With A Snap
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 11: Ben 0
Life hadn't been normal since they were ten. Two years ago they fought off a horrible space monster that turned everyone on Earth into it's servants. At that point, they thought that weirdness had topped out.
There had been a lull there for a while but they should have known it wouldn't last.
"A new Negative Ten, " Ben sighed, he had been enjoying a smoothie when they were attacked.
Ben pulled up the sleeve of his green jacket to reveal a watch like device. That was the Omnitrix, by many considered to be the greatest weapon in the universe. It had the power to transform him into one of countless aliens with super powers.
Next to him was his cousin, Gwen. She was a red head with wearing a red sweater and black skirt combo. It turns out their grandma was an alien, an energy being and Gwen inherited her ability to manipulate mana.
Gwen raised her fist and a bright purple glow wrapped around them.
Then there was Kevin, once their enemy turned friend and Gwen's boyfriend. Kevin placed his hand on his beloved car and his skin copied the texture and general characteristics of the metal.
"I don't think that's ten," Gwen pointed out.
First up there was Doctor Animo, a mad scientist wearing home made high tech helmet ridding a giant mutated parrot. His skin was a bit yellow, Gwen wondered if he needed to check in with a real doctor.
Then there was a ninja robot with crimson armor, the Forever Ninja. Ben thought he'd destroyed it before. There were still remnants of the Forever Knights maybe someone repaired it.
Then there was Clancy, a big man some sort of mutant who not only looked like a big bug but also controlled them.
Then there was Rojo, a biker criminal. She used to be just a normal biker who'd rob people, now she was a tall burly red head in black high tech alien armor with spikes and a skull emblem on the chest.
Then there was Sublimino, a short hypnotist with a fancy pocket watch.
There was Thumbskull a mutant whose head looked like a giant thumb. He looked dumb but he was strong.
There was the thing and gangly Acid Breath, as with his name he could breath acid and use it as an attack.
Frightwig was a young looking woman in a black body suit with pale skin. She had long red tentacles on her head with black orbs at the end.
The laughing clown smiled at his enemies was known as Zombozo, he was paled and looked like a goth kids dream clown. They were never sure if he was truly human, he had a number of strange powers that messed with people's minds.
Vulkanus was a large suit with an orange alien head sticking out of it. He favored a drilling on his hand as his weapon.
Sevenseven was the newest in the series of bounty hunters with a grudge against the group. This one was bulky guy with a purple armor.
Kraab was a crab like alien in cooper colored armor, another bounty hunter that had their sights on the team.
Kevin shrugged, "I don't think we ever accused anyone here of being smart."
"Maybe I got carried away," an older man wearing a gray jumpsuit and holding an alien gun walked forwards.
"Phil?" Ben asked.
Phil was a plumber, a guy who dealt with alien threat on Earth and a friend of their grandpa but he went rogue. When things died down he used alien to make a small fortune.
"You left me in the Null Void for years, it took me so long to find my way out," Phil snarled, "longer to track everyone who had a grudge against you."
"Huh," Ben let out, "is that why its been so peaceful after Dagon?"
Phil snarled, "Yeah, I know about that thing. It cracked the skin of the dimensions it let me escape." He smiled coldly, "I'm done catching up, let's do what we came to do."
"Right, its hero time." Ben slapped down on the face of the omnitrix and in a flash of light Ben changed.
Instead of a teen there stood a fiery hot alien.
"Heat Wave!" Ben called out his hero name, "Let's get things warmed up."
The two team charged at each other and attacked.
Ben shot fire balls at his enemies.
SevenSeven got struck by one of the fire balls and fell back. Forever Ninja jumped towards Ben but a mana whip from Gwen wrap itself around it and hurled the robot away and slammed it right towards Sublimino knowing him and Thumbskull right out.
Acid Breath moved towards Gwen ready to spit some acid when a metal fist struck his head and knocked him out.
Rojo blasted Kevin away with a laser shot and Gwen blasted her right back.
"Get her!" Clancy yelled out, as a swarm of insects rushed at Gwen.
Gwen reacted and raised a shield around her.
"I got them!" Heatwave wrapped a wall of flames scorching most of the bugs.
"Enough of that!" Zombozo yelled out holding a large spray bottle, a strong stream fo water hit him drowning the flames.
In another flash of light Diamond Head took Heatwaves place.
"Oh no!" Zombozo yelped staring at a diamond alien.
"Oh yes!" Diamond Head fired crystal shard at the clown forcing it back.
Phil fired at Diamond Head, and he just scoffed, "Phil, I'm made out of diamonds. It doesn't hurt me at all."
"How about this?" FrightWig Tentacles grabbed Diamond Head.
"Leave the rest for me," Vulkanus got his drill ready, "this drill is special made, it can break even the hardest diamond."
"Yeah, no." Kevin said, sending Clancy flying right at Vulkanus knocking him away.
"What?" FrightWigs tentacles glowed as Gwen started to move them. Gwen pulled her away and yanked her toward Rojo tangling them both up.
"Today you will finally meet your end!" Animo declared, his helmet was sparking as his mutant parrot squealed.
Gwen was the first to feel it, the chill running down her spine, the cold sensation down her soul and the feeling of lives vanishing.
Animo was screaming as he charged when suddenly he wasn't. In a flash of light the parrot reverted to it normal form and flew away.
"That was weird," Zombozo mused before his body was consumed by ash.
Diamond Head only remarked, "He usually disappears in confetti.
"What's going on?" Phil spoke up as his hand began to vanish in so much dust. The group stared dumbstruck as he vanished.
"What's going on?" Kevin asked.
"I don't know," Gwen stared as some of the civilians had started to vanish along with Thumbnail and Acid Breath. "They're gone! I can't sense them anymore! Not a trace."
"Gwen!" Kevin's voice rings out.
Gwens look at him, the Forever Ninja broken at his feet, Gwen barely registers it as his own body starts to grumble into so much ash.
"Kevin!" Gwen races to his side and summons up all her manna and bathes him in, she doesn't know what she can do or if anything can be done but she tries. She wills her life force to try and heal him.
"Gwen it's not working!" Kevin yelled as panic entered his voice, "Gwen…." Kevin breath left him as his whole body was consumed in ash. Dust was caught in the bubble of manna.
"Ah!" Diamond Head yelled out, the Omnitrix beeping insanely.
Kraab and Vulkanus were the next ones to vanish.
"Ben not you too" Gwen barely got the words out as she started to see Diamond Head's arm began to dust.
The omnitrix had several safety precautions set up, one was that if anything was about to kill the user it would cycle through the aliens to find someone that could survive.
Ben turned into Goop, the slime alien failed to slow the dusting down. He turned into Way Big his durability and size did nothing to help. Then Canonbolt, Wildvine, Ghost Freak, Upgrade, and Finally Alien X.
Alien X was his strongest alien, one capable of altering reality.
He spoke, "Gwen…"
Gwen was surprised by his voice, he never spoke in this form, Ben was tied up with two personalities that inhabited this alien form. It was powerful but they could never decide on what to do.
Ben spoke to her, "It's happening… it's happening everywhere and I mean everywhere…. Alien x can't do anything to stop it… it's already destroyed the other two in here… this is something crazy powerful and…" Ben tried to think of what to say, he could feel his body fading and any possible form he'd choose would still go the same way. He was going and there would be no coming back. So he said the only thing he could say to his cousin that would make sense, "Good bye."
The omnitrix flickered and Ben turned into human again and as the ash consumed him it jumped onto Gwen's wrist.
Gwen barely noticed as she was left alone with dust and a few baddies too afraid to speak and just wondering if they'd be next.
0000
Gwen stared at the omnitrix on her wrist, it changed a little, she didn't dare try it. It changed a little, when Ben had it there were Green and black highlights but now they were blue and red.
She was in a Plumber base, she was delighted to know that her Grandpa Max was fine less happy to hear that her mom was gone and they didn't know about her brother Ken. She was horrified to find out this happened all over the world, and that they were getting reports of this happening all over the Galaxy.
Gwen had sent out a message to all their allies trying to get an account for them. The world was falling apart as people panicked. Max was worried about Verdona, he said she'd be here if she was around. Neither said it but they both felt an absence and thought it meant she was gone.
Still, it did bring out some good things, Rojo and Frightwig were terrified by what happened and were staying close trying to help at least to stay in somewhat safety of the base.
"How are you holding up?" Max walked over with a drink for her.
"I'm fine," Gwen ran her fingers through her hair. "It's just a lot to take in. The scale-"
"I know, I've never seen anything like this. Early numbers are saying it was half of all everyone, it didn't have any other pattern."
Gwen sensed something and in a flash of purple light and smoke appeared Charmcaster, she looked exhausted. She was trembling and barely able to stand up. She still spat out the words, "Help, please, Ledgerdomain is in trouble. I don't know what happened, just-just people just started to disappear and turn to dust. I know were not friends but we really need your help."
Gwen got up and helped her into a chair, "Charmcaster," Gwen paused, "Hope," she used her real name, she didn't usually like that name but Gwen thought she needed to know how serious this is."It happened here too, Ben and Kevin are gone too."
Max pulled out a chair for her, and helped her into it.
Gwen spoke soft calming tones, "Maybe we can work together, try to find what caused this and maybe try and maybe reverse it."
There was yet another flash of light and a small grey alien with a cane walked up to them.
"Azmuth." Max looked at the creator of the Omnitrix, "Somethings happened-"
Azmuth raised a hand, "I've noticed, it was hard to miss when my assistant Myaxx turned to dust before my eyes. Not to mention how half of the population of my planet and the moon were also turned to dust!" He sighed, "I'm sorry, it's been stressful. I've been running scans, all forms of life was reduced to half at the same instance across the whole galaxy and if I'm correct the whole universe." He looked around, "I expected that time traveler to be here."
Gwen looked around, "Paradox?"
"Yes, I suppose he's been taken too. I very much doubt he wouldn't get involved to try and resolve this otherwise."
"Do you know what caused this?" Charmcaster asked, hopeful to get at least an answer.
"No," Azmuth admitted regretfully, "something happened, energy of some sort but it's hard to say. My equipment detected something but as it passed it was hard to detect what happened, everything happened but for no apparent reason or origin and left nothing behind. Though the effects stretched into the Null Void I'm getting some strange readings there, something worth checking though I don't expect much." He went over to Gwen, "I didn't come to discuss that puzzle, I came to check on the omnitrix."
"It jumped on me when Ben…" Gwen let her words trailed off.
"Yes, you must have been the closes genetic match. The omnitrix must have detected the danger and unable to save Ben found the optimal replacement. Being genetic similar helped the transition." The small alien tapped the screen and swiped through it.
Gwen said softly, "I guess you came to take it back."
"I'm tempted, but it's no use as things are I cannot remove it." Azmuth showed how the screen had lit up purple instead of its usual green. "The Omnitrix does adjust itself for the user. That's the problem when it did and scanned your DNA it too in some for manna as well. It's affecting the systems, if I were to try and remove it the feedback would likely kill you and the explosion might kill everyone near you as well." He looked Gwen over, "I suppose we could do worse."
Gwen tuned out the rest of Azmuth was saying, the Omnitrix felt heavy on her wrist but that didn't matter. Azmuth was considered the smartest person in three galaxies and maybe the universe and he didn't understand any of this and ti sounded like he had given up already. Gwen moved over to Charmcaster who looked ready to break down, It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay," she whispered to her, Gwen had to believe. She had to believe there was something they could do.
Author's Notes: okay, so I do this whenever I feel inspired or motivated or what have you and I just felt motivated to do a Ben 10 so here we are. Okay, few notes, I never liked Omniverse, it felt off and not just the art but the story telling and lore it just felt like it was something else. So no omniverse in this universe takes place after Ultimate and stuff has happened but a lot of recurring villians just haven't be all that active. Alright, I've gotten a lot of suggestion lately and some I just can't do such as one for the Warrior series since I don't know anything about that series and even with research I would be able to do it justice. The way I do these stories is that I have a good feel for the world, what the character would say and how they'd act. And since Steven Universe is been a big request I'll do that one next for you guys so just wait until I get to it. Otherwise leave a review telling me what you thought about this chapter.