And the Plot Begins

"You'd better not have seen anything, Ben," Gwen gripped while staring at her laptop. 

'Borrowing' some of the store's clothes, Gwen, Kim, and Arthur managed to exit the building while Max remained behind to give a statement. 

Now in the Rustbucket, Gwen sat in the booth while Arthur sat opposite her with his face washed, his shirt off, and a pack of frozen peas to ice his throbbing but significantly less pained shoulder.

I didn't," Arthur bit back - irritated at Gwen's repeated words and attitude. Though he had seen Gwen's exposed body, he did not care. 

While Arthur did force himself on Gwen, he did not do it due to any sexual attraction to her. He may be physically the same age as her but mentally he was an adult. Thus, notions of seeing her naked lower body did not faze him. 

Aelita had been right about his personality and sense of morality being entirely based on his fear of consequence. Now that he had the Notebook and given free rein to do as he pleased, his thought process had shifted from 'will I get in trouble for this' to 'why not do this'. It could be said he feels challenged to go out of his way to ignore morality and pursue his own desires. 

"Note to self," Arthur thought, "even if they believe you, girls will still be irritable and repeatedly ask you questions if they are upset." His eyes then shifted over to his other shoulder where Aelita sat. 

The angel was seemingly capable of altering her size and was currently the size of a Barbie doll. Sitting on his uninjured shoulder, she had also shrunken his phone so to continue playing her game. 

"And just where were you during all that," Arthur whispered.

"I wanted to be out of the way," Aelita answered. "So, I shrunk down and sat in the rafters until the episode was over."

"It wouldn't kill you to have helped us."

"I am to-"

"Retrieve the Notebook if I prove unfit, yeah, yeah. How about this, do you think you could give me a little recap on some things? Like confirming how Gwen's powers work or why things are different than I thought?"

"Gwen's powers work as you intended. She is able to absorb and assimilate genetic material to transform herself. If she assimilated a bird, she might gain wings and hollow bones to fly. If she assimilated a fish, she might get gills and scales. The specific nature of these changes depends on how much she absorbs but otherwise can be somewhat random. You have also managed to accidentally imbue her with an upper limit to how much she can change."

"When I do that?"

"When you specified that she would become a 'alien-human mutant hybrid'. When she came into contact with your transformation, her powers synchronized with the Omnitrix and induced a full transformation into your chosen alien for as long as you were. By specifying that she would be a human hybrid, you have accidentally created an upper limit to how much her genetic structure can deviate from what constitutes 'human'. While this may have been in line with your intentions for her powers to effectively absorb traces of your alien forms, gain their powers, and take it a step further by gaining additional mutant abilities, it radiates throughout her powers as a whole."

"Okay. And, how would we say this one turned out?"

"Vulpimancers primary characteristic is their mix of canine and ape-like traits as well as their extreme sense of smell they use in place of sight. Additionally, they possess tactile hairs that function similar to a cat's whiskers. Gwen gains all of these traits in addition to maintaining her human senses that become heightened. Furthermore, the particular mutation that affects the resulting transformation is in how the tactile hairs are more like quills she is capable of shooting out. However, her more humanoid form does limit the increase in her physical abilities somewhat and she as of yet is not experienced to handle the additional sensory stimulus."

"Not as good as I was hoping, but maybe it will get better. What about the other thing?"

"I assume you are referring to your getting injured. This is partially due to your own interpretation of what it means to 'exist', but also a simple fact of reality. You brought fictional creatures into existence as you saw it. This is not a cartoon where your alien forms are invulnerable to injury or conveniently more durable. Additionally, these forms are an altered version of you. As such, they are healthy, possess an innate physical aptitude, but are still physically a child."

"Ri~ght…And the remaining pain?"

"The Omnitrix restructures your DNA to turn you into an alien. It then reverses this when you change back. When it does this, it is restoring you to an uninjured state. As this requires a degree of reconstruction to restore the injuries you sustained as a vulpimancer, you still suffer from the aftereffects of that reconstruction. Or, to put it more simply: healing hurts."

Arthur went quiet as he thought, "So it works on the basis of restoring me to an ideal state by repairing the damage but basically fries my nerves or something causing the pain to remain. Or maybe it's a phantom pain caused by the repaired tissue. Whatever. The pain is going away. So, right now, the important thing to think about is what comes next. The episode is over, so that means the Notebook is reset. I think I know how to phrase the next line to start an overarching plot and instigate the next update. Are there any changes I want to make before that…"

As Arthur contemplated his next course of action, Max returned. 

Seeing the older man step into the RV, Kim sat up from her position lying on the bed. "How'd it go?"

"Everything should be taken care of and that guy was taken into custody," Max answered. "What about you kids? How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine," Kim replied. 

"Ben?"

"Better, almost good," Arthur replied. 

"What about you Gwen?"

"I don't know," Gwen sighed looking away from her computer. 

"She's been trying to see what she could find out about mutants and the meta-gene that guy talked about," Kim explained.

"Not having much luck either," Arthur added.

This seemed to revitalize Gwen for a moment as she sat back up and turned her laptop around for Max to see. "Look here Grandpa. There are reports of people moving things with their minds, giving off light, making ice, and more - all in the last forty years."

"Or they're just hoaxes," Arthur offhandedly argued.

Gwen groaned, "You have no idea. I'm pretty sure these are legitimate, though."

"This is really bothering you," Max observed.

"Of course it is," Gwen said with some panic. "I might not be human and I'm instead some mutant freak-"

"Super-powered something," Arthur countered.

"You were kinda badass back there," Kim said.

Gwen deflated defeatedly. "I just want to understand what's happening to me." She looked to her grandfather. "You said you dealt with freaky stuff before. Do you know anything about this?"

Max rubbed the back of his neck, "Honestly, no. I admit, I've seen my share. Aliens, ghosts-"

"Ghosts are real," Kim interjected.

"-magic-"

"Magic's real," Gwen said incredulously. 

"But this whole thing about mutants and meta-genes; I don't think I've heard of anything like it before."

"Makes sense," Kim said thoughtfully. "That guy said something about this starting fifty years ago and Gwen said anything she found was in the last forty years. You retired like, forever ago."

"Hey, I'll have you know, I only retired less than thirty-years-ago."

"Still," Gwen continued with a defeated sigh, "all this really only started after you retired. Just what am I supposed to do now?"

"What about posting something online," Arthur said. "Animo said he had a colleague. Maybe if you post something about mutants and the meta-gene, they'll try to contact you."

All eyes were on Arthur. 

"That's…not a bad idea," Gwen said before turning back to her computer.

"Good idea, Ben," Kim congratulated.

Even Arthur was impressed with what felt like a good idea coming from him. He was trying to be helpful, but it still felt like a surprise to say something so sensible. 

"Wait," Max suddenly said. "Ben, how'd you know that guy's name?"

Attention back on him, Arthur slightly panicked as he realized Aloysius had never said his name in earshot of his family. He nervously said, "Didn't you guys here him? He was all like, 'I am the great Animo! Behold my genius!'"

"I guess he did," Max said quietly as he 'remembered' this happening.

"You know," Kim started, "it's weird. With what that Animo guy said and if Gwen found real cases of people with superpowers, then why don't more people know about this?"

Max narrowed his eyes as he considered the possibilities.

Arthur simply stated, "Like I said, with all the fakes on the internet, who's to say what's real. Truth gets washed away in the ocean of falsehood. If you wanna get conspiratorial, it could be a government coverup."

Gwen looked to Arthur. "Since when did you get so smart?"

Arthur simply stuck his tongue out.

"Alright, that's enough," Max said. "I know this is important for you Gwen. And, I promise, we'll figure this out, but for now, let's take a second to calm down. Alright?"

Gwen looked defiant but reluctantly backed down. "Alright, Grandpa."

"Okay. So, what do you kids say to us going to find a hotel to stay in for the night."

"What about shopping," Kim asked.

"We can do that tomorrow," Max replied. "I don't know about the rest of you, but this old man could use some rest."

"'Old' says the man who tackled a giant monster," Gwen said under her breath. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once they'd found a motel and booked a room, Max thought it would be good to take a look around the city. 

Walking down the street, Arthur trailed a step behind the others and continued to contemplate any changes he'd like to make before the Notebook was rendered unusable for the update. Unsure of what to do, he thought about his next move, "Okay. Ben 10 doesn't really have a consistent plot. You could watch it almost at random and be fine. So, it's up to me to write it from start to finish. Problem is, I don't know where to take things next." 

"Training Gwen's powers is a gimme. Eventually coming into contact with Professor X. I have plans to bring the Secret Saturdays and Ultimatrix into play down the line. Maybe start integrating the Nemetrix. Charmcaster and her 'aunt' - Sorceress Shego. But I need a coherent idea to bring these things together. I'm better than just randomly throwing things together."

"This brings me to issue two. I had planned to take a brake and use my new time powers to hop forward to have a Pokémon adventure - maybe get some inspiration -, but…Gwen's not the only one who needs training. If we continue down this line, there's going to be obvious danger, and I'm traveling with the MC's of the story with the Omnitrix strapped to my wrist. Like fuck if I can just say 'Nurp' and avoid all that. Even if I could, that defeats the purpose of me being here and would make for a lame character that'd piss off readers."

Arthur subconsciously rubbed his shoulder as he thought of the injury he sustained against Animo. "Taking a break and doing something else could have a double purpose of giving me time to train in a safer environment without detracting from Gwen's story with my own training arc. Yeah…Maybe I can change reality so I can…Oh fuck yes!! Honestly, I just planned to fuck around the whole time, but that's brilliant! And if I ignore the risk of personal harm to myself which is what I'm trying to avoid, it'll be fucking awesome from an outside perspective."

Deciding his course, Arthur felt invigorated. He pulled out the pen he had stuffed into his pocket and summoned the Notebook to his hand. He returned to thinking about changes to make before the update. However, he froze realizing he could not think of anything he could do in a few words. Letting out a sigh, he decided to give up and start the plot. 

Gwen begins journey of self-discovery.

As soon as he finished writing, the words were absorbed into the Notebook and it turned inactive. 

Arthur put his pen back into his pocket with a content smile and tucked the Notebook under his arm. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Somehow ending up in a clothing shop, Arthur stood to the side in mild irritation due to boredom. He could not even try to use his phone to distract himself because Aelita had taken it again and refused to give it back. 

"I've always hated shopping. It just makes no sense to me. Go in, grab what you want, and leave. I get seeing something and grabbing it, but come on. 'Oh, I just came in for one thing.' My ass. If you came in for one thing, then why the fuck did you spend an hour looking around the store. If there's a selection, like clothes or video games or something, I might get it. But wasting your time looking for something when there are thousands of better things to do boggles the mind."

"That's not even considering the idiots who wait until they're AT THE REGISTER before they stop to ask how much something is or whether or not it will fit."

Arthur continued to internally air his grievances with consumerism. Eventually, his mind began to change course. "I just had to go and start the plot. Bet I could have used the Notebook to do something fun." As he continued to complain, Kim walked up to him. 

"Hey, Ben, how do you think this looks on me," Kim asked holding up a purple top. 

Defaulting to his experience in customer service, Arthur adopted a fake smile and simply said, "It looks good."

Kim smiled and thanked him before going back and continuing to peruse the selection.

Watching Kim go, Arthur considered, "Well, I am looking for something fun to do while the Notebook is on cool down."