Omnitranyl (Ben 10 Alien Force)

The residential area lay with a trail of destruction. At the epicenter of all the confusion, a pink dome held Gwen and Ben under the last line of defense. Around the dome, a crowd of creatures were charging against the protection like a zombie attack.

Gwen tried with all her strength to keep the shield up, but she felt that her energy was almost gone and at any moment everything would be lost.

Then she hears her cousin say:

"I understood."

But you, who are reading this, probably don't understand anything, am I right? After all, the last time we were following Gwen and Ben, a three-armed brute creature had just fallen from the sky, opening a crater in the middle of the street, raising a cloud of dust and debris over the residential area.

Well, for everything to make more sense for you, as well as Ben, to understand what is going on, let's go back a little. More specifically in the following line:

"Oh, man." said Ben.

The teenager stands up on the cracked asphalt and face the creature that emerged from within the cloud of dust.

"Ben, let's get out of here," said Gwen. "We can't waste our time with these monsters."

"Didn't I tell you there's no point in running, Gwen, they'll always find us."

"But at least it would buy us some time to think! We can't stay here forever!"

Gwen realized that her cousin was no longer listening to her. He looked around, but always turned his gaze to the creature in search of some sudden action that required his reaction.

"Ben, are you listening to me?" she wanted to confirm. It's rude to leave a person talking to himself.

"I have an idea," Ben activates the Omnitrix on his wrist and begins to navigate among the alien holograms.

"What? No, Ben, wait-"

The boy presses the core of his watch and, in moments, appears in aerophibian form.

"Jetray!"

The alien takes off and takes to the skies. Gwen covers her face to protect herself from the dust from the take-off and then watches her cousin disappear through the clouds.

"Ben!"

He sure isn't normal! she thought. It's as if he's not thinking about anything, just acting!

Gwen hears a roar coming from the creature. Of course it was going to attack sooner or later! The three-armed monster takes off in Gwen's direction. The ground shakes with each step of the creature. The girl crosses her arms in an "x" in front of her face and says:

"Camouflat vaporis!"

From her hands, a dense, pinkish smoke begins to be created. Gwen uncrosses her arms and coats herself with the mist, which spreads in a moment.

The creature enters the smoke punching in a thousand directions. Unable to hit its target, the monster slams two of its hands together in a powerful palm, sending out a shockwave that dissipates the cloud of smoke.

The three-armed brute looks around the vicinity for his victim; when he then sees over the roofs of the houses the teenage girl running, creating bridges of magic between one roof and another, on the run.

Gwen's thoughts turned to desperate searches for solutions and curses against her cousin. How could that brat have just dumped her like that?

Suddenly Gwen hears a thunderous crash above her feet. The creature advanced towards the house where she was standing and destroyed the main supporting pillars of the building. The girl felt the roof shake and simply disappear under her feet as the structure came crashing down. At the last second, she jumped up and fell rolling in the grass.

From beneath the wreckage of the house, the three-armed freak began to rise, scattering pieces of beam, concrete walls, and furniture remnants from above.

Gwen, again, gets into position and stands ready for the monster's next attack.

It advances again.

A new crater is formed when a yellow ball of very high density crashes into the aberration. Gwen protects herself with a mana shield, deflecting pieces of concrete and roof debris that fly in all directions.

At the center of the crater, the teenage girl saw the yellow sphere spinning frantically over the monster's back, making it scream until it fell unconscious. The sphere then stopped. It leaped out of the crater and, as it positioned itself next to Gwen, unfurled itself like a ball- armadillo and offered the wide grin of the Cannonbolt.

"What's up, cousin, did you miss me?"

The girl punches the Arburian Pelarota in the arm and says, trying to ignore the pain she felt in her hand:

"How do you dump me with a monster like that and disappear into the sky?"

"Come on, Gwen, I told you I had a plan," Ben returns to his human form.

"And I said we have to find a way out of here and not get into every fight that comes along!"

"Did you?"

"Yes, but you weren't listening to me!"

"So, okay, wiseass, how do we get out?"

"If I had known, we would have left already!"

"What if I wish we would? Technically we are in my mind so I must be in charge here..."

"Very well, then, try it," Gwen crossed her arms and waited with a judgmental look on her face.

Ben closed his eyes and placed his index fingers on his temples. His expression became serious, then the youth began to make faces of deep concentration. Finally he said:

"Is it working?"

"Yes, it worked, Ben!"

"Really?" He opened his eyes with excitement.

"Of course it didn't! "

"Wicked to do that... "

Gwen closed her eyes and with one hand resting on her forehead, tried to find an answer for that place. At the moment, the only information she had was the city of Bellwood, deformed creatures, and an absurdly unstable Ben.

"Gwen..."

"Wait a minute, Ben, I'm thinking."

But no matter how hard I tried, the pieces didn't fit together. Actually, they did fit, because this whole mess of battling monsters, causing destruction throughout the city, was more like a typical Tuesday than something that needed solving.

"Gwen, you'd better think faster, because it won't be long before they come after us."

"I don't understand..."

"What don't you understand? Maybe I can find the answer you're looking for."

Gwen looked into her cousin's eyes in a way that could be translated as, "really?"

However, thought Gwen, maybe it's not something she should solve! Maybe the one who should find the answer really is Ben! It was like the Enchantress said: his mind must be using this place to make him deal with some fear or anguish that only he would understand!

"Ben!"

"It's me!"

"You were right!"

"Was I?"

"You are responsible for everything here. This place, these creatures, this mindless way you're acting, maybe it's the way you're trying to communicate with yourself!"

Ben tilted his head to the side.

"It's like a puzzle you have to solve. That only you can solve!"

"And how do I do that?"

"I-I don't know."

"Great!" He said ironically, "I was getting excited..."

"But we can't give up, Ben."

"And who says I am? I just-"

A green laser hits Ben and throws him into the middle of the street.

"Hespera sophian" says Gwen. A circular surface protrudes in front of her and begins to reflect the laser beams. "Ben?"

"Relax, I'm okay..."

She turns her attention back to the source of the lasers. New creatures appear from behind the houses, shooting beams from their eyes. One of them resembled a deformed bat. Others were slender with long arms. In total, four aberrations were relentlessly shooting toward the youngsters.

They keep coming one after the other... Thought Gwen.

"Don't worry, Gwen, I'll take care of them too."

"Didn't you hear a word I said, kid?"

Ben rushes past the shield and presses the Omnitrix core, coating himself in green light and announcing his crystalsapien form:

"Chroooomastone!"

Each laser that hit Ben's rocky surface was converted into a spark of rainbow light that traveled towards the pink crystal on top of his head. Gradually, each crystallized surface of his body shone brighter and brighter. The attacks did enough damage to make Ben yawn.

Finally, Chromastone said:

"My turn."

From his hands, beams of pure energy are projected against the creatures, hurling them several meters away.

Gwen undoes her shield and tries to protect her eyes from the high luminosity that filled the residential area with the attack.

"You never tire of showing off, do you?" said Gwen.

"No. Is it my fault that I'm incredible?"

Grunts and roars started coming from the other end of the street, causing them both to look up and see more creatures approaching. The three-armed brute, joined the stumpy monster and the furry creatures of before.

At the other end of the street, the slender creatures that resembled bats were joined by pudgy, neckless monsters. All the creatures walked slowly as if there was no need for urgency.

"Are you ready for round two?" said Ben.

"Ben, please don't fight again, that's not our goal, and you know it!"

"But they're the ones attacking me first, does that mean I can't fight back?" He turns into the Heatblast.

"We can run away and get time to think of a plan."

"If you want to run, be welcome. But I won't be the hero who runs away from a battle." Ben looks at his Heatblast hands and says "I don't feel like using Heatblast today, maybe another one..."

Ben touches the Omnitrix symbol on his chest and transforms into the opticoid form.

"Eyeguy? No..." And touches the symbol again "Ripjaws? No... Upchuck? No... Swampfire? Also no... Rath? Um... Let me tell you something, Omnitrix, you're not being very good at picking the aliens I want!" And touches the symbol again.

Gwen watches her cousin transform into one alien after another. Her attention turns to the creatures that continue to advance. Are more coming? She sees over and behind the houses, new aberrations, with different shapes than the ones they fought before. The situation was getting more and more complicated.

"Ben?"

"Wait, Gwen... Big-chill? No... Wildmutt? No... Ditto? No... Frankenstrike? Maybe, but no..."

Gwen conjures a shield around her and her cousin and watches the creatures approach to the point of touching the protection. The monsters begin punching through the defense, echoing a clattering sound in glass with each attack.

"Ben, we have to get out of here!"

"We'll be right there, just let me choose the right alien to beat the crap out of these monsters, dammit!"

As if by a snap, an important connection is made in Gwen's head. She then screams:

"Ben, stop transforming!"

"What? Why?"

"The monsters, Ben, the more you transform, the more of them appear!"

Ben returns to his human form and walks his gaze through the huge crowd of monsters that were punching, head-butting, and insisting on trying to get through the shield. The sounds of the impacts became more and more deafening.

"I'm almost out of mana..." said Gwen "And we're surrounded..."

The girl looked at her cousin, and a sadness came over her. In the end, I failed...

"I understood," Ben said.

"What?"

"I understood, Gwen." Her voice again lacked the joy and courage of a few minutes ago.

"So what do we do?"

"Undo the shield."

"Are you out of your mind, Ben?"

"Trust me. They won't attack."

In that instant, all the creatures ceased their attacks on the shield and stood still, as if awaiting a command.

A shiver ran through Gwen's body at the sight of all those motionless monsters. She stared at her cousin and realized that a tear was starting to appear in the corner of her eye.

He has found the answer...

Gwen undid her shield. Surrounded on all sides, she couldn't help but ask:

"Why aren't they attacking?"

"Because these monsters are me."

Suddenly, for Gwen, all the creatures took on meaning. Their bizarre appearances, which brought discomfort and made it impossible to identify their species, gradually became deformed and partially transformed versions of their cousin. If before the creatures caused discomfort, now Gwen felt terrified and nauseated by what she saw.

Gwen turned her gaze to Ben, but was unable to say a single word.

Shrouded in tears, looking in absurd terror, Ben says:

"Help me..."