AVATAR PLUS TEN!

Author's Note: This is my third Avatar fanfic, and my second Avatar crossover, that I came up with. When it comes to Avatar, this story takes place after episode 11 of the Book of Earth, "The Desert." When it comes to Ben 10, this story takes place after episode 13 of season three, "The Visitor." Season three of "Ben 10" ended with Ben having a total of sixteen accessible alien forms on his Omnitrix, so I got plenty of choices to show off in this story. Sorry, but you're gonna have to read to find out which alien forms I use!

Chapter One: Arrival

It was a somewhat quiet night in the wilderness of Kansas. In the designated camping area, most people have already turned in for the night in their tents or RVs. In one campsite, however, one family was still wide awake.

Outside of his rusted, weatherworn RV, a tall overweight man in his sixties was sitting at a picnic table, working on a gray device shaped similar to a gun with light gray markings, only there was a large bulbous lens attached to the end of the barrel. The older man had short gray hair cut in a military style, with the lower half of his hair a lighter shade of gray, and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a white T-shirt underneath a red short-sleeve shirt printed with large light orange flowers, dark blue pants, and brown boots. Also on the picnic table was a beat-up red metal toolbox with the name "Max Tennyson" printed on the front of it in antique gold letters.

As he opened a compartment on the device, exposing the inner wiring and circuits, the old man heard a loud racket coming from inside the RV. Almost immediately, the door to the RV swung wide open, and two young children, a boy and a girl both roughly eleven years of age, came running out.

The boy had thick shaggy brown hair and green eyes, and he was wearing a white T-shirt with black trim around the collar and cuffs and a black stripe down the middle, baggy army green cargo pants, white socks, and white sneakers with black soles and trim. In addition, the boy was wearing a device that looked like an oversized watch with a black wristband, white tubes, steel gray trim, and a slightly protruding dial with a black ring decorated with four green dots and a green-and-gray face shaped like an hourglass.

The girl had shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair and green eyes, and she was wearing a pale blue-purple long-sleeve shirt with blue sleeves ending just past her elbows, a blue collar, and a blue cat's head on the front; pale blue Capri pants; dark blue earring studs; a dark blue barrette that held a lock of her hair in place over the right side of her face; and white tennis shoes with blue stripes across the foot.

"Come on, Ben! Give it back!" the girl complained loudly as she tried to grab a laptop computer that the boy was holding above his head with both hands.

"What's the magic word, geek-face?" Ben mockingly asked the girl.

"Now, doofus!" the girl stated through clenched teeth.

"Come on, Gwen! You can do better than that!" Ben taunted the girl as he dangled the laptop in front of her face.

"Ben, give Gwen her laptop back," Max instructed, not even looking up from his work.

"You heard Grandpa, Ben. Now hand it over," Gwen pointed out as she took her laptop back.

"Geez, you're no fun!" Ben complained in a sulking tone as he approached their grandfather, who was still working on the device. "Whatcha doing, Grandpa?" he asked curiously as he looked over Max's shoulder to see what he was working on.

"Just doing some maintenance work," Max replied as he picked up a flat-tip screwdriver from his toolbox.

"On the Null Void Projector? What for?" Ben asked curiously. "We already sent Vilgax and Kevin to the Null Void for good."

"Don't forget, Ben, there are others out there that want the Omnitrix for themselves," Max stated as he took a moment to point at the contraption on his grandson's left wrist. "And who's to say that Vilgax and Kevin won't find a way out of the Null Void? And there's always the possibility that someone will release them both."

"That's all we need," Gwen commented. "It was hard enough putting them in the Null Void the first time. If they ever escape, I doubt they'll ever want to go back in there without a fight."

"Why don't you two get some rest?" Max suggested as he continued working on the Null Void Projector. "We need to make an early start if we want to beat the crowds at the Grasshopper Festival tomorrow."

"What exactly is this Grasshopper Festival about, Grandpa?" Gwen asked curiously.

"Don't tell me you plan on stocking up on grasshoppers for future meals!" Ben remarked, with both him and Gwen grimacing over the idea of having to eat grasshoppers.

Before Max could answer either of his grandchildren's questions, he was startled by the Null Void Projector making strange noises and convulsions.

"Grandpa, what's going on?" Gwen asked a bit uncertainly as she took a step back.

"I don't know, Gwen…but it can't be anything good!" Max replied rather calmly as he tried to grab the Null Void Projector. Before he could even get his hands on it, the Null Void Projector literally hopped off of the picnic table and started pulsating on the ground.

"Stay back, both of you!" Max cautioned his two grandkids when the Null Void Projector suddenly emitted a beam of violet light.

"That can't be good!" Ben commented when the beam of light formed a swirling violet vortex just a few yards away from them.

"Gee, you think!" Gwen retorted as the vortex started pulling everything towards it like a tornado.

"Quick, grab onto something!" Max instructed his grandkids as he braced himself behind the picnic table.

"Too late!" Ben gasped as he was lifted into the air and pulled towards the vortex.

"Ben! Hold on!" Gwen shouted as she attempted to grab Ben's arm, only to get herself in the same predicament as her cousin.

"AHH!" Ben and Gwen screamed simultaneously as the vortex pulled them closer.

"Ben! Gwen!" Max shouted as he helplessly watched his grandchildren get pulled into the vortex.

A look of determination swept across Max's face as he quickly grabbed a handful of various tools from his toolbox, including a compact weapon he kept in there from his Plumber days, and shoved them into his pockets. He then grabbed the Null Void Projector and managed to shut it off.

"I'll have to repair this later. Right now, I need to find Ben and Gwen," Max muttered to himself as he pocketed the Null Void Projector before jumping into the vortex just seconds before closing up…

"Whoa…what hit me?" Ben groaned softly as he brought a hand to his head. As he opened his eyes, Ben was startled to see that he was no longer in the campsite surrounded by forest, but in a seemingly endless desert.

"Where are we?" Ben asked aloud as he looked at the blanket of sand all around him. "One thing's for sure: we are definitely not in Kansas anymore! Right, guys?" When he got no response, Ben turned around and gasped when he saw that no one was there, that he was by himself.

"Grandpa? Gwen?" Ben shouted as he ran forward a few steps. "Where are they? I know they got pulled into the vortex, too. What is this place, anyway? It's definitely not the Null Void, that's for sure. I gotta find Grandpa and Gwen." A small smirk formed on Ben's face as he looked down at the Omnitrix on his wrist.

"I know a quicker way to find them!" Ben commented as he started to twist the Omnitrix dial around…