Alien Rising

Chapter 9

1:00 PM

"So, who exactly are you guys?" Frank asked.

"I'd like to know myself." Rebecca said.

"Off the record. I promise." Frank said, shooting a look a Rebecca that said "you too." Rebecca folded her arms. She was a little upset that she couldn't use this as a possible news story, but she was still curious about this explanation herself.

"You're wondering how I got this." Ben said, holding up the arm with the Omnitrix on it.

"It's a long story."

Frank looked out a window, before looking back at Ben. "We've got time, go ahead."

"It all started during the summertime. I was camping with Grandpa and my cousin Gwen. Gwen and I got into a fight, so I ran into the woods by myself. I looked up and there was this thing falling out of the sky, and it fell close to where I was. It was a pod and it opened. I went down to look inside and I saw a watch. It looked cool so I went in to get it, but it just jumped on my wrist and it wouldn't come off. I wanted to see what it could do and when I pressed the face down I suddenly became an alien made of fire! Since I got it, a lot of people have been after this to take it for themselves. But I've always used it to beat up the bad guys, help people and have fun doing it!" Ben said, expressing the last sentence with a burst of confidence.

"So those things you turn into, those are aliens?" Frank asked.

"Yeah. I gave each of them different cool superhero names. Like the fire one is Heatblast." Ben said.

"That's a lot of power for one kid to have." Rebecca said.

"With great power comes great responsibility." Ben said.

"Huh, I could've sworn I heard that somewhere else before." Frank said.

"Your grandfather. What's the story with him? Not everybody owns a pistol that can shoot lasers and an RV with thrusters." Rebecca asked.

"You'd have to ask Grandpa. I'm not sure that's something we should be telling you guys unless he gives the say-so." Gwen says.

Max nods. "But only if it's off the record."

Rebecca nodded. As much as she wanted to get the story, she had no choice if she wanted to learn about them.

Max stops behind a car. They were at a traffic light on the interstate. "I'm part of an organization called the Plumbers. And we don't do what normal plumbers do. We're an organization that deals with intergalactic threats that were too powerful or too weird for normal law enforcement to handle." The light changed to green and they were back moving again.

"You would have thought the public would have heard about an organization this important." Frank commented.

"The goal was for the public to not know. Officially we didn't exist with the other big names of law enforcement. The CIA, the KGB, the MI-6, even the Special Forces. The Plumbers were never in that conversation. And it was kept that way so we could work without being under the scrutiny of the public or media. We took on extraterrestrial threats throughout the entire galaxy to make sure the general public never discovered their existence. Over the years, most of the organization, outside of a few relatives and some other, had disbanded. Including myself. I was living a great life of retirement." He looked at Ben in the rearview mirror as he was listening while playing a video game and smiled.

"That is until I had to come out of it when Ben found the Omnitrix, the name of the watch." Max said, still smiling.

"What made you come out of retirement for the Omnitrix? It seems like the kid is more than capable of handling himself." Rebecca asked.