A request done for the very talented guestsurprise. Enjoy, my friend!
"Please, Ben?"
"No, Cassie."
"Pretty please?"
Ben Tennyson, wielded if the omnitrix and savior of the universe was walking away from Cassie. She had asked Ben a million times to take her on a mission, but he always told her it was too dangerous in Ben's work field.
Finally, Ben spun around and calmly told Cassie, "I'm serious, Cassie. Being a superhero is no walk in the park or fun roller coaster ride. There's a pretty good chance that you can get hurt badly. Very badly."
"But...I want to help you." Cassie squeaked.
Ben shook his head. "I've already got Rook as my partner so I'm good. Maybe you can help people around the mansion instead."
Cassie pondered for a moment, then smiled. "Okay, Ben."
"Atta, girl." Ben ruffled her hair.
The next day, Cassie wandered through the mansion until her wandering eye spotted Frankenstrike working in his lab. She walked in and,
"Hey, Frankenstrike!" she chirped merrily.
Frankenstrike nearly jumped out of his stitching. "Oh! Cassie! What's up?"
"Whatcha working on?" she asked.
"Well, I'm working on a serum that, if successful, will-STOP!"
Cassie froze. She was about to grab a beaker filled with a glowing liquid substance.
Frankenstrike dropped everything and picked Cassie up. "Cassie, you shouldn't be around these chemicals."
"But I want to help." Cassie said.
Frankenstrike sighed. "That's very nice of you, sweetie. But the experiments I conduct are too dangerous for a child to be around. It's for the best that you leave experimenting to me." He showed Cassie out of his lab. "You can help someone else who really needs it."
He closed the door. Cassie's shoulders slumped and she moped her way down the hall.
"There has to be someone I can help." Cassie told herself.
When she walked into the living room, she saw Ben, Whampire and Snare-oh in a huddle. What could they be doing?
Seeing this as her chance to help, Cassie ran right over to them. "Hey, guys! What are you doing?"
SLAM! CRASH!
Cassie froze. Everyone froze.
Ben turned to Cassie with a nasty glare. "Cassie, you've ruined it!"
"W-What was it?" Cassie squeaked out.
Ben pointed to the large pile of broken glass shards. "It was suppose to be the perfect present for Rachel, now it's the perfect disaster!" he snapped. "Do you know ho wrong it took to put this chandelier together?! DO YOU?!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Cassie said.
"Sorry's not good enough! If you hadn't been so "helpful" around here, this never would have happened! Sometimes the best way to help is NOT HELP AT ALL!"
"FINE!" In hot tears, Cassie ran out of the mansion.
Ben was still fuming, but when he saw Whampire and Snare-oh looking pretty mad at him, his bravado shrunk.
"What?"
"That wasn't very nice, Ben." Snare-oh said.
"But she-"
"Didn't mean to break the chandelier." said Whampire. "And now, because of you, she's running around in the cold dark all by herself. A chandelier can be fixed, but a person's feelings are not!"
"Come on, you guys. Cassie will get over it." Ben said. "Just give her some time."
But after a while, Cassie did not return and it was getting late, the aliens were becoming concerned, but not as much as Ben.
The guilt was crippling. When the grandfather clock struck to eleven o'clock, Ben figured that he had to set things right. He activated his Omnitrix as he ran off into the night.
Cassie sniffled as she walked down the dark sidewalks of suburbia.
"What's wrong with me?" Cassie said out loud. "Why am I so stupid?"
"You're not stupid, Cassie!"
Startled, Cassie looked up and saw Jetray.
"It's me, Ben!" said Jetray.
"Leave me alone, Ben!" Cassie shouted. She turned tail and ran off.
"Cassie! Wait!" Ben flew after Cassie, but she was quicker than he thought. Cassie slipped into a narrow tunnel beneath a bridge. Jetray was too big to fly through it, so Ben was forced to revert to his human form and chase after her on foot.
"Cassie!" Ben called out.
"GO AWAY!" Cassie shouted.
Suddenly, familiar looking tendrils came out of the darkness and captured Cassie.
To Cassie's horror, Snare-oh came out of the darkness. "You shouldn't be running around in these tunnels, Cassie." said the alien mummy. "They're not safe."
Cassie struggled. "Let me go! I just want to be alone!"
"Not down here you're not." Ben said, sitting beside Cassie. "I need to talk to you. I want to say I'm sorry."
"You shouldn't be sorry. I'm the one who's sorry!" Cassie snapped. "I'm just...useless."
"No you're not!" Snare-oh said. " You're not useless. We love you. And when someone is loved, they're not useless."
"He's right." Ben said. "I'm the one who shouldn't be loved!"
Snare-oh and Cassie just stared at the teen hero.
"Ben, how could you say that?" Cassie said.
"It's true, Cassie." Ben said sadly. "I just hurt your feelings over a stupid chandelier." He started to frown, making Cassie feel more bad for Ben than herself.
Snare-oh untied Cassie. "Don't be sad, Ben. I still love you. I want to love you." She hugged him. "This is all my fault. If I just listened to you, none of this would have happened."
"But I was the one who yelled at you over something stupid." Ben said. "If there's anyone to blame, it's me."
"I agree." Snare-oh said before he suddenly lashed out the bandages off his body and tied Ben and Cassie's arms and held them up like they were marionettes.
"Hey! What gives?!" Ben said.
Snare-oh approached them ominously while cracking his knuckles. "Since both of you are sorry. I know just how to cheer you two up." Snare-oh stretched his fingers on his one hand and slid them into Ben's sleeves.
"AH! Hey! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No! Stop! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Ben broke into hysterical laughter as he felt his underarms tickled mercilessly.
"You too." Snare-oh singsonged.
Cassie gulped.
Snare-oh took his other hand and stretched his fingers towards her defenseless tummy. The mummy's gauze fingers slip under her shirt and began the tickling.
"Eheeheeheehahahahahahahahahaha!" Cassie giggled and squirmed as he was being tickled. "Ahahahahahahahahaha! Stop!"
Ben and Cassie's laughs and giggles echoed through the entire tunnel.
"Ahahahahahahahahahaha! Is this really necessary?! Hahahahahahahahaha!" Ben laughed out.
"Of course," Snare-oh mused as he kept tickling. "Cootchie, cootchie, coo!"
After a few more minutes of tickle torture, the kids were almost out of breath and exhausted. So Snare-oh stopped at last.
"So, feel better?" Snare-oh asked.
"Y-Yeah..." Ben and Cassie breathed out.
Snare-oh helped them both up. "Now that that's settled, let's head back home."
As they all left the tunnel, Ben was the first to speak. "I'm sorry, Cassie."
"We both are, Ben. From now on, I'll help out when you guys say you need it." said Cassie. She smiled as she hugged him again. "And I'll always love you. No matter what."
Ben smiled and hugged her back. "And I'll always love you too."
Hope you liked it, guestsurprise!