Season 1 - Hero Time.

by Mandalore5

Summary:

It started when an alien device did what it did
And stuck itself upon her wrist with secrets that it hid
Now she's got super powers, she's no ordinary kid
She's Gwen 10! (Gwen 10!)

So if you see her, you might be in for a big surprise
She'll turn into an alien before your very eyes
She's slimy, freaky, fast and strong, she's every shape and size
She’s Gwen 10! (Gwen 10!)

Armed with powers, she's on the case
Fighting off evil from Earth or space
She'll never stop 'till he makes them pay
'Cause she's the baddest kid to ever save the day
Gwen 10!

Chapter 1: And then there was Gwen

The giant that was Jupiter loomed in the background. The sight of the massive planet would be enough to awe any viewer. But it was not the focal point of action this day. Instead, the void of space lit up with energy as a massive brown and red vessel chased after a smaller teal ship. The larger vessel was brutish, a behemoth of metal and power. Red electricity discharged between the two forks of its prow. All along its body masses of red glow in the darkness of space, appearing almost as globes of lava stuck onto its hull.

The small vessel, dancing around the beams that lanced through the void, was sleeker. Built for speed, green energy discharged from its engines and its limited weapons striking the larger vessel as a wasp stings a bear. It caused pain, but the predatory ship continued its pursuit unabated.

Within the larger ship, a figure sat surrounded by screens and interfaces, underneath one of the lava-like globules within the ship. The screens bent up out of the ground rounded on tube-like extensions, or circled overhead on long mechanical arms, changing when needed. The figure at the center, the commander, was fierce. Green skin with yellow spots that dotted the tentacles extending from his head, no hair, no nose nor ears. A black-lipped mouth attached to a pair of green sacs on the sides of his face, a rebreather perhaps? Black and red armor cruelly spiked at the elbows and shoulders. Around him, dozens of artificial beings swarmed over their own consoles.

“Hull damage twenty percent, weapon systems still operational,” one such drone spoke. It’s voice artificial. Its shiny black head was bereft of a face instead six yellow dots, and its eyes, faced from the front. Each of differing sizes. Although somewhat vaguely mammalian, it was still unquestionably alien.

“I’ve come too far to be denied!” The commander slammed his fist against his chair’s armrest. “The Omnitrix shall be mine! And there is not a being in the galaxy that dares stand in my way!”

—---------------

Meanwhile, on earth, a girl with short red hair pulled into a pair of short puffy pigtails her bangs that would cover her face were kept to one side with a blue hair clip. She wore a black shirt with a small white collar underneath a short pair of overalls with large pockets and a blue cat head on the chest, sighed at how slow the day was going. Clicking a pair of light blue platform shoes, Mary Jane's. Looking down, she pulled her socks back up, black with cat ears at the top. The girl listened to the teacher, but the woman’s voice became hazy as she watched the clock. School was almost over and summer would start soon.

A whole summer out of that house. Finally, if I had to be around that woman for another three months now, I’d pull my hair out!

Gwen specifically avoided thinking about whom ELSE was coming on that trip, lost in thought, she jumped when the bell finally did go off. A quick announcement of a suggested reading list followed. The red-haired girl walked through the school with her head up, avoiding any eye contact, and stopped at her locker. They had already cleared out all the school stuff earlier, so what was left was her posters of bands and other interests. A poster of Cthulhu hung on the back, and one of a heavy metal band just on the inside. She rolled these up with great care, and gathered some eyeliner and nail polish.

“... Well, I won’t have to find a place to hide this at home this year…” Gwen looked at her Cthulhu poster, it was actually the second one she owned, the first one had been torn off her wall and ripped into pieces. Odd, then, that memory focused on the red nails of the woman who had torn it up. “...” Stuffing her few personal items away, Gwen walked the halls.

The ten-year old tried to stay out of the way, but still ended up getting pushed around by people rushing past her. One boy nearly knocked her down and spun around, shouting at her.

“Watch where you’re going, freak!”

Gwen felt heat rise up to her cheeks, a shot of adrenaline down her nerves and anger crawl up her back. The girl could chase him down, could fight back, but she knew how much trouble that would make, so she choked it down. It wasn’t the first time she’d be called that, and it wouldn’t be the last. Her mother's words suddenly came to her, and it made choking that feeling down even harder. ‘That’s not very lady-like, is it?’ the fear of missing out on this trip stayed her hand, though she hated every second of it.

With no more distractions or interruptions the red-head soon stood outside waiting for her Grandpa, with no sign of him, yet she pulled out a book of stories by H.P. Lovecraft, yes she knew the man had issues, but his work was public domain. Reading it literally didn’t put any money into his or his families coffers.

“Color of out space, nah read that… The Dunwich Horror been a while since I read that,” Sadly she was only a few pages in when a honk drew her attention, and another jump that sent her book flipping through the air, only catching it at the last second. Turning redder than her hair, the girl looked for the source.

“Over here Gwen!” A silver-haired man waved out of his window. “We still gotta pick up Ben, let’s go!”

“Grandpa Max!” Gwen finally smiled, picking up her bookbag she shot off towards Max’s RV, that had seen better days but still had a lot of mileage left in it.

“Sorry to keep ya waiting, Gwen-Oof!” The moment she could, Gwen threw her arms open wide and hugged her grandpa. “Hey, you act like you never see me!”

“Not enough,” Gwen sighed again and finally let her grandpa go…after a car honked behind them.

“Alright, kiddo, go ahead and take a seat. I swung by your house and grabbed your bags.”

“Oh?” Gwen found her laptop in her things, however she squinted her eyes at the sight of the clothes in. All bright colors, or…pastels, “Blech…that…” Gwen gripped a near neon pink shirt with frills on the shoulders in her hands, pulling at it, threatening to tear it in two. “... She repacked my bags…” Gwen mumbled to herself and tossed her bags under the little dinner table. Head hitting the table with a pronounced ‘thump’ “... Ow.”

“Everything okay back there?”

“Yeah, you have any spray-paint?”

“Nope, by the way, is that a new hairstyle?”

“Yeah, I have to do it at school though.”

“Well, I like it!”

“...” Gwen's bad mood evaporated and she smiled softly. “Thanks Grandpa.”

Max smiled at his granddaughter and made a turn to Ben’s school. As he drove, he thought about his brief interaction with Gwen’s mother, a finger tapped on his steering wheel. The woman had barely acknowledged his existence, only his son had spoken to him about Gwen’s safety, and even given him some healthy snacks.

Max scowled, I’m not trusted to feed my own granddaughter, huh? That woman is wound tighter than an industrial spring.

Letting it go, for now, he quickly made his way to Ben’s school. He and Gwen scanned the crowd for them, Max clicked his tongue.

“Where is that boy?”

“I don’t…BAHAHAHAHA!”

“What?”

“Look up!”

Max craned his neck up and spotted Ben…hanging by his pants on a tree limb, alongside another boy who looked more annoyed at Ben than he did his predicament. The Rust Bucket lurched to a stop and Max leaned out the window.

“Come on Ben! We’re burning daylight, I want to make the campsite by nightfall!”

“Uh…a little help here, Grandpa?” Ben called back.

“How’d he even get up there anyway?”

Max quickly retrieved his grandson and helped the other boy down too. Soon, Gwen could hear her cousin's voice, even before the door opened.

“I have -so- been looking forward to thi-” Ben’s words died on his lips, green eyes, the same green as Gwen’s widened as he saw his cousin sitting at the table. “What are you doing here!” His head whipped around to Max. “What is SHE doing here?”

“And a hearty hello to you too, dweebus,” Gwen deadpanned with her chin resting on her hand. “I wanted to come, you’re not the only one who wants to spend time with Grandpa. I forgot you’d be here too.”

“Grandpa, please tell me you didn’t…”

“I thought it would be fun if your cousin came along with us for the Summer. What grandparent wouldn’t want to spend time with both his grandkids…is that a problem?”

Ben and Gwen glanced at each other and shook their heads. “Not at all!” They said as one. Ben took his seat across from Gwen.

The Rust Bucket shifted into gear and pulled out. Its license plate read ‘S81Z1M’ or ‘Shazam’. Gwen thought it was a reference to an old TV sitcom, while Ben thought it was related to the DC character of the same name. Both were probably wrong. Max had never confirmed either. As the RV started to pull out, the two ten-year-olds bickered amongst themselves.

“Aw, I can’t believe it. I wait all school year to go on this trip, and now the queen of cooties is going along for the ride.”

“Cooties? Is outdated insults all you got? No wonder you were hanging from your underwear… I bet when you become a teenager, you’d be one of those losers in a letterman jacket with some slicked back Archie hairdo!”

“You can’t insult me for the future! Sides, my hair does what it wants.”

“Just cause your comb committed suicide rather than touch that rat's nest doesn’t make it a hairstyle.”

“...” Ben thought for a minute. “Alright, fine, you take that round.”

“Hee hee…”

“Ha…ha…something tells me this is gonna be a long summer.”

The Rust Bucket pulled out of the town of Bellwood, leaving it behind, and pulled onto Route 66, the mother road. Its three occupants were ignorant of what lay ahead for them. Miles went by, the scenery changed from the interstate to forests, row after row of thick and leafy trees sped by. Max played some old songs on his radio. Music from before people had ever conceived of CDs or streaming. It was a miracle his stereo wasn’t limited to A-track tapes. The other two passengers eventually nodded off. Lulled by the movement of the RV.

They don’t awaken till they arrived at the campsite. The Bucket lurched to a stop, shaking the two kids awake. Gwen blinked and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Ben yawned and looked out the window.

“We’re here!”

“Yeap! Come on out and get some fresh air.”

Ben and Gwen stepped outside and stretched their limbs before gathering around a bench-table. Gwen craned her neck up and took in the sky. It was much clearer than in the city, and even though the sun had only started to set, she could already make out stars in the sky above them. Her musings were broken by Max exiting the Rust Bucket with a big smile.

“Alright kids,” he brought a large bowel with him. “Chow time,” A bowel he plopped on the table filled with still wriggling worms.

“Blech!”

“Yuck!”

The cousins reacted…as any ten-year-old would at the sight of a bowl full of live worms being declared as ‘chow.’

“Okay,” Ben made a disgusted face. “What is that?”

“Marinated Mealworms, you know they're considered a delicacy in some countries?”

“Are we IN one of those countries? Cause here, that’s fish bait,” Gwen pulled back from the writhing worms.

“Insects are a good source of protein. Didn’t one of those rock stars you like bite the heads off a bird and bat?”

“Yeah, he was also on enough drugs to drop a bull elephant, you want me to emulate everything he did?”

“Hmm…got me there. Well, If these don’t sound good, I’ve got some smoked cow’s tongue in the fridge?”

“...” Ben ran a hand down his face. “Urgh…can’t we have burgers or hotdogs or…food we’d actually eat?” Hunger, and fear of Max’s… ‘Exotic’ foods had united the two as they both smiled up at their Grandpa, pleading with their eyes.

“Nonsense, this summer’s gonna be an adventure for your taste buds… I’ll grab the tongue.”

As Max disappeared inside the RV, Ben turned to his cousin. “Okay, I got a half-eaten bag of corn chips and a candy bar in my backpack. What’d you get?”

“Some rice cakes and Hard candy, plus whatever health food craze junk my mother’s on currently…probably sea weed or something.”

“Like…sea weed crackers?”

“Nope.”

“... We’re gonna starve.”

Gwen gave Ben a defeated look and they both sulked together. Stomach’s rumbling…though neither knew if it was in hunger… or fear.

—-------------------

While the Tennysons camped, light years away, the battle continued unabated. The larger ship continued its hunt, blasting lasers into the hull of its smaller prey. The more agile ship weaved in between the burning rays, taking hits but managing to avoid a kill shot. But despite its best efforts, it felt the noose tighten. A burning beam blasted the ship near the back and within the larger hunter, its crew relayed the new information.

“Their propulsion system has been destroyed!” A robotic drone announced.

“Prepare to board! I want the Omnitrix now!” The commander bellowed out, hungry for his prize.

However, the smaller ship wasn’t done yet. A viridian beam lanced through the darkness of space and struck its pursuer, directly in the command center, and dragged the beam further down. The command center exploded in a firestorm, the commander yelled out as an explosion engulfed his body. In retaliation, the larger ship pummeled its prey and the smaller ship came apart. But as it died, it launched a pod towards earth. The conical vessel then exploded, revealing a metallic sphere that fell towards the blue pearl.

—-------------

Meanwhile, back on Earth.

Ben was playing with a handheld game, colors lighting up his face in the wan light. Gwen tended to the campfire, poking a log deeper into the fire. Watching the fire crawl up the log and make it’s exterior glow with flame. The ten-year-old enamored with how beautiful such a destructive force could be. The spell was broken by a loud blast from Ben’s toy, scowling, her head whipped towards him.

“You really brought that on a camping trip?”

“Hey, you brought your laptop, why you don’t have a tablet I’ll never know.”

“It’s got movies I want to watch with Grandpa on it…and if I had a tablet, why would I bring it on a camping trip where it would get banged up?”

“...” Ben glared back at his cousin and continued to play.

“Ugh!”

Thankfully, any further argument was cut short as Grandpa Max emerged from the RV with a bag of marshmallows and three two-pronged roasting sticks in hand. “Who wants to roast some Marshmallows!”

“Got the fire going!” Gwen raised her hand. “... Wait, you had marshmallows but not hot dogs to cook by a fire?”

“I could get the grubs, but they tend to burst when heated up.”

“... I’ll settle for the Marshmallows, Grandpa.” Gwen glanced at Ben, who hadn’t responded to the prospect of delicious roasted sugar fluff.

“You want some, Ben?”

No response was coming from the boy, only more electronic beeping.

“Okay, um…we’re gonna tell scary stories after.”

“Scarier than having to spend a summer with your freak of a cousin?” Ben chuckled to himself.

“Freak?” Gwen said through gritted teeth. Ben paused, a drop of sweat beaded up on his forehead. His cousin's tone had genuine rage compared to their previous bout of insults. “Where do you get off calling me a freak? You're the little twerp picking fights you can’t win! Didn’t grandpa Max have to fish your doofy butt out of a tree when we picked you up!?”

Max got between the two and stopped it from escalating any further. Gwen…unbeknownst to herself had marched up to Ben, still brandishing the stick she’d been prodding the flames with, Ben was shying away from her, a shocked look on his face and perhaps…a little regret.

“Come on you two, we’re all on this trip together, are you really gonna fight all summer?” Max looked back and forth between the two, “Or we can have some fun,” He shook the bag of marshmallows. “What do ya say?”

“... I’m going for a walk,” Gwen tossed the stick she’d been holding over her shoulder as she stormed off. “Maybe I’ll find a better cousin while I’m out there!”

Ben watched his cousin shrink into the trees. “What the heck was that about?”

“You called her a freak, Ben.”

“We’ve been poking at each other all day and that’s what sets her off!?”

“Ben, you’re not the only one with bullies. Hers may not put her in a tree, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have them.”

Gwen stomped through the woods, huffing and trying to calm herself down. Gwen had excelled in school, good grade extra credit putting in the work. But at a certain point, she realized it would never be enough for HER. That on some level her mother saw her less as a daughter and more as a dress up doll to impose her own will on. Gwen wasn’t allowed a lot of freedom, so she used what she had and what her father could get to rebel. It had resulted in a certain reputation at school. She was smart, that already put a target on her, and her little rebellions hadn’t helped. ‘Freak, weirdo, witch.’ A little jabbing from Ben she could take, she always dished it back out but that out of nowhere venom, or at least what she read as venom had set her off.

“...” Gwen stopped and sighed. “He probably didn’t mean it to be that mean…” The ten-year old looked up at the night sky, eyes catching something streaking across the stars, leaving a burning trail. “A comet? But I didn’t think any were supposed to pa…” The ‘comet’ suddenly changed trajectories and was now on a collision course… with Gwen. “COMETS AREN’T SUPPOSED TO DO THAT! WHAT!?”

Gwen turned, trying to run, but her shoes weren’t really fit for outdoors, and she slipped nearly falling before grabbing at the ground and throwing herself forward, managing to get her feet back under her and making a mad dash saving herself as the meteor crashed into the ground where she had been. A shockwave knocked her back down onto the forest floor. Gwen pulled her legs up and rolled with the wave. Her chest beat in a staccato rhythm, heart pounding, eyes screwed shut. Several moments passed before the girl opened her eyes.

“...” Sitting up, she was shocked to see that the forest wasn’t ablaze. “... It was coming in fast… I thought it would have ignited the air,” Looking around aside from the churned up dirt and some trees stripped of leaves there was remarkably little damage. Focusing on the crater the meteor had made, she crept closer and stood at it’s edge, leaning down to tap the ground quickly then patting it. “Ground’s cool already? Not even a knocked down tree…what the he-” her voice cut off when she finally beheld the center of the crater. “That…does not look like a meteorite.”

A white-hot orb sat in the center of the crater. Slowly the heat faded, metallic, silver with black markings, lines all along its spherical body with a segmented top half. It brought to mind a pill bug that had rolled up into itself.

“I’m getting grandpa,” Gwen turned and the earth beneath her crumbled. “... Oh,” A moment of weightlessness overtook her before she fell down the incline, again rolling for the second time today and coming to an abrupt stop upon slamming into the object. “OOF! Another roll in the dirt…” Gwen tried to dust some of the mud and dirt off her shirt. “And all I got are those pastel nightmares, GAH!”

Gwen’s grumbling was interrupted as the object began to glow, the red-head scrambled backwards as it’s segmented section peeled back a wan neon green light glow inside. She put up a hand to block it before the glow receded enough to see what was inside it. The light issuing from an hourglass design on a cylindrical watch-like device. Gwen approached to get a better look, extending a hand to steady herself on the uneven ground.

“It kind of looks like a…” The device looked to partially liquefy before leaping at Gwen and attaching itself to her arm. “... Hmm… AHHHHHHHHHHHH! GET OFF GET OFF!” Scratching it, Gwen tried to dig her fingers underneath it and rip it off. “Come on, come in…” After a moment of struggle, she noticed, “It’s…not doing anything else?” Gwen shook her arm, all her efforts to get it off had failed. According to all the sci-fi and horror stories she’d read, H.P. Lovecraft included, this thing should have kept spreading…or started doing something way worse. “Great out of space device is now strapped to my arm. I’m sure it’s not a beacon for Yog-sothoth or anything…did it change color?” The girl was sure it had started black and white, but now its body was blue, darker around the center light on the edges. “Okay…well… I need to get Grandpa,” She wasn’t entirely sure what a retired plumber could do, but right now she’d take anything she could get.

Taking a moment to calm herself, easier said than done, Gwen climbed out of the crater, dusted herself off and took one last look back. As the last few minutes washed over her, the girl’s calm facade started to crack, and she ran into the woods shouting for her Grandfather. An analytical mind can only take so much, and she was still a child… hopefully back at the campsite they were already out looking for her.

—-----------------

Back at the campsite, they were not looking for her. Max checked his watch, for the umpteenth time, and cast his eyes to the treeline.

“Gwen’s been gone awhile. Think it’s about time we went looking. That rumble in the forest has me worried.”

“Maybe she wound up as bear food,” Max cast Ben a withering stare. “Hey, I was just kidding… I can dream, can’t I?”

“You better hope nothing’s happened to her, Ben.”

—----------------

Back with Gwen, she was studying the device on her arm. A pair of green buttons stood out on either side, and the hourglass on the faceplate was the same green as that light from earlier. After a few moments, she felt around for a catch or a clasp.

“Gotta be a release switch somewhere,” While fumbling with the device, Gwen hit one of the buttons. The device made a noise, drawing a startled cry of shock from the girl, and the faceplate popped up, the hourglass turning into a diamond. “GAH!” The red-head eyed the diamond, a silhouette of…something had appeared within the diamond. “What is that? Two legs…but it’s blacked out. What’s it supposed to be?” She spoke in confusion before pressing the plate back down.

The moment she pressed it down. Something very weird happened, burning blue rock spread across her skin, consuming her body. Her face became a magma azure mask awash in flame. Eyes of blue fire, once the transformation was over, Gwen had fully changed. A slim body of hot blue stone with glowing lines of what she would later assume was magma. No hair, but a crown of flames in its place, her hands burned hot like those lines and had four fingers as opposed to a human’s five. Her feet had changed too, two slim toes curved and forming a crescent between them.

“Hmm…AHHHHHHH!” Gwen, on reflex, tried to put out the fire on her head. “Wait… I’m not…burning. Woah, is that my voice?” Although still feminine, it sounded older and pushed through a filter of crackling fire. “Okay I’m not burning but why?” As Gwen inspected her body, she found the faceplate from that watch on her chest, back to its normal neon green hourglass. “Huh…okay so… Hmm…”

Gwen snapped her fingers and created a spark of azure flame. Jumping back, the girl eyed her hands and focused, creating flame’s around both of them. Smiling, she made a fireball between her hands, letting it grow to the size of a volleyball. Marveling at the flame between her hands. After a moment she pulled her hands apart and draining the fire back into her hands.

“Hahaha! I’m not ON fire… I AM FIRE!” Gwen looked up for a clearing through the trees. Smirking, the girl ran up a small hill, fire rolled down her forearms before she unleashed it in the skies. A burst of flame, and then her name written in fire sparks flying like fireworks high above the trees, fizzling out before they neared the ground. “HA! This is awesome!... Unless I’m stuck like this, in which case less awesome.”

—-------------

Ben grumbled as he and Max moved through the trees, they had decided to go looking for Gwen. Something Max really should have done earlier, but he was confident Gwen could look after herself. Ben shined a flashlight onto the ground, looking for footprints, when he heard the explosion and looked up. Max followed his gaze, and both of their jaws dropped.

“Uhh… I think I know where she is, Grandpa.”

“Did…did your cousin get into pyrotechnics when I wasn’t looking?”

“Pfft, she would. I’m not even allowed sparklers after the firecracker incident.”

“Burning down a garage isn’t an incident, Ben, it’s arson.”

“Whatever.”

The two charged through the forest towards the rather showy display Gwen had made. They slowed at the edge of the clearing, spying the odd fiery creature creating sparking shapes in the air atop a hill. Ben’s eyes went wide as dinner plates, Max tightened his grip on his flashlight, causing the ray of light to shake and gain the being’s attention. Two fiery pits locked on them and it…waved.

“Grandpa! Ben!”

“STAY BACK FREAK!!” Ben snatched up a length of wood from the forest floor and brandished it as a weapon.

“I’m made of fire Dweebus how is that gonna help?” Gwen narrowed her ‘eyes’ at her cousin.

“Dweebus… Gwen?” Ben’s hands dropped to his side and he looked back and forth between his transformed cousin and Grandpa.

“Is that you?” Max’s eyes were locked on his granddaughter.

“Yeah it’s me… I can…uhh…explain,” Gwen rubbed the back of her neck creating sparks and making the flame that was wreathed around her head waver.

“...” Max’s eyes shot up to the skies, no clouds, stars sparkled like diamonds and a full moon provided plenty of light now that they weren’t covered by the trees. “Yeah…let’s do that on our way back to camp.

“We’re still gonna roast marshmallows for s’mores, right?” Gwen asked to try to break the tension.

“Why do you sound like you’re speaking through a bonfire?” Ben tore his eyes from his cousin, still digesting this weirdness.

“Well… I kind of…am a walking bonfire.”

—---------------------

Far above earth within the damaged vessel its commander, mutilated but still alive, floated in a tank. Their left arm and both legs were gone, with only the thigh and part of their foreleg remaining in the case of his right leg. Numerous devices had been attached to his body to stabilize his condition and within the healing tank, tiny robots swam around his body stitching new flesh to his wounds. One of the drones approached the tank, head bowed.

“We have found no trace of the device.”

“What? What do you mean no trace? This battle nearly cost me my life, and you tell me the Omnitrix is not aboard the transport!?” The alien’s voice was even more watery than before, speaking through a mask from within his glass tube.

“Sensors indicate a probe was jettisoned from the ship just before boarding. It landed on the planet below.”

“You!” The commander addressed another of the bioid drones. “Go, bring it to me.”

The drone bowed and moved to a console. Earth magnified on its screen. Electronic eyes locked onto the probe’s trajectory. Before long, something else was launched towards the planet.

—-------------------

“So this watch just…jumped up and clamped onto your wrist?” Max inquired, hand on his chin.

The trio were back at camp, sat beside their fire, reheated with some help from Gwen. Max and Ben had sticks with mounted marshmallows, while Gwen had just heated hers up with her hands. Ben tossed her another marshmallow and she quickly shoved it into her pre-prepared s’more and shoved it into her mouth. The liquified chocolate of her first attempt had taught her to be quick.

“Yeah, it was weird though… I mean…well matter of degree but…it didn’t stay solid,” The flaming girl licked some burning marshmallow goo from her fingers. Delighted that she had taste buds that still liked chocolate. “Kind of reminded me of an amoeba now that I think about it. Then it solidified around me. Couldn’t find a catch or a strap or anything, I… I didn’t mean to go down there, the ground gave away and like I said the damage was small like it slowed down at the last second, I don’t know.”

“I believe you Gwen,” Max sighed, staring into the fire, the one in his granddaughter’s eyes not the campfire.

“Think she’s gonna stay a…flame golem forever? I think it’s an improvement. Monster cousin.”

“See if you still think that after I set your shorts on fire, dweeb,” The flame from Gwen’s hands flawed up threateningly.

“She’s not a monster, Ben, she’s an Alien,” Two heads snapped to attention at that. Eyeing Max inquisitively. “I-I mean, you said that thing fell out of the sky, it must have come from outer space.”

“...” Gwen stared at her grandfather a moment more, filing that way from later. “Well, I don’t want to be fire-girl forever either. I can’t read or write like this without slagging and burning everything I touch…could probably get my black-belt really easily though,” Gwen tapped a finger against her stony chin imagining her triumphant rise to Black-belt status…and burning a few dozen articles of pastel and pink colored clothing that had been thrust upon her. “Hee hee…”

“How are you gonna wear it…and…if you’re made of fire…why are you blue?” Ben cocked his head to the side.

“Fire can be blue depending on what it burns…even green. You ever see blue Magma? It’s a visual effect when magma or lava burns sulfur gases.”

“... So you're so full of it you burn blue, got it.”

Gwen’s hands burst into flame until Max put another s’more in her face.

“Don’t worry Gwen, we’ll figure this out,” Their grandpa promised.

“Let’s hope so…munch crunch, or I’m gonna need to coat my room in-” The hourglass on Gwen’s chest turned red and started to beep. “...alumi-” After five loud beeps, a bright red light blinded Ben and Max. “Num…” Blinking, the two found Gwen sitting before them completely human and unharmed.

“I’m me again?” Gwen looked down at her hands, time limit? Energy expenditure? What’s the trigger?

“No more walking barbecue, huh? Too bad.”

“I’ll whoop you for that, twerp,” Gwen grabbed the watch and pulled. “After I …GRRR, IT’S STILL NOT COMING OFF!”

“Better not mess with it till we know what we’re dealing with,” Max stood up and wiped his hands on his pant legs. “I’ll go check out the crash sight. You two stay here till I get back, clean up the food, and wait in the rustbucket. Gwen, you're in charge.”

“AH WHAT!?” Ben stared in disbelief at his grandpa, Gwen smiled maliciously at her cousin. “Which one of us got turned into an Alien?”

“Just listen to your cousin till I get back, Ben,” Max put some edge into his voice and the boy crossed his arms and grumbled but relented.

Max grabbed a flashlight and after a moment’s consideration a baseball bat from the RV. Part of a set of baseball equipment he had to play with Ben…when they weren’t dealing with alien shenanigans. Wishing he could bring ‘heavier’ equipment, he settled for what he could get.

—-----------

The pod fired from the alien ship entered the atmosphere, jettisoning its shielding after it broke through. Still red-hot from re-entry, it landed deep in the woods next to the Omnitrixes pod. It’s body shape, like the drones aboard the ship, brought to mind insects. Overall, looking like a wasp if it was stood up end to end. Overall it was a muddy orange with darker red panels lined in black. Those same panels opened up, a trio of mechanized legs and a pair of hands and arms, each hand sported four segmented and sharp-tipped fingers. Its head was rounded and popped out of the top. A pair of glowing red eyes that resembled the red sections of the ship that had sent it, and again resembling an insect’s compound eyes. Various cables and wires wrapped around its neck and disappeared deeper inside the machine.

The head turned to focus on the pod and approached it, its legs ended in sharpened tips that dug and churned the soil as it moved mechanical noises followed its movements. A red light scanned the pod. With no Omnitrix to be found, it lifted a hand, a tube on the underside of the hand lit up, and a red-hot beam obliterated the pod. Leaving nothing but shards of scrap behind. Steam issued from its shoulders, where a pair of smaller mechadroid’s popped out and floated in the air. They looked like two metallic disks stacked on top of one another. But with various manipulators and scanners extending from their bodies.

A light electronic ringing filled the air as the larger bot transmitted its orders. The smaller droids shot off into the forest, expanding their search area. The main droid marched off in the opposite direction, sending back information to the ship. Continuing its search until its orders changed.

—----------

Gwen and Ben sat in relative silence for several minutes. With no internet access, the red-head had picked back up on the Dunwich Horror with the help of a small portable lamp attached to the book. Ben blinked at her, disbelief overwhelming the boy, tapping his foot repeatedly.

“Brr…” Gwen closed her book, Ben leaned forward. “That story always creeps me out no matter how often I read it…but like in a good way?”

“REALLY!?”

“Yeah I mean I know the ending but the way it’s writte-”

“NOT THAT!” Ben pulled on his hair. “You have a watch on your wrist that turns you into an ALIEN, and you're just…ignoring it!?”

“Well I was, Grandpa said not to mess with it.”

“AND YOU’RE LISTENING TO HIM!?”

“Were you dropped on your head as a baby…then kicked?”

“Ugh, really? You’re not even a little curious about what else it can do?”

“...” Gwen held up her collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories. “Uh, earth to Dweebus, I have a whole collection of reasons why sticking my nose into things I don’t understand IS A BAD IDEA!”

“I have no idea who that person is, but who cares! Come on! This is monumental!”

“... Well…now that I’m not panicking about being stuck as a nightlight… I am kind of interested in…HOW it works. But if I become an outer God, it’s your fault.”

“Finally!” Ben, ignoring about half those words, hopped up from his spot across from her and sat next to his cousin. “Something interesting finally happens, and you read a book!”

—---------------

It took a little walking, but Max eventually found the crash site. It was just how Gwen had described it… or it would be if the pod wasn’t a smoking pile of wreckage. Laying his bat nearby, the old Plumber knelt and examined a piece of wreckage, it was still hot to the touch, cooked and smoking. High intensity laser beam, projected energy weapons.

“I don’t like this one little bit.” As he climbed out of the crater, his flashlight crawled along the ground till he spotted tracks, large indentations in the earth. “Those aren’t animal tracks… I need to get back to the kids!”

—---------------

“Imagine what you can do with this thing!”

“Aside from turning into a walking briquette?” Gwen ran her fingers over the watch, looking for anything that ‘gave’. “Odd that it seems like one whole piece, aside from where everything connects it doesn’t look… ‘Assembled.’”

“Huh?”

“...” Gwen sighed. “Like the seams on your game thing, or on an action figure…stitches on clothing. Signs that two or more parts were stuck together,” Ben nodded, seeming to get it. “Now…what did I press to make it pop up before?”

“You could be a superhero! You know, actually help people! Instead of just reading about it…or making things worse like-” Ben looked away and was suddenly very interested in his feet.

“...” Gwen ceased her fiddling and glanced at her cousin. “Superhero? Ben, you really need to read that book because that has NOTHING to do with superheroes. But…” Gwen briefly thought of the possibilities. Helping people, standing up for something that mattered. Maybe even…more.

“So…what was it like being an alien? Becoming one?”

“Well, it didn’t hurt, and despite it being a different body, I was still me. Not like a voice in my own head or like I was in a stranger's body,” Gwen thought for a moment on how to put it. “It was freeing. Like you’re you and not you at the same time, and you feel all those limitations fade away and…” Her fingers found a pair of buttons, and she pressed down without thinking, the faceplate popped back up, making both of them jump at the sudden beeping. “...” The faceplate was still on the fire girl’s silhouette. “So…that button opens it,” Gwen turned the dial and more silhouettes appeared, each different from the last. “... I really shouldn’t…should I?”

“I would.”

“Yeah…that’s what worries me. Emulating YOU,” Gwen took a breath, “Alright, you know what?” Gwen looked at the current selection. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained…” Her hand hovered over the plate, she shared a look with Ben and the cousins smirked before Gwen pressed the plate back down.

All Ben saw was a flash of green light, Gwen had a much more visceral experience. Though again she felt no pain as her muscles expanded, energy coursed through her body causing fur to rapidly grow and cover her, her jaw expanded teeth growing sharp and jagged. At the end of it, Ben had to rush out of the RV, followed by the transformed Gwen. An orange form leapt over the boy from the door clearing several feet before it stopped just behind the fire. It let out a loud alien howl like a wolf, but clearly not.

Gwen lopped around the fire, transformed into a large orange-dog like creature. No nose, no eyes, ears or tail. Flat spines covered her body here and there with defined teeth jutting from black lips, again like those of a dog or wolf. A blue and black shoulder guard baring the watches faceplate stood out amongst the fur. Her hairband held a length of her bangs to onside, and her puffy pigtails jutted from the otherwise uniform fur of this new form.

“Woah!” Ben looked back into the RV, the table was overturned, and several claw marks gouged the floor, and shrugged. “... We’ll deal with that later…” Ben approached Gwen and circled her. “How do I know where you’re looking if you don’t have any eyes?” Spotting the bag of marshmallows, Ben smirked. “... Alright Gwen…fetch!”

The boy tossed a puffy treat just outside of Gwen’s reach, but she suddenly turned and snatched it out of the air. Ben whistled and tossed another, gills on the side of the dog-like creature’s neck flexed, new senses replacing those lost, and she again snatched it out of the air. Growling and chomping down on the snack.

“Ha! How are you following them?” Ben waved his hand in front of Gwen’s face, only for the girl to lift a large claw tipped fore-leg and push his hand back down. “OH sweet like Daredevil!”

‘I think it’s more like sonar or electromagnetic signals transmitted through my gills.’ Is what Gwen meant to say…what came out was a jumbled collection of growls and other noises. ‘Oh great, this thing can’t make human nois…what the heck is that?’ Gwen’s head snapped to the side. Something was there, it made her spines stand on end.

“What is it, girl? Timmy trapped down the well?” Ben turned to where Gwen was ‘looking’.

‘Oh, you re gonna pay for that.’ Gwen swore before swerving around Ben, hooking her neck under his legs and tossing him onto her back. Growling as, she took off towards whatever she was sensing.

“WOAH-HEY! WHAT’S GOING ON!” Ben nearly rolled off before grabbing Gwen’s pigtails to steady himself. “I TAKE BACK THE TIMMY JOKE, I’M SORRY! Hey, this is actually pretty cool…”

Gwen lept from the ground onto a tree and jumped off, leaping from branch to branch. Tongue lolling out from her lips as she relished the strength and speed this form gave her. All those anxieties, fears, grudges began to melt away. They couldn’t catch her, SHE couldn’t catch her. Leaping about, always just out of the reach of those painted nails, trying to strangle every ounce of who Gwen was out of the girl. No, she was free.

As her claws tore a bit of bark from an oak, Gwen paused, gills flexing. Something was nearby. Ben scanned the trees too, but before he could speak his cousin suddenly jumped off the tree, a red laser beam blasting apart the branch they were just on.

“ALIEN ROBOTS NOW!?” Ben shouted, the disk shaped bot flew into view, a smaller head popped up on top of it and several arms all armed unfolded from within. “This would be a lot cooler if it wasn’t trying to kill us!” The bot fired another beam, then another at the quick-moving Orange Target.

Gwen wanted to tell her cousin to shut up, but settled for dodging the blasts that blew up the ground behind them. It was like she could sense the heat of the laser before it even fired, felt its eyes on her. Gwen ducked behind a tree, the bot followed and found…nothing. An electronic beep followed as it scanned the area, above it clouds parted and a shaft of moonlight reveled Gwen half-way up the tree behind it. Ben held his breath, the bot turned and Gwen leapt from the tree, letting out another howl.

“Get it!”

Her claws dug into it’s head pulling it up, cables snapped and sparked as she tore into it the Bot blasted forward, losing control of its own propulsion systems the two careened out of control towards the side of a…

“CLIFF!” Ben shouted in warning.

Gwen jumped from the bot at the last second, pushing it forward into the wall of stone. An explosion lit up the night, the drone-bot coming apart in a hundred smoking pieces. Ben shouted in victory, and Gwen’s shoulder lit up with a red light. Before the boy knew what was happening, his cousin was back to her normal self and he…flailed in the air for a second before hitting the ground.

“Oof!” Ben got his elbows underneath him when Gwen reached a hand out.

“Well, curiosity sated yet?” His cousin smirked as she pulled him back onto his feet.

“No! You had so many others on…the…” Ben looked past Gwen, the color draining from his face.

The red-head blinked then turned to see what he was looking at, a second drone floated just a bit above them, already aiming its limbs at the two.

“... I’m about to use a word I’m not allowed to use.”

Whatever word she selected was lost as the two ten-year olds ran away from the flying bot, showering them in death lasers. Gwen was slapping her watch, trying to get the faceplate to pop up again. But all she got was half-hearted beeps and a red-light.

“OH, SO YOU ONLY WORK ON YOUR OWN TIME, HUH! YOU BETTER HOPE I DON’T GET MY HANDS ON A BLOWTORCH, YOU STUP-” Her foot caught a root and the girl again found herself flying head over heels through the dirt and underbrush. The bot loomed closer, and Gwen desperately glanced around for a weapon of some kind.

“GAHHH!” That’s when Ben jumped up and smashed the back end of it with a heavy rock. “Back off sparky! No glorified Frisbee is gonna blast my cousin!” Driven by rage and adrenaline, the boy kept smashing the rock into the bot. Soon joined by Gwen, who picked up an equally large and heavy branch.

The two kept smashing the drone till it was bleeding oil and sparking. Breathing heavily, the two glanced at one another then dove away as it exploded behind them. Another breath and the cousins started to laugh uncontrollably. It took them a few minutes before either could speak.

“Glorified Frisbee?” Gwen stood up, covered in dirt once again. Looking at her stained overalls in disgust.

“I was short on time,” Ben was likewise dirty but less bothered about it.

“Come on…let's see if we can get back to camp before Grandpa does.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t count on it, old guy’s spry for his age,” Max’s voice issued from behind the two.

Ben and Gwen slowly turned and looked up, to find their grandfather glaring at the two with his arms crossed. As if on cue, the two gulped at the same moment.

—------------------

The trio of Tennysons were back in the RV a few minutes later. The walk back had been silent…the time in the RV had not been.

“And when I saw the claw marks in the Rustbucket what was I to think? I ran full tilt into the forest looking for my two grandchildren. Both of whom had decided to NOT do as I asked!”

Ben and Gwen sat with their heads down, wilting at Max’s justified tirade.

“I might have thought Ben would use that thing but you, Gwen? That’s why I left you in charge for a reason! I was worried you might get popular with that thing on your wrist. I trusted you to not use it! To listen to me!”

“I…”

“It wasn’t entirely her fault…” Ben offered, Gwen looked up, her makeup starting to run from the first few tears. “I convinced her to do it…she wanted to listen to you.”

“I appreciate the honesty, Ben, but Gwen still knows better…” Max sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. “What’s important is that you’re both okay,” The elder sat down, running a hand over his face. “Did you figure anything about it out?”

“...” Gwen finally looked up, “Yeah, it has at least ten different… Aliens on it. A button on the side makes the faceplate pop up. You can turn it like a dial and select which one you turn into. Then just…press it down.”

“AND THEN BLAMMO! You're an awesome Alien! As far as staying an awesome alien and not a nerdy goth…” Ben glanced at his cousin.

“Still working on that,” Gwen sighed.

“Well…” Max’s eyes screwed shut, and he rested his chin on his hand as he thought. “Guess we need to help you learn how to use it.”

Ben’s face lit up, Gwen’s…not so much, her brows furrowed. “You…you're okay with this?”

“No. No, Gwen, I am not okay with this. But…” Max took in a long breath to steady himself. “But clearly you're going to use the watch, and those robots are probably just the tip of the iceberg. You need to protect yours-”

Max’s words were cut off by a radio blaring to life, a garbled message came through. Max squinted at it and stood up to adjust it.

“Has that…been on?”

“I think I must have knocked into when I transformed.”

“Almost got it…” Max turned up the volume and a panicked voice filled the Rustbucket.

“Mayday! Mayday! Somebody help us! We’re under attack by some sort of - I know you’re not going to believe me, but…a Robot! This is park service's at -” The transmission cut off.

“... Robot? Like the ones that attacked me,” Gwen looked down at her watch. “Their after this thing, those people…their in danger cause of me…” The red-head looked up, chest rising and falling faster and faster.

“... So what are you gonna do about it?” Ben locked eyes with her.

The girl looked down at the watch, steeling herself as she hopped up and rushed outside. Quickly followed by Ben and Max. The watch’s light turned green again, beeping. Gwen pressed the button and the faceplate popped up. Gwen looked back at Max, her grandfather hesitated a moment before nodding in approval.

“Like it or not… I started this,” She turned the dial past several forms one with only two arms and an odd body shape another with wings and multiple legs, finally she chose one. “And I’m gonna stop it too,” Gwen pressed down on the plate.

Deep purple crystals spread over her body like armor, spreading up her arms and legs. Again, that green light blinded Max and Ben. When it had cleared, Gwen appeared to be made of amethyst crystals, segmented in places, and every movement brought a slight grinding sound. Her eyes were yellow and lacked any pupils. A light blue and white bodysuit covered her, with the watch’s faceplate sitting just above her chest on her left side. Her hair clip looked stuck in the stone. On the back of her head, sat two rounded downward protrusions, approximating her pigtails.

“It’s like I’m made of crystals or…” Gwen held up her hand, flexing her fingers, “This alien is silicate based? But I’m breathing fine so…either it uses or oxygen or doesn’t need to bre-, my voice changed again,” Gwen’s voice was deeper and had a ring to it. Not paying attention to her hand, she put her fingers together and the limb suddenly transformed into a curved spike. “WOAH!”

“Cool!” Ben shouted, running around his cousin.

“Yes it’s cool, now come on we got campers to save,” Max rushed past his grandchildren.

“Right!” Both called as one and took off after him.

It didn’t take them long to find the campsite, they could see the light of the flames and the screams of terror from a distance. Gwen put on a burst of speed as they got close skidding to a stop, the flames danced along her crystalline form, RV’s were smashed, people were running for their lives, she saw several people bleeding from wounds and in the middle of it all was the Mechadroid, it’s insect like eyes turned toward the trio locking onto Gwen.

“I think we found the papa-bot, Gwen what’s the pla-”

“GET AWAY FROM THEM!”

The sight had sent a surging fury through the transformed girl, as she charged forward, her arms became a pair of spikes. The mechadroid focused its attention on her, the laser cannons on its underarms lit up a red-hot beam fired straight at her. The girl dodged to the side, then again, as another blast followed. At the last second, Gwen jumped up and slashed down with her now bladed arms, hitting only air as the bot jumped to avoid the slash. The purple crystal alien rolled to the side as it came back down, narrowly avoiding being stomped on.

Ben and Max meanwhile helped who they could. Helping lift rubble and get people to safety. As they rescued others, a Ranger, likely the same from the radio, approached them in the chaos.

“What is going on here!?” The Ranger’s voice was nearly lost in the screams and roar of the surrounding flames.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told ya!” Ben shouted back, watching the fight. “No! Swerve to the right, not the lef- DUCK!” Max grabbed the Ranger and Ben, pushing them down as Gwen’s crystal form flew over their heads, smashing into the ranger's truck. Nearly folding the vehicle.

“Sorry!” Gwen pushed herself out of the impacted metal and raised her hands, forming one into a blade, expanding the edge into an Axe-like weapon and creating a large shield-like protrusion on the other. “Round two metal head!”

Leaping back into the fray, she brought the Axe down on its leg, cutting a large rent through its armor before dancing backwards as it attempted to stomp on her. It swiped its leg towards her meeting her shield, legs locked into position gems stabbed the ground protruding from her legs, with a grunt she threw the leg back making the bot stumble. Several stray lasers issued from its blasters, and Gwen charged forward to strike again when she heard wood cracking. Through the flames, the amethyst alien saw Ben cheering, right under a tree that was coming down.

“BEN!” Pivoting, the heroine abandoned her charge, racing towards her cousin.

“Huh?” Only now did the distracted boy notice the falling tree. “AHHH!”

However, he never felt it hit, instead Gwen snatched him up, and several large purple spikes jutted from her back slicing and smashing the falling lumber apart before retracting. Ben’s heart hammered in his chest.

“Guess we’re even now dweebu-GAH!” Gwen was snatched off the ground by the mechadroid. Aiming a blaster right at her. “Bad idea!” Spikes exploded from her body, shredding the mechanical hand holding her aloft. The droid let out a series of binary beeps that she took as it cussing.

In retaliation, it fired another beam at her. Gwen again locked herself in place, bringing up both arms to block. The beam dispersed upon her reflective body, lines of burning light striking trees, RV’s and a few cars. Yellow eyes looked down at her arms.

“... Refraction, yeah, I’m made of crystals that tracks…” Blinking she snorted. “That took to long to figure out.”

Dodging another blow, Gwen ran away before sliding to a stop and facing the bot. Smirking, she waved her hand in a ‘come on’ motion. Apparently taunting the droid worked, raising its remaining arm it charged its cannon, parts of it rotating and narrowing its emitter intending for prolonged fire.

“Here goes nothing.”

The crimson beam fired casting everything in red, Gwen’s hands came up a mass of crystals forming from them a concave lens to catch the blast, more crystals braced her holding her in place. The beam reflected from her lens, striking the tree tops. Grunting, Gwen turned her hands, the refracted laser cut a swathe through the greenery before also slicing the bot’s body across the middle.

For a moment everything seemed to stop, then…the robot’s upper half slid several inches before internal explosions tore both of its halves apart.

“She did it!” Max and Ben shouted.

“Way to go Gw-” Ben noticed the campers staring at them. “... Crystal girl!”

“Whew…” Looking down at her hands, Gwen smiled. “Maybe…he had a decent idea…for once…” Maybe being a superhero wasn’t such a dumb suggestion.

As the campers closed in on her, the reluctant heroine caught Ben and Max waving at her and motioning for her to get away. Pointing at her shoulder, which had just turned red.

“Oh uh… I’m leaving…stay safe…” Gwen gave two thumbs off and rushed off into the woods as the beeping started. Leaving a lot of very confused campers behind.

“We need to work on her outro…” Ben deadpanned.

Sirens finally sounded from a distance. “Let’s join her and make ourselves scarce for now.”

“Who was that girl?” The campers gathered together as ambulances and police finally made it from town. Behind the group, Ben and Max tiptoed away, avoiding everyone else.

—-----------------

Space

Drones flitted about the exterior of the damaged vessel, reassembling fuselage and replacing damaged plating. From afar, it would look much like a swarm of ants working together. The interior was no different, except most of the drones were bipeds repairing similar systems. While the commander of this assortment of Mechadroids and bots floated in his healing tank. Listening to the mission report on Earth.

“FAILURE!?” The alien’s voice rippled through the tank's fluids. “Unbelievable! Whatever puny earth creature that is keeping my Omnitrix from me-will soon hang on my trophy wall!”

—-------------

Earth

The Tennyson Trio’s campsite was busy, Max and Ben packed everything up. The smoldering embers from their breakfast fire still smoking as they prepared to move on. Max looked around, Gwen’s part of the packing was already done, but now his Granddaughter was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’d Gwen get off to?”

“Haven’t seen her since breakfast. I thought she was washing up, she kept complaining about all her ‘dirt and grass stains’.”

Before Max could comment that Ben needed to wash up to before he started to sink. A distant sonic boom drew his attention, a blue streak was heading their way. Stopping nearly as fast as it was moving, whipping a wind up around them. This alien was sleek and mildly reptilian, in a blue and white bodysuit, long sharp fingers or claws. What looked like orbs clutched between it’s three toes. The Watches faceplate stuck on its chest, an organic mask rescinded, reveling a bit of orange fringe and a feminine face with green eyes. Gwen’s suitcase hung on it’s back.

“Gwen?”

“Yeah it’s me! You guy’s still packing up?” Her form once again became a blur as she shot around the campsite breaking it down and packing it away, Ben dodged out of the way as his cousin sped around. “Fast aren’t I?” Gwen beamed before the watch turned red and timed out.

“Another alien!? And you didn’t tell me?” Ben dusted himself off, Gwen kicked up a lot of dirt while super speeding around.

“I had an errand to run,” The red-head smirked.

“Speaking of running, we’re burning daylight kids,” Max waved them onto the Rustbucket.

“So…where’d you go anyway?”

Gwen opened up her suitcase now full of black, blue, purple, and darker colored clothes. “Just had to correct a packing mistake.”

—--------------------

Belwood.

Natalie Tennyson had thought she’d been clever, changing her dreary rebellious daughter's clothes around. The mother was planning on disposing of those dreadful clothes today. Her friends had told her it was just a phase, but Natalie knew better. Gwen was going to do what she was told, dress as she was told, rather she liked it or not. With a hot cup of Coffee in hand, she marched up to her daughter's room intent on finally ridding it of all those embarrassing things.

Natalie stopped in the hallway, finding a pile of the clothes she’d switched out strewn across the floor. Her back straightened and she tried the door, finding a new lock on it along with a note tacked on. The mother’s face turned red as she read it. ‘Better Luck Next Time.’

Chapter 2: Mini-sode 1: Traffic Slammers

Summary:

On the way to Washington, the Tennysons get in a traffic jam and the unthinkable happens.

The Rustbucket rolled on down the highway. Max drove with the window down, humming to the music on the radio while his grandkids talked…and bickered amongst themselves behind him. The older man eyed the signs for upcoming exits and businesses, he was looking for one in particular.

“When are we going to stop, I need to reapply my eyeliner,” Gwen, long bang held to the side and hair in her puffy pigtails, complained. With her overalls dirty, she was currently wearing a black shirt with a white collar and matching pants. With no cat symbol on said shirt she compensated by adding a cat pin to the white collar. “...and my nails got all scratched up too…hmm,” Gwen picked up a bottle of sparkly purple nail polish. Would be a good time to try this.”

“We’re almost to Washington DC kids! I want to grab a few things before we see the sights though,” Max called back.

“Why don’t you just put it on while we’re moving?” Ben was writing something down on a sheet of paper.

“Do you want me to lose an eye?” Gwen sighed.

Ben paused and wondered what his cousin would look like in a jaunty Eye patch… Not that he knew what Jaunty meant, but it sounded right. “... I mean, mom’s done it.”

“Good for her. I like to take my time. There are just some things I always need to wear,” Gwen motioned to her cat pin.

“... Like a frown?”

The red-head’s eyes widened, and she sucked her teeth before licking the tip of her finger and made a mark on an invisible scoreboard. Over the years, Gwen and Ben had worked out some unspoken words for their little back and forth. They both knew the rules and even kept score, usually one earned a point for a clever comeback or leaving the other one floundering for a retort. Gwen was currently in the lead, but if Ben kept this up, he’d close the gap.

“What are you writing there anyway?”

“Names for your aliens, if you and them are going to be heroes, you need names.”

“You’re naming them!?” Gwen raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, they're all unique, right?”

“Yes, but… wouldn’t I get the name? Like Alien Girl or Gwen 10? Why name them? They're more like suits or power ups.”

“Well from how you described it…look okay the first one, Fire-Girl,” Ben mimed what Gwen took as flames coming off his head. “How about HEATBLAST!”

Gwen blinked, “Heatblast?”

“What you make fire, right? And you're putting off a lot of heat, blasts of fire, heat Heatblast!”

“I am not naming her Heatblast.”

“Alright, you try to come up with something!” Ben scowled.

“Corona,” Gwen crossed her arms and gave Ben a smug smirk. “The radiant edge of a fire where the flames are most intense. There, feminine, related to heat and fire, pbbt” Gwen put a cap on her point by blowing a raspberry at her cousin.

Yet her cousin didn’t seem upset, instead he smiled. “I thought you weren’t gonna name them.”

Gwen’s smirk, and her tongue popped back into her mouth and she grumbled, mumbling something

“What was that?” Ben asked, leaning in.

“...” Gwen leaned back in her seat till her knees were eye level, lips pursed. “... I said, ya got me.”

“HA!Alright, so that’s Corona for the fire-girl…”

Gwen rolled her eyes as the Rustbucket started to slow. Gwen sat back up seeing a line of traffic. Taking this chance, she put a small standing mirror on the table and started applying her eyeliner the only makeup she wore at this age, drawing black lines around her eyes.

“For the big dog, how about…Wildmutt? Oh, and Diamondhead for…though hmm…no wait with all that purple Diamond doesn’t work.”

“...” Gwen was careful in her application and had decided to not bother fighting it at this point. “Furwarn, like fore-warn.”

“Oooh that’s good,” Ben crossed something out and wrote the new name in it’s place.

“...and for the big gem girl…” Gwen had to think for a moment as she shook up her nail polish. “...Tanziknight.”

“Tanzi what?”

“Tanziknight! Like the gem Tanzanite. It’s a purple gem, rarer than diamonds.”

“Huh…alright,” Ben didn’t quite get it but It worked. “Now for that speedy lizard…XLR8.”

“Accelerate? Kind of on the nose and doesn’t really-”

“No, it sounds like that, but it’s spelled X-L-R-8,” Ben gave a big smirk.

Gwen paused, a brush just above her nails. “...” It was clever, it was quick, sounded like a word related to speed but was also alien and had a race car feel to it. “I…I…” Gwen’s eyes widened. “I can’t think of anything better…” The goth blinked. “You out did me. I need to process this…”

“Ha! Can’t wait to see the rest of your aliens…you know…we’re stuck in traffic right now, maybe you could try a new one on?”

“...” Gwen leaned out of her seat and eyed Max. The man was preoccupied with the radio. “...Hmm…” Her nails needed time to dry so she figured the best way to do that would be as something else. “Alright…let’s see,” Bringing the watch up Gwen popped the button and looked through her options. “That one…looks too big…oh! Here,” She paused on one with a homid shape, a very rounded body with no spikes or extra bits popping out. “Show me what you got!”

Gwen pressed the plate down, something spread from the watch covering her body in a black void before violet lines like a circuit board spread out over it. Once the green glow faded, Ben saw his cousin had become a six-foot tall…something. Her front was blue, the watch on her chest, but her back and down the upside of her arms was black with those violet circuit like lines running all along her. What amounted to her face was a circle, and a pair of perfectly rounded spheres where her pigtails would be.

“Gwen?” Max looked back after the light had caught his attention, blinking. “... Well, at least that one doesn’t have claws,” Max sighed and turned back to the traffic. “Just stay inside the rustbucket.”

“Yeah it doesn’t have anything, what does it do?”

“I don’t…I’m never gonna get use to my voice changing,” This time it sounded like Gwen but distorted electronically. As she spoke her lines lit up. “Hmm…” Gwen’s body rippled, her barely defined hands vanishing as she became an amorphous blob that stretched to her Laptop fusing with it. The device was covered in black and violet lines.

“...Huh?” Ben turned the computer around.

“HA! I can fuse with tech,” That circle was center screen as Gwen spoke. “Oooh I can upgrade tech! I’m making this thing even faster!” Four spider like legs popped out of the sides of the computer and it scuttled around on the table. “Oh, this is awesome,” Gwen pulled herself out of the computer. “What else can I upgrade?” Eye locking on the toaster, this morning's toast still suck in it, once again her body enveloped and fused with it.

“What are you gonna do with that?”

“Are you hungry, Ben?” More legs popped out of the Toaster, and it aimed itself at the boy, what Gwen had planned dawned on him, and he dodged out of the way as burnt toast shot at him, the first missed the second nailed him in the back of his head.

“Gah! Hey!”

“Ha…oh I think I fixed whatever was wrong with this too… I wonder,” Gwen hopped onto the floor, the coils within the toaster heated up and a burst of flame fired from the top. “Oh this alien is awesome!”

“Gwen!?” Max again peered over his shoulder. “What…Ben your hair is on fire.”

“Huh?” A few of Ben’s strands smoldered, “Ah!” He quickly beat the fire out. “Yeesh Gwen…”

“Sorry okay no more of that,” Gwen slipped out of the Toaster and put it back. “Hey Grandpa…can I merge with the Rustbucket?”

“No!” Max called back without hesitation.

“Ahh…bet I could make it do something cool…like fly.”

“The Rustbucket’s fine as she is Gwen play around with the radio back there or your computer but leave the Rustbucket alone.”

“Gah…fine..”

“You're perfect the way you are,” Max lovingly rubbed the RV’s dashboard.

“I like this Alien!” Ben said, burnt hair not withstanding. “Let’s call her upgrade!”

Gwen was already back to merging with her laptop. “Upgrade? Ben Alienware is right there.”

“For someone who didn’t want to name her aliens, you sure are getting into it.”

“... No comment, now let me see what I can do with this.”

The rest of Gwen’s time as Alienware was spent messing with her computer or testing her abilities out on various appliances. Traffic was still at a stand still when the watch timed out. She checked her computer the moment she had human sized hands again.

“Oh cool, the upgrades I made stayed this thing is faster than ever now.”

“So does that mean we can have toast in the morning without it turning to charcoal?”

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Gwen kept typing on her computer while Ben pulled out a bunch of cards and started shuffling through them.

“I still don’t have a gold card…” Ben mumbled as he fanned out a handful of them.

“Well, yeah, ten-year-old no credit.”

“Ha! No, I mean my,” Ben reached around Gwen’s laptop and fanned out a bunch of multicolored cards with A sumo-wrestler on them. “SUMO-SLAMMER CARDS!”

“... Get that overpriced cardboard out of my face, Tennyson.”

“Hey! This is cardstock! What’s wrong Gwen don’t think you can take me?”

“...” Gwen slow closed her laptop and put it aside. “What was that dweebus? Are you suggesting I can’t beat your dumb little card game? Name any game you’ve ever beaten me at.”

“Yes you beat me in Chess, checkers, connect 4, and that one with the cups and the little plastic things…but this is MY area of expertise. I beat you can’t even beat me once.”

“... Hand them over punk, I’m gonna make you cry.”

3 Games Later.-

Gwen did in fact, not make him cry, unless you counted the tears he shed as he laughed at her. Ben slammed his last sumo card and jumped up out of his seat, laughing in Gwen’s face. Gwen stared at the table, shaking in barely restrained fury. In her mind a fantasy of grabbing Ben by the throat and choking him out like he was a spiky haired jaundiced child played again and again…but she knew she couldn’t do it. Max was there, when it was time there would be no witnesses.

“HAHAHAHA! Well how about that Gwen, three rounds, one winner. Me,” Ben crossed his arms and smirked at his cousin.

There is no such thing a smugness detector but…if one was to make it. They’d pick up on the levels Ben was giving off…on the moon. Gwen took in calming breath…and then a second cause the first one did not work. Despite the ‘calming breath’ descriptor it was more a breath a bull takes before it attempts to gore someone.

“How am I losing…this ridiculous GAME!?” Gwen went over it in her head again and again.

Sumo-slammers the Card game was exactly what one would think it was. A cheap tie in to a multi-media franchise so the company could suck as much money out of someone as possible. It had a very simple premise, both players had a deck of 40 cards, you start with 5 cards and draw if your hand is less than five, one card draw per round. Players goal was to get to a hundred point. Each card had a different point value. Simple.

The complexity came in countering eachothers moves. Each card had a color, a point value and an ability. Some took points from your opponent, some countered, some could be played face down as a ‘trick’ or a ‘cheat’ as it was meant to simulate a Sumo-match. Ben had a decent collection and he had let Gwen pick and build her deck first and explained the rules. Even though Gwen had looked them up online. In short…he had given her every chance to prepare and even let her rebuild her deck between matches and she still lost every game barely getting to fifty points.

If one is familiar with other card games, imagine being a Mono Blue or even a Red Blue player and getting smoked by the troll playing a full Red Goblin deck. That was the feeling Gwen was experiencing right this moment.

“You ch…” Gwen bit her tongue. “...Your cards…that’s the problem…I’ll get some of my own cards.”

“Ha! Sure I bet you think you’ll pull a Gold card first try too.”

“...A what? What is a gold card you didn’t mention a gold card.”

“Cause I don’t have one, duh. It’s the rarest card. Can’t be countered has the highest point value.”

“...It does huh?” Gwen narrowed her eyes and tapped her fingers. Had Gwen lost to literally anyone else over this game, that she DID NOT CARE ABOUT, she wouldn’t care. But…Gwen didn’t lose to just anyone, no no no, the red-head lost to Ben. Her dweeb cousin, her cousin whose never gotten an A on any assignment. Who someone nearly failed Gym. “...This cannot stand…” she whispered to herself. Already envisisoning her comeback.

“Traffic’s finally letting up!” Max pulled into the off ramp.

Ben collected his cards, Gwen, making sure her screen was turned away from Ben began looking up Sumo-Slammer strategies…and where to get more. Heading down town, alarms blared behind them fire trucks and police surged past. Max eyed them, Gwen was already next to him at the front.

“...Well…what do you say Gwen?”

“...Hee…” The ten-year-old activated her watch. “Why not…I need to blow off some steam.”

Notes:

So their are little bits I want to include here and there some of them can fit into the proper episodes. But this one really messed with the flow of the next chapter. So I decided to make anything like that into 'mini-sodes' or shorts. There won't always be one between chapters it's just to add context to some things. For this one specifically I could not find any cannon rules for the Sumo-slammer card game so...I made them up. Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic the Gathering influenced it but the main one is Gwent, oddly enough. Gwent from the Witcher series is about building up points to beat your opponent with certain cards making that easier or harder - depending. It's a simple version and I think it works.

Chapter 3: Episode 2: Washington B.G. (Before Gwen)

Summary:

The trio of Tennysons travels take them to the terrific and terrifying in this trip through the capital. Truly taxing the tenacity of the Tennysons is the troubling Animo's tangled thoughts and tortuous experiments.

A building was burning. Flames crawled up the walls, burst out the windows and sent a plume of black smoke up into the sky. People had gathered in the streets, police held them back to give the firefighters room to tirelessly fight the fire. Hoses sprayed gallons upon gallons of water against the raging fire.

“Is the building clear!?” The fire chief yelled above the pumping water and roaring flames.

“No chief!” Another firefighter, this one wearing a mask and oxygen tank, responded. “We got two residents unaccounted for! A mother and son!”

“... Gear up!” The Chief yelled commands. “Make an opening, we’re going back in!”

“We can’t the stairs are giving out!”

“What else are we supposed to do? Stand out here and hope for a miracle!?”

Inside the building up the stairs a small boy and his mother, trapped by the fire as it went out of control, ran to the door, smoke stinging the mother’s eyes and burned her lungs. She slammed her shoulder against it, unaware that debris on the other side kept it shut tight. A crack sounded from above, and the ceiling began to give way. Burning plaster and braces fell around them. The woman snatched up her son and covered him with her body, both shut their eyes as it finally caved in.

But it never touched them. A streak of blue cut through the door and now stood over them. A burning beacon among the smoke and flames, a point of comforting blue among the roaring orange and reds. The boy slowly opened his eyes, Corona stood overtop of them, burning hands holding the caving ceiling.

“Who are you?”

“I’m here to help,” Corona tossed the debris aside and stretched out her hands, the fire in the room was sucked in towards her, turning blue as it neared her body. Soon every flame in the room was quenched. “Comeon, I gotta get you two out of here.”

The mother hesitated, the boy didn’t, and he pulled ahead while his mother’s attention was on the creature made of living of flame. Corona had burned through the debris and door to get them, a foot kicked, knocking what remained out of their path. The Mother finally got up and followed.

“Keep your heads low, don’t breathe in the smoke.”

The three marched out into the hallway. The two humans made for the stairs, only for an arm to block them just as it collapsed into embers. The mother started to cough, despite keeping her head down. Corona glanced about and spotted a barred window.

“That’s our way out…” Need to act quickly…the moment I put a hole in that window, I risk a backdraft. So… I gotta do it all at once. “Huddle up!”

Outside, the Firefighters were about to make a last ditch effort when a window on the third story was engulfed in a tornado of azure flame. The spinning fire struck the ground and vanished, dispersing. Corona, holding the mother and son, knelt on the pavement. The two were hurried away by medics, with everyone else staring in awe at the blazing blue alien. Her ‘eyes’ narrowed at the news and then turned away, heading to the edge of the crowd.

“I gotta go, stay safe!” She called out and tried to peel off, when she noticed one of the kids among the crowd, he was holding something. She skidded to a stop and turned her head, flames dancing as she moved. “Hey…is that…a Gold Sumo-slammer card?”

“Uhh…yeah…” The flabbergasted kid responded. “They're giving them out in Sumo-smack cereal?”

“Cereal, huh…thanks for the tip.”

About to start running, the Rustbucket pulled up with Ben practically hanging out of the door, Max’s hand had a firm grip on his shirt to keep the boy from tumbling out.

“Hey! Super-nerd! The fire was just a diversion! Those jerks robbed the jewelry store! They're getting away!” Ben pointed to a car already turning a corner.

“Back on the clock.”

Corona ran ahead, Ben thought she was gonna join them in the rustbucket. Instead, she pointed her hands down, and created a pillar of fire that sent her rocketing up into the sky. A board of fire formed under her feet, and she took off after the getaway vehicle. A burning blue comet in the night sky.

“Well at least she’s easy to follow,” Max hit the gas and took off. Gwen was leaving burning arrows pointed in the sky for her family to follow.

“...” Ben’s jaw dropped. “I think that might be my favorite alien now…”

A car sped through the city streets, with all eyes on the apartment building, barely anyone had noticed the two masked thieves inside rob the nearby jewelry store blind. The two bragged about getting away. Till the driver noticed a blue light getting more intense. Then there was a thump on their roof and the whole car felt hotter.

“What the heck is go-” A blue flame cut through the roof of the car like a blowtorch before blazing fingers pulled the metal back, burning and melting it with its very touch. The driver came face to face with an irate looking Corona. “AHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Not wasting words, Corona reached in and grabbed the steering wheel. Singing the man’s hands and turning it down an alley. The driver panicked and hit the brake, causing the car to turn and skid along the road. The passenger fumbled, reaching for his gun. The car came to an abrupt stop as it nearly toppled onto it’s side. By the time he got his gun out, Corona was no long atop the car.

“Over here,” Corona was next to the car, her hand a burning blade of cerulean fire with a slash the her hand cut through the engine block shearing it off and leaving both halves smoking and burning before throwing open the door and pulling both thieves out tossing them to the far side of the alley. “Now then hands on the wa-”

A pair of shots cried out, the bullets…never made it to Corona. A veil of heat softened the lead rounds, and they splattered against her chest like paintballs. Narrowing her eyes, the alien brushed the molten metal aside and backhanded the gun out of his hand.

“HAND-WALL-NOW!” Gwen’s voice became a blaze as fire shot up around her head.

“AHHHH! Sure, just don’t hurt us!”

The thieves put their hands on the wall. Corona nodded her head just as the watch's symbol turned red.

“Oh-oh…” Gwen was back to herself in a flash of red. “Uhhh…”

“Huh?” One of the thieves turned around. “It’s just a kid… Grab the jewels!”

“...” Gwen backed up and fell into a stance, hands up. “I’m a purple belt, and I whooped the butt of everyone on my school's Jujitsu team. Try it and see what happens!” But the thieves were spared the indignity of getting their butts beat by a ten-year-old girl as sirens blared just at the alley’s entrance.

“PUT YOUR HANDS UP!” An officer aimed his gun at the two thieves. “Girl what are you doing, get out of here.”

“Uhh…right you are officer… I was just…citizens… I’ll go,” Gwen took off and ran to the Rustbucket. Ben holding the door for her.

“Those cops are gonna get credit for all that!” Ben complained, the Rustbucket already leaving the area as quickly as possible.

“... So?” Gwen shrugged. “Bad guys got stopped, no one got hurt,” The red-head leaned back in her seat. “That’s good enough.”

“Yeah but…”

“Ben, the more publicity Gwen gets the more attention is on her,” Max explained. “Staying unknown is the best idea. Good job Gwen.” Grandpa Max gave her a thumbs up and smile. “Let’s get some ice cream to celebrate.”

“See? Ice cream! Now that’s a reward,” Gwen sat up. “Hmm… Black Raspberry or double chocolate… I need to think about this.”

“...” Ben fumed in his chair. “If I was a superhero, I’d want everyone to know about it.”

—------------------

Elsewhere

In Washington DC itself, a bald man in a brown suit knocked angrily on a door. Behind him, the sound of traffic couldn’t drown out his shouts. His fist caused a sign above the door to sway. This simple sign read: Dr. Animo.

“Yo! Animo I know you’re in there! Open up!” When no response was forthcoming, the man pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door himself. Though as his nose scrunched up, he almost wished he hadn’t. “Phew! Smells like a zoo in here!”

The reason for the smell became apparent as he entered. All sorts of equipment was scattered around, a lot of dismantled electronics among them, a TV was on somewhere, but the smell came from the various cages and glass cases spread around the room, all containing animals. Each animal had their own space, the bald man eyed one cage. A green and red-dotted frog hopped out of a faux log into a small pool of water, his eyes caught the reflection of something, and he turned quickly, jumping back, giving out a startled cry.

“How did you get in!?” The sole human occupant of this space angrily spat. Said occupant was a man who…really needed some sun. His skin had turned a pale green, his eyes had a yellowish tint to them and his hair once brown was now a pale white, with a prominent widows peak.

“Pass key,” the man adjusted his tie, trying to forget the panicked scream from earlier. “I am still your landlord, remember?” The other man’s eyebrow shot up. “Or maybe not, your rent is six months past due.”

“All my funds go into my research, NOW GET OUT! You’re disturbing me!” He brushed past his landlord.

“...” The landlord glanced around at the state of the building, exposed brick, animals everywhere. “Ha…you were disturbed long before I got here pal! Listen, doc, you and your furry friends are out on the street, unless you pony up the green!”

“Pony up?” Dr. Animo smirked, and opened the frog's case, carefully extracting the amphibian. “Interesting choice of phrases. You must be an animal lover! Then you’re going to love this!”

Animo sat his froggy companion on the ground, then turned to a pile of tech and strapped something onto his chest and put on an odd looking helmet. Odd because, one it was made primarily from a colander, and two it had a pair of horn-like protrusions, with wires wrapped around them ending in a pair of red-lights at their tips, what looked like headphones from twenty years ago a chin strap and all of this was connected to a gauge with a turn dial on his chest and what looked like a repurposed walk man on his hip.

“...BWHAHAHAHA! A little early for comic con pal.”

“This is no costume, you insipid fool! This is my Transmodulator, phase one. It creates and accelerates mutations at the genetic level, observe.”

With a twist of the dial on his chest, energy surged up to the horns. The room was bathed in a red light as a beam struck the frog. It grew and grew, becoming gigantic compared to its original size. Orange lumps developed on its body, an extra set of eyes appeared beneath its original set, all four were red, and a pair of small horns jutted from the sides of its head. The landlord had no time to respond, going from awe and confusion to terror as the mutated frog swallowed him in one gulp. Muffled grunts and cries of terror were all Animo could hear.

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. Sounds like you have a frog in your throat! Ah-ha-ha-ha, Or is that…the other way around!?”

Dr. Animo’s maniacal laughter continued. The frog decided that the landlord didn’t taste right, if this was the stink of capitalism or the man’s over use of body spray no one could tell either way he spat the man out. The landlord, covered in mucus and thoroughly traumatized, promptly passed out.

Animo paid him no heed, instead looking to an aged Newspaper clipping, a slip of paper he glared at. “So close to having what is rightfully mine…all I need is a FEW LOUSY COMPONENTS to finish my work,” The light from the TV caught his eye and the Doctor found an ad playing.

“-So whatever you need, from hair-spray to canned octopus to state-of-the-art electronics, you’ll find them under one roof at the grand opening of the district’s newest MEGAMART!”

“Ah! Just what the Doctor Ordered.”

—--------------------

Meanwhile, at Megamart

The trio of Tennysons, of which two were ten, were shopping in Megamart. Max eyed every item he picked up, reading its contents. Gwen walked next to him, slightly haunched and back in her denim overalls, eyeing the clothing section and wondering if they had anything she’d like. Ben was sighing and only following along grudgingly.

Gwen was about to say something when they passed the cereal aisle, and she spotted something. Max had something in his hand and his attention wasn’t on Gwen at the moment, so the girl silently slipped away and stepped in front of a wall of Sumo-smacks cereal. Normally such a thing would be repulsive to the young girl but her multiple defeats at Ben’s hand, of which she could count several more from last night to this morning bringing the total to 10 had created a…certain…need to even the score.

“Ten losses to Tennyson…to BEN TENNYSON…” Gwen practically growled. Oh, she’d gotten close a few times, but Ben had always managed to turn it around. “It’s like he memorized every card…” Gwen eyed the boxes. “Hmmm…”

Gwen was good at math. But this problem was advanced, probabilities were difficult, and in short she hadn’t been taught the proper formulas to figure out how many boxes it would take to find the gold card advertised on every box. Every box had cards, but how many would have the gold card? She couldn’t figure that out and tapped her foot, in frustration.

“If I go this summer without a single win against him in that dumb card game, he’ll never let me live it down,” That was unacceptable. “But if I get that Gold Card…and build my own deck, not only can I lord it over him… I can whoop his butt and set things right…” Gwen reasoned that there were a few cosmic constants, universal truths. One of which was: Ben Tennyson does NOT beat his cousin Gwen Tennyson. Thus, this was an upset…unnatural, the universe was at stake if she didn’t pile drive him into the ground.

The fact that all this was predicated on losing a child's card game she had zero interest in was not a factor. But how to get the card… Grandpa wasn’t going to waste money on a bunch of cards. Gwen reached into her overalls and took out a small wallet with a black cat version of her usual cat symbol, it had her school ID about thirty dollars cash, a card for the ‘H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’ or the HPLHS, and a credit card her father had given her. Well it wasn’t an actual credit card, it was a card her parents could put money on like a greenlight card. It had about two to three hundred on it.

“...” Stowing her wallet, the girl sighed and turned to her watch. “... I wonder…” The faceplate popped up, and she turned through to the aliens she hadn’t tried yet. “That one looks like an angler fish with legs…oooh hmm…” She stopped on one with an odd body type. No legs, no discernable head, and only arms. To her, it looked like the silhouette of a stereotypical ghost. “Well…let’s try this one on for size.”

“Only canned octopus,” Max complained, one of said cans in his hand. “I thought this store prided itself on a wide selection.” While Gwen was in the cereal aisle, Ben had stayed with his grandfather.

“... So that’s our dinner, huh? Stir-fried tentacles? Can’t we have something normal? Pizza, fried chicken… I’d even eat a salad and…ugh…brussel sprouts.”

“Brussel sprouts sound good, I’ll admit, but the rest is nonsense…now where do you think they keep the sheep’s bladder.”

Ben felt his stomach revolt at the mere mention of that food combination. Then a green light from a few aisles behind drew his attention. Ben’s eyebrow shot up, knowing what that light meant but confused why it was here. Max was busy studying the signs above each aisle, so Ben decided to check out the light himself.

“Gwen is that…” Ben blinked, because Gwen wasn’t there, no one was. “Uhh…” He looked around and then locked on the wall of cereal. “Free card inside, huh?” He smirked. “Hmm…” Grabbing one, he shook the box and looked it over. “Slim chance at a Gold Card though…” Then the box was yoinked from his grasp, “GAH!” Ben jumped back, several of the boxes shook. A pair of cold inhuman hands grabbed his shoulders.

“BOOO!”

“Ah!” Ben scampered away as a form seemed to materialize out of the air in front of him. A wispy, almost gaseous body with gray skin and black lines running all along its body. The top of its head split into two tendrils in approximation of Gwen’s pigtails. One purple eye, caught in what Ben thought was a smile peeked out from a black line, the watches symbol poked out of the chest. “Gwen?”

“Hahahaha…gotcha dweebus,” Gwen’s voice was very different in this alien, almost sounding far off and as ethereal as her form. “This one’s pretty weird, but look at what it can do,” Gwen’s body became translucent as she reached into one of the cereal boxes and pulled out a small pack containing a blue card. “Invisible and intangible.”

“Freaky…and kind of ghosty? Ghostfreak!”

“...” That one eye glared at Ben as the pack was returned to the box. “Spectra,” Gwen rasped. “I can even decide what parts are intangible and what isn’t. This ghost is going to be useful.”

“Why are you looking through these boxes, though?” Ben raised a brow. “You don’t even like Sumo-slam…OH! Ha…ahhhh Gwen. Are you trying to find a Gold Card for yours truly?” Ben smirked. “Really, I don’t need a prize for beating you, the look on your face was gift enough.”

“I am looking for a gold card, Ben,” Gwen shifted in the air and was suddenly a scant few Centimeters from the boy’s face. “But not for you! I’m going to get one, make my own deck, then throttle you. Then everything will be the way it’s supposed to be.”

Gwen turned from Ben to continue her search, and Ben scowled. “Hey, what do you mean ‘supposed to be’. It’s a game, you win some, you lose some. And I can’t believe you're planning to steal.”

“Moron,” Gwen's voice dripped with more venom than usual as she went invisible and intangible again. “I’m not going to steal a thing! Unlike you, I think before I act I’m going to find a box with a gold card,” Her now disembodied voice answered. “Then buy it with my own my money and I can check all the packs here for the best cards and only buy the ones I need.”

“All this cause you lost?”

“NO!” She was visible again, back up in his face, Ben backed away, smacking into the opposite wall of cereal. “BECAUSE I LOST TO YOU! THAT IS NOT HOW THINGS WORK!” Gwen’s voice echoed out of the aisle. “The sun rises in the east, sets in the west, up is up, down is down and BEN TENNYSON DOES NOT BEAT GWEN TENNYSON!” Several boxes of cereal began to float up and circle around Gwen.

“... What the heck is wrong with you? You beat me at everything else, I can’t have one thing I’m better at than you!?”

“NO!”

The rage in Gwen’s voice caught her off guard, and all the boxes fell to the ground, some hard enough to pop open. Ben and her both stared at one another, shocked. Till a new voice broke the tension.

“What’s going on here?” A Megamart store manager rounded the corner.

“Ehh…” Ben looked for Gwen, and she was nowhere to be seen, having turned invisible on instinct. Leaving Ben holding the bag. “Uhh… I can…explain?”

Turns out, however, he couldn’t, and Max found himself staring at a good half-dozen opened boxes of cereal. Reading the ingredients and balked.

“So why are we buying so much of…what barely qualifies as cereal?” The grandfather asked at length.

“The plan was to only buy one… I have some pocket money grandpa, don’t worry about it…” Gwen, back in her normal state, chimed in.

“Why the sudden interest in this game? Also, your mom would kill me if I let you eat all this…”

“Oh didn’t you hear grandpa?” Ben spoke up, “Apparently a new law passed, it’s now illegal to be better than Gwen, at anything!”

“Tch, Ben that’s not what-”

“Don’t!” Ben snapped at Gwen. “I know what I heard!” He jumped on the side of the cart and pointed an accusing finger at his cousin. “I’m just the dumb little cousin whose never supposed to challenge the great Gwen right!? Be careful, don’t want to get cursed by the weird little witch girl!”

“GRRR!” Gwen jumped on the other side and growled at her cousin. “IF YOU WEREN’T SUCH A SORE WINNER! I WOULDN’T CARE!”

“Like you don’t rub every victory you’ve ever had in my face! You can dish it out, but you can’t take it, huh!?”

Gwen glared at him and felt her hands tighten into fists. “Alright you two!” Max lifted them both up their collars and pulled them off the card. “I don’t know what started this, but I’m ending it! No more Sumo-slammer anything…except this cereal we’re on the hook for, until you two learn to play without trying to take each other’s heads off! Are we clear?”

“That’s no fair! I Sumo-Slammer is my thing and I can’t enjoy it cause this fr-”

“BEN! Are. We. Clear?”

“...” Ben kicked at the floor. “We’re clear,” He shoved his hands into his pockets and glared at Gwen.

The red-head cousin for her part gave Ben a sad look, and turned away rubbing her arms. While she was upset at losing the truth was it shouldn’t have bothered the girl that much. Especially not to the point of lashing out at her cousin like that. Gwen thought about this, trying to pick apart what got her so angry. The moment she turned into Spectra an odd feeling had crept up her back, her annoyance deepened. But the two couldn’t be connected, right?

Well…if Spectra’s race produces some kind of enzyme or hormone that affects emotional states that might have agitated me? Well…no because her race would be used to it and nothing like that happened with any of the others. XLR8 talks really fast but…

The rumbling of the building brought Gwen out of her thoughts. Max and Ben looked up eyeing the shaking shelves. People shouted in alarm, Gwen turned towards the shouting just in time to see a wall crack then bust apart in a shower of dust, and concrete. Animo atop his massive frog leaped through the hole. Shouts of alarm turned to screams of terror.

“... Huh?” Gwen’s brow furrowed at the sight. “What am I looking at here?”

No response came from her family, as Max grabbed her and ducked for cover along with Ben. Animo hopped down off his frog and began to pocket electronics, phones, computer parts, ripping apart display models to take specific components. Red-hair and green eyes popped up from the side of a display and eyed the man and his frog. Max had his phone out and was attempting to dial.

“What’s he doing?” Ben’s head popped up on the other side.

“Stealing electronics, it looks like…” Gwen whispered, checking her watch, still red. “Still timed out.”

“Oh, did miss perfect mess up and waste her hero time!?” Ben spoke through gritted teeth.

“Like you’d have done any better.”

“Stop it you two,” Max pushed the two apart.

Any further fighting was curtailed when a pair of, unarmed, security guards finally ran up to the scene. They took one look at the madman and giant frog and decided to back away slowly. Calling it in on their walk-talkies.

“Uh, we got…a…grab and dash in electronics. Male, five-foot-six riding a giant toad or frog…trust me you can’t miss him.”

“A wise decision,” Animo, with no small amount of swagger, hopped back up onto his frog and bounded towards…the pet section.

Gwen cocked her head to the side, wondering what this guy was up to. She took off after him. Inside, she had guessed at first that the frog he was riding was alien in origin…given recent events. But the more she looked it over, well…it looked too much like a normal frog. It had exaggerated traits and growths that didn’t make sense.

“He mutated it…it must have taken months to do it…” Gwen reasoned as she caught up to Dr. Animo. Ben and Max rushed in behind her. “He’s probably going to steal some animals t-”

Her deliberations came to an abrupt end when Animo turned up the dial on his device, that same red beam that mutated the frog struck again. This time catching a Hamster and cockatiel in its beam. The goth-girl’s jaw dropped as the animals burst out of their cages. Mutated in seconds. The hamster was massive compared to its normal size, with eight red eyes. Two pairs of three smaller orbs surrounding two big red ones. Its nails grew into claws and its teeth became jutting fangs. The cockatiel was less odd in its transformation. Becoming a giant sized, monstrous version of itself with sharp wings, large legs tipped in talons and a jagged beak.

“Aiiiirise to your full potential, my pets!” The horned doctor yelled.

“...WHAT!?” Gwen popped out of hiding, giving away their position. “HOW!?” Animo turned to the child. “THAT DOESN’T OBEY THE LAWS OF PHYSICS AT ALL!”

“Hee, surprised child? Behold!” Animo spread his arms, presenting his animals to his small audience. “The genius of Doctor Animo! Nothing will stop me from getting what I deserve. Mark my words! Today I will make history…or should I say…prehistory! Hahahaha!”

The hamster roared, something that hamsters are not known for, the three gasped and backed away just before it leapt over a ducking Gwen and instead going after her family. The red-head looked around for something, anything, and found a cage display of balls. She ran off as the hamster-monster cornered Ben and Max, with the grandfather shielding his grandchild. The beast scratched the ground, preparing to pounce, when a ball winged it in its head.

“Over here furball!”

“Gwen!” Two voices called, one hopeful, the other fearful.

“GARRRR!” The Hamster chased after the girl.

Gwen turned and ran, slipping on the floor for a moment, her sneaker squeaking. She turned a corner just as the hamster nearly caught her. They ran through sporting goods, Gwen grabbed everything she could and chucked it at her purser, hitting him with footballs, a tube of tennis balls and even a lacrosse club. The beast roared and charged again in a leap. Gwen ducked under it and the beast slammed into the aisle, knocking the shelf down into the next one.

“Time to flee!” Gwen ran up the falling shelf, leaping from rack to rack, with the dazed hamster in pursuit. “You know I was skeptical about those gymnastic classes, never again will I complain!” The girl jumped from the top shelf onto the next just as it fell, with the Hamster behind her. Then onto the next.

“GARRR!” The beast leapt again, just missing the girl as she took the final shelf and did a forward somersault off the shelf onto the ground, stumbling.

The Hamster wasn’t so lucky, its foot caught on the final shelf, and it gave the girl a look of surprise as it was slammed into the ground. The animal looked around dazed before finally hitting the ground, out cold.

“Gwen! Are you alright!” Max’s voice cut through the cacophony.

“Clean up on aisle 6-7-8 and nine.” A voice on the intercom interjected.

“...” Gwen looked up at the speakers and sighed. “Retail…” A loud thump sounded behind him. Gwen turned to find a giant frog with Animo atop it, sneering down at her.

“Young fool! You cannot stop me! Will turn Washington D.C. into Washington B.C!” Not waiting for a response, Animo jumped from his frog onto the mutated bird and smashed through a skylight. The frog gave a thunderous ribbit, knocking Gwen onto her backside before leaping away, disappearing through the hole they entered in.

“...” Gwen sighed and dusted herself off. “So that’s what a certified wackadoo sounds like.”

A man in a slightly more professional outfit ran up. His name tag marked him as the store manager. “You scared them off! Thank you, you saved the store! No one got hurt cause of you, is there anything I can do to repay you?”

“We had an incident in the cereal section, maybe you can over-” Gwen got cut off when Max ran up and grabbed her arm.

“Not now Gwen, forget the groceries, we got a giant parrot to follow.”

“I think it’s a cockatiel!” Gwen shouted as she was dragged away.

“Now is not the time know it all!” Ben ran alongside the dragged Gwen. “We just saved this place, and you ask for some cereal?”

“WHO IS WE!?”

Later -

The Rust Bucket sped down the road, following the screeching parrot above them. If Animo noticed the tail, he didn’t care, showing no concern for any who paid him heed. Underneath in the RV, Max watched the road and glanced up, while Gwen kept her eyes locked on Animo and his feathery pet. Though the dying light of a quickly approaching evening was making it harder even with the girl keeping her fringe out of her way. Her fingers drummed on the arm rests, legs kicking, growing restless. The watch was green again, finally recharged.

“Ah, just like the good old days, before I retired,” Max had a wry grin on his face as he reminisced.

“...” That got Gwen to finally break eye-line with the mutated pigeon, “What kind of plumber were you again?”

“Er-yuh-er a-a darn good one!” Max glanced at the rearview mirror and addressed a sulking Ben. “What’s the matter, sport?”

“We save an entire Megamart from being a giant hamster’s chewtoy, and what do we get out of it? Nothing! It’s not fair!”

“Again!” Gwen shuffled in her seat to address her cousin. “Who is the ‘we’ in this scenario!? If you tangled with that thing, YOU’D be the chew toy!”

“Oh, so only YOU can be a hero now too!?”

“APPARENTLY!”

“Yeah that tracks! Only Gwen can win, only Gwen can be a hero, it’s your world we’re just living in it! Well miss perfect! If you hadn’t wasted the Watch on looking for that card, you could have wrapped it up there!”

“Are you two still on the card thing?” Max returned his attention to the bird. “We got bigger concerns, you two! Hash it once the giant animals are dealt with.”

Ben went back to sulking while Gwen opened up her laptop and started looking for anything she could on this nutjob. Her pointer on the screen was a little bat that flapped its wings, and her background was a swirling purple and black nebula. Her keys click-clacked as she searched.

“...Hmm…” The red-head blinked. “I think I found something…guy liked to spout his name. ‘Doctor Aloysius James Animo’, mouthful of a name. Promising researcher in veterinary science. But it turns out he was doing all these twisted genetic experiments where he was mutating animals.”

“Doesn’t seem he kicked the habit.”

“Yeah, might be what cost him some kind of award… ‘The Verities award’ when he didn’t win, he flipped out.”

“Rings a bell,” Mumbled Ben.

“Dangit!” Max watched the parrot disappear by flying between some buildings. “We’ve lost him…he could be anywhere in Washington, D.C.”

“Or ‘Washington B.C.” Ben replied from the back.

“... No…” Gwen looked up and noticed the road they had been following, an idea had struck her. “There’s no way…why would he…”

“Gwen, if you figured something out, share it with the rest of us.”

“... He might be heading for The Natural History Museum.”

A gasp from the back, “Of courser he is!” Ben shot up to the front. “That’s what B.C. meant!”

“Ben agrees with me… ugh, I feel dirty.”

—---------------------------------------

Museum of Natural history.

The Rust Bucket came to a stop outside the Museum. Night had fallen in the time it had taken them to arrive. The Museum was a marvel, even at night. Several pillars rose up just outside it’s entrance though today there were no banners strung between them clean stone walls with windows spread out to either side though the stones were unadorned they didn’t make it look drab or boring. Though, Gwen always thought they needed some neon green paint and black lighting. Today, though, team Tennyson weren’t here to walk the National Mall and visit the museum, instead their attention was on a large discarded feather on the building’s front lawn.

“He really did come here…” the red-head examined the feather. Despite being several times larger than the cockatiel’s original size, it was still surprisingly light. “Guess it’s got hollow bones too…”

“Looks like we’re on the right track, glad you two finally agreed on something.”

“Bleh don’t remind me,” Ben stuck his tongue out in disgust.

The trio found the doors smashed in, Max led the way in avoiding the broken glass. Ben spotted a discarded box labeled ‘M Mart Electronics’ next to a Mammoth exhibit. Creeping along as quietly as possible, they found Animo bent over, fiddling with his device. A sneaker came down on a piece of glass, Ben winced as the crunch resounded. His cousin sighed, Animo ceased his work when he realized he wasn’t alone. He spun around, an eyebrow shot up in surprise.

“You three again, you are very persistent… I HATE persistent!”

“Surprising, given how you persist in your creepy animal abuse experiments!”

“ABUSE!? You dare call my transcendence abuse! Bah! At any rate, I have only just begun. See, I only needed a few components to push my work into phase two: Reanimation of dead cells!”

“What kind of Alien technology did you get your hands on to do that!? That’s impossible! Who do you think you are, Frankenstein?” Gwen was taking extreme offense on how many natural laws this lunatic was breaking.

“... Do these two come with subtitles?”

“Alien technology?” Animo cocked his head, smiling madly. “You belittle yourself and me with such an accusation! My transmodulator is the result of my own genius! Dr. Animo does not need any contraptions from beyond the stars! Observe! As I bring life back into that which is lifeless!”

“Great now he thinks he’s Herbert west…” Gwen mumbled. “There is no way this works,” Animo turned the dial on his device, once, twice. “That’s a display mammoth, they're not going to put actual preserved mammoth pieces on dis-” A beam fired from the Horns of his Transmodulator. The massive mammoth twitched, then slammed a heavy foot down and trumpeted a deafening blast as it was revived. Gwen’s hair was blown back from the blast, but rather than fear, she was… “Huh?” Utterly confused.

THAT WAS A REAL MAMMOTH!? WHY IS A REAL MAMMOTH ON DISPLAY IN A PUBLIC AREA!? I THOUGHT IT WAS STUFFED? WAS IT PARTIALLY REA-NO THAT’S NOT THE ISSUE, THIS MAN JUST COMMITTED NECROMANCY! HOW DOES THAT THING WORK!?

“WITNESS THE GENIUS THAT IS DR. ANIMO!” After this declaration, Animo bravely…ran away. Fleeing deeper into the museum.

“Hey Gwen,” Ben backed away from the Mammoth that Gwen was staring slack-jawed at. “Now might be a good time to… I don’t know…GO HERO!?”

“Huh?” Gwen blinked and turned to Ben, the Mammoth pawed at the ground. Gwen activated the watch and calmly turned the dial.

“Gwen, maybe just slap on Tanziknight? That thing is about to charge,” As Max spoke, the Mammoth did charge. Just as Gwen pushed the dial down over a form with what looked like Four Arms.

A blinding green light filled the room. The watch vanished into Gwen’s arm as muscles expanded nearly exploding along her body, an extra set of arms popped out of her side. The Mammoth’s charge came to an abrupt end as a pair of fists slammed into the side of it’s head, sending it careening to the side. The massive mammal shook its head. Stunned.

Gwen was now a twelve-foot tall wine-red skinned, four-armed giant. Spines popped up along her muscled arms, the girl’s overalls remained in place, though were much larger and appeared to mold to her body better. The watch’s face appeared on her upper left bicep. The red-head retained her hair, her puffy pigtails and fringe held back by her hair clip, but now had four orange tinted eyes. The ten-year-old flexed her hands, felt the power in this alien form.

“You two go get Animo,” Gwen’s voice rumbled, the mammoth stood back up, eyeing its foe. “I’ll handle this,” Before the mammoth could charge, Gwen grabbed its tusks and pulled its head to the ground, shaking the building with the impact… “By the way…we’re gonna call this one,” The red-skinned giant held onto its tusks with her upper arms while her lower pair began pelting the ancient creature with blow after blow. “ATHENA!”

“Great,” Ben and Max took off after Animo. “NOW she wants to name them!”

Grandfather and grandson ran down a hallway lined with exhibits, but as they closed in on Animo something swooped down from above. A caaww was their only warning as the mutated bird from before shot down at them. Max pushed Ben out of the way as the creature locked its talons around the old man, knocking him to the ground.

“Grandpa!” Ben looked around and grabbed a spear from an armor display. He rushed the creature, only for it to turn and snap at him. “Gah!” He held up his spear and the bird’s beak snapped it in half. “Uh-oh…uhhh…can you hold on a minute while I find another ahhh!” Ben jumped back as the bird bit at him again, catching the hem of his shirt. “Hey-hey!” Ben was lifted.

“Let him go!” Max jumped onto the bird's back, locked an arm around it’s neck and pummeled his fist into it’s head. “That’s my grandson, you glorified pigeon!” Another caw and Ben dropped to the floor. “Run Ben!”

“Uh-uh!” Ben looked around and found a shield had slid from the same display with a grin he snatched it up ran at the bird with as much speed as he could manage and jumped up both hands gripping the rim of the metal shield.

The bird was trying to throw Max off and bent low just as Ben jumped. The shield banged its head with a resounding GOOOONG! That dazed it. The blow caused Max to slip off, and the bird backed away, shaking the feathery head. It gave another CAAAWW! Bounced off the wall and finally took off back into the air.

“Good move Ben.”

“Yeah…hope they don’t charge us for the spear,” Ben looked down to find a sizable dent in the shield. “... Or that.”

The chase was rejoined and the pair, Max grabbing up the broken spear and Ben keeping the dented shield, finally found Animo. Next to the famous T. rex fossil on display. Dr. Animo waved, smiling in his usual demented way before aiming his Transmodulator’s horns at the extinct creature’s remains.

“Stop!” Max rushed forward, he was too late.

The beam engulfed the once Apex predator. Skin, scales, muscle sinew all wrapped around the fossils forming from cracks in the skeleton on display. Some parts however didn’t form flesh, on it’s back, side and just under the tail were left like open wounds, though they didn’t bleed or seem to cause the creature discomfort. Last to form were its eyes, pinpricks of light filled out the once empty hollow sockets. The beast let out a deafening roar, shaking the walls of the museum.

“...that is awesome! And I feel like Gwen would hate it, which makes it even cooler!”

“Not the time, Ben!”

Back with the furry behemoth and red-skinned powerhouse, Athena was sent flying into a wall, cracking the stone behind her. With a grunt, she pulled herself out and cracked her neck. A massive foot pawed the ground, the mammoth lined up with her and charged barreling forward with another blast from its trunk.

“Alright…let’s take this outside,” Athena charged forward, the two were just about to clash when the four-armed fighter dodged around the massive beast, thick fingers gripped it’s fur and flesh and with a mighty twist redirected its force and body in an over the shoulder throw.

The front wall of the museum exploded outward in a cascade of stone. The mammoth followed close behind, its body digging a furrow into the ground as it struck. Athena jumped out of the new hole, all four fists raised up, a pair of double hammerfists ready. Just as the Mammoth pushed itself back up. Its head was met with two thunderous blows one following the other, a shockwave blasted out flattening the grass and tearing leaves from trees. The revived beast staggered for a moment then fell, finally out of the fight.

“I wonder how ethical a mammoth steak would be…” Her musings and mastication of a mammoth would have to wait as another set of heavy steps drew her attention.

Max and Ben were hauling their behinds out of the museum, Athena’s eyes, all four of them, opened wide in shock at the sight of a T. rex chasing them. Animo atop it. Ben tossed his shield, which bounced off the Dino with little effect other than to anger it. Her brain once again scrambled as the absurdity of this was too much for her to comprehend. It took the creature turning and slapping her family with its tail to snap her out of the shock.

“GRANDPA! BEN!” Athena rushed in.

“I’d love to stay, but I need to claim the reward I so richly deserve!” With a call from above, the bird reappeared.

Athena helped Max up, pulling the old man to his feet, then readied herself for the overgrown avian. However, it seemed to have a vendetta against another, swerving out of the way of a punch and snatching up Ben instead. The red alien cried out and gave chase.

“Ben!” Max took a step to follow and something crunched under his foot.

Huffing, the four-armed bruiser crouched then jumped, the force of the leap left a sizable divot in the ground. Her hands just barely grasping its tail feathers. Ben looked up at her, all youthful arrogance gone, replaced with sheer fear.

“Land!” However, to both Gwen’s and Ben’s horror, the feathers she had a hold off suddenly…plucked off. “Uh-oh!”

“GWEN!?”

Athena’s stomach flipped, the watch began to time out, blinking red. The girl found herself falling to the ground. Smashing into the ground JUST before it timed out, sending up a plume of dirt and forming a crater around the ten-year-old. Gwen groaned as she stood up, brushing dust and dirt off her clothes. Once she crested the crater, the Rust Bucket rolled up and honked.

“Need a ride?”

Meanwhile.

Ben, grasped in the bird’s talons, had one arm free and one leg dangled out in space. The Ten-year old looked more annoyed than scared despite his circumstances. Dourly grumbling to himself.

“I could be roasting marshmallows right now, watching a cheesy action movie from Grandpa’s collection…where are we heading anyway?” Ben glanced down and saw the Washington Monument, lit by several spot lights up ahead. Stretching as far as his arm could go, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a beat up flip phone. “ ‘No Ben, we can’t get you a new phone, you break them all the time!’ Well, they’ll reconsider after this!”

Below the bird and the boy, the Doctor and the Dinosaur smashed through a building. Animo grinned, enjoying the power he controlled. “Ah, I do love my work.” Above them, Ben desperately tried to get his weathered phone to connect.

Back with Gwen and Max, wind whipped the red-head’s hair, the RV sped down the highway with her hanging out the window scanning the air for any sign of her cousin and the bird he flew away on. She grumbled and pulled herself back in.

“No sign of the bird or Ben,” The ten-year old angrily shoved the loose hairs out of her face.

“Can’t be many places for a parrot the size of an elephant to roost,” Max fished something out of his pocket, a crumpled piece of paper. “Here, look what Animo left behind.

“Dr. Kelly accepts Verities award?” A newspaper clipping showed Dr. Kelly, a normal slightly pudgy looking man with gray streaks accepting the ‘Verities award’ which looked like a gold conical flask, with snippets of an article on the side. “No…no way…” Gwen took a breath then, “AHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

The sudden shout made Max swerve. “Gwen, what the hey?”

“This idiot! This guy can instantly mutate animals and apparently MASTERED NECROMANCY! And he’s still obsessed with some dumb award from years ago!?”

“Obsession’s a nasty thing, huh?” Max gave Gwen a little smirk, the girl’s head snapped to look at him, eyes narrowed. “Guess he’s going after Dr. Kelly, huh?”

“... Yeah…”

“Well, first things first we gotta find your cous-” At that moment Gwen’s phone started to ring.

Scrambling for the device in her pocket, the name that popped up was ‘Ben’. “It’s him!” With a click, Ben’s frantic voice filled the RV.

“WE’RE AT THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT! HEEEEELP!”

“Just hold on, Ben!” Max sped up, forcing Gwen back in her seat.

At the monument.

“Hold on, he says…” Ben had been dropped off by the mutated parrot. He now hung from the spike, sneakers slipping on the smooth stone. He spotted the Rust Bucket barreling towards them. “I can’t…hold…” The boy slipped, and dropped his phone to grab onto anything to keep himself from falling.

The phone cutting off suddenly sent a cold splash down Gwen and Max’s backs. They wouldn’t make it in time at this rate. The watch changed from red to green with a little beep.

“Ben’s gonna fall!”

“Not today!” Gwen turned to a form she’d been avoiding, one with multiple limbs and what looked like wings. “Those wings better not be vestigial!” Pulling herself part way out of the window. “Let’s fly!” Her body was enveloped in a familiar green glow the moment the face was pressed down.

Feathery antenna fluttered from a chitin covered head. The watch’s face centered flanked by four pearlescent eyes. The chitin was a light blue in color, while a mane of that same feathery antenna fluff circled her neck, while her thorax more a cat face mark on it’s back, large veiny insect like wings, multicolored where the light hit it rose up from its back. Its thorax was moth-like but covered in bands of blue and black chitin more crab like that insect in armoring ending in a sharp shovel like blade on the back. Three pairs of legs dotted the creatures, four on its upper thorax long and crab like tipped in sharp claws, while the front pair folded up and ended in three armored fingers. The mouth was somewhere between a moth’s and a crustacean. Armored and with small mandibles.

“Well, this is interesting!”

“Gwen, is that you? Are you talking?”

“Huh? Can’t talk grandpa, I gotta save Ben!”

Her wings fluttered and shot off like a bullet. Gwen shouted, not yet knowing where her words came from as she circled around the monument. Ben groaned and tried to hold on, but his grip finally gave in, and the boy fell backwards into space. His stomach flipped and that odd feeling of weightlessness overtook him. A scream escaped his lips…right up until the insectiod form of Gwen zipped by and snatched him up.

“Huh? MOTHRA’S REAL!?” Ben dangled from Gwen’s legs.

“It’s me dweebus!” Without waiting, she tossed him in the air then flipped around so she caught him on her back. “No hold on!”

“Hey, don’t go throwing me with - why is your voice in my head?” The boy grabbed hold of some of the fluff around Gwen’s neck.

“My what is in your head? Surprised there’s not an echo in that cavern.”

“Ha ha moth head w-” Ben’s head snapped to the side as a caw split the air. “GIANT BIRD! GIANT BIRD!”

Gwen swerved in the air as a giant beak nearly snapped her wings off. Both ten-year olds were yelling, one with their lungs, another seemingly with her mind. The pair just dodging under the bird’s talons, Gwen stopped flapping her wings, let herself fall before flapping again, her legs skimming the top of the reflection pool. The constant twists and turns started doing a number on Ben’s stomach.

“I’m gonna hurl!”

“Do that on me, and you're gonna wish I left you with the bird!”

Max, meanwhile, “Oh…” huffed and puffed as he ran up the Washington Monument. “Great…the day we visit the Elevator is shut down for maintenance,” Still despite his age, he made it to the top and found an open observation window. “Now where…” Squinting, he managed to spy Gwen and Ben avoiding the parrot and stuck his arms out to flag down the two.

The giant moth-crab fluttered to and fro, head cocking to the side once it ‘felt’ rather than saw Max waving. Gwen dropped again and came up in a swoop.

“Can’t shake the bird. You need to trust me.”

“Trust you?” Ben opened his mouth to say more, but the sudden speed boost took the air out of his lungs.

Once they got close to the monument, Gwen bucked Ben off her back and grabbed him with her legs, tossing Ben into Max’s outstretched hands. Then banking to the side, Ben once again was in the air, this time his grandfather’s hands closed around his waist earning a grateful look from the boy, but as Max was pulling Ben in, the Parrot readied its talons and dived towards them.

“GET AWAY!” Gwen came in from the top in a dive bomb and checked the bird with her shoulder, hitting like an armored missile. “FROM MY FAMILY!” Her strike knocked the bird into the monument with a pained caaw. The beast fluttered then took off away from the angry moth.

“Go!” Max called from the window, Ben save next to him. “Stop Animo! We’ll be alright!”

“Speak for yourself…” Ben’s cheeks inflated, and he ran to the nearest trash can.

Gwen nodded then took off. During her investigation of Animo she learned Dr. Kelly had his own company. Kelly Industries. They weren’t far from here, she just had to hope she didn’t time out. Her wings made a staccato beat, flying through the night. The girl made a note to go flying after all this when she’d be able to enjoy it.

Elsewhere -

A trio of spotlights shone on a sign that read ‘Kelly Industries’ The building itself was split into two same looking blocky window covered buildings with a window topped walkway between them. A toll booth stopped people while coming and going each day. At least it would were it not night. Trees and shrubs were planted all about to break up the otherwise plain look. Inside said building, Dr. Kelly was showing a few VIPs around. Friends, investors, whoever they were walked on clean tiled floors.

“Oh this,” Kelly motioned to a display case on the ground floor, one that contained, “Is my Verities Award, of course it was an honor to just be nominated with a distinguished group of scientists.”

Before any comment could follow, the ground began to shake. This was the only warning they had before a scaled head burst through the wall, Animo riding atop the previously extinct theropod. Glass and concrete exploded outward, casting the two in a dust cloud. The only thing visible within was the light reflected off both the Dinosaur’s eyes and Animo’s own goggles.

The Doctor’s own baleful gaze fell upon Kelly. “I believe you have something of mine,” with a sneer he slid off the back of the lizard, marched up to the group and snatched the Verities award off the counter. Dr. Animo’s back relaxed muscles as winding, the reward now in his hand. “I’d like to thank the committee for this honor!”

The T. rex swiped its tail at Kelly, but a bug shaped blur shot through the opening and cut through the dust cloud, arms folded over the good Doctor and swooped him out of the way. The dinosaur was faster than Gwen had anticipated and quickly shifted, swatting her out of the air and sending Kelly back to the ground in a roll. The bugified ten-year old hit the ground with a bounce and landed on her side.

“Ow…so that’s what I’ve been doing to flies…”

“Help me!” Dr. Kelly had tried to run, only to trip and fall on some debris, a massive fanged maw opened to finish him.

“I thought that only happened in horror movies?” scrambling up to her feet. Gwen shot forward and felt something build in her throat…well in something attached to her throat. Spitting forward, a mass of silky fibers shot out of her mouth. The silk wrapped around the Rex’s mouth, and some odd green slime on it hardened. “Oh cool also. EW EW EW… But cool. BUT EW! IT FELT LIKE A LOOGIE A LOOONG ENDLESS LOOOOGIE!” Gwen bit down, cutting the line of slime silk from her mouth.

“WHAT ARE YOU! YOU LITTLE PEST!? And how are you communicating?”

“I’m…SILKWING! And before that…why does that T. rex not have feathers?”

“Why does it not have fea…” Animo paused, lifted his goggles up and looked the T. rex, currently struggling to get its muzzle off, up and down. “... I will admit that is a discrepancy…perhaps it’s not a true Tyrannosaurus? It could be an Allosaurus. The paleo sciences were never my focus. IT MATTERS NOT! The point is it serves Dr. Animo!” Speaking of, the Doctor aimed his helm at Gwen and a red blast issued from his horns.

The moth-girl jumped to the side and charged Animo swiping at his side. Knocking the award from his hands. Shouting in dismay, Animo lunged for the award catching it before it hit the ground.

“My award!” A tap at his shoulder drew his attention before Silkwing pulled his Transmodulator off his head and chest. “Don’t!” Silkwing tore the device apart just as the T. rex tore his makeshift muzzle off, crumbling to fossils before them. “NO! NOOOO!”

“Quiet down!” Silkwing spat another wad of silk-slime at Animo, trapping his arms and locking him to the ground. The doctor desperately tried to reach for the Verities award, even as he was immobilized. “You can invent this kind of technology. But you're still obsessed with some award you lost years ago. Why?”

“Tch. I do not expect lesser minds to understand. Insect. There are certain universal constants. The sun rises in the east, sets in the west, up is up, down is down and Dr. Animo DOES NOT LOSE TO LESSER INTELLECTS!”

If Silkwing had eyelids right now they’d have shot open wide at that comment. As it was her watch started to beep so she simply spread her wings and shot off out of the hole in the wall and dove behind a tree. Ignoring the calls of thanks from Dr. Kelly and the others. A burst of red light and Gwen walked out from behind the remains of Animo’s Transmodulator in hand.

Later on the police arrived and arrested Dr. Animo for…just so many crimes. The Tennysons watched from a distance as he was dragged literally kicking and screaming into the back of a squad car. With a heavy sigh Gwen turned to Ben.

“Ben?”

“Oh here we go what did I d-”

“I’m sorry.”

“...” Ben stuck his pinkie in his ear and dug. “Er… I think I might have some feathers in my ear did you just apologize. To me?”

“Yes…and don’t make it harder than it is. This is unlikely to happen a second time…” The red-head clapped her hands together and gathered herself. “I’m sorry…about…what I said. I don’t… I don’t think you're dumber than me, it’s just… I see you put so little effort into things that… I just assume you…” Gwen rubbed her arm, struggling as the words didn’t come to her. “I got obsessed over losing and… Ben I’m just sorry about how I acted and what I said, I don’t really think that,” A few small tears started to run down her cheeks. “I don’t know why… I said it… I wanted to hurt you I don’t know why I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“...” Ben reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay, you saved my butt tonight…a few times. Let’s call it even.”

“... We’re okay.”

“We’re okay,” The three started to get back aboard the Rust Bucket. “Sides, I can use it as ammo later.”

“There it is.”

“I’m proud of you two,” Max, beaming, slid into the driver’s seat. “You worked it out on your own and buried the hatchet.”

“Yeah, thankfully before either of us pulled one out,” Gwen pulled out a box and dumped Animo’s device into it. “A prize, and something to study,” With a heavy sigh she practically melted into her seat, exhausted.

Ben eyed the broken Transmodulator. “... So, did that T. rex tick you off?”

“OH. MY. GOD. SO MUCH! First off, how do you get DNA from a fossil!? IT’S A ROCK! And then there are the feathers!”

The R.V. rolled out of Washington, D.C. Gwen ranting about the absurdity of Dr. Animo for several miles.

Notes:

Heroes we see in this chapter: Coronia (heatblast), Spectra (Ghostfreak), Athena (Four Arms), and finally Silkwing (Stinkfly). So Silkwing here is kind of a combo of Stinkfly and an alien race from the Lancer TTRPG called the Egregorians. I liked the moth like features of that race and...technically we never see a canon female of Stinkfly's race. So...I'm calling sexual dimorphism here and calling it a day.

Notes:

So let me say that... I am an original series purist. I don't really like what was done with Alien Force or beyond, though there are some ideas I did enjoy, like the Highbreed and the frog people. But I'm largely going to keep to the Original four seasons

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Gwen 10