Ben 10: Alien Rebirth
Chapter 30: Under Wraps
We begin the next event of our story at an old farm, where purple lightning strikes violently in the area.
We see three boys going cow tipping in the evening as the storm of purple lightning rages in the distance.
One of the boys, Todd Maplewood, is uncertain about tipping the cows at night, and says, "come on guys, my Ma wouldn't like it if we tipped her cows!"
One boy says, "ha! Mama's boy."
The other says, "yeah. Come on, how can you live on a farm and not tip a cow at least once?"
The first boy, "come on, just tip one!"
Todd, "ugh! Fine."
Todd waljs over to a cow and tries to tip it, but he cannot and trips over himself.
The other boys laugh at him, but the cow starts running towards them, making them flee from the angry bullvine!
The cow turns to Todd as he says, "nice work, Bessie. That'll teach them to tip cows."
But to Todd's confusion, the cow gives a frightened look and flees as well!
Todd turns around to see what exactly his cow was so scared of. And he felt a chill up his spine as he backed away from what was standing there. A rather tall Mummy with glowing purple eyes! They seemed to growl as Todd ran away as well, eager to get to safety and away from the horrifying creature!
….
Elsewhere, the next day, we return to the RustBucket.
Max has an irritated look as he sees dishes piling up in the sink, the trash can is overflowing with garbage, and there's laundry on the floor.
Chester pops up from a pile of laundry, a sock on his head.
Ben, Gwen and Hope are all currently playing the Sumo Slammers game. Gwen isn't wearing her glasses today.
Max, "I can't believe you kids. You haven't done a single one of your chores!"
Hope, "we'll get them done soon."
Ben, "yeah, just give us five minutes."
Max, "you said that fifteen minutes ago!"
Max groaned as he turned on the radio to distract himself.
"Are you tired of city life? Want to get some good hard work done? Well come on down to Maplewoods' farm! Help around the farm, sit down for a good meal, and enjoy the nice country atmosphere."
Max, "hmm…."
….
The RustBucket soon arrives at said farm.
Ben, Hope and Gwen all give worried looks.
Max has taken them to the farm to teach them about the value of hard work. Much to the trio's chagrin.
Gwen, "really Grandpa? A farm?"
Max, "hey, I used to help work on my uncle's farm when I was your age. A lot of good hard work should teach you three kids a thing or two."
Ben, Gwen and Hope all groan at the exact same time.
Joan Maplewood, who is Todd's mother, walks out to welcome them.
Joan, "well howdy! Welcome to Maplewood farm! I'm Joan, and I'm happy to see some people happy to help around here…."
….
A few minutes later, they are immediately put to work around the farm, doing a lot of hard, manual labor.
Hope is collecting eggs from the chicken coop while Gwen is carrying some hay in a wheelbarrow.
Ben tries to activate the Omnitrix and transform as he helps plow a field, but Max stops him.
Max, "no Ben. We're doing these chores without the aid of superpowers."
Hope quickly deactivated her powers, and had to quickly catch the eggs she had in the air from collecting them in the chicken coop.
Ben, "oh man."
The day seems to go on and on as the Tennyson crew work around the farm, with the younger members absolutely losing their minds because of the back-breaking work….
….
Later, we see the group at dinner.
Ben looks like he's about to fall asleep mid bite of his food.
Todd starts to tell Ben and Gwen something.
Todd, "I saw something really strange out there in the fields. It looked like a mummy!"
Joan, "oh Todd, not this story again. He keeps saying he saw a mummy all wrapped up in bandages out in the fields. I say it's just his overactive imagination."
Todd, "but mom!"
Joan, "no buts honey. Now, I suggest you finish your dinner and head into bed. We've got a day of work tomorrow."
Ben, "but it's only six o'clock."
Joan, "yep. Turn in early, get up early."
Hope muttered, "oh joy", sarcastically.
….
Later, as the kids are getting ready for bed.
Ben and the others approach Todd.
Ben, "so, you think you saw a mummy?"
Todd, "oh, I don't think so. I know so! I was out there the other night with two of my buddies. They wanted to do some cow tipping, and I messed with them. I trained my cow Bessie to chase after them after I failed to tip her. It was pretty funny. But she got spooked by something. A mummy! Tall, covered in bandages, glowing purple eyes!"
The others looked at one another, thinking the same thing. The last time they faced an alien with purple eyes was the werewolf alien. It couldn't be just a coincidence.
Todd, "I just hope that thing won't come after me or anyone else here. Well, g'night."
Todd soon tucks himself into bed as the others share a look. Something was going on….
….
We see Ben crawling out of bed, whispering, "it's hero time…."
As he makes his way out, Gwen and Hope have the same idea and follow Ben.
A few minutes later, we see the three young heroes sneaking out of the house to search for the mummy that Todd spoke of.
Gwen, "you think Todd was telling the truth?"
Hope, "he doesn't have much of a reason to lie. Plus, it can't be a coincidence that the second creature that resembles a monster also has glowing purple eyes."
Gwen, "yeah, that werewolf alien from New Mexico. And now we've got a mummy running around. That can't be a coincidence."
Ben, "regardless of what Todd saw, there's something going on. And we gotta figure it out…."
They sneak out and into the fields, and search for the mummy.
Hope spots something on the ground and says, "hey, look."
They find purple footprints leading to a crater.
Ben, "well, there's a start. Come on."
As they walk over to the crater, they see something quite horrifying!
Large, purple, mutant cows! They run at them and attack them.
Gwen, "what's going on with these things?!"
Ben, "dunno, but I gotta take care of them, and fast!"
Ben quickly pulls down his wristband, dials the watch and transforms into XLR8 in order to fight them!
XLR8 runs to the fence at the edge of the farm and uses the barbed wire from it to tie them up!
Gwen, "I think we all know what turned these things into…. This."
Hope, "it must be that mummy Todd talked about."
XLR8, "let's follow the footprints and see what's going on."
XLR8 grabs the girls and runs along the footsteps to where they lead.
They find another crater nearby, much deeper. And inside of the crater was the mummy that Todd saw, digging for some kind of glowing purple rock.
The Mummy sees our heroes, showing his glowing purple eyes.
Hope, "glowing purple eyes!"
Gwen, "just like the werewolf!"
The mummy growls in a whispery voice, "foolish children! None shall cross the mighty Imo!"
The mummy then attacks them, swinging his long arms like whips!
XLR8 tosses the girls to safety and starts fighting off Imo. Imo uses their bandages like whips, cracking them at XLR8 as he keeps running at them and hitting them with their lightning fast punches!
But like many times before, bad luck makes XLR8 revert back into Ben at the worst possible time.
Ben, "I swear, if I ever meet the guy who added this stupid time limit, I am gonna strangle them!"
Then, Imo pulls down a silo!
It starts to fall towards Ben, but Gwen and Hope manage to knock him out of the way.
Ben, Hope and Gwen quickly run and return back to the farm as Imo glares after them before going back to digging into the crater, growling, "pathetic children…. How did Talbot or our master lose to them!"
….
But just as Ben and the others lay down in their beds to get some rest, the lights turn on.
Joan, "good morning everybody. It's time to wake up and milk the cows!"
Ben and the girls all groan into their pillows as Max gets up with a smile.
….
We see Ben and the girls in the barn, ready to milk some cows.
Ben, "this is gonna take forever…. Unless we get a little special help."
Gwen, "Ben, Grandpa told you specifically not to go alien to do this stuff."
Hope, "yeah, I don't think we should do this."
Ben, "do you really want to spend all day doing chores that my aliens could do in a few minutes? Instead of getting the sleep we missed from going after that Imo guy?"
Gwen and Hope, "... let's get this over with."
Ben smiles as he activates the watch.
….
We see Ben using his aliens to do various chores throughout the day.
Ben transforms into FourArms to milk the cows two at a time.
He transforms into Wildvine to feed the pigs, easily lifting the trough with some vines.
He transforms into XLR8 again to harvest eggs from the chickens in five seconds flat.
He transforms into BuzzShock and uses his small and speedy nature to speed up the windmill.
He transforms into WildMutt to plow a field.
He transforms into Silverfang to frighten off some foxes that snuck around the chicken coop.
He transforms into TenTen to clean the gutters, flying up to do so.
He transforms into Detro to move some hay bales.
And then he transforms into Diamondhead to plant a fence in the ground.
During all of this, Gwen and Hope tidy around the farm house and distract Joan and Max as Ben handles the field work.
….
Later, as the group finally gets to relax, they go over to Todd.
Ben, "so, uh, hey Todd?"
Todd, "what?"
Gwen, "so, was there anything strange going on with this mummy you talked about?"
Todd, "oh! Yeah! There was some purple lightning in the distance. Really strange for a thunderstorm, if you ask me."
Ben and the others look at one another.
Purple lightning?
Just like the werewolf alien, who they now knew was named Talbot if what the mummy said was any indication.
Clearly there was some form of connection. It looks like they were dealing with another monster alien.
A little later, they went to Max to tell him about what was going on.
Max, "so, you think that monster you and Todd saw might be an alien?"
Ben, "yeah. Like that werewolf that gave me Silverfang. He even mentioned someone named Talbot. That must've been the werewolf's name!"
Gwen, "but I don't remember that alien mutating anything."
Hope muttered, "if only it had done that to Kai…."
Max, "well, it looks like we're on another monster hunt..."
….
We see the full group going through the fields later that night to find Im.
They find the cows that had been mutated, and Max uses a Plumber device to scan the cows.
Max, "hmm…."
Hope, "what is it, Max?"
Max, "it looks like these things were mutated by Corrodium."
Gwen, "Corrodium?"
Ben, "what the heck is Corrodium?"
Max, "it's a toxic mineral that mutates life. This 'Imo' must be searching for more of it."
Hope points to more of the footprints and says, "follow the glowing footprints, eh?"
Max, "smart thinking Hope. Come on."
They track Imo to the Digby Dairy factory and they enter in search for him.
Ben, "Digby Dairy are the guys that make my favorite ice cream. What would Corrodium be doing here?"
Max, "they must have accidentally built on top of some. And that's why the mummy is here."
Max uses his scanner to look for the Corrodium. And soon, the beeping on the tracking gets faster and faster, and the group all looks at the spot where the signal for the Corrodium is the strongest.
Max, "bingo."
Ben, "stand back. I'll dig up the Corrodium in no time at all."
Max, "use an alien that won't be affected by the Corrodium. We'll stand back as you do this."
Ben nods as the others back up and he activates the Omnitrix, dials in DiamondHead, and transforms into the familiar crystal alien.
DiamondHead, "alright, everyone stand back."
The others comply as he forms his hands into shovels and starts digging into the ground. Within a few minutes, DiamondHead managed to dig far enough to discover a large deposit of Corrodium!
But as he tries to grab some of it, his hands are suddenly wrapped in bandages!
DiamondHead turns to see Imo is the one with their grip on his hands!
DiamondHead, "you again!"
Imo, "you will not stand in my way, impudent brat!"
The mummy alien flings our hero away, but he manages to catch himself and charges at his bandaged foe! But Imo grabs the Corrodium, and looks stronger with it in his grasp, his eyes glowing brighter and his chest now larger.
Imo, "none shall stand in my way!"
That's right when the door to the large room suddenly opens!
A security guard arrives and yells, "what the Hell is going on in here?!"
Imo suddenly grabs the guard and mutates him! His skin turned charcoal black and purple like the cows!
They turn to look at the others as they watch the fight going on!
Max sticks some devices on Gwen, Hope and himself, which covers them each in a protective hazmat suit.
Max, "level 10 hazmat suits. Don't think your parents would appreciate me bringing you home all mutated."
Hope, "what about Ben?"
Max, "he's safe while he's DiamondHead."
The mutated guard attacks Max, Hope and Gwen, and they barely avoid the strikes it sends their way!
Gwen tries to perform a spell, but her hazmat suit inflates full of air, causing her to bounce around uncontrollably. After landing on the mutated security guard, her suit deflates.
Gwen, "okay, that's a note. Never try to perform a spell from inside a hazmat suit."
Hope, "glad I wasn't the one to try that."
Gwen quickly jumps off of the guard as it races after them!
Hope, Max and Gwen fight the guard, avoiding his strikes as he chases them, but they manage to find a large supply of packing tape and quickly use it all to tie him in it!
Hope, "ingenuity is our speciality, isn't it?"
DiamondHead and the powerful alien Mummy continue to fight, with the gemstone alien trying to slice Imo up, but said mummy keeps repairing itself and striking DiamondHead with their surprisingly strong blows.
As the mummy knocks DiamondHead over to the others, he reverts back into Ben after a few beeps of the watch.
Ben, "not good!"
Max quickly gives Ben a hazmat suit.
Ben, "thanks."
Max, "don't thank us yet!"
Iml begins chasing after Ben, knocking the others away as they did so.
Imo, "you will not stand in our way, boy! Our plans will come to fruition!"
But then, Ben trips him with some of the ice cream in the room, making them slide along the floor into the wall! As they try to get up, Hope blasts Imo with a marshmallow hose and Gwen dumps peanuts on him, sending him into a fan and tearing him up.
Gwen smirked, "aw nuts."
The others all groaned at the awful pun.
The group thinks they're safe, but Imo suddenly jumps from the frozen dairy treat, fully intact as it grabs Ben!
Gwen, "no!"
Hope, "Ben!"
Max, "let him go!"
Imo, "prepare to meet your maker, boy!"
Imo manages to tear Ben's suit to expose him to the Corrodium! But as they go in to do so, they touch the Omnitrix and it scans his DNA!
It flashes yellow with the strange symbol yet again, switching to the symbols of some of the other aliens, including the faded and glitched out symbol of GhostFreak!
Gwen, "Ben! It scanned the watch! Quickly, transform!"
Ben, "right! It's time to fight mummy with mummy!"
Ben presses the watch, but misdials and transforms into Upgrade instead!
Upgrade, "Upgrade? Aw, man!"
Upgrade manages to slip out of the mummy's grasp, but Imo quickly smacks Upgrade into the wall!
Imo, "you think a Galvanic Mechamorph can stop me?! Foolish child!"
Imo goes in to attack, but is pelted with blasts of purple magic from Gwen and Hope!
Hope, "leave him alone, bucko!"
Upgrade quickly looks around for a way to stop the mummy as it begins stalking towards the girls.
Imo, "you foolish girls have pushed me too far!"
Upgrade then sees the answer; a tank of liquid nitrogen! Upgrade merges with the machine and quickly sprays Imo with it!
Imo screams in a guttural rage!
Imo tries to grab Upgrade and the machine, but the liquid nitrogen freezes them in place!
Upgrade, "looks like I just put him on ice!"
Gwen groaned at the pun while Hope smiled at it, usually loving Ben's sense of humor.
Upgrade told Gwen, "oh, like your peanut pun was any better?"
The group soon buried the frozen mummy in the ground, with Upgrade using a forklift to pile the very deep hole with dirt.
Hope, "let's hope this alien stays dead and buried."
The others all said, "agreed."
….
The following day, the cows and the security guard transform back into normal, with no memory of what happened. Though the guard was very confused as to why his clothes were all torn up?
….
As the group walks over to the RustBucket, Max says, "we should get back to the farm. I'm sure Joan has some more work for us?"
Ben, Gwen and Hope all look at one another and make a choice.
Ben, "um, Grandpa?"
Gwen, "do you think maybe…."
Max, "what?"
Ben, Hope and Gwen, "please don't make us go back!"
Hope, "we'll do our chores!"
Ben, "I'll start with the laundry!"
Gwen, "I'll take care of the dishes!"
Hope, "just please, no more farm work!"
They all looked at Max in worry, but were relieved when he said, "oh, thank God. I forgot how much I hated working on my uncle's farm when I was a kid. Let's go tell Joan we're heading back onto our trip."
The kids all gave a sigh of relief as they all piled into the RustBucket.
….
We later see the RV back on the road. Gwen is doing the dishes as Ben is cleaning up the trash, and Hope is feeding Chester.
Ben looks at the mummy alien icon on his watch and says, "I wonder what I should call this one?"
Gwen, "Snare-Oh?"
Ben, "eh."
Max, "BenMummy?"
Ben, "you're starting to sound like Kai."
Hope, "ugh, don't even get me started on her."
Ben, "hmm…. How about; DoomStone?"
Gwen, "DoomStone?"
Ben, "yeah. Like tombstones. Mummies live in tombs. Doom sounds like tomb. DoomStone. Get it?"
Hope, "hmm, I like it."
Max, "pretty clever Ben."
Ben, "thanks."
And with that, the trip across the country continued once again, with our heroes wondering just where the heck Imo, and Talbot for that matter, had come from…?
….
Reviews:
Guest: yes, Kevin will initially take the wrap, but later, Ben confesses to Azmuth. I won't spoil how Azmuth will react though.
Amit Barabi: that was intentional. I really liked the Ink Tank's reworked Negative 10, and made certain changes. Such as Hex replacing Hope, Phil replacing the OC Kuro put it, Kevin being less monstrous in my version, etc. It's not gonna be a 100% copy of Kuro's version.
Monkey D. Conan: glad you liked the chapter.
OMNISENSE95: maybe….
Ushindi: glad you liked the chapter and my plans for the Negative 10. 1. I rank the art styles like this; UAF, Classic, OV, as my personal preferences. 2. I think Sugilite could have been handled better.
epantoja521: well, I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter so much.
ohnaMan: well, I personally like Rook, and have a small soft spot for Omniverse. But, I will clarify my plans for Omniverse. Omniverse will still start off with Gwen and Kevin leaving, but they won't be gone all the time. They'll pop up for certain missions that Ben needs help on. Hope, (Ben's love interest in this story, so Julie will be Ben's friend rather than girlfriend), would still be a permanent member of the team. Rook becomes a new member of the team, but his dynamic with Ben will be MUCH different. Rook will be a fish out of water that slowly adjusts to Earth's customs, with his naivete being contrasted by Ben being a responsible and mature hero, (he doesn't become a dumb jerk.) Rook wants to get to know Ben better, but Ben isn't as open with Rook at first, since he's the new guy. And don't worry, I don't plan to do any of the retconning, redesigns or universe rebuilding Omniverse did. No Alien X recreating the universe. Kevin and the Plumber's kids backstory won't be retconned when the Rooters show up. Ben is gonna get an improved version of the Ultmatrix, rather than a new Omnitrix, etc.
Omnicaster: I'm very glad you're so excited.
Jinero: that's indeed the name I chose. But the names of the evil monster aliens were something I did, since I love the classic Universal Monster movies. Hence the names Imo and Talbot. And good dialogue idea.
Guest: I'm glad you liked all of those little details and changes I added into the chapter. And yeah, I'm hoping to show more of the North Brothers later in the story.
….
I made sure to work in Silverfang for a moment, since we never really got to see him do much on the show.
And with a new alien comes an update to the list of aliens!
WildMutt.
FourArms.
GreyMatter.
XLR8.
Upgrade.
DiamondHead.
RipJaws.
StinkFly.
Cannonbolt.
HeatBlast.
BuzzShock.
Wildvine.
TenTen.
Detro.
Silverfang.
And now; DoomStone joins the roster.
Also, heads up; the Green Lantern poll has been closed, since I haven't been able to get more accurate votes.
The results, (with certain votes added or taken away):
Ghia'ta 9
Laira 8
Jessica Cruz 7
Queen Iolande 6
Bleez 4
Katma Tui 3
Aga'po 2
I know the poll said Jessica had 9 votes, but I took 2 away due to people not following the poll rules.
And thus, Ghia'ta wins, and her fate will he much different from the show.
Now with all that said, I've got a new poll up for a Ben 10 and Teen Titans crossover. It will be to see how many people wanna see who Ben will be paired up with in an AU.
Please vote, and pick five options.