Gwen’s heart raced as Steven pressed further into her personal space. His disarming smile did nothing to quell the ache in her loins. If something didn’t happen soon, she was going to lose her mind. The worst possible something happened when the cave ahead lit up in a bright green flash.
Steven jerked back and snapped to face ahead. “What was that?”
“A dead dork!” Gwen growled through gritted teeth.
“A what?” Steven asked, not even looking at Gwen as he put himself between her and the flash.
Gwen shook her head and tried to dismiss her anger. There’d be time for vengeance later. “Nothing. Look, maybe we should just-” Her words died in her throat when she saw Steven’s face. A severe and almost fierce-looking scowl had replaced his prior expression. He had lowered his body in a defensive stance and held out his right arm, similar to when Ben used the Omnitrix. The sweet and thoughtful boy she was falling for had been replaced with a warrior who’d come to her defense against a perceived threat. This did nothing to help her wetness problem.
“Stay back,” Steven warned as he listened in the dark. “This isn’t good.”
“What isn’t?”
“I hear something moving, but it doesn’t sound human. Gwen, I need you to run outside and go for help. I’ll stay here and try to help Ben.”
Gwen bit her lip in frustration. Should she just tell the truth? If he accepted, would he still be nice? Why did Ben always have to ruin everything? “Steven, there’s something-”
A deep hissing echoed through the cave, followed by the buzzing of some very large wings.
“Run, now! I’ll hold it off!”
Before Gwen could protest, an elaborately ornate glowing pink shield manifested on Steven’s arm. “Whoa…”
Something skittered in the darkness ahead. The Omnitrix glowed on its face as the limbs tucked in to move in this narrow space. “Grr! Stupid watch,” said the creature in its buggy hissing voice. It was finally close enough for Steven’s shield to illuminate its four stalk eyes and puke-green limbs. “Never works when I… Oh, nice shield,” the bug creature offered awkwardly. It looked between Steven’s determined defiance and Gwen’s uncertain shrug. “I heard you say something about running. Is there trouble?”
“It… talks?” awed Steven, only to shake his head and focus. “You’re the one who’s gonna be in trouble if you don’t tell me what you did with Ben.”
“That’s… kind of a long story. Name’s Stinkfly, by the way,” he explained while awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.
Steven lowered his stance and prepared to attack. “You’re too big. There’s no way you could have gotten here without passing Ben,” he observed.
“Whoa, buddy. Let’s not do anything hasty. This is all a huge misunderstanding.”
“I’ve never met a gem monster that could talk, before,” Steven pondered while keeping his shield ready. “Alright. If you want to talk, then let’s talk. What did you do to Ben?”
“He is Ben!” Gwen blurted, wanting to head off anyone doing anything stupid.
“What?”
“Oh, good job with the secret identity, Gwen,” Stinkfly grumbled.
Gwen rolled her eyes and gently pushed past a very perplexed Steven. “Steven, remember that watch you were admiring? Well, it lets my stupid cousin change into all kinds of aliens, which he uses to play superhero whenever bad guys show up. The only problem is-”
The Omnitrix started beeping its signature sound of losing power, followed by a flash. When it passed, Ben was left groaning on the cave floor.
“-he sucks at it,” Gwen finished.
“Hey, it’s not my fault,” asserted Ben as he stood. “Half the time, it’s like this stupid thing has a mind of its own,” Ben argued while holding up the device on his wrist.
“Chh. Typical loser, blaming the machine when it’s clearly user error,” Gwen huffed.
“It is the machine! I’d set the thing to Grey Matter,” Ben explained while fiddling with the now red controls. “It was set properly, but when I push the button… Bam! Stinkfly. That’s not my fault.”
Steven finally dismissed his shield as his eyes sparkled with wonder. “Whoa! That’s so cool!” He ran up to ogle the device. “Wow. How come it’s red?”
“It’s out of juice and needs to recharge,” Ben answered. “But, yeah. It’s pretty cool.”
“How many aliens can you turn into?” Steven gushed.
Gwen raised her hand. “Follow up question: Why’d you want to be Grey Matter in the first place?” She narrowed her eyes on him. “It better have not been for another prank.”
“No way. I found some more of that weird writing up ahead and wanted to see if being Grey Matter could help me read it.”
“Oh. That’s… actually not the worst idea,” Gwen conceded.
“Your aliens give you super reading powers?” marveled Steven.
Ben’s ego swelled under the new kid’s adoration. “Not exactly. Each alien has its own kind of power. Grey Matter’s weak, but he’s super smart. Stinkfly can fly, obviously, and also shoot sticky goo from his eyes. I’ve got a bunch of other guys who can do all kinds of things.”
“Wow, Ben. You’re amazing!”
“No, the Omnitrix is amazing,” Gwen corrected. For whatever reason, she didn’t like how much Steven was praising her cousin. “Ben was just in the right place at the right time to grab it.”
“Still, you said you fight bad guys, right? That’s pretty amazing.”
“Yeah, I know it is,” Ben agreed while pushing out his chest with his hands on his hips. “Ya know, I wasn’t so sure about you before, but you’re pretty cool, Steven. Especially with that shield you have.”
“Yeah, I was wondering about that, too,” added Gwen.
Steven extended his arm and re-summoned his shield. “Oh, this? Yeah, this is one of my gem powers.” He lifted his shirt to show off the stone embedded in his belly button. “I’m half gem, on my mom’s side. It’s complicated, but she gave me her gem, and now I’m learning how to use her powers. It’s been… something.”
Ben chuckled. “Tell me about it. The first time I transformed, I started a forest fire.”
“That’s pretty bad. Once, my body almost turned into a bunch of cats. It was pretty scary.”
“This watch likes to konk out at the worst possible times. Like when I’m a hundred feet in the air as Stinkfly, I only get a few seconds warning before I’m back to being flightless me.”
“Okay, that’s pretty bad,” conceded Steven. “How’d you survive?”
“Dumb luck,” Gwen answered. “That’s pretty much the answer every time things don’t blow up in his face.”
Ben got a wicked smirk on his face. “There’s this other thing the watch does. I can do it even when it’s depowered.” He fiddled with the dial until it turned blue and hit the button. The blue glow wasn’t as bright as the green one, enabling the others to watch him shrink down to only a few inches. “Pretty sweet, huh?”
Gwen could have crushed Ben at that moment. She knew that he only shrank to tease and frustrate her, and she hated how much it worked.
“Oh, wow. You can shrink, too?”
“Too?” the cousins asked as one.
Steven posed with his hands on his hips as his gem glowed pink, and he shrunk down to Ben’s height. The only difference was that he’d chosen not to shrink his clothes with him, while Ben still had his swim trunks. Steven had had an unusual upbringing, and his grasp of concepts like modesty was dubious at best. In his mind, they were all friends, and it was only natural for friends to be naked together.
Gwen blinked like a deer caught in the headlights as her eyes swiveled between the two tiny boys. With one, she had a love-hate relationship. He drove her crazy when he wasn’t driving her crazy. With the other, she felt that they’d made a more genuine connection. He seemed to tick off every box she had, including her super-secret one. And now, she had them both right where she wanted them.
What happens next?
Gwen finally gets some relief
Gwen uses only Steven to make Ben jealous
More Omnitrix shenanigans
A real monster turns up   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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