A/N: Review Replies
Avenger2003: Hey! Thanks for reviewing again, glad that you considered this good enough to favorite. I hope you enjoy the story going forward, but as it turns out I've decided to keep the title the same, at least for now. Thanks for your input.
Story Recommendation: Congratulation to this weeks recommended story! Legend of Lin by Leia Rayn Storm, a Legend of Korra fic that's TenzinXLin, now shamefully I haven't caught up completely yet, but up to chapter 49~ I whole heartedly recommend this wonderful fic!
Uploading a little earlier than I planned, but since chapter five is about 28% done, and Monday will be here in a little less than two hours, I'll just upload this now. Let me know what you thought at the end! Okay!
Enjoy!
June 7th, 2005: 23:30
With a solemn look his green eyes cast a tired gaze over the murky surface of the water. Both hands rested in his pockets, and his hair was still tied back in a loose ponytail. His aggravation coming from the fact that he'd not gotten very far with unlocking other forms from then watches' evil clutches. He could see them now, Wildvine, BigChill, Rath, all just out of his grasp. His tired gaze skimming the distance, the moon over head fighting to provide even what little light it could with the sky as cloudy as it was. He turned his gaze over his shoulder as his suspicion proved correct, the dweeb queen herself was tip-toeing down the dock to him, no doubt hoping to push him into the drink, but unfortunately for her...a decade of drawn out war and constant fighting does wonders for your paranoia. Her smirk changed gear instead becoming a wide smile. Her body still ready to push him into the stew and run for the safety of grandpa. But he liked this shirt and his hair already took too long to dry from his shower not twenty minutes ago.
"Get me wet, and no person alive could keep me from getting you back." Ben offered jauntily as he passed by her and moved to the rust bucket. He'd gone all day with an hour of sleep and half a cup of coffee. He'd need at least four to five hours to function in the morning.
As he stepped up and made his way inside he caught his grandpa Max fiddling with the knobs of his radio, the G.P.S screen showing static for a second before it shut off. Ben knew that Max had probably found out about something being in the plumber base in Mount Rushmore, but as long as he wasn't confronted about it he wouldn't make his grandpa sweat.
"Oh! Ben, I thought you were going to go for a swim."
It took a lot of self control not to scoff at the horrible redirection. Trying to distract the curious only made them curiouser. Fortunately he already knew why his grandfather was being this way and disregarded it. He may know, but Max didn't know that he knew, and Gwen didn't even have the first inkling if a clue yet. So he'd leave it as is. Bedsides. It's not like it was secret to tell...not like he didn't have plenty himself. He realized too late he'd just been staring for a solid minute as all this went on in his head.
"Uh, no. Figured there'd be time for tomorrow. Besides, I'm looking forward to every second of sleep I can bleed from tonight." Ben said as he collapsed into his bunk. His head touching the pillow milliseconds before he drifted into unconsciousness.
Max stared up at the lightly snoring boy and sighed, he was glad that he was getting actual sleep tonight, he hadn't shown it, but the last night or two when he'd woken up for water or bathroom breaks he'd caught the over regulated breathing if his grandson and realized the boy was awake. But something about the stiffness to his shoulders or the way he'd act when he was up and about seemed to keep him from asking, if even just barely.
The door opened again and in walked Gwen, huffing, her shaking body getting a rise from him as he rushed over. His hands falling to her shoulders in a second, without a thought he pulled her into a hug and patted her back.
"Gwendolyn, darling, what's wrong?"
She shivered slightly as she tried to pull him closer, "a-a-a m-mo-monster...I-I s-saw one…" She stuttered out and before he realized it Ben was placing a calm hand on her shoulder.
"Oh yeah? Think whatever you saw out there has anything on me, myself, or I?"
Max noticed her shivering coming to a stop as she looked up at the confident grin of the boy, he had to question just when Ben had woken up later when he was less hyper focused on Gwen and what had given her a fright. She scoffed and stood up by herself and moved over to the bathroom door, if he wasn't standing there, his hearing a good bow as it was twenty years ago, he wouldn't have believed it. But she did in fact mutter those words.
"Thanks Ben."
Before closing the bathroom door and letting the lock engage with an audible click. Ben ribbed the back of his head, remembering to undo the ponytail he was sporting now, before falling back into bed.
With the knowledge that his precious granddaughter would be alright he went to work setting up his bed, which involved removing the latch on the table to lower it down before rolling out a very comfy futon over it so he could lie down and snore the night away.
June 8th, 2005: 07:12
Gwen set up her folding chair. After Max had spring the news of chartering a boat to go on a nice fishing trip, she had rightly declined knowing all too well what was residing within these waters and would feel a hundred times better on shore reading and absorbing some sunlight. Ben considered passing on the trip too. But decided that if whatever water locked beast from the depths resides in this watery hellscape he couldn't very well permit his grandpa Max and some poor civilians to head out without his aid. So he resigned himself to the trip.
"So...think we'll catch dinner out here?" Ben offered as they waited for their boat to pull up.
Max gave the boy a hopeful smile, while he had intended to make roasted sheep's tongue for dinner, he supposed if they caught something he wouldn't mind frying up some fresh fish.
As they began chatting about the best way to cast a line, bait the hook, reel in the catch, and other such fishing talk, their chartered boat pulls up, and their gray haired captain steps out from the canopy of his driving cover to wave them on. His stubble covered chin, overgrown sideburns, bright red hat with the generic 'Monster Hunter' on it in stylized fonts.
"What're ya' waitin' on? A formal invite? Get on already."
Max shrugs at the commentary putting it aside, his better judgment telling him to simply ignore the mannerisms of the rude man, though that doesn't stop Ben from nudging Max to get his attention.
"Classy guy, yeah?" Ben offered with a grin hoping into the boat.
For the first hour or so everything seemed calm until Ben stumbled across Captain Shaw's diving set up.
"You do lake floor tours gramps?" Ben asked observing the near pristine condition of the equipment, even with the tell tale marks of use.
The man guffawed, as if the mere idea was so laughably dumb that it didn't merit a proper response. Until he caught sight of the young Tennyson's eyes. Their gazes connected for little more than a minute, seconds at best, but Shaw saw it. The capability to comprehend the uncomprehending.
"I use it to scour the lake. There's a monster down there. I call er' the Kraken."
"You know it's gender?" Ben asked leaning against the boats railing, he wasn't in any rush to take on some lake monster, especially one he didn't have any clue about.
"Aye, I've spotter the beast more than a few times. I got this feelin' about it." He said while patting his gut.
Ben nodded at that before looking back over the murky water, his gaze travelling dar until it reached the distant docks. Many of the other locals and tourists had claimed the prime spots on the dock for their diving, land fishing, and whatnot, but his brightly haired cousins had planted her chair firmly on the shore by the rust bucket. It was almost enough to make him snort.
"You got any clue of the general area this kraken of yours likes to cling to? Or are you still stabbing at the dark?" Ben asked.
"Course I know. But she's a tricky one. Always just out of reach."
Ben nodded before tossing a look at Max, "think you could show us? It's sure make it a fishing trip to remember. Imagine little ol' me catching the big catch?" Ben laughed the thought.
Captain Shaw crossed his arms and snorted at the idea before turning to the controls.
"Why not, might be the day I drag her fat arse to land." Captain Shaw chortled as Max scoffed at the language being used in front of his impressionable grandson.
On shore: 08:14
Droplets of water began to soak her shirt sleeve and pants leg, and thanks to her quick reaction she spared her book the same fate. Her brows tugged down to better frame her face with a scowl that she would need to direct soon enough, her head rose and her eyes looked for the perpetrator, but stopped as a white towel was held out to her.
"Sorry about that." The voice of her offender wasn't soft or even overly sweet, and the look on her face didn't portray someone being apologetic, her stance didn't convey much either, she looked more like a display mannequin standing there in her one piece dull red swimsuit that perfectly matched her lithe form and well tanned skin, rather than a person trying to apologize. But Gwen took the towel regardless, the bit of water that landed on her skin was cold anyway.
The offender looked away as Gwen rose to towel herself off, her dazzling, in her own humble opinion, blue eyes landed in the hard back cover of the newest science fiction thriller epic by Mary Sue Potts.
"Your a fan?" Gwen asked the girl catching her staring at her copy of 'The Saturn Odyssey' the sixth book in the wonderfully fictional world created by Mary.
The girl scoffed, as if being a fan of something or someone claiming she was a fan of anything was a personal insult. Though the way she hesitated to shoot down the claim or deny the statement at all had Gwen thinking she was right on the money.
"Well...I won't deny that she has talent." The girl said.
"Right, well, I'm Gwen." She three out, maybe a tad hopeful, Mary Sue Potts might've been a great writer, but she had more of a cult following than anything. It was stupid that such a great writer could go unknown for so long, thankfully having a laptop with decent connection, theory some percent of the time, allowed her to roam the forums if devout fans and discuss the books with them, but having someone in real life that really cared about these stories would be even better!
"Gwen huh, I would have assumed Stephanie...no matter. I'm Mandy."
Gwen smiles at that. Self pretentious? Most likely. A snob? Possibly. But a girl who was a fan of Mary Sue Potts? She was certainly.
"Want to come inside?" Gwen asked motioning to her grandfather's mobile home, "I have the whole collection, I'd love to talk about it."
Mary inclined her head toward a nearby deluxe R.V before shrugging and following Gwen inside.
On the Lake: 08:26
Their boat began pulling up to the marked area that Shaw had on his map, before they were unceremoniously stopped by the frantic waving of the arms of one crew mate from another boat.
Shaw slowed the boat by cutting back on the throttle and let drift to their side.
"Hey, your gonna have to turn around, we've quarantined this area of the lake to conduct research."
Max and Ben shared a look, inside of whether or not to let Shaw so the talking. The hat wearing captain of their vessel stepped forward with a challenging step.
"And just who're you to close off bits of the lake?"
A different man came up, a more confident looking gentleman that was well groomed, had dark skin, and a smile that could makes a trash can feel less grime ridden.
"I'm Jonah Melville, founder of Friends of Fish, we've closed it down to conduct research, I hope you can understand."
Shaw grumbled to himself as he was basically just told in a fairly polite way to go screw off since he didn't have an organization at his back. Irritably the captain revved the boats motor before getting the group away from the organization. The two Tennyson's shared a look, one of distrusts for the group claiming to be friends if anything, and the other, being Max, with a tired look of things interrupting his relaxing summer with his grandkids.
Ben, not willing to open a can of worms with Max, literally, turned to peer into the water, before jumping back at the sight of the massive shadow, his ears seemed to burn as he heard the soft chime from the watch. His gaze moving to it instantly to catch it flash yellow for a second. His smirk splitting his face as he turned the dial twice, putting that DNA download on the back burner as he flipped through the watch to find one of his only two water oriented aliens. Smirking as he landed in Ripjaws he waved to his grandfather before jumping into the water with a flash of green.
Only to paddle erratically when he became XLR8 instead.
"What?! Agh! You stupid watch!" He hissed as he let his face plate come down and began to build up his kinetic stream. It took a minute or two but he was on the surface of the water making waves as he ran over to the F.o.F boats. The massive monsters head came poking out of the water, from it's ovaluar mouth it had two long tentacles with spiky protrusions on one end. The water around them was clear enough for Ben to catch sight of its lower body. It was long and had forelimbs and hindlimbs, both with webbed appendages at the end and a long tail reminiscent of a tadpole.
It's large forelimb can down and smashed one of the boats in two, Ben didn't bother trying to fool himself into believing the kid who got caught under its paw was even remotely alive still. With a sigh he rushed forward toward the still extended limb and ran up it until he reached its head where he leaned back onto his tail and used his super speed to deliver a barrage of intense kicks.
The kraken roared, shaking its head, and in the process of shaking off its assailant, before it dove back into the water. The falling Kineceleran spun in mid air fast enough to create enough extra tension in the surface of the water to not fall through before running over to Jonah's ship. His face tempered to hold back a scowl as he looked at part of the sinking ship. The bodies floating in the water weren't bloody, but they were too still to be bothered rushing toward.
XLR8 sauntered his way up to the almost scowling man and poked him in the chest. His face Olaf lifting up to reveal his narrowed yellow eyes.
"So, what did you do to piss of that thing?" He asked accusingly.
Jonah started at the Kineceleran as if he couldn't believe what he heard. But then again, leave it to monsters to defend monsters.
"What we did?! We just wanted to conduct research! It came out and attacked us!" Jonah tried to defend but XLR8 looked at him clearly unimpressed.
"I don't know how long it's been here, but as far as I know people swim and fish in these waters with no issue, and here you are suddenly getting attacked. I'm just saying that most animals won't attack until provoked. Think about that." XLR8 said before his faceplate came down and he sped off.
The now mildly peeved kineceleran raced back to his grandfather's chartered fishing vessel and changed back into his human form. It took him a few moments to school his features, get his emotions under check, before approaching Max and telling them that they should head in, he felt like going for a swim. Max didn't take long to catch on considering as Ben explained all that he held the Omnitrix up to the man.
On Shore: 09:14
After waving goodbye to the good captain the pair of Tennyson's decided, rather Ben decided that they would have lunch before further pursuing this kraken and or lake monster business. So with a pep to his steph the excited young lad bounced his way up the steps to Mobil home and froze when he caught sight of none other than Mandy Blake Evans herself sitting at his kitchen table in a swimsuit. Personally he couldn't count off the number of times this fantasy had come into his head if he used all ten fingers and toes. But now that it was happening, and with no events leading up to it considering they didn't even el really know each other, it was a massive shock to Ben's system.
Though it seemed to do the poor Evans girl a world of good as she practically beamed at catching him hawking at her.
"Benny-boy!" She exclaimed standing to her full height, two inches above him, and smirked as she so slightly tilted her head to look down at him, "small world huh?"
With an entertained scoff Ben walked passed her to the kitchen table, "Must be if I can't go one week without running into you." He countered, setting her up. He knew he shouldn't, he really knew, but how many more times would he get to mess with her, read: flirt, before they really did split ways? He wasn't even sure she'd be the same as the Mandy he knew from his world. Time? Dimension? Whatever.
"Please, if anything you have it backwards. I bet I could travel the stars and somehow I'd still end up having to share a space station with you."
Ben couldn't hold back the chuckle at how on the money she was. Though the way he remembered she had been more than willing to share a bedroom at one point. Ignoring the fact she made him sleep on the floor because his breath tickled her neck while she slept. And that they were about a decade younger now...
With a shrug Ben conceded that she had a point, if any, and dug underneath him into the storage compartment under the table benches and pulled out a bag of dried seaweed. It's salty taste and fishy aftertaste making him want to drag his tongue across a salt lick, but that aside it wasn't so bad.
At this point Gwen chose to step out of the bathroom in a frilly sundress and a hint of pink on her face.
"I'm...not really sure...dresses are my thing Mandy…" her face froze in a 'deer-in-the-headlights' kind of state before she squealed and jumped back into the bathroom to change.
"Oh? Pity, I thought she looked rather fetching." Mandy snickered as she covered her pink lips with the back of her palm.
Stupid. He was being stupid. He needed to stop this now. He needed to make sure she wasn't anywhere near this world, make sure she wasn't involved. But how could he make a human typhoon like Mandy do that? And just like that.
"Oh, look at the time, I suppose I'll see you around Benny-boy, tell Gwen she can keep the dress."
As the girl left, towel wrapped around her waist, face turned away from him, Ben could still see her smug expression at having caught him staring. If they did end up interacting more than he had just given her enough ammunition to last her until the heat death of the universe. Though he didn't get to ponder that whole seat of the universe part for long as Max placed his large palm on his shoulder to grab the boys attention.
"Benny-boy huh?" The man asked knowingly.
Betrayal. How could one such as his grandpa Max do that to him. With a pout Ben turned away with a huff, muttering for his grandfather to shut up, as he stepped back outside and into the knee deep water.
The fresh water of the murky lake began to soak through his pant legs as he dove down and pressed the button on his Omnitrix and began spinning through the dial before pressing down on what he knew for a fact to be Ripjaws, only to bite back a swear, a whole chain of swears, as the water rushed in and put out his new flames.
Onlookers, the few that there were, noticed the slow rise of bubbles from that spot in the lake, a few more curious if the lake goers even began to slowly approach the spot when they noticed how hot the water was becoming. Everything froze when the surface of the water exploded upwards and a burning man stood at what was almost knee high water for him.
"Seriously omnitrix!?" Cried Heatblast with an indignant nod toward his omnitrix symbol.
The fuming pyronite tossed his hands back as a stream of concentrated flames shot out and lifted him into the air, the water had gone from a cool and easy seventy degrees fahrenheit to an uncomfortable ninety, many people came rushing out with tender red skin.
The world from forty-odd meters in the air always had this sort of untouched beauty in Ben's opinion. It's what made him want to be a pilot on the side of his hero stuff. Funnily enough he was flying through the air right now with the simple intent of invading those closed off waters and figuring out what those Friends of Fish guys were up to, not the most hero like of behavior but he'd get over it.
On the decks of the remaining ships, the crew working under Jonah caught sight of the black trail of smoke behind Heatblast and began to point and call out what it could be.
"Look! Look!" Began one no name man with blonde hair.
"It's a bird!" Shouted his friend from his side.
"No way! It's a plane!" Called the blonde man.
"You morons! It's a monster!" Jonah interrupted them with a shove.
Not long after that Heatblast came crashing down on deck, his flaming body raging as he stood up and towered over the average men on deck. His heat filled gaze searched the boat for a moment before he found Jonah. The founder of the organization appeared to be sweating, ignoring the fact that an alien made of living flames was standing no more than twenty feet away in a day that was already pretty hot, Heatblast stomped over to the man. Silently he looked over him before pointing over the railing to the still wrecked ship and the scattered bodies.
"Wanna tell me what you did to piss of a massive lake monster?"
Jonah, being a proud businessman, scoffed at the accusation, "Why do you assume we started something?!"
Heatblast fixes the man with a hard glare, "Because your human and a founder of an organization, you lot are always up to something."
Jonah, in his brilliance, decided to plead innocent, if he played his cards right he might even be able to guilt trip this monster in protecting him.
"Look, I understand where you're coming from, but I'm just trying to help fish. My crew and I just wanted to conduct research and—"
"What happens when you stick your head in a bears den?"
"Huh?"
"What happens? It's pretty simple, actually. Animals are territorial, and assuming that this thing swam in from open ocean...it's trying to lay eggs and you're aggravating it."
Jonah couldn't stop the widening of his eyes. How had this guy figured it out so fast?! What clues had he gotten? Had someone ratted him out?
"Um, well if thats what you believe...I suppose for the safety of my men...my remaining men, I should pull back…" Jonah submitted bitterly. He had hoped to walk out of this with both eggs. And now his profit would be cut in two. His sulking however was cut horribly short as a burning hand wrapped around his shirt and pulled his face nearly into the fire.
"Be sure you do." Heatblast then pushed the man away before walking to the center of the boat and extending both hands back as his flames began to grow. And just like before he launched the concentrated stream of heavy water and got himself airborne. As he propelled himself away he caught sight of the bright red letters on a plank of wood. From the crate the kraken had destroyed, it read Cannery.
The flying pyronite remained high in the air for more than twenty minutes as he flew further away from the Friends of Fish and even passed over the group of mobile hikes before landing in an isolated patch of forested ground. His head was more than a little fuzzy, flying for so long as Heatblast always left him dizzy. So with an aggravated huff he pressed the watch face on his chest and let the dark red light consume him.
"Benny?!" He heard someone call behind him, and like before he considered back handing the voice with his watch hand, but stopped at the blank stare. She had ditched her earlier bathing suit for a pair of light blue shorts and a yellow shirt. And as Ben stared at her blue eyes and knowing stare, he couldn't hold back his instinctual reply.
"Oh fuck…"
She seemed taken back by his use of swear words, but decided to ignore that as instead the prime subject of her focus was currently residing in his wrist, though its usual dark electric green color was replaced by a dumb looking red. Then she recalled his explanation to her during their first meeting.
"So...you weren't joking about the alien thing then? Wow…"
Ben couldn't help but chuckle. He recalled the first time he had met Mandy. They had bumped into each other on a remote plumber base, and like a clutz, had managed to spill each other's coffee. At the time she was more excitable seeing as she met the hardest hitting member of the plumbers at the time, though she had forgotten about that as she threw her papers to the ground and pushed him against the wall with a snarl demanding a new cup of coffee. Leave it to Mandy to either always be underwhelmed or overfocus on something else.
"No. Momma didn't raise no liar." Ben crosses his arms as he tried his best to look and sound sagely.
His efforts were rewarded! With a punch to his exposed shoulder.
"You moron. Alright, you gotta turn into one, I'm super curious how it works?!" She said grabbing his hand in her own and lifting the watch closely to her eye.
Ben pulled it back however. It was bad enough that he had to come back to this world, to lose his chance at normalcy, why should Mandy have to do it too? No, she wouldn't need to. He'd figure out the omnitrix, earlier this time, and destroy Vilgax before he could ever even dream of taking over his planet.
"Look...it's better if you just forget what you saw here today." He tried to offer her the out but he received a he'd shove into a tree as she gripped his shirt collar. Her short hair, and narrowed eyes painting a very imposing figure. Ignore the fact that she was already taller than him.
"I'm not some damsel Benny, I'm pretty sharp for my age, so how about I let you go and you try again."
Ben raised brow. He had eleven immensely strong alien life forms at his disposable, ten of which were capable of ending her life like it was nothing, but here she was standing up to him. Acting as if she were the superior one here. He recalled her doing something much the same with Vilgax at one point.
"Try again?" Ben asked, already having a clue what she meant.
"Man your dense. I'm giving you a chance to ask for my help, and be very selective with your words, I'm very picky about who I help." She sweetly said as she tilted her head slightly to add to her cute factor.
"You should really back off, you have no clue what your walking into." Ben doubles down, already knowing what was coming next.
Her face freezing in that cute pose with the only movement being a twitching brow, indicating the amount of wrath you had just occurred. Her fingers uncurled from his shirt before they latched around his wrist and pulled him hard. Ben already knew what was coming. She couldn't convince him, and she wasn't quite so petty as to threaten to blab his secret to the public. But he caught her in his grandfather's mobile home, meaning she had likely made friends with Gwen. Meaning she had gotten information, information pertaining to Gwen and her family, meaning she now had information in him. With a sigh Ben let himself be pulled back to his grandfather's mobile home and stood there dejectedly as the blonde girl holding his hand flailed the omnitrix back and forth to get everyone's attention.
Gwen, who was still wearing the dress that Mandy had supposedly given her, yelped at being suddenly intruded upon.
Ben did nothing as Mandy began spewing his secrets to Gwen. Which went something like 'Benny has a watch that lets him become a fire alien!' So but much, apparently not getting her way made her forget that he had already told her just what it was that he had in his wrist. But seeing as he couldn't very well go and attack a cannery during working hours, even if it was being used by a smuggler and his goons, he had some time to kill…plus he was curious just what kind of DNA sample the omnitrix had gotten for him. He already had a pretty nice name for his new form if it proved to be what he expected.
Suddenly his brain which had been a thousand miles away was violently pulled back to earth for center stage as Mandy decided the best way to intimidate Ben would be to get close. Too close. He could feel his personal bubble popping and the air burning his skin as she was a hair's width away.
"I'm too of my class, my whole school district, I'm smarter than most people could ever hope to be, so why won't you ask for my help!?"
Ben wanted to snarl at her and tell her very clearly that she didn't know what she was signing up for, that she could never begin to imagine the hellish torture she'd go through if Vilgax had his way. If things played out even remotely the same as last time...but why would they play out that way? He was better now. He had more of an understanding. He knew what he was wielding ...and he wouldn't hold back if it meant saving everyone.
Before he could say anything she stepped back, having seen the silhouette approaching. The door, Max stood there with his signature grin as he moved for someone else to come into view. A tall man with dark skin and sandy blonde hair with brown eyes and crows feet.
"This is an old friend from my plumbing days, Vince, imagine how surprised I was to catch him here!"
Vince, looked between Gwen and Ben with a smile before noticing Mandy standing there, by a girl sporting a dress that looked eerily similar to the one he'd recently gotten his daughter.
"Honey? What are you doing here?"
Ben didn't even have to look twice to notice the gears spinning in Mandy's head. And he saw two very bad ways this could go, but he couldn't play interception here, something just wouldn't let him.
"Oh! Daddy, I was spending some time with my new friend Gwen! We like the same authoress."
Vince smiles at the sight of his darling girl making friends.
"Well that great honey, but we're going to be packing up soon, so say goodbye and go see if your mother needs help."
With anid she skipped out of the rust bucket and Ben could feel nothing but bad vibes about what she was planning. No. There was no way she just dropped it.
"Well Max, sorry to cut it short, but summers short and I promised to spend as much of it as possible with the misses and the kids."
Max laughed as he shook Vinces' extended hand, "No worries Vince, be safe out there alright."
With a sigh, Ben walked over to his bunk and laid down, he had nothing but time to kill until he couldn't act on his plan. So catching up on sleep
would probably be best for him.
June 8th, 2005: 22:48
The day had been agonizingly slow. The few parts that had been of a decent tempo seemed to barely last. Ben couldn't help but sit there on the dick looking bitter beyond compare as the last of the people playing in the water gathered themselves and moved to the shore.
His bitter scowl slowly morphed into a smirk as he pulled his hand out of his jacket pocket and stared at the pure green image of the omnitrix. His nap had helped to clear his head, but he hadn't gotten any further in figuring out how to unlock more forms. And worse than that, he seemed incapable of forgetting about the annoying Australian American girl who had seemingly invaded his life for the second time with very little of his say so. He didn't care what his reflection looked like, he wasn't smiling like a goofball at the thought of dealing with Mandy Blake Evans, and he definitely didn't want to know what she was planning.
His moment of thought concerning the girl and his watch was cut unfortunately short as he saw the half moon peak out from behind the cloud coverage. He'd have to work fairly quickly considering Max could wake up and notice he'd left his bunk vacated. Ben pressed down on the button of his watch and flipped through his option, debating whether he wanted to try out his new being now, or go with a tried and tested form. With a chuckle he pushed down and after a moment of bodily alteration he stood at just over six feet with a set of jaws that looks able to swallow children whole. His body arched as he threw himself up and into the water. The loincloth like flesh covering his alien reproductive organs merged with his legs as it became a single appendage, something reminiscent of a mermaids tail, and with little more fan fare than that he was off.
Ripjaws took a moment to acclimate to his semi-natural environment, the sudden feeling of being top dog making his instincts flare. But he had to focus, he only had a limited window until Max would notice his absence and then he'd have to explain what he was doing. And if he Max caught wind of the disappearance of a certain founder of a smelly organization it wouldn't look good. Fortunately he rounded his thoughts together and took off, enjoying the Feeling of cool water rushing over his gills, the murky water illuminated slightly by his angler light, and his sights set in one despicably run cannery.
Atop the water's surface were the skeleton crew keeping the cannery running at such a late hour, with one grumpy looking Jonah overseeing most of it.
One of his boys operating the forklift jostled the crate a bit much for his bosses liking, resulting in the already peeved Jonah stomping over.
"Hey! Watch it! We're already down by half thanks to that fire guy ruining our catch."
The surface of the water erupted and from the murky depth came a pale white fish man. All the dock workers froze at the sight as it turned it large eyes on them. His razor sharp array of teeth perfectly catching the light around him.
It seemed to smile as all of them paused to observe and the first word it uttered was a sight to behold.
"Boo."
And like that, chaos ensued. The lift driver screamed as he hoped from his seat and began to make distance between himself and the sea monster. Before now, they'd been mostly safe from the denizens from down below while on shore, even when that lake monster was the one doing it they'd been fine as long as they stayed far away from its nesting area.
He hadn't made it far before a webbed hand with claws latched into his collar and pulled him back. Hard. The fire of which choked him slightly as he was slammed viciously into the deck. The onlookers scrambled, the majority of them were just simple hands for hire, they hadn't cared what was going on. But the few trained smugglers present made space and withdrew firearms, simple handguns of some common make and model, before the began firing on Ripjaws. The fishlike alien doges under the first wave of fire before retreating to his watery dwelling.
The bullets continued to hail and after a moment of loud bangs being the only audible thing, the disappointing clicking could be heard. Jonah, from his place crouched by the crate, rose to see if he could spot some sort of blood clouding the water, from behind him one of the younger men said something that he really should have known not to.
"Think its dead?"
The silence that followed as everyone looked at him with disbelief continued for a long moment until the sound of splintering wood filled the void, the man screaming as webbed hand latched around his ankles and dragged him into the water.
Some of the men present screamed, others flinched, many winced, the only one not concerned with the death of the boy was Jonah who was trying his best to push the crate containing his soon to be fortune, away from the water. He stopped realizing the hired help were just standing there staring.
"What are you idiots doing? Help me push the egg!"
He looked on practically foaming at the mouth, his irritation abundantly clear. A webbed hand tightened on his shoulder. Realization slowly sinking in. His head turned like a rusty crank to face the wide maw of the monster behind him. His dissatisfaction also very clear for all to see.
"There's something I hate...and its needless death." Ripjaws offered before spinning Jonah around and knocking him out cold with a mean uppercut.
With a snarl he sent the remaining viewers running before he set his sights on the crate. His clawed digits made short work of the booted shut wood, and after a slow second he removed the large egg within. It fit nicely in his mouth, with room to spare really, funnily enough. As the Picciss Volan made his way to return to water, he looked upon the spot where slumbering form of the would be smuggler had lied, only to sigh at seeing it empty. The sound of a claw releasing filled the air and the dock shattered at the diving submarines crashed into it. Ripjaws and the pod like submarine took a dive into the cool water below. The Piccis Volan instantly had his eyes readjust as he found the dark skinned smuggler within the sub glaring out through the looking glass at him, it also dawned on him that he had misplaced the egg now.
The submarines shoulder like cylinders span for a moment before the lens covering the flashlight within were pulled back leaving the spotlights to be revealed, and as quickly as Ripjaws saw that he attempted to close his eyes, but even through his thin eyelids and mucus like membrane eye coverings, the light shine through half blinding the poor alien.
The metallic arm wrapped around his lean body and squeezed him tightly against Jonah's submarine as he piloted them down to take the egg that had sunk to the seafloor. The pressure that kept Ripjaws in the mans uncomfortable grip and threatened to snap him like a twig meant he had to find a way out fast, and think fast he did. So with little regard he felt the small bones in his jaw unhinged and allow the gaping maw he possessed to widen to unreal levels as he sank his sharp upper jaw into the glass and forced the bones to reconnect to apply pressure to the glass. The cracks formed instantly and it took barely a second more better the viewing shield if the submarine shatters, Ripjaws would be spitting the glass shards out afterward, leaving Jonah to panic as the water rushed in.
The robotic arm that kept him still loosened as the sub engaged all rotors to push up and the man moved to break the waters surface. As the young alien turned to go after the egg a thought cake over him. He was sure that he'd never be able to fully stop smuggling. He didn't know if Jonah would even give up after nearly dying...and even if all over the world smuggling kept going…maybe he could prevent something now. So with narrowed eyes Ripjaws swam after the submarines that was now resting in the water's surface. His body cut through the water like a torpedo and as he broke the surface of the liquid body he flew through the air before landing on the pods damaged face, scaring Jonah witless. The bobbing machine whines as he reached in and yanked the man out.
Their eyes locked and Ripjaws searches through his frightened eyes for it, for just a hint of regret that he hoped would scare the man straight. He found none of it.
He had meant what he said, he hated pointless death...but something about idiots like this seemed to scream foolhardy and incapable of learning. So with only a mildly reluctant sigh he grabbed the man by the ankle and dragged him to the water, the smuggler pointlessly struggling against the grip. They'd return the egg together...and Jonah would make a nice snack for the Kraken, even if he'd drown long before they actually reached the beast.
June 8th, 2005: 23:13
Ben walked up to the rust buckets door but his hand never reached the handle as it was pulled open for him. As he raised his head to say thanks to whoever had bothered. He fell flat. Standing there looking down at him, with her irritatingly blue eyes and smug grin was Mandy Blake Evans. Her yellow shirt and pink shorts irritatingly bright for this hour of night. But all of this could be forgiven if she hadn't been standing there with her arms crossed and smirking as if she'd won some imaginary battle, really, Ben thought the whole thing was quite irritating really.
"Mandy? Didn't you leave with your dad already?" He found himself asking, if for no other reason than to find out who's he curse for eternity for forcing him to deal with his issues.
"What a dumb question. Obviously I ran away so I could spend time with my best friend forever Gwen and her dorky cousin with the coolest watch in the whole wide world!"
Ben felt his brow twitch and was about to turn into XLR8 and run her to her father's newest campground when Max came up behind her.
"What an active imagination. She convinced her father, Vince, to let her tag along with us, turns out she lives in Bellwood too!"
Ben wanted to head right back into the water and see if the Kraken would let him become a new roommate.
A/N:
THANKS FOR READING!