Alex Chase: Beyond The Multiverse

Chapter 22: How I Saved Summer Vacation Part 2

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Ben tried to stomp on it with his fiery foot, but it only made things worse. 

" This would be so cool if it weren't so. . . not cool." Back at the campsite, Gwen noticed the smoke comming from the fire. 

" What's that?"

" A forest fire. We better let the ranger station know. Probably some darn fool camper out there messing around with something he shouldn't," he said. He had no idea how right he was.

A look of realization and horror came one after the other on his face in less then one second." Ben!" Gwen suddenly looked horrified. The not caring about Ben had just been an act. Grandpa grabbed two fire extinguishers from a metal box. He handed one to Gwen, and they headed off.

I had to make sure Gwen was the first one to find Ben. I cast a distracted spell on their grandfather, hoping it wouldn't mess anything up too badly. A little maneuvering led Gwen an a path that would directly intersect her with Ben's route.

Eventually, Gwen caught up and they were back to back. She turned around and looked at her alien cousin. She stood frozen for a couple seconds. Then she screamed. Ben looked sort of worried for her.

“ Hey, I know I look weird, but there’s no reason to be scared.” Gwen wasn’t that scared. In fact, she was mad, very mad. She hit Ben across the face with her fire extinguisher. 

“ I don’t know what you are, but you’ll stay down there if you know what’s good for you.” She lifted it again. Ben decided to play with her a little. He set fire to her shoe. I laughed. You had to admit it was a little funny.

She sprayed her foot and turned back to Ben grunting in anger. “ I warned you.” She lifted the fire extinguisher over her head. I was starting to wonder if maybe this hadn't been such a good idea.

“ Don’t even think about it freak.” A look of realization washed over Gwen. I smiled. I so wished I could tell Jack about this. He would never question if I was correct about a Kahoot question again.

My plan had worked perfectly. Gwen knew it was Ben from a single word that Ben only called her. The perfect jumping off point. Gwen was completely dumb-founded.

“ Ben? Is that you? What happened?” 

“ Well when I was walking this meteor fell from the sky and almost mugged me, except it wasn’t a meteor or a satellite, but this cool watch thing that jumped onto my wrist; and when I tried to get it off I suddenly was on fire, only it didn’t hurt, when I was accidentally starting this mega forest fire.” Gwen stared at Ben like he was insane. 

Grandpa ran up to Ben and Gwen.

" Holy cow!" Gwen looked like she was having an internal debate about whether or jot to tell him the monster she was talking to was her cousin.

" Hey Grandpa, guess who?" Gwen said, glancing at him. Ben revealed it was him before history repeated itself.

" Hello, major forest fire burning out of control rember?" Gwen asked.

" Grandpa, what do I do?" Ben asked.

" Backfire. Start a new fire. They'll snuff each other out. Think you can do it Ben?" Grandpa asked.

" Shooting flames I can definitely do," he said. Grandpa and Gwen left before they could get burned. Later, back at the campsite...

" And you're saying that this watch just jumped up and clamped onto your wrist?" Grandpa asked. Gwen tossed Ben a marshmallow from the bag. He caught it and instantly cooked it.