Chapter 2: Trade


"Gwen I'd like you to meet E, he has been dealing in alien technology and weaponry for over ten years."

Gwen smiled a bit and stayed close to Kevin's side, something about the man standing across from her made her feel uneasy. "So do you have what I asked for?" Kevin asked keeping his eyes on the man.

Nodding his head E motioned for the two teens to follow him farther into the maze of wooden crates. "So who's the girl anyway?" E asked glancing back at Gwen for a moment as they kept walking.

"She's my girlfriend" Kevin responded putting his arm around Gwen pulling her close for protection. Even though he had been trading with E for close to three months he still didn't trust the man.

E stopped walking at looked at the two teens behind him and motioned toward a large crate.

"Before I hand over any of this I want to see what I'm trading" Kevin said crouching down and absorbing the concrete of the floor. Moving over to the crate he ripped the top off to examine the contents.

Gwen looked past Kevin at the older man and watched him. "Gwen… I'll be right back I'm going to get my car" Kevin said as the group headed back to the entrance. Kevin went outside to his car leaving Gwen and E alone.

"May I ask why you go by just E?" Gwen asked looking at the older man leaning against a large wooden crate.

E looked at the girl "For protection, I got a lot of people looking to find me and becoming a black market tech trader is pretty dangerous so going by a single letter is the safest thing in the world." E remarked hitting the button for the large door to open and let Kevin into the warehouse with his car.

E walked off to where Kevin had parked and started to look at the tech in Kevin's trunk. Standing beside Kevin the older man looked at the gear in the trunk. "You know that girl of yours is quite a catch.' E remarked picking up a few things and looking them over.

"It's all in good condition I made sure of it, there might be a few singe marks on a couple things since they were still be used when I acquired them." Kevin said leaning against the trunk of his car.

Looking over the weaponry and large pieces of technology scattered around the trunk E looked at Kevin. "How long are you going to keep up this good guy façade anyway? You and I both know that you want to get back to following your own rules. Why don't you join me and be my partner; you're quite the asset to have around on a job, especially if a deal goes bad." E said smirking.

Kevin looked at the older man "I don't know, I'll have to think about it…It's quite an offer" Kevin said looking down into the trunk of his car. The truth of the matter being that he had been wondering about that same topic just the other morning.

What am I going to do, I mean after were done fighting aliens what else is there for me to do… other then ending up back in the Null Void Kevin thought as he finished his trading with E and started to pack up his new tech into his car
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Making sure that E and Kevin were out of sight Gwen slipped off and found an old office, Gwen looked over her shoulder before slipping into the office and shutting the door. As she looked around Gwen started to go through sheets of paper and open files on the desk. Pulling her cell phone out of her pocket Gwen started to photograph many of the files.

Pulling the middle drawer open Gwen found something interesting, taking a picture she closed the drawer and left the office. By the time she reached Kevin's car he was loading the last of his new alien technology into the trunk of his car. Gwen quickly took a candid photo of E before he noticed. Putting her phone away Gwen got into the car and waited for Kevin to finish up.

Kevin looked at the man and nodded his head before getting in his car. "Well this went better then I even planned, I was even able to get some cash as well." Kevin remarked starting his car up and driving off back to Bellwood.

Gwen looked out the window as the scenery sped by "Kevin how well do you know that guy?" she asked glancing over at her boyfriend.

"Well I actually don't know anything about him, that's the thing about these black market traders. They keep to themselves to protect family they might have or they just don't want to be bothered." He answered as he kept his eyes on the dirt road until they came to the highway again.

When they got home Kevin parked his car in front of Gwen's house. "Gwen, I got you something as well." He said grabbing a small metal box and handed it to his girlfriend. "Turn the key" he said softly.

Gwen turned the key a few times, soon a harmonizing soft tune started to float out of the box.

"Kevin this beautiful, thank you" she said leaning over and kissing Kevin on the cheek. "You are so sweet; you really are one of the best guys I've ever known." Gwen remarked as she opened the car door. "I'll see you soon Kevin" Gwen said getting out and waving at Kevin a couple times as she headed into her house.

Kevin smirked as he took off and headed back to his place to add the new alien weaponry he got to his car's defenses.

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After four weeks of working on his car Kevin finally finished installing the new tech in his car. He smirked as he polished his car for the tenth time. "It still looks great even after everything it's been through" Kevin said looking over his shoulder at Gwen and Ben as the lounged in lawn chairs.

"You know if you keep obsessing over your car then Gwen might just get jealous" Ben said enjoying the day off from school and alien hunting. Things are going well; the DN Aliens haven't been real problem lately." Ben said sipping on a peach smoothie.

Kevin looked at Ben "Just because we haven't noticed anything doesn't mean they aren't doing something." Kevin said tossing the rag aside and taking his seat on the open lounge chair next to Gwen.

Gwen sipped her peach smoothie and thought for a moment "There is something really unsettling lately in the air I don't know how to put it but I think we should keep an eye out for any activity no matter what." She said looking at the two boys beside her.

"Like some kind of woman's intuition or something?" Kevin asked calmly looking at his girlfriend.

Smirking, Gwen laughed softly "I'm not sure really, it's just a feeling that something big is going to happen. I don't just mean an overflow of DNAliens but bigger" she said putting her drink down in the cup holder.

Ben laughed "There is no need to worry, I can handle anything that comes our way, remember I'm the one with the Omnitrix" he said showing his watch off.

"Yeah but you also have the biggest ego out of all of us as well" Kevin said lying back against the lounge chair laughing.

Gwen covered her mouth and started to laugh as well at her cousin. "Don't take it too hard Ben, let's not forget that you always won against Kevin when we were kids… well in the end." She said giggling.

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"It's been quite some time since I was back here, this place seems like the best place to set up base" the alien said looking around the newly constructed base hidden in the center of a outcrop of rocks that shielded the alien built creation from all human view.

Moving around the base at quickened pace the alien waved his arm summoning over one of his followers. "What of Ben Tennyson, had you been able to locate him or the Omnitrix yet?" he asked looking at the minion beside him.

"We have begun searching for him sir and the Omnitrix, but we haven't found anything yet." the minion said scurrying off avoiding his master's arm from crashing into him.

Watching his minion run the alien growled and looked out the vast window that stretched across the entire bow section of the control room. The view was dismal; the landscape of earth was drab and lifeless. "I don't want excuses; I want him found before I turn you all into a pile of useless scrap metal." He said hearing his lower minions running around trying to get a fix on Ben or the Omnitrix's location.

Waiting for some time a minion slowly came up behind his master "Sir we have finally located Ben Tennyson, he is fifty earth miles from our current location. Shall we send a small collection party after him?" the minion asked staying back very far.

"Send them and tell them not to come back without him or don't ever come back at all" the large alien said walking off to be alone to his thoughts.

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After two hours of sitting in the hot sun the trio moved inside to avoid the hottest part of the day. Kevin cleared a spot on the dilapidated old couch that sat against the wall of the room. The entire room was filled with old car parts and a laundry basket filled with rags covered in oil and were piled up on the coffee table.

Gwen rolled her eyes at the mess, she liked Kevin but everywhere he ordered take out he would leave empty cartons everywhere for weeks.

More recently the oil and grease covered rags from rebuilding his car seemed to be popping up all around his house, most of the time in oddest places. "I thought you said you were going to wash those rags today?" Gwen asked pointing at the wicker laundry basket that was straining to keep its shape.

Kevin looked over and shrugged his shoulders "I've been busy, I'll do it later" he said tossing an old fan belt onto the pile of trash by the door.

Ben squeezed by the pile of trash looked at the room around him "geez Kevin, this place is a dump." He said plopping down on the couch and groaned a bit as he pulled a broken piece of radiator out from under him.

"Who keeps this kind of stuff on the couch?" Ben asked tossing the scrap metal across the room toward the pile of junk.

Looking at the younger teen Kevin sighed "instead of just standing here and commenting on how I keep house lets beat the heat somewhere else. Like that fishing spot we went to before." The older teen said as he headed for his bedroom to grab his suit and the one that Ben had left there the last time he was over.

Smiling Gwen nodded her head "that's a perfect idea, you two just hurry up and get changed, I'll call Julie so Ben doesn't get lonely" Gwen teased pulling her cell phone out and dialing Julie's number and waiting for her to pick up. "Hey Julie, we were going to go swimming and Ben wants you to come along but he's too nervous to ask you" Gwen said as she started to run when Ben tried to take the phone from her.

Julie laughed softly "of course I'll go swimming with you guys, tell Ben I can't wait. I'll see you guys when you get here" she said before hanging up and getting her stuff ready and changing into her suit.

As the trio headed back outside Ben scooted ahead and got into the back seat "Wow, new seats too you really went all out didn't you" Ben remarked sticking his head between the two front seats.

Kevin chuckled "What can I say; a rebuilt car deserves new seats. Can you believe that I found these seats in mint condition out of another nineteen seventy Charger that was just left at that warehouse that E works out of he said it had been sitting there for a while so I could salvage as much as I needed from it."Kevin said acting like a little kid who just got a bag of candy. "I mean the whole car looks like it just rolled off the assembly line, and E said I could have the parts no charge." He added running his hand over the driver seat.

Gwen sat in the passenger seat and looked at Kevin as he climbed in and sighed as he sat back against the new driver's seat. Starting up the car Kevin pulled out of his garage and drove off to Julie's house, when they got there Julie climbed into the back seat beside Ben. "I like the new seats Kevin, they are really cool."She said as she buckled up and pulled her bag onto her lap.

Driving off down the road the newly rebuilt car took corners like a dream and stopped on a dime at every stop sign and light perfectly till they reached the secret fishing spot that Grandpa Max always went to.

Getting out of the car Kevin pulled his shirt off and absorbed the metal from his car. "Ben check this out" Kevin yelled as he ran forward and did a massive cannon ball into the water.