| WARNING: PROFANITY FOLLOWS |
|---|
| The following content contains profanity that may not be suitable for readers of all ages. Please proceed with caution. |
| Of Gemstones and Watches | |
| Season 1, Episode 3 | |
| Written by | Transwiththeplans |
| Episode Guide | |
| Previous Washington BC (Gemstones) |
Next Sick and College Days (Gemstones) |
Permanent Retirement is the third chapter of the series Of Gemstones and Watches.
Plot[]
Ruby Rose turned out to be a much better companion than Gwen ever could be. Which really wasn’t much of a stretch- Ben hadn’t been expecting much when it came to getting along with another girl, but Ruby was… actually pretty cool to hang out with.
Sure, she was naive and a little too innocent for her own good, but there was a mischievous side to her that Ben could appreciate, like how Ruby had come up with the idea of supergluing Cash and JT’s lockers shut so they couldn’t get inside, but not before taking out their school things and throwing them away. Or that there was an eerie sort of maturity to Ruby Rose that tended to pop up whenever there was a supernatural attack, always taking charge and acting as Ben’s support, maybe more of a leader figure. It was pretty cool, having his own partner who watched his back when he needed it.
Plus Ruby knew so much about comic books and anime and manga. Not many other kids his age would admit to liking that stuff, and while Ben and Ruby had different tastes there was a sort of kinship there that only came from two people who had been ostracized for their preferences suddenly finding common ground. (Though it helped that Ruby liked shounen stuff as much as Ben did, she just preferred darker things, the emo.) And Ruby was… kind of cute? She had a nice smile and a voracious sweet tooth, and it was just really hard to stay mad at her when she used those puppy dog eyes of hers- it was just easy to let her have her way, though Ruby rarely abused the privilege. She was a nice kid like that.
Though speaking of Ruby’s sweet tooth…
“How much cookie dough ice cream can you fit into a cup without charging me a fortune?” Ruby asked in a rush, already drooling.
“Why,” Ben stated. “Why are you like this.”
“Shush. I deserve this. Literally survived an attack by a killer fish stick, let me have this,” Ruby said, eyeing the cookie dough ice cream.
“And for you?” The older employee asked Ben. Ben thought for a second, before hearing a loud, metal thrash outside. He mischievously grinned, knowing something was up.
“I’m gonna go with rocky road,” he quipped. He then turned out the door, activating the watch. The man just stared at him as he ran outside.
(“...the heck was that about? Kid can’t just run away when he’s giving his order,” the employee thought.)
Ben twisted his watch faceplate to the icon of a lanky looking alien, and slapped down the icon. Circuitry ran up all across his body, white clothing on his front torso and the watch symbol was on his chest. He called this form Upgrade, and it was Ruby’s second favorite, thanks to technological versatility. The guy turned a toaster into a laser blaster; that was an amazing morning well spent.
It didn’t take long for Ben to deal with the robbers, especially as Upgrade. He merged with the ATM, his green form melding with the machine, turning it green and black, just like him. “Your card has been denied!” Ben quipped, before he shocked the guy attempting to hook to the ATM. He then hook, and into the car. The driver attempted to start up the engine, before he sniffed the air...it smelt like hot glue being burnt. Suddenly, his car turned the same green and black colors. Ben smiled (or at least, he was, you couldn’t really tell with Upgrade’s face being limited to a circle) as he made the steering wheel vanish.
“Anyone up for a joyride?” He started up the car and started to do some stunts he’d seen those daredevils on TVs do. The driver begged and screamed for help, but Ben simply turned on the radio and cranked the speakers up to the highest setting.
Ruby and Max even got a few licks in, with Ruby kicking a guy in the head while grandpa punched out a guy’s tooth. It was a good day.
Ben dragged the driver from out of the car, and onto a pile of the knocked out baddies. “Aw, yeah! Now, grandpa, where to next?”
“Well, we got an invite from your Aunt Vera…” Max smiled.
Ben’s circular face shrank. “...oh no.”
-
“This summer was supposed to be about fun,” Ben griped as Ruby finished up the dishes. “Not hanging out in some old lady’s place.”
“I don’t normally hang out with old people, so I wouldn’t know,” Ruby admitted. “I’m just hoping your aunt doesn’t mind me being there.”
“She won’t,” Ben said dismissively. “Aunt Vera likes everybody, you’ll be fine.”
“She’s right,” Max said happily as they pulled into the retirement village. “Just watch your cheeks, Vera’s a pincher.”
(And she was. Dear lord she was.)
“This is gonna be so boring. Their idea of excitement in this place is probably watching the grass grow.” Ben rolled his eyes.
Of course, the second he said that, something interesting happened; the RV drove by this house, where some old geezer was fixing his roof. He stood up for a second, and lost his balance...Ben was about to jump into action to save him, but to his shock, the old man did a backflip and landed feet first on the ground!
“Woah!” He tugged on Ruby’s arm. “Did you see that?”
“See what?” Ruby asked, turning her head around. “Are you really getting excited about some old guys playing shuffleboard?”
“No, some old dude just did a flip from the roof! It was weird.”
Ruby raised her eyebrow a bit. “You sure it wasn’t the heat playing with your eyes?”
Ben nodded. “I’m sure of it, you gotta believe me!”
“Alright, fine. Maybe we’ll have something interesting happen this weekend,” Ruby shrugged.
-
In the end Ben was right, Aunt Vera adored Ruby. It was kind of hard to blame her, since Ruby was pretty cute for a kid her age- not that Ben noticed, nope, girls had cooties and he wasn’t interested. But aesthetically speaking? Ruby was cute, and it seemed like Aunt Vera ate that up.
But then Ruby took a look at what Ben’s aunt offered as candy and gave him a haunted look. She literally took his hand and dragged him into the hallway.
“We need to get out of here,” she whispered, eyes bright with tears. Ben nodded grimly before they walked out from the corner.
“Um, hey, we’re gonna go for a walk around the place, is that ok?” Ben asked.
“Sure! Just make sure you two are back before Max and I do bingo tonight, ok?” Vera smiled.
“Got it,” Ruby said, already grabbing her backpack and dragging Ben out the door, “See ya!”
“Did grandpa really agree to bingo?” Ben questioned as they walked through the neighborhood. “That’s the most Grandpa thing I’ve heard him do all summer.”
“Tell me about it,” Ruby frowned. “The heat is messing with his mind too, it seems.”
“Speaking of heat,” Ben added, “Seriously, why do old people have to live where it's so hot?”
“Well, dad always said to hydrate when it was this hot,” Ruby smiled, as she pulled something out of her bag...and promptly shot Ben with a blast of water.
“Hey!” Ben frowned, as Ruby ran down the street laughing. Ben chased after her and—wow, Ruby was fast—he actually considered going Water Hazard to teach her a lesson...but he noticed Ruby had stopped up ahead. She seemed to be looking at something, by one of the houses.
“What? What’s wrong?” Ben asked.
“I think we’re being watched,” Ruby whispered, “might wanna look around.” Ben turned his head, and in every window, he could see one of the blinds lifted up ever so slightly, and old, elderly eyes staring daggers into the children. Ben felt fearful and unmistakably cold just from the quiet eyes peering at them.
“...yeah, should we check it out?” Ben spoke in a hushed undertone.
“Definitely.”
They both snuck around a corner, and Ben slapped down the watch; immediately, he shifted out of the mortal plane, temporarily dying. Ruby shielded her eyes as the light flashed…when it died down, she was face to face with Ghostfreak, a phantom-like alien with a gaseous appearance and claw like hands. He had grey skin with black lines running all over him. Black and white tentacles wrapped around his body, and the watch peeked out of his skin, near his lower left chest. He smelt like dust, according to Max and Ruby.
“Let’s go.” The ghost spoke in a low, chilling tone, making Ruby feel a bit uncomfortable. He grabbed Ruby’s hand, turning them both intangible and phasing through a wall, right into the blazing sunlight.
It didn’t take them long to discover everyone in the little village apparently had ninja skills. Seriously. Ninja old people with super stretchy limbs and an almost eerie gelatinous form. Their movements were almost alien, and so was their behavior; as they phased through some houses quietly, the elderly were incorrectly doing basic tasks. One was vacuuming their walls, another was watering everything BUT the plants, and the last ate a fly from off the ceiling.
“Seriously, this is creeping me out,” Ben commented in his whispering, faint voice.
“Ok, when the ghost alien is scared, I’m scared,” Ruby said as they floated through the backyards. “We have to tell someone!”
“Oh, absolutely...but first…” Ben’s eye traveled on its track to spy something moving behind them, and it was perhaps the most disturbing thing they saw; Vera’s neighbor, Marty, taking his rug into this building. He’d loaded it onto his golf cart...and then he literally STEPPED over the gate like it was nothing. His elastic limbs returned to their normal shape as he opened the door.
“Ok, barring the elastic oldie, what do you think is in that thing?” Ruby whispered, her voice fearful.
“That’s what I want to find out.” Ben flew over, phasing quietly through the gate, and through the building, to this creepy cellar door...and then promptly timing out. The two were visible now, and Marty certainly noticed the bright light and loud accompanying noise. Marty’s head swiveled a full 180, as it stared into the very souls of the children…
And they screamed, already making their way over the gate.
“CLIMB! CLIMB FOR YOUR FUCKING LIFE!” Ruby shrieked.
“I’M TRYING!” Ben shouted, as Marty began to slowly saunter on over, making guttural noises. The sheer thought of what Marty was planning to do him was enough of a start to get him over the fence and into the golf cart with Ruby. The two drove off, with Marty just menacingly standing on the other side of the fence.
“Ok, that…that was crazy!” Ben huffed.
“I don’t think it’s over,” Ruby gulped, looking behind her shoulder. Marty was stretching his form down the street, his body contorting in ways a human body should never be able to. His elastic limbs shot out at full force and attacked the cart. Ruby began maneuvering around his attacks, but due to her being a child and only having a real experience driving via Mario Kart, she didn’t really last long.
They both trashed the cart on after hitting a curb, and they miraculously weren’t hurt- or, for now, because Marty was literally charging at kids on all fours and advancing even faster than before. The two began to run away, across an empty lot.
“Now would be a great time to go alien, Ben!” Ruby nudged him repeatedly.
Ben repeatedly pressed the activation button, but nothing happened. “It’s still on recharge!”
“WE’RE FUCKED!” Ruby yelled, as she braced herself to be attacked by the nightmarish geezer...and pulled out her water gun. It was instinct; she didn’t want to die and her brain just said “fuck it”, her true self shining through one last time...
But to her shock, Marty halted in his tracks and screeched, running away from the water gun wielding girl. Ben and Ruby shot each other a look, before looking at the plastic gun.
“Uh... what just happened?”
-
Ben and Ruby ran into the kitchen, panting heavily and sweating like dogs. They’d run the entire way back to Vera’s, fearful that Marty would come back.
“Holy shit that was intense.” Ben wheezed, slumping against a wall.
Ruby peeked through the drapes, looking all around to see if Marty was around. “Can that settle for the scariest moment so far this summer?” she inquired.
“It’s a bit early to say that, but yeah,” Ben countered, “that takes the cake.”
“Kids? What’s wrong?” Ben and Ruby spun around to see Vera and Max, looking concerned.
“Oh, nothing!” Ben replied. “It’s just...really hot out there, you know?” Max immediately knew something was afoot, but said nothing in order to keep Vera out of the loop.
“Yeah...we were kinda fooling around with a water gun I brought, that’s all!” Ruby smiled ever so innocently.
“Well, you two wash up, ok? Max and I are heading out to bingo soon.” Vera smiled, as she left the room to go get ready. Max made sure she was out of ear shot when went over to the kids, switching over to his more “alien conspiracist” persona.
“Now, what really happened?” Max asked.
“Ok, this is gonna sound crazy,” Ben began, “but…”
Ruby grabbed onto Max’s shirt. “Vera’s neighbor is a walking nightmare! Seriously, the guy chased us on all fours!” she explained in a rush.
“Yeah! And he was dragging something into this cellar behind the activities building,” Ben added.
Max raised an eyebrow, and scratched his chin. “Hm. Well, I’ll keep an eye out for him, then. You kids best stay indoors, in case he comes back. And stay low. I have a feeling he isn’t the only person like that here.”
Ben and Ruby nodded. “Gotcha.”
Vera came back out. “There’s dinner on the stove if you two get hungry, ok? Now, come on, Maxie! Wait till you see how fast I can rack up those bingos!”
“Be right there!” Max returned back to ‘fuddy duddy’ self. “Now, you two behave. Don’t leave the house, ok?”
Ben and Ruby watched them leave the house and walk down the street. Ben immediately made sure the door was locked and every window was shut.
“So,” Ben asked, as they began to rummage through the kitchen, “any theories on what happened with Marty?”
“I’ve got two,” Ruby introduced, “Theory one: it’s some body snatcher stuff, with these aliens taking over their hosts and using them for something. And, theory two: the elderly here have some kind of freaky mutant powers, and feasts on other oldies.”
“That’s dark.” Ben commented. “I think these old geezers are like the aliens in They Live; they’re just walking among us until it’s time. Maybe we’ve come across one of their bases, or maybe we’re stopping a global invasion from happening.”
“That one seems more plausible, to be honest,” Ruby said, opening the fridge. She browsed through her selections of drinks. “Let’s see...prune juice, prune juice, prune juice...and look, prune juice! Come on, Vera, shake up the drink menu a bit…”
Ben lifted the pot on the stove to see their meall. “Yeah, I don’t think prune juice and Spongebob shaped Mac and Cheese will go well together.”
“Let’s just use tap water instead.” Ruby said, pulling out some cups from the drawer. “Speaking of which, why do you think Marty flipped when he saw the water gun?”
“I dunno, maybe he thought it was some sort of blaster?” Ben theorized. “I doubt water guns are a thing where they come from.”
“You may have a point there,” Ruby replied, piling up the mac and cheese on her paper plate.
“I know Grandpa said we should stay here, but seriously, we should check that cellar out,” Ben suggested.
“I was thinking something like that too, but we have to be careful. Do you think we could use Ghostfreak again?”
“I freaking hope so,” Ben said flatly. “I’m lucky I got him the first time, cause recently this watch’s been giving me all the wrong aliens!”
Ruby winced as she swallowed her food. “Yeah, that’s true...but we should definitely stock up on items if you don’t get Casper.”
“That, and we better plan a quick route to this place.” Ben pulled out a map of the neighborhood and a sharpie.
-
Inside Ruby’s bag: the water gun, some water bottles for both drinking and refueling the gun, a camera just for some evidence (and memories) and two flashlights.
“If this was our kit during the apocalypse, we’d be dead.” Ben sighed.
“Well, Vera’s got no weapons in the house! She really needs to get some.” Ruby pouted.
Ben slowly opened the door, and peered both left and right, making sure no was around. “The coast’s clear.” The two snuck out of the house, and started on their sneaky route. Ben and Ruby planned for the route to snake through quiet, narrow places that only they could really fit through. Ruby made sure no one followed them, occasionally looking over her shoulder.
However, when they got close to their destination, Ben stuck his hand out, and took Ruby over behind a dumpster. Ben and Ruby peered out, to see Marty and some other oldies on a cart. They pulled over on the side of the road, and got off. If they didn’t know Marty was a shapeshifting freak, this would look innocent. Their conversation, however, was far from that.
“Is the food supply ready for transport?” An older gentleman asked.
“It appears we have all but a few left,” Marty answered. “The pods are in the final stages of gestation.”
Ben and Ruby’s hearts skipped a beat hearing the words “food supply”, “few” and “gestation”. They didn’t know what gestation meant, but given the context clues, it was the furthest thing from good.
“What about the young ones?” Marty frowned, causing Ben and Ruby to hold their breath. “Any sign of them?”
“Too chewy. They need to age more before they get nice and tender.” One of the old ladies commented.
“I'm not talking about eating,” Marty said grimly, “they suspect too much.”
“Well then...we best go search for them.” And they split up, not a single one even going down the alleyway from which they were hiding.
“...ok, so, my theories were closest,” Ruby commented. “Just...kinda fuse them together.”
Ben frowned. “I think that cellar is where their pods are! We have to get to that thing, fast!”
“And maybe I can help with that,” a voice from the shadows said.
Ben and Ruby turned to see Grandpa Max stepping into the light, and felt a little relieved. “You hear that conversation too, Grandpa?”
Max nodded. “You betcha. Come on. We’ve got sometime before Vera gets suspicious about my trip to the bathroom.”
And the three ran through the building to the cellar door. Surprisingly, no one noticed the three of them, but Ben figured it was because they had lousy security. However, their trip had an unforeseen obstacle. A lock.
“Must’ve locked it up to keep outsiders from getting curious,” Max commented. “Ben, now would be a great time to use the Omnitrix.”
Ben paused. “The what?”
Max spun around. “You know, the Omnitrix. Your watch.”
“...we didn’t know the name of the watch at any point.” Ben said, his eyes narrowing. “How’d you find out?” He and Ruby backed away, fearing the worst.
“I, uh...I heard some of those oldies talking about something called the Omnitrix! They said it was…” Max fumbled over his words. “I...uh...aw, screw it!” His face and body contorted horrifically, and revealed its true form, a green semi-humanoid blob. Their dirty pink colored organs were protected by their blobby body. They had multiple eyes and fin-like protrusions with misshapen body parts. Ben and Ruby went white upon seeing the thing.
“What the fuck are you?” Ruby yelled.
“We are the Limax!” The creature gargled, “we’ve infiltrated thousands of planets, and we’ve finally found a taste that can quench our needs...for now. These past few days have been easy hunting!...until you showed up.” The monster walked closer to the kids.
”I don’t know what you’ve done with my grandpa, but I’m sure gonna force it out of you!” Ben declared, twisting the Omnitrix’s faceplate to the Heatblast icon. “Time to turn up the heat!” Ben slapped down his wrist, flaming rocks growing on his body.
“Say hello to Heatblast, you gelatinous freak!” Ben roared, sending a ray of flames at the monster. The Limax seemingly burst from the fire, only for it to literally collect itself.
“Foolish boy!” the creature sneered. “My species loves the heat! Your Pyronite form won’t work on me! Why do you think we came to the desert in the summer?”
Ruby, who could feel the searing heat in the air, shouted, “We need to get out of here!”
But just as she turned to flee, the Limax pounced on her, wrapping itself around her neck and lifting her up off the ground. “Do you really think you can escape me so easily?”
“Let her go!” Ben shouted frantically, sending a rainfall of flames around the cellar, hitting all the extra aliens in the room and making them burst on contact. Ruby glared at the Limax holding her hostage, her hand wrapped around her water-
“Yes, burn brighter,” the creature sneered, “make me stronger-”
Flames snapped at his back, just as Ben intended. The Limax snarled, and with that distraction Ruby sprayed him with water and got out of its grasp.
The droplets hit the alien, and the Limax shrieked in pain, parts of it dissolving even as the flames continued to grow. Ruby aimed and pulled the trigger, emptying her water gun at all the Limax and making them scream.
The Limax partially dead, Heatblast sent fiery wind at the cellar door, the wood hitting the walls with a deafening THUD. “We gotta bail!” Ben said, and the two of them ran out of the building, just as the entire thing started to go up in smoke.
Ben turned human just as the two of them found an empty alleyway to hide in. The building was merrily burning away, wood splintering apart and sounding suspiciously like thunder. “Tell me,” Ben panted, “does it still count as arson if you were defending yourself?”
“Who cares? I just count that as a win,” Ruby said, her heartbeat finally slowing down. She held up a water bottle and carefully refilled her water gun. “Especially since we now know those things’ weakness.”
“Kinda dumb for them to invade a species with a planet that has seventy something of its surface covered in water,” Ben commented.
Ruby shrugged. “Yeah, smart move on their part.”
Ben and Ruby suddenly heard movement by the debris. They quietly poked their heads out, to see this whole horde of old people gathering around quietly. Not even a word was said, as someone approached the crowd.
The someone had taken Vera’s form, and it was honestly weird to hear this alien commander say these words in such a old voice. “Well then...the children have become suspicious enough. We need to hurry back to home base.” She announced. “We leave in half an hour. Everyone report to ship, and let’s do a supply check before boarding.” The leader turned to head down into the cellar, before pausing. “Oh, and if anyone sees those kids...kill them.”
The elderly appearing Limax all split off, going to gather what else they could find. The two stayed motionless for a few minutes, waiting a while before the Omnitrix was charged up a bit.
“Come on,” Ben motioned, running over to the debris of the building, and into the basement. Down there, it looked ordinary, save for the creepy tunnel leading downwards to...somewhere. Ben and Ruby quietly crept through. Eventually, they found an exit, and it led to...
“Scully, you’re not gonna believe this,” Ben said to his partner as they descended into the earth. They’d come across a massive crater, with an honest to God REAL spaceship! The spaceship looked like a typical UFO, but there were egg-shaped, gooey capsules surrounding it.
Ben and Ruby wandered along the fields of eggs, feeling more and more disturbed. “Looks like everyone in retirement village has been podded up.” Ruby commented, adding to the horror of the scene. If they could get fields full of old people in just a few days, how much could they wrangle up if given the entire planet? Ben felt more and more sick, each time he saw one...but it only got worse when he found Max’s egg.
“Gotta get him out of there!” Ben thought out loud, before instinctively pulling into the side of the egg; the egg felt like that one “naked egg” experiment he did in science class a few months ago, and by god did it smell like it too. Max dropped to the floor, a bit dazed and confused. He groaned, and rubbed his head, before coming to his senses.
“Grandpa! You ok?” Ben asked, helping him to his feet.
“I’m...I’m fine. I was on my way to check out the cellar and...how’d I end up in that?” Max motioned to the egg. “And what’s up with…”
“It’s a long story,” Ruby commented. “But, the short version is: we’re stopping an alien invasion.” She was about to tear open another egg, a voice rang out.
“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you, little girl!” Vera’s voice spoke as she stepped out from the shadows, along with a bunch of either Limax. They seeped in from every crack in the place, surrounding Ben and the others. They slowly took some steps back as the Limax slowly advanced.
“Commander, they’ve found our ship!” The Marty expy said.
“Get the pods on board! They've been marinating long enough.” Vera barked. Max’s eyes widened as he realized he was going to be their next meal if it wasn’t for Ben and Ruby.
“Uh, Ben? Now would be a good time to go hero!” Ruby commented.
“Right! And I have just the guy for the job!” To combat them, Ben turned into Water Hazard, a red, metallic mollusk alien with humanoid features. He had two containers with water on his head and a black mask-like markings around his four slitted green eyes, with two tubes of water extending from a respirator where his mouth should be to from back. He had black three-fingered hands and two black toes on each foot. Barnacles were all over his body, which was where he shot water from. The watch was located on his chest.
“Alright, who’s up for a pool party?” Ben quipped, before he began to lay waste to the aliens. He stuck out his palms and started to blast cold water at the oldies, melting them away like it was pure acid to them.
The Limax screeched in horror. “A CASKAN! A CASKAN! WHY DID THAT BOY HAVE TO HAVE A CASKAN?” Fake Vera frowned as she tried to maneuver her way around the water, but before she could even reach the ship, Ruby unloaded her water gun onto her rotund face, melting it and causing her to scream in pain.
“THAT’S FOR SERVING ME COFFEE AS CANDY!” Ruby yelled angrily, as she unloaded her water gun onto the alien creep.
After that little outburst, Ruby helped Max take out all the pods from the ship, effectively saving everyone’s life. It was why, when the spaceship eventually escaped with the little Limax that survived, Ben and Ruby fell over.
“Stopping an alien invasion is hard,” Ben huffed.
In the end, it was a good day after all.
(But when Aunt Vera later said to him, “Keep up the good work, fighting those alien lifeforms,” Ben had to seriously wonder how much she knew.)