Ben x Gwen
Teen; violence, language
Hear Me Cry: BEATEN
The next morning, Gwen awoke a bit groggy. She rubbed her neck, since it was a little sore. 'Why am I sleeping here..?' She thought for a moment, then remembered what happened last night. She sighed, and said quietly to herself, "I'm such an idiot. Why did I say that to him?" She stood, then stretched. It was painful yet comforting.
She approached the window across the floor, and stared at her reflection. 'I look like crap.' She began fixing her hair, and wiping away the tear streaks.
Ben stared over at her. He hadn't been able to sleep the entire night. During that time, he just sat there. Thinking. Wondering about the aliens and just everything- like completely irrelevant things like school. He even walked outside to get his games. Well, he couldn't deny that he had slept an hour or two, since he got incredibly bored; and just sort of.. dozed off.
But now was no time to continue thinking. He had to get back to his seat on the second floor, before either Gwen or Max noticed. Swiftly, he crept back over to the second floor, while Gwen was still making herself presentable.
'I.. should probably apologize to him. Say it never happened.' Gwen thought. She nodded to her reflection, since she looked presentable. Regaining composure, she walked upstairs, and looked in to the room. Max was still sleeping, she saw, and Ben was fiddling with the gauze roll.
"B-Ben." Her eye twitched, at her stuttering.
Ben snapped his head to her direction. He dropped the gauze on to his lap, and let it roll to the floor.
Gwen could feel her heart acting stupid again. Regardless, she gestured for him to come over.
Wondering what she could want, Ben strode over to her.
"C'mon." She walked back down the stairs, with Ben following her, and took a seat on the red cushioned stools, beside the bar table.
"About.. what I said to you, last night.." She looked from the table to him. He had a serious expression on his face, that made her uncomfortable. Even so, she smiled, "just forget about it. Pretend it never happened."
"Wh..what?"
"Ben. I wasn't thinking straight last night, because of what happened. So, just forget about it. I said it without thinking. Really."
"Whatever you say.. I guess." Ben smiled, half-heartedly. He did feel like a burden on his chest lightened. It's not that Gwen, or her feelings, were a burden... he just didn't know how to put it.
"Well then... Let's wait until Grandpa wakes up," Gwen said, looking around the bar.
"No way," Ben grinned. "Let's just go."
"No, Ben. It's too dangerous." She stood in front of him, making sure he wouldn't just dart out.
"Suit yourself. I'll go by myself." Ben pushed her aside, but she stuck her arm out in front of him.
"Ben. Did you see those aliens? They're insane. Besides, you're going out there without a plan?"
"Plan for what? Evasive maneuvers? Hah. Making a plan is uncool anyway. So..." He pushed down on Gwen's arm lightly, but she didn't falter. The brown haired boy furrowed his brows.
"Oh, all right. But if we get in trouble, just remember it's your fault." Gwen put her arm down, and followed Ben out of the place.
It was pretty hazy and dark outside, but it wasn't so bad. Gwen had to walk closer to Ben, in fear of the aliens, and whatever was hidden in the haze.
"We came here to see the aliens, and we've already seen them. So what are we doing out here now?" Gwen looked around at the many shops, hoping an alien wouldn't jump out of a window.
"Hey, let's go there." Ben pointed to a small shop a few blocks away. Ben picked up the pace, and Gwen sighed, following suit.
Ben was about to open the door to the shop, before Gwen stopped him.
"What if there's something in there?" She peered in through the windows.
"Gwen. Something would've attacked us by now, if there was anyone else here!" Ben opened the door to the small place, and scanned the area.
"Well they could be trying to get us on surprise. Like an, I don't know.. ambush." She resumed following the stupid boy.
The shop was just as dusty as the bar place. There were lots of stands and tables around the room, like a showcase, with jewelery in them.
"Is this a.. jewelery shop?" Gwen taken slightly aback. She didn't expect such a town to have a jewelery shop.
"I'd expect a hat shop... Let's go." Ben walked back over to the doors leading outside. But when he didn't hear Gwen's footsteps following him, he looked over his shoulder to her.
"I want this pearl necklace," she pointed down at the table, while looking at Ben.
"Take it, then," Ben said.
Gwen happily picked up the glass covering, which was a bit heavy, and took out the necklace. As soon as she put it on, she replaced the glass over the table. "I'm starting to think this place is actually an auction. You can sort of tell.."
"Whatever. Let's just leave." Ben headed outside, and Gwen quickly followed him.
"Did it get darker?" Gwen asked, staring out at the haze. "Ben, let's get back to grandpa." She looked over to him.
"This is just getting better," he grinned. "Hey, why don't we do grandpa a favor, and look for a gas station?"
"There wouldn't be a gas station in this town."
"We can always try looking for one." With that, Ben started scouting ahead- and for the millionth time, Gwen followed.
While looking left and right, at the stores repeatedly, Gwen started to think. She was wondering if Ben really did forget about what she said. Not literally, but for the most part. She had to get over this guy. Nothing good would come from liking him. Even if he did say he liked her.. she probably wouldn't have believed him. She'd have to try hard to get over him, and find someone else.
Besides, when they were younger they didn't meet much. Even when they did, they just hated each other. Sometimes it felt to her.. that Ben was more like a good friend, than a cousin.
"Look, see? There's a gas station." Ben grinned even more, at her. "I so knew there would be one."
"Yeah, yeah. Now, I think it'd be smart to get back to grandpa, and tell him."
Ben clearly ignored her, and walked over to the gas station. She was officially getting annoyed by his persistence. "Come on, Ben."
She sighed again, and grabbed his wrist- which caught him on surprise. "We're going back." She dragged him down the street for another minute, before letting go of him.
"Fine." Ben stuffed his hands in his pockets, and walked ahead of her.
Trying to not make herself think of Ben, she started wondering about why the aliens were there. The place's abandoned, but aliens were there. 'Maybe they knew Ben would be coming there, and wanted the Omnitrix..? Seems likely.'
They reached the bar a few minutes later, and took their seats back at the bar table. As if on cue, they heard Max walking down the stairs, and the two turned to him.
"Morning," he said.
"Morning," Ben and Gwen said in unison.
"How long were you two awake?" Max asked.
"Like ten minutes.." Ben said, hopping off the stool.
"Not long." Gwen did the same thing as Ben.
"Why don't we go look for some gas station, or car store, now?" inquired Max, beginning to walk out of the bar.
"Uh, hey, grandpa. Yesterday, I saw a gas station, when we were driving back here," Gwen lied. "It's just up the road."
"Fantastic," Max smiled. "We'll go there now."
The three hopped in to the truck, and reached the gas station in no time. However, yet again, Gwen noticed that before they got in to the truck, outside was hazier than before.
It seemed to her, that each time they went inside a place, then back out, it would be darker or hazier. She soon dismissed it as nonsense.
Max started filling the truck with gas, while Ben and Gwen took a look around the area. Max was in front of the gas station's building, while Ben and Gwen were looking around on the side.
While Ben was inspecting random "findings" on the ground, Gwen spotted something around the back. It was shining.
"Hey, Ben! There's something over here." She continued walking, out of Ben's view. The orange haired girl crouched down to get a better look at it.
It was a gun.
Gwen nearly squealed at the sight of it. It resembled the alien's gun almost exactly. She picked up the gun, knowing well that her grandfather would want to examine it.
She immediately took off running to Ben, afraid there would be an alien out there. "Ben! Look," she showed the gun to the boy.
"Sweet!" he exclaimed, yanking it away from her. "Are there more? Where'd you find them?" He was grinning at the gun.
"Back behind the station- now give it back." She brought out her hand in front of him, demanding the gun back.
"Hahaha, no way. I'm keeping it." He put his hands, that were grasping the gun of course, behind his back.
"Seriously, Ben. Give it back!" She tried to reach behind him to get it, and walk around behind him, but she failed. She decided, that whenever this annoying guy was off guard, she'd take it.
Gwen crossed her arms with irritation, while walking back to the truck. Ben followed her- hands behind his back still.
Ben casually walked in the truck, making sure the gun he wasn't in sight of his grandfather- who was getting in to the truck. Gwen just glared at him, when he took a seat by the table.
"I could just tell on you right now," she whispered harshly.
"But you won't." Ben stuffed the gun in his backpack. He hugged it tightly to his chest, and stretched out on the seat.
He was right. Gwen just wouldn't tell on him. She rested her head on her arms, that were crossed on the table.
It wasn't until a few minutes later, did she start hearing very quiet snores from Ben. She sat up straight in her seat, and stared at him. She would definitely take the gun back now.
Slowly, she reached across the table, and took hold of his backpack; without taking it out of his grasp. She quickly unzipped the backpack, took out the gun, and then re-zipped it.
"Gwen," Max said.
Startled, Gwen hid the gun behind her, in the seat cushion. She looked up at the mirror.
"I'm going to search some of these stores for some things. You wait in here, with your cousin."
"Okay."
Max soon parked the car beside a random building, grabbed a few things in the RV, then left.
Gwen waited to see her grandfather enter one of the stores. Once he did, she took out the gun. She was tempted to, not only pull the trigger, but press the random buttons she saw.
A moment later, she thought she heard something hit the top of the car. She shook her head, but continued staring up at the ceiling of the car.
There were more soft thuds, but the RV didn't shake.
She saw something black-ish by the window, at the corner of her eye, and immediately flicked her head to it's direction. She let out a sharp gasp, as it quietly cut out the window. By the time she could think, and only moved about a foot away from the window, the alien had grabbed her by the necklace. She nearly choked.
For the second time, she was barely being suffocated... It was getting troublesome to her.
"Be-" she coughed. She clutched the necklace, as the alien continued to pull it out the window.
She was to her shoulders out the window. Her hands were the only things keeping the rest of herself in the car. "Bee-" she croaked. Great, more croaking. "He-"
The necklace snapped off- and when she tried to sink back in to her seat, the alien grabbed her by the shirt, and pulled her out of the square it made.
"Ben!" she yelled. "Ben!" 'Why is this happening again!?' she thought.
Ben snapped awake, eyes wide. He looked over to the used-to-be-window. The boy peered out, and looked up. Gwen was being taken away again. "Gw-en!" He quickly climbed through the used-to-be-window, and switched the Omnitrix to XLR8.
"What is going on out there?" Max asked, out loud, as he headed back outside. He looked over to the car. It looked normal, and no one was around making a commotion. He assumed it was just Ben and Gwen arguing again, and went back in to the store.
"Gwen- Wait, you stupid alien!" XLR8 rasped. They were jumping across the tops of the stores again. "This is getting old!"
"Let go of me!" Gwen struggled to be freed from the alien. There was no way possible she could use her magic, not at the speed they were going. "I didn't want to do this..!" She pulled the gun out, and pointed it at the alien's arms. For a few seconds she hesitated, but pulled the trigger nonetheless.
It's arm went flying back, while blood shot out, and Gwen fell. She skid harshly, on her back, over the tops of many stores, before XLR8 finally caught her.
The many aliens following them, circled around the two, just like before.
XLR8 only stood there, holding Gwen bridal style. "What do you guys want!?" XLR8 rasped loudly.
Each, and every, alien pointed at XLR8.
"What the-?! Me? For what pur-"
"Ben! Stop talking and get us out of here. Clearly they want the Omnitrix!" Gwen shouted at him.
"Oh, right. See ya, guys!" XLR8 turned around, and dashed back in a blur.
The other aliens were quick, however, almost quicker. A random alien jumped out, out of nowhere, in front of them. XLR8 halted to a stop, but hastily began dashing in another direction. Another alien grabbed on to XLR8's foot, and pulled him back- hitting through the roof with XLR8's back.
Both XLR8 and Gwen fell in to the store. While Gwen was still in his arms, they both got smashed in through two more floors, then hit the store's ground roughly.
Only aliens would have been able to sustain that...
Gwen flipped over, and got off XLR8, before coughing, as the debris fell. Her back was to the debris, as it hit her and XLR8 and the rest of the place.
As soon as it stopped falling, and there was only wood.. dust, and other store particles in the air, Gwen sat up. "Be-" she coughed, "Ben, you all right?" She waved the dust particles out of her face.
"Yeah. Just fine, after getting thrown in to three floors of wood." XLR8 sat up, and sighed.
"Sorry. It's my fault."
"Stop blaming yourself. Let's just get out of here." XLR8 staggered around, before he could stand straight. He walked over to Gwen, and picked her up, bridal style, for the second time.
"Ben. You know it's my fault. If I had just been able to-"
"Shut up." XLR8 quickly darted over to the door outside, kicked it open, and ran out. As soon as he did, alien grabbed his upper arm, and swung him in a random direction.
"Not again," he mumbled. He got thrown in to the side of a building, taking the impact with his back again. The force of the peg wasn't as much as before, and he didn't go through the other side of the building.
XLR8 groaned. "This is stupid."
"Then hurry back to Grandpa. He's probably wondering where we are," Gwen said.
"I don't see you doing anything."
"I can't. Not at the pace you're going."
"Funny." XLR8 stood, and looked out to where he was just pegged from. "Why are they so fast?"
"It's true that they're even faster than XLR8.. So, what do you plan on doing?"
"The plan thing again?" XLR8 sighed. "I can try to out run them." He sped out of the broken store, as fast as he could.
Gwen knew it. She was one of the main reason's why XLR8 was slowing down. She hated it.
But it was too late to jump off, or do any 'brave' acts. As the aliens finally jumped XLR8 and Gwen.
Gwen was pried from XLR8's arms- then thrown across the ground.
"Gwen!" XLR8 shouted. He tried to free himself from them, but couldn't. He soon reverted back to Ben, and was completely powerless.
"No.." Gwen couldn't sit properly, she was hurting too much. "Ben!" After clasping the gun close, and tightly, to her chest for so long, she finally pointed it at the aliens. She shot the side of them, missing a lot, and only got a few to fall.
The gun was finally knocked away from her- too far for her to move to.
The aliens, with Ben "captive", began to move farther from Gwen. At that moment, when she saw the fear in Ben's eyes, she cried. It was all she could do, no matter how far, or how quick, she could crawl. She couldn't reach the gun. She wasn't powerful enough to do anything. "Be-n!" she cried.
The aliens took Ben to a far place, near the area where Gwen was held hostage. They set him down in a strange hi-tech seat, of course, he failed to get out of their grasp before that.
"What are you..?"
They strapped Ben's left arm, with the Omnitrix, around a small rectangular table.
The alien pressed it's sharp nail against Ben's arm. "We need the Omnitrix."
Ben's eyes widened.