"Make a turn here. It might be this street up ahead."

"You've been saying that for the last 3 streets!"

"Well, sorry, but your phone is still broken and mine doesn't get reception out here."

"And whose fault is it that my phone isn't working very well?"

"Listen, if I hadn't given it to the Brainstorms, it wouldn't even be turning on right now. And how was I supposed to know they wouldn't figure out that the touchscreen should recognize soft fingers and not crab claws?"

"This is just like the thing with the tent all over again. Maybe if you tried to solve it like a normal person and not with the help of aliens, we would have gotten my phone fixed by now and we wouldn't have had to camp it out in the car last night, either!"

"Why am I always the navigator, anyway?"

"Um, because I'm the one driving?"

"Well, let me drive, then!"

"No!"

"Come on, Steven! Just sitting here is so boring!"

"You're supposed to be navigating!"

"Don't you want to take a break for a bit?"

"Not really. I'd rather be the one driving."

"C'mon, man!"

"No, Ben! It's my dad's car, and I'm gonna be the one driving it!"

"Ugh, fine."

Ben, realizing he had struck a nerve, laid off of him. Instead, he looked into Steven's phone again, hoping to be able to open the maps app this time. If he used his nails, it sometimes worked… a little bit, at least…

"Nope. No use." – Ben sighed. "Those two cerebrocrustaceans sure were a pair… hey, Steven, pull over over here. I think those guys are gonna know the way." – he pointed out a group of cosplayers, all heading in the same direction.

"Hey, you guys! Which way to FanCom?" – Steven asked after rolling down the window.

One of them, wearing a green wizard robe and a gray fake beard, responded. "Thou art nearly at the end of thy quest. Thy destination is just up ahead." – he told them in medieval speak, exaggerating the thous. "By the way, thou got a wicked Ben 10 masquerade, but I consider the green jacket superior. I really hate that white hood." – he added.

"Gee, thanks." – Ben told him with an unamused look on his face. "Crazy fans…" – he thought to himself.


"Alright, we're in!" – Ben happily exclaimed when they got through the entrance. He looked around. Tons of people, cosplayers, merchandise, and various activities all around. "Okay, are we doing my thing first or yours?"

"I think considering how long it took us to find this place, we only have time for one thing." – Steven answered while checking his phone for time. "So you do your thing and I'll do mine and we'll meet back at the car in 2 hours."

"If I get there first do I get to drive?" – Ben eagerly asked.

"Ben…" – Steven sternly told him.

"Great, I've got another Kevin on my hands." – Ben mumbled to himself. "Alright, Sumo Slammers: Ultimate Ultimatum, here I come! I'm gonna play in there until the staff kicks me out!" – he eagerly exclaimed and went to find the play area. Though, there was one problem. There was already a huge line for it.

"Great, just great. I guess everyone wants to play the new Sumo Slammers two months ahead of release. Why wouldn't they?" – he continued. "Or I could transform into something and sneak by… I could… Hmmm…" – he considered. Though, Steven's words about always using aliens to solve normal problems came to mind. "Though, that never works, and I don't wanna be kicked out. Probably not."

Half an hour later, he was nearly at the front of the line. Surprisingly, no fans hounded him for autographs. Everyone just thought that was a really good cosplay, though one guy wearing a "Lenny Baxter's Comic Book Emporium" t-shirt called his Omnitrix "unrealistic and plastic-looking." If only he knew…

He was finally there, at the front of the line, wearing the complementary Sumo Slammers wig, about to step in, when he heard a sudden yell from the crowd. Without hesitation, he left the line and ran towards the trouble. "The things I do to be a hero…" - he thought to himself. As Ben looked around the panicking crowd, he saw someone throw a massive arcade cabinet into the air. It was going to fall into the crowd, and Ben only had seconds to think what to do…


For half an hour, Steven had been standing in line. He had held the book in one hand, then the other, then the first again, till both of his hands got tired. His legs were, too. Was getting a signed copy of "The No Home Boys: On the Run" even worth it? No, what was he talking about, he'd be getting to meet the author, of course it was worth it. Though he had to move soon, he couldn't bear standing in the same place anymore…

"STEVEN UNIVERSE!"

He suddenly heard a loud, booming voice from behind him. He turned around and saw what could only be another alien. Not a gem. Armored suit, orange skin, spiky chin with two horns coming out… wait, this was Technorg! Or was he? He had both of his arms intact…

Though, the identity of this alien had to remain a mystery, as he charged towards Steven at full speed while people ran away in all directions. Steven readied himself for the attack. At least he wouldn't be standing still anymore, though.


Quickly, Ben formulated his plan of action. If he went Fourarms or Humongosaur, he'd have to jump to catch it mid-air, but he'd land into the dense crowd. The only way to go was to catch that arcade cabinet mid-air. He quickly cycled through the Omnitrix playlist till the perfect alien came up, and with the slam of the dial, it was once again hero time. Barely any time to yell his catchprase, though, he had to stop that thing from falling first.

As a flash of green light enveloped him, a metallic alien with a floating robot head emerged. Swiftly, Lodestar emitted a magnetic ray that kept the arcade cabinet from falling and ejected it outside, to the walls instead. Nobody was harmed.

"There you are." – Ben heard a confident, butch voice. Before he got the chance to turn around and see the attacker, he suffered a shattering blow that made first Lodestar's body and then his head go flying and crashing into the wall himself. As he unstuck his head from getting crammed into the wall, he got a good look at his attacker. Extremely tall, and judging from the blow, extremely strong. Orange. Huge fluffy hair around her. Very clearly, a gem, with her gemstone being where her nose would be, though not one he had seen before.

"I take it you're this Ben Tennyson?" – she asked while approaching him slowly and menacingly, cracking her knuckles. "I expected more." – she added smugly.

"Lady, I haven't even gotten started." – Ben retorted. "And you are…?"

"My name won't matter to you when I beat you to a pulp!" – the gem snarked as she charged towards him. It looked as if she was enveloped by her hair as she started rolling towards him very similarly to Cannonbolt, a move Ben had done a bunch of times himself, but rarely been on the receiving end of. He instinctively slapped the Omnitrix with his Lodestar's claw and transformed into Goop. That way, there would be nothing solid for the gem to hit. Ben's plan worked – she ran over the puddle of slime and crashed right through the wall she had thrown Ben into, and that was enough for the wall to collapse completely. Fighting outside the venue was definitely better, less bystanders to look out for.

"Alright, lady, start talking. Who are you and what do you want with me?" – Goop asked in his high-pitched voice.

"You'll have to prove yourself if you want to find out that badly." – the gem boldly responded as she went onto the offensive again. One punch, two punch, both went right through Goop. That didn't discourage her, though, as she kept attacking. To retaliate, Ben had Goop's anti-gravity projector go around the gem as Goop wrapped himself around her, and he increased his skin density to restrain the gem. Though, that ended up not being enough. After straining, hard, she overpowered Goop and broke free of him, immediately grabbing the anti-gravity projector. She squeezed it and was about to crush it, so Goop desperately clung to her face to obstruct her vision. Taking the opportunity of her trying to get the slime off her face, Ben transformed again.

Now, in front of her stood a muscular bipedal tiger wearing a safari vest and shorts.

"LET ME TELL YA SOMETHING, MYSTERY GEM ATTACKER. RATH DOES NOT APPRECIATE BEING INTERRUPTED WHEN RATH IS ABOUT TO PLAY THE NEW SUMO SLAMMERS GAME TWO MONTHS AHEAD OF RELEASE!"

"Finally, this is getting interesting." – the gem smirked as it was Ben's turn to go on the offensive. Rath landed one punch, two punch, but the gem, despite getting knocked around, made no effort to block the blows. It was as if she was testing the waters to see how strong his punches were…

"My turn." – she said said after she recovered from Rath's punches and threw a couple herself. Rath dodged one, two, managed to get a kick in afterwards but that was when the gem got the opportunity to land her blow.

"That was better, but still not enough. And he picked you over me?" – the gem said as she straightened her jaw.

"RATH HAS NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT! WHO THE HECK ARE YOU, ANYWAY?"

"The name's Jasper. Not like it's gonna matter to you. After the beating I'm gonna give you, you'll be lucky to remember what planet you're on."

Recognizing that Rath might just not be enough, Ben opted for a different strategy as he hit the Omnitrix dial again. He knew that wasn't healthy for its battery life, but for this fight, he had to.


"What the heck do you want with me?" – Steven asked as the detrovite who had introduced himself as Vulkanus was repeatedly punching his shield, trying to break through.

"Heard about you and your gem. That pink diamond of yours is gonna be worth a fortune on the black market."

"And I suppose you don't care that I'll die if you remove it?" – Steven asked him, though he knew it was pointless to even make that effort.

"Not in the slightest." – Vulkanus smirked. He raised both of his fists up and gathered strength as he prepared to deliver an extremely powerful blow, and Steven used that opportunity to dissipate his shield and roll away, managing to dodge Vulkanus' attack as it shattered the floor.

"Did you even think this through? I really doubt the Diamond Authority is gonna be happy with you if you go through with this." – Steven tried to reason with him again.

"They can get in the auction to buy your gem back if they want it so bad. After colonizing hundreds of planets, they've gotta be loaded, right?" – Vulkanus asked greedily.

Steven sighed. There was no getting through with this one. He readied the bubble knuckles and as Vulkanus came in to attack once more, swiftly dodged his fist and delivered a counter-attack. That didn't really phase Vulkanus, though, who kept attacking relentlessly. Steven defended himself with the shield, the bubble, delivered punches when he saw an opening, all of which were Pearl's teachings, but he knew he couldn't keep this up forever. Vulkanus' armor, however, seemed to absorb most of his blows. And even though Steven knew he could punch harder, he felt really reluctant with all the people everywhere that were still trying to get to the staircase.


"Hey lady, I have no quarrel with you, so how 'bout you come quietly and we can forget all about this?" – XLR8 asked as he rushed past Jasper, delivering blow by blow faster than Jasper could react.

"Well, my quarrel is with you, Ben Tennyson!" – Jasper declared as she swung another empty punch, missing XLR8 by a couple inches.

"Can I at least know what the heck is it that you're trying to beat me up over?" – XLR8 asked. "Emphasis on trying." – he added as he charged at her for another punch.

"Emphasis on BEAT!" – Jasper triumphantly yelled as she finally managed to correctly predict XLR8's attack, caught him and slammed him into the ground.

"Unghhh, that's gonna hurt tomorrow…" – Ben mumbled.

"You're lucky if there's even gonna be a tomorrow!" – Jasper told him as she swung another punch at the downed XLR8, but Ben managed to hit the Omnitrix again at lightning speed. Out of the green flash emerged a muscular red hand and grabbed Jasper's fist.

"Come again?" – Fourarms smugly asked her as he threw a punch with his other arm. Jasper caught this one, but Fourarms had two other other arms free that he could attack with.

"So, that's a tetramand." – Jasper grinned as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She eyed Fourarms up and down. "Good. I've been looking forward to fighting one for ages." She laughed crazily as she did another spin dash. Fourarms, however, managed to take the hit and catch her in the air despite the crazy speed she was coming at him with. Using her own inertia, he lifted her up over his head, leaned back and slammed her headfirst into the ground in a suplex.

Panting, Fourarms got up and took a step back. He expected that to be the end of her, but was taken aback when he heard her maniacal cackle again. Jasper rose up from the ground, though panting just like him, but visibly delighted at how the battle was going. Ben just felt thankful that they were on the edge of town and no one else was getting hurt, but this Jasper, whoever she was, was a lot tougher than Ben had expected. Before he had the time to wonder how she ranked against Vilgax, she was rushing at him again, headfirst, with her hard helmet summoned. It took three of Fourarms' four arms to catch and stop her, and Jasper used the opportunity to attack him while her opponent's arms were occupied – a trick that Fourarms liked to do himself all the time. Before Ben could catch her fists, Jasper delivered one punch, another, an elbow kick to the gut, and as Fourarms let go of her head to defend himself, a full force headbutt knocked him away.

"I can't believe it. She's making me go through my strongest aliens." – Ben thought. "I need someone tough and fast. Kickin' Hawk won't cut it, Humongosaur might be stronger, but he's too slow… but I have just the guy for this one." – he smirked as he hit the Omnitrix symbol yet again.


"Um, hello, can't we at least take this outside, where the people aren't gonna be in danger?" – Steven asked Vulkanus as the alien charged at him and missed, smashing into the booth where the author of The No Home Boys was supposed to be sitting at. Luckily, he was long gone.

"And let you fight unrestricted? Hah. Not a chance." – Vulkanus smirked as he started throwing whatever he could reach at Steven. Steven knew he couldn't dodge, or else he'd risk the debris hitting the crowd behind him, so he had to catch or block everything coming his way.

"How long till you give up?" – Vulkanus asked cockily as he charged at Steven again.

Steven knew he had to do something. He had access to a whole array of attacks, but he was reluctant. He hadn't used the pink energy ever since the incident, and it was as if it had left a bad taste in his mouth. He was afraid that if he let it out again, it wouldn't go back in. But this Vulkanus guy didn't seem to get tired at all, while Steven was sweaty and breathing heavily. He had to think of some other way to beat him…


"That transformation… are you a gem?" – Jasper asked warily.

"Heh. Do I look like one?" – Diamondhead smirked. "I'm guessing you've never seen a petrosapien before. The name's Diamondhead."

"You have the nerve to call yourself a Diamond?" – Jasper asked him, pissed off. "That's a bold claim. You better be able to back it up." – she pointed at him.

"Just so you know, I have other aliens that could take you down without throwing a single punch." – Diamondhead's piercing voice warned Jasper. "Ghostfreak, Toepick, and then there's the obvious… But you know what? I'll entertain you. You want to fight so badly, I'll beat you at your own game." – Ben smirked. "It's been a while since someone's given me a run for my money in hand-to-hand combat."

"Brag all you want, but I am the ultimate gem soldier. I doubt there's a species in this galaxy that can match me. If there is, well…" – Jasper cracked her knuckles. "…surprise me."

Before Jasper had the opportunity to reach Diamondhead, Ben shot several crystal projectiles toward her. Jasper shrugged them off, which Ben had expected, but that was just to throw her off. He had transformed into Diamondhead for a reason. Jasper threw another punch at him, which Ben blocked as he delivered a counterattack, which Jasper blocked. Jasper noticed something about Ben, as if he was holding back somehow. Ben was lucky Jasper wasn't familiar with Petropians. All he needed was one opening…

Punch. Kick. Elbow. Diamondhead and Jasper were exchanging and blocking blows, somewhere on equal level, but Ben knew he was at a disadvantage here. After so many transformations, he was lucky the Omnitrix hadn't run out of juice by now, and there was surely barely anything left. He had to make what was left count. His right hand was hurting in the joint too. He'd have to use the left one. A kick from Jasper knocked him back a couple feet, though he was still standing firmly. Jasper used this gap to start up her spin dash again to charge at Ben. Ben, expecting that, built a diamond ramp in front him, rising out of the ground, which caused Jasper to fly up in the air and over him. Enraged, Jasper recovered and started charging at him on her feet this time, with her crash helmet summoned again, this time adorned with sharp horns. Diamondhead summoned a diamond wall in front of him, which Jasper smashed through like it was nothing. Though, that gave Ben enough of an advantage to dodge to the side. Right then, he turned his left hand into a sharp blade and thrust it to drive it straight into Jasper's body, hoping to poof her, but Jasper caught onto his trick and grabbed it just in time.

"This is what you were trying to do? Heh. Nice try. But I've been fighting before your species even invented blades, earthling. It's gonna take more than that to bait me." – she said impressively and before Diamondhead had the chance to do anything else, she headbutted him with her entire force, slamming him into the ground.

"Heh. All things considered, not bad for an earthling." – Jasper complimented him while breathing heavily. She was barely on her feet herself. "But if you think you're stronger than me, or that you're worthy of accompanying My Diamond on his journey, well, you're gravely mistaken." – she boasted at the downed hero.

"Enough." – Ben said and hit the Omnitrix dial one last time, hoping that Azmuth wouldn't kill him for using so many consequential transformations in so little time. Jasper was taken aback as the figure she was standing on suddenly grew hundreds of feet in size. A colossal kaiju-sized red and white alien was standing over her. Then, Waybig lifted his foot and slammed it on top of her. Jasper tried to resist, even catching the bottom of his foot and pushing back, which made Waybig use a little more effort than he expected, but she was clearly outmatched with this one. She eventually gave way and Waybig slammed his foot on the ground on top of her. He then put the foot back to see if Jasper was still on her feet after this. She wasn't poofed, but thankfully, she was knocked out cold. Good thing, too. Both the Omnitrix and Ben himself had barely any energy left in them, and the constant transformations from one alien to another started to give Ben a headache.

Just then, the wall of the convention hall exploded in another place, Ben saw Steven come out flying, enveloped in his bubble. Vulkanus jumped out of the hole after him.

"WHAT THE HECK?!" – Steven yelled when he saw Waybig. "BEN?!" – he asked when he noticed the Omnitrix symbol.

"Oh, great. Tennyson's here too." – Vulkanus whined. Though, Waybig's massive figure didn't menace him for long, as the Omnitrix finally gave and Ben transformed back into himself. He fell down on his knees, panting.

"This seems to be my lucky day. I'm getting myself a Diamond and not even Tennyson can get in my way." - Vulkanus gloated

"Ben, who is this guy, and what do I do about him?" – Steven asked Ben as he blocked another blow.

"Vulkanus, black market dealer, yada yada…" – Ben skimmed through the bullet points, barely catching enough breath to talk. "Detrovite just like Technorg. His body was blown to bits and he's using a robot suit instead."

"So he hasn't regenerated his body?" – Steven asked him while delivering a bubble knuckle punch.

"Nope!"

"That gives me an idea." – Steven confidently said. He jumped to Vulkanus' head level and instead of delivering an attack, blew a raspberry at him. His drool got all over Vulkanus' face.

"Ugh, that's disgusting! You've got terran slime all over me! Humans really behave like this and then wonder why they're considered the armpit of the galaxy! Wait, what's going on…?"

"You feeling it yet?" – Steven asked confidently.

"What did you do to me? The armor… it's shrinking around me!" – Vulkanus yelled.

"Wrong." – Steven snarked. "It's you who are growing."

Vulkanus had to eject his body from the robot. It was indeed growing, as the detrovite regenerative process got accelerated by Steven's spit's healing powers. Now, the robot suit was too small for Vulkanus to use, and in front of Steven stood tall a fully-regenerated detrovite, though almost completely naked, only covered by the diaper he had been wearing while his body was still a baby one.

"Alright, this is so not worth it. I'm outta here!" – the naked Vulkanus told them, grabbed his armor, activated a button that summoned his ship, threw the armor into it and got on board himself.

Not bothering to go after him, Steven ran across the parking lot to see Ben, who had to have been in more trouble than him if he was using an alien this big.

"Wh-what the heck?! JASPER?!" – he yelled in shock as he saw the quartz on the ground, who was coming to just about now.

"Yeah. Can't believe she made me go all the way up to Waybig." – Ben admitted. "I have no idea what the heck she wanted from me, though. I think she mentioned you."

"Jasper, what the heck were you thinking? Why did you attack Ben?" – Steven yelled at her as she opened her eyes.

"My Diamond." – she saluted him, an act that still disturbed Steven every time he witnessed it, especially when directed towards him. "When you set out on your journey, you rejected my company. But then I heard that you accepted him. And so I wanted to find out, why? Was I not strong enough for you? Was I not loyal enough to you? I needed to find out what made him worthy where I was not." – Jasper reluctantly explained.

"And your first act was to challenge me in mortal combat?" – Ben yelled at her. Jasper glared at him, as though in anger, or maybe in guilt. "How did you even find me?"

"I followed him." – Jasper pointed at Vulkanus' ship flying away. "He came to Little Homeworld looking for you."

"Jasper, listen. There is a reason why I can't take you with me. This is something personal for me. This road trip I'm on, I'm not going to discover new places. I'm trying to discover myself. And I think Ben's the same. He needs to find himself, too."

"But I don't know who I am anymore, either!" – Jasper objected. "You took away my purpose. You took away my belief in Pink. Then you shattered me and rebuilt me as you saw fit… and now, I live to serve you, My Diamond, and if you won't accept me for that and leave, then just shatter me again and be done with it, because I serve no other purpose!"

"Well, why don't you go on a trip of your own?" – Steven suggested to her. "You can't come with us, but this world, no, this whole universe is open for you to explore! You can't be following me around all the time like a tail, can you? You need to go on a journey find who you are without the Diamond authority, without Pink, and without me."

"And besides, you're not gonna fit in the Dondai." – Ben added.

"That too." – Steven sighed.

Jasper inhaled. "My Diamond… you've proven yourself to be superior not only in combat, but also in wisdom. I'll heed your word as I try to understand it…" – she vowed. "Goodbye, My Diamond." – she said as she stood up. "And Tennyson…" – Jasper turned to Ben before walking away. "…I'll be training for a rematch. Don't disappoint me."

"Um… okay, I guess?" – Ben awkwardly said.

"Yeah, uh, take care!" – Steven said goodbye.

Since the con was wrecked, the heroic duo started walking back to their car.

"Man, that Jasper sure is a character." – Ben told Steven as she got out of earshot.

"You should have seen her while she was trying to kill me." – Steven jokingly said.

"See, you always say that, but I can never tell if you're joking or not."

"That's because it's always true."

"Hm. Next thing I know, Vulkanus is gonna invite you to his birthday party or something." – Ben commented. They both laughed at that one. "But seriously, though, that was just Vulkanus. Was he really giving you hard time?"

"Well, I don't really like unleashing all of my power." – Steven admitted. "Ever since the "incident", I'm scared that I'll lose control and turn into that thing again."

"If you do, you just saw the guy you'll be facing in case that ever happens." – Ben pointed over his shoulder at where Waybig was standing minutes ago. "I'll be there for you."

"Heh. Thanks." – Steven smiled.

"But only if you let me drive!" – Ben suddenly yelled as he ran towards Steven's car.

"Hey!" – Steven yelled, chasing after him.


Author's notes:

And with another end of the month, I bring you another chapter. And hopefully, this one doesn't disappoint. I mean, an all-out battle between Jasper and Ben? Come on! Who wouldn't want to see that?

I've had this idea for a while, but I kinda wanted to save it for later, when Ben and Steven were already a while into their road trip. But then I thought, if I save all the best stories for later, what the hell do I write now? And Jasper showing up out of the blue seemed like the perfect story that I could push up a few chapters.

My first intention in this chapter was, well, to serve and further Jasper's character, but come on. Her taking on Ben one on one was a must see. And I wanted to establish where she'd fit into Ben's aliens' power hierarchy, too. Jasper I think is the perfect character that would push Ben's aliens' physical abilities to the absolute limit without him resorting to stuff like

Also it was fun to write the two go to a convention. I went to Gamescom this year and I probably drew inspiration from that, but at the same time, it just feels like a natural storyline that would happen in classic Ben 10 during the summer road trip.

All in all, this was one of the most fun chapters to write just because how intense the battle and interactions between Ben and Jasper were, and Vulkanus vs Steven provided a couple relieving moments from the main battle as a distraction.

now its time for the spinoff a trip to jasperemember. im kidding.