Chapter 16: Le Super Special Author's Note

A lone female was sitting in a dark, empty bedroom, typing at a laptop. The glare from the screen was hurting her eyes, but she didn't dare turn on the lights.

She clicked on the most popular site for Fan Fiction and quickly typed the password for WinterComa's profile. The Fangirl hurriedly looked at the closed door while the page loaded, sweat rolling down her temple. Any minute now...

She clicked on Doc Manager and loaded the next chapter for Ben 10: The Slayer Chronicles. The Fangirl quickly read the first half of the story and began to salivate. Forgetting all pretense of discreetness, The Fangirl yelled out in a valley girl voice, "OMG! Ben and Kevin shirtless! EEEEEE!"

After the scream, The Fangirl began to have ideas. "Why make it a BenxOC story or a KevinXOC story? Why not Bevin, or Gwevin or Benlie? I have to change this."

But before she could, a metal bat hit her left temple, knocking her to the ground. She shrieked with pain and tried to grab her wound, but she was too disoriented. She could vaguely make out the figure before her: a brunette with glasses wearing a Skillet band t-shirt and jeans with a bloody metal baseball bat over her shoulder.

Shit. WinterComa.

The authoress hit the Fangirl again, aiming for the head and legs as the villain tried to escape. "Nobody fucks with my story! I don't care if you don't like the pairings; IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T READ IT!"

With one last cry, Winter bashed the Fangirl's head in, silencing her cries. Winter breathed heavily as her inner fangirl slowly faded away back to the abyss in Winter's mind. "Why won't she go away?" Winter muttered as she dropped the bloody, battered bat. Wiping the blood off her hands with a tissue, she examined Chapter 16 of her Ben 10 story. She sighed, relieved. Nothing had been changed. With calm fingers, Winter began to type the Author's Note.

To guest reviewer Calvin: No, I did not get Carter's name from Victorious's Cat Valentine. It's a complete coincidence. I always loved the name Carter on a girl, and I thought people would accuse me of ripping off the Blue Bloods series if her last name was Van Alen. So I chose Valentine, since it was close enough.

Enough about that. On with the show!

Gwen needed some serious cheering up.

She had cried when her grandfather died-well, that was to be expected. She was sad about it for a week afterwards until Evan tried to cheer to her. Gwen smiled as she remembered the day before the tennis match.

Gwen stared down at her pink phone, which was lighting up and vibrating-a call was coming in. She didn't recognize the number, which was why she was staring at it strangely. She answered anyway.

"Hey, Gwen, can you open your front door?" said a very familiar voice on the other end. It took Gwen a minute to connect the dots.

"Evan? Why do you have my number? W-why do you know where I live?"

"Ben."

"…I'm going to kill him."

"But he's so entertaining," Evan protested, his voice becoming loud and overdramatic. Gwen snorted as she moved from the kitchen to the front door where, as promised, Evan was, holding his green phone to his ear. He smiled and shut his cell phone off. "Are you going to invite me in?"

Gwen shut off her own cell phone and shrugged. "I guess." Evan walked inside, doing the involuntary look-see of the house. He walked into the plush living room where he nearly drooled over the giant plasma screen TV.

"Evan," Gwen said, snapping him out of it. "Why are you here?"

"I figured you needed some cheering up," he said. "And what better way to do that than with my sparkling personality?" Gwen rolled her eyes; and here she thought Evan was different from Ben. Evan spied the calculus book on the coffee table. Gwen had felt claustrophobic in her room and had decided to do her homework in the living room. That had been happening a lot, since…

"You're taking calculus at fifteen?" Evan asked, saving Gwen from tearing up again.

"Well, yeah," she answered back. "Why do you ask?"

"Back at my old high school, we could take pre-calc at senior year to prepare us for college," Evan explained. "Or earlier, if you were smart enough. I've never really met anyone my own age actually doing this."

So that was why. "I like math, that's all."

Evan opened his mouth anime style. "Did we just become best friends?"

"…Over math?"

"Well, duh, it's like superglue!" In a flash, Evan had looped his arm through Gwen's. "Come on, bestie, let's do some math!" Thankfully for Gwen, they had stayed in the living room. Evan was actually really good at math; he had been able to understand when Gwen explained a problem to him, and he kept her entertain with his zany behavior. By the time Evan had to go, she was gasping for breath, and her eyes were watering from laughter. Just before he went out the door, he asked,

"You doing anything tomorrow?" Gwen shook her head, still having trouble breathing. "Well, there's a tennis match…"

"There's a girl involved, isn't there?"

Evan put his hands to his heart. "You know me so well. But seriously, you need to get out of the house. Some fresh air and watching people play sports will be good for you."

"You just want someone there so you don't look like a creep."

"Why do you accuse me so?" Evan moaned as he dramatically walked out the door. Gwen gave another laugh and waved goodbye.

Funny; Evan had left just before Gwen's parents came home for the day. But Gwen didn't dwell on that. Evan was a really good guy, and his quirks made him interesting to hang out with. That was all that mattered.

But a week had passed since then, and all Gwen seemed to think about was school and Max. She didn't smile much anymore and, while it was understandable, it made the others uneasy.

Ben proposed an idea.

Gwen was in her new white bikini (which she had may or may not had bought for Kevin; even she didn't know) watching Kevin and Ben duke it out with their alien powers. But all she could think about was why Ben looked like a seafood platter.

When Ben was about to lay it into Kevin, she turned around and looked at the lake her grandpa used to frequent. Why had Ben wanted to come here, of all places? She had so many memories with her grandpa here… What, was she supposed to get some sort of closure or something?

"It's my fault," she heard Ben whisper to Kevin, their fight apparently over. Yeah, it was, even if had good intentions. "I thought bringing her here would cheer her up."

"This is Grandpa Max's secret fishing rock," Gwen started to explain. "He used to come out here all the time, when he wasn't travelling."

"You mean when he was away on Plumber business," Kevin said.

"We didn't know it at the time," Gwen protested softly. "Once, when I was five, he brought me out here and I caught a teeny, tiny fish." Gwen showed them how tiny it was. "It was too small, so Grandpa wanted to throw it back, but I put up a big fuss. It was my fish, you know? After a while, Grandpa finally convinced me to come back when it was bigger." Gwen finally stood up, feeling a whole lot better since she got here. "I guess I always had a hard time letting go."

Ben thought he heard something and turned his head to the right. He saw a cloaked figure slowly creep towards an old tree not far from where he was. "Who's that?" he asked his friends, like they had the answers. They looked at where he was looking at.

"For a secret place, it gets a lot of traffic," Kevin remarked as the figure knelt down and laid a flower at the end of the tree.

"Have you ever seen a flower like that?" Gwen asked the guys. The flower was yellow, but outlined in a familiar pink color.

Kevin, wanting answers, yelled out, "HEY! YOU IN THE CLOAK!" Startled, the figure stood up and looked at them. The three of them immediately ran down the rocks towards the cloaked figure, but with a playful cackle, the figure slipped behind the tree and disappeared in a flash of pink light.

They looked behind the tree, but couldn't find a trace of her. "That woman just disappeared!" Ben stated the obvious.

"Teleporter, maybe?" Kevin said, saying a very plausible answer.

"What was she doing?" Gwen asked the million dollar question. Ben walked up the giant tree and saw the wooden heart carving in the middle of it.

"Max plus Verdona," Ben said out loud. "Who's Verdona?"

Gwen looked down to see the flower the woman had left behind. She picked it up and said, "Maybe I can track her with this." Her eyes glowed bright pink as well as the flower, but before Gwen could get a lock on the woman's location, the flower wilted. "I really thought I had that move down," Gwen said, disappointed with herself.

Ben knelt down. "That's not the first flower she left here," he said, pointing out the yellow and pink flowers that had wilted over the years.

"So what now?" Kevin asked, impatient as ever. "We can't just wait for her to come back."

Ben smiled.

It was nighttime, about two days later. Ever since they first saw the woman, they had decided to stake out Grandpa Max's fishing rock, along with the Pride, even though they protested.

"Why do I have to do this?" Carter complained over the Ben's cell phone. She was in the forest, staking it out, since she was good at that.

"Because the Pride has to get along with us," Ben said almost triumphantly, because that wasn't the only reason why Carter had relented. Ben had done the unthinkable: he had given her watery, puppy-dog eyes, and she blushed and eventually agreed. Score one for Tennyson.

Carter sighed. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

"'Cause you are one, you idiot!" Carter hung up, leaving Ben with two intrigued friends to answer to.

"What's going on?" Gwen asked innocently.

"She called me an idiot for believing she'll come tonight," Ben said, talking about the cloaked lady.

Kevin snorted. "She's right." Ben stuck his tongue out at him.

"This is crazy," Kevin complained. "She didn't show last night, and she won't show tonight."

"Humor me," Ben said, before they all lapsed into silence.

And then Gwen said, "I have to use the restroom."

"Plenty of trees."

"Classy," Gwen told Kevin sarcastically. "There's a gas station a mile back," Ben said helpfully. "You can use that."

"Thanks." Gwen got out of the car and walked away, leaving Kevin alone with Ben.

But not for long, since Ben got a call from Carter just then. "Cloaked weirdo coming to the tree," was all she said. Ben looked at said tree and saw that she was right. Without a second thought, the boys got out of the car and walked up to the cloaked lady.

The lady's hands were glowing and raised slightly, and a single flower beneath her was glowing as well. "How do you know Max Tennyson?" Ben demanded to know. Kevin was behind him, ready to fight if need be. The Pride (decked out in their work outfits) was beside him, having used shadow travel to get there so quickly.

When the lady didn't answer, Kevin walked up to her and pulled down her hood, revealing an aged crone with gray hair styled old-fashionably. "Talk," was all Kevin said.

The old lady smiled. "What rotten kids." She raised a glowing pink hand and said, "Go away."

A pink blast shot Ben and Kevin away, but the Pride had dodged just in time. They were about to land on top of the old lady, but she disappeared, using her strange teleportation powers again.

She appeared again, this time hovering off the ground. She grinned wickedly as the old lady used her powers to hover quickly away from the others. It was like she was baiting them to come after her.

Ben got up then and turned into Jetray, trying to match Crazy Lady's speed. Kevin ran back to his car and absorbed the metal, encasing himself in green metal. Sam, who had used shadow travel again, came up to him. "Be careful with her," she warned. "Evan thinks he knows who she is. We have to keep her conscious." Kevin looked at her strangely, but the shadows surrounding Sam enveloped her again, and she disappeared.

Crazy Lady was over the lake, her feet skimming the water as she flew over it. Jetray shot a laser at her, but she dodged to the left. Unfortunately for her, Carter was there at full strength. Tendrils of water circled around her, and with a flick of her wrists they shot at Crazy Lady, acting like ropes as they bound her in mid-air. Before Crazy Lady could get out of this mess, Carter froze the water around her, locking her in icy binds.

Never wanting to be outdone, Evan used shadow travel to land on a rock in the lake. The earth underneath them trembled, and spirals of rock shot out of the ground under the water. Evan made a fist, and the earth spirals encircled Crazy Lady like a box, cutting off her escape.

Carter was about to high-five Evan when the earth box exploded in a blast of pink light, knocking them both away from Crazy Lady. They landed in the water, the impact slapping them and making them hurt like a bitch.

"Not bad," Crazy Lady congratulated them, not that they could hear it, being underwater and all. "A shame it had to end so soon." Jetray suddenly shot a laser at her, and she sped away from the scene as fast as she could.

Crazy Lady looked back at Jetray, who was tailing her. "Ooh, a chase. I haven't had a good chase in ages." She swerved to the left, and Jetray flew up into the air to shoot at her again. She went off the lake and back on dry land, where Kevin and Sam were waiting. When Jetray shot a large green laser at her that created a medium sized crater in the earth,

Crazy Lady was laughing, hovering backwards from the acrid smoke. She slammed into an impatient Kevin, who grabbed her arms and said, "Answers, lady."

Sam had one of her broadswords out and tucked the blade under Crazy Lady's chin. "Don't try anything funny. We're done playing."

She looked at Sam and said, "Not until I put my toys away, sweetie." Pink tendrils shot out her, going around Kevin's arms and tightening them so he had to let the crazy lady go. A pink laser shot Sam in the stomach, forcing her to bend forward as the impact sent her skidding away, her broadsword still in her hand.

"Sam!" Kevin called out as the pink tendrils clamped around his waist, lifting him up into the air, and throwing him into the lake. He somersaulted in midair, his metal head hitting the ground twice, right before his entire body slammed against a giant rock.

Jetray, the only one still strong enough to fight, swooped down before Crazy Lady. "Who are you?" he asked. Crazy Lady smiled and her eyes glowed pink. A pink orb of energy was around Jetray's tail, growing larger and more dangerous at each passing second. In desperation, Jetray shot green lasers out of his eyes, causing the orb to explode. Jetray's body fell from the explosion. Kevin, his green metal armor still on him, was standing up when Jetray crashed into him, causing an explosion of water and rock to surround them. When it died down, it showed Kevin against the rock, his armor gone, and Ben on top of him, his Omnitrix out of energy and him barely conscious.

Crazy Lady hovered over them, relishing in their despair. "This world would be a lot more tolerable without troublemaking imps like you getting in my way." She raised her hands, which were glowing pink.

In one last act of defiance, Kevin smirked and said, "Yeah? Show us whatcha got."

With one sweep of her hand, Crazy Lady shot some sort of laser at them, which would have killed them both had there not been a small shield surrounding the two boys. When Kevin uncovered his eyes, he saw Crazy Lady looking at them in shock.

Ben had gathered enough strength to get off of Kevin at that point. Crazy Lady was still looking at the two of them in shock. "Can't I leave you guys alone for five minutes?" Gwen demanded to know. Crazy Lady looked at the young girl on land, her hands surrounded by pink energy.

"Do that again," Crazy Lady told her.

"Why not?" Gwen said, throwing pink lasers at her. With a sweep of her hands, Crazy Lady absorbed them. "Incredible."

"Just who do you think you are, littering my grandpa's cove with your flowers?" Gwen demanded, hands on her small hips. Ben, Kevin, and the Pride were standing next to her, most of them sopping wet from their fights.

"You mean, flowers that she makes out of energy," Evan said, Kevin holding up one of them. Both of them had come to the same conclusion when Kevin told him about the flowers. That was why Kevin had looked at Sam like that earlier; he already had his suspicions, he didn't need to reminded.

"No way," was all Gwen said after she absorbed the news. Ben looked at his cousin and Crazy Lady, utterly shocked.

Crazy Lady, with a jovial smile on her smile, walked up to Gwen. "Did you say Max was your grandfather?"

Gwen nodded. "Kiddo!" Verdona shouted happily, hugging her long-lost granddaughter.

"Um, he was my grandfather too," Ben said, wanting in on the attention. Verdona looked at her grandson.

"Really?" she asked. "Can you project energy like your sister?"

"Cousin," Ben corrected her, "and no."

"Shame," Verdona said before turning back to Gwen. Carter put on a hand on Ben's disappointed shoulder.

"Gwendolyn," the old lady grabbed her hand, "I'm Verdona. We'll talk again soon." Verdona's eyes glowed pink, and with a burst of energy, she disappeared, leaving the others wondering where she went.

Evan began to clap his hands. "Congratulations, you two." He looked at the Tennyson cousins. "You have officially met your terrifyingly powerful grandmother."

Evan had to disagree with Gwen's father. There really was such a thing as magic; the Slayers used it all the time. But it wasn't like he could tell him.

Evan, Carter, and Sam were in the shadows of Gwen's room, while Kevin and Ben were just outside her window. It had felt wrong to snoop on Gwen like this, but Verdona was going to meet her soon, and they were curious.

"Guys, I know you're out there. You can come on in," Gwen called out to the boys, who had overheard Mr. Tennyson tell his daughter that she was an alien. How she didn't know before was beyond the Pride. Nevertheless, they too revealed themselves just as Ben climbed into the room. The Pride was in their normal street clothes, so Mr. Tennyson wouldn't have a heart attack.

Gwen saw them and started. "How did you-"

"Shadow travel," Evan cut her off. Gwen was about to ask what that was when Kevin finally climbed into her room.

"Hey Uncle Frank," Ben said, trying to diffuse the tension.

"Uh, how do you do, sir?" Kevin said nervously.

"So, here's the thing," Gwen started. "My grandmother, who I never knew, wants something from me, but I don't know what."

Frank smiled. "Let's ask her. Your friends aren't the only people who snoop around eavesdropping on people. Isn't that right, mom?"

A flash of pink light, and Verdona appeared in the room, making Gwen's normally large bedroom seem crowded. "You always could tell when I was watching, sweetie," Verdona said, still wearing her signature cloak. "I had hope that meant you had the spark, but no such luck." Her hand glowed pink and she snapped her fingers.

A flash of pink light, and everyone was in the living room. Gwen's mom Natalie dropped the pitcher she was cleaning, breaking it to pieces on the floor. "Verdona, what a surprise," she said, clearly not happy to see her mother-in-law.

Verdona's eyes flashed pink, and the broken pitcher reattached itself and landed on the table with a gentle thud.

"Wow," Gwen said, since she couldn't do something like that.

Verdona turned to her daughter-in-law. "Tea, dear, and something sweet for the kids."

Everyone besides the Pride was sitting on the couches, teacups and a plate of cookies in front of them. "Been a while, mom," Frank said, trying to make light conversation.

Verdona held up her teacup. "I suppose, in human time." She took a sip of her drink.

"So you're an Anodite," Carter said, wanting to get to the point.

"Then you must know that we're a race of free spirits with powers that humans can barely comprehend," Verdona said, perhaps a bit smugly.

"Doesn't that go for all alien races?" Evan tried to joke. Sam slapped him upside the head, making him say, "Ow!" and rub his sore spot.

Verdona continued like that didn't happen. "We don't often mess with the affairs of just plain folks, but I fell deeply in love with Max Tennyson."

"And ditched him?" Kevin said coarsely, though he was curious. Ben elbowed him in the stomach.

"No, it's just that, after the kids were grown and left the house, I needed to reconnect with my Anodite heritage and Max was busy saving the universe with the Plumbers," Verdona explained.

"Dad thought you didn't know about that," Frank interjected.

"He didn't want me to worry," Verdona said warmly. "He was a sweet man, and we had many good years, but in time we fell apart. Even a man full of as much mana as Max is still just a physical being."

"What's mana?" A black cloth smothered Ben's mouth, stopping him from interrupting again. Even though Verdona didn't so the same to her son when he interrupted…

"Your grandpa's fate was so huge it even reached my planet," Verdona continued. "I came back to remember the good times. Who knew there was a budding Anodite among you!" Verdona looked at her granddaughter with such pride it made Gwen uncomfortable.

"You'll be amazed at what you can do." Verdona stood up. "I'll teach you to master life energy. That's what mana is." Verdona looked at Ben and instantly the cloth disappeared.

"I wanna learn!" Gwen said like an excited child. "Where do we start?"

"On Anodyne," Verdona said, much to Gwen's surprise. "Stop living like a human on this planet. Come home with me and join the real party."

"Leave?" Gwen stood up, away from her grandmother. "This is…sudden, and huge to take in. I-I need to think." Gwen started to run out of the room and up the stairs. Ben and Kevin immediately ran out after her, calling her name. Evan looked at Gwen's parents. "What do you think she should do?"

They looked at each other. "I don't know. It's her life, she should decide."

"I was hoping she would take after my side of the family-" Natalie glared at Verdona- "but Gwen's happiness is important to us. If she wants to go, we won't stop her."

Gwen was on the roof when they found her. "You just had to be on the roof, didn't you?" Evan remarked as he slowly climbed towards you.

"What, you don't like it up here?" Gwen asked as he sat down beside her.

"Oh, it's nice," Evan said quickly. "It's just, what if I fell off of here? It would be a total accident, but everyone would think it was suicide."

"Like you'd kill yourself," Sam said as she sat beside him. Carter followed suit, hugging her knees and looking at Gwen. Gwen turned to her left to see that Ben was next to her, followed by Kevin, who was having difficulty sitting down.

"Why'd you have to pick the roof?" Kevin complained when he finally sat down comfortably. "Not all of us can fly, you know."

Ben elbowed him again. "Dude, he supportive!" he hissed before turning back to his cousin.

"This was not how I expected my day to go," Gwen finally said forlornly.

"But you gotta admit it's cool to find out about your powers," Ben said reasonably.

"But I'd be gone for a long time," Gwen said.

"Maybe forever," Evan said, not looking at Gwen when he said it.

"I've always felt like an outsider, like I'm in the wrong place," Gwen explained. "But then I think, 'oh, that's high school for you.'"

"You do know we'll miss you when you go," Carter said, much to Gwen's surprise. The two of them hadn't really talked much, so it was weird to hear her say that. Weird…but it was nice to know Carter cared.

"But then again, this is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity," Carter said quickly.

"And we've been recruiting more Plumbers' kids, so we'll have a pretty powerful team," Ben said, making Gwen kind of sad. When he saw her expression, he explained, "I'm just trying to say that it's your choice if you want to go or not. You don't have to be dragged down because of us."

Gwen quirked an eyebrow. "You're the only one who could drag me down, doofus," she said with her signature smirk. Ben lightly punched her shoulder good-naturedly.

"I for one would hate to see you go," Sam said suddenly, making everyone look at her. "Who else am I supposed to argue with, besides Evan, I mean." Evan stuck his tongue out at her.

"Don't let her change your mind," Kevin told Gwen. "If you want to go, you should. If you don't, well, don't let us make up your mind for you." Some part of Gwen wanted him to say that he didn't want her to go, even if it meant she would learn more about her heritage. But then again, Kevin was never one for words, especially in front of other people.

Gwen turned to Evan, who was giving her wet, puppy eyes. "No one would miss you if you never went away." Gwen threw her arms around his neck and kissed him quickly on the cheek, right before standing up and walking off the roof.

"You got that off of some song, didn't you?" Carter hissed in Evan's ear, snapping him out of the fog Gwen put him in.

"Don't tell her that!" he hissed back, making her laugh in his face.

"Why do I hear Shag Carpet?" Sam asked out loud, trying to be heard over the music. She then saw Verdona swaying around to it, a disco ball lighting up the place with its multicolored light.

That answered her question.

"Grandma, I'm flattered about the offer, but I think I'm okay with being a gifted human," Gwen said when she saw her grandma. "I'm gonna stay here with my friends."

Verdona looked at her, puzzled. The music stopped, and the disco ball vanished in a flash of pink light. "But you don't even know what you really are," Verdona tried to reason. "We belong on Anodyne, and among our kind! Let me show you." Pink light surrounded Verdona like an angry aura, and her human skin fell to the floor like an unwanted jacket. The others climbed down the stairs in time to see Verdona change into her Anodite form.

Verdona was a purple humanoid with long, flowing pink energy for hair, and white eyes with no pupils in them. She looked pretty hot for a grandma, not that anyone would admit it.

"See?" Verdona said, her voice sounding ethereal. "This is what it means to be an Anodite."

"So that's why she looks so good," Natalie interjected.

"Anodites are pure energy," Verdona explained, ignoring her family. "We draw power from the mana around us."

"You gotta admit that's pretty cool," Ben said, making Evan and Sam glare at him.

"You're just too young to make up your mind," Verdona went on. "Let me help you. I'll destroy your body and free the Anodite inside. It'll be fun, and you'll be able to think much more clearly."

"What the hell are you on?" Sam yelled at Verdona. "She just said she didn't want to go with you. Can't you respect your own granddaughter's decision?"

"Damn kid," Verdona spat out. "You think you know everything, don't you?"

"I know bullshit when I hear it!"

"But how do you know you won't like it if you don't try it?" Verdona asked Gwen sweetly, like destroying her body was no big deal.

"And now you sound like a drug dealer," Carter told the old lady. "If she says no, she means no. Just because you're older than her doesn't mean you know everything."

Ben and Kevin flanked Gwen like bodyguards, making Verdona smirk. "Another dance, kids?" She held up a glowing pink hand. "Okay, but just this once." A giant blast of power sent the teenagers out of the building into the backyard. Verdona loomed over them, hovering over the wreckage of the destroyed wall, power radiating off of her.

Gwen looked at her friends to make sure they were okay. They all looked fine, except for Evan, who was face down on the ground, blood pooling around his head. Carter noticed and checked his forehead wound.

"He's just unconscious," she said. "He's just unconscious!" she said again loudly, turning to Sam. Sam was looking at Evan, her eyes glowing red. She turned to Verdona and snarled, her teeth looking unusually sharp.

Gwen's sentiments exactly. She shot up from the ground, her eyes blazing. She looked at the smirking face of Verdona and her blood boiled even more. No one did that her friends; no one.

By the way, the song Carter mentioned is "You Can't Be Missed If You Never Go Away" by Cobra Starship.

So, what do you think? Did you like the Author's Note in the beginning?