Board Thread:Roleplay/@comment-28920015-20171105043001/@comment-26892768-20171108023405

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(I MUST DO THIS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE)

Verminion grins like a maniac. "On it."

A mad cackle echoes as a familiar bat flies in.

"GREETINGS..." For a moment, Tyrannus is only mist, but then he turns back and ''oh god there's a swarm of smaller hims. "...and many hellos!"''

Elsewhere, in a relatively average universe, a familiar face - to the heroes at least - is relaxing after a hard day's work.

This is one Benjamin Tennyson, but not the one the heroes would think of. This Ben never got the Omnitrix - he never even saw the Omnitrix or any alien activity until several of himself from alternate timelines started hunting him down. Then he temporarily got the Omnitrix from the prime Ben, restarted the main timeline after Vilgax destroyed it and all other timelines, yada yada yada...that was fun, but what he was really grateful for was how it got his Grandpa to tell him about the Plumbers. It took a while, but now? He's in the Plumber Academy. Soon to be part of a galactic police force. Maybe he doesn't have a watch that can turn him into aliens, but he doesn't need a fancy gadget to be a hero.

His relaxing day drinking Mr. Smoothie's is then interrupted by a sudden portal appearing out of nowhere, with a familiar figure, at least to Ben, emerging from it.

"...Professor Paradox?" Ben blinks.

"Ben." The millennia-years old professor smiles a bit.

"It is you!" Ben, grinning, gets up. "Great to see you again, Paradox."

"The same to you, mister Tennyson. I just wish it was under less grave circumstances..."

"You know, I never got to-wait, what was that?" Ben asks.

"You may want to sit down for this. I have quite the tale for you, my boy." Both men sit down. Paradox sighs. "...Ben Prime has been killed, a threat to existence itself is rising again, and you must take his place among the gathering of heroes to help save the omniverse."

There's a moment of silence.

"Jellybeans?" Paradox holds out a bag of the multicolored candy. "It helps calm the nerves."

"I'm good." Ben sips his smoothie. "So...how did that happen? We saw his future self, we recruited his future self; he can't-"

"Unfortunately, time isn't quite like it used to be." Paradox sighs. "Do you recall how I said that the universe is like a tree?"

"Yeah...you said that prime me was the trunk, and all diverging timelines were branches. I was the only one who never even saw the Omnitrix." Ben recalls. "Where are you going with this?"

"Well, we aren't the only tree, Ben." Paradox states. "We are simply one tree in a forest of trees, all different universes throughout the omniverse with different rules...but years ago, a threat came to the omniverse. I think the best way to use it in our analogy is a particularly nasty species of termite - feeds on the fabric of reality, kills off universes, whatever it leaves behind is a distorted, empty husk of what it once was, and it's far beyond the trees - and our - comprehension."

"These 'termites' are Final Ones: the void itself, wishing to take back the lawless nothing it once had."

"Oh wow..." Ben mutters. "I'm getting a headache already..."

"When the void got loose, it started to eat away at the fabric of space and time. It caused all sorts of problems, and still is - unpredictable portals, the dead rising, and, most importantly, allowing time to be altered without changing the future. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but considering sense got removed, you can see why. So, as a result, young Ben ended up getting portalled alongside a group of heroes, helped save the omniverse, and later had to deal with a less ominous threat known as the Red Army...that ultimately ended up killing him. And now, a particularly nasty remnant of the void is starting to rise again..."

"...And I need to help, I got it." Ben replies. "But why me? What about rich me, or future prime me, or Gwen me?"

"Well, for one, some timelines were wiped out along with half of the entire omniverse - another story for another time - others are being hunted down by those who work for the void, and at least one has been kidnapped by a rogue element. You've been undetected." Paradox explains.

"Okay, I see your point, but what do you expect me to do? I'm a Plumber-in-training; I'm not exactly prepared for this sort of thing!" Ben argues.

Paradox simply grins, and holds out a familiar watch. "I expect you to improvise."

"...Is that..."

"Not the prime Omnitrix. That was destroyed." Paradox grins. "However, while you may the only Ben who never saw an Omnitrix, the one that fell was the prototype. It was simply a matter of finding a timeline where Azmuth never gave Ben the finished product, giving it the proper DNA, and here it is. An Omnitrix with the same functionality as the prime one, and the same aliens as the prime one...plus one."

"Huh?" Ben blinks as the Omnitrix is put on his wrist.

"I unlocked a new alien for you." Paradox turns back to the portal. "You may find it quite useful. Good day, Tennyson!"

"Wait! How am I supposed to-"

"I've arranged a meeting! Good luck!" Paradox enters his portal, and it closes behind him.

"Huh. Wonder what he means..." Ben muses.

Seconds later, a portal opens up and deposits Nimona and Vezon.

"OW! Who was that guy? And who does he think he is, showing up out of nowhere and drop kicking us into our own portal?" Nimona growls as she gets up. "If I ever see him again..."

Nimona pauses when she sees Ben. "...Uh...aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Ben sighs. "It's going to be a long day..."