Aliens and Magic
is a crossover fanfic by Rougedragon that features Ben Tennyson going on the fateful summer vacation with his grandfather Max, and rather than Gwen, is accompanied by a cousin from his grandmothers side of the family, Nanoha, and her friend Fate.
Aliens and Magic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Animo's mutation ray is powered by a Jewel Seed, and grants additional powers to the animals it creates, even making the resurrected mammoth form composed of ice, and the T-Rex wreathed in flames.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Ben's initial bratty tendencies are toned down, likely owing to Nanoha being notably friendlier than Gwen.
- Kevin is significantly better adjusted mentally, being genuinely friendly towards Ben, Nanoha, and Fate, and showing them around the arcade, as well as his personal hideout. He never tries to rope them into anything illegal actions, simply wishing to hang out, and they part on good terms. He also lacks the near sociopathic disregard for life his canon self initially did, only killing the thugs who repeatedly beat him up and called him 'freak', and only after their latest attempt involved trying to beat him to death. The fact that he just suffered from a sudden mutation probably didn't help matters.
- Anti-Magic: Vilgax's drones are equipped with this, preventing Nanoha and Fate from simply blasting them to pieces.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Just like canon, Nanoha is one of the kindest and sweetest girls around. However, Ben discovers that she has an intimidating Death Glare when she catches him trying to sneak into a VIP room, even leaving out her proficiency with magical laser beams. Likewise, the leader of the thugs harassing Kevin and Fate is shocked and temporarily cowed when she delivers a painful slap and Death Glare after he goes too far insulting Fate.
- Composite Character: Humongousaur has both his Sizeshifter powers, and the spiked tail of his reboot version.
- Crossover Relatives: Nanoha is related to the Tennysons, being a cousin to Ben and referring to Max as 'Gruncle'.
- Destructive Saviour: Ben and Nanoha share this problem when facing Animo's mutants, having done notable damage to the museum in the process. Nanoha's battle with the mutated pigeon in the area surrounding the Washington monument caused so much damage that it had to be closed off, to her embaressment.
- Famed In-Story: Max's reputation is apparently enough that Admiral Lindy has heard of him, and refers to him as 'a legend'.
- Foil: Ben and Nanoha are both brown haired children (and cousins) who, through extraordinary circumstances, came to possess devices that gave them incredible powers. However, Nanoha's Raising Heart mainly allowed her to use her own innate abilities, she had Yuuno to teach her how to use them, and required almost no convincing to focus on collecting Jewel Seeds, only using them for that purpose, showing great wisdom for her age. Meanwhile, Ben's powers come entirely from the Omnitrix, struggles to learn how to use both the device and the forms it grants him through trial and error, and has to be stopped from using them for his own (admittedly minor) gain, lacking the level of maturity his cousin has, despite being a good kid at heart.
- Forgot About His Powers: When the trio rush to help Kevin against a bunch of thugs, they fail to consider using any of their respective powers to make things easier. Afterwards, they note Ben could have transformed before entering the alleyway, and Nanoha and Fate could have used a few subtle bindings to trip up the thugs.
- For Want Of A Nail: Nanoha stops Ben from trying to sneak into the VIP area at the hotel they're staying in, preventing him from getting them kicked out.
- Hidden Depths: Nanoha is an avid fan of Mecha games, managing to school both Ben and Fate in an arcade match. Only Kevin, who spends most of his time at the arcade, manages to beat her, and only barely.
- In Spite of a Nail: Fate is the one who saves the store from one of Animo's mutants, and requests Ben be given the golden Sumo Slammer card. Feeling that she deserved a reward more than he did, Max still gives Ben the 'being a hero is it's own reward' aesop.
- Innocently Insensitive: When asking the girls about how they learned magic, Ben questions if Fate's parents taught her, bringing up memories of Precia. To his credit, he recognises how upset she is and immediately apologises.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- After Nanoha stops him from trying to sneak into the VIP room, Ben acknowledges that trying to do so was rather stupid, having risked being kicked out of a luxury hotel just to get a sneak peak at a game.
- Fate and Arf tease Nanoha over how often she resorts to some variation of 'friendship through firepower', between blasting Fate, Vita, and having slapped Suzuka shortly before they became friends.
- Noodle Incident: Kevin's feud with the thugs harassing him for being a 'freak' has been an escalating prank war on his end for a while, leading up to one standout example. The incident involved a bucket of whipped cream, a bag of feathers, a jar of termites, another jar of bees and four whoopee cushions which somehow led to a garbage truck crashing into the mayors office roof, and apparently triggered "a gang war between cockroaches and termites".
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
- Apparently the Wolkenritter and Vilgax have clashed several times in the past.
- Vita and Zafira managed to take down several of Vilgax's drones rather quickly, despite the Anti-Magic they employ.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Admiral Lindy is exasperated to hear that Fate and Nanoha have apparently encountered yet another Lost Logia.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Ben independently questions Fate and Kevin on their respective parents in chapter 3, before realising the implications of their response and current living conditions respectively. He mentally berates himself for doing so.
- Relative Button: Bringing up Fate's mother is a quick way to make her upset, even indirectly.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Nanoha isn't afraid to call out Ben whenever he does something insensitive or stupid, whether it be insulting Fate, or trying to sneak in to a restricted room at the hotel they're staying in. To his credit, he acknowledges when he goes to far, and generally listens.
