Ben 10: Alien Force (Reader insert)

Paradox

"You two didn't need to come. Gwen and I could have handled this alone. It's nothing new." Kevin spat from the driver's seat. The argument having started since Ben and I hopped in the backseat of his car.

I rolled my eyes, looking out the window at the rolling desert scenery. The sunset a beautiful bleed of reds, oranges, and pinks. It made me wish that I had my camera with me.

"Doesn't sound like nothing." Ben spoke up. "Weird noises, unearthly lights, rumors of weird creatures out here?"

As Kevin parked before a brick wall and the four of us got out, Kevin turned a annoyed look to Ben. "Yeah, the dudes I heard it from aren't...totally reliable."

"Oh, did you almost die this time too getting the information?" I said, shooting a smug smile Kevin's way as his frown deepened.

"No..."

"Isn't it like a big, bad boy thing to do?" Gwen piped up with a smirk. She stared down Kevin teasingly. "Come out here to the host town to drag race?"

Kevin whirled around, raising his hands in and waving it off. "How should I know? I just know him from auto shop."

Gwen, Ben, and I paused, looking over the wall to a spray painted message. One in red that read, Kevin rules. We looked back to him as he shrugged with a smirk.

Shaking it off, Ben took charge of the situation. "Grandpa Max said Lost Soledad used to be a big military base back in the fifties, some kind of research facility."

"Yeah, must have been some pretty serious research. Check out these walls." Kevin pointed out. We all looked to the brick wall as Kevin continued. "Fifty years later and there's still no way in."

Again, we look along the wall, this time opposite to Kevin's spray paint. There, knocked out of the bricks, we saw two huge holes that let anyone curious enough in. They were also big enough to fit Kevin's car.

Ben, Gwen, and I began to walk towards the car again.

"No way!" Kevin faked surprise. "These weren't here."

"Yeah, yeah, Kevin. Get in the car and drive." I shot over my shoulder.

He huffed, but followed.

In the car, Kevin carefully maneuvered his car through the hole, hissing under his breath about scratches all the while. Even when inside the military base, he drove much more slowly than he did on the open road. Touring the place of half destroyed buildings and torn apart roads.

Eventually, Kevin was forced to park, or more like he refused to drive further as tiny rocks were hitting the underside of his car. He didn't want to repaint anymore than he already had to, so we got out to explore.

"Did anyone notice some of them are vaguely person shaped?" Gwen said, bringing up the holes again.

"They did?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah." Gwen nodded.

"Weird." Ben muttered.

"It's not weird to not see shapes in holes." I whirled around, glaring at the back of Ben's head in defense.

"Oh, no, not you Starshine, I meant about the wall. Maybe something, I don't know, burned through the wall." Ben waved off, pure panic in his face as he met my stare.

I huffed, folding my arms over my chest.

"Like what?" Kevin spoke up over the tension.

"The same thing that burned these trails everywhere." Ben pointed to the ground a few feet ahead of us. There, as we all gathered around him, we saw them. Clear lines both burned like he said, and painfully dug grooves.