Interconnected Forms
By Norcinu

A/N: Sorry for having this delayed chapter become even more delayed by a couple of days but surprisingly I've been in hospital all of a sudden, for quite a while and didn't have access to the internet. Sadly that's meant I couldn't finish off any more artwork, hopefully there won't be anymore random delays eh?

Chapter 4; Meeting Charlie
Then Ben spotted something sprawled on the side of the road…

"GRANDPA STOP!"

The RjB skidded to a halt and the three were jerked forward in their seats.

"What? What is it Ben?" Gwen said, jumping up from her seat and clutching her stomach from the sudden g-force. Ben was frantically unclipping his seatbelt and rushed out of the door of the caravan. Gwen and Max also followed him hastily.

The terrain around them was a little barren with crops in the background and bushes on the sandy side of the road. But something stood out by the shrubs, a body. Ben stopped next to the motionless body, panting as he looked over to it with a nervous stomach.

Gwen ran up to him, gasping at the sight of the motionless body. "Is he…"

Ben knelt down and brushed off some dirt off of the figure, "I don't know…"

Max came and quickly got hold of the situation. The two stood back as Max checked a pulse on the neck of the person and listened for breathing from the mouth.

Ben recognized the body as a girl, roughly his age. Thin, his height, and brown hair in a messed up bun. She wore camouflage pants and a dull olive baggy shirt, like half some army uniform in a way. He guessed she was in some form of scouts or cadet group.

"She's only unconscious." Max concluded, "But her breathing sounds exhausted and dry. Ben, help me get her into the RjB." He said, taking her under the arms. Ben nodded and picked her up by the legs and the two quickly carried her onto the RjB without much problem.

The moment they laid her down on the extra bed she started to stir. Ben quickly got a cup of water and handed it over to Gwen.

"Whhaa..." She croaked, getting cut off as Gwen got the girl to drink the water. She gave a raspy cough but it sounded like the water helped. "Where…." She swayed her head a little, still out of it.

"Don't worry, you're in good hands now. We'll get you to a hospital…" Max said, seeing the girl's eyes starting to close again.

"Naw, I'm good LAC, tell the segeant I'm fiiine…" She replied, mistaking Max's voice. Her breathes became deeper, and by the looks of it she slipped off to sleep after that.

The word 'sergeant' obviously meant she's from some cadet or military group, and Max recognized the other rank as the Air Force.

The two teenagers looked at Max, wanting to know what to do next. "Right," He said, "We'll fill up at the next gas station and get her to the nearest hospital. I'll need you two to swap shifts looking over her every fifteen minutes and make sure the next time she wakes up she gets more water. If her condition's getting worst we'll call an ambulance." With that he went into the driver's seat and set off.

---
Gwen was the first to look after the mysterious girl. She half woke up several times and took a sip of water but she just kept falling back to sleep before Gwen was able to talk to her. Eventually after fifteen minutes Gwen swapped places with Ben.

Ben got a good look at her and her face, noticing a mole between her right tip of her lip and nose, "S-s-sh-sh!?!" He stuttered the words out too quickly. He shook his head and tried that again, "She's that girl!" He said, pointing at her face. "She's that one from that missing poster I saw at that Crocodile Park!"

"She is?" Max said, surprised at such coincidence.

"Yeah, Charlie! That was her name!" He said, it was definitely her.

Gwen looked back and saw Ben looking at the girl's left arm. She frowned, "Ben! She's injured and tired. She doesn't have some 'second Omnitrix', we went through that. Right now you need to make sure she gets back to top health."

Ben's shoulders slumped but he knew she was right. "Yeah, I'll focus on that." He said softly and sat himself on the bed perpendicular to the bed the girl, Charlie was on, so he had a clear view of her head. First the poster, then the alien encounters, the four policemen, fleeing the scene, and now that missing girl? It was an eventful day, and still early in the afternoon…. Ben sat there quietly.

---
It was only 5 minutes until she finally woke up, fully this time. She was able to sit up as well. It was a little hectic when she first got up, thinking she's been kidnapped by aliens or something. But she calmed down pretty quickly and seemed alright after some water.

"So your name's Charlie?" Ben asked. She was a little taken back from that.
"Er, yes. How'd you know?" She asked back, surprised that he actually knew her, but also suspicious on why he knew her.
"On a notice board, I saw your picture on a missing person poster." He replied with a friendly face.

"Oh…" She muttered, not too surprised by that. "So who are you?" She took in her surroundings of inside the RV she was in, Max and Gwen both in the front seats.
"I'm Ben Tennyson. That's my dorky cousin, Gwen and my grandpa, Max." He explained, getting an 'oi!' from Gwen.
She nodded, "Thanks for your generosity of taking me in. I really owe you guys one."

Max chuckled, "We'd be bad people if we didn't stop to help you on the side of the road. What happened to you?"

"Oh um…" She started, a little uneasy, "Well... You seeee…" She drew out her words, as if waiting for some sort of interruption. Fortunately she got one.
"So are you in the army or something? You're wearing a camouflage uniform…" Ben asked, curious.
"Oh," She seemed to only just notice her clothing, "I'm in the air force cadets, not army. But I wasn't in an activity or anything; these are just look-alike pants I wear for camping-"
"Oh, so you are a cadet!" Ben repeated.
"Cadet Corporal, thank you. But that's just excess information, eh? It's just an after school thing." She inspected her clothes, finding them dusty and smelly, "Er…"

"You can borrow my clothes," Gwen suggested, coming to the back of the RjB and sitting on one of the beds. "You're roughly my height anyway."
"Really?"
"After a shower of course, you smell!"

---
At the 'gas station'…

The four hopped out of the RjB. Charlie in new clothes and the other three scratching their heads.

"Gwen… you said there'd be a gas station…" Ben said, crossing his arms.

The group was in a 'Stop, Revive, Survive' campsite. It was a nice picnic spot next to a small lake and a stall for any emergency supplies like fuel, food, tea, biscuits or a toilet stop. That was about it, with just several people about and their cars, but it wasn't a gas station.

"Gas station?" Charlie snickered, copying Ben's accent "You guys American or something? There'll be a petrol station at the next town, not in the middle of a long road." She straightened out the long sleeves of Gwen's top she wore.
"Did Ben mention we're tourists, from America, going around Australia on holiday?" Gwen said, a little skeptic on how Charlie said 'American'.

"Oh, you are Americans…" She said, nearly in an amused tone.

"What does that mean?" Gwen argued, eyeing her facial expressions.
"What does what mean what?" Charlie replied, frowning and making sure her face doesn't give anything away.

"You said 'Americans' in a weird tone. What are you implying?"
"Wasn't implying anything..."
"You so were. You're playing dumb!"
"Oh, so now you're implying that I'm dumb?"
"It was a figure of speech!"
"…Or were you really trying to hide its real meaning?"
"...What?!"

Ben and Max both gave a nervous laugh and edged away from the two quarreling girls and decided to go buy some petrol, Ben really just buying snacks to dodge eating grandpa's next meal.

After a while Gwen gave up trying to get answers from Charlie and Charlie gave up trying to make her answers complex enough for Gwen. So the subject was soon changed.

"Touring around Australia, eh? Sounds pretty fun! Are you going to try go through the middle as well?" Charlie asked, never have traveled around her own home country herself.
"Perhaps, we've traveled through the US and that had lots of sand and sun. So we'd be pretty used to it." Gwen replied.
"That's… pretty cool." Charlie concluded. She began nodding to herself, "Cool indeed. You guys have fun."

A question then sprung up from Gwen's head, "Hey, shouldn't you call your parents or something? You're like, a missing person…"
Charlie made a funny face showing she's obviously forgotten something that important, "Oooh yeeaah…." She then put her hands over her thighs, then her hips, then her back, feeling for her many pockets that were on her pants but now that she's changed into Gwen's clothes, were non-existent. "I don't have my phone…"
"Here, use mine." Gwen handed her phone and Charlie looked at the numbers on it.
"Parents are a little far away and can't do anything…" She murmured, "Relatives could, though…" She dialed in the numbers, strolling towards the RjB as the number rang.

A voice on the other line picked up, young, teenaged, peppy, "Hello?"
"Natalie?" Charlie spoke in, "It's Charlie. I'm good."
"OHMYGOD!" She screamed, her voice able to be heard from Gwen, Ben and Max who stood nearby, "IT'S YOU!?! OH MY GOD, YOU'RE ALIVE?!?!"
Charlie put on a pained expression on her face from her hurting ears, "Yes, some tourists found me a little dazed from the road and are taking me to Rockhampton. You could probably drive down from Cairns and pick me up there or something…"

The other three decided not to eavesdrop on the conversation, but the next question Natalie asked caught their ears, "So what happened to you? I mean, it's been a week!"
Charlie was a little silent for a moment, pivoting on the spot and looking out at the lake in the distance, "Erm…" She paused, a little uneasy, "…I can't remember. I'm…Er, still a little dazed…" Charlie's voice over the phone might have sounded self-assured, but her face told another story. She looked as though she was lying.

The conversation went on, Natalie trying to get a story out of Charlie, only to have Charlie cut it straight to the essential information of pick up times, names and phone numbers. Finally the talk ended after quite a while and Charlie gave a sigh of relief, the phone call took a long time. She handed back the mobile phone to Gwen.

"Oh, don't you need to call your parents as well?" Gwen said.
Charlie gave another sigh, not from disliking her family or anything, but from how much energy the phone call could take. She started to dial in the numbers-
"Wait!" Max stopped her, not wanting to stand around for another reunion phone call. "Let's get going again, you can call them in the RjB." He said and got into the RjB, Gwen following.

"The RjB?" Charlie repeated.
"Rocket Jump Bus. Just some wacky nickname for the trailer, I didn't name it so I've got no idea what it means. Makes it a little more exciting." Ben said, walking into the RjB's side doors.
"Ah, yes. My dad and crazy uncle do that to their cars. Blue Hawaii and Silver Arrow and…" She replied, trailing off as she looked up at the sky, eyeing something in the far, far distance.
"Something interesting?" Ben said, pulling himself up on the side of the van to look over it, see what she's seeing.

A little dot in the sky, flying slowly but suddenly disappearing. Charlie rushed into the van, pushing Ben into it as well, "To Rockhampton!" She stated loudly and the four set off.

End of Chapter 4.

Next time on chapter 5! A large segment will give readers an insight of the challenges and more villains our heroes will have to face, and confusion will take its place. But what we've really wanted to know, will be revealed… or will it?

A few silent moments went by as the two looked each other in the eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She plainly replied, crossing her arms.

Max tried to butt in, "Ben-"
"No way," Ben cut his grandfather off and looked back at Charlie, "it's on your left wrist; it was in the photo on your missing poster!" Ben argued, his voice becoming louder and more demanding. He was skeptical that she didn't have a clue, and by the sudden shock in her eyes, he was convinced she had it, "Charlie. Let me see; the watch."

She sighed and frowned seeing she can't get away from this, bringing up her left arm slowly to his eye level and took hold of the edge of the sleeve. She pulled it back to reveal…

…the watch.

…review and tune in!