Chapter Text
Bang! Blinking awake, Ben brings a hand to his face to wipe the sleep out of his eyes. It’s been a while since he fell out of his bed, he can’t help but think ruefully.
Pushing himself off the ground, he does a double take at his surroundings. “The Rustbucket? The first Rustbucket!? What the hell?”
Quickly wiping himself down because he doesn’t want to reek of beans and carpet lint for the next three days, Ben takes stock of his surroundings and can’t help the way that his mouth drops open.
“It really is the original Rustbucket! I thought this got blown up ages ago! Or-Wait!”
Quickly running over to the console, Ben punches in that old combination for the inner trunk safe, staring in shock as the gun safe rises up and shows the old beat up ray pistol that Grandpa Max was always depressed about losing.
He stands there, mouth agape and struck dumb, before quickly gathering himself and putting everything away and slapping his face. Checklist.
“Ultimatrix, check. Survival knife, not check. Spare Lepidopterran fruit seeds, check. Cargo pants, check but not weighed down. Grandpa Max’s special wakeup Jamba Juice, check. Pyronite flash-stick slash emergency vodka, check.”
Okay, so everything but his survival knife. Damn. He liked that one too, it was a gift from Gwen.
Grabbing his head with both hands, he quickly cracks his neck to the side and lets out a sigh of relief when the pressure that was building there dissipates. He still feels pretty stiff, like he slept on his neck wrong, but it’s more manageable now.
He can feel the pranking energies of the world currently turning against him, as if someone has hit him with a masterful jape, and he is still unaware. He needs a mirror.
His suspicions are confirmed, with “Dweeb” emblazoned on his forehead with prime majesty and perfect cursive penmanship. The jape is truly masterful, and he tips his head to Gwen. And now, he must seek his revenge.
Luckily, the marker isn’t permanent, so he can wash it off with a wet wipe and clean his face in one go, carpet lint and other assorted grossness coming off of him incredibly quickly.
He’s almost tempted to transform into Blob and clean the place, but he’s pretty sure that Grandpa Max wouldn’t appreciate his carpet being eaten by acid. Even if it is threadbare and tattered.
Making his way outside, he stumbles and nearly brains himself on the side of the door when he sees that he is in the same fucking campground from when he was ten. Frowning, he kind of mumbles to himself, “what the fuck?” before shaking his head. He can see Gwen tapping away at her laptop while Grandpa Max is simmering what he’s guessing are mealworms on the fire.
Alright, so either Paradox is getting his revenge, Azmuth called in a favour with Paradox because he broke the last Omnitrix a few years back, or he’s in crazy town, populated by himself, Gwen, and Grandpa Max.
At least, he hopes they’re real. He doesn’t really want to be insane. But then, maybe he’s already insane, and that’s just his irrational mind trying to justify itself to him by pretending it’s rational.
“Oh, Dweeb! You’re finally awake. Aww, you rubbed out my present, that’s too bad.” Gwen tsks at him, but he shrugs with a smile as he sits down.
“Yes, unfortunately your masterful jape succeeded in making me look foolish. I hope you realize… I will have revenge.”
Gwen blinks at him, seemingly surprised at the fact that he’s actually read a thesaurus before, before shrugging to herself, blowing some hair out of her face. “Finally upgraded your vocabulary, dweeb? About time. Anyway, what happened? You just passed out right as we arrived at the campsite.”
Hearing the undercurrent of concern while Gwen tries to talk down to him just makes him smile, but he doesn’t really know what knocked him out, so he just shrugs at her.
“Aww, Gwendolyn, are you starting to care? I’m so
flattered
.” His grin is a bit smarmy, but it has the effect of making Gwen snort, which she quickly tries to play off.
“Yeah, whatever. I just didn’t want to spend the weekend having to look after your unconscious body. Don’t flatter yourself.”
Gwen tries to hide any concern that she has, but Ben has gotten so used to reading her that it still reads out loud and clear. So he decides to be a little shit, putting his hand under his chin and smiling at her and raising his eyebrows.
“You’d be the one looking after me? Not Grandpa Max? Gwen, truly I feel the love loud and clear.”
Gwen reaches to her side, picking up a book and beaning him across the face with it and knocking him to the ground, but he just starts laughing.
“Yes! I made you crack first! I win! Victory for Ben!”
Hearing Gwen’s groan of disgust just makes him laugh harder, watching her stand up and stomp away while looking over her shoulder at him with an angry frown. “You’re such a dweeb!”
Picking himself up off the ground as Gwen storms into the forest, he can’t quite wipe the grin off of his face even as he picks up the book and dusts it off, putting it back on the table. He’s also courteous enough to lock her laptop and close it, as she didn’t think it important enough to take as she stomped off.
Hearing footsteps as he sits back down, Ben relaxes as he smells fresh cooked mealworms and beans. Definitely Grandpa Max. You can’t fake the smell.
“Nice to see the two of you getting along. Are you feeling better after your tumble? I got some grub if you’re feeling better.” Grandpa Max passes him a bowl of fresh cooked mealworms before sitting across from him.
Staring at the mealworms, he plays up the frown and makes a show of picking up and studying one of the now dead worms in front of his face. “Well, I am hungry. Just hope this stays down.” As he says that, he caps it off by putting the mealworm in his mouth, still shivering as he crunches it. You never get used to the texture of crunched fried mealworm.
Nutritious. No taste thankfully, except for what was probably once slime.
Nodding his head, Ben decides to take another handful, eating them slowly like potato chips. They’re crunchy, but pretty filling. Dry as hell though.
Coughing, he quickly accepts Max’s canteen, having a quick drink of water before handing it back. “Dry.”
Grandpa Max laughs at him, nodding his head. “Yeah, they’re pretty dry. It’s got to do with how they’re fried. Makes them nice and chewy though, kind of like chips.”
Nodding again, Ben looks around curiously. Gwen couldn’t have gone too far right?
Pulling a pocket watch out of his shirt and blinking in surprise at the fact that it’s there, he notices Grandpa Max take an interest in it. “I figured I’d pick it up when I saw it in a second hand store. It’s pretty cool, right?”
Max nods, holding his hand out. Ben quickly unclips it from the inside of his jacket, staring at the time before handing it over.
9:32.
Grandpa studies the watch, but he can feel something wrong in his teeth. This is lining up way too much with the Omnitrix crash landing. Even the time is matching up, he asked Paradox once what time it was once the Omnitrix hit the planet.
10:10. On the dot.
Standing up, Ben shakes his shoulder before moving away from the table, turning around to look at Grandpa Max. “Hey, I’m gonna go look for Gwen. She shouldn’t be far, but in case she is, it's better to look for her.”
He doesn’t feel too worried, but Grandpa nods his head at him, practically shoo-ing him away. “Go find your cousin. Hopefully the both of you manage to come back before the mealworms get cold. Let me tell you, they don’t taste as good on a reheat.”
Waving his non Ultimatrix covered hand as he runs off into the woods. Lucky for him his physical stats are better than average for a human because of the Ultimatrix, and the Omnitrix before it.
But he needs to find Gwen, quickly.
Practically flying through the woods with dexterity that he wouldn’t have had without his exposure to the watches, he still feels like he’s being too slow. He hasn’t seen any sign of Gwen yet, and he can feel the countdown ticking down.
He isn’t actually sure how long he’s been searching, as he forgot to grab his watch back off of Grandpa.
Feeling a boom, he realises he’s out of time, quickly sprinting in the direction of where the Pod landed, almost as graceful as an Arachnichimp. If that Arachnichimp was drunk, of course.
He has to stop himself from tripping and face planting into the crater itself, as he sees the Pod in all of its glory, open and empty of its bounty. Which means that someone’s already gotten the Watch.
“Alright Ben, don’t panic. Someone just has one of the most dangerous items in the known universe in the same goddamn woods that your cousin ran in. No pressure, nothing to worry about.”
“...” Hissing to himself, his hand comes up to the Ultimatrix, quickly swiping through his roster. Atlas? Too much… Surtr? Don’t want to set the forest on fire. Again.
Hmm… Bascau? Probably good enough for it. Not any direct way to kill, he can immediately escalate without needing to simulate a new ultimate. All he needs is… “What the hell is hissing? Why does it also smell like a florist bred in new flow-ERS!”
He can’t prevent the vines from wrapping around him, pulling him through the forest faster than he can keep up, before depositing him in a vine cocoon. Okay, so the new idiot has a florau… Oh that’s Gwen.
“Surprise!” Her voice hisses out, but honestly she looks like a florist's wet nightmare, a blooming Florauna. Letting out a breath, Ben lets himself relax, the cocoon quickly wrapping him further without approaching his neck.
He can tell by the slight widening of her eye that she didn’t expect him to relax, but he just smiles lazily. “Hi Gwen. I’m guessing you found the magic watch too?”
“How did you know it was me!? I-wait… Too? You also found a watch?”
Holding his wrist up, he smiles, before reaching a hand over and pressing her watch and shifting her back to human. The drop isn’t really enough to jar either of them, Gwen from her karate practice teaching her how to fall, Ben from just having taken longer falls on planets like Lepidopterra.
Brushing himself off, he can’t help his now relaxed state. He just dumped all of his panic at that. “Yeah, I found a watch after I found the pod. Didn’t know there were two. Freaked me right out too, it tried to attach to me like that alien movie series.”
Gwen seems torn between smiling and pouting, settling for some strange sort’ve pout-smile while she crosses her arms. “So not fair. I thought I’d get it all to myself, and instead I have to share the pod with my dweeb cousin.”
Smiling with a flourish, and fighting hard to keep that smile on his face when Gwen startles, he shrugs his shoulders. “Unfortunately Gwen, you’re stuck with me. But I got an idea.”
Gwen tilts her head in confusion, watching him warily, as he approaches and quickly activates her dial, smiling as he sees the Vulpimancer. Classics it is then. “What’s your Idea?”
Tapping his own dial, he quickly brings up Baskerville. “Let’s have some fun.”