Heeeeeeeeeelloooooooooo yet again!
Yes, I'm back for Round 2, and this time, I'm going to try and make it better than the first :)
Review responding time! (From the most recent to the oldest)
GXY-2013 (2nd comment): Unfortunately, I'm not really a big fan of the reboot, and whilst the Omni-Enhancements are decent, I still find the concept of the "Ultimate Aliens" to be more interesting in that regard. Plus, Reboot Ben is just nowhere near as entertaining to me for me to write for than Classic Series Ben is.
ChimaTigon: Nothing else just yet, if I get this story done, I might move onto creating a story for another idea. Will it be about Touhou? Dunno, we'll see…
dperson3569 & vgranblin: Well, looks like you got your wish now, didn't you? ;)
GXY-2013 (1st comment): Unfortunately, I'm not actually the first, that title belongs to Psykeroro haha
(Though, his story is rated M, so it wouldn't actually show up unless you changed the filter.)
As for Teen Ben, fair enough, I'm personally more of a fan of the classic series Ben since he's more entertaining to me and creative with his transformations and fights… But I'll see if I can consider something for Teen Ben ;)
several authors: Got it, I'll def be toning them down da ze~! (Feel free to shoot me for that one)
But other than that, sorry that it got in the way of enjoying it :/
Kamencolin: Glad I did, hope I can manage to keep it that way!
Guest, bowham123 and vgranblin: 😉
Alright, that should be it for now, let's get into what you're actually here for :)
Chapter 2 – "New Allies… New Enemies?"
Well, this is awkward.
After all that effort of staying cooped up behind the shrine, Ben Tennyson was still caught by the Shrine Maiden and the "Ordinary Human Magician" … What do we have to thank for allowing this to happen, exactly?
["Arrrrgh… Don't you ever get tired of making my life hard sometimes?!"] Ben screamed in his head as this situation continued to unfold in front of him.
Ben was staring at the two in the face as his Omnitrix was whirring and illuminating a green light, as Grey Matter's silhouette remained on the rhombus, with the two giving him very weird looks.
"What were you doing behind the shrine, kid?" Reimu asked, still retaining the puzzled look.
"Yeah, and what's up with your clothes? You don't look like you're from the Human Village…" Marisa responded straight after, still maintaining said dirty look.
Ben then gave a huge (but awkward) smile as he immediately thrusted his left arm behind his back (for obvious reasons), and started backing away slowly, with the two now raising an eyebrow at him.
"Uhh… I was looking for…" Ben stated slowly as he waffled and scratched his head whilst looking in random directions.
["Oh man… What do I do?!"] Ben asked as he franticly tried to search for an answer.
But by the time he turned around as he was walking backwards, he bumped into something… Or yet, someone.
"Ooooh, what's that you got on there?" Marisa asked as she pointed to the Omnitrix, now hovering off of the ground with her broom right in front of him.
"H-How did she?" Ben asked as he tried to process what was going on.
Marisa then got off of her broom and walked right next to Ben, who was staring at her in utter disbelief to the point that he didn't even notice that she was continuing to examine the watch.
She started looking all over the watch from every angle, as she continued to observe it whilst it still made the whirring noise and was lit up, having the side of her palm raise to her chin in thought.
Reimu gave her a blank stare in the background with a look that said on her face ("Are you for real?")
"Hey kid, where did ya' get that from?" Marisa asked, grinning.
Ben then snapped back into reality as his head snapped towards Marisa.
"Oh… This?" Ben asked nervously as he slowly raised his Omnitrix higher. "It's… just a watch! Hehe…"
"A watch, huh?" Marisa asked in slight confusion as she brought her face closer to the Omnitrix, with Ben confused as to what exactly she was so interested in… Unaware that those two girls haven't really seen a typical wristwatch before.
"Say, what's that thing supposed to mean?" Marisa asked, with Ben confused as to what she was referring to at first, before realising she was talking about Grey Matter's silhouette.
She didn't seem like a bad guy, if she was then she'd be the lamest looking villain ever (according to Ben), though her interest in the Omnitrix was a bit suspicious.
"Uhh…" Ben said out loud in thought before getting cut off.
"This centre thing looks a bit too far out if you ask me…" She asked again as she put her finger on the extended Omnitrix core, sending warning signals all over Ben's body, but even then…
"Hehe… If you let me borrow (steal) it, I think I can fix i—" She stated with a massive grin as she pushed down the Omnitrix's core, getting cut off.
It was too late.
Reimu, who had now just snapped out of her blank stare towards Marisa's interactions with the boy, as well as Marisa herself, were now blinded by a sudden green light for about 2 seconds… And then…
"Huuuuh? He's gone da ze~?!" Marisa shouted whilst looking around her frantically, with the fact that the super cool looking "watch" had now slipped from her grasp, which frustrated her.
Reimu had a different reaction than usual, she was actually quite amused.
"That's… pretty new…" Reimu said to herself in mild surprise, having her eyes slightly widened in interest.
Marisa then turned towards Reimu as she was now panting heavily from running around the shrine multiple times extremely quickly, with her witch hat nearly falling off her head.
"D-Did you see him?!" Marisa asked, still panting.
Reimu then shrugged as she lightly turned her head around her, trying to quickly scout for the boy without putting in too much effort.
"No, sorry." Reimu asked as she turned her head deliberately from Marisa's sight so she could grin and chuckle before covering it up with a fake cough. It was actually kind of funny how one of Marisa's targeted items could just disappear from her hands like that.
"H-Hey! I kinda wanted that 'watch'-thingy!" Marisa announced, gaining a high-pitched gasp from… Underneath her?
Both Reimu and Marisa looked down to see… something. It had grey skin, frog like eyes, a similar style of outfit as to what the boy was wearing, had a similar logo to what the boy's watch had on his back, and most important of all, he was small. REALLY SMALL.
"Awww, ain't that cute?" Marisa said to herself, as she tried to scoop up Grey Matter with her hands, followed by a small high-pitched scream that got cut off as she cupped her hands around him.
"Reimu, take a look at this!" Marisa announced as she signalled Reimu over with her head.
Reimu didn't even hesitate or even sigh, she went over to her still retaining the interest she had previously.
"Did… he just turn into some sort of small youkai?" Reimu asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yep! This means that 'watch' is super cool! I gotta borrow (steal) it and find out how it works!" Marisa replied, having a really big smile on her face.
Grey Matter was staring at the two, whose faces were completely massive compared to him.
He then facepalmed himself hard.
"Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with this whole identity thing…" Grey Matter said to himself out loud unintentionally, which got a confused Reimu and Marisa to take more interest in what he was saying.
"What exactly do you mean?" Reimu asked plainly.
Grey Matter stared at her as he was lost in thought, trying to think of the smartest move.
[My goal in here is to get back to Gwen and Grandpa… But apparently from the 'Paradox' guy, that's not gonna happen because someone is keeping me here…]
[They don't really seem like they'll be a problem if I tell them the truth… If they wanted to do something to me, they would've. Maybe I can get them to trust and help me.]
[Is this what the "Paradox" guy meant by "developing allies"? Maybe they can give me some knowledge on this place?]
He then sighed hard, getting mentally prepared to tell them.
"You see, despite what I was saying and me trying to hide it from you guys earlier, I need your help." Grey Matter plainly stated.
"Eeeeeeh? You were trying to hide that watch from us? Why?" Marisa asked in disbelief… though for a good reason…
"Yeah, but seeing you fly in front of me and not taking the chance to try and do something to me has convinced me that maybe you're not a bad guy after all."
Marisa didn't have a response to that, instead her face was screaming ("You WHAAAAAT?! ME?!"), with Reimu giggling to the side again, with Marisa being the only one unable to notice it.
"That still doesn't explain why you were hiding it from us." Reimu stated in place of Marisa, with the former now snapping out of it.
Grey Matter then sighed once more.
"Seeming like you're not surprised of her either, I'm going to assume you also have powers of your own. I try to keep mine a secret from ordinary people." He responded.
Marisa had now mostly snapped out of it herself, with her expressions now becoming serious.
"There AREN'T that many ordinary people around this area. The only area closest to that description would be the Human Village, and either way they're kinda aware of Youkai too - so trying to hide your transforming 'watch' thingy is kinda pointless." Marisa spoke up, still only having slightly returned to her neutral expression.
"That's the thing though, I'm NOT from here." He finally stated, getting every last bit of attention he needed from the two.
"So… you're from the Outside World?" Reimu asked in confusion, raising an eyebrow yet again.
"…What's the difference?" Grey Matter asked as he scratched his head.
Reimu then squinted towards Marisa, who grinned back at her as she held her hands behind her head.
"Sorry Reimers, but this one is all yours." She replied in a snarky tone.
Reimu then sighed and turned her eyes towards Grey Matter, who had previously jumped down to the ground.
"Let's sit down in front of the shrine, and I guess I'll have to tell you everything…" Reimu stated as the three did just that.
The two then introduce themselves and give their names to Ben, not knowing that he had already caught wind of them when he was hiding behind the shrine.
After thinking for a few brief seconds, Ben decided to be the first to speak.
"So, I guess I'll start with the obvious - where am I?" He asked, looking up towards Reimu.
"You're in Gensokyo, kid." Marisa interrupted as she stretched her body simultaneously.
"Gensokyo? I've never heard of that place before…" Grey Matter replied back as he scratched his head trying to remember of such a name.
"That's because outsiders like you aren't meant to. Gensokyo is a sealed off chunk of land where Youkai have been residing in for a long time, and it's pretty much impossible to pass through the Great Hakurei Barrier intentionally – unless you get lost and find your way here somehow." Reimu explained, whilst staring out towards the environment in front of her with Grey Matter and Marisa following up on this by doing the same.
"But… What happens to those that do find their way in here then?" Grey Matter asked, somehow getting the feeling that the answer to that question was not going to be to his liking, at all.
"Either one of two things: You either find and get to the Human Village or this place, the Hakurei Shrine unscathed, or you get eaten by any of the Youkai that just happens to be around and wants to fill their appetite with ya'." Marisa responded, still grinning to intentionally alarm the boy, which worked.
"So that's why that one Youkai when I got here wanted to… Eeeeeyuuugh…" He stated slowly in disgust, almost like he was going to hurl.
"Yeah. Great, isn't it?" Marisa joked.
Right as Grey Matter was thinking of what to say next, Reimu and Marisa got startled by the immediate beeping tone behind his back – it was the Omnitrix symbol flashing red, signalling a timeout.
The same blinding light, though now red, brightened around the environment once more as it faded back into the 10-year-old boy.
Marisa then uncovered her eyes from her arms to look back at the watch, now noticing that it had the same symbol when transformed and the watch's button, symbol and dial colour was now a solid red.
"Huh, that's interesting, so you can't control when you change back? It didn't seem like you made yourself turn back just now..." Marisa asked after refocusing her viewpoint back upwards to Ben's face.
"Not normally… You see, before I came here, I unlocked something called the 'Master Control' by accident, it let me stay as an alien for as long as I want and change from one to the other without having to go back to, well—me." Ben explained holding his arm up so that both could see the Omnitrix.
"Wait… Aliens? Not youkai?" Reimu asked herself out loud.
"Aliens, huh? I think I might've read something like those in a book somewhere… I thought that little guy you turned to was some sort of new youkai." Marisa stated also to herself.
Right before Ben was about to respond he was cut off by the inevitable question.
"Wait, Aliens? As in, more than one?" Marisa asked with a very curious tone.
"Yeah. The Omnitrix lets me turn into 10 different aliens, though I've unlocked a few more since finding this thing and I'm now missing a lot of them… Plus I now only have 3 for some reason." Ben responded, gaining another confused look from the two girls.
"Hold on, a lot of what you're saying isn't making any sense." Reimu stated, with Ben continuing to look in her direction, though unfazed since he knew she was going to continue her statement.
"I can probably get behind your so called 'watch', or the 'Omnitrix', turning you into these 'aliens' but how did you lose that master-whatever and only just have 3 of these 'aliens' now?" Reimu asked, trying to make sense of all this like her ordinary magician friend.
"… I don't know. That's why I need your help to find out what's going on. I just want to get back home to my Grandpa and, as much as I don't wanna admit it, cousin..." Ben stated, with a noticeable sad tone at the end of the sentence.
Reimu and Marisa then looked up at the same time towards each other as Ben had his facing towards the ground in slight sadness. Then Marisa nodded at her.
"Tell ya' what da ze~, we'll help ya' out… How about running everything by us one more time? From the very beginning?" Marisa asked, with Ben looking up at her and giving a weak smile.
"Okay…" Ben said in a low tone as he prepared to tell the two his story of how he found the Omnitrix on that fateful day, the villains he encountered, and most importantly – how he even got into Gensokyo in the first place through his grandfather's Null Void Projector.
After concluding the story, he then looked down at the rock slab below him, wondering if he'd ever be able to get back.
Reimu and Marisa then looked at each other, they didn't really know what to say or ask next.
"Out of all the things I wanted to do today… The last thing I expected would be to have some 10-year-old superhero from some other world come here to tell me the most interesting story I've heard yet. Nice?" Marisa stated, being the one to break the silence.
Ben then looked up to her with a bit of hope in his eyes.
"Wait, so you actually believe me?" Ben asked Marisa as he turned to the fascinated shrine maiden.
"I do as well, the last part of your story about ending up here through a 'portal' would make some sense as to why you'd end up here instead… And I never told you this originally, but I already figured you weren't from here anyway just from your aura." Reimu responded, with Marisa being the next one to give her response.
"Yeah, one of the jobs that Reimers over here has is actually sending those who do find their way to the shrine or come here from the Human Village back into the Outside World – and trust me, you don't really look nor does your aura feel like those that stumble into here." Marisa stated as she giggled after the last world.
"I guess not…" Ben replied, as he chuckled a bit alongside her as he scratched his head.
As the three stared out into the sunny sky and felt the breeze wrapping itself around the shrine and themselves, Reimu decided to speak up next.
"Since you don't really have anywhere to go, and there isn't really a place for you in our outside world, would you like to stay here in the shrine until we can find a way to get you home? You don't even have to pay anything…" Reimu stated, as she grumbled a bit at the last sentence whilst rolling her eyes – Ben didn't notice this, but Marisa knew she was doing it without even having to look in her direction.
"R-Really?! Awesome!" Ben asked, smiling.
"Yes. The only thing I might ask from you is to help me out with sweeping the shrine from time to time." Reimu replied, beaming a big smile towards Ben at the last sentence, with Marisa almost not able to contain her laughter in the background.
"Uhh… Yeah!" Ben replied, giving a fake smile and a thumbs up hesitantly after hearing that.
With that now sorted, Ben actually wanted to take the time that he has to actually explore this "Gensokyo" for a bit. He thought that this was also a good chance to not only get to know the area better, but see if there were any sort of clues that could allow him to get home.
"Well," Ben stated shortly after the conversation as he stood up, "I guess I'm gonna take a look around."
The two girls didn't oppose, instead looking at Ben's direction as he walked down the massive steps until he was out of view.
"You think he's gonna be fine?" Marisa asked Reimu with a bit of a concerned tone, with the latter sighing once more.
"After hearing all of that, for sure." Reimu replied, going into the shrine.
With Ben now walking by himself in the woods, he started wondering just where he was going to go and explore for the time-being, just as an attempt to let all of the tension from the situation wear off a bit.
Luck seemed to be on his side, however, as he noticed after walking a bit that he turned to see the same massive sea that he only observed briefly as Heatblast, and with doing that, laid eyes on the massive mansion that could only barely be seen in the distance.
Feeling curious and adventurous, Ben walked near to the very start of the sea, and wondered how he was going to get across. And with a massive grin, hit the button on the Omnitrix and cycled to Heatblast once more to check the place out, with the signature green light overwhelming his body upon smashing the watch's dial.
When it faded away, he stared at his fists.
Or rather… All four of them.
"Aw man! Now you want to give me Four Arms?" He said to himself, facepalming himself literally four times as hard.
"So how am I going to get across there now? I swear, stupid watch…" he muttered, furiously tapping the Omnitrix symbol on the side of his left shoulder.
"Woooooooooooooah! DID YOU SEE THAT DAI?!" A voice muttered out from behind Ben, prompting him to look behind him though to catch no-one.
"C-Cirno…! Keep your voice down, what if he comes over here?" Another voice muttered out in a loud whisper, in clear distress.
"Who cares? I'm the strongest anyway, if he wants to come over here, let him!" The girl known as 'Cirno' replied, still nowhere to be found by Four Arms, whom followed up on that statement with a snicker.
"Hah, strongest? You? How about you show yourself so I can show you what real butt-kicking looks like!" He announced, looking frantically for her.
"Up here, frogs for brains!" She shouted back, with her opponent now fully establishing eye contact with her, alongside her friend "Dai" whom was floating next to her and had a terrified look on her face, even going as far as to fly behind the massive tree that they were hovering over.
Four Arms stared at Cirno for a good few seconds, before being unable to help himself and laugh extremely hard, causing Cirno to stare at him in absolute confusion and shock.
"Hah! YOU? YOU'RE supposed to be the strongest?" Four Arms said in an unstable tone as he continued to laugh.
"Nnnnnnrgh… Why you…! LET'S FIGHT YOU FOUR-ARMED TOAD!" Cirno shouted back as she readied her palm up in the air to build up a charged icicle.
"Cirno! Don't!" Daiyousei stated as she peeked from behind the tree, attempting to stop her friend, though to, predictably, no avail.
Cirno then thrusted her palm towards the ground in Ben's direction, causing Four Arms to immediately stop laughing and instead roll out of the way of the icicle, which was now absolutely embedded into the grass beneath where he once stood.
"Heh, nice try. Don't tell me that's all you got, ice freak." Four Arms stated whilst smirking at Cirno after she failed to connect with that icicle.
"You think that's all?" She stated, trying to ignore the little remark as hard as she could. "Heh, this is just the warm-up!" She announced, giving him a smirk of her own.
"Funny for you to say…" Four Arms said under his breath, nearly chuckling out loud again.
"Oh, I mean it! Begging for mercy is impossible now, so feel free to shiver before my absolute STRONGEST power!" She announced, before spinning wildly and thrusting her entire body outwards with her arms up in the air.
"Icicle… Fall!" Cirno shouted, with a lot of icicles now forming around her, with the actual amount being almost countless from Four Arms' point of view.
The icicles continued to form, surrounding Four Arms from his left and right from a distance.
"Heh, this is why they call me the strongest!" Cirno screamed, thrusting her arms towards the ground once more, with all the icicles following at a fast speed towards Four Arms.
[I so wish I was Heatblast right now…]
Author's Notes:
And so, this marks the end of Chapter 2.
Sorry for the wait, it's taken me this long to put it out since I was writing this chapter on and off for a while, unsure of what to write when coming back to it… But hey, your boy managed to get it done.
So now we've got Reimu and Marisa on Ben's side, and an encounter with "the strongest" now underway for Ben as the Scarlet Devil Mansion looms in the distance… Cool! (Not an intentional pun, I swear)
Either way, as usual, I'd appreciate feedback from you guys. I'm glad that you all have been able to follow through with the last one, and I'm going to make sure I keep going with this story.
Until next time!