23rd Times a Charm?

23 Times Better or Worse?

"Gwen," Prime looked Gwen dead in the eyes. "Why do I feel like these robots were just distractions until the villain is off doing something unspeakable?"

"Cuz that's what makes a movie so interesting, Mentor." 23 strutted in, while fiddling with his gold medallion. "And I know exactly what we've gotta do."

Those were odd words coming from a 15-year-old with the mind of an 11-year-old.

"Really?" Gwen stared at 23 for a couple of seconds. "Well, I'm open to suggestions since we nearly got obliterated into grains of dust by laser-shooting robots, and it wasn't very pleasant."

"Cool! Anyways, I have a plan that has a 50/50 chance of us surviving, so we better make it count."

"How? The dude's practically following us everywhere!" Prime asked.

"When the Omnitricies were created, they were constructed containing tracking devices, with which Ben X is able to track your every move." Paradox explained. "If somehow, we are to disable the Omnitrix comlinks, we can lose Ben X from our tails. However, if either one of us are to be abducted or lost, the entire multiverse would be at stake.

"But, again, how? It's not like we know the anatomy of the Omnitrix that we can disable it or something." Prime shrugged.

"Uh, hello? What about the creator of the Omnitrix himself? I know he can do it for us." Gwen rolled her eyes. "Doofuses."

"Of course he can do it, cuz, but is Azmuth really willing to do it?" 23 grew exasperated as everyone seemed to be oblivious to his Azmuth's nature. "You know how he can be!"

"Wait, Ben. Before you say anything," Prime interrupted, pacing towards 23. "I've got something that belongs to you."

"Huh!? My ring? How'd you- where'd you find it?" 23 gasped in surprise and confusion. 

"We found it in this temple kinda place. This was also where I met Ben X for the first time."

23 looked closely at his missing ring. 

"What? Is something wrong, 23?" Gwen seemed to be worried.

"All this time/dimension stuff gives me a mega migraine." 23 whined, squinting his eyes at Paradox.

"Tell me about it," Prime sighed in agreement.

"And as for our plan," Paradox continued, "it will be quite complicated, since you, Ben Prime, have the latest version of the Omnitrix, while Ben 10 thousand has the biomnitrix, and Gwen and Ben 23 have the Omnitrix Prototype. One Azmuth might not know how all the Omnitricies work."

"Maybe I can help." A bold, deep voice echoed from a distanced portal. "Miss me?"

"10K!" Prime exclaimed from shock and excitement. "Everyone's been doing grand entrances lately." 

23 gave a shallow smile before turning his head to look at the distance. Everyone became silent until 10k spoke up.

"Is something wrong?"

"Does anyone feel like they're being watched?"

"Now that you mention it."

"Tsk tsk tsk, joy kill. I was about to erase you right here and now, 23, but where would be the fun in that?"

23 looked at his evil counterpart with sinister eyes. He clenched his fist at the thought of a villain, or anyone for that matter, looking down on him, as if he was insignificant. No one had ever treated him in such a way in his dimension.

"My name is Benjamin Alfred Tennyson, not 23! Only my friends can call me that!" 23 hissed, taking a few steps forward until he was in his foe's face. "What the heck do you want from me, hater?"

"You know exactly what I want, little Ben." Ben X grabbed 23 by the collar and looked him in the eye, which made 23 freeze. "I know about that little failsafe your Azmuth has put to prevent anyone from taking off your Omnitrix."

"What do you wanna do with mine, jerk? Ugh, let me go! You have your watch, why do you want mine when you can't even take it off?!"

"Who said I need to when we can rip it off altogether?" Ben X slammed 23 to the ground, pulling out a three-clawed metallic device. "Don't worry, it won't hurt, for too long."

"Ben! Gah, what's with this forcefield?!" Prime banged his hand against a translucent, red barrier, blocking him from his only attempt to save his mentee, who was also like a little brother he never had. The situation became more and more dire. He became desperate.

"My Omnitrix isn't working, the barrier is interfering with it somehow!" Gwen panicked, knowing that now that their watches couldn't work, all they could do is just watch. Paradox's powers didn't work either, which made the entire team powerless against Ben X.

Ben X slammed his ginormous and petrifying device over 23's wrist, which attempted to pull the Omnitrix from its user with gruesome force. There was no escape. This was it.

"He's ripping it off of me... completely. I can't move my hand away.

This pain...

I can't... breathe...!"

"Why won't it come off of this child?! It's starting to glow purple...Purple?!"

A big wave of energy is released from the Omnitrix, which sends both Ben X and 23 to their nearest wall with a hard thud. With Ben X gone from the scene, the forcefield holding the rest of the Omnitrix wielders back is put down, giving them the opportunity to run towards 23 to make sure he was okay, but from which the answer was obvious.

"Ben! Hey! Talk to me, buddy!" Prime grabbed 23 by the shoulders and shook him to wake him up, but the blue-eyed teen wouldn't show a single motion. His eyes remained closed and his head flopped down, with no sign of voluntary movement.

"His Omnitrix! It's glowing...purple!" Gwen observed 23's Omnitrix, which was emitting a dark magenta tone, with a slight brown glow. "That's not right. We need this...Azmuth person!"

"I wish it were just a concussion, but I'm sure that's not it." 10k gently put his hand on 23's head.

Damaged DNA detected. Proceeding to repair damaged DNA of Ben Tennyson. *bleep* *bleep* Unable to repair damaged DNA. Unable to detain virus. 

"What's this?" Azmuth came toward 23 and hopped on his arm to observe his Omnitrix.

"Azmuth, what's going on?" 10k asked. 

"If I knew the answer, it would be obvious by now." Azmuth scolded. "Omnitrix, run further analysis."

Unknown matter has been previously dispersed from nearby object. Unable to detect object or matter. Matter is interfering with Omnitrix functionality. Omnitrix temporarily shutting down in T minus 15 seconds.

"Looks like I'll be busy with some Omnitrix repairing for a while. Get him on my ship, we're going back to Galvan Prime. And I doubt that Ben X would follow us for a while."

"Sure..." Prime looked behind before entering the ship. "I wouldn't be so sure though..."