Ben 10: Alien + Vampire

Chapter 8: Tests of Friendships; Kurumu's Slimy Stalker

Voice cast:

Yuri Lowenthal as Ben Tennyson/Upgrade
Alexis Tipton as Moka Akashiya
Brina Palencia as Kurumu Kurono
Monica Rial as Yukari Sendō
Ian Sinclair as Ginei Morioka
Dee Bradley Baker as Goop
Richard McGonagle as Four Arms
Andrew Kishino as Nagare Kano
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Boys Dorm

Ben's Room

"I'm so glad Gwen made me take those foreign language classes," said Ben as he did his homework with Moka. Both of them were dressed in casual clothing and without their shoes, so they were barefoot and enjoying the comfort of just being teenagers and not students in uniforms. They sat at one of those lap warming tables, which Ben thought was pretty comfortable. "Thanks to her, and Grandpa Max, I'm able to understand all this stuff." Though, he did have some problems learning Japanese writing. Really, it all looked like chicken scratches to him when he started and now a portion of it was still chicken scratches rather than all of it. Thankfully, Moka was happy to lend a hand when he couldn't understand the writing.

"You always mention Gwen and your grandfather, but you never told me much about them," Moka mentioned, looking up from her work, looking for Ben to tell her all about it. "How come?"

Ben stopped writing and tapped his chin with his pencil. Moka was right; he never really told Moka much about his home life. "It's a pretty long story. You might get bored. Plus we got homework."

"I can take a break, Ben," Moka smiled beautifully, scooting .

To Ben, attending Youkai Academy really opened his eyes to the truth about monsters. Vampires weren't the evil bloodsucking demons that movies portrayed them as. They were like aliens; as different as they were, they were still people. That went for all of the monsters he'd been growing up scared of. They weren't evil or ferocious at all. They were people too and they were all different. No two were alike.

"OK, let's take a break," said Ben, setting his pencil down. Since Moka was asking, he really couldn't say no. "Well, Gwen, as you know, is my cousin. She's a witch but unlike Yukari she wasn't born one. She actually began to learn about magic after she became a superhero called Lucky Girl using some mystic charm. She lost the charm but then she got another magical artifact and became Lucky Girl again, also temporary. On one of our adventures, we met this teenage witch named Charmcaster, who was a villain that we bumped into now and then during that first summer, and Gwen took a book of spells from her. Since then, she's become a powerful witch."

Ben took out his wallet and took out a photo of his cousin, which was when they were both still ten and started out their adventures. "This is Gwen, and this is Grandpa Max." He took out another photo of his Grandpa. Moka could feel the warmth in the smiles of the people in the photo. "Oh, yeah. I never told you, but my Grandpa Max is a Plumber."

"So he fixes pipes," said Moka, nodding, but then became confused, as she asked, "Wait a minute, what does this have to do with aliens?"

"Not that sort of plumber," Ben corrected. "Plumbers is the name of the intergalactic police officers. They recruit races from all over the galaxy, and make use of alien tech weapons and gadgets. Their motto is to Clean out the Clogs of the Universe, namely the Scum of the Universe that cause criminal activities, terrorism, and destruction. My Grandpa was one of their human officers, a legend among them all, but he's semi-retired. So now it's more of a hobby; he may be an old man, but he's still got it." He smirked at remembering how much of a legend his grandfather was five years ago, and still was apparently.