Chapter Text
Ben was somewhat distracted after the battle with Vilgax and Albedo. He now had the Ultimatrix, with new functions available. He was still deep in thought about the events that had occurred.
He had gone out to get a smoothie at his favorite place. He did not want to bother Kevin to drive him, so he decided to go on his own. Gwen was busy “doing homework,” according to her text messages, so he had no choice but to go alone.
Once he reached the parking lot, he checked his phone. It was 10:30. He had been walking for about twenty minutes, enough time to internally argue with himself over which flavor to choose, and even then, when he arrived, he still had no idea what he wanted to drink.
He was still looking at his phone when, suddenly, a low but strange sound, as if the air itself were warping, caught Ben’s attention. He looked up to see what had caused the sound and saw a very tall alien. He had to lift his head much higher to get a full view of it. He estimated it was about two and a half meters tall. Its skin was white, It had four eyes and four arms. An incredibly thin build, far thinner than Ben himself.
Upon seeing the creature, Ben took two steps back in shock, but before he could even press his Ultimatrix, the creature, moving at incredible speed, touched him and teleported him to who-knows-where.
At that moment, Gwen was doing her homework. The next day she had to present a group project, so she needed to finish it as soon as possible, since alien adventures had seriously delayed everything she was supposed to do over the past two weeks.
Once she finished, she sent Ben a text message before finally going to bed.
Kevin, on the other hand, was simply at home drinking a soda while watching television. He was not really someone who liked watching TV, but he genuinely had nothing else to do. Ben had not talked to him, and Gwen was busy.
It was the next day that both of them noticed Ben’s absence. When they arrived at school, neither of them ran into Ben, and he also had not replied to the text message Gwen had sent him, which was very strange. They tried calling him, but he did not answer at any point.
“This is weird, Kevin. Ben never leaves my messages unanswered and he always picks up calls. Plus, it’s strange that he didn’t come to school,” Gwen said while looking at Kevin, who was staring at the ground as he formed a theory in his head.
“Well, maybe he’s sick and isn’t answering because he’s asleep?” Kevin replied, though it sounded more like a question than an answer.
Gwen sighed. “Let’s go to his house to make sure everything’s okay.”
“But you still have classes…”
“Since when do you care whether i have classes or not, Kevin?”
“You’re right. Let’s go.”
Both of them, now somewhat worried, left the school and headed toward Ben’s house. When they arrived, they knocked softly on the door, and shortly after, Ben’s mother opened it.
“Good morning, Gwen, Kevin,” she said with a gentle smile.
“Good morning, Auntie,” Gwen replied. “We came to check if Ben is okay. We didn’t see him at school and he’s not answering our calls.”
The woman looked confused, and soon her expression turned to concern.
“What? I thought he was with you. I checked his room this morning and he wasn’t there. I assumed he had already gone to school.”
That answer set off alarms for both of them.
“What did Ben do yesterday?” Kevin asked this time, remembering that Gwen had mentioned an unanswered text.
She quickly replied, “Well, he told me he was going out for a smoothie and would be back in a bit.”
Gwen paused for a moment before speaking. “And did you make sure he came back?”
Her aunt now had a guilty look. “My husband and I fell asleep. Ben went out a bit late yesterday. Besides, that watch keeps him safe, so we always trust that he’ll return home safely. I really thought he would be fine, ever since he showed us that he could take care of himself.”
“Don’t worry, Auntie. We’ll find him. I can track him, and I assure you Ben will be fine. You don’t need to blame yourself,” Gwen said, trying to calm her.
Kevin interrupted, “Let us into his room so Gwen can track him.”
The woman nodded, and both of them quickly went inside.
There was nothing particularly interesting inside: clothes scattered around, his computer on with a game running, and his jacket on the bed. Gwen picked up the jacket to try to locate him, but something was wrong.
“Ben isn’t anywhere,” Gwen said, surprised.
“Are you sure?” Kevin asked.
“Yes. I can’t detect absolutely any trace of Ben, at least not on Earth.”
“So that means he’s lost on some random planet, right?”
“It’s possible. My energy can’t cover such a large range. If Ben isn’t on Earth, that means he must be incredibly far away.”
“Wow, that really makes things easier,” Kevin muttered, frustrated.
Kevin sat down on Ben’s bed, staring at the floor once again. Then he remembered his Plumber insignia and the Ultimatrix.
“Wait, we can still locate him. We have Plumber badges,” Kevin said as he pulled the badge from his pocket and showed it to Gwen. When it locked onto the Ultimatrix, it showed that Ben was on a planet named DR3004, almost at the edge of the universe.
Kevin and Gwen stared at the badge in shock. Soon, Kevin broke the silence.
“This is insane.”
“How the hell did Ben get there?” Gwen asked, almost shouting. “We need to tell Grandpa Max so he can help us.”
“Agreed. Let’s go.”
Both of them quickly left the room and left the house, not before reassuring Ben’s parents that they had located him and would go after him as soon as possible, conveniently omitting the detail that their son was AT THE DAMN EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE.
After being teleported, Ben felt intense dizziness, which worsened when two other aliens similar to the one who had brought him there grabbed him by both hands and quickly placed cuffs around his hands and part of his wrists, making it impossible for him to activate the Ultimatrix.
Ben was about to shout a command at the watch, but a fourth alien grabbed him by the hair and, without a shred of care, fitted him with some kind of muzzle, far too tight for his liking, as it did not allow him to open his mouth even a little to breathe properly.
After finishing putting on the cuffs and the muzzle, they threw him to the ground and left, leaving him inside a kind of cell. It was completely white, made of a smooth material. He looked up and watched the aliens leave, closing the door behind them.
Once they were gone, he quickly sat up and searched for a way out of the situation as fast as possible. He had no idea where he was exactly, nor did he know why he was there in the first place.
He carefully observed his surroundings, analyzing possible escape routes, but soon realized that… there were none.
The walls were completely sealed, not even a small opening he could use to escape.
He let out a small sigh of frustration. He did not have many options other than waiting for his friends to come help him, even though he really did not like that option at all. Besides, he needed to return as soon as possible so as not to worry his parents, and also because he had an exam the next day. He needed to get back.
He stood up and walked around, checking each of the walls. It was not a material he had ever seen before. It had no impurities, completely smooth to the touch, similar to a piece of ceramic, but when he hit it, it sounded extremely dense, impossible to break. That was when he understood that he was not on Earth.
His worry grew as he realized this, and he understood that searching and searching for weaknesses was just going in circles around a rock, hoping something would change. So he simply sat down in a corner and waited.
What he believed were hours passed, until a hologram appeared in front of him. It was the same alien who had teleported him to that place.
Ben would have liked to shout a few things at that alien. How dare he kidnap him?
“You must be wondering why you are here, isn’t that right, Tennyson?”
Ben frowned at the mention of his last name.
“Very well, I will tell you. I am Zlatmond. You are observing one of the oldest alien races in existence, with a level of intelligence far higher than that of humans.” Zlatmond paused before beginning to walk around Ben.
“I have brought you here in search of answers. Our race has become quite interested in the creation you have on your wrist. Not necessarily because of its power, but because of how it functions. We want to understand it, see what it can do, and what its limits are.”
Ben took a second to notice a device the alien was wearing on his chest. It was a universal translator. He also noticed that the alien lacked a nose.
“So, you will stay here with us for as long as we need. We will run some tests and expose the Omnitrix to different situations and stimuli. Our objective is to understand how it works and what other things it can achieve. We are also very interested in the ability to modify the body’s code.”
Ben was now far more worried than before, especially because of what that meant.
“They’re going to experiment on the Omnitrix… Ultimatrix? Whatever!” he thought, while continuing to stare at the hologram, which soon faded into the air, leaving him alone, curled up in a corner of the room. Only then did he realize how cold it was.
Gwen and Kevin sought their grandfather’s help. Upon hearing the story, he quickly mobilized the small Plumber team and prepared a ship to head to that planet as fast as possible, but there was a small problem.
“How long will it take us to get there?” Kevin asked while observing the command center.
“As much as I’d like to go as fast as possible, kids, it will take us at least a month to get there.”
Gwen turned to look at her grandfather as soon as she heard that. “A month?! We can’t take that long. What if something happens to Ben?”
“I’m sorry, Gwen. That’s the fastest we can go without putting ourselves at risk. Remember, that planet is at the edge of the universe. Reaching it in a month is incredibly fast, if you think about it,” Grandpa Max replied.
“Relax, Gwen. Ben is like a cockroach, killing him is impossible,” Kevin tried to reassure her, but only got a frown in response.
Kevin shrugged. “I tried.”
“I’ll inform his parents about this, so don’t worry. Recovering Ben is our top priority,” Max said.
Everyone took their assigned positions, Kevin and Gwen together in the passenger seats, and Max with his team at the controls.
And so, they began the journey to rescue Ben.
What Ben estimated to be about two hours passed since the alien had appeared as a hologram. Out of sheer boredom, he had already started imagining a movie in his head when, out of nowhere, doors materialized and two aliens entered.
Ben immediately went on alert, jumping to his feet, ready to react to any kind of attack. Instead, one of the aliens moved with astonishing speed, positioning itself in front of Ben and placing a device on the wrist where the Ultimatrix was.
It was small, and a green light pulsed from it. Shortly after, both aliens left the room, leaving Ben alone once again. Confused, he stared at the device for several seconds, trying to imagine what it was specifically for, but nothing came to mind.
A minute later, he heard a voice that echoed throughout the empty room.
“First experiment. Objective: determine transformation time limit.”
Before Ben could even react, he felt the Ultimatrix activate on its own and force a transformation. He felt his body warp, but much more slowly than usual. Something was wrong.
After a few seconds, he realized what he had transformed into.
It was Big Chill.
He could not help but feel some relief knowing he had turned into something useful for the situation.
He tried to fly and become intangible to escape the place, but his enthusiasm was quickly extinguished when he noticed the walls were resistant to his intangibility. He could not pass through them no matter how hard he tried.
He tried freezing them, attacking, striking them, but it was useless in every possible way. He tried switching to another alien, but the Ultimatrix did not respond to his commands.
Big Chill let out what sounded like a sigh before giving up and sitting down on the floor.
“Our walls are made of a material native to our planet. Only our race has the ability to manipulate it as we wish. It is foolish for you to keep trying, Tennyson.”
Ben waited for time to pass so he could detransform naturally, but that never happened.
He even tried to detransform manually, but his Ultimatrix still did not respond.
He waited and waited. He tried to calculate the time at first, but after the first hour passed, he lost track of how many minutes he had been transformed and began to worry.
Meanwhile, Kevin and Gwen continued searching for more clues as to why they would want Ben, aside from wanting the Omnitrix, as was already common among nearly all the aliens they had encountered.
Everyone was extremely worried. They feared that Ben might be injured or stranded in that place, trying to find a way to return on his own.
They had prepared plenty of food, more than enough for the entire journey. They had a storage room filled with canned food and bottles of water.
With every hour that passed, Gwen grew far more worried, and even more so Grandpa Max. His grandson was lost on a planet none of them even knew existed, with aliens whose power and appearance were completely unknown. It was truly a problem they needed to solve as soon as possible.
He had been transformed into Big Chill for about six hours. He felt exhausted now. Even trying to stand up or float required a huge physical effort.
He did not know what to do, and he had nothing to do anyway.
Suddenly, he felt his body return to normal again in a green flash, but it was nothing like he expected. The moment he managed to return to his original form, his stomach completely turned, and he vomited the little he had eaten.
He was incredibly dizzy, and his body now felt wrong, out of place. He felt like something was not right, like he no longer fit into his own body, as if his original form were just another alien he had transformed into. He tried to walk, but his vision quickly blurred and he collapsed to the floor, completely unconscious.
This was far more serious than he had thought.