Ben 10: Apex Hero

(Right after the pilot chapter…)

Having said all of that, I guess I should be really thankful for the time skip, I mean, there's absolutely no need to experience what being born and raised in my early days really would be like. Especially with me still maintaining the mentality of a grown up, that certainly would have driven me mad sooner or later.

Well, allow me to introduce myself, my name is…

Wait…What was it again? Uh, Jeff? Hmmm…no, I think that's a bit too shady.

Okay, let's start again, I come from…from...somewhere in…around…hmmm.

San Francisco? No. Florida?! I don't think so. Virginia? Err…Japan, Russia, United Kingdom?… hell, for all I know I could very well be from somewhere in Africa, albeit I highly doubt that was the case.

You see, somehow I know that I'm not the biggest fan of the heat, I recall enjoying living more in colder climates.

So…Where did I live anyways? I know there are differences between continents and countries, however that doesn't help me at all to solve this mystery.

This is not getting me anywhere. How old was I anyway?

I sort of remember being old enough to attend college, and that I spoke at least a couple of languages beyond the one I grew up with, so probably from a well-off background…but… for some reason, the smart-pants in me don't think English was even my first language to begin with.

Wait, I've been here talking all day long about this cartoon that I really care for (pilot chapter), even specifically recalling having a friend who also enjoyed it, but I couldn't for the life of me remember his name or even his face.

Wow, quite the friend I must've been.

Wait, come to think of it, neither could I remember the faces and names of the people I cared for. Family, friends, girlfriend…whenever I tried to think about them it was all a giant blur in my head.

I mean, don't get me wrong, just knowing I had a girlfriend and family that I used to care for was awesome and all, but it also kind of left me bummed about not remembering who they really were.

It was a weird sensation. Scratch that, the weirdest thing was that I didn't even feel all that bad about it, no tears were shed or anything of the sort. Just a weird sense of disorientation that I just wasn't able to put a finger on, something like barely remembering a dream you just had and each effort you put on recalling anything just made it even harder to even grasp its concept.

Perhaps that's what people usually described as selective amnesia. Or maybe not. It's not as if I really cared, I just knew it wasn't right.

My current best guess was that whatever brought me here wanted me to use my memories about this fictional world without having any distractions from my previous life. And for some reason I just came to accept it, only hoping that when everything was set and done, with my mysterious purpose completed, my memories would eventually come back to me.

Or I don't know, meet those same important people in the afterlife or anything of the sorts. That's something regular people should hope for, right? Right.

Having said that, I might not remember barely anything about myself, but what little I did know was that being reborn as Ben Tennyson was supposed to be a dream come true to me. And it definitely still was. Which should prove that my personality has been somewhat preserved, if not really dulled down so as not to panic once the realization of receiving a new opportunity in life was given to me.

Anyway… after my brief existential crisis solved itself, I decided to endure my days of living as a young toddler named Benjamin Kirby Tennyson and wait until some form of omnipotent being presented itself, just to begin ordering me to do all of his or her bidding.

But…believe it or not…no one actually came. At least not that I've managed to notice anyway.

Are you shitting me?! Come on! What's the catch? I know there must be one.

Am I supposed to believe that I just got presented with the opportunity of reincarnating as one of the most powerful fictional characters in existence (you are in denial if you really don't think that) without having any semblance of rules to abide by. Just like that?

Was it perhaps all just some cosmic fluke?

…

Okay. Right. Don't mind me if I live my life to its fullest while also taking great liberties with the reality I've been inserted into.

I mean, sure, no random omnipotent being will catch me lacking by simply changing a couple of things just to make their piece of entertainment more interesting, but if this really is just a bit similar to the original cartoon or even my own, then I certainly will go to town with it.

And so, after coping with the fact that there weren't any rules, I finally began to enjoy the ride and ventured into my ten-years journey before that fateful summer trip with my retired MIB-like Grandfather and magical-DNA Cousin.

Incidentally, It actually took some time before I met Maxwell Tennyson in person, all thanks to my father and him not being as close as both of them might've desired, proven by how I've managed to interact with Gwen Tennyson much earlier in my life, which shouldn't be all that surprising since she and I shared a birthday and all.

Having survived the boredom that were my toddler days, I didn't have much to do beyond going through everything I knew about the Ben 10 universe. Or should I say, Omniverse.

From timeline to lore, and even listing every piece of trivia I had once learned, be it retconned or not further ahead on the timeline. The problem I found recalling everything was all those same countless headcanons and inconsistencies that plagued the franchise.

Wanna hear an example that just dawned on me and almost made me curse out loud? I mean, my body couldn't talk properly yet, but you got the idea.

During one of our family reunions, I was greeted by the image of none other than my new cousin, Lucy Mann. Alongside the freaking Lenopan bride I wasn't supposed to meet until the summer vacation that would present me with the ultimate device for understanding all the beings of the universe.

Which means that not only did the Big Fat Alien Wedding already happen, but that more stuff could have already happened as well. I mean, Verdona herself might as well be on her way as well to pay a visit, who knows?

Time like this makes me hate being a kid. I couldn't just ask everyone about it and finally get most of this drama over with.

Was I even supposed to be Ben Tennyson Prime? If so, will Ben Ten Thousand be a reflection of me? Will he be waiting for me with a sample of Alien X ready for me to copy into my own Omnitrix?

Or, God forbids, have I reincarnated into the reboot? Man, I'm so screwed if that's the case, I literally never watched a single episode of that series. Well, at least all this desperation shows me that I'm not completely devoid of emotions, not when it has to do with this present life of mine.

Paying closer attention to my surroundings, as my sight eventually allowed me to do so, I noticed that the world wasn't as cartoonish as I had feared. Not that it should matter in the end, it's not as if a cartoon character would even notice its reality being unrealistic, but I was counting every positive point as a major win for me.

From my parents' talks and the boring day to day that my life occasionally fell into, this world resembled the real one, with news on tv and radio pointing towards similar geography to my previous life.

However, as a kid that still enjoyed its time watching TV, I noticed that I couldn't recognize anything that was being broadcasted, barely any recognizable names safe for historical figures, events and the unexpected reference that I'm sure the creators of the show must've found really amusing.

Indeed a very confusing parallel world to say the least. But c'mon, you gotta love the potential for plagiarism from my own world! It was a common trope for a very good reason!

On a second note, another thing I managed to notice was that the quality of entertainment here was very low. At least for my own standards, which I had always considered to be very average to begin with.

For the life of me, I never understood what Ben liked about Sumo Slammers, always took it as a generic and lame fictional property not that different from Kangaroo Commando, or what the 'Super Alien Hero Buddy Adventures' show would've been if I wasn't so adamant about preventing it from even existing.

Sure, I kind of get it that our standards are highly dependent upon our environment, but that still gives me plenty of ideas for the future.

Regardless, besides spending my time recollecting everything I remembered from watching Ben 10, I had another passion project that was even more important that it succeeded.

I invested most of my remaining time meditating, seeking to find a trace of the energy that I knew resided within me. I searched for the source of power that I supposedly inherited from my Alien Grandmother.

An unexpected result from pursuing that endeavor was that both my parents, Sandra and Carl, were very thankful that I was a calm baby, one that only called for their attention when it was both strictly necessary and during the most opportune time for them to respond.

Sure, they were a little surprised with how quick I learned how to speak, but I did end up nerfing some of my other feats like reading and writing so as not to appear too suspicious. Besides, not only was I their firstborn son, but parents sure like to brag to their relatives and friends about how special their own child was.

Come to think of it, it must have somehow trickled its way down to Gwen and how much expectations she must've been burdened with.

In any event, after an entire year, ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to say that I finally felt something just after starting to take my first steps.

No, I assure you that it wasn't a false alarm like flatulence or the need to use the bathroom. And yes, I also thought it was rather strange that it took me that little of time while prime Ben almost went his entire life without showing any signs of it.

My working theory at the moment was that the fusion between my soul and the remnants of the being that inhabited this body before me somehow increased my perception of auras. That or it just unlocked the "Anodite Spark" that this body got from Verdona.

Whatever it was, Mount Tai was within my sights.

At first I would describe feeling it as a warm misty aura that flowed through my body, but with enough time and a ridiculous amount of patience, I could finally grasp its nature. Despite having my eyes closed, I could see its greenish color, which was still faint, mind you, probably due to my age. But after having had my fair share of Cultivation novels, I immediately set myself to correct it.

Burning through the days of my second year of being alive for a second time, completely focused on exerting some influence over this source of power, while also doing my very best to open whatever metaphysical barriers I had in order to absorb the exterior energy into it. But after careful consideration, I immediately refrained from continuing on that second goal once I recalled the risks there were in Naruto from absorbing natural energy. Not sure if that was just a dumb comparison, but I sure as hell wasn't willing to risk it without some sort of assurance.

Now, back to my initial goal, first my aura seemed to completely ignore my attempts to interact with it, almost like a mist ignoring a physical hand passing through it. But with time, I could feel my subtle push and pull slightly affecting the course of its flow, as if fanning smoke. And by channeling it towards parts of my body, I notice it sort of enhancing them to minuscule yet still noticeable results.

Standing up and walking suddenly became much easier as my sense of equilibrium granted me balance and my legs became more capable of sustaining my weight for longer periods of time. Taking advantage of that, while admittedly getting a bit carried away with all of it, I pushed myself to find what my limits were when walking, catching myself actually running sometimes, mostly to improve my physical strength and stamina.

Oh, and weirdly enough, a bit of flexibility went a long way to scratch that itch from time to time. Hmm… did that sound weird to you? Whatever.

I also noticed my senses and precision increasing ever so slightly whenever I channeled my aura purposefully. Better sight, hearing and smell, as well as better motor coordination ahead of what it was expected even for kids older than me. And as my control increased through the months of practice, I was still unable to make the energy leave my body to perform unnatural feats. Whenever I tried to expel it from within me and make use of it, I felt it immediately evaporating into nothing as the environment immediately diluted it down into nothing.

Something like body heat on a cold night, I assumed.

After countless tries, by my third year I concluded that it had to become more dense if I wanted to have it resist being altered by the environment long enough to be of any use to me. My aura had naturally grown more dense since the time I first took notice of it and had continuously practiced with it, but I wanted to strengthen it faster.

Since I wasn't willing to start absorbing life energy from the environment and risk turning to stone or anything bad like that, my solution to the problem was to start compressing the shit out of it. At first, that was much easier said than done, since I had only channeled it with metaphorical puffs up to that point. Restraining and compressing my aura felt like trying to hold my breath underwater after running a full marathon.

It clearly wasn't meant to be used like that, after all, Anodites were a free-spirited race that absorbed mana from the environment continuously and without care. I wanted to have better results without relying on sheer luck. Sure, by all means luck was more than decisive in basically everything that had to do with such an uncharted terrain such as this one, but I needed to play it smart.

Well, perhaps I just really wanted to claim later on that I accomplished it by myself.

Don't get me wrong, it was all a massive gamble after all, treating Anodite physiology as if it was a regular magical/cultivation system. The consequences could be catastrophic even if I kept doing the same thing nonstop, but I still relied too much on it to prepare myself in case this wasn't the original universe of the series I knew.

Having magic was only one of contingencies that I wanted to have at my disposal, but still, I would be damned if I let this opportunity slip away.

Combat training and hacking skills were no doubt fine goals for me to have, but in the worst case scenario where I never have the chance to get my hands on the Omnitrix, being just a human would only carry me so far.

In the end, after all that unnecessary conjecture, I believe that I've finally found a winning strategy.

Instead of compressing my aura for longer periods of time and having me blackout my ass out due to sheer exhaustion, I took a different approach. By treating my aura as my breath, rapidly compressing and releasing its flow, I noticed its density naturally growing faster than before without feeling like shit and fainting.

Granted, it was at a much slower pace than it would've been had I decided to risk absorbing my surroundings. But on a positive note, that also allowed me to practice my manipulation of energy without having to restrict myself to a lotus position and commit myself to clear my mind.

I got a little greedy and decided to test a theory of mine by trying to go further with the breath comparison and infuse it with my blood, just letting its flow treat it as if mana was oxygen being distributed to the rest of my body. And sure enough, that was a massive success.

Told you luck was still a big part of it, I just wasn't a fan of unnecessary risks.

As I lived past my fifth birthday, I became capable of actually compressing my aura for periods longer than a second, so my power received a considerable boost as a result. By using my mana to enhance my body, I became even tougher, stronger, having greater flexibility, stamina and reflexes. Five year old me was more than capable of trading blows with ten years old Ben before he received the Omnitrix.

If you need to know, just picture me as the original Ben after being affected by Fountain of Youth and turning into his younger version, though I was still slightly taller and more athletic. The constant flow of energy seems to be nurturing my body as a side effect, one which I wasn't expecting at all, but you won't hear complaints from me.

Unfortunately, I still wasn't a walking Jojo reference of a bodybuilder kid nor could I confirm exactly how my mana had improved my intellect, probably since my cognitive functions had been preserved from my past life and there wasn't really anything close to a mental challenge for me yet.

My schedule suffered a little since my parents made me enter Kindergarten, slightly worried that I was a bit too calm and quiet for a kid my age, but as some doors got closed to me, new ones were open.

I'm so thankful that I've forced myself to multitask while manipulating my mana, which made me not too much affected by the sudden change. For now, I still wasn't allowed to explore the neighborhood, much less the city, but my time will soon come.

Despite my body being nurtured by mana, I refused to neglect my physical training, just really careful to not let any adult catch me sweating bullets while working out doing stuff like sit ups and push-ups. Nor would I be content with my current knowledge, I was fully intended to be doing university level courses by the time I got the watch.

At first I was working on a theory that my stats would influence my transformations. Like if I get stronger, my tetramand (Four Arms) transformation will get stronger proportionately, if I get smarter, my galvan (Grey Matter) transformation will get smarter and process all the information much faster.

But soon enough I realized that the Omnitrix was supposed to turn its user into the prime example of the race in question, or something along the lines of restructuring the DNA to be perfectly optimized, whatever that might be.

Still, that just rules out my raw physical capability as a human, skill and wisdom still matters, like it did when Gwen was the one wielding the Omnitrix. Besides, to me my Anodite mana should be more than fair game to be shared through that 1% or less of my DNA on each of my transformations.

But I digress…At Kindergarten I finally met many kids around my age, including having more interactions with my cousin Gwen on a regular basis.

Our parents kept meeting from time to time up until now, so we had more than a few opportunities to get more acquainted. But it's not as if we managed to have any actual and deep conversation thanks to her age.

Though I did end up enjoying meeting both aunt Natalie and Uncle Frank from time to time, the conservative duo was noticeably different from my liberal parents, but they were similar in regards that my aunt was also the alpha of the relationship.

Sadly, my cousin Lucy Mann didn't join us at the Kindergarten, but at least we still saw each other during our occasional family reunions. She was very sweet and adorable. A very upbeat, mischievous and happy-go-lucky girl even from her earlier years, and who I knew would grow to love playing pranks on people.

Especially on Gwen.

We immediately got along well. She being a Lenopan only made me more interested to befriend her. Not sure if she could sense my aura or if it affected her in some shape or form, but Lucy became very attached to me, to the point of being a bit too clingy, despite us not seeing each other all that frequently.

To be fair, I really enjoyed the attention and her reliance on me. The fact that she kept her nature hidden from even me made it seem that it wasn't supposed to be an open family secret, which for some reason calmed me down a bit with the possibility of Verdona coming out of the woods and taking me to be raised as an Anodite.

So, during my first time interacting with other kids, I kept my appearances as the cool kid that despite outperforming all my peers still kept his composure.

Never bragging. Never showing off. Just chilling.

Despite that, Gwen still wanted to compete with me. I beat her in regards to speaking and walking first, so her time in Kindergarten and afterwards was spent trying to be more intelligent and popular than me.

You might be thinking that I should teach her a lesson and make her submit to my authority. To that I've got to say… yes…those definitely are thoughts people should be having regarding a 5-year old girl… err…FBI would like to have a word with you.

But the truth is that I find her bossy attitude adorable. Especially when, despite being frustrated for not being better than me, she still tried to impress me. Reminded me of your regular tsundere, but I never allowed her the right to get physical from the start.

Besides, she's just a kid, not a pet. I'm looking at you Kai Green.

Anyways, I still had lots of fun not obeying her orders. I even had a few girls acting on my 'defense' whenever Gwen got too bossy. And seeing her blush whenever people pointed out that she liked me was priceless.

And sort of weird if I may say so myself. Kids our age should just be in the 'boys/girls are icky' phase. Then again, my shapeshifter prankster of a cousin might be behind those songs of 'being in a tree, kissing…' and stuff like that.

Regardless, once I joined elementary school, I looked for any signs of relevant characters.

Having not found Kevin Levin, I remembered that not only was he supposed to be a year older than me, but that around this time in his life his father died protecting his plumber partner.

The partner being Max Tennyson.

Which confuses me to no end, given how Max was supposed to be retired for good by now. Hell, was the Aggregor stuff even real, Omniverse really threw a wrench on all of it.

So no Osmosian ally for now.

Sadly, other than a few familiar yet insignificant faces, I didn't find anyone that mattered to me and my plans. Thinking back now, Cooper Daniels was supposed to be a year younger than me.

Darnit! A Technopath would be very useful for my plans right now. Guess I will have to wait to meet him as well, though hopefully not for that long.

But on a side note, by pushing my multitasking capabilities while manipulating my Mana, I made a major breakthrough. I finally managed to extend my aura beyond the limits of my body.

Tempering with its density affected its color, but not to the point of making subtle use of it useless. Its inherent quality had made it harder for the environment to dissipate it even by making it sparse. And since its nature has a deep connection to me, I could freely alter it even while I had it outside of my body. Which allowed me to influence people nearby by extending an invisible cloud of my power, that you could kind of compare with pheromones.

By channeling hostile intent I managed to intimidate bullies (Yup, they exist even at this age). If fueled by friendly intent I managed to boost my charisma, making others much more susceptible to agree with me. And I think you've got the idea of what happens when I channel lustful intent using this technique.

But honestly, I kinda pity my young female teacher, she will certainly seek lots of psychological help for climaxing after looking at a five year old kid.

At least, she was still cute for an adult. Though after the dust was settled I admit feeling a bit guilty, I mean, I wasn't willing to test it on anyone around my age, but still…I should've known better. Worst case scenario, I might've created a Letourneau's case situation for me to deal with.

Back to my magical progress, when I don't make my aura invisible, it is actually dense enough for me to make a static barrier. For now it is a little weak, but I can at least use it as a step to reach higher places. Its color now is a tone darker than the green it once was though, which helps me forget the mental image of being a knockoff copy of green lantern.

Regardless, after I made my sixth birthday and had such incredible results for my age, I was presented with a choice. To take a series of hard tests in order to jump towards Middle school, or to wait another five years.

Unfortunately, since it was quite unprecedented and required a certain level of maturity as well, Gwen didn't receive the same offer. But since in the past year I had already met and befriended Cooper Daniels, so there wasn't a motive why I shouldn't push myself to seek the genius label this early.

Granted, I was no Sheldon Cooper who joined college by the age of eleven, at least not yet.

And just now, after finally being six years of age, albeit with the appearance of ten all thanks to my magical juice (stay natural kids), I could finally explore Bellwood with my bicycle. Or how the town's welcome sign describes: 'The Most Normal Town in America'

Yeah, no kidding, that was really a thing.

Despite being in the state of New York, Bellwood was a quiet, and somewhat boring, place to live. Had tall trees for me to climb all the four seasons to break the monotony.

My seventh year alive was spent helping my neighbors and community, with any tasks and chores I could do, like mowing the grass or painting fences, even making a few bucks out of it. Besides, I needed more and more exercise to strengthen my body and master my mana manipulation for physical activities. I was growing taller and taller as a result, as signs of muscle definition began to appear once I got close to four feet of height.

With more frequent visits from my cousin Lucy, we got even closer to one another. One time I could even swear that she almost told me about her sludgy secret. Perhaps she feared that I might call her a freak and stop playing with her.

Heh, as if there was an actual chance that I would bully my dear shapeshifting cousin.

You see, as a Lenopan, her natural abilities revolved around her race's primarily blob-like biology. She could mimic the voice and appearance of other people, and even release her sludge in water-like waves at enemies. Being basically immune to most physical attacks and also being very elastic, she would definitely prove to be one of my most important allies.

Now, since history played somewhat similar to how I remembered from my previous life, despite the switch in company branding and public figures names, I multiplied several times all the money I made by simply investing in the right places, and would continue doing so with the profit I made.

You might be wondering how the fuck did a seven year old could possibly do that. Well, that's my secret, thank you very much. Why should I have to tell you?

But let's just say that was only possible due to my parents being all about freedom and supporting me in whatever decision I set myself to. At least, as long as it wasn't illegal. Which, on a second note, also meant that I could apply to every type of extracurricular class that suited my interest.

Unfortunately, my angsty osmosian left the town before I started exploring around, without leaving much trace for me to know more about. But I did at least manage to spend some time with Gwen during our birthdays and during our martial arts classes for kids.

Yeah, despite all of that, the girl was still tough as nails, obviously nowhere near my level, nor to the inhuman level she and every other Tennyson was back when everything was just a cartoon, but still a nightmare to the average guy.

Oh, and with Cooper also being labeled as a genius and following my example a couple of years after me, he became another close friend of mine, teaching me lots of things about computers at such a young age.

Middle School was nice and all, with subjects finally having some level of complexity that I had to actually think for a second or two, but cherry on top was being allowed to play sports with kids much older than me.

While my knowledge has continued to grow, with me being around 8th grade, I could easily comprehend high school subjects. However, unlike back at the kindergarten and elementary school, I quickly understood that the title of the cool kid wasn't something easily achieved by good grades.

Outstanding talent for sports helped me not get picked by the bullies, but believe it or not, it was the aloof personality that actually did the trick. Not gonna lie, I was aiming to become the Sasuke Uchiha of my class, without all his edge lordness. And I'm proud to say that it worked.

Well, kinda.

You see, if you take all the intimidating brooding and glares from him, you sort of fall into the charismatic jerk that most kids this age like to be around. I mean, it was that way for me at least. Had my fangirls gushing over me and even some older kids that kept trying to compete with me.

A calling I didn't know I had was for debate.

Don't judge me, it's not that weird. For it was precisely that calling that drew the attention of the organization I've been wanting to make contact with for a while now. And as secretive as they tried to be, as soon as I received their letter stating their interest in helping nurture new talent, I recognized their style.

The Forever Knights.

Created by Sir George, the absolute unit who once wielded the Ascalon sword, they are an organization of knights that frequently fought the original Ben and his team, being first introduced in the original series as a rivaling faction to the plumbers.

In Ultimate Alien, it was revealed that the organization was actually divided into various factions with each on their own motivations until Sir George reunited them. And in Omniverse, the Forever Knights fell into becoming nothing more than small remnants of what they once were, especially after the embarrassment that was the war against Dagon and the Esoterica.

I know, why would I purposefully put myself on the bad guys' radar? What could they possibly offer to me that the plumbers couldn't?

The answer to the first question is because I saw an opportunity by joining their ranks and gaining influence.

The answer to the second is pretty much everything they are now. Take into consideration that for the time being the plumbers aren't a full fledged intergalactic force yet, they have limited themselves to be an underground organization with most of its core members in retirement or recruited by the "bad guys".

As for the Forever Knights themselves, I would argue that this is the highest they had ever been. By raising myself through their ranks I'm sure there will be plenty of benefits to reap.

Besides, I just dig the entire Medieval Knights motif.

Ok, now you can judge. I don't care.

Maybe after I gained enough influence, and with the Omnitrix on my wrist, I might change some things I find that are hampering their progress. Their ignorant hostility towards all alien forms as an example.

Publicly, from what I managed to research, they were a prestigious boarding school and university with reputed influence in the scientific community.

I was about to enroll into their group and be accepted as 'page', the lowest ranked of their organization and be taking subjects varying from geography, history, mathematics, chemistry, biology, physics, finance, information technology, languages and literacy. Not to mention advanced physical education.

Despite all the academic opportunities, I only accepted the offer after they informed me that summer school wasn't available for pages. Which suited me just fine, after all there simply was no way that the Omnitrix would stop being my top priority, especially now that I had a great grasp of my Anodite powers.

So, after completing my ninth birthday once again alongside Gwen, I went to visit the campus I've been assigned. It wasn't that far from Bellwood, only a few hours of distance by car. But the place itself left me in complete awe.

The main campus sat on about 500 acres in New Jersey. This university looked more like a palace fit for European royalty than a school. The architecture and design of the campus buildings were creatively planned and executed to make a lively and connected learning environment while still maintaining the medieval theme. The classrooms were innovative and designed to be flexible to support a variety of educational experiences.

Every student that roamed the place were supposed to be geniuses in their own way, ranging mostly from young adults to a few teens. By far I was the youngest of all the students, that was clear by the way everyone looked at me. Their uniforms doubled down on the idea of a medieval society, with some pretty interesting attires and fashionable colors.

But enough speaking of this place. From what I managed to see, the classes were, to be honest, harder than I was expecting.

Even with my previous knowledge, I had to bury my head on a pile of books to not embarrass me in my first semester here. But thanks to all that pressure, I finally discovered that by channeling my mana through my brain, I boosted my learning curve with added bonus to my nervous system.

In this state I became ambidextrous and had my reaction time shortened considerably, which also gave me an edge during physical training and combat classes.

Since I hadn't made much use of it, this technique left me completely drained after my first uses. Only after using it continuously, did that massive drainage problem lessened into some annoying headaches.

The following year went by faster than lightning. It didn't take long for my accomplishments to make me famous even among people much older than me.

Having college girls interested in ten year old me was a little much, but then again, you won't hear me complaining about it. And in martial arts and gymnastics, I was also second to none. I even had the opportunity to practice horseback riding, softball, skiing and cross country. Sadly, weapon training wasn't offered to me yet.

Hope I didn't give you the wrong impression. I didn't waste my time in the last year before the summer trip with Grandpa and Gwen.

By the year 2006, my investments had already paid off big time, so I've made good use of it by opening a small business unrelated to me that would serve as cover for my future inventions.

My anodite power has progressed greatly, with my cloud of influence now being capable of controlling other beings with lesser intelligence, like animals and plants. Though its range is a little too short for my taste.

Also, my barriers have become much larger and stronger than before, with me finally making some progress in regards to range attacks like Gwen's projectiles during Alien Force.

Wish I had been as lucky with the mind reading idea I had during one of my debates, or at least with my aura detection, that would make my life so much easier.

I did consider venturing out of the state to seek out any relevant item before my summer trip, but without the omnitrix, it would be just too risky and foolish. Drawing that much attention on something I had no guarantees that would work was just stupid.

Incidentally, I had ended my semester a week before summer vacations, so I had time to prepare myself for the adventure to come. To my surprise though, my accomplishments as a page had paid off more than I had initially anticipated, I had received an offer to become a 'Squire' after my summer vacation ended.

Once again I will have to take a series of harder tests, but if I succeed, I might become the youngest 'Squire' in quite some time of the organization's history. That would certainly keep me busy before the events of Alien Force began to unravel, and give me more influence over the Forever Knights.

But for now, I had a powerful device to collect and master its uses.

Looking in the mirror I noticed how different I've become from the original Ben. While still maintaining my hair in an unkempt style and having the same eyes, I had a more athletic build with a proper surfer tan. Being already taller than Gwen, who herself was just around four feet tall, and would only continue to grow from here.

Out of nostalgia I still used the usual clothes like the military green cargo pants with side pockets with black and white sneakers that had black stripes each. Although the only piece I changed was the classic T-shirt, it was now reversed with a white-stripe over a black shirt with short sleeves, just like the original Ben 10.000 had.

I picked up my notebook, video camera and iPod. I bought these with my own money. Packed multiple types of food and drinks, in case Grandpa's cooking doesn't end up working for me, and a few medicines and first aid kits just in case.

With my backpack filled with everything I found that would be useful for the next months, I said goodbye to my parents and waited for Grandpa Max to pick me up.

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MC'S RECOLLECTIONS

MC's POV

BRIEF BACKGROUND

Let's begin with a bit of context, the Omnitrix was developed by Azimuth of the Galvan to promote interstellar peace as an apology to his lover Zenith, after his previous invention, Ascalon, brought upon violence.

The Omnitrix could preserve over a million DNA samples, in which the user could then transform into that being. With the genetic database larger than anything seen before, the Omnitrix could act as a back drive for the universe in case any species went extinct.

While at first the DNA was collected personally by Azimuth's assistant Myaxx, he developed a series of worker drones known as Volaticus biopsis, which would then fly around the universe and collect DNA samples. When the DNA was collected, it was then brought back to the artificially grown planet Primus, where it was stored in the Codon Stream. The Codon Stream preserved all the Omnitrix's DNA samples which could then be downloaded to the Omnitrix for use.

Contrary to popular belief, the Omnitrix didn't need to be constantly synchronized to Primus in order for it to function. Think of Primus as a computer and the Omnitrix as an iPod, after downloading music from the computer to the iPod, one could then disconnect them and continue listening to said music on the iPod without any type of connection to the computer.

The Omnitrix could store an inconceivable variety of DNA samples, from Organic, Inorganic, Cosmic and even Multi-dimensional. However the samples must be from a species that had a certain level of intellectual sapience. From Earth, the Omnitrix could have Human, Dolphin and Mouse DNA. But anything lower class with savage feral nature would corrupt the intellectual mind of the user.

From what has been seen, the most feral transformation that one could transform into with no repercussions would be a Vulpimancer (Wildmutt).

After the prototype Omnitrix (Original and Alien Force Series), came the Ultimatrix, which came with new features, but new setbacks as well. And when Azimuth recalled the Ultimatrix to be dismantled, he gave Prime Ben the completed official Omnitrix.

BASE FEATURES

The Omnitrix had an expansive amount of features the user had access to, with the main ones usually depicted with their own special color.

The most common use for it was transformation, represented by the color green. After selecting an alien to become, the Omnitrix alters the user's DNA to become a prime version of that species, the result would be the fittest and healthiest version of said alien. And when working properly, downloaded the instincts native to that species, allowing the user to automatically know what the aliens were capable of after transformation.

However, this didn't include any particular move set of the DNA donor that won't be accessible via the data dump, like how turning into a Saiyan would teach me how to fly and turn into the great ape, but not how to perform the kamehameha.

And although the Omnitrix only supposedly turned the user into the species relative to their own age, I've yet to see any congruent evidence for that theory.

Upon transformation, the Omnitrix could equip the user with special handicaps needed to sustain the transformation. Such as a Prypiatosian-B's radiation suit (NRG), Polymorph's anti-gravity projector (Goop) and Cerebrocrustacean's breathing brace (Brainstorm). Again, the Omnitrix must be working properly for these functions to activate. The Omnitrix could also provide the user with uniforms, some even retaining the elements associated with the aliens' homeworld attire.

The Omnitrix was unable to completely merge the user with artificial beings and created incomplete transformations such as Galvanic Mechamorph (Upgrade). This is why the user's voice was still the same in that form, as they were unable to retain their form when not merged with the technology they are upgrading, unlike pure Galvanic Mechamorphs (Upgrade) like Ship.

When transformed, the Omnitrix commonly limited the time one could stay as a different species before transforming back to their original form. Putting it into recharge mode, the red setting. Each iteration of the Omnitrix handled this differently.

The Prototype normally gave a time limit of ten minutes per transformation, be it as a fail safe measure or as a training wheel mode. Transformations capable of overwhelming the user had been registered in aliens like Necrofriggian (Big Chill), an asexual transformation that forced Prime Ben to hatch fourteen offsprings during its reproduction cycle, and Methanosian (Swampfire) blossoming as a form of puberty.

The Ultimatrix changed the transformation range to be based on energy instead of time. With it, the user could now become an alien for a significantly longer period of time, but changing between alien forms would cause the overall time limit to shorten.

Meanwhile, the Official Omnitrix appeared to have a combination of both methods. However, with this version, this could be bypassed to remain as one transformation for an indefinite amount of time using the life form lock function (or the master control).

The Omnitrix could also store new DNA samples into its database using its yellow setting, Capture mode. Either by touch or by extended projection, the user could replicate any sapient specie's DNA (not already stored on the Omnitrix) and immediately allow access to the new transformation.

The blue setting, Recalibration Mode, had only been shown once. While it had been confirmed that in the future where Ben Prime never took off the Omnitrix it continued to grow with Ben's maturing body, it's shown in "Ben 10 returns - part 1" that if the Omnitrix is dormant for a long period of time without use, it must first recalibrate when activated before granting access to all of its features again. When Recallibrating, the Omnitrix could then change its cosmetics to reflect the alteration.

Lastly, there was the orange setting, which stood for Self-Destruction Mode. Although the Omnitrix was practically indestructible, even by multiversal standards, the one thing that had been shown to actually damage the Omnitrix was itself. This feature's power was designed to completely incapacitated the Omnitrix in a desperate situation. When intentionally activated, this mode would destroy the Omnitrix in 30 seconds, but if the charge were to build up long enough, it could even destroy the entire universe.

The Omnitrix had also been shown to adapt to the color of certain types of energy, when they were in contact.

Eon, who had chrono manipulative abilities, had been able to interfere with the Omnitrix due to his inconceivable knowledge of the Omnitrix from time-traveling. Both when he attempted to turn Ben into a genetic copy of himself to take his place and when he used the Omnitrix's signal to restore him to the timeline, the Omnitrix turned purple.

Similarly, Gwen's mana has also interfered with the Omnitrix on a few occasions, allowing the Omnitrix to glow pink.

Both of these two colors were the result of tempering with the device, but only shown to be the case with the Prototype Omnitrix and Ultimatrix. It was unknown if the official Omnitrix was still susceptible to Chrono and Mystical energies, but some evidence suggested that it had been improved to negate these effects.

ADVANCED FEATURES

Now with the basics covered, I could delve into the special additional features the Omnitrix had.

The first was a universal translator. It is pretty self explanatory, translating all alien languages in range of the user in real-time. If the species language was unable to be processed by the translator, the user could simply change into that species using the Omnitrix to further gather verbal information.

The Omnitrix also protected the user in a number of ways, even with special abilities not native to the current transformation species. It's been demonstrated to have the ability to prevent the user from being overshadowed or mind-controlled (only if the process occurred while they were transformed), suffered mutations from highly toxic situations like being nearby corrodium or even from being affected by Dr, Animo's Mutant Ray.

The Omnitrix also protected Prime Ben from Albedo's incomplete Omnitrix's feedback, whereas Albedo's Omnitrix didn't.

Cosmetically, the Omnitrix could change its appearance in display format a number of ways and could either grow or shrink its size to comfortably fit the user.

Should the Omnitrix need any maintenance work that must be done in Primus, the Omnitrix could teleport the user to the planet at any given time.

Now, the Omnitrix's Artificial Intelligence was perhaps one of the more baffling features. It has been featured just like a computer, only responding to commands in a strictly informational sense, but it also seemed to appear to have a mind of its own. Which makes one wonder if it is self-aware or just a very smart computer.

That said, not only could the Omnitrix manipulate its user's DNA, but other beings as well. Both in close range and in long range. Ben Prime had been shown curing civilians that were corrupted by the Highbreed to become DNAliens, which not only transformed their entire body, but also controlled their mind turning them into slaves. If amplified enough the Omnitrix could even affect a designated species or population of a galaxy-wide scale (aka save an entire species from congenital sickness only to risk dooming their future by making them all sterile hybrids).

And in special scenarios the Omnitrix had even been able to create its own species. This had been shown with Nanomech, a creation by the Omnitrix to counter the Nanochip Queen in the live-action Ben 10 movie (Alien Swarm). And with the Crystalsapien Sugilite (Chromastone), the Guardian of Petropia.

While in the Prime universe, Ben Omnitrix was the only functional and completed version, he had had interactions with other Omnitrixes as well. When synchronized, it could unlock and activate transformations another Omnitrix might not already have access to.

Additionally, the Omnitrix had a GPS with universal range (the one Vilgax and Max had used to track Ben's location). Voice command, a Randomizer function, Homing device, Audio and Visual two-way communication and indestructibility on a bare minimum multiversal scale. And don't let me get started with the most significant feature which is the Master Control, that allows the user to access all of its transformations at will without a time limit or having to go back to its original form before selecting something else.

GLITCHES

Before the official Omnitrix came to be, it did suffer a few imperfections and glitches before the final version.

The most infamous of them being the constant mistransformations and randomized time limit. In relation, initially the Prototype did not download the instincts of each species into the user's biology, forcing the user to figure out how each of the aliens functioned through trial and error. These errors were supposedly corrected when Omnitrix first recalibrated but were brought back when Prime Ben and Kevin tried to hack the Omnitrix in "Vengeance of Vilgax: part 1".

In "Dr. Animo and the Mutant Ray", Prime Ben temporarily detaches the faceplate of the Omnitrix from its core causing its transformations to fuse together at random.

Another temporary glitch was present in the episode "Benwolf", where after first acquiring the Loboan DNA, the duration of transformation lasted hours. This was probably due to the Omnitrix being stuck between Capture Mode and Active Mode, a side effect probably related to the "Werewolf curse".

The Omnitrix had also been able to transform other beings into other species when entangled with certain frequencies. And the official Omnitrix introduced the curious glitch of when multiple Omnitrixes were synchronized together, one had the ability to transform another.

ULTIMATRIX: FEATURES AND FLAWS

Albedo, the ex lab assistant of Azimuth with the body of a corrupted genetic copy of Prime Ben Tennyson, created the Ultimatrix meant to improve upon the Omnitrix and cure him of his mutation, reforming him back to his original Galvan body.

As no one was able to develop a fully functional Omnitrix other than Azimuth, the Omnitrix came with special features yet unique drawbacks. It's primarily known for evolving the user's transformations into fierce combat ready counterparts of its original aliens.

While this feature might seem like a vast improvement, the numerous glitches in it made it even more challenging to use than the Prototype version.

The Ultimatrix's firewalls appeared to be easily breached by higher forms of intelligence species, like Inspector 13. Disappointingly, the Ultimatrix did not turn the user into a prime example of the species, but a genetic duplicate of whomever it scanned regardless of power or age. It also did not retain the instincts of said species and had to figure out how each one of them worked manually similar to the Prototype version before recalibration. Dangerously, one time a glitch in the Ultimatrix made all the ultimate DNA fully sentient inside of the Ultimatrix simulation.

FAILSAFES

Lastly, let me tackle some of the fail-safes the Omnitrix contains.

Now that I've made you all well aware of the self-destruct mode, a lower tier version was present in the prototype version. A green energy eruption, strong enough to push away even Vilgax, whenever someone tried to remove the Omnitrix from the user's wrist.

The official Omnitrix had an annoying genetically locking feature, that even my current genetic code wasn't valid enough to keep it active (due to my age not matching the age it was programmed to function).

Finally, should any of the large variety of features just listed lead to the user's death, the official Omnitrix's AI was still capable of kicking in and doing whatever it could to prevent their termination.

VIABLE TRANSFORMATIONS

So…onto the most important questions: What exactly could I transform into? What were my limits? Could I become a Pokemon? A Transformer? A Speedster? Cthulhu? Godzilla? A living planet? An Angel? A New God? The Living Tribunal?

The three general rules of what makes an Omnitrix transformation viable that I was going with were…

The species must be smart enough.

It could absolutely be much smarter than me, but not less than a Vulpimancer or a Flora Colossus (AKA Groot). But this was a rule I planned to explore (and perhaps even defy) its validity when experimenting with the Nemetrix.

It must have "DNA".

Despite it seeming like an easy requirement, it certainly proved to be a tricky matter. It's easy to see how organic beings were prime candidates (Kryptonians, Asgardians and Saiyans).

But what about Ectonurites? It isn't a typical living organism, having no mana (life energy). Which completely differs from Anodites, who were made of pure mana.

Sonorosians (Echo echo) and Conductoids (Feedback) were abstract concepts in suits, like living sound and electricity. And seemingly pure mechanical beings like Chronosapiens (Clockwork) and Prypiatosian-A (Atomix) pushed what it meant to have DNA even further. Or non-organic beings, like Galvanic Mechamorphs (Upgrade) and Nanochips (though sentience was still required in a way).

The last implying that the Omnitrix could transform the user into one of a kind beings, like the Guardian of Petropia (Jesus Diamondhead).

Cosmic and multidimensional beings were impressively enough still valid candidates.

To'kustar (Way Big) were a species who were created during unpredictable cosmic storms and Naljians were an interdimensional alien species who inhabited an upper position of existence (perceiving beyond the twenty-sixth dimension supported by the Bosonic string theory).

Not forgetting Celestialsapiens (Alien x), which could be scaled as being Multiversal level+. And the creators teased that they weren't even the strongest species in the Omnitrix.

Perhaps a Dagon transformation was what they had in mind, but given how it was defeated by Vilgax Machine, I highly doubt it.

What about mutants? Despite it being very unstable, I still thought it's perfectly possible, given the previously mentioned valid candidates. And changelings like Frieza and Deviants like Thanos were some of the examples that came to my mind. Alongside Mutants, Meta humans, Inhumans, Eternals and Individuals with Quirks.

The DNA must be different enough from the user's.

Technically, no matter how small of a margin, as long as the being could be classified as being different from the user, it might count as a separate transformation.

The best example came from the two subspecies Perk and Murk Gourmands (Upchucks). Both were essentially the same creatures in nearly every way aside from their appearance. But apparently that was enough to classify them as two different beings.

Taking that into consideration, and coming back to my brief consideration about mutant-adjacent types of beings similar to one species (like humans) with a small genetic difference.

Engineers from the Alien franchise were even confirmed by the creator of Ben 10 as a valid transformation.

Now that I've laid the groundwork of what possibly counts as a transformation, allow me to elaborate on what these transformations would actually be like.

The baseline understanding is that no matter who I get the sample from, it will always be the peak of that species, even if that DNA sample came from someone who was injured, poisoned, missing a limb or other body parts, or any other type of unaverage circumstance, the DNA sample from that being is enough for the Omnitrix to absorb and rejuvenate it to the apex example of said species. This not only includes maximum health and strength, but also intelligence as well.

In the classic series, creatures like Nosedeenian (Megawatt) and Loboans (Alien Werewolf) couldn't speak, but prime Ben's version could.

The species from that point however were also relevant to the users, as both me and prime Ben are male, all of our transformations will be the male version of said species, even if the DNA donors are from a different gender.

Exceptions to this would be the assexual beings like Nicrofrigians (Big Chill), or if you want to argue the possibility, Anodites. Although it is somewhat confirmed that there is a setting in the Omnitrix that would allow its user to change its gender anyways.

As previously mentioned, age should also come into play, as well as the natural age of each being is supposed to scale accordingly to the user's lifespan as well.

Lastly, the Omnitrix can create the required technology to help the specie to survive and safely interact with the outside world, as well pay homage to the specie's home world fashion. It is even stated that the Omnitrix does this by creating and destroying matter, although this could likely just be a joke.

Having said all that…I don't plan to be shy with how many DNA samples I will be collecting during my run with the most powerful weapon in the universe.

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(28/01/2021)

(15/10/2023)

*Hey there! Thanks for reading my work! I hope this chapter is of your liking. I tried getting done with the prologue arc. Sorry if you expected more of the MC past. Also sorry if you felt it was still too much detail. 😅

I might include something during a flashback in the future if I find it really necessary.

Any ideas for powers, adventure arcs and girls is more than welcomed. I might not use anything, but you will have my gratitude for trying.

If this chapter is a mess of grammatical errors, please point it out and I will try to fix it as fast as I can.

Thanks as always for your time, hope you have a fantastic day and please stay safe.

Bye.

**Hello everyone! Long time no see you all! 😁 You know the drill, I'm really really sorry for the delays, I honestly have no control over it. Hope my rewrite of the chapter is seen as a great improvement over the original.

Any questions or concerns feel free to message me, I will answer back as soon as I can. 😉👍