N̴o̴.̵.̷.̴
̸N̴o̸p̸e̷.̷.̴.̴
̶O̷h̸ ̵d̵e̶f̴i̴n̴i̶t̶e̷l̴y̶ ̶n̶o̴t̸.̷
̸W̴h̵a̶t̸ ̷a̷b̷o̵u̶t̷-̷
̴F̵o̵r̶ ̴f̷u̸c̶k̴s̸ ̴s̵a̴k̵e̶,̵ ̸r̵e̶m̶o̶v̵i̸n̴g̴ ̴o̵b̷s̷c̸u̶r̷a̸t̸i̸o̵n̷.̵

Can't hear myself think over that crap.
... No, that won't work either.
Fuck, I'm losing too much time.
Why is all this shit so disorganized-
Bingo! Step one found.

A dark haired teen allowed his head to rise from his desk as the final bell dismissed his class. He habitually ignored the disappointed look his English teacher sent him as he stretched and picked up his backpack in one motion, pulling his shoulder muscles as he darted between classmates as quickly as he could without making a scene. It didn't exactly work, his friends and usual tormentors still noticed but by the time they managed to leave the room themselves the young man was already across the hall and halfway down the stairs. He skipped past his locker, having made sure that he had emptied it of everything he needed to bring home when he first showed up for classes, a whole three hours late. Not like it was safe to walk the halls until they were empty anyway but he knew his sister would have something to say to him about his tardiness. It wouldn't be as bad as it used to be though, Jazz knew why his grades were suffering for the last year.

Danny yawned before shoving open the doors to the outside world, thanking his lucky stars that he hadn't agreed to any plans his friends made to meet up after school. His parents were out of state for the weekend and they usually tried to hang out at his place while the crazies were gone, but Danny just didn't have the energy for social interaction this time. He's just been too busy. The pale boy sidestepped into an alley quickly as he contemplated how complicated his life had become, and he turned invisible as he told himself that it could have been worse. As he floated above the heads of the few people walking the streets of Amity Park, he decided that he needed a break. To just take a long nap and let the morbid and half-delirious thoughts pass him by in the hopes that he'll wake up refreshed and ready to take on the next days surprises.

"All these spooky spectres sending shivers down my spine... Really wish I was strong enough to close the portal already." Danny mused to himself, trying to guess how much longer it would take before his powers were strong enough to overpower his parents shockingly sturdy engineering. He didn't really like the answer he came too. Frowning, he dropped his invisibility and turned the corner as his house came into view. "I also really wish the city put up more of a fight when dad started building the ops center..." He stopped for a moment as he stared up at the giant flying saucer shaped metal monstrosity perched on top of his parent's building, waiting to see if was going to spontaneously vanish in response to his statement. When it refused to cease its existence, Danny shrugged his shoulders before making the last few steps up to the front door. He hit the doorbell and stood still as the hidden panel above him opened up and pointed a high powered laser weapon directly between his eyes.

"Freeze Ghost!" The tired son rolled his eyes as his dad's voice yelled at him from the deadly weapon, simply staring as the camera sensor perched on top gave him another scan. Shortly after threatening his life, the gun retracted back into the wall as the speakers repeated another recorded line, this time in his mom's voice. "Hey sweetie! Welcome home. Sorry about the gun for the two-hundred thirty-second time!" Honestly, as annoying as the process was, Danny was just glad his parents were either too oblivious to figure out why every other device in the house tried to kill him or loved him too much to even consider the truth a possibility. They hated ghosts after all, and there was no possible way Danny could be a ghost. All the ghost scanners must be malfunctioning. Yes, every single one.

"Welcome to Fenton works, where we form crappy biased opinions and hate anyone who doesn't treat them as objective scientific fact. For better or worse..." The youngest of the Fentons muttered, absentmindedly ducking the Boo-Merang as it tracked his ghostly presence and tried to brain him for the twelth time. Walking up the stairs became a mild chore as he kept tilting his head side to side to avoid the impractical tracking device, but using his flight or intangibility would just set off more Fenton technology around the house. Danny toughed it out though, reaching his room and shutting the door on the boomerang from hell. It was the one room in the entire building that he could use his ectoplasmic abilities without consequence, having spent hours tearing out all of his parents devices himself. That meant, until his parents portal to the Ghost Zone spit out another spook, Danny Fenton was free to be himself, as was Danny Phantom should he decide to make use of his otherworldly nature. He didn't really want ghost powers, and he was only fourteen when he was shocked with so much ectoplasma that it rewrote his DNA so it wasn't like he was exactly well put together in the first place. Puberty wasn't supposed to come with unstable and uncontrollable laser fingers and the ability to accidentally fall straight through the floor, but they had come to grow on him as he learned to control them.

What he didn't know, was that one of his abilities would put him on the radar of more than just ghost hunters and ghosts-who-are-also-hunters. Danny had barely turned into his glowing ghost form (black jumpsuit replacing slacks, black hair turning to the color of snow, blue eyes changing to a radioactive green) when a portal unlike any he had ever seen before opened up right over his bed. Green plasma began charging in his fist as he instinctively shifted into a more battle appropriate stance, the half-ghost being far too used to being attacked in his own home. The sickly neon green was quickly replaced by a bright glacial blue as his would-be attacker fell onto his bed, and began to melt into his sheets. Danny barely noticed that his senses didn't register the figure as a ghost, only seeing the limbless figure deteriorate and liquidate and definitely not in any state to start a fight. This wasn't an attack, this was a desperate plea for help. The blue energy shot from Phantom's fingers, striking the lithe figure in the center, and freezing the liquid body solid as his Ice energy spread to every remaining cell.

"What happened to you big guy?" Danny didn't expect an answer, speaking mostly out of shock as he took in the state of the ice sculpture fused to his bed. One massive ear that was barely holding on to the animal-like head, a pair of eyes that had gone milky white as one tried to slide down the face, and only one limb without a hand attached as it had melted into the blanket. This was... bad. Danny had seen ghosts become unstable before, mostly clones of himself made by his archenemy, and it wasn't something he thought he would ever see again. He had manage to save Dani, his surviving clone, from the terrible fate, but- "You aren't a ghost, how am I supposed to- Wait! Is there an actual alien in my room right now! That's awesome! Well, except for the, you know, the whole you're dying thing..."

Yeah, shit sucks.
You got a good head on your shoulder though, I didn't even have to ask you to freeze him.
Just keep him hidden please?
I think I have a few ideas on how to revive him.
Brb and all that.

"Wait! How did you even know I had ice powers? Are aliens spying on us...?" Danny turned back to his human self and looked around the room, as if to find the voice he had heard. "Hello? Mister voice in my head...?"

Mr. Smoothie wasn't the most popular food chain, but it could still be found in just about every town and city in the United States. Mostly as a result of good business practices, as the food was considered subpar and the smoothies ranged anywhere between palatable to down-right hazardous. But it was cheap, easy to find, and quick to order. Perfect for teenagers who were too tired to give a hoot, hence why this particular Mr. Smoothie was usually host to a very specific trio of teens. The brown haired young man in his green jacket slurped down a smoothie made of figs and sharp cheddar while munching on a plate of chili fries, a built and black haired teen drank a completely normal fountain soda and sparingly snacked on the fries, and the sole female at the table with her orange hair done up in a ponytail sat with them and refused to touch anything.

These were Ben, Kevin, and Gwen, respectively. Ben and Gwen were actually cousins and shared the Tennyson name, while Kevin was a former enemy of Ben and the current boyfriend of Gwen. These three were quite close to each other, being literal family that had gone through quite a lot together. An alien invasion, a cult of human supremacists, another alien invasion... It was mostly alien invasions, with the occasional alien needing directions home being confused as an alien invasion. Point being, they had all seen some shit, and were typically hard to truly surprise anymore. When your watch took over your mind to turn you into an alien and eat molten metal to build a nest to lay eggs in, true story, one typically had an open mind to strangeness afterwards.

It was still very shocking when Ben suddenly snorted smoothie out of his nose and started gagging.

"Oh god that's disgusting! Water!" Kevin and Gwen just stared at Ben as he used napkins to wipe his tongue off. He had been drinking the rancid things for years, and this was the first time he had not only not liked one of them, but had hated it so much he nearly threw up. And he had already chugged half of it down, so...

"Finally grow some taste buds?" Kevin smirked at the suffering of his friend while Gwen looked at her cousin in concern, handing him her untouched glass of water.

"Ben? You okay?" Ben nodded as he sucked down the offered drink, the last drops of which he used to rinse his mouth out with.

"Blegh! Yeah, just wasn't expecting... that." Now even Kevin raised his eyebrows as Ben released a full body shiver. "Ugh, that was a terrible start." He looked between his cousin and her boyfriend as he ran his tongue over his teeth, and the both of them were wondering what the fuck was happening as he took a deep breath. "Okay, so. Full transparency. I'm not Ben Tennyson. I need your help."

"... What do you mean you aren't Ben?" Kevin nodded along with Gwen, subtly absorbing the metal of his chair to turn his hands under the table into aluminum while his girlfriend began to glow pink with her magical powers.

"I mean I was trying to talk to you three for ten minutes now but between your magical alien heritage, Kevin's alien absorption powers, and the DNA manipulating watch on Ben's wrist with a billion failsafes, none of you could hear me for some damn reason. I didn't even mean to possess Ben, I was just trying to get under the Omnitrix's defenses so he could hear me and the next thing I knew I was snorting cheese through his nose." Not-Ben scowled at the smoothie at the table as they said this, clearly having developed a quick hatred of Ben's favorite beverages. Gwen carefully kept her nerves and scepticism out of her voice as she asked her next question.

"And what do you need help with that makes 'accidentally' possessing Ben worth it?" She wasn't convinced that this unknown alien had mistakenly taken over the body of the one member of the group with the Omnitrix, the strongest weapon in the universe that could turn its user into a member of any alien species from any galaxy. It was a very sought after device after all, and many of the alien invasions they dealt with were space pirates/warlords trying to pry it from Ben's wrist. Ben's face though, grew sad and panicked in response to her question, and Gwen had to remind herself that it wasn't her cousin making that expression.

"A... Friend, is dying. I don't know what exactly is wrong with him, but from what little I could see it seems to be a DNA issue. The Omnitrix can manipulate DNA, so-"

"You're hoping it will save your friend." Kevin watched Ben's face carefully, not knowing if he could trust Not-Ben to wear his heart on his sleeve as openly as his friend normally would.

"Yes. And look, the whole body snatching thing really was an accident. I can give you two instructions to follow and just ditch if would make you guys feel better, but... I really need this." Kevin slowly nodded in response before looking to his girlfriend by his side.

"...What do you think Gwen, we trust the mysterious alien who apparently needs to possess us to talk to us?"

"I think we could afford to play along for now."

"That's...! Not what I thought you were going to say."

"We aren't going to attack Ben preemptively, Kevin. What do you need us to do?" The smile on Ben's was disconcerting in how genuine it was, given that it wasn't Ben smiling at them.

"Well, we need to get a copy of uncorrupted DNA first. So I'm going to open a portal for you guys to the home of a healthy member of my friends species. Once the Omnitrix has them scanned-"

Waddle-Dee town was... Really small actually. It had a town sized population, with three-hundred Dees making their home their, but a grand majority of the buildings were stores or entertainment services. One of the first buildings was actually a theatre, and this was after the populace had been kidnapped. Waddle-Dee's just didn't have a great sense of priorities. 'I know most of us are bunking with each other at night, or sleeping in the grass, or just not sleeping, but I think it would be cool if we built a colosseum for the sake of gladiatorial combat.' Then all the other Waddles agreed, and if many of the empty stands served as sleeping spots afterwards then all the better for them. They did eventually build a couple apartment complexes to house all the citizens, and they still all ended up with at least one roommate each. But that was fine, it was nice to have company after all.

Strange creatures the Waddle-Dees. But these ones were friendly, and were extremely laid back in spite of the fact that they were all victims of dimensional displacement as well as physical imprisonment followed by slave labor. They were chill though, and those treadmills powering the evil science laboratory were good exercise so it wasn't a big deal.

Have some sense of self Waddle-Dees! Where is the healthy dose of paranoia? Self preservation? Develop an ego for fucks sake and stop letting the world stomp all over you!

"Hey little guy, don't suppose you know where I could find someone named Elfilin? We need his help for something." Or just point the strange mostly-hairless mammals with unknown motivations directly to the strongest being currently on planet. No wonder Meta Knight was always so paranoid about Dreamland's ability to defend itself. "In the little house over there? Alright, thanks little dude." Ben Tennyson stood up from where he crouched down to Waddle-Dee level, waving his friend and cousin his way as he made the short distance to his destination. Seriously, human legs made everything so tiny. They were three to four times taller than all the Dees.

"You find him already?" Ben nodded to Kevin before lowering himself onto his stomach. "You aren't going to try to crawl in there are you?"

"Are you kidding me? My shoulders won't even get past the door. No, I'm just trying to get on equal level." And then Ben knocked on the tiny door as Gwen said something that was no doubt calling his problem solving skills into question. He only had to wait a moment before the door was swung open, revealing... A flying blue chinchilla? "Hi! Is Elfilin home?" The blue chinchilla thing cocked its heart shaped head and ear/wings in curiosity.

"Hello? Is there anything I can do for you? I don't think I've seen you here before, are you new members of the Animal Pack?"

"Ah, no, we aren't from around here. A, friend I guess, needs help but we needed to see you first. Do you mind if I scan you with this...?" He trailed off as Elfilin retreated and nearly shut the door in response to the word 'scan.'

"...W-what do you need a s-scan for?" Ben looked up his team for help, but they just shrugged in return. Not like they had any better understanding of the situation they found themselves in.

"Hey, it's okay, really. There's someone who's... the same species as you, whatever species you are, but they're really sick. The Omnitrix here could heal him but it needs to know what the DNA of a healthy Elfilin looks like to do that. Is that okay?" Elfilin peaked further out of the doorway, looking into Ben eye's so intensely that he briefly felt like he was being seen through, but in the end the floating 'chilla nodded.

"If it's to save someone, then yes. You can scan me with the... Omnitrix. I hope I get to meet this friend of yours one day. I haven't met any others of my kind."

"I'll be sure to pass that along to them."

Danny jumped as a trio of new voices appeared on the other side of his door, harshly arguing with one another in a conversation that he clearly missed the beginning of.

"-It suspicious that Elfilin was scared of getting scanned? He clearly has some bad experience with like evil scientists or something."

"I know Kevin, but we literally have no idea what's actually going one. Someone didn't ask enough questions while our alien was feeling talkative. It could literally be exactly what it said, it needs help saving a friend."

"Or, we could be delivering an updated Omnitrix directly into the hands of an evil scientist!" And then the door to Danny's room opened, and he awkwardly shuffled on his feet as three completely ordinary looking older kids walked into his room. After getting a good look at him, the frozen alien, and his space-themed room the taller muscular one spoke up again. "I still say he could be an mad scientist."

"Nah, that's my parents." Danny cringed as the words left his mouth, but soldiered on anyway as the two teens who kind of looked like eachother shot amused looks at their taller companion. "Uh, so did the mysterious alien voice send you guys or should I start screaming bloody murder?" The girl shook her head before smiling at him, clearly trying to ease the tension he felt from having three strangers suddenly appear outside his room.

"Yes, 'the voice' sent us. I'm guessing that's who we're supposed to help?"

"Not sure how the Omnitrix is supposed to fix being a popsicle."

That's Gwen and Kevin, and I did send them.
The last one is Ben Ten, and you should stay away from his watch.
Go ghost if you have too.
You can trust them to keep a secret but the watch might fuck with your DNA if you get too close.

Danny, still unsure what the procedure should be when it comes to disembodied alien voices, just nodded at the three new people in his room. And then he jumped out the window.

"You scared him off Kevin!"

"What did I say?!"

Everything was blurry. It was... Like being under water. Wavy, distorted, changed at a moments notice by the smallest disturbance.

"... okay...? Elfi... you... speak..."

I felt disconnected, like my arms and legs were responding to my call but floated away into the distance without me. That... That didn't make any sense.

"Back... don't know... react."

What was happening? What the last thing I remembered-?
You can't keep doing this. Hello? Are you even listening?

"... Weird... think... mind...?"

That wasn't what I remembered, the last thing I remembered was-
That was the last straw young man. Why can't you understand this?

"... Happening... Ben?"

No, that wasn't correct. I was with-
Your father-
He's not my father.

-Magolor and Susie, and we were-
Why don't you just-!

Enough of that shit.
Opening portal to Ben's home universe... Done.
Opening portal to Equestria/Dreamland universe...

Who was that? I remembered... I remembered them.

...Fuck.
I didn't put up obscuration.
U̶h̷,̷ ̸y̸o̷u̷ ̶d̶i̴d̵n̴'̷t̵ ̶h̴e̶a̷r̶ ̶a̵n̵y̸t̸h̷i̸n̵g̵.̶

I didn't hear... Yes I did. You've... You've been here the whole time?!

F̵u̴c̶k̸,̶ ̶a̵l̷r̷i̴g̴h̸t̶.̸
I can explain.

Author's Note

This chapter was fun. So yeah, Elfilis lived!
Duh.
He isn't heading home quite yet though, so stay tuned.