November 18, 2010

Bellwood General Hospital; 11:16 pm

Ben could feel his arm being tugged as he entered the building. The sounds of shoes against polished tile rang in his ear. An array of chemicals masked by a lemony scent filled the corridors. He knew he was within a hospital, but internally he was still in bed, wishing for a world-ending crisis to drag him out of the abyss.

Ever since his first runaway attempt, Ben had been under an almost constant twenty-four-hour surveillance. He was no longer allowed to be left alone, and his bedroom window had been nailed shut. School had quickly turned into his safe haven, but he knew that Sandra had been heavily considering quitting her job to homeschool.

Once he was on Summer vacation, Ben was forced to work with his parents. He was pretty sure there were child labor laws against this, but he had lost the energy to fight months ago.

After losing comic and video game privileges, Sandra tried to take away the watch. Not knowing what to do, Ben ran away for the second time. Max brought him back later that night, and they agreed that the watch would be his one luxury. That was also the night Ben learned the meaning of irony.

By the time he began seventh grade, he was an empty husk of his former self. No longer were the nights sneaking off to stop bank robberies or prevent an alien invasion. Now he was just Benjamin Tennyson, the screwed-up freak of the family everyone wishes to forget.

The sound of the elevator doors closing pulled him back to the present. His parents were whispering amongst themselves as if they had forgotten about him. He wasn't sure who they were seeing, even if they had told him he hadn't cared enough to listen.

They arrived at their designated floor, and the two adults almost ran down the hall. Ben struggled to keep up, not wanting to lose track of them. His mother stopped dead in her tracks staring through the open door. Fear washed over him as he looked at the name written on the wall: Tennyson.

Pushing past his mother, Ben readied the Omnitrix, fearing the worst. But, to his dismay, there were no alien attacks, a villain getting revenge, or even an accident. Instead, Ben saw his aunt Natalie lying in a hospital gown with a newborn baby sucking on her breast. Sandra rushed into the room with tears in her eyes. The two in-laws embraced each other while Carl congratulated his brother.

To say Ben was in shock would be an understatement. For months he watched as his family crumbled around him, and within an instant, all was forgiven. New life brought a new beginning for the Tennyson family. He should be happy for them, but he can't.

He noticed movement in the corner of his eye. He chased after it, not letting this opportunity slip away from him. Finally, rounding the corner, he saw her—the object of his affection that had plagued him for so long.

She was thinner than when he last saw her. Her once-toned body was now small and frail. She looked pale, almost sickly, and her fiery hair was frazzled and unkempt. The only thing that remained were her beautiful emerald eyes. The same pair that he couldn't bring himself to glimpse at whenever he looked in the mirror. It seemed she couldn't either since she focused on anything but him.

"Gwen," Ben said, "I missed you."

She didn't speak.

"There wasn't a day I didn't think about you."

Nothing.

"And I knew I'd see you again!"

Silence.

"Can you please say something!?"

"We can't keep doing this," Gwen spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.

"You don't mean that… You don't mean that!" Ben grabbed her by the shoulders, desperate to get her to look at him, but she refused. "This is our chance, Gwen; we can run away just the two of us!"

"Are you even hearing yourself? This isn't a fantasy story where we can ride into the sunset and have our happy ending. We committed an egregious act of incest! We broke the law. We disappointed our parents. We ruined our family."

Gwen moved past him to look into her mother's hospital room. "Look at them, Ben. This is the happiest I've seen my parents in so long." Sandra and Carl were holding the baby, marveling at its beauty, while Natalie and Frank just sat there smiling. "His name is Kenneth. Ken, he rhymes with us, isn't that great!?" She tried to smile, but it turned into a sob. Gwen walked away to not ruin her parents' newfound happiness.

"Listen to me, Gwen. I don't care what laws we broke. I don't care if they hate me and disown me. I don't even care if they try to replace me. I won't let anyone decide who I can and can't love! I just need you."

"I'm breaking up with you." She was now looking at him. Her beautiful bloodshot green eyes stared back at him with a ferocity that he's never seen before. This wasn't up for debate; it was over.

So, Ben did the only thing he could do, he ran. Again, for the third time, he could not do anything but run away. He could hear shouting but ignored them. Nothing mattered anymore; he just wanted to get away. He ran until his lungs were burning and his legs collapsed. If he were XLR8, he would have been dozens of miles away. Instead, he was at the park in the center of town. He was soaking wet; he hadn't realized it was raining until now. He chuckled at the thought of Gwen lecturing him about how he'll catch a cold.

"Gwen," he thought, "how could she do this?" In an instant, he could no longer feel the sadness that had overtaken his life. Replacing it was an unbridled rage like no other. He screamed, kicked over trash cans, and punched trees until his knuckles bled. Nothing was enough. He just wanted it to stop.

A scream broke him out of his trance. It was barely audible over the rain, but it was all he needed to spring into action. It'd been months since he last used the Omnitrix, but he had already gone through the motions before realizing he was jumping through the tree line. Normally, the going hero would serve as a distraction allowing him to focus on saving the day. But instead, he felt angrier.

The screaming was getting louder. He pounced high into the air, preparing to drop where he assumed the screams originated. A small crater was formed where he landed. Ben stood up, towering over the two people in front of him. One was a scared young woman in a fast food uniform: and the other was a man in a ski mask with a gun and purse in his hands. The masked man pointed the gun towards him, and Ben quickly squashed it with his furry hand, metal and bone breaking all the same. He ripped the purse from the other hand, tossing it to the woman.

"Go on, git!" Ben screamed, causing the woman to run and never look back. He noticed that he sounded like one of those old wrestlers he watched with his dad when he was a kid but returned his attention to the man shouting in pain before him. "Lemme tell ya somethin', masked criminal, you picked the wrong day to be a criminal!" Ben raised him so their eyes would meet. "Cause now you have to deal with Rath."

Max had returned to the trailer park he reluctantly called home after dealing with plumber business for the last few weeks. With his grandchildren no longer maintaining peace within Bellwood, it was up to Max to take up the reins as well as continue his regular plumber duties. Between his old age and the endless workload, Max was exhausted. He hadn't even bothered to take off his jumpsuit before lying in bed. And of course, the phone had to ring. He considered letting it go to voicemail or telling them that he was retired, but he was a soldier, and a soldier's work is never done. Max opened the flip phone and gave out a sigh of defeat as he read the caller ID.

"Don't suppose you're calling with good news, Carl."

"Actually, yes! And no." Max stood up, anticipating what his son's next words would be. "Natalie gave birth, Dad. You have another grandson!" Max was elated, but the celebration was short-lived.

"Ben ran away again, didn't he?" The sigh his son gave out was the only answer he needed. "I'll find him, Carl."

"I know you will, Dad. You always do." The call ended. A whirlwind of emotions went through him. But then, they were gone, almost as if they were never there to begin with.

He pulled out a tracker from the glove box. There hadn't been an Omnitrix activation reading in months. He would have checked the GPS coordinates on his cell phone, but he knew that Sandra confiscated his phone after the incident in the Spring. So with no other options, Max drove downtown, listening in on his old police scanner for any clue to where his grandson went.

He had been searching the area surrounding the hospital for almost an hour. He considered calling in a favor from the plumbers, but he was still dealing with the repercussions from last time. Just then, the tracker picked up a signal from the city park. Max kicked it into high gear, hoping to catch Ben before he left town or, worse, the country.

He couldn't get the RV deep enough into the park, so he'd have to search the rest of the way on foot. Being unable to see more than ten feet in front of him, Max grabbed a pair of inferred goggles to help him search through the heavy rain. He came upon a woman running out of the park screaming and took that as a bad sign. He reached for the laser pistol at his hip and ran to the point on his tracker as fast as possible.

When he finally arrived, Max was appalled at the sight before him. An Appoplexian was mauling a man to death. He wouldn't have hesitated to shoot the beast down if it wasn't for the black and green hourglass on its chest.

"That's enough, Ben!" Ben dropped the mangled man's body. Max was thankful to see he was still breathing, but he wasn't sure for how much longer.

"Lemme tell ya somethin', grandpa!" Ben began to stomp toward him. "Rath is sick and tired of being told what he can and can't do! Nobody is gonna tell Rath what to do! Rath will tell you when Rath has had enough!" Max dove away, narrowly missing the giant claws aimed at him. He was at a great disadvantage and could only hope that Ben hadn't figured out how to utilize the new alien transformation.

Setting the laser to stun, Max left no time for guilt as he fired upon his grandson. Ben brushed them off, seeming only to get angrier. Max would have to rely on something stronger. As he had no way of stopping the alien and was unsure of when the Omnitrix would time out, Max sprinted for the Rust Bucket, firing off shots to slow down his pursuer.

Ben continued to take the impacts without even flinching. He chased down his prey, but between the rain dulling his senses and the difference in experience, he couldn't quite catch the old man. This failure angered him further, causing him to destroy the trees in an attempt to trap Max.

Max was no more than twenty feet away when a falling tree knocked him down. Quickly, the large alien feline pounced, ready to crush him. But it was too late. Max pulled out a remote, and large speakers emerged from the Rust Bucket's exterior. Screeching feedback caused Ben to writhe in pain. Max couldn't stop the guilt weighing in his chest, but he had no other choice. Soon, Ben passed out and reverted to his small twelve-year-old form. Max made an anonymous call to the authorities about the man in the woods, hoping they'd make it in time to save him.

The two drove back to the trailer park. Max looked over the incapacitated child lying in the bunk. He knew how much his grandchildren cared for each other. He watched it blossom firsthand, and instead of stopping it, he allowed it to grow until it consumed them, and they had to suffer the consequences.

The thing about love is that it never really goes away. A desire that strong will take a new form, whether it's fear, depression, or even anger. And without an outlet to release it, this new form will destroy them.

Max came to the decision he had been dreading for the last two years. Tomorrow, Ben would begin his training to become a plumber.