We were standing in line at a video game store. Ben wanted to get the newest Sumo Slammers video game. "We've been in this line for two hours and it hasn't budged an inch," Gwen said. "Small price to pay for Sumo Slammer 2.1. I'd do anything to get this game! Even be seen in public with you," Ben said as he held my hand. "Don't you already have this stupid video game?" Gwen asked, annoyed. "Hello! This is Sumo Slammer 2.1! You can change your fighter's color at any time during the match," Ben said.
~💚~
"You know, there's a nice air conditioned bookstore over there. Maybe we could wait inside until this line thins out a bit," Max suggested. "And lose my place? Not an option! You three go. I'll get my game and meet you guys back at the RV." "Want us to pick up anything for you at the bookstore?" Max asked Ben. "I'm on summer vacation. Why would I read anything?" Ben said in reply. Coming out of the bookstore, I had my new book in my hands. It was the newest book in The Twilight Saga, Midnight Sun. The story between Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, reminded me of Ben and I. Especially now that he has the Omnitrix.
~💚~
"So, think Ben's gone stir crazy in that line yet, Paige?" Gwen asked me. I didn't get a chance to answer because we heard a loud crash and people screaming. Then we saw... BEN?! "This can't be happening!" I thought. I've known Ben for a long time and he would never get this mad. A police car showed up. When it got closer to Ben, he flipped it over. "Why is Ben going berserk and tossing around police officers?" Gwen asked. "I have no idea." I said, very confused. "Good question," Max said.
~💚~
~💚~
Suddenly, a helicopter showed up. Ben took a street light and threw it. Max took Gwen and I somewhere safe. "He must have snapped his cap! All this for a video game?" "I don't believe it," Max said. More police cars showed up and Ben threw a car at them. Then someone else showed up. "Lieutenant Steel, Special Alien Containment Team. We'll take it from here. Concussion bazooka!" The man yelled.
~💚~
"That doesn't look good," Max said. Suddenly, my heart outweighed what my head was saying. I ran to Ben, "Ben, what are you doing?" Ben lifted a car and had a sick smile on his face. "Is he really going to kill me?" I thought, frightened. I felt a tug on my arm and it was Gwen pulling me away. The men shot Ben and he crashed into a pizza parlor. "Ben!" The three of us shouted. He appeared and threw a pizza oven that exploded.
~💚~
"There must be a logical explanation, right?" Max asked, confused. I was just as confused. Ben would never hurt me. He loves me, right? "Oh, great! Now I'm doubting Ben's love for me. He loves me... I know it!" I shook the negative thoughts away and went to talk to him. "Are you demented? Going alien just to get a stupid video game?" Gwen asked Ben as we entered the Rust Bucket. She was fuming, not just because of what he did to public property but because he almost killed me.
~💚~
"What are you talking about?" Ben asked his cousin. "You going Fourarm-freaky in front of that store. That's what I'm talking about! Not to mention, almost killing Paige. You're girlfriend who you claim to love so much!" I saw that that hit a nerve with Ben. He gritted his teeth and stood up. "Hey! I do love Paige! I love her more than anything in the world! More than the Omnitrix and more than some video game!" Ben said, anger and passion in his voice. "Now I'm sure he has a good explanation. Don't you, Ben?" Max asked.
~💚~
"Yeah. I don't know what you're talking about. I wouldn't hurt Paige or anyone else," He said. "Oh, sure! Just like you never put an empty milk bottle back in the refrigerator... or you never leave the shower all gunked up... or you never, ever leave the toilet seat up in the middle of the night! You never do anything wrong, do you?" Gwen said. I could see that she was hitting a nerve again. I wanted to say something but I stayed out of it.
~💚~
"Sounds about right." Ben said, smiling. "Look, I don't know if some encyclopedia or something fell on your head at the bookstore... but you have no evidence I did anything wrong." "Oh, yeah?" Gwen said as she turned the TV up. "That's not me!" Ben said. "Oh, no? I'm sure it's just some other fourarmed alien... going postal in front of a video game store," Gwen said. "It's possible. Remember when that Diamondhead alien turned out to be a good guy? In fact, all the alien species in the watch live out in the universe somewhere,' Ben said.
~💚~
"That's true. Besides... Ben wouldn't be so irresponsible with his alien powers like that." "Grandpa, please," Gwen said. "Gwen!" I snapped at her. "All right. Maybe you have a point." "No one's going to ruin my aliens' reputation except me. No one is going to destroy my relationship either," Ben said as he grabbed my hand. We left the Rust Bucket to try and figure things out.
~💚~
"Criminals always return to the scene of the crime," Gwen said. "Gwen!" I snapped at her again while giving her a dirty look. "Will you give it a rest? Paige and I are trying to solve a mystery here," Ben said. "What do you two expect to find that everyone else couldn't?" Max questioned. Ben and I heard something and when we looked, we saw the Four Arms lookalike. "There his is! Come on, princess!" Ben said as we ran to catch the imposter.
~💚~
"Wait!" Max yelled. "Come on. XLR8! Fine. We'll check him ourselves, princess," Ben said when he couldn't get the Omnitrix to work. "The Mint!" I said, realizing that the imposter was probably going to steal money. "Gwen!" "Not now, Paige! Can't you see I've got to deal with... Ben? So who are you?" Gwen said, realizing it wasn't her cousin. "Me? I'm a hottie. Can't you tell?" The imposter said. He was going blast fire at Gwen. Before I could grab her and take her away... Ben transformed into Diamondhead. He shielded us from the fire.
~💚~
"Now do you believe me, princess? I'd never hurt you, I love you," Ben said. I put my hand on his cheek, "I always believed you," I said as I kissed his cheek. "You, Paige and grandpa get everyone else out of here!" Ben instructed. "No way! I'm fighting too, Benji," I said, not going to leave my boyfriend's side. Knowing that it wasn't wise to argue with me, Ben nodded. "I don't know who you are... but you're giving aliens a bad time," Ben said to the imposter.
~💚~
"So why don't you cry about it... or are you going to go run and tell on me to your grandpa Max... or that smart-mouth cousin of yours? Or better yet... you're girlfriend who's always living in your shadow?" "I don't know who this person is... but they're really starting to make me angry!" I thought. Ben could definitely see the fire burning in my eyes.
~💚~
Suddenly, coins rained down on us. Ben shielded me from the impact of the metal with his body. "Hey! It's raining money!" "Who are you!?" I shouted, having enough of this person's games. "You two still haven't figured it out? Maybe this will help," The imposter said. Then he transformed into many of Ben's aliens. "No! It can't be!!! Kevin?" I thought. Sure enough, my gut feeling was right... it was Kevin!
~💚~
"Kevin?" I don't get it. I thought you were drained of all my powers... back in the subway in New York," Ben said, just as confused as I was. "That's what you get for thinking, Benji," Kevin said. Anger boiled within me, "Hey! Only I can call Ben 'Benji' Levin!" I screamed at Kevin. He ignored my comment and continued to talk. "Turns out, I absorbed enough of that weird watch energy... so I could turn into any of those aliens inside. If I just concentrated hard enough. Only problem is, I can only stay human for a short time. You two made me into this freak," He said with vemon.
~💚~
"Like this is our fault?! Whose idea was it to drain out all the powers of the watch? Not ours," Ben said. "I don't care because now it's payback time, parter. Everything fifty-fifty. I do the crime, and you'll do the time," Kevin said. "You'll never get away with this." "Wrong! You'll never get away with this. I'm not me. I'm you, remember?" Suddenly, a SWAT team showed up and Ben was hit in the back by Kevin.
~💚~
"Keep the change. You can use it to pay your bail. Got to fly," Kevin said as he transformed into Stinkfly and left. "Princess, go find grandpa and Gwen. This is only going to get worse," Ben said. Instead of arguing, I nodded and left. "He's telling the truth, officer. There was another alien, who..." I was cut off when Lieutenant Steel spoke again. "I don't try them, kid. I just catch them. We'll let the boys at Area 51... figure out who's naughty and who's nice. Chicago, Tallahassee, Barstow... you and your outer space pals have been keeping me real busy. But you're not getting away with it this time." "This time?" I heard Ben say under his breath.
~💚~
"Ben!" I said, happy my boyfriend was OK. "Thank goodness you found him! We were so worried! He's always wandering away. Paige always has to find him. We're considering getting a leash," Gwen said. "Nice watch. Never seen anything like it," Lieutenant Steel said as he noticed the Omnitrix. "Yeah. It's from... Japan!" Ben said, thinking of a cover story. "No sign of the alien, sir. It's like that thing dissapeared into thin air."
~💚~
"And I don't suppose you four know anything about this alien." "No. If we did, we'd tell you," Max said. "Yeah. Of course you would," Lieutenant Steel said. "It was Kevin at both the video game store and the Mint. They were setups," Ben explained to his cousin and grandpa. "That would explain a lot. I don't mind telling you that kid's rowboat is missing a couple of paddles," Max said. "I don't like him either, Max. Alarm bells went off the first time I met him."
~💚~
"But why does that Alien Swat Team guy think all aliens are bad?" Ben asked. "Looks like from personal experience. Check this out. Your friend has been busy, and not just here in San Francisco. Look, Wildmutt terrorizing Tallahassee... Ripjaws in Chicago, Ghostfreak in Barstow," Gwen said, showing us her laptop. "I'm going to get blamed for all that stuff, and I didn't do any of it!" Ben said, just as furious as I was. "Can anybody say, 'ironic'?" "Also, Kevin's NOT our friend, Gwen," I said, adamantly.
~💚~
Suddenly, we heard screaming and a black, green and white cable car rushed past us. "Kevin!" Ben said, with vemon. "Princess, you stay here where it's safe." I nodded in agreement. "The boy must have gone Upgrade to hijack that cable car," Max said. "Anything he can Upgrade, I can Upgrade better," Ben said as he activated the Omnitrix. "That's right, Benji." Instead of Upgrade, Ben was transformed into Wildmutt.
~💚~
"Wildmutt? Nice choice, Fido," Gwen said, sarcastically. "You know, times like this... my stock car driving experience really comes in handy," Max said as we raced to catch up with Ben. "Ben, attach the line to the bottom of the RV," Max told his grandson. Max slammed on the brakes and the cable car stopped before it reached the bay. We found Ben and I ran to give him a hug. I was so thankful that he was safe.
~💚~
"Not bad for an alien with no thumbs," Gwen said. "Freeze!" The next thing I knew, we had guns pointed at us. Ben shoved me behind him to protect me. "One move and you're all Swiss cheese," Lieutenant Steel said. "You have two choices. Tell me what you had to do with these aliens... or get measured for your prison uniforms." Ben looked at the Omnitrix and Steel grabbed it. "It has something to do with this watch, doesn't it? Is it some kind of signal to call the aliens?" "Let him go... right now," I threatened. I could feel my magic wanting to come out, but I pushed it down.
~💚~
"Sir, we're getting reports of a crystal alien rampaging on the Golden Gate. It looks like it could bring down the whole bridge if it isn't stopped." "Falcon One, pick up at my 20. We're not done," Steel said. "Those guys don't stand a chance against Kevin. You and I have to stop him, princess," Ben said. I nodded, knowing he was right. "Just one more thing I'm going to get blamed for," Ben said. "Benji, it's going to be OK," I said, trying to reassure him.
~💚~
"Let him go, Kevin. This is about you and me," Ben said. "Sounds good to me," Kevin said as he dropped Steel. "Still trying to be a goody two-shoes with your girlfriend, Ben? Let me guess. You two just want to help me." "You had plenty of chances to get help... but you always messed it up. This time, you're getting what you deserve," He said, adamantly. "For the record, Levin; I wouldn't help you or be friends with you if you were the last person on Earth," I said.
~💚~
"Does this mean that we're not best buddies anymore?" Kevin said as he shot crystals at us. Ben and I dodged them as he went to deal with Kevin. "You risked all those innocent lives just to get even with me?!" Ben said, angrily. "Nobody's innocent. They just haven't had the chance to make fun of me yet," Kevin said. "Oh, cry me a river; Levin," I thought. "Fire on my command only. Repeat. On my command only," I heard Steel say.
~💚~
Ben kept beating Kevin to with an inch of his life. "The girl I like has to be tied down by you," I heard Kevin say. "I have something you will NEVER have Kevin... love. The love of the most beautiful girl in the world," I blushed at hearing that. Kevin transformed into Heatblast but I knew that he would have no effect on Ben. These are Ben's aliens and his powers. Finally Kevin transformed back into himself.
~💚~
Before finishing Kevin off, Ben came over to me. "You see, Kevin. I have what you want but will never have." Then Ben dipped me and kissed me. It felt a little weird kissing him as an alien but at the same time familiar. This was my Ben, alien or not. Then he went back to finish Kevin. I thought Ben was going to punch him but he just punched the bridge. "Get back here and fight, Tennyson. I'm not through with you yet," Kevin said.
~💚~
"But I'm through with you. You're not worth it. You never were," Ben said. "Finally we agree," I thought. I looked to see that Kevin was now a combination of aliens. "I can't change back. I'm stuck like this. Look at what you've done!" Kevin said as he charged at Ben. "Oh, man! Is there anything I'm not going to get blamed for today?" Ben said. "You'll never beat me... because you're one of the good guys... and good guys never have the guts to finish guys like me," Kevin said.
~💚~
"But I do. Fire!" I heard Lieutenant Steel say. "Oh and Kevin, if you ever come near us again... I'll kill you," I said as I had a fireball in my hand. Then a blast hit him and he fell. Then Ben went to help Steel. "Are you still looking for me?" "Second target locked on. Permission to fire," I heard. "We got our alien. Stand down," Steel said. Then Ben picked me up and we went to find Max and Gwen. "Are you OK, princess?" "I am now," I said, smiling at Ben and feeling so safe in his arms. "Not even Kevin could have survived that blast and that fall right?" Gwen asked. "You're asking the wrong guy. Paige and I thought he was gone for good the last time," Ben said as he held me. "Now why is it you four are always around when aliens show up?" Steel asked us. "Really? Is that a fact? We hadn't noticed," Max said as Ben and I smiled at each other. "Yeah. Guess it's just a coincidence. Maybe we'll cross paths again sometime. Drive carefully. Lots of weird stuff out there." "Yeah. You're telling us," Ben said. Then we drove away and on to our next adventure.