Secrets and small fears

Grandpa Max: Reflect on the past few months.

Max let out a heavy sigh as he leaned back into his chair, closing his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose. The past few weeks had been difficult, to say the least.

A few months ago random spikes of energy started to be picked up by their sensors, fluctuating in strength. Any attempts at finding the source had been met with failure since the spikes were short enough that the alien or thing that had been causing it would have been long gone. It was frustrating for the plumbers.

The process of finding the energy source went a little like this: A random agent sat behind the monitoring screen, doing their job and being all around proper people. Then the machine let out an alarm and showed the locations in which the energy has appeared. The agent would proceed to try and get a reading on the rapidly disappearing energy surge while trying to send a team out to investigate it and get a signature. This would, of course, fail because by the time a team gets there it will already have faded and be too weak.

No perpetrator would be found also and thus a thoroughly annoyed team of plumbers would return to report their failure. There were also failures in which they followed energy spikes made by Gwen. Apparently if she used a low amount of mana, her energy will be picked up too. Since the energy output is so low, the plumbers computers hadn’t been able to distinguish the energy spikes. Which resulted in plumber agents stalking Gwen whenever she uses her powers.

Gwen had been less than pleased when she found out and had promptly blasted the agents back to headquarters. So the plumbers had refrained from sending agents out when they didn’t know if the power surge was from Gwen or not. But they still hadn’t been able to find out who or what was causing it and it was making them paranoid beyond belief.

It was as if they were chasing a ghost and this ghost either was very smart or had a lot of luck. And the option that they were smart was a very dangerous thing indeed, as they could be an enemy to the peace the plumbers and Ben had created. (oh the irony) They had tried using agents with the ability to look for energies but came up with nothing. They all had the same problem. The energy spikes were too short lived and weak for them to get a good reading on. And despite how worrying these random spikes were, the more powerful energy users that the plumbers had were too busy with other more prominent threats and had no time to come to Earth for something so relatively insignificant.

And they were right, Max knew, because these spike had been harmless for most part. There was of course also the fact that they had Gwen, one of the most powerful mana users (despite her young age) and Ben 10, Hero of the Universe. If the energy spikes were to cause a problem those two would surely take care of whatever problem that could arise.

But Max didn’t want to burden his grandchildren with a problem that could have been resolved without them. They had a right to live relatively normal lives, save for the occasional enemy. Gwen didn’t have time to be involved with trivial matters for she was far too busy with college. And Ben, well, he was a whole other story and part of the reason why Max Tennyson was currently on the edge of a migraine.

Around some time before the energy spikes had begun his grandson had seemed sadder, restless in a way. Though he would hide it behind false (and partially true) bravado, Max could see how lost he was behind it all. He would stare into space for periods of time, became more quiet. And then, a few weeks ago Ben became more withdrawn. Though his friends had returned and he appeared to be more cheerful again.

Max knew better. He had lived with that boy in close proximity with cousin when they were 10 and their lives had changed in ways he hadn’t thought possible. Ben did become better though, in hiding in how off he acted. But despite that, with his friends near him again and his life more engaging, Ben became better and more genuine in his smiles and upbeat behaviour.