And Then There Were 10

And Then There Were 10 is the first episode of Ben 10.

Plot
A smaller ship is being blasted by a large, orange one, piloted by Vilgax. The smaller ship ejects a pod towards Earth, and causes damage to Vigax's ship. This causes Vilgax horrible injuries. The smaller ship is then blasted to pieces.

Meanwhile, on Earth, a 10 year old boy named Ben Tennyson finishes school for the summer holidays. His life is shown here; he first gets into trouble for flying a paper airplane into his teacher's head. He then tries to stop the school bullies, Cash and JT, from beating up a boy named Jamie for his money. Ben gets beaten up and hung by his underwear in a tree with Jamie. After his grandfather, Max Tennyson, helps him getting down, he tells how much he has been looking forward to their camping holiday, until he spots his cousin, Gwen (who claims that "someone" persuaded her mother this would be good for her), who he dislikes (apparently because they share the same birthday). When they arrive at the campsite, Ben and Gwen see that Max wants them to go on a flavor ride which includes eating bugs (they actually decide to work together on saving food for the entire summer).

Ben wanders off into the forest in anger after an argument with Gwen and he notices a shooting star. The star is actually the pod jettisoned at the start. It hones in on Ben (In later episodes, it shows that since the pod and the object inside are able to hone on all Plumbers, the pod actually sensed Max's DNA, but gets the wrong Tennyson) and he just barely jumps out of the way before it hits the ground. He fell into the crater it created. The pod opens to reveal a watch-like object; the Omnitrix. It latches itself onto Ben's wrist, scaring him. After several failed attempts to get it off, the faceplate pops up and shows the silhouette of an alien. Thinking this is cool, he pushes the faceplate back down, and transforms into Heatblast. He screams and runs around in a panic, terrified because he's "on fire", but realizes that he isn't getting hurt, and decides to test his power out, launching several fireballs at the trees and ends up starting a forest fire.

Gwen and Max notice the fire, and both Gwen and Max grab a fire extinguisher and rush to try and put it out, only for Gwen to find Heatblast attempting to stomp out the fire (only making it worse). Gwen is terrified at his appearance and, just as he is trying to reason with her, whacks him with the fire extinguisher, sprays him with it, and tells him to stay down. Heatblast retaliates by lighting her shoe on fire (getting a cheap laugh in the process while Gwen puts it out), and convinces her who he is after insulting her. Gwen asks what happened, and Heatblast tells the whole story in a matter of seconds, finishing just as Max appears. They reveal what happened to Ben, and Heatblast is just about to tell the whole story to Max again, but Gwen interrupts and reminds them of the forest fire. Max tells Heatblast to start a new fire and let it burn into the old one in order to put them both out; it works, but most of the forest is destroyed just as the Park Rangers show up.



Back on Vilgax's ship, he is fairly torn up, on life support in a large tank with his legs and left arm missing. He sends two drones to retrieve the Omnitrix. Meanwhile, Heatblast explains his story to Max. Gwen asks Max if he thinks Ben will stay a "monster", but then Max says he is an alien with a grim expression on his face. This gives weird looks from Heatblast and Gwen. Then beeping sounds and Heatblast goes back to Ben. Max says Ben should not mess around with the Omnitrix and he goes to investigate the spot of the crash.

Ben decides to try the Omnitrix again. Gwen watches as Ben turns into Wildmutt, and Wildmutt discovers his sense of smell by dodging her. Wildmutt goes into the woods having fun. Then his sense of smell detects 2 drones and he jumps, almost hit with a laser. One of the drones chases Wildmutt until Wildmutt bites the drone. Wildmutt defeats the first drone, but then the Omnitrix times out and Ben appears. He is knocked to the ground and is getting targeted with the laser from the second drone.

Gwen appears and hits the second drone with a spade repeatedly, destroying it. Then Vilgax learns about the

destruction of the drones and sends a bigger one to Earth. It lands where Ben found the Omnitrix, destroying the pod. Max comes later and thinks he has a bad feeling about it. Max lectures Ben back at the RV. The radio then talks about an attack of some sort. Ben realizes it must be a drone. Ben, Max, and Gwen go near the campsite. Ben turns into Diamondhead. Diamondhead fights the drone while Max and Gwen evacuate the area.

Diamondhead learns he could reflect the blast and reflects it, destroying the drone. Vilgax learns of the destruction of the drone and says that the Omnitrix user is a worthy adversary.

It is morning and Max and Gwen are packing. They wonder where Ben is and he comes as XLR8, saying he had to take care of something. Cash and JT are shown with a wedgie on a tree wondering how it happened.

Major Events

 * Ben goes on a summer trip with his cousin Gwen and Grandpa Max.
 * The Omnitrix was sent to Earth and locks on Ben's wrist.
 * Vilgax hunts down Ben and the gang to take the Omnitrix.
 * Ben first transforms into Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead, and XLR8.
 * Vilgax is injured during a battle with Xylene and is forced to have his body restored during his quest for the Omnitrix.

Debuts

 * Ben
 * Gwen
 * Grandpa Max
 * Vilgax
 * Vilgax's Drones
 * Cash
 * JT

Omnitrix Alien Debuts

 * Heatblast
 * Wildmutt
 * Diamondhead
 * XLR8

Characters

 * Ben
 * Gwen
 * Grandpa Max
 * Cash
 * JT
 * Ben's Teacher
 * Jamie

Villains

 * Vilgax
 * Vilgax's Drones

Aliens used

 * Heatblast (first appearence)
 * Wildmutt (first appearence)
 * Diamondhead (first appearence)
 * XLR8 (first appearence)

Trivia

 * When Cash is bullying a boy, he has a cash register picture on his t-shirt.
 * The trio's first stop is Yosemite.
 * The episode title is a reference to the detective fiction novel, And Then There Were None written by Agatha Christie.
 * The space battle at the beginning of the episode is a reference to the opening scene to Star Wars Episode IV.
 * Gwen called Ben "Tennyson", but since she has the same last name, she was just insulting her own family.
 * Since Ben had not used them before, the transformation sequences for Diamondhead and Heatblast were slightly different.
 * It appears that the Omnitrix has a certain time limit as to how long Ben can stay as an alien. This was revealed to be approximately 10 minutes in Ben 10: Race Against Time.
 * Heatblast was Ben's first ever transformation.
 * Grandpa Max immediately recognizes Heatblast as an alien. He then tries to cover up his knowledge by saying that it's obvious. This was the first of several references to his knowledge about aliens that led to his secret being revealed in Truth.
 * In some scenes, the Omnitrix has two pop up buttons, instead of one.