Author's Note: Hello, and welcome to the penultimate chapter of Ben 10: Origins! I hope you've been enjoying the twists and turns of the story so far. Like always, I'll be posting an Epilogue, as well as some post-credits scenes after the final chapter, so stick around for that. Again, I just wanna say I'm blown away by the support for the series so far. I hope to keep bringing you guys awesome content!

Without further ado, let's just right in!

Chapter 09

In the night sky above the a rolling hillscape, three blazing dots could be seen, like huge fireflies or shooting stars. Getting closer would reveal these dots to be the flames emitted by a trio of jetpacks. These jetpacks belonged to Kraab, SixSix, and Tetrax Shard. As they rocketed through the clouds, SixSix was muttering a constant string of foul words in his language. He had retracted his cybernetic arms for now, but was clearly furious over their destruction. He had barely spoken a word aloud.

Tetrax, as she flew, checked the energy signature on her wrist computer. As she had suspected, it was moving even further North-West. The predictive GPS on her wrist-com was exceptional. Thanks, Homeworld. Putting up a hand to the side of her helmet, she spoke, addressing both of her comrades.

"They'll be on the road for a while," she said.

She let the comment hang in the air, in case either of the boys wanted to say anything. SixSix had paused in his cursing to let her speak, but now returned to his murmuring. Tetrax turned her head over to look at Kraab, who, aside from a few scrapes, hardly looked like he had been in a fight at all. The bronze alien kept his strange face aimed towards their direction of flight, but after a beat, he spoke.

"Who were those guys?"

There it was, the question they had all been wondering. What had started as a straightforward mission had quickly evolved into something far more complicated and dangerous. First, there was the masked strange with the red alien tech, cobbled together from various different factions from across the universe. How had he gotten such tech? How did he fight the way he did? On top of that, he came accompanied by a squadron of backup, also armed to the teeth with tech they had no business possessing.

And if that weren't bad enough, they weren't even the strangest humans to surprise the trio that night. After the arrival of the self proclaimed 'Forever Knights', and the battle that ensued, an elderly human driving a motor home had crashed into the scene. Oh, and the R.V. had a huge gun on the side of it. Then, after he had nearly dispatched SixSix, the other human child began to shapechange before their very eyes, wielding the powers of a pyronite and a vulpimancer at once! Needlessly to say, it had become something of a disaster, and they were now flying by the seats of their collective pants, trying to salvage the bounty.

"I don't know who they were," Tetrax said, "and frankly, I don't care. What I want to know is: how did they get their hands on that tech?"

"I hate this miserable planet," SixSix said. "Every time I come here, it's something miserable. Damn the whole place. The gems should have-"

Tetrax suddenly stopped, twisting in mid-air to catch SixSix by the collar of his uniform. He gave a grunt of surprise that came through the comms, and the two helmet-wearing aliens held an aerial stare-down for a long moment.

"Go ahead, 'Six," Tetrax said. "Finish that sentence."

The stare-down continued. SixSix said nothing. Beneath her helmet, Tetrax grit her teeth.

"Lotta people died, 'Six. Lotta gems died," she said. She tightened her grip on his collar. "If the Diamonds had won, the numbers would have been tripled. More. I don't care about your piss-poor attitude, but when you start to show sympathy for wiping out a whole species… Well. You know how we rebel gems deal with people like that."

Kraab had turned to watch the scene go down, and now looked nervously to SixSix. He wasn't sure how he would take it. The sotoraggian was known for his violent outbursts and insurrection. However, it seemed, in that moment, without his additional arms, he felt weak enough to submit to Tetrax's command. For now, at least. He bowed his head, almost imperceptibly.

"Of course," he said, his voice entirely unreadable. "My mistake."

Tetrax wrinkled her lip beneath her helmet, and then shoved the purple warrior away from herself, turning and flying forward, taking point as the trio began to make pace, trying to compensate for the time they had lost.

None of them spoke again until the R.V. was in sight.

"What's with all the gadgets on the van?"

"I'll explain when we get there."

"Who were those guys?"

"I'll explain when we get there."

"Where are we going?"

"Mount Rushmore!"

It was over an hour of hard driving later. The two kids had recovered from the initial shock of alien contact, and were now grilling Max with questions. The tired old man kept an iron grip on the steering wheel, gritting his teeth and keeping his bloodshot eyes on the road. This was not what he had expected when he had planned his vacation summer with his grandkids. Not at all. They had left a lot of their things in the motel, and they were all exhausted, afraid, and confused.

The scenery didn't help. They had entered the dry, barren badlands, which, while magnificent during the day, gave off an eerie, abandoned aura during the dead of night. Especially because they were the only ones on the road. Ben found himself glancing nervously at ever shadow and crevice, as if there might be a deadly alien or a masked man behind it.

The air above them, however, was rife with trouble.

SHEEEER!

Max recoiled as the road in front of him suddenly lit up in a bright, explosive flash. Swerving to avoid the chunk of pavement that was no longer there, he glanced down at the various strange dials and screens that had recently appeared on the dashboard. One of them, apparently some kind of radar, was pinging three shapes.

"Above us," Max said, mostly to himself, but loud enough for the kids to hear. "Brace yourselves!"

A barrage of lasers followed the first, as, from the night sky, the bounty hunter's suddenly appeared. They dropped out of the cloud layer, flying with their jet-packs, firing shot after shot at the R.V. The old rustbucket must have been made of harder stuff than it seemed, because while the inside rocked from side to side, the exterior held. The passengers didn't become piles of charred cinder. Max's driving became more and more erratic as the path before him was destroyed time and again. The bounty hunters were now aiming to knock the R.V. over, after seeing that it's hull was too dense to destroy.

Meanwhile, inside of the vehicle, Ben was frantically turning the dial on the watch. He needed something that could fight, but also something that could get in the air. If the enemies were coming from the sky, like Grandpa Max had said, Ben didn't want to put himself at disadvantage. He was deciding between two silhouettes: an insectoid with the wings of a dragonfly, and a strange spectral shadow that, despite being a silhouette, still bore a haunting, bloodshot eye. With a chill, Ben decided on the bug, slamming his hand down and closing his eyes.

With a flash, Ben was suddenly much taller. Too tall! Thump! He bumped his head on the roof of the R.V., leaving a large, round dent. Glancing down at himself with a groan, Ben realized that he had once again transformed into something he had not meant to. This time, he bore four large, muscular, red arms, and was covered in a strange kind of follicle; somewhere between hair and whisker. His vision had improved drastically, granting Ben the ability to see nearly twice as well as he had been before, and in more directions at once. He had become the red behemoth. The alien he had wanted to be earlier. Four-Arms.

"Ah, crap," came Ben's huge, deep voice. Gwen looked up, wide-eyed, and Max glanced once over his shoulder before snapping his attention back to the task at hand. Keeping them from flipping over. He flipped a couple of switches on the dashboard, and their ears were suddenly filled with loud, mechanical sounds.

From outside of the R.V., the bounty hunters saw two large, turret-like weapons pop out of the top of the vehicle, where a satellite dish had been. They immediately trained on the flying trio, and began to blast back.

BLAM-BLAM-BLAM! BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!

The heavy, repeating guns began to fire a lethal storm of projectiles, causing the aliens to scatter in different directions to avoid the bulk of the fire. Kraab took a couple of shots to his bulky shell, and one to his jetpack, causing him to falter in the air. The cannons locked onto him, and soon, he went crashing down, low enough for the cannons to re-train on the other two bounty hunters. They flew evasive maneuvers, and SixSix, with a well-aimed shot, managed to take out both cannons at once, disabling the guns and causing their aiming systems to falter.

In the cab of the R.V., Max swore under his breath. He looked frantically to the dashboard, pondering his next trick. He was running out of options. One button caught his eye… It gave him an idea.

"Ben!" Max called. "Grab that big gun you brought, and get on the roof!"

"What?" Gwen said, horrified.

"What?" Ben said, with gleeful surprise.

"You heard me! Your quills should resist the blasters! You're a tetramand!"

Although he was again thrown off by the amount Max knew without letting on, Ben nodded, and stooped to retrieve the gun. What had once been a massive weapon in Ben's hand now was something more like a hand gun. In the cab, Max pressed the button, and an access hatch opened. Ben, as the hulking tetramand Four-Arms, just squeezed through.

As soon as he appeared, the bounty hunters began to take pot-shots at him. He threw up two arms to protect himself, while the other pulled him to his feet and the fourth and final arm clutched the heavy blaster weapon. To Ben's relief, Max's words held true, and the laser's did little to harm his newfound hide. Soon it was his turn to return fire, and he did so, blindly and rapidly, not even bothering to sight down the barrel, just blasting towards where he thought the bounty hunters would fly.

With the cannons destroyed, the purple hunter seemed to grow impatient, and turned to his partner before swooping down towards Ben. There was a beat, and then the grey armored hunter followed suit. Surprised, Ben took a step back, as the aliens came rocketing towards him at breakneck speed. Then, at the last second, they pulled up, landing with little bursts from their jetpacks. The purple hunter, SixSix, drew his two blades. The other drew an energy baton.

"C'mon, guys," Ben as Four-Arms tried to say, "You sure you wanna do this?"

SixSix ignored his calls for parlay, and lunged in with his blades, not even uttering a sound. The first slashed at Ben's neck, forcing him to throw up a meaty hand and catch the piercing strike in his palm. He winced, but to his surprise, it hurt more like a bee sting than a stab wound. The second dagger flew towards his chest, aiming at the glowing, green hourglass. This time, Ben didn't bother to defend, instead going for a direct counter attack. SixSix, who had just abandoned the first dagger to it's fate inside the tetramand's palm, caught a fist to the face. The fist was nearly a foot in diameter. Needless to say, the purple-clad alien stumbled back.

Ben glanced down at his arms, impressed. Plucking the small knife free, he flung it off the side of the R.V., and dropped the gun below into the cab of the vehicle. Then, kicking the entry hatch closed, he placed two fists into two palms, and grinned with huge, tombstone teeth at his opponents.

"Yeah, O.K.," Four-Arms said, "let's dance then."

With a battle cry, the female bounty hunter came charging in. Ben, expecting her to swipe with her baton, brought up his top arms in a defensive 'X'. However, his opponent was more wily than he gave her credit, and, spotting his block, dropped into a leg sweep. Knowing that just a kick from her light form wouldn't bring a titan like a tetramand down, she kicked on the stabilizing jet-thrusters in her boots, giving herself an extra boost. This gave her enough power to sweep the unsuspecting red alien's leg out from underneath him, and send him toppling to the roof of the R.V. with a resounding clong!

"Oof!" Groaned Ben, as his jaw glanced the heavy metal. He went to push himself up, but instantly, SixSix leapt onto his back. By the time Ben was back on his feet, the bounty hunter had produced some strange device from his forearm, and, with a flick his wrist, produced a crackling electrical blade.

zzzlaASH!

While Ben was frantically reaching back to try and pull his assailant off, the alien brought the weapon wickedly across Ben's back. That, he felt. With a roar of pain, Ben was suddenly struck with an agonizing feeling. In a moment of rage at this sudden pain, he used a huge, brick hand to seize SixSix by the back of his uniform, and send him flying like a fast-ball out into the night sky. There was a roar of flame as the purple hunter activated his jetpack, and came flying back in, but Ben had bought himself a brief moment to recover.

OK, he thought, electricity was a no go.

As the alien-boy braced himself to parry the onslaught from his duo of assailants, there was a sudden, screeching noise. The mobile home beneath them suddenly skidded into a short drift, and then abruptly stopped on a dime. The momentum of this sudden pivot sent all three combatants flying over the side, and tumbling into the dusty earth.

Coughing and brushing white granite off of himself, Ben's hardy tetramand form was the first to recover. They had been flung a good distance, probably 20 meters ahead of the R.V. Ben put up two red fists in a fighting stance as he watched the two bounty hunters pull themselves up. SixSix was as unreadable and dangerous as ever, however the female bounty hunter's helmet had cracked, revealing a stormy grey eye and a cascade of black hair. With twin zaap!-s the two of them extended their lightning blades.

"Don't make us do it, kid," the grey alien said, her voice coming through organically for the first time.

"Do what? What's the deal?" Ben said.

"Don't play with your prey!" The purple bounty hunter snarled, surging forward, slicing with his energy blade. Ben took measured steps back, watching, with his keen, four-eyed vision, for his opponents moves before backing up to avoid them. He didn't want to get hit with that lightning again.

"You're dealing with stuff that's way over your head," the grey alien continued. "Just give us the device. It's all we want."

"Tell that to your guy!" Ben said, as SixSix continued to press relentlessly.

"SixSix! Back off! We just need the device," she said sternly.

He paid her no heed.

"I'm through playing games, Tetrax" he said, as he deftly landed a subtle stab to Ben's abdomen, causing the huge alien to lurch back, one arm clutching his gut. "You'd rather coddle this dirt-pig than finish your mission. Fine. Just don't get in my way while I do mine."

From the R.V., Max and Gwen watched, helplessly, as Ben continued to fight what looked like a losing battle. Max grimaced, looking around frantically at the displays on his dashboard. The bounty hunter's alien weaponry had did a number on the old rustbucket's machinery. All weapons were down, and the hull was in bad shape. Most of the auxiliary gadgets had been disabled to keep fuel running to the main engine. It was driving on fumes. At this rate, they would barely get to Rushmore, if nothing else happened to the R.V. before then.

"Kick his butt, Ben!" Gwen shouted, prompting Max to grab her instinctively, keeping her head down low. He didn't want them drawing any attention to themselves. Unlike Ben, they didn't have a suit of indestructible red alien. They were human. An old man and a little girl. They wouldn't stand a chance against these bounty hunters.

While he didn't shout, Max too rested his fate on Ben's shoulders.

Tetrax dashed in, trying to grab SixSix by the shoulder, but the taller, purple alien shoved her off with enough force to make her take a few steps back. She snarled, her one visible eye squinting, and, from the arm not holding the electrical blade, shot a length of coil around SixSix's ankles. There was a zipping sound as she pulled the chord taught, and it yanked the purple alien's legs together. He toppled like a tree.

"Enough!" Tetrax said, placing a heavy, grey-metal boot on his chest. She gave him a meaningful look, and even held the end of her blade pointed down at him, before turning to speak to the tetramand. "Just give us the wrist-com. Hand it over, and forget any of this ever happened. Finish your vacation, eat a snowcone, and do all those human things you love to do. It's that easy. Give us the device, and we leave."

Ben's gut sank.

In truth, he would have liked nothing more than to do exactly as she said. In that exact moment, after a harrowing night of freakish mutations and masked assailants, the superpower deal was suddenly not looking as good as it once had. He imagine how blissful it would be to just be free of this. To leave this strange, mind-bending ride in the summer. To let these aliens fly away with the only thing out-of-the-ordinary to ever happen to him, and to return to a simple life. A human life.

Unfortunately, he couldn't.

"It… It doesn't come off," he said.

There was a beat.

"What?" Tetrax said. SixSix lay eerily still on the ground.

Ben sighed.

"The watch. We tried everything. It… won't come off."

Tetrax's heart sank, this time. Suddenly, the situation had changed. Suddenly, she felt sick to her stomach.

Suddenly, SixSix sprang into action!

There was a snap-sizzle sound as the purple warrior finished slicing through the cable that had bound him, and rolled free of the heavy boot pressed on top of him. Rolling nimbly to his feet, he made a horrible, snarling, alien noise behind his mask. Then, he lunged for Tetrax, his wicked knife and energy blade working in deadly tandem. Tetrax dueled him for a moment, parrying his horribly fast attacks with blinding speed. Ben would have struggled to keep up with the battle of blades had he only two eyes.

It continued until, in a moment after SixSix had swung a particularly heavy sideswipe, Tetrax found her mark, delivering a swift slash to his shoulder and sending him spiraling away, sparks splashing off of the spot where she had struck him. He hung back for a moment, reaching down to check his vital organs. Noting that he was fine (she had grazed his armor) he was about to go back in for more, when a strange sound caught his attention. A low, droning noise.

The hourglass on Ben's right pectoral began to flash red.

"No! No, no, no!" He shouted, sounding surprisingly helpless and afraid for something his size.

Noting the sound, SixSix inferred correctly that it meant his transformations were on a time limit, and that he would soon return to human form. Acting on this, the bounty hunter side-stepped Tetrax, and went straight for Ben, slashing down with the wicked, metal blade. Ben threw up all four of his arms, just as there was a flash of green light.

Fshaa!

As Ben winced, he closed his eyes, waiting for the blade to run him through. Moments later, when no pain came, he winked one eye open. To his surprise, he saw that Tetrax had dashed forward and grabbed SixSix from behind in a headlock, and was dragging him back and away from the now helpless Ben. Glancing down at the low, red hourglass, the brown-haired boy's heart began to race with fear. He felt naked, in his frail, human form.

The battle between the two bounty hunters began to heat up, as, tearing himself free from Tetrax's grip, SixSix made another snarling noise. The two of them squared off.

"Traitorous, slimy, bleeding-heart, shardling!" SixSix spat.

"He's a kid!" Tetrax retorted. "He didn't ask for this!"

"Oh, and I imagine you feel some sort of sick kindred with the little monkey because you didn't ask to be made? Typical. You rogue gems are so emotional."

The purple alien tapped a button on his wrist, and the energy that was being fed to his lightning blade changed from a neon blue to a crackling yellow, and Tetrax's visible eye widened. She recognized that sort of weapon. The fact that SixSix had one sickened her… And also pissed her off. Noting her mixed emotions, the satoraggian let out a low, tinny chuckle.

"Don't look so upset," he said. "I've actually been looking forward to this."

That set Tetrax over the edge, and the grey-skinned alien came charging forward with a cry of anger and anguish, swinging her energy blade at him. HIs taunt had worked, throwing her a bit off of her edge as she swung with rage, and he nearly landed a blow on her. The edge of the yellow blade narrowly missed her abdomen, and for a moment, Tetrax thought it was over. Then, there was a roaring noise as she activated her jetpack, pushing back and delivering an upwards kick to SixSix's jaw as she did so. This gave her some space to maneuver, as he regained his balance.

Growling, SixSix began to assess the situation. He looked from Tetrax, who stood stoic and fierce, to Ben, who, apparently, was frozen with fear, as he had not yet run for the safety of the armored vehicle. The choice became easy. He knew that if he went for the human, Tetrax would try to protect him. That, most likely, would put her at a disadvantage, as she tried to defend herself and the boy.

Grinning beneath the mask, SixSix once again began to snake towards Ben. The boy's eyes widened at his approach, and Tetrax, grimacing, rocketed after him. She wasn't fast enough. The purple alien pounced, with preternatural speed, on top of his prey, bringing the weak, pre-pubescent boy to the ground. Looming over Ben, SixSix held him down with one hand, and produced his second knife with the other.

Then, there was a horrible, slick, sliding noise, as the bottom half of the alien's mask opened up. There, to Ben's utter, was a gaping maw of awful teeth, arranged in a round formation, like the sucker of an octopus. From somewhere inside of the terrible mouth was a long, fleshy appendage, and it came out to wipe the edges of the teeth. An awful, oozing saliva began to drip, hot, on Ben's chest. He screamed, at the top of his lungs, struggling to no avail to free himself. SixSix reared back, overtaken now with his hunger, and prepared to lunge down with his fangs and-!

Sheer! Sheeeeer!

The purple alien froze, suddenly, gross, grunting noises coming from its mouth. Ben noticed two smoking laser wounds in the center of its chest plate. Scrambling back frantically, the boy got out from underneath the alien, and stood, wiping the goo off of his shirt. He grimaced as it stuck to his palm. Then, with a thump, the bounty hunter slumped to the ground, dead.

Tension hung in the air. The night was suddenly eerie and quiet, save for the running engine of the R.V., and Ben's heavy breathing. He looked down at the mangled corpse of the bounty hunter, and then over to Tetrax. She stood, pistol in hand, still aimed at the spot where she had taken the shot. Her visible eye was full of sadness. With a sigh, she holstered the weapon, and locked eyes with Ben. He waited fearfully for her to say something. To seize him, and take him away to some awful, secret, alien spaceship.

Instead, she sighed, and took off her helmet. Her face, it turned out, was vaguely humanoid, and pretty, in a rugged way. She bore a large, black gemstone, embedded in her forehead, and had ash-grey skin. Ben ogled her for a moment, and then quickly clamped his mouth shut. She tucked her helmet under her arm and looked at the boy, shaking her head as if she couldn't believe what she was doing.

"What's your name?" She said.

Ben blinked.

"Oh- Uh, B-Ben," he said, once he realized she was actually asking him.

"Well, Ben, my name is Tetrax Shard," the gem said. She sighed again, looking up at the stars, which were clear and visible here. A rare sight. "This is going to sound weird coming from me, right now, but I once fought in a war to keep the life on this planet from being wiped out."

"You… you did?"

Tetrax kind of laughed, her eyes still on the night sky.

"Yeah," she said. "I know. Doesn't make sense, right? What am I doing here, now?"

There was silence again. Ben didn't know what to say. What do you say, to an alien bounty hunter from outer space that, like, 2 minutes ago, was trying to kidnap you? Eventually, Tetrax looked down, and brought her gaze level with Ben.

"Watch your back, Ben," she said, donning her helmet once more. "Stay vigilant. You've got a target on your back, and the moment you let up…"

She activated her jet-pack, and flew a few meters into the air, before turning to look down at him.

"Someone like me won't always be around," she said.

With that, she began to soar into the night sky. Moments later, she was joined by a second flying light as Kraab, apparently recovered, met up with her. Ben stood there, watching them go, mouth agape, until they had vanished completely into the night sky. He was only snapped out of it by the sound of Max's voice.

"Ben!"

The old man came over, grabbing the boy by the shoulders, and checked him for injuries. Then, he was pulled into another tight, bear hug. Once released, Ben was surprised to find another pair of smaller arms flinging themselves around him. However, he returned the hug with Gwen; only briefly, and then they separated awkwardly and without eye contact. There were no words, the three of them just sat there. Glad to be in each other's company. Glad that it was over.

Then, a howl lit up the badlands.

Glancing around, the trio began to see glowing red eyes everywhere. They popped up in every shadow, crevice, and cranny that dotted the area. There was the sound of scrabbling stone, snarling, snuffling, and general movement, as the eyes began to grow closer, and closer. As they grew closer to the headlights of the R.V., one of them became visible.

It was a horrible, dog-like creature, with leathery skin, long ears, and a ridge of black spines running down its back. Max's eyes widened.

"Chupacabra…" Gwen whispered.

Wisely, Max quickly ushered the kids into the R.V., and began to drive away quickly, tires squealing. Luckily for them, the monsters didn't seem interested in them. As they drove away, Gwen stuck her head out the window, eyes glued to the things she had deemed chupacabra. They were quickly growing smaller, but as Gwen watched, they moved in, and began to hungrily devour what was left of the dead alien.