Chapter 2: New World, New Ben
Reboot Ben just stood in front of his counterpart in awe. But then again, who wouldn't be when they see their counterpart from another dimension.
"Woah, you're me, but older! But you're some other guy! You're me from another dimension!" Was all Reboot Ben could say as he stared at Prime Ben.
"Ben!" A voice was heard, and it was Reboot Gwen.
"Ben, don't do anything risky like that unless-" Gwen said before noticing the other Ben. "Ben, who is this?" Gwen asked Reboot Ben. As Prime Ben prepared for the two to start bickering like he and Prime Gwen did when they were kids.
"Gwen, meet Ben. Ben, meet Gwen. Or have you two already met?" Reboot Ben said.
"You met someone with the same name as you?" Gwen asked.
"No," Prime Ben corrected, "Well, yes… sort of. We don't just have the same name, we're the same person, just from parallel universes."
"Wait, what! You're from a parallel universe! I thought those were just a theory!" Gwen exclaimed in shock.
"Nope, they're real. In fact, I have experience with them," Prime Ben shrugged. "Alternate dimensions, alternate timelines, pocket dimensions, they all just blend in together after some time. And I would be hyped if I saw an alternate version of someone that I know for the first time but calm down."
Gwen did as Ben asked and took a few deep breaths.
"Hang on, let me introduce you guys to my friends," Prime Ben said as he walked in the direction of the Proto-TRUK.
"I'm surprised that you two haven't started bickering yet," Prime Ben said.
"What do you mean," Reboot Ben confusingly asked.
"When me and my Gwen were your ages, we didn't get along very well. We've had a few occasions where we agreed, but we more often than not fought with each other," Prime Ben explained, "we get along now, but we didn't do so as kids."
"I don't believe what you're saying," Reboot Ben said in a shocked tone.
"How come you guys never got along?" Gwen asked.
"I don't remember, maybe because we had different opinions than each other," Prime Ben answered.
"That never caused me and my Gwen to fight," Reboot Ben bragged.
"Technically it has, but only on rare occasions not 24/7," Gwen corrected.
"Okay fair," Reboot Ben said in a slightly annoyed tone.
"By the way, nice hoodie," Gwen complemented Prime Ben.
"Thanks, I think it suits me," Prime Ben responded.
Meanwhile
Rook was scanning the area to try to create a digital map for navigation. Gwen was reading a book. Kevin was working on his car, with Zed close to him.
"Hey guys, you'll never believe what I came across," Prime Ben said.
"What did you come across?" Prime Gwen asked.
"I'd like you guys to meet a couple of kids of this universe that I think that you will be familiar with," Prime Ben said, signaling Reboot Ben and Gwen to come out of the bushes and greet everyone.
"An unexpected turn of events, but not a foreseeable one," Rook said.
"Ben Tennyson, I don't think I've seen you before. Well… this universe's version of you I mean," Reboot Ben greeted Rook.
"My name is Rook Blonko. Me and our universe's Ben are partners," Rook stated.
"Partners? With a cool-looking alien?" Reboot Ben asked, "Awesome!"
"Hello Gwen… other me… sorry what do I call you?" Reboot Gwen greeted her counterpart awkwardly.
"Gwendolyn, call me Gwendolyn. Been going by that name since college," Prime Gwen greeted.
"College? Was it Ivy League?" Reboot Gwen enthusiastically asked.
"Yep," Prime Gwen answered.
"I think you've already met Zed," Prime Ben said, resulting in a bark from Zed as a greeting.
"Is he your dog?" Reboot Ben asked.
"No," Prime Ben answered, "He actually belongs to my friend Kev-"
"Done with that oil change," Kevin said, unintentionally cutting off Prime Ben, as he got out from under his car.
"Kevin!" Reboot Ben exclaimed, shocked to see the other version of his rival, and unaware he was on their side. Reboot Ben slammed on his Omnitrix to transform. He became a humanoid alien that is approximately twelve feet tall, has well developed muscles, two pairs of arms with four-fingered hands, red skin, and no hair. A black stripe goes from his chin to his lower lip, and he has four green eyes: a main pair, and a smaller pair below them. He wears a white T-shirt with a black line going down it, black pants, and gloves. The Omnitrix symbol is located on his chest. This alien was Four Arms.
"I'm not letting you sneak attack my other self Levin," Reboot Ben said, charging at Kevin.
"Sneak attack? Wait, Ben don't-" Prime Ben tried to explain to his counterpart that his Kevin was a friend, only to be ignored.
Four Arms tried to smash Kevin, only for Kevin to jump out of the way. Four Arms then lifted the car.
"Dude! No! Do not throw the car! Put the car down!" Kevin said in dismay.
Four Arms ignored Kevin and threw the car at him anyway. Kevin dodged the attack, but was not very happy about his car being thrown, despite having modified it to be virtually indestructible.
"Come on, that's like four coats of paint," Kevin said.
Kevin touched his car to absorb the metal on it right before Four Arms hit him, hurting his own hands in the process.
"Ow, since when can you do that?" Four Arms asked, going for another hit, only to be restrained by Prime Ben, who was now a humanoid alien that is approximately twelve feet tall(but slightly taller than Reboot Four Arms), has well-developed muscles, two pairs of four-fingered arms, red skin, a black stripe goes from his chin to his lower lip, three short spikes on the top of his head, a mustache-like design, a second set of pectorals, no hair, and four green eyes: a main pair, and a smaller pair below them. He wears a black tank top-like shirt with one large green stripe in the middle, black pants, a belt where the Omnitrix symbol is located, and fingerless gloves with green cuffs at the wrists. This was Prime Ben's version of Four Arms.
"Ben, enough. Kevin is not an enemy. In fact, where I come from, he's one of my friends," Prime Ben explained.
"Wait, he is?" Reboot Ben asked.
"Yeah, it's been that way for over a year," Prime Ben said.
Prime Ben let go of Reboot Ben now that he knew what was going on.
"Sorry," Reboot Ben said to Kevin, "My Kevin is just a powerful enemy, and I thought, you know, maybe you might be too. No hard feelings though, right?"
Reboot Ben, as Four Arms, then received a metallic smack in the face from Kevin.
"Not anymore," Kevin said.
"Okay, I deserved that," Reboot Ben said before returning to normal.
After getting to know everyone Reboot Ben and Reboot Gwen showed everyone the way back to their campsite where the Rustbucket was. Max was still busy trying to light the campfire, so far unsuccessfully, until it finally caught fire.
"Yes! Two hours and ten minutes! New record!" Max exclaimed with pride.
Suddenly a gust of wind blew out the fire.
"I'm still counting that," Max said in an annoyed tone.
"Hey Grandpa," Reboot Gwen greeted.
"Hey kids, how's it going," Max greeted back before noticing the company they brought with them. "Who are your friends?" Max asked.
"They are from another dimension, I think you know three of them," Reboot Ben said, "and don't get startled by one of those three."
Max looked at three of them and deduced that they were Ben, Gwen, and Kevin, "I recognize Ben, Gwen, and Kevin, but I don't know him or the dog," Max said pointing to Rook and Zed.
"This is Kevin's pet, Zed. My name Rook Blonko, Sir," Rook said, extending his hand for a handshake, which Max gave.
After everyone got to know each other, everyone was talking to each other. The two Bens were at a bench table talking about their two worlds with Rook getting in on the conversation, Reboot Gwen was listening to everything her counterpart was telling her about college, and her Anodite physiology, and Kevin and Max were talking about other things.
"So other me, have you been to other planets?" Reboot Ben asked.
"Yeah, it's part of the job," Prime Ben explained.
"Yeah, I bet being a full time superhero is the coolest job ever," Reboot Ben said.
"Actually, it's just a bonus," Prime Ben explained.
"Indeed. We are however full time plumbers," Rook stated.
"Seriously, you guys fix people's toilets?" Reboot Ben asked in a disappointed tone.
"No," Prime Ben explained, "In our universe, there are two types of plumbers. The kind you were thinking of, and the kind we are."
"Plumbers is a codename for an intergalactic peace-keeping, law-enforcement organization," Rook finished.
"You two are space cops!?" Reboot Ben asked, regaining his enthusiasm.
Prime Ben had to admit that he admired the enthusiastic attention that he was getting from this kid, even if it was just another version of himself. Meanwhile, Reboot Ben was full of questions and wanted answers.
"Do you have a superhero nickname?" Reboot Ben asked his Prime counterpart.
"Yes, it's Ben 10," Prime Ben answered.
"That actually sounds reasonable, it's because you can turn into ten aliens like me right?" Reboot Ben asked.
"No, it's because I just started out with ten, now I've unlocked over seventy," Prime Ben explained.
"What!? Over seventy?" Reboot Ben asked.
"Yep, and counting. Though Azmuth, the creator of the Omnitrix, claims that there are over a million species of aliens in this thing," Prime Ben boasted.
"Lucky," Reboot Ben said.
"Don't worry," Prime Ben said, "I'm pretty sure you'll unlock over seventy aliens."
"Doubt it," Reboot Ben said, "at least not without giving up some of them."
"What do you mean younger alternate Ben?" Rook asked.
"Whenever I unlock a new alien, it replaces one of the aliens in my active playlist, leaving me stuck at just ten," Reboot Ben explained.
"That can't be possible," Prime Ben stated, "Let me take a look."
And with that, he pressed down on his Omnitrix and transformed. He was now a grey-skinned, frog-like, bipedal alien that is only four inches tall with large green eyes, which have rectangular pupils and horizontal eyelids. He wore a green jumpsuit with a black belt and a black suit collar, and black, fingerless gloves with a green rectangle on the back, and had the Omnitrix symbol on his back. This alien was known as Grey Matter.
Prime Ben, as Grey Matter, told his Reboot self to put his left arm on the table to let him investigate his Omnitrix. Grey Matter opened up the Omnitrix and took a look at the circuitry.
"Hmmm… so it is true," Grey Matter said. He then proceeded to investigate and rewire the circuitry.
"Let's see… if I recalibrate the DNA modulator… optimise the DNA data storage… cross this stabilizer over to here… hmmm…" Grey Matter said as he kept tinkering, "I think I might have an epiphany to the reason behind the DNA limiter, and a way to disable it. I'm gonna need a double-A battery, a paper clip, and a rubber band."
Meanwhile, Reboot Gwen wanted to know more about her Prime counterpart's life because she thought that college was a privilege and wanted to know more about her counterpart's experience in college.
"So, what was it like in college? What classes did they teach? What were your peers' first reactions to you being related to a superhero? Were you popular in college? Did you ever join in on the fights with Ben against evil villains?" Reboot Gwen kept asked, just filled with questions.
"Slow down, your questions are coming a little bit fast don't you think?" Prime Gwen said.
"Sorry," Reboot Gwen said.
"But if you must know, college was a real experience, and I made a lot of memories from it. Some good, some not so much. But that won't matter. I'm not sure how different your college experience will be from mine, but I hope it will be great." Prime Gwen said, receiving an excited silent squeal from her Reboot counterpart. "And yes I do help Ben in fights."
"Wait, in fights? I thought that you just worked behind the scenes for things like telling Ben about the bad guy, or investigating things," Reboot Gwen remarked.
"I do that too, I just also help him fight them. I always have a good spell for most occasions," Prime Gwen said.
"Spell? Wait, you know magic!?" Reboot Gwen asked with stars in her eyes.
"Yes," Prime Gwen said, "My Anodite physiology helps."
"Can I see a magic trick?!" Reboot Gwen asked.
"Well…" Prime Gwen was unsure of the situation.
"Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaase?" Reboot Gwen asked, giving her counterpart a pair of puppy eyes.
"Okay, I'll do it," Prime Gwen said, receiving a little "Yay" from her alternate version.
Prime Gwen used her mana powers to levitate a few rocks and leaves. She then twirled them between her hands in an infinity shape. She then caused them to disappear. They then fell from a small portal between her hands.
"Woah," Reboot Gwen said in awe, "Can you do another one?"
Kevin and Max were having a discussion themselves.
"I had suspicions that our Kevin would eventually turn a new leaf, I just didn't think he actually would in other universes," Max remarked.
"It comes with companionship, and boredom of being a crook," Kevin stated.
"Nice car you got there," Max said.
"Thanks, from blood, sweat, and tears I, with the help of Rook, managed to make a car that was indestructible by any of my Ben's aliens, or any force in the galaxy. It has survived at least forty beatings. If only I made it that way before the first fifty." Kevin said.
Meanwhile with the Bens and Rook
"Alright… just tweak this here… rearrange that… and… done," Grey Matter said before closing up the Omnitrix.
Reboot Ben scrolled through his Omnitrix only to find the ten aliens that he had before: Four Arms, Heatblast, XLR8, Diamondhead, Cannonbolt, Shock Rock, Humongousaur, Rath, Slapback, Stinkfly… wait… there was also Upgrade, Grey Matter, Overflow, and Wildvine.
"Hey, awesome. I got all my aliens back, and I haven't lost any," Reboot Ben said.
"Yes, I rewired your Omnitrix's DNA limit to infinity, just like mine, it can also scan new alien species to gain their DNA, adding it as a transformation," Grey Matter said, "I also took the liberty of adding another one," Grey Matter shifted the dial to a new silhouette, and jumped on the Omnitrix, transforming Reboot Ben. Reboot Ben was now a red, humanoid manta ray-like alien with green eyes, black outlines on his face, orange horns extending from his nose, gills underneath his arms, yellow patagia, black wristbands, and two black stripes with a yellow outline coming down from his shoulders to the Omnitrix symbol on his chest.
"Woah, new alien!" Reboot Ben said in his new state.
"Yep, this is an alien of mine that I like to call 'Jetray'," Grey Matter said.
"What can he do?" Jetray asked.
"He can fly, shoot neuroshock blasts from his eyes and tail, and survive in space," Grey Matter said.
"Cool," Jetray said, "How'd you get rid of the limiter and add the scanner?"
"Well, I calculated the probable reasons as to why your Omnitrix has a DNA limiter, and analyzed the circuitry to see if it matched my theories. I then used my knowledge of all of my Omnitrix's components and codes and all of your Omnitrix's components and codes to find differences between both sets and-" Grey Matter stopped talking when he had just noticed that Jetray had left and was currently flying in the sky and most likely didn't hear most of the explanation. Grey Matter turned back into Prime Ben.
Ben sighed. "Don't ask if you're not really curious," Ben said in an annoyed tone. Rook patted Ben on the back 'there-there-ing' him. "Yeah, I really regret teaching you that," Ben said.
"Oh hey, forgot to ask, can you flash me some of your aliens for me to see what I might be capable of," Reboot Ben asked, turning back to normal.
"Okay, let me just try to dial in a good one," Prime Ben said.
He then pressed on the Omnitrix and transformed. He now resembled a gorilla made out of building blocks. He has three main colors, which are red, blue and yellow, with black lines all over his body. He is mostly red and yellow with some spots of blue. He had the Omnitrix symbol located on his chest.
"Woah, a building block alien?" Reboot Ben guessed.
"Yep," Prime Ben said, "I call this one 'Bloxx'. Not very creative, I know, but it is quite accurate."
"What can he do?" Reboot Ben asked.
"Here's a demonstration," Bloxx said as he expanded his body, with the sound of building blocks being heard as he shapeshifted. He turned into a huge castle with turrets, towers, walls, and a drawbridge.
"Wow," Reboot Ben said in awe, "Gwen, check out what Other Me's alien can do."
Reboot Gwen went over to her cousin and noticed the castle.
"Wow, he made that?" Gwen asked.
"He is that," Ben answered.
"Is it solid?" Gwen asked. She knocked on the drawbridge causing Bloxx's face to fold out.
"Yep, sturdy as concrete," Bloxx answered, "just as long as I concentrate. I once managed to hold up during atmospheric reentry though."
"Can we see inside?" Reboot Ben asked.
"Nothing to see inside, but sure go for it," Bloxx said.
The two cousins were about to enter only to be stopped by a hand that grew out of the wall.
"Hold on, no shoes though," Bloxx said.
A few minutes later
Both Bens set up soccer nets on both sides of a small field area. Prime Ben told Reboot Ben to turn into an alien that can clone itself, so Reboot Ben turned into an alien with the appearance of a green humanoid frog with grey metallic eyebrows and green eyes. He wears a blue, black, and white jumpsuit covering all except for his arms and feet, as well as a grey and black mask, and has the Omnitrix symbol on his back. This alien was called Slapback. Slapback split into four copies and each copy took position.
"Do you need a team Other Ben?" Reboot Gwen asked.
"No," Prime Ben said, "I got an alien to make a team."
He slammed on his Omnitrix and turned into an alien that was about the height of an average human child. He has white skin, a black and white head and face, black shoulders, large hands with four digits, green eyes with black markings under them, feet which are merely stubs, three green fin-like growths on his head of which two of them were connected to his eyes, and gem-like extended sensory nodes on his hands, shoulders and a black belt on the waist. He has two small whiskers on each of his cheeks, He wears a green jumpsuit with black patches under his arms, green sleeves, and black ankles, with his neck being completely black and the feet being cut off to reveal three cat-like toes on each foot. He has the Omnitrix symbol on his forehead. This alien is known as Ditto.
"Awww! He looks so cute," Reboot Gwen squealed.
"Yeah, I get that a lot as Ditto," Ditto said, scratching the back of his head, "Looks like a fair game though."
"You're going to go against us alone, all by yourself?" One of the Slapbacks asked.
"By myself? Yes. Alone?" Ditto then split into two copies.
"Not so much," one of the Dittos said.
"I got my partner here," another one said pointing at the other Ditto.
The Dittos then split into two more copies, making a total of four Dittos.
"Oh and those guys too," one of the Dittos said.
"Ditto can clone himself like us?" One of the Slapbacks asked.
"Yep, indefinitely. But four seems like enough," one of the Dittos said.
One of the Dittos made a fifth Ditto, who acted as the judge.
"Alright everyone, I want a clean match. So no whining, screaming, cheating, or tap outs. I'm looking at you buster." The fifth Ditto said, alerting one of the other Dittos.
"Alright game on!" The fifth Ditto announced.
Even later
A couple of blue blurs were speeding around the area, both blurs were racing against each other at the speed of sound. After a while, both blurs went speeding towards the campsite. One blur arrived first, slowing down, revealing itself as Prime Ben's XLR8. The other blur arrived shortly after, slowing down and revealing itself to be an alien resembling a semi-armored Velociraptor. He has grey roller balls on his feet and wears a black conoid helmet. He has predominantly blue skin with bulging green eyes, black lips, and black stripes extending from his eyelids, two grey fins on his back, a long striped blue and black tail. His elbows and legs are sharply pointed, and he has 2 claw-like fingers on each of his hands. He is dressed in black pants and turtleneck shirt with a blue stripe on the center. He wears the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. This was Reboot Ben's XLR8.
"Where were you two?" Kevin asked.
"Out doing a science experiment," Prime XLR8 said.
"Yeah, we were trying to see whose XLR8 was faster," Reboot XLR8 said, "So far, it's his."
"I assume that it's experience," Prime XLR8 said.
"Now let's-" Prime XLR8 was cut off when everyone heard an explosion in the distance.
"That can't be good," Reboot XLR8 said.
"We should go check it out," Prime XLR8 said.
"Race you there," Reboot XLR8 said, speeding off.
"Oh, it is on," Prime XLR8 responded.
To be continued…