Chapter Text
It was a rather gloomy day in Bellwood, the concrete jungle composed primarily of tall, grey apartments and the rare small tree sticking from a grey sidewalk, certainty not the loveliest place to live in Ireland, i would say....
In the middle of this ocean of grey, a young, somewhat tall red haired youth that was wearing a white hoodie with black stripes and a big, bold number 10 on the middle of his back was minding his own business, just having a walk through the sea of cement and recently built buildings, thinking of his own problems:
“Crap....Tomorrow i got 6 exams in the same day while the big baseball game will start exactly 20 minutes after i get out of school... I really should have dropped out of high school when i had the chance!”
The young man was quite frustrated, he was quite successful in life yet he was feeling rather dreadful, like there was nothing to be excited about these days, the same old thing happening every single day:
“It's been 4 years of the same old garbage they’ve been teaching us for over a decade, and the old guy is already enrolling me to Trinity! When will i ever break this boring routine! I'm tired of it, I'm tired of being called a prodigy all day when the best i can do is being good with numbers! I can't even be a professional athlete; no one wants to scout me!”
The youth kicks a rock on the ground out of frustration before continuing his walk, the same old routine walks he has been doing since he was 10 years old:
“I cannot wait to move out of this stupid town! Dublin will be more interesting atleast... I really should just drop out of college and do something else though.... Hmmm... maybe i could ask Devin to teach me the basics of being a mechanic....“
While our red headed fellow talks to himself, the sky almost shatters as a giant meteorite appears: it's about to collide with Earth!
The young lad however didn't seem to see the rather large meteorite fastly approaching his area, and right as he was about to message his good old pal Devin, the meteorite SLAMMED onto the ground, a few meters before him.
“AHHH! What is that?” the youngling shouted before slowly approaching the rock.... or rather, the pod.
As he slowly creeps his face to see the crater, the rock seemingly opens up while releasing quite the smoke, which forces our “hero” to cover his mouth and to try not to breathe the weird, fine, green mist.
“Cough Cough.... Well, now this is cool! i found a meteori-”
Before the lad could even finish his sentence, the rock opened up completely and some blob immediately shot itself onto the guy, attaching itself to his wrist.
He started panicking, shouting for help:
“WHAT IS THIS! SOMEONE HELP ME!”
The lad was frantically moving his arms to try and remove the weird thing that had attached itself onto himself, moving from part to part in a panicked fashion, he had never felt such a melting burn feeling on his wrist before, as the panicked lad continued to move, he eventually hitting a wall with his wrist.
In that moment, the youth started to transform: first his arms widened and became larger and covered in a thick icy blue fur, then his head slowly morphed into a gorilla-like shape with small, green eyes and a beanie he never owned before appeared on his head, his body enlarged and became more muscular as well as full of the same fur as his arms, and then, his legs transformed in smaller, stubbier versions of themselves, while his feet turned into hand-like appendixes: the young lad had seemingly transformed into a primate!
“WOAH! Wh-What happened? Why am i taller? What is this??”
The youth started to touch his body, feeling the fur that had formed all over his new, monstrous shaped corporal form.
“I slammed that thing and now I'm a monster! And why is the temperature far hotter now? Its barely 3 Celsius!” The youth started to say to himself while checking his new body “Why are my hands so big? And why do they have a hole? And why are my legs so weak!” He continued to say while putting his hands on the ground for better mobility, however, after putting them, he started to freeze the entire sidewalk!
“Ice? Do i just...produce ice now??? How does this even work....”
Our new monstrous hero was starting to adjust to his body by walking with his arms like a primate and trying not to glaciate the entire neighborhood, Moving as fast as he could by flinging his body like a 300 pound wrecking ball thanks to his newfound strength, trying not to hit any building with his immense force, in the same neighborhood, an old, wrinkly and rather poorly dressed lady was minding her own business through the streets when a thief dressed in pure black with a ski mask started harassing her:
“Hey there grandma, give me your purse or you’ll get the shank!”
The old lady started shouting for help, something that our “alien” heard: he immediately tried to get there as fast as a 300-pound gorilla-like creature could go at, he eventually found the thief, about to shank the old lady.
Our hero didn't waste a single moment and immediately lounged at the man, touching him with his hands and freezing both of his arms.
“You aren't actually going to stab the old lady, right?”
The thief could barely look at him in shock, simply shouting:
“PLEASE LET ME LIVE! I’M SORRY!”
The old lady had lost consciousness before she could even see the giant primate that had saved her life, so he simply took the purse and the old lady, put them in a resting position, and asked the man for a cellphone:
“Ey, you dont mind if i call an ambulance with your phone right? Y’know, since the lady’s quite, uhm, you know, unconscious?”
The iced-up thief couldn't do much except feel a gigantic hand ravage his favorite shirt in search of a cellphone and complain:
“Can you be a bit more careful with my shirt? My wife bought it for my birthday!”
Our primate fellow just continued to break both of the shirt’s pockets:
“I doubt your wife would like to know that her husband threatens elderly people! So shut up before i find her!”
The thief immediately closed his mouth, not wanting to risk the second most embarrassing thing of his entire life: A divorce.
Our hero finally found his cellphone and tried to call the emergency services, or well, he would have if his fingers hadn't become enormous:
“Goddamn it i can't dial the phone number!” - He said full of annoyance in his voice - “Oh well uh......stay here alright! If you move, I'll make you an ice block, got it?”
The thief couldn't move to begin with.
He immediately started flinging himself through the air in search of someone that could call, but it seemed like everyone was too busy to strike up a conversation with a giant ape, so he just continued searching until a weird beeping started playing:
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP
Our hero was confused for a second, but then, out of nowhere, a red flash turned him back into his human form!
“...What? Did i just....did i just return human????”
However, he knew he couldn't just stay there confused, so he immediately called the authorities on the man, whom he hadn't seen him go from a Gorilla to a human once again, and so was quite confused as to who was this man:
“Where is the big hairy ice guy? Who are you kid?”
Our protagonist simply said:
“None of your business buddy, now if you excuse me... I gotta go home, have fun with the police!”
The youth immediately ran away, while the man was still blocked from the ice, just waiting for the police to arrive and take him for interrogation.
He blitzed through the streets of Bellwood to arrive at his apartment block, a monotonously grey and white building without much personality, all while looking at the mysterious device that had attached onto his wrist: A Green and black watch-like device with a large dial that formed a hourglass shape, it was rather bulky and covered the entirety of his wrist, but most importantly, he couldn't remove it.
He tried with force to get rid of it, using all the strength in his arms to remove it, but nothing, it wouldn't budge!
“Now how do i tell my parents what just happened.... I guess i can just tuck the “watch” into my hoodie and pretend nothing happened, yeah....”
Our watchwearer entered his home, greeted a wrinkly, balding, slightly fat tank-top wearing short man with a moustache so thick an entire habitat could grow inside of it, and then bolted in his room, was this what would finally turn his life around and give it some spice after the blandness of it all? All he could think about, minus the burning feeling his wrist still had, was the possibilities of this device:
“That was AWESOME! So this thing can turn me into an ice gorilla? This means i can be some badass vigilante! What name could i get? Icerilla, perhaps? Ahhh i finally have something to break my routine with! No more stupid exams, no more hanging out in this town just to do nothing, i can be an hero! How sick is that! Hell yeah i gotta tell-”
In the moment he said that, however, he thought of something else:
“I cannot tell anyone about this thing, what if the thief connects the dots and tells the police about it? I don't want a bunch of Gardai on my door every day! Better if i just keep using this thing in secret sometimes....”
Our red-haired lad started to toy around with the watch, rotating the dial to reveal the forms he could turn into one by one:
“Alright let's see.... That’s the guy i turned into before, hmm... Gooey guy, wonder what he does! Let's see.... Black silhouette man? Looks boring.... Hmmm.... Oh, this guy got four arms! That's sick! And this other one looks like some weird oil rig thing... hmm... i think i should give them names eventually, maybe for some badass effect entrance, like “Look I'm the invincible Icerilla!”, haha!”
Before he could spoil himself the surprise of all the other forms he could turn into, his “father” shouted from the living room:
“BEEEEEEEEN! COME SEE THE NEWS! YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!”
“So his name is Ben? Fascinating....”
Great thinker Azmuth! Can you not stop me while I'm narrating what I'm seeing and hearing from my drone?
“You are being so dramatic about it Drayaxx! I don’t need you to narrate everything, i still got an eye you know?”
Well let’s just say that i wanted to keep you some company while you’re in your regenerative pod! The attack you received back on Planet Fuse left you into a near death state and you know, i thought keeping you company would have-
The Slim, slightly feminine lab coat wearing Chimerian Sui Generis was immediately shushed by the Galvan genius, whom had recently been damaged after an encounter with the dangerous fauna of a planet and therefore had to be put inside a healing pod:
“Instead of bothering me with your stupid little stories, how about you let me watch MY second most precious creation be used by some kid from Earth when it was supposed to be sent to Galvan Prime! How did you and Albedo mess up the coordinates anyways?”
The Chimerian couldn’t say much, apart from a single “I apologize”, before leaving the room, an area full of blueprints and alien architecture of various kinds, including numerous unfinished cores that looked strikingly similar to Ben’s new watch.
Before the Chimeran could truly leave, however, the Great Thinker asked him one favor:
“Drayaxx, tell Albedo to create a working prototype of my final design for the Omnitrix, just in case i have to send either you or him to Earth to retrieve our prototype! I’ll be following this child very closely....”
The Chimerian nodded and ran into Albedo’s laboratory, a rather messy and unorganized place full of alien devices and weird magazines, much to the dismay of the other Galvan genius:
“Augh... don’t you see I'm busy, Drayaxx? I’m trying to read the new issue of the Mechamorph Times!”
“Albedo, Great Thinker Azmuth has asked for you to create a working version of the Ultimate Omnitrix, you know, the project he was working on before....The accident”
Albedo’s eyes widened, such a prestigious opportunity to create a DNA Altering device didn’t certainly come every day, especially when your employer was a thousand-year-old grumpy tech enthusiast:
“ARE YOU SERIOUS? ME? CREATING THE ULTIMATRIX?” Albedo said with as much joy as preoccupation, after all, it was quite the project.
“Well, a prototype of it” - Drayaxx explained - “Remember the Omnitrix prototype we sent to the wrong coordinates?”
“Yes? What about it?” - Albedo naively asked, thinking Planet Earth was nothing more than a desolate land full of primitive monkeys, so he wasn’t quite as bothered
“Some human took it and, well, just in case things get a bit dangerous, it would be better if we prepare ourselves to retrieve it” - Drayaxx mentioned - “Great Thinker Azmuth will be following every single movement of his through a special drone i managed to sneak into the pod, he won't be able to see it unless he manages to get access to Prypiatosian-B DNA or any other species that can feel Gamma radiations”
Albedo was so happy for the opportunity that he immediately started working on it, not even bothering to tell Drayaxx anything other than an enthusiastic “LEAVE! A MASTER IS AT WORK!”
While the two prodigies of Galvan Prime’s greatest inventor were busy, Azmuth simply watched the drone’s feed silently...
“BEEEEEEN!”
“I’M COMING!!” Ben said, as he started to put himself into his favorite pajama: a green, wooly pajama with a bunch of black 10’s repeating all over the shirt.
“What is it Giuseppe?” - Ben asked his stepfather
“See figliolo! Dei are showing a crime!” His paternal figure said in his rather...peculiar English, after all, he was an Italian immigrant who had recently moved out of Bari, so he wasn’t particularly good at speaking the language, however he was oddly killer at speaking in Irish Gaelic for some reason!
The tv showed a news report: “a Thief has been found with both of his arms completely frozen solid! The thief was found on Saint Patrick Street alongside an elderly woman who had lost consciousness, his shirt had been ripped by what he called a “Giant frozen ape”, authorities are currently checking for any signs of drug usage by the man, his victim has seemingly not seen the mysterious ape”
Giuseppe looked with stars in his eyes, shouting and pointing at the tv:
“FIGLIOLO! YOU SEE! ALIENS ARE REAL! ALIENS ARE REAL! I NEW IT!”
Giuseppe had always been interested in alien life, the house was decorated with alien themed memorabilia everywhere, from the UFO shaped carpets to the numerous bobbleheads, he was an alien afficionado through and through.
“Giuseppe you know aliens aren't real! Don't be silly!” - Ben told him, scared that he might notice the bulging device from his pajama’s sleeves, not really because of the consequences but rather because if he did find out he could turn into an alien he would pester him all day!
“Came on Beniamino! You now how much me love space!” - Giuseppe said - “I got to find that... uhm... how did de reporter sai again?” - Giuseppe exclaimed as he quite literally couldn't pronounce the word ape.
“I understand man.... Well i guess one day we could go search for it, just like how we did last year for the Loch Ness monster” - Ben told his stepfather, despite his eccentricities he was still a good man, a bit weird sometimes but definitely better than his actual dad....
“I promise you Ben I will bring you with me and your sorella to search for it!” - Giuseppe exclaimed enthusiastically while gesticulating loudly - “Me want you and me to be a bit more connected! Like a roadtrip!”
Ben looked at his stepfather with a smile and then went to his room to tinker a bunch with the watch, eventually, after a dinner and a shower, he went to sleep.....
When he woke up, Ben did his usual routine: Clean up at 5 am, 1 hour of running from 5:30 am to 6:30 am, then eggs and bacon and he’s ready to go to school by 7 am, the usual for him.
While walking through the same boring streets, however, he had a thought and a mischievous smile on his face....
“Hmm.... instead of walking i could always use Icerilla to fling myself...”
Without even a thought, he slammed his palm onto the dial: Suddenly his spine shifted into an arched quadruped asset, his fingers fused and became powerful paws with long claws, the last part of his spine turned into a rather fluffy tail, and his arms became bulky just as his head, who’s green eyes were protected by a mask-like patch of black fur that extended all over his navy blue furry body.
“ICERIL- No?” - Ben started shouting before noticing his lack of height - “Who is this?”
Ben didn’t know who he had just transformed into, he had really checked a few other of his new transformations, but this guy was a new one for sure!
“I’m like, some weird panther guy?” - Ben examined his new body, his paws were massive, so were his legs, which became incredibly muscular - “I guess I'll just find out myself”
Ben started moving like a beast, using his paws to walk around like a lion in the savannah, but as he did, he started to notice how much faster he was moving, much, much faster than usual, he couldn’t stop himself! He started to go so fast he started to hit cars with his muscular body, his eyesight was in slow motion, but his speed was beyond anything Earth had ever seen, so fast in fact that he eventually slammed with his whole body into a bank’s wall!
“Oh god....” - Ben could only say this after having basically destroyed an entire wall with just his body, but right as he was about to get back on the move, he noticed a bunch of shady people with guns: A robbery was happening!
“Open up everything or we are shooting!” - One of the robbers said - “You better not be calling the police!” - Another one of them said, while the bank worker, frightened, put their hands at the sky and slowly walked to the caveau.
What the robbers didn’t notice, however, was a panther-like creature coming straight at them with all it’s might: Ben suddenly jumped onto one of the robbers and roared in their face, his fellow thief simply running away screaming, while Ben followed them with his speed.
“Start the car at full speed!” - One of the robbers said to a man inside a black van, thinking they could get away from the panther creature, but right as the man was about to start the car, Ben jumped off the robber he had jumped on and with one swift swing of his claws, he tumbled the car out of the road and into a building.
“Oops?” - Ben said, before getting on the move again: He was about to be late for school..... And he also didn’t want to return human and have to be incarcerated by the Gardai!
“This guy is quite the hassle to use....” - Ben thought to himself, from his uncontrollable speed to its slowed perception of reality, it definitely wasn’t as great as Icerilla, at least not to Ben - “But the speed is appreciated, that's for sure!” - He said as he continued to run, throwing cars out of the road and making people fall from the wind his high speeds produced.
Eventually, he managed to arrive to his school, however, he had to wait for the watch to turn him human, so he threw himself into a bush and waited until he turned back into his everyday look
BEEP, BEEP, BEEEEEEEP...
A red flash engulfed him, and as he turned back into a human, he got out of the bush and finally arrived at his classroom....
“DECIMI! YOU ARE LATE AGAIN!” - A Yellow-ish, somehow formally dressed man shouted at our hero - “What is your excuse today?”
Ben scratched his head in search for any leaf that could have been stuck on his curly red hair, sticked his tongue out a little and said “I had problems with the bus Mr. Animo, i apologize”
The man grinded his crocked teeth and simply told Ben to get into his seat.
As Ben was walking into his desk that he shared with his good pal Devin, a short haired, purple sleeveless jacket wearing girl was waving at him, something that made Ben scoff as hard as he could before sitting on a rather cold chair, and right as he did, he started talking with this rather tall but slightly fat, balding fellow with a thermical black shirt and a gold chain:
“Hey Devin, how are you today buddy?” - Ben told to his friend - “Did you fix that beetle you bought a bunch-a days ago?”
“It’s not a beetle, Ben! It's a “Maggiolino”! It’s different!” - Devin scolded his friend for the lack of knowledge, cars were his jam, his favorite pass time was fixing abandoned or old cars and keeping them well maintained in his massive garage - “Anyways, yeah, all she really needed was a cleanup and a change of oil, and then boom! She was good to go! You should have seen her go” - He said with pride, like a father with their child... If their child was made of metal and petrol, that is.
“Speaking of she.... Gwendolyn was bothering me and asking me were you where” - Devin continued, lowering his voice a slight bit so she wouldn’t hear him - “She’s truly the worst, i wish she took someone else to her “liking” instead of us two”
“What can i say, Devin... Girls be girls!” - Ben exclaimed while getting his pencils and his books out of his bag - “You know, I'd rather have her bother me than have to do one of Animo’s surprise exams, let me tell you!”
Right as he said this, the teacher immediately jumped out of his chair and simply shouted two words: “SURPRISE! EXAM!”
The class loudly sighed.
As Ben and Devin prepared themselves for the exam, the drone’s feed suddenly disconnected, causing Azmuth to shout Drayaxx’s name from his pod.
“Great Thinker Azmuth! What has happened?” - The ever so loyal Drayaxx asked to the Galvan.
“Look for yourself! The feed has been seemingly hijacked!” - Azmuth replied with quite a bit of anger in his voice - “Get the signal back online or I'll make sure to bring an Arburian Polypedo in this exact office, you understood?”
Drayaxx shivered at the mere mention of that creature, left a little “On it” from his mouth and then started to fix the camera feed, but in his mind, there was only one question: Who could have hijacked the signal, who could have been so interested in the Omnitrix?
"My Lord, we have spotted a signal on Planet Earth, it’s a security drone” - a mysterious black and gold colored alien with one eye and two ponytail-like appendages that end with two golden plug-like extremities said to a shadowy figure, a Chimerian Sui Generis that sat on a throne - “Do you wish for me to connect the ship to its feed?”
“Connect the Hammer to it, if the signal was picked up by Vilgaxia’s finest ship, then it must mean that it’s not an Earthling piece of technology” - The Shadowy figure said to its henchman - “If it’s what I've been searching for over 100 years, then it will be worth it”
As the henchman connected the drone’s feed into the largest screen of the ship, the shadowy figure watched in awe as Ben pressed the dial in the middle of a unhabitated field: He saw the teen go from a simple human to a new form, his skin was replaced by dark rocks with moss, a surge of electricity permeated through his legs and his arms, his face was replaced by a golem-like mask that lit up with pure thunder, the shadowy figure could not believe it, a device so small could turn someone into a more powerful specie?
He had to have it.
“HDMicheal, set our trajectory to planet Earth! I need that watch” - The Chimerian shouted - “That device is even better than Ascalon! This will be the weapon that will help me save Vilgaxia from the war against the Megalith!”
“Lord Vilgax, are you sure we should go to that planet? What if-”
Before the henchman could finish his talking, Vilgax simply said:
“It’s this, or your daughter’s life”
“Choose wisely, Conductoid”
HDMicheal didn’t even release one word out of his mouth, as he put the coordinates to our planet, while Vilgax went out of the shadows to admire the view of space, holding his hand on his henchman’s shoulder.
“With this device, I'll be able to save your planet, too” - Vilgax said - “The Megaliths have been too much of a thorn for my plans of conquest, and when they invaded my people, it was truly the last straw” - He continued, shedding some tears - “I apologize for bringing your daughter into this as well, but her hybrid abilities have been more then helpful for the war”
HDMicheal shivered, he feared for his daughter’s life, but all he could do was work with the conqueror that had enslaved his planet, and hope that whoever that teenager was, could stop him.
As the ship continued to move into Earth, Ben and his friends didn’t know that soon enough, they would be involved into a war of proportions no human had ever seen.
And it all started with an alien device that did what it did.