Ch 4 The Old Folks

After Ben got back to the Rustbucket, he found Max comforting Gwen, who was wrapped in a blanket and trembling.

Ben - "Hey, Grandpa... Did you call the police?"

Max looked up and saw that Ben had returned.

Max - "Hey, Ben... Not yet, why don't you take over here while I do that."

Nodding, Ben took over and hugged Gwen, who looked at him.

Gwen - "H-how are you so calm after what just happened...? We almost di-died..."

Ben - "... It's not really something that I can explain, it's just the way I am. Some people just react differently to dangerous situations."

Ben - 'Gabriel, buy something to calm her down.'

Gabriel - "I will be spending 1000 SP."

Without needing an answer, Gabriel bought something to calm Gwen and administered it through the contact Ben had with her.

Gwen felt a warm sensation spread through her body, calming her and making her feel tired.

Gwen - "I... feel tired... suddenly..."

Her body fell into his arms. Ben then picked her up, taking her to the beds and lay her down.

He sat down beside her with a sigh.

(Here comes the bullshit.)

Ben - 'Hey, Gabriel.'

Gabriel - "Yes?"

Ben - 'I've been wondering, how exactly I got the Omnitrix. It was supposed to go to Max and Ben only got it because of his relationship to Max. So, how did I get it?'

Gabriel - "Simple, it wasn't intend for Max."

Ben - 'Wait, what!?'

Bewildered by the news, Ben's eyes widened and he almost shouted his confusion.

Gabriel - "The Omnitrix went straight to you or rather your blood. Unlike in the canon universe, the watch wasn't going to Max or his bloodline, it was going to your parents."

Ben - 'Why? Who were my parents, that they would be entrusted with something like the Omnitrix?"

Gabriel - "I don't know much, just that one was a high ranking officer."

Ben - 'Huh, that so? Then, it might be interesting in the future. I should continue practicing Mana Manipulation."

Gabriel - "Good idea."

Ben then closed his eyes and started meditating, trying to move his Mana.

It was like grasping at water and trying to keep it from leaking out. Except, he couldn't even touch it to get his hands wet.

This went on for a couple of hours, Ben stopped meditating.

Looking around, he saw that Gwen was still asleep and also that Max seemed to have left the lake, and that they were driving down a highway.

Standing up, he went to the front of the RV and sat with Max.

Ben - "What happened, Grandpa? Why did we leave the lake?"

Max - "I figured the sooner we get going, the better. We can get to Vera's earlier and spend some more time with her. Let Gwen relax a bit."

They sat and talked for a while longer, until it was lunch time and Ben got up to cook.

While he was cooking, Gwen had awoken and was thankfully much calmer. She sat and watched as Ben cooked their food.

Soon enough, the food was done. Max parked and sat at the table, then Ben served everyone and they ate together.

After getting the cooking skill, his food had become even better, making Max all the more glad that he let Ben be the resident chef. Gwen was also very happy with the food, making her even calmer and temporarily forget about the previous ordeal.

They quickly finished their food and then Max went back to driving. Vera lived in Missouri, it was roughly a 9 hour drive, so they should arrive some time in the afternoon.

Ben decided to sit and watch some movies with Gwen, trying to keep her mind off of what happened.

- A few hours later -

Max - "All right kids, we're here."

Looking out the window, they could see what looked like a typical suburban neighbourhood.

They got up and went outside where they were met by Vera.

Vera - "Oooh, you're finally here! I'm so happy that you could come early."

She hugged Max, then walked up to Gwen and started pinching her cheeks.

Vera - "Ohh, just look at youuu! You've gotten so big!"

Gwen - "Hwi auwnt Wera..."

Vera then let go of Gwen and went over to Ben, leaving Gwen rubbing her red cheeks.

Vera stopped infront of Ben, who was smiling at her. She looked at him with visible shock.

Vera - "Oh my. Ben, this is the first time I have seen you smile and you seem so different. What happened?"

He started rubbing the back of his head with a wry expression.

Ben - "Haha... Well, I was on a walk and saw a shooting star, after that I felt like a whole new person..."

Vera - "Well, you do seem a lot happier."

Ben - "I guess it was a gift from the heavens."

Gabriel - "Really...? And you say you're not cringe."

Ben - 'Let me have some fun.'

Vera - "Haha, I suppose it is. So long as you're healthy. Now, why don't we go inside and I'll make something to eat."

She ruffled Ben's hair and went inside. Thankfully, she didn't seem to have the habit of pinching his cheeks for some reason.

Gwen glared at Ben with a pout.

Gwen - "How come she pinches my cheeks, but pats you on the head?"

Ben looked at her with a grin.

Ben - "Aww, are you jealous that you didn't get head pats. Here you go."

He started patting her head. She got embarrassed and knocked his hand away, then ran inside, leaving Ben laughing.

After that, Ben went inside, Vera made dinner and they all ate together, then went to bed.

- The next day -

In the morning, Ben got up early and realized that everyone was still asleep, so he decided to go for a run.

During his run, he saw some of the town residents up and about, and waved to a couple of them, but only received creepy stares.

Ben - 'Well, at least I know that the Limax are here.'

He continued his run while talking to Gabriel.

Ben - 'So, are there any missions for me?'

Gabriel - "Yep."

[Missions:

Not the old people! - Aliens, the Limax, have been kidnapping old people for food. Stop them.

Rewards - 300XP, 3AP, 400SP and Bioengineering Lv-5.

Failure - old people die and -4000SP]

Ben - '... Who makes these names...?"

Gabriel - "They are randomly generated, some will be normal and then there is ones like this..."

Ben just sighed and accepted the mission.

Ben - 'Is it possible to get daily or repeatable missions?'

Gabriel - "Yeah. Just ask me and I can try generating them, but whether it works and what the rewards are, are out of my control."

Ben - 'Okay. Can you give me a mission with the Saitama work out?'

[Daily mission - Optional:

Workout - Do: 100 pushups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats and Run 10km.

Rewards - 3AP, 10XP and Immediate Recovery(Can save up to 7)]

Ben - 'Welp, this is gonna suck for a while... Maximum effort.'

He then ran the first 5km, stopped and did the pushups, sit ups and squats, then did the other 5km despite the fact that his body was already in pain.

By the time he got back to Vera's, he was sweating and dropped at the door. Fortunately, he got the rewards and immediately recovered.

Ben - 'Fuck that hurt...'

Gabriel - "I'm surprised you actually did it..."

Ben - 'Thanks for believing in me...'

Gabriel - "You're welcome. Oh, you leveled up by the way and got a skill when your INT stat reached 25."

[Eidetic Memory]

Ben - 'That's nice... But let me rest.'

Gabriel - "You don't need it though..."

Ben - '...Fine... I'm gonna go take a shower. I might be recovered, but that didn't do anything about the sweat.'

He then got up and went inside, finding that the others were up.

Max - "Oh, Ben, where did you go?"

Ben - "Just went for a run. I'm gonna go take a shower."

Vera - "You go ahead, breakfast will be ready soon, so don't take too long now."

Ben then nodded and went for his shower.

After having his shower, Ben ate his breakfast with the rest.

While eating his breakfast, he started thinking over what he should do about the alien infestation. He could tell Max, which would probably result in not being believed or Max being abducted, or he could deal with things himself.

Glancing to his side to see Gwen, she seemed extremely tired and if he told Max about the problem, Gwen would probably get involved.

Ben - 'It would probably be best to just do it by myself and let Gwen relax.'

With his mind set, he focused on eating his breakfast, while exchanging small talk.

When they all finished their breakfast, Ben decided to spend some time with Gwen. They were only sitting around and watching cartoons, but it seemed to do her some good to just do something normal for once. Too bad for Ben that this worlds cartoons suck...

So, he spent the day suffering through what the people of this world call entertainment, but for Gwen, he made the sacrifice.

When night came once more and everyone else was asleep, Ben got up and went to the bathroom. In the bathroom, he engaged the Omnitrix and chose Big Chill, then pressed down.

Having transformed, he made himself intangible and flew through the wall. His plan was to start looking for the Limax, but realized that he had no way to actually know who was an imposter, so he turned to Gabriel.

Ben - 'Gabriel, how much would it be for an analysis skill?'

Gabriel - "50K SP."

Ben - 'Uhg... Buy it...'

[Unique Skill - Analyse Has Been Bought]

Ben - '...Thanks...'

Gabriel - "Oh, come on. Stop moping. What's the point in having the Points if you never use them?"

Ben - 'I don't want lose them now, when I might need them later... Plus, I like having them there."

Gabriel - "...Hoarder."

Ben - 'No comment.'

During their conversation, Ben had started going house to house, checking each resident for their race and freezing the Limax to death. So, basically every house he went to...

He also scanned ones DNA for the Omnitrix.

Going around and subjugating evil aliens took time, time that the Omnitrix didn't offer much of. Every 9 minutes, Ben stopped and undid his transformation to recharge, leaving a minute incase he had to make a quick escape.

For an hour, he went around checking houses and killing aliens. When he was done with that, he did an extra check around the village/town(idk) and made sure he didn't miss any Limax, then made his way over to the underground base entrance.

When he got to the entrance, he broke the lock holding it shut, undid his transformation and started making his way through the cave system in a moderate jog. Albeit, carefully because of the fact that he could barely see where he was going.

[Unique Skill - Night Vision Acquired]

Ben - 'That was convenient...'

Making his way through the cave, he eventually found himself in a big space, filled with giant orange eggs that held the old people from the town and the Limax's spaceship.

He was kind of marveled by the spaceship. Coming from a normal Earth, that doesn't have magic or super advanced technology, seeing a real spaceship is kind of amazing. Sure, he met God, but he was half convinced that it was all a hallucination at the time and the only reason he hasn't freaked out now is that he isn't one to get held up on unnecessary things.

Staring at a spaceship was cool, but probably not the best idea. His [Danger Sense] suddenly flared up and then he was smacked flying into the ship by an oversized Limax.

Limax - "Foolish child. I don't know how you made your way down here, but that won't matter soon enough."

Ben wasn't able to hear what the Limax said, he was in too much pain, but he did manage to move his hand over to the Omnitrix and make himself transform.

After a bright flash, he was visible and on his feet, in the form of an angry Petrosapien.

Ben - "That. Hurt!"

Taking a few steps forward, Ben punched the ground and made crystal walls at the back and sides of the Limax.

With the Limax's escape blocked, Ben started making his way towards it, morphing his arm into a blade

For the most part, the body of a Limax is slime based and has a high speed regeneration. It is also immune to fire and are actually empowered by it instead. They do however have strange pink organs and a weakness to cold.

Ben has no idea if they can feel pain, but he sure as hell is about to find out.

Arriving in front of the Limax, he stabbed into its organs, exhibiting a loud screech from it.

A cruel smirk appeared on Ben's crystal face when he saw that it still felt pain. So, for the the next 7 minutes, he continued stabbing and slicing away at the pink coloured organs the alien possessed.

[Secondary Skill - Torture Lv-1 Acquired]

Ben - "Torture never was my forte."

He then tapped on the Omnitrix and turned into Big Chill, froze the Limax and shattered it to pieces.

After killing the alien, Ben turned back to human and flop to the ground while groaning.

Ben - "*Hiss* Fucking bastard! At least I now know that transforming doesn't take pain away afterwards and only alleviates it..."

Taking a 30 minute break, he started feeling... Well, he didn't exactly feel better, but he adjusted to the pain.

[Secondary Skill - Pain Tolerance Lv-1 Acquired]

Ben - "That doesn't make me feel better... Mentally or Physically."

Sitting up, he looked around at the orange eggs filled with the old people.

Ben - "What the heck am I supposed to do with them...?"

It never was shown in the cartoon how they dealt with all the people. They couldn't have taken them all to their homes, could they? How would they know which house belonged to who? And what would all the people think when they suddenly wake up and days have passed? Surely not all of their memories are that bad...

With a sigh, he looked at the Omnitrix and queued XLR8.

Ben - "This is gonna be a long night..."

He then pressed down on the dial and transformed.

He first sped out of the cave, going to all the houses that had a Limax occupying them and checking them for pictures or mail with names on. Something that could help him identify people.

Using pictures for people's faces and the names, along with [Analyse], he managed to gets everyone in the correct home in 2 hours.

Ben stored the spaceship and made his way back to Vera's.

Ben - "*Yawn* Gabriel, is the mission done?"

Gabriel "Yes. You have also leveled up a few of times thanks to all the Limax you defeated. Congratulations."

[1,200XP for 30 Limax and 100XP for Limax Boss Received]

[Mission Complete - 300XP, 3AP, 400SP and Bioengineering Lv-5 Received]

He gave his status a quick once over and picked up the pace to get to his bed.

When he arrived outside the house, he turn into Big Chill and went through the wall. He undid the transformation and walked to the room he was sharing with Gwen.

The moment he got his bed, he fell into it and went to dreamland, completely unaware of the bright green eyes that stared at him in the darkness.

- The Next Morning -

At six o'clock, Ben begrudgingly got up and went out to do the daily repeatable mission. He was still in a lot of pain from last night and was extremely tired, but all he had to do was complete his exercises and he'd be completely healed.

He took his time doing the exercises, giving himself plenty of rest time in-between and finished in 1 and a half hours.

When he got back to Vera's, no longer feeling like his body was dying, he took a long relaxing bath and then ate a bowl of cereal.

After all that happened last night, he wanted nothing more than to relax, but a certain cute tsundere had other plans.

Gwen - "Where did you go last night, Ben?"

He looked at her and saw that she was basically trying to bore a hole into him.

He was hesitant to tell her what he really did, but he didn't want to lie to her either. He looked away from her, sighed and leaned his head back.

Ben - "You shouldn't worry about it. It doesn't matter anymore."

This, unfortunately, didn't satisfy her and she showed it by pinching his arm.

Ben - "Ow! Why'd you do that!?"

He gave her a slight glare as he rubbed the sore spot.

Gwen - "Tell me."

Seeing that she was so insistent, he decided to just tell her.

Ben - "*Sigh* Fine. You didn't have to pinch me... There were some aliens kidnapping the elderly people here and disguising themselves as them, so I went to take care of them. Happy?"

When Gwen heard this, she clutched onto his arm and looked at him worriedly, with some panic mixed in.

Gwen - "Why didn't you tell us!?"

Ben - "Because you needed a rest and Grandpa wouldn't have been able to do much against them anyways. They were basically immune to physical attacks and only really weak to cold. Don't worry, okay, I'm fine and it was no big deal."

Gwen - "You were supposed to tell us when you do something like this."

Ben - "Yeah, well, if I did that, you would have wanted to get involved as well. Which would have been against the whole resting thing. Let's just stop talking about it. What's done, is done."

He then closed his eyes once more. Gwen seeing this, grumpily stopped pestering him and played with her phone.

The rest of the day was spent like how any normal person would spend their day and then they went to sleep.

Ben once more woke up early in the morning and went to do his workout.

As he ran through the the retirement village, he saw the people he saved going about their day normally, seemingly unaware of their previous situation.

He received some smiles and waves from the kind old people as he passed, which he returned.

Thanks to his his constantly improving stats, Ben completed the Workout Mission faster than the previous two times and not having a sore body helped...

When he got back to the house, he used his Recovery and got a shower, then ate breakfast with his family.

Once breakfast was over, Ben went to the living room and started drawing to entertain himself. He would have liked to meditate, but they were supposed to be leaving in the afternoon and he tends to lose track of time when he does.

As for what he was drawing, it was himself, in his alien forms. He was thinking of creating his own series about his life, with some changes of course. It would be better than having some idiot try it and butcher it.

Gwen was sitting beside him, playing on her phone and looking over every now and then.

Gwen - "What alien is that?"

He was busy putting the finishing touches on his drawing of Big Chill.

Ben - "An alien that can freeze stuff, fly, go invisible and go through solid objects. Very useful."

Gwen - "Hmm. Is that how you left the house the other day and took down the aliens?"

Ben - "Yeah."

For the next few hours, he continued drawing. They ate together with aunt Vera one last time and then set off at 1pm.

When he got in the RV, Ben went straight to meditating.

The moment he started his meditation and started his attempts to manipulate his Mana, he got great results. Well, he managed to budge it... But that is better than his previous tries.

So, for the next 5 hours, Ben actually made some progress for once. After multiple tries, he managed to draw his Mana out of his pool a little bit.

After the meditation session, he got up and started making dinner for the three of them.

While he did, he talked to Gabriel.

Ben - 'Gabriel? Is there a reason for why it was so much easier to move my Mana today?'

Gabriel - "It is likely due to your INT stat increasing."

Ben - '... You mean I could have distributed some points and it would have been this much easier to begin with...?'

Gabriel - "Pretty much."

Ben - 'Why are we still here? Just to suffer?'

Gabriel - "Yup. Now focus on the dinner or Max might revoke your chef status."

Ben felt a shiver down his spine at the thought that he might have to eat Max's 'food' and started focusing on his task.

Once the food was done, Max stopped driving and sat at the the table with Gwen. Ben then served the food and they had a satisfying meal.

After eating and cleaning up, Max went back to driving and Ben restarted his meditation.

When it got late, Ben and Gwen went to sleep, while Max continued driving. For some reason, they were heading to Texas.

- The next day -

Ben got up, did his workout, received his rewards, used his Recovery and then made breakfast for everyone.

Once they had eaten, Max went outside and started setting up an obstacle course. Ben and Gwen took out a couple of folding chairs and relaxed.

Gwen - "Shouldn't we help?"

Ben - "We don't even know what he is trying to do or why. Just relax." 'I don't even want to do his pointless training.'

Gabriel - "He just wants to help train you."

Ben - 'Yeah, but to someone highly train in CQC and Marksmanship as a normal human, this is just pointless. And kind of insulting.'

Gabriel - "... Okay then. You might be interested to know there is a mission for you."

Ben - 'Cool.'

[Mission:

Hunt - Squid face has hired mercenaries to hunt you down. Deal with it however you wish, just don't die. That would suck.

Rewards - 3AP, 500XP, 500SP, Skill: Programming Lv-5

Failure - -2000SP, You could lose your Omnitrix if you're caught]

Ben - '... I'm gonna kill those fucks.'

Gabriel - "Is that necessary?"

Ben - 'They want to take what's mine. I HATE when people do that.'

A small amount of his Mana acted up from his emotions and made his eyes glow.

Gabriel - "Okay. Calm down."

Ben - '*sigh* Fine.'

Ben decided to sit back and close his eyes while waiting.

- 30 Minutes later -

Max - "Ben! Everything's set up on my side, why don't you come on over!?"

Ben - "*sigh* Coming Grandpa."

He begrudgingly got up and walked his way over.

Max - "Okay, Ben. Just stand over there and transform into one of your aliens."

As instructed, Ben went to the indicated spot, activated the Omnitrix and turned into Diamondhead. Just for the sake of it.

As soon Ben transformed, Max started pulling levers and strings.

In seconds, targets popped up and small rocks started flying at him.

Ben shifted his body, so that the rocks just passed by him. He then waved his arm and shot the targets with perfect accuracy. All with a look of boredom.

This went for a few short minutes, by which time he decimated the course.

Max was stood there scratching his head in bewilderment.

Diamondhead - "So? Is that it?"

Max - "Uh... Yeah. It is."

Ben tapped the Omnitrix and turned back to normal.

Ben - "Okay then. I'm gonna go sit in the Rustbucket."

Max watched as Ben turned and walked away.

Max - 'He could put most Plumbers to shame.'

He looked at the course he had spent so much effort building, but was now falling apart and sighed sadly. He picked up all his tools and made his way to the RV.

They spent a few more minute in the area and then left.

- Outside of Earth's atmosphere -

There was a large spaceship orbiting the planet and inside of said ship, a meeting was happening or rather, an audition.

A total of 9 individuals were present.

1 metal crab like creature. 1 humanoid being in a black and pink high tech suit.

A tall male humanoid with a hoverboard in his hand.

A man standing 7 foot tall, in a set of green armour with a golden visor hiding his face and a rifle on his back.

Then there was a group of five aliens that look like bipedal dinosaurs, more than 8 foot tall. 4 of them were in matching sets of dark blue armour that looked like a carapace. The last one was wearing a similar armour, but his was red. They all were glaring at the man in the green suit with fear, respect and hatred.

Blue 1 - "The Demon..."

Blue 2 - "Why is the Demon here?"

Red - "Be silent!"

At that moment, a screen turned on and a voice spoke out.

Vilgax - "You 9 have each shown your ability and it is now time to choose who of you will be brought into my services. And I have decided on all of you! Now, go and retrieve MY Omnitrix, and you shall be greatly rewarded."

With a series of nods from the newly hired mercenaries, the screen turned off and they all made their way to their means of getting to the planet below, where their target was wondering when they would show up. But also, where he would get the surprise of his life.

[Status -

Name - Ben

Lv - 9 (180/550)

Title - Wielder of the Omnitrix

State - Healthy MP - 560

STR - 18

END - 18

AGI - 18

CHA - 18

INT - 28

LUK - 666

AP - 28 SP - 948,800

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

Secondary Skills: Drawing Lv-3, Math Lv-3, Writing Lv-3, Running Lv-5, Driving Lv-4, Engineering Lv-3, Cooking Lv-3, Pain Tolerance Lv-1, Bioengineering Lv-5, Torture Lv-1

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