A/N: It's been like a week or so… srry. BUT TONIGHT IS 'IN CHARM'S WAY'!!!! I'm guessing Charmcaster's back. Ahem. People put up FanFics before the epis cum out and it bugss me. So I've been trying really hard on this one because it's prob gunna b a lot better than sum of the others. This one kinda goes along the lines of 'Kevin's Home'. Gwen thought of a lot of things that could go wrong with Kevin living in his car, but she missed one very, very important one that I thought of and found hilarious!! So I'm writing it! And thank you for reviewing!! Luff u all!!! (actually, I pretty much luff anyone…)
Disclaimer: (I remembered it this time!!!! TAKE THAT!!) I don't own Ben 10: Alien Force. If I did, that'd be the coolest thing in the world, but I doubt Man of Action would let me buy it for my lack of an allowance…. 'KAY NAO READ!!!
Theft
Kevin opened his eyes and held the back of his head feeling it wet and sticky. "Ouch." The last memory was of sleeping in the car. Now he was waking up with a massive headache and blood flowing from a wound. He felt the car rumbling beneath him through the dark night. The engine purred loudly as it spurred over ninety miles an hour. That needle on the speedometer must've been working hard. And he wasn't driving it. "What the-"
Duct tape came out of nowhere and covered his mouth, catching on his ebony black hair and sticking to his face. He struggled a bit, but gave up after a moment. A fight in his car would only lead to destruction. Of either him or the car. Poor car. Odds were looking bad for it. Destroying the car would mean possible death, more maintenance, and the idea of crashing it didn't exactly appeal to Kevin.
"Keep him quiet or we may have to blow his head off."
The dark teen's gorgeous brown eyes widened. BLOW MY HEAD OFF?! WHAT ABOUT MY CAR?! WHERE'S THE DAMAGE THERE?! YOU'LL, LIKE, DESTROY IT! DUH! DOES MY CAR DESERVE THAT?! I DON'T THINK SO!
He felt his hands being tied together and held perfectly still. Dead still, he thought with a little laugh inside his head. He'd have to remember that one for Ben later on when he told him the story. But dying wasn't exactly a joke… Oh well.
Nothing to absorb… yet. He looked around for any sort of way out. A man was driving his car along the highway. Dark hair hung out from under the ski mask. Another was in the backseat tying him up. As his senses regained power from the blow to the back of his head, he coul
faintly hear the sirens from behind the car.
No one steals my car. No one. Kevin wrestled to gain the upper hand while still trying to keep the leather seats of the car in one piece. The man held him down easily. His dirty blonde dreadlocks hung in the teen's face. "You keep quiet and you won't get hurt." His voice was harsh and cracked. "We don't want to kill you, but it may be our only option if you keep this up."
"But we'll have to kill him anyways. He already knows too much. He'll be able to identify us in a line-up and then we'll be in prison. It'd be better if he was dead."
Okay, I'm dying here. It's getting worse and worse and worse and worse-
"Yeah, but it's better to build his confidence," the other pointed out.
-and worse and worse and worse-
"Then he'll want to fight back."
"True."
He shrugged. "I still say we kill him. Execution style."
-and worse and worse and worse times infinity. What is worse times infinity? I should ask Gwen these things…
Both men fell silent.
Kevin tried to bite at the covering over his mouth and only succeeded in tasting the nasty tape. It was sticky and metallic. Mostly sticky. This is getting me nowhere, he thought. But I won't step it up a notch until I'm out of the car. It'd just be more destruction and more time fixing it later. Well, I'm going to have to fix it later anyways.
The man in the driver's seat suddenly swerved the car off road and into the thick, dense pine trees.
They're going to total my car… He was losing his hope. Maybe they'd accidentally kill him and crash the car. Then it'd all be over. No car. A dead Kevin. Sucky death. No Gwen. That last thought hit him almost harder than being slapped in the face. He couldn't die without Gwen.
Her face ran through his mind, every moment they had ever been close. That first comforting hug. Her sleeping peacefully in his car. The dance. Oh the dance… That was one of the more memorable times. He had to have another one of those. Just all alone with the redheaded beauty one last time would be enough to get him through the afterlife, but he didn't have time for another heart-felt moment like that. Kevin had to get out. Fast.
The car jerked and bumped as it crashed over the dirt and mud that splattered across the paint job. It brought Kevin back to his sad but true reality.
One of the men pressed a button that they thought turned on the windshield wipers.
Not that one! Anything but that one! Well maybe not anything, but definitely not that one!
The rockets on the back of the car came on. Suddenly, the three were shooting forward at light speed, crashing through trees unharmed. Good thing trees just snap into when a car that's driving at light speed hits them or else the car would've been trashed in a matter of seconds and the engine would've died quickly.
Both men were screaming bloody murder. Kevin was only in the back, struggling to laugh beneath the disgusting tape. It still tasted nasty. There was no way they'd be able to survive the tortures of his car. Especially when they had no clue on how to work even the simplest things. Jets, flying, guns, and best of all, the obvious fact that it was awesome. No way they could handle it. Never in a million years.
"How do you stop it?!"
"I dunno!"
And Kevin sat there in the backseat, cracking up. It was hilarious. Their panic versus his knowledge. There was no competition. They'd have to let him go so he could drive the car the way he knew would work.
"Untie him! Make it stop!"
Playing right into his hands. His cruel, criminal hands.
"OW!" Kevin let out a short yelp as the tape was ripped off. "You know that you could just be nice about things or at least give me a warning! A few words would suffice!"
"MAKE IT STOP!"
"I mean, you could've said, 'I'll count to three and then rip it off'. That's be good enough, but no, you had to go and hurt my poor innocent face. What did I ever do to you? What? My face not good enough to be spared the tortures of tape? That stuff really hurts, you know. It could like rip my skin off or, like, what if I was trying to grow a mustache? Huh? Then what? You just gonna rip off my mustache like that?"
One man held a gun to the teen's head. "Tell us or we blow your head off."
He shrugged. "You already said you're gonna blow my head off anyways. What's the use? I'd just be saving you another few minutes and helping with your escape. That's helping a criminal. I'm pretty sure I could go to prison for that. I've heard prison's not a good place. So I'll just let you two get caught or die."
He pulled the safety on the gun.
"I'm not gonna go to prison. It's against my nature." The Null Void is more my speed. It's nicer and they've got those pretty little octopus looking guardians that can fly and try to eat me. It makes living so much more of a challenge. Sometimes more fun when I can win. A lot more fun. Then there's more aliens for me to fight and some old colleagues then some allies. But I love those guardians. Almost more than I love- Can't think of her. It hurts too much. If I'm dead, she'll find someone else…
"Kid, are you ready to die?" He pointed out the windshield.
A cliff loomed in the distance.
"Okay, okay." Kevin jumped over the console into the passenger seat that Gwen was usually in, struggling around his bonds to get there. He was glad the girl wasn't with him when this happened. It'd be a nightmare. She'd… She'd probably be the one getting him out of the situation while destroying his innocent car in the process. "Here's what you're going to do." He pressed buttons and the steering wheel was suddenly opened up and taken into the dashboard of the car. It reappeared on the passenger's side only a few moments later. "This car is mine and only I get to drive it. Got that? So you morons are going to sit there and behave." He looked over his shoulder at the man with the gun. "And give me that thing."
The moron handed it over without thinking.
"Hey, Gwen?" Ben called into the kitchen as he watched the news. "Have you seen this?"
The redhead came back into her cousin's living room with a bowl of popcorn in her hands. "Um, no." She looked closely at the police chase on the television. Most of it was being filmed from a helicopter from the news channel. "Is that Kevin's car?!" she asked in shock. "There is no way that could be him! He's changed!" Her mind raced to the times he had reverted back, but only momentarily. This couldn't be any different, could it?
"This has been going on for about an hour," the brunette said. "It's actually better than that movie I had. Guess Sumo Slammers is going to have to wait until this is over."
"Kevin," Gwen moaned. Her mind was still distracted on the thought of him reverting back to his criminal self. He wouldn't. He's different.
Ben paused the news for a moment. He was grateful for a good tv that could do that. "Look right there." He pointed into the car's window on the screen. "Don't lie to me. Who is that?" He ran his fingers over the dark hair and face.
Sure enough, Kevin was in the passenger seat.
"That is him, but something is definitely wrong. He's in the passenger seat and obviously not driving."
"He flipped out after I drove it when we were with Paradox. So you're right," Ben agreed. "Something's wrong." He squinted trying to focus on the . "Oh wait. He is driving. See? There's the cute black steering wheel and his hands on it even though… his hands are tied and they're red and sticky looking… Is that blood? What the heck did he do to get in that kind of trouble?"
"Oh my god. We have to help him." Gwen quickly ran to the door to slip her shoes on.
"Is that a gun?" Ben asked, a bit shocked to see it. He had better alien tech than that. Why use something utterly useless against aliens?
She looked back to Ben, desperation burning in her glowing green eyes. "Are you coming some time soon? He needs us!"
Ben jumped up. "Yeah, yeah, sure."
Kevin flicked some switches, turning off the rockets on the back. The roaring became quieter to just the rumbling of the engine at top speed.
"So how in the world did you get this car to do that?" the one man asked from the back seat. His eyes were wide with fear.
"Who said anything about this world?" Kevin snickered. He let the car roll off the cliff, still at over a hundred miles an hour. "There is a whole universe out there. I could be an alien for all you know."
At the bottom were monstrous stalactites, ready to shred the metal of the car to pieces.
Fun time.
Ben stared at the tv only a second longer while Gwen looked for her coat. It was probably in a closet somewhere, but he didn't think to mention it. "He just went off a cliff…"
"KEVIN DID WHAT NOW?!" The girl raced back to her cousin, nearly tripping down the stairs over her own feet. She watched as the green car with its jet black racing stripes fell into the dark abyss below. Doomed.
"Oh, he is so screwed. No way he can ever pull out of that now." Ben leaned back on the couch in defeat. "Even if he had the right equipment in that thing, there is no way he can pull almost a one eighty to get the car out before it hits." He sighed and watched the tv longer as the reporters went on about more crud with the news. Boring. "Guess we'll just have to fight alien scum without him now."
Gwen's eyes filled with cold, salty tears. "What happened? Why would he do this to himself?" She fell into the sofa next to her cousin.
"Suicide?" Ben offered. It just occurred to him how much his cousin really did care about the ex-con.
"He's smarter than that. I don't think he'd do that to me."
"To you?" the boy asked. "The world doesn't revolve around you, Gwen." He knew she had a big ego sometimes, but this was worse than normal. She'd never said anything aloud about her relationship with Kevin. This was new for Ben to see her show a serious emotion other than anger towards the older teen.
She brushed her hair out of her eyes as the tears slid down her face. "Ben, what are we going to do?" The redhead buried her face in her cousin's chest. She wished he was Kevin. Safe and with her. Not driving off cliffs somewhere. Not dead.
Kevin laughed hysterically as the men kept screaming like little girls. He made a mental note to self to never scream like that in the future. Ever. Then before any of them could blink, the car was shooting upwards again faster than it had ever moved before. And Kevin laughed harder. It was going to be more fun torturing them than it would be just turning them in shortly and sweetly. "So how about we take a trip?"
"NO!" the one in the driver's seat shrieked.
"PUT IT BACK DOWN! LET US GO!"
"I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!"
"LORD, DON'T LET HIM KILL US!"
He rolled his eyes and grinned. This is gonna be a long night. Fun, but long. The car flew past a helicopter.
The cameraman caught great footage.
That face flashed past. Ben rewound it quickly and paused it at an exact spot. "Look," he murmured.
Kevin's face was on the screen. Blood was on his cheeks and forehead, some dripping into his eyes. And there was a maniacal smile on his pale face. He was laughing like some twisted psychopath.
"What the heck has he done?" Gwen asked. She leaned into Ben for comfort and stared at that face she'd been watching for so long, hoping for that moment when he'd finally say something more than just an insult or lame joke. "That suicide apparently didn't work. So there's gotta be something else."
Then she saw it. "The guys. They're in the car. Who are they?"
"No clue," Ben replied, studying them for a second. "But at least Kevin's not dead, right?"
Gwen nodded with a content sigh. "You're right. He's not dead. He's fine." Her emerald eyes glittered. He's fine. Her thoughts buzzed around him. Kevin's eyes. His face. His hair. He was like an addiction that can't be beat. A drug that has no cure. She breathed a bit easier, knowing that she'd be able to see him again, living and breathing. "I want Kevin."
"KID, YOU ARE CRAZY!"
"So?"
"YOU'RE NOT REALLY GONNA LEAVE US HERE ARE YOU?!"
"Yes, yes I am."
"IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE?!"
"IT BURNS!"
"IT REALLY, REALLY HURTS, KID!"
"LET'S US GO OR WE'LL SHOOT YOU!"
"With what?"
"WE HAVE A GUN!"
"Which I 'borrowed'." Kevin put up the air quotes. "This isn't torture. This is simply a test of your ability."
The two men were hanging from a tree by their underwear. A torture that used to be used frequently on Ben. Kevin didn't use it by choice on his newly found friend, but it was better on criminals. Especially car thieves. No one steals my car. No one.
"ABILITY OF WHAT?!"
"Pain tolerance," the teen replied coolly. "I'll be back in three hours."
"YOU'RE GONNA LEAVE US?!"
"Yes, yes I am."
"WHAT?!"
"You don't just steal a guy's car when he's sleeping in it!" Kevin hissed. "Don't you know the mechanic's code? Number five: Never steal another dude's car. Also, never steal a dude's car WHEN HE'S SLEEPING IN IT!"
"WHY?!"
"My car is my home for cryin' out loud! Everything I own is in there! You can't just expect me to buy another one of these! It's really old! I had to have Paradox give me a new one after Ben totaled it last time! No one is going to steal it from me. I won't let them," Kevin lectured. "So what have we learned today?"
"Don't steal a dude's car," the first sighed.
"Don't steal a car that a dude's sleeping in," the other answered.
"And?" Kevin asked.
"And being a criminal is wrong?" one man offered.
"Yes, it is. And what else?"
The other thought for a moment. "You're a terrible person?"
"I learned that a long time ago," the dark teen laughed quietly, his deep brownish black eyes shining with the humor. Gwen would disapprove of it, but Kevin knew it was right.
"I DON'T KNOW!"
"Good. Now think about it for a few hours. I shall be sleeping in my car. My phone alarm will go off and then we will see if you've learned anything by then." He retreated to his car. The paint was chipped off in most places, but he could always fix that. No problem. Just ask for a bit of money to make sure that it got fixed and he would be set until it was destroyed next time. Easy.
Ben looked around the site, hoping for a sign of the missing teen. "Maybe he jumped out when the car went over the cliff…" he thought, giving Gwen an idea. "He might've absorbed something and fell down there. He's probably alive somewhere."
"I can't trace him. His mana it just, like, disappeared. I'd need something he touched or walked on. Anything! But he was in his car…" Gwen sighed. "He's gone!" She stared at her shoes and folded her arms across her chest as the night air's chill got to her exposed arms.
"It's alright," the brunette breathed. He walked over to her and quietly held her for a while. "We can find him."
"Not if he's dead," Gwen sobbed. She hadn't realized that the tears had finally broken free. Her voice was choked and broken. "Ben, we could've stopped him. I knew. I knew that something could go wrong. I knew, but he didn't want me to tell. And I love him and that's why I didn't. I trusted Kevin not to go off and do something stupid like this and he did and now he's dead! He's dead! It's my fault! I could've stopped it!"
Ben didn't try to stop her. She'd only argue more. He held her and rocked her in his arms. She needed him more than ever. "You should've told him sooner."
"Told him what?"
"Told him how you really felt," Ben told her. "Then he might not have done anything stupid. Like this." He looked at her carefully. "You could've stopped him. He would've been fine. He could've been here with us. Gwen, you can't take care of him just because you think he'd be fine. He wanted you just as much."
She only sniffled. "I know. He just never admitted it. He was crazy for not saying anything."
"Well he's not here right now. Let's not blame it on him."
Gwen had to breathe deeply for awhile until she could finally think again. "You're right. It's not his fault."
"You had the same opportunity as he did."
"Yeah."
Ben kept her close to him for a few moments longer before saying, "Ready to go home now?"
She only nodded, glad to still have someone there for her.
Three hours later, Kevin looked back in the tree. "Figure anything out yet?"
"Don't you wish!" they both cried.
"Now, please, please, let us down!" one yelled.
He smiled. "Done and done." He cut down the men. "Now leave because I called the cops a while ago. They should be here in about five… four… three… two… one…"
The sirens arrived.
Kevin told the officers his account of the story before following his car for towing and repairs.
The next day, he let the car roll up to Gwen's driveway. He honked the horn twice. Still no response. Maybe she already got a ride, he thought. Then it was pushed away. She wouldn't do that. She was Gwen. Never late. Never forgot to call. Never forgot a mission (something he and Ben sometimes struggled with). And she would never leave him outside in his car waiting for more than ten minutes. It'd already been half an hour.
Finally, he shut off the purring engine. "Gwen, you'd better not be in there because if you're ignoring me, I will make this an issue," he growled to himself as he walked up the front steps. He rang the doorbell.
After the fifth time (he wasn't giving up and he'd rather not ram down the door), the door opened.
Before he knew what was happening, Gwen was hugging his torso tightly, threatening to never let go and possibly break his ribcage. She was crying into him. With relief and joy and every other emotion that she could pour out. Even the ones she knew he wouldn't understand.
He stroked her hair and kept one arm around her waist. Kevin wouldn't let go of her for the world. "I should've called. I'm sorry," he kept saying over and over again, but she sobbed harder, glad to hear him say those words.
When she regained that bit of thought she had left and wasn't crying her eyes out, she told him, "Don't let it happen again."
Kevin nodded and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry," he repeated for probably the millionth time. "I swear I'll be more careful."
"I love you."
To that, he only smiled and pulled her closer. "Ditto."
With the mood lightened, Gwen got up the courage to ask one thing. "So what really happened? Who were those guys in your car?"
He sighed. "It is a very long story which I shall tell you-" He thought, checking his watch. They had a mission with Ben in less than five minutes. "Later. Right now, we need to fight some DNAliens. You up for it?"
She grinned. He was alive. He was there. He loved her. She would be ready to jump off a cliff at that point. "Yeah. And how is that car still in one piece?"
"An even longer story."
A/N: Kevin's car was bound to be stolen one of these days! Especially after the whole J.T. and Cash thing from 'The Gauntlet'. It proves, it definitely could happen. Cuz it is definitely a kewl ride. I'd die for it…
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'KAY BI NAO!!! THANXXXXXXEZZZZZ!!!
