Dr. Animo and the Mutant Ray

Dr. Animo and the Mutant Ray is the twenty-fifth episode of Ben 10.

Plot
Grandpa Max and Gwen come out from the RV. They seem to be at a local swamp in Florida. Max tells Gwen that Gator-fest is starting the next day and it'll be crowded with people. Gwen is disgusted by the environment and its appearance. She walks around the RV to find Ben fiddling with the Omnitrix with a screwdriver. Ben says that he needs to figure out how to unlock more secrets of the Omnitrix, although Gwen warns him about how dangerous it might be. Max tells him to promise not to tweak around with it again. As usual, he won’t listen and he pulls the face plate of the Omnitrix off, although its face starts to rotate in different directions and electrical sparks fly out. A blinding green light comes out of the Omnitrix.

Ben sits on the floor after the flash. He looks at the top of the Omnitrix, and the shape appears to be twisted. Max and Gwen head out of the RV and saw the flash. Ben hides it by saying that the flash came from lightning. His alibi was weak, as Gwen clarifies that there's not a cloud in the sky, though he continues to hide it. Max told them to forget about it and head to bed. However, the glowing green ground where the face plate of the Omnitrix landed on started to react strangely and tentacles spawn out of the swampy soil.

The next day, Ben heads out of the RV. He looks back inside through the window and around the RV. He stretches the gum he was chewing and rings it around the Omnitrix face plate, then replaces it to where it belongs, hoping that the device would be fixed up. Gwen suspects Ben’s actions, although Ben thought of an insult to cover up his doings. Before they argue more, they see the festivities of Gator-fest set up. They enter the festival, while a pair of huge eyes look out from the swamp water.

It had a lot to offer: from toys to games, food and refreshments, novelties and collectables, most of the things are alligator themed. A man picks out strange worms from his bucket and shows it to a friend. The worms had the appearance of Stinkfly, although they had no wings and they were worms.

People are gathered to see the hatching of newborn crocodiles and newborn alligators. The Tennysons decide to join in. The hatchlings come out of their shells and head into the water, and everyone cheers. Gwen seemed to have enjoyed the view. Suddenly, the three babies head out of the water and hide in nearby grass, which puzzles Ben. They were running from Dr. Animo's mutant frog. The mutant frog attacks the crowd with its tongue and they avoid it. However, it caused the Omnitrix to lose the face plate again. Ben didn’t seem to notice that it fell off. Right there, Animo was in front of him, this time, wearing giant metal arms that shoot lasers and red goggles. He tells Ben how its easy to track him with his aliens. He orders his mutant frog to attack Ben. Ben was able to avoid his attack, and he prepares the Omnitrix. Just as he pushes the face back down, he becomes Stink Arms, a mix of Four Arms and Stinkfly. The glitch must have been due to the face plate missing.

Stink Arms wasn't able to carry the weight of the mutant frog. He couldn't fly either due to his massive size. The only choice was to avoid the frog. The alligators and crocodiles notice Stink Arms and try to snap at him, thinking that he's something to be eaten. Stink Arms grabs a nearby novelty alligator and hit the mutant frog towards Animo, and Animo notices something on the ground. He finds that the Omnitrix’s face plate is able to mutate DNA, and the small crab shows him that when it transformed with Stinkfly’s eyes and wings. Instead of continuing the fight, he leaves with the face plate, and Ben notices that its gone.

At an abandoned observatory, Animo inserts the face of the Omnitrix into a giant device. It appeared to be something he was working with for quite some time. He tests it on a bat, and in a giant flash, he knows that his ray is functioning the way he designed it to.

The Tennysons ride down the swamp river. Ben wants Gwen to get the gloating that she was right over with. She says that she has no clue about what he's clamoring about to annoy him. A loud roar distracts them from behind. It appeared to be the bat Animo experimented with, and this time, it had the appearance of Heatblast, called Heatbat. Ben readies to transform into an alien hybrid, although Max seems that it isn’t a good idea at the moment. With no choice, Ben transforms into Diamond Matter, a hybrid of Diamondhead and Grey Matter. Heatbat grabs Diamond Matter and drops him into the water. And then a crocodile surfaces until Max tells Diamond Matter that something is behind him before a crocodile eats him, although he was able to get spat out, thanks to his Diamondhead ability to sharpen his body. Heatbat heads back to their boat, though Max was able to splash water into it. It flies away, and Diamond Matter thinks it must be heading back to Animo.

The Tennysons find themselves at the old observatory, and inside, they find the giant ray that Animo had built. Out of nowhere, the mutant frog jumps onto their boat, smashing it into pieces. Animo tells them that he'll put the Omnitrix’s faceplate's DNA to good use. He explains that he plans to create a new world filled with life mutated from the DNA of the Omnitrix, by pointing the ray’s signal into a nearby satellite, thus delivering it all over Earth. To experiment his hypothesis, he points the Transmodulator towards Ben. He inserts his giant hands into the device, and activates it. The flash of light heads towards Ben, but Max pushes him out, though he ends up to be the one to be mutated with Stinkfly’s DNA.

Animo seems to be satisfied of the result, though he follows the standards of scientific experimentation. He points at Ben again, and Ben was able to dodge the blast, though the giant frog and the Heatbat surrounds him. Again, Ben activates the Omnitrix, though he ends up as Heat Jaws, a hybrid of Heatblast and Ripjaws. The combination was the worst possible. He attempts to shoot fire at Animo, but fails. Animo shoots the ray at Heat Jaws, though, being an Omnitrix alien, it doesn’t affect him. Instead of modifying his DNA, Animo decides to end Heat Jaws's life instead. He orders his pets to get rid of him. Heat Jaws was able to bring Heatbat down into the water and the frog to let go of him, but is suffering with water.

Gwen runs up the stairs and Animo aims the ray at her. She was fast enough to get away from his attack, though Heatbat was able to survive, even when it was in the water for a time. It attacks her, though she finds a way to get into the ray machine. Luckily enough, the doorway was too small for Heatbat to enter. Heat Jaws continues to suffer, as the mutant frog comes out of the water to fight. The mutant frog was able to dodge Heat Jaws’s fire blast, but was taken down the second attempt, sending them both into water. Heat Jaws defeated the mutant frog and defeated Heatbat by shooting water at it.

Gwen tries to find the Omnitrix part, just as Animo was ready to activate the ray. Heat Jaws delays the activation, Animo attempts to do it again. This time, the ray doesn't turn on, and Gwen comes out to show him that she took back the Omnitrix face plate. Animo heads up to get it back, but Heat Jaws was able to take him down and knock him out.

Heat Jaws heads to mutant Max, and he's extremely disappointed how everything has turned out. Gwen finds that Heat Jaws has become smart for claiming his mistake since the beginning. She heads back into the ray and tells Heat Jaws to fire it up. It reversed the effect, and Max was back to normal, although he wonders why he has a craving for rotten eggs and sugar water. Gwen explained that she put the Omnitrix face in backwards, and hoped that it would reverse the mutation. Just as the Omnitrix was ready to deactivate, Heat Jaws tells Gwen to throw him the face. He places it on his Omnitrix symbol, and it bonded with the Omnitrix. Gwen and Ben head down the ray and Gwen shouts “I TOLD YOU SO!”, and Ben admitted that she was right all along.

In the RV, Gwen watches Animo being taken into custody by the police. Gwen thinks that Ben has learned his lesson, though he’s in the back and jokes around about rigging the Omnitrix so he can turn into alien combinations by choice as they leave the swamp.

Characters

 * Ben Tennyson
 * Gwen Tennyson
 * Max Tennyson
 * Larry (first appearance)
 * Unnamed Fisherman

Villains

 * Dr. Animo
 * Heatbat (first appearance)
 * Mutant Frog

Fusion Aliens Used

 * Stink Arms
 * Diamond Matter
 * Heat Jaws

Errors

 * Belts on life jackets are pictured in different ways.
 * In one scene, Max is not wearing a life jacket.
 * At the end of the episode, Ben suggested "XLR-Freak" (1/2 XLR8 1/2 Ghostfreak), although Ghostfreak escaped the Omnitrix in the previous episode.

Allusions

 * In the Filipino dub during the chase between the three and Heatbat, Ben said "Ano 'yan? Si Heatblast na naging si Batman?", translated into English it means "What is that? Heatblast that became Batman?". This is a reference to Batman.
 * Max's mutated form bears a striking resemblance to the gas-infected zombies from Junji Ito's horror manga serial, Gyo.

Trivia

 * Alan Albright look-alike.pngDr. Animo and the Mutant Ray is the only episode so far, where Ben uses fusion aliens.
 * Ben's transformation into Diamond Matter was the 100th transformation in the series.
 * At Gator-fest, one of the boys strongly resembles Alan Albright.
 * The online video game Ben 10 DNA Lab was based on this episode.