Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Deep in space, a small ship was speeding through the cosmos. In a desperate attempt to get to the planet Earth. Just as they entered our solar system, they were attacked by another, larger ship.

“No no no, why now?” The pilot said, “We made sure the signal couldn’t be tracked, how did he find me?”

A communicator on her dashboard lit up, the face of a cthulhu-like alien warlord appeared, “You know what I want,” He said, “Hand it over and I’ll leave you and your ship undamaged.”

“I think you know I can’t do that, Vilgax,” The pilot said angrily, before shutting the communicator off. She looked to the spherical pod that she was meant to deliver to Earth, and sighed, “I have one shot…”
“Sir, they cut off communications,” said a robotic drone on VIlgax’s ship.

“Take her ship in, we can’t risk the device getting damaged,” The conqueror commanded.

The smaller ship was overtaken by a tractor beam, pulling her in closer.

She grabbed the pod, and placed it into a chamber in the front of her ship. She then turned to the controls and pushed a lever up. A device in the back of the ship began powering up. The pilot held her hand over a big button, “I hope this gets to you…” She slammed her hand down, the Pod shot out the front as a green laser beam erupted from the back, piercing straight through Vilgax’s ship and greatly damaging the warlord. Her ship was caught up in the explosion, but managed to launch the pod toward Earth before. The pod caught on fire as it neared Earth, toward a small town called Bellwood.

“Are you ready for your road trip with Grandpa Max?” Ben’s dad called from outside Ben’s bedroom door.

Ben stepped out, dressed in a green shirt with stripes and the number 10 positioned on the left side, and a pair of blue baggy cargo pants and black and white sneakers. Over his shoulder he held a bag full of all the things he’d need for his summer-long road trip with his grandfather, extra clothes (Just the exact same outfit about 5 times) his Game console, with a little portable screen he got for the occasion, and a good amount of game discs in a binder, and a few snacks, just in case Grandpa’s cooking is too much to handle.

“I think that's everything I need!” Ben said walking toward the door.

“Well, you Grandpa should be here to pick you up at any minute,” His mom said.

“Oh man, I’m so excited,” Ben said, “Just me and Grandpa Max, riding across America, it’ll be great!”

Ben’s parents both blinked, Carl turned to Sandra, “I thought you were gonna tell him?”
“I thought you were gonna tell him,” She responded.

“Tell me what?” Ben asked.

Carl sighed, “One of your grandpa’s friends needed him to watch his kid, it was sort of short notice so Max agreed to let her join in on your guy’s roadtrip.”
“I hope you aren’t disappointed,” Sandra said, “I know you really wanted this to be just you and Max”

Ben had actually thought that spending a whole summer with just his grandpa might get just a bit boring, someone else his age would actually make the trip a little more fun, “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Just then, the doorbell rang, Carl opened the door and Grandpa Max was there, wearing his Hawaiian shirt that he always wore, his RV, the Rustbucket was parked along the road

"Ready for our trip Ben?" Max asked cheerfully.

"You bet!" Ben said, walking toward the door.

"See you in a few months Ben!" Sandra said, "don't forget to call!"

"And don't get yourself into any trouble!" Carl said.

Bye Mom, bye Dad!" Ben said, before closing the door behind him.

Ben and Max entered the Rustbucket, and Ben immediately noticed the girl sitting at the RV's little dinner table. She was a bit taller than Ben, had jet black hair with bleached bangs and tied it up into two buns in the back, and wore a short sleeved sweater with a butterfly design on front.

"Ben, this is Jolyne," Max said, "Jolyne, meet my grandson Ben."

"Uhhh, hi," Ben said.

"Hi," she responded.

"I don't think I've ever seen you around school, are you from around here?"

"Oh no," Jolyne said with a laugh, "I live in a town called Morioh, in Japan, my dad was going to be busy this summer so I’m staying with you guys."

“Oh good, you two are already getting along!” Max said, “I was almost worried.”
“So where to first?” Ben asked.

“Just a local campground I used to visit all the time when I was your age,” Max explained.

They arrived just as the sun was setting, Ben and Jolyne were setting up a couple tents while Grandpa Max started a fire.

Just then, something in the sky caught Ben’s attention, a shooting star flying across. But as it was flying, it suddenly changed directions and crashed down in the middle of the forest with a loud BOOM.

“What on Earth was that!?” Max asked.

“I think an asteroid just crashed down!” Ben said, he started running toward the forest, “Let's check it out!”
Jolyne followed him, “Oh, I definitely wanna see that.”

“Now, wait you two, you don’t wanna get…” Max looked to see they both already left, “lost,” he sighed and followed the kids into the forest.
Ben took a few turns, and sure enough, he got lost, “Aw man, who knew a forest would be so easy to get lost in…” He noticed a trail of smoke coming from a crater, he looked inside and saw a small spherical pod, “Woah… looks like a satellite or something....” the ground beneath his feet gave in to his weight, and he slipped down into the crater. He bumped into the pod and it made a sound, Ben got back on his feet and watched as the pod opened up, inside was what looked to be a wrist watch, with an hourglass symbol on the face and green tubes along the side, and a button on one side.

“...a watch? What's a watch doing in outer space?”

He reached out his hand, the watch seemingly came to life, and jumped onto Ben’s wrist. He felt a small pinch as it fit itself to his wrist.

“AHH! GET IT OFF!” Ben tried pulling the alien device off his arm, and shook his arm around trying to get it off, “It’s stuck!” He calmed down and looked at it, his first instinct was to press the button on the side, the dial shot up and a low hum came from the device. The hourglass symbol changed into a diamond shape and a silhouette appeared on it, it looked like a humanoid being made of rocks with a flaming head. The only thing he could do is push it back down, as soon as he did he was enveloped by a bright, green light. 

His body was replaced with red rocks, cracks formed along his body revealing bright yellow magma inside, his head caught fire. 

“AAAAAAH!!!” He yelled, “I’M ON FIRE! I’M ON FIRE!!” 

He ran around in circles in a panic, but then he stopped, “Wait… I’m on fire but… I’m ok!” He looked at his firey body, “Hehehe, check me out, I’m totally hot!” He chuckled to himself, he looked to a tree and then to his hand, and grinned, “I wonder…” He pointed to the tree and a fireball shot out, destroying a branch. He then turned to another and flung a fireball at it, he then shot a strong stream of fire at another, “Awesome!! I have super powers!” He noticed a light coming from one of the destroyed branches. It caught on fire and was quickly spreading, “Uh oh, not good!” 

JoJo and max were running through the woods, and they noticed the large cloud of smoke.

“Smoke!?” JoJo asked.

Max groaned, “Looks like the start of a forest fire. We better let the Rangers' Station know. Probably some darn fool camper out there, messing around with something he shouldn't…” Max thought for a moment, “Oh no… where’s Ben?”

JoJo sighed, “Yare yare dawa… we better find him.”

Ben was frantically stomping on the flames to try and get them to go out, but in turn was making them grow even bigger, “Oh man, I am in SO much trouble!”

Max and JoJo ran through the forest, and they came face to face with Ben, in his fiery alien form.

“What the!?-” Jolyne shouted.

“Ah! I-I can explain!” Ben said.

“What in blazes… wh-who are you?” Max asked.

“Its me grandpa!”
“...Ben?” Max asked, “What…. Happened to you?”
“Well that meteorite we saw wasn’t a meteorite, but a satellite or something, it had this cool watch inside and then it-”
“I hate to interrupt,” Jolyne said, “But there's kind of a forest fire burning out of control here.”
“How do we stop it?” Ben asked.

Max thought for a moment, “Backfire. Start a new fire and let it burn into the old fire. They’ll snuff each other out. Think you can do it, Ben?”
“Shooting flames?” Ben asked, “Now THAT I can do!”

They ran out of the forest, Ben turned to the trees and shot a stream of fire at them, starting another enormous wall of flames.

Just like Max said, the flames died out soon, leaving only some charred trees. They returned to their camp site, Ben immediately igniting the camp fire as they all sat down.

"So the watch just jumped up and clamped onto your wrist?" Max asked.

Ben nodded, Jolyne tossed him a marshmallow which he caught, it immediately began toasting in his hand, "Next thing I know I'm on fire, but it didn't hurt, and then I nearly burned the whole forest down!"

JoJo turned to Max, "is he gonna stay a fire monster forever?"

"Not a monster, alien," Max said bluntly, the kids looked at him in surprise, "w-well I mean look at him! Nothing like that could exist on Earth!"

“And the thing came from Space, right?” Jolyne added, “Makes sense that you’d be an alien.”

Ben looked down, "I don't wanna be fire guy forever! How am I supposed to play soccer when I charcoal the ball just from touching it?"

"Don't worry Ben, we'll figure this thing out eventually."

The badge on Ben's chest started blinking red and beeping, a flash of red light covered the first alien, when it died down Ben was back to his normal self, "Woah! I'm me again!"

"Thank goodness…" Max said with a sigh.

"Still can't get it off though," Ben said, prying at the watch. 

"Better not mess with that until we know more about it," Max said, "who knows, maybe someone's looking for it," he got up from his spot, "I'll go check out the crash site, you two stay here," he walked off into the woods.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN ITS NOT THERE?" Vilgax shouted at his lieutenant, he was inside a transparent tube filled with a green liquid, strange machines were hooked up to his damaged body in an attempt to heal him.

"We scanned all the wreckage, it's gone. However sensors indicate that the ship shot off a small probe before exploding."

"She must have sent it to Earth… a foolish mistake, find it. Now."

The drone nodded and pressed a few buttons on the mostly destroyed console, a pod was ejected from Vilgax's ship, which flew down to the planet. in the direction of the other pod.

Ben stared at the alien watch, wondering what other secrets it might hold.

“So how’s it work?” Jolyne asked.

“Oh, uh… I don’t know honestly, I think I press this button here…” 

“Well, go on, do it,” JoJo said, “Maybe you’ll turn into something else!”
Ben smirked and pressed the button, the dial popped up like before, he decided to try twisting it, the symbol on the watch changed to a ghost-like creature, then a short winged humanoid with spiked up hair, one that looked like it was made of crystal, a cat-like humanoid, and one that resembled a turtle, he stopped and pressed down, green light covered him once again.

His arms transformed into long, flat fins, with three sharp claws at the end of each. His legs became short and stubby, as a shell formed around his torso. The shell had six vents in the front, and the Omnitrix badge appeared on his forehead.

Ben looked at himself, “What the… I’m a giant sea turtle?”
“Huh, well at least this one won’t burn a forest down,” JoJo said, examining what Ben turned into, “What does it do?”
“I dunno…” Ben held his fins out, nothing happened, “Maybe if I…” he tried changing his stance a bit, but lost balance and fell backwards. He tried getting up but couldn’t, “This is so LAME!” 

JoJo stifled a laugh, “I guess not every alien out in space is gonna have some flashy super power.”
Ben groaned, “I don’t wanna be a useless turtle though!” he struggled to get to his feet again, as if by instinct, he retracted his head into his shell, and his limbs began rotating, he created a small gust of wind below him, pushing him upright, he then reversed the rotation and air was pushed through the vents in his shell. Making him hover slightly, “Woah! I’m a hover turtle!”
Jolyne shrugged, “Hover turtle? That's kinda… I dunno, basic? How about Terraspin?”
“Oooh!” Ben stopped hovering and stood on his feet, “I didn’t think about giving them legitamate names… how about we call that fire guy Heatblast?”
“I like it!” JoJo said.

The pod Vilgax sent landed in the forest. Out of the bottom came 3 legs, two arms came from the sides, and the top opened revealing two large bug-like eyes. It scanned the area, and then sent out two drones from its shoulders. One flew in the direction of the campsite, where Ben and JoJo were, the other headed to the crash site.

Ben continued to hover around, maneuvering around the tents and picnic tables around the campsite.

“How can you tell where you’re going?” JoJo asked.

“I dunno,” Terraspin replied, “It sorta feels like I can sense everything around me.”
“Hey wait, stop for a sec,” JoJo said, Terraspin stopped rotating and stood still. Jolyne hopped on the back of his shell, “Ok, lets go!” Terraspin took off, and started hovering around again, JoJo riding on his back, “Woo!” Jolyne’s cheering was interrupted by a mechanical whirring sound, “Ben… do you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Terraspin replied.

JoJo took a peek behind, and saw the red drone sent by Vilgax, out from the bottom came sharp crab-like claws, and a mechanical arm with a red light on the end, which began glowing, aimed directly at Terraspin.

“Ben! Look out!” Jolyne yelled. The robot shot Terraspin’s fins, knocking him and JoJo out of the air and tumbling to the ground.

“Ow,ow ow…” Terraspin said, struggling to his feet, “What IS that thing?”
“I don’t know, but it definitely wants one of us dead.”
“If I was still Heatblast that wouldn’t be an issue,” Ben said, “I don't know how to fight with this guy!”

The drone charged at them, Terraspin attempted to swat it away with his fins, which slightly knocked it off balance, but it quickly recalibrated and targeted Terraspin, or more specifically, the badge on Terraspin’s head. It made creepy whirring and beeping noises as it prepared to charge him again, this time extending it’s sharp claws out to attack. Jolyne, who was out of the drone’s sights, picked up a large stone, and chucked it at the robot, which cracked its “eye”. The drone then targeted Jolyne. A terrifying, loud alarm came from it, as it charged the laser that hit Terraspin before. Despite this, Jolyne wasn’t afraid, she stood firmly where she was, and smirked. Before the drone could attack, it was met with Terraspin, who has flown up while the drone was distracted, and fell straight on the thing, shattering it.

The badge on Ben’s head beeped and flashed red. Ben was turned back into his human self.

“Where the HECK did that thing come from?” Ben yelled, “Why did it attack us?”
“It was attacking you ,” Jolyne corrected, “And I'm pretty sure I know why,” she pointed at Ben’s wrist.

“They want my watch?”
“Classic sci-fi plot, crazy alien weapon falls into the hands of a human, crazy aliens want the weapon,” She folded her arms, “Luckily it looks like that was the only one.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Max said, approaching the campsite with a shovel and part of one of the drones, “Are you kids ok?”
“We’re fine grandpa, we trashed the thing,” Ben said.

“You ran into one of those things too?” Jolyne said, “Did you get hurt?”
“Heh, don’t worry about me,” Max said, “I’m much tougher than I look.”

“Where did they come from?” Ben asked.

Max looked at the remains of the drone he attacked, at the very top was an insignia, four diamonds, white, yellow, blue… and black, aligned into one big diamond, “I-I don’t know, I’m glad you kids are safe though.”
“Thanks to this watch,” Ben said, Max frowned.

“I was worried you’ get popular with that thing on your wrist, that's why I said not to fool around with it until we knew what the heck it was.”

“Hey, his ‘fooling around’ saved our lives, Max,” JoJo said in his defence.

“I suppose you’re right.”

“I’m really sorry grandpa,” Ben said, “But I- well we figured out how it works! You hit this button on the side, the dial pops up, you push it back down and boom! You’re one of ten super cool alien dudes!”

“But not staying a super cool alien dude, you still turn back in about… ten minutes?” JoJo stated.

“Yeah, I still haven’t figured that part out yet,” Ben said.

“With a device as powerful as that watch clamped on you, my guess is we better help you learn, fast,” Max said.

Ben smiled, “Alright!”
Max’s radio, inside the Rust Bucket, started making noise, they approached it to hear what was happening.

Max turned up the volume a bit, “Mayday, Mayday! Somebody, help us! We’re under attack by, you won’t believe this but, it’s some sort of giant robot!”

“That sounds like the same thing that attacked me,” Ben said, “They must be looking for the watch… those people are in trouble because of me! I gotta help them!”
They ran out to the woods, it didn’t take long for them to find the rampaging machine.

Ben pressed the button on the side of his watch, making the dial pop up. He twisted it until he landed on the icon of the man made of crystal, “Here goes, it's hero time!” He slapped the watch’s dial down.

Ben’s body was covered in purple rock, cracks formed and pink crystals poked out. His hands here fully exposed crystal, and a horn shot out from his head, which had one eye, and a crystal mask over where his mouth would be. 

“Well what does this one do?”  JoJo asked.

“I’m about to find out!” Ben said, “I’ll get gear-head’s attention, you guys get the campers to safety.”
The robot picked up one of the park rangers, the crystal alien ran up to him, “Hey tin can!”
The robot dropped the ranger and turned his attention to Ben.
“Looking for this?” Ben pointed at the badge on his chest.

The robot made a mechanical growling sound, a panel on its chest moved, relieving a large canon, which shot a powerful red laser at Ben, blasting him away.

“Oh.. that’ll leave a mark…” He looked at his hands and saw they were flowing with rainbow colored energy, “What the…” Ben pointed his arm at the robot, and released the energy at it, making it lose balance.

JoJo helped the ranger to his feet, “What is going on here?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, now come on,” She took him to safety.

Ben chuckled a bit, “Yeah, how's it feel getting lasers shot in YOUR face, idiot?”
The robot regained its footing, and lurched toward Ben, driving its fist into the ground with enough force to shake the ground and create a crater, Ben narrowly dodged and fired another blast of energy into the Robot’s arm. 

He attempted to shoot more rainbow energy at the mechanical monster, but found that he couldn’t, “Shoot! I’m outta juice,” The Robot pulled its arm back, and glared at Ben, “I uhh… don’t suppose you could hit me with another one of those laser blasts… right?”

The robot back-handed the rocky alien, launching him into a building.

Max ran to where Ben made impact, and helped him up, “Are you ok Ben?”
“I’m fine, but what about the campers-”
“All accounted for, don’t worry.”
“This guy can absorb lasers and shoot them back, but I think tin man figured that out and won’t shoot me anymore.”
Max thought for a moment, and then pointed to the street lamps, “Try pulling power from those light bulbs, should do the trick.”
Ben aimed his arm toward the lamps, and sucked the light from them, shattering the bulbs, his crystals flowed with rainbow energy again, “Woah! How’d you know that would work?”
Max coughed, “Er…” before he could explain, the robot began stomping toward them.
“Get out of here, now,” Ben commanded, “This ends now!”
The robot took one of it’s blade like legs and stomped toward Ben, he dodged and threw a punch toward the socket it was attached to, shooting a ball of rainbow energy at it, forcing it to detach. The robot dug its remaining legs into the ground in order to keep itself from falling. It scooped Ben up with its giant hand, and attempted to crush him between its hands. An eruption of rainbow energy shot a hole through its hands, allowing Ben to escape. He absorbed more power from the remaining street lamps. He made a slashing motion with his arm, shooting out a blade of rainbow energy which sliced straight through one of the robot’s arms. He punched downward, the energy propelled him into the air. He performed one big slashing motion, creating a large enough blade to slice diagonally through the mechanical giant. His upper half slowly slid off as Ben landed. The robot finally collapsed and shut down.

The campers came out of hiding, staring at the robotic wreck in stunned silence, Ben turned to look at them.

Max broke the silence, “Yeah! Way to go B- erm…”
“Chromastone!” Jolyne yelled out, giving Ben’s transformation a name.

Chromastone gave them a thumbs up, “Don’t worry citizens, you’re safe now, all in a days work!” People started cheering, while the badge on Ben’s chest started beeping, “Shoot! Uhhh, I must go now! My uhh, planet needs me!” he ran away from the crowd and ducked away right as he transformed back, and then went to meet back up with Max and JoJo.

Vilgax’s lieutenant walked toward him, “Sir-”
“Did you retrieve the Omnitrix?” Vilgax asked.

“N-no… the wielder destroyed your drones and war robot.”
“This earth creature is much more capable than I first imagined… but they will not evade me forever.”
“Shall I inform the Diamonds, sir?”
“No, this matter does not concern them, yet.”

The next morning…

“Alright kids, let's pack up and head out!”
“On it grandpa!” a blue blur rushed around the campsite, packing up all their things and throwing them in the rust bucket, the blur stopped revealing a blue, cat-like humanoid with light blue sunglasses stood before them, “What do you think? I call this guy Fasttrack!” The Omnitrix beeped and Ben turned back, “Did a couple laps around the city with that guy, pretty sick right?”

JoJo nodded and turned to Max, “So, where are we off to next?” JoJo asked.

“Beach City!” Max said, “Gonna meet up with a few old friends, enjoy the nice ocean air, it’ll be fun!”
“Nice!” Ben said, hopping into the RV.

JoJo followed him in, “And hopefully no giant robots this time!”
“Don't jinx it,” Ben said, “I’m hoping the robot thing won't be an everyday thing, last night was exhausting.”

Max started the RV and drove off. Meanwhile, a boy named Steven Universe was about to go and get some of his favorite ice cream.

Chapter Text

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,” Steven screamed at the empty freezer, “This can’t be happening! It has to be a dream! Please tell me I’m dreaming!” “Sorry Steven,” Sadie said from behind the counter, “I think Cookie Cats got discontinued, we haven’t gotten any new shipments for weeks.” “Discontinued!?” Steven exclaimed, “Why on earth would they stop making them!? They’re only the most scrumptious and delicious ice cream sandwich ever made! Don’t they have laws for this!?” “Tough bits man,” Lars said while stocking some things, “No one buys them anymore, guess they couldn’t compete with Lion Lickers.” “Aww not Lion Lickers!” Steven looked to the freezer holding them, “Nobody likes them! They don't even look like lions! Kids these days- I tell ya what.” “Well if you miss your wimpy ice cream so much why don’t you make some with you maaagic belly button,” he chuckled and returned to behind the counter. Steven groaned, “That's not how it works, Lars… Right?” Steven lifted his shirt a bit , revealing a pink gemstone on his stomach, with 5 facets, making a pentagon shaped girdle in the center, he shook his belly a bit and got no reaction. He sighed and got up close to the freezer, “Oh, sweet Cookie Cats, with your crunchy cookie outside and your icy creamy insides... You were too good for this world,” he drew a cat on the freezer’s window and kissed it.

Sadie and Lars looked at him in confusion, “Uh… Steven?” she asked. He didn’t respond, “Would you like to take the freezer home?” Steven nodded. Steven jogged home, the freezer attached to his back, humming happily to himself. He made his way to his home, a beach house, sitting in the lap of a giant statue of a six armed, big haired woman. He opened the door, “Hey guys! You’ll never belei-” a big green centipede with a large, jagged beak tackled Steven, “Ahh! Get it off!!” A whip wrapped around it, and squeezed until it poofed into a cloud, Amethyst recoiled the whip, “‘Sup Steven!” the short purple Gem waved. A taller, white Gem stabbed one of the creatures with her spear, “Sorry Steven,” Pearl said, “We’ll get these Centipeetles out of your room as soon as possible.” “Oh you don’t have to do that!” Steven said, they’re actually pretty cool!” He knelt down and tried petting out, it spat out acid, which dissolved the floorboards, Pearl stomped on it and poofed it. Amethyst rolled into a ball and jumped on another one of the monsters, poofing it as well, “Hey guys? These things don’t have Gems!” Garnet, a tall woman with a square afro and reflective shades poofed one of the Centipeetles in her giant gauntlets, “That means there must be a mother somewhere nearby.” Steven noticed one climbing into the freezer, “Hey! Shoo shoo!” Garnet gave it a swift punch, poofing it. “Aw man, they got into everything!” he looked in the freezer to check if it got anything, and noticed something new, “Wait a minute, these are…” He grabbed one and checked it out, “Cookie Cats! Where did you get these? I thought they stopped making them!” Pearl closed the fridge for him, “Well we heard that too, and since they’re your favorite-” “We went out and stole a bunch!” Amethyst interrupted. Pearl groaned, “I went back and paid for them.” “The whole thing was my idea,” Garnet said, returning her Gauntlets to her gemstones. “It was everyone’s idea,” Amethyst said. “Not really,” Garnet added. “All that matters is that Steven’s happy!” Pearl said. Steen smiled and began to sing, “Oooooooooooooooooooooooh! He’s a frozen treat with an all new taste! ‘Cuz he came to this planet from outer space! A refugee of an interstellar war, but now he’s at your local grocery store! Cookie Cat! He’s a pet for your tummy! Cookie Cat! He’s super duper yummy! Cookie Cat! He left his family behind! Cookie Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!!!!!... now available at Gurgens off route 109.” Steven and the Gems burst out in laughter. “I can’t believe you did this! I’m gonna save these forever!... After I eat this one!” He took a bite off the top of the Cookie Cat, a bright pink light came from underneath his shirt, “I like eating the ears first!”

“Dude, your gem!” Amethyst pointed out. “My gem?” Steen lifted his shirt, “M-my gem! It’s glowing!” “Quick! Try and summon your weapon!” Amethyst said excitedly. “Uh, um!” Steven focused hard on his Gem, trying to summon something, sweat formed on his forehead. “Breathe Steven, breathe,” Pearl said, “Don’t try and force it!” “I-its fading!” Steen said, “I don’t know how to make a weapon!” The glow slowly faded until it completely dissipated. Everyone collectively sighed. “Awww, I was so close that time!” Steven groaned and covered his Gem again. “It’s ok Steven, your powers are very unique,” Pearl said, “Give it time, and you’ll be able to summon your weapon, and who knows what else you’ll learn!” Steven smiled and sighed, “I’m going to go and take a walk, maybe some fresh air will help me figure out my gem stuff.” The Rustbucket pulled into Beach City, Ben and JoJo peered out the windows and took a look at the small town, it was pretty ordinary all things considered. “So… why are we stopping here exactly?” Ben asked. “A few of my old friends live here!” Max said, “I was hoping I could catch up with them, share a few stories, and maybe you’ll meet some new friends your age!” Max parked by the Big Donut, “Okay you two, I’m gonna go meet up with my friends, why don’t you two walk around town and check things out, I have my phone on me so call if you need anything.” “Ok Grandpa! See ya later!” Ben said. When the kids walked off, Max went back into the Rust Bucket and pulled out the piece of the alien drone that attacked, “Hopefully they have some answers for me…” He made his way to the Temple, and knocked on the Beach House’s door. Pearl opened the door, “Max? Well this is a surprise! Come in!” “Its good to see you too Pearl!” Max said with a smile, “Sorry for coming out of nowhere, I was on a Roadtrip with Ben and Jotaro’s daughter… and something… strange happened,” he revealed the broken drone piece. “Woah dude,” Amethyst said, “What is that thing?” “Is that…” Garnet gazed at the symbol at the top. “I was hoping you three would have an explanation for this symbol.”

Pearl looked at it closely, “A black diamond at the bottom… but, this doesn’t look like any Gem technology I’ve seen, and where did it come from?” Max explained what happened, the Watch falling from space and attaching to Ben’s wrist, the drones and giant robot attacking… Meanwhile… Steven walked along the sidewalk, kicking a few rocks, he let out a sigh and looked around. He noticed Ben and JoJo from across the street, he suddenly forgot what he was upset about, and went to greet his potential new friends, “Hi!!!” “Oh, hi!” Jolyne said. “Hey there,” Ben said with a wave. “Are you guys new here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here.” “Oh yeah, we’re on a roadtrip with my Grandpa and we’re stopped here for today,” Ben explained. “Oh cool! I’m Steven by the way!” “I’m Ben.” “You can call me JoJo.” “Oh my gosh! I should show you guys around Beach City!” Steven said excitedly, “I can show you the Big Donut, Funland, Fish Stew Pizza, The Arcade…” “Arcade?” Ben asked, “I like arcades!” “Funland Arcade is the BEST arcade in Beach City!” Steven said, “Well its the only arcade in Beach City but its still the best!” Steven lead them to the arcade, Ben and JoJo looked in awe at the many bright arcade machines, some of which looked relatively old. “Woah!” Ben said, “Look at all these games! The Arcade in Bellwood only has a few real games, everything else just eats up your tokens.” JoJo’s eyes gravitated toward a pair of arcade machines, two race car seats side by side, above the screens were big letters which spelled out, F-Mega. “Ben, we’re playing that,” Jojo commanded. “What? Ah!” She grabbed his arms and pulled him toward the machine, and pushed him into the seat, Steven followed and looked between the seats at their screens. Jolyne popped a quarter into each machine, a sound came from it and the narrator announced, “F-MEGA!” they selected Local Verses, “Select Your Car!” The announcer called out. They both selected their cars, and the race began. Ben and Jolyne’s cars were set at the starting line, their engines started, as the announcer gave a countdown. “3… 2… 1… STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART” The cars took off, Jolyne took the lead right away, Ben followed close behind. Ben leaned over to Steven, “I’ve literally never played this game, I have no idea what I'm doing” Steven pointed to spot on the road, “That's a shortcut, try that.” Ben took the turn, Jolyne continued on the main path. The shortcut was a tunnel, blocking Ben’s vision of the rest of the track. Just as Ben exited the tunnel, Jolyne’s car rammed into his, making him spin off course and fall off the track, his car was destroyed and respawned far behind Jolyne’s, allowing her to cross the finish line and win the race. “...how,” Ben said, staring at his screen. JoJo chuckled, “Heh, this is one of my favorite games, I know all there is to know about it.” “So cool!” Steven said, “I’ve never seen someone play that well! Well, honestly I don’t see people play that often, I usually play this by myself or with Amethyst, and she doesn’t really take it seriously,” “Don’t you have some friends to play with?” Ben asked. Steven shrugged, “Not really, I usually hang out with the Gems to try and unlock my powers…” Ben and Jolyne looked to each other, “Powers?” JoJo asked. “Oh, yeah,” Steven lifted his shirt to reveal his Gemstone, “I’m half Gem, they’re like magic space rocks with cool powers, I’ve been trying to figure out how to summon my weapon for a while, but so far nothing, I did get it to glow this morning though!” “Woah…” Ben said, he looked to his wrist and said, “Ya know… I also have powers.” Steven’s eyes lit up, “Whaaat!? Are you half Gem too?” “Nah, I’ll show you… but first lets get somewhere a bit more hidden. They made their way to an alley on the far side of town, no one around to see. “Alright Steven, prepare to have your mind blown,” He pressed the button on the side of his watch, turned the dial a bit and slapped down. He shrunk down as his body changed to a black color with a white spot on his belly and muzzle. Little whiskers sprouted from his cheeks, and 3 green fins appeared on top. He gained white gloves, long green pants, and a green vest. Black bumps appeared on his arms and torso with green glowing spots. The hourglass symbol appeared on his forehead. “Tada!”

Ben said in his new alien form. “WOOOAH!” Steven said, stars in his eyes, “You transformed into a… that!” “I’m an alien!” he pointed at his forehead, “This watch lets me turn into 10 of em, all with super cool powers!” “What does this one do?” “Er uh… well I got this thing yesterday,” Ben admitted, “I haven’t even tried this guy out yet.” “I’m sure we can figure it out,” JoJo said, “Most of them have had pretty straight forward powers so far.” “Hmm, there must be some way we can- woah!” He stepped on an empty soda can and tripped, when he fell a duplicate of himself fell from his body. Ben looked up at himself, “Woah! Cloning powers? Sweet!” “That's amazing!” Jolyne said. “I know, I’m just beside myself!” Ben said, leaning against his clone, they both started laughing. Steven laughed along with him, JoJo rolled her eyes, “Guess we can call this one Ditto,” JoJo said. Steven turned to Jolyne, “Do you have powers too?” JoJo scratched the back of her head, “Eh, not exactly.” Steven sighed, “I guess we’re both in the same boat huh?” The Dittos sighed, “There’s gotta be some way to help him out…” “Hey, I have an idea!” the other Ditto said, he duplicated himself and the 3rd clone snuck off, snickering. He slowly crept up to Steven, and growled, making him jump. “Ah!” Steven yelled, “Why did you do that?” “Hmm guess I can’t scare your powers out…” “What if you try focusing really hard?” another clone said. Steven put his hand on his chin, “I guess I haven’t tried that…” “Thats usually what I do, I just think about doing the thing and then it happens!” Ben said. “Really helpful Ben,” JoJo said, folding her arms. Steven closed his eyes, “Ok… weapon… weapon…” He opened his eyes and looked at his Gem, nothing, “Come oooooooon…” He hit it a few times, “Uugh, this isn’t working!” “Have you tried meditation?” JoJo suggested, “Might be a bit more effective than just focusing really hard.” “How do I do that?” Steven asked. “Its simple, just sit down, cross your legs, and just think of nothing, let your mind be at peace,” she sat down and demonstrated for him. Steven followed her lead, carefully trying to sit exactly like she was. Ben stood and watched them, tapping his foot in boredom. One of Ben’s clones snuck up to Steven and yelled “Boo!” Making him jump again and making the Ditto’s lay on the floor laughing. The Omnitrix beeped and they were brought close to each other, fusing together before timing out. “Ugh, come on Ben,” JoJo said, “Scaring him obviously isn’t working.” “Ok ok, I’m done.” “Ugh, nothing’s working,” Steven groaned. Ben thought for a moment, “You said your gem glowed before, right?” “Yeah, this morning.” “So what did you do to make it glow?” “I don’t know,” Steven shrugged, “All that happened was I came home after finding out my favorite Ice Cream was discontinued, the Gems bought up the last of them for me. Then I sang the Cookie Cat song, took a bite, and… yeah then it glowed.” “I have an idea!” Ben said, “What if you tried recreating the EXACT circumstances that caused your Gem to glow!” Jolyne raised an eyebrow, “Ben I don't think-” “That's a great idea!” Steven cheered. “Yare yare…” JoJo said under her breath. “Come on! Let's try it out!” Steven started running toward the Temple, Ben and JoJo followed. They stared in awe at the Temple as they approached, “Woah, Steven, you live in THAT?” Ben said. “Yeah! Well I live in the little beach house there, the Gems live in the rest of the Temple.” They walked in, and saw Max talking with the Gems, “Oh, hey kids!” “Grandpa? These guys are your friends?” Ben asked. “Yeah! Me and the Gems go way back!” Max said, “And it looks like you met Steven! Funny how that worked out.” “Guys guys! I have an idea of how I can get my powers to work!” Steven said excitedly, “I think my best bet is to recreate what happened the last time my gem glowed. So…” He pointed to Amethyst, “You were sitting up here, and Garnet, you were over here,” He turned to Pearl, “You were standing over here, oh and you were standing like this.” “I don’t think it works that way Steven,” Pearl said. “Amethyst I think your arms were crossed,” Steven said, ignoring her. Amethyst crossed her arms, “Ok your majesty.” “And Garnet…” Steven grabbed her face and moved it a bit, “Yeah…” He took out his half eaten cookie cat from the freezer, before noticing something, “...Wait you guys weren’t here last time, uhhh, just wait outside… please.” “Heh alright Steven, everybody out,” Max said. “Ok ok, then I just ate the cookie cat. Oh wait, I sang the song first!” He quickly recited the rap, “He’s a frozen treat, all new taste, interstellar war… now available at Gurgens…” No one reacted, “Aw man, it was funnier the first time!” he sighed, “Maybe I’m not a real Crystal Gem…” Pearl leaned down, “Don’t be silly Steven, of course you are!” “And you're fun to have around, even if your gem is useless,” Amethyst said, Pearl scowled at her, “I mean... you're one of us, Steven. We're not the Crystal Gems without you!” Garnet silently nodded. “Yeah, even if I don't have powers, I've still got... Cookie Cat!” He took a big bite out of it, “Mmm, so good…” His gem started glowing intensely. Ben looked in from the outside, “Woah JoJo, check it out!” She looked in, but she was distracted by something strange, she turned and looked around and saw a small green creature scuttling away. “Ben, Max, look!” She pointed to the creature. “Woah! What is that thing?” Ben said. “We should follow it,” Max said, “Maybe there's more.” Steven’s Gem glowed brighter and brighter, and from it emerged a pink, circular shield, the Gems gasped.

“Steven… it’s a shield!” Pearl said, tearing up a bit. Steven looked in front of him, “No way! I get a shield!? Aw yeah!” He raised his arms and the shield shot out, and bounced all around the beach house, it stopped when it embedded itself into Steven’s TV. Amethyst burst out in laughter. “Huh?” He looked at the half eaten ice cream sandwich in his hand, “Cookie Cat! I summon my weapon by eating ice cream!” Pearl grabbed the wrapper, “What’s in these things…” Steven looked out the window, “Guys did you see? Guys?” He stepped out and didn’t see them, but heard a Centipeetle’s screeches. “It must be the mother!” Garnet said. “And our new friends are in trouble!” Steven said, “We gotta help!” “Stay here Steven, we’ll handle this,” Pearl said, the Gems all ran toward the top of the cliff. Steven looked to his Cookie Cat freezer, and grabbed as many of them as he could, throwing them into the freezer, then connecting a bunch of extension cords together, then he picked up the freezer and started running after the gems. Ben, Max and JoJo chased the Centipeetle around the cliff and up it, toward the Lighthouse, they stopped and looked in shock at the giant Centipeetle mother, wrapped around the lighthouse. “Oh my god!” Jolyne yelled. The Centipeetle mother took notice of them, and Screeched angrily, her babies started rushing toward them, she followed close behind. “Ben, now might be a good time to turn into something!” JoJo said. “Got it,” Ben activated the Omnitrix, turned it and slapped it down. He shrunk down as his skin turned into a light teal, his eyes became fully light purple, with big, dark eyelashes. His hair spiked up and turned blue, and he sprouted purple wings with a diamond design. His outfit was changed into a green and black dress.

He hovered in the air and looked at himself, “Aw man.. Lame alien! What even am I?” “Come on Ben, just do something!” JoJo commanded. “Prr, Alright, here goes!” He pushed his arms out and magenta dust flew out, covering the cliff and enveloping the Centipeetles. The small ones all passed out, the mother burst through the cloud, and tackled Ben. “Aaah! It didn’t work!” Ben said. “Try hitting it again, right in its mouth!” JoJo said. Ben pointed at the Gem in the monster’s mouth, grey dust shot out and the monster choked on it. Ben flew out, and away from it, “Prrrr, that won’t hold it off for long!” “Are you all ok?” Pearl shouted. “We’re fine!” Max said. “Prrr, all thanks to me!” Ben said proudly. “Wha- a Nemuina?” Pearl asked. “We’ll explain later,” Jolyne said. The mother recovered from the dust attack, and charged toward the Gems. “You three get to safety!” Garnet commanded. Ben chirped angrily, “No way! We can take this thing!” “It’s aright Ben, this isn’t our fight, they can handle it,” Max said, holding him back. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl summoned their weapons, and charged at the monster. She screeched and spit a stream of acid at them. WHile the gems were disoriented, the Centipeetle whipped around and hit them all off the cliff, falling down in front of the temple, Steven stepped out as soon as the Mother jumped down to attack the Gems. It shot another stream of acid at them, they ran and ducked behind a broken hand from the Temple, it began melting away from the mother’s acid. “Augh, we could really use Steven’s shield right about now!” Amethyst said. Steven tossed a rock at the the Monster, it turned to face Steven, “Hey! Leave them alone!” He planted the freezer into the sand, and grabbed a Cookie Cat. The Gems all yelled to him, “STEVEN NO!” “Cookie Cat crystal combo powers… ACTIVATE!” He took a bite out of one of his cookies, and lifted his shirt, only for nothing to happen. The creature growled as acid dripped from its mouth, Steven realized the huge mistake he just made, “U-uh oh…” He picked his freezer up again and tried running away. The Centipeetle lunged toward him, but before she could come in contact, it was stopped by something flying into her face, acting as the perfect distraction. “Hey ugly! Prrr, remember me?” Ben said, hovering in the air at eye level with the monster, he created clouds of grey dust in his hands, “How about I give you another taste of THIS” He shot it forward, but the creature kept its mouth shut, and avoided it, “Uh oh…”

 While dealing with the mother’s front half, she used her pincers on her tail to continue fighting the Gems. “Augh, we need to help Steven!” Pearl said. “Can we help ourselves first?” Amethyst shot back. Steven kept eating Cookie cats, “Goodbye my friends,” He swallowed another and his stomach started growling, “Why isn't this working?” The mother grabbed Ben in her mouth and threw him at Steven. Ben pushed him out of the way as she shot another stream of acid, destroying Steven’s freezer. Steven got up and saw the remains of his freezer, the top half was melted and electricity was sparking outward from it, “No… no no no no!” a tear ran down his face, “Cookie cat… he’s a pet for your tummy… Cookie Cat… he’s super DUPER YUMMY!!” He angrily picked up the freezer, “COOKIE CAT, HE LEFT HIS FAMILY BEHIND!” He grabbed the freezer by it’s cable, and swung it around and tossed it at the Centipeetle monster, it made contact and shocked her, making her screech in pain, “Now available… nowhere.”

“Yes!” Amethyst cheered. “Nows our chance Gems, ready your weapons!” Garnet commanded, they shattered the hand statue they were hiding behind, and charged at the Monster. Amethyst tied it up, as Garnet drove her fist into the monster, Pearl shoved her spear through it, and it poofed into a huge cloud of smoke, leaving only a spherical gemstone. Garnet picked up the gem, and made a bubble around it, and then tapped the top, making it teleport away. “Now, as for you…” Pearl turned toward the transformed Ben, who had just gotten back to his feet, “What are you doing on Earth?” “Erm.. well you see-” The badge on his chest blinked red and beeped, he turned back into his human form, “I’m not… actually an alien?” “Ben!?” Pearl asked, “You- how?” “I uh, found this last night,” Ben showed her the watch on his wrist, “It attached to my wrist and lets me turn into 10 aliens, but it doesn’t come off.” “Impossible…” Pearl said. “I’ve been using it to help people, and well, I dunno I thought I could help Steven find out his own powers,” Ben said, “But uh… looks like it didn’t work out that well.” Steven sat in the sand, sadly burying the last remaining cookie cat wrapper, “Farewell, sweet Cookie Cats,” his stomach rumbled again, “Shh, hush now…” “Jeez dude, are you crying?” Amethyst asked. “Only a little!” Steven said sadly. “Well I guess your powers don’t actually come from Ice Cream,” Ben said. “Obviously,” Jolyne said with a groan. Max looked out at the sunset, “And it looks like we should hit the road soon…” “Aww!” Steven said, “You’re going so soon? I was just getting to know you guys!” “Aw man, I wish we could stay just a bit longer,” Ben said. “Or maybe bring him with us?” Jolyne suggested. “You know.. That might not be a bad idea,” Max said, he turned to the Gems, “There’s not a whole lot of kids his age here in Beach City, and being around another super powered kid might help him discover his own abilities.” Pearl thought, “That does make sense, we’ll have to talk to Greg about it, Garnet, Amethyst what do you think?” “I don’t mind,” Amethyst said. Garnet adjusted her visor, “It could be a good experience for Steven, as long as he’s happy with it.” Steven gasped, seemingly forgetting about his lost treats, “Realy? I would love that!! Let me go pack my bags!” He ran into the house, the gems chuckled. “I’ll go talk with Greg,” Max said, “I’m sure he’ll be fine with it.” “This is great!” Ben said, “It’ll be like a summer long party!” Steven climbed into the Rustbucket, “Woah… it’s like a house on wheels!” He set down his cheeseburger shaped backpack and looked around, “This is so cool!” Ben laughed, “You live in a giant magic temple and this is cool to you?” “My house doesn’t move though!” Steven said. Max started up the Rustbucket, “Well get comfy, we’re gonna be traveling all across the country!” “Woah! I’ve never even left Beach City! This is so exciting!” Steven said with a big grin on his face. The Rustbucket drove off, Steven looked out the window as he left the town in which he lived his entire life. The Gems waved as they saw him off. Now they were left with only one question. Who sent that drone...

Chapter Text

 Vilgax’s ship remained outside Earth’s atmosphere, he was slowly healing from the damage he faced days ago. 

The Warlord looked up at one of his drone lieutenants walking toward him, “You had better be here to give me some good news.”
“Affirmative my lord,” The robot said, “We have been doing research on the inhabitants of this planet, and found that there are some humans with strange abilities, we found someone who may be quite useful in retrieving the Omnitrix.”
“Who are they?”
“She calls herself Rojo,” The Drone said, “She has the ability to take and rebuild Machinery in an instant.”

“Send a drone to her location, we’ll get that Omnitrix Wielder once and for all…”

The Drone was quickly deployed and sent to Earth.

In a messy garage, Rojo was working on her motorcycle. She had short hair that was dyed red, and a leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders. She wore a shirt with a skull pattern on it. She got up and wiped the oil off her hands as her girlfriend, Azul walked in with some cans of soda. She wore an identical shirt and jacket to Rojo’s but the skull on her shirt was blue, and she had jet black hair with blue streaks. 

“How’s it going?” Azul asked.

Rojo let out a sigh, “I think it’s done, all it needs is a test drive.”
A mechanical whirring sound came from outside their garage, getting the couple’s attention.
“You hear that too Rojo?” Azul asked.

“Yeah… get behind me,” a robotic, ghosty figure appeared above her. Azul knew of her partner’s strange spirit that seemingly possessed her, but she couldn’t even see it, the only evidence was it’s abilities. Rojo grabbed an impact drill and the ghost wrapped its fingers around it. The spirit disassembled the tool and turned it into what more resembled a gun. It then reached over and grabbed a handful of screws, and loaded it into the makeshift weapon.

Rojo grasped the doorknob and quickly opened it. She was met with VIlgax’s drone. She immediately panicked and jumped backwards, she shot the drone a few times, every one bounced off of it.

“What the hell is that?” Azul asked.

“I dunno! But I’m not letting it touch you!” She ditched her drill gun and grabbed a hammer she had hanging on the wall. 

“Cease your attack, human,” Vilgax said through the drone, “I come to you requesting your assistance.”
“...it talks,” Azul said.

“Ok, and why should I help some flying waffle maker?” Rojo quipped.

A compartment on the top of the drone opened, revealing three alien blaster rifles, “Consider this a gift. There’s more where that came from if you assist me.”

Rojo grabbed the blaster, her ghost appeared and took the blaster to investigate it, “What is this thing made of?” Rojo asked, “Doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen.”
“It is not of this world, a weapon made by a race known as the Techadons. They fire highly condensed bolts of-”
Rojo aimed it at a dart board hung up on the wall. She pulled the trigger and a dark red beam fired from it, destroying the dart board and making a hole in the wall. 

“...nice,” Rojo said, “So… what do you want me to do?”
A holographic screen appeared in front of the drone, showing an image of Ben’s watch, “This is the Omnitrix. A powerful device that was stolen from me. I want you to retrieve it from the thief.”
“You’re giving us this heavy weaponry for a wrist watch?” Azul asked.

“It may look harmless, but it allows the user to become a nigh unlimited amount of deadly and powerful creatures from all across the galaxy,” Vilgax explained, “Your abilities would be quite useful in retrieving it.”

“... how do you know about my powers?” Rojo asked. 

“I’ve done extensive research on this planet and its inhabitants, your abilities stood out to me.”

“Is that so?” Rojo tossed her weapon to Azul, “Well babe? What do you think? Should we do it?”
Azul slammed her soda and tossed the empty can into the air and shot it, shielding herself from the explosion, “Oh yeah, I’m in.”
“Great, I’ll call up Amarillo,” Rojo said.

“I shall accompany you,” Vilgax said, “This drone’s scanners can pick up the Omnitrix’s location whenever it is activated.”
“Perfect, let’s head out.” She and Azul mounted her newly fixed up motorcycle, put on their helmets, and drove off. 

“This is it everyone, the showdown of the century,” Steven said in his best announcer voice, “Ben Tennyson versus Jolyne Kujo, fighting for the title of number one arm wrestling champion in the world!”
Ben and JoJo placed their elbows on the picnic table they were sitting at and grabbed each other's hands.

“Ok you two, I want a clean fight, nothing below the wrist,” Steven said, “3… 2… 1… GO!”
Ben and JoJo started wrestling, trying to push the other’s arm down. Ben felt his arm inching closer to the table, and tried to push back, but Jolyne overpowered him, and his arm hit the table.

“And the title for number one arn wrestling champion goes to JoJo!” Steven cheered.

“Wow Tennyson, were you even trying?” Jolyne teased.

Ben turned red, “Wuh, n-no! I just let you win!” Ben said.

“Oh really? Why don't we have a rematch then?” JoJo said.

“Yes!!” Steven said with stars in his eyes, “Tennyson vs Kujo! The rematch of the century!”
“Well this time Tennyson has a trick up his sleeve,” Ben said, activating his watch, “Literally!”

The Drone’s sensors picked up on the Omnitrix when it activated, “This way!” Vilgax instructed, “The wielder has activated the Omnitrix!”
“Lets go girls!” Rojo commanded. They followed the Drone down the street.

“Oh come on Ben, that’s cheating,” JoJo said.

“Says who? Did you make the rules?” Ben teased.

“As the announcer, referee, and founder of the international arm wrestling federation, I say that super powers are not allowed,” Steven said.

“Ugh fine,” Ben pressed the button again and the dial went back down.

The Drone stopped just a few streets away from Ben, the motorcycles came to a screeching halt.

“Why’d you stop?” Rojo asked.

“The signal was lost, I can only track it while the device is activated.”

Ben and Jolyne locked hands, trying their hardest to overpower each other. Jolyne glared at Ben, but glanced down at their hands, she saw… something starting to wrap itself around Ben’s hand, she gasped, letting down her guard and allowing Ben to overpower her. As her hand hit the table she pulled back and stared at her hand, “What was…”

“Ha! Gotcha this time JoJo!” Ben gloated, “What was that all about?”
“Uh… nothing, I guess I lost focus,” She said, still examining her hand.

Just then, the three bikers sped past the group, not knowing that they just missed their target. 

Grandpa Max groaned, "Darn biker gangs, act like they own the roads."

Jolyne looked back in the direction they went as they turned a corner. She noticed something following their path. A glowing purple thread, leading all the way back to her hand, in fact, her hand was unraveling before her eyes, "Wh- what!? What's happening!?" She yelled, Ben and Steven turned to her.

"what's wrong JoJo?" Ben asked.

He can't see it, this thread coming from my hand. Am I hallucinating!? Jolyne asked herself. She felt the thread stop.

"Well if we need the thing to be activated to track it, why don't we just make him come to us?" Rojo said, before firing her alien blaster at a 16-wheeler truck, making it veer off course and topple over.

Jolyne's eyes widened, hearing everything that just happened, "s-someone's in trouble!"

"Huh?" Ben asked, "What makes you say that?"

"I- I could hear it! Someone's getting attacked!" Before the others could respond she started running in that direction.

Ben, Steven, and Max looked at each other in confusion, "We'd better follow her, what if she's right?" Max said. As he motioned for the other kids to follow behind him.

Jolyne turned the corner, seeing the three bikers and one of the drones from the first night of summer, and saw that the truck they knocked over was a Bank truck, they started taking the contents and putting them in bags.

Amarillo, who was on watch, noticed Jolyne standing there, and aimed her weapon at the kid, "Hey, kid, get out of here if ya know what's good for ya!"

JoJo panicked, and without thinking pulled the thread back toward her. The purple string detached itself from the bike and sped past Amarillo, scraping across her arm and cutting it, making her drop her weapon.

"Shit! What just happened?!" She said as she fell to her knees.

The others caught up and noticed the commotion.
“Uhh… Ben?” Steven said.

“On it!” He turned the dial and pushed down on the Omnitrix. He grew to about four times his size, his skin was replaced with orange scales and spikes ran from his head down his spine and tail he grew. The Omnitrix badge was positioned right in the center of his chest.
“HUUUMUNGOUSAUR!” He roared after transforming.

“Wait, you’re actually going with that name?” JoJo complained.

“How about we wait till after the bank heist to argue names?” Humungousaur replied.

“There! On his chest!” Vilgax yelled, “Get the Omnitrix now!”
“You heard him! Light ‘em up!” Rojo commanded, she and her companions opened fire on Ben, who threw up his arms to protect his face.

“Ow, OW! What are they shooting at me?” Humungousaur slammed his fists into the ground to knock them off balance.
“Those aren’t ordinary guns…” Max said.

“I can tell,” Humungousaur said with a growl, “You guys go save the truck driver, I’ll handle these guys.”
JoJo and Steven followed Max to the truck while Ben charged at the gang of criminals. Just as Amarillo was about to shoot him, Humungousaur slammed his tail on the ground to make a shockwave. Her aim was majorly thrown off, and she hit the same building the truck crashed into, breaking the wall even more. 

Max pulled the truck’s door open and pulled the driver out, “We better get out of here fast!”

While running to safety, Jolyne tripped and fell. The crack on the wall grew, until a chunk of it collapsed. JoJo looked up and saw the rubble about to fall on her, and instinctively held her arms over her head and closed her eyes in an attempt to save herself…

The thread shot from her arms, slicing through and pushing the rubble away from her.

“Wh-wha?” her heart was racing, she was so sure that she was about to be crushed.
Steven helped her to her feet, “Are you alright?”
“Uh… yeah, I think so,” Jolyne replied.

The fight continued on, Azul grabbed a metal bat and swung it into Humungosaur’s leg, the bat was dented but the dinosaur alien was left unharmed. 

Ben couldn't help but chuckle, “Why don't we finish this so you three stop embarrassing yourselves!” He cracked his oversized knuckles.

“Couldn’t agree more!” Rojo said, “Azul, Amarillo, toss me your guns, I have an idea!” they obliged, Rojo caught one in her free hand and her spirit appeared to catch the third one. It began disassembling the weapons and rebuilding them into something new. 

The robotic looking spirit caught Jolyne’s attention, “...no way…”
The three blasters were assembled into an arm cannon, she pointed it at Ben and fired, a huge, powerful beam flowed from it and started pushing Humungousaur away.

Max ran at her and grabbed her arms to aim the blast away from Ben.

“Ah! Get off me old man!” Rojo yelled, struggling to push Max off.

The Vilgax drone revealed a small blade of red light and targeted Ben, “Enough! I’ll finish this myself!” 

Ben saw the small thing hovering toward him, “Wh-what the?” He attempted to swat it away but it weaved around his attacks, “What is that thing?”
It latched itself onto Ben’s chest and started prying at the Omnitrix, “Finally… after all this time-”
Humungousaur gripped the small robot in his hand and ripped it away from the badge on his chest, “Nice try, whatever you are!” He tossed it to the ground, damaging it to the point where it could no longer hover.

The Omnitrix badge started blinking red and beeping, “Uh oh…” Ben said, “Time to wrap things up!” he grabbed Steven and JoJo in one arm and Max in the other and jumped over a building and toward the Rustbucket, just before they landed the Omnitrix timed out and they all tumbled on the ground.

They recovered and rushed to the Rustbucket, Max started it up and started driving.

“Hopefully they didn't see where we took off…” Max said, keeping a close eye on the rear-view mirrors.

“Augh I totally blew it!” Ben said, hitting the table.

“Hey, you did your best!” Steven said, “Luckily we were able to make it out of there.”
“Ugh, if I just picked Chromastone instead! I coulda given them a taste of their own medicine,” he put his head in his hands in disappointment.

Steven looked over to Jolyne, who was sitting in the back and just staring at the floor, “...JoJo? Are you ok?”
Jolyne looked back to him, “Y-yeah, um… did you guys see the same thing I did?”
Ben took his face out of his hands and looked back at her, “What do you mean?”
“That… thing behind the red haired lady, it looked sort of like a ghost? A-and the thread coming from my hands?”

“...no?” Ben said, “I mean, I don’t know, I was sort of getting pelted with lasers.

“I think I saw something…” Steven said, “It was really really faint though.”

“I didn’t see anything like that,” Max said while looking back at her in the mirror.

Jolyne took another look at her hand, and managed to create another thread, “So, you guys can’t see this?”

Ben and Steven both shrugged.

“...Alright, I think I might know whats going on,” JoJo said, “My dad told me stories, about how our family had abilities known as Stands. All he told me is that they were inherited by my ancestor Johnathan Joestar, and that most other people with Stands were… really bad people.”

“Woah hold on, you had this whole crazy family backstory and didn’t tell us?” Ben said.

“Well I didn’t think I’d need to, dad was always pretty secretive about it and always told me not to bring any attention to it!” Jolyne replied, “He also said that everyone who used their Stands for evil are gone, but… I don’t think that's the case anymore…”

"That's so sick dude!" Ben said, "Now it looks like Grandpa is the only one on our trip without cool powers"

Max looked back at the kids, “Jolyne, I should probably tell Jotaro about this. He’d want to know if your stand was developing.” 

“No!” JoJo said, “I mean- if he found out he’d probably want me to go back home, and… I’ve been having such a good time with you guys… we can tell him at the end of the summer, right?”
“...I suppose there's nothing wrong with that,” Max said.

Jolyne let out a sigh of relief, “Thanks, besides, if there's Stand Users going after Ben, you’ll need a Stand User to help fight back.”

“They probably want my watch…” Ben said, “They only started attacking us after I transformed, if we just left they wouldn’t even know I was here.”
“If we just left that driver could’ve gotten hurt!” Steven said, “You did what you had to do.”
“Yeah, maybe…” Ben said, “But regardless, we gotta keep an eye out for those bikers, they could be anywhere by now.”

Rojo threw her arm canon to the ground and yelled, “God damn it! Where did they go?”
“Totally missed them in the chaos,” Amarillo said, “Sorry boss.”
“You ok Joey?” Azul asked, putting an arm on her shoulder.

“I’ll be fine,” Rojo said, “Just pissed that our target got away, where’s the flying Roomba anyways?”
Azul pointed at the crumpled robot that was violently thrown into the sidewalk, leaving cracks beneath it.

“Yeesh,” Rojo pulled it out of the ground and examined it, “I think whoever was talking to us lost signal,” she picked the drone up and smirked to her teammates, “Think he’ll mind if I make a few… modifications?”

Azul and Amarillo nodded back at her with a smile.

Rojo’s Stand appeared and grabbed the drone, “I’ve got the perfect use for this, check it out,” the droid was disassembled and the parts were attached to Rojo’s body like armor, even the guns were integrated into the armor’s weapons system, when she was finished, she was covered in red alien technology, making a form fitting suit of weaponized armor.

“...not bad Rojo,” Azul said, looking her up and down.

“Couldn’t agree more,” Rojo said, “Let's ditch the monster watch and get some serious cash at the bank! With this armour no one can stop us!”

“Hell yeah!” Amarillo and Azul cheered.

“Alright get on your bikes and-” a sharp pain crawled up her spine and into her head, she collapsed down to her knees and screamed.

“Rojo?” Azul ran up to her and grabbed her shoulders, “Joey?! Are you ok?”

Rojo watched as the world around her faded away, and was replaced with abstract patterns all around her, she whipped around and saw Vilgax, towering over her.
“What the- who the hell-” Rojo stammered.

Vilgax raised his arm, bringing Rojo up to his face, “Our deal, since you seem to have forgotten, was to bring me the Omnitrix in exchange for my weaponry. Not to hijack my drone and use it for petty thievery.”
“In my defence, I thought you were toast,” Rojo said, “Besides, who said you could boss me around like that, I don’t follow anyone’s rules.”

Vilgax’s eyes flashed, and Rojo felt an intense pain all across her body.

“AAUGH STOP STOP!”
Vilgax let her free, “We are now telepathically linked, and my drone has melded with your body, with just a thought I could shut down your brain, you’d die immediately.”

Rojo froze in fear, this guy can’t be serious… right?
“Retrieve the Omnitrix for me and you live, if you fail, or attempt to escape, you die. Understood?”
“...Well that doesn't leave me with many options…” Rojo took a deep breath, “Fine, I’ll get your freakin’ watch, then you better leave me and my partners alone!”

“Gladly,” Vilgax said.

In the blink of an eye Rojo’s surroundings were back to the sidewalk she collapsed at moments before.

“Rojo! Oh my god you were out for way too long.” Azul said, “You ok?”
“Yeah,” Rojo said, she got up and cracked her neck, “You two, start driving and search the city for whoever has that magic watch.”

Amarillo raised an eyebrow, “Rojo you just said we were gonna ditch-”
“I know what I said,” She snapped back, “But I changed my mind, we gotta get that watch first,” a thruster emerged from a panel on her back and she took off into the sky.

“...you think something’s up with her?” Amarillo asked.

Azul watched her girlfriend fly off, “I-I don’t know, let's just... wait and see for now,” She started up her bike and started driving.

Rojo analyzed the roads, trying to find the people who fought her.

"How the hell does a giant dinosaur hide so quickly?" Rojo said angrily.

"They probably reverted to human form," Vilgax said, "They may be hiding within one of these earth travel vessels"

"...right," she scanned the area, nothing stood out to her, however Vilgax noticed something.

"That one there!" He said, an icon appeared on her HUD outlining the Rustbucket, "I recognize that one!"

"That shitty old RV? Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. Go, now!" He commanded.

She flew down to Azul and Amarillo, "That old RV, that's where the Omnitrix is, you guys cause a distraction and I'll handle alien guy."

Azul nodded, and they got right up behind the Rustbucket

Max looked at his rear view mirror, "Kids, we might have company!"

Ben looked out the back window, "I'm on it!"

"Ben wait! It might be dangerous," Max said.

"Relax grandpa, I got this," he activated the Omnitrix, and turned into Fasttrack, "I'll be back in a sec!" He jumped out of the Rustbucket and ran alongside it, slowing down a bit to get face to face with the Bikers, "Ya know, I don't have a license, but I'm pretty sure you're breaking some traffic laws."

Amarillo pulled out a crowbar and swung at Fasttrack, which he narrowly dodged. He fought back by quickly kicking her bike, slowing her down a bit. Azul tried grabbing at him, but was met with a swift scratch from his claws.

"Come on! How are you so fast?!" Azul yelled.

Fasttrack started running backwards, "Oh please, this isn't even my top speed!"

She grabbed her baseball bat and swung at him, Ben grabbed it, threw it away and slashed her front tires with his claws, "See ya!"

Azul lost control of her bike and fell off, but Amarillo caught back up to him, and rammed into him while he was distracted. Ben fell onto the road but got right back up and ran after her, "you're gonna regret that!"

Amarillo swung at him again with the crowbar, but Fasttrack caught it, and jammed it into her wheel, causing her to fall off and tumble to the ground.

During the commotion, Rojo landed on the Rustbucket, staying low out of Ben's sight. 

Jolyne looked up at the Rustbucket's ceiling. Her threads were attached to ceiling, letting her hear some movement up there. She looked to Steven, who was intently watching Ben running behind the RV, and Max was focused on the road, she aimed her threads at the sunroof and opened it, then jumped up and climbed out on top of the RV. Rojo didn't notice her yet.

God, what am I doing… she looked at her hands and clenched her first, I'm the only one who can see her Stand, I need to do something or Ben could get killed…

"Hey!" She yelled, Rojo whipped around and faced her.

"What the- hey kid, what do you think you're doing?"

"Stopping you, I won't let you hurt my friend!"

"Listen, it's nothing personal, just doing a job," Rojo said, "just sit back down while I snatch that watch from cat boy down there."

Jolyne glared at Rojo, "I can't let that happen," she aimed her hand at Rojo and fired threads at her ankle, they wrapped around and she pulled, making Rojo fall over.

"Augh, how did you…" she examined the threads closer, "Wait… you're like me aren't you? You have some weird power just like me!"

"Yeah, it's called a Stand, and I'm gonna use it to stop you!"

"Heh, so, were you shot with an arrow too?"

"Huh?" JoJo's gaurd was lowered, "What are you talking about?"

"I got this thing after I was shot with an arrow in my sleep, I honestly assumed it was a dream at first, but I'm sure it was real now."

"...mine just appeared, I inherited it from my father."

"Ah, so you aren't very experienced with it, that explains alot!" She created sharp claws from her armor and slashed at the threads, causing JoJo's hand to bleed.

She cried out in pain and fell to her knees, "wh-what the!? How?" 

Max heard JoJo's screaming, and looked back, "Steven? Where's Jolyne?"

Steven looked around, "I-I don't know," he noticed the sunroof was opened, "oh, I might have an idea though."

Rojo walked toward Jolyne, "Heh, you thought those flimsy little threads would stop me?" She summoned her Stand, which came face to face with Jolyne, "This is Gas, this is what real power looks like," she chuckled, "do you even have a name for yours? I bet not, how long have you even had that? A few hours?"

JoJo looked up at her, "Why are you doing this? What's wrong with you?"

"Like I said, I have a job to do, and if you're gonna get in my way well-" she was interrupted by the sound of someone else landing on the RV, she turned around and saw Fasttrack.

"Get. Away. From her," Ben said angrily.

"God damn it," she flashed her claws at him, "Alright hairball, come at me!"

Ben rushed at her, throwing a quick punch, which was caught by Rojo, who started squeezing hard. In retaliation, Fasttrack began rapidly punching her with his free hand, which Rojo just laughed at.

"This armor makes me practically invincible, you can't do shit to me!" 

Ben looked her in the eyes, "You sure about that?" He slashed at her face, the only uncovered bit of her. She stumbled back holding her face in her hands.

"Augh, you asshole!" She formed her arm cannon and aimed at Ben, "Die!" 

JoJo fired a thread at her arm, throwing off her aim before she hit Ben.

"You little shit!" She reeled back to kick at her but Ben quickly ran up and pushed her off the Rustbucket. She tumbled to the ground as the Rustbucket drove off.

Ben helped JoJo to her feet, "you ok?"

"Y-yeah," she looked at her bleeding hand, "I may have underestimated her…"

"Hey, without you I would've been toast, thanks alot," Ben said, "now let's get you a first aid kit."

Ben and JoJo jumped in through the sunroof, just as Ben timed out.

"Are you guys ok?!" Steven asked, then gasped, "JoJo you're bleeding!"

"Max, where's the bandages?" Jolyne asked, surprisingly calmly.

"Cabinet above the sink," he answered, "What happened up there?"

"That woman was a Stand User, like I guessed," Jolyne said while wrapping her hand, "And I don't think we fully took her out quite yet."

"What do we do?" Steven said.

"We wait," Ben said, "She's constantly been able to find us, so let's make sure next time is the last."

Rojo groaned as she got up, "Stupid little brat…"

Vilgax angrily growled, "You let them get away a second time."

"Oh shove it up your- AUGH," She felt a jab of pain run up her spine and across her body.

"I do not tolerate failure, human," Vilgax said, "You are on very thin ice."

"P-please! I didn't expect the girl to have powers too!" Rojo begged, "They caught me off guard!"

"I grow tired of this," Vilgax said, "This next chance will be your last."

Rojo was let free of the sharp pain, and gasped, "Why'd this have to happen to me?" She asked, "if I'm going to survive, I'm going to have to kill the Omnitrix user. So that's exactly what I'll do," She flew up in the air towards where she last saw the Rustbucket.

Max took a turn towards an abandoned building. Hiding the RV behind it, "This should be a good hiding place for the moment," he said.

The kids all got out and entered the building, it was dusty and worn with age, random tools and electronics were scattered about. The walls were covered in graffiti and most of the windows were shattered.

"...gross," Jolyne said, "I wonder what happened here."

"Probably just relocated, and no one bought the old place," Max said, "Looks like it became a hangout spot for teenagers and such."

"Cool," Ben said, "This would be a perfect spot for training!"

"What?" JoJo asked.

"Well if we're gonna be fighting her again, we'll need you to be on your A game, you too Steven."

"Wh- me??" Steven said, "I can't even summon my sheild!"

"Well we'll have to fix that now won't we?" Ben said with a smirk, "now come on, let's do a little sparring!" He turned the dial on the Omnitrix to a plant-lile creature with a Venus fly trap around his head. He slapped down and his body morphed into green vines, large seeds jutting from his back and the fly trap opened to reveal his single eye'd head.

"Your string abilities kinda reminded me of this guy, I call him Wildvine!"

"Alright well, while you kids do that, I'm going to check the RV for damages, don't get into any trouble while I'm gone!"

"You bet grandpa!" Ben said.

As soon as Ben transformed, Rojo turned her attention toward the direction of the abandoned building, "there you are…" she said under her breath, she started flying toward the signal.

"Alright JoJo! Gimme all you got!" Wildvine said, growing needles from his arms.

"Alright," JoJo said, threads came from her hands and shot toward Wildvine, slicing up one of his vine arms, "oh no! I-I didn't mean-"

"Nono it's fine!" Wildvine said, immediately healing his arm, "Didn't even hurt!"

"Oh, alright," Jolyne said.

Ben aimed at Jolyne, "Now let's see how good that is at defense!" He shot needles toward her, and without even thinking, her threads weaved themselves into a sheild blocking the attack. 

"Woah, nice," Ben said, from his perspective, it looked like she stopped the needles in mid air.

Jolyne smirked, "that gives me an idea," she whipped the thread sheild back at Ben, making his own needles shoot back at him.

"Dude nice!" Ben said, "Ok Steven, your turn!"

Steven jumped, "Ah! Nono don't!"

"It's fine! Just make a sheild like you did the other day," Ben said.

"I don't know how I did it! And I definitely don't have any cookie cats like last time," Steven said.

"Well maybe this will be the push you need to figure it out!" Ben created some needles, "Ready?"

"Ben, this doesn't seem like a good idea," Jolyne said.

"FIRE!" Ben yelled, ignoring her, a couples needles flew towards Steven, who held out his hands and closed his eyes in fear.

Steven opened his eyes, and saw that the needles didn't touch him, instead, they were trapped in a few pink bubbles, "...huh, I didn't see that coming…" 

"Dude, cool!" Ben said, "I didn't know you could do that!"

"Me either!" Steven said, "I thought all I could do was make sheilds"

Jolyne grabbed one of the bubbles, "thats so cool!" 

"The other gems can make bubbles, but theirs are only used to trap corrupted Gems," Steven said, "I've never seen them do something like this."

Before they could continue, they heard a stomp at the top of the building, making dust come loose from the ceiling and fall down.

"What was that!?" Ben said.

"Shh," JoJo said, she extended her threads across the building, trying to hear what was coming, she heard footsteps, coming closer, and then they stopped, and then heard a loud whirring sound, right above Wildvine, "BEN LOOK OUT!"

The ceiling above Ben collapsed as a red laser beam shot down, Rojo following behind. Rubble fell all around them, and blocked the doorway.

"Jeez, that was faster than I thought!" Wildvine said.

"You are NOT getting away this time!" Rojo growled, "I am DONE chasing after you, hand over that watch!"

"It doesn't exactly come off, lady," Wildvine said, "Even if it could I wouldn't give it to you!"

"Fine, then I'll just PRY IT OFF YOUR CORPSE!" Rojo yelled, she lunged toward him and flew into the wall, she summoned Gas and started rapidly punching him, "I won't let you get away this time!"

"Why is she so mad?" Steven asked.

"I dunno, might have something to do with me shoving her off a moving vehicle," Jolyne said, she summoned her threads and wrapped them around Gas' arms, and then threw them away from Ben, luckily just before he timed out.

Rojo hit the ground with a thud, and then looked back at JoJo, "You!" She got up and pushed away her threads, "You keep getting in my way you stupid brat!" Rojo stomped toward her, "If it weren't for you, Id already have this stupid watch," she created long knife claws on her hands, and swiped at her, JoJo narrowly dodged.

Jolyne wrapped her threads around Rojo's arm, and then weaved more together to make them sturdier, and ran behind her, wrapping her arms together.

"My father told me that people like you used their powers to terrorize the innocent," Jolyne said, "you don't deserve these abilities, that's why all those people with abilities like this are dead!"

Rojo chuckled, "You think I'm just doing this to terrorize people? I'm doing this because I need to!" She forced herself out of Jolyne's threads, damaging her a bit, "I'm using these powers just to keep myself alive! A dumb kid like you would never understand!" Rojo created two cannons on her shoulders, which launched two missiles at JoJo, "This should take care of you!!"

JoJo flinched, but Steven jumped in front of her, holding out his hands and trapping the missiles in bubbles.

"Heh, nice save Steven!" JoJo said.

"...how many of you have powers!?" Rojo said.

Jolyne grabbed up Stevens bubbles with her thread, and tossed them back at her, as they made contact they popped and exploded on her, launching her back.

"We should run!" Steven said, "She'll get up any second!"

"No, we have to finish this now, she'll just keep following us if we don't!" JoJo said, "you go make sure Ben's ok, I can handle her."

"Are you sure?" 

"Positive."

Rojo emerged from the rubble, "I'm done messing around," she charged at JoJo with giant sharp claws, she slashed a few times, JoJo narrowly dodging each, she then wrapped her threads around the sharp claws, and quickly pulled them back, slicing the claws off her hands.

Rojo screamed in anger, she swiftly kicked Jolyne into a wall, making her collapse. She then pinned her down with her foot and summoned her mechanical Stand, "You're done!" Gas threw a punch at her, but it was stopped just before it hit her. It reeled back and tried hitting again, but yet again was stopped.

JoJo opened her eyes, and saw her threads weaving together into a hand, and then an arm, and finally a whole body formed. It looked almost robotic with green sunglasses covering her eyes, fins coming from her head, and headphone-like protrusions where her ears would be.

"No way…" Rojo said, stepping back.

Jolyne smirked, "so, this is what my stand really looks like," she turned back to Rojo, "You said that I should give her a name earlier, right? Well how about, Stone Free!"

Rojo scowled, "like that scares me! I'll just kick it's ass and be done with you!" Gas whipped it's tendrils at her, but Stone Free caught them and drove her first into the Stand's face. The damage was reflected on Rojo, making her nose bleed.

" Yare yare dawa , all that armor doesn't do much good to you it seems. I can beat up your Stand and all that damage will be transferred to you," she threw another Punch into Gas' stomach area, making Rojo lurch over in pain, she then threw consecutive punches, getting faster and faster with each, "ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA," Stone Free yelled, Rojo was launched to the wall behind her.

Rojo groaned, and struggled to her feet, ignoring her fractured bones, "I won't… give up!"

Steven rushed over to Ben during the chaos, "Ben! Are you ok?"

"Yeah," Ben said rubbing his head, "Little headache though… what is JoJo doing!?"

Steven looked back, "I don't know, but it looks like she's winning!"

Rojo aimed her arm canon at her, "You never should've gotten in my way, kid!"

"Wait, nevermind," Steven said.

"Shoot," Ben smacked the Omnitrix, "C'mon, c'mon, recharge!"

A blast flowed from the arm cannon, Jolyne jumped out of the way just in time, she looked back and saw a hole in the wall. She fixed her gaze to Rojo, who was charging another blast.

Ben panicked, "Come on you stupid watch!" He slammed it against the wall, and a green flash of light came from it. He was enveloped in a black liquid metal, covered in bright green circuitry. A white jumpsuit covered his lower body and torso. His single eye glowed with an even brighter green when he talked.

"Woah! Upgrade! Perfect!" He jumped to an abandoned treadmill, converting it into a makeshift tank and charging at Rojo, running her over. 

"What the hell is that!?" Rojo yelled, her HUD showed that it was the Omnitrix weilder yet again, she tried shooting at it but Upgrade released the treadmill while it charged at her, covering her in random peices of the treadmill. 

Gas took bits of the Treadmill and created a chainsaw blade on Rojo's right arm, "Bad idea, kid."

"Oh, didn't realize you could do that," Upgrade said, dodging her attack. He found a pull-up bar, and upgraded that, using it to tie her up and trap her, he then jumped out, "Maybe that'll hold you."

She easily broke free, and flew right at him, jabbing the chainsaw through his chest. 

"Boy am I glad I can't feel that!" Ben said, "however, it does give me an idea," He grabbed Rojo, and took over her Chainsaw arm, dismantling it from the inside.

"Wh-what!? Stop!!" She yelled.

Upgrade then moved up her arm, slowly overtaking her entire armor. Eventually her whole body was covered,she tried ripping him away but couldn't.

"Don't worry, you've already lost!" Ben quipped, but then he felt a shock run up his mechanical body, his vision blurred, as everything around him turned into a terrifying red void of abstract shapes. He turned around and saw Vilgax towering over him, his eyes glowed a menacing red as he glared down at Ben's alien form.

"Wh-what is that?!" Ben said.

The towering Vilgax grabbed Ben and pulled him close to his face, "Listen to every word: Be afraid. You cannot run, you cannot hide from me. I will find you. And when I do, I will retrieve my Omnitrix and destroy you!" He dropped Ben and the world turned back to normal.

Without a second thought, Ben began dismantling Rojo's armor, detaching it from her body, Ben unmerged and the armor fell to the ground with a metallic clang. 

Rojo looked at her hands, "I-I'm back to normal!"

"More like abnormal!" Upgrade said, Jolyne walked up behind him with Stone Free ready.

"Wait- I was only attacking you guys because that crazy squid guy told me to!" Rojo said, "he was gonna kill me!"

"Really?" Ben said, "how do we know you're not lying?"

"That armor there was made from one of his drones, he used it to get into my head, he promised to pay me and my crew with alien weapons if I got your watch, but when I wore the armor he threatened to kill me if I didn't do what he said!" She pleaded, "listen, just send me to jail or whatever, I don't even care at this point!"

Just then, they heard sirens outside.

"Oh well look at that, guess they noticed all that commotion," Ben said, "Let's get outta here guys."

Stone Free punched away the rubble blocking the door, and rhe kids all hopped in the Rustbucket, "You might wanna start driving, Max" JoJo said.

"Right," Max said, starting up the Rustbucket and driving off.

Rojo held her hands in the air as the cops entered the building and handcuffed her, taking her to prison.

"I hope everything went alright," Max said, "I tried to get in there but the doorway was blocked."

"We're fine, but there was one thing…" Ben said, "When I used upgrade on that lady's armor, I saw a vision or something. It was some freaky squid faced monster, he said I should be afraid," Ben caught Max's worried expression in the rear view mirror, "Grandpa, you look afraid."

"I'm… fine," Max said, "we'll all be fine,as long as we stick together!"

"I like the sound of that," Ben said, he looked to his friends, "with our powers I'd be shocked if anyone could get in our way!"

"No kidding," JoJo said, "I can tell Stone Free will be a big help in the future."

Rojo sat in her cell, staring at the ground, "what the hell is wrong with me, I nearly killed those kids just to save myself…" she put her head in her hands, "I'm a monster.."

A guard banged on the cell, "hey, get up, your bail's been posted."

"Huh??" She got up and exited the cell, she was lead out of the prison. She noticed a black haired guy with a coat and sunglasses just barely hiding a scar standing outside, "you must be Joey, or Rojo as I'm told you prefer."

"Do I know you?" She asked.

"Oh no, but you may recognize, this" he pulled an arrow from his coat, "look familiar?"

Rojo's eyes widened, "Y-you! It was you!" She summoned Gas and ran up to him, "Who are you? Why did you do this to me?"

"Calm down," he said, "I can explain everything, but first, why don't you come with me… I can introduce you to others like you," he motioned toward his car.

Rojo looked at the car, then back at him, "fine, consider it a thank you for bailing me out."

The mysterious man smirked, "perfect."

Chapter Text

Max and the trio of superpowered teens have been driving for hours, they reached a point in their trip where there wasn't much interesting happening aside from the occasional rest stop. Needless to say, they were ready for some excitement.

Ben yawned, "Aw man, never thought I'd miss fighting crazy robots or aliens. Grandpa, when are we gonna get to our next stop?"

"It's gonna be a few hours, Ben," Max said, "Hey, I have a deck of cards in the glove box, you could play solitaire or something!"

Ben groaned, "I'll… pass."

"What's solitaire?" Steven asked.

Ben leaned over and whispered, "it's a boring game for old people, you literally just stack cards."

"Hey!" Max said, "it's not boring! It's a game of both strategy and luck!"

"...but you just stack cards," Ben said.

Max sighed, "we should drop this conversation," he noticed a sign in the distance, "Oh hey! There's a circus in town!"

Ben was put on edge, "uh, a circus?"

Steven gasped, "a circus! I've always wanted to go to a circus!"

"Sounds interesting," Jolyne said.

"Well, that settles it! We'll take a detour to see the circus!" Max said.

"O-oh," Ben said, "that's… fine I guess."

"Something wrong Ben?" Max asked, "Oh wait, is this about your fear of-"

"No no, it's fine!" Ben interrupted, "the circus is fine," he crossed his arms and looked out the window.

Steven and Jolyne looked at Ben, then at each other, and shrugged.

They arrived, and Ben sheepishly walked out. It seemed to be more of a fairground than just a circus, the big top tent acting as a centerpiece. Games and food stands littered the area, along with some knockoff merchandise sellers.

Ben shuffled over to a fries stand and handed them 5 dollars for a small bucket of fries. He noticed the man selling them was pale and had a blank stare.

Ben walked away, "weird," he said, he ate a fry and grimaced, they were cold and soggy. He groaned and tossed the whole bucket.

Jolyne saw a game where you throw a baseball at bottles, "Hey Steven, let's give that one a shot," she said while nudging him.

"Oh yeah! Looks fun!" He and JoJo ran over.

"How much?" Jolyne asked.

The guy at the game stand slowly turned toward them, "Ten dollars… for 5 baseballs…"

"O-kay?" Jolyne said, she handed him a $10 bill and handed two to Steven, "whoever gets the closest to winning will get the last one, sound good?"

"Yeah!" Steven said, he wound up and aimed at the bottles, "ready, set… FIRE" He throws with all his might, and it just bounces off the bottles.

"Nice shot, Universe," Jolyne said with a laugh, "this is how it's done!" She throws at the bottles again, nothing. She groaned, "Hey man! This game is rigged!"

The man behind the counter just slowly blinked, not responding.

"Ugh," she groaned, "alright Steven, give it your best possible throw, we can beat this!'

Steven took a deep breath, aimed right at the center, "I can do this," he wound up, and threw with all his might and… nothing, "Awwww," he pouted.

Jolyne glared at the stacked bottles, "fine if they won't play fair, neither will I," Stone Free appeared behind her, grabbed the remaining two balls, and prepared to throw both, "ORA!" both baseballs were launched with enough force to make a gust of wind. They hit the bottles so hard that some of them shattered, the two other stacks also toppled from the sheer force.

The guy running the stand barely flinched, and immediately turned and grabbed two big prizes, he handed Steven a large pink cat plush, and Jolyne got a cute mouse plush almost the same height as her.

Ben walked up to Jolyne and Steven, "hey guys uh, does something feel off about this place?"

Jolyne shrugged, "a little, I think the employees are all just tired. It happens."

"I see you three have been having fun!" Max said.

"Yeah, tons of fun," Ben said, still kinda grossed out by the fries he wasted his money on.

"Well the main show in the tent is about to start," Max said, "You kids ready?"

"Yes!!!" Steven said excitedly, "Let's go!"

"Uhh, I'll just stay out here," Ben said, "you guys go and have fun…"

Steven looked at his friend with concern, "Is there something wrong Ben?"

Ben scoffed, "N-no, I just… wanna try out some more of these games, I'll catch up with you later."

"Oh… alright then," Steven replied, "See ya later Ben!"

Ben watched as they all entered the tent, and let out a big sigh, "That was close, I cannot let them find out my secret…"

A few minutes passed, and Jolyne exited the tent, "Heya Ben."

"Wh- JoJo? What are you doing?" Ben asked.

"Eh, I got bored, they were just telling lame jokes and jumping around… not my thing."

"Yeah, me either," Ben said with a laugh, "Glad someone here gets it."

"Max and Steven seemed to be really into it though, I dunno, I guess it's just not for everyone," Jolyne said with a shrug.

"Yeah," Ben said with a chuckle, "the circus is pretty lame, to be honest."

Jolyne chuckled, "Well hopefully we'll be outta here soon. Can't imagine it'd take too long."

As they were talking they began to hear laughter from the crowd, it started with a few chuckles but grew into an uproar of cackling. It was nearly deafening. Ben and JoJo looked at each other, but before they could do anything, it all stopped. Absolute dead silence from inside the tent. 

"Something's wrong…" Jolyne said.

The teens were about to enter but were stopped by a crowd of people slowly making their way out. They all looked pale and exhausted like the workers. Even Steven's usual bubbly and excited self was drained of energy.

"Guys? Are you ok?" Ben asked.

"We're… fine, Ben. Just a bit… tired," Max spoke slowly, like even talking was taking much more effort than usual.

"It was… so funny," Steven let out a weak chuckle, "Must've.. worn us out…"

"You were only in there for a few minutes," Jolyne said, "are you sure you're ok?"

"I feel just fine," Max said, "Let's… hit the road, we have a long drive ahead of us…"

Ben and Jolyne hesitantly followed Max to the Rustbucket. He and Steven were moving much slower than usual. They finally made it and Max started driving. 

"Something is seriously wrong," Ben said, "I think something happened to them during the show!"

"Definitely," Jolyne looked back at Steven, who was sitting on his bed chuckling to himself, "Think this could be a Stand User?" 

Ben shrugged, "You're the expert on that stuff man, did you see anything off?"

Jolyne shook her head, "Not aside from braindead workers," she then looked out the window, "Uhhh… Ben? Aren't we going kinda fast?"

"Huh?" Ben looked out the window and then back at Max, who was fast asleep at the wheel, "Oh my god! Grandpa?!" He got up and tried to shake him awake, "Grandpa! What are you doing!?" 

Max just snored, and let out a weak laugh.

Ben looked out the window, seeing they were quickly approaching a bridge, "Jolyne! We have a serious problem!"

Jolyne let out a sigh, "that was close…"

Upgrade's face appeared out of the dashboard, "Okay, there was definitely something up with that circus," he turned to Max, who was slowly opening his eyes.

"Wh… what happened?" He asked.

 "We nearly crashed into the river, that's what happened!" Ben yelled, "what's going on?"

"That clown… there was something wrong with that clown…" Max said, "he did something to us but… I don't know what…"

"Sounds like a Stand User to me," JoJo said, "But I guess we have to go back to make sure."

"Woah wait, did you say clown?!" Ben said, "Uh, I don't know, maybe we can just take them to the hospital?" He suggested.

"No, Ben, we have the find who did this and make them undo it," Jolyne demanded.

Ben sighed, "You're right…" Upgrade turned the RV around and drove back to the circus. Giving Ben a very uneasy feeling. Ben parked in front of the entrance and detached from the RV, and turned back into his human form. 

"Shouldn't be too hard, just make our way to the tent and find that clown," JoJo said. 

"I-I'm coming with…" Steven said, he got up and weakly approached Ben and JoJo.

"No, Steven. We can't risk you getting hurt," Ben said, "Besides, we need someone to stay with Grandpa Max."

"B-but I can help!" Steven said, "I'm just a little tired…"

"Steven, you can hardly walk," JoJo said, "I'm sorry but you need to stay back."

Steven sighed, "You guys are starting to sound like the Gems… Alright, I'll stay back," he yawned, "D-don't take too long…"

“Don’t worry buddy, we’ll get you back to normal,” Ben said, "C'mon JoJo…" 

They made their way to the entrance of the fairgrounds, only about half an hour passed since they left but it already seemed much darker than it was before. Clouds filled the sky, it looked like it would storm soon…

Ben froze just as they were about to enter, he shook as he stood in place, staring at the entrance.

JoJo turned to face him, "Uhh… Ben? Are you okay?"

"N-no…" he said quietly, "I-I…" he hid his face.

"Ben, we gotta go figure out how to help Max and Steven!" Jolyne said, "What's the matter with you?"

"Don't tell anyone…" Ben said, "The circus… really freaks me out…"

"Huh?" Jolyne was a little surprised to hear that, coming from the same guy who took down a giant Robot not too long ago, "you seemed fine earlier?"

"That's because Grandpa was with me, and you and Steven… also, it's… mostly the clowns that scare me," Ben looked away, awaiting Jolyne's judgment, but was surprised to feel her pat him on the back.

"It's gonna be ok Ben," she said, "We'll find whoever did this to them and be out of there quick, I know you can do this!"

"You… aren't gonna make fun of me?" Ben said.

Jolyne laughed, "oh come on, I'm your friend, and everyone has weird fears like that," she gave him another pat on the back, "we'll show whoever did this who's boss!"

Ben smiled, "Thanks JoJo," he took a step into the circus and took a deep breath. He was still tense but Jolyne's pep talk calmed him down a bit.

That is until the entrance gates slammed shut behind them, Ben jumped and activated the Omnitrix, and Jolyne sighed. 

"Someone's messing with us," she said, "The gates must be motorized or something," she examined them a bit but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.

"R-right," Ben said, deactivating the Omnitrix, "either that or this place is haunted…"

Jolyne scoffed, "Ben, there's no such thing as ghosts."

Ben looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Jolyne you literally have a ghost that beats the shit out of people."

Jolyne thought for a moment, "good point…"

The duo continued, the atmosphere was quite different than before, not only was it darker, but the looping jolly music almost seemed to be playing slower, as if it was being played on a broken tape deck or something. Ben kept looking behind him, it felt as if something was following him, but every time he looked he saw nothing.

"Jolyne, this feels… wrong," Ben said, "Don't you get the feeling-"

"That we're being watched?" JoJo replied.

"Y-yeah," Ben said, "What do you think-"

"Shhh," Jolyne put a finger over her mouth.

"Wha-"

"Shsshhhh," she clumsily tried covering Ben's mouth. She looked around, trying to focus. She then felt a presence behind her, "STONE FREE!" her Stand appeared behind her and wrapped up the man sneaking up on them.

She and Ben turned around and gasped at what they saw. The guy was sickeningly pale, with his face horribly disfigured, his jaw was stuck open showing his few rotten teeth.

"Heh… nice reflexes kid…" he said.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" Ben yelled.

"...rude," the man replied, "Just call me Acid Breath."

"... why do they call you that?" Jolyne asked.

"Let me show you…." He took a deep breath in and green gas appeared from his mouth and burned Jolyne's threads.

Jolyne yelled in pain and jumped back and yelped in pain, “G-god, what the hell!?” She screamed, “You’re a Stand User! You didn’t hesitate to burn my threads!”

“Ehehe, you’re a quick learner,” Acid Breath said, “Yes, I am a Stand User, but aren’t you a little young?”

“That’s none of your business asshole!” Jolyne yelled, “Now, what the hell did you do to my friends!?”

“I have no idea what you mean,” Acid Breath said with a laugh, “I don’t even know your friends!”

“Don’t play stupid with me jackass!” Stone Free lunged at him and extended a fist at his face but more green gas appeared from his mouth.

A strong gust of wind pushed away the gas, allowing Stone Free’s punch to connect with his face.

“Terraspin!” Ben called out, “You picked the wrong alien to mess with bud!”

“Is that so?” Acid Breath growled, “Geek Stink Breath! KILL THEM!” he took a deep breath and exhaled the green smoke formed a humanoid skeletal body, and it glared at Terraspin.

“Wh-wha!? Jolyne?” Ben yelled.

“You can see it too!?” She asked.

“Uh, yeah? It's huge and freakin’ terrifying!” 

“Weird, his Stand must be different from mine and Rojo’s!” 

“NOT THE TIME JOJO!” Ben yelled, he tried firing a gust of wind into the spirit, a hole formed in it but it filled itself back in again.

“Jeez,” Jolyne said, “This guy’s seriously bad! Try shooting more wind at him!” She yelled.

Terraspin hovered in place and fired a tornado from his lower body. The gust shot through the Stand's chest, but it quickly reassembled itself.

Acid Breath gasped, "Your wind is useless! I have full control of my acid!"

"Ben, I'm running out of ideas," Jolyne said.

Ben looked into the Stand and sighed, "I have a really dumb idea, wish me luck, JoJo!" He tucked his head into his shell and began flying into the green cloud. His fins created a layer of wind around his body, allowing him to slice through the cloud and ram right into Acid's chest. 

The perfect opening! Jolyne thought, Nice work Ben! Stone Free shot her arm through the hole Ben created, but Acid took a deep breath in and looked Stone Free in the eyes.

He exhaled and the hole closed in around her arm, Jolyne screamed as it burned her.

Acid Breath cackled, "you cannot defeat my Stand, it has no weaknesses, it cannot be harmed!" Acid Breath laughed maniacally, before stopping to take another deep breath in.

Jolyne gasped, that's it! She fired a Small thread at Ben, who was still standing behind Acid Breath, "Ben, can you hear me?" She whispered into the thread.

"Wh, Jolyne!? How are-"

"I'm talking through my thread!" She said, "I think I found a weakness in his Stand!" She said, "We gotta stop him from breathing!"

"...wow."

"I have an idea of what to do, but first you gotta get rid of the gas cloud long enough for me to attack!"

Ben looked at Acid, and then remembered something, "Alright, I have a plan!" He flew above him, and Acid's attention was drawn to the sky.

"Hey, turtle boy! Don't think I forgot about you!" His Stand started flying upward.

"Just what I wanted!" Terraspin began rotating around him, the cloud started getting swept up in a tornado, and Acid Breath started exhaling uncontrollably. A full-on tornado formed around him, and Acid fell to his knees, unable to breathe.

Jolyne released him and sighed, "Something tells me he wasn't the one behind all this," she said.

A creak came from the circus's speakers, "oh good job you two," it said, "you managed to defeat my most incompetent lackey."

"Who's there!?" Terraspin yelled.

"You could call me the ring leader, the big boss, the main attraction!" It replied, "I see you kids want to undo all my hard work!"

"So you're the guy who screwed up all these people!" Jolyne said.

"You could say that, yes. However I don't appreciate those who try to meddle with my plans, so why don't you go home!"

"Why don't you come out and fight!" Ben yelled back, "my friend and my grandpa aren't themselves, they nearly died because of you!"

"Oh boo hoo, " the awful man said, "I don't care, kid! However, I may consider putting them back if you join me…"

"Screw you!" JoJo said. She punched one of the speakers with Stone Free, "C'mon Ben, let's keep going…"

"R-right…" he followed behind her.

"Are you doing okay?" She asked as they were walking.

 "I-I think so…" he said, "I think being an alien helps a lot."

"What's it like?" She asked, "Being an alien, I mean."

"It's like… I'm myself, but also someone else, my voice, my body, and my… natural instincts aren't my own, but my mind is still here… mostly"

"Mostly?"

"Some of them make me feel… different," he explained, "Ditto makes me more chaotic, Fasttrack makes me feel cockier… I don't know how I feel about it, to be honest"

"You don't like not feeling like yourself?" She asked.

"Yeah, but I don't usually have that issue. Most of the time transforming feels really good, like a nice stretch. And I always know that I'll be back to my normal self right after."

"That's interesting," she said.

"How does it feel to use your Stand?" 

"It's like… My Stand is just an extension of myself. It's like I have a new set of arms and legs, my Stand just feels natural now, like breathing or flexing my arms."

"Cool," Ben said, "You really got used to that quick huh?"

"Yeah, it was almost like instinct!" Jolyne said, "I guess it just runs in my blood."

"Lucky," Ben said, "My family isn't anywhere near as cool. Well, Grandpa is great but-" Ben suddenly noticed where he was, "wait… is this the entrance?"

"Huh?" Jolyne saw the gates, "oh god, how did we go in a circle!?" She turned around and saw that the games and stalls were all moved around, "What the…"

"How did all this get moved around so quickly?" Ben asked.

"I dunno… but," she fired a thread at the gate, "There, I have a thread attached to the entrance. If anything moves we'll know right away." 

"Good idea."

They made their way through again, paying closer attention to their surroundings. Jolyne slowly lost body mass as she walked along the path, but figured she could just wind it back in if need be.

"This place just keeps getting freakier…" Ben said with a shudder.

"We'll get through this Ben," she said, "We just gotta stay- AHH" Jolyne fell over, "I-I felt a tug on my thread!"

"Reel it back in!" Ben yelled.

Before she could, something began pulling, dragging her along the floor. Terraspin started hovering after her, "Jolyne! What's going on!?"

"I think we're about to find out!" She said. She felt another powerful tug, and she was lifted up, and caught by two huge hands, with huge nails jutting out from the knuckles. She got a better look at her attacker, he had another nail sprouting from his forehead, and smaller ones sticking out across his body. His eyes were dull and grey, and his teeth were yellowed.

"Eugh, what the hell?" She said. She tried breaking free, but it was no use.

"You hurt my friend!" The hulking brute yelled, "Thumbskull will crush you!"

"Hold it Thumbs," another voice said, "We gotta save her for the boss, remember?" 

"...sorry Frightwig…"

She was a tall, somewhat muscular woman, with several large red tendrils sprouting from her head instead of hair.

"You work with that freak who turned my friends into zombies!" She yelled, "Put me down so I can kick your asses!!"

"Quite the energetic one, aren't you?" She glanced behind her, "I'd love to fight you, but I also need to deal with your friend!" Just as Terraspin caught up, Frightwig slammed down with her tendrils, making him fall to the ground.

"Oh great… more circus freaks," Ben said, "Get away from Jolyne!"

"Not happening shell head!" Frightwig yelled, whipping him again, "You might as well give up!"

"You don't know what you're up against!" He fired a gust of wind from his shell. She nearly got knocked over but her tendrils slammed into the ground, keeping her upright. 

"Looks like you're the one who doesn't know what he's up against!" She wrapped two tendrils around his fins and pulled, she flew toward him and kicked him. Knocking him on his back.

"Ugh, I should've picked a different alien," Ben said, struggling to get back up.

While this was happening, Jolyne was clumping up her remaining threads behind Thumbskull, Stone Free formed from the threads weaved together, and threw a flurry of powerful punches at his back, "ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!!" 

Thumbskull barely moved, a small wound formed where Stone Free punched, but it was covered by another nail.

"What the!?" Jolyne said, "You must be a Stand User too!"

Thumbskull reached behind and grabbed Stone Free, "If you hurt Thumbskull, Thumbskull gets stronger!" He squeezed Jolyne's Stand, making her scream in pain.

 "Jolyne!" Ben yelled, he started spinning his fins, making an upward gust of air, Frightwig started being lifted, her tendrils loosened, and she was thrown in the air. Terraspin got back on his feet and threw himself at Thumbskull, but he practically bounced off. More nails formed where he made an impact.

"I gotta make him let go somehow, or he'll squeeze me to death!" Jolyne said. 

Thinking quickly, she unraveled Stone Free, wrapping bits of her thread around his arms, and then tying a bit to a pole behind them.

"B-Ben! You gotta make him mad!" She said, "I-if you do, he'll drop me!"

"Right!," He looked him in the eyes, "Hey ugly! You look pretty dumb with that big nail in your head!"

"Huh!?" He said.

"You heard me! You look like a total dumbass!" He yelled, "bet you're too stupid to even hit me!"

"Grrr… you're MEAN!" He yelled, he ran at Ben, and Jolyne's threads pulled on his arms, forcing them open. Jolyne fell to the ground and gasped for air.

"And now…" she clumped some threads up around her leg, and swept, making Thumbskull fall on his back, "Take that you dumb brute!"

"Nice one JoJo!" Ben said.

"Thanks, what happened to the other one?" She asked.

"Uh…" Ben turned around, "I sorta threw her in the air?"

"...Ben. What is wrong with you?" She said.

"You just stopped a dude from breathing and then knocked him out!" Ben argued.

"A dude that was gonna melt us!" JoJo replied.

"Well her hair was… Really scary!" Ben said.

"God damn it Ben…" she groaned, "she could've landed anywhere, and if she isn't hurt she could sneak up on us at any-" Jolyne felt something wrap around her waist and pick her up.

"Jolyne!" Ben yelled.

Frightwig was hanging upside down, a few of her tendrils were wrapped around a lamppost. She glared into JoJo's eyes, "You and your little friend are being a real pain in the ass, ya know that?" 

Before Ben could fly up and help his friend, Thumbskull got back on his feet, "Thumbskull. Is not. DUMB!!!" he charged at Ben, knocking him onto his back.

"Awh man, you really hit like a truck- OOF," The hulking strongman began driving his fists into his stomach, each strike pushed him farther into the ground.

"Turtle man is mean! Turtle man needs to break!" Thumbskull yelled.

"I-I'm sorry man, I-I just wanted you to drop my friend," he groaned, he tried to get up but was punched again.

"Thumbskull doesn't care!" He reeled back but stopped when he saw a red flashing light on his forehead. He was seemingly mesmerized by it. He then shielded his eyes from the red flash that came from it. 

Feeling a second wind and noticing his opponent's distraction, he rolled out of the way. 

Frightwig tightened her grip on Jolyne, "why don't you just have a chat with my boss, we've needed a new act for a while."

"Shut the hell up!" Jolyne yelled, Stone Free appeared behind her and pulled Frightwig's tentacles off, setting her free, "There's no way in hell I'm joining your freak show!"

"Your funeral kid!" She flung her hair tendrils at Jolyne, who punched them away with Stone Free, "You should give up! No one can defeat our boss's Stand!"

"Can't be that powerful if he needs to send out his lackeys to beat up a couple of kids!" Jolyne yelled back.

Meanwhile, Ben was running for his life from the angered giant chasing after him, he ran around game stands and food trucks but Thumbskull just pushed them away like they were nothing.

"L-listen, I don't wanna fight man! Let's just uh talk this out?" Ben said.

"Shut up!" He yelled, "Thumbskull don't like talking!"

"... clearly," Ben said under his breath. He ran around him and toward Jolyne, "JoJo! I need some help here!"

Frightwig and Jolyne turned their attention to the charging monster behind Ben.

"Thumbskull! What the hell are you doing!?" Frightwig shouted.

Ben dashed past them, and Jolyne quickly fired a thread across from her, it tied itself to a lamp pole. Thumbskull continued running at full speed and tripped. He slid and ran into a brick wall. As he attempted to get up a brick landed right on his head, knocking him out. 

Frightwig looked at her knocked-out friend, and then back at Jolyne. JoJo was glaring intensely, "You're next, bitch," Stone Free fully formed behind her.

Frightwig got into a fighting stance and whipped all of her tendrils at Jolyne. Stone Free wrapped them all up in threads, pulling tight. Frightwig attempted to free herself but couldn't.

"Jesus Christ," Ben said, "I didn't think they were…"

"Me either," Jolyne said, "but look, she stopped attacking."

The kids cautiously approached her, "Hey uh… are you ok?" Ben asked.

Frightwig glared at him, "I'll be fine… they'll heal. I tried cutting them off before."

"Why did you stop fighting?" JoJo asked.

"Because you two clearly won, and I don't wanna kill some kids if I don't have to," Frightwig said, "I don't want to work for that power-hungry jerk, I just don't have much of a choice."

"Why?" Ben asked.

"His Stand," Frightwig said, "I've seen him turn people into mindless zombies within seconds, he threatened to do the same to me and my friends if we didn't follow him," she let out a sigh, "Some of them tried to fight back, I haven't seen them since… To make things worse, he gave us these… curses, he shot us all with an arrow and said it'd give us unimaginable power. Instead, we were turned into monsters!"

"All of you are Stand Users," Jolyne said, "but your Stands mutated you?"

"Exactly," Frightwig said, "Acid Breath's face nearly melted off when he got his, Thumbskull's mind begun deteriorating, and me, well…" she motioned toward the tendrils on her head.

"We'll handle this," Jolyne said, "People who use Stand powers to harm others need to be stopped."

"Heh, good luck kid," she said, "trust me, you'll need it," she pointed to a path that led to the center of the fairgrounds, "He should be that way, under the big top tent."

"Thanks," she and Ben walked down the path. Ben got more anxious as they got closer.

"JoJo… I'm starting to freak out," Ben said, "wh-what if the Omnitrix doesn't recharge by the time we get there, maybe we should wait…"

"We gotta do this now," Jolyne said, "Steven and Max are counting on us!" JoJo said.

"Right…" Ben sighed, "I just have a really bad feeling about this."

Jolyne put a hand on his shoulder, "We'll be fine, okay?" She said with a smile, "Remember, we've taken way worse, like that huge robot!"

"Yeah."

"And the Centipeetle Mother!"

"Well, that was mostly Steven and the Gems."

"And Rojo!"

"Okay, okay I get it," Ben said, "We got this!"

They were now just outside the tent, Ben took a deep breath in and pushed aside the curtain entrance, only to find the place was empty.

"What the!?" Ben said, "Did she lie to us?"

"No, hold on," JoJo said, "He's here, somewhere… I can feel it." 

"What?" 

"Don't ask me to explain it because I can't, but there is a Stand User nearby," Jolyne started spreading her threads all over the place. Trying to find something out of place, and felt something under the dirt floor. She approached it, and brushed away some dirt, she found some sort of hatch in the floor, "Ben, help me out here!"

They both lifted the door, revealing a staircase that led into total darkness, "we gotta go down there…" he shuddered.

Jolyne grabbed his hand, "I'll be with you. Okay?"

Ben took a deep breath, "Okay, okay… let's go kick some ass!"

They took a few steps down, getting darker the further they went down. It was surprisingly quiet, the only thing they could hear was the sound of their own footsteps… until they heard a click.

Ben looked at JoJo, "What was tha-'' 

They felt the stairs fall under their feet. It became a slide, and they fell deeper into the darkness. Neon lights of clown faces, demonic eyes, and skulls, all accompanied by Zombozo’s insane laughter.

The duo was met with a split in the slide, forcing them down two separate paths. Eventually, they were dropped in a dark room.

“What the… Jolyne?” Ben yelled, but all he heard was the echo of his own voice.

Lights flicked on, revealing that Ben had landed in a hall of mirrors. On the opposite end was Jolyne.

"How the heck did they fit all this down here…" JoJo asked herself.

The sound of a crackling speaker caught their attention, "Aww, looks like the little friends were separated," Zombozo's voice echoed, "If you want to reunite, you'll have to make it through my maze, hehehehe HAHAHAHAHAHA-" He was suddenly cut off.

"Great," JoJo said, she walked through the hall a bit and ran into a glass wall. She turned and walked a bit more, and bumped into another, she quickly grew irritated, "Alright, that's it!" Stone Free appeared behind her and started smashing the mirrors in front of her, "ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!" She blew through them, making her own path through.

Ben started hearing the sound of shattering glass, "That must be Jolyne!" He started running in that direction, and of course, slammed right into another glass wall. 

Jolyne managed her way through the maze, she finally reached the center. Covered in broken glass, was yet another trap door, "Jesus, how deep does this go?" She brushed away a bit of glass and gripped the handle to the door, "I can't wait for Ben, I gotta end this now!" She opened the door and hopped in.

After going down a set of stairs, she was met with a dimly lit room. Right in the center was a strange display case of some sort, it was letting off a bright light. Looking closer, JoJo could see that it was filled with… strange orbs, with laughing faces on the inside. Suddenly, a large man dressed as a clown walked around from behind, Jolyne ducked away, trying to stay out of sight, "that must be Zombozo," she whispered.

Jolyne grimaced at the disturbing man, "Is that his ability? He literally feeds on laughter?"

"Now now my dear, don't you know it's rude to eavesdrop?" He glared back at her.

Jolyne gasped, "Stone Fre- ack!" His hand flew toward her and gripped her neck. He then whipped her around and into a wall.

"I don't appreciate little cheating brats like you!" Zombozo yelled, "do you realize how long it takes to set up those mirrors!?"

"Y-you bastard! You're practically murdering innocent people and all you care about is your dumb maze?" Stone Free appeared and punched his extended arm. Letting her free.

"Oh please, their lives are going to a good cause! I've been doing this for centuries and no one has batted an eye!"

"... Centuries?" Jolyne asked.

"Oh you poor sweet innocent child," Zombozo teased, "You may have a Stand but you know nothing about them. My ability doesn't just steal souls, my Stand is the secret to immortality!"

"Immortality?" Jolyne asked, "So you take away the lives of the innocent and use them to extend your own!?"

"Exactly!" Zombozo laughed, "Oh don't worry they probably weren't going to do much with their short, pathetic lives, their sacrifice has kept me alive for ages!"

Jolyne got into a fighting stance, "You're a monster!" She yelled, "I don't care how long you've lived, because it ends today!" Stone Free's fist extended and slammed into Zombozo's face, making a honking noise as it hit his nose. 

Zombozo just laughed, as a sharp, clawed hand gripped Stone Free's extended arm, and then fully revealed itself. It was almost like a Jester. Long head tails extending from its monstrous face, "This, my violent little lady, is Insane Clown Posse. I have had him since I was a young lad, though I didn't name him until recently."

ICP yanked on Jolyne's threads, pulling her close. It then tossed her to the ground. It then lunged at her and tried punching her, but Stone Free weaved her threads into a shield to protect her user.

Why is he attacking like this, if he can just steal my soul why hasn't he yet? JoJo thought. She jumped out of the way, "Hey dumbass, you're having trouble with me? Thousand-year-old clown can't hold his own against a girl who just got her Stand last week?"

"God, what an annoyance," Zombozo said, "You sure do like to taunt for someone near their death!" He jabbed.

"Heh," Jolyne let out a light chuckle, "Now that’s funny, you really are a good clown. Despite how screwed up you are, hehehe."

Zombozo bowed, "Why thank you, and despite how stupid you are you were a worthy opponent," he started laughing.

"Hehehe, hahaha," Jolyne continued to laugh, what the hell? Why am I still laughing!? it wasn't that funny! 

"What's the matter? Having trouble?" Zombozo asked, "I bet you regret underestimating me now hm?"

Shit! Jolyne thought, This is his Stand's ability. He makes you laugh uncontrollably until-

Insane Clown Posse held its hand out in front of Jolyne. A glowing white smoke exited her mouth, as her laughs became weaker. She fell to her knees, and the white smoke became a small orb with her face in it. 

Jolyne saw her skin become pale as she struggled to get back up, "heh heh, you bastard…"

Zombozo pushed her aside, "now all that's left is to get your shapeshifting friend, but first, I believe I earned a little snack… how about that curly-haired boy…" he examined his case of souls, however, Jolyne hid a couple in her jacket pocket. She had used Stone Free to grab Grandpa Max and Steven's souls in the confusion. 

Ben continued to stumble around the hall of mirrors, "Oh man, this is hopeless. How am I gonna find Jolyne now?" As he walked he heard a crunch beneath his feet. He looked down and noticed broken glass, and then saw the path of destruction leading to a trap door, "Oh, this must've been where she went…"

He went through the trap door and down the stairs, where he noticed Jolyne lying lifeless on the ground, "JoJo!" He ran up to her and picked her up, "What happened?"

"B-behind you," she said.

Ben turned and saw Zombozo, who punched him, knocking him into a wall.

"Awww worried for your little friend? Don't worry, you'll join her shortly…" Zombozo taunted.

Ben looked into his small, lifeless eyes, he saw his round fake nose, mangled sharp teeth, and sloppy makeup. His heart started beating quickly, his entire body froze up as he started sweating. 

Everything around him started to blur, all except for the corpse-like clown standing over him. His mind went back, to nearly 10 years ago when he was a young child. Ben got lost when visiting the circus with his family. He was terrified, all he wanted was to find his parents, what he didn't want was a terrifying clown to find him. He was never more scared than he was at that moment. And now, he was back in that helpless, terrifying feeling. 

"Aww, is the big hero scared of lil ol me?" He laughed and grabbed Ben by his shirt, "I HATE little brats like you who are scared of clowns!"

Ben closed his eyes, breathing heavily, "No, no, please."

He tossed him aside, "If I can't make you laugh, I can't steal your soul as I did for your stupid little friends," He looked at Ben and smiled, "Well I can at least have some fun torturing you before I kill you…" He used his Stand to grab Jolyne.

Ben's eyes widened, seeing his friend being lifted in the air, moving and dancing unusually.

"Come on Ben, just laugh! Laugh and this can all end right here!" Zombozo said in a poor impersonation of Jolyne's voice. However, he noticed something, he reached into her pocket and found Max and Steven's soul orbs, "Well… would you look at that."

Ben gasped, seeing his friend and grandfather's laughing faces in the orbs held by Zombozo.

"Looks like your friend Jolyne has quite a few tricks up her sleeve," he chuckled, "It's a shame she had to go like this, but she had her chance to join me," he took out her orb too, "your friends and family are all mine, which should I finish off first? Your old grandpa? Or your curly-haired friend?"

Ben somehow snapped out of his trauma-induced trance and realized what he was about to do, "Don't…"

"...as if you have any power in this situation," Zombozo taunted, "Say goodbye to your grandpa," he opened his mouth wide and was about to devour Max's soul.

Ben's fear melted away and turned to rage, "I SAID DON'T'' 

Zombozo stopped and saw what Ben became, "aw, you think a little ghost is enough to scare me?" He chuckled, "I'm a thousand years old, I've seen things you couldn't even imagine boy!"

"You should be scared, clown…" Ghostfreak growled, "I'm far more than a little ghost…" 

He dropped Jolyne and the souls, "Alright then, come at me, Casper!" He joked.

"That… wasn't what I was expecting," the souls all around him began levitating, and flew off in different directions, one entered Jolyne and her body regained its color.

"B-Ben? You did it!" JoJo said, "how…?"

"Don't ask, because honestly, I have no idea," he said, "let's get out of here, we need to check on Max and Steven!"

Jolyne followed Ghostfreak as he flew out of the circus tent. Once they got to the RV, Ben turned back into human. They entered and saw Max and Steven wake up.

"Are you guys okay!?" Ben asked.

"Ugh, my head hurts," Steven said.

Max rubbed his head, "I definitely feel better, what did you two do?" 

Ben and JoJo looked at each other, "You don't wanna know," they said simultaneously.

"Can we get out of here?" Ben said, "I don't think I wanna see another circus for the rest of my life."

"Yeah, good idea," Max said, "we're losing daylight."

Ben and JoJo sat down, exhausted, "Hey uh, are you okay?" Jolyne asked, "That was like, super messed up."

"Yeah, I'm alright now," He looked at Max, and then at Steven, "I'm just glad everyone's okay."

"Heh, that's good," JoJo said.

Hours later, Max parked at a truck stop, and each of the kids was fast asleep. He opened his glove box and pulled out a strange badge. He exited the RV and pressed a button, "Pearl, are you there?"

A hologram of Pearl appeared, "Yes, is everything alright Max?"

"Mostly," he said, "We ran into another Stand User, but Ben and Jolyne were able to defeat him."

"Was Steven hurt?" Pearl asked.

"No, he's alright," Max said, "I'm beginning to worry, the first time it seemed like a coincidence, but two?"

"Hm, it certainly is troubling," Pearl said.

"Any updates on those drone parts I gave you?" Max asked.

"It's partially Gem tech for sure, but the rest… it resembles mechanics from Murray, I don't want to fear the worst but-"

"Vilgax," Max replied, "We have to be ready for anything."

"Of course," Pearl replied, "If there's anyone I trust with Steven's safety it's you."

Max nodded, "Goodbye Pearl," he said, "let me know if anything else comes up," he turned off the hologram.

Chapter Text

The trio sat at the RV’s small table. Three plates of what they assumed was food was in front of them, though it hardly looked the part. 

“So uh… what is this stuff again?” Ben asked his grandpa.

“It’s a classic Tennyson family recipe!” Max said, “Frog brain pasta with squid ink sauce! I used to make it all the time for your dad and uncle, I’m shocked that you haven't had it before.”

“Maybe because dad didn’t want to poison me,” Ben said under his breath.

“Oh come on Ben, it’s probably not that bad,” JoJo said, she scooped some up with her fork and took a bite, and immediately she regretted her choice, “J-Jesus christ…”

“I tried warning you,” Ben said, “Grandpa’s cooking can be… really weird.”

“Well I for one am always willing to try new things,” Steven said.

Jolyne grabbed his arm, “Steven no… you don’t understand.”

Steven shrugged and took a bite, he chewed a bit, and swallowed, “Eh, it's not bad.”

Ben looked at him in awe, “You truly are the strongest of us.”

While the kids were dealing with their meals, Max sat down in the driver seat and started up the RV, "Well kids, once we make it through this forest we'll be on our way to Washington!" Max said, "it shouldn't take us too long so make sure you eat up before we get there!"

As the RV started moving, the strange food wobbled in a disgusting way. Ben gagged while Steven kept eating, “Dude how can you keep eating that stuff?”

Steven gulped and looked back to Ben, “It’s not much worse than some of the stuff I’ve seen Amethyst eat,” He said, “There was one time where we found an old burrito in her room, from a Mexican seafood restaurant that closed five years ago…”

“Mexican seafood?” Ben asked, but before he could get an answer, they suddenly heard a loud pop, and the RV shook. Max stopped on the road.

“What was that!?” Ben asked.

Max put his head in his hands and sighed, “Sounds like a popped tire, luckily I have a spare in the back…” He walked out and took a look. The three tires on the side were completely deflated, “Great…” 

“What’s wrong Mr. Tennyson?” Jolyne asked.

“Three popped tires,” He let out a groan, “I should’ve seen it coming, I didn’t change out the tires before this trip, looks like I gotta call roadside assistance… and I thought we'd be able to get there quickly…”

“Maybe I can go Upgrade and fix it up?” Ben asked.

“No… that’ll just be a temporary fix, we might as well get this over with,” He grabbed his cell phone and dialed a number.

Ben let out a sigh, “Well, I guess we’re stuck here.”

“It’s not all bad!” Steven said, “Look at this beautiful forest we’re in! Maybe we can look around! Find some animals, plants, and bugs!”

Ben sighed, “Boring, dude.”

“I mean what else are we gonna do?” JoJo asked, “Might as well look around.”

Max leaned against the Rustbucket and groaned as his phone played a low quality rendition of some pop song, “You kids go on ahead, this will be a while…”

Steven grabbed Ben’s hand, “C’mon! It’ll be fun!”

Ben reluctantly followed, “If you say so…”

The trio walked through the forest, Steven stopped to see every plant and animal on their path. He soon got dirt on his hands and leaves stuck in his poofy hair, "Ben this isn't boring at all!" He held up a rock, "Look how cool this is!"

Ben chuckled, “Wow, he’s really having fun isn’t he?” Ben said.

“He spent his whole life in the same little town,” JoJo responded, “Of course he’s enjoying this.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Ben shrugged, “This wilderness stuff just never really appealed to me.”

Steven knelt down and took a look at a batch of flowers, “Wow… these are so pretty!” Then, he heard rustling in a bush. He got a bit closer,

“Steven! Get back!” Humungousaur slammed into the monster making it tumble back.

The monster’s quills pointed forward, as it hissed. Humungousaur hesitated, allowing the monster to pounce past him and grab Steven in its mouth.

He struggled to break free from its grasp, “Ah! Put me down, I'm not food!!” He yelled as the creature ran deeper into the woods.

“Steven!” Ben looked back at JoJo, “Go get Grandpa! I’m gonna get Steven!”

“R-right!” She ran back from where they came as Humungousaur dashed into the woods.

JoJo tumbled out of the woods, Max was still on hold, “Jolyne? Where’re Ben and Steven?”

“There was some kinda gem monster! It took Steven!” JoJo said, “We gotta help them!”

“Right!” Max set his phone down and followed JoJo back into the woods, the hold music still playing.

“Do you know what direction they went?” Max said.

“Um,” She looked around, and saw tracks on the ground, “This way, I think,” she followed the trail with Max close behind.

“Ben! Steven!” Max called out, “Where are you two!?”

“Guys! Are you two okay?,” JoJo yelled, “We gotta find them…”

A growling sound came from behind them, and the gem monster tackled Max and he tried pushing it off of him.

“Max!” She yelled, “Stone Free!” Her stand unleashed a powerful blow into the monster’s face, “There’s the monster, but where’re Ben and Steven?”

“It must have a nest or cave nearby,” Max said, lifting himself back up.

Jolyne and Stone Free got into a fighting stance, “Max, let me deal with this thing…”

“You’re not doing this alone JoJo,” Max said, “I may be old but I’ve got some fight in me!”

The Gem creature charged at Jolyne, who narrowly dodged to the side. Stone Free quickly extended a rope to one of its legs, making it trip. The creature snarled at her, and tried running back at her, but was met with a right hook to the face from Max.

The monster stumbled around, dazed by Max’s attack, as Jolyne and Stone Free tangled it up in more threads. The creature snarled and struggled to break free but couldn’t.

“Alright big guy, time to end this!” Jolyne said, pulling even tighter on the creature, but it still struggled and fought back. 

“We need to poof it,” Max said, he started pushing the tangled up monster toward a tree, “JoJo, help me out here!”

“Right,” She started shoving it into the tree, right into a rather sharp branch. They slowly shoved the monster into the branch as it cried out in pain. Eventually its form dissipated into a puff of smoke, leaving only its sharp, jagged gemstone.

Jolyne let out a sigh and sat on the ground, “My god, now what do we do with this?” she grabbed the gemstone.

“Keep it tied up in your threads, that should keep it from forming for now,” Max said, “Once we find Ben and Steven we need to call the Gems so they can deal with it.”

She did as he said, tying the Gem up inside of Stone Free, “I don’t get it, I thought they’d be close by, that was the same Monster that took Steven…”

Just then, they heard another creature growling. A near identical Gem monster appeared, looking directly at Jolyne, or rather, the Gemstone she was holding

“I think that explains that,” Max said.

Before they could react, the monster fired a barrage of quills at them.

“We need to get out of here!” Max grabbed JoJo and ran off with her.

Humungousaur was chasing after the creature holding Steven, “Put him down you oversized pincushion!”

“H-hey,” Steven said, “If you put me down I’ll give you the snacks in my backpack!” Steven tried pushing himself out of its jaws with no luck, “I uh… I appreciate that you’re not hurting me… that much.”

Humungousaur tackled the monster and it spit Steven out, “You big prickly jerk! Why’d you try kidnapping my friend?”

“I don’t think it talks, Ben,” Steven said.

“Well, I still want answers!” Humungousaur yelled.

“Okay, maybe let’s calm down a bit,” Steven said, “ We should probably just poof it and make our way back to the RV.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re-” Ben looked behind Steven, seeing a group of glowing eyes behind him, “S-Steven! Look out!”

“Wuh? AH!” Ben picked him up, as a group of three more corrupted gems pounced near them, “It's a whole family of Gem monsters!”

“And I think they’re not too happy with us!” Humungousaur put Steven on his shoulder and ran off, “I don’t know how much time I have left, and I don't think I can take all of these guys at once!”

“What are we gonna do?” Steven said, “The Gems aren’t here. We can’t handle these corrupted gems on our own!”

“Grandpa and JoJo shouldn’t be far,” Ben said, “Let's track them down before we fight these things.”

Jolyne and Max were hiding out behind a tree, Max attempted treating Jolyne’s wound, “Doesn’t look too serious, the venom should run its course in a few hours.”

“Ugh, we don’t have a few hours,” Jojo said, wrapping her arm up with Stone Free’s threads, “We gotta take down these monsters!”
“You’re in no condition to fight right now Jolyne,” Max said, “We need to find Ben and Steven, and get out of here.”

“These monsters could hurt people!” JoJo said, “We gotta get rid of them!”

Max sighed, “You’re right, if we don’t get something done about this, someone will get hurt by these things.”

As they were talking they heard booming footsteps and the snapping of branches. Max got into a fighting stance, and JoJo summoned Stone Free. The thunderous stomps got closer and closer, until eventually they saw a giant silhouette burst through the forest, and trip. They then realized who it was.

“B-Ben!? What the hell are you doing stomping around like this!?” Jolyne said.

“There are… so many Gem monsters,” The Omnitrix beeped and he transformed back to human.

“We know,” Jolyne showed the tied up gemstone, “We took one out earlier, but another showed up and paralyzed my arm.”

Steven grabbed her arm, “Oh no! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Steven,” She said.

“Once the Omnitrix recharges, I’m gonna try and take out as many of these things as possible,” Ben said, “I don’t want any of you getting more hurt than you are now.”

“And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” Jolyne said, “These things are too tough for us.”

“I dunno… Fasttrack might be my best bet, or I can try and knock ‘em all out with Pesky Dust?” Ben said.

“You aren’t going to do this alone, Ben,” Max said, “If we don’t do this together things could get worse!”

“Yeah… okay okay you’re right” Ben said.

“We gotta be careful about this,” Steven said, “Once we poof them I gotta put them in a bubble or they’ll reform eventually, but I don’t know if mine are as strong as the Gems’.”

“It's worth a shot,” Ben said, “We should take on one at a time, Steven will stick close to JoJo and I, while Grandpa distracts them. Sounds good?”

They all nodded, Max left cover first, letting one of the gems notice him. It charged off after Max. 

THUMP THUMP THUMP

Another corrupted Gem burst through the woods, catching everyone off guard. it tackled Ben and snarled in his face. It seemed particularly mad at him.

"Dude if you're so mad at me for poofing your friend then you should've been a little nicer!" He pulled himself free and rolled out of the way. Just as the Omnitrix flashed green, "Perfect timing, you're going down!" 

He smacked the watch and in a green flash he transformed into Ditto.

"Erm… I was going for something with a bit more punch but… I can make this work!" He said, "Or should I say WE can make this work!" 

Ditto duplicated himself into three Dittos. Two of the clones ran behind the beast, while the other stayed in front of it.

It looked between the Dittos, and growled in confusion before going after the ones behind it.

"What's your plan here Ben?" Jolyne asked.

"We just gotta confuse the big guy until we get into a position where we can poof it!" Ditto explained, "rinse and repeat until we get 'em all, now come on!" He followed behind the beast and signaled his friends to follow. 

The Dittos in the lead looked behind him, "I can keep this up much longer than you can big guy!" They started getting a bit out of breath, "I hope at least…" the other said. They then screeched to a halt. Another creature stood in front of him, "Yikes!" The two Dittos ran in opposite directions. The monsters chased after them.

The lead Ditto stopped, "Grandpa, JoJo, you go follow me, Steven, we'll go after the other me."

"Wait, which you are we…" Steven scratched his head, "This is so confusing."

"Just follow me!" He grabbed Steven's arm and ran off.

"Let's go, Jolyne!" Max said he chased the second monster with JoJo close behind. 

The monsters were much quicker than the two of them. Thinking quickly, JoJo shot a thread and tied it around the beast's leg.

"I'm getting too tired to chase it down, it must be this venom in my system," JoJo said, "If I use my thread we'll be able to at least figure out where it's headed."

Max looked at her, "Are you sure you don't want to rest for a moment? You're really pushing yourself JoJo…"

"I'll be fine! I just need to push through this!" She said, "I don't know if we can do this without me…"

Max stopped running and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Jolyne, just wait a minute." He knelt down and looked her in the eyes, "I know you want to help but your safety is important too. Ben and Steven can definitely handle things."

Jolyne sighed, "I know. I just feel like I need to use my Stand to help you, all of you," she looked down, "I just want to do all I can for you guys. These past few weeks have been some of the best of my life… I’ve never had friends like all of you…”

Max smiled, and gave her a hug, "I'm glad you feel that way JoJo."

Jolyne returned the hug, but stopped for a moment, "hold on," Jolyne listened through her thread, "Oh my god…"

"What is it?"

"Unless I'm hearing things… I think there's a whole colony of these things. I can't tell exactly how many but… it sounds like a lot," Jolyne said.

"Oh no… Ben and Steven are in trouble!" Max said as he picked up Jolyne and followed her thread.

Ditto and Steven were getting exhausted. Steven was gasping for breath.

Ditto fell over, “I think… I’m getting tired from the other Dittos running around…”

“Ben!? Are you okay?” Steven asked.

“I don’t know… it's like… something bit me!” He said, “Oh no, the monster!”

“Is it trying to eat you?” Steven asked.

“I-I dunno! I hope not!” Ditto said, “Gosh I don’t even know what would happen if it did…” He pondered for a moment and then shook his head, “We gotta catch up with the other mes before something worse happens.”

They dashed toward the monster, not knowing of the whole colony of creatures they’re approaching.

Max and Jolyne made it to the monster colony. They hid behind a bush and investigated.

“Looks like the Dittos already made it here,” Jolyne said, “But I don’t see Steven.”

Max rubbed his head, “I always get so confused when Ben turns into that one…”

“Hey, watch it! You realize we all feel each other's pain right?” Ditto yelled at himself.

“Yeah, exactly! If you get hurt doin’ something stupid, we both feel it, doofus!”

“So each of us can’t handle this… but maybe…” 

The two Dittos perked up, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Obviously!” The other responded.

“Two Dittos may not be enough, but TEN Dittos might!” The two Dittos said in unison, then each split into five more copies, and all jumped on one of the monsters. The monster growled and stumbled around, completely blinded by the big stack of Dittos on its face. The monster ran into one of the others, causing a lot of anger and confusion between them.

It was then that Steven and the original Ditto made it to the commotion, seeing a ton of Dittos dogpiling a monster, over 10 other monsters surrounding them.

The first Ditto stared at the situation in front of him, “That's a lot more than I expected…” He said.

“Wait a minute, some of them aren’t attacking,” Steven said, “They look… scared.”

“What? How can you tell?” Ditto asked.

“The ones the other yous are fighting are just trying to protect the others!” Steven said, “They’re scared of us!”

Ditto looked at him, “Are you serious?”
“We broke down right next to their home, and broke into their personal space,” Steven explained, “They think we’re attacking them!”

Ditto slapped himself in the face, “You gotta be kidding me! Well now what are we supposed to do?”

"Maybe we can apologize?" Steven asked.

Ditto raised an eyebrow, “Steven. They’re animals… I think.”

Steven sighed, “But I don’t wanna hurt them!” 

“Steven. THEY wanna hurt us! It’s self defense!” Ditto argued, “Besides, if we don’t poof them someone else could accidentally anger them!”

“Yeah, you’re right I guess…” He looked around and gasped, “Wait, JoJo and grandpa Max are here!”

“What!?” Ditto looked where Steven did, his clones were still fighting one monster, but the one Max and JoJo followed caught on and spun around to approach them. It snarled at them as it approached, “We gotta get them! NOW!” The main Ditto jumped out of hiding and charged at the monster.

“Wh- Ben! Wait!” Steven stumbled out of the bushes and fell on his face, but immediately got up and continued chasing him.

The main Ditto duplicated himself five times, and lunged onto the monster’s tail. They pulled it away from JoJo and Max.

“C’mon you guys! Pull!” The monster dragged on the ground and grunted angrily.

Jolyne tried getting up to help, but fell to her knees, Max helped her up, “Jolyne, you’re gonna hurt yourself.”
“I don’t care! I gotta help!” She tried summoning Stone Free but it was barely even visible, “Ugh, damn this poison!”

“Doncha worry JoJo! We got this!” Ditto said. A beeping sound came from all of the Dittos, a chorus of “Uh oh” rang out, as the Dittos all flew toward each other, and flashed back into Ben. 

“Aw man! Why now!?” Ben yelled. The monster he was dragging pounced at Ben, he rolled away, and ran to Max and Jolyne, “We gotta go you guys!”

Ben and Max helped JoJo up, but she was too weak to even stand. Another Gem Monster approached them, cornering them. 

Steven saw his friends in danger, he started panicking, “Ben… JoJo… Max…” He started running toward them without a plan, just raw emotion fueling him.

“Woah, Steven! You summoned your shield!” Ben yelled.

“I-I needed to save you! The Omnitrix timed out, and Jolyne is too hurt to fight!” Steven said. The monsters all pushed against the shield, snarling and biting at it, “Augh, I can’t hold it!”

Cracks formed on the shield. Just as it shattered, something fell from the sky, and a cloud of smoke surrounded the monsters. A shockwave knocked over the heroes, and pushed away the monsters.

Garnet zoomed off, and drove her gauntlet through one of the monster’s heads, making it poof immediately. Garnet quickly bubbled and sent it off. Another jumped at her, it tried biting her but she managed to hold its mouth open, and threw it at another monster, she let out a flurry of punches at them. They poofed and their gems warped away. Five more charged at Garnet. She chopped down a tree with a single punch and picked it up, she swung it like a giant baseball bat and crushed the rest of the monsters. She finally bubbled the last of the gemstones.

“Dude, Garnet is so cool,” Ben said, watching in awe.

“How did you know we were here?” Steven asked.

“I was in the Burning Room and saw a new bubbled gem appear, in a pink bubble. As soon as I saw that, I realized you may be in trouble. There’s a warp pad nearby, it looks like I got here just in time.”

“It would’ve been nice if you got here before one of those got me with its quills,” Jolyne said.

“We’re glad you helped out in the first place Garnet,” Max said.

“I’m sorry guys,” Steven said, looking down.

“What? Why?” Ben asked.

“I got caught by that monster in the first place, none of this would’ve happened if I was more careful.”

“You couldn’t have known they were here Steven,” Jolyne said.

“Besides, we all woulda been toast if it wasn’t for that last minute shield save!” Ben said, playfully punching Steven in the arm, “You did great man!”

Garnet knelt down, “Steven, I’m so proud of you. It's only been a few weeks since you left but you’ve grown so much!”
Steven smiled, “You really think so?”

“Of course!” Garnet said, “You managed to bubble a Gem and summon your shield in the same day, maybe soon you can reliably use your powers on command!”

“Yeah man, who knows, maybe you’ll be cooler than me some day” Ben joked.

“By the way, Max, you may want to go back to your phone soon,” Garnet said.

Max lit up, “Oh! I completely forgot ” he got up and ran back to the RV, leaving the kids with Garnet.

“I’ve missed you alot Garnet,” Steven said, “I feel kinda bad just leaving now.”

Garnet smiled, “It’s been very different without you Steven, we’ve all missed you, especially Pearl,” She gave Steven another hug, “The summer won’t last forever though, you’ll be back with us soon enough!”

“Yeah, I’ve been having so much fun with Ben and Jolyne, but I’m excited to get back to Beach City too!”

“Now lets get you all back to the Rustbucket. Jolyne are you alright?” Garnet asked.

“Yeah… I think I’m getting better," she said.

They slowly made their way back, by the time they did Max was done with his call, “Ugh, finally. Roadside assistance should meet us here in a bit, you kids can go ahead and wait inside.”

Steven gave Garnet one last hug, and met his friends in the RV, “Bye Garnet!”

Garnet waved, then pulled Max aside, “I need to talk with you for a minute.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s been an increase in… Activity from space,” Garnet said, “I didn’t want to worry the kids but… a Red Eye appeared in Beach City the other day.”

“What!?” Max said, “Are you all okay?” 

“We dealt with it, Greg managed to find one of Rose’s Light Canons. But I’m worried about this and the drones… we may be facing an invasion again.”

“We need to be ready if they do,” Max said, “Gosh, I can’t imagine why they’d want anything to do with Earth after everything… Unless,” He looked at Ben through the window with a hint of worry, “Make sure to keep me posted, no matter what, we need to keep the kids safe.”

“Of course, stay safe Max,” Garnet said, and she jumped away in a flash.

Max nodded, and waited for roadside assistance.

The mechanic removed the RV’s tires, “Sheesh, what happened here man?”

“I guess they were just worn out,” Max fibbed, he assumed it was the Corrupted Gems at first, however after a closer look he saw that damage was different than he expected. Instead of holes from the Monster’s quills, it almost looked like a precise strike, a straight gash, with edges that looked almost like they melted with some kind of acid, “what the hell happened here…”

“What was that?” The mechanic asked.

“Nothing, just thinking out loud,” Max said, “So uh, how much will that be?”

“Looks like your insurance covers this, so once I put the new one on you’ll be good to go!”

“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver!” Max said. He went back to waiting, a feeling of worry settling within him.