Author's Note: I own nothing. This is my favorite episode of Alien force. So we may be here for a bit.
28 Blackout
Jen remembered almost getting hit by a car, the brakes hadn't been working. She remembered dialing Big Chill into the Omnitrix. Then she woke up in a ditch in the desert outside Bellwood. Her whole mouth tasted like metal and her hands were slightly scraped. She shook her head and pulled her phone out of her pocket. It was almost dead. She breathed out. At least she wasn't going to get in trouble for missing school, as the last day had been the week before. Things had been oddly quiet since Azmuth's short visit. Jen refused to believe that would last though. The DNAliens stirred up trouble here and there but were quickly smacked back down and neither Jen nor the others of their team could find a pattern yet.
She managed to text Julie for a pick up before her before her phone died entirely. She sat down in the dirt and tried to think. But there was nothing the whole evening was a wash of blue. About an hour later the telltale green and black scooter that Jen recognized as Ship and Julie appeared on the horizon.
"Sorry I wasn't here sooner. I only just got your text half an hour ago. What happened?" Jen shook her head.
"I wish I knew, all I know is I'm starving." Julie nodded and in about ten minutes they arrived at Mr. Smoothies. Julie knew something was wrong when Jen's face turned green without her ever touching the Omnitrix and she dove for the nearest trashcan. She heaved a few times and Julie frowned rubbing her back.
"Are you ok?" Jen shook her head and dove back to the trashcan. Julie waited for Jen to come back up for good before getting her a glass of water and throwing out her smoothie. Jen rinsed her mouth, spitting into the same trashcan she had used before.
"What the hell? This never happens." Julie nodded.
"Was it something you ate last night?" Jen frowned.
"I don't know."
"It could be. I mean…" Jen shook her head, glancing around them to make sure they were alone.
"No I mean I don't know. I don't remember anything I did last night! I've been sick every morning for a freaking week and I have no idea what's happening!" Julie raised both eyebrows.
"Do you have any other symptoms?" Jen rolled her shoulders.
"Well I've been craving pickles lately, and the blackout last night. And I've been sick or nauseous all week, and extremely hungry." Julie folded her arms as Ship chirruped at them from the vespa Julie rode around on. Julie cleared her throat.
"I need you to be entirely honest with me Jen." Jen frowned at her friend.
"Ok?"
"Before Al left did you two…?" Julie left the question hanging and saw realization and slight horror in Jen's eyes as she recognized the implication.
"Julie! We barely kissed! I haven't done that with anyone." Julie frowned.
"Then maybe it's like some weird alien cold or something?" Jen let out a long suffering sigh. Jen nodded.
"Maybe." Julie perked up.
"I have an idea! I can help you! Tell me what you do remember from last night, go through it up until the blackout." Jen nodded as Julie pulled a notebook out of the purse on her hip. Jen went through the day as carefully as she could, she described the near vehicular homicide she'd experienced. Realizing that it hadn't been intentional and that there was something wrong and then spinning the dial on the Omnitrix to Big Chill, slapping the dial down. Then nothing. Just blue.
"That was it. Then I woke up this morning outside of town in a ditch where I texted you from. My whole mouth tasted like metal." Julie nodded and flipped her notebook closed.
"Ok so the next step is to see what happens when you transform again. That seems to be the only thing that might be the cause of the blackout." Jen nodded.
"I'll be honest the Omnitrix has been acting a bit weird. There's a new alien." Julie frowned.
"Is that normal?" Jen shook her head.
"Getting new aliens it's never been something the Omnitrix just lets me do. Last time it happened I got bitten by an alien. I thought I was turning into a werewolf." Julie looked her over like she was trying to tell if she was lying or not.
"You're serious?" Jen nodded.
"I'm sort of scared to try it. After what happened with Alien X…" Jen had told Julie everything, since Julie had been very curious about his sudden disappearance. The official story had been that he had moved back to Greece. But Jen had told Julie the truth of the events of that day. Jen thought for a moment. "But then again something else happened too. While I was Alien X I heard the Omnitrix say 'New DNA sample acquired'. It was when he… when he kissed me for the first time." Julie blinked.
"You think the Omnitrix took it as a DNA sample, maybe that's what's messing with the Watch." Jen ran her hands through her hair looking up at her friend.
"It's possible. Only one being in the universe actually understands the Omnitrix and that's the Galvan who made it. I don't think he'd even answer my questions if I could ask." Julie nodded at Jen and put her hand on her friends shoulder.
"Then lets go about this the right way and figure it out. We can do this." Jen took Julie's hand and nodded.
"Yeah. Not here though. Come on." Both girls loaded onto Julie's vespa and took off for the tennis players house.
By the end of the night Julie was in a panic. She couldn't get Gwen or Kevin on the phone. Jen had attacked several people, leaving no lasting injuries luckily, just a bit of frost bite. But she had eaten a drive in and several other towering metal structures before giving Julie the slip. She hadn't heard anything since. Though she'd kept looking for the brunette into the earliest hours of the morning. She swore as she tried to call Jen again and Ship beeped tiredly.
"I'm tired too Ship. But I'm really worried about Jen." Julie drummed her fingers on the vespa then nodded rubbing her eyes. "We'll go home and rest for a few hours then go look again." Ship beeped in agreement and the Vespa turned as if of its own accord back to Julie's house.
Jen made her way back home alone the next morning. Everything was a haze. Even now. She shook her head and unlocked her front door with the spare key. This time there were blisters on her fingers, like she'd burned herself. She shook her head her hands shaking as she tossed off her shoes and jacket. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and plugged it in to the charger they kept in the living room. She kicked off her shoes and trudged over to the fridge.
"Come on we've gotta have some in here somewhere! Ah ha!" She exclaimed in triumph pulling a jar of pickles out of the back of the fridge. She popped the lid off and tossed it into the trash can. She began eating the pickles as she made her way down the hallway intending to get a full four hours sleep and a shower before she took care of her hands. But her plans were scrapped when she opened the door to her room and found Kevin Levin sitting on her bed, her controller in hand playing one of her Sumo Slammers games. He hit the pause button as soon as he spotted her.
"There you are! I've been trying to get ahold of you all morning."
"Yeah my phone is dead." Kevin brushed her off and stood from her bed.
"I need your advice. Gwen wants me to go to the dance with her. This whole end of school bash tonight. I don't own a tux, what do I do?" Jen pouted as she popped the end of another pickle into her mouth and ripped it in half with her teeth.
"Come on I've got something that'll work." She led him to her father's room and shoved the jar of pickles into his hands. She hopped onto a shoe rack that creaked ominously but she managed to dig out the box she was looking for before it could do more. "It was Grandpa Max's when he was younger. You're about the same size." She took her pickle jar back and shoved the box into Kevin's hands. "Try it on. I'll be in my room when you're done." She waved at him and Kevin caught her wrist, the one without the Omnitrix.
"What happened to you?" He frowned at the burn blisters on her hand. Jen shrugged.
"I don't know. Something's going funky with the Omnitrix. Nothing I can't handle." Her left eye twitched and Kevin frowned. "Change!" With that she pulled her arm out of his grip and slouched out of the room this time shoving a whole pickle into her mouth. Kevin shook his head and closed the bedroom door behind her. He could worry about whatever was happening with Jen after he survived his first real date with Gwen. He grinned slightly as he opened the box in his hands. It was good to know he had a friend who would do something like this for him. He couldn't see Argit doing anything like this. Not to mention the fact that Kevin was pretty sure Argit didn't do spare clothes. Shaking off that disturbing thought he changed into the tux.