Store 23

Store 23 is the nineteenth episode of Ben 10: Omniverse.

Plot
Ben and Max are chasing Liam, who has stolen a cart full of eggs, through Undertown; even Ben is wondering if Liam knows he's doing something lame as this. Liam jumps, losing Max, but Ben is still in hot pursuit. Ben (after turning into Eatle) turns into Feedback, ready to fight, but gets distracted by a Kineceleran girl, who wants a video of Feedback. He poses, absorbs a laser blast with his antennae, and fires it back at Liam. Max tries to warn Ben not to use Feedback, as there are aliens vulnerable to him in the area, however, Feedback doesn't listen and fries Liam. Getting his video taken, Ben is scolded by Max for not listening. Ben walks off, complaining that he's been hearing Max lecture him since he was 10. This leaves Max to deal with Liam's arrest.

Back at Plumber HQ, Ben tells Blukic and Driba "It's time." The both of them drop what they're doing and join Ben on his Tenn-Speed motorcycle, searching for the elusive 23rd Mr. Smoothy. Driba's GPS finds and loses the location of the shop. Ben gets a message on the Omnitrix, but chooses to ignore it, instead asking for the coordinates that the shop keeps appearing at and quickly pulls up to see it vanish. Examining the wall of the building the shop was at, Ben assures the smoothie-loving Galvans that it will show up again soon. No sooner has he said that, that the shop appears and they all fall through the door as the shop vanishes again.

Inside the shop they see a cow alien and a chicken alien, waiting to be served, but they leave in a huff through the door into a light. Both Driba and Blukic realize what they saw was a pinwheel aurora. Ben hears mumbling complaints coming from the back room and finds Blarney T. Hokestar messing with a machine in back. Hokestar is happy to see Ben again, hoping that he will endorse his Mr. Smoothy. His store was supposed to exist everywhere at the same time; however, the machine is now busted and they may be stuck in an alternative dimension. They open the door to see a normal Bellwood, which is under an alien attack. They watch as Tetrax falls from an explosion, demanding that Ben shows himself. Ben does, but is questioned by Tetrax as to who he is.

At that very moment, Ben hears his own 11-year-old voice coming from above them and sees an alternate version of his younger self on a roof, with flying robot cameras around him. The cameras announce that if anyone can guess what alien "Ben 23" will turn into next, they will win something at Mr. Gyro's. Ben backs away and watches as his alternate self turns into Freezelizard, the Arctiguana of this dimension, and battles Tetrax. Ben wonders if he should get involved, as it could change history. However, Driba points out that this ISN'T time travel (as anyone would have figured out by now) and that they are simply in a different universe that is similar to their own. Ben tells Driba, Blukic, and Hokestar to stay inside the shop, as aliens are apparently not welcomed in this version of Bellwood.

Tetrax prepares to teleport away, making Ben yell that he will take care of it, turning into XLR8; however, he is too late. Ben 23 reverts to normal and wonders if XLR8 has been sent by the Intellectuary. XLR8 tells him that he hasn't, slamming the Omnitrix face plate and reverts to normal, and that they are kind of related. Both Bens are amazed at the possibility of meeting each other. At the same time, Tetrax informs the Intellectuary of Ben 10's arrival.

Ben 23 shows Ben 10 around town, explaining his wealth and fame. Unlike normal Ben, Ben 23 likes to eat at Mr. Gyro's, even advertising it during his fights: "It's Gyro time!" Ben is questioned by his dimensional counterpart about his moniker "Ben 10", wondering if that's how many aliens he can turn into; it's not; Ben can turn into around 70 different aliens. Ben 23 shows Ben a promotional image of Alien 24, which Ben easily guesses the identity of. Ben 23 takes a liking to Ben 10's name for his alien, deciding to use it instead of "Plugman". Ben shows Spidermonkey, Mole-Stache, Wildmutt, Upchuck, and other aliens to Ben 23, who has all but Mole-Stache unlocked and named under different names. Robbers then pull a heist, making Ben chase after them as Shocksquatch and he fries their car engine. Ben suggests calling the Plumbers to collect the robbers, and is shocked to learn that in this reality, there is no Plumbers base.

Tetrax returns with Sevenseven and the Intellectuary with him. Ben turns into Heatblast, while Ben 23 turns into his version of Shocksquatch, Electricyeti. Ben fights and manages to defeat Tetrax and Sevenseven without harming them badly. In the meantime, Ben 23 wonders why there aren't any cameras recording his fight, only to learn that everyone else has discovered that Driba, Blukic, and Professor Hokestar are hiding in the Mr. Smoothy building, and are prepared to launch an attack. Annoyed, he quickly fires the Intellectuary and discovers it's a robot piloted by Azmuth. He prepares to kill Azmuth by ripping him in half. However, Heatblast returns and reverts to Ben, who warns Ben 23 that he nearly crossed the line and that Azmuth is the one who created the Omnitrix.

Azmuth recovers and takes the Omnitrix off Ben 23, explaining that it was meant for Max Tennyson, but because Ben 23 had DNA close to his, it mistook him for Max. The same thing happened in Ben's universe; however, unlike in this dimension, Max didn't pass away. Ben explains to Azmuth that it's thanks to his Max that he probably didn't end up like Ben 23, who explains that he became absorbed in wealth and fame to fill the void left by Max's passing. Azmuth forgives Ben 23, citing that fame and money cannot replace what he lost. He then gives the Omnitrix to Ben 10, trusting his judgment who gives Ben 23 his Omnitrix back.

With that settled, the only thing left is to get rid of the angry mob outside Mr. Smoothy so Ben can get home with his friends. Ben 23 faces the crowd and explains that not all aliens are evil, vouching for Driba, Blukic, Hokestar, Azmuth, Tetrax, and Sevenseven. Now that the humans are no longer trying to kill them, Hokestar successfully sells smoothies until his supplies run out. Azmuth instructs the two dim-witted Galvans that they are geniuses by Earth standards, but "remarkably unintelligent for Galvans" as their attempts to fix Hokestar's machine was the equivalent of pressing the accelerator and brakes at the same time. Ben advises his dimensional counterpart to listen to Azmuth, as he's a good second for Max.

Ben, Hokestar, Blukic, and Driba return to their respective dimension, much to Hokestar's dismay of losing the opportunity for profit. Ben immediately runs to Max's shop. Max is still mad at Ben for running off after Liam's capture, but Ben hugs him. Max is confused, but happy when Ben asks him to keep yelling at him.

Major Events

 * Ben teaches Ben 23 that not all aliens are evil.
 * Ben 23 forms a team with Tetrax, Sevenseven, and Azmuth.

Omnitrix Alien Debuts

 * Murk Upchuck (Omniverse Debut)
 * Feedback (Debut by 16 year old Ben)

Characters

 * Ben Tennyson
 * Max Tennyson
 * Blukic
 * Driba
 * Blarney T. Hokestar
 * Ben Tennyson (Dimension 23) (first appearance)
 * Azmuth (Dimension 23) (first appearance)
 * Tetrax Shard (Dimension 23)  (first appearance)
 * Sevenseven (Dimension 23) (first appearance)
 * Cow Alien (first appearance)
 * Chicken Alien (first appearance)
 * K8-E

Villains

 * Liam
 * Orange Offenders (first appearance)

By Ben

 * Eatle (cameo; off-screen transformation)
 * Feedback (first appearance by 16 year old Ben)
 * XLR8 (x2)
 * Shocksquatch
 * Murk Upchuck (first re-appearance; cameo)
 * Spidermonkey (cameo)
 * Mole-Stache (cameo)
 * Wildmutt (cameo)
 * Heatblast

By Ben 23

 * Freezelizard (first appearance)
 * Rollaway (first appearance)
 * Electricyeti (first appearance)

Errors

 * In one scene Feedback had plugs on his hips, but in the next scene, they're gone.
 * While Ben 23 wears the Omnitrix on his left wrist (like the main timeline Ben), the billboard for the Secret of the Hero Watch movie featured the watch on his right wrist.
 * While Chicken Alien is facing the counter to order, there is an emblem on the rhombus where his two sashes meet. While he is walking towards the door, the emblem disappears. It reappears while he and the Cow Alien are being sucked through the pinwheel aurora.
 * In one scene, the blue for the hour glass symbol of Ben 23's Omnitrix slightly bleeds into the black around the dial.

Allusions

 * A poster advertising the movie "Ben 23: Secret of the Hero Watch" is seen in the episode. This is a parody of the original series movie Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix.
 * Also, the fact that Ben gets to know Azmuth is the creator of the Omnitrix, and Tetrax works along with him, appearance of Azmuth's suit and appearance of a Sotoraggian coincides with Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix along with the poster parody.
 * Characters based on Cow and Chicken from Cow and Chicken make a cameo appearance in Mr. Smoothy's 23rd store after Ben goes in and it hops dimensions. Charlie Adler, the characters' original voice actor reprises his roles for the appearance.
 * While searching for the 23rd Mr. Smoothy, Driba refers to Omnivoracious, as he says that the look for the Mr. Smoothy "Could be a wild Omnivoracious chase". This is a pun on the phrase "A wild goose chase".
 * The street names, Pugsley and Klein refer to writers, Tom Pugsley and Greg Klein.

Trivia

 * This episode chronologically takes place between Tummy Trouble and Vilgax Must Croak.