Chapter Text
Ben really thinks that jobs that don’t require the omnitrix should really be below his paygrade. And honestly, that’s not crazy to say. Like, cleaning out an old plumber station should really be an intern thing. An unpaid intern thing. Of course, when he said as much to Gwen, she chewed him out for “Being Ungrateful” and “Needing to get his head out of his ass”.
Gwen didn’t have a whole lot of defense for Kevin blowing them off.
“Because he’s Kevin and allergic to being helpful?” Gwen asked, exasperated. She apparently wasn’t as psyched as, ‘being on a team’ as she had acted when she was chewing Ben out. “Well, jokes on him, because he’s missing out.”
“On what, dusty old plumber tech?” Ben asked sarcastically, before realizing yes, that is the kind of thing Kevin would be interested in. Especially since nobody would notice if it went missing and found a new home on the black market. “Nevermind. How come you get to do a real job and I’m stuck sweeping?”
“Every job is important Ben.” Gwen says, sounding a lot like her mother, in Ben’s humble opinion. She hits a button with an air of finality and the system boots back up, the main one displaying a loading screen and downloading whatever updates they had missed out on in the many years this place had been unoperational.
“Sweet!” Ben cheered, dropping the broom. “Are we done?”
Gwen narrows her eyes at him. “We?”
He sheepishly picks his broom back up. Gwen just shakes her head at him and pulls out her cellphone. “You can keep sweeping. I have to go and sync the computer on the main satellite to this one.” She explains, and by the way she’s looking at her phone Ben can tell she’s going to be tearing Kevin a new one via her mom’s unlimited cell plan as soon as he’s out of earshot.
“You’re just going to leave me here? Alone in the dead expanse of space?” He cries, clutching his broom closer. One annoying thing about Gwen, is that if Kevin is annoying her in any way, then for some reason, she makes it everyone else’s problem. You know, like by leaving Ben for dead.
“I’m going to the space station adjacent to this one!” She hisses, pointing where the bridge connects this satellite to the main one. Only, the adjacent satellite was about a fifteen minute walk from this one, and it had taken Gwen an hour to boot up this computer.
“Can’t I sweep there?”
“Will you quit being a baby?”
“I’m not!” He tries to defend. Gwen doesn’t look convinced.
“Just get it presentable in here, and then you can walk over and we can go back home!” She commands, stalking over to the bridge with her ponytail swinging like a woman on a mission. The door closes automatically behind her, and it makes Ben nearly jump out of his skin.
“Get it presentable, Ben. Don’t use the omnitrix, Ben. Something always goes wrong, Ben.” Ben says under his breath, jumping again when something creaks and landing in his already swept up dirt pile.
An empty plumber station has got to be up there with Ben’s least favorite things. It’s not lost on him that every time he’s in one of these things, someone tries to kill him. He puts his head down, weighing out the pros and cons of using ditto or echo echo to get a lot of cleaning done at once, when the teleporter pad blinks on.
“Max Tennyson, recognized. Arriving in twenty, nineteen-”
Saved by the bell, grandpa was coming to check on them! Ben got back to sweeping, thankful he wasn’t caught red handed ‘misusing the awesome power of the omnitrix’ and trying to look productive. He even had his head down after he heard the teleporter finish whirring to really show how engrossed he was with this sweeping thing.
And then a voice that did not belong to Grandpa said, “Someone threw a rager in here.”
Ben, already on edge, whipped around to look at, once again, not Grandpa Max. Instead, it was a dark haired guy with a muscular build wearing a band t-shirt. Needless to say, not a plumber. His entrace did throw Ben off though, so instead of slamming down on the Omnitrix, he wielded the broom in front of him like a sword.
The guy looks at him, unimpressed, until it morphs into confused. “Who are you?”
To be treated as anything less than a living legend at a plumber base was a blow Ben’s ego couldn’t take lying down. He puts down the broom, trying to look cool and like he was leaning on it or something. “Who are you?”
The guy looks him up and down. “How old are you?” And so much for the first impression.
“Why’d the teleporter say you were Max Tennyson?” Ben asked, changing the subject as quickly as he could manage. People really hated the answer to the age question.
”My code wasn’t working.”
“And you just knew his?”
The guy rolled his eyes like Ben was being ridiculous. “Yeah, we work together. Can I speak to someone over the age of twelve?” He asks, waltzing over to the computer and sitting down in the chair in front of it like he owns the place. Two other unrelated weird things: He’s british and his band t-shirt is actually an Alice in Chains t-shirt, which happens to be Ben’s Dad’s favorite band.
“Not twelve. And no one else is here, so I’m all you got.” Ben said, putting down the broom completely. This guy might be a total weirdo, but he seems to be pretty harmless, if he’s not an isolation induced hallucination (Gwen has been gone for ten minutes).
“And the fledgling Anodite in the bridge? Is she not here?” He says, scooting the chair way closer to the computer screen than was necessary. He also typed like he’s never seen a keyboard in his life, pointer finger painstakingly putting down one letter at a time. How he knew that Gwen was here, and was a Anodite for that matter, Ben had no idea. Maybe he was a Professor Paradox type, another entity that seemed to know everything and nothing at the same time.
The guy presses enter on the computer, getting a straight ERROR message and turns to look at Ben. “My password isn’t working.”
“Okay?” Ben says.
“Can you fix it?” He asks, completely sincere.
“Why would I be able to fix it?”
He tilts his head. “You’re not IT?”
“IT?!” Ben exclaimed, nearly clutching his heart. This guy thinks he’s a tech nerd? “I’m a plumber! Technically.”
The guy nodded like he didn’t believe him at all and pressed enter again.
“Impersonating plumber. System shut down.” The computer beeped, putting up one more pathetic error message before the display froze on the log in screen. Gwen was going to love that.
“Ah. Oops.”
“Dude. You broke it!” Ben accused, watching the guy guiltily pull his hands away.
“I didn’t mean to! I thought that was my login.”
Ben peered over his shoulder, looking at the login (Derraonovwin11) and the password that was made up of THREE astericks.
“Dude, you have a three character password?” He asks, wondering if this was some sort of fever dream. “And there’s no way that’s spelled right.”
“The password is easy to remember, and the user name is MY NAME!”
“How do you even say that?” Ben asks. The dude makes what can only be described as a noise. “You know what, nevermind. What are you doing here?”
“I have to put in my report of the Deson Eight mission.” He says, like Ben should know what that is. But before he can follow up with more of that, Derr (Only part of the pronunciation Ben caught) sat up stiffer. “Hey, she’s walking over here.”
Even this rando knows to be scared of the wrath of Gwen. It’s universal. “Yeah, and I’m telling her you broke the computer.”
Derr pouted at him. Like literally pouted. “Can you like, warn her that I’m here or something? I don’t want her to freak out.”
The only reason Ben didn't immediatley bat away that concern was because Derr just sounded really sincere about it. He clearly doesn't know that a stranger in a plumber base was just not that shocking compared to the rest of their lives. “You’re not going to freak her out dude. I promise.”
Derr gave him a half smile and patted his shoulder like he was the stupid one. “Look guy-“
“It’s Ben.”
“Ben, I know you’re an Earthling and all, so you don’t know, but Anodites and Osmosians do not get along. You need to warn her I’m in here so she can fly off or something.”
The obvious finally hits Ben square in the face. This guy is an alien. Duh.
And not just any alien, an Osmosian. Ben looks at him again with this new lens and discovers absolutely no obviously alien features. He does look like Kevin, but Ben couldn’t tell if there was an actual resemblance or if it was just in the way all handsome dudes kind of look like Kevin. He looks a lot less evil than Kevin. Well, less grungy is probably wording it better. He looks like a Kevin who had a haircut, a modeling career, and an all around easier life.
“Nah, Gwen’s my cousin, she’s cool. She’s an Earthling, she doesn’t know about the beef.” Ben reassures him, acting like he knew anything about this supposed not getting along between the species. Derr doesn’t look convinced.
"She’s literally dating an Osmosian, it’s chill.” He tacks on, hoping to drive the point home. Derr’s expression reads as horror and shock before settling down to disbelief, and then morphing to I do not believe you.
“You have no idea what an Osmosian is.” Derr declares, turning toward the computer to wiggle the mouse around to no avail. “She’s gonna freak.”
Ben really cannot understand the audacity of this dude. “My best friend is an Osmosian!” He thinks. Kevin might consider himself as more of a hybrid, but he had to put that aside to make his point.
“Ben, besides me, there is only one Osmosian currently living on Earth, and he’s my four year old son. Be so for real.” Derr says, once again rolling his eyes. "Hey, are Gwen and Ben common names here?" He asks, totally unrealated.
Ben’s about to defend himself (And his name apparently) when the doors to the bridge open and Gwen is standing there, concealed fury coming off her in waves. “What. Did. You. Do.” She asked. Ben pointed at Derr the same time Derr ducked behind him like a human shield. “Who is that?”
“My buddy Derr.” Ben said, watching Gwen calm down in real time. Nothing throws a wrench in rightous fury like confusion.
Derr peaked his head out. “All my Earth friends call me Devin.”
“Oh, my buddy Devin.” Ben corrected.
Devin. The Osmosian. Who lives on Earth with a four year old son. Whose username ended with an eleven. And just knew Grandpa Max’s teleporter code. Who looks a lot like Kevin. That Devin.
Ben feels he has made a multitude of terrible mistakes. “Gwen, can I talk to you in the bridge real quick?”