Quick note for fans of all my works: Updates for I'm Not All for One, Stockholm Syndrome, and Call me Dr. Octopus should be released by the end of February, or within the first week of March. I decided I needed to give y'all a big update to make up for my absence, so all three stories are getting updated with three chapters each, meaning about 30k words per story. In total, that's 90k words. Possibly 100k. Hopefully y'all will enjoy it!

And now, an important announcement before we delve into this story.

If you're like me, you put off watching Ben 10 Omniverse cause the art style, compared to Ultimate Alien and Alien force, put you off. I decided to buckle down and actually watched the damn thing and found to my surprise it was highly enjoyable (Even though they made Ben take like twenty levels in dumbass. All that character development in Ultimate Alien? Out the window. Still, if you don't mind seeing Ben act like a dipshit occasionally, it's worth it). That new cartoony reboot is absolute trash though. The plotline of it isn't too bad sometimes, but by god that artstyle hurts me.

Anyways, this story contains a LOT of elements from Omniverse in it, and while I include the typical cookie-cutter throwaway lines in the story itself about what some of those elements are, I'll also include an in-depth, technical explanation about them at the end of the story for those who are still confused.

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters presented below, nor do I own the settings. All rights go to their respective owners. Please keep your lawyers away from me, I am deathly allergic to litigation.

God's Blessing on This Ultimatrix

Chapter 1

Upgrades and Downgrades.

"So… this is the place?"

"I believe so, Ben. Might I ask, are you feeling up to this? You have been… unusually quiet these past several hours. Not once have you even commented on my intentional sabotage of your frozen beverage flavor."

Ben Tennyson, wielder of the Omnitrix and savior of the universe several times over, shrugged.

"Eh, not like we have much of a choice. It's just… something's bugging me about all this, y'know?" the teen asked, turning to stare at his partner in stopping crime, Rook Blonko. The Revonnahgander's concerned expression on his roughly felinid face did little to ease Ben's concerns.

"By the way," Ben grinned, mirth filling his emerald eyes, "I knew you screwed up my smoothie order on purpose. Gwen told me you lost that bet with Kevin."

The Revonnahgander frowned and glanced away, unbuckling himself from the vehicle and strapping the Proto-Tool to his chest holster with practiced ease.

"I did not know my intentions would be given away so easily." Rook frowned, hopping out of their recently repaired Proto-Truk. The multi-purpose vehicle had undergone a slight cosmetic redesign at Ben's request, painting the typical orange matte a vibrant, viridian green instead.

The teen hero followed the lead of his partner at a more lethargic pace, slinking out of his seat and exiting onto the sandy ground below.

"It's just… Albedo's been acting a hell of a lot more unhinged recently, right? That's not just my imagination?" Ben half-asked, half-pleaded, hoping for once in his life to be told he was wrong.

Unfortunately for him, Rook walked around their vehicle with that frown still plastered on his face, the alien's own particular brand of nervousness showing. "No Ben, your imagination has not been playing tricks on you. Your clone's actions have become noticeably erratic, especially considering the last heist he performed."

Instantly, Ben understood his partner's true meaning. Just a week prior, the rogue Galvan had broken into the Plumber's headquarters and stolen the Nemetrix from their vault.

While that might seem like typical supervillain behavior, the unusual action therein was the fact that Albedo personally pulled off the heist. While the former scientist certainly wasn't afraid of getting down and dirty when necessary, he had a tendency to hire minions to deal with fetch quests.

Besides that, the manner in which Albedo assaulted the plumber base was unusual, too. While Galvans were renowned for thinking through their problems, Albedo himself seemingly subscribed to the rule of 'might makes right', seeing as Humungosaur was typically his first, second, and third solution to any problem.

So, Albedo charging in at 300+ miles an hour in a Kineceleran form, transforming into an acidic Polymorph to melt the doors off the Nemetrix's vault door, and then reverting back to a Kineceleran so he could speed out just as quickly as he arrived was NOT his typical modus operandi.

Thankfully, the Nemetrix had been stolen from Plumber HQ in the past, and contingencies were made just in case such a scenario might repeat itself; the knockoff Omnitrix had been dismantled and outfitted with a tracker before being locked up in storage.

In yet more proof that Albedo wasn't exactly acting normal, that tracker was still active.

Tennyson could admit he wasn't the smartest guy around, especially compared to a Galvan, arguably the most intelligent race in the universe, but even he would've thought to check the Nemetrix for a tracer.

Currently, Ben and Rook were standing outside of an abandoned warehouse in what Kevin colloquially referred to as 'bum-fuck-middle-of-nowhere', Arizona.

The whole situation reeked of a trap… but Albedo didn't operate like this. He set traps, absolutely, but his traps were usually well-thought-out, devious and above all else, the exact opposite of obvious.

With a sigh of resignation, Ben pulled back the sleeve of his white and green striped hoodie, exposing the Omnitrix upon his left wrist. The sleek, black faceplate reminiscent of a digital watch slid back and exposed the hourglass-shaped core the second Ben tapped the device, readily projecting a green holographic wheel with the faces of his various alien transformations displayed upon it.

Ben cycled through the list for a moment, before deciding he couldn't take the uncertainty anymore and locked in a specific transformation. The core popped out of the watch's body and Ben slammed down upon it without hesitation, causing a blinding green flash to shine from his body.

When the light subsided, Ben Tennyson's 5'4" frame had been altered to an astonishing height… of five inches.

Five-fingered hands morphed into four-fingered ones, discarding the pinkie entirely. A black and green-sleeved bodysuit covered the miniature alien's green skin, leaving only his fingers, head, and the tips of his three-toed feet visible. The being's face was vaguely reptilian in nature, slightly triangular in shape, and had two big, green forward-facing eyes. On its back was a green and black symbol with the appearance of an hourglass, identical to the Omnitrix's core.

"Ben?" Rook curiously inquired, stooping down and offering a hand for the minuscule alien to hop onto, "Why have you transformed in Grey Matter? I fail to see how a Galvan will assist in whatever plan you have come up with."

Grey Matter, the name Ben had bequeathed unto this particular transformation, rubbed his tiny, yet comparatively large head with his hands as though nursing a headache.

"That's just it Rook," Ben climbed onto the proffered hand while sounding like a stereotypical, whiny nerd with how his voice's pitch had been altered, "I require the intellectual assistance of Grey Matter to develop a plan in the first place! Everything about this just seems so… so wrong!"

Even as Rook hoisted the small creature up to his shoulder and started walking towards the warehouse, he had to nod in agreement. "Even so Ben, we cannot ignore all the evidence that Albedo has taken up residence here."

Part of Ben was raring to point out that they had a single piece of evidence indicating Albedo was at this location but recognized such an action would be petty. As such, the teen simply refocused his efforts on muttering out various scenarios and outcomes possible for this situation.

Rook reached the rusted door of the warehouse and placed his ear against the surface, hoping his enhanced hearing would alert him to the presence of… well, something on the other side of the door.

After a few moments of nothing, however, the alien unstrapped the Proto-Tool from his chest and gently opened the door, wincing as it loudly squeaked.

He quickly jumped inside and ran for the closest cover available; in this case an old, rusty metal support beam embedded into the ground and stretching up all the way to the building's roof. The rotten, ancient ceiling had several holes in its structure, causing rays of sunlight to flitter down into the otherwise totally dark building.

For him, with his species' enhanced eyesight, this wasn't particularly a problem. For Ben though…

A blinding flash of green light forced the Revonnahgander to flinch as his pupils, at the time opened wide and perfectly adjusted to the darkness, couldn't handle the flare-up.

By the time Rook rubbed the pain out of his eyes and readjusted, the Plumber looked up to see Grey Matter's tiny frame had been replaced with a tall, lithe figure that even he had trouble discerning from the dark warehouse behind it. The creature was predominantly a deep, ocean blue with black highlights, and appeared to be wearing a robe around its skinny body. An insectoid, skull-like face with a teeth-filled frown stared into his own eyes with its green, pupil-less orbs. Each breath the creature took released a visible gust of freezing air.

"There are two levels here…" Ben intoned, his voice considerably colder, raspier, and, if Rook was being honest, creepier.

Big Chill was one of the several transformations Ben possessed that 'freaked out' the alien, even if he'd never admit it.

If he did, Ben would undoubtedly find an excuse to turn into those aliens more often just to spook him.

Managing to look away from the slightly unsettling face of his partner, Rook noticed the transformed teen was pointing at a stairwell on the opposite side of the otherwise empty warehouse, one flight of stairs leading up to what appeared to be a set of offices built into the building, and another flight heading down below the concrete floor to a basement.

"I'll phase through the floor and check the cellar… you scan upstairs."

Rook instantly nodded and started making his way towards the stairwell, while the robe around Ben's body unfurled into four insect-like wings, and his skeletal body turned transparent. Moments later, his form sank through the floor as though it were merely a holographic image.

Ben phased through several feet of solid concrete before his body finally entered a curiously well-lit room with old, rusted-out machinery lining the walls next to a similarly corroded door. The concrete making up the room was cracked and broken in many places, clearly neglected for quite some time. Cobwebs had taken up residence in every conceivable location, and solely out of a desire not to get a faceful of the stuff, the transformed teen continued to stay intangible as he silently glided forward, passing through the door and moving onto the next room.

Before he could really look around the new section of the basement he had entered though…

"Hello, Tennyson."

The new room was much the same as the previous; neglected machinery lining the walls, cracked concrete, cobwebs, lightbulbs that weren't good for the planet's carbon footprint, you get the picture.

The difference though, was this room had a single chair in the middle of it, and Albedo, the rogue Galvan scientist that had mutated into a slightly altered clone of himself, was sitting in it.

And he was a teenager.

"I see you've matured a little, Albedo…" Ben rasped, exhaling a puff of frigid air as he scanned the room for anything suspicious.

Beyond the supervillain sitting in the middle of it though, he found it rather lacking, even if he was hyper-aware that the Galvan was keeping his right hand firmly stuffed inside his pants pocket.

The red-colored copy of himself sneered, brushing not-so-imaginary dust off his jacket's sleeves. "Come now, Ben. You didn't honestly expect Asmuth's little 'punishment' would keep me trapped as an eleven-year-old version of yourself forever, right?"

"Hey, a guy can hope," Big Chill shrugged, wrapping his wings back around his body like a cloak as he did so. Ben removed one of his hands from the false fabric and pointed at the clothing his enemy was wearing, questioningly tilting his head. "Where'd you find that old thing?"

Albedo cocked his eyebrow and glanced down at his apparel, a distorted facsimile of Ben's old outfit.

He was garbed in a red jacket with black stripes, two horizontal ones on the left arm and a single vertical one trailing up the right breast of the coat. The number 10 was still emblazoned upon the jacket's breast, albeit inverted so it displayed '01' instead, as well as being present on the right side of the coat rather than the left. A plain black t-shirt was worn underneath the coat, and he was sporting a pair of dark grey jeans as well. His shoes were a simple pair of black and white running sneakers.

"Costume City," he shrugged, clearly unperturbed.

"Seriously?" Ben actually faltered at that, sagging in on himself.

Again, Albedo shrugged. "Hey, I'm your 'evil clone', remember? If they made costumes out of your clothes, they're definitely gonna make costumes out of mine. I was almost tempted to buy the Nyancy Chan costume for myself just to see your face."

While Ben couldn't actually open his mouth to mimic the act of vomiting (since Necrofriggians didn't have a traditional mouth), he hoped the garbled, guttural sound that rose up in his throat appropriately translated his disgust.

The smirk apparent on his altered clone's face implied that he had succeeded.

Albedo carded his free hand through snow-white hair, staring at Ben with his vermillion eyes. For all intents and purposes, he was a color-swapped version of Tennyson himself. Had he been wearing his old jacket rather than his new hoodie, it really would've been a palette-swapped mirror image.

Again, due to his current Necrofriggian biology, Ben couldn't actually roll his eyes. If he could've, he would've. "Why don't we stop beating around the bush and show me whatever you've done to that Ultimatrix on your hand, Albedo? I know you're hiding it in your pocket for a reason."

His enemy obliged, withdrawing his right hand from his jeans and holding it up for Ben to see.

"Uh… Albedo? Your Ultimatrix seems to be missing the, uh… matrix." Ben deadpanned, pointing one of his black, clawed fingers at the device.

Albedo's Ultimatrix was a red, Omnitrix-like device, and functioned much the same as one. However, rather than appearing to be a wristwatch or bracer, it was instead more along the lines of an open-palmed gauntlet. Rather than a wristband keeping the device attached to him, a handlebar of sorts was nestled into the crook of his hand between his four fingers and thumb, covering the palm of his hand. Four little nooks were engraved into the back of the gadget near the wrist, and at the dead center of the device on the back of Albedo's hand was an aperture for an Omnitrix core to be inserted, with four white tubes trailing out from the housing.

That aperture was noticeably empty.

"It's a Stabilizer, Tennyson. Not quite the same as a typical Ultimatrix. You of all people should know I don't need an Omnitrix to transform anymore, as I've long-since altered my own DNA. I simply designed this to ensure I could remain transformed for however long I desired, in addition to allowing me to access Ultimate Aliens," his enemy replied, never once appearing to be anything but utterly calm. "You know, it worked pretty well too, at least until Asmuth stole my Stabilizer's core and turned me into an eleven-year-old you."

"Is this why you've been acting strange? A smash n' dash on the Plumber headquarters, not bothering to even drop one line about 'puny humans'? Can't stay transformed for long without your precious gauntlet, huh?" Ben goaded, entirely ignoring Albedo's comment.

The alien smirked, his vermillion eyes staring into Ben's emerald from across the room, snow-white hair lightly fluttering about from a draft. The only other physical difference between him and Ben beyond the palette swap was the deep, dark eyebags the alien sported, almost appearing to be eyeliner.

"I can admit I've underestimated you in the past, Tennyson. Your analytical intelligence leaves much to be desired, yet your practical and creative intelligence precedes you."

Ben ignored the praise and fixed the clone with a harsh glare. "If you're done quoting Sternberg's Triangular Theorem of Intelligences, I've got a cell with your name on it that I'm just raring to throw you into."

The rogue Galvan opened his mouth to speak, closed it, raised a hand up, lowered that down, then opened his mouth again, before ultimately sighing and started massaging his temples with his hands.

"… I will give you props for knowing the name Sternberg, but you butchered his 'theorem' as you un-eloquently put it. The proper terminology is Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence, you buffoon. Secondly, I will not be going into any prison cell ever again, as you will be willingly surrendering in thirty seconds."

"Oh yeah? And what's your plan for making me do that, eh? Without your Stabilizer's core, you can't transform into Ultimate Aliens, and the aliens you can transform into… well, you can only transform into those for, what, two minutes at max? Face it, Albedo. You're at a disadvantage."

"That would be factual, had I not gone ahead and acquired some insurance," Albedo gloated, pulling some sort of metal whistle out of his pocket and blowing into it.

Ben instinctively turned intangible, which happened to be the right move too, as the wall to his immediate right was smashed in. The being responsible for said smashing flew into the now very cramped room moments later, hovering in place with its transparent turquoise wings.

The massive alien was vaguely grub-like in shape with a powerful, two-pronged stinger at its rear, eight spiracles trailing up its grotesque blue body and ended at the four, hairy legs near the creature's front. Two pectinate antennae sprouted from the top of its head just above a pair of beady orange eyes. Its mouth was mostly covered by the two tusk-like protrusions sticking straight out of it, perfectly poised to stab into its prey. A spiked red collar was locked around the creature's neck, with a vaguely hexagonal symbol embedded into the metal like a tag.

The symbol itself appeared to resemble a red, opened maw full of six sharp, pearly white spiked teeth, ready to chomp down and devour something.

Unfortunately for Ben… that alien's prey of choice were Necrofriggians… AKA, himself.

Ben stared down the Psycholeopterran, totally immobilized by the fear his brain's altered biology was causing him. Instincts not his own were screaming millions of instructions at his brain, and he just couldn't find it in himself to process all the stimulation.

Smirking, Albedo raised the whistle to his mouth and blew a different tone into it, making the unsightly alien obediently flitter over to the clone's side.

"Well, Tennyson? What do you think? I believe you referred to this species as a… Hypnotick, correct? I will admit, your talent for clever wordplay can be mildly amusing, if childish." he provoked, raising a hand to scratch the thing's fleshy, writhing carapace, the monster letting out a pleasured trill in response.

"Would you like to see the creature I've collected to wear the Nemetrix?" Albedo grinned cruelly, pointing at the maw-shaped symbol embedded into the collar.

Without waiting for an answer, Albedo slammed his fist against the knockoff Omnitrix's dial, and in a flash of red light, the predator disappeared. In its place…

"RAYONA!" Ben screamed, snapping out of his terror and slamming his own Omnitrix dial to turn back into a human. Quick as a flash, Ben darted across the concrete room and came crashing down next to his partner's girlfriend, checking her form for injuries.

It wasn't pretty.

The female Revonnahgander's dress was little more than a few scraps of cloth limply hanging off her shoulders, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. The sole piece of 'clothing' that remained intact upon her was that red, spiked collar with the Nemetrix embedded into it locked around her neck. The flesh around the collar was swollen, covered in blood of both the dried and fresh variety, and smelled absolutely horrendous. There was clearly a nasty infection underneath it.

Her body itself was basically mutilated, covered in multiple lacerations, bruises, and various other injuries. Rayona's right ear had been entirely ripped off, and the left had half of its feline-like structure removed from some creature's bite. Her entire form was wracked with constant trembling while her amber eyes stared vacantly ahead into nothing. The decorative gemstone she wore upon her forehead had been smashed to pieces, its jagged remnants stabbing through the thin skin above her skull.

"G-gruhbjkls…"

Ben turned his wide-eyed stare over to Albedo, still calmly reclining in the chair right next to them. Before Ben could shout one of the many choice words he had readied, the alien spoke once more.

"The deal's simple, Tennyson. I've surgically attached that collar to her neck, and as such, only I can safely remove it. Additionally, I've been… toying with the Nemetrix, just seeing what sorts of transformations it has for the past week or so."

The superhero shakily got to his feet and stared Albedo down, fighting to keep his rage in check. Rarely did Ben get angry, but when he did… well, Ben could transform into a three-hundred-foot tall alien being that shot lasers out of its hands with enough firepower to destroy a small planet.

"Don't you know what the Nemetrix does to intelligent minds, Albedo…?" Ben questioned, his voice barely above a whisper. "The Nemetrix can only transform things into non-sapient beings… the biofeedback caused by an intelligent creature using that device just… destroys their mind…"

"I know. I just don't care." Albedo shrugged.

"What. Do. You. Want?" Ben ground out, actively fighting to stop himself from slamming down on his Omnitrix and sorting this out with a good old-fashioned murder. It was quite tempting honestly, considering he figured his own Galvan form had a decent shot at safely removing the collar bolted into Rayona's neck.

Sadly, Ben realized that even if there was anything left of Rayona's mind… he didn't have a form that could fix it.

"Simple," the villain smirked, holding up his incomplete, hand-mounted Ultimatrix, "I need an Omnitrix core to fix my Stabilizer. You have an Omnitrix. Give me the core, and everyone walks away from this."

Despite his anger, Ben squinted at Albedo in confusion. "What, no death threats? I don't believe for a second any of us are getting out of here alive."

"Believe it, Tennyson. I've had an epiphany." Albedo explained, placatingly raising his hands in the air, "Killing you? That's hard. Quite honestly, it may even be impossible. I let my anger cloud my judgment, my lust for revenge distracted me from my true goal."

"And… that would be?" Ben waved his hand around in a 'get on with it' gesture.

"You shouldn't have the Omnitrix. It's far too powerful a tool to be left in the hands of an under-evolved ape such as yourself. I've been trying to kill you to take it off your corpse… but I realized I could just force you to give it up." Albedo held out his hand expectantly.

"Now give me the core, or I destroy whatever's left of that feline's mind." he pointed at Rayona.

Ben glanced between his partner's battered girlfriend and Albedo, before clicking his jaw and offering the mutated Galvan his left wrist.

Readily, Albedo tapped the screen and popped out the core, rapidly yanking some strange, screwdriver-like device from his coat's pocket as he did so. The Villain flicked a switch on the side and a blue laser shot out of the head, striking the Omnitrix's cylindrical core at four distinct points. It's warm green glow faded to grey, and the core soon after ejected itself from the watch's body, clattering onto the floor below.

Albedo wasted no time scooping it up and jammed the core into his gauntlet, whereupon it automatically began twisting and turning itself slowly as the device integrated into the new housing.

"You know Tennyson, thanks to you I'll now have access to even more transformations. Now that my Stabilizer is using your Omnitrix's core, I'll have any aliens you did, plus, I can finally scan my own DNA sampl—AHRGGH!"

Ben startled at the Villain's sudden scream, taking a confused step backward.

"What the hell was that for Alb—EYAAAH!"

Ben fell to the ground, clutching his head in agony while Albedo tipped over in his chair, similarly writhing in place from the sudden pain that racked their brains. The lightbulbs illuminating the room began to flicker wildly, a few of them even shining incandescently before ultimately shattering as they overloaded.

Eventually, Ben weakly opened his eyes, willing the black spots in his vision to fade away so he could properly see. Once he could… he almost wished he could go back to being blind.

"N-no…" he murmured, horrified that he could see his own body curled up on the dirty concrete floor of the room, fingers still dug deep into brown hair to will away the pain. "I… i-is this what it's like to be dead…?"

Ben felt… oddly corporeal still… and his eyes immediately widened as he heard his own thoughts.

Corporeal was not a word Ben had in his typical vocabulary. Sure, it was included in his mental glossary whenever he transformed into a Brainstorm or Grey Matter, but never as default Ben. It simply wasn't a word he would feel comfortable using.

Then again, mental glossary wasn't in his repertoire either.

'Nor is repertoire…'

Putting a pin in those thoughts for now, Ben… pushed himself up off the ground and gasped as he felt something metal covering the palm of his right hand.

Jerking his head down, Ben noticed Albedo's Stabilizer was firmly secured upon the back of his appendage, the Omnitrix's core now glowing a brilliant crimson. His hand shot up to his head and grabbed onto several strands of hair, quickly twisting and yanking it away.

The teen's jaw dropped as he saw the snow-white locks wrapped around his finger, a passing draft causing the strands to flutter about. A quick peek down proved that, yes, Ben was garbed in Albedo's inverted outfit; red jacket, grey jeans and all.

"Urgh… w-what's… what's happening? What did you do T-Tennyson?!"

Ben snapped his head around so fast he heard something in his neck crack and watched with ever-widening eyes as his own body slowly began to rise off the floor, green jacket now covered in cracked gravel and dust.

The superhero soon found himself staring into the emerald eyes of himself, even as he subconsciously noted his own irises were probably ruby red.

Thinking quickly, Ben shoved himself onto his own feet and reared back his fist, intent on clocking 'himself' in the head and knocking what he assumed to be Albedo in his body out before he could… do something.

As he reared back his fist though… the all-too-familiar sensation of transforming suddenly overwhelmed Ben's senses and he watched, in horrified slow motion, as his new body suddenly became engulfed in a red light; the Stabilizer's unique, distorted transformation sound effect echoing around the room.

In the span of half a second, Ben felt his skull elongate slightly, his ribcage doubled in size, and two new pairs of arms sprouted out from his torso while his muscle mass nearly quadrupled. By the time the flash ended, a red-skinned, four-armed, four-eyed, mountain of an alien remained in the teen's place.

Two of his four fists collided with 'Ben's' face before he could stop it, a sickening crack echoing around the room as Albedo was sent flying into the far wall. Ben's body crumpled to the ground seconds later, limply folding in on itself as Albedo groaned in pain.

Despite the fact that he couldn't feel it, Ben winced and silently hoped he didn't bust his face up too much with that hit.

Fourarms was a… little extreme, for dealing with humans. His cheekbones were probably little more than dust, unfortunately.

"Maybe I can stay in this body till mine's fully healed…" Ben mumbled, soon thereafter shaking his head and focusing on the important matter at hand.

Kneeling down, Ben gently cradled Rayona's still-shivering form in his lower two arms, using a third to manipulate her face to get a better look at her neck.

The skin underneath the collar was definitely infected and probably needed medical attention. The whole device was far, far too tight on the feline-like alien's neck, the fur around it matted from all the dried blood. What looked like surgical staples had pierced through her flesh and kept the collar firmly attached, as well as a locking mechanism added to the back of the red neckband.

Ben realized he'd need to find the key, and instinctively raised his fourth arm up to his chest, intent on smacking the Omnitrix dial he knew was located there to change back into a human. Before he even reached the symbol though, his body once again engulfed itself in red light, rendering Ben humanoid once more.

"Urgh… I forgot Albedo didn't actually need to touch his Stabilizer to transform…" Ben grunted, lowering Rayona's admittedly heavy frame back down to the floor as gently as he could. In the back of his mind, the teen realized his voice was… slightly different. Still his, but spoken in a tone that made him sound… haughtier, for lack of a better word.

Ignoring that, he started frantically patting down the various pockets of his outfit, eventually feeling a bulge in his jeans. Ben stuffed his hands inside and yanked out a small, silver key and wasted no time stuffing it into the collar's lock and twisting.

It clicked open and sagged slightly on her neckline, but still remained attached thanks to all the staples. Willing his anger down at the sickening sight, Ben closed his eyes and focused, trying to remember the feeling of transforming at will.

He himself had done it before when he unlocked the Master Control on his old Omnitrix, so it wasn't a difficult task, though he was out of practice. After a few seconds, another flare of crimson washed over the room and Ben found his height reduced down to five inches for the second time that day.

He managed to toddle forward two steps before stopping, shakily raising his now-grey hand to his vaguely-amphibian face in surprise.

Whereas Ben's Galvan transformation had a head in the shape of a vaguely equilateral triangle, this Galvan form was different. Though, in the back of his head, Ben understood. Albedo was originally a Galvan, not a human, and since Ben had somehow jumped into his body… his Galvan form matched Albedo's.

It seemed much the same as his own, except for the fact that the bodysuit he wore sported the motif of an hourglass, and his head was far more angular, something akin to an isosceles triangle, in addition to the presence of several whisker-like protrusions, two above each eye and two more upon his chin.

"I hate red…" Ben mumbled, even as he scurried across the ground to Rayona's neck, pushing back her tangled, purple locks of hair to get a better look.

"Yep, definitely infected, gonna need a lot of antibiotics to clean this up, maybe some maggots for that dead flesh…" he murmured, utilizing his tiny hands to reach inside the decaying tissue to bend the staples.

Once he got the prongs moderately straightened out, Ben would delicately remove them. Sadly, he couldn't just rip them off the collar and leave a medical professional to yank the staples out of her skin later, since they were actually welded to the red metal.

"You've gone too far this time, Albedo. I dunno if I'm going to be able to protect you from Rook…"

Tennyson quickly finished his task and reverted back to human form, rubbing a hand across his face in exasperation.

He immediately regretted this action upon realizing the blood he'd soaked his hands in from dealing with the 'surgically attached' collar carried over to his human form, and the scent of rot now coated his face.

"Bleugh…" Ben gagged, resisting the urge to throw up even as he pulled the disgusting collar, and by extension, the Nemetrix attached to it, away from Rayona's butchered flesh.

Hoisting the vile device up so he could see it better, Ben flicked the blood-soaked Nemetrix Dial and watched as silhouettes of the various predatory species inside flashed across the screen, visible through the device's teeth-like aperture.

Ben shook his head sadly and stuffed the thing into his jacket's pocket, deciding to deal with that later and focus on helping Rayona for now.

"Let's see… Pesky Dust maybe? I don't exactly like that alien, but it could put her to sleep at least… maybe Big Chill? Freeze the wounds a little? That'd help the fever, right? Er, no… perhaps I coul—"

CLICK-WHIRRRRRR

Ben whipped his head up at the sound of his partner's Proto-Tool powering up, and found himself staring down the barrel of said device. In this instance, it appeared that Rook elected to transform the multi-purpose weapon into an honest-to-God shotgun.

His red pupils shrunk down to pinpricks as he realized this situation didn't look… good from his partner's perspective.

'Ben' crumpled over in the corner with half his face caved in, and 'Albedo', covered in blood, standing over the shaking, mutilated body of his girlfriend.

Tennyson had to admit, he'd never seen such an expression of indescribable rage upon Rook's face. The proto-tool he had pressed up against Ben's skull was trembling wildly, a sure sign of his untempered emotions.

"R-rook, wait a sec—"

BANG

"—ond! I'm trying to help her! I'm— w-wait… what?"

Ben blinked, trying to take in his new surroundings.

Where once there were dilapidated concrete walls, only a blackened void with twinkling lights like distant stars resided. All around him, there was absolutely nothing beyond the black and white tiled floor beneath his feet and the utterly basic wooden chair he happened to be sitting in.

Glancing at his hand, he noticed the Stabilizer was still latched onto the back, and a red sleeve trailed up his arm, which meant he was still in Albedo's body. But… this didn't look like any sort of Plumber base he'd ever seen before.

"Oh man…" Ben groaned, tugging his snow-white hair in frustration, "Did I turn into Alien X on accident? I didn't even know Albedo had Celestialsapien DNA… Bellicus! Serena? You in here?! I could use some help!"

"Benjamin Tennyson," a female voice called out, startling the altered teen enough to make him leap out of his seat in shock, "… welcome to the afterlife."

The teen hero jerked his head to the right and felt his jaw drop to the ground as a woman seemingly materialized out of thin air, strutting out of the void like she owned the place. It wasn't just the fact that she was beautiful that caused his jaw to drop though, it was more… everything about her.

Years of training had taught Tennyson to trust his gut, and right now his gut was telling him that whatever she was… it wasn't human.

Plus, those clothes she wore were not normal, and he had some pretty weird standards. The ocean blue fabric with white trim was… well, he was almost tempted to call it a one-piece swimsuit and would've had it not been for the fact that it ended in a scandalously low skirt, and the strange sea-green bow she wore like a necktie. She additionally had a pair of white and blue arm warmers with a golden trim near the shoulders and a pair of navy blue, high-heeled boots that rode up to her thighs.

Shimmering aquamarine hair drooped down to her waist, with the exception of some strange loop-like structure she'd fashioned atop her head with a blue pearl. There didn't seem to be a blemish of any sort on her pale skin, and her lithe yet slightly curvaceous figure was… eye-catching, to say the least.

As the woman sauntered over to an ornate-looking chair he somehow missed directly in front of him deliberately swaying her hips side to side with more force than strictly necessary, Ben recognized she wasn't afraid to flaunt her stuff. Sadly, in his experience, women he didn't know, talking to him cordially in a place he didn't know, waving their assets in a blatant attempt to make him flustered, was a familiar equation with the solution of the female in question wanting something from him.

And by something, he meant the Omnitrix.

Or him.

He was once forced to be the prize on some freaky alien's game show where twenty-something girls who all apparently held some level of attraction to him competed for his hand in marriage.

But, that was neither here nor there.

Before Ben could spit out a witty quip, the woman delicately sat down in the chair opposite him and addressed the teen with a sad smile. Her turquoise eyes seemed to shimmer like the oceans themselves, filled with nothing save compassion.

"Unfortunately Benjamin… you passed away just moments ago."

The words he meant to say died in his throat, and his mouth dried out faster than it ever had before. He wanted to deny it, claim the obvious 'Hey, I'm sitting right here' and tell her to take a hike… but he couldn't find it in himself to do so.

BANG

Ben winced as the sound that… that ended his life reverberated around the room. The sound his partner's Proto-Tool made when Rook… executed him.

So lost in his thoughts, the teen failed to notice a certain bluenette daintily giggling at his reaction from behind her hand.

Ben sighed, quite frankly upset with how things turned out. Still, he couldn't exactly find it in himself to blame Rook for his actions. Ben probably would've done the same damn thing if he saw 'Albedo' kneeling over the mutilated body of Julie…

Or Kai.

Probably Shar.

Definitely Ester.

Looma on a good day.

Maybe Attea, if he happened to be an Incursean at the time.

… okay his love life might've been a little more complicated than he thought.

"Do you… how did it happen?" Ben asked, referring to the body swap.

He didn't get the sense that anything the woman had said so far was false, as much as he wished the opposite. Plus, something about her was just… more.

Perhaps even divine.

As such, her next words really hit him like a punch to the gut.

"Your brains got blown out, stupid. C'mon! I know you technically have brain damage but that's not a problem anymore since you're in the afterlife. Listen, we've got important stuff to talk about so how about we get down to 'brass tacks' as you Americans say, yeah?"

Ben blinked at the woman a couple of times, not entirely sure how to process such a flippant response. He didn't know whether to be upset or glad that she didn't give him much time to dwell on the matter.

The woman readjusted her position on her chair, smoothing out a few wrinkles in that sad excuse for a dress as she did so. Then, as if her previous comments were never made, resumed speaking in a solemn, respectful tone.

"My name is Aqua, a Goddess in charge of guiding young humans like you to the afterlife," she 'explained', only succeeding in giving Ben more questions than answers. "Benjamin, as a deceased soul, you've been presented with two choices. You can choose to be reincarnated, lose your memories, and start a new life with a new face… or you can choose to move on and go to Heaven."

After several seconds of staring blankly ahead, Ben decided to disregard his woes about the woman since his gut told him she wasn't lying about the whole 'Goddess' thing. Instead, he elected not to pick and fight and for once in his life and quickly chose an answer.

"I guess… well, I'd like to go to Heav—MMPFH?!"

"SHUSHITY—SHUSH-SHUSH-SHUSH!" Aqua flailed, practically lunging forward and throwing her hands across Ben's wide-open mouth.

"BE QUIET, YOU IDIOT! You can't just go to Heaven like that! This is a HUGE, literally eternal decision you're about to make! Besides that, Heaven's not all that it's cracked up to be, you know?!"

He did not, in fact, know.

Hopefully, shaking his head side-to-side like he was doing so conveyed that lack of knowledge to the… supposed Goddess.

After that little outburst, he was half inclined to believe Albedo actually managed to smack that nightmare-inducing parasite on his face correctly.

"Heaven's just… static! There's nothing to do up there, especially since you won't have a physical body, which means you can't do it," Aqua explained, helpfully withdrawing her hands from Ben's mouth to make a circle with her index finger and thumb with the left, while plowing her pointer finger from the right through said circle.

Ben blinked.

"Plus," she continued undeterred, either oblivious or willfully ignorant of Ben's dumbstruck state, "It'd just be you and your ancestors up there doing nothing at all. Well, beyond talking in a floaty, white void, anyways. You know, forever. Eternity. Several million-billion years and all that. There's no guarantee your family and friends will join you there when they die, either. If they reincarnate, when they do finally choose to go to heaven, they won't be the same person you once knew. They'll appear in heaven as whoever they last died as. That's no fun, right?"

"Okayyyy… uh… what abou—"

"Reincarnation is pretty bad, too. After all, you're being born again as a baby! To a random family! You were an American in your last life, but like… what if you reincarnated and woke up Irish?!"

"H-how is that a bad thing?" he asked, only to be totally ignored.

Pushing herself out of the chair and striking a heroic pose, Aqua dramatically pointed a finger at his own flabbergasted face. "Fear not, Benjamin Tennyson! These terrible fates need not fall upon you, for I have a third option! Not many qualify, but I think you might just squeeze through our parameters~"

Several seconds of uncomfortable silence passed between them, Ben unwilling to open his mouth just to get cut off again, and Aqua waiting on a cue to continue.

"Well?" she goaded, "Aren't you going to ask what the third option is?"

Steeling himself, Ben took a deep breath to calm his frayed nerves, "What's the third optio—"

"I'M GLAD YOU ASKED!"

Groaning, the teen hero slammed his head down into the palms of his hands as Aqua did her thing.

"Benjamin… I'm gonna level with you, here," she said solemnly, once again reverting to the respectful tone she first approached him with.

'Gee, that's a first.' he couldn't help but think, even as he spread his fingers so an unimpressed crimson eye could stare the goddess down.

"There are other worlds than just the one you were born on, and I'm not talking about alien planets either. I'm talking alternate dimensions; people who are born under the same, yet different sun from your own. I can reincarnate you with all your memories intact in your current body, but only in one specific world. Sadly… this world has been besieged by a great evil calling himself… The Devil King. People from those lands are dying and refusing to reincarnate because they believe only suffering will greet them in the next life. The population's in decline, and in order to save the world in more ways than one, The Pantheon has elected to offer some deceased individuals the ability to be reincarnated into that world instead of their own. Now, we—"

This time, Ben cut the rude, rambling Goddess off with a wave of his Stabilizer/Ultimatrix-covered hand, much to her own shock.

His faith in the woman was practically non-existent at this moment in time, but he finally understood why she was acting like that. Her world's dying, and she was looking for a champion to save it. Clearly, she was desperate to get Ben to accept and if experience taught him anything, probably wouldn't take no for an answer.

Really, his only grievance was that he'd be getting sent off to another world in his 'current body', as Aqua put it.

"I can already tell where you're going with this," he began, ignoring the offended look she was sporting, "And while I'm not opposed to sorting out your 'Devil King' problem, my cooperation comes with one condition."

Aqua seemed genuinely taken aback by his blunt statement, but subtly was never Tennyson's strong suit. Considering he didn't particularly care about what she thought of him either thanks to her flippant attitude coupled with anger at his altered physical condition, Ben was acting far blunter than usual.

"You're… uh… w-what's the condition?"

Ben sighed and carded a hand through his hair, wincing as several strands were ripped out after getting caught on the Stabilizer. Yet again, it seemed Ben would have to get used to a brand new Omnitrix once more.

Then again, he didn't actually need to slam down on the dial to make it work now…

"My partner, Rook, he's… he's the one who, well… killed me," Ben stated, receiving an affirmative nod from the bluenette, "Right… well, I can already tell that's not gonna sit well on his conscience, so… could you just like, tell him it's alright? That it's not his fault? Something to that effect?"

The Goddess stared at Benjamin like he'd grown three heads, but eventually spoke up, albeit with a bewildered expression. "Uhhh… that's… that's not something I can do. For one thing, I'm in charge of human souls, and not… well, not whatever your partner Rock is," Aqua explained, totally butchering Rook's name while she was at it, "Secondly, it'd tip him off that the afterlife actually exists. While we encourage worship of course, there's a reason we don't hang giant banners everywhere declaring our existence."

As much as Ben hated to admit it, that made a modicum of sense.

"But," she interrupted Ben's thoughts, raising a finger to her chin, "there is a way you could do it. The Devil King's such a big problem, The Pantheon has decided that whoever ends his reign of tyranny shall be granted one wish, no matter what it may be. Vanquish him, and you can tell Ruck yourself that you don't want him to feel guilty about blowing a hole through your skull."

Ben raised an unimpressed eyebrow and resisted the urge to facepalm (if only because he was dimly aware that said action would be painful since there was now a metal bar over his right hand).

"Yeah… whatever. Just… just send me off to this world, alright? I don't think I wanna be here anymore," Ben deadpanned, ready and willing to be far, far away from Aqua. He wasn't entirely sure how her mind worked, or how Goddesses in general did their thing, but his gut told him this particular one's tactlessness was just the result of her being… well, a dick.

"Not so fast, Tennyson! You get to pick a cheat item to help you along on your journey!" Aqua proclaimed, pulling a stack of flyers from… somewhere, soon thereafter tossing them high into the air. The pages scattered around the room and fluttered to the ground, further bewildering the deceased superhero.

"Why did you—"

"But hey, if you don't want a cheat item we can give you a cheat ability, too. Y'know, skills we can implant in your brain, supernatural talents, that sorta stuff." She interrupted, totally oblivious to Ben's frustration.

At this point, he was seriously debating testing her strength as a Goddess by transforming into Alien X and pitting his own omnipotence against whatever she had.

While they normally argued, Ben had a feeling Bellicus would readily assist him in slapping this bluenette across the cosmos.

Shaking his head, Ben pushed himself out of the chair and started collecting the scattered pages, not really paying attention to what they said. He was more focused on simply gathering them up.

Suddenly… a random, but no less important thought popped into his head as Tennyson recognized that a lot of the 'cheat items' on these flyers were… pretty medieval. Maces, swords, magical staves… cursed hats?

"Aqua…" Ben asked, grabbing the bluenette's attention, "how… technologically advanced is this world?"

"Uh… they've yet to discover electricity yet if that's what you're asking," Aqua explained.

"You're kidding me…" Ben blanched, staring at all the flyers in a new light.

"Nope! They've found plenty of workarounds with gas pipelines and magic, though. It's actually kinda interesting what they've created with that stuff."

Aqua's reassurances did little to ease Ben's growing suspicion he was being thrown into an RPG with a fantasy setting. Taking a moment to glance at the Stabilizer on his hand, another concern popped into the teen's mind.

"What about my Omnitri— I mean, Ultima—er… GAH! Stabilizer! What about my Stabilizer?!" Ben finally spat out, tugging his hair in frustration at all the terms for 'Omnitrix' he had floating about in his head.

"Uh… whatever that thing is," Aqua said, pointing at his hand, "Is cool. Anything currently on your body, you'll be sent into the world with. Selling whatever off-world trinkets people have on them is typically a good way to earn some starting money, so we allow it."

Ben was both reassured and slightly disappointed by that answer. Rook had been bugging him to carry a gun of some sort as a backup in case he couldn't reach the Omnitrix, and now he was regretting his childish refusal of that offer.

'Vanquish the Devil King' didn't really sound like 'throw him into the null void'. It was pretty obvious the powers that be wanted him dead as a doornail. Then again… it's not like Ben didn't have the power to take on… anything, really.

If it really proved difficult he could go Alien X and try to bargain for victory.

"Uh, wanna pick something slowpocus? I've got things to do, you know." Aqua chimed in, causing Ben to glance up from his musings to see the Goddess with her hands on her hips, impatiently tapping her foot on the ground.

Ben raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her, "Seriously? You're trying to rush your 'champion'?"

"Grrr… j-just pick something!" the Goddess blushed and looked away, pouting furiously.

Ben threw his hands up in frustration and scanned across the still-scattered flyers, not entirely sure what to pick. He didn't really need a cheat item, even though he was totally willing to take all the help he could get.

Still, it was kinda hard to pick when you have the ability to transform into radically different aliens that all fight, move, and act differently. The mace that paralyzed anything it touched looked cool, but he doubted several of his aliens would be able to wield it.

"Y'know what? You pick. I don't care." Ben huffed, callously tossing aside the few flyers he'd gathered.

Aqua stared at Ben with wide eyes, surprised at such a reaction.

"You… want me to pick?"

"I want you to give me whatever it is you yourself would bring. You're a Goddess, so you'd know the best stuff, right?" Ben goaded, hoping she'd take the obvious bait.

He'd decided to just forego the cheat item, really. Whatever he got, it'd be stupidly powerful, and he'd just sell it immediately so money wouldn't be a concern for him.

It seemed to work, as Aqua adopted a smug grin and kicked her legs up on the armrest of her chair, reclining back haughtily. "But of course I know what's best to pick! With but a snap of my fingers, I shall bequeath unto you, Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, the blessings of Aqua herself!"

Just as she proclaimed, Aqua snapped her fingers and a glowing purple sigil of some kind appeared underneath Ben's feet. Magical gusts of wind whipped about his form, making his crimson jacket flutter about in the breeze.

Before Ben could question what was happening… another sigil appeared in the room, this time appearing from the sky above both occupants. A figure wreathed in blinding white light descended from above wearing a simple white gown. Wings protruded from her back and beat gently as she descended, forcing light gusts of wind to buffet the teen hero's face. The woman's vaguely peach-colored hair was styled into a ponytail and her angelic features were schooled into a pleasant smile.

"Oh hey! What brings an angel around here?" Aqua questioned, reclining further back into her seat and magically summoning a bowl of potato chips to munch on.

The angel giggled serenely, directing her kind gaze upon Ben's. Her shimmering red eyes met his own, and Ben felt a little… concerned at the hint of sadistic glee he glimpsed within.

"Benjamin… would you mind holding your hands out like this?" she asked, raising her arms in front of her body like she was carrying an invisible box.

Ben wordlessly complied, albeit hesitantly.

"What? You're just gonna pop in and not even give so much as a 'hello' to the actual Goddess in the room? Y'know, your creator?" Aqua grouched, flicking a potato chip against the angel's face.

The winged being didn't so much as flinch when the crispy snack bounced off her forehead.

With an expression of pure serenity, she turned to face Aqua and smiled. "Lady Aqua… your wish for Benjamin Tennyson to have the most powerful thing in this room has been granted."

While Ben was doing his level best to move as far back from the two as he could in the magical seal he appeared to be standing in, Aqua, totally oblivious to the Angel's foul mood, brightened considerably.

"Oh good! So, what was it? I don't even know what I picked myself, really." She admitted, much to Ben's dismay.

"Well, Lady Aqua, it appears you consider the most powerful thing in this room to be… yourself!"

Tennyson was quite sure he heard an actual record scratch, and he had to give Aqua props. He wasn't sure how she kept up that expression of surprise-confusion-shock for longer than eight seconds, but she did it like a champ.

"W-what? Oh. I see. T-this is a joke, right? Eris put you up to this?" Aqua half-asked, half-pleaded, managing to keep most of the desperation out of her voice. Unfortunately for her…

The angel snapped her own fingers and Aqua's body vanished from her chair, reappearing moments later directly above Ben's open arms.

"Woah!" Ben startled, managing to brace himself enough not to drop the goddess literally plopped into an impromptu bridal carry in his arms. "Aqua? You ok—HEY!"

"WAUAAAGH! NONONONONONO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO MEEEEE!" the bluenette screeched contorting her body into all manner of shapes as she struggled to escape Ben's firm grasp, shoving his face, chest, arms, and anything else that came into contact with her flailing fists.

"C-CUT IT OUT!" Ben cried, too focused on not getting his eyes poked out to consider the action of dropping the annoyance in his arms.

"Fret not, Lady Goddess, we shall dutifully man your post until such a time you and Benjamin can vanquish the Devil King. Once the great evil is gone, you may return to the heavenly realm." The angel declared, her voice somehow managing to clearly reach Ben's ears over the din Aqua was making.

"NOOOOO! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE WITH THIS MORTAL! AAAAAAAAARRGHH!" Aqua bawled, now resorting to slamming her fists repeatedly against his head.

"Ow! Hey! Q-qui—argh! Stop th—ack!"

A fourth voice suddenly echoed around the room sounding superficially similar to Ben's own but spoken in a monotone, electronic fashion.

UNCATALOGUED DNA DETECTED. ENGAGING CAPTURE MODE.

"AAAAAIIIIEEEEEEEE! HE'S PROBING MEE—EEEEEEEEEE!"

SUBJECT WITHIN RANGE. INITIATING SCAN.

"Good luck on your journey Goddess Aqua, Benjamin Tennyson. May your travels be safe, and your adventure fruitful." The angel calmly proclaimed, totally unbothered by the red light shooting out of the Stabilizer on Ben's hand scanning over Aqua's frantic, flailing form.

SCAN COMPLETE. UNKNOWN DNA SAMPLE ACQUIRED; INTERNAL DATABASE UPDATED. DESIGNATION: UNKNOWN.

With a final burst of magical energy… Goddess and Mortal vanished from the realm.

The angel released a sigh of relief, glad to finally be rid of the troublesome, lazy being she was forced to call a superior. She plopped herself down in what was formerly Aqua's chair, snapping her fingers and summoning the file she'd comprised for Tennyson earlier, the one Aqua neglected to read because she 'had this, yo'.

Idly tossing one of the potato chips from Aqua's abandoned bowl into her mouth, she couldn't help but shake her head in sorrow at the boy's death.

Really, it was insult to injury that Aqua's typical shortcut of bringing the deceased's body to her little transition realm for their talk, rather than just their soul as protocol dictated they should, backfired so spectacularly in this case.

Sure, it was quicker to just magically yank a human's body up here since their soul would come with it but if she took the time to properly extract the soul, the people brought before her would appear as their ideal selves like they would in Heaven.

But no, Aqua always had to do things her way, always had to take every shortcut possible.

She almost felt bad at the twinge of satisfaction she got from sending her supposed superior into the mortal realm.

Almost.

Admittedly, what she did feel bad for was the passing thought that Ben, someone she had never met beyond a brief glance at his life to compose a report for Aqua to read, would've made a better Goddess than she did.

Er, God.

It was at that moment the words the device on Ben's hand, the Ultimatrix or whatever he called it, finally caught up to her, and she remembered that he utilized that device to transform into whatever he wanted.

Slowly, she flipped through the file on Ben and nearly blanched as she realized that in his current body, the body of his mortal enemy, he could transform into whatever he wanted for however long he wanted.

"That's…" she trailed off, trying and failing to figure out the proper protocol for this situation.

The induction of a new God or Goddess was typically, as one would expect, a big deal. For one to be born there was usually a cataclysmic event or some kind of gigantic psychic upheaval on the mortal plane, which would have alerted the Pantheon before it happened so they could watch over the birth.

Aqua herself was born after a world-wide drought united nearly the entire world in a five-year prayer for the blessings of water to grace the planet. Benjamin Tennyson… just managed to become a God in three seconds with absolutely no fanfare.

"O-oh dear…" she mumbled, biting her nails out of nervousness. This… she wasn't trained for this! Dealing with new Gods was something Gods themselves dealt with! Not lowly angels!

New Gods needed to be brought to the Pantheon! But she couldn't bring Ben to the Pantheon because he was on a quest to slay the Devil King!

'Oh geez… what would Aqua do?' the angel thought, before a metaphorical lightbulb popped above her halo.

Striking a dramatic pose as Aqua always had, the angel summoned all her accumulated knowledge on the Water Goddess's mannerisms and actions to really get into the bluenette's mindset and deliver a verdict worthy of her former superior.

"This… is above my paygrade! Eris can deal with it!"

My creative writing needs have been satisfied. Hopefully, your hunger for compelling narratives has also been satiated by my clever wordplay. Check below this wall of text for a Q&A on some questions y'all might have about this fic.

QUESTION: WHY HAVE YOU WRITTEN ANOTHER STORY?!

Answer: All my stories up until this point have been My Hero Academia stuff. MHA's actually been the first anime I ever really liked watching. However, as y'all know my upload schedule can be 'meh' at the best of times. That three-month vacation I took right before publishing this was mostly because of Covid and other life issues like college getting in the way, but I'd be lying if I said writer's block wasn't a part of it.

Normally when I have writer's block, my solution is to stop working on whatever story is giving me problems and move onto another until inspiration strikes again. Sometimes though, I just don't want to write Izuku, even if I do want to write. Thus, one more story to be my passion project I can update when I want.

So smack that follow button, ring that bell, and if this story gets FOUR LIKES I'll make chapter two.

Question: Is there gonna be a pairing?

Answer: Right now I'm eyeing Ben x Darkness or Ben x Luna, but I'll probably put it up a poll if this gets popular.

This leads me to a potential future issue: Megumin is a MAJOR fan favorite, yet is 14 in the anime. Ben is 17. Imma apply the official Konosuba Light Novel Canon to this story, and preemptively age her and YunYun up to 17 just in case.

Even if she's not going to end up as the romantic partner, I would've done that anyway just because me and my smol American sensibilities get offended when the anime draws Megumin fanservice and the back of my head is screaming SHE'S FOURTEEN YOUR FREAKS!

Question: Why's Ben in Albedo's body?

Answer: I did that because in Ben 10 Omniverse, (Y'all should watch that btw.) Asmuth takes away Ben's Ultimatrix and he loses the ability to turn into Ultimate Aliens. I wanted him to have that ability. Plus, I originally just gave Ben Albedo's Stabilizer before I realized that only Albedo can use it since it's not a typical Ultimatrix since it simply 'stabilized' his fluctuating DNA. Thus, if Ben stole it, it wouldn't have worked for him since he was fine. My solution?

Fuck it, throw Ben into Albedo's body.

Helps me get my angst requirement in for the story, anyways. As a bonus, it allowed me to write out a scenario in which Ben, to me at least, believably died. His own partner kills him because he was wearing an Albedo skinsuit. Originally I glossed over that and started out with Ben meeting Aqua and he did a flashback/introspection thing that just spelled out his death, but I've been trying to include more dialogue and action in my stories rather than just throwing walls of text at y'all to read.

Question: The Nemetrix is here! What the hell is that/Why the hell is it here?

Answer: The Nemetrix was a knockoff Omnitrix made by a Cerebrocrustacean (the species that Ben's Brainstorm transformation is) named Dr. Psychobos. It can't accept the DNA of sentient species, so instead, Psychobos hired a dipshit to go around the galaxy and collect the DNA of the natural predators of Ben's Omnitrix aliens.

How the hell do sentient species that can spit fire and grow up on the surface of a sun have natural predators? Don't ask me. They just do. Yes, even the ones that grow up on the surface of the sun. Look up "Crabdozer Ben 10". That thing's Heatblast's natural predator.

The alien that's literally living fire has a predator.

Anyways, I got distracted. To actually use the Nemetrix, it needs to be mounted on a non-sentient creature since as the show put it, the 'bio-feedback loop would destroy a sentient mind' as the non-sentient predator's feral nature isn't compatible with an intelligent being. It's been used on sentient creatures in the show, but it causes permanent brain damage.

I've decided to include it in this fic just cause I wanted to toy around with it, really. This fic is pretty experimental, just me messing around with a couple of concepts, so it'll see some action. Side-note, Canon will only be loosely followed, as one might guess.

Question: Is Ben getting a harem?

Answer: Not a clue. I've never written one as I'm more of a monogamous type. I'll probably include it as an option on that romance poll I mentioned earlier though, so if it wins I'll give it a shot. It'd be an interesting writing exercise, at least.

Question: Is Ben gonna get back home?

Answer: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe I'll make that part of my angst plot. Always gotta angst. It's in my blood.

My angsty blood.

Hail Sithis.