The wind whispered across the rooftops of Bellwood, carrying with it a strange hum—low and rhythmic, like the pulse of a dying star. The sky was clear, but something about the air was heavy. It was subtle—too subtle for ordinary people to notice—but Ben Tennyson had learned long ago that danger rarely shouted. It whispered.
He stood alone on top of the rebuilt Plumber HQ, arms crossed as the glow from his wrist flickered between green and violet. The Neo-Omnitrix—the next-generation evolution of the device that had defined his entire life—was behaving oddly again. Glyphs pulsed across its surface in patterns he didn't recognize. They weren't Plumber runes. They weren't Galactic Standard. They weren't even any known alien script.
He narrowed his eyes. "System diagnostics," he muttered.
The Omnitrix responded with a mechanical hum.
—Running System Integrity Check… ERROR: Signal Fragment Detected.—Origin: Unknown.—Stability Level: Unreadable.
Ben frowned. "Unreadable? That's new."
A voice from behind made him flinch. "Let me guess—your space-watch is throwing a tantrum again?"
He turned to see Kevin Levin approaching, leaning casually against the railing, arms folded across his chest. His demeanor was relaxed, but Ben could tell he was uneasy. Kevin had always had an uncanny sense for danger—even if he rarely admitted it.
"Something's off," Ben said. "The Neo-Omnitrix picked up a signal... but it doesn't match any known source."
"Could be from the Chrono Spire," Kevin replied, nodding toward the towering structure visible on the horizon—an ancient Plumber facility used for temporal research. "They've been experimenting with cross-dimensional pulses again. Maybe it's just a glitch."
Ben shook his head. "It's not just a glitch. This feels different. Like... something trying to connect from outside the data lattice."
Kevin raised an eyebrow. "English, genius."
Ben sighed. "I think something's trying to force a connection with the Omnitrix from beyond the timeline."
Kevin stared at him for a second before replying. "That's the most Ben Tennyson sentence I've heard all week."
Suddenly, the Omnitrix flared.
—WARNING: Rift Singularity Detected. Source: Class-Null Signature.—Temporal Coordinates Unstable.—Spatial Fracture Manifesting.
A sound tore through the air like glass shattering underwater. The sky above Bellwood cracked—not metaphorically, but literally. A jagged rift split through the fabric of reality like a lightning bolt frozen in time.
Both Ben and Kevin stared in stunned silence.
"What the hell is that?" Kevin muttered.
"I don't know," Ben whispered. "But it's not from our world."
From the rift, something stepped through.
Its form was massive—taller than Four Arms, bulkier than Humungousaur. Its skin shimmered with a fractal pattern, like shards of broken crystal constantly shifting. It had the muscles of Four Arms, but its arms were plated in Diamondhead's crystalline armor. One eye glowed like Heatblast's core, while the other was a black void that seemed to absorb light itself.
Ben felt his stomach drop. It wasn't just a monster.
It was a twisted version of himself.
Kevin's voice broke the silence. "Ben… is that you?"
Ben didn't answer. His eyes were locked with the creature's. It was smiling.
Neo-Omnitrix Emergency Protocol Initiated: Unknown Threat Level – Override Pending.Transformation Recommended: TITANFANG.
The Omnitrix symbol burned with a crimson pulse.
Ben slammed his hand down.
"TITANFANG!"
A surge of energy exploded around him, engulfing his body in a vortex of transformation. His bones cracked, muscles expanded, armor grew across his chest and shoulders, and molten plates fused with his skin. He let out a deep growl as claws sprouted from his hands and his tail slammed into the ground with a quake.
He stood tall—over 12 feet now—in the hulking form of Titanfang, a Gravosian Alpha predator with seismic shockwave capabilities.
But even in this form… the creature from the rift didn't flinch.
Instead, it mimicked the same motion.
The copy lifted its arm—and a fractured version of the Omnitrix, blackened and pulsating with anti-energy, materialized on its wrist. With a jagged twist, the device activated. In a flash of corrupted energy, it transformed into something even larger, even darker.
"Ben…" Kevin stepped back. "That thing has an Omnitrix."
Ben's heart raced. "No. It doesn't just have one…"
He swallowed.
"It has a broken version of mine."
The monster roared, and the ground trembled.
Collision Sequence Detected. Multiversal Synchronization Engaged.
Titanfang lunged first, claws slicing through the air—but the Riftborn Ben met him head-on, blocking the blow with its armored forearm. Shockwaves cracked the rooftop structure as they exchanged blows, each hit echoing like a thunderclap. Kevin dove for cover, debris flying around him.
The Omnitrix interface inside Ben's mind flickered again.
Unknown Energy Signature: "NULL PROTOCOL"DNA Match: 87%... Identity Clash Detected.
"Who ARE you!?" Ben growled, slamming Titanfang's tail into the creature's side. It barely moved.
Then the creature spoke, voice distorted—like a dozen Bens speaking at once, fractured by static and malice.
"I'm what you could've been… if you lost everything."
Then it vanished—fading into a ripple of fractured light—leaving only a trail of decay behind, and a single shard.
A piece of a timeline that should never have existed.
Ben dropped to one knee, reverting to human form. Sweat dripped from his forehead, his breathing ragged.
Kevin approached cautiously. "What the hell just happened?"
Ben stared at the shard in his hand. A fragment of something far worse than any alien threat he'd ever faced.
He looked up at the sky—now calm again.
But he knew better.
This was just the beginning.
TO BE CONTINUED…