Breaking Point Rebooted

by shadows59

With Vilgax gone, the watch off, and their heroing days behind them Ben and Gwen's only worry should be their new relationship, but the world hasn't stopped and the people who threaten it are closing in. It was never over. Sequel to Little Moments Rebooted. Bwen

11. Chapter 11: Hell Week

Chapter 11: Hell Week

Bellwood, California

Sunday, November 19th, 2000

2:24 PM.

"Hey!" Ben bellowed as he was pelted with chunks of concrete the size of his fist.

Not his human fists either. They were the size of his fists right now and they all hurt, but he didn't let that slow him down. He just narrowed his eyes and charged right through the hailstorm as he bent low, his fingers scraping pavement until he found the metal he was looking for. "Get back here! I've made a promise and you're the bozos I'm collecting it on!"

Some of the bozos.

They were definitely finding butts that needed kicking, but Ben hated the fact that they were all the wrong butts. The aliens, whoever they were and wherever they were holed up, they'd pretty well 'gone to ground' as Grandpa used to say. Laying low and not running around blowing stuff up. Ben would have preferred it if they were.

Instead, here he was, Sunday afternoon, duking it out with a bunch of lowlifes who'd thought to try and take advantage of how distracted the police and the army and everyone was to hit up every outside ATM they could for a quick score. They'd knocked over two and were working on the third in the parking lot of a strip mall on the west side of town by the time Ben caught up with them. Considering his mood, it would have been overkill even if he hadn't had his Dweeb and Alan with him.

Overkill aside from the small - kind of a big deal - detail that the bandits were using laser guns. Not as strong as what was still tucked away on the New Rustbucket, but definitely stronger than the local cops were used to dealing with.

"Keep shooting!" One of the thugs screamed through his cut-up ski mask, blowing holes in the side of the burning police car that the two officers were hunkered down behind, along with Gwen. She'd conjured up a shield to keep the shots and the fire from the wreck from hurting them, and if the police were startled at the sight of a teenage girl in a dark purple mask, a white pullover hoodie, and blue jeans whipping up pink energy walls to save them, they were more afraid of the morons firing wild shots in every direction.

At any other time, this would have been fun. And impossible if he was still just himself, but he wasn't.

Transformed into Fourarms, Ben scooped up a second manhole cover just like he always imagined doing. Like it was nothing. In his two pairs of hands they were great makeshift shields as he ran towards the bandits full tilt. The two in the back of the getaway car panicked as he approached and switched their aim at him. Good. "That's right, shoot at the big angry red alien barreling at you like a freight train!" Ben snarled at them, using the keen eyesight of his Tetramand's two pairs of peepers to gauge their aim and snap the heavy wrought iron discs into place just in time to absorb the hits. Grimacing when they started to heat up, Ben leapt into the air and hurled one of the manhole lids down like a death Frisbee, caving in the car's trunk and causing the entire rear frame of the vehicle to buckle. Even the rear windshield fell apart in a shower of glass from the hit. Fourarms came down with a heavy thud in something close to a three-point landing, cracking the blacktop under his feet.

"Go, go, GO!" One of them screamed out, and the car peeled out of the parking lot, heading for the road.

"Ah, hell, don't run. I hate it when they run." Ben groaned. Before they were just shooting at police. Now they had to worry about these guys hurting other people in a car accident or worse. He snuck a glance behind him to make sure Gwen was all right - she was, the shield was down and she was talking to the police - then he took off in a leap after the car, which was already turning out of the lot and gunning its engine.

The beat-up red four-door they were driving swerved once the driver realized Fourarms was chasing after them, but there wasn't a lot of traffic at least. That was nothing short of a miracle for this time of day, so the red car kept swerving in and around traffic without hitting anyone and it was just empty enough for the robbers to get away with it. And every so often one of them would stick their head out of the broken window and pop off a few shots towards Ben. And he couldn't dodge, he didn't dare risk it. Not when it meant someone behind him might get hit instead. So he used his remaining manhole cover to block some, and he tanked the rest with his forearms. The shots hurt but they weren't enough to drop him. His arms weren't feeling too great, though.

He was just lucky that they were always red when he was in this form, and that he had four of them.

Right as he was beginning to think that he was in trouble, a pink bubble shield appeared around him and took the hits. It cracked under the impact but didn't break, and he chuckled as Gwen appeared beside him, riding a glowing magic disc to keep up with his running speed.

"These guys are gonna hurt somebody!" Ben shouted out over the wind and the honking of panicked cars that they passed by. "And I can't get close enough to them to rip the wheels out from underneath them. Got any ideas?"

"Nothing that wouldn't put them all in traction!" Gwen shouted back, flinching as the rate of fire increased. The pair were momentarily distracted when a sound like a blowtorch screamed closer, and the rocketing form of Alan in Heatblast form shot down from the skyline, stopping just above them and matching their speed.

"I could nail 'em with a fireball but that'd make the gas tank go off!" Alan called out. Ben thought it over, staring at the road ahead of them and the landmarks nearby. There was a lawn and garden superstore coming up with a parking lot full of Christmas trees, metal fence pieces, and camping supplies. If they could turn the car into the parking lot all of that might slow them down. But how to get them to move off the road…

Ah. Yeah, that'd do it. "Lay down some fire, light up the road ahead of them!" Ben ordered Alan. "We'll keep them distracted, make it so they're forced to turn off into that parking lot!"

"On it!" Alan said, shooting straight up in a blaze.

"Gwen? Stay behind me. Keep that shield up until the last second!" She didn't waste her breath on answering, she just moved her disc until she was flying behind the bulk of Fourarms and then jumped onto his back, clinging onto him like she'd done so many times before. Using his lower two arms to brace her, Ben lunged ahead and quickly picked up speed. The thieves tried shooting faster, but Gwen reinforced the shield until the brilliant pink of it darkened and started to burn purple. He could feel her intent as her hands dug into the fabric on the back of his shirt. Nobody was going to hurt them. Nobody.

With one lunge after another, Ben closed the distance between them and the fleeing car full of gunmen, weaving and putting himself and Gwen's magic between as many wild shots and the rest of the world as they could. A flicker of light from up high cued him into Alan coming in for his attack run.

"Don't hit the cars, don't hit the cars…" He said under his breath, hoping that Alan didn't cause a forest fire-sized blast. He didn't, but the fire line that Alan laid down was a lot rougher than Ben would have done, and would probably linger a little longer. And melt the asphalt enough to keep the fire going a bit before the fire department showed up. It got the job done, though.

The panicked robbers swerved to the right and pulled into the parking lot just as Ben had hoped. He angled himself and lunged across the divider, and a second leap took him close enough to the car to muster a shoulder tackle before they could respond. With the force of a wrecking ball, he smashed the right rear end of the car and sent it spinning out of control. A hastily summoned shield in the shape of a ramp by Gwen had it flying through the air. It went on its side, tumbled into the mess of Christmas trees not fully unpacked, and finally came to a stop when friction and the tree trunk shoved through its ruined front axle made it collide with a pallet of bagged charcoal briquettes.

"Not our best work," Gwen murmured as she dropped off his back.

"Not our worst either," Ben told her, marching up to the wrecked car full of groaning robbers.

Alan came down for a landing, rising up on his feet with his hands extended and the fire burning eye-wateringly bright from the top of his head like the gnarliest hair ever. "Are they more aliens?" He demanded.

"Only one way to find out," Ben said as he reached out. The car let out one more shriek as he yanked the door off of the warped and twisted frame, but that was so much less annoying than the sound the dirtbag inside made when he yanked him out by the ankle and dangled him high over his head. It was a noise that got so much louder as Ben grabbed for the mask he had on.

Which was just a ski mask.

Maybe if the guy stopped screaming right then, Ben wouldn't have lifted him higher so he could look the upside-down man right in the eye. Maybe if he didn't hear the clock ticking in his head, he wouldn't have bellowed quite so loud in the man's face, but he did. "Where did you bozos score gear this good?"

"Se - Seattle!" The thief stammered out, his eyes wide and his hands shaking too hard to even wipe the spots of spit away that hit his face. "From a rat called - !"

Ben heard the words. Heard them, and saw the world go red. "Liar! You stole these from Max Tennyson, didn't you?! Where is he?!"

"Who - ?" The man gasped, all the fight gone. "I don't even… Please don't kill us!"

"Ben…" A voice called out from behind him. A voice that came with a gloved hand that was so small, but just the feel of it against the shirt on his back made him suck in a breath.

A hot one, as Alan's flames flared into a bonfire. He didn't say anything, and that was almost worse.

"They don't know anything," Ben told them both as he dropped the robber. The man rolled as he fell and hit the ground hard, but not hard enough that he wasn't scrambling back to his feet the second he could. Scrambling and running, his eyes still on Ben, and Ben watched the thief make it a whole ten feet before he dashed headfirst into a violet wall that appeared out of nowhere. After that, when the dirtbag was down on the ground and groaning like the rest of his friends he finished. "They're just regular dirtbags."

"Damnit." Alan bit out as he spun away, his flames flaring like he was about to go supernova, but he only made it a few steps before he paused and started sniffing the air. "You smell that?"

"...The pine needles?" Gwen asked. Alan shook his head and walked around to the front of the totaled car, before reaching down and picking up one of the charcoal briquettes that had flown off of the last barrier they'd hit. After staring at it for a while, Alan took a bite out of it and chewed thoughtfully before reaching for another handful.

"You're eating charcoal?" Gwen asked.

"Tastesh good." Alan defended himself, munching away. "N' I wash hungry."

"Don't talk when your mouth is full," Ben grumbled, and then off of the look he got. "What?"

"Nothing," Gwen said as she squinted up at him, and then her gaze took in their new helper, too, as Alan went on grazing away like he'd found a bag of hot fries before she sighed, "Three days. That's how long it'll be before I'm judging a burping contest. Again."

"Hey! I'm not - " Ben started to protest. Started, until he saw his Dweeb's lips twitch up in the closest thing to a smile that he'd seen on her face since Friday. And he knew why. It wasn't like he'd forget that day with Grandpa. Or who actually won that contest. Best day ever. " - going home without finding another bag today."

"Bring it," Alan snorted as he lifted a torn bag and poured what was left into his mouth in a challenge that made Ben wish Grandpa was here. The Master.

The thought lasted until he heard the distant howl of sirens getting closer and then he sighed. "My timer's about to go off. Let's get out of here before the cops show up. Those other two all right, Gwen?"

"They were shaken up, but unhurt." She said as she gave the car one more look. They could hear some sirens coming closer now. "Alan? Time to move."

"Right." The Heatblast shoved the last of his charcoal bits in his mouth and chewed faster than before, swallowing down the mess in a heavy lump. "See you back at the ranch." He took off like a rocket, sailing up into the sky before veering off at a low altitude for their prearranged meeting point on the outskirts of a nearby park.

He watched Alan, but he could feel the eyes on him, and he didn't mean the two morons who were still shaking in the car. "Two days…"

"I know. Just try to think of everyone that we've helped," Gwen told him, pulling at his hand as the sirens got closer. "Now come on, Doofus." She said, without any heat in her voice. "We need to go."

He let out a sigh and held her in his arms, making one massive leap after another to take them away from the defeated robbers and the approaching police.

Saturday had been a bust. Today wasn't looking much better, but they had to be getting close.

…Right?

- o - o - Frank - o - o -

Gwen Tennyson's House

Monday, November 20th

6:43 AM.

Ordinarily, Frank Tennyson would either be finishing up paperwork for the day's business or at the office already. His demanding schedule as the oldest junior partner aiming for seniority didn't allow him the time to come in at 9 like the men whose names were on the sign could.

Of course, most of those days weren't right after the army closed half of the roads in town for some drill. If the news was anything to go by, traffic was already a nightmare. So he didn't feel too bad about taking his time today. Not if it meant that he could spend a bit more time enjoying his shower. Or have a real breakfast with his two favorite girls…

"- fine, mom."

The words caught him just as he came down the stairs and for a second Frank almost went right back up them because he'd heard that tone of annoyed distraction before from three different generations of Larrson women.

But he was a Tennyson, so he braved the next few steps anyway. And when he turned the corner, he knew that Aunt Vera was right. The men in their family had a severe lack of sense. And more courage than they knew what to do with.

Which was the only thing that made him ask, "Is everything alright?" When he saw his Lily Pad standing over their daughter with her arms crossed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Their daughter, who had taken over the whole dining table with her books and notes with a little section off by her elbow for a plate of toast and eggs that she hadn't touched and a cup of what Frank could tell was probably once coffee.

The first was barely touched and the other was empty and it wasn't the order he wished it was. Not when he saw how tired his Pumpkin looked as she pulled a book over. It was even a book he knew, though he didn't have more than a moment to wonder why his daughter was so frantically flipping through his old copy of the Tao of Pooh before Natalie jumped at the sound of his voice and let out a relieved "Frank!" as she rushed over and mouthed help.

"She's been at it all morning?" Frank asked as she fell into his arms, his eyes still on his daughter. His daughter, who didn't even flinch even though he knew she heard him no matter how softly he whispered.

"At least," Natalie told him. She didn't lower her voice, and the worry was clear in it as she looked back over her shoulder at the girl who was scowling now as she crossed something out of her notebook. "She was already down here when I got up. I know that she has a math test today, but…"

But Math was one of their daughter's best subjects, Frank knew that much. And if she was worried about a test… "Then why - ?" Then he blinked as Gwen grabbed the same book she'd had a minute ago, the one that he was so sure was his, and saw the formulas inside it instead. He almost asked if there was any coffee left.

Almost, but this wasn't a time for joking. Not when they'd seen their Pumpkin like this before. And he knew why. Damn it, Dad.

"You have to talk to her, Frank." So did Natalie, who was worrying at her lip as she turned back to him, her dark blue eyes wide with the words she couldn't say even though they hurt her so much. She won't say a word to me.

Frank just nodded and he didn't know what was better. The relief that flooded his wife's eyes or the little kiss that he got. One that always felt like magic and he hated tossing water on, but the clock… "I've got a minute."

"You've got longer than that," Natalie told him, her smile fading. "She needs a ride to school."

Frank raised an eyebrow at that. "But I thought that Nadia…"

"Michelle's sick," Natalie said in the kind of voice that would have sent ice up Frank's back if they'd been in a courtroom and here, too, after what he'd heard about Friday. From Sandra in bits over the phone and more the next day.

Not from Gwen. Not a word from his daughter who was working with the same manic energy that he'd seen before. That they'd both seen. Frank swallowed as best he could with a mouth that had gone dry on him in the last five seconds. "I've got it."

- o - o - o - o - o -

The first few minutes were so quiet as Gwen just sat there, still studying the math book in her lap. Quiet and wrong because his Pumpkin always had something to say. She was a better debater than most of the lawyers he worked with, and the things she came up with….

It was something that he loved about her, but it didn't make being her father any easier as he tried to put his thoughts in order.

As near as he and Lili had been able to figure, Gwen and her cousin had spent the entire weekend trying to find their grandfather. And Frank had wanted to be worried and angry. If Gwen hadn't answered her phone every time they called, he would have been. As things stood, he figured that Gwen was learning the same lesson that he and his brother Carl had learned when they had been around her age.

You couldn't count on Max Tennyson for anything that mattered. That was what the bitter little voice in his head swore. It was the voice that he tried to put behind him. Especially now as he wondered if this had anything to do with his father at all.

He wished he knew what really happened on Friday. He wished he'd been man enough to ask Sandra more about how Michelle was.

Not that Gwen was saying anything about what was running through that head of hers. The only problem was that it wasn't all that far from their house to Angelwood and the blocks were quickly dwindling away and he was running out of time. Gwen was leaning up against the passenger window, all of her attention focused on the book in her lap.

You're better than your old man, an irritated voice in his head snapped at him, and for all that he broke promise after promise he never wasted time chewing around the outside of a problem.

But he'd never had to deal with teenage girls either.

Squeezing the steering wheel tighter for a few seconds, Frank cleared his throat and relaxed his hands. "Michelle must be pretty shaken up from those hooligans you and Ben fought off." He said, and Gwen started at being spoken to as she turned her head to look at him. Frank mustered a sideways smile, splitting his attention between the road and his daughter. "Maybe you should invite her over for dinner later this week. Thursday is family time, but you have all weekend."

Gwen blinked several times, and something unpleasant settled in Frank's thoughts. "Maybe." She hedged. "But I think she just wants some time to be alone to…." It seemed reasonable enough, but his experience as a litigator hummed that it wasn't entirely accurate.

But if it wasn't Michelle then that just left…

Frank slowed down, using the opportunity of a car backing out of its driveway as a chance to buy some time. "I know you're used to your grandfather being around. I know that this last year has been hard on you and your cousin, now that he's started disappearing and not coming back when he's said he will be. But your Uncle Carl and I, that's how he was with us while we were growing up. There was always one more job in his plumbing business that he needed to do, one more reason for him not to be there for our birthdays, our baseball games, our weekend camping trips." As the car in front of him started to pull away, Frank reluctantly sped back up to 30 again, though he watched Gwen carefully from the side of his eye. She sat rigidly, looking out the front windshield, holding it all in.

"It was important." She declared, a small tremor in her voice.

"Maybe." Frank allowed. "But to a kid, like me and your uncle were, we wanted him around more. He was a good provider, I just didn't think…." Gwen bit her lip then, and Frank held back a wince. His little girl was becoming a teenager, he could feel her stubborn streak kicking into high gear. "He's been a better grandfather than a father, I think." He said, and that softened Gwen up. "I'm just sorry that he's fallen back into old habits. I'd thought that after m - after mom died, he'd retired for good."

Gwen's face screwed up into a scowl like she was preparing to argue the point. Frank pushed on in haste. They were almost at the school now. Almost out of time. "I know you and your cousin went out looking for him at his usual haunts this weekend, but I hope you know now that it won't matter how hard you look. He'll come back when he wants to, and not a moment before. But it - "

"Dad," Gwen cut in, the thunder clear on her face, and she looked so much like her mother on a tear right then that Frank almost smiled.

Almost. But if he let himself smile now, then he'd never be able to say what he had to say next. And it was something he should have said a long time ago.

"- but that doesn't mean that he loves you any less and I'm sure it's breaking his heart that he can't be here right now for you and for us." He reached up and brushed a stray hair off of his daughter's face as she looked up and he was surprised he didn't have to make himself smile this time. "And yes. I said us. It took me a long, long time to realize that. And I only figured it out because of you, Pumpkin."

"Dad…" His daughter said again, this time her voice catching.

"I've seen how much it hurts him every time he leaves now. And I hear it every time he calls and asks about you, Gwen. I just wish… I wish I'd heard it when I was little, too, because I know him now, and I know that he sounded just the same back then. Mom tried - " She tried to tell him that, so many times. He just didn't want to listen.

"Daddy…" He'd given up on the bone-crushing hugs he used to get before middle school, so he was shocked when he got one now as his baby girl wrapped herself around his arm as he drove.

It was more than he deserved.

"He'll be back. He always is," Frank said around the lump in his throat and the burning in his eyes. He had to because this was the hard part. This was why Natalie wanted him here today, because they both knew why Gwen was so desperate. "But until he is, I just wanted you to know that you can talk to us, too. About anything, really." Gwen shot him a surprised look, and Frank smiled. "What? I can be a cool dad. And any time I can spend with you, listening to your problems and helping you deal with them…that's time well spent, Pumpkin. Your mother and I love you so much, too "

They finally reached Angelwood Academy, and Frank pulled into the drop-off lane with a sigh because he wished that this was a courtroom. He controlled the tempo there, but it wasn't. "I don't know what's going on, but I hope that you know that your mom and I love you, Honey. And you're getting older now and learning to be more independent. But we're here for you. If you ever want to tell us anything." They were drifting at a crawl now, one car in a line of them while the buses dropped off their own loads of kids in the outer lane. Frank turned his head and looked at Gwen, patiently waiting for her to say something. Anything.

His little girl opened her mouth to speak, but something stopped her. Regret filled her eyes for a moment before she smiled at him and nodded. "Thanks, dad. For everything."

It was a smile that hid sadness. Frank had seen so many of those smiles on his mother's face growing up. Seeing it on Gwen's face rattled him like nothing else had, and for a moment it was like Verdona Tennyson was sitting in his car instead of his daughter. But then the moment passed. Gwen reached for the door and unbuckled, and the ghost of Frank's mother slipped away as fast as she was.

Frank didn't want to leave it at that, so he undid his own seat belt and stepped out, leaning over the top of his luxury sedan.

"Oh, and Gwen?" He called out after her. She stopped on the curb and looked back at him. "When you see your Grandpa again, have him give me a call," Frank said as he gave her a smile because she stopped accepting hugs in front of school years ago. "He came and went so fast this weekend that I didn't even have a chance to tell him goodbye."

His baby swallowed hard, her smile freezing on her face, and managed a nod before she spun around and took off running again. Frank watched her go for a few more moments before the car behind him honked and snapped him back to his senses. Giving the driver a look and a shrug, he climbed back in and headed out of the lot.

He'd said everything he wanted to say, needed to say. But as he turned onto the street and headed for work, Frank Tennyson couldn't shake the feeling that he'd still screwed it all up somehow.

- o - o - Alan - o - o -

Essex Pond (NE of Bellwood, California)

12:33 PM. Tuesday, November 20th

They'd hidden the RV in plain sight, really.

Alan hadn't been in many parks like this, but even he could tell it was a nice one, and they'd parked between the little dock that somebody had built here and the trees. He could tell just by looking that they'd never be able to pull this off in the summer. Not when the place would be lousy with people looking for somewhere they could go swimming and have a cookout.

But it was the end of November and all he'd seen were a couple of die-hard hikers that he'd dodged in the morning fog. Hikers who were his only real company once Monday came and Ben and Gwen had to go back to school.

School.

Alan never would have imagined that he'd be sitting here missing school, but he was. It wasn't like he could go. He was a 'Pyronite' now, which Gwen had said was the official name for the Heatblasts. So while Gwen and Ben kept up the act of things being normal, Alan had taken advantage of the quiet to train. Ben had shown him a few tricks last night when he and his magic girlfriend came by, but Alan had kept on working at it. And the benefit of the dry riverbeds around the region this time of year was that he had plenty of space to work on his techniques unseen by anyone - aliens or humans alike.

And working on them was better than sitting there and thinking.

If there was one thing that Alan had in common with Ben, it was that. If there were two… Well, he'd found the second last night when they were chasing some weird mutant pigeons across town. Pigeons that the two Tennysons acted like they knew, They were tough, too, but pigeons.

"Might as well be fighting gorillas."

That was all Alan said. He never thought that he'd see Ben round his eye stalks on him because of it or knew that a big green bug could glow like that. He never guessed that anybody but his dad would know that much about comics either, even if the other boy liked Kangaroo Kommando way more than he did. It didn't matter. It was comics and it felt like they spent the rest of the night talking about them.

And that talk gave Alan plenty of ideas now.

Ben could change into a lot of aliens, but only for 10 minutes at a crack. Alan's Omnitrix couldn't change him back from being a Heatblast, so he had a lot of time to practice. Ben had shown him how to really turn up the heat, how to conjure fireballs that exploded on impact. He'd had good pointers on how to fly better, and how to make a flaming rock platform to fly on if Alan wanted to go slower and free up his hands a little more if he needed to carry something. And he'd shown Alan how to blast not just a flamethrower's worth of pain, but a fireman's hose worth on wide spray.

What Ben hadn't shown him, and what Alan was experimenting with now, was taking things in the opposite direction. Ben had big fire blasts and exploding fireballs down. Smaller things, not so much. He'd probably never needed to bother with it.

If he even knew he could. Alan never would have guessed it if he wasn't sure that was what he did Saturday night completely by accident.

So there Alan stood on a dry riverbed close to the lake, staring down a particularly big boulder worn smooth by yearly floods with one hand outstretched. Breathing in and out. Focusing, like he was Kane from those old Kung-Fu TV shows.

Heatblasts could blast heat from their hands, their feet, their mouths, pretty much their entire bodies. Ben had shown him how to turn it up all over him. Alan took a different tack and imagined a connection between that furnace burning in his chest and his hand.

A lot of fire in a little bit of something… He kept his breathing steady and imagined a stream of that power at his core flowing down his arm towards his hand. But not into his palm, where it wanted to go naturally. It was a path of least resistance, it would be so easy to let the fire do what it wanted. He guided it down smaller channels. Alan forced it into his fingers instead and watched them glow bright orange, white at their tips. Instead of blasting out that heat, he held it right where it was, and the glow backfilled down into the rest of his hand until it felt comfortably warm. Until it was all glowing, and the air around it shimmered like a desert mirage.

"Flaming Fist of Justice!" Alan hissed, taking aim at the rock in front of him and punching out with a roar. Where his fist met the rock, a massive dent in the shape of his knuckles appeared, blistering hot. The rock cracked as a little of his fire escaped and rushed over the surface, setting the entire thing ablaze.

And then it exploded. Alan shielded his face on instinct, and when he could look afterward, he saw a cleanly cracked mess with shards of stone missing here and there. Like a clay pot that had gone into the kiln back at his old school's art room and cracked because it wasn't dry enough.

"Wow." Alan breathed, and looked at his fist as the fire receded back into his core. "That's a keeper." He admired his handiwork for a bit longer before he heard a faint, but quickly growing rush of wind. It was a sound he was growing quite familiar with, and he turned in the direction of the nearby empty campgrounds.

Two seconds later, a blue blur swerved onto the creek bed and came to a sudden stop to reveal a blue dinosaur in a tracksuit and balls on its feet with a large paper bag in its arms. The visor on its helmet slid up, and the alien face of Ben's super speedy racer alien XLR8 grinned at him. "Splitting rocks, eh? That looks neat, how big of a fireball did you use?"

"I didn't use a fireball." Alan chuckled, flexing his hand into and out of a fist.

"What did you use then?"

Alan punched his fist into the palm of his other hand. "My Kung-Fu is strong." XLR8 stared at him and then let out a snort as the dial on his chest began flashing red with a now familiar beeping noise. In a flare of red light, Ben Tennyson took the alien's place, bag still in hand.

"You wanna learn how to fight hand to hand for real, you need to study under the Dweeb," Ben said.

"You couldn't teach me?"

"Oh, I'm good. But she still trashed me the last time we fought in a tournament for real. And I've got other things to school you on." Ben sat the paper bag down and reached inside. "But first, I figured you might be hungry." He pulled out a small bag of charcoal and tossed it over, and Alan perked up instantly. "There ya go."

"Oh, man. Nice." Alan tore the bag open and came up with a handful of smaller sized lumps than he'd expected. "Woah. Bite-size?"

"The way you were horking down those bigger pieces before made me think of someone trying to swallow a cheeseburger in one bite. And you can never tell her this, but Gwen's right. Gross," Ben shrugged, and Alan shoved a handful in his mouth, perking up as they started burning before he swallowed. Ben grinned at him. "That's the kind with lighter fluid on it already."

Alan took a moment to finish chewing and swallowing. "I still can't believe I'm saying this, but that's even better." Like Jalapeno flavored Cheetos, or the good spicy barbecue chips. He reached for another handful. "So what's up? I thought you'd still be in school, it's gotta be the middle of the day."

Any bit of humor disappeared from Ben's face and the look Alan had seen all week came back. The worried exhausted one that made Alan wish he never said a word, but it was too late now. "As if I could fall asleep in class with everything else going on. Nah, I ditched. Ran off after third period. I've been running around the county lookin' for Grandpa."

"Does Gwen know you're going off on your own?" Alan asked.

Ben flinched just a little bit before he stiffened up and shook his head. "I'm not Heroing, I'm just looking."

"Right." Alan set his bag of charcoal down and stared at the smaller boy. "I haven't known you for long, Tennyson, but I know you're a magnet for trouble." He pointed at the brown-haired boy. "I can't stop you, but I swear to God if you go running off on your own and get yourself hurt or captured…"

"I won't." Ben cut him off. He dug his toe into the dirt. "Gwen would thump me if I did. If I find trouble, I'll come get you."

"You'd better, Tennyson." Alan grumped. "You took your phone back, after all." They shared a look and Alan relaxed his posture. "Okay. So how's things going with Gwen? She was working on some kinda spell to find him, wasn't she?"

"She's trying. Hasn't figured it out yet." Ben admitted, slumping a little. "It's why I'm out looking the hard way."

"Well, you can take a break," Alan said. "Grab a drink from the fridge and meet me back out here. I've gotta show you this new move I figured out."

"Yeah?" Ben's eyes widened as he smiled. "Sounds good. Something else I thought of - You need a superhero name we can use when we're out in the field. I can't call you Alan when we're around other people, and Heatblast is already taken."

A superhero name. Huh. It did sound kind of awesome. "I'll think about it," Alan said and waved him off. "Now git. The sooner you get a soda to drink, the sooner you can relax and be impressed by my mad skills." Ben snorted and jogged in the direction of the Rustbucket. Alan picked up his bag of charcoal and wandered over to the bigger bag Ben had brought. He saw two more inside, waiting for him. "You're weird, Tennyson. But you're decent."

- o - o - Gwen - o - o -

Angelwood Academy

1:05 PM. Wednesday, November 21st

Gwen had never been in a big hurry to grow up, but after Sunday, she really wanted to be older. At least then, she wouldn't be stuck here in school. It was a Doofus thought, and that had scared her for a full minute when she realized it. She'd never not wanted to be at school before and had always been focused. But now…

Grandpa was still missing. Sleeping in late on Sunday morning after their return trip to the Rust Bucket II and getting Alan and the RV squared away again, she'd had to go back home right after breakfast. Brunch. And the three of them had gone searching for the bad aliens, found the normal kind of trouble, and come up with a goose egg. They'd been forced to call off the search once it got dark because there was no way her parents would let her stay out on a school night. Ben promised that they'd keep searching after school with Alan, but Gwen couldn't shake the feeling that finding Grandpa would come down to magic.

Not that any of her spells worked and she didn't know why. Not when this was supposed to be easy. She hadn't needed anything to find Ben back in Phoenix, she'd only had to think about him and she had known. No object needed despite what all of her books said.

Not that any were helping, she thought as she remembered the hankie in her pocket. The one she'd grabbed the last time they were in the Rustbucket.

But it worked just as well as everything else that she'd tried.

And now she was at school, but she wasn't paying much attention. She wasn't really doing her homework back home either. It had been easy to fool her parents. She just told them she needed some privacy and quiet to study, and they left her alone, aside from meals. Leave out a couple of textbooks, flip the pages every hour, and swap out subjects after the breaks. Or maybe they'd thought she was just trying to do something to get her mind off of where grandpa was.

They would have been half right.

It hadn't been enough time. She hadn't found anything. Neither had Ben or Alan on their searches. So here it was, Wednesday. Morning? Wait...no, she'd gone to lunch. Afternoon then. She had found one spell that was useful, at least for studying more magic in school. It was some kind of a disguise spell, but it didn't change the appearance of her spellbook. It just made anyone who looked at it think they were seeing a different kind of book, one they'd expect to see her reading.

"Miss Tennyson." The teacher's voice was suddenly louder and firmer, and Gwen jerked upright at her desk. Mr. Clarkson was standing right beside her desk and looking down at her with a disapproving scowl. Some of the other students in the class laughed a little, Marci among them. "I asked you a question."

She was caught. Again. Gwen had lost count of how many times today she'd blanked out. It took every bit of her practice in lying to not let her face go red.

"Right. Sorry, Mr. Clarkson. I was just...reviewing a little." She made a show of flipping the pages, but she was really looking around the room, hoping that she'd see something to give her a clue as to what she'd missed.

It was something that she wouldn't have dared a couple of years ago. Not when there were so many people waiting for a chance to see Little Miss Perfect fall flat on her face, but after the Museum last year…

Being the class hero only lasted a few months, but at least now everybody looked embarrassed for her instead of smirking. Which was nice, she guessed.

She saw Michelle, two rows to her left and one desk up. Michelle, who had ignored her calls for four whole days and barely talked to her that morning, Michelle was looking at her now, her eyes dark and puffy like she hadn't slept in the last five days either and she knew that she should say something, but she didn't know what. Not that morning and not now as she watched her best friend worrying at the string of purple and blue beads in her hair that was the only hopeful sign that Gwen had seen all day.

And then she got another as Michelle mouthed a word and Gwen clung to it like a life raft.

"Glucose?" She offered meekly. Mr. Clarkson's stern expression faded a bit, and he nodded.

"Very good." He stepped back and looked around the room. "Glucose is the end product created when plants of all sorts photosynthesize. Now, if you'll all turn to page 213, you'll see a diagram showing this chemical process. And this will be on the test next week when you get back from Thanksgiving vacation."

There were some groans, but Gwen had already tuned them out. She did, however, mouth a silent thank you to Michelle for the save. Her friend still didn't look great, but she was at least talking to Gwen. A little bit. At first period just so she could ask if they'd found their grandpa yet, and then at lunch to see how she was doing.

Gwen hadn't known what to say. Michelle still didn't know everything, but she couldn't lie to her.

Not after Friday or the awful, horrible night after when they'd laid side by side in Ben's bed and neither of them said a word. Or on any of the days after, when Michelle just hadn't come to school at all. Gwen couldn't remember the last time they'd gone so long without talking. Not even over the summer.

And seeing Michelle's eyes dart away now…

Gwen raised her hand and waited for the teacher to call on her. "Mr. Clarkson, I don't feel too great. Can I step outside for a bit?"

"Do you need to go to the nurse's office?" He inquired.

Gwen thought about it, settling on a meek, "Maybe."

"She's been spacing out all day." Marci the viper harped, not sounding as catty as usual. More nervous, and if anything Gwen would have expected Nadia and her new bunch of "It Girls" to be the ones being catty. Gwen didn't even care. Michelle did, though.

"Back off, Marci. If she doesn't feel good, she doesn't feel good."

"Girls, enough." Mr. Clarkson didn't tolerate classroom disturbances. He pointed to Gwen, then the door. "Go ahead, then." Gwen ignored Marci and the other harpies, but she did glance at Michelle as she left. Her friend just looked down at the desk, worrying the end of one lock of hair.

Gwen had never left class early before. She'd never even dreamed of it happening. Today, though, she grabbed up her cloaked spellbook and her back pack, and tried not to dash out of the room. She had to make it look good.

The knot of worry in her stomach tightened. She'd been putting things away into her locker at the start of the day when she'd gotten a text from Ben. Short, and to the point.

Skipping school. Looking for grandpa. Will call later.

She'd already been worried about Grandpa, wondering where he was and why they hadn't found him, and then the Doofus had to go and do something ridiculously stupid. Even for him.

And she wished that she'd thought of it herself.

She tried to dial his phone. It rang four times, then went to voicemail. Gwen bit down on her lip and stowed the phone back away. "Where are you, Doofus?" She half whispered, walking right past the nurse's office as she hurried for somewhere she could think.

- o - o - Carl - o - o -

Carl and Sandra Tennyson's Home

Same Day, Same Time

"- no, I'm not calling her right now, Carl. She's in class," Frank said, the incredulity and doubt clear in his voice before it softened just a little. "But Natalie's on the other line and she swore that she saw Gwen go in after she dropped her off this morning."

"But - " Carl tried as he tried to rub away the headache he felt building behind his eyes because of the mess he came home to, and he didn't mean the piles of still bagged-up groceries that were on the counter for tomorrow or the spilled milk that he'd tracked halfway across the kitchen floor when he rushed in. It wasn't because of his big brother either, but he wasn't helping by being so much a lawyer. It was like when they were kids all over again.

"It's only a half day. Are you sure he didn't just sneak off with the rest of the soccer guys? I remember you doing that after your big - "

"When I was a senior, Frank," Carl shot back. "Once. And Sandy already thought of that. Ben's the only one missing."

And he wished that he'd been there during that call. That he'd been here for all of it as he opened his eyes and watched his wife rush around the kitchen like he wished he could, but thanks to the phone he was tied to the wall and -

And they were all tying themselves into knots denying the obvious. An obvious that his big brother spent one more breath clutching onto. "Okay, he didn't go with his friends, but it's still Ben and school and - "

"He wouldn't do that." Carl shook his head, his brother's voice failing to calm him down. Not paying attention, sure, and getting into fights sometimes, but skipping school? His son was skipping school. For the second day in a row, if what the principal had said was true.

"What if he's in trouble, Carl?!" Sandra asked, her voice as tight as a drum as she said finally the words that he knew were eating at her since the school called because they were eating at him, too. Eating at her, but she wasn't falling apart no matter what she thought of herself or how Frank made it sound when he asked about her. He knew his wife. She'd be a mother bear until their son was safe and home and then…

And then they'd probably both collapse.

"Oh, he's in trouble, all right, but he's not in a situation where he's in danger. Our boy can look after himself." That was the one thing he wasn't worried about. It would have been better if Ben was still in karate, but it was like riding a bicycle. One that his boy still practiced every day. "Nobody took him, Sandy. I'd bet anything he's just run off. And we all know why."

His beloved wife came to a stop back in the kitchen, one hand in her short blond hair. "We do?"

"We do," Carl told her, holding it together just barely as he let the knot slip. "And what he's doing."

On the other end of the line, Frank sucked in a breath. "You don't think he…"

"Yes, I do." Carl looked over at his wife as he remembered all the times he imagined doing just this when he was little. "I'll bet you anything that he's out there looking for Dad right now."

"Unbelievable." Frank ground the word out over any last shreds of doubt that he had left. "Gwen's been distracted too, but I never imagined…What do you need me to do?"

"I'm going to give him a call," Carl said as calmly as he could. It was what he knew - what Sandra knew they should have done first, but he knew why she didn't. It was something that was going to change starting thirty minutes ago if Ben ever wanted to see his phone again. "And then I'm going to call him again, and when he doesn't answer either of them I'm going to drive out and go looking. There's only so many spots around Bellwood Ben might have gone looking for Dad at."

"You take the north part of town, I'll check out the hangouts in the south end and we'll meet up in the middle if we can't find him." Frank offered. "You still have that bag phone in your truck in case we do?"

"The one the city gave me?" Carl huffed. "Yeah. I'll make sure I leave it plugged in. Seems we're getting an early start on our Thanksgiving vacations. I'm sorry for the trouble."

"Don't apologize for looking out for family." Frank reminded him. "Talk to you soon." The line went dead with a click, and Carl hung up the phone, tilted his head back, and dug his palms into his eye sockets.

He wasn't the least bit surprised when his wife pressed herself against him and wrapped her arms around his back. His own went around her as she ducked her head under his chin.

"It'll be alright, Sandy Bear." He promised her. "We'll find him." He breathed in the smell of her hair and let his voice drop to a growl. "And then I'm grounding him for a month."

"I thought that we were doing better," Sandy whimpered, finally breaking down.

Carl held her close, glad that the parenting books were gone at last. Hopefully, this latest mess wouldn't make her go looking for more. "We are. This isn't about us. Not when it's completely outside of how he usually acts. No, he's doing this because Dad ran off again, and this time…"

And this time, he couldn't bring himself to finish, Not when a Tennyson boy left behind by the old man had finally decided that he wasn't going to sit around and wait for Max Tennyson to show up in his own good time. Not when it was his son - his twelve-year-old son out there, chasing the man down.

Yeah, he was upset with Ben, but he was furious at his father for this mess. Because if Dad had just stayed, then…

"I'm going to go get the portable," Carl muttered because he knew he couldn't stand still - not for a call he knew wouldn't get answered - and then he gave his Sandy Bear a look because he knew her, too. A look and a kiss before he murmured, "Why don't you finish putting away the cold stuff and I'll help with the rest when I get back? Or better yet, I'll have Ben do it." He felt her go stiff in his arms at the words and watched her face flush as her gaze flew up at him and her lips flattened into a line. "Or you can go looking, and I'll stay here just in case he comes back."

Which might be the better idea. He knew the town. He'd spent enough of the last few years crawling over, under, and through every part of it after all, but she knew Ben better than almost anyone. Anyone who didn't have red hair anyway and maybe he should just call Gwen, class or not. Even if she didn't know where he was, his son would at least answer his phone if she called. Maybe -

"And have you put the whipping cream in the pantry again?" Sandra sniffled before he could finish that thought as she gave him a look. One that all but screamed that if Ben came home right now and saw him now he really would run. And Carl couldn't argue. Not about that or her offered, "I'll get the groceries in a minute. I'm going to make you a thermos of tea before you go," as she moved towards the stove. The act made Carl smile and think about his mother's life lessons. A flavor for every mood.

How did she do this all by herself?

Carl didn't know. He never had. Not since the day the doctor put his boy in his arms. Not when his mom made everything look so easy while wondering what kind of tea his wife would decide on for this mess was about all he could manage. He -

He let himself miss her for another heartbeat, and then he pushed it away because his day was just starting.

It seemed like the drive home took an eternity after Sandra called him even though he was sure that every traffic cop in Bellwood was after him now, but the trip upstairs and back was over in an eye-blink. With determined thumb presses as his wife watched and drifted towards the main line before she picked it up, too, while Carl punched in his son's cell phone number and listened as it rang, and rang.

Come on, Ben. Pick up, damn it. Pick up the damn phone.

- o - o - Michelle - o - o -

Angelwood Academy

2:10 pm

Michelle had struggled all day, but in the end seeing the empty chair next to her was even harder than staring at the girl who should have been in it. Hard enough that she was off like a shot the second the bell rang even though she still didn't know what she wanted to say.

If Maman had just let me stay home one more day…

She was sure that she'd think of something after the Thanksgiving weekend. Maybe. If they weren't getting out an hour early, she would have had to go through the free period at the end of the day she shared with Crazy Girl in the library. A free period that wasn't happening now, since they had to race back to homeroom for final messages before being dismissed. Just ten more minutes was all she had left to deal with before she could make a run for it. Just ten more minutes where she could ignore Gwen. Gwen, who'd been out of it all day, had her nose buried so deep in a book that she couldn't pay attention in class.

…Gwen, who wasn't in homeroom like she should have been.

Michelle closed her eyes and stepped back from her homeroom door, letting the crowd of kids race past her. It wasn't her problem, she told herself. Gwen was a big girl. Gwen used magic, and she was full of secrets, and she knew karate, and…

And she's still your friend, so why are you acting like such a bad one right now? What would Maman say?

She swore in French under her breath the words she knew she'd hear. …

Which made risking certain write-ups for being in the hall unexcused a little easier when she slipped away.

Michelle didn't know if it was worse that she knew where to find Gwen or that Gwen was hiding out in the library, but the combination was truly pathetic. Crazy Girl was tucked in the very back corner of the space, sequestered among bookshelves and sitting cross-legged on the floor even though she was wearing a skirt. And once again, her nose was in that weird little purple book of hers.

"You know, in movies when girls decide to hide out in the stacks, they usually bring their boyfriend with them," Michelle said, and Gwen startled with a squeak, looking up at her like a deer caught in the headlights. "It's honestly kind of pathetic you're here making out with a book, Tennyson."

The name choice was as intentional as it got. She didn't want to call her Crazy Girl right then. Didn't want to call her Gwen. Using her last name felt clinical. Impersonal. And right now, Michelle needed that if she was going to have this conversation.

Gwen swallowed, not daring to blink. "What are you doing here?"

Michelle shook her head, sighed, and sank to the floor with her legs folded under her. "The hell if I know. Maybe I decided it'd be good to remind you that our vacation starts in fifteen minutes since you couldn't be bothered to even turn up for homeroom."

"I know. But this is important." Gwen whispered. Michelle craned her neck to look at what her lying friend was doing. Aside from the book - sorry, books laid open around her, there was also a bit of cloth in her lap as well.

"What are you doing, anyway?"

"Trying to find Grandpa," Gwen confessed.

"...Unless there's something you're not telling me, I don't think he's hiding out in a book."

"Of course he isn't." Gwen glared at her for a moment before shaking it off. Not for the first time today, Michelle got a good enough look at her friend to realize how tired she looked. How worried she was. "There are spells for all kinds of things - even finding people - and I've been going through them all looking for Grandpa since unlike some people, I can't go racing around everywhere searching for him in person."

"Okay." Michelle absorbed that tidbit of information, squinting her eyes. "And it didn't work?"

"No," Gwen admitted, absolutely crestfallen. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've tried and tried, and…nothing. It's failed every time. Ben's skipped school, he's out there running around looking for Grandpa without me and I have to get this right before he gets in trouble. He's counting on me. They both are."

God help her, but Michelle actually felt sorry for Gwen. She scooted a little closer. "Maybe you just need to talk it out for it to make sense." She offered. "So walk me through it."

"Right." Gwen breathed in and out a few times before speaking. "So, the spell I've been trying out needs something that belongs to the person you're trying to find to act as a focus."

"Like a sniffer dog needs something with a scent on it."

"Yeah." Gwen nodded. "I've already tried all of the things that he left at my house and Ben's over the years, but the books said it had to be something he kept close and I figured maybe that stuff was too old. So when we went back to the New Rustbucket last night, I grabbed this." She finished with an angry wave at the little white square of cloth in front of her.

The one that Michelle stared at incredulously. "...You have his hankie?"

"I couldn't exactly sneak in his shirt," Gwen said in a tone that meant her eyes would be rolling if she wasn't so busy snatching the thing back.

"But…but it's a hankie!" Michelle said, shuddering at the word. "It would be like finding me with - with one of my scrunchies!" Then she blinked and her hands started pulling at her hair again as she stared at the girl in front of her. At the stranger she used to know. "You can't do that, can you?"

Gwen was a stranger, but somehow, tugging at the beads woven into her hair made her forget that. Handmade beads that were still her favorite birthday present ever. Beads that Gwen eyed for a second before her eyes went back to her book. "No, for you I'd just -" And then her green eyes went anime wide as they shot back up and she did something she never had before. She pulled Michelle in for a bone-crushing hug. "I'd - Michelle, you're a genius!" She gushed even as she let go and jumped to her feet, her hand flying for the necklace that was always hiding under her blouse.

Michelle stood a little more slowly. "You figured something out?"

The redhead was almost vibrating in place as fast as she nodded her head. "Yeah, I just - I need to call Ben. I need to - "

A bit of movement and unusual colors outside of the library's window caught Michelle's eye, and she glanced out the side towards the long driveway in front of the school before doing a double take and staring at the large vehicle which had just pulled into the bus lane. "Uh, Gwen? You don't need to make that phone call."

Gwen followed her gaze and flinched before her face screwed into a scowl. "Oh, that Doofus! He skips school and then he goes and pulls a stunt like this?" She scrambled for her books and sorted them out before stuffing them in her bag, then grabbed Michelle's hand. "Come on, we've gotta run for it before someone calls in the license plate for illegal parking."

"We?" Michelle sputtered, too startled to yank her hand back. Gwen, stronger than she looked, pulled her along into a near full-on sprint that had the librarian jerking a head in their direction and calling out 'NO RUNNING!' after them. Gwen didn't pay the woman a lick of attention, she just kept on going, and Michelle was forced to keep up with her.

They raced outside even though the final bell hadn't run and they hadn't been dismissed. Michelle hadn't even been able to grab her books from her locker and they were leaving. The old RV came to a stop when whoever was driving it saw them coming, and Gwen lunged for the side door without waiting for permission and the scowl up to full bloom.

"Don't even!" Ben shouted back at them from the driver's seat. Most of him was lost in the seat that was pushed up as far as it would go, but Michelle saw a flash of his face before he threw himself back and shoved the RV into gear with a grind of protest almost as loud as the one Gwen let out as she charged for the driver's seat.

"What were you thinking, Ben?!"

"You know," another voice cut in from behind Michelle. A sane voice. "None of my comics ever said how much yelling there was in being a hero."

Michelle spun around and saw Fire Guy staring out the side window through the blinds like her school was the best thing on Earth. Fire Guy, who she'd almost convinced herself that she imagined until she saw him standing there, just past the booth by the fridge with his eyes on the school and all wrapped up in the same silvery blanket that she'd seen him in last time. "They're always like that."

But they weren't, were they? Her - not hers - Crazy Girl was always fighting with Watch Boy. Michelle wasn't really sure if they knew any other way to talk to each other, but that was them playing and this….

This was them scared.

Michelle was almost - no, she wasn't sure of that, was she? She didn't know them at all, did she? Except - except she did. She knew what they were like together, and every word of the argument she heard behind her was filled with the same exhaustion and worry she'd seen in the library and could see now in the face of the boy in front of her. Except he was worried about the two at the front of the RV, too. The two he was watching even as he added, "And so much running. It's ridiculous how much running we've done. All night, every night."

"I bet," Michelle said, her mouth suddenly dry, and the words seemed so small. Every night? When did they sleep? She was just about to turn and ask that when the RV suddenly lurched out from under her feet as Gwen shouted. "Look out!"

"I saw him!" Ben shouted right back. Even though he clearly didn't.

And when Michelle heard the horn sound, she couldn't help screaming as she stumbled. She stumbled right into something silver that wrapped around her and a pair of literally rock-hard arms that were so warm. As warm as her face got when she heard Alan the not Alien ask, "You okay?"

"Yeah!" Michelle squeaked out, and If Alan saw her blushing, he didn't say anything about it. He just motioned with his head to the unoccupied booth as he let her go.

Eventually.

"Hey. Got an open seat here you might wanna take. I'm not sure who taught that boy how to drive, but you'll want seat belts or the closest thing to it." And Michelle had to shake her head at the thought of Ben, all of twelve years old going on thirteen, knowing how to drive at all. Much less a stick-shift road wagon like this thing.

"T-thanks," she stammered out. Especially when Alan the alien who wasn't turned and smiled at her as he took his fire blanket back and wrapped it around his shoulders. It hid most of his fire, but it didn't touch his grin, which was so bright that she couldn't help smiling back. And touching her hair before she caught herself. Frick, hadn't Gwen done that a while back when she caught Ben looking at her?

The thought sent her gaze flying down to the not-so-empty table and the things clattering around on it. It wasn't the tools that caught her attention as they clattered against each other. Not when she'd seen Crazy Girl carrying around most of the same stuff for her computer class. No, it was the alien thing that was sitting in the middle of the table. The thing that made her heart stop when she saw the pistol grip…

One almost like the one she'd held on Friday. That she could still feel in her hand as she pulled the trigger and…

"Michelle?" Alan asked, the worry and the heat clear in his voice.

"I'm okay," Michelle said, her voice so high and fast that it gave away the lie as she stared at the one on the table, which on second glance didn't look so much like a gun as a fat flashlight that somebody welded all the okay pieces of a gun to. It was a flashlight that was half-taken apart. Or half put back together. "What is that?"

"I don't know. Ben called it some kind of projector," Alan admitted. "He's been working on it, and if you think I'm something, you should see what he turned into to patch it up. The little gray guy isn't bad, but - Don't touch it!"

"Why not?!" Michelle gasped as she jerked her hand back. She knew better. She knew better, but it was still an alien thing and the crystals inside looked so…

"I have no idea," Alan said the words that she couldn't. "But Gwen said not to, and the last time I touched anything in here I set off the self-destruct."

"You - ?!" Michelle started until she looked up and saw the teasing look on the burning boy's face. It was the kind of look that if she'd seen it on anyone else's, anyone like her brothers or Watch Boy….

But it wasn't. It was on Alan's and she didn't know why that made a difference, but it did so she laughed. And after that…

After she saw the fire do amazing things in his eyes at the sound of her stupid giggle, she could breathe for the first time since Friday. Breathe and ask one of the questions that had been killing her since then. "How've you been?"

She just wished she could touch his hand when she asked it.

"Oh, it's been a blast." Alan deadpanned, somehow rolling his eyes. "Running all over town and kicking bad guy butt is fun, but I've mostly been hiding out. Practicing a little where nobody could see me."

"Yeah, you do kind of stand out," Michelle observed, and he snorted.

"I hadn't noticed." There was silence between them as the RV rolled down the streets of Bellwood, and Alan sighed and relaxed a little. "You know, I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again when you didn't come back that first night."

"I was…I couldn't." She said, weakly. "It was a lot to deal with."

He nodded. It was. "You been holding up all right?"

"Today was the first day I went back to school. Maman wouldn't let me stay home again. Gwen dragged me out here when you guys pulled up."

"Unwilling accomplice?" Alan guessed.

"...Yeah." Michelle looked down at the table. "You could say that."

"...You haven't talked to her yet, have you?" Alan guessed. Michelle shook her head. "Well. You might wanna while you can."

"Before she runs off on me again?" Michelle shot back bitterly.

Alan didn't look away. "No. Before she goes somewhere you can't follow." The boy-turned-alien looked out the window of the RV and watched the world go by, so he didn't see her shudder as her stomach froze at his words.

Froze her even as sweat started on her back. The same one she felt on too many days at base when they were all standing outside, her mother holding her hand too tight as she watched all of the trucks full of soldiers go by with tears in her eyes. Tears that made the woman's grip tighten as she whispered, "Nous devons être courageux, Mich - "

"Michelle?" A voice called her back. One that held all of the same worry but came with a lot more fire.

"Sorry," Michelle said as she wiped away tears that she knew weren't coming. She was that good of a soldier's daughter anyway. "Sorry, I just… What did you say?"

Alan squirmed across from her, somehow looking guilty as he stared at his hands and mumbled, "I just - You should talk to her. You don't want those regrets."

And the guilt hit her so hard. God. Alan had lost everything. His home. His parents. Even being human. But he probably missed his family most of all.

"I'm sorry," Michelle whispered. Alan shrugged, his shoulders moving the thermal blanket with ease.

"They got me out of there alive. My dad, he…" He shut his eyes and his fire dimmed even more as he looked at the thing locked on his upper left arm. "He must have known they weren't going to make it. He wouldn't have given me this if…"

Michelle could have let it drop there. Most people would have, too afraid to touch on bad memories to make him feel worse. But Michelle decided to do something different.

"Tell me about your-" She started, but her voice caught on the word dad as she remembered hers. The Colonel whom she'd barely seen since she got home on Saturday. The Colonel who had come sweeping into the house late that night, his fatigues still dirty from what everyone was still calling a drill and hugged her so tight before he disappeared again yesterday. Him and almost every other soldier in the camp for drills somewhere down south. But she couldn't say any of that.

Besides, it was all normal. He was never around.

Nothing was normal.

So she couldn't ask about his dad, but she could force out a "Your mom." And when Alan opened his eyes and looked at her again with something like a smile she knew she'd said the right thing. "Tell me about your mom. What was she like?"

The alien boy started talking in a quiet, fond voice about a woman crippled in combat who refused to be defined by it. It was all stories she'd heard before. Stories she didn't want to hear, that she usually ran from the room so she couldn't, but this time Michelle listened to every word as the world flew past the window beside them.

- o - o - Ben - o - o -

The Rust Bucket

Earlier

XLR8 was one of Ben's favorite aliens for a lot of reasons, but he couldn't do everything. He'd been running all over Bellwood and the rest of the county for days both with Gwen and Alan and without them, and had turned up nothing.

Under different circumstances, he would have just enjoyed it. Running hard for ten minutes. Stopping for a soda or flopping under a tree while the watch recharged. It felt like it had been forever since he'd just run.

But he wasn't running for himself now, he had a mission and he was failing at it. Ben wanted to scream. For as fast as he'd been going, for as much as he'd been running around as the blue alien, it was amazing that there weren't more police after him, or more of those aliens wearing the fake people masks chasing him down.

And that was when he realized his mistake. He'd been running so fast that people never saw the blur, they just felt a strong gust of wind every so often. Realizing that had made him go back to the lake.

"This is a bad idea," Alan called out beside him and Ben shot the Heatblast wannabe a look because he'd been saying that all day.

"So not," Ben shot back, his hands digging into the too-big steering wheel as he tried to drive and keep an eye on the world around him all at the same time. Maybe he should have paid more attention when Grandpa told him about the auto-pilot or watched when his Dweeb set it up on Saturday…

It didn't matter. The computer couldn't do random like he could and the Not-Rustbucket wasn't anywhere near as fast as XLR8, but there wasn't any way that anyone could miss it. And despite what certain people said, he knew that this was brilliant. Greymatter-level thinking easily. Just to drive around and see what happened, even if every second he spent in the driver's seat just made him miss Grandpa more.

Maybe if he wasn't, maybe if he'd had just a little more attention to spare, and maybe whoever parked that stupid Corolla hadn't left it that far out in the street while he was making a turn he would have looked at the screen of his phone before he stabbed his finger down on it when it rang again.

"Yeah, yeah. I kn - " He started, tired and distracted even though he'd known that this call was coming all day and the worst part was that nobody even gave the not-Rustbucket a second look and he was all out of ideas and he didn't know how Grandpa drove this thing all day. He'd only been doing it for a couple of hours and he felt exhausted. He hadn't been this tired since his first day of karate, which made the epic-level butt-kicking that he knew his Dweeb was sending his way all the more -

"Ben?!" His mother called out from the phone like she was going to reach through the thing and hug him close.

"Mom?! I thought you were - what are you..." He stammered.

In an instant, she went from relieved to angry. Angrier than he'd ever heard her before. "Where are you?!"

Blinking, Ben scratched at the back of his head as his mind raced and he tried to remember where he should have been, which was math class and…

No! Tomorrow was Thanksgiving, he remembered suddenly. He only had a half day today, and he grabbed onto that like the lifeline that it was. "Sorry I'm a little late coming back from school. There was this new game at the arcade the guys wanted to try out, and - "

"Benjamin Kirby Tennyson!" The stern voice of his father took his excuse out at the knees.

There was a sound then. A bit of static that he always heard when one of them was using the phone in their bedroom, which meant that his dad was home and - aww, man. "Dad? What are you doing - "

"Home?" The man finished. "Funny story. Your school called today. They said you were absent for most of yesterday. And that today you never showed up at all."

"Yeah, I did. Mom dropped me off." Ben pointed out. Grandpa had taught him that. When you got caught in the lie, you lied even harder. It wasn't easy when it was your parents, though. He could feel his ears heating up as he tried not to show any sign of guilt. "They're just - "

"Yes, I did. But you didn't go inside. Nobody saw you at school." His mother cut in. "Do you realize how worried we were? What we thought might have happened to you?"

"I was this close to calling the police." His dad went on. "I even called your Uncle Frank, just in case you'd dropped by their house."

Ben shut his eyes. He was good and caught now. "I didn't go to Gwen's."

"So where are you then?" His dad demanded, full-on angry. Both his parents were. Everyone was.

Ben thought about it as Alan just stared at the phone from where he was perched in the passenger seat, the burning boy's fire as dim as Ben felt as they both stared at the phone. Alan didn't look like he was even breathing, but Ben could think when he needed to, way too many close calls had pounded that lesson into his head. He'd tried lying. They'd seen through it. Apparently, his not being at school was the end of the world for the principal. Or maybe they only noticed he wasn't there because he was the MVP goalie on their team. Ben was used to being invisible at school. This…was different.

He took in a deep breath to relax, just like Sensei taught him - like Gwen taught him. And he told the truth. Just not all of it. "I was out looking for grandpa, all right?" It was easy to sound worried because he was worried.

His mom went quiet, and Ben breathed out in a huff.

"Ben..." His mom said, and she sounded just like she did when he was little when she'd kneel down in front of him and brush his hair back, and just the sound of it made him cringe a little. "We know you miss him. We know you're upset he just...left, all of a sudden. But you can't just...run off like this. We were so worried that something might have happened to you. What you did was reckless. Dangerous."

His father kept the conversation going as he took the phone back. "He'll turn up, Ben. He'll probably call in a day or two." Ben looked down at the floor. He knew grandpa wouldn't.

"I'm sorry." Ben finally got out.

"Well. Tomorrow's Thanksgiving, so you don't have to worry about trying to skip school." His dad went on. His voice was so firm and so much more like Grandpa's than it was his. "But you aren't doing this again next week. Is that clear? You're grounded."

"Yeah," Ben said with a sick nod.

"Good. Now, tell us where you are and we'll - "

The rest was lost in the sound of the line going dead as Ben reached over and hung up the call. "Dude!" Alan shouted. "What are you doing? You're already in trouble! You can't - "

"I can't find Grandpa if I'm grounded," Ben bit out, the words as tough as diamond in his mouth as he made his hands take the wheel and he started driving again. "And I'm only grounded if I go home."

"Dude…"

Ben wanted to laugh and tell the other boy it wasn't so bad. He could always go live with -

And just like that, he realized how stupid he had been as he took the next turn and started going right where he should have gone to begin with.

- o - o - o - o - o -

Which didn't keep a certain someone from reminding him of it the second she got the side door open, and his "Don't even!" didn't help at all.

"What were you thinking, Ben?!" Gwen all but shrieked as soon as she charged up behind him, breathless after she dashed across the school from whatever class she'd been in when he'd pulled up.

Ben flinched without thinking about it because he was sure he had a few minutes before her bell rang so he could think of something. Lying to his parents was one thing but to her? "I…"

"All day! I've been trying to reach you all day!"

"I was just…"

"Do you know how worried I was? What if something had happened to you? God, Ben!"

Ben fell backward onto his seat, stretching out his hands and feeling his aching arm muscles give out with relief after a full day's worth of driving.

"I had to do something, all right?" He answered, too tired to snap back at her. "Mom was driving me to school and I just…I couldn't…I couldn't even have slept through my classes. I had to do something. I would have gone crazy." He brought his arm up over his eyes. "I'm sorry, Gwen. I lost track of time."

"Doofus." Gwen bit the word off, which meant she wasn't teasing him with it like usual.

"I mean it. I'm sorry."

"And?"

"…And I won't run off without you again."

"Yeah. You won't."

"Unbelievable," Ben muttered, his face burning as he let it fall against the steering wheel. "Mom already gave me the riot act."

"And I missed it." Gwen sighed, and Ben rolled his eyes. But some part of him smiled just because… Because it was her saying it. Which was just sick. "Did you find anything?"

"No," Ben admitted, which was the worst part of it. He hadn't found anything in five days. Five days! Some hero. Some grandson. Some boyfriend, he thought as he waited for more because the only thing worse than his dweeb yelling was her not yelling, and she so wasn't right now as the silence dragged on and on.

Until… "I couldn't focus at school either." She admitted.

And he took it and the hand he felt slip into his for the lifelines that they were. "I know that I should have come to get you," Ben confessed. "But I figured they'd notice if you weren't there. Didn't think they would care if I wasn't around."

"People care about you, Ben." Ben was glad she couldn't see his face as he felt it growing warm because he heard what she really meant underneath it. I care about you.

Which only made the words, "I'm grounded," harder as Ben finally sat up, still not daring to look at her as he put the Not-Rustbucket back into gear because he knew that she was telling the truth, but those words seemed bigger than the Watch and the Magic put together. "I won't be able to sneak out tonight until mom and dad fall asleep. Can you stay up late?"

"How many times do I have to tell you; If I'm asleep, wake me up," Gwen said and he could almost hear his Dweeb roll her eyes as she dropped into the passenger seat. Ben started to smile and she instantly corrected herself. "No tickling. Tickle me, and you die."

"Aw."

"But you won't have to."

"I'm sure - " Ben started before her words sank in and he spun around in his seat. That was when he finally saw her grinning at him like the Cheshire Cat that she was. "You found him?"

"I figured out how to find him. I think. Well, Michelle did," she said with a grin that lit up her whole face. It was a grin that Ben couldn't help copying.

"Really?"

"I think that she did, anyway, butitfeelsrightand - " The glory kept going, the words turning into a familiar blur as his Dweeb's brain ran wild and her mouth did everything it could just to keep up. It was an even better sign of how excited she was than the way she was bouncing in her seat. A bounce that turned into a lunge for the steering wheel as her grin turned into wide-eyed horror and she shrieked, "Ben, look out!"

"I saw him!" Ben shouted right back, his head spinning back even faster than the wheel did as a horn tore through the air and the sound of two girls screaming filled the cabin around him.

Which was one more than there should have been.

- o - o - o - o - o -

"I shouldn't have brought her," the words were a whisper from the passenger seat as Ben drove after the excitement ended and they were well away from her school. The words were so soft that Ben wasn't sure that he would have heard them if anyone else said them.

"It wouldn't have been that bad of a crash," Ben countered, his hands still shaking five minutes later. "We were barely moving."

"You know what I mean," His Dweeb said in the tone that meant Don't be a Doofus. Only more miserable this time than mad as she sniffled and curled in on herself, pulling her long legs up as she collapsed against her window. "I just - I just missed her so much a-and she just started talking to me again, but she doesn't even know what's going on. She doesn't know and she already almost got hurt once! What was I thinking?"

"Thinking sucks. That's why I don't," Ben said, his words like ash because hers sounded so hurt that they were a stake to his heart. And they hurt even more when they faded away and his Dweeb didn't say anything else. They hurt enough that he dared another look back. This time with the rear-view mirror because he wasn't a complete doofus.

Michelle was still back there, still talking to Alan, and he couldn't see much more than the back of her head, but he could tell from the way the girl was sitting that she was just as miserable as his Dweeb, and he didn't know what to do.

He just knew that wasn't smart enough to figure out what he could say that would fix all of this any more than he could help looking back at the familiar dark hair in his Dweeb's spot in the dining booth and chatting away with his Mini-Me across from her because honest to god, he didn't even know that Army Gi- that Michelle was there until she started screaming.

He hadn't even seen her running up with his Dweeb. Not when Nerd Fury was rushing towards him in all of her red-headed glory. Honestly, he hadn't even thought about the other girl since Aunt Natalie packed her into the car on Saturday, and that -

That was a shitty thing for him to do, even with Grandpa gone. Especially if "How did she figure it out? The spell?"

"I couldn't…" Gwen started, so curled up now that she was practically on her side against her door and if he wanted to touch her all he would have been able to reach was her ankles or her butt, and he would have been one if he tried that right now. Ben wished he could reach her hand. Not that he thought she would take it right now. Not when it was wrapped tight around the stone pendant hidden under her sweater as she kept going. "We were in biology and I just couldn't and she came and got me despite everything and I didn't know what to do."

"Grandpa will know," Ben said automatically. They were the same words he'd been saying all week, but they never felt so hollow before even though his Dweeb kept going like she hadn't even heard him.

"I didn't, but Michelle figured it out in like five seconds after I told her about the spells and - " And if she had a smile then, it disappeared as she let go of the charm so she could hug her legs even closer, her fingers going pale as they sank into the black material of her tights. "And I just wish…"

His Dweeb didn't finish. She didn't have to. Ben knew what she was going to say. He just nodded as he made one last turn. One that they both knew. One that sent her scrambling for something in the glove compartment. "Give me five," she said, and then as soon as he stopped the battle wagon she was out her door, all without a look back at him or over at somebody else in the compartment. A couple of somebodies that Ben saw jump up startled from where they were sitting at the booth and press themselves against the window.

"Alan? Could you…" Ben asked, his mouth numb as he watched his Dweeb dash away and Michelle collapse back into her seat, her head in her arms. Gwen didn't look back, she hadn't even closed her door, but he saw her wiping her eyes right before she disappeared into the trees anyway.

"On it," the burning boy said without hesitating, but he did give him a look before he was gone, too. One that Ben understood. In another half hour, the park would be so busy that the burning boy couldn't have gone anywhere near the thing, but everybody was just getting out of school and most people didn't know about this entrance - just him and his dweeb - and nobody made a word as Alan went following after the running girl, the silver fire-proof blanket still around his shoulders and catching the wind like a cape.

Which left him alone with Michelle. Michelle, who just looked lost as she sat there by herself in the booth that was almost like the one that had all of Ben's best memories.

They were going to find Grandpa, but Grandpa wasn't the only one who needed a hero.

"She wanted to tell you," Ben said, the words just spilling out as he wrapped his hands even tighter around the steering wheel. Not that it helped, not when he could almost feel the man's eyes on him now, but for once…

"What?" Michelle asked as she spun around in her seat and Ben couldn't look at her. Not now. Not even as he let go of the steering wheel so he could get up, too. He almost followed his Dweeb out of her door. He wanted to, but he just closed it instead and tried not to notice how the other girl jumped at the sound.

Grandpa wouldn't have. He wouldn't have done what Ben was about to do either. He never had. Not for grandma or his dad or his Dweeb's, and he definitely hadn't for any of the thousands of friends he had in every corner of the country - not even his best - and Ben knew he had good reasons not to.

But for once Grandpa didn't matter and the reasons weren't good enough.

"Gwen. She wanted to tell you," he said again as he turned and looked Michelle right in the eye because she deserved better. Not just because it would make Gwen happy, but because he knew that the girl had always been there for them, even when she was being a complete pain in his butt, and she should know. "We talked about it sometimes."

"You did?"

"Yeah." The words made his hand itch for the back of his head or the Watch so he could get out of there, but he just shoved it in his pocket instead because it wasn't quite true. His Dweeb never said the words out loud. Not like that, but he could hear what she wanted to say.

That was better than kicking Flint and Sean's butts together! I wish….

Did you see that explosion?! Michelle would have -

She ….

But the words weren't important. He knew the way his Dweeb thought and he knew he wasn't lying just like he knew that the way Michelle's bottom lip started quivering that she'd be crying soon and he couldn't. He just couldn't.

Was he supposed to hug her if he did? He knew what to do if his Dweeb did - mostly - but she was his girlfriend and Michelle was just a girl who was his friend and when did that happen and oh, god maybe Greymatter could figure this out because he just couldn't!

And just before Ben could forget about being cool and just slam his hand down on the Watch Michelle's lip stopped as the rest of her shivered and then she nailed him with a glare that was almost as hot as his Dweeb's best. "Then why - ?"

"Because Grandpa said we shouldn't," Ben said after he swallowed his panic down hard down into the hot ball in his stomach that had been building there since Friday and tasted like puke every time he burped. "He said it was dangerous for everybody if anybody knew and - "

And he was right. Ben knew that he was. Every comic said so.

But Army Girl didn't read comics even though she had two brothers who should have taught her better. Not any more than his Dweeb did. He knew she didn't just from the look that went across her face, the one that said it was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. He'd seen that look on a lot of girls' faces and it made him start rocking on his heels even as he said. "-and keeping you safe mattered more to my Dweeb than anything. You matter more..."

More than anybody but him and Ben wondered about that sometimes. Mostly right after Gwen first met the girl and she was all that Ben heard about for what felt like forever. He was so jealous back then. Back when he thought he was just his Dweeb's friend - her only friend just like she was his and then he wasn't.

Back before they became something more.

And that old worry must have shown on his face despite everything that he did because Michelle rolled her eyes and got that look on her face again even as she just sat there and stared at him. Stared and stared until she asked, "What about you?"

"Me?" Ben repeated before he laughed and threw his arms wide. "Are you kidding? I wanted to tell everybody!" He did. He had it all planned out, and now that somebody finally asked it all came spilling out. How Madison Square Garden would be full of his fans and news people who were all there to see their hero! He dreamt about it, him walking out just like he did when he got his MVP award, but this time he'd be getting up on stage as the President stood there with the key to the country while twenty-three Gwens danced -

"Twenty-three dancing Gwens?" Michelle echoed.

"I - No Gwens! I didn't say - !"

But Michelle was grinning now, the kind of grin that meant trouble as she pushed herself up on her knees. "Please tell me that they aren't dressed like cheerleaders in your - They are!" She squealed with joy as she clapped her hands over her mouth and kicked at the seat under her.

It seemed like she did it forever and Ben wanted to die at the sound of her laugh even though it was one of the best things he heard today. It was almost as good as the thought of his dweeb dressed up in the yellow and white costumes that the cheerleaders in his school wore. And the skirts that went with them. Skirts that looked so good on those girls when they started bouncing around, but he knew that his Dweeb would - "Shut up!"

"Boys! I can't wait to t-tell…." Michelle started, and then her face fell and she reached for the beads in her hair.

"Everything," Ben finished before she could reach them and before the heat in his face could send him running and the words stopped him dead even as he remembered that heroes didn't run no matter what. His Grandpa never had, not once he made a decision, and that made it so much easier to hold his hand out. A hand that Michelle just stared at. "Come with us tomorrow and we'll tell you everything. There's a park that we know. Not like the one by your house, a real one, with a lake and everything. It's where we've been hiding Alan. Nobody will bother us there, and I know that my Dweeb has been dying to show you what she can do."

But Michelle just kept staring at him, her mouth soundlessly repeating his last few words as her hands finally found the beads in her hair. Beads that matched the ones that his Dweeb usually had in hers. Until last Friday, Ben realized with a start and he couldn't believe he missed that, too, as the girl kept staring at him with dark eyes set in an ashen face until finally; "If you find your Grandpa and he says it's okay?"

"I don't care what he says." And it was true. "Tomorrow."

Michelle finally swallowed hard, nodded, and shook his hand. Once, before she stopped and made a face, but she didn't let go. "We don't have to spit on it, do we?"

"Eww…" he said as he made a face. A proud one. "No wonder my Dweeb likes you, Army Girl. You've got Stinkfly beat in the gross department."

"Who's - "

"You'll see," Ben promised with a little smirk and then he tugged at her hand as the clock in his head ticked down the last few seconds of the five-minute timer he had running. "Now, come on. Our Dweeb should be just about ready and you don't wanna miss the show."

- o - o - Gwen - o - o -

Two Minutes Ago

Gwen's hand was steady as she carefully drew another line in the grass with the chalk she always had in her pocket now, but it was the only part of her that was.

She thought that she was going to be sick. What was she even doing? What-

"How are you even doing that?" Alan asked from behind her. She should have been insulted that he was there, that Ben thought that she needed somebody to keep an eye on her at all, much less that he was following her around, always just outside of her circle and where he could keep an eye on the little opening of the clearing.

Their clearing. And she wished she had a math book right now and a Doofus who would listen as she explained it, but Alan and magic were almost as good.

"Magic," Gwen said, and she surprised herself because somehow her voice was as steady as her hand. The word should have been a distraction, but it wasn't. It was a lifeline that she grabbed onto with both hands like the smell of pine all around her and the damp grass that was soaking her hands and the knees of her tights. And just like them, the words kept coming as she crawled around so she could make the next line.

"Obviously this shouldn't work," she added along with the line, the light blue of the chalk shouldn't have even made a mark on the blades of grass, much less a straight one. "But I'm adding mana to it as I draw and…"

And she could see the violet stars sparkle like glitter in the white marks just like she could hear footsteps running up the path towards them even as the woods soaked up most of the sound. Footsteps that she knew. Footsteps that she wanted to run to, even as she made herself keep working because everybody was depending on her. Besides, Alan was on it, even if she missed his light as he went back into position.

It wasn't until she heard Michelle gasp that she realized that her Doofus wasn't coming alone. "What is she doing?"

"No clue," Alan told her as Gwen froze, chalk in hand and mana buzzing like bees in her fingertips as he added, "but I'm pretty sure my meemaw would be screaming and chasing her with a broom if she was here right now."

And Gwen just stopped breathing as the chalk got hot and started shaking in her fingers because she knew how people acted around magic, how they acted even as she used it to save their lives, and because she'd read the history books and if this was what finally sent her best friend running away…

"Isn't it cool?" Her doofus said, his voice cutting through everything else like it always did. And just like always, she couldn't help spinning her head around so she could follow his voice. It was like he had some kind of alien that could control gravity or something, but he was just him watching her.

And he was standing there in the clearing opening with Michelle, framed by trees with one hand on the olive-skinned girl's shoulder as her best friend just nodded at his words, her chocolate eyes as wide as Ben's grin as they took in everything that Gwen had done together.

It was the first time Gwen had ever seen the two agree on anything, and some part of her wanted to squeal like the dummies in her school were always doing. She didn't, but she did drop the chalk.

She was sure that only luck kept it from exploding when it hit the grass as she squeaked out a "Really?"

"Yeah," Michelle said, her nod quick and jerky as she just stood there.

"And this is nothing," Ben told her, the pride as clear in his voice as the dark patches were under his eyes. "Just wait until you see what she does tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Gwen stammered, her mind racing because even if they got Grandpa back today, he was sure that he wouldn't be up to doing anything tomorrow except maybe go over to her house for turkey like everybody else. "I know that my mom makes great stuffing, Doofus, but Michelle isn't - Unless you want to! Alan, too! I don't - "

And then even the cautious smile on Michelle's voice went away as she hugged herself tight and Alan took a step towards her while her Doofus just stood there with the same smile on his face even as the olive-skinned girl nodded his way. "Watch Boy said - "

"We're taking her to the lake tomorrow so we can tell her everything," Ben said like it was nothing. No, he said it with the same boredom he would have used if he said that they were going to go hang out at the mall as he walked over, his stupid grin not moving at all. "Well, mostly so she can see how awesome Alan and I are, but if you want to show off, too…."

"Ben!" Gwen snapped, her legs almost betraying her as she jumped up, and only long practice kept her from stepping on her lines as she marched over to him. "Grandpa said - !"

And she wished that she hadn't seen Michelle flinch at those two words. And that her mouth hadn't dropped at Ben's simple, "He's not the boss of me."

"You - you -!" Gwen stammered, and then she threw herself forward. It was almost worth it to see his eyes go wide when she did, and perfect when he relaxed into her hug and soft, "Thank you."

"What's all this?" Ben asked with a wave of his hand at her drawing when she finally pulled away. "You usually don't go horror movie with your magic, but if this is Army Girl's idea and you two have decided to go all Goth, I am down for the black leather."

"What kind of shows are you watching, Watch Boy?" Michelle squawked, her hand on her hip and it sounded so normal.

"His dad got that stupid new Keanu Reeves movie on DVD a few weeks ago, and I knew I shouldn't have let you watch it," Gwen answered as she gave Ben the look that he deserved when he started saying nonsense like that. The worst part was that it was amazing finally getting a glimpse of how XLR8 saw the world, but did her Doofus care about that part? Of course not. The worst part was that he wasn't even subtle. Like she didn't notice how big his eyes got when Trinity appeared, or how he kept looking at her after like he could just see…

Him and his super-hero costumes! She would never wear that much leather. Didn't he know how hot that suit would get or wonder why her gymnastics outfits were all spandex? Honestly.

And she felt better when she heard Alan's little squeak at the idea, which just proved that not all boys were as much a doofus as her boyfriend. Good enough that she smirked at him as she went back to her unfinished star. Not that Ben would admit it or be anything other than insufferable as he followed after her and squatted down in front of her like he always did when he wanted to drive her crazy and she just wanted to - to -

"I still think that you'd - " He stared, still smirking, but there was something in his eyes as he looked her over. Something that she'd seen before, but never like now. Except for -

"She'd what?" Michelle cut him off, her eyes narrowing.

"It doesn't matter!" Gwen all but shouted as she fumbled for the chalk by her knees. Her tights covered knees that were just poking out from under the hem of her skirt. The skirt that she wished she could pull lower because ladies didn't - didn't…

Didn't remember the feel of his hand on her leg. Her bare leg. And her mom and mormor would both be so disappointed in her because despite everything that happened she still did. That and the dopey grin that he had after. The one on his face now was close but she would have given anything just to go back to that bench so she could see the real thing again. No, to before then, back to the game so they could go with Grandpa like they both wanted to. If they had…

But they couldn't. All they could do was move forward. And the only way they could do that was if she had her head in the game.

"I think that Grandpa has some way of hiding from spells," Gwen said after a couple of deep breaths and one last dirty look at the boy in front of her who wasn't playing fair. "I don't know how. Not when he's had even less luck with magic than you, Doofus, and that's saying something!" The tease was familiar and safe. Safe enough that she found the chalk so she could finish now that she could think again. "Maybe it was something that the Plumbers did or maybe it was something that he came up with, but I'm not taking any more chances. This is everything that I've learned over the last few days. The circle should contain all of the mana that I call up and I think that we're going to need it because - "

And none of her was steady but her hand as she made the last curving mark that finished the containing circle even as she wished that she'd been brave enough to get the salt she knew Grandpa had hidden away. If she had…

"Sorry!" Gwen started as more mana surged through the completed lines of the circled star than she imagined. Enough that it exploded out in a burst of air that caught at Michelle's skirt and Alan's blanket and sent them both staggering back a step before it was past them and cutting through the trees. "Sorry."

But she wasn't. Not when Michelle stayed - when they all did - and Gwen tried to hold onto that even as she grabbed for the gold chain that her Doofus had put around her neck last year and pulled at it, the charm at the end of it catching on her blouse before it came free.

The charm and the rings that were waiting next to it. "These were Michelle's idea."

"Grandma and Grandpa's bling?" Ben asked, his smirk fading into a puzzled frown as he shot a look back over his shoulder. "How did you even know about them?"

"I - " Michelle started, shocked as she fell back a step, one closer to Alan, and stared.

"She didn't," Gwen answered quickly as she opened up the frankly huge map that she'd grabbed out of the Rustbucket and unfolded it across the middle of the star she'd drawn. "But she said I needed a better focus than Grandpa's hankie - don't ask - and I thought of these."

There wasn't anything else more important to Grandpa except for maybe them. Or their dads and there were spells for that, too. Spells that made her feel sick just from reading the first few words and that she knew she could never cast. Not even for Grandpa Max.

Not for anybody or anything. She knew that she wouldn't.

"What do we have to do?" Ben asked, cutting through her thoughts again.

"We're going to use them as a kind of divining rod, and I don't want to get strangled so…" Gwen said as she turned her head and shook out her hair before she pulled it out of the way. "Do what you do so well, Doofus. Just remember what I said."

It took him a second to catch on and slip around her. A second that stretched out for an eternity as Gwen knelt there with her head bowed as a thousand new worries blossomed in her mind. What if this didn't work? What if it did, and they couldn't bring Grandpa home in time? Ben was already in trouble and Michelle was just barely talking to her!

What if she couldn't - ?

"Ben!" Gwen squealed when she felt the tip of his finger tickle the soft hairs and softer skin at the nape of her neck without coming anywhere near the clasp of her necklace. It was a touch she knew was coming, but it still made her face burn, her skin goose-bump, and her toes curl as every thought fled her head.

She was supposed to be the witch, but one touch from her Doofus left her undone and the worst part was that he knew it. "Worth it," he whispered, the smirk clear in his voice and his breath hot against her ear as he finally got around to unclasping the necklace he'd put around her neck. "So stop worrying and do what you do best. What's next?"

"Now…" Gwen said as she reached back and grabbed his hand with both of hers. If she had the time she would have gone for some real payback, but seeing his eyes go wide was almost as good when she pulled him in front of her. Pulled him until he was kneeling in the apex of the star as she wiggled forward so her knees were inside the two bottom points, careful not to smudge any of the lines. Then she took the necklace from his hands, reclasped the chain, and put the whole thing into her right hand.

The chain was so fine that she barely felt it and the rings were barely anything more compared to the charm that filled her hand. The charm was carved into a round stone that was so ancient it was worn smooth before anyone touched it and the rune which was rough against the skin of her palm and she wished it wasn't. She wished that the Keystone of Bezel would burn with the same power that it held back in Vegas so many years ago. They could have used it now, but Grandpa taught them both how to make do with the tools you had and it was as much a part of that summer as the Watch.

That had a power all of its own, Gwen thought as she wrapped her hand around it and held it out between them, her intent clear.

She thought it was clear, but Ben just stared at her hand.

And that was when she did what she should have done when she tore open the Rustbucket's door today. She looked him in the eye, and she saw the fear that was eating away at him, too. That had been eating away at him since Alan fell from the sky. Fear that he'd been swallowing back as best he could as he led them across Bellwood, as he taught Alan about his powers, as he teased and poked and bugged her today and yesterday and every day before that just so she didn't get lost in her own head.

Gwen didn't let go of the charm. She didn't need to. She just leaned up and stretched across the space between them so she could kiss her hero as softly as she could. She kissed him until she felt him relax, and when he did…

When she finally broke the kiss, she leaned her forehead against his and promised, "This is going to work, Ben, and when we find him Grandpa is going to be so proud of you."

Her Doofus had saved her a thousand times in the last week, and she only managed to return the favor once, but it was so worth it when she leaned back and saw him smile again. A real one. "What do I have to do?"

And Gwen just smiled back as she let the rings go. They made a soft metallic clicking sound when they reached the bottom of the chain and swung there in soft circles over the map. It was a sound she'd already started to love after the last few days, but it wasn't anything compared to the feel of Ben's hand on hers as they entwined their fingers together around the Keystone. "I'm going to be casting the spell and calling up the power. You have to focus it on Grandpa. Just close your eyes and think about him. Remember him. Remember everything about him."

"What about us?" She heard Alan ask, and she started and couldn't believe that she'd forgotten about them. "I - " she started, because she didn't know what they could do. And then she did. "Michelle. We need somebody to see where these point to."

It was such a small job. One that they probably could have done alone, but her best friend just looked relieved as she nodded and knelt down almost close enough to bump into Gwen's right shoulder. Relieved and scared as her hands dug into the grass just outside of the circle, but she didn't take her eyes off of the rings. "And Alan?"

"I know," Alan sighed before anyone could say anything. "Stand - "

"No," Gwen said. "I mean, yes, but… But if something goes wrong, get Michelle clear."

Michelle, whose eyes went wide at the words but she didn't run. Didn't even flinch even as she gave Gwen a look.

"How - ?" Alan started to ask, then he pulled the fire blanket off of his shoulders and just nodded as he stretched it out between his hands and moved behind her. Proud and ready because he knew just how important his job really was.

And that was that.

"Okay," Gwen said, and then she repeated herself as Ben closed his eyes. She wished that she'd remembered her spellbook, but she didn't need it. She'd said this spell so many times in the last few days that she knew the words. "Treguna Mekoides Trecorum Satis Dee…"

The first time she said it, she was so excited that she stumbled over the words. She didn't the next, and by the third it sounded like she was singing as the mana flowed up from the ground under them and she watched her Doofus close his eyes. Then she did, too, a heartbeat later. Her whole world became his fingers and the charm and the chain that went between them as she kept chanting and even though she wasn't supposed to, she remembered….

Remembered seeing the faded pictures of Grandpa and Grandma's wedding, and how happy he looked as she put the ring on his finger…

Remembered the feel of Grandma's engagement ring as she tried it on, the gold band so big around her finger that it slipped right off when Grandpa startled her….

Remembered the warmth of his arms around her after they found it again, when he'd let her hold it as he told her all about the ring. About how grandma cried when she saw it…

How he teased her that she'd cry one day, too, when she found the right man and he gave her a ring of her own even though she couldn't imagine why she'd want one. And when she told him that, the sound of his chuckle as he kissed the top of her head...

Gwen remembered all of that and more as she felt the air spark in her lungs and the stone in her hand get warmer. The stone and her Doofus's fingers both as the chain started to pull. She felt it, and the words came quicker as memories danced like the blue stars did against the back of her eyelids.

How sad he looked standing in a park over a stone that had her grandmother's name on it until she broke free of her mother's arms just so she could hug him…

The feel of his foot under hers and his arms around her and Ben both as he taught them how to move to the music, the grass outside of the Rustbucket their first dance floor….

The sound of his cheering. At her meets, her science fairs, her recitals, and when she got her first belt in karate…

The strength of his shoulder as she held the burnt ruin of her favorite doll in her hands and he tried to help her figure out why Ben got so mean…

The smell of his cooking. Cooking that she could never bring herself to taste, but right now…

Of his pride after they beat Vilgax's first drone at the start of that magical summer….

How determined he looked after, as he drove all night until Yosemite - until California - was just a memory lost somewhere behind them…

The words were her world now as green stars joined the blue. Joined them in a dance all their own as she remembered things that she couldn't.

His grin as he handed her the first ball that she'd ever hit a home run with. The one that he'd spent a whole hour out in the tall grass looking for…

Laser tag with him on her ninth birthday, when they'd destroyed the opposition together even though she'd been at her morföräldrar's that day…

His hand on her shoulder after another party, his touch the only thing keeping her from falling apart as she wondered why his Dweeb was always yelling at him now….

And then, as the stars spun so close together that they touched and exploded violet to the song of her spell as she felt the rings start pulling at the chain as they made wide circles over the map…

His flush when he found them kissing that day by the lake. Embarrassed, but not horrified like Gwen knew he would be when he caught her kissing her cousin. And then him leading them both to the tree where his initials were carved into a heart with Grandma's…

His simple acceptance as he handed them the same knife…

She remembered his laugh and his holler and his snore. She remembered the smell of his cooking and his Old Spice cologne when he was dressed up. She remembered the way he pointed out the constellations and him singing along to his oldies and - and -

I'll never leave you, Starshine. That's what this ring means. All you ever have to do to find me is look -

And the gold bands yanked against the chain.

Yanked hard enough that it would have pulled the charm right out of Gwen's hand. It would have if she didn't have her Doofus with her. Her Doofus, whose hold on her hand was so strong as they held the stone together. He opened his eyes at the same time she did. Eyes that glowed as they caught the reflection of the burning pentagram around them. They were as electric as the air, and then he blinked and looked down. Gwen's eyes followed his gaze, and she swallowed hard as she stared at the rings that were still pulling against their grip. They were pulling out at an impossible thirty degrees with so much force that the chain was vibrating as they pointed down at something on the map. Something so far south of them. Something just outside of the green expanse of Yosemite and so small that it was just a dot and some words beside the black line of the road.

It was something that Gwen couldn't see, not when she was still blinking away tears and stars, but Michelle could as she stretched over as far as she could and asked;

"Santa Mira? What the heck is in Santa Mira?"