Interconnected Forms
By Norcinu
A/N: Here's chapter 5 on time, but along with some bad news. Next week I'm going on a flying course and will be gone for the whole week so chapter 6 will be delayed a week and come on the 23rd. The artwork is a dodgy in quality but will be fixed up during the week, thanks for your reviews everyone :D Always motivates me to write more.
Artwork: http:// i97. albums/ l223/ Norcinu/ My20Art/ IF-IrkenPreview.jpg -- Copy and paste into URL, then take out the spaces for it to work.
Chapter 5; Hidden Answers
"To Rockhampton!" She stated loudly and the four set off…
Gwen was up in front with Max, and Ben was sitting with Charlie on the table. Ben continued to watch Charlie constantly scan the sky through the window, "So…" He broke the silence between them, "You going to call your parents?"
She nodded, slowly looking down at the mobile and ringing her parents, putting it up to her ear … … … She leaned back on chair, staring at the ceiling as the line picked up "Daaaaad?"
"CHRIST YOU'RE ALIVE!" Yelled from the phone.
Ben adverted his gaze to the window, to where she kept glancing at earlier. But then something caught his attention as it caught hers. It wasn't an object, but a shadow, without an object. The shadow looked like some manta-shaped aeroplane and in the distance where the shadow-caster should have been, was a small faraway shape, blurry and constantly disappearing out of view in a suspicious way. But after a while it disappeared completely… very doubtful.
Ben was urged to go Stinkfly and check it out but he couldn't with the girl around so he sat tight, passing it for a bird gliding in the distance.
- - - - -
"What are you doing?" Asked a cool, calm voice from the shadows.
"…What do you think I'm doing?" Replied a more boastful, smug voice, "I'm piloting that's what. Why?"
"Well Mr Pilot, why are we in the plain view of sunlight?"
"So I can see where I'm going, duh."
"You have your control panel and flight instruments."
"And I have the stealth cover on, people can't see us, so quit being so uptight Mr I-think-I-know-what's-going-on!"
The calmer, taller figure sat on the seat beside the pilot. He had large insect-like, olive eyes and antennas that bent over his face. Their green skin and strange clothes obviously showed that both of them weren't human, even if their thin figures looked very humanoid.
The towering one spoke, "Don't you know how the sun's rays can easily be blocked with solid objects, cloaked in covertness or not and thus making its shaded mark evident on the surface below?"
The pilot looking at him with a baffled face, "Eh?"
"Shadows! SHADOWS!" He stated clearly, pointing his talon like fingers down at the edge of the windows.
The pilot looked over and saw a clear shadow being caste from their ship…
"Sun, damnit!" The pilot cursed seeing this, steering the ship towards the ground to make the shadow less obvious.
The calmer figure rested his feet on top of the dash board, "Mr I-think-I-know-what's-going-on…" He mocked back.
The pilot grumbled, "Soz… Why can't we just go in and grab the thing?"
The figure addressed his associate's name, "Well you see, Khni, those other aliens might step in and stop us. You've seen their fire power back at the canyons-"
"Don't we have more firepower?" Khni, the pilot asked.
His accomplice looked at him, "We can make more guns but quantity is no substitute for quality."
A few silent moments went by, "What's our plan then? How can we possibly get to the device then?" Khni asked his omnipotent friend.
"We can't out-fight our rivals but we have a chance of out-smarting them. They can only track the device down when it's activated. It was also quite a coincidence for the three to find the girl or our rivals would of have gotten the device before us. Now in the presence of others, the holder can't give away it's secret so it won't be activated, leaving us on top."
Khni interrupted grinning, "I like being on top!"
The saying had a double meaning, but being use to such comments his associate ignored it and continued, "We need to plan this at every step, right now they're heading to the next town to take the girl to hospital. Then they split up. They go around this island and girl goes back home, back to her school and her family. That will raise complications upon dealing with the alien device. We need to keep that girl traveling with those three."
"Eh?" Khni urged him to continue, wanting to know what's going to happen now.
He explained his plans, "In hospital I'll make my move to make things easier for us. The device needs to be constantly moving so our rivals will have to continually move their base also, and consequently won't get the artifact before us. Bring up the monitor." He called out, swinging his feet off the dash board and a holographic screen coming up. He cracked his fingers and began typing things down.
Khni glanced over to him. "What are you looking up?"
His partner in crime looked back at him, "Some human medical jargon."
- - - - -
"Thanks for letting me use your mobile!" Charlie thanked Gwen, handing the phone to her cousin and having him just chuck it onto Gwen's bed.
"So what's happening with you and your parents, Charlie?" Max asked.
"Parents are too far away so my relatives, who I was originally staying with, are going to come down from Cairns on plane tonight and get me back to their place, maybe leave tomorrow, after I go through all the police and hospital papers, if any." She replied informatively.
"So tell us," Max continued, "What happened to you exactly? You seemed a little... nervous talking about it with your cousin Natalie over the phone…"
Charlie started to look a little nervous again, as Max saw this through his rear mirrors. It would be a while until they go to their destination so she had no way to delay herself anymore. She began, "I was with my relatives on school holidays a week ago. They were planning to go camping in the bush for a bit, so we went out and camped…"
She paused for a while, "And uh…" She cleared her throat, "A whole lot of teenaged friends tagged along, and they packed a whole lot of drinks for the trip. So one night when we were all chilling out, we accidentally got a little high, well, we actually got wiped out. Stuff happened and next thing I knew I found myself utterly lost in the middle of nowhere with no sense of direction and no sign of assistance…"
Max was a little apprehensive about her story, "Aren't you a little young to be drinking-"
"That's why it'll be a little uneasy explaining myself to my parents and relatives." She replied quickly, closing the conversation. It was her story so Max decided not to go into it anymore.
"Woah, you got drunk?" Ben asked, "Tell me about it!"
"Err, how 'bout no?" She said bluntly, shrugging with a nervous smile.
---
The four arrived to Rockhampton and because of Charlie, none of the Tennysons could speak or discuss on their earlier encounters about the aliens with her present, and Ben had to keep the Omnitrix out of view so it was a quiet and relaxing trip in a way. Gwen's been occasionally chatting to Charlie and Ben's been napping most of the trip so to Max's pleasure, nothing's been hectic for the first time this holiday. So after the RjB was parked and Ben was woken up, the four walked into the hospital, just to have a check up on Charlie's condition, which seemed to be getting better.
"Right Charlie, they're going to let you rest here for the time being, the police are going to come over, have a chat with us about finding you and chat with you about how're you're doing." Max notified her after talking to a nurse and she nodded.
Ben just remembered something. Police, missing people, missing poster, Charlie's wrist, the second Omnitrix! He snatched her left wrist all of a sudden and she instantly jerked it back in an instant, "What are you doing?!" She yelled, edgy about Ben doing that.
"Ben! You don't go snatching other people's wrists like that!" Gwen told off, so did Max, but Ben ignored it.
"The second Omnitrix! You have it!" He insisted. Ben was desperate to know, to have this thought confirmed and just to be safe. Her appearance after the massive alien encounter, her watch in that photograph just happens to look a lot like an Omnitrix, her left wrist hidden for the whole trip, it can't just be coincidence.
A few silent moments went by as the two looked each other in the eyes. Max and Gwen too engrossed in this as well considering they've had their encounters with aliens and then her. If she had it, it could mean she was an enemy to society from her violence towards those policemen. And it could also mean she's also in great danger and potentially, the universe if that device is as powerful as the Omnitrix, something like this couldn't be kept secret and they all wanted to know the answer.
"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! And how can you explain your sudden appearance right after that alien robot attack in the canyons!" Ben argued, his voice becoming more demanding.
Her eyes widened a little with minor shock, as if a secret's out, but her face became neutral again, "Alien robot? You sure it wasn't a military jet or weather ballon then? The canyons are known for common rock slides as well. And why'd you want to know about something like that? Just a watch Ben, just an old photo as well." She replied defensively.
Ben was skeptical of her not having a clue, and by how defensive she was acting, he was convinced she had it, "Charlie. Let me see; the watch."
She frowned at him, but his eyes convinced her to stop arguing. She sighed deeply and brought 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.
"It's a 1998 Nike scuba-diving resistant watch, with a blue colour fading band." She said simply, twisting her wrist so he had a full view of it. It was an ordinary thin sporty watch, old but sturdy. "It's not an 'Omnitrix' watch that you've been expecting to see."
Ben gasped a little, absolutely dumb folded. It was only a watch!
"I don't know how you can get so serious over a watch too." She added, looking over at Ben's watch. Ben was wearing his arm sleeves so the Omnitrix couldn't be seen at the moment. But his embarrassed face showed he was mentally stabbing himself for making such an idiot of himself.
However, in the eyes of another spectator, this show wasn't all that comical. Someone seeming to be reading a newspaper lowered it and watched the scene with piercing eyes.
A doctor came up to Charlie, "Um, Charlie Decrey?" He asked, catching her attention from the embarrassed Ben and quickly ending the scene. "Hello, I'm Mr. Edwards, and I'll be tending to you for the time being!" He said with a happy attitude. He was a young doctor with an enthusiastic, care free attitude. He led her through the hallways to her room, leaving the Tennysons to deal with the arriving police and Ben to hide his mortified face.
The guy sitting with the newspaper talked into his mobile, "Khni, do you copy? Found my host, I'm going in." He spoke, his words unnoticed by the people around him.
"Roger Doctor, do you magic! In the meantime, I'm off to the gamin' store."
The phone went offline and the guy stood up and walked in the direction that doctor and Charlie went.
End of Chapter 5.
Next time on chapter 6! Ben finds out more clues that continually lead to one answer, but will that answer ever be confirmed? And what are the plans taking place out of sight?
Greymatter spied through the air duct of the alleyway, seeing that doctor stomp around while talking on the phone. He was saying some suspicious things about a signal. 'Hmm… that doctor always did seem a little peculiar…' Greymatter thought, and edged closer against the air duct to hear the voice over the phone.
"What do you mean there's another signal, only stronger?" That doctor Edwards argued through the mobile.
"I'm telling you it's off the scale! So close to you as well!" The faint voice replied in an astonished tone.
The doctor paused before making a reply. "Ignore it. We aren't-"
"Whatever," The voice interrupted, "even if the signal IS only a meter to your right…"
The doctor's head snapped to the right, immediately spotting the air duct. Greymatter tensed up and moved to the corner of the air duct, holding his breath. The doctor leaned in and began scanning over it with his piercing eyes…
…review and tune in!