chapter 4 Permanent Retirement
A/N
I hope everyone enjoyed chapter 3 and if there are any reviews for the last chapters I will Probably respond to them now onto the chapter
the screen shows us Max at a local ATM on a desert street next to a store that sells ice cream as a red dirty pickup truck parks behind Max as a burly man comes out of it
"Out of the way grandpa I've got a major withdrawal to make!" The burly man said as he shoves Max out of the way knocking him to the ground as Max looks up he sees a buck-toothed man in front of him smiling who seems to be the other man's associate
meanwhile in the parlor the kids are choosing their ice cream as a frowning old man is serving them
"What do you have that's non-fat with less than 3% sugar?" Gwen asked as the old man stared at her blankly
"Napkins. What do you want kid?" the old man asked Ben
Ben opens his mouth but gets cut off by the sound of a large chain he looks out the window and sees the burly man walking to the ATM with a chained metal hook
"I'm about to go rocky road!" Ben said as he ran out of the store while activating the Omnitrix and going to the side of the building as he selected an alien and slammed down on the dial as a green flash accord as Ben transformed the burly man digs the hook into the ATM and yells to his associate in the pickup "Hit it!"
The buck-toothed man tries pumping the gas, but nothing happened as the man looked out the window, he sees vines restraining the truck as the man looked to the side, he saw his partner wrapped in vines as he saw a plant creature "Your cash request has been denied!" Wildvine said as suddenly a vine broke the window on the other side of the car knocking the man out of the car as the car door had a dent in it as the man groaned and passed out
"Good work Ben." Max said with a smile
"Oh yeah! I'm ready for anything! Bring it on! What's next?" Wildvine asked
"We're headin' off to see your Aunt Vera for the weekend." Max said as Wildvines face seemed to turn into horror
"Ugh, boring old Aunt Vera?! Nooooo!" Wildvine yelled as the screen transitioned
The Rust Bucket continues driving through the barren desert
"When Aunt Vera said she wanted to move away from it all she really meant it." Gwen said
"Aw man, this summer was supposed to be about F-U-N, not hanging out in some old lady's place." Ben said
"I like Aunt Vera!" Gwen said as she was washing a plate
"Duh! That's because you act like you're a hundred years old!" Ben said
meanwhile
"It's been years since I've seen Max and the kids! I'm not sure I'll even recognize them! Stop by and say hello." Vera said to Marty
"I'd like that." Marty said as Vera walked away as Marty retires to his apartment the blinds are closed, he puts on a scary movie and gets a bowl of snacks next to him. a sentient green glob of liquid suddenly slithers up next to the bowl Marty gasps when he first feels it on his hand "Help me-!" Marty tried to scream but the glob jumps to his face, muffling his cries
meanwhile The Rust Bucket finally enters Vera's retirement village it drives past old folks' homes and some folks out on the sidewalk
"This is gonna be soooo boring! Their idea of excitement in this place is probably watching the grass grow." Ben said as he saw an old man is climbing on his roof, trying to reach his satellite, but starts slipping down. Instead of falling off, he makes an expert Olympic-level backflip off the roof and lands safely on the ground, just as the Rust Bucket passes by
"Woah! Did you see that?!" Ben asked as Gwen looks out her window and only sees old people
"See what? The heat must be frying that pea sized brain of yours." Gwen said as Ben frowned
The trio have arrived at Vera's Ben is the first to step out he holds his hand up against the glaring sun
"Seriously why do old people have to live where its soooo hot!" Ben asked rhetorically as Gwen walks behind him and surprises him by spraying a water gun at his back "Hey!" Ben yelled in surprise as Gwen laughs and runs away instead of running after her Marty's window catches Ben's eye Marty is looking at him through it. He hisses at Ben, cracks his neck in all directions, and shuts the blinds on him
"Huh they really make you feel welcome here." Ben said as he continued walking
"Just watch your cheeks, Vera's a pincher!" Max said as Vera came over
"Max!" Vera said as she hugged him
"Vera." Max said as he hugged Vera back as they let go Vera went over to Ben and Gwen
"I can't believe you're finally here! And look at you two, so grown up!" Vera said as she pinched there cheecks
"Ow." Both Ben and Gwen said when Vera pinched them
"Come on in! I can't wait to chew the fat with all of you." Vera said as they went in her house but no one noticed Marty sneering at them through a crack in his blinds
Ben sniffs the house air "Ugh, why do old people's houses always smell like somebody's cooking socks or something?" Ben asked
a couple minutes later they where sat down at a table as Vera put down a giant orange gelatin mold with brown and white bits sits on a plate, wiggling disgustingly
"Ooh, Vera, this is delicious! Now, what are these brown chunks in the mold?" Max asked
"Pork chops, and the white parts are cauliflower!" Vera said as Ben and Gwen exchange looks of disgust "So, Ben, what have you been doing so far this summer?" Vera asked
"Dealing with alien life forms." Ben said bluntly without really thinking
"Ohoho, you!" Vera said as Gwen notices Vera's shelf and gets up from the table to see various frames and trinkets are on the bottom shelves, but the top shelf holds many taxidermied birds of different species "Aunt Vera, is that a Stuffed, Red-Billed North American Chickadee?" Gwen asked as Vera gasped and went over to Gwen
"How perceptive, Gwen! And did you know the song of the Red-Billed North American Chickadee is actually-a call indicating alarm or excitement! Brrrrrr!" Vera said as she and Gwen finished the sentence in unison
Ben, while they're all distracted, moves his slice of mold onto Gwen's plate
"I am toootally stuffed!" Ben said pretending to be full
"Ben, would you like some candy?" Vera asked as She brings him a bowl full of small brown pieces
"Now we're talking!" Ben said as He delightfully shoots one in his mouth, pauses, and spits it out
"UGH! Coffee?! As a candy?! Is this some kind of joke?" Ben muttered to himself so no one would hear as he got up " I need to use the bathroom!" Ben said as he got up and ran towards the bathroom opened the door went in and closed it
"It's so boring here there has to be something to do here." Ben said as he activated the Omnitrix after scrolling for a bit he pressed the dial down and transformed
his face seemed to shrivel up to the bone his skin turns into a thin white cloth with many black lines all over the cloth in a flash of green he was
Ghostfreak
he went Intangibility and invisible and went out through the bathroom door he saw Gwen and Vera looking at seashells as he got an idea and grinned although it looks like his face didn't change
"And this one is a Valentiana. Can you hear the ocean?" Vera asked Gwen as she put it to her ear "Loser..."Gwen goes wide-eyed "Loooooser...!" Ghostfreak cackles as he reveals himself to her
"Ben?" Gwen asked
"See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!" Ghostfreak said in his raspy whisper voice as he waved and flew out the wall
"Hmm... now what to do?" Ghostfreak said as he saw an area where no one can really see him, but he could see people walk by
"Well, this guy is one that I haven't really trained with so why not a little training." Ghostfreak said as he went to the area the area had a fence a couple rocks that were about waist length
"Hmm let's see what else I can do?" Ghostfreak said as he looked himself over
"Man, this guy is going to be hard to figure out I might as well try training with the other guys plus it feels hotter than it was before." Ghostfreack said as he pressed the watchs sybol and detransformed in a green flash
"Ugh why do I have a headache?" Ben said as he noticed a golf cart going past with a Marty driving and a carpet in the back
"Hmm that's weird." Ben said as he decided to follow as he did, he realized that being Ghostfreak would help to follow the golf cart as he was thinking of giving up, he saw the golf cart stop as Marty got out of it and noticed it's the man from next door, he saw the man look around before he saw the man open a gate and walk into a dump, he saw Marty push a dumpster revealing a trapdoor as Marty was about to open the trapdoor when the Omnitrix made a noise as Marty dropped the trapdoor closed as Ben looked at the watch as he saw it was green
"Come on you make a noise now?" Ben whisper shouted as he noticed Marty was coming his way as he then started running but as he saw the golf cart, he got in it as he saw Marty in the mirror step over the fence and started chasseing him as he stepped on the gas as he looked at the Omnitrix
"Upgrade should be able to get this thing going fast!" Ben said as he activated the watch and as he was turning the dial as Marty grabbed the golf cart with his hands extended making Ben accidently press the watch down in a flash of green, he was
Astrodactyl
"Astrodactyl 'squawk'!?" Astrodactyl said
"Really stupid 'squawk' watch?" Astrodactyl said as he used his energy whip and whipped at Marty's arm making it get cut off, but nothing came out which Astrodactyl was thankfully for as the golf cart went forwards now that some of the force keeping it back was gone as Marty seemed to let go as Astrodactyl let out a sigh and hit the Omnitrix symbol on his shoulder with more force than he usually did and instead of detransforming he was transformed into Diamondhead
"Of course, the watch can transform me when I'm in alien form if I hit it hard enough." Diamondhead said annoyed as he was about to press the watch again, he felt a bump as he looked back and saw Marty on the back of the golf cart as he then jumped on Diamondhead as the golf cart started to swerve
"Hey get off!" Diamondhead yelled trying to hit Marty off of as he accidently stomped his foot thru the golf cart and into the ground making Marty go flying off of him, but the golf cart flipped upside down as a red flash came from the wreckage
"UHG why did the watch time out now of all times." Ben groaned out as he saw Marty come over to him as he ran to the grass area and tripped as Marty got closer to him the Omnitrix seemed to flicker from red to green back to red as that happened suddenly sprinklers came out of the ground and spraying water all around Ben as Marty hissed and ran away
"Okay...what just happened?" Ben asked himself as he got up and noticed something
"Wait where am I?" Ben asked himself as he looked around
"Aw man." Ben said as he sighed and chose a random direction to go
10 minutes later
Ben looked at the Omnitrix and saw it was still red
"Come on you usually only take like 5 minutes to recharge." Ben said annoyed and checked his pockets for anything and only found his gun a video game and a half drinker bottle of water and sat down on a bench and sighed
"I really need to ask grandpa for a phone." Ben said as he decided to play the game until the watch recharged
about another 10 minutes later
Ben was playing his sumo slammers game when he heard the all too familiar sound of the Omnitrix timing in as he smirked and paused his game and then activated the watch and chose his alien and slammed his hand down on the dial transforming him into
Upgrade
"Aww man." Upgrade said as his arms drooped as he noticed he forgot to put his gun and game away
"I wonder if I can merge tech?" Upgrade said as he grabbed both items and thought about combining with them both as he merges with them both combining them
the newly merged items now some what looked like a mini helicopter mixed with a drone it had blades on top like a helicopter's rotors as it also has a turret like gun on the side with the front being flat as there was a screen on the back of it as the color of it was black and green as Upgrades eye was on the front
"Wow!" Upgrade said as he tested his new body for a minute before realizing that he didn't have much more time before he times out he flew up in the air
At sundown Ben finally gets back to Vera's he had to transform multiple times and some transformations where less useful than others such as Grey Matter and Heatblast he had used almost all his aliens but the only ones that were useful was Astrodactyl Upgrade and Ghostfreak since the watch thought it was a good idea to not give him Xlr8
as he got to the door, he opened it and went in as he saw Max and Gwen in the kitchen
"I just transformed about 15 times just to get back here." Ben said tiredly as Max and Gwen turned to him in a bit of shock
"How far did you go for that to happened?" Gwen asked not believing him
"The neighbor is ether an alien or has been takin over by one." Ben said as he faceplants on the couch as Max raised his eyebrow
"Ben, you snuck out. Aunt Vera was hurt." Gwen said
"Ugh she's old, she'll forget." Ben said tiredly as he rolled on to his back
"Well, maybe we should do some investigating, but you stay as you are." Max said
"No problem there after the tenth transformation after the watch recharged, I decided once I get back no more hero for the day." Ben said with a yawn
"Oh, and Ben." Max said as he cleared his throat "Us old fogies don't ferget as much as ya think!" Max said in an old man's voice as he winked and left the room
"You know, ever since you've had that watch, you're like a magnet for the weird." Gwen said as Ben groaned and just ignored her
later that night Max opens the door to Marty's apartment
"Hello? Anyone home?" Max asked as he Ben and Gwen went in the apartment is dark deserted the pendulum of a grandfather clock swings to and fro as Max, Gwen, and Ben walk past something suddenly startles them, but Max turns on the lights only a jacket on a coat rack, blowing from the open window beside it
"Well, nothing here seems out of whack." Max said
"Except for what he rolled up in his rug...that was right here." Ben said as he pointed to a rug outline on the floor as Max looks puzzled
later back at Vera's
"You two sleep well. I'll be in the guest room if you need me and I'm going for an early walk in the morning, but once I'm back, we'll check things out again." Max said as Gwen went in her assigned room as Ben went to his room to and so did Max
As Vera sleeps that night, another sentient green blob makes its way into her room as her limp arm falls off the bed it crawls up it Just as Vera wakes up it covers her mouth and eyes
In the morning, Ben opens up Vera's fridge
"Why is there nothing by prune juice in here?" Ben asked as he turned to Gwen who was pouring a glass of water as she ignored him and noticed Vera coming out of her room
"Morning Aunt Vera! How'd you sleep?" Gwen asked as Vera enters the kitchen, though something feels off about her
"Just...fine. How 'bout you?" Vera asked as She violently grabs and shakes Ben's cheeks
"Fine, Aunt Vera!" Ben said with a bit of pain
"I made you some coffee." Gwen says as she brings her a tray with a mug of coffee and a glass of water, but she trips and spills the both of them on the kitchen floor
"Sorry!" Gwen said as she hurriedly tried to clean it up Just before the spilled water makes its way to her shoes, Vera jumps up and holds a perfect split in the room
"CLEAN IT UP! CLEAN IT UP RIGHT NOW!" Vera yelled
"I'm sorry!" Gwen said stunned as she starts cleaning, and Vera lands back on the ground she looks over to the guest room to see it's empty
"Where did your grandfather go?" Vera asked
"Grandpa said he was going for an early walk." Gwen said
"Well, behave yourselves. I'll be back soon." Vera said as she left the house
"Shes definitely one of them." Ben said as Gwen looked at him
"One of what?" Gwen asked
"Whatever is taking control of these old people." Ben said
Sometime later, Ben takes Gwen for a walk through the village, taking alleys and out of site paths
"So, where we headed, Sherlock?" Gwen asked as she tightens the backpack, she brought with her
Ben quickly hides behind the corner of the alley as some old folks walk past
"We need to get to that trapdoor by the dumpster." Ben said as He holds Gwen back, waiting for the folks to walk further before quickly crossing
In another part of town, Marty and another old man stand shifty eyed Vera meets with them
"Is the food supply ready for transport?" fake Vera asked
"The pods are in the final stages of gestation what about the young ones?" fame Marty asked
"Too chewy! They need to age more before they get nice and tender." fake Vera said
"I'm not talking about eating! The boy suspects too much." fake Marty said as fake Vera smiles
the kids continue, now close to the dumpster site
"It's right over there." Ben said
"Just follow the disgusting smell." Gwen said while waving her hand to wave away the smell as Ben pulls her into an ally
"Hey what are you doing?" Gwen asked annoyed
"Look dweeb I don't trust any of these old people so I'm going alien to get us there fast." Ben said as Gwen was shocked at his seriousness but just nodded as Ben activated the Omnitrix and chose an alien and pressed the dial down in a green flash he was Xlr8, as he grabbed Gwen and ran to the dumpster area
"W-wow." Gwen said as she got off of Xlr8 and steadied herself
"You know you don't come with seat belts, right?" Gwen said as Xlr8 noticed a figure coming their way
"Guys, what's going on?" the figure said as Gwen and Xlr8 recognized as Max
"Where taking down the aliens by seeing were this trapdoor leads." Xlr8 said as Max smiled as his green teeth shows
"I know where here let me help ya." Max said as he stretched his arms out to grab them as Xlr8 dodges and so does Gwen but barley
" Gwen ill deal with fake grandpa you move the dumpster." Xlr8 hissed out as Gwen nodded and went to the dumpster
Xlr8 puts his mask down as he charges at fake Max as fake Max stretches his arm out somehow grabs Xlr8 as Xlr8 try's using his speed to try and pull fake Max which somewhat succeeded as he saw that the arm was just stretching as he ran he got an idea and ran in a circle around fake Max as he saw some more elder people coming this way
"Hey speedy I could use some help!" Gwen shouted still trying to move the dumpster as Xlr8 ran and kicked the dumpster to the side as he opened the trapdoor grabbed Gwen and jumped in the trapdoor and down into a cave like path as he ran through it for a bit before stopping at a path blocked by wood planks as Xlr8 puts Gwen down as he presses the symbol on his chest transforming into Feedback
"Aw man I wanted Diamondhead." Feedback said with a sigh as he shot electricity at the wooden planks breaking them
"When did you learn that?" Gwen asked
"Yesterday." Feedback said as he pressed the symbol again but to detransform this time as they went down in the area and saw tons of green pods as they saw Max in one
"Grandpa!" both Ben and Gwen shouted as Gwen took out the gun Ben had her put in her backpack and used the ray mode to open the pod as they pulled Max out
"Huh, I was out for a walk, and then...can't remember what happened next." Max said as he put his hand on his head as Ben was about to open another one
"I wouldn't do that If I were you." fake Vera said
"Well, I'm not you." Ben retorted
"Not yet I'm not." fake Marty said as Marty and the others morph into their true selves, green liquid aliens with orange eyes and pink internal organs
"You can fill me in later." Max said as the three Tennysons back up as Gwen accidentally touches the back of the ship with her hand and activates it revealing a doorway to more pods loaded onboard
"Look what's back here." Gwen said in surprise
"Their ship." Max said
"They found it! We can't let them out!" Limax 1 said
"Get the pods on board, they've been marinating long enough!" Limax 2 said
"Marinating?" Max asked as Gwen looks inside the ship and sees Vera inside one of the pods on a wall
"They've got Aunt Vera!" Gwen said as Ben noticed the watch was recharged
"You guys really burn me up." Ben said as he slammed his hand down on the dial as he transformed into a small human shaped creature that was white and black
Ditto (mini A/N in this Ditto still fells pain through his clones but not the exact same as the one in pain for example if one stubs a toe the others will only feel a numbing sensation, I'm doing this cuz in omniverse it seems like they don't feel the same pain so here they feel the same pain just lessen because of the Omnitrix so all other Splixen are the same)
"Wait Ditto?" Ditto asked in confusion as the Limax took advantage of his confusion to attack as Ditto went flying into their ship as the Limax turned to Max and Gwen as Gwen tried firing the gun at them, but it did basically nothing as one of them knocked Gwen over as her backpack spilled open dropping her water gun some books pens/pencils and a flashlight as the Limax saw the water gun they hissed at the water in the water gun as Gwen got an idea and grabbed the water gun and sprayed it at the Limax as it hit one it seemed to be like acid to it as it hissed as all the Limax started to grow into a large Limax as it snarled
"You just made a huge mistake." the giant Limax snarled out as it was about to attack Gwen when suddenly 10 Dittos tackled the giant Limax as 2 more came to help Gwen as they brought her out of the way
"You, ok?" the Ditto to the left asked
"Yea and there weak to water." Gwen said as she looked in the Limaxs ship and saw a ton of Dittos clearing out the ship of pods
"Wow how many of there are you?" Gwen asked shocked at how many
"We don't know." the Ditto to the right said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head as the Limax after hitting another Ditto away noticed that the Dittos were taking the pods away
"What are you doing!?" the Limax yelled as one of the Dittos grabbed the gun (mini A/N I really got to make a name for this thing) as he holds the trigger down making the gun rapid fire at the Limax as it barley did anything, but a shot did hit a pipe on the ceiling as water started to fall as another Ditto noticed this
"Give me that." the Ditto said to the other as he took the gun and shot the pipe making water spill on top of the Limax as it screeched and melted
"Oh, yea who's the best? Oh, right we are." a Ditto said with a confident grin as the other Dittos cheered as they saw the ship start to take off as none of them noticed Max coming out of the ship
"Hey whys that thing flying?" a Ditto asked
"It probably has an autopilot." Max said as the ship finally flew away
"We should put them all back in their condos, so they'll think they never left." Max said as Gwen sat down
"That could take hours." Gwen said
"Give us a minute and will um I um we detransform and see if Xlr8 can help" a Ditto said as he hit the symbol on his forehead as all the Ditto flew to the main Ditto as a green flash happened as Ben was now there
"W-wow." Ben said as he was a bit disorientated from detransforming as Ben steadied himself as he put the gun in his hand in his pocket as he looked at the watch
the next day Max and Vera broke their hug
"Don't be strangers." Vera said
"We won't." Max said
"Bye Aunt Vera." Gwen said as Vera went to her
"Bye dear Oh, this is for the road." Vera said as she hands Gwen a green mold of hers in a glass container "Ben told me how much you liked my gelatin mold. This one's lime with chunks of grouper and chickpeas." Vera said as Ben is smiling to himself while Gwen tries to be nice to Vera
"Uhh, thanks." Gwen said as she hugs Vera and takes it to the Rust Bucket, leaving only Ben to say goodbye
"I'm sorry, Ben, if there wasn't enough excitement here for you. I hope you weren't bored." Vera said
"Actually, it turned out better than I thought!" Ben said
"I'm glad. Well, have fun on the road." Vera said
"I will!" Ben said as he hugs her and hops in the Rust Bucket
"Oh, and Ben? Keep up the good work, dealing with all those aliens you were telling me about!" Vera said in a joking tone as Ben laughs nervously as he went in Rust Bucket as it drove away
and that's the end of this chapter I hope everyone enjoyed and I'm a bit surprised that I published this so fast but have a good day and heres the known aliens
Heatblast Wildvine Diamondhead Xlr8 Grey Matter Upgrade Feedback Astrodactyl Ghostfreack Ditto