Chapter Text
This world constantly seemed to want to shut him up.
Unlike other alien planets he had visited during his time as the wielder of the Omnitrix, this world. This Earth, or this reflection of his Earth, made him feel different.
Grandpa had said it once: you could only be in extraterrestrial places often enough for it to stop being special.
This was special.
"How are you holding up, Kipo?"
Benson asked the girl beside him, snapping him out of his daze. Kipo perked up at the call, looking at the top of the mutated grass stalks, which were surely getting more and more full of that invisible ink.
Where on earth would they have gotten it from?
"Closer and closer! And without having to escape from giant dogs. Thanks, by the way."
He limited himself to nodding, too busy feeling a chill thanks to Wolf.
Gwen was right when she said there was no rest for the wicked.
He wondered then what evil he had done by being, to some extent, the savior of the entire universe.
I mean, sure, he had been the one who triggered the watch's self-destruct in the first place (indirectly), but come on!
He noticed Kipo lowering her gaze more and more.
They were close.
There was a much closer tremor, and they raised their sight to find a large, hairy white dog.
What was the name of that breed?
The mutant dog with gigantism worthy of Voltron brought its nose closer.
He opened his eyes in fear.
In a quick movement, he approached a dandelion, and with sheer willpower, accompanied by the weight of a 13-year-old pre-teen, he made the seeds (or whatever those things were called) fly directly into the canine's nasal passages.
His grand plan, though accurate, had a flaw he hadn't thought of.
Dogs sneeze.
"Oh man.."
They were hit by a hurricane, and Mandu’s squeals reminded him that yes, they were in the air, and yes, an insectoid alien would be welcome in this situation.
Screw the Omnitrix.
Gravity hit him like an anvil, and his mind worked at a thousand miles an hour. Fifty percent figuring out how to get out of this without ending up like a pancake, and the other fifty percent resisting the urge to activate the Omnitrix.
The dog, luckily, had lost interest in them, but the giant canines were the least of his problems.
"Dave, now would be a good time!"
"I'm trying, man!"
The argument between the brown-skinned boy and the bug made his head hurt, and when he noticed, he had Kipo clinging to his shirt with her right arm.
Clinging to the girl's other hand was Wolf, and then Mandu, and shortly after Dave and Benson joined the human chain.
He blinked.
The disgusting sound that he could only describe as smashing a rotten egg against asphalt was revealing, and when he realized it, they were slowing down, and the force Kipo was exerting on his shirt was felt in his chest.
Dave, turned into a muscular and flying version of himself, laughed with joy.
"I think I'm starting to control it!"
Kipo laughed too, along with Dave, and even Wolf allowed herself a small smile.
He did too.
He moved in turn to hold onto Kipo by her ankle, leaving the girl's hand free to grab her glasses.
"There!"
Kipo pointed, and Dave's speed was impressive for the number of people he was carrying.
Then he heard a soft beep coming from his wrist.
The Omnitrix, which had previously been static in its normal mode, now slowly blinked a blue color, one he had never seen before.
The problem lay in the fact that he was using his right hand to hold onto Kipo, and he couldn't reach the watch without letting go.
"Hey, turn that off! It'll draw the Mega dogs' attention."
Wolf said, and Kipo turned to look at him with wide eyes.
"The watch. Didn't you say it had no power?"
He frowned.
"Now's not the time!"
He brought the Omnitrix close to his mouth and tried to turn the dial with his teeth.
As he did so, the beep stopped, while the dial began to turn on its own, like when he had accidentally unlocked master control.
But this couldn't be the case.
A choppy voice then came from the watch, a voice he knew well.
"Azmuth."
"Who?"
He pulled the watch away from Kipo's view.
"Y-young Tennyson. We—. We can’t—. Overlo—.- Self-destruct. Don't worry."
He opened his eyes in fear.
Self-destruct?
He tried to relax his breathing as they descended among the oversized brush.
He said not to worry. There shouldn't be anything wrong, it was just a warning.
Maybe a warning not to transform.
His feet touched the ground when the watch stopped emitting its creator's voice, while the dial stopped its sporadic spinning.
"What was that?"
Kipo asked quickly, and he could see Wolf go on guard with her stinger.
He raised his hands in the air.
"Kipo?"
Saved by the bell, or at least, the man in the mechanic suit, apparently.
"Dad?"
Great. This was going to be great.
....
"Dad!"
She hugged her father with the strength of a thousand bears, and the man spun her through the air with a joyful laugh.
When he stopped, he turned to observe his friends, and he could notice how they all had Ben surrounded.
Right, they were confused and angry about him hiding information from them.
It was his fault, anyway.
"Um, what's going on, Kipo?"
Her father asked, placing a hand on her shoulder to make her take a step back.
"This is a misunderstanding!"
She said, preventing her father from pushing her away.
"They're my friends, they helped me survive out here. There are simply... disagreements with the new member."
Ben brought his left hand to his chest, protecting his far-from-normal watch.
"Who is Azmuth? Who do you work for?".
"Lower your weapons, I can explain."
Benson seemed to want to intervene, but Dave stepped in.
Mandu whimpered softly.
"Guys!"
Everyone turned to see her, and Ben seized the opportunity to roll out of the way, lifting the dial of his watch with a curious little sound.
Then he stopped dead in his tracks, as a new voice came from the device on his wrist.
"Ben, if you're hearing this, I hope you're safe. The watch is not in condition to function normally, but you can get out of this even with limited forms. That's how clever you are... Love you, and I hope to see you back home."
Silence took over everyone.
"Grandpa..."
Ben murmured.
"Those. Are there more humans outside?"
Her father asked, taking a step forward.
"Aside from me. No."
Ben murmured, lowering the dial of his watch again.
Wolf seemed indecisive about what to do.
"Let's go inside. Everyone."
Her father looked at Mandu and Dave.
"You've earned it for helping my daughter. And you."
Her father returned his gaze to Ben.
"I need you to tell me what you know."
The boy nodded, and they all went down through a hatch in the floor.
....
He had been young once.
He too had fallen in love, grown up, studied, and finally, he had had a wonderful and special daughter.
He knew great things were destined for Kipo, but what he found when he finally saw her again had him intrigued.
Above all, her new friends.
"You must be pretty tough to have survived on the surface alone for so long."
He commented to both the wolf-skinned girl in a hood-like form and the young brown-skinned boy with a cap.
"You know, it's nothing special. It's where we grew up."
The brown-skinned boy, Benson, murmured while scratching the back of his neck.
"Of course it is! We're awesome."
The boy's Mute friend, Dave, bragged with a big smile.
Walking behind everyone was Ben, with his hands in his pockets and his gaze averted.
In him lay the greatest mystery, and he could see Kipo approaching hesitantly toward the youth who was apparently the newest to join her journey.
He stopped in front of the panel next to the hidden door, but decided to wait and listen.
"Hey, I know we didn't start off entirely well, but, can you tell us what's going on, you know?"
Kipo said.
"You've known me since yesterday."
Ben commented.
"Yeah, we have..."
His daughter murmured, uncomfortable.
He smiled internally. That was how kind the little girl he raised was.
"But you know what? I haven't been friends with these kids for more than a week."
Ben looked up, confused.
"Just a week?"
His daughter nodded with embarrassment, and he repressed the urge to laugh.
"You're weird..."
Ben murmured, which brought Kipo down a bit.
He frowned.
"But you know what? Thanks for that. If I'm going to be here, you deserve explanations."
He relaxed, placing his palm on the panel.
Maybe he wasn't so bad after all for his daughter.
....
This technology was worthy of the Plumbers.
Kipo's father (Lio, according to his introduction) had calmly placed his palm on a touch panel that seemed to have abandoned the world of the living years ago.
Then the panel worked suddenly, scanning the man's palm and allowing him to access the interior.
Disappointingly, there was only an ordinary radio.
"Mr. Oak here. I've found Aries."
Kipo blinked.
"My zodiac sign is my codename?"
The girl asked, and Lio nodded with a smile.
He watched with curiosity. He had heard little to nothing about zodiac signs from Gwen, and according to his grandpa, they were unimportant things invented by the Greeks.
He was Capricorn, supposedly, though he never bothered to check if it was true.
"Lio? I told you not to go to the surface."
A male voice (quite annoying, in his opinion) answered on the other side of the line.
"I told you I wasn't going to leave my daughter behind. Now open the door, I have guests."
He felt the man's gaze land on everyone, but he lingered longer on him.
He swallowed.
Then a door was opened with a hiss.
"A cool hidden door..."
Benson murmured, crossing the threshold of the door alongside Dave.
He smiled slightly, an expression Wolf had noticed.
They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds.
"Isn't it cool?"
"Whatever."
Okay, that was simply rude.
Everyone finally crossed, and after Lio opened another door (a normal one), they were greeted by the sight of a total subterranean civilization.
People walked with confidence, young people and adults helping each other to carry materials and food. Surely they hadn't been here long, and like a good move, they had to unpack everything.
He heard the rest gasp, and he allowed himself to wander a bit while watching.
This... was better than he thought. It looked almost just like how his grandpa envisioned an alien colony on Earth, one where aliens could slowly start to integrate into humanity.
His grandpa had named it Undertown, nothing more than a dream of intergalactic peace.
Here, in the burrows, he could really see the potential of the idea.
"Isn't it amazing?"
Kipo asked him, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"It is. Exactly what I was looking for."
He murmured, and the girl smiled softly at him.
He deigned to laugh, finally freeing himself somewhat from the stress of these last few days, all under the gaze of the pink-haired girl.
Then they found themselves suddenly surrounded, thanks to how much attention they were drawing.
The stares felt weird.
He had enjoyed his fame as a superhero, even if it had been anonymous, but... he felt almost naked being seen for what he was: a kid.
He wondered if it would have been like this if not for Grandpa's precautions to prevent everyone from knowing he was a hero.
He didn't like the idea of being popular at that moment.
"Kipo?"
Then two girls had approached Kipo, and as the considerate (and awkward) person he was, he tried to move away.
Unfortunately, Kipo didn't understand social cues, and grabbed his arm.
"Asher, Dahlia!"
The apparent group of friends hugged with emotion.
"How are you? We hadn't heard from you since we moved."
One of the girls asked; Dahlia, if he wasn't wrong.
"We were so worried!"
Asher said, with an expression half relieved and half scared.
Then he felt both female gazes land on him.
He shivered.
Oh man, why did he dream about this as a kid?
"Who is he?"
"This, girls, is my newest friend, Ben..."
Kipo stopped dead in her tracks, observing his expression of deep discomfort.
The girl cleared her throat.
"He's Ben Tennyson."
Kipo said more calmly.
He appreciated the fact, but that momentary peace was broken by the arrival of a burly blond man, who stepped up to confront Wolf, who was fearfully pointing her stinger-staff.
"Hey, weapons are strictly prohibited on public paths here!"
The man exclaimed, with that annoying voice that seemed familiar from Kipo's dad's radio.
To his luck, Lio himself stepped into the scene. With the help of Mandu, Dave, and—
He blinked.
And Benson?
He turned to see the brown-skinned boy trying not to trip over his own words while talking to a young Asian guy.
He blinked again.
He was... he was going to ignore that. Not his problem.
"So, Ben, where'd you get that football jersey?"
Asher asked with a more understanding look.
"It's pretty clean, especially seeing how the other guys are."
Dahlia said with curiosity, glancing specifically at Wolf.
"You know, I got some detergent."
He answered awkwardly, and both girls found a good distraction in Wolf, who looked less prickly without her stinger.
He sighed when they left.
"Everything okay?"
Kipo asked with a concerned expression.
"No... I'm not good with people."
He said, and felt in the depths of his being the irony of those words.
"Are you more sensitive than normal or what?"
Gwen surely would have asked that.
"Yeah... I think I noticed it."
Kipo murmured, and he limited himself to looking away.
"So... are you going to tell us your big secret?"
He sighed.
"In a more—"
The earth rumbled, and debris fell from the sky.
He opened his eyes wide, looking for any crack, any indicator, or any small thing that would reveal a collapse.
"What was that?"
Kipo asked, as the rest of the group approached.
"This doesn't look like the work of the mega—"
Another rumble silenced Kipo's dad.
He swallowed, and his skin crawled.
Then the chaos began. And the roof of the burrow fell.
There was silence for a moment, while he tried to pull himself together to reach the watch.
He did so, and the figure of Benwolf returned, as always, his gaze.
He gasped for air.
"It's okay, it's okay."
He bottled up the attempt at a sob. He couldn't fall apart, not now.
He pressed the core of the watch.
His skin turned gray, and muscle and bone cracked in a disgusting cacophony as his arm mutated. Increasing the volume of the mass, growing fur, and tearing his fingers to make way for claws.
Teeth became fangs, and fur reached his face at the same time his jaw cracked, and his skull turned canine.
It all happened in a second.
"Ben?"
He turned around as a two-meter-tall anthropomorphic wolf.
Kipo was holding a large slab of debris with her arms, which had mutated into a muscular, pink jaguar arm.
Screw them all.