"These readings are off the charts!"

"Never mind the readings, Phil." said Max, looking at the smoke coming from the forest. "That's the way Ben went, we've got to go find him."

Both Tennysons got up from the table, running towards the forest before Phil stopped them.

"Wait a moment! There's something strange here..." he said, looking at his tablet. "The DNA inside the watch that allows Ben to transform. A portion of it seems fragmented, incomplete, as if it's missing its other half. And Ben's human DNA seems affected by it as well."

"Huh?"

"There's something unusual going on here. Aside from Ben having something like the Omnitrix in the first place, the readings I got from his DNA inside the watch is abnormal. It's as if his DNA was partially merged with Gax's."

"Are you saying Ben's gonna stay Gax forever if we don't hurry?" asked Gwen.

"No, his DNA isn't changing that way. I do not know if this was caused by Ben unlocking Gax somehow, or if it was always the case, but Ben's DNA matches with many of Gax's genes as we speak. Whatever is going on with Gax's DNA right now, we need to learn more and quickly."

"Now don't stop, focus... control your power..."

Gax kept firing the heat vision at the tree in front of him, not realizing Vil was getting his hand near the device on his chest armor. And he was done burning the tree too soon to the old Chimeran's liking.

"Wow! No fire this time! I just, like, laser-ed that tree out of existence!" exclaimed Gax, doing cartwheels as he laughed, proud of himself. "Awesome!"

"Now... see what can be accomplished, when such raw force is matched with precision and discipline?" muttered Vil.

"Wow, I usually just go with the flow." said Gax, getting back up. "But maybe there really is something to this, to have in control!"

"Indeed." followed Vil.

He however stopped as he noticed something out of place with the younger Chimeran in front of him. Gax had raised his arms, looking at his hands as he was thinking over Vil's words, allowing Vil to see something he hadn't noticed yet. Underneath Gax's armpit, the symbol of a squid he recognized quite easily was present.

No, it was most likely a coincidence. After all, both 'Gax' and Benjamin technically came from him, it could've been carried on to whoever held the Omnitrix as they spoke. Then again, whoever had it didn't know what it could do, it wouldn't hurt to check who this Chimeran impersonator was.

"If you do not mind me asking, what was your name again?"

"Me?" asked Gax. "Well, this alien, you already know I call him Gax, but my fans and family call me Ben."

The old Chimera Sui Generis' expression changed, the young one's words taking him aback. He had to make sure of what he was thinking about, otherwise he could lose his chance to get his real body back. This looked too good to be true...

"Interesting, and may I know why that device is cracked?" he asked, pointing to the shattered Omnitrix.

"Oh, that..." said Gax, upset. "Some Phil guy tried to fix my watch as if there was something wrong with it, and he just made things worse. I don't alien-jump and this thing doesn't beep anymore, so it's fine, right?"

"Hmm, may I?"

Gax was confused as the old Chimeran removed the crystal piece Diamondhead put by accident onto the symbol. He wasn't sure this was a good idea, but Vil seemed to know what he was doing. As for Vil, he knew he could take his strength back here and there. But if he wasn't mistaken, he could potentially find something more...

Pulling on the blue ring that pesky human put around the Omnitrix, he observed the cracked device. "Your Omnitrix is in need to be repaired, something no one on this planet would know how to do." He pressed twice on the device, and with a flash of green, Ben was back to himself.

"Huh?!" said the boy, looking at himself. "You just timed me out! But..."

He looked at the Omnitrix. It wasn't beeping, it wasn't cracked, and Phil's thingy wasn't on it anymore. It was back to normal! He shook it to check if it did anything, but nothing came out of it.

"Wow, you just fixed it! Thanks, Vil!" said Ben, though he was a bit weirded out as Vil just raised his left arm in the air, looking at his armpit. "Uhhh, what are you doing?"

"This mark you see here, you do not know what it means, do you?"

"Huh?" said Ben. "Oh, that! It just appeared as soon as I got Gax! I don't know why it's there or what it means, but it sure looks wicked cool! Even if tentacles still do freak me out a bit, no offense."

"None taken, Ben." smiled the old Chimeran, looking at Ben's excited green eyes.

This was the opportunity of a lifetime. Both the Omnitrix and Benjamin in one day...

He knew he couldn't tell Benjamin the truth immediately, he needed to tell Ben a few things about Vilgaxia, about 'Gax', about the power he could have... and if he took his powers back now, Benjamin wouldn't trust him or might be angry at him for doing so.

"Come on." said Vil, beckoning him and taking a seat on a cut down tree trunk. "We have much to talk about, my boy."

"Ben!" shouted Gwen.

She could see her cousin sitting down on the grass next to someone, but who was he talking to?

"The true potential of this form is found only in a lifetime of a deliberate honing of one's raw strength... and it's also yours now."

"That's so cool!" exclaimed Ben, before seeing his family come by. "Hey guys!"

He got up as they walked to him, wary of the stranger he was talking to. It looked like a slimmer, shorter and frail looking version of Gax, wearing a purple cloak. Somehow, he looked even scarier than Gax did, and Gax came with super powerful laser eyes and strong tentacle arms, something they weren't sure this old man had.

"Who is... your friend?"

"Oh yeah, this guy is Vil. He's a super cool old dude who knows a lot of stuff about Gax. And check it out! It's not beeping anymore!" said Ben, showing the device to the three other humans.

"Indeed, it's not... Where did my beacon go?" asked Phil.

"Um... I was practicing with my new alien, and it... fell out on its own?" said Ben, trying not to look too guilty.

"Ben, are you sure you can trust this guy?" asked Max, keeping an eye on Vil.

"I can assure you, I mean no harm to Ben." said Vil. "He's quite the capable warrior, I wouldn't dream or wish for something to happen to him."

"Of course we can trust him!" argued Ben, coming in front of his new friend to defend him. "Vil's been super helpful! He showed me how to use my laser eyes without hurting anyone, and he told me a lot about where he and Gax come from!"

He didn't notice the smile of gratitude and pride Vil was sporting behind him. If only Ben knew what awaited him once he'd tell him the truth...

Suddenly, a red ring appeared next to the group. A portal opened itself, and the three aliens that attacked them yesterday came out of it.

"We're not too late!" said Kraab, the cybernetic crab alien. He readied his claw and shot a laser towards Vil, only to be stopped as a flash of green blinded everyone.

"Not on my watch!" said Gax, brushing off the attack.

"Really?" said Gwen, rolling her eye at the pun.

"First, to get everyone to safety." said Gax, grabbing the humans and Vil. With a dynamic jump, he landed away from the scene and put the group behind some trees. "Now to deal with those alien dudes."

"You will require my assistance for this combat, Benjamin." said Vil.

"It'll be fine, you already taught me a lot." shrugged Gax. "Go get to safety with everyone else while I deal with this."

Gax then left, despite a distressed Vil calling out to him. This wasn't good, those meddlers would take Ben away from him once they'd realize who he was. And even if they didn't know, Ben had the Omnitrix, it was impossible for them to complete their mission without kidnapping the boy.

"Ugh, Ben!" complained Gwen. "Okay, Grandpa, any ideas?"

"I say we take the Rustbucket and try to get Ben inside before he times out, so we can think of a better plan once his watch is green again." suggested Max.

"A car chase? Sounds like we're back into the good old days." said Phil. "Ahem, Vil, right? I think it'd be better if you came with us."

"No need, I have my own vehicles." said Vil, not even paying attention to the Tennysons' rambling. "Now if you'll excuse me..."

Flying drones came in their direction, gathering themselves into a platform on which Vil sat before flying away into the forest, disappearing behind trees.

"Hey, wait!" said Max.

"Is Gax's biggest superpower 'not listening to us'? Because I think it'd explain a lot." said Gwen.

Meanwhile, as the group was far enough from the field, Gax... wasn't doing very well in battle. SixSix caught him several time with metal lassos and took him by surprise enough to tire him out. Then Tetrax made diamond walls hit him from everywhere, reminding him of Diamondhead's fighting while also being more brutal. And Kraab's firepower combined with the other two's energy guns was a lot to take in.

He realized he maybe should've listened when Vil told him he needed help fighting these guys. He fought bad guys everyday, but this was the first time he fought people that seemed to train for fighting aliens like Gax. He'd have to get tricky to defeat them, but as soon as he thought of something, another attack hit him.

"Just so you wait... I'll show you what Gax can do... Just give me five..."

He was unaware Vil merely deviated attention from himself before coming back to the battle, observing him from afar. By the last hit, Gax was knocked onto a rock, creating a huge gap in it with several cracks. He coughed, trying to get back up, but he barely dodged as an energy net almost caught him. Whatever they were planning, he did not want to go with them.

It was useless, he wasn't experienced enough with this body, unlike with his other aliens. If only he had more time to train with it, maybe he could deal with this faster, but his only hope now was to time out and hope for a better alien next time. But what alien could deal with these guys better than Gax now?

"I apologize, my boy, but this will be necessary to our victory."

Before Gax could react, he saw Vil's clawed hand on the Omnitrix, and he saw red as an excruciating pain took over him, coming from his chest. It was as if his entire skin was being pulled from there, and it was technically the case as his muscles were shrinking and losing mass.

"You will regret what you've done to him!" shouted Vil, his voice much more imposing and threatening, far from the old man he used to sound like.

Ben's vision got blurry as he kept shrinking. He could hear his own voice switching from Gax to Ben, and as he was completely back to his human self, he saw a large squid man standing where Vil used to.

"Vil? Is that you? What did you do, what happened to Gax?!"

"I'll explain later, Ben. For now, get behind me."

As Ben obliged, SixSix came and tried to grab the squid alien, only to be caught by his metal arms and thrown on a tree, causing it to fall. The alien got back up and flew with rocket boots back to him. It was Tetrax's turn to try and encase him in crystals, but they were shattered as Vil simply dodged and destroyed them with bare arms.

"Vilgax has combined!" exclaimed Kraab.

"Indeed." said Vil, or rather, Vilgax. "Now, witness the power of Vilgax! And face the consequences for harming this defenseless innocent child."

"Hey!" protested Ben, offended Vilgax called him defenseless. But before he could comment on anything, he suddenly turned into XLR8. "Huh?! It's still broken! Wait, watch out!"

Vilgax took his warning as he dodged a charged attack from Kraab's pincer. SixSix tried to blast him with lasers, but Vilgax used his own laser eyes to push him away, before grabbing him and throwing him back into the red portal.

"Wow, that's really cool." whispered XLR8, impressed as he switched to Grey Matter. He only had a few seconds to get his head down and dodge before seeing Tetrax and Kraab get thrown in there as well. "That was amazing, wonderful! An undeniable masterpiece of combat! I must ask you-"

He was interrupted as he turned into Cannonbolt, tripping and almost rolling to Vilgax before being stopped by the squid man.

"Easy does it, my boy. Your Omnitrix is still in need of minor repairs."

More drones came to surround Cannonbolt and submerged him before lifting him above the ground. "Woooooooooooow! Hey, what gives?! And why do I feel like I've already seen those things before?" he asked himself before, amusingly enough, turning into Heatblast.

"My ship will be a more appropriate place to fix your Omnitrix and for us to talk." said Vilgax, stepping into the platform made by his drones. "Removing the fraction of my DNA trapped inside the Omnitrix could have effects on your human form, we must hurry."

Heatblast gulped, unsure what he meant by that before turning into Wildvine. He wondered if he hadn't trusted 'Vil' too quickly, but the alien defended him from those weirdos in armors and momentarily fixed the watch before. Guess he could really be trusted? Though if he heard him right, Gax wasn't in the Omnitrix anymore. But hey, if he could fix it, maybe he could put Gax back?

What Ben didn't see as they were gaining altitude was that the Rustbucket was trying to follow them, and wasn't catching up to the pair quite fast enough.

Inside the vehicle, Gwen was worried. She knew that other guy looked sketchy, but from what she saw with her binoculars, Ben was alien-jumping again, while that Vil guy now looked like a meaner, angrier version of Gax. And did he just kidnap Ben?!

"Come on, Ben! Why aren't you trying to kick his butt like you always do?!" complained Gwen.

"The unpredictable transformations may have tired him out." observed Phil. "I am no expert in the Omnitrix's functioning, but from what experience and my instincts tell me, he must be exhausted as of right now."

"Well he'd better get back up quick!" said Gwen, observing the pair of aliens disappearing into the distance through the window, hoping the RV would eventually catch up to them.

Vilgax observed the shorter figure with a sad eye. He hadn't meant to shock him, but the deed was done.

The Tetramand was sitting on his own on the ship's ground, arms and legs brought together. Some sniffs could be heard, though if one wasn't facing him, it was hard to notice he had been crying. Especially with the panels and screens around him almost all shattered in anger.

He couldn't believe it. His parents kept that a secret from him? That he was an alien this entire time?! How was he ever supposed to learn he wasn't a normal human and that his dad was some space squid warrior... without said dad saving him from a bunch of Bounty Hunters ready to sell him away on the galactic market?!

So he wasn't a human, or at least, not the normal kind... Did Grandpa and Gwen know? Grandpa definitely couldn't keep it a secret, and as for Gwen, she would've done the responsible thing and told him. But then... how else was he supposed to know if he never met Vilgax? Would he have stayed unaware he came from the same planet his latest alien came from? Or would he have not gotten Gax at all and thus never learned of who or what he was?

He didn't know what to think anymore, he remembered all those family gatherings where relatives commented on him growing up and how reckless he was getting with age. Well, alien DNA would now be a factor in it, more so than he would've imagined when he first got the watch.

It was a miracle he even got the Omnitrix. Had it been someone else, he may as well have never found Vilgax and known that Vilgax... was his dad.

As his watch beeped and he timed out, he felt a clawed hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw a concerned Vilgax lending him a hand, helping him back up.

"Hey, um... sorry I just trashed the place."

"It doesn't matter to me what you did, Ben. All it does matter is that you're finally back." said the squid man, embracing the young hero. "I have got so much to teach you, so many things for you to learn... but all in due time. I believe you need to return to those humans before they attempt anything else."

"Oh, yeah..." awkwardly said Ben, quitting the hug as he looked at his... father. Yeah, that would take A LOT of time to adjust. "Let me just fix it for you, Upgrade can get this thing working in seconds! Or maybe Grey Matter, he's pretty smart and... actually, maybe wait like, five minutes? My watch is still timed out."

Vilgax chuckled before patting the boy's brown locks. Ben was still new to all of this, but he could feel it'd get better with time.

And maybe a little push would help.

"They're at Mt. Megalodon!" exclaimed Gwen.

The day before, Ben used Gax to not-so-brilliantly stop it from erupting when Animo and his latest mutant were threatening to burn down Portland if he wasn't given money to stop it. And though Ben almost caused the entire city to melt as well, they were lucky enough his landslide stopped it.

"Gwen, what are you doing with my oven mitts and that fire extinguisher?" asked Max to his granddaughter.

"If this Vil guy got the same firepower as Gax, I must be ready to face him with Ben." said Gwen, putting a welding mask on.

"We'll have to go to the top of the mountain if we want a chance to reach them." said Phil, observing his tablet. "I'm detecting quite different readings this time. It seems Gax's DNA is no longer reacting the way it did before. It's no longer working as a beacon but... this isn't normal, the readings come in pairs, as if there were two of them!"

"Guess we'll see if duplication is another one of his powers." said Gwen.

Suddenly, a figure jumped from the spaceship on the top of the mountain, landing near the edge of the volcano before running towards the vehicle on wheels. Max slowed down as the three humans prepared themselves to face the squid man. Except he didn't count on Gwen going outside the Rustbucket screaming like a lunatic.

"Give me back my cousiiiiiiiiiiin!"

"Gwen, wait!" shouted Max.

"Gwen, wait!" repeated the squid alien before Gwen showered him with foam.

Muffled sounds could be heard as he tripped and fell on his back while the fire extinguisher covered his entire face and stopped him from seeing anything. He shook his hands several times before he could finally let a few words out.

"Gwen, it's me!" coughed the Chimeran, getting her attention.

"Huh? Ben?" she asked, looking at the alien's wrist and seeing the Omnitrix, in watch form, on it. "Is that you?! Where's Vil?"

"First, his name is Vilgax. Second, rude." he said, getting up and hitting the dial on the Omnitrix, reverting back to being Ben in another flash of green. "And third, he's going home."

"What?" said Phil.

"Someone stole his powers away and put them in the Omnitrix, that's how I got Gax and why the watch was beeping so much." explained Ben, taking the foam off his body. "But now that I gave them back, he's himself again. He fixed the Omnitrix and now, he's gonna leave."

"Your DNA, Ben." said Phil. "It was affected by Gax's DNA. If you don't mind me asking, how are you feeling right now?"

"I'm fine, and as for Gax..." Ben looked at the green dial, knowing he should worry less about timing out for the next few days. "He's back where he belongs."

The spaceship above them then flew away at high speed, leaving the humans behind. Ben knew he couldn't tell anyone about what he learned, what he and Vilgax talked about and what he would have to do with this kind of information, so for the time being, until Vilgax returned, he'd have to keep his mouth shut about...

Being an alien's son.

Boy, it's about to be one long summer vacation...

The squid man chuckled as the young boy kept looking at him with stars in his eyes.

He had to admit this Earth cuisine wasn't all that bad, the old man that took care of Ben deserved some credit. Although he was well aware only Ben was happy to have him around, he wasn't minding the suspicious eyes the old man and the girl were giving him. All that mattered was that his son would talk to him again.

"And then, I melted down Smythe's steam junk with my laser eyes! He was so annoyed, calling me a brat and using that super old language to insult me, you should've seen it!"

Ben had apparently taken a liking to his newest ability. With Vilgax's care, even if Ben couldn't carry more than 10 aliens at the time, he certainly could switch between his human form and Chimeran form, now that they were both considered defaults in the Omnitrix's database. He became used to being Gax as much as he was used to being a human, all he lacked was some more training.

"And that other time, Billy sent his drones at me. They're like yours but wrapped in his rich kid gold, he was so mad when I grabbed them with my tentacles and played bowling with them!" bragged Ben, often taking bites from his burger while talking.

"Have you tried using your powers in water yet?"

"I wanted to, but I told Gwen and Grandpa what'd happen if I used my 'real form' or something like that and they warned me not to do it in public or somewhere they knew I wouldn't fit in." said Ben, before whispering. "They don't know a thing about, um, who you really are, but I think they're onto something..."

Vilgax looked down on the other two humans. It wasn't a metaphor, he was still taller than them despite sitting at the same picnic table as them. They weren't exactly glaring at him, but they obviously didn't trust him as much as Ben did. He couldn't blame them, humans were generally terrible when it came to communicating with other species.

The old man, whose name was Max if he remembered well, tried to initiate a conversation.

"So, Vilgax, right? I'm sure Ben told you about me, I'm his grandfather." Vilgax didn't say a word, he knew he'd get Ben in trouble if he called out the inaccuracy of that claim. "I have to thank you for fixing Ben's watch since he messes with it so much, but if I'm not being impolite..."

"What are you doing here again?" said Gwen, cutting to the chase. Ben glared back at the redhead girl, not liking where this was going. He couldn't say anything yet, otherwise he might reveal something too sensitive.

"I'm merely giving Ben a visit." said Vilgax. It wasn't a lie, technically. "Ever since he helped me restore my powers, I've taken the decision to come around this planet, see the view around these plains and observe where he grew up."

"Well, you'd have to come back when summer ends, that's when everyone is going home." said Max. "I'm taking the kids out of town for the summer so they can see the country, get some fresh air, you know? Their parents always want them to learn about the world and stuff like that."

Ben was worried, looking at his father frowning. He didn't take the 'parents' comment well enough, it was about time he chimed in.

"How about you join us on our roadtrip?" suggested Ben with an awkward smile.

"Ben... I'd honestly love to, but erm, I doubt he could fit inside the Rustbucket. You know Four Arms already has trouble getting in, there's a reason why you're not allowed to be Gax in there."

"Oh come on, Grandpa! Pleaaaaaaaaaaase?" said Ben, ineffectively making puppy dog eyes to an unconvinced Grandpa.

"By the way," said Gwen. "I've been wanting to ask you, how come Ben doesn't time out as Gax anymore? He told me you did something with the watch, so I wanted to know what it was."

Ben did tell her she was a clever but nagging girl, back when they first met. He noted she was very curious too, seeing as she didn't cower down despite facing a renowned warlord that conquered many planets across the galaxy before. Having lunch with him probably helped.

"Your young mind isn't qualified enough to understand the complex workings of the Omnitrix." he answered, annoying her. "For a lack of better words for humans to understand, I've altered the Omnitrix's settings so that Ben wouldn't be inconvenienced with his Chimeran form, regardless of being limited to ten alien forms for the time being."

"You know a lot about the Omnitrix, it's like you built it. How come?"

"There are many things I know about the Omnitrix that you are unaware of, young girl, and I will not bother explaining." calmly snapped Vilgax, glaring at her. "To wit, I am under the impression you're questioning my presence here. If you have any issue, then voice it rather than pretending I am welcome here."

"Gwen!" called out Ben.

"Wh-what?! I didn't say that!" she protested.

Then she and her Grandpa witnessed a quite unusual picture: both Ben and Vilgax were glaring at her with their arms crossed. If Ben had been Gax at the moment, they would've looked like perfect twins. Well, almost, Gax was a bit shorter than before, but it still stood. Even if he wasn't transformed, Ben perfectly mimicked the squid alien's demeanor while he was mad at his cousin.

"Kinda stinks I can only see you when you're hiding out here." said Ben.

"It's not too much of a hassle as long as I get to talk with you again, my boy."

Ben was used to visiting his father whenever he could, these days. A drone would come and get him, and he'd be transported to the Chimerian Hammer in a matter of minutes. Gwen and Max were used to him wandering off on his own if he didn't take too long, so Vilgax was safe for the time being.

At this rate, the spaceship was becoming a second home for him, he could very easily find his way around the area if he spent more time here on his own. For now, he just looked at the pictures his father was showing him. His projectors allowed to see lots of places from the planets where the aliens from the Omnitrix came from, it was pretty cool knowing Overflow was a pirate, or that Heatblast's species loved extreme sports just like him.

As he looked through the different images that were around him, Ben spotted one projector that piqued his interest.

"Hold on a second..." he said, looking at the two Chimerans on the holographic screen. "That guy... Dad, is that you and Mom?"

Vilgax nodded, without saying much of a word. It was still painful to know Ben never met his mother and couldn't remember her face, but he was letting the boy go at his own pace, he wouldn't want to upset him with the things he missed.

"Wow, she looked so pretty. I wonder what her voice was like..." said Ben, sounding slightly melancholic before swiping the image away. "Hey, that's a baby! Is that me?"

"Indeed. Our people were quite surprised to see you were a human unlike the rest of us, but your mother always liked to say that it was a sign you were a truly special child. As of now, I could never prove her wrong, not that I'd ever dream of doing so."

"Man, I hope Penny never finds this. She's my babysitter, another cousin and she also keeps a lot of baby pictures of me." added Ben, looking at an image of Vilgax using his heat vision on what looked like a milk bottle. "Man, I never thought about using my laser eyes for cooking. Wish I could use them when I'm human too."

"You can't always have everything." said Vilgax, patting his son's head. "With that said, I would love to hear more about your performances with your Fulmini form."

"Shock Rock? He's doing amazing. After you took down that limiter and I got all these sets of 10 aliens, I didn't think I'd get stronger, but then Shock Rock's powers just gave every single of my aliens super-charged armors. I still can't use Upgrade though, I keep going Shock Rock whenever I try."

"That is... peculiar, to say the least."

"How so?"

"The Fulmini can indeed create weapons of all sorts, be it for direct combat or defensive purposes, but I do not recall a function like that one present inside the Omnitrix. If anything, you need a key to use armors like those, I do not remember Fulmini abilities being linked to that."

"It also just happens randomly, I go super-charged without knowing how to. You should see my laser eyes when I do it though, my Chimeran armor looks like you if you covered yourself in stones and that blue energy stuff. Animo's mutants got to see what I could do." deviously grinned Ben, delighted at the memory of the battle.

"Since when has your Galvanic Mechamorph form been missing?"

"I don't know... I guess it was somewhere around the time I fought those alien guys and they were following me everywhere, even on a moving train." said Ben, remembering when the Diamondhead dude and those two armored freaks got him and Gwen cornered. "They trapped Upgrade inside an energy net and I couldn't do anything to get myself out, so I used Upgrade to get the Omnitrix to work again. It worked and I even got that 'Master Control' thingy you told me about for a few seconds, but then I was back to normal."

"I doubt the Omnitrix is in its normal state." said Vilgax. "If it was a matter of you sleepwalking your way into unlocking that function like the previous time, it'd be much simpler to deal with."

Ben slightly groaned. He wondered if it was such a good idea to tell his dad about that time he trashed Adrenaland by sleep-aliening and switching forms without even knowing how he did it.

"So, do we have anything to do in order to fix it?"

"As of right now, I would say these armors are beneficial to your occupations as a 'hero', so let's wait until something else happens before trying anything."

"What would we have to do if something happened?"

"We would have to go inside the Omnitrix and explore it until we find where the issue comes from."

"Haha, nice one, Dad!"

Vilgax's face implied that it wasn't a joke, making Ben question his father's type of humor.

It really wasn't a joke, they were doing it now.

"We'll stand guard if anything happens to the Omnitrix." said Gwen. "If anyone other than my cousin comes back out safe and sound..."

"There'll be calamari on the menu." warned Max, holding a frying pan and a saucepan.

"Grandpa! Gwen!" said Ben, frustrated.

It all started after they've won the boxcar race. Ben started hearing voices and having some dreams, he wouldn't tell anyone what was going on inside his head until Vilgax came. He lost contact with the drone he used to check on Ben, and it turned out Ben took it away in his sleep and dismantled it for a reason or another.

Gwen and Max weren't unaware of the closeness shared between the alien king and the Omnitrix wearer. Seeing Ben wouldn't talk, they had no other choice but to ask Vilgax to do it instead. And as much as they had their doubts on him, he managed what they couldn't. While they didn't hear what Ben told him, Vilgax explained Ben was having dreams and nightmares about Shock Rock, and that the problem must've been inside the Omnitrix.

They doubted it was possible to go inside the watch, but the Omnitrix has been doing strange things lately, it'd just be one more to go inside and see what's wrong.

"If you are finished with your threats... Ben, the Omnitrix if you please."

"Right away!" said Ben, with a trusting smile.

It'd stay a mystery as to how the two of them got so close, unless Ben told them now. He could mess with them and wait until summer ended though, it could be fun. The squid alien started turning the dial in all directions, reminding Ben of how he got his Omnitrix to work again and give him more aliens.

"What are you doing?" asked Gwen.

"Your feeble mind wouldn't comprehend."

Ben choked in a laughter. If it wasn't for Max, he got the feeling Gwen would've attacked him (or tried to, it was an unfair fight) for that remark. All he could register was his cousin's upset glare before a green flash surrounded both him and his father.

He felt pulled by the wrist while the green light blinded him, and everything went in a flash. He felt weird, like his body was changing but not like when he was going hero. Then the green light came to a stop and Ben found himself, quite nauseous, carried by Vilgax in the squid man's arms.

"Although it should be no surprise as you're my son, your resilience is impressive." commented Vilgax with a chuckle.

"That. Felt. Weird." said Ben, shaking his head as his father put him down. "Where are we?"

"Inside the loading chamber." said Vilgax, waving towards the DNA pods around them.

"Loading chamber? Inside the Omnitrix?"

"This is where the aliens' genetic material is combined with your human DNA."

"So, that's XLR8, Heatblast, Diamondhead... wait." stopped Ben, looking at a pod that appeared to be Shock Rock's. "What's up with that one? It should be Upgrade, but it's full of Fulmini energy. I thought new aliens went to another room, why is this one here?"

"Strange, very strange..." said Vilgax, putting a hand on the pod as he observed the energy inside of it.

One more move, and he could turn into another species, like his son did. However, he had other things in mind than the Omnitrix for now, helping Ben was his top priority.

"Speaking of strange, why isn't Gax's pod here?"

"To make sure your Chimeran body doesn't become affected with the limiter after my first visit to Earth, I reprogrammed the Omnitrix to make sure it's keen to your Chimeran DNA. The pod of your 'Gax' part is somewhere else along with your human DNA chain." said Vilgax. "Ben, I must ask you something."

"Huh?" said Ben, as they started walking through the corridors inside... the Omnitrix. "Sure thing, Dad."

"As you're aware, you are my heir and the prince of Vilgaxia. Once this little vacation is over... I would like you to come back home with me."

"Wha?! You mean, in outer space? With you? Where there would be lots of aliens I don't know?"

"Well, yes. I understand if you don't-"

"I'd love to!" Vilgax didn't quite expect the look of admiration the boy was giving him. "I've never been to space before. You always tell me about all those things about my aliens but I never get to see what it's really like! I would love to visit Humungousaur's planet, or hang out with Stinkfly and Slapback's buddies. And it'd be so cool if I met people from... our planet. Could you imagine me coming in there and they'd all just worship me as their hero?"

It amused Vilgax to see his son acting so proud. He was right in that his people would bow before Ben and treat him as a prince should, though he doubted reality would confirm all of Ben's fantasies about going to space. Especially the red carpet being unrolled before him, he never understood what was it in human society to consider red carpets a sign of being important.

As the two kept walking, they heard the sound of someone tapping on buttons. Wary, Ben hid behind his father, aware he couldn't go alien when he was away from the pods. They walked slowly towards the source of the noise, hearing a familiar voice.

"It would seem the Fulmini are using even more resources to get the portal between our worlds open. At least, my defenses are strong enough to take on this threat."

Ben couldn't believe his ears. He looked where the voice came from and saw two stretchy purple and black arms, with purple circuits on them, pressing on buttons on a wall. Was that...?

He gasped as he saw the figure from behind, its arms splitting into tentacle-like limbs made of the same goo as the rest of his body to tap more commands on the wall. The exact same way Vilgax did whenever he entered something on his spaceship's keyboard.

"Upgrade, is that you?"

"Huh?"

The figure turned around, revealing what looked like Ben. Or rather, Upgrade with Ben's head. He had the same overall shape as Ben, with purple eyes and a '10' symbol at the same place where it was on Ben's shirt. Except he was all purple and had Upgrade's circuits everywhere around the body. His face was entirely purple, with normal eyes and purple irises.

Overall, it looked like Ben and Upgrade had fused into one.

"Ben! And you're Vilgax." stated the stranger. "I'm not Upgrade. Um, not quite, you can call me Glitch."

"Glitch..." repeated Ben, stepping in to take a closer look. "Looks like Upgrade with my head, totally not weird at all..."

"I can explain later, but first, you must help me restart the entire place."

The alien hybrid was silenced as the squid man approached him and went down on one knee to observe him. It was one thing to know who the Omnitrix's host was, it was another to meet the host's family.

Effectively enough, after bringing in some of Vilgax's drones for assistance, the squid man left the now rebooted device with his son and the newcomer. While Gwen and Max needed a long explanation as to where Glitch came from as well, Ben made sure he didn't say anything about who Vilgax was to him. Or rather, to them both.

Vilgax didn't mind welcoming the young hybrid in, it was nice to have more life inside the Chimerian Hammer while Ben was away. And in fact, Ben always dreamed of having a brother.

"Tch, you're so predictable, Loserson." mocked Kevin.

Kevin had a longer transformation span than him, and his aliens were completely unbalanced compared to him. Kevin also had trouble holding back, not like he was trying to hold back anyway. This time, the emo kid got him cornered quick.

"Too bad you can't count on your family to save your sorry butt this time."

"I wouldn't be so sure about this, you're messing with the wrong dude..." smirked Ben, crossing his arms.

"What? You got some other cute cousin I don't know of?" said Kevin, not realizing he just called Gwen cute.

"Not a cousin, but you're not that far from the truth..." he grinned.

Suddenly, Kevin saw a shadow looming over them both from behind him. Gulping, he turned around and raised his look up in the air to meet the face of a quite angry squid man, one that looked like Ben's Squidface form (Ben kept correcting him about it being 'Gax', not like he cared). A few seconds later, Kevin was crawling back on the ground screaming.

"So this is the boy that has been causing you so much trouble..." hissed the tall figure.

"Yep, Kevin's been after me since kindergarten, and he was a real pain in the butt when I was in the third grade." said Ben, getting back up and walking beside him.

"No way... THIS IS A MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY?!" shouted Kevin, freaked out. "SINCE WHEN DO TENNYSONS HAVE SQUIDS AMONG THEM?"

"And another Omnitrix, I see what the problem is..." said Vilgax, grinning as he let sharp teeth appear. "Once I take possession of it, you won't be the only one to 'go hero', as you say."

"Ha! Never thought of that that way!" said Ben, smiling.

Unfortunately for them, Kevin didn't waste time hitting his red watch and turning into a green speedster, Rush, XLR8's nemesis. Kevin didn't know what to make of that information, and he knew he didn't have much time left on his watch, so he had to flee quick. Though he didn't understand who the squid alien was and how he was related to Tennyson, he knew he had to tell Forever Knight about this.

For some reason, it actually sounded cool to have an alien in the family. He could add that to the list of things Tennyson had that he didn't.

SURPRISE!

I had this in mind for a while, but didn't know if it'd fit more as an April Fools or some other occasion. So since it's the start of a new decade, have this special chappie!