Chapter Three!

Then There Were Ten - Part 2 (From Season 1 Episode 1)

31st of May 2001:

It was nightfall by the time the three Tennysons got to the Camp Site and got set up, it was eight o'clock when Harry and Gwen were around the camp table for dinner when Grandpa Max brought out a bowl of what looked like pasta, at least from afar. This illusion was quickly shattered when Max but the food onto the table, revealing that the 'pasta' was actually chalk white worms of some kind and were squirming around.

"What are those?!" Harry and Gwen cried in unison.

"Marinated Meal Worms!" Grandpa Max said with a smile on his face, "These are a delicacy in some countries."

"Yeah, third world countries too poor to mass produce real food." Gwen lectured mechanically as she and Harry looked at the food in disgust, one of the worms falling out of the bowl with a wet slap and slithering across the table.

"If these don't sound good, I've got some smoked sheep's tongue in the fridge." Their Grandpa suggested, not believing these kids didn't like the idea of these foods.

"Eww, can't we have a burger or something instead Grandpa?" Harry asked, which Gwen agreed with, nodding along beside him.

"Nonsense!" Max insisted with a smile, "This summer it'll be an adventure for your taste buds. I'll get the tongue." He said before disappearing into the Rust Bucket.

Harry slid over next to Gwen, leaning in, "Okay I've got a few things in my bag that I was hoping to spread out of the summer. I've got two Lunchables, Crisps and some from other things that should last us for tonight, but we won't last long on my other stuff I've got in my bag alone," He said quietly, "what do you have?"

"Three rice cakes and some ancient hard candy my grandma keeps giving me." Gwen answered. Harry's face fell with a groan, and she was hard pressed to not do the same. Still, she felt the need to defend her preparedness level, "What? I wasn't expecting I would need to have anything. I assumed we would be eating normal food."

Harry dragged his hands down his face, "You're right, do you think we can spread these things over the summer?" Seeing the doubtful look from Gwen, he sighed again, "You right, looks like most of my money will be going into our food budget instead of games, gifts and other fun things." He silently made his way into the Rust Bucket and grabbed the Lunchables along with a small bag of Dorito Chips and some fizzy.

o0OoO0o

A few hours later found Harry playing his shiny new Game Boy Advance playing, from the unmistakable sounds of it at least, some kind of Mario game. Gwen, meanwhile, was sitting a few feet away with her back to him on her slightly beat up laptop, clacking away at something or other.

Max finished restocking the campfire when he saw Gwen and Harry's positions. Sighing, he suggested, "Who wants to roast marshmallows around the campfire?" His expression fell when neither of them answered, but he was persistent, "Okay then who wants to tell scary stories?"

"Scarier than spending the summer with your geek of a cousin?" Harry said with a laugh, still unhappy about the food that they ate, and spending time with a mood killer like Gwen.

Gwen countered without looking up from her laptop, "I wish I could, but I'm trying to looking up for a cure for extreme stupidity." She looked over her shoulder with a wide smirk, her voice perky, "Nothing yet Harry, but don't give up hope. We can beat this!"

"Come on you two, we're all in this together." Max mediated, "You two could mope around all summer or we can have some fun. What do you say?"

"I'm not moping, I'm perfectly happy doing what I'm doing." Gwen corrected. She gave a cry of alarm as her Laptop suddenly dimmed. Her eyes darted down to the bottom right, only to see a flashing light warning her that the battery life had dropped to 5 percent. "Stupid battery! You're supposed to last at least six hours, not twenty minutes!" She raged.

Harry snickered as he stood up, "I'm going for a walk, smell you around Gwen."

"Ahh, I think the two are growing closer already." Max said sagely as Harry walked off into the forest.

o0OoO0o

Harry was walking around the woods, unhappy about how the summer had started off. He thought it would be fun, but so far it was so far from what he'd hoped it would be, the main issue being his killjoy cousin Gwen. He knew he shouldn't be upset with her, she didn't pick to be here, but she was such a bore that he just acted before really thinking, if she only lighten up a bit he might be able to stand her. What also didn't help was the food, if he was by himself he might be fine with it, but with Gwen here the food he had on him for the summer would be used up within a week maybe a bit longer if they were lucky. He would need to dip into his funds before too much longer. He might not like Gwen's attitude but he wasn't about to let her starve, or worse, eat whatever abominations their Grandpa rolled out at dinner time.

So here he was in the woods trying to calm himself down before he headed back to the Rust Bucket for the night. Harry was looking up into the clear sky night when he saw what looked like a meteor falling to earth. "Wow, that's amazing," He breathed in awe, until the 'meteor' suddenly changed direction suddenly, instantly turning almost 180 degrees to jettison straight at Harry. "What the-"

He was interrupted by the meteor slamming into the ground barely ten feet from him. He was sent rolling backwards, but was miraculously unharmed. After picking himself up he ran over to the rim of the impact sight and peered down, only to see a misshapen ball made of what looked like metal "A satellite?" He guessed, leaning forward subconsciously. The added stress on the already damaged ground finally grew too much at the weight shift and the earth beneath his feet crumbled, sending him sliding down into the crater.

Since he was already there, Harry smiled widely in childish curiosity as he stepped closer to the still smoking object. The smoke blew away in a sudden breeze, revealing the metal ball had cracked open, revealing some kind of green wrist band. It almost looked like a watch, with a round dial on the top, but the wrist wrap was too thick, looking like it would take up at least a third of his forearm, "What's a… watch thing doing in space?" He wondered aloud. He couldn't feel anymore heat coming from the object, so he cautiously made to grab for it.

Only for the band of the 'watch' to open up and attach itself to his arm.

Having seen the movie Aliens Harry naturally freaked out, flailing his arm wildly and making a girlish shriek, "Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!" He cried, trying to pry the thing off before it laid eggs in his… right, he began calming down, at least slightly. Just calm enough to remember he had a responsible adult nearby who he could run to for help.

o0OoO0o

Back at the Rust Bucket:

Grandpa Max was beginning to get worried about Harry, he'd been gone for a while now. "Hmm, Harry's been gone a while, I hope he is alright. At least he can't get into too much trouble out here." He voiced his thoughts.

"Unless he wound up bear food or something." Gwen said jokingly, only to duck her head as her grandpa turned a disbelieving glare her way. "What, I can dream can't I?"

"I wish you two would just get along you know." Max said with a sigh, "It'll be a long summer otherwise."

"Aliens will land before that happens Grandpa." Gwen joked again.

Max winced, 'I hope not, but at least having a common enemy would bring them together. I suppose it would let me start teaching them what they need to know sooner rather than later.'

Gwen continued, unaware of his thought, "He's too immature Grandpa."

"If you give him a chance, you'll see that there's more to him then you know. He can be just as mature as you." He claimed, which drew a sceptical look from Gwen. "I know Harry might act foolish at times, and play pranks on people, but he's also smart and mature when he wants or needs to be. You need to understand something that I learned over the years; he sees childhood as an important thing that shouldn't be wasted. He believes until you have to, there's a time and a place to be mature, but only when you become a teen and slowly need to become mature. Until then you should have as much fun as you can."

"And why is that Grandpa?" Gwen asked, still sceptical but at least willing to listen.

"Because being too mature and serious can ruin a childhood," Max explained t Gwen. "In a way I can see where he's coming from, partly. Look at yourself for example, you're way too mature for your age. I don't like being this frank, but you don't have any friends, and most of your time is spend working on something. You're going to either burn yourself out or become just another soulless worker who can't stop to smell the roses. Harry was right before, planning out some things can be useful so you learn time management, but don't go crazy with it. Take life one day at a time while you still can, just enjoy yourself. Why do you think your parents agreed to you coming to this Camping Trip? They knew you needed to learn how to lighten up and, hopefully, make a few friends over the summer. They want to show you what you're missing out on."

The two lapsed into silence for several minutes, one worrying he'd been to critical with his granddaughter while the other was deep in thought. The latter didn't get to think on it too much yet though as she looked up to see smoke rising from the forest in the distance, "What's that?" She exclaimed, pointing to the smoke.

"Looks like a start of a forest fire." Max commented, tone filled with disappointment over the irresponsible person who could have started it. "We should let the Ranger Tower know. Probably some dumb fool messing around with something they shouldn't."

"Harry!" Gwen said suddenly.

"I don't think so," Max defended, "he knows better than to play with fire. It doesn't matter though, he's still in there and he could be in trouble. We need to find him." He grabbed two of the fire extinguishers he kept handy and handed one to Gwen. "Do you know how to use this?"

She nodded, wrapping her hand around the pump handle.

"Alright, let's go." The two ran into the woods to find Harry.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Author's Notes: Here ends the next chapter of Harry Tennyson, I hope you like it. Now that you spent the time to read this story, could you spend a few minutes to review and let me know what you think of the story? Like it or not, I would like to hear what you think and what you would like to happen next.

I would like to ask what episodes you would like to see and not see within this story, and ideas for new aliens, what they look like, powers, where they come and things like that to make it easier to write them in.

This chapter is been updated a day or two sooner as I need your help, in the new chapter that I'm writing, I'm planning to add an OC alien and I need your help with it. I need a name for the race of clay like aliens that can change into anyone or anything, no matter the size and that. I also need a name for their planet too, so PLEASE help if you can.

Omake's are also welcome, or even just suggestions for scenes you'd like written out if they're funny but you don't feel confident you can write them out yourself.