Six Months Ago
The jungle wasn't supposed to exist in upstate New York. But Kraven had a way of making the world around him match his style—dense foliage, artificial humidity, and enough concealment to make even mutants second-guess what they'd seen.
Cyclops stumbled backward, visor cracked at the edge. A blow from nowhere had sent him into a tree hard enough to leave an indent in the bark.
"Scott!" Jean's voice echoed as her mind scanned the thick underbrush.
Too late.
Kraven struck like a ghost, rolling beneath Jean's telekinetic blast, flinging a pair of electrically charged bolas. They wrapped around her legs, tightening with a hiss before she could float. Her gasp was cut short by a jab to the throat—measured, not fatal, just enough.
Angel's wings beat overhead, trying to gain altitude. "Come out and fight, coward!"
Kraven answered with a dart to the shoulder—paralytic, a custom mix. Warren barely made it ten more feet before he careened into a branch and fell like a broken bird.
Three mutants. Three samples. All tagged, bled, and bagged.
Kraven crouched beside Jean, retrieving a syringe that glowed faintly with psychic residue.
"Forgive me, madame," he murmured with a smirk. "But I hunt what is rare. And your kind is an endangered breed."
A week later, in the mountains of Romania, Kraven found himself stalking very different prey.
Helen was fast—frighteningly so. A blur of cerulean and black stripes that made the wind scream. Kraven laid traps, sound pulses, gravity mines—but none worked. Not until he coated an area in resinous gel extracted from a genetically modified orchid. A misstep, a slip, and suddenly Helen was tumbling, stunned long enough for Kraven to stab the extractor deep into her shoulder.
She hissed in alien rage. Kraven only laughed.
"I was told you were faster than light. Lies. But I appreciate the sport."
Manny was less subtle. The four-armed hybrid charged like a truck with legs, fists slamming down like earthquakes. But Kraven was no ordinary man—not anymore. He danced between strikes, lured Manny onto a pressure plate, and detonated a sonic disruptor. Even enhanced eardrums couldn't handle the calibrated pitch.
Blood. Muscle. DNA.
All stored in sleek vials, six in total now, each sealed with a red 'X'.
Sometime Later
Deep beneath the earth, in a laboratory that looked less like science and more like desecration, Mister Sinister hummed over his operating slab.
Tubes ran like black veins across the ceiling. A fetal tank glowed with pale violet light, casting shadows over the surgical tables and jars—each holding some half-born, twitching failure. A mutated skull with too many eyes grinned from a shelf.
Kraven leaned against the doorframe, unimpressed. "You said Animo changed me. Made me into this. Explain."
Sinister didn't look up from his work. He swirled a syringe of X-Gene-infused alien DNA and injected it into the gestation pod.
"Oh, Kraven," he crooned. "You were the prototype. Animo's early work—twisted, crude, but effective. He combined neurostimulants with adaptive hybridization sequences—left unfinished, until I inherited his files. Did you ever wonder why your strength never plateaued? Why your reflexes keep sharpening?"
He turned, red eyes glinting under his headlamp. "You are not evolution. You are design."
Kraven's jaw tightened, hands clenching.
"I brought you these," he said coldly, tossing the vials onto the counter. "Now tell me why you really wanted them."
Sinister grinned. "To perfect you. Or rather… replace you."
The tank began to bubble. A silhouette grew inside—a humanoid figure with four muscular arms folded over its chest, wings coiled around its shoulders, head tilted down as if sleeping.
"I call him… Xraven."
Kraven stepped forward, instincts flaring. "That thing carries my DNA?"
"In part. But more importantly, it carries theirs." Sinister gestured to the vials. "Telepathy from Jean. Optic control from Cyclops. Aerial dominance from Angel. The speed of Helen. The raw power of Manny."
The tank hissed open. Fluid spilled onto the floor as the being inside stirred. Xraven opened his eyes—pupil-less, glowing faintly white. His feet hit the steel grate with a heavy thud.
He stood still. Silent.
Then his wings unfurled—sleek, sharp-edged. His claws twitched. His four arms flexed.
"A husk," Kraven muttered.
"For now," Sinister whispered, awe in his voice. "But give him a target, and watch him evolve."
As if hearing it, Xraven slowly turned toward them. His lips twitched—not into a smile, but something crueler. A knowing grin, subtle and predatory.
Sinister stepped forward, placing a hand on the creature's chest.
"Your mission: locate the wielder of the Omnitrix. Bring him to me—alive."
Xraven nodded once. No words. But in his silence, the room felt colder.
Kraven watched the scene unfold—this thing, his shadow, his better.
And for the first time in years, the hunter felt like the hunted.
Two Months Ago
The park was quiet, bathed in golden afternoon light. Kids ran past in the distance, chasing kites and ice cream trucks, but Ben was focused on one thing—Julie.
Or more specifically, trying to win her a stuffed bear from a very stubborn claw machine.
"I think it's rigged," Julie teased, arms crossed as she leaned against the metal side.
Ben squinted at the joystick like it had personally insulted him. "It's not rigged. It's... dramatic. Like me."
"Uh-huh."
He grinned. "Watch and learn."
That was when the wind shifted.
Julie felt it first. A prickle across the back of her neck—like being watched.
Then the machine sparked.
Ben jerked back. "Okay, that wasn't me."
A figure dropped from a nearby tree like a ghost, landing silently between them.
Four arms. Glowing eyes. A tattered cloak rippling as he stood.
Ben's eyes narrowed. "Who the heck—"
Xraven moved.
The first blow was for Ben—measured, brutal. Ben barely ducked it, yanking Julie behind a bench. His hand slapped the Omnitrix.
"Time out's over," he muttered. "Let's go with—Jetray!"
In a flash of red and black light, Ben transformed. Wings snapped wide. He launched into the air, claws glowing.
Xraven didn't follow. He waited. Studied.
Jetray swept past, firing neuroshock blasts—fast, unpredictable. A sonic boom rattled the park.
For a moment, it worked. Xraven stumbled, cloak torn, one knee hitting the ground.
Julie bolted toward cover, shouting something Ben couldn't hear over the roar of flight.
Xraven reacted instantly.
He hurled a barbed net—thin as wire, fast as thought. Jetray dove, slamming into it mid-air to stop it from hitting Julie.
The net exploded on impact.
Ben tumbled, smoke rising from his wings. He hit the grass hard, skidding across the ground and morphing back to human.
"Ben!" Julie screamed.
He looked up—blood on his temple, dazed. The Omnitrix flickered, green again.
Xraven was walking toward them, silent as ever.
Ben groaned. "I don't even know what you are... but I'm not letting you hurt her."
He slammed the Omnitrix down.
"Alien number ten—whatever you are, let's hope you're useful!"
Black and white light consumed him.
And then the world... changed.
The air pulsed. Reality rippled. Trees twisted, flickering in and out of dimension.
Julie blinked—and suddenly, she was standing alone in her bedroom, the park gone like a dream. She gasped, backing into her desk.
Back in the park, Alien X hovered inches above the ground.
Still. Motionless.
Xraven approached warily, circling the figure. No movement. No reaction.
Just eyes like galaxies and skin like void.
And deep inside—
"That was awesome," Ben exclaimed, "How do I make something else happen?"
[You are one of three.]
[Weren't you listening.]
Ben's voice echoed inside the vastness. "Guys—whoever you are—stop arguing! We're in danger!"
[You've already done what you wanted.]
[Indeed you've.]
"I just wanted to save her!"
[Sentimentality.]
[Selflessness.]
Outside, Xraven walked a slow circle. He tapped a claw against Alien X's shoulder.
Nothing.
A moment passed.
Then he reached down and, with effort, hoisted the cosmic being over one shoulder.
---
Somewhere Unknown
Three Days Later
The lab was silent, save for the whir of machines and the occasional hiss of something alive.
Sinister stood before Alien X's inert form—still floating, arms at his sides, utterly unbothered by time or touch.
Sinister had tried everything.
Surgical attempts had failed. The scalpel had simply dissolved.
Mental probes were met with silence.
Even Xraven had spent hours sparring with the unmoving figure—only to walk away frustrated.
Now Sinister stood, arms folded, eye twitching.
"This... creature. What are you? A god in the body of a child?"
Inside, Ben sat in an endless black space, arms crossed, glaring at two shimmering entities.
"Three days. Three days of arguing."
"Just let me transform back, I've got 9 other aliens that can do better.
[Celestial Sapiens do not take descision lightly.]
[Three days are a very small fraction of time.]
"What if he actually get's something from our body, what if he can gain powers of Alien X"
Silence.
Then Bellicus and Serena turned in unison.
[Indeed Enigma Force should not be researched.]
[Let us cast judgment.]
Reality shifted.
Sinister froze mid-step as a swirling vortex opened beneath him.
He stared in disbelief.
"No. No, wait—!"
And then he was gone—sucked screaming into the Null Void.
Xraven reacted too late. A second portal swallowed him like a gulp of air.
Alien X's eyes closed.
A blink later, Ben Tennyson stood alone in the lab, human again, shivering slightly.
He looked around, grimaced, then muttered, "Okay... not touching that alien again."
He activated the Omnitrix.
"Now... let's get outta here."
Green light. A flash.
And Ben vanished.
Somewhere in the Null Void
It wasn't a world. Not really.
It was jagged asteroid chains drifting through violet skies, gravity that worked only when it felt like it, and the constant hum of warped space-time, like a dying engine refusing to quit. Strange flora pulsed with inner light on floating landmasses. Alien prisoners built homes from debris. Others roamed like ghosts.
Mister Sinister stood still in the middle of it all—dust clinging to his coat, red eyes scanning a place too chaotic for logic.
"This is where gods dump their trash," he muttered.
"Charming, isn't it?" came a voice behind him.
He turned sharply—only to find a short, red-skinned figure with a sneer that made up for his height. Albedo dusted off his coat, standing like a prince in exile.
"You're the creature from Earth," Albedo said, his Galvan eyes narrowing. "The one I was told about."
"You're the imposter," Sinister replied, just as cold. "The one who failed to steal the Omnitrix."
Albedo didn't deny it. "Not failed. Delayed."
Before Sinister could reply, the ground beneath them rumbled. A hatch opened in what looked like a jagged metallic slab wedged into the ground. Smoke puffed out.
Then a voice echoed, theatrical and scratchy.
"Ah, visitors! New minds, new samples!"
A large, hunched figure emerged, goggles strapped to a mutated face, fur-lined coat fluttering like a mad scientist's cape.
Albedo muttered, "D'Void."
"Doctor Animo," Sinister guessed, dryly.
Animo grinned. "Not anymore. Here, I am D'void."
Sinister raised an eyebrow. "That explains the smell of failed branding."
Animo cackled and waved them inside. "Come. You want to escape, I can tell. But escape requires brilliance. Vision. A plan. And luck—though I prefer not to rely on that."
Inside the makeshift lab—if it could be called that—mutated Null Void creatures floated in stasis pods. Cracked screens displayed DNA sequences stitched together like Frankenstein's thoughts. One console showed simulations of dimensional tears, each ending in catastrophe.
"This," D'void said, gesturing proudly, "is where the void ends. Or where I make it end."
Albedo looked skeptical. "You're trying to open a breach."
"A controlled one," D'void snapped. "A hole back to reality. A hole that can be used by my army."
Sinister stepped closer to a flickering diagram of dimensional layering. "What power source could you possibly have in here?"
Animo grinned. "You've no idea what a bunch of mind controlled puppets can do."
Albedo folded his arms. "You'll never get out alone. Even if the breach opens, containment will fail. Energy will backlash. You need someone who understands the fabric of dimensional physics."
"I am someone who understands," Animo hissed.
"No," Sinister said smoothly, stepping between them. "But together… perhaps you do."
He turned to Albedo. "You want your form restored. The Omnitrix is the key."
He turned to Animo. "You want to make Tennyson suffer. The Omnitrix is the path."
Sinister smiled, the faint glow of red behind his teeth.
"And I want the secrets of the greatest genetic technology in existence. We want the same thing. We want Ben Tennyson."
There was silence—brief, charged, dangerous.
Then Albedo grinned, the first genuine expression he'd shown since arriving.
"Fine. I'll help. But when we're out, the Omnitrix is mine."
"Agreed," Sinister said.
D'void gave a crooked smile. "And when I rip apart his smug little hero face, then he'll learn what science really is."
The three of them stood in the humming half-light of failed experiments and impossible dreams.
An alliance was formed.
The breach would come.
And the hunt would begin again.