I'm excited to bring chapter two to my Ben 10 series and I just want to say thank you to everyone who favorited, followed or even reviewed my story. You all are the realest.
And so…
I bring you all Chapter 2: Omnitrix Acquired.
»»—Story Start—««
A lone green peered upwards towards the roof of the bunk on top of him. He stared ahead with a blank look, filled with such indifference.
'Now, I'm stuck in RV, going who knows where with a person who hates me. I'm pretty much still in school, only now, there are just fewer people who can hate me,' he thought. 'Not that I'm surprised, only I can have such luck,' he thought as he unconsciously touched his unopened right eye with a soft grasp.
From there, he didn't know how long he had been staring up at the ceiling with depressing and self-profiling thoughts running through his head, but after about three or so hours an oddly familiar female voice broke him out of his thoughts.
"Ben! Get up, we're here!" the voice of Gwendolyn broke him of his thoughts.
He sat up with his hands resting on his head. He then grasped the black sheets that covered the sides of the bunk and pulled it the side, revealing Gwen with her arms crossed underneath her large bust, unknowingly pushing them upwards.
"Well?"
Ben looked at her impassively before he turned around and stood up. But, as soon as he stood up, a crack filled the air, prompting Gwen to slightly cringe. She looked down and saw Ben cracking his knuckles with his thumb.
"Can you stop?" Gwen requested. Ben hardly spared her a glance before another crack filled the air, getting yet another wince from the girl.
Just as she was about to retort, he waved a hand in front of her face dismissively. "Calm down, I'll stop," he brushed her off as he walked passed her.
Gwen stood there with a frown etching onto her features. 'He's as annoying as before… but in an entirely different way that I can't even begin to describe… and I've only had a one or two conversations with him.' Gwendolyn contemptibly thought as whirled around walked away, rapidly catching up to the teen's retreating form.
Ben stood up front in RV with Max with his normal lazy idled eye, "Why are we at a campsite?" Ben questioned curiously as he leaned against the fridge with his arms crossed.
Max quirked an eyebrow before he nodded at Ben's question. "It's where we're going to be staying at for the next couple of days. Call it a… introduction as to what's going to come," he grinned excitedly, hoping to excite his grandson as well.
Ben merely looked ahead, not showing any of the amount of the old man's excitement. "It's camping. Perhaps if I was five or ten years old, then I might have found this exciting. But, no… I feel robbed." Ben confessed, earning a short laugh from the old man at the teen's humor.
"Ah, Ben. Trust me, this will be fun. I'll stake my life on it!" The old man exclaimed with a broad smile, earning a dismissive snort from Ben. But he did a have small, near unnoticeable smile gracing his lips. Keyword, nearly.
Gwendolyn caught sight of the smile and grinned at potential blackmail material before she rapidly calmed down and her broad grin disappeared. The realization of how weird this moment actually was. So far, from the few short conversations the two had for the first time in nearly six years, she could easily say that Ben had changed drastically. Ben always used to smile, smirk and joke around while playing all types of pranks. But now, all he did was brood and look at you with that damn infuriating lazy eyed look.
Hell, the boy didn't even look at you with both of his eyes, that how insignificant he saw everyone as. Or at least that's what Gwen could deduce with only so much evidence.
Ben reached upwards and brushed some the snow-white strands of hair that was made up his spiky bangs that dipped in front of his eyes.
"Now, lets set up our campsite, shall we?" Max questioned as he stood up from the driver's seat and made his way over to the side door. He opened it and walked out with Gwen following closely behind, wanting to help as much as possible.
Ben, however, stayed inside a few minutes longer. 'This may be either the most boring night of my life… or possibly the most hectic drama-filled night of my life. Either one sounds shitty,' he thought as walked out of the RV, closing the door behind him.
He made his way over to the two who were already starting to build the tents. Ben looked at those two before he looked over to the rapidly setting sun. 'It's around 8:30, so I may as well go and get some firewood to start a fire,' he thought.
"Hey," Ben called out to his grandfather and cousin. The two stopped what they were doing and looked at Ben with a curious look.
"Yes, Ben?" Max questioned as wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead.
Ben looked at him for a moment before he turned his back and started walking over to the forest.
"I'm going to get some firewood. The sun's pretty much nearly set," he gestured up to at the rapidly setting sun.
Max frowned as he looked at where the sun was and nodded. Indeed, it was nearly set. "Alright, Ben… but take this with you," he stated as he pulled out a flashlight and tossed it to Ben, who quickly caught it.
Ben merely nodded in appreciation before he marched away, further disappearing into the forest only twenty or so seconds later.
\\\\\-/
30 Minutes Later
Ben trekked through the forest with multiple small logs of wood resting on his shoulders along with some smaller sized sticks that had some of the small branches broken off.
By now, it was mostly dark, and since he had no free hand or arm, he was basically walking in near complete darkness. Something that didn't phase him, if he was frank with himself. Plus, it was an excellent time for him to actually think.
'What am I even doing here?' he thought seriously as he walked over a berry bush. 'Seriously, I could be doing so many other things and yet, here I am, with my annoying cousin and my cheerful, yet mysterious grandfather,' he thought with a frown etching itself onto his face.
'I give her maybe two days before she starts acting like her normal self. Annoying, overbearing, nosy and most of all bitchy. Hell, if she was bad before she hit puberty, I can only imagine how bad she must be now.' he thought with as a shiver ran out through his body.
Just then, a loud bird shriek filled the air, just slightly catching his attention, as Ben turned his head to where he heard it come from.
About twenty feet away, on top of a thirty-foot tall tree, was a freaky looking hawk-like bird. It had weird, bright orange eyes and dark grey feathers along with a slightly long curved beak.
'Hmm, freaky bird,' he hummed to himself as he walked away, not really minding it.
The bird lightly cocked its head before it flew up into the air a powerful flap of its wings, blowing some of the leaves of the tree it was resting on. It flew high up into the night sky before it disappeared.
After walking through the forest, sometime about ten minutes later, he made his way back to the campsite with wood still lumbered onto his shoulders.
Max immediately noticed him right when he came into the large clearing but didn't say anything until he was in a reasonable range.
Once he got near them, he lightly set down the logs, alerting the orange haired girl as she was too deep in her book to even notice him until then.
She saw the logs and quickly stood up and set down her book to help.
"Here, let me give you a hand," Gwendolyn told him.
He looked at her with a look before he nodded in acceptance. With that, she made her way over to the logs that were on the ground, which were about six and she picked one up and immediately frowned at how heavy they were.
Gwen looked at with a wide-eyed look. "Holy hell… these are heavy, how did you carry six of them," she gasped before she carried it over to the circle of rocks Max and her built.
Ben heard the remark and frowned to himself but didn't say anything. He crouched down and picked up one in each hand and quickly carried it over to where Gwen had placed hers.
Once she finished placing hers, she noticed Ben carrying two of them in his hands with little to no signs of strain on his face or his arms, something she quickly noticed. She decided not to think about it at the moment and think about it later.
It only took a minute more to place all of smaller logs into the circled pit before Max pulled out some fire starting kit that had some weird green insignia, something that Ben caught, but thought nothing about it and began doing whatever.
Gwen didn't notice it, but Ben believed that something was familiar about it but decided to stop thinking about 'maybes' and just 'possibilities.'
After working on the wood, he dropped a lit match, and immediately a small ember caught flame and started burning the wood, in which started a low, steady growing fire.
Now that the fire was started, Gwen went back over to the large log that she was sitting previously before and grabbed her book.
Max went back onto his log as well, and he pulled a book as form his shirt pocket.
Ben, on the other hand just walked away and went over to the other side of the clearing, nearly fifteen meters away before he laid down with his hands resting behind his head.
He looked up at the moon and just stared, slowly finding himself getting lost in his endless pool of thoughts.
Gwen, from her spot on her log, frowned as she looked up from her book and saw Ben laying his back with his hands resting on the back of his head. Her frown got even larger when she had noticed far away he actually was.
She stood up and discarded her book onto the log before making her way over to Ben.
Due to the fact that he was too deep in his thoughts that were rattling and haunting his brain, he didn't notice, nor did he hear Gwen walk up from behind him. Gwen laid down right next to him, but she frowned once more when saw, that he was ignoring her. Well, at least that's what it looked like to her. The orange haired girl lightly tapped his side, bringing his attention from his thoughts to her.
"What?" he questioned without looking at her. He just continued to gaze up into the moon and the star-filled sky.
Gwen looked at him with her frown becoming even larger at his cold and detached attitude before replying. "I came here because you looked lonely," she responded, causing him to slightly grit his teeth, which totally went over her head.
"Did you ever think I wanted to be alone?" he questioned with a little hostility in his tone, which Gwen did get, but didn't let it deter her.
"I did, but I didn't like the fact that you appeared lonely and I thought maybe I could talk with you... you know, to elevate your loneliness," she responded with good intentions.
Her answer startled him, but that surprise let and was replaced with some frustration.
"I don't want you to try and help me. I don't need it, nor do I want it," he responded harshly, getting her to flinch internally at his cold tone. Ben continued to stare upwards, trying to quell his frustration. Slowly, confusion worked through him, but before he could privately question it, Gwen countered.
"But that doesn't mean I can't give or offer it," she responded in an adamant and fierce tone. She had no clue why he was acting so strange and cold. Maybe the Ben she knew and had over time come to accept was gone and he had changed?
"But that also doesn't mean you can butt into another's business. Especially when they've made it clear that it isn't welcome," he shot back in a calm, bored tone, expertly masking his oncoming confusion and anger.
Gwen bit her tongue from saying something rash and foolish and just sighed.
"Fine, but I'm staying," she relented but finished seriously.
He said nothing at first, but he too sighed. "Fine, stay if wish," he relented as well.
The orange haired beauty smiled in satisfaction as she looked up into the sky, enjoying the sound of crickets chirping in the background.
"Ben," Gwendolyn suddenly said.
"Hmm?" He lowly grunted.
"You know, if you ever want to talk or do anything, I'm here to listen," Gwendolyn told him with a soft genuine, caring smile on her face.
Ben's eye widened for a quick second before it settled down. He even caught sight of the smile she was wearing and how her eyes seemed so soft and caring. How she changed so much... he didn't know, but, he begrudgingly agreed that it felt rather... nice.
But, that was where he was confused about. He was A-okay ignoring and putting his parents on the back burner and flat out ignore them, but the second he heard this troublesome girl speak that way, deep down, he wanted to accept her company. But, of course, he didn't and shoved those feelings and desires down.
And so, they sat in silence for a portion of twenty minutes before Ben grunted and sat up. That alerted Gwen, who was thoroughly enjoying the peace and quiet and frankly didn't really want it to end.
Though, when she heard Ben grunt before he got up, she got a bit confused. "What're you doing?" she asked curiously, as she remained in the same position.
He merely spared her a sideways glance, "I'm going to take a walk," he told her gruffly before he walked away.
Gwendolyn stared at his retreating form with a quizzical look before he hummed to herself and continued laying down on the grass.
'He's so strange,' Gwen thought with a curious twinkle in her eyes.
\\\\\-/
Ben made his way through the forest with a lazy glint in his singular exposed eye. He gave a slight sigh of relief as he finally got some time to himself.
He searched around for a nice sturdy and big tree before sitting down with his back leaned against it. Ben reclined his backward onto it, not really minding as his scalp was slightly dug into by some flyway woodchips. He looked up into the sky with a peaceful look on his face, his emotionless and bored look fading away. Which was replaced with a small, barely noticeable smile.
It felt nice. The feeling of solitary and loneliness; something that he'd gotten so used to over the years. Something he had long since embraced, and after a while, he even started to enjoy it. After a while, he began focusing on the positives in which came with the loneliness and just concentrated on that. Mind you, that he never forgot about the bad or less satisfactory things that came with it, he just discarded those feelings as if they were unneeded and unappreciated. And so... after a while, they faded away and were replaced with easing calmness, peacefulness and the reassuring feel of quietness.
He was content with how had begun to feel.
Some might have disagreed and said that no such thing existed, but he just didn't care. He felt it and accepted it. There was not much else to it.
But, that didn't mean that those feelings didn't resurface. In fact, they had come back a lot, ever since he had gotten on that RV with his cousin and grandfather. Something that had puzzled him endlessly. And he was trying to figure out why, but every time he tried thinking of a conclusion, he was met with a dead end.
Just then, something sparked up in his peripheral vision. In the first few seconds, he thought nothing of it. But, when it rapidly resurfaced, nearly thirty or so times in the next five seconds, that got his attention.
Snapping his head over to where it was originating, his eye immediately widened in shock as something large was speeding towards him.
His shock evaporated as he narrowed his eye, 'It's as big as a tiny car and... it's on fire and speeding towards me at near- untraceable speeds. Well... fuck,' he thought as rolled out of the way, and it was out of pure reflex that he was able to dodge it, as it sailed right passed him only two seconds later.
Not even three seconds later, a loud screeching and crashing sound filled the air as the giant ball of fire collided with the ground, twenty meters behind him.
The force of impact, coupled with how big it was, created a large, nearly eight-foot deep crater. The, what looked like a large ball of flames plowed over dozens of large trees and a large rock.
Ben stiffly turned around, and his one opened eye widened once more at the site of the damage the incoming force displayed as it landed.
He walked forward slowly in a robotic fashion as took in the destruction that thing caused. Once he got close enough to the crater, he was able to see that it wasn't a large ball of flames... instead, it appeared to be a small grey spherical object that had steam burning from it.
Most likely from the flames, it was bathed in, Ben unconsciously assumed.
Unfortunately, his curiosity got the better of him as he got to close to the burnt ground, the outside of the crater and it looked like the ground was extremely weakened as the second he stepped on it, the damaged ground collapsed under him.
He reacted quickly and dug his opposite foot to the ground, steadying his fall, and it allowed him to slide safely to the bottom of the crater.
'What the hell is that? It looks like a... satellite. But, that couldn't be, right?' Ben thought seriously before something hit him. Metaphorically speaking of course. 'Wait, with its trajectory, and it's speed, along with that fact that it was on fire, it very well may have been from outer space!' Ben realized.
Unconsciously, he stepped forward once more, and once he got close enough, the top of the spherical object retracted while making a peculiar, low noise.
Seeing that, Ben immediately went on guard. But, something caught his attention. A soft, ominous green glow that slightly illuminated the rest of the interior of the satellite.
'It's not a satellite... it's a pod!' Ben further realized. Curiosity getting the overwhelming better of him once more, he took another step forward to get a better look and shockingly enough the green light got a little bit brighter as if it was reacting to his movements.
'Something's inside of it, but is it?' He mentally questioned to himself as he took another step forward. Once again, the floating, ominous glowing green light got even brighter.
'A gauntlet?!' He thought incredulously.
Not trusting his instincts, he reached forward into the pod, and as soon as his first finger entered the pod, the light glowed a brighter shade of green before it launched ahead and promptly latched onto his left wrist. Rapidly, the gauntlet-like object started leaking a black tar-like substance all way down to his left hand, completely covering it. Once was done spreading, his entire hand was covered entirely in a black metal-like tight fitting glove. It covered his whole hand where he couldn't even see a speck of skin.
Ben, out of reflex and instinct, jerked his hand back to try to evade the gauntlet latching onto his wrist, but he was far too late as it was already solidified and was tied secularly around his hand and wrist.
He immediately reached down to the watch with his opposite hand to try and pull it off, but shockingly enough, it didn't even budge. Not even a little bit. He even tried pulling off the solidified black metal glove off his hand and had no such luck.
After that, the cyclops teen then took a few steps back, apparently in shock and he was more than little freaked out about the entire incident that had transpired throughout a span of two minutes. Using a good amount of effort and agility, Ben jumped up and grabbed the edge of the top of the eight-foot-deep crater and quite easily pulled himself out of it.
He quickly jogged away from the crater for a few seconds before he got to suitable ways away from it before sitting down on one knee. He reached down to the dimly glowing watch.
Now that he was in a better, clearer light, he was able to clearly see what attached itself onto his arm. On top of the gauntlet was what looked like a dark grey circular dial which had a green hourglass shape. Below that, was a very dark grey, nearly black thin material, but that didn't go down for long as only an inch or so after and before that, was a thin black material. Right below the grey like a sleeve were two small quarter-sized green and black buttons on each side of the watch. Along with that, was four symmetrical, pure white tubing's going down from each side (1).
He lightly jolted his hand outwards, as if he was trying to fling thing off his wrist and hand. When that failed, he clenched his left fist hand, feeling as if the black substance was like a second skin, but felt cool, like nice and cold. But, not overwhelmingly so.
He gave a heavy sigh as he looked deeply at the center of the dial of the watch-like gauntlet.
"The hell did I do to deserve this?" he murmured, feeling as agitated as he's ever felt. However, the symbol on the dial of the gauntlet…
'Wait! That's the symbol that was on the package that my grandfather brought out to start the fire!' Ben realized as shock rattled through his bones and his stomach churned uneasily.
Stress burned at an all-time high as his brain worked a mile-a-minute to try and find a reasonable solution for it. 'Is – this watch and my grandfather connected somehow? If so, what is it doing here and on me none the less?' Ben rapidly questioned.
Ben placed his hands onto his head and breathed out a large breath, trying to regulate his emotions. 'Okay. The only way I'm going to get an answer is by asking him, as that's my only lead,' he thought very seriously, taking something seriously for the first time in quite some time.
And with that declaration, he made his way through the forest, being very stiff and on guard, which was so unlike him and on so many levels.
\\\\\-/
20 Minutes Later
Once Ben broke through the clearing, Max immediately noticed once more, but his oddly keen and knowledgeable eyes picked up on something weird about Ben. He'd known been to be a very lax, but a cynical person as well. Always being keen, but deceiving others to make them think he was stupid and unknowledgeable was Ben's specialty. Misleading people was just a large branch of the oak tree in which he as good at. But, it was the largest and most influential branch on that tree. It's been like that for nearly six years and at the moment, was only the second time he had seen Ben so stiff and self-conscious.
With all that known, he immediately knew something was wrong. But, something caught his eye only just after establishing that. A gauntlet-like watch on Ben's wrist/hand and… on that was a symbol.
The Plumber International Peace Sign, he quickly realized. 'No… something is dearly wrong,' he further frowned something that Gwen unfortunately caught.
Gwendolyn, who was back on her log in which she was previously sitting on before she had left to go join Ben. "Why're you frowning Grandpa?"
"Ah… nothing honey, here you're cousin back," he stated with a nervous bead of sweat dripping down his brow, while seemingly confused.
Gwen looked to her side, and indeed, there was Ben walking over to them, looking ever so slightly disturbed. While he was able to hide it well and make Gwen miss the majority, she was still keen enough to know something was wrong with the asocial teen.
Once Ben had made his way over to them, he spoke up in a serious tone, right before Gwen could even get a word out. "Grandpa, I need to speak with you," Ben gestured in a serious tone. But, before he could speak, Ben continued.
"Alone."
Max caught the severe and urgent spark of emotion in Ben's voice, and if he had to guess, it was about the thing on his wrist. "Gwen, please stay here. And here, if you get in trouble, shoot this upwards, and we'll know." Max told her as he fished out orange flare gun out of his pocket before handing to Gwen, who grabbed it with a semi-confused look on her face.
"Alright, Grandpa." she nodded in acceptance before Max gave her one last smile of appreciation before he and Ben walked into the forest. \\\\\-/
Once he and Ben thought they were far away to not be heard, Max started the conversation off by pointing to the gauntlet on Ben's arm.
"I assume this rare moment of seriousness is about that on your arm?" Max assumed, getting a stiff nod from the teen.
"I wouldn't have even told you if I didn't remember that the package you used to start the fire had the same insignia of this." Ben gestured to the weird device glowing on his arm.
Max bowed his head to get a better look at before he carefully grasped it with his hand. He then moved Ben's arm to get a better look at it. 'Could it really be 'that'? And if it is, why is the Omnitrix on my grandson's wrist and not in the hands of Azmuth?' Max thought seriously as he finished inspecting it.
'Did something happen to him? Did something or someone force him to send it away in hiding?' he thought with a dire expression on his aged face
"Ben… I'm going to be transparent with you on this." Max told him as he sat down on the grass and he patted the ground in front of him, gesturing the teen to sit with him. Ben complied as he sat cross-legged with hands resting on his knees.
"I may know what that device is… but I don't know for sure and for me to even begin to assume it is, I need proof that it is." He told his grandson, earning a slow nod from him.
"If this device is what I think it is, it's called the Omnitrix. A device of alien technology that holds near infinite power. It was built by the smartest man in nearly the entire Universe." Max explained, earning an abroad eyed look from Ben.
Ben sat rooted to his spot, completely confused and thoroughly shocked at was happening. He had a good feeling that whatever attached itself to his wrist was dangerous.
"But, I don't know if it is the Omnitrix. As the last time, I had seen the thing or heard of what the thing looked like, it looked smaller, more compact and it took the shape =of the center of the gauntlet, but it was in the form of a very bulky wristwatch." Max explained. "But, then again, the more I look at it, more the resemblance seems way too much for me to ignore."
"What do we do to find out if it is the Omnitrix and if it is the Omnitrix... what do we do with it?" Ben questioned, saying the last part more to himself. "I mean, you know this is the last thing that I want," he told his grandfather with a single eye glared.
Max sighed before he nodded. "The only thing we can-," his sentence stopped as he saw a bright red and orange flare shoot and illuminate the night sky.
Both saw the light, and both had the same, simultaneous thoughts.
'Gwen…'
Instantly, Max on his feet while looking at Ben, "Ben lets go!" He yelled as he took off into the forest at the fasted rate he could manage.
Ben wasn't that far off as he hopped to his feet right as the old man yelled and followed him to the clearing.
\\\\\-/
Once Max and Ben had gotten to the clearing, they immediately saw two weird looking robots hovering over Max's RV with nearly the entire Camp Site destroyed and littered with small yet spreading flames.
The RV was even spotting damages; however, it looked different as the entire RV was now covered by what looked like a space grey metal shroud that fortified it.
'Gwen must've found some of the defense buttons on the RV when she probably ran in there to escape those robots. And even then, it looks like its beginning to fail.' Max thought urgently. On instinct, he reached down to his left leg pocket but felt that it was empty.
'Damn, I don't have any of my Plumber Gear… so I'm practically useless.' Max thought with clenched fists.
However, a slight noise brought his attention to see fiddling with the watch that was forcibly attached to his arm. "Ben, don't!" He hurriedly tried to interject. But, surprisingly, Ben looked up and glared at him.
"You said it yourself, this thing has near infinite power, and you want Gwen safe, and no matter how much I hate her, you want her safe. I won't condemn her to death for something she did six years ago!" Ben told him a fierce glare.
Swallowing every ounce of revulsion down his throat as he accidentally pressed the two green buttons on both sides of the watch, causing the faceplate to lift up. Immediately after, the symbol on the watch changed into a large diamond shape and in the center was a large reptilian alien that had a long, foot and a half long horn on top of its head.
"Ben, wait!" Max gasped when he saw Ben reluctantly press down on the faceplate of the watch, creating a large, near blinding green flash of light to appear.
»»—Story Start—««
(1): Picture Ben the original Ben 10000's Omnitrix, just smaller. Also, picture the same black glove on Ben 10000's hand as well, but it's covering Ben's entire hand.