I do not own Ben 10, or any of the characters that have already or will debut in the series.
Note: This project ignores the events of "Race Against Time", "Ben 10 Versus Negative 10". "Goodbye and Good Riddance" and "Ben 10: Alien Force". I have other plans for Ben, Gwen, Charmcaster, Animo, and all the others.
Secondary note: For this project, benwolf is Howlrunner, benmummy is Underwraps, and benviktor is Boltneck.
"So, he's really paying us for this? Hard cash?"
"Yeah, and all we have to do is get a few little injections. I gotta tell you, I really need this. My parents aren't sending me enough cash to cover room and board this semester."
Rachel nodded, but she wasn't really listening; she'd tuned Beth out after 'Yeah'. She didn't need the money, but to be fair, she'd heard that the professor running the trial was a little loose with his chemicals, and she was really hoping she could get a buzz off of whatever he was pumping into her. She didn't have to wait long for the professor. He was thin to the point of emaciation, like a human skeleton. He looked at the small group, checking names to faces.
"For those of you that don't know me, which is probably most of you, I am Professor Arthur Jekyll. I asked you to test-"
"When do we get paid?"
Jekyll looked furious at being interrupted, especially from the brawny frat boy sitting in the back. He tamped this down, answering the question.
"You will be paid at the end of the experiment. Now, I am testing a muscle growth serum intended for use in restoring muscle tissue for people who have lost most of it in accidents. I must stress that you do not tell anyone about this. Do I have your agreement on this? Yes? Then let us begin. James Andrews, come forward please."
Jekyll grinned. Soon enough his experiments would pay off and he'd complete his serum. Then he wouldn't need to test on idiots like these. Don't get impatient. They want this done right, and that takes time. Just a little longer, old boy. Grinning slightly, he injected the interrupting frat boy.
"Next!"
Ben 10
Hyde and Seek
"Seriously, what kind of garbage did you eat on your homeworld?"
"Ben!"
"What? She actually likes the fried grubs and smoked frog legs Grandpa Max makes. Either she can't taste anything or-"
"I think it tastes good, all right? It's not as good as Arcturan food, but it's still palatable."
"Bleagh. People weren't meant to eat that kind of stuff."
Ben and Gwen were sitting at the small table in the Rust Bucket, watching their newest traveling companion, the alien cyborg Fray, dig through the fridge looking for leftovers from last night's dinner. Even though it had only be two days since she had saved them from the Collector (although, to be fair, she wouldn't have needed to save them if she hadn't kidnapped them in the first place), she'd already proven her worth, saving Ben from getting eaten by a pack of dogs when the Omnitrix had accidentally turned him into Gray Matter instead of Wildmutt. Ben didn't like talking about that incident, but Max had warmed up to Fray considerably after that. Gwen stood up, working her way up to the front seat to sit next to Max.
"You know, it's never too soon to look at colleges, right? 'Cause-"
"Oh, come on! I've got better things to do than follow you around another school that you're looking at! Besides, last time we did that, Ghostfreak got loose, and both of us almost died."
"Who's Ghostfreak?"
"You don't want to know, kid. He's best left forgotten."
"That's not fair, Ben. You get to have all kinds of fun running around with the Omnitrix, and it's about time I got to do something I wanted to do."
"Okay, what's the real reason you want to see this place, Gwen? You're not even in high school yet, so I doubt you're really scouting colleges right now."
"Look, if it's such a big deal then you and Grandpa Max go. Me and Fray'll find something to do."
"We will?"
"Sure. Don't worry, you guys, we can handle ourselves, no problem. Right?"
"Yeah, I guess. I'll keep a close eye on him, Max."
"Both of you keep out of trouble. We'll meet here in a few hours."
Ben practically ran out of the Rust Bucket when it stopped, with Fray following close behind. Max waited until Ben and Fray were gone before he turned to Gwen.
"Spill. Why do you want to be here so badly?"
"I was talking to Janet online, and she said she was here to help test something, and she wanted me to be there for, you know, moral support. She says . . . she says it might help her walk again."
Max immediately understood why Gwen had wanted to keep this secret from Ben and Fray. Ben had never really liked Janet, even after the two of them had recently spent some time stuck together in the woods earlier in the summer, and would probably sulk the whole time if he had been forced to go. As for Fray . . . well, Max had heard stories about what Arcturans did to members of their species that became physically unable to keep up with the rest of the species. Both of them would have been uncomfortable in that situation, to say the least. It was for the best that they had decided to wander off.
"Okay, let's go. We should have some time to get there, if you have the right time."
Ben and Fray were wandering around the area near the campus, trying to find somewhere to hang out that wasn't packed with college kids. The crowds were bad enough, but Fray had hit upon another, more pressing problem; most of the guys were very attracted to her, despite her young appearance.
"Ugh! Why are all these guys hitting on me?"
"Well, you are kind of cute. Not like a knockout, but still attractive."
"Still, this is embarrassing. I'm a warrior, not some little piece of eye candy sitting around for them to look at. I wish-"
"That you and I could be together, baby?"
A random college guy and walked up to Fray, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her up against his chest. She tried to squirm out of his grip, but he was holding her tight enough to keep her next to him. Ben tried to jump to Fray's rescue.
"Hey, let my sister go, or I'll-"
"You'll what, small fry? Beat me up?"
"I'll tell the police! She's only fourteen, and-"
"Butt out, kid. Better yet, stay and watch. Maybe you'll learn something."
With that, the guy pulled Fray even closer and kissed her. She felt something push itself into her mouth and did the first thing she could think of. She bit it. The guy pulled back as soon as she let go, trying to shout with a wounded tongue. His buddies seemed to think this was hilarious, and Ben and Fray decided to duck out while they were busy ripping on their friend.
"Sister, huh?"
"What? You'd make a really cool sister, and I was always jealous of Gwen having an older brother around, so . . . "
"I see. Why am I so young, though? I'm an adult by Arcturan standards."
"Yeah, but you look like you just became a teenager. Besides, that makes you young enough that it's not exactly legal for these guys to mess with you."
"Oh. Well, thanks for the attempted save back there. Think we'll find anywhere those guys aren't?"
"Hopefully. If not, I can always use something in the Omnitrix to freak them out."
"Cool, but let's leave that as a last resort."
It had taken a lot of talking to get into the amphitheater, but Gwen and Max had finally managed, even if it had only been Janet's father coming out and telling the man holding them up that they were friends of the family. They silently filed into seats near the top of the theater. Down below, Janet was lying on an examination table. Her upper body was shifting a little with nervousness; her thin, wasted legs weren't moving at all. Several assistants were checking her vitals while a ridiculously thin man was preparing a syringe. Once he was satisfied, he stepped forward to say a few words.
"Greetings fellow professors, distinguished guests, to a demonstration that may very well change the face of the world. I am Doctor Arthur Jekyll. We have here one Janet Young, afflicted by an extremely rare condition that caused the muscles in her legs to atrophy away to near non-existence, though this is hardly the only application for the serum. My serum stimulates muscle growth at such a rate that full, healthy muscle mass can be achieved in about a minute. I will open the floor to any questions after the test."
Jekyll picked up the syringe and injected it into Janet's leg without any pretense. For about a minute, nothing happened. Suddenly her legs twitched and began fleshing out. Jekyll helped her stand on shaky legs. Janet managed to take a few wobbly steps before her legs quickly wasted away again. Jekyll and one of his assistants caught her before she could hit the ground, helping her back to the table. The room exploded with questions, which Jekyll fielded calmly. Gwen and Max snuck down to talk to Janet and her parents, who had been waiting in the front row. Janet was actually crying a little, which she insisted were tears of joy.
"I think he might actually have something. Oh, I'd forgotten how good it felt to walk!"
Gwen didn't know what to say. Her mother quickly took her away, but her father lingered for a little bit, talking to Max in hushed tones. They could be talking about anything, though it was probably Plumber business; Gwen remembered Mr. Young's distinctly inhuman arsenal he'd brought out when he and Grandpa Max had gone looking for Ben and Janet during their last meeting. Gwen took one last look at Dr. Jekyll. He looked triumphant, like he'd permanently fixed Janet. It didn't exactly match up with the half-minute effect of his chemical. Still, this wasn't the time to be suspicious. Janet was going to be fine now, and that was all that mattered, right?
Hours later, Fray was wandering the streets near where the Rust Bucket was parked, trying to forget the conversation-turned-argument they'd had over dinner. She'd merely informed Gwen what would have happened to Janet on her homeworld was all. Gwen had no right to react the way she had. So what if her now-extinct species' practices weren't considered "humane" on Earth? That didn't make her a monster. Gwen was just closed-minded. Yeah, that was-
"Well, well, look who just can't stay away from me."
Fray turned around just in time to be punched in the face. It didn't really hurt as much as it would a human; her body was mechanical and simply didn't register pain the same way flesh would. It still knocked her to the ground though. She picked herself up and found herself looking the idiot she'd bitten earlier being held back by his friends. They looked stunned and a little afraid; he looked angry.
"Dude, what are you doing? She's a kid!"
"Yeah, leave her alone, man!"
"No way! She made me look like an idiot and she's gonna pay!"
The angry guy shook his friends off, waving his arms to drive them back. As soon as they got away from him (one of them was pulling out his cell phone to call the police), he pulled a syringe out of his pocket, grinning like a fiend while he did so.
"Stole this from that idiot doctor. A little bit makes me feel like a superstar. This much should let me teach you the lesson you deserve."
Without a second's hesitation he plunged the needle into his arm, pushing the plunger down the entire way. His entire body swelled like a balloon, turning red as his skin stretched almost to the breaking point. He was screaming the entire time as his body warped under the influence of the chemicals, even though it only took a few seconds. When it finished he was a little over nine feet tall and five feet wide at the shoulders. His face split into a wicked smile when he saw how he towered over her. He laughed, a deep booming laugh that held absolutely no humor.
"Look at this. I'm gonna destroy you."
Fray decided that this was an excellent time to activate the hidden weapons built into her arms. She made a specific flexing motion with her right set of fingers, turning on the pink energy blade hidden in her wrist. She made another motion with her left hand, and a small round shield made of the same pink energy sprouted from her forearm. The guy chuckled again, and then swung a tire-sized fist at her. She held up her shield to block him and took the full force of the blow.
It was a bad idea. Even braced against the impact, Fray was knocked flying, and the kinetic energy from the blow overloaded her shield. She rolled with the landing as best she could, though this time it actually hurt a little. It took her a few precious seconds to get back on her feet, at which point she had to immediately throw herself out of the way of another meteoric attack. As she moved past him she swung her blade at his arm, leaving a slice like a paper cut up his forearm. He looked at the wound, clearly not phased at all by it.
"That's it? Your dinky little light show's cute and all, but you can't do anything to me, can you? Good night kid-"
Fray rushed forward, slicing like mad. In about five seconds she had left a crisscrossed pattern of thin cuts all over his chest, but it didn't slow him down in the least, as was proven when she had to do a backwards somersault to avoid her foe's next blow. She turned to run, but he grabbed her by the ankle and held her upside down in front of him. For a second she thought he was going to eat her.
"Not so tough now, huh? Let's see, what should I do t-EEEEYAAGH!"
The guy started shrinking at the same rate with which he'd grown. The only problem was, as his skin started snapping back, the razor-thin cuts were expanding exponentially. By the time he'd gotten back to his normal size, his chest looked like hamburger. He'd stopped screaming, but only because the intense pain had caused him to black out. Fray wanted to run, but something unfamiliar rose up in her, paralyzing her totally. She was still there when the police showed up.
"Fray Tennyson? Your grandfather is here. You can go."
Fray was curled up on the bench in the jail cell, staring blankly at the wall across from her. She'd just been sitting there since the police had come across her standing over her attacker, staring down at his ruined chest. He'd been rushed to the hospital, while she had been taken to the station. She'd told the truth, even though they probably hadn't believed her story. She had no idea what the guy's friends had told the police, but she had been put in an empty cell, and none of the people brought in since had been put in with her. For a few moments she didn't even register what the cop had said, but she figured it out before he came in to get her. Hidden from her view, the guy let out a sigh of relief when she silently walked out of the cell; if what the witnesses had said was true, he hadn't wanted to be the one to drag her anywhere.
Fray couldn't look Max in the eyes as they left the station. She barely registered the fact that they weren't going directly to the Rust Bucket until he pushed a door open in front of her. They were in some kind of restaurant by the looks of it, though she couldn't see why he'd brought her here. It wasn't until after Max had ordered for both of them (Fray still being too shell-shocked to do much more than nod or shake her head) that he looked her in the eyes and said anything to her.
"What happened? The last thing I know you storm out after dinner, then I get a call that you're in jail. I'd like an explanation."
Fray began telling her story, trying to be as economical with her words as possible. When she got to the part about her foe shrinking into near-death, something caught in her throat; she couldn't properly talk and something started welling up in her eyes. She bowed her head, trying to figure out what was wrong with her. While she was sitting there, Max decided to prod her gently.
"Why didn't you just leave when he started shrinking?"
"I-I-I d-don't know, I was just . . . just-"
"Afraid?"
"No!" Her own vehemence startled her a little. "I'm a warrior, I'm not supposed to be afraid! I'm supposed to be fearless, not cowering over someone just because I hurt them-" She was crying now, though she didn't realize it at first. "I'm . . . I'm losing my edge, what makes me who I am-"
"Listen to me. Some of the bravest people I know were afraid sometimes. It's part of being human. I know," he held up a hand to stop her from interrupting, "you're not human, not technically, but now you have a family again. You're afraid because you're starting to relearn how to feel. Before, you weren't afraid because the Collector did something to your head. Now that you have something to keep you sane, you're starting to break his conditioning, and it scares you. But don't fight it; it's part of being a member of a family. Our family. Okay?"
Fray nodded, blinking back tears as she did. She hadn't realized how lonely she'd been before meeting the Tennysons, and having them now . . . she couldn't describe the feeling if she tried. It wasn't until their food arrived that she realized that Ben and Gwen weren't with them. She asked Max about it, and he shook his head.
"They're both asleep in the Rust Bucket. I didn't feel the need to wake them up over this."
"They're probably up by now. Gwen gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom every night, and she probably woke Ben up. You might want to give them a call before they start searching the city for us."
After they finished eating, Fray and Max walked back to the Rust Bucket. As expected, Gwen had woken up, seen that neither of them were there, and woken Ben. The two of them were half-dressed, getting ready to start searching just as Fray had predicted. Gwen breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the two of them, while Ben took it a little further; he ran up and hugged Fray around her waist, squeezing as tightly as he could. She patted him on the head awkwardly, as hugging wasn't something usually done between members of her species. They went back inside, where Ben starting asking where the two of them had been. Max gave them a bare-bones explanation (no need for them to know Fray had been in jail), after which Ben asked a simple yet direct question.
"How could this guy be any kind of threat? He was a joke when we ran into him earlier, right?"
"He injected himself with something. It turned him into some kind of monster. His muscles just got huge, and he could hit like a . . . truck? Is that the right word? It sounds right."
Ben decided to give Fray a little cultural lesson on trucks, but Gwen put a hand on his shoulder, deep in thought. It was coming . . . just a little more . . .
"Jekyll. The guy who was working with Janet, he said his serum accelerated muscle growth. I think it took Janet a minute to have enough muscle to walk on. Someone with regular muscles would get pretty big, even big enough to mess with Fray."
"We've got to stop him," Ben said, standing up and fingering the Omnitrix, "before someone else gets hurt."
"Ben, we should leave this up to the police. We can't just go in and attack someone like that-"
"The police aren't going to be able to fight anything that serum creates. Besides, I don't think they'd listen to anyone named 'Tennyson' right about now."
And then Fray told them about ending up in jail. By the time she had finished with her story Gwen had covered her mouth with her hands, while Ben looked like his temper was about to boil over. He stood up at once, slamming his hands down on the table in anger.
"I'm going after him. No one messes with my family and gets away with it."
Ben shoved the door open, stalking off into the early morning air. He didn't get far before a small hand grabbed him by the shoulder. He jerked out of its grip, moving with a quiet determination that would have made JT and Cash, his schoolyard bullies back home, think twice about messing with him. The hand grabbed him again and he spun around, ready to fire a retort at Gwen. When he got a look at her he saw, to his surprise, that she was carrying several of the magic items she'd stolen from Kol-Karah, including the scaly cloak, staff and Charmcaster's backpack.
"Can you at least wait for me before you try taking on the monster?"
It didn't take long for her to get ready, but it was long enough for some students taking earlier classes to be wandering the campus; Gwen, with her cloak, staff and other magical implements, attracted most of the stares, but a few noticed Ben's dead-set determination and got a little worried. Somehow they managed to not be followed all the way to the laboratory in which the experiment had taken place the previous day. Gwen cast a simple spell that unlocked the door, and they walked in ready for a fight.
Jekyll was standing at one of the worktables, carefully adjusting a device with his back to the door. He wasn't wearing a shirt, which greatly exaggerated his near-skeletal physique. He picked up the device, a pair of tanks and injection hoses attached to oversized straps, and put it on his back, though the straps were far too big for his body, hanging open across his chest. He turned around, not even the slightest bit surprised to see Ben and Gwen there. In fact, he looked like he had been waiting for them this whole time.
"Well, it's about time. I thought I'd have to send a lackey after your family before you'd come to see me."
"You did. That idiot almost killed my sister, and he did it with your stupid serum!"
"Hmmm, I thought I'd lost a few doses. Oh well, it all works out in the end. As you may or may not know, every Jekyll has a Hyde, be it mental illness, chemical addiction or something else. Most run from theirs, but I have decided to embrace mine. Perhaps you'd like to meet him?"
Both of them realized a second too late what Jekyll was planning; Ben was reaching for the Omnitrix while Gwen's hand shot for her bag of magic rocks, although both of them knew Jekyll had beaten them to the punch. He twisted the dial set in the crossing of the chest straps, and both of them saw the same nightmarish transformation Fray had witnessed last night. Jekyll clearly had access to a more pure serum than Fray's opponent had; he was easily twelve feet tall once he stopped growing, and his arm span from fingertip to fingertip was about the same. Ben had become Fourarms, but it was too little too late. Gwen's exploding stones slipped loosely through her fingers as she pulled them out, so startled was she by his new form. The newly-formed Hyde laughed and it was a rough sound, so unlike his cultured vocalizations before the transformation.
"Ah come on now luv, it can't be that bad, can it?" He looked down at himself and grinned. "Eh, maybe it can. Think fast!"
Hyde grabbed the tables that were sitting nearest him and threw them with about as much effort as tossing an apple core. Gwen's instinctive reaction was to throw her indestructible cloak in the way, but Fourarms grabbed her and dragged her aside before she could get hit.
"What are you doing? This thing-"
"Is just like Fray's shield! You'd be knocked flying, and then I'd have no backup! Hit him with your staff!"
Gwen aimed the open beak on the top of her staff at Hyde, firing off a continuous burst of energy that hit him squarely on the right arm. When she'd done that to Kol-Karah, it had eroded the flesh on his arm to dust. It didn't have nearly the same effect on Hyde; when she finally let up, his arm was still swelling back up to its mutated size.
"The Necromancer's Staff won't work! His serum rejuvenates his muscles faster than the staff destroys them!"
"I've got it! Say your prayers you-"
Ben blinked. He was . . . in his room? That wasn't right, he was supposed to be fighting Hyde with Gwen. How had he ended up here? He wasn't the only one there either. Floating over him was –
"Get up. I'm not going to help you if you're just going to lie there like a fool."
Ben was up, scooting backwards on his butt. For once Ghostfreak didn't try to fuse with him; in fact, he looked rather bored with this whole thing. Ben reached for the Omnitrix, but it was glowing bright red, timed out. Ghostfreak sighed, pinching what might have been the bridge of his nose with his impossibly long talons.
"How'd you get out? I swear if you hurt anyone-"
"I'm not out. We're in your head, waiting for Hyde to come over and finish beating us to death. Frankly, I was always hoping the big bruiser with the tentacles would be the one to finish us off, but what can you do?"
"Wha-how-?"
"In a nutshell, I'm what's left of me when you killed and absorbed me for the second time. Somehow I missed out on going back into the Omnitrix and got stuck in your brain instead. I've actually helped you before, since I die with you at this point and I've grown particularly attached to living, even in this state."
"Wait, you're the one that switched me to ThunderVolt against Mech Wrecker? How did you-?"
"Unlike you, I know quite a bit about the Omnitrix. Certain knowledge would let you and I continue living right now, if you let me finish. Simply focus on the alien you need and touch the dial wherever it's located on your body. If you do it right you'll change into that alien immediately."
"That's it? Wait, what alien do I have that can stand up to Hyde? Fourarms is the strongest-"
"You can't out-brute him, but you might be hard enough to weather his attacks if you pick the right one. Now, wake-"
"-Up Ben! Come on, we have to help Janet!"
Fourarms sat up slowly. He could barely make out anything, as he was now seeing triples. Hyde was thrashing around, swatting at something with wings and claws. Gwen was hunched over him; she kept looking at his upper left arm. He tried to move it and was almost overwhelmed by pain. When he looked at it he saw that it was at an unnatural angle at the elbow, obviously broken. He shook his head, clearing it enough to see the alien he thought Ghostfreak had been talking about in his mind. When he had the image firmly entrenched he slapped the dial on his shoulder with one of his good arms. When the green light cleared he was no longer Fourarms, but instead the indestructible Diamond Head. Gwen gasped.
"How'd you do that? No time to answer; we've got to help Janet before Hyde tears her apart."
Diamond Head pulled himself out of the large hole in the wall that had been left by his entering it in a different form, forming his hand into a crystal spike as he did so. He did even less damage to Hyde as Fray had done, as his weapon was far blunter than hers was, but it certainly got his attention; he let go of Janet's gargoyle form and took a swipe at Diamond Head. His fist simply bounced off of Diamond Head's shoulder, and he immediately turned to see what he was fighting now.
"Well now, what's all this then? They didn't tell me you could change forms like that. I'll have to demand a bonus."
"What? You're a hired gun? Who do you work for?"
But Hyde realized that he'd said too much, and instead smashed the ground with both fists. The walls of the building started coming down, and Ben grabbed Gwen to carry her out of the falling debris while Janet winged off towards her family's RV. A loud rumbling preceded the collapse of the lab, and when the dust cleared there was nothing but a pile of rubble sitting where the building had once stood. No one knew what had happened, as fortunately no innocent people had been inside during the fight, and the incident was forgotten after a few semesters, as was Doctor Jekyll.
Later that day Ben, Gwen and Fray were sitting at the table in the Rust Bucket as it headed down the road. Ben and Gwen had talked to Janet earlier and, while she was very upset that Jekyll had only been using her to test his super-strength serum, she was glad that he had been stopped before he could really take advantage of his new creation. Now the Tennysons were discussing the events of the past few days with themselves.
"So, you think he was working for someone, someone that knew a lot about you two, and he just let it slip like that?"
"That's what it seems like. I just can't figure out who would know so much about Ben's abilities aside from Vilgax, and he would never flat-out hire someone to fight him."
"He wouldn't really care about Gwen all that much, either. What," he said, since Gwen had shot him a dirty look, "Vilgax thinks you're some kind of ant or something. It's actually a good thing."
"Whatever. I'm just glad he's dead. I can't believe he just buried himself in the wreckage of the building. Why would he do something like that?"
"Maybe," Fray said, pulling a covered bowl of fried earthworms out of the fridge while Ben made a disgusted face, "he was so afraid of whoever hired him that death seemed like the easier way out. You never know, it could be true."
Jekyll approached the private jet, wheeling a suitcase behind him. All he had to do was get his money, and then it was back to England for him. He didn't have to wait long; his employer was waiting for him inside the jet. His face, painted to look like a skull, didn't intimidate Jekyll as much as he let on; he just felt it was best if his mystery employer thought he was scared of him. Jekyll set his case down and sat in the seat across from the man, who only opened his eyes once they were both seated.
"Do you have it?"
"Right here." Jekyll reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small disk. "All the video of my encounter with those little snots. Why you're interested in them I'll never know. Aside from one little surprise they seemed remarkably ordinary."
"You think they're ordinary? The Tennysons and Miss Young show great potential. I just hope you weren't pulling any punches."
"I never pull punches in a fight. You have my money?"
Hex raised a hand and an open briefcase floated up to the table between them. Sitting inside was more money than Jekyll had ever seen before in his life. He had to resist the urge to count it; ten million euros would take forever to count, at any rate. He simply took the case and closed it. Hex stood up and made to leave the plane, pausing only to leave one final warning.
"Remember, you stay out of America from now on. If you come back, we have the resources to make it very uncomfortable for you."
He didn't wait for a response, simply walking out of the plane. Jekyll didn't even bother to watch him leave, instead choosing to lean back in his chair for a nap. He didn't need to come back to America. There was plenty of work to be found in Europe. Plus, no more teaching idiots. Life was good.