Chapter 1: Not in Bellwood Anymore
Part I
The life of a superhero is filled with danger, adventure, and excitement. However, eighteen-year-old Ben Tennyson was experiencing none of that today. In fact, he hadn't done any heroic work in months! As things were the most dangerous thing that could happen to him was getting a brain freeze from the smoothie he was drinking.
The state of his homeworld had changed drastically within the last several months. Things had finally calmed down not only on Earth but throughout most of the universe, save for perhaps the Anur system. The Plumbers, an intergalactic police force dedicated to preserving peace throughout the cosmos, had been granted powerful new technologies developed by the Galvan.
New weapons, new armor; basically, everything they needed to combat threats that previously required the aid of Ben and his team. It seemed the Galvan had finally begun to shake off their secretive ways when it came to their technology. There were heavy protesters on Galvan Prime, of course, but the general consensus amongst their lead scientists and military officials was that the universe needed to move forward, and they were the ones best suited to make that happen. They couldn't continue to call upon the bearer of the Omnitrix every time something went wrong.
Ben was mature enough to know this change was a good thing. There was peace, crime was down, and life was good. But still, there was a part of him that missed turning into an alien every day and fighting some criminal or giant monster. He didn't do any of his heroics for the fame; or at least, not anymore he didn't. He really just missed the feeling of helping others.
After the incident with Diagon, Sir George, and the war between the Forever Knights and the Esoterica, Azmuth had gifted Ben with a brand new Omnitrix. It was much sleeker than the Ultimatrix, as it was now only slightly larger than an average wristwatch as opposed to being a large gauntlet. It was a square, white watch with green highlights, with said highlights converging on the black faceplate to form the intergalactic peace symbol, which resembled an hourglass.
As opposed as Azmuth was to the evolutionary feature that Albedo, his former assistant, had added to the Ultimatrix, he recognized that it had aided Ben numerous times during his hero tenure and reluctantly decided to include it in his latest model. Though, he made sure to add proper safeguards to prevent another incident with the sentient Ultimate Forms.
Ben had spent the last two years unlocking new aliens with his new Omnitrix, but what was the point if he didn't even need them anymore?
The teen hero leaned his elbow on the table and took a sip of his smoothie. "Man... I hate to say it, but... couldn't somebody just try to rob a store or something? Jaywalk in the street? Anything?"
The Omnitrix wielder then sat back up in his seat, and glanced around, almost as if he were looking for signs of something bad happening anywhere in Bellwood. To his minor disappointment, he saw nothing of the sort. It was then that an idea came to Ben's mind, causing a slight smirk to cross his face.
"Man," Ben said in a pretend happy voice, "it sure is a nice day today. The sky is clear, it's nice and quiet..." He paused to look at the sky. "What could possibly go wrong?!"
Ben then took another look around but was disappointed yet again by the lack of any commotion.
"Come on, universe." He groaned. "The one time I wantsomething to go down and you got nothin' for me? I guess things really have changed."
The jacket-wearing teen then slouched in his seat, and shook his head, internally chastising himself.
"I really shouldn't be asking for bad stuff to happen." Ben berated. "Things could be a whole lot worse. Boredom is a vacation compared to some of the stuff I've been through..."
Suddenly, Ben's phone began to ring from inside his pocket. He pulled it out and checked the caller ID, to see that it was his cousin, Gwen.
He answered his phone. "Hey, Gwen. What's up?"
"Ben, where are you?!" demanded Gwen. "Have you been watching the news?!"
The Omnitrix bearer glanced around before replying, "Kinda at Mr. Smoothie's right now, so no, not really. Why?"
"Ugh..." groaned Gwen, "because the Forever Knights are over at Bellwood Tech trying to steal something!"
Ben then heard Kevin's voice from the other end of the line.
"Some real heavy-duty stuff by the looks of it," Kevin inputted. "Wouldn't be surprised if it's some smuggled alien tech or somethin'."
"We're on our way there ourselves, but you should head there too," Gwen advised. "Who knows what this stuff is. It could be smuggled Plumber tech for all we know. You know how dangerous that stuff could be if it fell into the wrong hands."
"You're right." Ben agreed. "And with those guys, who knows what they could do with it."
"Exactly!" Gwen replied. "So hurry up get over there. Kevin and I probably won't make it in time to stop them."
"Don't worry guys. I'm on it." Ben assured, wearing a confident smile.
With that, Ben hung up, put his phone in his pocket, and reached for the Omnitrix. He tapped the black faceplate, which brought up a green, holographic ring with various alien head icons on it. He scrolled through the alien playlist until he found the icon he wanted and tapped the faceplate to select it, which caused the faceplate to slide back, and the core to pop out.
Ben slammed down the core, and in a flash of emerald light, he was replaced with a red, humanoid, manta ray-like alien with one black, lightning bolt-like stripes coming down from either shoulder and converging at the Omnitrix dial on his chest. It had yellow lips, which connected to yellow horns above his eyes that somewhat resemble large eyebrows pointed upwards. The alien spread his arms wide, revealing yellow patagia under them.
"Jetray!" the alien yelled.
Jetray crouched low, and then took off into the air. He stopped several meters high and immediately headed for Bellwood Tech.
'Guess I'm gonna get what I asked for after all...' thought Jetray.
After a few minutes of flying, Jetray had made it to Bellwood Tech. Once there, he looked down into one of the many parking lots to see several men, all in the traditional Forever Knights armor, struggling to move a large, wooden crate into the trailer of a truck.
"A crate that big? Maybe Kevin and Gwen were right about it being stolen tech." the teen hero grinned slyly. "Looks like it's that time again..."
Jetray dove downward, toward the armored men, and halted once he was about two meters above them. His eyes then began to glow green until he fired a neuroshock blasts, directly taking out the men on either side of the crate, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud thud.
The rest of the Forever Knights turned to the sky, now fully aware of Jetray's presence, and prepared their weapons. Some even had red energy-based maces, shields, and swords. It seemed that they managed to salvage some of their own tech after their intense battle with the Esoterica a couple of years ago.
Jetray simply smirked and slapped the Omnitrix dial on his chest. In a green flash, Jetray was replaced by a twelve-foot-tall, red-skinned humanoid with four arms and four green eyes. It wore a black, sleeveless shirt with a green stripe down the center. It also had black, fingerless gloves on all four hands, each attached to a green cuff on his wrists. The Omnitrix dial rested on the green and white belt around its waist.
"Four Arms!" He yelled in a deep, raspy voice.
The Tetramand fell to the ground and shook the ground as he landed, causing many of the knights to flinch momentarily.
"It's Hero Time!" Four Arms proclaimed.
Without a moment's hesitation, the remaining knights charged Four Arms with their energy-based weapons raised, letting out battle cries as they did so. One knight swung his sword at Four Arms, only for the Tetramand to grab the man's arm with his own upper left arm, take the sword from the man with his lower right arm, and punch him in the face with his upper right arm, effectively rendering the man unconscious.
Two more knights tried to lunge at Four Arms from either side, but the latter used the knight he was already holding as a bat of sorts, and swung him into the knight on his left, and then into the knight on his right immediately afterward.
"Come on, guys." Four Arms groaned. "This is just sad. Don't tell me you've gotten this sloppy in only two years."
The four remaining knights then charged Four Arms head-on, much to the Tetramand's disappointment.
The Tetramand sighed. "Guess you really have..."
He spread all four of his arms out wide, and after a moment, slammed them together with an immense amount of force. Doing so created a shockwave the sent the four men flying straight into the wall of the building they had taken the crate from, all of them now unconscious.
Four Arms stood over his defeated adversaries with his upper arms folded, and his lower arms placed on his hips. Needless to say, he was disappointed at how easy it was to defeat them. Ben has had numerous scuffles with the Forever Knights in the past, but never had they been that disorganized and simpleminded.
"Can't imagine what they'd want with Plumber tech if they can't even use their own gear properly." Four Arms mused.
He then placed his lower right hand on his Omnitrix dial, opening its built-in communicator, and began to speak into it.
"Hey, Gwen."
"Ben? Is that you?" asked Gwen.
"Yeah, it's me." the Omnitrix wielder complied. "Just calling to let you guys know the Forever Knights are taken care of. Whatever they were stealing is safe now."
Ben heard Gwen sigh over the phone, relieved that a potential crisis had been thwarted.
"Nice work, Ben." Gwen praised. "And sorry we couldn't be there to help. Kevin and I were on the other side of town when we found out about it."
"And since my car was trashed, we had to take the bus, Tennyson," Kevin grumbled.
Four Arms simply groaned and placed his upper left hand over his eyes in frustration.
"How long am I gonna have to keep saying I'm sorry about that, man?" Ben said.
"Until you can get enough Taydenite to afford me some Talpaedan impact resistant metal, some Amperi electric insulation, some Pyronite wax for extreme temperatures, and some-"
Unwilling to continue listening to Kevin ramble on and on about his demolished car, Four Arms removed his hand from the Omnitrix dial, thus hanging up.
"He's never gonna let me live that down, is he?" Four Arms commented, lightly shaking his head.
Four Arms then noticed something. He glanced slightly to his left, to see a man peeking out from the doorway the knights had come out from. After looking to see if everything was fine and the danger had passed, the man exited the building and began to approach Four Arms. The man appeared to be middle-aged, and he was wearing a white lab coat. He had a trim beard and glasses. Overall, the man's appearance screamed "scientist."
"Oh, thank you, Mr. Tennyson!" the man yelled in a relieved tone.
Once the man reached Four Arms, he proceeded to shake each and every one of the Tetramand's hands in rapid succession.
"Thank you so much!" the scientist said. "The thought of what those miscreants could do if they had misused my device..."
"Uh, no problem..." Four Arms replied. "Wait, your device? I thought this box was full of stolen Plumber tech."
The man simply looks up at Four Arms, confused by the alien's statement.
"Plumber tech?" the man echoed. "Whatever gave you that idea?"
"Well, I..." He rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Heh... Nevermind..."
The man continued to stare at Four Arms for a brief moment, before shaking it off and resuming his grateful demeanor.
"Regardless, I can't thank you enough for stopping those thugs from making off with my device." He declared.
"It was nothing, really." Four Arms dismissed politely. "I'm just glad I could help out."
The man's eyes then widened slightly, before he smiled once more.
"Oh, where are my manners? I am Professor Emil Hamilton." He gestured to the building. "I've been using this lab space to develop the machine that you prevented from being stolen."
Four Arms nodded and smirked. "Nice to meet you"
Professor Hamilton then seemingly had a realization and rushed over to the crate, inspecting it all over to see if the crate itself was at all damaged. After a moment of this, Four Arms approached the man and the crate.
"So, what is it anyway?" inquired Four Arms.
Hamilton turned to the Tetramand and replied, "It's a...well... It's somewhat difficult to describe..."
Hamilton then took a look at the still-unconscious Forever Knights, and then looked around the entire area, as though he were making sure no one was listening for some reason. After a brief moment, he turned back to Four Arms.
"Perhaps it's best if we discussed this inside?" He suggested. "I don't suppose you could help me bring the device back into the lab, by any chance?"
"You couldn't have asked a better alien, doc." Four Arms smirked.
The four-armed alien stepped toward the crate, crouched low, and lifted it with his upper arms on the sides, and his lower arms holding the bottom.
"Oh, please do be careful! It's a very delicate machine!" Hamilton exclaimed frantically.
"No need to worry. I got it." Ben assured.
"Thank you again." the scientist replied.
Hamilton led Four Arms inside the lab building, which was a large, mostly white and light gray space containing a small booth with large, glass windows sectioned off from the majority of the room. The booth looked like it was to protect against any unpleasant accidents that might occur in the lab, and had computer equipment inside of it, below the windows. The larger portion of the room was mostly empty, save for a few wooden tables off to the side, and several long cables running from a wall to roughly the center of the room, all of which weren't plugged into anything other than the wall.
"Place the crate in the center, if you please," Hamilton said.
Four Arms strolled to the center of the room, making sure to avoid stepping on or tripping over the many cables strewn about and gently placed the crate on the floor. He then opened the crate, upon Hamilton's request, and placed the four wooden walls of the crate to the side of the room, out of the way, and turned back to the odd machine that was previously inside it.
The device was peculiar, to say the least. It was a silver cube, about four feet in all directions. It had a socket of some sort on one side, seemingly matching the shape of the plug on the cable lying on the floor next to it. On the opposite side were a screen and keyboard, though Four Arms had no idea what they were for. On top of the cube were what appeared to be three solar panels. Needless to say, Ben was curious, especially considering that the professor didn't feel comfortable discussing it outdoors.
Four Arms tapped the Omnitrix dial on his belt and turned back into Ben as he continued eyeing the machine.
Ben turned to Hamilton and questioned, "So, what is this thing exactly? It's nothing bad, right?"
"Oh, no, no, not at all!" Hamilton answered, waving his hands. "In fact, this device could prove to be one of, if not the, greatest scientific development of all time!"
Ben's eyes widened slightly when he heard that. Something greater than the new Plumber tech, or even the Omnitrix? And created by a human, no less? This, Ben had to see.
"So, what exactly does it do?"
Excited to see that the Ben Tennyson was so interested in his device, Hamilton assumed a slightly more proud demeanor as he proceeded to explain.
"This is what I call the 'Quantum Displacement Generator' or QDG for short." The professor explained. "With some assistance from a Galvan acquaintance of mine, Niffum, I've designed a machine that could finally prove the Multiverse Theory, once and for all!"
Ben scrunched his brow in thought, trying to remember where he had heard that "Multiverse Theory" term from.
"'Multiverse Theory'..." he repeated, tapping his chin in thought. "I know I've heard that somewhere before..."
"For one as well-traveled as you, Mr. Tennyson, I'm sure you have." Hamilton asserted. "The Multiverse Theory is the theory that there is an infinite number of universes in existence. Some are nearly identical to our own, save for the slightest detail, while others are so radically different that we may not even be able to comprehend them."
The gears in Ben's head finally clicked as he remembered how he knew of this "Multiverse Theory." Two years ago, he had traveled to another universe himself. While there, he befriended a boy his age, named Rex Salazar, who had the ability to produce amazing machinery from his limbs using something called the Omega-1 Nanite. Ben had helped Rex avert a worldwide crisis in the latter's universe by defeating what was known as the Alpha Nanite, which was an insane, yet highly intelligent nanomachine that attempted to bring an end to the human race on Rex's Earth. Ben mentally slapped himself for forgetting about that. It was such a bizarre experience, so how could he?
"Now I remember..." confessed Ben.
"Yes. I was sure you'd know of it. Anyway, I developed the QDG as a probe of sorts, to travel to another universe, collect as much data as possible, and hopefully return." Hamilton explicated.
Ben cocked a brow. "Hopefully?"
"Ah, yes, well... the device is still untested, unfortunately." He continued. "I have yet to actually discover a way for the QDG to return safely to our own universe."
"I see..." the Omnitrix wielder replied. "Can't help but wonder what the Forever Knights would want with something like this. They're not exactly fond of exploring new frontiers."
"Hmm... perhaps they wanted to repurpose the device as some sort of weapon?" suggested Hamilton. "Though, I can't imagine how they could manage something like that..."
"People like the Forever Knights can find a way to turn anything into a weapon. I'm just glad we don't have to find out what they could've done with it." He then turned to Hamilton and smiled confidently. "But anyway, don't worry. It's out of their hands now, and I'll see to it that it stays that way."
"Thank you, Mr. Tennyson. This machine is irreplaceable. Now, I'll need to run some diagnostics, to make sure those medieval hooligans didn't damage it. If you wish to keep the QDG safe from harm, could you perhaps remain here while I check on everything?" Hamilton requested.
Ben simply nodded in response, much to the professor's relief. Hamilton then plugged the cables on the floor into the machine, and rushed over to the booth to the side of the room, leaving Ben to eyeball the device with curiosity. Was this cube really supposed to travel to other universes? It looked relatively simple on the outside.
'I guess Hamilton and his Galvan buddy didn't put much stock in creativity when it came to this thing's design.' Ben thought.
For several minutes, Hamilton was hard at work in his computer booth, typing away madly on multiple keyboards and trying to see if his invention was fully intact.
Suddenly, one of the many screens in Hamilton's booth began to flash red, with the words "Quantum Displacement Randomization Sequence Initiated" in big, flashing letters. Hamilton's eyes immediately grew wide with terror as he attempted to type something into the primary computer. However, he was only met with every single screen in the booth flashing with the same screen as the first one.
"No... No, no, no! This can't be happening!" Hamilton shouted, distressed. "I know with one-hundred percent certainty that I took preventive measures against any possible triggers for spontaneous displacement! Unless..."
Hamilton's eyes shot open in horror as he looked to the machine in the center of the room. It was merely rumbling softly at the moment, but Hamilton knew what that meant. Ben, on the other hand, did not.
Ben turned to Hamilton and pointed to the machine. "Hey, uh...is it supposed to do that?"
Since the booth was soundproof, Hamilton grabbed a microphone inside the booth and spoke into it in a frantic voice. "The Quantum Displacement Randomization Sequence has been initiated! You have to get away from the machine, right now!"
Ben's expression turned from one of mild concern to extreme shock. He reached for the Omnitrix to turn into Fasttrack, but before his hand could even reach the faceplate, an intense white light engulfed the room from within the cracks of the metal plates of the QDG, effectively blinding both Ben and Hamilton.
"No! Don't tell me it's..." Hamilton trailed off as he shielded his eyes.
After a moment of shining brightly, the white light disappeared in an instant, much to Hamilton's surprise. The professor opened his eyes, only to find a most horrifying sight. Both the QDG and Ben Tennyson had vanished!
"Oh no..." Hamilton's eyes widened as he trembled in horror. "What have I done...?"
...
Ben's eyes began to slowly flutter open as he groaned in discomfort. Whatever had just happened had certainly put his innards through the wringer, that's for sure.
He placed his hand on his forehead. "Ugh... I feel like my stomach just switched places with my liver."
After a brief moment, Ben's eyes finally adjusted and allowed him to open them completely. Once he did, he struggled to sit up straight, as he had been lying on his back, and began to take in his surroundings. He saw that he was now in a lush, green forest, as opposed to a pale, white laboratory.
"What...? A forest...?"
Ben continued to look around, confused by this turn of events. Where was he?
"But how?" he wondered. "I was in the lab just a second ago, right?"
The Omnitrix wielder then placed his hand on the ground and used it to help himself stand up. He dusted himself off and took another good look at where he was, still just as confused as before.
However, it was then that Ben remembered what Professor Hamilton had said to him. He told the Omnitrix bearer that his device, the QDG, was designed to travel to other universes.
Ben eyes widened from realization. "No...no. No way...! Don't tell me that thing sent me into another..."
He was beginning to panic until he turned around and saw the QDG sitting a few meters behind where he once lay. Unwilling to believe the realization he had just come to, Ben whipped out his cellphone and checked for the reception.
Nothing.
Those two things were all the proof Ben needed. His cellphone had been upgraded by Kevin to be able to connect to the Plumber intergalactic network, providing him reception from nearly anywhere across the Galaxy – save for some deadzones here and there. With that said, his hypothesis was right on the money; much to his dismay.
Ben then turned back to the QDG with an angry expression plastered on his face.
"Oh, no, you DID NOT!" he yelled.
Without a second's hesitation, Ben reached for the Omnitrix and activated it. After finding the icon he wanted, he tapped the faceplate and slammed down the core. In a flash of emerald light, he was replaced by tall, black and green, a blob-like humanoid that appeared to be made of circuitry, which was further emphasized by the green and black, circuitry-like patterns all over its body. On its head was a green circle, and on its white chest was the Omnitrix dial.
Upgrade wasted no time in marching over to the machine, an angry aura about his visually emotionless features.
He pointed at the machine as he stated, "You and Upgradeare gonna have a serious-"
Before Upgrade could even finish his sentence, the machine began to emit another powerful, white light, blinding Upgrade completely. Just like before, after a moment, the light abruptly disappeared. When Upgrade regained his optical awareness, he was flabbergasted to see that the QDG was now gone.
"...chat..."
Upgrade's finger twitched as he stammered incoherently to himself, the circle on his face flashing whenever he emitted a sound. This continued for a brief while, until...
"...You...have got to be KIDDING ME!" he shouted.
Upgrade grabbed his head out of frustration and fell to the ground on his back. He looked up through the trees of the forest that he was now stuck in, still trying to process what just happened.
"I just had to ask for something, didn't I?" Ben complained. "I just had to do it..."
The Galvanic Mecamorph removed his hands from his head and laid them on the grass as he continued to speak aloud to himself.
"What am I supposed to do now?" he asked no one.
Before Ben could come to any kind of resolution in his mind, he noticed a rather large shadow looming over his laid-back form. When he tilted his head back, he saw something extremely bizarre.
It was an incredibly large, gorilla-like creature. It had a lavender chest and face, with a similarly lavender cone sticking out from the top of its head, and noticeably long ears and chin to match. It had green fur all over its body, save for its legs and tail, which were a darker shade of green, and the pink, heart-shaped symbols on its shoulders and arms in a line pattern.
"I'll tell ya what you can do." The gorilla creature sneered. "You can get off my turf before I smash your blobby little face in."
"Giant talking monkey? Yep, it's official. Crazy alternate universe." commented Ben.
"What'd you call me, ya little punk?" the ape-like being growled, visibly angry.
Upgrade sat up straight, stood up, and turned around to get a good look at the creature addressing him. He had seen many bizarre-looking creatures in his hero tenure, mostly Dr. Animo's mutant creations, but this creature was certainly up there.
"I hope you're not tryin' to pick a fight with me, monkey..."
The gorilla-like beast then leaned into Upgrade and got right in the Galvanic Mechamorph's face, all the while having an overconfident air about him. "Oh yeah? And what if I am? What're you gonna do about it?!" he retorted.
The circle on Upgrade's face began to glow green, with the light growing brighter by the second.
"This."
With that one word, a green laser fired from Upgrade's face, directly into the gorilla beast's face, causing the creature to stumble back and grasp its face in pain with its giant, lavender hand.
"OW!" The ape creature shouted. It pulled its hand away from its face and glared at Upgrade. "You little runt!"
The gorilla-like creature reared back its right arm and sent a powerful punch directly at Upgrade. However, the Galvanic Mechamorph simply used his gelatinous body to his advantage and created a large hole in the left side of his body where the beast's fist would've struck him.
"What the...?!" the forest creature uttered, dumbfounded.
Upgrade reformed his body. "Well, since you're so eager to go around starting fights, I might as well oblige you and let out some of this pent-up frustration I've got!"
The Galvanic Mechamorph then wrapped himself around the gorilla creature's left leg, much to the latter's confusion and dismay, and oozed his way up to the beast's left arm. The giant ape grabbed onto Upgrade and tried to pull him off, but to no avail. The technorganic alien's grip was simply too strong for that.