Hello! Once again, I have returned from the dead!

I do warn you, Gwen and Kevin are harder for me to interpret than Ben. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm not much of a romantic, and it seems to me that almost all of the episodes centered around Gwen and Kevin are (ugh) romances.

Hopefully, I've captured them decently enough. Expect Kevin and Gwen (especially Gwen) to be OOC (with the latter, it was hard to balance out the independence, intelligence, and angsty teenage female-ness.) Plotwise? This is more filler than anything.

"Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air...
...But only for one second without hope."
-Author Unknown

Chapter Four

The silence in the car was maddening.

Neither Gwen nor Kevin was willing to talk about the situation at hand; almost as if they hoped that by ignoring the problem, it might be resolved faster. However, the quiet that settled around them, so filled with dread and worry. It surrounded them and filled them to the brim with hopelessness and despair.

Gwen grasped harder onto the small Plumber's badge in her hands; the skin around her fingers a pasty white color. She fidgeted in the seat again, and switched her gaze from the badge to the clock to the desert landscape and then back again as the car flew down the road at an ungodly speed. She felt numb and hollow, like someone had scraped everything from her insides and tossed them carelessly out the window.

"How far now?" Kevin's voice pulled her out of her musings. Gwen swallowed a lump in her throat and took a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. For the first time since she had rushed into the car that morning, she made eye contact with her boyfriend. He appeared as stoic as usual. If he felt anything, he wasn't showing it.

The red-head glanced at the small, holographic map in her lap. "Not much farther; only a few miles." Her voice was a whisper. She gulped in air, trying to ease her jittery nerves. In her chest, she could feel her heart racing like a horse.

Several more minutes passed under the oppressive atmosphere before anything more was said.

"You can stop now." The instruction was almost unnecessary. Leading down from the road, about thirty yards away, there was a small conglomeration of vehicles ranging from Intergalactic Plumber Warships to Smart Cars. One such vehicle in particular caught the eyes of both Kevin and Gwen; it was a large, old, and rusting RV.

Kevin brought his own car to an abrupt halt. He pulled the keys from the ignition and slipped them into his pocket before calmly exiting the car. His eyes remained hardened; his face as stone-cold as ever.

Gwen came out of the passenger side of the car, no where near as calm and cool and collected as her boyfriend was. Her eyes were wide and her green irises oozed worry and panic. In her hands, she clutched at the small Plumber's Badge like a lifeline, and her hands seemed to shake.

"You alright?" Gwen raised her eyes from the black, abysmal asphalt to Kevin with a small, frightened look. She shook her head.

"No."

He shot her a grim, tight-lipped smile. "Come on; we don't even known what happened yet."

"That's why I'm worried."

8888888

They immediately made for the RV.

Gwen kept her eyes in front of her as she walked the short distance from the road, trying to control the raging emotions that seemed on verge of overwhelming her. There were half a dozen Plumbers scurrying around. Like with the car, a terse silence enveloped the whole area.

Kevin broke this silence with a loud, obnoxious knock upon the RV door. Several Plumbers looked up in slight alarm (or annoyance) before turning back to matters at hand. A smug look on his face, he didn't even wait for the person inside to reply before he yanked on the handle of the door.

Inside it was dark. Shades had been drawn so that everything was enveloped in shadows. As always, almost every available space in the RV was crowded with clutter; an odd array of junk both Human and Alien in origin. A gigantic pile of plates lay in the sink and there were several stacks of boxes that reached nearly from the floor to the ceiling. In the corner, near what was probably the table (although it was so covered in papers it was almost impossible to tell,) bent the elderly figure of Max Tennyson. His shoulders were hunched, his fists clenched, and a look of both anger and worry boiled on his face. His forehead was wrinkled and he seemed older and more tired than usual.

"Gwen. Kevin." Max Tennyson looked up from his work, offering a comforting pat on the back to his granddaughter as she approached him for a hug. He nodded politely and courteously to Kevin, who struggled to find his way across the trash heap that was the floor. His voice was brisk and business-like; a stark contrast to his usual friendly tone.

No one had to explain why they were there; the reason hung over their heads like storm clouds.

For a while, there was a long, drawn out silence as the three of them mused over their thoughts. Max turned partially back towards his work and began to shift around the mound of papers on his table. With each passing second, Gwen could feel the tension in the room slowly building.

Kevin was the first to break the silence. "How's the search going?"

Max sighed, dropping a large arm onto the the scattered papers that covered the table's surface surface. "Not well, I'm afraid. We've been doing all that we can, but it's not much."

"Do his parents know?" It was Gwen this time. She stood slightly off from the group, still gripping tightly to the Plumber's Badge. Her green eyes seemed to penetrate and glow in the gloom. She looked miserable, like she wanted to cry, but couldn't quite bear to.

"They were the first ones to find out."

There was another long silence before Max continued. "Carl called me at about five-thirty or so. I had already gotten a call about an attack…" Max broke off and raised his hands helplessly. "About ten minutes after the call, I saw a car wreck. It was pretty bad. The frame was busted and the windows were smashed. It was covered in ash from a weapon of sorts." Max paused, yet again. "It was Ben's."

Somehow, despite the horrible way in which the news was delivered, Gwen felt neither shock nor surprise. Just more numbness.

Another silence seemed to oppress them. For the first time, Gwen realized just how hopeless everything was. Max smoothed out one of the many papers on the table, slightly out of nervousness. "The outlook is pretty grim right now. The only productive thing we've done this far was remove any traces of the car. The trail went cold fairly quickly; it was hours old by the time we found it. Ben could be anywhere in the Galaxy by now."

Gwen glanced at Kevin. His arms were crossed and his brow was creased into a frown. He radiated irritation and rage, despite the cool facade with which he presented himself.

The Osmosian clenched his fists. "And we have no clue who took him?"

"None at all."

"So what the hell do we do?"

***
Originally, there was more, but this seemed like a good place to break off. Filler, gah!
Again, I'm sorry for the wait. I'm pretty sure you are all quite tired of my excuses by now. Three months per chapter? Meh. Sloppy. Luckily, I have a vacation so I'll attempt to write another one this month.

As usual, no promises. Half the time, I don't even know when inspiration will strike. The Enemy of My Frenemy sort of spurred me to finish any last minute corrections. The actual writing of the chapter was due to the wonderful Neonstar attempting to keep me on track. Also, I heard the most wonderful clip of Yuri Lowenthal (Ben's Voice Actor) doing some character from a video game called Bioshock. Listening to that made me want to move forward in this story.

As usual, reviews are appreciated. Constructive/Non-Profane Criticism is welcomed.

-TGW

(02/11/12)