Rhetorical Decisions, Part 1

"Rhetorical Decisions" is the pilot episode of Joseph416's series, "Ben 10: Alter Dimensions."

Synopsis
Eon must obtain certain mechanical devices to make himself more powerful.

Plot
Swish. Swish. The pedals on Ben's bike gradually swish faster as he pedals home from an exhausting day at school. It was a Friday, but that made no change in the weight of homework sitting in Ben's backpack. So much homework on the weekends. Like battling super villains isn't hard enough.

A good side of this week was that Ben would get to spend today with Julie. He'd promised to help her with tennis practice, after the last one was interrupted by a Techadon Weapon Master.

Ben turned right at the next corner, and onto another street. The local outdoor tennis court wasn't far away. Ironically, in his directional gaze, was not the relaxing Friday afternoon he'd been imagining. A gargantuan frog- maybe mutated 10 times its natural size- was leaping down the street at an astouding speed.

"Oh, great," Ben muttered.

The frog almost seemed to not even notice Ben as its giant foot nearly crushed him. Ben, instinctively, thought about going after it. But he promised Julie. He concludingly decided to simply call Julie after the battle, and parked his bike next to a telephone pole.

Raising his arm, Ben activated the Ultimatrix, and scrolled through it's holographic playlists. Holographic images of Eatle, Swampfire, Clockwork, Humungousaur, and Jetray were scrolled through, but not selected. Finally, a holographic image of FastTrack appeared. Ben slammed down the faceplate. In a blinding flash of light, Ben was gone. In his place was a humanoid alien with a blue and black color scheme.

FastTrack darted down the street in the direction of the leaping amphibian. It didn't take long to catch up with the giant frog, but stopping it was the hard part. FastTrack made an amazing leap onto the creatures back, but just as quickly thrown off. FastTrack was launched into the air, but landed on his feet, and quickly sprinting back up to the giant frog.

"Must be one of Animo's mutations," FastTrack said to himself. "Giant frogs are his specialty. But my question is... where's the doctor himself?" FastTrack tried once more to climb onto the beast's back, and successfully grabbed hold of its slimy skin. Every time the frog leaped, FastTrack felt as if he were about to fall off. Suddenly, FastTrack saw something that changed his view on the situation completely- another mutant frog leaping across the instersection ahead. Immediately, FastTrack got off the giant frog, raced down the street, following the other frog. There, he found three more mutant frogs jumping towards the same direction.

Car horns blared as the frogs began to leap through crowded streets. Nobody knew what to make of the odd scene- a parade of giant frogs, followed by a fast moving blurr. This was useless. Ben was never going to stop any of these frogs as FastTrack. So, instead of battling them, he followed them to wherever they were going.

After following the frogs a while, they took a leap over a fenced in area. FastTrack leaped over, as well. He found a large lot, lined with identical shed-like buildings. Still secretly following them, the frogs made their way into a small, grey building that looked deserted. The frogs entered, but FastTrack felt the need to remain outside until he knew exactly what he was dealing with. He waited, and listened. He waited some more, and listened. All he heard was the sound of silence.

FastTrack cautiously ventured into the building. The door looked like those large garage doors you see at storage places. It was dark. Extremely dark. As he expected, something went wrong right out of the gate. No, literally, right out of the gate. A large cage dropped over FastTrack as soon as he entered through the door. Large hanging lights on the ceiling buzzed on, revealing an ornate lining of frogs on the side of the walls. A few feet infront of FastTrack was Dr. Animo.

"Well, well, well," Dr. Animo mused, "if it isn't Ben Tennyson! In one of his newer alien forms, I see." In his hand, FastTrack noticed Dr. Animo was holding a remote control- most likely the one that controlled the cage.

"Enough of the games, Animo." FastTrack demanded. "What are you up to this time?" As he said this, FastTrack conjured a plan in his mind.

"You automatically think that I did something wrong? Well, okay, technically I'm ABOUT to do something wrong." FastTrack tilted his head.

"Are you gonna leave me hanging, or what?" FastTrack prompted.

"You ruined my experiment before. My reptiles, my dragons- you destroyed them! And now, you're going to pay." Dr. Animo explained. Quickly, while Animo was still talking, FastTrack tapped the Ultimatrix symbol. In a flash of green light, he became Wildvine. Wildvine used his stretching tendril appendages and snatched the remote control out of Dr. Animo's hands, and into the cage. In another flash of green light, Ben reverted to human.

"See you later, Dr. Animo." Ben said, pressing the button on the remote.

"Oh, I was going to wait until after my speech, but I guess we can do it now." Dr. Animo said, looking at the remote. Ben began to click it several times, but found the remote did nothing. Dr. Animo began to walk out of the building, his mutant frog army following close behind.

"Wait! What kind of control IS this?" Ben demanded.

"Oh, you know," Dr. Animo replied. "A muclear bomb. It's small, but it will destroy this entire lot. Which is why I am leaving and taking my prize from the boss. Ta-ta!" Oh, no. This was NOT good. Ben watched in horror as Dr. Animo climbed on the back of a mutant frog, and hopped away into the distance. Quickly, Ben tried to think of another plan. After a few seconds, Ben kicked himself for not thinking of it in the first place.

Ben activated the Ultimatrix, and scrolled through the holographic playlist. It was left on a holographic image of Wildvine. Ben turned the dial to the right, scrolling through holographic images of Wildmutt, Four Arms, Ditto, and Cannonbolt. At last, he reached the holographic image of Grey Matter. Ben slammed down the faceplate. In a flash of light, Grey Matter appeared in Ben's place. Being only six inches tall, Grey Matter easily slipped through the cage's bars. He tapped the Ultimatrix symbol on his chest, and in a flash of light, became FastTrack again. Knowing he didn't have a lot of time, FastTrack ran as fast as he could from the lot. Behind him, the explosion errupted, the force blasting him forwards.

Getting back onto his feet, FastTrack looked back at the disaster. All of the buildings were totalled. And FastTrack knew he was in trouble. Animo had said something about a 'boss.' He had to find out what he meant. FastTrack darted into the lot, occaisionally stumbling over wreckage. We stood infront of the building that he was in just a few seconds ago. Tapping the Ultimatrix symbol, FastTrack transformed into Clockwork in a flash of green light.

Using his powers, Clockwork rewound a simulation of the entire scene. Everything turned a light shade of green. He saw himself as FastTrack running backwards, the building forming once again. He saw Animo get off the frog, go back inside, and saw Ben himself as FastTrack go outside the building. Then, he saw an army of frogs leaping backwards from the building, a backwards running FastTrack behind them. Clockwork peered into the building, where he now saw Dr. Animo pacing. Suddenly, a portal appeared, and a bony humanoid figure walked backwards out of the portal. He faced Dr. Animo, and said something. Clockwork knew who it was immediately. He stopped the time simulation. Everything regained its natural color, the green color fading away.

That bony old person.

It was Eon.

To be continued in Part 2

Characters

 * Ben Tennyson
 * Julie Yammamoto
 * Dr. Animo
 * Eon

Aliens used

 * FastTrack x2
 * Wildvine
 * Grey Matter
 * Clockwork