the boys are driving through an empty road.
"At this rate we'll be in Klayd in no time." Ben remarks.
the other boy is silent...
"I can't wait to be done with this..." Ben groans rubbing his head. "This entire situation is giving me migraines..."
again the other boy fails to respond, a dead stare focused on the road.
"You're usually a lot chattier than this." Ben states. "Is there something wrong?"
at that moment Ben realizes....
he can't move....
no matter how hard he tries his body is paralyzed.
as Ben begins to panic the deafening sound of bone crunching and flesh ripping rings in his ears.
the boy's head twists snapping his neck to face our hero without moving his body
staring him down black cracks form around his void-like Scleroses
the only light being two familiar purple pupils
"Ben... Tennyson...." the creature inhabiting the omnitrix hisses as it glares into his soul.
Ben awakens with a start smacking his face into the dashboard.
"Woah!" the boy chuckles. "You alright, buddy?"
"Y-Yeah..." Ben Hyperventilates clutching his chest as he catches his breath. "I just... It was just a nightmare..."
"So did you send that message to your friends?" the boy inquires.
"Yep," Ben Responds still somewhat asleep looking at his phone. "I sent them a coded text telling them where we're going and removed the battery..."
both boys are suddenly jerked forward as their truck is rear-ended.
they look behind to see a van attempting to run them off the road.
at the wheel are four forever knights.
"YOU HABOOBS STOLE OUR MATES RIDE!!!" the driver exclaims as he catches up with the truck.
Ben's companion desperately swerves trying to lose them to no avail.
one of the knights climbs out of the window and mounts himself on the roof of the van.
"WITNESS ME!!!" he roars as he pulls out a laser lance and begins to open fire upon the truck.
the boy ducks as the shots pierce the truck.
one of the blasts hits the engine as smoke begins to obscure their vision.
"OH SHI--" the boy begins screaming as Ben activates the Omnitrix and slams down.
"GREYMATT--" the car swerves knocking the frog into the door.
the lasers continue to shoot through only narrowly missing their targets.
"WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE!" the boy chants in a panic
Greymatter crawls over to him slapping him with his tiny hand.
"We're not going to die!" Greymatter consoles. "Now get me to the engine..."
the boy shakily points to a point where Ben can get to the engine from inside.
the hyper intelligent amphibian squeezes through and begins to work on the sputtering engine.
"Upgrade would have been better but you take what you can get..." Greymatter sighs as he begins operating on the engine.
the forever knights refuse to relent continuing their assault on two children over a truck they are now destroying.
"WE'RE DONE FOR!!!!" the boy screams as he loses control of the vehicle.
"I NEED 2 MORE MINUTES!!!" Greymatter calls back.
"NO TIME!" the boy exclaims as he grabs Greymatter opening the door and proceeding to tuck and roll.
the two tumble onto the side of the road and into the grass.
the out of control truck crashes into a tree continuing to smoke.
"GET DUNKED ON, IDIOTS!!!" the Forever knight on the roof exclaims as they drive into the distance before he falls off and they have to stop, back up and drag him back inside the van....
one of them flips the boys the bird as they drive off chanting some hype-man slogan.
the boys look at the truck.
"It's not that bad." Grematter states. "Just give me a few minutes and I could juryrig us a--"
the truck explodes.
"Well, no coming back from that!" the other boy remarks as he begins to march away.
Greymatter pursues struggling to reach the omnitrix as he runs before finally managing to press down to revert.
after half an hour they manage to walk to a bus stop.
"Can I go make a call?" Ben's winded partner wheezes.
"They didn't have anything about you on TV so I think it's alright," Ben responds. "But all the same try to be brief."
he leaves to use a telephone.
as he does he appears to get mad at the person on the other end before proceeding to slam the phone down to hang up.
"Is something wrong?" Ben asks.
"No..." the boy mutters. "It's... nothing..."
after several hours the two take shelter in a farm house.
"There's no buses going to the border." Ben sighs. "And with our other ride wreaked we'll need to foot it or get another one...."
the two are lying down in a pile of hay as bedding.
"Oh hell no!" the boy exclaims sitting up. "I am NOT walking again! this case is heavy! I barely even made it to that bus stop--"
"Okay then!" Ben interrupts. "Walking is off the table..."
"Though I could probably try and carry you if you get too tired." Ben grins patting his bicep. "I've been bulking up a bit and having power means you should use it to help others."
"I'm already in trouble so can you hurry up and help me?" the boy chuckles as he turns over to rest.
"Can do..." Ben mutters as he continues to look over a tourist's guide for routes.
eventually however Ben does end up drifting off again.
and just like last time he has a nightmare.
except this time it's just a run-of-the-mill Clown on a unicycle chasing Ben down a street and no matter how fast Ben runs he can't get away.
however near the dream yet again Ben sees Zs'Skayr's eyes glaring him down
"BEN TENNYSON!!! " the clown shrieks grabbing at him. "I WISH TO TALK TO YOOOoOoOOoOOooU!!!! " but before he can wrap his bony fingers around Ben's throat he is awoken by his new buddy's bird.
it desperately chirps in Ben's face attempting to get him to wake up.
"What is it lil' guy?" Ben questions rubbing his eyes.
suddenly he realizes the case is missing....
and so is his friend....
"Where are they?" a confused Ben wonders looking around.
the pink bird begins crowing trying to lead Ben outside the barn.
the bird flies away as Ben follows suit.
in the middle of the night Ben's compatriot had taken the case and used a nearby phone booth to call the police, waiting for them to arrive in the field.
after a while a helicopter touches down in front of him as a man obscured in shadow approaches him.
"Are you with the police!" the boy calls out.
"Throw over the case." the shadow man demands ignoring the question."
the boy does as he asks tossing the case over to him.
"This means I'm free, right?" the boy asks as the man picks up the case.
"Where's your friend?" the man inquires, yet again ignoring questions.
the boy steps back as the man slowly approaches.
"You've both seen what's inside, right?" the man's blazer beginning to rip an tear as he gains mass.
his arms morph into two spiked clubs before his entire body explodes into a hulking form resembling an Oni.
"That case's secret!" he roars as he prepares to silence the young man.
"N-No, we haven't!" the boy pleads as the monster approaches him. "We don't know anything!"
he falls over helpless as the man continues to step forward.
"M-My little brother and sister are waiting for me! Please!" he whimpers yet again trying to rationalize with the beast. "Let me return home!"
the man gives no regard to the boy's begging and raises his arm high prepared to crush him with his club-arm.
the boy curls up as the attack is swung down.
in a flash of green the club is stopped by a meaty leathery hand.
the oni looks up to his left to see a crimson figure casually holding back his attack.
"May I have this dance?" Fourarms remarks as he easily manages to hold back both clubs with his lower arms before discombobulating him with the upper set.
the beast roars in pain covering his ears as Fourarms takes one step back reeling back a punch.
"How about next time you pick on someone your own size!!"
fourarms sucker punches the monster sending him flying and smashing into the Helicopter he arrived in.
Fourarms quickly runs at the boy as he recoils in fear.
"I-I'M SOR--" he exclaims thinking Fourarms is about to attack him
Fourarms grabs the boy shielding him as an arrow is shot into his back.
the boy looks into Fourarms' four eyes in shock before looking behind him to see the archer villain from before is back.
her quirk seeming to have allowed her to fire arrows with enough force to even pierce Fourarm's skin.
though luckily his muscles are dense enough to have stopped the arrow before it hit anything vital.
Fourarms rips the arrow out facing the villain down as she notches 3 more arrows
"Listen lady." Fourarms begins cracking his knuckles. "I don't want this to get rough, so just put down the arrows and--"
"Vile Hell-spawn!" she calls out before firing as Fourarms tries to stop them from hitting the boy behind him.
her quirk to redirect arrows making it so he has to use one arm per arrow.
however unluckily for Ben one of the arrow's hit the Omnitrix on his shoulder as green feedback begins to shoot forth from the device.
before he can react the glitching out Omnitrix morphs Ben into XLR8, one of the arrows flying around and plunging itself in XLR8's gut before he could even realize he was XLR8.
XLR8 Coughs blood as he morphs into ripjaws as yet another arrow hits him in the shoulder.
next the Omnitrix forces Ben into Gravattack
given enough time to adapt Gravattack unleashes a gravity attack kicking up a dust cloud and knocking the villain back.
finally the Omnitrix glitches Ben into Benwolf.
he falls to one knee clutching his wounds
"Y-You..." the boy mutters seeing the blood leaking from Benwolf's abdomen and shoulder.
"Hold on tight." Benwolf barks as he throws his friend on his back and runs away, pain shooting from his shoulder as he runs, blood dripping, mixing with the morning dew of the grass.
they only barely manage to make it far enough away for the villains to not follow before the Omnitrix times out prematurely.
Ben looks down to see the Omntrix sparking.
but still operational, although appears it needs some time to repair itself.... if it can...
"Well that isn't good..." Ben mutters as he tries to keep pressure on his wounds.
the shot he took as fourarms translated into a simple flesh wound, however that Villain did manage to get XLR8 pretty good.
"Who cares about your watch!" the boy cries in a panic. "H-Hang on, I'll get some help right away!"
"It's not too deep..." Ben coughs. "XLR8's Durability isn't as good as Fourarms' but it's enough to have stopped it from hitting anything I need... though...."
Ben checks his pockets.
"I left my phone back at the barn..." he admits ashamed.
before he remembers something.
"Could you grab the first-aid kit out of my backpack?" Ben asks turning around. "It hurts to move my shoulder..."
after Ben has his wounds treated they find a cave to camp in for the rest of the night.
the two boys sit in front of a campfire as Ben continues to study the travel paths.
"Why did you protect me?...." the boy pouts breaking the silence. "I took the case, I betrayed you. Instead of protecting me, you could have got the case back and run."
Ben shoots him a confused look.
"I mean you protected me when the forever knights ran us off the road." Ben remarks. "Why would you do that? you could have just jumped out by yourself and returned to your siblings."
"Because it was in my best interest for you to not die in a fiery explosion." the kid responds. "I'm selfish like that."
"Well it's in my best interest to help anyone who needs it." a smug Ben retorts. "I'M selfish like that..."
"I was the one carrying the jewellery the villains stole this afternoon." he admits. "I'm one of those criminals which you heroes hate!"
Ben is silents for a second.
before beginning to smile.
(Welcome back to yet another round of "This is the best edit I could do with my goldfish attention span"!!!)
"Can I tell you a story?" he asks. "It's about a friend of mine..."
the boy turns in intrigue.
"He was mentioned on that news story, Kevin Ethan Levin, but back in the day he went by 'Kevin 11'... He was small-time just like you, With a quirk like his he could have gotten into a hero school no problem, but with the life he had he never saw that as an option..."
the boy seems to relate to that statement.
"When we first met, we hit it off... I will admit Will Harague was correct, I did do some selfish things with him, Hell, we became 'friends' after I helped him escape the cops.... but then he went too far and I finally realized the error of my way and we fought... It took the the people I love a while to regain trust in me after that."
"We fought a few more times after that." Ben continues. "The worse I treated him the worse he got... it all culminated when he literally turned into a monster..."
"Eventually I did manage to beat him and he went to some high security Juvie centre for kids with uncontrollable quirks... which did manage to cure his monster problem..."
"What happened after that?" the boy asks, interested in the story.
"Well eventually he got out and immediately went to selling black market support items to Villain groups..." Ben continues. "My Cousin, Gwen and I met him again selling stolen prototype capture equipment to forever knights. But after a few incidents he ended up trying to turn a new leaf and help us..."
"And how did that go?" the boy inquires further.
"HORRIBLY!" Ben laughs before clutching his side in pain. "To be honest in the beginning Gwen was the only thing keeping us from ripping each others throats out.... But by now Kevin's saved my butt more times than I can could and I'd even go as far to say he's probably the best friend I've ever had."
Ben lets off a sigh.
"What I'm trying to say is it really doesn't matter to me what you think of yourself, Villain, Criminal, monster... a hero is a person who helps those in need no matter what names others label them with... I want to be the kind of hero who can help people.... REALLY help them, not just beat up those I think are wrong and throw them in some prison where they'll just fester and become worse... That's why I want to be a hero..."
the boy lets off a light chuckle.
"So you just had some apifiny and decided to follow it? You and me are completely different..." he admits. "I can't think about my future I don't have the leeway to say nonsense like 'I want to be a pilot.' It's all I can do to provide for my young siblings..."
"That--" Ben begins before he's cut off
"Don't say anything!" the boy demands. "I don't want your pity!"
he slumps down seeming to be lost in his own mind.
"Heroes... I used to think they were all just people who wanted attention and get rich off the guise of helping people... In reality heroes didn't come in the town I live in, because they wouldn't make any money there. But I guess there are heroes like you around as well..."
Ben looks back in surprise.
"The more you help me, the more I wonder what I'm doing with my life... I'm so lame..."
"I'm lame too..." Ben remarks Looking at the Omnitrix. "I've been wanting to be a hero since I was little, but people kept telling me that I couldn't do it, that I couldn't be a hero. Somehow i repeatedly get my ass handed to me or get fooled by some underhanded trick... I'm still lame..."
Ben clenches his fist.
"That's why I want to become cool-- To become a Hero of heroes..."
the boy looks at Ben in awe before cracking a smirk.
a silence is yet again shared...
before the pink bird lands on Ben's head.
"That's Pino." the boy states.
"Pino?" Ben questions.
"I'm Rody, Rody Soul..." he introduces as the Author can FINALLY use his name even though like 95% of the readers already know his name and his name would have been already established if they had just done his scenes but the author chose to do this stupid bit and just decided to stick with it until--
anyway Rody smiles at Ben. "What's your name?"
Ben stands up.
"I'm Ben Tennyson. My hero name is Ben 10."
"Ben 10, seriously?" Rody chuckles. "Well at least its easy to remember."
"Well I like it." Ben retorts. "Let's get some sleep, Rody."
"Yeah." Rody responds. "We should 'Ben 10'."
as Ben sleeps for the third time in the last 24 hours he has a Zs'Skayr dream.
except this time he's not wearing anyone's face, he's in his basic form.
which is weird that this is the form that puts him at most ease.
"If you wake up before hearing me out I'm coming back as a peacock made out of peas and--" Zs'Skayr howls before Ben interrupts him.
"You've been trying to get my attention all day so just out with it." Ben says just wanting this to be over with. "You obviously want something but don't have enough power to say it outside of nightmares."
"Well you don't need to be an asshole about it..." Zs'Skayr hisses.
"Ben Tennyson.... I have a proposition..."