Wow! I'm having a mass recovery from my writers block! It feels great! Okay, in this chapter, Ben and the gang go to rescue the captive aliens. However, another outbreak from Big Chill changes Ben's fate forever.
The runt opened his eyes slowly and could see only darkness. 'They put black stuff over the cages...' He moaned as his stomach made a rumbling noise. 'Hurts so bad...' He scrunched his eyes shut once more. 'When will it stop? Where are the others?' He drew his wings tightly around him to keep warm. 'Why do I want to keep warm?!'
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
…
"Are we there yet?"
"No!"
…
"Are we-"
"I swear, Tennyson! I'm this close!" Kevin held up a rocky fist and glared into the back seat.
"Kay. I'm good." Ben muttered, holding his hands up. "I just think we should have left earlier so we'd avoid the traffic jam."
"Yeah, well we left when we did so deal with it!" Kevin snapped, drumming his fingers on the wheel impatiently.
…
…
…
"...Are we there yet?"
'Ugh...I feel horrible...' He could feel the cage being lifted. His wings fluttered weakly and he felt himself blacking out again...
"Can we go in there and beat them yet?" Kevin asked eagerly as he watched the cages being loaded onto a shipping truck.
"Not yet, Kevin."
"Now?"
"No."
…
"Now?"
"Kevin!"
"Hey! Look!" Kevin turned his attention to the interior. "They're almost done loading."
"We have to wait, Kevin." Gwen said firmly. "We need to cause minimum damage to the hostages."
Ben nodded in agreement. "We also need to plan-" His heart suddenly froze. As the people picked up another cage, the world seemed to move in slow motion. He saw the dark blanket falling off of the cage. He saw the little figure curled up within. He felt his hand move toward the Omnitrix. He heard Gwen's exclamation of surprise and Kevin's shout of protest. He saw the dial turning to Big Chill. He felt his hand slam down on the watch and everything went blank.
Kevin and Gwen watched in horror as Big Chill flew at the human captors and froze each one solid with an enraged hiss. "Ben! Stop it!" Gwen shouted. Ben didn't even acknowledge her voice. Instead, he broke the bars of the cage and picked up the sleeping body inside.
"There, there." Big Chill whispered to the tiny Necrofriggian as he rocked him slowly back and forth. "You're safe now. I've got you." At that moment, he heard the beeping of the Omnitrix and the world blanked out for the alien controlled Ben.
Kevin walked over and bent down over Ben. "Did I miss something?" He murmured as Gwen released and bound the captives and began working on the cages. "Why does this little guy seem so familiar and why did Ben go off his nut?" His eyes grew wide with realization. 'Of course!'
"Hey, Kevin! I could use a little help!" Gwen called back in an agitated tone.
"Gwen! You gotta see this! It's Ben's kid!"
"What?" Gwen walked over and knelt on the ground next to Kevin. "What do you mean?"
"Look at him!" He remembered that face clearly. "It's the runt! He was the one who was late in hatching! I just know it!"
Gwen passed a mana enveloped hand over the alien and nodded her head slowly. "You're right. He's definitely Ben's." She stood up. "Let's deal with these aliens and criminals quickly. I don't think either of them will be waking up just yet."
"Hey, Gwen! I think he's coming around!" Kevin called as he saw the tiny alien's wings move.
"Who...who are you?" The runt gasped in the barest whisper. 'Blurry...can't see...monster...MONSTER!' As soon as the strange mineral thing came into focus, he let out a shout of fear and flew backwards right into the arms of another one of those creatures who had kidnapped him. He struggled. "Let go of me!"
"Relax, Little Chill!" Kevin walked over and lightly stroked the alien's drooping hood/antennae. "You're safe now."
"Little Chill?" Gwen rolled her eyes at Kevin's lack of imagination. "Seriously, Kevin?"
"Well we gotta call him something, don't we?"
"What's going on? Where are the poachers? Where am I? What happened?" The runt continued to struggle, heedless of the conversation going on.
"Steady, Little Chill." Gwen had to admit that the name was kinda catchy... "We saved you from the poachers and you are in Kevin's living room." She pointed to Kevin. "We're here to help you."
"What's Little Chill?" The runt asked in confusion.
"That's your new name." Kevin grinned and ruffled the creature's hood. "Welcome aboard!"
"I don't understand...aboard what? Name?"
"A name is what we call each other." Gwen laid Little Chill down on the couch. "And Kevin is welcoming you to our team. Until you recover completely, we'll take care of you."
Little Chill nodded slowly and sat up. He felt like he was forgetting something... 'Oh yeah!' "There was another! Another one like me! He took me out of my cage. I remember him. Who was he?"
Kevin and Gwen exchanged glances before Kevin gestured for Gwen to speak. "That was Ben. He's my cousin and...your...parent."
Little Chill was intrigued. 'Parent...that's a nice sounding word!' "What's a parent?"
Kevin groaned and sat down. "This might take awhile..."
Here's a story on how my friend and me came up with Little Chill in our roleplay: We originally intended for only the runt to return to Earth so we wanted a super epic name for him. Unfortunately, we couldn't think of anything and decided to dub him "Little Chill" until we came up with the perfect name. We ended up stalling for so long, the name stuck permanently and the runt's official name became Little Chill. Hope you enjoyed it! Byez!
