"These readings are off the charts!"

"Never mind the readings, Phil." said Max, looking at the smoke coming from the forest. "That's the way Ben went, we've got to go find him."

Both Tennysons got up from the table, running towards the forest before Phil stopped them.

"Wait a moment! There's something strange here..." he said, looking at his tablet. "The DNA inside the watch that allows Ben to transform. A portion of it seems fragmented, incomplete, as if it's missing its other half. And Ben's human DNA seems affected by it as well."

"Huh?"

"There's something unusual going on here. Aside from Ben having something like the Omnitrix in the first place, the readings I got from his DNA inside the watch is abnormal. It's as if his DNA was partially merged with Gax's."

"Are you saying Ben's gonna stay Gax forever if we don't hurry?" asked Gwen.

"No, his DNA isn't changing that way. I do not know if this was caused by Ben unlocking Gax somehow, or if it was always the case, but Ben's DNA matches with many of Gax's genes as we speak. Whatever is going on with Gax's DNA right now, we need to learn more and quickly."

..............................................................................................................................

"Now don't stop, focus... control your power..."

Gax kept firing the heat vision at the tree in front of him, not realizing Vil was getting his hand near the device on his chest armor. And he was done burning the tree too soon to the old Chimeran's liking.

"Wow! No fire this time! I just, like, laser-ed that tree out of existence!" exclaimed Gax, doing cartwheels as he laughed, proud of himself. "Awesome!"

"Now... see what can be accomplished, when such raw force is matched with precision and discipline?" muttered Vil.

"Wow, I usually just go with the flow." said Gax, getting back up. "But maybe there really is something to this, to have in control!"

"Indeed." followed Vil.

He however stopped as he noticed something out of place with the younger Chimeran in front of him. Gax had raised his arms, looking at his hands as he was thinking over Vil's words, allowing Vil to see something he hadn't noticed yet. Underneath Gax's armpit, the symbol of a squid he recognized quite easily was present.

No, it was most likely a coincidence. After all, both 'Gax' and Benjamin technically came from him, it could've been carried on to whoever held the Omnitrix as they spoke. Then again, whoever had it didn't know what it could do, it wouldn't hurt to check who this Chimeran impersonator was.

"If you do not mind me asking, what was your name again?"

"Me?" asked Gax. "Well, this alien, you already know I call him Gax, but my fans and family call me Ben."

The old Chimera Sui Generis' expression changed, the young one's words taking him aback. He had to make sure of what he was thinking about, otherwise he could lose his chance to get his real body back. This looked too good to be true...

"Interesting, and may I know why that device is cracked?" he asked, pointing to the shattered Omnitrix.

"Oh, that..." said Gax, upset. "Some Phil guy tried to fix my watch as if there was something wrong with it, and he just made things worse. I don't alien-jump and this thing doesn't beep anymore, so it's fine, right?"

"Hmm, may I?"

Gax was confused as the old Chimeran removed the crystal piece Diamondhead put by accident onto the symbol. He wasn't sure this was a good idea, but Vil seemed to know what he was doing. As for Vil, he knew he could take his strength back here and there. But if he wasn't mistaken, he could potentially find something more...

Pulling on the blue ring that pesky human put around the Omnitrix, he observed the cracked device. "Your Omnitrix is in need to be repaired, something no one on this planet would know how to do." He pressed twice on the device, and with a flash of green, Ben was back to himself.

"Huh?!" said the boy, looking at himself. "You just timed me out! But..."

He looked at the Omnitrix. It wasn't beeping, it wasn't cracked, and Phil's thingy wasn't on it anymore. It was back to normal! He shook it to check if it did anything, but nothing came out of it.

"Wow, you just fixed it! Thanks, Vil!" said Ben, though he was a bit weirded out as Vil just raised his left arm in the air, looking at his armpit. "Uhhh, what are you doing?"

"This mark you see here, you do not know what it means, do you?"

"Huh?" said Ben. "Oh, that! It just appeared as soon as I got Gax! I don't know why it's there or what it means, but it sure looks wicked cool! Even if tentacles still do freak me out a bit, no offense."

"None taken, Ben." smiled the old Chimeran, looking at Ben's excited green eyes.

This was the opportunity of a lifetime. Both the Omnitrix and Benjamin in one day...

He knew he couldn't tell Benjamin the truth immediately, he needed to tell Ben a few things about Vilgaxia, about 'Gax', about the power he could have... and if he took his powers back now, Benjamin wouldn't trust him or might be angry at him for doing so.

"Come on." said Vil, beckoning him and taking a seat on a cut down tree trunk. "We have much to talk about, my boy."

..............................................................................................................................

"Ben!" shouted Gwen.

She could see her cousin sitting down on the grass next to someone, but who was he talking to?

"The true potential of this form is found only in a lifetime of a deliberate honing of one's raw strength... and it's also yours now."

"That's so cool!" exclaimed Ben, before seeing his family come by. "Hey guys!"

He got up as they walked to him, wary of the stranger he was talking to. It looked like a slimmer, shorter and frail looking version of Gax, wearing a purple cloak. Somehow, he looked even scarier than Gax did, and Gax came with super powerful laser eyes and strong tentacle arms, something they weren't sure this old man had.

"Who is... your friend?"

"Oh yeah, this guy is Vil. He's a super cool old dude who knows a lot of stuff about Gax. And check it out! It's not beeping anymore!" said Ben, showing the device to the three other humans.

"Indeed, it's not... Where did my beacon go?" asked Phil.

"Um... I was practicing with my new alien, and it... fell out on its own?" said Ben, trying not to look too guilty.

"Ben, are you sure you can trust this guy?" asked Max, keeping an eye on Vil.

"I can assure you, I mean no harm to Ben." said Vil. "He's quite the capable warrior, I wouldn't dream or wish for something to happen to him."

"Of course we can trust him!" argued Ben, coming in front of his new friend to defend him. "Vil's been super helpful! He showed me how to use my laser eyes without hurting anyone, and he told me a lot about where he and Gax come from!"

He didn't notice the smile of gratitude and pride Vil was sporting behind him. If only Ben knew what awaited him once he'd tell him the truth...

Suddenly, a red ring appeared next to the group. A portal opened itself, and the three aliens that attacked them yesterday came out of it.

"We're not too late!" said Kraab, the cybernetic crab alien. He readied his claw and shot a laser towards Vil, only to be stopped as a flash of green blinded everyone.

"Not on my watch!" said Gax, brushing off the attack.

"Really?" said Gwen, rolling her eye at the pun.

"First, to get everyone to safety." said Gax, grabbing the humans and Vil. With a dynamic jump, he landed away from the scene and put the group behind some trees. "Now to deal with those alien dudes."

"You will require my assistance for this combat, Benjamin." said Vil.

"It'll be fine, you already taught me a lot." shrugged Gax. "Go get to safety with everyone else while I deal with this."

Gax then left, despite a distressed Vil calling out to him. This wasn't good, those meddlers would take Ben away from him once they'd realize who he was. And even if they didn't know, Ben had the Omnitrix, it was impossible for them to complete their mission without kidnapping the boy.

"Ugh, Ben!" complained Gwen. "Okay, Grandpa, any ideas?"

"I say we take the Rustbucket and try to get Ben inside before he times out, so we can think of a better plan once his watch is green again." suggested Max.

"A car chase? Sounds like we're back into the good old days." said Phil. "Ahem, Vil, right? I think it'd be better if you came with us."

"No need, I have my own vehicles." said Vil, not even paying attention to the Tennysons' rambling. "Now if you'll excuse me..."

Flying drones came in their direction, gathering themselves into a platform on which Vil sat before flying away into the forest, disappearing behind trees.

"Hey, wait!" said Max.

"Is Gax's biggest superpower 'not listening to us'? Because I think it'd explain a lot." said Gwen.

Meanwhile, as the group was far enough from the field, Gax... wasn't doing very well in battle. SixSix caught him several time with metal lassos and took him by surprise enough to tire him out. Then Tetrax made diamond walls hit him from everywhere, reminding him of Diamondhead's fighting while also being more brutal. And Kraab's firepower combined with the other two's energy guns was a lot to take in.

He realized he maybe should've listened when Vil told him he needed help fighting these guys. He fought bad guys everyday, but this was the first time he fought people that seemed to train for fighting aliens like Gax. He'd have to get tricky to defeat them, but as soon as he thought of something, another attack hit him.

"Just so you wait... I'll show you what Gax can do... Just give me five..."

He was unaware Vil merely deviated attention from himself before coming back to the battle, observing him from afar. By the last hit, Gax was knocked onto a rock, creating a huge gap in it with several cracks. He coughed, trying to get back up, but he barely dodged as an energy net almost caught him. Whatever they were planning, he did not want to go with them.

It was useless, he wasn't experienced enough with this body, unlike with his other aliens. If only he had more time to train with it, maybe he could deal with this faster, but his only hope now was to time out and hope for a better alien next time. But what alien could deal with these guys better than Gax now?

"I apologize, my boy, but this will be necessary to our victory."

Before Gax could react, he saw Vil's clawed hand on the Omnitrix, and he saw red as an excruciating pain took over him, coming from his chest. It was as if his entire skin was being pulled from there, and it was technically the case as his muscles were shrinking and losing mass.

"You will regret what you've done to him!" shouted Vil, his voice much more imposing and threatening, far from the old man he used to sound like.

Ben's vision got blurry as he kept shrinking. He could hear his own voice switching from Gax to Ben, and as he was completely back to his human self, he saw a large squid man standing where Vil used to.

"Vil? Is that you? What did you do, what happened to Gax?!"

"I'll explain later, Ben. For now, get behind me."

As Ben obliged, SixSix came and tried to grab the squid alien, only to be caught by his metal arms and thrown on a tree, causing it to fall. The alien got back up and flew with rocket boots back to him. It was Tetrax's turn to try and encase him in crystals, but they were shattered as Vil simply dodged and destroyed them with bare arms.

"Vilgax has combined!" exclaimed Kraab.

"Indeed." said Vil, or rather, Vilgax. "Now, witness the power of Vilgax! And face the consequences for harming this defenseless innocent child."

"Hey!" protested Ben, offended Vilgax called him defenseless. But before he could comment on anything, he suddenly turned into XLR8. "Huh?! It's still broken! Wait, watch out!"

Vilgax took his warning as he dodged a charged attack from Kraab's pincer. SixSix tried to blast him with lasers, but Vilgax used his own laser eyes to push him away, before grabbing him and throwing him back into the red portal.

"Wow, that's really cool." whispered XLR8, impressed as he switched to Grey Matter. He only had a few seconds to get his head down and dodge before seeing Tetrax and Kraab get thrown in there as well. "That was amazing, wonderful! An undeniable masterpiece of combat! I must ask you-"

He was interrupted as he turned into Cannonbolt, tripping and almost rolling to Vilgax before being stopped by the squid man.

"Easy does it, my boy. Your Omnitrix is still in need of minor repairs."

More drones came to surround Cannonbolt and submerged him before lifting him above the ground. "Woooooooooooow! Hey, what gives?! And why do I feel like I've already seen those things before?" he asked himself before, amusingly enough, turning into Heatblast.

"My ship will be a more appropriate place to fix your Omnitrix and for us to talk." said Vilgax, stepping into the platform made by his drones. "Removing the fraction of my DNA trapped inside the Omnitrix could have effects on your human form, we must hurry."

Heatblast gulped, unsure what he meant by that before turning into Wildvine. He wondered if he hadn't trusted 'Vil' too quickly, but the alien defended him from those weirdos in armors and momentarily fixed the watch before. Guess he could really be trusted? Though if he heard him right, Gax wasn't in the Omnitrix anymore. But hey, if he could fix it, maybe he could put Gax back?

What Ben didn't see as they were gaining altitude was that the Rustbucket was trying to follow them, and wasn't catching up to the pair quite fast enough.

Inside the vehicle, Gwen was worried. She knew that other guy looked sketchy, but from what she saw with her binoculars, Ben was alien-jumping again, while that Vil guy now looked like a meaner, angrier version of Gax. And did he just kidnap Ben?!

"Come on, Ben! Why aren't you trying to kick his butt like you always do?!" complained Gwen.

"The unpredictable transformations may have tired him out." observed Phil. "I am no expert in the Omnitrix's functioning, but from what experience and my instincts tell me, he must be exhausted as of right now."

"Well he'd better get back up quick!" said Gwen, observing the pair of aliens disappearing into the distance through the window, hoping the RV would eventually catch up to them.

..............................................................................................................................

Vilgax observed the shorter figure with a sad eye. He hadn't meant to shock him, but the deed was done.

The Tetramand was sitting on his own on the ship's ground, arms and legs brought together. Some sniffs could be heard, though if one wasn't facing him, it was hard to notice he had been crying. Especially with the panels and screens around him almost all shattered in anger.

He couldn't believe it. His parents kept that a secret from him? That he was an alien this entire time?! How was he ever supposed to learn he wasn't a normal human and that his dad was some space squid warrior... without said dad saving him from a bunch of Bounty Hunters ready to sell him away on the galactic market?!

So he wasn't a human, or at least, not the normal kind... Did Grandpa and Gwen know? Grandpa definitely couldn't keep it a secret, and as for Gwen, she would've done the responsible thing and told him. But then... how else was he supposed to know if he never met Vilgax? Would he have stayed unaware he came from the same planet his latest alien came from? Or would he have not gotten Gax at all and thus never learned of who or what he was?

He didn't know what to think anymore, he remembered all those family gatherings where relatives commented on him growing up and how reckless he was getting with age. Well, alien DNA would now be a factor in it, more so than he would've imagined when he first got the watch.

It was a miracle he even got the Omnitrix. Had it been someone else, he may as well have never found Vilgax and known that Vilgax... was his dad.

As his watch beeped and he timed out, he felt a clawed hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw a concerned Vilgax lending him a hand, helping him back up.

"Hey, um... sorry I just trashed the place."

"It doesn't matter to me what you did, Ben. All it does matter is that you're finally back." said the squid man, embracing the young hero. "I have got so much to teach you, so many things for you to learn... but all in due time. I believe you need to return to those humans before they attempt anything else."

"Oh, yeah..." awkwardly said Ben, quitting the hug as he looked at his... father. Yeah, that would take A LOT of time to adjust. "Let me just fix it for you, Upgrade can get this thing working in seconds! Or maybe Grey Matter, he's pretty smart and... actually, maybe wait like, five minutes? My watch is still timed out."

Vilgax chuckled before patting the boy's brown locks. Ben was still new to all of this, but he could feel it'd get better with time.

And maybe a little push would help.

..............................................................................................................................

"They're at Mt. Megalodon!" exclaimed Gwen.

The day before, Ben used Gax to not-so-brilliantly stop it from erupting when Animo and his latest mutant were threatening to burn down Portland if he wasn't given money to stop it. And though Ben almost caused the entire city to melt as well, they were lucky enough his landslide stopped it.

"Gwen, what are you doing with my oven mitts and that fire extinguisher?" asked Max to his granddaughter.

"If this Vil guy got the same firepower as Gax, I must be ready to face him with Ben." said Gwen, putting a welding mask on.

"We'll have to go to the top of the mountain if we want a chance to reach them." said Phil, observing his tablet. "I'm detecting quite different readings this time. It seems Gax's DNA is no longer reacting the way it did before. It's no longer working as a beacon but... this isn't normal, the readings come in pairs, as if there were two of them!"

"Guess we'll see if duplication is another one of his powers." said Gwen.

Suddenly, a figure jumped from the spaceship on the top of the mountain, landing near the edge of the volcano before running towards the vehicle on wheels. Max slowed down as the three humans prepared themselves to face the squid man. Except he didn't count on Gwen going outside the Rustbucket screaming like a lunatic.

"Give me back my cousiiiiiiiiiiin!"

"Gwen, wait!" shouted Max.

"Gwen, wait!" repeated the squid alien before Gwen showered him with foam.

Muffled sounds could be heard as he tripped and fell on his back while the fire extinguisher covered his entire face and stopped him from seeing anything. He shook his hands several times before he could finally let a few words out.

"Gwen, it's me!" coughed the Chimeran, getting her attention.

"Huh? Ben?" she asked, looking at the alien's wrist and seeing the Omnitrix, in watch form, on it. "Is that you?! Where's Vil?"

"First, his name is Vilgax. Second, rude." he said, getting up and hitting the dial on the Omnitrix, reverting back to being Ben in another flash of green. "And third, he's going home."

"What?" said Phil.

"Someone stole his powers away and put them in the Omnitrix, that's how I got Gax and why the watch was beeping so much."