screen and on the back is some kind of solar panel. Looking up I ask. "This is the communicator?"
"Affirmative, if you require aid or information then turn the button a quarter rotation and press it for a second, it will alert me. If the communicator is beeping and the screen flashes then I'm trying to contact you, press the button like I said to accept the transmission" Tetrax explained and I nodded, it seemed simple enough. Tetrax looked at his belt where he'd stored the cube. "Now I have to leave soon, Sixsix will require minor medical aid for his injuries and Kraab will need to be transferred to a cell after his weapons have been taken and his prosthetics repaired"
Grandpa moved forward and held his hand out to Tetrax who understood the gesture well enough to reciprocate the hand shake. "Thank you for helping Ben"
Tetrax nodded. "It was no problem. Originally I wanted to continue my subterfuge against the other bounty hunters as Ben seemed to be winning but then I found him exhausted and judged that it would be a good opportunity to relay information or remove him to safety, having not realized the other two had joined forces and were observing"
Grandpa nodded. "All I care about is you helped him, help us"
"Also I believe you may find this useful should more enemies come after you" Tetrex said after nodding in acceptance at Grandpa, he turned to hand me his hoverboard.
I blinked tilting my head. "You said you needed this for transportation, if you want to leave the planet don't you need it or do you have something else?"
"Minor deceptive disinformation tactics, I have a ship in orbit for planetary travel and a locator beacon on my person, the teleportation system will warp me aboard when signaled" Tetrax took out a small cylindrical trigger with a button on top, presumably the beacon he'd mention. "Farewell and safe travels Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, hopefully we will fight together again someday"
"""Bye!"""
We wave Tetrax away as he presses the button and glows bright blue before disappearing in a pop of displaced air pressure.
Gwen glanced at the hoverboard, deciding it should be a fine time to be a little shit I ask. "What weepy?"
Gwen glared at me. "Why do you get all the cool alien stuff?"
"Because I'm the one they're trying to kill I guess?" I say bluntly on reflex only to continue on as I see her suddenly looking guilty. "Besides I don't see why you're mad, I'm going to be letting you use the hoverboard once I've scanned it to reverse engineer later"
I put an arm around Gwen's shoulder and started pulling her towards the RV. "Come on weepy, I've gotta fix the engine"
"Stop calling me that dork!"
Couple Hours Later
Whistling calmly as Grandpa drove the RV and Gwen played in the back with the hoverboard which I'd already scanned, I was very carefully tuning the last lense of the bracelet I'd made for Gwen, the bracelet was plugged into Gwen's computer where I was carefully editing its internal settings at the same time. It was made to look like a bunch of hexagonal bits of metal put together, hidden between the little bits of metal on one side were the control's and the tops of the hexagons was actually a bunch of carefully made one way lenses.
One small hexagon was a switch, in the middle position it was just a bracelet while left or right it turned on and secured itself to the wrist, left it was on shield mode while right was 'gun' mode. Another hexagon was a dial that spun with really soft clicks to up the strength of the beams, then the final hexagon was a button that could be pressed to fire a single blast or turn on the shield, pressed again to turn off the shield or held down for a beam.
It even has a warning system where the dial will change color depending on the strength level. Clear or no color is the lowest setting and basically a weak punch, green is within safe or light injury level, yellow is where you'll start burning people or busting stuff but shouldn't be immediately lethal, at about three quarters of the way it turns red for 'will kill a bitch. If you go past a full turn to one and a half turns it'll turn purple which is deadly for even something durable like Heatblast or Fourarms.
Finally if you push the dial down slightly and give it one final click it'll turn black, that has five shots or a quarter second beam and if my math is right it'll have enough power to put a foot and a half wide, six inch deep hole in Diamondhead. Though after five shots or a full beam the lenses would literally crack and need to be replaced, though I doubt that would be the problem.
Holding up the bracelet I turn it to gun mode and make sure it's on the lowest setting, aiming it at the bench across from me I press the button.
Vvv~rooch
The pinkish red beam that's fired from the bracelet is almost a buzz hum across the air as it smacks into the bench with a thump, frowning I reach out and the fabric doesn't even feel warm. Well it's non-lethal alright. I then start testing the shield by just turning it on and then checking its integrity using the information it's giving to the computer, five minutes later I turn off the bracelet and start unplugging it from the computer.
"Hey Gwen! I'm finished, come on and I'll explain how it works" I call her over.
"Oh! Alright just a second!" Gwen squints as she slowly lowers the hoverboard down and steps off, the board immediately closing and shrinking into a small disk which she picks up and throws up on the top bunk with the rest of her stuff.
Sitting down next to me I helped Gwen put on the two bracelets I'd made for her, so she could have both a shield and a blaster or two shields if needed, and explained how they functioned, talking quietly as I explained the dial so Grandpa doesn't hear of course.
"Wow Ben" Gwen looks over the bracelets. "Giving me the hoverboard and these awesome brackets? Thanks"
"No problem, just don't hurt yourself please, I'd hate to have to tell Uncle Frank and Aunt Nat that you got splattered because I fucked up" I shrugged trying to sound casually as I looked at the computer.
Gwen punched my shoulder to get my attention and glared at me. "Like I'd want to tell Carl and Sandra that you got shot! Or hell how do you think Grandpa feels?"
Gwen hissed the last part but I shrugged. "Yeah I get that but I'm fine, I can come back from getting hurt, I've got the aliens that let me stay safe when I get attacked and now you've got some protection"
Gwen didn't exactly have a reply but I remember something and turned to the front of the RV. "Hey Grandpa, I forgot to mention that Tetrax told me who hired him and the other bounty hunters!"
I can see Grandpa tenses up. "O-oh? Who was i-it?"
I meet Grandpa's eyes as he looks at me from the rearview mirror, my tone is blunt. "Vilgax, apparently he's an alien intergalactic conqueror who wants the Omnitrix to take over the galaxy"
I don't see Grandpa's reaction because Gwen distracts me by whistling. "Damn, that's not good. Got a plan dork?"
I chuckle and grin. "Yeah I've got a few ideas~"
On The Road/8:34am/Random Texas Road
Vvv~rooch
Plink!
Vvv~rooch
Plink!
Vvv~rooch
Plink!
"Yes! Three bull's-eyes in a row! I'm getting good with this!" Gwen cheered from her seat on the bench.
I was sitting on the bench closest to the RV door and carefully working, Gwen was sitting across from me and using her new bracelets on their lowest setting to shoot past me at empty cans she'd drawn targets on using sharpie and set up around the back of the RV.
Gwen had been putting a lot of effort into practicing with both the brackets and the hoverboard the last couple days, using one of them in some form at least once a day, she'd even discovered that the edge of the bracelet's shield was durable enough to be used as a bludgeon and could dent a trash can like a wooden bat.
While Gwen was going to set up her targets again I was beginning my latest test, I'd spent a day miniaturizing the scanner I'd made previously and hooked up what was basically a bluetooth feature to it, letting it connect to Gwen's laptop from a far, meaning I could take it with me if I had to or just let it sit somewhere and scan without me needing to fuck with it. I'd also finally finished taking apart Animo's fucking deathtrap of an electriction's nightmare, no insulation or circuit breakers, nothing to regulate charges, there where only three basic circuitboards that looked like they belonged to smartphones controlling the whole thing.
Fucking maniac, if I could I'd add 'shoddy workmanship' to his list of charges. Anyway after going over everything, scanning different components, making sure everything was safe and isolating the important components I'd finally figured out what was the main 'generator' for his mutant ray. It wasn't really a generator though and more of a converter, a battery pack fed it energy and it changed it to a different state before then proceeding to feed it to the actual antenna array which then did something that I wasn't exactly sure on.
I'd theorized originally that it was using a form of biologically focused energy but that was just a guess based on what I knew of the original show, what I knew of both how the watch and mutant ray worked and a guess that whatever biological 'omni-energy' the watch used was actually a native form of energy in this universe that anyone could discover and use and not just something Azmuth fucking pulled out of another universe or some bullshit.
So I'd reconstructed the mutant energy converter and wired it up to use as little power as possible, I didn't want it going out of control after all and the scanner was hooked up to keep a consistent read on it. Currently it was obviously getting nothing, I flipped the safety switch and pressed the button to turn on the flow of power, slowly turning the dial I began adjusting the energy going into the converter. After a moment the scanner picked up a change along with the converter itself reporting a successful charge being converted.
Pressing a few keys I set it to run for ten minutes and record the energy readings and data, the scanner was set to basically read how the energy reacted with the different types of energy it used from X-rays to various intensity electromagnetic waves and so on, the computer was also reading the information the converter itself was giving out that would have gone to Animo's equipment, detailing different readouts and properties and such.
The AI matrix would compile it all and give its own separate readout detailing what it had learned and or predicted and it would calibrate itself as it got more information to get even more accurate, all to build a simulated model of whatever an Omni-energy particle would be. So currently I just had to wait.
Standing up I stretched and felt my spin pop satisfyingly. "Ahh~ Whelp just have to wait for that to finish"
Gwen looks up from where she's collecting dented cans off the floor. "Oh? Finally finished with whatever you're doing?"
"Not finished but I'm finally able to start scanning Animo's mutant energy stuff" I reply, going over to the fridge and starting to dig around. "I assume it's something similar to whatever the watch uses to transform me, just more primitive"
Gwen scoffs. "Huh, only took you two weeks, pretty slow for a genius"
I pointed in her direction without looking at her, my tone annoyed. "Don't start that shit again! You do like those bracelets right? Oh hamburgers"
I pull a bag of pre-frozen hamburgers from the freezer and head over to the microwave. Gwen huffs and looks away with an annoyed face. "..Yeah..it's really cool, fine! You do good work"
I smirk as she whispers the last part. Nodding as I throw my frozen food in the microwave and press in the time, I can't help sounding smug. "Damn right, I do the best work. Now go get your hoverboard and I'll get the drones flight system.
Gwen blinked but followed along, I dragged out the box with all the organized stuff inside and I pulled out a main hover machine, starting on plugging in the five components I needed for it to run. Gwen comes back and puts the hoverboard on the bed, before she sits down I point to the microwave which is almost finished. "Hey hey, go get my food"
"Hey!" Gwen huffs. "Why do I gotta get your food?"
"Because assistant, I'm busy getting this plugged in and it'll take longer than the microwave will, also you don't know how to do this thus.." I wave condescendingly in the direction of the microwave.
Grumbling Gwen stomps away, the microwave dinging right as she gets to it almost as if to prove my point, much to Gwen's amusing frustration if her grumbling was anything to go by.
As she sits down next to me I'm just finishing sticking the last component on, it basically looks like a metal cylinder with boxes plugged in and trailing wires. I take a bite of my food and start explaining. "Uggh, you're going to eat that slop? You know how to cook!"
"Okay so the droids bottom half had a lot of different pieces and components that were probably for a ton of different things along with the outer casing which seems to be a type of differently layered steel alloys, but the actual main flight system is just six total parts"
I start pointing out different things. "This main cylinder is the actual projector that is producing flight, I think it's doing it by producing anti-gravity particles but I'm not fully sure, I'm mostly going off how the thing affects its own weight and doesn't seem to have any propulsion. Then you have the battery which is a secondary backup battery I think since it definitely doesn't hold enough power to properly run this thing, these two are seemly mini-computers running prediction simulations on how things will move"
"That circular disk piece on the bottom from the drones housing is a sort of stabilizing nozzle that uses electromagnetic fields to keep the possibly anti-gravity particles in a consistent flow, I've found without it they very quickly repel each other and seem to decay into Higgs Bosons nearly immediately"
"Huh so if we see these guys again we should shoot the bottom part and they'll drop out of the sky?" Gwen says, making me pause, taking a brief moment to think about the placement of different parts, I say in a surprised tone. "Actually they won't drop, they may straight up explode depending on how exactly you hit them, these anti-gravity generators seem to get really unstable if there exposed to temperatures above nine hundred degrees while a charge is going through them"
Gwen glanced warily at the anti-gravity generator but I just waved it off. "It's not dangerous, it's not going to get that hot normally unless it gets shot with something or it's forced to go full power for a few hours, even then I found pieces of what I think was a cooling system so it should be possible to cool it off relatively easily"
I hold up the last part which is a small computer panel with all the parts plugged into it. "This is the cool part though, this is the control board that manages all the other bits. I rigged it up based on some of the busted parts I found"
Gwen furrowed her eyebrows pointed to the flight machine and the hoverboard. "Wait, so is there any difference between these two or something? Or are they just the same thing? Because even if you reshaped the droids antigravity machine it doesn't look like it'd fit inside such a small board"
I nod. "You're absolutely correct, the droid's antigravity machine is heavily souped up to produce as much power as possible while the hoverboard is far more efficient. The hoverboard uses different kinds of crystals that while I haven't tested it yet I assume are probably from Diamondhead's species, they produce hard light crystals as the material that makes up the board when it extends"
Picking up the board I open it up causing the green glowing sheet inside to expand as it deploys, the green hologram looking almost like glass or clear jade but as smooth as a carbon fiber sheet.
"The hard light crystal it creates has a weird electromagnetic effect on itself that produces a very small directional force, a tiny machine in the board meanwhile produces a field similar to the antigravity machine only more self-contained and weaker. Lowering the weight of the board and whoever is riding it while-
"Also creating a small thrust that can quickly build, allowing for high speed while also allowing it to slow down and maneuver quickly by shifting both the electromagnetic field and or adjusting gravity" Gwen interrupts happily, visibly excited at how the board manipulates such a convenient mechanism. Tilting her head Gwen looks puzzled. "..but that makes me wonder why such a big difference? Wouldn't the hoverboards method be way better?"
"Of fucking course not stupid!"
At that I shrugged. "Kind of yes but it would also be really difficult, if I'm right and it uses crystals from Diamondhead then it's a resource that would be very difficult to get often depending on how many of that species there are, whereas everything on the droid is basically common materials and thus way cheaper, also the droid is consistently quick instead of quickly reaching incredibly fast speeds and it's heavy as fuck so it needs a lot of power. There's also the lifting capacity, the board can at most lift a few hundred pounds while the droid is able to lift multiple tons. It's like comparing a luxury sports car going from zero to a hundred in second's to a big semi truck going fifty continuously for miles"
"Ooh" Gwen nods, stealing the remaining half of my burger and starting to eat it.
I glare at her. "Oi! That's my food! Get your own!"
Gwen just smirks and continues to eat, making me huff in annoyance, rolling my eyes as I continue. "Whatever. Anyway with two different versions of antigravity I can use them to sort of figure out the basic mechanics of the technology and if I can figure out the specific energy signature of a antigravity particle I can reverse engineer it and figure out gravitons as well, from there building my own tech and pattenting the concept will be simple"
I look at a suddenly wide-eyed Gwen who realizes what I'm getting at. "W-wait, do you mean-?"
"Yes" I confirm. "By next year we're going to be fuckin rich"
""Yes!"" Laughing delightedly, we grab each other and hug tightly.
…
"Bleh!"
…
Gwen's hold around my middle tenses about the same moment mine does as we simultaneously realize what's happening, very quickly we separate and look away from each other, my ears and Gwen's cheeks a light pink. Coughing I offer. "I'll give you twenty five percent if you act like that never happened"
"Agreed" Gwen nodded glancing at me from the corner of her eye.
"BEN!"
SKreeeeee-cshhh!
""AAAHhhhhhh-!"" "Hahahahahha!"
Grandpa called my name and the RV came to a screeching halt flinging me and Gwen forward, we both yelled in surprise as we rolled and ended up bumping into stuff, groaning ass over teakettle I glance up at Grandpa whos blinking down in surprise at me, "Reporting for duty Sir"
Getting to my feet Grandpa pointed towards a crashed tanker truck, fuel spilling all across the road with people stopped to gawk and a fire burning nearby, the driver looked to be trapped banging on the door. "Ben get ready, if that fuel he's hawling catches fire it'll become a rocket to the moon"
"Shit! On it Grandpa!" I turn and run towards the door, turning the dial to find the right alien.
I kinda remember something or other about Stinkfly's slime being able to both explode and put out fire, probably having something to do between lighting the slime on fire versus using its viscous nature to smother a flame, either way it was my best idea currently.
Opening the door I step out and make sure I'm properly covered so no one can see me then I push down the dial.
Spoiler: Stinkfly
A flash of emerald light and I quickly take to the sky, my wings buzzing loudly as I race over to the crash site from cover while trying to stay as unthreatening as possible. Having four independently moving eyes is weird but at least their proper people eyes or equivalent instead of a bunch of bug like panels or some shit.
I feel my eyes shift as they're floating in a slimy oil, the 'tear ducts' opening and the eyeballs moving back protectively before Stinkfly's slime shoots out of my eyes to cover the flames, very carefully covering everything I can. It feels insanely weird but also natural, like focusing and unfocusing your vision, if you can do it you understand the muscle involved but if you can't then you will never 'get it'.
Once each of the flames is put out I slowly fly over to the truck cabin and set myself down, the sharp end of my tail is easily able to pierce and tear open the roof of the Semi like a can opener. Pulling open the roof I carefully back away seeing the panicking driver, not saying a word I hold out my hand.
Without hesitation the scared man jumps up and grabs my hand, working with me we pull him up and out, holding him around his middle I quickly fly away towards the watching crow. Gently putting down the man as we land I quickly back away from him and the crowd, each of my eyes looking towards everyone.
I'll admit I'm a bit nervous, while I don't really mind any of my aliens(except you Ghostfreak, you're a pain in the ass), Stinkfly is probably the most openly freakish looking one I have currently, it wouldn't be a surprise if they all started calling me a-
"Fuck you 'Ben'!"
"Excuse me Mr. Bug?" A small voice says next to me. "Are you scared of us?"
I nearly jumped out of my skin..exoskeleton? When I look down to see a cute little black girl that can't be any older than five, her, I assume, parents give a surprised yelp as well noticing she's gone. "What the fuck kinda parents are you? Then again mine taught me to possess people to drain them for energy, so stones and glass houses"
I tilt my head curiously and give a small nod.
The little girl looks like she's damn near about to cry at my answer and pouts shaking her head. "No! I-I'm scared of bugs..just a tiny bit! M-myself..but your a hero s-so I uhm don't think I have to be that scared"
…"Awww~...Damn it"
Feeling touched I slowly reach out with a hand, gently patting her on the head I speak in a wet scratchy rasp. "Thank you"
Stepping back I quickly fly up into the air, waving my hand at the suddenly cheering crowd and awe struck little girl, I'm fighting hard to keep my grin from growing into the creepy levels of large from how happy I am. Turning I fly quickly further down the road looking for a place to hide, I'll untransform and hide till the RV rolls by then flag them down.
Honestly that was really surprising..huh, guess anyone can be a hero to someone. "Sap"
Sparksville/1:07pm/Later
I'm grinning as Gwen and I carefully walk out of the RV with our eyes closed, Grandpa wanting where we are to be a surprise, which was fine since all I really remembered about around this time was that Kevin showed up next and something about fighting Buzzshock.
"Alright open your eyes kiddos" Grandpa said taking his hands off from in front of our faces.
Opening our eyes we find ourselves looking at a…well you know the Mystery Shack from Gravity Falls? Imagine a town full of tourist traps like that, Gwen just gave a confused 'huh'. "..Mabel is best character"
Grandpa chuckled. "Hehe. Is this place great or what?"
""Uhh sure?"" Gwen and I speak at the same time.
Grandpa waved away our unsure reaction, then he motioned towards a massive fish bowl on a building. "Come on, what's cooler than the world's biggest fish bowl?"
Gwen and I look at eachother, I ask her. "Everything?"
"Everything" Gwen nods in agreement. "Gross, the both of you"
Grandpa looks annoyed at our mini comedy routine but a tired voice drones before he can reply. "As the mayor of sparksville I welcome you, oh seekers of wonder"
We turned to see that the one who spoke was an older pale man in his mid thirties wearing a light grey-blue suit and long brown hair, he embodied the standard public service workers spirit that screamed 'I'm done with everyones shit today'.
After a moment of us being surprised by this guy's sudden arrival Grandpa cheerfully handed me a bunch of tickets and said. "Anyway I know your both probably excited to see 'IT' and relax after everything that happened so I'll go check us in"
I stare after Grandpa walks away and bluntly say. "Yeah no, I'm not happy to meet anything named 'IT'" "Hehe, now you actually do sound like Ben"
Turning to look at Gwen we both shrug and start walking looking around. The first place we see is a wooden building offering the old classic scam of 'See the Jack-a-lope', I ring the bell and Gwen and I blink in surprise when the Mayor walks out, he says in a tired tone like earlier. "Tickets please"
Okay, how the hell did he get past us? I handed him two tickets and asked. "I thought you were the mayor?"
"He who wears the crown is burdened by many hat's, son" he says, tearing the tickets and handing the stubs back to us.
Me naturally being a smartass as I pass by dryly says. "Don't make enough to hire more employees do ya'?"
"Get inside and mind the signs" There's genuine annoyance in his voice, which is the most emotion I've heard out of him yet.
Gwen pulls me inside and for the next five minutes we look around at different stuffed animals, one of which being a 'jack-a-lope', which is really just a stuffed rabbit with fake horns and tusks.. though it honestly did look pretty real, uhh Secret Saturdays was supposed to be connected to the Ben 10 verse right? Guess it's not impossible.
…Wasn't Zak also like canonically prophesized to become like a super evil eldritch cryptid Satan dragon due to being Kur's reincarnation or some shit? "Well that'll be your problem"
I choose to stop thinking about that, I liked Zak as a kid and would rather not hurt him. And besides I hadn't seen anything related to him or the Saturdays in this world yet, but I was also completely confident I could beat his(and any other cryptids) ass with the Omnitrix so even if he did exist here I wasn't that worried.
I glance at a stuffed camel and sigh, resting my head against my hand. "Great some dead animals, whoop"
"I don't know, at least the Jackalope looks cool" Gwen said, pulling a face and using her fingers to make mock antlers, she makes a terrible 'Heergh' noise like she's trying to imitate an animal dying.
"Heahahhaeheah~" I can't help but laugh and wheeze at how stupid she looks and she quickly joins in.
—
Gwen points over to a display painting showing the body's of an old timey couple on a farm with cut outs for people to put their faces, someone's kind enough to hold Gwen's phone and take a picture as we get in position.
"Maybe we should switch places since you're too lazy to do any real work" Gwen says quietly as she gets in the spot for the farmer's wife.
I just roll my eyes. "Mind your tone winch, women could get their asses spanked by their husbands for that kind of attitude"
"Tch" Gwen goes red and glances away grumpily. "Hehehe, careful, the brat likes that. HAHA!"
"Say cheese"
""Cheese!""
Click!
—
We pass by a massive house of cards, tilting my head I ask in a contemplating tone. "How many times do you think that thing's been knocked over by, like, a storm or some idiot throwing a ball at it? Or do you think it's secured in place by something? Glue maybe?"
"Ehh~" Gwen shrugged. "Doubt it's happened more than once, who'd want to keep fixing it? Also now that you mention it wouldn't that be super dangerous if a card landed on someone? So yeah it's probably fastened down"
We shrugged and kept going.
—
Feeling kind of hungry we stop for hotdogs at a little restaurant, I get mine with cheese and a side of nachos. "Yes! Good food, finally"
"Huh that looks good..buut~" Gwen drawled as she stepped up from behind me with a big smile and her arms behind her back, cackling she pulled out a thing of mustard and ketchup and sprayed me in the face. "It could use some condiments! Heheha!"
"AHCK!! PTEW! PTEW! DAMN IT WOMEN! I HATE CONDIMENTS!" I yelled with rage after her as she ran out of the restaurant, dodging my hotdog as I threw it at her. "Hahhaahhahahh! Get fucked!"
—
"Gghhr~" I growled angrily as I rubbed the napkin against my cheek, my nose twitching. "Fuckin hell, I smell like a street vendor"
"Hehehe-HASNORT-haheha~" Gwen laughed at my side, we'd found the gift shop and were looking for anything interesting. "Don't be a baby, it's not that bad. Here I'll get you these sunglasses, they cut out like seventy percent of light! That'll be great for when you're all over stressed or whatever right"
"Overstimulated" I corrected her absentmindedly, taking the glasses, putting them on basically everything disappears with only vague dark shapes visible. "Sure and they'll look great with this"
I grab a pair of fake antlers off the wall and put them on, Gwen starts snorting from laughter. Once her giggle fit petered out, she said. "Hey, what about this hehe?"
Pulling down my sunglasses I find Gwen wearing a blue baseball cap and a pair of googly-eye glasses which sends me back into laughing like an idiot.
—
Next we find ourselves in the solar system observatory because of course this place has a fucking observatory, I look around at the hanging planetary models around us, looking up at the fake stars I can't help but smile. "The real things going to look so much cooler"
Gwen raises an eyebrow. "You seriously want to explore the universe don't you?"
"Of course" I turn to her, excitement in my eyes. "I want the whole world to see every amazing thing, I want to find completely unexplored worlds and meet aliens big and small, from ones with big empires to ones who are super primitive like humans cavemen and just starting out"
"You mean you want to fight them and steal their tech"
A worker comes by and we watch as he unplugs the big hanging sun, the observatory getting a lot darker and we're partially covered in shadow.
There's a flash of light from Gwen's phone as she pulls me against her, our cheeks pressed together, my expression no doubt being filled with surprise while she grins before we're back in the dark.
I blink from the spots in my eyes and Gwen speaks up in a chipper teasing tone. "If you're going anywhere then you better take me along, got it? This is turning out to be really fun and I don't want you dying because it turned out you weren't as smart as you thought"
When the worker finally screws in the sun and light returns Gwen is a couple feet away and motions for me to follow, amused impatience clear in her voice. "Come on! I wanna see whatever the hell 'IT' is!"
Shaking off my confusion I roll my eyes and run after her, fucking dork.
Sparksville/3:23pm/IT Exhibit
"Through these doors lies the weirdest and wildest thing to ever find its way to Sparksville" The mayor said in a tired, unexcited tone while standing in front of a large wooden barn.
Honestly as the doors creaked open I had to admit if I was a normal ten year old then this would be pretty interesting, it was mainly the mayor's attitude that ruined it, take some antidepressants man.
Walking into the dark barn with Gwen brightly colored neon signs flash on for a few seconds as we pass by for a pretty good effect, my voice quiet as I whisper to Gwen. "This better be IT or I'm going to have a fit, and in that case there will be diamond hard consequences"
Gwen chuckled at my sorta joke. Honestly I'd started to find Diamondhead to be my favorite alien so far, not as specialized as Upgrade but more generally useful, not as powerful as Heatblast who was probably my strongest alien currently or as physically strong as Fourarms but Diamondhead was second place in both categories and my most durable alien as well.
Never the best choice for a situation unless I was planning to let someone hit me but seventy percent of the time he was a good choice, consistency like that was its own form of strength. The only alien that was as versatile as Diamondhead was Ghostfreak and honestly Diamondhead was far more reliable. "Whatever, I'm taking a nap, stupid human"
"Do not touch it.." I read from one of the signs.
Gwen reads another. "Do not photograph it.."
""Do not use electrical equipment or batteries near it"" We finish in unison.
The lights slowly turn on revealing a sign saying 'This is IT' that slowly starts rising upwards, so it was something that couldn't handle a charge? I couldn't help but also think that was another point for Diamondhead, he was basically completely electrically inert, almost the worst thing to conduct a charge through probably. Actually sorta like the big rubber band ball that was revealed before me to be..it…
Oh.
I remember this episode now. My thoughts are muddled and I don't really pay attention as Gwen and the Mayor say something or other before the Mayor walks off. Were the Megawatts like, actually in there? W-what should I do? I can't just let them out or they might hurt someone…
"Hey!" I jolt as Gwen shoves me. Turning to her she's giving me a worried frown. "What the hell's wrong with you? You completely spaced"
I frown and start digging into my cargo pants pocket, pulling out the upgraded scanner, I start scanning the giant rubber band ball. Absent-mindedly I say to Gwen in a serious tone. "I'm not sure but I'm getting a weird feeling from this thing, call it a six sense or the watch being weird but I think something is in this thing. Go get Grandpa"
Gwen hesitates for a moment, glancing at the ball then back at me before sighing and nodding. "Fine, be safe or I'll hit you"
She runs off while I look at the little screen I'd added to the scanner to read it, frowning as I start getting readings.
—
Max had a lot of experience with the weird. Before he'd been a plumber he'd been an Air Force pilot, if you start going fast and high enough and aren't accustomed to it yet you see some crazy stuff, then in the plumbers he'd come across many different species and planets each with their own problems and quirks that were astounding.
He'd grown accustomed to the weird and it made sense in his opinion, seeing other worlds and galactic empires made humans just..feel small, seeing a small and kinda cute alien race eat each other because they were different shades of green made his own Father's prejudice feel stupid, such wonders in the universe and then the horrors just put things in perspective really.
His hand still itched for a drink whenever he thought back to the first time he'd seen a Tiffin get eaten.
The point being that he wasn't the type to get thrown off by odd behavior and he'd made it a point to be as understanding of other as possible, it had faired him well in life and while he'd failed to repair his relationship with his sons so far he'd made a good start by getting them to trust him enough to agree to this trip, he got to spend time with his grandkids which he'd missed with Ken and he'd even earned a few points with Carl and Sandra by asking for as many books on autism as they were willing to give him last year.
However by every metric he'd read he had to admit this much, Ben was odd. Smarter than any kid had a right to be, opinionated with a very strong sense of his own justice which he'd read was normal, very quick to lay one of the harshest beat downs he'd ever seen on an alien threatening his family(which was a little worrying), very quick to ignore basically everything else and only care about select topics and randomly pick up new ones. But ultimately his grandson was a good boy, each and every one of his notes was about ways to make things to help people, how to make money from it to help his family, further improve the things he was making and make the biggest impactful investments to further help people his 'inventions' couldn't.
So when Gwen ran to find him and told him Ben was worried about something, that he's gotten some weird feeling and thinks something's up with the main attraction to this place. Well he's disappointed they didn't get to relax as much as he was hoping after what happened but not exactly surprised, he trusts Ben to at least point to something bad and want to help if nothing else.
Stepping into the exhibit he finds Ben standing in front of a large rubber band ball with his scanner gun thing, Ben had gone almost completely still with his fingers tapping and he figured his eyes were probably flickering about taking in everything he can like when he gets deep in thought, Ben had stopped faki..masking all the little expressions and movements he did, his thoughts and focus so deep that Ben didn't have the mind to pay attention to them.
"Ben!? What's the problem?" He asked in a loud tone to get the boy's attention from no doubt being distracted, Ben twitched for a moment then turned to him.
"Good, you're here. Here take a look" Ben said while hanging him the scanner and adjusting it seemingly, on the little screen a shape started to form. "I got a bad feeling and from the scans it seems like there's a large mass of energy trapped inside the rubber band ball, and that energy seems to have a fixed shape like a small body"
Looking over what Ben had found he couldn't help frowning, this looked offly like the outline of a Megawatt, which shouldn't be possible since they almost never left their homeworld due to their general attitude making space travel 'difficult' and he couldn't even fathom how one would have gotten on the other side of the galaxy and ended up trapped like this.
This..this was bad, like not 'potential diplomatic incident leading to the invasion of the Earth' bad, Megawatts just weren't that organized due to a whole host of biological and cultural reasons, but it was very much 'Plumbers assault the city and arrest the Mayor for inter-galactic kidnapping and false imprisonment if anyone important finds out' bad. Megawatts were considered a level three out of six on the sapience scale designed by the Galvan, you only needed a one to qualify as a sentient protected being, the rest of the scale was mainly a mix of grandstanding and classification for galactic relations(Galvan's were of course rated at the top).
Looking at Ben he found him nervously fidgeting and scratching his chin, his expression blank and his gaze locked onto the rubber band ball. Frowning he tried getting his attention. "Ben?"
Ben's gaze snapped towards him and after a moment his expression shifted from blank to something like worry. "Yeah Grandpa?"
"What are you thinking? You seem focused and stressed, usually you're fairly quick to make a choice and be certain about following it" It was honestly a bit worrying seeing him so unsure.
Ben bit his lip. "I..i don't know what it is, it could be sentient or it could be dangerous, hell it could be both. I want to do what's right but..fuck, what if it tries hurting people?"
Ohh. That's just.. bending down with a bit of a groan due to his knees he put a hand on Ben's shoulder and looked him in the eye. "Kiddo that's.. that's a really kind thing to think of, to think about how other people could be affected and the consequences, this is definitely a hard choice and I don't think just freeing it randomly or leaving it would be the right answer. I think I know a guy, old friend from the..CIA, I'll give him a call and he should be able to handle this safely for us"
Ben bit his lip with an expression of worry but nodded in understanding, he smiled proudly. He was lying just a little, his 'CIA' friend was actually a Plumber and that was definitely going to be an interesting call. Ehh, it's been a decade or so since he'd seen Labrid, maybe he made Magister by now?
Standing up with another groan he pats Ben on the back. "Come on kiddo, let's go and I'll show you the hotel, I'll call my friend and he should be able to get to work quickly"
"Right"
Ben put away his scanner thing and hesitantly followed him out, a conflicted look clear across his features which gave him a sense of pride, he didn't want to leave till he'd fixed it. That was definitely the sign of a good kid, wanting to help as much as he can, but it was also the sign of an intelligent man that he didn't immediately rush in.
Max was worried about what was to come with Ben having the Omnitrix but he didn't feel particularly worried about Ben having it, he was sure he'd do what was right.
Sparksville - Upside-Down Hotel/7:36am/Next Day, Ben POV
Next morning once I'd clawed my way out of my bed I stepped outside to find that the IT attraction had been closed due to maintenance and that the Mayor had suddenly had to leave to speak with some business partners, yeah that was about as much of a crock of shit as Grandpa calling a friend from the 'CIA'.
Oh well I definitely felt better knowing that the Megawatt was going home and not going to hurt anyone, I didn't trust myself to be able to keep everyone perfectly safe and I didn't have any way of getting it off world so without Grandpa's help I'd have been effectively boned.
Either way out of my hands now so I simply went towards the RV and checked on my experiment. The scanner had finished its work pretty quickly but the actual V.I. matrix needed a while to breakdown the information and build a working model to extrapolate information from.
Sitting down on the RV bench I wave around the touchpad to get the laptop screen to turn on and then read the single prompt the V.I. had put up.
Scanner.MK_1.vr_1. File Packet Download:
100% Completed
Date Compilation File: File/Foreign-Energy-Data/546-10-1/Variable-Reading.
Date Compilation File: File/Foreign-Energy-Data/546-10-2/HLS-Reading.
Date Compilation File: File/Foreign-Energy-Data/546-10-3/Radiographic-Reading.
Date Compilation File: File/Foreign-Energy-Data/546-10-4/Electromagnetic-Reactivity-Reading.
Date Compilation File: File/Foreign-Energy-Data/546-10-5/Particle-Energy-State-Reading.
Date Compilation File: File/Foreign-Energy-Data/546-10-6/Background-Environmental-Reading.
Compiling Data…
…
File/Virtual-Intelligence-Processing-Matrix/Data-Inference-Simulator Run: File/Full-Spectrum-Particle-Modeling.MK_1.vr_10 Simulation…
…
Data Compiled: File/Foreign-Energy-Particle-Model/Theoretical-Effect —
Total File Size: 4.3 Terabytes
The file kept going but at the bottom of the screen it was clear, this was a big fucking file, skipping to the end I found that the V.I. had only finished simulating the energy's effects on biology sometime last night, which itself had generated data from its simulated effects that had been compiled and caused the V.I. to generate so many branching simulations that it had triggered one of the emergency shut down and decentralization programs and force frozen all simulations.
The model for how the Omni-energy particle worked and its theoretical effect on matter, both organic and inorganic, was the main file and was finished. While the second file was only the initial starting data and starting command to simulate and cross reference those effects on living matter, barely a few megabytes. The reason the simulation had been force stopped was because the V.I. estimated the potential data size by the end would have been three times the first file if it had been allowed to run.
Basically the potential cumulative effects on living matter was so vast that it forced the program to stop the simulation or it would have crashed, I was going to have to increase it's processing power, memory and off load the compiled information about how Omni energy worked to a different hard drive just to be able to have enough space to let the V.I. start simulating how many different ways the energy can affect living matter and the potential results of overlapping or branching effects.
I was also going to have to read through the simulated models of how Omni energy worked too once I got that properly downloaded off the laptop, so I would probably transform into XLR8 for that to save time.
Holy shit this was so cool! "HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!"
Spoiler: Original AN
Fun fact I can actually focus and unfocus my vision, I thought I had the lamest ass superpower as a kid till I mentioned it to one of my parents.
So I wrote a bit of this the same time as my Worm CYOA snippet and I guess some of that mentality was in my brain while writing the Stinkfly scene, I just found myself thinking "Well he's a giant slimy bug monster that's bigger than a person and smells like ass, shouldn't people be freaking out?".
Which while true I'd forgotten that this was a fic of a CN cartoon not a grimderp web novel, also people are fairly adaptive and it's easy enough to tell when something is trying to help or at least it is in this case, and also humans imprint on fucking rocks and plants and call them 'pets' so really it's not that surprising.
So here, a sweet wholesome scene of a girl getting over her fear of bugs and a hero getting a bit more faith in humanity.
Also yeah I remembered that the Saturdays existed, honestly I watched them when I was little but nowhere near as much as Ben 10 so I don't remember everything about the series. But I do know that cryptids were not that powerful and could almost definitely get destroyed by a modern military so there's no way they'd beat even ten year old Ben, of course that's mostly an effect of the two series not being meant to exist together until the crossover in Omniverse.
But anyway Zak is 13~14 in the series and 16 when he meets Ben in Omniverse so canonically they're around the same age, I'm going to say there's maybe a few months difference but ultimately that doesn't matter. The reason Ben hasn't seen anything about the Saturdays is because he's got a while before the series even starts, now I'm not actually sure yet if I want to include the Saturdays or not but if I do it'll probably be after Zak is revealed to be Kur, maybe.
Again it's been a while since I watched that series so I'd probably have to rewatch it before I even think of a way to fit it in. I do have one interesting idea about Kur though that would work him better into the Ben 10 universe that I'll keep to myself hehe.
So there's somethings in Ben 10 that I find a bit weird, mainly how they treat certain situations, the aliens for example are just that, aliens and not monsters or something, so they're at least like animals if not fully sapient whenever they show up usually. So it's weird when you have some alien like the Megawatts and their apparently being imprisoned in a rubber ball on a planet who knows how far from their home and just left to rot, it's honestly just cruel when you think about it right? Or is that just me?
Also we now have a solid simulation of DNA Omni-energy, this is a big butterfly that'll influence a few things.
!!IMPORTANT!!
Alright so first note, next 'episode' is Kevin 11 and it's going to be the first really big immediate shift in the story versus canon, some Ben 10 fans can probably already guess what I'm planning but I want to ask you all a separate question.
Normal Kevin 11?
OR
Spoiler: Tomboy Orphan/Delinquent Kayden 11?
This will affect the direction of the story going forward obviously and I have ideas for both so it's up to whichever gets the most votes, so I will be setting up a poll.
Second important note. So I'll be honest, I've lost motivation for the current story I'm writing, Fate Infinite Marvels, and I'm really disappointed because I did want to finish it but I also recognize that if I force myself to keep going I'm just going to burn out my already limited creativity, so instead I'm just going to officially call it a loss on my end, sorry everyone.
Luckily I have a lot of motivation for the current snippets I've been writing, the Worm CYOAv1 snippet has been very interesting for me and this Ben 10 fic is honestly my most reliable fic, also I got an idea for another snippet I think people will like from someone else's fic, I'll give credit to them when I post it. I've been obsessed with Ben 10 for close to two decades now and thinking of different ideas for a long time, I could write a whole fic up to the end of the classic series without any motivation simply because of how much I've thought of this in the past.
So let me know if you want one of my snippets on here to get turned into a proper fic, I might put it to a poll after I've gotten feedback on Kevin/Kayden.
Oh by the way, have any of you seen Ghostfreak recently? He helped me edit some of this chapter and was a big help, anyone be on the lookout for him I guess.
Remember to like, comment and let me know what you thought, remember that discussion feeds my motivation.