NOTE: Welcome back to a new chapter! I'm glad you all enjoyed Kevin and the Rooters. You won't be seeing them again for a while.

Enjoy and Review!

Chapter 6: Snow Day

"Police are currently investigating the mysterious destruction that seemingly occurred overnight, all across town. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen strange bursts of light emitting from the area near Junes and the park, along with the sound of explosions around the same time."

"Oh, dear…" Yuki muttered as she watched the news. Her husband and in-laws were sitting alongside her in the living room as the report continued.

"Unfortunately, the supermarket Junes, the town's most recent place of interest, seemed to have been hit the hardest. The building's interior and exterior infrastructure both show signs of sustaining major damage from the mysterious incident that occurred the night before. The manager also reported that none of the working security cameras had any footage that could help explain what could have caused this destruction. Regardless, it would seem like this year's holiday for Inaba just got a bit more mysterious for all its inhabitants."

"More like dangerous." Marcus scoffed. He took the remote from his wife and changed the channel to one of her morning shows. "Of course, something strange had to happen this year..."

"Try and look on the bright side, darling." Yuki softly touched his shoulder.

"What?"

"At least things won't be so boring, right?" She giggled.

"Only you could say that…" Marcus sighed.

Carl hummed as he thought about the news report. "I mean…it could be some freak gas leak? Those things tend to happen from time to time, right?"

"I would be inclined to agree, but the damage shown seemed a bit too…sporadic? There's no possible way for a gas leak explosion to reach the top of that hill."

"I don't know, let's ask our resident plumber." Frank said. His suggestion earned a silent Maxwell the attention of his adult children. "Got any input, Dad?"

As the only one in the room who was knowledgeable on what actually happened, Max was thankful that he and the kids spent the night brainstorming alibis in case anything happened. "Aw, you know…there are pipes running all throughout the place, even reaching parts that you would think there wouldn't be. As Carl said, it's likely something went wrong somewhere in the system, causing an overload. We should just be thankful that nobody got hurt."

"Max is right." Sandra nodded along. "We should be thankful that the kids all got home safely during all of that nonsense."

"Speaking of the kids, where are they?" Carl asked.

"Yukiko said that they were going towards the park to play in the snow. Apparently Narukami-kun's little cousin was pretty upset about the state of Junes, so they're going to cheer her up." Yuki explained.

"Well, isn't that just cute." Sandra giggled.

"As long as they're careful." Marcus shrugged. The last thing he wanted was for those kids to get hurt on this holiday. He didn't really believe what his father and brother said about the pipes bursting; it all seemed too unbelievable. There was something strange going on, and he didn't like it when weird things happened. Last year's murder craze was enough of a headache as it was.

"And…perfect!" Yukiko giggled as she put the finishing touches on her masterpiece. Sitting on the cold bench in front of her was none other than Ben. The young hero scowled at her as he felt the several layers of clothes keeping him extra warm. His big sister had just wrapped a woolen scarf around his neck, the thick cloth big enough to cover most of his face. Anyone looking at him could only really see his eyes.

"Mmghf!" Muffled cries were heard from Ben.

"At least we don't have to hear him talk." Naoto said. She sat next to the kid on the same bench with a book in her gloved hands, ignoring his glare being aimed at her in favor of continuing her mystery novel.

"Yes! Ben looks his cutest when he's not allowed to say something stupid!" Yukiko agreed.

"MGFFH!" Ben flailed his arms at Yukiko. The heiress started laughing and backed away from her little brother. Ben jumped from the bench and chased after the giggling heiress through the snow. The two ran past Yu, Nanako, Teddie, and Yosuke, who were all rolling up large balls of snow.

"Is this big enough, Sensei?" Teddie asked, showing off his giant snow mound. "I bet it's way bigger than Yosuke's!"

"You're making a dangerous joke there, bear." Yosuke slapped his brother across the head. His mound was a bit smaller than Teddie's, but it held enough weight for what they needed to do.

"I think it's big enough, but we should ask our snowman expert. Right, Nanako?" The Fool turned to his little sister. His own mound was the biggest one, since he was building the base of the snowman.

The young Dojima nodded her head. "I think it's perfect! With these pieces, we should be able to build the greatest snowman that Inaba has ever seen!" She lifted her mound, which would serve as the head. "Big bro, let's get to building!"

"Yeah!" The boys saluted their leader, making her giggle.

Over by the playground, Rise and Kenny sat on the swings. The cold temperature and snow did nothing to hinder the youths' burgeoning feelings, as the idol observed the bandage on Kenny's cheek with concern. "Are you sure that you're okay, Kenny?"

"I'm fine, Rise. Yukiko's spells healed me up pretty good. Sucks about the cut on my cheek though, but it wasn't serious enough to make my parents suspicious." Kenny explained.

"Right, right…" She mumbled as she softly swung back and forth. The idol bit the inside of her cheek as she tried to move the conversation along. "So…uh…do you have any plans for Christmas?"

"Spend time with family." Kenny answered. "That's the whole reason we came here, remember?"

"Y-yeah! I mean-that's right! You guys are only here to spend Christmas with Yukiko-senpai!" Rise quickly exclaimed with a stutter. On the inside, she was slapping herself for struggling so much with a simple conversation. Putting up her idol front was much easier than trying to be openly honest with a guy. She didn't have any issues with her senpai, but Kenny was just too different! She needed to think of something that wouldn't bring her another wave of embarrassment! "Do you have all of your gifts sorted out?"

"Oh yeah, I made sure to do that pretty early on. I know Ben's struggling to think of something to get Yukiko, because he waited till the last minute. Only an idiot would do something like that." Kenny chuckled. He completely missed the way Rise was sweating buckets, since she was one of those aforementioned idiots who waited till the last minute. "What about you?"

"M-me?! Of course, I have everything worked out! An idol such as myself would never make the mistake of being late in any way. I have only the best and most thoughtful gifts to give everyone!"

"Cool! I can't wait to see what you've gotten for me!" Kenny smiled.

"W-who said that I got something for you? Think you're that special, Kenny Tennyson?" Rise leaned in with a sly smile. "An idol like myself has to be careful when giving gifts to boys. People may get the wrong idea."

Kenny scratched the back of his head with a nervous smile. "W-well…I did get you one."

"Eh?" Rise froze.

"Yeah. I had to think pretty hard about it, but Yukiko said it would be something you'd like." Kenny explained.

"Y-Yukiko-senpai knows? She helped you?"

"Yeah."

"Oh god…it might be something that'll make me humiliate myself!" Rise started to worry. Her heart fluttered at the thought Kenny had put into getting her a gift, but the fact that Yukiko had helped him was starting to make her worry. Kenny just raised a brow at the idol, confused by all of her worrying.

Meanwhile, Gwen was standing underneath one of the trees, the young sorceress staring out at the town below them. It was clear that the events of the previous night were still on her mind, distracting her enough that she never noticed Kanji and Chie walking up next to her. "Gwen?"

"Huh?" She turned to look at them. "What do you guys want? Shouldn't you be helping the others with their snowman-building?"

"We just wanted to check on you since you were standing here by yourself." Chie explained.

"Yukiko already talked to me about everything, so I don't need any pity." Gwen brushed them off.

"Well, I'm not trying to give you any pity. I can tell that yesterday's battle is still on your mind and all, but sitting here by yourself isn't going to make you feel better." Chie said.

Gwen gave her a light glare. "And why do you care?"

"You're Yukiko-chan's family, of course I'm going to care."

The sorceress stared at the two for a moment before brushing her bangs out of her eyes. "Then you can go care over with everyone else. I don't really feel like-"

PELT!

PELT!

"BWAH!" Gwen cried as two snowballs smacked into her face. She fell over on her rear and started wiping the wet snow off from her face. The girl's eyes glowed with fury as she searched for the ones responsible.

"Pfft! G-Gwen didn't see it c-coming! Hahahahahaha!"

"MMFGH! MFFH!"

"You two…!" Gwen growled at her laughing sister and doofus cousin. She quickly started scooping up her own balls of snow from the ground and created a mana construct to hold them for her. Ben and Yukiko stared at Gwen's battle preparations and started running away with Gwen giving chase. "Don't you two start running now!"

"Welp, that got her going pretty quickly." Kanji scratched his head. He watched as the Tennysons' snowball fight grabbed the attention of the others, dragging them into it as well. The ex-delinquent smirked at the chaos that was unfolding, especially when Rise dragged Naoto into it all by dropping a load of snow on her head. "Alright, then! Guess I better join in too!"

Chie rolled her eyes as Kanji steamrolled his way into the free-for-all. The larger teenager practically tackled Yu and Yosuke into a snowbank, which caused an explosion of snow to fly everywhere. Nanako laughed at them until a snowball smacked into the back of her head. She turned around to see Ben charging up another shot, but he was interrupted by Yukiko pulling back on his hood. Kenny then dumped a load of snow into the coat's hood, and the heiress happily shoved the snow-filled hood over the boy's head, drenching him completely. They didn't stay laughing for long when Gwen's construct smacked the tree next to them, causing the built up snow on the branches to fall on top of the two.

The kung-fu lover felt a warm sensation erupt from her chest in the form of laughter. She thought back to the concerned tension around Yukiko and the Tennysons the previous night after Kevin's group completely vanished. She still didn't fully understand everything they had gone through that summer, especially when the scars from it were clearly still there. But seeing the way Yukiko and her family could still smile and have fun reminded her of all their adventures with the TV World. Even with their violent holiday crashers, this Christmas would still be enjoyed by them all no matter what.

Making sure her boots were nicely strapped, Chie rushed out to finally join in on the brawl. She quickly scooped up some snow and power-tossed it into Teddie's face, knocking the blonde into Kenny, who then ended up flying into Yosuke, which resulted in the three of them rolling cartoonishly into a snowbank. She pulled back her leg and kicked one of the forgotten, incomplete snowmen into the air. Everyone else watched the huge snowball go soaring towards the tussling Rise and Naoto. The two eventually realized the spherical shadow looming over their heads and looked up only to see the huge snowball crash down on top of them. Their heads poked out of the snowball, one clearly embarrassed and the other clearly pissed.

Ben laid in the snow as everyone else was too busy laughing at Rise and Naoto's predicament. He looked over to see Nanako leaning over him with a smile on her face. "Having fun, Ben?"

"Mmgh."

Realizing that he still couldn't talk properly, Nanako unzipped some of the coats he was wearing. Ben took a huge breath, thankful for the freedom to properly breathe given to him. "I said, yeah. What do you want?"

"To talk to you."

"Why?"

"I wanted to make sure you're okay." Nanako giggled.

Ben shrugged, then moved to sit up properly. "Sure. It's not like I haven't gone through worse fights, nor was that my first fight with Kevin. Guy's a nutjob, but so is everyone else who's tried to kill us." Ben looked back at the young girl. "What about you? You really liked that store…uh…Jones, right?"

"Junes."

"That's what I said."

Nanako gave him a flat look before shaking her head. "I'm still pretty upset it got destroyed in the fight."

"Sorry about that." Ben apologized.

"It wasn't your fault. You were just trying to protect everyone." Nanako giggled and grabbed onto Ben's gloved hands with her own. "So, I want to say thank you for being a hero. I'm happy that everyone came out of it safely."

Ben smiled at Nanako, slightly starting to understand what Yukiko meant when she described the 'sunny-like' feeling the Dojima gave off. "Sure. It's a hero's job to protect everyone. I just wish I got to take down Kevin this time."

"I'm sure you'll have your chance in the future." Nanako assured him, then poked his nose with a stern look. "Don't go looking for trouble, however, mister! Big bro and Dad always taught me to avoid running into fights."

"Yukiko says the same thing, but when do I ever listen to her?" Ben smirked. He looked back over to see that the others were starting to resume the snowfight. "In fact…" Pulling back the sleeve on his left arm, Nanako was greeted to the sight of the Omnitrix. "Maybe some extra muscle will change the tides…!"

"Uh... Are you sure that's a good idea?" Nanako was a bit apprehensive.

"You did say you wanted to see me transform, right?" Nanako frowned, silently admitting that Ben did have a point there. She didn't get to see him transform last night due to being kidnapped, so this would be her first time, although she thought it wouldn't be fair to use his aliens. Sure, Gwen was using magic, but only sparingly; not to give herself a huge advantage. But if nobody was going to say anything to Gwen about it, then she had to guess that Ben using the watch would be fine…

…And she really wanted to see him transform.

"Okay! Go ahead!" Nanako encouraged him.

"Sweet!" Ben activated the watch and selected Four Arms. "Just sit back and watch the hero show his stuff!"

FLASH!

The group heard and saw the bright green flash of light that happened back near the trees. The heiress knew she should've expected it, but taking her eyes off of Ben made her forget that he might transform to gain an advantage. She rounded on him with intent to scold him, but the sight in front of her made the priestess pause. Gwen and everyone else did the same as they took in the sight of Ben.

"Uh…did you mean to do this?" Nanako tilted her head.

Ben looked down at his limbs, realizing he hadn't transformed into Four Arms. Ben is now a reptilian alien with icy blue skin. He had small spikes around his face, three dorsal fins reaching down his back and white gills on the sides of his head. He wore white pants and an open-front black shirt with white cuffs, the Omnitrix symbol nestled on his left hand. "Woah! Arctiguana?!"

"Arcti-whatta?!" Teddie exclaimed.

Gwen blinked as she recognized the name. "Wait…! Isn't that the form you said your future-self used to defeat Vilgax?"

"Yeah! Guess being stuck in this cold for so long triggered the Omnitrix to unlock him! Cool!" Arctiguana released a frosty breath. Nanako gasped as ice particles danced in the air in front of them.

"Right, that time you three went to the future." Naoto crossed her arms. "I still find that one hard to believe…"

"C'mon, Naoto-kun! You really find that hard to believe, even after everything Yukiko-senpai and the Tennysons went through?" Rise frowned with hands to her hips.

"And after everything we went through?" Yu reminded her.

The blueberry detective raised her arms in surrender. "Fine! But I'm just saying that there are limits to what can be possible. Aliens, alternate dimensions, spirits linked to the souls, evil scientists, and magic are all already a jumbled mess to keep track of. Do we really need to add time travel to the list?"

Gwen shuffled her feet. "Well, I'm pretty sure I can figure out time travel if I-"

"No." Yukiko denied.

"W-what do you mean 'no'?!"

"Kenny has shown me plenty of movies where time travel always leads to the world ending or someone not existing. One time travel escapade is good enough, young lady." Yukiko stood firm on her stance.

Gwen glared at her brother, who quickly moved to hide behind Kanji. The ex-delinquent gave the oldest Tennyson a flat stare, who responded with a weak chuckle of his own. Gwen just scoffed and crossed her arms with a pout. "Fine…!"

"Well, since Ben-chan is already transformed, let's see what this form can do!" Teddie exclaimed.

"Eh, why not? Should be a cool form if a future version of him used it to take down that Vilgax guy." Yosuke agreed.

"Yeah! Let's see it!" Nanako looked very excited.

"Heh! Alright!" Arctiguana gave a sneaky look at Gwen, then opened his mouth. A blast of ice flew from his mouth to hit the young sorceress. Luckily, she managed to create a shield in time to block the ice from striking her.

"Watch it, doofus!" Gwen yelled.

"Hehe-"

SMACK!

"OW!" The lizard winced. "What was that for?!" He glared at the usual source of smacks. Yukiko just rolled her eyes at him, which caused him to get a new idea. Aiming downwards, Arctiguana blew another blast of ice at the heiress' feet, trapping her lower half in ice.

"H-hey! Benjamin!" Yukiko glared at her little brother. She raised her fan to strike him again, but the Polar Manzardill started running away before she could hit him. Arctiguana jumped onto the trees and unleashed a wave of ice onto the park grounds. The soft snow on the ground hardened and solidified as the ice proceeded to freeze everything within its reach. The rest of the group were surprised to see how powerful the alien's ice blast turned out to be.

"W-woah…!" Yosuke started slipping on the ice, which caused him to grab onto Chie.

"Watch it, Hanamura!" She tried to push him off, but the magician refused to budge. Their struggle led to them both falling over.

"Wheee!" Teddie squealed happily as he slid across the frozen ground like a torpedo. It only took Chie and Yosuke a second to realize the blonde was heading their way. However, due to the slippery, icy surface they were all on, the two friends were unable to move out of the way as Teddie crashed right into them. The three ended up spiraling uncontrollably towards the playground, with the teens loudly cussing out the bear.

Rise's legs scampered cartoonishly as she tried to find her footing. Luckily, Kenny swooped in and caught her before she could fall over. The idol blushed at the way his arms protectively wrapped around her waist as her face pressed into his chest. "K-Kenny?!"

The taller teen was blushing just as much as she was. "I-I w-was just making sure you didn't fall over! Y-you looked like you didn't have much experience with sliding around on ice."

The idol pushed herself away, but clutched his arms to stay standing. She puffed her cheeks with a defiant look. "O-of course I have experience! I was just taken by surprise from Ben's sudden ability!" She released his arms and tried to strike a cute pose. "We idols are masters of graceEEEK!"

She slipped and fell flat on her ass.

Naoto held onto Kanji as they carefully skated around on the icy ground. The detective blushed slightly from their close contact. "T-thanks, Kanji."

The big blonde scratched his cheek with a blush. "N-no problem. If you ever need a hand with anything, just let me know. I'll always be there to help you."

Naoto allowed herself to smile softly. Her hand slowly trailed down until it grabbed onto his own, surprising the ex-delinquent. Kanji's entire face turned red, similar to the blueberry right next to him. The two of them skated around the frozen park, stuck in their own little bubble.

Yukiko finally melted the ice around her feet, droplets of warming water slipping away from the heiress as she glared up at her troublesome little brother. "Benjamin Tennyson, you are in so much-" Before she could finish, the ice lizard was already jumping away with Gwen and Nanako skating after him. The heiress would've given chase as well, if she hadn't felt a pair of arms wrapping around her waist. She would've attacked on instinct, if it wasn't for the familiar aura encasing her form like a protective bubble. A soft smile graced her beautiful features as she craned her neck back to stare into the eyes of her beloved. "Yu-kun."

"He hasn't done anything wrong yet, Yukiko, so let's leave the kids to have their own fun, yeah?" Yu spun her around so she was facing him, their hands interlocked with one another. The Fool pulled his girlfriend in close, their bodies fitting perfectly into each other.

"Hm… I guess it'll be fine to leave them alone for a bit. We haven't had much time with each other, have we?" Yukiko mused warmly.

"Nope, and I think Ben unintentionally gave us a perfect chance to have our fun." Yu smirked as he and Yukiko turned down a frozen pathway to have some privacy.

"Hold it, doofus!" Gwen held Nanako's hand so that she could keep up with them.

"What? Can't keep up, dweeb?!" Arctiguana teased. His claws and limbs were unaffected by the slipperiness of the ice, simply feeling like he was just walking on dry land.

"I can keep up just fine, but Nanako can't, genius!" Gwen yelled.

"I-I'm okay!" Nanako exclaimed. The last thing she wanted to look like was a bother. "I won't slow you guys down!"

"You're not slowing anyone down, Nanako. It's this idiot's fault anyway." Gwen pointed at her transformed cousin.

"Hmph! Okay, then, how about this?!" Arctiguana released another freezing blast and created a ramp made of ice leading down towards the town. "Let's race! You two vs me! Whoever reaches the town first is the winner!"

"You're on!" Gwen agrees.

"E-eh?! Is this really safe?!" Nanako was a bit nervous.

"Don't worry, I'll use my magic to keep us safe the entire time." Gwen reassured her. "Let's make sure to kick this doofus's butt, okay?!"

"Yeah!" Nanako nodded her head.

Arctiguana smiled at them, happy that they agreed with his idea. The frozen lizard jumped into the air before the two had a chance to prepare. He released a continuous stream of ice to accelerate his speed as he slid down towards the town.

"Hey! No fair!" Nanako cried.

"No way we're getting left behind!" Gwen created a pink construct for them to ride on. Once Nanako had secured her arms around Gwen's waist, the sorceress released a burst of mana to propel them up the ramp. The two screamed for a brief moment until the translucent pink board slammed against the slope. Gwen continued to push out mana to boost their speed.

Arctiguana looked smug as a bug until he noticed the girls coming into his view. Gwen blew a raspberry at him, while Nanako merely waved at him with that cute smile of hers. The ice lizard glared at the girls, clearly frustrated they had caught up to him so quickly. He stopped his cold stream to fire a hefty chunk of ice in their direction.

The impact of the icy projectile caused the snow to splash into their faces, briefly blinding the girls and forcing Gwen to protect them from the backlash, which in turn slowed their descent. "Doofus! Do you remember that I have Nanako with me?!"

"She'll be fine! See you at the finish line!" Arctiguana yelled.

Nanako blinked at the alien. "He's very competitive, isn't he?"

"And about as dumb as a coffee table." Gwen scoffed, raising her hand. Bright pink tendrils of mana burst from her fingertips, forming a miniature whirlwind which picked up the snow around it. The frigid flurry headed straight for Arctiguana, who was too busy patting himself on the back to notice.

"Eh? What's that noise-AAAHHH!" He screamed as he was pulled into the miniature blizzard. The ice lizard screamed girlishly as his bright blue body cartoonishly spun around before it eventually spat him out towards the top of the slope.

"Heh! Eat that, dweeb!" Gwen cackled.

"Will he be okay?" Nanako asked, concerned.

"Trust me: He's gone through worse than that and turned out fine." Gwen reassured her again. "Let's just enjoy our victory."

"Okay!" Nanako clung to Gwen tighter to not get blown away. "By the way, your powers are super cool, Gwen!"

"Thanks!"

As the girls enjoyed their taste of victory, Arctiguana spiraled through the air. Scolding himself for letting his guard down like that, the Polar Manzardill tried to stabilize himself before he could crash into something. At this rate, he was bound to lose this race to his dorky cousin and Nanako! Thinking quickly, Arctiguana unleashed a much stronger blast of ice to push himself back down the slope. The combination of his boost and the acceleration of his descent downwards granted Arctiguana enough speed to make up for lost time. As he zoomed down through the air, he could see the girls in his sight.

"Heh! Piece of cake-"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Oh man! Not now!"

FLASH!

"AAAHHH!" Ben screamed as the watch turned him back to normal. His screaming alerted the girls, causing them to turn around only to see the de-transformed boy heading straight for them. Gwen knew it was too late to stop him from crashing into them, so she quickly tried to soften the blow of the impact. Ben fell right into Nanako, which pushed her into Gwen, and they all fell right into the pink construct wall. Gwen's magic sealed up into a ball to protect them as the three rolled uncontrollably down the hill. The spherical construct sped down the hill, a thick layer of white snow concealing the three of them as it accumulated on the surface of the glowing pink orb. It bounced off a railing separating the hill from the streets, causing the ball to fly through the air. The kids continued screaming as it bounced like a human-sized pinball from building to building, street light to street light, and car to car. Eventually, they ended up crashing into the biggest snowbank the town had built up. The impact caused a huge wave of snow to splash onto the nearby streets and buildings.

The pink bubble retracted, allowing the kids to flop out onto the snow with nauseating groans. Ben raised a single finger. "T-tie?"

"...Tie." The girls agreed.

Charmcaster munched on some cereal as she sat on Yosuke's bed. She looked down to see her phone (She decided to get one after the summer ended) vibrating. The witch opened it up to see that Yosuke had sent her a picture.

It was of Chie stomping down on Teddie. The girl was covered from head-to-toe in snow, and it didn't take much to figure out why she was hitting the bear.

Charmcaster chuckled at the photo, pleased by the perverted bear's punishment. But instead of telling Yosuke that she found the picture funny, she sent a middle-finger emoji instead.

Chapter End

NOTE: I hope you all enjoyed! This was a winding down chapter after the events of last chapter. Ben also unlocks Arctiguana in this chapter and gets into some trouble with it of course.

Next chapter the Tennysons and friends will be ready for the festival and whatever comes with it!

Have a great day!