As I may have mentioned before, Ben's 10 available aliens are not all from the original series. This is your first example!

As it turns out, the wrath of the Kree Empire is swift. Hala doesn't even wait for a response, immediately charging at Ben, who hastily pops up the Omnitrix's dial and slams it back down on what he's sure is Diamondhead.

It's...not.

"Gooooooooooooooop!" -the fluid, neon-green lifeform says, vibrating their entire form. Julie can't quite believe her eyes, and even the mighty Kree warlady stops in her tracks.

"A Polymorph? Do you intend to mock me, Ben Tennyson?" -she says, disgusted.

Goop looks at their vaguely humanoid shaped body in confusion. "Whaaat? Thiiis iiisn't Diiiaaamooondheeeaaad!" -they say. Their voice is shrill, annoying, and doesn't come from a mouth. Aside from slanted, glowing yellow eyes, the only other discernible feature on Ben's new, viscous body is the Omnitrix's emblem on their chest area. Instead, they speak by vibrating their bodies, which make them look like they're shivering at every overly drawn out word. They're translucent, have no visible organs, and a small, saucer shaped silver device hovers above their head, seemingly unaided.

Hala roars, resuming her charge. Goop tries to roll out of the way, only to discover that, a) they're not very agile at all, and b) despite having somewhat defined arms, legs, torso, and a head, their whole being is really just one single unit. They stumble and fall, and as they rise, they realize that their head has reformed from what used to be their left leg.

It's...trippy, to say the least. It's already weird for Ben to go Diamondhead and realize he becomes a walking, talking crystal monolith, or Heatblast, who's insides are entirely composed of semi-molten lava.

Hala seems to have encountered - and possibly fought - a Polymorph before, because she bats at their head with the blunt end of her spear as soon as their form stabilizes. Julie gasps in horror as the glob that used to be their face is flung a dozen feet away from their body, but Goop doesn't even feel the hit - doesn't even have a brain or nervous system for that - simply recalling the lost fluid with a thought as another head sprouts from the formerly 'severed' neck. Hala is relentless, however, and repeats the process with all of Goop's limbs, boasting a strength and speed unmatched by any non-Enhanced human the teens have ever seen.

A Polymorph can't get tired, but Goop's body is everywhere, and thus takes longer to pull together into a cohesive form. Hala ends their attempt at fighting back by batting down the small, floating, saucer-like object, which she then crushes underfoot. Goop immediately ceases all autonomous movement, becoming a puddle of inert fluid with the Omnitrix's symbol floating within.

Julie punches Hala's jaw, yelping in pain as the Kree barely flinches, even through obvious surprise. The teen clutches her hand, tears streaming down her face, but it's only the fresh ones that have anything to do with her injury.

Hala gently pushes her back, which still sends her reeling back, making her brusquely fall on her backside. "Relax, terran. The boy is fine."

Julie launches herself against the Kree again, but the blue warrior simply holds her back by the clavicle, mildly amused at the tiny, insignificant blows the girl furiously delivers to her armor. "You turned him into a fucking puddle! How can you say that!?

Hala sighs. Terrans can't exactly be blamed for their ignorance, but this is up there with the most basic of concepts in galactic civilization, really. "The fluid that makes up a Polymorph is notoriously difficult to eliminate. It's discharged by Faster-Than-Light starship drives, and traditionally dumped upon arrival along the thousands of warp gates that allow for interstellar travel within the galaxy. It is then collected by private endeavors, and dumped on the dead planet Viscosia. This has happened for eons, and has resulted in a massive, planet-spanning, sentient glob. Every Polymorph in the galaxy is derived from this entity, and every Polymorph is thus a functionally indestructible nuisance, especially when paired with this kind of device." -she explains, disdainfully, nudging at the broken metal at her feet. "This is all to say, I merely rendered Tennyson harmless by eliminating the gravity projector that allowed for this chosen form's more...complex movements. I assure you, he is in perfectly good health."

Julie stops her struggle, taking in the explanation. Her mind races, which tends to happen when an alien nonchalantly explains interstellar travel - or rather, the waste disposal thereof - to you. Hala takes the opportunity to walk up to Goop, and attempts to take the Omnitrix's emblem away. Julie briefly wonders: is it that easy to take the Omnitrix from him?

It's not.

It's really not.

As soon as Hala touches it with the intent to separate the two, the emblem crackles with blinding green lightning, and zaps her away, making her crash, groaning in pain, on Julie's back porch, which splinters and buckles under her weight. Julie can't help but smirk at her misfortune, even though she's now gonna have to come up with some explanation for the damage, but the smile is short-lived. She gasps as the emblem pulses twice, and materializes another gravity projector, which immediately gathers and reshapes Goop into their humanoid shape.

"Oook. Leeet's taaalk thiiings throoouuugh." -they say, and intentionally detransform with a blinding red flash.

Ben stands next to Julie, the pair's places switched with Hala's original. Julie absently notes that the Omnitrix's dial has, once again, set itself to unusable red status. It's a hell of a handicap for so powerful an object.

There's about thirty seconds of tense silence before Ben manages to get any words out, still a bit disoriented from the supremely weird experience that is becoming Goop.

"Well, I can't, for one. 'Relinquish the Omnitrix', as you say." -he says. "Not that I would, if I could, but this is permanent."

Hala rises with all the dignity she can muster and narrows her eyes, twirling her spear. "The elder Tennyson managed to sever the bond even after a decade of constant use. Why should your situation be any different?"

"Something about my genes being a perfect match for the watch." -he shrugs. "I don't know. And honestly, I don't particularly care; I took on this duty willingly. I didn't find this thing by accident, or put it on without considering the kind of attention it might attract. So, despite your...pleasant request, I respectfully refuse."

The Kree scoffs, taking a menacing step forward. "Duty? What do you know of duty, child?"

"Maybe not much. Not yet." -he allows. "But I do know that, if I'm able to wield as powerful a device as the Omnitrix, then I have an absolute responsibility to use it to protect the people who can't protect themselves." -he says, standing his ground. "And that most people can't protect themselves, not against something like the robot we fought last week."

She circles toward them, clicking her tongue. "A failure on my part." -she admits. "The blockade was utterly unprepared for such a quick response to the Omnitrix's activation beacon."

"Activation beacon?" -Ben asks.

Hala rolls her eyes. "Of course. What did you expect that blazing pillar of green light was?"

Julie raises an eyebrow. She thought she'd seen a beam of light shoot up towards the sky as Ben 'became one with the watch', but it was so brief she figured it'd been her imagination.

"The Omnitrix emits a galaxy-wide signal upon first activation with a new user. Some have theorized its creators intended this as a failsafe - that, should the Watch fall into the enemy's grasp, the galaxy would be warned and have time to prepare for the coming darkness. None truly know why this beacon exists, however."

Ben crosses his arms. "We figured the drone came for the Watch, but...the entire galaxy knows I have the Omnitrix?"

"The entire galaxy, yes. Quite possibly beyond." -Hala corrects. "Impossible to know for certain, but we have no reason to believe otherwise."

"Who sent the drone?" -Julie asks. She's still angry at the Kree, but she can't deny this info-dump is invaluable to Team Omnitrix.

...the name is a work in progress, of course.

"That is not your concern." -Hala says, sternly. "You will relinquish the Omnitrix before any other...interested parties attempt to breach our blockade."

Ben sighs. "I told you. Not happening."

"Every second you continue to resist ushers humanity closer to an early grave." -Hala says, grim. "I may not have met your elder, but I highly doubt this is the fate he wished for his homeworld."

Ben agrees. "Why leave it to me, then?"

"Perhaps your Avengers' pyrrhic victory over the Chitauri gave him some misguided sense of confidence in humanity's ability to wage war on a galactic scale." -she muses. "Allow me to dispel that notion: the Accuser fleet above Terra could wipe out all life on the planet now, if I were inclined to give the order. There would be precious little your governments and champions could do about it."

Yikes.

"I mean, bold claim and all, but why not do something productive with all that firepower? Why didn't you help stop the Chitauri, if you're so concerned with 'the stability of terran civilization'? Why not come take the drone that bypassed your blockade out after the fact?" -Julie asks. "Y'know, before it got its chance to kill us?"

"Are you seriously suggesting orbital bombardment as a solution to these problems?"

"I'm suggesting you get your blue asses down here and show people not all aliens are evil, bloodthirsty techno-monsters."

"Our warships are forbidden from breaching Terra's lower atmosphere." -she says dismissively, like it's obvious. "Modern Kree law strictly forbids any military action that may be construed as hostile by neutral observers." -she drones on, then clarifies. "Nova Corps enforcers, of course. Landing forces or providing aerial support may have been seen as taking advantage of the small Chitauri incursion your city of New York endured to lull terran defenders into a false sense of security. We Kree have done this before."

Ben notes a hint of regret in that last line, and files it away for later. There's a story there, for sure.

Julie scowls. "You call that invasion small? Hundreds of people died."

"Terrans should count themselves lucky, then. The Chitauri rarely satisfy their bloodlust with anything less than the deaths of a few million sentients." -she says, bitter, voice devoid of any sarcasm.

Ben's stomach drops. Not for the first time, he thanks whatever higher power is listening that the Avengers managed to stop the invaders on their tracks. It's one thing to hear the analyses in the news - the people who actually ran the numbers on the rate the invaders portalled in and were destroyed by the combined efforts of the Avengers, local law enforcement, the National Guard, and the people of New York itself, and projected that, if not for the nuke Tony Stark valiantly, almost sacrificially carried into the wormhole, the city would have fallen within the hour, superheroes and all - and another one entirely to listen to this obviously powerful, experienced warrior describe the harsh, hero-less reality of such an invasion out in the greater galaxy.

"Now, do you understand?" -Hala asks, somewhere between genuinely gentle and unintentionally patronizing. "Perhaps Max Tennyson did instill in you an adequate sense of duty. But he failed to get across just how massive the responsibility of bearing the Omnitrix truly is. There are trillions of sentients in this galaxy alone - many of which will expect your protection now, just as it happened when your elder bore the mantle."

The Kree extends her hand. "No one would fault you, should you abandon it."

It takes him a moment, but Ben shakes his head. "I would. If I abandoned the Omnitrix now - if I were even physically capable of doing it - I'd live out the rest of my days wondering what if. So no, I won't abandon it. I choose to keep the Omnitrix, and try my best to live up to everything that Grandpa Max accomplished." -he says. "And if I fail, I'll get back up and try again, and again, until I figure things out, or I die trying."

Hala breathes heavily, trying to rein in her reaction. "Admirable." -she grits out. "But short-sighted, selfish. You've forced my hand, Tennyson. I must take you to the Empire, that the bond between you and the Omnitrix be severed, for the good of all sentients." -she declares. "I...hope you survive the process."

Julie's about to yell at Ben to run, when yet another total stranger walks into her backyard.

"That sounds an awful lot like that old Kree motto, Hala." -the woman says. She's human, a blonde in her mid to late thirties that walks with a limp, supported by a sleek-looking black metal cane. "'For the good of all Kree'?"

Hala narrows her eyes, anxiously twirling her spear. "Abigail Brand. Director of S.W.O.R.D." -she says. Ben immediately gets the impression that the two share quite a history. "I would advise against meddling in the affairs of a Kree Accuser, but I know my warning would fall on dead ears."

"Deaf ears, woman. Deaf, not dead." -Abigail says, amused. "And I would remind you that the Kree have no jurisdiction within Earth's atmosphere, but that would assume you care about the Empire's interests in the first place."

Hala grunts. "State your business, Director."

Brand shrugs. "Just here to have a friendly chat with a fellow human." -she says, nodding at Ben. "You don't mind, do you?"

"I do." -Hala counters. "But that won't matter to you, I assume."

"Nope."

"...fine. Take the child, have your chat." -she says, then tips her weapon at Julie. "I shall stay with this one, to ensure you don't get any of your...ideas."

Julie looks offended, but doesn't fight the idea. She shares a silent exchange with Ben - be safe, don't anger the alien warlady, that kind of thing. Abigail winks at Ben, reassuringly.

"Come inside, I guess." -Julie tells Hala. "I, uh, hope you like tea."

The Accuser makes a face, but follows her inside. Ben can't help but wonder at the absurdity that his life has already become.

"She's really more of a coffee person." -Brand notes, then lightly smacks Ben's leg with her cane. "Come on, show me to the nearest diner. We have a lot to talk about."

Abigail Brand looks kinda like a younger - but somehow more exhausted - Ellen Ripley, as played by Sigourney Weaver. Her face is thinner, her eyes a little more sunk in, and she looks about thirty seconds away from narcolepsy-induced slumber.

Still, she cheerfully stabs at her queso-covered seasoned fries. She's offered to share, of course, but Ben isn't really hungry, not after the whole 'hostile First Contact' fiasco, the protagonist of which is presumably still holding his girlfriend hostage in her own home.

"You haven't said anything." -she notes, pointing at him with a dripping fry.

"I was kind of expecting you to start." -Ben retorts.

"Fair, I guess. Still, I would've thought you'd be jumping at the chance to ask if I know how your girl is faring with the Accuser." -she says, then nods at the table. "You keep glancing at your phone."

Ben scowls, leaning back against the well-worn booth. "Well? How is she?"

Abigail sighs. "Contrary to the terrible first impression she's just given you, Hala is not a bad person, Ben." -she says. "She can be…"

"Nuts?"

"Overzealous." -she says, wryly. "You can take the Kree out of the Empire, but you can't take the Kree out of the woman."

Ben purses his lips. "Grandpa warned us about them. Well, sort of. They captured him in his 'secret astronaut' days, right?"

"Hala's predecessor did." -she confirmed. "I kinda pitied the guy. Earth may be a backwater in galactic civilization, but it's also a colossal embarrassment for the Kree - for reasons I'm not at liberty to divulge - so getting posted here is kind of a punishment for Kree Accusers. Then he went and lost the one prisoner he'd ever captured, who'd go on to be the one guy to ever claim the Omnitrix, and use it to threaten the Kree Empire into taking away their original blockade. I'm pretty sure he was executed for sheer incompetence."

"Yikes."

Abigail tips her chocolate milkshake at him. "Yup. Still, the Kree have turned over a new leaf...or three. Max never made good on his threats, but humanity gave them a very secret and highly cathartic kick in their blue asses back in the late nineties anyways, and then they signed their peace treaty with Xandar…" -she trails off. "Point is, most modern Kree are...well, not good, but less of the warmongering jackasses they used to be. Hala's a good example; she was raised as an Accuser, one of the foremost representatives of so-called 'Kree genetic superiority', but she's always had a soft spot for other sentients. So much so that the Empire questioned her loyalties, and sent her off to backwater planet babysitting duty."

"Well, she seems pretty loyal." -Ben said, scornfully.

"Oh no, she's very much a traitor. Always been a little too lenient with the people living in the colonies she oversees, but she has a thing for humans, specifically." -she says, amused. The way Abigail says 'thing' kinda makes it sound like a romantic thing. Ben wonders if maybe Hala had a thing for a specific, Ellen Ripley lookalike woman. "So, instead of doing her duty and keeping us both isolated from galactic society and ignorant as hell in the science and technology department, she's been our link to the Nova Empire, helping prepare us to take the leap and join interstellar civilization."

Ben purses his lips, confused. "Wait. If she's a traitor, why did she end up declaring she'd take me to the Kree?"

"Like it or not, they're still the most advanced species in the galaxy. That's what you get when your leader is an immortal AI." -she says. "If anyone could separate you from the watch, it'd probably be someone on Hala. The planet, not the person."

"No, I got that." -Ben says dryly. "Wouldn't that just deliver the Omnitrix into their hands, though?"

"And probably convince them they can use the watch for warfare, prompting then to abandon all pretense and reject their newfound peaceful ways? Yeah, you're right." -she says. "Frankly, I don't know that Hala thought this idea through. But even if she had, I think she'd consider the risk worth it. She may come across as patronizing and dismissive of your decision to bear the Omnitrix, but she's not kidding around when it comes to the risks. If anything, she's sparing you all the gory details."

"Like what?"

She sets the fry she's holding down and looks him in the eye. Hers are yellow-green, and have seen way too much. "Like the fact that someone's placed a bounty on your head, and hunters are likely speeding towards Earth as we speak."

Ben's stomach drops. "Jesus, what? I just got this thing. How do I already have bounty hunters after me?"

"The bounty's old, and it's not technically on you. It just calls for the capture of the Omnitrix's bearer. We're pretty sure it's from Max's days, but he never said anything about it, and we didn't exactly have the tech to catch it back in the sixties. All we know right now basically amounts to gossip."

Ben raises an eyebrow. "So they just...what, ignored Grandpa for fifty years?"

"Well, no. First off, your grandfather was an absolute badass with that thing. No one could take him on, so most people stopped trying. Then he practically vanished from the galaxy after his decade as an adventurer - and it's not like the Omnitrix sends a beacon upon deactivation - so people probably just assumed he died. The bounty most likely went dormant until the Omnitrix popped up again."

"Until now." -Ben surmised. "So, what do I do?"

"You've got a few choices." -she says, as if she's talking about what restaurant to go to, and not, y'know, his fate. "You could follow Hala's advice - minus the stupid Kree intervention plan - and try find a way to remove the watch."

"Not happening." -he says.

She shakes her head fondly. "You're Max's kid, alright."

"Grandkid."

"Same difference." -she says, narrowing her eyes. "Speaking of sensible choices: you could just go to Max."

Ben's eyes widen. "What? I could just...do that?"

She shrugs. "We're not sure of exactly where he is, but starting with the Nova Corps is a safe bet. You'd be as safe from bounty hunters as you could hope to be, and Max would certainly train and protect you."

Ben can't really believe it. If he so chose, he could just...visit Grandpa. Or go find him, at least. It sounds too good to be true.

"Of course, that'd imply leaving Earth and all your loved ones behind for a long time, possibly for good."

Yep. Too good to be true.

She offers a sympathetic look. "Until such a time as we're deemed worthy of joining galactic society - and, y'know, not blowing each other up - and aside from a few key exemptions, humans aren't allowed to travel beyond the Kuiper Belt. Bearing the Omnitrix gives you a pass, but Miss Yamamoto and your cousins unfortunately do not count."

"I'm pretty sure Kevin technically counts as my uncle." -Ben says, trying to keep his spirits up in the face of the chance of seeing his grandfather again anytime soon getting completely snuffed out.

"Best not tell Gwendolyn, eh?" -she says knowingly.

He narrows his eyes. "Have you been spying on us?"

"S.W.O.R.D. does not spy. We monitor." -she says, indignant. "I'm not Nick Fury."

"Who are you, then?" -Ben asks. "Aside from the Director of a secret space agency, and the mother of all info-dumps?"

She chuckles. "I'm just a friend of the family, Ben. I've known your grandpa and grandma for ages, and I've watched you guys grow into a loving, caring family. Good people. Minus the brats Max somehow raised, of course."

"You...don't look a day over thirty-five." -Ben says, skeptical.

Abigail winks. "Space magic is good for the skin." -she says. "In any case, Max has done so much for humanity's standing in the galaxy that I owe it to him to see his chosen heir succeed. And, while I don't have Helicarriers or oodles of nameless troops to throw between you and the bad guys, I can offer information you're sorely lacking. And a choice, for how to move forward."

"Exile or surrender." -Ben says, pursing his lips.

"Or - and I'm assuming you've already decided on option C - you can stand your ground and become the hero your family and I know you can be."

Ben nods, determined. It really shouldn't make any sense, that he chooses to go through with this path in spite of so many warnings, but all it takes is feeling the comforting weight of the Omnitrix on his wrist for him to know this is the right thing to do.

"I'm staying." -he says. "I want to know everything about these bounty hunters."

She smiles. "Now that's a Tennyson speaking."

I picture Hala's voice as Captain Phasma's from the Star Wars sequels, without the helmet filter of course.

Something that highly annoyed me about Ben 10 canon is the increasing ease, over the seasons and series, with which Ben and the Omnitrix could be separated. It's fine when it's Vilgax slowly figuring out how to sever the bond, or as an alternate universe scenario, but just...taking it off his Goop form, or him removing it with a few commands? It's a pet peeve of mine. I want the bond to be as permanent as possible, an irrevocable choice that brings with it both boons and consequences.

Hala exaggerates a little with her description of the Accuser fleet's firepower. It's definitely no joke, but she wouldn't be able to destroy humanity as easily as she claims. The Chitauri invasion is as bad as she claims, though.

Also included a reference to Captain Marvel! I adored the film (haters need not comment), even if it kinda messed up my timelines for this universe a little. I think I worked around it, but I've no doubt it'll come back to bite me later. The idea is that Max got rid of the Kree blockade in the 60s/70s, leaving Earth unguarded until *after* Captain Marvel took out Ronan's fleet above the planet. She took the fight to the Kree with the aid of the Nova Corps, which eventually resulted in the peace treaty that ticks off Ronan so much he becomes a Thanos-funded terrorist. Earth is still in Kree territory, however, and their Inhuman experiments still took place, so they eventually send a new fleet to keep things under wraps under the pretense of "protecting an undeveloped species" in the early 2000s.

Abigail Brand was originally gonna have Lockheed the tiny alien dragon from X-Men fame as a companion, but I felt it was one too many characters for now. EDIT: Which I missed a joking reference to, in the part where Ben infers a past romantic relationship between Hala and Abigail. Dang it.

I also forgot to add Goop's profile thingy! Here ya go:

Goop:

The Omnitrix's sample of a Polymorph, a lifeform considered space vermin and confined to the planet Viscosia. Goop's body cannot be destroyed, even if they were to be forcibly removed from the anti-gravity field that holds them together - they will simply pull themselves back into their basic shape. Goop's fluid body can be manipulated into any simple form they can imagine, become adhesive, combustible, or acidic at will, and globs of it can be flung as projectiles, retaining said properties - and defying the Law of Conservation of Matter. Goop's anti-grav field projector is vulnerable to destruction, in which case Goop will be unable to move in any way, though the Omnitrix will automatically source another within a few seconds. They are also unable to effectively use conventional punches and kicks because of their body's nature.