Inside the quiet hospital room, Ben and Gwen stood close to the standard medical beds, staring anxiously at the two unconscious boys.
“Ben, you heard the doctor,” Gwen said, trying to inject some reason into the heavy silence.
“They’re going to be completely fine.”
But the reassurance did little to lift the suffocating weight of guilt pressing down on Ben’s chest.
“I’m still really worried about them,” she whispered, her voice cracking.
Noticing her cousin’s spiraling mood, Gwen tried to change the subject, forcing a small smirk.
“Well, if you want something real to worry about, how about the fact that a couple of girls just completely handed Four Arms her own butt?”
Ben’s head snapped up, her internal defense mechanisms flaring.
“Hey!
True heroes don’t hit girls!”
“Oh, you are just so noble,” Gwen teased, playfully planting an elbow into Ben’s ribs.
Ben automatically elbowed her back, but the usual snarky banter felt entirely hollow.
The smile never reached her face.
Instead, a wave of profound melancholy washed over her, and she turned on her heel, quietly stepping out of the room.
Gwen followed her closely into the sterile, brightly lit corridor, watching as Ben leaned against the windowpane, her eyes fixed blankly on the bustling city outside.
“Are you really okay?” Gwen asked, her voice softer now.
“Normally, when I pick on you like that, you’re bursting with some arrogant comeback.”
Ben didn’t look back.
She kept her gaze glued to the glass, her thoughts racing.
“If I turned into Upgrade, I could probably interface directly with those medical monitors…
I could optimize their treatment matrices and make Grandpa and Blake heal faster.”
“Ben, that’s not how it works.
It wouldn’t help.”
Hearing Gwen’s rejection, Ben restlessly began to rotate the dial of the watch.
She forced a fragile, bittersweet smile onto her face and turned around.
“Fine.
What if I use Ghostfreak instead?”
“I could possess their neural pathways and, uh…
I don’t know.
I just wish…” Her voice trailed off into a tiny, desperate plea.
“…I just want them to get better right now.”
Driven by sheer emotional frustration, Ben slapped her palm down onto the device.
The dial instantly popped up, emitting a sharp click.
But that single, impulsive act sent a massive spike of alien energy bleeding into the atmosphere – a beacon that Rojo’s newly integrated cybernetic sensors picked up instantly.
The mechanical mercenary locked onto the coordinate matrix and accelerated toward the medical center.
Within minutes, the reinforced glass of the corridor window shattered into a million lethal fragments.
Rojo violently crossed the threshold, her crimson robotic gaze locking onto the terrified girls.
“Hand over the Omnitrix,” she boomed, her cybernetic vocal cords vibrating with Vilgax’s malice.
“You want it?!” Ben yelled back, grabbing Gwen’s wrist and tearing down the hallway at a dead sprint.
“Then come and get it, heavy metal!”
A chaotic game of cat-and-mouse erupted through the sterile corridors of the hospital, with Rojo’s plasma cannons obliterating entire rows of vending machines and drywall.
Ben and Gwen used their smaller frames to maneuver through the tight spaces, eventually scrambling down the emergency stairwell and bursting out into the rear parking lot.
Realizing they needed massive firepower to neutralize the threat, Ben rapidly spun the watch’s faceplate, her thumb hovering over the silhouette.
“Time for Four Arms to break some scrap metal!”
She slammed the dial down.
A blinding emerald flash consumed her but when the light cleared, she wasn’t a towering four-armed titan.
Instead, a localized burst of plasma erupted from her skin as she transformed into Heatblast.
Ben looked down at her flaming, charcoal-skinned hands and let out an incredibly frustrated groan.
“Oh, come on!
Seriously?!
I needed muscle, not a glorified alien campfire!”
Before she could complain further, Rojo unleashed a massive plasma blast that struck the upper facade of the hospital, dislodging a colossal concrete support beam that came tumbling down directly toward the emergency room entrance.
“If I remember my science classes right…
extreme thermal energy can liquefy stone!”
With a theatrical sweep of her arms, Heatblast unleashed a torrent of white-hot flames, targeting the falling debris.
But instead of vaporizing the concrete, the intense heat merely turned the falling boulder into a rolling, incandescent meteor of molten slag.
“Uh…
okay, slight miscalculation in the tactical plan,” Heatblast muttered, her eyes widening.
“Run!”
As Gwen scrambled out of the blast radius, Heatblast spun around, unleashing a focused stream of fire at a row of decommissioned, empty ambulances parked along the curb.
The vehicles melted into a solid, metallic barricade, successfully redirecting the path of the molten boulder but the deflection sent the glowing mass hurtling straight down the main road leading into the heart of the city.
“Great, just great,” Ben muttered, her flaming boots igniting the asphalt as she gave chase.
Rojo cut her off mid-stride, launching a brutal cybernetic kick that sent Heatblast flying backward, her rocky frame crashing heavily against the metallic hull of a massive gasoline tanker parked near a commercial intersection.
Seeing the highly volatile fuel tank behind her, a desperate strategy formed in Ben’s mind.
She raised her glowing hands, mocking the cyborg.
“Over here, rust-bucket!
Missed me!”
Enraged, Rojo activated her thrusters and charged forward like a freight train, her plasma blades bared.
At the absolute last millisecond, Heatblast executed a fluid roll to the side, dodging the impact.
Rojo’s metallic fists punched directly through the tanker’s hull, unleashing a torrent of fuel that Heatblast instantly ignited with a single spark.
The resulting explosion was catastrophic, a towering mushroom cloud of fire that blasted the cybernetic mercenary straight into the upper atmosphere.
“Enjoy the flight,” Heatblast muttered, brushing a speck of ash from her shoulder.
A short while later, the watch’s timeout sequence triggered, and a physically exhausted Ben slipped back into the hospital room.
She walked over to the bed where Grandpa Max was now resting, his eyes open but his face pale.
“Every single time I use this watch,” Ben said, her voice dropping into a thick, guilt-ridden whisper.
“Those monsters find me.
I’m the one bringing the danger right to our doorstep.”
Max offered a weak, incredibly gentle smile, adjusting his pillows.
“Well, look at the bright side, kiddo.
The hospital staff just upgraded me to a private suite, and you managed to save the day without permanently staying an alien.”
“We’re both completely fine, Ben.
That’s what matters.”
But the words couldn’t penetrate the thick wall of self-blame Ben had built around herself.
“Yeah…
we’re fine *for now*.”
“But what happens tomorrow?
What happens next week?
I’m a walking targets, Grandpa.
As long as I’m around, you and Blake are never going to be safe.” She stared down at the cold, green faceplate of the weapon fused to her skin.
“If this stupid watch had never fallen from the sky, none of these horrible things would be happening to the people I love.”
Gwen, sitting at the edge of the adjacent bed, offered a soft, sympathetic smile.
“Yeah, but it’s stuck on you like superglue, Ben.
We’re a team.
There’s nothing any of us can do about it, so stop beating yourself up.”
None of them realized that high above the city’s skyline, the heavily scorched but very much alive Rojo had already re-entered the atmosphere, her corrupted programming calculating an even more ruthless strategy to harvest the device.
As the clock struck midnight, the ambient lights of the hospital ward were dimmed, and the rhythmic, steady hum of the medical monitors filled the room.
Max and Gwen had finally succumbed to exhaustion, drifting off into a deep sleep.
But Ben remained wide awake.
Sitting under the dim glow of a small reading lamp by the bedside table, she meticulously scribbled her thoughts onto two separate sheets of paper, one addressed to her grandfather, and the other to Blake.
(I care about you guys too much…
I can’t let my existence put your lives in danger ever again.)
“And there’s one more thing…
I re-all-y l-i-k…”
As her pen formed the characters for the word *like*, a sudden, intense wave of heat rushed to her cheeks.
Realizing the sheer weight of what she was about to confess, her heart hammered against her ribs.
In a fit of panicked embarrassment, she aggressively scribbled over the word until it was nothing but a black ink blotch.
She hurriedly folded the paper into a neat square and set it gently beside Blake’s resting hand.
She stood up, intending to slip out into the night through the open window, but her feet felt as heavy as lead.
She hesitated.
Turning her head, she stared at Blake’s peaceful, sleeping face.
This time, there was no childish blushing, no tsundere deflection.
Her gaze was filled entirely with an overwhelming, protective sorrow.
Her fingers trembled at her sides.
A deep, instinctual terror gripped her – a sudden, suffocating fear that if she walked out of this room tonight, it might be the last time she ever saw him alive.
Gathering every ounce of courage left in her soul, Ben took a quiet step toward the edge of his mattress.
She leaned down, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath, her heart fluttering wildly.
Steeling her resolve, she leaned closer and pressed a soft, lingering kiss against Blake’s cheek.
For a single, fleeting second, the entire universe seemed to grind to an absolute halt, the chaos of their reality dissolving into nothingness.
After what felt like an eternity, she gently pulled away, her lips lingering for a fraction of a second before she retreated toward the doorway.
Casting one final, heartbreaking look at the sleeping room, she whispered into the dark, “This is the only way to keep you safe…”
An hour later, Blake’s eyelids fluttered open.
He groaned, rubbing his temple as the fog of sleep slowly cleared from his brain.
He blinked at the stark white ceiling and the IV drip connected to his arm.
“Great…
how did I end up in a hospital bed?”
As he shifted his weight to sit up, his hand brushed against a crisp piece of paper resting on his nightstand.
He picked it up, unfolding it to read the messy handwriting:
*To: Blake.*
*I care about you guys too much.
I can’t keep pulling you into my messes and putting your lives in danger.*
*If you’re reading this, it means I’ve already left.*
*Also, I really [Scribbled Out Content]…*
* -Ben.*
Blake sat up completely, his brows furrowing as he squinted at the heavily blotted-out final line.
He held the paper up to the dim light, trying to decipher the scratched-out characters.
“Li…?
Like?
It looks like the character for ‘like’…”
“Also, I really like…?”
“Like what?”
“Like…
ice cream?
Like chocolate chip cookies?
What was she trying to say?”
Shaking his head, Blake figured she had probably just made a grammatical error and crossed it out in a hurry.
He didn’t dwell on it further.
The rustling of the paper awoke Gwen and Grandpa Max.
Within moments, they discovered the second letter Ben had left behind.
The contents were largely identical, save for the fact that Blake’s letter contained a mysterious, ink-blotted cliffhanger.
Suddenly, the small television mounted in the corner of the room flickered to life, a breaking news report interrupting the broadcast.
A live helicopter feed showed Rojo actively tearing through the financial district, decimating police cruisers as she searched for the Omnitrix.
Gwen stood up instantly, her expression hardening.
“Ben left to face her alone.
I know exactly where she’s heading.
Grandpa, stay here, I’m going after her.”
Max winced, struggling to swing his legs over the side of the hospital bed despite his severe concussion.
“Woah, woah, hang on a minute!
You can’t go out there by yourself, Gwen!
It’s far too dangerous!”
But Gwen was stubborn.
Before her grandfather could damage his internal injuries further, she reached over and hit the electronic control panel, lowering the bed back into a completely flat position to force him to rest.
Seeing Max’s overwhelming anxiety, Blake stood up from his bed, ignoring the dull ache in his fractured leg.
He raised his left arm, the green faceplate of his Omnitrix reflecting the dim television light.
“Don’t worry, Grandpa Max.
With this on my wrist, it’s more than enough to tip the scales.”
Despite his reassurance, Gwen grabbed her jacket, giving Blake a firm, uncompromising look.
“I’m not letting you go alone either.
We brought her into this, we bring her back together.”
With their objective set, the two teenagers slipped out of the hospital room, racing against the clock to locate Ben before the cybernetic mercenary could finish her hunt.