ChasNicollette
Allons-y Means Let's Go.
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2007
- Posts
- 16,135
"Negative Space." A Ben 10 Genderbent AU. A Legend of Star City. (closed for Ahren)
Two ships were locked in battle, energy spearing between them as they crossed the rings of Saturn, delving deeper into this insignificant little solar system...
...one small and sleek and green, carrying a desperately important package...
...one looming and stark, bent upon crushing its prey and taking its prize.
Across the gulfs between planets they fought, exchanging fire at every turn.
But it was only once they drew into orbit above a polluted little blue-green marble that their volleys began connecting in earnest.
The blue-green ship torched its pursuer even as it started to crumble.
The crackling dreadnought unleashed robotic agents to carve up what was left of its prey, even as its engines vented flames into the night.
The blue-green ship initiated self-destruct and unleashed a tiny pod, barely the size of a soccer ball, sent it spinning off towards the planet below, seeking safe harbor.
But before the pod could reach its intended target, something drove it off-course, sending it crashing down in the middle of an uninhabited stretch of woodland-- far enough from the nearest campsite that it landed alone, unobserved.
Far above, in orbit, both ships suffered catastrophic failures, detonating near-simultaneously, each with power sufficient to rival the Tunguska event.
They were gone, and all hands with them.
The pod sat alone, steaming, ticking slightly as its metal shell cooled.
It sat there for quite a long time.
If Bernice Kirby Tennyson had heard it once, she'd heard it a thousand times. Ten thousand.
"Why can't you put half the energy into your classwork that you put into soccer or that... parkour-running nonsense?"
"When are you going to grow up and do something with your life?"
"Bellwood Community College? Pop culture and graphic arts? Really?"
"Your cousin graduated early from high school, went on to an Ivy League college out east, you'll be lucky if you get a job at Burger Shack or Mister Smoothy."
"Whatever happened with you and that adorable tennis girl? Now she knew where she was going in life."
But now it seemed like they were out in force.
This was Max' favorite campsite, her grandfather's sort of... Fortress of Solitude.
And so of course when they decided to have a family reunion-slash-birthday for him, it had to be here. And of course of course (by extension of extension), getting the whole family in one place meant lots and lots of mini-interventions for the cousin who had so far sort of wandered through life.
What the Hell business was it of theirs?
So she was 20 years old and in no hurry to grow up.
If they liked Gwendolyn so much, they could talk to her, she was around here somewhere with that gearhead ex-juvie boyfriend of hers with the heart of gold.
Messy brown hair and vibrant green eyes huddled in her trademark white and green hoodie, Ben slouched off into the woods, random direction, anything to get clear of the noise.
She had a sort of... deja vu about this place. Which made no sense. She'd gone on lots of road trips with her grandpa when she'd been a kid, but that had all stopped the summer of fourth grade. She had been supposed to go on a trip with both Max and Gwen, but she'd gotten sick the last day of school, hadn't been able to go along.
Max and Gwen had gone without her.
Something had happened to break Max' heart that summer, and he'd never quite been the same. No more road trips; he'd just puttered around his plumbing store, content to dwell in semi-retirement.
And Ben had lived her life in much the same way.
Hopscotching deftly along a series of stones, she wandered aimlessly past a small dome of earth at the center of a small depression...
...which seemed to rustle and shift at her passing, as if recognizing her scent.
And then the dirt crumbled away, revealing a metal spheroid that looked kind of like a rolled-up pillbug or armadillo.
"Huh," Ben murmured, squinting, hunching down a little to gaze at it. "Some kind of time capsule or something?"
If it were a time capsule, then its time had come-- with a hiss and a shudder, the partially submerged globoid opened like a mouth on an old arcade character... and inside, something glowed green.
It looked vaguely watch-like. The sort of watch a scuba diver might wear, with a kind of bulky, rubbery wetsuit-like watchband. The faceplate even had what looked like an hourglass symbol on it-- and it was that that was glowing green.
A bright, portentous green.
Like some kind of Power Ring from the comics.
Or even Kryptonite.
Ben knew, on multiple levels, that she shouldn't mess with something like that. But it was like it was beckoning to her. It was flame, and she was a moth.
And, gingerly, hesitantly, she reached for it...
...but before she could even touch it, it leaped from where it lay there in the heart of the sphere and it latched onto her left wrist like a predator sinking teeth into prey.
"Aaahhhh! Holy fuck!" Ben shrieked, stumbling back, waving her hand, trying to shake it off--
--but it didn't budge, it didn't budge.
She bashed it against a rock, didn't even scratch it, tried to poke it off with a stick-- but no good, no good.
After a moment, she took a breath, sat down, sat down staring at it.
It didn't... hurt. It didn't hurt at all. Just the opposite, really. It felt like her wrist had been waiting for this thing all her life... and this thing had been waiting for her wrist for even longer than that.
It was a strange feeling... but a welcome one. She hadn't been big on belonging in her life.
Ben squinted at it.
There were buttons on the side.
...buttons. What did they do, start the stopwatch or something? Set the alarm?
Reaching for one of those buttons with an index finger, she again got that feeling of portentousness...
"Ben?" another girl's voice called for her.
"Ben, are you okay? They said you went this way?"
Hesitating, Ben glanced up, and instinctively pulled her hoodie's sleeve down over her wrist. "Uh. Gwen! Hey."
She registered that her cousin was beautiful. Objectively. Red hair, green eyes, and she had a stern, bespectacled kind of librarian look that some dudes and not a few ladies really went for. But their relationship, on the few times they'd ever had one, had been more like antagonistic siblings.
Secretly, ten years ago, Ben had felt like she'd dodged a bullet not having to spend a summer with her. Since then, well, they hadn't gotten much closer.
"Gwendolyn," she smiled tightly at Ben.
"Right, sorry, old habits," Ben hesitated, then frowned slightly. "So you're the one they sent after me, huh? Short straw?"
Gwendolyn shook her head, shrugging. "No. No, truth be told, after they drove you off I gave them Hell for it. I mean, I kind of see their point, you always had a lot of potential-- but it's your life, you know? Kevin was a high-school drop-out, but there's nothing he doesn't know about engines, and he's got a good head on his shoulders... life takes all kinds of roads."
"Not everyone has to have a PhD courseload at 20," Ben smirked wryly.
Ordinarily, she would have rejected Gwendolyn's goodie-two-shoes overachiever meddling just as much as she would have rejected any of the others coming after her to pester her more. But right now she was feeling... generous. Like the world was turning slowly about the axis of these moments.
"Exactly," Gwendolyn noted.
She swung out a hand for Ben, offering to help her up. "Now, c'mon. Max wants us to start telling scary stories around the campfire. You always did tell the best ones."
"Yeah," Ben nodded easily, and took her hand-- with her right hand, again instinctively keeping that watch-laded wrist hidden.
"I think a new story's just getting started."
Then.
********
********
Two ships were locked in battle, energy spearing between them as they crossed the rings of Saturn, delving deeper into this insignificant little solar system...
...one small and sleek and green, carrying a desperately important package...
...one looming and stark, bent upon crushing its prey and taking its prize.
Across the gulfs between planets they fought, exchanging fire at every turn.
But it was only once they drew into orbit above a polluted little blue-green marble that their volleys began connecting in earnest.
The blue-green ship torched its pursuer even as it started to crumble.
The crackling dreadnought unleashed robotic agents to carve up what was left of its prey, even as its engines vented flames into the night.
The blue-green ship initiated self-destruct and unleashed a tiny pod, barely the size of a soccer ball, sent it spinning off towards the planet below, seeking safe harbor.
But before the pod could reach its intended target, something drove it off-course, sending it crashing down in the middle of an uninhabited stretch of woodland-- far enough from the nearest campsite that it landed alone, unobserved.
Far above, in orbit, both ships suffered catastrophic failures, detonating near-simultaneously, each with power sufficient to rival the Tunguska event.
They were gone, and all hands with them.
The pod sat alone, steaming, ticking slightly as its metal shell cooled.
It sat there for quite a long time.
Ten Years Later.
Now.
********
Now.
********
If Bernice Kirby Tennyson had heard it once, she'd heard it a thousand times. Ten thousand.
"Why can't you put half the energy into your classwork that you put into soccer or that... parkour-running nonsense?"
"When are you going to grow up and do something with your life?"
"Bellwood Community College? Pop culture and graphic arts? Really?"
"Your cousin graduated early from high school, went on to an Ivy League college out east, you'll be lucky if you get a job at Burger Shack or Mister Smoothy."
"Whatever happened with you and that adorable tennis girl? Now she knew where she was going in life."
But now it seemed like they were out in force.
This was Max' favorite campsite, her grandfather's sort of... Fortress of Solitude.
And so of course when they decided to have a family reunion-slash-birthday for him, it had to be here. And of course of course (by extension of extension), getting the whole family in one place meant lots and lots of mini-interventions for the cousin who had so far sort of wandered through life.
What the Hell business was it of theirs?
So she was 20 years old and in no hurry to grow up.
If they liked Gwendolyn so much, they could talk to her, she was around here somewhere with that gearhead ex-juvie boyfriend of hers with the heart of gold.
Messy brown hair and vibrant green eyes huddled in her trademark white and green hoodie, Ben slouched off into the woods, random direction, anything to get clear of the noise.
She had a sort of... deja vu about this place. Which made no sense. She'd gone on lots of road trips with her grandpa when she'd been a kid, but that had all stopped the summer of fourth grade. She had been supposed to go on a trip with both Max and Gwen, but she'd gotten sick the last day of school, hadn't been able to go along.
Max and Gwen had gone without her.
Something had happened to break Max' heart that summer, and he'd never quite been the same. No more road trips; he'd just puttered around his plumbing store, content to dwell in semi-retirement.
And Ben had lived her life in much the same way.
Hopscotching deftly along a series of stones, she wandered aimlessly past a small dome of earth at the center of a small depression...
...which seemed to rustle and shift at her passing, as if recognizing her scent.
And then the dirt crumbled away, revealing a metal spheroid that looked kind of like a rolled-up pillbug or armadillo.
"Huh," Ben murmured, squinting, hunching down a little to gaze at it. "Some kind of time capsule or something?"
If it were a time capsule, then its time had come-- with a hiss and a shudder, the partially submerged globoid opened like a mouth on an old arcade character... and inside, something glowed green.
It looked vaguely watch-like. The sort of watch a scuba diver might wear, with a kind of bulky, rubbery wetsuit-like watchband. The faceplate even had what looked like an hourglass symbol on it-- and it was that that was glowing green.
A bright, portentous green.
Like some kind of Power Ring from the comics.
Or even Kryptonite.
Ben knew, on multiple levels, that she shouldn't mess with something like that. But it was like it was beckoning to her. It was flame, and she was a moth.
And, gingerly, hesitantly, she reached for it...
...but before she could even touch it, it leaped from where it lay there in the heart of the sphere and it latched onto her left wrist like a predator sinking teeth into prey.
"Aaahhhh! Holy fuck!" Ben shrieked, stumbling back, waving her hand, trying to shake it off--
--but it didn't budge, it didn't budge.
She bashed it against a rock, didn't even scratch it, tried to poke it off with a stick-- but no good, no good.
After a moment, she took a breath, sat down, sat down staring at it.
It didn't... hurt. It didn't hurt at all. Just the opposite, really. It felt like her wrist had been waiting for this thing all her life... and this thing had been waiting for her wrist for even longer than that.
It was a strange feeling... but a welcome one. She hadn't been big on belonging in her life.
Ben squinted at it.
There were buttons on the side.
...buttons. What did they do, start the stopwatch or something? Set the alarm?
Reaching for one of those buttons with an index finger, she again got that feeling of portentousness...
"Ben?" another girl's voice called for her.
"Ben, are you okay? They said you went this way?"
Hesitating, Ben glanced up, and instinctively pulled her hoodie's sleeve down over her wrist. "Uh. Gwen! Hey."
She registered that her cousin was beautiful. Objectively. Red hair, green eyes, and she had a stern, bespectacled kind of librarian look that some dudes and not a few ladies really went for. But their relationship, on the few times they'd ever had one, had been more like antagonistic siblings.
Secretly, ten years ago, Ben had felt like she'd dodged a bullet not having to spend a summer with her. Since then, well, they hadn't gotten much closer.
"Gwendolyn," she smiled tightly at Ben.
"Right, sorry, old habits," Ben hesitated, then frowned slightly. "So you're the one they sent after me, huh? Short straw?"
Gwendolyn shook her head, shrugging. "No. No, truth be told, after they drove you off I gave them Hell for it. I mean, I kind of see their point, you always had a lot of potential-- but it's your life, you know? Kevin was a high-school drop-out, but there's nothing he doesn't know about engines, and he's got a good head on his shoulders... life takes all kinds of roads."
"Not everyone has to have a PhD courseload at 20," Ben smirked wryly.
Ordinarily, she would have rejected Gwendolyn's goodie-two-shoes overachiever meddling just as much as she would have rejected any of the others coming after her to pester her more. But right now she was feeling... generous. Like the world was turning slowly about the axis of these moments.
"Exactly," Gwendolyn noted.
She swung out a hand for Ben, offering to help her up. "Now, c'mon. Max wants us to start telling scary stories around the campfire. You always did tell the best ones."
"Yeah," Ben nodded easily, and took her hand-- with her right hand, again instinctively keeping that watch-laded wrist hidden.
"I think a new story's just getting started."
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