A disgruntled 10-year-old, by the name of Ben Tennyson, walked in the forest with his hands in his pockets. He kicked a rock from the ground as he walked in silence. He was not very happy, far from it to be perfectly honest.
"Aw.. man! This is gonna be the worst summer ever. I might as well have just gone to summer school." Ben said as he recounted the day. First, he got a beat-down from Cash and JT, and now he has to spend the entire summer with his dweeb of a cousin, eating worms, he wondered just how worse could it get. Suddenly a whooshing sound caught his attention as he looked up at the sky. A flaming trail was streaking across the night sky, making the boy gape in awe.
"Woah! A shooting star!" Ben said as he looked at the sky. His awe was very quickly replaced by fear as the shooting star seemed to magically redirect its course. The shooting star was now… well…
Heading right towards him.
Quickly, Ben began to run away from the speeding comet. He yelled out in fear as the unknown object crashed behind him and he was caught by the impact.
Ben was dazed as he ears buzzed due to the loud sound of the crash, his head fell to the side allowing him to see in his blurry vision a grey object and his surroundings, he had fallen inside the crater made by the unknown object, suddenly the grey object opened up as a bright pink glow emanated from it. Ben was still almost fainted and having difficulty moving, but instinctively he stretched his arm towards the pink light, he felt something clamp right on top of his left wrist but was still very stunned from the impact to react to It. The last thing he saw before passing out was his body being covered by a soft golden glow
"Great Cardinal Heroes of legend! Please save our world!" One of them pleaded as a teenager with black hair pointed the sword he carried at them.
"Seriously? You take us from our homes and expect us to save your world? What's in it for us?" The black haired teen asked as an boy with an bow nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. You're just going to dump us back at our worlds when peace is established, aren't you? Then we're going to do all these things for nothing." The bow wielder said as a tall teen carrying a spear also spoke up.
"How are you going to accommodate us? Depending on your answer, we might just become your enemies instead of your allies." The spear bearer said as Ben decided to say something too.
"Do you guys have toilets here?" Ben asked the main concern on his mind, causing everyone else to look at him.
"Like, I mean this is a castle, right? Am I going to have to poop in a bucket or something? Because that's super gross." Ben made a face as the sword wielder coughed, trying to still seem intimidating. The robed men told them that they were going to have to meet the king first and Ben was in awe at the castle.
"So… Cool!" Ben said as he walked up the stairs, making the boy with the bow chuckle.
"Yeah.. it is pretty cool," the sword wielder said indifferently. Eventually, they had made their way into the room containing the King's throne. The King looked at the teenagers, nodding until he saw the small boy beside them. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the brown-haired boy who was gazing at the castle dumbstruck.
"So you four are the Four Cardinal Heroes of legend?" The King named Aultcray asked as the three older boys nodded and Ben just blankly stared at Aultcray.
"I am the King of Melromarc, Aultcray Melromarc XXXII." He introduced himself and Ben grinned. He was in a castle! With a king! Gwen was gonna be so jealous when he told her this.
"Heroes. Name yourselves." Aultracy said and the sword wielder strode forward
"Ren Amaki, 16 years old, high schooler," Ren said as the guy with the spear stepped forward.
"Motoyasu Kitamura, 21 years old, college student," Motoyasu said as the last boy stepped forward.
"Itsuki Kawasumi, 17 years old, high school student," Itsuki said as he inspected his bow, Aultcray looked at the young boy who was still looking around the room, not paying attention.
"Itsuki, Motoyasu, and Ren, correct?" Aultcray asked and the three nodded, Ben noticed that he was skipped and went to say something but the king had already started talking.
"I suppose I owe all of you an explanation. My country and the rest of the world are going down the path of destruction." Aultcray began to recount what was currently happening in this world. Ben, not wanting the chance to miss out on a cool story told by a king, listened the best he could.
'Waves of Catastrophe… Cool! I mean, not cool. People could die. And I'm stuck here? Yes! No more worms for dinner!' Ben thought as the king finished talking.
"Now, you should all check your statuses," Aultcray said as Ben looked in confusion. Staring at the others, only one of them seemed to know what the king was talking about.
"Look in the bottom right of your vision. There's an icon, just focus on it and the status window will appear" Ren said and Ben turned his head to try and find it.
"No- Ben. It's in the corner of your vision. You don't have to turn your head." Ren said as Ben squinted his eyes. Looking at the icon a menu-like project popped up in front of him. Ben mouthed an 'Awesome' and began to read what had popped up.
Name: Benjamin Kirby Tennyson
Class: Hero of the Shield
Level: 1
Equipment: Small Shield (Legendary weapon), Parallel World's Clothes, Unregistered Device (Error)
Stats - level 1
Health: 110
Magic: 10
Magical potencial: 10 (+50 Anodite lineage bonus)
Attack: 1
Defense: 60
Magical Defense: 70
Agility: 10
'Level 1? It's like a video game! But it's also… kind of boring. What do these numbers even mean?' Ben pouted as he looked at his menu. This was something Gwen would play, he much more enjoyed just beating up enemies in Sumo Slammers Generation. If he wanted to do math, he would've just gone to summer school.
"So we just form a party with the four of us, right?" Suddenly, Motoyasu spoke up. As the heroes looked at him momentarily
"Actually, you can't. The weapons of legend repel each other by nature. You will have to adventure and recruit party members yourself." A man standing a few feet away from the king said as Ben grimaced. This reminded him of those sports games where you had to manage members of your team. Like games that involved numbers, he hated those types of games.
"The sun is beginning to set. We will gather tomorrow to pick out your party members. Get some rest." Aultcray said as a girl in a typical maid outfit walked up next to them
"Please. Come this way. We have prepared rooms for you." The girl said as Ben and the others followed her. Soon enough, Ben found himself sitting on a couch with the teenagers with him.
"Guess you get special treatment when you're heroes, huh?" Motoyasu said as he sat at a armchair as Ben grinned at him in agreement
"This. Is. The. Best." Ben said as he sunk into the smooth cushions of the couch. This was sooo much better than where he would be sleeping. Ben's smile fell as he remembered Grandpa and how much he'd be worrying about him disappearing.
'Oh, man. They must be worried sick about me...' Ben frowned as he thought about how his grandpa and cousin were feeling right now, he didn't even have a way to contact them and say that he was fine, Ren looked at the boy in concern.
"Hey.. are you okay, Ben?" Ren asked as he went and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, Ben looked at him for a moment before sighing
"Is just… me, my grandpa and my nerdy cousin were going on this road-trip around the country, I went to walk in the woods after a fight with Gwen before getting zapped here, they must think I became bear food..." Ben said in saddened tone as Ren and Itsuki shared a look as they thought about how the boy felt and understood that he was experiencing one of the factors of isekai that was usually forgotten in anime and manga, Homesickness.
"What did you two fought over? About how you like to wear girly stuff? Like that pink watch?" Motoyasu jokingly asked as he pointed at Ben's arm with his spear, the jerkiness in his tone of voice and the fact he said that he wore girly stuff irritated Ben
"Hey! I don't-" Ben stopped after thinking of what Motoyasu said a bit more carefully "Watch? I don't have a watch" Ben asked and the three teens pointed to his left hand, when Ben looked he saw what resembled a digital wristwatch. Its face plate was square and it had a white, pink, and black color scheme. The face plate is black with two pink hearts that resembled an hourglass of some kind
"Huh?! This watch isn't mine! I never seen this thing before!" Ben said as he tried to take the thing off but it wouldn't, he began to shake his arm around frantically for it to slide off but it didn't, he even tried biting it but nothing worked, the other heroes only looked at him as he was making a fool of himself but Ren and Itsuki were really starting to wonder why that watch seem to not get out of his arm
"Oh sure let me guess, its your cousin's? You should be more worried about that shield than some girly watch" Motoyasu said as brushed the kid's concern off as just being ashamed of his fragile masculinity
"What's wrong with the shield?" Ben asked as he looked at the weapon on his arm, he understood that it was no laser sword or plasma gun but he also didn't see any problem with it
"This place is identical to a game I played and mastered, the status magic is practically one to one to how it was in the game, which means that it is the same with the weapons..." Motoyasu said as he leaned back further in the armchair he was sitting, taking a deep breath before looking at Ben very seriously
"... And the shield was bad, worst weapon out of the four, complete dud, only losers use it. It was a all defensive and focused on support class that couldn't hurt nothing, it was the most different weapon in the game and that made it bad" Motoyasu said in a completely objective tone as he looked at Ben while pointing at the shield
"Oh come! You're joking!" Ben shouted, refusing to believe in Motoyasu, that had to be a prank and a mean one at that since he practically told him that he was garbage material for saving the day for something that was outside his control
"I'm afraid he's not, it was like that in mine as well" Itsuki reassured as all the heroes looked at Ren for his confirmation that the shield was bad or good
"The shield was decent in the early game but it ended up becoming useless by the later waves, it is not a bad weapon if you don't want to get hurt or is afraid of being killed but you trade all of your damage capabilities for protection and support. Not bad but not good either, sorry Ben" Ren spoke in a more understanding tone to Ben, as not only he didn't want to destroy the kid morally but also because he did try playing as a shielder in a alternative account just to challenge himself, he saw the strengths and weakness of the classe but that only confirmed what he already knew
"So what if it was bad in your games? The shield could be different here!" Ben argued as that was an insane assumption to make, just because something was bad in a game didn't mean it was bad in real life, especially if it was attached to an awesome kid like him
"Man, I know you're a kid but stop whining, you're the weak and useless guy in our group of heroes, just deal with it. No need to be a baby" Motoyasu said as he pointed at Ben with a more annoyed expression, tired of the kid as he couldn't just accept that he was useless, that honestly why he hated shielders so much because they were a bunch of weakling that only knew how to say they weren't useless only to later complain about how weak they were
"I'll show you! Tomorrow I'm going out and defeat a dozen dragons in a blitz!" Ben said as he stormed out of the room and slammed the door as hard as he could as he went into one of the other rooms in the hall
"Good going Motoyasu, thanks to your attitude, the kid is going to try proving himself and end up hurt or worst" Itsuki reprimanded the spear hero, he knew that Motoyasu was saying the truth but he didn't need to be this rude to a literal child
"... I'm going to talk with him, unless you wanna apologize Motoyasu?" Ren asked as he looked at the spear hero, who responded by waving Ren away, the sword hero sighed as he walked to the door and exited the room, walking and opening every door in the hallway until finally finding the room Ben was in
"Go away" Ben's muffled voice said as he laid his head against a pillow as he laid in a king-sized bed, despite the boy's wishes, Ren allowed himself in and sat in the side of the bed
"Look, what Motoyasu said was extremely exaggerated, but a part of it was true, you're the most different between all of us" Ren said as he looked at the boy, who just turned around to look at the other side of the room as he covered his ears with the pillow, not wanting to hear Ren anymore "And that's a good thing."
"You're the guy who makes sure no one dies, you avoid that people get killed or hurt by the monsters, blocking blows, setting barriers and healing the injured, an unmovable fortress that protects the innocent while empowering everyone around you, a role in the sidelines can still save lives" Ren said to him as he placed a hand in his shoulder as Ben turned around to look at him, a more surprised and hopeful expression on his face
"So I'm not useless right? I can a be a hero too?" Ben asked as Ren gave him a reassuring nod as he pat his head, getting up from the bed and moving towards the door
"You can be a super hero, Ben. As long as you believe in yourself and do what's right" Ren said a he exited the room, Ben was left speechless as he stared at the door, thinking how awesome Ren was as he practically told Ben what he imagined the hero Yshiama from his favorite video game and the characters from the comic books he read would say in this situation. The boy practically jumped in bed from excitement before spraying himself all over it, thinking how he could pay Ren back for his kind words
Ben woke up the next morning when the sun shined in his face through his window, he stretches for a bit before getting up as he walked out of the room
"Hello! Anybody up?" Ben asked as he went to the other rooms were the other heroes were supposed to be sleeping but found no one inside, he scratched the side of his head wondering where they could be. The sound of steps caught his attention as he saw a maid walk pass in the corridor carrying a bunch of cloths
"Hey! Do you know where the other heroes are? They weren't in the rooms" Ben shouted as he came towards the maid, who was startled and almost dropped the cloths, as she turned around to look who bothered her, she looked down to see that it was the shield hero, which surprised her again
"Shield hero! What are you doing here? The other heroes already went to receive their party members and funding from the king" the maid explained to the boy, as Ben looked eye wide at her before slapping his own forehead
"Oh man! I overslept!" Ben said as he started to run through the castle trying to find where the king and the other heroes were. Eventually arriving in way back to that large throne room from yesterday, just as the king and some servants seemed to be ready to leave the room
"I'm here! I'm here!" Ben said as he supported himself on his legs while trying to catch some air
"Ah! Shield hero... You're here..." King Aultcray said in an unenthusiastic tone, his left eyelid twitching for a moment
"Sorry, nobody woke me up on time" Ben said as he approached the king as he looked around the room "So where are the others? And who's going to be on my team?"
"Ah yes, unfortunately all the volunteers have already joined the other heroes and have gone ahead to adventure through the city and forest. Seems like you will have to find companions of your own" the king said as his face showed a expression of pity but his voice sounded content and pleased in a way
"But to alleviate some of your problems and help you in recruiting party members, I've separated this bag of 800 silver coins for you" the king said as he snapped a finger to a servant, who brought with her a bag, handling it to the kid
"Thanks I guess... What am I supposed to do now?" Ben asked the king, who seemed annoyed that he was still here, as he sighed before looking at the boy
"Go out of the city walls and into the fields, there will be low level monsters for you to fight there" the king suggested and Ben nodded enthusiastically
"Some action could cheer my mood, thanks mister king!" Ben said as he ran off while waving back at the king. After being guided by a knight out of the castle, Ben explored the city, looking around for any extraordinary stuff since he was in a different world, seeing some giant birds pulling carriages and people riding some velociraptor looking things, but the city was overall relatively normal but he bet that the outside would be more wild and interesting with the monsters
He received the city walls and was allowed passage through the gate after showing the guards his shield as a confirmation that he was a hero and not just some kid. As he walked into the open field outside the capital city, where he would be leveling up and were only weak monsters like Balloons roam around, Ben saw some movement from the tall grass and lifted up his shield in preparation for the monsters about to come out from it, as from the tall grass came out... A group of orange balls with sharp teeth and feral eyes, Ben's posture eases up and he lowers his shield as he looks at the fierce "monsters"
"Balloons? Seriously? Those things are as threatening as a football" Ben said grumbling as he looked at the monsters, he walked up to the balloons who immediately focused their attention on the boy. Ben yelped as four balloons jumped up at his arm and began to chomp on him.
"Aaaaah!" Ben yelled, shaking his arm as the balloons kept biting it. He couldn't really even feel it, but he was still panicking regardless. Eventually, Ben had shaken the balloons off his arm and backed away.
He started to kick at them, treating the monsters like they were soccer balls, knocking them into each other. He was quickly shown how much 1 attack did in this world.
In short words, not much. It had taken over 30 minutes for him to kill the four balloons, and he was out of breath as the last balloon popped from his 76th punch.
"Th-There has to be a faster way of doing this," Ben said as he put his hands on his knees. He looked at his arm with the watch and decided to study it, touching the face plate, activating the technological mechanism that surprised him completely...
It began to spark with pink electricity making Ben yelp. Suddenly a message popped up in his HUD
"Unknown device detected. Error."The message said as Ben swung the arm with the watch on it around. Suddenly, the sparking stopped and another message popped up on his HUD.
"Chaquetrix and legendary shield have synchronized" Ben read the notification out loud before It disappeared, he wondered what that meant. He touched the face plate again and a holographic interface in the shape of a heart was projected from the watch, he quickly observed the interface and saw that the top half had weird faces on it while the bottom half was a slightly darker pink and had nothing on it, he watched the strange faces rotate as he took of his finger from the face plate, making it to stop spinning in a face with what looked like a flame as its hair, face plate then slid open as a cylindrical core came out
He glances around the open field and woods as if he thought someone would be looking, It was when he pressed the dial down that everything changed...
The watch bathed him in a pink glow. His body received a shock and, in this, all his senses were triggered. He could feel the blood pumping throughout his body, hear and feel his organs working and even his brain experiencing the stimuli of such a sensation. When it was over, he was totally intrigued by what had happened... It had been an unsettling sensation indeed...
"Huh? Nothing happened?" He said as he turned around, Ben's eyes, frozen in absolute shock, settled on the figure in front of him. The first one...
The one that was etched in his mind from the minute he saw her with that ring with the symbol of the device on his wrist, incorporated around her left... Her eyes were pink as they brightly shined as he would ever believe in his life to have seen. Her entire skin was made of crystal, as her figure was like she was sculpted from a diamond block, having a more top heavy build and wider frame thanks to her muscular appearance, she had a outfit consisting of a sleeveless uniform that was black on the right half and white on the left with a black patch on the left shoulder where the watch symbol was.
"Whoa..." Was what Ben muttered in surprise as he looked at her
"Hello, master Ben" She said as she waved her arm at him, which surprised him immensely by her feminine tone, already noticeable when he noticed her figure, but no more so than when he saw her tilt her head to the side in doubt.
A figure composed of entirely out of diamonds, shinning as she was covered in sunlight as it outlined and shaped her stoic and powerful figure... But her figure and voice fully signaled that she was a woman, that was the least interesting thing about her... Ben then took a deep breath and sat down on the ground, as the diamond woman kept herself up, tilting her head slightly at seeing him so focused.
"What are you?" asks the boy to the surprise of the blinking creature, who blinked at normal Pace even though her eyelids were made of something as hard as diamonds. He is not shown to be fascinated at that.
"Hmm..." She evaluates with a hand on her chin, before she snapped her fingers "I am your follower, Master Tennyson. I am a Petrosapian warrior from the planet of Petropia." She explains in her understanding with a glance at the beautiful sky
"Planet you say? Are you an alien?!" He is again fascinated at such a revelation. She then rearranges herself and stretches her arms up to the sky, her palms hailing the vast infinite space before the boy.
"We are all aliens, Master Tennyson." She explains to him, which completely astounds him.
He looks at his watch, recognizing that the naturally pink symbol was now grey, being that the girl's symbol on her chest had the bright colors and watch symbol on it. His eyes widen at that surprise.
"Did you come from the watch?! Did I call you when I pressed it?!" he bellows again amazed as he jumps up from the ground and starts to circle around the woman of crystals "You look awesome!Strong! And powerful!"
The entity fidgets at the flattery, not quite sure why her core likes it so much, before she recomposed herself to a more stoic look. At this, it doesn't hesitate to respond. "That's right, Master Tenn-."
"Hey, stop that! Call me Ben! Everyone calls me that! And drop the formality! Let's be friends!" He explains confidently and excitedly to which she is surprised. The diamond woman looks back at the child between her discomfort at the familiarity and his obvious excitement and innocence at being treated both as equals.
"I'll try to do that Ben." She responded, resigning herself to her master's wishes
"Now let's pop some Balloons so we can gain exp and become stronger!" Ben said as he ran off towards more of the tall grass where monsters were sure to be hiding
"Right!" The Petrosapian woman said as she followed the boy, worried that he was gonna get hurt
The two engaged in battle against any monsters in their way, as the crystal woman fought them and Ben blocked some blows but mostly collect any vestiges of the battle of the Petrosapian warrior and absorbed the materials into his shield in the hopes of making it stronger
Ben watched the crystal woman fight, as she had turned her arms into larger spikes that she used like blades to slash the monsters to pieces, Ben could only find himself in awe as the diamond warrior moved gracefully while killing monsters almost like a dancer, she also would shoot out some diamond shards from her hands to deal with mobs that ran away, having a incredible ease to deal with the monsters of the area since her diamond skin made her so resistant that the hostile creatures couldn't actually hurt her.
As he stared at her, he realized that she didn't need him, she was doing well without him, Ben sat down with a saddened look, it wasn't like he could complain since he had a awesome teammate and he was gaining levels quick because of her, but he just wanted to be useful instead of just laying back and letting someone else do all the work
"Wish I could do more... She doesn't even need me to defend her" Ben mumbled as he looked at her go, he looked to the side and found the icon from the status screen but this time it had a pink exclamation mark that was jumping up and down
"Huh, what's this? A notification?" Ben asked himself as he opened the status screen, being received by a pink notification window
[You have unlocked the Petrosapian series of shields thanks to the synchronization feature between the chaquetrix and the legendary shield]
The notification closed and Ben took in the news as he saw that his status screen was different now, everything was now different shades of pink and it had a more futuristic look that was still easy for him to understand, he went to the [shields] tab and opened it, as he saw a huge web of shields for him to unlock, but he focused on the one that he was notified of, he thought of the name Petrosapian and the web moved to a different that contained an entire in interconnect series of shields, as he focused on the first one
[Petrosapian shield 1]
Defense 50
[Ability: hands of petropia: when this shield is equipped, encases your hands in diamond gauntlets that are twice as strong and tough as normal]
[Skill: Crystal Pillar: create a pillar made of crystals that can be used as a barrier or as a means of elevation]
"Way past cool!" Ben said as he equipped the shield, it was about three times bigger than the base shield form he had and was made of the same material as the diamond woman, Ben also noticed that his hands were encased in the same diamond material, his fingers moved normal if not a bit slow, he looks around for any monsters to test out the shield and especially the gloves, he sees that a balloon was nibbling on his back and he didn't even had felt it for how long that thing had been biting him. He picked it up with one hand and punched it with another, and to his delight the rubbery creature actually pop!
"Haha! Now I can do some punching too!" Ben said exhilarated as he ran up to where the diamond woman was and started to fight alongside her, as she couldn't help but smile at seeing the young hero so happy as he fought a big round rabbit. After a few minutes, the two rested a bit on the ground, as Ben looked at all the defeat creatures they beat and the levels he gained
"This is great! With you by my side, we can take on anything!" Ben said confidently as he re-equipped the basic small shield since the diamond gauntlets of the Petrosapian shield were starting to bother him since they were a bit heavy. Suddenly the watch symbol in the left chest of the Petrosapian woman started to beep and the pink hourglass turned red
"Why is it beeping?" Ben asked as he looked at his diamond companion watch symbol
"Oh, that means I'm going to time out, we only get 10 minutes to-" before she could finish explaining, she disappeared in a massive explosion of red light as Ben shielded his eyes, when the light died down, he opened his eyes to see his companion gone without a trace, he looked at the watch and saw that it was the heart shaped hourglass of the watch was now red, symbolizing that it was in recharge
"Ah Man, this thing has a time limit?" Ben complained as he looked at the watch, why would something so awesome have a time limit, he wondered if it was suppose to be some sort of balancing since it summoned really strong companions
"At least I went up a bunch of levels" Ben commented as he saw his levels, getting from 1 to 7 in a ten minutes was a good progress for his first day, it was then that he saw someone approaching him, it was Ren
"Oh, hey Ren" Ben complimented as he waved at the teenage, as Ren was looking around the area before focusing his eyes on Ben
"Was that big flash of red your doing? I was grinding close by when I saw it" he asked as he tried to see something that could have caused something so eye catching, wondering if Ben had tried to use some type of firework shield to damage the mobs
"It was just me being awesome, nothing new" Ben said
"Does it has something to do with the bunch of monsters dead on the grass? What type of shield did you get in your first day to do this?" Ren asked, wondering what type of shield Ben could have unlocked, he still believed in the possibility of a firework shield idea but the lack of burned grass indicated the opposite, and the wounds seemed either from cuts or something piercing them, he was betting on a iron nails shield
"This one" Ben says as he changes the small shield he had equipped into the petrosapian shield, surprising the Sword hero "It's super tuff and covers my hands with diamond gauntlets that are good for punching!"
"Damn, what did you absorb to get it?" Ren asked as he stared at the shield and gauntlets as he wondered if he got that through some sort of material gacha he didn't know
"These rocks" Ben says as he takes the rocks he got from the Petrosapian woman from his pocket he collected as she fought, he looked up at Ren and saw that he was almost salivating with his eyes at the rocks
"Want one?" He said as he shook his hand with the rocks while looking at Ren very smug. Ren looked away a bit embarrassed , the kid got him, he really wanted those shards, all he wanted to do is just grab that from his hands but now that Ben knew he wanted them, he was definitely going to ask for something in return
"... Yes... How much for one?" Ren said as he was willing to see what Ben would want in exchange for the material, if it was money then Ren would just grab the things by force, if it was just information about some basic stuff then he would gladly help the kid since he was definitely still a noob at how this world worked
"Since you were nice to me yesterday, this one is in the house" Ben said as he tossed one to Ren, the teen grabbed it from the air and glanced at it in disbelief, he had gotten a rare material he never saw before just because he was nice? That would leave him baffled if he didn't know that he received from a child, as the American boy was so innocent, any adults or teenagers would want to hoard or sell this item, he was sure that Itsuki or Motoyasu would never share this, heck, he would never give something away without wanting something in return
He looked at Ben and then back at the crystal before placing it on the gem of his sword, as it absorbed the crystal, Ren immediately equipped the new sword form, seeing it was more like a great sword than a normal one due to its size and length being almost the same as his entire body as he then saw that his hands were now encased by crystal gloves that didn't seem to stiffen his finger movements but were a bit heavy, he opened a status window to look at the sword stats, being quite surprised by the high defense equip bonus and its two abilities, a passive one that encased his hands in "diamond gauntlets" that were two times tougher and stronger than his normal hands so he could use the heavy Sword more easily and a skill that allowed him to make a line of diamond spikes emerge out of the ground if he struck it with the sword
"Let's keep this a secret between us two, okay?" Ren said as he didn't want Itsuki and Motoyasu to know about this until maybe a later date, having a leg up against them would definitely be helpful as all the three were in a race to become the strongest and best Hero, making them sort of rivals
"Especially from that jerk Motoyasu!" Ben said as he and Ren shook diamond covered hands in agreement to keep this a secret exchange between the two
After grinding some more with the Petrosapian shield, Ben came back into town after finally thinking he had enough for the day, especially after absorbing all the monsters he and the diamond woman defeated, getting him a bunch of shield forms he wanted to try it out later. As Ben was walking through the streets of the capital city, he was suddenly grabbed and pulled into a alleyway before being thrown to the ground, he looked up from the floor to see three men, one of them with a bandana looking at him with crooked smiles
"Well, well, well! When they said the shield hero was a kid they weren't kidding!" The crook with a bandana, probably the leader of this trio of scoundrels, spoke to Ben as he smirked
"Yeah, young like a toddler!" A chubbier thug said as he mocked Ben
"What do you guys want?!" Ben asked as he got up, looking at the thugs angrily
"Isn't it obvious? The king gave you heroes lots of money, aye. And since you're just a kid with no party members, robbing you will be easy!" A thug with a very noticeable over bite proclaimed
"Hmm! And everyone knows the shield has rat piss damage! And whatever defense you have won't be enough to handle a high level bunch like us" the chubbier thug complimented to his fellow crook reply
"So gives everything and maybe we won't stab you" the leader said as he spun a knife in his hands, a flashy demonstration that served is job to scare the boy
B-b-back off" Ben said stuttering as he walked back away from them, hitting the wall of the alleyway, as the crooks approached
"What was that?" The leader asked jokingly as he placed a hand to his ear as if to hear better
"I said… back off!" Ben said as he mustered up all his courage as he stared the group of crooks more stoically. As the gang of thieves just laughed at him
"Looks like kid has the guts after all. What are you going to do about it?" One of them asked. Ben brought out his left arm. Knowing that this wasn't like the times he would get bullied by J.T and Cash. He could do something, he wasn't going to be a victim, because now he had friends on his back and call
"Nothing, just this." Ben popped the face plate of the Omnitrix and slammed down on the core, blinding the men in a flash of pink light. The men blocked their eyes and when the light cleared, in front of the boy was a 15 feet tall woman with well-developed muscles, two pairs of four-fingered arms, and red skin. In her face was four golden eyes: a main pair and a smaller pair below them, while she lacked a nose, her head sported short black hair and a golden circlet. She wore a black armored outfit decorated with gold details and accessories like golden wrist and ankle bands
"So... What's the deal here, Benjamin?" She asked him as she snapped her finger knuckles while looking back at the young boy behind her
"Those jerks are trying to rob me, think you can teach them a lesson?" Ben said as he looked at her before looking back at the robbers with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face
"Ha! I can do that, with two arms tied behind my back..." The four armed woman said as she looked at the men and smiled, before they could run away she grabbed two of them with her upper set of arms and grabbed the leader with her lower set, she bashed the heads of the two thugs, knocking them out as she threw them away into the air a fair distance, she looked down at the leader of the robbers and threw him in up and kicked him out of the alleyway and into a carriage full of cabbages "All done! Told it would be easy"
"Thanks... Huh, what's your name?" Ben asked as he looked up at her, remembering that he also didn't asked the diamond woman for her name
"I don't really have one, I'm just a tetramand from planet Khoros, call me what you want" the massive woman explained as she shrugged her shoulders
"Let's see... How about Tetra? That works, right?" Ben asked and the tetramand woman thought about it for a moment before giving a thumbs up with her upper set of arms
"Fine by me, what are we going to do now, shall we go and find more ruffians to crush?" Tetra said as she slammed her four arms together at the same time, ready to kick more butt
"It's kind of getting late, I was thinking of getting to some place to eat and sleep" Ben said as he looked up at the darkening skies, knowing that night drew closer, wanting to find a place to stay and eat before it was too late
"Then we shall find such place!" Tetra said as she picked Ben up and placed him in her left shoulder as the two walked out of the dark alley, getting some shocked gasps and weird looks from the people on the street as they looked at Tetra, they walked for a bit before stopping by a inn to eat some food. Ben got the two of them a hot meal and a room to sleep, the owner would have charged him for all of his money if Tetra wasn't there scaring the hairs out of him. They enjoyed the food until the watch symbol began beeping, as Tetra shoved down as much food she could in her mouth before the watch timed out and she disappeared. Having finish his meal and seeing the way people were looking at him after Tetra disappeared in a flash of red light, he decided to retire himself to his quarters and sleep.
At the dawn of midnight, as Ben slept peacefully in bed, a dark shade in a human shape falls from the ceiling. The figure was dressed in what could be described as a ninja outfit, It took out a short blade from the handle in its waist and prepared to cut Ben's throat to kill him after watching him summon those creature that they could only compare to demons. As the the blade was about to touch his throat, the body of the ninja stopped moving, and pulled back the blade
"I can't let you do that..." A ghostly, almost whispering voice said inside the ninja's head, if someone was able to see under the mask of the ninja, they would be able to notice that the eyes of the person were now black with a purple iris, symbolizing that their body was now possessed by the ghostly alien, Zs'Skayr
"This human... The warden that bears my prison..." Zs'Skayr said as it looked at the sleeping Ben through the eyes of the ninja, feeling a variety of confusing emotions
"Even though I despise my current predicament and the conflicting feelings I feel..." She said as she forced the ninja to grab its head with both hands, before making it slowly start rotating it around, until the point were it couldn't turn anymore, pushing it slowly beyond the ninja's neck limit until it cracked, Zs'Skayr came out of the now dead body, holding it by the arm pits so it couldn't fall on the floor and make a sound to wake Ben
"None shall harm him other than me..." Zs'Skayr said as she dragged the corpse closer to Ben, gently grabbing his arm with the shield and pulling it out of the bed, as she then placed the head of the dead body against the gem in the middle of the shield, as the ninja was absorved by its entirety, leaving no trace of it behind, Zs'Skayr spent the rest of her ten minutes watching Ben in his sleep like a twisted guardian angel
[Author's notes]
This is for my knowledge the first crossover fanfiction between the Chaquetrix Ben 10 AU and any sort of media
Had the idea after re-reading an "Ten out of ten shield hero" while the Chaquetrix was still fresh in my mind from all the fan art I saw online. Realizing it could actually work in the setting of shield hero
For those who aren't on the Ben 10 fandom, especially in the past few months, the Chaquetrix is a AU where the Omnitrix creates and summons adult aliens that are hybrids with the user's species so they're more compatible, with the main objective of the watch being to bring back extinct species through reproduction since azmuth in this universe was a "man of culture"
The summoned alien hybrids are weaker compared to non-hybrids members of the species, which kind of makes them work in the shield hero world since they won't be able to steam roll the threats, especially XLR8 and Ghostfreak
The watch has a major defect, which is that the aliens it summons don't know their purpose and misunderstand what the feelings they have for the user are, interpreting them as bonds of deep friendship and or even familiar love (motherly drive to protect or an older sister care for a younger brother)
Went with kid Ben to avoid making this a harem, I thought about using teenage Ben but then he would be a target for the many female characters that get reduced to members of the harem, and he already has the Chaquetrix which would add even more harem girls! Plus I think it is more fun to follow Ben trying to learn how to be a hero and use both the watch and shield, plus it allows characters to interact and see him in a different way
I went with the definitive Omnitrix look because it's my second favorite design and it was the least suspicious for the other heroes to not immediately go "What's that bizarre thing on your arm?".
It also allows them to see him in a different light once they discover his secret, as I feel that Ren and Itsuki would probably not feel that jealous or envious of Ben for having a way to summon teammates compared to the classic Omnitrix function of turning you into a alien with extraordinary abilities that put a human to shame. Motoyasu though...
The legendary shield identified the Chaquetrix as a useful tool since it could create powerful party members, so it messed with the Chaquetrix's systems, causing the aliens it summons to be automatic register as Ben's party members but also giving them the new purpose of being his loyal companions that will fight to the very end for his sake
I'm thinking about making the shields unlocked from the aliens have hybridization as their main gimmick, have the user gain or have a part of their body transformed to match the alien shield, examples being: Heatblast arms, Stinkfly wings, XLR8 legs and so on, these hybrid parts are extremely weak compared to a actual member of the species so don't expect Tetramand levels of strength or Pyronites level of fire controller
Due to Ghostfreak's species being able to maintain their consciousness even in a single strain of DNA, Zs'Skayr mind lives through the ectonurite summon, but because of how the watch affects the minds of the aliens, he is stuck in a duality, wanting to spread darkness and chaos but worrying more for Ben's sake than world domination