Of Aliens, Magic, and Superheroes
CHAPTER 0: Prologue!
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"You can let that one loss define you, or you can learn from it."
—Azmuth
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Note: Just a quick heads-up before you start reading. This Self-Insert does not know anything about Marvel. He grew up with Ben 10, but Marvel simply doesn't exist in his original world. As far as he's concerned, this is just another universe he woke up in.
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A sharp gasp left my lips as I jolted awake.
For a few seconds I just laid there, staring at the ceiling. Something about it felt weird—and it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out why. I could see the texture of the paint. Every uneven bump, every streak where the roller had lifted too early.
That's... not normal.
I sat up slowly and immediately noticed something else was wrong. My body felt unfamiliar in a way that was hard to place. My arms were longer. My legs were longer. Heck—everything was longer.
Did I... grow?No way, a growth spurt in my twenties? Yeah, no.
I pushed the blanket off and that's when I really noticed it. I wasn't just taller—I was built. AYO?! Did I go to the gym in my sleep? Did I do a real life timeskip? Did I skip the fucking winter arc?
Don't get me wrong, I was never overweight but I wasn't a gym rat either. Heck this was beyond gym rat, I looked like a fucking Greek statue. Da Vinci-Chan, here I come. Sculpt me like those statues you always wanted to make.
And the senses. God, the senses. I could hear the ventilation humming through the walls. I could smell what I was pretty sure were unwashed dishes sitting in the basin downstairs. And again, I could see the paint texture from across the room.
I was bloody superhuman.
As I tried to stand up, pain hammered through my skull, making me lose my balance and fall off the bed.
WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING TO ME!?
Memories flooded my mind. Then another life's. Then another one.
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS DJ KHALED BULLSHIT?
Three sets of memories. All bombarding my brain at the same damn time. Of course my head's fucked.
I remembered dying. The screech of tires, the rush of steel, and the dark.
I remembered being Ben Tennyson. Finding the Omnitrix. Fighting Vilgax, Aggregor, and so many more. Twenty years of it.
I remembered living in New York. Finishing high school. My parents dying in a car accident. Twenty quiet years of a normal man's life.
All of it felt real and fake simultaneously—like I had just watched a detailed biopic where I was somehow both the audience and the guy on screen.
Slowly, I pushed myself up, and made my way towards the mirror.
The reflection confirmed it.
Brown hair. Green eyes. Six foot three if I had to guess.
The face matched the third life—the one that grew up here. But the body was all Ben. The guy who used to live in this room had been lean, average, unremarkable in a crowd. Whatever happened overnight had somehow pushed it to peak human physique.
Then something cold and metallic caught my attention.
I raised my wrist slowly. A black, white and green watch sat there—to anyone who didn't know, it looked like a bad prop from a student film. No clock face, weird dial, green hourglass symbol.
To me it was the single greatest object in existence.
The Omnitrix. Given to Ben—me?—after defeating Vilgax with the Sword of Ascalon. I remembered Azmuth unlocking the master control on my 18th birthday—justa as he said he would. While I did not have access to the million-plus transformations, I had the full capabilities of the Master-control.
I could feel them all sitting there at the edge of my awareness and before I could even finish the thought—
Heatbl—FLASH!
Green light detonated across my room. I blinked at my reflection and standing where I used to be was a creature of living fire, rocky orange skin, flames where a head should be.
HOLY SHIT I WAS HEATBLAST.
Wait—what's that smell—
Oh shit.
FLASH!
I looked down at my floor. Two perfect pyronite footprints burned clean into the wood.
...My deposit.
I pinched myself.
Youch.
Okay. Not a dream then.
I ran a hand through my hair, a surprised smile crawling onto my face despite everything. Three completely different lives, all equally real, all existing in one body at the same time. The most powerful device in the universe sitting on my wrist.
I turned around to move towards the bathroom when a piece of paper laying on the windowsill caught my eye.
Something—maybe instinct?—mamde me take two shaky steps, as my hand reached out to grab the piece of paper. My eyes caught the golden letters on the paper and I wondered whose handwriting was this good? Either that or they had the perfect printer.
…
Hello Ben,
Now I know this must be an awfully weird situation to find yourself in—what with waking up just after dying and all. You see I had foreseen this Universe that you are now in to meet a terrible end. After giving it a thought, I had realised that no one would care if I messed with it. So with the permission of my old friend, I duplicated his younger body, gave it his old Omnitrix and decided to insert it in here. Now that would have been the end of it if not for the fact that this new body needed a soul. After talking with another—smaller—old friend, I decided to see if I could find a soul in the state of flux. Not having gone to its destined afterlife or having been reincarnated, and I found you.
After looking through your life I realised that you might be precisely what I needed so I decided to give you a second chance while making sure another universe in the grand omniverse had a chance at turning over a new leaf.
Now I know what you're thinking. Saving an entire universe? But I don't think you need to worry about that. Just keep doing the right thing and all will work out.
I have made sure to have an Identity set for this new body of yours while also finding it a good lodging. You should have gotten the memories of this new identity and Ben's life so as to not leave you too confused.
So enjoy your second chance at life my friend, be a Hero—not because it is needed, but because I know you want to be one. And most of all, live.
PS: I know when the time is right, you will do the right thing.
PSS: Beware the Dark Phoenix, but do not be afraid of it.
Your's Truly,
Professor Paradox
…
"Well… FUCK—"
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Surprisingly, I calmed down pretty quickly.
Ben's memories—or mine, I guess—had left me surprisingly good at calming the fuck down.
First things first—This universe is about to end. I don't know when, or how. But now I do. Now I should be panicking—like any sane man—but I am not. Because I know that I have Alien X in my back pocket.
Wait, would I still have Bellicus and Serena as my other personalities or would they change… After all, I am a clone.
Which brought me to the second thing that's been bugging me. I am a clone. Except, not really. I am me—a normal man who died in a car accident, who is now inside a cloned body.
And while I have the memories of Ben Tennyson, I am fundamentally not him. Plus I was lucky enough to get a second chance at life by a very nice, but powerful guy. So go me.
So the major thing to address is the fact that the universe will end. All I have to do is figure out when and how, then stop it before it ever gets that far. And then enjoy my second chance at life.
I mean, it's just another Tuesday for Ben—ME. Gonna have to fix that as well. Can't keep thinking of myself as not Ben but Ben at the same time.
Alright, first things first. Contact Grandpa—Wait no. He doesn't exist here. This version of me never had a Grandpa Max. Heck, this Universe probably has no Plumbers or Galvans, otherwise Paradox could have just informed this universe's Azmuth and he'd have fixed it in a jiffy.
That meant no Plumber support. No Gwen, No Kevin. No Rook.
"At least Mr. Smoothies still exist—" No… I don't remember there being any popular smoothie franchise of that name…
"FUCK—"
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Hey everyone—how's it going?
So... here we are again.
Some of you might remember this story from a while back. For whatever reason, the idea just refused to leave my head, so I decided to give it another shot. Whether that's a good idea or not... we'll find out together.
That said, don't take this reboot as a promise that the story is back for good. I'm still on the fence myself. This could end up being a one-off chapter that scratches the itch, or it could become a proper series again. I honestly don't know yet. I just wanted to get this version out there and see what you all think.
More stuff up on My P@TREON . COM / ST_SCARFACE (Just seach St_Scarface P@TREON on the net, change @ with a). Stuff like the next chapter of this story, four chapters of my Borrowed Lightning (Self-Insert as harry Potter) or FCO, which is up by 5 chapters.
As always, thank you for reading. *AHEM* COMMENT YA FUCK'S, THAT'S THE ONLY SHIT THAT GETS ME GOING *AHEM*
Ciao!