They Live

Chapter Three: Finding the Thieves

"Dude!" Ben said. "Land in the fucking road!"

Upgrade unmerged with the jet and shook his head. "Should I land on the highway again?"

"NO!" everyone yelled at once, causing Upgrade to flinch.

"Then I suggest you get in," he said slowly.

They all piled into the jet and Upgrade merged with it, and it took off. "So…" XLR8 said slowly, his eyes twitching. "Where'd you get the plane?"

No answer.

"You did buy it, right?" Fourarms asked.

Still no answer.

Ben raised a brow. "You stole it?"

Grey Matter's voice could be heard, snickering.

Ben frowned. "You guys are filthy rich, and you go ahead and steal a jet?"

Upgrade's head was next to Wildmutt now, saying, "Well, are you rich?"

Ditto crossed his arms. "Not as much as you. We're middle class. Well, except for Fourarms."

Fourarms glared at him, but turned to Ben as the human asked, "Where's Ghostfreak? And Arctiguana? And Benvicktor?"

Fourarms grinned. "They left for New York a while ago. They may meet us there, they may be drunk at a bar…or both… Oh shit." He put his head in one of his hands and sighed.

Ben laughed. Then, a thought occurred to him. He looked at Ditto. "Did you leave TiVo behind?"

Ditto grinned evilly.

Back at the house, Gwen held up a baseball bat at the alien in front of her. "Get away from me!"

TiVo just stared dreamily at her. "C'mon, Gwendolyn, why don't you like me?" He blinked innocently.

Gwen let the arm holding the bat drop to her side. "You're always hitting on me! And you're an alien and I'm a human!"

TiVo inwardly smiled, since Gwen's guard was now down. With a small grin, he tackled her.

Ben just shook his head as the jet landed. "Are we in an airport?"

Ditto patted Ben on the head. "Come on, airports are for losers."

"You're a loser," Fourarms pointed out.

"Nobody asked you!!"

It was nighttime, and they had entered the museum. Diamondhead was waiting for them. He ran up and nearly crushed Ben in a huge hug.

"Benny! You're here! I've been waiting for you!"

Ben gasped for air until Fourarms managed to pull the Petrosapien. Then, as soon as he did so, Diamondhead began talking…really fast.

"I hear the two thieves are after the Hope Diamond which is really a special diamond from Petropia and it was a power source for something powerful and we sent it to Earth for safekeeping but we didn't know Earth was inhabited and they took the diamond and cut it and now whoever touches it is cursed. We were going to go get it back but Vilgax destroyed our planet and we couldn't so my DNA was put into the Omnitrix and now here I am and I will get the Hope Diamond back to my people and, and, and—"

He suddenly fell flat on his face. Fourarms kneeled beside him and said, "You okay buddy?"

All he got was an absentminded, "Duh…" from the crystalline alien. He half Diamondhead expected to jump up and shout, "I'm gonna sing the doom song now!" But he didn't.

Ditto sighed. "I'm not sure humans would take it kindly if we busted in here. We're all on thin ice as it is."

Wildmutt growled. Grey Matter translated it as, "Then let's go find Archie."

That was his nickname for Arctiguana. He tried to say 'Arctie' but it didn't roll of the tongue, so he picked Archie. He smiled, revealing sharp canine (duh) teeth.

"Whoo!" Ditto exclaimed, waving a hand in front of him and plugging his nose. "Two words…Breath Mints!"

"How cliché," Fourarms muttered.

Diamondhead suddenly shot up, shouting, "This way!!" and running off into a random direction, up a set of stairs.

"Apparently it's this way," Ben said, pointing after the Petrosapien, not at all fazed by his antics.

Fourarms nodded and lifted Ben up, setting the boy on his shoulder and starting after Diamondhead as XLR8, Ditto, Grey Matter, Upgrade and Wildmutt followed.

Eye Guy glared and took the small device away from his companion; an iPod. "Stop listening to that!" he said.

Stinkfly whined. "Aw, I was listening to my favorite song!"

Eye Guy read the song title. "'Rip Out The Wings Of A Butterfly'?" he questioned, looking at Stinkfly with some of his other eyes, then turning all to look at him. "By… 'HIM'? Who's 'HIM'?"

Stinkfly moved his fingers in a spooky way and said, "No one knows… Ooooo…"

"How'd you like me to rip out your wings?"

Stinkfly took an alarmed step back. "No!"

Eye Guy nodded. "Good. Now let's get going. Who knows when the cops will get here?"

They entered a room, which was filled with different kinds of rare minerals. The one in the stand was the only one that interested them.

"How do we get it out without triggering some sort of alarm?" Stinkfly whispered.

Eye Guy shot several green energy beams at the glass, breaking it silently. "Hurry, grab it. The cops could be here any minute!"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about them, so much as us," a voice said.

Both thieves whirled around to see Ben—with Fourarms, Wildmutt, Ditto, Diamondhead, Upgrade and Grey Matter. Ben was now on the ground, pointing at them both.

"You're criminal days are over!" he said heroically. "Put your hands in the air!"

Stinkfly grinned and put his hands up, but then took to the air, hovering above them. He flew down at Ditto, knocking him to the ground. "Hey!" Ditto yelled. "He said your hands, not your whole body!"

Upgrade raised his hand, forming it into a spiked ball and extending his arm, sending it slamming into the Lepidopteran. He flew backwards and into the wall. Eye Guy shot beams of energy from all his eyes at Ben, knowing it was him who the aliens usually listened to, and he was the weakest. Ben threw his whole body backwards, slamming into Ditto. Ditto hurriedly, but gently, pushed him off.

"Get him!" Eye Guy shouted to his partner-in-crime. "Get the boy!"

Stinkfly nodded, separating himself from the wall and zooming down towards Ben. He reached his hands out to grab him, only to be met with the hard torso of Fourarms. The Tetramand swung the large bug around, slamming him back into the wall.

"Thanks," Ben said, relieved.

"No prob," was the large alien's response.

Wildmutt looked around as Eye Guy zapped Upgrade with an eye beam. Then, the Vulpimancer let out a loud roar, so loud everyone had to cover their ears. Soon, the faint sound of police sirens could be heard.

"Damnit!" Eye Guy yelled.

"Pretty stone," he heard a soft voice said. He turned to see…Diamondhead. Holding the Hope Diamond.

"Give me the stone, you stupid retard!" Stinkfly said, hovering above Diamondhead.

Diamondhead looked from Eye Guy to Stinkfly ( that rhymes), and then to everyone else. He looked at the diamond in his hand…

And ate it.

"What the fuck!" Eye Guy screeched, waving his hands frantically above his head. "What the hell did you do that for?"

"It belongs to me," Diamondhead said slowly.

Be smirked. "By the authority invested in me—and us," he began, "I now declare you under arrest. Put your hands in the air!"

The two thieves looked at each other uncertainly.

Wildmutt stepped forward and growled, vaguely sounding like a word: "Now."

Alarmed by the dog alien that could now speak, the two put their hands into the air, and were kicked to their knees by Fourarms.

And they left, leaving Wildmutt with the two thieves until the cops came.

Just like my other story, blame writer's block for both the quality of this chapter and the wait. Stupid writer's block. But I think it's gone now! Hope this wasn't lame and you are saying, "Why is she asking this; of course it's lame!"

Don't do that.

If anyone has ideas for a Christmas story, let me know!