Ben and the others were currently standing at a luxury hotel’s front desk.
Gwen was happily scanning a colorful tourist brochure.
“Wow, this place literally has everything!” she gushed.
“An indoor pool, a twenty-four-hour luxury spa…”
Seeing how excited she was, Grandpa Max offered a warm smile.
“Don’t get your hopes up too high, Gwen.
We’re only staying for a single night.”
Blake was also looking through a hotel guide.
It was his first time visiting such a high-end establishment in this life, and he was quite intrigued.
Meanwhile, Ben, who had been staring blankly into space for a while, suddenly spotted a massive banner across the lobby advertising an exclusive *Sumo Slammers* video game launch event.
Her eyes lit up, and she eagerly bolted toward the entrance.
However, the moment she reached the doors, a towering security guard stepped into her path, blocking her path because she didn’t have an admission ticket.
Dejected, Ben was forced to trudge back to the group.
To be safe, Grandpa Max eyed her sternly and warned, “I know exactly what you’re thinking, Ben.
You are absolutely not allowed to sneak in there.”
“Fine, whatever,” Ben muttered.
Once Ben gave her word, Grandpa Max led the others away toward the elevators.
The moment his back was turned, Ben covertly spun the dial of her watch.
A few seconds later, the towering security guard who had just barred her entry heard a bizarre, disembodied voice echoing near his ear.
“Psych!”
Using Ghostfreak’s invisibility, Ben easily slipped past the security perimeter, floating over to a console to play the unreleased game to her heart’s content.
(Ghostfreak’s stealth parameters are practically tailor-made for sneaking into video game expos.)
As the rest of the group stepped into the elevator, they immediately noticed Ben’s sudden disappearance.
A short while later, the Omnitrix timed out.
Reverting back to her human form, Ben was promptly caught and thrown out into the street by security, though she did manage to beat the entire game first.
“You got anything to say for yourself, kid?” the guard growled, tossing her backpack out after her.
Ben offered a weak, sheepish grin.
“Uh…
game over?”
Because of Ben’s reckless stunt, the entire family was kicked out of the four-star hotel, forced to stand on the curb surrounded by their luggage.
“I explicitly told you not to sneak in there, Ben,” Grandpa Max scolded, his face dark with disapproval.
Ben rolled her eyes, completely unbothered by the lecture.
“I just went in to play for a little bit.
It’s not like I hurt anyone.”
Gwen, however, was practically fuming.
“You completely ruined my chance to take a decent shower!
I haven’t had a proper wash this entire summer trip!
And they had a spa, Ben!
A real spa!
You completely ruined it, you bonehead!”
Even Blake looked like he had just lost his soul.
He stared blankly into space, his eyes entirely hollow as he repeatedly muttered under his breath, “The seafood buffet…
the fresh salmon…
the tomahawk ribeye…
QAQ…”
Once they packed back into the RV, Grandpa Max started laying down the law, driving with an incredibly stern expression.
“You constantly abuse the power of that watch, Ben.
How am I supposed to trust you when you keep pulling stunts like this?”
Ben, completely missing the point, slumped into her seat with a thoroughly sour expression.
“Oh, come on!
I’ve used this watch to do a million good deeds this summer!
Why can’t I use it to do something nice for myself for once?”
Max remained remarkably patient, attempting to guide her.
“The issue isn’t how many good deeds you’ve performed, Ben.
The issue is your intent and your motivation.”
Ben rested her chin on her hand, staring out the window.
“Is it really that big of a deal?”
Seeing her dismissive attitude, Max’s temper finally flared.
“Yes, it is!
You’re acting completely selfishly.
That’s it, no comic books for two weeks, no *Sumo Slammers*, no – ”
Before he could finish listing the punishments, Ben jumped out of her seat, interrupting him loudly.
“That is so unfair!”
Max didn’t yield an inch, his voice dropping into a dangerous, heavy register.
“You just got us thrown out of a four-star hotel, Ben!
That is what’s unfair!”
Furious, Ben slammed back down into her seat, turning her back to him.
“Fine!
Just take away my allowance then!
This is my summer vacation too!
You can’t just boss me around and tell me what to do all the time!” She crossed her arms, crossing a major line.
“You’re not my dad!”
The moment that last sentence left her mouth, the atmosphere inside the Rust Bucket plummeted straight to absolute zero.
Grandpa Max’s jaw dropped slightly, a flash of profound hurt and shock crossing his weathered features.
“Fine…
if I were your father, I would – ”
He cut himself off.
Realizing she was just a hot-headed kid lashing out, he forced his rising anger down and manually shifted the conversation.
“I’m going back to the hotel lobby to see if I can salvage our deposit.”
The moment the RV came to a stop, Ben angrily shoved the door open and bolted out into the evening streets.
Gwen called out from the doorway, “Where do you think you’re going?”
Ben didn’t even look back, snapping over her shoulder, “Are you blind?
I’m going out!”
Blake watched her go in silence.
He knew that when someone was completely blinded by anger, trying to reason with them was an absolute waste of breath.
It was better to let her cool down a bit, so he decided to wait at the RV until Gwen tracked her down.
Following her cousin at a distance, Gwen tracked Ben to a local, dimly lit arcade.
Ben marched up to a cabinet, fished out her last remaining pocket change, and slotted it into the machine only for the faulty coin mech to swallow her money instantly without registering a credit.
“Are you kidding me?!
This stupid piece of junk ate my quarter!” she yelled, banging her fist against the plastic frame.
The arcade employee at the counter didn’t even look up, casually pointing to a hand-written sign hanging above the desk.
“Can’t you read, kid?
The sign says: ‘Machine eats your money, sucks to be you.'”
Ben realized this place was a complete scam, run by shady operators.
“This place is a total rip-off.”
“Yeah.
It’s totally pathetic,” a voice echoed from nearby.
Ben spun around to find a pale teenager dressed in dark clothes leaning casually against a racing cabinet.
She immediately found a kindred spirit in his complaint.
“Right?
That guy at the counter has a total trash attitude.
A literal sewer drain has a cleaner mouth than him.”
The dark-clothed teenager let out a genuine laugh, stepping forward and placing his hand firmly on the side of the broken arcade cabinet.
“Hahaha, you’re pretty funny, kid.
Here, this one’s on me.”
The very instant his palm made contact with the machine, a strange blue static crackled beneath his skin.
The arcade cabinet malfunctioned violently, its coin return mechanism rapidly spitting out a massive cascade of tokens onto the floor.
Ben stared at the mountain of silver tokens in absolute awe.
“Whoa!
How did you do that?!”
She dropped to her knees, eagerly scooping up a handful of coins.
“I’ve got special powers,” the boy replied with a smug smirk.
Just as Ben was gathering the tokens, Gwen burst through the arcade doors, spotting the stolen goods immediately.
“Ben!
Those don’t belong to you!
Put them back right now!”
Ben ignored her cousin’s warning, stuffing a few tokens into her pockets before looking up at the teenager with a grateful smile.
“Thanks, man.
I’m Ben.
Ben Tennyson.”
“Kevin,” the boy introduced himself.
Before another word could be exchanged, three heavy shadows fell over them.
A group of older teenage punks surrounded Kevin, their expressions hostile.
Gwen stepped closer to Ben, whispering urgently, “He’s trouble, Ben.
We need to leave.”
Ben, still riding her wave of rebellion, shrugged.
“I think he’s pretty cool.” Seeing the older punks closing in on her new friend, she stepped forward with an incredibly naive confidence.
“Hey, you guys need some backup?”
The leader of the punks let out a cruel, mocking laugh.
“Heh.
Check out the little brat trying to act tough.
You can barely protect yourself, kid.
Move it.”
With a casual, dismissive shove, the older punk threw Ben aside, sending her tumbling onto the floorboards.
Ben pushed herself up, a flash of anger crossing her features.
Her eyes locked onto the Omnitrix.
She scrambled into a deserted prize aisle where no one could see her.
“I’ve got special powers too.”
Ignoring Gwen’s frantic protests from across the arcade, Ben aligned the dial and slammed it down, transforming into XLR8.
Utilizing her extreme velocity, she easily dismantled the punks, leaving them groaning on the floor in a matter of seconds.
A few minutes later, Gwen dragged Ben out into the alleyway behind the arcade, giving her a fierce lecture.
“Are you completely insane?!
You cannot just trigger a transformation in public like that, especially right now!”
But Ben was far too deeply entrenched in her rebellious phase to listen to reason.
She spun around, glaring at her cousin.
“He stood up for me, so I stood up for him!
You wouldn’t understand, Gwen.
Grandpa wouldn’t understand either.
That’s the whole problem with you guys!”
Turning her back on her cousin, Ben walked right back to Kevin’s side.
She even proudly boasted that XLR8 was a close “personal friend” of hers.
Realizing Ben was completely beyond reason, Gwen threw her hands up in defeat and walked back to the Rust Bucket alone.
As Gwen made her way back, Ben and Kevin walked down the darkening city streets, discussing his unique abilities.
“So, where exactly did you get those powers from?” Ben asked, looking at his hands.
“I was born with them,” Kevin replied simply.
In layman’s terms, Kevin’s ability allowed him to absorb ambient energy from electronic grids or living organisms and redirect it at will – at least, that was the extent of his power for now.
“Come on,” Kevin said, gesturing for her to follow.
“I’ll show you where I hang out.”
A short walk later, Kevin led Ben down into a sprawling, dilapidated underground warehouse.
“You actually live here?” Ben asked, looking around the damp, industrial space.
“Yeah.
All by myself,” Kevin replied carelessly.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Ben asked softly, “What about your family?”
Kevin shrugged, a trace of bitter indifference hardening his features as he waved a dismissive hand.
“They all split.
They didn’t want a freak like me around.
Honestly, it’s better this way.”
The two hanging out for a while, swapping stories into the late evening until Kevin offered to take her to a local distribution warehouse filled with hundreds of unreleased *Sumo Slammers* arcade cabinets.
Meanwhile, Gwen finally climbed back into the Rust Bucket.
The moment she stepped through the door, she was met by Grandpa Max’s thunderous expression and Blake’s deeply worried gaze.
“Where is Ben?” Max demanded, noticing the empty space behind his granddaughter.
Seeing the look on Gwen’s face, both Max and Blake immediately knew how the confrontation had ended.
After a heavy, suffocating silence stretched across the RV, Blake let out a deep, defeated sigh.
He pushed himself up from the dining booth and grabbed his jacket.
“I’ll go find her.”
“Where exactly is she?” Blake asked, looking at Gwen.
Grandpa Max and Gwen exchanged a helpless, weary glance.
Max shook his head, his voice heavy with exhaustion.
“Who knows?”