A/N: I said I was going to do a Benlie and I did! To keep things simple, this is before Ben gets the Ultimatrix. I've never played tennis anywhere but on my Wii and some uncompetitive tennis with my friends, so excuse any inaccuracies. For those of you who don't know any tennis, a match consists of 3 or 5 sets with the server alternating every set. The points go from 0-3 and are called love, fifteen, thirty, and forty respectively. That's all you'll need to know to understand tennis in this oneshot.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 or the quote at the beginning of this chapter. I do own this oneshot.

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"I have always considered tennis as a combat in an arena between two gladiators who have their racquets and their courage as weapons."

-Yannick Noah

51. Sport

It was the start of her fifth set. Currently her opponent was tied with her, but this set would break that. This last set would determine the winner and she was determined to end up as number one.

As Julie stepped on to the court, racquet in hand, she sent a quick glance over at the bleachers. There were various faces from her school, but the one she had been hoping to see was absent. His regular place in the stands was taken up by some laughing sophomores.

Julie sighed. Ben was probably busy with alien business, which was why he wasn't here to cheer her on. She was used to it, but this was the Championships. And as much as Julie understood that Ben had Plumber business to attend to, she wished that he was here instead. They always made it a point to go to one another's games, but aliens always seemed to find a way to interrupt.

Well, I can't think about him right now. I have a match to win. Julie shook her thoughts of Ben off her mind. There was nothing she could to do about it. Later she could always tell Ben how it went and it would be much better to tell him that she had won.

With that reassuring thought, Julie tossed the ball up into the air and slammed it to the other side of the court. The final set had begun.

As the ball flew from side to side, Julie found her mind completely consumed by the task at hand. Each bounce of the ball, each flick of her wrist, everything was taken in with a crystal clarity that wasn't muddled with thoughts of her boyfriend. It was one of the refreshing aspects of a sport; the fact that everything else just drifted away from the mind.

Finally the other player made a miscalculation and missed the ball. It bounced to the end of the court where her opponent proceeded to pick it up to toss back to her.

"Fifteen-love." The umpire announced.

Julie allowed herself a small smile before serving the ball again. And so the set continued.

That is until a large blue moth came smashing down into the middle of the net. The match was quickly forgotten as spectators and players alike screamed in terror and made their way away from the crash site.

"Be – Big Chill!" Julie yelled, catching herself before she could say her boyfriend's name. Truly there was no need to since the court was already almost empty of people.

She raised her eyes to search the sky for whatever had blasted Ben. She spotted the perpetrator, a robot drone. Its eyes were still smoking from the laser blast that it had hit Big Chill with. As she watched, the robot flew closer.

Big Chill stood up, turning intangible to free himself from the net. He looked around, noting the abandoned tennis court and Julie before looking back at the hovering alien.

"Julie, get out of here. It's dangerous." Big Chill hissed at her. If there hadn't been a robot to face, he would've taken time to apologize for interrupting her match even though it hadn't exactly been his fault.

"Be careful Ben." Julie hurried over to hide behind some bleachers. Without Ship, there was nothing she could do to aid Ben in his aerial battle, but she couldn't bring herself to leave him completely alone. At least she could watch from here and if worst came to worst, make a quick phone call to Gwen and Kevin.

"Surrender the Omnitrix." The robot droned.

"I don't really like that option. How about you just chill out?"

From her hiding spot, Julie watched as Big Chill blew icy air towards the robot. The robot raised its claw-like hands just in time to block the icy attack. He rotated his wrists, shattering the ice that had formed around them.

"Surrender the Omnitrix." The robot repeated. Whoever had sent the robot had clearly not thought about installing a more complex speech center.

With that cheering message, the robot fired a laser from its eyes. Big Chill sank into the ground to avoid it, leaving the laser to wreck havoc upon the tennis court. When the robot realized that his prey was gone, its laser fire came to a halt. Just as its head began to swivel around to search the area, Big Chill reappeared behind the alien.

"Let's see how you like it cold."

The robot had no chance to respond as Big Chill flew through it multiple times. The frozen robot fell towards the ground where it shattered into various pieces. Big Chill landed on the ground and turned back into Ben.

Julie ran towards him, coming to a halt beside the boy. Before she could say anything, Ben sent her a half-smile and said, "I'm sorry for interrupting your match."

She looked around, taking in the broken net and the scorched ground of the court. Everyone was gone and there was no sign that the match had been going on besides the score board and someone's abandoned bag of peanuts.

Julie smiled. "It wasn't your fault, Ben. You didn't do anything. He did." Julie gestured down at the chunks of metal strewn across the ground. The ice still clung desperately to the metal, but it was beginning to melt from the afternoon sun.

"Yeah, I guess so." Ben frowned. "Sorry that I couldn't get to the match. Some robots attacked me on the way over. I got rid of most of them easily, but this one was a bit harder."

"Ben, it's fine. I know you're busy fighting aliens." Julie looked down at the scrap metal. "Do you know who sent them?"

Ben shrugged. "No clue."

"Then I guess you'll have to go and find out." As much as she wanted to spend some time with Ben, figuring out the villain behind this was more important. They could spend some time together once he got his answers.

Ben had been staring thoughtfully at the remains of the robot, but he raised his eyes. To her surprise, he shook his head before grinning. "I think it's okay if I let this one rest a while. All that fighting made me hungry. Why don't we go and get something to eat? Unless you have to stick around and wait for everyone to regroup to finish."

Julie stared at him for a few moments in surprise before smiling back at him. "I think the match is officially rescheduled."

"Well, then what's stopping us?" Ben offered her his arm and she took it. Together they walked off towards Julie's waiting motor scooter to drive to the nearest restaurant and then to a necessary stop at Mr. Smoothies.

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A/N: Obvious title theme is obvious. I hope that those of you who aren't tennis-savvy were able to understand the basic terms after reading the first author's note and that you weren't lost. As for those who do play tennis, please feel free to correct me if you see anything wrong. Overall, I was pleased with this one though I don't like it quite as much as my first Benlie one-shot.

Also, because I reached the over-100-reviews mark, I'd like to give a huge round of applause to my reviewers! You guys are great.

Twilight Phantom Dragon