Ben!!!!! Gwen is on the call, just came out of your room for once. Your cousin is calling you for a while, Ben. Mom slammed his room door.
Ahh, not again, Ben whispered to himself as he read his book.
"OK! I am coming. Just stop slamming my room door, it's just annoying. So, don't disturb me. I will pick the call, ok? So, just go now."
He grabbed the phone and hit "accept."
"Yes! Gwen, so what's a deal? I was just busy doing important stuff, so make I super-fast."
"What do you mean by make it fast? Listen, Ben, I know you been through a lot of things, but that was the past. Let's just focus on the present and what's after that. So just talk to me."
"I am talking to you."
"Listen, it's about the grandpa! And we gotta…."
Ben interrupts Gwen in the middle.
Ben, with a little panic and serious tone, said, "Where should we meet? Message me the location."
"You blocked me so, I can't send you any text, that's the reason we are on the landline call doofus."
"Oh!! I forget that."
"Just meet me at the nearby burger sack…."
Scene shifted…. To the burger sack.
Gwen came inside of burger sack and Ben was already sitting here.
"So, in the time for the first time, cousin. So how's it going these day? We met after a while, right?"
"I am doing fine, lately I catch your fever of reading books."
"Oh, that's great, never thought you would."
"Anyways we can just stop chitchatting you were talking about grandma max, what's happening?"
"It's just I seen me last night, and it is getting worse just like we predicted his health is deteriorating."
Ben put his hands on his head with frustration. "It's because of mee."
"No don't blame yourself ben you weren't even involved in that."
"So what we do now, Gwen? I tried to make contact with azmuth but he is recently been missing these days."
"I tried everything all the spell, magical techniques even research over medical possibilities but I got nothing. This thing is far from our reach, that thing is not even from this universe. We don't know what to do."
Suddenly! Out of nowhere, the glass windows of the Burger Sack shattered as unknown darts fired constantly, hitting every person inside. One by one, the victims collapsed, unconscious from the instant strikes.
Gwen conjured a sphere, using her mana to cover as many people as she could with her magic.
With a surprised look on his face, Ben complimented Gwen.
"You got pretty good with your magic stuffs. Let me handle the rest of it."
The Omnitrix sounded. Trrr-click!!!!
"I think this is the right one."
BEEP-BEEP!Humungousaur.
Ben shot straight through the Burger Sack, breaking a hole in the back and slamming the mysterious individual into a car — the one who had been firing the darts.
"I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, BUT YOU DECIDE THE WRONG TIME TO MESS WITH ME!"
"I DON'T THINK SO! YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID! I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS… OR MAYBE JUST SOME COLLEAGUES."
"Friend?? Colleague??"
As Ben moved closer to the mysterious individual, his eyes widened in shock.
"Pierce??? Why??"[1]
BEEEEEEP!Ben transformed back to his human form.
"You… Pierce? Or some shapeshifter?"
"I am actually what you think I am."
"So… why were you attacking us? You're a fucking Plumber, and you just injured a lot of people in there. That's totally…"
Pierce cut him off, his face angry and bloodied.
"Don't you say this is wrong! It's not even close to what you did, Tennyson."
"Hey! Listen, don't talk to me like that, OK!? What do you mean by what I did?"
Gwen rushed toward them in a hurry.
"Hey! You guys just chill out. Take a break. Maybe it's a huge misunderstanding."
The Omnitrix beeped, green light flashing and blinking. A mechanical voice rang out.
"It's Majister Patelliday.[2] I hereby order you to attend the Underground Plumber Headquarters, Ben Tennyson! And Pierce — we have noticed your actions. You will be punished as per the law."
The message cut off.
Ben stared at the Omnitrix, dazed. "What's so urgent? I'm so confused. I just stepped out of my room and now everything's chaos."
"Don't think like that, Ben," Gwen said.
Pierce added, voice low and hard. "Maybe he should. Everywhere he goes there's destruction. I don't know how innocent you are, but the thing you did to Manny is real — you're gonna pay, Tennyson."
Pierce activated a teleporter. In the blink of an eye, he was gone.
Ben scrambled. "Wait a sec — what about Manny?"
Pierce was already gone.
"What does he mean, Ben? By Manny?" Gwen asked.
"I don't know, Gwen. It's so confusing." Ben ran a hand through his hair, panic and guilt running together.
"You should just head to Plumber Headquarters. Maybe there's an answer there," Gwen said.
Scene shifted as Ben and Gwen reached Grandma Max's plumbing shop. The shop was nearly empty, with no visible customers. Both of them entered the washroom.
As Gwen pulled down the flush rope, the floor transformed into an elevator, carrying them downward. This was the way to the Underground Earth Plumber Headquarters.
"It's been a long time since we came here, right?? Ben!!" Gwen exclaimed.
"I guess you're right?? It's got a lot bigger — even bigger than the Plumber Headquarters at Mount Rushmore," Ben replied.
"Hey! Ben and Gwen!"
"Grandpa… Pa," Ben said uncomfortably.
"Chit-chat later, son. We have something urgent to deal with," he said, his tone serious.
"What's the deal, Grandpa? We were just called so urgently, and Pierce attacked me, and… all this stuff. It's so tense!" Gwen asked, panic and worry lacing her voice as she turned to Grandpa Max.
"Sorry about Pierce," he said. "We sent him to get you here, Ben, but maybe we shouldn't have told him about the Manny incident. He got emotional and started attacking you and others instead of doing what he was told."
"Manny… Manny… Manny… I don't know what happened to Manny. Just tell me!" Ben said, frustration cracking his voice.
"Okay, son. First, you need to see something," Grandma Max said.
As Ben entered the room, he saw it was filled with high-ranking Plumber officers. Majister Patelliday, Labrid[3], and several others were present.
They turned to the footage recorded by the camera installed in Manny's Plumber suit. The footage shocked both Gwen and Ben.
A Tetramand with an Omnitrix symbol was fighting Manny. The battle was intense. The Tetramand suddenly transformed into a Petrosapien, wielding sharp crystal weapons. Manny was pierced and torn apart.
As another member of the Sentinels, ZEnisa, arrived and saw the scene, the Petrosapien transformed into an Ectonurite, possessed ZEnisa, and began shouting louder and louder, each scream amplified beyond reason.
Ben's eyes widened, a mixture of fear and panic overtaking him.
"THAT'S!!!… NOT ME!!! I can't even transform into Ghostfreak anymore!!" he shouted, his voice cracking with terror.
"I know, son," Grandpa Max said calmly. "I trust you, but not everyone does. This incident happened at the Plumber HQ of the Andromeda Galaxy, and they are demanding your immediate attention there. You need to go."
Grandpa Max put his hand on Ben's shoulder. "I trust you, son. I always have, and I always will. Every piece of evidence points against your guilt, so don't worry. Just go there and prove you're not guilty."
"And Gwen, you should go with Ben. We don't know what we're facing."
"Sure, Grandma. I also trust Ben. Maybe he's a doofus, but not a murderer. He's a hero, and he always will be."
To Be Continued…
[1] Author’s Note: Yea, yea 😵😵 — the same Pierce got done dirty in Ultimate Alien. We never got any mention of whether our boy survived or ended up dead, but maybe here, we can do a little justice to his character 😔.
[2] Author’s Note:The same beloved Majester Patelliday from Omniverse! Yes, the Ripjaws-species Plumber guy (Piscciss Volann — the species name of Ripjaws)!!
[3] Author’s Note:Guess!! 🤔🤔 Who Labrid is? (Remember that one Plumber guy introduced in the first episode of Alien Force? Dude didn’t even make it through the first episode and later was only shown in Grandpa Max’s backstory with Verdona.) YEA YEA, NICE NICE — you got it! 👏👏 But if you didn’t, just go watch that fucking episode 😑😑!!