Hey, guys, just a note: I'm going to call Pikachu a male in this fic, so I'll be referring to him a he, his, and him. Enjoy and review!

Max and Gwen

The Rust Bucket was driving down a road in rural Iowa. Max and Gwen had been silent for hours as they drove. Gwen tried to get her mind off of her missing cousin by reading a couple books but it was no good. Ben kept on returning to her mind. He can take care of himself, she told herself. With the Omnitrix he should be fine. She relaxed a bit as she continued to read her book.

"So, Gwen," Max said, trying to make conversation.

"Yeah?"

"Where do you think we should go?"

"Where were we planning on going?"

"I was thinking we could check the Iowa Hawkeye stadium out."

"We could do that I guess."

The two were silent for a while afterward. Then Gwen finally asked the question that had remained in her mind since the incident with Animo.

"Hey Grandpa?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think Ben's okay?" Max was quiet for a bit.

"I- don't know," he finally answered. "I sure hope he is."

"Me too," Gwen admitted.

"Can I get that on recording?" Max joked. Gwen giggled. "I think Ben will be alright. After all, he does have the Omnitrix."

"True," Gwen replied. She continued her book, as her grandfather didn't say anything after she answered him, occasionally thinking about her doofus cousin.

Ash, Ben, and co.

The group of five had been walking for about 10 minutes discussing what kinds of Pokémon Ben might like.

"So what kinds of Pokémon are out there?" Ben asked.

"What do you mean?" Ash inquired.

"Well, for starters, what do they look like?"

"Well, it's kinda hard to explain…" Ash said. "Because there are so many."

"I have an idea!" Serena exclaimed.

"What is it?" Clemont asked.

"We could let Ben look through a Pokédex to see what kind of Pokémon he might like," Serena suggested.

"Great idea!" Ash congratulated. He pulled out his Pokédex and opened up to a screen with a little critter on it. It had what looked sort of like a green helmet with three pins sticking out of it. Ash gave the device to Ben.

"You can scroll right to go to the next Pokémon," Ash explained. "The name is at the top." He pointed to the top of the screen, which at the time said "Chespin".

"Cool, thanks," Ben said and began to scroll through different Pokémon. When he scrolled through the first three, named Chespin, Quilladin, and Chesnaught, Ben looked a little puzzled.

"These three look pretty similar, and they have similar names too," Ben said.

"Oh, that's right!" Clemont jumped in. "Some Pokémon can evolve once or twice. There's even a new type of evolution called a Mega evolution that only certain Pokémon have the ability to do."

"That's really cool," Ben replied, beaming. He continued to look through the Pokédex until he rested upon a Pokémon called Riolu. Ben looked at its evolved form, Lucario, and found that Lucario had a Mega evolution.

"This one looks cool," Ben mused.

"Riolu, huh? Those guys are cute!" Bonnie exclaimed, taking a look at the Pokédex. Ben continued scrolling through Pokémon, stopping and making note of a few he was interested in, then finally gave the device back to Ash when he was done.

"So which ones did you like?" Ash asked as he put his Pokédex back in his pocket.

"They were all pretty cool, but I really liked, along with their evolutions, Riolu, Sandile, Houndour, Charmander, Tyrunt, and Eevee," Ben replied.

"Nice. Hopefully we can find one of those," Serena said.

"Tyrunt would be our best bet since it's native to the Kalos region," Clemont explained.

"There are different regions here?" Ben asked.

"Well sure. There's the Kalos region, the Johto region, the Sinnoh region, the Hoenn region, the Kanto region, and the Unova region."

"I'm from the Kanto region," Ash added. Bonnie turned and caught a glimpse of Ben's "watch". She also noticed the group had come to a clearing. This would be a good place to see Ben transform, she thought.

"Hey, do you think you could transform again?" Bonnie asked Ben.

"Huh? Oh, right! Maybe later. It'd be kind of weird if someone came walking and saw me as an alien," he replied.

"Oh, right. Okay."

"Oh, yes, I almost forgot!" Clemont jumped in. He paused and grabbed Ben's Omnitrix arm, examining the device. "How does this work? I must know!" Clemont looked very happy to be looking at the device. The other four stopped as Clemont began to inspect the alien accessory.

"Uh, I have no idea how it works," Ben replied, looking at Clemont.

"Clemont really likes machine and technology and stuff like that," Ash explained.

"He's even the gym leader of Lumiose City and specializes in electric types!" Serena added.

"Cool," Ben said, still keeping an eye on Clemont, who was having a field day examining the Omnitrix. He kept muttering to himself, sometimes about the design, other times about how it could possibly work. Suddenly, a rustle came from some nearby bushes. Clemont paused his examination and turned towards the sound, letting Ben's arm go. The other members of the group looked in the sound's direction, but as soon as it was heard, the bushes were still again.

"Probably just a Pokémon," Ash said. The group turned their attention away from the bushes and Clemont snatched Ben's arm again to examine the alien device that had latched itself to the 10-year-old's wrist.

P—

"That was close," James said. Jessie and Meowth let out a breath of relief. The trio of villains were hiding in the bushes, waiting for the right moment to spring into action.

"If you had kept your big mouth shut, there wouldn't been a close call!" Jessie replied, but quietly so the "twerps" couldn't hear. She snatched James' shoulders and gave him a nasty look. James gulped.

"What's that on the new guy's wrist?" Meowth asked, ignoring his arguing companions. Jessie let go of James and the two looked through their blockade of bushes and focused on Ben's alien "watch".

"Looks like some kind of strange watch," Jessie observed.

"It's definitely caught the techno twerp's attention," James added, noticing Clemont bent over the device in excitement.

"Which means it might be Pikachu catching time," Meowth concluded, smirking. Jessie and James smirked too.

"I think it's time we crash the party, don't you think?" Jessie asked the rest of Team Rocket.

"That's a splendid idea," James replied.

"Then let's teach those twerps a lesson!" Meowth said, getting ready to jump out of his hiding place. Jessie and James did so too, and out they leapt.

P—

"Hey, there's that noise again," Ash said, noticing the bushes rustling again. The group heard his observation and looked towards the bushes that had been making noise earlier.

"That's odd," Clemont said, again letting go of Ben's arm and turning his focus to the bushes. Suddenly, to the five friends' surprise, three figures sprung from the bushes. They landed stylishly in front of the group. Amongst the trio was a woman with long red hair bent in a swoosh style, a man with shoulder-length purplish blue hair, and a Meowth. The man and woman both had tops with a big red R on the center.

"Prepare for trouble, is that a new twerp I see?" the woman said.

"Make it double, it's gotta be!" the man followed.

"What the?!" Ben exclaimed, taken aback by the sudden appearance. "Who're you?"

"How rude of you to interrupt us like that!" the woman huffed.

"They're called Team Rocket, and they're bad guys who go around trying to take people's Pokémon!" Ash explained, narrowing his eyes at the intruders he knew all too well.

"You got that right," Meowth said, putting his paws on his hips. Ben's eyes widened.

"You can talk?!" he gasped, looking at Meowth in disbelief. Meowth just nodded.

"Yeah, I can talk. But it's you we don't know, and it's Pikachu we're here to steal!"

"What?"

"They've been after Pikachu for a long time," Ash said. Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder and narrowed his eyes, electricity sparking from his cheeks.

"You'll never get Pikachu!" Serena said.

"Oh, you twerps are so cute when you defend your Pokémon," Jessie sneered. "Let's bring out our toys!" Suddenly, from the air, a long, metal tentacle with a glass-like open ball on the end shot towards Pikachu. Pikachu didn't have time to dodge the sudden attack and was caught in the ball. He tried to use electric attacks on it, even Iron Tail, but the ball didn't budge.

"Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed. Team Rocket laughed.

"Sayonara, twerps!" James said. Then, from the horizon, a huge Meowth head balloon rose into the air slowly. The trio of villains hopped into the balloon, Pikachu's jail attached to the basket, and began to float away.

"What'll we do? They have Pikachu!" Bonnie said fearfully.

"I know exactly what to do," Ben said, twisting the dial on the Omnitrix. "It's Hero Time!" He slammed down onto the Omnitrix once he chose a silhouette, there was a flash of green light, and Ben began to transform. He gained an extra pair of arms and his skin began to turn red. He grew in size, and finally the transformation was over. After the green flash, Fourarms stood in Ben Tennyson's place.

"No one steals any of my friends' Pokémon!" Fourarms shouted in his gravelly voice. Meanwhile, the rest of the group had taken a step back in awe.

"Wow," Clemont breathed, stunned with the transformation.

"That was so awesome!" Ash exclaimed, a huge grin appearing on his face.

"I guess I got my wish after all," Bonnie mused, still staring at Fourarms in disbelief.

"What do you call this guy? You said you called your orange dog thing Wildmutt, so who's this?" Serena asked.

"I call this guy Fourarms," Fourarms replied. "Now it's time to get Pikachu." He leapt high into the air, probably about 200 ft at least, aiming towards the Meowth balloon that had progressively gotten farther away.

P—

"Ah, we finally have Pikachu," Jessie said, smiling.

"The boss will be so pleased," Meowth added. "After all, with such a powerful Pokémon, he'll be unstoppable! He'll say," Meowth then changed his voice to impersonate his boss, "'I'm so glad Meowth and friends got me this Pikachu. I can beat anyone with it! I think those three should get a nice reward.'" Team Rocket sighed with pleasure as they imagined what kind of reward they might get. Suddenly, James saw something coming towards the balloon out of the corner of his eye. He turned and peered over the basked edge to see what it was. It was rapidly accelerating towards them and it seemed to be some sort of four-armed being.

"Um, guys?" he started.

"What now?" Jessie grumbled.

"Incoming!"

"Huh?" Jessie and Meowth turned to find Fourarms coming straight for them. He grabbed onto the basket, weighing it down severely. Team Rocket had to hold on to the edges as not to be flung out.

"You guys picked the wrong day to be bad guys," Fourarms growled. He reached up and tore a piece of the balloon fabric away as if it were tissue paper. The balloon began to fly all over the place, the air inside now rapidly escaping. Fourarms slid down the metal arm on the bottom of the basket to retrieve Pikachu.

"Pika?" the little creature said, seeing Fourarms. He flattened his ears, looking intimidated.

"Don't worry, Pikachu. I'm here to save you," Fourarms assured the critter. He took the ball, ripped it off the metal tentacle, and jumped to the ground, making sure Pikachu didn't land too roughly. Fourarms looked up in the sky to see the Meowth balloon whizzing off away from him.

"We're blasting off again!" Team Rocket said in unison, disappearing into the big blue sky. Fourarms ripped the clear ball apart, setting Pikachu free.

"There you go," Fourarms said, tossing Pikachu's broken prison away.

"Pika Pikachu?" Pikachu said, cocking his head as he looked at the Tetramand.

"It's me, Ben," Fourarms said. "I used the Omnitrix to transform into this alien I call Fourarms." Pikachu seemed to understand.

"Pikachu!" he said, jumping into Fourarms' top pair of arms. The Tetramand began to walk back towards the clearing, which wasn't far. They got there in about five minutes.

"Hey, guys," Fourarms said when he got back. The foursome turned and saw him, smiling in the process.

"Pikachu!" Ash said, delighted to see his small companion again. Pikachu jumped from Fourarms' arms and bounded to his trainer, jumping into Ash's arms. Suddenly, the sound of the Omnitrix timing out sounded through the air.

"What's that beeping noise?" Serena asked.

"And why's the symbol on your arm flashing?" Bonnie added. But before Fourarms could answer, a bright flash of red light came from where Fourarms stood, and after it dissipated, Ben was back to being himself.

"It means I'm going to turn back to myself," Ben said. Serena and Bonnie looked amazed. Clemont looked delighted.

"Incredible!" he cried. "Simply incredible!"

"Thanks for saving Pikachu back there," Ash said.

"No sweat. It's part of my job as a hero," Ben replied, looking at the Omnitrix, now, as Ben liked to call it, "in the red."

Meanwhile, in space above Earth in Ben's world.

An alien ship is floating in space above Ben's beloved world. Inside the ship is one of his greatest enemies: Vilgax the Conqueror. He is looking at the many signals of Earth, but looking for one in particular. It's been gone for days, and Vilgax has searched the galaxy to find it, but failed to find his target.

"Where could the Omnitrix possibly have gone?" he growled, searching maps and graphs. "Tennyson couldn't have possibly gotten out of the galaxy in the time he's been gone, and I've searched every inch of the Milky Way!" Vilgax began to pace around the cockpit of his ship when he got an incoming call. It was from a fellow hater of Ben Tennyson: Dr. Aloysius Animo. Vilgax picked up and a picture of Animo's face appeared on screen.

"Hello, Dr. Animo," Vilgax said. He knew little about Animo; only that he was obsessed with mutations and that he wanted the Omnitrix. Same with Animo to Vilgax; the only things about Vilgax Animo knew were that he hated Ben and he was an alien warlord.

"Hello, Vilgax," Animo greeted. "Though I know little about you, this I do know. You hate Ben Tennyson and would like him dead."

"This is true," Vilgax admitted. "What is the meaning of this call?"

"I would like to make a deal with you," Animo explained.

"I am not one to make deals," Vilgax interrupted.

"Ah, but this deal I think you'll like. You see, I have a device that is similar to that of the Null Void Projector; it can send things to another world. I don't know exactly where it leads, though, because the fuel needed to power the device is extremely rare on Earth, and I only had enough fuel to use it once."

"So you sent Tennyson?" Vilgax replied once he connected the dots in his mind about the Omnitrix signal not being anywhere.

"Precisely. I would like to ask you a question before I suggest the deal to you. Do you have any Genosite?"

"Yes, it is quite plentiful on some of the planets I have been to. Is this what powers your device?"

"Yes. My deal is this: I can send both of us to the world through the device and we can team up to destroy Ben Tennyson once and for all if you can give me the fuel I need to power it. But you must promise to keep a team with me."

Vilgax contemplated this offer. On the one hand, he was getting the better deal: he had more than enough Genosite at his disposal, so it was a very small price to pay to get Tennyson along with a bit of help. On the other hand, he risked losing the Omnitrix to Animo if they did succeed in ending its wielder. Though I do have the advantage over Animo in a fight since he relies on his animals, the alien thought.

"Fair enough," Vilgax said. "We have a deal. I give you some Genosite to power your device, you send us through and we team up to destroy Tennyson. I will retrieve you, say, noon tomorrow, and you bring your device."

"I thank you for your acception and I will see you then." Animo's face disappeared from on screen, leaving Vilgax alone once again in the cockpit.

To Be Continued…