Chapter Text
The water woke him from his stupor suddenly, and he felt as if he were slowly sinking deeper toward a bottom whose depth he did not know. He couldn’t breathe.
So, he swam rapidly toward a surface that could be either very close or very far away.
His heart thundered in his ears, and the constant pressure in his chest from the lack of oxygen made him see flashes through his closed eyelids.
He finally felt his hands break the surface, and shortly after, his head followed, allowing him to inhale a good gulp of air.
To his bad luck, he accidentally inhaled the splashing water, making him cough violently, once again choking on what he knew was seawater.
He moved toward the shore as best he could, and the sand stuck to his clothes and skin uncomfortably, but he could barely think about that.
Tears spilled from the corners of his eyes, and finally, he was able to breathe calmly and open his eyes.
He found himself in a wasteland full of vegetation, and at last, he could ask himself the biggest question.
Where was he?
He sat on the sand, reaching with his right hand for the button on the Omnitrix on his wrist.
The familiar sound calmed him, and he lowered his gaze toward the raised core of the device, which presented a known silhouette before him.
"No."
He murmured, turning the dial to move past the silhouette of Benwolf.
He blinked when the same darkened figure of the alien werewolf appeared again.
He turned, turned, and turned the dial, from left to right, and only found the same figure.
An uneasiness settled in his stomach, and he pressed the button on the side of the Omnitrix again to lower the core.
"What do you want from me?"
He asked the watch with a furrowed brow. Then he asked himself if he was asking the wrong thing.
He looked at the sky, light blue and cloudy as it was, with a sun beating down on him in a vain attempt to dry his wet clothes.
"What is it that you want from me?"
The world, as always, never answered that question.
He stood up and shook the sand off his clothes as best he could.
"How about you give me XLR8 before I decide I want to take you off my wrist prematurely?"
He activated the watch, and the silhouette of Benwolf continued to mock him.
"Screw you."
He murmured, feeling lonely enough to curse without fear of reprimand.
So close, so close to starting a quiet adolescence. Two days away from turning thirteen and being able to free himself from the responsibility.
So close to being normal.
He sighed, deciding that bitterness wouldn't be the best thing in this situation.
He raised his gaze and stretched a little.
Benwolf might be useful in the jungle, but in hostile terrain, and with only one form in his arsenal, it would be better to save it.
It would be for the best, right?
Sure. Of course it would
.
Grandpa would agree.
Gwen would tell him that the Omnitrix was giving him exactly what he needed.
He...
He wanted to go home.
....
They had had a hectic day.
She could say the same for every day of the last week. But now they were better than ever!
Sure, they had almost died a few times, how many? She had lost count, but laughter hadn't been in short supply.
"Is anyone actually excited to cross the trash pit again? Because I'm not."
Dave was in a foul mood, and with reason. Even with the reconciliation of the last few minutes of the herd, along with the surprising help from Jamack to escape, they were... tired.
All of them.
But they were so close!
"We'll cross it calmly; maybe we could even sit down to rest with the raccoons again."
She offered, and Wolf wasn't exactly thrilled about the prospect.
"No thanks. We could just camp here."
"Not a bad idea."
Benson added, and she couldn't do anything else but agree.
"Camping it is!"
Wolf snorted at her high tone of voice, but she didn't reproach her like most of the time.
"Finally we can agree..."
Dave murmured, moving away from the foul-smelling trash pit alongside Mandu.
The little six-legged, four-eyed pig couldn't be in more need of a rest than all of them.
She, on the other hand...
She was anxious, how could she not be?
If home was so close. Dad was so close.
She turned her gaze toward her friends, and she couldn't help but smile softly, finally free from the jacket sleeve that hid her shame.
She shook her head.
"Don't be ashamed, Kipo. The answers are close."
She murmured to herself, jogging herself as she felt a cold breeze hit her.
"Kipo! Are you helping us or not?"
Wolf said, and she nodded while running toward her friends.
It’s almost there, don't despair.
She had to remember that, but it was so hard not to.
She wanted to go home, regardless of the Mute's intrusions.
She shivered as she lit the fire, but she let it pass when the heat threatened to burn her clothes.
They were safe.
....
It was a strange group, and he didn't know how that made him feel.
His group... His family had also been strange. Of course, they didn't have a pet that in any other situation he would call an alien, and a talking bug; but they looked just as united.
He frowned.
The girl, for her part, was ironically the strangest of them all.
Not so much because of her pink skin tone, but because of her origins, and who was looking for her.
Two hundred years.
That had been the time passed since humans stopped being the kings of the world. Of this world. Being relegated to moles living in supposed burrows.
He who was looking for the girl (a scarred primate named Scarlemagne), had given his great speech about Mute supremacy and hatred against humans in front of a large audience; an audience that was fiercely looking for the girl.
He was doing it too, but for the right reasons.
The human burrow was the base he had been looking for since his fall to this post-apocalyptic earth, worthy of "The Lost World".
And the girl: Kipo, was the guide he needed.
He just had to see how to approach without creating a conflict.
He looked distractedly at the watch, and in vain, as he had been doing the last three days stranded, he raised the core.
The figure of Benwolf looked back at him again.
"Screw you."
He said to it.
"Screw you a lot. I'll do it myself."
He was going to seem more trustworthy in his human form, instead of making them believe he was a Mute who was hunting them.
He climbed down from the nose-shaped post covered by a hook, looking sideways at the giant wasteland with dogs just as large on the other side of the trash pit.
Way Big would be useful. Any other alien would be useful.
Both Gwen and Grandpa would tell him that Benwolf was equally useful, but he had survived three days without transforming.
Ben Tennyson could. Benwolf was not necessary, as he had been since he used it the first time.
He sighed.
He really needed to push away the bad memory.
The camp they had created was small, but functional. And fortunately, hidden enough from this Scarlemagne.
He fixed his gaze on the five sleeping bodies, and he looked especially at the girl.
She was relatively cute, and that made him wonder if he wasn't acquiring his grandfather's tastes in alien girls.
He winced.
"Don't think about that."
He murmured.
"For God's sake, it didn't go well the last time you thought about that."
He vomited that day. Thanks a lot, Gwen.
He stood there, and he really didn't know what to do.
How to wake her up without scaring her?
He shrugged.
Giant rabbits, bomber hummingbirds, and fancy frogs. Who was to say he couldn't handle a girl?
He snorted, moving his hand toward the girl's exposed shoulder.
"Happy birthday, Tennyson. You're still a hero."
He shook the girl, with his muscles prepared for a counterattack.
"Ugh. Five more minutes, Dad..."
He blinked. He did it again.
"Five minutes..."
The girl was practically drooling.
How could she be so calm?
When he realized it, he had a clearly poisonous stinger at his neck.
"Human or not. Get away from her..."
Shit.
....
"This is unnecessary."
"It is not."
"Of course it is! Benson, help?"
The young brown-skinned boy's look only told him that he was too scared to try.
The new boy, on the other hand, seemed bored by the situation; he would even say tired.
He didn't seem to want to hurt them, but the situation made everyone feel a little more paranoid than usual.
"Can I know your name?"
She asked, sitting in front of the boy tied to a pole with Mandu in her lap.
The boy sighed, looking at her with clear interest in his green eyes.
She swallowed.
"I'm Ben Tennyson. And you are the girl from the burrow."
The brown-haired boy answered, and she moved backward.
"You know me?"
"Not really. Kipo, right?"
She nodded.
"I heard from a guy called Scarlemagne that you come from there, and that you know how to get there."
A stinger was once again placed at his throat.
"Was that necessary?"
He asked his wolf-like companion, who snorted.
"Are you working for him?"
Wolf asked the boy.
"I was at the right place at the right time. I'm looking for her to be able to reach the burrows."
"What do you want there?"
"Don't you see it, Wolf?"
She stood up with a smile.
"He wants to live as a refugee in the burrow!"
The boy seemed relieved.
"Exactly! It's the only safe place here."
Wolf didn't seem very convinced, but Benson interrupted before the girl could give her opinion.
"In that case, you're looking for the same thing as us. I'm Benson."
The brown-skinned boy greeted, extending his hand for a handshake.
"Ben. And, um..."
Oh, yes. He was still tied up.
She approached to untie him, but Wolf stopped her.
"It's not safe."
"Why not?"
"He tried to touch you."
All eyes turned toward the boy, and she was especially horrified.
Ben was just as horrified.
"What? I just wanted to wake her up. I'm not some kind of pervert."
"I don't believe you."
"Believe what you want, but I swear I didn't have that intention."
"Guys, guys. Let's drop the misunderstanding."
She was red with shame, and she wanted to change the subject.
"To your luck, we're just about to reach the second burrow."
"Second?"
The boy blinked, and seemed to realize something.
"Oh. Smart. The first one fell, so they had a backup."
"Good one. You have a brain."
Dave commented with a smile.
"Well... Can you take this off me? It's tightening my wrists."
"Not more than your bracelet, watch, thing. That thing."
Ben tensed.
"What's with that?"
Benson asked.
"I couldn't take it off him. It's literally stuck to his wrist."
She winced.
That sounded painful.
Ben seemed exasperated to see a new argument developing in the group.
She was too, so she asked Mandu, her faithful friend, to bite the boy's bindings and free him.
What could go wrong?
This was uncomfortable, but he didn't have time to think about it.
He acted quickly, preventing the wolf-girl's stinger from stabbing his arm and managing to contain her with his training in martial arts (thanks, Plumbers), until the mutant perimeter managed to pull the girl away.
"Wait! We're all friends now."
"Kipo is right. Let's calm down."
The brown-skinned boy rose between both of them, with the help of his underdeveloped bug friend.
Kipo pulled him out of the wolf-girl's reach.
"Come on, Ben. Give her some time."
"I don't think that—"
The brown-skinned girl growled at him.
"Good idea, let's go."
They moved away from the main group with a tired sigh, and he hoped the morning would be quieter.
"You really didn't try to touch me, right?"
Forget it. He didn't want to wake up tomorrow.
....
Breakfast was uncomfortable.
She turned a blind eye to the matter, giving all her attention to her companion. Mainly to be able to remove the doubts from Wolf's head.
"So, Ben. How old are you?"
Benson asked, offering him a can of Cherry Bomb soda. Ben looked at it carefully.
"Shouldn't this be expired?"
Ben asked.
"It is. But it's irrelevant, because the taste is just as good."
Dave told him, taking a deep drink of his soda.
"Okay..."
Ben tasted it, and didn't seem entirely displeased. That was good.
"I turned thirteen."
The boy murmured, and she cheered up upon hearing it.
"Oh, I turned thirteen recently too! When was your birthday?"
Ben looked away, and took another drink of his.
beverage.
"Yesterday."
She clapped with emotion.
"Awesome! Right, Wolf?"
The girl didn't seem very excited about the fact, and she couldn't blame her. The real question was on Ben's wrist.
"What did you do to celebrate?"
Benson asked, and the boy in the black and white shirt seemed to think about it.
"I... got some new shoes."
That was sad.
Nobody said it, but everyone felt it, Ben included.
"Anyway, what are the burrows like?"
Ben asked him directly, with the curiosity palpable in his voice.
She cheered up, thanking the change of subject, and what followed was a long talk about her home.
Deep down, she knew that something wasn't right, that there was something weird about Ben.
But did it even matter?
Everyone kept secrets, and that was a well-known fact after everything she lived through with Wolf in the last few days.
Ben was kind, and that was enough for her in such a hostile environment.
They just had to present her home to him. Present her home to everyone.
....
"I hope I never, ever return to this place!"
Dave exclaimed, coming out of an especially large pile of trash.
The rest seemed to take it more calmly, although the constant gaze on the back of his neck was starting to become annoying.
He didn't pay attention to it. There were more important things.
"So it's some kind of underground city? Everything adapted to life in the caves..."
He murmured, impressed. This was Earth after all; an alternate earth 200 years in the future, without aliens.
And even so, everything looked totally extraterrestrial.
"Cool, right? And now this new burrow has more cool things, for sure."
Kipo said, and he nodded.
Everyone stopped, finally arriving at a field of gigantic vegetation, where they could hear from afar the footsteps and panting of the Mega Mut dogs ahead.
"We are here... We are close to home."
Kipo murmured to herself, putting on 3D glasses, which only had the blue lens.
"What do you see?"
Wolf asked.
"I see... Vegetation!"
"Yeah. This isn't going to work. We need height."
Benson murmured, directing his gaze to Dave.
"Nope. It's a lost cause."
The bug replied.
"Don't worry!"
Kipo said, taking a can of tuna out of her pocket.
"I have the solution..."
"You have it?"
He asked, confused.
"Oh. Right, you don't have the full context."
The girl patted him on the shoulder. They were of a similar height, which seemed strange to him. Gwen had gotten him used to the fact that most of the girls he knew were taller than him.
But then he remembered that he wasn't ten years old anymore, and that in reality, he hadn't seen Gwen in a while, even at home.
He felt the wolf-girl's glares at the proximity, so he took a step back.
"When we get to the burrow, I'll tell you a bunch of cool stories."
He nodded, watching the girl open the can of tuna.
It shouldn't be anything extraordinary.
Clearly, he couldn't expect less from this world...
....
The lumberjack cats had been very kind to lend them their cute, and giant, but above all cute, pet tick, Pier.
Ben's expression upon seeing YumYam arrive together with the oversized flea was extremely funny, even though Wolf remained on the defensive.
"This is going to be a bumpy ride."
Dave commented, while watching her put Mandu in Benson's backpack.
"Bumpy is an understatement."
He replied with a big smile, and he could see Wolf wince.
"There's no need to make a fuss. The Mega dogs are extremely playful."
"Awww."
"And they have the size to swallow you in one pant."
"Oh..."
Ben shook his head.
"Isn't there a way to distract them to arrive more calmly? You know, maybe a giant tennis ball?"
Ben's idea, in reality, was quite good.
"Where would we get one of those?"
Wolf asked with a furrowed brow. Ben seemed to think about that question.
"Okay, good point."
The boy sighed, looking at Pier distractedly.
"Does it like blood?"
Everyone blinked at the question.
"It should. Why?"
His question was answered shortly after, while they were walking calmly through the oversized terrain.
The Mega dogs, for their part, remained distracted by the games of the large tick, who was having a feast with the blood of the gigantic creatures.
"Do you see anything?"
Benson asked, distractedly eating a bag of chips.
"Nothing yet."
He said, climbing down from the stalk of the giant dandelion.
"We are at a good distance. Maybe it will take time."
"It would have been faster with the flea..."
Wolf murmured, but even she accepted that boredom was preferable to a near-death experience.
He had to thank Ben for that.
Speaking of the brown-haired boy, he was looking distractedly at his watch, while he prevented Mandu from climbing on him.
"Can I know where you got it?"
She asked the boy, approaching suddenly. He jumped at the startlement.
"Oh. Kipo."
The boy scratched the back of his neck.
"This? I got it by chance in the woods. You could say it fell from the sky."
Ben laughed at a joke he didn't understand.
"Does it tell the time? It only has that weird symbol."
She tried to bring her hand close to the watch, but Ben stopped her with his right hand, which was considerably larger than hers.
It was curious. Most of the boys in the burrow had small hands.
"It doesn't have a battery. It's something like a lucky charm."
That sounded unconvincing, but the conversation couldn't continue for any longer thanks to Wolf's intervention.
"We must move."
The girl said abruptly, and Ben simply nodded while he stood up.
He was impassive, calm. Mature.
She sighed.
He was like Wolf in that sense, but even the boy seemed more grounded than her best friend.
It was curious, to say the least, and curiosity was constantly eating away at her.
They walked another couple of meters before finding another dandelion with a stem resistant enough to climb and use her glasses to get the marks left by her part.
There was success when she saw a few meters away a stalk of Giant Grass that shone with a glowing blue, telltale color behind the glasses.
"Guys, I found it!"
She exclaimed, letting herself fall gently from the dandelion.
"In which direction?"
Ben asked, with some real emotion behind his eyes.
"We just have to keep going to the right."
She said, while easily ignoring the tremors created by the footsteps of the Mega dogs.
"Closer and closer."
Dave murmured with excitement, which Benson also shared.
Wolf looked calmer, but even she had some expectation of finally reaching her destination.
"In that case, we must keep moving forward."
Ben said, passing by her side toward the indicated direction.
She smiled.
"That's the spirit!"
She said, walking next to her new travel companion.
Behind her, and without her noticing, Wolf growled in dissatisfaction.
"I know it doesn't give you a good feeling, but... we must continue."
Dave snorted.
"She's jealous of not being the center of Kipo's attention."
The bug received a blow for that.
He deserved it.