Ben stretched his arms and yawned tiredly, it had been a full day since he and the rest of his family joined Fairy Tail. After his battle with Natsu the other day, Max had made him and Gwen help retrofit the Rustbucket to work without using fuel by installing some of the alien tech they had lying around inside the RV.

He groaned quietly as he realised that he should probably look at the Job Board and find something he can do. He recalled his Grampa talking him that since their in a new world that they won't be able to stick by eachother all the time so it would be better if they went out on their own at times, Ben smiled at the memory.

As he stepped over to the board, nothing seemed to stand out to him and after a few moments of looking, he slumped down in defeat before a small glimmer caught his eye.

"Hello..." He said as his eyes landed on a piece of paper that he was positive wasn't there before. "When did you get here?" He mumbled as he tugged the paper off the board and began to read it.

Job Request:
Explore the Diathon Ruins

Reward - 20,000,000 Jewels

Please find Doctor. G. Kirkham for more information.

"So I just have to map out a bunch of old ruins?" Ben muttered as he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Maybe I can get Gwen to come with me..." He thought as he continued to examine the strange request before shrugging to himself, "Welp, might as well do it." He said before cupping his hands together and calling out to his cousin, "Hey Gwen! Come here a second!"

A couple of moments later and a rather ragged looking Gwen came walking over to him, "What is it Dweeb? I'd only just sat down when you called me." Ben lifted the paper for her to see, "Look at this." He said as Gwen read the job.

"And you're telling me this, why...?" Ben sighed as he looked over to her in disappointment. "You're really going to make say it aren't you?" He asked in annoyance as a vindictive smile grew on her face. "You bet I am."

"Ugh, Fine!" He exclaimed before muttering under his breath, "I'm sorry, what was that Ben?" Gwen asked with a cheeky grin on her face, "Could you speak a little louder so I can hear you?"

Ben growled in annoyance, "I said would you like to come help me on this quest!" Gwen smiled as she gently patted him on his shoulder, "Now was that so hard?"

"Yes..."

Gwen humphed in annoyance as she crossed her arms, "So when do we leave?"
...
Two hours later and Ben was seen packing his clothes onto the bagging area of the train before sitting down next to his cousin.

"There all done!" He said happily as he dusted off his hands and placed his feet in the table. Gwen glanced at him in annoyance while she worked on integrating some of the alien batteries into her computer before sighing in defeat. "Ben... A little help please?" She asked as she turned her computer towards him.

"No problem." He replied as he dialed up Grey Matter on the Omnitrix and pushed down the core. With a bright flash of green light, Ben disappeared and in his place stood a miniscule grey skinned alien with big yellowish-green eyes wearing a white jumpsuit with a thin black vertical strip running down the front, the Omnitrix itself was placed firmly on his back.

Grey Matter did a quick look over Gwen's computer before walking up to it, "Ahhh... I see." He began to shift through the computers components, moving and rearranging each piece as he did so, "All we have to do is place this carbonated data receiver here and that mylopian battery charger there and... Done!" He exclaimed as he closed the laptop before transforming back into his original self.

"You're welcome!" Ben said cheerfully as he placed his feet on the table and leaned back.

Gwen scoffed in annoyance as she mumbled under her breath, "I could have done it without your help you know..." Ben smiled smugly at her, "Sure you could." Sarcasm evident in his tone.
...
When the train finally arrived at their destination, Ben practically leapt off if it having grown board from the long trip.

"Finally! I've been needing to stretch my legs for a while now!" He exclaimed in relief as he did a couple of stretches. However, as he did his little exercise he saw a beautiful girl with fair white skin passed by him. Her hair was a long, dark blue that reached down to her waist, with two bangs framing her face which reach down to her chest alongside her brown eyes. She wore a simple dress with two wavy stripes running across the dress and ending in small pointed edges at the bottom. Around her arms and legs she wore wing like attachments.

Behind her walked a small, white cat with pink ears and brown eyes. She, Ben thought she was a she, also had two whiskers on each side of her face. The cat wore a pink bow near the end of her tail. Much to his surprise he also realised that the cat was wearing mustard yellow and red top with a pink bow tie with a pink skirt. 'Is she the same species as Happy?' He wondered to himself before slapping himself upon realising that he was staring.

Ben could only stare as the mysterious beauty and her companion disappeared into the crowd as he all but forgot about his little stretching exercise.

'Who was that??' Ben thought to himself, his eyes became half lidded as his mind dropped down into a fantasy with the mysterious beauty while a blush began to form on his face 'She was gorgeous...'

"Hey Ben!" Gwen cried out to him from infront of him, snapping the Omnitrix wielder from his thoughts.

"Gah! Oh, hey Gwen... You been waiting long?" He said whilst trying to cover up his shock. Gwen narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "What were you doing...?" She asked accusingly as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Nothing!" He cried out as he covered his face in embarrassment. Gwen frowned upon seeing his reaction but didn't press on the subject and instead grabbed him by the wrist. Sighing to herself, Gwen then proceeded to forcible drag her cousin.
...
Stepping out of the station, the pair began to ask around for directions, once they did that the pair then began to explore the town, taking in the sights as they did so with Ben keeping a special eye out for the mysterious beauty he saw at the station.

Eventually after half an hour or so, the pair finally decided to get back on track with the job. Thankfully, with the help of the locals, after asking around for a few minutes, they had finally got a rough idea of where the facility that the client was located in.

Roughly six minutes later, they arrived in front of an office. It certainly wasn't glamorous to say the least but it did give of the feeling of importance simply by looking at it.

Ben noticed that Gwen was looking up at the sign, admiring its simplistic design. "How humble." She mused as Ben read the sign.

'Kirkham's Archeological Foundries'

Looking once more at the paper, the pair made sure that this was the right location before they strolled up to the door but before they could knock, the door opened and out stepped a strange man.

He had raven black hair with it greying on the sides and he had wrinkles on his face. From what Gwen could tell, he appeared to be wearing a white lab coat with brown and black pouches alongside a gold trim underneath it was a black turtleneck with a white scarf. From what Ben could see that man was also wearing a brown vest with gold buttons and pouches, a pair of goggles were wrapped around his neck. The most confusing thing about the man was the large metal gauntlet on his right hand and a fingerless glove on his left hand. In addition to that, he was also wearing a black set of pants with brown kneepads.

"Oh I'm terribly sorry, little ones. I almost didn't see you there." The stranger apologised as he stepped around the pair, "I wish I could stay for longer to chat but I'm needed else were." He said before disappearing from their view.

The pair looked at each other in confusion, "What was that about?" Ben asked only to see Gwen shrug before she walked back up to the door and knocked.

A few moments later and a man wearing a stereotypical explorers outfit opened the door to greet them.

"Hello there, can I help you?" He asked in a cheerful manner as he adjusted his glasses.

The two Tennyson's looked at each other for a moment before turning back to the man, "Are you Doctor Kirkham?" Gwen asked causing the man to blink in surprise.

"Yeah that's me, why'd you ask?" He asked as Gwen handed him the paper with the quest. "We're here because of this." She answered as the man looked at them before a look of realisation dawned on his face.

"So you're also here to do the quest? That's brilliant!" He exclaimed before stepping behind them and ushering them into the building, "Come in! Come in!"
...
A few moments later and the cousins were sitting comfortably in what appeared to be the buildings main room, drinking a nice hot cup of tea.

"Mmm, this is so good!" Ben exclaimed as she cupped the side of her face in joy while Gwen continued to talk with Doctor Kirkham.

"Now as I was saying, you're actually the second guild to accept this job." He explained as Ben fiddled with the Omnitrix, completely ignoring the man, "In fact here the come now."

As soon as Kirkham said that, Ben noticed the same mysterious beauty from before step into the room and gasped in shock which his cousin noticed as a sly grin appeared on her face, 'Oh this will be fun.' She thought as she looked at the girl that had caught her cousins attention without even trying.

The girl bowed down as she introduced herself to them, "Hello, I'm Wendy Marvell and it's a pleasure to meet you." She smiled at them causing Ben to blush a bit before he stuck out his hand to greet her.

"You're beautiful..." He blurted out before slapping a hand over his mouth in shock upon realising what he said as his cousin began to laugh loudly behind. Wendy blushed at his complement as she looked him up and down taking in his cute face, 'Wait, cute?!?!'
_______________________________________________
Alright! I think that's a good enough place to end this chapter. I struggled with this, I really did but we got there in the end. I drew a bit of inspiration from Emiyn's Null Fairy for this chapter and I'm hoping I can make them a bit longer than just a measly 1500 words so I'll try and push it up to 2500 or maybe even 3500 but not yet.

I'm trying to fit in as much detail as I can into each chapter as I feel their somewhat lacking as of the moment, I have the ideas all in my head but for the love of God, I just can't find a way to put it into words

But yeah, you may have noticed Prof. Paradox appearing and Wendy has come earlier in the story with Ben immediately becoming smitten with her, Gwen's going to love that.

If you have any questions or suggestions put them here:

Next time: Diathon Ruins

Ben, Gwen and their newfound friends head down to map the ruins of Diathon, what will they find down there? What will happen? An electrifying transformation awaits Ben as he tries to impress the beautiful Wendy Marvell while trying to avoid getting his face scratched off by her feline companion.