Chapter 1. All Aboard

"She's a beaut, ain't she?"

"Eh. I've seen cooler."

Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, AKA Ben 10, yawned and stretched out his arms. He'd be lying if he thought it still wasn't a dazzling feat of human engineering, but appearances were appearances and had to be maintained, afterall. Especially now. Especially after that showy stunt of supremacy Fury pulled in Bellwood. Especially in such present company so esteemed that even though he didn't show it outwardly, would have left the sweat glands in his brain going into overdrive if he possessed the bizarre biology necessary for that to happen.

What else does one do when Spider-Man, THE SPIDER-MAN, asks you a question–even if it was with a put on, over the top southern accent–but play it cool as a cucumber stuck at the center of a glacier in the antarctic?

SHIELD's Tricarrier was cool, but not enough to make Ben lose his cool.

Even if he really really REALLY wanted to break down and beg Spidey for his autograph!

Seriously!

He was so cool!

The coolest!

Just being there in Spider-Man's presence, Ben felt like the cool was radiating off of him and making himself cooler by the–

"Whoa, Benji! Take it easy! If you scream any louder, you'll wake up Zabu here! And believe you me, you DO NOT want to be the first thing a ferocious smilodon from the land before time sees when it wakes up cranky! Personal experience."

"If by personal experience, you meant the fact that he tried to use your arm as a toothpick, then yeah, I guess that qualifies," piped up White Tiger.

Promptly ignoring her words, the wallcrawler pointed a thumb Ben's gaze followed towards K… Ktarzan? Kgeorge? Kbanzia? Kthud? Kcaveman? Spot? Bear? Kaizer? Kgnarrk? No! Wait! Kaizer… yeah! Kaizer! That one caveman guy from the Savageland that joined Spider-Man and his New Warriors team! A caveman guy who was presently holding a BIG, snoozing sabertooth tiger on his back as the current assembly of heroes stood waiting on the sidewalk right before the pier.

"Uh, webhead, Land Before Time is in the Jurassic period. Sabertooth tigers are cenozoic," said Nova.

"No it's not," said White Tiger, hands on her hips, giving Nova a look with her expressive mask that read: What? "It's Cretaceous."

"Regardless, you would not have had that experience if your clumsiness had been less. Yet still, the wisdom of a fool can still be wisdom," Iron Fist said, index finger in the air as a patient, wizened scholar teaching a particularly impetuous student.

"Regardless," Spider-Man began, mockingly, "we wouldn't even be going down this tangent if someone wasn't screaming like Lu–Power Man here stepped on his toes on the way to the latest Sumo Slammers movie."

"One time! ONE. TIME!" Power Man said as he threw his hands up and shook his head.

Ignoring his defense promptly, Spider-Man pointed at Ben, who responded by looking side to side as if the webslinger was mistaken, until he realized he wasn't, at which point he swiftly resembled a deer caught in the headlights. "What? Me? I wasn't–"

"Actually, ya kind of were, Ben," Gwen said as she twisted her pinkies in both her ears as though she'd just been standing next to a loudspeaker at a Sabaton Concert.

"Typical Tennyson," Kevin snorted, roughing the younger teen's hair playfully maliciously. "Can't contain your wittle self in front of your heroes."

"Hey!" Ben yelled, pushing Kevin aside whilst the older teen laughed at his expense, igniting a chain reaction of chuckles from basically everyone sans Iron Fist–who Ben caught smirking slightly before turning away–and Gwen, who rolled her eyes in annoyance as she so often did whenever something serious was going on that either he or Kevin weren't taking so serious.

"Knock it off," Gwen chided, pulling Kevin closer to herself and away from Ben, scowling. "We don't have time for your heckling."

"I dunno, I'm always down for that," said Nova.

"No one asked you," snapped White Tiger.

As Nova grumbled and frumpily crossed his arms over his chest, Ben unruffled his hair best he could without a proper comb. He tilted his head into the thinking position, hand on chin, and thought to himself, 'Hmmm…maybe they have a point…but it couldn't have been that bad, right?' Deciding ultimately that he needed a second opinion, he pulled Spidey aside and whispered in his ear, "You really think I was too loud?"

"Nah, it was fine. Ya should have seen me when I first met Iron Man at Stark Industries. School girl at a boy band concert doesn't even begin to describe the decibels."

White Tiger and Gwen whistled very inconspicuously as they twiddled their thumbs and looked away towards the sea, finding it very interesting all of a sudden.

Spider-Man chuckled at this and, turning back to Ben, said, "But yeah, take it from me: totally get the starstruck fanboy thing. I got your back, Benji–" Chuckling some more, Spider-Man slapped Ben on the back hard.

Hard enough to send Ben careening off the sidewalk and straight into the fragrant waters of the Hudson. So hard, in fact, it took him a single second to pass through all of the muck and hit the rocky bottom below, front first.

Or at least, what Ben thought was the rocky bottom.

In the haze that followed, as he ascended slightly and rubbed his eyes to get his vision unblurred as best it could be in such dreck, Ben noticed four… shadows beneath him.

And one of the shadows, he noted, had… eyes.

Eyes that spoke, 'Your life is about to be compromised. You are mine and beneath the Hudson, no one can hear you scream.'

Despite this, Ben screamed loud beneath the ebon waves, and immediately regretted it because it tasted like his mom's cooking and Gwen's cooking and Grandpa's cooking combined.

Regardless, he frantically pivoted and then kicked and flailed his arms crazily towards the shore and surface. Breaking through to the slightly less polluted air of New York City, Ben gasped for it and shouted, "Gwen! Save me!"

Over the laughter of everyone else on the street at his expense over his perceived predicament, Gwen groaned out, "Ben, the water in this town isn't that bad!"

Ben wretched out some of said water still in his mouth, going, "Blech!" and then said, "Yes! Yes it is! But that's not the point! Get me out of here before… before… they… it gets me!"

Kevin took precious time off from verbally displaying his mirth at Ben's misfortune to say, in between laughs, "What? See some mondo floaters while you were down there!?"

As Kevin continued his laughter anew and renewed, accompanied by the increased chorus of the others, even Gwen being unable to maintain her stoic facade and prevent herself from joining in a little bit, Ben was absolutely besides himself. Even more when against his better judgment, he looked back to find the four very big shadows from below in the already fairly shadowy water heading straight for him!

Wildly, he tried to ascend the seawall back up to everyone else, but seeing as he had neither the proportional strength of a spider nor its uncanny ability to cling to things, he kept falling back into the river again and again and again.

With a thwip, Spider-Man, apparently having gotten over the alleged hilarity of the situation, launched a webline onto the back of Ben's green jacket and reeled him in like a flopping guppy.

Whilst airborne, Ben pulled his arms and legs into his chest and pointed desperately towards the shadows, his face white as a sheet. "THEY ARE COMING TO GET ME! Look! Look! Don't you see that?!"

The four shadows that had hounded Ben so stopped suddenly a few feet before the wall before slowly coming up… and surfacing.

Eight pairs of eyes, glistening in the turn of the morning sun. Looking very nervous at being out and about instead of down below, greeted Ben and the others as he touched pavement, finally silencing all the laughter and everyone else more or less (mostly less) shared Ben's concern on their faces.

Upon closer inspection, though, Ben noticed that one pair, the one on the far left–highlighted by what looked to be an orange mask– seemed to become quickly and absolutely fascinated by its surroundings in evident overabundant curiosity. This caused the other three pairs to roll their eyes at the orange masked pair briefly before said trio looked back up to everyone above.

However, the one on the far right, highlighted by a purple mask, soon looked all the way up at the still hovering tricarrier and widened in utter awe at the flying gunmetal marvel.

And then Ben realized, much to his trepidation, that the pair immediately to the right of the yellow masked one, highlighted in a red mask, creepily, piercingly, slanted at him. It glared deeply into Ben's soul, speaking the very same threat of promise Ben heard when he was in the river moments ago.

'Your life shall be compromised.'

'You're mine.'

'In these waters, no one will hear you scream.'

The red masked eyes rose up higher from the waves, revealing themselves to belong to a decidedly reptilian head not unlike that of some sort of terrapin–though not quite as terrapiny as one of Ben's latest alien transformational acquisitions, Terraspin.

For a moment, Ben thought this thing, this creature, this vengeful spirit, actually looked kind of cool… until, with a gravelly voice as deep as the way in which it glared at him, snarled, "I see there are already peanuts on this pleasure cruise."

"Eeeep!"

Ben immediately jumped into the arms of Kevin for protection not unlike a certain fictional great dane known for being a hungry mystery solving coward. Mr. Levin, however, not feeling much like another certain fictional shaggy teen known for being a hungry mystery solving coward, promptly dropped Ben flat on his butt.

"Owwww!"

The red masked terrapin promptly pointed and laughed at Ben's misfortune with a three-fingered hand along with a certain Human Rocket.

"Haha! Do it again! Do it again!" said Nova.

"Ha!" the red masked terrapin said. "I'd pay for front row seats to catch that show again!"

The pair of eyes to the immediate right of the red masked terrapin, itself highlighted by a blue mask, lifted up out of the water to reveal it too belonged to some sort of terrapin. "Knock it off, Raph. Remember what Master Splinter said. Remember what you promised."

"Goody-two-fingers. Fine! But only because I wanna see where this luxury vacation getaway takes us. I was promised knocked heads. I didn't sign up for no kumbaya!" The turtle snarled and picked his teeth with a sai he pulled out from beneath the water.

Ben was… was… very concerned. Not… necessarily as frightened as he was, but at the same time, unsure if he should have been in that moment.

Before he could ponder further, Spider-Man piped up, declaring, "Oh me oh my oh me! Look what the seagulls dragged in, guys! Do my black outlined eyes deceive me or are you four the same shellheads that keep Leatherhead company in the sewers?"

At his voice, the orange masked eyes turned to the wallcrawler and lifted up to reveal they belonged to yet another terrapin.

Waving his hands frantically and friendly, this one said, "Hey, hey, hey! It's the webhead!"

"Yo, Spidey!" the red masked one said, calling up with his hands cupped around his mouth like a bullhorn. "How's it hangin' hangin' from them skyscrapers like you be?"

"Eh, you know how it is. Wealth and fame, I've ignored. Action is my reward."

"I hear ya! Still overworked and underpaid," the red masked terrapin said, laughing.

"Ha! He thinks you get paid," said Nova.

Spider-Man pulled out his pockets, which only had moths in them that proceeded to fly out to freedom, and looked suddenly crestfallen.

"Ummm… excuse me here a sec," said Ben, raising his hand up from his spot seated on the ground like a kid in class asking his teacher a particularly gnawing question. "But who are… what are… going on?"

Brightening up quick, Spider-Man put his pockets back in proper order, even webbing up and reeling the moths back into his pockets, and said, "Ladies, and gentlemen–and whatever Nova is–"

"Hey! I resemble that remark! And resent it, too!"

"Allow me to be the first to introduce you all to some most terrific testudines, friendly neighborhood pals o'mine, The TMNT!"

"TMNT?" Gwen asked, raising a brow, also asking the question on Ben's mind.

"Yeah! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!" the yellow masked terrapin declared, fist raised proudly and excitedly in the air.

"Teenage… Mutant… Ninja… Turtles?" all three members of Team Tennyson repeated slowly and confuzzledly in stereo.

"A huh!" the orange masked terrapin nodded enthusiastically. Pointing both thumbs at himself, he said, "Name's Michaelangelo. But you can just call me Mikey! I'm the heart of the party!" He pointed at the red masked terrapin. "That's Raphael, but you can call him Raph. He's the guy at the party who really loves whacking the piñata!" He pointed at the blue masked terrapin. "That's Leonardo, but he goes by Leo too. He's the guy who poops the party!" Finally, he pointed at the purple masked pair of eyes. "And that's Donnatello, but he also accepts Donnie or just Don. He's the guy who plans the party and gets mad whenever no one wants to play musical chairs like he had spelled out in the itinerary."

"Hello. It truly is an honor," said Leonardo, bowing by himself before gesturing to the other turtles and bowing again in unison with them.

"If what half the stuff webs here has told us about ya'll is true, the honor's all ours," said Power Man.

"Indeed," said Iron Fist, bowing in respect to the turtles.

"Honestly, I didn't buy it till I saw it, but now that I see it, I do," said Nova, shrugging.

"Cough up the dough, bucket head," Spider-Man said, snapping his fingers thrice.

Grumbling, Nova fished out a hundo from his pocket and grudgingly handed it over to Spider-Man.

"Woo hoo! One Benjamin richer!" Spider-Man announced excitedly, putting the hundred dollar bill in his pocket and patting it with tender affection.

"Honestly tho," Michelangelo started, "It's low-key kinda good you didn't believe him. Because if you did–" he pulled out a nunchuck from the water and twirled it around, saying in an olde timey New York mobster accent, "Or else we'd have to kill ya, see? Get ya all sized up for a lovely pair of cement shoes, whether ya want it or not, see!"

Nova, much to Ben's and Spider-Man's delight, looked quite taken aback by that and more than a little intimidated.

"Kidding, kidding!" Michelangelo laughed in his normal voice and the mood brightened up again before saying, again in that ye olden NYC mobster voice, "Or am I, see!?" When Nova once more looked intimidated, Mikey quickly added, "Yeah, yeah, I am. Kidding. TOTALLY kidding! But I also TOTALLY got ya for a minute there, didn't I?" Again, in that gangster tone, he said, "See?"

"Yeah," White Tiger snortled before ribbing Nova with an elbow. "He got you good. Thought you were about to head for the spacehills!"

"Like a REAL Human Rocket!" said Power Man.

Another chorus of laughters erupted amongst the group in the streets, this time joined by the turtles below and by Ben himself, who was just happy to be able to laugh with most everyone else rather than be laughed at by most everyone else.

Nova, for his part, just banged his fists against his helmet in a rage.

As the laughter died down, Ben asked, "So… they're not going to eat me, then?"

"Nah, no worries, dude. We don't eat dudes, dude, we eat pizza, dude."

"Almost exclusively," Donatello interjected, raising a single didactic finger into the air.

"Accept no substitutes." Leonardo nodded in agreement.

"Though in your case, Bieber bowl, I might just make an exception," Raphael said.

"Eeep!" Ben immediately got back to his feet and hid behind Spider-Man, figuring that since he was on such good terms with the turtles, none of them, even Raph, would dare attack for fear of hurting their friend/Ben's makeshift meatshield.

"Speaking of pizza, Mr. Spider-Man sir, did you ever receive those upgrades I promised for your web-shooters?"

"Sure did! Still got the pizza box! And the pie was–" Spider-Man did a chef's kiss, "Primo."

"Wait… was that pizza made in the sewers? Ewww!" said Nova, shaking in disgust.

Ignoring him again, Spider-Man said, "So, you guys want a web up?"

"Nah fam, we goochie," the orange masked terrapin said, pulling out a grappling hook and throwing and securing it to the top of the seawall. He then climbed up, the others following suit with thrown and secured grappling hooks of their own, all of them shaking the water off their shells. Raph tossed seaweed that had gotten wedged in his toe back into the bay with a sneer. And just like that, the four turtles were up on the street above with everyone else, two pairs of duffle bags slung over each of their shoulders.

Leonardo bowed again to Spidey and said humbly, "Your help has been invaluable in our fight against our foes, and we are honor bound to return the favor. I apologize for my brothers' behavior: past, present, and future. Please be patient with us."

Raph and Mikey snorted and pouted, but nodded reluctantly. Donnie shrugged but bowed as well, giving a thumbs up.

Before Ben or anyone else could think or say much else, his ears picked up the distinct, roaring, high-pitched whistling of a duo of jets and the rotary blades of a helicopter growing nearer. His eyes turned to the sky over the Hudson and he beheld that there were indeed three aircraft heading their way.

The first was instantly recognizable. There wasn't a kid growing up in California that hadn't grown up seeing the Teen Titans' exploits on TV or who could avoid a serious case of Titans fever in their lives at one point or another. The T-Ship in all its burnt orange glory was as instantly iconic and recognizable in Ben's mind as his own Mark 10. More so even, though, of course, no one would ever get him to say it aloud. It seemed a little… bigger than he was used to. Growing up and occasionally seeing it with his own eyes soaring over the skies of California–usually when he was already on a mission of his own and couldn't stop to so much as fly up and say, 'Hey guys! Big fan!' or to ask if they received his request for membership–it had always had five cockpits and appeared… slimmer, less bulky in his memory.

Except for when Terra was on the roster, but he didn't like talking about that.

No one did.

Regardless, he'd never seen it have NINE cockpits and look almost TWICE as big as it normally did. He'd been out of the loop on Titans news for a while, more concerned about news about himself after his secret identity got out (Thank you Jimmy and Harangue). Wracking his brain for answers, he vaguely recalled a current events report by someone in a class at school about how the Titans had recently expanded their flagship team in Jump City in jump city to include four other well known teen heroes and figured that's why his nostalgia wasn't lining up with the reality before him. His mind then briefly wandered to wondering who it was that gave the aforementioned report before settling on the obvious, likely answer. Gwen. It was probably Gwen. It was always Gwen, to her credit, that made current event reporting time at least a little memorable.

The second was… not so much. It looked cool, absolutely, all jet black and sleek and dart like and definitely like it should have been and probably was iconically distinct. But to Ben's mind it didn't have that… personal touch the T-Ship did. It looked like something he saw in a textbook once, twice, or whatever or on some documentary he put in the background while he forced himself to do schoolwork and was only mildly aware of or some very bad chicken scratch scribbled list he read once, or twice, or whatever. Honestly, it kind of reminded him like something Kevin would probably gush and drool over more than Ben himself would, cool as it was.

Speaking of:

"Whew!" Kevin whistled, impressed. "Do I need contacts or does that look like a suped-up Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird! The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: an advanced, long-range strategic reconnaissance aircraft, capable of Mach 3 and an altitude of eighty-five thousand feet!"

Gwen looked at him. "And you know this… how?"

"Does no one READ my Christmas lists!?"

"Ummm… kind of out of our price range, but… okay." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe for a wedding gift, honey."

"Wait, you're getting married!?" Ben yelled.

"Wait, I'm getting married!?" Kevin yelled.

"Mazel Tov!" Spider-Man and Mikey yelled.

"Badhai ho." Iron Fist bowed.

Gwen hid her face and giggled, leaving the answer to that question up in the air.

Something else that was up in the air were the two jets and the lone helicopter that Ben saw at that moment slow to a hover over their spot. The planes slowly began to descend via the thrust vectoring jets embedded in their frames on either side of the assembly.

"It has VTOL capability!?" Kevin spat, salivating at the Blackbird now so close to him.

"Do you have english capability?" Ben asked.

"Do you have mechanical art appreciation capability?" Kevin reposted.

"Do you have–"

Whatever Ben was about to say died in his throat as he noticed two people wearing thick shades over their faces jump out of the helicopter at that moment with parachutes attached to their backs.

His first instinct was to bring up the ultimatrix and turn into whatever he could as fast as he could because at the low altitude the chopper was, there was no way in his mind the would-be skydivers had near enough the time to both pull their chutes and land safely enough without becoming human street pizza.

Imagine his shock.

When, not only did they pull their chutes halfway during their less than a thousand foot jump.

When, not only did they land dangerously close to Ben and the others with enough force to crack the concrete of the road.

When, not only did they almost hit the T-Ship, a pillar of his childhood.

But that they did this, standing up tall and proud after and pulling their chutes back into their packs like nothing impossible had just happened, as though they were unstoppable despite, to all outward appearances, looking like everyday, normal teens.

"Whew! Now that put some pep in my step this lovely Friday morning!" said the blonde haired, befreckled teen boy of the duo.

"Thanks for the lift, Doof!" the red-headed, less prominently befreckled, teen girl called back up to their helicopter pilot.

"Curse you, Rufus the Naked Mole Rat!" screamed down the pilot in a distinct and distinctly angry german accent.

"Hmmm! Nice screw!" said the… Ben honestly didn't know what it was, but quickly settled on baby ferret without fur–also wearing a pair of thick sunglasses for its size–sticking out of the blonde boy's right pocket, holding up proudly a distinctly I-shaped screw and admiring its reflection in the fascinating fastener.

The red-headed girl huffed and flipped her hair back, admonishing the blonde-haired boy thus, "Ron, we talked about this! Quit letting Rufus take stuff from our contacts, ESPECIALLY the shady ones! He's supposed to be a naked mole rat, NOT a pack rat."

"Hmmm! Pretty! Mine!" the baby ferret w/o fur said, rubbing his cheeks lovingly against the screw and turning away from the red-haired girl.

"I know, I know, but come on! It's just one screw! ONE! He has a BUILDING shaped like a face! I think he can afford the five cents for one little, teeny, tiny, itty, bitty part!" Ron said, pinching his fingers to prove his point.

"Itty bitty," the baby ferret w/o fur said, mimicking his master's pinch with a pinch of his own.

"Ron, you KNOW what he's like when someone takes his stuff considering YOU were almost made a living wax figurine by his wax-inator after you swiped his protractor-inator off his desk… inator!"

"Okay, okay, fine. Point take," Ron said, raising his hands up defensively. "Still having trouble looking at gouda wheels the same way again." Fishing into his left pocket, he pulled out a quarter and reeled his arm and body back as though prepping to hurl it upwards, "Alrighty then! George Washington in his mighty coin form found! Don't go nowhere, Doof! Here's 25 whole cents coming in hot! That's five times what this here doohickey is worth anyhow!"

"Hmmm! Priceless!" the baby ferret w/o fur said, hugging the screw close to his chest.

"Ron! I don't think that's the best way to–"

Heeding not the red-headed girl's words, Ron threw the quarter at the helicopter. Up, up, and away it went. A pretty decent throw from where Ben was standing. Enough so he wondered if Ron was some kind of rising baseball star in his day job. Yet all thoughts of mental kudos to him exited his brain when, instead of landing inside the passenger area where he and red-head girl had jumped out of, where Ben thought the quarter would land harmlessly, something miraculously unlucky happened. In a way Ben couldn't quite wrap his head around since the pilot's door was closed, somehow after hitting the passenger area, the quarter must have bounced and rebounded and ricocheted in such a manner as to strike the pilot square in the eye.

This did not lead to good things.

"Ah! My eye! My eye! Curse you Ron Stoppable!"

As the pilot kept hooting and hollering, naturally, he must have been panicking whilst still holding firm to the joystick, because soon the helicopter span out of control in a downward spiral on a collision course with the river.

"Ron!" the red headed girl shouted, clearly at wits end.

"Whoops! Sorry! My bad, my bad!"

"Hmmm! Clutz!" the furless baby otter said, wagging his finger disapprovingly at his owner.

"Ah, come on! Not you too! I said I was sorry, alright!?"

Ben smirked, having instinctually already lined up the perfect alien to handle this situation.

This was it.

This was his moment to make up for the surprising amount of embarrassment in the past ten minutes–to shine in front of everyone and FINALLY make an unquestionable, undeniable, inalienable good impression all around.

This was his time.

"Well I say, it's hero–"

"I got it, I got it!"

Right as Ben's finger was about to press down upon the dial of the device on his wrist, a streak of white electricity encased in a bright purple aura shot out from somewhere behind and to Ben's left and struck the plummeting chopper.

Normally, this would have doubtlessly made things go from bad to worse, but in hindsight, Ben wasn't exactly in normal company, even by his standards.

The electricity somehow didn't electrocute or short circuit or blow up or otherwise harm anything. Instead, a lot like Lodestar funnily enough, though Ben's alien wasn't as literally flashy, it gently arrested the helicopter's fall via some electro-magnetic effect. It hadn't even dropped a hundred feet before coming to a complete stop, suspended in the air like a giant, hovering dragonfly.

"Whoa," said Mikey. "Nice lightshow. That one of you guys?"

"Nope," said a new voice from Ben's left, "that's this guy right here."

Ben looked that way to find that in all the excitement with and caused by the skydivers, he'd failed to notice that the T-Ship was now firmly on terra firma, all nine of its cockpits opened, their occupants clearly visible.

Of course, there were The Founding Five, who needed no introduction. Robin, Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg were well renowned legends in the superhero community. Not even in the super teen community, just superheroes in general, writ large. They had nothing and no one to prove anything to, yet even still they consistently managed to go and climb above and beyond expectations.

Except for the whole Terra thing, but again, no one liked to talk about that.

The other four, newer Titans, meanwhile, were… not as renowned.

Point of fact, one of the teens didn't look like a superhero at all. Ben was one to talk, yeah, with his green jacket and black shirt and blue jeans, but the guy straight up looked like he got lost on the way to the local Otaku convention after getting all his fashion sense from the Final Fantasy section at Hot Topic. He was such a visual persona non grata, a sheer living affront to Ben's sensibilities that it felt like his eyes would physically hurt to look at him much longer, so he didn't.

He affixed his eyes to the other three instead, who, thankfully, were better. Much better. In fact, their costume designs were so clean, fresh, and smooth that Ben was honestly really surprised he'd never seen nor heard anything about them before. Not even vaguely. Not even Gwen giving a current event report vaguely.

The first of the three was clad head to toe in black and blue power armor with a decidedly chitinous, almost bio-organic in the insectoid sense, theme to it while also maintaining a techno-organic feel not unlike Upgrade/Ship/Any old Galvanic Mechamorph. While rad as all get out, Ben suddenly feeling all kinds of jealous and exposed and wishing Ship was here to armor him up and not with Julie who he very much wished didn't dump him… there was actually something gnawing at the back of his head about this New Teen Titan. Like… he'd heard a name once when he got big into older school heroes from Captain America's day and not that long after and had seen a costume that looked similar enough and heard something about 'Legacy Titles' that he wondered if this guy was the latest to inherit the mantle so to speak. The Blue… Cucaracha… or something?

The second and third of the three, though, his brain just could not make the foggiest connection to anything no matter how hard he tried.

But their outfits were still great.

He really dug the whole hi-tech, helmeted, see-through faceplate, extreme snowboarder thing the one guy had going on, and as an aficionado of both green and white, dug the color scheme.

But the final guy? The third of the three? Man his getup was straight POPPING. The black and blue jacket with gold interior? REPRESENT. The black pants with the gold belt and black shirt with the gold lightning bolt? RESPECT. The blue and white mask and the locks? OFF. THE. CHAIN! He was dripping so much swag Ben was surprised his clothes weren't waterlogged like Ben's own were. Though of course, in much safer, healthier, tastier water, like whatever Mr. Smoothie put in their mixes.

It was then that Ben realized perhaps the most astonishing thing about this guy… at least to any bystander not as obsessed with or appreciative of decent superhero outfits and bi-lateral symmetry. From but one of his fingers, the electric streak holding aloft the copter was emanating. Ben then put two and two together and concluded that the new voice from his left he'd heard must have been Mr. High-Tech Snowboarder Extreme Guy, because he was pointing with his thumb at Mr. Electric Finger Guy.

A fact confirmed when Mr. High-Tech Snowboarder Extreme Guy said in that very same voice, though in a tone more like the ringleader in a circus making a huge announcement, "Ladies and germs–and whatever BB is–"

"Dude!" Beast Boy objected, fist shaking in the air.

"Introducing, for the first time on these mean streets of the Big Apple! He slices, he dices, he can catch plummeting rotorcraft with the power in his PINKY! He talks that talk, walks that walk, and shocks that shock! My best pal: Static!"

Mr. Blue Cucaracha grinned, the helmet of his power armor apparently also serving as an expressive mask of sorts, and his right arm suddenly turned into a megaphone–which was weird enough–that he then raised and then projected the all too familiar sit-com sound of canned, studio cheering–which was even weirder.

"Thank you, thank you! No applause, no applause! Just throw money!" Mr. High-Tech Snowboarder Extreme Guy said waving and bowing to an imaginary adoring public.

"Gear," barked Robin suddenly in a commanding tone, "Cut the grandstanding and hype-training and fly up there with Raven to make sure the chopper's not busted and the pilot's okay."

"Actually, can we keep the hype-training part? I kinda like it," requested Static.

"Now."

Gear nodded and went, "Right. On it. Sorry!"

With his jet boots, he took off out of his cockpit, Raven flying out of hers and following close behind.

"Whoa," said a new voice from Ben's right. "Nice lightshow."

Ben turned there to find that somehow he'd also missed, with everything going on, that the suped-up SR-71 Blackbird with B-roll capability or whatever had touched down. The landing ramp at bottom-center of the plane was extended and its six passengers disembarked down it in a distinctly orderly single file line.

At the lead was a brown haired boy with a yellow visor with a single line-shaped, ruby red lens in the center.

Behind him was a redheaded girl (man, they were getting a lot of those).

Behind her was a brown haired girl with white streaks at the front of her hair.

Behind her was a brown haired girl that was just a brown haired girl sporting a ponytail with layers hanging over her face.

Behind her was a furry blue demon looking dude (honestly, not the weirdest looking guy Ben had seen all day, thank you turtles).

Behind him was a blonde kid (man, they were also getting a lot of those) with a topped off v cut.

And behind him was… a slimy, toady looking hunchback walking on all fours that wreaked of industrial quantities of soap.

While their costumes were nothing to write home about, simple black and yellow jumpsuits or some variant swapping out the yellow for a different color for the most part (though Ben did admit that fuzzy blue demon guy was rocking that red), he did have to admire the uniformity of their uniforms. Because no matter what was individually going on with their outfits, it was quite clear to tell that they belonged to the same outfit thanks to all of them having at least one, distinct, black 'X' upon a red background on their person. Belt, shoulders, belt and shoulders, didn't matter. Just one black 'X' was enough to show that they were clearly a team, and from the way they carried themselves, a tight-knit solid one.

Except for Mr. Toady, but for all the others, that take totally fit.

Speaking of, as they walked, Mr. Toady said, "Yeah. You of all people should know, Summers. Like watchin' the fourth of July or something."

"I jus' hope he stays over zere," the fuzzy blue devil muttered, rubbing his arms. "Ze last sing I need is for my fur to go all poofy!"

"Awe, but Kurt, you'd look so adorable all fuzzed out!" the brown ponytailed girl giggled, ruffling her teammate's hair affectionately.

"True… but zat's not ze point…"

Once all seven of them were off the ramp and on the street, the brown haired guy with the visor, Summers, asked, in the same voice that had most recently said something about Static's electricity holding the helicopter being a 'lightshow', "Hey! Need some help over there?"

"Nah fam, we goochie," said Static.

"You sure? We could lend a telekinetic hand."

"Thanks for the offer," said Robin, "but levitating heavy metal objects is kind of one of Static's things."

"One of his other things is turning on the TV or changing the channel whenever we lose track of the remote and get too lazy to just get up and fiddle with the tube the old fashioned way," Beast Boy said, grinning with two thumbs up.

"Man, what I wouldn't give for that power. All I got saddled with was being super tall and devilishly handsome."

All eyes suddenly turned towards the middle of their group where that new mystery voice had suddenly piped up to witness its presumed owner materialize just as suddenly. With his thick, scaly, almost armor plated blue hide, his three-fingered hands, two-toed feet, all the spikes at various points on his body, and his big, solid yellow eyes, he DEFINITELY topped the charts as the strangest thing Ben had seen all morning. Point of fact, he was so strange and otherworldly, if Ben didn't soon recognize him from his and his superteam's exploits online, Ben would've wondered if he was an alien and if he could maybe nick his genetics for a transformation with the ultimatrix.

"Hi," he said in that very same mystery voice, confirming it was indeed him, waving amicably. "A-bomb here. Agent of SMASH, internet entrepreneur, and the best looking Hulk you've seen, ever will see, and never will see if I don't want you beholding my radiant splendor." He flickered between turning invisible and visible a few times for emphasis.

Once more, the Blue Chucharacha grinned, transformed his right arm into a megaphone, lifted it up, and played stock studio cheering, A-Bomb flashing two piece signs and waving them around to an imaginary adoring public.

"Yeah… somehow I doubt you secretly moonlight as She-Hulk there, big blue," Spider-Man said.

"Wait… have they ever been seen in the same room together?" Nova pondered aloud.

White Tiger smacked Nova upside his head so hard for a comment so dumb that his helmet spun around ten whole times before coming to a stop slightly left of center from usual. Ben briefly wondered if he could get Gwen and Kevin to apologize to him for putting his feet to the fire in various ways for the decidedly dim comments he'd made over the years after a take that hot, when he noticed everyone else was rightfully and dutifully pointing and laughing at The Human Rocket's humiliation and decided to join in too.

As the laughter died down though, Ben, finally beating someone else to the epiphany punch followed up by piping up punch, asked, "Wait… how long have you been standing there?"

A-Bomb made to answer, but before he could, yet another new voice suddenly asked in rhetoric fashion, rather close by to him, "The better question is–" An older teen with semi-long black, spiky hair with green highlights, a red jacket with yellow patches, white shirt, blue cargo shorts, white socks, and grey and blue shoes just… appeared… on A-Bomb's left shoulder. "How long was I sitting here?"

"Ah!" A-Bomb panicked, falling flat on his back while the mystery teen landed normally on the asphalt on his blue and gray sneakers. Still on the ground, he asked, "Who… what… how…?"

"Ancient Chinese secret," the teen said in an exaggerated, Chinese elder type accent, clapping his hands together and bowing in an equally over the top manner. Coming back up and taking a more normal stance, he said, "Hey. Name's Jake. Jake Long." The teen then shouted, "DRAGON UP!" and in fiery fashion before the stunned gathering of teens, transformed into an upright walking, 7 foot tall dragon. One with, to Ben's interest, more or less the same color scheme as when he was human. "From the J to the A to the K to the E, I'm the Mac Daddy Dragon of the NYC, ya heard?" He extended a helping hand towards the blue hulk.

Iron Fist raised a quizzical brow, tilted his head one way, and massaged his chin pensively.

"Uhhhh… yeah… I… heard. I just didn't… ya know… see ya…" Chuckling nervously, A-Bomb grabbed Jake's hand.

"Yeah. I'm pretty underground. A lotta the time, very underground."

Now it was the turtles' turns to raise quizzical brows, tilted their heads to the side, and rub their chins in thoughts.

"Big fan of your show by the by." He helped A-Bomb back up to his two-toed feet. "Gold sub on your ."

"Wait…" A-Bomb's eyes widened. "You're M-Drag-Apostrophe-05!?"

"Word," Jake nodded. "And for the record, still waiting on that extended commentary on Episode Twenty-Two with you and the squad."

A-Bomb stood flummoxed, flabbergasted, and outright flustered, at an audible loss for words as he rubbed the back of his head trying to come up with something intelligible to say to that.

He was only back to speaking proper (general american) English when out from the ground next to him and Jake swiftly floated up another teen–appearing as translucent as if someone had plopped the opacity filter on him to the center of that slider in photoshop before switching back to being fully solid.

"Please tell me I finally found the right–" the teen–garbed in a black and white jumpsuit with white hair and white 'D' on his chest–loudly muttered before taking stock of the few dozen pairs of eyes of other teens upon him. "Oh. Huh. I… uh… guess I did. Neat."

"Ah! A spook! Specter! GHOST!" A-Bomb immediately jumped back towards Jake, who Ben supposed was meant to catch and carry him.

"Yo-no-wait-ah!"

Instead, he must not have gotten the memo, and for his troubles, the draconic teen was accidentally crushed beneath the bulk of the blue hulk.

"Sorry! Sorry!" the ghostly boy said, waving his hands frantically apologetically. "I thought I had the right address, but I wound up ruining Shakespeare in the park, and then I ended up meeting this creepy wizard guy in Greenwich village with rockstar hair and his less creepy but still kinda creepy assistant who looks like he got lost on his way to the Qing dynasty who told me I had to go more south so I kind of forgot not to sneak up on people like that and… I'm late… aren't I? Totally late!" He snapped his fingers frustratingly and went, "Man! I knew I should've taken that left turn at Albuquerque!"

Ben snapped his fingers in cognizance (so he thought) and went, "Hey! Mickey Mouse!"

"King Mickey? Where!?" the peculiar dressed spikey haired teen asked, eyes searching excitedly all around like a dog that thought it saw a squirrel, before hanging his head in disappointment. "Awe…"

"BUGS BUNNY," all the other teens–even Jake and the ones still handling the helicopter situation, yet excluding Final Fantasy Fashion Vomit Kid who just looked sullen–spoke as one.

"Bugs Bunny! Yeah, Bugs Bunny! Right!" Ben quickly corrected, sweat dripping from his forehead. "My favorite anime–"

"CARTOON!" all the other teens admonished as one, even Final Fantasy Fashion Vomit Kid this time.

"-character."

Ben chuckled nervously and quickly looked for somewhere, ANYWHERE, he could find to retreat into the shadows away from everyone's gaze at that moment.

"Rejoice, friend!" Starfire chirped, everyone regarding her and thankfully taking the heat off Ben, who wiped away the sweat pooled on his brow and went, 'Whew!' "For you are most assuredly not late.

"Yeah," enjoined Spider-Man, "just the last one to arrive, by my count."

As if to underscore his words, the tricarrier finally decided to descend at that very moment, the displaced air wafting over the assembly in a strong yet not too unpleasant breeze, especially where Ben was concerned.

"Ha! Right on queue! See–uhhh…?"

"Danny," the ghostly boy said. "Danny Phantom."

"See, Danny? What'd I tell ya? Even ole Eyepatch Beard agrees, because otherwise, that tub of his would still be floating in the air instead of moving for the water."

Danny sighed. "Well, that's a load off my back for sure."

"Yeah, uh, speaking of loads on people's backs–" began Jake, pointing at A-Bomb with his arm claws and tail as best he could. "Can I have the one on mine lifted, please? I'm a fan but I ain't nobody's seat cushion, ya feel?"

"Whoops!" A-Bomb's eyes widened in realization and he quickly got onto his two-toed feet, turned back, and pulled Jake out of the concrete angel he'd accidentally made with the dragon. "Sorry! We cool?"

After cracking his back, arms, legs, tail, and head in a way some found sickening, satisfying, and a little bit of both in Ben's case, Jake raised a fist and bumped it with the blue hulk's. "As the day is Long, Bomb-Diggity."

While Ben and a few others (Kevin and Gwen thankfully counted amongst them) groaned at the pun and the nickname, Raven and Gear rejoined the others having apparently handled the helicopter sitch if the thumbs up they were giving was anything to go by.

Static nodded and let the electricity emanating from his pinky dissipate, and as the pilot flew away, he shouted, "Thank you Teen Titans BUT STILL CURSE YOU RON STOPPABLE!"

"Bye doof!" Ron called back as he and his furless pet waved goodbye to the pilot.

"BYE BYE!" the hairless baby otter said.

As the chopper became a blip on the horizon of the New York City skyline, Ron chuckled nervously and said, "Heee's totally cooking up how to get even with me and I'm totally gonna regret it, aren't I?"

The redheaded girl patted Ron on his shoulder. "He always does, honey."

"Well, if it's any consolation, think of it this way," started Spider-Man, the tricarrier landing on the Hudson with such grace belying its great size and bulk that only moderate ripples disturbed its abysmally abyssal surface, "as of this moment, he's the least of your problems for a full year or some such."

Ron contemplated this for a bit, his face switching between terror and relief at the webhead's words at such a pace Ben thought him liable to get nerve whiplash or something. At least until the red headed girl and the furless baby otter pinched him out of his psychic stack overflow stupor. "Owww!"

"Sorry," the red-head girl said.

"Hmmm. Not sorry," said the hairless otter baby.

"But you know what you get like whenever you think too hard."

"At least he thinks, unlike this one here," White Tiger said, pointing, of course, at Nova.

As most everyone once again shared audibly their enjoyment at Nova getting roasted, Ben included, the titans jumped out of their cockpits and the loading ramp to the Blackbird retracted back into the plane's frame.

"Farewell, Silkie, my little bumgorf!" Starfire said, waving towards the pastel, cream and rose mutant moth caterpillar that soon jumped from her cockpit into Robin's/the lead one.

"Grgrgrgrgr!" gurgled Silkie, waving back with all of his stubby little mutant moth caterpillar legs on one side of his body before putting on Robin's T-Ship headset and pressing a button that closed all the cockpits. He then grabbed the controls and the T-Ship slowly lifted up off the ground.

"See ya later, Storm!" said the redhead with the 'X' dudes as the Blackbird soon followed suit.

"Good luck, children, and behave!" came a stentorian, feminine voice presumably from the Blackbird's external loudspeaker system. "Or the Professor shall be forced to give you all EVEN MORE demerits."

The 'X' dudes all grumbled, some red with embarrassment, some pulling at the collars of their uniform, and Summers just shaking his head and chuckling genuinely as he muttered, "Shoulda known Wolverine woulda put you up to it, Storm."

Once everyone had their fill of vocalized mirth at the 'X' dudes' expense, and once the two jets took off horizontally towards the wild blue yonder increasingly illuminated by the rising sun, Ben saw Spider-Man turn towards the pier, yawn, and stretch his arms a little.

"Welp, you know what they say: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and all that."

And then, Spider-Man was the first to step onto the pier proper, followed soon by everyone else in as orderly yet spaced out a line as they could manage given the relative narrowness of the pier, the size of their assembly, and all the extra space consumed by all of the duffle bags, backpacks, suitcases, and various other, sundry luggage things.

Ben had originally tried to immediately walk briskly towards Spidey to have a little chat with him about earlier, but was halted when Gwen placed one of her violet energy barriers in his path and Kevin tossed Ben's baggage that the older teen had been carrying as a courtesy up till that point because of Ben's griping yet had now decided was Ben's to bear from then on out.

Because of this, by the time Ben and the rest of Team Tennyson made it onto the pier, they were in the middle of the proverbial pack and he found it a particular pain to try and squeeze his way to the front towards the webslinger. Yet through all of the bumps, glares, and complaints he received (especially from Raph), such was what he managed to accomplish, impressing even himself with how he'd managed to bob and wave through the veritable teen tide.

Impressing even Spider-Man. "Phew. If you were a car, Benji, I'd never get stuck in the bumper to gridlock everytime Beantown comes down for the Yankees to backhand them back to Boston."

"Wait… why do you of all people need a car?"

"Because it's cool and sometimes I like to feel like your friendly, neighborhood Normal-Man for once. Again, save for when the Red Rox come to visit for their annual shellacking by the Yankees. But that exception aside, considering you rolled up to this block in that Mark 10, super-charged franken-whip of yours–which was really lit by the by. LOVE the green and black paint job, and the branding?" He gave a chef's kiss. "Muahhh! Grande perfezione!"

"Heh. Thanks. Best b-day ever that was."

"Oh, I bet. And see, what's my point there, Benji, like I was saying. Considering you drove all the way here from an entire continent away in that cherry automated mobile of yours, you'd think you of all people should get why I like my own–when it isn't in the shop after an impromptu super villain brawl–and cruising around in it."

Ben looked away a sec, rolling his tongue around in his mouth as he mulled it over. Looking back, he sighed. "Yeah, guess I do get it." Face suddenly turning stern, he then leaned into Spider-Man's ear and loudly whispered, "What I don't get is why you slapped me so hard in the back a few minutes go! Like SO HARD! Like, come on man! I thought you were cool! I thought we were cool! You have any idea how humiliating that was! All I wanted was to make a good first impression and then you went and slapped that hope right into the river!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there, Benji!" Spider-Man loudly whispered back. "Cut it with the catastrophizing, please. Not that serious my dude."

"Not that serious!?" I wanted this day to go perfectly, and then you–"

"Benji, bro, be reasonable. We're superheroes. Things don't tend to go perfectly for us at the best of times. I mean, take me for example: I didn't mean to slap you so hard back there in the back–"

"DIDN'T MEAN TO!?"

"Yeah. What can I say? Years of practice and practical experience and sometimes I still catch trouble not knowing my own strength."

Ben looked at Spider-Man as though he'd admitted to really being a porcine creature from another dimension under that mask.

"So yeah, I just sort of rolled with that accident like it wasn't an accident because it wound up accidentally turning into comedy gold," Spider-Man continued. "And that dovetails back into my big picture kinda point, Benji: relax, man. Learn to laugh at yourself a little or relearn it if you already learned it before. I don't know what you think or what Fury told you, but this kind of joshing, tomfoolery, and general roasting of people, especially Nova, is pretty par for the course for me and my team, and probably you and yours and everyone else's even if they don't advertise it as strongly. Between you and me, even though their batting average trends consistently and majorly better, I've seen the Avengers, THE AVENGERS, act out of genuine spite and malice towards each other over something as petty and simple as who snuck into the Hulk's room and knocked down his crystal figurine collection while rummaging for his copy of the original theatrical cut of A New Hope."

"Wait… The Incredible Hulk likes crystal figurines." Ben's eyes widened in even greater epiphany. "Wait… The Incredible Hulk likes Star Wars!?"

"Oh boy, does he. Refuses to watch any cut that didn't make it to the big screen and that isn't on his old school private film projector he always hides VERY well in his room. But yeah, all that to say, don't worry that Bieber bowl off your head oh pal o'mine. For one, people might confuse you for an evil twin of yourself. Two, take it from me, chicks don't tend to dig the Lex Luthor look unless you're as loaded as he is. And three, nobody, not a single soul–except maybe Nova–thinks any less of you or that you don't belong or aren't cut out for this or none of that yet. That probably goes just as much if not double for the peeps not in the New Warriors too."

Ben blinked owlishly and looked at the crowd behind him, trying to read their facial expressions as they conversed amongst themselves or silently looked elsewhere as they marched and generally finding very little if anything to latch onto one way or the other concerning him. Except for Raph, who kept trying to maintain eye contact to let Ben know exactly how angry he felt inside about the ultimatrix bearer, much to Ben's irritation and fear. Leaning close to Spidey's ear again, he asked, "You really think so?"

"Oh, I know so. Like moi, they're all much too experienced, or probably are, to make judgements on just first impressions. Believe me, some of us vets might not like your swagger, but if you can back it up in a pinch on the field of battle, we all tend to back off whether we're a New Warrior, Teen Titan, Teen Mutant, Teen Mutant Turtle, or whatever."

Spider-Man threw an arm around Ben suddenly and pulled him in close, "And for what it's worth, it's nice to have a genuine fan with a real zest for the biz for once rather than some talking head on the tube constantly haranguing you, ya know?"

Ben chuckled and went, "Yeah, I hear that," wondering if two certain newscasters were secretly long lost family of some sort or were secretly conspiring behind the scenes against two certain up and coming and totally cool teen superheroes in their giant sized group.

Spider-Man patted the jacketed teen on the back, firmly yet affectionately. "Stick with me, Benji, and you'll never go BACK to feeling like a total newb."

Ben nodded with a smile forming on his face at that, feeling as though so much undesired stress recent events had forced on him had been suddenly taken away.

T-T-T

Peter Benjamin Parker, AKA Spider-Man, was secretly dying inside trying to contain his laughter after having subtly and sneakily secured his gift to Ben and telegraphing verbally what he'd done so strongly yet somehow not being found out. Beneath his expressive mask, he was literally puckering his lips hard enough to break concrete he was struggling not to break out in a mirthful fit.

He turned his head back to regard the other teens, finally chuckling conivingly as out of Ben's earshot as he could.

White Tiger, AKA Ava Ayala, joined him and whispered, "He'll never notice, Pete… not until it's too late!"

Peter gave a thumbs up and then, quietly as a spider's breath, shushed them all, especially the ones that began to giggle noticing what he'd done, with his index finger.

After all, now was not the time for Ben 10 to realize that Peter had secretly slapped on a piece of paper with his webbing to the back of Ben's jacket during his amicable pat that read:

KICK ME!

Signed, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!

No.

Not the time at all.