A/N: The first two chapters are heavily based on "Ben 10 Dark Mirror" by Jalaras (with their permission). The rest is my own work.

I should also mention that while I'm going to stick closely enough to the canon timeline, I will skip some filler and shuffle some episodes around for better pacing. I will also use characters and concepts from the other installments of the franchise, mostly because the original series lack a lot of backstory.

Chapter 1: And Then There Were 10

The clock slowly ticked the seconds away as the entire class waited impatiently for the last school day to be over.

At last, the teacher stood up, "Just a reminder: it's still not too late to sign up for summer school."

"Yeah, right. Like that's gonna happen in a million years," a ten-year-old by the name of Ben Tennyson scoffed under his breath.

Finally, the bell rang and everyone hurried to escape into the long-awaited freedom of summer vacation. Ben dallied in the hall instead, waiting for a friend. He didn't have to wait for long before a slightly pudgy, glasses-wearing boy rounded the corner.

"Ben! How ya been, man?" JT smiled and offered his hand for a fistbump.

Ben smiled back, "Pretty good, actually. Today I'm leaving on a roadtrip with my grandpa. The whole summer in an RV travelling across the country… It's gonna be great!"

"Man, that's awesome! I wish I could say the same. But I'm gonna be stuck in the boring old Bellwood for the whole summer."

Ben shrugged awkwardly, "Sorry, man. But hey, at least you'll have Cash around, right? Where is he, by the way?"

Cash and JT were usually joined at the hip. Their parents were good friends, so the two had known each other since diapers. They pretty much lived in each other's pockets, which often made Ben feel like an outsider in their little group. (But he wasn't going to complain. At least he had friends, even if they were losers like him, perpetually stuck at the bottom of the food chain.)

"Cash went ahead," JT replied. "He wanted to meet with a buddy from the chess club."

But as they walked out the doors, they were presented with an unwelcome sight: an older boy had cornered Cash and his buddy and was demanding money from them.

Ben curled his hands into fists. Why did so many people enjoy hurting others? "Leave them alone!" he yelled.

The bully turned around and swaggered towards him with a smirk, "Oh, look! The little shrimp wants to play a hero! You sure you can back it up?"

Then in one swift move he punched Ben in the gut. Ben crumpled on the ground, wheezing in pain.

The bully sneered, "What's the matter, hero? Got a boo-boo? Run to your mommy, she can kiss it better!" He laughed again, "Oh well. Since it's the last day of school and all, I guess I can cut you little brats some slack. See ya in September, losers!"

And with a jaunty wave of his hand the bully swaggered off.

"Sorry, man," Cash said with an apologetic smile that looked more like a grimace. "I should've been watching my back: that guy really has it out for me. Thanks for trying to help."

"No problem," Ben coughed as his friends helped him stand up. He looked away, wishing he could've done more. (What could he do? He was just a ten-year-old kid.)

He stayed in the schoolyard catching his breath, until a familiar house on wheels pulled up. A window rolled down and his grandfather Max called, "Come on, Ben, let's go! I wanna make it to the campsite before nightfall."

Ben said goodbye to his friends and scrambled into the RV, his mood improving immediately. "I've so been looking forward to this!"

Then he paused and blinked at the sight of his red-headed cousin sitting at the table. "Wait. Gwen?! You're here too?! Weren't you supposed be in the nerd school right now or something?"

Gwen rolled her eyes. "That's summer school, doofus."

"That's what I said. Summer school for nerds!"

"Well, I was going to but somebody convinced my mom that going camping for the summer would be a good experience for me."

Grandpa Max smiled at them, "That would be me! I thought it would be fun if your cousin came along with us, Ben. And you'll have someone your own age to hang out with." He frowned slightly, "Is this going to be a problem?"

Ben and Gwen gave each other identical, narrow-eyed looks.

"Well… As long as she stops being a nerdy, dweeby queen of cooties–"

"–And he stops being a dorky, videogame-obsessed doofus–"

The cousins trailed off then shrugged in unison.

Grandpa Max smiled. "That's great! We're going to have so much fun this summer!"

Somewhere in the outer reaches of that particular solar system, two ships were engaged in a game of cat and mouse. One was a behemoth of dark metal and harsh angles. Its entire front half was split in two lengthwise, forming the main cannon of the ship. Red lightning danced between the two parts but the weapon didn't yet fire: its adversary carried the cargo that was far too valuable to damage.

The much smaller blue-green vessel with a curved, almost organic-looking hull, weaved between the red blasts the auxiliary cannons spewed at it, but it couldn't shake off its pursuer.

The captain of the larger ship, one crewed by robots and aliens of different species, ordered a status report.

"Our shields are down but so are theirs. Their hyperdrive is disabled and our armor can handle their fire," his crustacean lieutenant replied.

"Destroy it if you must but do not allow this ship to escape!" the captain, a squid-like alien known to the galaxy as Vilgax, hissed. "The weapon it carries can finally change the tide of this war. We cannot allow it to fall into the hands of the Plumbers!"

The two ships moved closer and closer to Earth, exchanging blows over one of the most powerful items in the galaxy.

"Yeah, mom, we're at the campsite already. Uh-huh… Why didn't you tell me my doofus of a cousin would be here? …Ugh, mom! …Yeah, okay, bye. Call you later." Gwen turned off her phone and looked at her cousin, "Are you gonna call your folks too?"

Ben shook his head without looking up from his videogame, "I don't have a phone."

"Well, if you promise to be careful with it, I can give you mine," she offered.

"They already handed me over to grandpa. Why do I need to tell them anything?"

"If… you say so?" Gwen muttered unsurely. What was his deal?

She pocketed her phone and looked around the campsite. Was there anything interesting here or would she have to make her own entertainment? At least her mom allowed her to take the laptop and the strangely sophisticated satellite dish on top of the Rustbucket provided stable internet connection even in the wilderness.

Before she could drift away from the RV, her grandfather came out, carrying a bowl of spaghetti. At least, it seemed like spaghetti at first glance, if not for the fact that it was moving.

Ben looked up from his game and scrunched up his nose, "Okay, I give up. What is it?"

Grandpa Max smiled, "Mealworms. They're considered quite a delicacy in some countries."

Gwen barely suppressed a disgusted scream, "Yeah, and totally gross in others!"

"Well, if these don't sound good, I have some smoked sheep's tongue in the fridge," Grandpa Max offered.

"Can't we just get a burger or something?" Ben begged.

"Nonsense! This summer is gonna be an adventure for your taste buds! I'll grab the tongue."

As soon as his grandfather left, Ben leaned closer to Gwen and whispered, "Okay, I've got a half-eaten bag of corn chips and a candy bar in my backpack. What do you have?"

She gulped nervously, "Some rice cakes and hard candy. Think we can make them last the whole summer?"

"Hey, kids! I nearly forgot, I have some octopus here!" their grandfather called from inside the RV. "And it's so fresh, it's still moving!"

Ben shuddered. "Nope. Not dealing with that." Then he stood up and hollered, "I'm going for a walk, grandpa! Gwen can eat my portion: she just told me how much she loves octopus!"

"Ben, don't you dare!" Gwen yelped, but he had already run away into the woods.

Unknown to the humans, up above the larger ship had finally worn the other one down to the breaking point. Their constant barrage of fire had finally paid off.

"Their propulsion system has been destroyed," the lieutenant announced.

"Prepare to board," the captain commanded. "We must get the Omnitrix, quickly!"

The other ship fired one last time. It was an extremely lucky shot, a needle-in-the-haystack chance, but it connected with the bridge and an explosion wrecked the inside. With a wail of alarms, the emergency forcefield activated, preventing the air from leaking through the holes in the mangled hull.

Having been thrown into a wall by the explosion, the lieutenant struggled to stand upright. His four spindly legs trembled slightly, fighting against the artificial gravity, and he wondered dazedly whether the gravity generators were malfunctioning or if he was truly too weak to stand.

Then all thoughts fled his mind at the sight of a mountain of twisted metal dripping with green blood right where his captain had been a mere moment ago.

He slammed his hand over the intercom, "Medical team to the bridge! Now!"

Then he rushed towards his captain, using the powerful pincer on his left arm to throw away the bloodied pieces of metal debris.

In his hurry, the lieutenant didn't see that the energy surge from the explosion caused their main cannon to malfunction and fire at the enemy ship, tearing it apart. Then an escape pod streamed out of the wreckage with an escort of two robots and headed towards the planet below.

"Man, this is gonna be the worst vacation ever," Ben grumbled as he walked through the forest, well away from his grandfather's ideas of appropriate food.

And he was so looking forward to this too! A chance to get out of Bellwood… He should've picked summer school instead: it wasn't like his parents ever cared what he did. At least school food wasn't this gross.

Then again, school always meant bullies and here the only trouble he had to deal with was Gwen. As long as she wasn't being all nerdy and annoying, he could tolerate the dweeb. And her presence also meant that Ben had someone in his corner against the grossness of grandpa's food. Who knew? Maybe together they would be able to convince grandpa to feed them something normal.

Or he could run away and live in the woods. That was an option too.

Ben sighed and looked up at the night sky. He had always liked looking at the stars and imagining alien worlds. Worlds with better life…

That was when a bright glowing object lanced across the skies.

"Wow, a shooting star!" Ben exclaimed in wonder.

However, he had no time to make a wish, because the object made an abrupt turn and hurtled straight towards him. He gasped and ran, barely avoiding it, but the force of its impact with the ground was still enough to knock him down.

After a few seconds of lying on the ground with his arms over his head, Ben dared to stand up. He peeked over the edge of the deep trench the object carved in the ground and tried to see what it was. It looked like some sort of a satellite, still hot and shrouded in vapor from its entry through the planet's atmosphere.

Ben shuffled closer to the edge but the weakened ground gave way under his feet and he fell in with a loud scream. He quickly scrambled back to his feet and looked at the object.

It was a metal sphere that slid open the moment he approached as if it could sense his presence. Something inside it beeped and glowed green.

Ben leaned closer, his curiosity overcoming his fear. He squinted, trying to discern what the glowing object was. It looked a little like–

"A watch?" he mumbled. "What's a watch doing in outer space?"

He reached towards it, which was when the object did something entirely un-watch-like. Like a living thing, the strange device leapt up and clamped around his left wrist. Ben screamed and waved his arm around, trying to get it off, but it remained stuck, as if glued to his skin.

Terrified out of his mind, Ben ran screaming into the woods.

The lieutenant watched blankly as the medical team carried away the mangled body of his captain. His pincer clicked open and closed in a nervous habit that he had never quite managed to get rid of. He felt so utterly useless…

"Kraab!"

He stopped his incessant clicking and turned to the science officer that had been calling him (judging by his pinched expression, he had been at it for a while). "Yes, Psyphon?"

"Our sensors have detected an escape pod," the red-eyed humanoid with striped black and white skin said.

Kraab stared at him blankly, his mind struggling to process the information, before he forcefully shook himself off. As the second in command and with his captain indisposed, he was now in charge. He had no time for feelings.

"Send a drone after it," Kraab ordered. "With any luck, we will get the Omnitrix back without causing any trouble to the inhabitants of this planet. And start on the repairs: I need this ship up and running as soon as possible."

Ben was starting to suspect that trying to touch a strange object that fell from the sky wasn't his best idea. He tried to pull it off, bite it off, shove a sharp stick under it, but nothing worked.

Finally, he gave up and started to examine the device. He pressed the sides of the round dial on top of it and it popped up with a beeping noise. Then the hourglass icon on it slid into a diamond shape, showing a humanoid picture inside. Now even more curious, if still a little freaked out, Ben pushed the dial down.

He bit back a startled scream when the strange device sank into his skin. Burning heat spread over his body, melting it into fiery red of burning lava.

"Aaaaahhhh! I'm on fire! I'm on fire!" he screamed and ran around in blind panic. Yet when he stopped for a moment, a realization hit. "Hey, I'm on fire and I'm okay!"

Ben looked at the glowing yellow cracks covering his crimson skin, "Check it out, I'm totally hot!" He laughed at his own joke and raised his fire-encased hands. He threw the flames at the nearby tree, blasting off several branches. "Oh yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"

He rubbed his hands together, growing a fireball between them, and threw it at another tree. The blast tore through it, destroying two more trees behind it.

Then his eyes widened, his elation drowned by fear. What was he doing? He was shooting fireballs in a forest!

"No, stop!" he cried as the wildfire spread around him.

He tried to stomp out the flames but his magma-hot feet only made it worse. Struggling to think of some way to stop the fire, Ben didn't notice that he wasn't alone until something bitingly cold hit his back.

He turned around to see his cousin holding a fire extinguisher. She took one look at him and screamed.

"I know I look weird but there's no reason to be scared," Ben tried to reason.

Gwen didn't listen. She jumped and hit him in the face with the fire extinguisher.

Ben tumbled down and coughed when another spray from the extinguisher hit him in the face, putting out the flames around his head. The fire quickly reignited, reacting to his annoyance. "Hey! Will you stop that already?!"

"I don't know who or what you are, but you will stay down if you know what's good for you!" Gwen threatened.

Ben ignited her shoe in retaliation, forcing his cousin to hop back and put it out.

"I warned you!" she scowled and raised the fire extinguisher over her head.

"Don't even think about it, dweeb!" Ben yelped.

A look of dawning comprehension came onto her face and she lowered her makeshift weapon. "Ben? Is that you? What happened?!"

Ben hurried to explain his series of misfortunes with the freaky watch when he heard his grandfather's voice.

"Gwen, are you alri–" Grandpa Max stopped and gasped. "What in blazes?!"

"Hey, grandpa, guess who?" Gwen said, pointing her thumb at Ben.

Ben awkwardly waved his hand, "Hi, grandpa."

"Ben?! What happened to you?"

Before he could start retelling the sequence of events that turned him into some sort of a fiery monster, Gwen interjected, "Um, hello? Major forest fire burning out of control, remember?!"

Ben nearly jumped. The fire! "What do we do?!"

"Backfire. Start a new fire and let it burn into the old one: they'll snuff each other out," Max ordered. "Think you can do it, Ben?"

"Shooting flames?" Ben smirked. "I can definitely do that!"

Away from the forest fire, two pods, each of them easily the size of a car, landed near the crash site. They shifted and unfolded into bronze-colored robots with tank threads set in their lower section and two pincers on top.

The two robots rolled towards the impact area only to discover that the escape pod was empty. The powerful cannons set on top of their heavy bodies rotated and fired at the crash site to remove the evidence from the local inhabitants. Then they rolled into different directions to search for the Omnitrix.

Soon, another robot fell to Earth. This one was bigger and shaped more akin to a praying mantis, albeit with hands rather than jagged scythes that particular insect was known for. Just like the others, it located the crash site, but its priorities were somewhat different.

It had to find the Omnitrix, destroy the enemy drones, and protect the local species from being harmed in the crossfire.

"So you say that this watch just jumped out and clamped onto your wrist?" Grandpa Max asked once the fire was dealt with and they could safely return to the campsite.

Ben couldn't fully decipher his expression, but the disbelief in it still hurt.

"It wasn't my fault I swear!" he protested.

"Think he's gonna stay a monster forever?" Gwen wondered.

She pulled a marshmallow out of the pack and threw it at him. Ben caught it in one hand, his touch immediately roasting it, and shoved it into his mouth. At least he could still eat in this state. That had to count for something, right?

"He's not a monster, he's an alien," Grandpa Max corrected.

Ben and Gwen exchanged confused looks. Why did he sound so sure about it?

"I mean… look at him, what else could he be?" their grandfather added quickly.

"I don't wanna be fire guy forever!" Ben complained. "How am I supposed to play little league with Cash and JT if I charcoal the ball every time I catch it?"

"Don't worry Ben, we'll figure this out."

At that moment the hourglass symbol on Ben's chest started to beep. It glowed red so brightly that Gwen and Grandpa Max were forced to turn away and shield their eyes. When the light subsided, Ben was back to his usual self.

"I'm me again!" he cheered. Then he scowled and pulled on the device still attached to his arm, "Ugh, still can't get this thing off."

"Better not play around with it anymore until we know what exactly we're dealing with," Grandpa Max warned him. "I'll go check out that crash site. You guys stay here until I get back."

Ben hid behind the RV, trying to figure out how the alien watch worked. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Gwen to find him.

"Grandpa said not to mess with that thing!" she snapped.

"Oh, come on! You can't tell me you're not even a little bit curious about what this thing can do!"

"Not in the least."

Ben scrunched up his nose, "You sure you're related to me?" Then he sighed, "Look. If I can figure this thing out, maybe I can help people. Not just, you know… make things worse."

Gwen skeptically raised an eyebrow, "What, you think you can be some kind of comic book superhero?"

Ben silently kept fiddling with the watch. Of course the answer was 'yes', but it felt too strange to say out loud.

"So… what did it feel like, going all alien like that?" Gwen asked next, breaking the awkward silence.

"It freaked me out at first. It was like I was me but also someone else."

Ben didn't say it aloud, but it felt good to be someone else. (Someone better than the plain old Ben.)

Finally, his tinkering paid off. The hourglass dial popped up with a beeping noise and displayed the same image it had before. Twisting the dial changed the image into a different one. Then another, and another: ten of them in total.

"Hey, I think I figured out how I did it! Should I try it again?" Ben wondered excitedly.

Gwen winced, "I wouldn't."

"No duh, you wouldn't," Ben mocked and promptly slammed down the dial.

Once again the watch sank into his flesh, but this time he could feel fur bursting out of his skin. His back hunched over and his legs reshaped, forcing him to stand on all fours. His face lengthened into a snout and his eyes vanished.

"Ew! What is this ugly mutt?" Gwen complained.

Ben growled at her, drool dripping down his fangs.

She snickered, "What's that, Ben? Little Timmy fell down the well? Oh! Do you wanna play fetch? Here, doggie-doggie-doggie!"

Something akin to gills opened on the sides of his neck, the infrared sensors painting the image of Gwen waving a stick in the air.

"Oh, wait. You don't even have eyes. What good is this one if it can't even see?"

In response, Ben lunged forward and grabbed the stick with his teeth, covering Gwen's hand in slobber.

"Aaaahhhh! Gross-gross-gross!" Gwen shrieked and tried to wipe her drool-covered hand on his fur but Ben easily dodged her every attempt. "You're the worst!"

In response, Ben gave his cousin a doggy grin and ran into the woods, eager to test this alien's capabilities.

Jumping from tree to tree and swinging between branches, Ben couldn't help but change his opinion on this vacation once again. He had no idea what this alien device was, but he knew for certain that it was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

But his fun wasn't meant to last. His gill-like sensors pulsed in warning and Ben jumped off, moments before the tree he had been perched on was blasted into pieces.

A robot that looked like a mixture of a crab and a tank rolled towards him. It was too big to fit between the densely growing trees but its powerful laser blasts were more than capable of ripping apart any obstacle in its path.

Ben was forced to jump across tree branches as it kept shooting at him, but with the strength and agility this form granted him, he was fast enough to climb up a tree and leap down at the robot, landing on top of it. Its cannon spun around, blasting the trees uncontrollably, but Ben held on tightly. He clawed at the base of the cannon where the armor seemed thinner and the metal gave way, revealing the inner circuitry.

He dug deeper, ripping out wires and circuits, and the robot trembled. Its tank threads shifted once, twice, and stilled completely. It didn't move again.

Ben roared in triumph and jumped off the metal husk, just in time to transform back to human form in a flash of red.

"Ha! That's what you get for being such a jerk!" Ben crowed and pumped his fist in the air.

"Ben! Are you alright?!" Gwen yelled, running towards him. "What the heck is this thing?"

"Some kind of robot? Who cares! Whatever it is, I certainly showed it who's the boss!" Ben bragged.

Gwen looked at the metal husk and gulped nervously, "Let's just go back to the Rustbucket. I don't wanna know if this thing has friends."

Unbeknownst to them, the other robot had detected the deactivation of its twin. Its programming had analyzed the situation, calculated the probability of its own destruction, and deemed it unacceptably high.

It moved towards the husk of the deactivated robot and scanned it for damage. Its main processing unit had been destroyed and there was some damage to the weapons system, but it remained mostly intact.

Usable.

The robot opened its hull. The wires inside it uncoiled and reached towards its broken twin, their systems synchronizing and activating the experimental gestalt protocols. The complex mechanisms came to life and the two robots reshaped and combined into a single, much bigger one.

When the process was complete, the new robot rotated its cannon and destroyed several trees with a blast twice more powerful than it could use before. Then it extended four crab-like legs and lumbered out of the forest with heavy steps that shook the ground.

"I told you not to fool around with that thing on your wrist until we know what the heck it is!" Grandpa Max snapped after hearing the jumbled explanation of what had transpired while he wasn't around.

Ben winced, "Sorry, grandpa." Then he perked up slightly, "But at least I figured out how to make it work! All you gotta do is press this button, then when the ring pops up, you just twist it until you see the guy you wanna be. Slam it down – and you're one of the ten super-cool alien dudes!"

"What about staying a super-cool alien dude and not transforming back into plain old pizza-face?" Gwen needled.

"I haven't figured that part out yet," Ben admitted, although the idea did sound good.

Grandpa Max frowned, "I'm not sure you should get too attached to this thing. From the sound of it, somebody already wants it back."

Ben scowled, "If they sent some evil robot that tried to smash me after it instead of asking nicely, they don't deserve to have it back!"

That was when the radio crackled to life. "Mayday! Mayday! Somebody help us! We're under attack by some sort of – and I know you're not gonna believe me – robot!"

"I don't think they're taking no for an answer…" Gwen whispered with wide eyes.

Ben gasped and dug his hands into his hair, "That robot still works?! I should've ripped it to pieces! Those people are in trouble because of me!"

"What you should have done, was let someone better equipped take care of this," Grandpa Max said.

"What? No way!" Ben yelped. "What the heck can cops or those park ranger guys even do against a giant robot? I gotta help those people!"

Because that was what heroes did, especially if it really was his fault.

Before his grandfather could protest, Ben ran out of the RV and activated the watch. Choosing an alien at random, he slammed down the dial. The device flashed green once again. This time his body turned into solid crystal, making him look like a living gemstone.

"So what can this guy do?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know but I sure hope it's something good."

He ran towards the campsite, his cousin and grandfather following after him. There they could see the mechanical crab that looked like two robots merged haphazardly together stomping on cars and trailers. People screamed and ran away from the robotic horror but when it tried to attack them, another robot that looked more like a praying mantis shot it, throwing off its aim. The crab turned around and blasted the mantis, making it stagger.

"What's going on here?" Gwen wondered. "Why are they fighting each other?"

"Who cares? I'll distract the robots, you two get the campers away from here," Ben ordered.

Grandpa Max stared at him for a second then nodded, both him and Gwen running off and getting to work.

Ben ran forward, waving his hands, and shouted, "Hey, tin can! Come over here and fight me, alien robot to alien… alien!"

Both robots turned to stare at him. Then the crab robot fired an energy blast at him but the mantis got in its way once again. It clawed at the top of the crab's shell, trying to destroy its cannon, but the crab quickly recovered and ripped off one of the mantis robot's three legs. Its next blast hurled Ben into one of the trailers, blowing it up with him inside.

Oddly enough, Ben could barely feel the impact, the tough crystal of his new body more than capable of taking a beating. He could feel his hands shift in a strange, hard to describe way. Looking down, he saw that they had changed into sharp crystalline blades. Using his new weapons, Ben sliced open the metal on top of him and climbed out of the ruined trailer.

"This alien is awesome!" he cheered.

He rushed towards the crab robot and attempted to slice off one of its legs. With the speed and grace that evil hunk of metal had absolutely no right to have, it jumped over his head and tried to smash him with its weight.

Ben barely managed to dodge. He gulped nervously when he saw its cannon rotate towards him, "I think I'm in trouble."

With the sound of grinding metal, the damaged mantis robot grabbed the crab by the leg and ripped it off, slamming the crab's body into the ground. In response, the crab turned its cannon around and blasted the mantis in half.

Before it could climb back to its remaining legs, Ben rushed towards the robot and stabbed it in the side. He willed his crystals to grow and expand, cutting through the wires and mechanisms inside it. The robot twitched and fell still, the crystal spikes sticking out of its shell making it look like a porcupine.

He heard Gwen shout in glee, "Yeah! Way to go, Be– I mean, diamondheaded guy!"

Ben quickly ran back towards the RV. His cousin and grandfather followed after him, leaving highly confused campers and rangers behind.

"That was so cool!" Ben cheered after returning to normal.

"I have to admit, that was a pretty awesome fight," Gwen nodded. "But why were those two robots fighting each other in the first place? It looked like one of them was trying to protect people."

"Mantis good, crabs bad," Ben shrugged then raised his left arm, showing off the alien watch. "Whatever! All that matters is that I'm gonna become a hero with this thing!"

"Ben, I don't think you should get too attached to it," Grandpa Max warned. "We don't know what side-effects it could have on you. And who knows who it really belongs to? Or who might come after it."

"Yeah, right! If anyone tries to take it from me, I'll just go alien on them!"

Grandpa Max looked troubled but didn't say anything more.

They went to sleep soon after. This strange day gave them all a lot to think about.

The spaceship orbiting the planet was in a sorry state, but its captain fared even worse. He was missing his left arm and both legs. His mangled body was suspended in liquid inside a transparent tank, connected to a host of tubes. Tiny drones programmed by the medical team crawled over him, fixing what they could.

Kraab nervously clicked his pincer a few times, unpleasantly reminded of his own injuries that forced him to use cybernetic replacements for most of his body. At least Vilgax was still alive and even lucid enough to hear his report.

"Sir. The courier's ship was destroyed and the Omnitrix landed on this planet. However, our records show that the escape pod that carried it made an abrupt change of course during its descent. Psyphon suspects that it had homed in on a Plumber signature."

"Maxwell…" Vilgax hissed slowly, his expression distant. "Is that you standing in my way again, old friend?"

"We don't know all the details yet," Kraab continued, "but according to the data feed from the drone we sent, the Omnitrix has found a host, though their identity remains unknown. Our drone was destroyed in the skirmish with the ones sent by the courier and it was unable to retrieve the Omnitrix."

"Observe and attempt to identify the host but the repairs must take priority," Vilgax ordered. "We have been jamming the courier's communications, so the Plumbers shouldn't yet know we are here… Unless the Omnitrix is already in Maxwell's hands. I should have never allowed him to live…"

The next morning Gwen was helping her grandfather load the RV, preparing to move on to the next stop of their roadtrip. She paused only long enough to update her parents over the phone. Of course, she wasn't crazy enough to say anything about aliens and robots. After all, who would ever believe something like that without proof? (And even if they did, Gwen didn't want them to drag her back home: this summer was turning out to be far more interesting than she could've ever hoped for.)

Grandpa Max looked around, "Where's Ben?"

"I dunno. Haven't seen that slacker since breakfast," Gwen shrugged.

That was when she saw a blue blur speed towards them. It stopped, kicking up a cloud of dust, and revealed itself as a blue-skinned reptile with wheeled feet.

Gwen squinted at the hourglass dial on the creature's chest, "Ben?"

"Yep! And hey, check this out!"

He sprinted around, gathering their camping equipment. In a few seconds, everything was packed.

He stopped and grinned, "Pretty fast, huh?" As the flash of red turned him back human, he added, "I think this is gonna be the best summer ever!"

"It's definitely gonna be interesting," Gwen agreed. "So, where did you go anyway?"

Ben smirked, "Just had to take care of a few things before our vacation really got rolling."

Back in Bellwood, JT and Cash converged on a tree.

"How did Ben manage to leave these notes in our rooms?" JT wondered. "Isn't he supposed to be on a camping trip?"

"Better question, what did he mean when he said there'd be some 'sweet justice' waiting–"

They stopped and looked up when they heard a groan above. There was the very same bully that had punched Ben yesterday hanging by his underpants from a tree branch.

JT and Cash were in tears by the time they were done laughing.

A/N: And so it begins. Admittedly, this chapter turned out to be fairly close to canon but don't worry: the farther we go, the more things will start to diverge.