As they left the park and headed back to where their grandfather had parked the Rust Bucket, Ben was feeling pretty proud of himself. He'd never been the best at making friends, so the fact that he'd managed to look cool in front of two clearly-much-cooler people had him feeling good.

However, despite the fact that Gwen had been happy with the situation while they were hanging out with Randy and Mandy, she seemed worried about something. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her phone and began tapping the screen. "Ben, what social media are you on?"

"What? Why?"

"Just tell me."

"Um. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Why?" Ben replied, walking with his hands in his pockets, trying not to let Gwen's sudden change in demeanor ruin his relaxed mood.

"Go private on everything. Now." As she spoke, Ben could see on her screen that she was doing exactly as she'd instructed him to do.

"Huh?" Ben looked dumbfounded. "What for?"

"They have your name now," she explained. "If they search for you, they might find us, and then they might find out a little something about the Tennyson Family."

"What? Oh, c'mon, Dweeb. You're being paranoid," Ben said dismissively. "I don't follow or post pics of anyone in the family aside from you and Lucy, and any pics I post of us are normie-friendly anyway."

"Ben, I'm not asking you to delete anything. Just hide it. Just in case," Gwen insisted.

It took Ben a moment to respond, but eventually he sighed. He recognized the tone Gwen was using, and there would be no changing her mind. So, he took out his phone and did as she asked, privating all of his social media then and there. "I'm gonna look like one of those celebrities who makes a bad tweet and then just goes dark to hide from everyone," he complained.

"If it helps, you can post a bad tweet to help sell the illusion," Gwen joked, smirking impudently at him.

"Whatever, Dweeb." When he was finished, Ben slipped his phone back into his pocket. "Anything else?"

Gwen shook her head. "Not right now. Thanks, Ben."

The Rust Bucket came into sight. Max had parked the vehicle in something like a campsite that lay beyond the far end of the massive parking lot. It was just beside a forest, which Ben took notice of. "We don't have to head back right away, do we?"

Gwen tilted her head curiously. "I mean, we haven't seen Grandpa since lunch. But, like, I don't know. What do you have in mind?"

Raising his arm, Ben pointed towards the woods. "Let's go over there for a bit."

"In the woods?" Gwen glanced between him and the place where he was pointing. Ben could tell she was torn, probably not wanting to leave their grandfather waiting, but she always enjoyed their opportunities to be truly alone with one another.

"Just for a bit," Ben insisted, setting off towards the treeline. "Don't worry so much, Dweeb."

"Worry more, Doofus." Gwen seemed mildly annoyed, but she still followed him.

When they made it to the woods, they walked a few yards further in, bushing branches and bushes out of their way as they went. "Ugh. This is annoying, Gwen complained. "What are we- whoa!" It didn't take long for Gwen to trip. Luckily, she fell into Ben, who managed to catch her. Once he had her steady, he pulled her over to the nearest tree, pushing her back against it.

"You're welcome."

Gwen chuckled. "Really?"

"I know. Pretty smooth, right?"

"Nothing you ever do is smooth."

"I'm not the one who just tripped."

Gwen laughed again, but Ben kissed her before she could say anything else. She let him do so for a few seconds, then gently moved back. "Ben…"

"What? You wanted to do what Randy and Mandy were doing earlier, right?" Ben didn't always find Gwen easy to read, but she was a pretty open book when it came to this sort of thing.

"I know, it's just…" Gwen glanced back towards the way they'd come. "What if Grandpa sees?"

Ben furrowed his brow. "What? Out here?"

"He might have seen us through the window when we walked by the Rust Bucket. Or he might poke his head out and hear us," Gwen explained. "Maybe we should go deeper into the woods first."

Ben facepalmed. "Jeez. You really are paranoid."

Gwen looked frustrated. "Well, we should be. We spent all day not being careful."

"I know! And it turned out great, didn't it?"

"Because Mandy and Randy don't know us. Grandpa does."

"Ugh…" Ben took a step back, rolling his eyes. Suddenly, he didn't feel much like making out anymore. "Nevermind."

Gwen remained leaning against the tree. She didn't seem angry, but it was clear she thought the moment was awkward now. The two of them were silent for a moment, the air a little uncomfortable.

"I had a lot of fun today," Gwen said eventually, breaking the silence. "Thanks, Ben."

Even though he was annoyed with her, Ben found Gwen's earnestness hard to stay mad at. "I did, too. I finally met someone I can watch horror movies with," he teased.

Gwen laughed. "Come on. I'm better with horror than you are."

Ben was about to counter that by bringing up the incident with the spider from earlier that day, but upon thinking about that encounter again, he gasped. "Yo, we should definitely go back to the haunted house and check out that giant alien spider."

"What?" Gwen scoffed. "Ben, that was clearly just part of the ride. What are the odds that an alien decided to set up shop in a haunted house ride?"

"Maybe that's why they did it," Ben theorized. "Hiding in plain sight. No one would ever expect it."

Gwen hugged her arms around herself, her body language making it seem like she was trying to make herself smaller. Ben could tell there was something more to this than her arachnophobia. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Gwen rubbed her shoulder, looking off to the side to avoid eye contact. "I freaked out in the haunted house today. Not just at the spider, but the part before that. When I used my magic to break the door open."

There were a few things she could have meant by that, and Ben didn't know exactly which way to interpret it. "Gwen, do you hate using magic now?"

"No, it's not like that," she replied, her red hair ruffling slightly as she shook her head. "It was the ghost. I…"

Oh.

Ben knew what she meant now. "We don't have to go back to the haunted house if you don't want to," Ben offered.

"I…" Gwen shifted her stance awkwardly. She still seemed conflicted about something. "Do you… really want to fight aliens again?"

Unconsciously, Ben looked at his left wrist. There was barely any visible scarring, but he would always be reminded of the Omnitrix. "It won't be anything dangerous," he insisted, idly scratching the back of his wrist. "We'll tell Grandpa, I'll borrow some relatively safe weapon from him…"

"Relatively safe weapon?" Gwen repeated, halfway between amused and indignant by the ridiculous phrase.

"I, I know, just… Look, it's probably nothing anyway, right? Just a haunted house prop? So what's the harm in checking it out? And if it is real, well, then we need to get rid of it before someone gets hurt, right?" Ben tried to get his entire thought process out before Gwen had a chance to interrupt him. Something he'd found was that he had a better chance of convincing Gwen of something if he tried to be logical about it, and he was fairly certain his logic was sound here.

Gwen stared at him for a while. He got the feeling that she was on the brink of saying no, but holding back. "I… Just this once?"

Ben grimaced. He could've just said 'yes' in hopes of convincing her, but he didn't want to lie. Regardless of how this spider thing panned out, he didn't want to swear off of hero stuff for good.

Gwen sighed exasperatedly. "Look… if it looks too dangerous, just promise me we'll leave it alone, okay?"

"I promise." Ben's definition of 'too dangerous' was likely very different from Gwen's, but he could at least promise her that.

With enormous hesitation, Gwen nodded. "Fine. Let's go see what Grandpa thinks about this."

Ben shoved the Rust Bucket door open. "We're back, Grandpa!"

"Ben!" Gwen scolded him.

"What? It's not like he's sleeping."

"Ah, welcome back, kids," Max greeted them, climbing out of his booth at the table.

"See?"

Gwen scoffed and pushed her way past Ben. He couldn't tell if he'd actually bugged her or if she was just playing it up for Grandpa's sake again.

"Hi, Grandpa." The redhead gave Max a hug as she greeted him. "How was your dinner?"

"It was great! That fish I caught was just perfect. Shame you two missed out." Max sat back down and moved aside the book he'd been reading. "So how was your afternoon?"

Gwen smiled. "Oh, it was great! We hung out at the arcade and met these two really cool kids from around here. Then we went on more rides, and-"

"We saw a giant alien spider in the haunted house!" Ben blurted out.

Max locked eyes with him, suddenly looking serious. "What kind of alien spider? An arachnichimp?"

"A what?" Gwen asked, smirking as if she found the name ridiculous.

"That sounds cool!" Ben said. "But, uh, it wasn't chimp-like. I don't think. It just looked like a big spider."

"We only said it for a second. And it was dark. And it might have just been part of the haunted house ride…" Gwen explained, sharing her doubts.

"Oh." Their grandfather suddenly didn't seem so serious. "Well, sounds like a fun ride."

"Grandpa," Ben complained. "We don't know it was a part of the ride. It could be an alien. It trapped Gwen in its web!"

"Could've been fake web…" Gwen muttered.

Ben groaned. "Could you just lend us some Plumber tech so we can go check it out?"

"Ben, I don't know if I should just lend you Plumber tech," Max replied, reaching for his book. "That stuff is too dangerous for someone your age."

"I used the Omnitrix when I was ten," Ben argued, not believing what he was hearing. "It was, like, my whole thing!"

"I don't recall being the one to give you the Omnitrix, Ben," Max pointed out, opening up his book to start reading again.

"You… I…" Exasperated, Ben sighed, falling back to lean against the Rust Bucket window. There was silence for a moment while he contemplated what to say next, but before he could think of anything, Gwen appeared at his side. She placed a hand on his arm, locking eyes with him and sharing a sympathetic look.

"Grandpa," Gwen said. "Ben's right."

Ben's heart beat faster.

Max turned back to them. "So you both think so?"

"Yes," the redhead asserted. "I mean, he might be wrong about it being a real alien, but he's not wrong that we should check it out. If it's real, and it's dangerous, then it could hurt someone."

Their grandfather considered this for a moment, then sighed, sliding his book to the end of the table. "They make it so hard to retire these days, don't they?" Max stood up and walked to the front end of the Rust Bucket, sitting in the driver's seat. After pressing a few buttons, a hidden screen descended from the ceiling in front of him. "Hm… I think I have some gear that could be safe enough for teenagers…"

As Max swiped through the touchscreen with his back to his grandchildren, Ben pulled Gwen into a big hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he whispered into her ear.

"Stop. Stop it!" Gwen pleaded quietly, giggling as she tried to push him off of her.

"This ought to do." After pressing a few more buttons, another hidden compartment opened up in the floor of the Rust Bucket. A large rectangular case rose up out of it.

"Oooh!" Excitedly, Ben ran over to the case. "What is it? A blaster rifle? An energy sword? A gatling laser?"

"Gatling laser?" Gwen asked.

Max slid the case open, revealing three white, sleek-looking, gun-shaped devices.

Ben gasped. "It is laser guns!"

"Well, no." Grandpa shook his head. "They're more like tasers than guns. But they do have an impressive effective range."

"So, laser taser. Neat!" Ben reached for the closest taser, but Max grabbed him by the wrist.

"Hold on just a minute, champ," his grandfather warned him. "Even though these are intended to be non-lethal, you still need to be careful with them. Don't point it at anyone or anything you wouldn't want to shoot. Don't drop it, don't leave it anywhere, don't let anyone see it, and don't take the safety off unless I say it's okay."

"Okay, jeez. I'm not a little kid anymore, Grandpa." Ben pulled his hand back and crossed his arms, effectively pouting.

I'm not an idiot.

"Alright. Ben, Gwen, take one and put it in your bag. We wouldn't want to walk around with these openly, even at night," Max instructed.

"Okay, Grandpa." Gwen accepted the instruction and collected her taser, slipping it into the small backpack she sometimes used during summer trips.

"Okay." Ben took his taser as well. As soon as it was in his hand, he smiled.

This is so cool!

Max took one as well, then moved the case out of the way to reveal another. When he opened it, the new case revealed three cylindrical objects capped with a glass bulb of some kind.

Ben immediately got excited. He thought the taser would be all they were getting. "Whoa, what are these? Beam cannons?"

"They're flashlights, Ben," Max informed him. "It's dark outside."

Gwen laughed. Ben looked unamused.

"Whatever," Ben said, his mood switching back to excitement as he thought about what they were about to do. "Now let's go break into the park and hunt that alien!"

"Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh…" Ben hummed his own stealth music as he darted around the corner, sidling closely to the wall. He glanced around, keeping an eye out for aliens, or park security guards.

"Would you cut that out, Doofus." Gwen walked up next to him and crossed her arms.

"Shh," Ben shushed her. "Gotta be very quiet. We're hunting wabbits."

Max chuckled at that, appearing beside the two cousins. He carried a large bag with him, which he said was filled with tools to help them constrain the alien after they'd stunned it.

Gwen groaned. "I'm more than willing to help with this, Ben, but I'd rather not end up with a criminal record for it. So don't get us caught."

"Don't worry, Gwen. I wouldn't get us caught," Ben assured her. "I don't wanna be banned from this sweet amusement park."

His girlfriend looked unamused for a second, but then a laugh escaped her. "You are such a Doofus," she said lovingly. She then seemed to remember that their grandfather was standing right next to them, so she cleared her throat and tried to act serious again. "Anyway. The haunted house is right down that way, Grandpa."

"Lead the way, kids."

Ben had to admit that the haunted house looked much creepier at night. Not only was the sky pitch black, but all of the lights and electronic noise makers and such had been switched off. The building looked much closer to a real abandoned building than it had while the ride was in operation.

"Wow, look at this dump," Ben commented. "No wonder an alien thought it could crash here safely."

"Where in the building was it?" Grandpa asked.

"It was a place that looked like a basement," Gwen said. "We can find it more easily if we go in the back, I think."

"Alright."

The trio went around to the back of the haunted house. There, they found the wall with many exits leading from it.

"Which door do we go in?" Max asked.

Ben stood in front of the doors, looking between them.

I have absolutely no idea which one we came out of earlier.

"Um…" Ben raised his hand, moving it back and forth as he tried to choose.

Gwen stood beside him and smirked. "You don't remember, do you?"

Ben scoffed. "Oh, like you do."

"I do. But I wanna see if you can guess it."

"Sure. And then when I pick the right door, you pretend like you knew it all along, right? I'm not an idiot, Gwen."

"Fine." Gwen confidently strode over to one of the doors and tried to open it, but found that she couldn't. "Shoot. It's locked."

"Heh. Nice pick, Dweeb." Ben approached the door to the left of the one she'd chosen, but found it to be locked as well. "Oh. This one's locked, too."

"Well duh. Why would they lock one and not the others?"

"Why didn't they lock your mouth?"

"What does that even-?"

"Kids!" Max interrupted them. "Let's keep our voices down. We're trying not to make our presence known, remember?"

"Sorry, Grandpa," Ben and Gwen said in unison.

"Here. Allow me." Max set his bag down, then stuck his hand into it to fish something out. He retrieved some sort of long, thin, metallic device, which must have been a high-tech lockpick or something. He stuck it into the keyhole of the door Gwen had chosen, and after wiggling it for a few seconds, the door popped right open.

"Wow! You are the coolest grandpa ever," Ben told him.

"Thanks, Grandpa." Gwen gave him a kiss on the cheek before heading inside. "See? It was this door, Doofus."

"Gwen," Max said disapprovingly as she tried to restart their argument.

"Sorry, Grandpa."

When Ben followed his girlfriend inside, he still wasn't sure if she had been correct. When they'd gone through the exit earlier, it had been after sprinting through the last couple sections without stopping to look at them, so he did not find the room familiar at all.

The room was filled with what looked to be carpentry equipment. There were piles of unused wooden beams stacked up by the wall, and there were large saws and other power tools that looked like they were covered with blood. None of the tools were currently running, however, and Ben noticed they were behind plastic screens that had likely been put there for safety. He wasn't even phased by the headless body on the ground near one of the saws, which was clearly just a mannequin.

"Cool," Ben muttered, looking around the place. He wondered what kind of spooks this room held while the ride was opened. "Shame we just kinda ran through this place."

"I guess." Gwen didn't seem as interested and continued further into the building.

Ben took a second to look around in the next room, too. Just as the previous room had been, this one was entirely wooden, including the furniture. The most notable thing about the room was that it was filled with occult symbols carved onto various surfaces - the floor, ceiling, walls, tables, etc. Some of them were spattered with the same fake blood as the previous room, and some had unlit candles placed around them.

"Yo, looks like someone was trying to summon demons in here," Ben commented. "Grandpa, are there any aliens that look like demons?"

"Hmm…" Max put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "I know of a few that resemble creatures from Lovecraft's works. Do those count?"

"What, like Vilgax?" Ben said. "Nah, I mean horns and hooves. Real devil-type stuff. How cool would it be to add 'demon hunter' to my job description?"

Gwen ignored the discussion, proceeding across the room to what must have been the door they'd come out of earlier that day. "This is the basement," she said. "Come look down here, Grandpa."

The three of them proceeded down the creaky staircase. When they reached the bottom, they quickly scanned their surroundings with their flashlights before proceeding any further.

"This is where you saw it?" Max asked.

"Yeah," Ben confirmed, pointing. "Over there."

The three of them pointed their lights at the same place, but nothing was there.

"Should we go in further?" Gwen asked. Despite having claimed that she didn't believe there was a real giant spider down there, her voice betrayed a hint of fear.

"Yes. Follow me. And you can draw your stunners now," Max informed them.

Ben smiled, happy to pull out his stun gun. "Cool," he whispered.

"Do these work?" Max asked, pulling the string of a lightbulb that hung from the ceiling. The bulb slightly illuminated the room, making it a bit easier to see. "Good. Turn on the others as we go."

"Watch out for the webs," Gwen warned him. "Even if they're fake, they're still really sticky."

"Guys, check this out." Ben pointed his flashlight at the wall. There was a hole at the bottom of it that looked large enough for the giant spider to fit through. "It must go through there."

"Ben, the web!" Gwen shouted.

"Wha-? Aw, fuck." As he tried to walk forward, he felt the web tug on his arm.

"Watch your language, young man," Max warned.

"Sorry, Grandpa." Ben yanked against the web again. "Do you have, like, a super high-tech Plumber knife or something?"

"Not on me," Max replied. "But maybe we can-"

"Look!" Gwen shrieked, pointing at the hole in the wall. The legs of the giant spider had emerged, and it was slowly moving towards them.

"Oh, shit!" Ben leaped backwards, but was unable to move far due to the webbing. Acting on instinct, he raised the stun gun and tried to fire it. "Safety, safety!" he remembered, fumbling to turn the safety off. When he did, he fired, sending a glowing yellow ball of electricity or something hurtling towards the spider.

"Open fire," Max ordered, and he and Gwen joined in.

When the projectiles of their stun guns collided with the spider, crackling electricity pulsed over its body. The giant spider made a sound like a large TV being suddenly unplugged, and it stopped in its tracks. When the electricity finished discharging, the spider remained stationary, with smoke emanating from its motionless body.

"I guess it worked," Gwen said with some surprise.

"See? I told you there was no need to use anything dangerous," Max commented.

"Yeah, yeah, that's great and all, but can someone get this fucking web off of me?" Ben complained, still struggling against the webbing.

"Language, Ben."

Max and Gwen both grabbed onto him and pulled. It took some effort, but eventually, the web snapped, and Ben broke free. As soon as he was loose, Ben raised his stun gun at the spider again, but the creature still wasn't moving. "So, what do we do with it now?" Ben asked. "Throw it into the Null Void? Launch it into the Sun? Strand it on the Moon?"

"It's just a spider, Ben." Max stepped towards the spider and shined his flashlight on it.

"Yeah, this isn't exactly a-" Gwen moved closer to the creature, then stopped, staring down at it oddly. "Hey. Wait a minute…"

Max seemed to realize the same thing she did. He walked right up to the motionless spider and tapped it with his flashlight. It sounded like plastic.

"Wha-?" Ben furrowed his brow, then stomped over to the spider's body, feeling betrayed. Up close and in the light, he could easily see it was animatronic. "Oh, come on!" he complained, kicking the mechanical spider in frustration.

"Hey, careful," Max told him. "We've already fried their robot. No need to damage it any further."

Ben could only groan, stepping away from the spider. "This sucks."

Gwen stepped up next to him and put a hand on his shoulder, smiling sympathetically. "I thought it was real, too," she told him. "But, it's better that it's not, right? It means it hasn't hurt anyone."

"I- Yeah, I know, I just-" Ben turned around, only to find himself staring straight into the face of a woman with black hair spilling over her face. "Jesus Christ!"

Gwen shrieked when she saw it, too.

"Kids, get back!" Max reacted instantly, moving to place himself between his grandchildren and the mysterious newcomer, holding up his stun gun.

There was a pause. The ghost lady did not speak, nor did she react to Max pointing a weapon at her.

"Um. Sorry. I know we shouldn't be in here," Gwen spoke after a moment, either assuming or hoping that it was just a theme park employee.

"And sorry I kicked your spider!" Ben added quickly. "Also we zapped it, but we thought it was real. Honest!"

"You are a Plumber?" The ghost lady spoke. Her voice was loud and feminine, and it echoed more than it should have in that basement.

Ben saw a look of terror appear in Gwen's eyes.

Max tightened his grip on his weapon. "What if I am?" he asked.

"Then die." The ghost lady let out a sound that was halfway between a moan and a hiss. Her appearance began to change. Her arms elongated, her legs revealed themselves to be a single ghostly tail, her unkempt hair became writhing tentacles, and a large yellow eye moved across her torso.

Gwen shrieked again. Before Ben had a chance to react, she raised her hand, which flashed with a glowing blue light. A similar light erupted from the ghost lady, and she was shoved backwards, eliciting a pained moan. With an angry hiss, the ghost turned translucent and melted through the floor.

"No, no, no, no!" Gwen shouted, turning in place several times as she tried to find where the ghost would appear again.

"Gwen, Gwen!" Ben attempted to grab hold of her, but she didn't let him, holding up both her stun gun and an empty hand that glowed with magic.

"Everybody stay close," Grandpa commanded, moving in to stand near them. "Turn on your flashlights to full power."

"What?" Ben was confused by his grandfather's directions, but then he remembered what they were fighting. Ectonurites hated light. "Okay," he said, lifting the flashlight Max had given him earlier and dialing it up to its highest setting. By the time he had the settings right, it looked almost like he was aiming a giant laser pointer at the wall.

Max and Gwen did the same. "Does this thing emit enough UV light to harm an Ectonurite?" Gwen asked, still breathing heavily and sounding a little panicked.

"It should, but we'll see," Max said. "Keep an eye out for-"

"There!" Gwen was the first to spot it. The ghostly alien emerged from the floor further into the cellar room. It was still translucent, but the telltale shimmer gave it away. When Gwen hit it with her light, the alien screeched in pain and turned visible again. It did not stay in place for long, however. The Ectonurite quickly flew out of the path of Gwen's light beam, then changed course and flew directly at her. She screamed just as the alien turned translucent again and phased into her body.

"Gwen!" Ben and Max shouted in unison, aiming their lights at her.

"No, no, no, no! Not again!" Gwen's voice came out altered, like something out of The Exorcist, but it was undoubtedly still her talking. Her eyes glowed with a green light. She put her hands to her head as she thrashed about like she was fighting with herself.

After only a few seconds, Gwen threw out her arms and screamed. A glowing blue magical light surged outwards from her, and the Ectonurite appeared once more, having been expelled from Gwen's body before it could completely possess her.

"Now, Ben!" Max commanded. Both he and his grandson hit the alien with their lights. The ghostly alien solidified again, becoming opaque, and its skin sizzled like a vampire in the sunlight. It howled in pain, but it could not get up, lying in a heap on the floor like a deflated balloon.

"What do we do now?" Ben had to shout in order to be heard over the alien's screams.

"Just hold it there." While Ben kept his flashlight trained on the Ectonurite, Max put his tools down and dug through his bag, pulling out some sort of high-tech-looking metal box. Tapping a few buttons on it, the box seemed to activate, as indicated by the colored lights. Max then put the item on the floor and gave it a kick. The box slid across the floor, coming to a stop right beside the injured Ectonurite. Almost immediately, the box began to suck up the ghostly alien.

"No! No! No!" the alien cried. But soon, it had been sucked in completely. The box snapped shut, and the light changed color, as if to indicate that it was locked.

While the dust settled, the three Tennysons stood where they were, panting and staring at the ghost-catching box. Gwen allowed herself to fall to the ground in a seated position, hand to her heart. After a moment, Ben decided to celebrate their victory.

"Fuck yeah!" Ben cried. "That was totally like something straight out of Ghostbusters, Grandpa!"

"I do enjoy that movie," Max commented, retrieving the ghost trap and placing it in his bag. "Let's hurry back to the Rust Bucket. Someone must have heard all the yelling by now."

"Right!" Ben was excited, but his enthusiasm left him when he saw Gwen's face. She didn't look miserable or angry; she had a thousand-yard stare, like she was contemplating everything. "Gwen…" Ben said in a worried tone, hurrying to her side.

"I'm fine," Gwen replied in a voice barely above a whisper, shaking her head out of a daze. "Let's… Let's just do what Grandpa said, okay?"

Ben watched her head for the stairs. He gave a misplaced apologetic glance towards his grandfather, but Max shook his head sympathetically, placing a hand on Ben's back. Together, they followed after Gwen.

After exiting the haunted house, the three Tennysons had to focus for a bit in order to sneak back out of the park, just in case there was anyone working security that night who may have heard the commotion they'd caused. Luckily, they managed to make it out without any major issues.

On the walk back to the Rust Bucket, Gwen went back to being silent and distant. Ben wanted to talk to her, but he didn't want to try in front of Grandpa.

"So… what happens with the Ectonurite?" Ben asked his grandfather.

"She can't harm anyone from in here," Max replied, holding up the ghost trap he'd stuffed the alien creature inside of. "I'll notify some of my old Plumber contacts. They'll be able to send someone out to retrieve her."

"What will they do with her?" Ben asked, curious to hear more about Plumber operations. "Is there, like, a prison for aliens? Or does she get sent back to her home planet?"

"Well, it all depends on the severity of the crime, I guess. The fact that she attacked me as soon as she heard I was a Plumber probably means she's already wanted by them."

"So we just caught a dangerous alien criminal. Cool!" Ben smiled to himself. He'd thought they were just going to capture some weird giant spider, but this had been much more exciting.

It's just like the good old days.

At that thought, Ben glanced towards his girlfriend again. She was walking ahead of them, so all he could see was the back of her head, but he already knew she wasn't as happy about this as he was.

When they reached the Rust Bucket, Max unlocked the door and the three of them climbed inside. "Don't worry about the Ectonurite," Max told them as he secured the ghost trap in one of the Rust Bucket's many secret compartments. "You kids should get some sleep. You've had a long day."

Gwen agreed without question, walking straight for the bedroom. "Goodnight, Grandpa." She made her way through the Rust Bucket and shut the bedroom door behind her.

Ben paused for a second. "Night, Grandpa," he said before hurrying after Gwen.

Inside their shared bedroom, Ben found his girlfriend sitting on the edge of her bed. Her hands were folded in front of her, and she stared at the ground. Ben froze, wondering if he should just leave her alone, but he was very bad at that. Instead, he walked over and took a seat beside her.

"I didn't expect it to be one of those," he said, accidentally speaking rather nonspecifically, but he hoped he got the message across. "I wouldn't have asked you to come along if I'd known."

"I wouldn't want to be left behind as long as you were going anyway," Gwen replied quietly, still not looking in his direction.

"I know." Ben felt like he'd screwed up, but he could still recover. "I meant… When we talked earlier, in the woods, I knew what you were trying to say," he explained. "When we saw the ghost lady, it scared you enough to use your magic… because it reminded you of Ghostfreak."

Gwen lowered her face into her hand, took a deep breath, and slowly nodded. "Being possessed by Zs'Skayr… that was one of the scariest parts of our first summer. I never really told you that, I don't think."

"Yeah, I…" Ben had thought of that before, but he hadn't thought of what to say about it. "I remember that clearly," he told her. "When Ghostfreak had you on the edge of that roof, threatening to make you jump off… that was one of the worst parts of that summer for me, too. I don't think I've ever hated anyone as much as I hated Ghostfreak for that. I wanted to kill him for that," he admitted.

His girlfriend finally turned to look at him again. Ben got the feeling that they actually understood each other completely for once. He could see tears in her eyes, but he could tell she was grateful. They'd both admitted to having been traumatized by the same event. Ben held out his hand, and Gwen clutched it before leaning to the side to lay her head on his shoulder.

"Did this one possess you, too?" Ben asked.

Gwen moved her head in a shaking motion, nuzzling it against Ben's shoulder. "She tried," she told him. "I… felt her mind… trying to push mine out. I… I don't want to lose control of my body like that. Not again."

"Her mind fought with yours, and she lost," Ben pointed out. "Being so hardheaded finally paid off, huh?"

Despite herself, Gwen let out a small laugh at her boyfriend's joke. "Said Ben," she responded, lazily swinging her arm to smack him in the stomach.

Ben smiled. "I'm… I'm glad you're okay, Gwen," he told her, feeling like he probably should have said that already.

"And I'm glad I was there to protect you," Gwen offered in return. "I still don't want to do this stuff anymore. Not much, at least. But… if you're gonna do this again at any point this summer, can you promise you'll tell me so I can be there, too?"

"No sweat," Ben agreed. "It wouldn't be the same without you, Dweeb."

"You wouldn't be alive without me, Doofus."

"And you wouldn't be alive without me."

They turned to face each other, locking eyes with equally smug grins on their faces. At the same time, they both leaned in for a kiss, then fell sideways together onto Gwen's bed.

Author's note:

Apologies for the large delay between chapters. I'm still finishing up my last super-long term project, and I've just been kind of working on this story every now and then on the side. Updates will become more regular sometime later in the year. For now, I'll just be slowly finishing up this little "preview" arc.

Anyway, I guess I'll do some comment responses while I'm at it.

TheKaiSenpai: "Glad to see a sequel. Is this all planed out as well, or are you flying by the seat of your pants this timeneith whatever works? Either way, this is fun to read. Dweebus is a fun ship to explore."

I've dusted off some old plans I made a long time ago. I have an outline, but I intend to plan out the details of this story in separate arcs this time around.

TEKOF-TIS: "Why do I feel like Mandy and Randy are related somehow like Gwen and Ben ? Since Ben blew up the Omnitrix , I am guessing we won't be seeing UAF or Omniverse."

Haha, I suppose it's possible with names like that. I never really liked the Ben 10 sequels, so I don't consider the vast majority of them to be canon to my story. IWWISTD was sort of a continuation of an alternate version of Goodbye and Good Riddance.

BenXGwen Lightning Warrior: "That was a lot of fun. I personally think Max knows what's goiing on but is kindly waiting for Bwen to make the first move. Randy and Mandy? Are those OCs or imports from another fandom? Finally, I was convinced they'd somehow run into Aunt Natalie while at the amusment park. That…would have been uncomfortable which is odd because I usually enjoy situations where Bwen can no longer hide and are forced to say, "Yep, we're dating. Screw you!""

Randy and Mandy are just OCs. The idea with this arc was to have Ben and Gwen try to act like a "normal" couple for a bit while they have the chance, and Randy and Mandy are the normal couple they're comparing themselves to. I was hoping the title of the last chapter would have people saying, "Ms. McCullough? Who the heck is that? Gwen's mom?" So I'm glad that worked, haha.

Lin17: "This inclusion of the new couple seems suspicious to me. The fireworks was supposed to be Bwen's special moment, why are they sharing it with this random couple they just met?"

Right now, Gwen's really enjoying the chance to play the "normal" couple with Ben, and doing so in front of this new couple they met at the park is sort of her chance to "show off." She never gets the chance to openly be with Ben back home, so she wants to do it as much as she can before she has to go back to hiding her relationship.

In addition to those questions, I've also gotten a lot of comments from people expressing that they're happy to see IWWISTD is finally getting a sequel. I'm really, really grateful that there are still so many people who have fond memories of my first story. Thank you all so much for your kind words, and I'll do my best to deliver something even better this time!

Shoutout to my friends over on the Bwen server. Feel free to say hi over there if you see me online!