Title: Academy Life

By: EduTorresD

Summary: The adventure isn't over just because the road trip is, the Plumbers discover that Ben has the Omnitrix and want to have him enroll in a special academy for outstanding recruits.

Rating: PG-13 (I think)

Thanks to Kirby77DP77 for being the beta for this.

Disclaimer: Ben 10 is owned by Man of Action and Cartoon Network.

Notes: There is some overlapping with AF, but mostly it's a new storyline after Secret of the Omnitrix.

Now here's the 1st chapter:

Although most of the situations Ben Tennyson is thrust into are not ordinary, common or even fair; the situation he's in right now as he watches stars pass by is one that, he thinks, should not have happened. Sure, he was on TV some times, he was a hero after all, but no one in the plumber corps should have known that he had the Omnitrix except for grandpa Max.

Everything started yesterday, it was winter break and they traveled to the mountains capped with snow, Ben was chucking snow inside the coat of Gwen, who was trying to strap in a pair of skis.

It was a soft full moon night and the snow fell softly like leaves, the cold wind was calm and the clouds were sparse. The white of the snow could be seen everywhere the soft manmade light touched, the scene was a winter wonderland that everyone present enjoyed. Most were relaxing drinking cocoa and skiing but there were two people that were getting the attention of all the strangers around.

As the snow fell roughly into Gwen's jacket and started to feel it she yelled "BEN! STOP THAT! IT'S COLD!" after trying to get the snow out of her jacket but only managing to drench more of her clothing and grimacing because of the cold snow, she turned toward Ben looking at him with green eyes full of fury.

Ben Smirks a little at the face his cousin makes and starts running after yelling "MAKE ME DWEEB!"

At that Gwen pauses for a second seeing her cousin run and realizing that he expected retaliation, and Gwen wasn't one to disappoint, she smiled a little and started running after him with some ideas running through her head and eyes full of humor and she yelled "COME BACK HERE SO I CAN KICK YOUR BUTT! "

Suddenly, Max came running from the cabin that they rented that was just a few yards away. He looked worried and a fierce look could be seen in his eyes. After catching up to them he says "KIDS! KIDS! Come quickly! We have to go" This makes Ben looked confused with his eyebrows scrunching up and Gwen asks the pertinent question. "What's wrong Grandpa? Are there more criminal aliens coming? I thought that after this summer most would think twice about coming after us."

"it's not the criminals this time Gwen. It's the plumbers. I don't know who told them, obviously not Azmuth seeing as he wanted it to be secret, but someone told them you had the Omnitrix. They are coming for an evaluation of Ben and I have to prep you."

Groaning loudly Ben then asked "Is it going to be like the training camp where Gwen beat me at everything?" with a grim expression Max answered "Quite possibly."

After that came the magister of earth whom even Max couldn't go against.

A fishy looking alien, kind of like Ripjaws but more like a hammer shark came down from the plumber spaceship. he looked at Max directly and said "Max" with a look that clearly stated he didn't want to do this, his expression looked funny to Ben seeing as his eyes were so separated that it looked difficult that they could see in the middle.

Max returned the look with one that said 'I don't car you're still messing with my family' and said "Magister Labrid," he looked ready to pound the alien officer with his body more tense and his hands balled up, but he still knew it was better to not antagonize the alien. "welcome to earth."

Ben looked from one to the other waging the battle after a moment and getting impatient as he asked "what's going to happen to me? Grandpa told me there was going to be an evaluation, but I'm not sure why" The last was said with a smirk that said - No yelled 'I'm going to ace this anyway.'

"You certainly are not your grandfather's grandson. Even at his most arrogant, he would still be wise enough to not say this so directly. You would do well, Ben Tennyson, to not throw around your arrogance as it could be your undoing"

At that Max walked up to his face and replied "Are you threatening my grandson?" It was said with a low growl undertone to it.

"No just giving advice to a prospect" replied Labrid calmly and backed away from Max, Labrid knew that Max was just being aggressive because of the situation and doesn't really blame him. If someone tried to do this to one of his own kids he would react the same. "Please Max, let me do my job, it will be easier and you won't regret doing something you would be sorry for later."

At that statement Max sighted and relaxed his stance. "Give me a moment to talk to Ben, Am right in assuming it will be the standard for special ops?"

Labrid's face became neutral as he said "No actually, it will be a new schedule for special rookies. You are right in thinking it would have been special ops. As they were the only ones previously capable of handling their training but a new section of the academy has just been opened for excellent new prospects, and they can handle the special cases. If he does sufficiently well he may transfer midterm."

Max looked relieved by what he had just learned his stance relaxed a little and asked "So, he's not going to be having twenty years of experience difference between him and his group?"

"No, just ten, and the new term is two years instead of just one, had too much people out too early."

"AWWWW! So I won't be coming for the next summer road trip?" Ben looked pleadingly to the magister, hoping his 'puppy dog face' would convince him to let him come back for the summer.

"Sorry son, it's mandatory and no communication to family. We want to keep the academies a secret and if we're hauling your asses from one place to the other so much it won't be."

Ben looked dejected at that, then a mischievous look passed over his face and Max looked at him worriedly while he said "I'm going to say good bye to Gwen."

"Ben" Max said warningly, but Ben ran without hearing anything.

"He will be a handful to the academy instructor" Labrid said with an amused expression.

"Of that I have no doubt" he says with a smile on his face, showing a pride in the glimmer of his eyes while looking in the direction that Ben just ran to. "you know who he will be assigned to?" Max asked Labrid.

"It will probably a Galvan, or the new Petrosapiens female that just became a magister."

Max looked confused "Shouldn't she be going to another position? Teaching is hardly something done by someone so inexperienced even if she IS a magister."

"She earned the title by teaching and it was she who founded the new academy, her credentials speak for her" he said.

Then in the distance a loud yell of "DOOFUS!" could be heard from a distance.

"He's coming now, you better start up the ship" said Max with sadness in his voice.

"it will be a long trip" said Labrid dejectedly.

And so we come to where we started, with an eleven year old Ben Tennyson bored out of his mind after trying to misuse the laundry duct, which made him almost die funnily enough. It was a vacuum pull, and as luck would have it Labrid caught him before it could be fatal, and promptly chastised Ben for the misuse.

They were almost to the academy and its installations. Labrid hoped this wasn't a disaster; Trix Dregs wasn't a person to annoy, and Labrid was sure Ben was going to be as annoying as he could, not to bother or some misguided attention seeking but because that was how he was.

Noticing an approaching green and lighter green planet he looks at the instruments in the ship and confirms where they are. After confirming it, Labrid calls to Ben "Ben, we're here!" and immediately Ben perked up and stared out the window. Then he asked "Is that it? It looks like earth, but instead of having blue oceans it has a kind of greenish tint to it."

Labrid smirks a little and responds "So you think so, huh? But don't be fooled by that. The flora and fauna are much more asinine and intelligent. Almost everything wants to eat you, or if not eat you then plant it's eggs in you" Ben gives Labrid a level look, wary that it scared him but didn't want to show it.

Suddenly an alarm blared up and Labrid's eyes widened, that's a weird thing to witness Ben thought before he looks at what was making the alarm freak out. A plasma missile? That thing's too easy.

Before Labrid knew what he was doing, Ben touched the Omnitrix and the face popped out. He turns it and then pushed down. A green light blinded Labrid slightly, and he sees out of the corner of his eyes something as it phased through the plating of the ship.

Labrid blinked, shook his head and cleared his thoughts. First things first, I have to evade that thing. He went to the helm but it was different. The whole ship was different. There was black and green where there was once gray and green.

Then when he least expects it a distorted voice talks. "having fun there? I already took care of the problem" said a distorted voice. Labrid couldn't think of what to say, until he figured who was the only one in the ship with that much arrogance.

"Ben, please tell me what you did. And is that a galvanic mechamorph?"

Suddenly a piece of machinery poped up and a voice came from it. "I used Upgrade to protect the ship, you should thank me it was a very powerful plasma missile if I didn't repurpose a little of the communication system to make a sonic shield to dissipate the heat of the missile."

Labrid looked worried at that statement. "Please tell me you didn't mess with the IFF module!"

The circle of circuits in the middle of the machinery suddenly gained a caving v in the top, it made it look mad. "Please, like I'm that dumb, but it seemed the IFF module had a slight problem. I fixed it as best I could; it could be why they first threw the missile."

Labrid looked relieved and worried at the same time. Who could have tampered with the ship? It´s not like he stopped somewhere along the way, the only place it could have been from is from earth and the only people he noticed there were Gwen and Max. It would be a mystery for another day; today he had to deliver the boy a few miles north of the equator of the planer.

Seeing an approaching gray dot, Ben asked the obvious question "Is that it? Are we going to be there soon? Because I can see something from here." Labrid looks irritated, maybe even annoyed, thought Ben.

"We'll be there in about a 15 minutes; maybe you should get your stuff from the equipment hold already." Labrid made a gesture to the back of the cockpit indicating the general direction.

Ben looked at the way he signaled, and then back to Labrid, then back again. Ben sighed got off the seat, and started walking that direction. After passing through the corridor he came into view of the locker room, not "the equipment hold" as Labrid called it. It's surprisingly like a locker room in any school, just with a more spacey feel to it, thought Ben with the intention to tell him that exactly just to see how he'd react.

Just as Ben was musing how to irritate Labrid the most, they arrived at the academy and the ship shook a little, leaving a fallen Ben with clothes and a few accessories on top of him. When Labrid went to get him he was like that plus some colored cheeks when he entered and both of them laughed, one of embarrassment and the other of humor.

Seeing as almost everything was out in the open, Ben asked for the help of the old officer and started saying how he wanted everything packed. Socks were on one side, boxers this side, shirts that one, accessories and video games in the backpack. It was a more relaxed conversation between the two, one directing the other asking where something went, it almost seems natural to him, thought Labrid.

Labrid helped Ben collect and pack his stuff again in the small backpack and small suitcase, He has a surprising amount of organization in his way of packing even if he doesn't fold, and with that thought Labrid came to a conclusion. Even if he is a slob, he is an organized slob.

Labrid chuckled at that and told Ben "We're here, come on, let's go to the exit", and with that started walking in the direction of the exit.

Hearing that Ben gave a little yell of excitement and followed Labrid, sensing something had escaped his mind. As they went in the corridor Ben thought to ask Labrid if this was where he trained.

"No, I was trained in the regular academy. It was a different setting, more organized and I was older than any one of the cadets brought here. It was also a different time; Vilgax had just conquered a few worlds and was on the rise. We were preventing his plans the most we could. We were so understaffed for everything going on in the galaxy that we lost a lot of people who didn't have the staff to do half of what they did. Even recruits such as I went on operations in those times, it was a most chaotic scene in the universe." Labrid looked thoughtful as they almost came upon the exit. "I hope that your defeat of Vilgax puts a less burdensome role on the cadets of this generation. I know we could use every hand we can get our hands into but that is no excuse for what those days made the Plumber organization as a whole do."

They came upon the exit door of the ship.

It was a somber atmosphere and Ben felt uncomfortable in it. He tried biting his mouth to not let the words he knew were going to haunt him later get out, but to no avail. "Don't worry Lab, I defeated Vilgax the worst villain in the history of ever, I'm sure everything the universe throws at me at this point will be a cakewalk."

Labrid, against every expectation Ben had, laughed at that. "Ben Tennyson, I hope you are right because my main cause of concern to that affirmation is at the other side of this door. Here you will experience hopelessness, excruciating muscular pain and, if you're lucky, camaraderie. It will be difficult; it may test your limits and I am sure you will come back the better for it. I hope you pass but please remember, no one lives with your decisions but you." And at that Labrid gave him a pat on the shoulder and opened the door.