Hey ! This right here is my first story. Was watching Ben 10 again and figured 'Why not? Not like I got anything else to do." I know I've been getting tired and bored with this quarantine, so I'm really doing this for you guys, I just wanna have fun with this and I want you guys to have fun with this. Just wanna try to help people take their minds off of the suckiness right now, try to have some fun. So far, I have something of a roadmap for this, but I want you guys to get in on this a bit too. So, if you have an idea that you really wanna see for this, don't hesitate to comment or PM me! I'll take any and all suggestions, no matter how 'weird' it may be. If it doesn't really fit anywhere or mesh well with the outline I have, I might not be able to, but I'll do my best. I'll leave what the frame for the story is at the author's not at the end of this chapter, so check that out and let me hear your ideas!
Chapter 1: Null and Void
Part One: Too Little, Too Late
When Ben Tennyson felt his cousin being yanked from his arms, he twisted around in a flash of panic, his heart stopping (did Stinkfly have a heart? Who knows and who cares right now). He turned away from the mockin glare of the ever-diminishing portal to the mocking smirk of the ever-incorrigible Kevin Levin, arch-enemy and half-Osmosian eleven-year-old.
"Going somewhere without your old pal Kevin?" Whatever malicious quip Kevin was about to spit out was silenced by Gwen Tennyson, Ben's fiery-haired cousin, shooting Levin point-blink in the face with her Plumber-grade energy pistol. He quickly ended her resistance by wrapping his monstrously large, flaming hand around both the pistol and her wrist.
Gwen cried out and all Ben felt was rage.
"Let her go or I'll-"
"Or you'll what?!" The snarl of Ben's most powerful nemesis rang through his ears. Vilgax the Conqueror rode on the pacified Null Guardian, one much larger than the one Kevin was riding. Though the beast was large enough to snap up Ben in a single bite, even in his transformed state, Vilgax looming behind him terrified him.
The young changeling looked back and forth between his two enemies desperate for a way out, but saw none as long as Gwen was still a hostage. Truly, for the first time since that fateful day at the beginning of summer, Ben felt like he lost. He lowered himself down to a nearby rock and, with a single thought, transformed back into his normal state.
The now revealed ten-year-old boy glared as he turned towards the two smug psychopaths, "Let her go and you can have the stupid Omnitrix!" Ben raised up his left arm, showing a large wristwatch-esque device on his wrist. The faceplate displayed no numbers, but rather a symbol in the shape of an hourglass, flashing a brilliant, emerald green. As the severity of the situation suggests, this is no regular watch, the Omnitrix granted the bearer, whoever he or she may be, the ability to transform into a legion of different aliens. Though it is just the prototype, Ben unknowingly accessed the Master Control, granting him access to over a million different species, when there were less than 15 before, and the ability to change between multiple aliens by his thoughts alone with no need to change back to human, when he had to manually transform into only a single hero at a time, with a 10 minute timer. Needless to say, Ben got the upgrade of upgrades, and was carrying the, arguably, most powerful device in the universe on his wrist (though the boy had no clue of this).
"Ben, no!" Gwen exclaimed. She understood what giving up the watch meant, and she didn't want the lives of the universe for hers alone. Even more, she knew what such a thing would do to Ben, and even though he was a total dweeb, she still cared about him.
"We have a deal or don't we Vilgax? My cousin for this stupid watch!" Ben was scared, but he stood in defiance, finding the courage to face his two enemies and not blink. The villains jumped off of their mounts, shaking the rock they stood on. Ben's brain worked furiously, he slowly tried to snake his arms around his back to attempt to zero-out the Master Control, but Vilgax growled and stomped towards him, seeing him move his arms.
"No more games child! Give. Me. The Omnitrix." Ben looked on mournfully as he defeatedly placed his wrist in Vilgax's clawed hand, reaching out for Gwen's in the other. He didn't notice Kevin pulling her back until it was too late, the young girl yelping as she's tossed away. Kevin throws a powerful haymaker into Ben's chest, knocking the boy onto his back. The mutated pre-teen pressed his foot down on Ben's left arm, effectively pinning him. A device slammed down around the Omnitrix but was thrown back as a sudden burst of green light exploded out of the alien watch. Ben was screaming in pain as the ball of energy grew, but Kevin powered through, piercing the strange device in the ground around the watch. He felt a tearing at his skin as the Omnitrix was slowly being peeled off. Ben's face was twisted in agony, he was desperately trying to form a thought, a plan, anything!
He gasped as he felt the Omnitrix activate, a familiar beep ringing in his ears. The familiar feeling of transforming washed over him and in an instant, he took on his alien form, the machine that was spiked into the earth splitting apart. With a roar, he threw Kevin off the rock and raised himself up to his knees, breathing heavily. He looked at his hands- hands that were completely unrecognizable!
Vilgax stalked up to the transformed child and threw a massive right hook at the back of Ben's head, but the alien adolescent whirled around, catching the fist in his new, massive hand. With another ear splitting roar, Ben decked Vilgax, sending him flying into a distant rock.
Ben took a breath to take in this new alien, his largest one so far, even bigger than Four Arms and Diamondhead. He notices that most of his body was covered in a tough, brown hide, with a lighter tan underbelly. The symbol of the Omnitrix was on the center of his chest, in the epicenter of two black criss-crossing bands. The bands were skin(hide)tight on his body, wrapping over his shoulders, crossing on his back and wrapping around his wrist. Each hand had four thick fingers, his hands rough. His feet were elephantine, with three large black scales acting as toenails. He felt up along his neck, noticing that it was extended up to a massive, flat head with a massive maw. A long swishing tail flicking from side to side.
"Ben?" Gwen looked up at him in confusion from a short distance away.
Ben heard a crackle coming from her ear and his Grandpa Max's voice emanating from it, "Gwen! I don't know how much longer this portal's gonna hold! Seconds at most, get back now!"
"Grandpa! I found Ben, we'll be back soon."
"Gwen, hurry! It's closing too fast!" Gwen frantically ran up to Ben...the dinosaur alien thing...but saw him staring at the nearly-closed portal resigned.
"Ben we gotta-" Her voice cracked with desperation.
"We're not gonna make it back in time, at least, not the both of us." His eyes never moved away from the portal.
Before Gwen could process, Ben takes two great bounds and lifts Gwen in one of his humongous hands. Her objections fell on deaf ears. "Ben! You better not do what I think you're gonna do! Quit wasting time dweeb!" Ben ran forwards, hefting her up as the portal was barely larger than Gwen herself. At this point, Gwen felt tears build up in her eyes and begin to fall. "Please Ben, please! Don't do this!" Ben launched her like a spear at the portal, her cries for his name seemingly echoing all around the Null Void. The cries seemed to make Ben physically ill, even after the portal snapped shut.
A flash of green revealed the young boy, now without hope, who fell to his knees and sucked in a stuttering gasp and staring out into the infinite and impersonal space of the Null Void.
"TENNYSON!" Ben panicked, instantly shifting into Stinkfly and fleeing as fast as possible. He didn't know where he was going and he didn't really care. He just didn't stop. Not until his wings felt like they were on fire.
The weary and aching Stinkfly lowered himself onto a large rock, defeatedly crawling into a nearby alcove. Young Ben Tennyson curled into himself and cried. He bawled because it sunk into his young mind that he might truly be trapped. That his summer vacation's over. That his life, one with so much hope and potential, might be over as he knew it.
He didn't stop crying, not until the anxieties and fears faded away...for now. The Omnitrix still glowed green, but what once radiated peace, now brought nothing but regret.
Ben woke up later, he didn't know how long, but he knew he was more tired than when he fell asleep. That didn't stop him from pounding down on the Havok Beasts and Null Guardians with four fists of pent-up rage. He didn't stop fighting, he couldn't. He knew that if he stopped for even a second, he wouldn't be able to start moving again. Taydenite shards littered around the Void. Scorched rock, green slime, and skid marks everywhere else. He pushed himself past what he thought were his limits, never staying in any one form longer than he needed to, and not going human at all.
He hated thinking about it, but he kept picturing Ben 10,000 in his head. Was this how he became such a jerk? He knew from his whole trip to the future that staying hero probably wasn't healthy for him, especially not now, but he just couldn't find the strength to change back.
Ben, soaring through the unending space of the Null Void as Stinkfly, was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the bolt of plasma until it was digging into his back.
"Gah!" Stinkfly cried out as he crash landed into a nearby rock. The sounds of twin engines sputtering out as two light thuds resounded near him.
"Target neutralized sir. Yes sir, a Lepidopterran, strangely enough. No sir, the warden has not been notified. Affirmative." Stinkfly angled one of his eyes to the figure that was talking. He noticed the navy blue armor and a symbol on the left side of the chestplate.
"Wait! I'm… I'm with the Plumbers!" He held his claws in the air, trying to show that he meant them no harm. The two heavily armed men either didn't hear him or didn't care.
"Put the collar on him. Tie the wings too, I don't wanna deal with any more nagging from Morgg than I already do. It gives me a headache." He didn't give them the chance to attempt it, replacing the Lepidopterran with a Petrosapien in an instant.
"Oh trust me, you're gonna miss that headache once I'm done with you!"
"A Petrosapien?! How?!" The shock vanished as they raised their arms firing blast after blast at the tough hero. They didn't falter even after the blasts reflected off of his diamond-like exterior, not leaving any damage whatsoever.
"Get us some heavy units! Some sonics too! We're dealing with a Petrosapien her-" A solid punch to the back of the soldier's head knocked him out.
"Ha! The name's Diamondhead by the way, not that it matters to you."
The other armored figure flew around using his jetpack, constantly firing a barrage at him. Every time he fired a shard at the guy, the figure managed to out maneuver it. Diamondhead grunted in annoyance before smirking at the sight of a jacked rock angled up towards the figure like a ramp. He shifted into XLR8 and rocketed towards the ramp, turning into Cannonbolt at the last minute. The sudden change in speed launched him forward, with the Arburian Pelarota curling into a spherical shape. He rocketed off the ramp, straight towards the flying figure. Just when he was about to make contact, a massive fist knocked him back into the rock, digging a trench into it.
Cannonbolt looked up to see a dozen massive figures in similar navy armor, with several more air support units and smaller ground units. Some had different looking guns, but all of them wore the same armor.
"Stand down! Now! If you comply, this will be much easier for all of us." The original figure, the one who shot him down, had spoken up. "Trust me, we're doing you a service by not taking you straight to the warden, but if this continues, we'll have no choice."
Cannonbolt glared in defiance. "Ya'know, I've never been all that good at listening to my elders." The gathered troops were blinded by a flash of green light, leaving Four Arms in the place of Cannonbolt. He stretched out all four of his arms and slammed them together with all of his might. A shockwave burst out, knocking back the air and smaller ground troops while stunning the heavies. They all looked back to see a Kineceleran running at near-mach 1 speeds. The heavies collectively hefted their very large guns and fired what looked like mortar shells at the speedy alien.
"Woah. Woah! These are getting closer than I would like." Ironically, one of the shells landed right in front of XLR8's path, cracking the nearby rock and tripping him up. Before he touched the ground he changed into Stinkfly again, soaring away.
Several air units followed, sending volleys of plasma blasts, but Stinkfly was able to nimbly dodge every shot. He suddenly stopped and twisted mid-air, slashing one of the packs with his tail and jamming the other one with his goop. Changing into Wildvine, he launched his arms at two more, lifting off with them. He used his weight to throw the two off course and slam them into several ground troops. Changing into Heatblast, he lowered himself down to the rock several men were currently occupying, blasting cover fire the entire way down. Using the smoke screen, he wailed on them with Four Arms without them seeing him. Two heavies quickly teamed up on him. Throwing two powerful punches towards the Tetramand's head. But were met with two shields of Taydenite. Diamondhead smirked as he stomped his foot, driving two massive clumps of diamond straight into the two's midsections, sending both flying.
Even though he seemed confident, Ben was internally nervous. He noticed how many more troops kept joining the fray, 3 more for every one he took out. Not to mention, he's been mentally and physically exhausted since he's been stuck in the Null Void. He knew that eventually he would slip up.
Unfortunately, he did. He continued pummeling troop after troop that was sent his way, but after a particularly brutal tackle on another ground unit, courtesy of Wildmutt, he shifted into Diamondhead again. He looked up to see two large devices pointed right at him.
"Really? More guns? Just cause they're bigger doesn't mean they'll hurt me any more than the other ones, doofus!" The troops didn't respond but cranked a dial on the machine. It fired, and only then did Ben remember what that one guard said about 'sonics'"
A very loud, very high pitched roar was launched at the diamond hero, cracking his once-pristine exterior and dropping him to his knees. He couldn't move, he couldn't think, he couldn't even breathe. After what felt like hours, the machines powered down. Ben didn't even comprehend that he'd passed out until everything was already dark.
So, obviously this story begins at the season 2 finale, but Ben is stuck in the Null Void (still with the master control, cuz I think it's dope as hell) and about to be imprisoned. I left a pretty massive hint as to which prison it is and what he's gonna get into while he's there. Ultimate Alien fans are probably gonna get it. It's kinda random, but I intend for Ben to end up in the Marvel Universe, specifically the MCU, but heavily altered with stuff from the comics (I won't say how he ends up there, nor what the alterations are, that's part of the fun!). That's about it for the plot frame, so as you can see, there is quite a lot of room for your ideas to be thrown in. On another note, yes that alien Ben used to escape Vilgax and Kevin is Humungousaur. You might be wondering about the change in his costume. I recently found out that a function of the Omnitrix is providing the user with the healthiest, prime version of any alien species he/she transforms into, but only relative to their age. This is why the looks of his aliens change as he ages (kinda just explaining why the artists change up the designs). I added the black bands as nothing more than an aesthetic, just showing he's a 10-year-old Vaxasaurian. All of the designs will change as Ben continues to grow.