Chapter 1

"So Ben," Grandpa Max began as he lay the body on the bed, "mind telling me why you were a mixture of XLR8 and Upgrade?"

Gwen turned to look at Ben as well as the latter stood there, sweat dripping from his side as he thought of an excuse, "I think it was a new alien Grandpa!"

"I have seen enough aliens to know that that wasn't a new alien, Ben."

"Yeah dweeb, what'd you do to the Omnitrix?" Gwen snarked as she crossed her arms and glared at him.

Ben, meanwhile, hid the watch behind his back and said, "I am sure I unlocked a new function of the Omnitrix. Think about it. I was so much faster as both XLR8 and Upgrade!"

"Ben-"

"Ow," a voice interrupted their conversations as they turned to look at the stranger who was groaning in his sleep. Despite his horrible appearance with the charred clothes barely hanging onto him, he still gave off the vibe of being unharmed, "where am I?"

Gwen and Grandpa Max rushed to the stranger's side while Ben stayed at the back, watching carefully. The duo quickly helped him in a sitting position as he grimaced from the pain and Gwen replied, "We found you in the middle of the forest. You fell down from the sky and we found you lying in a ditch."

To his credit, he looked confused as he was told the exact details of what happened while Ben spotted something glinting in the man's pocket.

"What is that?"

Everyone turned to where he was pointing and saw an object threatening to fall from the charred pocket. For the first time, the man had a relieved expression as he said, "Oh thank gods."

"What is it?" Ben asked again, curiosity overtaking his caution. His Omnitrix's malfunction temporarily forgotten, the 10-year-old stepped closer trying to grab the object.

A hand grabbed his aggressively, causing Ben to look at the man with surprise. Fear crossed his face as the oppressive stare of the man made his knees buckle. This was much more stronger than what he had felt with Vilgax as well – and Vilgax was an extraterrestrial alien who's purpose was to conquer the universe with the power of Omnitrix.

The raven-haired man glowered at the young boy and said, icily, "Don't touch it."

"What?" Ben replied as he withdrew his hand in surprise, "its just a pen."

"Its not simply a pen," the man paused, as if in deep thought, "it's a sword."

Ben scoffed and exclaimed, "In your pocket? Haha, you're crazy! You can't put swords in your pocket!"

"And yet, its not the weirdest thing we've seen, is it dweeb?" Gwen retorted facing Ben, the latter giving her a glare.

Sighing, the man pulled the pen out, lamp light glistening across its shiny surface and uncapped it. The pen stayed the same and everyone stared at the man confused. To his credit, even he seemed shocked.

"Why wont it become Riptide? What the hell?!" He repeated the motion several times, capping and uncapping the pen and each time, nothing changed.

Ben looked at Grandpa Max and using his right index finger and twirling it on the side of his forehead, he signalled the man's crazy behaviour. Putting a hand on the man's shoulder, Grandpa Max stepped forward and spoke, "Listen, how about we go to bed for tonight and we can discuss this and who or what you are tomorrow? Its too late and we don't want to be late for Gator-Fest."

"Ok," the man replied, his eyes glued to the bronze pen in his hand and a confused and somewhat defeated look in his eyes. The trio stepped back and he went to get up but he looked even more surprised, "What the-? I can't move my legs."

It was then that he realised; it wasn't that he couldn't move his legs but that he couldn't feel it altogether.

"What?" Gwen chimed in as she moved closer and put her hand on his legs before pulling it back, a discreet blush slowly settling on her cheeks. However, nobody noticed as everyone stared at the man's legs.

Grandpa Max answered, "Maybe its just feedback from crashing into the ground really hard. It should get better with some rest."

The man nodded and lay back down, his right arm covering his eyes as he gripped the pen tightly. The three looked at each other and sighed as they began to head in the only vacant spots in the RV and rest for the next day.

"Thank god," Gwen spoke, slowly pushing a wheelchair in front of her where the man sat, "I am glad there was a wheelchair in the Rustbucket."

Grandpa Max smiled in response and replied, "Glad you could enjoy this too, Percy."

The latter, named Percy, gave a pained grin, his body still aching due to crashing albeit less than the last day. He was still concerned that Riptide was not appearing whenever he tried to uncap the pen.

"Whoa," Gwen and Ben exclaimed, garnering Percy's attention as they watched the crowd full of people roaming around. What had been a deserted swamp had now been decorated with stalls, flags and banners. The aroma of delicacies and refreshments enveloped the air, mixing with the thick stench of the swamp. Somehow, Ben had to admit, it mixed well.

Growl.

Percy snapped his head towards the direction of the rippling water behind the Rustbucket, the ripples slowly disappearing and Percy wondered if it had been his imagination. Walking around, or in Percy's case, being pushed around, the four of them admired the setting. The toy and game stalls were all alligator themed and Percy was surprised. This was a strange change in pace.

"Oi Larry," a man yelled and Percy watched a young man with a bucket hat and plain faded shirt kneeling over a bucket, "check out these weird worms I found."

He pulled out a couple of slimy creatures from the bucket and Percy almost gagged at their sight. Worms that were supposed to be peach in colour and excreting translucent mucus seemed different. They had black green bodies and black head with prehensile stalks emerging from them. Another thing that was weird was that they had a black tail behind them. Was this a new species?

"Freaky," Larry muttered but Percy couldn't hear any more as Gwen continued to push the wheelchair forward. That was a strange encounter. For some reason, they did not feel right.

Deep in thought, Percy didn't realize where they were till the wheelchair stopped and he noticed a crowd gathering next to him. Up ahead, he saw three massive eggs – the size of a rugby ball – with dark spots. They were very similar to alligator eggs and Percy sighed in relief that there was still something normal in sight.

Grandpa max grinned widely and said, "You know, I think you kids are gonna enjoy this. It's a rare event."

"You mean like Ben changing his underwear?" Gwen retorted pointedly as Ben turned towards in horror before frowning.

Percy almost broke into laughter at their usual banter. This was all too familiar. As he thought that, a memory of a girl with blonde hair and grey eyes flashed in his head. Annabeth. He could not wait to return back to her and Camp Half-Blood. Kronos wasn't going to defeat himself and they needed to find a way to Hephaestus to find a way to navigate the maze.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Percy's thoughts were interrupted as the eggs began to crack and three alligator heads appeared out of them followed by their tiny bodies. The entire crowd awed in admiration and whooped loudly in congratulations as the babies scurried into the brackish swamp water.

"Aw," Gwen began, her look softened, "they are kinda cute." Percy shared the sentiment with her.

The excitement was short lived, however, as the baby alligators crawled out of the water and sneaked off towards a bush.

Ben asked what everyone was thinking, "What are they running from? They're alligators."

"Hmm, that's very odd," Grandpa Max answered, stroking his chin in contemplation, "What do you think can make them do that?"

The feeling returned and Percy turned to look at the swamp water as the growl began to grow louder. The water rippled aggressively and a shadow slowly began enlarging inside the water before the splash erupted from the spot.

"I'll give you one guess and it goes ribbit."

Gwen pointed at the massive frog-like creature that leapt over the exploding water and landed in front of them. The people rushed off, leaving the 4 of them behind. They looked bothered but not afraid and Percy was glad that his inkling of them not being normal people was right. Were they demigods?

"No way," Ben muttered, loud enough for the three to hear, "I recognise that croaker. That's Dr. Animo's frog." As if on cue, an extremely long tongue shot from its mouth, causing Ben, Gwen and Grandpa Max to jump out of the way and run off in a separate direction respectively. Percy rolled his wheelchair aside as he looked for a weapon to use. Even though he had no idea what was going on, that frog was dangerous.

Ben crashed right next to Percy's wheelchair and said, "This is so not my idea of leap-frog."

Ben looked at the panicking group of people running around to find shelter and turned around right as a shadow of a figure covered his body. The white haired figure stood before him, gigantic metallic gorilla-like gauntlets covering his arms and a metallic chestplate that seemed connected to the gauntlets with a thick wire on each side on his main body. Red goggles covered his eyes in the name of protection but did not hide his infuriated and vengeful look that was being directed at Ben.

"Dr. Animo," Ben identified as their eyes met.

A/N: That's chapter 1 for you guys. I just realized I wrote so much and this is only 5 minutes into the episode which means I am going to have to fast forward a lot. With that said, hope you enjoy this chapter and please follow, favorite and drop a review. Reviews are a drug and I am addicted. Gimme more. I clearly need help.