Project Deca Ep 2.5: Ben 10: Multi Trixes

Attai and Ben, Gwen, and Kevin were gathered in front of the entropy pump in Los Soledad. Attai flipped through a script as the other three waited for him impatiently.

"Did you find your lines yet?" Ben asked.

"No!" Attai snapped, throwing his script to the ground. "This episode's writing is a complete mess! Who thinks writing everything out-of-order like that is a good idea?!"

"Writing things out of order and assembling them correctly later can be a valuable method to overcome writer's block." Gwen said, flipping through a script of her own. "Still, I'm not sure where to even begin with this."

"I can tell you where for a buck." Millennia suddenly teleported in, carrying a different script.

"How's that?" Kevin raised an eyebrow.

"Looks like you guys got stuck with the version of the script written out before the final draft." Millennia laughed. "I went and snagged the final version of the script for my lines."

"Oh, like it matters." Attai huffed. "These scripts are pretty much useless even when they are legible."

"Yeah, that's fair." Millennia shrugged. "We should just get into talking about the episode proper."

"First thing's first, why was Ben the main focus here?" Kevin asked. "Multi Trixes is supposed to be about all three of us!"

"In theory, sure, but the series premise doesn't actually lend itself to that idea all that well." Attai replied. "The ManaMatrix and MetalMatrix barely make you any more useful than you are in-canon. They're just a dumb gimmick."

"What do they even do, anyway?" Millennia asked. "I don't think the episode gives us exposition on that."

"The ManaMatrix lets Gwen cast spells better, and the MetalMatrix let Kevin turn into a bunch of different material without having to carry them around." Ben explained.

"Oh, okay, makes sense." Millennia nodded. "Definitely sounds useful, but not useful enough to make you guys very important."

"Hey!" Kevin said indignantly.

"If it's true, it's true." Attai tsked. "Personally, I want to know what the hell was up with the Infinite Forms. They're basically just slight retools of the Ultimate forms."

"Allow me to answer that!" Eon teleported in, laughing maniacally.

"Do we have to?"

"The original Infinite Forms from 2010 were also slight retools of the Ultimates." Eon said, ignoring Attai. "However, instead of having predominantly white bodies, they were mostly black in color."

"That's a weird thing to change." Ben looked puzzled. "Is C*T racist?"

"No, he's just a basement dweller who plays too much Warframe." Attai sighed, rolling his eyes. "White and gold are his big aesthetic at the moment."

"Speaking of basement dwellers..." Millennia teleported over to Eon and smacked him on the back. "You sure said some melodramatic shit in this episode, edgelad."

"He also said some less-than-impressive stuff too." Attai snorted.

"Yeah, it seemed like his characterization was kind of all over the place." Ben nodded.

"Well, it's not like I was given much of a personality in to begin with." Eon growled and pulled out a script. "Have you seen my canon appearances? My only consistent character trait is switching between being a serious threat and being a cartoony supervillain."

Eon shoved Millennia away and pointed at her accusatorily.

"And what about you?" He sneered. "You keep switching between helpful and antagonistic!"

"Not really an equal comparison." Millennia tsked. "I do what helps me finish a deal, whether it's helpful or detrimental to you guys. That's why I'm listed under 'Neutral' instead of 'Protagonists' or 'Antagonists' in the episode's character guide."

"Then why can't you just be edgy like a normal anti-hero or anti-villain?" Attai muttered. "The whole 'bubbly' act kinda throws people off."

"It's not an act, it's just my personality!" Millennia protested. "Not every morally gray character has to be a total buzzkill! What kind of restrictive logic is that?"

"I, for one, appreciate eccentricity from less-than-heroic individuals!" Terox teleported in, burning away a script in his hands.

"Why are there so many people who can teleport in this stupid show?!" Kevin snapped.

"It's handy for writing a series whose setting is the entire stupidly massive multiverse." Attai replied, then turned to look at the new arrival. "More importantly, what the hell are you doing here? You barely appeared in this episode."

"Ubermensch had even less screen time than I did when he appeared in episode one, but he still got to show up in the .5." Terox huffed indignantly. "Even if he didn't, screw off, I do what I want."

"Why are you in this show at all?" Gwen asked, flipping through her script again. "The series outline doesn't mention your world as one of the series getting a tribute episode."

"Because I'm amazing." Terox boasted, throwing his cape outwards to accentuate this statement. "Also I just so happen to work very well for the overall arc of the series, but mostly the first thing."

"And I thought I had an ego." Eon snorted.

"He's right, actually." Attai sighed. "There were a few different villains that could have filled his role in the show, but since he's C*T's favorite villain on the wiki, he was the first choice."

"Jeez, this C*T guy really ain't subtle about shoving favoritism into his stuff, is he?" Ben whistled.

"You think that's bad, almost the entire soundtrack for this series is literally just Kamen Rider music." Attai scoffed.

"That doesn't even make sense." Gwen said. "Ben 10 is a western cartoon, and almost nobody reading this is going to recognize the source material or understand the Japanese lyrics."

"He tries to justify it to himself by pointing out that Ben 10 was his introduction to the 'Transforming Hero' genre and/or saying that the meaning of the music fits the episode's themes or events or something." Attai shook his head. "Really it's just because he's a complete weeaboo who thinks J-Pop sounds cool even if it's completely out-of-place for a western audience."

"This is the guy writing our material?" Kevin gave his own script a suspicious look. "No wonder this whole thing's a mess."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Terox rolled his eyes. "As long as my role makes me look good, I don't care what kind of idiot directs it."

"We're getting off-topic." Ben cleared his throat. "Back to Multi Trixes, can you explain exactly what went down when we fought Eon on the moon? Why was there air there? And how did we get the All-Power Matrix off him?"

"There was air there for the same reason there was air there in Paradox." Attai replied.

"Which is?"

"Nobody knows and the writers didn't care."

"Seriously?" Ben groaned. "Alright, what about the other thing?"

"It's not that complicated, but I guess some people might not have understood it." Attai sighed. "First off, I transformed into Ridejacker and turned Ben into Angelion to distract Eon. When Ben created that blast of light, I turned him into Ridejacker and turned myself into Angelion, then cloaked myself from view and created a Photonic Matter hologram that looked like a second Ridejacker."

"Photonic Matter?"

"Solid light." Attai tsked. "By the time Eon was able to see again, it looked like I had turned both of us into Ridejacker. From there, I had the holographic Ridejacker make off with a fake All-Power Trix dial and created a hologram that made the real dial on Eon's chest look like a camo bomb. Since I'm a Timewalker, there was no reason for him to think that I hadn't had time to get one from somewhere, and with the All-Power Matrix seemingly in Ridejacker's possession, he decided that we had legitimately swapped the two. With that assumption in mind, he ripped off the real All-Power Matrix, and the rest is history."

"That's what you did?!" Eon exclaimed. "What kind of convoluted nonsense is that?!"

"Convoluted nonsense that worked."

"You-"

"Okay you two, calm down!" Millennia interrupted.

She shoved Attai and Eon away from each other, then teleported to the edge of the group.

"I think that's a wrap for today." Millennia chuckled. "Things are starting to get a bit salty in here. See you next month!"

TO BE CONTINUED