Disclaimer:I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-offs and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Star Crossed

Chapter One: One That Fell to Earth

Aside from the dual moons, this planet wasn't all that different from Earth, Kevin mused as his team made their way to the target under cover of darkness.

The planet's two moons illuminated the landscape enough that they didn't need the aid of clunky night-vision goggles, and the dense, woodsy vegetation offered enough cover for them to remain concealed and unnoticed. If a guard did hear them moving around through the foliage, they were written off as nothing more than a pack of nocturnal predators.

The compound's security was nothing to brag about anyway. They probably figure the base's remote location on a primitive and underdeveloped world, far from the beaten path of galactic traffic was protection enough. The guards that patrolled the perimeter were more of a requisite formality rather than any form of serious security. Still, it only took one idiot with a mouth to sound an alarm.

Kevin glanced over at Pierce, locking eyes, he gave the other man the slightest of nods.

Extending one arm, the Quilcupine hybrid shot his quills at the guards as they past.

They let out twin gasps of shock. One reached a hand to the seem between the collar of his uniform and his helmet, the other tried to reach for his radio. They were both unconscious, however, before either of these actions could be completed.

Stepping out from their cover of trees, Kevin lead the group. Keeping alert, eyes scanning in every direction, looking for concealed perimeter cameras, traps, or secondary guard patrols. They reached the fence without encountering any.

Alan came up beside him, transforming into his Pyronite form, he melted a hole in the fence large enough for them to fit through. Kevin, Helen, and Pierce all slipped through. Alan and Manny stayed back to guard their exit.

Ducking from building to building, being sure to keep to the shadows, checking their lines of sight before making a move, the team slowly made their way to the campus' central power supply. The reactor was far better guarded than the perimeter. Pierce was able to take down three of the guards with his quills. The other two Kevin rushed in close, grabbing one by the hand that was reaching for their radio and the other by the throat. He absorbed their energy.

It was hard to see through the visors on their helmets, but the Osmosian knew they were shocked. Not just by the covert attack on their base that they were failing to prevent, but by his powers.

"You're- you're supposed to be extinct!" One of them gasped out before succumbing to his life-force being drained from him. The body fell to the ground at Kevin's feet. Unmoving and silent.

"They missed one." He muttered to the -mostly likely- already dead body.

Kevin turned his attention back to the compound's central power reactor and their mission. Shrugging the straps of a backpack off his shoulders, the Osmosian placed the bomb at the base of the reactor. Making sure it was armed and the timer was set. He didn't give himself and Pierce much time to get away, but that was why Helen stuck with them. She was the fastest thing any of them had ever seen and strong enough to carry the both of them for a little bit. At least long enough to get back to the gap in the fence.

Sure enough, Kevin was swept up in a rush of air and a blur of blue.

When he blinked his eyes again, they were back outside the compound with the rest of their team.

There was one explosion at first, close to the base of the central building. Then a second, higher up. Then the whole central power reactor went up with a loud roar. The explosion bright enough to light up the whole night. For eleven disorienting seconds, it was day in the woods that looked so much like Earth's.

"Mission accomplished." Kevin muttered to the rest of his team. "Lets go home."

He pulled a small Null Void projector from a holster on his belt, a Null Void projector almost identical to the one he'd ripped up in his father's garage so many years ago, and opened a portal for them.

They stepped through just as the ground rumbled beneath their feet. A sign that the reactor had melted down into the base's unground armory. The portal closed behind them just as a fourth and final explosion erupted up from under the complex, destroying the entire campus, incinerating the surrounding woods for several kilometers, and killing anything within the blast radius.

The team didn't get to see any of that though. They were already gone. Back in the Null Void.

Safe.

Kevin looked at the crimson sky floating outside the windows of their own base. It was good to be home.

Servantis was waiting for them. His appearances was dramatically different from when Kevin first met him.

When the Osmosian first arrived in the Null Void five years ago, he was a scared little child and was sure every new thing he encountered was going to kill him. But Servantis helped him. Took him out when they would hunt any of the different beasts that populated the Void, on rangings when they explored the ever changing landscape of the Void, or out to trade with other natives of the Void. He worked with the young Osmosian to develop his powers. Servantis had never met an Osmosian before, only heard about them. As part of their training and developing of Kevin's powers was also a healthy amount of experimentation. Together they discovered that the Osmosian could not only absorb the abilities and traits of other beings, but also graft them into the bodies of other people.

Five years ago when Servantis and his Rooters happened across his destroyed garage and rescued him from a Vulpimancer attack, the older man looked like a normal human. Middle-aged, balding, but dark-haired. Now he was spliced with a Cerebrocrustacean. His over all shaped remained human. Two arms, two legs, head above a neck, which was attached to shoulders, fingers instead of pincers, etc. But the balding scalp had been replaced by a large red cylinder-like cap. It looked like a headdress, but it was actually part of his head. There was a joint running down the center, allowing it to open, exposing his temporal lobe and use a number of Cerebrocrustacean abilities.

"Mission completed." Kevin announced.

"Well done, children!" Servantis smiled at all of them.

This was met with a great deal of groaning. They were hardly children anymore, all in their mid-to-late teens now, on the cusp of adulthood. But he'd known them all since they were children. Many of them came to the Null Void in much a similar condition as Kevin -though the individual circumstances differed, of course.

Pierce and Helen were siblings, fraternal twins, and -when they first arrived- completely human. They were escaping an abusive household and wound up in the Null Void completely by accident. They were understandably distrusting of everyone, but after learning about Kevin's powers and what he could do -what he did do for Servantis- they demanded the Osmosian give them aliens of their own. Helen chose a Kinecelerans, so that she would always be fast enough to get away from those that would hurt her. Pierce went with a Quilcupine because he didn't want anyone to lay a hand on him again.

Alan was a natural hybrid, the result of a union between Pyronite and Earthling. He was the oldest of several siblings. They lived in a rural part of Earth. The planet itself had opened up to and assimilated into intergalactic communication, travel, and commerce. But some of the more remote, agriculturally based regions of the planet could still hold onto the old xenophobia from a time when extraterrestrial were a thing of legend and horror fiction. Eventually, the locals, the family's friends and neighbors, their classmates and coworkers, turned on the family. Alan tried to save his siblings, but in the end, he was the only one who got away.

Manny was from Khoros. His mother was a Tetramand princess, but his father was not her legal husband. Normally this would not have been a problem, as females tended to be the dominant gender in Tetramand society. But royalty had some very strict rules about marriage, and what was and was not allowed to happen outside of the marriage. Manny was the result of a union outside the marriage that was definitely not allowed. Most of his early life was spent being passed from servant to servant, never really staying with any one care-giver long enough to form a significant connection. After his tenth birthday, he got fed up with life as it was and resolved to run away from home. He wound up in the Null Void purely by accident, but Manny wouldn't have it any other way. If he never stumbled through a portal and ended up in the pocket dimension, Manny never would have met his soulmate.

As fate would have it, Helen and Manny were soulmates.

Only one in every ten people found their soulmate in a single lifetime. The complete roster of Rooters totaled only nine people, Servantis, Ragnarok, Swift, Leander, Kevin, Pierce, Helen, Manny, and Alan. Of those nine, two of them were soulmates. Of course, that didn't mean that no one else was ever going to meet their soulmate in their current life, but -statistically- it was highly unlikely. It would have to be an extreme coincidence if any one of them were to meet their soulmate now.

"I expect payment from the client soon." Servantis continued. "After the money checks out, we can have a little celebration. In the meantime, relax. You've earned it."

There was a chorus of 'whoo-hoos'. Relaxation and free time was the best time.

…

Kevin's chosen form of relaxation was mechanics. Working on the engines, or in the undercarriages of the many multi-terrain and hover vehicles the Rooters had. That was how Servantis found him some time later. In the hanger, one his back, working under an older THV that had been sitting in the hanger for almost as long as Kevin had been with them. Servantis didn't even know if it still functioned.

The Osmosian had claimed it as his own not long after he adjusted to his new life in the Void. When he finally accepted that Servantis wasn't going to harm him and he was safe from the Predator that had killed his parents. Kevin was by no means a great mechanic back then. In fact, he probably caused more damage than repairs and set the restoration back several months. But he needed a project to help him pull through the loss of his parents, his home, and life as he knew it. Everything was dramatically different and he needed a project to distract him from his grief, or else risk losing his mind. Kevin used to watch his father work on the family car, as well as the alien tech he sold for income. By taking up the hobby himself, Kevin felt like he was keeping a small piece of Devin Levin alive.

Servantis ran a hand over the hood of the THV, noting that Kevin had painted it a dark navy blue with a single off-center racing stripe and a number. Numbered eleven.

"You've done a remarkable job." The older man commented.

All that could be seen of the Osmosian was just his legs, sticking out from beneath the undercarriage. Kevin did not bother to roll out from under the vehicle when he answered, "Its taken me four years to get it this way. My dad could have done it in one."

Servantis did not remind the younger man that he was only a small child the last time he saw his father and that he could be exaggerating his memories of the late Osmosian's skill. Instead he commented. "A shame I never actually got to meet Devin Levin. The more you talk about him, the more he sounds like a remarkable man."

Kevin's only response to this was a pause in the sound of whatever part under the frame he was applying torsion to. He offered no comment in return and the sound of his work under the THV soon resumed. Perhaps Devin Levin was a remarkable man. Perhaps he wasn't. Ultimatly, it didn't matter, because Devin Levin wasn't here, and Kevin was.

Clearing his throat, Servantis changed the subject, getting to the reason he came looking for Kevin in the first place. "We have a new client."

Now Kevin did slide out from under the vehicle. He was always happy for something to distract himself from his thoguhts. "New job?"

Servantis nodded. "Easy mission too. Escort work. Just gotta guard the cargo as it's moved from one location to the other."

Reaching across his tool box, Kevin grabbed an already dirty rag and rubbed his hands off on in. "High value cargo, or overly cautious client?"

"He did not say." Servantis confessed. "But I would say both." He offred the younger man a hand up. "I realize your team just got back, but the money is good and you're my best operatives. You'll leave for Galvan Prime as soon as your showered and changed."

"Galvan Prime?" Kevin echoed. Galvans were said to be the smartest race in the universe and their inventions bordered on 'lines mortals were not meant to cross'. Galvan technology was so advance, sometimes it really did appear to be 'magic'. If it was some kind of Galvan tech they were escorting then it was definitely, definitely high value cargo.

Servantis nodded. "One of their top scientists has invented something new and wants it moved."

"But every pirate, despot, and warlord in the known universe is gonna be gunning for it." Kevin announced. "That's where we come in."

…

Kevin did not get a look at the device they were trasfering. But he nice clear view of it's containment unit. An almost perfect sphere with overlapping plates, like the armor on the back of a pillbug or an armadillo. A highly advanced containment unit that was light as a basketball, but strong enough and dense enough to contain the kind of radiation that could decimate a continent.

Even through the containment shell, Kevin could taste the power in the device they were transporting.

The energy whispering through his fingertips as he and Manny handled it into an unmarked cargo crate. His Osmosian senses lapping up the tiny traces that bled through the plates. The sensation ghosted up his arm to form a savory but otherwise unidentifiable taste in his mouth.

Whatever it was this Galvan scientist –Asmuth, the client's name was Asmuth- had made, it was a powerful piece of tech and something an Osmosian did not want to handle with his bare hands.

Asmuth did not help anyting at any point during the loading process. All he did was move around on a tiny hover platform sized for him, always managing to be exactly in the way, and remind them to "be carfule!" and repeating warnings of how dangerous his invention was and that it was not to be mishandled. There would be dire consequinces if it were to fall into the wrong hands (or paws, or pincers, or tentacles, or equivalent apendages).

Everyone on Kevin's team breathed a heavy sigh of relief when they were finally on the ship, flying through space, Galvan Prime and Asmuth long behind them.

With Kevin piloting and Pierce as navigator.

It was a pretty smooth flight for the first leg of the jouney.

Then they crossed paths with another vessel.

A Chimera Sui Generis ship appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, it was so fast for it's size. It streaked a warning shot across their nose and Kevin had to hit the forward jets to slow them down before they flew right into the second shot from the other ship.

Pushing hard on the pilor controls, Kevin dipped the nose of the ship down, intendeding to go under the belly of the ship and evade any further attempts to shoot them. Looks like Asmuth was right to hire extra protection for his invention. It looked like every pirate, despot, and warlord did –indeed- want his device.

"What the hell!?" Alan barged into the cockpit, stumbling on his feet as Kevin continued to take evasive manuvers to avoid being shot down.

"We're under attack." Pierce answered, almost casually.

"Is the cargo secure?" Kevin demanded as he brought them up from another dive and then sent them tumbling in a barrol roll.

"It's fine." Alan assured him.

Good. 'Cause they might not be. The other ship might be larger than their's, but it had no shortage of guns and was a lot faster than its size would imply. Maybe not as maneuverable. But when Kevin tried to escape, it overtook them again easily. They couldn't outrun the ship, they would have to make a stand.

"Tell Helen and Manny to stop cuddling and get their gear back on." Kevin ordered. "We're about to get boarded."

"You don't know tha-" Pierce's comment was cut off when the Chimera Sui Generis ship locked a tractor beam on them and started pulling them into one of its hanger bays.

Kevin cut the ingines immedietly to prevent a burn-out –in case they got the opertunity to escape- then pulled up the star charts to see exactly where they were. Passing through the Sol system, not far from the third planet –Earth. Not a particularly advanced planets, even if they did try to be enough to participate in enterplanetray affairs. But the did not have a space force that could do anything significant against a Chimera Sui Generis warship.

Gritting his teeth, Kevin realized what they needed to do. "Jettison the cargo."

"What?" Both Pirece and Alan blinked at him.

"Our job was to protect it." Alan reminded him.

"Our job is to make sure no one steals it before it can get to it's destination." Kevin corrected. "Jettison it now so that whoever's in that ship doesn't get it. If we manage to escape, we can go collect it and complete the mission then. But for right now, jettison the cargo."

"Okay…" Frowning, Alan left the cockpit. He did not agree with that plan. But he also wasn't the one in command of the mission. Kevin was their leader and their leader had just given an order.

In the aft exterior camera, Kevin saw the hold open and the single lone cargo crate they were transporting went flying out. A small speck pulled down to the nearest gravity well –Earth. The crate was just cheap plastec, it would burn up in the atmosphere. But the spherical containment unit with it's overlapping armor plates was designed to withstand and contain eleven nuclear bombs. It should remain undamaged by the descent to the planet's surface, which meant the device inside would similarly remain undamaged.

Kevin wasn't worried about their cargo. At the moment, he had to worry about his team.

The ship was brought to rest in the hanger of the larger ship and all five Rooters braced for the inevitable fight.

…

Family camping trips had become a semi-annual thing for the Tennysons.

Sandra and Carl with Ben, and Natalie and Frank with Ken and Gwen, all sharing a campground. Pitching their tents under the stars and cooking their food over an open fire. Eventually, Max and Verdona would join the party and then it'd be a real family gathering.

At the moment, Max and Verdona hadn't arrived yet and Ben and Ken were fighting with each other over how to properly pitch a tent, while Frank and Carl struggled –unsuccessfully- to keep a match lit long enough to light the fire. Sandra was sitting on the camp site's picnic table crossed legged, attempting to meditate. Natalie was covering herself in multiple layers of bug spray. And Gwen found a place to sit upwind of her mother where she could read relatively unbothered by everything else that was going on.

This was fairly average for a Tennyson champing trip.

Just wait until Grandpa and Grandma showed up. Then things would get really, really interesting. It was always exciting whenever Grandpa was around, and Grandma always made it a party.

At this exact moment, it was not a party.

Everyone was one version or another of frustrated.

Ben snarled an expletive that his mother had to reprimand him for and threw down the bundle of tent pols he was holding for Ken. "Fine! Then do it yourself if you're so great at it!"

Nobody had heard the conversation building up to that point, so everyone was confused when Ben stormed away, heading into the woods.

"Someone should go after him." Said Sandra, although she didn't make any move to follow her son herself. Clearly, 'someone' was not her.

Gwen scoffed. Ben was just being Ben. He had the temper and attitude of an only child, and threw all the tantrums that went along with that temper and attitude. Let him storm off into the woods alone. Give him the alone time he needed to clear his head and realize what a puissant he was being. "He'll come back when he's hungry."

By himself in the woods, Ben was counting down the minutes before someone came looking for him. That would show Ken! Ha!

But his count was immidietly forgotten when something came streaking down from the sky and crashed into the trees near him.

Not a space ship. It was too small to be a space ship. But it definitely looked alien. Ben drew nearer to the small crater it had made and saw a sphere of some kind of alien make and design. Overlapping metal plates in the design of a pillbug shell or an armadillo's back.

Curious, he climbed into the crater and slid down the slope to inspect it closer.

Grandpa Max had been into space loads of times. In fact, he'd been almost all over space. Hunting down the monsters that threatened their family.

Drawing closer to the device, Ben extended his hand out to it. Cautiously. He second guessed himself and pulled his hand back. He looked back in the direction he'd come, wondering if he should go back and tell his parents, or wait for Grandpa Max to arrive. Grandpa and Grandma were the authorities on all things alien, after all. But, no! This was his discovery. He wasn't gonna let his family take it away from him and over shadow him.

Against whatever better judgment he had, Ben placed his hand on the alien sphere. He expected it to be hot, just falling through the atmosphere. But it wasn't. It was cool to the touch.

And it opened for him even at that slight touch.

Inside was… well, Ben wasn't exactly sure what it was. It looked like a watch round face, with a strap that was about the right size for a human wrist. Except instead of numbers and hands to count the minutes was just a green and black hourglass that glowed with neon light. So… an alien watch?

Reaching inside, Ben was about to pick up the alien watch when the device inexplicably sprang to life and latched itself onto him.

"Wah!"

He shook his arm ruriously, trying to dislodge the alien device, but it would not budge. He tried prying it off. Her flipped his wrist searching for the clasp on the bend, but there didn't seem to be one. It was just on him and it wasn't coming off.

…

Drones.

It was mostly drones this warlord used to staff and pilot his ship. Robotic drones to act as security and soldiers. They could deal with drones. Their young ages often fooled opponants, but all five of them were seasoned mercenaries and knew how to handle themselves in fights. Fighting drones was like fighting practice robots for them.

Helen, the fastest among them, was able to get out of the hanger, find the tractor beam controls and disable them. Pierce and Alan, the two with natural and near-inexhaustible projectiles kept the hanger intrance covered, making sure Helen would have a clear path to return. Speaking of clearing a path, Kevin and Manny, the two heavy hittered of their group focused on clearing all the existing drones out fo the hanger so that they wouldn't take any enemy fire once they tried to fly their ship back out.

All and all pretty cut and dry. Just like any other training simulation back at base.

Honestly, a hunting party in the Null Void was more difficult than this.

It was Vilgax that was the problem.

Vilgax, conquerer of ten worlds. Benevolent Ruler (read: dictator) of Planet Vilgax, renamed for him. Warlord of the Milky Way. Apparently, it was his ship they were on. He wanted whatever device it was that Asmuth made and he was not going to give up until he got it. The moment he realized they jettisoned their cargo, it became a race to see who got to it first.

In a rush of air and a zip of blue, Helen returned to the group.

"Did you disable to tractor beam?" Kevin called from across the hanger where he was grappling with two of the drones, his body covered in metal armor absorbed from the hanger floor.

"All clear!" Helen called back. Then zipped onto the ship to begin the pre-flight checks and start-ups.

"Great!" Manny threw his own drone across the room where it collided with the two Kevin was battling.

All three robots clattered to the floor in a tangled heap of interlocking limbs. Kevin nodded a silent 'thanks' to his teammate, then both men were sprinting back to their ship. Alan and Pierce had already fallen back to it, and were laying down coverfire from the safety of just atop the gankpalnt landing.

Pierce slammed his fist down on the hatch release the moment Kevin and Manny were inside and it slammed shut behind them.

Helen shifted to co-pilot seat when Kevin reenterd the cockpit.

All the pre-flight checks weren't done yet, but Kevin overrode them and started the ship up anyway. She shot out of the warship's hanger like that bat outta hell. Their mission was to make sure no one stole the client's cargo.

They had to get to it before anyone else did.

…