A few minutes ago...

"*Pant...*pant... Where are they...?" Ben came to a stop after running for a while. He still hadn't found his fellow Chat Group members, but he knew their general location from where smoke appeared likely due to a huge fight breaking out.

"Hmm?"

A few meters away from him was a boy sitting lonely under a Sakura tree with his hood covering his face. Ben noticed him and was quite intrigued about why the boy was sitting there alone. He went near him and asked the boy with his usual happy-go-lucky smile,

"Hey, kiddo! Care to answer a few questions if you don't mind?"

.

.

.

He didn't get any answers, not even a little movement from him.

"... Is that a yes..?"
.

.

.

Again, the same thing happened.

"Uhh... Nevermind. Did you see a guy in red armor carrying a fox lady?"

The boy nodded his head in response to Ben's question.

'Guess he can communicate after all,'

"So, do you know where he went?"

This time the boy shook his head.

"Okay... Then did you see three other people coming here to this place?"

The boy nodded and pointed his finger towards a huge block of ice which was visible from this pretty long distance.

"Huh? I didn't notice that huge piece of ice was there just a minute ago," Ben said before he inwardly said, 'It's probably Shoto's doing. Guess I found my destination then!'

"Thanks, kiddo! I'll make sure to repay you later," Ben said as he started sprinting toward the huge block of ice's direction before he used the Omnitrix to select one Alien to transform into. Then slammed the cylinder as soon as it popped up. Greenlight illuminated the area as he turned into the first Alien that he ever transformed with the Omnitrix.

"Heatblast!"

The Alien he turned into was an entity composed of super hot inner plasma covered by dark-reddish-brown rocks. Heatblast opened his palms and just like a flamethrower, huge torrents of fire burst out of his feet and palms as he propelled himself high enough to fly toward the area of conflict.

FWOOOSSHH!

Unbeknownst to Ben, he already repaid the boy just by being there; and it'll certainly come back to bite him and his friends' asses in the far future.

Leonardo pushed back his hood to reveal his eyes glittering with excitement. A few years ago before he joined the Khaos Brigade, he was a huge Ben 10 fan and always dreamt of creating monsters that would resemble Ben's Aliens. However, that dream was crushed because Cao Cao wanted efficiency so he had to work on his Anti-monster specialty. But maybe next time, he'll add some extraterrestrial 'flair' to his Anti-monsters.

FWOOOSSHH!

Heatblast was soaring through the sky and was analyzing the battlefield to find a landing spot for him to support one of his new friends. He had to help the one in most need to finish the fights as quickly as possible and regroup with Issei; even if it meant retreating.

CLASH!

CLASH!

CLASH!

.

.

.

Kirito & Siegfried were still in their sword clash but Kirito was doing pretty well. Being able to hold his own against Siegfried- who has three swords, with one sword is an amazing feat. Both of them were pretty much fighting with skills alone as the ground was shaking from their clash. The former's expression was calm & determined, while the other was in ecstasy from the fight.

"It looks like they're too into the fight; better not interrupt them,"

BOOOOMMM!

BOOOOMMM!

BOOOOMMM!

"AHHH!"

"AHHH!"

From the sounds of the bombing fight, we can all guess that it's Asta's fight with Heracles. Explosions were going everywhere while Asta was dodging them by surfing around on his Demon Slayer sword. The two had wide grins on their faces as they lay smack down on each other.

"Well... he's doing pretty fine on his own, I guess..."

"ROAR!"

CRASH!

"Hmm? Oh, crap baskets! Better save Shoto before he becomes lizard food!"

Indeed. What caught Heatblast's attention was Stake Victim's roar and it crashing through Shoto's huge block of ice, while the latter was running for his dear life. It was clear now whom Heatblast should help first. Without wasting any more time Heatblast propelled himself further with astonishing speed, then landed himself between Shoto & Stake Victim with the Anti-drones behind its back.

FWOOOSSHH!

BOOOOMMM!

"...Geez Louise, I should've thought of a better spot to land. This ice will put out my fire for sure,"

"...Ben..?"

"Yup, it's me!"

Ben gave his signature smirk to the unsure Shoto. The latter didn't know what to think of it anymore, but he was very glad toward every God that answered his prayers for bringing Ben here. Now they just had to retreat with the others.

"Hey! Who're you interrupting my fun time with Sho-kun?! First, it was Leo-kun, now it's you Fire-rock-monster-kun!" Jeanne blushed out of anger while pouting. She couldn't even catch a break now that she just caught a cute boy to play with without anyone interrupting her.

"Eh..? Is she a bit cuckoo in the head?" Heatblast asked Shoto while twirling his finger which was pointed at his head.

Shoto shrugged and shook his head with a look that said, "Don't ask me,". To be frank, he also wanted to know if she was really crazy, or just frustrated with her desires because the other two boys were straight-up battle freaks, while Leonardo was too young; he still didn't know anything about the rest of the members.

"Hmph! It doesn't matter, I'll take on both of you if it means I would have Sho-kun in my basement after this. Stake Victim, charge!" Jeanne pointed her rapier at the both of them as Stake Victim flew at them with rapid speed.

WOOSH!

Shoto got his answer now, it was both of them. Both visibly disturbed by Jeanne's declaration, they tried to think of a plan to distract her. Heatblast took a look around his surroundings and all he saw, was ice. He then smirked as he devised a plan to do something about Jeanne; although, he had to be extra careful with this technique, given that he never tried anything like this before. Because if slips up he could literally blow themselves up.

"Stand back, Shoto. I'm about to turn up the heat!" Heatblast said as his flames started flickering around his body which was glowing brighter than previously, a sign that he was charging up his fire inside of his body.

FISSS!

The ice around him rapidly melted as hot steam rose from it. Moments passed and when Ben was satisfied with the stored-up heat, he suddenly burst it all out around him, which caused the whole place to be covered up with extremely hot, over-charged steam.

FWOOOOSSHH!

SWOOOSH!

'...He's using the heat from his fire with my ice to create a steam explosion,' Shoto was in awe at the sight of Ben cocking back a punch, which all the steam and energy was being directed towards it. He looked at his twitching left hand as he continued,

'...a move that I can do all by myself.'

"Hey, Shoto! Isn't this steaming hot? amirite?" Heatblast had a smirk on his face as a tornado of steam was circling his fist which was radiating dangerous amounts of energy, that would blow up a city if it wasn't controlled properly.

"Oh? So you think this is enough to stop me? Then I'll show you what I'm capable of!" Jeanne held out her free hand as she created a concrete Holy sword, and changed the Stake Victim's texture into also that of concrete Holy swords.

"Unfortunately, Miss. I'm too hot for you, and besides; this attack wasn't even meant for you!"

"Huh?" Both Jeanne & Shoto were confused.

"AHHH!" Heatblast let out a battle cry and threw an uppercut, thus launching the explosion toward the sky.

BOOOOOOOMMMMM!

The explosion was so large, that it shook the whole ground completely. The shockwave erupted from it was so strong that it threw back the other present here pretty far but they recovered quickly with their methods. It also covered the whole sky for friends & foes to take notice of it. Alerted by the volcano-like eruption of heat, the Hero faction raised their guards while the Heroes from different dimensions were relieved; because Ben Ten had joined the battle.

Meanwhile, Jeanne was still blown away from the shock of Heatblast's blast, so the Alien Hero took the chance to propel himself toward the Dual-Quirk Hero trainee without missing a beat. The fiery hero made Shoto face his back and readied himself to use his flames as boosters at any moment as he commanded the other hero, "Shoto! Create an ice floor as far as possible till we reach the others!"

"Okay..." Was the monotone reply that Shoto gave, even though he was still internally shocked at what just happened. Sure, his flames were like embers in comparison to Ben's, but at least he was confident enough that he could pull off a bastardized version of the attack all by himself. Without further ado, Shoto created an ice floor approximately five hundred meters right in front of them which almost reached the other ongoing battles.

FWOOOSHH!

And that was Ben's queue to rocket themselves toward his friends as if they were jet skiing on ice.

'Wait..! Skiing..?!' Shoto's eyes widened as he understood why Ben didn't use the conventional method of transportation by carrying him around like a sack of potatoes. Somehow, the Alien Hero was planting the seeds of creativity in his mind as to how he should utilize both sides of his power - or he could just be overthinking it because there's no way Ben could think that thoroughly.

Anyway, it wasn't the best of experiences for Shoto because he was in going at such a speed that almost made him nauseate and regret complying with Ben's idea.

While Shoto was questioning his life choices, Jeanne got up and straightened herself. If her face were anything to go by, she was utterly furious at Heatblast for interrupting her date with that hot cutie?!

"...*Cough*...*cough*...I'll get you for ruining our date, you flaming freak!"

Jeanne promised to herself as she ordered Stake Victim to get back up before she hopped on it, and dashed toward the hot & cold duo to give them a piece of her mind.

Back with Kirito...

The (Fake) Black Swordsman was still clashing with the descendant of the Volsunga-saga's legendary Hero, Siegfried. The former only used one sword against the latter's legendary three swords. Kirito could use his second sword to make the odds better for himself, but that would mean he'd only be able to use weak One-Handed (Sword Skills) or Dual-Wield (Sword Skills); which, he didn't want to use any of the latter's category for a reason.

The reason is that [Avatar Replication] scales the output of his strikes based on his stats, the skill's multipliers, and the average strength of the current universe he's in. So in short, he didn't want to accidentally slice up everyone by recklessly using his Dual-Wield skills. Kirito also wanted to prove to this bastard he could fight with his pure skill alone without going all out when he also could sense that Sieg wasn't using everything he had in his arsenal either. However, it won't be long before their duel ends.

CLASH!

CLASH!

Kirito deflected Sieg's two swords that were held in his normal hands by using (Snake Bite) which made him appear as if he was using two swords at a time when he consecutively swung his sword left and then right.

WHOOSH!

But Sieg didn't let that slide as he made a downward slash with his Dragon Arm which was directly heading for Kirito's head.

Kirito didn't flinch as the sword was about to butcher him if he didn't counter it in a moment or two, and counter he did.

"...Meteor Fall.."

The injured swordsman whispered as he threw his sword upwards to counter the fake priest's incoming attack and disarm him; while also making him lower his guard as he did not expect Kirito to throw his weapon like that. Taking advantage of that, Kirito sent a fast punch that couldn't be seen with normal eyes of the moonlit world to the still-recovering Sieg.

BAAM!

"Guh!"

Sieg was sent back by quite a margin when he got punched in the gut. 'That strength wasn't normal... It felt like I got gut-punched by Vali,' The descendant of the Hero thought as he held his stomach in pain.

Meanwhile, Kirito didn't waste any chances and leaped towards Sieg, then grabbed his sword midair.

FWOOSH!

Kirito's sword erupted in a bright, orange aura as he brought it down on Sieg's head intending to kill him right then & there while letting out a battle cry,

"AHHHH!"

Upon this sight, Sieg could only grin like the true battle maniac he is. He feels proud that he made a worthy opponent out of the kid who's just about to decapitate him. However, playtime's over.

"...hehe...You got me good, brat. But I think we should take it up a notch,"

His eyes shot up in vigor as he yelled,

"Balance Break—!"

Only for his ribs to get broken by something like a freight train that appeared out of nowhere and sent him flying across the Alternate Dimension.

Kirito blinked once, then twice, and got even more confused as he couldn't make any sense of what the hell just happened here; until he heard the shouts of two people following this incident afterward,

"RUN!/RUN!"

One is Shoto, and the other one is probably Ben. But first, instead of running as they told him to do, he looked back to see whatever it was that they were running from; and oh boy, what a mistake he made...

"Oh shit."

His eyes were filled with dread when he saw the incoming vengeful Dragon about to gobble them up. Kirito booked it and never looked back; after all, he had a wife waiting for him at home.

A few minutes later...

'Shit! Shit! Shit! SHIT!'

Running proved to be useless as Stake Victim was catching up to Kirito. Sweating profusely and regretting his life decisions, he switched to his ALO avatar for a boost.

"Avatar Change! Alfheim Online!"

Kirito's body pixelated once more as he used the newly acquired skill to change his avatar to the second VRMMORPG he ever played to test out the capabilities he desperately needed right now.

His appearance didn't change much other than his ears becoming pointy like that of an elf's. Then, black, ethereal, fairy wings were summoned on his back as he readied himself for flying.

BOOM!

With a booming sound, Kirito took off with a smirk on his face as he managed to make great distance between himself & the Dragon. All that aside though; flying in virtual reality was one thing, but flying for real is something else(even though his body's fake this time :P).

"Man...Flying sure is awesome!"

WHOOSH!

Flapping his wings for another time, he boosted toward the hot & cold to catch up with them. After a few moments, Kirito caught up to them and was greeted by the flaming Alien,

"Yo! How're ya doing, Kirito?!"

"If you're asking whether I'm okay or not after being chased down by a Dragon, then no!" The flying Spriggan(Kirito's fairy-mode race) responded in an agitated voice, however, he continued with a tone of pity when looking at Shoto's sorry state, "..But I think Shoto could've seen better days."

Indeed, Shoto was barely holding himself from throwing up right then and there. He would never agree with Ben on something like this ever again!

Heatblast had an imaginary sweat drop on his face when he looked at Shoto's pitiful condition, but they couldn't stop now, could they? Well, not unless they wanted to become lizard food that is.

Anyway, the three Heroes continued getting away from Stake Victim with their respective methods so that they could reach out to their fourth member that's fighting one of the core members of the Khaos Brigade's Hero faction.

"Woah! I didn't expect fighting on my base form where my Anti-Magic would be useless. This sure was an exciting experience!"

As it turns out, Asta has already defeated Heracles and is cleaning himself of all the dirt. It was just like he said, this fight was quite an experience due to this being the first fight his Anti-Magic proved to be useless, so he had to rely on his battle strategy & pure strength to win the fight. He then bowed toward the fallen enemy and thanked him as a sign of (dis)respect,

"Thanks for being a good warm-up!"

Of course, he genuinely meant that, but being called a "good warm-up" was a low blow to Heracles' pride. Despite that, the grin on the latter's face was pretty hard to miss. As he got ready to leave, he heard something pretty loud from somewhere quite far away.

Asta's ears twitched as he pondered for a bit before questioning himself, "Is that a dragon..?" He wasn't sure so he turned around to confirm his suspicions and...

"ROAR!"

"It is a freakin' dragon!"

...his suspicions were right. The Magicless Wizard threw his Demon Slayer in front of him and jumped on it as he used it as a hoverboard to escape from Stake Victim. Even though he was going pretty fast, the others managed to catch up to him and they hit up a conversation along the way with only Shoto being the one who had to hold himself back from barfing.

"Let's regroup with Issei and get the hell outta here!" Heatblast shouted at the other while increasing his output to boost him & Shoto even further and also countering the Stake Victim's fire breath.

"Agreed. I had enough of this cat & mouse chase, and we gotta make sure that perv is still alive with the civilian, after all." Kirito replied while maneuvering through the Holy Swords that kept popping from the ground.

"But does anyone of you know where the exit is?!" Asta asked as he cut all the incoming Holy Swords and the projectiles that the drones were throwing at him.

His question was then answered by Ben as the shapeshifting Hero yelled,

"Turn right!" He ordered the others as Shoto forced a ninety-degree turn to the right when a swarm of weaponized drones came from their left.

After half a mile, a bunch of tactical buggies armed with miniguns was coming at them from different directions. Heatblast squinted his eyes and readied himself for another sharp turn,

"Turn left!" Ben momentarily dispersed his right hand to let Shoto completely turn before reigniting again. Both Asta & Kirito used this moment to get ahead of the hot & cold duo while slicing through Anti-drones to clear the road for them.

After a mile, the fracture caused by Clockwork could be seen from afar, they just had to...

"Turn right again!" Turning for the last time, the boys began heading towards the exit full speed ahead! Although, there was a slight problem...

FWOOOSH!

...Three missiles came out of a purple mist that appeared out of nowhere! Everyone - except Ben, who knew things wouldn't go smoothly - raised their eyebrows in surprise as they prepared themselves to deal with the magical rockets that homed on them.

Asta knew whose missiles' these were, so he tightly held on to one of his swords as his veins bulged out, and used it as a club to send the incoming projectile away to the side and let it explode there. Kirito didn't pay much heed to it as he got into a stance for (Vorpal Strike) as his sword began emitting light while the sound of a jet engine resounded within the area; before he thrusts forward with an incredible speed that appeared as if he just phased through it! But actually, he was just too darn fast when he carved the missile into two even pieces.

BOOOM!

BOOOM!

Meanwhile, Shoto understood that if he blocked it normally, it would be a death sentence for him as the shards of ice would just turn him into Swiss cheese, so he generated a ramp to boost himself & Ben while also dodging the rocket.

BOOOM!

The rocket blew up when it hit the ice whereas the duo successfully got up in the air and managed to take a glance at Issei who was pretty close to the exit but it was apparent that he was very tired from today as he barely was able to walk towards it with the Kyuubi in his hands. While they were both momentarily distracted by the sight of Issei, a purple mist appeared on the ground beneath them; and guess who came out of it?

"ROAR!"

This persistent fucker...

Widening his eyes in shock, with great reflexes, Heatblast quickly positioned himself under Shoto and got face-to-face with Stake Victim who opened its mouth for some chow time.

FOOOSH!

Ben concentrated the flames in his hands and materialized a big blazing hot fist made from plasma. He then cocked back his left hand before punching the Dragon's jaw and sending it away to where it previously was.

BAAAM!

A few seconds later of staying midair, the duo kept losing momentum and were about to fall to the ground. Shoto knew exactly what to do, so he generated a slide with his feet and managed to avoid turning into meat paste. Heatblast took advantage of this and used his arms for more speed to propel themselves to reach the exit quicker.

WOOOSH!

Only a hundred meters away when another purple mist appeared in front of them, but this time, the crazed demonic swordsman, Sieg, came out of it with his three swords, ready to slice through both Ben & Shoto as his eyes glowed an eerie red.

Shoto immediately called out to Ben, "Ben..! In front of us!" and Ben quickly glanced back in response. To be honest, he was pretty bewildered at how this dude could stand up from the thing they dished at him. But now it wasn't the time to ponder about such a thing so he ordered Shoto what to do,

"Jump to the side at my call!"

Shoto nodded as he continued heading straight toward the mad swordsman without a hint of fear. It's obvious that he'd be fearless when you got one of the greatest teen superheroes backing you -no pun intended.

Meanwhile, Heatblast was keeping an eye on Sieg from the corner of his eye. They had to wait for the right time to dodge, after all.

Only when there was a ten meters distance between them and Sieg, that Ben shout with his raspy voice,

"Now!"

Heatblast propelled himself to the side with the fire from his foot, and Shoto created a stump under his feet and used it as a springboard to jump to the other side. It was at that moment when Sieg thrust all three of his swords and got momentarily confused at how they managed to disappear. However, he wouldn't have much time to register what's coming next.

"Eat this!"

From his left, he could hear the raspy voice of a 'demon' that looked like it came up straight from hell and intense heat which made him sweat immediately. To his right, he could feel the temperature dropping below zero as well as hear ice forming up at a rapid pace. In short, Sieg's fucked.

"Fuckin' Devil worshippers..."

Sieg muttered while gritting his teeth before he was surrounded by a big fireball from his left and a huge block of ice from his right.

BOOOOMMM!

An explosion occurred which sent the duo a couple of meters back due to the shockwave. When the dust cleared out, they expected to see an injured Sieg, but surprisingly there wasn't any sign of the crazy battle maniac. However, instead, Ben heard the sound of one person he didn't want to hear at all costs,

"I didn't expect your crew of inexperienced teenagers could hold their own against my subordinates, Tennyson-san."

Cao Cao came out of the purple mist with Georg -whom Ben met after his duel with the Hero faction leader. Heatblast immediately went on guard and Shoto followed suit, readying his right side for an immediate attack. The Alien Hero then responded,

"As if yours are any older, you hypocritical maniac."

"Watch your mouth when talking to lord Cao Cao, demon."

Georg, wielder of Dimension Lost, responded to the disrespect in Cao Cao's stead. The latter saved him and his many comrades when they were about to get killed by supernatural beings, so it irked the mage to see his leader get dissed like that.

"Oh look, somebody irrelevant got his feelings hurt," said Ben in a mocking tone.

"You have a penchant for getting under people's skin, you know that Tennyson-san?"

"Thanks for acknowledging my talents!"

Anyway, while they were arguing, the silent dual-quirked boy glanced to see whether he could see Issei or not, but then got shocked when he saw no traces of the perverted Dragon boy and the Kyuubi. He then notified Ben as soon as he noticed,

"Ben-san, I can't see any signs of Issei..."

Heatblast's eyes widened from the revelation. He couldn't believe that the pervert could get kidnapped; although he was injured, that perv is still the second strongest in the Chat Group so he reassured himself that he was still safe. Ben then muttered,

"I hope he's safe."

"You wish."

Cao Cao's second-in-command coldly said before snapping his fingers. Three separate purple fogs appeared and each of them sent out a different person(s). First, Issei -who's still holding the Kyuubi in his arms, was bewildered at what was happening. Meanwhile from the other two patches of fog, came an injured Sieg and Heracles with the latter being further injured than the former.

"Ben?! Wait a second, I was about to get the hell outta this place..."

Then realization hit him like a truck when he noticed Cao Cao and his subordinates.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no..."

"Why hello there, Sekiryuutei. Didn't notice you for a second," Sieg did a one-eighty once again as he greeted with his gentlemanly smile.

"Who cares about the Red Dragon now? I wanna fight that Magicless Brat again!" The carrier of Ancient Greece's legendary Hero said when he got up cracking his neck, seeming unaffected by the injuries.

It was then that two other guests finally arrived: Asta and Kirito.

"Hiya!" Asta jumped off from Demon Slayer and slid across the ground before taking hold of it again alongside his Demon Dweller, facing that persistent Dragon who still followed them from behind.

"Seems everyone's here for the party," said Kirito who hovered beside Ben and pointed his sword at Stake Victim.

"Yeah, but not anyone's prepared to dance," Heatblast replied while glancing at Kirito, Shoto, and Issei. He could tell by just looking at them that if an all-out brawl broke out here things wouldn't turn out pretty.

However, before the black 'fae' could say anything, Cao Cao proposed a deal that made Ben's worries come to fruition,

"I have an offer for you, Tennyson-san, which I'm quite sure you would agree to -given your circumstances. Are you interested to hear the terms of it?" The leader gave a soft smile to the admin of the Chat Group. It was as clear as day that he was exploiting the current state of the other CG members to get something out of Ben; despite that, it wouldn't quite simply work on the Alien Hero as he readied himself for another duel with Cao Cao as he immediately responded,

"If you're telling me to surrender or give you the Omnitrix, then might as well tell me to kill myself."

Contrary to his expectation though, Cao Cao shook his head and said, "No thanks, I have no use for that device. And Tennyson, is your opinion of me that low? I'm quite offended, to say the least. However, what I'm trying to tell you here is that..." He then pointed at Georg before he continued,

"My second-in-command closed the rift you created to enter this place, so the only way out for your crew is to either let Georg send you out of here peacefully under one condition, or by killing him to deactivate his Longinus. I hope you understand what each of them entails, right?"

This was a really tough decision for a leader like Ben to make without considering every detail, so he cautiously asked, "What's the condition for the first one?"

The other members looked at him weirdly but didn't comment on it because they knew it was a heavy choice for him.

"I'm glad you asked, but shouldn't you know already what I want?" asked back Cao Cao while still maintaining his court smile as he glanced at a certain fox-eared woman.

Issei took notice of it so he immediately called out Ben, "H-hey, Ben! Y-you're not thinking about it, are you?"

Ben ignored Issei as he began deeply pondering the situation. He really didn't want to give her to them, but that meant killing Cao Cao's mage subordinate. They could also force him to send them out by threatening him, or they could just make their own out of here by using Clockwork again; however, all the latter three ways result in an all-out confrontation with the Hero faction.

Looking at his comrades once again, he analyzed their status. Issei is handicapped and injured. Kirito is still rusty but beginning to warm up since his fight against Sieg. Shoto, who's still a trainee has the least experience among them so his chances of survival were questionable. And Asta, who seems raring to go all-out if something happens.

Then the Alien Hero asked himself, is he willing to take the risk and bring out one of his big guns to finish this? Probably no; because he would cause a lot of unnecessary collateral damage and he wouldn't be able to protect his friends if the Hero faction decides to take one of them as a hostage. Besides, there was a chance that if he turned into something else, that Georg guy would surely bring one of the other many SG users here who could counter him.

But there's something else spiraling inside him, and it's his Hero instincts. No matter how much he rationalized that leaving that woman here to leave safely with his team didn't sit right well with him -mostly because he wasn't sure if Cao Cao would still be here if they left right now. And the said person just noticed it, so he reassured the Alien Hero,

"As compensation for defeating me in our spar, I shall inform you about the date of our experiment; the day after tomorrow visit this place at night. Feel free to tell the Governor as well, Issei Hyoudou."

Ben raised his eyebrow in suspicion and replied, "You sure you ain't luring us into a trap?"

Cao Cao simply shrugged.

"Take that as you will, but I swear on my honor as a fellow human warrior. I also wanted to have a spar with the Sekiryuutei so take that into account, as well," said Cao Cao before eyeing Issei -which caused the poor guy to shake like a leaf.

Heatblast sighed and said to himself inwardly, 'Live to fight another day, right?' before pressing the Omnitrix symbol on his chest as a green light illuminated the area. A moment after it faded, in place of the blazing alien, stood Ben in his human form who donned an unlikely serious face.

"Guys, we're leaving."

Three words came out of his mouth that brought the nearby area into total silence. Cao Cao only thinly smirked whereas Ben's new friends had mixed feelings about it. Kirito just raised an eyebrow. Asta and Shoto stood in silence as they understood Ben's intentions. Lastly, Issei who at first wanted to oppose it, but thankfully wasn't stupid enough to go through with it.

"Georg, would you mind?"

The Dimension Lost wielder snapped his fingers, and a huge patch of purple mist appeared to swallow Ben's crew. After it disappeared, there were no signs of the Chat Group members except the sleeping Kyuubi whom they failed to rescue.

.

.

.

"Dammit! We were so close..."

Issei poured out his frustration by punching the ground after deactivating his Balance Breaker. It pained him to see all of his efforts get wasted like that, and his bloodied body and bruises were a testament to that. Meanwhile, Ben tried to console the dragon boy,

"I'm sorry, Issei. We shouldn't have gotten there without preparation..." Issei then interrupted him.

"Easy for you to say! You weren't the one being chased around by three wackos,"

"Hey look, I'm sorry you had to go through that. Even though Cao Cao wasn't the strongest I've faced, he wasn't a pushover by any means if he managed to corner us. However, this isn't the end yet. We have time to prepare and finish this," Ben gave Issei a guilty look when he fully explained what he intended.

The dragon boy then questioned, "But what if it's a trap?"

Ben regained the same seriousness he had previously when they just exited the alternate world as he stated,

"...Then I'm not pulling any punches."

Meanwhile, Asta was gushing at the gorgeous surrounding with stars in his eyes,

"This. Is. AWESOME!"

"Indeed, it is," Shoto replied in his usual monotonous voice. The stark contrast between the two duo's moods was interesting, to say the least, and there was Kirito who just laid his back on the wall, thinking about his life decisions.

"Then you'd better not..." Issei began falling down the moment he finished his sentence. Thankfully, Ben managed to catch the perv before he hit the ground. He then softly put him on the ground after taking hold of him.

"You did a good job, Issei. Now it's time for you to get some rest,"

"So who's gonna carry him?"

Kirito finally said something after minutes of brooding.

Ben glanced at him and answered, "He's too heavy for me to carry him across the city; maybe Asta?"

It was as if Asta appeared out of nowhere when Ben called his name and almost scared them shitless, "You called me, Ben?!"

"...Uhhh, yeah. Can you carry him, Asta?"

"No problem! But where we're going?"

"Good question..." Even Ben didn't know the hotel Issei and his friends would be staying in.

["I think I can do something about it,"]

It was then that Issei's gauntlet manifested once again as the sound of Ddraig came from the glowing green jewel. Ben expected Ddraig to be unconscious alongside Issei, but this would definitely come in handy.

"Yo, Ddraig. How's Issei doing?"

["He'll be fine but we must bring him to his healer girlfriend."]

If Issei heard this, he'd deliberately put his magazines inside the Boosted Gear and mentally torture the Dragon for even suggesting corrupting the innocent Asia.

"Woah! Is Issei's hand talking?!"

"Well, that's the sealed Dragon inside Issei's gauntlet," Kirito informed Asta about what he remembered since watching the anime.

"That's awesome!"

Ddraig seemed interested in the other members as he examined them before saying to Ben, ["They have potential, Tennyson. Make sure that they become fine Heroes in the future."]

"Huh? Didn't expect you to be keen on Heroes,"

["You could say my perspective on humans changed since becoming a Sacred Gear."]

So the group gathered and prepared themselves to head toward the hotel. After a minute or two, Shoto managed to find the location with the help of Ddraig by using Issei's phone. Hopefully, the perv wouldn't mind his phone being used.

"Let's get going!" said Asta full of energy while carrying Issei.

Shoto nodded and walked alongside Asta. A minute or two passed and Ben began walking as well but Kirito stopped him in his tracks by saying,

"You were thinking of fighting all of them head-on right till the end, right?"

Ben sighed as he turned around and gave a sheepish smile.

"Looks l got caught red-handed,"

"Listen, I know wasn't in my best shape but you shouldn't underestimate us, though I knew you tried to avoid the fight as well due to Shoto and Issei. I think you made the right call for that tactical retreat, all things considered."

"Huh? I thought you'd start scolding me, but thanks for understanding; although, how did you know I was planning on fighting them?"

"You're the type of person that would somehow catch the hostage-taker off guard and beat the shit outta them. Besides, it was pretty much evident on your face,"

"Am I that obvious?" asked Ben with a deadpan face.

"To a fault," responded Kirito with his lips curling into a smirk.

A moment of silence passed between the two before the duo let out a chuckle.

Meanwhile with Cao and Georg...

Just when Georg sent Ben and his new friends back to the real world, he sent Cao Cao's crew back to where they were stationed before. It was only then that the Dimension Lost faced his leader and asked,

"Are you that confident to take on both the Sekiryuutei and Ben Ten at the same time?"

Cao Cao let out a defeated laugh before he answered,

"I'll admit, I probably wouldn't last long if I took on both of them, but how about someone who could?"

It took a moment for Georg to realize what Cao Cao meant. Horror filled his whole being as he couldn't understand what was going through that madman's head, so he shouted,

"Are you out of your mind?!"

The mage then grabbed his leader's collar and stated,

"End of the world would be the least of our problems if a battle between Great Red and Tennyson occurs!"