Of Sentience and Predator

A1: And Then There Were 20

It grinned at them, Max forming a fist as Gwen just stared in horror. Then it just... laughed before adding, "You should've seen your face, dweeb!"

"Ben?!" both Gwen and Max exclaimed at the same time.

The vampire thing laughed before joyfully chirping, "Yup!"

"I thought they were extinct..." Max whispered, unclenching his fist.

"They what now?" Ben asked, dropping his grin briefly to stare at Max.

"Nothing," Max quickly answered.

Ben tilted his head and looked at Gwen, who shrugged. He then noticed the watch on her wrist before chirping, "You got one too!"

As Ben went up to her, she put her hand over the watch before saying, "Not letting you touch it, doofus. HOW did you get like that?"

"One of the weird shooting stars came towards me and when I went to see what it was, I found this watch thing that jumped onto me, and when I pressed a button in the faceplate side, it popped up and showed a hologram and when I pressed down on the faceplate, I became this!" Ben answered.

"At least you aren't starting a forest fire," Gwen commented, crossing her arms.

"Hey grandpa, you seemed to know what this is, what is it?" Ben asked, looking at the older man and motioning to himself.

"Er, you just reminded me of a legend from Transylvania, that's all," Max explained. Ben squinted his magenta eyes at the man as Gwen raised a brow. A few seconds of awkward silence passed before Max said, "Stay here, I'm gonna check out those crash sites."

Once Max left, a few seconds passed before Ben asked, "He didn't say not to mess with the watch thing, so you gonna see if it also turns you into legends?"

Gwen looked at the watch, quiet.

"Come on, at least admit you're curious about it," Ben chirped, kneeling down to be face to face with her.

Gwen then glared at him before saying, "Fine, but I choose." Ben smiled and jumped back.

"Yup!" Ben grinned, perching on the picnic table.

She looked at the device on her wrist, looking at it. She put a hand on the device, staring at it. Her hand went over a button on the clunky wristband, accidentally pressing it. The faceplate popped up, causing her to flinch. Ben tilted his head, lifting his body up slightly to get a better look at the faceplate.

The faceplate changed to look like a green diamond on a dark grey background with a black silhouette inside the diamond. The silhouette was of a smooth blob thing. She put her hand on the dial and rubbed it, causing it to turn and change the silhouette.

"What did turning the dial do?" Ben asked, leaning his head forward a bit before retreating back so as to not fall off the table.

"I'm not too sure," Gwen replied, staring at the flaming humanoid silhouette. She turned the dial in the same direction, the silhouette changing to that of a dog-like creature. Turning it again changed it to a bulky humanoid figure. "Instead of a hologram, it's just showing me a silhouette and when I turn it, the silhouette changes."

"You think if I do the same with mine the hologram will change?" Ben wondered, lifting a hand to tap the symbol on the metal bit.

When the vampire-like tapped it, a robotic voice said, "Quick-change is disabled. Early timeout is disabled. Eight Earthen minutes remaining."

Gwen stared at the symbol, while Ben did his best to look at it. "... what?" Ben questioned after a second of silence.

The robotic voice then repeated, "Quick-change is disabled. Early timeout is disabled. Eight Earthen minutes remaining."