Once again thanks for your support and flattery. I'll be sure to continue whether it be tomorrow or ... next year.
Someone had their arms wrapped tightly around his chest. Ben coughed violently into their shoulder, unable to hold in then vomit that followed.
"Eew, gross!" He heard Gwen's voice next to his ear complain. He pushed himself free and fell backwards against the floor breathing heavily and coughing water and puke from his lungs. He shivered in his soaked clothes and tried to get to his feet. The ghastly black bag came into view and he turned away and vomited again.
He realised as he watched it run between the boards and into the sea that it was mostly water. He must have passed out in the water when the man had hit him across the head and been pulled out by Gwen or Max. He felt somewhat disappointed to find that all that had happened in that place was just another of his nightmares. He had a feeling that they would start up again now.
"What-" he froze before realising that he could talk freely now. He hung his head and coughed again. "What happened to the-" Gwen pulled him to his feet and held his shoulders to steady him.
"Grandpa's gone after him in the RV." Ben felt his stomach twist as he caught sight of the bag once more. He started to drag Gwen away from the pier as she tried to stop him from walking. "Hold it!" she ordered but he didn't listen.
"We've gotta get out of here," he replied, panicked. "Gotta get away…" Gwen kicked the back of his knees gently so he fell to the floor.
"What's wrong with you?" Ben looked over his shoulder and pointed to the black lump.
"Th-the bag…" he stammered. Gwen turned around and spotted it before turning back.
"What? You want me to go get it?" she started towards it but Ben grabbed her arm instantly.
"No!" Gwen looked at him in confusion. "There- there's a…" he gulped. "…body."
Gwen was starting to look worried. "What are you on about?"
"In the bag." Ben was beginning to get impatient with her. Was it that hard to understand. It seemed quite clear to him.
"No, it's full of money." Gwen replied slowly and crouched down holding a hand to Ben's forehead. He swatted it away.
"The man said that there was a girl in there," he insisted. Gwen shook her head.
"There was a robbery," she assured him. When she went to get the bag Ben didn't stop her. She dragged it over and cut the bottom open. Bundles of dollar tumbled onto the floor between them. Ben looked at the money in shock.
"But I saw it. He told me."
Gwen considered that for a second. "You were found quite a while away from the where the man had left the water. Maybe you fell in before any of that happened and you were having another one of your nightmares." Ben shook his head.
"My nightmares aren't like that…" he looked to the floor, "but I had one afterwards."
"So it's possible?" Ben urgently snatched the bag from his cousin and examined it a bit more closely. Sure enough a padlock held the zip securely in place.
"I broke this," he said in amazement and pulled it off just as he had earlier.
"In the dream…" Gwen said. He could tell she'd made her mind up and was intent on changing it.
"He dropped a gun over here," Ben persisted but was surprised to find no gun there at all. Gwen looked at him blankly. "And…" Ben lifted his arm and smiled in relief, "he shot me four times." Sure enough, his arm was marked with a network of cracks. Gwen wandered over and looked at them.
"That looks bad," she said worriedly. Ben shook his head. "When did this happen?"
"I was stood on the end of the pier. Then he went to run away so I caught him and then went to look in the bag."
"So he could have easily knocked you into the water just after he shot you."
"No," Ben insisted stubbornly. "I didn't go anywhere near that spot."
Gwen sighed in exasperation. "So what do you think happened?"
Ben thought deeply about that. "I think that when he left the water he grabbed the… other bag and replaced it with that one to disguise the real crime that happened."
"We'd have shown up way before he'd had a chance to do that," Gwen said to end the discussion but Ben kept pushing.
"No you wouldn't. You must have been about twenty-five minutes away. I could smell how close you were."
"And how could you possibly do that?" Gwen was getting annoyed, he could tell, but he needed to tell her, to convince her.
"Have you ever had a super sense of smell? How would you know?" He folded his arms and turned away sulkily.
"Wow, that's mature," she huffed. "How do we know these thing? Isn't that the whole point of science?" After a while Ben turned round again.
"I'm serious," he said simply. Gwen's expression softened. She did see the logic in it all.
"We won't rule it out as a possibility."
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Ben was getting bored. He was sat on the toilet thinking of the day's events. He didn't even need to go. He could hear Gwen snoring politely (if that's possible) from her bed. He didn't want to go to sleep. He'd spent the last hour trying to manipulate his skin like diamondhead to heal the rather odd looking 'wounds' on his arm and shoulder. Nothing he did seemed to work. He'd even tried melting it smooth using heatblast but all he managed to do then was set fire to the curtains.
He went through the aliens in his head and what he'd received from each of them. Fourarm's super strength (he was surprised to find that he hadn't really taken advantage of that yet), wildmutt's sense of smell, upgrade's ability to manipulate electricity, ripjaw's ability to breath underwater (strangely enough he'd checked for gills but hadn't found any), ghostfreak's intangibility, XLR8's speed, greymatter's smarts, heatblast's fire, diamondhead's diamond hard skin and stinkfly's… stink.
His thoughts wondered back to the gills idea. Perhaps they only appeared when he was underwater. He turned on the tap to fill the bath. He waited until it was full enough before dunking his head underwater. He breathed out but made sure not to breath any water in. If his lung's filled none of the alien's could help him. He waited a while and then brought his hand's to his neck. His fingers came into contact with a row of skin flaps. He pulled his head out of the water and gasped in horror. The idea of gills sounded cool until that moment.
He shook the water out of his hair and went over to the mirror. The skin was smooth once again. He tried to calm himself before taking a closer look. When he did he had to really look to notice anything, but sure enough there were grooves in his neck where the skin could open. He sat back on the toilet seat finally coming to the conclusion that he preferred turning into the different aliens to get their powers. It was one thing being a part time hero, but the thought of not having any way of escaping from that duty made him feel sick.
He could feel a panic rising in his stomach. What if he couldn't reverse this? He needed to tell Max everything. He stood up and left the bathroom in a hurry. He ran to the driver's seat to find Max but found that it was empty. He frowned before realising it was set to auto pilot. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and walked over to his bed. He glanced at Max but the strength of his wanting to tell him had gone. He turned away and climbed into his bed half hoping for a normal night. Unfortunately, hoping wasn't enough.
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Ben could feel the wind in his hair. It was a strong wind. He felt like he was somewhere different and yet the feeling of someone else's presence was obvious. It was still dark, very dark. He went to take a step forward and managed to withdraw his foot in time when he realised that there was nothing to step onto. Where was he?
He recognised the sound of running water. It wasn't a weak brook though, it was the sound of a strong river running against supports far below him. It bubbled threateningly. Ben crouched down and felt the floor about him. He was stood on a thick wire mesh which sloped before and behind him narrowly. He headed carefully down the slope wanting to reach the ground as soon as possible but voices stopped him. He turned back and froze to listen. There were shouts of anger and the shout of a battle.
Ben hesitantly turned around and headed upwards towards the fight. He reached level ground after a short while. Not sure what to do next, he stood and waited. Something large crashed into a pile of objects causing a series of sounds which sounded like they were made by big boxes and empty barrels. He backed away as the thing approached him. Obviously not human, the alien backed him up against the edge of the scaffolding which opened out to a large drop to the water below.
"You're not worth it," The words were his own but it wasn't his voice. "You were never worth it." He fell off the edge as four strong arms pushed him backwards.
He was suddenly somewhere else. It was that place again. The flame flickering on and off at the click of the finger and thumb. Something glinted every time the spark flashed. Ben walked towards the figure. It was coming back now. He was underground on a two way railway line. He placed a hand on the switch as he passed it.
"Do you remember yet?" The boy asked with humour. "Do you remember the freak?"The light illuminated his face for a second and Ben woke up.
"Kevin!" he shouted, sitting up so fast in his bed that both his arms and neck clicked.