Me: This story has roots in my main story, Assassin X. In fact, this is literally the 61st chapter. I'm not going to update this story often, but chapters will show up in pairs. If you're going to read, I would very much like reviews. In fact, you can also submit ideas for aliens!
A warning: This story will include swearing and blood and death.
The first portion of the story takes up from where John, from Assassin X, is struggling with a Time-Space Manipulation Device...
Chapter 1 – The Second Summer
John trudged sullenly through the desert, leaving a trail of footprints dotting the dunes behind him. Grumbling, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and glared at the featureless sky above him, looking almost like one giant sun. "I hate this place… with a passion…" he growled, sliding down the next dune. "WHERE AM I, DAMNIT! ?"
"An artificially generated pocket of time-space, separate from the rest of reality," he responded calmly.
This caused him pause. "Wow… I've totally cracked now…" he muttered, looking around in confusion.
"The overabundance of time-space energy is providing X Armor System with sufficient power to operate voice circuits," his back said.
He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, trying to come up with an intelligent question. Giving up, he instead went back to wandering aimlessly across the completely empty wasteland, muttering curses towards X and all related to him. An hour of aimless wandering and listening to the Armor System relay all its functions and various armors, which he listened to none of, he arrived at the end of the desert. It was also the end of everything else.
"What the crap?" he said out loud, taking out a knife and tossing it into the empty void in front of him. It promptly disintegrated.
"Wearer has arrived at the end of the time-space pocket. Warning: do not proceed further due to excess time-space energies making matter-based objects age to nothing," the Armor System chirped in his voice.
"Can't you use a different voice or somethin'?" John asked grumpily, looking over his shoulder at his back.
"Negative. No other voice files available," it said and then, a second later, "Warning: Time-space pocket collapsing. Suggested action: immediate removal."
"Oh, well," John muttered, lifting his shirt to fiddle with the dial on his belt. "Fuck my life." He disappeared in a flash of light just as the boundary of the pocket started to collapse in on itself. Moments later, the entire time-space pocket imploded, sending a ripple out through time.
While John might have escaped with only a mild case of heatstroke, the rest of time was not so lucky. The collapse of the time-space pocket generated by the Time Belt caused a ripple through reality; in each timeline it hit, a small, insignificant change occurred. In one, a tree grew an extra leaf. In another, a perfectly normal child was born with a blue stripe running down the middle of her hair. In yet another, an atom of a rock was positioned a fraction to the left.
But, in one, the change was just enough to change the course of a young girl's life. In this timeline, a tree wound up with just a slight crack due to one atom being mispositioned.
This tree wound up being cut down and built into a house; specifically, a bookcase. And, on that shelf, a large book was placed, slowly warping the wood beneath it. One day, the shelf collapsed, depositing its load to the floor twenty feet below.
Now, this, by itself, wouldn't change much. But, in a few timelines, a young girl was in the room. In some, she was nowhere near the bookshelf. But in others, she was directly below it. Sometimes, she would be just off and only be surprised by the impact. Sometimes, she would be mildly concussed as the book deflected off her head. Sometimes, she would be struck on the head so hard as to turn her into a mindless slave, a pawn of her uncle.
But, in one… The book fell seventeen feet until it struck the silver-haired girl on the side of her head, ricocheting off to the side and knocking her to the floor. "Ow!" the young Charmcaster cried, clutching at her head in pain.
"Charmcaster!" her uncle roared as he stormed into the room, glaring at her. "Haven't I ordered you to stay out of my study! ?"
"Oh, stick it up your ass!"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY! ?"
- - Eleven Years Later - -
The bell rang, followed by a cheer from the assembled students. As they stood and filed haphazardly from the room, their teacher sighed with relief. "Summer school, yadda yadda, see you, blah blah…" she muttered, massaging her temples.
"Yeah, right! See you next year!" the eleven-year-old Ben Tennyson shouted as he ran past. Punching a fist into the air, he added, "Summer vacation time!" and ran from the room.
Ben ran across the school yard towards the RV parked at the side of the road, waving an arm in greeting. "Hey, grandpa!" he shouted as he leapt in, throwing his bag to the side. "Hey, dweeb!" The previous summer, during the group's trip around the country, Ben had come into possession of a powerful alien device called the Omnitrix, which allowed him to transform into various forms. He used it to protect and aid people as they traveled, becoming a well-known hero.
"How've you been, doofus?" his orange-haired cousin responded, waving an idle hand at him and glancing up from the small book she was reading. The now-eleven-year-old Gwen had been forced to come on the trip by her parents last summer, but had quickly come to enjoy it. Though initially she and her cousin disliked each other, they grew closer as friends. While Ben had obtained the Omnitrix, she had come into possession of a book of magic.
"Glad to see there's been no love lost between you two," their grandfather said, walking back from the driver's seat. Max Tennyson was an ex-Plumber, a secret government agency designed to protect the world from alien threats. He had since retired to live an average life with his family.
The two glanced at each and looked back to their grandfather with a grin. "Nah!" they said cheerfully. He laughed and turned back, leaping into his seat.
Ben leaped into the passenger seat, quickly strapping in. "So… where we goin' grampa?" he asked.
"'Que diriez-vous de Paris, mon petit-fils?'" Max responded, pulling out into the street.
Ben looked at him blankly. "What."
"Paris? We're going to Paris?" Gwen spoke up from behind her cousin. Max grinned, turning off onto the highway.
"Really? How're we going to do that?" Ben asked wonderingly.
"Well, I did stop by Cooper's place a couple of times over the school year…" the elderly man admitted, turning towards the east. He reached out and pressed a button on the dash, causing bits of the rear of the RV to fold out, forming stabilizing fins and kinetic jets.
"Oh~~~, ho ho~~!" Ben laughed, gripping the arms of his seat tightly. Likewise, Gwen steadied herself in her seat, an apprehensive grimace crossing her face. "This is gonna be good!" The engines whined as they powered up the jets and then, in a moment, the RV hit Mach 3 and disappeared over the horizon.
- - Paris, France - -
The now-sixteen-year-old Charmcaster reclined in her seat, sighing heavily as she rustled her paper grumpily. She was seated outside a café, waiting for her order of coffee and a croissant. Turning the page, she encountered something that made her scowl darkly, gripping the paper angrily. Displayed prominently at the center of the page, was an image of a tall creature. It was humanoid in shape and seemed to be made of crystal. But Ben's alien form, Diamondhead, wasn't the source of her ire. In front of him was an orange-haired girl in a black catsuit and a feline mask hiding the upper half of her face.
"Gwen…" the young witch snarled, acting as if the word was a curse of the highest caliber. Folding the paper fiercely and slamming it down on the table, she sat back in her seat with a curse, pulling her purple coat around her tightly. "Damnit! I move to Europe to get away from you and what happens? You follow me… Fuck. my. life…"
"Um… miss?" a nervous waiter asked, hesitantly hovering around her shoulder.
"What! ?" she snapped, glaring at him.
Visibly startled, he stammered out, "He-here's your… your coffee, m-miss!" He quickly set the saucer and the cup upon it on the table before backing away.
"Oh! Why, thank you!" Charmcaster said, suddenly all smiles. "How much do I owe you?" she asked, digging into her bag.
"Oh, no charge, no charge!" he said quickly, waving her down.
"No, my employers insist," she said with a wry smile, pulling her wallet out. "Keep the change," she told him, handing him a ten Euro bill.
"Thank you, thank you!" he stammered, backing away as the assembled customers let out a collective sigh of relief.
"Yeah, yeah… whatever…" she muttered, waving him away. She sighed again, resting her chin on her hand. "What I would give to have things go my way for once…" she said despondently to herself, stirring cream into her coffee. Setting the spoon to the side, she lifted the cup to her lips.
Halfway, it was blasted from her hand, causing her to leap back with a snarl of rage and pain. Charmcaster spun on her heel, searching for the source of the beam. And a quartet of armored women fell from the sky.
"Rojo…" the witch snarled, her hand straying towards her bag.
"Hey, princess. How've you been lately? I've been on the run ever since you backstabbed us at Mount Rushmore!" the lead woman said, her words laced with venom. She aimed the cannon on her arm at her former associate. "And don't even think about trying any fancy tricks!"
Charmcaster let her arm drop, not wanting to risk a shot from the alien tech Rojo's gang was packing. "Yeah? Well, you deserved it, you fool, and I'd do worse to you given the chance!" she growled, moving away from the café. "And don't call me princess…"
Rojo gaped dumbly for a few seconds, taken aback by her retort, before gritting her teeth angrily. "Get her!" she shouted, pointing at her adversary. Her gang, decked out in similar tech, rushed forwards, aiming at her. Two managed to fire, sending her rolling off to the side.
The third was hit in the head with a green blob of energy, which subsequently exploded, throwing her across the street. "Ha ha! Let's see how you like that!" the squat, green Upchuck laughed in a gruff voice, landing acrobatically on the railing of the café that had been quickly vacated.
"Tennyson!" Rojo snarled, turning to the alien. "Forget the freak, let's get him! He's the one responsible for my problems, anyways!" She rushed forwards, slashing at him with the claws on her right hand, blasting away as he leapt over her head to escape.
He wound up rolling clumsily as he landed, managing to scoop up chunks of masonry that Rojo had blasted off the building as he did. "My fault? How am I responsible for your mistakes?" he shouted as his four tongues pulled the rocks into his mouth.
"Yeah… I should have killed you when I had the chance!" she shouted, flinging a disk towards him. Ben dove to the side, firing a blast of energy as he did. It clipped her, spinning her in place. It didn't stop her from shouting, "Missy! Get 'im!"
"Gotcha!" one of the girls cried as Ben rolled directly in front of her, aiming her cannon at the back of his head. She fired, the alien managing to rotate just enough to avoid a direct hit. He quickly returned the attack, shooting at where her head was. Pinky had, however, been blown away as four egg-shaped rocks smashed into her side and exploded, sending her skidding down the street.
"I thought I knew that stench!" Charmcaster spat over the crash of the masonry Upchuck's blast had separated from its building. She dug back into her bag, returning with numerous rings. "I'm still pissed from what you did to me, Pinky!" she added, hurling the rings at the third of Rojo's group.
"And why was that! ? Because you had the nerve to double-cross me!" she shouted, punching through the rings. "And you're going to get what you deserve," she added ominously, raising her hands over her head. The alien tech whirred into life, forming a large orb of energy, ten feet across between her hands.
Charmcaster gasped in panic. "Are you insane! ? That'll blow up half the street!" she shouted, stepping back slightly.
Pinky grinned. "Don't. care," she said and, with a shout of triumph, hurled her attack at the teen in front of her.
It stopped halfway and was sucked into the device Max was holding, cutting off the woman's gloating. "We can't be having that, now, can we?" he muttered, flicking it around and aiming it at her. A simple press of a button shot a beam out of the prongs at the end, sending her spinning end over end.
Charmcaster watched as the elderly man ran forward, firing at any of the gang that got too close. She watched as Upchuck ran around nimbly, his stubby legs flying as he ate anything that came to hand and firing the resulting plasma at Rojo. 'Since they're focusing on those four and ignoring me, that'd mean… Gwen's here…' she thought to herself, waiting patiently for any sign her arch-enemy was there.
She didn't have to wait long. "Hey, Charmcaster!" the girl called, dressed up in her costume as she landed lightly on a mailbox behind the witch, the blue glow of her magic fading. "Don't suppose you'd consider surrendering right now, hunh?"
"Oh… you really think you're a match for me?" Charmcaster replied, turning slightly to glare at the red-head. "Don't you think you're being a little cocky?"
"I don't see why I shouldn't be, considering how our last confrontation ended," Gwen responded with a smirk. "And I'm even better, now! You just don't have what it takes."
"… And that's why… I'm willing to throw away everything I've earned as long as I can put you in your place, princess!" she spat, turning to face her fully. "EXUSTIO!" she roared, pointing directly at her foe's head. Charmcaster grinned in satisfaction as she watched the girl roll desperately away from the lance of fire.
"Shinnyu Invisibus!" Gwen shouted as she came to a stop, hurling the rubble from the other fight at the witch's head.
"Really? Amateurish," she said with a sigh, leaping up and over the rocks with ease. "You only had a chance against me because of the Keystone draining my magic for a while and the stupidity of my cohorts! Eterla Morbulous!" She slapped her hand to the ground and her aura flashed out towards her opponent, the street shattering as it passed. When the dust cleared, her eyes narrowed in annoyance.
Gwen had disappeared.
The red-head leaned heavily against the pillar, favoring her left leg and not letting it touch the ground. She gritted her teeth and glanced down, wincing at the blood dripping onto the floor. "She wasn't kidding… She is ridiculously strong…"
"Come out, come out, little princess!" Charmcaster called as she entered the floor Gwen was hiding on, startling her.
Under the cover of the dust cloud, she had ducked away, escaping into the shadows of a decrepit building. On one of the higher floors, she had stopped to hide behind a pillar, tired from blood-loss.
"You're a fool to think you can hide from me, sweety!" the witch sang and, with a quick wave of her hand, a purple dust blew out a pillar and a portion of the wall, startling the people in the street below.
'As averse I am to think this, I can't hope to beat her head on… I'll need to place my hopes on a delayed spell…' Gwen thought to herself, crouching as another pillar was blown away. She clenched a hand tightly, closing her eyes as she focused.
Charmcaster blew out another pillar, leaving the one her adversary was hiding behind as the last in the room. "This is the end, princess!" she snarled, waving a hand. "Omnis Eradico!" A bright flash of light erupted from her body and, when it faded, a perfectly circular hole in the wall was all that was left. The witch smirked slightly… then flinched when a drop of blood landed on her face.
Gwen dropped out of the rafters just as she looked up in surprise, shouting, "Mercuchus Veridaitus!"
"Interdamotor Elaborator!" Charmcaster retaliated, the red blast of heat colliding with the blue blast. Clenching their teeth in effort, the collision of energy was slowing Gwen's fall towards the witch. Pink eyes met green as the red-head landed lightly on the floor, the pair's hands inches apart, separated only by the clash of red and blue.
And then, to Charmcaster's surprise, Gwen grinned and forced her left hand past their struggling magics. 'Delayed magic! ?' the witch thought in horror, watching as the glow spread from being a small orb to a blue aura over her rival's hand.
The sides of the room were blown out violently, the support columns barely surviving…
Gwen lurched to her feet, gritting her teeth in pain as she stumbled through the rubble that had nearly crushed her. Her left arm was clenched to her chest and she had deep cuts all across her body. Her mask had disappeared somewhere in the rubble.
Eventually, she found Charmcaster. And, what she saw caused her to come to a stop in shock. As she stared, the witch opened her eyes and growled as Gwen came into blurred vision.
"Ch… Charmcaster…" she stuttered, stepping back.
"'m not… done ye… yet…" the silver-haired girl mumbled, trying to stand from where she was laying on the rubble. And she slipped on the hem of her pants and her coat became entangled around her arm. She looked down in horror at her body, now far too small for the clothes on her body.
"You're… young…" Gwen said, staring in shock at the witch.
"What… have you done to me! ?" she snarled, grabbing the red-head by the front of her costume and lurching forward menacingly. But she wound up gasping in pain and passing out as, with a sickening squelch, the rebar embedded in her back pulled free.
So, I'm not fond of how Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Force has panned out. In fact, I've discovered that the sequels aren't written by Man of Action, the creators of the original series. They are literally glorified FanFiction!
I don't like the massive retcons dealt to the original series, like Kai from "Benwolf" being written out of existence and the Plumbers going from a defunct Earth defense organization to an intergalactic police force.
I don't like the massive character derailment, such as Vilgax going from the amoral MASTER OF THE OMNITRIX to the honor-bound retard, Kevin going from the insane, sociopathic mutant who had to think past his weakened powers to a bad-boy wannabe who punches things, Azmuth going from the apathetic hermit to the leader of the Galvan, ten-year-old Ben acting more immature than he ever did in the original series, Gwen immediately throwing herself into Kevin's arms in the first episode even though they had about two lines together beforehand...
I honestly believe Ultimate Alien Force is a completely separate continuity from the original series.
I have a DeviantArt account by the name of Assassin-VariableX which has numerous pictures I've created, one of which being for this story. Warning: Spoilers.