of Gwen. Max hid his emotions well; Ben didn't need to know how badly he felt about leaving Gwen behind.
"Ben, do you think any of your aliens could help get all these kids back to the trailer park?"
"After getting drained like that, I don't know how much time I'd have with any of my aliens. Unless . . . "
Ben's eyes lit up, and he twisted the dial of the Omnitrix until he found the silhouette he wanted. When the green light faded, he was a black and white alien with green eyes.
"I figure that Ditto can keep himself an alien as long as I want if I space out when each set of duplicates leaves."
"Good idea, Ben! I'll grab what I can, and you have Ditto get the rest. Then, we search for Gwen and that monster."
It took Ditto and Max most of the day to get the kids back to the trailer park, and Ben insisted on being able to use the Omnitrix before they went monster hunting. When the Omnitrix changed from red to green, the sun had set. Ben got up, but before he and Max could leave, they heard the alien's warbling shriek echo over the park.
"Think he knows we took the kids?"
"I think he's coming here to look for them. Pick an alien that doesn't shoot energy this time; hopefully it'll make it harder for it to weaken you."
Ben twisted the Omnitrix, picked an alien, but didn't activate it yet. He wanted as much time as he could get against this thing. He looked at Max, finding him hoisting the "sun gun" he had used against Ghostfreak the first time they had fought him. Ben nodded, and turned back around just in time to see the creature shoot over the trees, shrieking away. Max shot, but the creature dove, and the beam went high.
As soon as it landed, Ben depressed the Omnitrix, and in a flash he was a white alien with plated yellow armor on its back. Cannon Bolt, he figured, could move fast enough to catch the vampire alien before it could do whatever it had done to dodge Boltneck, and powerful enough to shatter its shadow barriers. Before he could launch, though, he saw what the creature was wearing around its neck, and that immediately made him regret his choice of alien.
A length of chain was wrapped around the alien's neck. The chain was also wrapped around Gwen's wrists, so she hung from its neck with her feet dangling a foot off the ground. She groaned, and the alien reached up with a hand to grab her face. It trembled in ecstasy, and Gwen slumped into unconsciousness again.
Cannon Bolt curled into an armored ball and shot at the alien. It twisted out of the way, keeping both itself and its meal out of harm's way. Cannon Bolt kept going, caroming off trees until he had a shot at the alien's back. He hit with a crunch, rebounding up into the air while the vampire hit the dirt. Before it could get up, Cannon Bolt dropped on its head, driving it into the dirt. As he shot off, the alien pushed itself up off the ground, shrieking in agony as parts of its jaw slid away from each other. Using one hand to hold its ruined face together, it grabbed Gwen's head with the other. Energy flowed from her to it, and its face slowly melted back into one cohesive unit.
Max watched as Cannon Bolt shot back at the alien. Before they collided, the alien waved its hand, and a ramp of shadows erected itself, catapulting Cannon Bolt across the park. Adjusting the intensity on the sun gun, Max raked a line of solar energy across the alien's chest, slicing through the chain connecting it to Gwen. The alien recoiled, and Max saw a line burnt across the path his beam had gone. The creature reached for Gwen, but its arm was shattered when Cannon Bolt came back from being tossed away. The alien shrieked and whirled, landing on the ground with its broken arm cradled in the other. Before either Max or Cannon Bolt could get to it, the alien cloaked itself in shadows, which sank into the ground. The alien was gone. They had won.
It was three days before Gwen woke up. When she did, she had a myriad of questions for Ben and Max.
"I was captured? By that creepy vampire?"
"Yes. You got captured by the vampire alien."
"So – wait, it was an alien? Not a vampire?"
"That's right. I told you there was no such thing as vampires."
"Ben!"
"What? She always gets snooty when she's right."
"I do not get snooty!"
Max left his grandchildren to their argument. Right now, nothing could shake him out of his good mood. Getting into the driver's seat, he started up the Rust Bucket and drove off in search of their next adventure.
