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: Recently, I have had Stinkfly in a lot of my chapters…I wonder why? Guess she just fits well (or not) with other characters…
And now it is time to move the plot forward…
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In the forest laid Four Arms temporary home. He has lived there for a long time now and he still hasn't gotten bored with it. In fact, he liked it a lot better than his lifestyle when he lived like a prince on his home planet. It was lunch time, which meant that Four Arms was cooking up some soup since it was a bit chilly out. He had a small fire going and he had a pot over it, he was sitting in a large chair stirring the pot while he was listening to Stinkfly talked.
"So these guys that you sat with yesterday…" he said, "what did they call their own team?"
Stinkfly flew towards him and landed at the area near the fire, taking a quick whiff of the food, she then said, "they called themselves the Enigma Force."
"Haha…the Enigma Force…"
He kept stirring the pot and Stinkfly made small snort of impatience and said, "They're not weirdoes or freaks if that's what you're thinking! They are smart students who are very kind and are interesting!"
Four Arms laughed again and said, "I wasn't laughing at them Stinkfly! I was just laughing at the sheer idea of them calling themselves…"the Enigma Force". Of all the names they could have chosen, they picked that…"
Stinkfly paused before saying, "true…it is an unusual name…though by the way they put it…it was supposed to mean that they could solve any riddle or challenge. They had the brains and the skills to overcome any puzzle. It makes you think why our team doesn't have a name…"
Four Arms stared at the bubbling pot of soup; he then looked up and said, "It makes you think though…"
Stinkfly gave him an odd look and said, "about what?"
Four Arms shrugged and took a spoon that was nearby, as he was dipping it into his soup and taking out a small helping, he said, "well…think about it…what do they mean by riddles or puzzles? What is it all for?"
"Isn't it for the Trials that the academy gives us?"
Four Arms slurped some of the soup into his mouth and tasted it, shaking his head at both the taste and at Stinkfly's comment, he said, "no…I think it is more than just that…the Trials that we are given are more or less surviving, stamina and plus a bit of strategizing. The "Enigma Force" seems to not fit with that. I mean…look at their abilities. One of them has the ability to pick locks while another has the ability to crack safes and still a third has the ability to do great disguises. Do those sound like things one might need in the Trials?"
"No…"
"Which means…" said Four Arms continuing off of Stinkfly, "that there must be some other motive that the Enigma Force has…"
"But what?"
Four Arms shrugged and went back to stirring his soup, Stinkfly raised her head and looked at the other side of the camp to see Wildmutt chewing on something, a thought came to her and she then said, "Speaking of Trials…the next one is coming up in two weeks…"
"Yes…the Metal Trial…"
"What do you think this one will be about? I mean…all the other Trials had something to do with their element…Forest…Earth…Water…but Metal? Where can we go to fight that has something to do with Metal? A junkyard?"
"I know…"
"What is it?"
"Well…" Four Arms then dipped his spoon back into the soup to test it, he said, "the Metal Trial is different from the other Trials because…well…the scenario is different…"
"How so?"
Four Arms tasted the soup and said to himself, "almost there…"
"Four Arms! Tell me!" said Stinkfly impatiently.
Four Arms bit into his lip and said, "Well…it is like this…"
Four Arms let got of the spoon and leaned back in his chair, both pairs of his arms were grasped in a relax position.
"So…the Academy divides all their students up into teams right?"
"…right…"
"And those teams range from about nine to fourteen students each okay?"
"…okay…"
"So…this is how it works…two teams are randomly selected and have to fight each other. But, not everyone fights…five students are randomly picked from their team and have to fight the opposing team who also have five students that are randomly picked. The way it works is that each of these students fights one other student and the winner is the person who is the one not thrown out of the arena or fainted due to exhaustion. The team who wins is the team who has won at least 3 of the 5 fights. The team that loses, goes home packing. For example, if Team Alpha and Team Beta fought each other than student Alpha 1 will fight Beta 1 and so forth…"
"What?!" said Stinkfly who was shocked at what Four Arms was saying.
"I know I was surprised too," said Four Arms.
"But…but…what does that have to do with metal?"
"The way I hear it is that the "Metal" is more or less an analogy to war. War can be fought a number of different ways, from swords and shields, to bullets and bombs, they are what helps us kill things easier. These weapons are all made of metal that has been mined from the earth or made in factories. It is these weapons that have clashed with other weapons for thousands and thousands of years. And in most cases, the winner is the one who has the better weapons. Weapons fighting weapons are, in a sense, metals fighting metals, or in this case…students fighting students…and the team who wins…is the team who has the better students…"
"So the student is the weapon…" said Stinkfly whose brain was all in a twist from this.
"Exactly, kind of a grim outlook if you ask me…"
Four Arms tasted the soup again and said, "Ah! It is done! Stinkfly, hand that bowl over there."
Stinkfly handed him a bowl which was on the ground, Four Arms took it and with a large ladle, poured the soup into the bowl. He handed it to Stinkfly who took it, Four Arms took another bowl and poured it with the soup.
"Eat up," he said.
Stinkfly took her spoon and began to slurp up the soup. She smiled in delight at how good the soup was. Not only was Four Arms a good doctor, he was a good cook. It was a pleasant mix.
Just then, Wildmutt walked up to her, in his mouth was what appeared to be an empty bottle. He walked up to her and opened his mouth, the bottle fell to the ground and rolled to Stinkfly's feet. She looked at the bottle with a surprised look.
"What's this Wildmutt?" she said as if she was expecting for the animal to talk.
"Oh, that," said Four Arms who was eating his soup heartily, "Wildmutt and I have been playing fetch with that bottle for about two weeks now. He seems rather oddly attached to it. I don't know why, of all the things to play fetch with he chose a bottle. Weird."
Four Arms went right back to eating, Stinkfly however kept staring at the bottle.
"Four Arms…" she said, "there's a note in it!"
"What? Wildmutt! Why didn't you tell me there was a note inside of the bottle?"
In response to this, Wildmutt growled angrily at his master and barked at him out of frustration.
Stinkfly picked up the bottle and took off the lid. As she was reading her eyes got bigger and her mouth dropped open, when she was done, she said, "Four Arms! It's Ripjaws! She's in trouble!"
"Trouble? How?"
"It says here that Cuttooth has imprisoned her within the lake. She says that he had thrown away the Water Orb which gives her the strength to live on land and now she is trapped in the lake!"
"Great Scott!" said Four Arms who quickly got up, "we got to help her!"
"Yes!" said Stinkfly who has now forgotten about eating her soup, "but how? The lake is deeper than it looks and the water orb could be anywhere!"
Four Arms had that look of sheer concentration on his face again, he said, "we must assemble the team together! We must rescue Ripjaws!"
"Tonight!" said Stinkfly.
Four Arms nodded at her comment, "Yes…tonight."