Chapter 1: Ben Tennyson: Origin
-Earth-B1-
-Early 21st Century-
-City of Bellwood-
Earth was still adapting from the revelations from a few months back, those being the existence of aliens, outer world threats, magic, a secret organization that protected the planet and a great young hero. Aliens have been accepted to live among humans and the once secret organization that has now been made public, called The Plumbers, have been acting to best adapt human society to merge with all alien cultures, but that was a job easier said than done...
In a busy street, five men were running away from police sirens while carrying bags on their shoulders. Two of those men were not human, but alien. A Planchakule: a really short gremlin with red skin wearing a black mask and a Merlinisapien: a big anthropomorphic salamander with a large belly.
-"Come on you big lizard! The sirens are getting louder!" said a human to the large salamander, who grunted and increased his pace to catch up.
One of the humans spoke through his radio -"JZ, start the car!"
But he got nothing in response. -"JZ, you hear me?!" the man asked again. Still nothing. They all turned the corner on the alleyway the getaway car was supposed to be and saw that the driver, JZ, was unconscious leaning on the car.
-"What the hel-" Before they could question the situation further, one of them dropped to the ground hard. The team leader turned back and saw the Merlinisapien pointing a laser gun at him.
-"Sorry Raf, but we'll be taking the money from here." Raf and the other guy brought their hands up once they saw a blue monkey with four arms, an Arachnichimp, pointing three pistols at them while grabbing the money bag off their friend. -"Don't take your eyes off them, Zebrac." said the salamander to the monkey.
-"I knew I couldn't trust you alien freaks!" Raf shouted.
-"It was just a matter of time before you backstabbed us as well my human friend." said the Planchakule, giggling.
Before any of them could say another word, the Merlinisapien was knocked back to the wall with such force that he passed out. Nobody knew what the heck had happened, but they didn't have enough time to think about it as Zebrac was also knocked away. The two human robbers thought that they were seeing ghosts punch them.
A second later, they were also on the ground. The little red alien gremlin was scared. He didn't know what to do, so he grabbed a money bag and tried to get in the car. But before he could, he too, was punched away from the car, but he was still conscious. He looked up and the last thing he saw was a black and blue blur coming at him. Then got knocked out as well.
Right as the police arrived at the scene, they were shocked to find all 7 robbers tied together on the ground, unconscious.
-"What happened to them?!" One of the officers asked.
Before his partner could respond, he saw a note attached to the rope. He grabbed it, read it and simply gave it a small laugh.
-"They must have been new here..." he handed a note for his partner to read as well -"...because it looks like they just met the hero of the city."
Speaking of said hero, he was at this moment, taking a very much needed break at his house, sitting down on the floor to play videogames, while leaning on his bed. He was wearing his signature green jacket with white lines on his right arm and the number "10" imprinted on it in white, along with a black t-shirt, blue jeans and black and white sneakers. He had short brown hair and green eyes. This young man was Ben Tennyson.
*sigh* -"Man, why are these video games so hard nowadays?" said Ben.
A new voice responds: -"Maybe you just lost your touch."
-"Ha-ha, really funny Gwen. So how's your college going?"
The scenery then changes to a college door room. The new voice was revealed to be Gwen Tennyson, Ben's cousin, whom he was speaking through the phone with. She was wearing a white shirt under a dark blue sweater, black stockings under a black mini skirt, and black high heels. Just like Ben, she has green eyes, but her hair is long and red. She had just moved in a few weeks ago and still remembers the conversation that she had with Ben, telling him that she and Kevin, her boyfriend and Ben's best friend, were going to college and he would have to continue hero work with the Plumbers alone.
-"Oh it's going well for now. Honor classes are harder than I thought, with the amount of work they throw at us, but I've been able to manage it."
-"No doubt about that ! I know that you're WAY too organized to let some college projects or fast classes affect your mind." Ben responds and giggles. "And how's Kevin?"
-"He's really loving his job and he told me that he may be looking for a promotion real soon. It makes sense since he already was a really good mechanic even before getting a job as one." Gwen said while smiling, proud of how her boyfriend was getting more mature -"He visits me almost everyday, though he has to sneak around to do it, since the dorms are divided by gender. But what about you? How have you been holding up?"
-"I'm doing non-stop hero work almost everyday basically, even if it isn't some big threat like Vilgax or something."
-"Ben, you need to relax more. You can't overwork yourself like that." said Gwen with a worried look on her face.
-"I know that, but I can't stop. I still feel like... like there's something out there."
-"That's why The Plumbers are there for, to protect the people. I know it's hard, but you don't have to worry about everything anymore. Vilgax is in prison, Dagon is dead, Aggregor is in the Null Void and the Ultimatrix was destroyed. You can relax more. You can actually be a teenager now."
The scene changes again to Ben's room. Ben stops playing and brings up his wrist, looking at the source of all his adventures and problems, the Omnitrix, a device capable of transforming its user into the peak form of any species it has the DNA of. He thought about the day that Azmuth, the creator of the Omnitrix, gifted him the new one after defeating Vilgax and Dagon. He said that he was working on this one after Ben got the prototype 6 years ago. This new Omnitrix resembles a digital wristwatch and has a white, green and black color scheme. The faceplate is black with two green stripes forming an outline for the hourglass of the intergalactic peace symbol, also known as the Plumber's symbol. Even though he was already used to his new watch, Azmuth said that there were many functions he still needed to unlock. But what stuck to Ben was that, as a way to thank Azmuth for his gift, he needed to keep doing the right thing.
-"I'm not asking for you to stop being a hero, just to... take a step back."
-"I... I'll think about it." Ben says.
Just then, the Omnitrix starts beeping, indicating someone from the Plumbers is calling him.
-"INCOMING CALL FROM MAX TENNYSON." said the interface of the Omnitrix with Ben's voice.
-"Oh, sorry Gwen, Grandpa is calling me."
-"A new mission already ?"
-"Probably. Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'll call you back when I'm done with it."
-"Ok, just be safe alright ?"
-"Gwen, you know me." Ben said with a smirk on his face.
-"Yeah I know." said Gwen while rolling her eyes -"Now go on, they need you."
-"Alright, say hi to Kevin for me. Bye!"
Ben hangs up the call with Gwen and brings his watch closer to his face.
-"What's up Grandpa ?"
-Plumber's Spaceship-
After receiving the call from his Grandpa Max to go on a mission, Ben went as fast as he could to the Plumber's Headquarters on Bellwood to be on the mission's briefing. He was told that they were picking up weird energy fluctuations along with a large energy source within a planet at a deep part of the galaxy. But that wasn't the reason Ben was so tense about this mission...
-"Grandpa... are you really sure that this came from Vilgax's old base?"
Max, who was wearing his standard black and white Plumber armor with a red circle close to the neck and was equipped with the standard Plumber weapon, the Mark 12 Techadorian Multiblaster, responded: -"Yes Ben. I know you're worried, but we arrested Vilgax, remember? This is not his doing"
-"If you're so confident, then why bring me with you?"
-"Because there still might be a chance of one of his associates or his allies coming up with a plan to free him from prison. Or someone trying to get his technology. And you are one of, if not, the best fighter for this occasion. But also..." Max put his hand one his grandson's shoulder. -"I feel like you need closure. You're worrying so much about your big bad guys, even after we dealt with them that I thought that seeing how Vilgax's empire was dismantled, it would help calm your mind."
-"And what if it IS one of his old allies ?" Ben asked.
-"Then you can help kicking his ass and putting him away for good too!" Max gave Ben a kind smile.
Ben retributed the smile and hugged Max. -"Thanks Grandpa, you always know how to cheer me up."
Max hugged Ben as well. Then his Plumber badge went off with a message -"We are approaching the base." said the pilot.
Ben and Max went to the ramp at the back of the ship and met with the other Plumbers who were joining them on the mission. There were about 8 Plumbers besides the pilot and them. After the ship landed everyone got out and they found themself in the door for Vilgax's Underground Base. They hacked the door panel and the door opened without much resistance, but they realized that no alarm was triggered. The group then found themselves in a corridor with a big elevator at the end. They got to the elevator and started going down.
After going down a bit, Max looked at everyone -"Okay, stop here, this is the floor that the anomaly was. Molly..." he looked at a female Plumber with short light brown hair and blue eyes -"You go with Ben to investigate this, while me and the rest go to the next floor and search for that power source."
-"Yes, Magister Tennyson!" said Molly in a confident tone, though Ben could hear a bit of worry in her voice... along with a little bit of a southern accent.
He nodded at her and turned to Ben -"See what you can find there and be careful."
-"Of course Grandpa, you too."
-"Alright everyone, eyes open! Stay sharp!" Max said.
After all was set, Ben and Molly left the elevator and went searching for the mysterious anomaly, while Max's team went down to search for the powerful energy source. They were now on a floor bigger than normal, it felt like there was only this giant room on this floor. Weirdly enough, as soon as they stepped foot on the floor, the lights in the middle of the room turned on, forming a single line of sight leading to the end of the room, while the rest of the place was still dark. The ceiling was very tall and the length of the room appeared to go forever, almost like a giant underground warehouse. But Ben noticed something unusual about, not just the floor, the whole base itself, and when he saw the room of the anomaly, he became more worried than before.
-"There's no one here." Ben pointed out.
-"Why is that?" Molly asked.
-"I don't know, but we gotta move further in. Where was the anomaly spotted?"
Molly grabbed her badge and looked at it -"The last time we picked it up, it appears that it came from that thing." she said while pointing at a big structure covered in sheets at the very end of the room, where the lights stopped at.
Ben and Molly moved further to analyze the structure up close, not letting their guard down, thinking that it could be a trap. As soon as they arrived, Molly grabbed her instruments to see if it was safe to remove the sheets and touch it.
She turned to Ben and said -"Sir, it seems safe."
-"Good. Uhm... Molly was it?" Ben asked.
-"Yes, sir", Molly answered.
-"You don't actually have to call me 'sir', I'm not your superior. Please..." He extended his hand to her -"Call me Ben." He said while sporting a kind smile.
-"Umm, ok... Ben" She was a bit hesitant, but noticed that Ben was just trying to be nice and he did have a point. She shook his hand and said -"I'm Molly Gunther" while also giving a kind smile. -"Sorry, I'm nervous. I just graduated from the academy and it's my first week. Also, I wasn't expecting to meet you today." She said, giving a nervous laugh while rubbing the back of her head.
-"It's okay, it's nice to meet you Molly. And you don't have to worry about anything, it's going to be fine, ok ?" He gives her a comforting smile.
-"Ok." She also smiled.
-"Alright then, let's see what caused all of this trouble." Said Ben, as he pulled the sheets off to reveal the structure.
To their surprise, it appeared to be a big ring that connected to an elevated part of the ground. It was mostly made of black and dark orange parts, but also had some dark gray parts, which Ben knew very well were Vilgax's signature colors for his creations, along with cables connecting to something underground.
-"Doesn't it look like a..."
-"A portal... yeah." Ben said while looking closely at the ''portal'' -'What were you planning with this Vilgax?' He thought to himself.
He then looked at the base of the ''portal'' and noticed something weird.
-"Hey, look at this." Ben showed Molly a few strange markings on the sides.
-"I never saw this kind of marking before." Molly said while she took her data pack and analyzed the markings. To her surprise, the data pack could not identify the markings -"Whatever language that is, it's not on the Plumber database."
-"Now that's not concerning at all." Ben said sarcastically.
-Meanwhile with Max's Team-
Max and his group were walking in a corridor that, by the end of it, had large doors. After approaching the door, they all heard some kind of noise through it and got ready. They decided to split up, with 3 going to the left door and the other 4 going to the right door as they prepared to storm the room.
Max whispered -"Alright, on my mark." The group nodded. -"1... 2... 3!"
All 7 of them broke through the doors and screamed "EVERYONE ON THE GROUND!"
But to their surprise, there was nobody present there. Max searched the room with his eyes, pointing his gun at anything that could get a jump on them. Fortunately, nothing came, so he went to the nearest wall and searched it for some kind of lightswitch, which he found. After turning on the light, they lowered their guns and looked around, surprised that they were in, what appeared to be, a very big control room. There were a bunch of tables with screens merged with them, along with various digital archives. The group all started to look around for the source of the noise. One of the Plumbers in the group went to a table to the left and touched one of the screens stuck to it. It lit up and showed the schematics to some kind of machine.
-"Magister Tennyson, you may wanna see this sir."
Max went to the panel and saw the images on it. -"It seems to be some type of containment module. But for what?"
Before Max could finish his thoughts, panels on the walls started to open up and drones started to fly out of it, but not just any drones, Vilgax's Basic Drones. They were small red and black UFO-shaped drones, who were capable of flight and had several small gray limbs armed with lasers and blades. They could also see 360 degrees due to their movable vision of the shape of their heads. Max and his team immediately went off the offensive and started to shoot the drones as fast as they could, but more were coming out of the walls and the door. Max reached up to his Plumber badge to try to contact Ben.
-"BEN! Can you hear me?!"
-''Portal'' Room-
Ben was still looking at the structure when he heard Omnitrix beeping.
-"Grandpa, is that you? Did you find something?"
The transmission was being jammed and Ben couldn't hear it quite right. -"Ben ! We... at-ack... trap... Vi-gax !"
-"Grandpa! Can you hear me? Grandpa Max!"
Even though he couldn't hear his grandfather responding, he knew what was going on, but he didn't have time to think more of it as suddenly all the room lit up, showing some dust and boxes. The walls from the room started to open and a great number of Vilgax's drones came out of them and started attacking the team.
-"DRONES! Take cover!" Molly shouted and jumped behind some crates for cover and to use them as support for her gun.
Ben took that as his cue to get into action as he hid behind a crate, bringing up the Omnitrix and touching it, popping up its core and revealing its holographic interface, which showed the heads of his alien transformations inside a rotating circle. After searching for some seconds for the right alien, he then found the one he was looking for and greeted it with a smirk.
-"Gotcha!" With a hard slap on the Omnitrix and a flash of green light, Ben had transformed. He was now about 7 feet tall and his skin was now made of durable pale green crystals. He sports six crystal shards on his back, two more on the front of his chest and has a sharp head. His lower body, torso, and the top of his head consisted of purplish dark blue indigo crystal which had black lines and dots over it. His eyes are now green and he wears the Omnitrix symbol on the middle of his chest. With a mighty voice, he announces the name of his Petrosapien transformation -"DIAMONDHEAD!"
He didn't waste any time and joined the fight, firing crystal shards onto the drones, as they came close to him, destroying them almost immediately.
Molly was having a hard time fighting off so many drones. What she didn't expect was one of them sneaking up behind her to attack. But the moment she noticed and turned around to shoot it, she was surprised when it was suddenly hit by sharp crystal shards and blew up. She turned around again and saw big Petrosapien, that she could assume was Ben, running straight to the drone swarm and destroying a bunch of them just using his bare fists. He turns to her for a moment and asks: -"Are you okay Molly?"
She snaps out of her surprised state and answers: -"Yeah I'm fine, thank you for the save there Ben." with a confident smile.
-"No problem. Now get behind me and let's take care of those tin cans!" He raised his arms and transformed one of them into a blade, ready to take on the next wave.
She recharged her gun -"Alright! Let's do it!"
They both charged towards the drones.
-Control Room-
Max and his team continue to fight their enemies, but more just keep appearing from the walls and the doors.
-"SIR! We can't keep doing this for much longer! They're starting to overrun us!" One of the plumbers said.
-"I know! Just keep fighting! Let's form up together and try to reach the door! Maybe then we can esca-" But just before Max could finish his orders to his team, he noticed a small figure sneaking up to reach one of the consoles at the very end of the room.
He recognized the shape of the figure, and with a better look, he realized it was a different type of Vilgax's drones. He was one of his small humanoid regular drones that he used for non-offensive works and as crewmen for his ship. His legs and lower arms were black, along with his entire head, part of his chest and the weird backpack he had. His torso and upper arms were orange. He had 6 yellow eyes with red circles around them, which also were on his black shoulder pads.
The moment he set eyes on the humanoid drone and figured out what he was trying to do, he broke formation and tried to get past the flying drones to get a clear shot at his target.
-"Magister Tennyson! What are you doing?" One of the plumbers screamed at him to try to get his attention, but Max ignored him and continued to blast the drones to reach the one in the console.
But as soon as Max got an opening and aimed his gun at the drone, it was too late. The drone had activated something on the console that made the top part of the wall in front of it open, revealing it to be a big window. At the other side, there was another room, about the same size as the one they were in. But what caught his and his team's attention was the giant containment module at the very middle of the room, with cables connected to it, leading to the floors above it. And in the middle of the module, there was the energy source they were looking for. They couldn't make it out what it was, but it was giving MASSIVE energy bursts to power… something. It clearly was unstable, as the ground started to shake, weird noises came out of the machine and the room was being lighted up by it.
Max looked around and saw most of the drones, including the one that had activated the power source, fled from the room, most likely to escape whatever was going to happen to the base. He grabbed a ship from his belt, put it in the machine and started to copy all the files from it. He tried to contact Ben again, but it was no use. The power source was starting to damage the controls and the shaking increased. When the chip finished downloading, he unplugged it and warned his team -"EVERYONE GET OUT !" They all started to flee the base as well, going by the corridor and reaching the elevator.
-"Portal" Room-
DiamondHead and Molly were still fighting multiple drones when the ground started to shake. They heard something behind them and turned around to see it. It was the ''portal''. It was charging up and shaking.
-"Can you do something about that?" He asked Molly.
-"I don't even know what ''that'' is!"
-"Ok then, time to improvise." DiamondHead quickly acted and ran to try to break the cables passing the power, but the moment he touched one of them, it repealed him far away and he landed on his back next to Molly. -"I did not like that" he said while rubbing the back of his head in pain.
Just then, the portal finished charging up and ignited with a loud bang. From the empty middle of the ring, now appeared a light and dark blue vortex, with black and white contrasting it as well. It was emitting light and a huge amount of noise. It was also starting to suck in everything close to it, including Molly and DiamondHead.
For their luck, the elevator arrived and from it, came Max and his team, looking at the portal and their teammates.
Max shouted while running up to them -"BEN! MOLLY! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!"
Molly was helping DiamondHead up. -"Ben, we need to go!"
Ben nodded in agreement. But unfortunately, all of the drones left intact, including the ones that were in the control room, were coming straight to Ben. He saw this and pushed Molly aside so that the drones would only hit him.
-"BEN!" Both Max and Molly screamed. Molly tried to aim her gun, but it was destroyed by one of the drones. She was starting to get sucked into the portal as well, but before she did, Max grabbed her and shot a grappling hook to the elevator, so that the other Plumbers could hold both of them in place as they watched Ben.
DiamondHead tried to hold back all the drones, but they all smashed so hard that he lost his balance. The drones took advantage of this, grabbed his legs and started to carry him straight towards the portal. He tried to transform into something else, but he couldn't reach the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. Before he could notice, he was thrown at the vortex, but was able to grab the sides of the portal, trying not to fall into, what could most likely be, his death. But it wouldn't last very long, as he could see the portal starting to crumble and suck itself in, and due to the force of the gravity pull, he could not move an inch further. He realized it was only a matter of time before the portal closed down and he would be cut in half, and he couldn't risk damaging the portal more now, as something way worse could happen, so he chose the next best option -"GRANDPA!"
Max looked at his grandson's eyes, knowing what he was about to do -"BEN, DON'T!"
-"IT'S THE ONLY WAY! I PROMISE I'LL TRY TO FIND MY WAY BACK!"
-"I'LL LOOK FOR YOU!"
-"ME TOO! I LOVE YOU!" And just like that, he let go of his grip on the portal, letting himself fall into the unknown vortex.
Max almost couldn't watch, his grandson lost like he once was, he was almost tearing up. But then he got a hold of himself, took a deep breath and shouted to his teammates "NOW! PULL US!"
They started to pull Max and Molly with all their force, bringing them closer and closer to the elevator until they were right by their side. Max punched the button of the elevator to go up. As they were pulling up, they could feel the ground beneath them crumble, torn apart and sucking in at the portal as well. When they arrived at the surface, they all ran as fast as they could through the front door and onto the ship.
-"Bring us up now!" Max called to the pilot through his badge.
The ship started to take flight, leaving the passengers to witness the destruction of the base from the cargo hold before the ramp closed down.
-Control Room-
The energy source was getting out of control and it started to destroy it's containment unit, along with it's room and the control room as well, causing all the computers to short circuit and explode.
-Portal Room-
The portal destabilized so much, that it broke itself, leaving a ball of blue light floating on it's place and it started to pull everything from a 1 mile radius into it with such great force and velocity.
-Plumber's Ship-
They could only watch as the whole base and part of the planet's terrain started to implode onto itself, leaving only a giant crater in its place, almost like nothing was ever built there.
Molly saw the crater and felt sadness and guilt on her, but she then felt a hand on her shoulder, Max's hand.
He looked right at her -"It's okay Molly. I know that Ben's okay. He's been through worse."
-"Are you sure?"
-"Of course. We're going to be looking for him as well."
She felt some relief and went to leave the cargo hold. Max continued to look at the destruction and thought to himself -'I really hope you're okay Ben, wherever you are.'
The ramp closed and the ship headed off into deep space.
-Vortex-
DiamondHead was falling quickly through the strange blue, white and black vortex he had entered just a few moments ago. The only thing that was there was his screaming.
-"AAAHHHHHHHH!"
He looked behind him and saw the pieces of the base that were sucked along as well, started to come at him like projectiles.
-"Woah! Ahh! Oh God!" He started to dodge as best as he could, but it was hard considering there was no gravity applied in this place.
Ben felt his body starting to get... weird. He looked at his hands and saw that they were splitting into four, each a different color, as if every atom of this body was splitting and rearranging themselves. He started to get fuzzy, his mind was trying to comprehend what was happening to him. His head spinning, his eyes rolling. Before he could even say a word, darkness consumed his mind and he blacked out.
-Unknown-
"."
".."
"..."
Ben started to wake up, laying on the ground, now back to his normal self. He rubbed the back of his head in pain and slowly sat on the ground.
-"Ugh... I must have transformed back while I was out." He noticed that he landed on the back of an alley and looked around to see if there was someone nearby, but no one was there, he only saw a few pieces of metal which he could only assume were from the portal. He got up and walked to the entrance of the alley. While he knew that he was in a city, he didn't know which one.
-"Ok, I'm not in Bellwood anymore. No need to worry Ben, at least you are on Earth..."
Then he saw some weird looking couple walking on the street. The man had three pointed stars on the top and sides of his bald head and the woman had dog ears instead of human ones.
-"...I think."
Ben brought the Omnitrix to his face and spoke to it -"Omnitrix, call Max Tennyson."
The watch responded with the usual copy of Ben's voice -"UNABLE TO CONTACT. PLUMBER BADGE NOT FOUND."
-"What? Call Gwen Tennyson."
-"UNABLE TO CONTACT. PLUMBER BADGE NOT FOUND."
-"Call Kevin Levin!"
-"UNABLE TO CONTACT. PLUMBER BADGE NOT FOUND."
-"GAH!" Ben kicked a cardbox nearby out of frustration. He took a breath and calmed down a bit. "Okay, I can just go back to the Plumbers' HQ anyway"
-"WARNING! MULTIPLE NEW LIFEFORM DNAs DETECTED."
Just then, an explosion was heard in the distance and he saw people were running away from it.
-"Ok, this can wait, right now... IT'S HERO TIME!"
Chapter 2: Hero From Another World
-Unknown City-
Confusion was the only thing in Ben's mind at the moment. The more he ran in the street, the more confused he got. The buildings and the environment looked from Earth, but the people were... strange, if that was the right word. Most of them looked human enough, but some had distinct features, like blue skin, animal body parts, unusual things for hands, etc. But the actual weird thing about it is that he didn't recognize any of them as alien species. -'Maybe that's why the Omnitrix keeps saying there's new species in the area'. So either there's a full catalog of aliens that came JUST to this modern city and both them and the city hid it all from the world, or they were something else. But he shouldn't pay much attention to that at the moment. Right now, he has a job to do.
As Ben arrived at the explosion site, he saw that it looked like a gas station where the bombs had clearly been what had exploded. Unfortunately he couldn't arrive any sooner since he was locked out of the Omnitrix while it was still analyzing the DNA in the area. Ben heard someone coughing inside the gas station's smoke and spotted a 50-something looking man stepping out of it. Taking priority, Ben ran to help the man.
-"Are you okay?" Ben asked worriedly, helping the man to get away from the smoke and sit on the edge of the sidewalk.
-"Yes... I'm fine, thank you my boy." he said, still a little breathless.
-"What happened ?"
-"Three thieves... They wanted the money from the register. I managed to press the emergency button to call for help and I kept trying to stall until the police or some local hero arrived..."
Ben wondered in his mind if heroes were common here in this city and if they would know who he was. They should know him of course, he was the most famous hero in the world for a reason, but decided not to ask the man that as he had more important matters at the moment. The young man then went back to paying attention to the man's explanation.
-"...But they realized that and their leader used his quirk and tried to shoot me. I figured that out and dodged it in time, but I think the bullet ricocheted behind me and hit one of the gas pumps. Luckily the explosion didn't knock the store down on my head."
-"He used his what?" Ben asked, confused. But before the man could explain further, the two heard sounds of someone coughing and getting up. It was then that, with the smoke already clearing, they saw the three thieves getting up and recovering from the explosion. As the store clerk said, the group wearing face masks were being led by a guy bigger and stronger than the other two put together. Definitely enhanced or a mutant.
Instantly, Ben drew their attention to him. -"Hey!"
The three raised their heads and saw the teenager calling them. They started to realize what happened and instantly tried to run away from the scene.
-"Come Back here!" Ben screamed at them, but they ignored him. He went back checking to see if the man was okay enough to leave him while he went to chase and catch the robbers and asked: -"Was anybody else in the store with you?"
-"I don't think so, no, just me and the thugs."
-"Alright, you stay here, I'm gonna ask for help..." Ben got up and looked at the end of the street where the thugs were running at: -"... and caught those guys."
The man heard him say that right before Ben started to run and tried to stop him -"Wait what? Don't go after them! Wait here for a Hero to show up!". It was useless, Ben had already made up his mind, and nothing was going to stop him now.
Meanwhile on the thug side of things, who stopped running after a while to make sense of the situation and try to decide what to do next:
-"I told you we should have gone after a simple store!" screamed one of the robbers, who had red hair, at the other.
-"Everyone knows that gas stations have the most money due to the prices!" argued the other one, with blue hair.
-"But everyone pays with their cards, not their fluid money!"
-"And the people that go to the simple stores don't?!"
-"SHUT UP! Both of you are idiots!" The big guy had enough and shouted at the two. He was almost the size of two men. Weirdly enough, in the place of his right forearm and hand, was a rotating gatling gun. They had all taken their masks off to catch some air and you could see a small scar on his chin. "Let's just get out of here before a Hero shows up!" All three of them started moving again, making turn after turn on the roads and alleys.
-"Or before you get angry and shoot someone again..." whispered the redhead.
-"If you keep talking, that might be you!" The big guy shouted, getting frustrated already.
As soon as the three turned another corner into the alleyway, they heard a voice shouting at them from behind. "HEY!"
They all turned back and saw a teen, no more than 16 years old, standing on the exit of the large alley they just went from.
-"You boys really need to learn not to shout when trying to run away." said Ben sporting a smirk on his face while crossing his arms on his chest.
-"HAHA!" laughed the big one out loud, clearly not knowing who he was dealing with -"You think you're hot shit, don't you boy? You ain't no hero, don't try to stop us!"
Right then, the Omnitrix returned to its natural green color. While still not in a fight, Ben took the opportunity to put to rest a question he had since dropping in this city...
-"Do you know who I am?" Ben points to the symbol on his watch: -"And do you know what this symbol is?"
-"What?" The big guy asked, confused -"I have never seen you in my life! Nor that green symbol, whatever it is!"
Ben looked at the faces of the other two criminals in front of him, and they were just as confused as this guy was. That was all the confirmation he needed to know he was not on his Earth anymore. Either this was an alternate timeline or an alternate universe, maybe even Rex's universe. But no option sounded good for him in the long run.
-"Alright, so how about you stand down peacefully so I don't have to beat you guys up?" Ben asked with a serious face.
There was a pause.
-"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Booming laughs were heard from the three thugs. -"You really think you can beat us, kid? You must have some sort of brain damage! HAHA" said the big man as he continued to laugh.
Ben started thinking about his possibilities in this situation: -'Ok, he has a gun for an arm, that's probably what he used to shoot the clerk. What did the man say it was again? A... quirk?' He slightly shook his head to focus -"Doesn't matter right now, I need to choose someone very strong and bulletproof just in case".
-"Well... I tried to argue" said Ben with a smirk. He brought his hand to the Omnitrix, opening it's face plate, rapidly choosing the alien he thought the best and slapping the watch.
The three thugs had to cover and close their eyes for a moment due to the immense green light emanating from the boy. When it died down, what they did not expect to see in the young man's place was a tall red creature with four arms. He was almost twelve feet tall with red skin, has four green eyes to go along with his four very muscular arms. He was also wearing a black tank top-like shirt with one large green stripe in the middle, black pants, a green and white belt where the watch's symbol was located, and black fingerless gloves with green cuffs at the wrists. The creature shouted his name to incite fear into the criminals in front of him: -"FOUR ARMS !"
-"So..." The Tetramand form of Ben slapped his fists into the palms of his hands, generating a thunder sound to get the attention of the thugs. -"Which one of you want to go first and show me what this world's criminals got ?" He smirked at them.
The big man shook his head to get out of the shock -"SO WHAT?! Just because you got a good quirk you think you can play hero with us kid?!" He shouted while slowly approaching Four Arms, who tensed up, ready to fight him. -"Let me tell you something kid! If you even think I'll let some wannabe Hero throw me back to jail..." He started raising his felt arm up, preparing a punch -"Then you have NO IDEA WHO YOU'RE MES-" SMASHHH!
Whooooooosh, CRASSHHH!
Ben didn't even let the man finish his sentence before punching him with his two right hands straight in the face, with enough force to throw him until he crashed to the wall at the other side of the alley!
His two friends were stunned beyond belief! They didn't know what to do against someone that strong! They kept looking between Four Arms and the groaning body of their leader. Eventually, the one with red hair took action and... aimed his hair at Ben. Out of the hair, hot lava started shooting from it going straight for Ben, but with quick reflexes he was able to dodge it.
-"Lave hair? That's a new one." Ben stomped, sticking his foot on the ground and clapped with both pairs of his arms, creating a shockwave that sent the lava guy crashing into the same wall as the big one.
-"HEY!" The blue haired guy screamed -"That was my brother! Take this!" He aimed his hair at Four Arms as well and started shooting high-pressured water at the alien. But just as Ben expected, it didn't do much, it wasn't even as powerful as Water Hazard's pressured water. The Tetramand simply raised one of his arms to block the water while walking closer to the thug. When he was closing in, he saw that the lava guy was getting up as apparently that shockwave wasn't enough to take him out.
Groaning, the lava hair thug stood up and saw that his brother was easily getting overpowered by Four Arms, so he did the only thing he could and prepared to shoot his lava at him. Unfortunately, Ben saw it coming from a mile away and already had an idea. As soon as the lava started coming at him, Four Arms grabbed the water guy really fast by the torso and aimed his head at the lava, making the water collide with it and even continued going, generating a massive curtain of steam between Ben and the Lava guy.
The red haired man screamed when the water hit his head due to how fast it was going. His hair was now trapped in a thin coat of solid rock. And he couldn't see anything beyond the steam even when squinting his eyes. Before he knew it, something large was thrown at him at such a high speed that he didn't even had time to react to it. He was sent crashing into some nearby trash cans, hitting his head hard on them and rendering him unconscious.
Four Arms got close to the man to see if he was down and smirked as soon as he saw him on the ground, and right beside him, his own brother with some of his hair missing due to some of the lava having landed on it while still hot.
-"I knew it would work!" Ben raised his fist in victory. But it was short lived as he heard some rumbling behind him and saw that the big man, their leader, was getting up and ready for a fight.
He got up and dusted off his clothes -"You think you can knock me out that easily huh?" Even though he said he was tough and looked a little dazy, he looked Ben straight in the eyes -"But I'm not like those two idiots!" and raised his right arm, the one with the gun aiming right at Ben -"I actually trained for this kind of fight! TAKE THIS!"
Four Arms instantly made an X with his arms, right when the gun of the large man's arm started to actually fire bullets from it!
Lucky for Ben, Four Arms had bullet-proof skin, but he could still feel the pain from the bullets... as little as it was.
Four Arms then stomped hard on the ground, creating a big shockwave, just enough to actually lift some of the cement off and to disbalance the leader so he could fall.
-"You may have trained for this..." He stuck all his hands on the ground that was loose and started pulling on it, with enough strength to rip a large boulder and lift it over his head -"... but I nothing beats experience!"
And he threw the boulder at the man, hitting him right in the head first, making him go flying again to the wall, destroying it completely and burying the guy in a pile of bricks and cement.
-"Oops! I might have gone overboard a little." Ben went to check if he was alright and sighted as soon as he heard a groan.
-"Oh thank goodness." He looked inside the wall he had destroyed and saw it was the corridor to an apartment building, and there was one old lady looking at him with fear.
Four Arms tried to calm her down -"Sorry for the mess ma'am, didn't mean to disturb you" he awkwardly said while scratching the back of his head.
-"You!" he heard someone from behind him. Ben turned around and saw a man whose arms were made out of wood, with a wooden mask covering his face with only his eyes visible. He was also sporting a dark blue bodysuit and large wooden shoes and belt.
The man spoke in a demanding tone of voice -"Surrender now villain, before I make you."
Ben wasn't really sure who this guy was, but from the sound of it, he could be one of the heroes this world has. Trying to defuse the situation, Ben opted to talk to him: -"Look, this were the bad guys, I was just stopping them." He pointed at the two brothers on the ground. -"Maybe we can talk this ou-"
The hero interrupted -"If you really are a Pro Hero, probably a new one since I've never seen you before, could I see your license ?" He questioned, still very much prepared to fight the four-armed man.
-"Uhmm... a license?" Four Arms asked while scratching the back of his head. -"OH, of course!" He said trying to play it off. -"You see I uh... forgot mine... at home. If you let me explain it, maybe go run and grab it, then we can forget this whole thing?"
Ben really hoped that excuse was believable enough for the pro hero. Unfortunately for him, that's not how things worked here.
-"If you don't have a license, then either you're indeed a villain or an illegal vigilante." said the hero. -"In which case..." he got into a fight stance "...I'll have to bring you in nonetheless!"
Before Ben knew it, the Pro Hero produced tree branches from his arms that wrapped around Ben to capture him. But Four Arms is way stronger than people realize and with some effort broke free from the wooden prison. He didn't waste any time and started running away from the scene, not wanting to beat up a hero in the first hour of being in this new world. He already committed that mistake once.
The Pro Hero immediately started chasing him 'I need to get this guy off my trail, I don't want to end up in a prison. Or in Area 51'. Ben kept running, going from alleys to streets, eventually crossing roads, but the hero was still following him. To have more of an advantage, he jumped into the air high enough to safely land on a rooftop.
Four Arms continued jumping, each jump allowing him to cross full city squares in distance, from rooftop to rooftop, rarely looking back to see if the hero was still behind him. After a great distance and what it felt like ten minutes, Ben saw that no one was chasing him anymore. He took a moment to relax, but it really only lasted a moment.
BOOOM!
Just when Ben thought that he was safe from the wood man, a new guy landed right in front of him, cracking the ground a little. He was a very large man, extremely buff, even more so than Four Arms, with a well-defined physique. He had short blond hair, swept backwards, with two distinct tuffs that stick up above his head. He was wearing a largely blue bodysuit with red and white accents, while his sleeves and boots were gold in color.
This... mountain of man looked at Four Arms with a wide smile -"Well, well, well! You seem to be running from something, may I know what it is?"
His voice boomed, radiating confidence and power in a scale that Ben has ever seen once or twice in all his life! He was shocked by this, presumably, "human" man, though not for a long time, since the whole situation got interrupted when the Omnitrix started beeping and flashing red.
-"Oh no." Were the only words that could come out of him before a great red light erupted and he transformed back into his true form.
The new guy closed his eyes and used his hands to block the sudden flash of light, but as soon as he opened them, what was in front of him was not the tall creature he had seen moments before, but a teenage boy with a green jacket and blue pants.
Confused, he asked -"Were you the one causing trouble at the gas station? You're just a kid, shouldn't you be in school to make better use of your quirk?"
Ben could only stare at the man with a growing frustration with the Omnitrix impeccable sense of bad timing. Looking better at him now, he recognized the man from a few posters he glimpsed while running towards the gas station. 'So he's a famous hero. Let's see if this one can help me,' thought Ben.
He took a deep breath -"So... hi. I know you're probably just as confused as I am right now. I don't know where I am exactly, I just saw an explosion, some robbers and I couldn't simply ignore it. I'm sorry for any trouble I've caused, I just want to go back home."
A little confused by the teen's answer, the hero asked: -"What is your name, young man?"
-"Ben. Ben Tennyson."
'An American name' The hero thought -"Do you know the name of this city?"
Ben shook his head -"No. I just kind of... woke up in here."
The large man stared intensely at the boy in front of him, analyzing to see if he was lying or not, before giving his honest answer: -"Hmm, alright, I can take you to a police station, I know someone who can help."
While Ben didn't exactly vibe with the idea of being questioned by the police, since the Omnitrix decided to time out and he was sure he couldn't outrun this man, there weren't a lot of options right now.
With a heavy sigh, Ben agreed to be taken.
-"Well, alright, but can we keep this on the down low? I don't want the news involved."
The hero raised an eyebrow -"Why not?"
-"I... have my reasons. I can explain it at the station." said Ben, hoping to have more time to actually think of a cover story.
It seemed to work, as the man paused for a few seconds and put his hand on his chin to think it over, but did agree to it.
-"Fine. But I cannot control the press if they do see you."
Ben sighed in relief, glad that the hero could help him without attracting attention to himself. -"Thank you hmm...sir. What was the name again?"
The behemoth of a man then got closer to the young hero, extended his hand and bent his legs. -"My name's All Might, and I'm the number 1° Hero! Now let's go!"
Ben wasn't sure what the large man was going to do, but he took his hand, feeling he could trust this guy.
-Police Station-
What the young hero did NOT expect however was to literally be carried by the large man while he jumped in the air to the station. But Ben got used to it after the initial shock, since he himself was used to flying, or in this case jumping really REALLY far.
When they landed, Ben finally saw what he assumed was the name of this city on the police station sign: "MCPD: Musutafu City Police Department"
He definitely never heard of a city called "Musutafu", and he would have if there were as many aliens on here as there were on Bellwood. IF they are aliens to begin with.
All Might then escorted Ben to a back door. While doing so, he pulled out his phone and typed into it, indicating he's messaging someone. They entered the building and All Might led the boy inside an interrogation room. While Ben hesitated a bit on entering, he still went inside and sat firmly on the chair, waiting on the man the pro hero had called, while said hero was leaning on the wall.
-"Don't worry young man, the officer I called is the best I know." The hero said in a comforting manner.
That did not put Ben's mind at ease however.
Maybe 10 minutes passed when the door opened and from it came a tall man with black hair and rectangular black eyes. He was wearing a tan overcoat and matching hat. Underneath the coat, he wore a black suit and a green tie.
The man looked at All Might and asked -"Is this the boy that caused all the trouble?"
Ben looked almost offended by the question! -"HEY! I didn't cause ANY trouble, I just stopped some robbers from escaping!"
The new guy saw All Might nodding. He sat in front of Ben, opened a paste, took his pen and started writing on it. -"Hello." His voice was calm and collected. -"I'm Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, from the Mustafu Police Department. And you are?"
-'A detective? Shit, I thought he would just call in a regular officer. I have to be even more careful with what I say now.' Ben thought. He couldn't reveal so much about himself, ESPECIALLY that he was from another universe, they probably wouldn't believe that and just try to throw him out into a psych ward. Or worse. This wasn't like Rex's Earth. This universe had WAY more superheroes than Rex's and Ben really didn't want to fight his way out against multiple fellow heroes.
-"My name is Ben Tennyson."
-"How old are you?" asked Naomasa.
-"I'm 16 years old."
-"Alright…", the detective dropped the paste and looked right at Ben. -"I am told you have something to explain about the situation regarding the explosion at the gas station?"
Ben lit up his eyes and looked at him with a more determined expression -"YES!" He took a deep breath and started explaining it all: "I was near the gas station when it blew up. I ran to check to see if anyone was hurt and I found the cashier. I helped him up, asked what happened and he told me that three guys were robbing him." Ben pointed to his arm -"One of them had a gun for an arm and apparently he shot the cashier, but the bullets ricocheted and hit the open gas pump. I saw the three guys running and chased them to a corner. They weren't going to surrender so I used my… power to knock them out, very easily by the way, but a soon as I was finished with them, this other guy, I think he was a hero-"
The detective interrupted Ben: -"Wait, are you talking about Kamai Woods? He was close to the scene and I just got a call from him, reporting chasing one criminal or vigilante across the rooftops.
Ben threw his arms up and exclaimed -"YEES! That was me! But I'm not a criminal, I just stopped those guys and he tried to arrest me because I didn't have, what he called, a hero license!"
-"Well, you're not from this city are you?"
-"No. I… I'm kind of lost here."
-"Are you perhaps from the U.S.?" The detective guessed from the American name.
-"Yeah, from… a very small city there." 'So far, so good' Ben thought.
-"Do you know how you got here? Perhaps a criminal in your city had a teleportation quirk?"
The young hero looked at the detective almost in a grateful way, he just gave Ben the perfect excuse to this whole thing! -"Y-Yeah! That was it! Some weird guy with portal powers. I was fighting him and his gang. He must have sent me here to get rid of me."
Naomasa raised an eyebrow at the young man. -"Do they have different laws in your state? For you to be fighting crime without a license."
Ben rubbed the back of his head, trying to think of an excuse. -"W-Well, it's a very small city. Very Secluded. The laws are a little different."
Unfortunately for Ben, what he didn't know was that Detective Naomasa also had a power. The power that allowed him to become the great detective that he is today.
The power to know when someone is lying.
He's been using it since he entered the room and right now, he knew Ben lied to him. He wasn't from a small town, nor was he fighting a villain with teleportation abilities, or any kind of villain. He was hiding something, either to protect himself or someone else. Naomasa would get to the bottom of this and he would have to pressure the boy to do so.
The man turned around and looked intensely at All Might for a few seconds.
All Might seemed to get the message. The boy was lying and Naomasa needed some help to see what he was hiding.
The hero stood beside the detective, looking sternly at the boy. -"My young man… I think it's better if you tell the truth."
-"W-What do you mean?"
-"We can see that you're lying." said Naomasa -"We just want to help, but we can't do that if you don't tell us how you really ended up here."
Ben didn't really have an answer for that. How did they find out? Was he that bad at lying or just really nervous at the moment? He didn't know. Maybe he just sounded too uncertain about the story.
-"I'm telling you the truth, I swear!" Ben exclaimed, trying to make them believe his cover story as much as possible -"What do you want me to say here?!"
-"The truth." said Naomasa with conviction; -"About why and how you, an American kid speaking perfect Japanese, ended up being chased for not having a hero license after stomping three criminals with ease."
-"Wait, Japanese?! Am I in Japan right now?!" Ben didn't even realize that he was speaking another language, for him, everyone was speaking english. It must have been the universal translator on the Omnitrix doing it for him.
The big hero then spoke, with a soft and concerned tone -"Please, young Tennyson. We just want to help you."
Ben was conflicted. Stuck at a stalemate. He didn't want to fight or run from these two, that would just paint a target at his back for the whole police to shoot at. He did that with Rex and his team, and the only thing it created was trust issues. If he wanted to get back to his own world, he needed people he could trust and an ACTUAL cover story this time if needed.
The teenager carefully looked at the two men in front of him that were just trying to be nice. A hero and a police detective were a good pair to start learning about alternate worlds. He made up his mind.
-"Alright… I'll tell you the whole truth. But please, you HAVE to believe me. It will sound absolutely insane, but just… trust me please."
The young hero was practically begging them to keep an open mind.
Both adults looked at each other with concern. They thought that if this teenager was so scared to reveal what actually happened, then it couldn't be anything good.
They looked back at Ben, and the detective spoke with confidence: -"Whatever it is Ben, I can assure you that we can handle it."
The teen hero however, wasn't filled with confidence. He knew that he was about to tell those two, was going to either rock their worlds or brand him an insane person. There wasn't much of a choice in the matter however, so Ben took a deep breath and spoke…
-"Have the two of you ever heard about the multiverse theory?"