Too late, I know, explanations at the end, let's speed up this introduction, and let's go to the chapter...
Ben 10 and Monster High belong to their rightful owners
Grammar issues ahead (maybe?)
"It's alive!" waking up to a man's scream wasn't exactly a pretty sight, especially when sleeping in a truck.
The shock Ben got from the surprise was enough to drive away any trace of sleep.
Even so, the young man took a while to sit up.
His eyes scanned his surroundings, the morning light filtered through the windows of the proto truck. The boy brought a hand to the Omnitrix and touched the faceplate, the clock function activated revealing a group of holographic numbers.
6:55
His eyes narrowed, the light emitted by the hologram was hurting his retinas.
After his adventure the day before and having returned in the wee hours of the morning, he wasn't exactly eager to look at shiny things or even wake up, but he had to, after all, it was his first day of school and if he wanted to get start his plan, he was going to need to make a good first impression.
Even with his knowledge of Monster High, he wondered what it would be like to be a student there. Maybe he missed something on his last visit, but the idea that it was some sort of superhero school was still present in his head.
He removed the blankets covering the lower half of his body and slowly stood up, he was in his usual black and green t-shirt and pants, as he did not own any change of clothes, that was all he was going to have for the moment.
He stretched his body a couple of times and then made a disgusted expression when he noticed the scent his clothes had.
"Great, I smell like squid and sewage." he said as he sniffed his shirt, the scent was sour and unpleasant. "I hope it's not too noticeable."
Moments later he got out of the truck, but not before taking a look at Malware, the mechamorph was still there, petrified as he should be. The day before he had not managed to find the laboratory, but he found several places far enough away so that no one would find the villain, he would need some time to get everything in condition, but at least he would no longer have that lunatic inside the truck by the end of the day.
He closed the door, leaving the villain in the darkness, his lines light up for a few seconds and then stop.
Ben went to the house and knocked on the door three times. He could hear a few things inside, mainly Viktor laughing. He knew the reason behind it, after all, he spent a week living with them, and the scream that woke him up was his main clue.
The door opened a second later, revealing the monster wiping away a tear and still laughing. Noticing him, he tried to calm down, but he was still smiling.
"Good morning Viktor." greeted the hero, the aroma of breakfast filled his nostrils and Ben's stomach growled, he hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before, and it was beginning to take its toll. "That smells delicious."
The young hero is ready to enter, but the scientist's hand stopped him. This caused him to let out a deep sigh, he already knew where this was going.
"Rules, first, on the opposite side of Frankie, second, no eye contact, third..." A female hand appeared from behind and grabbed the monster's ear, causing him to duck. Ben let out a laugh at the sight of Viveka, the woman had a rather annoyed expression on her face.
"Sorry about that Ben, please come in."
"My hero." joked the boy.
As he passed by them, the stench of his clothes hit both monsters, who put on expressions of displeasure.
Ben for his part walked toward the kitchen but stopped when a hand grabbed him by his clothes.
As he turned around he noticed his friend's mother holding her nose.
"You need a bath, I don't want you to stink up my kitchen." The hero was about to respond to that but chose not to, it was clear that the stench was greater than he felt, perhaps living so much with creatures that stank much worse saturated his sense of smell.
"I'd like to take a bath, but I don't have any clothes, only those that smells like squid." he replied. "Stupid Scargoyles." he said in a whisper.
"We have some old clothes in the basement, we were going to donate them, you can have some." suggested the monster woman.
"Do you have anything in my size?" questioned the hero as he looked at Viktor. "In case you didn't notice, I'm the size of his arm."
"I think I have a glove about your size." joked the man, Ben narrowed his eyes as he watched him walk past him and into the kitchen. "Take the offer, it's my clothes or Viveka's clothes."
"I choose the one that smells like a squid, thank you."
"Just go take a shower." Viveka replied. "I'll get something for you, you stink, where were you last night?"
"I had an emotional journey back to my childhood." The sarcasm was clear. She didn't understand what he meant but heard him mutter "At least Vilgax wasn't trying to eat me" as he went upstairs.
Minutes passed, and for the first time in a week, the inter-dimensional hero enjoyed a bath, he never thought he would miss such a mundane pleasure.
Ben turned off the flow of water in the shower and used his hands to pull his hair back. He then grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist.
He had been in the bathroom for the last twenty minutes, the unpleasant aroma was almost completely gone from his body, but his clothes were another story, his clothes were arranged on a basket with a sign that said "caution".
"Who would have thought, Frankenstein's Monster has a sense of humor." he commented.
Drying off was a quick and inelegant procedure, for him, being wet with water was not uncomfortable. Not after being swallowed for the third time, or being covered in space mucus.
After finishing, he looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, a chuckle escaped his lips at the sight of his hair completely disheveled. He smoothed it back with his hands, even so, some strands remained wild.
He analyzed himself soon after, his body, his face, everything looked normal, even after spending a week stuck as Upgrade, his DNA didn't seem to have received any alteration as Azmuth claimed it would if he stayed as an alien for too long. And considering that the Omnitrix had reported a genetic flaw in his Galvanic Mechamorph form, it was a relief that his real body was still intact.
"Seventeen years old and not a trace of facial hair." he said as he looked at his face. Meeting his possible futures had made a couple of things clear to him.
First, he will be badass. Second, he had to always keep his ideals in order not to become a jerk. And third, the beard was cool and no one was going to tell him otherwise.
No one.
He continued to look at his body, wanting to be sure nothing was out of the ordinary until his eyes fell on a spot on his left shoulder.
He tilted his body to get a better look at it, it was a curiously shaped scar, it looked like the state of New Jersey. Ben rolled his eyes at that, he was aware of what the watch was doing to his DNA all the time, enhancing and optimizing it, he made the passes long ago with the idea of being the equivalent of Captain America after receiving the super-soldier serum. But what he couldn't believe was that the watch didn't heal the scars he gained before he put it on.
And that one, in particular, was linked to one of his greatest fears.
"Stupid colorful birds." he muttered.
His attention was diverted when three knocks sounded through the door.
"Ben, Mom told me to bring you those old clothes, I'll leave them out here."
"Thank you, Frankie." He heard the girl hurry away from the place and then returned his attention to his reflection. "Maybe I need to get a little tan." were his thoughts before going to the door to pick up his new clothes.
Inexperience was something that defined Frankie, after all, she was created not so long ago, this caused things that for many were normal, leave her very impressed, an example of this was the first time she saw the rain. She had been very excited, too excited, she almost gave her parents a heart attack.
Then there was her first day of high school. She was sure that the mistakes she made that day were written down somewhere for posterity, exemplifying the wrong way to make a good first impression.
And now, she wasn't sure how she should act toward Ben. He was a human, a strange one. She also wasn't sure if that word could be used to define him. Or even if there was one that would work on him.
She knew little to nothing, only that he claimed to be a superhero, her little knowledge of such things led her to relate him with the comics to her friend Ghoulia read. She was going to have to ask her about that if she wanted to understand Ben better.
And after being saved, not once, but twice in the same afternoon by him, she had no idea how to talk to him, Upgrade was simple, he didn't talk and just listened, at least she thought he listened to her. Ben on the other hand was rather sarcastic, energetic, and with a strange fixation on making very bad jokes or using even worse puns. The little time she lived with him made it clear to her that his mouth was very big. The boy was a far cry from what she knew of humans, if she had to define him, it was as if Holt, had been mixed with Jackson and had Deuce's eyes added to him.
And for some reason she didn't understand, something about Ben reminded her very much of the Gorgon boy.
"Is something wrong, dear?" her mother's voice brought her out of her thoughts. "You barely touched your breakfast."
"I was thinking." she answered and then put some of the cereal in front of her in her mouth. "Mom, are all humans like Ben?" she asked.
Viveka kept silent, no human was like Ben, that was clear, but something told her that her daughter was asking more about personality than about his abilities. Viktor, who was to her right looked at her for a few seconds. The two shared a quick conversation with just a glance, after all, as Frankie's parents and creators it was their responsibility to clear up their daughter's doubts.
"No Frankie, every human, just like us, is different, they have their personalities and tastes, some are good, some are bad." explained Viktor, his daughter analyzed his words carefully, it was a little obvious, but she was intrigued. "Is there anything you don't understand?"
"Are they different from us, from monsters?" the question surprised the adults, but they didn't say anything about it. "I mean, we are different, but, Ben acts like some of my friends, for someone who claims to be from another reality, it's like he's from here."
The other reality, that was a topic that little had been touched on since Ben revealed it, it was too fantastic, even for a world where some could control plants with their minds and others create ice from their hands. Viktor tried to understand the situation through science, his brain almost fried from overexertion, and Ben's explanations were only based on movies or comic books, he claimed that those things are pretty close to reality.
"He is a teenager, even with his unique background." the woman answered calmly. "Perhaps both universes are as he says, parallel to each other and sharing many things, such as not warning that he arrives in the early hours of the morning."
"I didn't want to wake up anyone." the monsters turned at the sound of the boy's voice, Ben was entering the kitchen in an outfit that, simply put, was too big for him, a white t-shirt, paired with dark gray pants that looked like they would fall off if it weren't for the belt he wore.
The expression on his face was flat as he watched the monsters' reactions. Yes, he too would find it amusing to see someone who was five foot seven wearing the clothes of someone who was eight feet tall and looked like a truck.
Frankie couldn't contain her laughter at that image, nor could her parents, although they kept their composure.
Ben narrowed his gaze at that and looked at them in annoyance, he knew the woman's idea was bad, but this was ridiculous.
It took his friend a while to regain her composure, even so when for the second time she looked at him, she almost laughed again.
"You look like you're wearing a blanket." commented the girl.
"Very funny."
The boy took a seat in the only free chair, to Viveka's right and looked down at the plate that was there, a bowl with cereal and milk.
"I hope you don't mind that's all it is." commented Viveka.
"Are you kidding? It's perfect, nothing better than starting the day with cereal."
He then focused on his breakfast, his stomach growled, a clear sign that he was already tired of the wait, so the boy hurried to eat.
The young hero's lack of table manners caused Viveka to put on a blank expression, while Viktor shook his head, they could understand that he was hungry, but there was no need to eat like a pig.
His food binge was quick and within minutes the bowl was empty and Ben had a satisfied expression on his face.
"That was a nice bowl of cereal." he commented with a smile.
"Are you sure you're not half-werewolf?" Viktor asked. "I've seen wild dogs with better manners."
Frankie's mother for her part chose to direct that conversation to the real problem, Ben at Monster High, confident that the boy wouldn't do anything stupid, or failing that, anything that would cause chaos of planetary proportions. But since he had a disturbing tendency toward irresponsibility, recklessness, and following his own rules, she had to be sure.
Especially after learning all the details of the fight against Malware, knowing that the boy was pierced and petrified worried her a lot, even her husband, who claimed he didn't like the boy, had been worried about that information.
"You are forbidden to use the Omnitrix while at school." Viveka was clear and wasted no time in beating around the bush.
Ben on the other hand simply nodded, it's not like he had planned on transforming in the middle of a classroom, it would be fun to see their expressions, but it would cause a lot of trouble that he didn't want to go through again.
"I know, it's enough that Frankie, Clawdeen, Draculaura, and Cleo know the truth, I don't need to have the government on my ass again."
Wisely, they all chose to ignore that last part of the sentence, bizarre was normal for them, but Ben was beginning to set the bar for weird and bizarre too high to bear.
"Are you excited?" asked Frankie. "Your first day of school! You're the new kid, I know it may seem like a scary experience, but follow my lead and everything will be fine."
Ben was silent for a few seconds, looked at her, analyzed her words, and didn't miss the opportunity to mess with her.
"You mean I should bathe Cleo in soda?" the mention of his incident caused her to lose her composure and blush with embarrassment. The teenage hero started laughing at that, he was going to have to thank Clawdeen for all the details of that day. "Relax, I'll be fine, what's the worst that could happen?" he froze as he said that and quickly looked around, confusing the monsters at that very strange reaction.
"Is something wrong?" Viktor asked.
"I just said the worst phrase of all." he replied with obvious fear in his voice. "Maybe the universe didn't hear me."
"Are you superstitious?" the monster scientist asked in surprise, and then let out a loud laugh, Ben for his part continued in a state of momentary paranoia. "Boy, really? you have super technology and you're afraid of a simple sentence?"
"It's not just a phrase, it's THE PHRASE, whenever it's said out loud things tend to go overboard." he replied.
"Just for saying "what's the worst that could happen?"?" Frankie questioned, Ben's fear only increased further.
"And now you said it!"
"Ben, please, it's just a phrase, nothing bad will happen, to believe that mere words will alter the cosmic order of things is unscientific." Viveka pointed out, a smile escaped from her lips, seeing him acting so paranoid was funny.
"You wouldn't say that if you knew how much that sentence has caused in my life." he replied with exhaustion.
The rest of the breakfast passed in a monotonous manner. Viktor didn't miss the opportunity to inquire about the watch and ask about its ability to transmute DNA. Strange words and words that Ben could swear the man made up were all he heard for minutes.
Viveka, on the other hand, made small comments and asked for access to samples other than Upgrade's, Ben refused everything and asked that the sample be returned to him as Upgrade right now was damaged and he needed to get the alien back at all costs.
The way Ben was concerned about his transformation intrigued the monsters, especially Frankie. The boy spoke as if he were a friend, someone who was hurting and wanted to help, this made her question if the transformations were something more or if Ben considered them a part of himself and not just a form he could take.
Time passed and it was time for both teenagers to leave for school. The monster girl's parents asked him to be careful and to keep Ben from getting into trouble. The hero didn't take too kindly to being considered so irresponsible, although he didn't argue, it was true after all.
When the door closed behind the daughter of the family, Viktor kept staring into the void. The male monster had a thoughtful expression on his face, which his wife noticed and decided to ask.
"What happen Viktor?"
"All this human shape-shifting from another reality, do you think it would be a good idea to inform the council?" Viktor asked.
"I don't know, so far, Ben behaved like a normal human, a little eccentric, but considering his life, maybe it will take him a little time to slow down." Viveka replied. "Reporting something like this to the council won't be good, you know how some people are, as much as they accept the coexistence between monsters, humans are still a no-no, even if that human can shape-shift."
"Maybe that will change this year." Viktor replied. "I had this dream last night, I think it's a good omen."
"And what did you dream?"
"That I won a Nobel Prize." he replied with a smile. "You see? Good omen."
"Or your ego has become too inflated." The woman gave him a little kiss on the cheek. "Come on, we have to go to the university."
"The show was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be, watching guys fighting in ridiculous costumes sounds silly, but Ultraman was great!"
Frankie listened attentively to her vampire friend, it was eight-fifteen in the morning and both she and her friends were already in their respective classrooms.
The first period was Mad science, the class was supposed to start fifteen minutes ago, but there was no sign of the teacher. His classmates did not miss this, they were chatting, using their phones, and those who were part of sports clubs had turned half the room into a soccer field.
"GOAL!" Heath exclaimed from somewhere.
She for her part listened attentively to her vampire friend, the girl was explaining about a human series called Ultraman, the same name Ben used to describe what he said was one of his most powerful transformations.
To know that his friend could transform into a forty-meter tall colossus was equal parts amazing and terrifying. To know that there was an entire children's series based on them was a little ridiculous.
"Draculaura know Ultraman?" female zombie moans were heard, they both understood them perfectly since they knew the language, it was a young zombie girl with blue hair and an outfit that screamed Geek, the girl also had red glasses adorning her face and a green headband on her head.
"Do you know that series too?" asked the vampire. "I started watching it with Clawdeen yesterday, it's amazing! The costumes still look ridiculous to me, but it's amazing nonetheless."
"I never thought you would see anything made by humans." commented the zombie. "Especially a Tokusatsu series."
"It's because of Frankie's cousin, he mentioned it and we wanted to see what it was." The zombie nodded at that answer and her attention turned to the girl made of parts, the mention of the mysterious cousin piqued her curiosity, after all, she was the talk of the whole school last week.
"Your cousin like those shows?" asked the zombie with some interest.
"Apparently, he's a bit strange and talks too much, honestly, I get lost fast when he starts talking about pop culture" she replied, that was a truth, the boy and Clawdeen had had a long talk about pop culture on Sunday, comparing both realities, her brain almost fried just listening to them.
Although the mention of a series called "Pokemon" caught her attention, especially after Ben referred to her as "Pikachu," she wasn't sure what that was, but she would find out eventually and just hoped it was something cute.
Her mind began to wander a bit, thinking about Ben was like thinking about a box, with another box inside it to infinity, or at least to the number one million nine hundred and twelve, surprise after surprise, after surprise. He was someone unpredictable, she found that out on the way to school, she tried to strike up a conversation with him, she wanted to give him some advice on how to blend in and start his first day off on the right foot, but when a police car sped past them, Ben practically disappeared into thin air, she didn't notice when it happened, nor did she see him nearby.
She searched for him along the road believing that he had only gone ahead, but there was no sign of the hero.
She worried about what he might be doing, after all her mother had asked her to keep an eye on him. She was ready to call her and let her know that Ben was missing, but when she arrived at school, during morning announcements, the principal reported on the new student, Ben Tennyson, who was with her at the time. Frankie was surprised to hear that, she deduced that Ben had simply used that transformation he called XLR8 to get there earlier, although she would have liked him to at least offer her a ride.
Still, the question of what he did in those minutes when he disappeared aroused Frankie's curiosity and concern, XLR8 was so fast, he could break the sound barrier and continue to accelerate, Ben had to do something else during that time disappeared.
She would question him just to be sure he did nothing bad.
The door to the classroom opened at that moment, interrupting her thoughts and causing all the students to use incredible speed to return to their seats and put away every object that looked even the slightest bit like an ICoffin. A man with a stocky build and a face covered by a leather mask entered, followed by Headmistress Bloodgood and a certain young brown-haired hero.
The murmurs did not take long to start, the presence of the human there was not something to be expected, and his attire made him stand out too much.
"Attention students." The headmistress spoke, her voice silenced all the murmurs instantly, allowing her to continue speaking. "Today, Mr. Benjamin Tennyson will be your new classmate, I hope you will treat him as he were one of you."
Frankie saw him observing the place, the curiosity was captured in his face, Draculaura did not waste and raised her hand to greet him and the boy responded in the same way, and then continued to look around.
She began to believe that Ben would get nervous at everything he saw, the crazy inventions, the monsters, that strange jar with eyes. But she underestimated the ability not to pay attention to the important things the hero possessed.
"Is that a jar with eyes?" asked the boy, pointing to the object.
"It is." replied the man in the mask. "Now, go sit down." the hero obeyed the order, walked to the last row of seats, and chose one next to a girl with black skin and red hair that had six arms, she looked at him for a few seconds, but none of them said anything to each other. "Well, since we have a new student today, I will have to... ugh... cancel the weekly test." shouts of euphoria were heard instantly, but they were silenced by the teacher's gaze, who began to give a new lesson.
Frankie had followed him with her eyes, the boy did not react as she expected, of course, taking into account that he had lived through an intergalactic war, his perception of things was perhaps a little different from what she expected.
During part of the class, the young Frankenstein's monster occasionally turned to look at Ben, she expected something strange, out of this world, but that was not the case, the boy seemed to be paying attention to the class, not taking notes, just watching and listening.
"And after the discoveries of Doctor Mortis, the knowledge about the different types of zombie serum expanded enormously, a pity that the good Doctor has been accused of trying to dominate the world." the students fiercely wrote down the professor's words.
Ben, on the other hand, let out a bored yawn, listening to a two-hour lecture about a South American mad scientist from the 1950s was about as interesting as watching paint dry.
Even so, he had to admit that the parallelism that this story had with a certain video game saga of his reality was very curious, he only had to change the surname Mortis, for Spencer and that was it.
"Any questions?" a solitary pale-colored hand went up. Ben watched the owner of this one with interest, it was that blue-haired girl with Frankie's group, he had no idea what kind of monster she was.
He made a mental note about researching more about the monsters when he was done with his current task of hiding Malware.
Unintelligible moans came out of the girl's mouth as if her oral cords were useless or she didn't know how to speak at all.
Activating Translation Software.
The voice of the Omnitrix AI spoke, Ben reacted instantly to this untimely activation.
"Who said that?" questioned the professor.
All the students were searching with their eyes for the source of the cybernetic voice, but some already knew where it came from.
Frankie and Draculaura looked at Ben, who had his left arm hidden and was clearly nervous. They recognized that voice as belonging to the Omnitrix, which meant it had been activated.
"Who is using their ICoffin?!" questioned the teacher, no student said anything, they knew the rules of that class after all, but this didn't matter to the teacher and he advanced towards the seats.
He looked carefully for any sign of a technological device.
Ben watched him approaching towards where he was. He had to act natural and keep him from noticing the Omnitrix. What he didn't notice was that the girl sitting next to him had noticed the source of the voice and was looking at him with a confused expression.
When the professor reached them, he didn't notice anything strange, except that Ben had his left hand tucked between his legs and appeared to be sweating.
"Hold the urge, you're not leaving to go to the bathroom." was all he said before walking away, returning to the front of the class.
Ben let out a sigh of relief at this and released his hand, the watch glowed for a few seconds, then returned to its inactive state.
At that, the hero allowed himself to breathe calmly, his eyes caught the multi-armed monster girl, she was looking at him with an expression of complete confusion.
"The latest model watch, sometimes I think this thing has Skynet inside." he commented with mock amusement and nerves, then quickly turned to the front and focused his attention on the class.
The girl for her part kept looking at him, her eyes fell on the Omnitrix, the exotic and highly advanced design impressed her, but she deduced that it was just a new kind of digital watch and went back to her things.
"An hourglass, I like the symbol." thought the girl while one of her free hands began to draw.
The bell signaling the end of the first period rang and students were soon out of their classrooms to go to their next classes.
Frankie, along with Draculaura and an unexpected Ghoulia, intended to talk to Ben, but the boy stormed out of the room, ignoring them completely.
"Where is he going?" asked the Zombie clearly confused.
"Maybe he needs to go to the bathroom." commented Lagoona approaching them, next to her was a certain male monster with a fish tank on his head.
"When you have to go, you have to go." added the water monster. "Looks like I'll have to wait to meet him."
"You're going to love him, Gil, Ben is..." Draculaura kept silent, she realized a rather important detail, everything she knew about Ben could not be said out loud. Her sudden silence caught the attention of the monsters who didn't know about the secret, so Frankie quickly intervened.
"He is normal! Very normal, he's the most normal." The girl's bolts sparked a few sparks at that lie, which everyone noticed. "We should go after him, I don't think he knows where the next class is."
"It's a good plan, besides, I want to congratulate him for following my advice and going back to school." commented the saltwater monster with a proud smile on her face.
"Did he drop out of school?" asked the zombie girl, her gaze jumping from Lagoona to Frankie, who, once again, looked nervous.
"Because... he..." The girl searched with her eyes for anything that could be used to make an excuse.
"He has a doctorate!" Draculaura added, her friend's eyes widened at that lie and looked at her. "You know, he's Frankie's cousin, her family is full of geniuses, he already has his doctorate as a... mad... scientist! yeah that."
"Your sixteen-year-old human cousin, has a doctorate?"
"Seventeen actually." Lagoona corrected Ghoulia. "And he never mentioned anything about a doctorate." The saltwater monster's gaze narrowed, her two friends were clearly nervous at this, but Frankie took courage and stretched the lie even further.
"It's that... he... he wants it to be a secret, he doesn't like to draw attention to himself."
"Well, he doesn't make it in those clothes, why does he look like he's wearing a blanket?" questioned the male monster.
"Is it... normie fashion?" the young Frankenstein's monster's bolts sparked several times at that, her friends were not very convinced by this story, but the pink-robed vampire intervened.
"Break time is over, no more questions about Ben and let's go find him!" Draculaura exclaimed and then got behind Ghoulia and pushed her out of the room. "Let's go!"
"Draculaura, don't push Ghoulia, you know she has difficulty keeping up with us." scolded Lagoona as she walked behind her, followed by Gil.
Frankie was the last, left alone, she allowed herself to let out a deep sigh, they managed to avoid saying anything thanks to another lie.
An even worse one and a lie of which Ben was not aware.
"Oh no..." she whispered, then quickly followed her friends.
"Pervert!"
"I'm sorry, wrong bathroom!" Ben shouted as he walked out of one bathroom and into the other. "Who the hell created those signs!" was his complaint as he slipped into a stall and closed the door.
Without wasting any time, he lifted the watch and activated the faceplate, revealing the controls it possessed.
"Why am I even doing this?" he questioned having no idea what exactly to do. "Oh right, Omnitrix, activate voice recognition, Tennyson Benjamin."
Recognized user.
"What was that during class?!" he questioned. "We almost got caught, you stupid watch!"
An extraterrestrial language was detected, the universal translation software activated the translation to allow the user to understand the language.
"Alien language?" he asked confused.
The use of the language belonging to the Ormerowon species was detected, the universal translator now allows the user to understand the Ormerowon language.
"Wait, go back, a new alien species?! I have their DNA?! New Alien! Oh yes!" he exclaimed excitedly, but his excitement was dashed by the clock.
Negative, genetic sample still to be unlocked. Suggestion. Visit the Anur system and get a scan from a donor of the species.
The very thought of returning to that damned planetary system made Ben shudder. It was an interesting and cool place, Halloween all year round, but its inhabitants weren't exactly kind to anyone.
He opted to deactivate the watch, it was just a false alarm, although, he could not understand what the language was that the Omnitrix detected and could now understand.
He left the den and headed for the bathroom exit. He barely set foot outside and was once again dragged inside by a very nervous Frankie.
Outside, Lagoona, Ghoulia, and Gil were perplexed by their friend's strange action, Draculaura on the other hand coughed to get everyone's attention.
"It's a private moment between cousins, we'd better wait for them here and not spy on what they're saying."
The three teenage monsters looked at each other and then at the vampire, who maintained a smile throughout.
Back inside the bathroom, Ben was confused and surprised to see Frankie there. The girl was upset and embarrassed, so he decided to try to relax her with a joke.
"Did you use the wrong bathroom too? I think I'll file a complaint to get those signs changed." His monster friend just stared at him, so he decided to explain himself. "You're in the men's bathroom, I don't want to be rude, but you shouldn't be here."
The girl made of parts patted her face, acted impulsively and without thinking, just wanted to fill Ben in on the lie, and ended up in the worst possible place.
The boy for his part folded his arms, waiting for some kind of explanation from his friend.
"I'm beginning to think you did something wrong."
"Please don't be angry." beg the girl as she clasped her hands together. "But, it's possible, Draculaura made up that you're a mad scientist and that you have a doctorate, you just go with the flow, okay?"
Ben's expression became one of complex bewilderment, the girl was ready to hear a scolding from him, but she only heard a giggle. This confused her and she looked at him, realizing that her friend from another reality was laughing.
The boy continued like that for a few more seconds, until he managed to pull himself together and look at her.
"Good joke, me? A scientist?"
"It's not a joke, it was the only thing we could think of so they wouldn't dig any further into your life." she explained with clear embarrassment. The hero patted her face at that answer, making the girl shrink in her place.
"Frankie, my science average was B, and more importantly, how does Draculaura know I have a Ph.D.?"
"Wait, do you really have one?" she asked in surprise, Ben nodded in response. "You never mentioned it."
"And you never asked." The girl stared at him, perplexed by that answer, her expression became annoyed and she spoke again.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are difficult to deal with?" she asked with frustration.
"Yes and also they been told I'm good at improvising, besides, what could go wrong?" Ben kept silent and then patted his face. "I'm sure the apocalypse is about to happen because of me."
"You're still at it? It's just words!"
"We'll not have this conversation again."
Their discussion was interrupted by the bell signaling the start of the second period. Frankie calmed down and took a deep breath, they had until lunchtime to plan a believable story regarding Ben and his life, and now that she knew about the Ph.D., things would be easier, she just needed to have some details and maybe, ask Cleo for help to put it all together. Of course, he was going to need to convince her to help first, she still didn't want to relate to Ben.
"We'd better go, try to act like a scientist, okay?" the girl asked desperately.
"I'll do what I can, but seriously, I have a bad feeling about all this."
The second class period was Monstrous Literature, Frankie barely managed to concentrate in class, she couldn't help but turn every so often to Ben, who was in the back row of seats once again. She was still trying to come up with a story for her newly discovered human "cousin". She knew how terrible it could be to create a lie to try to fit in, but given the situation, she could think of no other way to hide Ben's real nature.
"Miss Stein."
Her mind continued to work, coming up with a plan that would work, her teen magazines said nothing about how to deal with a situation like that.
"Miss Stein."
But the lie was already told, and it should...
"Miss Stein!" the voice of the Monstrous Literature teacher snapped Frankie out of her thoughts. Altered, the young woman returned her gaze to the front and dropped her book, only to find a water monster standing in front of her. "Miss Stein, I understand that your... cousin, is here now, but don't be distracted, we're in class."
"I'm so sorry, Miss Namiell, it won't happen again." The woman narrowed her eyes at that but decided to let it go.
The inexperienced monster girl let out a sigh of relief at that, she had to be more careful, thinking so much about Ben's story could be counterproductive, it would be best if she let the boy talk and just play along.
She decided to turn around once more to see what he was doing, her eyes widened as she saw her friend completely asleep and with the textbook like a wall in front of him, preventing the teacher from seeing him.
"Meow, I like his style." Frankie heard someone say that a girl, and unfortunately she wasn't one of the nicest girls in the place.
To Ben's right stood a catgirl with orange-colored, striped fur similar to a tiger, the girl was wearing an outfit that could be classified as biker attire and had her head resting on one hand while holding a straw with the other.
Frankie saw her bring the object to her mouth and blowhard, a paper projectile shot out and hit Ben, who didn't flinch, but now had a ball of salivating paper stuck to his face.
"Oh, this going to be fun." she muttered to throw another ball of paper at the boy.
The torturous wait for lunch came to an end, the bell rang and the students wasted no time in fleeing like a wild stampede from their respective classrooms. Draculaura quickly withdrew, excusing herself that she was going to fetch Clawdeen and Clawd so that the werewolf could meet the boy, fortunately, she was not the only one to leave, Lagoona and Gill told her that they were going ahead to have a table for lunch and Ghoulia left with Cleo.
Frankie was left alone in the classroom and for some reason, she didn't understand, Ben was still asleep, even after having a face full of paper balls.
"He's a heavy sleeper." she commented with some surprise and approached the boy. It was a miracle that the teacher had not discovered him, that would certainly be catastrophic, but thinking about it was useless at that moment, so she decided to wake him up.
She brought her hand to the boy's shoulder and shook it.
"Ben." A grunt was the only answer she got from the hero, so she insisted once more, but with a little more force. "Ben, come on, wake up, it's time for lunch."
"I swear, Mom, I didn't destroy Mr. Baumann's car." Frankie's expression turned to one of complete bewilderment, she wasn't sure how to react to that.
Fortunately, the boy's eyes began to open, the exhaustion of the previous night was greater than he imagined, and of course, his little good deed of the day before entering school burned all his energy reserves.
His mind was still foggy and his eyes could only make out a few silhouettes, seeing Frankie's silhouette, his mind interpreted something else.
"Hey Kai." his voice was different from the one he normally used, sarcasm and amusement gave way to a calm and friendly voice. "I swear I didn't fall asleep while you were talking."
"Kai?" his sight returned at that moment, next to him was not his ex-girlfriend, but a certain Frankenstein's monster girl whose family was taking him in as a tenant.
"Frankie? What..." the boy looked around, his mind came to, realizing that he had been dreaming. "I fell asleep?"
"Throughout the entire Monstrous Literature class." she replied, then pointed a finger at the boy's face and made a circle in the air. "You should clean yourself up before you go to lunch."
Ben didn't understand what she was referring to until he brought a hand to his face, his expression turning to one of utter distaste as he felt the drooling balls of paper stuck to him.
"How disgusting." was his complaint as he removed one and threw it on the floor. "Someone's going to pay for this."
"Please don't use your transformations, it's enough that you did with Heath and Manny." she implored, although Ben had other plans.
"Who needs transformations? Whoever did this to me declared war on an expert prankster." His expression was annoyed and full of dark amusement, but it turned to one of resignation as his stomach growled. Ben held it in both hands and looked ruefully at Frankie. "This is going to sound bad, but could you pay for my lunch today? I'm out of money."
The girl's expression was flat, while the boy had a very goofy and nervous smile on his face. She was beginning to think that, if Ben was a hero, he was a very bad one.
The creepiteria was crowded as it was every day, students of all kinds were around the place, either eating with their friends, standing in line for food, or just wasting time.
In a table near the entrance stood a group of three teenage monsters and a human with truly zero manners.
"Uh... is that normal?" Lagoona asked as she watched Ben devouring a sandwich.
"I don't even know what this is, but it's delicious!" exclaimed the boy as he took another bite and partially smeared his face with the dressing.
Surrounding them were Lagoona, Gil, and Frankie, the four of them waiting for the rest of the group to appear.
The monsters who didn't know about Ben's lack of manners when it came to eating had slightly worried expressions at that binge.
"He eats like a pig." commented the saltwater girl.
"Pigs chew, I think he just swallows, is more like a duck." added the freshwater boy. "Uh, Ben?"
"Oh, sorry, I haven't eaten for a while, a crazy week." the boy wiped his mouth with his right wrist and set aside his lunch courtesy of Frankie. "What were you saying?"
"We're talking about you, Draculaura said you had a doctorate, you never mentioned that when we met." Lagoona was the one who took the floor, Ben kept silent for a few moments, he knew that, when he lied his left eye contracted, that's why he had to distort the truth.
"I tend to forget."
"You... usually forget that you have a university degree?" Gil questioned perplexed, the human nodded in response, that was true after all. "How did you get it?"
"It's funny, it was accidental." The monsters, Frankie included, looked at him as if they didn't understand exactly what he meant by that, so, after taking a sip from a box of grape juice he had next to him, he continued talking. "I was visiting my cousin at university and an experiment went wrong, I saved a professor and they gave me the title of... uh, what was it?"
The monster made of human parts stood watching him, Ben started mumbling some things, she was sure that among all that she heard something about dark magic, but she didn't know if she wanted to dig into that.
For their part, the water monsters began to murmur among themselves.
"Well, he's a little crazy." said the male monster with some amusement. "I like him."
"I knew you would like him, besides, he said he was a sportsman, try to talk to him about it." his partner suggested.
They both returned their attention to the boy, who continued to mumble about his college degree.
"Lagoona told me you were a goalie at your old school, are you planning on trying out for the Monster High team?" Gil's question caused Ben to snap back to reality and put on a rather strange expression.
Frankie noticed, it wasn't the usual expression she had, instead, it was more of longing as if she had remembered something she no longer had.
"I don't know." began the boy. "It sounds great, but..."
"Ben, don't be afraid to try." Lagoona's voice was kind, the girl gave him a friendly smile, which the hero certainly appreciated. "I know it can be a little scary, but if you are yourself, then everyone will accept you."
"Oh come on, you'll never let me forget it, right?" Frankie's complaint was said out loud.
"Maybe next semester." replied the saltwater girl with clear amusement.
That joke caused some laughter at the table, even Frankie allowed himself to laugh even if it was a joke at the expense of his mistake.
The teenage hero watched them laughing, interacting with each other, they were normal kids, if it wasn't for their exotic appearances, then they would pass for any other human teenager.
And for some reason, Ben felt good to be back in that normalcy.
He picked up his grape juice again and took a sip, but it was already empty, so he stood up, ready to go buy another.
"Frankie, can you..." The girl made of parts put on a blank expression and after searching in her purse held out a bill. "You're the best! I'll be right back."
"Why did you give him money?" the male monster asked in confusion.
"Ben doesn't have much with him, just his clothes, and a truck." she replied. "And for some reason, he thought it was a good idea to spend all his money on junk food."
"I still don't understand how it's possible that his parents allowed him to leave with just that." Lagoona's comment moved something inside Frankie, if only she could say a little more, maybe things would be easier.
"Lagoona, is it just me, or does Ben's voice sound like someone we know?" questioned the male monster.
Frankie remained silent at that question, apparently, she wasn't the only one who detected something familiar about Ben.
"Now that you mention it, I feel like I heard his voice before." replied the saltwater girl, but in the end, she shrugged her shoulders.
The conversation turned to something else, Lagoona began to ask him about the rumored new coach of the Fearlading team, which, unfortunately, was none other than Nefera.
The saltwater girl did not hesitate to make some comments about the bad temper the young woman possessed.
At that moment, something caught Frankie's attention, at the table next to his, a blue-skinned boy with a woolen cap on his head was looking intently at his ICoffin, next to him was a grayish-skinned, black-haired girl in a green dress.
"Amazing, don't you think?" commented the boy. "It was uploaded a few hours ago, do you think it's a new movie?"
"I don't know Billy, it seems real." replied the girl.
"Real? Scarah, if this is real, then superheroes came out from comic books."
That curious statement confused the girl made of human parts, it was strange no doubt, but for some reason, she had a bad feeling.
Ben didn't say he was a superhero? - she thought. - No, impossible, he... - worry hit her then, Ben had disappeared on their way to school, who knows what he could have been doing in that time. She hoped he hadn't done anything stupid, like stop a store robbery or something.
"Maybe a monster was passing by the place and decided to act, although, I've never seen a mollusk monster like him." commented the girl named Scarah, next to her, her friend put on a thoughtful expression for a few moments, and then simply shrugged his shoulders.
The mention of an unknown mollusk monster further upset Frankie, the amount of yet unknown transformations Ben possessed left open the possibility that it was him, of course, it could just be a very big coincidence.
Ben would never do something that stupid. – Frankie really greatly underestimates Ben's ability to get in trouble.
"Hey buffalo face, stop bothering him." Ben's voice rang out overhead and all the hubbub in the creepiteria came to a sudden halt.
The young Frankenstein's monster and her two friends turned to the source of the voice. They saw Ben with his arms crossed over his chest and a very serious expression on his face, in front of him stood Manny and a small imp-like monster.
"Oh no..." was all she could say when she saw her "cousin" in front of the school's number one Bully.
Ben walked away from the table where his new friends were and casually walked to the vending machine next to the kitchen counter.
"Orange juice, prune juice, tomato juice?" the boy read the names of each of the beverages available there. "Grape juice, here we go."
It took a few seconds for the machine to deliver his drink and he wasted no time in opening it and starting to drink it.
"I missed this taste so much." he said to himself as he took another sip.
The boy was ready to return, but he stopped when he saw something, his frown automatically turned into a frown, a few meters away from him, at one of the central tables, a certain teenage minotaur was holding a small red imp by its clothes while a certain fire elemental was laughing.
The smaller monster was clearly frightened and seemed on the verge of tears.
For a second, the image he saw was not that of a minotaur and an imp, instead, he saw himself when he was still in elementary school and a taller, black-haired boy was holding him in the same way, while another boy, stout and bespectacled, was teasing him.
His hero's instinct kicked in instantly and without hesitation, he moved forward.
Some monsters noticed what he was doing, they alerted their friends and in an instant, all eyes were on the human.
"Hey, Buffalo face." The first part of the sentence left his lips, catching the minotaur's attention and making him turn around, finding an extremely serious Ben Tennyson with his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Stop bothering him."
The Greek monster stared at him, noting the enormous difference in size, both in height and muscle. It was like watching an ant stand up to an elephant. But even with that, Ben stood firm and stared at him.
"You're the new guy, huh?" he said as he dropped the little devil, who wasted no time in running away from the place. Manny straightened his back, increasing his size a few inches, clearly trying to intimidate the hero, but the hero didn't even give a sign that he would back down, which annoyed the bully. "I think you need an intense lesson in how things work around here." the minotaur bumped his fists trying to look menacing, but again, to no avail. "You need to learn who's boss."
"Not you, that's obvious." The answer that came out of Ben's mouth caused some to stifle a scream and others slowly began to leave the scene, a few went to call a teacher or the hospital in case the human ended up as much. "No offense, you're big, strong, and that, but you're not leader material, you're more like..." Ben rubbed his chin for a few seconds as if thinking of an answer, then replied "Oh! you're the stereotypical brainless football player, just a henchman for the one who's really in charge."
Hearing that, the minotaur didn't hesitate to grab him by the collar of his attire and lift him. Their eyes met at that moment, he even snorted his face to show that he was the one in charge, but once again, Ben did not react, except to blurt out a smart remark.
"Oh Man." the boy waved his right hand in front of his face and feigned an expression of disgust. "Have you ever thought about brushing your teeth? I can give you some mints if you want."
Some laughter could be heard in the surroundings, Manny quickly turned around looking for the source of it, but everyone around him quickly returned to silence, not wanting to be the focus of his anger.
In the distance, Frankie's eyes widened in fear as she saw the boy bring both hands behind his back and do something with the Omnitrix. Her instincts were instantly triggered, she still remembered the fight between Upgrade and Malware all too well, and Ben had made it clear that he had many other transformations that none of them had seen.
She didn't know what to do at that moment. Jump towards them and stop Ben or run for her life. But suddenly, the boy stopped playing with the Omnitrix and spoke.
"You're not even worth it." Hearing him say that Manny and many others widened their eyes in surprise. "Look at you, you're embarrassing, bullying others, are we in the fifth grade? Why don't you grow up?"
Some monsters agreed with what the human said and began to voice their opinions out loud, which took others by surprise.
"Do you see? They think the same thing, what's the need to be a bully? Does it make you feel good? Is that it? Man, you're pitiful." The minotaur was frozen in place, practically all of them were, which Ben took advantage of to free his attire and return to solid ground. "You have the power to do good and you waste it being a bully."
Frankie was surprised to hear him say that, not only her, Lagoona, Gil, and practically all the teenagers had their attention fixed on Ben Tennyson, the human who was standing up to a minotaur.
All the tension of the moment broke like a piece of ice hitting the ground when a female voice with a Russian accent spoke.
"Finally, someone with some sense around here." Ben searched for the source of this voice, then came upon a light blue-skinned girl in a distinctly wintry outfit, and who seemed to be producing small snowflakes.
The young woman had white hair with uneven pink and light blue strands, a tube dress that left her shoulders free, and violet tights.
She advanced towards both of them, her expression was neutral, but she managed to unnerve the minotaur, who took a step away from the human.
Ben noticed this reaction and arched an eyebrow, he returned his attention to the ice monster and analyzed her in more detail, tall, not as tall as the minotaur, but taller than him, her gait was firm and sure, yet delicate, as if all her life she had learned to walk on fragile or treacherous ground. Now he was sure of one thing, whoever she was, she was possibly the strongest in the school.
A smile full of amusement formed on his face and he pointed at the girl with his thumb.
"See? She does look like the boss." his comment earned an arched eyebrow from the girl and an annoyed look from Manny, who wisely chose not to say anything.
The young woman looked confused at that comment but chose to focus more on the current problem. Her eyes fell on Manny, who looked very nervous at that.
"I thought I told you not bother others." her words were like a cold blizzard on the Greek monster, although there was a blizzard all around.
"I wasn't bothering him..." the girl's icy stare was enough to silence him, and at the same time, that caused a laugh from Ben.
"Where was all that bravado of a moment ago?" asked the boy with amusement, the Minotaur's anger was very obvious, but because the girl was still there he said nothing. "Thank you for showing up, but I had everything under control."
"I doubt it." replied the young woman, and then pointed to the back, Ben turned around, only to find Heath, who seemed to be hiding something behind his back. "The purpose of this school is coexistence, and it is the dream of our headmistress, the three of you are causing trouble, stop it or I'll turn you into an ice-paddle."
Minotaur and fire elemental both tensed at that warning, but Ben was unfazed, instead of misinterpreting everything that was happening.
"Excuse me, but I was trying to help the little devil with Mr. Red Bull."
"Hahaha, Red Bull, that's a good one." Heath didn't hesitate to voice his thoughts, which earned a look from the three teens. "I was just saying."
"Shut up, Heath." ordered the Greek monster, his attention then turned to the human, who continued with that calm expression that was starting to bother him, he couldn't understand why he wasn't afraid of him and after those words criticizing his way of acting, he wanted to put him in his place. "You are dead, Normie."
"Then get in the line." answered the human, once again, both were facing each other and the tension was increasing. "I'm not afraid of you, I'm Ben Tennyson the great..." the young hero froze in that instant, his mouth remained open in the middle of the sentence, which caught the attention of some, especially the ice girl, who arched an eyebrow.
"The great?" whispered a voice among the students. "He thinks he's more than Manny? -
Does he think he's more than a monster just because he's human?" said another.
"Who does he think he is?"
From his place, Frankie watched as everyone began to talk, to express their opinions against Ben. The young hero shut his mouth and turned to them.
"That's not what I was trying to say..."
"Shut up Normie!" shouted someone in the crowd.
"Yes! Who do you think you are?"
"Get out of here!"
"I swear I didn't..." Ben was interrupted when a handful of mash slammed against his face.
Frankie's eyes widened in concern at the reaction Ben might have to that and this only increased when someone threw a drink at him, completely washing over him.
From one moment to the next, most of those present were against Ben, who kept his face covered by his right arm.
"That's enough!" the voice of the ice girl was heard and everything was silent once again. She looked for a few seconds at the hero, who was wiping his face with his left hand, she was sure that the boy had only misused his words, after all, he defended a smaller monster even if it meant facing a bigger and stronger one. "Hey new guy, are you..."
"This's disgusting." Ben's voice was calm, too calm even for the situation he was in, which surprised her. The hero was forced to use the T-shirt he had borrowed to wipe his face of what little was left there. "I hope Viktor doesn't get mad for this."
The lack of a reaction confused many, especially those involved and Frankie.
The parallel between her and Ben during their first day was clear, after all, the lies she used left her as a temporary outcast until she told the truth and made it right, but Ben, he had been the same from the beginning, acting like a hero when the moment needed him, how did he end up like this?
"Frankie." Lagoona's voice caught the girl's attention and she turned to look at her, the young saltwater girl had a worried expression on her face. "We'd better get him out of there."
Frankenstein's monster wasn't sure what to do and was beginning to fear the reaction Ben might have at any moment.
What she didn't expect, was for the boy to simply speak with his casual tone once again.
"I think you got a little stained." the boy pointed to the girl's dress, some of the food that had been thrown at her had splashed her. "I'm sorry about that."
"Are you right?" she asked confused.
"Yes, it's not the first time something like this has happened." his answer confused her quite a bit more, but it also confused the minotaur. "Anyway, I think I'll go clean myself and you." his gaze fell once again on Manny, who was perplexed. "Think about what I told you, no one wants a bully."
The hero started walking towards the exit, he passed in front of all the students, even in front of his new friends, they expected him to look at them, but he just walked out of the creepiteria.
When the door closed once again, Frankie was stunned, not knowing what to do.
I appreciate everything you did and do for me, you are my heroes.
The memory of Ben's words to them when she revealed her story echoed in her mind. She wasn't a hero, she was inexperienced, impressionable, and spent her time reading teen magazines, unlike him, who not only fought to protect her and her friends from the threat of Malware but also defended a monster he didn't know from Manny.
A spark ignited in her and without further hesitation, she headed for the door and went after her friend.
Lagoona and Gil looked at each other and then followed her.
Ben turned on the sink faucet in the bathroom of...what he expected to be the men's room.
"I knew it, said that phrase would be my condemnation." He commented to himself as he looked at his reflection, most of the food was no longer on his face and hair, but there was still some on his attire, so he chose to take off his shirt and put it under the stream of water. "Maybe I should control my tongue more."
That was a truth, one of the things he repeated the most when he was threatened was his title, "Ben Tennyson, the greatest hero of the universe!" or "savior of the universe" depending on the situation. He almost said it unconsciously but managed to shut up at the last instant, the result was not good, but it would have been worse.
After managing to completely clean the T-shirt, the boy put it over the sink and let the water drain off the garment.
"Something tells me I won't be able to attend the last class." a sigh came out of his mouth, though a smile soon after formed. "At least I won't have to listen to another professor lecture for the rest of the day, maybe I can go do something in town."
Without hesitation and with a new motivation, the boy activated the Omnitrix and struck the core with a little force. The distinctive glow of the transformation covered it completely and seconds later, a chained ghost had taken its place.
The entity looked at his hands for a few moments and then shrugged.
"I wanted Big Chill, but Ghostfreak works too." The alien's lone eye focused on the wet T-shirt, then frowned in an angry frown. "I might visit those fools, let's see how much they like having their clothes filled with food." After he finished saying that, his eye widened in surprise and then he shook his head. "What am I saying? I'm not ten years old anymore."
"Ben? Are you in there?" Frankie's voice was heard outside the place, but she wasn't the only one.
"I'll go in and check, stay here." Gil's voice said.
Ghostfreak took that as his cue to leave, so he turned invisible, at the same instant the door opened, revealing a very worried Gil.
"Ben, are you here?" the freshwater boy looked around for any sign of his new friend, but all he saw was a wet T-shirt, without hesitation he reached over and grabbed it. "Frankie won't like this."
And we're done, fuck yeah! Okay, now, quick explanations, uh... well I had a horrible writer's block, but with the help of another writer, Lemon, what's up bro? Cheers. I got through it.
As I was saying, writer's block and... exams, yes, those I said around April, they ended up taking them last week, it was a massacre, and I am really furious about the mishandling that took place, I failed my thesis because according to them I never submitted anything, but leaving aside my fury, let's go with some details that I chose to put.
First, Frankie's inexperience, it all came out of her diary, there's a lot of interesting stuff in there. She doesn't understand Ben and it's going to take her a while to fully understand him.
Then there's Ben and his attitude, taking into account that right now he's his version of Omniverse, a Ben who is a superstar with an ego the size of the sun, his attitude is a little difficult, but it will change little by little. And as you saw, even with everything, he keeps some of his composure because he knows that if he does something, he's going to screw up big time. That doesn't stop him from running away from school with that excuse "Dirty clothes, oh well time to be a hero".
I will also point out that the chapter was world-building. Some things are made known, how the school is working, and the reaction everyone had to Ben, makes sense, although it is a very misinterpretation of what he was trying to say.
Manny's fear for Abbey is due to something I read, turns out Manny was bullying Howleen, and Abbey steps in and threatens him, in what way? By tying a horseshoe to a rope and dropping it on the ground, making it clear that she was going to hit him with that thing. Abbey is a tough girl and makes it clear all the time that she will kick your ass, I love Abbey.
Ben's scar, he's supposed to have one in the shape of New Jersey somewhere on his body, it's never explained where it is or how he got it, but after reading a report about peacocks. Ben's biggest fear. I came up with that.
This is off-topic, but those birds kill cobras and cause many attacks in zoos, they officially scare me.
Frankie and everyone else, still don't know Ben's full personality, how Upgrade was someone calm and "thoughtful", just because he couldn't talk, as Ben, well, we all know Ben. It will take time to get used to Mr. "I hide my fear behind bad jokes".
Doctor Mortis and Professor Namiell, technically they are OC, but not quite, Mortis exists, and is part of a series of... novels? It was a Chilean radio show from the '50s, and he wasn't a doctor, but the very incarnation of death, and that he wanted to take over the world with zombies, I liked the idea after reading about mad scientists to spice up the world, in case you can't tell, Ben refers to Oswell Spencer, the owner of Umbrella. And as for Namiell, little and nothing is known about the teachers at Monster High, and the school is supposed to have 3 different class schedules, daytime, during the afternoon, and night. There have to be teachers. Namiell is an aquatic monster based on Namiele, the Elder Dragon that looks like a cross between a dragon, manta ray, and cuttlefish from the game Monster Hunter Wolrd: Iceborn, she will be lucky if she appears again, which is why I didn't even bother to describe her, but maybe I'll add it later.
The mention of pop culture stuff... eh... well, in Monster High there is Lady Gaga, no joke, they say it, why not Ultraman? And well, Pokemon.
Hahaha, Frankie as Pikachu is hilarious.
But of course, only some enthusiasts of such things would see it, it is not very popular among monsters, except with Ghoulia and possibly Wydowna.
I'll skip the mention of Ben graduating from college, we all saw that episode, right?
About "the voice", I found something curious, Ben's voice actor, gave voice to some Monster High characters, Gil among them, but his voice is not like Gil's voice, is another character, a parallel that caused some jokes.
Lastly, I'm sure this is a little strange, but I like how it comes off, Ben confusing Frankie with Kai, it's logical if you think about it, he broke up with his girlfriend practically the same day he ended up in that reality, and it only a week passed, I doubt he just forgot her, not to mention that Kai was Ben's first love, the first one is never forgotten they say, but eventually he'll get over it.
And by the way, this chapter is split into two parts, or at least the continuation of what Ben does after he leaves school will be seen in the next chapter, I'm more excited than you are, I finally get to write a favorite alien! One of my favorites... I already wrote XLR8 and Upgrade.
And the bad Karma accumulated from the "what's the worst that could happen?" sentences hasn't shown up yet.
Without further ado, I say goodbye, and wait a week or two for the new chapter, I have to solve the problem with my thesis and then I'll be back.
Take care!