Chapter Text
Ok, so being dropped in a new world really sucks, I mean it’s really cool that I’m in a world where literally anything is possible. But I miss my family, I didn’t even get to say good-bye, one moment I was walking along the side of the road in my hometown and the next I was in an alley. I was also wearing a very familiar watch with a green hourglass on my wrist that hadn’t been there before.
It was a bit bulky and definitely not my favorite version but I wasn’t going to complain. Of course I wanted to experiment with what I was sure was a working Omnitrix, so when I pushed the buttons the hourglass turned into a diamond. I turned the dial and black silhouette appeared in the middle of the diamond, I was so excited I almost transformed right then and there. But I needed to figure out where I was and what I was going to do before anything else, so instead I made my way out of the alley.
The first person I saw told me exactly where I was. Whoever put me here had one hell of a sense of humor, because the person walking my way was the man, the myth, the legend, Stan Lee. I almost squealed in excitement when he stopped in front of me, “Hey kid, wanna go for a walk?” I nodded before flinching, I had managed to give myself a crick in my neck from nodding too fast.
That seemed to amuse him, and with a wave of his hand I could move again without any pain. I smiled in embarrassment before following him down the street and into a small park. We then just sat down on a bench and watched the people go about their lives. I started to think about everything that could go wrong, all these people were in so much danger and they didn’t even know it.
I was drawn out of my spiral when Stan started to speak “Do you know what I see when I look around?” I turned towards him and shook my head, “I see potential, any one of these people could at any moment start their journey to become the greatest of heroes or the most infamous of villains. And sometimes it is the biggest of moments or the smallest of gestures that can start them on that journey.” He looked at me over his shades and for a second I could see him for what he was.
Then he looked back at the crowd and it was over, I could finally breathe again “The choice to put yourself in harm's way in the defense of another is a calling, however people seem to forget that it doesn’t have to be some large sacrifice or one big moment. You can start small with the actions you take every day, make someone smile and it will make all the difference.” His words calmed my racing heart.
Once I got over the excitement of having the Omnitrix worry started to creep in. I wasn’t a hero and now I was in some sort of Marvel universe with a weapon of mass destruction strapped on my wrist. He smiled when I calmed down and reached over to pat my shoulder, “Remember, start small, be persistent, and one day you will reach the stars. Excelsior!” A dog barking drew my attention away and by the time I looked back he was gone.
I stared in shock before looking to the sky and snorting, “What has my life become? The One Above All just pulled a Batman on me.” Thanks to Stan my mind was no longer racing and I knew that I would need a plan if I was going to survive in this world. This wasn’t a comic book anymore and I didn’t want to become one of the countless deaths that happened in the background.
I would make sure to leave my mark on history, my name would be among the likes of Stark or Richards. In fact their names would be mentioned with mine, as in they were the only ones who could measure up to me. Why settle for anything less when I had such a big advantage, but I had to remember that every journey starts with a single step. And many little steps add together to make big changes, hopefully some good ones. That way I can leave this world a better place than when I arrived.
Looking down at the watch attached to my wrist I smiled, this will be the key to my success. But it wasn’t just a hammer, one thing I didn’t like about the Ben Ten cartoon is the cavalier way Ben used his aliens. He used them to fight his battles when they could be so much more, and I am not even talking about the way Azmuth envisioned his, walking in the shoes of a species to learn how they feel.
No, instead I was thinking about different ways each alien could benefit the world by studying them. What could chromastone’s crystals teach us about energy storage, or upgrade’s ability to merge with and enhance technology? And those were just two examples out of a million. Now that doesn’t mean every alien was going to have something to contribute, I am sure there were more aliens that didn’t but even if only 1 out of 100 had something to offer that was still 10,000 offers. The only problem was getting access to them.
Now that I was eager to explore the possibilities I stood from my seat and pulled my wallet out of my pocket as I walked out of the park. It seemed like whoever dropped me here was nice enough to give me an identity, or maybe that was Stan’s gift. Refusing to go down that rabbit hole I headed to the address listed on my license and I pulled out my phone to look up some information about the world I was in.
The more I read the more I started to panic again so I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It seems like this world was years before the beginning of the age of heroes, but it had the potential to be a very dangerous one. Stark had just graduated college and started to turn his company from a US based multimillion dollar company to a multibillion dollar international one. Mutants were relegated to the realm of conspiracy theories like bigfoot and aliens, but Xaviar had multiple papers on the next step in human evolution.
The Baxter Building hadn’t exploded yet but word was starting to spread about an advancement that would change the world as we knew it. And when I looked through history I found a picture of Logan with the Howling Commandos, and the myths of Thor told of a blond man instead of a ginger. I also had a little moment of confused disgust when I saw that the Loki myth about the horse was still a thing here. I really hope that didn’t actually happen the way the story says.
I did make sure to stay away from anything that could tip off SHIELD or Hydra, cause right now they might be the same thing. Not being a die hard fan of the comics was kind of biting me in the ass now, I knew the MCU pretty well but my knowledge of the comics was spotty at best. It would have to be enough cause it wasn’t like I was going to get another chance and I can’t really complain when plenty of people here would kill to know what I know.
That’s another thing I have to worry about, there are tons of ways to read minds here so what’s stopping someone from just peaking inside my head? It was then I remembered a little known fact from Ben Ten, the Omnitrix protected its user from mind control, maybe it works on mind reading as well. I decided to trust the Omnitrix to protect me from all the peepers and just leave it at that, it wasn’t like I could do anything about it right now anyway. So why worry about what I can’t change.
I made it to my apartment soon after that and realized that I should have checked my finances instead of getting lost in my own head. But when I saw where I was living I had to double check the address because there was a nice brownstone sitting in front of me. Once I took a minute to get over the fact I was apparently rich here, I made my way inside and explored my new house.
After spending ten minutes exploring my new house I knew it had three floors and a basement. The kitchen, dining room, and living room were on the first floor, there was a small library, a study, and living room on the second floor, and a few bedrooms on the third floor. There was also a full bathroom on each floor and in the master bedroom, along with various closets spread around the house.
The house also had access to the roof and plenty of space for a greenhouse or an outdoor dining area if I wanted to set one up. After taking a minute to enjoy a nice view of the city I made my way down to the basement. It was completely empty and had a couple opaque windows that let in a bit of light from outside. Other than that there was the water heater, furnace, junction box and a light switch for a bulb hanging over the stairs.
It was completely empty and exactly what I needed right now. I wanted to see which aliens I had access to as my plans would change depending on which options I had. So I stood in the middle of the basement and started cycling through my opinions and my smile grew as I flicked through my choices. While I was a little disappointed that I didn’t have Master control, I had what I needed and I even got a few nice surprises.
But right now wasn’t the time for celebration so after making my choice I pushed the buttons and the dial popped up, I only hesitated for a second before I pushed down the dial. Making sure not to slam it down, after all I didn’t want to end up with a random alien like Ben did most of the time.
A green flash erupted from my wrist until it covered my whole body and I experienced my first transformation. It was like nothing I had felt before, my body tingled and compressed until my whole body became smaller than a basketball. But the biggest change came after my body finished transforming, it felt like my mind changed from the speed of a tortoise to the space shuttle.
All this happened in a fraction of a second but in the moment it felt like an eternity passed by and after it was done I shouted in excitement, “GREY MATTER!” Then I blushed in embarrassment and looked around even though I knew no one had seen me, “I’m never doing that again.” Once my blush faded I examined my body, I had thin limbs and grey skin and was dressed in a white and black body suit.
My hands were now disproportionate to the human body and I could see more than I could before the change, both in my field of view and in the detail I could see. But it wasn’t just detail, I was seeing more colors than I had worlds for, my mind raced to the possible cause. Unlike in the cartoon where everything is human equivalent, it seemed like here Grey Matter’s eyes were literally built differently than a human’s.
I was itching to run some tests on my new body but I didn’t have the equipment for that right now so I would have to put that aside for now. So after I finished looking over my body I started to move around, I ran laps around the basement and jumped in the air. While I wasn’t very fast I could jump almost a meter straight up, but I think it was just my small size that allowed me to jump so high and not some extraordinary leg strength.
That same ability didn’t transfer over to my running speed most likely because all my coordination was concentrated in my hands and fingers for more precise tinkering. So next I tested out my dexterity by taking apart my water heater, I didn’t think about the consequence at the moment but luckily I was able to put it back together before I transformed back. And I learned a lot about my body and mind while doing so, it all worked out in the end.
It turns out that I was right about my dexterity, but that wasn't all. The amount of grip strength I had let me unscrew things with my bare hands, and it didn’t hurt either. If I tried that in my human form I would have torn up my hands something fierce, probably would have required a trip to the hospital. That plus the fact I didn’t just take apart the water heater, I upgraded it as well.
Once I was back in my human form I couldn’t tell you how I did it but I knew I could run a hot shower indefinitely now. Not that I would do that, part of exploring the house was finding the information about it in a lockbox in the closet of the master bedroom. I was happy that I owned this place instead of renting but I would still have bills every month and I didn’t even want to think about the water bill if I tried that.
And when I finally turned back into my human form it also felt like my thoughts literally couldn’t move fast enough. I mean I knew that Grey Matter was smarter than I could ever be but the difference still knocked me off balance. It made me curious what my other forms would feel like, Ben never really dived into that very much. The show did make plenty of jokes about Rath and there was that whole episode about Ghost Freak.
But I guess the small stuff was never interesting enough to make the cut. I spent my break but transformations stacking the extra parts left over from the water heater upgrade into a pile. The upgrade not only increased its efficiency, it also used only half the materials so I had about 50 pounds of scrap metal cluttered around the floor. The thought really hit me as I picked up a panel that was half my height and looked like it had been torn in half. It was pretty wild what the little dude could do without tools, he basically had access to physics magic with that brain of his. I couldn’t wait to see what he could really do once I gained some traction.