Original Post Date: 5/6/2021
Naruto: Alien Force
Prologue: Knocked Off Course
The Milky Way Galaxy. With a radius of almost 53,000 light years, this galaxy contains over several billion planets. And on a fair number of those planets the miracle known as life has taken root. Over a million different forms of life, to be a bit more precise. Some slimy, some freaky, some fast, some strong, but all of them precious. So precious, in fact, that many have taken steps to preserve said life.
One such individual, is Azmuth, of the race of Galvin. A genius intellect even to that of his fellow Galvin, who are considered the most intelligent race in the Milky Way Galaxy. His attempts at finding a way to preserve life led to the creation of the most powerful piece of technology to ever exist, the Omnitrix.
A curious little device, the Omnitrix has the appearance of a wristwatch. However, its small size masks an enormous power; the ability for the wearer to physically transform their bodies into that of any member of any alien race whose DNA has been stored inside it. Such great power would, most certainly, be sought out by many a warlord or tyrant. Fortunately, it is not currently in the possession of such malevolent individuals. No, instead it in the possession of an individual whose kindness and compassion will alter the fate of not just two worlds, but indeed the fate of the entire galaxy. A fifteen-year-old human, by the name of Ben Tennyson.
It is here where the story begins, as Benjamin Kirby Tennyson is currently piloting a medium sized space craft out of the home solar system of the planet Lewoda.
"So yeah, all things considered, I think the negotiations went pretty well." Ben said, sitting upright in the pilot seat. He was an average looking fifteen-year-old. Five-foot-eight, short brown hair, bright green eyes. He wore his usual attire, a simple pair of blue jeans with black and white running shoes, a black t-shirt under his lime green jacket with a white '10' stitched onto the left side over his heart.
"Well, that's good to know." Came a voice from one of the consoles in front of Ben.
"I was worried that the Pantophage leader would be holding a grudge after you withheld their peace offering… and shattered his teeth." This was the voice of Ben's first cousin, Gwen Tennyson. The two were discussing Ben's current mission of overseeing the finalization of a peace treaty between Lewoda and the planet Pantophage. The initial mission, which had happened a week ago, was to bring a newborn member of the Lewodan royal family to Pantophage as a sort of offering. However, when it turned out that the newborn was going to be eaten by the Pantophage leader Jarett, Ben… had some objections.
"Well… I wouldn't say he's not." Ben clarified. "I did catch him glaring at me once or twice. Although all I had to do reach for the Omnitrix and suddenly he would find the ceiling fixtures very interesting." Ben heard Gwen sigh on the other end of the com.
"As long as you didn't start another war, I guess that will do." Gwen said. Ben shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He still had a lot of regrets about accidentally causing the entire inhabitance of Zabin Prime to declare war on him.
"And as long as you bring back that ship in one piece, Tennyson." Another voice came in over the comms. This was Ben's former nemesis and current friend, Kevin Levin.
"Relax Kev, I promise you'll get it back without a scratch. Uh… new scratches anyway." Ben reassured. The ship Ben was piloting was a Takion 930. A passenger ship that, while looking very run down, Kevin had assured both Ben and Gwen that was a very powerful and reliable transport. A fact that was proven when Kevin once used it to escape the gravity pull of a black hole. The ship was given to them by the Lewodan diplomat at the start of the mission. Kevin had managed to talk the diplomat into letting him keep the ship. And the diplomats fear of Ben for being angry at the deception of the true nature of their peace offering helped a little as well.
"Remind me again why I didn't just go with him." Kevin demanded.
"Because I need to practice my flying skills and Gwen wanted her beach day." Ben answered.
"I mean besides that." Kevin said.
"Stop worrying, alright? You'll get your ship back in one piece, I promise." Ben reassured.
"The last time you said that to me, my car was so wrecked it had to be fixed using time travel." Kevin said.
"And I'm a much better driver now." Said Ben.
"Give it a break Kevin." Gwen chimed in.
"I just don't get why he didn't take Ship." Kevin argued.
"Julie's away on holiday, and she took Ship with her." Gwen answered.
"Alright look," Ben interrupted. "I'll see you guys in a few hours." Ben reached to hang up the comms before Kevin could say anything else.
*BOOM*
The entire ship rattled as it felt as though something had collided with the hull. The shake was so intense it almost caused Ben to tumble out of the pilot seat. A series of flashing light lit up from the control console as a warning siren started to blare.
"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Ben heard Kevin's voice from other end of the line. Ben reflexively pulled in the controls, and immediately felt the ship was less responsive than it had been just a moment ago.
"I think something just slammed into me." Ben said pulling the ship into a hard right turn.
"I knew it! I knew something was going to go wrong!" Kevin exclaimed. Ben rolled his eyes. He then saw several laser shots fly past the ship.
"Ben, do you know what hit you!?" Gwen asked.
"I think someone is shooting at me." Ben answered. A second later, a smaller ship overtook and shot past his own. "Yeah, definitely getting shot at." Ben homed in on the attacking ship. It was a small dark purple fighter with a rounded triangular design, with cylindrical fins pointed backward off the rear corners.
"Any idea who it is!?" Gwen asked. Just then, the hailing monitor hanging over the pilot seat flickered to life. Displayed on it was an individual clad in violet and black armor that covered its entire body. On its shoulders and forearms were large, padded cells and its face was concealed by a purple mask with four sensor light vaguely resembling eyes and a mouth on the front.
"I got a pretty good idea." Ben answered. The figure on the monitor then began speaking if it could be called that. The sounds that came from it were an incomprehensible series of growls and gurgles. All the while it was making wild motions with its hands.
"Sevenseven, right? Haven't seen you since Swampfire made you turn and run while you were trying to usurp the Incursean throne." Ben said. Another series of growls came from Sevenseven.
"You might have to try to spell this out because I have no idea what you're saying." Ben remarked. Another loud growl came from Sevenseven, along with him shaking his fist at the camera.
"Let me guess, you're hear about the peace treaty too?" Ben asked. Sevenseven nodded in response.
"And I'm guessing you were paid to be here?" Ben asked. "From someone who doesn't want this to go through. Or someone who is still angry he lost his peace offering?" Another nod.
"And what exactly did he pay you to do?" Sevenseven pointed at Ben through the screen and then slowly dragged his thumb across his neck.
"I figured." Ben sighed, as he opened the engines of his ship and began some evasive maneuvers. Sevenseven's ship began following Ben's while opening fire.
"You catch all that Gwen!?" Ben shouted into the comms.
"I did, I'm trying to get in contact with any Plumbers in the sector. Do what you can to buy yourself some time." Gwen answered. There was another hard shake as Ben's ship was hit again.
"Easier said than done. Are there any weapons on this thing?!" Ben asked, trying his best to maneuver into Sevenseven's blind spot.
"No, there isn't. It's only built for transport." Kevin responded.
"Seriously?! I would have thought for sure that you of all people would install some weapons." Ben said.
"I'm still waiting for them to come in!" Kevin shouted.
"Ben, see if you can…" With another rattle of the ship the comms suddenly went out.
"Great, anything else want to go wrong?" Ben asked sarcastically. Another rattle, a new warning light started blinking. It was the fuel gauge, that last shot had damaged Ben's fuel tanks leaving them punctured and leaking.
"I had to ask." Ben grumbled. He had to do something fast, Sevenseven's ship was tearing through his own and he had no way of fighting back. Nothing he had in the Omnitrix could really help him in a dog fight, and even if he did, he would be in big trouble if he suffered a premature time out. The only option he had was to run.
In a despite move he began to charge up his warp drive. Ben knew making a warp jump while his ship was coming apart was a very dangerous move, but considering all the alternatives, this was his best bet. He did not need to make it all the way back to earth or any other planet or station, really. He just needed to put a jump between him and Sevenseven. And hope that Gwen could find him later.
Ben evened out his flight path to let his nav computer work on the trajectory. Taking advantage of this, Sevenseven's ship began really hammering Ben's. Ben pushed the throttle all the way up, maximum pre-FTL speed, to try to get those extra few inches ahead of Sevenseven. His eyes fixed themselves on the nav computer.
38% calculated. Another volley of laser bolts flew past the ship.
74% calculated. Another rumble, the exterior door to the cargo bay was ripped open.
95% calculated. Ben held his finger over the warp jump button. For a brief second, the oncoming shots seemed to stop.
100% calculated, warp jump ready.
*click*
*Boom*
At the exact second Ben's ship rocketed into a jump; its engines were struck by rockets. Ben was flung out of his chair, as the entire ship shook in a way anyone could tell it was not supposed to. The speed the ship was going forced Ben to the back of the pilot's cabin where he slammed into the wall. He let out a pained groan as the sheer G force he was experiencing kept him pinned. He took a second to collect himself, counting his lucky stars he had not been knocked unconscious. He then felt as the G force he was experiencing suddenly stop and then start agin. Ben looked up and saw the reason why.
The 'good' news was ship had exited out of the jump by itself, though by the damage caused or because it reached its destination, he didn't know. The bad news was the ship was now over a planet. Or to put it more accurately, flying directly into a planet at top gear. While still in the planets' upper atmosphere, Ben could tell if he didn't get back to the controls quickly the only thing left of him would be a smoking pile of ash at the bottom of a very big crater.
Ben attempted to pull himself back to the controls, but he could barely extend his arm outward. The ship rattled as it broke through the outer atmosphere, the entry fire began to form, obscuring the main window.
Ben, having had enough of being thrown around, quickly rolled up his left jacket sleeve. On his left wrist was a small device that resembled a watch. The device had a green strap with a thin black line going down the middle. The main part of the device was a flat, cylindrical body with two tiny silver tubes stick out of each side, with a black and green hourglass faceplate.
Ben pressed the silver tubes, causing the faceplate of the device to pop-up. From there it began projecting a small green hologram, displaying an image of a tall humanoid with flower petals for hair. Ben quickly began rotating the out ring of the faceplate, with each click causing a new image to display itself. When he found the image he was looking for, Ben immediately slammed the faceplate back down.
A bright flash of green light flooded the cabin of the ship. When it receded, where Ben had been, something else had replaced him. This 'something else', was a blue furred, six limbed, four eyed monkey. On the center of his chest was the same black and green hourglass that was on Ben's watch.
"Spidermonkey!" the ape exclaimed. Then, gripping the floor with all six of his limbs, he began crawling toward the pilot seat. While the intense force and rattling of the ship provided him with some trouble, he did manage to pull himself into the chair and grab a hold of the controls.
He looked out the front window, the surface of the planet was getting closer by the second. Ben pulled up on the control wheel hard but was only met with another big rattle, as the engines sputtered in response. Keeping the upper two of his hands where they were, the lower two began reaching across the entire control console, flicking every switch and pressing every button he could find.
The surface was getting even closer now. Ben could see that he was headed for a large countryside that was composed of almost entirely of forest. So, at the very least he could take solace in the fact that he wouldn't be taking anyone else with him. He yanked on the control wheel again, another sputter from the engines. Ben looked for any exterior flaps he could open to increase drag as much as possible.
Ben could now make out individual trees on the ground below. In one last bit of desperation, Ben slammed the control wheel with all his fists and pulled hard one last time. In what could only be described as a miracle, the engines roared and with a sudden jerk the front of the ship rose to meet the horizon. The ship shot forward, only barely avoiding crashing headlong into the ground. But the moment was short lived as there was a loud bang and after that the engines died completely.
Ben gripped his seat and closed his eyes as gravity slowly began taking the ship down. He was almost launched out of it again when the bottom of the ship collided with the top of the tree line. The sound of metal scraping and wood snapping was practically deafening. Entire pieces of the ship became dislodged as it ripped a path through the forest. After a long minute, it finally came to a stop.
Ben shakily opened his two right eyes. Then the other two. He brought all four of his hands up to examine them. He then did a quick check of the rest of his body. Everything was still there. He let out a small laugh. He couldn't believe he was still alive. He then heard a fizzling sound coming from the control panel. He looked around at the absolutely destroyed cabin. He thought about what the rest of the ship would have looked like. He let out a groan.
"Kevin's gonna kill me."
…
I… need to stop making promises I can't keep. So, I'm sure some of you are surprised to see this pop up in your feed. And I imagine that's not the only feeling you are all having. After my last post (which was almost 3 years ago) on my first story, I specifically stated that I was going to try to get more chapters done in a timelier fashion. Now I will say that I do have an explanation as to why I haven't done anything for a while.
Shortly after my last post, I was met with a very persistent health problem that, only now, I have been getting any relief. This problem wasn't anything too serious, but the results of it were minor, yet constant, pain. Which made the prospect of sitting down to write anything mentally, spiritually, and emotionally taxing. Now again, this problem was not anything life threating, but I needed time to maintain my physical and mental health. And as I said, I'm doing much better now.
However, that leads into another problem that has been plaguing me. And that is a growing disinterest in the source material I have been writing about. And its not Ben 10. So as many of you are aware, RWBY has… not been doing very well. And while I am not overly picky about the media I consume; this is a very special case. Normally I could just live with the writing problems, but this goes beyond the writing. To the people who are making the product. And the disrespect they have shown to both their own cast and crew, and to the fans. It has gotten to the point that I'm not sure I can even bring myself to even watch the show anymore. Which breaks my heart because I thought it was so stylish and cool when it first debuted.
So, it is with a heavy heart that I have to announce that any prospect of me continuing RWBY and Emerald in the future is practically non-existent. I am very sorry to all the people who were waiting for the next chapter, but I can't continue working on a product I have no passion for.
However, THIS particular story is one I have been thinking up in the meantime. And I promise you my passion for these two properties is rooted deep in my development. Ben 10 is my favorite cartoon of all time, and while One Piece technically has the top anime spot, Naruto is the most influential. And my most nostalgic. Additionally, both of these series have wrapped up, so I won't have to worry about a cannon story beat clashing with a one I create retroactively.
So, this chapter is short and a bit rushed as I wanted to let you all know that I am, in fact, still alive. I've got some ideas that I hope you will all enjoy. And I hope that I can actually be better for all of you this time.
And P.S., no. I'm NOT shipping Ben and Tenten, because I'm not a hack.