Disclaimer I do not own Animorphs or Ben 10

Chapter 15: The Start of Things

Ben's POV

I'm getting really comfortable in this world that Runok brought me to. I mean I've been here for what? A few weeks now? And believe it or not I'm starting to like school. I'm quite popular now, well I'm not the star player on any team, but a lot of people like me. A lot of the bullies are finally avoiding me now that they know I can kick their asses, and they're not stupid enough to come back for more like Cash and JT.

It was after classes and some of the guys from the local soccer team were talking to me.

"You should go to our practice, Ben!" Pleaded a guy with blonde hair. His name was Drew, he was the captain of the soccer team. There were a bunch of other guys with him, all players on the team. He was about my height and well built. He had the slightly dark tan that soccer players usually get from long practice hours in the sun.

"Yeah, we've been dying to show you off to our coach." Said Jack. Jack was the goalie on the team, he had light brown hair and was a bit taller than me, with long arms and narrow shoulders.

"Alright, alright. You guys have been nagging at me for days. I'll go." I said laughing a bit at how much they wanted me to join. I first met the guys on a walk back home while they were playing. We talked about our favorite teams and other stuff like that.

"We'll be practicing at the same field alright?"

"He doesn't need help, Drew. Unlike you, Ben doesn't need a map to find the place." We all laughed at that. Drew might be team captain, but in the short amount of time that I knew these guys, it became quickly apparent that Drew had a bad sense of direction.

"Alright guys, see you later." I said waving bye and they waved back with their own replies and I walked out of the school.

I headed to the mall. You know, I've been doing that a lot lately and I don't know why. Maybe it's just something that lets me think. I didn't do particularly much at the mall, just walked around. Nothing really happened, couple of girls waved at me and some stuff. You know this world is really relaxed, I used to always be tense and ready in case anything were to happen. Like that time that clock guy hypnotized everyone and robbed that mall, or maybe that time Animo attacked at the grocery. I never really showed it, but I've always been scared that something would happen and someone would get hurt.

With the Omnitrix now in stealth mode and it's just a thin band around my wrist, Bruce gave me a watch to keep track of time. Heh, the most powerful weapon in the universe and it can't tell time. It's a nice watch, though I don't really know a lot about them, the one that he gave me kept time pretty well. When I checked it was about the time that the guys told me their practice starts. So I headed to the soccer field. It wasn't that far, just walking distance.

It was a nice day for soccer practice, the sun was shining and it was warm. In the distance, I could hear the familiar shrill of a coach's whistle and the field came into sight. The field was like the one I used to practice in, large enough for a full game with bleachers and a small building that housed the showers and lockers as well as another set of bleachers.

I could see the guys running around doing drills and a bunch of other stuff, I shouted to get their attention.

"Hey! I'm here!"

They all stopped and turned their heads to where I was and they all ran towards me. I walked towards them as they ran, their coach also came to meet up with me.

"So, you must be the kid that my team has been talking about." He said. The coach was really different from my old coach. This guy looked to be in his late forties and looked really fit, save for the belly.

Yup, this is Ben." Said Drew.

"Benjamin Tennyson." I said shaking hands with the coach.

"You're quite the athlete from what the boys have told me." Said the coach. "Have you played soccer before?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I was the goalkeeper."

"Good, lets see what you got."

"But coach, Ben doesn't have a cleats or anything." Said Dave. Dave was another player on the team, he was taller than me, but he was really fast.

"It's fine, anyone wanna lend him some stuff?".

"I got an extra uniform and cleats, he can borrow a pair of gloves from the stockroom." Said Jack.

"Alright Ben, get changed and well see what you got."

Jack led me to the building, while everyone else went back to practice. The building wasn't anything special. Just a plain concrete gray and stairs that led down. Jack led me through a short hallway, the place smelled surprisingly clean, the locker room I used to keep my stuff in always smelled like sweat and dirty socks.

There was a open door to our left that Jack went through, I could see the wall of lockers and in the distance the showers. There was a bench in front of the lockers that makes changing clothes a lot easier. Jack took out a key from his pocket and opened his locker. He took out a pair of cleats and passed me a uniform.

"I hope they're the right size." He said handing me the cleats. "I'll get an extra pair of gloves from the stockroom, you can use mine." He said turning.

"You sure?" I asked. They were nice guys, but I didn't want him to use the old ones and me the newer pair. "I'll take the ones from the stockroom."

"Nah." He said smiling. "We're buddies, even if you don't join the team we can still be friends." He patted my back and he walked off.

This was really different. I didn't have a lot of friends back in Bellwood because of Cash and JT, but It's great that a lot of people are so friendly towards me. I got changed and put on the cleats. They surprisingly fit, although the shirt was kinda tight. I stretched a bit to check if the shirt would tear and to warm up my muscles a bit. Jack came back with a pair of really worn out gloves, they were faded and I couldn't even begin to guess what color they used to be.

"So, how'd they fit?" He asked me, putting on the gloves and handing me his obviously newer pair.

"They're fine." I said.

"Well then lets get back to the field, coach'll probably yell at us for taking so long." We both laughed at that.

We made it back to the field and we could see the guys doing more drills. We walked over to the coach and I asked what I needed to do. He told me that I had to do do a bit of a warmup run. I went ahead and started running around the field while Jack was sent to do drills with the other guys.

I did a couple rounds which took a while then the coach blew his whistle and gestured that we all come towards him. When the entire team and I assembled near the coach he gave us instructions.

"Alright, we're gonna have a bit of a one sided game to see what Ben here's got." He looked over at me. "Ben you take that goal." He pointed over to one of the goals on the field. Then he looked over at the rest of the team. " The rest of you get ready on the other side of the field." Then in a playful tone. "Don't go easy on him." He gave me a wink.

We all went into position and I could see them at the other end of the field and they were pretty close to each other, probably talking about to what tactic they were gonna do. I adjusted the gloves and kicked out my legs to get some blood flowing. The guys spread out and they all started running towards me. They passed the ball between themselves and when they reached me, I got into my ready stance, my arms out knees bent and ready. They kicked the ball to the goal. I jumped and caught the ball, it was a pretty easy save.

I kicked the ball away, as if in an actual game and the guys ran after it.


The practice went on for a while, the sun was starting to set and it was getting dark. By that time I was getting pretty tired and I couldn't catch some of their shots. I wasn't really out of shape, it was just because of all those teams begging me to join them and going to those tryouts. By the time the coach blew his whistle and signaled the end of the practice I was relieved. We all walked over to where he was.

"Well you did a pretty good job out there Ben." He said.

"Yeah, I knew that you told us you played soccer before, but you never told us that you were that good." The team jostled me around a bit playfully.

"Even though you look like you're about to fall asleep on your feet." We all chuckled, someone gave me a pat on the back.

"You're pretty good. So, Ben what'cha think? Wanna join the team?" Asked the coach.

"Well. . ." I started.

"Aw come on Ben! We could use another goalie. Right Jack?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty busy with school sometimes that I can't make it to practice or games."

"That reminds me, you'd better pick up the slack Jack if you wanna help us get to the state tournament."

"Yeah, but with Ben here, we can make it this year!" He looked over at me. "Right Ben?" He had a pleading look in his eyes.

"I'm sorry guys, but I don't wanna join any teams right now." I scratched the back of my head, my tone was apologetic.

I knew what came next, everyone groaned that I didn't want to join. Everyone except the coach, who just looked disappointed.

"Look Ben, just think about it. You'd be wasting a lot of talent if you don't join a team." He said.

"Thats right!" Said Drew. "Who knows, you might even get picked up by the state team in a few years."

"I know, but I'm not just into it right now, I guess." I put my hands palms upwards and gave a kind of shrug.

They tried convincing me to join the team for a while longer, but before long they gave up. They were disappointed that I didn't want to join the team, but they said that they were glad that I came to the practice. The coach put a hand on my shoulder and said that if I ever changed my mind I was free to come by and join up.

I got showered and changed back into my clothes with the other guys and we all went our separate ways back home. By then the sun could be barely seen. So I started walking home. You know this was the first time I've looked at the setting sun for a while. I've been avoiding it in fact. When I first watched the sunset here I ended up crying. It's just, it's just it reminded me of her hair, so much that it hurt. I cried a lot the first few days. . .

It was around 8 by the time I got back home. I turned the corner entering our street and I heard loud banging noises that came from the direction of the house. I knew what gunshots sounded like and those were definitely gunshots. I couldn't risk going alien right now so I ran to the house. I heard more gunshots and a yell, it was Monica. I got to the front door and fumbled with the keys as I put them into the hole, when I finally got the door open I rushed inside. The lights were out, I could see the lights in the backyard were open and I could see Monica sitting on the bench, her hands to her head. I heard another gunshot, I rushed and forced the sliding door open. I was ready to instantly go alien, but what I saw left me speechless. Bruce stood in the middle of the yard, there was no on else there, but the three of us. He held what looked like a whip and he swung it and it cracked as loud as a gunshot. My hands flew to my ears and he cracked the whip again. Monica turned to me smiling.

"Ah Ben, you're finally home." She stood from the bench and gave me a small hug. "How was the soccer practice?" She asked holding me out at arms length.

I couldn't say anything for while as my mind processed what was going on. Those weren't gunshots. Bruce and Monica were both safe. I panicked for no reason. "Uh, what?" I said.

"How was soccer?" She repeated.

"Oh, it was okay."

"Hey Ben!" Said Bruce, the whip still in his hand.

"Hey Bruce. You own a whip?" I asked.

Monica chuckled. "Well, Bruce here used to be part of the rodeo in his younger days."

"Cool, can I try?" I asked excitedly. I've seen that old movie, the one with the archeologist with the whip. I can't remember what it was called.

"Sure, but it's a bit big for you." He said, As I walked over to him.

"Don't worry I'll be fine." I assured him as he passed me the whip and he walked out of its reach.

THe whip was pretty heavy, made of brown leather and was a bit over 12 feet long. I swung it out over my head like I saw him do it and swung my arm out. A stinging pain went all the way across my back as the whip hit me. I yelped like a puppy and jumped around dropping the whip, furiously trying to rub the sting away.

Over at the Bench the two of them chuckled at my first attempt. Bruce walked over and picked up the whip. "Want me to teach you how?"

When the pain on my back receded I gave a nod. So Bruce spent the next half hour trying to teach me how to crack a whip. And in all that time I couldn't even get it to crack even once, I actually hit myself a couple more times.

"Alright boys it's time for dinner!" Called out Monica from the kitchen window.

Bruce rolled up the whip and patted me on the back. "Don't worry about it, you'll get it eventually."

I didn't say anything, but my body stung a lot more than my pride.


Ah, saturday! I could go back to the field and start practicing a bit on some of my aliens. But I didn't have all day to do it, unfortunately. I had to go to a basketball practice, I am sick of all these practices!

So I decided going to the field early. I ate a quick breakfast and rode my bike to the part of the forest where I normally hid it. I transformed into XLR8 and made it to the field in no time.

I transformed into Diamondhead and I made the crystals disappear into the ground, don't want anyone finding that. Then I made some crystal poles to hold up targets and I went over to the pile of trees that I made a while back. I chopped out some targets and I transformed into Fourarms to get them in place. I turned back into Diamondhead and did a kind of commando shoot and dodge at the targets. Then to finish it all off, I turned into Heatblast and exploded the targets with a couple fireballs. I turned back into Fourarms and went back to the pile of trees. I lifted one out and stuck it in the ground. I was planning to try out one of the newer aliens, but then I decided that I haven't been Stinkfly in a while, so I threw the tree back in the pile and turned into Stinkfly. I flew around the field a couple of times, getting used to flying again. Then I went into the forest, flying through the trees dodging the branches and trunks. Now let me tell you, flying as Stinkfly was exhausting, I couldn't keep up with the flying, so I landed in the middle of the forest and went back to my human form. I was sweaty and out of breath.

"Man, I need a vacation." I said to myself, then I glanced at my watch. "Oh crap!" It was 2:00! In a flash of blinding green light I instantly turned into XLR8 and dashed to the basketball court that I was supposed to go to. My bike could wait, I can get it back after the practice.

I barely made it to the start of the basketball practice and it was insane, even back with my old soccer team I didn't have to run around so much. I was pretty good at basketball, but I wasn't that good. Jake was there and surprisingly after a while so was Marco. They told me that Marco had to help his dad with some stuff.

After I showered and got changed, I walked up the stairs to the bleachers to talk with them.

"Hey Marco." I said jovially. "I thought you were helping out your dad with some stuff."

"Yeah well, after a while he said that he could handle it himself." He answered.

"Well, it's great to see you here. Lets head over to the mall, I'm starving." And I was.

We headed to the mall and I bought a ton of food.

"Dude, you're hungry." Commented Marco.

"Yeah, I could eat a horse." I said after swallowing some fries then tearing off a piece of fried chicken. I bought about two large fries, three burgers, six pieces of chicken, a large soda, two donuts, and a large sundae on the I was that hungry. Going alien tired and then going to a basketball practice would do that to you. "I don't normally get to run around like that so much, but the basketball made me real hungry."

We talked a bit more while we ate and yeah I was able to finish everything. You can't understand how good it feels to finally eat after something like that. So we hung out a bit more in the mall, but I had to get my bike, Jake and Marco had some stuff to do too. We said our byes and went our own ways. It was still pretty bright out and when I was far enough away from anyone to see. I turned into XLR8 and dashed to where I hid my bike. I transformed back and took out my bike. I biked home. I needed to get to bed.


I woke up pretty late on sunday. When I looked at my clock it read, 9:00. I groaned and got out of bed. My room still smelled wonderfully of vanilla, I wonder how Monica gets it to smell like that.I went down into the dining room. There was no one there. I went to the kitchen and found a note on the fridge, it said.

"Ben, went out to buy groceries. Sorry for not making breakfast, there's cereal in the cupboard. -Monica"

I shrugged and made a bowl of cereal. I carried it to the living room picked up the remote and turned on the TV. I flipped through the channels until I found something interesting and ate some cereal while watching.

I washed my bowl and turned off the TV when I was done, I was still in my pajamas. I got changed into my usual clothes and went out. I looked at my watch, it read a bit passed noon. Hm, I wonder what's taking them so long?

I didn't want to head out to the field on my bike, so I walked into an alley and turned into XLR8 and went to the field. You know, one of these days I'm gonna have to clean up the damage people are gonna start noticing if I keep it up.

I wanted to practice with some of my newer aliens today, so from XLR8 I turned into Swampfire. It was weird when the transformation finished. It wasn't like Wildvine, but it was more like Heatblast that any of my other aliens. I tossed a couple fireballs. They weren't like the fireballs I would shoot if I were Heatblast. I had to throw them instead.

After a while of mindless throwing, I suddenly felt really tired and sleepy, I didn't know why, but I just felt like it. Maybe it was just the fatigue finally getting to me. So I transformed back into myself and stretched out, trying to keep myself awake so I could get home. When my head was clear enough I turned into XLR8 and dashed home.

I definitely needed a vacation.

Authors Notes: NOOO! I am late! I'm so sorry to everyone that the chapter came late again. Anyway, I have been procrastinating again I had the entire week off and I didn't do a lot of work on the chapter. I'm not so sure about the last part of the chapter it just feels kinda wrong, can anyone tell me if it does? And I know that Ben's POV seems weird right now, but he isn't directly involved yet, just be patient. It will get more exciting soon enough. And I'm sorry for the late chapter again.

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