DISCAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BEN 10 OR AVENGERS EMA. JUST WANNA MAKE THAT CLEAR FOR THOSE WHO HAVENT GOTTEN IT YET.

Hey everyone. Yeah I'm alive. Sorry for the long wait, yet again, and I appreciate all of you for being so patient. Ive been working really hard to get this chapter ready for all of you and since I'm updating during this time of the year, this will be my Christmas Present to all of you. Merry Christmas everyone.

But now id like to take a moment for a really special person. As I'm sure many of you are aware Stan Lee passed away at 95 years old. This man was responsible for the creation of the most beloved characters in comics. He was one of the creators of Marvel. Everything we have been enjoying today, the movies, the TV shows, the games, all owed in part to him.

He's left such a big mark on the face of this world and has brought so much joy and inspired so many people, Including me.

My favourite Cameo he's ever done is in Spider Man 3. Were he appeared next to Peter Parker and said

"Ya know. I guess one person can make a difference. Nuff Said."

That really inspired me when I was little. And I hope his words still inspire people years from now.

Rest In Peace Stan Lee. Excelsior!

Now lets get on with the show.

Chapter 21: Banners Day

Throughout his Heroic career, Ben thought that he'd never meet anyone more stubborn and hot-headed as Kevin. Course at that point in his life he did not take alternate dimensions into account. That's where he met someone who's temper and stubbornness where beyond anything he'd ever thought was possible.

"No." grunted the Incredible Hulk, as he sat on the couch with his arms crossed.

Standing opposite him, with his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, is the Ultimatrix Wielder, Ben Tennyson. "Come on, dude. Can you at least consider it?"

"I said, No." Hulk repeated, growing more annoyed by the second.

"Hulk, you're not being fair." Ben pleaded.

"I don't care." The Green Goliath barked back. "This has nothing to do with you. He made a deal with me. And that's how its gonna stay."

Now it was Bens turn to get annoyed. "A deal you forced him into!" Ben countered. "You backed him into a corner and made him give up his life. Not cool, Dude."

"I don't care. Hulk stays Hulk. Not puny Banner." Hulk said stubbornly. Giving the Teen a harsh glare, showing that he was not backing down from this.

Again, Ben groaned in frustration as he face palmed. Ever since he met the man during the Gamma World event, the Alien Avengers has made several attempts to convince his Green Friend to allow his human side to come out for a little while, instead of being trapped inside the Hulks mind 24/7. But each time he's so much as mentioned the Scientist, the Gamma Brute had flat out denied him at every opportunity. But this time, the Alien Hero was not going to back down.

"Look, Big Guy. I know you and Bruce made a deal. But you have to know that Banner has a life of his own. And it's not fair that he has to spend all his time trapped inside your head. I'm not asking you to go back on the deal. I'm just asking you to give up one day, each month." Ben explained to the Gamma Giant.

Hulk simply grunted in response and looked away from the Alien Avenger. At first, the Teen thought he was being given the silent treatment. But as he observed the Strongest Avenger, seeing how he was glaring at one spot and clenching his fist. He started to realise that Hulk was actually glaring at Bruce Banner. At least, where he was seeing Banner in his mind. Ben remembered how Bruce had told him, he had found a way to communicate with the Hulk, while he was transformed. So he figured, this must be what it looked like when they were talking.

But it seemed that whatever the Scientist was saying to the Green Goliath, was not sitting too well with him as he shook his head and growled. "I stay the Hulk. Not Banner. And I'm done talking."

With that Hulk stood up and stomped his was out of the room, brushing past Ben as he did so. For a moment the Alien Avenger stood motionless. He then turned his head to the Hulk as he was exiting the room.

"Ya know. You keeping Banner trapped inside your head. Makes you no better than he was, when he kept you trapped in his." Ben stated, bluntly.

In that moment, Hulk froze. And for one brief moment both Alien Shapeshifter and Gamma Bruiser remained as still as statues, as if time itself stopped to see what was going to happen. Sadly, it seems that the Green Giants stubbornness was as limitless as his rage. As the Hulk proceeded to walk out of the room and up the stairs to his room. Leaving Ben alone to mull over another failed attempt to help the Hulks other half.

Midnight. For most people, this would be a time for them to sleep and regain their strength for the day ahead. But in the City that never sleeps, people, cars and lights continued to go about their routines as if nothing has changed. With the exception of a few drunken hooligans that made the smart choice to paint the town. But in the case of one individual, he was spending the first moments of the new day in a different manner.

In his dark room within Avengers Mansion, the Incredible Hulk was sitting at the foot of his bed, glaring at the mirror that was opposite him. For any normal person, looking into a mirror usually resulted in your own reflection staring back at you. But for the Hulk, when he looked into the reflective surface, all he saw was his other half. Bruce Banner.

For a while the two personalities just stared at each other in silence. Though not complete silence with Hulks heavy pants echoing through the room.

"You gonna try to talk me into it too?" Hulk eventually asked.

Bruce said nothing as he kept his eyes on his Monstrous counterpart. This however only made the Hulk angrier as he started to growl in frustration.

"You've been looking at me all night. I know what you're gonna say, so say it." He spat at the mental image.

"Do you?" Banner suddenly spoke, catching the Hulk off guard slightly. "We've both heard what Ben has to say about our arrangement. But that doesn't mean that I agree with what he said."

Now the Hulk was really getting confused. He was expecting the puny scientist to pile on what Ben had said and continue to try and convince him to give up control of the body. But he was not prepared for this kind of response.

"Y-You're not gonna try to get me to let you out?" He asked in a confused, but sceptical tone.

Banner shock his head. "I know the deal we made, Hulk. I am willing to make the sacrifices necessary for it. But if you decide to let me out for one day. Then that choice is up to you and you alone."

And with that finale word, Banners image started to shimmer and then fade completely, leaving hulk to stare at his own reflection. It was in the moment that the Green Giant did something he'd never thought he'd ever do. Actually think about what Banner had said to him. Throughout his existence, Hulk had always been clear about his hatred for his smarter, weaker and smaller half. He hated how he was so weak and puny, how he always ran away from a fight, how he used to try and get rid of him and how he'd always look down on him cause he was the respected genius and he was the big stupid monster. After all that, Hulk felt that his actions were justified.

But as he thought about what Banner said about his sacrifices. Hulk knew exactly what the Scientist was talking about. Or more accurately, who he was talking about. It was in that moment Hulk started to reflect on himself. All his life he and everyone around him, thought of him as a monster. Even to this day, despite everyone telling him otherwise, he still thought that about himself. But during his time with the Avengers, he'd slowly come to think of himself as a hero like the others. But how could he ever call himself a hero, if he denied the freedom of another person, even if it was someone he didn't like?

Hulk then closed his eyes, took a deep breath and sighed. He laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling for a for moment before closing his eyes. The sun will be rising in a few hours, and he had a lot to think about.

The morning came as it usually does, with the sun rising over the horizon and the people going about their morning routines. This was no exception for the Avengers, as almost every resident within the mansion was going about their morning activities. However for the resident Alien Shapeshifter, his routine had reverted back to its original settings. By tearing apart the training room as Rath once again. Though this time the Teen Hero was considerate enough to allow his teammates to use the training room before he demolished it. Something, Hawkeye, Captain America and Black Panther greatly appreciated.

But the reason for the Teens sudden return to this violent action, was not the same as what had started them in the first place. The Alien Hero had made great progress in his recovery from his grief. No, the reason for this outburst, was the result of Bens increased frustration with the Hulks stubbornness. He couldn't help but feel so useless in his repeated failures to convince the Green Giant to let his alter ego out and live his life. It was like he was unable to rescue someone that was right in front of him. He knew there had to be a way, but he just couldn't find it. It was driving him crazy.

With one more powerful roar of anger, Rath tore through the last of the machines that were deployed to face him. Crumpling the metal like paper, the only sound left within the wrecked training room were the echoes of the Tiger Alien's pants.

"Let me tell you something, Hulk: Strongest one there is. Rath will get you to let Puny Banner out. Even if Rath has to pull him out of your head Rathself." The Alien vowed with a growl.

With that the Alien Hero tapped the Ultimatrix symbol and transformed back into Ben. A determined look, present on the young Avengers face. He was gonna get Hulk to turn back into Banner and he wouldn't take no for an answer.

A few minutes later, Ben exited the elevator from the sub levels of the mansion and marched straight for the kitchen. He knew Hulk would be up at this time and would've probably eaten half the contents of the fridge for breakfast. So odds are, he'd be catching him in a good mood. He swiftly rounded the corner, fully prepared to give the Green Giant an earful. But just as entered the kitchen and saw who was sitting at the table, the words got caught in his throat. Cause sitting at the table, calmly eating a bowl of nutritional cereal….

Was Bruce Banner himself.

The Scientist looked exactly the same as the day Ben first met him months ago. Only now he was wearing clothes that actually fit him, complete with a new pair of unripped purple pants, a white t-shirt underneath a blue hoodie.

For a full minute, Ben just stood there in stunned silence, staring at the scrawny man like he was the strangest thing he'd ever seen in his entire life. After the scientist swallowed another mouthful of his cereal, he finally acknowledged the teens presence in the room by glancing in his direction.

"I understand you are surprised, Ben. But you had to have known that your conversations with the Hulk, would have had some impact." Bruce said in a calm tone.

In that moment, Ben shock his head to get over his shock and proceeded to walk over to the chair opposite Bruce. "Sorry. It's just that… Well… I'm just surprised that he actually let you out." Ben admitted.

"This isn't permanent." Banner stated as he finished of his breakfast. "Hulk is allowing me 24 hours to control our body and let me do what I would like to do."

"Oh." Ben responded, slightly disappointed that, that's all the time the man had. But at the same time, he was glad the Big Guy changed his mind. "So he's just letting you have today?"

"For now." Bruce explained. "Per our new agreement, he is going to let me out for one day every month for the foreseeable future."

"I see. Well that's not too bad. Sorry it isn't longer, dude." Ben apologised.

However Banner simply chuckled in response to the Teens comment. "You have no need to apologise, Ben. In fact, I should be thanking you. Your friendship with the Hulk has helped him develop into the force of good, I believed he could become. It is because of the way you have inspired him, that I am even sitting here talking to you at this very moment."

The Scientist then held out his right hand to Ben, then took his hand and shock it.

"Thank you, Ben Tennyson." Banner finished saying.

The Alien Avenger couldn't help but smile warmly at the heartfelt gratitude the scientist was giving him. "You're welcome, Bruce."

After that, Ben decided to take that moment to get himself some breakfast. With everything that transpired in the last few minutes, the Teen had almost forgotten how hungry he was. He then to put together some pieces of toast for him to eat and then returned to his seat at the table.

"So, Doc." Ben started to say, catching the Scientists attention. "Do you have any plans for how you're gonna spend your day?"

This was something that Ben was genuinely curious about. Aside from witnessing the man's intelligence first hand, he knew nothing about the man. What was this man's life like before the Hulk showed up?

Banner didn't respond right away. Instead he looked down at his empty bowl for a moment, moving his spoon around absent mindedly before setting it down.

"This is one thing I've been wanting to do ever since the Hulk and I returned to the city." Banner admitted. "Or more accurately, Someone I've wanted to see for a long time."

Now that was something that Ben understood all too well. The look in his eyes, the way he said 'someone'. That could only mean one thing. He was talking about a girl. In that moment, Ben didn't see a brilliant scientist, or a man haunted by the monster within him. He saw an actual human being.

"I see." The Teen responded, leaning back into his chair. "And are you planning on going to see this person?" He asked, intrigued.

"I… I'm not sure. It's been a long time and the last time a saw her. Things didn't really end well." Bruce explained looking a little nervous as he did.

"Dude, you've only got one day to do whatever you want. You can't waist it on a 'what if?' If this girl really means that much to you. Then you need to go for it." Ben said encouragingly.

Banner then looked at the Alien Teen with a surprised look. "How did you know I was referring to a woman?"

Ben then gave the scientist an incredulous look. "Come on, Bruce. It's so obvious."

"… Even so. My situation with her is… complicated. If I go and see her, I run the risk of putting her in danger from other parties that are after the Hulk." Banner than stated, trying to avoid the topic.

In response, the Young Hero raised his eyebrow. "Really, you're using that excuse? Dude, SHIELD's been keeping all those government guys off your back, when the Hulk joined the Avengers. You've got a full pardon from all the supposed crimes you've been tagged in. You're literally a free man."

For a moment it looked as though the Gamma Scientist was gonna continue arguing with him. But he then paused and took a moment to think. It had been so long since the man could walk around outside without looking over his shoulder, it had practically become second nature to him. The idea that he could actually have a normal day seemed like a foreign notion to him.

"Well then." Banner started to say. "If that is the case. I should get a move on."

A smile then formed on the Young Heroes face. "Awesome. Ill go get my jacket."

Now it was Banners turn to raise his eyebrow. "Why are you coming with me?"

"Dude, this is your one free day. While I did say that those government agents won't be coming after you. There's still a chance of a supervillain attack or a robbery of some kind and I am not gonna let that ruin your day by having you Hulk out." Ben explained cheerfully to the Scientist.

"So you're going to act as my bodyguard?" Bruce asked sceptically.

"More like your Banner's Day, travel buddy." Ben stated with a smug expression.

In response the scientist gave the teen an incredulous look. "We are not calling my day of freedom, Banners Day."

"Oh come on dude. It'll be like a mini holiday, well make a cake, get balloons, it'll be a blast." Ben playfully mocked.

Banner simply rolled his eyes as he got up from the table and took his bowl to the sink to be cleaned. At that moment, Janet suddenly walked into the kitchen with a cheerful expression.

"Hey, Ben. Beautiful day. I was wondering if you wanted to…" She suddenly stopped when she saw Bruce Banner standing opposite her.

"Who the heck are you?"

Needless to say, Ben did not expect Janet to punch the man. One minute she was looking at him asking who he was, next second BAM, right in the mouth. Lucky for him, she hit like a girl. And he meant that in the nicest way possible, Janet may be a hero, but her power manly comes from her stingers. She had not received a lot of training in hand to hand combat, especially how to punch properly, so her punch didn't leave a noticeable mark on the Scientists face. Course that didn't make the situation any less funny, when the Scientist fell to the ground like crumbled paper.

It took a while for the Teen Hero to catch his breath after laughing so hard. Once he regained his composure, he quickly cleared up the confusion. Leading to Janet frantically apologising to the Scientist, both out of regret and fear of what the Hulk will do to her when he comes back.

After that was all cleared up, the Alien Avenger and Gamma Scientist left the Mansion in the Quinjet, heading towards Virginia. To a little place called Willowdale. Certainly wasn't a place, Ben was expecting to go. But hey it was Banners Day, he was the one in control. Something that the Scientist had a hard time grasping that concept. As the Scientist kept looking around the cockpit anxiously shifting in his seat, and kept his hands clasped together like a little kid who was told to sit still and not touch anything. Seeing him like this, made Ben hope that whoever they were going to visit, she could help him get over his insecurities.

After a few minutes, Bruce told Ben where to set the jet down. In an open field near their town. From there the two made their way into the area, Ben still having no clue where they were going. At least until they arrived at the gates of a place called Culver University. That's when Ben mentally scolded himself. Of course the man would go straight for a College Campus.

As they walked through the campus grounds, Ben started to notice that the Scientists body language started to change, he seemed less nervous and a little more. Excited. His posture straightened, his pace quickened. He acted less like a suspect on the run and more like man on a mission. After a few minutes of walking, the pair arrived outside of a large building that had several student walking in an out of it with the occasional teacher walking around as well. For a while Bruce just stood on the path at the foot of the stairs, gazing up at the doors of the building watching all the people entering and exiting as he scanned the crowed looking for someone. Even Ben followed the Scientists example and started to scan through the crowd. He had no idea who he was looking for, but he had the feeling he might know if he saw her.

Sure enough, after waiting for what felt like an hour, someone did exit the building that caused the Gamma Scientist to go ridged. She was a rather attractive woman. Average build, with long brown hair and blue eyes. She wore a long white lab coat over her brown pants and grey shirt.

The woman casually looked around as she exited the building, unaware of what was about to happen. As she started her decent down the stairs, her eyes finally laid upon Bruce Banner and like him, she froze in position. Her eyes wide and her mouth slightly a gap. From Bens point of view, they looked like two statues in the middle of a flowing stream of people. During that time, the woman's eyes started to turn a shade of red as tears started to well up in her eyes. Bruce mirrored her emotions as a smile started to spread across his face. Before either of them knew it, they both dashed towards each other and passionately wrapped each other in their arms. Banner even impressed the Teen, when the scrawny man lifted the woman off the ground and spun her around in his arms. For a moment, the whole scene looked like one of those cheesy romance movies that Janet once made him watch.

After a while, the crowd of people started to disperse and the reunited love birds eventually stopped their twirling and Bruce set the woman down allowing them to separate slightly, but kept their arms connected as if they were afraid the other would get swept up in the wind. During the whole exchange, Ben kept a polite distance from the pair so he wouldn't accidently eavesdrop on their conversation. After who knows how long apart, they deserved to have a moment to themselves.

The Teen Avenger, lost track of how long he was standing there. But his mind was instantly brought back into the present when Banner called out his name. Causing the Teen to look in their direction to see the couple approaching him.

"Ben Tennyson, I'd like to introduce you to Dr Betty Ross. Head Scientist and Professor here at Culver University." Bruce introduced.

Ben smiled at the woman as he politely shook her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Dr Ross."

"The pleasure is all mine." Betty responded. "I am happy to meet any of Bruce's friends. I've been hearing a lot of reports on the Hulk with the Avengers. I am so happy to see that he's no longer considered a criminal."

"Oh yeah, the Big Guys been a real key player when it comes to taking down the bad guys. No one smashes like he does." Ben stated, giving Banner a playful nudge as he did.

Betty continued to beam as Bruce started to look a little bashful. "That is wonderful to hear. I I'm sure Bruce has been contributing a lot in helping design containment methods and helping Dr Pym create cures for some of the criminals?"

That question immediately caused both men to lose their smiles. In all the excitement, it was starting to occur to Ben that Banner had not told Betty about his arrangement with the Hulk.

Bruce then cleared his throat as he nervously looked at the female scientist. "Um. Betty, is there someplace more private we can talk? There's something I need to tell you."

Now it was Bettys turn to look nervous. "Of course, Bruce. My office is this way."

And with that, the two scientists and Alien Shapeshifter headed inside to continue their discussion. Once they were inside, Bruce then sat Betty down and began the long process of calmly explaining the entire situation to her. His arrangement with the Hulk, his role in the Gamma World incident, his recent deal with him, everything. Needless to say the woman was less than pleased with the news. Seeing her reaction almost made it hard for Ben to watch. Once Banner was done explaining, Betty clasped her hands together in front of her mouth and breathed heavily, doing her best to hold back tears.

"… I thought we would have more time. Of all days for you to come." Ben suddenly heard Betty mumble from behind her hands.

"Beg your pardon?" Bruce questioned, having also heard the mumble as well.

She didn't answer right away, as she was taking a moment to compose herself, still reeling from the news.

"Today, I was to go and meet up with a friend to conduct some research on an old project. I thought Bruce and I could meet up after and resume where we left off. But now that I know that you only have 24 hours as yourself…"

Bruce then walked over and took Betty's hand in his. "Betty, I had not exactly planned out how I wanted the events of today to play out. But if I can have a day to work alongside you, like we did before all this. I would consider that the best day I have ever had."

In that moment, Betty looked into Bruce's eyes and they both smiled at each other. But then Bettys smile faded as she gave the Gamma Scientist a serious look.

"Bruce… The experiment is happening in Vista Verde." Betty told him.

Upon hearing that name, Banners eyes widened in shock. And he immediately backed away from her, trembling as he tried to steady himself.

To anyone who didn't know the Gamma Scientist backstory, this reaction would be a little confusing. But to Ben, it was completely understandable. Vista Verde is a town in New Mexico, the place where Bruce conducted his experiment with Gamma Radiation. The place where the Hulk was born. It made sense that Banner would have some reserved feelings in regards to returning to that place.

Seeing his reaction, Betty immediately got up to console the man. "I'm sorry, Bruce. But this is important. The work that we are conducting out there could be revolutionary."

"That's precisely what we said when we first time we went out there." Bruce replied, harshly.

In that moment, Betty reached up and placed a hand on Bruce's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Bruce. I know how you feel about that place. So I won't ask you to come. But I do have to go. I hope you can understand."

For a moment, everyone was silent. Ben simply sat back and watched the exchange with anxious anticipation to what the Gamma Scientists response would be. It was at this moment, Ben was starting to feel like he was just an observer in this situation. He didn't know how to contribute to this conversation. He just hoped that when he did step in, he could be able to help.

Bruce raised his hand and placed it on Bettys cheek, which she then leaned into affectionally. Their eyes then locked with each other.

"Ok. I'll come."

Needless to say, neither Ben or Betty ever thought they'd hear him say that.

"You sure about this, Bruce?" Ben asked, concerned.

"I am. I cannot run from this anymore. The Hulk and I are partners now. I cannot let my past hold me back anymore." Bruce said in a confident tone. "Plus if we all go together, the Quinjet can get us there faster."

In response, Betty smiled and hugged the Gamma Scientist, which he then returned with a warm smile of his own.

A few hours later, the Quinjet entered the airspace above New Mexico. Ben was in the cockpit flying the jet as he looked out the windscreen to view the towering rock formations that scattered throughout the large desert area. Bruce and Betty sat in the back and were currently in a deep conversation about a bunch of technical science stuff that was just way to advanced for him to understand. But the teen didn't mind it. He was just glad they weren't using their intelligence to talk down to him, like some egotistical eggheads that Ben had met over the years. But in the case of these two eggheads, they were just catching up lost time.

The Teen then looked down at the Quinjets navigation monitor and saw that they were approaching the coordinates that Betty had given him when they boarded. He looked out the windscreen again to see the small town of Vista Verde below them. But it seemed that the location that Betty was taking them, was located at the base of a large rock plateau that was on the outskirts of the town. But the teen didn't question it as he set the jet down at the location and the three proceeded to disembark.

Once they walked down the ramp, Ben looked around at the seemingly empty area like a lost tourist, while the two scientists walked casually ahead of him, knowing exactly where to go. So like a lost dog, Ben followed to two Brainiac's as they approached the base of the rock plateau.

Suddenly, once the group got close to the rock face a deep mechanical grinding noise echoed from within the mountain and the rock wall started to slowly slide open. Revealing a secret entrance to a base of some kind. Ben took a moment to stop and admire the intricate design of the entrance, while the two scientists in front of him just continued on like it was an average Tuesday.

As the trio walked inside the hidden base, their footsteps echoed down the metal halls with no sign of life.

"So, was there supposed to be a welcome party or did one of you just have the remote for the garage door?" Ben asked in a quippy tone.

"Oh I'm sure he's still around. He probably just fell asleep on the job again." Betty responded vaguely.

Ben gave the female scientist a confused look. "Who's he?"

Just then a faint buzzing noise started to approach from the far end of the hall. It steadily grew louder and louder until a small spherical metal ball with a red camera lens floated up to them. The floating ball first turned to Betty and the lens briefly glowed, like it was scanning her.

"Hey Dr R." A static voice greeted the female scientist with enthusiasm. "Long time, no see. Glad you could make it out to my Fortress of Gammatude."

This was meet with a tired eye role from Betty as the floating sphere chuckled at its own joke. Even Ben smirked at the joke, but Bruce looked at the floating, talking ball with wide eyes upon hearing it speak. The sphere then took notice of Bruce and Ben.

"And I see you brought some guests with you. Let's see who we got here." The sphere then locked onto Bruce and its lens, glowed once more. But instead of identifying the scientist immediately like it did with Betty, the sphere remained focused on Banner like it was shocked to see him.

"N… No way. Doc is that you?" The sphere asked, in a flabbergasted tone.

Bruce smiled as he looked into the sphere's red eye. "Hello, Rick. Good to see you again."

"I… I just… I must be dreaming? Is that really you Doc?" The sphere, know identified as Rick, asked is disbelief.

The Gamma Scientist then chuckled in response. "No, Rick. You're not dreaming. I'm really here."

"It's a little dark down here, Rick." Betty then chimed in. "Could you please turn on the lights?"

"Huh? Oh oh, yeah of course. One light show coming up." Rick responded, snapping out of his stupor.

A few seconds later, lights started to flicker on throughout the hallway. Illuminating the path which revealed a large cargo elevator located at the end. A light blinked near the doors and they proceeded to open. The two scientists and the Alien Avenger then entered the cargo elevator and rode it to the top.

Once they reached the top and the doors opened. Ben and the Scientist where met with a sight that could only be summed up in two words. Man Cave.

The room was a large and circular, with a few computer terminals located on the side, near a giant monitor screen. There was also a kitchen located on the opposite end and in the centre of the room, was a large communal seating area with a large coffee table in front of it facing the monitor. Now under normal circumstances, this set up would be intended for scientists to use to get work done. But from what the trio could see, the place now looked like a frat house. Empty wrappers of junk food and soda cans completely buried the coffee table. The Kitchen was full of dirty dishes that were piled up so high, a mountain climber could've scaled it. The monitor screen was currently displaying the pause screen for a video game that was being played on one of the gaming consoles that was hooked up to it.

All in all, it looked like a pretty sweet set up. To Ben at least. The teen hero could totally picture himself hanging out in a place like this.

Just then the sound of a door sliding open caught the trios attention as they turned to see a teenage boy around the same age as Ben, rush into the room with his shirt half on as he seemed to have trouble getting his arm into the other sleeve of his shirt as he ran passed the group, apparently not noticing them, and proceeded to pull a sheet over his mountain of wrappers in a weak attempt to clean up his mess. Once he'd done that, he clapped his hands together proudly and then turned around and saw the trio of people staring at him and he realised that he was not alone.

"Oh…" Was all the Teen was able to say as he quickly ran his fingers through the brown rats nest that was his hair in an attempt to make himself look slightly presentable.

Betty simply sighed at the teens antics and shook her head. "Rick, you knew I was coming today. You could have at least tried to tidy up."

Rick rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment as he chuckled nervously. "Well Dr R, In all honesty I wasn't expecting you this early."

"Either that or you lost track of time levelling up your game." Ben spoke up, gesturing to the paused game on the monitor.

"Well, there's that too." Rick admitted, begrudgingly.

"Still a slacker, I see. Some things never change, Rick Jones." Bruce stated with a slight chuckle as he looked at his old friend.

It was then that Rick turned his gaze to Bruce and his eyes widened in disbelieve. Despite having just seen the Scientist with his drone a few minutes ago, the young adult was still so amazed to see the Gamma Scientist standing before him.

"Hey Doc. Wow I can't believe you're actually here." Rick said in surprise. "I mean when I heard that you were locked up in the Vault. I couldn't believe that the Big Guy actually got caught. But when Dr R told me about it…"

"He attempted to mount a rescue attempt." Betty finished, placing her hands on her hips and giving the young man a condescending tone.

"Hey it would've worked if I could just get a hand on one of those Hulkbuster uniforms. I could've snuck in…" Rick tried to defend before Betty cut him off again.

"And would've gotten yourself arrested or killed, in the process." She pointed out.

Rick opened his mouth to try and defend himself, but found the words lost to him and slumped his shoulders in defeat. It was in that moment that Bruce walked over to his young friend and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I appreciate the thought, Rick. But there was really nothing you could have done. And I'm actually thankful that Betty has been keeping you out of trouble." Bruce told the teen.

It was then that Rick lifted his head up and smirked at the Scientist. "Oh she did more than that." The teen started to explain. "Dr R's been having me look after all her little science projects she's been working on."

"While also helping him pass his online classes, so he can finally earn his high-school diploma." Betty added, further embarrassing the Teen.

"Oh come on, Betty." Rick whined.

"Really?" Bruce responded in surprise. "I'm impressed, Rick. I've been trying to convince you for years to get you to finish school."

"Well what can I say, Doc. She's a lot more convincing than you." Rick stated glancing over at Betty, who looked rather proud of herself.

This caused Ben to chuckle slightly, bringing to everyone's attention that he was still in the room.

"Oh how rude of us." Banner said, apologetically. "Ben Tennyson, I'd like you to meet Rick Jones. A good friend of mine and the Hulks."

"Nice to meet you, Man." Ben greeted, holding out his hand.

"Yeah, Bro. Same here." Rick responded shaking Bens hand. "So how do you know the Doc?" He asked curiously.

"We work together." Ben responded with a smirk. "Well more accurately, I work with his big green friend."

"No way, you're one of the Avengers?" Rick asked surprised. "Wait, don't tell me. Are you that new shapeshifter guy that's been exploding across the internet?"

"Didn't know I was going viral that fast, but yeah that's me." Ben replied nonchalantly.

"Dude that is awesome." Rick said excitedly. He then pulled out a cell phone and turned on the camera. "Can I grab a few pics of you in your alien forms and will you do an interview with me for my web-show. The guys on the online forums are gonna freak about this."

The intensity of Ricks little fan moment caused Ben to briefly flashback to the days in his old universe where everyone knew his identity and his was basically a celebrity, constantly being harassed by fans and the general public. Thinking back on it, he wouldn't lie if he said it didn't enjoy the attention and let the fame get to head a little. But in reality he hated every moment of it. He really learned to value his privacy and has even taken steps to ensure that has identity is never exposed again.

"Sorry dude. But I'm not really the interviewing type. You can take pics of me in action, but I'm not doing a selfie." Ben explained to the excited teen calmly.

Ricks excited expression faded slightly, but his smile did not fade. "That's cool dude. Totally get it. The trolls online would just claim I faked the pics anyway."

"Well Rick, why don't you show Ben around the base, while Bruce and I catch up?" Betty asked as she and Bruce shared a look with each other.

"Ahh ok." Rick said in a sly tone, nodding knowingly. "I gotcha Dr R. Common Ben, ill show ya all the cool stuff in this place."

"Awesome." Ben replied as the two teens headed out of the room, leaving the two scientists alone.

As the two explored, Rick showed Ben all the impressive gear that had been put into this base when it was used to hunt the Hulk. From tracking systems, to containment units, to gamma based weaponry. Not that any of these things would actually be able to take down the Jade Giant, but it was still impressive the amount of effort that was put in to fighting him.

"So traveling around with the big guys for all that time. You must have some pretty crazy stories?" Ben inquired.

"Oh yeah. In fact, check this out." Rick pulled on a cord that was tied around his neck and he pulled out what appeared to be a large green scale that was tied to the cord that he had hidden under his shirt and held it up. "Take a wild guess where this puppy is from."

Ben then leaned over to get a closer look at the scale. It didn't really take the teen hero very long to figure out who this belonged to as he got a very up close and personal with these scales when he got punched in the face with them.

"The Abomination." Ben stated confidently.

"Yep." Rick replied happily, putting the scale back under has shirt. "My prized souvenir. Hulk broke it off during his first throw down with him. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life."

"That's pretty awesome dude." Ben complimented.

"Thanks." Rick said. "But what about you? Being a shapeshifting alien hero, has got to have some equally awesome stories?"

Ben smirked in response. "Oh you have no idea."

"Well, don't leave a guy hanging. Give me something." Rick said, practically begging.

Ben chuckled as he and Rick continued to walk throughout the base. During which Ben did regale the Young Man with some of the stories from his past. All of which, Rick hung on every word like an eager child. After a while, the teens moved on from discussing Bens past and moved back to the tour.

Currently Rick was showing the Alien Avengers some of the various weapons that the base had in stock.

"This one right here." He said pointing to a large RPG like weapon hanging on the rack. "Was a real pain in the butt for the big guy."

"What does it do?" Ben asked curiously.

"Not sure. It just really hit him really hard in the butt." Rick replied.

The two boys shared a laugh as they continued to check out the other gear. When Ben noticed a device that was loaded onto a forklift. It was about six feet tall and shaped like a lab beaker. It was rusty in several places, but Ben could still make out the radioactive symbol on the side of it.

"So what's this thing, a bomb?" Ben asked, still looking over the device.

Rick looked over from behind a rack of weapons to where Ben was standing and a nervous expression immediately stretched across his face.

"Oh that." He said, as he walks over to the Alien Avenger. "No its not a bomb. Its actually an old Gamma reactor. I was supposed to get rid of this thing weeks ago. But…"

"You got set up, then something distracted you and you completely forgot all about it?" Ben summarised after piecing the details together.

"Yeah. Pretty much." Rick admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I mean. I totally meant to get it out of here. But after telling Dr R that I already did and more and more time passed. It just seemed like too big a deal if I moved it now."

"Why? Let's just take care of it now. We can take it out. Dispose of it and be back before Banner and Ross even know were gone." Ben stated in a confident tone.

"Its not that simple." Rick responded. I first gotta load it onto the truck, which is already hard since this stupid forklift only moves at a snail's pace. Not to mention transporting it cause…"

He is suddenly cut off when a bright flash of green light, blinds him.

"FOUR ARMS!"

Rick rubbed his eyes as his vision cleared and he looked up in shock to see a massive, red, four armed alien tower over him as it reached out and picked up the Gamma reactor like it was nothing.

"Where do you park the truck?" Four Arms asked the gawking teen.

Rick took a second before coming to his senses and immediately adopted a panicked expression. "Dude careful! That thing is unstable. Shake it around too much and it could blow."

Immediately the Alien Avengers cocky grin faded as he then held the reactor out in front of him like a fragile egg.

"Oops. That's the kind of information that would've been good to know before now." Four Arms said nervously.

The Teen then glared at the Alien Hero as he crossed his arms "Well how was I supposed to know that you'd just change into a ten foot tall alien and pick it up? By the way, totally awesome how you did that."

"Thanks. So what now?" Four Arms asked.

"Well take it down to the truck. Carefully. Then well load it and drive it out of here." Rick explained.

Four Arms nodded in agreement and Rick proceeded to lead the large alien out of the room and through the base till they managed to get to the bases garage. Four Arms then walked over to the truck that Rick guided him to and placed it on the back, gently. From there Rick used several straps to bind the reactor to the vehicle, tightening the straps so that the device was secure. Four Arms then transformed back into Ben and the two teens got into the truck and Rick started the engine while also opening the garage doors. But as the doors opened fully, Rick received a call from Betty on his phone. Rick and Ben looked at each other nervously as Rick answered the phone on speaker.

"Hey Dr R. What's up?" Rick said casually.

"Hello Rick. The base just alerted us to the garage doors opening. Is everything ok?" Betty asked from her end of the call.

Rick looked at Ben and mouthed what he should say, while Ben just shrugged and urged him to say something. "Well… Uhhh… I wanted to show Ben around. And thought we would take a trip into the town."

Rick glanced at Ben, who gave him a thumbs up in response.

"Well ok then. Just don't get into any trouble out there." Betty replied.

The two boys let out a mental sigh of relief.

"Yeah ok sure thing Doc. Be back later, bye." Rick then hung up the phone and they drove out of the base and made their way to the main road that would take them out of the area to the disposal sight.

After a few minutes of driving the pair had put a considerable amount of distance from the town and the songs that Rick was playing of his phone where starting to get repetitive, Ben finally felt the need to ask the question that really should have been asked after the third playing of 'Life is a Highway'.

"So where exactly are we going?"

"There's an old Military site, a few miles out. Where they store most of their old and worn out junk." Rick explained.

This caused Ben to look over to him and raise an eyebrow. "Please tell me we are not just going to dump a radioactive device in the middle of a hole in the desert?"

"Oh now don't get all Environmental preachy on me. That's not the plan at all." Rick assured the Teen Hero. "It's not a permanent solution. The reactor will simply be stored there until the energy from it, dies out. Then it'll be disposed of properly."

"But radio active material can take hundreds of years to wear off." Ben stated incredulously.

In response, Rick simply shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't say it was a perfect plan. But look, we don't have a way to safely dispose of this stuff at the moment and we cant have it taking up space at the base."

"So we are just leaving this thing in a hole in the desert." Ben repeated, though this time in the form of a statement.

"Ok yeah. Fine. That's exactly what where doing." Rick admitted exasperated. "But It's the only option that we've got. We can't just have it lying around the base and have it accidentally go off and put people in danger. Until someone can find a safe way to dispose of radioactive material. This is the best choice."

Despite Ben initial objection to the Teen logic. He couldn't deny that he did have a point. Modern day technology didn't really have a short term solution to radioactive problems. Areas like Chernobyl are still highly radioactive and scientist still haven't worked out a way to reduce the radiation levels effectively. Of course that can only be said by human standards. Ben knew of several alien species that have the tech or physical capability to handle radioactive materials. Heck, he could even turn into the aliens themselves. But due to the laws that the Plumbers had in effect, No alien tech or powers can be used to enhance an entire species progress. And no matter how much Ben wanted to, he couldn't just go around fixing all the Earths problems and having humanity become so reliant on him that they would give up on finding a solution themselves. As great a hero as he was, he couldn't be the only solution.

That being said. Ben was still a hero and that meant he couldn't help prevent a potential threat to the world. And he has several aliens that could take care of that reactor easily and safely. However, just before the Teen Hero could voice his alternative idea to his new friend, an Armadillo wandered out into the middle of the road and Rick only just noticed it and in a panic, slammed on his breaks and turned the wheel sharply. Immediately the truck swerved violently, jostling the Teens as Rick tried desperately to regain control of the vehicle, only for it to end up skidding off the road into a ditch, causing the airbags to deploy, stunning both of the boys.

Ben groaned as he pushed against the airbag that saved him from a nasty trip to the hospital, or possibly something worse. However his mind quickly returned to his new friend as he looked over to the driver seat, but saw that Rick wasn't there. The Teen Hero checked the windscreen and found it intact. Cracked, but otherwise intact, meaning that Rick had not gone through it and was most likely still safe.

"Rick?" Ben called out, as he exited the vehicle and looked around the area. But then his eyes fell upon a scene that made the colour drain from his face…

Rick Jones, crouching on the dirt, in front of an overloading Gamma reactor.

The device must have broken free when the truck skidded off the road and crashed. The device was already sensitive to something as small as a pot hole, so having it thrown from a crashing vehicle would definitely not be good for it.

"RICK!" Ben shouted as he rushed towards the teen.

"Stay back, Ben! I got this!" Rick called back as he continued to work on the device.

"You're insane, dude. Get out of there. I can take care of this." Ben screamed back.

However Rick refused to move from his position and continued to work on the rector. "No this is my mess. I need to fix this. Besides I'm almost…"

Before the Teen could finish, he twisted a nob on the reactor and a panel on the reactor and a large pulse of green gamma energy burst from the machine, blasting Rick back several meters before landing in a heap on the ground.

"RICK!" Ben screamed, running over to his friends side to check if he was ok. The energy released form the reactor had burned away at Ricks shirt, exposing his chest along with his Scale necklace. However before he could confirm his vitals the energy pulsing from the device caught the Alien Avengers attention. The device was shaking as energy started to pulse from it. From the way the energy was fluctuating, Ben theorised that it was only a matter of time before the reactor blows up and spreads radiation for miles, poisoning everything. Ben had already seen first hand what Gamma Radiation can do to living organisms under the gamma dome, he can only imagine what creatures would be created if this reactor blows. He needed to stop it here and now.

Quickly the Teen Avenger activated the Ultimatrix and started cycling through his aliens. "Best way to deal with radiation is to absorb it. NRG would be perfect for that. But really I'll take Chromastone or Feedback."

He then finds the Alien he wanted and slammed the dial down. In a flash of green light, Ben transformed. But what he transformed into, was not what he intended.

"UPGRADE!"

The transformed Teen then looked down at his hands and realised he was not the right alien.

"Stupid watch! This is not the time to have a sense of humour!" He yelled at the faceplate.

But complaining about the glitchy space watch would have to wait. The reactor was going critical and he needed to find a way to stop it. Acting on instinct, Upgrade leapt forward and his liquid metal body, flowed over the reactor and merged with it. Changing and restructuring it, in his attempt to contain the blast. Though, despite his mind wanting to contain the blast, Upgrades instincts caused his body to react differently. Instead the Bio-mechanical Alien turned the reactor into what looked like an advanced cannon that was pointed strait into the sky. It was in that split second that he was not attempting to contain the blast. He was going to release it into the atmosphere, where it would disperse safely at levels that would be harmless to organic beings.

The moment the Alien had finished his construct, he fired a powerful green beam of energy into the sky. The radioactive energy tore through the air, climbing higher and higher, looking like it would just fly into space without any complications.

Suddenly the beam stopped. Like it hit some invisible force and a sound similar to thunder, ruptured forth as the Gamma energy arced out across the sky until the very sky itself split open like a scar being slashed in the air itself.

After a few more seconds, the energy within the Gamma reactor was used up and the beam from Upgrades cannon stopped. The Alien Avenger then separates from the now drained reactor and looked up into the sky to fully witness the tear he had unintentionally made. It looked as though the scar had opened a portal to somewhere Upgrade did not recognise. But from what he could see it was a dark void.

"Oh that cant be good." Upgrade said.

Just then something emerged from the portal and fell to the earth like a comet, crashing several miles away from him.

"And that's probably worse." The Alien Avenger stated in a worried tone.

However his attention was caught by a groan and he turned to see Rick twitch on the ground as a pained look crossed his face. Upgrade immediately ran over to his friend, turning back into Ben as he did so.

"Rick? Rick? Talk to me buddy. Come on." Ben begged, shacking the teens shoulders, trying to get a response from him.

But as he did so, Ben noticed a faint glowing on Ricks chest. Looking down, Ben saw the scale on Ricks neckless glowing against Ricks skin. Then, to his shock, the scale was then absorbed into Ricks body, causing the Teen to grown in pain even more.

Ben's eyes widened in shock as he leaned in close to examine the teens condition. Suddenly Ricks eyes shot open and, before Ben could even react, he found himself flying through the air after being hit by a powerful blow, landing in a heap in the floor. Ben gasped as the wind was knocked out of him as he looked back to where Rick was and saw him rise to his feet, panting heavily.

He then looked up at Ben, and the Alien Avenger saw that his eyes were now glowing yellow. Rick then grunted in pain as his body began to change. The teens body began to grow as his skin started to sprout blue scales. The first and middle finger and ring and pinkie finger on each hand, fused together respectively. Turning his five digit hands into three. His shoes also burst off his feet when his feet grew too large for them as his toes fused to, two large clawed toes. His ears grew to be pointed and elf-like, while his teeth sharped into fangs.

The newly Mutated Rick stood tall as his clothes tore off his body revealing a 7 foot tall, blue-scaled mutant that roared to the sky as he glared at Ben with angry eyes.

Upon seeing his new friend mutate before his eyes. Ben immediately stood up and raised his hand in a placating gesture.

"Hey Rick. You still in there buddy?" Ben asked in a calm tone. "I know things are confusing right now, Rick. But you need to calm down. Take deep breaths. And then we can talk about how cool it is that you look like a Blue Abomination."

For a moment it seemed that the Alien Avengers words managed to get through to the Gamma Mutant as he stopped in his tracks as if to ponder the Teen Heroes words.

"A… A… A bomb…. A bomb…" Rick started to say in a low growling voice, seemingly trying to repeat what Ben had said. The Mutated Teen then looked back up to the Alien Shapeshifter and his eyes burned with rage as he clenched his fists.

"A-BOMB, SMASH!" The Gamma Monster roared as he launched himself at Ben, both armed raised above his head.

Immediately, Bens instincts took over as he dove to the side as Rick or, as his monstrous form was now calling himself, A-Bomb, slammed his fists into the ground. The shear power of the blow, caused a massive shockwave that kicked up dust and debris in all directions. A-Bomb then stood up within the large crater he had made with his attack and looked around the area for any sign of the Teen Hero. But there appeared to be no sign of him. The Blue Gamma Mutant turned around to see smoke rising from the area where the meteor from the portal crashed and proceeded to use his powerful legs to leap miles into the air in its direction.

After the Mutated Teen had left the area, the air shimmered as Ghostfreak decloaked and then turned back to Human. A nervous look was present on the teens face, one freak accident turned an innocent teenager into an angry gamma monster that could endanger the lives of many people. It was at this point Ben was starting to notice a pattern. First Carol got mutated by Kree DNA after he failed to protect her from the Sentry, then Andi got exposed to an alien symbiot after he failed to stop Taskmaster, now Rick got turned into a monster, all because he failed to react in time to dispose of the gamma reactor. It would seem everywhere he goes, he's just too late to prevent someone's life from getting messed up.

Before he could dig his hole any deeper, his Ultimatrix communicator started beeping as he looked down at the device and nervously activated.

"Ben, what's going on?" Came Bruce's voice, as he talked to Ben using the communicator Ben had given the Hulk, and to an extension himself. "Betty and I, just detected a massive Gamma spike in your vicinity. What's going on over there?"

A bead of sweat rolled down Bens forehead as he initially tried to come up with some clever excuse to avoid ruining Bruce's day. But quickly realised that, out of everyone in the entire world, no one knows more about Gamma radiation than Bruce Banner. If there was a way to help Rick, Bruce was the only man that could help.

Letting out a deep sigh, Ben confessed everything that had recently transpired. From the gamma reactor, to the meltdown, to Ricks exposure and portal in the sky and finally Ricks mutation and sudden rampage.

After completing his confession, Ben was half expecting to hear an angry roar of the Hulk as he smashed his way to give him a beating for letting his friend get mutated under his watch. But instead, all Ben heard was the calm voice of Bruce Banner.

"Don't blame yourself for what happened." Bruce said in a calm tone. "I'm sure you and Rick did everything you could. And while I wish you had just come to me in the first place. We can go over this after we find Rick. I'm already isolating his Gamma signature. Once I have the location, We can meet up with you to stop him."

This reaction took Ben a little by surprise. But then again, the man had spent many years learning how to control and contain his rage and therefore would have a very good handle on it. But there was something that the scientist said that did catch his ear.

"What do you mean by 'We'll meet up with you'?" He asked, though having a strong idea about what the scientist meant by it.

From the other end of the line, Ben could hear Bruce take a deep breath. "… Its time for a Code Green."

"Bruce no." Ben replied instantly. "I cannot ask you to give up your day cause of my mistake."

"Its ok, Ben. It was nice while it lasted. But there are people that need saving and the Hulk is an Avenger. He's needed more than I am." Bruce responded in a determined tone. But Ben could sense disappointment in the scientists words.

But it was hard to argue with the man. He had a point, it's a heroes duty to protect people, even if it means sacrificing their own needs. However, there was one thing that he could argue with.

"You're wrong about one thing, Bruce." Ben responded.

"What's that?" Bruce asked.

"You're an Avenger too." Ben stated confidently. "The Hulk may be the muscle. But you're the one that convinced him to help. You're the one that gave up so much to help people and save lives. You are a member of this team and right now, we need you're help. Not Hulks."

For a moment, the Gamma Scientist said nothing. At first Ben thought he'd lost the communication, until he finally heard his voice speak again.

"Thank you, Ben. You're right. I can work on a way to help Rick." Bruce replied.

Ben smiled in response. "Ok, but what about the portal?"

"Our instruments, say that the gamma energy that opened it in the first place is fading. It should close by itself, in a matter of time." The Gamma Scientist stated.

"But what about the thing that came out of it?" The Alien Avenger asked.

"Whatever it is. You'll have to put it back into the portal before it closes. Betty and I will monitor its progress and keep you informed." Bruce instructed.

"Ok. Now what am I gonna do about, Rick?" Ben asked, hastily as he knew the longer he waits, the larger the chance of Rick hurting someone gets.

"Alright, Ben. Listen closely." Bruce began.

After going over Bruce's plan, Ben immediately commenced with his pursuit of A-Bomb. Having transformed into Jetray, the alien hero soared over the desert as he followed the Gamma Mutants trail. Which was not hard as similar to the Hulk, every time he landed after performing one of his long-distance leaps, he left a large crater where he landed. Though even without the crater trail, Jetray already had an idea where the Gamma Mutant was going. The smoking area from where the unknown projectile left a pretty big smoke signal that any being would be curious about. So an angry and confused Gamma Mutant would of course be drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

This theory was shown to be correct as Jetray saw the Blue Scaled Brute, leap once more into the sky and land with a thunderous crash a few meters away from the impact sight. The Scaled Gamma Mutant then walked towards the smoking crater, while Jetray held back for a moment to watch. Curious about the nature of this unknown meteor.

Just then A-Bomb stopped in his tracks as his body tensed up and he clenched his fists and growled exposing his fangs as he glared at the crater.

Suddenly a beam of yellow energy blasted forth from the smoke and hit A-Bomb in the chest, sending him flying back into the base of a rock formation, causing an avalanche that buried him. Jetray looked shocked as he looked back at the crater and saw something emerge from the crater. It was roughly 19 feet tall, with broad shoulders, wearing some kind of grey metallic armor on his shoulders and chest. He wore blue pants with metallic knee pads along with silver gauntlets on each wrist. His skin was grey and had a thick main of dark brown hair all around his head and face, giving him a slight resemblance to a lion. His eye and mouth both glowed with yellow energy as he stomped out of the crater into the light.

"If this is the best this world has to offer. Then I will have no trouble conquering this world for my own." The grey brute said, in a monstrous gritty voice.

Upon hearing that declaration, Jetray immediately dove into action. Helping Rick will have to wait. Right now, stopping a powerful alien warlord, takes priority.

"You want the best? Let's see how you handle this, Ugly!" Jetray called out, gaining the lion faced beings attention.

He then fired his neuroshock beams from his eyes at the Grey Brute, but the villain swiftly raise his hand, which was now glowing with yellow energy similar to his eyes and mouth and blocked the green beams as Jetray pulled up from his dive and flew past him.

"You dare to attack, Blastaar! I will tear you apart molecule by molecule!" The being known as Blastaar roared. He then proceeded to raise both his arms and fire two beams of yellow energy at the flying alien. But Jetray was able to dodge the beams easily, thanks to his superior speed.

"With the way you aim? Please. You couldn't tear apart a Turkey on Thanksgiving. Quit embarrassing yourself and just go back to whatever bridge you crawled out from under." Jetray taunted.

Blastaar roared in frustration as he then aimed his hands to the ground and fired another pair of energy beams, causing him to shoot forward like a rocket and fly right towards Jetray. He then stopped blasting, once he had gotten closer to the Alien Teen and then cocked his fist back to try and punch him. However Jetray, once again easily avoided him and managed to fly around the Alien Villain until he was right behind him and he fired a full powered neuroshock blast from his eyes and tail and struck Blastaar in the back, sending him hurtling into the ground hard. Creating another crater as he did so.

Jetray then flew down until he was hovering just a few feet above the ground near the crash site. His eyes narrowed as Blastaar stood back to his feet, with no sign of damage. Now Jetray was starting to get a feel for how tough this guy is. His neuroshock blasts were nothing to laugh at, when he pushes it, they can do some serious damage. But this guy shrugged them off like they were nothing.

"I have had enough of your games, creature." Blastaar said, his hands glowing with energy as he faced him. "You are little more than a pest to me. And like all pests, you shall be vaporised."

"Ya know, I would've gone with blasted." The Alien quipped back. "Cause then you could've said that I've been blasted by Blastaar."

Jetray then proceeded to laugh at his own joke, which only incurred more anger from the Grey Brute. Blastaar roared in anger and charged forward, preparing to take another swing at the Alien Hero. Jetray attempted to fly around the attack like before, but Blastaar seemed to have learned from his previous attempts and swiftly spun around and grabbed Jetray by his tail and yanked the alien back, causing him to yelp in surprised as Blastaar slammed the Flying Alien into the ground and used his glowing fist to punch Jetray several meters into the side of a cliff hard enough to dent it.

The Alien Avenger groaned as he rubbed his head in pain. It was now clear to the Young Hero that this guy was not just some dumb brute that just wanted to smash everything and push around those weaker than him. He was a warrior and knew how to fight. If he was gonna defeat him. He'll need a heavy hitter of his own. He reached up and tapped the Ultimatrix dial…

But nothing happened. Jetrays eyes widened in shock as he looked down at the dial and tried to tap it again. Just like before, the device was unresponsive.

"Oh no." Jetray gasped in a panicked tone. "This can't be happening. Not now."

He tapped the dial several more times in a desperate attempted to get it to responded. Mentally panicking and trying to work out why it was suddenly glitching on him.

Suddenly the dial started to spark, and green energy started the crackle around it.

"What's going on with this thing?" Jetray asked rhetorically as he taped the dial once more and spoke to it. "Ultimatrix, report. What's happening?"

"Error. Error. Unable to diagnose…. E-Errrrrrr…" The Ultimatrix's voice responded in a staticky tone.

The Alien Hero looked up to see Blastaar bearing down on him. If he didn't do something now, he'd be blasted to pieces. Acting on instinct, the flying alien took to the skies at high speed, putting some distance between himself and the Alien Brute.

However, as he did so, the Ultimatrix dial suddenly activated and in a flash of green light, Jetray transformed.

"CHAMALIEN!" the lizard alien shouted.

Upon the transformation's completion, ChamAlien looked down to see that he was now several meters in the air, as an alien that couldn't fly.

"I hate this stupid watch!" the Alien screamed as he plummeted back to the earth. He frantically waved his arms around as he spun out of control during his decent. As he got closer to the ground, he tried to transform, but the Ultimatrix started to glitch again.

Before he could try to figure out what was wrong, the hulking figure of Blastaar slammed into him and he grabbed onto him as they both crashed into the ground, kicking up a large dust cloud. Once it cleared, Blastaar could be seen grasping ChamAlien by the neck and held him above his head with one arm.

"You though you could defeat me? No one can defeat Blastaar!" The Alien being boasted as he held the wriggling Wielder of the Ultimatrix in his grasp.

In response, ChamAlien desperately tried to free himself from Blastaars grip, but the Grey Brute had an unbreakable vice on his neck. He tried to transform, but the device was unresponsive. All it could do was spark and glitch. This really confused the Alien Hero, why was the watch acting this way? It had never done anything like this before, and yet for some reason it was malfunctioning like a computer with a virus. It just didn't make any sense. It was working fine until Blastaar showed up.

This cause the Lizard Alien to wonder. Could Blastaar be the one causing the Ultimatrix's strange behaviour?

But ChamAlien did not have time to ponder that theory as Blastaar raised his free hand and charged up his energy to blast the Alien Teen to pieces. Reacting quickly, ChamAlien flexed his tail and a long sharp barb extended from the tip and he immediately stabbed it into Blastaar's arm. The bar sunk into the Alien's flesh like needle and immediately Blastaar roared in pain as he reflexively released ChamAlien, allowing him to scurry away, activating his camouflage ability and blended into the landscape, invisible to the naked eye, but also taking extra steps but sweeping away his tracks with his tail and hiding in the shade of a rock to avoid casting a shadow.

Blastaar quickly recovered from his initial shock and looked around for his opponent. Only to find he had vanished from sight.

"Coward!" Blastaar roared to the desert landscape. "Come back and face me! You cannot hide! I will annihilate every being on this world until I find you, Changeling!"

The Grey Warlord then blasted his energy into the ground and flew off into the air, landing a few miles away and started to blast the area, kicking up large dust clouds in his search.

Once he was gone ChamAlien decloaked and watched Blastaars rampage in the distance. Any moment the monster could make his way to a settlement and put so many lives in danger. The Alien Teen needed to figure a way to take him down, despite his Ultimatrix's malfunctioning problem.

In that moment the Ultimatrix dial started to beep. Indicating a call was coming it. ChamAlien reached up and pressed the dial to answer the call.

"Ben? What's happening out there? Seismic readings are going crazy in your area." Bruce's voice said from the speaker.

"Well Doc." The Alien Avenger started to explain. "Turns out the meteor that came out of the portal, turned out to be some alien lion man named Blastaar. Dudes, the standard alien invader MO, came to conquer, wipe out all opposition, enslave the population, yadda, yadda, yadda. And I can't seem to get near the guy without the Ultimatrix acting up."

From his end of the call, Bruce contemplated what the Alien Shapeshifter had said, and started to formulate a hypothesis.

"It's possible this Blastaar, is generating some form of energy field that is disrupting the Ultimatrix normal processing capability. Has something like this ever happened before?" Bruce asked.

ChamAlien thought for a moment. Trying to recall any moments from his past where the Ultimatrix would've encountered something that made it act odd.

But the Alien Teens current train of thought was interrupted by the sound of rubble shifting and he turned around to see A-Bomb emerge from his rock blanket and glare at the alien teen with burning rage.

"Oh man. I forgot about you." ChamAlien said exasperated.

"What's happening, Ben?" Bruce asked.

"Its Rick. He's here. And does not look very happy." The Alien Teen commented.

"Ben, listen. You need to focus on Rick right now. Betty and I are on our way, we have something here we think might be able to contain him. But you need to keep him there until we arrive." The Gamma Scientist instructed.

"But what about Blastaar? I can't just leave him unchecked. He could make his way into town and do who knows how much destruction." ChamAlien protested.

It was at this point he was starting to regret not letting Banner become the Hulk. He'd stretched himself too thin trying to help Rick and trying to deal with Blastaar. Doing the hero thing solo is way harder when you try to deal with everything at once.

"Ben listen to me." Bettys voice suddenly spoke on the communicator. "You can't take on everything at once. If your mind is everywhere, you can't make a logical decision and you'll makes mistakes. Focus on the task at hand and work till it's complete. And then move onto the next problem."

The Alien Teen then took a moment to let that sink in. She was right. Trying to do everything at once, is never a good idea. He should know, he tried it once using Echo Echo. He needed to focus on what was in front of him right now. Otherwise things will only get worse.

"Ok, Betty. I'll handle Rick. You guys give me a heads up when you're ready." ChamAlien said as he turned off the communicator.

He then turned and faced down the Blue Gamma Mutant. "Ok buddy. Time to knock some sense back into you." ChamAlien said determined as he started down his Mutated friend.

A-Bomb narrowed his eyes in anger at the Alien Teen as he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. ChamAlien responded by getting into a fighting stance and waited for A-bomb to make the first move. He didn't have to wait very long as the rage fuelled Gamma Brute let out a loud roar and charged straight at the Chameleon Alien like a rhino. ChamAlien held his ground until the last possible moment and then as A-Bomb cocked back his fist to deliver the first blow, he immediately turned invisible and vanished from the Gamma Mutants sight.

The Mutated Teen skidded to a halt with a stunned look on his face. He looked around confused wondering how his opponent suddenly disappeared. When suddenly an invisible force slammed into his side knocking him off balance slightly. A-Bomb swung his arm out widely but hit nothing but air. He looked around trying to find whoever attacked him, when he was then struck in the joint behind his left knee. This caused his leg to immediately buckle as he dropped to the ground, catching himself on his hands. He raised his head to once again try to find his attacker, when he was then struck in the face, by an invisible fist.

As the Gamma Mutant became more enraged and swung wildly at the air. ChamAlien retreated back to a safe distance, still cloaked and rubbing his hands. The armored scales on A-Bombs body where impressive. Had it not been for his training with Black Panther to attack the joints and nerve points. He doubted he could've ever managed to knock Gamma Rick down with this form. But a few clever moves won't be enough to take him down.

He then tapped the Ultimatrix Dial and transformed.

"Rath!"

The Tiger Alien then charged at A-Bomb and punched him full force, sending him flying back several meters. The Gamma Teen got to his feet again and glared at the Alien Avenger.

Rath cracked the tendons in his neck and gave his opponent a primal growl. "Let me tell you something, A-Bomb formally known as Rath's new friend Rick Jones! Normally, Rath would beat you black and blue! But since you're already blue, RATH WILL YOU BEAT YOU BLUER!"

In response A-Bomb roared like a mindless animal and charged at Rath. The Transformed Teen grinned in anticipation for the coming fight and he ran straight at the Blue Mutant with his fist raised.

"A-Bomb SMASH!" The Gamma Mutant roared.

"Rath STRIKE!" The Transformed Teen responded

The two Brutes quickly closed the distance between them and sent their fists hurtling towards each other. Their punches collided, resulting in a shockwave that blew away any loose debris within several meters of them. This quickly escalated into an all-out brawl between the pair. Neither one of them backing down from their position as they stood their ground throw punch after punch, not even bothering to dodge or block. Rath sent a powerful haymaker into A-Bombs face, in response A-Bomb gave Rath an impressive right hook to his jaw. But neither one let up, in fact, Rath was loving every second of this fight. It wasn't too often that the Brawler Alien could go all out like this on an actual opponent. Sure, he vented a lot of built up stress in the training room, tearing apart training machines and equipment was nothing compared to an actual opponent that could go toe to toe with you in an actual fight. Usually Rath would face enemies that are either weaker than him, leading to the fight ending quickly, or opponents that are too powerful, in which case he's knocked out or forced to change. This was someone he could go all out on and could gave back as much as it could take. And Rath loved it.

Meanwhile back at the lab, Bruce and Betty where working tirelessly on some strange device, that could potentially be of help to Ben. As they worked, Betty couldn't help but feel disappointed. After so long, she had finally gotten a chance to spend time with Bruce without the fear of the Hulkbusters coming in to try and capture him. And yet even without that stress, it still didn't prevent some big calamity from happening that caused them back into the fearful existence.

She took a moment to glance over at the Gamma Scientist with a concerned expression. But to her surprise, she saw him smiling as he worked on his part of the project.

"Bruce? Is everything ok?" She asked curiously.

"Hmm?" Bruce replied looking over at her, before snapping out of his musings. "Oh yes. Of course, Betty. Why?"

"Well its just. You've got this one day to be yourself and now we have work in here to save the world. It's not really the day I wanted to have with you." Betty admitted, sadly.

Bruce walked over to Betty and took one hand in his and cupped her chin in his other hand to make her look at him as he gave her a gentle grin.

"I get to spend my day, working to make the world a better place, using my skills and working alongside You. How could that not be the perfect day." Bruce admitted.

Betty couldn't help but beam in return as Bruce then separated and put on a pair of safety goggles and handed a pair to her.

"Now come on. We need to finish this, if Ben has any chance to containing Rick." Bruce said as the two got back to work.

After a few more minutes of unrelenting attacks. Both Muscle bound combatants, finally took a step back from the fight, panting heavily. The Alien Tiger and Gamma Mutant, both were sporting minor cuts and bruises on their bodies. Had it not been for their advanced durability, they'd both have looked a lot worse and possibly need serious medical attention. But this momentary break would not last long. At any moment, they would both catch their second wind and go right back to it.

With his adrenaline rush depleted for this moment. The rational thinking part of Rath's mind was finally able to come forth. Despite how much Rath was enjoying this fight, the Alien Avenger was starting to become aware by how long he'd been in Alien form. He'd already transformed multiple times and his encounter with Blastaar might have affected the watches charge. Meaning he could run out of power at any moment and then he'd be at A-Bombs mercy. He needed to either fight smarter or end this fight now, before his opponent could recover.

But it seemed that in those few seconds of thought, Rath's irrational, violent train of thought came barrelling into the station and the Alien Shapeshifter immediately went for option B.

Sluggishly Rath took a step towards A-Bomb, clenching his right fist, preparing to give every ounce of remaining strength he had into this next punch to end the fight.

However, A-Bomb saw his opponent advancing and despite his primal thought patterns, the Mutated Teen knew that he wasn't ready to go another round with the Alien Tiger yet. So, in a surprising turn of events. The scales on A-Bomb's body began to change. The primary blue colour scheme of his armored hide, shifted to lighter, brownie shades, until the Gamma Mutant disappeared from view.

The Alien Teen was stunned at the display, the Gamma Mutant had camouflage capabilities on pair with ChamAlien. Did he mimic that power from him or did he always have that ability from the start?

Regardless of the reason, Rath had no idea where the Mutated Teen was. At least until he was suddenly slammed in the face, by A-Bombs, invisible fist. Since he was caught off guard and wasn't braced for the attack, Rath was knocked off his feet and sent flying back several meters, before landing on the ground, carving out a shallow trench.

The Alien Avenger shock his head to clear it. A fresh batch of adrenaline started to flow through him once again and Rath stood to his feet and clenched his fists.

"Let me tell you something A-Bomb, also called Rick Jones! Using camouflage is cheating! You wanna fight Rath, you fight so Rath can see you and punch you! Even if Rath used camouflage earlier. But that's allowed cause it was a different alien!" Rath rambled as he tried to find his invisible target.

Course with Rath's brutish mind, it did not occur to him to simply look for his opponents tracks or his shadow, and by the time he did notice it, A-Bomb had already closed the gap and sent another haymaker at Rath, carving out another trench for him.

This was starting to annoy Rath. He desperately wanted to pummel the Scaly Gamma Mutant. But he can't punch what he can't see, despite his best efforts to punch the air multiple times in the past. So he had no choice but to change into something that could see him.

Reaching up once more, the Alien Teen taped the Ultimatrix dial and transformed into Wildmutt. The Blind Dog Alien roared out his name in the Aliens usual animalistic language of grunts and growls and his radar senses immediately managed to locate the cloaked A-Bomb. Marching towards him, preparing for another sneak attack. However Wildmutt easily dodged the attack and leaped above A-Bomb landing on his back. The Dog Alien then bit the Gamma Mutants shoulder and racked his claws against his opponents back, all while A-Bomb desperately tried to shake him off and try to grab him.

However due to A-Bombs armored scales, Wildmutts teeth and claws had virtually no effect on them. The Dog Alien was just not strong enough to be an effective match against the Gamma Brute.

After shaking and jerking a few more times, A-Bomb eventually managed to grab onto Wildmutt by the scruff of his neck and yank the Alien Avenger off him and toss him away. Wildmutt rolled across the ground and groggily got to his feet and turned to face the Gamma Mutant. Growling and baring his fangs.

Frantically he tried to figure out a strategy. A-Bombs camouflage capability makes it hard for him for his stronger aliens to see him. And A-Bomb is too quick for them to use the shadow tracking method. But Wildmutt isn't strong enough to fight on par with him and he can't just continue to dodge and avoid him to let him recover his strength. He needed a form that could both see him and fight equally with him. Unfortunately, the Alien Teen had only one alien that could fit that category. He just only hoped Banner would be ready before he times out.

Reaching up for the final time. Wildmutt tapped the Ultimatrix dial and four spikes popped out of it. Immediately Wildmutt grew significantly larger and more muscular. His fur changed to a maroon-red colour. His spines shifted into four huge grey/white spikes running down his back that overlap. These spikes start out as a shark-like fin at the head and rises almost into an arc over the back, tapering near the rump. He also has a long tail whose tip has a curved horn, resembling a scorpion stinger.

"ULTIMATE WILDMUTT!" The Alien roared, now able to speak normally.

Through his radar senses Ultimate Wildmutt could see that A-Bomb was slightly taken aback by this sudden change. But he was not detoured and prepared to attack.

But Ultimate Wildmutt was more than ready for him now as he let out a loud and more powerful roar that his normal form and charged straight at the Gamma Mutant. The two combatants once again collided, and A-Bomb raised both of his fists above his head and brought them down at the Evolved Alien. But Ultimate Wildmutt raised his two powerful forelimbs and easily caught both arms by the wrists and stopped them dead in their tracks. The two combatants once again tried to outmuscle each other, with Ultimate Wildmutt strength actually managed to match A-Bombs.

The Evolved Alien pushed A-Bomb back, causing him to lose balance and take a few steps away to regain his footing. This allowed Ultimate Wildmutt to charge straight at A-Bomb, as he did, the spikes in his back began to rise and straighten, making them resemble a row of serrated horns running down his back. Ultimate Wildmutt then lowered his head like a charging rhino and rammed right into A-Bomb, sending the Gamma Mutant flying back several meters.

The Evolved Alien returned his spikes to their normal appearance and ran after he opponent. He then cautiously stalked closer in case A-Bomb as his enhanced senses could pick up the scent of blood. His radar vision picked up on that his spikes managed to cut A-Bombs armored skin, resulting in a nasty gash on the Gamma Mutants leg. The Evolved Alien couldn't help but feel bad for causing that injury. But he could already sense the wound closing and healing up, making enhanced healing to the list of powers the Mutated Teen possessed.

It didn't take long for A-Bomb to start to get up, once again causing Ultimate Wildmutt to get into a fighting stance. But his enhanced senses picked up on a noise that cause the Elvolved Alien to grin in relief.

A-Bomb roared and leaped towards the Alien Shapeshifter, only to collide into an energy field that suddenly materialised in front of him. The Gamma Mutant was knocked back from the impact and stood back up, slightly dizzy from the shock. A-Bomb looked around and saw that the energy field was a large dome that have completely surrounded him and looking around he was able to locate the source. A medium sized, box shaped device, with a tesla coil at the top that was projecting the field. Standing alongside it, with Ultimate Wildmutt casually walking over to join them, were Bruce Banner and Betty Ross, having just arrived on the site to set up their trap to contain the Rampaging Gamma Mutant.

The Mutated Teen roared in frustration and charged at the trio, sending his fist into the energy field of the dome. Only for it to bound straight off it. He then attempted to punch it over and over again with the same result, unable to have any effect on the energy field.

While the Gamma Mutant continued with his pointless endeavour, Ultimate Wildmutt took this break in the fight to turn back into Wildmutt, then back into Ben, who breathed a sigh of relief and stretch his back and limbs out from his intense fight.

"You sure that's gonna hold him, Bruce?" Ben asked as he watched A-Bomb continue to hammer the dome.

"Quite sure." Bruce responded. "It's a kinetic force field. The more Rick punches it, the stronger it will get."

"And from our scans of him. It seems that his gamma levels don't increase with his rage. So, he won't be getting stronger to be able to break it." Betty added.

Ben nodded in understanding.

"Now we'll have to be quick. The sooner we fix Rick. The sooner we can move onto stopping Blastaar." Bruce stated typing a few keys into his tablet.

"You will be able to cure him, right?" Ben asked, hopeful.

"We certainly will try." Betty stated, though slightly unsure. "His mutation is a lot different from Bruce's. The Gamma combined with that scale, gave him an entirely different genetic makeup from both Hulk and Abomination."

"We may not even be able to get a blood sample from him to analyse, due to his hide being so thick." Bruce continued, as he went over to the truck he and Betty came in and brought out some equipment. "If we could just calm him down and restore his human mind. We might be able to study him quicker."

Just then a thought came into Bens head.

"Maybe I can help with that?"

The two scientists gave the Young Hero a confused look.

"What do you mean, Ben?" Betty asked.

"What if I could restore Ricks mind. So, we can both, find a cure for him and he could help take down Blastaar? Having just thrown down with the guy, I can say with certainty that he's strong enough to do it." Ben suggested.

For a moment Bruce and Betty looked at each other and appeared to be having a psychic conversation. Guess being together for so long, they can tell exactly what the other is thinking without either of them having to say a word. It actually made Ben envious of them and hoped he and Carol could have that kind of connection one day.

After a few moments, the Scientists turned back to Ben.

"Are you sure about this, Ben?" Bruce asked.

Ben gave a nervous groan and nervously kicked the sand under his shoe. "It's a little risky. But with my watch acting up whenever I get close to that Hairy Beast. I'll need his help and you need him calm and in control. So, unless you guys have a better idea. That's our best bet."

Bruce and Betty took a moment to consider the implications. Really there was no better option. They couldn't just aim Rick, as he is, at Blastaar. His mind is too muddled and confused and he would end up running off or be ineffective against Blastaars superior fighting skills. Having Rick in control of his altered state was the best way to solve both problems.

"Ok, Ben. Do it." Betty told the Teen.

Ben nodded and activated the Ultimatrix, and slammed down the dial.

"Brainstorm!"

The Alien Crab then scuttled over to the energy dome and Bruce typed some keys into his tablet and the dome began to shrink. Getting smaller and smaller, leaving A-Bomb with less room to move in as he tried desperately to break the dome and free himself. Only for the dome to shrink so far that he had no room to move. He was completely restrained.

"Now my Gamma Infected Acquaintance. Let's us attempt to get those Neurons firing at the right capacity." Brainstorm said, as his skull plates opened, and a single beam of electricity fired out from his brain and struck A-Bombs forehead. The electrical stream continued to flow as Brainstorm used the electrical pathway to connect with A-bombs mind.

This was a tactic that Brainstorm had hardly ever used. Due to his inexperience with this side of this aliens powers and the fact that he was always afraid he would accidently fry someone's brain. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Plus, with A-Bombs newly acquired healing factor, it's likely that even if the Alien Teen slipped up, he could recover from it. But that doesn't mean Brainstorm was gonna let himself get sloppy. He poured all his focus into restoring Ricks brain to its normal capacity. After some searching, Brainstorm eventually found what appeared to be a blocked pathway in Ricks frontal lobe. The brain was so overloaded with Gamma energy, that particular pathway got blocked in the process.

Brainstorm focused and sent electrical impulses into Rick brain that caused a chain reaction in the neurological pathways, stimulating them into action, causing them all to act as one, blasting through the blockage and causing everything to start flowing and returning to a normal stable level.

With his task complete, Brainstorm severed the connection to Ricks mind. Feeling slightly dizzy from the connection, but otherwise ok. He then turned back to normal as he, Bruce and Betty all looked up at A-Bomb, who was now looking dazed and weary. He groaned and shock his head and blinked his eyes open. Now looking more focused and slightly confused.

"W-What the?" Rick spoke, looking around the area and his current confinement, before looking down at the trio in front of him. "Dr B? Dr R? When did you guys get here? Why am I in this dome and…" It was at that point he noticed his three digited, scaly blue hand and the rest of his mutated form. "WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO ME!"

"Easy Rick. Calm down. There was an accident." Ben tried to explain calmly.

"An Accident!?" Rick shouted as he contained to examine every inch of his new mutated body.

"Yes Rick." Bruce said, picking up the reigns. "You were exposed to a Gamma blast. It merged your DNA with the scale you wear around your neck. Causing you to mutate into this."

Bruce then bowed his head and started to tremble, causing Betty to walk over to him and wrapped her arms around him to comfort him.

"I am so sorry, Rick. I never should have brought you into this life. This is all my fault." Bruce said, tearing up.

Ben lowered his head in shame. He too felt responsible for Ricks fate. Now there's a chance Rick would have to live with this curse for the rest of his life.

Banner then recovered enough to turn off the Kinetic force field, allowing Rick to stand and fully examine his monstrous form. Bruce lowered his head, fully expecting Rick to hit him or yell at him for his current state. As far as he was concerned, he deserved it.

"This is…"Rick started to say. "This is…. AWESOME!"

That certainly wasn't the reaction either Bruce or Betty were expecting as they both looked up at the now beaming Mutated Rick Jones in utter shock. Ben however couldn't help but grin at the display.

"I can't believe it. I'm actually a hulk. No not a Hulk, or an Abomination. I'm something way cooler. I'm a.. Ah..?"

"Before, when you were all angry and crazy, you were calling yourself A-Bomb." Ben chimed in cheerfully.

"A-Bomb?" Rick responded, confused. Then resumed his excitement. "I like it. Gotta nice ring to it. A-Bomb, the new Gamma Bruiser. This is so Awesome!"

A-Bomb leaped into the air, his human mind finally being able to fully appreciate the new power he possessed. He landed and proceeded to run over to a boulder and easily lifted it off the ground and hurled it into the distance.

"Oh man. I am so strong. This is Incredible!" A-Bomb yelled out in pure joy.

Bruce however, was still routed to the spot. Still shocked by his young friend, complete lack of negativity towards his Mutated form.

"R-Rick? You're not upset by any of this?" He asked, confused.

A-Bomb then turned back to Banner and quickly ran over to him and picked him up with his massive hands.

"Are you kidding? Bruce, how could I not love this? Since the first day I saw the green guy in action, I've wanted to know what it's like to be a hulk. To be able to fight with you and not just be some dumb kid in the wrong place that you guys have to save. Now I can actually help people and do something about those super villain punks that push around the little guys." A-Bomb explained.

"But, Rick. This power could have many untold consequences. We don't know if the gamma in your system can coincide with your DNA without breaking down. You could be stuck in this form forever. How can you live a normal life like that?" Bruce asked concerned.

"Ah who wants to be normal?" A-Bomb responded nonchalantly. "Look Doc. I want this. I'll make it work. And if there is a problem that comes up. I'll deal with it. This is my choice, Doc. I hope you can be cool with that?"

He then put Bruce down and the scientist looked up at his young friend with concerned eyes.

But before he could say anything, and explosion was heard off in the distance. A large dust cloud blew into the air as the sound of an angry Blastaar roared across the land.

"What is that?" A-Bomb asked, excitedly.

Ben smirked and crossed his arms. "Oh, that's some evil Alien warlord that's come here to take over the world. You wanna team up with me and take him down?"

"Do I!" The Gamma Mutant said enthusiastically. "Heck yeah. My first super villain fight this is gonna be epic!"

"Hold your horses, Big Blue." Ben said, standing in front of that Mutated Teen. "I know you're excited. But you are new to this hero thing. You wanna do this. You need to follow my lead. Got it?"

"Yes Sir. Mr Ben 10, Sir." A-Bomb said, performing a salute, with a toothy grin.

Ben smiled in response. "OK well this guys got some weird energy that messes with my watch. So I won't be at my best out there and you'll have to pick up some of the slack. But I got a plan that just might work."

"Whatever it is. You two will have to be fast." Betty said as she looked at the tablet. "Our scans of the portal show that the gamma energy holding it open, will only last for a few more minutes. You need to get Blastaar back into the portal before it closes."

The two teens nodded as Ben activated his Ultimatrix. "We'll have to go over the plan on route." Ben explained to A-Bomb as he slammed down the dial. "It' Hero Time!"

Several miles away, a large rock formation that has probably been formed over millions of years from the Earths environmental changes, was suddenly struck at the base by a powerful impact and toppled like a tree. Out from the rubble, Blastaar emerged. Anger burning in his glowing eyes. It was very fortunate that the Alien Warlord had instead wandered away from any populated areas and continued to wander deeper and deeper into the open desert. But his encounter with the Shapeshifter has led him into an obsessive rampage as he attacked everything in his path to try and find and finish the battle they had started.

"I will not be denied my victory!" Blastaar yelled aloud. "I will never rest until our battle is completed, Changeling! Even if I must blanket this world with war and death!"

Just then a rumbling noise was heard in the distance. Blastaar turned to see something fall from the air and land several meters away from him, kicking up a dust cloud, while also creating a shallow crater.

From the dust cloud, emerged the cocky form of A-Bomb as he flexed his brawny arms and puffed out his chest as if to make himself look as tough and intimidating as possible.

However, Blastaar did not look fazed in the slightest. "You have returned for another match, mindless beast? I have no time to waste on such a pathetic exercise."

Upon the Warlords comment, A-Bomb blinked in surprise on how casually the villain just blew him off. Granted he didn't remember how easily Blastaar had blown him away before, but still he could have at least gotten a little something from his first real supervillain. The Gamma Mutants expression quickly changed into anger as he charged his fists and charged straight at the Beast like being.

"Oh, I'll show you pathetic, Cowardly Lion." He retorted as he threw a left hook at the Alien Villain.

However, Blastaar easily dodged the attack and shoved A-Bombs arm away leaving the Mutant Teen exposed, allowing Blastaar to charge up his fist with energy and ram it right into A-Bombs gut, blasting him away with ease.

Even with his durability, A-Bomb was slightly rattled by that impressive counter attack. He was not prepared for Blastaar to be able to avoid and take him down so easily. Then again, this was his first day in the hero business and he had yet to realise that strength and power aren't the only factors in a fight. A lesson that may have cost him, as he looked up to see Blastaar bearing down at him with both hands raised and glowing with yellow energy.

"If you insist on meeting your end on this day, Beast. I will be happy to grant that request." Blastaar stated, in a superior tone. He unleashed a powerful blast of energy as A-Bomb, reflexively closed his eyes and waited for the impact of the beam.

But the beam didn't hit, as the Gamma Mutant opened his eyes to see Chromastone standing in front of him, glowing with multicoloured energy after absorbing Blastaar's energy.

"Boy that's some messed up energy ya got there pal." The Crystal Alien commented with a hint of disgust in his tone. He turned back to A-Bomb. "What did I tell you about charging straight into a fight?"

"Hey he insulted me and didn't give the Bomb Man some respect." A-Bomb defended.

This caused Chromastone to role his eye and sight in frustration. "Rookies. He's a Bad Guy, Rick. He's gonna say anything and do anything possible to get a rise out of you so you'll charge in and make dumb choices. Which didn't take a lot to do, didn't it."

A-Bomb chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah ok, ya got me there." He admitted. "But I still wanna punch him, bad."

"Don't worry. You'll get your chance." Chromastone assured. "Just follow my lead."

The Alien Avenger then faced Blastaar, who noticed the strange symbol that was present on the Shapeshifters chest in all his other forms.

"Finally stopped hiding like a coward, Changeling?" Blastaar mocked as he got into a fighting stance.

"Oh I wasn't hiding from you." Chromastone shot back. "I was simply too entertained by the side of some big hairy moron that stomped around the yard like a crying baby cause he got spanked hard in the playground. Why don't you go home and cry to your Mommy, Blasty."

Blastaar gritted his teeth from the Alien Teens insults. "You dare speak to the mighty Blastaar that way!"

"It'll talk that way to anyone arrogant enough to talk in a third person. What's wrong, Daddy didn't spend enough time with you as a kid?" Chromastone continued to badger, pouring more salt on the wound.

At that point Blastaar snapped and let out a roar of rage and blasted the air behind himself, allowing him to rocket towards the Alien hero like a missile. Chromastone smirked as he flew to meet Blastaar head on. But before they could make contact. Chromastone unleashed a beam of energy as the ground underneath him and caused a small explosion of debris and dust to be kicked up, while also allowing the beam to push himself up and avoid Blastaar as he flew into the dust cloud, causing his vision to be obstructed.

"Now A-Bomb." Chromastone yelled. As Blastaar cleared the dust cloud and was met by the sight of A-Bomb sending a right hook into his face.

"A-Bombs Away!" The Gamma Teen shouted as his fist collided with Blastaars face, causing a shockwave that sent Blastaar flying back, hitting the ground hard.

Chromastone then flew back and landed next to A-Bomb with an amused smirk on his face.

"A-Bombs away? You just come up with that?" The Alien Teen asked.

"What I'm a hero now. I need a cool hero catch phrase. Hulks got 'Hulk Smash' you've got that 'It's Hero Time' line. I gotta have something that's got my own flare to it." A-Bomb explained enthusiastically.

The Alien Avenger couldn't help but chuckle at his new friends excitement. He remembered how excited he was the first day he became a hero. Everything seemed so easy at the start.

At that moment the Crystal Alien saw Blastaar rise to his feet again and glare at the Duo with hateful eyes.

"Jobs not over yet, Rookie. We got more work to do." Chromastone stated, getting into a fighting stance along with A-Bomb.

Blastaar roared and charged at the pair, with A-Bomb doing the same. Both combatants raised their fists and sent them forward, with their fists colliding and generating another shockwave. Though not as powerful as the one A-Bomb had made with Rath earlier. The two then locked into a brawl, while Blastaar may have the advantage in skill and versatile powers, A-Bomb had size and durability on his side. Allowing him to stand his ground against the Alien Warlord for a brief time.

This allowed Chromastone to easily make his way behind Blastaar and fire an ultraviolet beam of energy into the Warlord back. Injuring him and allowing A-Bomb an opening to punch the Villain in the face. But Blastaar quickly recovered from the attack and grabbed the Gamma Teen by the arm and tossed him over his head in Chromastone's direction.

The Alien Teen quickly moved to dodge his incoming friend. But Blastaar used that distraction to leap towards Chromastone and deliver an energy punch to the face. Catching him off guard and sending him flying. The Alien Hero rolled across the ground a few times, stunned from the attack. Being caught off guard, prevented Chromastone from being able to absorb the energy Blastaar was using. What ever that energy was, it was making Chromastone feel sick coming into contact with it. Even absorbing the stuff left a bad taste in the Aliens metaphorical mouth. Like blending mouldy bread and expired milk together and then drinking it. It was enough to make the Crystal Alien gag.

But he couldn't focus on that now as Blastaar charged straight for him, only for A-Bomb to try and take him on again. But Blastaar saw the Gamma Mutant coming and swiftly dodged his strike and blasted him down, causing him to land on top of Chromastone. Making the Alien Hero thankful, this form had enhanced durability.

"This isn't going well, Dude." A-Bomb groaned as he got up and helped his friend.

"Ya think." Chromastone responded sarcastically.

"Doc said that that portal wont last for much longer. How are we supposed to get him into the Portal. Don't you have something that can put him in there?" A-Bomb asked.

"No, the watch doesn't work when I'm close to this guy." Chromastone stated, looking down to the faceplate that blinked and sparked to prove his point. "We gotta use what we've got."

"Well I can't get close to the guy without him seeing me coming." Replied the Gamma Teen.

"Why don't you just turn invisible. You did it before when you fought me?" Chromastone asked.

A-Bomb looked at the Crystal Alien in shock. "I can turn invisible?"

At that point Chromastone mentally slapped himself. Of course, he didn't remember, his brain was too messed up to remember anything.

"Sweet. Let's give it a go." A-Bomb said excitedly. He then closed his eyes and tensed up as if trying really hard to focus. However, nothing happened. There was not change in the Gamma Mutant colour. Though he did turn a slightly darker shade of blue in the face. But that's probably due to how intensely he was trying to focus. Eventually the Gamma Teen gasped and unclenched.

"Anything?" He asked.

"No. And this isn't the best time to try and control your powers dude. Right now. We need to get him back through that portal." Chromastone stated in an urgent tone.

"Well how are we gonna get the guy to stand still long enough to throw him through it?" A-Bomb asked.

Chromastone looked over to Blastaar, who was slowly pacing towards them, charging his energy. He then looked up to the Portal, which was slowly closing as if the sky was stitching itself back together. An Idea then popped into his head, something he learned about during a sparring session he had with Wolverine.

"Throw me."

"Huh?" A-Bomb asked, confused.

"Throw me at him. Pick me up and give me your best fastball pitch." Chromastone explained.

A-Bomb gave the Alien Teen a quizzled look as he glanced over at Blastaar, then back to him. Then the wired in his head started to connect and he figured out what the Crystal Aliens plan is.

He reached down and grabbed Chromastone and the Alien Hero placed his feet in A-Bombs palm and curled up into a ball. A-Bomb reared back his arm and hurled Chromastone at Blastaar with as much strength he could muster. The Crystal Alien flew to his target like a bullet and slammed into his chest, with enough force to knock him off his feet and send him flying. Chromastone then uncurled and kept himself suspended in the air and blasted Blastaar with another powerful energy beam, sending him back into the ground hard.

A-Bomb jumped over to Chromastone as the pair looked over the area where Blastaar had landed. To their disappointment, the Alien Being began to rise again. Frustrating the Alien Avenger.

"Oh will you just Stop Moving!" He yelled as his charged his energy up once more and fired another beam of energy right into Blastaars chest. But instead of blasting him back like normal. Purple crystals began to spread all over Blastaars body. Stunning the Warlord, A-Bomb and Chromastone himself.

The crystals spread so quickly over the Alien Beings body that he couldn't even make one final declaration of vengeance against the pair. Instead the crystals encased him and froze his face in an expression of anger and hatred. The expression clearly sending the message he intended.

Once the crystal structure had contained Blastaar, Chromastone stopped the attack and looked down at his hands in shock.

"Woah. I didn't know you could do that." A-Bomb commented in amazement.

"Neither did I." Chromastone admitted. Clearly there were still many secrets this form still had.

Just then a crackled communication from Bruce started to speak from the malfunctioning Ultimatrix. While neither Teen could make out the words. They got the basic gist that the portal was on the verge of closing.

Chromastone looked at A-Bomb and smirked. "Got another Fastball in ya, Big Blue?"

A-Bomb returned the Alien Heroes smirk with equal enthusiasm. "Thought you'd never ask."

With that A-Bomb walked over to the crystallised Blastaar and hefted him off the ground and then lined up the shot with the portal and with a massive heave. He tossed Blastaar with enough force to send the Evil Warlord screaming through the air and through the portal, just as it closed off completely.

"Booyah! That's what I'm talking about!" A-Bomb cheered out in excitement. "Up top, Bro."

He raised his hand up to Chromastone, who was happy to oblige. However when A-Bomb moved to slap the Alien Teens hand. He forgot to take into account his strength and ended up High Fiving the Crystal Alien several miles away.

"Oops." A-Bomb muttered.

After a few minutes of scanning the area for any traces of the portal and finding nothing. The two avengers, civilian scientist and newly Mutated Teen, all headed back to the Gamma Base.

Despite everything Bruce concluded that this was a very successful day. He got to help save the day in his own way, finally get some time to conduct experiments and actually make something with his own two hands, and spend time with the Woman he cares so much about. All in all, it was a pretty good day.

"Thank you, Ben. For making this possible." Bruce thanked the Teen Hero as they walked back to the Quinjet.

"Don't mention it, Bruce. After everything you've done. You more than deserve it." Ben replied.

"I just hope, Rick can adjust to his new life. If only I had more time to see if his mutation is…"

"Hey guys check it out!" a familiar voice called out.

Bruce and Ben both turned to see, to the formers utter shock, Rick Jones, in human form.

"Rick? You're normal again?" Bruce gasped.

"Oh I'm better than normal Doc. Check it." Rick closed his eyes and concentrated. Suddenly his body began to grow, blue scales formed along his body and in a few short moments, A-Bomb was standing before them, grinning like an excited child.

"I can switch back a forth, any time I want. Don't even have to get angry." A-Bomb stated as he then started to shrink down back to his human form. Though Ben couldn't help but notice that his cloths had been completely shredded.

"Um dude?" Ben pointed out, looking away uncomfortably.

"Ahh, forgot about that." Rick said alarmed as he moved to cover himself.

"I told him not to do it. Be he insisted on showing you." Betty spoke up as she ran out of the base to catch up with Rick. Throwing a lab coat over his partially naked form, to cover him.

"So, I guess you'll be sticking around here to train?" Ben asked the Gamma Teen.

"Yep. There's a lot of space out here for me to practice without hurting anyone. And once I get this hero thing down pact. Maybe you and I can team up again?" Rick asked.

"I'm looking forward to it. A-Bomb." Ben replied cheerfully.

Just then Bruce reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the communicator that Ben had given Hulk when he left the team. The Gamma Scientist walked over to Rick and handed it to him.

"If you two are going to team up again. You'll need a way to contact each other." He said with a happy grin.

"Woah, Doc. Really?" Rick asked in awe.

Ben however gave Banner a confused look. As if asking why he'd give his communicator away like that.

"You gave that communicator to Hulk when he left the Avengers. But this time, he and I aren't going anywhere. We're Avengers now." The Scientist stated confidently.

Betty walked over to Bruce and took his hand in hers and the two gazed into each others eyes.

"Promise me you'll come back?" She asked.

"I promise. Nothing will keep me from coming back to you ever again." Bruce vowed. As he and Betty embraced, before she pulled him in and kissed him passionately.

"Ugh, PDA is the worst." Rick moaned looking away from the love struck Scientists.

"Don't have a girl in your life, Pal?" Ben replied.

Rick gave the hero a cocky smirk. "Come on, when they see the guns that the A-Bomb is sporting, the ladies will be lining up around the corner to get a piece of this."

The two Teens shared a laugh as the Scientist continued to embrace, for them nothing else mattered to them.

Later, it was time for the heroes to head back. Betty had elected to remain at the base with Rick for a while, to keep monitoring his condition. And while Bruce was sad to leave her behind. He did look a lot chipper than he was when the day began. For the first time in a very long time. The chance to regain his life was in his grasp. He had hope.

And there you have it folks. Phew that was a long one. Again, sorry for the long wait and Im sure itll be a longer one still for the next one. But you all know that I want to provide you with my best work and doing so takes time.

So like always if you have any questions, please PM me. Same with Story ideas.

And in honour of the Great Stan Lee, Id like for everyone to post what their favourite Stan Lee cameo is. Show as much love as you can for this wonderful man.

Until next time. CaptainRex75 out!