Max sighed as he struggled to put the bow tie on Ben's neck.
They were invited to Joel's wedding, and Ben had to be the ring bearer while Gwen was the flower girl. Except, while Gwen was excited to be part of the wedding, getting Ben to agree promised to be... difficult.
Gwen thought Ben was stretching it and being a baby about his argument with Xylene (and not just because of an incident where Ben turned into a baby along with his aliens a few days ago, during which Sixsix and Kraab made sure to get Ben's best profile when taking pictures without him noticing).
In Ben's part, he wasn't having much fun. Why did they have to go to a stupid wedding filled with other Plumber relatives that also didn't know who he was and would probably put him in a cage if they did? And what did Max even think before getting them to come?
If Ben hadn't found the Omnitrix and didn't learn about Max's past, they would never have come to this wedding, this was really taking advantage of him and Gwen. Besides, he had to learn how to dance, and if he was to dance, he needed to stand hearing Gwen being all schmaltzy about how glad she was to be a flower girl, learn not to step on her feet and seeing everyone just have the fun of their lives being hypocrites while meeting people they never heard of before.
If he was having a wedding, he'd get Vilgax to help, he knew how to smell out hypocrites and people who pretended they were glad to be here just to make themselves look good. Max was a good example.
Or maybe not. Vilgax also was a big showoff with the Chimerian Hammer and his way of boasting during battle, though Ben did admire him a bit for that. Let's hope he just didn't crash the wedding and revealed Ben's secret for a reason or another. Though beside the last part, he'd be glad if his father ruined the whole thing, at least he didn't have to be there if it was the case.
"This tuxedo was a family heirloom. It was mine when I was a kid, then... your dad wore it, and now you." said Max, adjusting Ben's tie.
Ben almost shot him with a death glare, but he knew better than call him out now. He might as well wait until his "dad" and "mom" were present if he wanted Max to get what he had coming. He couldn't believe he was going there wearing this ugly suit, red wasn't really his color. Vilgax's was, and Max's too, he preferred wearing green if anything.
"Smile and say Mega-Dweeb!" said Gwen, bringing her camera out.
In a second, as a reflex, Ben suddenly grabbed her arm and yanked the camera away.
"Ouch! Ben!"
"Sorry! Overreacted." apologized Ben.
"Are you sure you didn't take judo classes too? You almost broke my wrist!" she said, handling her arm.
"Sorry, that won't happen again."
"If that's how you react to a photo, let's hope you don't go Four Arms on everyone, mister ring bearer."
'Or Rath.' "I know I'd better not use the watch this time, this is a human wedding, not an alien one. They'd freak out if they had an alien with them and-"
"-and put you/me in a cage with bear food!"
Sometimes they wondered if they didn't have some sort of mental link to come up with similar ideas. Gwen guessed it was because she was related to a doofus that she could predict how he thought, Ben thought otherwise. He wasn't even sure he could call her his cousin at the moment.
"This is where you live?" asked Alan, looking at the dump.
"It's not 5 stars, but it suits me." said Kevin, laying on a mattress with springs popping out here and there.
"Sure suits your attitude." said Alan, staring at a few flies. "You sure love video games." he noted, looking at the arcade games here and there.
"What, never heard of Sumo Slammers?" Kevin guessed.
"How did you know?"
"You're an orphan who lived away from town for years, you know more about farming than what it's like to live in the big city."
"True, and what about you? What about your family?"
Ben's question still echoed loud and clear in the abandoned subway Kevin lived in. He shook off his head before answering.
"Let's just say they found me too... lousy to have as a son. I just work my magic and do stuff on my own for now."
"Sounds kinda lonely. By the way, how did you beat those two cops before? I saw nothing back there."
"I know a lot about fighting. Don't ask me to teach you, you look kinda small for your age. How old are you? 8? 10?"
"I'm 5." said Alan.
Kevin stared at him in confusion. Alan was... five years old?!
"No way! Dude, you almost look my age! What do they put in that corn to make you this tall?! You look almost as old as an idiot I got rid of before."
"Dieting and eating healthy food does the trick. And I'm used to running away from farmers and sheriffs. Just wish I could fly instead, like a bug or a shooting star."
Kevin looked away, the memories of Heatblast and Stinkfly still very present in his mind. "A shooting star? You wish. Don't play with fire, kid, you could get yourself burned."
"You're the kid!"
"Shouldn't have told me your age then." teased Kevin.
"You asked."
"You got a lot to learn about how things work around here. And you better help out if you want dinner." he added, going for fresh air.
"I gotta steal in here too?" complained Alan.
Looks like things weren't easier in town as they were in the fields after all.
"Still, it's impressive how much damage you did, it's like you were that Iron Man guy we saw on that comic shop back there."
"I don't have a robot suit if you're asking." 'But I did get a metal armor for once. How did I even get this new power?'
Ben was admittedly glad about how things seemed to turn out.
While he still had to dance, just with a different dance partner, not everything was going well. His adoptive cousin once removed's, Joel's, wedding was going to be a disaster. Things were going wrong and Joel's parents wanted to cancel everything for some reason he didn't know yet, which meant Ben wasn't gonna be bored out of his mind when the action would start.
He currently swam in a lake he was aware he wasn't allowed to go in, discussing what Kraab and Sixsix should do while he's surrounded by Plumber guests.
"If some other kid comes by and tries to fight me with skewers, you don't come in. We tease each other a lot with sharp stuff at our age on Earth, my life is not gonna be at stake." he laughed at his own pun.
Sixsix asked something, to which Kraab rolled his robotic eyes.
"Last time I checked, they don't give thermoblasters to kids on this planet. Not everything here is like what you find on Sotoragg." huffed the Piscciss Premann.
Sixsix growled, annoyed, while Ben was getting a good laugh.
"And if you two are hungry, you can steal from the buffet as long as you don't get noticed. And maybe save me a thing or two, I hope they brought seafood in there."
"We'll check the truck if you want us to."
"Nah, not right away. Grandpa and Gwen are gonna think I'm the one who did it, they don't know if Upchuck can eat Earth food or not."
"The Lenopans won't know."
Ben raised a brow. Lenopans?
"What's a, uh, Lenopan?"
Sixsix gurgled an explanation, translating to "Lenopans, sometimes called Sludgepuppies as a slur, are a soil-based species with shapeshifting abilities. They can mimic voices and appearances to fool their opponents."
"That's what we identified the Mann family as." said Kraab.
It took several minutes for Ben to find anything to say. "THEY'RE ALIENS?!"
So that was why Joel's parents weren't getting along with Camille's. A pair of Plumbers' son, with an alien. No wonder everything was a mess, they probably did everything in their power to ruin the wedding because they hated aliens.
On one hand, Ben wanted this to be over already, so they could leave and he wouldn't have to be at this stupid event for too long. On another, he almost wanted it to happen, just to make those Plumbers squirm.
Ben scared himself with that last thought, but if they just treated any alien nearby like dirt, they would treat Ben like dirt too, it was fair game. Plus, if Joel really liked Camille, Ben wouldn't mind coming as much as he thought. It'd mean an alien could live on Earth without having to lie.
So Ben would be able to live here without pretending to be a normal human and not the son of an alien warlord.
He still didn't want to wear that stupid suit or dance, so if the wedding could be delayed until they found someone else to do it, it'd be great.
His thoughts were interrupted as he heard a noise. A truck broke in through the wooden door, one Ben recognized as the one he ate some cake from a few minutes earlier, heading straight towards the wedding aisle.
"Hero time, guys." said Ben, getting out of the water and slamming on the Omnitrix's dial.
Cannonbolt rolled out at high speed towards the pastry truck, colliding with it before it reached the aisle. The impact caused an explosion with a lot of smoke, which Cannonbolt tried to swat away.
"Now what is going on?"
He suspected Joel's parents to be responsible for this, but he didn't have time to think when he saw the explosion caused a fire. "Oh no! Time to go-" he paused, trying to figure which alien he should use. "I don't have a water or ice alien!" He wondered why he didn't ask for any alien his future self showed him, like Arctiguana.
"Young master, the lake!" pointed Kraab.
Cannonbolt understood what he meant and jumped into the water, making a cannonball as he caused a giant splash.
Water started raining on the burning place, taking out the fire quick. The two Bounty Hunters ran to his aid, helping him get out of the water.
"Did you see who was driving?"
"No, it seems whoever it was ran away."
"Someone is trying to ruin this wedding, and I have my little idea who."
Then, without a warning, Betty Jean and Gordon, Ben's great-aunt and great-uncle, appeared with blasters in hand.
"Boy, lifeguards around here are really strict." he teased. His expression changed as he remembered Max didn't tell them about the Omnitrix.
"An Arburian Pelarota! And he brought a cyborg and a Sotoraggian with him!" said Gordon. Ben felt bad for Kraab who was mistaken for a robot.
"Alien wedding crashers!" said Betty Jean. "Who sent you?!" she threatened.
Cannonbolt gulped as he realized what he got himself into. This was going to be tricky. He couldn't tell them about the Omnitrix, and he also couldn't say Kraab and Sixsix were on his side. He also couldn't attack them, and if he did nothing, they would attack him.
"Nobody, I swear! I don't even wanna be here!" said Cannonbolt.
"What is going on?"
Joel came by, followed by Gwen and Max.
"These aliens were trying to ruin the wedding!" said Gordon.
"No, I was trying to save the wedding!" attempted Cannonbolt. Then he froze when he realized Sixsix and Kraab were still there, and that Max and Gwen noticed them.
"Bounty Hunters!" said Max. "What are you here for?! And..."
Max seemed confused as to why Cannonbolt was between both aliens, not fighting despite them being clearly a threat.
Suddenly, Sixsix aimed his blaster at Cannonbolt and gurgled something to Kraab. Kraab took the hint and spoke up.
"You found us out, Plumbers! We were indeed hired to put an end to this event so that this alliance between a human and a Lenopan would never happen! Until this annoying Arburian Pelarota child came in..."
"Uh, yeah! You thought you could get away with this, losers?" said Cannonbolt. "Think again!"
Sixsix feigned threatening him with his weapon, before throwing a smoke bomb on the ground, covering them.
"We'll meet again, Tennysons..." said Kraab mysteriously as he and Sixsix fled.
"They're getting away! Blast them!"
Both elders started shooting through the fog around them, attempting to take down their targets. The other humans coughed, waiting for the smoke to fade. When they could see again, the aliens were gone.
"Uh... it seems like that Arburian Pelarota was saying the truth." said Max.
"Still, we couldn't have taken any chance." said Betty Jean. "You know aliens, can't trust any of 'em."
"Put those things away!" warned Joel. "This is a wedding, not a shooting range!"
"But those things are still out there!" argued Gordon.
He did not realize he was talking about his great-nephew, or that the two Bounty Hunters were still observing them from afar, hiding in a bush. If all Plumbers gave up searches that quick, they wondered how the organization sustained itself for so long, and how Ben managed to survive with Max before they came along the road-trip.
They knew they had to flee before the humans noticed them, but they saw a silhouette in the dark. The one who wanted to sabotage the event was getting away, and they felt Ben would be satisfied learning who it was. They sneaked off, attempting to catch the culprit.
"We want you to promise: no more weapons for the rest of the weekend." scolded Joel.
"Wow, that's not something I ever expected to hear at a wedding."
The adults jumped in surprise, aiming their weapons at what turned out to be Ben.
"Man, being a ring bearer is a lot more dangerous than I thought." he said, rolling his eyes. The adults sighed in relief, putting their blasters down.
"See? You almost hurt Ben." said Joel. "You're acting too paranoid."
Ben grinned. Switching from Cannonbolt to XLR8, he was able to snatch a spare shirt and pants from the RV, no one would ever know he even went outside. Well, aside from Gwen and Max, and whoever would learn about the Omnitrix.
"Was that an Arburian Pelarota?" he asked, feigning ignorance. "Are they dangerous aliens?"
"Nah, don't worry, Ben." said Joel, patting his shoulder. "My parents always take things out of proportion, Arburian Pelarotas are a pacifistic species. Though it's been a while since we've seen one or even heard of one..."
"Wait a minute." said Gwen. "You guys... are Plumbers too?"
"You didn't know?" asked Ben.
"You did?!"
"Well duh!"
Ben was glad to know he took his precautions when he asked Max if there was anything alien-related in the event when he first drove them there. Considering how things were uncomfortable between him and Max, it'd be a gutsy move for the Plumber to say 'no' when it was the case. Gwen for her part felt dumb and it was infuriating. So that was how Ben felt all the time when she knew something he didn't.
Apparently, Max also omitted the Lenopan part, but Ben was getting used to it at this rate. He just needed to give it a little push.
"Man, I can't believe everything was almost ruined by aliens!" said Ben. "Good thing they're all gone, I'm not sure the Manns would be comfortable around aliens."
As soon as he said that, Gordon, Betty Jean and Joel stared at Max.
"Uncle Max... you didn't tell them?"
Ben smirked. Max was caught red-handed.
"Well, uhm..." awkwardly said Max. "They're still pretty new to this alien stuff, I thought I shouldn't scare them or their parents by telling them about this when the kids are still too young. But, uh, I changed my mind." he lied.
"So, you didn't tell Cousin Carl or Cousin Frank about it either? Or Sandra and Natalie either, I presume."
"Well, um..." Max scratched the back of his head. Maybe he should have told Ben and Gwen about the Sludgepuppies earlier. "It's getting late, we should go back to sleep for tomorrow, it's your big day after all."
He hurriedly took Gwen and a smug Ben away, feeling the stares of his family from behind.
"Well, thanks for the support, Uncle Max." sighed Joel. "This wedding is gonna be a wash..."
"So, what did you find?" asked Kevin.
Alan showed a lighter and a skateboard.
"That's cool, but you can't eat that. Figured you'd be a newbie at this."
"Where do you even expect me to find food?! I can't shoplift, food isn't around the corner like in Grover's Mill."
"You think of something. Here." he threw an ice cream cup and a bag of marshmallows to him. "I already ate while you were busy stealing like a toddler, have this."
Alan rolled his eyes, he could feel the jokes about him 'being a baby' coming. "And where do I make a fire for the marshmallows?" he joked.
Kevin unironically pointed to what looked like a pile of burned shreds, hinting that Kevin made a fire in there more than once. Sighing, Alan took his new lighter and tried to light it up. However, it seemed there was a reason someone threw it away.
"Great, doesn't even work."
"Hm?"
"Just a spark or two, that's not enough to make a fire."
Though Kevin didn't know why, he felt generous for once. He walked over and took the faulty lighter from Alan.
"I'm gonna try something, so close your eyes."
"Do I have to?"
"Do you want something to eat?"
Alan pointed to the ice cream cup.
"Just... do it, alright?"
Raising a brow, Alan complied and closed his eyes. Kevin took his hand close to the lighter and tried using his powers without touching it. He focused and started absorbing the sparks as they came, and all of a sudden, his hands were charged with fire energy.
It reminded him of Heatblast, but he knew he couldn't stay that way for too long. He knelt and produced some fire towards the makeshift fireplace, and soon there was a fire lighting up the place.
Kevin shook his hands off, trying to dispel the energy. It went away just as Alan finally opened his eyes.
"Wow! How did you do that?!"
"If I told you, I'd have to kill you." smirked Kevin.
"Dude, you're magic! I swear, you're like a superhero!"
"More like a super-freak." said Kevin.
"Well, I heard even comic book freaks could be superheroes. Isn't that how it always starts? Anyway, you're amazing. I don't know how you do it, but you make living the hard life look so easy. You really don't wanna tell me?"
Kevin stared at him for a few minutes, considering his words. Then he turned away.
"I'd rather not talk about it."
He went back on the mattress, playing with a stolen Sumo Slammers game he had. Alan looked on, curious.
It seems his new friend had some form of secret. Was it the same reason he could beat up those cops the other day? He knew he had to learn more about it.
"They don't really look like aliens." commented Gwen.
"They're just in disguise for the wedding." said Max.
Ben felt so victorious humiliating Max about keeping secrets, he hadn't stopped smiling ever since they went back to the Rustbucket.
"Actually, they're some of the toughest, nastiest, meanest beings in the galaxy." 'Oh, like Vilgax? Maybe I should ask my dad to invite Joel and Camille on Vilgaxia to renew their vows someday, I'd like to see what you'd think of nasty and mean aliens.' "We call them Sludgepuppies. The Plumbers and the Sludges have been going at it for generations." 'Gee, guess which group supposed to maintain galactic peace instead spent all those generations fighting for domination instead?' "But a few years ago, their children, Joel and Camille, met and became close. A truce was forged from that single relationship." 'You'd better hope Vilgax accepts a truce after all of this.'
Ben was almost scared of his own thoughts, but he wasn't able to take Max's words as seriously as he used to before. The Plumber wasn't as convincing as he used to be, Ben wasn't quite his grandson with that attitude anymore.
"This is the first ever marriage between a mud alien and a human. It could put an end to years of fighting."
"Not sure they take too lightly being called 'mud aliens', Grandpa." said Ben, snorting. If Max wasn't so busy saving himself, he would've noticed Ben was almost acting condescending with him.
"We'd better keep our eyes open. If someone is trying to stop this from happening and sent those Bounty Hunters specifically for that, something tells me the trouble is just starting."
"Yeah, like coming late for dinner?" said Gwen. "They're probably waiting for us at the reception, we haven't gotten dinner yet Grandpa. Unless you're making us eat in the RV."
Max brought his hand to his face, feeling tired. He forgot about that too.
When Lucy, Camille's cousin, got far away enough, Ben faceplanted into the table.
"I don't know how to dance..."
"I took three years of Cotillion if it helps."
"Wha?"
"I know how to dance, maybe you could use my help and avoid breaking Lucy's legs during the dance."
"But she's a Leno-" Ben cut himself short, realizing his mistake mid-sentence. He coughed, pretending to have something in the throat. "Argh, I mean, isn't she an alien? One of those sludge creatures, she wouldn't be hurt if I stepped on her."
"It'd hurt you if you did a bad step and made the both of you fall over, doofus." said Gwen. "You need my help for this, so until you get your own private dance teacher, I'm always available for a lesson."
Ben rolled his eyes. "It looks like they're about to skin each other on that table."
Gwen noted the adults were sort of glaring at each other. Joel at his parents for their behavior, Joel's parents at Camille's for being aliens, and Camille's parents seemed strangely peaceful enough, which was proof they weren't that much into the feud like Ben thought. Max was still eating his food normally on the meantime, probably to drown out the humiliation he received earlier.
Though Joel finally seemed to relax as he put his hand over Camille's, both smiling. Ben couldn't help but wonder.
Were his parents like that before?
He wasn't sure if he was thinking of Vilgax and Idraxx, or Carl and Sandra. But did they also have this situation before?
Wanting to be close, no matter how disapproving the rest of the universe could be? Even if in his dad's case, it probably didn't go beyond his mom's family disapproving of a space tyrant as their in-law. And in Sandra's case, she probably found Carl's side of the family shady where Max was. He heard Max was very absent from Carl and Frank's life when they were young. Now he knew why.
His thoughts were once again interrupted as he heard a noise. Everyone turned to the food caterer, who had spilled all plates on the ground.
"Camille! I am NOT letting you marry any FILTHY HUMAN without a fight!" roared the man, and that was when they realized this wasn't a human.
Suddenly, the man turned into a big mud monster, which fit the description Max gave, along with the faint description of the silhouette Sixsix and Kraab saw when they pursued the wedding ruiner earlier.
"Ah! It's my ex-boyfriend!" exclaimed Camille. "How'd he find out about the wedding?!"
The Lenopan started thrashing around, destroying the tables around him and making the other guests run in fear. Ben knew it was his time to shine. "Guess we know who hired those two hunters who were after the watch before, then!"
He hid under the table and started looking for the right alien. "Man, I really need a water or ice alien soon, what can you do against mud? Ugh, guess rocks are stronger than goo." he said, selecting Diamondhead.
The Lenopan kept throwing everything around him, threatening to attack the humans.
"Without our gear, we're sitting ducks!" said Gordon.
Camille screamed as she saw her fiancé get caught by her ex-boyfriend, who didn't look like he'd let Joel go easily.
"If I can't have Camille, then neither can YOU! You meat puppet!" he roared in Joel's face while grasping his body to intimidate him. He was however stopped as a big diamond shard was sent at him, cutting his arm off and freeing Joel.
'Maybe that's why Kraab and Sixsix thought it was fun to cut my arm off. Man, if Tetrax saw me right now...'
"If I was you, I wouldn't do that." he threatened.
"A Petrosapien." said the Lenopan. "What are you doing here?"
"Not everyone in this place thinks humans are worthless, so how about you leave the lady and her man alone and we become friends? Or maybe you'd rather have diamond fists for dinner."
"If you're siding with those pesky Plumbers, you're no friend of mine!" he roared, flailing an arm at Diamondhead.
'Then we should be friends, I hate Plumbers too.'
Diamondhead dodged and looked at his surroundings. Beside a few cups and almost empty bottles, there was no water or ice around he could use to weaken this thing down, he had to find an outlet.
He ran forward and made an impact on the floor with both fists, producing diamond spikes from all around the Lenopan, cutting through his muddy body. This didn't do much as the muddy being was pretty resistant and reformed as he got out of the spikes, packing a fist that sent Diamondhead flying through the wall.
'Okay, not my brightest idea.'
Getting up, he realized he had been sent inside a sauna. He saw a small pool with warm water in it, and it gave him an idea on how to trap the crazy ex-boyfriend.
"Hey dirt bag! Can't be bothered to keep fighting for someone you love?" he taunted, and smirked as he heard a loud roar getting near. Gwen rolled her eyes while she got the guests out.
The Lenopan followed, looking at the room that turned out to be empty, aside from a woman who was relaxing before running away in fear. Confused, he searched for the Petrosapien that dared challenging him.
He was taken aback as said Petrosapien suddenly popped out of the ground, having dug himself under the floor, before producing a diamond plate with his hand and slamming it on the Lenopan's face, making the muddy alien fly and fall in the sauna.
Diamondhead grinned evilly as he saw the Lenopan struggle to get himself out, slowly sinking into the hot water and melting on it. It roared in pain, helplessly flailing its appendages around and gurgling before it was just a dark purple surface on the hot water.
"Next time, think twice before taking someone away from the person they love."
"We are NOT canceling my wedding!" categorically said Camille.
"Civilians will be at the wedding tomorrow, what if there's another alien attack?" argued Gordon.
"Uh, if you want my advice..." said Ben, catching everyone's attention. "Seems like those alien guys helped us during the attacks. If the wedding goes wrong, they can be there to save the day." Gwen was surprised Ben was okay with that, she recalled him being annoyed earlier.
"Ben, that's nice, but we can't trust any alien."
Joel growled as he put an arm over Camille's shoulder.
"Er, I mean, any alien that we don't personally know, ahaha!"
Joel gave his father a judging look, while Ben and Gwen gave Max that same look. He could guess they were thinking 'So, did you tell them about Xylene?' 'You better have an excuse for not inviting Aunt Vera over, unless you didn't tell her yet either.'
"At least, let us bring our Plumber gear." said Betty Jean.
"No! No weapons!"
"Everyone relax, there's no need for weapons now." said Mrs. Mann, trying to lighten the mood. "It's all over."
"I wish I could believe that." said Max.
They had to admit, Earth food really wasn't that terrible, but they had to leave some for Ben, he's the one who told them to steal from the buffet.
The Bounty Hunters had spent the night telling Ben about the clues they've had. Obviously, someone was responsible for telling Camille's ex-boyfriend about the wedding, he couldn't have just followed her around or happened to pass by when the ceremony was decided. It could've been one of the Plumbers, but it was hard to believe.
And the only other suspects they've had was... the Mann family.
Another reason to stay on guard if anything happened. On the meantime, Ben seemed like he was at war with his tie. The red outfit would have suited their employer if it was bigger, but it did nothing to bring out their liege's green eyes. They had to wonder how the kid felt wearing something supposed to be a family heirloom.
Kraab rolled his eyes as Sixsix suggested wearing an armor instead, like his parents and siblings had done when invited to weddings themselves before the after-ceremony hunting session began.
They kept an eye out for the guests, the one behind the attacks was most likely among them.
"If anyone has a reason why these two should not wed," spoke the priest, "let them speak now or forever hold-"
A ball of mud covered his face.
"Yeah, we have something to say." hissed Mr. Mann, standing up with his wife.
Their hands were now purple muddy tentacles, and they looked ready to maul someone. Their bodyguard's hand did the same, and he threw a pile of mud at Gordon and Betty Jean, restraining them. All the other guests fled in fear.
"This wedding and every human here are about to be canceled." grimly announced Mr Mann, the two other Lenopans glaring in anger with glowing purple eyes.
That was when they knew it was almost their cue, but they had to wait for orders.
"Mom! Dad! What are you doing?!"
"Putting an end to this once and for all." roared Mr. Mann, progressively looking more and more feral.
"It was her mom and dad behind the dirty tricks all along." realized Ben. "But being a bunch of hypocrites like that all weekend doesn't make you any better." he claimed, angering the Manns.
"What did I tell ya? Once a Sludge, always a Sludge." said Betty Jean.
"Mom, can we leave the alien slurs for later?!" snapped Joel.
"They set up the ex-boyfriend to take the fall and keep suspicion off of themselves!" concluded Max.
"There will be no wedding." growled Mr. Mann. "And no truce!"
He sent a wave of mud towards Joel, raising him in the air and handling him harshly in an attempt to take him out.
"But... you said... you liked me!" struggled Joel, unable to believe they could lie to him and their own daughter about the man she was gonna marry.
"We lied." shamelessly said Mr. Mann.
"Stop it! No!" begged Camille.
"Stay out of this, Camille! This is for your own good!" said Mrs. Mann, her early sweet tone completely absent from her voice. She tackled her own daughter away.
Something inside Ben snapped.
"Hey! What makes you think you know what's best for her?" he shouted.
The Tennysons turned at Ben in surprise. What was he thinking?!
"We're her parents, we know better than anyone what's best for her!" hissed Mr. Mann.
"You're wrong! If I learned something on this summer, it's that, no matter how much you're convinced you know what's best for someone..." he gave Max a quick look, "...and, no matter how much time you spent with them, you can't say for sure you know everything about them. If Camille wants to be with Joel, that's her choice to make, it's her life."
Something in his speech sounded hurt, as he knew what he was talking about. This momentarily startled the humans around, especially Max.
"She chose to be with him, and now you played along just to trick her and ruin her big day just for your own biased view of how things should be. This is your daughter's life you're meddling with. That isn't normal!"
"Enough!" roared the Lenopans, throwing waves of mud at him.
He dodged and ran to Max and Gwen.
"If the situation wasn't this bad, I'd tell you how proud of you I am for speaking like that." said Max.
"Save the congratulations for later, Grandpa." said Gwen. "Right now, it's Hero Time. Go get behind that tree while we restrain them."
He almost berated her for stealing his line, but he complied. Luckily for him, it was where his bodyguards were hiding.
"Young master, should we intervene?" asked Kraab, his head popping upside down from a branch.
"No, we should..." he looked at one of the guests, Lucy, the flower girl, running away. "Look, I need you to bring me a thing or two from the Rustbucket. If they see me before it's the right time, try to distract them and don't get caught."
Ben quickly gave them a few instructions before running away in Lucy's direction, leaving Max and Gwen to try and free Joel.
"Camouphlat Vaporis!" shouted Gwen, causing the water nearby to evaporate slightly, which seemed to hurt the Lenopans a bit, making Mr. Mann drop Joel. Regaining his sense, Joel ran towards his fiancée, who was still on the ground in pain from the spell.
"Camille, are you okay?"
"I should be the one asking you that."
"This wedding is a disaster, I'm sorry you had to go through all of this."
"No, no it's my fault." he apologized. "Maybe your parents wouldn't be so hard on me if my parents had been more accepting sooner."
"You can't change your family's mind, Joel, but you can always choose to do what you want even if they're prejudiced." said Camille, caressing his cheek. "That's what's so great about you and humans, you adapt to situations better than we do."
"Let's get you to safety." he smiled, picking her up carrying her away.
"Give her back!" roared her parents, ready to attack now that the smoke faded out and they could see again.
"We shouldn't have bothered with the invitations if it meant there would be meddlers." growled Mrs. Mann.
"I would've liked an invitation." said a new voice.
Heatblast threw a fiery fireball at the Lenopans, who got into their true forms. They tackled him and sent him towards the lake, but the Pyronite swiftly recovered midair, using his heat powers to propel himself back at them and punching one of the Lenopans with all his strength.
The creature roared in pain, making Heatblast smirk as he landed back on the ground. Gwen noticed there was something off with him. Aside from the attitude, it looked like the burning rocks on his shoulders had spikes...
"Stingu Invisibus!" she shouted, sending rocks flying at the mud creatures... who dodged easily. "I'm all out of juice, I can't use any more spells!" she heaved, tired. Guess she and Ben didn't need to spend the entire night practicing, he didn't dance after all. He did crush her legs pretty bad though.
"Get to the other guests and get them to calm down, we'll handle this." said Max.
Gwen obliged while Max went over to Gordon and Betty Jean, who managed to get themselves out of the sludge.
"What do we do? We're defenseless!" said Betty Jean.
"Not quite." said Max, bringing a few weapons of his own out of his tux. "You promised to leave the Plumber gear at home. I didn't."
Both Plumber elders activated their hand guns, reminiscing as they got ready to battle. "Ha! Just like the old days!" exclaimed Gordon.
The three of them started shooting at the Manns' bodyguard, who took in their blasts easily without too much trouble. He wasn't hired as both adults' protector for nothing, they had to be tricky.
Max charged his gun and ran towards the man, who shifted to his true form in an attempt to intimidate Max. He punched Max harshly, sending him back to where he came from... without his weapon.
Max stood back up with a smirk while his brother and sister-in-law helped him. "You really haven't changed after all these years." said Gordon.
The bodyguard heard a beeping and looked down. Max's gun was in his chest, glowing blue and making noises. Then before he knew it, there was an explosion and he was ejected to the air, before splattering on the ground, defeating him.
Max then noticed someone was missing.
"Where's Ben?"
"He ran away before Gwen, it doesn't look like he can stand a battle." said Gordon. "You better teach that kid a thing or two about bravery, even if he doesn't become a Plumber."
"Uh, yeah. Well, where did the Pyronite go?"
They heard loud explosions nearby and went to look inside the forest. Then Max was shocked at what he was seeing.
Heatblast was... producing steam. He had seen him do that once before but, it seemed Ben managed to take better control of that ability. However, he was using it on Mr. and Mrs. Mann, who looked both in a lot of pain. This surely would make the apologies and the truce a bit harder, but it was a necessary evil for the moment being.
But, Ben seemed to enjoy himself doing that. Maybe a little too much.
"Alright, that's enough, um, Pyronite man." awkwardly said Max, hoping he wasn't compromising Ben's secret. "We can take care of them like your Petrosapien friend took care of the ex-boyfriend yesterday night."
"Oh, please." said Heatblast, an unusual sadistic smile on his face. "Are you too much in denial to realize you already lost, Plumber? This was just a taste of my new power."
That startled Max. Ben didn't normally act like that, it almost felt like someone else. He feared it was.
"You know him?" Betty Jean raised a brow.
"I don't think so?" said Max.
"It wasn't too hard to take that wretched device from that weakling, you don't even know what you're about to face, all of you." Heatblast grinned evilly.
Then Max was horrified as he saw a silhouette he shouldn't be seeing behind Heatblast.
Sitting against a tree trunk, his left wrist bare and his eyes worn out, Ben was looking at him in fear.
"Grandpa..." coughed Ben. "He's back and... he took the watch away..."
"Who?!" asked Max.
"How could you not invite me to such an important event, Maxwell Tennyson?"
The way Heatblast hissed his name, and his spiky shoulder pads, led Max on who it could be.
"No... impossible..."
Ben suddenly stood back up, running at the Pyronite with a fist in the air as there was a beeping. The Omnitrix was beeping red, and there was a blaring flash of light.
When the red light faded out, Ben was held by his shirt, breathing heavily. And the one who threatened to end his life, holding him by the left wrist, wearing the Omnitrix on it, was none other than...
"Vilgax?! How?!"
The Chimera Sui Generis looked at the adults, amusement in his red eyes. Max was taken aback. Vilgax... survived? So Ben didn't really end him, he was still there. How did he find them? Did he follow them? If so, for how long?
Or did he hide until he recovered from Ben destroying him? It was hard to tell, and now it didn't matter.
"Leave my grandson alone!" shouted Max. "I'm not joking Vilgax, I took you down before, I'll do it a thousand times if I have to!"
Ben looked up as soon as Max said that, reminding him he had to be careful when dealing with Vilgax.
"How about you leave our nephew alone, squidface?" asked Gordon.
"Don't." said Max. "He's got something he's been looking for for a while, and it's not just Ben..."
Ben begged to differ, but he knew better than ruining his own plan. Then there were footsteps, and everyone turned to see Joel come in with Gwen, and a muddy figure, which Ben guessed to be Camille.
'Vilgax' raised a brow, confused as to why everyone was making a crowd, though considering what they were up to, it made sense. They needed to get everyone's attention for it to work. The Manns, still recovering, were also startled to see their daughter.
"Kids, what are you doing here?!"
"I decided to-" started Camille. "Wait, what's going on?!"
She looked at her parents, who were obviously weakened. She wanted to put an end to all the folly they've been up to, but another alien came by...
"Is that..."
"That's Vilgax!" exclaimed Joel, recognizing the criminal his family has been against for years.
"And he has Ben!" said Gwen. "Hey, octo-face! If you wanted a fight, you could've just come over instead of playing wedding crashers."
"Oh, but I'm not the one who ruined all of these festivities." said Vilgax, his voice sounding a bit different from last time, though Gwen didn't exactly remember how he sounded. "These Sludges just gave me an occasion to invite myself."
At his words, Camille glared back at her parents, who weren't as threatening as they used to look a few minutes earlier.
"What do you want with that kid?" asked Betty Jean.
"Is it not obvious? I figured since you humans brought so many gifts to this event, I might take one or two for my own." said Vilgax, a hint of teasing in his voice.
An immature one at that.
"My cousin isn't leverage!" threatened Joel.
"Not yet..." mocked Vilgax.
Everyone was standing against him, but then Mr. and Mrs. Mann attempted to grab their daughter.
"Don't touch me!"
Both Lenopans were startled.
"Camille, please, come with us!"
"No! This was supposed to be my day! And even if you're not the ones ruining it right now, you set up everything so I couldn't be with Joel! We're not having this talk until later!"
"You must understand, we just wanted to-"
Ben already heard this speech before.
"Did you want to protect her, or protect yourselves?!" shouted Ben, getting their attention, and Vilgax's as well. "Did you want what was best for her for real, or were you afraid because you couldn't understand what she wanted?"
This wasn't the best moment to ask them that, but it did encourage Camille.
"Mom, Dad. Please be honest." she asked, sadder features appearing on her face. "Did you really go all the way to ruin my wedding because you really thought humans and Lenopans couldn't be together? Or was it because you didn't want to accept my love for Joel?"
They paused, clearly uncomfortable with Vilgax here. They tried to take her arm, but she stepped back.
"Answer!"
Both Lenopans lost their angry features, visibly unsure.
"We... we weren't sure about this relationship..." started Mr. Mann.
"When you chose a human for spouse, we couldn't understand why it had to be one, we were scared." said Mrs Mann. "Both of our species have been at war for so long, we were scared for you..."
"We wanted to support you, but... it's hard ever trusting something we've been fighting for years, we were worried."
"Camille, we never wanted to hurt you. We were just..."
Both adult aliens were unable to speak, unable to face their daughter. Something in their behavior reminded Ben of Max.
Looks like it didn't matter if it was humans, Chimerans, Lenopans or any species. Family was family, and it made their problems possible for anyone.
"I know you're worried." said Camille. "But please, give Joel a chance, give me a chance. Like Ben said, I chose to be with Joel, and I love him for all he is. A Plumber, a human, an amazing fighter... and the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. It's my choice, and if I regret this, if you were ever right to be scared, I'll be ready."
She took her human disguise back, looking intently at her parents.
"I know how to fend for myself, that's how I met Joel to begin with." she smiled. "You don't have to worry about me."
They paused, before reverting to their human disguises too, running to her and taking her in their arms.
"Honey, we're so sorry..."
"We shouldn't have tried to ruin this for you, this was supposed to be a new start for you."
"I'll be alright, Mom, Dad." she said. "But for now, we have other things to take care of."
"She's right!" said Gordon, pointing back at Vilgax. "Look alive! There's still a criminal on the loose!"
Everyone took a fighting stance, ready to end the Chimera Sui Generis once and for all. They had to make sure they didn't hurt Ben, but at least they were finally on the same side.
"Now, now..." said Vilgax. "You believe I would waste my time with pesk-"
"Uh, I think they got it now." said Ben, raising his head in Vilgax's direction.
"Oh."
Then, Vilgax gently put Ben down, giving him a high five. Everyone stared, confused. Wasn't Ben in danger two seconds ago?
"Fight's over, show's over, we can have cake now." said Ben, waving nonchalantly. "What, what did you think was going on?"
"PSYCH!" said 'Vilgax'. Except his voice was much higher pitched than before, and he was now giggling in a very unexpected way, like a little girl.
Then, 'Vilgax' dissolved into a smaller Lenopan, who then took the shape of Lucy.
"You should've seen your faces!" giggled Lucy.
Everyone stared at both kids, it was as if time stopped. There was a moment of slight relief, then came the scolding.
"Ben!/Lucy!"
"What?" said Ben, nonchalantly.
"It was just a joke." said Lucy.
"Plus, you aren't fighting each other anymore, so all's well that ends well, right?"
The guests were later convinced, thanks to Gwen's magic tricks, that all of this had been a spectacle the Mann family organized to make up for all the arguments they've had with the Tennysons before.
While the priest was shaken up, he scolded them for a few minutes before pronouncing Joel and Camille husband and wife.
Everyone was dancing and taking pictures, except for the other adults, who were resting on tables away from the dance floor.
"By the way, Max." said Gordon. "I take back what I said about that kid, Ben was very brave to do all of that. But you better hide that holo-viewer and that blaster away better next time, I genuinely thought that was a Pyronite."
"We still don't know who sent the Petrosapien and that Arburian Pelarota. Also, weren't they wearing one of the latest Plumber badges models we've had? Even if it wasn't green." said Betty Jean.
"Maybe we had other alien recruits aside from Xylene we didn't know of." shrugged Max.
"Still, that was impressive what that kid did back there. Did you two hire those Bounty Hunters too?" asked Gordon.
"We didn't, those kind of people usually make things go out of control and could've hurt Camille if they didn't care about her safety." said Mr. Mann. "I suppose her ex-boyfriend did as Ben assumed so yesterday. That kid's pretty smart for a human of his age."
"Lucy also made amazing efforts with her shapeshifting." noted Mrs Mann. "We haven't seen much of Vilgax where we come from, but that was a genuinely scary depiction. Who taught her that?"
"Probably Ben, since he came up with that plan in the first place." said Max, looking down, remembering how hurt Ben was when they rescued him on Vilgax's ship. "He had... a memorable experience when I showed him what Vilgax looked like before."
"Then he nailed it well." said Betty Jean. "That whole gig to stop the fight almost reminds me of what your old friend himself used to pull on us."
"You're not the only one who's thinking like that..." sighed Max.
Meanwhile, Gwen was looking for some cake near the dance floor. She was frustrated the guests took everything, she needed her daily dose of sugar after using up all of her magic. Did a bunch of ninjas steal everything from the table while they were dealing with Camille's parents throwing a tantrum?
At least it didn't wear her out as much as Lucy was...
"Ugh, talk about an Earth-shaking wedding." said Lucy, sitting down. "Your cousin was super smart to think that out, but he's funnier as a prankster than a dancer."
"Hm?" said Gwen. "What, Ben stepped on your feet?"
"No, but he's not exactly delicate." giggled Lucy. "His arms were super tight around my wrists, and I almost fell when he dipped me."
"Ben has a lot of things to learn about girls." shrugged Gwen.
"By the way, he told me about that watch thing he has on his wrist. Is it true that he can turn into anything just like me?"
"Yeah, but it's not a disguise, he actually got all of those aliens' powers." explained Gwen. "Also, I'm confused. Who was who in that entire show you pulled?"
"Ben turned into that Pyronite and I turned into him, then I pretended to attack him. Then, when he was back to normal, I turned into that big squid guy he described, and he fiddled with a thing he said he got from your Grandpa's RV to make that big red flash last longer."
"Kinda surprised he still remembers how Vilgax looks, it's been a while since we last saw him. And I didn't think we'd be seeing him again. By the way, do you know how he did that thing with his shoulder plates where they're all spiky? Heatblast doesn't normally look like that."
"Heatblast? Is that his alien name? That's funny. Well, when he turned into that guy, he was all intense, making fists and getting super fired up. He kinda looked constipated if you ask me." she laughed. "Anyway, when he was done, he got a lot of fire coming out of him I thought he was gonna turn me into a statue. He sprouted those tiny spikes on his rocks, said it'd make him look more like Vilgax."
"Wow. Ben actually paying extra attention to details. That's not something you'd hear every day." laughed Gwen. "But wait. He's the one who came up with all of this for real?"
"Yeah! I love making pranks and jokes, but he's the one who suggested doing this to calm my uncle and aunt down. That was really awesome coming from him, you're lucky to hang out with a cousin who knows his stuff."
"Yeah..." said Gwen. "I didn't know he could be that ingenious either... not sure I really know what's going on with him..."
Was Ben still affected that much by whatever Vilgax did to him on the spaceship? He's been acting off ever since and, even if he went back to normal for a few weeks, it seems he was being weird again after that Xylene came and told them everything about the watch.
He was more smart using the Omnitrix now, maybe he was trying to prove he could be responsible with it so he wouldn't be powerless against someone like Vilgax again? She learned Ben was the kind to keep things in mind, seeing he stayed mad at Max for weeks.
Looks like he was learning his lessons after all. She almost didn't recognize him...
She looked at her cousin, who was resting on a faraway chair. Was Ben still anything like he used to be before? This was a whole other person, he was more of a strategist than before. When he knew what Lucy was capable of, he used it to his advantage and manipulated the Sludgepuppies into stopping their feud.
Since when was her cousin a master manipulator? And she doubted Max was responsible for him becoming that way.
So who could've taught Ben all of this?
Hoooray for a new chap!
Originally, I planned to have small scenes of Ben complaining about the wedding instead of making it a plot, buuuuuuuuut the family angst took over afterwards and I couldn't resist showcasing how far Ben came by using the whole episode.
Now Kevin teaches Alan a thing or two, and is busy thinking of things of the past.
I'm still figuring out how the next chaps are gonna go, and how the end of summer will take place, so stay tuned for next time!
Heato, out!