We hit 100k views! This is one of three fun chapters for this weekend + Monday, please enjoy!
Ben was glad Ceres was back up on her feet. Her panic attack seriously worried the group- it had been quite some time since the last one, and with Max's death and the bizarre sense of security Beacon provided (along with the usual stresses of being team leader, now sans advisor), it made Ceres seem like a ticking time bomb. She claimed she was fine and Ari backed her up, so Ben decided to let it go. And as a way of getting back into the swing of things, he even decided to help test something.
...But Ben didn't understand what he was looking at. When Ceres said she had a weapon against Zs'Skayr, he expected something like a sword, not an ordinary pair of glasses.
"My eyes are fine, thank you very much," Ben huffed. "I have 20/20 eyesight...and having Eye Guy makes it better."
"It's not for eyesight, himbicel," Ceres shot back. "It's for tracking."
"Tracking what?"
Ceres put the glasses on. "You know Ghostfreak has that invisibility factor? I'm working on a function that'll allow us to track him when he does that cheap trick."
Ben grinned. "I'm listening."
"Ectonurites are technically dead, yet they still produce some form of body heat," Ceres explained. "So I rigged up a 'special' kind of heat vision goggles. Mind if I try it out?"
Ben shrugged as he activated the watch. "I mean, I'm the only Ectonurite around...well, the only one that isn't mutated." He slapped down the Omnitrix faceplate; the skin around his bones quickly decayed, leaving behind his skeleton. A grey sheet suddenly suffocated his body, turning into Ghostfreak's normal appearance.
Ceres grinned, activating the glasses. "Alright. Now go invisible."
Ben faded from her vision and floated around the place. Ceres managed to follow his every move.
"Are they working?" Ben's voice rasped.
"Yep!" Ceres beamed. "Now, let's try that thing I added..." She pressed a button on the side of the glasses, releasing a bright flash. Ben fell on the ground screaming, covering up his single eye.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" he shrieked, leaking ectoplasm tears.
"Well, that works." Ceres smirked as she took them off. "Sorry about that. Buy you a smoothie downtown?"
Ben pouted as he reverted back to human. "...Yeah, I'd like that."
Ruby suddenly burst into the lab, a trail of petals following close behind. "OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?"
"Flashbanged Ben," Ceres said casually.
"...again?"
"Hey, we're down to two per week," she defended. "This is the last time it's gonna happen...hopefully. Where were you?"
"Oh, I was hanging out with one of my friends." Ruby stepped aside to present Penny. "Ceres, this is my friend Penny."
"Is Ceres the one with the muscles?" the redhead asked.
Ruby's face turned red as she averted her eyes. "Yes."
Ceres said nothing, staring at Penny. "Uh...huh." She looked genuinely confused. Ben raised an eyebrow. That's weird, he thought. Ceres would've normally taken that comment in stride.
Ben shook his head and turned back to Ruby. "What were you two even doing?"
"Ruby invited me to play 'Dodge The Ball Then Eliminate Your Enemies With The Ball'." Penny smiled brightly.
"We just call it "Dodgeball", Penny," Ruby sighed. "Also, we were all friends..."
Ben raised an eyebrow. "'Were'?"
"I'm pretty sure Penny made a bunch of enemies today," she explained. "We're gonna go downtown to get smoothies. You guys wanna come along?"
"We were gonna do the same thing," Ben said. He glanced back at Ceres, who was still focused on Penny. She lowered her glasses a few times and polished it with her shirt to make sure there weren't any smudges.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Penny smiled. She and Ruby walked off, and Ben went to join them-
"That girl has no body heat," Ceres said flatly.
Ben blinked and turned around. "Come again?"
"You heard me. That Penny girl has no body temperature whatsoever."
"...ok, that's freaky. Should we say something?"
"I dunno...these still are a work in progress," Ceres said hesitantly. "Flashbang might've messed with programming a bit. I am a little suspicious, though."
And Ceres had a right to be very suspicious.
"So, Penny," Ceres began, when the two were sitting alone at one of the Mr. Smoothies in Vale. "Where are you from?"
"Oh! I'm from Atlas." Penny beamed. "I represent Atlas' prestigious academy as a second year, as part of Team CPER."
"Interesting," Ceres noted. "First time visiting?"
She nodded. "I've never been to another kingdom before. My father asked me not to venture out too far, but... You have to understand, my father loves me very much. He just worries a lot."
"Believe me, I know the feeling." Ceres smiled to make Penny feel at ease. The other girl seemed normal enough on the surface. She just couldn't shake that weird image of her earlier.
"What about you? Ben mentioned you were an..." Penny glanced around, before leaning in closely. "Alien."
Ceres chuckled. "That's definitely true. I'm from a planet called Archimedes-Alpha, the first of five, actually. It's one of the most technically advanced planets in the known universe."
Penny's eyes lit up. "Really? How advanced?"
"When humanity still had the feudal system, my people were already exploring the cosmos," Ceres told her. "We've come a long way in the last thousand years."
"If you don't mind me asking, what do you think about Earth?"
"I expected worse. This is fine." Ceres shrugged. "Kind of expected it to be a bit warmer, though..."
Penny suddenly gasped, as if she forgot something. Ceres raised an eyebrow. "Everything ok?"
"O-oh! Yes, I-I just remembered I had to do an assignment for Professor Port's class," Penny lied. "That's all."
Ceres was still suspicious, but didn't press. Penny was a little odd, but Ceres didn't mind much. Besides, she was kinda cute.
Ceres looked down at her glasses, and then at the people milling around her. There was a decently sized crowd, why not check if it was a fluke. Ceres slipped the pair on and looked around. Everyone had a body heat...including Penny.
"Oooh! Nice shades," the other girl gushed. "What brand are they? Goo-che?"
Ceres nearly burst out laughing at Penny's botched pronunciation. "No, Gucci's too ugly," she said, pushing aside her fears. It looked like it had been a glitch after all.
It all happened so fast. The four of them were walking back to the dorms, satisfied with their drinks. Ruby and Penny were joking about how Cardin was terrified of Penny by the end of the dodgeball game when-
HOOOOOOOONK!
A truck quickly barreled down the road, with no signs of stopping. Penny had already stepped in the path of the truck, and it was about to hit her when she turned and stuck her palms out-
AND STOPPED THE DAMN TRUCK. The ground beneath Penny cracked and crumbled into pieces, and the truck was lifted into the air by the girl's sheer strength. She quickly put it down, and the driver stared in awe at the crumples in his hood...just like the three bystanders nearby.
"...Penny?" Ruby's voice quavered.
"Are you okay?" Penny asked the driver. The driver nodded a few times, and she sighed happily.
"Ok, what the fuck," Ceres stated. Penny's wave of pride washed away as she realized that people were staring and whispering. She paled considerably and ran off.
"Penny! Come back!" Ruby yelled, and the three chased after her. Ceres paused briefly to look at the hood; there were two tiny handprints in the grill. Whether this girl was just really strong or something else entirely, Ceres had to admit that was seriously cool.
The three found Penny in an alleyway, crouched over and keeping her hands tucked to her chest. Ceres could recognize the beginnings of a panic attack.
"Penny, please! What is going on?! Why are you running? How did you do that?!" Ruby yelled, flailing her arms for emphasis.
"Yes, PLEASE go into detail about that last one," Ben added.
"I-I can't! Everything's fine!" Penny hiccuped. "I-I don't want to talk about it!"
"Penny, if you tell us what's wrong, we can help you," Ceres told her, voice quiet and calm.
Penny backed away. "No! No, no! You wouldn't understand!"
"You can trust us to keep a secret," Ben said, motioning down to the watch. "We're great at that."
"...alright," Penny eventually relented. "You're all my friends, right?"
Ruby nodded. "Of course we are. Just tell us what's wrong."
Penny paused, still mulling it over, before showing them her hands. "...I'm not a real girl."
Ceres briefly thought Penny was coming out as transgender, and she had a speech validating her at the ready, but then Ceres took a good, long look at Penny's palms. Parts of her skin had been ripped away, revealing familiar gray metal underneath.
Ceres blinked. "Oh."
Ben stood there, jaw dropping in surprise, while Ruby just kept staring at Penny's hands. "Penny, I-I don't understand."
"Most girls are born, but I was made. I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an aura," Penny explained, her voice solemn.
"That explains why I couldn't pick up on your body heat earlier," Ceres said, scratching her cheek.
"I had shut my 'body heat' off because dodgeball got really intense and I didn't want it to appear as if I were 'too warm'," Penny explained sheepishly.
"It looked like you were dead, Penny," Ceres stated flatly.
"...so I did." She nodded. "But...yes, I'm...just not a real, normal girl."
Ruby smiled. "Of course you are. You think just because you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts makes you any less real than me?"
Penny blinked."You are taking this EXTREMELY well."
"You can thank me for that," Ben said smugly. Ceres elbowed him in the arm.
"It's just...One day, it will be my job to save the world, but I still have a lot left to learn. That's why my father let me come to the Vytal Festival. I want to see what the rest of the world is like, and test myself in the Tournament," Penny explained. "I've done my best to keep this secret from everyone else, but pretending to be human is definitely weird."
"Trust me, I know what that's like," Ceres reassured her. "And in my opinion, that means you're a real girl. You've got a heart and soul...and the strength needed to beat down creeps. That's every woman's dream."
Penny grinned as she quickly wrapped all three of her friends in a vice-like hug. Ben nearly screamed as he could feel his bones being crushed. "Oooooh! You're the best friends anyone could have!"
Ceres snickered. "I can see why your father would want to protect such a delicate flower."
"DELICATE FLOWER?! I HAVE DELICATE BONES!" Ben yelled as Penny released them.
"Oh, my father is very sweet! He's the one that built me! I'm sure you would love him!" Penny exclaimed happily.
"Wait, he built you all by himself?" Ceres asked, impressed.
"Well, he had some help from General Ironwood...and a few other people, I believe," Penny explained, before looking down at her hands. "I wish he was here so he could fix this, though..."
Ceres grinned. "I may be able to help with that. How about we all go back to my lab and do a quick fix?"
Penny gasped. "You would do that for me?"
"What are friends for?"
