Multiverse, Schmultiverse!

by Rob Morris

Inside the world of Gwen-10, Ben and his counterpart nodded at their two Gwens.

"Some things don't change. Me and this Ben are going to get some chili cheese fries. They make them with Swiss, here."

Gwen-10 shook her head.

"What else would you make them with? Cheddar?"

Ben-10 went to slap his Omnitrix, but the other Ben stopped him.

"No prob, dude. I'll just mana-port us. Might also have to cloak your appearance, so we don't get a lot of questions."

The other Ben gestured, and a rose-red light took them both away. 'Lucky Girl' Gwen fought to keep her jaw from dropping.

"He's the mana-manipulator here?"

Gwen-10 patted her Omnitrix.

"Yeah. Grandma-I'm assuming that's similar with you-said that 'artificial devices' demand too much diversion of the latent talent. After getting over being jealous of me getting the Omnitrix, Ben, bless him, tried his best to help me out. Then, one day, we were battling Hexlord-"

'Lucky' Gwen nodded.

"Same where we come from, for me. But-I don't see Ben-any Ben as the studious type, and this involves a lot of reading. He must have, though, because he has it nailed."

Gwen-10 sighed.

"I'll give him credit. For a whole month that first summer, he put aside the video games, the shows-he even stopped giving me grief. I began to feel neglected-weird, but you get used to certain things."

'Lucky' Gwen was weirded out by this place, but once Ben had spilled about it existing, she asked Kevin to watch Rook and she made a portal. She had no cause to regret this choice-yet. That would come soon.

"So-what happened? After a month, the effort studying was too much and he gave up for a while?"

Gwen-10 then confirmed something her counterpart had always suspected about the fairness of any universe.

"No-after a month, he stumbled across the Amulet That Imparts All Knowledge."