Chapter 8: Risen

Chapter 8: Risen
Release Date	August 11th, 2023 (Recalibrated) August 29th, 2019 (Archaic)
Read Chapter	Chapter 8
Details
Volume	3
Chapter Number	8
Number of Pages	55
Credits
Drawn by	Kuro the Artist O.R.Ash
Designs by	Kuro the Artist O.R.Ash
Chapter Guide
Previous Chapter	Chapter 7: Fold
Next Chapter	Chapter 9: Time Out

"I'm too late..."

―Cooper

Chapter 8: Risen is the eighth chapter of 5 Years Later. It is the first Chapter to contain fully-digital illustrations, and spent nearly a year in production.

Plot Summary

The Alternative Ben Tennysons rage war against The Heroes under Technus' control, keeping them busy. Eon and Dr. Animo proceed to activate The Godmaker. Eon makes sure his signature purple scarf is kept safe. The machine activates.

Meanwhile, back in Ben's Dimension, Cooper has managed to restore the corrupted files that GIR has stolen from Chapter 3. Before he can make any more progress, Skulker appears and incapacitates Cooper with a technopathic dampening device.

The Orion Squad grows impatient waiting for new orders, leading for an investigating Crawnch to find Cooper in a trance in the Plumber's Main Lobby. The Squad join Crawnch in a successful battle against Skulker.

The Squad touch base with Blukic and Driba, who have been procrastinating with Phil in the completion of the Ghost Portal, as they have been unable to tap into The Ghost Zone. Cooper finishes the portal, but it still needs a destination, prompting Lula to have Eve open a dimensional breach similar to what Gwendolyn did. After rigging together some “borrowed” magical runes, they manage to open a breach to wherever The Heroes and The Alliance have last teleported to. However, they are caught by a surprise attack by Ember, a ghostly Succubus and lover of Skulker. Eve, Chirp, and Phil agree to stay behind as Cooper, Lula, Crawnch, and GoTro leave to update The Heroes on the information they have found.

When they arrive at The Keshawn Desert, their ship is immediately struck by a solar flare emitting from the activated Godmaker. The Specter Speeder is destroyed, but the arriving avengers are saved by Danny, who releases them on a nearby patch of land and protects them with a shield. 

Cooper explains to Danny that Eon’s Machine is a perfected Ultimatrix, and will use the tower to evolve himself to bend reality without limits. They are soon attacked by Speed Demon, but are saved by Ben using Rath, who warns them that they should leave for their own safety. 

Danny joins The Heroes in battle, Cooper sets out to disable The Godmaker, and The Orion Squad are tasked with taking out Technus. 

As Danny and Vlad continue to push each other to their limits, Ben, Gwendolyn, and Kevin find themselves faced with Planet Buster; a large fusion of some of Ben’s most hazardous transformations. Ben has no choice but to activate the Powerhouse Playlist, beginning with his tenth most powerful alien, Atomix. Atomix one-shots a mountain of gravatized-minerals thrown his way by Planet Buster, and proceeds to vaporize half of his face, and flies him into the outer atmosphere to extinguish the flames. 

Meanwhile, Cooper has finally made his way to The Godmaker’s controls. Cooper finds his attempts futile, as The Godmaker has already been overloaded with energy, causing a massive explosion that can be seen from space.  

Cooper is left with severe burns and the loss of his arms, as he gazes upon a newly divine being… Ultimate Eon.

He has risen. 

Details

 Major Events

• Skulker, Ember, Phil Gacks, and Adonis make their debuts.
• Battle of the Keshawn Desert
  • The Orion Squad arrive at the Keshawn Desert to help The Heroes after finding out that Eon plans to evolve himself into an Ultimate Chronian.
  • Ben activated the Powerhouse Playlist – his top ten strongest transformations.
  • Eon is successful in evolving himself.
  • Cooper loses both of his arms and is badly injured.

Characters 

Heroes

• Ben Tennyson
• Danny Fenton
• Gwendolyn Tennyson
• Kevin Levin
• Lula
• GoTro
• Eve
• Crawnch
• Chirp
• Cooper Daniels

Villains

• Skulker
• Ember
• Albedo (Flashback)
• Eon
• Vlad Masters
• Dr. Animo
• Technus
• Fallout Ben
• Jungle Ben
• Super Ben
• Ninja Ben
• Experiment 10

Minor

• Zed
• Blukic
• Driba
• Phil Gacks
• Azmuth (Flashback)
• Myaxx (Flashback)

Transformations

By Ben

• Humungousaur
• Rath (5 Years Later Debut)
• Statter (Debut)
• Hack N' Slash (Debut)
• Soap Reef (Debut)
• Atomix (5 Years Later Debut)

By Kevin

• Cannonbolt
• Koisen
• Soap Reef

By Fallout Ben

• Jump Kick
• Planet Buster

By Jungle Ben

• Smash Mouth 

By Super Ben

• Supersize 

By Ninja Ben

• Speed Demon 

By Experiment 10

• Whampire 
• Salamancer
• Big Chill
• Four Arms
• Ditto
• Shocksquatch

By Albedo

• Echo Echo (Flashback)
• Ultimate Echo Echo (Flashback)

Guardians

• Adonis (Debut)

Locations

• Zim's Dimension
  • Keshawn Desert

Mythology

• It is revealed that underneath Eon's left gauntlet is a malfunctioning Omnitrix. This was a theory many fans have speculated in the Ben 10 Franchise based on concepts rumored by the crew of Ben 10: Omniverse.
• Skulker and Ember's relationship is brought up again; a small subplot from the later episodes of Danny Phantom.
• GoTro is seen watching the Ben 10 Reboot at the start of this chapter, further demonstrating that the Reboot is a fictional show in the 5YL Universe.
• The Orion Squad's catchphrase “Let's Run This” is heard for the first time.
• Blukic and Driba are still building The Ghost Portal, which they began working on in Chapter 2. 
• The musical notes tattooed onto Ember’s right arm are the sheet music to the main guitar riff from her signature song ‘Remember’.
• The Specter Speeder from Chapter 1 is used again, and was shown to have been stored in Blukic and Driba’s lab since the Null Void incident. 
• When GoTro upgrades Skulker, they together resemble Skulkers original look in the Danny Phantom series. 
• Like Chapter 5, the Multiversal breach shows three Easter Eggs when the characters are traveling through.
• Flashbacks from Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 7 are shown. 
• Ben and Kevin’s childhood rivalry is briefly referenced.
• Ben’s Uniform Mode mask resembles his costume as Ultra Ben from the Ben 10 Classic series.
• The Omnitrix identifies Planet Buster as an Exponentially Variegated Organism, which is what the Generator Rex Universe also classifies nanite-induced mutations as. 
• The Code to activate the Powerhouse Playlist is 4317, which refers to Chapter 1’s original release date – April 3rd, 2017.

Errors 

• On page 2, the outline layer of Dr. Animo's helmet is turned off.

Trivia

• This Chapter now displays Information Hubs next to Ben’s transformations. 
• A large array of Easter Eggs are shown on GoTro's wall, from past Ink Tank projects to personal friends of Kuros.
• The page that references Ben 10 Reboot has different versions depending on where the chapter was posted, with the difference being the alien selected during the fight against Vilgax.
  • The Ink Tank Site: Ben uses Rath
  • Webtoon: Ben uses Shock Rock
  • Facebook: Ben uses Overflow
  • In the Archaic Version: Ben uses Heatblast

• In the adaptation that was released on YouTube, the selected alien is Slapback. Their different versions of the scene make reference to the DVD editions of the film Ben 10: The Secret of the Omnitrix.
• The panel showing Skulker's POV of the Orion Squad resembles the iconic shot of Loki looking upon The Avengers from the 2012 titular film.
• As another example of Ink Tank-related memes transcending into the official canon is a stuffed Garfield from the fan-parody “6 Years Later” shown on the upper shelf near Cooper's finished Ghost Portal.
• On Animo's desk, you can see a HUION KAMVAS Pro 12 with its own stylus, the very same tablet both Kuro and Ash use to draw.
• Phil Gacks, a character created to be Ryan Asher’s avatar in the series, joins the cast.
• The final page first fully depicting the Battle of the Keshawn Desert differs heavily from the promotional poster version of the scene, mainly removing any evidence of The Orion Squad, and the activation of The Godmaker.
• The three aliens that Ben uses when fighting alongside Kevin - Statter, Hack N' Slash, and Soap Reef, were created by fans of the 5 Years Later series and had won a special contest to have their aliens featured in this issue. These aliens were picked from over one thousand valid submissions, and were announced on August 22nd, 2019 during a live stream.
• The Ditto-Shocksquatch combo attack performed by Experiment 10 was based on a card called Chain Lightning from Kuro’s favorite video game, Minion Masters.
• Sponsored by FusionFall Retro, an Atomix and Timewalker Eon helmet became unlockable items in-game.
• The reason Eon didn't just transfer to a Ben with an Ultimatrix and evolve himself that way is because the evolution would only be temporarily, while also not curing his situation. While he would be stronger and probably last longer, his body would still slowly turn to dust when he used his powers.
• This Chapter contains two Art Shifts. All Plumber HQ scenes and selected pages in the Keshawn Desert were drawn traditionally, then converted digitally with Adobe Illustrator, making these pages look much cleaner than the previous Chapters. However, the opening scene, and all the remaining pages, were drawn digitally from scratch using a tablet. All pages will be drawn digitally from this chapter forward.