===Disclaimer: I really don't think I need to say it again, do I? ...Oh, I do? ...Okay, fine, just keep your lawsuit blaster away from me! *ahem* I do not own nor claim to own anything from the Ben 10 series, or the series itself. ...There, happy now?===
Chapter 7: Hideout
Jen, Kelly, and Matt had been walking all around town in search of somewhere they could use as a meeting place, where they could hang out and Jen could practice with her newly-acquired power as much as she wanted. They had decided early on that it should be somewhere that is within a reasonable distance from each of their houses, but away from the general public.
"This is taking forever," Jen groaned. Her feet were sore and it was getting late. "We're never going to find a place to use. We've just wasted most of our Saturday."
"Well, we could always just make our own little hideout by those rock cliffs on the outskirts of town, like I suggested before," Matt said, "Not many people go out there and it's not too far a walk. But nooo, you didn't want to have to do any building."
"That was Kelly, not me," Jen retorted. "I'll build the whole thing myself if we can just stop walking now."
Kelly stopped and sat down to take a breather, and the others did the same. "Fine, we'll do that. Just as long as I don't have to do too much work. I hate getting sweaty."
They all agreed to go and make up plans for their secret base. After a short rest, they decided to make their plans at Matt's house and began to head there. As they walked down the street, they watched a couple of little kids playing on the opposite side while their mothers spoke with each other. After they had passed by, Jen heard a small creaking sound from behind them. She stopped and turned her head back to look back at the kids playing. She noticed there was a billboard on top of the building they were playing in front of, and that the billboard was starting to tilt forward, as if it was being pushed by someone. She realized that she wouldn't be able to run fast enough to get to the kids and their parents likely wouldn't be able to respond to a shout fast enough.
A green flash came from behind Kelly and Matt, and they stopped and turned around. Jen pulled the UFO-like device through the air towards the kids, dragging her gooey body in a blobby line behind it. She got to the children and wrapped herself around the two of them before moving off down the street a bit. The billboard came crashing down where the kids were just playing, causing the ground to shake and kicking up dust. The two women screamed and were looking frantically for their children. Jen walked over to them, a child in each arm, and placed them down in front of the relieved mothers. They grabbed their children and held them close to them, thanking the strange hero for saving their lives. But Jen wasn't paying attention; she wanted to know who caused the billboard to fall. She lifted the device straight up into the air and flew up over the top of the building. She landed on top and scanned around, but there was no sign of anyone.
About ten minutes later, Jen walked out of an alley toward her friends.
"Nice save, Jen!" Kelly exclaimed.
"They're both alright?" Matt and Kelly both nodded, pointing out that they had left a few minutes ago. "Good," Jen said.
"What were you doing on the roof?" Matt asked her.
"It looked like somebody must've knocked that billboard over. It didn't just fall by itself. I went up there to see if I could catch them, but... nothing," she said, shaking her head.
"Well, the kids are safe. That's what really matters." Jen nodded in agreement, and the three of them then set off again for Matt's place.
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A figure wearing black clothing slowly became visible on the roof of the building, spying on the three teens as they walked away. It lifted a device to its face. "Surveillance report: The Omnitrix user has displayed once again its desire to save other humans' lives. Recommend taking advantage of this trait in order to acquire the Omnitrix. Returning to command." The figure then faded away again.
Matt and Kelly were standing around under a tree. They were at the stone cliffs outside town, discussing the construction of their secret HQ. Kelly checked her watch again. Then Jen came running up to them, short on breath.
"Sorry I'm late, guys," she said through gasps for air, "My mom asked me to run to the store and grab itch cream for Luke's chickenpox."
"How's he doing with those?" Kelly asked.
"Getting better. But until they're gone, I'm the one who has to run out and buy stuff while mom takes care of him," Jen explained, still panting a little. "God, I wish I was old enough to drive."
"'Kay. Now on to the hideout," Matt said, laying out the design they had all put together. "It could take a while to gather enough stuff to build all this. We should probably start by-"
"Oh, forget this," Jen interrupted, "I think I can get this done a lot faster." She pressed the button on the watch and began searching through the holograms. "You guys won't mind if we make a sort of cave base, do ya?" Kelly and Matt looked at each other, wondering what Jen had in mind. The watch concealed Jen in a green flash and when it died down, a large creature made up of boulders stood in her place.
"There we go," Jen said in a very deep, gravelly voice, "this should make things go a lot faster." Kelly and Matt watched as Jen began digging a hole into a protruding part of the stone cliff.
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"Well, guys? Is this a work of art or what?" Jen stood, proudly looking around the cave she dug out. It was very large and had an opening in the ceiling to allow sunlight in.
"Well, this means I brought all those tools of my uncle's for no reason. But regardless, this is very impressive," Matt said, "especially considering you managed to do this in a way that the rest of the cliff wouldn't cave in on it."
"Oh... Yeah!" Jen responded, looking a little nervous. "I totally knew I was doing that."
Kelly was amazed at the place. "It's not very pretty, but I guess we can just fancy it up later. Plus, it could use some furniture. We've got some old furniture out in our garage just taking up space. We could grab some of that."
Jen laughed, "Yeah, okay. What good is a secret base without all the comforts of home?"
The three friends gathered up Matt's uncle's unused tools and placed them inside, then left to go grab a bite to eat.
"...and that's why we never have people over to our place for holidays anymore," Kelly said, concluding a very weird conversation.
They went inside their cave and finished up their hot dogs, before hearing cries for help coming from outside. They headed back out and saw a man hanging from the edge of the cliff a few yards away from the entrance.
"Help!!" he shouted again.
"He's going to fall!" Kelly yelled.
"Jen, see what you can do. Kelly, come help me get that sheet I brought with us. Maybe we can catch him if he does fall." Kelly nodded in agreement and the two of them ran back inside while Jen ducked in briefly and started up the watch.
Jen ran back out in the form of the winged alien. This had better work, she thought. She lifted her wings and jumped into the air, pushing her wings downward as she did so. She continued flapping them, figuring out the best speed to remaining flying properly and using her tail to control her movement. She flew up toward the man as fast as she could. When she reached him, she grabbed around his torso.
"Let go! I'll get you back on the ground." She kept trying to pull the man free of the ledge, but he refused to let go. Then she noticed that he wasn't moving or screaming anymore. A sudden blast knocked her away from the cliff and she started falling out of the sky. She landed on the sheet held between Matt and Kelly and fell unconscious.
"Jen!" her friends screamed in terror as she reverted back to normal. They looked up to where the man was hanging to see someone wearing an armored suit standing on top, and the man becoming metallic and being transformed into a device and placed onto the mysterious person's back.
"Well, that worked out rather nicely," the armored stranger said, readying another device that sparked with energy at the end. "Now to grab what I came here for."
A/N: Not entirely sure how well this chapter came out. I had a bit of difficulty making this long enough to be a whole chapter and I kind of ended up including a few lines that didn't accomplish much. Hopefully though, it all works out fine and I'm not going to run into an issue with writer's block already. Will update again soon if all goes well.
