Ch 16 "Under the Sea!"

(Sorry, this chapter is slightly shorter, but I've tried to make the quality better to make up for it.

We're coming up to a part that I've been trying to rush towards, so I'm gonna slow down with Ben 10 and even out my writing.)

After she had finished cleaning herself in the shower, Charmcaster dried and dressed herself with some magic, before exiting the bathroom with her head down. She was embarrassed at how she'd peed herself in front of these new people she was with.

When he heard her exit the bathroom, Ben glanced to her, before turning back to his task and telling her. "Come take a seat, food will be ready soon."

Nodding her head, Charmcaster sat down and began patiently waiting. As she did this, Gwen and Keira came and sat opposite to her with friendly expressions as they introduced themselves, already trying to get to know Charmcaster better.

While they were waiting for the food and talking, Charmcaster didn't know how best to deal with the younger girls, because even if there was only a small age gap, she wasn't used to talking to people her own age and doesn't know the first thing when it comes to making friends.

Fortunately, Gwen and Keira aren't normal girls, so when they started talking and asking about magic, something she was quite good at in her opinion, she started talking and it wasn't long before she naturally speaking with them.

As he was cooking, Ben paid slight attention to the girls conversation, thinking that there might be something useful he could learn. Because, while he has plenty of Mana, he doesn't have a whole lot of magical knowledge.

When the food was done, Ben informed Max, but he said he would eat later, so Ben began setting plates down and wrapped Max's for later, before sitting down opposite of Gwen. He looked to Charmcaster at his side and lightly smiled at her. "Hope you enjoy it."

Charmcaster felt bubbly when she saw his smile, but she flinched ever so slightly at his chosen words. She didn't want her pause to be noticed, so she turned her attention to the food in front of her and took her first bite.

To her surprise, flavour exploded in her mouth and this lead her to start slowly putting more food into her mouth. She unknowingly started crying. The food was the most delicious food she'd ever tasted, compounded with the warm atmosphere, she just couldn't stop herself.

Seeing Charmcaster in such a state, the other three at the table felt bad for her. It was upon seeing this, that Ben truly felt bad for her and he started slowly stroking her back. Realising how bad things must have been for her, Ben regretted treating her cruelly and decided to treat her just like he'd treat the other two. So long as she doesn't give him a reason not to, he will treat her like family.

So, when she had calmed down and was carefully wiped away her tears, he asked her. "I know I should have asked this sooner, but what is your name? Mine is Ben."

Charmcaster smiled slightly and nodded her head. "Right, we never got introduced. My name is Charmcaster."

Hearing her alias name, Ben shook his head at the cringe idea of calling her that on a daily basis. "Is that your real name or...?"

"Ah!... Well, no... But..." As if she had suddenly remembered, she quickly seemed like she wanted to forget it again, saddened by her memories.

Although she has another name, it was clear that there was a personal reason for not wanting to say it, so Ben decided to show some trust. "Hey, it's okay if you don't want to say it right now, just do it when you're ready." He dropped the matter for now and turned to his food. "For now, just enjoy your meal."

Looking to the charming boy beside her, Charmcaster felt a faint warmth in her heart. Despite her, sort of being their enemy, he was still being caring towards her and he was a total stranger. After being raised by her uncle for all those years, she had pretty much forgot what care and love was, only having vague memories from a young age as a guide.

Enjoying her surprisingly happy feelings, she nodded with a grateful smile and stared at him a bit longer, before turning to her food and doing just as he said, enjoying her meal.

...

After the four of them finished eating, they started talking about magic again, but with the addition of Ben to the conversation. Charmcaster even showed them her bag, which was a Magical item with an expanded space inside.

Seeing the bag, Ben got curious and asked to inspect it. Although she was hesitant, Charmcaster handed him her magic bag.

Partially transforming into his Anodite form, Ben's eyes began glowing with energy as he stared at the mana used to enchant the bag. Why was he doing this? Well, the answer is, it's so he can figure out how to enchant things himself.

Like taking a car apart, seeing how things work and then put the car back together, before eventually figuring out how to make something better.

To be exact, he wants to be able to expand the space inside the Rustbucket. It is getting too crowded, so if he can learn the enchantment, with some trial and error, he can make the RV bigger.

As he stared at the bag, Ben internally groaned. 'Following all these different Mana lines is annoying... Wish I could just have someone study this and tell me how it works...' Only as he thought this, did he realise he just might already have what he needed. 'Wait...'

Looking at the bag, he used Analyse and got the basic detail as usual, but by focusing with the intent of knowing specifics, he could see every little detail involved in making the bag. From materials to enchantments, everything was clearly detailed to him. He could see why everything was done and what they did.

[Secondary Skill: Enchanting Lv-1. Acquired.]

[Enchanting increased to Lv-2]

[Enchanting increased to Lv-3]

Through the process of reverse engineering and his ever increasing INT stat, Ben cheated his way to success. He handed Charmcaster her bag and thanked her, deciding to relax for the time being.

It would be nice if he could immediately work on increasing the space in the RV, but he would need quite a bit of uninterrupted time to do it and he definitely can't do anything while moving, so relaxing was the best option. Especially since that was the initial plan for the day anyways...

So, Ben spent the rest of the day with the girls and got to know Charmcaster better.

---

The next couple of days passed quite normally. If you consider learning magic and children sparring to be normal...

Charmcaster managed to fit in well with the group. She taught Ben and Gwen more about magic, so they, mostly Gwen, made some advancements in their magic abilities. This may or may not have provoked Keira, as she worked harder to learn how to control her power, so everyone benefited.

Even Charmcaster made some improvements, as Ben noticed that her Mana flow and quality, was, in simple words, 'utter shit'... So yeah, he decided to show her the proper way to circulate her Mana. She was pretty embarrassed from the physical contact, but that didn't stop her from asking Ben for help, sometimes even when she didn't need it.

Although she thought she was quite subtle in her unneeded lessons, she was extremely transparent to the others, but they didn't say anything about it. Ben, because he thought it was pretty funny and cute, while Gwen and Keira kept eyeing her suspiciously.

The only time a problem arose, was when Ben found out that someone was trying to make a profit from his alien forms. So, he destroyed a business on that day and got a bunch of people arrested, having revealed a bunch of their dirty secrets. That was more fun than work though and he got some more money, so it wasn't a problem.

Other than that, Ben spent a lot of his time training with the Force. His Mana was almost at 10k now, meaning his midi-chlorian count was nearly 100k and with such an amount, he is concerned by what could come, because of his lack of control. Plus, the more access he has to his Force abilities, the better.

Even now, Ben was sat in a meditative position with his lightsabers floating in front of him and right now, they were making their way over to the other side of the country, again... At least this time it isn't because of Max's nonsense, but rather, because an old friend of his had invited them to an underwater resort.

It seemed like a fun and carefree idea, so Max readily agreed and started heading for Georgia, where a few days later, they would board a private plane to the resort residing in the Bermuda Triangle.

---

They arrived in Georgia after three days of constant travelling, but they weren't given time to stretch their legs and quickly boarded a private jet to the resort. The jet was nice and the girls were enjoying the luxury ride. Ben and Max weren't as bothered about it, but they were happy to see the other three enjoy themselves.

When they got to the resort and off the jet, they were greeted by an elderly man who's rich and wants you to know it. A real "Richy Rich" motherfucker. Next to him, was his Grandson, who was dressed just like him.

Upon seeing Max, the elderly man smiled and gave him a handshake. "Max, it's great to see you again!"

Max met his handshake and smiled as well. "Donovan, it's been too long." Glancing to the side, he saw the boy with his friend. "This must be your Grandson?"

Smiling proudly, Donovan patted the boys shoulder and announced. "Sure is! This is Edwin and he's going to be in charge of the company some day!" The kid rolled is eyes at the irritating comment, but said nothing. Donovan then looked at the four kids accompanying his friend and was mildly confused as he said. "I didn't know you had so many Grandkids...?"

As if rehearsed, the four of them replied one after the other, starting with Charmcaster, who awkwardly waved and said. "I'm Charmcaster, a friend of the family." With Keira following with suppressed excitement. "I'm a friend! Name's Keira" Which was when Ben gave a relaxed, two finger wave. "Adopted Grandson. Ben." And ended with Gwen excitedly saying. "My name's Gwen, it's nice to meet you!"

When Donovan heard Charmcasters name, he looked at her weirdly, before shrugging it off as her being in a fase or something, and figuring that she was forced to join the trip, which is technically true. Keira was a bit excited, but she gave simple introduction. As for Ben, what was he supposed to think? Ben seemed casual and unbothered, but it was as if something was there, that he's just not seeing. This made Donovan somewhat curious about him. And Gwen? Well, she always present herself as a smart you woman, so the result was a good impression.

With a good natured smile, Donovan welcomed them inside. "Well, okay then, let's take the drop, shall we?" Saying that, he turned and guided everyone to an elevator.

Getting in the elevator was a bit of a tight squeeze, but it fortunately wasn't a long stay, as they just went down into the actual entrance and got themselves seated on a mini ride to the underwater building. The girls were awed as they looked outside the reinforced glass tube they were travelling in, admiring the expansive ocean around them and watching the multicolored fish swim by.

It was all very neat and while the boys enjoyed the show, Ben just thought it was just that, 'neat'. Meanwhile, Max was more concerned about the location of the resort and looked to his friend, who was finishing up an introduction. "This is all very impressive Donovan, but did you really have to build it in the Bermuda Triangle?"

Hearing their whereabouts, the girls looked over with so minor concern on their faces. But, they saw Ben still sitting and chilling away, they realised that he could probably handle most things.

Shaking his head, Donovan laughed at his old friends superstitions. "Don't tell me you believe that nonsense?" He sarcastically asked and received no answer.

'I never figured out what was happening here... I just hope everything goes well.' Max saw that Donovan wasn't going to see reason, so he just sighed and prayed for peace.

Ben glanced at Max from the side, easily guessing what he was thinking and just ignoring it as he checked for missions.

[Missions:

Shark Bait Ooh ah ah!!! - Fate has it out for an employee, just saying. Help if you want, just don't get caught.

Rewards - 6300SP

Failure - Something annoying.

Again? - Why are there so many enemies with tentacles? Anyways, you should know what's coming, so have fun.

You can choose to do it without magic or alien powers.

With - 80,000SP

Without - 100,000SP and 2AP]

The first mission gave him a bad feeling because of the failure, so he didn't accept it and the rewards were minor anyways, but the other one was fine, so he took it 'cause he can.

When they got to the main building, they got out of the transport and started making their way inside. They soon came to a stop at window showing the ocean around them, with a man outside cleaning it. Gwen started nerding out, before being quietened by the Grandson of Donovan, Edwin, calling her a 'suck up'.

Ben and Keira frowned at the comment, but said nothing as they saw Gwen clicked her dismissively and ignored him.

You might think that Edwin's Grandfather would say something, you'd be wrong however, as Donovan ignored his Grandsons behaviour and took to bragging instead. It wasn't long before he was shut up, as there was a power surge and the lights flickered for a moment.

Sighing in relief, Donovan went to explain, only to be interrupted when the cleaner outside was screaming for help, because the fans outside reversed and began sucking him in. The only thing keeping him from being blended into a smoothy, was a lead attached to the outside.

As everyone saw that the employee was on the edge of life and death, they got over their panick and went about starting to help. Their help wouldn't come fast enough however, as a couple of sharks came into the equation, making them wonder if things could get worse.

Ben on the other hand, was thinking of the current situation from a different point of view. 'Which one is worse; fan blade or shark bait?'

Yes... And as he was having such profound thoughts, Ben's travelling companions realised they/he should help, bringing them to look at Ben and find him doing nothing, practically twiddling his thumbs.

It took a moment for him to pay attention to them, but when he did, Ben's face showed an expression of realisation, as if he just realised that he should help the poor guy.

Looking towards the fun little bit of plot happening in front of him and smirking slightly, Ben used Intimidation and focused on the sharks, causing them to turn tail and run away, or swim in this case.

From the others perspective, the sharks seemed as if they were scared of something and left in a hurry, but after a moment, Max, Gwen and Keira realised what he'd done and sighed in relief.

Seen as the sharks were gone, Ben considered jumping in and helping the unfortunate extra, but soon didn't have to help, as the system seemed to reset and the fans stopped pulling the dude in. Instead, they pushed him up and straight on to the floor.

People quickly hurried over to the man and started helping him. Meanwhile, Donovan was complaining about having to pay up some hush money. He looked at Edwin and suggested. "Edwin, why don't you give the rest of the tour, while Max and I catch up."

"Sure, Grandpa..." Edwin rolled his eyes in annoyance and started walking away, expecting the others to follow him.

They weren't thrilled about having to go with the brat, but the kids started to follow Edwin anyways, leaving Max and Donovan to go on their way.

As they walked, there was nothing but awkward silence, so Ben decided that he would go have some fun of his own and excused himself from the group. "Hey, I'm just gonna go look around." Without waiting for a response, he turned and began walking away as he advised the girls. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do and definitely don't do anything I WOULD do. Bye."

Before the girls could say anything to him, Ben had already turned a corner, where they then saw the red flash of the Omnitrix being used and knew that he'd transformed. Gwen sighed in exasperation from his disappearing act, while Keira pouted disappointedly, but deep down they just hope he stays safe.

As for Charmcaster, she was looking at the other two girls and wondering how often this happens to produce such reactions. Edwin didn't even bother to acknowledge Ben's leave and continued walking away.

On Ben's side, after transforming into Ghostfreak, he exited the resort and started making his way to the bottom of the ocean, which is where he found a graveyard of ships and planes. One by one, he started collecting and selling them to the system.

He never actually got more than a couple thousand SP for a sale, usually only getting hundreds. But, it all builds up to a larger sum in the end and after a while, he got more than 60k and had barely taken an eighth of what was there.

Looking around at all the wrecked machines, Ben sighed and spoke to himself. "Uhg... Although the SP is good, this is just a pain in the ass..."

Although he was talking to himself, Gabriel spoke up and gave a suggestion. "You could just leave it for some other time. Your not getting that much SP anyways, so just come back in the future and take everything then. At that point, you probably won't even need the SP and will be able to make some money instead."

After giving it some thought, Ben shrugged. "Alright. There isn't much point in doing something I lost interest in anyways, so-" Just as he was thinking of leaving, a bright light suddenly appeared far above him and drew his attention.

The light was coming from the resort and it was like a beacon to everything within the ocean. As it happened, there was something, a lot of something, which took notice of the light and like angered spirits, they swarmed out of their lairs towards the underwater building.

Seeing the swarms of alien, techno octopuses, Ben voiced out his woes. "Did the creator of the 'Ben 10' universe have a tentacle fetish of something...?"

"..." Opting not to say anything, Gabriel decided to just watch and listen, internally pondering whether Ben was correct.

With a bored sigh, Ben's ghostly body released a red burst of light and in its place, a giant sea monster appeared. Over 40 meters tall, he is covered in dark, armour like scaled. His body was extremely muscular and radiated power. The most noticeable details, are the enlarged Omnitrix on the chest, along with two thick tentacles coming from his mouth and eerie, glowing red eyes. Ben had for the first time, transformed into his Kraken form, which he doesn't have a name for it, but Kraken would suffice.

Letting out a deep, thundering roar that shook the sea, he shot off with a surprising speed for his size and started attacking the alien things. He didn't care much about the mission saying he would get better rewards without aliens, as he'd rather just deal with the problem quickly and get going.

There was only two problems that arose from his decision. One, was that there was a fucking ton of the octobots and although they weren't hurting him, it was an annoyance to deal with them. As for the other problem, well that came in the form of a submarine, which was carrying the girls and also being attacked by the Aliens.

Seeing his family getting attacked, Ben growled, somewhat mad that they had done something so stupid and put themselves in danger. Especially when considering what he had done not long ago, overestimating himself and almost dying to keep them safe.

Using his irritation, Ben lashed out with his ginormous tentacles, slamming into multiple bots, destroying them and blasting away the rest that swarmed him. With no obstructions, he quickly swam towards the submarine, charging through a layer of bots to get to it and started plucking them off the sub with his tentacles.

Inside the sub, the fearful children thought they were done for because of the aliens and were even more scared when a big creature, seemingly started to attack them. It was a moment later that the girls actually saw what the creature was or caught sight of the Omnitrix on it's chest.

While the girls sighed a breath of relief, Edwin was on the verge of pissing himself in fear, scared senseless by the red eyes staring into his soul.

Once he had cleared the bots off the submarine, Ben had to continue attacking the bots and keep them away as he roared at the group in the sub. "LEAVE!!!" A deep, thundering voice erupted from his mouth, causing everything around him to tremble.

After telling them to leave, Ben began focusing on the bots and started ripping them to shreds. Edwin didn't seem capable of thinking right now, so Gwen took over and somehow managed to get them out of there.

Relieved that they were gone, Ben went back to lazily fight the enemy and wondered how long this was going to take. He glanced at the escaping submarine and saw that they were successfully getting away, only for him to see even more octobots rising from the ship graveyard.

Ben's paused at the sight of such bullshit, but then he looked back to his current enemies and growled. 'Fuck it.' No longer giving a fuck, he decided to go on a rampage and fused with the the DNA of Rath. The fusion caused him to get physically stronger and then even stronger when his [Wrath] skill activated.

With his claws ready to tear everything apart, he roared again and started slashing, smashing and bashing the bots until there was no more, then he swiftly swam back to the resort.

As he got to the resort, Ben saw that the octobots had already broken inside and that the entrance was destroyed. Not knowing whether the girls were still inside, he undid his transformation and turned into Ghostfreak, before fusing with XLR8 and speeding around to make sure they weren't trapped.

When he didn't find them in the resort, he decided go to the surface, which is where he found them safe and sound. Only after making absolutely sure that the girls were safe, did Ben feel relieved and decide to go back down to destroy the bots, just remaining a speedy ghost to kill them all.

...

Once they were all dealt with, Ben decided to steal the thing that had caused this whole mess. An energy source that had been taken from the aliens and used to power the resort. Only then, did he look at the system notifications.

[30,430 enemies killed. 304,300 Total XP gained.]

[Missions Complete - 83,150SP]

Now that he has nothing else to do, he quickly went up to the surface, detransforming a few feet below the surface and swimming the rest of the way. When he broke through the surface of the water, Ben was noticed by his family and Max's friend, who were anxiously waiting.

Swimming over to the side of the platform, Ben climbed out of the ocean and took his shirt off to wring it out, consequently exposing his beast of a body to everyone. The girls focused on his body and fell into a daze. Donovan and Edwin were shocked. Max was left as the only one thinking clearly, as he ran over and gave Ben a towel.

After a some of complaining and apologies from Donovan, Ben and his companions were heading back to the mainland, in the jet they arrived in. Donovan has another means of transport.

After getting in the privacy of the private jet, Ben fused with Heatblast blast and dried himself, before cancelling it and changing his clothes in the Omnitrix. Deciding to go with more comfortable clothing to lounge around in, he chose some black and white shoes, baggy black pant, a plain white shirt covered by a loose black jumper.

Stretching his body a bit, Ben released a groan of comfort and then relaxed into his chair. His action was noticed by the others and prompted Max to ask. "You okay, Ben? You seem to be tired recently."

Slightly nodding his head, Ben replied. "Yeah, I'm fine, I just feel like relaxing." He then closed his eyes and appeared to be sleeping, though he was actually still awake and was simply enjoying the ride back.

...

Upon reaching solid ground, the group immediately headed for the Rustbucket and fell into their beds, with Gwen and Keira making sure to snuggle into Ben. Charmcaster found herself feeling a bit jealous of the two younger girls, but said nothing and got on to her bunk.

[Status -

Name - Ben

Lv - 54 (18,560/88,000)

Title - Wielder of the Omnitrix, Anti-Hero, Idol Slayer

State - Healthy MP - 10113

STR - 3534

END - 3535

AGI - 3534

CHA - 3536

INT - 209

LUK - 666

AP - 98 SP - 1,565,200

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

Secondary Skills: Drawing Lv-3, Math Lv-4, Science Lv-4, Writing Lv-3, Maneuvering Lv-5, Driving Lv-4, Engineering Lv-5, Cooking Lv-4, Pain Tolerance Lv-9, Bioengineering Lv-5, Programming Lv-5, Torture Lv-2, Acting Lv-3, Enchanting Lv-3

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

(5 Recoveries Stored)