Intro:

Hi.

Rain pours from the sky as thunder cracks, echoing across the empty streets of Bellwood. It was 11 pm, and no one really wanted to go out in such a late time of the night. All that littered in this town at this hour are the rats, stray dogs and cats and some disgusting insects.

There were some regular patrols, of course, making sure their small little town stays safe and sound for the civilians they protect tomorrow morning. It was a Sunday today, so it will be very busy the next day when Monday hits and everyone, from the working adults to children getting to school, will crowd each street, sidewalk and alleyway just to get to their destination.

One such duo of officers was a man and a woman, driving across town on their police vehicle, keeping their lightbar lit but the siren off, to give a visual cue to anyone somehow still outside and awake while also making sure not to disturb the people sleeping.

The man, who has taken the wheel and is driving their vehicle down another street they have not passed yet, was Caucasian. He had black hair, slick back underneath his police cap. He has the build of an average male alongside his small nose and brown eyes. His partner was an African American woman, who seems to be a lot more muscular than he is, sitting on the passenger seat while holding what seems to be a notepad on her left hand and a blue pen on her right. She had discarded and placed her police cap on the dashboard to let her short, black hair styled into a short bob cut loose and free.

As expected, both officers are wearing their police uniforms.

"And then she told me, 'But Daryl! I thought you were buying for both of us!'" The male officer, seeming to imply that his name is Daryl, spoke. In addition, his nameplate on his uniform shows his last name to be "Johnson".

However, his partner doesn't seem as interested in his topic as he is, and responds to him with a mere, "Mhm." She even starts writing down what seems to be her plans for tomorrow, which includes buying a birthday cake for her daughter, some presents and tomato sauce for spaghetti.

"Of course I told her, 'You literally just said earlier you didn't want any of the pudding.' But she tells me, 'Pudding? I thought you said 'Potting'!" Daryl continues to ramble on, but eventually, the female officer takes a deep breath, puts the notepad in one of her pockets together with her pen and slams her palm on Daryl's shoulder.

"Private Johnson..." says her, her tone cold, deep and commanding, causing the male officer to stiffen and gulp while he keeps his eyes on the road. "We're out here patrolling. An hour before midnight. A day before my daughter's birthday. Have I been gushing about how it will be her birthday tomorrow? Hm? Have I?"

"No, ma'am."

"Have I been incessantly yapping about it like it was the end of the world?"

"N-No ma'am."

"Do you have any idea why?"

"B-Because—"

"Because I have self control!" She finally yells, which even causes Daryl to jump and let go of the wheel for a brief second, making their vehicle swerve and pivot but he manages to save it by grabbing the wheel back and driving it straight down the road once more.

"That was me losing self control for a second." Daryl's superior tells him, her tone volume back down. Surprisingly, despite the brief moment their vehicle was twisting and turning, she didn't seem to be bothered by it. In fact, she seems perfectly normal, like she was more angry at Daryl than afraid of a possible car accident. "Do you want me to lose my self control again?"

Daryl's response was a frantic shaking of his head out of fear, his sweat dripping from his forehead.

"Good. So please. Stop telling me how you and your girlfriend broke up for the past 3 and a half hours before you drive me insane throughout the rest of this shift, or I will grab this flashlight and shove it where it literally cannot shine. Are we clear?"

Similar to his previous response, Daryl nods faster than a normal man would, terrified out of his wits, sweating buckets as he has drenched the collar of his uniform.

"Thank you, Daryl. Now, here's your invitation." The woman tells him, producing an party invitation card from her pocket and handing them to Private Johnson.

Their personal tension was abruptly interrupted when all of a sudden, something is tossed their way and hits the driver's side of the car, launching them sideways and hitting a steel fence, shattering the windows of the driver's seat and the window behind that while cracking their front windshield and rupturing the left side of the vehicle.

When the female officer came to, she is extremely shocked to see Daryl had lost consciousness, blood dripping from his forehead as shattered glass was sprayed all over the inside of their vehicle.

Recovering from her initial shock, she grabs the vehicle's radio and, to her relief, it was still working as she calls in back to the station and any officer in this channel to say, "Need back up at McDuffie street! Officer down! Bring a medic, stat!"

In an attempt to save her partner's life, the officer unbuckles Daryl from his seat and tries to open her door, but it was unfortunately pressed against the same steel fence they got hurled into, forcing the door unable to be opened at all.

She wants to then just open Daryl's door, but thought about how much harder it would be to do so from her position and risking Daryl's life by injuring him further. Just as she was about to lose hope, her unspoken prayers were answered when something suddenly tears the roof of their car off before being tossed away. Upon turning her gaze upward, she sees the silhouette of a four armed, humanoid creature looming over them. While covered in shadows, one thing caught the officer's eyes the most:

A strange, glowing green symbol on it's chest that resembles what seems to be an hourglass.

There's no doubt about it. Everyone in Bellwood — and even the world — knows who this symbol belongs to.

"Ben Tennyson!" She yells, a smile slowly forming on her face as her savior arrives.

"Go! Get your partner out of here!" This being that's being referred to as "Ben" spoke in a deep voice as he turns his back on them and face his opponent, the ground shaking rapidly in the process as, approaching him in ridiculous speeds, was what could be described as a cybernetically enhanced rhinoceros. It had red armor plating from head to it's literal toes. It's horn had been replaced with a laser cannon and had jet boosters attached to it's back. Each quick step it took as it charged at the four armed being shook the earth as it's foe readies himself to attack.

Once the cyborg rhino got close enough, this... "Four Arms" stops him dead cold by using his two upper hands to grab it by the horns and his lower ones to grab it by the spaces between two of it's armor platings found on each of its side before using all his strength to toss the enhanced animal into the sky. Four Arms was not done, however, and he takes advantage of his initial counterattack by jumping into the skies to follow his thrown foe and grabs him mid air.

While this happens, the female officer carries Daryl with all her might over her shoulder and finds a safe spot behind the metal fence from earlier.

Four Arms finally ends his combo attack by throwing the rhino back to the pavement, creating a massive explosion of dust and rubble. Four Arms lands on a foot and a knee while the dust from his attack settles behind him, clearing up to show that his foe had been knocked down inside the crater the impact of his body made onto the asphalt while the rain continues to pour, slowly filling said crater while Four Arms stands back on his two feet.

He turns around to face his fallen foes as the light from a nearby lamp post finally reveals what he looks like: a white, sleeveless shirt on his body, large muscle mass on his arms, four greens eyes, two incisors jutting from his lower jaw, black pants and black fingerless gloves on each hand.

Four Arms was breathing hard and heavy. He had injuries all over his body, likes cuts, burns and scars on his arms, his face and even his chest. His blood seeped through his bigger wounds while the rain washes some of them away. It was hard to tell which is sweat and which is rainwater on his body as he continued to pant like an animal that had just been shot and paralyzed.

One good look and it was clear what Four Arms — nay — Ben Tennyson was: exhausted.

The symbol on his chest glowed briefly and he was submerged by bright, emerald light. When this beautiful glow disperses, in Four Arms' place was indeed Ben Tennyson.

24 years of age, Benjamin had slightly grown out his hair, with some of his bangs covering his right eye. He's wearing a torn, white jacket with a torn right sleeve atop his green shirt while his navy blue pants had similar tears and holes, in addition to all the bloodstains found all over them. His green eyes almost seem blurry, like he had been using them too much. He also has black bandages all over his person, with some on his own shirt while he had one on his left cheek.

And of course, he has signature, white with green lines, alien device strapped onto his left wrist and held secrets within: The Omnitrix.

What has become of him?

"Holy crap..." were the only words that could escape the female officer at the moment as she peeks from the side of the fence she had hidden behind. Any joy she had for the appearance of Ben and coming to their rescue are overshadowed by worry, more shock and pity, looking at her hometown's superhero reduced to... this.

"Are..."

The officer was astonished when Ben suddenly starts speaking, weakly but still admirably staying strong enough to remain standing.

"Are you okay?" he yells at her, but he kept his gaze at his robotic animal foe, not taking any chances to let it attack with his back turned.

"Y-Yeah! My partner's uncscious but I've already called medevac. They can treat you too!" She tells him.

His eyes are still fixed on his fallen foe, but he still heard what she said. He eyes every detail on the machine beast's body and sees the light on it's glowing eyes growing dimmer. And dimmer. And dimmer, until finally it went out.

This rhino mech is now out of commission.

Now reassured and knowing those two officers are safe, he sighs, relief flowing through his veins as he shuts down the rest of his body, his final words before falling unconscious being, "Good... You're going to need a dump truck for Exo Skull's body."

With that, Ben falls on his back, asleep as the rain pours on his him. Just in time for some sirens to go off and SWAT vans and ambulances arrive at the scene, several of the medics gathering around Ben while two go check on the two officers.

"News Headline: Exo Skull to Extinct Skull! Ben 10 Saves the Day again!"

An Asian man in a white suit discusses to his team of reporters inside their meeting room as he poses dramatically for the headline he had just made up.

"No comments, people? Come on! We're making stories here! The masses want an update on their hero!"

"Mr. Takahashi, I'm pretty sure the people are tired of getting another story on Ben Tennyson on a row." One of his employees, a woman with a ponytail, tells her boss, Takahashi.

Takahashi, however, shrugs and and claps his hands to emphasize his next words. "Let's be realistic here, Lana! It's Ben 10! Last hero of of the universe! Everyone needs to know what's up with him or they will lose hope!"

"But sir, wouldn't it be insensitive for us to keep prying into his life like this? He's tired." Another one of the reporters, a young man with a camera in his hands, asks.

Takahashi seemingly knew what exactly what he meant, causing him to sigh and nod slowly, his arms on his hips as he paces back and forth. "I know it seems bad. Ben Tennyson had been fighting supervillains, left and right, week after week, day after day. He's alone. No Plumbers to help him, no other supheroes out there, even in space. Even his old team is gone. But... if we don't do this, people will start to worry. We're the Bellwood Buzzer, people. Bellwood's number one newspaper. We need to give the people what they need. We want them to know that Ben Tennyson is still fighting for us. With us. If we stop... if the media just stops broadcasting or writing about him... What will people believe in? He's our only line of defense now. The least we can do is keep everyone's hopes up for him. If Ben Tennyson is our wall, then we are the support beams that keep him up and assure the people he can still stand."

His entire team listens. Some of them even begin to tear up as their boss continues.

"I know it hurts foe him. But he knows what he got into and I'm sure even he doesn't want everyone to give up. That's why he's still fighting. Now, are we going to help him inspire the people or are we just going to sit here and stare at this empty whiteboard?!" Takahashi cheers and his employees cheer back. "Then let's get back to writing! Lee, get me an interview of the people in charge of the CCTVs in McDuffie street. Go into detail about what happened between Ben and Exo Skull."

"Yes sir!"

"Delilah, give me an update on Exo Skull's status. Ask around the police. Confirm whether or not Ben did eventually kill him last night."

"You got it, boss!"

"Junior, interview those two cops at the scene. Ask them how they felt when Ben saved their butts from Exo Skull!"

"Roger roger!"

It was strange for Ben to feel heaven again after a long while. It was even stranger to feel heaven while remaining alive as he opens his eyes to see him inside a small, enclosed room with two, big windows showing him a view over the city. The more he inspects where he is, the more he saw that he is, in fact, hospitalized. Lying on a bed, with a dextrose stuck into his left palm, as his breathing is steady compared to his breathing yesterday. He looks to his side to see the digital clock on the wall dictating that it's 9:34 am, which is further proven by the sun's rays entering through his room's window. His torn clothes are hung on a nearby chair while his shoes

Seeing himself like this, he can't remember the last time he ever slept like that for so long. It was a nice change of pace but... He knew he can't stop here.

Once a short knock on the door of his room is heard, it opens afterwards with a nurse pushing a cart carrying a tray of perfectly made bacon and eggs entering. But as soon as she's inside, she gasps when she sees Ben, getting dressed after removing his dextrose, and looks out the window while putting on his shoes.

"Sir, you can't leave! You haven't fully recovered!" The nurse pleads with the fallen hero, who is now finished with fully dressing himself and prepares to leave through the window.

"I know..." was his reply, giving her a small glance, his eyes filled with sorrow and extreme fatigue.

"Sir, please! The hospital will pay for your bills! There's no need to—"

"Lady..."

The nurse is interrupted as Ben places a foot onto the window sill, his Omnitrix glowing bright. "...Thank you for taking care of me."

His words hit her hard. Regardless of whether or not he's Bellwood's hero, he's still her patient, and she can't just let him loose out there. Especially when. He has not yet recovered. Unfortunately, just when she wants to say something again, to plead and beg him not to go and rest, the earth rumbles and shakes, causing her and Ben to look outside to see several gigantic machines with wide, circular bodies, one singular eye each and wheels for legs as they flai around their their three pronged, metallic tentacles from their bodies. The machines start wrecking havoc by slicing buildings with their sharp tendrils nd blasting apart any law enforcement with red laser beams from their eyes.

"Computron has yet to he avenged. Death to all organics." One of the machines blurted out with its monotone robotic voice.

The nurse watches in horror as the machines of Dimension 12 are about to tear the city apart. Without the Plumbers, there's no chance of defeating them. And their only line of defense is—

"Wish me luck?"

Her attention was taken by Ben when he spoke again, his sights set on Computron's robots while he waits for her answer. It was here that she is reminded that... she really can't stop Ben from going. The villains of every world have taken advantage of Ben's status as the last hero of the universe and know that eventually... He will fall. Continuing is pain and exhausting for him...

...But if he stops... What happens to everyone else?

"...Please... Go..."

Ben hears her words, making him smile as he readies to jump out the window. But what the nurse failed to see because he wasn't facing her is that Ben shed a single tear from his right eye.

His determination undying, Ben jumps out of the window and without touching the Omnitrix, he automatically turns into a different transformation, landing gracefully on the ground. As the green light that surrounds him vanishes to reveal his new state of being, he has become a creature with one green eye in the middle of his head, two antennae and a tail with round plugs on their tips, four-fingered hands, and feet with only two front toes. He had a green stripe down his chest while he had several plugs on his body, from his fingers to the tip of his antennae. He even has some golden plates on his shoulders.

With a big grin on his face, a single scar on his left cheek, and electricity crackling from his fingertips, Feedback enters the fray.

"Let's dance." Feedback calmly yet, in a strange way, also a bit aggressively says to his foes, who all fire their laser beams at the Conductoid. However, Feedback simply has his antennae point at them and he absorbs all the energy thrown his way. And, as expected, his next move is then shooting out a blast of electricity from his finger tips and fries a large majority of his opponents.

As some of their comrades fall, the robots of Dimension 12 race forward and try to attack Feedback with swipes from their metal tentacles. With each swings, though, Feedback would flip and jump over them, dodging each one he could before sneaking in a quick jolt into one of the machines' eye, destroying their optical scanners and effectively turning them blind. Because of this, the blind robot accidentally swipes at its own comrades instead, tearing their heads off and destroying them.

Feedback finishes the blind one off himself by jumping into one of its arms and firing a full blast of electric power into its head, beheading and blowing it up.

Before what is left of it's body falls, the Conductoid jumps off its metallic carcass and lands safely on the street.

Unfortunately, without even 5 seconds of remaining on the ground and something already hits Feedback and knocks him into a building, a crack on the wall forming from the impact. Feedback looks up only to see more of the robots had appeared and are taking no chances and decide to use non-energy attacks to fight him, popping out their missiles launchers from their bodies and firing a barrage of rockets towards Feedback. Each explosion made the alien release blood curling screams as each one hurt more than the last, his body growing weaker for every rocket that explodes. Eventually, the building he was knocked into gets blown up from below because of the amount of missiles shot at it and Feedback, causing the entire thing to topple and fall over the alien hero.

When the dust settles, the machines scan the debris for any sign of life, their missiles ready to launch another barrage in case they find Feedback. To their relief, if that was even possible for machines, their scans detected no living life forms under all the rubble and decide to roll away from the carnage, ready to reduce the rest of the city to dust.

However, what they failed to know was that Feedback changed before the building crumbled as from all the debris, a gray figure emerges, his body transparent and filled with black cracks and his singular, creepy eye glares at the machines. He had chains across his body, attached to his wrists and even his neck as, with a raspy voice, Ghostfreak utters, "Now you've made me angry."

The Ectonurite, still intangible, dives into one of the robots' body and for a brief second, it sparks and implodes on itself, Ghostfreak emerging holding wires and a core of sorts, showing he had torn it apart from the inside out.

The other robots turn around to see what happened and, despite being lifeless, emotionless beings, look like they're visibly annoyed and are done with Ben's crap as they fire their lasers...

... which were futile against Ghostfreak's intangible body as they simply pass through him. With a creepy, maniacal laugh, Ghostfreak charges at them in blinding speed as he screams angrily and prepares to tear them apart as well.

It took an hour for Ben to finally end the fight with the robots of Dimension 12 after destroying most of them and eventually finding a way to close and seal away the other dimension itself.

Tired once more, Ben, now in a completely different form from earlier, is a 6 inch tall, frog-like alien with green eyes, a green jumpsuit with a black line down the middle and his Omnitrix symbol found on his back.

As Grey Matter, he jumps onto a pile of rocks, metal debris and torn parts of the robots inside an old Plumber facility that contains a portal that he had used to seal away Dimension 12. The tiny Galvan lies on the debris before finally growing slowly in size as he glows bright and eventually turns back into Ben, once more, panting heavily and gasping for air.

Normally, he could just rest, but past experience has told him to never jinx himself. He hears several footsteps coming from the entrance of the facility, which made him take action by sitting up from his position to see old foes, as usual.

Several men and women, clad in armor as the infinity symbol is emblazoned on their armor while they wield all sorts of medieval weaponry combined with alien technology, from laser swords to energy lances to explosive crossbows.

"Ben Tennyson. Our time for vengeance has come! Though many of your foes have fallen, it shall be the Forever Knights that slay you this day!" One of them yells at Ben.

Ben kept breathing but he knew he needs to save it. While normally, the Forever Knights are pushovers, in his current state, maybe even they stand a chance against him today. With heavy lungs and heavier body, Ben gets up and, once again, simply commands the Omnitrix to transform him into another alien form. This time, as a being with a black and yellow, bipedal body with crab-like claws for hands, the Omnitrix on his chest and a floating, metal head lifted by magnetism.

Lodestar clashes both his hands onto one another and releases a magnetic wave around him. And with but a wave of his hands upwards, all the metallic debris around him start rising and rising until he surrounds himself with his own orbit of metal.

"Come on... Let's play 'Catch'." Lodestar quips and shoots the metal at them like darts moving faster than the speed of sound.

As the knights all attempt to fight back, one of them, who was holding an incredibly large cannon, fires a large beam of energy towards Lodestar. It moved so fast, the Biosovortian had no time to react as it hits him.

"Ugh... My head..." Ben utters, waking up after blacking out from whatever the Forever Knights hit him with. "What happened?"

The alien hero stood up from his spot, rubbing his temple as he massages the pain away. "Ugh... Omnitrix, quick rundown on all active functions."

"Processing..." His Omnitrix suddenly spoke back, beeping a total of 10 times. Eventually, it responds again, telling him, "Process complete. Transformations, available. Quick change function, available. Failsafe, active. Voice and mental command auto transformation, available. True Master Control, locked. 78 transformations, available. 1,000,764, locked and pending. Energy consumption reduction and transformation time out decrease, active. Hyper Evolution software still installed. All other non combat functions, active."

"Everything seems to be normal." Ben notes to himself as he looks around. But once he does, he gets immediately worried. All he finds himself in is nothing but grayish dirt for miles. The sky had no clouds and was colored in a strange violet and yellow mixture. There were stars visible, but for some reason, some stars would blink out and fade. All in all, the place looked incredibly surreal. "Oh no... No no no! The city! Did they... Did they destroy it?!"

In a panic, he transforms himself into a big, rotund, mechanical figure with lots of hears visible through his translucent green chest, with the Omnitrix on it, while he has an expressionless face with a wind up key of a clock on his head.

Clockwork then emits a green glow from his body and spreads it into the horizon. Using his time powers, he tries to see if he can rewind and play what happened in this specific area. Normally, he can see what other people did, showing visible flashbacks that he can playback and determine what transpired...

But for some strange reason, nothing is playing. Was he unconscious for a very long time? He tries to rewind further back until something catches his glance, but there was not a single person that is shown, no matter how much he rewinds. In fact, he mentally had his powers even rewind several thousand years into the past, just in case, and still nothing.

"This could mean several things... But if I can't find anything relating to my situation... Does that mean... I'm in another world?" Clockwork theorizes in his thick, almost German-like accent. "Did those knights send me here with that cannon? Did they even know that's what it did and didn't realize they didn't kill me with it?"

Seeing as how much he has reminded, the Chronosapien finally realizes the futility of his actions and stops, switching back to Ben in his normal, human form. "Great. Let's hope Paradox swings by any time now. Is there even life on this world?" He asks himself. "Only one way to find out."

One again changing forms, Ben turns himself into an alien creature that resembles a velocitaptor with balls caught by the claws of his feet. He had a striped, black and white tail and a black body suit with a white chest area where his Omnitrix is found. He also has three claws on each hand and a helmet over his head with a retractable, X shaped, blue visor over it.

With a burst of speed, XLR8 zooms away in a straight line in a random direction, kicking up a large blast of dirt from where he left.

He couldn't tell how far he had ran in mere seconds. Kinecelerans become faster the older the grow and he had already moved so fast, time seem to slow down when he was 10. Now that he's 24, he can't even tell anymore.

Still, he had to keep moving. It fortunate that this form has enhanced reflexes to keep up with its own speed, so even when he's moving in speeds beyond human comprehension, he can still react fast enough to see if he passed by a village or two.

So kept running, leaving trails of clouds as he runs through the dirt around him. They don't feel like sand at all, otherwise, his movement would be limited and he'd sink if he goes too fast, so it really must be dirt.

Still, it's nothing but dirt after what felt like miles of land trekked. Eventually, XLR8 took the time to just think about what happened and how he ended up here.

"It doesn't add up. The Forever Knights always push their luck, but when it comes to tech, they always research it and find out about what the devices do. So did they know the gun would blast me into another dimension? But if they did, why did they seem so determined to kill me? Was it the Omnitrix? Did the failsafe react and tried to find a way to help me survive but whatever the energy was in that cannon, none of my aliens could save me from it, so it just teleported me? Whatever it is, I need to find a way back. There are people that need me... And I need to go back and protect—"

"Look out!"

"What?"

Lost in thought, it was at this moment that XLR8 could not react fast enough as he crashes into something and causes him to tumble alongside whatever it is that he hit. After what felt several bounces, XLR8 subconsciously turns himself back into his human form and finds himself underneath...

...an alien woman?

She had bright pink skin, a black tube top cover her chest, white, baggy pants with a golden belt over her waist, black, heeled shoes, long, messy white hair and beautiful blue eyes.

"Oh... Did I hit you?" Ben asks the strange woman on top of him.

"Yes but it was my fault. I didn't move away fast enough." She responds while rubbing her head in pain.

"Okay... Can you get up?"

"I think so..."

The woman, instead of pushing himself off Ben, simply floats off of him and even levitates off the ground a few inches away before landing on both feet. As the alien hero stands up as well, he notices that the woman also had a pink tail.

"Sorry about that. I'm... I'm Android 21." The woman reveals to him and offers a handshake.

While a bit warry, Ben didn't really have much of a choice, considering he doesn't know what this place is. Hesitant but also feeling rude if he doesn't oblige, Ben shakes her hand and responds in kind. "Ben Tennyson. Call me Ben."

"Its nice to see another person, Ben. You can call me 21." says the pink skinned being.

"Another person? So you don't belong here either?" Ben asks as the two of them let go of each other's hands.

With a nod, 21 tells him, "Yes. I don't know how I ended up here, but the last thing I remember is that I was sacrificing myself to save my friends and took a blast of energy, but the next thing I know, I'm lying here on the dirt."

The shapeshifter cups his chin, comparing his situation to 21's. That cannot be a coincidence. Their stories are almost identical, with only a few minor changes. What caused this happen? "Funny. Same thing happened to me. Some of my enemies tried to blast me with some kind of alien cannon but then I woke up here."

"I don't suppose you know a way out for both us, do you, Ben?" 21 asks, putting her left hand over her right and clasps them hard, like her own way of crossing her fingers.

Ben tried to think. There is one form that could help the both of them. It would certainly make things easier. But there was one problem...

"Sorry. I actually do, but unfortunately, I had that option locked away by two of my closest companions and now the keys to unlock him are back in my world. I'm really sorry." Ben replies, which saddens 21 as she sighs and holds her hands close to her chest.

"It's okay. Neither of us seem to have expected to arrive here, so you couldn't have foreseen this and prepared... 'him'?" She responds but ends it with confusion, not expecting Ben to refer to a solution as a person.

Ben tells, "I can explain later . Right now, we need to find out what's going on and hope there's a village out here we can shelter for a bit. Maybe even ask for food."

But, as if the gods of comedic timing would have it, 21's stomach suddenly makes a cute little growling noise and causes her to touch her belly as she blushes from her very pink cheeks. "That was... embarrassing. I haven't eaten... in a while..."

"All the more reason we gotta move. Come on." Ben replies. The two of them began to head into the direction Ben had been traveling towards.

Meanwhile, in a completely different part of this dirt desert, another unlikely pair are traveling in a random direction as the two are completely lost.

"Can we seriously not speed this up?" The girl complains. She had dark blue hair with two styled buns, a patch of her hair at the front dyed green, alongside some small braids, one on each side of her head, she head a tube top as well but it was blue and had white spider web logo on it. Her pants were of a similar shade of blue as her top and had blue boots with yellow heels, as well as a blue wrist band on her right wrist. For some odd reason, she has a star shaped birthmark on the back of her neck.

"If you wanna go ahead and run, waste your breathe and beg for water, be my guest." Her partner, a man clad in a black and red costume with a black spider symbol on his chest, as well as a black mask with red eye visors on them, spoke back at her.

"Ugh... Yare yare dawa... Kaine, right? Why do we have to walk a snail's pace? There's nothing stopping us, right?" The girl asks this costumed man, Kaine.

Kaine retaliated, "Do I have to repeat myself? We don't have water and we don't know what's out there. On past experience, there might as well be sand sharks or giant worms coming out of the ground to eat us. So quit complaining and start walking, Jolyne."

Jolyne rolls her eyes and all of a sudden, a golden aura surrounds her and, with a pose that has her pointing forward, an entirely new being emerges from her person. It was as humanoid as her and Kaine, but it was anything BUT human. It had blue colored skin mixed with blue armor of sorts. It had grayish protrusions on it's head as it sports a pair of stylish sunglasses.

This new being copies Jolyne's pose and all of a sudden, Jolyne's fingernails turn into wire of sorts that shoot out into the distance and dig themselves into the dirt. "Hey, what the hell are you—" Kaine wants to ask her but Jolyne did not give him the chance to finish his question as she uses her new wires to shoot out and slingshot herself forward, making her fly off into the distance.

"Keep up, old man!" Jolyne challenges the spider themed anti hero, forcing him to run after her as he growls to himself.

Amidst all this, two more figures are together, sitting on a stone spire as they watch the horizon to get a better lay of the land.

"Pardon, miss. Do you think we should stay here for now?" A young girl dressed in white, wielding what seems to be a rapier with the chamber of a revolver filled with many different colored ammunition.

With her, a woman with black hair, with small strands of red, wearing white armor underneath a suit of black while she holds a rapier, herself as well, in her right hand, standing at a much higher spot of the spire, looking at the view. In an accent reminiscent of French, she tells the young girl, "Good idea. Set up camp. We will be here for a while."

The Crossing has began...

Notes:

Call me Lady.

Goal of story: Subvert "Ben's family is dead so he starts brooding and wants to die/no longer wants to be a hero" cliche so many stories use, including the likes of Ben 10 Unlimited and Avenging 10. Extremely overused. A real hero won't just give up like that when people need him. No offense to the writers. You're all still great.

Characters intended to be focused on: Ben is, of course, the protagonist. His main supporting cast has been introduced and I will add more from many other franchises, even unexpected ones. DO NOT REQUEST ANYONE BECAUSE THEY'RE ALREADY PLANNED TO APPEAR. There will also be character development for some of the characters.

What you can request: Enemies/minions/cannon fodder from other franchises. Heroes needs some fodder to mow down to make them look good but also tire them out for the real bad guys. You can also request who Ben can be paired with. But I will NOT go the harem route. Fuck harems.

Major warning: Anyone CAN DIE and DEATH IS PERMANENT. Tention, realism and making sure the heroes aren't invincible and some of them are willing to kill villains will happen. Pick your favorites wisely and don't get too attached to some side characters, from the heroes or villains respectively. There will be some exceptions, but that only includes beings who are truly unkillable, like Doomsday or Alucard.

Anyway...

Bye.