Note: first fanfic, will improve as I go along, I have been a gamemaster on my past RP site so the action should be good, and I do not own Ben 10 or anything that is remotely like Ben 10.

AUTHOR'S NOTE OF GLORY: It was earlier asked about why Heatblast keeps his bet to DCELR8 since DCELR8 is dead. Well, Heatblast is the kind of person who always keeps to his word, even though he is a pervert, he has a sense of honor, pride and trust that makes him a great…er…man. This brings up an important item of information. Little things that the characters do in the story signify who they are. It is your job to make the assumptions about who they really are.

By the way…I'm slightly busy right now so the stories are going to come in slower.

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"Daddy! Daddy!"

DSEL turned around to find that his daughter, XLR8, was running towards him.

"Yesss, dear what isss it?"

XLR8 ran up to DSEL and gave him a big hug around the leg. Though small for her age, she can give quite powerful hugs.

"I finally decided what I wanted to be when I grow up!"

"Oh really? Now, what would that be?"

"To be a legendary hero! I want to protect innocent and defeat the evil bad guysss! I want to be ssstrong like you are!"

DSEL closed his eyes and smiled.

"That'ssss great dear. Too bad you weren't able to sssave me from my death."

"What?"

Suddenly, XLR8 founded herself surrounded by black water. The water seemed to ebb and flow in a creepy way. XLR8 was looking at the water with anxiety.

"…Daddy? Where are you? Daddy! I'm sssscared!"

Just then, a large tentacle broke the surface of the water and headed towards XLR8. XLR8 saw the tentacle and screamed, she tried to get away but the tentacle grabbed her leg and started pulling her in. Soon, more tentacles sprung out of the water and started to wrap themselves around XLR8. XLR8 screamed as she was slowly pulled into the dark, murky waters.

Not strong enough…

"NO!"

XLR8 shot out of her bed and fell to the ground. She screamed as the bed sheet started to wrap itself around XLR8. The more she flung her limbs and tail, the more entangled she got…also the louder she got. Finally, after much fighting, she was able to pull off the sheet and throw it against the wall. Her breathing became less heavier when she realized that it was just her blanket.

"God damn blanket," she said, "I wonder what today isss?"

Her head swiveled to the calendar on her wall. Her eyes pinned to the 22nd of the month. Circled around it was a big, red mark with the words: WATER TRIAL.

"Oh shit," she said.

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The small bus that carried XLR8, Upgrade, Gray Matter, Four Arms and Wildmutt to the mountain was once again taking them somewhere. This time, it was the beach. Unlike last time when he was depressed, Gray Matter was as happy as he could possibly be. Jumping around the bus, he started screaming, "YEAH! We are finally going to see our team!"

Upgrade was in the same mood as Gray Matter was, several times, he talked to the bus driver if he could merge with the bus and make it go faster.

"No," said the driver.

"Please!" said Upgrade in a pleading manner.

"I said no! Now sit down you damn teenager!"

Four Arms laughed, "Your not a least bit worried about the Water Trial aren't you Upgrade?"

"Nope!"

Upgrade jumped several seats and sat next to Four Arms.

"Who do you suppose will be on our team? In fact, who do you want to be on our team?"

Four Arms thought for a moment and said, "Stinkfly."

"Stinkfly? The Fly?"

"Yes."

"Why do you want her?"

"Well, rumor has it that she has been training ever since she hatched out of her cocoon. So she should be a good fighter. Also, she can fly and spray different kinds of acids and poisons. Very handy if we need long range projectiles or we need to sabotage a machine."

"Hm. Good point," said Upgrade.

Still bouncing around the small bus, Gray Matter was screaming, "WE'RE GOING TO ROCK SOOOOO HARD! YES! YES! YES! YES!"

"SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP YOU GODDAMN FROG!" yelled the bus driver.

Gray Matter sat down.

Meanwhile, at the back of the bus, XLR8 was sitting in her plush seat, looking outside through the window. Ever since she arrived to the bus stop, she hasn't said a word to any of the guys which was fine by them. Her tail was twitching, a sure sign that she was nervous. In fact, the closer they got to the beach, the harder it twitched.

Wildmutt sneezed.

After an hour of traveling and impatience, the bus finally stopped at the side of the road. The salty, sea air could be smelled as it wafted into the bus. The sound of the crashing sea waves could be heard from the distance. The bus driver turned around and said, "Get out."

The five travelers slowly got up and walked to the front of the bus. Upgrade, with Gray Matter on his shoulder, got down first followed by Four Arms, then Wildmutt, and finally, XLR8.

As they walked down the large hill to the beach, it occurred to Four Arms that XLR8 hasn't spoken yet. He slowed down his walk so that he was side by side with XLR8.

"Anything the matter XLR8?"

XLR8 shook her head.

But Four Arms could tell that XLR8 was not okay, in all his years of being near her, he could tell whether she was alright or not. Her tail was twitching and her face was as pale as the ocean. Something was bothering her. Was she nervous about the Trial? Strange, she wasn't nervous for the other two trials…maybe this was different.

Four Arms looked at the ocean, the waves were doing their steady pulses of ebbing and flowing as little sea creatures crawled across the beach. When he saw the sea he finally remembered that XLR8 had Hydrophobia, which was why she was getting nervous. It wasn't the fear of losing the Trial, it was her fear of dying.

Feeling a great deal of sadness within him, Four Arms stopped walking and bent down to give XLR8 a hug. When he delivered this hug, XLR8 suddenly looked like she was about to throw up.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" she yelled.

"I'm giving you a hug," said Four Arms who was still embracing her.

"GET…OFF…OF…ME…RIGHT…NOW!"

XLR8 squirmed out of Four Arms grasp and kicked him hard in the stomach. Four Arms let out a gasp of agony and fell to the sandy ground while clutching his stomach. XLR8 looked at him and said, "NEVER…touch me again!"

She then purposely walked on top of him and kept going straight to the transportation boat.

Actually, for awhile, XLR8 forgot about her fear of water, however when she saw the boat, it came back to her.

The boat was made out of wood, it was old and had moss growing all over it. It wasn't very big and it looked sort of rickety. Written on the side of the boat in a fading black color was the word "Miss. Princeton." Standing right by the boat was a pot-bellied old alien with a sailor cap on him. He took his pipe out of his mouth and said, "So you're the students eh? Well, I'm your Captain, Captain Foofoobender they call me, though I don't know why since my name is real name is Frank."

Captain Foofoobender took off his cap and started scratching his bald head with his hand. While still scratching it, he said to himself, "why do they call me that?"

He placed his cap on his head and resumed his talking, "anyways…I'm here to take you to your island. There, on that island, is where you shall meet your team and capture the flag."

Captain Foofoobender took out his pipe and blew some smoke rings.

"Ah, the good ol' days when I was young. I was quite a hotty too. All the girls loved me, back then the girls were interested in sailors who live their lives dangerously…"

Captain Foofoobender had the look on his face that his mind was no where here. Gray Matter quickly roped it back.

"Uh…sir? Can we please get going?"

"Huh? Oh right! Hop aboard!"

"Hop" wasn't exactly the word that the five aliens didn't use. Carefully, each of them grabbed onto the side of the boat and started to climb in. The boat creaked dangerously as one by one, each of them got on. The captain, pushed the boat out to the sea, jumped onto the back end of it and started the gasoline-powered engine.

XLR8 sat in the middle.