Ben 10: The Alternate Reality

Chapter 1

Ben Tennyson, wearer of the Omnitrix and hero of the universe, hardly looked heroic driving his car way over the speed limit and with chili stains on his face from eating chili fries. But this was just typical for him. The main reason that he was driving at a high speed was because of an alarming call he had gotten from his cousin Gwen while she and her boyfriend Kevin were out dating.

Gwen had called him while he was lounging around on his couch watching Sumo Slammers, reporting a ridiculously high energy signature on the outskirts of Bellwood. As he drove around town, he contacted Gwen via his Plumbers' badge and asked her, "So how do I find this energy signature without being as close as you guys are?" Gwen's voice replied, "Just come to where our badge icons are positioned. You'll find us there."

Once he got there and got out where Gwen and Kevin were waiting for him, Gwen asked him, "How'd you get here so fast?" Ben replied, "Maybe by breaking the speed limit just a little." "Ben!" Gwen said reprovingly. Kevin retorted, "Considering how important this might be, I would've done the same thing." "Well, I'm used to you doing that," Gwen replied.

"So what's all this fuss about?" Ben asked, "I'm missing the rerun finale of Season 4 of Sumo Slammers for this." "Ever hear of DVR?" Gwen asked curiously. Ben ignored her, and after a pause, Kevin answered in reply to Ben's original question, "While we were driving past this forest, our Plumbers' badges started giving us some feedback. We found that was because of an energy signature. It's extremely high-but we're not sure what it is, because if you look in there, you can't see anything that looks dangerous."

Ben looked into the Bellwood forest, and indeed, he couldn't see anything besides trees and brush, but his Plumbers' badge was picking up the same signature theirs was. He shrugged, and began to step into the forest towards it. "Ben!" Gwen warned him. "We have no idea what's in there!" "How else are we gonna find out?" Ben asked, and kept going. "He's got a point," Kevin admitted, and followed him. "Boys," Gwen muttered to herself as she reluctantly followed after them, "Always rushing into trouble."

It only took about 50 yards before they reached the area over the signature. There still was no sign visually of anything, but they were definitely within reach of the signature. Ben surveyed the area, and suggested to Gwen and Kevin as they approached, "Think it could be something invisible?" "I don't know how something this powerful could be hidden," Gwen replied. "Whatever it is, it's definitely not alien tech," Kevin commented.

The three of them stood in the slightly more clear area with the sun shining through the trees. "This makes no sense," Gwen griped, listening to the screeching feedback from her Plumbers' badge and looking at her radar map. "We should be right on top of it..."

And then a loud boom went off from right below them. And then the ground literally melted underneath them-but not from heat. It simply evaporated, disappeared.

The first thing they saw as they looked down into the pit as they fell was a surprising amount of light-and they felt themselves being pulled towards it at an alarming rate. Ben immediately reacted by jamming down the Omnitrix and transforming into... "JETRAY!" he yelled as he grabbed Gwen and Kevin attempted to fly upward with both of them. However, though their descent was greatly slowed, they were still gradually being pulled towards the great light.

"It must be a portal of some sort!" Gwen yelled over the roaring noise of the suction. "And it's pulling us straight toward it!" "Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Gwen," Jetray snapped, "Now how the heck am I going to get us out of here?" "I don't think we can!" Gwen admitted, and Jetray realized she was right, because he didn't really have any other aliens that could fly *and* hold Gwen and Kevin's weight.

Finally, Ben just gave up and reverted to normal-and then they were yanked back towards the portal at high speed again. They finally reached it-and they were immediately blinded by a bright light that forced them to shut *and* cover their eyes. Then, after a moment, they realized they were still falling... but only now... they were falling up.

Then it was finally over, and they found themselves stop falling up, and then land softly back on ground. "Thank goodness for that upward fall, otherwise we probably would've been killed," Gwen commented. "So where the heck are we?" Kevin asked. "Because I have a feeling we're not in Bellwood anymore." "What tipped you off... oh," Gwen began to ask and then faltered off as they began to take in their surroundings.

They were in the middle of a clearing that looked similar to the one that they had been in just before they had fallen into the portal-only now there were no trees, and the buildings that were close looked far more big and futuristic-some of them, anyway. Some, they noticed, appeared to be literally falling apart at the boards.

"No, I think we're still in Bellwood," Gwen decided. "How?" Ben replied. "This doesn't look anything like Bellwood!" "Well, the structure and setup of these buildings is very similar to what's in Bellwood, even if they look very different. Besides... look at that," Gwen replied, pointing in the direction of a fallen Mr. Smoothy's billboard.

Ben's eyes widened. Now he was mad; nobody brought down Mr. Smoothy's. "Okay; so maybe we're in some other dimension," he suggested. "And we need to find out what's going on around here and why we're here!" "We could just try to get back the same way we came!" Gwen suggested, stomping particularly on the ground that they had seemingly just come out of. Her efforts were fruitless.

"Now can we go and explore?" Ben asked pointedly, walking off in the direction of the city, with Kevin close behind. Gwen, once again outnumbered, followed in exasperation.

The first thing Ben appeared to notice as he began to enter the city was that despite the futuristic setting there was a very gloomy outlook about the place. There was an odd feeling in the air of depression, and indeed, many of the people within eyeshot were indeed looking pretty depressed.

And then Ben saw the robots.

There were robots everywhere; there appeared to be even more of them than there were people. They were rather basic robots; rather skinny body, legs, arms, and had a single white binocular lens for a head. And they were barking out orders in a monotone voice. Ben managed to catch "All humans must return from cafeteria to their homes immediately without stopping. No exceptions. Any rule-breakers will be punished severely," as well as "Any humans caught out after curfew will be destroyed on sight."

Ben then watched as one human, who had finally gotten fed up, grabbed a nearby trash can lid and threw it at one of the robots, yelling "Enough of you! I'm sick and tired of your orders! Go to hell!" The robot's head almost was sheared completely off by the force of the blow, and at any case, was hanging limply at its side, causing it to stagger about confusedly. Clearly, these were not very sturdy robots, even if they were vast in number.

Then another robot made a beeping noise and a radio earpiece on the side of its head, and spoke, "Master, we have a belligerent," and a voice was heard replying "No problem," and suddenly another form flew into the scene. "Is that... Psyphon?" Kevin asked, stunned. "Yup," Ben confirmed. "Must be more powerful in this dimension than he is in ours."

Psyphon had knocked down the rebelling human with one fell swoop, and then leaned over him and hissed, "You will suffer greatly for this," before pulling out electro-shock whips and lashing the human with them.

"No!" Ben snarled, and immediately leaped into action despite Gwen and Kevin warning him not to. Ben immediately switched to... "HUMUNGOUSAR!" he yelled, as he charged for Psyphon, and knocked him clean over. Psyphon let out an angry screech, and despite Humungosaur holding him down firmly, Psyphon managed to summon back the electro-shock whips, and send Humungosaur flying backwards.

"Impudent!" Psyphon snarled. Then as he realized just what was in front of him, his frown faded, and now he looked simply annoyed. "What the heck are you doing so far from home?" Humungosaur then got to his feet, and appeared flabbergasted. "Wait... you don't know who I am?" he asked, somewhat hurt. "Ummm... no," Psyphon snapped, "Never seen you before in your life. And I won't be seeing you very long either."

Humungosaur appeared confused, and then took advantage of the distraction to punch Psyphon across the head and send him flying into a building. Psyphon shook himself, and then immediately got back to his feet and yelled, "You're going to pay for that!"

Then before Psyphon had even reached him, another fist reached Humungosaur and sent him flying across the street. Humungosaur then shook his head, and then heard a more familiar voice speaking, "I'll take it from here, Psyphon," and Humungosaur recognized a familiar squid-faced opponent he had faced many times.

It was Vilgax.