For those of you who are reading this, you probably already know that this story was adopted from Red Reef, an amazing writer who missed an opportunity with this story, but I can understand that she wasn't as properly motivated when she has her other stories. Thanks to her generosity, I will finish what she started.

For the first twelve chapters, Red gave me a copy of the story so far, so it's basically going to follow the same thing as the original, but with a few changes I thought about making (grammar correction for starters). But the thirteenth chapter will be where I take over. I'll post all the chapters every few days so that it doesn't overwhelm everyone and gives people a chance to catch up. It'll probably be caught up to where she left off within 2-3 weeks.

So with that being said, let's get started.

Episode 1: And Then There Were Two

The vastness of space – an endless ocean of nothingness filled in with only small dots of rock and gas. With the sheer scale of the universe (and everything that existed beyond it), most sentient beings that existed in this tiny solar system could not be bothered to go out looking for intelligent life….So instead, they decided to come to us.

The rings of Saturn were alight with explosions as a sleek black-and-green space ship swerved skillfully through the asteroid field, firing back at the massive cruiser that was plowing through the rocks behind it. The ship was many times larger than the one it perused, its appearance closer to the shape of a laser rifle with red electric beams running between it two pincers and the glowing red orbs that dotted its surface. The larger ship shot a single beam of red energy at the underside of its target, seemingly able to slow it down before it was flying alongside the transport and fired their turrets at its side. The smaller ship endured the damage and swerved away from its pursuer, returning laser fire at the neck of the ship.

Within the command center of the ship, humanoid drones in armor of red and black with multiple diodes were buzzing between the multiple computer systems with extreme haste.

"Hull damage at twenty percent," a Drone reported in a mechanized voice, speaking to the bridge commander. "Weapon systems are still operational. What is your command, Lady Cetanu?"

The bridge commander towered over the meager drones; their reptile-like skin a murky shade of mottled yellow with long, hair-like appendages on its head similar to dreadlocks and prominent mammary glands that make them distinctly female. They wore very little in terms of clothing; most of her wardrobe consisted entirely of wire mesh that pressed tightly against her reptilian skin, but she also wore thick pieces of unknown armor that concealed her breasts and loins, a pair of wrist gauntlets (one of which held a miniature computer), and belt made from the skull of different creatures for which she used to store her items in the eye sockets. Her face was unknown to everyone because of the heavy metal mask she wore, but when she turned to the Drone and addressed him, her voice came strong and clear.

"We have come too far to be defeated now," said Cetanu; every word she spoke was with a soft hiss. "The Omnitrix is nearly in our possession. Retrieve it quickly, or your master Vilgax will be very…displeased. And you would not want him to be displeased, would you?"

The Drones immediately redoubled their efforts, their fingers flying across the keyboard with a renewed sense of urgency. As the minions went to work trying to chase down the starship that was leaving the asteroid belt, Cetanu turned on her clawed foot and walked to the back toward the command chair that oversaw the entire bridge. Sitting upon his seat as if it were a throne was a humanoid that was even taller than the already impressively-sized Cetanu with murky-green skin and a head that closely resembled those of Earth's octopuses. The mighty and imposing Vilgax turned his burning-red eyes down upon the bridge commander that kneeled respectfully in his presence.

"Father, we are close to retrieving the Omnitrix, but the transport continues to elude us," Cetanu reported. "It is only a matter of time before we strike a fatal blow, but the hunt has been…frustrating to say the least. The Omnitrix should never have been able to reach this system. If it wasn't for Skaath's ignorance and Zs'Skayr's disappearance – "

"Your brothers will be punished for their blunders, rest assured, daughter," Vilgax interjected. "For now, focus on retrieving the Omnitrix. Once it is ours, there will not be a force in the universe that will be able to stand in our way."

The only force in the universe that could stand in the way of the all-powerful Vilgax and his children…was a bored ten year-old boy who saw fit to spend more time making paper airplanes than to pay attention in history class.

Ben Tennyson (who occasionally liked to call himself Ben Ten because it was 'a sweet nickname') was many things including lazy, selfish, and had the attention span of a squirrel – but at least he could make awesome paper planes; that had to count for something right? Ben folded the last crease on his latest 'masterpiece', checked around to see that nobody was watching him, and then let it fly across the classroom. The paper aircraft landed its target in the back of his teacher's head. Said teacher glared over her shoulder and Ben 'masterfully' concealed himself behind his textbook, even though it was common knowledge that Ben rarely read anything that didn't have colorful pictures of heroes in spandex.

Twenty more unbearable minutes of learning about boring dead guys before the clock slowly ticked away to the last seconds until summer vacation started. You know that feeling you get when you want time to move faster and it always seems to be extra slow? For Ben, it felt like time was actually starting to move backwards just to keep him in school for as long as possible. Only one minute left…

"Come on, come on," Ben groaned.

" – and I just want to remind you all that I will be teaching summer school this year and it's not too late to sign up," the teacher announced.

"Yeah, right," Ben scoffed under his breath. And then, finally, the single greatest sound in the history of school: the final bell signaling the end of the day. "Yes! Outta Here!"

"Everyone, have a good vacation," said the teacher pleasantly as her students filed out of class. That is, until Ben was about to take his last steps towards freedom. "Benjamin!"

Ben stopped in his tracks and turned back to his teacher, grimacing as she held up his paper plane with a look of disapproval.

"Could I have a word with you before you go?" said the teacher, leaving no room for argument.

Ben groaned in annoyance and walked back. Will his suffering never end?

Meanwhile, just outside on the school grounds, the typical playground bullies – Cash and his henchman J.T. – had cornered yet another one of their unfortunate victims. It was common to see these two picking on weaker kids to steal their money or just bully them out of some twisted sense of amusement. And the worst part was that no one ever did a thing to stop them, either because they were too scared of Cash, or because they just didn't want to deal with the problems.

"Normally, we'd take your money and beat you up," said Cash with wicked glee at the thought. "But since it's the last day of school, we're gonna give you a break." He leaned over his helpless victim, holding his hand out expectantly. "Now fork over the cash so we can get out of here!"

"Leave him alone!" demanded Ben, appearing on the scene in a dramatic pose.

"Get lost, Tennyson," said J.T. irritably.

"I said, leave him alone," Ben repeated.

"Oh, looks like we've got ourselves a hero," said Cash tauntingly. He and his lackey marched over to Ben, looking down on him. "Suppose we don't wanna leave him alone."

"What're ya gonna do about it, Tennyson?" J.T. asked mockingly.

Then three boys faced off in a classic stare down before Ben decided to get physical and rushed the bullies….

Two minutes later, he and the bully victim were both hanging from the tree next to the road by their underwear. Both boys had visibly annoyed expressions; Ben because he got beat up so easily, and the victim because Ben had gotten him into trouble when he didn't need it.

"Thanks a lot," said the bully victim, glaring.

"I was just trying to help," said Ben sullenly.

"Next time you wanna play hero, make sure you can back it up," said the bully victim, crossing his arms and huffing.

Ben bowed his head and groaned to himself. He hated feeling so helpless, especially when all he did was try to do the right thing. His grandpa always told him that when you did the right thing, good things would happen – something about karma or whatever. But whenever Ben tried to help anyone, it usually backfired and he ended up in worse trouble than before. This embarrassing moment was only the latest in a long line of good deeds gone wrong. Sometimes – just sometimes – Ben wondered if maybe he should just stop trying to be the hero.

That's when the most beat up recreational vehicle in the history of the world pulled up in front of the school. The vehicle was so old that the paint had thinned out years ago, there were a bunch of grease marks and dents that would never come out, and the tacky fuzzy dice hanging in the windows – seriously, who has fuzzy dice in this day and age? But Ben knew this RV well enough to affectionately call it the Rust Bucket and knew the man with the Hawaiian shirt sitting behind the wheel.

"Come on, Ben, we're burning daylight!" called dear old Grandpa Max. "I wanna make it to the campsite by nightfall!"

"Uh…Grandpa, a little help here!" shouted Ben, pondering how his grandfather could not see the precarious situation he was in.

A couple minutes later after Grandpa Max pulled him down and his underwear was safely tucked back in his pants, Ben stepped into the Rust Bucket bursting with excitement.

"I've so been looking forward to this," said Ben excitedly. His excitement quickly died off the moment he saw the red-headed demon spawn that was his cousin sitting near the window with a annoyed expression that mirrored his own. "Gwen? What are – What are you doing here? What is she doing here?" He turned to his grandfather in horror.

"Take it easy, dweeb," said Gwen, leering at him. "This wasn't my idea. Somebody convinced my mom that going camping for the summer would be a good experience for me."

"Grandpa, please," Ben whined. "Tell me you didn't do this."

"I thought it would be fun if your cousin came along with us this summer," said Max kindly before furrowing his brow at them. "Is that a problem?"

Neither one of them said anything, mostly because they didn't want to upset or disappoint their grandfather. Whatever animosity existed between them, they both shared a mutual love for Grandpa Max and begrudgingly made a silent pact not to argue for his sake….Which lasted all of about twenty minutes when they were already on the road past the town limits and heading up state towards Yosemite Park, which Grandpa Max had told them would be the first stop on their summer adventure. Ben and Gwen sat across from each other, trying to look anywhere except for their annoying cousin.

"I can't believe it," Ben complained. "I wait all school year to go on this trip and now the Queen of Cooties is along for the ride."

"Hey, I already had my whole vacation planned out too, you know!" Gwen argued back, pulling out a colorful sheet of paper from underneath the table (where it came from, nobody knows). "Each activity is color-coded so I never did the same thing two days in a row." Ben jaw literally dropped at the absurdity of planning out an entire summer on paper. "Now I'm stuck going camping with my geekoid cousin for three months."

"Geek," hissed Ben.

"Jerk," retorted Gwen.

"Nerd."

"Loser."

"Dweeb."

"Freak."

"Something tells me this is gonna be a loooong summer," said Max, suddenly starting to regret this entire trip.

After hours of being cramped together in the Rust Bucket with the Wonder Cousins glaring at each other the entire time, the Tennysons finally reached their destination in Yosemite Park by the time night had fallen. Grandpa Max parked their RV near the campsite and told Ben and Gwen to wait at the picnic table while he scrounged up dinner for them. The two cousins just sat their…silently judging each other….Thank goddess it didn't take long for Grandpa Max to come back outside with a bowl of…something.

"Chow time!" said Max is a good mood.

He set the bowl between Ben and Gwen, both of whom stood up and stared into the bowl…and the slimy, wormy white things that were crawling inside it. Suddenly, neither cousin felt very hungry.

"Okay, I give up," said Ben, feeling a little squeamish. "What is that?"

"Marinated meal worms," said Max. "Hard to find them fresh in the States. You know, they're considered a delicacy in some countries."

"And totally gross in others," said Gwen, grimacing as one of the white things fell out of the bowl and started crawling along the table.

"If these don't sound good, I've got some smoked sheep's tongue in the fridge," said Max.

"Ugh," groaned Ben. "Couldn't we just have a burger or something?"

"Nonsense," said Max. "This summer's going to be an adventure for your taste buds. I'll grab the tongue."

As Max walked back into the Rust Bucket, Ben sidled over to Gwen and whispered:

"Okay, I've got a half-eaten bag of corn chips and a candy bar in my backpack. What do you got?"

"Some rice cakes and hard candy," answered Gwen desperately.

"Think we can make them last the whole summer?" asked Ben despairingly.

The Tennyson cousins stared down at the meal worms with a renewed sense of dread. This was gonna be the worst summer ever….

Meanwhile, the battle out in space continued to rage as the transporter ship passed by the red planet of Mars and flew towards the blue planet of Earth. But not too far behind was Vilgax's flagship, the Chimerian Hammer, dangerously close behind it. The massive warship fired relentlessly onto the smaller transporter until one shot successfully hit its tail, effectively stopping the ship in its place.

"Their propulsion systems have been destroyed," reported one of the Drones.

"Prepare to Board!" commanded Cetanu. "Retrieve the Omnitrix for my father at once!"

"Yes," Vilgax hissed in delight. "After so long, the most powerful weapon in the universe will finally be within my grasp."

But before the Cthulhian conqueror could celebrate his conquest, the ship's alarms suddenly blared and the command center was washed in a flare of flashing red lights. Vilgax jumped out of his seat and Cetanu flinched in momentary panic. The masked daughter of Vilgax turned to address the Drones, who were running around the bridge in a flurry.

"What is happening?" shouted Cetanu.

"The ship's shields have been disabled!" one of the Drones announced worriedly. "The bridge is completely exposed!"

"What?" roared Vilgax. "How is this possible?"

While the crew of the Chimerian Hammer was practically losing their heads trying to fix the situation, the transport ship took notice of their lowered defenses and took one last desperate shot at the larger ship. The green bolt of energy successfully smashed through the warship's walls and hit the bridge with a mighty explosion that consumed Vilgax and nearly half the Drones working inside the command center. Cetanu, with her natural Yautja reflexes, managed to avoid getting caught in the blast without serious injury, but fell against one of the control panels. That particular control panel, Cetanu noticed, just happened to be the weapon systems, which was surprisingly undamaged from the blast. Cetanu raised her fist and slammed it down on the firing mechanism.

The Chimerian Hammer charged its central cannon and fired a single shot on transporter, successfully blasting the spaceship to pieces so that only the front remained. As the smoldering remains of the transporter careened towards the Earth, a silvery capsule was catapulted from the side of the ship, it's presence masked by the debris, and hurtled toward the surface of the planet below.

As the war raged on in the skies starry skies above their heads, the Tennyson cousins were still on edge as usual. In an added effort to not to talk to one another, both of them occupied themselves with activities that would prevent them from interacting. Ben put all his attention into beating the newest level of his Sumo Slammer's game and Gwen was typing her latest diary entry in her laptop. That's when Grandpa Max walked out carrying a bag full of marshmallows – he wanted to give them something since they rejected the meal worms he so gracious offered.

"Who wants to roast marshmallows?" asked Max. Despite his offer, both cousins refused to even turn around, much to Max's charging. "Okay…um…how about we tell scary stories?"

"Scarier than having to spend a summer with your freak of a cousin?" said Ben tauntingly.

Gwen glared over shoulder and said, "I'd like to, grandpa, but I'm busy looking up cures for extreme doofusness. Nothing yet, Ben, but let's not give up hope."

"Aw, come on, you two," said Max. "We're all in this together. Either you can mope around like this all summer or we can have some fun. Now what do you say?"

"I vote for moping," Gwen answered automatically.

"I'm gonna go take a walk," said Ben, standing up and stowing his game.

"Great idea, Ben," said Max cheerfully. "Gwen, why don't you go with him? You both could use the fresh air."

"But Grandpa!" Gwen whined.

"No way!" Ben complained.

"That's enough, you two," said Max, finally having enough with their attitudes and putting his foot down. "Now you two are gonna be spending the summer together, so you might as well learn to get along. If you two can't learn to be nice, then we'll just go back and cancel the whole trip."

Ben and Gwen looked at one another and internally groaned. Ben had waited all summer to go on a trip with his grandpa and he didn't want it to end on their first night – plus, if he went back to Bellwood, his parents would no doubt send him to summer school. Gwen, personally, had no objects with going back home; she could complete her summer schedule like she planned. But, of course, she loved her grandpa and she hated to think she might disappoint him, especially since they don't get to spend as much time as they would like to. So with a reluctant sigh, Gwen closed her laptop, grabbed her backpack off the picnic table ("You have to always be prepared for emergencies," said Gwen), and started walking along with her doofus cousin.

"Have fun, kids," Max waved them off. "I think those two are starting to grow on each other."

But what Grandpa Max didn't know was that the moment they were out of sight and hearing range, the Tennyson cousin immediately broke into another bout of complaints.

"Oh man, this is the worst vacation ever!" groaned Ben. "I might as well have gone to summer school!"

"This is no picnic for me either, you know!" snapped Gwen, glaring at her shorter cousin. "I could be hanging out with my friends at my karate club, but noooo, I gotta spend the whole summer with my dweeb of a cousin."

"Yeah right, like you have friends," Ben mocked her.

"Remind me who was the one hanging by his underwear this morning," said Gwen, immediately shutting him up. "Oh, that's right, it was you, wasn't it?

Ben grumbled, unable to come up with a witty comeback, when both Tennyson cousins heard a sharp whistling from the sky. Both of them looked up and saw a streak of fire shooting through the stars.

"Whoa, a shooting star!" said Ben excitedly.

"Isn't it a little close to be a shooting star?" asked Gwen curiously. It was right at that moment when the 'shooting star' suddenly turned at a sharp ninety degree angle. "Did that shooting star just turn…and is it coming STRAIGHT TOWARD US?!"

"RUN!" screamed Ben.

Without even thinking about what he was doing, Ben grabbed his cousin's wrist and started pulling her in the direction opposite of the incoming meteor. Despite what he may say, he did care about Gwen enough to not want to see her get squished by a freaky shooting star. But no matter how fast they ran, the shooting star was much faster and crashed into the ground behind them, sending both flying into the dirt side-by-side. Thankfully, neither one of them was seriously hurt when they landed, only coming away from the crash with a few scratches.

"Gwen, are you okay?" asked Ben worriedly.

"I'm fine," said Gwen, panting heavily; she thought she saw her life flash before her eyes. "What was that thing?"

The Tennyson cousins stood up and walked to the edge of the crater that had cut a crude path through the forest, cutting down a lot of trees in its way. Both of them looked down over the edge as the heat of the objects surface finally started to cool down from orbital entry, revealing its polished silver surface. The capsule was large – big enough to fit one of them comfortably inside.

"Whoa, what the heck is that?" asked Ben in awe.

"It looks like a satellite or something," said Gwen.

As Ben leaned forward for a better look, the ground beneath their feet suddenly gave way and sent the both of them tumbling into the crater. While Ben fell flat on his face, Gwen rolled a little closer to space pod and accidentally slapped her hand on the extraterrestrial object. The moment her skin came into contact with the pod, a series of green circuits drew themselves on the surface and traced the pattern of Gwen's hand. When the red-headed girl realized what was happening, she took her hand off and scooted back with Ben just as the green hand print faded. A moment later, the space pod clicked open with a soft hiss and steam billowed out. Ben and Gwen looked at each other nervously, possibly wondering if they should leave well enough alone, but natural curiosity drew them closer. Ben and Gwen walked around the edges of the capsule and leaned inside where they found….

"A girl?" said Ben surprisingly.

Yes, that's right, a girl. As strange as it may seem, there was a human girl sleeping in the capsule using her hands as a pillow, naked as the day she was born. She looked to be around their age and there was something familiar about her face that Ben couldn't put his finger on, but she had a head of long hair that was mixture of greens and blacks that was thankfully long enough to conceal her intimate parts. Ben leaned in closer to the girl when Gwen suddenly slapped him across the face without warning.

"Ow, what was that for?" yelped Ben.

"Stop look at her, you big perv!" Gwen shouted indignantly. She took off her backpack and started ruffling around it until she pulled out a large green blanket. "Honestly, you boys are all the same! You're disgusting little creeps, all of you!"

"Like I would wanna see some dumb naked girl!" said Ben, crossing his arms and huffing. "I don't wanna catch any cooties from you freaks."

Gwen rolled her eyes, tempted to explain that cooties didn't exist, but if it meant keeping him away from this girl – despite her strange appearance – then maybe it was best if she said nothing.

While his cousin covered the strange girl from outer space and awkward dragged her out of the pod, Ben saw something that had been hidden underneath the girl's hair. It looked like a big black and gray wristwatch with a strange dial that didn't tell time, but had a green hourglass symbol on the face.

"Whoa, cool watch," said Ben gleefully as he reached for it.

"Ben, don't!" Gwen warned.

But her warning came too late as Ben's hand slipped inside the pod. The supposed watch suddenly jumped to life, splitting down the middle like it was made of clay, jumped up to Ben's wrist, and clamped itself shut. Ben jumped back in terror, shaking his arm like it would somehow cause the watch to slip off.

"WHA! GET OFF ME! GET OFF! GET OFF!" Ben screamed.

"Ben, calm down, you might be making it worse!" yelled Gwen, though she was equally terrified.

Ben paid no heed to his cousin and tried to pry the watch off with his other hand, but the strange device wouldn't be moved; it was like the thing was sown directly into his skin. Ben didn't know what else to do. He climbed out of the crater and started making a dash for the forest, shouting: "GRANDPA!"

"Hey, don't leave me here, doofus!" shouted Gwen.

The red-headed girl chased after her cousin, completely forgetting the strange green-haired girl she left lying on the ground.

When Gwen found her dweeby cousin, she saw him trying to pry the space watch from his arm using a stick for a lever. There were so many ways that Gwen could explain why that wouldn't work, but he found out the hard way when the stick snapped in two and the broken piece smacked him between the eyes.

"Ow!" Ben yelped. He glared at the stick like it offended him and threw it on the ground. "Aw man, this day just can't get any worse."

"There has to be something we can do," said Gwen, trying to be supportive. "Maybe we can go ask grandpa if there's a way to get it off."

"Yeah, because a retired plumber knows everything about weird watches from outer space," said Ben sarcastically. He let out a heavy sigh and started touching the face plate, thinking there might be some mechanism that would get it off. When he tapped the two buttons on the side, the dial suddenly pop0ped up. "Whoa! Check it out!"

Gwen leaned in closer as the hourglass symbol crossed edges, transforming into a diamond shape. A silhouette appeared afterwards with the shape of some strange creature that looked like it was on fire.

"Cool!" Ben said excitedly.

"Ben, I really don't think you should – "

But as usual, Ben would never listen to his cousin and pressed down on the faceplate. Suddenly, Gwen was blinded by a flash of green light and felt hotter all of a sudden. When her vision started to clear, Gwen looked up and her mouth fell open in shock.

Instead of her doofus cousin, the red-headed girl looked up into the face of a tall and imposing, human-shaped monster that looked like it was made from living magma. The visible innards were made from yellow lava while the surface was covered by red rocks, its hands were much bulker compared to the rest of its body, and the creature's head looked like it had grown hair made of fire. The one thing that stood out above everything else was the watch symbol stamped in the center of its chest.

Gwen and the magma monster stared at one another for a quick second before they both erupted into panicked screams.

"AHH! I'm on fire!" The magma monster screamed, which immediately made it seem less intimidating in Gwen opinion, especially when it started running around in circles. "I'm on fire! I'm on fire!" The magma monster started running around some more until it realized the obvious: "Hey…I'm on fire…and I'm okay. Hey, Gwen, check it out. I'm totally hot, right?"

"Ben, is that you?" asked Gwen after finally finding her voice. "What happened to you?"

"I dunno," said Ben honestly. "That weird watch thing must have turned me into this…whatever it is. You know, it's kinda cool. I wonder what I could do with this."

"Ben, don't go messing around with that thing," Gwen warned.

If you haven't figured it out by now, Ben has a natural talent for ignoring his cousin's reasonable warnings for his own personal amusement. He looked over his shoulder towards a dead tree.

"Oh yeah, here it goes!" said Ben. With a flick of his wrist, the magma monster flung a small fireball at the tree and completely destroyed one of the branches. "That's what I'm talking about."

"Ben, seriously, you need to stop before someone gets hurt!" yelled Gwen; now she was starting to get worried.

"Relax, nerd, no one's gonna get hurt," said Ben assuring. He then cupped his hands together and produced a much large fireball. "Hey, check this out!"

Without a hint of warning, Ben shot the fireball through a series of tree like they were made of paper. He started to feel very proud of himself…until he realized that his little fireball exploded and spread to the other trees faster than expected. In no time at all, Ben and Gwen were now facing off against a massive forest fire that was jumping from tree to tree every second. Ben yelped and flailed his arms in panic.

"No, wait, stop!" Ben shouted at the fire, as if expecting it to obey him.

"Ben, what did you do?" gasped Gwen.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Ben yelped as he attempted to stomp out the smaller flames on the ground. His new form only seemed to make the flames stronger. "Oh man, I'm gonna get so busted for this."

"You're worried about getting grounded?" yelled Gwen, shaking her fist at him and making Ben flinch. "We're gonna get burned alive because of you, doofus!"

"I know, I know!" said Ben, his hands flying to his head in panic. "This would be so cool, if it weren't so…not cool."

The fire was starting to spread further and consuming everything within seconds, and Ben futility attempting to stomp out the flames weren't helping anything. Gwen considered searching through her bag, hoping maybe she could use another blanket to snuff out the fires, but then she realized that she had left her backpack near the space pod with the green-haired girl. The flames started to pull inward and naturally formed a wall of fire that pinned Ben and Gwen against one of the large oak trees. Sparks flew out and hit Gwen's shoes, nearly lighting them on fire until she kicked them out on the ground. The red-headed girl felt like crying; she never imagined this was how she was gonna go out.

"Ben, if we don't make it, I just wanna say I'm sorry for calling you a doofus," said Gwen, fearing starting to well up in her voice.

"Hey, don't talk like that," said Ben firmly. "We're gonna get out of this, I promise."

"How?" Gwen asked as her tear ducts started to swell. "Everything you touch gets set on fire. There's no way we'll be able to put it out."

"Don't try to fight the fire," a young, feminine voice called out. "You need to draw it inside yourself."

Ben and Gwen peered over the wall of flames in surprise. The strange, green-haired girl from the space capsule was carefully walking around the forest fire with a cool and composed expression, holding the green blanket around herself so that it didn't fall off.

"You!" shouted Gwen. "You're that girl from the meteor!"

"What're you talking about?" asked Ben. "What do you mean 'draw it inside'?"

"That form you have taken is a Pyronite – a humanoid magma-based species from the star Pyros ," the green-haired girl explained in monotone. "They have the ability to create and control fire, but they are also heat convective so they can absorb heat. If you can absorb the heat from your surroundings, it should put out the fires."

"How do I do that," asked Ben.

"It's like taking a deep breath, only with your whole body," said the green-haired girl. "Just imagine yourself sucking everything into your body and let your newly acquired instincts handle the rest."

There are so many reasons why he should have questions the logic behind her explanation, especially when they were dealing with a complete stranger that came from outer space. But as the flames drew closer and Gwen let out a frightened scream, Ben cast off his suspicions and took a step forward so that he was standing between his cousin and the forest fire. Pyronite Ben closed his eyes and took a deep breath….He could feel the heat of the flames surrounding him as the hot air brushed against his magma skin. Ben took another deep breath and noticed that while his body suddenly felt like it was reaching maximum levels of hot, the rest of the world around him felt like it was cooling down to a slight chill.

Slowly, Ben opened his eyes again. The raging wild fire that he started was suddenly gone as if it never existed, leaving behind only a few ashen trees and some burned up pieces of firewood. The green-haired girl was standing between the dead trees with a disinterested look while Gwen stared up at him in awe. Ben looked down at his massive glowing hands and realized…he had just saved someone – he had saved his cousin – and it felt…really satisfying. He felt like a real hero.

"Ben…are you okay?" Gwen asked with some concern in her voice.

"Yeah… I think so," said Ben.

"Gwen!" The Tennyson cousins turned back as Grandpa Max came running out of the forest. "I saw the fire from the campsite! Are you all – what in blazes?" he gaped at Pyronite Ben.

"Hey, grandpa, guess who," said Gwen, tilting her head at the molten man.

"It's me, grandpa," said Ben, waving his hand comically.

"Ben?" said Max, staring at his flaming grandson in shock. "What happened to you?"

"Well, we were walking like you told us to," Ben started explaining, "when this meteor fell out of the sky and tried to smudge us, only wasn't a meteor or a satellite, but some kind of alien pod with a weird girl inside it. She had this cool-looking watch, so I tried to grab it when it jumped onto my wrist. When I tried to get it off, I was suddenly on fire, only it didn't hurt when I was starting this mega forest fire! We thought we were done for when that weird girl said I could absorb the fire by breathing. At first, I thought she was crazy, but I did it anyway and then I put out the fire."

"It's been a really long day, grandpa," said Gwen tiredly.

"I can imagine," said Max. "So you say this watch just jumped on your wrist and you could suddenly turn into…this."

"Hey, this time it wasn't my fault, I swear" said Ben.

"I believe you, Ben," said Max, nodding grimly.

"Think he's gonna stay a monster forever?" asked Gwen, sounding genuinely worried for her cousin.

"He's not a monster," the green-haired girl suddenly announced as she approached the Tennyson's, still clinging to her blanket. "He's an alien – a Pyronite to be specific. But if you're worried that he may be trapped in this form…" She turned to Ben, gazing deeply at the symbol on his chest. "Initiate Omnitrix Deactivation sequence – Code 10."

A strange beep came from the symbol and the logo flashed red before it exploded in a crimson light that caused Gwen and Grandpa Max to look away briefly. When they turned back, they saw Ben standing in his normal human form while the green hourglass symbol on his new watch shifted to red.

"Whoa, that was weird," said Ben, looking at his hands as if not believing they were real.

"Okay, that does it," said Gwen. She marched over to the green-haired girl until their faces were inches apart and her hands were on her hips; the strange girl remained as expressionless as ever. "All right, weird girl, start talking! Ever since you crashed landed from…wherever you came from, we've had to deal with freaky space watches and giant flaming monster men! You better tell us who you are and what you're doing here or else I'll show you what a purple belt in karate can do!"

"Easy there, Gwen," Max said calmly, pulling his granddaughter back slowly before addressing the girl. "What she means is, we're just real concerned and have a few questions we'd like to ask."

"Understandable," said the green-haired girl. "You asked me who I am, it is only appropriate then I should answer. I am the living manifestation of the Omntrix's intelligence – or the 'space watch', as you call it. And you – " she spoke to Ben directly "- are in possession of the most powerful and most dangerous technology in the universe."

Meanwhile, the Chimerian Hammer continued to orbit the little blue planet from a safe distance, away from any detection by the planet's feeble technology. While the Drones worked tirelessly to repair the damage done by the transporter's attack, Cetanu stood in the rejuvenation chamber with the ship's robotic doctor present. She stared up at her father, weak and mangled with most of his limbs destroyed beyond comprehension and incapable of breathing without a tube down his throat. Cetanu should be angry, but she was just grateful that the Black Hunter hadn't taken her father this day.

On the other hand, having to report that the Omnitrix was not on the transport vessel made Cetanu sorely wish the Black Hunter had come for her instead.

"What do you mean it's not there?" Vilgax hissed through his breathing tube. "This battle nearly cost me my life and you say the Omnitrix is no longer on board the transport?"

"Your forgiveness, father," said Cetanu apologetically. "We have searched everywhere, but there was no sign of it. However, I do have some good news. The sensors that survived the attack managed to trace a pod that was jettisoned from the ship just before boarding. It landed on the planet below, in a place called…Yosemite Park, California. Strange name for a place."

"Send a Drone down there to retrieve it immediately!" growled Vilgax.

"With all due respect, father," said Cetanu, "it was the Drone's incompetence that allowed you to suffer your current state. Machines cannot be trusted for a mission as important as this."

"And you have a better idea?" question Vilgax, narrowing his eyes dangerously.

"As a matter of fact…," said Cetanu cryptically.

Right at that moment, a black blade suddenly spear through the back of the medical drone and erupted from the machine's chest. The polished blade was attached to the tail of a predatory-looking beast that slowly slithered out from the shadows, snarling like a rabid animal. The Alien was seven feet tall, but mostly hunched over on its hind legs with armored black skin with a set of spines jutting from its back. It's head was curved and exaggeratedly elongated with an apparent lack of eyes and a set of sharp mandibles.

The Alien snapped its tail and threw the wrecked remains of the Drone aside, no longer satisfed with its kill. Cetanu made a sharp whistling noise and the Alien immediately crawled on all fours towards the Yautja, curling around her ankles like a domesticated house cat; the monster was practically purring at her presence.

"We shall retrieve the Omntrix ourselves," Cetanu hissed mysteriously.

This is probably nothing new to older readers, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway and leave a review if you can.