Archive of Our Own ^beta

Night had fallen. Empty air yawned endlessly across a teary field of grass. The full moon’s light suffocated beneath thick dim clouds. A chilling mist seeped across the moor, and haunting balls of light flickered and danced around a single boy. Then they disappeared.

“Anomalous DNA detected”

“Yeah okay, but how far away is it?” Ben is exasperated. They’ve been walking for nearly 20 minutes and there’s been nothing. For a moment Ben thought he’d seen some glowing lights in the misty distance but there was nothing as he walked closer.

“Anomalous DNA detected immediately ahead,” 

Ben stood still and scanned his surroundings. 

“Are you sure?”

“Anomalous DNA detected immediately ahead,” it repeated adamantly. Then the green scanning light erupted from the Omnimatrix in a 360 degree radius. 

“Anomalous DNA found. No match is found in the current database. Searching database for closest match”

There’s a pregnant pause. Nothing happens. There’s nothing to be seen.

“Are you broken?” Ben started fiddling with his watch. 

“Are you looking for me?”

“!” Ben jumps. He raises his watch in an offensive position.

In front of him was a teenager, a human teenage boy at that. He was the same age as him, maybe a few years younger. He had dark hair, blue eyes, and was dressed in modern normal looking Earth clothes, blue jeans and hoodie.

Ben looked left and right, “Where did you come from? Is there anyone else here with you?”

“Nah, it’s just you, me, and the ghosts”

“Hah funny. No seriously, you haven’t seen any aliens or something weird around here.”

The teen’s eyes drift to look behind Ben. Ben turns around but sees nothing. 

“... no,” the other teen hesitates. Ben is suspicious. 

“Why’d you hesitate?”

“Just thinking if I’ve seen anything weird,” they try to nonchalantly reply. 

Ben aims for soothing, “Hey it’s fine if you’re the alien. Or if you have alien parentage on one side or something. You’re not in trouble or anything.”

“I’m not an,” they stutter,  “an alien,” they deny. Warning bells ring in Ben’s head at the insistent denial. Ben straightens up.

“You know I never caught your name.”

“I never gave it to you.” After a moment’s consideration he offers, “You can call me Danny.”

“Alright Danny, what are you doing out here so late at night?”

“What are you doing out here so late at night?” Danny shoots back. “Also it’s polite to provide a name back.”

“You don’t know who I am?”

“Am I supposed to?”

“Yes! I’m Ben Tennyson, wielder of the Omnitrix,”

“I don’t know what that is, sorry.”

“You don’t know,” Ben’s mind had to reboot, “you don’t know the most powerful weapon in the universe?!” Ben lifts up his arm to emphasise his point by showing his watch. 

“It’s a nice watch,” Danny compliments, then he politely asks, “can you tell me the time?”

“... no”

Danny looks at Ben confused, “You can’t tell the time with your watch?”

“It’s the Omnimatrix, ” Ben stresses. 

“I still don’t know what that is.”

“You’re not from around here, are you?” Ben abruptly declares.

Danny smiles sheepishly, “Is it that obvious?”

“Yes,” Ben states flatly. He tilts his head and considers Danny, “So what is it, dimensional travel?”

Danny was taken aback, “Err yes, how’d you guess?”

“You've never heard of me,” Ben answers dismissively.

Danny squints his eyes, “I can’t tell if you’re big-headed or if that’s actually an accurate indicator of dimensional travel.”

“Danny, my name is known throughout the universe, the multiverse even. If you’ve never heard of me or at least of the Omnitrix then it’s because it doesn’t exist in your dimension.”

“Still sounds big-headed.” 

“Whatever, so are you stranded here?”

“Sorta,” Danny admits, “I’m waiting for my ride though. They should turn up sooner or later.”

“Nice,” maybe with some luck this would resolve itself with no hassle. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what are you? The Omnitrix would not have freaked out if you were just a baseline human from another dimension.”

“Oh well, I am half-ghost,” Danny tentatively admits. 

Ben pauses as he tries to understand what he heard.

“What do you mean by half-ghost?”

The Omnitrix pipes up, “Anomalous DNA Closest Match Found. Homosapien, DNA Match: 50%, Genetic Match: 50%, Closest Match Found: Ectonurite. DNA Match: 50%, Genetic match: 0.0106%. Conclusion: DNA Anomaly is an Human/Ectonurite-adjacent Hybrid.

“You’re part Ectonurite?!” Ben can’t believe that the teen next to him was related to Ghost Freak, even remotely. 

“I don’t know what that is. I am part ecto plasm. That’s what’s infused in my DNA”

“So it was your funky ghost genes, were what the Omnitrix had been picking up.”

“Hybrid-DNA has been recorded,” the Omnitrix supported, “Warning: Hybrid-DNA can not be used for transformations.”

Danny warily eyes the Omnitrix, “Aside from not telling the time, what exactly does your watch do again?”

“By recording alien DNA it can transform me into those aliens and their ultimate forms.”

“That’s so cool! How many can you turn into?!”

“I generally rotate between 10 at a time but I technically have access to like over a million different kinds of aliens.”

“Ancients, that’s so many! Have you met a million aliens?”

“Oh definitely not, but I have met a lot of aliens. I’ve had the Omnitrix since I was ten years old.”

“Still really cool, I haven’t met any aliens, at least none from outer space, because I guess ghosts could count. Have you been to outer space?”

“Yeah, plenty of times,” Ben grins, showing off.

Danny pouts, “Urgh I’m so jelly right now you can’t believe. All I meet are annoying ghosts.”

Ben smirks, “Well I mean, aliens can be annoying too,” he commiserates.  

A swirling portal opened high into the sky. It looked like a portal to the Null Void except in green. What looked like a small space shuttle flew out of the portal. 

“Ahh, that'll be my friends. Nice meeting you Alien Boy.”

“You too, Ghost Boy.”

Ben watched Danny disappear with his friends through the portal. Whilst walking back, he realised that it was brighter. Throughout the mist ethereal balls of light illuminated the field.