A Day Unlike Any Other (Ben 10/Multicross)

With an almost practiced ease, you tune out the teacher once more, you lean down and grab a book out of your bag, placing it on the desk.

All it would take is a simple motion to flip it open to the page that you have marked but...

...

It's been nearly a week since you last picked this up and started to read. It's not that it's a bad book or anything - in fact, you really liked it at first.

but...

The book wasn't turning out the way that you had expected it to.

With a soft shake of your head, you flip the book open. But you only manage to read a few pages before you find yourself closing the book again, a sour look on your face.

A friend of yours, Jake, had suggested the book to you. He said that it was a 'Realistic Look at Superheroes'...

But...

You guess that means that you and Jake have a very different idea of what that means.

Because... to be completely honest.

So far every single character in the story has been a down and out asshole. The heroes are jerks, the villains are worse. The people that they are trying to save never have a nice thing to say, and the story has the government hanging on the edges, constantly threatening to drop in and make everything worse for all the heroes.

The book is a chore to read. You don't like any of the characters, and there is this... theme, this continually returning idea, that that the world would be better off without anyone having special powers. That everyone should be completely equal to one another - that no one should be smarter or faster than anyone else, and that the world would be a better place if everyone agreed and didn't allow themselves to be themselves, but to instead be equal.

It's annoying, it's irritating, and it just keeps coming up time and time again - especially from the main character who will use any opportunity to gripe about it.

Yet, your friend really likes the book, and you don't like not liking the same things that he does. So you've slowly made your way through the book, even as it becomes harder and harder to pick the book up each time. Maybe...

Maybe he'll forget about the book over the summer and you won't have to read it anymore! You hope.


More importantly, it looks like your plan worked! You slowly inched your way through a couple of pages of the stories tedium, and you wasted enough time that the day finally came to an end.

Packing up the last of your things, you quickly hurry out of the classroom, through the halls, down the corridor and out the door.

Finally! You're free! And there is nothing that could possibly ruin toda-

You stumble to a stop when you notice two very familiar faces...

TJ and Cash. Two of the biggest, meanest bullies in the whole school. You had hoped to avoid running into them, hoped that you wouldn't have to see them til the start of the new school year.

Yet, here they are, menacing over some... somebody. You don't know the kid, but it looks like he's in trouble.

...

While the idea of standing up to the two kind of terrifies you... The idea that they are going to be stealing someone's money and getting away with it bugs you. You have always hated bullies, not the least because you tend to be one of their targets too, but you just can't stand them. Maybe... You should do something.

Try and step in and stop them...

But... at the same time. If you do step in... they'll probably just beat you up too...

[ ] Try and stop them!
[ ] Just stay out of their way. There's nothing that you can do anyways...

---

Having seen the two bullies, you made your choice, and you suffered whatever consequences that comes with your decision, but it isn't long before you see Grandpa Max's RV roll up to the curb, and with a pep in your step (whatever that means) your gleefully make your way into the RV.

"I've been so looking forward to this all -" RED HAIR SEEN.

No.

You slowly start to turn, coming face to face with the nerdiest of nerds. The one person that you had no interest in seeing right now, and no interest in seeing for months and months and months until your parents and her parents decided to bring you back together again for your shared birthdays.

It was your cousin, Gwen. "What are you doing here?" You ask her, before turning back to your grandpa, "What is she doing here?"

Your redheaded cousin glared at you, before rolling her eyes. "Take it easy, dweeb." She bit out, "This wasn't my idea. Someone," The girl glanced over towards Grandpa Max, "managed to convince my mom that going Camping all summer would be 'A good experience' for me."

Great! You don't want her here, and she doesn't want to be here, so all you have to do is go and take her home and then boom. No more Gwen for the summer. Yet, you turn and see Grandpa Max smiling, and you start to have that particular sinking feeling in your stomach.

"Grandpa, Please, tell me you didn't..." You beg your grandfather, but all you get in return is-

"Well, I had thought it might be fun if Gwen came along with this summer." He said cheerfully, before looking at the both of you sternly. "That's not going to be a problem is it?"

You don't really have anything that you can say to that, even if you really wished you could...

It doesn't take long for the miles to start to roll away under the wheels of the RV, even as you and your cousin start to bicker. "I just... can't believe it," You complain, "I've been looking forwards to getting away from my life since the start of the school year, and now the Queen of Cooties is coming along for the ride."

Gwen glared at you from across the table, "Hey, don't look at me. I had already planned out my own vacation too you know." The girl grumped at you, as she pulled something out of her bag.

You stare at the baffling looking color coded... monstrosity is the only word that you can think of. There looked to only be four different colors spread across the nine weeks. "Each activity is color coded, so that I never do the same thing two days in a row." Which is fine, where it not for the fact that there were only four different things that she had planned. "But instead, I'm stuck with my geekazoid cousin going camping for three months."

You glare at her and she glares at you and you glare at her and she glares at you.

"Geek."

"Dweeb."

---

The hours slowly whittle away, since there is nothing else to do other than argue with your cousin. However, they do slowly while away, so eventually the RV slowly pulls into the parking spot at the camp site.

For all the bickering and all the fighting, you've made it through this first tiny segment of the summer.

Now... just sixty more days of this.

You don't know how you're going to end up surviving at this rate. You sit across from your cousin, and for a few long moments things are quiet. They are nice.

"Chow time!" Grandpa calls out, a wide grin on his face and... something in his hands.

It takes you a moment to realize what it is...

That...

Is a bowl of worms.

Your grandfather just placed a bowl of worms on the table. "I... what?" You ask, looking from your grandfather, to the worms, and back.

"They're marinated Mealworms," Grandpa Max says with a grin, "It's really hard to find them fresh in the states, but they are considered a delicacy in some countries."

Gwen watches as one of the little squirmy, wriggling worms makes it way free of the bowl. "And considered totally gross in others. Ugh."

You don't disagree with her. She's completely right.

"Well," Max says with a chuckle, "If these don't sound good, I've got some smoked sheep's tongue in the freezer."

The two of you stare at him, before you try and speak up. "Uhh... no thanks. Can't we just... get burgers or something?" You aren't whining and anyone who says otherwise is lying.

"Nonsense" The madman you have decided to spend the next three months with says, "We're out here in the wilderness for adventure, and it's going to be an adventure for your tastebuds too! I'll go and get the tongue."

Grandpa Max has barely even made it through the door of the RV before you've slid over to Gwen. The two of you quickly make an agreement, trying to figure out something to avoid having to eat what Grandpa Max is cooking. Because there is no way that worms are actually food.

Unfortunately between the two of you, you've got a couple of candy bars, a half a bag of trail mix, some rice cakes, and a handful of pieces of jolly ranchers. Not enough for a whole summer. Nowhere near enough to get through the entire summer.

...

After dinner - which is something that you are not thinking about - you decide that you might as well try and get a bit of gaming time in before you turn in to sleep...

But what kind of moves do you end up using in your game?

[ ] A fire blast to take down your enemies
[ ] Kung Fu action grips!
[ ] A spell caster who throws their enemies through the air
[ ] A powerful knight in shining armor