The Omnitrix.

"Give it back you dweeb!" Gwen cried, chasing after Ben, who was waving her issue of Wizards Monthly in the air as he ran.

"Come and get it, idiot!" He stuck his tongue out at her and clicked on his watch flipping through the catalog of aliens before he found one he liked.

The Omnitrix. The most powerful weapon in the universe.

Shaped like a watch, it allowed someone to transform into any of the billions of aliens sampled in the watch's database.

It was created by an alien inventor called Azmuth, from an advanced civilization of tiny but fiercely intelligent grey aliens. It was originally intended to bring universal peace and understanding between all alien races. In practice though it turned into a child's playtoy in the hands of Ben Tennyson, a boy from Earth who didn't use it to even a tenth of it's capacity and insisted on using it to play 'hero'.

Ugh!

I would be glad to rid him of this gift, for sure.

Besides, I needed it and a special alien within to make sure I wasn't one shotted by Lady Death the minute I returned to the MCU.

He slammed his hand down on the dial, and a green light flashed as Ben mutated into a sleek rollerblading monster.

"XLR8!" He announced, running circles around Gwen, taunting her.

"Grandpa!" She whined, "Ben stole my magazine and he's not giving it back!"

A fat man in a hawaiian shirt and apron stepped out of the RV they called home, wiping his hands on his apron, and called out, absentmindedly.

"Ben! Give Gwen her magazine back and come here. I'm going to start the barbeque, help grandpa out will you?"

"I think not! Heheheheeh!" He giggled, running off only to crash into my forcefield.

He looked up and saw me, apologizing instinctively.

"Sorry." He said, as I helped him get back to his feet.

"No problem. I came here for you after all."

"Oh thanks...wait wha-"

His eyes widened and he struggled to get out of my grip, punching and kicking at supersonic speeds, but it was of no use.

My forcefield blocked it all.

I reached out and poked the omnitrix symbol on his chest.

The device flashed green again and fell off of him, right into my hands turning Ben back into a human.

"How did you do that?" He gasped in shock, before he swiped at me trying to get the watch back.

"Give it back! It's mine!"

"Not anymore." I wagged my finger, telekinetically pushing him away as his grandfather caught him and they both fell to the floor.

Meanwhile my technokinesis dug into the omnitrix's systems, wiping out Ben's DNA signature and rewriting the DNA requirements for Max Tennyson's DNA, just to make sure it wouldn't turn me into a clone of one of the Tennysons.

Or worse, some warped chimera of the two.

I shivered at the thought.

With that done, I slapped the watch onto my wrist, merging it with my body.

It glowed grey blue and red for a moment as it copied my DNA and calibrated the functions to match my physiology.

Moments later it perked up, glowing green, the dial popped out.

With a thought I undid the master control on the watch, allowing me to keep using it till battery ran out, and seamlessly switch between the various alien transformations.

"I don't know who you are..." Max Tennyson stood back up and warned, "But that is no toy. If you hand it to us right now-"

"Oh I know the Omnitrix. Neat tech. I could make one just like this in about three days or so. But unfortunately, I'm on a bit of a time crunch. So I'll be taking this with me." I replied, skimming through the catalog of aliens to see if it had what I needed.

"Like heck you are!" Ben shouted charging me when suddenly a blue light flashed and a gust of wind seemed to be sucked into nothingness as a man in a labcoat emerged from the light, a worried look painted on his face.

"Stop!" He pulled Ben back, before turning to me, "You!"

"Professor Paradox. I was expecting you..." I checked the time, "...Three minutes ago. Getting old are we?' I joked.

Professor Paradox. A time-traveling professor who can travel anywhere in space or time, within reason. While he forgot his true name from millenia after millenia of being trapped in a separate reality, first going insane and then, getting bored of insanity to the point that he became what he likes to call 'exceptionally sane'.

A very powerful entity in this universe, one on the same level as Lady Death, if a bit weaker in his direct actions and offensive capabilities.

He was the reason I was being so cordial and nice about this instead of just slaughtering them all and going on with my life. Because the ever meddlesome Professor would be a pain to deal with.

"You need to return the watch to Ben or the timeline, even the universe is in grave danger!"

"You mean, 'will' be in great danger, yes?" I corrected.

"Yes. Sorry, I tend to get things mixed up, old chap. Living through all of time at the same ... Time gets a bit overwhelming." He chuckled.

"Nah. I get it. I'll return it to the brat once I am done. You see an eldritch entity, quite like you is holding my kids hostage. And usually, I'd be able to squash such critters with ease, but I got a bit careless and well, time is of the essence right now, if you get what I'm saying."

He gave a courteous laugh, when Ben interjected.

"Then you should've asked for my help. Give it back and I'll go kick it's butt!"

I snorted.

"Listen, Bun."

"Ben!" He corrected.

"Of course, Bin." He grunted in annoyance, as Gwen giggled at his misery.

"You couldn't kick it's butt if your leg was shoved up it. So let the professionals handle it, okay? Don't worry though. Once I'm done saving them, I'll give it back. Shouldn't take longer than a day. I'll be back tomorrow. With a gift for the Bin too." I turned to Ben.

"It's Ben-" Ben snarled.

"Yeah, Ban, got it." I cut him off, "You like that sumo whatever thingy right?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Ben said nonchalant, but I could see his ears perk up.

He was so bad at lying it was cute.

"I'll get you a whole set of playing cards for it. Just let me have the watch for a day. I'll be back tomorrow. Promise. Is that fine with you, Prof?"

Ben looked conflicted, but he was getting warmer to the proposal.

But my real concern was the master of space-time standing before me.

Will he agree or will I have to fight him off for the watch?

Professor Paradox calculated something, disappeared into a wormhole and reappeared seconds later.

"Yes. That will do. But be sure to return it. Or else we might have to press further."

"Gotcha! I'll be on time. Same time tomorrow, on the dot." I gave him a thumbs up and jacked into the RV's systems, locating the Plumber stronghold under Mount Rushmore.

The Plumbers were basically the green lanterns of this world, minus the power rings. They were an intergalactic police force that kept order in the universe and prevented higher civilizations from interfering with the growth of lower level civilizations.

Narcs the lot of them.

But they did have some good tech stashed under Mount Rushmore.

It was one of the resons I had come here in the first place.

"So, no hard feelings right Ben? A whole set of Sumo cards, and maybe a couple of figurines too, if you agree to it now."

"Ben, don't! And you, return the watch to us-"

"And get me the gold Sumo Slammer Samurai card too! And a Sumo Samurai Figurine. I want the limited edition one!" Ben demanded.

"Sure. Do we have a deal?" I smirked.

Kids are so easy to fool.

"Deal!" He gave me a thumbs up, nodding happily.

"Ben! You can't just-"

"Max, right?" I called out to him.

"It's Mr. Tennyson to you." He glared.

"Sure, Max. I'll be taking it with me. And you can't do shit to stop me. So take the deal, and trust me. I'm a man of my word. Besides, tell me, if it was your kids who were in danger, wouldn't you have done the same?"

His expression softened at that, but his gaze didn't falter as we got into a staring match until finally he broke.

"Fine." He sighed.

"Thanks." I smiled and threw him a CodeRed.

He caught it and examined it curiously.

"What's this?"

"A healing serum. For that bad knee you've got. Consider it a thanks for being considerate." I explained, "I mean no harm."

I pulled out my portal gun and opened up a portal to Mount Rushmore.

"See y'all tomorrow."

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