Ben 10: Rise of the Shadow Core

It was a quiet afternoon in Bellwood, and Ben Tennyson, now 15 and a little taller (but still cocky), was chilling on the Rustbucket 3.0 with a mega-chili dog in one hand and his feet up on the dashboard.

Ben smiled as he murmured, "Finally, a day without mutant frogs, time-traveling villains, or robot armies." But peaceful days don’t last long when you're the holder of the Omnitrix.

Suddenly, a crack of thunder split the sky—even though it was sunny.

From a swirling black vortex above downtown Bellwood, a massive spaceship descended, shaped like a spider with rotating shadow-like blades on its sides. The sky dimmed. The air buzzed with energy.

Ben stood, narrowed his eyes, and tapped the Omnitrix.

“Well, so much for chili dogs.”

Chapter 1: Meet the Shadow Core

As the ship landed, strange creatures emerged—humanoid shadows with glowing red eyes. They struck like lightning but moved like liquid. The leader stepped forward, tall and menacing, wearing a cloak made of shifting darkness.

“I am Umbrax, commander of the Shadow Core,” he growled.

“And I’ve come for the Omnitrix.”

Ben smirked.

“You and every other bad guy this week.”

With a flash of green, he slammed the Omnitrix.

“Heatblast, let’s turn up the heat!”

Chapter 2: Fire vs. Shadows

Ben transformed into Heatblast and launched a fireball straight at Umbrax. The Shadow Core leader waved his hand, absorbing the flames like smoke.

“What—he absorbed my fire?” Ben said, surprised.

Umbrax shot a tendril of dark energy, sending Ben crashing through a billboard.

Gwen and Kevin arrived in the nick of time. Gwen formed glowing mana shields to protect civilians while Kevin absorbed metal from a streetlight, turning his arms into steel gauntlets.

"Let's crack some shadows," Kevin said. Ben quickly switched to XLR8, dashing around the Shadow Core, creating a blur trail that confused the creatures.

However, the Omnitrix was acting strangely—it was glitching. There was a slight increase in the darkness as he changed. “Umbrax is hacking the Omnitrix!” Gwen yelled.

Chapter 3: Alien Within

Retreating to the Rustbucket, Grandpa Max activated a hidden lab.

Max: “Umbrax is using dimensional tech—he’s syncing the Omnitrix to a shadow realm. If he succeeds, he’ll corrupt the whole galaxy’s DNA code!”

Ben stared at the Omnitrix. It flickered ominously.

“Then we hit back—hard.”

He uploaded an unstable prototype alien Max had kept hidden: a fusion of Upgrade and Ghostfreak—half-tech, half-phantom.

Ben: “Let’s try something new…”

“It’s hero time!”

He slammed the watch and transformed into "Glitchshade", a dark, pulsing alien with ghost-like intangibility and tech-enhanced tendrils.

Chapter 4: The Final Clash

Back in Bellwood, Umbrax had summoned a portal above the city, drawing everything into darkness.

Ben as Glitchshade flew through the shadows like lightning, fusing into machines, walls, even the creatures themselves.

“Let’s see how you like your own tricks, Umbra-face!”

Ben overloaded Umbrax’s shadow link by merging tech with spectral energy, destabilizing his form.

Gwen channeled a massive mana blast to hold the portal, and Kevin hurled a car-sized steel beam at the core of Umbrax’s ship.

Umbrax shrieked.

Umbrax: “You cannot destroy the darkness!”

Ben (smirking): “Maybe not. But I can reboot the light.”

With one final energy surge, Glitchshade fired a blast that shattered the portal generator and fried the ship’s systems.

The sky cleared. Umbrax and the Shadow Core were pulled back into the collapsing vortex.

Epilogue: A Glitch in the Code

Back at the Rustbucket, Ben returned to normal, breathing hard.

“Okay… that was intense. I’m not gonna lie, Glitchshade is awesome.”

Max nodded.

“But dangerous. That alien’s barely stable. We’ll need to lock it for now.”

Ben frowned, then smiled.

“Fine. But if another galaxy-shaking villain shows up… I’m unlocking it.”

The Omnitrix beeped. A new alien silhouette appeared.

To Be Continued…