Fanfic / Of Gemstones and Watches

It's Hero Time.

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Of Gemstones and Watches is a fanfic written by Transwiththeplans and Winter Witch. It is a crossover between Ben 10 and RWBY.

Can also be found here and here.

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Gemstones and Watches provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Kevin and his biological mom are horribly abused by his stepfather.
  • Kylie's biological parents were emotionally abusive in a subtle way, being overachievers that put a lot of pressure on her. It's telling that her angst about their deaths is more from the fear of the Grimm that killed them than their actual demise.
• Action Girl:
  • Ruby is the living definition of this trope, wielding a giant scythe in combat.
  • Yang, Weiss, and Kylie in Chapter 11.
  • Ceres and Blake show off their action sides in Chapter 29.
• Actor Allusion: Yuri Lowenthal voices both Ben and Mercury in their respective series. In Chapter 54, Ben notes how similar their voices sound. This becomes relevant in chapter 68 when Mercury uses it to catch Rook off-guard.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Ruby and Ben seem more battle oriented than they did in canon.
    • In the original canon, Ben's fighting style was focused almost entirely around his aliens. Here, he incorporates his soccer skills into his combat style as a human. When he fights with Cardin as a human in chapter 39, he destroys the jerk. He also gets his Aura unlocked by Maria in chapter 44, though it's apparently on Kylie's level compared to Ruby's due to his Osmosian genetics from his grandmother.
  • Heatblast gets a notable power up in Chapter 24.
  • Yang managed to go toe to toe with both Fourarms and Cannonbolt, aliens who have taken down giant robots and survived re-entry into Earth...and win.
  • The authors give Roman a semblance, akin to Loki- he uses his "silver tongue" to persuade others to do his bidding. It apparently has some limitations though, it doesn't work on Fistrick, for starters.
  • Albedo is much more equipped to deal with Ben; his forms are "edited" in a sense, with his Humungousaur having his canonical Ultimate's "missile arm". His ultimates are also...much, much more different.
    • Albedo's Ultimates also have a buff in this universe- Ultimate Grey Matter can create life from nothing, Ultimate Arctiguana can freeze objects in place similar to using Zero Point Energy and Ultimate Wildmutt has three heads, each with their own respective elements.
    • Later chapters reveal more about the Ultimates- Ultimate Echo Echo is a hollow husk, being able to create a Zeno's Paradox of sound and also absorb energy. Ultimate Big Chill can use smaller projections of moth like creatures to freeze people. Ultimate Fasttrack can run so fast he can erase space.
  • Cardin never used his Semblance in canon. Here, it's revealed to be the ability to cause a wound he inflicts to hurt for hours.
  • A lesser one, but Clockwork manages to slow down time picoseconds, basically one trillionth of a second.
  • The Brother Gods are apparently so powerful that not even Celestialsapiens could cure Salem of her curse.
• Adaptation Deviation: The author deviates very much from some of the works based on original episodes of the series.
  • In canon, Secrets featured Vilgax and revealed Max's secret occupation. Here, Vilgax is out of the picture; instead, Ruby and Max reveal their secrets, and the Grimm is the major antagonist.
  • Ben's starting playlist is different than canon.
  • Skurd is named "Doppler" here and was created to help Kevin when he and the Antitrix start rejecting each other.
  • Two major events in the Vytal Festival:
    • Weiss and Yang BOTH win against Neon and Flynt. Weiss is not knocked out.
    • Ari exposes Mercury's fake injury for all to see.
• Adaptation Species Change:
  • Verdona is an Osmosian here, not an Anodite, with all that entails.
  • Dr. Viktor and the Mummy/Khufu are human cultists serving Zs'Skayr, who appears to be a demon or evil god in this continuity, and were empowered by him. Zs'Skayr turns out to be an Ectonurite still when he finally appears.
  • Cricket and Skwydd are Faunus and Tuck is an Osmosian instead of nanite-mutated humans.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Harvey Hackett, a one-off character from Ultimate Alien, was Kevin's ex-step dad who meant well. Here, he's an abusive jerk.
  • Kai Green, due to her belief that Huntsmen like Ruby and her family are covering up poaching by pretending to fight monsters.
  • It's implied that Julie was a previous girlfriend of Ben's that Kevin outright calls emotionally abusive.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Echo Echo, Spidermonkey, Astrodactyl, Water Hazard, and Eatle all appear earlier than they did in Ben 10 canon.
  • Michelle Morningstar appears during Chapter 8.
  • Clancy appears during Chapter 4.
  • Driba appears at the Rushmore base before Max fires him for both screwing up the base's defenses and letting Ben and Ruby sneak away from him.
  • Verdona appears during Chapter 12.
  • Several aliens, like Rath, Clockwork, Big Chill, etc, appear in Chapter 14 as either one of Ben 10k's transformations or as part of one of Animo 10k's creations.
  • Psyphon appears here when he didn't appear at all in the canon original series.
  • Sunny and Deefus appear in Chapter 15.
  • The Saturdays appear in Chapter 17.
  • The bounty hunters after Kevin in Chapter 18 are led by Khyber, and it's implied that two of them that blew themselves up were the Vreedle Brothers.
  • Alien X appears in Chapter 20.
  • Raven appears before a 12-year old Ben, who was camping with Ruby, apparently testing him for some reason.
  • Kwarrel was recruited by the Plumbers out of prison, allowing him to meet Kevin in the late summer to early fall period after the main series road trip.
  • Rook appears in Chapter 27.
  • Fistrik appears in chapter 29, along with Servantis.
  • Clover appears in Chapter 59, doing a guest lecture with Winter.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Without Gwen around, Ben's natural intelligence shines more often. Like, he still makes mistakes and acts like the 10-year-old he is, but he isn't the "dummy" he's occasionally portrayed in canon.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Ben's nicer because it's Ruby and he wants to be friends with her, and because Gwen isn't around to antagonize him, this makes Ben nicer all around.
  • Gwen is more like her reboot self in this story.
  • Raven gets a big personality change; in the DC Comics, Raven insults Summer's name. Here? She confirms everything Ruby said was true, not even daring to drag her name through the mud.
  • Sienna left this universe's version of the White Fang when Ghira stepped down, and joined the Plumbers with a number of other defectors, instead of leading the more extremist version of the group.
  • Albedo gets a big one; He wishes to be a peacekeeper while being curious about Ben's choice to stay on earth is very different from his prime counterpart. Also, he's not outright hateful. Cool, calm and collected, and almost resigned to his new base body. He also seems to genuinely be friends with Neo, having apparently learned ASL to communicate with her. He's also disgusted by Servantis's hypocrisy.
• Adaptational Origin Connection:
  • Camille's parents were working with the Limax that came to Vera's retirement community.
  • The Fulmini invading his planet is what led Vilgax to fall from grace, and the High Override's Cold-Blooded Torture is the reason for his being on life support here. Servantis is the reason why the Plumbers didn't send aid.
  • Doppler/Skurd was made to help keep Kevin alive when his body and the AntiTrix start rejecting each other.
  • The cultists that follow Zs'skayr are essentially the Flame Keeper's Circle.
  • Ironwood is Weiss' stepdad in this universe.
  • Maria Calavera apparently mentored Summer Rose and takes on the role to her daughter Ruby as well.
  • Rex's old gang is working of Vulkanus instead of Quarry.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Verdona is changed to be an Osmosian in this universe.
  • Khyber's whistling "gills" cause ear trauma and imbalance.
  • Vilgax gains regenerative abilities, mainly due to Animo's handiwork.
  • The AntiTrix form Dark Matter gains invisibility and speed building, instead of crystallizing brain plaque.
  • In canon, Roman Torchwick never discovered his Semblance. Here, he apparently has some kind of Compelling Voice.
  • Several of Albedo’s aliens are “edited”, like his version of Humungousaur having the Ultimate form’s Arm Cannon, the most prominent example being his skinny and rational Rath, who can shoot his arm spikes as makeshift missiles.
  • Servantis, Swift, and Leander all are Osmosians in this world. Servantis has some sort of mental power, Swift has retractable patagia, and Leander can make anything into a bomb.
• Adaptational Villainy: In-Universe, the villain in the cartoon based on Ben's aliens, the Red Queen, is based on Ruby.
  • The Ben 10k timeline's version of Kevin apparently willingly helped with the Highbreed invasion of Earth instead of fighting against it like in the "Alien Force" canon, which was the In-Universe Moral Event Horizon that led to Ben 10k and Ruby 10k finally giving up on trying to reach out to him. Apparently Kevin 11k felt the same way, as he later went into self-exile, and reportedly didn't even try and defend himself when Animo 10k killed him.
• Adaptational Wimp: This universe's versions of Team JNPR go to Gwen's school instead of Beacon, and don't appear to have any knowledge of Grimm, magic, or aliens. Subverted; Chapter 70 reveals they're a team of Huntsmen attending the European Huntsman school Mistral Academy.
  • In-Universe, one of the unlicensed ripoffs of Ben's story in space made the Ruby equivalent a Faux Action Girl who loses every fight and has to be rescued by the Ben counterpart every time. Ben's wisely never told Ruby about it at all, and when Weiss finds out, she's so furious on Ruby's behalf that she decides to go pummel the alien responsible.
• Adapted Out: Several characters and plot points from the original series don't appear here.
  • Stinkfly, Ripjaws, Fourarms, Wildmutt, and Grey Matter are replaced by Echo Echo, Spidermonkey, Astrodactyl, Water Hazard, and Eatle in Ben's original lineup.
  • The alien tick that Cannonbolt defeated in his debut is replaced in that point of the story by a massive Nevermore.
  • The Charms of Bezel still exist, but Gwen's introduction to magic comes from their Flawed Prototype, the Follies of Bezel, instead, with the Charms only being mentioned.
  • Zs'Skayr apparently never escaped from the Omnitrix, so the Ghostfreak arc doesn't happen.
    • Subverted; as of Chapter 34, it appears that Ghostfreak has been freed.
  • Tetrax is not among the bounty hunters sent after Kevin, though the hoverboard appearing in the Ben 10k chapter indicates that he still exists.
  • Azmuth is mentioned by Driba but doesn't appear during the original summer trip.
  • A 12-year-old Ben still has Feedback, so he apparently never lost him to Malware at the age of 11 like in canon.
  • Kwarrel was noticed by the Plumbers in prison, helping the other inmates where the prison psychiatrists couldn't and he was recruited as a therapist, allowing him to meet Kevin without the Morgg issue.
• Aerith and Bob: Ben and Ruby are pretty normal names compared to Weiss, Ceres and Rook.
• Alien Invasion: Seeing as this is a crossover with Ben 10, this was to be expected;
  • In Chapter 3, the shape-shifting Limax attempts a quiet invasion, starting in the middle of nowhere.
  • Chapter 15 reveals the Lenopans were in on the Limax invasion as well.
  • The Fulmini are busy staging their own incursions off-screen.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Dust is a crystal that can be triggered by Aura to cause various effects depending on the type of dust used.
• Amazonian Beauty: Ceres North is described as both very muscular and very attractive.
• An Arm and a Leg: Victor rips off Max's arm when the latter tries to fight him.
• Animalistic Abomination: The Grimm, which essentially resemble animals (and a few mythological beasts) but are much larger, and covered in black fur and white plates with red markings.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When listing things that the really guilty people do that they use in sacrifices, the chaos demon Min lists, after rapists and pedophiles, people who comment "first" in the comments of internet videos.
• Attack Pattern Alpha: Ruby and Upgrade use this combo to help boost Crescent Rose's attacking power.
  • Later, Ben and Blake get the same treatment.
  • Ceres and Kevin (as Bashmouth) combine their powers so Kevin can strike harder and also 'brand' opponents with his fiery fists.
  • Kevin (as Daft Punk) later upgrades Kylie's weapon.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: The team in full, during Painting the Town. Everyone is given a chance to shine and show off their powers.
• Badass Adorable: All of RWBY, Kylie and Ari all fall under here.
• Badass Family: The Tennysons and the Rose - Xiao Longs.
  • Ben has the Omnitrix, Max has years of being a Plumber under his belt, Verdona has photon blasts, Gwen has magic...don't mess with the Tennysons.
  • Ruby and Yang are sisters, and either one of them can ruin your day if you get on their respective bad sides. Taiyang and Qrow will also be willing curbstomp you any time.
• Bad Guy Bar: Junior's Bar from Duped.
• Battle Aura: Certain humans can manifest their soul in a way that creates this, blocking attacks and healing injuries.
• Best Friend: Ben and Ruby.
• Beyond Redemption: After five years of trying to help Kevin 11k, Ben 10k and Ruby 10k finally gave up after he assisted the Highbreed during their invasion of Earth, feeling that he had finally gone too far.
• Black Site: Los Soledad in Gemstones, as it WAS site of a government experiment gone wrong.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Team RWBY has Yang and Weiss as the blondes (although Yang is more golden-blonde while Weiss is white-haired), Blake as the brunette, and Ruby (who has dark hair with red highlights) filling in as the redhead.
• Body Horror:
  • A few of Kevin's transformations are described in grisly detail, and some of the alien forms themselves are rather disturbing looking.
  • Kevin's AntiTrix is growing out of his skin, vibrant red veins connecting it to his arm. Notably, after he gets some therapy and manages to regain his human form, his mashed-up form from Animo and Psyphon being an example in itself, it's noted to be much more organic looking with how it attaches to his arm.
  • Manny and Helen's transformations are incredibly disturbing, with Blake stunned by them, noting the cracking of their bones reshaping and their screams of agony.
  • Animo creates Goop clones, but the anti-gravity UFOs are replaced with human organs, the first one Kevin fights has an entire muscular system inside of it.
  • Most of the group isn't doing too bad after Animo splices them with different aliens with his mutant ray, Ruby in particular loves her Petrosapien arm, but Max's left arm is just a green stump.
  • Khufu has his brain half-exposed, with grey half-rotted flesh.
• Body of Bodies: During Evolution, Kevin encounters a Polymorph hybrid, with their gravity cores being human remains.
• Brick Joke: In Chapter 50, "Brianna" agrees to go on a date with Cardin just so they can stand the jerk up for asking her out without even bothering to get their name. In Chapter 53, Ben and Ruby are having dinner with Team CFVY at a restaurant, and Cardin is also there.
• Broken Pedestal: Ruby had told Ben a lot of cool stories about Qrow... and then he finally meets him when he interrogates Ben after Tyrian attacks him. He's... not impressed.
• But Thou Must!: In Chapter 35, the Omnitrix only shows Ghostfreak icons when Ben tries to use it. When he finally does, Zs'Skayr takes over his Ghostfreak form and escapes the watch.
• Call-Forward: There are several mentions/hints towards characters and plot elements that weren't introduced in canon until "Alien Force", "Ultimate Alien", or "Omniverse".
  • Max got the Rustbucket upgraded at Undertown.
  • Sunny is one of the guests at the wedding.
  • In the Ben 10k chapter, both the future Ben and Animo's creation use aliens that Ben only unlocks as a teen, like Big Chill and Rath, Kevin's 10k version is implied to have aided the Highbreed invasion of Earth, Animo 10k is using microchips that Ben describes as "Validus's work" to become a Hive Mind, and Ben 10k makes a few references to Paradox.
  • When Ben unlocks Slapback in Chapter 16, one of the clones briefly suggests Bullfrag as a name.
  • Khyber is one of the bounty hunters after Kevin at one point, and two others who blew themselves up offscreen are implied to be the Vreedle brothers.
  • Servantis is the reason the Plumbers didn't help Vilgax's world when the Fulmini invaded.
• Came from the Sky: The Omnitrix.
• Canon Foreigner: Characters Anna, Kylie, Ceres North, Lev, Ari, Cassidy, and Min.
• Canon Immigrant: The RWBY universe.
• Canon Welding: With the Prime Ben 10 universe and the 2016 Reboot.
  • Celestialsapiens were the ones responsible for restoring the Earth and bringing humanity back after the Brother Gods wiped it out.
  • Revonnah Kai is apparently the equivalent of Aura use among Rook's people.
• Cape Swish: Ruby invokes this with her red cape.
• Cast from Calories: Anna's Paper Master abilities, to the point that she gets Hypoglycemia if she pushes herself too far.
• Cast Full of Gay: Weiss and Kylie are both implied to be gay, Ceres is openly dating a woman named Ari, Ruby is Ambiguously Bi, Sienna and Anna are married, Blake and Yang are dating...
• Child Soldier: There are some strong indications that Ceres used to be one.
  • Confirmed in Chapter 50, alongside Lev and Ari.
• Christmas Episode: "Music Box Blues" in 2021 has the heroes all getting together to celebrate Christmas.
• Compelling Voice: Roman seemingly has this power, as he is able to get a cop to cause a distraction on the other side of town from his meeting with Fistrick, though Fistrick himself is apparently immune, and Roman mentions that it apparently doesn't work on certain people.
• Conveniently Empty Building: The computer lab in Chapter 4.
• Creature-Hunter Organization: The Hunters.
• Crossover: Between Ben 10 and RWBY.
  • The Secret Saturdays show up in Chapter 17 as well.
  • Chapter 39 introduces elements from Generator Rex, like Six working for Ironwood and Breach apparently working for Salem. Chapter 49 confirms that Rex himself also exists in this universe, working with Atlas.
• Daddy's Girl: Yang and Ruby to Taiyang.
• Darker and Edgier: The story has some edge to it;
  • "Permanent Retirement" illustrates the chase scene with the idea that "Marty" is gonna kill the two kids.
  • "Last Laugh" implied that Zombozo killed some of his crewmen before Ben fought him.
  • "Charm School's Out" has Michelle Morningstar rip out a girl's tongue.
  • "Secrets" has a giant Nevermore eating someone, and it's made clear that the Plumbers lost people in fending it and the other Grimm off.
  • Framed Part 1 has Kevin attacking a guy who got off scot-free for rape. In Part 2, Kevin is wounded enough to bleed heavily, and his Water Hazard equivalent, Dead Sea, manages to nearly kill Echo Echo.
  • Animo 10k murdered Kevin 11k for the alien DNA in the Antitrix. When Ben 10k learns this, he bites the head off of the creation Animo was using to relay this.
  • Vilgax's torture at the hands of the Fulmini. The end result is horrific.
  • Elias rips Max's arm off, and then either kills him or sends him to the Null Void.
  • Zs'skayr's debut has him phase objects into people's bodies, take over Rook and Kylie's body, and nearly murder Ben. And even worse, he's working with Salem.
  • Ceres has a Dark and Troubled Past as a Child Soldier, and inadvertently committed genocide against the Incursions.
  • Blake killed Adam in self-defense during the events of what would've been the Black trailer.
• Diagonal Cut: Ruby delivers one to Vilgax in Chapter 23, but she fails.
• Die or Fly: Ben unlocks Heatblast's full potential in Chapter 24. He discovers he can burn his flames at a higher power, evolving from orange flames to blue flames.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Yang apparently lost her arm much earlier in this timeline.
• Doom Magnet:
  • Ben and Ruby lampshade on the summer trip that they can't seem to avoid running into aliens, supervillains, etc, especially with their new enemies seeking Revenge for previous defeats. They get attacked by Clancy almost immediately after deciding to try and keep Gwen out of the loop.
  • In Chapter 30, Ben has been banned from at least one store because the staff considers him bad luck, and right as he's explaining this to Ruby, someone tries to stick up the cashier.
  • In Chapter 44, Lev outright refers to Ben as a chaos magnet.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first few chapters were known to be shorter and had a few "holes" in them.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Ceres's Amazonian Beauty looks have apparently gotten the attention of both Ruby and Weiss, and Rook outright says that everyone in Zeta Squadron, which would include Kylie, has feelings for her. In a later chapter, a female Plumber outright says that Ceres makes her question her sexuality.
• Everyone Can See It: Both Ceres and Kylie have noticed an attraction between Ben and Ruby.
  • Chapter 34 reveals that with the exception of Yang, who Blake is making sure stays in the dark, and Rook, who has the excuse of not being savvy with, as he puts it, "Earth Courting Rituals", everyone on Zeta Squadron and Team RWBY has noticed something between them, with Kevin even just asking Ben, rather bluntly, why they aren't dating yet, and when Ben asks Max for dating advice, he guesses that it's about Ruby almost immediately.
  • When playing "assassin" in Chapter 33, Kylie tries to tease Yang about her and Blake, but Yang turns the tables by asking about her and Weiss.
  • In chapter 49, when Kylie calls Winter for advice so she can help Weiss with her summoning, Winter assumes that Kylie is asking for her permission to date Weiss, causing her to get hopelessly flustered.
• Evil Knockoff: The AntiTrix to the Omnitrix.
• Fallen Hero: In this story, Vilgax was once a genuinely heroic figure on his homeworld before the actions he took to fight off a Fulmini invasion ended up making him into the monster he is now, though the torture he received at the hands of the High Override didn't help. In fact, the reason Psyphon is so devoted to him is that Vilgax apparently once saved his entire species from extinction.
• Fantastic Racism: Faunus are discriminated against like in canon, particularly feline Faunus due to the association with Sienna.
• Feed It with Fire: When fighting a 12-year-old Ben, Raven uses her Maiden powers to zap him with lightning. Unfortunately for her, he's in his Feedback form at the time.
• Flawed Prototype: The "Follies of Bezel" were this to his later creations, the Charms.
• Frame-Up: Servantis tries to use falsified footage to turn the Plumber leaders against Ben, but it fails, forcing him to knock them out and frame Ben for that, though it took a couple of false starts to do, and even then most of the other Plumbers still don't seem to really believe it.
• Halloween Episode: One that also celebrates Ruby's birthday, and has everyone dressing up.
  • A second one was released on Halloween 2021.
• Handicapped Badass: Yang lost her arm earlier than she did in RWBY canon; here, she's seen going toe to toe with some of Ben's heaviest hitters, like Cannonbolt.
• Heavy Sleeper: Kylie, who apparently once slept through a Lancer swarm attack.
• Horrifying the Horror: When Ben first sees a Grimm, a giant Nevermore that's munching on some poor sap, he's in Ghostfreak form, which had earlier beat Zombozo up to the point that Ben thought that he might have killed him, and he's still terrified of it.
• Human Resources:
  • "Crystal Dolphin" turns out to be produced by tissues Animo and Psyphon took from Kevin when they had him captive, presumably cloning it later to get so much.
  • Animo's Goop clones have deformed human organs inside them as a replacement for the anti-gravity UFO.
• Gender Bender: Ben is turned into "Brianna" in chapter 46.
• Gender Flip: Michael Morningstar becomes Michelle Morningstar.
• Genre Shift: In Revelation, the usual lighthearted nature of the fic turns into a darker but still lighthearted adaptation.
• Good Parents: Carl, Sandra, Anna, Sienna, and Taiyang all fall under this role.
  • Carl and Sandra deserve an honorable mention; when Ben transformed into an alien in front of them in canon, they banned him from using the Omnitrix, and then later grounded him. Here? They praise Ben for his quick thinking and barely think over the fact their child is a superhero.
  • Anna and Sienna put Kevin through therapy and visited him weekly as he recovered.
• Great Offscreen War: An "Ectonurite-Fulmini War" is mentioned a few times in the Ben 10k chapter.
  • In the past there was one between the Archimedian Empire and the Incursions. The Archimedians won because Ceres desperately designed a sonic weapon designed to paralyze the Incursions... but it inadvertently killed them all.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Albedo manages to guess, apparently correctly, that the real reason Servantis hates Ben so much is that he's jealous of how close Max was to him.
• Grilling the Newbie: Cardin attempts this against Ben at his first day in training.
• Hypocrite: Albedo calls Servantis out on how, despite his claiming to be motivated by fear of what the supposedly irresponsible Ben could do with the power the Omnitrix gives him, he doesn't fear Albedo the same way, despite having similar abilities and Galvan hyper-intelligence, and that the real reason he hates Ben is because he's jealous of how the boy stole Max's attention away from him. He's also willing to use dangerous drugs to fight Ben with.
• Iconic Item: Ben's Omnitrix and Ruby's Crescent Rose.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: Revealed in Chapter 34 to be why Ben hasn't tried to date Ruby yet. It doesn't help that his previous relationships didn't turn out well. One of them, implied to be Julie, is described by Kevin as outright emotionally abusive.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Downplayed. Ben expects this talk from Taiyang, but he knows Ruby can handle herself.
• I Know Madden Kombat: Ben's combat style as a human is based on his soccer skills.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The demon Min's human form is noted to look almost exactly like Blake, save for the lack of the latter's Faunus ears.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: Between Ben 10 and RWBY.
• Knuckle Cracking: Cannonbolt in Chapter 9, Kevin in Chapter 21.
• Last-Name Basis: Lampshaded when Rook's family visits and they find out that they do last name first.
• Local Hangout: Mr. Smoothies in Bellwood.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: A lot of the Anti Trix aliens fall under this category.
• The Masquerade: The Grimm are apparently significantly rarer on the Ben 10 Earth than in RWBY canon, allowing the Huntsmen to cover up their existence using similar logic to what Ozpin used to justify hiding Salem's existence, to keep people from panicking and drawing the Grimm to them.
• Merged Reality: The world of Remnant and the world of Ben 10 have merged into a single world. The Spacebattles thread has a map showing where the Kingdoms are located.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Ruby, Ben, and Rook intervene in a bank robbery on the way back from picking up Ruby at the train station, and end up discovering that someone is trafficking Dust weaponry to criminals.
• Mistaken for Junkie: When Roman Torchwick asks a random cop for directions to a Dust store, the cop thinks that he's talking about PCP.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: It IS a RWBY crossover, after all.
• Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe, Kevin 11k willingly helping what is implied to be the Highbreed invasion of Earth was this to Ben and Ruby 10k, as it's what led to them finally giving up on trying to help him after five years of effort. It's implied that Kevin felt that way as well since he apparently eventually exiled himself and apparently didn't even really resist when Animo 10k murdered him.
• Moral Myopia: Servantis claims that Ben is irresponsible with and unworthy of a device as powerful as the Omnitrix, but is willing to use Psyphon's dangerous mutagenic "Crystal Dolphin" drug to take Ben down, which Ben calls him on. Later, one of his criticisms of Ben is that he didn't help Vilgax, which not only ignores the fact that Vilgax was not in a talking mood at the time, but that Servantis was indirectly responsible for Vilgax becoming a Fallen Hero by refusing him Plumber aid when the Fulmini attacked his homeworld.
• Mister Seahorse: All three of Ben, Kevin, and Albedo's Necrofriggian forms go through their reproductive phase, and other aliens that "seahorse" their young are mentioned as well.
• Mutual Masquerade: Besides keeping the existence of Grimm and aliens from being revealed to the public, the Huntsmen and Plumbers, respectively, don't seem to be big on revealing their own existences to each other either, at least with the lower-ranking members. The higher-ups like Ozpin and Max seem to keep each other in the loop, but Ruby had no idea aliens existed before she met Ben and the Omnitrix, and when undercover at Beacon with Team RWBY, Ben is told to keep from transforming if he can, to keep from revealing the secret.
• Mythology Gag: There are a number of them, namely aliens and villains from the reboot series.
  • Steam Smythe first appears in chapter 9.
  • Kevin's versions of Ben's aliens are mutated in various ways, and in Chapter 13 the Antitrix starts growing out of his arm.
  • Ben unlocks Slapback in Chapter 16.
  • Chapter 25 reveals, just like in RWBY Chibi, Ruby's birthday is on Halloween.
  • Chapter 31 shows Ben has Shock Rock in the continuity.
  • Chapter 33 reveals that Xingo exists in this universe, much to Weiss's disbelief.
  • Chapter 39 has an airsick Ben throwing up in a trash can after landing at Beacon due to airsickness, just like Jaune did in the original RWBY series. Qrow also fights with Six in a similar way to his canon fight with Winter.
  • Chapter 44 has Ben use Echo Echo cloning to create duplicates of his human form to deal with being triple-booked. Also, Maria Calavera is Ruby's mentor, and Ben uses his version of the "Gax" form.
  • Chapter 50 reveals that the Incursions used mutated Tok'ustars called "Behemoths" against the Archimedian Empire.
  • Chapter 51 has Penny refer to dodgeball in the same way that she did in "Chibi".
  • Just like in canon, Ben's Big Chill form goes through its reproductive cycle... as do Kevin and Albedo's versions.
• Never Found the Body: Psyphon uses this exact term for Vilgax.
• Never My Fault: Even after he's captured, Servantis refuses to accept that he could have been wrong about Ben, tries to justify Max's death as necessary, and even tells Ben that he should have helped Vilgax when his refusal to send Vilgax aid when the Fulmini invaded Vilgax's homeworld led to Vilgax becoming a Fallen Hero after being tortured by the High Override.
• Nightmare Weaver: Lord Haslett, a minor villain in chapter 31, says that he's been told that he's descended from a demon, and inherited the demon's power to cause someone to relive their worst fears if they breathe in the air around them.
• Not Quite Dead: Chapter 19 implied that Salem had ended up destroying herself when she wiped out Earth's magic users, but in Chapter 33, Albedo mentions her name in the present tense... A later chapter confirms that she's alive.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Albedo, apparently correctly, manages to guess that the real reason Servantis hates Ben so much, even to the point of allying with Salem to take him out and trying to pull a Frame-Up, isn't because Ben's irresponsible with his abilities (Albedo even calling Servantis out on the hypocrisy of how the Rooter doesn't have a problem with him despite having similar powers to Ben), but because he's jealous of how close Max was to Ben.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: Rook implies at one point that bad things can happen if someone makes physical contact with the image of their past selves that Clockwork can generate. Servantis finds this out the hard way...
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Ben notes how serious the situation with the Nevermore is when Ruby is noticeably scared of it.
  • When Ben uses Echo Echo cloning to deal with triple-booking himself, the Sensitive Ben clone is so eloquent and caring regarding his analysis of Rook's issues with his father in Kylie's group therapy session that Rook thinks that he's an impostor.
  • Rook speaking ill of the Incurseans. Justified, as Rook's home planet, Revonnah, produces Amber Ogia, a super fruit so valuable that many would try to steal it. The Incurseans regularly threatened to conquer/destroy his home world to get their hands on the stuff.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Ben, when he first sees a Nevermore.
  • Max reacts the same way when he sees Kevin transform in San Francisco.
  • Vilgax awakening, and the reveal of his shapeshifting powers.
  • Zs'skayr's demonstration of powers.
  • Albedo showing off his Ultimates against some Grimm.
• One-Hit KO: Diamondhead delivers a nasty one to Animo in Chapter 22.
• Open-Minded Parent: Carl and Sandra absolutely fall under here.
• Or Was It a Dream?: During a 12-year old Ben's encounter with Raven in Chapter 25, she repeatedly suggests that she's dreaming, using her Maiden powers to further the argument. When Ben wakes up, he initially thinks that she was right, until he sees a raven staring at him...
• Our Demons Are Different: Gwen accidentally summons a chaos demon named Min when trying to contact Max's spirit, who comes from a dimension where they observe the stories of the multiverse's heroes and make edits. Physically, she resembles Blake but needs blood every 24 hours.
• Person of Mass Destruction:
  • Ben 10k, who uses Shock Rock to destroy all of the alien microchips Animo 10k is using to make his Hive Mind in the state, blowing up his army in the process. Ruby 10k even directly tells the kids that it's kind of scary how powerful he is sometimes.
  • Anna's powers are Cast from Calories, but Kwarrel believes that she could devastate a city before she needed to refuel.
• Playing with Fire:
  • Ben and Kevin's fire-based transformations.
  • Ceres also has pyrokinesis.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Archimedeans, though they’re also Proud Scholar Race Guys. They even have a courtship ritual that involves forging a weapon for their intended.
• Psychic Block Defense: Having an active Aura allows someone to resist being possessed by Zs'Skayr, or even keep him out entirely.
• Psychological Projection: Azmuth attributes at least part of Servantis's hatred towards Ben to him doing this to the boy. For example, his criticism of not helping Vilgax seems to be drawn from Servantis refusing him Plumber aid when the Fulmini invaded, leading to Vilgax being tortured and becoming a Fallen Hero.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Plenty of this between Ben and Vilgax.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech: Ben gives a BIG one to Vilgax in Chapter 24.
• Red Is Heroic: Ruby.
• Retcon: In this universe, Verdona is an Osmosian.
  • In general, Osmosians are the "metahumans" of the Ben 10 world.
• Rock Beats Laser: Diamondhead vs the Vilgax drone.
  • Rollerblade Good: Downplayed- young Ruby has heelies on her shoes.
• Shout-Out:
  • When in NYC, the kids play a Super Smash Bros. arcade game.
  • Kevin's alien name choices, like Stands in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, are based on songs and bands. He even has one called "King Crimson" which is his version of "Gax".
    • During Chapter 66, Ben apparently recalls the words of "a certain immortal vampire."
  • When Ben's dad is freaking out in the conference room about how much Ben was paid by Joel for using his aliens to help set up the wedding (the check had three zeroes), he says that he could recreate the Iron Throne with it. Later, at the occult museum in Chapter 19, the curator mentions the clan of the "Steel Throne", and a queen who Gwen says had a dragon army.
  • In Chapter 5, there's a sneaky reference to Game Grumps, with Kevin getting beat up by bullies named Matt, Ryan and Barry, all Game Grumps editors.
    • Funnier even now, seeing that later on, a new editor named Ben joined the crew.
  • Ben is apparently a Doctor Who fan.
  • In Chapter 19, various Camp Camp characters appear. This was apparently Campbell's gig in this universe.
  • Animo has a business card for Black Hat at one point.
  • When Ruby first sees Rath, she calls him a steroid-fueled Hobbes.
  • A tech guy for the Plumbers has the name Lloyd and is described as looking a lot like the pudding Earl.
  • Ben makes a Soul Eater reference when Ruby gets a Petrosapien arm due to Amimo.
  • When Ruby described Albedo as someone who looks like Ben, but with snow-white hair, Ben interrupts and asks if she ran into Danny Phantom. When discussing how to imprison Zs'Skayr, it's suggested that they stuff him into a thermos.
  • Leander has the ability to turn anything into a bomb. Does he also desire a quiet life?
  • The way Servantis used horrifying illusions to disorient Ben and lure him into the path of a train is very similar to what Mysterio did.
  • In a group therapy session, Kylie references Dumbing of Age by name.
  • Ben, while drunk, says that Lev has Zuko eyes.
  • When sparring with Ruby as Feedback, Ben rips off Goku's famous attack, which Ruby calls him on.
  • In Chapter 50, when "Brianna" admits that she ripped an anime opening for a rhyme for class, Ceres asks if they used Naruto, only for them to admit that they used a Bleach opening instead. In Chapter 52, Kylie is writing a Bleach fanfiction story with her friends as characters.
  • In Chapter 53, Ruby wears a Hex Girls shirt to dinner with Team CFVY, and Fox makes a joke similar to one Toph would make.
  • Chapter 56 has Kylie playing Yu-Gi-Oh!.
  • Chapter 61 pokes fun at BlazBlue, with Ben, Ruby and Kevin all being Ragna, Rachel and Jin respectively.
  • Chapter 65 has Yang feel like All Might defeating One For All after beating Mercury.
  • Chapter 68 has Rook of all aliens reference Captain America.
  • In the second Halloween Episode, there are several references to What If…? (2021).
• Show Within a Show: Sumo Slammers is basically the fanfic's version of the original Ben 10 canon.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The Archemedians were a Slave Race that overthrew and took over the empire that enslaved them, wiping the race out entirely, and we're clearly not expected to have much sympathy for that empire. In fact, slavery has basically been a racial Berserk Button for them ever since.
• Smug Snake: Servantis does have some legitimate intelligence and powers, but his ego leads to him to defeat. Twice during his plot to Frame-Up Ben as dangerous, he has to think fast because he didn't anticipate how much the other Plumbers liked Ben and that they'd be willing to give the boy the benefit of the doubt instead of blindly accepting his "evidence". Then, when he tries to pull his illusion trick on Ben again, he fails because he didn't expect Ben to be able to use Blitzwolfer's nose to find the real him, and gets tricked into an Engineered Public Confession because he takes the time to give Ben a verbal dressing-down, not knowing that he could use the Omnitrix as a communications device to broadcast what he was saying to the rest of the base.
• Sneeze Cut: When Ceres expresses distaste towards a pun someone once made regarding Crescent Rose, saying that whoever came up with it deserves a fiery punch to the crotch, Ben coughs elsewhere.
  • Ben coughs again when Manny, talking about how Pakmar switched to tailoring because his business got wrecked again, wonders who is responsible, and would take time out of their day to ruin someone's reputation.
  • It happens with Ben again when Gwen plans on using a spell to contact Max's spirit without him.
• Spanner in the Works: In Chapter 65, Ari's presence exposes Mercury's prosthetic legs, and that he was faking being injured by Yang. Unfortunately, it just makes Cinder and her crew alter their plans somewhat.
• Stood Up: "Brianna" pretends to agree to a date with Cardin in Chapter 50, planning to do this to him, since he didn't even learn "her" name. We see the results when Ben and Ruby join Team CFVY for dinner in the same restaurant, with him still being there when the others leave, in denial about being stood up.
• Super-Empowering: Maria awakens Ben's Aura in Chapter 44.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: The demon Gwen accidentally summons in chapter 46.
• Super-Speed: Ruby, XLR8, Rush and Fasttrack's superpower.
• Sympathy for the Devil: All of Zeta Squadron and RWBY feel sympathy for Salem when they learn of her curse.
• Take That!:
  • Driba is fired after the Grimm attack on the Rushmore base, having made multiple blunders before he let Ben and Ruby get away from him.
  • Chapter 20 has one for the "Ultimate Alien" era, primarily about how the ultimate forms were underutilized.
    Ben: It's kind of a shame that he doesn't use the ultimates more often.
    Ruby: Yeah, kind of defeats the whole gimmick of the series. And even when he does, they're usually small. Remember when he used it against the Lord of all Evil during the Hero Generation finale? That was a cool time to use it. Not during some stupid battle in a tunnel.
    Ben: Yeah. Plus, when anti-Ishyama used it against him? Totally awesome. Seeing the Jurassic techniques at their fullest were some of the coolest moments of Hero Generation.
    Ruby: I'm glad someone sees where I'm coming from! Mega Sumos is just a lame continuation of Hero Generation.
  • Albedo being able to transform on his own gets a jab, and his Galvan Ultimate form is also different.
  • Chapter 57 has one to all the Kissing Cousins interpretations between Ben and Gwen, with one of the aliens who created unlicensed rip-offs of Ben and Ruby's adventures making Ben and Gwen an item. It also jabs at the Faux Action Girl concept.
• Tears of Fear: Anna when she sees Kevin's mutation.
• Time Skip: At the end of Chapter 24, the story skips forward several years, though the next couple chapters take place in the time period in-between, like Chapter 25, which takes place when Ruby and Ben are 12.
• Tom Boy: Ruby and Yang.
• Twice Shy:
  • Ben and Ruby both clearly like each other, but neither have made a move. they finally do so in chapter 58.
  • Weiss and Kylie similarly both like each other, but neither of them can act on it.
• Ultimate Universe: In addition to the crossover elements, like Ruby, the fic also has characters, aliens, and plot elements from the reboot series introduced or hinted at during the summer trip from the original series.
  • Water Hazard seems more like Overflow from the Reboot in his appearance (though the latter does appear in Chapter 34), and the Limax even calls him a Cascan.
  • Chapter 39 introduces characters from Generator Rex.
  • Blitzwolfer is more like the Reboot Alien Bashmouth.
• Villain Takes an Interest:
  • Raven apparently takes one in Ben.
  • Tyrian claims that his "goddess" wants Ben's attention, but why is currently unknown.
  • Albedo implies that it's Salem that Tyrian serves, but what she's up to is unknown.
• Villain Episode: Episode 48 is from the perspectives of Neo and Albedo.
• Villain Team-Up: Albedo, Neo, and Zs'Skayr are all apparently allied with Salem, and Servantis is apparently involved as well.
• War Is Hell: Chapter 50 confirms that Ceres, Ari, and Lev were all Child Soldier participants in a horrific war between their people, the Archemedians and the Incursions, who used Way Bads/"Behemoths" to attack major population centers. It got so bad near the end that the former government was willing to send Child Soldier recruits straight into the grinder, and Ceres's desperate attempt to create a weapon keyed to disabling the Incursions ended up wiping them out entirely.
• What Would X Do?: Ben asks this about The Doctor when the Nevermore is attacking the Rushmore base.
• Wham Line: Chapter 48: "Her name is Summer."
• Who Watches the Watchmen?: Having crawled their way up from being a Slave Race after overthrowing the empire that enslaved them, the Archemedian people created a lot of measures to eliminate corruption as much as possible so they don't go the same route. Ceres even references the trope by name.
• Worf Had the Flu: Part of the reason Albedo did so poorly during his initial fights against the Team RWBY and Zeta Squadron members is because he's more used to fighting aliens in "formulated" attacks, taking advantage of their shared powers and weaknesses. Against humans, with their own fighting styles and weapons, he's less effective, it's noted that he does a lot better against Ben in his alien forms.
• Writer's Block Montage: A brief one with Kylie- after saying she has a cool idea to write, she instead loses her focus and watches videos online.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Victor managed to complete the device that allowed Zs'Skayr to escape the Omnitrix before the heroes even arrived, and his master manages to make his escape in the next chapter.

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