Not a great chapter, but here's chapter 2

Chapter Two

Two weeks. He had been attempting to train incompetent idiots for two weeks.

*Shoot me,* Ben thought. *Shoot me now. Please!*

He sighed, flopping down in a chair in the cafeteria of the DexLabs building they were using. With so many people in the building, the cafeteria was pretty much just one floor almost completely open with a kitchen and a whole bunch of tables. Ben allowed himself to fall forward until his head hit the table with a semi-loud bang!

"You okay, Ben?" Hoagie Gilligan, Numbuh Two of the KND, asked, sitting down with a tray of food.

Rex sat down a moment after. "Seriously, you don't look so good."

Numbuh Five sat down also, followed by Juniper Lee.

"Training new recruits," He said shortly. He instantly got four groans of sympathy. All of them had been there before. "It's been a rough two weeks."

"Hold up. You been workin' with them for two weeks? The same kids?" Abby asked incredulously. Ben nodded.

"I get stuck with the idiots who are apparently allergic to following directions, so our training weapons are plastic swords, wooden swords, toy lightsabers, water guns, and Nerf guns."

This received a few laughs.

"Sad thing? I'm serious."

The laughs stopped.

Sighing again, Ben lifted his head and looked at his table-mates. "Aside from the training, it's still been a rough two weeks."

They all nodded, agreeing silently. In the past two weeks, Buttercup, the green-clad Power Puff Girl, had gone missing, they were still missing about fifteen kids who had been sent to the future, Cyril and Zara were still missing, Ray and Cody had gone missing while on a mission, along with about six kids from Ben's hometown, and neither Kevin nor Gwen nor his grandpa had reported in for nine days.

All in all, this ended up leaving the brunette fraught with worry. And, to make matters worse, Grandpa Max wanted him to try and get to know Dexter, the Boy Genius who worked on inventions in his laboratory all day, ordering everybody else to keep out.

Most of the people there had never seen Dexter before. Ben and Dexter had met a few times before (Ben's grandpa's idea), but they hadn't exactly clicked with each other. Dexter was scientifically driven. Ben was smoothie-tifically driven.

Their most recent encounter ended with Ben being thrown out of the lab by Dexbots after stubbornly entering, getting kicked out, and re-entering the lab about sixteen times while Dexter was trying to do an experiment.

And why was he so persistent? He left his smoothie in the lab the first time he was kicked out and kept trying to go back and get it. The final result: Ben managed to retrieve his smoothie, but when he was thrown out (literally) by the Dexbots, it spilled all over him.

"I gotta go," Ben sighed, standing up and walking toward the elevators. As much of a pain as he was sure this was bound to be, he couldn't help but grin to himself. Despite this always being an overall pain, he always made it more of a pain for Dexter than himself, making it entertaining for himself in the long run.

Ben glared at the keypad. *Why does he change the code every three days?* He brought his com unit up to his mouth. "Dex? Code, please…"

He heard an irritated sigh and inferred (correctly) that he was not one of the people Dexter was currently most keen to see.

"C'mon, Dex, if I don't at least try to get along with you, Grandpa's not gonna let me live to see my eighteenth birthday…" That wasn't a lie.

"Fine. It's 5847.628." Dexter said after thinking for a moment on whether or not to let him in or let him get into trouble. What had caused him to make his decision was the knowledge that Professor Utonium wouldn't let him live to his sixteenth birthday if he didn't try to get along with Ben.

Ben punched in the numbers before Dexter could change the code on him (because he had done this before). The doors opened and he walked in, carrying a smoothie with him, as always.

For reasons that neither Ben nor Dexter could fathom, people who knew that the boys didn't get along referred to their constant bickering as sibling rivalry. The boys, however, insisted that, no, they just hated each other.

Ben sipped his smoothie as he wandered over to Dexter's work station and looked over the redhead's shoulder. "Whatcha workin' on?"

"New adaptations for the Null-Void technology. Your grandfather confirmed that it will work against the approaching Planet Fuse," Dexter said shortly.

"How'd he confirm it?"

"Remember the prototype he took to the Plumers?" Dexter asked, not looking up from his work. "It disrupted the biological make-up of the creatures. It'll work. They tested it when the enemy attacked Neptune."

"Planet Fuse attacked Neptune already?"

Ben was shocked and almost dropped his smoothie. According to the timeline established by Dexter and Professor Utonium, that shouldn't have happened for at least two more months. That meant that Planet Fuse would reach Earth earlier than originally thought.

"We have to speed up training for the new recruits."

Dexter half-glared at Ben out of the corner of his eye. "Are you going to stand there and chatter all night, or are you going to at least attempt to make yourself useful?"

Ben returned the glare, before grabbing an extra wheeled chair that was nearby. "Fine. What do I do?"

Dexter blinked. He had expected Ben to leave, not sit down and actually want to help. "…I am not sure what you could do. You are not exactly experienced in inventing. Or creating and building the technology I do."

Ben shrugged. "So? Teach me."

"Fine. Hand me that wrench. And get rid of the smoothie before you spill it on something."

"No way. I'm not getting rid of the smoothie."

"Get rid of it."

"No."

"Get rid of it, or get out."

"But -"

"Just do it."

"…Fine…I didn't even get halfway through with that one…" Anybody who saw Ben at the moment would've laughed at him, because the brunette was actually pouting. "I really don't like you right now."

"The feeling's mutual."

At about three in the morning, Professor Utonium came down to the lab to check on Dexter and Ben. This was mostly because Ben had gone down at around three in the afternoon, and had yet to return to the upper floors. When he had noticed this, he decided that it may be a good idea to see what they were doing, since the boys' mutual dislike of each other was well known even to those who had never seen either of them.

Professor Utonium stepped out of the elevator and approached the closed, heavy doors to Dexter's laboratory and swiftly punched the code into the keypad. Walking in, he headed toward Dexter's usual work station. Once in sight of the boys, the Professor stopped midstride and couldn't help but smile.

Dexter and Ben were both slumped forward, arms and heads resting on the work table, both fast asleep and oblivious to Utonium's presence. Apparently, they had managed to be civil with each other long enough for the both of them to fall asleep.

Dexter was still, save for his breathing, glasses askew and half off of his face. He had his arms folded, head resting on his arms, still loosely clutching a wrench in his hand.

Ben was muttering in his sleep. He turned his head, and there was an imprint of the Omnitrix on the now-showing side of his face, since he was also using his folded arms as a pillow and had been resting the left side of his head on his left wrist.

Rather than wake them, the Professor turned and left, smiling to himself. Maybe there was hope of the boys being friends, after all.

-
I know this chapter's not that great, but oh, well.