"I'm on fire but it, doesn't feel like I'm on fire?" In her new form, she was much taller with a more mature build, her body was covered in rocks with cracks revealing fire while her hands and feet were completely void of rocks, and even her head was ablaze with only her rock face peeking through. And on her chest sat the faceplate of the watch, now looking like some sort of badge with the hourglass now completely white. "What, is this thing?", she gave her form another one over, "For that matter, what am I?"
She flexed her hands, noting their increased size. As she did so, much to her surprise, fire seemingly leaped off her palm before forming into a ball-like flame in her hand. "Woah. Wait can I create fire too?" She looked around the clearing before soon finding a nearby stream. "Here goes nothing." She took a stance and, with a nervous breath, threw the ball of fire, hitting a passing stick and causing it to break. "Awesome!" Gwen chuckled as she began producing and throwing more fire into the lake. Soon enough she spotted a passing log, and with a cocky grin she put her hands together before creating a massive fireball, launching it at the log causing it to explode for the impact. "Haha! Strike!" As she cheered however she failed to notice as parts of the burning log land in the nearby trees. As she came down from the high of her success she turned around only to be met with the horrifying sight of the forest quickly catching fire. She tried to stomp out some flames but the effort was meaningless as the forest continued to burn, "Ah man, Ben is so not gonna let me live this down!"
Meanwhile back at the campsite.
"And that should do it!" Verdona cheered as Ben was finally able to let go of the RV's antennas. "Thanks for your help deary."
Ben sighed as hopped down, massaging his shoulder. "Beats having to ride around in that thing with the dweeb without tv." It was then that Ben looked noticed that said dweeb still hadn't returned from her earlier walk. It was then that they turned towards the forest where they noticed what seemed to be a far-away fire with a slowly growing pillar of smoke.
"Great, seems someone started a forest fire. Some young camper must have been fooling around with something they shouldn't have."
.
.
.
"Gwen!" The two screamed in realization. Acting quickly Verdona reached into a camper kit and grabbed a pair of fire extinguishers. "Take this. Come On!" Verdona yelled as she and Ben raced into the forest
Back in the forest Gwen panickly tried to put out the raging fire only for all her efforts to seemingly feed the flames even more. "Whoever said to fight fire with fire was totally out of their mind." In her panic, she failed to notice as Ben quickly approached spraying ABC powder at the fire. And in his haste, he failed to notice Gwen's transformed state as he sprayed her with the fire extinguisher. "Hey!" She yelled reigniting her flames.
Ben himself just stumbled back in panic before glaring at her and swinging the fire extinguisher into her side causing her to stumble back, only to be respected with even more ABC powder. "I don't know who or what you are but you'll stay down if you know what's good for you!"
Gwen mowing having realized who her attack was just smirked as she relit "Don't even think about it, Doofus."
"Gwen?" Ben gasped, "Is that, is that really you?"
However, they were cut off as Verdona quickly approached. "Ben how you do-What In The Blazes!"
"Hi, Grandma!"
"Grandma!?…wait Gwen? What happened to you?"
"Wait uh shouldn't we do something about the major forest fire?" Ben asked
Verdona paused for a moment before getting an idea, "You started this fire, right? We'll start a new one and let it burn into this one. That way they'll snuff each other out! Think you can do that hun?"
"Definitely." With a smirk and nod Gwen ran into the unburnt half of the forest while Ben and Verdona ran out.
A few hours later their efforts proved successful as the fire slowly burnt down till all that was left of it was ash.
Now all that was left was figuring out what the hell happened in the first place. "So you're saying that that watch just jumped up and clamped on your wrist?" Verdona questioned.
"Cool." Ben said, "Aw man, I wish I'd gotten it, I'd be a way cooler fire monster!"
"She's not a monster she's an alien" Verdona scolded, much to the cousins' confusion. "We-I-I mean what else could she be, she did say that it came from outer space right?" She stammered awkwardly.
"I don't care what I am, and it's so not cool. I mean how am I supposed to go to school if I'm constantly setting off the fire alarm, and their so not going to let me try out for judo if I burn anyone I spar with." Gwen bemoaned as she stuffed her face into her hands. However, as she did this as if on cue the watch began to flash a dark green as it let out a high-pitched series of beeps before encompassing her into a bright green glow. As the glow dies down Ben and Verdona are able to see that Gwen has returned to normal, with the watch's face plate having a dark green hourglass, unlike the pink one she had described earlier.
"Well, guess that settles that. You kids stay here and I'll check out that crash site." Verdona announced as she stood up. However, before leaving for the site she turned to Gwen who was halting daggers at the strange watch, "And don't mess with that thing until we know what it is."
Heading her advice the kids stayed there by the RV as they cooked s'mores, though it was clear that their focus was still on the watch. "So, what was it like going alien like that?"
Gwen paused, "It was weird, it felt like I was someone else but was also still me, I don't know how to describe it." She was interrupted as the watch let out a beep drawing the duo's attention. It was then that they noticed that the hourglass had returned to its pink color. Curiosity taking hold Gwen traced her fingers a crossed the watch before pressing the pink button that had caused the face plate to pop up earlier.
"You sure you want to do that?" Ben interrupted, "Maybe we should wait till grandma gets back." However, his concerns were handily ignored. As Gwen tinkered with the face plate she ended up turning the dial the figure on its display changed from that fire lady to a much rounder figure. "Welp, here we go again." Ben sighed.
And as Gwen pressed down on the faceplate a bright pink light erupted out, covering her completely and causing Ben to shield his eyes. And as he unshielded his eyes he saw what had become of his cousin. For in her place stood a new figure, this figure was a large round creature, it had no visible head with its face on its body, the body of the creature appeared to be white with black markings across her hands, arms, and legs with a cyan shell on its back and both the shoulders and backhands of both arms. (see here) "Woah" Gwen bellowed as she stumbled backward and fell on her but.
"Pfft HaHaHaHaHaHaHa!" Ben laughed as he watched Gwen stumble around in her new form "Oh man this hilarious! What use is this dude supposed to be?" Annoyed by Ben's mockery Gwen shot Ben a nasty look and began to approach him, however, as she got closer Ben simply moved to the side and tripped her. However much to his surprise instead of falling flat on her face she instead began to roll into a ball as the shell on her back began to morph around her creating a protective shell around her. As she began to form this ball she also began to roll before slamming into a tree causing it to fall, "...huh, so that's the use."
After getting back up Ben and Gwen continued to experiment with the new form. "You sure about this?" Gwen asked in her deep guttural voice. After Ben explained what happened when she rolled into they decided to test out her new power by having her roll down a hill.
"It'll be fine." Ben reassured, "Besides you said you barely felt it when you hit that tree right?"
"Yeah," Gwen sighed in defeat. However, as she stared down the hill she viably started getting second thoughts. "I don't know."
"Come on Gwen live a little!" Ben groaned, however as he saw Gwen hesitate an idea came to mind. He approached from behind "Come on, it's time to get this ball," he lifted his foot, "ROLLING!" And with a mighty kick to her backside Gwen was sent tumbling down the mountain, her shell ball as she went. And when she ended up colliding with one of the trees instead of slamming into it and stopping as Ben had expected she just burst right through it. She burst through several more trees before meeting a rock, which Ben thought for sure would stop her, yet she just bounced right off and went through three more trees before she lost enough momentum and came to a stop.
"Urg," Gwen groaned as she uncurled as she laid on the ground, "I'm gonna kill that doofus" However before she could continue she was caught off by a strange cacophony of buzzing and beeping noises that seemed to be growing louder. Curious she sat up to investigate, and what she saw shocked her. Floating feet off the ground was some sort of machine, it looked flat and metallic with an almost jet-like shape with a metal ring at the bottom that emanated a green light, the main body was white with some black detailing while on top it sat what seemed to be some sort of green light bulb, lastly spouting out from its sides where a pair of what seemed to be some sort of grey canons. "Uh, hello?" Gwen replied nervously, however all she got in response was literal static. She tried to back away but as she did so the light on top of the machine began to flash as it began pointing its cannon at her. Filled with a mix of fear and rage Gwen, responded by leaping at the bot, slamming into it as she curled into a ball, knocking it out of the air. As she landed she spun back around and raced back to the bot as it tried to rise again and ran it over, destroying it completely.
Coming to a stop Gwen landed on her feet and uncurled, "Woah. Hey, I'm getting the hang of this." However, her victory was quickly interrupted as another drone quickly flew in. "Another one? Whatever. Come at me, Mr. Roboto." Gwen boasted, only to be undermined as she heard a familiar beep, beep, Beep, and in a flash of green light found herself returned to her human form. "Uh, oh."
Cowering as the drone pointed its canon at her now vulnerable form Gwen braced for the inevitable pain. However before it could it crumbled as a shovel hit it with a mighty WACK! "Stupid flying thing, nobody terrorizes my cousin but me!" Much to her shock, Ben stood over the robot brandishing a shovel in hand. "You ok?"
Recovering from her shock Gwen shakingly rises to her feet before sighing, "Yeah, but what was that thing?" As she asked this she kneeled so that she could sort through the now trashed robot. "I've never seen anything like this before, even these circuits their just so-"
"Alien?" Verdona interrupted, nearly scaring Gwen into falling face-first into the scrap heap. "Told you not to mess with that gizmo didn't I." Verdona scolded as she glared down at the kids, who themselves simply gave shy smiles in response.
After bringing her up to speed the trio hicked their way up to the RV. However, on their way, they began picking up a peculiar smell, "Smoke?" And indeed looking up not too far away they could see signs of a fire as smoke continued to bellow.
"Fire? I thought we got it all with that backfire?"
It was then that Ben noticed hints of green light piercing through the trees and smoke, "Drones, it's the drone guys."
"We need to get out of here." Gwen gulped as she got ready to run away.
However, before she could do so Ben grabbed her wrist as he scolded her "Get out of here? You can't just leave them be. You have to go stop them!"
"Me? I don't have to do anything, doofus!" yelled back as she tried to pull away from Ben's hold.
"Yeah, you do!" Ben scolded as he stared Gwen down, "They're clearly here for the watch gizmo, what do you think they'll do before they realize it's not there?"
"I… GAH! Since when were you right?"
"Apparently, since fire walked, cousins rolled, and watches fell from space, now come on let's go." He ordered as he grabbed her by the wrist and charged toward the chaos.
/
/
They raced to the epicenter of the chaos. Peaking through some bushes they looked out and saw the hulking titan of a robot that was terrorizing the populous. It was large with a white body sparse with green circuitry. It had large hands and short stubby bipedal legs with flat feet. Its eye was a circuit pattern on its face with a circuit circle acting as the eye.
"Who you gonna pick?" Ben asked as Gwen popped the face plate up.
"Not sure," She began turning the dial, "Eine Menie Miney, Here I go." She then slammed her hand on the faceplate, she was bathed in a bright pink light that slowly began to grow in size until it was larger than Verdona herself. As the light died down Gwen's change in appearance was evident, she was now a tall green crystalline woman with a half-dark and half-light blue jumpsuit with the Omnitrix badge on her left pect.
With the light died down Ben examined the being, his eyes wide in awe, "Woah, what can this guy do?"
"I don't know." She held up a hand and shifted it into a blade, "But I bet it'll be cool."
/
/
The camping-grown parking lot was in ruins as the towering robot paraded around shooting lasers from its eye circuitry. Eventually, it turned its attention towards a park ranger who was attempting to usher civilians away, its eye circuitry began glowing a brilliant green but before it could fire it was cut off by a crystal hitting the side of its head. Turning its attention towards the source of the attack it saw Gwen in her new form, its cameras scanning her Omnitrix, "Leave him alone! You want somebody to pick on?" Registering the Omnitrix it turned to fully face its opponent, "Try me."
The fight begins and Gwen begins firing crystals from the palm of her hands as she runs around the robot, forcing it to turn as it continues to fire at her with its laser. Eventually, tho it wised up and suddenly spun back around so that Gwen ended up running straight into the laser. The impact caused her to be thrown away from the laser, but before she could be sent flying she noticed that her crystalline body refracted the laser. However, before she could process that she heard screaming as she saw that one of the refracted beams had hit a nearby tree, one that Ben was standing right under.
. Acting on instinct she raises both arms and fires all the crystals she can muster aiming for the tree. The force of their impact is enough to divert its path so that it barely misses Ben.
Huffing and puffing she and Ben look at each other, "So, we even?"
Ben gulps as he looks back at the tree, "Even."
Diamondhead (The robot suddenly grabs his entire body with one hand.) Uh-oh!
Gwen!" She heard her grandma cry from the distance. Turning in response she saw as the robot charged up another optic blast. In a panic, she holds up her arms trying to clock the blast. As she does so she notices that the crystals do indeed refract the laser beam spreading it across the area and causing many civilians to duck, Ben included. Putting the pieces together she's half tempted to slap herself for not seeing it sooner, "Of course, the power of reflection."
Now with a plan in mind, she ran in front of the monstrous machine goading it yelling "Let's go, ugly! Hit me with your best shot!" taking the bait it did as asked and fired directly at her. Now prepared she readied her stance and held her hands out stiffly as she cupped her hands together, thus as the laser hit the refraction created a much more controlled dispersal. Struggling against the force Gwen forced her crystal hands to reshape around the laser creating a bowl of sorts. The Lazer hit the bowl and began refracting causing a spectacular light show that many nearby campers admired in both awe and terror.
"What comes around, goes around." Let's see how you like it, ya techno freak! Gwen then closed the bowl causing the reflected laser to amplify the power and redirect it toward the robot pushing it up into the air where it then exploded in a green fiery blaze.
Verdona and Ben cheered as the glare of the explosion dispersed. "Woo Hoo! WAY TO GO Gw-Girl!" Ben cut himself off before he could reveal Gwen's secret.
"Oh yeah! Who's next?!"
The next morning Verdona and Ben began packing luggage back in the RV as Gwen sat on a stump and put her shoes on. "How are you holding up kid?" Verdona kindly asked her granddaughter as she patted her on the shoulder.
Gwen gave a shy smile up to her grandma, "Still a bit freaked from going alien, but I'm good." Though as she said this she subconsciously fidgeted with the watch
Ben glared at her as carried luggage toward the RV, "If you're good then how about going alien and helping get this stuffed pack?"
"I dunno." Gwen pondered as she looked unsurely at the watch on her wrist.
His expression taking on an annoyed smile he mockingly replied, "What are you Chicken? Bawk Bawk!"
Gwen glared at Ben before turning the glare towards the watch. Annoyed Gwen dialed up an alien and slammed the face plate covering herself in pink light. Racing from the light, a blue blur zoomed past Ben grabbing luggage and taking it into the RV, knocking Ben off his feet as she went. Finally stopping Ben and Verdona got a final good look at her. Gwen's new form was a cyan lizard-like alien with clawed feet, black wheels, and clawed hands. She wore a dark blue jumpsuit with a light blue stripe down the middle. Her head a two black stripes going down past her pink eyes. A dark blue helmet was on her head, or as part of her head.
With a semi-proud smile, Ben cheered "Woah, nice work XLR8!"
Pausing Gwen looked at Ben in confusion, "Accelerate?"
"No. XLR8. That's what I'm naming it." His confidence faltered.
"Why?" She questioned.
"I dunno, just thought every superhero needs a super name. Came up with some for your other girls. The fire lady is HeatBlast, the one that rolls into a ball is Cannonbolt, and the crystal one is Diamondhead!"
Gwen thought for a moment, "Actually, I don't mind HeatBlast. Cannonbolt is also good, but I'm not sure it's me. Can we workshop Diamondhead? It feels too brutish."
Scratching the back of his head, "Uh, Alright, how about Riccoshell and Saphire?"
The now-named XLR8 scratched her claws against her helmet thinking for a moment "Huh… not bad," Gwen complimented before smirking "For a Dweeb."
Proud grin falling into an annoyed frown, Ben watched the giggling alien, and when they let their guard down Ben grabbed a leg and pulled with all his might. Causing her to fall from the doorway. Smirking at his handy work Ben hopped into the RV and chuckled "Heh heh, not bad for a lizard."
Verdona scratched the back of her head as she watched the scene go down, "Oh this summer is going to be interesting"
Gwen stood up wobbling on her wheeled feet with an annoyed frown, "That's for sure."