[1] It Started When an Alien Device Did What It Did

Chapter 1: It Started When an Alien Device Did What It Did

"Thanks a lot," the fat, glasses-wearing nerd guy said to my face, lips bloody, as he turned around and left.

I rubbed the back of my head, feeling the tender spot where one of the bullies had landed a solid hit. "I was just trying to help..."

He didn't look back. Just shuffled away with his stupid backpack hanging off one shoulder, probably thinking about what video games he'd play when he got home. Ungrateful jerk. Two bullies had cornered him behind the school, demanding his money, and I'd stepped in despite this weird headache I'd had since morning.

Today felt off, strange. Like I was forgetting something important.

Like I'd lived through this day before.

Like… like Deja Vu… I must be tripping.

Still, I didn't regret helping him. Maybe all those "heroes" around the world were getting to me through their speech – the Fantastic Four making headlines with their space adventures, Spider-Man swinging around New York stopping muggers, and recently Tony Stark with that Iron suit of his. But was it wrong to want to stand up for someone who couldn't stand up for themselves?

Hey, at least I'd saved the kid's summer vacation money. Even if he'd been ready to hand it over just to avoid a beating, I didn't see it that way. In my book, I'd done a hero's work.

Beeeeeep!

Loud truck horns yanked me out of my daze. I spun around to see a massive RV pulling over to the curb – not just any RV, but one with "Rust Bucket" stenciled on the side. The door swung open, and a burly older man in a garish Hawaiian shirt waved at me from the driver's seat.

"Ben! There you are!" Grandpa Max's voice boomed across the sidewalk. "Ready for the summer of a lifetime?"

I couldn't help but grin despite my throbbing eyes. "Grandpa Max! You're early."

"Traffic was lighter than expected." He gestured for me to come closer. "Got everything packed?"

"Yeah, just the one bag." I hefted my backpack. "I travel light."

"That's my boy! Hop in, I've got a surprise for you."

"Is it that fishing trip you promised? The one up at Lake Havasu?"

Grandpa Max's eyes crinkled at the corners. "Even better. We're going cross-country this year! National parks, strange roadside attractions, the works."

"Sweet!" I climbed the steps into the RV, instantly hit by the familiar smell of motor oil and Grandpa's weird cooking experiments.

"Ow, you look beat. What happened?" Grandpa asked once I was inside.

I dropped my bag on the floor with a sigh. "Nothing much. Just saving some guy from getting his money taken by bullies."

Grandpa Max laughed and clapped my shoulder. "That's my grandson! Standing up for the little guy."

A snort came from somewhere behind me. "More like the big guy. That kid was twice your size."

I froze. That… that voice. That smug, know-it-all voice that haunted family reunions and holiday dinners. Turning slowly toward the back of the RV, I spotted her – orange hair tied back, arms crossed, and that look on her face like she'd just caught me stealing the last cookie.

"…What the fuck are you doing here, nerd?" The words tumbled out before I could stop them.

"Language, young man," Grandpa said from behind me, but I barely heard him.

"Watch it, dweeb," Gwen shot back, closing her laptop with a snap. "Mom thought it would be good if I went with Grandpa. Since it's my third year in high school just like you, it'll be my last summer vacation before senior year. She thought it'd be a fun trip with Grandpa. I didn't know some annoying prick would be coming along too."

"You've got to be kidding me." I ran my hand through my hair. "I was looking forward to a summer without homework, tests, or annoying know-it-alls."

"Trust me, I'm not thrilled either." Gwen rolled her eyes so hard I thought they might fall out of her head. "Three months trapped in a metal box with Mr. Personal Hygiene Optional."

"Hey, I shower!"

"Yeah, like once a week."

"At least I don't spend three hours in the bathroom every morning!"

"That was ONE time, and I was fixing my hair for graduation photos!"

Grandpa Max's laughter cut through our bickering as he started the engine. "Looks like this is going to be a longgggg summer." He pulled away from the curb, humming cheerfully while Gwen and I glared at each other from opposite ends of the RV.

****

The first day of our cross-country trip was as awkward as expected.

Grandpa Max kept pointing out bizarre roadside attractions while Gwen had her nose buried in some advanced physics textbook. I mostly stared out the window, imagining I was literally anywhere else. After driving for hours through increasingly rural areas, we finally stopped at some campground buried in the woods.

I escaped the confines of the Rust Bucket the moment Grandpa parked. Freedom at last. I liked the smell of this forest much better than the polluted New York City.

Now I sat on a weathered wooden bench near our campsite, hunched over my phone. The fan-made Spider-Man mobile game I downloaded last week was surprisingly addictive. The graphics weren't half bad, and web-slinging through a pixelated New York beat listening to Gwen's keyboard clacking any day.

"Take that, Rhino!" I muttered, tapping furiously as my Spider-Man character delivered a perfect combo.

I wondered if the real Spider-Man knew about this game. Could superheroes sue for using their likeness? Probably not when half of them wore masks. If this was an Iron Man game instead, things would have been entirely different, I bet.

About twenty feet away, Gwen had claimed an entire picnic table as her personal office. She'd put on those nerdy glasses she only wore when doing serious computer work. The tinny sound of a woman's voice drifted over from her laptop speakers.

"—and then the molecular structure just completely reconfigured itself!" Sue Storm, Invisible Woman, had a voice I’d recognise anywhere as it was carried out of Gwen’s laptop. "Ugh… we, there I was, trying to develop a more flexible polymer for Reed's latest project, and somehow ended up with this amazing skin cream instead. It's so embarrassing! I mean, I'm supposed to be working on interdimensional physics, not... beauty products. But here we are."

I snorted as the woman continued her awkward infomercial.

"But the cellular regeneration properties are actually quite remarkable... not that I'm suggesting anyone needs skin repair, of course! Oh God, I'm terrible at this. Can we start over? Reed, is this thing still recording?"

“...Susan dear, it’s Live.”

“Oh.”

Gwen leaned closer to her screen, completely absorbed. Probably taking notes like the proper little nerd she was.

The Rust Bucket's door swung open with a creak, and Grandpa Max emerged holding a giant bag of marshmallows aloft like a trophy.

"Who's ready for an old-fashioned campfire?" he announced cheerfully. "The fire pit's all set up! Come on, let your grandpa tell you some stories from the good old days. Stop watching those screens. Back in my days…!"

He kept talking, but I continued playing. "Maybe later, Gramps. Gwen's busy searching for a cure for her ugly pimples."

Gwen's head snapped up instantly. "I heard that, jerk!" She slammed her laptop shut. "At least I'm doing something productive instead of wasting my brain cells on dumb games. Though I guess you don't have many to spare!"

"Oh yeah? At least I don't need the Fantastic Four's beauty tips to get a date!" I shot back. “I heard you still don’t have a boyfriend yet? Hah, loser.”

“You're acting like you’re different? At least I’m single because I’m busy with my studies. You saw me read that physics book even during vacation. What about you? Prick,” she said, and I fell silent.

Grandpa Max sighed. "I thought you two might have outgrown this by now. You’re not 10-year-olds anymore, you know? You guys are eight years too old for this.”

Gwen stood up, gathering her things with exaggerated huffiness. "Well, I'm going to finish my work inside where certain immature little boys can't bother me."

She turned to stomp away, and I couldn't help but notice how nicely her leggings hugged her figure as she walked. Damn, she really did… grow… up these past few years.

The awkward, skinny cousin had somehow transformed into—

Ugh, what was I thinking? This summer heat was clearly frying my brain.

"Whatever," I muttered, clicking my tongue in annoyance as I pocketed my phone. "I'm going for a walk." I pushed off the bench, heading toward the denser part of the forest. "Don't wait for me to eat."

"...Just be back before dark!" Grandpa called after me.

I waved without looking back, following a narrow dirt path into the trees. Clearly, there was something weird today, so I needed a breath of fresh air. The deja vu, the weird thought toward Gwen, hopefully all of it will be over soon.

That was the plan, anyway. But the deeper I went, the more this weird sensation of deja vu intensified. It was like walking through a dream I'd forgotten until now.

The feeling had been haunting me all day, but here, it worsened. Surrounded by towering pines and the earthy smell of the forest floor, it hit me like a physical wave.

Just what was up with this day?

I kept walking, pushing aside low-hanging branches until I found myself in a small clearing. The evening sky stretched overhead, stars bright since the daylight had faded. Huh… how long have I been walking for?

Something bright caught my eye—a streak of light cutting across the dark blue. A shooting star, moving faster and brighter than any I'd ever seen.

"Oh, a shooting star!" I whispered, feeling a childish urge to make a wish. Why not? No one was around to mock me. I closed my eyes. "I... I wish I get superpow—"

The words died in my throat as the light suddenly changed direction. My eyes snapped open. The "star" was no longer arcing gracefully across the sky—it was coming straight at me.

"Shit."

I turned and ran, branches whipping against my face as I tried to escape whatever cosmic missile had targeted me. The forest lit up around me, shadows stretching wildly as the light grew brighter.

BOOM!

The impact knocked me off my feet. I tumbled forward, barely missing being crushed as something crashed into the spot where I'd been standing seconds ago. Dust and debris filled the air, making me cough and squint through watering eyes.

When the initial cloud settled, I cautiously approached the small crater that had formed. Heat radiated from the depression in the ground, but curiosity pulled me forward anyway.

Even now, the sense of deja vu tingled.

Peering down from the edge of the crater, I spotted something that definitely wasn't a regular meteorite. It was metallic, perfectly round, and gleaming despite the dirt and smoke surrounding it.

"...Could it be Iron Man's helmet or something?"

My heart raced as I scrambled down into the crater. Finding a piece of Stark tech would be the coolest thing ever.

But as I reached for the object, it suddenly hissed and split open like some sci-fi egg. Inside wasn't a helmet—it was a… a watch? A strange, bulky handwatch unlike anything I'd ever seen, with an odd hourglass symbol on its face.

The weird deja vu feeling exploded into full-blown recognition right then, though I couldn't place why. Something about this watch seemed impossibly familiar.

I took a quick step back. "...Probably should get Grandpa here."

Before I could turn to leave, the watch sprang to life. It jumped from its container as if it were alive, flying toward me like it had a mind of its own. I yelped and raised my left arm defensively.

The device latched onto my wrist with a metallic snap.

"Get off!" I shouted, tugging at it frantically, but it was sealed tight. After a moment of panic, I realized it wasn't hurting me. In fact, it felt almost… right.

I climbed out of the crater first, heart pounding as I examined my new accessory. The watch was surprisingly lightweight despite its bulky appearance. When I poked at its face, it suddenly raised up like a platform, displaying a shadowy figure silhouette.

"What the fuck..." I whispered, turning my wrist to see it better. I really hoped this thing wouldn't explode or inject me with alien poison or something.

Curiosity won out over caution. I pressed down on the raised face.

The watch erupted in a brilliant green light, engulfing me completely.

In that blinding flash, my… Benjamin Tennyson's… consciousness winked out.

****

Ben 10… Ben 10 Alien Force… Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, Ben 10 Omniverse, and that one thing we don't talk about. I've watched them all.

I was also familiar with Marvel Comics and Movies. Memories of watching all those shows hummed, including memories of a life I'd lead vivid and clear. All that returned to me in an instant as the transformation took place.

It wasn't the soul of someone taking over, as I’d read in some novels; it was more like the awakening of a past life.

For some reason, the Omnitrix transformation was the catalyst that properly awakened these memories. But I've always had them. Looking back, I recognized strange things sometimes that didn't make sense, but now… now I was really here…

I felt whole.

I didn’t know how, I didn’t know why, but after passing away in my last life, I’d been reborn in this weird amalgamation world with my memories waiting to be unsealed. It was… awesome!

“...Wait,” I paused. My happiness of regaining my sense of self didn't last long. Because when I opened my eyes again, the world had gone ablaze.

"Holy shit!" I stumbled backward, nearly tripping over a burning log.

The forest around me crackled with flames that seemed to have erupted from nowhere. Except they hadn't come from nowhere—they'd come from me.

Looking down at my body, I saw nothing but living fire where my skin should have been. My hands were molten rock crisscrossed with glowing orange fissures.

Heatblast. I'd transformed into freaking Heatblast!

This was both awesome and terrible. Awesome because—well, Ben 10, Omnitrix… super powers! Terrible because I was standing in the middle of a very dry forest that was now catching fire faster than I could process.

"Crap, crap, crap!" I spun around, watching helplessly as the flames leapt from tree to tree. At this rate, the entire forest would be ash in minutes. People could get hurt. The campground wasn't far. Gwen and Grandpa Max were—

Wait. I had fire powers. Surely I could control this?

I raised my hand toward the nearest burning tree, willing the flames to die down, to return to me, to do anything besides spread. Nothing happened except a fresh burst of fire shot from my palm, igniting another section of underbrush. Uh oh.

"WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?!"

I whipped around to see Gwen standing at the edge of the clearing, fire extinguisher clutched in her white-knuckled hands. Her eyes were wide as dinner plates, fixed not on the forest fire but on me—the walking inferno where her cousin should have been.

"Oh..." I said lamely, giving an awkward little wave that sent a few sparks flying.

Gwen pointed the fire extinguisher directly at me. "D-don't come any closer!"

"Gwen, it's me," I said, rubbing the back of my head. The sensation was weird—like scratching rocks together. "It's a little complicated, but this meteorite fell from the sky, but turns out it's not a meteorite but this weird handwatch, and boom... suddenly I am this creature thing."

"Sure thing, monster!" She didn't hesitate, blasting me with a face full of white chemical foam.

I coughed and sputtered, waving my arms in front of my face. The extinguisher spray tickled my throat in the worst way possible.

"You annoying nerd– stop this!" I growled, flicking my finger in frustration. A tiny spark flew from my hand and—to my horror—landed directly on her shoe, which immediately caught fire.

“Eek!” Gwen screamed, aiming the extinguisher downward and dousing her foot in foam. The flame went out with a pathetic sizzle. I couldn't help it and burst out laughing. It was very funny seeing her panic.

She looked up at me with a murderous glare. "You're the worst cousin ever!"

"So you believe it's me?" I asked hopefully.

"What's going on here?!"

Just when things were getting heated… no pun intended… Grandpa Max rushed into the clearing. He froze, eyes widening as they landed on my flaming body, then narrowing as they focused on the hourglass symbol in the center of my chest.

"What in the..."

"Grandpa, it's Ben!" Gwen shouted, pointing at me like I was some zoo exhibit.

"Ben?! What happened?!" He didn't sound scared—more shocked and maybe a little… knowing? Well, of course, he recognized the symbol.

"I-I don't know. This meteorite fell and—"

"Hello?? Can't you put this fire out first? We're all gonna die otherwise! Well maybe not you, but us." Gwen cut me off, waving frantically at the still-spreading forest fire. "Do it like Human Torch! Can't you suck the flames in?!"

"I was thinking the same thing," I admitted.

"Sure." Gwen rolled her eyes. “And you didn’t already do it because?”

"Shut up," I snapped, turning to face the flames. I had no clue how to control these powers, but with my newly unlocked memories of the show, I had some theoretical knowledge at least. I just needed to trust my instincts.

I raised my palm toward the wall of fire, took a deep breath, and concentrated. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, as if responding to some unspoken command, the flames began to bend toward me. They streamed through the air like fiery rivers, flowing into my outstretched hand, being absorbed into my molten body.

"Oh." I blinked in surprise as the last embers disappeared into my chest.

"It worked!" Gwen's voice held a mix of relief and amazement.

I couldn't help but grin. The sensation of absorbing the fire was incredible—like drinking cold water when you didn't realize how thirsty you were. I felt energized, powerful. I'd just used alien powers that I'd only seen on TV before!

This summer vacation... it was turning out to be the best thing ever.

**

**

**