Chapter 9: Normal, Again

"-see the place, Gwen. Its like the best mall you've ever been to-" Ben said as he followed her back up front. He'd been telling her all about the place for the last half hour. He'd even stood on the other side of the bedroom door as she changed into her Plumber's jumpsuit.

Gwen picked at the sleeves as she sat down. It felt like it had shrunk. "Does it have any clothes stores?"

"As if. But its got labs, and an armory, and even a hang…"

"Then its nowhere NEAR the best."

"God, you're such a GIRL. Can you believe her, Grandpa?"

"Can he believe what? That I CARE about how I look?" Gwen said. She tried to sound upset, but it was hard to do while she was grinning. She'd missed this. It was so easy to push his buttons. For the first time in months, she could relax.

She must've pulled off the upset better than she thought, because Grandpa Max gave her a pleading glance to stop. Which turned into a full on confused stare when he saw her smile.

"I care," Ben said. "I just look good in anything, so I don't OBSESS over it, unlike some people."

Gwen flinched at that. "I don't obsess."

"Do too."

"Do not." She felt his foot kick the back of her seat and for a second she thought about reaching back and giving him a zap with her new lightning spell. She couldn't do much with it yet, but she could make a heck of a spark. Tempting, but she was in too good of a mood. "I'm just glad that I finally get to see the mystery base."

"It wasn't a mystery, Gwen. I just knew how much you do after school and I thought you would be bored," Grandpa said.

"Because I find fancy science stuff so boring."

She heard Ben sigh. "I told you we should have asked her."

"Sorry, honey," Grandpa Max said.

"Its okay. Are we close?"

What looked like an abandoned gas station flew past them. An abandoned gas station that must have been on fire once, because all that was left were the singed walls. "Almost," Grandpa said.

"Its going to be so cool," Ben said again. "First we ride this huge elevator down, and then its like..." Ben stopped as the jet engines on the side of the Rust Bucket died. The sudden quiet after an hour of the roar of the engines made her ears hurt. The whole R.V. Started to shake as they slowed down. She watched the road start to curve up ahead to get around the mountain that they'd been driving towards for the last hour, but Grandpa Max didn't turn. Gwen thought it was normal until Ben cleared his throat. "Grandpa, we're missing the turn."

"And the road!"

"We aren't taking the road. Hold on!" The Rust Bucket jumped off of the road and onto the dry ground with an explosion of dust and a jolt that sent Gwen bouncing back up. Her seat belt dug into her as it held her in place. She heard Ben grunt behind her, but Grandpa didn't move or make a sound as he watched out the windshield.

"This isn't the way we usually come."

Gwen hoped not. If they had to do all this bouncing around she was just as happy that she got to stay home.

"We're not walking through the front door if the base is sending out alarms, Ben."

"Why not?"

"Don't mind him, Grandpa. He just likes getting shot at." Which was close enough to being true that she wondered about her cousin. "Can't we just walk, though?"

"We're almost there."

The mountain was closing in fast enough that she started to think that they were going to drive right into it when Grandpa Max finally hit the brakes. Gwen wiggled out of her seat belt and hopped out the door just as the Rust Bucket rocked to a stop, but Ben still somehow beat her out. "Too slow!"

"So immature," she said, even as she wondered how she could have gotten out faster. She looked around, and except for the base of the mountain that was still a mile away the only thing nearby was a boulder about the size of her house. She couldn't imagine what had made it roll so far.

She looked at Ben, and he nodded as he started twisting through the Omnitrix to pick the perfect alien. When Grandpa Max came around he was double checking his pistol before he holstered it. They looked at him and asked, "How do you open it?" at the same time.

"That obvious, huh?" Grandpa Max said as he walked past them. They followed only a step behind. He circled the rock twice before he found the perfectly ordinary section he was looking for. He raised his gloved hand and pressed it against the rock.

"How does it scan your hand-print through your glove?" Gwen asked.

"It doesn't. Its hooking up to my suit to take my bio readings."

"Wirelessly?"

Grandpa Max shook his head."With a bunch of little spikes. It's a little surprise in case someone does think its a hand print reader."

"Do you ever think that the Plumbers may be a little TOO paranoid?"

"No such thing." The rock groaned and Grandpa ushered them all back as it started to raise. The whole rock. It had to weigh tons. All the sand that had been blown on it poured off in little sand falls. Under the center of the rock was a ten foot wide square that led into darkness. "The elevator should have come up with it. Ben?"

Ben nodded. "I've got the perfect one." He slammed his hand down. When the green light faded a seven foot tall werewolf stood in front of them.

"Fleabag?" Gwen asked.

"Benwolf," he rumbled back.

Gwen made a face. "You can do better than that."

The wolf stared at her and his ears went flat. "Furface?"

"I like Fleabag, but that can go for any of your forms. So Furface is good."

"I am going to shed all over your stuff," Ben promised, but his tail wagged just a little as he stepped up to the edge. Despite his size, his three clawed feet didn't make a sound as he walked across the sand. He stuck his head over the edge and took a couple of deep sniffs and grunted. "Wow, something smells rank down there."

"Rank, how?"

"Rank like the day the engine of the Rust Bucket started spewing up stuff," he took another sniff and gagged. "No, ranker. Like that goop the Dweeb smears on her face rank."

"That is an expensive face cream!"

"That smells like something Stinkfly hocked up," Ben said without looking at her. "Want me to go down?"

"Its about thirty feet down. Be careful."

Ben nodded and hopped into the hole. Gwen held her breath until she heard the heavy thump a couple of seconds later. There weren't any curses or screaming, so the Doofus must've landed okay. No shooting, either. "Spaz," she muttered down the tunnel.

"Freak," Furface's voice echoed back up. "It's clear, Grandpa, but I don't think this elevator is going anywhere. There's red stuff spewing out from under it."

"Hydraulic fluid," Max said and sighed.

"It must have sprung a leak," Gwen said.

"Or someone found it," Grandpa Max said. "We'll be down in a minute, Ben."

"I'll check up ahead," Ben's voice echoed up.

"Wait for us before you start anything," Max called down as he moved around to a ladder that had been carved in the side of the wall.

Gwen wasn't the least bit surprised that Ben didn't answer back. He was probably halfway down the tunnel by now.

"I think I have a better idea," Gwen said as she eyed the very small ladder and thought about how much she did not want to climb down it in the dark. She closed her eyes in concentration and said the old words. She felt the spell move through her, from the bottom of her feet to her outstretched hands. When she opened her eyes there was a light blue disc waiting just over the edge of the shaft

"Are you sure you can hold it?" Max asked as he eyed the disc.

Gwen answered by stepping out. She always expected the disc to be a slick as glass, but it was more like walking on a freshly cut lawn. There was just enough give in it to keep her from slipping off. There was a pinch behind her eyes as she stepped on it. The pinch got worse when Grandpa Max stepped on it, but it didn't hurt any more than when she spent too much time reading. She thought of the disc descending into the pit and it did. The hardest part was keeping them from falling too fast.

Grandpa Max stepped off of the disc once they reached the bottom and shook his head at the ruined elevator. Gwen stepped off next to him and let the spell go. The disc disappeared with a little pop as she turned her attention to the tunnel. She'd been worried that it was going to be a cramped, closed in space. She never thought that it would be huge, with the roof was easily ten feet above her head. If it wasn't for the flickering red light and the fiery shadows they cast it would have been fine. Gwen shivered. "Could they make the place any creepier?"

"Creepy is how you know you're in Fort Tesla," Max said as he led the way down the tunnel at a jog. He followed the three clawed tracks in the sand and dust that slipped in and covered the floor over the years. He looked around and got a look in his eyes that always came just before he started talking about the old days. Most of her friends hated that look, but their grandpas never told stories about jumping out of a UFO just before it exploded.

"This used to be the base that we brought all the alien tech so we could figure out how to use it. From their toothbrushes to their ships. Back in the heyday of the Plumbers almost five hundred people used to work here. Not as many as at the Rushmore base, but it was still big. This was the place most of the technical work was done. All the best equipment we could buy, borrow or – um, borrow from a dozen systems… "

"Used to?"

"They mothballed the place after I left and consolidated it with Fort Edison out east. That was where we manufactured all of the stuff we figured out how to copy."

"Where out east?"

Grandpa Max shook his head. "East."

"Is it close?"

"Gwen."

"Can't blame me for being curious," she said as innocently as she could. She could get it out of Ben later.

"Ben doesn't know either," he said, as if he could read her mind. "Now, let's catch up with him before he gets in trouble."

"Ben? In trouble? No. Not Ben," she scoffed.

A howl of pain echoed up the tunnel.

"It was a joke, Doofus!" she shouted, her face white, and ran. She heard Grandpa Max call after her, but she didn't even slow down. Her best time running a mile at school was just shy of eight minutes. Now, even in boots and a jumpsuit, she beat it.

"It really does look like a mall," she said in awe as she stopped just at the mouth of the escape tunnel and looked out at the base. "A really, really big mall."

The main hall was huge, almost 50 feet from one wall to the other and the ceiling was twenty feet above her head. The walls even retracted in places like store doors to show off what looked like huge labs behind them. Every few feet there were doors, and she could only imagine what was hiding behind them.

Unfortunately, it was a trashed mall. Worse than even anything even Ben had ever managed.

There were papers everywhere, broken glass, broken lights. Someone had actually gone to the trouble of breaking each and every light in the ceiling. Only the flashing red emergency lighting still worked. Pieces of the wall and floor had been pried out of place and the wire underneath them torn out by the mile. Bits of what had to be alien equipment were lying crushed on the ground. And whatever couldn't be torn out and destroyed had been melted or burned in place. The smoke was still lingering in the air. Even the dividers between the labs and the hall had been torn from place and crushed.

And, for some reason, there was a box spring from a bed lying on the floor right in front of the escape tunnel.

And Ben was in the middle of it all, surrounded by seven ... things that were as tall as her and there were three more on the ground and not moving around him. They looked like snakes and flies that had gotten together and had a nightmare. With wings and three sets of – Gwen couldn't think of what to call them except for arms. Not that they had fingers or anything. They were more a series of segmented stalks with the segments coming closer together until they were too close together to see at the end. And they had stingers the size of her forearm at the end of their tail.

Gwen watched the bug monsters and felt the same flash of fear she always did. She heard the little voice in the back of her head that told her that this was crazy and dangerous and she was only eleven and if she was even half as smart as she thought she was she would go hide somewhere and let someone else deal with this.

But the only other person was her Doofus, and there was no way he could do this without her. So she pushed the fear aside.

Case in point, one of the bug monsters was on his chest with all six of its arms were wrapped around his arms and bits of fur or uniform, while its body slithered against him. Ben had one arm between them and the other wrapped around the stinger that the monster was trying to drive into his stomach. There was a crack as the stinger snapped off in his hand.

The thing writhed in pain, but it didn't let go. Instead the thing Gwen had thought was its head split open and a disgusting, dripping pale yellow sack popped out like an airbag. Ben yanked his head back just in time to keep it from his face, but it twisted and landed on his right shoulder instead. The second it landed, a thick white smoke rose up from where it hit and the smell of burning fur filled the air.

Ben brought up his free hand and clawed at its stomach. "Will you stop doing that! It's beyond disgusting!"

Gwen saw one of the bug monsters fly behind Ben. It hovered in the air for just a second as it aimed and dove down at his back stinger first. She raised her hand and threw an explosive ball of magic at it. She hit the monster dead center. It fell from the sky and laid twitching on its back when it hit the ground.

Ben didn't even glance over as he danced around with the one he was wrestling with. "About time."

"Hey, you could have waited."

He was about to say something when the thing opened its mouth again. "I don't think so." His muzzle spit open four ways. Gwen shoved her hands over her ears as he howled. The debris on the floor danced from the sonic assault. The monster tried to hold on, but it was ripped away – along with some good sized chunks of fur - and sent bouncing down the hall.

He jumped into the air before he even stopped howling and pulled another bug from the sky. He twisted it under him and landed on it feet first, and even with her ears ringing she heard it go pop under his weight. The rest aimed their stingers at him and got ready to attack.

"Hold onto something!" Gwen shouted. Ben nodded and got low as she called out, "Atherius Expectorium Perpetua!" A whirlwind sprang out from her palm. Her jumpsuit fluttered around her as the wind sucked in air from the tunnel behind her. Within seconds of being cast the spell was strong enough to start sucking up the debris on the ground.

The five bugs still in the air dropped down and clutched at the ground as Gwen threw the spell at them. She only caught two directly, but the other three were tossed around or hit with enough bits of debris to hurt them. It gave Ben the chance to pounce on two of them before they could recover. His jaws just finished crunching down on the second one when the third leapt for his back. He spun around and caught it in a perfect, if basic, spin kick. The thing went flying away and slammed into the wall.

"You have been paying attention," Gwen said, and she didn't even try to hide the pride in her voice. She was so glad that she had a partner to practice with this summer. She had done all the exercises she could do by herself last year, but it just wasn't the same.

Ben shrugged and pushed himself back onto Furface's hind legs. "Have to. I'm not waiting two years to beat you."

Gwen grinned. "Bring it on, fleabag."

Ben looked over at her and gave her a doggy smile. "Oh, I – look out!"

She looked up just in time to see one of the monsters dropping down on her from the ceiling twenty feet over her head. She sidestepped just in time to avoid its stinger, but that barely slowed it down. It caught itself on its back four arms as it reached for her with the front two. It opened its mouth, and for the first time she saw the short sharp teeth that lined it.

She brought her hand up and called up the magic platform as a shield between them. Her head pounded from the effort of calling up that much magic so fast.

The monster bug stood on its back two arms and so the other four could all flail around the edge of the shield in a desperate attempt to reach her. She felt one touch her cheek and screamed as she felt the short sticky hairs on it catch against her face.

She wasn't thinking about the spell as she pushed her hand out, she jut wanted to get the monster as far away from her as possible. The shield went flying away from her and slammed into the wall with the monster bug between them. The shield shattered from the blow and the bug monster collapse to the ground. Gwen looked at the monster, and then stared down at her outstretched hand. She never even thought of using the spell like that. "Wow."

"Show off," Ben said as he padded over.

"If you've got it," she said and wiggled her fingers. Her grin faded once she got a good look at him. Furface was a mess. The skin around his chest and shoulders were bleeding a little from having the fur ripped out, and he had burnt patches on his shoulder and and a huge one on his back. The skin on his back was burned and still smoking a little. She wished she had something to wash it off with.

He fidgeted under her attention. "That was a lucky shot. I'd grabbed him before I knew they could spit goop."

"Why didn't you wait?"

"That's what I want to know," Grandpa Max said as he came out of the tunnel. He was only a little red and winded from the run.

Ben looked back and forth between them. "Some of them were already coming up the tunnel, Grandpa. They saw me and I didn't want to get stuck fighting them in there. So I tackled them."

Grandpa Max stared at him for just long enough for a worried whine to start in the wolf's throat. Then turned to Gwen. "What about you?"

Gwen met his eyes and only cringed a little. "Ben needed me."

As if saying his name was a cue, the Omnitrix beeped and flashed and he was back to his old self.

"Okay. But we're going to do this as a team now." Grandpa Max said. He looked down around and seemed to deflate a little. She could only imagine how it must have looked the last time Grandpa Max saw it. Seeing it like this...

"We already found the guys that did this, Grandpa," Ben said and waved him over to one of the bug monsters. "What kind of alien is it?"

"Why? Do you want to add it to the watch?" Gwen asked as Grandpa went over and kneeled down next to the monster.

"Are you kidding? Did you not see that yellow thing it kept spitting at me? I've picked things out of my toes that were less gross than that."

"So, it'll be a step up for you."

"We'll see if you still think that tonight," Ben said and knelt down on the other side of the bug from Grandpa. He twisted the knob at the top of the Omnitrix and the display went yellow.

She looked at the thing's face and knew she was going to wake up with it staring down at her in the dark. She couldn't help the shiver that went up her spine. She rushed him and tried to pull his arm away. "Don't you dare!"

The Omnitrix beeped. "Too late!"

"If they are aliens, I've never seen them before," Grandpa said with a clinical voice behind them. He stood up and looked at the rest of the beaten monsters. "That yellow thing was its stomach. That's how they must eat. They go up and eject their stomach on their food and then pull it all back inside. That way digestion begins before they even get the food in their bodies."

Gwen paled and knew that it wouldn't be safe to sleep for a long, long time. "That's so wrong."

"It spit its stomach on me?" Ben asked in a panic as he pulled off his lucky shirt and started spinning around to see if the goop was still on him. "It spit its stomach on me!"

"It got you?" Max said with just a bit of panic. He hurried over and looked Ben over. "It doesn't look like there is anything on you now, but you better wash up when we get back to the Rust Bucket just to be sure. Gwen, make sure that he does. Gwen?"

"Sorry, Grandpa." Gwen blinked and looked away. She'd just been worried, that was all. She wasn't staring. Why would she be? It wasn't like this was the first time she'd seen the Doofus without a shirt. "I've been trying to make Ben take a shower for years now, but I'll do my best."

"We've beaten up whatever they are. We can hit the road, right?" Ben asked as he stared at his shirt for a moment before he put it back on.

"Not until we check the whole base."

"Give me a few and I'll XLR8 it."

"We can still look around until then," Max said. He looked to the right. Gwen followed him and saw the hall end about two hundred feet away. Instead of the big lab doors, it was lined with little ones. "The dorms are back there. Ben, check those first. The hanger and control room are down this way."

With that they turned and walked left. Gwen was about to ask how people got around in such a big place when she saw a pile of golf carts that all looked like someone had worked them over with sledge hammers. They were all tossed into a pile in the middle of one of the larger labs. She kept looking around, and realized that someone, probably the bug monsters, had been going around organizing things into piles. "Why is everything so big?"

"So we could take apart ships. The smaller labs are down the hallways. Hopefully the security cameras are working or this will take a while even with XLR8," Grandpa Max said.

They were stopped by a pile of debris that was as tall as Gwen that stretched from one end of the hall to the other. There was a giant hole that went through the ceiling and the floor of the lab that the machine must have been torn out of. Whatever it did, it was massive.

"The quark scanner. We only had two," Grandpa said and he sounded heartbroken. "It took us a year to get our hands on this. And months to put it in place. I can't believe that they tore it all out."

Ben stared at the pile as he tried to figure out how to climb it. Gwen didn't wait. She gave it a quick look and scrambled to the top. She leaned down to Ben and held her hand out.

Ben snorted. A second later he climbed up like he was part mountain goat and was standing right next to her. She sniffed and he rolled his eyes while Grandpa Max climbed up behind them.

And hurried down the other side. When he hit the ground he did it at a run. Gwen and Ben stared after him before they hurried to follow as Grandpa Max knelt beside a man that they never even saw while they were playing king of the hill. A man dressed in a Plumbers uniform.

Or what was left of a man. He was still alive. He was even still in one piece. The only problem was that that piece wasn't all human anymore. It was like a cancer that had eaten away at his left side. His arm had shrivelled into a green and plated stick that was lined with ridges and sharp enough to tear through the side of his uniform. Ben froze and Gwen's hands went to her mouth in shock.

Grandpa Max didn't even hesitate as he knelt down and touched the man. The man jerked at the touch and made an odd hissing noise, but Grandpa Max didn't let go. "It's okay, I'm a Plumber, too."

The man stopped fighting as Grandpa Max gently rolled him onto his back. And even he froze when he saw the man's face. It was a mix of human and alien. He had sandy brown hair and his face looked old – like her parents' age old. His human eye was wide with terror and pain. The other… The other was a mix of mirrors that reflected the dark hallway around them set in an armored green plate. There was a pincher growing out of his left cheek. The man just stared and whimpered as the pincher bit at the air.

"Jerry?" Grandpa Max asked, his voice catching as hurried over and knelt down next to the man. The man looked at their grandfather and calmed. He might have even tried to grin, but the alien half of his face wouldn't cooperate. "I didn't think that anyone else would have checked the alarm. How many were in your team?"

Jerry tried to open his mouth, but the bits wouldn't cooperate. He reached out with his human hand and tapped twice. He searched Grandpa's face with his human eye. His alien eye... Gwen couldn't even imagine what he saw through that eye.

"We haven't found them yet, but we will. Can – can you tell me which way they went?"

The man tried to turn over and point with his human hand, but he let out a hiss as his body spasmed with pain. Ben dropped to his knees and grabbed the man by the shoulders to try to hold him in place while Gwen took the man's hand. His hand felt cold under hers as she squeezed down as hard as she could, just so he would know that he wasn't alone. He turned just enough to look at her, and his eye went wide. "Over there? The door twenty feet down?" she asked, and pointed at one of the busted open doors. He closed his eye and nodded, his body shaking with the effort."

"Thank you. I've already called it in, Jerry. We'll fix this."

The man made a horrible noise that could only have been a laugh as Grandpa reached into the small pack at his thigh and pulled out a small cylinder. "You youngsters have no faith. We've dealt with this before. When you wake up, you'll be fine." He twisted at a dial at the bottom and pressed the cylinder against the man's neck. "I promise."

There was a hiss. The man's eye fluttered. Just before he went under Gwen leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the forehead, right where the two bodies mixed into one. A single tear leaked from his eye as he went still. Gwen looked at him and her eyes burned. "Can you help him?"

"I'll be able to tell when we find the man who did this."

"Animo," Ben said. He spat out the name.

Max nodded.

"There are two more people here," Gwen said as she stood back up. "We have to save them."

"It's what we do," Ben said. He gave the man's human shoulder a squeeze before he stood up and started walking to the door. Gwen hurried up next to him, but she couldn't take her eyes off of the man. She didn't know who reached for who, but she knew she was glad to feel Ben's hand brush against hers.

The door was open and inviting. Just looking at it made Gwen's stomach ache with worry. She held out her hand to call out another shield and glanced over at Ben. He nodded and reached for the Omnitrix.

A second later Wildvine was walking next to her. Gwen felt the usual flash of memory of the vines dragging her underground as she heard its vines drag across the ground, but she was glad to see him.

Ben tilted his head and looked at the floor with Wildvine's one large eye as his roots spread out. Gwen wondered why when she felt the floor start to shake under them. "There's-" Ben began, but that was as far as he got before something came bursting through the door in an explosion of cement as it shattered the door frame.

Gwen called up her shield in front of her and Ben and got a quick glimpse of something huge and gray heading towards them before it burst through. Something hit her and sent her sprawling to the ground. She heard Grandpa shout and shoot.

Her head spun as she reached out, but she couldn't find Ben. She forced herself to her feet and looked. The gray blob was a man, she realized. Or something that looked like a man. One with dark gray skin and even taller than Grandpa. He was racing towards the wall with Wildvine caught on the top of his head.

They hit the wall so hard that the concrete face of the wall shattered for ten feet around the impact point. The man shoved off of the wall with both hands and turned. There was a foot long horn in his forehead just above his eyes, a horn stained green. Once she saw the horn she recognized him, but it didn't matter.

"Ben?" Gwen asked as she watched Wildvine slump to the floor and not move.

"Ben!" Grandpa Max shouted and fired a half a dozen shots at the rhino guy.

They hit him in the chest, but he just grinned. "An old man and a little girl," he said, his voice a rumble. Then he looked back at Ben on the ground. "And a monster. The boss warned me about you. Told him the big bugs weren't enough. Oh, well. One down, two to go." He lowered his head and charged again at Grandpa Max.

Grandpa Max didn't flinch as he fired a dozen more shots at the man, but had just as little effect. He jumped to the side at the last second and rolled. The rhinoman didn't slow when he missed, he just turned towards Gwen.

Gwen charged at him. She didn't use magic. She didn't think it would work if Grandpa's gun didn't and she didn't need the distraction, but if magic didn't work, maybe karate would. The man laughed and lowered his head. Gwen sidestepped him and kicked out at his knee as he passed.

The man howled as his knee popped. He howled and stopped, but he didn't fall. Instead he just turned around and glared at her. "You're that eager to follow your pet? Fine."

He took a step forward and and Gwen stepped back, her mind racing. She'd thought that that would be enough, she didn't know what-

"I'm not her pet, she's my sidekick!" Wildvine shouted as he raced past her. He launched himself at the rhino guy. The rhino guy reached out to punch him, but Ben slipped around him and caught the man's arms in a Full Nelson while the roots of his legs grew and circled around the man's stomach.

"Get off of me, weed," Rhino grunted as he tried to pull his arms free. Gwen saw the vines around his chest tighten as he talked. His last words came in a wheeze and his face went red.

It only took her a second to figure out Ben's plan. They couldn't zap the guy, but he still needed to breathe. Wrap enough vines around his chest and squeeze every time he took a breath, and that would stop. "Clever," she whispered. But it wouldn't work if the guy got enough of the roots off to breathe.

Gwen charged forward and jumped. She had to kick off of the man's bent knee to get high enough. She shoved her hand in the man's face and shouted, "Fulgor!" Lightning crackled out from her fingers. The man screamed and pulled his arms free from Ben's grip but instead of trying to pull the vines off his hands went to his face. The man let loose a stream of words so bad that Gwen couldn't help glancing over at her grandfather out of guilt.

Each word came out a little more breathless as Ben squeezed his ribcage tighter. The man realized at the last second what was happened. He reached down to tear at the vines, but his face was so red it was almost purple. The muscles in his neck stood out like cables as he strained to take a breath, but as strong as he was, Ben was stronger. He only lasted a couple of seconds before his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the ground.

Ben held on for another second and then slithered free. He came up to her and looked her over. "You okay?"

Gwen nodded and rubbed at her right arm, which hadn't even hurt from her fall until he mentioned it. Her eyes went to the hole in his chest. "You?"

"Oh, that. He just caught me by surprise," Ben said. He squinted and the plants that made up Wildvine twisted until the hole closed. He looked down and cocked his head to the side. "I think I recognize sleeping ugly."

"We saw him in..." She glanced back at Grandpa Max, who was just staring at them. She lowered her voice and leaned in closer. "We saw him in the future!"

"Oh yeah!" Ben said. "Wanna give him an atomic wedgie?"

Gwen giggled. "That would explain why he was so mad at us."

Ben chuckled and bent down, but Grandpa Max came up and gave them both an odd look. Then he looked at the man and pulled the sedative out of his leg pouch again. He turned the dial all the way up and injected it in the man's neck. He wasn't looking at them as he said, "You two make a good team. Glad you haven't gotten rusty over the last nine months."

"Must be the karate," Ben said just a second later, the words coming out in a rush.

Gwen could only nod and think that it was so unfair that she was the only one who could blush when Ben was an alien.

Grandpa Max just stared and she knew that he didn't believe them. She was ready for the worst when he turned away and started walking to the ruined door. "Let's find Animo."

Ben and Gwen followed. Ben leaned in close again and whispered, "What he said after you zapped him, did you get all of that? I was kinda busy."

It only took her a second to realize what he meant. She gave him a very evil grin. "Yeah."

"Good."

"But I don't think you're mature enough for the good ones."

"Hey! I'm just as mature as you!"

"So not." He glared, but she didn't say another word as they walked down the hallway. They heard the ranting start as they walked past a bathroom so badly flooded that it was filling the hallway.

"They didn't leave anything!" Animo howled. "I could have changed the world with what was here! You could have! There has to be more! Tell me where it is!"

"...won't," a man said, his voice hoarse. There was a crack and the man screamed.

There was another shattered door at the end of the hall. She slipped around Grandpa Max, who was already peaking inside, and took a look. It had to be the control room for the base, but every monitor and computer had been torn apart. Even the chairs were broken.

Animo was in there, too, pacing back and forth and ranting with one of his bug monsters stood behind him. There was a Plumber kneeling in front of the wall with his hands behind his back. His face was already bloody as a second bug monster brought its rope like arm back and hit him across the face. Its arm cracked like a whip when it hit him in the face, and the Plumber cried out in pain.

Another Plumber was curled up in a ball in the corner and not making a sound. Animo didn't look at him until the other Plumber did.

Animo brought up the weapon in his hand again. It looked like a rifle, but bits of it glowed green and there was a container of something hooked to the back. "That's right, look! I can do that to you, too. Make you more perfect! Like my greatest creations here. If I could just find what I need to make more... Just tell me what I want to know!"

The man started to shake his head when he stopped. His eyes went wide as walking bush stepped into the room. The two bug monsters spun around before he'd even made a noise and their wings hummed as they lifted into the air.

They only got a foot into the air before Gwen and Grandpa nailed them with a mix of magic and alien tech.

"I know someone with your face shouldn't be calling anyone else ugly!" Ben said as he stormed toward the small man.

Dr. Animo spun around, his always crazy eyes looked even more strained now. "Its not fair! Why didn't my Glissnars stop you? Or Exo-Skull!"

Animo got off one shot that Ben side-stepped. He yanked the gun out of Animo's grasp with one arm and grabbed Animo by the throat with the other. He slammed the small man against the wall. Seconds later vines broke through the concrete and wrapped themselves around Animo. "How do we fix them, Animo?" Ben growled.

Animo glared down and laughed. "Like I'll ever tell you!"

"I'll make y..." Ben said, when Grandpa came up and put his arm on Ben's shoulder.

"He'll tell us, Ben. You and Gwen go back to the Rust Bucket."

"But Grandpa!" Gwen said.

"What if there are more?" Ben asked.

"Then we'll handle it. Won't we, Henry?" Max said. He went over and cut the tie around the man's wrists.

"Got that right, Mr. Tennyson."

"But..."

"Go. I'll be up in a few minutes," Grandpa Max said. His glare made it clear that they weren't going to be able to talk him out of it. So they went. Ben dragged his feet and didn't say a word the whole way back. Not even when they walked past the man in the hall. She was so glad that he couldn't see them leaving him behind.

They got all the way back to the Rust Bucket before Ben broke. "Its not fair!" he said and slammed shut the door he'd just opened. He turned around to glare at the hole in the ground.

"Glaring isn't going to change his mind," Gwen said. She wished she could have stayed to help, too, but the look in Grandpa's eyes... It wasn't angry. She thought it would be, but it wasn't. It was more sad and tired.

"He shouldn't have chased us away. We aren't kids." Gwen coughed. "Well, we aren't newbies. He said we were a good team!"

Gwen couldn't think of anything to say to that because she agreed with him, but Grandpa told them to go. They couldn't do anything to help, but he was going to sulk forever unless... Her eyes went to the back of the Rust Bucket. She sneaked over and opened the hatch on the side. There was a hose inside, and she was a good girl who always did what she was told.

"Then we should tell him. We're good. We're heroes. We..." The last was lost in a gurgle as Gwen sprayed him in the face. His hands shot up as he tried to turn away. "What are you doing!"

She grinned and didn't let up for even a second. "Grandpa told me to make sure you got washed off!"

He tossed up his hands and tried to run away, but the hose was plenty long enough to reach him no matter where he ran. His foot slipped out from under him and he landed flat on his back in the mud. She started to giggle and couldn't stop as he watched him flail as she sprayed him.

"I'm clean! It was all gone when I changed back!" he sputtered when he could finally catch a breath.

"I have to be sure! Besides, its time for your monthly shower anyway!"

Ben tried to back up, but couldn't get his footing as Gwen stalked up ever closer. She was laughing so hard that she could barely breathe. And then the water died with a groan. She looked down at the nozzle and gave it a desperate squeeze, but no more water came out. She looked back up and Ben start to grin as he reached down and scooped up a double handful of mud.

"Ben, no!" Gwen squealed as she dropped the hose and turned to run away.

Only to run into a chest. "Grandpa!"

Grandpa Max didn't say a word as he looked down at her, and at the hose at her feet, then at Ben as he dropped the mud and tried to wipe off his hands. "Go dry off, Ben."

"But she star…" Ben began automatically before he realized he wasn't getting yelled at. He didn't move an inch after that.

Gwen could just imagine the grin on his face. Her eyes went to the toes of her muddy shoes. "I was just making sure he was washed off like you said," she said in a small voice.

"That was a sixty gallon tank. I have a feeling that you were sure forty gallons ago," Grandpa Max said. He didn't say anything else, but she could feel him glaring down at her. She couldn't help fidgeting as she waited for the yelling to start. "You get to refill it when we get to camp. And I want the Rust Bucket to be just as clean tonight as it was this morning."

Gwen's face twisted in outrage because she knew that Ben would be stomping mud everywhere he could now. She glared over at him, but when she saw him standing there, soaked from head to toe with water dripping out of his hair she couldn't help smirking. "It was so worth it, Doofus."

"I'm going to get you for this, Dweeb," Ben promised, and Gwen stuck her tongue out at him.

The she turned back and let herself remember the men they'd seen. She twisted her fingers together in worry. "Could you help them?"

Grandpa Max's shoulders slumped. "We... persuaded Animo to reverse the changes. They should be fine,"

Ben let out a breath. "Did he say why he wrecked the place?"

"No. He said someone else broke in first. He just followed to try and scavenge whatever he could so he could make more of his little monsters," Max sighed. "I checked the computer, but it was torn apart. They might be able to pull something out of it, but we won't know anything for a while."

Ben shook his head and drops of water flew everywhere. "If the computer was fried, how did it send an alarm out?"

"They missed one of the back ups and a motion sensor in the men's room. One of Animo's gang must've set it off while they were scavenging."

"You put alarms in the bathrooms?" Gwen asked in disbelief.

Max shrugged. "No one thinks to look in there and everyone has to go eventually."

That did not make her feel any better. "Now what?"

"Now, I have some calls to make. After that, if we're lucky we can still make the camp site before dark."

"And if we don't..."

"You still have to fill the water tank."

"Aw."