Chapter 64: Clash of the Heavyweights
Gwen's footsteps slowed as she reached the top of the stairs, her eyes widening at the bizarre gathering inside the room.
"So many Bens?! And one... me?!"
She stared at the impossible crowd. There was her usual ten-year-old dweeb of a cousin, but surrounding him were echoes of his future and alternate pasts. A thirteen-year-old Ben draped in flashy blue and gold. Three older teenagers, around sixteen or seventeen, each sporting different variations of the Omnitrix. A rugged, bearded Ben in his late thirties or early forties. And standing near them, a ten-year-old girl who looked exactly like her, save for the familiar watch strapped to her wrist.
"Are these all... me?! And another dork?!" Ben gaped, pointing a trembling finger at the assembly.
"Klein!" The alternate Gwen—the one wielding the Omnitrix in her universe—lit up with surprise and sprinted straight toward Klein.
Before she could reach him, the main universe Gwen stepped sharply into her path, crossing her arms like a physical barricade. "Hey! He's my cousin!"
The alternate Gwen frowned, her eyes narrowing slightly. She highly doubted this version of herself merely saw Klein as just a cousin. If anyone understood how a Gwen Tennyson thought, it was another Gwen Tennyson.
"Hey! Professor," Ben called out, looking up at the time-traveling eccentric. "Aren't you going to introduce him?"
Professor Paradox smiled, leaning casually on his cane. He knew exactly who Ben meant. "Gentlemen, and ladies, allow me to introduce Klein Azeroth. Ben and Gwen's cousin."
Ben 23 tugged on the sleeve of the older, green-jacketed teen next to him. "Hey, Ben, do you know him? I definitely don't remember having this cousin in my timeline."
The teen with the completed Omnitrix shook his head, glancing at the others. The Ben with the recalibrated watch, the one with the gauntlet-like Ultimatrix, and the others all exchanged blank looks. They collectively shook their heads.
"Ah, yes, I neglected to mention," Professor Paradox said, his tone perfectly mild as he observed their confusion. "None of your respective universes possess a Klein."
Klein, who had been leaning against the wall in comfortable silence, finally spoke up. His gaze drifted toward the oldest Ben in the room. "An older Ben, huh?...Hey. Ben. Want to spar?"
He kept his voice flat, but a spark of genuine amusement danced in his eyes. He really wanted to see exactly how much the older Tennyson had grown over the decades.
The bearded Ben 10,000 raised an eyebrow, a confident, almost condescending smirk playing on his lips. "Even though you aren't exactly my cousin, kid, I feel obligated to warn you. I'm not the Ben you know. I'm the superior, fully realized version. You can't beat me with just a standard Omnitrix. I retired that old thing years ago."
He found the ten-year-old's challenge amusing, completely dismissing any actual threat.
"Ah, Ben," Professor Paradox interjected, his voice dripping with dry caution. "While I loathe pouring cold water on your enthusiasm, I must remind you... you cannot defeat him. In fact, if every Ben and Gwen in this room attacked him simultaneously, you would all still lose."
Paradox preferred to spare his old friend the sheer humiliation that was about to unfold.
"How is that even possible?!" The teen Ben with the completed Omnitrix shot up from his chair, his pride stung. "I... we are all legendary heroes! We've saved the universe hundreds of times!"
"He can control Alien X at will," Paradox stated simply.
The room went dead silent.
"I take it back," the teen Ben muttered, immediately sitting back down.
The other older Bens suddenly found the floor incredibly interesting.
The ten-year-old Ben blinked, looking up at the teenager with the Ultimatrix. "What's an Alien X?"
"Alien X is all-powerful," Ultimate Ben explained, his voice grim.
"Cool!" Ben's eyes practically turned into stars.
"You won't think it's cool once you've actually used it," Ultimate Ben muttered, shivering slightly at the bad memories of being trapped in a motionless debate for eternity.
"No fighting, it's boring." The ten-year-old Ben's eye twitched as he looked at Klein's expectant face, suddenly feeling a deep wave of pity for his older self.
"I won't use Alien X," Klein offered, waving a hand dismissively. He had no intention of using his ultimate trump card anyway. Flattening an opponent with a single thought lacked any entertainment value.
"Alright, you said it," Ben 10,000 declared, his fighting spirit reigniting. He decided right then and there to thoroughly dampen this kid's arrogance. Being able to use Alien X at will? That was just entirely too enviable to let slide.
"Wait, Ben... never mind. Let him go," Paradox sighed, watching the two of them bolt out the door before he could finish his sentence.
"Professor, won't we run out of time for the mission?" Alien Force Ben asked, frowning at the empty doorway.
"No," Paradox replied, shaking his head with a calm, knowing smile. "It will be over very, very quickly."
The wind howled through the cracked concrete of an abandoned suburban district.
"Like I said, I haven't used a standard Omnitrix in years," Ben 10,000 called out, his voice echoing across the empty streets. He raised both arms, showing off the dual gauntlets strapped to his wrists. "Let me show you the Biomnitrix."
He crossed his arms into a sharp X shape, the two faceplates slamming together. "Fourmungousaur!"
A blinding flash of emerald light erupted. In Ben's place stood a colossal, red-skinned behemoth. It possessed the towering, armored physique of a Vaxasaurian, heavily muscled and spiked, but with the four massive, corded arms of a Tetramand.
"Interesting," Klein murmured, his lips curling into a rare grin. "Just in time to try out the watch's new function."
Klein raised his left wrist, resting his right hand over the face of the Another Omnitrix. A translucent, ghostly blue holographic halo projected into the air.
With a flick of his finger, the ring rotated, locking onto a specific alien avatar. Then, he spun it again, selecting a second. The two holographic figures slid together, overlapping until they merged into a completely new, hybridized form.
Selection locked. The core popped up. Klein slammed it down.
"Spider-Dactyl!"
A surge of phantom blue light washed over the ruins. Where Klein stood a moment ago, a bizarre new entity crouched. It possessed the sleek, pterosaur-like features and glowing energy whips of an Astrodactyl, but fused perfectly with the multi-limbed, agile physiology of a Spidermonkey.
"How is that possible?!" Fourmungousaur roared, his four eyes widening in shock. "The Omnitrix has that function?! Did Azmuth give me a pirated copy?!"
Hearing the sheer disbelief in the older Ben's voice made Spider-Dactyl's day. The thrill of flexing a superior, built-in feature was intoxicating—comparable to stealing someone's high-level gaming account right in front of their face. He had been itching to test this ever since he first saw the Biomnitrix in action.
Fourmungousaur shook his massive head, clearing his shock. He bent his thick, dinosaur-like legs, shattering the asphalt beneath him, and launched his colossal bulk straight at Spider-Dactyl like a runaway freight train.
Watching the mountain of red muscle close the distance, Spider-Dactyl didn't dodge. He simply pulled back one of his blue-furred, energy-crackling fists and threw a punch.
The tiny fist collided dead-center with Fourmungousaur's massive knuckles.
A shockwave of bright green and ghostly blue energy exploded outward. The sheer kinetic force defied all logic. Fourmungousaur's eyes bulged as his momentum instantly reversed. He was blasted backward, tearing through the air like a cannonball, flying over a thousand meters before slamming into the earth.
Boom!
A massive crater formed, kicking up a dust cloud dozens of meters high into the sky.
Spider-Dactyl didn't press the attack. He merely stood his ground, casually watching the billowing smoke where his opponent had landed.
"Spider-X!"
A voice thundered from within the crater. Fourmungousaur leaped out of the smoke, his body glowing intensely green in mid-air. As the light shattered, a new form emerged. It possessed the multi-limbed, agile physiology of a Spidermonkey, but its entire body was composed of the starry, void-like cosmic skin of a Celestialsapien.
"Spider-X!"
Spider-Dactyl didn't miss a beat. He tapped the glowing blue badge on his chest. A flash of phantom light erupted, and an identical Spider-X materialized in his place. The only difference was the chilling, ghostly blue energy radiating from Klein's form and the matching blue symbol on his chest.
Klein felt the unique power matrix of the Another Omnitrix synchronize with his soul. Unlike Kevin Levin's crude amalgamations, which diluted the strength of each alien to a mere tenth, this fusion flawlessly synthesized fifty percent of each donor's raw power. His Spider-X form wielded exactly half the omnipotence of Alien X and half the agility of a Spidermonkey. It was a perfect equilibrium, designed specifically to compensate for the natural weaknesses of individual alien heroes.
The two cosmic titans clashed almost instantly. The air pressure shattered for miles around them.
But the difference in raw proficiency was immediately apparent. Klein's Spider-X moved with terrifying, fluid speed. Before Ben's Spider-X could even throw a punch, Klein grabbed him by the arm, spun on his heel, and hurled him upward.
The throw broke the sound barrier instantly. Ben's Spider-X was sent hurtling out of the atmosphere at a velocity far exceeding the third cosmic velocity, tearing a fiery streak through the sky.
Without a second thought, Klein's Spider-X teleported.
He materialized at the very edge of the exosphere, waiting. Just as Ben's Spider-X breached the vacuum of space, Klein brought his glowing blue fists down in a devastating double-hammer strike.
Boom!
The resulting explosion of cosmic energy practically eclipsed the sun. The sheer concussive force blew away a massive section of the Earth's atmosphere, leaving the planet looking temporarily balding from orbit.
Ben's Spider-X plummeted back toward the surface like a dying meteor. Just inches before he could impact the ground and vaporize the entire suburban block, Klein teleported again, casually catching him by the ankle.
"Still want to fight?" Klein asked, his voice echoing with dual, cosmic resonance as he floated effortlessly in mid-air, holding the older Ben upside down.
Ben's Spider-X let out a long, defeated sigh. He shook his starry head, suddenly feeling as though his decades of heroic experience had been a complete waste of time. He had just been utterly dismantled by a ten-year-old.
Back in the abandoned building, the flash of a teleportation portal deposited the two combatants.
"Sigh!" Ben 10,000 immediately slumped against the wall, sliding down to the floor in a depressed heap.
Seeing the older Ben's deeply resentful glare, Professor Paradox offered an awkward, apologetic smile. "I did attempt to warn you, Ben. Truly, I did."
"Yeah, I probably should have said something too," the ten-year-old Ben chimed in, wincing as he remembered the days when Klein would occasionally drag him out for sparring sessions. "My cousin hits really, really hard."
"Alright, Professor, enough playing around. We should get down to business," Alien Force Ben said, clapping his hands once to bring the focus back to their impending mission.
"Mm..." Paradox nodded, his expression finally turning serious.
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