Night settled over the forest campsite near Bellwood, stars twinkling above the treeline. The Rust Bucket, an aged but well-maintained RV, sat among several other campers' vehicles, its metallic surface reflecting moonlight.
Gwen Tennyson stared out the RV's center window, her reflection revealing a frustrated teenager with auburn hair. 'Of all the ways to spend summer break, this has to be the worst.', she thought. She drummed her fingers on the windowsill, watching other families set up their campsites.
"I know this isn't what you planned, Gwen," Max said quietly from the driver's seat, his gray hair visible in the rearview mirror. "But sometimes life's best adventures start with a detour."
"Sure." Gwen rolled her eyes. 'As if being forced by mum on this trip wasn't bad enough, they had to throw Ben into the mix. Out of the many cousins I have, I had to get the worst…'
"I had plans, Grandpa," Gwen said, crossing her arms. She paused, knowing he wasn't directly at fault, even if she was stuck in his RV with him and—
'Doesn't Ben take too much time—' Her thought cut off abruptly as orange flames flickered between the trees outside the window. "Grandpa! The forest's on fire!"
Max rushed to the window, his casual demeanor instantly replaced with sharp focus. "Where's Ben?"
"He went for a walk earlier…" Gwen's eyes widened as realization struck.
Max moved with surprising speed, yanking open a compartment and pulling out two fire extinguishers. "Here," he thrust one into Gwen's hands.
"You can't seriously expect us to fight a forest fire!" Gwen protested, yet took the extinguisher anyway.
"Of course not. Ben's out there." Max's voice carried an urgency she'd never heard before. "We need to find him!"
As they rushed outside, a camper called out, "Are you crazy? The forest's burning!"
"Did anyone see a teenager in a green and black shirt?" Max asked, scanning the gathered crowd of campers.
"Yeah, he headed that way." Someone pointed toward the flames. "We've got extinguishers too—we'll help!"
"Thank you," Max nodded, already moving. "Gwen, stay close!"
'This is insane,' Gwen followed her grandfather into the smoke-filled forest. 'But I guess that's what family does.'
"BEN!" They all called out repeatedly while extinguishing fires in their path.
Before they could venture deeper into the forest, Max's eyes narrowed as he noticed something emerging from the countless burning trees ahead. "WAIT, look out!"
Through the wall of flames that consumed every tree around them, a nightmarish figure approached—a humanoid creature of living fire and volcanic rock, molten substance glowing through its cracks. Its blazing form cast twisted shadows as it strode between the burning trees.
"What?" One of the campers squinted through the smoke, then stumbled backward as he finally saw it—a demon of flame and stone moving purposefully toward them.
"Hey!" The creature waved, its fiery form intensifying the already suffocating heat around them. Some campers collapsed where they stood, while others' screams pierced through the roar of the forest fire.
"Run!" They all fled, but Gwen stopped in her tracks when she noticed her grandfather remained motionless.
"Grandpa—" Before it could finish, the fire monster approaching Max was doused with extinguisher foam. The flames immediately reignited, gradually heating the surrounding area, affecting both Max and Gwen.
"Speak, Pyronite! What the hell are you doing on Earth? Are there more?" Max's demeanor shifted as fast as a finger snap—transforming from gentle grandfather to hardened veteran facing a known threat. Gwen stepped back, watching this stranger wear her grandfather's face.
"What? Grandpa, it's me, Ben!" blurted the humanoid made of fire, rock, and lava-like substance.
At these words, Gwen blinked, pinching herself silently to confirm she wasn't dreaming. Part of her believed him—it seemed too absurd to be a lie.
"Then prove it." The words came out as a whisper, her voice trembling. This couldn't be Ben. The being before her was something from nightmares—a demon of living flame and volcanic stone, heat radiating from its form in suffocating waves.
While waiting for an answer, she turned her gaze, noticing her grandfather intently studying the strange symbol ( 〉〈 ) embedded in its torso.
"My full name is Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, but I prefer to go by Ben Tennyson. I'll change my name to just Ben Tennyson in the future—I just don't like it, even if my parents gave it to me. It's somehow one of my childhood dreams."
"Yep, you're the disgusting, selfish jerk…" Her voice cracked as hysteria crept in. "HOW DID YOU BECOME A MONSTER, BEN?!"
"I found a watch that came from space. It attached itself to my wrist, and I couldn't remove it. After tinkering with it, I turned into this," he stated matter-of-factly. His altered voice made the explanation even stranger, given his transformed state.
"Ah yes, that makes perfect sense." Gwen pinched herself again, harder this time, feeling tired. She then turned to her grandfather. "Do you know anything, Grandpa? What did you mean by Pyronite?"
They both looked at the elderly man.
"Ben, since this is a device, there might be a button to shut off this transformation." Their grandfather said, fully ignoring their questions as if they hadn't been asked.
"Button? The watch vanished, leaving only the dial ( 〉〈 ) on my torso… Oh! Maybe…" He pressed it. A otherworldly green flash engulfed the surroundings. When the light faded, the fiery humanoid was gone. In its place stood a human teenager with brown hair, wearing a green t-shirt with a black vertical stripe at its center—unmistakably Ben Tennyson.
"It's not permanent…" He sighed with relief before excitement filled his eyes. He raised his left arm, studying the device with mixed awe and unease, mostly awe. "The Omnitrix rocks!"
The bulky device sat on his wrist, perfectly fitted as if welded in place, with no visible means of removal—no belt, button, or even a seam showing how it attached.
Max and Gwen exchanged glances before looking back at Ben.
"Ben… How do you know what it's called?" Max asked.
Ben's excitement faltered, reality crashing back. His hand unconsciously covered the device.
"Grandpa, we need to go, now!" Ben's voice trembled. "An alien servant of some space warlord is after me!"
Gwen kept pinching her arm until it turned red, staring at her cousin. "…What?!"
Had she not just witnessed a fire demon turn back into Ben, she would have assumed he was on drugs… Or maybe that she was on drugs? But how?
"Wait… you transformed into an alien? Aliens exist?!" Gwen gripped her head, her thoughts spiraling like shattered glass. "This can't be happening…"
Ben ignored her breakdown, focusing on their silent grandfather.
"If you know something, say it! If not, we need to get to the Rust Bucket now! He probably has more drones coming!" Ben's voice rose as his grandfather's silence grew more unsettling.
They sprinted toward the campsite, feet pounding against the forest floor. Above them, the orange-red drones appeared—dozens of bike-sized machines cutting through the crimson-tinted sky, their mechanical forms casting predatory shadows across the ground with an eerie hum.
"Those are drones?! And why is the sky red?!" Gwen's voice cracked with panic.
"I didn't even notice until now! Grandpa, what's happening to the sky?!" Ben shouted.
"…It means they've trapped us here with a force field. It likely extends to the entire forest."
"A reasonable explanation, grandpa thanks," Gwen said sweetly, before her voice cracked. "IT EXPLAINS NOTHING!"
"Dwelling on the details is irrelevant now." Max's expression hardened, but his eyes softened as he looked at his grandchildren. "But don't worry, I know a way. We will leave this place alive; it's a promise."
Their grandfather's words eased some of the tension in Ben and Gwen's shoulders. For a moment, he was just their grandpa again.
Then Ben reached for the Omnitrix, and the drones above shifted like metal vultures, circling above them before continuing their path forward, always staying just beyond reach.
The campsite came into view, filled with people who had gathered outside their RVs and tents to watch the strange red sky and the forest fire. Many held their phones high, recording what they thought was just an unusual phenomenon.
Ben's steps faltered. His fingers clutched the Omnitrix as realization struck—Vilgax's and his servant's earlier warnings echoing in his mind.
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Several moments ago
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"Easy on the drones, buddy." Ben waved his flaming hands at the scattered mechanical wreckage around him. "The Omnitrix is probably yours, and I'm sorry it attached to me, but I can't just enter your spaceship. In human culture, that's like…" He forced a laugh. "…like getting into a stranger's vehicle. We're taught to say no."
The pale alien before him looked like death itself—skin stretched over bone, with red eyes. His face twisted with contempt. "As if I would waste time learning the customs of beings who treat crawling to their own moon like some great victory." His lips curled as he raised a pulsing device.
A voice emerged through the device—deep and threatening. "If you want to say no to me, Vilgax, human… then, be my guest."
Something in his tone made Ben uneasy, he felt a chill yet he was hot.
"Really? Can't we just calmly—" He paused as he met Psyphon's gaze. Vilgax's servant stood before him, his eyes holding no room for negotiation—only promise.
Ben ran.
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Now, watching the drones hover above the campsite, Ben felt his insides twist as the realization struck. The realization hit him with crushing force—this was a setup. Each drone hung in the air like suspended bullets, their shadows crawling across the ground like a disease.
The gathered crowd below kept a cautious distance from the flames, yet remained transfixed by the spectacle above. Groups of campers lifted phones to the crimson sky, their nervous laughs mixing with the crackling of distant flames—a chorus about to shatter.
'They orchestrated this,' Ben's mind raced. The Omnitrix felt cold against his skin, a stark contrast to the heat from the forest fire. 'Psyphon didn't just let me run—he wanted me here. He wanted me as an audience. He wanted…'
He reached for the Omnitrix, but the drones were faster—more precise.
They descended in perfect formation, their weapons cycling from standby to active with an almost musical hum. This wasn't only about obtaining the Omnitrix anymore. This was about establishing dominance, about showing what happened to those who refused to submit.
The first energy bolt ignited the air with searing intensity. Before Ben could even reach for the Omnitrix, a plasma burst pierced clean through its target's skull, leaving a cauterized tunnel where a face had been. Before the next second could tick by, the remaining six dropped in a horrifying dance of precision—their bodies hitting the ground as the drones executed their grim task with mechanical efficiency.
Ben stopped in his tracks, his grandfather and cousin doing the same. His heartbeat thundered in his ears. His mouth fell open at how simple it was—one moment people stood recording with their phones, the next they were just bodies on the ground. No dramatic scenes, no last words. Just a shift from being to not being.
Tears filled Gwen's eyes. Max's body tensed, years of experience reading the battlefield. A drone's weapon began to glow—Max lunged, tackling Gwen as energy seared the air where her head had been.
"Ben! Right now, you're the only one who can stop these drones!" Max's voice cut through Ben's paralysis.
'Was this my fault? No—they made their point. Psyphon and Vilgax wanted to teach me about regret? They won. I regret… not attacking Psyphon when I had the chance. Now I'll teach them regret about toying with their prey.' Ben slammed the Omnitrix without checking which alien he'd selected, the familiar green light washing over his face frozen in cold calculation.
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Transformation sequence — Duration: 0.00 seconds
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His flesh turned crystalline and transparent like living glass, bones dissolving into nothing. His legs merged and faded, leaving him suspended in empty air like a specter.
His arms stretched into long spikes, his whole body becoming a smooth surface where reality seemed to bend and split. Light fractured around his form, making pieces of him appear, reflect, and vanish with each slight movement.
His face melted into featureless glass, the dial ( 〉〈 ) emerging from his forehead like a crack in space, the only feature in the otherwise featureless body.
His entire form pulsed with an inner light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere, making him appear both solid and incorporeal.
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The green light faded, leaving behind a being that bent crimson sky and distant flames' light. Where his body met the air, reality seemed to bend and distort, as if his mere existence violated natural law.