Project Deca Ep 5.5: Ben 10: POTO

PD 5.5: Ben 10: Protector of the Omniverse is the fifth episode of a meta complementary project for Project Deca. The following events are completely non-canon to the series and should be treated as such.

Episode
Ben, Albedo, and Xargon all sat one one side of a table in front of Mr. Smoothy, with Attai and Millennia sitting opposite them. They all held scripts, with Xargon leafing through his furiously.

"Alright, first thing's first, why was my name changed?!" Xargon smacked the script in his hands. "It was Zargon in the original, so it's not like there's a massive difference."

"'Zargon' as a name looked too much like 'Zarkon', apparently." Attai replied, leafing through the script notes. "Who's a Voltron villain, as far as I can tell."

"Seems unnecessary, but okay." Xargon grumbled. "Now explain the Superius forms."

"Yeah, what even were those?" Ben asked.

"The canon Zargon's aliens were all hybrids with Galvan." Attai explained. "The idea of an alien variation for him was kept, but the context for it was changed to match the invented personality used for Xargon. The word 'superius' is the somewhat obscure singular of the word 'superior'."

"Invented personality?" Xargon asked. "You mean I'm not like this in the original?"

"Who knows?" Attai sighed. "Your personality here was just extrapolated from your short interactions in the single canon episode; primarily the lines stating that you're 'Azmuth's biggest fan' and claiming that you're 'superior to him and always will be'."

"So it was just kind of made up, then." Xargon said flatly.

"Basically."

"Can anyone explain what even happened in this episode?" Ben interjected. "This plot is totally made up. It doesn't follow POTO at all!"

"It roughly follows up from the events of the first episode of the POTO reboot that began in 2016." Attai said. "The main change is that in the POTO canon, Ben quits hero work for different reasons and gets back to it after Azmuth dies. Here he quits when Azmuth dies."

"Why not just adapt the plot of that first episode then?" Ben asked.

"The episode was mostly character introductions and setup." Attai tsked. "Not much happened that would be useful in a Project Deca episode, and there weren't any more episodes released at the time to work off of."

"So it's both an AU like most Earths featured in the series and an Alternate Continuation like with Terox?" Millennia said. "Geez, seems complicated."

"Kind of."

"I want to talk about the aliens that showed up for a second." Albedo spoke up. "Most of them were from UA canon, as per the series being a UA followup, but why were Sandbox and Overflow there?"

"Sandbox and Overflow are both on the POTO aliens list, so they were eligible for an appearance." Attai clarified. "There's no information for the POTO version of Sandbox, however, so the version created for the canceled series Ben 10: Milky Way Race was used as a substitute; the design for Xargon's Galvan form is taken from Ken Tennyson's Grey Matter in that series as well, actually."

"Speaking of Sandbox, why did you scan that alien specifically?" Ben asked. "Especially considering that using cards screws up your body."

"Actually, now that you mention that, why haven't we seen the DecaSystem messing up Attai's body at all before this episode?" Millennia wondered aloud.

"The effects hadn't built up enough yet." Attai scowled. "They don't even start in this episode until after the initial Albedo fight. As for scanning Sandbox, I needed something to wreck Clockwork's gear systems, since that was one of the biggest threats during the battle with Xargon."

"Going back to Overflow for a second, why on Earth did Overflow beat Water Hazard in that one scene?!" Albedo snapped. "Do you have any idea how many neckbeards we just pissed off with that?!"

"There was a point to that, believe it or not." Attai said. "Overflow and Water Hazard have more or less the same capabilities, but they're from different eras. Albedo used Water Hazard since, in that scene, he's entirely stuck in the past. Ben, on the other hand, used Overflow since transforming again for the first time in this episode showed him moving towards the future."

"Sounds pretentious." Xargon snorted.

"Not every bit of symbolism in a story is pretentious!" Attai snapped.

"Sure, but this is a Ben 10 fan fiction." Ben pointed out.

"...Fair."

"Welp, I'm getting kinda bored here, so does anyone have anything else to say before we wrap up?" Millennia yawned.

"Just one." Albedo grumbled. "What's the point of a tribute for a series with only one episode? We all know POTO ' s never coming back."

"Okay, first off, there are a lot of POTO episodes, this tribute was just based on the rebooted version." Attai chided. "Secondly, POTO is still being worked on at the time of airing. It's not easy to write any story you want to turn out just right, even if is just a Ben 10 fan fiction."

"Yeah, but three years with no content is a bit much, isn't it?" Ben said.

"There are more important things in life than writing fan fiction, especially when you're in the rocky period around the start of adulthood." Attai said. "You need to worry about taking care of yourself more than taking care of something this extraneous. The people who genuinely care about your content will still be here for you when you release it, and the people who are really your friends will support you along the way. Just try to keep other people's own time and feelings in mind and don't worry so much about trying to make something absolutely perfect. That's what's important."

"You're not really talking to me here, are you?" Ben muttered.

"Either way, that's a wrap!" Millennia clapped her hands together. "See you all next month!"

TO BE CONTINUED