Interconnected Forms
By Norcinu

A/N: Thanks everyone for faving this story! Just note I'd like seeing reviews more than fav addings, so at least drop a heads up just to make my day. Anyway, I've tried making fanart for this but time's really against me this month. But I'm gonna try my best and get at least a sketch of the character you'll meet next chapter w!

Chapter 2; No Normal Vacation.
The next day…

Ben walked through the animal park, casually eating his fries with his backpack completely strapped onto him, including the waist buckle around his waist. You know, just for safe keeping. "So... These are more often referred to as chips?" He said, repeating what Gwen just stated.
"Yes." She said, walking alongside him and eating an ice cream.
"Then what about a bag of chips? Are they called crisps like English people?"
Gwen groaned, "Oh I don't know! Why don't you ask someone who actually lives here?!" She was sick of having to answer all Ben's stupid, random and idiotic questions. "Can't you bug Grandpa instead?!"

"Someone call for me?" Max came on cue, switching off his camera. It's the second day in Australia and Max thought it would be good to check out the crocodiles in the Australia zoo. It was interesting to see how big they grew to and how strong their jaws where, even if Ben did try jumping into a pen, wanting to wrestle one down as Ripjaws. His watch has timed out now so things can be more relaxing.

"Grandpa, are there any 'Aussie' Plumbers here in Australia?" Ben asked.
"…No," Max replied, having to have answered this same question for the hundredth time, "There are no 'Aussie' Plumbers." He reaffirmed.
"Then how do Australian deal with aliens?" Ben continued.
"Differently to the plumbers." Max answered.
"Then who was Dex?" Ben fired yet another question.
"A friend..."
"…from the Plumbers organization?"
"No-"
"Then how did he have a trailer nearly exactly the same as the Rust Bucket?"

Max sighed, "Look Ben, we're not going to encounter ANY aliens on this holiday trip so there'll be NO plumbing business which will mean LITTLE use of the Omnitrix and less things to worry about."
"But then things won't be as interesting-"
"This is just going to that normal vacation we were supposed to have four years ago. It'll be fun and refreshing for all of us… without any aliens." Max concluded.

Gwen stopped at a stall in front of them with a sparkle in her eyes, "Grandpa, look at this!" She said, putting on some local fashion accessories and waving them around. Max saw her and looked back at Ben, giving him a stern look. Ben simply crossed his arms arrogantly with a "Hmph" and looked away. Max sighed as Ben's ego and ignorance has grown along with his age. He walked over to Gwen, leaving Ben by himself.

"Normal? BORING." Ben complained, walking the opposite direction and eating his chips like a stubborn child. He tossed his finished chip packet into a bin and leaned against the wall as the inflexible teenager he's become. He looked at his watch, thinking about playing a prank to make him feel better but only to see his watch flash red. He groaned and leaned back on the wall, only to get his eyes blinded by a flash of light.

"Ow." He muttered, blocking the shining object from his eyes. He shook his head and headed towards the object that the sun's rays reflected off and found himself in front of a large notice board encased in that reflective glass. The posters inside were just random 'Join this netball team' or 'Come bush walking' and 'Wanted criminal' posters. He looked back at Gwen and Max, having fun trying on all the fancy bangles and necklaces and hats, he shrugged and read the posters, having nothing else to do.

"Wanted criminal… armed and dangerous…" He read to himself, just scanning over one section to another… until his eyes stopped dead in its tracks and his mouth gaped open.

As he looked over the 'Missing persons' posters, he saw one specific picture of a girl, her brown hair clipped up behind her head in a lazy fashion and the extra length of her hair drooping over the clip in a messy way. A noticeable feature of her was small mole between the right side of her lip and nose.

It was a cut group photo as there was a shoulder against hers and someone behind her. The picture was nothing special, she was just standing face on, arms hanging by her sides and a neutral-looking smile on her lips. But all of this was just side facts to Ben. What caught his attention was the thick watch on her wrist that made his stomach churn…

"A second Omnitrix?!" Ben gasped loudly, "GRANDPA!" He yelled out with urgency.
Max saw his distress and jogged over to him, "What is it Ben?" He asked, looking at the notices Ben was staring at.
Ben pointed to the picture of the girl, "Another Omnitrix!" He blurted out, catching Gwen's attention and making her run over to the notice boards as well.

The whole poster was a little blurred, showing it's been rough handled and has been through the rain at some point, so the picture's details were a little blurred, but the girl's watch was definitely thick and odd looking, like it had strange out-of-this-world markings on it… sort of.

"Ben you dweeb, that's just a thick bracelet!" Gwen retorted, such anticipation shattered by Ben "It's like the common fashion around here at the moment!" She pointed to the new bracelet she bought; it was thick with swirling patterns on it. "See?!"

"But the markings-" Ben began,
"…are pretty?" She finished Ben's sentence, "No duh, there's girls out there who want to look different. She probably just has a unique taste."
Ben looked at her with a shocked face. Shocked not from that girl but the fact he's just made himself look quite the idiot. More than usual.

"Gwen's right, Ben." Max said, scratching his chin. "You're looking forward for some action packed adventure a bit too much. You should know that things have changed." He said much to Ben's disappointment. Ben knew he was referring to life nowadays. Filled with schoolwork, exams, friends and family. Not with aliens anymore.

Max shrugged, not knowing how to help Ben's mood. He looked to his watch and saw it was time to hit the road if they wanted to reach the next major town before sunset. "Gwen, it's time to get back into the RjB and make our way to Rockhampton" He looked to Ben, "C'mon Ben, something exciting will turn up, I'm sure of it."

Ben shrugged as overlooked acknowledgment and Max and Gwen made their way to the RjB. Ben on the other hand wasn't convinced into aiming to have a 'normal vacation'. No way. It's been four long years since he's had some proper excitement and the three together again and on the road, is no concurrence.

Ben took one last glimpse of the poster, reading its details, then the girl's name, "…Charlie Decray…" He said, adding it to his memory. That was definitely an alien device on her wrist and this will not be another boring summer vacation.

---
Later that day, while on the road…

More beeping was made by the screen board in the RjB. It's still low on fuel. Max sighed, he needs to get to Rockhampton before nightfall and stopping takes too much time. Except the RjB is really running out of gas. He looked ahead for any signs for a gas station… none.

"Gwen, can you look to see if there is some gas station between Gladstone and Rockhampton?"
"On it!" Gwen replied, flipping through the street directory booklet. She found the page and traced their route with her finger.

Ben was on his DS on the table, playing the latest game of Sumo Slammers until… "NO." He said aloud, "NO?!" He repeated, shaking his Nintendo DS, "NOOOO!!!!!" Ben cried to the heavens.
"What is it Ben?" Max asked, catching onto his constant bellows without really wanting to.
"It ran outta BATTERIES!!!" Ben said, hitting his face on the table and placing the off DS to the side, "Nooooooooo!!!!"

"Grandpa, found one. It's the next exit to the left, but we'll have to detour off course a little for the gas station then stop at a different town for the night…" Gwen said, completely ignoring Ben's whining.
"Can we get back on course after that?"
"Yeah!" She replied.
"Then that isn't a problem then." Max said, seeing the exit coming up and going on the further left lane.

"Does this mean the trip's gonna take LONGER?" Ben asked, begging for a 'no'.
"It won't be too long, we've already been doing a lot of driving sooo… one hour, not long at all." Gwen answered.

"Noooooooooo!" Ben gasped, as if dying, an hour without anything to do would be DEATH.

"So immature…" Gwen commented, "Just entertain yourself somehow!"

---
45 minutes later…

"Are we there yet?" Ben asked.

"…No…" Gwen replied and continued reading her book.

"Are we there yet?" Ben asked again.

"…No…" Gwen replied again.

"Are we there yet?" Ben asked.

This finally drove Gwen mad. She leaned back from the front seat and yelled, "BEN! STOP BEING SUCH AN ANNOYING DWEEB! WE'LL GET TO THE GAS STATION SOON!"

Ben pressed closed his eyes, his ears tingling. "Geez, you don't have to yell. It's not like a mile away from you."
"Well your ears function as if you were." She snapped back, sinking back into her chair. It's been over half an hour of this constant annoyance now. Four years or not, Ben's still as annoying and immature as ever.
"Now, now you two, it's not long now." Max spoke up, hearing that last fight over his classical music on the radio and trying to ease the two from another fight. Again.

"But grandpa! It's been AGES and it's getting really REALLY boring." Ben moaned back, thinking he might as well just go to sleep.
Max sighed, not being able to do anything at the moment. It's been a long drive to get to Rockhampton and the long winding road along the small canyons was making make the RjB seem like a rocking ship on the ocean.

But suddenly an explosion when off. Somewhere on top of the next mountain where they were driving along. A big explosion.

"Woah, what was that?!" Ben cried out jumping to his feet, ready for action.
Grandpa Max squinted his eyes towards the smoky top of the mountain, only seeing smoke, nothing else. "I don't know Ben, but sit back down, this could be dangerous…" He said, slowing the RjB little by little.
"Aw, c'mon grandpa-"
"Ben you'll give Grandpa a ticket if you down sit back down!" Gwen snapped, hearing police sirens in the distance.

"Fine." Ben sat down reluctantly.

The sirens in the distance, quickly got louder and louder. Max looked into his rear mirrors to see two police cars zooming by in top speeds, racing by him towards the miniature avalanche coming down the cliff from the explosion not too far ahead.
Ben took a glimpse of the police cars going by, "What are you waiting for? Follow them!" He looked eagerly at Max.

"Grandpa… …what's that?" Gwen asked, watching something topple down the mountain side, rolling and tossing dirt into the air. Ben saw this and got out of his seat, walking towards the window, to see this incident. It looked like a person. Only, mega sized and not a person. Well, not human at least.

"I… don't know Gwen." Max said, not sure what it was also, he sped up a little, following after the police cars, curiosity influencing his actions, "It might just be some hooligan setting of a rockslide though, so we better watch out for any more…"

As they drew nearer to it Ben was about to say it was an alien, but it looked mechanical. A giant mechanical being, a big as the RjB, sprawled in the middle of the road, at the foot of the cliff. It could have passed for being some truck but not to Ben, he was thinking more on the lines of a huge alien robot.

The police cars came to an abrupt stop only meters in front of the huge pile of dirt piling over whatever fell in the middle of the road. The RjB stopped behind the cars.

Ben immediately ran out of the van as soon as it stopped, wanting to see this thing in his own eyes. He peered at it's dark blue/grey metal skin, dented and slightly reflecting the sun's rays in the less muddied parts. On the angle he stood, the being looked humanoid in shape, only much alien like. It was hard to make out much from the amount of rock and debris on top of it. But what was it? And what's that creaking sound?

Creeeeeaaaaaak….

End of Chapter 2.

Next time on chapter 3! Suspicions will be magnified and an adversary will vaguely be revealed…

The large metallic (alien) being became savage, letting out a high hissing sound, like shrieking brakes. With its long sword-like arm it pierced through the middle of the police car, perhaps killing the two policemen inside it. With aid of its other hand, the police car was lifted off the ground and flinged off the road, exploding suddenly as it passed over the canyon's edge. Ben was frozen in his tracks, unable to move, unable to think, just caught by the awe of it all.

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