RECAP: Last time on Ben 10: Generations, Kenny and Pulu arrived at the plumber Academy. Upon their arrival, they met the Magister in charge of their training – Magister Splay. Was a very short chapter, so not much else happened. And in today's episode, their new training begins...

"DISMISSED!" Magister Splay's command was still echoing throughout the room as numerous cadets frantically raced around. Kenny and Pulu exchanged confused looks as the commotion continued around them.

"So, uh, where do we go for our placement exam?" Kenny asked, scratching his head.

Beside him, Pulu had pulled out his Plumber badge – a circular object, with a design that matched Kenny's Omnitrix. "My badge says that we need to head for our written exam first," he responded slowly.

Kenny's face went pale. "Wr-written exam?" he stammered. "I hate tests! Agh!" Glancing down at his wrist, he began to fiddle with the Omnitrix. Turning the dial in desperation, he was hoping to find a transformation that could help him with the test. "Do any of these guys look smart to you?"

"I don't think you'll be allowed to use one of your aliens for this, Kenny," Pulu responded, causing Kenny's face to drop (as well as causing him to mutter a few expletives). "For the physical parts though, I think you can use them," he added, attempting to reassure his companion. It was to no avail, however, as Kenny already looked completely deflated. With a sigh, Pulu grabbed him by the wrist, dragging him off in the direction of their first examination.

Kenny and Pulu were seated next to each other in a room filled with other cadets. The exam had yet to begin, and everyone in the room was a mixture of excited and/or terrified, with Kenny slotting perfectly into the latter category.

"I'm screwed! I'm SO screwed!" he shouted in panic. "I'm going to fail the test! And then they'll take away my badge! And kick me out of the Academy! And then my dad is going to take my Omnitrix!"

Beside him, Pulu was rolling his eyes. Why was his friend so panicked over a simple test? "Don't you remember what the Magister said? This stuff is made for people to fail it."

"Well then it's perfect for me," Kenny responded, his eyes cast downward. More specifically, his eyes were focused on his hands, where he was once again fiddling with the Omnitrix.

Pulu's eyes followed Kenny's, eyeing his friend's wristwatch. "Doesn't your dad have a Methanosian form? Did he give that one to you?" he asked curiously. Pulu, being a Methanosian himself, was very curious to hear the response.

"I don't think so," Kenny responded, continuing to dial through the holograms of his transformations. "To be honest, though, I'm not really sure what set of ten I have yet. I don't think I'll know until I've transformed into all of them."

**BANG**

Everyone in the room turned, wide-eyed, toward the sound. The door to the classroom had been slammed shut. Standing beside the now-closed door was a tall caucasian man, wearing the standard plumber outfit. The man was clearly well in shape – in fact, Kenny felt as though the man could rip him into two halves. As soon as he entered the room, the entire crowd of cadets had instantly hushed. While this man certainly did not seem as mean as Magister Splay, he definitely commanded the same respect.

"Sit down," the man commanded the cadets.

Without a single peep, the entire sea of first-day students took their seats, anticipating their written exam. Kenny and Pulu exchanged a nervous glance as the man began passing out the exams.

Once all of the materials had been passed out, the man took a seat at the front of the room. "You have two hours to complete this examination, and another hour after that before your physical examination begins. Good luck, cadets. You may begin."

A few hours had passed, and the Plumber cadets were now gathered around an arena, where the combatives portion of their exam would likely take place. Currently, the arena was a blank battlefield, however the Magister administering the exam stood beside a control unit, capable of transforming the battlefield into numerous different environments.

Before arriving here, all of the new recruits had completed their baseline physical tests – running speed, jumping ability, agility, etc.. Both Kenny and Pulu had done fairly well, scoring in the upper percentiles for recruits of their respective species. For Kenny, his biggest strength had been his reaction time coupled with his agility, which earned him numerous comparisons to his father. As for Pulu, he had aced all of the strength-based exercises.

"Are you ready, recruits?" The Magister questioned, preparing to being the combatives examination. "There are multiple arenas, just like this one. Each arena is led by another high ranking Plumber, who will control the arena the same way I will this one." He paused for a moment, giving the cadets a moment to process everything. "You will be called down to whichever arena your combat takes place in. Understood?" When no hands (or other appendages) were raised, he called out the first sets of partners. "In my arena, Hock Scalp and Ken Tennysonn will be up first."

Kenny looked around, attempting to figure out who this "Hock" was. Looking to Pulu for help, the plant-like alien simply shrugged. How would he know who this guy was? Without any warning, a blue light enveloped Kenny, causing the boy to let out a sound of surprise. Within moments, he had rematerialized down in the arena, face to face with his first opponent.

The alien facing him was a puke-green color, with short and stumpy legs. His mouth took up about half of his total size, with enormous teeth clearly showing. His eyes were placed upon the sides of his mouth, and he had small spikes sticking out above and below his mouth. As a whole, he seemed to resemble a walking pufferfish.

"A Sphoeroid," Kenny noted. "Dad's turned into one of those before. Not too often though, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect." Taking a deep breath, he looked down at his Omnitrix. This was about to be his first time fighting with one of his aliens, and he wasn't entirely sure what to expect. "Welp, here goes nothing!" he shouted, slamming his right hand down on the watch.

Within moments, Kenny was enveloped in a glowing flash of green light. As the light dissipated, Kenny was no longer in his normal human form. Instead, he appeared to have taken on the form of a canine. The canine's fur was a mix of gold and black, with the black fur being spikier than the golden fur. He had a long, slender tail that split into two about halfway through it's length. At the end of each part of the tail was a star that appeared to radiate with electricity.

"Woah!" the canine form shouted. "I don't think I've ever seen Dad use this alien… did he give me this form on purpose?" He shook the thoughts away, figuring he could determine a name for this alien later. "Doesn't matter – I've got a bigger fish to fry."

With a ferocious growl, Kenny (in his new alien form) let loose a powerful bolt of electricity, striking Hock dead on. With a pained screech, Hock shook off the attacks, firing back a stream of slimy acid. Almost instinctively, Kenny burrowed into the ground, evading the blow completely. His opponent began searching, wide-eyed, for where he would strike. Hearing a rumbling sound from beneath him, Hock's eyes followed the noise, the creature gulping nervously.

After what seemed like an eternity (to Hock, at least) Kenny erupted from the ground below, sending bits of the ground flying. More noticeably however, he sent Hock flying. The acid-breathed alien's arms flailed as he flew through the air. Regaining some of his composure, he turned his face toward the ground, and launched another stream of acid in an attempt to break his fall. Using this form's powerful hind legs, Kenny launched himself high into the air – above the flying Hock – before turning his sights downward. Letting loose another fierce growl, he fell will claws outstretched toward the falling alien. Unfortunately for the Sphoeroid, he hadn't been watching Kenny's movements, and was taken by surprise when the canine-like creature struck him from above. The blow sent Hock hurtling toward the ground, where he fell with a large crashing noise.

Nearby, Kenny landed neatly on all fours, before a flash of green enveloped him, and he had reverted back to his normal human form. "That was… incredible!" he exclaimed with a beaming smile. That had been Kenny's first time using the Omnitrix in combat, and there would be many more to come.

Meanwhile in another arena, Pulu was wrapping up his first round of the combat exam. The plant-like alien was staring down one that looked rather humanoid, with red fur covering his entire body.

With a smirk, Pulu extended both of his arms toward the other cadet, launching fire from both of his palms. Reacting quickly, the red-furred cadet nimbly dodged the flamethrowers, but was unable to get close enough to attack. While he looked quite panicked, panic was something that Pulu had never even considered throughout the match. With one hand, Pulu sent another flamethrower toward his opponent, this time expecting him to dodge. When the cadet dove out of the way, Pulu used his other hand to throw a fistful of seeds toward him. The moment the seeds hit the ground, large vines rose up, immobilizing his opponent.

After the first round of combat had been completed, all of the cadets had been gathered by the first arena, and were now taking this opportunity to discuss their results.

"I whooped his butt!" Pulu was in the middle of bragging when Kenny approached. Pulu was sitting on a bench that overlooked the arena, his feet kicked up on the railing. Beside him were multiple female cadets, all of whom he was attempting to impress.

"Wow! You're so strong!" One of them cheered, an infatuated look on her face.

"And handsome too," another cooed.

The other girls gathered around let out similar remarks, coupled with a few excited squeals and giggles. Already annoyed as he approached, Kenny shot Pulu a look. And if looks could kill, Pulu would have been a pile of compost. Not needing his friend to say anything, the Methanosian had received the message. Lowering his voice, he said something that Kenny couldn't quite here, but whatever it was had cleared the crowd.

"Why'd you have to be like that? They were all loving me!" Pulu complained.

"Because we aren't here for your love life, we're here to become full fledged Plumbers," Kenny retorted with an eye roll. "Speaking of, do you know what the next exam is?"

Pulling out his badge, Pulu brought up the examination itinerary. "It says here that we have the team combat test tomorrow. There's an option to request specific teammates, but at the end of the day, it's up to the Magisters that are running everything."

While the two were talking, Hock (the cadet that Kenny had beaten earlier) walked their way. "You know that tomorrow is more than just combat, right? It's an entire simulated mission!"

While Hock appeared nervous at that statement, it only roused further excitement within both Kenny and Pulu. Even though it was simulated, it would still be their first Plumber mission!

"What else do you know about tomorrow?" Kenny asked curiously.

"Rumor has it that half the cadets don't even make it through the whole mission, let alone earn good scores," Hock gulped.

"That's ridiculous! We're gonna crush it!" Pulu encouraged. Once again looking at his plumber badge, Pulu hardly seemed fazed by the prospects of the simulated mission. "There! I've put both of you down for my group for tomorrow's mission. I think we'll be with two others tomorrow, but we won't know until the time comes."

Back on Earth, a group of men were gathered around a table, the dark lighting making their figures indistinguishable. On the table was a vast collection of blueprints and other sorts of paperwork. At the head of the table, one man stood out among the rest, as he stood clad in a shiny suit of armor, the metallic sheen reflecting the little light that was present. While many of the men were actively in discussion, shooting whispers back and forth, they all quickly became hushed when the man in the armor spoke.

"What happened the other day was but a minor setback," the man spoke calmly and with authority. "Mr. Tennyson will soon learn that to stand in our way is futile. When Prime is complete, this entire planet will tremble at our might."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: There we have it! Our first real chapter since returning from our hiatus, and I think this one is pretty solid! Today, we were introduced to another of Kenny's transformations – and one not from the show itself. On top of that, we got to meet Hock. We will certainly be seeing more of him in the future!

And what about those guys in that last scene? Are they the same people that Ben ran into in Billions Tower? Who knows?

Next time: Kenny, Pulu, and Hock will attempt their simulated mission! What will it entail? And more importantly, will they be able to succeed? Only one way to find out, so tune in next time to see what happens!