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The Minase residence...

Ben woke up in a small room that was once home to a dear friend of the Minase's. Unsure as to why someone would bring him to a stranger's house and bother to give him fresh pajamas to wear, Ben got up from the bed and began to wander the house. He has the faint hope that in due time he could call this place his new home, but he has his doubts about that.

I guess I can chalk this up as a small miracle. It's not the most logical solution, but my other choices don't make as much sense,Ben pondered as he went downstairs. Turning towards the dining room, he saw that there was four sets of plates, silverware and chairs. Ben was familiar with the tale of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and guessed that whoever lived in this house, he was not a part of their family and therefore continued to look over the dwelling.

He was all set to go into the kitchen when loud alarm clocks went off and began to hurt his ears. Ben ran back upstairs and started to look for wherever the sound was coming from. It didn't take long for Ben to locate just where the piecing noise was coming from: a room with a frog's head sign hanging from its door.

Attempting to turn the knob to get inside, Ben found that the door was locked. Grumbling to himself, he activated the Omnitrix and selected Kickin' Hawk. Pressing down on the dial as it popped up, Ben soon became a brown feathered humanoid, yellow claws replacing both his feet and hands. Black briefs were held up by a green belt, with green armbands, legbands, headband and a green vest hooker being his sole clothing apart from the aforementioned briefs. The Omnitrix symbol was on his chest and by his armbands were sharp, retractable blades on his elbows.

"Time to...ummm...I can't think of a good chicken pun. Dammit!" Kickin' Hawk put that aside for now and used his elbow blade to cut the lock so he can get inside.

Charging in, Kickin' Hawk found dozens of alarm clocks blaring and in the middle of the chaos was a young girl sleeping on her side, her back facing Kickin' Hawk. Clad in pink PJs and holding onto a large stuffed frog, she was deep in slumber compared to the wide awake Ben. She was attractive, with a cute little yawn coming out of her mouth. She has bluish hair that fell onto her back, a small part of that being draped onto her shoulder.

While Kickin' Hawk found her to be cute, the sounds of her alarm clocks was starting to drive him bonkers, so with as much speed as this form allows, Ben turned off all the clocks. "Whew! That was nuts." It soon dawned on the Plumber that she did not stir once during the onslaught of sound and Ben began to think that she was deaf.

With that train of thought running in his head, Kickin' Hawk began to pick the girl up. That was a mistake as a young man walked by to wake her up as he was used to doing this favor for her by now. Seeing the form of Kickin' Hawk trying to pick up his cousin brought out protective fears for her safety. He wasted no time picking up a chair and bringing it down on Kickin' Hawk's head, stunning the bird alien.

"I don't know what the Hell you are, but if you harmed Nayuki, then you're dead!" the chestnut haired man threatened. Ben raised his arms to show that he meant no harm, but the man was too angry to think straight, grabbing a piece of the chair and trying to stab Ben with it.

Ben, however was thinking straight and changed back to human form, causing the young man to lower his weapon. "What are you?" he asked out of both wonder and fear, his face showing deep concern for his cousin.

Regaining his bearings, Ben went on to explain this to the young man. "I'm Ben Tennyson. You might not think I fit the part, but I'm a hero. At least I was until my ego ran out of control and doomed my universe to a fate worse than death itself. All I'm in here for is to help my partner find his home, which was the only real part of my universe to survive. Then I have to fight this demon called Diagon to save the multiverse and find a new home. So I got a LOT on my plate to deal with," Ben admitted, worried that this man would not believe him.

But his fears were soon put to rest. "I believe you. Jun has a knack for telling who can be trusted or not. I can't really explain it all that well, but he has this weird spiritual sensitivity, if that makes any sense to you," he replied. Ben nodded to show that he understood perfectly. "Good. Because I think you may be the guy that can stop these monsters from terrorizing our home. Some strange woman in a dress and her white haired partner have been attacking innocent people and so far, no one seems to be able to stop them. If that watch on your arm can turn you into more forms that just the chicken man, then we may have a chance at stopping them," he told Ben with as much of a straight face as he could muster.

Ben knew that he had to put this man's fears to rest, so he selected the form of Heatblast and turned into said form. His feet were burning the hardwood floors and that woke Nayuki up, frightened by the sight of a man made of fire, lava and rock standing in her room. It didn't take long for her to scream in utter terror at the sight of Heatblast.

"Chill out, will ya? I ain't gonna hurt ya," Heatblast pleaded futilely, but his words had no effect on the extremely frighted Nayuki. His feet were burning the wooden floors in her room, so that wasn't helping matters as the smell of smoke was beginning to drift upwards in the air, making it hard for the two humans there to breathe.

"You're on fire!" Nayuki screeched, not knowing that this was normal for Heatblast. "Yuuichi, aren't you worried about this at all?"

Turning to his cousin, all Yuuichi could do was shrug. "Nope. I believe Ben has this under control."

"LIAR!" Nayuki's loud protest woke up the still sleepy Jun, who ran upstairs as fast as his legs could carry him.

By the time he got up, Jun was out of breath as he was never an outgoing person and exercise wasn't his favorite thing in the world to do. But this had to be dealt with now. Nayuki's mother was out right now, still recovering from a near fatal car accident and while the physical therapy was going well, fully recovering was going to take months. To think that not only her, but their other friends have just recovered as if by magic. It was unusual, but Jun was happy that everyone is safe and sound.

Now was the matter of Ben and his weirdness. "Okay, you guys, chill out. I know it seems odd, but Ben here comes from another universe and he's a hero!" Jun proclaimed with dramatic flourish, waving his hands to point at Ben, who had taken the time to switch to Clockwork and was now fixing the floorboards he had accidentally damaged with his de-aging ray. In only a minute, Nayuki's floors were looking better than ever, the shine brought back due to Ben using the beam a little longer than he intended.

After seeing Ben prove that he was not going to hurt them, Yuuichi and Nayuki's doubts were put to rest. "So you are telling the truth," the brunette quietly whispered, though all present could still hear him."Forgive us, Ben. It's just that not only are these two people are harming my classmates, they're using this strange liquid to turn their victims into horrible monsters. No one so far has been able to stop them from wreaking havoc and the military is close to declaring martial law." Yuuichi hung his head down, his eyes showing that he had seen these horrors before and hope was almost gone for his newfound home.

"But we did get a sample of this goo when the male dropped it by accident during a failed run to turn our class into monsters." Nayuki then opened her drawer and took out a small vial of silver liquid that frightened her just by looking at it. Ben knew at once what it really was: Nanites. The very same ones that brought Rex's world to the brink of madness and nearly put an end to Ben Tennyson himself.

Wordlessly, Ben changed to Upgrade and placed his hand on the vial. The contents shook violently and the three third years knew at once that this was not a fluid as they first thought. "I know these devices all too well. They were meant to help people, but a flaw in their programming made them mutate certain people into monsters known as EVOs. A creature called Alpha brought me to his world by mistake and with the aid of a good friend called Rex, we entombed Alpha forever in the Null Void. But during the battles with him, I was infected by nanites that were causing me to die from hemotoxicity due to the fact that, since I can shift form at will, their programming because so corrupted that they tried to euthanize me, and the worst part of this was we all thought it was due to me using a older model Omnitrix."

Yuuichi, Nayuki and Jun were speechless. These machines were a nightmare in multiple dimensions and now they were here in their universe. They didn't dare to interrupt Ben, who continued on with his story. "But that was a slow process and I had more pressing matters to deal with. In fact, He is the greatest threat the Omniverse may ever see. His name is Diagon and he is an alien god that exists in multiple dimensions. His very essence is power and only with Ascalon was humanity able to seal him away. But due to outside forces, Diagon and his goon squad the Flame Keeper's Circle went on to conquer all of Earth with his dark magics. Only Gwen, who is my cousin, Kevin, Sir George, who survived all the way to modern times in my world, The Forever Knights, who were formed to combat Diagon but lost their way, only to regain their propose with George's return and myself were all that stood against Diagon's army. We won, but the Forever Knights were devastated and George was killed in battle. But things went wrong soon after that."

"How so?" Nayuki asked, the terror on her face almost too much for Yuuichi to bear. "What happened to you, Ben?'

"Vilgax happened," Ben bitterly recalled. "He was a victim of Diagon, but he was the one to kill him. I drew what remained of the dark god into Ascalon, but that destroyed the sword and split Diagon's soul into three parts: One went to Vilgax, the other went to Elana, who made a bargain with Diagon should he fail to take over and the last part went to Julie, who joined the FKC due to relationship trouble she was having...with me," the Omnitrix bearer explained, tears falling from his eyes. "I was able to bring Vilgax to justice, but he scarred both Juile and myself with wounds that will never fully heal and he ruined my old Ultimate Omnitrix. But thanks to Azmuth, I gained the True Omnitrix, which has more power than my older models."

"I was wondering about that weird X mark on your chest," Jun interjected with a concerned look in his eyes. "So if you got a stronger watch how come Vilgax didn't give up on his plan?"

Ben took a deep breath and continued with his tale. "Vilgax however was not out just yet. I had ego problems and made a lot of enemies over the years, so Vilgax got 8 of them together and hatched a plan that until a few months ago, was something I never considered. Going to a universe where alien tech was reverse engineered to make Switches that allowed people to mutate into beasts called Zodiarts, Vilgax forced the mastermind called Gamou, or Sagittarius as he's better known to me to share his Switches with my greatest foes, if he brought him the last of his intended group of powerful Zodiarts dubbed the Horoscopes. He went so far as to capture innocent people and mutate them into Horoscopes and with all 12 of them brought to my world, Vilgax had hoped to kill me once and for all."

Taking a moment to moisten his throat, Ben continued on with his tale. "But Gamou only wanted to see a group of aliens called 'Presenters' and soon his goals clashed with Vilgax's. Further frustrating Vilgax's plans was a good man I know as Prof. Emoto, who was a triple agent for the Kamen Rider Club, a group of people who fought against Zodiarts and help to rehabilitate them into being better people. With not only his help, but the aid of Gentaro, who uses Switches that give him a suit that can utilize high tech gear and JK, we were able to save 4 of the victims of his scheme. Only one innocent soul was killed alongside the more evil members when Vilgax pieced together the fact that Gamou didn't share his views on power."

Nayuki was wide eyed with fear about Ben told the assembled group the woe that befell him during that time. "Ben-san, even you can't defeat every single enemy and you know that," she wisely stated as Ben nodded his approval. "Just how did you save everyone with just your Omnitrix?"

Ben was ready for that question and told them the the truth. "With Emoto's aid we were able to fight off Vilgax's Dark Horoscope Zodiarts, which wielded the power of the Black Zodiac. During this time I grew closer with Juile and helped a dear friend called Manny with his problems as well. But Vilgax was a monster in every sense of the word and forced my friends Emily, JT and Cash to become his final three Dark Horoscopes. But I was able to save them, and defeat Vilgax once and for all, or so I thought. During my time as a dead man, Elana went on to play her plan in Diagon's plan, but Vilgax's nano machines fused her and his corpse together to create Cyber Vilgax."

"Okay, while most of this story makes sense I'm curious as to what you're standing right if you died," Yuuichi said, making air quotes with his hands where he said 'died'. "Who used the Omnitrix during that time?"

"Gen used the Omnitrix to attempt to fight him off, but thanks to a dear friend I was resurrected and together, we destroyed Diagon's home and Cyber Vilgax," Ben explained. "But due to old magic, any member of the Flame Keeper's that joins by their own free will were forever Diagon's and that included Julie." Ben stopped talking to let that fact sink in yet again: That he is responsible for all this suffering. But they did not hate him for it, as Ben was as much a victim of this as they were. Ben was deeply thankful that they were not glaring at him and were in fact still willing to help him with fixing this mess.

"Making matters worse, Julie went over to Rex's world and killed everyone there. Only my grandma, who was there to straighten things out, was the only survivor and the Switch that allowed my friends to cross over was wreaked, so they were marooned on my world. But Emoto thought ahead and with Azmuth's help and guidance , gave my Omnitrix the power to evolve my alien heroes to Ultimate forms, but there's a catch. Only 12 can gain Ultimate forms and I need to connect with a person on a emotional level in order to gain said power."

Jun looked like a kid in a candy store when Ben mentioned the Ultimates. "Did you get all 12? Because those guys are going to be a huge help if you unlocked them all!" he shouted with glee. What Ben told them brought his hopes crashing down to Earth.

"I was only able to get the powers of Virgo, Aquarius, Capricorn, Gemini and Pisces before disaster stuck again. Vilgax had survived and possessed the body of a super villain called 'Monsteroso'. Using genetic engineering he became Super Vilgax and used a device called the Annihilarg to kill my entire universe. With the aid of another universe's heroes, Rusty Venture, OSI and SPHINX I was able to kill Vilgax once and for all and get my new friends home."

"I take it you had time to relax after that," Yuuichi replied as he brushed some hair out of his eyes.

Ben filled them in on what happened after that."I wanted to unwind and chill with a smoothie,but I had problems of my own to deal with. Julie had rebuilt Ascalon as her personal weapon and brought Albedo, a deadly foe of mine with his own Omnitrix, to her side. My guess is that they were able to make more nanites and are planing to use them to bring this world under their control. I have a partner who survived the chaos, Rook, but both he and his world are lost right now to me. So I'm on my own against a dark goddess, a clone of me that hates me, and Evos."

"Liar," Nayuki interrupted. "You're not alone anymore. We'll help you out in any way we can, OK?" Seeing her bright smile brought joy to Ben's life and for the first time since he got here, he felt like he was at home.

"The same goes for us too!" Jun added, grabbing and pressing Yuuichi to his side. "Monsters or not, I ain't gonna let this Diagon ruin my home!"

Yuuichi just nodded to show that he will help out too.

"Thanks, guys. I was able to kill two thirds of Diagon, so once this last part is gone, that's all she wrote for Diagon!" Ben cheerfully stated to the group. But it's not going to be easy. With both Diagon and Ascalon, Julie and Albedo are going to be my greatest battle ever,Ben thought.

A little later, during breakfast...

"What's still bugging me about all of this is just how in the Hell Jun was able to figure out that you are some sort of superhero," Yuuichi brought up while the four of them were eating breakfast. Yuuichi was a cynic by nature and the fact that Jun found all this out before him was still rubbing him the wrong way.

Jun placed his orange juice and went on to explain this to Yuuichi and Nayuki. "After I got Ben in here, his watch doohicky started up on its own and this old guy came up as a hologram." Nayuki was fascinated by all this exciting news regarding Ben. Normally she would be asleep due to overworking herself, but she awaited the story of this mystery man with wide eyed wonder.

Yuuichi had to crack a grin at how happy Nayuki was right now. She was a young woman and quite beautiful to behold, with many men having fallen in love with her. But she was in some ways still a child, holding onto her dreams despite her cousin's grim manner and the hardships she faced alongside Ayu, Shiori, Mishio, Makoto, Mai, Sayuri and Kaori. He was still saddened that Makoto passed away not long ago, but she was at peace when she went away from him, but the other girls were much happier now thanks to his aid.

Jun was jealous that all these girls were close to Yuuichi and since it was not unheard of for cousins to marry in Japan, he feared that Nayuki, who he had a crush on since Kaori first introduced her to him, would join Yuuichi's harem.

But Yuuichi was nothing of the sort. He loved Nayuki like a sister and took the time to explain this to her. She accepted this since she now had time to think it over. Yuuichi was as much a brother to her as her mother always told her. The other girls were just close friends as well, save two. Mishio ran into Yuuichi during a shopping run he had to do and after a week of hanging out, the two found common ground with having lost dear friends to forces beyond their control, their love of nature and freedom, the odd sense of humor they both have and other factors as well. When Mishio asked Yuuichi out of the blue that she wanted to be his girlfriend, he happily agreed to her request and since then, they had been close.

Ayu however did not return after literally fading away and everyone that knew her was worried sick. Though everyone else recovered, Ayu herself was still missing and they missed her dearly. Ayu was in many ways a child: Cheerful, friendly, clumsy, argumentative, happy-go-lucky, quirky and just plain cute, it was no wonder that Ayu still is loved by many people.

But Jun had to tell them the tale of how he learned of Ben and there was time for the foursome to just sit down and hear this story.

Last night...

Jun had dragged Ben inside the comfortable Minase household and was glad to have done so. It was important that he'd saved this lost traveler, being that this boy was lost and scared in a place he had never been before, plus he only had a tattered black T-shirt and brown cargo pants to his name. Since Ben's skin was blue from the cold, Jun had no choice but to completely disrobe Ben and run a hot bath for him. Jun was very uncomfortable with having to see a naked teenage boy, but he had to warm him up and make sure he didn't drown in the tub.

You owe me BIG for this. The first time I see someone in the nude and it's a dude, Jun thought to himself as Ben began to show signs of life again. After drying him off and putting grey PJs on Ben, Jun was ready to turn in, when a green light started to shine from Ben's wrist.

It was Professor Emoto, the man who helped upgrade Ben's Omnitrix and was for a time, the Virgo Zodiarts. His face had a tired look on it, the horrors of what he had to do supplant Gamou's prematurely aging him. From his desk he could see that this boy was confused about what's happening and so started to tell him everything he could. From Ben's mission to the woes they faced in the world of the Venture Bros, Jun was engrossed in the tale of this boy and his many battles for justice.

When Emoto was finished, Jun had questions to ask, and they were valid points to be made. " So this Diagon dude wants to take over the mutliverse and only Ben can stop him? Can't we help him out at least a little bit?"

The older man knew from the worried tone Jun used that his fears had to put to rest. "Ben's Omnitrix has a feature that allows him to evolve his alien forms to a state dubbed 'Ultimate', but after the power went to his head, safeguards were installed to make sure Ben maintains his sanity," Emoto explained as he sipped his coffee."Ben must befriend someone truthfully and then he can invoke the power of Ultimate. You must made sure that Ben is safe and help him out with getting used to life here. He is rather outgoing and I fear that his attitude may upset people here," he finished with a grim look on his face.

Jun was able to get what Emoto was saying. "Got it. Ben will be safe while Jun is on the job!" he shouted with misplaced pride. Emoto was worried that Jun is getting over his head, but let those feelings remain unsaid for now.

"I'll contact Ben at a later date. Please make sure he stays alive until then. Emoto out."

With that, the light went out and Jun was alone again, getting Ben up the stairs into Makoto's room.

Present time...

I knew there was more to this than we first thought, but compared to what I've faced before, Ben has gone thought more than even Jun would have thought possible, Yuuichi mused internally, brow furrowed in an attempt to understand just how high the stakes are right now. Ben was the only hope they have right now, but he is woefully outclassed by both his opponents.

If there was a time for a miracle, now would be splendid.

Next time: Ben meets more of the girls of Yuuichi's life, but Sayuri and Kaori enter loggerheads over a personal matter. As if that weren't bad enough, EVOs attack! Will Ultimate Grey Matter help out, or are our heroes doomed?

AN:The room Ben woke up in was Makoto's room, though he won't know about that, nor Makoto herself until a little later in the story. I hope this bit of info helps my readers out.