Author's Note: Hey again! Welcome back to Ben 10: Origins! This chapter's a long one, so make sure to grab a snack and a drink and get comfy. If you're enjoying the story so far, I'd love to hear what you have to say! Do you like my portrayals of characters like Ben and Gwen? What do you think of the more alternative takes? What are you excited for in the future of Danger Watch, and what are your predictions? Be sure to let me know in the reviews.

With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 07

For the next few days, the drive was mostly silent and grim. Grandpa Max had forbidden any use of the watch until they got to the base, and so, the two kids were back to reading. Max, meanwhile, was focused on the drive, and despite his old age, was up off of a gas station cold brew coffee, willing himself to drive just a few more miles, and then a few more after that, and then a few more after that. Time, he knew, was of the essence, as it was only a matter of such until more people came after the watch. If they had come for it once, they would come again.

Eventually, Max's stamina wore down. He had been speeding along the road, following the railroad tracks that he knew led towards the Black Hills, and Mount Rushmore. As a young man, he used to ride around the American countryside on a motorcycle, and he had fond memories of the area during summertime. Addled by thoughts of the past, and the hours of no sleep that were wearing him down, Max yawned, his eyes falling half-lidded, before he caught himself slightly swerving. Gwen, from the back, quirked a slender, orange eyebrow, but said nothing. For a moment, Max wagered staying on the road for the sake of time, but quickly dismissed the thought. He wouldn't risk his own poor judgement. He needed sleep.

The R.V. whined as it pulled out onto a poorly lit exit, the wheels jolting on the railroad tracks as they passed over them, which caused Ben and Gwen to bounce around comically. Ben, now pulled from the world of his comic book, looked out the window, and saw the grungy sign of the motel as it approached. It was a shabby, maroon building, with a tacky carving of some kind of bison or deer out front. It sat on the edge of a small town that was nestled on the other side of the railroad tracks. Ben wrinkled his nose.

"A motel?" he said.

As the R.V. squealed to a stop, Max yawned.

"I know it's not the Ritz Carlton, but," he yawned yet again, "an old guy's gotta get some sleep."

Max had them wait in the R.V. while he went inside and arranged for a room, and as he left, Ben slumped his head dramatically against the window.

"I hate motels," he said, "they've got roaches and stinky sheets."

"Maybe this place will be nice," Gwen said, trying to remain optimistic. She was carefully putting together an overnight bag as she spoke.

Ben remained skeptical, and cast his gloomy gaze out across the parking lot. He saw a crusty looking old man smoking a cigarette, a pair of young goth women holding hands, and, briefly, the back of a young boy's head. It was shaggy and dark, and familiar…

"Alright, I got us a room," Max said, suddenly re-emerging at the cab of the R.V. "C'mon. We even got cable! And free ice!"

The kids walked out of the R.V., and Max fetched a bucket for ice before locking up the mobile home and led the kids up a flight rickety wooden stairs leading to the even more rickety wooden deck where the door to their room was located. Grandpa Max stopped at the door, key in hand, and let out a massive yawn, holding up an arm to shield his face. Then, he unlocked the door, and threw his backpack on one bed to claim it. There was only one more bed.

"Sharing a bed? Ew!" Ben said.

"Would you rather sleep on the floor with the roaches?" Gwen said. "Honestly? I'm weighing the pros and cons."

Ben stuck his tongue out at her, and she just turned and walked into room, dropping her overnight bag on the bed beside Max's. Ben followed, glancing around the room with a sigh. Obviously it wasn't exactly his idea of a lavish vacation spot, but he had at least expected the little private bathroom to be clean. Even a little clean. After locking the door, Max collapsed onto the bed with a loud groan of satisfaction.

"Ohh, yeah," the old man said with a sigh, "I'm not gettin' up."

"What about your ice, Grandpa?" Gwen mentioned off-handedly, not even looking up from the pages of her book. Max groaned and brought a hand up to his forehead.

"Oh, dang it!"

"I'll get it!" Ben said hastily, snatching the bucket off of the dresser and going to the door.

"Here, take the keys," Max said, handing them to the boy, "and don't doddle. Go to the ice machine and come right back/"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ben said, slipping out of the door and closing it behind him. Eagerly, he dashed to the edge of the deck, glancing down at the dimly lit parking lot below. He looked around for that familiar kid.

Bingo.

Dropping the ice bucket with a clattering noise, Ben dashed down the stairs of the old, wooden deck, and went running across the parking lot. Most of the other people had cleared off, but that shaggy haired kid was still there. As Ben's loud, running footsteps came towards him, the kid whipped round, revealing the boyish, harrowed face of Kevin. Ben stopped in his tracks upon seeing the boy, and then both of them grinned widely and fist bumped.

"Bro!" Ben said.

"Bro," Kevin agreed.

"I can't believe we met up again!" Ben said.

"Yeah," the dark haired boy said, "crazy."

He looked down, apparently embarrassed, but then his expression changed to curiosity as he glanced at the device on Ben's wrist.

"Woah, woah," he said, taking a step forward to clear the gap between them, "what is that?"

Ben glanced down. He had nearly forgotten about the watch.

"Oh, right," he said, tilting his chin up as a proud smile began to creep at the corners of his stoic façade, "I suppose it's only fair I tell you. After all, you shared your secret with me."

Kevin's eyes widened.

"No way," he said. Then, hushedly, he added: "You got a superpower?"

Ben, acknowledging that Kevin had used the word 'superpower' before he did, closed his eyes to mask his mirth.

"Oh, yeah," he said. "Wanna see?"

Kevin glanced over his shoulder, at the lights the glowed dimly through the off-yellow blinds of the motel. Then, he turned back to Ben, before slipping his hands in his pockets and jerking his chin off down the road, toward a nearby parking garage for the corporate business H.Q. that was a few away.

"Not here," he said, starting to walk, "follow me."

Ben hesitated, and Kevin turned around, taking note. It was his turn to grin, darkly.

"Unless you're chicken," he said.

That was the kicker. Ben glanced once at the light that was shining through his grandfather and cousin's motel room, and then turned back to Kevin, nodding with something like confidence before following him into the night.

From their vantage point in the ship, the bounty hunters were able to keep a close watch on the entire area. They had been given coordinates by Vilgax upon returning to meet him on the moon of Earth, and now were following the strongest source of energy on the planet. There was only one thing that even came close, and that was deep beneath the crust of the planet. Most likely, the Earth's core. The energy signature brought them to what appeared to be a human city. They brought the ship to a slow above the cloud layer. They could not risk being seen. The entire solar system agreed that the less humans that made it to space, the better and they were clearly fast learners.

Luckily, they were also big dummies, Tetrax thought to herself, as she pressed a button on the dashboard of the ship. She smiled to herself as she felt the familiar hum of the cloaking engine roar to life. There was a quick flash of light as the gem retrieved some kind of stretchy, metallic band from her forehead, and began to tie her mass of dark hair into a tight bun. From the seat behind her and to the right, the bronze alien known as Kraab piped up for the first time since Jupiter.

"Kinda funny that we were all gettin' drinks at the same time, huh?" He said. "Seeing as… ya know."

The alien warrior in purple, who still wore his mask, turned to look at Kraab, impossible to read, as always.

"What?" He said. It was hard to tell if it was genuine curiosity or pretentious feigned ignorance.

"You mean how we all used to be P.O.W.'s on this rock?" Tetrax said, spinning around her captains chair to face her comrades as she set the ship to hover just above the city skyline. The purple warrior turned his faceless gaze to her now, and Kraab nodded enthusiastically, pointing to Tetrax with his big claw.

"Yeah, exactly, it's kinda like… fate," he said. Tetrax rolled her eyes. "By the way. I know it'd be great to finally get things squared away with him, but do we really think we can trust Vilgax to follow through?"

Tetrax raised an eyebrow, and the masked warrior turned to Kraab now.

"That's uncharacteristically introspective of you," The warrior said. He once again turned his creepy mask to Tetrax, who wrinkled her nose. She didn't like that he wore that thing all the time, but it was his people's credo, so she never said anything. It did weird her out to talk to something with no face, though. "He's right though. You can't trust a Chimera Sui Generi."

"Especially not this one," Kraab said.

"Ugh," Tetrax said, "you two are agreeing? Something must be up. Damn, and just when I thought this would be an easy mission."

"I suspected as much when our courier mentioned the stature of our quarry," the armored warrior said. Tetrax made a face at him. "It seemed far too simple. A human boy with a piece of tech he has no idea how to use? Surely a band of trained gem soldiers should have been able to handle that. With drones for back up, no less.

"O.K., SixSix, l get your point," the tektite said. She steepled her fingers. "Obviously there are some unknowns we are dealing with here. Vilgax was pretty tight-lipped about this tech he wants, which doesn't exactly help us know what we're up against."

"He called it a "shapechanging device"," Kraab said.

"He said essentially a shapechanging device," SixSix added. "There may be more to it than that."

"Have you ever seen something like that?" Tetrax asked.

"A shapechanger? No," SixSix said. "Plenty of illusions, holographic disguises, sure, but I've yet to see something that can produce the full transformation without somehow affecting or even losing the original form."

Tetrax hummed. As a gem, she could shapeshift naturally, but that was because her body was merely a hard-light manifestation of her consciousness. The thought of a flesh and bone being transforming into other things was a little… Meaty, was the word that crossed her mind. The three of them sat in silence for a few moments longer, until Kraab impatiently got up from his seat, and began to stretch his claw.

"Well, whatever it is, I say we just get to the part where we yank it off the kid already," He said. "It's dark. Most of the humans will be sleeping. Shard could sneak in through a window or something, they'd never even know."

Tetrax raised an eyebrow. It could almost work. Unless this thing had some kind of bio-lock, in which case, she would be down a black hole with no thrusters. She shook her head. Kraab was right. They were losing precious hours of darkness. Even with its advanced cloaking, human tech was starting to reach dangerous levels. If enough smartphones caught video of the ship with enough interference, it was possible it would show up on even their primitive video. They couldn't have that.

"Energy signature is moving," SixSix said suddenly, glancing at a handheld device that Vilgax had given him. Tetrax didn't hesitate.

"Right," she said, spinning back around and sending her ash-grey fingers flying across the controls. "I'll have the ship drop us on a rooftop. Then I'll have it hover and we can prepare an ambush."

"That's more like it!" Kraab said, as the sleek, half-disc shaped spacecraft dipped down and sideways, coming to a low hover above one of the tallest buildings in the quaint little down.

One by one, the crew made the small jump, landing (with the exception of Kraab) quietly. Then, Tetrax pressed a button on a device on her hip, and the ship closed its exit hatch and re-cloaked, before vanishing into the night air, leaving the alien bounty hunters alone on the rooftop. The wind blew, warm with this planet's summer, and for a moment, Tetrax smiled. She liked Earth, despite the bad memories and mojo surrounding the place. It had some beautiful weather.

Although, she thought, as she breathed in a rank bit of exhaust from a nearby sewage plant, it might become too warm soon if the human's didn't fix their energy systems. How ironic it would be for the planet to survive gem colonization only to be destroyed by its own denizens. SixSix kept his gaze on the tracking device, and as it continued to blip, he suddenly held up a hand to get his associate's attention.

"There," he said. He tapped his ear, signifying that they should go comms only.

Tetrax nodded, and donned her helmet (the reason she had tucked up her hair.) After a few seconds, a heads up display appeared, showing off various read-outs in Gem Glyph, the script she had been programmed to write on Homeworld. She hated it, and she was using the latest translation apps to learn other languages. It was a silly thing, but she felt like it was a part of her slow, painful severance from the life she used to lead.

"See them?" Came SixSix's voice, humming in the tektite's "ears" (she had none.)

"Yeah," Tetrax said, coming over to crouch on the lip of the building. Her helmet zoomed in slightly on a pair of youths that were walking down the sidewalk. One of them was grungy and raggedy looking, with long ratty hair and tired eyes. He was talking animatedly with the other boy, a plain-looking child his age, with brown hair and an unassuming look about him.

Lastly, she spotted the device they were after. It was clearly not made on this planet. Nobody on Earth possessed the knowledge necessary, not even the rebel gems she knew lay hidden here. It had an odd, biomechanical look it, almost like the sheen on Kraab's chitin. Tetrax grimaced. She had never seen anything like it before. It almost looked like a wrist-computer, but a very simple one. Whatever it was, it couldn't be more clear that this was indeed what Vilgax was after, and that it was the topic of conversation between the two humans.

"They're so puny," Kraab said, scuttling up behind Tetrax. "Let's just go down and squash 'em."

"How many shots do you think it would take?" SixSix wondered, his extra, mechanical arms producing handheld blasters, and training them on the two children.

Tetrax's gut wrenched.

"Woah, hey!" She said, stepping forward and putting a firm hand on the purple warrior's chest. "They're kids. We just want the device."

SixSix snorted in her ear, and though they both wore masks, the purple bounty hunter had no trouble expressing his emotions. The arms holstered their weapons, and he kept his face locked in her direction as he spoke.

"Don't tell me you're getting sympathetic for these worthless chimps," SixSix said. "If you botch this like you did on Tethys, it's on your gem."

"Yeah, I'd rather not take the heat from Vilgax," Kraab said. "Business first, Shard. If you're gettin' queasy about it then hang back and let us take care of the job."

"No!" Tetrax said quickly. The air hung with tension for a moment, as the power balance of the mission started to shift drastically. "Let's just… Not get ourselves killed. Or the other kid, if we don't have to. Remember, this guy took out a squadron of war drones on top of a team of gem soldiers."

"You're overthinking it," SixSix said, crossing his main arms.

"Well, maybe I'm a little on edge, because the last time we came here wasn't exactly pretty!"

"Congratulations, you two, they just got away," Kraab said, gesturing down the stretch of shadowy alley-ways that the kids had vanished into with his claw. "Can we drop the ego battle for like 10 minutes and finish this bounty?"

Again, tense silence, but they all agreed. They turned to move for the next rooftop, but to their surprise, as they walked, the ground in front of them suddenly shot up with light and sparks. The trio reared back, and as the initial wave of confusion and distraction vanished, they found themselves staring at a figure in the darkness.

He was tall, and clad in some kind of red armor that was clearly ahead of Earth's modern tech. He had a gargoyleish, fanged mask, and he stood stoically between them and the direction they needed to go to keep up with their quarry. With a crackling noise, the red-armored warrior produced a disk of yellow energy between his forefinger and middle finger, holding it up. Not as a threat, but as a warning.

"The artifact belongs to us, off-worlders," he said simply. "I suggest you be on your way."

"No way! How many?"

"10," Ben said, "I think."

He had just finished explaining how the watch worked, and telling the story of how he had encountered it, to Kevin, who seemed boyishly excited about it.

"Wicked," the dark haired boy said.

"I know, right? And what are the odds that we a few days after we met, I found the watch!" Ben said.

They both agreed. It was pretty trippy. Like, cosmic alien space destiny trippy. That made the air a little awkward, as both of them imagined existential horrors that might be tied to such a fate. Kevin, however, quickly shook it off, and gestured to the glowing green hourglass that was lighting up the entire parking garage.

"Well?" He said. "Show me one."

Ben suddenly felt Max had expressly forbade the use of the watch until they had found his friend. However, in Ben's eyes, space destiny kind of beat out Grandpa's rules. Just by a little. He tried to match his friends eager grin, and as he looked down at the watch, it made its signature deedle-beep noise, and the cylindrical button popped out, revealing the shadowy silhouette of a flaming alien. Twisting the button, Ben decided that Heatblast was a bit too dangerous and obvious, and, after much contemplation on who was the coolest, decided to show off Four-Arms, the red-skinned behemoth that he had used to lift the entire R.V. back at camp. Once the multi-armed alien's shadow was in view, Ben slammed his hand down on the button, and there was a flash of light.

"Four-Arms!" Ben said, expecting his voice to come out deep and gravelly. To his surprise, while still gravelly, his voice carried more of an effeminate ring to it. As he glanced down, he realized that his skin was a deep lilac, and not the brick crimson that he knew Four-Arms possessed. He was wearing some kind of strange, meshed outfit that was practically a part of his body. With a sigh, he reached up, and, just as he suspected, found the smooth form of the hourglass nestled into his forehead. Somehow, he knew, there was supposed to be a gemstone there. However, as he had learned, the watch always found a way to tack itself onto his alien forms. Usually, it was as some kind of chest beacon. Sometimes, it appeared in other places. Like here, for instance, where it manifested in the middle of his forehead.

"Woah," Kevin said, looking Ben's new form up and down. He had long, thick, white hair, and yellowish eyes that were smoky like he had natural mascara. While muscular and androgynous, there was no doubt a strong feminine aura about this new form of his… He was also well over 6 feet tall, and towered over Kevin now. The dark haired boy ogled for a moment, and then looked confused. "Wait, why is it named Four-Arms?"

"I, uh, think I hit the wrong button," Ben said. "This is Diamondhead."

"Why is she a chick?" Kevin asked. Ben squinted at him.

"Honestly, I don't feel like much of a boy or a girl," the lavender alien said. Then, she shrugged. "I dunno."

"Doesn't matter. What kinda cool stuff can she do?" Kevin asked. He was clearly getting fired up over the situation, and his eyes glinted in what little night the parking garage has to offer.

"Well, mostly, she's just really tough," Ben said, "although, I can do this thing where I spin around in a ball."

"That's cool, I guess," Kevin said, seemingly disappointed. He pointed up at the green hourglass in his forehead. "Do another one! I wanna see the fire guy, or that big hairy one!"

Ben rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Uh, yeah, that's kinda the thing…" the alien that was human said. "The transformation lasts for a few minutes and then turns off on its own. Then, there's a cooldown before I can use it again.""

"Aw, man," Kevin said, "that blows."

"Tell me about it!"

"How cool would it be if you could just shift between monsters like," Kevin snapped his fingers, "that!"

"Aliens," Ben corrected.

"Whatever. How cool?" Kevin said. Ben nodded in agreement.

"That would be cool," he said.

The dark haired boy glanced up at the hulking purple alien, and, sensing his shame over the downsides of his power, rubbed his wrist.

"Alright," he said, glancing away and then up at Ben, "my turn."

Ben looked to him with excitement.

"Is there more?" He asked. Kevin grinned wryly.

"Yeah," he said, "a lot more."

The dark haired boy walked over to the nearest concrete column, and pressed his open palm against it. As Ben watched, Kevin's finger-tips began to take on the exact same color and texture as the pillar he was pressing. Then, the pattern overtook his entire hand, and even went up, covering a chunk of his wrist and forearm. Ben, as the lavender alien, watched eagerly, as Kevin retracted his hand, flexing his newly concrete digits. Despite apparently being made from mixed stone, they were as flexible as they had been before.

"Woah," Ben said.

"Yeah, heh, I can uh- Absorb stuff. I can take it on, or I can send it back out, like with energies and stuff. I have not tried taking on the energy… Sounds like I'd turn into spaghetti or somethin', ya know? Anyway, I can't do the full body thing like you. It takes a lot out of me sometimes to keep even this much stone. Plus, there's boatloads of concrete here."

:"It's still super cool! You're like, the Absorbing Kid," The alien that was Ben said. Kevin snorted at the name.

"O.K., well, then you're like… Ben 10," he said. It was all he could come up with.

"Hey, that actually kinda works. Like, cuz, my last name is Tennyson."

"It is? Woah, weird coincidence. I just made that up cuz you got 10 aliens in that thing," Kevin said, gesturing to the watch's symbol in Ben's forehead. "That reminds me. This one-you called it Diamondhead?- Just how tough is it?"

"Pretty tough," Ben said. He hadn't really been able to find out what Diamondhead's strengths and weaknesses were yet, with the limited time he had been her at the campsite. However, he knew that, she had broken several of Max's tools when Ben had told Gwen to wail on him.

"Wanna test that?" Kevin said, bouncing his stony fist in his other, more fleshy, palm. He had a competitive fire in his eyes. Ben glanced around the empty parking garage. There were a few cars parked, high above them, but none on the level they were talking on.

"I don't know…" Ben said, brushing some fluffy white hair out of his face. "Should we really have a super fight right now? I'm kind of trying to keep a low profile until I know more about the watch."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. Then, with a shrug, he released the stone from his fist, returning it to normal. Something like a victorious smile tugged at his cheeks. Ben furrowed his brows, but before he could say anything further, there was a sudden, low, droning sound. Kevin glanced up at Ben's forehead, and through the dark haired boy's eyes, he could see the hourglass symbol flashing red. Ben groaned.

There was a flash of green light, and the young human boy had returned, standing where the significantly more formidable purple alien had just been. This left Kevin with a faint sense of spatial displacement, which he quickly shook off. He looked down at the watch, which was now a low, steady red color.

"That's it, huh?" Kevin said. "A couple minutes of showtime and then back to normal?"

"Heh, yeah," Ben said, "that's the tradeoff for being totally awesome, I guess."

"Damn," Kevin muttered, looking over his shoulder at nothing in particular. "I really wanna see another one before I catch my tra- I mean, before I gotta go back to my parent's room."

Ben looked sympathetic, holding up the wrist that bore the recharging watch..

"Heh, sorry, man," he said. "It usually takes a while to turn green again."

Kevin took a step forward, his eyes set on watch.

"Maybe if I-"

"Hey," Ben said, taking a step back. Kevin kept advancing, reaching for the watch as he came on.

"Just let me-"

"Stop!"

"I just-"

"Kevin!"

Kevin's fingers touched the face of the watch, and for a brief second, nothing happened. Ben, who had been trying to wriggle away from Kevin, froze, as did Kevin, who had been lunging for the watch, and was now looking at it, his eyebrows furrowed. Then, the dark haired boy's eyes widened.

"What the-"

bWO-OM!

Suddenly, there was a quick, concussive burst of energy, and a small dome of green light, came blasting out from the watch. Ben was sent sprawling onto his back on the pavement, and Kevin was blasted backwards across the parking garage, rolling end over end before coming to a crumpled stop, several meters away. Both of them laid there, stunned, for a while. Ben was the first to recover. Pulling himself up to standing, he walked over to kneel beside Kevin, rolling him over.

"Hey," Ben said, "Kevin, you O.K?"

Kevin shoved Ben away, and dragged himself to a sitting position. He sat there for a moment, rubbed the side of his head, and then stood up. Ben tried to approach him and make sure everything as alright, but the dark haired boy continued to keep him at a distance. He wouldn't even look him in the eyes. Ben looked hurt.

"Kevin… I'm sorry," Ben said.

Kevin laughed, shaking his head.

"Nah, don't be, man," he said. Ben looked at him, confused, and Kevin sighed. "Look. I gotta get going. That, uh, blast gave me a headache. I'm gonna try to sleep it off."

Ben nodded.

"Yeah… Sure," he said.

Kevin began to walk off, not in the direction of the motel. Ben wasn't sure whether to say anything, and opted not to. However, as he watched his friend(?) go, he remembered something with a jolt. He went jogging up behind Kevin, as the two of them approached the exit that took them to the street. There was a faint, orange glow from Kevin's hand, like he was holding a lighter. As Ben came up suddenly behind him, the other boy whipped around, eyes frantic, looking from Ben to his hand. Ben looked to the source of Kevin's confusion.

His hand was on fire.

"What the heck?" Kevin said.

"No way…" Ben said under his breath.

"Did I-?" Kevin started to say.

"I don't even-" Ben started to say at the same time.

Neither of them was able to finish however, as, they were cut off by a loud slicing noise, and then a rush of air. They both looked up on instinct, and saw an enormous shape plummeting out of the sky. They both took large steps back as, with a huge, crashing noise, a giant, bronze, crab monster crash-landed on the pavement in front of them.