The Big Tick

The Big Tick is the fifteenth episode of Ben 10.

Plot
At Yellowstone National Park, Grandpa Max has just finished setting up the RV. Both he and Gwen are happy to be there. Ben, on the other hand, would rather be somewhere else. Still not happy with Max's idea of dinner, he is trying to turn into XLR8 so he can get a burger. Gwen opts to help once Max eats a worm he finds under a log. Instead of turning into a recognizeable alien, the Omnitrix transforms Ben into an entirely new form: Cannonbolt. Cannonbolt is a rather clumsy alien and struggles to move and to stay upright at the same time. As Cannonbolt tries to figure out what he can do, a meteor flies overhead and crashes a short distance away. Cannonbolt turns in the direction of the crash and falls over again, but this time ends up covered in a hard shell and begins rolling towards the crash site.

At the crash site, the meteor begins to crack apart as the three arrive. It breaks apart to reveal a large, reddish, tick-like alien within. A ship arrives shortly after and three aliens exit the ship riding platforms that fly through the use of an energy ball positioned directly below them. The first is a tall, pale-skinned alien with six tentacle-like feet. The second is shorter with six arms and yellow skin. He can apparently hear and understand what the giant tick is saying, though it never makes any noise resembling speech. The final alien is of medium height, has four eyestalks, and carries a large ax. The aliens are worshippers of the giant tick, referring to it as "the Great One" and claim that it's here to destroy the planet. They also identify Cannonbolt as an Arburian Pelarota, whose home planet has already been destroyed about a week ago. Apparently, the Great One will devour the planet from the inside out, destroying it. As the Great One begins the process of devouring the planet, Cannonbolt tries to attack them, but the ax wielding worshipper merely bats him away and into the nearby forest. Max and Gwen chase after him.

In the forest, Cannonbolt bounces off of various objects before coming to a stop and reverting to Ben. By this point, the Great One has poisoned much of Yellowstone, converting the landscape into a decayed wasteland with gray tentacles sticking out of the ground. The tentacles attack the trio and attempt to drag them underground. Luckily, Ben is able to transform into Stinkfly and rescue Max and Gwen. He then flies off with them.

As he flies them over the park, they pass by the Old Faithful geyser, which now resembles a giant zit that is about to burst. At the same time, the yellow worshipper tells his friends that the Great One would like them to witness his power, which happens to be the geyser. They meet Stinkfly along the way, this time unsure of what he is. Stinkfly drops Max and Gwen off so he can fight the worshippers. He plugs the geyser as he intercepts them, which they aren’t happy about. He does well at first, dodging their attacks easily and managing to make them lose track of him. Unfortunately, when he tries to attack them from above, he reverts to Ben in mid-flight. Luckily, he lands on the yellow worshipper’s platform, knocking him off of it. The yellow worshipper survives the fall, landing on the softened ground below. Ben then tries to fly the platform and begins a chase with the other two worshippers, eventually causing them to crash into Old Faithful.

With the worshippers out of commission, Ben turns his attention to the Great One, which has grown substantially in the short time since it began its feeding. One after another, Ben uses Four Arms, Heatblast, Wildmutt, XLR8, Diamondhead, Ghostfreak, Upgrade and Ripjaws to defeat it, all failing. The three are at the whim of the worshippers when they return. Tossing sponges to them, the tall worshipper orders them to clean the Great One, claiming it must be cleaned before the planet is destroyed. Ben would rather not, but Max tells him and Gwen to play along for now.

As the three clean the Great One, it begins to shed, revealing a yellow shell underneath its reddish exterior. Several large, purple pores also push their way out of the shell, spitting acid at random intervals. The falling pieces of shell almost crush Ben, Gwen and Max. With no options left, Gwen tells Ben to use Cannonbolt. Ben doesn’t want to, since Cannonbolt seems useless and he isn’t sure if he can use Cannonbolt again. However, with nothing left to do, Ben tries anyway.

Upon seeing Cannonbolt again, the worshippers attack him. Cannonbolt is able to avoid them by rolling away. As they fire on him, several of the worshippers hit the Great One. Their attacks bounce off of its shell, giving Max the idea to use the shell pieces as shields. The shell pieces work well, blocking the lasers and the acid releases from the Great One, but they are eventually trapped in a pit made by the acid. Just before they are finished off by the worshippers, Cannonbolt jumps in to save them, causing the worshippers’ attacks to bounce harmlessly off of his shell. Noticing this, Cannonbolt uses it to his advantage, bouncing their attacks back at them and knocking them out.

With the worshippers once again out of the picture, Cannonbolt turns on the Great One. His attacks are ineffective, but the pores on the Great One allow him to attack it from the inside. Once inside it, he bounces around its body, destroying it's organs. It then dies in an explosion of purple slime.

Seeing that which they worship destroyed, the worshippers turn to Cannonbolt for a new thing to worship. Gwen comments on their loyalty. Cannonbolt then reverts to Ben. The worshippers would rather not place their faith in a human, so they depart. Shortly after they leave, the landscape returns to its normal state, though why it does so is unknown. After all the excitement, Ben finally thinks that some time outdoors will be good for him, especially since there’s no mess to clean up. Unfortunately for him, Grandpa Max’s RV is still covered in the Great One's slime and he’s stuck cleaning it up.

Major Events

 * Ben unlocks Cannonbolt.
 * Ben unlocks an alien for the first time.

Omnitrix alien debuts

 * Cannonbolt (first appearance)

Characters

 * Ben Tennyson
 * Gwen Tennyson
 * Max Tennyson

Villains

 * The Great One
 * ‎Enforcer Alien
 * ‎Interpreter Alien
 * ‎Leader Alien

Aliens Used

 * Cannonbolt (first appearance) (2x, first time was accidental transformation; selected alien was XLR8)
 * Stinkfly
 * Four Arms
 * Heatblast
 * Wildmutt
 * XLR8
 * Diamondhead
 * Ghostfreak
 * Upgrade
 * Ripjaws

Errors

 * When Ben jumped on the Interpreter alien's hoverboard and knocked him into The Great One, it never showed any physical damage, seeming as he just phased through it.

Trivia

 * The trio's fifthteenth stop is Yellowstone park.
 * All the hand positions Cannonbolt used were Peter Parker's/Spider-Man's hand positions when he was trying to find out how to shoot webs in the first Spider-Man movie.
 * All aliens were used expect Grey Matter.