Store 23

Store 23 is the third episode of the third season of Ben 10: Omniverse, and the twenty-third episode overall.
==Synopsis==
While out looking for the elusive 23rd Mr. Smoothy's store with Blukic and Driba, Ben meets an alternate version of himself.
==Plot==
In Undertown, Eatle (who transforms back into Ben), Max, and Liam are blasted out of a building. Liam flees with a cart of stolen Vaxasaurian eggs. Ben transforms into Feedback and runs after him, blasting him and knocking him away from the cart. K8-E starts filming Feedback, so he poses. Liam shoots Feedback, but Feedback redirects the blast. Max arrives and asks what he's doing, and Feedback says that he's posing for a video. Max is appalled as Feedback begins shooting over his shoulder at Liam. Max tells Feedback not to play with the villains, and he transforms back into Ben. Ben is then scolded by Max for not listening. Ben storms 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 Headquarters, Ben tells Blukic and Driba "It's time". The both of them drop what they're doing and join Ben in the search for the elusive 23rd Mr. Smoothy. 
Ben and the Galvans take the Tenn-Speed motorcycle. Driba says that the website says nothing about store 23, and that the store keeps disappearing and reappearing on the scanner. Max calls the Omnitrix, but Ben allows it to go on voice mail. The 23rd store appears and disappears, but Blukic saw where it was. They go there, but as they run in, it disappears, and they smack into the wall. Ben presses the wall, and it reappears, and he falls in. It disappears again. Inside, a cow alien and a chicken alien angrily exit the store, which is floating in a weird rainbow void that sucks them in. Blukic and Driba argue over what it was and then agree that it is an inter-dimensional aura. In the back, Ben sees Professor Hokestar fiddling with a machine. Ben is surprised that Hokestar opened a Mr. Smoothy that travels between dimensions. Hokestar says that the store will exist in every dimension when the generator works. Driba says that they are staying in one place while dimensions move around them. 
The generator dies and they go outside into what looks like Bellwood. Driba notes that there is an alien making trouble. It is revealed to be Tetrax and he demands Ben. Ben goes to talk to him, but Tetrax doesn't recognize him. Another, younger Ben named Ben 23 arrives, complete with fancy clothes, flying cameras, and cheering fans. Hokestar says that this dimension must closely resemble their own, displeasing the Galvans. Ben 23 transforms into Freeze Lizard, the Arctiguana of this dimension, and Freeze Lizard and Tetrax battle as the cameras advertise Mr. Gyro and Ben observes while being dumbfounded. Blukic and Driba confirm that all Mr. Smoothy's are now Mr. Gyros in this dimension. Ben worries that interfering will change history, but Blukic says that dimension travel is different from time travel. Freeze Lizard knocks Tetrax off a building, drops a tank on him, and reverts back into Ben 23. Ben tells Blukic and Driba to repair the generator, but Hokestar doesn't want to leave due to seeing a business opportunity until Ben explains that aliens don't seem welcomed in the Dimension 23 and urges them to keep a low profile. Ben joins the crowd that was surrounding Ben 23. Ben 23 advertises for Mr. Gyro when Tetrax breaks out of the tank. Ben transforms into XLR8 and runs at Tetrax, but Tetrax teleports away and Ben 23 questions if XLR8 has been sent by the Intellectuary. XLR8 tells him that he hasn't, slamming the Omnitrix as it times out and transforms back into Ben, commenting that he and Ben 23 might be related and shows him his Omnitrix. Both Bens are amazed at the possibility of meeting each other. At the same time, Tetrax teleports to the hideout of the Intellectually and informs him that there is a second Ben.
Then, Ben and Ben 23 go to Mr. Gyro, where Ben 23 is mobbed by fans. Ben 23 says that he is the richest and most famous person in the world and tells the clerk to load Ben up with Ben 23 merchandise and goes to sign autographs. Ben 23 tells Ben that there was a smoothie store there once, but he crushed it accidentally as Giant-Manster. They sit down and Ben tells Ben 23 that he actually has more than 70 aliens. Ben 23 claims that he has 90. Ben asks what happens if Vilgax attacks while Ben 23 is busy being famous, but Ben 23 has never heard of Vilgax. Hokestar offers Blukic and Driba shares in store 23, but Driba refuses, wanting to escape from Dimension 23. Blukic finishes his repairs, but they fail miserably. The reading on the meter is 23, causing Blukic to suspect a 23 conspiracy. A customer arrives, which causes the three to panic about what to do. Hokestar wants to seize the opportunity, but laments on how they are aliens. Ben 23 takes Ben to Tower 23 and shows him a promotional image of Alien 24, which Ben easily guesses is Feedback. Ben 23 takes a liking to Ben 10's name for his alien, deciding to use it instead of "Plug Man". Ben 23 says that when he gets a new alien, he retires one of his old ones. Ben listens to Max's message and Ben 23 says that he hasn't thought of Max in years.
Suddenly, a group of robbers speeds away from a nearby bank. Ben 23 ignores them and suggests that Ben show him his aliens in case he hasn't unlocked some of them, but Ben transforms into Shocksquatch and chases the crooks. Ben 23 says that they have cops for that, but Shocksquatch states that they can't let the crooks get away. Ben 23 tell Shocksquatch to wait for the cameras. Shocksquatch stops the car with a pole and electrocutes it in order to disable it. Ben 23 is impressed and Shocksquatch suggests calling the Plumbers to collect the robbers, only to be shocked to learn that this reality has no Plumbers on Earth. Ben shows Ben 23 some of his aliens through transforming into Murk Upchuck who Ben 23 calls Vomit Man; Spidermonkey, who Ben 23 calls Mr. Monkey; then Mole-Stache, who Ben 23 doesn't have; and Wildmutt, who Ben 23 calls Dawg-Nabbit. Wildmutt transforms back into Ben and Ben 23 says that they should do a reality show team-up, but Ben does not appear to be interested and he tells Ben 23 that his aliens aren't the only good ones, shocking Ben 23.
Suddenly, a rocket that was secretly launched by SevenSeven lands on the same area that both Bens are on. Luckily, Ben 23 transforms into Rollaway, his version of Cannonbolt, and uses his sphere form in order to save himself and Ben from the rocket. Then, Rollaway attacks SevenSeven, who dodges his attacks. They fight each other, but SevenSeven blasts Rollaway, which stops him. Ben transforms into XLR8 again and he runs at SevenSeven. SevenSeven programs a bomb and tries to fight XLR8, but XLR8 is too fast for him. XLR8 goes to Rollaway and instructs him to take SevenSeven down. Rollaway knocks SevenSeven into a building and reverts back into Ben 23. He discovers the fact that SevenSeven had secretly attached a bomb on his arm and XLR8 runs over to Ben 23. XLR8 quickly thinks all of the possible codes in order to disarm the bomb and he removes it from Ben 23's arm and places it in front of SevenSeven, which causes SevenSeven to retreat. The bomb detonates and XLR8 transforms back into Ben.
Before Ben 23 goes to eat at Mr. Gyro's with Ben as a token of gratitude for saving his life, SevenSeven emerges from the smoke and returns with Tetrax and the Intellectuary with him. Ben transforms into Heatblast, who Ben 23 refers as Charcoal Man while transforming into his version of Shocksquatch, Electricyeti. SevenSeven and Tetrax chase Heatblast and Electricyeti fights the Intellectuary. He leaps onto him and shocks him, disabling his suit and Azmuth is revealed to be inside. Electricyeti wonders where the cameras are, 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. As Heatblast fights SevenSeven, the cameras cover an alien attack at store 23 as police surround the store. Seeing the news, Heatblast melts the road, defeating and immobilizing Tetrax in tar. Heatblast flies to Electricyeti as they both transform back to Ben and Ben 23, where the former sees the latter removing Azmuth from the suit. Shouting the same words Max told him earlier, Ben stops Ben 23 before he rips Azmuth in half, revealing the small alien created his Omnitrix.
Azmuth recovers in Ben's hands and takes Ben 23's Omnitrix off his wrist and he says that it was meant for his grandfather, but it was too late due to the fact that Max had passed away. Azmuth forlornly assumes that the same scenario occurred in Ben's dimension upon noticing his Omnitrix, though Ben assures that his grandfather is still alive to provide counsel and prevent him from becoming like Ben 23. Ben 23 says that he misses Max and Ben tells Ben 23 that he almost just crossed a line and that what he did was wrong, telling him to be a hero instead of a mogul. Ben 23 asks how to tell the good ones from the bad ones and Tetrax and SevenSeven arrive and say that they only want to help, and Ben 23 apologizes to them. Azmuth says that they need to explore Ben's better use for the Omnitrix and gives the Hero Watch to him, who then gives it back to Ben 23.
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 Blukic and Driba that their attempts to fix Hokestar's machine was the equivalent of pressing the accelerator and brakes at the same time. The bumbling Galvan commend Azmuth, who states they are geniuses by Earth standards, but remarkably unintelligent for Galvan. Ben advises his counterpart to listen to Azmuth, as he's a good substitute 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 Ben just tells him to keep yelling at him, to which Max happily agrees.
==Noteworthy Events==
===Major Events===
*Ben teaches Ben 23 that not all aliens are evil.
*Ben 23 forms a team with Tetrax, SevenSeven, and Azmuth.
====Character Debuts====
*Cow Alien
*Chicken Alien
*Ben 23
*Tetrax Shard (Dimension 23)
*Azmuth (Dimension 23)
*SevenSeven (Dimension 23)
*Orange Offenders
====Hero Watch Alien Debuts====
*Freeze Lizard 
*Rollaway
*Electricyeti
===Minor Events===
*Ben is revealed to have more than 70 unlocked aliens by this point in the series.
==Characters==
===Main Characters===
*Ben Tennyson
*Ben 23 (first appearance)
===Supporting Characters===
*Max Tennyson
*Blukic
*Driba
*Blarney T. Hokestar
===Antagonists===
*Liam
*Tetrax Shard (Dimension 23) (first appearance)
*Azmuth (Dimension 23) (first appearance)
*SevenSeven (Dimension 23) (first appearance)
*Orange Offenders (first appearance)
===Other Characters===
*Pax (photo)
*Orange-Worst (cameo)
*Genghis Ken (cameo)
*K8-E
*Cow Alien (first appearance)
*Chicken Alien (first appearance)
==Aliens Used==
===By Ben===
*Eatle (off-screen activation; cameo)
*Feedback 
*XLR8 (x2)
*Shocksquatch
*Murk Upchuck (cameo)
*Spidermonkey (cameo)
*Mole-Stache (cameo)
*Wildmutt (cameo)
*Heatblast
===By Ben 23===
*Freeze Lizard (first appearance)
*Rollaway (first appearance)
*Electricyeti (first appearance)
==Quotes==
==Naming and Translations==
==Cast==
==Continuity==
*The existence of a 23rd Mr. Smoothy was foreshadowed in Blukic and Driba Go to Mr. Smoothy's.
==Allusions==
*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 Thomas Pugsley and Greg Klein, showrunners of the Original Series.
*After Ben 23 tells Ben Prime that he does not know who Vilgax is, a waiter comes, yelling "Who ordered the calamari", which is a reference to Vilgax's squid-like appearance.
*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.
*There is a billboard for 5ox News, which is a reference to Fox News.
*When Ben 23 remarks, "What could possibly go wrong? Nothing. Nothing could possibly go wrong," Ben, Blukic and Driba's reactions are a reference toward how Murphy's law has a habit of triggering upon similar sentences being uttered in their universe, and it being a running gag in the series.
S23 (107).png|Cow and Chicken reference
S23 (361).png|Ben 23: Secret of the Hero Watch
S23 (383).png|5ox News
==Errors==
*When the Chicken Alien faces the counter to order, there is an emblem on the rhombus where his two sashes meet. When he walks towards the door, the emblem disappears. It reappears while he and the Cow Alien are being sucked through the pinwheel aurora.
*When Ben Prime peers through the window to see Blarney T. Hokestar, his head is smaller than usual.
*When Ben Prime meets Tetrax, the Omnitrix's core pops up on its own and the faceplate faces the wrong way.
*In one shot, Ben 23's Omnitrix's dial faces the wrong way.
*The billboard for the Secret of the Hero Watch movie features Ben 23 with the Omnitrix on his right wrist and without his hair shine.
*When Ben 23 recognizes Spidermonkey as Mr. Monkey, the closed captions on the Ben 10 Omniverse: Aliens at War DVD call him Mr. Mucky.
*After the bomb detonates, Ben Prime's wrists are layered above his arms.
*In one shot, Electricyeti's crest is incorrectly colored blue instead yellow.
S23 (109).png|Back error
S23 (120).png|Size error
S23 (156).png|Omnitrix faceplate error
S23 (246).png|Omnitrix dial error
S23 (361).png|Omnitrix error/Missing shine
OV AAW DVD Mr. Monkey Error.png|Incorrect closed captions on the Ben 10 Omniverse: Aliens At War DVD
S23 (463).png|Layering error
S23 (509).png|Crest color error
==Trivia==
*It is revealed that Ben 23's version of Max died before he got his Omnitrix.
*Max mentions that Ben is almost 17 years old. Despite this, he would remain 16 for the rest of the series.
*When Ben said his best friend is an alien, he was referring to Rook.
**Ben considers both Rook and Kevin his best friend.
*At one point in this episode's production, the Dimension 23 counterpart of Kevin would have appeared or been name-dropped, working as a busboy in Mr. Gyro, where his last name would've been pronounced as "Leveen" instead of "Levin". 
**This was intended to showcase how Dimension 23 is like the Prime Timeline, but just a little different.
**Matt Wayne and Derrick J. Wyatt recall this aspect of the episode being cut for time.
==References==
===Crew Statements===
====Matt Wayne====
====Derrick J. Wyatt====
===Cartoon Network===
===Audio Commentary===
es:Tienda 23
it:Negozio 23
pl:Bar 23
pt-br:Loja 23
ro:Localul 23
ru:Неуловимый Магазин №23
tr:Mağaza 23
Category:Episodes
Category:Ben 10: Omniverse Episodes
Category:Ben 10: Omniverse Season 3 Episodes
Category:Episodes Aired Out of Production Order
Category:Episodes Written by Matt Wayne
Category:Episodes Directed by Jae Hong Kim
Category:Featured Articles