Omni-matrix

This is another attempt to write a story hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 1

Ben leaned on his good arm waiting for the bell to ring. He already used his last paper to make a paper plane and was already given the look when he rammed a drum solo on his desk. Both times the teacher weren't too impressed.

Riiiiiiinnnnnnggggg!

Finally the bell rang and Ben jumped to his feet to rush the door, the teacher had other plans though as she called him back. Ben's face dropped but he waited anyway. After being scolded for the plane (apparently the more annoying instance), Ben ran out the school making a dash for the parking lot where his grandpa Max would pick him up.

The local grade bullies where picking on a kid and if Ben wasn't already late, he would've totally stopped to give the bullies a piece of his mind. Good thing he didn't since he just made it as the beaten down RV pulled up.

"Later losers," Ben yelled in deviance causing the bullies to stop picking on the kid long enough for him to get away. A silent gratitude passed between them followed by the howls of the bullies.

The RV pulled away and Ben turned his attention towards the inside, greeting his grandpa and seeing a color he liked but dreaded in this instance.

"What are you doing here," Ben didn't let his 'twin' cousin answer, "Grandpa, what is she doing here, I thought it was just gonna be the two of us."

"I'm not too thrilled to be here either dweeb, I already had my vacation planned out, until someone convinced my mom it would be a good experience for me." Gwen said holding up a colored chart.

"Grandpa you didn't..." Ben trailed off.

"It wasn't me Ben, but when Sandra brought it up I figured why not." Grandpa Max sounded false, but Ben knew his mother well enough to know that she wasn't above this. She didn't like the idea of Ben alone with Max.

"Great there goes my kootie-free summer." Ben sat down opposite Gwen and took out his PSP.

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They drove for three hours before they reached a campsite and set up for the night. The cousins sat outside at a table waiting for their Grandpa to bring out the meal. They however didn't expect the meal to move around trying to escape.

"Seriously Grandpa, what's really for dinner?" Ben asked looking at the worms.

"Those are marinated mealworms. This summer is going to be an adventure for your taste buds." Ben searched his grandpa's face for the joke but there was none. "If those don't sound good enough, I have some sheep's tongue in the fridge."

Ben and Gwen knew it was futile at that moment so they shared a moment of understanding. They consulted each other and admitted defeat seeing that they only had so much to eat and not nearly enough money.

After an unpleasant meal, Ben and Gwen went their separate ways, relatively speaking off course. Gwen found the only place in the park with a decent signal to run her laptop and Ben played on his PSP.

Moments later Max came out and held up a bag of no-name brand marshmallows asking if they wanted to make smores. Ben didn't really listen to Gwen's comment, but after the meal they had Ben didn't want to take a chance that the marshmallows were actually a cow's pancreas or something.

"I'm going for a walk." Ben said, then turned to Gwen, "Smell you later Gwen."

Ben stumped through the forest directionless. He knew the way back but he didn't want to go back yet. It was at that moment that Ben stared up into the sky and saw a shooting star. If the stories are true then if he wished for a better summer maybe it will happen. So he made the wish. Well no one said what would happen if your wish was heard, but Ben knew that the star didn't suddenly change direction and attack you.

Ben ran for his life but the star was too fast and crashed behind him, causing Ben to stumble and roll backward toward the crater. He barely registered the goop running over his skin before he passed out.

Ben felt the heat around him and woke up. He was in the middle of a full blown forest fire. Ben stumbled out of the crater and went to dust himself off. It was then that he noticed that his shirt was torn and a weird thing was sticking out of his belly button.

When Ben tried to get it off his nails started to glow green and a strange symbol appeared in the air in front of him. Ben touched the symbol which started to turn. Ben grabbed at a random image the symbol turned into, to see if it was solid, but it caused his entire body to glow green and he could feel himself changing, it didn't hurt but it did feel strange and natural.

When the light faded Ben noticed his skin was blue and he couldn't feel the heat like he could before. This intrigued the 10-year-old so much that he went to one of the fires and touched it. His skin started to pull the fire in, when Ben couldn't absorb any more he turned around not sure what to do. He could feel something else and just aimed his hand towards a rock and let it go. The rock blew up after an energy wave hit it.

The force was a shock to Ben and he jumped from it only not to touch the ground the shock of flight also sent Ben into panic and he spiraled through the air and finally crashing into the stream close by.

Getting out Ben caught a glimpse of himself. Staring back at him was a beautiful blue skinned girl slightly older than Ben was. Ben knew it was a girl because of her softer appearance and the two mounds on the chest. And there on her exposed midriff was the symbol of the weird belly ring Ben tried to get off earlier.

Frustrated Ben pointed his hands towards his reflection and let all the remaining energy in him out. With it out of his system Ben outlined the symbol on his midriff and in a blast of green light he was back to his old self. He turned around only to see Gwen there staring at him, until she passed out due to the shock.

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Ben had a difficult time carrying Gwen back to the RV, but he did manage it eventually. He just set Gwen down when she started to come to. Ben grumbled thinking that she could've woken up earlier.

"Ben?" Gwen asked confused.

"Yeah it's just me, why did you feint like that?" Ben asked concerned.

"I thought I saw a cute girl turn into you." Gwen said.

"Gross, even if that was true, which I'm not sure it is. Being called cute by my dorky cousin just isn't right. Where's Grandpa?"

"There was this huge forest fire that just disappeared, Grandpa went to see if he could find out why." Gwen turned towards Ben then squinted closer to Ben's eyes. "Since when did you have those long lashes?"

Ben resisted the urge to scream and went inside to see if his lashes were really longer, however he couldn't see much of a difference. His eyes did seem a bit bigger though, not that he would admit it anytime soon.

"Gwen I think you hit your head, my eyelashes are normal-ish." Ben called out just to notice his torn shirt again. He had a few in this style so he went to get another.

Ben went outside and took off his torn shirt and threw it away. He turned around and there was Grandpa Max staring at the thing on his stomach. Ben noticed the realization in his grandpa's eyes but didn't pursue it.

"Hey Grandpa, this thing just appeared on my belly. I tried getting it of, but when I got close this happened." Ben's nails began to glow again and the weird symbol appeared in the air again.

"Ben I think you shouldn't mess with that until we know something more about it." Grandpa Max said. Ben saw the urgency in his voice and forgone any objections, at least out loud.

Before Grandpa Max excused himself Ben overheard him say something about stupid Galvan geniuses. And as soon as Grandpa Max was outside their sight, Ben touched the thing on his navel again. His idea was just to examine the images in the symbol.

The image he grabbed the first time was there within the symbol, it looked like a girl holding up a planet with a ring around. Ben turned the larger symbol and the girl with the planet, changed into a girl sitting on an eight point star.

"Gothcha" Gwen shouted causing Ben to push his hand into the image and again felt his body changing, this time it felt more natural and once the light dispersed Ben gave Gwen a stern look.

"Our grandfather has said not to be messing with this until we know more about this strange device." Ben said and noticed his voice was feminine. "I do believe I have once again turned into a girl, or am I mistaken cousin Gwen?"

"Ben, what happened to you?" Gwen asked clearly not completely out of her earlier shock.

"All I did cousin Gwen was study the images of this device until you gave me the startle. My transformation I think is your fault, however I am the curious to see what I can do." Ben said then floated into the air. "Will you accompany me?"

Ben turned not waiting for Gwen then noticed that his skin is was orange this time. He clearly had the power of flight. And just as he reached the trees something painful hit him, or rather her.

Looking at the place that got hit Ben noticed that there was no wound. So she scanned the trees and there, speeding towards her was a red flying droid. She narrowed her eyes and saw green blasts projecting from it. It hit the droid exploding it. However the next droid caught Ben off guard sending her flying. Before crashing, Ben stopped herself mid air, turned around and fired a bolt of energy at the droid.

It exploded and Ben decided to stop this transformation. She searched for the weird symbol and found it on her belt she touched it and in a flash Ben was back to normal, only with thinner eyebrows. He quickly rushed back to their camp.

Ben arrived at the camp only moments after his grandpa. He knew he shouldn't have left and just stopped the transformation there and then but his curiosity got the better of him.

"Sorry Grandpa. I just wanted to study the images, but Gwen startled me and I got curious." Ben noticed that his Grandpa didn't seem upset.

"It's okay Ben, Gwen told me, she also told me you turned into an orange girl and flew away." Grandpa Max said. "I'm guessing it works on some kind of timer?"

"I guess so," Ben wasn't sure but perhaps it was because he wanted to find out the limits for himself. "I actually think it has more to do with how tired I am," Ben said just in case the transformation went on longer.

An emergency call over the two-way interrupted the conversation. It was a call about a giant robot rampaging another campsite. A simple look was all it took for Ben to touch his navel and the symbol to appear in the air.

"I think…" Ben started as he went through the images. He came across a rather tall looking girl with a tail standing in front of a weird symbol, "Giant robot, tall weird looking monster girl."

"They aren't monsters, they are aliens." Grandpa Max over spoke, "I mean monsters are scarier, and according to Gwen the last two you turned into were rather cute."

Ben shivered before pushing his glowing nails into the image. Ben felt his arms and legs grew. He then felt a strange sensation at the base of his skull and just above his rectum. When the light vanished there was a girl clearly in her young teens standing over 8ft tall. She was blue skinned with darker blue stripes all over her body.

"I got this," Ben said her voice sounding cat-like but hollow inside the re-breather. She raced through the trees to the other campsite and pounced on the robot.

The robot was clearly not expecting this, but it quickly corrected itself and focused on the tall girl that pounced it. Ben snarled in response before dodging a blast from the laser shot at her.

Ben reached behind her and pulled out a knife she couldn't explain why it was there. The robot shot another shot and Ben held the knife in front of her. The laser reflected to the ground which gave Ben an idea. When the robot fired again Ben placed the knife at an angle and soon started to maneuver it towards the robot.

The robot however stopped the beam just before it hit. That was a miscalculation on it's part, as Ben pounced again and used the knife to remove the head. The robot began to shoot wildly until Ben jumped on the head on the ground crushing the last piece of glass and the last diode of the robot's consciousness.

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The next day was quite an eye opener for Ben. He noticed that his features were more like Gwen's and less like his own. Perhaps he should ease up on the aliens, as Grandpa Max called them, he didn't want to end up as a very girly looking boy.

Ben touched the thing on his belly again, and like the previous times it responded, Ben went through the aliens and found one that kind of looked like a dinosaur, there were clear speed marks around the alien and without thinking Ben touched it.

Ben changed into a young girl maybe 10 or 11 with wheels on her feet and a clear need for speed. She rushed out of the RV and back to Bellwood. She picked up the last of her savings and a few more items to eat. She also went to Gwen's house and picked up a few food items there too, for Gwen. The speedy alien then rushed back to the campsite just in time to help clean up.

When they were on the road again, Ben was back into his normal-ish self only his hair was a bit longer. She motioned towards the beds and pulled out a rice cake package. Gwen got the idea and mouthed a thank you.

This summer started to seem less torture and more fun.