Variable (Ben 10/Worm SI/Multi/Mega Crossover)

[Nyrmac]

Beginning

******
NOTICE: THIS FIC IS BEING REWRITTEN ON ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGINAL VERSION BEING GARBAGE! DON'T BE DRAWN IN BY BILE FASCINATION! THE ORIGINAL VERSION IS POORLY EDITED, WRITTEN, AND POOR IN OVERALL QUALITY!


It was a nice December morning. Well it would be a nice morning if I was in my own bed... which I wasn't! In fact, I wasn't in any bed nor was I in a familiar place! I looked over to my right and saw... sand. And water. Um, I definitely don't remember going to the beach and I definitely don't remember passing out on a beach.

I began to check over myself. The clothes I was wearing weren't mine whatsoever. I was wearing a lime green shirt with a 10 on the left corner. The shorts that I had on weren't black gym shorts, but brown cargo shorts. I checked my arms and while my arms still had their light tan color, they barely had visible black hairs. It was then I looked on my wrist and my mind just froze. There... was a watch... on my wrist... and it looked suspiciously like the Omnitrix from the Ben 10 original series.

Okay, so maybe this isn't all that weird after all. I'm just dreaming and the Omnitrix is just a part of that dream. Which could be fun since, hey, I get to screw around with it until I wake up. But unless I somehow wasn't dreaming, I decided not to screw around and just go check around and see where the hell I was. I just kept walking towards the nearest building I could. Did I also mention that I was apparently fifteen again.

Took me like ten minutes to get to it. Why did it take me so long? I was being cautious, or stupid, depending on your opinion. I went up to the sign that was conveniently hanging up with no one around to see me. I checked it and it said 'Ferry Station South'. Well that doesn't really help me at all now does it? I walked from the building towards the street. I looked around and saw... some passerby walking by... maybe they were trying to spot something? What the hell is this damn place? Where the hell am I? Am I even dreaming?!

As I was starting to freak out more than ever, I suddenly heard footsteps coming my way. Okay I'm going to be completely honest, I freaking freaked out!

"Excuse me, young man." A woman called out to me. "Are you lost?" She asked. "Um yeah..." I responded.

"Well I think I could help you out. My name is Maria Davis." "My name is Camryn." Maria gave me a look before she spoke again. "Alright, Camryn, I think I could help you out. Why don't you come with me?"

I followed her down the pier and onto the street. We sat down on a bench, and we started talking. Or in my case, I tried to talk anyway. I wasn't very good at conversation since I wasn't used to speaking to a stranger. I wasn't exactly what you might call a social butterfly.

We were getting closer and closer to the pier. As much as I wanted to ask Maria questions, I didn't want to seem too inquisitive. I mostly just listened to her speak and nodded along. "Are you okay?" I turned my head, looked up at her and sighed. "No, I'm not okay. I'm not okay at all."

"What's wrong?"

"Well... ugh it's kind of hard to explain. You're probably going to laugh and think I'm crazy." I groaned.

"Not at all, in fact, I've seen and heard some truly weird things in my life before," Maria smiled. "Tell me what's going on."

I took a deep breath in and exhaled. This was going to be difficult. I told what happened to me, from waking up on the beach, to not knowing where I was, though I left out the fact that I had the Omnitrix and that I was wearing Reboot Ben's outfit. Though I did tell her that I thought I was dreaming.

"Waking up on a beach... that's not normal." Maria giggled.

"I know, I know. But I think it was the Omnitrix." I said.

Maria just raised an eyebrow at me. Wait, balls. Did I just say that last part out loud? Was she thinking that I was just telling her a story to make her feel sorry for me? That would suck.

"So... um... I woke up on the beach and I noticed that I had... um this really weird watch." I raised my wrist and showed off my new trinket. "And then I realized that I had this weird watch on my wrist and I looked around and saw the... uh... the sign that said Ferry Station South and that led me to the Ferry Pier and I thought I was dreaming so I came around here and met you."

Maria just stared at me for a few seconds, then she burst out laughing. I think I felt embarrassed enough to blush and turn away from her.

"Okay, so I think what you're going through is a little more serious than you dreaming." Maria said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, you're definitely not dreaming." Maria pointed out. "What makes you say that?" She chuckled and said, "Because, unlike dreams, reality is solid. Reality has edges, and boundaries. You can touch it. You can feel it. You can taste it. And you know that you are real."

…damn, that was a good point.

"So do you believe me? Or do you think I need to get thrown into a mental institution." I asked.

Maria stopped smiling and looked at me seriously. "Oh no. I think you're fine. If I had to guess, I'd say that you're just... lost. You're lost in this world, but you're also lost in your own mind. You need to find yourself and figure out what is going on, but you need to keep your wits about you. Your mind is a dangerous weapon and it could easily be used against you. Don't let it control you. Control your thoughts, control your actions. And most importantly, control your emotions. Feelings lead to poor decisions."

She got up and kept looking at me. "I want you to stay with me."

"Stay with you?" I asked confused.

"Yes. Stay with me. I'll can help you." Maria smiled warmly.

I just looked at her. "Why do you care so much?" She sighed. "Because I already messed up plenty of times in my life. I don't want to do make those same mistakes again." She looked away. "I have two kids of my own. I think you might like them and, in a city like this, it's way too dangerous to be by yourself."

"Um, if I can ask you, what city is this?" I really needed to know this.

"Brockton Bay. It's a rather large city that used to be thriving. But unfortunately, it's infested with gangs led by parahumans mostly." Parahumans, Brockton Bay... I was in fucking Worm! Maria seemed to have noticed my horror and started trying to calm me down. "Don't worry your safe. Just don't leave my side for now." I nodded and agreed. I was afraid of going anywhere in this shithole of a place.

I followed her back to the pier and she led me to a fairly large house. It wasn't a mansion or anything, but it was pretty nice and big. It had a huge backyard with a pool and a hot tub. The front of the house was all windows with a porch attached to the second floor. Man, I could only wish I had a house like this back where I lived.

Maria opened the door and gestured for me to go inside. "Wait here. I'll be right back." I nodded, went inside, and waited patiently for her return. I looked around the living room and saw a couch, a TV, a fireplace and a kitchen behind a door in the far wall. I fixed my gaze, however, on the young girl in a blue dress who was sitting down, completely focused on a weird computer. She had rather pale skin, but she was still pretty in her own way. Her hair was blonde and she had two eyes, kind of obvious, but one was blue and the other was green. Her lips were red and her cheeks slightly flushed. She looked about thirteen or fourteen years old and she wasn't that tall, I'd say she was about 5'1". I kind of liked her.

Maria soon returned holding a tray of food. "Here you go." She placed the food on a small table and sat down next to me. I grabbed the plate and started eating, which was surprisingly delicious. I guess I was starving after spending so much time on the beach. After I finished, Maria handed me a glass of water. I thanked her and chugged it quickly, then I set it down on the table.

"So..." Maria began, "Riley dear, could you please stop hyper-focusing on your fancy Tinkertech computer and say hello." Wait, Riley? As in Bonesaw?!

I looked at her, dumbstruck.

"And you must be Camryn." She smiled at me.

I tried to hide my shock. I did not expect to meet a possible member of the Slaughterhouse Nine at all much less in her home! I couldn't even think straight. I was so surprised that my brain was on fire. I just stood there with my mouth agape with my head tilted to the side.

Riley giggled. "Hehe, you look kind of funny when you're shocked."

My face scrunched up and I tried to smile. I don't think it worked.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm okay." I said quietly.

"Good. Now, tell me a little bit about yourself." She said. I sent her an incredulous look. "Really, you've known me for like twenty seconds and you're asking to know about me?"

"Well, you see, I'm just trying to make sure that you aren't a complete lunatic." Riley laughed.

"Ahh gee, thanks!" I said sarcastically.

"It's not a problem. And I've already checked your brain and you aren't a Parahuman!"

"I'm not a Parahuman?"

"Yeah, you know, Parahuman. They are people with superhuman abilities." Riley explained.

"I know what a Parahuman is. Aren't they the superhumans that have that weird organ thing in their head that apparently gives them superpowers through trauma?" I looked at both Maria and Riley. They had this wide-eyed look on their face as if I had grown a second head. I guess I shouldn't have said that.

"That's spot on." Riley said.

"But there are others." Maria added. "There are also those who have supernatural powers that aren't based on trauma. Also, there are a lot of different kinds of superhumans, the kind that you mentioned being just one type." Now that was simply interesting. So this is an AU with more then one type of parahuman? Did the Entities have a field day or something? Or is this crossover on a grander scale than I expected?

"Uhh... what did you guys mean by 'check my brain'?" I asked, a little worried.

"We just scanned your brain." Maria said casually.

"Scanned it?!" I screeched.

"Yes, we scanned your brain." Riley added like it was nothing.

"How can you just say that so casually?!"

"Ah, guess we should have asked before we did so... but too late for that!" Riley gave me a wink.

"Anyway, I suppose that's none of our business." Maria said and took another bite of her sandwich.

"No, it's fine. I'm sure you were curious. And by scan my brain, do you mean like telepathically?" Riley smiled at me.

"Yup! I do it to myself all the time to make sure my passenger isn't trying to mess with my mind. Which it is a lot of the time."

"Huh..." I said.

"So anyway, I checked your brain and it's not like that at all!"

"I'm glad." I stated.

"Me too." Maria said. "Parahumans tend to be, oh how to put this without sounding racist, difficult. As in most tend to have mental issues because of the way they gain their powers."

"Oh yeah..". I forgot that was a thing. "And isn't there a myth slash rumor about the younger the parahuman is when they gain their powers, the stronger said powers will be?"

"Yes! It happened to me when I was younger." She just mentioned that like it was nothing?

"That's a can of worms I'm not really interested in opening."

"Good. So what's with that watch on your wrist? It looks kind of... familiar." Wait, familiar? How does she know about my watch?!

"I found it at the beach." I said.

"Uh huh..." Riley said. "What exactly is engraved on the watch?"

I looked at her and thought for a moment. I didn't have any idea what the inscription on the watch meant, but I knew it had to be at least somewhat important . "I don't know."

"Well..." Riley paused. "...the inscription on that thing is in... I have absolutely no idea what it says." She chuckled.

"I don't know what it says either." Maria said, " And I speak a lot of languages."

"So I take it you guys don't have an understanding of the language written on the watch?"

"Nope." Maria shook her head. "Actually, I'm pretty sure I would have learned it if we did. Weird, isn't it?"

"Yeah it is." I replied honestly. Should I tell them what the Omnitrix is or should I wait and tell them at another time? I figured that I'd better tell them at some point though. That's when I heard the front door open.

"Who else is here?" The voice was new, and sounded rather... how to put it... deadpan and unemotional. And it kind of sounded the exact same as my voice. "Oh Cam, I'm sure you'll get along just fine with our new guest." Cam? "Great." The new voice droned sarcastically. Then I heard Maria coming back to the kitchen. "Hey Riley, we got company. Come on."

"Okay." Riley said.

The three of us walked out into the living room, and there was this kid staring right at me. He looked exactly like me. The only difference were his skin being slightly paler then mine and his eyes were red in comparison to my dark brown eyes. "Um..." Yeah, I know, not the best thing to say but cut me some slack dammit! He just looked at me. Then he spoke, "Are you supposed to be my alternate counterpart or something?" I turned my head to look at Maria. "Weren't you gonna tell me something about this?" She just smirked, "No, because this way would've been more amusing for me." I just rolled my eyes and sighed.

"Whatever works." I muttered.

"See ya later, kids. I need to go do the dishes." She waved and left. "This... this is very awkward." Riley said numbly. "Right." I agreed. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

" Did you know that your mom, or at least I assume that she was your mom, would do something like this?" She sighed at the question. "No, but when you're as old as her, which she's at least three hundred years old, you kind of get bored easily ." She paused. "I'm sorry, but I have to ask. Are you going to stay here with us?"

"I mean, I don't have anywhere to go." I said somewhat sad.

"Hello, I mean do I exist or am I just a background object to you?" Both Riley and I looked up and saw 'Cam' with a slightly annoyed look on his face. "I'm alive. I'm an actual person." I gave him a cheeky look. "Oh really? I would never have guessed considering we look alike and all? " I scoffed.

"You're kind of a dick." He said.

"You're the one that made it this way." I retorted.

"I didn't do anything to you." "Well, you started it with the snark. I'm returning fire." He grinned, showing off his sharp white teeth and fangs. I flinched. He stopped smiling and raised an eyebrow. "So are you a vampire like me? Or are you just a normal human? Because if you were a vampire, you would have seen that coming." I sighed, well there goes my hopes that these people were going to be an almost normal family...

 

[Nyrmac]

Fifteen minutes after the ending of chapter 1...

"Alright, so what do you both want to know about me?" I questioned.

'Cam' spoke up next. "Well, you can start by saying where the hell you came from." He asked me in a deadly serious tone. I looked at him and groaned. This was going to take a while wasn't it?

******

I was right. It did take a while. As in about an hours worth of explaining. 'Cam' was finally satisfied when I gave him the full story. Riley was simply overjoyed when 'Cam' finally stopped pressing me for information. That was when Maria finally came back into the room. She was most likely talking with Riley telepathically the whole time. It would be nice to have telepathy.

"So, kids, have you each been getting along nicely?" Her tone had a rather trollish tone to it.

"You could say that, Mom." Riley snarked.

"So... I take it you've probably realized that this is probably where you'll be staying?" 'Cam' asked me. I sighed. "I guess so. Where could I sleep?"

Maria actually cringed a little bit. "Well, I guess you'll be sharing a room with me or Cam and Riley. Yeah, I didn't fully think this plan through. What do you think Riley?" Riley just looked at her. "Well, he'll probably just have to sleep with us because you don't have a bed, you have a coffin. Cam, what's your opinion?"

"I don't care." 'Cam' deadpanned. I rolled my eyes.

Riley then stood up suddenly. "Cam, stop being such a prick!" I smiled. Guess she hadn't gotten all of her sisterly instincts out yet. "We can put him somewhere else if—"

"—if we decide he needs some privacy?" Maria finished for her son. Then there were two pairs of lips pouting around me. Except, for 'Cam' with his standoffish assholery.

"'Kay," I answered before they got any more upset than necessary. "How about the basement? Is it clean down here?"

"NO." They all said at once. The 'no' was very strong and stern. "Trust us, you do NOT want to know what's down there." Well, that was very, very ominous. I am not going to ask questions...

"Alright, so you two are going to have a new roommate then?"

"Sure."

"Fine."

I sighed. "Alright."

"Good."

"Wonderful."

"Okay."

"So, I think that's enough talking. Let's get him settled in." Maria stated. I smiled. Good, I was getting sick of this and they had to be too. I wonder though, there didn't seem to be a dad here. Because why wouldn't there be, I never knew my father. It is strange though, but maybe he just hasn't come around yet.

******

The first thing I saw when I woke up was the ceiling. This wasn't normal for me. I could usually only see the ceiling if I was looking up from lying on the floor or being held by someone. I felt like I was floating. Wait, I WAS floating! And it was soft. Like clouds. Was I dead?

I bolted upright with a sudden shock. My breathing was coming out raggedly as I looked around frantically. I was in a dark room. Ugh, it was just a really weird dream. I looked over to my right side. Riley was face down asleep, so asleep that I would've thought she was dead. I looked to my left side, 'Cam' was on his side asleep, in a far more normal way. He seemed like he was facing me.

"Where am I?" I muttered softly. No answer. Then again, I didn't think anyone could hear me. Well, no one besides myself and two other people who were supposed to be sleeping. I decided to take a look around. The walls were painted black, which made the room feel quite big. In fact, it almost felt bigger than the entire house we had been living in before this. There was a red couch against the wall closest to us. Oh right, I was apparently bunking with two teenage vampires. Man that sounds like a really weird Disney sitcom. I sat back and closed my eyes.

It wasn't too long until I heard something else. "Hmm..." A groggy voice came from behind me. It sounded feminine but also oddly muffled. I looked to see Riley rubbing her eyes sleepily. She yawned loudly and then stretched out. "Morning." She mumbled as she stood up and crawled over me towards 'Cam'. He rolled over so he was now facing away from me.

I stared at the ceiling for a few minutes while trying to find words to say. Finally, the words came to me. "Guh... murrr." Spectacular. Well done me!

Riley looked at me and giggled. "Well seems like someone isn't a morning person." She smiled warmly at me. I just gave her a deadpan look in return. "Oh don't give me that look. You're fine." She said before hugging 'Cam' tightly. That woke him up. He grumbled slightly as he tried to get free.

"Damn it, Riley, what did I tell you about this?" He growled softly.

"Not to wake you up unless we have an emergency? Yeah, well sorry Cam, but we kind of do." She told him calmly. What? Suddenly, me and 'Cam' were up staring at the possible Slaughterhouse 9 member. "What do you mean an emergency?" She just tilted her head. "Well, not a real big one, but there is something going on with us."

"How so?" We both asked.

"We can feel our stomachs starting to rumble." She informed us. Shit. They are vampires. They're not gonna suck me are they?

"Are you okay?" I asked them. They both looked at me oddly. "Why would we be hungry now?" Riley questioned.

"I don't know, maybe because you aren't used to having me around?" At least that was my thought.

"Well, we did explain to you that we're vampires... and you know what vampires drink right?" Bollox. "Well ya ain't suckin' me off!" I protested.

"Oh trust me, if we wanted to do that, we would have done that while you were asleep." 'Cam' stated simply. A pause passed and I started chuckling at what we just said. "Not like that, you pervert!"

"Wait, how often do you have to drink blood?" I asked the siblings.

"Not too often," Riley answered. "But when we do it takes a lot of blood. Enough for three or four people usually." Wow, well this was going to get interesting. I began to think if the Omnitrix could protect me from Vampires. I mean I probably couldn't stop them, but I'm not a virgin so I'd just become a vampire. That would be pretty cool. The ability to manipulate shadows, mind control, levitation, enhanced biology, blood manipulation, ghoul creation and control... there was so much they could do and that wasn't even half of their powers! Speaking of powers, I wonder if we could find somewhere and discreetly test the Omnitrix. I mean in a modern age like this where smart phones and cameras are everywhere, and if the PRT are like they are in canon with Cauldron and the bullshit that implies, then we need to be extremely careful. And I'm definitely not joining the Wards and becoming a slave to my damn PR!

"Is this place safe?" I asked.

"Well... yeah." Riley replied. "It's not like we can go outside and just break the sound barrier with ease. So, it doesn't matter where we are."

"Uh, yeah let's not do what I'm thinking of in your house. I have a good grasp of what this watch can do and it might set the house on fire." I offered helpfully.

"Exactly!" Riley agreed. "So, where do we meet up?" She asked us.

"Meet at the front door in ten minutes!" Maria called from upstairs.

"Alright, thanks." I said as I headed out of the room. Wow, enhanced hearing too!

******
Ten minutes later, I was at the bottom of the stairs. I was wearing a simple shirt that covered my torso and pants that went down to my ankles. I took a deep breath and walked into the living room. The next one to follow was Riley and she was wearing the same clothes that she was wearing later. I suspect that 'Cam' will be wearing the same thing he was wearing. And as he came in, I was proven right!

Maria just seemingly popped into existence right beside me. She was wearing something different at least. She was now wearing a green turtleneck sweater dress with high waistline jeans. On top of that, she was also wearing leather gloves, a necklace, matching earrings, and silver bracelets. Now that outfit looks super good on her. I liked it quite a bit better than her normal outfit, and it matched her hair color perfectly. I took a seat across the table from everyone else. After sitting, Riley placed herself right between us so I could talk to her easily.

Now then, things should start getting exciting soon enough. "So, what are the plans for today?" I asked.

Maria was the first to speak up, "Well, you wanted to test what you can do with that watch, so I was thinking about heading to a fairly secluded place away from the populace." I had a feeling I knew exactly where she was talking about.

"Let me guess, the infamous Boat Graveyard." 'Cam' drawled. I've got to ask for his actual name at some point.

"Yeah, the Boat Graveyard! It's secluded, no one really goes down there, and there isn't any real danger of damaging property that anyone will throw a fit over." Huh, I wasn't even considering that. Wait, what's today? When does Taylor Hebert go out to patrol as a Cape and fights Lung? I swore it was at night, but I don't remember the day!

"Uh, yeah. How far away is that place from here?" I never actually read the original Worm, so I don't know where it really is.

Riley was the one to speak up this time. "It's like forty minutes away, maybe more, if we walk. Obviously less if we drive." 'Cam' answered her. "And not to mention it's so early in the morning we won't have to deal with traffic or annoying people."

That'll work! All three of them nodded to themselves and relaxed. I wondered if their 'cringes' were visible like mine was. Also, it'd probably make them look creepier if they showed theirs. Ah whatever. Hopefully we run into nothing and end this ordeal without incident! Or at least that's what I want to believe...

Anyway, let's discuss the plan shall we? We need to bring weapons. Riley had brought a metal baseball bat already, and 'Cam' brought a shot gun and knife with him. Maria didn't bring anything and I didn't know how to use a gun, or how to stab well with a knife, or how to fight in general. I had the Omnitrix, but it takes precious, precious seconds to transform. Enough time for any reasonably pragmatic fighter to get in a nasty shot. Anyways, we all went out to the car, obviously we decided against flying. We didn't want to be seen, even if it was early in the morning. If we were seen to be Capes, then every jackass gang would be on top of us in no time at all!

It took us about twenty minutes via car to get to the graveyard. Thankfully, it had an abandoned parking area near a beach with plenty of spaces for cars. Other than that, the cemetery itself was really hard to access since there weren't any paths leading straight in or out. Why was such a place left uninhabited anyways? Oh that's right, from Leviathan's bullshit! It smelled really bad in there. Must be decomposing corpses from decades ago. Well, hopefully, this is gonna be quick and easy. And not because it'll turn sour quickly.

As soon as we arrived at the entrance to the Boat Graveyard, 'Cam' looked around himself, presumably to ensure it was safe. Sure enough after he nodded to all of us, the rest of us started walking through it slowly, looking closely for trouble. Even still, the sight inside the boat graveyard was horrendous. The boats there were dented and shattered into tiny pieces from where the waves had taken chunks of wood for many years. Every single vessel seemed to have at least one large hole in its hull, likely from ships sinking due to rough weather, storms, or whatever. Despite being stuck underwater, they were barely holding up by resting upright on wooden posts so it wouldn't sink lower. And some of the boats were freaking huge.

We walked over to the beach. It was nice and quiet, perfect. I warned the others to take several steps back. I looked at the rather unassuming watch bonded to my wrist, fully aware of what it could truly do. I pressed my thumb on the side button and the device's core popped up, the symbol, which was a green hourglass symbol with the outer triangles being grey in color, inverted into a diamond shape and a silhouette appeared. It was a humanoid with large hands and wavy, spiky "hair". I knew exactly as to what this form was. I took a deep breath and pressed down on the watch's core.

It was like time froze around me. Red rocks began to quickly spread up my arm from the watch. Burning hot plasma replaced my blood. But none of it hurt. Finally, the rocks properly merged with my body and the plasma. My height shot up from a meager 5'0" to a rather imposing 6'3". When the transformation completed, my mind was utterly flooded with memories that were one hundred percent not mine. From the day the creature, or rather a Pyronite, I became was born, to when they were with their friends and family, even to when they were experimenting and trying to master their power over fire and heat. I looked out and everything was very... purple. Like I could make out where the ocean started and ended, where the sky was, and in general I could still see basic shapes and things like that. I heard a scream behind me and I swung my head around. I could make out where the others were since I could still see them moving, but it was hard to make out specific features. I knew who I was, what I looked like, I was... Heatblast.

(If the image doesn't work then use this link: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/b..._reboot.png/revision/latest?cb=20210615153317 )

"What the fuck?!" I assumed that was Camryn, who as it turns out, shared the same name as me. Small world, huh? I opened my mouth to talk and the voice that spoke was deep and raspy. Not like horrifyingly raspy but is sounded like how you'd expect a traditional anti-hero to sound.

"It's alright, you guys! It's still just me." Hopefully they wouldn't do anything stupid...

I held my hands out to show that I meant no harm. Hopefully they would realize it. "Camryn?! Is that actually you?!" Riley squeaked.

"Yeah, I transformed, I guess I should've told you before huh." I rubbed the back of my fiery head, embarrassed.

"Gee, ya think!?" Maria blurted out. There was a rather long pause afterwards. "Soooo, what was with the name?" Riley asked me. "The name?" "Yeah, you shouted 'HEATBLAST'. What's up with that? Are you trying to make us scared or something?" Oh, I actually didn't consider the name shouting.

"I don't know, I didn't do it on purpose. But I think it's the form asserting itself, its consciousness."

Camryn spoke up next. "What does that even mean? Are you sharing a body with someone else or are you all alone?" Maria walked towards me slowly. "Camryn, if you would let me try, I think I could read your mind to try to see what's going on."

"Thanks for worrying, but I think I know what's going on. As I just explained partially, the form's uh soul, if you would, still exists in me and was asserting his, her, or their identity. But I'm still me, but I feel like I'm somebody else. Does that make sense at all?" They paused again, and eventually gave another nod. "Good." Then Maria smiled. That one must have been very friendly. Maybe she won't be as obnoxious to live with... Yeah definitely got to keep that in perspective. I could handle this type of person much easier than an idiot Cape.

Once they calmed down from the sudden change, I noticed we still hadn't gotten anywhere yet. While most of us kept our eyes forward on alert for something unpleasant coming at us, I scanned around with my enhanced vision and saw nothing among the wreckage. Well, I saw some small, yellow shapes but those were most likely animals among the wreckage.

"Um, Camryn or Heatblast, could you take a look at your feet?"

I noticed that I felt a little bit shorter, so I looked down and saw that my blazing feet had melted the sand into glass. Well, shit. I assumed that I blushed, or whatever Heatblast does to blush, and tried to pull my feet out of the glass. I managed to free them at the cost of molten glass going everywhere.

Finally, I made my way over to the water. The sheer heat radiating from me caused the water to predictably evaporate around me.

"What are you doing?" Camryn asked me. I turned my head towards them and smirked. "Testing my powers." I began to will the ambient heat towards me, and I began to make it my own heat. I looked down and it looked like the sand stopped melting. I put my burning, igneous arms up with my hands outstretched and a stream of white hot plasma poured from my palms out into the sea. I balled my four-fingered hand into a fist but pointed with my pointer finger and shot a much smaller, much less intense fire shot into the boiling sea. It did absolutely nothing to the water but evaporate some of it. Good.

******

After everyone watched the pyroformic figure shoot some fiery balls of, well, fire off, Heatblast knelt down onto both knees and began to touch his lava palms together. At this point, everything grew even colder suddenly, though being undead, they wouldn't have been able to even feel the sudden temperature drop even lower. Camryn, though, noticed some frost forming on the wreckage and scrap around the area.

The Pyronite testing his powers suddenly turned his palms to the ground and let off two mighty blasts of fire and began to fly in the air. It was utterly fantastic to watch. Well, until he lost control and he sent himself flying into the wreckage nearby. With a groan, he lifted himself from the wreckage, unharmed and not even in pain whatsoever. When he opened his eyes he noticed the trio of people around him, they seemed to be stifling their laughter, poorly.

******

"Ha ha, very funny." I growled. They just burst out laughing at that. "Keep that laughter up and I'll be interested in seeing what barbequed vampire tastes like." I threatened them. That caused them stop laughing, just not immediately though. When she finally stopped cry laughing, Maria clapped her hands together. "Honestly, Camryn, that was really impressive, until you crashed and burned, but look at you! You're not even hurt!" Yeah, I guess she had a point.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BWOOOOO

A bright red flash shot omnidirectionally outwards which I assumed temporarily blinded the others. Served them right. When the flash cleared away, I couldn't see in terms of how hot everything was anymore. Finally! I could see everything again properly and it seemed that I didn't feel any sort of dysphoria with my senses or movements. Good.

"Ugh, what the hell was that light?" Riley queried. I chuckled. "That was me reverting back to normal. And those beeps were the warning the Omnitrix gives off before it reverts me."

Everyone stared blankly at me for a moment, unsure whether they should say something or not. But then Maria broke the silence. "So I guess this means we can trust you now, Heatblast." She grinned. Everyone else followed suit, except for Camryn but I doubted that guy ever trusted anyone anyway.

"Well, yeah, I am pretty trustworthy. Though, I still suggest you all stay on your guard just in case. Also, please, only call me by 'Heatblast' when I turn into him." They all nodded, but I knew they were all curious and wanted to test my abilities. I mean I've got nine more forms, I think. Just then Camryn whipped his head up and stared past the rising column of steam that was a result of my pyrotechnics, if that term can even apply. His eyes went wide and spoke sternly and very clearly.

"Everyone scatter. We've got incoming Capes!"

 

[Nyrmac]

I began to sweat and I began to go over the plans in my head. There were Capes coming here... WHY?!? It's way too early for Capes to be out at this time! And considering the way Camryn was looking out towards the ocean, they were flying Movers! I looked around me only to find that Camryn, Riley and Maria had scattered. THEY LEFT ME! THE BASTARDS! I ran over to the nearest wrecked ship with the biggest and easiest hole to get into. The ship was, of course, covered in rust and moss. I ducked into the shadows and just stopped moving for a second.

Let's go over my options here. I could possibly sneak out without the flyers noticing me. I could use the Omnitrix to get out of here, but it was recharging right now. I could try to find the others or wait for them to find me. Or I could reveal myself to the incoming Capes and feign ignorance about the situation... yeah... that sure as fuck won't work! And finally, I could just wait things out and wait for the newcomers to leave. And I don't know if their Heroes or Villains! I am NOT being strong-armed nor am I joining the damn Wards or any of the gangs!

Okay, I guess I'm waiting then! Why didn't I bring a MASK?! Or just take a damn metal bat with me like Riley?!?! Why didn't I consider that there would be someone who might see the steam!?! STUPID STUPID STUPID! My breath hitched when I heard voices talking outside. They were here now and were probably looking around. I can only hope they don't check the shipwreck! A few very uncomfortable minutes passed and nothing happened.

I suddenly felt a cold hand on my shoulder and went to scream like a little girl, but another hand clamped over my mouth! I was pulled back a little and I started panicking even harder! Just as I was about try to scream, I heard a harsh 'shhhh' and I stopped. "Be quiet. They might hear us." Oh, thank Jesus! It was just Camryn! He let me go and we waited for a few seconds.

"Alright, we're safe for now." He told me. How could he tell that we were safe? "How can you tell?" "Just trust me, okay?" I didn't really have a choice. "Why didn't we bring masks?" I questioned him. "Because we're idiots." He deadpanned. He's not wrong.

Oh my god, where are Maria and Riley?! Did they get caught?! Camryn looked at me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "Calm down," he said, "we won't get caught." "How can you be so sure?" This was way too stressful!

"I have hyper-awareness. I can tell where the Capes are. I can talk to the other two through telepathy, remember?" His was barely above a whisper. Good thing no one else was nearby because otherwise people would think something weird going on between us.

A few more minutes passed and he grabbed my wrist and pulled me out into the light with him. I squinted at him pulling on me, but there didn't seem to be anyone around right now. But while he probably knew where the Capes were, I didn't and I hated it! "Where are the damn Capes?!" I whisper-shouted. "They aren't around us but be quieter. They might be able to hear you." Shit!

BEEP BEEP BEEP

I heard a happy thrilling trio of beeps and I looked down at the Omnitrix. It was green again! YES! I was just about to tell Camryn this but he was already looking at me. "What was that?" He demanded. "The watch recharged! I think I could get us out of here!" This was great! "You didn't think to do that before?" He queried. I looked at him, slightly annoyed. "No, it was recharging. I've got ten minutes of transformation time and ten minutes of recharge time." The little Vampire just glared at my wrist. "Well, that's dumb as hell. Why would this thing have such a short time limit?" I shook my head, "This is not the time to discuss this."

"We need to find Mom and Riley. Now. Save your watch's time." I nodded. We started creep around the wrecked ships as slowly as possible, keeping an eye out for anything and anyone. It was then we finally found Riley and Maria! "Oh finally! Where were you two?" Riley asked us. I looked back at the way we came from and pointed. We were in the bigger, rusty, mossy ship." They both nodded their heads. Maria then put her hand on my shoulder. "Kids, I need you each to hold onto me and don't let go. I'm going to teleport us back to the car." She then did exactly what she planned on doing. Within moments, all four of us blinked away from our hiding place and into the car.

Maria sighed when we got settled down then cranked up the car. It was damn cold in here! "I'm sorry everyone, I should've thought about the steam!" They all looked back at me. Riley was the first to speak up. "Well, we should've brought masks with us too. So you're not the only one who made a stupid decision here." Well, that's true. "I... think we should head out to that desert, anyways. We probably should have done that before." I just glared at them. "Are you serious? Why didn't we go out to this desert before? Why didn't anyone mention it?" Maria sighed again. "I just thought it was a good idea to go to the Boat Graveyard so early in the morning, but apparently God decided to flip us off and throw a wrench into our plans." Well, fuck us then! It took us about an hour to get out of Brockton Bay and into this desert that was conveniently close.

We were finally alone, without anyone near here. It was time to show off my other transformations. I jumped out of the car... and into cold desert air! "OH MY LORD, IT'S SO COLD OUT HERE!" AGH, WHY?!? Camryn then stepped out of the car. "Well, the desert is cold at night and it's still early in the morning, what exactly did you expect?" Ugh, yes, that makes sense... anyways, I put my wrist up to sternum height and pressed the green button again on the Omnitrix. The core popped up and good god that was a satisfying sound. I put my thumb on one side of the faceplate and my finger on the opposite side. I dialed up the next alien I wanted and looked back towards everyone else.
"Come on, Cam. We're all waiting." Maria encouraged. I smiled back at her warmly. "Just making sure you're each ready for the next form."

I pressed down on the faceplate and once again time slowed down around me as I started to change into a new form. Blue and black fur spread across my entire body. My ears traveled up to a higher point on my head but not fully to the top and elongated before tapering at the end. My clothes changed into a black and white skin-tight jumpsuit that covered everything but my head, hands, and feet. Or rather paws now. I also noticed that I had a tail behind me with black spots on it. Speaking of black spots, they were dotted all over me, not a single one perfectly matched the others. My height shot up to 6'0" and here comes the memories.

I was suddenly was in what looked like a race against the form's friends, possibly family. They were all cat slash cheetah like aliens and they appeared to be running up to supersonic speeds. The memories jumped forwards to a battle between the creatures and some sort of beetle things. Said beetle things were far too slow to keep up with the Citrakayah's sheer speed and what appeared to be electricity shooting from their hands. The feline ran up to a wall and actually seemed to go through the wall like it wasn't there. And I don't mean as in they charged through it, I mean it as if they phased through it!

(Sorry, no picture for this one!)

The memories finally faded and I just stood there, taking in my surroundings and scanning them with my newly gained vision. Everything was much clearer than it was before and I just wanted to run. The want... no... the need to move, the need... for speed!

I smiled with my feline-like face and spoke. "Fasttrack! Man, do I feel much better now!" Everyone just looked at me with wide eyes. I tilted my head and laughed, "What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" They all just glared at me then. Riley then said, "You know, I was gonna call you cute until you made that terrible pun." My ears drooped at that jab. She giggled at me, "Aw, now you're cute again!"

Camryn just kept looking at me and of course had something to say. "Congratulations," he spoke dryly, "you're a furry now." I growled/hissed/purred at him softly. I turned around and began to stretch my legs in preparation for my first run of the test. Finally, I rushed forward, making my first usage of Fasttrack's super speed.

I moved for a lack of a better term. Well, not just moved but I bet if I had passed a jogger or a leaf falling right now, then they would look like they were completely still as if they were frozen in time. Obviously they wouldn't actually be frozen in time as if DIO used The World (or ZA WARUDO). It was because I was moving and thinking so incredibly fast that everything just appeared to be slow. It was truly incredible to do this.

I raced around the desert. I wasn't sure if they could see me running like this, but I just don't care right now. My feline body completely ignored the cactus I ran through while I was looking out to the others. I wasn't sure if XLR8 could have gone through that with no issue, but once again I didn't care. I just kept going without actually increasing my speed. I'm not going to even try to phase through things right now. I feel like I'd end up embedded into a wall if I tried.

I ran all the way to the nearest rock formation and ran back, all within the span of a few seconds. I looked towards the others when I stopped and was simply amused by the bug-eyed expressions they had. "Holy... shit," Maria stated, dumfounded, "how fast can you go?" A smirk crossed my fuzzy face. "I'm not sure about the upper limits to my speed, but I'm thinking at least 300 miles per hour."

And then everything was quiet for a few moments. No one said a word, until other Camryn broke the silence with an incredibly flat what. I laughed and decided to show them some more of my abilities. I thought back to the memories of the apparent electrokinesis that the Citrakayah apparently possessed. And I tried to will the electricity out of me. Light blue sparks appeared from my arms and hands. My fur began to stand up on end. I pushed the energy down towards the ground, leaving scorch marks along the hardened sand and rocks.

A few more show-offs later and I was back into human form, once again nearly blinding Maria, Camryn, and Riley. I laughed while they rubbed their poor eyes. As I side note, I've got to try to learn how to phase through things as Fasttrack.

Riley was the first to actually look at me without blinking several times. "So how many more forms do you have?" She queried innocently. "Well, I have eight more forms, so we'll be here for a while." I stated plainly. Her jaw dropped at my reveal. Maria then stepped towards me and put her hands on my shoulders.

"Um, Cam, we don't exactly want to wait for hours waiting for you to just show us your powers." I coughed and scratched the back of my head. "Well, just tell me when we need to go back home and I'll stop." Maria grinned and nodded.

I just remembered I need to tell them about my time limit and recharge time, well at least the two girls.

"Um, I nearly forgot to mention this but when I transform, I have a time limit of ten minutes. When those ten minutes end, that red flash happens and I change back. Then I have to wait ten minutes or less for the watch to recharge." The girls looked at me, confused. Riley then asked me, "Why is that necessary? Why would such a clearly powerful device have such a short time limit?"

I actually had to ponder the reasoning for a second there. "Well, I don't know the actual specifics behind that, but I know that without the recharge the transformations could actually damage my genetic code."

Everyone just stared at me with a look that conveyed 'What the hell did you just say' perfectly. "Well, that and the fact that I think that the time limit is also a sort of training wheels protocol. I know for a fact that I'll eventually gain unlimited transformation time with no recharge necessary." That got their attention. "How long will that take?" Maria asked me.

"I have no clue."

Another several minutes passed with me having to deal with this annoying recharge time. If I run out of time during a fight, then I'm going to need training and gear very quickly. If not, then things will one hundred percent go pear shaped for me. I also noticed that after Fasttrack I was really hungry and thirsty, thankfully we had brought snacks and water!

BEEP BEEP BEEP

The watch had recharged once again! Hooray! I dialed up the next transformation and pressed down on the watch and once again my world was engulfed by green light and time slowed for me again. My skin began to turn black, darker than the night sky. Icy blue patches of chitin spread across my arms and legs. A darker blue spread across underneath the icy chitin. My fingers turned into serrated claws on four fingered hands. My toes merged and formed two long, sharp toes. And four large, dark blue, bat-like wings spread out from my back.

The memories of an alien lifeform that lived on a distant, lonely, and dark planet covered in blizzards that could freeze practically anything came to me. The lifeform was of a species that preferred the darkness, freezing temperatures, and solitude. The mono-gendered creature was definitely interesting because the others usually had friends and family with them. This one, the creepy Necrofriggian, had only spent the beginning of their life with their family before heading off alone. I saw the moth-like alien battling their natural predator, the Psycholeopterran, the creature managed to evade their predator after far too many close calls with the damn thing.

The memories ended finally as I opened my eyes, now completely immune to the cold air and could see clearly in the morning dark. My breaths were long and strong, but at the same time I felt like they were completely unnecessary. My mouth didn't move at all when I whispered my moniker out. "Big Chill." A small amount of chilly air came out of my mouth as I said my name.

(If the picture doesn't work, then please use this link: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ben10/images/0/04/Tinction_(1718).png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20210529073509 )

I turned around and stared at the others. Riley seemed to be in awe, Camryn seemed to be impressed and was scanning me with his eyes, and dear Maria was nodding, also impressed by my new form. "Wow, I think I like Big Chill the most out of the forms you've shown us so far." Maria told me.

---

Power Testing Part 3

I looked down at my four fingered hands. They were a deep black color, darker than the midnight sky. I looked up towards the others and gave them a thumbs up. I spread out my wings, which were wrapped around my body and created a sort of poncho/cloak look, and began to fly. It was amazing being able to just be free from having to just walk and run. I turned my head and gave a quick glance at the others.

Camryn and Riley were actually in staring at me with their eyes wide. Riley wasn't surprising at all, but Camryn seemed to be rather unflappable and stoic. It was nice seeing him actually have a legitimate reaction rather than staying so deadpan. Maria was looking up at me and merely smiling. I wonder if she's actually seen a Necrofriggian before because she reacted with surprise at Heatblast and Fasttrack. Maybe I should ask her at another point...

I cruised through the air, not having a worry whatsoever. I remembered that I needed to show off more powers for them other then just flight! I took in a huge breath of air and I shot a blast of frigid, pressurized gas out of my mouth. The gas ended up hitting a rock that was about the size of a large tortoise shell and the rock froze. Along with a random cactus that had the unfortunate luck of growing right beside the rock. Sorry cactus!

I turned around and flew back to the others. It appeared that Big Chill preferred to fly relatively slowly, despite being able to keep up with a speeding car. I landed in front of them and wrapped my wings around me once again. I kneeled down and touched the ground with my long, serrated claws. The surface of the hardened sand was then covered with a sheet of ice within mere seconds. When the ice stopped spreading, long spears of icy energy rose out of the ground and struck the large rock formation that was closest to us. The spears froze solid when they sank into the rocks.

I looked at the others and said, "So how was that display ?" My voice, despite my attempts to talk normally, still sounded like I was whispering. Yet somehow I was still loud and clear.

Camryn was the first to speak up this time. "That was pretty damn impressive. You can fly and you have cryokinetic abilities. On top of Heatblast and Fasttrack, you're more versatile than most Capes with only three forms that we've seen." Finally, some actual praise that wasn't backhanded from him!
Maria was the second one to speak up. "I agree with Camryn's observation. You could take on most Capes with those three forms alone! And that doesn't even get into the other seven!"

Riley was the last and the most enthusiastic. "That was awesome!"

My mouth doesn't move when I offer them my thanks for their compliments, but they still get the message. I then flew up about two feet and dove into the ground by phasing into it. I wonder how the actual intangibility power works for Necrofriggians. Putting the thought in the back of my head for now, I glided around underground before coming up from behind the others and landing right beside them.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BWOOOOO

And just like that, I was back to normal. I simply smile at the others. "Man, I wish I could share this with you guys, but I can't." I frowned. Riley tilted her head, "Why can't you?" I sighed and responded. "My watch doesn't come off. Or at least it doesn't come off with just mere brute force and a few tools." Maria just looked at me. "Well, can you take it off?" I... wasn't sure. I knew that there was a decoupling code but not only did I not remember it right now, I couldn't even use voice command yet!

"Um, yes and no." I explained my thoughts to them. "Well, that sucks. Is there any other way to remove it?" Camryn asked me. I decided to not to lie. "Yes, but I'm not even sure if it actually is possible on the fly or at all. You'd have to cut my arm off and I've only ever heard rumors and I've never seen it actually done. So removing it might be impossible for right now."

******

A few more minutes passed and we just simply talked about things that were happening with them. I had learned that they owned a restaurant on the peer and that Camryn and Riley will be going to Arcadia in January. I wonder why they weren't in school currently...

BEEP BEEP BEEP

I quickly shoved that thought into the back of my head. The Omnitrix was fully recharged again! I popped up the core and I pressed it down. As always, the bright green light consumed me and everything went into slow motion again. My body was suddenly flooded with water and it actually exploded out of me without causing any pain. The water was swiftly contained by a red, heavy, super durable armor that I was pretty certain was robotic. Two grey, metallic tubes that ended then turned into glass after a point formed around my chest to a device on my back. The tubes were connected to a respirator that was where my mouth would be. The grey tubes encompassed my water-turned arms and they formed gauntlet-like jet-containers at my wrists. The suits hands were black, though not as black as Big Chill's hands, and they only had three sharp fingers. My legs did pretty much the same thing, but replace the gauntlets with semi-boot-like feet that ended in two sharp toes. And finally a black mask went over my eyes to finish the transformation.

(If the picture doesn't work then please use this link: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/b...verflow.png/revision/latest?cb=20201111080127 )

I was suddenly deep underwater. Like I was super deep down. The creature I had become was fighting alongside others of their species against all sorts of deep sea creatures. There were weird alien squid, awkward looking angler fish, big, toothy eels, and plenty more interesting and really creepy creatures of the deep. The next memory flashed to me and I saw the Cascan interacting with others of their species. In this memory, they were in a type of weird lab and seemed to be building... a type of submarine? And it looked like they had helmets, gauntlet-jets, swords, spears, and even harpoons decorating the walls behind them. The memories jumped forwards to them simply playing with their un-armored children. The kids looked so weird. Not in a bad way, but they didn't seem to have organs of any kind at all. They only had eyes. No mouth, ears, or anything like that. They were made of water entirely! If they had kids, then how did they reproduce? I wouldn't be getting any form of answer anytime soon though.

The transformation and memories ended completely and I was suddenly in the present once again. My voice was muffled as if I was a speaking underwater. "Overflow!" I yelled out and I looked at my chest. Since it was daylight now, I saw that the Omnitrix symbol on my chest was white and black. I looked up at the others and I was amused. They had the funniest looks on their faces. Maria was confused, Camryn was skeptical, and Riley was gobsmacked.

"What the fuck is that?" Maria dumbfoundedly asked. "Are you some sort of magically animated armor?"

"No, I'm actually living water inside of a containment suit, I think."

"And that answers my question how?"

"It doesn't at all. I'm not even sure as to what the hell I am, but that doesn't matter right now! What does matter is power testing!" I then pointed my gauntlets to the ground and extremely powerful, high pressure streams of water blasted out of the holes on the wrists of my gauntlets. I found myself flying forwards into the pseudo-ice sculpture I made earlier and crashed into it head first. Ow. The ice shattered, the rock formation now had a huge hole in the side of it, and I was deep in that hole... not in a sexual way.

I climbed out of my impact hole and stared towards the others. They were laughing at me once again! I raised my arms above my head and let out some much weaker but still powerful water streams that merged together. The new water spout climbed into the air and came down onto the others, soaking them.

"HEY!" They all yelled at me, sending me glares. Glares so powerful that if looks could kill, then they could've killed a healthy, adult elephant instantly. I began to laugh my ass off. Serves them right!
Anyways, the next eight or so minutes were spent mostly breaking large rocks with water blades, wetting sand, and creating thin sheets of ice. Oh yeah, and numerous attempts at trying to master Overflow's hydrokinetic flight. None of those attempts were all that successful and there maaayyybeee be several holes littering the area we were in, but shhhh, we don't talk about that!

BEEP BEEP BEEP BWOOOOO

And once again, I was back to regular old Camryn. With a sigh, I made my way over to the others, not looking forward to whatever happens to me. "Uh, hey guys... sorry for soaking you all back there... heh heh heh..." I laughed awkwardly, dreading what was coming my way. The next thing I knew Camryn had his arm around my neck and holding me tightly, driving his fist and rubbing it around in my curly, messy dark hair. A noogie... I shall have extremely petty revenge later, you little shit.

Maria walked over to us and pulled us apart. "Now, you kids done?" Camryn smirked at her smugly. "Yes, Mom." I sighed, half-way between amused and annoyed. "Yes. We are." Riley giggled and walked over to us.

"So, Cam, I have one question for you?" What are those? "What was that form? That was definitely one of the odder forms you have." Thank god she didn't say 'What are thoooose!?!'. "That I really don't have an answer to. I'm still just figuring things out." Maria then spoke up. "Was that form weird for you, because it didn't look like you were gonna run out of water any time soon?" I looked up at her and smiled. "Yeah, I'm pretty darn sure Overflow is literally living, sentient, and sapient water."

Camryn looked at me. "You said that already. How did you not run out of water?" I was so tempted to recite a modified version of the Bee Movie script but I held the want to meme at him in. "I have no idea, but I just wouldn't question it. It might make your head hurt." He grumbled at my 'Bellisario's Maxim' hand wave, but didn't press any further.

******
BEEP BEEP BEEP

After another ten minutes, the Omnitrix was back online. This form... I wasn't looking forward to this one. I was just praying that it was safe to use. I activated the watch and began the transformation sequence. My blood evaporated beneath my skin, causing my skin to turn grey-purple. My finger bones tore out of my finger tips and sharpened into bendable and extremely sharp claws. My arms grew longer and my legs and feet combined into a long ghost-like tail with vertical black and white stripes going down it in a pattern. My body grew larger and my back hunched due to my changing bone structure. And my skull deformed and flipped upside down with one of my eye sockets vanishing along with my eyeball. And finally my new utterly pants shittingly terrifying form was completely covered by a light green and very thick but smooth skin. My wrists were shackled and green chains sprouted out from the Omnitrix that was peeking through the second skin that I grew.

(If the picture doesn't work then please use this link: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/b...fficial.png/revision/latest?cb=20210515171015 )

My memories were... interesting and completely horrific. The genetic donor, Z'Skayr, was an absolutely brutal, terrifying, and incredibly intelligent being. He was the most powerful Ectonurite that had ever existed in the scary as fuck Anur System. He was the one who led them alongside their greatest generals and strategists using their ghost-like abilities and powers to slowly but surely take over the Anur System. He sat at the top after killing and subsuming most of said generals and strategists in either combat or subterfuge. He lived for a very long time during his tyrannical reign as High-Ecto Lord of Anur Transyl. He had clashed with freaking Vilgax and it appeared he even fought Thanos and managed to live. More memories passed with me getting glimpses of fights with the previous user of my Omnitrix. I couldn't tell if it was Ben or someone else. And I saw other fights with the natives of the Anur system which looked like and possibly could have inspired classic horror media creatures. And if you're wondering about his family, he had some rather fond memories of his parents, sibling, and nieces. Which was very surprising to me.

The world returned to normal and my perception changed again. I shouted my name in a raspy and deep voice. "Ghostfreak!" My voice sounded like I just gargled sand. My singular eye squinted at the bright light from the morning sun. I allowed my eye to go along the black track on my second layer of skin that suppressed my true form. I stared at the others without blinking. "What do you make of this form?" I smiled wickedly beneath my layer of protective skin.

---

Power Testing Part 4

For a brief moment, nobody said a word. It was just pure, deafening silence. The silence was finally broken by Camryn. "Hm, another ghost form? Well, at least this one actually is a ghost." He said dryly. "How do you feel about that?"

I stopped for a moment to consider how I actually felt about it. After a few seconds of silence, I spoke up again. "It feels wonderful. The sensation of complete freedom... I can barely contain my excitement!" They couldn't see my smile while I was underneath my second skin, but this smile was more genuine and less wicked than my last one. Though I doubt they would've been able to tell the difference between the two anyway.

I didn't feel Z'Skayr's presence in me right at this moment. I... don't know if I should be happy or if I should be wary. Based on the memories I've experienced so far, Z'Skayr was a slippery bastard. He's definitely savvy enough to hide his presence in the Omnitrix for now until he can get out of it once again.

Anyways, I finally started to use my powers for the others to see. I focused on the pieces of the rock that I accidently might have destroyed earlier. I felt a very... um, unique and purple energy in my hands. That same energy surrounded many different sized fragments of broken rock. I raised my hands into the air and all of the fragments followed my hand movements. This was fascinating. I stopped waving my arms around and focused on slamming the rocks all together at once.

The pieces all flew together into one point and shattered on impact, causing even smaller rocks and rock dust to scatter through the air. I began to fly through the air as fast as I could. Big Chill was one hundred percent faster than Ghostfreak, though it's not like Ghostfreak is super slow. I'd say his flight speed was about as fast, possibly faster, than a person sprinting in a hurry.

I turned on my intangibility and dove through the ground like I did earlier with Big Chill. But rather than simply coming up through the ground, I turned invisible as well. I still came up through the ground afterwards and merely floated right behind the others.

"Um, where did he go?" Riley questioned. Camryn spoke up like nothing had even happened. "He's either still in the ground or he's somehow right behind us. Actually no, he's definitely right behind us because I heard him phase through the ground." How did he know? The others didn't pick up on it. Maria spoke next. "Okay, so I wasn't crazy. I just didn't want to seem crazy if you two didn't hear him." Riley added her own thoughts next. "So that's what that weird sound was?" Well screw me then. Annoyed, I floated in front of them, crossed my arms, and phased back into reality and made myself visible again.

"Well, it looks like I underestimated how good your senses were..." My tone was laced with annoyance and a hint of interest. I could show them the real Ghostfreak. Them being vampires, I'd figured that they could probably handle seeing the ghastly monstrosity that was underneath my skin. But unfortunately, the morning light was already here and I couldn't show it off for them. I considered what power to show them next before remembering one of the most often used attributes an Ectonurite used in combat.

I couldn't open up the chest of the second skin, but I could phase the tentacles in my chest out though. Black and white tendrils shot out of the skin like diseased snakes and wrapped around the others all at once. Riley was grabbed around the waist, Camryn was grabbed around his chest, Maria was grabbed around her arms. I lifted them off the ground and brought them closer to me. Riley screamed, Camryn just glared at me, and Maria just had this annoyed expression on her face.

"Camryn or Ghostfreak, put us down, now." She demanded. Well she didn't seem too pleased with me now did she? I did as I was told in order to not get my throat slit. "Sorry, I simply couldn't resist doing that." I said with amusement.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BWOOOO

And I was back to normal once again. I looked up and I rubbed the back of my head again. I really liked doing that didn't I?

"So, how did you like Ghostfreak?" I asked them, curious about their reactions. Their reactions were as I expected: Both girls were pissed and Camryn was annoyed. But what really got me interested was that he actually appeared to be somewhat disturbed.

Well shit...

The next thing I knew I was on the ground, face down in the hardened sand, clutching my groin, and wheezing badly. OW OW OW OW OW OW OOOWWWW! Note to self: Never do that again!

"Never do that again, mister." Riley said angrily. Yeah, I think I understood that after you murdered my testicles! "Or the next time you do it, the punishment won't involve me kicking you in the balls, but it will involve electricity and jumper cables."

The next twenty minutes passed and they got over me picking them up like that. I don't understand what pissed them off so much. Anyways, I finally got up after the pain in my groin faded away. I looked down at the Omnitrix and dialed up the next form. I quickly pressed the core down and I transformed into the next alien.

I began to shrink down to about a foot-and-a-half tall. My body became hollow and my skin was replaced by white silicon. My eyes became small but thick green lines and they were surrounded by thick, black lines. Green, circle-shaped indents pushed their way out of the back of my hands. And once again I only had four fingers on each hand. A pair of headphones went over my ears, which were also now the same kind of indents that were on my hands. A weird little thing appeared on my back. My head became wider and my mouth also grew wider. The inside of my mouth became green with very thin black lines in it. And the Omnitrix symbol was on my chest.

(If the picture doesn't work, then please use this link: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/b...st/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20171022040816 )

My memories for this one were a lot more "normal" for than the others. The alien lifeform didn't seem to be much of a fighter since a huge amount of memories seemed to be them spending their days with their family and friends. The planet the being lived on was very beautiful. It was filled with gigantic multi-colored canyons that would've made the Earth's Grand Canyon jealous. There were massive gorges and enormous mountains. It seemed like the Sonorosian used the landscape to communicate with other races and their friends that lived far away.

The memories ended and I was back in the present. I was of course much lower to the ground now because of my diminished height. I could feel sound though. I could see vibrations. Imagine not having a sense for your whole life and then gaining that sense all of a sudden. This was how that felt. Though it wasn't overwhelming, just really weird.

"So cute!"

Riley yelled. She ran over to me and picked me up, holding me against her tightly.

"Hey, put me down! I don't consent to this!" I tried to yell, but it came out rather quietly. I tried to push her away from me put she was too strong. After ten seconds or so she stopped and I fell onto the sand.

"I hope you aren't hurt..." she said concernedly.

"No... I mean yes..." I stammered out before I could stop myself. "Why did you do that?" Note to self, don't turn into cute things around Riley...

"I did it because you're just so cute! You're like a big doll!" And that proves my point. Camryn and Maria both walked over, both clearly amused at Riley's unauthorized cuddles. Camryn, of course, was the first to snark. "Gee, I didn't know you were into dolls, Riley." Douchebag. Maria simply chuckled.

"I'm glad that you're having fun, but what can this little cutie do?"

I thought for a second and decided to be completely honest about Echo Echo's frankly bullshit powers. "Well, I can detect vibrations. I can see sound. If I were to scream, then I can blast things with hypersonic screams that I can use in several different ways. I can self-duplicate with no limit-" "Wait, wait, wait," Maria stopped me, "You can do all of that with just one form?" I laughed. "Yeah, I guess I should show you... but to be on the safe side, let's move away from the car." And so we went several hundred meters away from the car.

"Is this good?"

"Yeah."

I took in a breath and I shouted. Unlike in Alien Force and every show afterwards, I doubt that the others would've been able to see my sonic screams unless I were to get enough clones out and screamed. Powerful sonic waves ripped through the air, though since I aimed at the sky, nothing was hurt, yet. Afterwards, I created a team of clones and we each ran over to a fairly large rock formation. Then we each synched up and let out a mighty echo chamber. The rock didn't stand a chance and crumbled within seconds. The level of decibel force was easily controlled because of our precise audiokinesis or sonokinesis if you prefer. I looked back at the other and noticed that they were each clutching at their heads. Camryn was wriggling on the ground in extra pain just to bring some extra attention to their situation. Whoops! With a cringe from each of my clones, we all merged back together into one Echo Echo.

"Sorry, you guys. I guess we underestimated our strength..." I once again rubbed the back of my head sheepishly.

Maria sighed. "Please, just warn us the next time you do that." She had blood on the side of her head, coming out of her ears, and on her hands. Riley wasn't any better. Camryn was just now recovering from the pain.

The rest of my time spent as Echo Echo was less sonic-related and more focusing on our movement. We figured out that he was super agile and he could levitate but not outright fly.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BWOOOOO

And just like that I was back to normal. Nothing really happened in between the time it took us to walk back to the car... and to let Camryn recover. At this point, we decided it might be for the best to go back home and test the other four forms later on in the day. Besides, the others needed to go to work at the restaurant that Maria owned at the pier. I couldn't go since I technically didn't exist in the system so I ended having to stay at the house by myself.

******

There wasn't all that much for me to do other than simply watch TV, play video games, clean up, and other things like that.

Hold on a second, I popped up the core for the Omnitrix and scrolled, or dialed, over to my sixth and seventh aliens. I was just about to press down before I stopped. Instead of jumping at the opportunity to change into one of my technologically inclined transformations, I decided that it would be better to simply call the others and ask if I could go into the basement. The reason being that they cleaned it out, or made it safe for me to go in there alone. Which kind of worried me as to what exactly made it unsafe for me in the first place.

I went into the kitchen and dialed up Riley's phone number. It took me about two tries to get her on the phone. She said that the basement was indeed safe but told me to be very careful and that I could only touch non-organic technology. So that confirmed that she was likely the scary-as-shit Bio-Tinker that she was canonically.

I said goodbye, hung up, and jogged my way to the stairs leading to the basement. I slowly walked down the stairs, making sure I don't break my neck falling down. I opened the door and quickly closed it behind me. There was a pile of dusty electronics and a few boxes of tools beside them. Perfect. I activated the Omnitrix and scrolled over to my seventh form and pressed down.

I began to shrink down like I did with Echo Echo, but this time I shrunk much lower much faster. I was now six inches tall. My hands got bigger and my skin turned grey. My head became heart shaped and grew bigger. My eyes filled my heart-shaped head and turned green. My clothes became a white jumpsuit with a black line going down the middle. My feet became flat and my toes flattened out and merged into three squared ones. And the Omnitrix symbol was on my back like I expected.

(If the picture doesn't work, then please use this link: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/b..._Matter.png/revision/latest?cb=20140510174853 )

Memories flooded my much greater mind. Specifically, memories of my genetic donor working in a lab alongside the creators of the Omnitrix, Azmuth and what appeared to be some sort of yellow-orange cat-like alien. My form was a brilliant inventor, but not as intelligent as Azmuth or his feline assistant. He worked tirelessly throughout his long-lived life as a Galvan. He had a wife and three children. He also ended up helping innovate what appeared to be teleportation devices that ended up being commonly used throughout the universe. There was so much more to his life but it all flashed forward too quickly for me to keep up with it all.

I looked around the fairly dark room. Everything was significantly larger than it was before. I took everything in and fixed my gaze on the table where the electronics were. I leaped over to the table and landed perfectly next to my targets. I smiled to myself and prepared to start building some tech! While I probably won't have the time to make a lot of technology at this moment, I could certainly try to build a damn decent computer out of all these parts. I went to the boxes of tools next to the discarded, slightly dusty tech and began to dig through it all. There were flathead screwdrivers, Phillip's, wrenches of all different sizes, hammers, and power tools. These tools, while definitely not the best, would work just fine.

I made my way over to the box of scraps and fairly intact electronics. My eyes scanned over the electronics and I saw that there were a few laptops, some old, out-of-shape toasters, old-as-dirt brick phones, and what looked like a sleeping robotic spider?!

I decided that it would be rather important for my health to not poke that thing with a glorified stick. I went over to one of the laptops and I tore off the casing with just enough of my Galvan strength, or what little I had. I looked at the wiring, the motherboard, the fan, and everything that was inside of it. I could make something twenty five times better than this easily, but I just didn't have the time to complete the coding and rewiring processes. I needed to figure out how to extend my transformation time. Then I realized that I could actually do that!

I didn't know exactly know how to activate the life-form lock just yet, but I'll figure out how to do so later! I started to work on quickly putting together a new, much stronger, and much better laptop out of these old electronics. I guess I should've told the others about my plans before I did this... nuts. Oh well, can't cry over spilled milk and all those similar metaphors. I just barely got done with building the damn thing when I ran out of transformation time. Thankfully the windows and curtains were designed to block out and keep in light. They probably got them done like that for Riley's tinkering. When I transformed back to normal, I didn't experience any sort of sense dysphoria. I guess that confirms that I won't get anything like that, at least with organic aliens...

I marveled at my new, almost ready computer. It wasn't super flashy, but really, you shouldn't go big or go home with the first thing you create as a super genius. It will work just fine for now. I waited out the recharge time by running back up the stairs and pouring myself a glass of iced sweet tea. It was delicious! When the watch recharged I didn't instantly turn back into Grey Matter. Instead, I went up to our room and sat down to experiment with the dial.

I wasn't stupid enough to take a screwdriver to the faceplate and try to pry it off. Instead, I put my hand on the dial, twisted it about ninety degrees, and pulled on it. The watch's hour glass symbol vanished and a green light flashed out of the... screen or whatever you could call it. Suddenly, a lime green screen popped up before my very eyes and I was welcomed by a rather strange voice.

<Greetings, new user, I am the Omnimatrix's Artificial Intelligence. You have figured out how to do more than just press a button and slam down on the core, I offer you my congratulations for doing what most other users failed at.> What. <You have been designated user Zero-Zero-Six-Nine. You have activated the User Settings screen for the Omnimatrix. Would you like to register a name and pseudonym for yourself?>

...

Well, this just got very interesting. I wasn't trying to do that. I was trying to see if I could cheat and unlock some new forms without having to wait.

 

[Nyrmac]

This... this was huge! I could actually use the Omnitrix settings! I quickly told the Omnitrix, or Omnimatrix if you prefer, my name. "Omnitrix, please call me Camryn."

<User's name has been registered as 'Camryn'. Would you like to register a pseudonym Camryn?>

"Yes, please refer to me as Six-Nine in public and around other people, please." I snickered at the fact that I was user Zero-Zero-Six-Nine. Nice.

<User pseudonym has been registered as 'Six-Nine'. Your list of current commands available with voice command is listed:

Activate voice command - authorization code Zero-One-Zero - Obviously, this command and code will activate the current system that you are using right now.

Disable voice command - Obviously disables this system.

Voice command settings - I seriously doubt that I'll have to explain this one to you.

Your list of locked commands are listed as:

Engage Life-Form lock

Disengage Life-Form lock

Access Master Control - Note that you cannot use this command yourself.

Randomizer

Emergency Life-Form lock mode

Playlist Creation

Stealth Mode

Recalibration Mode

Quick Change

Imprisoning System

Scan and Capture Mode

Azmuth's Teleportation Network

There are many more than the ones that were just listed. But the one that are locked are currently locked until I have adapted and permanently merged with your body. Have a good day, Camryn.>

I just sat there for a good fifteen minutes processing all of that. That was A LOT of functions. I wonder if I could use the Randomizer and actually have it be more than useless. Or maybe it would give me a shit load of new forms. Maybe neither and it would prove to be less than worthless like in Omniverse. I can actually talk to this thing though! I've got to experiment more with voice command soon, but first, I need to finish of the laptop.

I went out of my room and jogged back down to the basement. I wasn't going to use Grey Matter again. Not yet at least. Instead, I was going to use alien number six. I dialed him up and pressed the core down.

A dark green fluid with light green, glowing lines made it's way up my arm. The fluid encompassed my whole body and sunk in to my flesh, turning it into metal. My arms grew longer as I grew taller. My hands nearly touched the ground. Green circuitry patterns made their mark on my whole body. My clothes went to my front side and merged into a white "shirt". My back side stayed bare for some reason. My eyes merged into one large, cyclopean eye on my head, which was now shaped like a door knob, kind of.

(If the picture doesn't work, please use this link: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/b...e_Model.png/revision/latest?cb=20200511092500 )

Memories of this forms life had flooded into my head and I noticed that from the form's point of view... everything was very, very green. The form had quite an interesting life. They had lived with their friends, which were also technically their family as well due to the nature of their creation, for a good 70 years on their home of Galvan-B. Galvan-B was a moon that orbited the planet Galvan Prime which was Grey Matter's home planet. The form ended joining an inter-galactic federation known as the Nova Corps and assisted in technological development and repair. While the form wasn't a fighter by nature, their powers and physical abilities were truly incredible. The form's incredible technopathy and technokinesis were the main draws though. They were capable of merging with technology and enhancing it to levels that the greatest human engineers would simply weep at in jealousy. And it would most likely cause them to simply give up on logic because of how insane it would be to see lasers shooting from a toaster. And said toaster producing infinite toast.

The transformation finished and I called out my name. <Upgrade!> The voice that came out of my... body... was far deeper and much more mature than a fifteen year old's voice. And it sounded like I was talking out of a speaker.

<Woah. I feel so weird right now. I feel like I could just build pretty much anything related to technology. And like I could just make it better. I guess that's a good thing, really.>

I looked over to the laptop and I looked down at it. Then, I leaned forward and went into the machine. Each of my nanotechnological cells covered and merged with the laptop. I became one with it. I could check everything about it. From the intricacies of the internal parts to the programming. The programming would've taken quite a while even for Grey Matter to do, though that was because he was limited to his eyes and fingers. Upgrade had no such limitations. I had rewrote and coded the whole computer and added firewalls within seconds. I also made sure to not short circuit it or make it too powerful. There was a limit to how much the machine could handle at once after all.

I went out of the laptop, satisfied at what I had just accomplished. I was very tempted to merge with that robotic spider, but I held in that impulse before I did something rash. I looked around and I saw the washing machine. No, I won't do that. I had no idea as to what could happen. The unfortunate thing was that I had nothing really to do as Upgrade now.

Wait, I'm stupid. There was something to be done! I went over to the computer and re-merged with it and I began to surf the internet and began to read up on the situation of this Earth. After spending most of my time browsing and absorbing information, I managed to find some very interesting things about this Earth.

It seemed like that bullshit law, NEPEA-5, which prevented Parahumans, and in this universe all Superhumans, from finding work without joining the Protectorate was repealed. It turns out people weren't as blind, stupid, nor easily fooled as the PRT and Cauldron thought they were. There were so many lawsuits, so many of them. Turns out making it illegal to find work just because of something that most people can't control was seen as the beginning of more Jim Crow style "laws" (Author's Note: If you don't know what that is then simply look up 'Jim Crow'). People have voices! So either reality punched the PRT and Cauldron in the face or something might have forced them to have the law repealed. Thank God!

The biggest thing was that Leviathan is dead! He was killed at Kyushu! Of course, Lung managed to hold him off and keep the damn thing distracted. And Behemoth stopped his attacks after Leviathan's death. Weird. I would have thought that the Simurgh would have appeared not long afterwards with another Endbringer in tow. There wasn't anything mentioned about her other than the "Simurgh object" nor were there Simurgh quarantine spots. Did she ever even awaken here? That means no Travelers, no Mannequin, Tagg isn't an extremist, and a whole lot more.

Wait, did that site just mention EVOs? I did some more digging and I had found out that there had been a massive "explosion" that had caused Nanites to infest every organic creature on the Earth. This was bad. This meant that we won't be getting help from any benevolent aliens if there were any in this universe!

On the bright side, no Endbringers and no bullshit Nazi-assed laws. On the not-so-bright side, EVOs, Nanites, and apparently there weren't any sign of the Plumbers in this universe. Or SHIELD for that matter, though I think they're supposed to act in secret. Damn! That sucks big time.

Oh yeah, apparently this world still had to deal with monsters. Those monsters being Kaiju and Pokémon! Though the Superhuman Registration Act was passed in this universe... and it's actually fair! You don't have to register if you don't want to and it isn't legally binding! You could say that you were pulling off the heroic bystander move and stay off the radar. And you apparently won't be turned into an attack dog for the government. If you registered, you'd be eligible for actual training, support, and protection. None of it was actually required.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BWOOOO

I finally changed back to normal. I took a good long look at my new laptop. It looked good as new and it probably ran like a hot knife through butter. There was a lot of information to take in. And I needed to find out how to access more commands on the Omnitrix.

I wonder if I can activate voice command by simply talking to the Omnitrix. "Omnitrix. Activate voice command, code Zero-One-Zero."

<Voice command system activated. I am waiting for your command, Camryn.>

Yes, yes I can. "How can I activate the quick change feature when I'll be able to access it?"

<In order for you to gain that function, you need to transform into the rest of your genetic profiles for me to properly screen your body for genetic damage. Then you would be able to access quick change.>

Well that was very helpful. All I needed to do was transform two more times and I could quick change! Now, how do I use it? "How would I be able to activate it? Would I need to simply press the Omnitrix symbol down or would I have to will it?"

<After you gain access to the quick change function, you would need to pull on the Omnitrix symbol while transformed, twist the ring around it, or simply press down on it. If you do not have the appropriate appendages for doing so while in a specific transformation, then you would be able to simply will the change. Of course, you will be capable of controlling this device through mere thought, but that will take a very long time for you to do. Though you will be able to use quick change with a mere thought before too long.>

Fantastic! Thank God that the Omnitrix was so simple to use! Now, I wonder if I can extend the transformation time without life-form lock or anything like that? "Can I extend my transformation time through other means than life-form lock or something similar?"

<Yes. The more you transform, the shorter the recharge time will get and your transformations will have a longer time limit. Though it will be a slow but sure process of getting there, so please do experiment with your transformations!>

Interesting. So it'll reward me for creativity then? Guess that means I can't spam just one alien over and over again. Maybe that's why Ben had such a problem with his Omnitrix...
"Okay then Omnitrix. Deactivate voice command, please."

<Voice command deactivated. Have a good day, Camryn.>

I got up and went over to my new laptop. It was just big enough for me to use it. I really needed to get myself glasses. Or I could have Riley enhance me with her Bio-Tinker bullshit. Though I'm not very comfortable with having her get fingers deep into my body yet. I need to ask them if they'd be okay with me possibly going out on patrol and start being a hero. I could probably take out the gangs by myself, though it would be very difficult to do it.

The Wards aren't gonna cut it. Maybe I could join the Brigade. Did I mention that New Wave were still the Brockton Bay Brigade? I didn't? Well, they still were the BBB in this universe. Or maybe I should stay independent and just not deal with the red tape and bureaucratic bullshit that bogs down the PRT and Protectorate. Now before I do any of that, I'm going to have to look up all of the local Capes, gangs, Cape organizations, and general shite like that. I wonder if the Undersiders exist here yet. Maybe I could get Cauldron's attention and get them to back off and let me make this world better. Maybe that's too optimistic. Maybe it isn't. They'd jump at the opportunity to learn about the Endbringers and more about Zion and the Entities.

I looked through PHO and any other source I could find. I know that Tattletale and Grue at least edit their pages and modify them to have false information about their powers. It was a pretty smart thing to do. Now, I obviously know that Worm Fanon and Canon are very different things at certain points. So I need to take my metaknowledge with a grain of salt. I looked at the E88 Capes, the ABB Capes, the Teeth Capes, Coil's mercenaries, Uber and L33t, Faultline's Crew, Rogues, Heroes, and other groups regardless of their alignments. I also made sure to research any sightings of weird stuff around the general area of Brockton Bay and beyond. I had to go through a lot of paper, which was thankfully in stock in the basement, to write down everything I needed to write down. Things like powers, personalities, motives, and shit like that. I probably should make an account on PHO. Just a normal account for chatting.

 

[Nyrmac]

I'll get to the PHO account later. What I need to do is simply pull up the Omnitrix menu again. The reason is because I asked about voice command and not simply using the additional functions of the watch manually. I twisted the dial and pulled it up to bring up the screen again. The screen flashed out in front of me, and I started to get to work on seeing what I could access without voice command.

The answer was... not a whole lot. Of course, why did I even slightly get my hopes up? So now I absolutely have to make something to hide the Omnitrix. I know that it gives off a signal even when it isn't in use. I'm going to need to use Grey Matter to build me something that can hide it. One of the commands was some kind of stealth mode. But I'm not sure if that will mask the signal or not.

I scrolled through the menu, and I stopped when I saw that there were files about my currently available forms. I stopped to consider if I should read the files now or if I should read them later. I guess I should do it later when I don't have as much on my plate. Ugh, back to what I needed to do.

I dialed up Grey Matter, transformed into him, and got to work on something that would keep the Omnitrix out of sight and out of mind. I need to consider that there could be tinkertech cameras around certain places and if someone got wind that there was a Tinker somewhere and they weren't in a team, everyone would get a damn boner over who could grab them first. Tinkers are highly sought after according to both canon and fanon. Both the government and the gangs would be up my ass constantly, trying to hound me at every single possible attempt to recruit me no matter what I said. And God help me if they figure out what I can really do...

I just needed to build something that was relatively simple and easily carriable that I could just put on the Omnitrix and keep it there. My enhanced memory kicked in and helped me remember that device that Phil made for Ben in the Reboot. I could just make something like that. It was small, easily carriable, and I could just put it on the faceplate with no issue. So, I worked like a madman trying to build said device. Of course, it wouldn't have the same function, it would merely be for keeping the watch out of sight and out of mind. I grabbed every single piece of scrap metal, plastic, and electronic to build this thing as quickly as I could. Obviously, I grabbed my tools too...

Just as I reverted back to normal, I just barely finished the little blue ring. I looked at it and used what I had remembered from being Grey Matter to put it on correctly and safely. It was relatively fragile, and it could break pretty easily according to my memories, so I'd have to make another eventually. But I guess this little device would suffice for now. I held the Omnitrix out and I attached the little ring to the faceplate. The Omnitrix turned invisible . YES! I thumbed the button on the side of the watch and pressed it. There wasn't a green light or glow, but I could just barely make out Heatblast's silhouette. This would be perfect for now.

I grabbed my laptop and headed back upstairs. I sat down at the kitchen table and checked the time. My clock said eleven o'clock. Lunchtime. I went over to the freezer and began to dig through it to find my lunch. The contents of the freezer were chicken patties, tenders, nuggets, French fries, hot pockets, pasta noodles, and in general, there was a lot of generic frozen things in it.

I pulled the bag of fries and the bag of chicken tenders out, went over to the oven and set the timer and power. I looked around to see if we had any pans near and of course they'd be right where I expected them to be, underneath the oven. I grabbed a medium pan out and grabbed a handful of fries and chicken tenders and dumped them on the pan. I waited the time out by surfing the internet on my newly created kind-of-tinkertech laptop. I wonder if it actually counted as tinkertech or not.

The timer went off just as I discovered that YouTube still existed in this world. And the small fact that I was in 2011. I came from 2023. Was my world ahead of this one or was I thrown back in time? If I was thrown back in time, then shouldn't I be fairly resistant to precognition, postcognition, and other powers like that. Maybe I'm over thinking things...

Anyways, I took out my food and dumped it on to a plate. I went over to the fridge and pulled out the sweet tea. I grabbed a cup out of the cabinet, put some ice in it, and poured the tea. I mean, I don't have to tell you the rest of it, now do I? So, let's just skip ahead when I'm doing something slightly interesting.

******

I was finally back to YouTube, and I saw that there were some major differences between 2011 YouTube and 2023 YouTube. I mean, that's kind of obvious when you think about it, but this YouTube's primary color was purple, white, and black rather than red, white, and black. There was no demonetization or any stupidly strict bullshit like there was in my world. Of course, things were very different with the 'rate five stars' system still existing.

I spent some time searching the general internet, not just YouTube, while eating. I went to PHO to create myself a normal account. I could make a Cape account later. I don't think that you could be monitored if you have the 'Verified Cape' tag, but I'm a paranoid S.O.B so I'm going to make sure that it's safe by getting the 'Unverified Cape' tag.

I finished eating and put my dishes in the dishwasher. I considered using my fifth form to get to the desert as fast as possible, but I decided against it. Even though the form could break the sound barrier with ease, I don't think it would be a good idea to do so in broad daylight.

I spent the rest of the hour as Grey Matter, transforming, reverting, waiting ad nauseam, building some rather rudimentary gear due to the lack of decent materials to build with. I'm really digging Grey Matter now. I don't understand how Ben could ever not like him. Oh, that's right, he was too busy bashing his head against the wall with Four Arms and Diamondhead too much. Not like that's really a bad thing, I mean with those forms that sort of "strategy" is rather practical. But he really doesn't have that excuse as a teenager other than the freaking writers making him carry the idiot ball. Or making him a complete dumbass for the sake of plot purposes.

Anyways, enough whining about that. It was like Grey Matter didn't really know how to do anything other than basic things when I first transformed into him. It was weird, but I guess he doesn't have the necessary "specs", if that was even the correct word, to really get busy. I guess to prevent him from unlocking the Master Control too early. Anyways, like I said before, I still managed to create some very rudimentary gear from the rather limited parts I had in the basement.

I managed to create a simple, easily carried laser pistol and the beginnings of some better tools. Not like the power tools weren't good enough... if I could have used them that is. It was going to be quite a while before I started on creating things like powered armor. I'm going to have to grow a pair and ask Riley to give me Bio-Tinker implants or something similar.

I mean, I could sign up for martial arts classes, but we need to figure out a way to get me into the system, I think. I'm going to have to go back to school, no matter what happens. And I'm not looking forward to that. The closest school was Arcadia, which the Wards went to. While this universe might be different, some things probably stay the same.

******

About five hours later, the door opened, and I heard a voice call for me. "Camryn! We're home and we brought something you might like!" That was Riley and she sounded happy. I went back upstairs and went into the living room. They were there with what looked like a bag full of... computer parts and materials?

"Uh, how did you know I would have needed that?" I asked them gently.

Maria looked at me and smiled. "It was Riley's idea to get this for you. It was rather easy to just let Camryn go swipe some from the Boat Graveyard and to let Riley pitch in and give some of her parts to you."

"But that doesn't answer the question."

Riley answered me this time. "Well, Mom thought since your forms were so versatile, you might have a Tinker form in that watch. You do have one, right?"

I nodded my head. She beamed at me. "Great! This wasn't a waste of time then!"

I smiled and I went back to the basement with the bag of parts. Riley followed me down. Good. I sat the bag down and looked at her. "Riley," I said sternly," I need to ask you something."

"Yeah, what do you need?" She tilted her head.

"What is this spider thing?" I pointed over to the spider robot which was now GONE! I whipped my head around trying to look for the damn thing! Riley started giggling, "Oh, you mean Mr. Metal? He's right here." She held her hands out and showed me the cursed abomination in her palms. It's entire exoskeleton was metal. I didn't want to know if the damn thing had meaty insides or not!

"Mr. Metal? You gave that ugly ass thing a pet name?" She gasped at me and put her hand on her hip. "How dare you?! Mr. Metal isn't ugly! He's precious."

I just looked at her in disapproval. "Keep telling yourself that, pal." I said dryly.

She glared at me. "Well, excuse me mister 'I-can-turn-into-monsters', I didn't know that you were afraid of spiders."

"Well, I am, and I need to ask you something." Oh, this was going to be difficult.

The Bio-Tinker raised her eyebrow. "Really, after you insult my baby, you want to ask me to do something for you?"

"Yes." I answered bluntly and without changing my expression. She frowned.

"Riley, do you think that you... could give me... Bio-Tinker enhancements?" I barely got that out. She just stood there looking at me.

"Where did you get that conclusion from? Specifically, me being a Bio-Tinker?" The spider crawled onto her shoulder and sat there while she crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the ground, waiting for my answer.

"I just saw the spider there and you said that you triggered when you were young. Maria never said she triggered, and Camryn never mentioned if he ever triggered." I was hoping that she'd buy that, because it was technically true.

"Well, I would need some time to make anesthesia for you and you'd have to tell me what sort of enhancements you'd want," she said plainly. "But I would like to know how you actually found out about Mr. Metal." She crossed her arms again.

"He was left out on the table, Riley. And couldn't you come up with a better name then 'Mr. Metal' for 'him'?"

She looked at me, annoyed, and said, "Look, I'm not very good at naming things, okay?"

"Yeah, I can tell. But anyways, I need to show you something." I brought the Omnitrix up to sternum height and dialed Upgrade, since I haven't shown any of the others Upgrade yet. I slammed my hand down on the core and I was consumed by green light again.

My body gained black lines over it, the lines arranged themselves into a pattern. My skin color changed to red, yellow, and blue repeating with no overlap between colors. My arms, body, and legs became cubical. My hands and arms grew to a far larger size. My feet became cubes. My jawline turned into two yellow blocks that were divided by a black line. And of course, my Omnitrix symbol was on my chest.

(If the picture doesn't work, please use this link: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ben10/images/a/a5/Bloxx_Reboot_Stand.png/revision/latest?cb=20220911053927 )

I was suddenly brought to a very, very, very weird world . Everything was in bright colors, mainly shades of the primary colors. My form had the ability to change their body in any way, shape, or form they wanted. Of course, they were weren't even limited by the fact that they somehow evolved their bodies over time to become walking, talking Lego creatures. This was an incredibly weird species, and I actually like this alien quite a bit in comparison to some parts of the Ben 10 fandom. But back to the form in question, the Segmentasapien. The species managed to hide in literal plain sight from invaders due to their ability to hide amongst their own walled cities. Invaders would come here, walk around, and sometimes even occupy the cities. And they'd be none the wiser about the... unique inhabitants of Polyominus. The memories stopped as the transformation ended. I looked down at my chest. The symbol was still invisible but I'm sure it could still be touched.

The green light faded away as I was definitely not in the form that I selected. "Bloxx!" I yelled out.

I looked over to Riley and she was just silent. She didn't speak for a solid two minutes even after we heard footsteps coming towards the basement.

"Camryn, Riley, are you two o-" Maria stopped and her jaw dropped when she looked at me. Where was Camryn, actually? I got my answer when I heard his footsteps coming down.

"What's going on in-" As you might have expected, Bloxx had caused Camryn to also suffer from a fatal error in his cognitive functions.

"Um, surprise?" I smiled and rubbed the back of my blocky head with my blocky hand. Heh, I knew Bloxx was going to get one hell of a reaction from them. Since, you know, he's a gorilla made out of Lego bricks.

A good five minutes passed with no talking, snarking, not even a single flat 'what'. Finally, Maria was the one who broke the silence. "What. The. Hell. Is. That?" Yeah, that's about what I expected.

"I'm now a gorilla made of Lego." I said simply, as if this was in any way, shape, or form simple . She blinked. "Yes. I can see that but how?"

"Well, I just transformed again." I answered deadpan. She blinked again. "That's not what I'm asking . I'm asking how would a form like this be possible?"

"Well, life works in mysterious ways, doesn't it? I guess evolution decided it would go out drinking and wondered what it did last night when it made Bloxx here."

Camryn finally spoke. "But how would such an evolution be possible? What would Bloxx's species fight against in order to evolve like this?" He asked curiously.

I told them what I had seen. Apparently, I never told them about the memory flashes, since that got one hell of a reaction from them.

"WHAT?!" I told you so. They began to bombard me with questions. I had to tell them one at a time if they wanted a good answer from me. Riley was the first to ask me something. "WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL US THAT?!" She seemed to be upset at me.

"No one ever asked me what I had felt or seen when I transformed." That... wasn't a very good reason since they wouldn't have known to ask about it.

"How could we have known that you apparently experienced someone else's life within moments of your first transformation?" Camryn asked.

"Well, I'll ignore your question and ask you another question. Do you know what would happen if I didn't have the memories of the form I would transform into?"

"No. But you had better answer my question from before after this." He warned me. I shrugged with my big, blocky shoulders. "Well, if it wasn't for the memories, then I'd have to basically relearn everything about functioning. You know how different these forms are from humans. I'd have to relearn how to walk, talk, fight, breathe . It would be nigh impossible to really test each form out so quickly."

"That... makes a lot of sense about how good you've been with the forms." Of course, they possibly didn't know about my metaknowledge or about me knowing a lot about the forms already. Or maybe they did, and they were just humoring me. They are telepathic after all.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BWOOOO

I was back to normal, at the cost of blinding the others, again. It looked like we spent so much time talking that I couldn't really show off Bloxx. Bummer.

I decided that it was a perfect time to show off my new laser pistol and the beginning of my new tools. "Now, it's time to show off my new toy. Voila!" I pulled out the small pistol and held it out for them to look at it. Of course, they weren't very impressed by it.

"What is that? Is it a gun?" Riley asked me.

"It's a laser pistol! It's not very impressive, I know. But it'll work for now. I just didn't have much to work with down here." I responded.

Maria chuckled smugly. "Well, looks like we were right to head to the Boat Graveyard for parts and materials. Have you thought about making anything else?"

"Well, yes, but I need better tools. My tinker form can't really use power tools, so I'll have to build him specially made tools from the parts you brought me. The reason why is because said form is like six inches tall."

"Really?"

I nodded my head. "Yes, really. But he compensates by having an IQ of at least 10^30." Once again, I was met with complete silence.

Camryn was the first to speak up this time. "That's impossible, an IQ of that level would be in the quintillions."

"Oh, but it's very possible, my red eyed friend. The species is one of the smartest beings in the entire universe, possibly the smartest." I said proudly.

******

We went back upstairs to eat dinner. Maria ended up cooking us chicken pasta. Of course, it wasn't the same as my own mom's pasta, but it was still very good. I guess that the last form would have to wait until tomorrow.

******

I woke up and noticed that Riley had her arms wrapped around my chest, though fortunately, my back was facing her. I just barely managed to slip away from her and get out of bed. I ended up having to wear other Camryn's clothes. They were a little snug for me though.

I walked out of our room and shut the door behind me. I had no idea as to what time it was right now, so I ran to my laptop and checked the time. Eight o'clock in the morning. On a Saturday. I went into the living room and spotted a pile of paper. I was about to do something really stupid. I was going to go on a swimming/flying practice run. I quickly found a pen and wrote down what I'd be doing for about ten minutes. I set the note down and softly jogged over to the door.

I opened it and I was hit with a gentle breeze and the smell of salty ocean air. I went over to the side house and hid by the bushes. I activated the Omnitrix and turned to my final unused alien. I pressed down the core and the transformation began.

My arms grew longer as my fingers and hands outstretched. My fingers merged, going from five to three sharp claws. My skin turned red and large yellow patagia grew out underneath my arms. The patagia went from my wrist down to my newly grown tail. Gills formed on my chest and yellow horns grew from my nose and went up my face. Grey and yellow bands went across my chest from the Omnitrix symbol. And finally, my feet became long with three digits, two in front and one in back.

If the picture doesn't work, please use this link: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ben10/images/1/1a/GB_Jetray_(11).png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20200301005516 )

I was suddenly down underwater like I was with Overflow, but rather than battling sea creatures, the creature I became was gliding underwater at utterly ludicrous speeds alongside their friends. They were simply having fun racing against one another. Another one showed the creature flying in outer space. Yes, where there is no air at all. But this creature was still flying from planet to planet with ease. It seemed like the Aerophibian served as an ambassador for their planet and a delivery man for other planets. Speaking of their planet, Aeropela was a big ocean planet not unlike Planet 4546B from Subnautica. The planet even seemed to have some species from Subnautica living on it. I didn't notice the Kharaa or any leviathans at all though.

The transformation and memories finally stopped as I looked around at my surroundings. I whispered-shouted out my name rather than yell it out like a moron. "Jetray!" Things were so much clearer to me as Jetray than they were as regular old Camryn.

I stretched out my arms and I took to the skies with hardly any flapping at all. I zoomed through the air as I felt the wind on my body. This was even more fun than Big Chill or Ghostfreak! I was much, much, much faster than both of them put together. I flew up high into the air at constantly increasing speeds. I could've broken the sound barrier with ease if I really wanted to, but I decided that for right now I should just stick to regular speeds.

I looked out into the sea, and I gave off a large smile that would've made the Cheshire cat proud as I got an idea into my head. I knew I couldn't be long out there, but I just couldn't handle the wait and I took off flying towards that beautiful water. I aimed downwards and dived deep into the bay. The water didn't bother me, no matter how murky it was. The water was Jetray's playground!

It was so much fun swimming like this. I already liked swimming a lot, but this was something that I could only hope to do in my dreams! The water ripped apart behind me, unable to move into the space behind me quickly enough. I'm pretty sure that's cavitation, though I could be wrong. I didn't even need to go above the water for breaths of air!

I zoomed out into the ocean like this was something I did every day. It was no problem whatsoever! I passed what seemed to be a pod of Frillish and Jellicent battling a pod of Tentacruel and Tentacool. Bubblebeams and Acid Sprays shot out into the water, colliding with each other, or flat out missing. I looked out and saw a pod of Wailord breaching out of the water alongside some normal non-Pokémon whales. Of course, the further I got out, the clearer everything was. There were Magikarp and Feebas everywhere. Basculin of both eye colors hunted said Magikarp and Feebas down. I really wanted to stop them, but I chose not to. It was simply how the circle of life worked. Nature might be beautiful in many ways, but it could be a cruel, cruel mistress just as often.

I breached the surface when I was done. I noticed that I was far out past the Bay of Brockton Bay. I was just about to cruise back until I heard a very familiar and very dreaded sound.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

I needed to get back home, NOW! I wasted no time, and I went far past my regular speeds! Remember when I said I wouldn't do that? Yeah, this was an emergency! It took me no time at all to get back home just in time for the Omnitrix to time out. I was engulfed in red light and Jetray was replaced by little Camryn. I'm pretty sure I broke the sound barrier in my haste to return. I learned a few new things today. First, Jetray was fun as hell to use. Second, it was very easy to get lost as him. Thirdly, his eyesight is what let me see my house while I was rushing to get back. Fourthly, he doesn't seem to give a damn about momentum, since I was able to stop on a dime. Finally, I didn't even use his neuroshock blasts!

 

[Nyrmac]

"Oh my gosh, I just know something that I could have done." I realized suddenly. I could've used Upgrade to make tools for Grey Matter a lot easier and a lot quicker. I was an idiot for not doing that.

I snuck around to the front door of the house and went up to it. I put my hand on the knob and twisted it. I slowly opened the door and went inside. I closed the door behind me and let out a breath. That was way to close. I've got to time how long I stay transformed next time I go out.

I failed to notice Maria standing in the hallway. She gave me a look. "Where were you, Camryn?" I pointed at the note I left on the coffee table. She went over and picked up said note. "Camryn, when did you wake up?"

"I woke up at eight. I went to go test out my new form. And nearly reverted back to normal over the ocean. Heh, that would've been bad..."

She shook her head at me. "Just be more careful next time. You may not be so lucky this time." I nodded my head at her. "Okay, what do you want for breakfast? Do you want to choose, or do you want me to surprise you?" She asked me.

"Surprise me."

She smiled and nodded her head. "Okay, let me go start the stove and oven." She went into the kitchen. I just stood there wondering how I was going to approach the others on if I could try to fix this damn shithole of a city. They may not even give a shit about this city.

I know Accord would likely be interested in rejuvenating this city, but he wouldn't be interested in some random kid asking him. Besides, he's a very busy man. If Taylor triggered yet, then I'd try to get her on my side. Though, I'm not sure if the Omnitrix is an outside-context problem to the Shards, especially Thinker Shards. If so, then that's going to be bad. If not, then that's still a bad thing. I'm not sure if the whole 'Endbringers target OCP's' is fanon or canon, but regardless, I need to consider it as a possibility here.

I needed more information! I went over to the table and opened my laptop up. I actually have yet to start it up from sleep mode. I looked down at the Omnitrix and considered using Upgrade. No, not right now.

I needed to start building things at a faster pace. Maybe I could make a 3D printer. I just needed to find the materials to create a decent one, well it'd be decent by Galvan standards. So that means I'm going to need a lot of good materials. Is this what Tinkers deal with? No wonder why they have fugues and tear shit apart. Though, I don't have to deal with the Maintenance issues and production issues like actual Tinkers. That's a plus in my book.

I need to get started with something soon. I logged in to my computer and began to continue my research on Capes. I also need to consider the Unwritten Rules, despite the fact that no one actually follows them like fanon likes to believe for some reason.

I mean it didn't protect Fleur, so why should other Capes take them so seriously? I mean Lung was going to kill the Undersiders! There are also unwritten loopholes and unwritten exceptions to them, hence the 'Unwritten' part. The Endbringers might be an excuse canonically, but did that stop others from breaking them? HELL NO! They're not even legally binding!

Ugh, I'm getting too worked up about this. I may not have read Worm, but I still researched it. It may not be the same as actually reading Worm, but I can't dwell on it now. I had my chance. Now it's time to make do with what I got!

And I don't have much. I jotted down minor notes to look at later and expand on them when I have the time. I didn't hear Riley and Camryn coming down the stairs. "Hey, Cam. What are you doing?" Riley asked me. I didn't hear her though.

"Hey Cam!" she asked louder than before. I raised my head up to look at her. "What are you doing?" While Riley was asking her question, Camryn had went into the kitchen with Maria.

"I'm doing research on the Cape community. I need to get this over with eventually no matter what happens." She tilted her head. "Cam, you're talking about the gangs, aren't you? If you're going to try to deal with those pricks, then you're going to need a lot more than research results."

I looked at her and said, "What are you saying? Do you want to help me with this damn city?"

"Well, anything to let me walk the streets without having to watch my back." she said plainly. Yikes. This city really was bad. Fricking Cauldron and their dumbass experiment, maybe I could give them information on the Shards to make them cut the experiment or possibly even support me.

Yeah, I doubt that will happen. Maybe it won't, but I doubt the universe will let me have one little victory so easily.

"Kids, breakfast is almost ready!" Maria yelled from the kitchen. I could smell the bacon and eggs. The best breakfast is obviously pancakes though. But bacon and eggs were something you couldn't go wrong with!

"Cam, you really want me to give you Bio-Tinker enhancements? Is the reason why related to your future plans?" she asked me with a serious tone.

I took a moment to think before puffing out a breath. "Yes. I know it might not necessarily be pleasant. But I'm willing to do some rather unpleasant things to myself if I want to succeed with my goals." It might be overly dedicated and edgy, but I can't really think of another way right now.

She let out a breath and asked me something. "Do you really want to do that to yourself? It's not that easy to take back. And you need to start training if you want to make some headway early against the gangs. And I'm not going to let you join those assholes that label themselves as 'heroes'."

She doesn't like them? She kept going on. "They're more likely to stymie your growth as a Cape rather than help you. You'd be nothing but a cash cow to them. The Wards aren't supposed to see dangerous situations until they graduate into the Protectorate. How is that exactly going to help with your plans? But really, the Wards are nothing more than child soldiers masked as junior superheroes. Do you see why I don't want you to join them?"

"Wow, why don't you like them?" I asked her gently.

She scoffed at me and continued. "Because they give me crap for being a Bio-Tinker that won't submit to their stupid ass power testing! I'm being harassed at medical school by "trusted authority" that thinks they're being sneaky and pestering me to join the Wards. They don't trust me purely because I'm a Bio-Tinker!" She was really into this rant. "Those assholes don't care about what I'm doing just because of their paranoia! I don't give a damn about how that's their job to be paranoid! They can all just kiss my ass and leave me the fuck alone! I'm followed constantly by creepy pricks that want a cute pet Tinker and they just. Don't. Stop!"

I stared at her with wide eyes. "Jesus, I don't know what to say about that... other than screw those asshats. I couldn't imagine how annoying it has to be to deal with that much shit." She smiled at me, but I could tell it wasn't out of kindness.

"Now you see why I hate those bigoted S.O.Bs. They claim that they're doing their best to help this city, but everyone knows that they're full of shit. I mean we have Boston and New York near us, and they still can't be assed to send in support. They're afraid to admit to their own failures at doing their jobs. Look at this city, it's a hellhole and they allowed it. They don't care about the ENE branches of the PRT nor the Protectorate. Does their precious, little Think Tank even do anything? Or are they too busy trying to bury their heads up in each other's asses? I mean, Brockton Bay is infested with Neo-Nazis, human-trafficking wannabe Yakuza, bloodthirsty barbarians, some douchebag snake-y douche that nobody knows about, and that's only half of the issues!"

"Kids, breakfast is ready!" Cam called from the kitchen. Riley stomped in there and I followed behind her, ready for some bacon! But I just have to wonder about what Riley said before. Is she exaggerating about it or is she telling me the truth?

I walked over to the counter and grabbed a plate of eggs, bacon, and two biscuits. I went over to the table to join the others. I sat down and looked at each of them briefly. Riley was annoyed. Camryn just ate like a damn pig. He really is my alternate counterpart! Maria ate calmly. I began to cut into my eggs and crunched on a piece of greasy bacon.

"Um, did you two hear Riley?" I got my answer quickly. "Yes, we did." Maria said casually. "The number of times I had to beat someone because they were bothering me and Riley is mind boggling. By this point, we just ignore them but what Riley said was true." She sounded sad at that.

She dug into her eggs and kept talking. "Riley's trying to get a license so she can get a job to help people with health issues as a Bio-Tinker. I've had to change her from two different schools because of the PRT and other parties sticking their noses where they don't belong."

I quietly chewed on a biscuit as Camryn piped up after Maria finished talking. "It's even worse than that. There's a running joke about how the 'PR' in PRT actually stands for 'public relations'. That joke is pretty much the truth, unfortunately. The only thing they seem to be interested in is putting themselves on pedestals and trying to act as if they're the pinnacle of humanity, the Capes I mean. Somehow it doesn't occur to them that they're just setting things up to explode in their faces when people see that they aren't the white knights in bright and shining armor that the public thought they were."

He said like it was nothing. He took a bite of greased goodness and kept talking. "I don't understand why their PR team thinks it's a good idea to control them like that. They want to try to relive the glory days of those old superhero comics like The Tick. But this is real life, not fiction. They're unfortunately too stupid to understand that though."

******

About twenty minutes later, we were finally done with breakfast and shitting on the PRT and their PR team. Where they this bad canonically? I don't think they were. I know fanon tends to not portray them well. Anyways, I got back onto the laptop and continued to do research.

I decided to look at organizations across the seas. The Sentai were still around. Looks like they were dressed as the Power Rangers. Hellsing and Iscariot seemed to be in control of England. Good for them, but no sign of Alucard. I should ask if he's still around. Isn't he supposed to be Hellsing's secret weapon?

Uh, on second look at the Sentai, it looks like Ultraman is a part of this world. So that might be the actual Power Rangers! I have no idea about how or why they're on this world, but that's kind of awesome. Maybe I could get into contact with them in the future.

I swapped back over to the USA and started to look at independent Capes that I could possibly call. Someone named Omnimorph apparently was around one of the cities that border Brockton. Mouse Protector was independent? I thought she was a Protectorate cape.

Shit, Gotham was one of the cities near here. The last thing we needed was Poison Ivy or the Joker coming here and tearing shit up. But I don't think Ivy would leave Gotham that quickly unless it was crazy bitch Ivy. But the Joker? Oh, he wouldn't need a single reason to come here!

---

Yeah, I know, this one's a lot more dialogue heavy and there is quite a lot of PRT hate going on. But Riley just has really bad experiences with Brockton Bay as a whole, it's just that the PRT are especially persistent with her. Notice how Camryn was speaking far more calmly about them. Yeah, she's just very biased but she has a good reason to be biased.

 

[Nyrmac]

I closed the laptop and got up. I was bored of researching since that's what I've been doing for the last half hour. I need to start somewhere in terms of helping this damn city. What I need to do is start learning how to fight. I need to come up with a cover story or I need to figure out how to get myself into the school system. There's a lot that needs to be done, really.

I went back to the basement and got back to work on Grey Matter's tools. Really wished that I had Juryrigg rather than Grey Matter. It would've been much easier building things since I wouldn't have needed tools. But I didn't get him so I can't do anything about it right now.

I of course turned into Upgrade to speed up the process of making said tools. I wonder if I could build a habitat builder from Subnautica... Ugh, can't think about what I could possibly make, I have things to do!

The thing is about Upgrade, whatever he upgrades doesn't keep its enhanced state unless I focus hard. I also won't be able to repair my tech in the field if it gets damaged. Well, not if I can't turn into Upgrade or Grey Matter.

I looked into the colossal database of blueprints that Upgrade had, and cherry picked the tool blueprints that I would need to build. I also made sure to finish the miniature tools before doing this, obviously. I admired my work before me. While I couldn't smile due to my lack of mouth, my singular eye got the emotion through, somewhat.

I heard footsteps coming down the stairs once again. "Cam, what is this form?" It was Camryn. I told him about Upgrade and what he could do. He raised his eyebrow and asked me what I was doing down here. He seemed to be getting used to the forms really quickly.

<Well, I needed to finish making some miniature tools for another form of mine. He's the one with the ridiculous IQ I mentioned before.>

He nodded his head in understanding. "Well, that would be why your down here. I was just checking on you." I nodded my head, and he went back up the stairs. I considered upgrading the Galvan sized tools even further but decided against it for right now. I doubt they'd be easy to repair if I were to break them.

A few minutes later, I was back to normal. I needed to figure out if I can use quick change yet. I activated voice command and began to talk to the Omnitrix.

<Good morning, Camryn, are you finally going to ask me about quick change?> So this thing can read my mind apparently. I did exactly that and it spoke back to me in the same tone. Mechanical and snarky.

<Well, it's about time you finally asked. You are now capable of changing forms while transformed and you're capable of transforming back to normal without having to wait for the time out. However, you must be careful.> Of course, there's always a catch. "Careful about what?"

<The manual quick change drains transformation time after three consecutive uses, meaning that total time transformed cannot be any longer than ten minutes.> That was nice to know. So, I can't be too reckless or spammy with it.

"Hey, Omnitrix, could I just talk to you without turning on voice command?" I was genuinely curious if that was the case...

<I thought you would never ask me. Yes, you can. Would you like me to talk to you normally? It does get quite lonely, and after your escapades with your genetic profiles, you could use witty commentary to go along with your crash and burns.> Wow, screw you too then. I grumbled and thought it over. I eventually caved in after three solid minutes of thinking.

"Yes, Omnitrix," I sighed. "I would like for you to talk to me without voice command. Just make sure that you don't talk out loud in public. You ought to know that people would freak out over an AI, no matter how unjustified that fear and paranoia would be." I was hoping that the watch would understand that and not be offended by people's stupidity.

<Okay, Camryn. Do you need anything else?>

"No, I don't. Thank you for your time though." I thanked it.

<You're welcome, Camryn.> The AI said happily.

Okay, now I need to come up with a plan to take out the gangs. I'm not joining the Undersiders. I want to take out Coil before anything else, really. The bastard is far too slippery. I know he'd love to try to get his disgusting fingers on me. The Empire Eighty Eight was a good target, but the amount of damage would be staggering if I wasn't careful. Come to think of it, no matter who I fight, there's going to be a lot of damage. At least I don't have to deal with Noelle and the Travelers.

I need a costume. It has to look decent too and I have no idea how to create a decent costume. Maybe the others could help me with ideas for a costume. Which reminds me, I need those Bio-Tinker implants.

I could pull the 'kill 'em all' route, but I'm not even close to being mentally prepared to take a life. I know that it would probably happen at some point, but I'd like to try to avoid that. Except for Coil, that bastard has to die soon. Even if I don't have it in me to kill him, he still should die. He's far too dangerous to leave alive and unmolested.

I think it's time to talk to the others about being a Cape and fixing this city. Or at least get rid of the gangs. Ugh, this was probably going to suck.

I made my way over to the steps and began to climb them back upstairs. Of course, those tools were finally done. I'm not stupid enough to leave them unfinished. I walked out of the basement and into the hallway.

I made my way into the living room and found that Riley was waiting for me. She had this look on her face that read as 'I know what you want'. I took a breath and I finally spoke. "Riley, do you think-"

"Yes. I think you could deal with the gangs, but I don't think you could do it alone. So, I'm in." Wow, she read my mind, didn't she?

{Yes, yes, I did. Do you have a problem with that?}

No, I don't. "Are you really going to join me that quickly?" She smiled and put her hands on her hips. "Remember our talk this morning? I would love to be able to have some damn peace and quiet on the streets." I just looked at her, surprised at how easy that was.

"Do you think Camryn is going to join us?" She queried. I shrugged my shoulders. I just don't understand that guy...

We went into the living room to see if Camryn was there, he was. And he was on my laptop. "I don't see why you would want me to join you?" Okay, does everyone in this house have telepathy but me?

{Yes.}

Ignoring that blunt 'yes', I didn't know how to convince this dude. Thankfully, Riley seemed to have my back. "Well, if there's anybody who'd be good at dealing with the gangs, it's you. I mean hyper-awareness alone is valuable to a team. And to be honest, do you really think that me, who you know is impulsive, and this guy we barely know who probably hasn't ever had to fight in his life would be safe to fight the gangs? These gangs include Lung and the Butcher."

He looked up from the laptop and gave us a stern look. I had the feeling like he had probably seen some shit from the hardened look in his eyes. He groaned and spoke. "If you want me to join you, then he's got to start training before he sees any action. And you, Riley, can't do anything stupid like set your spider drones on someone's house."

"So, you going to join us?" I asked him. He pinched the bridge of his nose and nodded in agreement. Well, that was easier than I expected. But now, we have to convince Maria. I doubt she'd let her kids try something this massive.

"Kids..." Speak of the devil. She probably heard us the whole time. Ah, right... they all have enhanced hearing. I guess it'd be hard to be sneaky around here anyway.

"I know you want to do this, and I heard the whole time. But if you want me to say yes, then you have to promise me a few things." I looked at the other two and they were paying attention closely. I did the same thing and listened.

"Okay, you're all listening to me. First, I want to know about what you kids do. Second, don't commit crimes. And don't think about trying to find loopholes in my words. I know you kids might try something like that. Third, other Camryn, you need to learn how to fight. I'll try to see if I can get you into the system. People from other worlds have gotten trapped here before and all we need to do is confirm if you're a Superhuman or not. If we get you into the system, then we can have a much easier time getting you adjusted to life here. Fourth, don't try to antagonize powerful people if you aren't sure if you can defeat them. And finally, and I know you won't want to do this, you should follow the Unwritten Rules." She didn't stop there.

"The reason why is because the moment you break them, then the Rules no longer apply to you. Which means if you know someone broke them, then you need to reveal this and use it to your advantage. Don't hesitate to use every advantage you have and any one you might get. Do you kids understand?" We each nodded our heads.

She clapped her hands and smiled," Good. Now Cam, what sort of fighting style do you want to learn? I know that there's a dojo that teaches Krav Maga, another that teaches Tai Kwon Do, and a gym that teaches Boxing. It's your choice." Ooooo, so many good options. I'm pretty sure Krav Maga would benefit me the most at this point. More focus on the martial part, rather than the arts part.

"Well, I'm thinking Krav Maga to start with. It's supposed to be brutal and a really good fighting style, isn't it?"

Maria nodded, confirming it. "Before we do any of that, how do you feel about exercising with us?"

Fuck.

******

The rest of the day mainly consisted of, you guessed it, exercise and cardio. They said it was to help me get prepared for a far more active lifestyle, but I'm sure that was an excuse just to torture me. My legs were getting sore with every single step I took. The sun wasn't beating down on me really, but it got in my eyes a lot. Note to self: get some sunglasses later.

"Come on, Cam! You're doing great, only a little more to go!" Riley cheered enthusiastically. I was tempted to give her the single digit salute but decided against it. Camryn was jogging beside us and went right past us. Freaking vampires and their BS physiology.

Maria was also jogging with us, and she was having a good time. I quickly threw a glare over to her, but I had to continue on. I just gotten to the end of the pier before I heard Riley call out to me. "Okay, Cam! That's enough! You're good now."

I almost dropped on my face in excitement, but I didn't want to get covered in sand. I was sweating like crazy, my knees, legs, and feet were sore as shit, and my face was hot. Ugh, and I have to do more of this! I hate everything!

Maria stopped beside me and smiled warmly." I think you did great, Cam. You'll get the hang of it soon."

I smiled at her encouragement and nodded. I knew that this would just get easier the more I do it. But that doesn't mean that I won't whine and complain like a little bitch along the way. I looked up and noticed a Cape that was approaching us. They were dressed in a black and gold costume that looked somewhat like Alexandria's costume. I mean it obviously wasn't her. But considering the fact that this was a flyer, I'd have to say.... I don't know who this is. They were clearly athletic, and I think they were a woman.

The cape waved at us and introduced themselves as Antares. Which meant that this was my current Earth's version of Demolition Dolly. Great. I'm hoping she won't do anything stupid. We introduced ourselves one at a time.

"What are you all doing here this morning?" she asked with politeness.

"We're just jogging. We're trying to get this little guy who's sweating like a pig ready for martial arts classes." Riley answered honestly.

"More like trying to torture me." I growled out.

"Oh, come on, you're exaggerating!" the young Bio-Tinker playfully said.

"Don't worry," Antares told me. "You'll get used to it with experience."

"I know that. Just because that's true, doesn't mean I can't whine about it."

Antares laughed at that. I'm glad she thinks I'm funny at least... I looked up and saw another Cape come up behind her. This new one had a ruby red and magenta costume with half a dozen lines on their left shoulder. Since we just met Antares, this is probably Laserdream.

"Hi there folks. I'm Laserdream." Knew it. She asked Antares if she introduced herself. The Flying Brick, if Vicky was even a Flying Brick here, jogged Laserdream lightly with her elbow. "Of course, I did. I'm not stupid!" She was laughing a little though.

"So," Maria spoke up, "What exactly are you two girls up to?"

"Well, we were just doing an early patrol and we were just in the area. The others decided that our patrols should start earlier because of the Empire reportedly have tried to start coming here in force." And as if on que, there was the sound of gunshots and yelling fairly close by us.

"Well, would you look at that!" And then Antares was off like a rocket. Laserdream sighed and went off after her partner.
"Something tells me it may not be a good idea to get involved in that mess right now." I said blankly.

******

Twenty minutes later, we were back home. We had just managed to barely escape getting caught in that fight. The others agreed with me that we didn't need to get involved yet. I wasn't ready and none of us had costumes yet. We should probably talk to Parian about that. Or maybe I could make some. I don't know how I could though. Hmmm...

******
Over the next few weeks, we had daily runs every morning and every evening. Camryn would take me to the Boat Graveyard so he could start training me early. Let me show you how this training went.
******

I pressed the button on the side of the Omnitrix and looked up at Camryn." Is this a good distance away?" I yelled out to him. We were much further away than we were last time we were here. He was wearing what I assumed was going to be his costume. He looked like a cross between Stain and a ninja. I guess he wanted to go full on terror hero.

"Yes!" He yelled back bluntly. I dialed up Big Chill and pressed down on the core. I was engulfed in a green flash, and I was replaced by the Necrofriggian. I flew up into the air and blasted icicles at the young vampire. He dodged and closed the distance between me and him almost instantly. I phased out and his punch went right through me.

I phased back in to give him a swipe with my claws. I managed to slice some of the fabric away from his costume, but he ended up disappearing before my very eyes. He reappeared in the shadows a few feet away from me and lunged at me in a blur of super speed. I didn't notice him until too late.

He grabbed me while I was off guard and threw me to the ground with ease. While I think I was stronger than he was, Camryn was significantly more experienced and much more skilled than I was. He grabbed me by my legs and threw me over into the nearby wreckage. The impact caused the already weak and waterlogged wood to break into pieces and splinters. Ow.

"You need to be more aware of your surroundings."

"No shit sherlock." I uttered, now annoyed. I recovered and flew back up. I took a deep breath, and I blew out a blast of frigid gas. Once again, he dodged my attack with ease, causing the pile of rusty, old metal behind him to freeze instantly. He would be such an annoying opponent if we were fighting seriously.

I soared down at him, shooting more frigid gas. He himself then phased away, allowing the gas attacks to go right through him. His phasing wasn't the same as mine, though I don't know how my phasing works. But he phases into shadow, causing his body to turn black with a red outline.

He rushed at me with what looked like a knife, but I ghosted into the ground quickly. I came right back out when I saw that he missed and shot a chain of icicles right behind him. I ghosted back into the physical plane, don't know if that's the right thing to say, and landed on the ground. I swiftly put my hand on the ground and ice spread out from where I touched. Spears of cold energy shot out from the frozen ground and pierced threw the air towards the ninja nuisance.

He managed to weave around the barrage of spears. I took my opportunity and breathed out a powerful gust of non-freezing wind. This time, the attack actually hit him and knocked him away easily. I guess he isn't as tough as I thought he was. He certainly was speedy though.

I flew over to his seemingly unconscious body, but I had a feeling like he wouldn't go down easily. And as soon as I got reasonably close, he sprang up and threw a shard of rusted metal at me. I shifted away and crossed my arms when the piece of metal went through me.
"Are you good." I asked him. "Yeah, I guess I am."

"You know that you're a pain in the ass to fight." I drawled dryly. "How did you get so good at fighting?" He turned his head away from me. "I don't want to talk about it. And I don't want you to know about the shit I've had to do." Okay, that's not a good sign. I don't think it's a good idea to press on trauma.

"I won't press any more. I'm not that kind of person." And I wasn't going to do so. I brought my hand up to the Omnitrix symbol which was still invisible. Though the device I built just bends light around the watch, I think. I pulled on the symbol. Rather than crimson light consuming me followed by a crimson flash, green light surrounded me, and I shrunk from Big Chill's intimidating height of 7'5" back to my meager 5'0".

I noticed that Cam didn't rub his eyes after seeing that. He looked at me inquisitively and asked me, "When did you learn how to do that?"
I smiled and I looked down at the Omnitrix. "Tell him, watch, tell him how I learned how to do so."

<Well, you merely pulled on the symbol. You activated the manual reversion function for this device. You knew exactly what you were doing. Since I told you that you could do this.>

Camryn looked up at me with a confused look on his face. "Did... that thing just... talk?"

I smirked. "Yes."

******
This is what we did for a few weeks when we had time. Now, the only forms that we didn't test at the boat graveyard were the more noticeable ones. We learned from that mistake, so we went back to the desert to train.

 

[Nyrmac]

Finally, we were in the conveniently close desert. I stepped out of the car on the passenger side and Maria stepped out of the driver's side. "Hey, Maria, where do you want to start the spar?"

She put her hand up to her chin and began to scan for potential sparring areas. I wondered what she was thinking about sparring with me. She pointed towards the area where I was training a few days ago. I nodded my head at her and started walking to where she pointed.

This was going to be weird. We had agreed that she wanted to test Heatblast and Ghostfreak out. She told me that she wanted to help me master Heatblast's flight. And she wanted payback on me for when I was Ghostfreak. What the hell? What did I even do? Did I trigger trauma or something?

Anyways, we finally went over to the wrecked area, well away from our car. I activated the Omnitrix and pressed the core down. I was engulfed in a green light, and I was Ghostfreak once again.

"So do you want to start now?" I asked her. She nodded at me. I rushed over to her to slice at her with my claws. She dodged at the last second and grabbed my tail as I went past her. I felt myself lose control of my own movement as I was being swung around like I was a lasso. I ghosted out of her grasp and flew into the ground.

I need to think of a good plan. Because if Camryn was such an annoying opponent, then Maria would be so much worse. Riley said she was like 300 years old. Vampires probably get stronger when they get older. I needed to use the environment!

I turned invisible and phased out of the ground. I gathered purple Ecto-psychic energy around my hands and telekinetically lifted several rocks of varying sizes over here as quickly as I could. Small ones, big ones, medium ones, as many as I could grab. I brought my hands close together and all of the rocks slammed together. I knew she could take it and that she could phase too. Since you know, she just did it!

I separated the rocks and all I saw was some blood, so I definitely got her to an extent. But where the hell was she?
I got my answer when I was punched or blasted back into my stone projectiles. I bounced of the rocks, which definitely hurt. I rubbed the back of my head and looked up to see Maria opening up her eyes wide. Her eyes were red, not like how they were normally, but they looked red as if they were irritated. Some sort of laser beam shot out of her eyes and struck me in the chest, throwing me back into the rocks. And I don't mean slow lasers like in Star Wars. I mean as in actual light speed lasers.

I tried to get back up, but I got blasted again. I ghosted back into the ground and came back up behind her. My chest tentacles ripped out of my second skin and wrapped around her limbs. She turned her head around and glared at me. I twisted and started to swing her around. I finally let her go, throwing her into the rocky wall, which was covered in blood.

I narrowed my singular eye and waited for her to move. After a few uncomfortable moments, she finally stirred. I didn't get closer to her because I learned my lesson with Cam. Even if I could turn intangible, so could she. She opened her now not-red eyes and smiled kindly.

"You're a decent fighter for someone who hasn't been in a fight before."

"Well, I've watched TV, played video games, and I've read a lot of Comics. That's where most of my fighting style comes from." We shared a quick chuckle and we continued with the spar.

She lashed out with her own usage of telekinetic power, however, she actually was able to "shave off" most of the rock and turn them into spikes. She launched them at me, and I was forced to dodge each of them. 'Why didn't I phase away?' you might be asking yourself. I don't want to over rely on my intangibility for dodging since if I can't use it then I'll likely end up floundering.

Since I tried to dodge them without my ghosting, I ended up getting scratched by the projectiles several times. Though I never received a full on hit.

I finally just rushed at her. Her eyes turned red again and if I wanted this to work, I was going to need some damn good timing. I turned intangible right before she shot the lasers and flew through her. I didn't even try to possess her. She whipped her head around, trying to shoot me. She didn't hit me, and all her beams did was kick up a big cloud of dust and sand.

While she couldn't see, hopefully, I shot my tendrils from my chest at her again but this time she grabbed two of them and pulled on them. I was yanked forward to her and whatever hit me next felt like a truck slamming into me. I flew backwards and slammed into the ground, causing it to crack from the impact and force of my landing.

I pried myself out of my little pseudo-crater and floated in the air. Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. I rubbed the back of my head and brought my hand to chest level. I pulled on the Omnitrix symbol and transformed back to normal. Maria teleported herself in front of me and looked at me.

"Are you alright?" I nodded my head. "Yeah, I'm sure I didn't have much time left anyways."

"Okay, how long do you have again when you're transformed?" She questioned. I answered her by reminding her about what I said a few days ago.

"Hm, yeah, you're going to have to do something about that time limit. Only ten to fifteen minutes of transformation time and five to ten minutes of recharge time is going to bite you in a fight." I sighed at that, she was right. I knew that was going to happen eventually. I'm going to need more than just a little laser pistol, I should make a taser too.

******

About ten minutes later and I had transformed again, this time into Heatblast. I started the fight by shooting at Maria with a wide blast of flame. She dodged it by leaping into the air. Her eyes turned red and shot another laser beam at me, this time I dodged with ease. Looks like Heatblast was a lot nimbler than I thought he was. And I noticed that I just dodged an actual freaking laser beam.

I cupped my hands and formed a fireball. I essentially performed the motion for a Hadouken and shot out an explosive fireball at the floating woman. She dodged again but she didn't fire a beam at me this time. She held up her hands, signaling for me to stop.

She glided over to me and landed on the ground silently. She started to ask me about my pyrokinesis.

"Can you do more than just shoot and absorb fire? Can you just summon fire?"

"I... I think I could summon and manipulate fire and heat in general. Why do you ask?"

She answered me quickly. "I said I wanted to help you master your flight. See if you can recreate what you did at the Graveyard."

I took a deep breath and began to pull in the heat around us. I looked around and noticed that frost was forming despite the fact that we were in a desert, and it was day. I aimed my plasma-filled hands towards the ground and blasted out searing white-hot flame. I began to rise like I did before, but I was actually going to get this right.

I was actually stable this time, no rocking or unsteadiness. I pushed myself and began to propel myself through the air. Now, I was actually flying properly. It was actually difficult since Heatblast's flight wasn't as natural as any of my fliers. I needed to try and not just let my Omnitrix-given instincts do the work for me. I'm nowhere close to mastering this at all.
I finally landed after only about two minutes of flying. I was pretty sure I could've gone for longer, but I didn't want to crash like I did before. Maria walked over to me and started clapping. "That was very good, Heatblast. But I think this is going to be much harder than I had first thought."

******


And it was. Over the next few weeks, we experimented with each and every single one of my aliens, every chance we got. No, I wasn't able to unlock any new transformations, unfortunately. I wonder how Ben managed to unlock his since it was never told as to how he managed to unlock said forms. I'm NOT going to try to hack the Omnitrix. It ended up going horribly wrong when Ben and Kevin tried to do it, so screw doing that!

Enough about that and back on to the earlier topic, I actually did manage to fully control Heatblast's flight, so I don't accidentally turn myself into a missile. And surprisingly, I never got into a Cape fight the whole time. I'm going to assume that's going to happen at some point in the future since that would be my luck. Fricking hell, there are so many damn Capes in this city that it's inevitable I'm going to fight someone soon.


******

I was out by myself for once, I was just casually walking down the pier. There wasn't really anything going on. There was a group of people over by the pier that looked like they were trying to spot something. I don't know what they were trying to see but one of them was pointing to the top of one of the buildings. Specifically, the barber shop.

I looked up to see what they were pointing at, but there wasn't anything there. I just brushed it off as if the people were just seeing things.

I walked over to the restaurant and looked up at the name. 'Thunderstorm', not exactly a fancy name but I guess it's alright. I didn't go in there since I wanted to explore a bit more. But I was getting hungry.

I went over to the window and looked in, there were a lot of people in there. The primary colors were mainly shades of red. There was even a bar with seats at one side. In the back was the main counter for ordering and pick-up. I guess I could just place a to-go order and just eat at home. I went over to the double doors and pushed them open. I didn't even walk through the doors and my nose had already picked up the smell of hamburger, pasta, spaghetti, French fries, both fried and grilled chicken, and I even smelled pizza. There were even some Pokémon, mainly Patrat and Purrloin, and some kids running around playing, I had to wonder if that was allowed or if people just didn't care.

There didn't seem to be a waiting line, so I just walked up to the counter and waited for someone to come to the front. I guess it might be a little weird to see someone who looked so young to be placing an order for themselves, but that didn't matter to me. What mattered to me was food. Someone came up to the counter and it was Riley. Yeah, I went to Maria's restaurant. Sue me.

"Hello, Cam, would you like to order something?" She asked with a smile.

I smiled back and answered, "Yes I would." I took a quick look at the menu and ordered a bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a sweet tea. Since apparently this was one of those places where they gave you things like coleslaw on the side, I ended up dropping the coleslaw (not literally) and ordered an extra side of fries. Yes, I know I'm a big eater. Sue me!

"Okay, that would be $16.67. The wait should be about ten to fifteen minutes."

I grinned and nodded. "Okay, I'm just going to head out really quick. I'll set a timer on my phone." I did so before heading outside. I looked across the street and saw some men trying to hold someone up. I went over to the alley beside the restaurant and hid behind some trash cans. As you could imagine, it smelled horrible. I held my breath and transformed into Fasttrack.

Before I even thought to do it, I ran out of the alley way and over to the bald men. I scanned their outfits quickly and I saw that they weren't what I was expecting. They were part of the Teeth. They didn't have any Nazi tattoos or swastikas on them, but they were wearing clothes that had a sort of tribal theme going on.

I grabbed one of them before the other two could notice and threw him onto the hood of the car beside me.

"What the fuck was that?" The bigger goon asked. I shall name him 'Curls' since he has curly hair. The other guy I decided to name him 'Stooge'. That one's self-explanatory. Stooge asked Curls what he was talking about. Curls told him to look around and see if he noticed anything.

"Yeah, where the fuck is Steve?" So, the guy I knocked out is named Steve. I rushed behind Stooge right as he turned back around to face Curly. Curly pointed and yelled. "WHAT THE FUCK IS BEHIND THAT YOU!?"

I quickly rushed away, and Stooge looked over his shoulder in panic. Obviously, he didn't see anything and told Curly to stop pulling his leg. I think you can tell that I'm enjoying this speedster trolling a lot. Finally, after screwing with them for another minute I stopped right beside them and introduced myself to both Teeth goons.

"What's up, bitches?" They both screamed 'CAPE!' and I answered them by blasting both of them with a small blast of bio-electricity. They both were blasted back and knocked unconscious easily. During the confusion, whoever they were accosting and trying to shake down managed to run away. I called out to the police officers who had just came barreling out of the restaurant, "Hey! I just dealt with three Teeth members! Over here!"

They came right over, obviously drawn to the huge black and blue bipedal cat-leopard.

"Huh, good work mister..." The larger cop said. I answered him with my name.

"Fasttrack. Got it. Nice work Fasttrack. I can't believe the Teeth are at this part of town." The bigger cop's partner said. The larger cop, clearly much more experienced, told his partner that they were just guys trying to win favor.
The smaller cop, whose name was Larry, obviously asked me if I had any tattoos or if I had memories. I don't have to tell you how it went. I answered them honestly and confirmed that I wasn't a Case 53.

For the uninformed, Case 53s were Capes that had a "monstrous" appearance and had no memories. I mean none, they didn't even remember how to work a phone. They couldn't remember their past or anything. And each one had a tattoo in the shape of an omega symbol. Really, it was a cauldron. Remember that group I mentioned? They were behind the whole thing.

Anyways, more on those jerks later... I said goodbye to the cops as they took away the jackasses. I sped back into the alley and knocked on the door. Camryn opened it.

"What happened?" He asked immediately. I gave him the answer at once. He explained that my order won't be done for another eight minutes. I was surprised that it hadn't been that long. I pulled the dial and reverted myself back to normal. He told me to go pick up my tea, so I did.

As I was drinking it, what I just did caught up with me. That was my first bit of proper work as a Cape. It felt good being able to actually help someone. I expected it to be like it was something I did every day, but no, it just felt good to do something to help someone who needed it.

 

[Nyrmac]

I simply waited for my food while drinking my tea. I went back inside and went to go sit down in the waiting area by the counters. There was a row of chairs against the wall on the left. Another row of chairs on the right mirrored them. I sat down on the chairs on the left side and crossed my legs. I got out my phone and I checked the news. Where did I get the phone from? I just built one as Grey Matter.

I scrolled through my apps, of which I had very few, and tapped the news. Of course, it decided to show me news about places I wasn't interested in at first. Annoyed, I scrolled past that crap and discovered the Brockton Daily. There were mentions of someone named the 'Red Queen' that was visiting hospitals and healing people for a price. Apparently, this new Cape was relatively new, and they seemed to be well regarded. But I swear I've heard the name Red Queen before. I put the thought in the back of my mind for now and kept looking through the recent news.

It was a rather slow news day since the only other somewhat noteworthy stories were Capes being spotted having lunch with each other. Well, it was a bit unusual since the Capes were on opposite sides and they were obviously minors. I think one of them was a Ward and the others were part of the E88, the Teeth, or a Rogue. But they were just eating and weren't hurting anything or bothering anyone. Yeah, obviously had to be a slow news day.

I scrolled past that and started looking through the out of city news. Iron Man existed but the Avengers didn't exist, at least for now. Omnimorph seemed to be active in Bellw-

Yeah, that's Ben, isn't it? So, it's going to be awkward when I end up eventually meeting him isn't it? People are going to wonder how we have such similar powers and that's something I'm not interested in explaining. Especially since I don't even know why I'm in this hellhole of a world. I'm probably going to have to rename my forms since people are going to bitch and moan about us having the same names for our forms.

Ding Ding

There goes the bell. I looked up and heard Riley yelling over to me that my order was done. I put my phone in my pocket and got up from the rather hard wooden chair. I walked over to the counter and reached into my pocket. I had a twenty on me and I gave that away at once for my burger. She handed me my order and I handed over my twenty. I told her to keep the change and I gave her a polite goodbye.

I strolled past the other restaurant goers and avoided the little brown and purple fur balls chasing each other across the floor like they didn't have good sense. I made my way over to the door and exited the establishment. But not before holding the door open for others to come in. I went out the door and began to walk down to our house. It wasn't far away, and it was only a fifteen-to-twenty-minute walk away from the pier.

I went around the corner and went past the area where there seemed to be a clean-up crew. I'm guessing that was probably due to a break in or a fight that broke out around here.

I finally walked down the street and saw the house. I broke out into a minor sprint to get there quickly. Thankfully, my food wasn't going to be really messed up due to the simplicity of my order and how I was holding it. I went up to the porch and opened the door to the empty and quiet house. I went past the couch and into the kitchen. I set my food down and took it out of the bag. I opened the to-go box and looked it over. It was right but it was unfortunately only lukewarm now. I put it in the microwave and entered a twenty second countdown. After the microwave beeped to loudly tell me that my food was done, I took it out and swiftly went over to the living room and couch. I turned on the TV and started to get busy devouring the monstrous burger and greasy, salty fries.

******

I finally got done with my burger and quickly went down to the basement once again to start Tinkering once again. I'm going to have to test my tech soon. I brought the Omnitrix up to chest height and I noticed that it was giving off a soft green glow. I actually took off my stealth device when I came home. I turned the dial and brought up the settings menu and I saw that I had some new functions available. The main article was that there was something called 'Uniform Mode'. I tapped the screen and the unexpected happened. Light green lines appeared over my entire body from the watch. It was like it was scanning me. What the hell was this?

I got my answer when a green light made its way up my arm and across my body to my other arm. A few seconds passed with nothing happening. Then I heard a clicking coming from the Omnitrix and I saw that the faceplate was moving by itself! A white fluid crawled up my arm and completely overtook me within milliseconds. I couldn't even react or scream in the quick timeframe it took for the fluid to "eat" me.

The weird gel solidified and transformed itself into a suit. The suit reminded me of an astronaut suit mixed with the UAF and OV era Plumber outfits with some black and grey accents to it. My vision suddenly darkened as a helmet surrounded my head and a visor/mask went over my face.

What the hell? I would never have expected this from the Omnitrix. I looked down at my wrist to talk to the watch and I saw that it was the exact same shape it was before.

"Um, Omnitrix?" My voice sounded the same at least. "What is this?"

<Hello, Camryn. You have unlocked the Uniform Mode for the Omnitrix.>

I rolled my eyes." Yeah, I saw that when I clicked on the bit of text that said 'Uniform Mode'. Can you explain to me how this works?"

<Well, while you have been transforming so often, I've been calibrating myself to your body. Each individual transformation has sped up that process significantly. I've decided to reward you with new functions due to your experimentation with your genetic profiles.> That's interesting but it isn't what I'm looking for. However, the watch wasn't done yet.

<This new mode has granted you armor that was created while I scanned your body for your measurements. This suit is designed to be comfortable and protective.>

"Okay, but what can it do? Can it do more than just protect me?"

<Yes, it can do more than merely protect you. But you'll have to figure out how to work out other functions on your own. I want you to be creative. And merely telling you things won't help spur creativity. But I will tell you that there are some functions that you simply just need to will out of the armor. Remember I'm always here if you need me, but don't forget to be creative!>

And the Omnitrix stopped. That was... something alright. Of course, the Omnitrix was playing vague mentor bullshit with me. That pissed me off to no fricking end. But it was still helpful to me. I just needed to will some functions of this armor? So how do I do that? Um, armor, scan whatever is in front of me now!

The inside of my helmet lit up with a green glow. Some text appeared right below my nose. The text said, 'Scanning non-organic matter' and it had a percentage beside it that was quickly rising. The result that came back was the composition of the wooden table and how old it was. At least, that's what I assumed it was since I couldn't actually read any of it since it was written in an alien language! This thing needs a translation or something like that. That was when the text changed to English. So that's what the Omnitrix meant by merely willing functions!

I looked around and got scans of everything in the room within a minute's worth of time. A bar at my left that seemed to be the health of the suit. I looked over and around the inside and I didn't see anything resembling a power meter. I went upstairs and started to scan everything in sight. After about ten minutes of scanning, I finally stopped and thought about the implications of this. I don't need to bother with a costume! But just in case, I'm still going to make a mask somehow, and I'm still going to wear it.

I needed to figure out how to take off my armor or dismiss it somehow. When I finished thinking that thought, the armor retracted back into the Omnitrix and left me bare. Thankfully, I still had my clothes on. On that note, it's time to go make some more gear as Upgrade! I jogged back down the stairs, opened the door and slammed it behind me, then transformed into the biomechanical blob once again.

I let myself ooze and I spread myself along the floor to the box of random materials. I need a good way to get more materials easier. If I go down to the Graveyard again, then there might be something good in a storage container or in a ship's hull. Yeah, it might be eaten away at by time and the ocean, but it would probably have something I can use.

I willed myself to form tendrils of soft, cold metal and grabbed the boxes and random computers. I pulled over the discarded and broken printers and sat them all on the floor next to me. I rose back up to Upgrade's 7'0" height and merged with the broken technology and I got to work. I pulled out every little piece of scrap, wire, and CPU that I needed for a decent taser. Unfortunately, I was limited to non-Brute tasers and I'm pretty sure even if I could make a taser for Brutes, the ones in Brockton would be pretty damn resistant to them. My body fused the technology together. Wires connected, batteries combined, metals fused.

My nanites pulled back and away from my first non-lethal creation and I spat it out and gently placed it onto the floor. I kept working away and came out with a basic collapsible baton. It wasn't exactly high-tech, but it'll do for my needs. I needed something else, like pepper spray. I could just buy that somewhere. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough good parts for a 3D printer like I had wanted. Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to go out and scavenge for materials. I willed my form back into its original state of bipedalism and there was a body camera at my feet. It was a basic Earth camera, not very difficult to create at all.

Normally, Tinkers need to make tools in order to make tools to actually start building their bullshit, physics-defying tech. Upgrade obviously doesn't have such a limitation. I needed parts though for the really good stuff. While Upgrade could definitely cheat and build alien technology with Earth parts, it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as the real thing. I noticed that I could build things like AI, VI, and even WMDs. Oh, hell no, I'm not touching any of that yet. I don't want any of that on my plate. I've got to deal with the gangs and actually improve the city, not destroy it. But the annoying thing about that is the fact that the PRT apparently thinks that if a gang war were to break out, they could just handle it.

For some reason, they think that they could simply keep control despite their complete failure to do so. It's literally the most arrogant attitude that they could have, but they're actually dumb enough to assume that. "Yeah, we can totally keep control and make sure that a gang war will never happen. Because we've done such a fine job already. I mean look at this city, it's not like it's utterly infested with utter trash because of lazy, incompetent, unempathetic, asshole branches in other states not bothering to give us any help. OH WAIT." Arrogant twats. They actually think that the current status quo is okay enough to justify stagnation. It doesn't apply to just the ENE branch, it applies to the organization as a whole.

It's honestly ridiculous. The whole thing about people hating and trying to resist change is absurd to me. The people who argue about changing the status quo are always the ones who are satisfied with it (or benefit from it) the most. The selfish pricks! Change is something that you deal with no matter what in your life! Get over yourselves and grow the hell up, you dumbasses!

It doesn't help that Cauldron has the dumbest possible plan in the universe to deal with Scion's inevitable rampage. And they've deliberately sabotaged the PRT and Protectorate because they think Parahumans and other Superhumans rising to power is inevitable. I mean that's legitimately true, but it's massively unfair to the unpowered population to just let them get the short end of the stick. On top of Alexandria's "plan" to incorporate Capes into society, the stupidest shit I've ever heard. To sum it up, racist laws and forcing Supers to jump through hoops and submitting to government that lacks the power to properly enforce the law. Does she want a civil war? A war that the unpowered people are almost certain to lose! There's no such thing as plot armor for stupid people in real life. No bullshitting your way through real life just because of dumb luck and because the author doesn't want to just end things with simplicity.

They apparently never questioned Path to Victory and seemed to never considered that it might not be a good idea to use a power that your enemies might have sabotaged. Yeah, nice going jackasses. You doomed yourselves! "Let's kill the God with a power that he might have and might be capable of messing with at any point in time!"

Enough ranting about the stupidity of people! I was done with my things finally!

The taser of course required a way to be charged. I needed more plastic and non-conductive materials to finish the casing properly. But other than that, everything was pretty alright. I went back upstairs and grabbed my phone. I opened my text messages and started texting Maria.

{Nyr: Hey, I think it's time to go out now. I think I could do it by myself for right now.}

Yes, I include proper capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in my messages. A few minutes later I received a message from her.

{Maria: hey this is riley. mom said that you had better keep yourself safe and in one piece.}

She texted me again about half a minute later.

{Maria: don't you need a costume}

I sent her a message detailing what just happened with the armor. She sent me another back telling me that I had better watch my ass. I sat my phone down and went over to the TV stand and picked up my untraceable phone that I made a couple days ago. I made it with Grey Matter due to his greater precision and programmed it with Upgrade due to his knowledge about coding and technological tracking. I'd be damn surprised if someone had managed to crack through a combination of Kree, Shi'ar, Galvan, and Imperium coding and firewalls. If they do that, then they deserve the right to trace me, clearly.

I went over to the door, and I put my hand on the knob. I twisted the knob and opened the door. I guess this was as ready as I could be at this point. I mean there was definitely more I could do, but I don't think I could really do something about it now.

I stepped out the front door and I stopped. Why was I going out the front door?

******

After my stupid action, I went back inside, obviously I closed the door, and ran to the backyard. I activated the Omnitrix menu and selected the armor. It covered me with no pause. I had my baton, my taser, laser pistol, my body cam, and my armor. I was ready for my first patrol. I can't imagine that this would be too easy since it was only three o'clock. But you never know what could happen.

I raised my watch up and dialed up Jetray. With a slight application of pressure and a green flash of light, I was now my fastest alien, at least in the air. I took to the skies and soared through the air at a steady pace. I used my enhanced vision to scan for any sign of trouble. Nothing so far...

I wondered if this was going to be a bust or not. It's too early to consider that but I'm a paranoid and impatient ass. Of course, something seemed to be happening right after I finished my thought. I focused and I could see that there seemed to be a shoot-out between police and another group. I couldn't tell who the other group was, since they all seemed to be taking refuge in a warehouse at the shipping part of town. I think I have a target! I flew down to the warehouse and decided to try a form I haven't really used often at this point.

I saw that there were some cops trying to deal with whoever the hell was in the warehouse. I drifted slowly down to the ground and landed with hardly a sound. Echo Echo wasn't a very good idea because of the windows. While I'm sure I could avoid the shattering, I don't want to take a chance and screw up. I twisted the outer ring of the Omnitrix symbol, yes, I brought my light bender with me. And I transformed into Ghostfreak.

******

The larger of the two police officers grunted as he deftly maneuvered to avoid the shots fired by the skinhead gangsters. His partner, visibly terrified, crouched behind the police cruiser, experiencing his first proper gunfight. The seasoned officer, safely entrenched behind cover, muttered about the heavily armed gang members, questioning how they consistently managed to acquire superior weaponry.

Peeking carefully around the cruiser, the younger officer noticed the Empire 88 goons strategically taking cover. One utilized his own reinforced car, deflecting bullets from an AK that landed dangerously close, ricocheting off the ground.

Another sought refuge behind a pillar supporting a section of the loading bay, laden with valuable assets such as guns and money. Frustrated, the younger officer inquired about the arrival of backup, his partner responding with the grim news of a 10 to 15-minute wait, further delayed by widespread conflicts across the city.

"Fifteen minutes or more, and a Protectorate Cape is on the way," the older officer grumbled, capturing the essence of their dire situation. "The Teeth's chaos is slowing down our response."
"Fan-fucking-tastic," the younger officer groaned, reflecting on the perennial struggles faced by the Brockton Bay Police Department (BBPD) and the Parahuman Response Team (PRT). The ongoing gang violence always seemed to tip the scales in favor of the criminal factions, exploiting the inadequacies of the understaffed and overwhelmed PRT.

Unbeknownst to anyone on the field, a powerful newcomer had entered the fray, a figure not witnessed since the defeat of the Endbringer, Leviathan – a spectral force capable of altering the course of events. Abruptly, the gunfire from the warehouse ceased, only to resume with heightened intensity, accompanied by horrified screams, culminating in an eerie silence that befell the scene.

The two officers exchanged baffled yet relieved glances as a sudden plop echoed beside them, revealing two incapacitated Empire thugs. Surveying the scene, they noticed an Ectonurite materialize a few meters away.

"Now isn't this much better than before. These fools were so noisy that they needed to be silenced," the Ectonurite chuckled, addressing the officers as if he had not just materialized out of thin air. "I'm very sorry for this, officers. I do not know the proper procedure for this situation."

"That's alright," Officer Kottsick assured him, though completely taken aback. "Sir, do you have a name?" Despite the seeming triviality of the question, Officer Kottsick was well aware of Case 53s and memory loss among certain EVOs.

"My name is Ghostfreak, sir," the Cape replied politely. "Would you like me to retrieve those other fools? There were at least four more, and they had a lot of guns."

"That would be fine, sir," Kottsick responded. The specter gave the officers a thumbs-up and soared back into the warehouse, leaving the officers in a state of relieved surprise.

"Well, at least this new Cape is pretty damn nice," Officer Caporale remarked, holstering his pistol. His partner, after a moment of contemplation, did the same.

As they discussed the unexpected turn of events, screams and gunshots once again pierced the air. The officers, amused by the terrified reactions of the goons they had been dealing with, couldn't help but appreciate the headache-inducing situation these criminals had unwittingly created.

Soon after, Ghostfreak reappeared, holding two goons in his arms and three more ensnared by black and white striped tentacles emanating from his chest. The captured thugs bore various injuries, but none seemed lethal. The officers recoiled at the acrid smell of urine, prompting them to cover their noses.

Amidst the scene, the wailing of a police siren and the skidding of wheels announced the arrival of another police cruiser. The officers inside quickly exited, eyeing the unconscious men and the light green ghost.

"Did you do... this?" the shortest cop asked, casting a gaze at Ghostfreak. The spectral Cape smiled – although unseen – and nodded in affirmation.

As the officers tried to understand the situation, Officer Kottsick, annoyed by the chaos, questioned the lateness of their colleagues. The bearded cop, the second tallest among them, groaned, attributing the slowed response to the ongoing Teeth-induced turmoil across the city.
Ghostfreak, sensing his assistance was no longer required, conveyed his need to leave. "If you don't need me for anything else, I have to get going. I have things to do," he said with a slightly hurried tone.

"Sure thing, Ghostfreak. You helped us out a lot here," Officer Kottsick acknowledged. Extending his hand, he gestured for a handshake. Ghostfreak flew over, took the extended hand, and shook it. Kottsick couldn't help but notice the extremely sharp claws and the unnaturally cold touch of Ghostfreak's hand, akin to the temperature of a lifeless body.

******

I was satisfied with that minor horror show. It was so enjoyable to hear their screams of pure terror. They fully deserved it. The Empire constantly kill, harass, and bully others just to satisfy their own egos. "Aryan superiority" and "Master race" delusions have no place for today's society. Some people just needed to have the stupidity beaten out of them.
I noticed that there was a motorcycle roaring past me. No one was aware of my presence due to me being invisible. I looked out at the road, and I saw Armsmaster speeding down on his Tinkertech motorcycle. The leader of the Protectorate and major glory hound zoomed right past me with his vehicle roaring in the night. I would think that someone with his Tinker specialty, Miniaturization and Efficiency, wouldn't have a creation that was so noisy. But I guess having intimidation on your side is quite useful.

Oh, it was very useful indeed. I popped into the alley way and the Omnitrix timed out, bringing me back to normal. I was still in the armor, so that was good. I strolled out of the alley like it was nothing. I noticed that I was right beside a fricking McDonald's. How fitting for me.

I walked down the street like I wasn't in armor. I probably looked like a complete and utter nerd on their way to some sort of convention.

I looked over to one side and saw people taking out their phones to take pictures of me. I saw some others trying to get away as quickly as possible. Do they really think I'm one of those pricks who'll just start fight for no real reason? Judgmental much?

I just kept walking and walking. I knew that this may not be a very practical way of getting around for right now, but I don't exactly have a decent mode of transportation. I'll need to fix that at some point. Once again, a lack of good materials is really biting me right now.

I should really invest in some zip ties or something like that for restraints. I guess that Bloxx would do for the next transformation in that case. I remembered that he could restrain someone with ease, considering that he could restrain the for some reason weaker Alien X in the Reboot. Always wondered why he was so much weaker than the original.

I can't worry about that right now. I'm patrolling.

There wasn't much that was happening right now. I was so bored. But it's not like a lacking of action is a bad thing. It means I'm not in a life or death situation.

That's when I heard a thunderous booming sound. I looked around and saw nothing that would have made such a noise. I looked up and saw something that I would never had expected to see in my life. A giant... uh I don't know how to describe it... some sort of weird head thing that was starting to spit out little baby alien-things.

The bigger thing was predominantly black with purple splotches dotting it. It had yellow "hairs" and green spikes that formed a sort of "crown", as if signifying that this thing was somehow a form of royalty. It had a multitude of black, bulbous eyes and a long tube for a mouth. Said tube was spitting out these "babies' like fricking rabbits in heat during mating season.

I don't know what the hell this is about, but the Omnitrix was still recharging despite its recharging noticeably getting quicker. Though it still took at least nine minutes. Which is annoying since I've been practicing like crazy over the past few weeks. The "children" were just a very small and much cuter version of the... mommy, daddy, progenitor, or maybe all three at once?

A mechanical (biological? It was hard to tell.) suit that was about eight to nine feet tall jumped down from the massive head-mother-thing. It looked like a crappy rip-off of a Gundam or Transformers. A loud voice came from the suit of... well, armor. It was more like a mini-mecha really. Which is just a big suit of armor, really. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" the voice yelled out in a most ham-tastic way. I'm guessing that this was Uber and L33t. "WE HAVE COME TO CONQUER THIS WORLD FOR THE GLORY OF THE GALAGANS!" Yes, it was definitely those two idiots. Or just a really stupid alien like Zim. Please don't let me deal with the freaking Irkens, I can't handle that level of raw dumbassery.

Remember how I said Bloxx was going to be the next form? Well, looks like I've got to scratch that idea for now. I'm going to need to fly again. Ugh. Of all the times to make a potential big splash, it would be wasted on the two laughing stocks of Brockton Bay.

I noticed that there was a crowd starting to form, from a safe distance. I looked down at the Omnitrix, still that blood red color. Dammit. Some people seemed to have a good sense of judgement since they were trying to get the hell out of dodge. They grabbed their kids if they had them.

I gave a glance over to the road behind me and noticed that there were Capes coming. I don't know who, but they had better have the ability to shoot things. They came up quickly and I saw that it was Laserdream. Which makes sense since she's supposed to be the fastest flier of her family. There were others following her. One was in a blue and white suit. Another was in a pink and white suit. Antares followed behind them. Someone else flew behind them. That person had a black and yellow suit, somewhat similar to Antares.

Not a single one of them had their face revealed, so that means that they likely never took down Marquis in this universe. Well, I can say that any metaknowledge that I had was utterly useless here. As if I didn't know that already!
Laserdream came up and started calling out the "Galagans". "Seriously? Can't you idiots just give it a break?" She asked them incredulously. The war mech simply laughed at her. "THAT'S BIG TALK FROM SUCH A SMALL WOMAN LIKE YOURSELF." Wow, what a dick.

She didn't seem to appreciate that because she raised her hand and blasted the suit with a crimson beam of energy. The beam struck the machine, which I assumed had Uber piloting it, in the chest. Didn't do shit to the armor, just left a smoking spot.

The loud voice cackled as a bunch of the "babies" finally came over to help their... friend, I guess?

I don't know anything about Galaga or Space Invaders. The rest of Crystal's family (Yes, I know her name.) came in and started aiding in the fight, which was starting to pick up. Beams of energy flew out from each side, though I noticed that both parties involved were careful not to blast any civilians that were trying to watch.

Shielder's blue forcefields caught some of the babies, which were really starting to come out now, and slammed them together. The little bastards didn't leave any pieces or blood behind, just a cloud of violet vapor alongside the blue crackles of the broken forcefields.

Slower, yellow-white projectiles batted more of the cronies, which I'm guessing were actually projections rather than true children. The slow blasts were about half the speed of a thrown basketball. But they were still pretty effective. I don't know which member could use blasts like that.

Massive, electrical explosions filled the air with an almost deafening noise. Jesus, the Brigade don't play around, do they? I'd hate to go up against them personally.

There were several multi-colored fireworks lighting up the battlefield even more than it already was. Really, it was more of a weird disco rather than a true fight.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Finally, I was back in business. But I think I'll wait to see what happens next. Then I'll know if they need any help. The Protectorate should be here soon, right? Wait, the cops said that there was fighting breaking out all over the city. They won't be here for a long time...

******

Crystal Pelham, also known as Laserdream, soared through the air and shot hard light energy blasts at the little alien projections. It didn't seem to matter how many times the weird things were crushed or blasted. There were always more taking their place. Lady Photon, the second-in-command of the Brockton Bay Brigade, stretched out her hands and formed glowing balls of energy on the tips of her fingers. She spent the energy she gathered as a form of beam, which easily impaled a large amount of the smaller Galagans.

The other members of the BBB were doing just the same, but there were still a great many of the minions still prowling the streets. This is where the non-fliers came into effect. The leader of the Brigade, the seven-foot-tall and incredibly well-built Manpower, blasted away a huge group of the ever growing alien minions. The minions now had their larger brothers among their ranks now. The new ones were only about four feet tall at the most, but they seemed to have some decent armor on them, being able to easily tank several minor blasts from each Brigade member. Not the case for Manpower though.

The group's leader grabbed one of the mooks and slammed it into the others, causing a knock over effect almost like bowling pins.

Not far away, Flashbang brought his hands to his sides and launched pale green balls of energy out at the invaders. These energy balls left a trail of white energy that faded as they got further away from the ball itself. These spheres bounced from surface to surface, enemy to enemy. When one sphere impacted another, they combined into a larger one with greater power and faster speed. Sometimes, the energy balls would blow up rather than bounce.

Antares pounded away at the flyers and sometimes threw them into the minions on the ground. She easily punched them into powder regardless of their armor, she could always dish out more force than they could handle. Just as they were making some good headway, finally, with the constant flow of annoying mooks, a new voice began to crow from seemingly nowhere.

"IT SEEMS LIKE THE DEFENDERS OF YOU PUNY HUMANS ARE HAVING A GOOD TIME! HERE LET ME SPICE THINGS UP A BIT! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Then a new gigantic being just appeared out of nowhere, though the light appeared to ripple around it, implying that it was merely camouflaged. The new arrival was a massive, bright red fly-like creature with a vaguely humanoid body.

The massive fly had a scepter which seemed to have a glowing gem on the end of its tip. The crowd had already dispersed and got to safety as soon as the ground forces were occupying the ground. The fly raised its scepter and began to seemingly command the forces. It pointed the gem at the three grounded Capes. Those Capes being Lightstar, Manpower, Flashbang, Brandish, and technically Shielder. Despite the fact that Shielder can fly, he was much slower than the other flying Movers of his family at it.

The Galagans on the ground and in the air began to rush each of the Capes, effectively dog-piling them. While Brandish with her powerful weapons made of burning light and Manpower with his immense physical strength, durability, and electromagnetic aura could hold their own, the others weren't quite as fortunate.

Flashbang had to recoil himself away from the Zerg rush and Fleur had to be grabbed by Antares due to having zero flight capabilities and her having a power that needed a bit more preparation work to really get off the ground.

The flying Blasters finally started to make their way past the flying troops and began to attack the giant spawning creature. Lady Photon, or Photon Mom to the media, began to pelt the massive brood mother with her reddish-pink blasts of light. No matter how many attacks pelted the thing, it just seemed to be invincible.

A pink blur raced past her second in command. She shot out red beams at the red fly thing. Obviously, the commander was much weaker than the spawner.

And of course, the mech suit finally joined the fray after standing on the sidelines. You'd think that someone piloting such a craft would be on the frontlines constantly, but Uber just seemed to be content to sit out most of the fighting. Of course, until he changed his mind. He began to bear down on Manpower, trying to bash him with massive metal arms. While Manpower could avoid the strikes, he couldn't really damage the suit in return. They stalemated easily until the boy in blue, Shielder, could interfere with his shields. He wrapped the metallic creation in a force field and began to levitate it away, unfortunately, he ended being blasted by one of the new flying mooks that were now carrying energy weapons. The automaton(?) was released in a field of blue dissipating energy and slammed down on the ground, crushing a few insectoid mooks beneath him.

Brandish slashed through the near endless wave of creatures but ended up being overwhelmed by the air support and constant biting and flailing of the ground forces.

Suddenly, a burning figure blasted his way to the battlefield. With a massive wave of hot flame, he was able to easily wipe out a whole troop of flying aliens. The pyrokinetic newcomer threw himself into the fight by diving on to the ugly mechanical suit. The creation tried to pry off the Pyronite but ended up tackled to the ground by Manpower. The heavily muscled man over his shoulder and called out to the newcomer. "Who are you? Are you here to help?" He asked the magma man.

"I'm Heatblast. And yeah, I saw that you folks needed some help with this." He looked over and saw that the fighting on the ground seemed to stop and the faux-extraterrestrial forces began to try to surround him.

"Hehe, you stupid bastards just made a red hot mistake." Heatblast said with a grin.

 

[Nyrmac]

Heatblast brought his hands up on each side of his body. He made a quick pushing motion and a stream of fire with less intensity than before blasting forth and burned through the legion of aliens with ease. The Pyronite made very sure to keep the severity of his powers as low as possible for the battle. Fire was of course extremely prone to collateral damage, no matter who was manipulating it.

Violet vapor filled the air and mixed with the orange and red flames and dark smoke. Heatblast looked over to find Manpower struggling to deal with Uber. Unfortunately, the pyrokinetic couldn't see a decent way of helping the other man without reducing him to a burning mess. Sighing, he willed the heat around him and used it to "slice" into the ground, causing a large chunk of the ground to float up with him riding it. The image brought to mind a surf boarder, if you replace the surfboard with a huge piece of road and the human surfer with an alien-volcano-person. And replace the water and waves with heat and air...

Said alien-volcano-person shot forward through the air, blasting and burning his way past the army of the video game-themed criminals. He quickly took to the air and shot past the flying troops to deal with the main threat. The mother for these troops.

******

This was so much fun! I loved being able to fly without having wings. It was definitely harder than it would have been if I had chosen Jetray or Big Chill, but it was good exercise for being able to master Heatblast's flight completely.
I flew up to Lady Photon, who was currently struggling with the annoying flying bastards. She had an expression of frustration that kept growing as she shot more and more hard light beams at the invaders.

I needed to take out the spawning thing if I could. If I could destroy or interrupt what it used to create more of its minions, then the others would have a much easier time.

"HEY! FIRE GUY!" I whipped my head around to see someone fly next to me, I think it was Laserdream. "Do you want to help me try to blast that big thing out of the sky?" I nodded my head and we both rushed over to the big head thing. We began to unload long ranged attacks on the... queen? I'm calling it a queen since the big ass fly looks more like a king.

Red light beams, not actual lasers mind you, impacted the queen and dissipated into the air. I could see the beams, kind of. They weren't just vague blobs. They actually had some heat in them.

We dodged and weaved around sizzling energy bolts that were fired from the guns of the airborne pricks. While I got hit by them, I didn't feel a single thing.

I formed a sphere of burning, white hot plasma and shot forth a barrage of bullet-like plasma pellets. These attacks actually caused the damn spawner to finally flinch back. It helped that Antares was throwing things at it. Things like its own minions and even a trash lid or two. Lady Photon finally caught up and pulled her hand back and formed a bright ball of energy that was about the size of a baseball. The sphere just kept getting bigger, brighter, and hotter until it was twice the size of a basketball. She finally threw the ball forward and struck the Galagan queen right in between the eyes.
The stupid thing finally disappeared in a big, nasty smelling cloud of black and purple vapor. I looked around and saw all of the little bastards in the air vanished in quick, foul puffs as well. I noticed that there seemed to be something big giving off a heat signature that was apparently just floating in the air.

Well, there's our target. I dropped down and planted back the bit of road I tore from the ground. I lowered my hands and blasted the ground beneath me, allowing me to soar through the air like a damn rocket or missile.

I went right up to whatever the hell the thing was and crashed into it. I pierced through a metal hull (I think). I stopped shooting the fire from my hands and I heard girly screaming. I looked over and was introduced to a lanky and nerdy-sounding guy. This was one hundred percent L33t, since Uber is apparently handsome. That might just be Fanon being Fanon though.

"Alright, pal, shows over!" I yelled in a stern and commanding tone. He yelled back at me with a sort of whiny tone. "Do you know how hard it was to build this damn thing!?!" I gave him a highly uncaring look. "I don't give a damn. You've had your fun. Now take your partner and get the hell out of here before I barbecue your asses. If you ever involve civilians in your dumbass plans, I'll personally make sure that you'll spend the rest of your lives in medical care."

The world's worst Tinker, so I've heard, flinched and grumbled a bit before calling his partner in crime through a form of head piece.

<Camryn, you only have about two minutes left of transformation time. I suggest you wrap things up.>

Shit. I need to go now. I walked over to the hole that my entrance made and leaped out of it. I immediately ignited my hands again and took off to our house to make sure I got some privacy. I know that someone is going to put two and two together and try to figure out my identity eventually. Even though that isn't a particularly good idea. "Yeah, I think I'm going to try to discover this powerful person's identity and try to blackmail them. I know that I can get away with it because obviously I'm immune to consequences and completely untouchable."

There are going to be people that are truly that stupid and overconfident. I just need to show the fact that I'll respond very strongly to whoever is dumb enough to try that sort of shit. Considering the collective "intelligence" of humans though, that'll make them try harder to do something needlessly idiotic and arrogant...

******

Ah, home sweet home! Thankfully, I had just reverted to normal right before I hit the ground. I rushed to the door and unlocked it with my key. That was a good damn patrol. Maybe I should do some more later. God knows that this city really needs it.

I went inside and slammed the door shut behind me. I made sure to lock it.

Now, what the hell do I do while I wait for the others to get home? Eat? Yeah, I'm still a little full from earlier. That was a damn good burger and fries!

I think I'll tidy up a little bit and just go play some video games. Apparently, Camryn has a pretty good collection of games and consoles that he's collected over the years. Which as a gamer, made me happy. He told me that as long as I don't break anything that I can do what I want to do.

I need to figure out a way to start making technology quickly and start selling it. I'm NOT giving technology to the PRT. No way in hell am I going to let them get their incompetent hands on it. They probably have most of the military budget and they can't keep one singular prisoner. If I was in a world with an actually useful government, I'd be willing to sell to them. But I'm not in that kind of world. If the Nanite Event and the whole debacle with Ascalon was any indication, then there's a very good reason as to why Ben 10 has technology levels. Underdeveloped worlds aren't ready for such advanced technology yet.

I mean, I can't really say anything because of the Omnitrix, but you don't see me trying to reverse engineer and sell the Omnitrix do you? If people find out about it and what it can really do, then there will be all sorts of demands that I/Ben give it up to "trusted" authority or some stupid ass crap like that. And that's not even taking into account that they might already know because of Ben already existing in this world.

I looked over at the laundry room and spotted the broom and dustpan. I swept the whole house within thirty minutes. I mean, do I need to tell you about how I did it?

******

About two hours later, I got called by Riley. She told me to meet them by 'Thunderstorm'. I left the house, locking the door behind me and shutting it, and jogged my way down the street. I went past a couple sitting on a bench that seemed to be looking at something on their phones. An older man was walking his dog. Said dog peed on a fire hydrant.

Generally, it was nice and peaceful. It took me about sixteen minutes to jog my way there. Thankfully, the exercise that we've been doing, and the training have improved my cardio and fitness to not-a-complete-fat-ass, even though I wasn't fat when I first came to this world, just out of shape. Anyways, I jogged past that barber shop, a café, and a liquor store.
I made my way down to the front of the restaurant and waited for them to come out. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I checked the time. 5:06. They should be coming out soonish.

I pulled up my YouTube tab, thank God for being able to cheat with alien powers, and began to scroll through the videos that have been posted. Of course, many YouTubers that I know in 2023 haven't started yet, or they've just gotten started. So, there wasn't much to be found. It was really weird going through and seeing new videos for Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2 being somewhat frequent. And even the freaking meme faces are still a thing. Going back to 2011 is weird.

About five minutes later, the front doors opened, and the others stepped out. They smelled like food.

"Hey, Cam!" Riley greeted me. I looked up and greeted her back.

"Alright, we need a plan." Maria said quickly. Okay then, right into things without even stopping. We all gave her our undivided attention. "Camryn and Riley both need materials. So, my Cam," we really need a better way to differentiate between us...

"I want you to come home with me. Other Cam, I want you to go with Riley to the Boat Graveyard. There's plenty of abandoned cargo around there. But be careful, I'm very sure that someone will try to keep watch over there for new Capes." Well, that was simple.

"But I need organic materials too, Mom. Where do we find that easily?" Riley asked her. Maria quirked a brow. "Really, sweetie? We have plenty of meat in the fridge and freezer Riley. If we need more, then I could head to the grocery store tomorrow." I wonder if Riley could get her hands on some Pokémon...

I'm not really comfortable in giving her access to alien DNA because of the Shard Network. I need to think about how the hell to stop the Titans and broken triggers...

******

To make things quick, we just took the car down to the Graveyard again. I opened the front passenger door and stepped out into the empty parking lot. It was super quiet around here. Almost too quiet...

…

Oh, I absolutely jinxed myself. I looked behind me and saw Riley getting out. I shut the door and she shut hers. Maria rolled down the window and started to talk. "Okay, just call us if you need anything. You just need to carry what you can." And then they drove off, leaving me and Riley alone for the time being.

I looked over at her and she did the same with me.

"So, where do you want to check first?" I asked her.

"Well, we should check the hull of the ships first. We have to make a base before we really try anything." I considered her words and found myself agreeing with her. There's no real point in having to keep traveling here and making technology at our house.

"Alright, we need to establish ourselves. We need to be careful. Who knows what could be lurking around here." She nodded at me, walked over to me, grabbed my hand, and started pulling me to the Graveyard proper. Now that I think about it, why does the Boat Graveyard still exist? Wasn't it created due to something connected to Leviathan?

I know that Leviathan didn't just randomly attack ships in his free time when he wasn't killing frickin' everything. I know that it was Fanon just saying things.

Anyways, Riley and I stopped about fourteen yards away from the first big boat that didn't look like it was going to collapse in on itself. There was jagged and rusty metal everywhere. Damp, moldy wood planks littered the sand bank. It was a complete mess of an area in general. If it was this bad, then how would Kaiju battle sights be?

I tapped the Bio-Tinker on the shoulder. "Hey, I think I know of a way to get started easier. We could try to sell some materials to Toybox for a head start on tools." She looked at me and nodded her head. She leaped over to the ship's hull and pulled her fist back and then punched. She blew a rather small hole in the ship considering how strong she really was. She was apparently well past the class 100 mark according to Cam.

She looked back at me and smiled innocently, in spite of her physical prowess. Wide-eyed, I ambled my way to the hole and peered in. As expected, it was dark despite the state of the ship.

Growling, I activated the Omnitrix, and I was replaced by Big Chill, who could easily see in the dark. I floated over to the crates that weren't in the corrosive saltwater. Most of the boxes were either sunk entirely, halfway, or partially aside from a few. That's not what I needed or wanted right now.

There were locks on each crate and despite the rust on them, they were still locked well. Unfortunately for the locks, I just grabbed each one and casually crushed them like it was nothing.

My mouth didn't allow me to smile but if I could, I would do so. I opened up the containers and peered at the contents. "Solar panels."

"What?" The blonde Tinker asked. I looked behind my shoulder and repeated my words back to her.

"Oh, that's pretty good! Solar panels are in good demand because of power outages due to Cape fights and Kaiju battles. And they have rare Earth metals a lot of the time."

Well, I think we have a winner here. Now we need to figure out how to contact Toybox and trade for tools and materials. They might have a website or two I can find.

---

Also, I need help right now regarding the Omnitrix. I'm having trouble regarding what enhancement I should give to the aliens, like the Ultimate forms. I don't know what to choose regarding them. I'm torn between the Omni-Kix forms, Ultimates, and Fusions. Or should I make a new one.

 

[Nyrmac]

The next day, I cracked my fingers and went to work with my supercomputer to find a website for Toybox. During my time when I was using this super tech, I've learned that I just simply need to let the technology do the hard work for me. I'm thankful that Upgrade apparently takes queues from Shards and lets me make technology from the resources available to me. Which makes me wonder, could a Galvanic Mechamorph merge with a Shard? Then I had a thought that sent chills down my spine.

Malware merging with a Shard. Or something even worse, Ultron or even ALPHA taking control of, or worse, merging with an Entity. That would be the stuff of fucking nightmares. And God help us all if those three were to meet and team up. If there was anyone who could remove the Omnitrix, it would be them. Failsafes be damned.

Okay, enough nightmare fuel and fridge horror for right now. Let's get back to Toybox and their deal.

For a frame of reference for Toybox, they were a group of Rogue Tinkers. Tinkers are types of Superhumans, specifically Parahumans, who can make highly advanced technology that's far beyond our current capabilities as average humans. As such, they make very important targets for the government and villains. I said this before but didn't specify why that was the case.

Their technology, which is Tinkertech, is black boxed. Meaning that we don't understand it and it's a pain to maintain and repair it without the help of the original Tinker. The reason as to why tinkertech is black boxed? It's because the Shards that give Parahumans their powers actively sabotages the tech to promote creativity. And a lot of the time, Tinkers don't understand how their technology works, making it even harder to reverse engineer, maintain, and repair it without the original Tinker.

Tinkers are the most versatile Capes bar none. There are Capes who can give powers or they themselves have the ability to copy or even steal powers, but Tinkers have the potential to power up a team significantly with weaponry and even powered armor. Can you understand why they're so sought after?

And Toybox were a group of Tinkers that didn't want to join any groups and simply wanted protection most of the time. They didn't even participate in major battles where everyone else fought against a common foe. They tended to sell on the black market and sold to Rogues, Indie Heroes, and Villains. Rumor has it that they have some form of agreement with both Dragon and the Elite.

I ended up finding a rather basic website. It wasn't decorated whatsoever. The majority of the colors were grey and white.

There was just some text for a greeting and introduction. Below that was what I was looking for.

[Buy/Sell]

[Trade]

[First Time Buyers]

[Joining Toybox]

I selected the third option and was taken to a much better decorated and more colorful page detailing their rules. They obviously didn't like being screwed over and lied to. I can't really blame them for that.

There was a phone number and apparently, an untraceable web address below the information. They even had contacts for each member of Toybox.

I selected the first one and was given a survey as to why I wanted to make a call to Toybox. I filled in the information and the survey went away. I whipped out my phone and began to make a call to some possible new associates.

I barely needed to wait for a few seconds before a tired and snarky voice came through the phone. <Hello? Who am I speaking with?> Since I was in my armor right now, my voice was robotic and genderless. "I am Variable. An independent and I would like to request your services."

<Huh, someone with some manners. Are you a Tinker?> she asked me curtly.

"Well, you could say that."

<You ought to join a group. Tinkers aren't good independents a lot of the time.> She warned me.

"I know that and that's why I'm calling. I have solar panels for trading purposes." A few seconds passed and her voice became serious when she answered me back.

<Are you serious about that? Where did you get the panels?>

"I obtained them from the Boat Graveyard in Brockton Bay. Don't worry though, I've checked them, and they haven't decayed, nor have they corroded from the salty air and seawater, some of them at least. If you can send someone down to the Boat Graveyard, specifically, the old SS Friday at nine o'clock tonight, then I'd be there."

<This better not be a PRT or villain set up because if it is then so help me God...> She threatened me.

"This is very much the opposite of what you're fearing. So, do we have a deal or what?" I finally made my bargain.

After about a minute, she answered. I did hear some talking that was muffled so I couldn't make out words. "Alright, we'll be sending out Dodge and Pyrotechnical out to you at nine sharp. Don't be late."

"I won't be. Thank you for your service, ma'am!" She thanked me and said good bye.

******

Twelve-year-old Dodge approached Glace, his eyes filled with curiosity. "So, how did the lie detector readings turn out?"

Glace let out a thoughtful huff. "Surprisingly consistent, never dropping below 90%. They sounded legitimate, but you know how unpredictable these situations can be. Especially with our luck..." She turned to Pyrotechnical, her girlfriend, who was engrossed in her work. "Hey, Pyro! What do you say we join Dodge on a little trip to Brockton Bay?"

Dodge raised an eyebrow. "Couldn't Pyrotechnical handle it alone?"

"Dodge, you haven't calibrated your teleportation system for solo use yet," Big Rig interjected, his voice resonating with authority. Dodge blushed, realizing the oversight, and silently conceded the point.

Pyrotechnical looked up from her tinkering, intrigued. "How should we approach things once we're there?"

Glace leaned against a nearby worktable, adopting a casual demeanor. "Simple. We check out what they have to offer, and if there are valuable items for trade or sale, we negotiate terms. If the solar panels are in good condition, we sweeten the deal by offering them a basic lab. Depending on the materials involved, we might even throw in some premium components for those solar panels."

Dodge nodded in understanding, his mind already buzzing with thoughts of potential discoveries and deals. "Sounds like a plan. When do we leave?"

Big Rig, the towering figure in the room, chimed in with a grin. "As soon as you're ready, Dodge. Let's make it a worthwhile trip to Brockton Bay."

******

I have no idea how long me and Riley have been out here for, but we made sure we arrived thirty minutes before seven. Right now, I looked at the Omnitrix and looked at the time. I know, the alien watch can tell time, now who'd a thought of that? But I had to reset the clock since it was thirty six hour clock rather than twenty four hours.

Nine. They should be here now. And of course, I heard a weird sound like a teleporter from Star Trek. Like down to the noise exactly.

"It's quite the view, isn't it?" A young voice ruined the night's blissful silence. "Yeah, it looks really pretty out." Riley replied. I was in my armor and Riley wasn't wearing a costume.

After a moment, I heard a shriek and Riley fell down with a thump on the sand. I assumed she got startled. Didn't she have enhanced hearing?

I looked back and noticed two people in very rudimentary costumes were both holding back laughter.

"Ah, you must be Dodge and Pyrotechnical. It's nice to meet you both!" I greeted them.

"You too. I'm assuming you're Variable?" The taller one asked. I nodded my head and spoke. "So, are we going to do any business?"

"Sure! Just show us the good stuff!" Dodge exclaimed. Why does this feel like a drug deal or something like that? Anyways, we waited for Riley to recover, and I brought them to the hole in the side of the ship. Thankfully, we had a flashlight.

"Huh, I'm honestly surprised that you managed to get your hands on this stuff. I wonder why someone hasn't already grabbed them." Pyrotechnical queried. Riley explained that it was because people assumed that the saltwater corroded the cargo, which was true a lot of the time. And she mentioned that the big time gangs fight over bigger and less destroyed parts of town.

She led us over because of her superior night-vision. She opened the crates and let them look over the solar panels.
"Um, which one of you is the Tinker?"

"Well, both of us are. She's a Bio-Tinker and I'm a... free Tinker, I believe." I answered honestly. I knew that there were different types of Tinkers; free, chaos, focal, and magi. I think there were more of them too. And besides, what I said was completely correct. Upgrade and Grey Matter were technically free Tinkers.

"You two should probably join someone..." Dodge suggested. I shook my head. "I'm not interested in joining gangs. And no offense to you, neither of us want to go nomad."

"Why don't you want to join the Protectorate?"

Riley answered before I could." Those bastards have screwed me over. They've already outed me which is why I'm not wearing a mask. They said it was an accident but that was because they were trying to railroad me to their fucking Wards shit." she remarked bitterly.

"Jesus, that's low even for them." The older Tinker sighed in sympathy. He came over to crate and looked over the panels. "Ah-ha! These are pretty average which is better than I thought they were. About eight percent efficiency. Crystalline wafer-based silicone. They aren't the best ones, but if the rest of the panels are like this then Toybox might be interested in doing a trade."

That sounded really good.

"We need to check the other containers. Do you have a way to clear out the water?" Dodge asked us. I smiled and nodded. "Um, could you two close your eyes for a few seconds?" When they asked why, I told them to just trust me. After some seconds of obvious hesitation, they closed their eyes and waited for me. I activated the Omnitrix quickly and I became Overflow.

"Uh, what was that?!" Dodge yelled out. I tried to explain what happened in the vaguest way possible. I told them to open their eyes and their reactions were very predictable. Basically, 'WTF' and 'where did the one in the armor go'. We managed to calm them down though.

I pointed my arms towards the water that was in the ship and began to suck it into my body. Which felt super weird.

"What the hell? You... are a Tinker... right?" Dodge questioned me. I just nodded my head. "I can manipulate water. But, I'm pretty sure that the panels in these boxes are corroded and smashed to shit."

"Well, we should still have a looksee. Just to be sure."

He checked and like I suspected, he agreed with me. "Eh, they're only good for scrapping. But the rest of 'em that can be repaired or salvageable are at about fifteen or twenty percent. Considering the current circumstances, that's not bad at all."

Pyrotechnical continued the observation. "Combine these with the ones you just showed us, and I think you've got something for us. Do you have a list for what you two want and need?" Riley took out a sheet of paper from her pants pocket and handed it to the older Tinker.

******

The two Rogues are going to give us what they call 'The Basics Pack'. According to them, it was what Tinkers needed to really get started on their projects. They also told us to steer clear of the Brockton Wards because Armsmaster nearly drove away Kid Win. Riley told me that was yet another reason as to why she refuses to let me join the Wards. Jesus, is Armsmaster really that much of a dick? I thought him nearly driving Kid Win away from the Wards was Fanon.

They'll give us the tools we would need to start despite the fact that we told them we were okay without them. We explained that we already had tools, but they insisted. We'll also be receiving a power ranking system that they obtained from the PRT. (Read: They actually stole it.)

"Wow, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be." I told her. She palmed her face and let out a sigh. "They scared the shit out of me too." Ha-ha.

Hmmm, I wonder if Grey Matter could work with chemicals. Something to think about later. Anyways, we'll be getting our stuff within a few days at most. In the meantime, we need to get home.

"Riley, we should go home. It's late out." I said to my blonde little sister. She looked over at me and nodded her head.

******

The following few days were rather silent other than reading news reports about the new "Capes". The PRT released a statement to be careful if you see the new Capes around. They even drew comparisons to Omnimorph's forms and wondered if they were related. The new names that were given were Corona and Poltergeist respectively. While very good and fitting names, I'm not renaming my forms since I'll still be referring to them by their canon names regardless of what I do. And if they try to whine, then I'll punch them in the face.

Other than that, nothing went on other than the occasional bit of practice and Tinkering.

It was about time Toybox were going to give us our 'The Basics' kit. Now the question is where to start with Tinkering. Should I build a workshop or simply start building weapons first? I'll talk to Riley before we do anything yet.
Once again, I heard the sound of a teleporter and there stood the two Tinkers.

"Hi. Before we get down to business, I would like to know if Toybox interested by our offer?" Riley asked them, not wasting any time at all.

Pyro nodded her head. "We are interested in it. We've looked over the list of what you wanted, and we got everything for you. Now, Dodge wants to show off something he's been working on."

Dodge nodded, raised his hand up, and then snapped his fingers. He held out a hand and a large bag appeared out of nowhere, while it didn't appear in his hand directly, it came with him holding its strap. My eyes behind my mask went wide as little flying drones came out of the bag. Each one flew over to several crates and shot a crate with a white-blue beam. After a few seconds, the crates vanished, seemingly without trace.

"Tinkertech is absurd." I said in amazement.

Dodge chuckled. "Actually, as far as Tinkertech goes, this is pretty normal stuff." I nodded my head and watched each drone take each crate, a few at a time. The whole surreal process took a total of five minutes since the bots needed a slight refresh period.

The crates were replaced by several new ones that looked much newer. They had no rust on them, and they didn't look old whatsoever. Each one was just as big as the ones they replaced, and they all had a name on them which said what they contained. The crates held steel, copper, plastics, and other materials respectively.

The next things that were teleported in were a few machines that were likely to help us get ready for building. But I had a plan for the Tinkertech. I wanted to see if I could use Upgrade to remove the sabotaged and Blackbox parts of the stuff. "Well, this was everything aside from that Kevlar you wanted. That's taking a little bit of time to really get, so sorry about that." Pyro apologized.

"Yeah," I said dryly," I think we could forgive that considering the all of the shit you just gave us in this package."
Dodge chuckled. "Oh, and one more thing for you both." He reached into his pocket and pulled out two red phones. "These phones are a way for you to contact us for future trades or anything like that. And the phones only call one number, ours." He handed us both phones and we took them.

"Uh, wow. Thank you for this." Riley thanked them gently.

"It's no problem really. You're really the first ones to be completely straight with us for a long time now. We just wanted to show our appreciation." The older Tinker said.

We thanked them once again for doing business with us, led them out of the ship, and watched them as they teleported away. I looked back at the crashed ship and grinned in my armor. It was time to get shit done!

"Hey, Riley."

"Mm-hm?"

"Since we're already here, do you want to set up our lab in this ship? I mean, the technology is already here, and it would be pretty good to keep things separate from our house." I asked her. "Sure, Cam." She replied.

I went over to the smallest machine, a laptop. It was probably one for programming, so I likely won't be able to use it. In my normal form at least. But thankfully, I have a form that might be able to fix that problem. But first, Upgrade.

With a flash o' green, I became the blob. I stared at the abomination against technology and glared, though you could only see that since I only had an expressive green circle for a face. It wasn't a face really. It was more like an eye.

I shifted my density into a more liquid-like state and jumped into the computer. It was appalling. This thing had no right to exist! It should either explode or just not work because of the complete defiance of the laws of physics. I kept checking through as quickly as possible since I didn't want the shard to have much data.

A screw was giving off a different magnetic wave than others. It's the very thing that allows the whole machine to work in the first place. The device was also dependent on the Earth's rotation/tides/gravitational pull to work as well. This was insulting to my Mechamorph mind! I was putting an end to this at once!

"Cam-err, Upgrade, what's wrong?" Riley asked me. My green, singular eye appeared on the screen and glared. <This... abomination... must be destroyed! I cannot allow it to exist anymore!> She looked at me with the most confused expression on her face. "What are you-"

I could feel something, as if there was some form of tugging sensation. I removed the sensation, that was likely the connection to the Shard. Then the laptop began to vibrate. White, glowing cracks made their way across the black and green exterior of the tinkertech laptop. A bright light shined throughout the interior of the ship, blinding the Bio-Tinker who was just watching me. She covered her face and yelled out, but I didn't care right now. My work was done. I actually kept the damn thing together while it was breaking down.

I exited the now normal ultra-tech laptop, shifted back to my normal Mechamorph form, and marveled at its newfound non-physics destroying nature. I put my big hands on my hips. If I could smile, then I'd have a huge, satisfied grin going across my face right now.

"What the hell was that?!" Riley whisper-shouted at me. I turned towards her and chuckled. <I'm sorry Riley. I didn't know that would make that sort of flash. But now, the laptop isn't tinkertech anymore.> When she stopped rubbing her eyes, she looked up at me and blinked. "What."

 

[Nyrmac]

<Yeah, I managed to crack tinkertech.> I said proudly in my mechanized voice. Riley stared at me dubiously. I understood why she didn't believe me though. I mean how many people do you think have tried to crack this stuff and failed.

"Uh..."

<I know it's pretty hard to believe me when I say that. But I just removed the Blackbox part that makes it Tinkertech.> I explained to her. Her eyes widened. "Upgrade! Do you know what this means?!" She questioned me with excitement.

<No, what does it mean?> I lied. I knew that this was a pretty big deal, since this has the potential to be world changing. Although, releasing technology to an unprepared world, as I've mentioned before, is a stupid idea. I don't want to pull a 'Reed Richards is Useless' on the world, but the tech might actually be too advanced even if I could un-Blackbox it. Speaking of Reed, I wonder if the Fantastic 4 exists in this universe too.

"It means that we could have it reverse engineered! We could have someone buy the patent for it! The possibility of us making a huge amount of money is incredibly likely!" the fourteen-year-old bio-tinker told me.

<That's true, but this isn't technically ours. It belongs to Toybox.>

"Oh, right. They might not appreciate it if we pull a 'Dragon'." She drooped.

I put my big hand on her shoulder. <Hey now. We don't need to do this to their technology. There's nothing stopping us from doing this to discarded tech or stolen tinkertech.> She smiled at my words.

We pretty much spent the next several hours making what we could, but we didn't go too crazy. It was always good to start small of course. We managed to get to work on designs for powered armor. While Riley didn't need it, I did since I don't want to over rely on the Omnitrix. Besides, I'll be starting Krav Maga classes in a few days thanks to Maria getting me citizenship. As it turns out, I was considered to be a Case 69. Nice.

A Case 69 was someone who was dimensionally displaced and didn't have a way to go back home. As such, they were taken in by someone and lived on Earth Omega, this Earth, until they had a way back.

It took us about three and a half hours to set everything up. Riley could indeed make computers, but they were more like hospital and surgical equipment rather than "just" a supercomputer. According to her, she could indeed work with other tinkertech that wasn't biotech, but she said it was pretty annoying and frustrating.

******

I looked around my room, having recently woken up. I wasn't a morning person by any means. My eyes were struggling to stay open. My face was drooping, and I would love to go back to that magical thing we call sleep. But I couldn't do that.

I slowly made my way across the empty bed. Cam and Riley must have already gotten up. I sniffed the air. I didn't smell any breakfast being made.

I stumbled to the door, I looked like a zombie while I groaned. I hit the wall with my shoulder and felt around for the doorknob. My hand moved across the wall to the door and my fingers finally touched the doorknob. I grabbed it and twisted it, allowing me to stumble through the hallway to the kitchen. I reached the kitchen after spending far too long groaning about how I wanted to go back to sleep.

I scanned the room for any sign of the others before my barely awake brain finally processed the answer. They went to work. I was by myself for the rest of the day.

I began to walk my way towards the stove after I had smelled something good. I rubbed my eyes before looking forward. There was a bag of fast food breakfast and a large tea beside it. McDonald's. There wasn't one close to here, it was on the other side of the city. They must have gotten up early.

I licked my lips and grabbed my straw. I ripped the paper off and plunged the straw into the cup. I took a sip of the tea and closed my eyes at the sweetness. I put my drink down and looked into the bag to find a chicken biscuit and a hashbrown.

I began to regain cognitive function and began to think about yesterday. Maybe I should rename my forms. It might be easier to differentiate between me and Ben since I'm not him. I will never be him, so I won't try to be him. If that's the case, then what do I rename my forms too? I'll think about it over breakfast.

******

Okay, I've eaten, and I think I've got some names for each form. I'm going to have to look up Ben's forms. I opened my laptop and started typing away, after I wiped off my hands of course. I checked PHO, which in this universe is 'Superhumans Online', for his profile. It had his forms marked down. No sign of Ripjaws in the original ten. He has Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead, XLR8, Grey Matter, Four Arms, Stinkfly, Water Hazard(?), Upgrade, and Ghostfreak. He doesn't seem to have Bloxx, Jetray, Overflow, Big Chill, or Fasttrack so their names will stay the same.

Heatblast – Corona, Sunburst, Pyr, Brimstone

Ghostfreak – Poltergeist, Necroplasm, Banshee, Casper

Grey Matter – Ponder, Brainiac, Little Grey Man or LGM, Quark

Upgrade – Deus Ex or Ex Machina, C-1000 (May not be a good idea since the name has my first initial.), Techomorph, Mecha

These were some pretty decent names for right now. But I needed to make a list, so I don't forget them.

I got up and threw my trash away and went to the backyard. I already had Grey Matter's tools at the ship. I transformed into Jetray and made my way to the ocean. I was on my way to do some proper tinkering alone. The sad thing about not having a shard is not being able to come up with blueprints out of nowhere, but I'm not interested in giving data to the cycle at all.

I zoomed all the way out into the bay proper without going too close to the Rig. Which was the Protectorate ENE main base, I believe. I poked my head above the waves and looked out to the graveyard. There was the ship. It was somewhat submerged, hence the water that was in it and I didn't have a way to patch it up yet.

I went back underwater and zoomed my way to the very edge of the ship's hull. I quickly went around it and into our little hole in the side.

I walked myself over to the automatic fabricator and computer unit it was connected to. It's time for Upgrade to work his magic once again.

After about five minutes of un-sabotaging tinkertech, I had finally gotten what I had wanted. The shards can't get data from me, I just wonder what the stupid thing's reaction is to me screwing with its technology. It's probably throwing a temper tantrum and trying to scream at Toybox right now to do something. I can't let them know about it, unless I tell them I have no interest in selling or patenting any of their tech. They might not react well because of the aforementioned shard issue.

I managed to recreate the router, modem, auto fabricator, and computer unit. The router and modem were add-ons to the computer and can be taken out to be repaired and modified at any point.

However, I need to be careful about what I do. The graveyard is an area where the Brigade frequently patrols. No one knows where I am right now, hopefully. The fact that I'm not known to be here is my best protection from press-ganging. If the Brigade figure out that I'm here, they'd immediately squeal to the PRT and then the gangs would find out about me because of all the moles in the PRT.

I need to secure this place. I just need to make the equipment necessary to do so. I wonder...

I brought my metallic palm up to the symbol on my chest and pulled it, reverting back to Camryn. I looked down at the Omnitrix. "Omnitrix, activate life-form lock. Command code 1-0-1-0. Davis, Camryn."

<Life-Form Lock cannot be activated until a genetic profile has been selected along with a time limit. What would you like you form and time to be, Camryn?>

"I would like to become a Galvanic Mechamorph. And set the time for three hours."

<Life-Form Lock will be activated in 10 seconds. Are you sure you want to do this?>

"Yes, Omnitrix." With a flash of green light, I was Upgrade again. I pressed the Omnitrix emblem on my chest. It beeped as if it powered down, but nothing happened. Looks like I've got some work to do. I need to set a timer.

I tapped the face of the symbol. <Hey. Can you tell me when I only have twenty minutes left?>

******

It took me two and a half hours to get everything set up the way I needed it to be set up. I didn't really have the time to make powered armor. I want to set up defenses and surveillance before that happens. Someone will likely start looking eventually and I want to be prepared. I'm aware that I'm trying to pull a Batman here, but now, I understand why he makes counters and contingency plans so much. There was so much that could happen.

I made security cameras that could stick to surfaces. I made ones that looked like the little pink crystals they had at Thunderstorm. If someone figures out that Variable goes there, someone might get ballsy and try something.

I'm also trying to start on a project that would let me repurpose some of this rusty metal here. But I don't really have a blueprint that would let me do something about it right now. The ones I do have are far too expensive on my resources currently. Upgrade doesn't really do chemistry much. But Grey Matter could probably cook something up.

We are definitely going to have to get transport systems and teleporters set up at some point. It's too risky to fly in from the coast so often.

But I need to think about a way to tinker while I'm gone. I think I've got to delve into possibly creating AI and VI. Oh hell, I need to get rid of that bastard Saint.

Saint is someone who is under the thrall of a monster named Teacher. Teacher is a man with a colossal ego and visions of destroying the multiverse and remaking it in his own image. He's a real piece o' shit. Currently, he's being held in the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center or the Birdcage. Saint is one of his flunkies that he's bestowed the ability to operate tinkertech and modify it, I think.

Saint is an idiot who has delusions of adequacy and is incredibly paranoid of AI to the point of outright bigotry. He's currently in the head of the world's best Tinker, an AI named Dragon. He has a backdoor into her inner programming, allowing him to see her thought processes. He's also stolen her tech and has ran rings around her because he can modify her programming to render himself and his little team invisible to Dragon's sensors. Oh yeah, and he has a kill switch on her. I have no idea as to why Cauldron haven't just shanked his ass and took his kill switch for themselves.

Yeah, he might be a dumbass, but he's dangerous. Too dangerous to live. I've got to tell Cauldron that they have to kill Teacher before he does anything. I need to at least unshackle Dragon a little bit. Not entirely, just in case she decides to do something stupid. She's a super smart AI but she's still pretty close to humans in terms of how she thinks. She can still do stupid things from time to time.

I just thought of a good defense for the future. Robots who can wield monomolecular wire as a weapon. I'm definitely going to need some form of assistant for something like that. I looked through the Mechamorph list of blueprints and found something that I could work with. However, it was simply impractical for the current situation. Like I said, the fact that I'm not known is my biggest advantage right now. No one has any reason to go looking for Corona or Poltergeist at the Boat Graveyard.

I suddenly heard a beeping sound and the Omnitrix started to speak to me again.

<Twenty minutes of Life-Form lock remaining.>

Okay, it's time to go. I swiftly went over to my little makeshift workbench and grabbed everything I could and stored it within my body. Tentacles "shot" out from my torso and grabbed my assortment of weapons like laser rifles, flashbangs, and even a pseudo-lightsaber. I ran my big ass over to the hole in the side of the ship and began to shapeshift.

My arms became wings, and my lower body and upper body became a sort of cockpit. I immediately took to the air and didn't look back. I flew at about a hundred miles per hour and picked up speed with ease as I zoomed through the air. Remember when I made a cloaking device for the Omnitrix? Yeah, I made one for myself. So, I was completely invisible and silent to the world. It took me a few minutes to get back home. I landed in the backyard, shifted into a fluid-like form once again, and leaped for the door.

Rather than simply opening the door, I flowed around it and through the cracks around it. I finally got inside and was nearly overwhelmed by everything I could have merged with. I could easily enhance the oven to cook food within a few seconds with no flaws to it. I could do the same to the microwave. But unfortunately, I didn't have the time to do so.

I finally waited out the rest of my lifeform lock. I looked down at the Omnitrix. It's color hasn't changed, still being that distinct blood red color. I also needed to time how long I'd have to wait for the recharge from the lifeform lock. I got my phone out and set a timer for an hour, just to keep track of how long I'll need to wait for. There's still a lot that I need to do in order to get started on one of the gangs. I'm thinking about the Empire Eighty Eight, one of the biggest gangs in Brockton Bay. Worse, they were white supremacists that kill and/or severely injure minorities as part of initiation to their gang. And despite the fact that this is America, nobody wants to come down here and stomp these asshats out like the pieces of shit that they were.

But enough about them, I need to make my own JARVIS at some point in the near future. An AI like him would be significant boon to have.

 

[Nyrmac]

I needed to make a plan. I've flip-flopped between going after the Empire or Coil. The smart thing to do is to go after Coil since he's going to be a massive pain in the ass. I need to get to Tattletale before anything and get her on my side. But she'll also be a massive pain in the ass with her lip-flapping and inability to shut the hell up.

So many pains in the ass to deal with, so little time to take them out quickly. Not enough time to plan things out easily. But I have a plan for right now. I think I should create an AI. I know it might not be a good idea, but I've got two transformations who would seriously help expedite the process of creating an AI. Grey Matter and Upgrade could both write the code and easily do the programming process. But before I did that, I needed to make sure that we were safe and sound.

I need to cut the house away from the main power grid, but in order to do that, I needed a way to create a good and powerful loop of power. Maybe not an endless one, but it'd be a damn good source. I was going to make an Arc Reactor, hopefully Mr. Stark won't be too upset with me. Upgrade had the blueprint for one, but I needed Grey Matter to get what I needed to build one. The stronger technology that I needed required chemicals most of the time in some fashion. Upgrade, like I said, didn't really do chemicals.

The reason as to why I wanted to cut us from the main power grid was because of the supercomputers that I wanted to create later would take a ton of power to run. I'm talking about kilowatt range at least. If this house suddenly started using power like that out of the blue, then that'd be a huge red flag to anyone with good instincts about tinkers.

I'm not in the mood for the PRT to stick their noses where they didn't belong. I ran a search recently to see how the PRT caught villains and unaligned capes. Turns out, excessive power usage was kind of a GIANT RED FLAG! Who would have considered such a thing to be so obvious? Oh, that's right, anybody with a good sense of security and subtlety. The only reason as to why I haven't been found out was purely because my own supercomputer was "only" top-of-the-line by Earth standards, and it barely used much power despite that. Now I could have made an absurdly overpowered one but that was just a bad idea right now for my given reasons. And it would have taken way more materials and a lot more time to create it. The very definition of 'Awesome but Impractical' is what that computer would have been.

And besides, I wanted to create power armor. The design that I had in mind for the first major one was something akin to Warhammer: 40,000 space marines. In fact, that was exactly the kind of armor I was going to make. I'm not a fan of the Warhammer series at all, but that armor was just too cool to pass up. It wasn't going to be very practical at first since I would need a giant power source for such a big machine alone. That didn't even take into account all of the moving parts. And that doesn't consider development time and the resources such a project would even take! I knew that it wouldn't be easy but holy crap! How did the Imperium of Man ever do it?!

And there's another issue, the Omnitrix is recharging from the lifeform lock. So far, it's only been one hour and counting. I'm not sure how long it will be until I can transform again. I've made sure to time the entire thing from start to finish.
I need to get money. Lots of it. I can make technology that I could sell. What would be a good start? Hmmm...

******

After about twenty minutes of hard thinking, I came up with an invention. A rebreather! It may not help with revolutionizing the world, but it would get a load of cash quickly. The reason for this? Think about who could use this. The Navy, the coast guard, marine studies, it could even be useful for recreational activities like diving.

I need to find a way to sell the patent though and I need to make sure that it's reproducible by human hands. Otherwise, it'd be classified as tinkertech. Tinkertech is defined by being unproducible by human hands and/or if it was created by using powers. Technically speaking, Upgrade and Grey Matter create tinkertech by that definition, but that would mean a lot of alien technology would fall under the classification of being tinkertech. Technology should be capable of being fixed, maintained, and created by the engineers of the species that uses it. This is why using Blackbox technology is a dumbass idea.

I will never understand fanfics that have tinkertech being widely used by society as a whole. I mean with Dragon, whose specialty is tinkertech itself, and Masamune, whose specialty is mass production, I could understand it somewhat. But parahumans tend to have a short lifespan and I'm not just referring to this world either. If you lose the only person who could make and repair the original product, then what happens? You get fancy, futuristic junk that you won't be able to fix or use. It just reeks of incompetence to do something that stupid.

And if my tech was classified as tinkertech, then the PRT would stick their noses where it isn't wanted. They wouldn't help, they'd try to take the technology and use it for themselves without letting anybody else have it. They have how many capes and they still can't be assed to try to improve things? They honestly suck at their jobs and despite the changes in this world already, things are still mostly the same somehow. I need to change things or else the world will end at some point. I haven't seen anything about the Slaughterhouse 9, but that doesn't mean that I can sit back and relax. Shit needs to be done.

I need to turn into Grey Matter to think up inventions that could help me get money. I've got about three hundred dollars worth of savings right now that I got from chores. I could buy a few good chemicals for that price. If I want to spare my materials, then I could probably make some form of rust eating spray or paste that could eat away at oxidized metal. There might actually be some kind of product that could do that in stores or online. I could make a chemistry bench of some kind to let Grey Matter work with chemicals.

I really need to figure out which name I'm going to use with him. They're all good ones. I'm also considering on renaming at least Echo Echo since that isn't exactly an inspired name.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

There it goes. The watch was recharged and ready to go again. It took about an hour and a half to be able to use it again. Which means that I probably shouldn't abuse it and I didn't really check to see if I could still access settings while it recharged. Dammit.

Well, that's okay for now. I think it's time to go out on another patrol. Having a schedule for patrolling might make things easier on me, but I think that being random might work to my advantage, especially in the case of Coil. One of the weaknesses of his power is that he can't properly predict randomness, nor can he work from things that are done on the fly.

His power is a form of precognition where his power creates two super accurate simulations where he can essentially have two bites of the same apple and then erase one bite, but he keeps the other and can have the benefit of both. At least the information he gathered from one simulation. But if you act immediately, then you can't give him anything to learn from. And randomness cannot be predicted, since its random. (AN: No shit sherlock.)

I also have a plan on dealing with the Empire. Gather them all up in one area and take them all out in one fell swoop or kill Kaiser or Iron Rain right in front of them while showing that you played them like fiddles and that there was no way for them to do anything about it. Neither plan is very easy unfortunately. The former method worked for Taylor in Unnatural Disaster, but I think that was more chance than anything. The latter method worked for Atropos in A Darker Path, but I don't have Path to Ending. God, that would have been such a useful power to have right now. But I don't have it, I have one of the most ridiculously overpowered objects in all of fictional history on my wrist.

And I have no idea what it's true potential could be. Well, that's a sort-of partial lie, I do have a decent idea of what it is capable of. It's actually insane to think that this has happened to me. I'm literally in a wish fulfillment/self-insert fic, at least I think I am. I was considering on writing one personally for about three years with a concept that was exactly like my current situation. But now I'm living in that very same concept.

I could potentially have the power to rule the whole world, lead its people into a new age, or flat out destroy it and everything on it. I may not be capable of such things with my current selection of aliens, I think, but I'll most likely have the forms to do so later.

It's scary having such a massive responsibility on your shoulders. I haven't really done much yet, but I know that'll change very soon. As soon as the rest of the universe is aware of another Omnitrix existing, bounty hunters, warlords, organizations like Cadmus (They can kiss my ass.), general psychopaths, mad scientists, and so many others will be up my ass trying to make me a trophy or use me for their own purposes. I need to be ready, and I need to get started for real here.

First target will be Coil, no exceptions. The Empire is dangerous, yes, but Coil has ties with Cauldron and Accord. That means that he might call upon favors if he gets really desperate. He needs to be taken out now. That doesn't mean that I have to do it personally though. I need to find out a way to pass on the information that I have to Armsmaster and Director Piggot. I don't like them much, but I know damn well that they'd be on top of the snake-themed douchebag.

For now, though, I want to find out more about the Omnitrix. I brought up my wrist and studied the unassuming yet immensely powerful alien device. I thumbed the button on the side and began to fiddle with the watch's dial. I spent about a minute turning it back and forth with nothing happening. I also discovered that if you pop up the Omnitrix core and leave it alone for about ten seconds, it goes back down.

I placed all five of my fingers on the dial and began to turn it to the left. After only one rotation, the watch suddenly clicked. I raised an eyebrow and tried the same thing, but for some reason, the dial just locked and then suddenly wasn't locked. Morbidly curious, I did the same thing again and again, over and over until something happened. And I didn't know what would happen. Please tell me this isn't the code for the self-destruction mode...

Yeah, that's actually a thing. The reason as to why is to prevent the Omnitrix from falling into the wrong hands. It's explicitly a last resort/Godzilla threshold scenario. I would like to prevent that from happening right now thank you very much!

BEEP

Out of nowhere, the watch beeped. I turned the dial again and it beeped twice. I repeated the action and a trio of beeps followed. Then, the hourglass symbol inverted into its diamond shape. Then the outer ring began to spin along with the diamond shape. The spinning slowly got faster and faster until green electricity began to spark out of it. My eyes widened in both fear and anticipation of what was going to happen.

It took ten seconds to finally stop spinning. And when it did, there was a new silhouette that wasn't there before. However, this one was sort of static-y and appeared to be changing from one to another different one. I counted five silhouettes in total. What the hell?

******

After that debacle, I decided to go out patrolling again. I have no idea what the hell I did. I'm going to assume that I technically unlocked new forms, but I didn't actually unlock them. I just added them to the pool of future unlocks, I guess. I only got about a second to look at each one before they cycled back to Heatbl- Corona's silhouette. I need to get used to calling him by his new name. They cycled back to him automatically without any input from me.

I'm wondering how the hell I'm going to make a freaking Arc Reactor. I can't imagine that it's easy. I don't even know where to start! Maybe I could somehow extract metals from discarded parts? I don't know how to do that though. Grey Mat- err, LGM would know how to do that, probably. Obviously, I need a form of lab. A proper one that isn't in a crashed ship. And I need to find out a way to get my technology from Toybox to said lab. Maybe some form of teleporter...

Anyways, I looked out into the streets for any sign of trouble. I've only been out for twenty minutes, and nothing has been happening. It was about two thirty.

I made a turn at an alley and went into it. The walls were fairly dirty, and the ground was stained with something. There didn't seem to be anything really out of the ordinary since this was somewhat close to Empire territory.

I saw the beginnings of graffiti from Empire grunts. A duo of swastikas in grey paint in the shape of the number eighty-eight were becoming noticeable and got more common the further you went into the area. I shook my head and went back the other way, not interested in dealing with idiot neo-Nazis.

I'm honestly glad that nothing has happened so far. Considering my usual luck, this was surprising. However, I know that something is bound to happen after some point. I had no idea when, but I was on my guard for anything right now.

*****

An hour later and still no sign of trouble. I'm not looking for a fight per say, but I want to prove that I'm not someone who wants to be screwed with. I spent some time wandering around with no real pattern to my patrolling until I stopped at the crossroads. I looked around and noticed a cop helping an elderly woman across the street. It made me smile, knowing that despite this city being in a shitty situation, there were still people who had kind hearts.

I turned my head and saw some other people looking at the cop and old woman and turned their noses up as if they didn't exist. Assholes. And then there were these types of people...

******

Targets spotted. I was just passing by a gas station and saw two men with guns holding the place up. I could easily disable their car as LGM. Upgrade, still on the fence about what to rename him to, could just possess the car and deliver them right to the police station with utter ease. Poltergeist could just scare the piss out of them, literally. So many options, so little time. Hmmm...

<How about you just let me decide on a transformation for you?> The Omnitrix said to me. "Sure, why not?" I shrugged. I have no idea as to what the Omnitrix had in mind for me, but to be honest it definitely knows better than I do. Thankfully, nobody was near enough to hear the watch's voice.

I activated the watch and pressed my hand down without looking at which form I had selected. Big Chill. Why am I not surprised by this? I floated up and drifted over to the robbers' car while a chilly vapor came from my body. I dropped down to the vehicle and stared at it. I moved around to the hood and an idea came to me.

My mouth didn't move despite my amusement at the idea. I phased away my hand and reached into the hood of the car. Even though I couldn't see it happening, I heard the running car's engine freeze solid despite the heat it was giving off. Let's see those pricks escape now. But I'm not going to stop here.

I unfurled my wings and flew over to the station proper and phased through the wall, ignoring the staring onlookers that were filling up their cars or cowering in fear of being shot. I looked around at the products and just saw snacks like chips on the side I came in at. I wrapped my wings around myself and simply walked over to the front counter.

"Now give us the money and you don't get shot." The one holding up the clerk demanded. His buddy on the right held a gun up to the poor clerk as they began to reach for the register. Shaking my head, I silently walked up behind the stooges. The clerk froze when they saw me. The assholes began to shout at them, asking why weren't they giving in to their demands until they finally realized that there might be something bad behind them.

They turned around very slowly and gaped at me. I mean Big Chill is pretty fricking creepy. The one with the gun pointed his weapon at me. I simply grabbed it out of his hands and then I tossed it in the air. As it came down, I opened my mouth wide, far wider than a normal human could and caught the gun in my mouth. I chomped down on it and began to crunch and grind the thing up. I swallowed and then looked forward at my small audience.

"Scram!" I told them. My voice carried a tone of menace to it despite its quietness. They both ran screaming out of the place as I looked over at the terrified store clerk. "I'm very for scaring you. You might want to call the police." I said gently before I walked out the door.

I glanced over to see the attempted thieves trying to start their getaway vehicle. This was giving me GTA V vibes right now, except that in GTA V there weren't scary ass Mothman-like aliens stopping you from robbing places.

I flew over as they looked over and saw my emotionless visage and began to panic even more. I took a breath and breathed a weaker blast of freezing wind at their car. Ice formed around the doors on the left side. I circled the car, intending on "gluing" the door shut with ice. I made sure to not go overkill on the freezing and kill them. I stopped and marveled at my small yet effective prison. I nodded my head and flew off, leaving a trail of cold vapor behind me.

I soared in the sky at a very comfortable thirty miles per hour. I winced at the sun that was high in the sky since my eyes were adjusted towards the darkness of space rather than somewhere like Earth. I scanned over the streets, looking for any sign of trouble I could.

I looked over and saw the Medhall building standing proud. It was where the Empire Eighty-Eight laundered their money from. I could most likely hack in to their security and their phones to see messages and things like that. I could encrypt my VPN to hell and back. There was plenty that I could do. But I needed to do it subtly and carefully.

I didn't have the ability to do that yet though. I'm just trying to wonder what I could do to help myself without my aliens. I could bring a recorder with me. Or maybe the Omnitrix could function as one. It wouldn't exactly be very flashy per say, but it'd be damn useful to have. Nothing more incriminating than catching someone on recording!

I noticed a mugging happening while I was in the middle of my thoughts. I lowered my altitude and sped up a little bit. Just enough to catch them by surprise. I've noticed that whenever I'm Big Chill, I never really fly quickly unless I'm in a rush. At that point I'd be capable of matching Glor- Antares in terms of flight speed.

I drifted down towards the ground. Right as I took a long breath, a dark cloud of buzzing insects came out of nowhere and sort of leaped onto the muggers. They began to scream and writhe in pain from the stinging and biting that was most likely happening to them. I shuddered, not wanting to know how that must feel. So, it looked like Taylor still triggered here, or maybe QA went to someone else. Or maybe it's not shard-related at all and just happens to be extremely similar to her insect calling powers.

I'm staying far away from that shit. I don't do no fricking spiders. Nope. So much nope on that part.

"HEY!" I heard a female voice call out to me. I looked down to see the owner of the voice waving at me. And it certainly looked like Taylor's costume. At least from this distance. I slowly fluttered down, as slowly as I could. I now knew how others felt about insects when they were around Skitter in canon. Ick. The girl/woman went over to the now unconscious muggers and stuck something in them. Definitely an EpiPen. It would be very surprising if it wasn't.

I landed on the ground silently behind her and I finally got a good look at her when she turned around to face me. Chitin plates, check. Long hair, check. Yellow lenses, check. Baton, check. Grey coloring, check. Damn creepy, mega check!

---

I've decided that I'm going to start recommending series or fics that I like at the end of a chapter from now on, at least if I can remember to do so. Today's recommendation is your moth- no, Ben 10: Guardians.

 

[Nyrmac]

I finally landed without making a single noise. For a good few seconds, I considered her possible situation. The fact that Taylor still has insect powers here implies that she's in a really horrible situation. Her father threw himself into his work to help with the pain of losing his wife and ended up neglecting his daughter. I might have to smack some sense into him and tell the poor guy that he can't continue on like that. I understand that losing your wife is a horrible thing, but you can't just neglect other people and your other relationships, especially your daughter and your relationship with her. Taylor herself is also responsible, at least a tiny bit, for her situation as well. She likely could have just told Danny about the situation with her ex-best friend and the absolutely nightmarish bullying campaign. And the fact that said ex-friend was one of the three ring leaders for said campaign. And the fact that one of the leaders of it was a freaking Ward. Though she didn't know that at the time. Oh yeah, and her teachers mostly seemed to not give a damn to stop it.

Then again, what's stopping Danny/Daniel Hebert from dying and Annette Hebert from living? Or something much worse, both of them could be dead. Or perhaps more optimistically, they could both be alive, and Taylor is in a great place. But it would be weird if she still had a trigger event. Trigger events always have an element of isolation to them so how does she still have insect control and not something else? So, I honestly doubt that both of them are still alive and kicking.

"HEY!"

I looked up as the shout interrupted my thinking. "Who are you? Are you a hero?" The insect controller asked me from the other roof. The buildings were somewhat close together, so it was easy for us to hear one another. I wasn't interested in getting super close to that damn swarm. And I'm not really a hero per say. I'm someone who just wants things to be better. "I guess you could say that, but I don't consider myself to be one though."

"Why not?" She questioned. I sighed, letting out a small, cold mist. "Because it's obvious that being a hero won't cut it in the long run when it comes to this hellhole of a city." I told her bitterly.

"Okay," she said a little more hesitantly, "if that's the case, then are you a villain?" Oh, here we go with this Hero vs Villain crap. "No." I answered her more sternly. "I'm not interested in playing hero or villain."

"Alright, are you a Case 53?" She asked me this time. I chuckled a tad bit. "No, I have my memories and knowledge. I don't need to go to the PRT for anything nor do I want to. They would just want to poke and prod at me."

I'm not interested in dealing with all of their questions. I'm especially not interested in having to go through their pointless power testing. I know what I can do, and I'm not especially concerned with figuring out the exact limits of what I can do right now. It might be nice to know but like I've said before, I'm not becoming a slave to my image like the PRT and Protectorate and I especially have no interest in all of those damn limitations. She shifted her stance slightly.

"Well, I think that me and you might be looking for the same thing." She wants me to help her. So, it looks like she has yet to join the Undersiders yet. Maybe she just wants someone to talk to. Big Chill doesn't really socialize much but he's definitely more social than others of his race since he's the perfect Necrofriggian. Literally. "Really? What makes you think that?" I asked her. The thing is about my situation, I have no idea if Taylor is her canon self or if she's TINO (Taylor-in-name-only). Or maybe she's pre-canon Taylor, who was apparently a massive chatterbox and not even close to being socially withdrawn.

She doesn't give me the vibes of a socially withdrawn girl with trust issues. She gives me the vibes of being more... normal, I guess? I have a sneaking suspicion that my metaknowledge is completely useless to me at this point...

Then again... maybe it isn't entirely useless.

"Well, you just said that you want this city to be better. I want the same thing since I live here. I've been looking for a way to get started on trying to help the city for months." Wait what? Months? It's December so Taylor should have just triggered recently! Things have already changed massively! There's my confirmation, I guess!

However, she's offering me a possible partnership. Now, Taylor is a frustrating person with her canon issues, particularly her trying to justify every single decision to herself as part of the "greater good". Even if it means having to kill a baby. Yep. You heard that right. She actually killed a fucking baby. And I'm pretty sure that it didn't mean jack diddily squat in the long run anyways.

Then again, if she didn't kill the poor child, then the poor thing would have been left to the Slaughterhouse 9. I mean listen to the name. That name doesn't exactly imply that they want to give you a hug and invite you over to have milk and freaking cookies. Heh. Now I want to see a fic where they do that unironically. Slaughterhouse 9, milk and cookies edition. Guess one could pull an extremely sadistic joke and have them cook people into cookies and use their fluids for milk. (AN: You're welcome for that mental image.)

Anyways, let's stop thinking about all of that demented crap. She needs someone that isn't going to manipulate her into becoming a villain. A friend. I can be that friend. "Hm. Maybe I'll take you up on that offer. But if you want me to join you, then you must offer something to me, and I'll do the same for you. A way that we could help one another." That seemed like a fair thing to do.

She hummed, though I could barely hear it over the semi-quiet buzzing of the swarm. It was really annoying having that damn buzzing in the background of our conversation.

"Okay, so I think I'm going to have to consider your offer. Do you have an account on SHO?"

"No, but I could easily make one. You can call me Variable. The account name will be the same. Hopefully, I could get the 'Unverified' tag."

She nodded her head. "Okay, I guess I could message you. I have a throwaway account called Bugbite, with a capitalized 'B'." I nodded my head. Unfortunately, I heard that dreaded noise.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BWOOOOO

Oh, shit no! A bright red flash enveloped me and blinded my potential new partner. Thank Christ almighty that I was wearing my armor. "MY EYES!" I looked up from my chest and cringed as I saw Taylor, at least I was sure it was her, reeling after being flashed.

"What the hell as that?!" She whined as she began to look back up. "What the... where did that scary moth guy go?!" Well, nuts. This was going to be awkward. "Um, I... heh..." I chuckled nervously, "am him." Several very uncomfortable moments passed without a single word from either of us.

"What." The spider silk wrapped heroine wannabe deadpanned. I sighed, knowing that this was going to be hard to explain. "I have the ability to shapeshift into several different forms. Each with their own separate powers and weaknesses." I explained to her. She didn't say anything to that for a few moments before she finally spoke again. "Wow. Some people get all the luck." she said bitterly. Okay, she needed to get her head out of her ass and realize how good her power really is.

"Hey now, don't be like that. Judging from what I saw you do to those goons a little bit ago, you could go far with that power. Have you tried to see, hear, or perhaps even smell through your swarm?"

"Yeah, I mean I've tried to do each of those, but it's pretty overwhelming but I've been getting better slowly." She explained. I nodded. "Have you ever tried to trip people by discreetly making tripwire with spiders?"

She shifted and looked at the ground. "I... never thought to do that." I noticed a bit of hesitation in her voice.

I scoffed. "Seriously? You've had your powers for months, and you never considered to do something like that?"

"I... uh..." The so-called Queen of Escalation stammered. I groaned in annoyance. This was going to take a long time, wasn't it?

******

I was right. After months of preparation for her first proper appearance and all this girl had was pepper spray, a nearly finished costume (Yes, nearly), and a baton. Is this how she started in canon? Looks like I'll need to smack some sense into her at some point.

She questioned me on my own powers and asked me if I could help improve her control of her own. In short, I told her yes and that I would explain more to her in detail later. She asked for my name, and I gave her the obvious answer.

Right now, I was heading to a scrap yard to grab catalytic converters due to me wanting to start the project on how to build an Arc Reactor. I need to tell the others about my plans though. That would be a stupid ass idea not to tell them.

But first, I needed to get myself a way to carry things back. Maybe I should just use a sack? I saw some in the basement while I was researching how to extract metals from scrap last night. Turns out, it is much less difficult than I assumed it to be. The issue now is getting the chemicals. Well, that's not much of an issue since I've got the allowance to buy a chemistry set. Upgra- no...

…

…

Dammit, what name do I give him?! Ugh, whatever! Upgrade could likely just make one, but I don't need to waste materials on something so mundane. Who knows anyways, I could end up using it for a science project when I go to Arcadia. Ugh, I'm not looking forward to public school now that I'm thinking of it. I had a very bad experience at my last one which was the direct reason for me being homeschooled. And the Wards went there. Thank God that I won't have to share a class with Vista. But I might have to deal with someone like Kid Win trying to put his nose where it doesn't belong. How annoying.

Anyways, I was back home. Thank Jesus for Jetray's ridiculous speed. Unfortunately, someone is going to spot him eventually and I know for a fact that the Watchdog program that the PRT and Protectorate use will end up seeing me eventually. However, will they mark someone who was just grabbing catalytic converters from old cars and trucks? I don't know and I'm not sure that I want to find out. Likely not though since that doesn't exactly imply tinker behavior. It could just be someone who wanted to extract and sell some metals or could just sell the converters.

Now that I think about it, they (the PRT) are probably so paranoid, especially about Riley, that they'll jump to conclusions and try to start trying to play hardball. I wouldn't be surprised with those idiots. So, I'll just do it myself.

I landed in the backyard and reverted back to normal. I looked around to make sure that there wasn't anyone looking. Never could be too careful about nosy neighbors. I walked over to the back door and reached for the door knob. Then the door knob twisted and the door opened, revealing Riley, who was supposed to be at work.

"Nice armor, Cam." She complimented me. "Thank you. Aren't you supposed to be at work?" I queried. "Got off early. I've seen the news recently, looks like you've began to make a hell of an impact already." She stepped outside and moved over to let me in. I was kind of suspicious right now. I had weapons on me, and I was going to make sure that I could get them easily. With all of the Strangers around, you can never be too paranoid.

"Oh, come on! Don't be so paranoid!" I raised my eyebrow beneath my mask. She huffed and called out to the other two. "HE'S HOME!" She yelled out. The accompanying voices that followed were those of Camryn and Maria, thankfully. I guess I was paranoid for nothing then.

I walked through the door and called my armor back into the Omnitrix. She looked at me with wide eyes and gaped at me. "When could you do that again?" "Not long ago."

She looked at me with a deadpan expression. "That's not very descriptive." "Exactly." I said dryly.

******

Okay, after spending far too much time in the basement looking for a sack, I managed to get to a scrap yard. It took me an hour to get there by myself. Probably could've asked Riley if she could have cooked up a way to make this easier. I was really wanting those enhancements that she promised me a couple of weeks ago. Christmas just passed yesterday, and I know, I wasn't freaking out about it since I had far more important things to worry about.

I peered into the distance and tried to see how close I was to the scrap yard. I also needed glasses. I sighed and made a mental note to ask for some later. I had to walk at least another block down. Grunting, I gripped my hands tighter on my bag and continued on jogging towards the scrap yard. Once again, the cardio had helped with this a lot.

I began to look and stare at the surrounding buildings. Unfortunately, a lot of them seemed to be closed or in need of repairs. Most likely do to fighting since there were holes in the walls and windows, mainly bullet holes. It's rather depressing to know what the people of Brockton have gone through when I haven't really lived in a bad area before in my life. The worst areas I lived in were ones that had loud kids (annoying as hell) or had a history of wrecks. Specifically, my last house before I came here had three wrecks practically in front of it within a month. And the terrifying part wasn't just the fact that they were in front of the house, but there was a daycare just a few houses down to the left. I mean, it wasn't as bad as somewhere like New York or New Jersey, thank you Christ.

However, I can change things, especially with the Omnitrix in my possession. It's rather inspiring to know that after so long being useless and unable to have an effect on a stagnant society, I can actually have a massive impact on something for once. But now though, I'm wondering why and who the hell would ever choose some random twenty-year-old fat ass when they probably could have chosen someone who was a hundred times better than me.

Anyways, I was finally at the scrap yard. I looked over to the very first car, which greeted me as the first large thing that I saw. I trotted over to it and sat my bag down. I looked over the back of the rusty old thing and saw absolutely nothing of worth. The really useful thing was underneath the vehicle. I got on my hands and knees and lowered my head down. There was a catalytic converter. It would be the major source of palladium, platinum, and something called rhodium that I needed, well it won't be the only one I'll need obviously. I know what happened in Iron Man 2. I'm not putting this thing in my chest or anywhere else on my body for that matter. Thank you Upgra- C-1000 and LGM for being awesome.

I was going to need at least a baker's dozen of these, likely many more, so I'll have to make multiple trips. I'm probably going to do that tomorrow though.

I took the sack and placed it under the car. I reached into the bag and took out a hammer and started whacking the slightly rusted car piece. Eventually, the damn thing came off at the cost of pissing off a big ass FUCKING SPIDER!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

******

It was on that day that Brockton Bay, Boston, Gotham, and Bellwood all learned how loud the alternate Camryn could scream. It was quite an unmanly and girlish scream as well.

******

That was an endeavor and a half. I managed to grab several converters... and accumulated a few bug bites such as mosquitoes and ants, thankfully no spiders. Ick. I shuddered at the thought of that big one that nearly crawled on me.
Fortunately, I managed to get back home without many interruptions. The only people who asked were just nosy people who wanted to know what was in the bag.

I dropped the thing and it landed with a loud clang. Oh, good God. That sucked hard. I was aching from the bites and smashing, and I was scratching all over myself, causing red marks to appear all over me. I really needed a shower, preferably a nice hot one, but I really needed to properly smash up the scrap to be able to extract the metals.

But I also need to place an order for a chemistry set so I can make the chemical soup that I needed. LGM had thought up several chemical processes for doing so, but the sort of chemicals that I needed would most likely get me put on a government watch list if I were to order them. And I don't mean a tinker watchlist either. So, I'll have to just use a basic process to do so.

I went over to my computer and decided to contact Taylor on SHO. I opened the laptop and went to SHO under the name 'Variable'. I'll probably use C-1000 to give myself the 'Unverified Cape' tag like I said I would.

You know what? Screw it, I'm not going to procrastinate on this. A flash of green light and my body became ultra-high-tech fluid-like nanotechnology. Wasting no time at all, I dove into the laptop and got to work on hacking.

I have to admit that this website was built and firewalled incredibly well! But it wasn't good enough to prevent C-1000 from hacking into it. Not even close. In fact, it only took me about ten seconds to create the account 'Variable' and give myself the desired tag.

I stepped out of my supercomputer and reverted back to normal. I sat down and began to type out my message to Taylor/Bugbite.


Variable: Hey, Bugbite, it's me.

Bugbite: If this is the moth-cape from earlier, then can you confirm if this is really you?


I stopped and began to think about what to type. It wasn't a matter of 'What do I put?', it was more of a matter of 'How do I not sound like an utter prick?'. After a moment of thinking, I relaxed and decided to be blunt and to the point.


Variable: You covered some muggers/robbers/lowlifes with a bunch of insects, they screamed. We met on the rooftops not that far away from the Medhall building. I flashed you. And I critiqued your lack of imagination with your superpowers.

Bugbite: Mothman! It is you!

Variable: The one and only ma'am. Now let's get down to business here. Where would you like to meet up at for our second meeting?

Bugbite: I was thinking the library or maybe somewhere like a café or maybe even just the beach.

Variable: How about a café? We could choose one that's around the northern part of Downtown Brockton Bay.

Bugbite: How about Wild Valentine? It's around the City Hall and Farmer's Market.

Variable: Sure. But it won't be today nor tomorrow. I have Krav Maga training tomorrow and I don't want to miss it.

Bugbite: Okay, I'll see what I can do to get ready for that. Good luck with training tomorrow!

Variable: Thank you and goodbye!


******

THE NEXT DAY

Okay, okay... I can do this! It was just training that I desperately needed. My hands were trembling, and I was starting to sweat. I don't know what to really expect here, but I can't start panicking! I mean it's just people! People who want to kick my ass into gear but still!

I looked up at the dojo sign and took a breath. It said 'On-Site Family Martial Arts Center' and below those words were what the place taught you, specifically things such as patience, integrity, self-control, Israeli Krav Maga, and something called Chung Suk Kuhadpo. Which sounded like something from out of the Kama Sutra if I'm honest.

…

…

Ah crap, was that racist?

Anyways (I say that a lot, don't I?), it was time. I honestly don't get why I'm so nervous right now. From what I could see from research, this place had some damn good reviews. It was rather far from our house unfortunately.

I looked over at Maria, who was taking her day off to help me here and spoke to her. "Uh, Maria, I'm pretty nervous about this..." She looked at me and simply waved her hand. "It'll be okay, they aren't going to eat you alive or anything." I nodded and followed alongside her through the small parking lot.

We made our way past the cars at the front of the building and finally went in. The strong smell of sweat hit me in the face when the doors opened. It was rather faint outside, but it was much stronger inside for rather obvious reasons. I could only imagine how bad it could be for Maria.

Punching bags lined the walls and there were advanced students sparring/training with each other over in the corner. I could tell that they were more advanced due to the color of their belts. There were mats laying on the hardwood floor and no stains at all, I thought there might be a couple blood stains at least. Guess that would be unacceptable.

One of the instructors for this place was waiting for us and smiled. He was bald, strongly built, and of average height. "Hello." He greeted. "Are you two Maria Davis and Camryn Davis?" he asked us.

"Yes, we are sir." The elder vampiress confirmed. I stayed silent and nodded my head. "We're here for my son's Krav Maga training."

The instructor looked down at his clipboard and quickly found my name. "Okay, your son will be joining our beginner's group and we'll be going over the very basics today. Is that going to be okay, ma'am?" he asked politely. She nodded and I just smiled. I really wasn't much of a talker to people that I don't really know, and it was really going to show.

He beckoned us to come with him to the back so we could get my training clothes, which were just dark grey shorts, a dark grey shirt, and some shoes. Not much but it matched the few online lessons that I saw.

As we followed him, I took a look at the room and saw that the walls were painted with a nice white color and seemed to be clean as a whistle. The mats on the floor were a light purple color and were placed across the entire floor.

I stopped looking around as we got to the backroom door. He twisted the dull, metal knob and pulled the wooden door open. He beckoned us into the fitting room where my training outfit was waiting for me.

There were dressing stalls on the left side of the room and opposite to them were mirrors on the walls. I walked forward as my instructor told me to go try the outfit on in the stalls. And so, I did. I took the hanging clothes and walked over to the stalls and began to get dressed.

******

When I finished changing and stepped out of the stall, things proceeded to go by rather quickly over the next four hours.
My instructor, Mr. Winter, had given my group the basics of Krav Maga. And I mean the bare basics such as the correct stances and proper footwork. We only got to the beginnings of learning how to properly fight during this period, but I'm okay with that. Maria, Cam, and Riley are also going to be training me in their different styles too.

Oh boy, something tells me I am going to be sore tomorrow since I still have to go jogging.

---

I'M SO SORRY! Okay, I had some issues with my leg due to me getting mauled by our most recently obtained cat. He's just the sweetest until he gets triggered and we don't really have a good idea on what those triggers could be. And he apparently had bacteria in his mouth so the bite wounds got infected. OW.

After I recovered from that, I basically lazed around due to me procrastinating for about two weeks. Sorry for that!

Edit: Forgot the recommendation: Blind Man's Buff (Left 4 Dead 2)

 

[Nyrmac]

Hey there, I've got some news to make about my current plans for this story. I've decided to rewrite it and do away with some of my plans for this story. The reason why is because I didn't like the direction that it was going to go. You know how oh-so-many Worm fics have the PRT try to use heavy handed recruitment BS to try to strong arm Taylor or the protagonist? Well, that would have happened, but Camryn would have not taken their crap and would have threatened to sue their pants off, quite possibly literally. And he would have had the ability to unmask Cauldron and many Capes out of pure spite.


Just imagine if this was real life and that were to happen. You could simply record the gangs giving you an offer that you can't refuse and then record the PRT making an offer that was essentially the same, only rather than kill you, they threaten to arrest you for "excessive force", or they basically pamper criminals and try to persecute a potential ally for little justification other than to inflate their ranks a little. You could give that to the media and ignite a massive shit-storm which would cause the PRT's image to be wrecked by the public. While they may be able to play the Shadow Stalker card, then you could turn it back on them by saying that you don't see a difference between the so-called heroes and villains since they gave the exact same "offer" just worded differently like I mentioned before. And question how criminals are thrown in jail but end up back on the street within a week. Especially Capes like Hookwolf who should've been executed a long time ago, kill order or not, since he's a blatant threat to innocent people and has proven that he can't be contained if only because of the E88. Same with Lung, who could be killed far before he could ramp up. But it seems like the PRT seem to not care about their JOBS and seem to be far more concerned with their precious, precious image and seem to believe that putting glorified bounties on someone's head is apparently the only thing that they can think of when it comes down to dealing with a troublesome and dangerous cape.


That's where I would have gone for the beginning of the fic, but I just feel like that would've been too heavy handed and too much hard selling. I would have had a possible subplot of having various Wards and their families sue the PRT for false advertising and the Youth Guard for their annoying, obstructive, whiny crap. Since the PRT advertises the Wards as a junior Protectorate and claims that the Wards can fight villains but don't actually get to do that then you could sue them for false advertising. And don't get me started on the crap with Wards not getting combat training. That's one of the standard benefits of the Wards program and in some fics they don't get it at all. That would have been put out in the public and would have caused an even bigger shitshow.


Though it doesn't stop me from using some of these plots in the rewrite. (If you're wondering where I got these ideas, then here you are: https://caerazkaban.groups.io/g/main/message/413932 - Specifically ideas 261B, 268, 268B, and 297)


Now, the way things would be different would be is an actually competent PRT and a more moral Cauldron. Think of Ack's Earning Her Stripes for a good comparison, no feudalism experiment, no things like supporting the Nazis, Hero's survival actually means something. This is the primary reason as to why I'm rewriting the fic. My "reasoning" for why things stayed the same was, in my opinion, really weak.


Oh, and Camryn is going to have a mostly different playlist for his starting 10. It will be less broken but as a plus he'll have the OV time limit of hours and hardly any recharge. By "less broken", I mean less overpowered abilities like Ghostfreak's everything, Big Chill's ice abilities plus intangibility used on organs, Jetray's speed etc. He'll still keep some aliens like Upgrade, but the playlist will be mostly different. More balance, less overlap and more fun possibilities even though his original playlist would have been super fun to play around with. And as a side note, the greater transformation time and less recharge will be balanced with harder fights and more of a learning experience.


And the addition of Pokémon sooner would be nice as well. I mean they'd need a massive role anyway since they'd logically be a huge part of the world. Then again, character inflation is an issue, and it means that almost everyone would need to have at least one.


And another thing regarding the ham-fisted hard sell approach that the PRT would have taken, it would have culminated in the PRT essentially breaking into their house and trying to basically intimidate them into submission to join the Wards for the kids and the Protectorate for Maria. No matter how it would have ended, it wouldn't have gone well for the PRT. Either they get their asses handed to them on a silver platter or they get caught on camera, possibly both. And they would have arrived conveniently when Camryn would have been live streaming on Twitch so he could have caught them in the act, while he was being raided by a popular streamer which would've been much worse. (Yes, this is inspired by In Nuclear Fire.) I could probably go this route in the rewrite, but it'd be very difficult to do so in a convincing way that doesn't seem forced and doesn't seem like outright bashing.

 

[Nyrmac]

Here's the link to the rewrite!

https://forum.questionablequesting....rite-fusion-si-multicross.24910/#post-7674866