Ch 10 The Gax Attacks

After having a fun day at the waterpart, in which Ben saw the alien obsessed weirdo and called the police about a strange man at the park, causing him to be taken away, the Tennyson family left the park and went to the Rustbucket.

Ben and the girls fell asleep while sitting at the table, with both girls resting their heads on Ben's shoulders.

Seeing the kids all tuckered, Max chuckled while smiling, as he got a blanket and covered them, before going to sleep himself.

...

The next day, Ben woke up and tried to stretch his arms, only to feel an unexpected weight on them.

Looking to his left and right, he saw the girls latched onto him, confusing him for a moment, until he remembered that he fell asleep as soon as he sat down yesterday.

He smiled at how cute they looked, but he needed to get up and make breakfast, so he tried to wiggle his way out of their grasp, but failed as they groaned and tightened their grip.

With a sigh, he covered himself with the blanket and transformed into Ghostfreak, phasing out of their grasps and turning back to human.

Adjusting the blanket and wrapping the girls up, he stroked their heads, making them smile cutely. He then turned and got started on making breakfast.

While he was making breakfast, the girls woke up, only to realise where they were and remembered sleeping next to Ben, resulting in their faces turning red while they glanced at each other in embarrassment.

...

After eating breakfast together, they all leisurely spent their day in the Rustbucket, just relaxing in one place for once.

Or at least they were supposed to, but Ben decided to use his time to dismantle Animo's transmodulater.

He already knows how it works, but he wants to remake it for his own purposes and while he could use Greymatter or Upgrade, he wanted to use his own efforts to do it.

As for what he was planning to do with it, he wanted to upgrade the Omnitrix and make it like the Biomnitrix, but with a single Omnitrix. And, if possible, make it similar to Ultimate Ben, so he can use some abilities in his human form.

In general, he can achieve it quite simply by removing the DNA Transformation Stabiliser, but that would cause uncontrolled, unstable combinations. Like incorrectly fusing Heatblast and Ripjaws, resulting in a self cooking fish.

If fused correctly, it could potentially make it possible to use fire under water or something. At the very least, it could give Heatblast the jaws of a Piscciss Volann, making for a mean and fiery bite.

Now, Animo's device wouldn't actually cause the combination, but it would perfect it, rather than creating some mix and match abomination.

The biggest problem he found, was that the Transmodulater was made with whatever Animo could get his hands on, making it unsuitable for the Omnitrix.

Hence the reason for dismantling the device. Take everything that can be used and create an improved version that can be installed into the Omnitrix.

So, another way of putting it, is that he's salvaging Animo's device for pieces, so that he can make his own.

Of course, seeing Ben mess around with a weird headpiece, Keira was interested.

"What are you doing, Ben?" She asked him, leaning over his shoulder and poking his cheek.

"I'm making something to add onto the Omnitrix." He answered simply.

"Do you actually know how to do that?" Looking at him questioningly, she clearly doubt him.

"Using my aliens and boosting my brain with Mana, I easily increased my intelligence. So, yes, I know how to do it." Plain lying about how he was able to do it, he didn't bother looking away from his work. "I can even make the phones Gwen and I use with a few minutes..."

He finished dismantling the device and separated the pieces he could use from the junk, at which point he picked up a pen and paper, writing down a bunch of complicated equations and drawings.

Keira was still leaning over him, looking amazed, but then appeared shy as she tapped Ben's shoulder. Ben finished his equation and looked at Keira to see what she wanted.

"Umm... Do you think... Would you mind making me one of those phones, please?" Looking embarrassed at asking for something, Keira turned her head to the side.

Standing up, Ben chuckled and stroked her head. "Sure, I'll just need to get some stuff. Keep an eye on the parts, would you."

Keira blushed and nodded happily. Ben then removed his hand and simultaneously turned into XLR8, zooming out of the Rustbucket to get what he needs.

In actuality, he had everything in his inventory, so he just ran around a bit.

While running around, he came across a kidnapping in progress. Some guy with the ability to control bugs was taking a woman.

Remembering that this was a Conon event, he sighed in irritation and changed into Big Chill, shooting an ice beam from his mouth and freezing the guy into a popsicle mid air. The guy fell from the air and shattered into little pieces, causing the bugs to disperse.

[You have gained 200XP]

[Unaccepted mission - You have gained 2 stat points in CHA]

Catching the woman, Ben carefully took her to the ground and then left, turning back into XLR8 and running around some more.

When he thought he'd taken enough time, he brought out the stuff he needed for Keira's phone and his Omnitrix component, before running back to the Rustbucket.

Putting the stuff down, Ben changed into Upgrade, absorbed the necessary materials and created a phone for Keira. The phone was just like his own, so she can contact the two of them whenever.

Undoing his transformation, he handed Keira her new phone and got back to work on his little project.

Max took notice of the appearance of a bunch of alien tech and walked over. "Where did you get all this, Ben?"

"I've been stashing it all away after any battles. I didn't think it would be wise, to leave any alien tech lying around for any random person to take." Wripping out a processor from one of the Vilgax drones, Ben explained to Max.

"Aah, now that you mention it, that was a good idea..." Rubbing the back of his neck, Max awkwardly replied.

Ben nodded and continued his work with his upgrade.

As he worked, he was constantly trying to improve on his biggest obstacle. The size. Using various designs and minimising unnecessary material.

By the end of the day, he had succeeded in making something that would latch onto the Omnitrix, over the dial. It was the best he could do with his current resources and intellect, and while it wasn't bad per se, it was quite an eyesore.

So, deciding that he had successfully completed his task of making the upgrade by himself, he can use other means. Meaning, he could upgrade the upgrade with Upgrade and fuse the fusion upgrade into the Omnitrix. Now, that might seem like a whole lot of upgrades, but that's only because it is a whole lot to upgrade. (A/N: I swear I'm not high...)

Turning into Graymatter, Ben looked over his project and mentally noted where he could make it better, before changing to Upgrade and absorbed the fusion component.

He made the improvements that he thought of with Greymatter and then upgraded it to the best he could. Placing his hand over the Omnitrix on his chest, he started installing the upgrade.

As a result of using his Galvanic Mechamorph powers on the Omnitrix, Ben felt his consciousness get sucked inside the device and saw thousands of store DNA samples locked away, along with the fourteen he has access to.

Other than the DNA samples, he found a bunch of safety protocols, programming and even guides. Like, there is a freaking tutorial on how to use the Omnitrix and why it was made, the only problem being that the user would need to actively search for them. Pretty stupid, considering you won't know how to do that without the tutorial...

Finishing the installation into the Omnitrix, Ben Willed his consciousness to exit the Omnitrix and was immediately taken out of his transformation, as the Omnitrix symbol turned yellow and started spinning.

"A new component has been installed. The Omnitrix will now enter sleep mode and updated to work with the new component. While updating, the Omnitrix will be unusable." From the Omnitrix, a robotic voice informed Ben of what was happening.

Ben sighed, knowing he had no choice but to wait, he decided to just go to bed. As he drifted off to sleep, he had one though on his mind. 'I hope I don't end up needing the watch...'

...

As he slept, Ben was plagued with a strange dream.

Visions of Vilgax appeared and told Ben that he was coming for him. Rather than worry Ben, this only annoyed him as he woke up in the middle of the night.

Looking at the Omnitrix, he found that it was still yellow and groaned. He closed his eyes again and started meditating, no longer feeling like sleeping.

...

After five hours, Ben had to get up and make breakfast, so he stopped his meditation and made breakfast.

Using this time, he decided to check on his missions, using it as an indicator for what's to come.

[Missions:

1. Shouldn't said that - You raised the flag, now accept the consequences! Don't die.

Reward - ??? and ???

Failure - You die... Duh. Also, you'll feel the pain of being smacked by a To'kustar.

2. Consequences - Ever played a TDF game? Or maybe Beatsaber? Don't use any instant Recoveries for the first ten minutes of fun.

Reward - Double xp.

Failure - Half xp.

3. Boss Fight! - Defeat the Boss.

Reward - 10,000SP

Failure - People gonna die!

4. To Kill or not to Kill? - Killing is easy, but it can have grave consequences. It's your decision whether to kill your opponent on not.

Kill Reward - Title: Anti-Hero

Spare Reward - Title: Hero

Failure - N/A]

Seeing so many quests at once, Ben was almost hesitant to accept. Especially with the whole part about being hit by a To'kustar...

With a gulp, he bit the bullet and accepted the four missions.

When breakfast was done, he called to the others, ate his food and then sat out of the way, meditating once more.

The reason he was so committed to meditating right now, is because if something is going to happen, then he wants to be prepare as much as possible, before shit hits the fan.

So, for the next few hour, he meditated in an attempt to increase his Mana supply for safety. But, as he cycled his Mana through his body, there was a sense of urgency in his action and forced it to flow faster. Then, as his Mana completed a few rotations with it's increased speed, he suddenly felt it become purer and move more smoothly.

As his Mana flowed through his body, he got notification.

[Mana Manipulation increased to Lv-2]

With increased fervor, Ben continue training, now gaining 10MP every 10 minutes, instead of 5MP.

...

After a few more hour's passed, Ben was abruptly disturbed by the sound of beeping. Opening his eyes, Ben looked at the source of the beeping, the Omnitrix, he saw that it was flashing on and off, with the dial popping up and down as it turned seemingly randomly.

'This can't be a good...' Ben thought to himself nervously. After watching the Omnitrix flip out for a moment, it suddenly stopped completely, but the dial remained in active mode.

That was when it started speaking again. "Omnitrix's update nearing completion. Estimated time - Fifteen Minutes." It then started slowly flashing on and off.

Ben gulped, quite easily predicting out what was about to happen.

Moments passed and to him, the world went silent, before erupting with screaming, explosions and speeding cars.

Getting flung from his position, as the Rustbucket swerved suddenly. Getting up, Ben rubbed his head as he saw a notification.

[Mission Timer Starts Now - 10:00]

[9:59]

Seeing this, Ben jumped to his feet and ran to where he left the Sangheili warrior's armour.

Ignoring the actual armour, because it isn't suitable for his human body, he grabbed the energy sword that was with it.

Igniting the sword for a second and then turning it off, Ben quickly tried to changed his clothes with Omnitrix, which still had some functionality, giving him a style of primarily black and red for detailing. Making sure to have a hoodie and mask, so that he could hide his identity.

Then, bolting out of the RV, he was presented with a view of carnage, as a ship hovered above the city as hundreds of Drones flew out of it.

In the streets, fire and rubble cover the streets, while people ran around in panic of the Drones shooting at them.

Starting to sprint, Ben charged toward a group of Drones headed his way. Jumping up and igniting his sword, Ben shifted into his Anodite form and felt his Mana become much easier to control.

With an excited smile, he continued through the air, now flying at the Drones and slashing them to pieces. As he slashed apart one group, he would shoot Mana blasts at another.

His attention wasn't completely focused on attacking though, he would also create a barrier to protect civilians every now and then. But, whenever he did that, it usually resulted in getting him getting hit.

As he weaved through the swarm of Drones, he cut them down in droves with his energy sword, he started to feel the pressure at the near endless amount of enemies.

To make things more difficult, he was constantly keeping an eye one Gwen and Keira, who were working as a team, either fighting or helping civilians. When fighting, Gwen would create an illusion to distract a Drone and Keira, with her fists barely covered in a metallic shine, she would be the one to smash the Drones.

Max was primarily focusing on helping the people get out of the danger zone, which was basically anywhere Ben was at right now.

Getting bombarded with Drone after Drone, it was inevitable that Ben would quickly grow tired. So, in order get some breathing room, he sent a blast of Mana from his entire body and destroyed all the Drones with five metres of him, then ducked behind some debris.

Serveying his surroundings, he saw that he wasn't alone and that there was a small group civilians next to him.

He lifted his hand and did a slight wave to the people as he panted tiredly. "Sup? How's you day going?" Seeing that they were scare, he tried to lighten the mood.

A small child approached him, with a look of amazement in his eyes. "Are you a Superhero?"

Chuckling, Ben shook his head. "I'm 'Super', but I'm not a hero."

One of the adults then spoke up. "A-are you an alien!?"

"Eh, I'm half alien." As he answered, he popped out of hiding for a moment and shot some blasts at some Drones, before ducking back behind his cover.

Feeling low on Mana, he knew he had to refuel, so he began thinking over what he could do about it. Looking at the scared people, he suddenly got an idea.

"Hey!" Getting their attention, he asked them for something. "I'm running low on energy, would you mind if I took some of yours?"

His question confused and scared them. Clear by the fact that they backed away, so he put them at ease. "Don't worry, it won't hurt you or anything. You'll just feel a bit tired."

Looking at each other nervously, they seemed to come to a silent agreement as they all nodded.

Sighing in relief, Ben smile at them. "Thanks!" He then stuck his hand out towards them and began pulling their Mana out of them. Just enough, so that they would feel tired, but not unable to move.

As their Mana was sucked out, they felt a tiredness wash over them, but then heard a cheerful voice. "That's better! Anyways, I have some fighting to do!"

The Mana of the group wasn't too high, but it was still enough to make him feel more energetic.

Hopping out of cover again, he shot towards a new group of Drones and began tearing through them.

After getting through a few hundred Drones, creating giant piles of them, the attacks died down.

Not seeing any Drones in the vicinity, Ben decided to regroup with the other three. When he got to them, he turned back to human and the girls immediately began checking him over for injuries.

"Are you okay, Ben!?/How hurt are you!?" With teary eyes, they started looking him up and down, worrying about the slightest scratch.

Ben laughed and stroked their heads, assuring them that he was fine. "Don't worry, I'm fine-" Before he or the others could even try to relax, Ben felt danger sense go off like a siren.

Without thinking, Ben transformed again and grabbed the girls, flying into the air for a few metres and narrowly dodging something that smashed into the ground where he was stood.

A dust cloud was kicked up by the impact, allowing them to see only a large silhouette within. The figure inside waved his arm and swept the dust away as they exited the crater they'd made.

From the crater, emerged the big bad boss of the drones, the squid that just won't quit, Vilgax.

"At last we meet. The being that has caused me so much trouble!" Looking down at the four of them, Vilgax spoke with a guttural voice. "I am Vilgax! And the Omnitrix will be mine!"

Upon seeing him, Max was shocked and frightened. He thought that Vilgax was dead, but here he was, standing infront of them and looking more dangerous than ever.

"Kids, in the Rustbucket! Now!" With a frantic shout, he ordered the kids into the RV, while he started shooting at Vilgax.

Ben quickly flew down and placed the girls at the doorway. He then went on top of the Rustbucket shot a whip of Mana towards Max, grabbing and pulling him to the RV.

Max looked at Ben and shouted. "Ben! Come on get in!"

"Just start driving! I'll stay up here and keep firing at him!" Ben responded, as he began throwing mana discs at Vilgax.

The discs barely did anything, but they did make decent cover, because everytin me they hit Vilgax, a burst of light was generated and blinded him.

Max wanted to refuse, but seeing as Ben wasn't planning on fighting, only obstructing Vilgax, he decide do as Ben said. Getting in the Rustbucket, he ran to the driver's seat and put his foot on the gas pedal.

With the screeching of the tires, the Rustbucket began speeding away, with zero regard for road safety.

Turning a corner, Ben threw one last disc, overloaded with the rest of his Mana and spinning like a buzzsaw.

The Mana disc arced through the air and flew towards Vilgax, who had just enough time to regain his vision and saw the attack right infront of him, too close to dodge or guard against.

A loud buzzing echoed through the streets, followed by a loud and angry roar from Vilgax.

Seeing as Vilgax was no longer within sight and that he was practically out of Mana, Ben flew down to the door and went inside the RV. He reverted his transformation and immediately sat down cross-legged, meditating in order to regain even a bit of Mana if he could.

As he meditated, he took a look at the timer for his mission and saw that it was at the last minute.

While he meditated, Gwen and Keira were freaking out and asking for an explanation from Max, who started telling them about his last interaction with Vilgax. How, years ago, when he was an active Plumber, he fought against Vilgax and thought that he had been defeated.

Ben simply ignored the conversation and counted down the seconds until he could use his Recoveries.

Each second that passed seemed like an eternity, but time did indeed pass and the final seconds came.

[0:10]

[0:09]

[0:08]

[0:07]

[0:06]

As the seconds passed an uneasy feeling washed over him and Danger Sense began warning him of something approaching.

[0:05]

[0:04]

Feeling the danger closing in, along with his vulnerable state, Ben's heart began beating in rapidly, as if in sink with Danger Sense and making him all the more nervous.

[0:03]

[0:02]

[0:01]

[0:00]

Upon seeing the timer reach zero, Ben immediately used an instant recovery, restoring his stamina and Mana, while also healing him.

At that same moment, Vilgax jumped infront of the Rustbucket, with his arms bulging and looking extremely pissed off. Probably because he seemed to be missing a good part of two of his tentacles and slash across his face.

Max slammed his foot on the brake, but the RV was already too close and smashed into Vilgax, who simply caught it.

Seeing Vilgax in front of them, Max pressed some buttons and the outside of the RV was electrified, shocking Vilgax.

"Graaah! Tennysooon!" Letting go of the RV, Vilgax glared at Max through the windscreen. Taking advantage of this, Max put the Rustbucket into reverse and backed away as fast as possible.

Vilgax started charging after them, quickly closing the difference. This was when Ben stood up and went to the front, seeing the approaching enemy, then looking at the two frightened girls.

Sighing, he started walking to the door, changing to his Anodite form as he went.

'This is peobably gonna be a painful five minutes...' Thinking this, he opened the door and flew out, ignoring the panicked shouts of the others.

Exiting the RV, he sped towards Vilgax and kicked him in the face, releasing a burst of Mana at the same moment his attack made contact.

Due to Vilgax's forward momentum, the force of Ben's kick hit him even harder than in should have, as his head was blown back and he slammed into the ground.

Ben then made a Mana tentacle and wrapped it around Vilgax's leg, before flying on top of the the RV and shouting. "Grandpa, floor it!!"

Understanding what Ben was going for, Max turned the RV around, pressed down on the gas pedal and began pushing a few buttons, causing the shape of the Rustbucket to change slightly. Thrusters formed at the back, while the front became a battering ram.

The Rustbucket began speeding down the street, while Ben was on top of it and holding on for his life, dragging Vilgax along the ground, scraping and battering off the road.

As he did this, Ben's Anodite childish/playful side came out and he started laughing at the site of the 'mighty' Vilgax being dragged through the streets.

However, Ben's laughter seemed to enrage Vilgax, who slammed his arms into the ground and effectively anchored himself, the sudden stop pulling Ben off the RV.

Max tried to stop and turn around, but the thrusters didn't allow him to do so.

"WOAH!" Flying off the Rustbucket, Ben couldn't control his exclamation as he face planted into road. Groaning, he held his hand to his forehead and stood up.

At the same time, Vilgax stood up while growling angrily. "You are going to pay for that, boy!"

"Uhg... What's wrong slimy? Didn't enjoy the ride?" Rubbing his head, Ben quipped mockingly at him.

"Grr! You dare mock me!? Do you know who I am? You are interfering in matters far greater than you!" Vilgax took a step towards Ben, cracking the ground beneath him.

"Yeah, I know who you are." Raising into the air, Ben began circling him. "You're a space squid that is horny for other races, but are so ugly that not even a Lepidopterran would wanna touch you. That's why you want the Omnitrix, right? So that you'll finally be accepted."

The more he spoke, the angrier Vilgax became, leading to Ben breaking out into laughter. "Oh man, you look so mad! Hahaha! Come on, Vilgax~ Can't you take a joke?"

"Enough!!" Finally losing his cool, Vilgax roared and jumped at Ben.

Ben dodged narrowly and dramatically showed it, all while smiling. "Woah there! Why so mad bro? Did you forget to eat breakfast or something?"

Vilgax didn't reply this time and simply jumped at him again, only to be dodged and mocked. This started a game of cat and mouse between them, where Vilgax would try to kill Ben and Ben would dodge while mocking Vilgax.

On and on it went, causing great amounts of damage to the surroundings.

The reason Ben was acting this way, was so that he could gain the time needed for the Omnitrix to become active again. This proved to be a very good strategy.

Minutes passed by and Vilgax seemed to be tiring himself out, but that didn't stop him from continuing to attack Ben.

But, using his air superiority, Ben continued evading him, while also throwing in some Mana blasts occasionally.

Soon enough, Max had returned and saw how Ben was handling the situation, feeling somewhat shocked by how he played with Vilgax.

He was going to go and help, but he saw Ben signal him by tapping the Omnitrix. Understanding what he wanted, Max begrudgingly stayed back and waited, convincing the girls to do the same.

It finally got to the point that Vilgax couldn't stay silent any longer and shouted at Ben. "Stop this childish game and fight me seriously!!!"

Ben simply floated in the air and grinned. This was also the same moment that he heard the Omnitrix stopped blinking yellow and turned to its usual red, releasing a unique sci-fi noise, making Ben's grin widen.

Lowering himself to the ground, Ben reverted to his human form and began speaking. "You know... You should be careful of what you wish for!" His voice got progressively louder and a red flash enveloped him.

Vilgax squinted and waited for the light to dissappear, so that he could set his sights on his enemy. When the light dispersed, he saw a tall, red, four-armed creature.

"A Tetraman? If you think this will help you defeat me, you are sorely mistaken." Unimpressed by the transformation, Vilgax lowered his upper body and sprung forward, going to punch Ben in the head.

Smirking at the approaching Vilgax, Ben waited for the punch with his arms crossed. Just as it was about to hit, he used a single arm and caught Vilgax's fist.

Vilgax was surprised and tried to pull his arm back, but found he was unable to, so he chose to try punching Ben with his other fist... Only for that to be caught as well.

Tugging his arms, Vilgax tried to free himself from Ben's vice like grip. "Grr... What trickery is this!? Even if the Omnitrix increases your age in transformation, a Tetraman of your age shouldn't be this strong!"

"While that might be true, I'm 10x stronger than even a trained adult normally. My transformations strength are directly correlated to my own. Age is no longer a factor in this." As he explained, Vilgax's eyes widened in shock at the realisation of what this entailed. "In other words... You done goofed."

With that said, Ben threw Vilgax up into the sky, before jumping up after him. When he reached Vilgax, he clasped all four hands together and smashed them into Vilgax, causing him to be hurtled back down the ground.

Ben then turned into Big Chill, spreading his wings out to cancel his continued ascent and then dived down, turning into Diamondhead and curling into a ball while creating spikes all over his body.

His trajectory was set straight for Vilgax and with his increased weight, Ben fell even faster than Vilgax.

Like an oversized spiky cannonball, Ben smashed into Vilgax, injuring him and increasing the speed of their descent, resulting in them plummeting into the city below like a meteor.

A massive crater was made as result of this devastating blow, while the city shook from the force of it.

Ben, still in the form of Diamondhead, jumped out of the hole he created and waited for the dust to settle.

As the the dust dispersed, Vilgax climbed his way out of the hole, looking quite beaten up. His face was bruised and there were lacerations all over his body, while his armour was cracked and dented.

"This... is not... over! I will not... be... DEFEATED" With a shout of defiance, Vilgax's arms became enlarged, he jumped at Ben and began punching him furiously.

Ben did nothing more than fix his stance, so that he could take the punches without going flying.

Quite quickly however, Vilgax ran out of steam. Literally. His arms released a tone steam and deflated, while he fell to his knees tiredly.

"What's wrong, Vilgax? All out of steam?" With some amusement, Ben grabbed him by the head, pulling him to eye level.

"How could this be... You're nothing but a child..." Sounding unwilling to accept reality, Vilgax muttered mostly to himself.

Lose his amusement, Ben looked at him apathetically. "I will admit, this is a rather sad way to go out... So, I'll give you the honor of being the first to bare witness to my improvement upon the Omnitrix."

"There's no way a mere human coul-" Before he could finish, Vilgax was shocked to see the Petrosapien body develope cracks filled with glowing magma running through them, reminiscent of a Pyronite.

"You should be grateful... That you get to witness the power of a Petrosapien and a Pyronite in one being." A blazing heat coming of him, he spoke with a deep crackling voice.

With a single thought, he had commenced the fusion, unlike how the Ultimatrix works.

"And now... You die." He sharpened his arm and rammed it through Vilgax's head. Not a single drop of blood fell, as the heat from his arm scorched the inside.

Pulling his arm out, he tried to change forms to Upgrade, but was instead kicked out of his transformation altogether.

When this happen he was confused and looked at the Omnitrix, finding that it was completely normal. He tried to transform again and this time, succeeded.

'I must be unable to transform into other aliens when in a fusion...' Thinking to himself, he looked to the corpse of Vilgax and spread his arm over it, consuming all the armour and cybernetic implants inside.

Removing his hand from the body, he changed back a human and kneeled down to the body, pressing the Omnitrix against it and retrieving Vilgax's DNA.

Once he was done, he changed into Wildmutt for a moment and captured Vilgax's scent, before quickly changing into Heatblast and incineration the body to ashes.

Then, he again turned into Wildmutt and fused with the DNA of XLR8. His body then became more streamlined and gained some blue streaks.

Using the heightened sense of smell and the scent he got from Vilgax, he zoomed off through the city and got the two tentacles that he had cut off Vilgax.

He doesn't want some nut job getting their hands on it and try to do some stupid experiment that might revive Vilgax by some bullshit. Even going so far as to burn the blood...

Following that line of thought, he sped through the city and retrieved every bit of alien tech he could, then flew up to Vilgax's ship and turned into Upgrade, absorbing the ship completely, before returning to the ground.

With his objective complete, Ben turned into XLR8 and ran back to the other three, detransforming when he got to them.

Upon his arrival, he was wrapped up in a hug by the girls. Ben hugged them in return and stroked their backs to comfort them.

"Ben! You idiot, why didn't you run away!?" Crying into Ben's shoulder, Gwen started hitting him, albeit with difficulty.

"..." Keira on the other hand, buried her head into his neck while sniffling and quietly muttered. "Please... don't do that again..."

Sighing, Ben released them from his hug and placed his hands on their faces, wiping away their tears and getting them to look at him. "Come on, stop crying. Everything is fine, I'm fine... You both should to stop worrying about me and grow stronger. The world is dangerous... I can handle myself, but I can get carried away, so I'll be counting on you to make sure I stay in one piece. Is that okay?"

Hearing that he wanted to depend on them, they looked at him and seemed to gain a look of determination, as they nodded with the tears stuck in the corner of their eyes.

"Thank you." Giving them both a smile, he kissed their foreheads, causing them to turn bright red and run away, into the RV.

Chuckling, Ben shook his head, before sighing tiredly and looking to Max, who started walking towards him. He was expecting to get a lecture, but against all expectations, Max dropped to his knees and hugged Ben.

"I'm glad you're safe, Ben..." Sounding a bit choked up, patted his Grandson's back.

"You're... Not mad???" With a raised eyebrow, Ben asked with confusion evident in his voice.

Max stood up and ruffled Ben's, releasing a short sigh. "No... Vilgax was a very dangerous being and this was the right thing to do... I tried and failed once. It was my responsibility to defeat him and I failed, so I won't reprimand you for this, but that doesn't mean I agree to you doing it again. Understood?"

"I will try to give some people a chance if I think they deserve it." Deciding that he could at least try to live up to his Grandfather's expectations, Ben gave a partial agreement as a middle ground.

"*Sigh* Okay... That's better than nothing... Anyways, let's get to the Rustbucket and get out of here before trouble finds us again." With a joking tone, Max patted Ben's shoulder and they made their way to the RV.

While doing this, Ben decided to receive all his rewards, meaning finding out what the first missions would give him.

[Missions Complete - Piece of paper with a picture on it, To'kustar DNA unlocked, x2 xp, 10,000SP and Title - Anti-Hero.]

[4660xp for Drones and 2000 for Vilgax - Received]

'... I don't have a good feeling about that piece of paper...' With that thought, he just continued walking to the RV with Max.

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[Anti-Hero: As an Anti-Hero, those that know of your exploits, are more likely to be afraid of you, but that can be changed when they get to know you. Meanwhile, all those that would oppose you will be especially wary of incurring your wrath.]

[Status -

Name - Ben

Lv - 18 (1890/1900)

Title - Wielder of the Omnitrix, Anti-Hero

State - Healthy MP - 3090

STR - 46

END - 47

AGI - 46

CHA - 48

INT - 54

LUK - 666

AP - 35 SP - 1,385,750

Primary Skills: CQC Lv-5, Marksmanship Lv-5, Intimidation Lv-3, Danger Sense Lv-3, Sneak Lv-4, Mana Manipulation Lv-2

Secondary Skills: Drawing Lv-3, Math Lv-3, Writing Lv-3, Maneuvering Lv-5, Driving Lv-4, Engineering Lv-5, Cooking Lv-3, Pain Tolerance Lv-8, Bioengineering Lv-5, Programming Lv-5, Torture Lv-1, Acting Lv-2

Unique Skill: Wrath, Love and Lust, Complete Language Comprehension, Eidetic Memory, Analyse, Night Vision]

(4 Recoveries Stored)