What's up everyone! If you're reading this, I hope all is well! This is a Ben 10/Dead Rising crossover that I'm doing in tandem with the Owl House/Danny Phantom crossover that I'm doing. I'll still be posting updates to the F-Zero/Acceleracers crossover, but those will take longer since I'm doing 3 big chapters for each league with each race, maybe more afterwards. Right now, I'm at the third race out of the five in the first league just so you can have an idea as to where I am if you're interested in reading that.

More details as to why I'm doing this in tandem with the Owl House/Danny Phantom crossover will be revealed as I go through writing each story.

After finishing the first Dead Rising game, reading the comics and playing Marvel VS Capcom 3 and Infinite with Frank West I've had a lot of fun, and quite frankly(no pun intended) the first game single-handedly got me hooked into the zombie genre of gaming now. I also watched a few cutscenes in Dead Rising 2 off the record to see the difference between that and the canon main game, and I noticed in the Dead Rising wiki that Rebecca is actually two years older in two compared to her first appearance in the comics.

From the few cutscenes I watched as I didn't want to spoil myself with the entire game as I haven't played it yet, I loved the chemistry between Frank and Rebecca as they worked together. As such I'm including her here. Think of this story as taking place in between the Road to Fortune comics where Frank and Rebecca first met and Dead Rising 2. Without further ado I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or Dead Rising! The series, game and characters all belong to Man of Action, Cartoon Network and Capcom respectively.

Ben, Gwen, and Max were travelling out of Bellwood for a road trip over the weekend. Before they left, Max promised that Ben and Gwen would be back home for school on Monday. If not, Max would figure something out.

Ben and Gwen were excited. Even if it was just for the weekend, they could go on a road trip with their Grandpa again, just like during Summertime. With Vilgax gone, and every other supervillain either taking the day off, or in hiding, Ben didn't need to go hero anytime soon. He could just kick back and relax.

Gwen was reading a novel called The Good Witch of Azura.

Ben was playing the limited edition version of Sumo Slammers: Super Hero Smackdown. This version included famed Japanese sumo wrestler E. Honda unlocked at the start along with Ben's alien heroes Cannonbolt and Four Arms as exclusive characters as a thank you to all of the alien heroes that saved the city and the Sumo Slammers card factory. While they couldn't give it to them directly, Ben, "knowing these heroes" said that he and the heroes wanted nothing in return as they were doing a good deed…. Except a free copy of the latest installment of the Sumo Slammers video game series… and a gold card of Ishiyama. Ben said that they were huge fans of the Sumo Slammers franchise.

Japan however would actually give him more than what Ben asked for by giving him a limited edition copy and putting his aliens in the game with awesome abilities as a thank you for all that he's done. And as the icing on an already great-tasting cake, a gold card of Ishiyama. Signed by Ishiyama himself! Currently the card is in a place where it'll never get dirty or destroyed. Unfortunately, Ben refuses to tell anyone where it is in fear that I'll get destroyed by a bad guy like Kevin as payback.

"You're playing that dumb game again? Don't you get tired of wasting your brain cells on that?" Gwen asked.

"Don't you get tired of being distracting?" Ben asked.

"Maybe, if you would put that time and effort into science and math as you do video games, you wouldn't be barely passing with Cs." Gwen said.

"Hey, at least its passing. Its better than sitting inside all day stinking up a room reading books nonstop at least. Just to get a letter grade that absolutely means nothing in college or in life later on!" Ben said.

"For your information, doofus they actually do mean something. Higher grades now mean lower tuition costs in college. Ya know, because of two things called scholarships and college credit? Something you would actually know about had you actually have read and researched instead of using Grey Matter to do all of your research papers and homework for you." Gwen said.

"Totally not true! I do read… stuff!" Ben said.

"Oh really? Name a book you've read. If you can name one book you've read and give me a summary on it, I'll…." Gwen said before trailing off before thinking.

"Hmm…" Gwen said still thinking.

"I got some ideas for you!" Ben said, with an evil smile on his face. He whispered them into Gwen's ear. They were Gwen eating Ben's share of Max's cooking for the road trap, and kissing Kevin.

"Eww! No way!" Gwen said.

"Eww to the first or second?" Ben asked, trying to bait her.

"Both, but especially not the second!" Gwen said.

"Aa-ha! You DO have a crush on Kevin!" Ben said, pointing at her.

"No I don't! You're on! If I win, you have to go wherever I want to go next summer! No exceptions and no going hero to get out of it! And you have to read books or do math problems the entire time we're traveling on the road trip. No aliens." Gwen declared.

"Deal. But let's sweeten up the pot a bit. If I win, you have to clean all of my dirty clothes." Ben started.

"Really Ben? I can just use the washer machine for that." Gwen said.

"No you don't. You have to do it by hand. And the clothes haven't been washed in over a month." Ben finished.

Gwen shivered at that though. "Sometimes I wonder if you're not an alien yourself." She said.

"I know you are but what am I?" Ben said.

"Come on, you two at least try to get along and not cause trouble for the rest of the United States while we're out." Max said. He had been listening to the two bicker for a while. Although he said nothing because they were willing to handle it in a civil manner, he knew it was starting to elevate. He wanted to stop it before it got out of hand.

"Okay Grandpa." The two said simultaneously.

"The only reason I won't clobber you right now is because of Grandpa." Ben said.

"And the only reason I won't leave you with a wedgie is because of Grandpa. Doofus." Gwen said. That last insult started a war of insults.

"Dork!" Ben said.

"Dweeb!"

"Nerd!"

"Pigpen!"

"Loser!"

"Romeo!"

"Juliet!"

Max was looking in the rearview mirror at the two. He thought he would have to intervene again. The two suddenly stopped at these last two insults.

"What's that supposed to mean?" They said at the same time.

"At least I don't like some bad boy that only cares about himself!" Ben said.

"Well t least I didn't like some girl that only saw you as an animal!" Gwen said.

They were silent after that for a whole minute. They realized that they crossed the line.

"I'm sorry. I don't like the guy because I only want to protect you. You're my cousin and…. I don't think summer trips would be fun anymore if I didn't have someone to prank." Ben said.

"I'm sorry too. I'm the only one that can call you an alien, Wildmutt. If you weren't happy, I wouldn't be able to embarrass you in our bet!" Gwen said.

They end it by hugging it out for a few seconds.

Max just smiles as he sees the whole thing.

"So about that bet…" Ben said.

"Don't worry, it's okay if you want to back out. Spare us the embarrassment." Gwen said, smiling.

"No way! I've got this bet in the bag! Get ready to scrub those clothes dork!" Ben said.

"Really? Okay, name the book. It can't be a comic book either. I'll look it up to see if it's legit and if it is, you win." Gwen says as she pulls out her laptop.

"Alright. The Willamette Incident by Frank West. It's about a photographer guy that survived a mall full of zombies." Ben said.

"Wait, you actually read that book? No way." Gwen said, shocked.

"So that means I win! Awesome!" Ben said.

"That book is a New York Times Bestseller, I can't believe you of all people read it. It wasn't assigned for reading, why'd you read it?" Gwen asked.

"Well, the guy was a hero and it seemed like something to cool to read. I decided to buy it during one of road trips back in Colorado. He took out hordes of zombies, saved people and fought an army sergeant on a tank. If that's not cool then I don't know what is!" Ben said.

Gwen sighs and rolls her eyes. "Of course you'd only like it because of the action. He's covered wars too, you know." Gwen said.

"Yeah, and? Kind of a weird statement to bring up." Ben said.

"It means he's played an important role throughout history pea brain. And by covering a zombie outbreak in his book he was able to expose the inhumane experiments conducted by the US government in an attempt to find cheaper alternatives for meat production." Gwen said.

Gwen began typing on a computer, searching the term Santa Cabeza and then adding the word 'incident' and then turning the computer around to show Ben. She continued to explain, using pictures as a supplement.

"Had it not been for Frank West, the Willamette Incident in Colorado and the Santa Cabeza incident in Central America would have successfully been swept under the rug by the government. Frank West is probably the embodiment of true journalism in the world." Gwen said.

Ben was interested at first, but as she went on and on, he mind started to drift elsewhere. Gwen noticed this.

"Earth to airhead are you there?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah yeah, I know. The guy's a hero. I literally just explained that's why I like the book. Tell me something I don't know." Ben said.

"In other words, you would have probably been eating zombies as a burger had he not exposed these experiments." Gwen said. She added just to tease him: "Who knows, maybe they're secretly condutcing these experiments still. Maybe you ate a zombie recently."

"Seriously!?" Ben said. He got an empty bucket from the kitchen and vomited in it.

"I was joking you idiot! Those experiments have stopped being conducted since the exposure of those outbreaks." Gwen said, laughing.

They decided to take a pit stop in Pennsylvania and go to a few stores, allowing Ben and Gwen to get whatever they wanted. Gwen decided to get more books while Ben got comic books.

After arriving in Ohio at about 11:00 PM, 7 hours on the road they found a place to eat, stop and sleep for the night.

"No. My Sumo Slammer card. Don't go….." Ben said in his sleep.

Saturday Morning 7:00 A.M.

"Alright kids, are you ready for breakfast?" Max said.

"Morning Grandpa, sure." Ben said, still sleepy.

"Morning Grandpa. Breakfast smells good." Gwen said.

"It does, doesn't it? Pancakes, sausage and eggs. Doesn't that sound good? Can't go wrong with the classics." Max said.

"Aw man, Grandpa-" Ben started but realized what Max had said.

"Did you just say pancakes, eggs and sausages?" Ben asked.

"Yep." Max said, cleaning up. He was up 30 minutes before preparing breakfast. Seeing the two make up on their own made him proud yesterday, so he thought about cooking them a nice breakfast. It was nothing too big, but it would be keep them full for the road trip.

"No bugs, or aliens?" Gwen asked.

"Nope." Max said.

"Who are you and what have you done with the real grandpa?" Gwen asked.

"Uh, you're not one of those alien things are you?" Ben asked, suspicious.

"No Ben. I promise!" Max said.

Both of them devour the breakfast. Gwen goes to brush her teeth, but Ben still tries to sneak up on him and attack.

"Ben, I don't think you'll want to do that if you want to see another Sumo Slammer Card in Indiana." Max said.

"Yep, that's Grandpa." Ben said to Gwen.

Ben goes to brush his teeth.

Max was listening to Home on the Range by Roy Rodgers at a low volume. Eventually, the song ends and the radio is silent for a second until a voice is heard.

We'll be right back after a word from the news and our sponsors.

"This is KDED news. I'm Rebecca Chang bringing you the latest news on the outbreaks around the United States. Several cases have been reported in a small town in Gary, Indiana, per several police reports. Although the exact number are unknown, expect the cases to rise. It is only reasonable to think the military will be ordered to step in and clean up the outbreak to prevent the infection from spreading, even if at the cost of several survivors. Additional information will be available soon.

This is KDED news, Rebecca Chang out."

"Definitely not trying to be zombie chow." Ben said.

"We should be coming up close to Gary. If the military hasn't set up blockades, we should be able to get in and help any survivors." Max said.

"It's hero time!" Ben said.

Earlier

Amity Park, Minnesota, WI

5:00 AM(7 Hours before next Zombrex dose is needed)

Frank West. Photojournalist, survivor of the Willamette Incident in Colorado, hero of the earth against Galactus, and of course, he's covered wars. And now chaser of ghost stories it seems.

Frank was on a computer as he was drinking coffee in a hotel. He arrived in Amity Park on Friday morning by plane to investigate the rumors of a town cursed with ghosts being there.

The fight against Galactus, where he teamed up with heroes from the past, present and future, he didn't think much of it at first. That was because he didn't think it was real at all. Yeah he's covered wars, survived an outbreak, killed a Vietnam war veteran, killed an insane clown with a chainsaw and fought a sergeant who has had military combat experience on top of a tank surrounded by zombies. But fighting a guy that eats planets? With guys that could fly, have robots that oddly look like the antiques from the Willamette Mall, a lawyer, a flaming guy that can punish your very soul for your sins, an interpol agent, a special forces agent whose organization (S.T.A.R.S. was it?) combats weaponized bio-organic zombies and the current Street Fighter champion of the world? That's a scenario so crazy that it would only happen in a dream.

If you weren't Frank West, that is. The realization that it wasn't all a dream came months ago. It was a few days after the whole Galactus incident happened in the first place. A photographer of the Daily Bugle named Peter Parker turned in photos of Spider-Man fighting with the Avengers and others against Galactus and their triumph. He remembered he had a rivalry with him, claiming that he was a better photographer than Parker as he has been on the front lines more than him. He also was relieved that he didn't turn into a psychopath like the other young photographer did back in the Willamette Mall and tried to kill him for ruining a photo. Even though he had it coming to him, to be fair for trying to turn an innocent survivor into a zombie. For Frank, as much as he cared about getting a scoop and fame, he knew that there were limits and he still had a strong sense of justice and when to do the right thing. Oddly enough, he barely even talked to the Parker kid to get to know him and he felt that he had that same sense of justice in him too. Same with Spider-Man. He knew that the guy was good. But the Daily Bugle didn't seem to think so. Particularly J. Jonah Jameson, who declared that Galactus colluded with Spider-Man as a PR stunt.

It sounded crazy, but this was thing that made him come to the realization that all of that happened. Frank West, a photojournalist really took part in saving the entire Earth.

Now he's chasing ghosts. A week ago, he met with Rebecca Chang, reporter at KDED news, who covered the outbreak. Wanting to get back in the game and expose the US Government for their part in the zombie outbreak, he and Rebecca agreed to work together for the foreseeable future on cases. Unfortunately, since that meeting, nothing has happened. And he was about to be down on his luck again. He still had money he saved from his now cancelled talk show, the sales from his Willamette Incident book, the money from his fame after the Willamette Incident and covering it, and the some of the small amount of money that he got from the small headlines from the battle with Galactus. But that money wasn't infinite. He was using up a good bit of his money just traveling across the US, for Zombrex, bills, and everything else. He needed a scoop that would get him more money before he ran out. And what better place to do it than Amity Park, the city filled with ghosts?

He's found some interesting things and took pictures, but he knew that they weren't enough to hold him over, much less get the story recognized and something someone would read. He needed more. And at 5:00 AM he would seemingly get that. On a computer at a hotel, he decided to check on the news regarding any outbreaks. He scrolled, but there was nothing. Until he saw one article, that was a few minutes ago, regarding a police report in a small town in Gary, Indiana of zombies being sighted. He clicked and read it to make sure it was legit. Then he dialed Rebecca Chang's number.

It ringed a few times. "Hello, Rebecca Chang from KDED." Rebecca said from the other end of the phone, a little tired as she was woken up from her sleep.

"Hello, Rebecca?" Frank said.

"Frank? What is it?" Rebecca said.

"I've got some more news regarding the outbreak. There's been zombies spotted in Indiana." Frank said.

"Indiana? Looks like I'm gonna have to take a plane." Rebecca said.

"Yeah. I'm in Minnesota already, so It shouldn't take me long to get there." Frank said.

"Minnesota? What's there? Was there a zombie outbreak?" Rebecca asked.

"No. Let's just say I was chasing some ghosts." Frank West said.

"The great Frank West. Down to chasing ghosts. Next you're gonna tell me you're chasing bigfoot. Sure you don't need me to get a wheelchair for you?" Rebecca said, playfully.

"Very funny. Come down here and I'll show you if I'm old or not. Let me know when you're almost in Indiana. I'll tell you where we should meet for our next move." Frank said.

"Well, it looks my partner is on a vacation right now, so he won't be coming with us. You'll be the one in charge of the camerawork it seems." Rebecca.

"Fantastic. Let a real pro show you how it's done. I've covered wars you know." Frank said.

"Actions speak louder than words Frank. Its a date. See you there." Rebecca said.

Both hung up.

Frank grinned a little. This would be his chance to really get back in the game now. This time it's someone with a camera that won't try to kill him.

Frank decides to just take a plane to get there in a few hours. He takes his bags and before he leaves the room to check out, he takes the Zombrex dose, injecting it into his neck. Not something he enjoyed doing every day, but it was better than enjoying the flesh of others.

And there's the first chapter! Hope you enjoyed it!

Regarding the Zombrex time: When Frank's helicopter crashed in the true ending of Dead Rising 1, it was around twelve PM since that's when Ed(the helicopter pilot) was supposed to arrive. Because in Overtime mode, you had 24 hours until Frank became zombie to find a cure, I used 12:00 PM every day for the time he needs to take his dose of Zombrex, or before that time to prevent him from turning since I thought it was around that time he became became infected. Lots of references here too. Can you find them all? Next chapter will be coming soon!

Regarding Amity Park's location: David Kaufman(Danny Phantom's VA) himself said Amity Park was in Minnesota, but Butch never confirmed this. A lot of Danny Phantom discussion forums I went to about this said Illinois, or at the very least somewhere in the Mid-East United States. It may change, but considering that Vlad himself was a Green Bay Packers fan, Minnesota seems like the best option.