A/N:
" " : Speech,
' ' : Thought.
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Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA, North America, Earth.
Omniscient POV
Cassandra Tennant, born Cassandra Mackenzie, was a woman with a tragic yet hopeful story. She was born into an abusive household, where her mother was lucky enough to have developed superpowers and rather than use them to contribute positively to society in one way or another, she instead decided to practically enslave her husband and try to force her child to grow into the mold that she wanted.
This happened in her earlier years and continued until mid-teens, when her mother decided that her father slaving away to provide for the family and forcing himself to work at home even after long days at work just wasn't enough for her tastes, and decided to go into supervillainy. She had successfully been able to rob different establishments and even secure a place as an enforcer for a crime lord, what with her enhanced physique.
One would think that this would have caused her to slow up on her abuse of her husband and daughter, but Janice Mackenzie, or as she was known amongst other criminals, Janus, was egotistic to an unreasonable degree. So instead of letting up on her abuse, it instead intensified, with her beating her husband and berating him for not providing enough money. When she noticed that Cassandra didn't seem to be developing any abilities, Janice also began to physically abuse her, saying that she was disappointed that Cassandra wasn't turning out like her or developing superpowers.
Janus' fall came when a rival crime lord's enforcer attacked her home, while Cassandra and her father were also in the house. The rival enforcer killed her in the fight, but the damage to the building caused by the fight was extensive. Her father saved her life by pushing her out of the way when a large piece of rubble fell, but couldn't get out of the way himself, leading to him being crushed by said rubble.
Seeing her father die to save her broke Cassandra, as the one person she knew cared about her had been taken from her, all as a result of her mother's ego and greed. For the next few years, she went through life with a persistent cloud over her head, simply… existing. That was until she met the man that would eventually become her husband, Francis Tennant.
He brought a level of happiness to her life that she felt she didn't deserve. He helped her heal from the abuse and get through her grief. She fell hard for him. She was even the one who brought up marriage. He was overjoyed when she did so, and after three years since they met, with her at 19 and him at 21 at the point of meeting, they got married. Two years later, they had their only child Benjamin, who was a source of joy and pride for the both of them.
Francis got a job as a firefighter, and she got a job working for a business firm that had a lot of its efforts directed towards humanitarian activities. With time, they got a home of their own in the suburbs, and for what seemed like the first time in forever, things seemed to be looking up for them. That was until Francis was taken into Death's embrace as well.
He died as a result of a supervillain's attack, which caused an apartment building to catch on fire after the gas lines were compromised. When he and his fellow firefighters reached the building, they rushed in to rescue the people stuck inside. They had been able to come to the conclusion that unless a hero like Red Rush or Omni-Man was able to make it to the building in time, the people would die, if not from the flames and smoke, then from parts of the building collapsing inside.
They were able to get most of the people stuck in the building out, and had gotten the ones with the most damage to EMTs. It was as they were doing this that a woman whose home was on one of the higher floors told them that her baby was still stuck in the building. Francis rushed in to save the child, with two other firefighters following him with axes to break down whatever obstacles would be in the way.
When they got to the floor where the baby was, an explosion went off, engulfing them in flames and killing them with its force. The second man to have saved her perished trying to save someone, just like the first. Losing her father and husband to the fallout of superhumans' actions had understandably given her some trauma, and it had almost caused her to become heavily overprotective of her son, almost to the point of keeping him within her sight at all times.
Now, less than two years since Francis' death, her 17-year-old son had come to her, telling and showing her that he had spontaneously developed superpowers of his own. She was confused as to what she should do or say. She knew her son idolized his father and a few other superheroes, as they put themselves in the way of danger to help others, but at the same time, she was scared for him, scared that he might die from a situation or a supervillain that he couldn't survive.
She could definitely feel the fear she had towards superhumans cropping up, but her love and care for her son, the last person she truly cared for, was much greater. "Mom… Mom!" His voice, raspy and alien, brought her back from her wandering train of thought. She looked into the eyes of the creature that her son had turned into, and even in those alien eyes, she still saw… him. Her boy, the last ember of hope in her life, the greatest proof of her love for her husband. Any fear or hatred that was trying to creep into her immediately vanished.
With a green flash, Ben reverted his transformation and held his mother, as he saw the distress in her eyes. He didn't know much about his mother's past before she met his late father, so he couldn't tell exactly why she was feeling distressed. "Mom, I know that this is pretty big… but I want to be a superhero." He said shakily.
Cassandra let out some breaths to calm herself, wiped her eyes, then settled her eyes on her son with a stern expression. "Benny, I… won't stop you from becoming a hero. However, you must promise me… promise me that you'll return home." She said, her lips quivering as the memory of receiving the news of her husband's death played in her head. Ben could feel that she was a bit averse to him going into heroics, but still wanted to support him as a good mother.
He pursed his lips, then hugged her. "I promise, Mom." He said, then sighed out in relief. "What's wrong?" She asked him, still holding the hug. "Nothing. I just thought that… you wouldn't want me to, you know, become a hero." He said, and she released the hug. "Benny, your father may not have had superpowers, but he was as much of a hero as any of the Guardians of the Globe. If you want to follow in his footsteps and help others, then I won't stop you." She said, then kissed his forehead.
He nodded, stood up, then transformed once again. This time, when the green flash of light vanished, his form was now of a humanoid with a gel-like body and a green and black color scheme in a large circuitry pattern all over its body, and a cyclopean eye in the center of his face. This was a Galvanic Mechamorph, a techno-organic being composed entirely of nanites.
Cassandra's eyes widened, seeing her son transform into another alien creature. "Another transformation?" She asked. "Oh, yeah. I've got a lot of 'em." He said, his voice coming out robotic. "I even transformed into one of them before getting ready for school today." He said, and before she could ask him about that, he seemingly melted, spreading his body throughout the living room.
"What are you doing?" Cassandra asked as she lifted her feet onto the couch. "Checking for bugs and any other spying tech." His robotic voice replied, as his head poked up from the floor. "Why would you think that we'd be getting spied on?" She asked. "If I remember correctly, you said your boss's name was Holly, right?" He asked her in response. "Yeah, but what's my boss got to do with this?" She asked him as he reformed his body.
"Well, I know this might sound crazy, but I'm 80%-95% sure that your boss is War Woman, and that Mr. Grayson is Omni-Man." He said, and she looked at him with a face that said, "Really?". "Like I said, I know it sounds crazy, but I believe that you can actually tell if you just compare their faces. After all, they don't wear masks at all when they're out as superheroes." He said, causing her to actually think about it.
"Okay, so assuming that you're right, what does them being superheroes have to do with us getting bugged?" She asked, setting aside disbelief. "Well, we're friends with the family of the Earth's strongest superhero, and you work with one of its strongest as a direct subordinate. I'd doubt that anyone who knows of their civilian identities wouldn't keep an eye on people that are so close to them." He said from the kitchen, just as he finished checking it for bugs and cameras.
As Cassandra heard that, she thought of the people who would benefit from having knowledge of superheroes' private lives, especially the top heroes of the world. She knew that the Guardians of the Globe had faced of against quite a number of supervillains throughout their time as heroes, but she still couldn't think of any of them that would truly see any benefit in having that knowledge.
"If you ask me, I'd say that the government's probably the only people who could gain anything by having that type of knowledge." He said, quickly coming downstairs after checking both of their bedrooms and bathrooms. "Benny, no offence, but you're really starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist." She said, now starting to feel like he might just be a little paranoid.
"I'm not saying that they'll use it now, just saying that they may want to have that to make contingencies, in the unlikely event that any of them turn against humanity for some reason. I mean, anything could happen." He said, as he reverted to his human form. Cassandra let out a small laugh as she walked over to him and hugged him. "You always were an overthinker. Now, come on. Dinner's starting to get cold… if you didn't freeze it already."
…
Benjamin Everett Tennant POV
After we finished eating dinner, which had to be reheated after I transformed into Big Chill, Mom went in to sleep, probably to reduce the stress on her mind after hearing everything. I didn't want to cause her to not be able to trust me, but now I feel like I've just caused her more worry. She may think that I didn't notice all the times that she's been grieving over Dad, but I did. I know that it's hard for her to allow me to risk my life in heroics, and that's why I'll do whatever I can to be more than prepared for the threats that are coming.
After washing the dishes, I head up to my room and lock the door. Then taking a deep breath, I transform into Ditto. Like Tennyson said back in the show, transforming feels like having a really good stretch, regardless of what you are transforming into. Once I had finished transforming, I immediately began to split into multiple clones of myself, stopping at a dozen total of myself.
"Okay, let's hope this works." I say with a breath, then revert my transformation. And at the same time, my clones transform into my human form. "You." I call out to the clone closest to the door. "Transform to Upgrade." I tell him, and a green flash goes off. Now, instead of another me standing there, a Galvanic Mechamorph is now standing in the room with the rest of me.
Seeing a clone of myself transform into another alien gave me both relief and paranoia. Relief, because I could leave one of them close to Mom at all times, so she has some security. And paranoia, because I knew I couldn't let anyone get their hands on my DNA. For example, Cecil, D.A Sinclair, Robot, or the Mauler Twins. I don't want to have any clones of myself or ReAnimen running around. After he finishes transforming, I tell the Upgrade clone to cover the room and soundproof it.
After that, I sigh out in relief, and put my hands over my lips as I sensed something strange. My breath was cold, and not just a bit cool, but cold. Like, as cold as a meat freezer level of cold. "You all saw that, right?" I say, turning to my clones. "Yeah… but how? You didn't transform into Big Chill." One of them said. "But I did…" I said, trying to piece together an answer to this mystery. "Yeah, over an hour ago. That doesn't make sense." The clone that had transformed into Upgrade said, pointing at my mouth.
"But what if it does?" I said, then transformed into Brainstorm. "Hey!" "Whoa! Be careful with that!" Two of my clones said, backing away from the electricity spilling off me, then I transformed into Grey Matter, and then reverted to my human form. "Science books. Now." I say, and they toss my Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Math textbooks at me. I move faster than I ever have and catch them all, then set them down on the bed and begin flipping through them.
My brain absorbs the knowledge in the pages faster than humanly possible, and after some minutes of silence, I eventually finish flipping through all four books. "Time?" I ask. "Ten minutes. You finished reading through all of those in just Ten minutes." The Upgrade clone said, surprise tinged in its robotic voice. "How?" One of them asks, and I laugh. Not in derision or mockery, but in pure amazement.
"I don't think that I've just got the standard Omnitrix's abilities. I feel like it's something like a fusion of different Omnitrixes that prime timeline Ben used." I say, coming to the only believable conclusion. "Wait. So you mean…?" One of them asks me, and I nod. "Yeah. It's like the Omnitrix from Omniverse and the Omnitrix that Ben 10K from Ultimate Alien were fused together." I say, giving the answer I had pieced together after thinking about it.
"That's insane." One of them said. "Yeah. And it's just what we need to deal with the chaos in this universe." I say, an eager smile on my face. "Now, since we've gotten that mystery out of the way, let's actually begin preparing for the future." I say, then absorb all the copies, save for the one that had transformed into Upgrade.
Not wanting to tempt fate over how many copies of myself without transforming, I turn into Ditto and make another dozen copies, now with the enhancements that I had received from transforming. Unlike the Omnitrix used by Ben 10K in the Ultimate Alien, where he simply transformed his human body while having the abilities of the aliens, what happens with me is that I permanently receive the abilities of the aliens in my human form after transforming into them, but to a lesser extent.
This explains how I damaged Todd so badly with one punch. I received enhanced strength from when I transformed into Fasttrack, as well as a generally enhanced physique, highly enhanced speed, and a much faster processing speed. So even without transforming, I was now superhuman. Reverting my transformation, I take a seat on the bed, and my copies all find some place to sit in the green-tinted room.
"Alright, first things first, the universe we're in. From the details we have, I believe that we're in some sort of amalgam of the comics and the show. So, we have to keep an eye out for pivotal events." I say, and one of my clones chimes up. "From what we know, We have a month at the minimum to prepare for the Guardians' deaths, and 6 months at the max. That should be enough time for us to build up a reputation and fanbase as a hero." He says and I nod in agreement.
"Hey, upgrade those and search for the Teen Team. Let's see how they've been doing since they got active." I say to one of my newly produced copies, pointing to my laptop and phone. "Got it." He says, transforming into Upgrade and entering my laptop, and after permanently upgrading it, moving over to my phone to do the same thing.
"Huh. Turns out they've been active for a while now. Their roster is Atom Eve, Rex Splode, Robot and Dupli-Kate. Exactly as we expected." He says from my phone. "So far, Eve has been active the longest, with Robot coming in second. Dupli-Kate has had the least time as a hero amongst them, which knowing her origin, isn't much of a surprise." He finishes then steps out of my phone, which looks similar to its appearance before he upgraded it… or rather it looked the same as before. The same held true for my laptop.
"Turn into Eye Guy." He says as he transforms back to my human form. I raise an eyebrow at him, then shrug, as I transform into an Opticoid. I move one of the eyes on my shoulder to look at my two devices, and I can only be amazed. Invisible to the human eye and most technologies that exist on Earth are green circuitry patterns, not unlike those on Upgrade. But the aesthetic isn't what makes it amazing. The regular smartphone is still there, but as a functioning shell for the futuristic handheld computer within.
"Impressive." I say, reverting to my human form. "So, we've got some knowledge on the Teen Team and a reasonable time range for Omni-Man taking out the Guardians. But we've got one more thing to work on – our hero persona." I say, putting the last key issue we have to deal with before beginning any major preparations for Omni-Man's crashout.
"So, got any suggestions for a name? It's not like we can go around using Ben 10." I say, and we all go into a contemplative silence. "How about Proteus?" One of them asks. "Like the Marvel mutant?" I ask and he shakes his head. "No. I'm talking about the shapeshifter from Greek mythology." He says, causing a short wave of "Oh, yeah," to come from us, as we recognized the link. "That could work, since we transform and all. But I feel like it doesn't really have that link to ten, you know." I say, and they turn to me with a look that says, "Seriously?!"
"Ehem. I'm just showing respect." I say with a shrug and my face turned away, but I feel them roll their eyes. "Alright, fine. We'll make something that has a link to Ben 10 without revealing our identity." One of them said, clearly exasperated with my decision. "Hmm. How's Helix?" One of them asks after a few more seconds of thought, and receives some unsure murmurs.
"Hey, now. Stay with me here. Our powers allow us to alter ourselves into aliens, DNA included…" He says, and we all nod, wanting to see his logic for the name. "…and the shape of DNA is a double helix. Plus, the name Helix has X in it, giving it the relationship to 10." He says, then leans back onto the wall, clearly proud of his explanation.
"That's actually not bad. However–" I begin saying and he throws his hands up. "Oh, come on. How's that not good enough?! It's practically perfect." He says, clearly annoyed by the rejection. "It's underselling the actual impact of our powers. Like Arthur told Markus, our name has to be iconic. That, and like you said, DNA is shaped like a double helix." I say, and he still looks at me with annoyance, but stays silent.
"And besides, there's a reason why I said that we couldn't use Ben 10. I believe everyone here can tell that we aren't limited to just 10 aliens. It's like we essentially have unrestricted access to the functions of the Omnitrix that are normally behind some wall. So, we have access to all the alien transformations, to which there are over a million. And since our powers are based mainly off the finalized Omnitrix, we can treat them like they're code, or words, and our bodies are the book that holds them. Like we're…" I suddenly stop speaking as a flash of inspiration hits me.
"I've got it." I say with a smile. "Oh, yeah? Well, then. Please, share with us your great suggestion, then." Okay, he's being a bit too salty over the name I'm going to be using. "Codex. Because we're essentially a library of a multitude of alien DNA. And it has the X in it as well." I say the latter part while looking directly at the clone that suggested Helix. "You know, that actually is a good one." One of my copies said. "It sufficiently hides the extent of our abilities, while still giving people some idea of what you're capable of." Another one said.
"All right, I get it already. Helix wasn't that good a name." The clone that suggested Helix said, throwing his hands up in surrender. "But since that's out of the way, what are we gonna do for our supersuit? We can't just go over to Art, because he practically works for the GDA on the side." He said, and we all went silent, wondering how we'd make a suit that the GDA couldn't try using to track us.
"Hey, guys. I've got an idea." The Upgrade clone said, turning our attention over to him. "Why don't we just use nanites? I mean, I am made of them. So, I could turn into a fabricator and just make you a suit, and since you've also transformed into Upgrade before, you could directly interface with the suit, with no one able to do anything to it." He said, and none of us saw any error in his suggestion. But while it was definitely a great idea, it was one that I would shelve for the time being. At least, until I met up with Nolan once again and scanned his DNA, getting the ability to transform into a Viltrumite.
"You know what, we'll do that… but later. For the time being, I'll go ahead and transform into as many aliens as I can without drawing attention. I want to be as strong as I can get without turning into a celestialsapien. When I've done that, we'll make the suit, and let Codex be introduced to the rest of the world." I said, and murmurs of agreement went around the room.
"Since we're all in agreement, come back in. I've got to sleep to get to school early tomorrow." I said and they all laughed, but still moved to be absorbed back into my body, understanding my train of thought. After I was the only one left in the room, I turned off all the lights and went to sleep with a newly lit spark of hope for the future.
Chapter End.
Word Count: 3,975
Thanks for reading!