Rise of G-Morph and The Amazing Spider-Man by Amit Barabi:
I own nothing other than my original ideas... Bla-bla-bla... You know how the disclaimer goes.
This is a mini-series of Ben's younger years' most significant heroic events from the B-Arrowverse series. The first arc is discussed on my YouTube channel, but I don't see myself completing it in the YouTube format due to a loss of drive and interest. However, since those events are canon to this story, I figured I should show them in a form that does not require me to record myself for hours in a quiet room, create visuals that I usually use for my MAA videos, and edit it all in a way that makes everyone beg for more. Writing these events here makes it more accessible.
These "old records" are mostly skippable if all you care for is the Marvel universe. Still, since Ben went through different experiences in this continuity after Alien Force season 2, I thought I would do you all a favor and let you experience what has been going on during those 8 years.
While the first document gets its own chapter, any record after this one will probably be shown at the bottom of some chapters after I share my notes. I will have to test and experiment with the idea.
Unlike the present-day events of G-Morph and TASM, these entries were originally going to be told from Ben's point of view. I had never written a first-person story before this one attempt, but I thought it was appropriate since Ben is the only character from that time who is still alive.
I have decided to change it back to a third person's point of view because I realized that some scenes couldn't possibly be told from Ben's point of view. This is why I erased this chapter and republished it.
So, with that out of the way, let's see what happened with Ben between the Highbreed war and his visit to Asgard.
(Multiverse-B, Earth-Prime, November 3012)
The last month was insane for Ben; Someone figured out that he was building a replica of his Omnitrix and leaked the information to the Plumbers and possibly civilians. After searching his universe and finding the source to be one of the latest recruits of the Plumbers under his grandson, Magister Kaafuu Tennyson.
The young Plumber was called Rook Schmooze. She was a white-furred Ravonian and a descendant of Ben's old partner, Rook Blanko. Forensics confirmed her to do it by accident and not out of treason. Unfortunately, damage still came from her action, and both Kaafuu and Ben agreed that the Ravonian should go home until the stolen gear from Armory 11 gets retrieved and the thief is caught.
As unbelievable as it might sound, it was not the first time Ben had to deal with something like that.
(Multiverse-B, Earth-Prime, Bellwood, 2011)
Although it happened over 1,000 years ago, Ben could remember those times as if they happened last week.
After he saved the Highbreeds from their toxic "purity" and convinced them not to commit a universal scale of genocide and then suicide, nothing seemed to challenge him for a week or so. Sure, he no longer had access to Master Control on his Omnitrix since rebooting it by accident while saving the universe, but since the Omnitrix was still in its recalibrated form, he could not get the wrong alien, he had long time limits, and the holographic display made it much easier to see which alien he picked during battle. It also helped a lot that he learned how to turn back to his human form before reaching his time limit back when he was 11 and how to switch between aliens without Master Control a day before he used Alien X for the first time. Unlike Master Control, this method required Ben to touch the Omnitrix dial and shortened his time limit to a small degree, but it was still a game changer that he did not have as a child.
At the moment, the only alien forms he had access to were Humongousaur, Echo-Echo, Swampfire, Chromastone, Spidermonkey, Big Chill, Jetray, Brainstorm, Goop, Cannonbolt, Upchuck, Way Big, and Alien X. In other words, he had all of the aliens he could access after the recalibration and the ones he used while having Master Control.
The only bad guys stupid enough to challenge him other than common criminals that the police could handle were the Forever Knights. Even the Circus Freaks, Charmcaster, Clancy, Rojo, and Sublimino were off the grid ever since he locked them in that containment field inside Mount Rushmore 5 years ago. Kevin liked to joke that they starved to death there, but Max assured the trio that they were transferred to local prisons, and other than Charmcaster, none of them ever escaped. Ben expected his old enemy, Doctor Animo, to show up, but he did not make any noticeable move ever since he returned to Earth from the Null Void.
Ben's appearance back then consisted of brown hair and eyebrows and he usually wore a pair of blue jeans, a pair of white and black sneakers, and a regular black T-shirt under a green jacket with the number 10 and a white stripe on the left side of the chest and two white stripes on the right shoulder. He always loved wearing that jacket because his cousin Gwen bought it for his 15th birthday.
(Multiverse-B, Earth-Prime, Washington DC, 2011)
Doctor Aloysius Animo had a rough time since he was stripped away from his powers and title and the Null King. All because of that smart-ass kid, Ben Tennyson! The police watched his every move, he could not find any job in his field of work, and he had no funding for his research.
To think that it all started because he was willing to take the necessary steps that no one else would have taken to evolve humanity and its animal companions and boast about it... Then, after working with the Negative Ten, he was exiled to the Null Void. He thought for a while that it was worse than a death sentence, but then he had something Ben took from him, a purpose. He brought order to that hell hole and was about to share it with this world, but that kid could not let him have anything! He took his powers, his position, and his earned title, and threw him back to square zero, where he had no way to climb up and where he discovered that he had early-stage cancer in his skull and no way to treat it properly or remove the damaged parts of his skull safely before it could spread.
It was a rainy night.
He walked in the streets of Washington DC, where he used to live 5 years ago, all while thinking about his many mistakes, failures, and remaining time. Before he knew it, the doctor found himself on the rooftop of a tall building. Was he on his way here subconsciously? He asked himself as he strolled toward the edge of the roof. One more step and all of his troubles would come to an end.
"Struggle?"
Animo turned around with tears in his wide eyes. He could not see the person in front of him due to the darkness, but he recognized that voice! Did Ben come here to gloat? To take the final push?
"Tennyson!" Animo shouted as he tried to throw a punch, but his movement caused him to lose balance and nearly fall to his doom. However, the figure in front of him rushed in, grabbed him by the collar, and threw him to the safety of the middle of the roof.
It was at that moment when a bolt of lightning struck several kilometers behind Animo and revealed the other person. He looked and sounded like Ben, but his hair was white and his eyes and jacket were red. Whoever that guy was, he was not Ben Tennyson.
"You are not him," Animo said confusedly, "Who are you?"
"My name is Albedo," The young man replied, "Would you like to continue our introduction in my place? It doesn't look like you have anything better to do right now."
...
The two white-haired men entered a warehouse that had some lab equipment, several beds, a badly shaped van, and a bunch of blueprints covered with chili fries.
"So what is your deal?" Animo asked, "Why do you look like Ben Tennyson?"
"I am a Galvan, or a Greymatter, as Ben calls them," Albedo started to explain, "I am a scientist who wishes to see the pick of evolution as you do. I had made my own Omnitrix, and it turned out to be a success, but since I did not have the DNA, I had to sync with Ben's Omnitrix to get it to work."
"But the sync changed your default form to match the current user of the primal device," Animo concluded.
"Indeed," Albedo confirmed, "I would have not expected less from one of the greatest minds of this world. However, Azmuth, the creator of the original Omnitrix stole and destroyed the core of my precious creation and locked me forever in this miserable form! This is where you enter the picture," He continued, "I have read your papers and found your field of work very inspiring. I need you to help me rebuild the core so I can build something that neither Ben nor Azmuth could surpass!"
He walked to his desk and pulled out the newest blueprint and a chair before showing it to the elder man and handing him over the chair, "The Ultimatrix!"
Animo looked at the blueprint in fascination as he sat down, "This is incredible, but what do I get out of it?"
"On top of helping me kill Ben and prove yourself as one of the two people who have surpassed Azmuth?" Albedo asked sarcastically. It was probably in his DNA, "Once the Ultimatrix is complete, the first thing I do with it will be curing your cancer."
'How did he know?' Animo thought as his eyes went wide, 'Wait, if this Ultimatrix could cure cancer upon completion, does that mean...?'
"It looks like you figured it out," Albedo said with a smirk, "Ben could cure you if he wanted, but I don't think he wants to. Have you heard about the Highbreeds?"
Seeing Animo's confusion, Albedo continued as he returned the blueprint to its spot, "They were the most dangerous bad guys Ben had ever fought, and they were about to destroy every lifeform in this world that they found unworthy, but as soon as he learned about them all carrying a genetic illness via his Omnitrix, and how many praises he could get from it, Ben cured them. He got to save the world, save the bad guys, and be the great hero that everyone loves," Albedo said the last part bitterly.
Rage started to boil inside Animo as he figured out where Albedo was going with it.
"But you and I?" Albedo could barely contain his anger, but it was better controlled, "We are the low-lives, the disposable guys whom no one is going to miss. Ben knew about my condition as soon as we met, and he probably knew about yours since before you were even out of the Null Void! He-"
"Tennysooooon!" Animo shouted as he got off his chair and smashed it against the floor. His desperation a suicidal view have changed and morphed into a rage and desire for vengeance.
Albedo smiled at his new recruitment. Soon they would get what they wanted and Ben would get what he deserved.
...
It took a few days, but the two mad scientists completed the creation of the key to their salvation. It was a bio-engineered bug that could scan data, replicate it, and send it back to Albedo's lab nearly instantly and without a trace. There were only two problems. For once, they needed to release the bug very close to the Omnitrix, and second, one of them would have to stay at the lab and work with the data so Animo's life could be saved.
"I will take the bug to Tennyson," Animo stated as he admired the organic robot he and Albedo have built, "You can work with these tools better than me, and as brilliant as I think I am, I can't contribute enough here."
Albedo may have used him for his own benefit, but he had no intention of double-crossing Animo, and during their time working together, he had grown into respecting his new partner.
"Alright. Ben lives in a small town named Bellwood," Albedo looked at a map of the United States, "I don't know where he lives, but our little friend should find the Omnitrix once in range. It should take you a few days in a car to get there."
"But what about the authorities?" Animo asked, "I already spent my time, but I am still going to raise some flags if I get spotted outside this city."
Albedo shrugged, "My van's windows are dark," He answered before switching to a more serious tone, "Once I have the data, it should not take me more than a week to create the Ultimatrix, then if you get caught, I would break you out of prison in minutes."
"Very well, my friend," Animo shook Albedo's hand before entering the van, "I will make sure to hurt Tennyson for both of us!"
(Multiverse-B, Earth-Prime, Bellwood, 2011)
After scoring an exam at school, having a great date with Julie, and beating the Forever Knights on his way home, Ben went to sleep with a smile on his face.
Unknown to the 15-year-old Omnitrix user, a badly maintained van with dark windows was parked several blocks away from his parent's house. Animo released the bug and smiled evilly as it infiltrated the small house and did its job.
The bug had no offensive weapons on it, so it could not harm Ben in his sleep, but it successfully managed to lay on the exposed Omnitrix core and scan it. It took an hour, but the data was sent to Albedo before the bug returned to the Van.
Animo could simply return to the warehouse that he started to consider a home, but he promised Albedo that he would hurt Ben before their next meeting. He decided to use the equipment in his van and the copied data to give his next project a taste that would give Ben nightmares. All he needed now were "volunteers", and Bellwood, like many other towns, had more than enough of those in its streets.
Within one day, he turned a bunch of strayed animals into mutants with the DNA of some of Ben's aliens.
...
It took Kevin, Gwen, and Ben an hour to deal with it without showing their faces to the public, but before they could capture Animo, he received unexpected help in the form of a red blur running out of a blue portal.
The red blur struck Ben, who had transformed into his Chromastone form early in the fight, and Kevin, who had cloaked his body with metal from a pipe that a stray spider-monkey dog tried to swing at him, but for some reason, that blur did not hit Gwen before running away. Maybe she was simply not in its trajectory.
"Kevin! Are you okay?!" Gwen asked nearly hysterically as she shielded the two of them.
"Yeah, I am fine..." Kevin replied, but as it looked from Chromastone's point of view, Kevin sounded somewhat dizzy from the hit, "Did anyone get that mutant's number?"
Chromastone looked in the direction the red blur ran to and narrowed his eyes, "I will get it for you once I catch this thing. Can you two deal with Animo?" His two friends nodded, and he smirked, "Good. So I get to go hero. IT'S HERO TIME!"
Chromastone slammed the dial on his rocky chest, and in a flash of green light, he found himself going through the familiar sensation of a transformation sequence.
...
He grew a tail and a pair of yellow wings from his sides and the bottom of his wrists, and his skin turned from a purple-rocky texture to a smooth red one. The crystal spikes on his back, chest, and head retracted, his single eye turned into a pair of smaller eyes, and two yellow horns grew above his eyes.
The Omnitrix symbol was still on his chest.
...
"Jetray!" The Aerophibian shouted when the light faded before flying upwards and pursuing the mysterious red blur.
Jetray made sure to fly further at high speed when he found the red blur running around in what looked like random directions. Still, the Aerophibian suspected that he was faster and seemingly more experienced in combat if their little chase was anything to go by. It did not take him long before he broke a piece of the rounded device on the speedster's chest with his Neuroshock blast. Losing his speed boost but not his momentum caused the humanoid red blur to lose his balance and slam against a building's wall with enough velocity to break every bone in a normal human's body. Thankfully, he was visibly alive.
Jetray acted quickly and transformed into Spider Monkey to restrain the stunned person before he could recover.
"Are you working for Animo? Because that guy usually does not enhance humans. He is more of an animal guy," Spider Monkey asked and hoped he did not break the guy too severely. When he did not answer, the blue monkey alien activated the communicator in his Omnitrix and contacted his friends, "I've got 'Speedy Gonzales'. Did you catch Animo?"
"We've got him, Tennyson. We hoped to learn how he fused those stray animals with your aliens, but-"
"I AM NOT SAYING ANYTHING UNTIL I SEE A LAWYER!"
"Yeah, that. He is not going to talk until his closed trial," Kevin said over the line, "Is your guy Animo's work?"
"He doesn't talk," Spider Monkey said as he gave the Omnitrix a mental command and turned back to his human form in a bright green flash, "I think I knocked him out with that blast. Also, he left a human-shaped dent in the wall. Gwen, can you heal him?"
"I'm on my way, cousin." She replied.
Ben looked at the webbed speedster before checking his pulse. It was so fast that Ben could barely feel it, 'I wish I could heal people like Gwen,'...
It was one of the few abilities that other than Alien X, none of his aliens could perform. He had tried to take some magic lessons from Gwen after they learned that her powerful affinity to magic came from their Anodite heritage. Still, unlike Gwen, Ben's Anodite spark was dormant and so weak that he could not harness mana in his human form without some major training. Among his lack of dedication to the craft, his need to master the Omnitrix and his alien forms, his effort to maintain a healthy relationship with his girlfriend Julie, and his hobbies, Ben could not afford to spend so much time on magic if the result would be nothing more than barely being able to move bits of his mana from one part of his body to another.
Hech, Gwen was powerful, but even she was not that great when it came to healing people. She basically inserted mana into the wound and the center mass of the other person and hoped the body would use the mana to heal itself.
She did exactly that when she and Kevin arrived a few minutes later. Ben could hear the scarlet speedster's bones coming back into place and reforming, but it happened far too quickly in comparison to the times she healed him or Kevin back when they handled the Highbreeds, so it meant that either Gwen learned a better healing method and had not told him and Kevin, or the mysterious guy had his own super-human healing factor.
...
When the speedy guy woke up, he was fully healed and tried to run away, only to hit a transparent force field generated by a machine, "What the hell!" He shouted, "Who are you three? Where are those purple and metallic meta-humans?"
"You first, Speedy," Kevin replied, using Ben's nickname for the guy, much to the brunette's discomfort "You don't make a good impression when you run people over."
"His name is Barry Allen," Gwen said. Ben was about to ask her if she used a spell from her old apprentice's spellbook, but she explained herself before her cousin had the chance to ask, "He carried an ID in his pocket."
Kevin chuckled, "It kind of beats the whole secret identity thing, don't you think?"
"I guess," Gwen replied to her boyfriend, "If he wears that mask, he must have wanted people not to know who he was, but if he can wear normal clothes under his suit, an ID could be understandable."
"It would have been better to carry it where he can't lose it in combat or when people search on him. In that case," Ben added, "He sucks at it," He hoped no one would judge him for his hypocrisy because he never bothered to wear a mask in case of an unexpected timeout. Still, then again, Gwen and Kevin never bothered either since they started investigating the whole Highbreed stuff.
"Hey," The speedster called out, "Can you kids stop talking about me like I am not here?"
"Only when it stops being funny," Kevin replied. Ben chuckled, and even Gwen could not hide her smile.
"Okay, guys. That's enough." Ben said once he was done making fun of the man, "So, what is your deal, Barry? Why did you come here?"
"To understand what I am about to tell you, you need to believe in the impossible. Can you do that?" Barry started before taking off his mask, "My name is Barry Allen, and I am the fastest man alive. When I was a child, I saw my mother get killed by something impossible. My father was blamed for her murder, but years later, an accident turned me into the impossible. To the outside world, I am an ordinary forensic scientist, but in secret, with the help of my friends from S.T.A.R. Labs, I use my speed to fight crime and stop people with powers like mine. I have hunted down the man who killed my mother, but by doing so, I have opened the multiverse to a greater threat named Zoom, and I am the only one fast enough to stop him. I am the Flash!"
The three teens all looked at the strange man with wide eyes. 'He is the who now? Did he have that monologue ready in advance or something?' Ben thought to himself, and by the expressions Gwen and Kevin had, they might have thought something similar.
"Gwen?" Ben asked, "Can you use a spell now to see if he is telling the truth?"
"Yeah," Gwen answered, "I will go get my book."
"So what happens after we verify his story?" Kevin asked as soon as Gwen left, "I have never heard of any of these things he mentioned."
"If he is telling the truth, then we should help him. But before we do that, I have a few questions," Ben turned to Barry and narrowed his eyes, "You said that you are dealing with a guy from another universe. Have you ever heard of a place named Bellwood?"
"No," Barry shook his head, "What is that?"
"This is the name of this town," Ben answered before asking another question, "What about Vilgax?" When Barry shook his head, Ben asked for one last name, but it, too showed no familiarity on the speedster's face, "Professor Paradox?"
It led Ben to one conclusion.
"I think you are from another universe. I have never heard of a guy named 'The Flash' or a bad guy named 'Zoom', and I have been doing superhero stuff ever since I was 10. Also, we saw you running out of some watery portal when you arrived," Ben then turned back to Kevin, "You said that there is no place on Earth called 'S.T.A.R. Labs', right?"
"I mean, unless they are an underground organization that spends most of its resources on staying hidden, I would have known about that name, but it doesn't ring a bell," Kevin answered.
Barry looked like he was about to have a panic attack when he saw his broken Tachyon Device on the floor, "No no no no no! It can't be happening! I need that thing to return home!"
Ben stepped closer to the container, "Listen, dude, we can find a way to get you home and beat this Zoom guy. But first, you need to calm down and wait for my cousin to verify your story."
"Great..." Kevin muttered sarcastically, "I thought I could fix my car after beating Animo, but instead, I have to babysit a guy twice my age. How come we act like the adults here? This guy is almost in his thirties!"
...
It took Gwen over an hour to get home, find the right spell in her old spellbook, get the materials she needed, and return. During that time, Barry told Ben and Kevin about his adventures in further detail. He told them about how he got his powers, the bad guys he fought, the inspiration he got from the Arrow, though he refused to reveal the man's identity since it was not his secret to tell, and about his friends, whom he got after getting his powers, and how how they helped him building the Tachyon Device that made him so fast that he traveled here.
Ben explained some of the differences between their universes but did not tell Barry much about himself and his friends until after Gwen verified that Barry had told them the truth. Interestingly enough, while the year was 2011 in that universe, it was 2015 in Barry's, and there was no known public record of aliens in the speedster's universe.
Once introductions were behind them, the trio agreed to help Barry. Kevin would do his best to fix the Tachyon Device, Gwen would do research beyond her old spellbook about multiversal travel, and Ben would help Barry prepare for his next battle against Zoom.
...
A week had passed since Barry came to Ben's universe, and things went as planned. Ben had used most of his aliens to test Barry's reaction speed without the Tachyon Device, tried to push the speedster passed his limit, and prepared him for any meta-human, as Barry called them, to join Zoom once he fights the black-clawed speedster. Of course, such a display would have attracted a crowd of people, so the trio and its guests used Los Soledad for this.
"It doesn't work!" Barry shouted as he struggled to get up after a beating, "I can't reach higher speeds without the Tachyon Device, and getting faster is the only way to beat Zoom!"
"Your assumption is incorrect, my genetically enhanced friend," Ben countered in his Brainstorm form, "You are under the impression that getting faster is the only way to beat your opponent, but there is more to fights than power levels. It is not just about how much power you have, but how you use it."
Barry covered his eyes as Brainstorm turned back into Ben in a flash of green light, "If all you focus on is getting stronger or faster, anyone with a third of your power could beat you if they are smart enough and know how to fight."
"Easy for you to say," Barry replied, "Your alien watch turns you into all of these cool and overpowered creatures, and if one doesn't work, you can always switch to something stronger."
"No!" Ben glared at Barry, "I analyze the situation, pick the most suitable alien, and if I pick one that is not ideal, I use my brain to fight smarter in a better form. I start wondering how you survived fighting the most dangerous criminals in your city. Do you really just run blindly into your battles without thinking and hope you will be fast enough to beat everyone before you starve half to death? You know, might is not always right."
"I have a team of geniuses who keep an eye on me and give me advice when I need it!" Barry shouted back, "If they were here, I could beat you in any of your forms, get my Tachyon Device fixed, and beat Zoom!"
Ben's eyes went wide, 'Seriously, how did this idiot survive for two years? I was more competent when I was 10!'
"Listen, you overgrown baby," Ben could barely contain his anger as his right hand hovered over his Omnitrix, "My friends and I are doing our best to help you get back home, provide you with a garage to sleep in, train you to save your world from a bad guy who might be stuck in his own rotten world, and all you do is complaining about being too weak, ignoring our advice, and act like a shonen anime character who is not the protag! If you want to save both your world and Zoom's world, then you either wait until we can get you back to your pep talk group, or we are coming with you to make sure Zoom is taken care of!"
That was a lot to take in, but thanks to his super speed, Barry could register it quickly enough and see how big of a jerk he has been since coming here.
"Okay, I am sorry!" Barry apologized, "You guys are great, and I should have been more grateful for your help, but Zoom is my problem, not yours. If you have any advice, I will take it, but I can't let some teenagers fight against that guy."
Seeing that Barry meant his apology, Ben calmed down and put his hand away from the Omnitrix, but the last part of the apology still made him quirk an eyebrow, 'Some teenagers?'
"Dude!" Ben said, "I have stopped alien invaders since I was 10, and Gwen and Kevin are not so weak either. I-"
"I've heard that, Tennyson!" Kevin shouted from afar as he kept working on the final touches on the Tachyon device. Gwen sat next to him with her laptop and spellbook, trying to find a way to ensure Barry's return to his world. She should really get a more advanced spellbook. Maybe it was good that Kevin stopped him. He did not wish to brag about saving the universe less than a month ago. Who knows how smug he could become had he allowed that to get to his head?
Choosing to ignore Kevin, Ben continued, "Anyway, if I can beat you solo when you had that power boost that you claimed made you faster than Zoom, then the four of us should be an overkill once we face your bad guy."
"Alright," Barry said with new encouragement, "I want to see if I can beat your small screaming guy this time."
Ben nodded and slammed his hand on the Omnitrix core almost without looking as he disappeared in a flash of light.
To most people, Ben's transformation sequences were so fast that they looked like they happened in an instance, but to Barry, it looked like Ben's body blew up in an explosion of pure sound before his flesh melted into some sort of silicon and melted around compressed soundwaves until a small humanoid body was made out of the living sound and its silicon containment.
"Echo-Echo!" The small creature shouted as two identical clones appeared at his sides.
"Are you..." The one in the middle started.
"Ready for..." The one on his left continued.
"Round ten?" The one on the middle one's right has finished.
...
Agreeing with Ben's point, Barry opened his mind to the possibility of fighting without his friends telling him what to do like some kind of Pokemon or relying solely on his speed level like a Dragon Ball Z character, and started using his brain as Oliver told him last year.
Barry took Ben's advice to heart and spent the next two days training with the shape-shifting hero. Although he still believed he needed the speed boost from his Tachyon Device, he had improved his fighting technique and could now fight better than before. The Flash made a promise to himself not to stop to talk to his enemies until after he had beaten them.
During those days, Ben told Julie about everything that happened since Barry's arrival in their universe and even introduced his girlfriend to his guest.
After finishing her tennis practice, a half-Japanese girl joined the group to witness Barry's leave and say goodbye. She wore a white T-shirt, a matching white short skirt, and white sneakers when they arrived at Los Soledad, but she changed into her regular outfit before the goodbye. Now she wore a black T-shirt under a pink hoody, a white short skirt nearly identical to the one she wore before, and black and white sneakers. Even though she didn't know Barry as well as the others, she felt it was fitting to greet him and wish him good luck when Ben offered her the chance to do so.
Gwen finished her research and crafted a golden egg-looking enchanted item that would guide Barry to his universe once he exited theirs and Kevin finished fixing Barry's Tachyon Device. Unfortunately, Gwen's magical egg could only guide Barry, and Barry could not drag people with him safely at his top speed. It meant that the trio could not join him after all, but thanks to Ben's training and instructions, Barry could beat Zoom easily.
While she usually had her hair down and wore a buttoned-up white shirt under a blue sweater and a pair of black leggings under a black skirt that covered half the length of her thighs with a pair of matching black shoes, today Gwen wore a red buttoned-up shirt under a black vest, a pair of grey pants, and more comfortable shoes, and kept her hair up in a ponytail.
Kevin joked that Barry would almost beat Zoom only to stop to talk and that that would give Zoom the win, but after a stern lecture from Ben, Barry promised he would not do that.
Usually, Kevin liked wearing a grey long-sleeved shirt under a black T-shirt, but after working on Barry's Tachyon Device for long enough to stink, he wore a spare white shirt and an old blue short-sleeved jacket.
Barry strapped his modified Tachyon Device onto his chest and powered it up. He backed up to create some distance and then began to run in a circular motion at his top speed. His accidental creation of a powerful gust of wind could be felt throughout Los Soledad and its surrounding desert.
Kevin took off his blue jacket and tried to cover his face, but it flew away in the wind, forcing him to turn around to keep the dust out of his eyes. Although Gwen was thankful she was not wearing a skirt that day, the wind and the dust it carried still messed up her long orange hair. Meanwhile, Julie had an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction as she struggled to keep her short skirt from flying up with one hand while protecting her face with the other. In hindsight, she regretted changing out of her tennis outfit because she had been wearing short shorts underneath her tennis skirt. Ben found the view of his friends and girlfriend amusing since he covered his face in advance and had a good angle to look from at the latter.
Gwen formed a mana shield in front of the four of them to save everyone the discomfort, but when she looked aside to clear her eyes from the dust, she noticed that Barry had forgotten his enchanted egg, and if he left their universe without it, there would be no guarantee that he would find his universe in the vast multiverse, or he would return to the right spot in his timeline. He could end up in a universe where atoms can't be formed and suffocate to death or in Zoom's universe and be ambushed by an army of villains with powers that could overwhelm him, or return to his universe, but go back in time to before humanity established itself as a dominate force.
"Barry, STOP!" Gwen shouted as she waved the enchanted golden egg over her head, "You must take the egg with you!"
Seeing that Barry could not hear her, Ben grabbed the egg, turned into Jetray, and flew into Barry's trajectory before any of his friends could react.
It took some time for the wind to stop, and when it did, Barry was gone.
But where was Ben?
(Multiverse-A, Earth-1, Central City, 2015)
Less than a fraction of a second after he disappeared from his universe, Barry reappeared even faster than before.
Unknown to Barry, the push he had received from Jetray had done more than push him beyond the multiversal barrier, as a moment after he made his first step in his city, Jetray nearly crashed on the ground behind him. Had he not turned into Cannonbolt at the last moment, his impact with the ground would have been lethal.
The Arburian Pelarota rolled on the road for a few seconds before managing to stop without harming any civilians, but it did not stop some of them from taking pictures and filming him on their phones.
Once he unrolled, Cannonbolt looked around and saw a sign that stated that he was in Central City.
'Oh..." Cannonbolt thought, 'That is not good."
He quickly turned into Big Chill, became invisible, and searched for S.T.A.R Labs.
...
When Barry returned to S.T.A.R Labs his immediate action was to ask his friend how long he was gone for, but when they made it clear that he was never gone from their point of view, Cisco told him that their readings indicated that he was casually 4 times faster than his normal top speed while equipping the Tachyon Device. Barry was excited about finally being faster than Zoom, and with enough practice, he could run to his universe to stop him. However, his friend, Harry Wells, told him that he was not going to help him open a bridge between their worlds out of fear of what Zoom could do to him and his daughter Jesse if Barry fails.
Before Barry or anyone else could push back, a loud alarm from the building's entrance went off. Cisco turned on the security monitor, only to see there a brunette teenager in a green jacket.
"Hello?" The teenager looked directly at the camera, "Sorry for breaking the door, but your intercom does not work, and I need to talk with Barry. Can I come in?"
Author's notes:
If you haven't figured it out already, this is the plot of the B-Arrowverse (my dead YouTube series). I said in the notes of previous chapters that the version of Ben in that series is the same as the one from G-Morph And TASM, but some people assumed that I used Omniverse Ben or something, so I decided to show some parts of Ben's life before the death of his cousin.
To be clear, Jetray is faster than Barry even with the Tachyon Device, but he struggles a little with sharp turns at super-speed. And yes, despite being younger, Ben is more experienced than Barry, and if Madvocate's videos are anything to go by, Ben is also a lot smarter than Barry. With that being said, if I made Barry look like a pathetic loser, it is so he could grow as a character and use his speed better later.
As for Barry acting differently here than he did in canon when he met Kara, I can tell you from experience that when you save a beautiful girl's life and have more life experience than her, you tend to be more charming and show more of your wisdom than when you are proven wrong by someone almost half as young as you and get beaten by them.
If you are wondering what happened to Kara in this continuity, her identity was revealed in that episode, and after a few years, her Earth was taken over by the Natzy Earth. It is not the best way her life could turn out, but I don't like her show, so I don't care.
If you want to see an abridged version of this chapter with some decent visuals, you can check out my YouTube channel and consider subscribing and sharing my content. It is a free way to support my content.
Some of you are probably going to wonder why I added the whole thing with Animo and Albedo, and my answer to that is that I planned to keep their alliance a secret for a while, but with the entire mystery with Alien V in the main story, I did not want to put you guys through another mysterious bad guy who wants to beat an Omnitrix user.
I also have a P-atreon for those who wish to support my art even further. You can find the link in my profile, but you will have to erase the spaces.
The next chapter will focus on the present day and the aftermath of Alien V's first move.