This story was requested by Generalhyna, who owns Bella and Tyson. Here you go, Amigo! Enjoy! :)
I only own Rachel, Megan, Matthew, and Alice. Ben 10 belongs to Cartoon Network and Man of Action. Melody belongs to VinnieStokerLover, who kindly gave me permission to use Melody. :)
All other characters mentioned belong to their respective owners and the title was inspired by the Disney song "Step In Time" from the Disney movie "Mary Poppins" and the story was inspired by the scenes in "Mary Poppins" where the chimney sweeps are introduced and do their dance routine.
Sweep And Step In Time
Bella was sitting in the living room of the Grant Mansion, with Megan, Matthew, and Alice looking up at her and listening as she was telling them a story of a case she and the Toon Detective Protectors had done some time back and they had had some help from some alien chimney sweeps.
"There are alien chimney sweeps?" Matthew asked in fascination.
"Yes," Bella said with a smile and noticed the children's faces lit up. "Would you like to go see them?"
The three nodded and Ben and Melody came in, having caught the last part of Bella's story. "I'd like to see that," said Ben.
"Me too," Melody said.
"Okay," said Bella. "We better tell Rachel."
"I already know," said Rachel, coming into the living room. "You kids listen to Bella and your aunt Melody and uncle Ben."
"Yes, Aunt Rachel," the three kids said before they headed out.
"Bella, what are the chimney sweeps like?" Megan asked as she held on to Ben as he carried her.
"Well, they're of various alien species," Bella explained. "I believe a few of them are from the Galactic Monsters homeworld too."
"Are they nice?" Matthew asked hopefully.
"They're very nice," Bella said. "And they love dancing and singing, especially if there's an audience."
Ben and Melody looked at each other with smiles, thinking the same thing. "Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll perform for us," said Melody. "I'd love to see that."
"As would I," said Ben. "It's always nice to see friendly aliens when you have to deal with a lot of bad aliens. Especially the aliens that give their race a bad name."
He then turned to Melody. "No offense, my love," he said with a genuine smile.
"None taken, handsome," Melody said. She knew Ben was talking about Lord Transyl and how he tried to take over the world. If Ben hadn't gained his Whampire transformation and then met Whampire and his family, the hero would have probably not seen any good in the Vladat race.
"The chimney sweeps feel the same," Bella said with a smile. "They too dislike how some of their species has tried to ruin their race's reputation. Like the Galvans and the Mechamorphs."
"You mean like Albedo and that Malware guy?" Alice asked, remember Ben telling her about the evil Mechamorph.
"Exactly," said the leader of the Toon Detective Protectors as they made it to one of the nearby cities that allowed aliens to have jobs like humans. "Here we are."
A Celestialsapien saw them and waved to them. "Hello!" He said pleasantly. "We're about to start our work."
Bella smiled. "The children, along with Ben Tennyson and his fiancée, were hoping you wouldn't mind them watching you all work," she said with a smile.
"Ah, the Universal hero Ben Tennyson," the Celestialsapien said, a smile in his voice. "We had heard he was engaged to a lovely half-human, half-Vladat. This is her?"
He indicated to Melody, who nodded. "Yes, pleased to meet you," she said.
The Celestialsapien gave a respectful half-bow. "It is my pleasure to meet the fiancée of the universal hero, Ben Tennyson," he said. "And these children as well. Are they yours?"
"Oh, no. Our nieces and nephew," Ben explained.
"Well, you're all just in time," the Celestialsapien said, a smile clearly heard in his voice. "Come. I'll take you up."
With that, they were gently pulled up into the air and soon landed on one of the rooftops. "Bella!" A Galvan called out happily. "Will you lead us, dear?"
She giggled. "Of course," she said.
Ben heard familiar music play and turned to Melody. "This sounds like the 'Step In Time' song from that Disney movie "Mary Poppins"," he said.
"I believe it is," she said with a smile. "Bella certainly has some wonderful friends."
As the alien chimney sweeps danced for them, the children clapped happily, even when a few of the sweeps grabbed Bella and began dancing with her. The Horned King, who was there with them along with Jestro, chuckled and clapped as they watched the sweeps expertly twirl Bella and dance with her. "Those sweeps just love to dance with Bella," said the Horned King.
"She is a good dancer," Jestro said with a smile.
"Of course you'd say that. You've danced with her before," the Horned King said good-naturedly.
Jestro blushed and Ben suddenly stood up. "Hey, there's a lot of chimneys at the Grant Mansion," he said. "Could we ask them if they'd do that for Rachel?"
Bella heard Ben's question and smiled. "What do you guys think?" She asked the sweeps. "The Grant Mansion is huge."
"You mean the famous Mansion run by that nice girl who has taken not only her kind in, but also the aliens who needed a home?" A Necrofriggian asked.
"The same one," Ben said with a smile.
"Well then, everyone! Let's go!" The Celestialsapien said with a cheer and the others echoed the cheer as Bella and the Toon Detective Protectors led the way back to the Mansion.
"Can we come up too and see the world from the top of the mansion, Uncle Ben?" Megan asked.
"Why not?" He said with a smile.
"I bet it's a wonderful view," Melody said as the Celestialsapien chimney sweep kindly helped them all up to the massive roof of the Grant Mansion.
"The stories don't give the mansion proper justice," said the Galvan chimney sweep. "It's a beautiful home."
"The inhabitants here have made it into a wonderful home," said the Horned King.
The chimney sweeps wasted no time cleaning the chimneys while Ben was exceptionally glad Rachel had placed the dust covers over the furniture and such, as she had planned to do some heavy cleaning and have Feedback check the wiring too. "Hopefully, she won't get mad as seeing all the soot coming in," he said to Melody.
"Well, we did help Rachel cover the furniture in the rooms that had the fireplaces because she wanted to clean them," she said. "I think she'll be glad the chimneys are cleaned."
The sweeps were quite efficient and had cleaned all the chimneys in no time. "Just one more thing before we head off," said a Thep Khufan chimney sweep.
"What's that?" Alice asked curiously.
Giving the young girl a smile, he performed a backflip and landed right in the chimney, except he went down the chimney and into the living room. The Galvan chimney sweep grinned.
"We've got to make sure the chimneys are soot free," he said and followed his fellow chimney sweeps down the chimney and into the Mansion.
"Hope Rachel doesn't kill us for this," said Ben.
"Or the kids' parents," said Melody with worry.
Matthew had run over to a chimney sweep who picked him up and went down the chimney with the boy holding onto him. Alice had done the same with another chimney sweep and Megan looked up at her aunt and uncle hopefully. Ben then chuckled.
"Come on," he said. "It does look like fun and I think I can hear them inside."
The Celestialsapien chimney sweep nodded. "They're all inside," he said as Megan reached her arms up to him and he picked her up. Ben held onto Melody and the four of them went down the chimney into the Mansion. "I think I know how Santa Claus feels now," Megan said, making them chuckle.
When they got into the living room, all the sweeps were dancing around happily. Frankenstrike came in. "WHAT IS GOING ON?!" He called out in surprise.
Rachel, Rook, Water Hazard, Lodestar, and Alien X came downstairs and were just as stunned to see the chimney sweeps dancing around, adding phrases to their song, a song Rachel recognized all too well.
"The 'Step In Time' song from the "Mary Poppins" movie," she said with a smile.
Rook couldn't help tapping his foot to the beat and smiled, gently taking Rachel's arm. "Shall we?" He asked.
She giggled, but nodded and they began dancing together. Alien X looked at Water Hazard and Lodestar. "Well, why not?" He asked.
They nodded and joined in.
Rachel had just spun away from Rook and was about to spin towards him again when she collided with someone else who caught her. "Oh!" She cried out in surprise before seeing a familiar face and did a double take. "Tyson?" She asked.
"Hello, Miss Rachel," he said. "Forgive my sudden appearance. My team and I were wondering if Ben could help us a bit."
Before Rachel could even call Ben over, someone else arrived. "What's all this?!" The newcomer asked.
To everyone's surprise, it was Azmuth, although the chimney sweeps didn't seem to mind as they just added Azmuth question to their song and kept dancing.
But the Horned King realized that the confusion needed to be cleared up. "Bella, I think it's time to stop this," he said gently.
Seeing what he meant, she nodded and let out a whistle, getting the chimney sweeps' attention and they began heading out, shaking hands with both Rachel and Rook, thanking them and wishing them well. The two thanked the sweeps for cleaning the chimneys and doing a wonderful job on them.
When the last sweep had disappeared down the road, Azmuth looked over to Bella. "Bella, may I ask what was going on here?" He asked a bit sternly.
She smiled cheekily at him. "Azmuth, you know me. I never explain any of my randomness," she said.
The others held back their amused laughter until Azmuth lost his stern look and smiled. "No, you never do," he agreed.
Rachel then noticed how Ben, Melody, Alice, Megan, and Matthew had soot on their faces and hands. "How did you guys get soot on yourselves?" She asked.
"We came down the chimneys with the sweeps," said Megan with a smile. "Just like Santa Claus does."
The others chuckled in amusement at that. "Well, at least part of the cleaning is done," she said.
XLR8 and Fasttrack came up. "As is the rest of the cleaning," said XLR8. "And just in time too. Magister Tennyson will be arriving soon with some of the planet leaders to discuss having an outpost here on Earth."
Rachel's eyes widened. "Oh, my word! I completely forgot they were coming!" She exclaimed in worry.
Tyson chuckled as the two fast aliens quickly cleaned up the living room. "Well, it's okay now," he said.
Rook smiled. "Bella, when you see your chimney sweep friends again, can you thank them again for us?" He asked.
"Sure thing," she said as she linked her arm with Jestro's and danced out of the Mansion with him keeping in time with her.
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GoldGuardian2418