Ben 10 (Reader insert)

A Change of Face

Waiting outside a clothing shop in the blistering heat for Ben, I readjusted my hat again. The style a call back to the early sixteen hundreds. I wouldn't have been wearing it in the first place if it wasn't for Grandpa Max's insistence. Him and Gwen both clad in similar gowns as they leaned against the brick wall with me. 

"Enough of this Ben. Now get out here." Max called to his grandson, knocking on the door patiently.

Gwen, not as gentle as her grandfather, went to take matters into her own hands. Reaching out for the door just as it swung open. Stopping her in her tracks and revealing a pouting Ben. The brunet having a matching pointy hat and stuffy overcoat.

"I feel like a dweeb." Ben spat, glaring out at the street angrily.

"That's because you are a dweeb." Gwen retorted. "Now you're just a pilgrim dweeb."

"If it makes you feel better, I'd rather not wear this either." I muttered, tugging at my outfit's collar again. 

"That's it, I'm changing."

Grandpa Max grabbed hold of Ben's shirt before the boy could retreat to the safety of the shop. Tugging him away and letting the door slam close with a final crack. "Nonsense, you can't visit Salem, Massachusetts without soaking up the local history. Now come on." The elder marched off in the lead, Gwen falling in behind as Ben and I hesitated.

"Think we could run back inside with his back turned?" I leaned closer to the brunet.

He shook his head in denial, already trudging after the elder. "Not with those eyes in the back of his head."

Sighing my own defeat, I followed with a dragging pace. Passing by a statue that two kids had gathered around to take pictures of. They glanced at us in curiosity as we passed, coming up to snap some photos of us in our get ups.

I hunched in on myself in embarrassment.

"Aw man," Ben groaned after waving them off and rushing up to his grandfather. "Grandpa, can I please change now?"

"I second that notion." I said, joining his side.

Before we could get an answer, a building exploded into flames. Drawling our attention to it as the public scattered with cries of panic.

Grandpa Max spoke up in shocked fear, "Ben, (Y/n), you two can go ahead and change now."

"Yes!" Ben and I exclaimed. The green-eyed boy already rolling out his watch to select his alien, while I called forth the powers that rested just beneath my skin. Starry galaxies lighting up along my arms, and I noticed some of my shoulder too.

"Good bye zero and hello hero!" Ben said, giving me a high-five before he was enveloped in a bright green light. It died down to show Stinkfly. "It feels good to be cool again." He helped me up onto his back, taking to the sky with ease as we headed for the burning building.

"So what's the plan?" I called out.

"This!" Stinkfly responded. Spitting out his goop that put out the fires surrounding the main entrance. It helped the people inside flee with screams of terror. Ben got to work on spitting out the flames, and to help I started to absorb them. My powers feasting on the energy as the orange red glow started to dim.

More problems arose. A moving barrage of flames taking over the road. Stinkfly moved to get us closer so we could put it out. Working out majority of it, we landed. Ben getting a glimpse of us in the glass of a passing building.

"Oh great. Now I look like an alien dweeb!" Ben groaned as he still wore the hat from the clothing shop. He knocked it off in a fit of rage, and fed up with my own outfit I took the chance to rid myself of it too.