Ben 10 Omniverse fanfiction
10 + 1 Primed
Chapter 3
The Time: the good old days
The Place: A lovely town in the middle of the desert
The portal Paradox created dropped Ben and company into a deserted alleyway of some town. Looking around, they saw that they were in era closer to the one they were born in. However, there was something off…
"So, any idea where we should start looking?" Ben asked, adjusting the Omnitrix's dial.
Rook thought about it. "The first two pods were underground. Logically, the next one should be underground as well."
"Makes sense," Ben agreed. "Let's see if there are any caves around and start at the closest one. See anyone we can ask for directions?"
"No, but something worries me. Why did Paradox say we should 'be more discreet about our identities'?" Eunice asked, looking out the alley and onto the street.
Ben shrugged. "Maybe we'll bump into someone we know. Or someone I know…" Ben had to admit there was something familiar about the town. It was possible that they'd been dumped into his childhood days.
Then Ben noticed how quiet it was. As much of a cliché it was, it was too quiet. The entire town was deserted. It seemed like the three of them were the only souls in it. And it was so clean…too clean.
"Okay, is anyone getting royally creeped out by this?" Ben asked, shifting uncomfortably. A feeling of unease started to fizzle within.
Rook rubbed his chin. "Indeed. This is most unsettling. Surely they must be some people around."
Eunice pointed. "Wait, there's someone." A short distance away they could see a lone figure through the window on a diner.
As the three of them went to meet with that mysterious person, Ben noticed that a recurring symbol. In certain odd spots, someone had painted the emblem for hazardous waste- nuclear material. The uneasy feeling fizzling inside began to bubble. Meanwhile, Rook and Eunice had moved ahead to find that the town's lone inhabitant was-
"A dummy?" Eunice asked, staring at the thing. It looked like something used for crash tests. "I don't understand."
"Curiouser and curiouser." Rook remarked.
Then Ben's brain made the connection. The empty town, the symbols for radioactive material all over…it all added up to one thing.
"Guys, we have to get out of here," Ben said tensely, "Now." He began to adjust the Omnitrix's dial. However, Rook and Eunice did not seem to hear him.
"Perhaps the townspeople evacuated to escape from a mutant?" Rook suggested, "And left this as a decoy?"
"Could be, but something feels off…" Eunice considered.
"There was never anyone here!" Ben yelled, getting their attention. "We have to run before the explosion hits!"
"Explosion?" Rook asked.
"This fake-town is a testing site for a nuclear bomb!" Ben continued, "There's no telling when they'll set it off!"
Rook and Eunice's eyes widened and their jaws dropped in horror. Ben finally found the setting for XLR8 (He hoped) and was about to transform when a loud bang occurred. Reflexively, the three dove behind some garbage cans in a panicked huddle. They heard men shouting from the same direction that noise came from. Peeking out, they saw three men chasing what looked like…well, it might have been a rabbit at some point. Its origins were definitely in the family of lagomorphs. Only this thing seemed to be sprinting on legs more appropriate for a gazelle's, along with matching antlers growing between the ears. Were it not for the pair of razor-sharp fangs visible in its mouth, it would have been cute.
Even stranger though were the attire of the rabbit-gazelle; they looked like the kind of suits spacemen would wear in old-school science fiction media. Oddly enough, those uniforms looked very familiar to Ben and Rook. Ben himself felt as if he had seen those three before, though he had no idea where.
The leader of the three had a futuristic gun drawn, and shot out a glowing net at the elusive 'rabbizelle'. The net caught the creature completely, and the other two men went to restrain it completely.
"You got it!" One man said, "Good aim."
"Just see if you can calm it down for transport," The first man said, "I want to leave this place before the bomb goes off."
"Relax, we've got plenty of time," the third man said, "According to the Magister, we've still got two hours before the military starts their next test, plenty of time to wrap things up. Though I wish we could just send these things into the Null Void…"
"Nix to that," the second man said, "The guys at the lab say that the Null Void environment might make these things more dangerous and hostile. We already know where their nest is; all we have to do now is round up any wanderers and then wipe 'em out. Max, Phil, let's go."
"Max!?" Ben whispered, leaning forward for a better look. Unfortunately, in doing so he hit his head on the garbage can, causing it to ring out.
"What was that!?" Max asked, looking in the future trio's direction.
Phil squinted, also looking. "Hey, there are some people over there!"
"Busted." Ben gulped, and pushed the dial down.
What the three men saw next quite frankly astounded them. There was a flash of green from behind the cans, followed by a blur of some sort zipping away and out of sight.
"What was that?" Phil asked, stunned.
"Got me," Max confessed. Looking to his third teammate, he asked, "Driscoll, do you think we should look for them?"
Driscoll shook his head. "We'll worry about it later. Right now, we need to focus on the mutants," Upon seeing Max's worried expression, he said, "Don't worry. If they were listening in, they'll know enough to get out before the bomb goes off. Let's move."
What none of the men realized was that the Ben and his friends were not very far away. In fact, they were looking down at them from the roof of the closest building.
"That was close," XLR8 sighed, "I don't know what would have happened if Grandpa caught us."
"Magister Tennyson?" Rook asked, and then got it. "I see. Yes, it would have been very awkward had we met with them."
"What do you mean?" Eunice asked.
XLR8 became Ben. "Eunice, that was my Grandpa Max before he was a grandpa…heck, for all we know this was before he had kids or got married!" Ben suspected as much when he saw their uniforms. They were identical to the Plumber's outfit Grandpa Max wore during that search for 'The Ultimate Weapon'. "One of the other guys was his partner, Phil. I met him once when I was a kid."
Eunice recalled Paradox's earlier warning. "That must be why the professor told us to be inconspicuous- to avoid causing a…" She trailed off, unable to say it.
"A paradox. Yeah, we get it," Ben looked back down at the retreating forms of the Plumbers. "At least we know enough to keep away."
"We might not be able too," Rook realized, "Before you blew our cover-" ("It was an accident." Ben grumbled) "-The third one, their squad leader, I suspect, mentioned something about a nest. And they were chasing down what was certainly a mutant."
Eunice got it. "You think they know where the next clone pod is?"
"It would certainly be a step in the right direction."
Ben sighed. "Whoa, hold it. We just decided that talking to Grandpa and his co-Plumbers was bad. Now we have to ask them for directions? 'Hello, I'm your unborn grandson from the future. Do you know where we can find an eggplant that's mutating animals is?' Does that sound good to you?"
"We do not have to talk with them," Rook replied, "Merely follow them."
"Whatever we do, we should do it now," Eunice said, pointing. "They're about to board a vehicle of some sort."
The truck the Plumbers boarded didn't look like much. It looked like any other truck an American citizen might have. And it had dents in several places as well. And that was the point. Because the Plumbers' department was strictly and-as-of-right-now covert, they weren't allowed anything that could be mistaken for a military vehicle.
However, looking ordinary and being ordinary were two entirely different things. With a push of the button, the insides of the Plumbers' truck became a hi-tech mobile lab with computers more advanced than anything the Earth had to offer. Boosters built into the back and underside activated, sending the truck along its way at a faster and smoother pace.
"You know," Driscoll remarked as he watched the monitors and consoles flip into position, "It's a shame that no one else on can play with toys like ours."
"But that's our jobs," Max said, strapping into the passenger seat. "The Plumbers' duty is to make sure the people of the world aren't overly-influenced by outside forces, and are allowed to progress and evolve at their natural rate."
Driscoll waved Max off. "Yeah, yeah, you don't need to quote the pamphlet, I took orientation too, remember?" He looked into the back at Phil, who was stationed at a computer. "What's our ETA?"
"We should reach the site in about thirty-one minutes, if we maintain our current speed." Phil reported.
"Okay, so are we clear on the-" Max trailed off. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Phil asked.
"I thought I heard a noise outside," Max said, looking out the window. "Like something hitting us."
"That's probably my fault," Driscoll admitted, "Got a little too close to that rock."
While Max wasn't satisfied with this answer, he let the matter drop. It was probably just his nerves. He knew that another team of Plumbers had been sent to investigate the site, but main base had lost contact with them, which was where his team came in.
But that noise didn't sound like something hitting the truck from beneath. It sounded like something had fallen on from above. But that was impossible; there was nothing but clear blue skies as they drove through the desert.
Of course, had Max checked the roof, he would have seen a kinetician, a revonnahgander, and a human girl sitting up there. As they clung to the metal, XLR8 reverted back to Ben. He almost fell off due to the wind, only to be caught and steadied by Rook.
A half-hour later, the truck came to a stop at a large hole in the ground. Taking their equipment and the captured mutant, the three adult Plumbers began to climb their way down, using boosters on their suits to help ease their descent. Once they were gone, Ben, Eunice, and Rook got down off of the truck.
"I don't suppose there's a side door we could take?" Ben asked, not wanting to take the chance of meeting Not-Yet Grandpa Max. "No? Okay, here's what we do. First, I'll turn into Wildmutt and Eunice, you copy my smelling power. Then, I'll turn into Big Chill and go through the walls, and we can find Eon's plant before Grandpa and his team does."
"Wait a moment, Ben." Rook bided, and went to the truck. Using his Proto-Tool, he picked the lock and opened it up.
"What are you doing?" Eunice asked as Rook connected the Proto-Tool to the truck's computers.
"I am uploading the data from their computers about the mutations into my Proto-Tool," Rook explained, entering commands into the Proto-Tool, "I am hopeful that the information they posses will be useful in our own search," The Proto-Tool beeped, bringing a smile to Rook's face. "Excellent. I believe now we can track the clone pod without the need for scent."
Ben shrugged. "If you insist…" He activated the Omnitrix, and in a flash became Big Chill. He spread out his wings and spread his hands invitingly.
"Big Chill looks different than it does in the file on Primus." Eunice noted as she took Big Chill's right hand.
"Really? I hadn't noticed," Big Chill replied. Looking to Rook on the left, he asked, "Which way?"
After studying the readings his Proto-Tool gave him for a moment, Rook pointed down, then a little ways to the right. Becoming intangible, Big Chill went into the ground.
Deep under the earth, the Plumbers followed the winding tunnels and interconnected catacombs towards their destination. As they went, the three of them went over their plan, after finding the source of mutations, and hopefully their missing fellow Plumbers, they set off a special 'cryo-bomb' which would hopefully flash-freeze most of the underground, taking out the mutants and their source. To ensure a total and complete cold down of the area, Phil and Driscoll would plant an occasional charge at every other corner, while Max stood guard.
In a cavern not too far ahead, Ben's group waited as Rook adjusted the sensors on his Proto-Tool.
"Well? Where is it?" Ben asked, fiddling with his Omnitrix. He had turned back from Big Chill a few minutes ago.
"Please be patient," Rook replied, "I am trying to account for signal being disrupted by the cave walls. I should have it in another minute."
Ben sighed and leaned against a stalagmite (Or was that stalactite? Ben sometimes got the two mixed up.). Looking to the side, he saw that Eunice seemed depressed. "Are you okay?"
Eunice glanced at Ben. "I'm fine. It's just…" She looked down.
"What?"
"Even if we beat Eon, what should I do next?" Eunice asked, "From what you've told me, nobody remembers me. I have nowhere to go."
"We'll figure something out," Ben assured her, "You can always live on Earth in Bellwood," Reaching out for a pro, he said, "At least this time Azmuth won't make you leave, since he doesn't remember you, right?" At Eunice's look, Ben tried another tack. "You wanna go out?"
Eunice blinked. "What?"
"You know, to celebrate. After we beat Eon," Ben explained, trying not to lose the moment. "Maybe we could see a movie or something…"
"…Are you asking me out on a date now of all times?" Eunice asked incredulously.
"No time like the present!" Ben flashed what he thought was a winning smile.
"Technically, we are in the past." Rook said, not looking up from the Proto-Tool.
Ben shot Rook a dirty look while Eunice giggled. She needed that, banter was funny. Finally, Rook got a decent reading, and pointed towards a wall. Ben activated his Omnitrix and became Armodrillo.
"Goin' for Big Chill, but what the hay…" Armodrillo muttered, and began to dig away at the wall. It didn't take much effort to reveal a tunnel that had been blocked.
"Odd," Rook commented, studying the hole, "What could have blocked this tunnel?"
Eunice gasped and pointed, "Probably those things!"
Out from the ground came moles. Not just any moles, but moles that were the size of bears, covered with porcupine spines. Hanging from their mouths were long tongues very much like anteaters. The three moles glared at the three heroes.
Armodrillo gulped. "Maybe we should go." The DNA Repairer hadn't recharged yet…
Just as the three entered the newly-uncovered tunnel, they heard some yelling and looked back. Entering from another hole in the wall were Max and his fellow Plumbers, harassed by what looked like oversized bats with starfish for heads. Upon their noisy entrance, the mutant moles turned away from Ben's team towards the Plumbers.
"Grandpa!" Armodrillo cried, "We have to do something!"
"I'll help!" Eunice declared, "You two go find the pod!"
"But, Eunice-!"
"Your grandfather never met me before, remember?" Eunice reminded Ben, "If we meet now it won't cause a problem."
Armodrillo wasn't so sure about leaving Eunice alone. Going off on his own in the Middle Ages was one thing, as Eunice had Rook to watch her back, but to leave her alone…
"She is right, Ben," Rook said, "And I do not believe it will take long. We only have a short distance to go."
In spite of his reservations, Armodrillo nodded, and held out a hand. Smiling, Eunice took hold and briefly went green as she copied the talpaedan's strength. Once she was done, she rushed towards the fray. Raising her arms, she slammed the ground and sent a tremor that knocked the mole-things off their feet.
"…Be careful, Eunice." Armodrillo murmured, and followed Rook down the tunnel.
Luckily, it didn't take long for Ben and Rook to reach where, according to the Proto-Tool, the clone pod had been planted. Unluckily, there was a very large pit that took up most of the chamber.
"Where is it?" Ben asked, looking around.
"I am not sure," Rook replied, fiddling with the Proto-Tool. "We should be at least several feet away from the pod."
Ben walked over to the pit's edge and looked down. "Maybe it's at the bottom."
Rook noticed something dripping down and looked up. "Wrong direction," He said, and pointed.
Ben followed Rook's fingers, and saw that the plant growing right out of the ceiling. From his perspective, it looked a big black uvula.
Ben quickly transformed in Clockwork. Because of the height the ceiling (And the pod) was at, Clockwork had to lean back in order to aim the aging-ray properly. Unfortunately, he leaned a bit too far back, and…
WHAM!
"Erg…" Clockwork struggled to get up, "A little help here?"
Rook rolled his eyes, but went over to Clockwork anyway. Working together, they managed to point the Omnitrix on Clockwork's belly at the pod. One blast of the aging-ray later, and the plant was…still there.
"A little bit more to the left." Clockwork noted, and adjusted.
The second shot hit, and there was a small pile of dust falling from above. Getting up, Clockwork began to count down on his fingers.
"Five…four…three…two…" Clockwork muttered when he heard Paradox's voice.
"Am I becoming predictable?" The time walker asked, stepping out from behind Clockwork. "I must be getting old. Not that I age, being separate from time and all."
"Could you just get Eunice while I undo the mutations?" Clockwork asked, and tapped the Omnitrix.
"DNA Repair function not fully charged." The device reported.
"Wonderful," Clockwork groaned, and reverted to Ben.
"Perhaps if you limited the size of the repair-field's radius you would have better luck," Paradox suggested, "A mile should do the trick."
Ben stared at Paradox, and then looked at the Omnitrix. "Can we do that?"
"There is sufficient power for a mile-wide DNA Repair sequence," The Omnitrix stated, "Activate at one-mile radius?"
"Yes."
As the Omnitrix began to glow, Paradox said, "I'll go pick up Miss Eunice so we can be on our way."
The situation hadn't really improved for the Plumbers. The trio of mole-mutants, as well as the star-bats were proving to be difficult to ward off or defeat. Granted, they weren't dangerous to be really threatening, and theabilities of the strange blond girl in latex helped tremendously, but the fact remained that they were currently at a roadblock. Phil brought up the idea of using a cryo-bomb to take down the moles, but that was quickly vetoed by Max and Driscoll; the blast radius was too large to use in close combat, and they would have no time to get away.
Then a wave of green energy suddenly rushed through the area, briefly coating everyone within it. The Plumbers reflexively braced themselves, preparing to resist whatever weird effect the wave would have. Max noticed out of the corner of his eye that the blond girl actually seemed to be smiling. Once the wave had passed, the Plumbers began checking themselves to see if anything had changed.
"What was that all about?" Driscoll demanded. The energy didn't hurt, and he didn't feel any different.
"Hey…look!" Phil cried, pointing.
Down on the ground where the moles had been were three naked men. The Plumbers realized in a heartbeat that they were the missing Plumbers squad that investigated the area before. Somehow they must have been mutated during their mission.
"So they were those moles…" Phil muttered, and looked up at his fellow Plumbers. "But how did it happen? And why did they revert back?"
"I don't know," Max said, "But I think I know who to ask."
Max turned to where Eunice was and stopped. She was gone. All that was left of her was some footprints and…a gumball?
"All right, I'm going to send you to the next and final era," Paradox said after he returned with Eunice, "After this, it'll be time to face Eon. Is everyone ready?"
"Not quite," Ben said, "How about telling us where- when we're going first? I'd like a little warning if we're going to meet people we know before we've met them."
"Oh, you're no fun anymore," Paradox said jovially, "But if you insist. The next point it history takes place during your childhood days, specifically, a week or so after the incident with the Retaliator."
"Will I be there?" Ben asked, and amended, "I mean, will the young me be there?"
"That depends," Paradox replied sardonically, "Where would you be if someone planted a tree that was creating mutants?"
Ben exchanged looks with Rook and Eunice. He sighed. "Right in the thick of things."
As the three began to vanish, Paradox gave them a mock salute. "Good luck!"
The trio reappeared at a pier during the day. Ben and Rook recognized it as the one in Bellwood, as the docks hadn't changed in the years between Ben's child and teen years. And in spite of the knowledge that there was an eggplant growing a second Eon which was simultaneously mutating creatures, things seemed quite peaceful. The sun was shining, passing seagulls were gliding lazily through the clear blue skies, and all was well.
Ben noticed that Eunice was frowning. "What's up?"
Before Eunice could explain, a gigantic tentacle shot out of the ocean and slammed down at the three. While Eunice and Rook jumped out of the way in separate directions, Ben was knocked into the water.
"Ben, are you unharmed?" Rook cried out.
"Fine," Ben gagged, "Just got the wind knocked out of me, that's- WHOA!"
Ben found himself being lifted out of the water by a rising body underneath him. The body happened to be the bloated head of a mutated octopus, riddled with multiple blemishes. Ben got up, and noticed that he was standing on one of the blemishes, it being the size of a manhole cover. It, along with the others, began to throb.
"Not good." Ben gulped, and found his estimation to be very accurate as he was sent skyward a second later; the 'blemishes' were actually blowholes.
"Ben!" Rook and Eunice yelled in alarm. But because they were watching our hero tumble aimlessly through the sky, neither of them kept an eye on the tentacle. As such, they were caught off-guard when it swept at them, knocking poor Eunice clear across the docks.
"Eunice!" Rook exclaimed, and fired several rounds from his Proto-Tool. The blasts struck the tentacle, but the appendage did not seem harmed. Even worse, a second tentacle rose out from the sea and slammed down onto the dock.
Not good. Rook thought, and wisely retreated for cover.
Up in the air, Ben was frantically fiddling with the Omnitrix. "Gimme Stinkfly, Astrodactyl, Big Chill, Terraspin… Anything that can fly!"
One flash of green later, and Cannonbolt landed in the corner of the pier with an thunderous thud that caused nearby windows to rattle.
"Okay…not what I was going for, but it works…" Cannonbolt muttered as he uncurled himself. He was about to roll back and give that tentacle mutant a good taste of Ben warfare when he heard a familiar voice.
"Ben!"
Looking behind, Ben saw Grandpa Max- the Grandpa Max he remembered- running up to him, followed closely by his cousin Gwen. But unlike the Gwen currently knew and was good friends with, this cousin Gwen was the one he frequently got into fights with, traded insults with. A far cry from the mature and cool-headed young woman who would start dating sworn enemy-turned- friend Kevin Levin, this was the original Gwen, the know-it-all he had (Sometimes correctly, he thought) dubbed dweeb.
Omnitrix, don't time out on me now. Ben thought. The last thing he wanted to do was explain to his grandfather and cousin why he appeared to have aged by six years.
"Are you all right?" Max asked worriedly, "What happened with Sixsix?"
"I'm fine, Grandpa, I just- Wait, Sixsix is here too?" Ben began to say when the full extent of Max's words caught up with him. He had to deal with that bounty hunter on top of a giant mutant? What next?
"Did you land on your head? Of course he's here, doofus!" Gwen said, "You led him here to keep the fighting away from the town. We should seriously consider that brain-transplant if your short-term memory is going, too."
Cannonbolt was about to give her a (Vaguely nostalgic) comeback when his mind put two and two together; If Sixsix was here and fighting his younger self…where were they?
That train of thought was derailed by a screeching- Cannonbolt had almost forgotten about the tentacle mutant in the water.
"What was that?!" Gwen asked, looking past Cannonbolt. When she saw the mutant, she cried, "What is that?!"
"Listen, you guys go find Sixsix and keep him busy," Cannonbolt urged his relatives, "I'll waste that thing and meet you there, might even beat ya to him. Go!"
Nodding, Max and Gwen took off. Cannonbolt curled into his ball form and rolled back towards the middle of the pier. There, he saw that there were two tentacles flailing and hitting everything, and that underneath that bulbous head was a tube-like mouth with razor-sharp teeth all around the edges. For some reason, Cannonbolt was reminded of the monstrous form Vilgax took when they fought for the Ultimatrix.
Cannonbolt quickly noticed a worrysome lack of sidekicks. "Rook! Eunice! Where are you?"
"Over here, Ben!" Rook called out from atop a docked freighter.
Rolling closer so they could talk better, Cannonbolt asked, "Where's Eunice?"
"She was thrown towards another part of the pier by that thing!" Rook answered. The ship he was on shook from the octo-thing's rampage. "Perhaps we could finish this conversation after you de-mutate that abomination!"
Cannonbolt nodded. "Right! Omnitrix, initiate DNA Repair sequence!"
"Insufficient power." The Omnitrix responded.
Cannonbolt sighed. "Of course. Why should things be easy now?" To Rook he ordered, "I'll keep this thing busy! You go find Eunice! And be careful!" He added, "Little me and Sixsix are fighting around somewhere here, and Grandpa and Gwen are here too!"
"I will do my best to avoid being noticed," Rook assured, and pointed at the abomination. "Target the blow holes! I have noticed that striking them causes the creature immense pain!"
"Say no more," As Rook went off on his search, Cannonbolt curled up, spun in place for a few seconds, then launched himself at the creature's head.
"Oof…where am I?" Eunice groaned, getting up. She had landed behind one of the warehouses. Just then, she heard the sounds of gunfire from around the corner. Curious, she looked to see what was going on.
There, she saw a petrosapian fighting a man (Well, it was man-shaped) in purple armor with alien guns. While she had no idea who the purple being was, she saw the Omnitrix over the petrosapian's heart and realized that it was Ben in his Diamondhead form. The transformed boy was currently on the defensive, arms crossed as he withstood the rounds fired from his attacker's weapons.
"Seriously, Sixsix, you gotta find somethin' else to do!" Diamondhead grunted as the shots bounced off of him, "I can't send you packing all the time!"
Sixsix's barrage briefly ended as he ran out of ammunition. Diamondhead took the chance to rush forward to deliver a few diamond-hard punches. Morphing his left hand into a blade, Diamondhead swung down and sliced the barrels off one of the bounty hunter's guns. Finally, a rock-hard kick was delivered that sent the sotaraggian into the water.
"Always said you were all wet." Diamondhead muttered.
"Ben!" Eunice cried, running up to him. "Are you all right? Where's Rook?"
Diamondhead stared at Eunice in confusion. "Huh? Who's Rook? And for that matter…" The Omnitrix over his heart began to beep, and he reverted to human form. "…who are you?"
Eunice gasped as she stared at the child before her. Instead of the teen human she mistook him for, this Omnitrix wielder stood at about half her height, wearing cargo pants and a grey T-shirt. Instead of a watch-like device, the Omnitrix he wore looked more like a high-tech manacle. But he still had that hastily-combed hair, and those vibrant green eyes.
This must be Ben as a child! Eunice realized.
"Seriously," The eleven-year-old said, "Who are you? And how do you know who I am?"
Eunice tried to speak, to say anything besides, "I'm from the future where we've met." But the words wouldn't come out. Coming up with an alibi was hard, even more so due to the strange feeling she kept getting. Luckily, or unluckily, a blaster bolt struck the warehouse, catching their attention. Looking, they saw Sixsix sticking out of the water, one of his weapons aimed at them.
"We'll talk later!" Ben yelled, and prepared to transform- but stopped when he saw that the dial's light was flipping between green and red. "Huh?"
Eunice grabbed Ben by the wrist and dragged him off, pulling out of the way of a headshot. Sixsix shot out of the water, pushed into the air by a jet pack, and flew after them, dropping a bomb.
Gwen and Max were in a different part of the pier when they heard the explosion.
"What was that?" Gwen asked, "Sixsix?"
"Must be," Max agreed, worried. "But I wonder who he's fighting. C'mon!"
The two humans took off in the direction of the explosion. Neither of them were aware of Rook following them on the rooftops of the warehouses. The revonnahgander knew that Sixsix was currently engaged in combat against the Ben of this era. While his orders were to locate Eunice first, a small part of him wanted to check on his partner's younger self to ensure the battle was going well.
He just hoped Eunice would be all right until they reunited.
Meanwhile, the Cannonbolt's fight against the abomination was not going very well. The mutant octopus's body seemed incredibly resilient to arburian pelarota's attacks. He might as well have been jumping on someone's mattress. But up and down Cannonbolt went, trying in vain to exert some force onto the rubbery hide, all while dodging the two flailing tentacles.
"So, have ya had enough yet?" Cannonbolt demanded, pausing.
SMACK!
Cannonbolt was sent flying into the hull of a ship. Luckily, his natural armor prevented serious harm, though the ship now had a Cannonbolt-shaped dent.
"Didn't think so," Realizing that brute force wasn't getting the job, he reached down and tapped his Omnitrix for a new form. Jetray fell from the dent and quickly took to the skies. Flying around, he zapped the abomination with neuroshock blasts from his eyes and tail. Weaving in and out from the assaulting tentacles, (Didn't he have more than two?) he tried to closer for a better shot at the blowholes, remembering what Rook said. Just then, the blowholes opened up, and the subsequent air pressure sent the aerophibian tumbling through the air.
"Whoa!" Jetray cried, "Hope the others are doing better than I am!"
Meanwhile, Eunice and Ben were currently taking refuge from Sixsix in one of the abandoned warehouses that seemed to make up the docks. They were currently hiding behind a crate marked 'Conveniently Available Masks' as Sixsix searched the rest of the building. Ben kept fiddling with the Omnitrix as Eunice kept a look out.
"It looks like he hasn't found us yet," the Human-Unitrix noted, "But we can't keep this up forever. We need a plan." She wished Ben would transform into something with abilities she could copy, but the Omnitrix refused to cooperate.
"What we need is for this thing to start working and quit giving me grief!" Ben grumbled, giving up on fiddling and resorted to hitting the device.
"Stop that," Eunice chiding, grabbing Ben's hitting arm, "You might make it worse, Ben."
The use of his name reminded the child hero. "Wait, how do you know my name?" He asked suspiciously, "What, are you from space, or something?"
Eunice looked away, pointedly avoiding his eyes. Partially because she hadn't come up with a good alibi (Was that weird feeling getting worse?) and partly because she didn't want Ben to get a good look at her face and potentially cause a paradox. "This…uh…isn't the time…"
The word 'time' caused a light bulb to turn on in Ben's head. "Time…are you from the future!?" It would explain why a teenaged human (From his perspective) girl would be dressed in what he identified as 'alien wear'. "That's it, isn't it? That's how you know me! You're from that era when I'm a famous super hero!" Ben recalled the time when he and Gween were taken to the future by Gwen's adult self. There, Ben had become Earth's greatest hero- but had also become real killjoy, never pausing to take a break or just have fun. Remembering that, Ben said, "Uh, sorry if I'm a buzzkill when we first meet."
"Um, that's all right," Eunice said awkwardly, "You're actually very nice when we…" She then realized what was causing the weird feeling in her head.
When Eunice was first stationed on Primus, Azmuth enhanced her to have a one-way subspace link to the planet, allowing her to upload DNA samples. Unfortunately, because the original Omnitrix Ben used relied on signals from the Codon Stream, being in the same area as her would cause signal interference, preventing transformations. Eon didn't sever the connection when he stole the planet, and with Eunice in the era when Primus existed, her body was trying to reconnect. However, she was currently five years before she had even been born (Such as it was) and had been upgraded, meaning she was subconsciously trying to connect with something that didn't exist. No wonder she and the Omnitrix were feeling funny!
I've heard that time-travel causes headaches, but this is ridiculous, Eunice thought, I'd better shut my Unitrix functions off…
Eunice closed her eyes, and her body made an odd whirring noise. Ben was about to comment on it when he heard the Omnitrix beep. Looking, he saw that the dial had now turned green.
"Hey, it's working again!" He remarked. Looking out, he saw Sixsix lurking nearby. Grinning, he began to turn the dial. "And it's time subtract Sixsix by four- Arms, that is!"
Ben slammed the dial down, and in a flash of green transformed into a tetramand. However, this did not go unnoticed by the bounty hunter. Sixsix aimed his weapons at the stack of crates Fourarms and Eunice were hiding behind. As he fired, Fourarms leapt out, sailing dramatically in the air-
BANG!
-and hit his head on a ceiling-light.
"Ow!" Fourarms grunted.
Outside the warehouse, Gwen was checking out the inside of the warehouse through a window. Due to the fact that it was rather high up, she had to stand on Max's shoulders.
"Sixsix is in there, all right," Gwen reported, and then squinted. "Wait, what?"
"What is it?" Max asked.
"You're not going to believe this, Grandpa," Gwen said, eyes wide. "But Ben's in there!"
"What?!" Max looked over to where they had left Ben with the sea monster. He could still hear sounds of fighting. "But Ben's still fighting that monster! Are you sure it's him?"
"Well…" Gwen squinted. The glass was dirty. She tried wiping at it with her sleeve, but the dirt turned out to be on the inside. "Well, I can see Sixsix fighting something that looks like Fourarms…maybe it's a different alien?"
Max thought about it. He recalled the time they had met Tetrax, a bounty hunter who was the same species as Diamondhead, a petrosapian. And there was also that incident with the Galactic Enforcers. One of their members was a tetramand woman called Tiny. With that in mind, there was a chance that the tetramand fighting Sixsix wasn't Ben.
But he wasn't going to make assumptions until he could see for himself. "Let's get in there."
The two Tennysons ran around the warehouse towards the door. Neither of them saw Rook grappling up to the roof of the building.
The Plumber from the future opened up the skylight and lowered himself into the warehouse. He heard the sound of fighting coming from the left. He moved to get a better look of the situation and almost tripped. Looking down, he saw that the thing he almost slipped on was a round metal ball with a flashing light, beeping with each flash. For a brief moment, Rook was confused.
Then, he realized what it was. Taking his Proto-Tool out, he quickly set to defusing the bomb. Hopefully it was the only one…
In another part of the warehouse, Max and Gwen had also found a bomb. Unlike Rook, though, Gwen hadn't been so careful with her footing. Rubbing her sore buttocks, she regarded the beeping round explosive.
"Looks like one of Sixsix's bombs," Max said cautiously, "And it looks like it's about to go."
"Maybe I could use my magic to stop it…" Gwen suggested, holding up a glowing hand.
Max shook his head. "Too risky. You're Mana might cause the countdown to run out faster. Remember what happened with the Omnitrix?"
Gwen grimaced. She remembered all right. An accident with her Mana had altered the Omnitrix, causing it to telelport and transform Ben at random.
Max reached into his Hawaiian shirt for some tools. "We'll have to do this the hard way. If worse comes to worse, you'll have to try to contain the explosion.
Gwen gulped. "Right. No pressure." Inwardly, she was thinking, Where's Ben and Upchuck's bottomless stomach when you actually need him?
Eunice watched as Fourarms grabbed Sixsix's hands with his lower hands, and socked the bejeezus with his upper arms. While she wished she could help without disrupting Ben's powers, she was impressed with how Ben was handling the situation. When the bounty hunter tried to shoot at Ben with the arms mounted on his shoulders, Fourarms simply grabbed them with his upper arms and headbutted Sixsix. When Sixsix slumped, possibly unconscious (It was hard to tell with that mask on), Fourarms let him fall to the floor. The tetramand wiped his hands.
"Well, that's that, I guess," Fourarms muttered before raising all four arms up in victory. "I rule!"
Eunice noticed that Sixsix was crawling away when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking behind, she saw Rook.
"We have to get out of here," The Plumber said, "It is not safe."
"Ben- the young Ben- just beat Sixsix."
"I know, but I found one of these lying around, most likely planted by Sixsix" He showed Eunice the bomb he defused. "I do not know if he set more, but we cannot take that chance. We must vacate the building now."
Fourarms reverted to Ben and began to turn around. "Hey, who are you talking t-"
Back out on the water, Jetray morphed in Shocksquatch and dropped down onto the abomination. His fur crackling, the yeti-like alien sent several thousand volts of electricity coursing through the mutant's body. With one final screech, the abomination began to sink back into the sea. Not wanting to get his fur wet, Shocksquatch hopped back onto the dock and kicked the mutants tentacles off of the dock.
"And good riddance," Shocksquatch muttered, and looked around. "Now, I wonder how everyone else is doing…?"
Boom
Shocksquatch whirled about. That explosion came from the direction Rook went in! Fearing the worse, the gimlinopithecus broke out into a run. He saw a trail of smoke coming out from one of the warehouses, and more importantly, he saw Sixsix leaving the building on a jetpack. Growling, Shocksquatch leapt into the air, grabbed the bounty hunter by the feet and dragged him to the ground. Wasting no time on words, he pulled the villain into a lock and began to apply some natural electricity. Sixsix went up like a Fourth of July fireworks show.
Eunice coughed. The explosion had happened in another corner of the warehouse, but it knocked over several crates. Looking about, she saw Rook steadily getting to his feet. Though he had clearly been caught flat-footed by the blast, the revannagander did not look worse for wear. A quick scan of her immediate surroundings though, revealed to her that Ben did not do so well. To her shock, the young boy was lying face down on the floor near a broken crate labeled 'Available First-Aid Kits'. He also wasn't moving.
No no no no! Eunice thought fearfully and ran to Ben's side. Luckily, he was still breathing. However, there was a cut on the side of his head. She quickly began to check for other injuries. Ben groaned slightly.
"Is he all right?" Rook asked, walking over. Over Eunice's shoulder he took in young Ben's appearance. While he had seen file photos of his partner as a child, it was something else to see him in person.
Ben's head seemed rounder in real life.
"I think so, but we need to do something about this cut," Eunice said, "Get me a first-aid kit so we can disinfect the wound."
Rook was about to go to the broken crate full of conveniently-placed first-aid kits when he heard some shouting. Looking around another crate, he saw Gwen and Max running over.
"Leave him, Ben's family is coming. They can tend to him," Rook said, "We must avoid being seen."
An expression of conflicting thoughts briefly appeared on Eunice's features. But she understood Rook's logic and gently placed Ben back on the ground. Bending down, she placed a tender kiss on the boy's cheek. To her embarrassment, Ben, unconscious though he was, smiled a bit afterwards. Rook shot a grapple-line at the rafters above and pulled Eunice up with him, just avoiding contact with Gwen and Max. They both stopped dead in their tracks when saw Ben's still form.
"Ben!?" They both exclaimed, and rushed to the boy.
"Oh my God," Max gasped, examining his grandson. "Ben, speak up! Are you all right?"
At the sound of Max's voice, Ben's eyes slowly opened. "…Grandpa?"
"Ben, what happened?" Gwen asked worriedly, "How did you get here from the docks so quickly?"
"I wasn't near the docks," Ben muttered, sitting up. "I was in here fighting Sixsix when something fell on me." He winced as a sharp pain went through his head.
"Let's do something about that cut, first," Max decided, and went over to the broken crate. Taking one kit out, he remarked, "That's pretty convenient."
Gwen was really worried. Not just by Ben's injury (Though it didn't seem so bad), but by what was going on. If Ben was here, then who did she and Max see at the docks?
Shocksquatch stuffed Sixsix into a dumpster and slammed the lid down. "And don't let me catch you around here for at least five years, you creep!" He snarled.
"Ben!"
Shocksquatch whirled about. Eunice and Rook were running up to him! Anger quickly gave way to relief, and he reverted to Ben. He ran to meet up with them
"Are you unharmed?" Rook asked.
"Fine, but what about you guys?" Ben replied, "But what about you? I heard something go off in that warehouse…"
"A bomb," Rook explained, "Luckily, no one was seriously injured."
Ben exhaled. It was bad enough knowing people he knew and cared about were almost killed, but knowing that one of them was yourself was even worse. What would happen if his younger self died? Would his teen self just vanish? Shaking his head, Ben tried not to think of what might have been.
"Let's just find that plant before something else happens," the Omnitrix-wielder said, "Rook, does that detector of yours still work?"
Luckily, Rook's Proto-Tool was still able to pick up and locate where Eon had planted the clone pod of this era. However, according to the device, it was out at sea. Luckily, a lone motorboat was available for 'borrowing.' Rook didn't like doing it, but Ben rationalized the theft with the knowledge that Paradox would set things right once he could enter the time period.
Once they went out far enough, the three went underwater- Ben transformed in Terraspin and pulled his two friends down with him. They found a trail of mutagenic 'pod juice' seeping through the water. Following it, they found an undersea cave which housed the pod plant. One quick transformation into Clockwork and a blast of the aging ray later, said plant was history. (That's a pun, hah)
"Now to undo any mutations," Clockwork declared, and tapped the Omnitrix. It emitted a bright green flash as the DNA Repair function got to work. Once it subsided, Clockwork reverted to Ben. "Okay, so before Paradox shows…huh?"
The three of them noticed that they were no longer standing in the sea cave. Or on land. Or on air. They seemed to be standing within a black void, illuminated by dozens of lights streaking past. Ben and Rook recognized as the place Paradox took them to before sending them off to prehistoric times.
And there was Paradox, standing before them. "Ahh, four for four. Good show!" He said, clapping. More seriously, he said, "All that's left is to defeat Eon, and the rest of history should be saved."
Ben punched his palm. "Sounds good to me. Next stop, Primus!"
"But how will we get there?" Rook asked, "Are you going to send us there through a portal, Professor?"
"Unfortunately, the shield Eon put around Primus is too powerful for me to get around in any way," Paradox replied, "He's gone all-out in keeping me away."
"But you said had a way of getting around the time-shield," Eunice pointed out, "Back in the Middle Ages, I mean."
Paradox nodded. "And I meant it. Now, I can't go to Primus, and Eon's defenses will prevent me from teleporting anyone in," The time walker said, "But I've managed to come up with an alternative mode of transportation."
Paradox gestured towards a car, and not just any car. This car was a deluxe Jaguar convertible, painted white with a black stripe down the middle. Its license plate read B3N-T3N, and its hood ornament was shaped like a British phone booth. The seats were luxurious leather, and the sound system appeared to be top-notch.
"Suh-weet!" Ben breathed, liking what he was seeing.
"Indeed. If you're going to save the world, you might as well do it in style," Paradox agreed, "I would have liked to get a Delorean, but couldn't pay the legal fees."
Ben laughed, while Rook and Eunice exchanged odd looks. They didn't get the reference. Rook went over and lifted the hood of the car up, examining the engine. It did not look any engine he had ever seen before.
"Now, I've programmed the Flux Capacitor to take you directly to Primus," Paradox explained, "All you have to do is keep driving until you reach the car's maximum speed for the warp effect to take hold."
"I'm driving!" Ben yelled, and made his way towards the front.
Rook, however, beat him to it. "I believe I will drive this car."
Ben frowned, then smiled as an idea took hold. Taking Eunice's hand, he led her into the backseat and got in. Throwing an arm around the girl's shoulder, he said in a pompous tone, "Once around Primus, my good Plumber."
Rook shook his head, deciding not to respond. Eunice, for her part, giggled. She knew that the situation was dire, and much- no, everything was on the line. But she felt confident that things would work out. She had Ben by her side, and with him they could beat Eon and save Primus. Rook turned the ignition key, and the Jaguar's engine roared to life.
"Hey, Paradox," Ben called out, "Any words of advice?"
"Just one, Benjamin," Paradox replied, "When fighting someone like Eon, always be sure to consider the 'X' factor!"
Ben and Eunice exchanged odd looks. After checking to see that everyone's seatbelts were on, Rook shifted gears to Drive and stepped down on the accelerator. The car shot forward, creating rainbow sparks from the friction of the wheels on the 'ground.' The three felt their bodies being pressed back by the force of their acceleration. Checking the speedometer, Rook saw that their speed wasn't measured in miles but in G-forces!
Ben's last thought before the Jaguar vanished was, We should've closed the top!