After the green light died out, Ben became a humanoid creature made of thick green vines with thorns on his forearms and a black face.

“What’s that smell? Is that me?” Ben asked as he sniffed the armpits of his new transformation.

“Get away from my friends!” Ben yelled as he dashed towards the DNAliens and punched them with a newfound enhanced strength, DNAliens flew after each punch as if he were clearing the area.

The DNAliens recognizing the new threat fled to their truck to escape. Ben bent a metal rod and ran towards the escaping truck and knocked it over with the metal rod. The Forever Knights were not going to stay and watch nicely and then wait their turn to be beaten but instead began firing their laser weapons at Ben.

But the lasers kept passing through his body as Ben made poor attempts at blocking but didn’t appear to be in pain. One particular laser shot cut off his right arm which made Ben's group gasp with worry. But to the surprise of everyone including Ben, the arm reattached itself to his body through a growing vine.

Ben clenching his fists to confirm the reattachment while smiling at the capabilities of his new alien transformation responded, “You guys are in so much trouble.”

Ben ran towards the Forever Knights and began knocking them out one by one with his enhanced strength. Ben soon approached the unknown cloaked figure who panicked at his appearance and threw two small balls at Ben.

A high-pitched sound and a large amount of smoke screen escaped them as the figure ran away.

“What was that?” Ben asked himself as he shielded himself in case the cloaked figure had any more tricks.

Ben then faced the retreating forever knights and instinctively made fire from his hands and shot the illegal cargo the knights were trying to make away with which resulted in an explosion. The forever knights left the reaming cargo that wasn’t destroyed by Ben and prioritized their escape.

*********

After analyzing the weapons, Fish face gave a sigh of relief.

“These are indeed level five technology but the power cores inside are very poor and cheap. I doubt this thing can fire for more than five minutes at a time, what a scam!” Fish face exclaimed.

“Now, that you mention it. The guy with the cloak looked sketchy, he had a rat’s tail!” Ben added.

Fish Face led the group to his old Chevrolet and drove. Gwen helped in tracking the Forever Knight’s hideout with her location spell. Arriving at the location, Gwen got out and stopped at the drawbridge that was lifted shut only leaving a deep fall into the water body below.

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Gwen manipulated the pink discs she made on her hands to extend like a thick line that jostled with the draw bridge a little and brought it down eventually. The group walked into the castle's dark interior with Gwen’s discs as the only source of illumination but still Ben managed to knock down a knight statue that made noise in the hall. Fish face and Gwen looked at Ben with scolding looks but Ben only shrugged.

“Sorry, I guess I am just…” Ben stopped his explanation as he observed the look on Gwen and Fish face. Oh, he almost couldn’t count how many times he had seen that look in his childhood which meant something was behind him.

“…PARANOID!” Ben exclaimed and joined the group to run as soon as he saw a reptilian head as big as he was with horns.

The horned creature appeared to be a western dragon with dark brown scales. The Forever Knights soon came in and opened fire on their intruders. Gwen wasted no time in forming a pink ball that contained the group and protected them from continuous fire for some instants before shattering. Gwen began firing her discs at the knights giving Ben time to transform again.

Ben, a bit surprised that his Omnitrix wasn’t still low on power after his transformation and was ready for immediate action dialed his Omnitrix and transformed into a new alien. This alien appeared to be completely white in colour and was no taller than most toddlers, duplicated itself into three after the transformation.

“Echo-echo.” The little aliens echoed together. They quickly surrounded the dragon in a triangle formation and began emitting high-pitched frequencies toward the dragon. The dragon appeared to be visibly affected after the attack but vibrations still spread to Ben’s allies who covered their ears in defense.

Sparks began to show on the dragon’s body and soon after the head fell off as screws and wires could be seen indicating the dragon to be man-made and not a natural-born dragon. Pieces of the dragon fell until it stopped moving under Ben’s sonic attack. The forever knights that were not knocked out by Gwen or the vibrations from Ben retreated immediately after the mechanical dragon got destroyed in a matter of seconds.

“Warn us next time.” Gwen moved closer to Ben frowning to show her distaste for Ben’s previous actions.

“Sorry.” Ben echoed his apology. He just tried this new alien and was just getting to know it but he remembered that he wasn’t fighting alone and felt bad for his selfish action.

Ben destroyed the illegal tech that some of the knights managed to run away from with his sonic attack and transformed back to his base state. He soon pointed at Fish face's chest that water was leaking from him, but Gwen and Fish Face begged to differ as Fish Face confirmed it wasn’t water and passed out.

“You are Ben Tennyson… you can do anything.” Fish face said on the floor as Ben held him and watched gas escape from his space helmet and his body disintegrate into nothingness.

“No.” Ben said as he squeezed his face. Gwen knelt next to him to hug and comfort both Ben and herself.

Ben standing up and steeling his resolve picked up Fish face's plumber badge.

“I might not know where Grandpa is but I swear I will find him and make those who captured him pay!” Ben said with anger.

“No, Ben. We bring them to justice.” Gwen got up calming Ben putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I know how this may sound but… we can’t do this alone.” Gwen said.

“I know.” Ben agreed calming down.

“You may not like what I am about to say but… we might need Kevin’s help too. I know he was our enemy at one point but I think his helping will unknowingly redeem himself in the process.” Gwen said lowering her voice.

“I… I don’t really like the guy but you have a point. He could even help us track down that person with a rat’s tail since Kevin knows a thing or two about alien tech. But the thing is, how do we get him out of the null void even if I want him to join us?”