Chapter 3
Gwen was the first to awake the next morning. She opened her eyes with no sign of any lack of sleep even after last night's storm. In front of her, still wrapped in her arms, was Ben's bear. Once the furry stuffed animal was directly in her sight, a slight smile came to her face and a warm feeling in her stomach arose. After giving the bear one last tight, thankful squeeze, she began to maneuver off her bunk.
Trying to get off a top bunk without making any noise is definitely not the easiest thing to do. Each time Gwen would move a creak would sound off like an alarm. Finally, getting to the edge of the bed, she hopped down off the top. Her feet hit the floorboard making a soft thud, but nothing major enough to wake anyone else up.
As soon as she was standing on the firm floor of the Rustbucket, she realized something wasn't exactly right about the morning. It was definitely light outside, but there was absolutely no sunshine. Curiously, Gwen walked towards the bench-and-table setup and sat down – sliding across one of the benches to get closer to the window.
She moved the blinds aside and looked outward to the ocean water. Lightly tinted grey clouds covered every inch of the sky and rain softly fell from them. Luckily, all the thunderous noise and lightning had seemingly vanished over the night. The sun, which was probably rising behind it all, had absolutely no chance to shine with these barriers in its way.
Gwen had always liked the rain because of the noise it made, as well as the way the clouds would block out the sun. It wasn't that she didn't like the sun, but rather that it sometimes would give her headaches – especially in the afternoons. Honestly, she quite enjoyed the morning sun and the new day feel it brings; but each time the sunset starts she gets a feeling of nostalgia – missing the morning and dreading the end of a day.
"You know, I do want Furry Freddy back," a scratchy voice whispered into the gloomy, lightly-lit vehicle.
The suddenness of the break in silence made Gwen jump a little. Ben let out a chuckle and slid into the bench across from her. He looked out the window next to them and let out a heavy sigh.
"More rain? Man, come on."
"What? You don't like the rain?" Gwen asked with her signature expression of curiosity – raising one of her eyebrows higher than the other.
"Well, I do, it's just I don't like when it rains in the morning. It can rain all it wants in the afternoon and all night, but just not the morning. I think the mornings are the best time of day and all this rain is just ruining it." He put both of his hands on his face in a pouting gesture.
Gwen's eyes widened for a split second and then returned to normal. She never thought that Ben actually appreciated any part of a day. The fact that he did was amazing on its own; but knowing that he felt the exact same way about which part of the day he enjoys, left her speechless.
Two audible thuds came from just behind the two of them. They both turned around to see their grandpa getting out of bed.
"Morning kidos," he spoke while yawning and rubbing his eyes, "ready to get started on the day?"
"Yeah like we can do that while it's raining," Gwen said, putting her arms across her chest.
"It's a good thing I didn't have anything planned then. We'll be on the road for a good few hours."
"Hours?" Ben jumped in the conversation. "But Grandpa, we just got here."
"I know, but if we spend too much time in one spot we won't be able to see too many more places."
Ben knew his grandfather was right, as he always is. But he wished that he could just spend one more day here. Ben always liked the beach because of the way the ocean seemed so endless; full of possibilities and continuing for ever. To be honest, Ben quite enjoyed the rain at any time when he was near the beach. He liked the way it would cloud the viewing distance and make the waves go much higher. It was definitely more dangerous, but that just fueled his curiosity a bit more.
Suddenly, an idea hit Ben and he swore a light bulb was atop his head. If I just turn into Gray Matter and maybe 'break' something inside the RV then we would have to stay here another day, Ben thought. He now considered himself to be a genius, and imagined himself being praised at an expensive college.
"Uhh…I have to go…to the bathroom!" Ben spoke, heightening the sound of his voice at the end of his sentence.
Max and Gwen both gave each other concerned looks. Before they could even question Ben, he was off in a quick dash towards the built-in bathroom. Gwen opened her mouth to speak, but her voice was drowned by the sound of a door slamming shut.
Ben, feeling safe and secure in the little bathroom, looked through the aliens on his Omnitrix – turning the dial until the image of a small, bug-eyed alien appeared in the center. Before pushing down on the risen dial, he hoped that the green light wouldn't be seen outside the door.
Taking a chance, he pushed down hard on the dial and began his transformation. His whole body began to feel weird and tingle, as he lost size and a few of his human body parts. It was an interesting feeling, but he had done it enough times now to have gotten used to it.
Once his transformation into Gray Matter was complete Ben began to set his plan into action. He climbed on top of the white toilet and made a large leap up onto and air vent. Luckily, he was small and thin and was able to squeeze – just barely – through the vent blades. He was now in the air vents of the vehicle. Even though they weren't on, it was definitely freezing up there.
Ignoring the cold, he began to move in the direction towards the front of the Rustbucket. It was quite easy to reach the front, as there was only one way he could go. Taking a few more twist and turns he finally noticed that there was a distinct sound throughout the vents. A chill was sent down his spine, because he feared that his grandpa might have turned the air conditioner on. He sat still for a few moments and then realized it didn't sound anything like an air conditioner. It sounded like small, liquid drops were hitting the top of the vents. Rain, he remembered, it's just the rain.
Ben breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't in his plan to be blown around by a stronger-than-usual AC unit. Finally, he reached a small drop that slid down the side panel of the RV and dropped into the front dash board. He jumped down the chute and landed in the perfect spot to get a view of what was going on inside the vehicle.
Peering through a small front-dash vent, he saw that his grandfather was making something on the stove – which would need another ingenious plan to avoid – and Gwen was on her laptop. Good, he thought, nobody suspects anything.
Now, knowing for sure that he was unnoticed, he moved forward into the vehicle just a little more. Finally, after going through a maze of equipment, he found something that would make sure they stayed here for at least another day. An oil tether stretched from the engine onto some weird container.
Using the mind he acquired from being Gray Matter, he started to analyze and disable the correct areas of the tether.
"Okay, now all I have to do is disconnect the fuel transporting unit from its source. That way, it won't attempt to spew oil all into the hood and ruin the rest of the equipment down here," the voice of Gray Matter spoke to no one in particular.
As soon as the job had been done, Ben knew that he wouldn't be able to stay in his alien form for much long. So going back the way he came was definitely not an option. Quickly, once again using Gray Matter's mind, he decided that the best plan of action would be to come out of the dash-vent and move his way back to the bathroom. There he could safely transform back into his human self.
Ignoring his building ego, he rushed back to the front dash board from the inside of the hood and squeezed his way through the vent blades – which were much tighter than the ones by the ceiling. After a bit of struggling, and almost being seen by Max, he plopped onto the floor. Regaining his posture from before the long fall, he scurried across the floorboard like a mouse running for its life. Careful not to hit anyone's feet, he ran as fast as Gray Matter's little body would let him. He was only half way to the bathroom door when two dire things happened. He realized that he wouldn't be able to get into the bathroom because he couldn't reach the doorknob or go through the bottom crack. He also took a heavy note on the fact that the Omnitrix was beginning to blink red.
"Oh man, not now," Gray Matter's squeaky voice pierced the air – which Ben now realized was a mistake. Quickly, he darted to behind one of the benches attached to the wall of the RV.
"Gwen, did you hear something?" Max stopped cooking and turned towards Gwen at the table.
"No, did you?" she replied, not looking up from the computer screen.
Ben's grandfather didn't immediately return to cooking the bitter-smelling food and looked around the room.
Come on, and I thought old people couldn't here that well, Ben thought in annoyance.
After giving the room a quick sweep with his eyes, Max decided that it must have been the wind blowing against something loose outside. Just as soon as he had stopped, he was back to cooking.
Making one final dart for the room where the two cousins slept, Ben rushed across all odds and was just about to make it into the sanctuary of their room when he felt a familiar sensation of tingles and the feeling of missing body parts returning to him.
The transformation back into his human self was quick and brief. As soon as he was sure that it was over, he made one final dive into the back room – making a loud crashing noise as he hit a couple of things on the way in.
The noise startled both of his family members in the other room. Gwen and Max both walked over to the room to find out what was going on.
Cautiously, Max spoke into the room without actually going in. "Ben? Is that you in there?"
It took a moment for a reply to be made, but eventually Ben spoke to reassure them. "Yeah, it's me Grandpa. I was just playing…Sumo Slammers and trying a new roll-and-tackle move." He choked on the hideous lie, as it was plainly a bad one.
Max squinted his eyes in suspicion, but eventually let the feeling subside. "Well, okay, but be careful." With that, he retired back to the stove.
Gwen, still standing in the doorway looking at her cousin lying on the ground covered in his own laundry, said, "And here I thought another alien was attacking us."
"Well we didn't get that lucky." Ben got up, shaking the laundry from his shoulders, and tried to go out into the main room but Gwen blocked his path.
"Are you going to move?" he asked, trying not to sound all too offensive.
"Not until you tell me what you were really doing," the orange-haired girl crossed her arms, an obvious sign she was determined to get the answer out of him.
"What are you talking about? I told you I was doing some new Sumo Slammers trick."
"Uh huh, sure you were. You expect me to believe that?" Not allowing him to respond, she put a finger on his chest and pushed him back on his bunk bed. Taking a hold of both his wrists, she pinned him down onto the bed while continuing to stand next to it.
"Hey let go! It's not like I did anything wrong."
"If you didn't do anything wrong then why do you have a problem telling me?"
Not answering her, Ben watched as his grandfather sat in the driver's seat and put the key in the ignition. He watched eagerly, hoping that he didn't cause anything fatal to the RV and that his plan would work.
His hopes soared when he heard the sound of the key turning and then engine trying to start up, but in the end failing. Ben couldn't help but let a smile come across his face.
Gwen, now understanding what her cousin did, returned the smile. "You…?"
"Yep," he spoke, cutting her off.
This chapter was supposed to include quite a bit from my next one, but I decided that it is taking me to long to update. So I am going to release this one to hold you over. I would update a lot more frequently if I actually had my own computer. I used to…but I uh…made it explode. I do plan on getting another one in a few months. *Spoiler* - The next chapter will introduce the infamous 'problem' in all stories.
Also, please PM or leave in a review, any grammatical errors you spot. I didn't have too much time to reread this one.
