The sunlight was soft.
By the riverbank, the Rustbucket sat quietly as the water babbled past and fish darted about.
"I've got the marshmallows ready!" Ben said, holding a pile of colorful sweets.
"I brought the snow crackers!" Gwen said excitedly, holding up a bag of rice crackers.
Lucian yawned and slowly stepped out of the Rustbucket.
Grandpa Max scratched his head and smiled warmly. "We're camping here today. I'm going to gather some firewood, and when I get back, we can make shredded flatbread."
"Okay!" Ben and Gwen answered in unison, a rare moment of agreement.
But the moment Grandpa walked away, the two of them started making faces at each other again, neither willing to give in.
Gwen, frustrated beyond words, pulled out a sheet of paper covered in plans. "Today is Grandpa's sixtieth birthday. I already planned the whole party. Without a birthday cake, how's he supposed to make a wish?"
"You even planned his birthday wish for him?" Ben scoffed.
"I don't care. You have to find a way to buy a cake, even if you have to turn into XLR8."
"Oh, come on. What kind of great hero has time for that? I'm already exhausted from fighting evil every day!" Ben said as if it were perfectly justified.
"Stop arguing. I'll go buy it." Lucian rubbed his eyes. It was not like he had anything else to do.
Besides, during this summer break, Grandpa had been especially kind to him, even kinder than he was to Ben and Gwen.
Maybe it was because he had been gone for so long...
But the other two were already too worked up to listen to a word their cousin said.
"Rock, paper, scissors. Whoever loses has to go buy it!" Gwen proposed.
"Who's scared of who? Bring it on!" Ben rolled up his imaginary sleeves.
"Rock, paper..."
Before they could finish, a golden ring of light appeared behind them, like the gaping jaws of a monster, blasting out gusts of wind.
Lucian's eyes shifted as he stared at it.
What was that?
It looked a little like a Null Void portal.
Could Vilgax be trying to escape?
"Oh my God, what is that thing!" Ben spun around, eyes full of shock.
"Don't tell me it's another alien weirdo," Gwen said, frowning.
Whoosh.
A figure in a blue robe suddenly shot out of the ring of light and went straight for Gwen.
Lucian had already been prepared. He instantly pressed the Omnitrix and transformed into Humungousaur, stepping in front of Gwen.
But in the next second, the blue figure blurred and vanished into thin air.
When it appeared again, it was already behind Gwen.
"Ah!" Gwen screamed as the blue-robed figure grabbed her tightly and turned back toward the portal.
"Stop!" Humungousaur kicked off the ground and shot forward like a cannonball.
He was just about to catch the robed figure when the other party fired a beam of light with a backhanded strike, forcing Humungousaur back before turning and vanishing completely into the golden ring.
"Gwen!"
Ben panicked and immediately transformed into XLR8, charging into the portal and disappearing.
Humungousaur let out a quiet sigh. "Looks like this trip through time is unavoidable after all."
A flash of green light passed, and Humungousaur transformed into Red Fox Princess, then became a streak of red as she chased after them.
The next instant, the golden ring closed.
The howling wind stopped abruptly, as if nothing had happened.
"Huh? Where'd everybody go?"
Just then, Grandpa Max came back carrying an armful of firewood, staring blankly at the empty riverbank.
...
Passing through the golden ring, XLR8 moved with incredible speed as everything on both sides rushed backward. In the blink of an eye, he caught up to the blue figure.
"Give Gwen back!"
XLR8 shot out a black claw and slammed it hard into the mysterious figure's back.
Bang!
The mysterious figure let out a muffled groan and fell straight down like a butterfly with broken wings, blue robes fluttering wildly.
"Ah! Help!" Gwen screamed as she fell toward the ground too.
A red streak flashed by. Red Fox Princess caught Gwen in midair, spun twice, and landed smoothly on the ground.
"Ahhh! I'm gonna die!"
Still in her arms, Gwen kicked frantically with her eyes squeezed shut, not yet realizing she was safe.
"It's okay now." A rich female voice sounded.
Gwen's body trembled slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes. "C-Cuz? I'm safe?"
"Oh, this is so cool! Thank you, Cuz!"
As she said that, Gwen threw her arms around Red Fox Princess's neck and planted a big kiss on her.
Red Fox Princess stiffened awkwardly and froze for a moment, unsure what to do.
"All right, all right. You can get down now." Red Fox Princess patted Gwen on the back.
Honestly, even hearing her own lovely voice felt unbelievable to Lucian.
Because of the Charm Fox species' traits, and because the Omnitrix had extracted the genes of the fox maiden Yan Ji, the Charm Fox Lucian transformed into was always female.
That applied to both body and voice.
On top of that, when the Omnitrix transformed someone into a Charm Fox, the final appearance was influenced by the user's own looks. The more attractive the user was, the more beautiful the transformed Charm Fox would be.
It was also worth noting that the gene the Omnitrix had extracted was originally that of the Charm Fox Empress herself, and the Omnitrix automatically optimized it. Combined with Lucian's original looks, Red Fox Princess was breathtakingly beautiful, to the point that even Yan Ji herself fell a little short.
Of course, Charm Foxes also matched human standards of beauty. Aside from the ears on top of the head and the tail behind them, they looked no different from humans.
Red Fox Princess wore a long red dress. The two soft ears atop her head twitched slightly, and in her blood-red eyes was reflected the figure of the blue-robed man.
"Talk! Who are you? Why did you kidnap Gwen?" XLR8 demanded angrily, pointing at him.
The blue-robed man had just stood up and was about to speak when a beautiful young woman suddenly appeared overhead, riding a flying skateboard.
"Ben, you look so handsome! Mwah~"
After saying that, she blew a kiss at XLR8.
"Huh? What's going on here?" XLR8 scratched his head. "I know I'm handsome, but... hehe... it's not that extreme..."
"Doofus." Gwen rolled her eyes, then started looking around.
"Where are we? This place is so flashy. Even New York isn't like this."
Skyscrapers rose in every direction. Strange lights flashed all around them, and all kinds of high-tech products were everywhere, as if they had stepped into an alien world.
That was right. Aliens.
There were not only humans here, but plenty of aliens too, and none of the humans seemed the least bit surprised to see them.
As if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"Boss Ben, you're our god!"
A man rode past overhead on a mechanical centipede and waved enthusiastically at XLR8.
"Hey! Hi, everybody!" XLR8 waved back.
Finally. Finally!
Finally, someone recognized him as the hero of this world!
"Look, there's a statue over there!"
Following Gwen's gaze, they saw a giant statue standing not far away.
It was a bearded middle-aged man, standing proudly with his hands on his hips, broad and powerfully built.
At the base of the statue was a rectangular slab of stone carved with English words:
HERO OF HEROES
BEN
TEN THOUSAND
"Hero of Heroes, Ben 10,000!" XLR8 said in shock, his excitement impossible to hide.
"Did we travel to the future?" Gwen murmured thoughtfully.
Red Fox Princess muttered inwardly, Exactly.
Just then, the blue-robed figure slowly walked toward them...