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The key to success was efficiency and focus. You had to know exactly what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and not get distracted by anything.

The Face Cards knew this. The two men and a woman, King, Jack and Queen, were professionals. They had been pulling heists all over the country off for years, and they knew how to pull off a bank robbery. They cased the target for months before making a move.

Everything had gone perfectly. All three of them walked into the bank and took up their positions, looking as inconspicuous as possible while keeping their faces hidden from the cameras. With expert eyes, they roved the crowd for any plainclothes cops or potential threats to the operation. Nothing. Some little kid who was listening to music gave Jack an odd look, but he shrugged it off and left the building. Once they were in position, they whipped out their guns and started firing.

Within minutes, the guard was down, their playing card masks were on and all three were armed. They ordered the rest of the customers to get down on the ground while threatening the cashiers to fill their bags with money. Shooting one of the guards showed that they meant business, but it would also trigger a response. Queen was keeping track of the time with her watch. They had three minutes to get their money and get out of here. They wouldn't waste a second.

Neither would Upgrade.

The Face Cards were careful to keep their eyes all around them, but none of them looked up. If they did, they would've noticed the ceiling suddenly turned black and green, and the overhead sprinklers suddenly gaining camera sights.

Upgrade observed the situation carefully. Three targets, all armed, and a bank full of civilians. It couldn't afford any mistakes. But an opportunity presented itself. The guns that the Face Cards weren't typical pistols, but alien energy weapons bought off the black market. They were non-magnetized, impossible to detect with conventional metal detectors. Portable, deadly, and almost untraceable. The perfect gun for most criminals.

But they had a major flaw. A flaw that, admittedly, the police didn't know about. But the Plumber database had information about these weapons. And a Galvanic Mechamorph armed with nothing but an automated sprinkler system could disarm them with a little ingenuity.

The robbers were moving around to be safe, but the second they stood still for long enough, Upgrade activated the sprinklers right above them…with a little something extra.

"What the hell?!" the Queen shouted as the water cascaded down on her. Not only was it suddenly sprinkling, but the water was sparking was some kind of green electricity. Her head shot up to see the green and black patterned ceiling. She recognized that pattern from the newsfeeds.

Without hesitation, she and her two partners aimed their weapons and fired on the alien. Or at least, they tried to. Their guns, sparking with the green electricity the water was charged with, sputtered worthlessly before becoming too hot for them to contain.

King and Jack glanced at each other. This wasn't supposed to happen. They had to get out of there, and fast. Throwing their weapons to the ground, they split up and ran for the exits as fast as they possibly could.

Upgrade dropped down and swiftly swallowed one of the guns. The weapon suddenly grew legs and stood up, aiming straight at one of the retreating robbers. The shot that fired wasn't lethal, but the electrical charge was enough to paralyze Jack. He hadn't hit the ground before Upgrade turned around shot King in the back as well.

Queen was the fastest of the three, and she managed to get out of the bank. Upgrade jumped off the gun (but not before removing the energy ammunition it contained) and slithered out the door behind her. Before Queen could get to her getaway car, Upgrade blasted her with his energy beam, knocking her off her feet.

Without a word, Upgrade grabbed Queen by her legs and started dragging the unconscious robber back into the building. As quickly and as efficiently as it could, it tied the Face Cards together with long strips of metal taken from the banisters. The alien could probably create some effective handcuffs or restraints, but the problem was that they would dissolve once Upgrade left. The police would be here soon, and he couldn't take any chances.

One of the bank employees had been evacuating the civilians out of the building. Upgrade hadn't noticed her, having been so focused on the Face Cards. Once the last person was out of the building, she turned around and walked towards the alien. "Th-th-thank you…"

Upgrade didn't notice her, or if it did, it didn't acknowledge her. It simply finished tying up the robbers and slithered out the doors as quickly as possible, leaving behind three defeated bank robbers and a confused employee.

Gwen took her cell phone and shoved it into her backpack. Ok, last class of the day, she thought to herself. Once we're done here, we'll head to Ben's house and then we can talk and I can get some answers.

Somewhat satisfied with that in mind, Gwen zipped up her knapsack and moved it to the back of the room. For some reason, the teacher for typing class didn't like the students bringing their stuff to the computers. Gwen supposed he didn't want crumbs on the keyboards or phones being used to cheat. At any rate, the rules were to leave your backpacks at the back of the room.

Gwen was about to drop her backpack off with the others when something caught her eye. It was Ben's backpack, left half open on the ground. One of the books was visible, a thick textbook that wasn't assigned reading for any of their classes. Curiously, Gwen leaned down and investigated.

Psychology 101. Ben must've gotten it from the library. But why would he be reading this? Ben didn't like reading anything more sophisticated than a comic book. Another thing to ask him about.

Gwen made a point of sitting right beside her cousin. Ben had already opened the typing game that everyone had to play for the lesson. She opened the game as well, and began to type. It was a couple minutes before Gwen glanced over at her normally sluggish and lazy cousin.

His eyes were completely fixated on the screen, and his hands were a blur on the keyboard. Gwen would've thought that Ben was rushing through the tutorial, but judging by the fanfare on the screen, he was getting a perfect score on the game. And was it just Gwen, or was Ben not even blinking?

A winter's worth of ice slid down Gwen's back. In a desperate attempt to get rid of her nervousness, Gwen tried to start a conversation.

"So, I called Carl. He's all right with me coming over. He said that Grandpa was gonna come over tonight too. Let's just hope he doesn't cook us Dung Beetle soup, huh?"

Ben didn't answer.

Gwen swallowed. "Erm…anyway, I saw that psychology textbook in your backpack. Didn't know you were into psychology, Ben. This a new thing?"

Still no response. He just kept typing and staring at the screen. Did he hear her? Was he ignoring her? Was he THAT focused on the typing tutor?

Irritation overcoming her initial fright, Gwen waved her hand right in front of Ben's face. "Hello? Ben?"

Ben swat her hand away without breaking his gaze from the computer screen. He didn't even acknowledge his cousin's presence or voice.

Gwen's teeth gritted together, and her fists clenched with rage. She forcibly grabbed Ben's head and turned his head towards her scowling face. "LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M – " she started yelling before something caused her throat to dry up completely.

There was no expression on Ben's face. At all. His eyes stared forward blankly, his mouth was perfectly straight, everything about his face was devoid of his normal demeanor, or even any demeanor at all. It was like a robot with a human face was looking at her, not registering that the girl was his cousin. Not Ben.

This wasn't Ben. This wasn't her cousin. She had no idea who this was, but this wasn't Ben Tennyson. This wasn't even the cheerful kid from the school entrance, or the boasting one from gym class, or the sleepy one from social studies. This was…Gwen didn't even know.

Shocked and disturbed, Gwen let go of her cousin's head. 'Ben' didn't even blink, but returned his full attention to the computer screen and keyboard. Gwen sat back in her seat, shivering with fear and confusion as she watched whoever was pretending to be her cousin type on the screen with a mechanical efficiency.

This was worse than she thought. What the hell was going on?