Author's Note: It isn't as late as it normally is when I write, so let's see if the creative juices flow three hours early tonight. This story has already caught up to Changing Times in terms of author alerts, and I couldn't be more thrilled. Thanks again to everyone reading this, and if you ever have a suggestion (or just something you'd like to see in the story), feel free to ask.
"How'd karate go?" Ben asked, taking his cousin's shoulder bag from her and placing it beside him in the back. Gwen crawled into the passenger's seat and buckled in before responding.
"Oh, it was fine. Still undefeated," she smiled at both Kevin and Ben in turn. Both smiled back, and Gwen was perhaps a bit too pleased that both boys looked incredibly nervous.
On a technical level, Gwen couldn't be everywhere at once, and so, Kevin and Ben only had to act with maturity while they were around her. It should have given them an edge in the bet, but instead it worked against them. They were so busy focusing on not screwing up at that time that they couldn't even bring themselves to talk with her, afraid of saying the wrong thing.
"Are you both all right?" Gwen asked. She was kind of surprised to see both Kevin and Ben so speechless. Usually by now at least one of them had cracked a joke, often at the other's expense.
Both boys nodded, but said nothing.
"Okay, so, are we just going to drive around, or do either one of you have a tip?" Gwen tried to relax them by bringing Plumber business to the foreground, to put the bet out of their minds. That seemed to work.
"Please, Tennyson doesn't get tips," Kevin muttered. Ben opened his mouth to protest, but quickly shut it again. "And I haven't heard anything, either. It's quiet…"
"Too quiet?" Gwen suggested. Kevin nodded.
"We know the DNAliens are still up to something," Ben threw his two cents in, "The problem is that they've finally learned how to keep their operation pretty quiet. Usually we could follow rumors until we picked something up, but I haven't heard anything."
"More like I haven't heard anything," Kevin glanced in the rearview at Ben. "Unless you're saying…" he trailed off when he noticed Gwen smirking at him. "What?" He asked, irritated.
"Oh, nothing. You almost lost, though," she said with a smile, and then turned to look out the window. "Either way, you're both right. No noise from DNAliens or Forever Knights. Normally that would be a good sign, but I'm not sure I trust it. Neither one of them ever operated with a tremendous amount of subtlety before."
"So they've probably wised up," Ben surmised. "Which means that what's coming is more important than ever…"
"Or that they've learned to keep their deformed mouths shut a little better," Kevin offered.
"Let's go home for the night," Ben suggested. "We can't drive around aimlessly forever. We'll try to pick up hints tomorrow during the day. It's a Saturday, so we can get a really early start."
"Aww, man, Tennyson. How early are we talking here?" Kevin asked, more than a little annoyed.
"I dunno. How's eight for everyone?" Ben suggested. Gwen nodded in agreement.
Kevin groaned. "Easy enough for you. You've just got to get up on time and get dressed. You don't have to get up half an hour early to get dressed and pick everybody up."
"Most adults have the common sense to go to bed at a reasonable hour so they can get up at a decent hour," Gwen studied her nails as she made the comment, knowing it would get under Kevin's skin.
Her bid worked. Kevin sighed. "All right, all right. I'm a mature, sensitive guy," he threw a glare in the rear view mirror. Ben had almost choked on a laugh at the idea of Kevin being sensitive. "I'll pick both of you up at eight."
"Great!" Gwen agreed, giving Kevin a pat on the shoulder. "Tomorrow at eight it is."
Ben couldn't sleep that night. He sat up in his bed, constantly staring at the clock, certain he'd had his eyes closed for hours. Every time, he was disappointed. He'd woken up and checked the clock more than five times in just a matter of an hour.
Giving up, he hopped out of bed, closing his eyes and wincing when his feet hit the cold floor boards. If he hadn't already been so alert, that would have really woken him up.
He crossed over to the window, staring outside. No one was out there. This quiet part of the suburbs was completely untouched. For a moment, Ben almost felt like a normal fifteen year-old boy. One glance at the omnitrix fixed that illusion.
He was in fact, not a normal boy. He had enjoyed five years of normalcy before putting the omnitrix back on, but he had to admit, he'd missed being a hero during that time. Still, until he received his grandfather's message a few months ago, he hadn't thought for a moment about putting the alien artifact back on.
Perhaps this was why his cousin had suggested the bet. He sighed. The responsibility weighed so heavily on his shoulders that somehow, jokes were just how he handled it all. Kevin handled it by pounding the heck out of every villain they faced. Gwen just seemed to…handle it. To some degree, he envied how in control Gwen was. She was easily the most mature of the threesome, and he wondered if sometimes that made things harder for her.
But then, he reasoned, Gwen had had extra time to master her powers. Those five years between the two omnitrix adventures had allowed her ample time to study her powers. In fact, she had been practicing every night for at least an hour after her homework. Gwen fit everything into a tight schedule. That was how she dealt with things.
The truth was, the bet was not in the least bit important to Ben. Gwen had stopped wanting to embarrass him years ago, so he doubted whatever he would owe her would probably be money or a simple favor. He was still going along with it because of how intensely focused Kevin was on the bet.
Kevin was still an enigma, but he was an enigma Ben could at least trust in. Ever since he'd been made an official Plumber, Kevin seemed all the more interested in actually getting their job done. In fighting aliens and forever knights and whatever else was thrown their way. Ben knew that a big influence for Kevin was Kevin's own father, but Kevin had admitted that while it was his biggest reason, it was not his only reason.
Kevin had never admitted to the other reason, but Ben already had a vague idea that Gwen was involved. He had been so quick to protect Gwen, even when he was only 'fulfilling a promise to the magistar'.
Ben was sympathetic. Being a superhero, especially one with unusual powers, made it pretty hard to find a date. He frowned back to when he'd first met Kai. She was a nice girl, after all, but that had been a disaster. He'd thought for sure Julie would end the same way, or even worse, if she found out about his aliens. A blessed relief came when she not only wasn't bothered by his aliens, she found them fascinating.
Ben stared back at the clock. Four in the morning. He sighed. Too late to get much sleep, too early to head down to Mr. Smoothie's.
He turned his light back on and looked through his room, not sure what he was searching for. Then he found it. At the back of his closet was an old journal of his grandfather's. It detailed all his old exploits as a Plumber, and it hadn't been easy to find.
Settling down again on top of his bed, Ben read until the words on the page grew blurry and out of focus. He blinked rapidly, trying to will the sleep away, but it wouldn't obey him. His eyelids fluttered desperately, still wanting to fight it off, but at last he gave in. The journal dropped to the floor, and Ben snoozed peacefully, snoring so loudly he would not be able to hear his alarm go off – exactly twenty minutes from now.
Author's Note: I feel I have a tendency to make Kevin the most important character, and the show is still called Ben 10: Alien Force, so I wanted to focus as much on Ben as possible. I'm glad the show has such a wonderful hero, otherwise I wouldn't bother. Anyways, more later, fight scenes later, too…though not sure if the dinner scene comes before or after that yet.
