"GAAAH! WHAT THE HECK?!" – Ben yelled in a frightened shock as he tried to pry the thing off his hand. He pulled, pulled as hard as he could, so much so that he even lost his balance and fell down in the dirt. Though, the watch stayed on his hand.
"What happened?!" – Jamie asked from the top of the crater. Seeing Ben was in trouble, he decided to get down. Though, balancing himself down a steep crater was not an easy feat for him. Fortunately, he didn't have to, since Ben climbed out himself.
"Dude, it was an alien pod! And it had this watch in it. I was about to take it when it jumped onto my arm on its own!" – Ben explained. He was still talking loudly, as the shock hadn't worn off. He held out his left wrist with the alien watch on it to Jamie so he'd be able to look at it better.
"Whoa. Freaky." – Jamie said as he examined it. He grabbed his hand and pulled it closer, right in front of his face. Ben could see the watch's electric green hourglass figure reflected off of Jamie's glasses. Around the dial were four glowing green dots, equally spaced from one another. And at the dial's base there were two buttons - a large, shiny one and a smaller one on its opposite side.
Jamie turned over Ben's wrist to see the back of the watch. Maybe it'd have a clasp or something that'd let the watch come off. Though, nothing that looked like it was on there.
"Maybe it's one of the buttons that do it." – Ben suggested.
"I don't think you should be pressing any buttons on this thing." – Jamie advised him.
"Well, what else do you think we should do? It's not coming off any other way!" – Ben replied.
A moment later…
"Pull, man!"
"I am pulling!"
"Ow, ow, ow, stop, it's hurting my wrist!"
Jamie was trying to pull the watch from his wrist with all he could, even putting one of his legs on Ben's chest to get better leverage, while Ben tugged his arm in the opposite direction. It still wasn't working.
Though, their primitive attempt to get the watch off was cut short when it seemed to have activated.
"Pwing." – it notified them as thedial elevated up, revealing electric circuits around the walls of its "neck". Ben and Jamie quickly let go. They watched as the two angles making up the hourglass symbol slid through each other, leaving a large space in between. It was now also continuously making a high-frequency beeping noise for some reason.
"Why is it making that noise?" – Ben asked.
"Maybe it's signaling the mothership to come bring it back?" – Jamie theorized.
"How do we stop it?" – Ben asked him, somewhat in distress.
"Wait, it looks different now!"
After the angles of the hourglass symbol had moved, the dial had revealed the silhouette of some sort of creature. It had two arms and two legs, and resembled a human somewhat, but the proportions were completely different. The elbows were also angular, sharp even, and something resembling a loincloth was hanging between its legs. The head also had a weird shape and it had a thingie on top of its head. Maybe the silhouette was wearing a hat with a feather stuck through it?
"Cool!" – Ben said in awe.
"Maybe that's the alien whose watch that is." – Jamie suggested. "We should probably stop the beeping!"
"I'll try to put the dial back to how it was." – Ben declared.
"No, I don't think you should touch it." – Jamie replied.
The watch was still ringing continuously.
"Well, what if it really is signaling someone to come? And I can't wear this with it beeping all the time, can I?" – Ben disagreed.
So, he put his right index finger on the popped-up dial. There was a slight pause of hesitation. He held his breath, because he somehow knew that after doing this, nothing would ever be the same. Nevertheless, he swallowed his anxiety, and pushed.
It felt satisfying to push the dial back down, like sliding a cylinder into a perfectly fitting socket that resulted in a satisfying click. Though, after the half-second it took for the dial to reach its place, something unexpected happened. An extremely bright green explosion of light enveloped the watch and in turn, Ben's entire body. Jamie could barely discern Ben's silhouette through it.
Though, that's only what Jamie saw. To Ben, it wasn't just the lightshow. Something extraordinary was happening to him inside his body, and he didn't know what. Momentarily, he felt his heart beating quicker, and saw something covering his skin, something grey. His hands trembled with searing pain as his fingernails grew harder and turned into huge, extremely sharp claws. His forehead was next, as Ben felt something narrow and straight protruding from it, and following that, his entire body started growing in size, as his bones painfully expanded. Ben then felt something in his neck ripping open and letting the dry air in. Finally, something similar to his fingers happened to his teeth where his lower and upper jaws felt like they exploded into a massive, sharp-toothed clamp. As it was happening, it felt like it took an eternity, but as soon as it was over, Ben realized that all of this happened instantly and Ben just somehow got a step-by-step reaction towards the feeling.
"Aaah!" – he heard Jamie yell. He looked around, but only noticed Jamie closer to the ground. He was now much, much lower in height than Ben. So the feeling of growing was somehow true?
"What happened?" – Ben asked. Immediately, he did not even recognize his own voice. It was deep and somewhat gurgly. He looked at his hands, only to have grey, scale-covered limbs with massive green claws and webbing between fingers looking back at him.
"What the hell just happened?" – Ben repeated, not directed towards Jamie or anyone in particular. He just had to say it out loud.
"You… you've turned EVO!" – Jamie finally managed to say, half-stuttering in shock.
"What?" – Ben yelled in shock. He didn't want to believe it, but it seemed true.
"You're like a walking, talking fish person with legs!" – Jamie described him. "You've even got the angler fish's dangly glowy thing on your forehead!" – he pointed out.
Ben looked up to look at it, but as he put his head up, the dangly bit followed, and all Ben was able to see the stars.
The stars… that's where this thing came from. "Whoa." – he momentarily thought. What else was out there?
Ben also noticed that Jamie took a step back when Ben turned. Maybe he was expecting Ben to go berserk and attack him. Or he probably thought that this thing would be contagious. Though, Ben didn't blame him for either of these. Turning EVO was a legitimate scare that had come over the entire world – you couldn't control when, where or how it would happen, nor could you control your actions afterwards. The possibility of something like this happening to you was terrifying, so he understood Jamie's scare. Though, there was something off about this. EVO transformations were spontaneous, and they didn't happen by picking up and activating an alien watch that fell from the sky.
"Dude, I don't think I'm an EVO." – Ben told Jamie, though his voice was still deep and gurgly. "EVOs can't talk, do they? They act like monsters. And I still feel like myself." – Ben told him.
"Maybe… maybe it takes time for it to go into full effect?" – Jamie hypothesized.
"No, man, I've seen, like, news reports where the dude turned EVO out on the street and immediately started attacking people." – Ben told him. Hearing a tall fish-man talk like a 10-year-old was somewhat strange, but it was lost on Ben and Jamie, who were more caught up with Ben's metamorphosis. "I think… I'm an alien."
"An alien?" – Jamie asked.
"Yeah. The watch showed me a picture of this guy before turning me into it, right?" – Ben said, and looked at his wrist. To his shock, the watch was gone. "Wait, it's gone? What does that mean?" – he asked in a semi-panic.
"Don't worry, it's on your chest now." – Jamie told him and pointed at it sitting on his left pec. Ben noticed he moved in closer to him, now that the EVO scare was behind them.
"Oh." – Ben said and looked at his chest. The watch was there, but the dial was white and grey now, and the buttons weren't there anymore. Ben grabbed it, but it felt like it was still glued onto him.
"Do you think whoever sent the watch here is gonna come to take it back?" – Jamie asked.
Ben looked up into the night again. Now that they knew alien watches could fall from the sky, Ben saw it absolutely differently. The starscape was now an infinite ocean of life, each star potentially representing an entire planet full of aliens that had their own lives… there were probably spaceships, alien monsters, societies all over the galaxy. A universe of potential.
Without him realizing it, the dangle on his forehead lit up with a luminescent glow.
"Your thing is glowing." – Jamie pointed out and came closer. Ben noticed it too. The glowy thing on the angler fish's forehead that attracted unsuspecting prey. And as he saw Jamie reaching out towards his forehead…
CHOMP
"Gaaah!" – Jamie jumped back in terror, drawing both of his hands back.
"GAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!" – Ben laughed uncontrollably in his deep voice. He was laughing so hard he had to lean on his knees.
"Seriously? Seriously, man?" – Jamie yelled, getting over the jumpscare.
"Dude, you should have seen your face!" – Ben said as he kept laughing.
"Not cool!" – Jamie said sternly.
"You gotta admit, it was a bit funny, though." – Ben told him.
"Maybe a little bit." – Jamie calmed down and smiled. "But please don't do that ever again. That jaw of yours could probably rip me clean in two."
"Hmmm…" – Ben said. "Let's test that."
Jamie thought Ben was going to come at him again, but Ben went to the nearest tree, instead. He looked at it for a moment, then turned his head sideways and unclamped his massive jaw to bite through the tree's body. He ended up biting though most of its diameter, and the rest didn't manage to hold the tree, so it slowly started falling.
"Fore!" – Ben yelled as the tree slammed down onto the ground.
"You're supposed to say "timber"." – Jamie corrected him.
"Whatever, dude." – Ben responded and looked at the fallen tree. "I wonder if I can…" – he thought, walked up to it, bent down and grabbed it. With only slight effort, he easily lifted it up and held it over his head.
"Whoa!" – Jamie said, amazed at Ben's strength. "What else can you to?"
Though, the test drive of Ben's other form was interrupted by weird noises the two of them heard.
"What's that?" – Jamie asked and turned around.
Soon, the two of them saw something strange fly from the woods. It looked like a metal discus. As it saw them, it stopped and hovered mid-air. A circular "head" protruded from its top side, adorned by several red bulbs all around it, as if those were its eyes. Another circular protrusion came out of its bottom, releasing four mechanical crab-like legs. Whatever it was, there was one thing they could be sure of. This robot came from the aliens.
As they watched the drone hover mid-air, Ben and Jamie got the impression as if it was scanning them.
"Hey, uh, if you're here for the watch, it latched onto my wrist, so, uh, if you know how to turn me back into a boy and take the watch off, you can have it, man!" – Ben told the robot.
Though, the drone didn't seem to listen. Instead, it aimed one of its legs at them and shot a laser at Ben, hitting him on the shoulder and causing him to stumble backwards and drop the tree.
"Ben!" – Jamie yelled, seeing his friend in trouble.
"Don't worry." – Ben reassured him. "I think you better hide. I'll deal with this!" – he said confidently and jumped at the droid. The droid tried to dodge him, but Ben still managed to snag one of its legs. He grabbed it and dragged the drone down with him, but it aimed the three of its remaining legs at Ben and had all three of them release another laser blast blast that hit Ben at point blank range, forcing him to let go and fall down rolling on the ground.
"Are you okay?" – Jamie asked while hiding behind a tree.
"Never better." – Ben shrugged it off as he got up.
As he did, he noticed that the drone was flying higher in the air, aware that Ben wouldn't be able to reach him. Ben knew it would zone him out, but he had an idea.
Dodging the next laser shots, Ben ran back to the tree he had chomped down, grabbed it again and swatted the drone in the air, crushing it against the ground below the tree's weight. The drone exploded, and the reaction set fire to the log.
Ben let go of the tree and slumped down on one knee, breathing heavily.
"What's wrong?" – Jamie asked him as he ran to Ben. "Did you get hurt?"
"No… huuuuuunh… I can't… huuuuunh… breathe…" – Ben said with in-between heavy breaths. Jamie noticed the slits on his neck – his gills – were opening and closing with each breath.
"You're… you can't breathe air! You're a fish!" – Jamie realized. "We gotta get you to a body of water!"
Jamie diligently helped Ben up and started leading him through the woods. Ben, held back by his form's limitations followed, though he felt better when he got further away from the burning tree.
With great effort, Jamie helped Ben stay up as they slowly made their way through the woods. Ben was massive, heavy, and his scaly skin was extremely slippery, making it hard for Jamie to keep holding him.
"You think we caused a forest fire back there?"' – Jamie asked the fish creature.
"I think… hnnnnh… that's the least of our problems." – Ben responded, still breathing heavily.
Some of Ben's drool from his massive jaws got dripped on Jamie's shoulder, though he hardly minded.
"Why did that thing attack you?" – Jamie then asked him.
"The watch… duh." – Ben groaned. "Jamie…" – he then said.
"Yeah?"
"I don't think I can keep going." – he told him as he lost his strength.
Ben slipped away from Jamie's hands, which had loosened their grip because of the strain and fell onto the ground. He lay there, breathing in and out heavily, his lungs desperately grasping for the water that he couldn't get.
"Come on, Ben, get up!" – Jamie tried to motivate him. He was trying to get a hold of him, too, but Ben's skin was too slippery to get him up, and Jamie was tired. He could barely feel his hands, especially his fingers.
"I… can't…" – Ben rasped. "Just… hhhhhh… go home…"
"Don't be…. mmmrrrrrgh... dramatic, Ben." – Jamie told him while determinately pulling as he strained as hard as he could. "You helped me when all odds were against you. I'm just… mmmrrrrrrrrh… doing the same." – he said.
Then, he heard something. A noise that normally would be unremarkable, but now probably constituted as a life-saving miracle.
"I think I can hear running water!" – Jamie yelled as relief came over him, giving him determination to keep pushing. "Stay right there." – he told Ben as he ran off towards where he heard the river.
"Like I was gonna move…" – Ben thought to himself.
A moment later, Jamie reemerged with some water cupped between his hands. He poured it on Ben's head, where the gills were. It was barely anything.
"A bit better, but I don't think it might be enough."
Without a word, Jamie spit out all the water he had been holding in his mouth over Ben's head.
"Eugh, dude, gross!" – Ben-Fish groaned, but slowly got up.
"Sorry. It was the only way I could bring enough water." – Jamie apologized, though glad that he had saved his friend.
They continued on as Jamie led Ben to the river he had brought the water from. It was even flowing into a small lake. Both of them, relieved, hurried to it, and as soon as he had reached it Ben dove in, making a splash.
"Are you feeling better?" – Jamie asked.
"Much better." – Ben answered as he reared his ugly fish head from the water, renewed with energy. He spit some water back at Jamie as playful payback, and both of them laughed. It felt good to laugh out all the worrying they had gone through.
"So, what now?" – Jamie asked him. Ben was still a fish freak.
"Well, I'm still a freak." – Ben regrettably told him. "I guess I'll have to get used to life as a walking fish person in the woods." – he sighed. "I'll live in this lake, someone's gonna see me and think I'm Loch Ness Monster… or I'll be the EVO lurking outside Bellwood. And then people are gonna try to catch me and get me to grant them three wishes or something. I don't know." – Ben ranted on. Whatever it was, he wasn't fond of spending the rest of his life like this. And to top it all off, there were probably more killer robots out there looking for him.
"Well, whatever happens, you won't be totally alone. I'll be sure to visit you." – Jamie reassured him.
And then, for the millionth time that night, something unexpected happened. The watch emblem on Ben's chest started beeping and flashing red, as if giving some sort of warning.
Bweep bwap bwoop bop bwooooooup.
The final beep was accompanied by a flash of red light not too unlike the green one from before, and immediately, in front of Jamie was Ben again, back in his human child form, standing in the middle of the lake.
"Oh." – Ben said. "Okay then."
He got out of the lake. He was dripping wet now, even more so than Jamie, and as a result, he felt cold. Though, he was glad not to be stuck in fish form anymore.
Immediately, he looked at the watch, trying to press the button again.
"You JUST turned back!" – Jamie yelled, somewhat disapprovingly. "What if something even worse happens?"
"Dude, did you SEE what I did to that robot?" – Ben replied. "I wanna know what else this watch can do."
"What was up with that thing, anyway? You said you'd give up the watch, didn't you? Maybe it didn't speak English?"
"Or maybe it's one of those robots that shoots first and asks questions later." – Ben replied as he tried to activate the watch. Though, both the dial and the button were glowing a foreboding red and refused to activate.
"Let's just go home." – Jamie sighed. Ben agreed without further comment, and they both turned back.
"Uh… you do know where we left our bike and scooter, right?" – Ben hesitantly asked him.
"I… think so?" – Jamie sheepishly agreed.
After a several minutes of walking in silence, Jamie's curiosity got the best of him.
"So what are you gonna do if the robots attack again and you're not near water?" – he asked Ben, hypothesizing a scenario. Transforming into a fish didn't seem like the most practical superpower.
"I don't know. I mean, it beats letting them laser my butt through, right?" – Ben responded. "And anyway, I won't be able to turn into anything if it's on red mode. And I'm definitely not giving them the watch, either. It's gotta be some bad guy behind them."
"Being a fish could come in handy sometimes." – Jamie thought. "Like, what if at P.E. when you're swimming, you turn into it underwater, do all your laps quickly and then turn back?" – he fantasized.
"Don't you think they'd notice me?" – Ben responded.
"Yeah, I guess. But it would be cool to not have to do swimming anymore, though." – Jamie shrugged.
"Dude, imagine if Cash and J.T. were ganging up on us and I turned into THIS!" – Ben told Jamie. "Just the look on their faces would be priceless!" – he said and started laughing.
"You can pretend to eat them like you pretended to bite me!" – Jamie laughed along.
"And then I'd tell them that every fish they ever ate were my friends and if they ate more, I'd come back for revenge." – Ben continued. "They'd never touch seafood again!" – he said, and Jamie was laughing hysterically, imagining the situation.
Pwing
The watch made another noise. Ben and Jamie looked at Ben's wrist only to see it glowing green again.
"You think it works now?" – Jamie asked him.
"Only one way to find out." – Ben shrugged and pressed the big button.
Just like before, the dial elevated itself and the two angled lines making up the hourglass symbol slid through each other to make a silhouette against the electric green background.
"Look, it's different from before!" – Jamie told him.
He was right. Last time, they saw a clear image of the fish-man, the form that Ben became. This time, however, it was big and bulky, and had…
"Four arms?" – Ben said as he noticed. "That's so cool."
"So it can let you turn into different stuff?" – Jamie asked.
"Maybe if I…" – Ben mumbled as he grabbed the outer ring of the dial, and rotated it clockwise 45 degrees. "I was right, it changed!" – he pointed out. It was now showing the image of some sort of bug, as evidenced by its six legs. He turned it once again, and it showed a four-legged animal. Though, it was hard to discern with these silhouettes.
"It's a character select screen!" – Jamie happily pointed out.
"How many guys are in this thing?" – Ben said in astonishment. "And I bet the others won't need to be near water like the fish one did!" – he pointed out.
Then, they heard noises coming from the trees, even over the watch's beeping.
"Did you hear that?" – Jamie asked him.
Ben cycled through the silhouettes, looking for the four-armed guy again.
"Dude, it's them." – Jamie pointed out as the source of the voices came into their field of view. It was Cash and J.T.. Though, it seemed like they still hadn't noticed Ben and Jamie.
"Okay, now this is gonna be good." – Ben said with a grin as he moved his hand towards the watch again, but Jamie suddenly grabbed it and stopped him.
"What are you doing?" – he asked Ben.
"What? They're gonna want to beat us up again!" – Ben pointed out.
"So you're gonna turn into a huge alien with superpowers and beat them up first? You can't use your aliens on them! They're not worth it!" – Jamie determinately told Ben.
"Fine, fine." – Ben said. He intuitively pressed the other button behind the dial, which he had assumed to be the off button. His hunch was correct, as the dial went back to its original position without turning Ben into anything, and the green hourglass once again replaced the alien silhouette. "I was just gonna give them a scare anyway." – he explained himself, somewhat grumpily.
"You two!" – Cash yelled. Seems like he finally noticed them. He ran over, and J.T. followed him.
"Listen, Cash, whatever we were fighting before, it doesn't matter. I know you're not gonna believe me, but there's a-"
"Killer robot in the woods." – Cash finished it for him.
"Another one?!" – Ben yelled. So there was still danger about.
"You saw one too?" – J.T. asked them.
"Yeah, it came at us and… we ran away." – Jamie lied.
"Same here." – Cash nodded. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
"Wh…" – Ben and Jamie looked at each other. He wasn't mad at them?
"What's the holdup, dweebs? We won't be able to beat your ass if you end up getting fried by those robots!" – Cash called after them when they didn't follow.
"Oh. That makes more sense." – Ben nodded, and the four of them ran together.
"Also, why are you wet, Tennyson?" – Cash asked on the way.
"Uhh… lake." – Ben simply said.
Though, they didn't make it very far before they were intercepted. They heard a familiar whizzing sound, and before they could react, a laser shot out from behind them and hit a nearby tree, setting it aflame.
"That thing's back!" – Cash yelled and kept running, with J.T. following him. The drone started coming their way too. Ben and Jamie looked at each other, and after Jamie non-verbally agreeing with a nod, Ben dove behind a tree (so that the two bullies wouldn't see him) and hit the watch. It happened so quickly that Ben didn't even have a second to check who he was transforming into.
After a quick green flash of light, while Ben wasn't as aware of the entire transformation sequence as it happened, a black and blue blur emerged from behind the tree.
"Whoa." – Ben said, amazed at his own speed. He had long, three-clawed hands and bent legs that ended in some sort of wheels. "I'm fast."
The drone turned around towards Ben this time. The other boys stopped running to see what was going on.
"Okay…" – Ben said, thinking of how he could use his speed to his advantage. He ran with a headstart and jumped, but not far enough to reach the droid, which flew higher in the air to dodge it. The robot, in response, shot several lasers at him, but Ben was more than quick enough to dodge them at lightning speed.
"What the hell is that thing?" – Cash asked out loud.
"It looks like it's trying to help!" – Jamie pointed out, not giving away the fact that he knew exactly what it was.
"How about…" – Ben said to himself as he quickly picked up some rocks from the ground and started hurling them at the robot, firing at a constant rate that could even outdo a machine gun. Though, that didn't work either. The drone's shell was durable enough to tank them, and it, in response, shot another laser.
This time, Ben didn't react accordingly, or rather he did, but the drone was aiming towards where it had been expecting Ben to dodge towards. The blast connected, and Ben was knocked away and rolled on the ground several times over. Not the first time that's happened today, either.
The drone advanced towards Ben, about to fire another laser. And as Jamie watched, he realized he couldn't stand by and let it happen. He had to help somehow. Using Ben's tactic, even if it proved ineffective, he picked up another rock and threw it at the robot while it had its back on him.
"Leave him alone!" – Jamie yelled, trying to catch the drone's attention.
"What are you doing? You're gonna get us killed!" – Cash yelled at him.
Jamie's plan worked, though Cash's assumption was right too. The robot turned around and prepared to shoot them instead. Jamie knew he had to move, but his feet seemed glued to the ground as he looked at the droid like a deer at the headlights. And at the very last moment, the blue blur caught Jamie and the laser hit an empty spot instead.
"He's been alien abducted!" – a disturbed J.T. yelled.
"We even?" – Ben asked him as his "visor" retracted into his head, revealing his face, after taking him a considerable distance away.
"Sure." – Jamie nodded, happy to be acknowledged as useful.
Ben ran away and almost immediately came back to where Jamie was with J.T.. He left once more, and brought back Cash as well. Then he dashed back to the robot. He couldn't let this thing lurk in the woods, or near Bellwood.
"Okay, you robo-freak!" – Ben yelled as he approached it. "Why don't you try this!"
He ran up a tree. He had no idea if this was gonna work, but the velocity he generated was more than enough, and it gave him enough elevation to make the jump towards the robot from a branch. The drone tried shooting him again, but missed. As Ben collided with it mid-air, he kicked it repeatedly with his lightning-fast legs, knocking it down towards the ground.
The robot was still semi-capable of flight, only a couple feet from the air and in a wobbly state, so it was easy for Ben to finish it off. He dashed quickly at it, hitting it on its way, then did the same again, and again. The robot fired off one last desperate laser in hopes of hitting him, but this time it wasn't even close, and with a final punch the robot exploded into pieces.
"Okay, I really like this one." – Ben said to himself, just to hear this alien's voice. Before he got back to Jamie and the others, he took a couple seconds to run around freely, and to see how fast he could go. It was definitely faster than a car, but he couldn't go pushing the boundaries just yet – his friends were still here. He heard the red beeping from the watch, and knowing what was about to come next, dashed back to where he left Jamie, Cash and J.T., which was not far off from the edge of the woods.
"We should get out of here while we have the chance." – Cash was yelling.
"We're not leaving Ben behind!" – Jamie protested. He didn't even realize that what he was doing right now was standing up to Cash. The Jamie from this morning probably wouldn't even recognize him.
"Tennyson ran off like a coward!" – Cash responded.
J.T. was wary of saying anything. He didn't like leaving Ben behind either, but not enough to be vocally against Cash.
As they were arguing, Ben arrived close by, and after detransforming in a red flash (which only Jamie noticed), he came out of the bushes.
"Dude, did you see what happened? Some sort of blue thing picked me up and carried me all the way here!" – Ben told them, feigning ignorance. Cash and J.T. weren't smart enough to figure him out, anyway.
"See? There he is. Now, can we get out?" – Cash told Jamie.
"Yeah, come on." – Ben intervened. "I think I know the way back from here." – he said as he led them on. He had scouted the area as the speedy alien, so he was aware of the surroundings now. They walked for a minute until Ben pretended to notice something. "Look! There's our scooter and bike!" – Ben pointed out as they got to the place where him and Ben had fallen down in the first place.
"So this is where you ran off to when we were chasing you?" – Cash asked them.
"We fell down." – Ben flatly said.
"Hmph." – Cash smiled at the thought of them painfully rolling down the hill. J.T. didn't say anything.
Soon, they were out of the woods and made their way back on the road. They could even get on their bikes again, and the lights of Bellwood were visible up ahead. They were almost home safe.
…Almost.
The first sign of trouble was hearing the sirens. It was either an ambulance or the firefighters, but neither of them meant good. Then, they heard an explosion. The four of them exchanged glances, but when Ben and Jamie looked at each other, they nodded, as they knew something that the other two didn't.
Soon, they arrived at the disturbance. They had expected something resembling the drones each of them saw in the woods, but this was much bigger than anything they could have imagined. It was a giant three-legged robot that easily towered over any suburban building in the neighborhood. Ben and Jamie exchanged glances again, while Cash and J.T. were frozen in fear.
The robot was walking towards the inner city, randomly blowing up cars and houses as it went along. People were running away from the scene. They were leaving their suburban, comfy houses, and running out into the street at night, since putting distance between themselves and the rampaging robot was the only thing that mattered. A firefighter truck was also on the scene, but it didn't dare approach the robot, and the firefighters themselves were putting out the fire on one of the houses that the robot had wrecked.
Suddenly, as if sensing something, the alien robot stopped and turned around. It started scanning the area Ben and the others were at instead. Ben knew it could sense him.
"What the hell is it with aliens and robots tonight?" – Cash yelled in frustration.
"We need to stop that thing!" – Ben yelled.
"Uh, we? What are any of us gonna do, Tennyson?" – J.T. asked him. "It's a freakin' giant robot!"
"You really like playing hero, even when you're outmatched, don't you?" – Cash sneered, calling back to when he unsuccessfully tried to protect Jamie after school.
Before Ben could think of a response, the robot blew yet another car up, and this one was very close to the boys. The four of them dodged so no shrapnel would hit them, and using this moment as a distraction, Ben dove behind a fence. This way, he'd transform without Cash and J.T. seeing him. Since he only had a split-second, he didn't even look at it as he activated the watch, and hit it with his whole palm in a hurry to be bathed in cosmic energy once again…
Like last time, the transformation went by momentarily for Ben. Maybe he had gotten used to the process, or maybe he was more focused on what was going on outside his body. Whichever it was, he still felt as though a million volts of electricity had just passed through his body, and as quickly as the figure of Ben hid behind the fence, a flash of lightning dove out.
Jamie sensed the specific ozone smell that was around thunderstorms.
"What the heck?" – Ben found himself saying. Jamie observed his new form.
It was tiny, no bigger than a foot in height, with a shiny black body and had a white lightning-shaped stripe on its abdomen, in the center of which was the watch's logo. The creatures limbs were short, all of which had glowing green bump which looked like some sort of nodes, and another, larger one on its head. He had no neck either – the body continued into the head. The entire thing resembled a living battery, which was supported by the electricity that was crackling all around it.
Next to Jamie, Cash and J.T. were also looking at it, amazed.
"There's a giant robot attacking the city!" – Jamie yelled to remind Ben, who was also checking his form out.
Without saying anything, Ben jolted towards the robot in a flash of lightning, flying through the air. For a first attempt, he slammed himself like a lightning bolt directly at the robot's chest. It didn't work, as the electricity he had generated dispersed completely when it hit the android's shell. He did succeed, however, in getting its attention, and the robot swatted him down like a fly, and Ben hit the fire truck.
"Hold on…" – Ben thought. He felt a considerable boost in energy. It seemed like he was reacting with the electricity in the car's battery. Which meant, he could…
"Yeah! Vroom vroom, you alien freak!" – Ben yelled, his voice electrically reverbing, as he internally ignited the truck and caused it to drive itself forward, towards the robot. Though, this plan was short-lived. The machine jumped high into the air, spun its legs around like a propeller for a second of airtime, then landed back on the ground as if it was nothing.
"Are you seeing this?" – one of the firefighters asked the other.
"My wife is never gonna believe me." – the other responded.
"The powerlines!" – Jamie yelled at Ben, noticing his ability to control electricity from afar. Cash and J.T. side-eyed him, wondering what was he trying to do by talking to the alien.
"Good idea." – Ben figured as he left the car's battery and entered the powerlines that had been placed all over the neighborhood. And as he did, he felt immensely stronger, stronger than he could have ever expected, since the cables were supplying electricity to this whole block. It felt like he was swimming in an energy drink.
Drawing all of the power he could muster, he shot out once again towards the rampaging robot, but the electricity deflected off its shell again.
"Aw, come on!" – Ben protested. "It's a robot! It's gotta run on electricity!" – he thought as he zip-zapped all around it, trying to make his way into the hull, from the limbs, from the exposed neck, but there was no breaching the armor. It seemed to be entirely made from a non-conductive material.
And through Ben's failed attempts, the robot grabbed him from the air and squeezed, then released a charged jolt of electricity through it to shock him. Though, it must not have realized that that would only give Ben another charge, strong enough to escape its grasp.
"Think, Ben…" – he thought to himself while diving into the powerlines again. "What else can I use?" He considered the suburban houses. What would he do, sic a lawnmower on the robot? A toaster? No, he had to think of something else.
In the meantime, the robot had noticed Ben's disappearance into the powerlines and started waving its massive hands around to rip the cables apart. And as it did, the electrified cables started waving around wildly. Fortunately, all the bystanders had already run away, and the firemen had moved back, so no one was in danger of getting shocked.
"Wait, this could work…" – Ben thought as he took control of the electric wires and charged them in a way so that they'd go in a specific direction – and wrapped them around the robot's arm. He jumped out of the electrical wires into the physical world, then hopped back into the wires on the other side, intentionally ripping them off the pole and wrapping them around the robot's other arm. He had it pinned down. He then flew into the nearest residential home, looked for the heaviest electric items around the house, brought them out and threw them at the robot's chest – a TV, a microwave, a treadmill and… yes, a toaster.
"Sorry to whoever lives here but you'd thank me." – Ben thought to himself, imagining his own house without a TV.
Though, Ben's attack proved sufficient, as the TV had caused a big enough dent in the robot's armor for Ben to weasel his way into. He inhabited the robot's inner circuits like a stomach parasite, overloaded them with electricity and, sure enough – a series of explosions over the android's legs, then torso, then, finally, the head blew its way through the mechanisms. It was over, the robot was fried.
Just in time, too, cause Ben noticed a news helicopter arriving and he did not want to deal with a news crew seeing his alien form, or especially his transformation. He jumped out of the robot's circuits and hid behind a fence just as the watch started beeping in red, signaling the imminent time-out.
"Did you see that?!" – he excitedly asked Jamie as he ran to the rest of the boys.
"We saw that, Tennyson, but how could you have possibly seen it when you were hiding like a coward somewhere?" – Cash sneered at him.
Ben got frustrated. He had just saved his ass and this ungrateful doofus thought he was a coward. Well, it was better than him finding out about the alien watch, so he stayed quiet.
"Later, dweebasaurus." – Cash told them, obviously thinking he sounded cool, got on his bike and made his way home. J.T. followed.
"Well… that was something." – Ben told Jamie as they watched the other two go home.
"So, you could control electricity however you wanted it to?" – Jamie asked him, in awe of this alien.
"Yeah, I think so. Did you notice me go through the powerlines?"
"Yeah, that was awesome." – Jamie nodded. "But I really need to get home. My mom's gonna go crazy if she finds out I was anywhere near the giant robot."
"See you tomorrow?" – Ben excitedly asked.
"Definitely." – Jamie nodded. The two boys gave each other a fist bump.
"This is gonna be the best summer ever!" – Ben yelled, looking proudly at the watch. And as he waved Jamie went home, Ben thought that summer school didn't seem so bad anymore. Not with a friend there waiting for him.
And in turn, he made his own way home, still on a euphoric high from turning into superpowered aliens and fighting giant robots and saving people.
"I'm back!" – Ben yelled as he got back home.
"Ben?" – Sandra asked, with a tone of worry in her voice. "Why aren't you on the trip with your Grandpa?"
"I, uh…" – Ben hesitated. And the miserable chore of explaining summer school to he parents had come back. It had completely slipped his mind, after the alien battles and all that. "I… couldn't go." – Ben admitted.
"What are you talking about? Why not?" – Sandra asked him. "And what happened to your knee?"
Ben had completely forgotten about the knee he bruised during the bicycle race.
"And where have you been all day, then?" – Carl stepped in. "It's almost midnight!"
"Oh." – Ben muttered. Maybe the summer wouldn't be as great as he had thought.
So, I bet Buzzshock was unexpected. He won't be the only changed alien in the roster, either. Though, most of the original 10 will remain same. I wanted to shake the selection up somewhat to make the story feel fresh and interesting. It is an alternate timeline, after all.