Ben couldn't sleep.

He remembered this night was when it all changed and he had first fought with the watch.

Or at least he recalled a memory of that night.

Either way, Vilgax--the bastard--sent down a few of his Mecha-Droids to scout with. Then an Attack Drone the three of them had promptly taken down.

Good thing Gwen was responsible enough not to mess with the watch. The Drones would turn up empty-handed, therefore, no Attack Drone. He let a satisfied smirk grace his face. At least Vilgax wouldn't be having a good day.

Then he heard footsteps. They were light and hesitant, like whoever was causing them was trying to be silent. Ben sat up, cautious. Then there was quiet for a moment.

A great big flash seemed to take over the campsite and for a quick second, Ben was encompassed in a familiar green light, a single word running through his head in circles.

Fuck.

X

Gwen couldn't sleep. Not with the alien bracelet on her wrist. In both senses of the word. She lifted it to her eyes and stared at its sleek silver metal.

She ran through the memory of the weird thing attaching itself to her wrist, wondering.

Gwen trod through the forest, bored and grumpy. Ben had been his stupid self and spilled mealworm down her shirt. He had said sorry and had even given her his windbreaker to make up for it("because Grandpa said so…") but she was grumpy.

She lazily kicked a stone away and blew away her fringe. She stared up at the sky and groaned. This was way more boring than she thought it would be.

A comet swept the sky, and Gwen's expression softened before she smiled in wonder. She should make a wish!

"I wish… I wish to go to--no, not that. Um, I wish for a new laptop?" She giggled lightly as she watched the shooting star.

Then it turned, which was impossible unless something had hit it or it was attached to thrusters or something and there hadn't been anything in the news of that!

Wait, it was--it was headed towards her!

She started to run away, looking back for a second, and then, all she could see was white.

After that, Gwen had blinked away the flash and walked up to the crater. She fell in--Ben would have laughed at her for that--and walked up to what she thought was an asteroid of some kind.

It wasn't, but something latched onto her wrist and she just panicked. Running and screaming like a chicken. Thank god Ben hadn't been there. Then she whacked it with a stick when the bracelet's hourglass insignia glowed and started acting like some high-tech touch screen and she turned into that… thing.

Then she remembered something Grandpa had said.

"--Alien--I mean, what else could it be?"

Yeah, that made sense.

She glared at the watch and sat up, ruffling the bedsheets around her, grabbing the windbreaker Ben had given her(it was hers now), and walked out of the RV trying hard not to make any noise.

She stopped when Grandpa Max turned in his sleep.

Nothing.

She slumped in relief and walked out--rustle.

Crap! She froze.

A little more rustling, then nothing.

She let out an easy sigh and walked out, careful not to slam the door as Ben did.

She fiddled with the watch, brow wrinkling. How did she get the touch screen to activate again? She glanced at the blue tent out on the camp--right, Ben was out here. She tried to be a little quieter with her steps and stopped in the middle of the clearing.

She fiddled with the thing a little more, before her hand grazed the green button on the side.

It popped up and the silhouette of that fire guy appeared again, and she almost palmed her face. Duh! She must have been really tense if she was moving into the Doofus territory of dumb.

She swiped up on the face of the bracelet. Maybe it had a different setting? The icon changed, so she swiped up a little more. It did, cycling through a bunch of silhouettes.

Then she stopped on a hunched one, with ball feet and a sharp triangle-ish head. She pressed the glowing metal--it was warmish now--and then she saw green--information flowed into her brain and she felt stronger and faster.

She felt more.

She opened her eyes and she felt dizzy--she could see so much! Stimuli attacked her brain like a battering ram!

It was so… overwhelming.

Her brain felt like it was hopped up on the sugary cereal her mom had told her was bad for her but Ben had it so whenever they were there at his house they struck up a truce and she got some and it was really really good!

Her head snapped up the same time a visor snapped down, and she ran.

She ran through the forest--which had some really boring samey trees, by the way, all pine and pine and pine and pine and pine and pine and pine and pine--was that oak?

She paused for an infinitesimal--she liked that word, she decided--moment in a second and shook her head--more boring pine.

So she continued to run, feeling an invigorating breeze flying to meet her. Everything felt so slow, like a snail. Was she a snail? No, she was a lizard! How did she know that? Was she psychic? Was that even how it worked? Was she hijacking a random alien monster's body and in a few milliseconds she would be taken over and they would put gross slimy lizard eggs in her stomach like that one movie she watched out of curiosity and gave her like so many nightmares--?!

Crack!

Oh, she ran into a tree.

She giggled, visor sliding up, her voice a little raspier--but not as much as the fire-guy--as she whispered. "Timber!" And raised her hands in a mock cheer, as the wood fell.

Should she go back now?

Hm…

No way! She was fast enough to go back all quick and stealthy in the morning!

And so, with a decisive click, her visor snapped down and a massive gust of wind seemed to boom from the small clearing, as the sound of whirring zoomed away.

X

Hundreds of feet back, Ben stood, slumping as he heard the telltale sonic boom that usually accompanied a Kinecceleran's dead sprint.

Well, at least he could take solace in that Gwen would be in huge trouble.

Except for the fact that Vilgax would probably send the drones down again, and Gwen wouldn't be able to wield the awesome power of the watch until the tail end if she kept going.

And he damn well couldn't catch a Kinecceleran on foot without some assistance or special circumstance.

So he'd have to wait.

Ugh, this sucked.

He ate a bit of chocolate.

Okay, it still sucked, but maybe not as much.

dreadix

That is a genuinely wonderful idea, but I'm kind of preoccupied with this right now, pff. If you write, or want to, you should.