Early the next morning, Lucian slowly opened his eyes.
As usual, he brushed his teeth, tidied his messy hair, washed his face with a bit of cleanser, and then sat down to eat the nutritious breakfast Grandpa had prepared.
Halfway through his bread, Lucian suddenly felt that something was off.
Normally, at this time of day, Gwen and Ben would already be arguing nonstop over who got to use the sink first.
But today, it was strangely quiet.
Lucian looked around, but there was no sign of either of them. Even Grandpa Max was nowhere to be seen.
After finishing breakfast, Lucian stepped out of the RV and realized they were parked at a gas station.
Grandpa Max was talking with a staff member nearby, though it wasn't clear what they were discussing.
Gwen and Ben stood off to the side holding ice cream cones, licking them every now and then.
Suddenly, two masked criminals roared toward them on modified motorcycles, engines screaming as they sped forward.
They charged in arrogantly, forcing pedestrians out of the way as they barreled straight toward the group.
"Ah! Help!"
Gwen screamed in fear and ran off, dropping her ice cream, which splattered across the ground.
Lucian was taken aback. Even if they were riding motorcycles, was it really enough to scare Gwen like that?
After all, she was a girl who could use magic. Dealing with a couple of thugs should have been easy for her.
Meanwhile, Ben remained standing where he was, his face full of confidence and disdain, showing no fear at all toward the criminals.
"Ben, get out of the way!" Grandpa Max shouted. Had his grandson been scared senseless?
"No, Grandpa. Let this hero handle it," Ben said with a grin. "Because I've got four hands!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Ben raised his wrist and slammed it down.
"Huh?"
Ben froze and hurriedly looked at his wrist.
It was empty.
There was no sign of the Omnitrix at all.
"Oh no… what's going on?!" Ben's eyes widened, barely able to believe what he was seeing.
Lucian's eyes narrowed as well, equally shocked. What was happening?
At that moment, the two vicious criminals twisted their throttles hard, their motorcycles nearly crashing straight into Ben.
Lucian instinctively reached for his own wrist, but his hand met nothing.
Huh?
What was going on now?
He lowered his head and realized that, just like Ben, his Omnitrix was gone as well.
"System, what's going on?" Lucian asked silently in his mind.
There was no response. Only silence.
Even the system was gone. What in the world was happening?
Facing the oncoming criminals, Ben, now without his watch, panicked completely. He stood there helpless and frozen, too shocked to react.
Just as the criminals were about to slam into Ben, Grandpa Max rushed in at the critical moment.
"No one is allowed to hurt my grandson!"
Grandpa Max was still as sharp as ever. He grabbed a fuel nozzle and hurled it with all his strength, smashing it straight into one of the thugs.
"Ah!"
The masked criminal cried out as his motorcycle lost balance, skidding across the ground and spraying sparks everywhere.
The other thug had already rushed up to Ben, the distance between them no more than two or three meters.
Grandpa Max wanted to act, but it was already too late.
At the critical moment, a metal trash can flew through the air and struck the thug squarely on the head.
Clang!
The thug dropped on the spot. The motorcycle beneath him tipped over, scraping along the ground for a short distance before coming to a stop, its two thick wheels still stubbornly spinning.
Grandpa Max's eyes widened. After a moment, he finally reacted.
"Lucian?"
"It was me." Lucian smiled faintly. He had thrown the trash can.
Ben let out a shaky breath and patted his chest.
"Whew! Those losers almost ran me over."
Grandpa Max glanced at the fallen thugs and then at the police sirens growing louder in the distance.
"Kids, get in the car! Now!"
Lucian and the others immediately nodded and rushed into the Rustbucket.
They pulled away from the gas station before the police cars arrived.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Lucian felt deeply uneasy.
Not only had he lost the Omnitrix, but even the system was gone. This was no small problem.
Lucian closed his eyes and began to think carefully.
In his memory, this situation felt oddly familiar. In the original story, there had been an episode where Ben didn't have the watch either. In that parallel universe, it was Gwen who obtained the Omnitrix.
Could it be that he had crossed into that parallel universe?
In the Ben 10 universe, the setting was vast, with countless timelines and dimensions, the so-called parallel universes. In each one, anyone could potentially be the protagonist.
Although most universes had Ben Tennyson as the lead, there were exceptions. Gwen, Grandpa Max, and even Argit had all obtained the Omnitrix in certain parallel worlds and become the main character there.
Lucian suspected that he had ended up in a different parallel universe. The only question was, who the protagonist of this one was.
On the other side, Ben looked frustrated, rummaging through everything he could find while muttering nonstop.
"No way… The Omnitrix shouldn't just detach on its own. What's going on? This is so annoying!"
"Ben, what exactly are you looking for?" Grandpa Max asked.
"The Omnitrix! The watch that lets me turn into aliens!" Ben said angrily. "I don't know why, but it's gone today!"
Grandpa Max's heart jolted. He took a deep breath and forced himself to stay calm.
"Ben, what are you talking about? When I picked you up from school, I didn't see any watch at all… and that was less than two hours ago."
"What? Less than two hours?" Ben stared at him in disbelief. "Two weeks ago, we were at Mount Rushmore beating Vilgax to a pulp! I turned into Four Arms and personally blasted him onto his ship!"
The moment the name "Vilgax" was spoken, Grandpa Max's hands trembled violently.
He slammed hard on the brakes…
...
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