As The Fantastic Four discuss with a still insistent and concerned Max Tennyson, Wolverine is watching Gwen and Ben, still unsure of anything that had just transpired. It was until Ben started messing with the watch again that Wolverine decided to try and talk to the kids, more specifically try talking to Ben, convince him to may be stay out of a fight or two he may not be ready for yet.
"Okay kids, let me make one thing clear. That watch, stop messing with it. I understand, kids can be curious, but we don't know anything and/or everything about it that could make any sense." Wolverine stated. Ben's curiosity shifted to worry. "I know, but I really want to see what else I can do, so I can help people, and I mean really help people, instead of well... making things worse." Ben remarked. Wolverine looked at the kid, and could understand where Ben was coming from, until Gwen stepped in. "You know Grandpa, and even those superheroes told you to not mess with it. You're gonna get in trouble, and variable by proxy, I go down with you." Gwen stated. Wolverine saw Ben, looking at the watch, which had started glowing green again, signifying that the time to transform again was now.
Ben decides to keep twisting the dial on the watch, obviously bored out of his mind until Reed calls him over so he can run some tests. Ben walks over and notices Thing staring at him. "Don't worry kid, it ain't gonna hurt. I think." Thing stated. Ben was a bit disconcerted, but not entirely. A bit of blood work shows immediately that Ben checks out that he is still primarily human, and not a mutant of any kind. Constant exercise tests of the body, mind and soul show that no unforeseen spiritual force has given him these powers, and they finally decided to try assessing the watch.
"Ok, so we've ruled out that the Mutant Gene has never developed within you, and there isn't anything spiritual about you to involve a... a certain someone. The one thing we need to check is this watch. Sue, get the cords ready. Ben, we need you to understand that if you feel any discomfort, you let us know immediately and we'll try to stop, okay? Your grandfather is very lenient on what we can do for you, but we are trying our best. You ready?" Reed explains.
"I'm ready. If I want to be a hero, and use these powers for good, I need to kind of know what I'm working with here." Ben said optimistically, a bit nervous about the possibility of the watch breaking. Reed and Sue popped the core of the watch up and plugged in a couple cords into the core's walls, hooking it up to the Computer system on the jet. Reed and Sue were typing away at the keyboards, pressing buttons and flipping switches, as a Green energy flowed from the watch and through the cords.
"Fascinating. The energy coming from this device is unlike anything we've seen or encountered. It's almost... extra-terrestrial in nature. Ben, where exactly did you find the device?" Reed asked. Ben looked at him and was about to answer, until a blood curdling scream echoed from the outside of the jet. Ben was about to get up until Reed lightly pushed Ben back into his seat. "Let us check this out." Reed stated.
"But I-"
"No buts, you need to stay here and let the computer finish gathering data, otherwise any effort to understand what we're dealing with is in vain." Reed interrupted. As the jet's door closes, some strange robotic drones have already pin pointed their target's location, and have identified Max, Gwen, Wolverine and the Fantastic Four as obstacles. Thing started crashing into the drones, smashing them to pieces as Wolverine unsheathed his bone claws, furiously clawing at the drones making headway to the jet. Johnny was blasting fire at a few, Sue provided cover for Gwen and Max as Reed hijacked one of the drones, and managed to reprogram it to attack the other drones.
Pretty soon, it wasn't long till Sabretooth came back to play. The heroes had him outmatched and outnumbered, so in an attempt to even the odds, a few of the drones started to crawl and latch themselves onto the feral mutant. Sabretooth's animal instincts were being thrown into hyperdrive as his skin became more and more red, the yellow-tan fur on his body becoming a Deeper Shade of Red as his eyes glowed Red with rage. His claws had sharpened up more and more, almost seeming like his claws were made of Metal, and charged savagely at the heroes.
Back inside the Jet, Ben was bored out of his mind, and could hear everything going on out there. "This is so dumb! Why do I have to sit on the sidelines? One forest fire and you're labeled by the best of the best as that guy. Forget this, It's Hero Time!" Ben stated. The PC reached 100% completion as Ben ripped the wires out, slamming down on a random icon.
[Ben's body began to tense up and become very animal-like. An orange fur grew all over him, his hair becoming similar to the fur, as a Black shoulder brace with the symbol emblem formed onto him. His eyes were covered by fur as his teeth became more and more canine-like. He grew some gills on his neck and sharp claws on his paws and feet. The beast roared as the transformation ended.]
The beast roared from within the Jet and busted through it, catching the attention of the mechanized feral mutant.
"Kid, No! This is not your fight!" Wolverine exclaimed. Ben proceeded to roar and run at Sabretooth, who charged at him. As the mutant and the Vulpimancer collided, Sabretooth seemed to be getting the upper hand, but that soon changed when Sabretooth's new metal attachments were being torn off by the alien dog's jaws. Wildmutt tried and tried to regain the upper hand, but things didn't work that way as Sabretooth tossed the alien canine towards the Rustbucket, expecting it to crash.
This didn't happen as Wildmutt stopped himself against the Rustbucket and leaped back to the savage mechanical mutant. Wasn't long till Wolverine jumped back into the fray and started swiping his claws at Sabretooth, his bone claws chipping away at the metal covering his body. As the mob mentality set in, The fantastic 4 also jumped back in to fight. Thing held Sabretooth down, but he was thrown off thanks to the boosted enhanced strength, but Reed and Sue were able to hold him down a bit before Sabretooth's eyes started blasting laser beams that cut through Reed's suit, causing him to recoil in pain.
Johnny and Wolverine were surprisingly a combative duo, slowing Sabretooth down with quick hits, and Johnny's flames were overheating and slowing the actual mechanisms now embedded into Sabretooth himself, and Wildmutt tore everything off or out of the mutant villain, despite the burning metal. Soon after, Sabretooth was able to escape, Thing, Wolverine and Johnny going after the savage mech mutant. The Omnitrix began to beep and flash red, like it had done before when Ben became Heatblast, and soon after, In a flash of light, Wildmutt was turned back into Ben.
Though Ben's intentions were good, this didn't prevent him from getting a thorough scolding from Reed and Max.
"If Reed or that Mutant fella hadn't told you, I would've told you the same thing, Ben. We don't know what we're dealing with, if there's a chance to get the device off, we need to remove it. No grandson of mine is going to get involved in something he's too young to comprehend." Max stated sternly, disappointed that Ben got involved.
"If I hadn't gotten involved, there would be a major risk that those drones, or that even more feral mutant guy could've gotten to me anyway! It seemed like you guys needed help, I was just trying to help! Besides, I think I know how I did that, transforming. I pop the core up, turn the dial to one of these icons, slam it down, and bam! I'm one of 10 different super alien dudes... at least, I think they're aliens." Ben stated, defending himself and his actions. Max started getting nervous, and it seemed like Wolverine and Reed could tell the old man was hiding something... something important. Suddenly, the CB radio on the rustbucket's dash started going off, a park ranger was frantically reporting something as Wolverine and the other 3 superheroes returned.
"Mayday! Mayday! I know no one who's listening will believe me, but we're being attacked by, and again no one will believe me when I say it, but a giant *URGH!* Robot!" The radio dies down, and Ben glances at the scrapped alien drones that were attacking, and the drone parts he tore off of Sabretooth.
"That must be the same type of thing that tried attacking us. It must be after the watch... Those people are in danger because of me!" Ben stated, getting up to go out the door, looking at the Omnitrix, which had now started glowing green again. Ben looked to Reed, Wolverine, his grandfather, his cousin, and the rest of the Fantastic Four.
"Reed, that station checks out. Something entered our atmosphere, and it was very much a giant drone. I'd say we can handle it, but-" Sue was interrupted by a loud pinging noise coming from the jet. Everyone ran towards it and saw that the PC in the jet was displaying information about each and every one of Ben's current 10 Aliens. Heatblast, Wildmutt, some sort of Gray specter, a huge amorphous blob with tech patterns, a small gray amphibious creature, a tall red fourarmed individual, a humanoid angler piranha fish-type creature, a blue and black raptor creature, A bulky crystalline creature, and a huge sickly green bug.
"Computer, information please." Reed ordered. The PC beeped and whirred as an image of Ben popped up on screen with the Omnitrix on his corresponding wrist. The device's emblem, the hourglass, flashed on screen, cycling through the 10 forms Ben had currently, and showing a .001% on screen.
"Data is incomplete, Mr. Richards. The device in question is entirely Alien in nature. Need more data for proper report." the PC stated. Reed looked at Ben for a moment, and Ben didn't know what was going on, but figured more data was needed somehow. Then, Reed had an idea.
"Ben, I trust that you'll take down that drone nearby. You wanna be a hero? This is your chance to be that hero." Reed stated, knowing fully well that the PC has little to no information on how Ben will win the fight with any of those forms. Ben nodded and as Max, Gwen and Wolverine followed him, as soon as they were close enough, it seemed like Ben had a plan.
"Okay. Grandpa and Gwen, you need to get those people as far away from here as you can get them. I'm gonna need Wolverine to help me take that thing down. The moment the fight starts getting real, you guys gotta run." Ben stated, dialing in one of his forms.
"Kid has a point on that front, but you don't have to worry, I'll make sure he isn't roughed up too bad. Besides, worse thing that could happen to me is that I get a hole in me, but it'll heal faster than you'd expect." Wolverine stated, unsheathing his bone claws. In a flash of Green Light, Ben was replaced by another alien.
[Ben's body began to grow and be enveloped in a cyan-blue crystal substance, it formed all around him as his green eyes glossed over and shone a bright orange color. Two crystal spikes jutted out from his back. Ben's suit was split down the middle as one side was white, with a black patch and the Omnitrix being on his left pectoral, the other side was completely black. The alien did a basic pose as the transformation ended.]
Gwen uncovered her eyes and beheld the strange sight before her. "So what can this one do?" she asked. Ben eyed his form for a second before answering.
"I don't know, but I bet it's gonna be cool." the crystalline figure stated, his voice being deep, smooth and rough all at once.
At the devastating scene, some people were already in need of medical attention, so Max and Gwen got to work getting people into a lodge looking structure. Ben looked at the carnage, and instinctively, he walked to the obvious cause of the destruction. A giant drone with arms and 3 mechanical crab legs, it stared at Wolverine and Ben, focusing more on Ben.
"Hey, Tin can! Looking for me?" the crystal hero asked rhetorically. The huge drone scanned the hero, identifying the emblem on its pectoral. It then blasted the crystal hero into a few trees. The crystalline hero then ran back to the huge drone, where Wolverine was poking holes into the drone's huge legs, despite it not working as well as he was hoping. As Diamondhead and Wolverine keep fighting the drone, the fantastic 4, Gwen and Max are evacuating the civilians to a lodge.
"Okay. Ben seems to be something that is jagged, and crystalline in its natural state. Ben, go help Diamond Ben and that mutant fellow. We need all the time right now to make sure these people are safe." Reed stated. Thing nodded and ran towards the drone, leaping up into the air and smashing into the drone's side. Wolverine's bone claws were starting to splinter, the metal seemingly getting too tough for the claws to penetrate, let alone even leave a dent.
"This thing is tough, but not tough enough. Hey kid, you gonna get back in the fray or what?" Wolverine exclaimed. The crystal hero jumped into the air, firing crystals at the drone, but he was ultimately slapped into an already flaming oil rig, blowing it up upon impact. Diamondhead cut himself free, and noticed that the blasts seem to reflect off of him, and he can cut through metal. "Hmm." Diamondhead thought as he ran back to the fight.
Nearby, a man is getting stared down by what seems to be a monster. A humanoid figure in black leather, spikes and has a head of hellfire surrounding a bare skeleton. The man pleaded for mercy, but the skeletal entity was about to strike the man, until the sounds of battle echoed to the woods. The monster sniffs the air and utters one word. "Vengeance..." The monster states. Out of nowhere, a flaming motorbike shoots through the trees and the monster jumps onto it, riding towards the ensuing battle.
As Diamondhead kept trying to slice his crystal blades at the rampaging drone, Wolverine was attempting the same thing. They managed to cut many holes in the drone itself, but it showed no sign of stopping or even slowing down. It was just on a continuous rampage, destroying and levelling everything in its path.
"This is damn ridiculous, how're we supposed to fight this thing if it won't focus on us!?" Wolverine exclaimed angrily. Diamondhead looked over, seeing a tree get torn out of the ground, and saw it collapsing right over Gwen. Instinctively, he rushed over, somehow making it there just in the nick of time, protruding a huge crystal column from his back as he split the tree in half. Gwen was in shock, but was also very surprised.
"Are you okay?" Diamondhead asked. Gwen snapped out of her shock and nodded her head. "Good, cause this is gonna get really destructive in a second... I have a plan, but you, Grandpa and everyone else need to-" There was a sudden scream, a woman ended up in the clutches of the drone, and is frantically trying to escape. Before any of the heroes could act, a stream of pure fire smashed into the side of the drone, causing it to drop the woman into Wolverine's arms.
"Nice shot, Torch!" Thing stated with a smile. The human Torch, Johnny, just looked at the Thing with a confused expression.
"Uh bud? I didn't do that. I've been trying to get people out of the line of fire." Johnny stated. This confused quite a few of the heroes, but to Ben, he had a very big idea on who it might've been... but it would've seemed too coincidental if it was. Regardless, Diamondhead ran back to the fight while Gwen ran back to Max, who was assisting Reed and Susan with keeping people out of the fight at hand.
Diamondhead stood by Wolverine and Thing, as the three just looked up at the robot, which was still trying to recover from the sudden fire blast. "Okay, so if it wasn't Human Torch who fired that shot... I can only take a guess on who it might've been." Diamondhead said, curiosity in his tone. Almost as if he spoke of the devil himself... something just as terrifying showed up for the brawl. A hellish motorcycle pulled up and a man with a flaming skull stepped off, dressed all in leather, stepped forward and pointed at the giant drone.
"You..." The newcomer said, his voice, low, hellish, gravelly, raspy, and spine-chilling to the alien soon-to-be-hero.
"Guilty." The monster unwrapped a chain from his chest and ignited it with fire and began to attack the drone, leaving dented scorch marks on the drone's very plating as this monster kept on trying to fight the mechanical monster alone.
"Ghost Rider... this is the craziest day of my life... and it's also the most action-packed day of my life!" Diamondhead said with awe. Wolverine unsheathed his claws and the Thing cracked his rocky knuckles as they both ran in to provide some assistance. Diamondhead backed away from the fight, and whistled, attracting the drone's attention as it shook off Ghost Rider, Thing and Wolverine effortlessly.
"Come on, you big ol' dumb dumpster! Put on right here!" Diamondhead exclaimed, pointing to the watch's emblem. The drone complied as its chest opened up, revealing a huge laser cannon. The cannon began to charge up and Diamondhead just stood there, putting his hands out in front of his face, melding them together into a type of curved surface.
"Kid, what're you doing?! Get out of that thing's way, it's gonna shatter ya!" Wolverine exclaimed. Ghost Rider picked himself up, and eyed the crystalline creature curiously. The cannon finished charging up and fired a bright yellow beam of light, which collided with the curved surface Diamondhead turned his hands into. He was holding the beam back, and using his own heavyweight as a way to balance himself out and maneuver the beam to hit the ground below him.
"What comes around, goes around." Diamondhead stated, curving the beam to the right and raising it up a bit as it destroys a couple more trees. "Let's see how you like it, you techno-freak!" Diamondhead exclaimed as he gritted his teeth and swung the beam of energy to the left, slicing the drone clean in half. The drone's cannon lost power, but still built up a steady amount of energy to then suddenly detonate into a fiery heap of scrap. Thing and Wolverine were quite surprised by the kid's tenacity, but their attention was drawn to the not-so-subtle crashing pieces of alien scrap metal falling to their feet.
"Haha! Way to go, Be-" Max stopped himself as he looked at the people, and instead tried to think of a name for the alien itself, as to not expose his grandson's identity. "Uh... Diamondheaded Guy!" Max rephrased.
"Oh yeah, who's bad! Yeah, whoo!" Diamondhead stated, celebrating his first ever victory. Max and Gwen tried to motion to him to not do that, only to sigh, and then diamondhead gets the picture, and wisens up.
"Well, looks like my work here is done... Uh, stay safe, civilians! Diamondhead, away!" Diamondhead exclaimed, running away awkwardly back to the campsite.
Reed looked back at the heroes that participated in this fight, seeing how they were all focused on taking down a larger threat, and began to put this moment in history at the back of his mind... something to think about.
The Campsite
The morning soon came, Max and Gwen were busy packing up their camping supplies, with the aid of Wolverine, who has asked to be just called James or Logan, providing some maintenance on the Rustbucket in any way he could, and there was a noticeable lack of Ben.
"Hoo boy, where has that boy gone off to now? We leave as soon as we get packed up." Max asked aloud.
"I haven't seen him since breakfast, but I do remember seeing a flash of green light before sunrise... so he might've used that watch again for, most likely, something pretty immature." Gwen said. Max sighed and rubbed his eyes with his fingers, until there was a paper bag suddenly in his hands, radiating a warm feeling and the smell of fast food filled his nostrils.
"W-What the?! How- How'd this get here?" Max asked, bewildered that this bag wasn't in his hands moments ago. Logan looked at the bag, sniffing it and raised an eyebrow.
"Has your kid's scent on it... but it seems different. When he was that fire thing, his scent was laced with sulfur and magma. When he was that giant dog thing, he reeked of canine pheromones, and he smelt of pressurized minerals when he was that diamond thing... this time, he's got a scent of something that moves with the wind... it's fast.. really fast." Logan described. the two looked in the bag to see 4 different burgers wrapped up, 2 boxes of fries, 2 chicken nugget boxes, and a couple boxed apple pies.
"A bag full of fast food... Smells pretty good, but-"
"Don't worry, grandpa! I paid for it, if that's what you were worried about!" A higher pitched raspy voice said. Max jumped and turned to his side, seeing yet another strange sight.
A bipedal blue raptor-like lifeform stood, with a black and white striped tail, black balls on its heels, a white stripe on a black body suit, and blue electrical sparks crackling all over its body, especially around the creature's three black prawned-claws. The emblem was the same, resting on the creature's chest and a black helmet with a white and bright blue visor obscuring the face.
"Ben? Is that you?" Gwen asked curiously.
"Yup, and you're welcome for me picking up some real breakfast. Couldn't really get any drinks though, due to the claws and stuff. But hey, check this out!" The alien stated. In a quick blue blur, the alien quickly grabbed most of the unpacked stuff and managed to pack it up in the Rustbucket at near lightning speed. The alien stepped back in front of the three as the emblem flashed red and white, enveloping the alien in a red flash of light, reverting Ben back to his normal self.
"I got a feeling that this is gonna be the best summer ever!" Ben said aloud, a smile on his face. Max smiled and chuckled.
"You got that right, sport." Max said.
"It'll... definitely be interesting." Gwen stated, taking one of the burgers out and taking a couple bites out of it. The Tennysons step inside the RV, and Ben notices that Logan hasn't come aboard.
"Wait, are we just gonna leave him here?" Ben asked, looking at Max. Max's smile had soon faltered, and he sighed.
"Ben, we can't risk it, Mutants are-"
"This guy hasn't done anything wrong! He can help us, he can train me, he helped save lives last night, he saved your life, Grandpa! come on, please!" Ben said. Max tried to argue with this, but he knew that if he were to tell him the things he knows, it couldn't end well at all. Max sighed and let Ben make the final say. Ben smiled and walked out towards Logan, who seemed to be covertly enjoying his burger.
"Hey, Wolv- I mean, Logan!" Ben said. The man looked down at the kid and Ben took a deep breath before saying what he was about to say.
"Would you like to join us on our road trip? We could always use an extra hand, you know! And I could use a good sparring partner! What do you say?" Ben asked with a smile. Logan knew he had a million other things to do than just pal around with a couple kids and their grandfather for the summer, but it's not like the millions of things he has to do involve anything good.
"...Fine, but if I'm gonna train you, you need to focus, don't get cocky, and most importantly, Don't. Be. Stupid. Understand, bub?" Logan asked sternly. Ben gulped and took a deep breath, holding his hand out for a handshake, smiling.
"Understood." Ben said. Logan let a small smile form on his face before shaking Ben's hand. Max grimaced and felt unnerved, but he knew it was for his grandson, so he had to pull through. The two stepped back into the Rustbucket, closed the door, and took their seats as they drove off.
"Hey Ben, where else did you go before we got up?" Gwen asked.
"Oh, I just got some fast food real quick, nothing else." Ben said.
Chimeran Alien Warship
A stasis tank is set up, and a huge monstrous lifeform is being taken care of by several smaller robotic minions. And from behind the stasis tank, is another entity, half the height of the monstrous lifeform in the tank, dressed clad in a dark black and light crimson armor, with a big white V etched into the chestplate.
And that is where we'll leave this. Holy hell it took so long for this, but hey, writer's block is a bitch to deal with, like multiverse theory. But, I did want to get this out sooner, if it wasn't for life pulling me to the side every chance it had. So, as you can see, I've set up what will be the catalyst for bringing a few of these heroes together. We have the Fantastic 4, we have Ghost Rider, and we have Wolverine. Ben just got his powers, but with Wolverine now tagging along, we'll be introduced to a couple greater threats... and what better way to introduce one of these greater threats... than with a re-invented villain from the comics. Stay tuned for more, True Believers.