MvT Chapter 8: "Future Events"

"Future Events" is the eighth chapter of the fan-made Ben 10 continuation, Multiverse vs. Tennyson.

Synopsis
"On the verge of everything on the line, four heroes of alternate worlds team up to take down villains, with undying hope they will come out victorious."

Plot
The opening scene begins with a panning view within the outer-atmosphere of Earth, before it slowly pans into the setting of a futuristic Mt. Rushmore, a black-and-cyan-blue city, and more noticeably, a massive headquarters before it. FALL 2042, ALMOST TWENTY YEARS LATER

"OMNITRIX CITY", MT. RUSHMORE

BEN 10,000'S HEADQUARTERS, ROBOTICS LABORATORY Within a stark-white, futuristic laboratory, the detached left forearm and hand of Neomni, defeated during the events of Chapter 5, laid within a large cylindrical glass container, still functional, albeit trapped within a brainless state, as it scarily squirmed around like a giant insect, even smacking its palm against the glass, as outside, the adult Ben 10,000, and both alternate Omnitrix wielders, Gwen 10 and Ultimate Ben, watched it from the outside, alongside the Prime Future counterpart of Gwen Tennyson, who had longer hair with larger bangs, wore blue earrings, a dark-blue-and-black spandex suit, a lowered light-blue hood, a pair of light-blue belts, the upper one wearing a silver, pink-eyed variation of her cat logo, black, white-toed shoes, and a series of mystical charms, the Charms of Bezel, on her suit’s outer-arms, three on each arm, and one on a metallic amulet she wore around her neck.

“This is rather… disturbing...” Future Gwen exclaims, watching the severed limb convulse and scratch at the glance, as the four of them retract back from it, Ben 10,000 seen interacting with a computer-like interface and control panel, interlinked to the glass container with metallic tubes.

“I can’t believe this thing came from MY timeline… what even is it?” Gwen 10 exclaims, confused and disgusted, to which Ben 10,000 responds, “Anti-Ben-10 android. It was hunting alternate versions of me down, taking them down one by one.”

“Why did it never go after me?” Gwen 10 asks, confused, to which Ultimate Ben slowly responds, “You have your alternate Omnitrix... but you aren’t Benjamin Tennyson. I’m guessing whoever programmed wasn’t specific, or…”

“...they only wanted Ben’s...” Gwen 10 finishes, before commenting, “...but what for?”

“It’s official.” Ben 10,000 speaks, scanning what he’s reading. “This ‘Neomni’ android is composed of… Galvan technology… an ‘Azmuth-kind’ of Galvan technology...”

“Technology made by Azmuth?! Does a version of Azmuth even exist in Gwen 10’s timeline?” Future Gwen asks, confused, to which Ben 10,000, typing in several commands through a keyboard, responds, “I would assume so, but from all we know, Will Harangue could have invented her Omnitrix. ‘Mr. Symbol’ over here has swapped creators. Albedo created his device, while Azmuth is the one who doesn’t believe he is worthy of it.”

“...’Mr. Symbol’... well, I didn’t know everyone in this damn multiverse wears it on their wrists, like some wristwatch!” Ultimate Ben scoffs in response to Ben 10,000’s jab toward him, as Ben 10,000 begins reading newly-displayed information on the computer screen, repeating it as mumbles under his breath, slowly uttering, “...wait… is this...” before facing Ultimate Ben, showing him the screen, displaying a digital blueprint of Neomni’s severed arm, and asking him, “Do you recognize any of this?”

“Well, yeah, you reverse-engineered a blueprint of that android’s severed arm… of course I… would... holy moly… is that…” Ultimate Ben exclaims, walking forward to inspect the screen and cutting himself off slowly upon analyzing for himself. “...god damn, I should have known… the facial complexion… the appearance… it can’t be her...”

“Can’t be who?!” Gwen 10 exclaims, as Ben 10,000 enters another code on the computer, suddenly displaying the blueprint interface to a larger nearby holographic screen, revealing the skeletal mechanisms and analyzed electronics of her severed limb’s matching with Galvan technology in the headquarters’ database not only extremely similar, but near-identical to said technology, which Gwen 10 reads out-loud upon seeing the labeled comparison of the technology in the database, “Who’s… ‘Eunice’?”

“One of Azmuth’s creations. The ‘Unitrix’, an early-testing prototype Omnitrix, meant to test the final Omnitrix prototype’s capabilities of storing and channeling alien DNA.” Ben 10,000 responds. “She became sentient when I encountered her at 16 years old, and she created a baseline human form using…”

“...my DNA.” Future Gwen finishes, as Ben 10,000 continues, “...she is a great ally of mine… but she doesn’t exist in your dimension… whoever created your Omnitrix, whenever an Azmuth or not, never made the Unitrix… this is not your ‘Eunice’... it’s a mere stand-in for yours…”

Pressing a button, a holographically-accurate depiction of Neomni’s entire body, down to her finest detail is projected in the center of the room, to which Ultimate Ben finishes, “It’s Neomni… and it’s not powered by the Unitrix, because it was never created… it’s powered by your Ultimatrix...”

“Wait, wait, wait! Unitrix? ULTIMATRIX?!” Gwen 10 exclaims. “You all need to slow down, because this is too much to handle! You’re telling me you have a goody two-shoes version of the android that stems from my universe, at this very time, supposedly powered by this ‘Ultimatrix’, and has been relentlessly hunting throughout the multiverse, creating fissures in the space-time continuum and attacking Omnitrix-wielding Ben’s from different dimensions?! What even is an Ultimatrix?!”

“It’s a device created by Albedo, the being who built the device Ultimate Ben currently wields.” Ben 10,000 responds. “It’s a sloppily-reassembled, makeshift Omnitrix he built out of the destroyed remains of his fragile replica to not only grant him back his power of alien transformations, but self-evolve said alien forms to an artificially-created, peak form… war machines… the Ultimate forms…”

“This is giving me a major headache.” Gwen 10 states, before Future Gwen comments, “You tell me… or is it ‘me tell me’? Well, something like that.”

Suddenly, the hologram of Neomni vanishes, as the holographic screen displaying the digital blueprints suddenly shifts to a map of Omnitrix City, showing a blinking green light over a section of the city, alerting the heroes, as a robotic, female voice speaks, “DANGER: SECTOR B-DELTA-NINER.”

“Downtown trouble!” Ultimate Ben exclaims, to which a frustrated Ben 10,000 exclaims, “Ugh, distractions, distractions, distractions! Something is out wrecking the multiverse, and there’s more and more trouble I have to attend to!” as he faces both Ultimate Ben and Gwen 10, asking, “You two! You think you still have enough steam left to take out a few bad guys?”

“We’re on it!” Gwen 10 exclaims, as Ultimate Ben agrees, nodding his head, and Ben 10,000 says, “Good, we’ll stay behind! The more research I do, the more closer I can get to developing that technological virus that can wipe Neomni out for good! Now, GO!”

With that, the two heroes head out of the laboratory, with Ultimate Ben striking the Omnitrix symbol, summoning the holographic silhouette of Ghostfreak behind him, while Gwen 10 suddenly transforms into her Necrofriggian form, allowing the two to phase through the headquarters’ walls and head toward the source of danger. DOWNTOWN "OMNITRIX CITY" STREETS The scene cuts to the futuristic streets of Omnitrix City, its layout similar to present-day Bellwood, as human and alien civilians flee in terror from a tidal wave of pale-purple sludge, as the source of which is revealed to be the future supervillain and scientist experiment gone wrong, Sploot, a towering, sludge-composed creature with floating rocks within his head, acting as his face and containing his white eyes, and hands, and dinosaur-like characteristics, such as a hunched back and long tail, and his new partner in crime, the alien brute, Mot Snikrep, a red-skinned, muscular alien with yellow bulbs on the sides of each arm, dark gauntlets and pants, a giant mouth taking up most of his torso, a smaller, triangular, helmeted head possessing two small, yellow eyes, and a stubby tail.

As the two of which continue to cause wreckage in their wake, Sploot scares off citizens while Mot Snikrep uses his enhanced strength to lob cars and nearby heavy objects. In the process of throwing another car at a group of terrified citizens, a massive fireball suddenly smashes against the side of the vehicle as soon as it was lifted over Mot’s head, causing it to violently explode and send the two criminals flying back into the asphalt, as the view shifts to reveal its origin to be the newly-arrived Ultimate Ben, identifying his powers to be from, “KUGELBLITZ!”

As Sploot and Mot begin to recover, the remaining civilians who have yet to flee cheer for what they begin to be Ben 10,000, but upon Gwen’s Necrofriggian form’s arrival, they grow quieter and confused, to which Ultimate Ben notices and awkwardly clarifies who they are, “Uhhh… we’re in his fanclub! We like his superhero hero outfit!”

“He has a fanclub, right?” Ultimate Ben whispers to Gwen’s Necrofriggian form, to which she merely shrugs in response, before suddenly exclaiming, “LOOK OUT!” as the two heroes rapidly duck, avoiding a chunk of asphalt thrown in their direction by Mot, and before it can strike nearby civilians, Gwen’s Necrofriggian form freezes it in mid-air with her icy breath.

“Oh, so, you wanna play like that, huh?” Ultimate Ben exclaims, striking the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest, the hologram of a stout, green-skinned, four-eyed humanoid alien covered in a hazmat-like containment suit, colored similarly green with white accents and tubes extending from the back of his head, splitting into two and connecting to a container on his chest, with two long tentacles each replacing where his hands should be and the Ultimatrix symbol on the center of his lower-abdomen, as Ultimate Ben exclaims, “LEVEL-HEADED!”

Mot rushing at Ultimate Ben, letting out animalistic snarls and roars, his newfound alien’s abilities caused him to briefly exhale a bright-green gas, that caused his eyes to surge with green energy, before he sprinted with inhuman, enhanced speed toward Mot, the two of which reeling back their fists and causing them to strike one another, creating a shockwave that shattered nearby buildings’ windows. Taking flight, Gwen’s Necrofriggian form attacked Sploot, blasting him with a mist of ice that froze over his right arm. BEN 10,0000'S HEADQUARTERS, ROBOTICS TESTING LABORATORY As Neomni’s disembodied arm continues to scurry in a alternate, mobile container nearby, Ben 10,000 spectates future counterparts of Blukic and Driba in the process of reverse-engineering Neomni’s technology, coding into several computer-like interfaces in-front of a large open area protected by a glass wall, both appearing generally not a day older despite their near-identical appearances in Chapter 6 being almost 20 years old, but having a few added wrinkles, with Blukic now wearing mostly-black clothing, and Driba now wearing a bright-red Alpha Squad Plumbers uniform.

“Steady… steady… looking good...” Ben 10,000 mutters, to which Future Driba says, “The techno-organic virus is nearing completion… shall we test its current state?”

“What? No, we don’t know if it would work if it’s just 90% complete! We need the final product at full power!” Ben 10,000 exclaims, annoyed, to which Future Blukic says, “I disagree. Even at 90% completion, the virus’ effects won’t be weakened, just working at a slower speed. I suggest a swift test run.”

“Ugh, fine, load in one of the Mass-Produced Unitrix models.” Ben 10,000 responds, as Future Driba enters a line of code into one of the laboratory’s computers, causing the testing area to activate, as the ceiling opens, allowing a robotic appendage to lower in a featureless, silver-gray mechanical android, its features almost vacant besides its Eunice-like face, as it glowed with bright-green circuitry and flowing liquid metal still in the process of taking on its state.

“Injecting virus prototype…” Future Blukic says, as he enters a few lines of code and causes a secondary robotic appendage to lower from a nearby wall within the area, tipped with a syringe-like device that jabs into the back of the android’s left shoulder-blade, causing its circuitry to begin flickering and glitching.

As Ben 10,000 and the two Galvans watch in anticipation, the android begins to glitch and warp, its liquid metal starting to destabilize, its size wildly compressing and outstretching, almost in a pulsatile manner. Activating its minimalistic alien DNA database unwillingly by systems starting to malfunction, the android staggers around, its limbs sporadically convulsing, as Pyronite flames briefly ruptured out of its hands, Vulpimancer quills shot out of part of its body, and Petrosapien crystals began rapidly and randomly bulging out of its joints.

“Is… is that supposed to happen?!” Ben 10,000 exclaims, to which Future Driba yells, “Blukic, it’s not supposed to move around like that! It’s just supposed to shut down and collapse!”

“THEN WHY IS IT ACTING LIKE THAT?!” Ben 10,000 exclaims out of shock, as Blukic and Driba attempt to enter code into the computers to shut the test down, only for corrupted coding to begin rapidly filling the screen, as the technological virus began rapidly deteriorating at an overloaded rate. “WHAT’S HAPPENING?!”

“DRIBA, EMERGENCY SHUT-DOWN, NOW!” Future Blukic exclaims, as Driba opens a hidden compartment on the control panel, revealing a keyhole-shaped interface that upon inserting an electronic key from his back-pocket, shuts the test down, causing the virus to halt its self-destruction. However, upon the abrupt shut-down, the android bursts at the seams with discharging electricity and within an instance, explodes into an eruption of liquid metal and broken skeletal parts, splattering all over the window and walls.

“...w-what… happened?!” Ben 10,000 exclaims, looking on in dismay at the destroyed android, as Future Blukic clarifies, “The virus was too volatile. Its high administration and immense power not only burrowed through the android’s vital systems, but into its limited database of pre-loaded alien DNA, and when we shut it down abruptly, it destroyed itself… as in it blew the android up… Driba, what happened with the coding?”

“It seems our administration backfired for a brief moment. It corrupted a few hours worth of coding, but luckily, it was nothing too crucial. If we didn’t shut it down in time, half of what we have so far could have been totally corrupted.” Future Driba responds. “Recovering systems are still fully backed-up regardless, so if that did happen, we wouldn’t have required another week of coding to-”

The two aged Galvans are suddenly startled by the sounds and force of Ben 10,000 slamming his fist into one of the keyboards, causing several keys to fly off, as he yells out, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S TOO ‘VOLATILE’?! ISN’T THAT WHAT A VIRUS IS SUPPOSED TO BE?! IT’S SUPPOSED TO REPLICATE AND DESTROY!!”

“It’s TOO STRONG! If what just happened was administered to Neomni, it would have caused her to explode with enough force to wipe out half a city block and fry every electronic within its radius, potentially including some systems of the Biomnitrix!” Future Driba exclaims in defiance. “It needs more work to perfect these flaws, some coding revision at most!”

“Ridiculous… I can’t TAKE IT ANYMORE!” Ben 10,000 exclaims, flustered. “HERE WE SIT IN THIS ROOM WHILE THAT THING IS OUT THERE BREAKING THE SUPPORTS OF THE FABRIC OF SPACE AND TIME!”

“Then… why don’t you do something about it?” Future Blukic responds, picking the plastic casings of several fallen keys. “You not only possess the power to transform into an alien that can bend and reshape reality at will, but combine and fuse it with other powerful aliens. I still don’t fully understand why you need the help of a pair of Galvan technicians.”

“Because that THING has my powers too! It’s as smart as me, and it even plans more ahead! It probably glimpses into future timelines with Clockwork, and hell, it even has the powers of ULTIMATE CLOCKWORK, if that’s even a thing that EXISTS!” Ben 10,000 responds. “Neomni has cheated death over and over again for DECADES according to Gwen! It’s literally unkillable, and to destroy it, I have to break its crutches by corrupting its systems, and I can’t DO IT if the virus won’t be perfect anytime SOON!”

Hyperventilating, Ben 10,000 gradually calms down, before he looks at Future Blukic, helping him pick up the “0” key off the floor, as he says, “I need your help… because I know that even I can’t do this alone…”

After brief moments of hesitation, Ben 10,000, looking down at the ground, sighs and begins to head toward the door out of the control room, commenting, “I need some air…” as he leaves both Galvans, closing the door behind him and soon, entering a lounge room of sorts, before he is suddenly startled by the presence of a tall, skinny figure the same age as Ben 10,000, sitting in one of the chairs, represented with long dark hair, a X-shaped scar across his chin, and being dressed in a suit of darkly-plated armor, with black fingerless gloves and boots, to which he simply asks, “Startled?”

“Frightened, yes. You could have knocked, Kevin.” Ben 10,000 responds, revealing the figure’s identity as the 47-year-old Kevin Levin, one of Ben’s closest allies since he was 16 years old.

“Eh, you came out earlier… I was gonna ask how progress is going, but I overheard you and-” Future Kevin responds, to which Ben 10,000 cuts himself off, stating, “It’s going fine. I’m just getting frustrated by simple trial-and-error.”

“Progress has been slow, I know.” Future Kevin responds. “You, uh… wouldn’t happen to know why there’s an alternate version of you in your 30’s and a 16-year-old version of Gwen fighting two ‘Null Void’ escapees in the middle of the city?”

“They’re Omnitrix wielders from another dimension, and the one that’s a different me was the one who brought Neomni’s arm here a few days ago.” Ben 10,000 responds. “...where’s Gwen? Did she leave?”

“Which one?” Future Kevin smirks in response, to which Ben 10,000 responds with a slight glare, “Very funny, Kevin.”

“Ledgerdomain. Charmcaster’s amiss right now.” Future Kevin responds. “...reminds you of the good ol’ times, doesn’t it?”

“Of course it does. Everything reminds me of the good ol’ days.” Ben 10,000 responds, sitting down a few chairs away from Kevin. “I can’t seriously believe it’s been… 36 years… since I even went into that forest and came across the Omnitrix… I feel old… REALLY old… makes me yearn for when I was a kid again...”

“Yeah, another 36 years and we’d all be like Grandpa Max, huh?” Future Kevin chuckles until he notices Ben 10,000’s somber expression. “Look, Ben, who cares if we’re ‘getting too old’? That’s just how life works. Just because we’re adults now, doesn’t mean we should feel sad about how much times have changed. You’re not still ‘Ben 10’, but you’re ‘Ben 10,000’ now.”

“Yeah, and you’re ‘Kevin 11,000’ too, huh?” Ben 10,000 chuckles, to which Future Kevin groans and leans back in his seat, stating, “Ugh… I’m probably never gonna live that down.” before eventually chuckling at his expense.

Unbeknownst to him, Ben 10,000’s line of sight catches something dark moving past the window of the door leading out of the lounge room and into the hallway. Although its speed was quick, Ben 10,000 could make out the silhouette of a hat, partially-shrouded by a dark fedora. As Ben 10,000’s eyes widen in confusion, he stands up from his seat, causing Future Kevin  to comment, “What? Something wrong?”

“...who was that just outside the room? They just walked by…” Ben 10,000 remarks, slowly approaching the door, as Future Kevin watches Ben 10,000 open the door and step outside in the hallway, showing absolutely no-one present.

“They were… they were just here…” Ben 10,000 states, confused, as Future Kevin, walking after him and looking around, says, “You sure?”

“What, like I didn’t see it? It was a person. They had a hat.” Ben 10,000 exclaims, as Future Kevin crosses his arms, cocks his head to one side, and asks, “...you okay, man? This is a personal opinion, but I think the stress is getting to you.”

“No, I saw something clear as day outside!” Ben 10,000 exclaims, raising both of his Biomnitrix gauntlets up and on the verge of fully crossing his forearms, the trigger to activate them, to which Future Kevin stops him, stating, “Come ON, man… seriously?! Alright, I believe you, but even if someone was here, I doubt they’d be a point of discussion.”

As Ben 10,000 stutters in response, trying to rationalize what he had seen, Future Kevin, still crossing his arms, cuts himself off, stating, “Ben, seriously. It’s not a big deal. It’s just another Jack or Jill. I highly doubt it’s someone important.” DOWNTOWN "OMNITRIX CITY" STREETS “Come ON, BUDDY!” Ultimate Ben bellows, using Humungousaur’s powers to strike Mot Snikrep across the face with a severed light-post, sending him flying into the asphalt ground. “I’d like an ACTUAL challenge, so let me know when you’re ready to turn the tables!”

Grumbling, Mot Snikrep jumps back up to his feet, the large bulbs on his arms starting to glow, as he suddenly launches a powerful blast of energy from the massive mouth across his chest, as Ultimate Ben, dropping the post, strikes the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest, exclaiming “CHROMASTONE!” and being almost overshadowed by the looming holographic silhouette of said silicon-based alien, as he holds his hands up and begins rapidly absorbing Mot’s attack.

Meanwhile, Gwen 10, now in her Appoplexian form, rests with Sploot, managing to get a few sweeping blows with her wrist-claws, each leaving slashes across his body that he quickly regenerates. His rocky face contorting into an expression of anger, he fires a blast of slime from his left arm, shrouding Gwen’s Vaxasaurian form’s body in it and quickly restraining her in a cocoon of the adhesive substance, its tensile strength impressive. Tearing through a section of her cocoon to smack her freed Omnitrix symbol, Gwen suddenly transforming in a flash of pink light that briefly blinds Sploot, allowing her to emerge as her Vaxasaurian form, augmenting and quintupling her size, gaining enlarged muscles, a crested forehead, Stegosaur-like plating, and spikes running down the length of her tail, bursting through the cocoon, as Sploot looks on, wide-eyed and motionless.

Ultimate Ben lands a flurry of ultraviolet-energy-enhanced blows into Mot, disorientating and discombobulating him, until he was finally able to grapple onto Ultimate Ben’s wrist, restraining him, to which Ultimate Ben simply smirked and struck the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest, and before Mot can react, he launched Blitzwulf’s concussive sonic howl from his mouth, throwing him back.

“All bark, no bite!” Ultimate Ben wittingly exclaims, as Mot rapidly recovers and fires another energy beam, to which Ultimate Ben launches another sonic howl into the ground, causing him to be shot upwards into the air, dodging the energy beam, even when Mot raised it upwards, as Ultimate Ben, striking the symbol on his chest again, harnessed the powers of XLR8 and lunged to the ground, phasing back and forth with great agility, as he darted forward and upon landing a sucker punch, breaking off one of Mot’s large teeth, he began barraging with a barrage of lightning-fast blows.

Gwen’s full-sized Vaxasaurian form stomped on Sploot, crushing him flat against the asphalt, as he began to rapidly extend upwards and scale up Gwen’s leg, to which she attempts to tear off him, only for him to divulge and pounce onto her hand, entangling both her left limbs, as she struggles against him, only for her to suddenly transform in a flash of pink light and suddenly blast Sploot’s amorphous body with a burst of ignited flames, revealing her feminine Methanosian form, possessing a slimmer body with orange-red petals, opposed to male Swampfire’s red petals, and her signature hot-pink eyes.

“Slime monsters… always slime monsters…” Gwen’s Methanosian form groans, while plucking pieces of Sploot off her body, before blasting a stream of ignited methane from her hands at Sploot’s body, in the process of recovering, off-screen.

Meanwhile, Ultimate Ben, seemingly having a bit of fun, throws Mot back and forth, rapidly using XLR8’s greatly-enhanced speed and Humungousaur’s greatly-enhanced strength to punch Mot, sending him flying, before sprinting behind him and punching him the opposite direction, turning his brawl into a game of volleyball, repeating it about 4 times, until Gwen’s Methanosian form notices, exclaiming, “BEN!” in an annoyed tone.

“Aw, come on! They’re a pair of D-list baddies! It’s impossible to take them seriously!” Ultimate Ben exclaims, finally using Humungousaur’s strength one last time to send Mot flying into a lightpost, before striking his Ultimatrix symbol, summoning the magnetic powers of Lodestar, as he uses to quickly wrap the lightpost around Mot’s body, restraining his mouth and further usage of his energy blasts, then striking the Ultimatrix symbol again, gaining the powers of an alien identified as “STINKFLY!”, revealed to be the source of the insectoid wings used by Neomni back in Chapter 6: a bipedal insectoid with an brownish-green coloration to his carapace, bug-like legs, two, three-clawed arms, a pair of pedunculated eyes emerging from each side of his head, large, iridescent, pale-green wings emerging from his backside, and his long insect-like body ending in a large black stinger, his body, his body mostly covered in a sleeveless, black-striped, green jumpsuit with a black portion, outlined with green, covering his forehead, possessing the Omnitrix symbol.

Spraying a pale-green sludge from his mouth, Ultimate Ben rapidly entangles Mot’s restrained body, trapping his legs to the ground, as Gwen’s Methanosian form throws a flurry of seeds toward him, prompting them to quickly enlarge into a mass of constricting vines, finally trapping Mot, as he squeals in his futile attempts to escape. The two heroes turning to face off a recovered Sploot, the latter fires a stream of sludge toward the group, to which Gwen’s Methanosian form blasts it back with a fireball, causing the two forces to explode on contact.

“Damn it, they never listen. I literally just did that to him twice prior, and he just did it again.” Gwen’s Methanosian form responds. “Is the only gimmick of this so-called ‘Sploot’ just to keep shooting blasts of slime?”

“Well, he’s a slime monster… what do you expect? Him to write poetry?” Ultimate Ben asks, tinkering with the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest. “When you’re that D-list of a villain, who cares about doing anything smart.”

“God, you’re so right. If I was a villain and I ranked that low, I’d just give up… you know?” Gwen’s Methanosian form responds, to which Ultimate Ben, hesitating for a moment, looks up at Gwen 10 and asks, “...what are we even talking about again?”

“I don’t know myself.” Gwen’s Methanosian form bluntly responds and shrugs, only for the two of them to quickly turn, seeing Sploot being violently electrocuted by a surge of green electricity, until he suddenly collapses into a heap, the rocky mass making up his “face” rolling out of his head and allowing Ultimate Ben to hold out his foot, lightly kicking it back and seeing what happened, seeing a tiny alien standing atop his defeated body, responding a small, black battery with large, almond-shaped, glowing-green eyes, a large, white-topped, cylinder-shaped head with a protruding jaw, a white-colored outfit resembling a lightning-bolt-like stripe running down his neck to in-between his tiny points for legs, a pair of silver bolts on each outer-arm, oddly-clawed, and three-fingered hands.

“AHAHA!!” The battery-like alien maniacally laughs in a cackling, electronically-filtered voice, suddenly revealing the white-colored Omnitrix symbol atop his head, resembling a battery’s metal cap. “BUZZSHOCK WINS AGAIN!!”

“It’s… another Omnitrix user?!” Gwen’s Methanosian form exclaims, to which Ultimate Ben clarifies in a serious tone, “I’m pretty sure Ben 10,000 didn’t bring him here… you think he arrived by portal? Clockwork, probably.”

Suddenly, the unknown Omnitrix user’s Buzzshock form begins rapidly emitting blasts of crackling electricity around him, causing several nearby streetlights to begin bursting one-by-one, and electrifying Mot in the process, causing it to conduct through the adhesive sludge restraining his legs and amplify the electrocution until he collapses, unconscious. The two Omnitrix users panicking at the sight of the rogue Nosedeenian, they quickly arm themselves, Ultimate Ben exclaiming “GHOSTFREAK!”, as Ghostfreak’s hologram appears behind him, and Gwen switching to her Appoplexian form, lunging at the Nosedeenian.

“LEMME TELL YOU SOMETHING, ‘BUZZSHOCK’, WHICH FRANKLY IS A PRETTY DUMB NAME AND CONTINUES TO BEFUDDLE ME WHY YOU ALTERNATE OMNITRIX USERS HAVE YOUR WEIRD NICKNAMES!!” Gwen’s Appoplexian form roars, jabbing the unknown Omnitrix user’s Buzzshock form with her wrist claw. “YOU NEED TO STOP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING!”

In response, giggling maniacally, the unknown Omnitrix user’s Buzzshock form electrocutes him to the point of forcefully releasing him. Firing electricity in random directions, Ultimate Ben uses Ghostfreak’s intangibility and levitation to fly toward him, phasing through his attacks, as his abdomen bizarrely opens up, unleashing Ghostfreak’s striped tendrils, as he attempts to restrain the unknown Omnitrix user.

“WHAT’S THIS LITTLE TWERP’S DEAL?!” Gwen’s Appoplexian form exclaims, angered, to which Ultimate Ben says, “Buzzshock is a mischievous little alien… looks like maybe whoever this person is may be having their personality overridden by his species’ natural impulses to cause mayhem… kinda like the form right now...”

“''THAT’S NOT TRUE!! I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW I WAS TRYING TO TURN INTO MY LOBOAN FORM!!''” Gwen’s Appoplexian form yells in response, baring her wrist-claws and beheading a light-post out of rage, as Ultimate Ben merely rolls his eyes, before he’s suddenly repulsed back by the unknown Omnitrix user’s Buzzshock form freeing himself and blasting him with electricity.

“Alright… you wanna play it like that? ARCTIGUANA!” Ultimate Ben exclaims, swiftly hitting the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest, summoning his cryokinetic powers, as he launched a freezing beam from his mouth, quickly encasing Buzzshock, from the neck down, in a block of ice, as he tumbles to the ground onto his side, unable to use his electrokinesis to free himself. “Ice isn’t a good conductor of ice, hm? ROLLBACK!”

Suddenly hitting the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest yet again, the silhouette of a horned humanoid alien, possessing greenish-teal skin with a face consisting of glowing-green eyes with dark slits for pupils, darker skin around his eyes, and a lack of a nose, four-fingered hands with similarly-slit-pupiled eyes on each palm, an outfit of light-gray, stone-like armor, covering his neck, chest, fingers, thighs, and feet, and a darker, denser armor on his head and shoulders, forming a largely-horned helmet and spiked shoulder-pads, alongside his palms and shins, and the Omnitrix symbol on his right pectoral, above a symbol resembling a stylized capital R. Spawning an eyeball from his right palm, Ultimate Ben plants his right hand onto the Omnitrix transformation, generating a field of chronokinetic energy that begins rapidly reversing him back through time, eventually turning into a groaning figure.

“Wait, Ken?” Ultimate Ben asks, as the groaning figure, his clothes covered in bits of ice, slowly rises back up and reveals himself as what appeared to be a young 14-year-old Ben Tennyson, even wearing variations of his signature-white, black-striped shirt and baggy green cargo pants, the latter of which with thin white stripes and darker pockets, and having short hair and green eyes, albeit the latter was slightly longer and both were noticeably darker than Ben’s. Alongside wearing green cuffs around his ankles, white shoes, and a belt with a buckle resembling the green Omnitrix symbol, he possessed an Omnitrix near-identical to the prototype model on his left wrist, albeit its hourglass symbol was a stark-white, and it possessed dimly-glowing-white plastic tubes on its sides. “Heh, guess you couldn’t take Buzzshock, huh?”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” The revealed Omnitrix wielder, named “Ken”, responds, picking chunks of ice off his clothes “Uhhhh... speaking of ‘impulsive’...”

Ken pointing toward Gwen’s Appoplexian form, in the process of having a tantrum and belittling the mostly-unconscious Mot, Ultimate Ben exclaims, “One moment.” before walking over to Gwen 10 and using Rollback’s powers to forcefully revert her back to her human form, causing brief cameos of her past alien usages, including her Methanosian, Appoplexian, again, Vaxasaurian, and Necrofriggian forms, until she was back as her human form.

“You done?” Ultimate Ben asks, his arms crossed, to which Gwen 10, looking down at the defeated Mot, merely turns to face Ultimate Ben, swiftly nodding, until she notices Ken.

“Huh? Wait a second… are you...” Gwen 10 responds, turning to face Ken until she’s overwhelmed by a sense of familiarity upon seeing Ken, approaching him, as the two briefly circle around each other, brief shifts in the scene showing Gwen 10 seeing Ken as an 11-year-old version of his cousin, and showing Ken seeing Gwen 10 as an unfamiliar, dark-haired, brown-eyed girl in her early teens, that although with different hair and eye colors to Gwen 10, looked extremely similar to her.

“Cousin… Glenda?” Ken responds, confused, to which Gwen 10 responds, confused, “Wait… who now? I’m Gwen… and you look like… Ben…?”

“Correction.” Ultimate Ben clarifies. “This is Kenneth... he’s the um, son of Ben 10,000… Ken, this is an alternate counterpart of your father’s first cousin, Gwendolyn. Where she’s from, she got the original Omnitrix, instead of your father.”

“Weirdly specific, but alright.” Ken responds, as both Gwen 10 and him greet one another, shaking hands, with Gwen 10 asking, “How’d you get your Omnitrix? I don’t recall Buzzshock being one of the original 10.”

“10th birthday present. My dad made it, just like the Biomnitrix. Of course, he did give me some lame aliens, but I may or may not regularly use Grey Matter to tinker with it and give Master Control.” Ken responds, whispering, “Don’t tell him though.”

“Master… Control?” Gwen 10 responds, confused, as Ultimate Ben clarifies again, saying, “You wouldn’t have happened to unlock a special mode for your Omnitrix when you were still young, right? Specifically one that grants you instantaneous, thought-based transformations, and no faults when transforming. That’s Master Control.”

“Aw, what? A mode that will keep me from not getting the wrong alien?! I’d kill for that. I can’t tell you how many times I got someone like Grey Matter over Four Arms or Humungousaur!” Gwen 10 responds, slightly annoyed, to which Ken responds, “Tell me, I’d rather not have it most of the time. Super stressful to keep it hidden from my dad, but… it’s fun to mess with it when he’s looking the other way.”

“So… why are you out here, Ken? Shouldn’t you be back at the Headquarters with your parents?” Ultimate Ben asks, to which Ken says, “Overheard an alarm, showed a bit too late. Guess you guys took care of the situation already. Mot and Sploot, huh?”

“Well, I guess we took care of one of them. Your Buzzshock got the other.” Gwen 10 responds, as the trio chuckle, unaware of the fedora-wearing figure watching them from a distance. Suddenly halting his chuckle, Ultimate Ben hears the sounds of a soft beeping emitting from his Ultimatrix symbol, to which he comments, “That’s not good.”

“...not good? What’s wrong with it? Is it supposed to do that?” Gwen 10 asks, to which Ultimate Ben, tinkering with the symbol again, responds, “Yes, it’s an external alarm I used Jury Rigg’s powers to install recently. It functions as a radar, only going off when it detects them nearby.”

“Detects what nearby?” Ken asks, confused, to which the trio are suddenly alerted by the violent and abrupt formation of a massive rip through space-time itself, turning around to see what appeared to be a jaggedly-shaped, swirling vortex of blue and purple energy being torn through reality itself, its slowly-revealed interior glowing a blinding white.

“THE SPACE-TIME ANOMALIES!” Ultimate Ben exclaims, as he suddenly strikes the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest, exclaiming, “CLOCKWORK!” and proceeds to spring into action, the holographic silhouette of the mechanical alien following him, as he aims his hands out, proceeding to fire a powerful ray of chronokinetic energy at the forming rip. Groaning, the rip begins to fissure outwards, forming cracks, as a pulse of energy sends Ultimate Ben flying back, burning his skin to a crisp and causing him to scream out in pain.

“BEN!” Gwen 10 calls out, as a manifesting blob of energy begins to slowly emerge from the space-time rip, as Ultimate Ben quickly gets back up, weakly hitting the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest to gain the abilities of Swampfire, allowing him to regenerate his charred skin, as he manages to sluggishly get back up to his feet and exclaim, “IT’S STARTING TO CRACK! I HAVE JUST ENOUGH TIME! ULTIMATE CLOCK-!”

Within an instance, cutting Ultimate Ben off, a pair of bright-red neuroshock blasts fired out from the rip, a direct shot that would have blown a pair of holes through Ultimate Ben’s chest, if it wasn’t for Ken, acting extremely quickly and suddenly transforming into Shellhead, a hunched, lumbering, turtle-like alien covered in tan scales and a intricately-designed turtle shell over his backside, brownish-gray in coloration with a sea-green inside, visible through natural cracks in the shell, with three fingers on each hand, four toes on each foot, a short, stubby tail, and Ken’s white Omnitrix symbol on the center of his chest.

Shellhead lunging in the way and shielding Ultimate Ben, the back of his shell takes the blow, only for it to begin rapidly absorbing the kinetic energy, the sea-green cracks of his shell glowing, as he turns his body around and in under a second, he launches a concentrated beam of plasma energy from his mouth that strikes the mass of energy emerging from the rip, the energy negatively reacting to the hole in the space-time continuum and cause it to violently explode in a blinding blast of fractured space, threatening to rip a hole in reality itself. Quickly activating his Ultimatrix, Ultimate Ben calls out, “ULTIMATE CLOCKWORK!!”, proceeding to halt the ripping space-time continuum, and reveals his Evolved Chronosapien form’s capabilities of manipulating not only time, but both space-time, as he instantly repairs it through his abilities, negating the rip and suddenly revealing the silhouette of a massive figure, surrounded by smoke and charred asphalt.

“It can’t be…” Gwen 10 utters. The figure readjusts their footing.

“I should have known…” Ultimate Ben says. The figure clenches their fist.

“I-Is that who I think it is?!” Ken asks, shocked and having reverted back to his human form off-screen. The figure opens their glowing-red left eye.

The view dramatically reveals the newcomer as the injured, but fully-functional Neomni, having recovered most of her injuries from her previous fight in Chapter 6, although her armor was covered in fractures, most notably on her face, chest, and right shoulder, exposing portions of her liquid metal body underneath, discharging bursts of electricity. Her right eye was slightly cracked, and most notably, she was short her left arm below the elbow, as said limb was currently in possession of the future versions of Blukic and Driba, to which Ultimate Ben clarifies by yelling out her name in rage, “NEOMNI!!”

“It’s her… it’s the ANDROID WHO’S BEEN KILLING ALL THE DIFFERENT BEN’S!” Ken yells, shocked, to which Ultimate Ben, staring her down and noticeably out of breath, comments, “Yeah… and she’s here for me… the Benjamin Kirby Tennyson...”

“No, wait… I don’t think she’s just here to get you…” Gwen 10 says, noticing Neomni’s missing appendage. “...she’s… she’s here for her arm! She would have regenerated it if she could!”

“You’re right, Gwen… she probably imbued with a piece of her sentience before it got lobbed off… it’s what’s keeping her from just making a new one.” Ultimate Ben responds, as Neomni stares with glowing eyes.

“W-What are we going to do?!” Ken asks, timid and frightened, to which Ultimate Ben, similarly readjusting his footing and clenching his fist, simply states, “We stand and fight. We’re not going to let her get that arm back. If we lose, we’ll never make that virus.”

“I don’t plan on being forced to relinquish any severed mechanical limbs too, so…” Gwen 10 responds, priming her Omnitrix, as she selects the silhouette of her Petrosapien form and smacks down on the core, transforming her into a feminine version of Diamondhead, with darker, shinier crystals, thinner arms, a more rounded back, a more-squared head, and the absence of protruding shards on her back, possessing her signature outfit colors, colored light-blue and dark-blue, hairclip on the left side of her form’s brow, and her Omntrix symbol on the left side of her chest.

Groaning in fear, Ken follows, selecting the silhouetted icon of Sandbox, and transforming him, possessing a black-and-white outfit and his white Omnitrix symbol on his forehead. Standing tall and in-between the two heroes, Ultimate Ben stands off against Neomni, the view briefly shifting to scan the presence of Gwen 10 and Ken, marking them as Omnitrix wielders with related blood to Ben Tennyson, but not in fact Ben Tennyson, while on the other hand, Ultimate Ben was a prime example of who she was looking for.

Firing another neuroshock blast, utilizing Jetray’s abilities, Ultimate Ben, showcasing an absolute lack of fear, exclaims, “CHROMASTONE!!” and effortlessly absorbs the neuroshock blast with extreme swiftness, suddenly shooting it straight back at Neomni, who merely shifts her head slightly to dodge it.

“Alright, then… let’s do this again...” Ultimate Ben says, cracking the knuckles in both of his hands, clenching his left hand into a fist, and thrusting the side of his fist into the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest, causing it to suddenly gain four metallic prongs, as the silhouette of what appeared to be Clockwork, but wasn’t, materialized behind him.

His metallic body was now colored greenish-ivory, his black stripes now rearranged, golden-colored, and taken the form of branching stripes, his screen-like face now taking up most of the front of his head, now possessing a single, glowing dot for an eye while being surrounded by a pair of line-shaped borders, and his gear-filled window now having expanded into screens of flowing binary code taking most of the middle of his torso, shoulders, upper-forearms, and shins. Metallic-golden tubes stuck out from the back of his head to the top of his shoulders, while his head-key was contorted into an abstract, asymmetrical horn-like structure. The pronged Ultimatrix symbol remained on the center of his chest, atop a horizontally-diamond-shaped screen of binary spanning the middle of his torso.

“...once more, ULTIMATE CLOCKWORK!” Ultimate Ben calls out, as an aura of distorted space-time surrounds his greatly-empowered body, Gwen’s Petrosapien form and Sandbox standing a few feet to his sides, Gwen on the left and Ken on the right. Sprinting with increased speed, Neomni glitchy exclaims, “A-ACCESS: CITRA-AKAYAH.” and rushes at the trio, the scene suddenly cutting to black.

The scene shifts to reveal the current events of uptown Omnitrix City, a handful of civilians, both human and alien, walk up and down the sidewalk, unaware of what’s happening in the heart of Omnitrix City. Soon and slowly, an eerie figure, dressed in dark clothing, including a fedora and coat, steadily walks down the street, using a walking cane to support his unsteady walking and slightly-hunched back, paying no attention to those around him.

Passing by the front of an electronics store, showing many holographic television sets for sale, each showing different channels, a specific one in the center begins to display an emergency news report, directed by a “J. Jameson Jones”, over the events happening in the center of Omnitrix City. In the middle of reporting on the potential whereabouts of Ben 10,000, the fedora-wearing figure passes by the front of the electronics store, and as he fully passes by the television screen, they each suddenly begin to grow suddenly garbled and warped, shuffling pixels and bursts of static randomly appearing throughout the holograms, as the face of Ben 10,000, taken from a paparazzi photo, grows grayscale and bizarrely warped.

As their audio grows completely incomprehensible, they all suddenly shut off at once, as the fedora-wearing figure gradually vanishes into a crowd of civilians, as the screen freezes, cutting to black as a logo fills the screen, before a single message fades in beneath it. MULTIVERSE VS. TENNYSON

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 9

Major Events

 * As promised by Ultimate Ben at the end of Chapter 6, he has delivered Neomni's severed arm to the future of the Prime timeline, putting it in the possession of Ben 10,000.
 * Gwen 10 is now apart of Ben 10,000's forces to destroy Neomni, as hinted by her acceptance at the end of Chapter 5 after defeating Nega Ben. In addition, she learns about several things, including Neomni and Eunice, the Ultimatrix, and Master Control.
 * Growing closer to one another, both Ultimate Ben and Gwen 10 take down villains of the Prime timeline future: Sploot, a gelatinous science experiment gone wrong, and Mot Snikrep, an alien criminal represented by nothing but brute strength and energy blasts.
 * Their personalities and means of fighting are demonstrated throughout the battle, with Ultimate Ben almost throwing Mot Snikrep around like a volleyball, under the belief they were just "D-list villains", and Gwen 10 taking Sploot more seriously, but still commenting how moronic he seems for repeating attacks he should know didn't work the last time.
 * Back at Ben 10,000's headquarters, process of developing the so-called "technological virus" that will be injected into Neomni and fry her systems, not only finally incapacitating her, but ridding her of her powers.
 * A test of the mostly-complete virus on a "Mass-Produced Unitrix" model, resembling a skeletal Eunice, is attempted, but failed due to the virus' volatile, critically-destructive personality, narrowly erasing the virus itself when it practically overloaded on itself. Revealed by Future Blukic, injecting it into Neomni while in that state would have caused her to explode, wiping out half a city block and frying every electronic in its radius, potentially including Ben 10,000's Biomnitrix gauntlets.
 * The failure of the test enrages Ben 10,000 due to its lack of progress, all while Neomni is still out there causing havoc. Revealed by Ben 10,000, he can't simply use the powers of his strongest aliens to simply just wipe Neomni from existence, as Neomni has been extremely intelligent and making protocols to make sure he can ensure she cheats death through her abilities, a process that revealed by Future Gwen, has allowed her to reign amok for over a decade, albeit not making any true damage until now.
 * Although getting upset, Ben 10,000 reveals that he needs the help of Future Blukic and Future Driba, because he's certain that he's incapable of stopping Neomni alone, and needs all the help he can get. Having a conversation with his ally, the future counterpart of Kevin Levin, Ben 10,000 feels exhausted from how old he's getting, and how truly long his hero career has been, but Kevin reassures that although times are constantly changing, he's still a hero.
 * An unknown figure briefly makes his first appearance... wait, did he?
 * Kenneth Tennyson, the son of Ben 10,000, makes his debut, arriving unexpectedly to meet the two alternate Omnitrix wielders, revealing him and Ultimate Ben have seemingly met before.
 * Moments after his arrival, a space-time anomaly opens up within the streets of Omnitrix City, and despite Ultimate Ben's efforts to seal it with the powers of Clockwork, it fully tears open and threatens reality apart when Ken, as Shellhead, blasts an unknown attacker emerging from it with a plasma beam.
 * Using Ultimate Clockwork's powers, Ultimate Ben keeps it from destroying reality, but fully allows the arrival of Neomni, as the trio ready to face off a battle against her, to prevent her from re-obtaining her missing arm and stopping their chances of creating the virus.

Minor Events

 * Neomni's severed arm is revealed to have been unintentionally "imbued" some of her sentience into her severed limb prior to it getting cut off by Bad Shock 'N Void, which is why it appears to be functional, albeit mindless, keeping her from simply regenerating her missing limb and forcing her to journey to the Future Prime timeline to receive it.
 * Although not directly stated, as of the Future Prime timeline, Ben 10,000's headquarters are capable of creating "Mass-Produced Unitrix" android replicas of Eunice, many of which used 4 years ago during the Assault on Prime, and possess a minuscule Unitrix core as a power source that contains accessible database of Ben's original 10 aliens.
 * Similar to the Biomnitrix, Ben 10,000 created many of the androids through an automated factory-like system built by his most intelligent aliens.
 * Ken reveals that he still uses Grey Matter to tinker with his Omnitrix replica, periodically granting him Master Control that he has to hide from his father.
 * Ultimate Ben reveals that in-between the events of Chapter 6 and 8, he has used the powers of Jury Rigg to install a radar-like alarm in his Ultimatrix symbol to detect the oncoming arrival of space-time anomalies, and thus, act as a tracker to ensure Neomni's location when she is near.

Protagonists

 * Ben 10,000
 * Gwen 10
 * Ultimate Ben
 * Future Gwen (first appearance of Future counterpart)
 * Future Kevin (first appearance of Future counterpart)
 * Future Blukic (first appearance of Future counterpart)
 * Future Driba (first appearance of Future counterpart)
 * Ken 10 (first appearance)
 * Azmuth (mentioned)
 * Will Harangue (Gwen 10 timeline; mentioned)
 * Albedo (Ultimate Ben timeline; mentioned)
 * Eunice (mentioned)
 * Grandpa Max (mentioned)
 * Ben Tennyson (Gwen 10 timeline; 11-years-old; imagined)
 * Glenda Tennyson (first appearance; imagined)
 * Future Jimmy Jones (first reappearance; cameo)

Neutral

 * ??? (first appearance)

Antagonists

 * Sploot (first reappearance)
 * Mot Snikrep (first reappearance)
 * Neomni
 * Azmuth (Ultimate Ben timeline; mentioned)
 * Future Charmcaster (mentioned)

By Ultimate Ben

 * Ghostfreak (x2)
 * Kugelblitz (off-screen transformation)
 * Level-Headed (first appearance)
 * Humungousaur (x5; first time off-screen transformation; all times cameos)
 * Chromastone (x2)
 * Blitzwulf
 * XLR8 (x4; all times cameos)
 * Lodestar (cameo)
 * Stinkfly (first reappearance)
 * Arctiguana (cameo)
 * Rollback (first appearance)
 * Clockwork (cameo)
 * Ultimate Clockwork (x2; first appearance; first time off-screen transformation)

By Gwen 10

 * Necrofriggian (Big Chill: x2; second time cameo)
 * Appoplexian (Rath; x3; first and third times cameos; second time intended alien was Blitzwulf)
 * Vaxasaurian (Humungousaur; x2; second time cameo)
 * Methanosian (Swampfire; x2; second time cameo)
 * Petrosapien (Diamondhead; cameo)

By Mass-Produced Unitrix Model

 * Pyronite (Heatblast; glitch; cameo)
 * Vuplimancer (Wildmutt; glitch; cameo)
 * Petrosapien (Diamondhead; glitch; cameo)

By Ken 10

 * Buzzshock (first appearance; off-screen transformation)
 * Shellhead (first appearance; off-screen transformation)
 * Sandbox (cameo)

By Neomni

 * Aerophibian (Jetray)
 * Citrakayah (Fasttrack)

Trivia

 * Chapter 8's original plot idea, alternatively called "Future Investigations", would have involved a different cast, including a reappearance of Professor Paradox, a potential absence of Ultimate Ben, and an earlier debut of Ken 10.
 * The original plot involved Professor Paradox and Ben 10,000 investigating a formed space-time anomaly within the outskirts of Omnitrix City, studying it and attempting to track what caused it. However, Neomni suddenly emerges from it, much more damaged than how she was in the final part, and ensues in a fight against Ben 10,000 and Ken 10, the latter of which greatly underestimating Neomni's power and forcing his father to ensure his safety. Back at the base, Gwen 10 would watch over Future Blukic and Driba's work, learning about Neomni and the Ultimatrix, and would eventually catch a glimpse of the mysterious fedora-wearing figure, attempting to track it down with her Vuplimancer form's powers, but to no avail.
 * When the chapter was being written, it was decided to instead have the chapter focus more on explanation, as the previous 3 chapters had been solely about fighting, regarding Neomni, Eunice, the Ultimatrix, and Master Control, along with bringing back Ultimate Ben.
 * In the original rough draft of the chapter, Neomni's severed arm would use a few alien powers to try and escape the glass container it was, including Heatblast's flames and Humungousaur's strength, hinting that Neomni had a wireless link to her severed limb and thus, the latter could still use her alien database's powers, but however, it was scrapped due to the arm lacking any higher intelligence and not really having the mental thought to use alien powers.
 * Also in the original rough draft, Future Blukic and Driba would have appeared in the opening scene, being the ones to reveal that Neomni's technology was identical to that of Eunice's, and how she was an alternate version of her, but their inclusion felt off-putting and they were scrapped for later.
 * Chapter 8 bares many references to the two Ben 10,000 episodes of the 2005 original series, namely the Season 4 episode, Ken 10.
 * The alarm voice's line of "DANGER: SECTOR B-DELTA-NINER." is an identical word-by-word phrase from when Ben 10,000 and his son, after having received his Omnitrix replica, are alerted to danger within Omnitrix City, and team up to stop it.
 * The inclusion of both Mot Snikrep and Sploot, minor villains of the episode Ken 10.
 * Mot Snikrep being attacked and defeated by Buzzshock, although in the original episode, Buzzshock only briefly hurt him, before Ben 10,000 defeated him as Arctiguana.
 * The reappearance of Ken 10, and the future counterparts of Gwen and Kevin.
 * A few more references to the original episode were meant to appear, including a Future counterpart of Vulkanus, the villain Ben 10,000 fought at the beginning of the episode, and the egg-shaped Null Void grenades used to imprison Vulkanus, Sploot, and Mot, but they were unable to be integrated into the chapter while writing, and were scrapped as a result.
 * Humungousaur's power to alter his size, seen through Gwen's first usage of her Vaxasaurian form while fighting Sploot, makes its first reappearance in the franchise since Ben 10: Ultimate Alien.
 * Future Kevin's abrupt reappearance was originally meant to have a reason why he randomly showed up, other than just to check on Ben 10,000, due to an inability of coming up with an interesting-enough reason, it was decided to just presumed he was checking on Ben 10,000.