Ben 10: Alien Rebirth

by B.E.A.T.N

It started with an alien device that did what it did. It stuck itself upon his wrist with secrets that it hid. Now he's got super powers, he's no ordinary kid. He's Ben 10! My retelling of the Ben 10 series, with various changes throughout the story, including: a darker tone, more focus on certain characters, skipped and altered episodes, etc. New chapters (almost) every Tuesday!

23. Chapter 23

Ben 10: Alien Rebirth

Chapter 23: Dr. Animo and the Mutant Ray

Grandpa Max and Gwen walk out of the Rust Bucket, seeming to be at a local swamp in Florida.

Max, "ah, Gator-fest! It'll be starting the next day and it'll be crowded with people!"

Gwen is disgusted by the foggy, dark, and dreary environment as Max is excited over it all.

Gwen walks around the RV to find Ben scrolling through the Omnitrix. Hope is sitting next to him.

Hope, "are you sure about this?"

Ben, "yeah. I gotta figure out how to unlock more secrets from this thing. Maybe I can unlock more aliens, like with BuzzShock, WildVine and Cannonbolt."

Gwen, "be careful. It's probably a big risk to mess with that thing, when it already glitches out a lot."

Max, "Ben, promise me you won't try anything too dangerous with the Omnitrix?"

Ben, "alright, fine."

Max, "good."

Max and Gwen walk away and enter the RustBucket as Ben fiddles around with the watch again.

Hope, "Ben!"

Ben, "what!?"

Hope, "knock it off!"

Ben, "alright, alright, fine."

Ben gets up and walks to the RV, but suddenly, slips on some mud! He falls towards the steps of the Rustbucket, and his watch hits the steps, knocking the face-plate right off of the Omnitrix! Its face starts to rotate in different directions and electrical sparks fly out.

Ben, "uh, that can't be good."

Hope, "ya think?!"

A blinding green light comes out of the Omnitrix!

Ben sits on the floor after the flash, with Hope helping him up as he looks at the top of the Omnitrix, and the shape appears to be twisted. The face-plate is sitting on the ground!

Hope, "that's gonna be a problem, I just know it."

Ben, "ugh, I shoulda listened to Grandpa."

Hope, "at least this was an accident, and you didn't knock it off on purpose."

Ben nodded, grabbed the face-plate and placed it into his pocket.

Max and Gwen head out of the RV, curious about the flash.

Gwen, "what happened? What was that loud flash?"

Hope, "er, I was practicing some magic and accidentally made a bolt of lightning."

Gwen, "really? It wasn't Ben messing with the watch?"

Ben, "surprised?"

Max, "alright, that's enough. Now, let's all get to bed. We've got a busy day tomorrow."

And with that, the four of them begin piling into the RV.

However, the glowing green ground where the face-plate of the Omnitrix landed started to react strangely and tentacles spawn out of the swampy soil, indicating something strange going on….

….

The next day, Ben heads out of the RV.

He looks back inside through the window and around the RV. He was making sure no one was watching him as he tried to fix the watch.

He stretches the gum he was chewing and rings it around the Omnitrix face-plate, then puts it back to where it belongs, hoping that the device would be fixed up.

Hope approaches Ben and says, "I think you're gonna need more than gum to fix it."

Ben, "we'll worry about that after this festival."

Gwen then approaches them.

Gwen, "I know something is going on with the watch. I don't believe your story from last night."

Ben, "oh, quick to judge, hmm?"

Gwen, "says the dweeb who's already had glitches with the watch numerous times?"

Hope, "she's kinda got a point Ben."

Ben, "whose side are you on?"

Before they argue more, they see the festivities of Gator-fest set up.

Max walks forward and says, "ah, Gator-fest! This is gonna be a great day!"

They enter the festival, while a pair of red tinyed eyes look out from the swamp water, seemingly glaring at our heroes.

The festival had a lot to offer: from toys to games, food and refreshments, novelties and collectables, and most of the things are alligator-themed.

Nearby in the swamp, a man picks out strange worms from his bucket and shows it to his friend.

He says, "hey, Larry, check out these freaky things. Must be a new breed of grub or something?"

Larry, "ain't look like no grub I ever saw, Derrick..."

The worms had mutated to have the appearance of StinkFly, although they had no wings and no extra limbs.

….

People are gathered to see the hatching of newborn crocodiles and alligators. The Tennysons decide to join in.

Hope actually looks excited to see the baby alligators.

The hatch-lings come out of their shells and head into the water, and everyone cheers.

Gwen, "okay, I'll admit, that's pretty cute."

Max, "one of my favorite things to see at the festival."

Suddenly, the babies head out of the water and hide in nearby grass, which puzzles Ben.

Ben, "um, is that supposed to happen?"

Max, "no. Something's wrong…."

They soon discover that they were running from the gigantic mutant frog belonging to Dr. Animo! It hopped into the open, making everyone run off in fear!

Hope, "isn't that the giant frog you told me about?!"

Gwen, "yep! And if that's here-"

Ben, "-then Dr. Animo isn't far behind!"

The mutant frog attacks the crowd with its tongue, but the crowd avoids injury as they all ran for their lives. However, the tongue managed to thwack Ben to the ground, which caused the Omnitrix to lose the emblem's face-plate again.

Ben didn't seem to notice that it fell off as he slowly got to his feet... And came face to face with Dr. Animo!

This time, he was wearing giant, metal, gorilla-like arms and red goggles.

Dr. Animo, "you again!? It's so easy to track you and your family with your little aliens always helping where they can!"

Ben steps back as Animo turns to his frog and yells, "attack them, my pet! Attack!"

The frog shoots its tongue at Ben, who is able to avoid his attack this, and he prepares the Omnitrix as he hides behind a booth.

Hope, "Ben, wait!"

But he pressed the watch down, and transformed. But not into just one alien!

They look like FourArms, but with the eyes and wings of StinkFly!

Gwen, "Stink…. Arms?"

StinkArms, "FourArms strength with StinkFly wings? I like it!"

Hope, "it must be from the faceplate getting knocked off!"

Dr. Animo's giant frog shoots their tongue at StinkArms, who quickly ducks under it and attempts to lift it over his head. Attempt being the key word here.

StinkArms, "ugh, either you gained weight since last time, or I'm not as strong as I used to be. Aah!"

He gets crushed by the giant frog. StinkArms wasn't able to carry the weight of the large mutant creature. The frog jumps off of him. StinkArms quickly gets to their feet and flaps their wings as fast as they can. But he couldn't fly either, due to his massive size. He keeps trying to take to the air, but merely gets sent back down to the ground by a quick tongue flick from the frog.

It seems the only choice was to avoid the frog.

The alligators and crocodiles notice StinkArms and try to snap at him, thinking that he's something to be eaten.

StinkArms, "I'm not on the menu!"

Hope quickly helps out and uses her magic to get StinkArms away from the gators and crocs and back onto the festival grounds.

StinkArms, "thanks!"

StinkArms grabs a nearby novelty alligator and hits the mutant frog towards Animo, sending them both careening into the swamp.

StinkArms, "oh yeah! Whose the man... Er... Alien?"

Gwen rolled her eyes while Hope chuckled.

Meanwhile, Animo soon got to his feet, growling under his breath, "impudant little..."

But that's when Animo notices something on the ground.

The face-plate!

He picks it up slowly and finds out that the Omnitrix's face-plate is able to mutate DNA, as a small crab shows him when it transforms to have Stinkfly's eyes and wings.

Animo, "extraordinary..."

Instead of continuing the fight, he leaves with the face-plate, quickly jumping atop his frog and racing off further into the swamp.

StinkArms reverts back into Ben and he finally notices that the face-plate is gone.

Ben, "oh crap."

Max and the others approach Ben.

Max, "are you alright?"

Ben, "yeah. I'm fine. Now, we gotta follow Animo. He's got the Omnitrix's face-plate."

Gwen, "how did that happen? Hmm?"

Hope, "you can make fun of Ben for this after we stop the bad guy."

Gwen, "alright, fine."

Max, "I'll get us a boat to get there."

….

At an abandoned observatory in the heart of the swamp, far from any city lights, Animo inserts the face of the Omnitrix into a giant device.

It appeared to be something he was working with for quite some time.

Animo, "with this amazing technology, my device will reach its full potential! And I, Doctor Animo, will rule the creatures that I shall create!"

He tests it on a bat, and in a giant flash, he knows that his ray is functioning the way he designed it to, as it begins to transform and fly off into the sky!

….

The Tennysons and Hope ride down the swamp river on a boat.

Ben is looking at Gwen as they sit across from one another.

Ben, "go ahead, get it over with."

Gwen, "get what over with?"

Ben, "the gloating. You were right and all that?"

Gwen, "I have no idea what you're talking about?"

Ben, "why aren't you bragging and saying you were right the whole time?!"

Gwen, "because you just did."

Ben groaned in annoyance as Hope chuckled at the banter.

A loud roar distracts them from behind.

Hope, "what the heck was that?!"

Max, "nothing good…."

It appeared to be the bat Animo experimented with, and this time, we see it had the appearance of Heatblast, making it a Heatbat!

Gwen, "well, now we see what Animo's up to!"

Ben, "I've gotta deal with that thing!"

Max, "Ben, I don't think that's a good idea!"

Ben, "I don't think we have much of a choice, Grandpa!"

With no choice, Ben transforms into another hybrid!

When the light fades, we see him on his back as GreyMatter, covered in the skin of DiamondHead!

DiamondMatter, "oh, man! Diamondhead and GreyMatter? I'm a razor-sharp hood ornament!"

Heatbat grabs DiamondMatter and drops him into the water.

DiamondMatter, "oh, come on!"

And then suddenly, a crocodile surfaces!

Max, "Ben! Swim! A crocodile is right behind you!"

But it's too late, as the crocodile eats him, although it quickly spits him out, thanks to his Diamondhead ability to sharpen his body, making him an unappetizing meal!

Heatbat heads back to their boat, though Max was able to splash water into it, using an oar to do so. It flies away as fast as it can!

DiamondMatter, "it must be heading back to Animo."

Max, "look out!"

The occupants of the boat see several branches in the way of the boat.

DiamondMatter, "hold on!"

The small diamond alien manages to form their arms into large crystal blades, slicing the branches away until they manage to avoid them all!

And that's right when DiamondMatter turns back into Ben!

And unfortunately, the boat starts heading towards a large rock in the water!

Hope, "everybody hold on!"

Hope and Gwen use their magic to form a large bubble of purple magic around the group, sending them all flyimg towards the shore of the swamp. They land hard as the bubble fades and everyone slowly gets to their feet to see the boat sink into the water.

Gwen, "great, now how are we gonna get to Animo?"

And suddenly, the watch reactivates!

Ben, "what the? How did it recharge so fast?!"

Hope, "must be because of the faceplate being gone, causing it to go a little glitchy?"

Ben, "you must be right. Let's hope I've got an alien hybrid who can get us to Animo fast enough."

Ben activates the watch and hits the dial.

Standing there was what looked like WildMutt, but with white streaks in their fur and the armor of Cannonbolt on them.

Hope, "hmm, WildBolt? That could work."

Gwen, Hope and Max jump on top of the saddle they wore, and the hybrid quickly ran forward.

It was a bit of a bumpy ride, but it eas very quick, trees flying past them very quickly from the fused aliens speed.

Soon, the Tennysons find themselves at the old observatory Animo was operating in. WildBolt turned back into Ben as soon as they got there and Gwen, Hope and Max got off of him before he transformed back to normal.

Ben, "creepy enough for him to be in."

Inside, they find the giant ray that Animo had built.

Hope, "that must be where the giant bat came from."

Max, "and it's safe to say that Animo must be planning more of these creatures."

Out of nowhere, the mutant frog jumps at them!

Animo appears and exclaims, "ah, hello once again! It appears you have come to perish? Do not worry. I shall put the strange device you dropped to good use. I plan to create a new world filled with life mutated from the DNA of this device, by pointing the ray's signal into a nearby satellite, thus delivering it all over Earth. And to test my hypothesis…."

He points the Transmodulator towards Ben.

Animo, "let's see what it does to you, ypu petulant little worm!"

He inserts his giant robotic appendages into the device and activates it. The flash of light heads towards Ben, but Max pushes him out of the way, though he ends up being struck by the beam!

Ben, Hope nd Gwen, "GRANDPA/MAX!"

Max is then mutated with Stinkfly's DNA, resulting in him turning into a maggot version of Stinkfly.

Animo seems to be satisfied with the result, though he follows the standards of scientific experimentation. He points at Ben again, and Ben is able to dodge the blast, though the giant frog and the Heatbat surround him.

Again, Ben activates the Omnitrix. He slams down and is engulfed in a bright green light once again.

Ben's next transformation looks like RipJaws, but covered in the rocky skin of HeatBlast!

HeatJaws, "HeatBlast and RipJaws? Not the best combo."

Indeed, this combination was the worst possible.

He attempts to shoot fire at Animo, but fails, as nothing but steam comes out of his hands.

HeatJaws, "hey! Nothing happened!"

Animo shoots the ray at HeatJaws, though, being an Omnitrix alien, it doesn't affect him!

HeatJaws, "hey, I'm okay!"

Hope, "it must be since you're already mutated!"

Dr. Animo, "your altered state seems to have made you immune to the effects of my ray. Pity. Well, if I can't modify your DNA, I'll end your life instead! My pets, attack!"

Heatbat jumps at HeatJaws, who jumps on top of them and grabs onto their ears. They fly through the air wildly, bumping into several walls before HeatJaws manages to knock them down into the water!

When the frog tries to attack HeatJaws by shooting their tongue at him, Hope shoots her magic at it, knocking it right through the wall!

Hope, "boo-yah!"

The frog jumps back through the wall, growling in rage as it bounces around the room, wrecking everything in sight.

Gwen runs up the stairs and Animo aims the ray at her.

She was fast enough to get away from his attack, but gets blocked by Heatbat, who was able to survive the water, having flied into the air and into her path.

It bites at her several times, though Gwen finds a way to get past it and jumps onto the ray machine.

Luckily enough, the doorway on the machine she had jumped into was too small for Heatbat to enter.

Heatbat continues to suffer as it desperately tries to get through the door, while the mutant frog jumps at HeatJaws.

HeatJaws somehow manages to spark a ball of fire in his hands and sends it flying at the frog. The mutant frog was able to dodge HeatJaws's fire blast, but was taken down on a second attempt HeatJaws managed to accomplish, sending them into water.

Heatbat sees this and quickly flies into HeatJaws, knocking them both into the water!

As HeatJaws floats in the water, he feels his power growing stronger! The water around him bubbles as the light between the cracks of their molten skin glowing brighter and brighter by the second!

Heatbat and the frog began swimming towards HeatJaws!

HeatJaws powers up, the water around him growing hotter and hotter, and manages to defeat the mutant frog and Heatbat by shooting a powerful jet of steamed water at them as they swim through the depths, but can only sink to their doom because of the force of HeatJaws' attacks.

Gwen tries to find the Omnitrix part, just as Animo was ready to activate the ray.

Animo, "now you and your little witch friend will pay!"

HeatJaws shoots fire at the ray, delaying the activation, and Animo attempts to do it again.

This time, the ray doesn't turn on!

Animo, "what the?! Come on! COME ON! Activate!"

Gwen comes out to show him that she took back the Omnitrix face-plate.

Gwen, "sorry, but you aren't mutating anyone else!"

Animo heads up to get it back from her.

Animo, "give me back that thing you little-"

He grabs the faceplate as he and Gwen play tug of war with it!

Animo, "give it!"

Gwen, "no!"

Animo, "give it!"

Gwen, "no!"

Animo, "give it!"

Gwen, "no!"

Animo, "give it!"

Gwen, "no!"

Animo, "give it!"

Gwen, "no!"

Animo, "give it!"

Gwen, "no!"

HeatJaws and Hope jump up onto the ray.

HeatJaws manages to punch Animo away from Gwen as she pulls the faceplate close. Hope then uses her magic to send Animo flying to the ground below, knocking him out.

That's right when HeatJaws turns back into Ben.

All of them head over to the mutated Max.

Ben, "ugh, this is all my fault. If I hadn't broken the watch, none of this would have happened.

Gwen, "you couldn't have known. Don't blame yourself."

Hope, "Gwen's right. Now, how do we get him back to normal?"

Gwen's gaze turns to the machine and she says, "maybe Upgrade could reverse it?"

Ben, "well, we're gonna have to give it a minute."

That's right when the watch reactivated.

Ben, "or not."

Ben once again activates the Omnitrix and transforms. The hybrid standing there looks like Upgrade, but the limbs look like XLR8's, and they even have a tail.

The hybrid says, "Upgr8 should be able to handle this."

They leap onto the ray and merge with it as Gwen puts the face-plate back in, but turns it around.

Upgr8 shoots the ray at Max, and it manages to reverse the effect and Max changes back to normal!

Hope, "Max!"

Upgr8 and Gwen, "Grandpa!"

Max, "ugh, why do I have this strange craving for rotten eggs and sewer water?"

Upgr8, "how'd it work?"

Gwen, "I put the Omnitrix face in backwards, and hoped that it would reverse the mutation. I'm so glad it worked!"

Suddenly, the watch begins to time out!

Upgr8, "Gwen, quick, throw the face-plate at me!"

She does so, and he places it on his Omnitrix's emblem right as he reverts back to being Ben! This bonds it back with the Omnitrix, setting it and the glitch back to normal.

Ben, "phew, thank God! The watch has been fixed!"

Hope, "that's good."

Gwen and Ben head down the ray.

Gwen, "hey, I've got something to tell you Ben."

Ben, "what?"

Gwen then shouts, "I TOLD YOU SO!"

Ben, "yeah, you were right. No more messing with the watch like that, I promise."

Gwen smiles as Hope says, "well, let's head back to the RustBucket. Maybe we can catch up on Gator-fest?"

Max, "hope, you took the words right out of my mouth."

….

Hours later, in the RV, Gwen is watching the TV, and watches Animo being taken into custody by the police.

Hope is wearing a new shirt under her coat that reads, "Gator-fest 20XX!", with a cartoon gator in sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt giving a thumbs up.

Gwen turned to Ben and said, "well Ben, I hope you've learned something from all of that?"

Ben, "oh yeah. I'm not breaking this thing again. I'm not risking any of this happening again."

Max chuckled and said, "well, this has been one eventful Gator-fest. Now, let's get back on the road."

And like Max said, our heroes were right back on their journey….

….

Reviews:

OMNISENSE95: sorry if I disappointed you at all. I did think your suggestions were interesting.

Guest: Ben won't scan Vilgax until his "death" in Alien Force.

shriramasokan: um, I rewatched the show recently. And I deliberately made Ben and Gwen different from the original. I've tried making Ben more emotional, and made him and Gwen get along more. I wanted them to bicker and argue a lot less than canon, hence why Ben is a little more mature, especially with Gwen and Hope there.

Jonas: glad you enjoyed the chapter. Especially adding in TenTen and my interactions between Ben and Hope.

Chronolocked: yep!

taiwoeretan1: thanks. Thought it'd be neat.

EmperorWolfgang: I honestly thought that's what his species was called. Don't worry, I fixed it.

Monkey D. Conan: thanks. And yeah, Tini is an adult, and so are all of Ben's aliens in this story. And yeah, I plan to do the fountain of youth episode. And I like your ideas for it.

urielmontiel79: I dunno. I didn't think of it. Maybe Ben will get Ultimos' DNA at some point.

Houtarou xr: glad you enjoyed the chapter and the romance.

spitfyre1: I'm glad you're loving the story. But the way I've written the dialogue was done intentionally. I honestly prefer writing it like a screenplay.

PsychicTitan: very soon….

Omnicaster: glad you enjoyed the chapter. And yes, I plan to do Alien Swarm, and to give Hope and Lumi plenty of moments together.

Ushindi: glad you liked it. And yeah, I wanted Ben to get even more aliens than canon. And I'm glad you like the loving moments between Ben and Hope. I hate seeing couples argue all the time, so I try to build up their romance in cute little moments. 1. I think Z'Skayr is terrifying and should have been used more. 2. Not much of a fan of the whole fusion gimmick. 3. Maybe. 4. I think the Diagon arc was decent, but could have been better. I think Ben should've used every single alien he has to fight Vilgax/Diagon with the sword.

epantoja521: glad to hear it.

Tippy 1.1: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. And yeah, I plan to have the Galactic Enforcers appear more. I'm not the best with fight scenes, mind you. I'm gonna try to put more details into them and other scenes. Thanks for understanding my reasons for why those 3 episodes are being skipped. I'm glad you like my ideas for Lumia and the future kids. And yeah, I like your ideas for Ultimate Sacrifice. And yeah, I thought Tenten and Detro would be cool additions. I'm glad you got so excited for this chapter. And yeah, I plan on the Hyperspace ability being given to Ultimate Jetray. For Ben's playlist in Alien Force onwards, I plan for him to only have his new ten at the beginning, and his original 10 in War of the Worlds. And yeah, Chromastone will be more powerful.

Guest: I'm glad you liked the inclusion of those new aliens and how I worked Hope into the narrative. And yeah, the Galactic Enforcers will make more appearances than canon. I'm glad you like the ideas of Hex and Phil getting redemption arcs. Amf yeah, I'll at least mention the Grand Smith Family. And I do plan on Gilbert, Andy and Mandy appearing some time in the future.

….

So, we've got two new fusions in this chapter as Ben and the others continue on to stop Animo.

Upgr8, (Upgrade and XLR8), and WildBolt, (WildMutt and Cannonbolt.)