STILL BEING VAGUE!! (puts out an annoying smile that could annoy you so much)

Chapter Ten:

The Beginning in Foster's

"Hurry up!!" Caden cried, with fear evident in her voice. She was on the verge of tears as she ran ahead of Ben. She tried to carry her legs as fast as she could. "Hurry!!"

"I am, I am!!" Ben replied, panting. He wanted to keep up with Caden's speed but sadly, he couldn't. He didn't know why Caden was panicking, considering that they were off the crashing vehicle already.

Caden pushed some branches out of the way as her breathing was beginning to heighten. Tears were dropping from her eyes. Her hair was messy from the turbulence and her hands, legs and face were covered with scratch marks. They were in the backyard labyrinth but it didn't matter to her. She had known her way from the start

Ben kept running as fast as he could. He couldn't take any guesses of what she was afraid of until he had seen it. Finally, he had seen his group-mate stop. He lowered his speed as he stopped beside her. Caden was trembling at what she was seeing, her face was still fear-stricken and her lips quivered as much as her body was. Ben followed her gaze and saw, in the middle of a clearing was a lifeless body, lying face down.

"Matt," Ben said as he jogged towards the body. He overturned the younger boy's body and supported his upper body on his arm. Matt's head followed the direction of gravity. His brown hair was disheveled and his clothes tattered at some hems, cuts were seen at some parts of his body. Ben had noticed crimson blood dripping from the side of his mouth down to his chin. He wiped it off with his thumb as the blood smudged his finger.

"W..." Caden said, stuttering, her voice trying to sound like her usual but failing. "...Will he be okay?"

Ben eyed blood falling on the side [opposite of the side of the blood from the mouth] of his face. He traced the source, leading it to the uppermost part of his forehead. He quickly grabbed his wrist. He felt his pulse pumping underneath his fingers (index and middle). He placed his left ear on Matt's chest as he could hear the regular beating of his heart.

"I think so," Ben said. "He's still alive. But he's losing some blood."

Caden sighed in relief. All panic and fear had gotten away. "Thank goodness he's still alive," she said.

Ben settled the Matt's struggling (for life) body on the grass as his left hand went up to his right shoulder. But he had heard a ripping sound even before he had ripped his sleeve. "Here," he had heard as he looked at his back. Caden was handing him a ripped sleeve of her jacket. "Just get it." He hesitantly took the sleeve and wrapped it around Matt's forehead.

"That should do it," Ben said, his face still staring blankly at his work even it did mean an achievement. "Caden," he called.

Caden looked at him quizzically as Ben slowly got up. "What?" she asked.

"Help me here," Ben said as he kneeled on his one knee, his other leg giving him a proper stance. "Help me get Matt's body on my back." Caden jogged near the head of Matt. She lifted the head a little and her knee replaced the support on his head. She lifted Matt from his upper torso.

"How could a boy this lanky be this heavy?" Caden groaned. She tried to lift the knocked-out body as hard as she could and had successfully propped him on Ben's back.

Ben locked his arms under the younger boy's knees and stood up. People back at Sector V had said once that Ben had a bad posture but if they saw him carrying the boy, people would comment that his posture was worse than before. As he stood up, he looked at the abandoned Foster's Home. It was scarier than the usual.

"What now?" Caden asked as she followed the older boy's gaze.

"I guess we go into that thing."

Caden had managed to get Matt's heavy body off of Ben's aching back onto the dusty old mattress. She wiped the sweat off of her forehead with a sigh. Ben stretched and cocked his back backwards.

They had managed to get in the Foster's Home unseen. A population of Fusion Monsters had been roaming around and whenever they met one or two, Caden had shot them with her shattergun. When they had roamed around the Foster's Home, Ben had whined about how heavy the boy was so they had decided to get into a bedroom, and locked the door.

"Oooh..." Ben moaned. "...that boy's heavy."

Caden scowled on behalf of her friend. "Maybe he is heavy," she said, as she stood up straight and folded her arms in front of her chest. "But don't go around saying he is even if he is knocked-out."

Ben was now stretching his arms as he cocked a brow at the girl. "You like him, don't you?" he managed to tease.

Caden, on the other hand, turned beet red as she looked away, growing nervous. "I do not!" she scoffed arrogantly.

"I always knew you had a thing for him," Ben teased as he began poking her arm.

Caden looked away, still too stubborn to say anything. She shoved away Ben's poking finger but he still poked at her. She didn't like this at all. If only she was guiding this mission, she would have scolded him now. She finally managed to slap Ben's finger.

"Ow!" Ben cried, pulling his finger away. "That hurt, you know!"

Caden turned away from the boy and headed to the bedroom door. "I'm going to check something out," she said as she marched.

"Wait!" Ben said as he stopped her by holding on to her shoulder. "I will go checking. You have to stay here and look after your..." Ben trailed off as he snickered a bit and gulped. "...your friend."

Caden had humph-ed at what he said and stuck out a bitter tongue at the boy when the door had closed. When she was sure he had left, she sighed as he looked at the sleeping boy on the mattress.

"Please be fine..."

Ben walked through the halls of the house. He made sure that with every step he took, the floor wouldn't creek. He thought he wasn't as heavy as Matt can be when he'll be fifteen and no weapon made an extra weight on him. Afterall, he always had a weapon on his wrist, the Omnitrix.

He could've sworn a swarm of Fusion Monsters had laid before him. He observed them as they had roamed around. He was careful that he wouldn't be seen or he wouldn't make noise. But it wasn't that what had him alarmed. He could feel a strong set of vibrations occur in his pocket. It made a little beep and when it had, he knew he had limited time to escape.

Ben quickly ran to the nearest door, opened it then closed it behind him, careful not to make unnecessary sounds. He found the lock and had managed to lock it. He sighed in relief as he let himself slide down the door and sit on the floor. He quickly grabbed his Nanocom and activated it.

He looked at the small device as a hologram appeared before his very eyes. Ben was a bit surprised at who he was seeing in the hologram. It was the first time, actually, that he had received a message from her.

"Mandy?" Ben quizzically asked. "What are you--?"

"You need to abandon the mission," the hologram Mandy said. Even if it was a hologram, he could still feel Mandy's eyes piercing his.

"Abandon the mission?!" Ben said, with hard confusion written all over his face and his voice.

"Abandon the mission," Mandy repeated. "You'll endanger both the kids' lives."

"I don't get it, Mandy!" Ben cried. "You gave me this mission and I'll end it."

Mandy's cold eyes locked Ben's. "Do I need to repeat myself?" she asked, her tone wasn't appropriate for a girl like her at all. "Abandon it now. If you don't do it, you'll put three lives on the line, and one of them is yours."

"No," was Ben's final statement. "I won't abandon the mission."

"Ben!!" Mandy shouted, her voice getting scarier by the minute. Ben had quickly cut the line as he was quite satisfied with himself that he had put it down in time. He knew he was making a bad decision but he had felt confident over it. Well, he made two bad decisions this day. One was that he didn't listen to Mandy and two, that he had quit the conversation. He knew he was going to die when he comes home and Mandy will gain two points on her score board.

He felt his Nanocom vibrate as it followed beeping sounds. He quickly lifted his occupied hand and turned on the Nanocom.

A hologram of Caden had been now showing on his Nanocom. "Caden?!" Ben asked in shock.

"Ben!!" the hologram began. "Come here quick!! We're being under attack!! Hurry!! Be---!!" But it had been short-lived as Ben stared at the deactivated Nanocom.

"Caden!! Caden!!" he screamed at the small device as he had shaked it. "C'mon!! Pick up!!"

Just then, he heard a high pitched scream.

12:07 am. I'm dead. Anyway. So let's just end it there for a while. I know you're getting irritated of me being vague already. But don't worry, once this series is done, I'm done too being vague.

Anyway, thanks again to Miya-chan who had helped me in this chappie. And I'm sorry to Eve for leaving too much cliffies ^^;;

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!! ^3^