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"Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised." – Steven said with a deadpan face.

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"The whole reason of us leaving Earth and going into space was to get away from this kind of situation." – Steven continued while a frustrated Ben kept honking at the wheel of the Star Skipper Mark II. "If I knew this was gonna happen, we could have just told Lars that we didn't need his Star Skipper and asked him to just drop us off back on Earth."

"Don't blame me, blame this traffic. How the heck was I supposed to know that freakin' space highways also have traffic jams?"

"Why can't you just fly around the traffic, again? We… we are in a three-dimensional space. Is that not an option?" – Steven pointed out.

"Usually, yeah, but we're on a set highway. There's some sections in space where you gotta follow along a specific path." – Ben explained. "It's whenever you enter a settled point. You know, a space station or a satellite base. Or sometimes in dangerous or controlled space sectors, stuff like that. So, unfortunately, all we can do about it is…"

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"How does the honking even travel through the vacuum of space, anyway?" – Steven questioned.

Ben pointed at a panel on the Star Skipper's dashboard. "Those are the speakers for communication. Rook told me they also detect when another ship near them is signaling at them like an Earth car's honks and just plays that loud beep over the speakers." – he explained.

"All this technology and space highways still end up having traffic jams." – Steven said to himself.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE HONKING AT?!" – an angry voice on the short-range intercom interjected, and the spaceship in front of them opened its door. Though, the driver might not have thought things through and forgotten he was in space – the moment he left his ship he got sucked out and started drifting into space instead of coming over to Ben and Steven's Star Skipper II.

"Okay, okay, I'll get him." – Ben said as he activated the Omnitrix before Steven had the chance to point it out that he had to.

"Okay, so, you're gonna be surprised at how much stuff in space is similar to stuff on Earth." – Ben said as an introduction to the world around them.

"Yeah, after driving a space car on the space highway, getting into a space traffic jam and then stopping at a space parking lot, I never would have guessed that a space gas station would be any different." – Steven remarked.

"Oh, ha, ha." – Ben sarcastically laughed. "But seriously, it's not just a gas station. This whole place is like… a super wacked-out pit stop. Aliens from all over the quadrant or sector or… whichever it was make stops here on long trips. It's got roadside diners, places to stay, even crappy souvenirs…"

As Ben told Steven all about it, they passed a souvenir stand. T-shirts with two, four, six and so on arms caught Steven's eye, especially the ones that had alien writing that Steven couldn't read next to a picture of the Earth. Some had random English words thrown in that the aliens clearly had no idea what they meant, like "collectively" and "JANITOR", like how merch back on Earth would have random Japanese symbols that spelled out nonsense. The only alien t-shirt that had an accurate Earth phrase was "my brother went to this backwater planet and all I got was this piece of worthless fabric". Steven supposed that might have been too wordy for a shirt.

"This specific one is pretty close to Earth, too, probably the nearest one. Kevin would stop here sometimes for some parts or whatever whenever we were coming back home from a space mission." – Ben continued as they were walking.

"Hey, Ben, look at this one." – Steven pointed out with a grin on his face. The next series of souvenirs were all in the image of Ben – more shirts, figurines, magnets, and what looked like…

"Is this me-shaped food?!" – Ben yelled out, somewhat startled, as he saw an alien buy it and lop it into its oral cavity. He approached the stand, and Steven followed him.

There were a sort of gooey, but still fleshy-looking blobs that indubitably looked like Ben's face, rowed up on a platter.

"Step right up, step right up, Earth human flesh tasting right here! You can eat Ben Tennyson!" – the alien at the stand was yelling at the passers-by. Ben, astounded, approached the stand, and Steven followed.

"Ahem." – Ben did a fake cough to get the alien's attention as he stood right in front of him. He picked one of the fleshy heads up. It was even flabbier and grosser to the touch than he imagined.

"Do I look like I look like this?" – he demandingly asked as he held the "flesh treat" next to his face, which got distorted even further by the gravity.

"Um… that's not actual human flesh, is it?" – Steven asked, somewhat concerned.

"Humans!" – the alien said, surprised. He leaned forward and started talking in a hush-hush voice. "Uh… between you and me, it's a flesh substitute. I mean, you guys know humans are supposed to be a delicacy, right? I'm just trying to make an honest living here!"

"How is it an honest living off of my face?" – Ben protested. "Literally! You have people eating my face!"

"Come on, just let him have it." – Steven asked him to calm down.

"I'm just sick of people making profit off of my face and name while giving me none of the credit." – Ben mumbled in a dissatisfied tone.

"Well, it's not hurting anyone, is it? And it's not like you're short on money." – Steven retorted. "He probably needs it more than you do if he's that desperate."

"Rude." – the Ben flesh seller muttered.

"Yeah, well, the last time I let someone off with using my image, he tried to sue me as if I was the one stealing his ideas, remember?" – Ben answered. "We're lucky that quack lawyer Harvey Birdman didn't tank the case. Actually, I might just hire Chadzmuth to stop stuff like YOU from popping up." – he turned back to the vendor.

"Kid, what are you, stupid? You're gonna have to pay Chadzmuth more than what I earn in a month." – the alien laughed.

"I don't think some random guy at a pit stop is gonna give you any trouble." – Steven tried to get Ben to relax.

"It's ruining my image." – Ben groaned.

"I don't think you need me to ruin your image, Tennyson." – the alien vendor commented.

"Hey, watch it, you!" – Ben angrily retorted.

"Come on, we should get something to eat. I'm starving." – Steven suggested to distract Ben from the issue.

"Yeah, we haven't had anything since we left Earth for Fulmas." – Ben agreed.

"You could always try the human meat treats!" – the vendor intervened.

"NO!" – both Ben and Steven yelled in unison.

Garages, mechanics, shops for pretty much any kind of alien vehicle parts imaginable and food stops were all around them, with tons of different aliens to match. At this point in the space adventure, Steven was recognizing some of the aliens he saw. One of them was a tetramand – large, red and with four arms, just like the female one him and Ben met down at the Love Glove. Another was a cerebrocrustatean, the planet of which Ben and Steven visited as well. He was on the lookout for any gems that might appear, especially gems he knew, but it made sense if there were none to be found – gems could use warp pads to move around planets instantaneously and probably had no need for pit stops like these.

Steven noticed something as he looked up. Something had been bothering him since the beginning, but he just realized what was wrong.

"Uh, Ben… isn't this place supposed to have like a roof or a dome over it or something? What's stopping all the air from leaving this place?"

"They got a special force field device or… something. Large objects like ships or people can go in and out easily but it contains the microscopic gasses, so the air won't leave the pit stop, don't worry." – Ben assured him.

Steven still thought that there was an unsettling risk of either the artificial gravity or the force field turning off and the air and/or the people drifting off into space, with nothing to stop them.

"Anyway, this was the closest place I could think of where we could get something to eat." – Ben continued. "Without going back to Earth, obviously. If we're gonna do a space trip, we should keep it to space."

"Is that why there's a Burger Shack right over there?" – Steven pointed out.

"WHAT?!" – Ben immediately looked over. That sounded unbelievable. Like a weird Steven joke. But it was… surprisingly true. It had the same logo as the normal Burger Shack and everything, except next to it were large neon letters in an alien language that Ben recognized said "HUMAN FOOD", with a picture of the Earth attached to it. Cute.

"Okay, we HAVE to try that." – Ben insisted as he quickly ran over.

"I don't know, you already have enough of that stuff on Earth, don't you wanna check out some of the alien foods?" – Steven asked him while running behind him, trying to catch up. "Might be a cool, fun experience for us!"

"No way, dude, most of it usually ends up being gross tentacles and stuff. You can have the Ben 10 flesh cake, but I'd rather eat Grandpa Max's cooking. Come on!" – he said, barely even listening to Steven anymore as he made his way towards Burger Shack and rushed into the door.

"I want two large chili fries, extra onions, extra chili." – Ben quickly told the attendee, who had their back turned at the moment. Even the smell was familiar. And that smell was kicking his hunger into overdrive.

"I don't want that much onions and chili on mine." – Steven commented.

"No, no, those are both for me. You order whatever you want." – Ben clarified.

Though, before Ben got the chance to satiate that hunger of his, he realized something. The attendee, who was still facing away, was short, and looked like a human. Human arms, human legs. Though, much shorter than a normal human, with a child's proportions. There was a possibility that it could be one of those alien species that look near-identical to humans but with one or two slight differences - they somehow popped up over the universe time to time, but Ben knew the figure he was looking at.

He knew it as he knew the back of his own head. At least, as well as he possibly could.

"What… exactly are you doing here, Albedo?" – Ben asked, eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"What do you think, Tennyson? I'm working. Thanks to you, I don't have a lot of choices left." – a face identical to Ben's, except five years younger and with white hair, red eyes and paler skin, stared back at him.

Though, there was one more distinction between them besides the superficial. Albedo's face had a certain bitterness to it, a perpetual frown that manifested from anger, sadness, malice or maybe self-pity. Probably from a combination of them. Even his eyes were baggy and tired, likely from the constant rancour they were projecting.

"Is… is that a child?" – Steven asked with concern.

"Look closer." – Ben told him.

Steven looked at the child in the Burger Shack uniform, then at Ben, then back at Albedo again.

"Uhh… time travel?" – Steven gave a haphazard guess.

"Good guess, but no." – Ben shook his head. "Albedo is a galvan that built a rip-off copy of the Omnitrix. It synchronized with mine, and since my DNA is set as the default transformation, it turned him into me too."

Steven, processing this complicated explanation with a delayed reaction, took a few seconds to understand what Ben said.

"Okay, I think I got it. Except, what's a galvan?"

"You don't know what a galvan is? What are you, some kind of simpleton?" – Albedo sneered.

"Hey, I think I ordered some fries." – Ben reminded him. Albedo groaned, but got to making his order.

"Well, I guess I'll have something to eat, too." – Steven decided. "The bits." – he told Albedo.

"The what?"

"You know, the bits. The little bits and pieces of the potato that aren't big enough for actual fries." – Steven explained.

"We don't actually use potatoes in these. It's substitute bio-polymer paste." – Albedo said in a deadpan tone.

"Oh." – Steven said, disappointed.

"Yeesh." – Ben groaned, somewhat grossed out, but not grossed enough to not eat them.

"Well, does that paste have bits?" – Steven asked Albedo.

"I… guess?"

"Well, I'll have those." – Steven decided, even if it wasn't ideal.

"Fine." – Albedo said. Whoever was running this Burger Shack clearly didn't hold their employees to the same friendliness standards the earth fast-food chains did.

"A galvan is like my Grey Matter transformation." – Ben told Steven to elaborate on the conversation from just now as they sat down at one of the two tables the place had. "I think I showed it to you once, right? Yeah, on Little Homeworld, before the trip. It was a galvan, Azmuth, that created the Omnitrix in the first place, as a way to bring different species across the universe together." – he quickly ran it down. Ben half-expected Albedo to blow up at the mere mention of Azmuth, but he simply went about his work and paid no attention to him.

"So they can walk a mile in each other's shoes?" – Steven asked Ben.

"Exactly." – Ben nodded.

"But… If Azmuth can build stuff like that, can't he change Albedo back to normal?" – Steven suggested.

"Oh, Azmuth knows. In fact, Azmuth was the one that made it so Albedo here would look like 11 year old me instead of the current me. As a punishment. He used to be Azmuth's former assistant and built a rip-off of his idea, then tried to kill me, frame me, impersonate me, exploit my image with another crappy TV show and attack me with a Cassiopeian dream eater… well, not necessarily in that order. Not to mention all the times he tried to take the Omnitrix or the Ultimatrix from me…" – Ben went on.

"You're projecting, Tennyson. You're the one that stole the Ultimatrix from me." – Albedo corrected him somewhat irritably while working the deep frier.

"Only after you teamed up with Vilgax and tried to kill my friends." – Ben snapped back at him from across the room. "And anyway, you stole it from Azmuth first. And was that before or after you teamed up with Vilgax again to launch an invasion on Galvan Prime?" – Ben reminded him. "Aren't you supposed to be in prison after your and Vilgax's Malware stunt last month?"

"Azmuth decided that this body I'm trapped in is a worse prison than any cell, so he let me go. Similar to the concept you humans call "parole". He already had an inhibitor for my transformation regulator to prevent me from turning into other aliens, not to mention my original form. He even took away the polymorphic crystal that let me access my Ultimate forms."

"The one you stole?" – Ben reminded him.

"Whatever. And thus, I was trapped inside of a smelly, prepubescent child forever." – Albedo ranted on. "As if my nightmares weren't bad enough, my waking time is even worse."

"Yeah, yeah. Just put the chili fries in the bag, man." – Ben told him.

"Just take your disgusting human slop with extra slop and slop bits and leave me be!" – Albedo irritably yelled. "That will be 29 taydens."

"Yeah, sure." – Ben said as he stood up and went to the counter. He rummaged his pockets. There was one rectangular tayden coin, but that was only a 10.

"Hey, Steven, can you spot me 20 taydens?" – Ben turned back. "Guess I was short on money after all."

"I only have Earth money, sorry." – Steven shrugged.

"What? We spent all day on a taydenite mining colony! How do you not have taydenite?"

"Well, you actually met a Taydenite. The gem. If anything, you're the one that should have it." – Steven responded.

"Well, I can't just break a piece off of her, can I?" – Ben defended himself.

"Looks like there's no slop for you, then, Tennyson." – Albedo said smugly, took one of Ben's fries and put it in his mouth, just to tease him.

"Don't count on it, Albedo. I know where to get some more." – he answered, equally smugly.

Ben put two fingers on the Omnitrix's dial and activated it, scrolled the holographic wheel to the right alien and…

Slam.

As the green light that enveloped Ben's body and lit up the entire restaurant dissipated, Steven encountered an alien form that he had never seen Ben turn into before. It seemed humanoid, with two green eyes on its face, but strangely, no it had mouth. Its head was adorned by three large horns, like a crest, or a cosmic crown. Not just the crown, this entity seemed cosmic, in the literal sense of the word. What Ben had become seemed to be made out of space itself. His body was pitch black, with stars, constellations, entire galaxies interspersed in-between… it was like he had a universe living inside of him.

"Ben…?" – Steven asked, somewhat scared of what he had become.

Ben didn't move.

Albedo, once he saw what Ben had become, nervously staggered back, but his feet didn't obey him, and he fell down. So, on the ground, he crawled back and pressed himself against the wall, terrified to move further, or to even make a sound..

"Ben, you're scaring me…" – Steven said again to a still motionless Ben.

"Generation approved!" – the universe with a face spoke, and seemingly grabbed something from the air, though there was nothing there, and squeezed it, hard. When he let it go, there were two chunks of 5 taydens and one chunk of 10 taydens in his hand. And with that, the ominous entity turned back into Ben.

"What the heck was that?" – Steven asked, alarmed, but at the same time, relieved.

"Alien X. The most powerful guy I have. Remember I told you about how the whole entire universe got destroyed and I used him to rebuild it from the ground up?"

"You mean, you weren't kidding?! THAT WAS ALL FOR REAL?!" – Steven yelled, shocked.

"No, sir, I was not." – Ben dramatically said. "So, I got fined by the Galactic Court 20 taydens for doing that. Well, not me, but these two other faces floating around inside Alien X… it's a long story. The point is, Bellicus and Sareena owed me 20 taydens because I had to pay for them that time. And now I had them pay me back."

"But… b-but…" – Steven stuttered. "But, the economy!"

"Forget the economy!" – Ben brushed it off. "Albedo! Get up already, it's not like I was gonna do anything to you, here's your 30 taydens!" – Ben yelled over at Albedo, who was still in the corner. He quickly got up and tried to shrug it off, as if none of this had ever happened.

"Thank you for your patronage…" – Albedo said, probably since he was obligated by the restaurant. "…and please, never come again." – he added irritably.

"Hey, if Burger Shack is expanding into space, I WILL be there." – Ben responded as him and Steven sat down at the table with their fries. "I wonder how the heck did they even get this to work. We gotta be, what, five, six solar systems over from Earth?"

"Do aliens even like this stuff?" – Steven questioned.

"I know at least one alien that does." – Ben said with a smile. As they talked, Albedo took off the Burger Shack employee apron (revealing an inverted red and black version of Ben's classic T-shirt from his childhood underneath) and sat down at the empty table with a tray with two portions of chili fries all to himself.

"Laugh it up, Tennyson." – Albedo angrily said. "It's your own primitive, unevolved DNA that makes this garbage irresistible to me." – he told Ben as he shoved an entire fistful in his face.

"Honestly, I preferred when you looked like my current age. Seeing you as a kid is just… sad." – Ben told Albedo, who glared back at him resenting, hateful eyes. But, with a twelve-year-old's appearance, it was hard to take it seriously.

"Okay, that does seem kinda harsh." – Steven interjected. "Like, putting you in a body you hate… that's kinda inhumane, isn't it?" – he said. His mind reminded him of unhealthy gem fusions, the toxic ones like Malachite… and the horrible ones, like the Cluster or the smaller experiments. The comparison wasn't exact but those gems were also trapped as an entity that they didn't want to identify as.

"Listen, everything Albedo did, he brought it on himself." – Ben responded. "He built the ripoff Omnitrix that got him stuck as me, he tried to put a Cassiopeian dream eater on my face but slipped and put it on himself instead, and he attacked Azmuth twice and tried to suck out his brain, and that's why Azmuth had to disable his Ultimatrix."

"Really, Tennyson? Was it my doing that you interfered with my genetic recombinator after you had taken away my Omnitrix? All I wanted was to return to my original form, with no malice to you, and yet you still ruined everything by stepping into the recombinator and synchronizing it with your Ultimatrix settings!" – Albedo angrily pointed out. "Now I am forever bound to your degenerate DNA!"

"Okay, I'll admit that I didn't realize what was going on there, but to be fair, if you hadn't garnered a reputation as a guy who would probably build doomsday bombs, I wouldn't have assumed it was a doomsday bomb, okay?" – Ben defended himself. Albedo glared at him again.

"Okay, but how was setting him as an 11 year old necessary?" – Steven questioned again. "Like, they could have just put him in prison, right?"

"It wasn't. It was another one of Azmuth's displays of superiority to satisfy his own ego." – Albedo said with contempt.

"Oh, you would have done the same if he had been pestering you for all these years." – Ben carelessly told Steven, as if Albedo was nothing but a minor annoyance to him.

"Still, that just feels… petty." – Steven said, doubting his words.

"Listen, Azmuth is way smarter than everyone in this room combined." – Ben assured Steven.

"Speak for yourself." – Albedo told him.

"I am. You ever looked in a mirror lately?" – Ben asked to shut him up. "Anyway, if he did this, he had to have had a reason. So we can just leave the thinking to the First Thinker and just bust Albedo whenever he comes up with another nefarious scheme every couple months." – he assured Steven.

"I do not have so-called "nefarious schemes", Tennyson." – Albedo hissed. "All I have left is this insufferable job."

"Oh, shut up."

Their insightful and productive conversation got interrupted by a noise coming from outside. There was the sound of an explosion, followed by other noises of aliens yelling. Ben and Steven looked at each other, and without needing to say anything, immediately rushed outside.

Among the aliens fleeing for their safety, Ben and Steven noticed a pair that were the perpetrators of this disturbance. Both of them were holding massive guns, ready to demolish the entire station.

"The Vreedle Brothers!" – Ben called out.

"Oh, hey, Octagon, look! It's Ben Tennyson!" – the larger brother, Rhomboid pointed out.

"Well, I'll be darned, 'Boid, unless my opticular receptors are lyin' to me, it sure is!" – Octagon, the skinny one, said with a smile.

"Who are they?" – Steven asked Ben, ready to support him in case things got ugly.

"The Vreedle Brothers. The galaxy's worst guns for hire." – Ben quickly explained.

"Aww, thanks! You hear that, Octagon? Ben Tennyson just complimented our reputation!" – Rhomboid happily said.

"Not what I meant, but sure." – Ben quietly said, letting the Vreedles enjoy what they heard. "What are you guys doing here? You're gonna blow this place up halfway to Incarcecon, and get yourselves landed in there, too!" – Ben yelled at them.

"Youse don't have to concern yourself with the matter, Ben. 'Tis just a simple robbery." – Octagon casually told him.

"We's gonna find the shield generator thingy!" – Rhomboid added.

"By the way, Ma sends her regards to Sandra." – Octagon added. "She wants to know when youse coming to visit us for another luncheon."

"You guys are robbing the place and inviting Ben over to lunch?" – Steven asked, somewhat shocked by the two brothers' casual approach. "What are you, crazy?"

"Hey, we gotta make a livin' somehow." – Octagon shrugged.

"We Vreedles pride ourselves on our ability to differentiate ourselves from our professional life and our personal life." – Rhomboid said and nodded.

"Alright, it was positively delightful catchin' up with ya, Ben, but we've got a job to do." – Octagon then said and the two brothers went towards where the center of the whole pit stop was.

"Uh… hello? You can't just walk away like that!" – Ben yelled and chased after them, and Steven followed as well.

"Aw, are we back to the fisticuffs again?" – Octagon said with disappointment in his tone, though still aiming his gun at Ben just the same.

"You gotta do your job, I gotta do mine." – Ben answered.

"Fair enough. Youse still coming over for repast next week? Ma's cooking up pyroxovore meatloaf!" – Octagon still asked.

"I'll call mom, but I'm kinda on a road trip away from Bellwood right now, so I might not be able to make it."

"That's a darn shame." – Rhomboid shook his head, then, without warning, fired off his gun. It would have hit Steven directly, if he hadn't summoned the shield to protect himself.

"You hold 'em off, 'Boid, I'll secure our payload." – Octagon instructed his brother while he ran for the shield generator that kept the entire pit stop's micro-atmosphere intact.

"So, you this friendly with all of your enemies?" – Steven asked Ben while blocking more shots with his shield, which he had made big enough to protect both himself and Ben.

"Nope. Just the ones that aren't intergalactic dictators. How are the Diamonds, by the way?" – Ben jokingly retorted as he selected an alien and hit the Omnitrix. Steven rolled his eyes.

As Ben got enveloped by glowing green energy, Steven watched his form change to the shape of an insect, complete with six legs and even wings. Almost immediately, a nauseating stench filled up the immediate vicinity.

"Ew, what's this one, a dung beetle?" – Steven said while holding his nose with one hand, and blocking Rhomboid's shots with the shield on his other hand.

"Close. It's Stinkfly." – Ben said as he flew into the air and flew after Octagon, who was still running towards the shield generator. Rhomboid started shooting at Ben, but as Ben was moving, he was a harder target to shoot. And while Ben had Rhomboid distracted, Steven launched his shield at him like a giant frisbee, knocking him down. Though, as the shield hit Rhomboid, the direction Rhomboid's laser gun changed and this time he actually managed to hit Stinkfly, knocking Ben down and out of his lepidopterran transformation. Ben kept running after Octagon, but he reached his target and extracted what seemed like its power source.

"I can already conceptualize the money we're gonna get, 'Boid." – he said to himself as he put it in his bag.

Ben felt it – the sudden change in pressure in the air. It meant that the air that had started dissipating from the station and into outer space. He quickly started thinking over which alien would fix this. Could Gutrot generate enough air to counteract the loss while Steven stopped the Vreedles?

"Don't worry, I got it!" – Steven yelled. He had to concentrate – he's never done anything on this level before, but he couldn't dwell on if he were sure about this or not. Steven just had to seize the moment.

All of the sudden, the space around the pit stop turned pink.

"Octagon, did space turn over a new color or am I experiencing a sudden color blindness moment?" – Rhomboid asked his brother.

"No, 'Boid, I can confirm that you are not the only one experiencing this phenomenon." – Octagon scratched his head.

Only Ben realized what was going on. Steven had formed his protective bubble around them. Around the entire space pit stop, which was larger than several football fields put together. All contained within Steven's bubble, which usually only had a diameter of several feet. That would definitely make sure the air wouldn't escape into outer space.

"Gimme that!" – Ben said and tried to pluck the power source out of Octagon's hand while he was trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Hands off our bounty!" – Rhomboid yelled and lunged at Ben and Octagon.

"Come on, you're gonna wreck this place!" – Ben said while wrestling with the brothers. Even Octagon was a match for Ben's human form physically, not to mention the massive Rhomboid on top of them. Steven would have helped, but the massive bubble needed way more concentration to maintain than a regular one, or else it would pop.

And as they were struggling with each other, someone's hand must have hit the Omnitrix, as Ben got enveloped in green light once again.

"Quick, 'Boid, get the big gun!" – Octagon yelled as he saw Ben power up, but before any of them made a move, they were dumbstruck by what they saw.

"Uhh… hey, is this a new one?" – Ben asked out loud.

"It sure is." – Rhomboid nodded slowly. He didn't seem to want to fight anymore.

"What am I? I'm getting a positively disconcerting feeling about this particular transformation." – Ben said, with unusual level of articulation for his usual manner of speech.

"'Boid?"

"Yes, Octagon?"

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing, 'Boid?" – Octagon asked him.

"I believe I am, Octagon." – Rhomboid gave a single nod.

"What? What is it, youse no-good ignert varmints?" – Ben said, then immediately held his mouth. That kind of accent could only mean one thing.

"Yer our kinfolk now, Ben Tennyson!" – Rhomboid yelled out loud.

Ben was shocked.

The Omnitrix had transformed him into a Vreedle.

A Vreedle.

"This no-good watch is as useful as a bump on a log! What in tarnation is it playing at?" – Ben started yelling, already falling into the linguistic mannerisms of Vreedle-kind. "Well, ain't that perfect, it's even got me talking in redneck!"

"Hey, hey, don't go getting' yer knickers in a knot. You're one of us now." – Octagon said as he put his hand around Ben's neck in a brotherly way.

"Eggs-actly." – Rhomboid did the same.

"Octagon, gimme the gun. I'munna shoot myself." – Ben-Vreedle told him.

"Well, ain't you angry as a swarm of lepidopterrans?" – Rhomboid asked him. He still had Ben's head pretty much in a deadlock, and gave him a nuggie. Ben struggled to break free, even though physically he was bigger than Octagon (but no bigger than Rhomboid).

"Put the micro-atmosphere generator back to its original domicile, you hicks!" – Ben said as he struggled out of Rhomboid's grasp.

"'Course, 'course. After all, what else is family for?" – Octagon casually said as he put the power source back. Steven was finally allowed to let out a sigh of relief as he let the bubble pop.

"So, whatcha calling this particular transmogrification? You can't be plain ol' Ben now, can you?" – Octagon asked Ben.

"Ooh, ooh, I know! How 'bout Big Badda Boomstick?" – 'Boid suggested.

"Or, or… what's the name of the ten-sided polyhedron, again? Since he's Ben Ten an' all. So Dodeca- was for twelve, 'n…" – Octagon got to thinking, but he couldn't remember it.

"That's a Decagon." – Steven helpfully told him.

"Well, don't encourage them! Now it's gonna stick!" – Decagon yelled at him. Fortunately for Ben, he soon detransformed.

"Ohhh thank goodness I'm me again. I feel impure. Dirty on the inside." – he said, grabbing his own body to feel himself as Ben again. "This was a million times worse than turning me into a gem. At least Hardlight isn't a…" – he looked at the Vreedles.

"Well, even when yer not Decagon, you'll still be a Vreedle to us, forever an' always." – Octagon patted Ben on his back, nearly knocking him forward. "Come on, 'Boid. We'll get to blow something up sometime else." – he said as the two Vreedles left the scene. Ben would have tried to apprehend his newfound family, but even thinking of them that way horrified him.

"Oh, so now you know how it feels when you're stuck in a body that doesn't represent you." – Steven smugly said.

"Yeah, it's terrible."

"Well, that must be how Albedo feels like all the time." – Steven said, hoping that Ben would finally see his point.

"Yeah, well, I didn't do anything to deserve it, did I?" – Ben retorted.

"You can't just decide what someone does and does not deserve, though." – Steven continued.

"Let's just never speak about this, ever again." – a tired Ben said while rubbing his eyes together. Part of him was hoping this was a nightmare he was about to wake up from.

The author's note was written on 12/31/2024, two months after the chapter's release. Happy New Year's Eve!

I originally wanted to start off the chapter with the scene of Lars giving them the Star Skipper Mark II from his ship so that Ben and Steven could keep the Trip to Remember going in space, since the Dondai, well, can't. But ultimately I decided that scene was redundant so I just alluded to it in the beginning and had the chapter begin with them already having it. By the way, it's Mark II because Lars built a new one, this one having four seats like a real car instead of just the one the original had.

Moving on, this chapter was meant to kickstart the "Albedo" arc. Well, it's not exactly a "The Albedo Arc", but just an arc with Albedo in it. The arc, however, didn't end up getting kickstarted in the first chapter. It was probably not the perfect planning on my part but there wasn't enough space in the chapter to put Ben and Steven exploring the pit stop, meeting Albedo, getting into a fight scene and then also have that moment that you're gonna see in the next chapter all together. I guess that's why the Albedo conversation got cut so abruptly in this one, I just knew it would be picked up on next time.

As for the Vreedles... well, I always wanted to have them show up in this fanfic, multiple times, actually (probably), and this quick reintroduction of them into Ben's life was good enough. Plus, I used the time to unlock Ben's new least favorite transformation, Decagon and canonize this unofficial alien into the canon, or, well, my fanon. It is a pretty cool idea.

I actually finished this chapter pretty last-minute, on the last day of the month. You should have seen it, I was frantically looking up redneck phrases and complicated words to match the Vreedle pattern of speech while writing the last scene. I must have been half-asleep when I finally got to hit "Post". I didn't even bother writing an author's note back then. The plan was to do it in the morning, as well as any touch-ups this chapter might have needed. But the morning came and went, and days went with them, and I never found the time to return to this chapter. And I'm finally doing it now, in preparation to writing chapter 21. Honestly, I remembered being somewhat dissatisfied with the final product, but it was not as bad. I only had some minor dialogue changes and that was pretty much it.