At Fort DNA-X, the massive containment facility stretched deep underground, lined wall after wall with enormous storage canisters filled with preserved DNA samples from across the galaxy. Yellow lights flickered across the metal corridors while machines hummed endlessly in the background. For such an important place, the facility felt strangely empty.
Fasttrack moved through the facility at high speed, searching every aisle and every platform with growing frustration.
"Where the heck are they...?" he muttered.
Suddenly, the entire left wall exploded inward. Fasttrack skidded back just in time to avoid the blast, and a heavier, bulkier version of Rath came flying out of the smoke and crashed hard into the floor in front of him.
The future Appoplexian snarled as he pushed himself back up. Unlike the Rath Evan knew, this one wore a black-and-red luchador outfit, and his entire body looked older, rougher, and scarred from years of battle.
He pushed himself up with a low snarl, but the second his gaze landed on Fasttrack, something flickered in his eyes. For a brief moment, there was recognition there, or maybe something even stranger, before he forced it down and turned away.
He looked away and focused back toward the destroyed corridor ahead.
"Go back," Rath said coldly. "You do not belong here."
"Not until I figure out why you turned into the opposite of what I hoped you'd become," Fasttrack shot back.
Rath's lips curled into a sneer. "I do not have time for you, Ever Gold. Now move."
Before Fasttrack could answer, a storage pod came hurtling through the air and slammed down in front of them with a heavy crash. Both of them turned toward it, and their enemy stepped out.
Dr. Animo was no longer the weak, frail man Evan remembered. Somehow, in the future, he had turned himself into something far stranger, a disembodied head suspended in a jar and attached to the body of a giant white gorilla.
Evan stared at him in disbelief. "How the hell is he still alive?"
"No one is going anywhere!" Dr. Animo declared. "I see you brought help. Good. You're going to need it. For every one of your ten thousand heroes, I will steal enough DNA to create ten thousand monstrous minions."
"Oh yeah?" Fasttrack said, already charging forward at blinding speed. "We'll see about that."
Rath rushed in beside him, but Animo swung one of his massive gorilla arms and shattered the floor between them, blasting both of them backward. Fasttrack recovered first and moved again, but Rath shifted into Shock Rock and fired electric blasts toward the scientist. Animo knocked Fasttrack aside with another heavy swing, sending him crashing into one of the storage pods.
Shock Rock and Dr. Animo glared at each other, and this time neither of them hesitated. They charged straight at one another.
Shock Rock landed the first hit with a hard left hook to the side of Animo's glass dome. Animo answered with a brutal two-handed uppercut that forced Shock Rock to stagger. Shock Rock tackled him to the floor, but Animo clapped both hands down onto the Appoplexian's head and stunned him for a split second. That was all the opening Animo needed. He swung again, but Shock Rock ducked and drove an uppercut into his face.
Animo stumbled, then lunged back and grappled with him. For a moment the two were locked together, but then a green flash erupted between Animo's arms and he was blasted away by a foul-smelling stream of liquid. The source of it was a spherical alien with a huge mouth, and before Animo could recover, he had already changed again, this time into a yellow-and-black alien with a metal head floating between its shoulders.
Ben 10,000 extended his clawed hands and sent out a magnetic pull that drew scraps of metal and loose parts from the facility toward Animo, forming a rough metallic cocoon around him. For a split second it looked like it might work, but Animo tore himself free with brute force and ripped a crane claw from the ceiling before slamming it down onto Ben 10,000, apparently crushing him beneath the weight.
Animo looked almost pleased with himself.
That lasted until a jellyfish-like alien floated down overhead and pointed two glowing tentacles toward him, blasting him with a vicious electrical current.
Dr. Animo screamed and dropped to his knees, his body smoking faintly and the smell of burnt hair filling the air. He shot a furious glare upward, only to realize Ben 10,000 had transformed again.
This time he had become a massive, two-legged dinosaur-like alien, and he charged straight at Animo with impossible force, slamming a punch into the scientist's chest with both feet planted hard behind it. Animo was hurled backward and smashed into one of the containment tanks, yellow fluid spilling across the floor in a messy rush.
Fasttrack finally returned from the wreckage, shaking debris off himself as he looked toward the unconscious Animo lying motionless on the ground.
"You sure worked fast," he muttered.
But then he noticed something. The dinosaur alien was still walking toward Animo. And the look in his eyes made Evan realize exactly what he was about to do.
Fasttrack immediately rushed forward and stood directly between Animo and the dinosaur alien.
"Ben, stop!" he shouted. "That's enough!"
The dinosaur alien glared down at him.
"Get out of the way, Ever," he said coldly. "I don't want to hurt you."
"Ben, you take them down, not out!" Fasttrack shouted back. "You were supposed to be the good guy here!"
Those were Ben's own words, years ago. Words that they both remembered.
Even now, Evan did not see himself as some shining hero, although it's hypocritical of him, but Evan still believed Ben could be better than him.
But Ben's expression did not soften.
"That was the old me. I buried that naive kid long ago," the dinosaur alien replied emotionlessly. "Now step aside."
Fasttrack stared at him for a second before slamming down on his Omnitrix.
Golden light erupted outward.
"Bloxx!"
The new alien was a huge blocky gorilla-like figure, built like living construction material and nearly the same size as the dinosaur alien.
"I can't let you keep going like this, Ben," Bloxx said firmly. "This isn't the hero Grandpa and I believed you'd become!"
Bloxx charged forward, his body snapping together into a massive shape as he threw himself at Ben 10,000. But even with the size increase, the difference in strength was brutal. The dinosaur alien rag-dolled him through the facility, sending blocks and debris flying in every direction.
Another flash of golden light erupted, and Stitch appeared, tiny but fierce, grabbing the dinosaur's fist with both hands. Somehow, unbelievably, he actually held him back for a second.
Then another transformation hit.
A black metal-bodied alien with water pipes running through him appeared, and he raised one hand to fire a powerful jet of water toward Stitch.
Stitch struggled for a moment, then transformed again with a flash of light into Shellblade and swam straight forward, charging at his own partner with reckless determination.
Then the light changed again.
A black-and-yellow yeti-like alien appeared with crackling electricity in its fists, and he drove a thunderous punch into Shellblade, sending him flying through another wall and into several storage pods.
"Face it, Ever," Ben 10,000 said coldly. "You can't stop me now."
Then he turned back toward the unconscious Dr. Animo.
He raised his fist. And prepared to crush the scientist's skull.
But suddenly his arm stopped moving. A powerful Telekinesis held him back.
He growled and looked behind him.
"Get out of the way, Gwendolyn," Ben 10,000 snapped.
"No," Gwendolyn said, hovering in place with shaking hands but a steady voice. "I will not let you kill another soul, Ben. You already killed Hope just because she defended her family. You kill Orfevre when she falls into madness instead of helping her. The villains we fight are people too, and they have families too, no matter what they do."
"They're all the same!" Ben shouted back. "It is because of them that Ever died protecting us!"
"Evan..." Ben muttered, stunned.
"Is dead..." Gwen finished quietly.
The two younger kids looked shocked as they stood behind the sorceress, and for a moment neither of them knew what to say.
But Gwendolyn kept going, even though her own voice was beginning to tremble.
"Maybe that's true," she shouted, "but slaughtering people makes you no different from the monsters you hate! You sound just like Vilgax now, Ben! Even Ever wouldn't want you becoming like this!"
That finally made Ben 10,000 snap.
His entire expression twisted with rage, with one powerful punch, his fist crashed into the side of Animo's head, causing blood to splatter. Both Gwen's and Ben's faces twisted in horror at the sight.
Green light erupted.
XLR8 appeared and instantly sped away fast enough to create a sonic boom throughout the facility.
Gwendolyn stared after him silently.
"He'll be back," she said quietly. "And next time, we'll pacify him."
"Did somebody call for help?"
Everyone turned as several familiar figures suddenly materialized nearby.
"The Galactic Enforcers have arrived!"
"The Galactic Enforcers?" younger Ben repeated.
Ultimos stepped forward and nodded.
"Hello again, old friends," he said warmly, then his gaze landed on the bloody Animo, and his smile dropped.
"Sorry, show's over, guys," Gwendolyn replied tiredly.
"It's a big universe out there, Gwendolyn," Ultimos replied. "With your cousin running around like this, maybe you should let us help handle some of the villains."
"What would even be the point...?" Gwendolyn sighed.
Then, after a moment, she gestured toward Animo.
"But since you're here, you can see if Animo can be saved and taken back to the Null Void chamber for me."
"Yeah, sure," Tini replied. "Happy to help."
Meanwhile, a black blur suddenly burst through one of the flooded holes in the wall.
"WHERE IS THAT SON OF A GUN!?"
Fasttrack suddenly stopped mid-sentence. A black Symbiote-like suit now covered parts of his body as he looked around wildly for Ben 10,000.
Before he could react, Gwendolyn suddenly pulled him into a tight hug.
"I'm sorry," she whispered shakily. "You're always there for us... but when you needed us the most, we couldn't even buy you twenty-four hours to rest."
Fasttrack froze slightly at the pain in her voice. As everyone slowly began moving out, younger Ben looked completely shaken.
"I can't believe this..." he said weakly. "I become a supervillain... I don't even want the Omnitrix anymore if this is my future! I don't deserve it!"
Gwendolyn floated over and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Ben," she said softly, "that's why we brought you here. Ben 10,000 is still in there somewhere. We need your help to save him."
Her gaze shifted toward Evan, and the sadness in her eyes became obvious.
"And..." she said softly, "you're his biggest regret. The reason he became like this. He... we failed you when you needed us most."
At that moment, her cat-themed belt buckle beeped sharply.
"Danger alert in Sector 1A-Centric!"
Everyone immediately looked toward her.
"What's down there?" Gwen asked.
"The Null Void Chamber," Gwendolyn answered seriously as she raised her hand and opened another glowing portal.
...
Back at the horribly named DNA storage facility, the injured Animo somehow escaped and made his way to the neighboring containment pod and ripped the hatch away, revealing the mangled body stored inside.
He grinned wickedly, gasping for air as he looked down at it.
"Long time no see, Lord Vilgax," Dr. Animo said. "The time has come to rise again and take your revenge."
One of the nodes on his cracked jar helmet flashed red, firing a beam straight into Vilgax's corpse. The body twitched once, then the burning red eyes opened again.
...
Far below HQ at Sector 1A-Centric, a lone figure stood at the controls of the Null Void Projector while glaring up at the ceiling as if he could already see the chaos about to hit him. He wore a silver mask that left only his amber eyes visible, and a long black cloak covered his entire body as he worked with quiet, deliberate confidence.
Then XLR8 burst into the area at full speed.
He skidded to a stop, eyes locked on the masked villain.
"So, freeing someone from the Null Void, are we?" he said.
The masked villain turned his head slightly and smirked.
"So, you're the famous Ben 10,000 everyone keeps talking about," he replied. "Let's see if you're really as good as they say."
Then they rushed each other.
The masked villain moved with enough speed to keep up with XLR8's first few strikes, dodging each slash and twist of his blades with infuriating ease. He then fired a blast of fire from both hands, forcing XLR8 to recoil as the flames hit him square in the face and shoved him back through the air. Before XLR8 could recover, he transformed into Wildmutt and lunged forward with a furious snarl, slamming the villain onto the floor and snapping his jaws toward his throat.
The masked villain slipped out of the bite at the last second and kicked him hard enough to send him skidding backward. XLR8 shifted again, transforming into Heatblast as he spun back onto his feet and fired two blazing fireballs toward the enemy. The masked villain simply raised both arms and returned fire with a pair of heavy, energy-charged blasts that struck Ben straight in the chest and sent him stumbling.
Then, with a flash of green light, Ben shifted again into Crystalsapien.
Now he looked like a living weapon. His body had become black stone, a single eye sat in the center of his head, purple crystal spikes jutted from his frame, and the Omnitrix symbol glowed from the middle of his chest while bulky armor wrapped around his limbs.
He raised one arm and fired an energy blast.
The masked villain dodged the shot easily, but the blast smashed straight into the Null Void Projector behind him. The machine whirred, sparked, and suddenly roared to life as a portal began opening wide.
Ben's eyes widened. So did everyone else.
Through the newly opening portal came Gwendolyn first, followed by Gwen, Ben, and Evan, all of them staring at the scene in shock.
"I'll be seeing you," the masked villain said before vanishing from view.
Everyone froze.
Then a lone figure stepped out of the portal.
He was leaner than the others remembered, with long black hair and a black jumpsuit, black fingerless gloves, and black boots. He looked over at the group, then immediately stiffened when he saw who was standing there.
"Kevin?" Gwendolyn and the younger Gwen said at the same time.
Kevin's expression hardened.
"So, Tennysons," he said. "You came all this way just to let me out and gloat after all these years?"
"We didn't free anybody," Ben snapped as he transformed into Four Arms.
Kevin sneered. "Maybe not. But you still made a huge mistake."
Then his body began to shift.
Everyone stared in horror as Kevin's mutation twisted even further, becoming something far worse than before. His body distorted and rebuilt itself into an enormous, hideous fusion of stolen alien traits, each part more grotesque than the last.
"No way!" Four Arms growled.
The thing that stood before them now looked like a nightmare stitched together from multiple species. Its torso was broad and monstrous, its arms were mismatched in size and shape, one black and glowing with green energy while another resembled a giant brown ape arm lined with yellow and black bolts. One upper arm was shaped like a Tetramand limb but covered in quills, while the other looked like Diamondhead's arm made from molten black rock. Its legs were mostly white with red accents and carried the armor of Vilgax's species, while the pelvis had the shape of an Arburian Pelarota with a white outline and three dots in the center.
Its tails were worse.
Multiple tails lashed behind it, each armed with a different element: crystal, metal, electricity, water, nuclear energy, flame, ice, black ooze, rocks, and sand. A huge green crystal horn rose from its head, its chest had Ripjaws' jaw but enlarged into something monstrous, and beneath the main wings were smaller wings like Stinkfly's, though one of them had been replaced by black molten rock. Its face was still Kevin's, but now it was twisted into something so awful it barely looked alive anymore.
"Meet Kevin 11,000!"
"He is even uglier than I remember," Evan said flatly.
"Disgusting," Four Arms muttered.
He leaped forward and hammered Kevin 11,000 with a brutal string of punches and kicks, but the creature barely even staggered. It absorbed the hits like they were nothing.
Then Kevin 11,000 wrapped one of his massive tentacles around Four Arms and shocked him mercilessly until he screamed. With one violent heave, he hurled Four Arms across the facility, smashing him through several walls before he disappeared into the city outside.
Kevin 11,000 roared and turned toward Gwendolyn and the others, firing heat beams and several bursts of raw energy at them.
Gwendolyn immediately raised her hand and formed a glowing magic barrier just in time to block the attack.
"We need to stop him!" she shouted. "If he gets out of here, he could destroy the entire city!"
Evan glanced down at his Another Omnitrix.
"Omnitrix absorbed all the items inside the Sample category!"
[Beginning process! Complete! 27 new DNA samples acquired!]
Gwendolyn: "!!!"
Gwendolyn snapped her head toward him so quickly it looked like she nearly gave herself whiplash.
Although his clash with Ben 10,000 is short and quick, ending with him being thrown through multiple walls. Evan is still an opportunist, using that moment to collect new DNA samples for his Another Omnitrix.
That was just how he operated. Even if his action would basically create a paradox, he still did it.
If there was a chance for him to take something and upgrade himself, he was absolutely going to take it.
Gwendolyn sighed and couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic.
"We're ready!" Ben shouted as he stepped forward and slammed down on his Omnitrix.
Green light erupted.
When it faded, he was standing there as Upgrade.
"Aw, man!" Upgrade groaned.
AN: Guys, this is your chance to drop your suggestion for new alien forms.