Ch 11 The Faces and Prison

After fighting an army of robots and the squid bastard, Ben and the other three were tired, so the kids were lying down wherever they found comfortable.

Max didn't get that same luxury however, as he was driving away from the city where the battle took place.

Ben was lying on his back and regaining the Mana he had spent during the fight. As he did this, he heard Gabriel's voice in his head. "Ben, aren't you going to look at what the paper you received is about." She sounded almost amused about something, but Ben ignored it.

'... I don't think I want to...' Replying tiredly, Ben was apprehensive about looking at it. Something was telling him not to, and that it was going to be something annoying.

"You never know, it might be something important." Pushing for him to look, Gabriel tried making an excuse.

The way Gabriel was so invested in getting him to look at the paper, Ben suspected that she was up to something and was made even more apprehensive about doing so. But, he also felt as though she wasn't going to let it go, so he gave in. 'I can't be bothered to do it, so can you just send whatever it is to my mind?'

"Okay!" In an extremely cheerful tone, which gave Ben a feeling of foreboding, she did as he asked of her and awaited his reaction.

'...' The moment he saw what was contained on the paper, Ben felt like destroying something. Gabriel on the other hand, began sniggering and then burst into laughter. Hearing her laughing at him, he grumpily clicked his tongue. 'I hate you...'

The reason for their reactions, the thing on the paper, was nothing more than a simple pictures... But what those pictures were, were nothing but trolling images...

His reward for survival, was more like a punishment for him, while Gabriel was laughing at his expense.

Gabriel slowly stopped laughing and with a sweet, mocking tone, responded to him. "Aw. Don't be like that. You were talking all about how you loved me not too long ago~"

'Tch... Just you wait. I'll remember this in the future!' With a grumble, he shifted on to his side.

"Oh no..." Answering with sarcasm, she projected a false air of fear. "Whatever shall I do? If only I was a disembodied voice and incapable of being hurt..."

'Yeah, yeah. We'll see...' Saying those final words, her cut their connection and thought to himself with a slight smirk. 'You won't be so confident when the time comes.'

He then decided to take a nap while Max was driving.

...

A short time later and Max had stopped the RV in a clearing. When they stopped, Ben and the girls got up and went outside to be in the sun, while Max went to lie down for a bit.

Given his free time, Ben decided that it would be a good opportunity to test out his Omnitrix's fusion mode.

Considering he had already used Diamondhead and Heatblast, along with Wildmutt and XLR8, he decided to start with Diamondhead and fused with the other main ten aliens. Then moved on through the others.

From there, he discovered that each alien resulted in a particular affect. The affects being;

Heatblast - Generates veins of magma through the body and grants various degrees of flame manipulation.

XLR8 - Makes the body slimmer or more aerodynamic, gives blue streaks in various areas and increases speed, even in flyers.

Diamondhead - Turns different part body into crystal or grows spikes. Plus, different degrees of crystallokinesis.

Willmutt - Gives heightened sense.

Greymatter - Heightened intellect.

Upgrade - Certain areas of the body become that of a Galvanic Mechamorph and allow for minor tech integration.

Ghostfreak - Gives intangibility.

Ripjaws - Gives gills and webbed fingers for underwater breathing. Plus, jaws.

Fourarms - Causes the body to bulk up and increases strength. Depending on the transformation, it may give two more arms.

Big Chill - Gives the same cloak like wings, which change in colour and materials, and varying degrees of cryokinesis.

Of course, the fusions can have unique results depending on the order they are fused in.

For example, Heatblast and Big Chill. If he starts as Big Chill and fuses with Heatblast, then all that happens is that Big Chill gains veins of magma through his body, along with fire abilities. But if he starts as Heatblast and fuses with Big Chill, then along with the wings, his fire will turn blue, but he can use ice and fire.

There is also Heatblast and Ripjaws. Heatblast as a start, fused with Ripjaws, will take on the body type of Ripjaws, but maintain the rock and fire body. Whereas, if he starts with Ripjaws, he keeps the same fish body and gains the usual magma veins, with fire which can be used for underwater propulsion.

After he had tested all his main transformations, there was a particular transformation he wanted to test and that was... Way Big!

Obviously, he wasn't dumb enough to actually turn into the behemoth of an alien, but he did want to try it with a fusion.

So, he turned into Greymatter and then fused with Way Big. The result was as he expected, he grew in size from a few inches tall to about the size of an adult man. Should help in creating things at times, but that only applies if the transformation sticks for an extended period of time, which he decide to test now.

...

For the next 59 minutes, he tested his physical abilities and found that he was stronger than his normal self, but not by much.

As the final few seconds came and the one hour mark arrived, he was forced out of his transformation and returned to being human.

He looked at the Omnitrix, thinking that the battery had probably been drained, but found that it was still operating perfectly fine. After giving it some thought, he came to the conclusion that he simply couldn't stay fused for more than an hour, but seen as it wasn't a problem, he didn't continue thinking about it.

Seen as he was so close to his next level, Ben decided to start doing his daily workout mission, which he hadn't done for few days now.

While Ben had been figuring out the specifics of his Omnitrix fusion upgrade, the girls had been sitting in some chairs and watching him with intrigue, which only grew when they saw him begin his workout.

Their intrigue was devoted solely to Ben himself, not the fact that he was transforming and fusing different aliens together, which was an impressive display. During their Ben gazing, they chatted together.

"Why do you think Ben works so hard all the time?" With an almost worried tone, Kiera asked Gwen, who seemed to similarly feel worried about him.

"I don't know... He's been like this ever since he got the Omnitrix..." She watched him sadly and sighed. "I mean, compared to before he got it, I think it's better to have him like this, but he rarely seems to rest..."

Kiera's face scrunched up in thought. "Do you think, maybe he is worried about something?"

"Maybe... But he acts like it's all natural to him. He doesn't hesitate to jump into a fight and moves like he's done it all before. Even without the Omnitrix, he doesn't seem bothered by danger." Gwen was clearly worried about his health as she said this.

"Yeah... When I met him, some thugs whose base I'd messed up, came over and wanted to make trouble with me, but Ben stood in front of me and protected me..." As she spoke, she stared at Ben, who was doing push-ups, a look of longing surfacing in her gaze. "He was... Amazing... but also scary... The way he easily beat them up, dislocating ones arm and standing on the leaders throat while looking at him so coldly... It was shocking..."

Gwen looked at Keira with some surprise. "You guys never mentioned that before..." She then turned her gaze back to Ben. "But its not surprising. Ben and Grandpa don't know that I know this, but on the second day of our vacation, there was a robbery at the mall we were in and I got hurt, and apparently, Ben totally lost it and almost killed the guy that hurt me..." As she talked about it, she touched the area of her head which had gotten hurt, but was now fully healed.

"..." Keira remained silent for a moment, before looking at Gwen curiously. "Does it scare you? I mean, the way fights like he was born for it and he doesn't have any problems with killing either."

"No, I'm not scared of him." Without a moments hesitation, Gwen answered resolutely while looking at Keira, before looking at Ben with worry. "But, I am scared for him... I already spent years wishing he was like 'normal' people and I had a cousin I could spend time with, and now that he is somewhat normal, he keeps doing dangerous stuff. Not to mention, I've found out that we're not actually related and..."

Keira was still staring at her curiously, which turned into realisation. She leaned over to Gwen and whispered into her ear. "You like Ben too, don't you."

Hearing this, Gwen's face turned red in embarrassment and she was about to deny it, but then fully realised what Keira had said and looked at her with shock. "'Too'? You like Ben as well!?" She asked in loud whisper.

Keira blushed a bit and nodded, outright confirming her feelings for Ben, but not ignoring the fact that Gwen didn't deny her own feelings for him. "So we both like him...?"

Blushing bright red, Gwen didn't do or say anything for a few seconds, but soon nodded, both accepting and confirming her feelings.

After that, a strange silence fell over them, in which they would glance back and forth between each other and Ben.

Eventually, Keira got sick of the silent and awkward atmosphere between them, so she looked at Gwen with a firm gaze. "Hey... Seen as we both like him, why don't both try to be his girlfriends?"

Gwen looked at strangely, like she was completely out of her mind for thinking of something like that. "We can't do that, it's wrong!"

Keira maintained her firm gaze and asked. "Why? What's wrong with us both being with him?"

"I... I-I don't know, but it is! You can only be with one person at a time and that's it!" Stuttering and with a lack of confidence, she tried to justify herself.

"Who says that you can't be with more than one person? Back at the waterpark, when we saw 'THAT', there wasn't a problem even with there being three other girls." At the mention of 'that' time, the memory surfaced in their minds vividly. Coughing a little to refocus their attention, she continued. "B-besides, if we both like him and he likes us, why should we care about some stupid rules!? Me and Ben aren't even fully humans, we shouldn't have to follow those rules anyways!" Puffing up her chest, she showed her rebellious, delinquent like behaviour in ignoring the rules set by others.

Staring at her delinquent friend in disbelief, Gwen didn't know what to say. She wanted to refute, but at the same time, she didn't. By agreeing with Keira, she can avoid competing with and potentially losing her friend.

Not to mention, Keira had a point, in her own bizarre way. Why should they have to follow the rules of humans, when two of them were aliens? But there comes the kicker, Ben and Keira are alien's, while what is she? Just a human... Even if she can use magic, she's not like those two and she knows it...

Keira saw that Gwen suddenly became depressed, so she flicked her forehead, making Gwen pouted while she rubbed the flicked area.

"What was that for?..." With an unhappy tone, Gwen whined at her.

"I don't know what you're thinking about, but it is probably something stupid, so stop it!" Sighing and sounding more mature than she had ever displayed, Keira stared into Gwen's eyes seriously. "What were you even thinking about?"

Gwen looked away slightly, but answered. "Well... It's just like you said, you and Ben aren't just humans... But I'm..."

"Are you dumb?" Saying these words, Keira got Gwen to look at her. "You can use magic! I wish I could do that! I mean, I can't even control my power and it will make me go crazy if I absorb energy... You're awesome! Whether you're human or not, don't think badly about yourself! I know what that feels like, but Ben showed me that I don't need to, and he wouldn't want you to start to now!"

Gwen teared up a little, grateful that Keira was encouraging her like this. She then quickly leaned over and hugged Keira, before pulling away and looking at her decisively. "Let's do it! We will make sure that Ben falls for both of us and kick the butt's of anyone that tries to stop us!"

"Hell yeah!" Fist pumping the air, Keira exclaimed excitedly while grinning.

Back over to Ben, he heard Keira's shout and looked over curiously, but then shrugged indifferently and began getting ready to do his 10km run to finish the mission.

...

Once he had completed his run, Ben got the rewards and leveled up.

Having tested his fusions and leveled up again, he was quite pleased with what he had achieved for one day, but there was one last thing he wanted to try and that was to see if his fusion worked with his human form.

So, with but a thought, he initiated the fusion and picked Heatblast, and like he had hoped, he had fused with the Pyronite DNA.

Unlike the fusion of two aliens, it was only his finger to his shoulders that showed signs he had fused, gaining the magma veins running along them.

He lit a flame in his hand and grinned. He felt the power throughout his body and tried lighting his leg on fire as well, which was a success.

From what he could tell, he had gained a bit of a boost in his physical abilities. But, also from what he could tell, all his abilities were only a tenth of what he has in the actual transform. Even when fusing two aliens, the second DNA to be introduced, wasn't at the full capacity of the alien itself.

Not that any of this matters, because with his higher stats, even with a tenth of his aliens strength, it would make him equal to Canon Ben. This is without even factoring in the fact that he has Magic on his side.

Completely satisfied with having created and tested his own version of the Biomnitrix, Ben cancle his current fusion and with a bounce in his step, he made his way into the RV and started making a late lunch.

When Gwen and Keira saw him leave, they pouted discontentedly, but decided to use this time without distractions to come up with a game plan for how they were going to capture the heart of their mutual love interest.

...

After awhile, Ben had finished cooking and called the girls in to eat. As he went back in, he woke Max up from his nap so he could join them.

While they ate, Keira was curious about where they were going next, so she asked Max. "Hey, Gramps, where are we heading to after this." Although sounding a bit disrespectful, she was actually calling him Gramps as a sign of how she saw him as her own family.

Max looked at her and smiled, somewhat happy that the daughter of his old partner thought of him as her own Grandfather. "Well, before the day is over, we should be able to see Mt. Rushmore, which used to be an old Plumbers base. But, we won't stay long and will quickly get on our way to Yellowstone Nation Park. Hopefully, we'll be there before breakfast."

"Okay, cool." Getting her answer, she directed her attention to her food.

...

Once they had finished eating, they let their stomachs rest for awhile. Except for Ben, who went outside to do another round out his workout routine.

When he had finished, Ben went back inside the Rustbucket. And now that he felt up to it, Max stood up and went to the driver's seat to get back on the road.

While they were on the road, Ben was sitting with the girls, feeling an awkward atmosphere between them. To be precise, the girls seemed to having some secret between them and kept looking at him, making him wonder what was going on.

To get whatever was going on out of his mind, he decided to just start drawing his aliens and waited to arrive.

...

A bit less than an hour later and they had arrived. Well, almost... They were actually driving past the monument, which greatly confused Gwen and Keira.

Gwen leaned out of the booth and looked to the front. "Grandpa, I thought we were going to see the monument?"

Without taking his eyes off the road, Max responded to her. "Well, I figured seen as we're here, I would show you three where I and Keira's dad used to work." Hearing that she was going to get to see where her dad worked, Keira got a bit excited. "We'll have to keep it to a short tour though and you all need to stay where I can see you."

"Alright." The three kids responded and Max nodded contently.

To keep things brief, they went inside the base and had a quick look around, viewed the command room, data centre and training room. They then left and Ben started making some sandwiches, which they ate before getting back on the road.

The sky had already begun turning dark and the kids were playing a game, in which Ben was dominating thanks to his inhuman stats. The girls were even double teaming him, but he demonstrated his prowess and took them both with easy.

Their faces red and sweat trailing down their necks from their repeated attempts to outclass him, they looked him in the eye and tiredly told him. "C'mon... huff... One more round..."

"This nineteenth round already. Are you sure you want to go another?" Smirking, Ben lifted his eyebrow provocatively.

"Do you realise how that sounds?" Seeing the situation, Gabriel couldn't help commenting on the way they were making connect four sound so wrong.

Ben simply ignored her, because before he could reply, fire trucks sped by with their alarms blaring. Seeing this, he got up and went to the front, sitting in the passenger seat and speaking to Max. "What do you think that's about?"

"Don't know, but we can go check it out." Saying that, he put his foot to the pedal and chased after the trucks. With some restraint of course, there was no need to break the law to badly.

...

Arriving not far behind the trucks, they stopped and exited the Rustbucket. Upon stepping outside, Max saw an old friend, who also saw him and called out. "Max! Long time no see, how have you been?"

"Phil? What are you doing here?" Making his way towards Phil, Max curiously asked him.

"Oh, you know, catching aliens. Just like the good old days!" Phil smack the top of a metal containment box while grinning. "Just snagged myself a Havoc Beast!"

"Havoc Beast? Have seen one of those in awhile..." Max started reminiscing about the last time he had seen such an alien.

Ben and the girls made their way over and greeted Phil. When Phil saw the kids, his attention was drawn to the watch on Ben's wrist. "Hey, neat watch... Looks familiar actually. Where'd you get it."

Ben looked at him and casually replied. "Got it from an arcade claw machine a couple days ago. Maybe you've seen another like it before..."

"Hmm..." Looking at Ben thoughtfully, Phil held his chin. "No, no... I don't think that's it... Wait- Now I remember! That's the Omnitrix, isn't it?"

"Like I said, I got it from an arcade. I have no idea what you're talking about..." Staring at him with a strong gaze, Ben stuck to his story, even though he knew it wouldn't be believed.

Phil simply laughed about it however. "Heheh. Don't worry about it." He then looked at Max with friendly smile. "Smart kid you got there, definitely tell he's related to you."

Max rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled awkwardly. "Y-yeah... Anyways, we need to get going. It was nice seeing you again."

Max turned to leave while putting his hands on the backs of the girls to guide them, but Phil stopped him. "Wait, Max... What do you say me and you start up the Plumbers again? With all these aliens running about these days, the world could do with having us around again."

Max turned his head slightly and looked at Phil from the corner of his eye. "No thanks, I'm retired now and so are the Plumbers. I'm old and just want to spend time with my Grandkids. Goodbye, Phil."

Looking in front of him again, Max began walking again and Ben followed after him.

Boarding the Rustbucket, they quickly left and got on the highway.

Ben was sitting with the girls again and Keira was looking at him curiously. "Hey, Ben, why did you lie about the watch?"

Smiling at her he answered simply. "No need to tell people about it if I don't need to."

She tilted head to one side. "But you told me about it."

Noting how cute her head tilt was, Ben looked at her a little more seriously. "I trust you, I do NOT trust him. Call it instinct, but something is off about him."

Keira was smiling happily, no longer paying attention after she heard that he trusted her. Not that it really matter.

It was then that a screen showed up on the dashboard with the image of Phil, who was calling for some back-up against two Vulpimancers. The Wildmutt species.

So, as the good friend he is, Max immediately did a U-turn and they were speeding to Phil's location.

...

As soon as they got to the given location a meat processing factory, they went inside and found Phil on the floor.

Max rushed to his friend side, but Ben simply stared at him coldly, before look of to the side and at a doorway that had the two Vulpimancers coming from it.

Phil got up and was about to try taking the lead, but Ben walked forward and whistled sharply to the Vulpimancers, grabbing their attention.

The two space mutts were about to jump at him him, but he used his [Intimidation] skill and made them falter.

Now, while his [Intimidation] was useful on most beings and would incapacitate them, when compared to the Null Void, a pocket dimension that is used as a prison, it wasn't enough to permanently stop the two of them.

Shrugging off the intimidation, the two Vulpimancers jumped at him, one behind the other. Expecting this however, he had fused with the DNA of Rath and gained a major increase in strength. Plus, with the natural bad temper of an Appoplexian, he had trigger the x3 multiplier from [Wrath] and further strengthened himself.

His muscle mass increased a fair bit, while his veins bulged and wriggled beneath his skin.

Lunging forward, he passed under the front claws and maw of the Vulpimancer, before sharply upper cutting its stomach and launched it straight up into the air. He then pounce off the ground and towards his airborne target, grabbing him and throwing him at the other Vulpimancer still on the ground.

Falling from the air, Ben maneuvered his body around midair and landed on all fours like a cat, before bolting forward grappling onto the second Vulpimancer and putting into a headlock.

The others, especially Phil who was grinning ear to ear, were surprised by the way Ben had so simply dealt with the two alien dogs, and without transforming at that.

They were more surprised when they saw a black claw protrude out from between his two middle nuckles and he started whispering to the alien.

Ben had brought out his claw and held it to the Vulpimancer's neck, feeling a hell of a lot like Wolverine, and used his [Intimidation] again as he spoke to the Vulpimancer in his grasp. "If you don't want to die, tell me how you got here."

[Intimidation increased to Lv-4]

Normally, a Vulpimancer would be so easy to talk with, even with one of its own. But they, like many creatures, understanding when they have been beat and their lives are on the line.

So, with what was unintelligible growls to other, but clear sentences to Ben, it told him what he wanted. "The Human released us from the Null Void, so that he can recapture us and get rewards. The big one that was here before you..."

Ben growled angrily. He had given Phil the benefit of the doubt because of this being an alternate universe, but he was still a greedy bastard that chose the wrong path.

Removing his claw from the dogs throat, he pushed its head into the ground and spoke through his growl. "Move and you die!" He then stood up and began walking away from them, much to the concern of the others, who thought that the Vulpimancers would immediately attack Ben and were shocked when they didn't.

Now that Ben was walking towards them, they could see that his face looked feral, with sharp eyes and sharper teeth.

Ben went in a straight line towards Phil, who was confused. "What's wrong???" He was then swiftly met with an agonising pain in his gut, as Ben had punched him.

Max was shocked by this and grabbed Ben's shoulder as he shouted. "BEN!!? Why did you do that!?!?"

Ben looked at Max while growling. "That's the least he deserves! He has been releasing Aliens from some place called the Null Void! Then he goes and captures them for rewards!"

Upon hearing this, Max eyes widened, before narrowing and sharply staring at Phil. "You stole the Null Void Prjector and have been releasing the Aliens we captured!? I knew this didn't seem right!..."

Phil was unable to reply, as he was in too much pain to do so. He was just lucky that Ben had pulled his punch or he would have a hole in his stomach right now.

This was where Gwen jumped in and asked the important question. "What's the Null Void, Grandpa?"

"It's a Pocket Dimension used as a prison. The Plumbers have put away thousands of aliens in there, but there are potentially millions other inside." Maxs words were heavy, conveying just how dangerous it is. "Why would you do it Phil? What were you thinking!?"

"Hehe..." Phil barely managed to prop himself up while laughing, causing himself to cough in pain. "C'mon, Max, I was just making sure work didn't dry up... It's just a shame..."

"What is?" With a look of disappointment in his former partner, Max asked him while disheartened.

"Hehe-Cough! Uhg... It's a shame... That you didn't want to join me!" Phil quickly tried to pull something from behind his back, but Ben shot forward and grabbed his head, slamming it into the ground and knocking him out.

Ben then took what was behind Phil and it turned out to be the Null Void Projector. Standing up, he looked at the gun for a moment, before he suddenly flashed and turned into Upgrade. He had of course cancelled his fusion to do this.

Now as Upgrade, he absorbed the gun and integrated with it. He then pointed his finger at Phil, shooting a yellow ray from his finger tip and sending him to a random area in the Null Void, then turned to the Vulpimancers and did the same, before turning back to normal and stretch his body a little. Completely calm, which is a massive change when compared to his previous disposition.

"Wait, Ben, where's the Null Void Projector? And what happened to you earlier." Max was staring at him confused and not know how to feel.

Ben looked at him in confusion as well, before remembering that Max was asleep during the testing of his fusions. "Well, before, I used the fusion function and fused my normal body with the DNA of an Appoplexian. Hence the claws and aggression. As for the Projector, I merged it with Upgrade. Now I can imprison certain enemies when needed. That should put your mind at ease, right?"

Max stood in a silent shock for a moment. "Uhh... Yeah..." Sighing tiredly, he rubbed his face and looked at the kids. "Let's just get going. It's already late and you three need to get to bed."

The kids nodded and they all went back to the RV. All the while, Ben was thinking to himself. 'Heh! Who needs dungeons when you have a dimension filled with experience?'

While he thought of this, Gabriel showed him his gains.

[x2 Vulpimancers defeated. 400xp has been gained.]

[300SP for defeating Phil.]

Ben realised that he didn't check for a mission, but it turned out that he didn't get any rewards regardless, so he assumed that there wasn't any.

He and the other three got to the RV quite quickly. When there, he and the girls quickly got read for bed, with him being force to sleep with one of them, whether he wanted to or not.

And in this case, he rather not, because it came with teasing and name-calling from Gabriel. But, in the end, he fell asleep and it was one of the better ones he'd had for a few days now.

---

When morning came, Ben woke up and yawned. He went to sit up, but felt a weight on his chest, so he looked down in confusion and found Gwen snuggling into his chest cutely. This reminded him that he was forced to sleep with her last night.

Smiling at how cute she was, he stroked her head for a short time, before getting himself free and wrapping her in the blanket.

Ben then went to the bathroom and got himself ready, before exiting and beginning to make breakfast for them all.

Once breakfast was ready, everyone had awoken and began eating immediately. After they had eaten, Max and the girls got themselves ready and they exited the Rustbucket.

Surrounded by nature, the group felt at ease and began relaxing in the sun.

While sitting on a large rock, Ben looked over to Gwen and Keira. "So, Gwen, Keira, how are you doing with your training?"

"I'm doing okay." Gwen answered with a relaxed smile. "I'm getting more Mana all the time."

"I'm not doing so well..." Keira on the other hand, was rather downcast, having been less successful.

"Hmm..." Ben looked at her with a thoughtful expression. He knows that a lack of progress can dissuade you from wanting to train, so what Keira needs is motivation. "How about this, when you can cover your whole body in a material, I'll do any one thing you want as a reward."

Hearing this, Keira's eyes shone with determination. "Bet! You better not back out!"

Chuckling at her, being reminded of the first meeting, he responded with... "Wouldn't think of it."

When he said those word, Keira giggled and smiled brightly. Gwen watched the exchange and pouted. "No fair! I didn't get anything for learning to use magic..."

"I was the one to help you learn it though..." Despite this, Gwen continued to pout, making him sigh. "Fine... What do you want?"

"I-" Just as she stopped pouting and was about to tell him what she wanted, she was interrupted by the Omnitrix.

With the usual sound of being activated, Omnitrix's dial popped up and turned a few times, before stopping seconds later and going back into standby. Curious about what it was about, Ben looked at the Omnitrix and saw the familiar symbol of Cannonbolt.

Before he did or said anything, a big ball of fire flew by, over their heads and smashed into the ground not too far from them.

Considering a meteor had just crashed nearby them, Gwen's request was put on hold and they all ran in the direction of it. Well, for Ben, it was more like a casual job, but that doesn't really matter...

Just a hop, jump and a skip and they had arrived at the meteor. As they arrived they saw it begin to crack and giant insect leg emerged. When all the rock had broken away, it revealed a giant tick, which immediately dug its legs into the ground and acted like the parasite it was.

Following this, a spaceship arrived and three aliens of different races, came floating over on hovering platforms.

As they arrived, one went over to the bug and placed his head against it. Meanwhile the other two began delivering a spiel about how their 'Great One' had come to deliver salvation. The fuckers even gave a visual projection as a demonstration while telling them that they should be grateful.

The four listeners stood and blankly stared at the idiots, until Ben got tired of listening to them and transformed, turning into Big Chill and muttering tiredly. "Cultists are so annoying..."

He then flew and shot an ice beam at the two infront of him, freazing them in a block of ice, but letting them live. Then, in a swift movement, he flew over to the third alien and slammed his head into the armoured body of the tick, before throwing him down to Max.

With another tired sigh, he phased through the armour like body, grabbed some of its flesh and froze it from the inside, killing it. As for the flesh, it was in order to get its DNA for the Omnitrix. Who knows whether he'll need to destroy a planet in the future...

Exiting the body of the tick, he flew up to the spaceship that belonged to the Aliens, turned into Upgrade and absorbed the ship, secretly placing it in his inventory. While in the sky, he enlarged himself and fell down, on to the tick and crushing it, before turning into XLR8 and collecting all the armour scales in his inventory at speeds the others couldn't see.

When he was done, he went back and turned into Upgrade again, slightly defrosted the frozen aliens and stole all the technology the three aliens had together, before firing a beam at them and sending them to the Null Void.

Ben then detransformed and looked at Max. "Told you it would be useful." Max sighed in defeat and Ben started making his way back to the RV. "Anyways, let's go back and relax more!"

With peace now restored, Gabriel took the initiative to show him gains.

[900SP for defeating cultists.]

[Big Tick has been Killed. 500xp has been gained.]

[Unaccepted Mission - You have gained 1AP.]

'Crap...' Having forgot to check his missions again, he had no other option but to sigh in regret, but quickly shook it off.

As he walked, he took the flesh of the tick and placed it against the Omnitrix for ten seconds, registering the DNA, before putting it into his inventory. The moment he got to the RV, he washed his hands, then went outside to relax again.

[Status -

Name - Ben

Lv - 19 (910/2000)

Title - Wielder of the Omnitrix, Anti-Hero

State - Healthy MP - 3130

STR - 48

END - 49

AGI - 48

CHA - 50

INT - 56

LUK - 666

AP - 42 SP - 1,386,950

Primary Skills: CQC Lv-5, Marksmanship Lv-5, Intimidation Lv-4, 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]

(5 Recoveries Stored)