This was just a normal day for Ben Tennyson. Stop some crooks, drink some smoothies, and eat some chili fries. But today was a little weird. He was going around town with absolutely nothing to do. He didn't have to go to school, because he was eighteen, and he didn't need to because he could go Diamondhead and Grey Matter to make more than $10,000 in less than 10 minutes. But he still was indecisive on that because he still wanted to go to college or not to make his parents happy.

Right now, though, he was sitting at Mr. Smoothie, drinking a strawberry-mango smoothie, bored out of his mind. After he finished his drink he tossed the cup over his shoulder into a trash can flawlessly before sighing loudly. "Alright Universe, you win," he yelled, looking at the sky, "just please give me something to do! I don't care if it's Vilgax, Albedo, or an alien invasion, just please let me do my job!" "Well it seems you'll have your wish granted, Ben." He turned around to see Professor Paradox, a time-traveling God basically, sporting an ever-cheerful smile. "Professor! Am I glad to see you!" Ben said as he ran forward and surprisingly hugged the time-explorer like he would hug his own grandpa.

"Well it seems that I came at the right time," the man said cheerfully. "Gumball?" he offered while holding out a brown paper bag, but Ben politely declined. Shrugging, Paradox ate one himself and put it back into his never-ending storage called his lab-coat. His cheerful demeanor vanished and was replaced with a determined look. "I'm afraid that this is not a social visit Ben, I have come to warn you about a large threat to a world," Paradox said with a serious tone. "Which one?" Ben asked, confused. "One that is in the past and yet not at the same time. It is very confusing," Paradox answered with a puzzled look on his face.

Ben got worried. If Paradox was confused than that means it was so complicated that Ben's head would spin right off, so he wouldn't bother with it too much. "Okay, what do you want me to do, stop a nuclear war?" Ben replied, trying to understand his role in all of this. To his surprise, Paradox chuckled a bit, "You have no idea how close you are to the true answer, Ben. You are close but you will have to survive in a time 200 years after a nuclear war. There is a man there that will change the course of that world's history. You must find and assist him. I will provide proper protection when you are not an alien." Ben nodded trying not to freak out. He was going to a post-nuclear apocalypse where he may need to kill something. "Also, do be patient with Ms. Wright. I believe it will be very much worth it in the future." "Wha-" BOOM!

(Line Break)

Ben awoke with a splitting headache. He didn't want to get up until he heard snarling. His eyes snapped open and he reached for the Omnitrix only to find that it was in recharge mode. He felt a weight on his right thigh and found that he had a holster with a handgun in it strapped to his leg. He grabbed the gun out of instinct and drew it. He inspected the gun and found that he had known what it was when he had never seen it before. He searched his surroundings as if he had done this hundreds of times before. He stopped when he saw an injured Rottweiler on the ground with a leg brought up close to its body. Ben sighed and put the gun away. But before he helped the dog he looked down at himself. He was wearing what looked to be combat armor but way lighter than what it should have been, especially since when he ran his hands over it he felt the distinct feel of lead in it. He shook his head free of those thoughts and went to assist the dog.

"Easy bud, I won't hurt you. I'm only trying to help," he said in a calming voice. It seemed to slightly work as the dog looked like he calmed down a bit but not by much. Ben slowly reached towards the dog to pet and try to calm it. The thing that seemed to work wonders was scratching under the chin which almost sent the dog into tackling Ben if it wasn't injured.

Looking at the wound, Ben noticed that only another dog could make a bite mark like this but it came close to tearing the dog's leg off. "Okay I'm going to find some bandages but first I need to do something that will hurt, okay?" Ben asked because he was about to cauterize the wound. The dog seemed to understand because he slowly nodded his head but still looked scared. Ben reassured him by patting him on the head. Ben slowly got up looking around to find out that he was in an office building that was long abandoned but it looked like it still held supplies. He walked around for a bit, looking in drawers, in file cabinets, hell even trash cans!

But he found what he was looking for; a flip lighter (gold at that), a wet cloth and something called turpentine that was flammable. He wouldn't be able to light the cloth while it was wet so he poured on some turpentine and lit it with the lighter. He put it in a pocket on his armor and stored it for later. He tied the cloth on a stick that he cut off a mop using a hacksaw and prepared the wound of the dog. Ben looked into the dog's eyes and gave a reassuring pat on the head and slammed the fire into the wound. The dog howled very loudly in pain before the wound was finished burning closed. Ben pulled the fire away from the leg and used something called a Stimpack that he had found in a first aid kit. He didn't what it did but he found out when the dog's wound closed up and left a small scar on the upper leg of the dog. Ben sighed in exasperation after realizing he could have just done that and saved the dog some pain, but it was in the past, nothing he could do now. He was about to get up when he heard the hammer of a revolver pulled back. "Back away from the dog slowly." Ben's eyes widened and raised his hands to the air. "Easy man, no need to get bloody," Ben said with an even voice. "Stand up and turn around. Slowly," the man said again. Ben slowly nodded and stood up and turned around. He saw a large suit of armor, or maybe a robot. Either way, it was intimidating. "I was just trying to help out the dog, not hurt it. It had a leg injury and I tried to fix it best I could," Ben tried to explain. The person tilted his head and lowered his gun. Ben let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding until the man raised his gun quickly and fired right next to Ben's head. Ben was about to go Four Arms until he heard a whimper of pain behind him. He turned and saw that another dog had tried to sneak up on him. But this one had no hair and appeared to be a lot more feral and vicious. Ben turned back to the armored man and looked at the smoking gun in his right hand. "You're welcome," he said, lowering the gun and putting another round in. "Thanks, but I could've taken him," Ben replied. "Sure, you could kid. Why are you out here by yourself, anyway?" The man asked. "I was tasked to find someone. Person said they could change the course of history," Ben answered. The man seemed to be processing this and nodded his head. "Alright, you can come with me until we find them." "Thanks man, mind if I get you name?" Ben asked. "Mark, Mark Graham," the man now named Mark said. "Alright where is nearest large settlement? I need info, and I need it quickly," Ben requested. "Nearest place is Good Neighbor but that's a good 10 miles South of here. If you're going to head there, you're going to need something bigger than a10 millimeter handgun," the Vault-Dweller answered. Ben suddenly looked like a criminal mastermind, "Oh, I can handle myself, don't worry about that," Ben said while grinning manically, "I just need you to not shoot me, or stab me, or throw a grenade, or just try to kill me in general." Mark raised an eyebrow behind his helmet but nodded nonetheless.

About half an hour later, Ben, Mark and the dog now named J.B. for James Bond, were about 2 miles closer to Good Neighbor. The trip was relatively quiet apart from the occasional gunshot in the distance. Mark could name every single kind of round just from the echoes. ".50 BMG fired with a muzzle chock and bayonet." "Dang, man. Were you in the military or something?" Ben asked. "Yes," Mark answered, with a sad tone. Ben decided that it would be best to drop the subject before he got a permanent case of no children. Mark, however, had a strange feeling that the boy was incredibly useful and powerful. He couldn't put his finger on it but something about the kid that screamed Hero. He didn't know why but he had a feeling he would find out soon. "How much farther to the nearest raider hideout?" Ben asked, "I have a strange urge to hit something." Mark chuckled and answered, "About 5 minutes away-" "BANG!" "OR NOT!" Mark shouted and took cover. Ben followed his lead and J.B. went to his feet. "Where did these guys come from?!" Ben shouted over the gun fire. "I don't know!" Mark shouted back after returning fire, "These guys just come out of nowhere!" "I'm gonna do something," Ben told Mark, already setting the dial on the Omnitrix to Diamondhead, "just don't shoot me!" "Why-" He was cut off by a blinding green light that made him shield his eyes even with his Power Armor. When he looked up he saw something that could only be described as alien. He saw a large, 7-foot creature made out of diamond. Its face was angular and had a stone-cold expression of its face (Think Omniverse design). Mark was so shocked that he didn't notice his cover had broken down from fire and his armor was taking hits. Ben noticed however and slammed his fist into the ground. Mark felt a tremor next to him and shook himself of his stupor. When he looked, he saw a wall made out of diamond. He shook it off and told himself he would ask later.

When Ben transformed, he knew there would be questions. But for now, he needed to take down the raiders before things get tricky. He knew that one day he would have to kill someone but today is not that day. Steeling his resolve, he ran out from behind cover and started launching diamond shards out of his hands at the raiders. They didn't know what the thing was or what to do so they just started shooting.