Ben

"This is awesome. No school, no alien invasions, no universe threatening crisis, no distractions. Just a group of friends in space." Ben said and folded his hands behind his head.

"I have to admit Ben, I had my doubts about this trip. Especially since it interfered with all the summer internships I had lined up." Gwen said adjusting her glasses.

"Internship Sminternship. Who needs that when you can travel the entire universe?" Ben said smugly.

"Exactly" Gwen said folding her arms with a smile.

"I agree, this summer has been quite incredible so far. We were able to visit Ravonna and my sister at plumbers academy, meet the mysterious Eunice Ben told me so much about on Primus-" Rook smirked at Ben

"I don't talk about her that much" Ben said rolling his eyes. Rook ignored him.

"-And even stopped at Anodyne, which no outsider has visited in thousands of years."

"That part was pretty cool. Even if I did have to share a room with Sunny" Gwen said.

"And no one's ruined the rust bucket yet." Kevin said patting the interior of the green space jet as he steered. "What could go wrong?" Just then something hit them from behind and the rust bucket lurched. Rook, Ben and Gwen glared at Kevin. "What?"

"Dude! Never say that" Ben said shaking his head. "I'll see whats up" He stood up, a hand hovering over the omnitrix. Before he could slam his hand down another strike made the ship lurch and he toppled over. The walls of the ship began to spark and the lights flickered.

"Whats-?" Ben looked around as veins of glowing red light began to spread across the walls and ceiling. Gwen and Rook had moved to stand by him. They watched helplessly as the ship was engulfed by the red veins. As it stretched past their feet and over their heads the ship lost power.

Gwen said "It looks like-"

"Uh guys!" Kevin called, "We've got a problem." They ran to the front of the ship to get a look at what Kevin was seeing. In front of them maybe ten yards from the glass but latched on to the ship with tendrils of red and black machinery, was -

"Malware." Ben said darkly.

"But I thought Malware was gone for good!" Gwen said.

"Actually, the last time we saw malware, Vilgax had re-energized him to create a super suit. However, when we defeated him, the Malware suit was lost in space. Could it be possible that Malware was able to re-animate himself?" Rook asked.

Kevin clutched an exposed pipe and absorbed the metal. "Well clearly nothings impossible."

Rex

"This is impossible!" Rex groaned in frustration.

He had been flying for hours just over the city with his boogie pack. He was searching for a sign of Ben, an explosion, an alien attack, a hint of green jacket... anything.

He hadn't planned on it being this hard. After all, every other time they traveled dimensions the two had sort of just conveniently run into each other. Why couldn't anything be easy?

He was grateful that doc had insisted he wear his power suit, otherwise his machine would have given out a while ago. He had come out of the portal in what Rex assumed would be the location of Providence HQ, that is if Providence existed in this wacky dimension. The plan had been simple, although in hindsight it wasn't much of a plan. Step one: Find Bellwood. Ben had mentioned that that was his home town when they first met. Rex managed to find that pretty easily, going off of the directions Ben had used trying to get home when he was trapped in Rex's world. Things looked a little different this world, but Rex thought he had retraced his steps well enough.

The second and final step to his plan was finding Ben. That was proving to be more difficult. Rex heard his coms click on.

"Rex, hows the coms. Can you hear me clearly?" Holidays voice chimed. He put his finger to his ear.

"Just as clearly as the last eight times you asked." Rex said irritably. She sighed.

"Any progress?"

"Not unless you count flying in circles for hours progress." He turned in the air and flew backwards, scanning the area he had just covered. "Sorry Doc, I guess I just figured I would have run into something by now- UG," Rex let out a cry as he slammed into some sort of sign and fell onto the pavement.

"Rex?"

"I'm fine Doc," He said, sitting in a pile of his machinery. He rubbed his head and looked up. "I just ran into some sort of… Mr. Smoothie!"

"What?"

"Ben mentioned this place once. I think it's important. I'll let you know when I find something." He said quickly and shut off the coms. He stood up feeling relieved that he had one clue at least.

He looked around. There were some people milling about with smoothies, giving him odd looks. Probably because I just fell out of the sky, he thought. Others sat at tables under umbrellas. Rex sighed. Ben wasn't there. He turned to go when a thought occurred to him and Ben's voice rang in his memory. 'You've really never heard of me? Im Ben Tennyson! Ben Ten? Like the biggest hero in the world?'

"Well if everyone in this world knows him," Rex muttered, "then someone has to know where to find him." He walked up to the window of the smoothie shop.

Rex leaning against the window frame trying to look nonchalant.

"Welcome to Mr. Smoothie how may I help you?" Asked a sleepy looking teen from inside.

"I'm looking for someone that might go here a lot. His name's Ben Tennyson. Ever heard of him?" Rex looked over his shoulder for dramatic effect, then looked back at the guy in the window who gave him a blank look.

"Ben Ten." Rex said again standing up straighter, "He's about yay high, wears a green jacket, might be a famous superhero?"

"Uh.. I'm supposed to tell you about the chocolate carrot smoothie special.." Rex groaned and dug in his pocket for change. He splayed it out on the counter.

"I'll have the carrot-whatever. Now where can I find Ben?"

"I heard he hangs out in that weird underground alien market." The kid said counting his change.

"Alien Market?" That sounded promising. "Where?"

"I just told you. It's underground. But I think there's still a whole in the ground downtown from the last frog alien invasion-" He said, but Rex was already on the move.

"Thanks!" He called before settling his goggles over his eyes and taking off on his Rex ride.

"Wait, your forgot your smoothie!" The kid shouted after him.

Zak

"There it is!" Zak called. He and Fiskerton crouched behind a rock in a particularly forested cove. Zaks parents, Solomon and Drew were following closely behind. A large semi aquatic cryptid was moving in the shallow water, nudging the ground with a delicate horn.

"Careful Zak. Remember the Alkali Lake Monster is highly territorial. If we get too close, it might attack." Solomon called to Zak.

"We have to get close to it eventually if we're going to relocate it right?" Zak responded eyeing the cryptid curiously. He rubbed his head absently which had been aching ever since they landed the air ship. "How did this guy even end up all the way in the Great Lakes anyway"

"Could this be a migratory event?" Solomon Speculated.

"A giant, forty foot lake monster migrating across three states unnoticed? I don't think so Doc," Drew replied.

"It's not impossible. The only way we even knew it was here was because the plumbers noticed the cryptids activity so close to their base. For all we know this could be regularly occurring," He responded.

Zaks parents continued debating in the background, as Zak moved around to get a better view of the monster. Fiskerton came up behind him. He made a series of noises at Zak who glanced quickly at his parents. They were still distracted.

"No Fisk I didn't use my powers to find the lake monster," Zak said in a hushed tone. "Not that I needed to. You could smell that thing for miles." He said pinching his nose. Fisk responded and folded his arms.

"Yes I know you think we should tell mom and dad about my powers coming back. Just.. let me find the right time okay?" Zak pleaded. Fisk grumbled and Zak smiled.

"Boys," Drew called. Fisk and Zak moved stealthily back towards Drew and Doc.

"Are we going to bring the lake monster back to alkali lake?" Zak asked..

"Mmm your father thinks we should leave the cryptid alone for now." Drew said skeptically.

"We'll monitor it's activity for a few days, before we interfere. If it starts causing trouble, then we'll relocate. Otherwise,

the lake monster hasn't been noticed by the residents of this area. Hopefully it stays that way." Doc said.

"Aw no action? I thought a mission from the plumbers would be cooler," Zak said.

"Speaking of which, we should head to the plumber base to clue them in on the situation." Drew said.

(Later at Plumber Base)

"Magister Tennyson, it's been too long" said Solomon as he shook hands with Max Tennyson.

"Please Solomon, just call me Max," Max said with a smile. He greeted the Saturdays warmly.

"Is Ben around, sir?" Asked Zak.

"I'm afraid not, son. Ben and his cousin have been off exploring the universe during summer break. I doubt they'll be back any time soon." Max replied.

"Exploring space? Talk about an exotic getaway. If you're ever in need a cryptozoologist in space you should give us a call." Zak said. Fisk nodded in agreement.

"Cryptids are technically natives of Earth kiddo. Im not sure I see space travel in your future." Drew said.

"I'll be sure to keep you in mind in any case," Max said pleasantly. "Now about this cryptid-" He was cut off by the sound of an alarm blaring. Max moved to a console where a plumber was frantically typing on a computer. She pulled up a report on the screen.

"Magister, there seems to be some sort of disturbance in Undertown." The plumber explained.

"Can you get us a visual?" Max asked asked the Saturdays came up behind them. The plumber continued her typing and a video came up on the screen. The scene the unfolded was utter chaos. A pair of creatures, large and grotesque, were on a rampage in the alien market. Debris was thrown this way and that as the creatures destroyed booths and tables. Aliens screamed and ran from the area.
"What are those things?" Zak asked.

"I'm not sure. They don't look like any alien I've ever seen," Max said in a concerned tone that worried Zak. "Get some plumbers on the scene. I need those things contained." Another plumber moved to do as he asked.

"They look kind of familiar…" Drew started. Zak squinted skeptically at the gangly monsters on the screen. They were a greenish color, about six or seven feet in height, with multiple limbs or tentacles coming from odd places. What looked like hair covered their glowing red eyes. Zak gasped as recognition hit him.

"Guys! I think those are cryptids!" But something was very wrong.

Authors Note:

Sorry for the long wait! I wasn't anticipating such a great reaction to my "prologue." It was just something I did for fun. I just recently logged in and saw all of your responses so I whipped up this chapter as fast as I could. As long as even one person is reading I will write for you. I've been doing lots of research to make sure the characters stay as true to canon as possible. Let me know how I did! Btw, all the cryptids/aliens I will be mentioning actually exist in the shows so feel free to look them up if you can't remember them by name (I sure couldn't!). Hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading :)