A/N:
" " : Speech,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy/Space Speech
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Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA, North America, Earth.
Benjamin Everett Tennant POV
The blaring of my alarm clock woke me up like any other day, but this time, I got up feeling considerably energetic. While I was already enjoying the lingering effects of my transformations, I wasn't about to slow down just yet.
As I got up from the bed, I began transforming into other aliens. Nanomech, Echo Echo, Upchuck, Eatle, Arctiguana, Buzzshock, Crashhopper, Rath, Kickin' Hawk, Spidermonkey, XLR8, Wildmutt, Heatblast, Water Hazard, Jetray, Bloxx, Snare-Oh, Chamalien, Blitzwolfr, and Chromastone – all before even stepping into the bathroom. I felt my body become much stronger and my senses become sharper, as the lingering effects of those transformations began to settle.
I hopped into the bathroom, brushed my teeth, did my business, and had a shower. Not wanting to use my towel, I simply increased my body's temperature, reducing any lingering drops of water to steam. Before dressing up, I transformed into a few more aliens, just to give myself a bit more of a boost. I turned into Feedback, then into Ghostfreak, then back to my normal self. I would have turned into Four Arms, Cannonbolt, Ampfibian, or Lodestar, but they're either too large for my room, or give off an energy signal strong enough to be easily noticed by the GDA. And I don't want Cecil and his people snooping around the house.
I quickly dressed up, but before heading out, I quickly made a single clone and turned to it. "You know what to do already. Stay undetected and protect her… at all times." I told him and he nodded, then I walked out. As I stepped out of the room, I heard Mom walking out of her room, and from what I was smelling, she definitely woke up in a cold sweat from a nightmare. Damn enhanced senses are already kicking in.
"Oh. Hey, Benny. You're up early. Is it because it's Friday?" She said with a smile on her face, and I felt a sharp pang in my chest seeing her act like she's feeling alright. "Not quite." I said, then levitated a few inches off the ground. She rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes, probably wondering if she was still dreaming. "You can fly? Since when?" She asked, her voice clearer now. "Just this morning. Turns out, every transformation leaves me with their abilities, just a bit weaker." I told her, then lowered myself back to the floor.
"Don't worry, Mom. I won't just dive headfirst into being a hero, okay. I'll be alright." I said as I hugged her, trying to give her some semblance of reassurance. "Okay, Benny. Now, get going before you're late for school." She said as she broke the hug. "As for me, I'm going to keep enjoying my PTO." She said as she nudged me towards the stairs. "Okay, Mom. See you when I'm back." I said, then walked out of the house. For some reason, it felt like nothing could go wrong today.
…
Why the hell did I jinx myself?
"Mr. Tennant. My office. Now." Principal Winslow said as I entered the main hallway. With an exasperated, but resigned sigh, I agreed and followed him to his office, knowing exactly what he was going to talk to me about.
After a few minutes of walking in silence, we entered his office and sat down. "I believe you know why I called you here, Mr. Tennant." He said, looking at me sternly, not that it was ever going to work on me. "If it's about punching Todd, then am I to expect a reward?" I asked, tacitly letting him know that I saw no wrong in what I'd done. He sighed as he massaged his forehead, clearly not liking the fact that he had to deal with this.
"You do know that he was harassing Amber, right?" I said, just to be sure that he hadn't heard an altered version of the story. "Yes, I am aware of that, but you should have gone for dialogue first, rather than attack him." He replied. "I did, but Todd insisted on attacking me first. I defended myself, and also stopped his harassment. If anyone should be in trouble now, it's him." I said, and he sighed. I was sure that he could have come to this conclusion himself, and he was just doing all of this as a formality.
"Listen, Benjamin." Oh, he called me by my first name. "I understand that you did what you thought was right. But you also need to understand that the way you do something also matters. Imagine that you had hit someone that wasn't Todd. You'd have broken a rib instead of just bruising them." He said, and in as much as I didn't regret punching Todd for the first time in a long time, he was right. If it was someone with William's lanky physique, it would have broken bones. If it was someone like Mark before his Viltrumite abilities awakened, it'd have cracked some.
"Fine. Maybe next time he acts out, I'll just trip him instead." I said, understanding that things wouldn't go anywhere if I tried to argue. And I respected him too much to make his job that much more difficult.
"As long as you understand, Benjamin. Now, go ahead and get to class." He said, as he went and opened the door to let me out. "Yeah. Goodbye, Principal Winslow." I said, then headed over to Math class. As I got there, I quickly greeted Ms. Kinley, then Mark and William, before taking the empty seat at the back of the class. While the class went on, I continued to hear what sounded like power lines tensing, but I could tell that it was Mark trying to get used to his new strength. With his powers awakening, the countdown to D-day had started, and I wasn't going to allow myself to be caught unawares.
…
Omniscient POV
After the school day ended, Mark, for the first time in a while, headed straight to his home, with William also heading to his own home. As for Ben, he had made a small detour on his way home, strolling calmly into an empty alleyway.
Drawing on the abilities of a Splixson(Ditto) and a Sonorosian(Echo Echo) in his body, he made a clone and instructed it to head home in place of him. "And what are you gonna be doing?" The clone asked him. "Any good hero needs to have a secret base. I'm going to get the materials I'll need to make one." He said, then drawing on an Ectonurite's(Ghostfreak) ability to go invisible, he disappeared from view. "I'm sure we can make use of space junk and e-waste." He said, then flew away, leaving the clone to head back to his home.
With the abilities of all the aliens capable of high-speed flight that he had transformed into prior, his flight was deft and fast, and he reached a landfill mere seconds later. Landing in an area out of sight, he tried testing out a theory that he had formed while in class. Since he noticed that he retained the abilities of the aliens that he transformed into in his human form, as long as they didn't cause drastic physical changes such as giving him a tail or something similar, he wanted to see if he would still have access to those abilities when he transforms into another alien.
With a quick flash of green light, he transformed into a Biotsavartian(Lodestar), an alien species with the innate ability to control magnetism. He looked at his body and saw that he was still invisible, confirming his theory. However, he could feel that all the other abilities he had from the aliens he had transformed into were supressed, even in their already limited capacity. So, he decided that until he had full understanding of the interactions between the residual abilities he gains and the transformations, he would only use the abilities in his human form, where there was no suppression, save for extreme circumstances.
Wanting to enhance his control over electromagnetism, he then transformed into an Amperi(Ampfibian), then finally reverted to his human form. Using his now vastly developed electroreception, he tagged every bit of e-waste and metal that was part of the trash in the landfill, then used his magnetokinesis to pull them all out of the trash, then bring them together into one large ball of metal. He then flew to the ball, and using the Ectonurite ability to extend their invisibility to other objects, turned the massive multi-ton ball invisible. After doing that, he flew away from the landfill.
The people who were either working at the landfill or looking for something to salvage, watched all the metal in the area float and come together into a large ball and suddenly disappear. Safe to say, the event was going to be widely known before Benjamin would return home.
As he flew with what he had taken as prospective material for building his base, he made 30 more clones and sent them out to do the same thing. All over North America, people at landfills and junkyards saw large amounts of e-waste and metal fly away and vanish into thin air, and looked on in confusion and awe. Of course, something as significant as this soon caught the attention of the Global Defence Agency, and they soon called upon the Guardians of the Globe.
The Guardians of the Globe soon arrived at Guardians Headquarters, their base that was provided and funded by the Global Defence Agency, and they greeted each other, much like friendly coworkers. Not long after they all arrived, a bright, rectangular flash of light suddenly appeared in the base, revealing an elderly, balding man, with a prominent scar on his face, wearing a black suit with a red tie, brown shoes, and a pin of the U.S flag on his lapel. This was Cecil Stedman, the director of the GDA.
"Okay, people. I'm sure you must have heard about what's been happening all over the country, and if you haven't, then listen up." Cecil said, right as he was teleported into the base. "Nice to see you too, Cecil." The Immortal said. "So, why have you called all of us this time?" Darkwing asked. "I was just getting to that." Cecil replied, then pushed a button on a remote, causing multiple screens to be projected onto on of the walls of the base's main hub.
It showed multiple locations where metal objects – pipes, laptops, monitors, system units, cars, trucks, vehicle parts, and more – suddenly came together into large balls, then vanished. "As you can see, all over the U.S, something caused metal to be pulled away from landfills and junkyards. We don't know what or who is responsible –" He said, then switched the screens to show the map of the U.S. " –, but the only precursor to this was a large electromagnetic signal coming from here, a landfill somewhere in Chicago." He said, showing the first place that Benjamin had taken metal from.
"Isn't that good, though? Whatever it is seems to be reducing pollution." War Woman said. "Yeah, but whatever is responsible for this is unknown, and so are their intentions. We need to know what is responsible for this, and whether they're friendly or not." Cecil said. "And then what?" Aquarus, the King of Atlantis asked, his body subtly trembling with excitement. "If they're friendly, then we try forming a relationship with them. If not, feel free to help humanity get rid of a threat." Cecil said calmly.
"Okay, I understand all of that, but how would we even know where to find whoever's responsible for this?" Red Rush asked. "I mean, we can clearly see all that metal turn invisible, so what's to say that whoever's responsible can't just hide themselves?" He said, drawing murmurs of agreement from his colleagues. "Well, we've got three of the fastest people on the planet and the equivalent of multiple countries' GDPs to work with. I'm sure we can come up with something." Cecil said, then teleported away.
"Sometimes I wonder if he thinks we work for him." Darkwing said, then returned to his jet using his hoverboard. "Well, I'll check on land. You guys decide where you'll start checking." Red Rush said as he got ready to leave as well. "Of course, Josef. Take care, now." The Immortal said, and he nodded, before vanishing in a burst of superspeed. "Well, Martian Man and I will check if they're hiding somewhere underground. Come on, MM." Green Ghost said, dragging the alien hero along with her.
"Then I guess we will take to the skies, War Woman." The Immortal said as he began levitating. "Yes. I just hope my mother doesn't feel the need to send someone to try taking me back. It's starting to get annoying." War Woman said, then very quickly flew out of the base to search for the source of the electromagnetic anomaly, with the Immortal following shortly after. As the Guardians searched, the GDA had some of their operatives join them in the search by using their surveillance satellites.
Meanwhile, Benjamin had moved into outer space, beyond Earth's atmosphere, and after transforming into a Galilean(Gravattack), he used its gravikinesis and orbitakinesis to keep all the masses of metal close to his body while his clones brought the space junk around the Earth over to him. At this point, his clones had gathered enough metal for them to make their base without issue, and upon noticing this, he called out to them, telling them to stop gathering metal.
"Ok, guys. Transform to Upgrade." He instructed them as he did so. And so, 31 Galvanic Mechamorphs surrounded scores of thousands of tons of discarded technology and metal, then merged with all of it, reshaping it into what would be the main base of the soon-to-be hero, Codex.
…
An entire hour had passed since the Guardians of the Globe began their search for Benjamin and they had failed to locate even a single scrap of all the metal that had been taken from the planet. The only thing they had been able to confirm was that the phenomenon of metal vanishing from landfills and junkyards had spread to other continents, until it stopped about 30 minutes ago. Despite their efforts, even with the few small interruptions by some supervillains, they were unable to unearth any other information.
The GDA had also put a large chunk of its surveillance and analysis into trying to track the metal, but even then, they weren't able to do so, leaving them unable to provide any explanation for the phenomenon. Cecil then instructed the GDA agents and the Guardians to simply keep an eye out for the possibility of the phenomenon returning, or for the appearance of the one responsible for the phenomenon.
Meanwhile, now floating in space was a black spacecraft so massive that it wouldn't be far-fetched to call it an artificial planetoid. It had area comparable to Queens, New York, and was large enough to very easily hold the To'kustar(Way Big) equivalent of a 17-year-old. It had multiple areas that were each designated for different functions. There was a training area that was made to withstand extreme impacts and other extreme conditions, such as extreme heat, cold, corrosion, and was also capable of adapting to attacks that may exceed its current threshold for punishment, more so than the rest of the spacecraft.
It had an area that could only be described as an armory, where several clones were working on developing Benjamin's supersuit, as well as other weapons that he could use apart from his abilities. There was an area that was empty, which Benjamin had put aside plans to make it a fully functioning farm. But the part that had the largest area was the research and development complex. There, he planned to work on cures for diseases that affect humans, animals, and plants, as well as genetic modifications for livestock and food crops.
But even that paled in contrast to the most important part of the spacecraft. The power core was a piece of technology that civilizations all over the universe would probably kill for, as it was multiple decades, or even centuries ahead of their energy production technology. In the deepest recesses of the spacecraft, was a nuclear fusion reactor that powered everything on it. With his greatly enhanced mind and the vast library of technology that existed within his Upgrade transformation, Benjamin and his clones were able to craft technology that hadn't been seen anywhere in the universe.
And even then, he wanted to create technology that was similarly out of this universe, which was the reason that his supersuit was still pending completion. "Even if it's watered down, we still have the minds of the most intelligent, science and tech-savvy aliens that this universe would ever hope to see. So, I don't see why we can't recreate unstable molecules and make a suit out of them." Benjamin said to his clones, while transformed into his Methanosian(Swampfire) form.
"Sure, we can make it. But even that's gonna take us some time. It's not like we're just making a suit at Edna Mode's level. This is something that could not only take the Fantastic Four's abilities, but also tank the damage from the battles they went through." A clone that had transformed into a Cerebrocrustacean(Brainstorm) spat back at him. "Fine, I understand. Give me a time frame for completion." Benjamin said. "For actually making the unstable molecules, we'd need 10-12 days. Turning it into fabric shouldn't take long, so maybe a day or two after." Another clone replied.
"Oh? Okay, I can work with that." Benjamin said, and the clones turns to him, seemingly surprised that he was acting patient. "Hey, I know that I want to try and do shit quickly, so we can minimize the damage that'll come from Nolan(pronounced Nowl-Ahn) attacking the Guardians. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna rush something as important as this. And besides, if you guys complete it in that timeframe, Mark would only be Invincible for a day or two before I go out there." He said, and the clones lightly laughed before returning to their work.
Shaking his head, he moved to make some adjustments for his base, and for the next 2 days, Benjamin stayed in space. He had his Methanosian for undergo blooming – the species' maturation process, and he also worked alongside his clones to make more tech. To avert the disasters that would involve the Earth, he decided that he would make as many preparations as he could possibly make. He might put himself in danger, but for the true well-being of those he cared about, he would make sure that he would stop the danger and return, no matter what he would face.
Chapter End.
Word Count: 3,137
Thanks for reading!