Sorry the last one was so short. I couldn't think of anything else to add between the start and the point where I wanted to stop. I'm hoping to make this one longer and more enjoyable.

ooo

"What is it, Ben?" she groaned quietly. "Did someone die? Are you hungry?" She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. "What's so important that you had to wake me up for?"

I stood up off of the cot, pulling her Plumber's badge out of my pocket. "Turn around."

She raised a brow, but followed my request, pulling her legs back up onto the cot as she turned around. "What's this all about?" she yawned.

I gathered the silver hair that hung behind her, laying it just over her shoulder and out of the way of her neck. I draped the necklace around her neck and tied the leather together again. She'd taken it off yesterday to 'hypnotize' me, though it failed. She never put it back on.

Rika giggled. "Oh, thank you. Was that all, Ben, 'cause it surely didn't seem worth waking me up. I'm still tired…"

I sighed, sitting on the cot next to her.

"Something wrong, Alien Boy?"

"We have to get out of here. I don't care about your morals or how 'stupid' it is, but you need to get this thing off of me."

Rika took in a sharp breath. "Ben Tennyson! What's gotten into you?" She turned around, her feet hitting the floor.

I closed my eyes. "A lot… Just please… get the stasis shield off of me."

Rika gently took my hand. "Ben… think rationally… How are you going to get out of here? The guards are easy to take down, sure. But what about after? How do you get home? Hi-jack a ship? Jaoks Deiva vuoksi, Ben. You may get home, but you're going to be on the run for the rest of your life!"

Rika stood up. "If you're going to break out of here, you better think fast. I'm not going to help you for long."

I stood up as well, following Rika as she approach the barrier. "Rika, what are—"

Rika stood on her toes and kissed me, then placed her hand through the barrier. When I didn't respond, her smile fell flat. "What…? Is that not what you do when you're afraid that someone you care about won't make it through the battle?"

A half-confused, half-dazed smile grew on my face, and I laughed quietly in disbelief.

Rika smiled brightly. "We can do it, Alien Boy." She placed her fingers on her Plumber's badge, acting surprised when it started beeping. "Oops…," she giggled. "Looks like help's on the way…"

Then, she walked through the barrier, looking for a guard. Before walking off, she looked back towards me and winked before running off to start a disturbance. "Hey jackass…!" I could hear her yell.

I laughed. How was I going to get out? Rika could help me, but she was off distracting the guards… Then something caught my eyes. The Omnitrix… Rika had taken off the stasis shield, the disrupter sitting on the bed exerting sparks of sorts.

I smiled. She was serious about breaking out of here… So what happened to all the 'think rationally' and 'what are you getting yourself into' mindset? Then again, what happened to 'it's not worth it'? I shouldn't be asking these questions… I know exactly what happened.

Rika.

Without a second thought, I activated the Omnitrix. By then, alarms were blaring from every direction. We were really breaking out of here… Who could get out of here? Who could get through the barrier? Big Chill was my first thought, but I'd seen one of his species locked up here too. Then again, he was immobilized, so he couldn't slip through the barrier, or even the restraints.

Big Chill it is.

"One… Two…," I muttered, then pressed back down the faceplate. Before I could even exhale my last breath, it turned to ice, cold and frigid compared to the warm jail atmosphere.

I had no time to think. I had to get moving. "Rika," I muttered through a cold, raspy voice. I reached a hand out toward the barrier, my hand—along with the rest of my body—turning translucent. It was almost stunning how easily slipped through the barrier.

I sighed. I was free from the cell. Though, it wasn't but a moment before I was spotted, as all the guards were on high alert.

"YOU! Get back in your cell!" one screamed at me, threatening me with his gun.

Who could help in this situation? Big Chill got me through the barrier, but Swampfire would be a better solution to fighting off the guards. Disappearing every two seconds to avoid bullets and shots would exhaust the Omnitrix, but too many quick changes would as well. Swampfire could handle the shots fired at him without using much power, and he could defend himself, if only with his smell.

One quick change later and I was already feeling the effects. I was almost glad Swampfire had no nose. I smiled. "Who wants some?!" I egged on the guards, who only came running that much faster now that they knew who they were dealing with.

"Back down slowly and all you'll get is two weeks in solitary lock-up!" one of the guards shouted, a group surrounding my front.

I held up my hands, trying to think. What could I do now?

Someone bumped into me, followed by a loud scream and someone's fist punching right through where my gut was supposed to be. Looking down, the hand was blue-ish, covered in goo.

A quiet giggle. "Sorry, Alien Boy… I should've known you were there with that hirveä stench!" She pulled her hand back trough and walked around. "Oohhh… didn't notice we had company… Paistab agradar pitää tiefem sranje…" She walked back around, her back against mine. "More over here, too…"

"We are not in deep shit!" I growled. "Look, just let me take care of it."

"You…. understood me?"

"Not the point! Can we get back to escaping here?" Though I wouldn't have thought Swampfire would have the ability to understand her… Maybe Brainstorm, but not Swampfire…

One of the guards cleared their throat, another questioned if we had surrendered.

"I've got an idea," I whispered to her.

"Cik daudz laika man ir?"

"You've got about ten seconds. On my mark… run. They all can't follow us both."

"Uh… Ben… I can't exactly run. Have you noticed that we're kinda surrounded…?" she laughed nervously.

"You got any ideas?"

"Yeah. Close your eyes!" Rika searched for what was supposed to be my hand, grasping it tightly. In an instant, the world around us disappeared, a light engulfing the guards. The light grew too bright, so I obeyed Rika's orders and shut my eyes. When the bright light disappeared, I found myself in the cockpit of a large starship.

The Omnitrix deactivated at my will, giving me a slightly less stagnant (and definitely less rank) view of the ship. "Our getaway car?"

"If… you could call it a 'car,'" she laughed, still holding onto my hand. "I'll be right back. I have one last thing to take care of."

I was still in shock that Rika could do something like that. Where were we? Were we still in the prison? I'd imagine so… but couldn't she just transport us to Earth, then? Maybe not…

There was a loud shriek—one that didn't seem to come from Rika this time—before Rika came running in with something green in her hand.

"What is that?!"

"Oh this?" she giggled, holding up what seemed to be a disembodied hand and part of a forearm. She giggled again. "It's a hand."

"Yes, I've established that. Why on Earth would you disembody a hand?"

She smiled, walking up to the controls. "You need a handprint to activate the starships, torraï. Duh."

I rolled my eyes. "We better get out of here before the other guards realize where we went."

Rika laughed. "Don't worry, they won't. Most of them are dead now."

Uhm… This is one morbid side of Rika I'd wished I never knew. Rika may have many personalities—including flirty, snobbish, annoying, and clueless, all sitting in as personalities of their own—but this side of her was just… It sure weighed down the scale compared to the others.

"Ben, don't look so horrified," she laughed. "I didn't kill them, you did."

Did that mean I wasn't transported here, but merely possessed? Taken over in a time of need? Or was it an overtake of will with no memories between Rika holding my hand and the time I opened my eyes in the cockpit?

"Rika, you've become too confusing for me," I sighed, sitting down in what seemed like the co-pilot's chair, Rika having taken command of the ship.

One by one, she placed the fingers of the dead hand on a scanner and the ship set off, coordinates locked in by Rika.

"Hey, isn't that how women are supposed to be in the eyes of men? Unexplainable, not understandable…"

"Yeah, but you're not even human. That's what gets me."

"No. I'm not human. I'm Rika." She smiled, glancing over at me from the pilot's chair. "So, how'd you like your stay at intergalactic jail, Tennyson?" she asked.

I hummed, going along with it. "It was nice. Shorter than expected, but nice. I had two square meals a day, shared by some blue monster that broke into my room every now and then… a somewhat less-than comfortable cot which I shared with that same blue monster from time to time…"

"Hey, I'm no monster," Rika growled.

"Who said I was talking about you?" I laughed. "Your skin is more of a pale-tan-blue-green kind of thing."

"Shut up, Alien Boy, before your dig your grave any deeper."

"All right, all right, but hey, you asked."

She smiled. "Indeed I did."

"So…," I cleared my throat, looking out at the passing stars. "What was that little thing back there, anyway?"

"I thought flights were supposed to be quiet," she mumbled.

"I'm serious, Rika."

"I thought you were going to die, Ben. Or… or get locked up for life in a cell I couldn't break into."

I stifled back a laugh, but failed miserably. "It was a kiss. Trust me, there are a lot of worse things you could've done, especially if you're regretting something as small as a kiss. I mean, damn…"

Rika shouted a few sentences—or what seemed like sentences—at me in her native language before slinking back in her chair, her arms folded across her chest. "Who said I regretted it?" she mumbled quietly.

If it wasn't for the ringing in my ears, I might've believed her. "What?" I asked, laughing. "Look, it was a kiss. Live on Earth for a few months and you'll understand why something like that is insignificant."

Rika sniffed in, hiding in her chair.

I was trying to pass it off like it was nothing. Like it didn't matter. Friends kiss friends. I mean, guy friends between girl friends. They mean nothing. At that moment, I took it for something else. Now, I was thinking more about home, and how insignificant something like that was back home. Then again, if I was younger it meant something. Now that I'm older…

"See, now you're mad."

"Piss off."

"I knew it," I sighed.

"What'd you expect? Hey… how many girls have ever really cared about you?" she asked, a devious smile on her face.

Oh no. Revenge…

I cringed. "Do you want the truth or something I would tell my friends to keep them off my back?"

She smiled.

"All right, all right. Julie was my first real girlfriend. After I broke up with her… I was afraid to get with anyone else. If I didn't want Julie to get hurt amidst all the battles and chaos, what makes you think I would want any other girl to get hurt, or even killed?"

Her smile grew. "You didn't have the stones to ask anyone else, did you?"

"Did too!" I retorted. "Hell, there's been a handful."

Rika raised an eyebrow. "Minus your mother, your cousin, and any other family, Alien Boy."

"I wouldn't ask out my cousin or my mother, that's just wrong, Rika."

Rika shrugged. "I've heard stories, you can't blame me."

"If you said we were related, I would run for my life."

She laughed. "Oh! So you're implying you're interested in me!"

I looked to the far side of the window, then straight ahead, focusing on Rika out of the corner of my eye.

"I knew it! See, see, I'm a good judge of character!" she smiled proudly.

"Judge of character? You can barely keep your own personalities in line!"

"I resent that!" she growled. "I'm just… spontaneous!"

"Sounds more like PMS to me." I crossed my arms.

Rika sat up straight in her chair, swiveling it around to face my chair.

"You're a girl, I forgot. Let's run through the list, shall we?" I smiled, turning my chair to face her too. "Since we've boarded the ship, you've run through these moods… or personalities, I'm not sure. Smartass, morbid, clueless, anger, vengeful, then more anger. My guess is if you cycle around, your next mood will either be flirty or… plain old confusing."

"So now I'm predictable!"

I smiled.

"Arriving near the planet Earth," the onboard auto-pilot announced.

Rika and I both quickly spun our chairs around, ignoring each other until Rika made a move.

She grasped her Plumber's badge and pulled it from her neck, the leather strap snapping near the knot. "Here. Your friends are waiting at the coordinates listed here."

"What, you're not coming with me?"

She didn't answer.

"Damn it, don't be immature. You act like I do when I was ten…"

"I'll only come with you on one condition."

"And what would that be?" I asked her, standing up from my chair to take the badge from her.

She stood up, draping her arms over my shoulders. "You stop being so stupid and let me be Rika."

I rolled my eyes. "You almost had me scared, there."

"The Great Ten? Scared? Oh, now that's a sight to see."

"Actually, here on Earth… you might be the sight."

Rika let her arms fall to her side. "Is that some kind of perverted remark?"

I shook my head. "No, no… I mean, blue skin? Pointed ears? You look like something out of a fairytale book. I don't think you should be parading around outside in broad daylight… Who knows who might see you and if they'd alert the authorities."

"You're implying that I'm coming with you."

"I'm also implying that I'm going to stop being stupid."

She smiled. "So it seems."

I dropped her badge in my pocket, then reached a hand up to scratch at my scalp.

"Okay, maybe not entirely. You're still human. A human can only be so smart, or modest for that matter."

I laughed. "Modest? Look at what you're wearing."

"Look at what you're wearing! It's… ugly!"

I laughed even harder now. "If you take away the elfin features, you look like a hooker."

"Just shut up, Ben, before you dig any deeper." She sat down in her chair, looking up at me. "Either be Ben, or be human. You can't be both."

As confusing as that statement was, I decided not to argue with her any further. It was pointless and we just kept going in circles. Plus, it wasn't exactly helping my case. I'd just gotten out of intergalactic prison. If I pissed her off, she could turn the ship around and dump me off on the prison and leave.

That would be tragic. Not to mention I would never see her again, if I even lived to see tomorrow.

The ship gently touched down on the surface of Earth, and I finally felt at home. I was safe… until the guards came after me. Then again, I had back up now, and I wouldn't go so easily this time.

"Welcome home, Alien Boy," Rika said melodically.

ooo

Sorry, I think this one was a little confusing too, but I was venting, and not just for the characters. It was pent up anger I needed to get out and I did it. So the next chapter will be a little more emotional, though it may not be as long and hopefully won't be near as confusing.