> "Every alien form is more than just DNA. It's memory.
Every transformation contains echoes — instincts, experiences, decisions.
And when you awaken too many at once... they start to whisper back."
— Azmuth, Hidden Log 3-Δ7
---
Location: Rustbucket – Night Cycle
The air was still. Outside, the desert slept under a blanket of stars. Inside, however, Ben did not.
He sat alone, legs dangling off the edge of the Rustbucket's roof, staring up at a sky he knew too well — one that looked peaceful, but now felt like it was watching.
The Omnitrix pulsed lightly on his wrist, emitting soft static. It wasn't random noise anymore.
It was words.
Ben leaned closer. "Say that again."
> "...Z'Skayr...Y'Bik...Atrosian...Recalibrating…"
The whispers weren't hallucinations.
They were intelligences.
---
Internal Interface – The Echo Chamber
Suddenly, Ben's vision blurred — the world around him faded — and he stood in a vast, darkened digital chamber within the Omnitrix's interface. Data flowed through the air like light made liquid.
Before him, hundreds of figures stood in silence. Not solid, but not fully illusion either. Semi-constructed consciousness. Each was a representation of an alien species — from the elegant flame-body of Pyronites to the bio-mechanical thought-spires of Cerebrocrustaceans.
Ben instinctively knew: these were the Echoes — residual mental blueprints of the Omnitrix's catalog.
They weren't alive.
But they remembered.
One stepped forward — the tall, grey figure of Grey Matter, or rather, the core intelligence of a Galvan ancestor.
It spoke directly into Ben's mind.
> "Host Tennyson. Evolution Cascade has begun. Instinct convergence imminent."
> "You've breached Protocol Layer E. You have summoned us."
Ben swallowed. "I didn't summon anything. I just unlocked a Vault."
> "The Vault is a scar. And scars remember the wound."
The chamber shook — data winds blowing as a dozen other forms flickered forward.
A translucent XLR8 hissed, its voice echoing through thought alone:
> "Speed is not about escape. It is a weapon when time is short."
A Tetramand stomped forward, red muscles rippling.
> "You want strength? Then take our rage."
A floating Petrosapien hovered in crystalline stillness.
> "You have unlocked power. But not wisdom. Yet you come here… to listen."
Ben stepped forward, unsure whether to speak or scream.
"What do you want from me?"
They answered in one voice, dozens of species in perfect synchronicity:
> "Not from you. Through you."
---
Gwen and Max – Reality Check
Back in the waking world, Gwen noticed the change.
Ben's body had stiffened, but his brain waves were active. Too active. Like a mind having a thousand conversations at once.
Max scanned his vitals. "His consciousness has gone inside the Omnitrix again."
Gwen narrowed her eyes. "That's not safe anymore. The more evolved the Omnitrix becomes, the more sentient its interface gets. If it overwhelms his identity…"
Max nodded grimly. "Then Ben might not come back out."
---
The Question of Self – Inside the Omnitrix
Inside the echo chamber, Ben stared into the abyss — a swirling core of all alien experience.
"I'm not just here to use your power," he said. "I'm here to do something none of you could — choose how that power is used."
The echoes murmured, not in agreement, but contemplation.
Grey Matter's image stepped forward again. "Then you must understand. Each form is not a mask. It is a life. A culture. A memory of war, survival, love, extinction."
> "To wield us is to risk becoming us."
Ben clenched his fists. "I'm not giving up my humanity."
The echoes pulsed again.
> "You already have. Piece by piece. But perhaps… it is not yet irreversible."
They parted — revealing a pathway of energy and code leading deeper into the chamber.
> "One of us is missing. One that rejected the chain. An Echo too dangerous, even for us."
> "Find him, and you may learn how to stay yourself... while becoming more."
---
Kevin – Remote Surge
Elsewhere, Kevin felt a shockwave of mental feedback — raw data slamming into his stolen Omnitrix clone like lightning striking water.
He collapsed in a burst of corrupted alien code, his body warping temporarily into three different forms at once — all unstable, all screaming.
"Ben's talking to the Watch now," Kevin muttered through gritted teeth. "He's going deeper."
He rose slowly, eyes glowing red-black.
"Good. I want to see how long he can stay Ben before he forgets who that even was."
---
Final Scene – The Missing Echo
Back within the Omnitrix, Ben approached the dark chamber marked with sigils too ancient even for Galvan translation.
The door opened.
Inside, bound in fractal chains, was a shape unlike any other — a flickering humanoid figure made of multiple forms, shifting between species at random. Its voice spoke in broken pieces.
> "You… are the first to listen."
Ben stepped forward.
"What are you?"
> "I… am what happens… when the Echoes take over."
It raised its head.
> "And I know how to stop it."