"Make way, make way, coming through!" – a voice tried to make its way through the gathering crowd, accompanied by a rather tall top hat and goggles that was the only part of the figure that towered over the crowd. "I say, what is all this commotion about?"
The hat on his head almost did a flip once he saw Ben Tennyson in the center of the crowd.
"My boy, how absolutely delightful it is to see you here!" – he rushed over and grabbed Ben's arm with all four of his hands, shaking it vigorously.
"Um… who's that?" – another human next to Ben asked.
Ben gave a deep, exasperated sigh. "Professor Blarney T. Hokestar. You're here as well."
"Indeed I am, my boy. And I'm so glad to see you triumph once again over those hooligans!" – Professor Hokestar told him. "IN CELEBRATION, ALL OF THE FRIES AND DRINKS AT BURGER SHACK, BEN TENNYSON'S FAVORITE PLACE FOR HUMAN FOOD, ARE 50% OFF!" – he declared to the crowd of onlookers that had gathered around Ben and Steven after the fight with the Vreedle brothers.
"Seriously?" – Albedo, who had followed Hokestar, whined.
"Rev up those fryers, my boy, we're about to have a big boom in business!" – Hokestar encouraged him.
"Wait, so you're the one behind the Burger Shack in here?" – Ben asked to clarify. "Wasn't your stunt with the Mr. Smoothy store not enough?"
"Always chase new business opportunities, my boy. That is the key to success!" – Hokestar said with his finger pointing up, as if it was some brilliant insight he had just shared.
"So who is this… Professor, exactly?" – Steven asked Ben.
"He might act like he's an entrepreneur or something but he's an intergalactic charlatan selling bootlegs and ripoffs and crap." – Ben quickly ran it down.
"Charlatan?!" – Hokestar's mustache nearly fell off his face at the word, overexaggerating how much he felt offended at the word. "Come now, my boy, even you will have to admit that my product is top quality! Have you tried our chili fries yet? Albedo! Albedo, get Ben Tennyson and his friend a serving of chili fries on the house!" – Hokestar yelled. This was no laughing matter, the crowd, and more importantly, their wallets were watching.
Meanwhile, Albedo seethed, as now he would have to go through the humiliation of serving Ben Tennyson again… for free.
Meanwhile Ben, who had earlier gone to the trouble of turning into Alien X and altering the fabric of the universe just to pay for the chili fries, went a little bit red.
"No thank you, Professor Hokestar. We just had some." – Steven intervened.
"What is wrong with you? We were about to get free chili fries!" – Ben objected in his ear.
"By the way, I do believe we haven't been properly acquainted, my boy. Any companion of Ben Tennyson's is a good friend of mine, of course."
"Oh, right. It's nice to meet you, Professor Hokestar. I'm Steven Universe." – Steven pleasantly introduced himself as he held his hand out.
"Steven U…" – Hokestar muttered under his breath, and once the realization hit him, his hat fell off his head, revealing his baldness. "You don't mean… THAT Steven Universe, do you?"
"The one and only." – Steven said, somewhat anxious as to where this conversation was going. When someone had an exaggerated reaction to his identity, it almost never went well.
"My boy, you don't know how much of an honor it would be if you came to visit my shop!" – Hokestar told him. "Come, come!" – he encouraged them while pulling at their arms – two of them at Steven, and the other two at Ben.
"Keep an eye out for anything potentially illegal or dangerous. Especially if it's an animal." – Ben instructed Steven as they had no choice but to follow him.
"Nonsense, nonsense!" – Hokestar insisted.
They arrived at Blarney T. Hokestar's Extraterrestrial Emporium, which was actually an extension of the Burger Shack building.
"So, how is Gemworld doing? I hear it's much more open these days." – Hokestar insisted himself upon Steven as they entered.
"Um, yeah, that's right. For the first time in history, it's open for anyone to explore the gem Homeworld and get to know their architectural and technological achievements…" – Steven started explaining, but it was clear that Hokestar stopped listening after the word "open", which for him, meant "open for business".
"You're wasting your time, Hokestar." – Ben interrupted the discussion. "Gems don't need to eat or drink, they wouldn't want your Burger Shack or Mr. Smoothy."
"Now, now, who said anything about franchising?" – Hokestar tried to steer the conversation away.
"You did, just now!" – Ben pointed out.
As Ben and Hokestar argued, Steven took a look around Hokestar's shop. Vials of supposed "miracle elixir", souvenirs, artifacts, collectibles, a giant Moai head for some reason… if you didn't have a need for it, you were likely to find it here.
"See anything you like? Anything at all? You may keep it, at no charge, of course, heh." – Hokestar insisted to win over some good faith.
"Oh, I couldn't take anything for free." – Steven meekly said.
"But you must! You are the hero of this station, after all! Here, how about this?" – Hokestar grabbed an item off the shelf and pushed it into Steven's arms. "I would be deeply heartbroken if you refused this gift of gratitude."
"Well, I guess in that case, I'll keep it…" – Steven gave in as he examined Hokestar's "gift". It was a fragment of some sort of ornament, about the size of a belt buckle, somewhat resembling a face or a mask. It clearly used to have something attached on both sides that were broken off. Steven had no idea what was he even supposed to do with it, but he just wanted to be polite.
Ben, however, got a bad feeling.
"Hey, I've seen that before!" – he pointed out as he walked up to Steven. He picked it up from Steven's hand and said "isn't this the…"
But before he could finish his sentence, a jolt of shock struck him, coming from the ornament, and cutting him off mid-sentence. The same shock struck Steven before he had the chance to let go of the item. Both of their muscles spasmed, but neither could let go of the ornament.
Steven noticed a green wave of energy generating over him, while a similar but pink one came over Ben. To him, it felt like energy itself was being drained from his gem, and to Ben, it felt like the entirety of the Omnitrix's energy was being passed through him, but try as they might, neither of them could let go and break the circuit.
Finally, the energy flow cut off and the connection severed, blowing up in their hands. The ornament landed on the floor unscathed, while Ben and Steven got knocked against opposite walls – Ben into a tall stack of boxes, and Steven into a shelf.
"Unghhh, what was that?" – Steven asked while coming to.
"Please tell me we did not just switch bodies." – Ben said while lifting his head. He looked down at his hands. His arms were skinny, and his left one still had the Omnitrix on. Bodyswap was ruled out. "Hokestar, why do you have the Dominus Librium?" – Ben turned to Hokestar, who had dived behind the counter to avoid whatever the energy blast entailed.
Suddenly, the top box from the stack Ben had gotten knocked into got tipped over and started falling towards the floor, right on top of Ben. Ben instinctively raised his hands above him to protect his head and closed his eyes, expecting an object of medium weight to land on him, but…
Thud. A soft collision was heard, but Ben did not feel it. He looked up, and something green was on top of him, like a force field that protected him from the falling box. He put his arms down and finally got up, and the "force field" followed his left arm while the box fell to the side.
"Uh… Steven?" – Ben asked, examining the phenomenon, somewhat surprised.
"Ben?!" – Steven said, even more shocked than Ben.
"What's going on?" – Ben asked as he finally took one good look at what just happened. In front of his left arm, where the Omnitrix was, was a shield. And not just any shield. It looked like it was made from hard light, and it had an hourglass figure purfling on it, with the Omnitrix symbol in the center.
Ben had just created Steven's shield. His own version of it. By himself, without transforming.
"Okay, this is seriously freaky." – Ben said.
As they were trying to process it, Steven's gem lit up so bright that Ben could see it even through the shirt. Steven pulled it up, revealing his bellybutton. Except, his gem wasn't acting all normal, either. Something resembling a hologram had projected out of the gem, something that seemed really familiar to Ben. Before Ben could say anything, though, Steven put his hand on his gem to feel it, and that was when it happened.
To Ben and Professor Hokestar, the room got enveloped with blinding pink light. But to Steven, the near-instantaneous process felt like it was working at him, piece by piece. He felt like his whole body was crystallizing, starting from his wrist and running down his fingers, then going up the rest of his arm until it reached his head and the rest of his body. He felt bigger, stronger, and two large spikes protruded from his back. Steven even felt a bit of relief, as if these spikes were always there and fighting to be released from the body. And finally, the transformation was complete.
Ben just stared at him with his jaw agape.
"Ben? I didn't fuse with somebody, did I? I feel like I just did." – Steven said, but it wasn't in Steven's voice. He looked down on his hands, but that was not Steven's body. "No, it can't be fusion, I still feel like me. Just me. But why am I another gem now?"
"I think I see what just transpired." – Professor Hokestar, who watched the situation unfold, stepped forward. "You, my boy…" – he looked up at Steven – "now have the ability of the Omnitrix to turn into one of the many alien forms you may choose from. And you, Ben…" – he turned back to Ben – "now have the properties of Steven's gem, such as creating shields.
"That's pretty freaky." – Steven said, examining his crystalline fingers. "That means I'm not a gem? So, wait, which transformation is this again, Ben?"
"Dude, you're Diamondhead." – Ben told him. "Heh. Ironic." – he chuckled.
Indeed, Steven had just turned into a petrosapien, a form that beyond superficial similarities and a coincidental name had nothing in common with actual gems or their Diamonds. And Steven looked slightly different from the way Ben's Diamondhead looked – Steven was slightly shorter and stouter, and the transformation's "clothes" were now colored pink and baby blue, and even had the Crystal Gem star insignia all over him – scattered on his arms, going into a trail across the torso and then down his legs. The pointy head that Diamondheads had was facing forward instead of backward, giving his head a pompadour-like appearance. Instead of the Omnitrix, Steven retained his Pink Diamond gem on where a petrosapien's belly button would be.
"Okay, so is it just the shield, or what else can I do?" – Ben said as he looked at the Omnitrix and recalled Steven's other abilities. "Okay… bubble!" – Ben said, and at his command, a green tinted bubble appeared around him, then disappeared. "I gotta admit, it is kinda cool."
"Woah, you can already use the shield and the bubble? I used to have a hard time with them when I first used them. When I wanted to call for one I'd get the other." – Steven-head said.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but turning into stuff and having to learn their skills on the go is kinda like, my whole thing." – Ben pointed out.
"That's fair." – Steven agreed.
"So how is this possible, anyway?" – Ben asked as he went to the middle of the room to pick up the ornament that caused all of this. Three was no doubt about it now. It was the single remaining shard of the Dominus Librium.
"Where did you get this, anyway?" – Ben asked Hoxestar. "Let me guess, a guy with a metal mask?" – he said, before Hoxestar even got the chance to answer that.
"You know what it is?" – Steven asked him.
"It's some kind of ancient artifact from Earth that allows the transfer of energy. A bad guy named Darkstar conned Kevin with it and absorbed his powers, and even though it got destroyed, it still maintained the ability to transfer power when activated. I guess the two of us touching it at the same time was enough of a spark to make it work one more time." – Ben said. He walked up to Steven with the Dominus Librium and rubbed it against his diamond skin.
Nothing.
Ben rubbed it against Steven's gem, while holding his Omnitrix against it.
Still nothing.
"Guess it was just a one-time thing." – Steven supposed.
As he said that, the gem, in place of the Omnitrix, started flashing, and in a red flash this time, Steven was back to himself.
"So, is that how it feels?" – he asked Ben.
"It kinda becomes instantaneous when you get used to it." – Ben explained. "What I'm wondering is how exactly is your gem was able to transform you. I mean, something like this happened before. There was this other bad guy called Inspector 13 that tried to hack into the watch and the energy surge resulted in it getting synchronized to Gwen and Kevin. So, every time I tried to transform, the Omnitrix… actually, back then I had the Ultimatrix, but anyway, it would turn them into my aliens instead of me. But that was different. They even had the Omnitrix symbols on them, as if they were transformations, and the transformations still came from here." – Ben held up his left wrist.
"But with you, it's like your gem has turned into an Omnitrix of its own." – Ben said as he examined the gem on Steven's bellybutton. He touched it, and sure enough – a pink hologram depicting the Omnitrix's exact interface popped up. "Like I know you can shapeshift, but to turn into my aliens your DNA would have to change completely. Stinkfly, Swampfire, Buzzshock, Atomix, Whampire, Humongosaur… Well, it seems like you have my whole playlist." – Ben concluded.
"And how can the Omnitrix have the abilities of my gem?" – Steven asked a similar question. "Are the shield and the bubble made from the energy stored within? And what else can you do? I wonder if you can shapeshift like me. Do you have my healing spit, too? Mind projection?" – Steven wondered.
"Okay, let's try it out." – Ben said as he spat on his hand and held it out towards Steven.
"Dude, I'm not even injured!" – Steven said and tried to move away from the hand, grossed out.
"Just messing with you." – Ben laughed.
"TENNYSON!" – they heard someone yell. It was the voice of a child, so it had to have been Albedo, but it didn't sound like him. In fact, the voice sounded very familiar to Steven. Even then, it was somewhat off from Steven's voice, as well. And then, the person that this voice belonged to entered the room.
He looked like Albedo, but at the same time, he did not. Sure, he kept the pale skin, the white-gray hair and the red eyes, but his face and body were completely different. Instead of being a negative copy of Ben Tennyson, Albedo had become a copy of… Steven.
And not just any Steven. The 5-year regression Azmuth had put into Albedo's watch still worked, so Albedo had become the antipode of the adolescent, 11 year old Steven. Even his clothes matched the ones Steven wore at that age – a plain T-shirt with a star on it, but it kept Albedo's colors – crimson shirt and black star.
Ben tried not to laugh, he really did, but the sight of Albedo's hate and animosity contained within the mushy face of a child Steven would make even Bellicus laugh.
"Why, why, why is it that you must constantly ruin my life and humiliate me by turning me into these abominable, horrible, disgusting transformations?" – Albedo yelled out and charged at Ben.
Ben stopped him by holding him at his forehead at arm's length while Albedo desperately tried to reach him with his punches.
"Honestly, this is kinda sad." – Ben said. "Albedo, you're a hyper-intelligent genius. You might be in the body of a child but that doesn't mean you should act like one."
Albedo fell to his knees. "Even this ape is lecturing me on maturity now…"
"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that."
"Oh, come on, what's wrong with my body, anyway?" – Steven asked him. "I mean, you were already Ben, so am I really all that worse?"
"I am overweight and underdeveloped and these uncoordinated, maladroit sausage fingers couldn't even work the GREASE FRYER!" – Albedo yelled.
"Okay, that's just plain rude." – Steven commented.
"What in Axion's name did you do to get me stuck into THIS body?" – Albedo yelled out to Ben.
"It's not like we did it on purpose! It just happened. Look." – Ben said as he summoned the shield. Steven pulled up his shirt again and showed him the Omnitrix's interface.
"You two… exchanged the abilities of the Omnitrix and the gem?" – Albedo asked, grabbing Ben's arm and ignoring personal space. He examined the Omnitrix from up close. "This makes no sense. It looks unchanged, but it's emanating solid photon energy… You, hybrid, show me your gem." – he said as he approached Steven and leaned down to look at his belly button.
"So, your diamond has become the recipient for the omnienergy. How do these gems work exactly? Do they have the capacity to store data?" – Albedo looked up at Steven.
"Ummm…" – Steven awkwardly said, as he honestly had no idea how to answer that question.
"Of course. I should remember what company I am in." – Albedo remarked and glanced over to Ben. "As far as I'm aware, the gemstones are the main part of the gem entity and their physical bodies are just hardlight projections like the shield that I saw, is that correct?" – Albedo asked.
"Yeah." – Steven nodded. Ben smirked at Albedo saying "hardlight".
"Then they would have to store information in them. From the memories to their genetic code, or the gem equivalent thereof, all of it must be stored within the gemstone. But would it have the capability to store the entire codon stream? I highly doubt it. No, what is much more likely is that your gem has synchronized with Primus just like the prototype Omnitrix would." – Albedo concluded. "Either that, or only the genetic information of Tennyson's current playlist entered yours."
"Primus?" – Steven questioned, but Albedo ignored him.
"I'll tell you later." – Ben said.
"And since my form has been calibrated to Primus as well, all credit to Tennyson…"
"Hugh tricked me!"
"…the default transformation changed from him… to you. How did you two even manage to accomplish this?"
"You can ask your boss." – Ben pointed out and pointed over his shoulder at Hokestar. "He had this in his possession and that's what did this to us." – he explained as he showed Albedo the remaining shard of Dominus Librium.
"Lemme see that." – Albedo grabbed it out of his hand.
"Dude, this is super weird." – Ben whispered over to Steven.
"Do I really sound like that?" – Steven asked him.
"No. Well, a little bit. But mostly it's different. Puberty, you know." – Ben answered. "Don't bother trying to get it to work, we tried." – he then told Albedo.
"You probably just tried to activate it by physical contact and gave up when it didn't work. There is much more to it than that." – Albedo sneered. "Fortunately for you, I know how to fix it."
"Yeah, in your dreams, buddy. I'm not letting you near this thing. Azmuth will fix us up in no time." – Ben told him as he pressed the Omnitrix's communicator button. It didn't work. Ben kept tapping, but it was as if like the Omnitrix was dead.
"Ben?" – Steven asked and pointed at his gem. His hand was getting tired of keeping his shirt up, and he was getting somewhat cold.
"Even the communicator?" – Ben asked.
"I guess?" – Steven shrugged.
Ben walked over to Steven and leaned down to his exposed belly. "Don't say it." – he told Steven.
"I'm not gonna make it weird unless you do." – Steven assured him. Though, that didn't help.
"Okay, how do I even do this? This thing doesn't even have any buttons!" – Ben pointed out as he twiddled with Steven's gem.
"Dude, you're tickling me!"
"Shut up!"
Albedo watched them judgmentally, shaking his head.
"Okay, maybe it's still got the voice function. CALL AZMUTH!" – Ben yelled out into Steven's gem. "OMNITRIX! CALL AZMUTH!"
"CALL AZMUTH!" – Steven yelled too.
"Calling Azmuth." – Steven's gem actually said, and in Steven's voice too. Soon afterwards, his belly projected a pink hologram with Azmuth's face on it.
"Um, hey, Azmuth." – Ben awkwardly said. "So, uh, long story, there's something wrong with the Omnitrix and…"
"I already know. Figure it out yourself." – Azmuth coldly told him. "I'm not a mechanic at your beck and call, Ben Tennyson, and I am incredibly busy right now. Sometimes you're going to have to figure things out on your own."
"Oh, man, come on! If you're not gonna do it, I'm gonna have to ask Albedo!" – Ben whined.
"Why would Albedo even bother to help you?" – Azmuth questioned him.
"Because…" – Ben said and stepped away Albedo in Steven's body. "The Omnitrix issue also affected him."
Azmuth observed him for a moment, and Albedo didn't say anything. Even though he told himself he didn't care what Azmuth thought, he was deeply ashamed of the situation he was in. Not just being in Steven's body – him default Ben form was hardly any better.
And Azmuth… Azmuth laughed at him.
"Bah… bahahahahaha!" – he couldn't help himself at the sight of Steven-Albedo. "That's perfect, then. Perhaps a mutual conundrum such as this one will finally get you two to solve your differences." – he told them and hung up.
"There's nothing to solve." – Albedo grit through his teeth. Through that statement, Azmuth had just put him down on the same level as Ben Tennyson as if they were equals. If there were any differences to be solved, it would be between Albedo and Azmuth, but Azmuth didn't even acknowledge him as his peer.
"I guess we're stuck with each other." – Ben turned to Albedo.
"Now that Azmuth doesn't want you, sure, turn to me." – Albedo said with contempt. Though, no matter how he tried, it was still hilarious to see him say this as an 11-year-old Steven. "Maybe I don't want to help you anymore. Maybe I like this new form now. What do you think of that? At least I don't have to your hideous face every time I see a reflective surface anymore, and I'm even free of your carnal desire for chili fries!" – he triumphantly exclaimed.
Though, when he mentioned chili fries, he realized something.
"Oh, no… no, no, no, no, no, nooooooo!" – he yelled out.
"What is it?" – Steven asked, somewhat concerned.
"I STILL CRAVE THEM! HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE? I'M SUPPOSED TO BE FREE OF THIS ACCURSED DNA!" – Albedo yelled out in anger. "YOU!" – he ran over and violently grabbed Steven. "ARE YOU ALSO AN ENJOYER OF THESE CHILI FRIES?"
"Well, spicy food has never really been my thing." – Steven admitted.
"Honestly, Albedo, at this point you have to admit that you just like chili fries. I have nothing to do with it." – Ben commented.
"Or, I've spent so much time with your antediluvian body that it permanently altered my brain chemistry!" – Albedo yelled out. "I still want them… And yet, it's somewhat different." – Albedo then said. "Thinking about them makes me want to crunch on tiny, hard fragments of them…"
"…That would be the bits." – Steven concluded. "That must be coming from my body."
"Theeee bits! Theeee bits!" – Ben did Steven's thing, but Albedo shot a glare at him. "Okay, okay. So, are you gonna help us fix this or no?"
Albedo considered his options.
"Fine." – he finally said.
"Really?" – Ben and Steven asked.
"If nothing will free me from the chili fry curse, then I might as well stay in Tennyson's body. These fat fingers are really uncomfortable." – Albedo said.
Steven looked down at his own fingers to see if they were really that bad.
"Okay, so, get started, then."
"Obviously, I don't have the technology to do it, especially not here. If I did, I wouldn't be working in a burger shop for him." – Albedo pointed at Hoxestar, who was still in the room, all but forgotten. "And I'm not welcome on Galvan Prime. Fortunately, I know of one place we could make use of, under the circumstances."
"And where would that be?" – Ben suspiciously asked.
"Xenon." – Albedo simply said.
"Xenon?" – Ben asked, wondering where he heard that before.
This author's note was, too, written on 12/31/2024. Still New Year's Eve. Happy Easter!
Okay, so I yapped about this last time, but yeah, this is the kickstarter of the arc. Ben and Steven swap powers, and Albedo is caught in the middle. What fun. Now can you imagine if I had to fit half of this chapter into the last one? Would have been a mess.
Albedo was form-locked even without the Omnitrix in the Ultimate Alien episode Double or Nothing when he built a genetic recombinator or whatever that would allow him to turn back to his original form, but then Ben thought he was building a doomsday device and interfered, and Albedo ended up stuck as Ben for his default form, but he can transform at will without an Omnitrix or Ultimatrix. This is still canon in Omniverse, the "Ultimatrix" he wears is just a stabilizer for his transformations, but there are a couple discrepancies. If he is physically stuck as Ben with no connection to the Omnitrix or the Codon stream, then his only transformations would be the ones Ben had at the time in his active playlist, but that doesn't explain how he had Gravattack in Omniverse. Even Derrick J. Wyatt admitted he didn't have an answer. So I'm basically gonna retcon that into saying that Albedo's body is still synchronized with the Codon Stream (even without an Ultimatrix) which is how he got Gravattack which is also how he ended up in Steven's body here. Fun.
I initially wanted Albedo to have an active watch so he could transform into different aliens as well as have Steven's gem physiology in his default state. That would have been a fight scene when he first showed up where he'd be mad at Ben and attack him with Rath. But then I realized Albedo being stuck in Steven's body would be pretty much useless if he could still transform into any alien at will. So Albedo dual wielding Ben and Steven's powers would be hard for the story.