Who's Ben?

Chapter 3: The Meeting


"Wake up!" 10's eyes slowly opened as he groggily stood. He leaned up against a book and yawned.

"What...? No, 5 more minutes..." He went to lay back down but was immediately stopped by 9.

"We are holding a meeting and you need to be there." 9 grabbed his arm and pulled him over to the back of the globe. It had been cleared out in order to be used as a gathering place. "Alright. Everyone's here." 9 took his place atop a small book in the center.

"Okay, everybody." 7 jumped onto the book with 9. "This is a very important matter."

"We've come across another one of us who had been sealed away for years." He pointed at 10 who was still a bit sleepy. "How do we know there aren't more?"

"9 and I have decided that we should search the Creator's lab and see what else we can find." 7 glanced around at everyone. "How does that sound to you?" 3 and 4 could barely contain their excitement. The twins' love of new things always made them more than willing for things like this. Their lights flashed happily as they nodded in agreement.

"10? What do you think?" 9 asked as he stepped off his 'pedestal'.

"Sure. I mean, why not? Sounds great. Let's go. But, first, a short nap." He slumped over and collapsed. The twins ran to him, concerned.

"What's wrong with him?" 7 leaped off the book to approach him. "Why did he pass out?" 3 and 4 poked and prodded him, trying to get him to wake up. 4 tapped his eye and it opened.

"Oh, man..." He moaned as he managed to get up. "What happened?"

"Uh, you just kind of fainted." 9 answered. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah... I think." He looked around at the library and all the stitchpunks. "Oh, I remember you guys." He started to laugh. "Dang, I'm sorry for how I acted when I first woke up. It must have been the initial re-boot or something." 7 and 9 looked at each other, confused. "I'm usually pretty modest."

"What do you mean the initial re-boot? That didn't happen to me." 9 looked at him suspiciously.

"Yeah, well, I was awakened in a different way than you wasn't I?" He pulled the talisman out from his pocket. "This thing was made as a back up. I remember what the Creator told me. He said-"

"Wait! The Creator? You met the Creator?!" The four stitchpunks' eyes widened.

"Yeah, of course. Not to be vain, but like I said before, I'm more advanced than you guys. The Creator awakened me in order to be sure I would work. I was so different from the rest of you dudes that he didn't think I was reliable. He stuffed this thing into my inner workings and told me it was a back up. And with that, he shut me off. I guess he put some of his soul inside of it so that it could awaken me later." He opened his snaps and shoved the talisman back in, for safe keeping.

"W-wait." 9 stuttered. "I thought I was the last one he was able to make before he died."

"Oh, you were. Since he was unsure about my reliability, he made you. He reverted back to his original way of making you guys to be sure you would work out."

"So, wait!" 7 shouted. "That means you were made before 9?"

"Yup." 10 answered, matter-of-factly.

"Then, why am I 9 and you 10? Shouldn't we be the other way around?"

"C'mon. I think we should do what you guys said. Let's snoop around the Creator's lab. I have nothing else to tell you, man." He stepped outside into the weak rain, the twins following close behind him.

"But..."

"We'll find answers there." 7 assured as she patted his back. "10 has his reasons for not telling you more."


The stitchpunks stood outside the Creator's home. They huddled together to make a plan. "Alright. We are here on account of our suspicion that there may be others of us in there." 7 stated.

"9 was the last one. I can assure you of that." 10 said, as he approached 7. "The last one. Last." He pointed at 9 for emphasis. "You're free to look anyway. It doesn't bother me, man."

"... Like I was saying," 7 restarted, "that's what we're here for. So let's go." The group broke up into separate teams. 9 and 7 went together, 3 and 4 kept each other close, and 10 searched alone. He wasn't very emphatic about the search in the first place.

The twins immediately took to examining the contents of the Creator's desk; that interested them the most on their first visit. 9 and 7 weren't sure where to search and were aimlessly walking the extent of the lab. 10 sat on a rug in the center of the room and relaxed.

"Aren't you going to help us at all?" 9 asked after he realized 10. "Are you just going to sit there?"

"Um... I don't think there's anything worth finding here." He said calmly as he laid down. "Just chill-lax, dude."

"Chill-lax? What does that even mean?! I don't understand you half the time!"

"Calm down, 9" 7 approached him as she spoke. "He's obviously not as enthusiastic about this as we are. Even though he would never have been found had we not searched here." She glared at 10 as she said the last sentence. "Leave him be."

"Fine." 9 reluctantly backed off and continued his search with 7.

"Dang. She didn't have to say that..." 10 muttered sadly. He wandered further into the house and left the others to search without him.