Thank you for everyone who sent me such nice comments.
First of, about the pairing for Ben, I haven't decided yet, so all suggestions are still more than welcome. Right now, I'm leaning towards either Batgirl or Zatanna. I'm going with the first season of Young Justice and Ben will be 15 years old. I just wanted a bit of a backstory for him on this Earth. This way, he already knows some of the heroes and the sidekicks and they know him too.
Ben was running towards his house, eyes wide in panic. He needed to get to his parents as soon as possible. The black fog Vilgax had released over Earth was creeping up on him from the other side of the street and erasing everything it touched. That couldn't happen to his family. He wouldn't let that happen.
As he finally reached his home, he stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide in horror. The house was gone, in its place was only the blackness of the void. The dark nothingness reached out to him, but Ben couldn't move. He was too late. His parents were still in there.
Tears threatened to spill from his incredibly wide green eyes as he stared. The black fog crept closer, and Ben stumbled back just in time as it reached towards his ankles. He lost his footing and fell backwards. Wincing at the pain as his backside made contact with the street, Ben started crawling backwards. Panic overtook him. Would he die now too?
"Ben!"
He looked up at the voice, but didn't find anyone. It was strange. The voice was familiar, but he couldn't find where it came from. Deciding there were more pressing matters at hand than some mysterious voice, Ben got on his feet and started sprinting away from the fog. He had to find Julie, Gwen and Kevin. He couldn't lose them too.
"Ben!"
The strange feeling of being shaken startled him and the world around him started to dissolve slowly. That voice again. He was sure he knew it. Yes! He remembered now, it was…
. . . . .
Coast City, May 6, 2006, 07:00 PDT
"… Five more minutes Grandma," he muttered.
The alien in human disguise sighed before grinning. Her blue eyes lit up pink right as the blankets flew from Ben's bed, followed by the boy. The brunette yelped as he was lifted in the air and unceremoniously dropped on the carpet. Pouting, he glared at his grandmother and stood up.
Verona smiled mischievously at her grandson. She was in her human form, meaning she had shoulder length grey hair, a slightly wrinkled face and blue eyes. Her thin, curved body was covered up with a purple skirt to the knees and a white blouse. All in all, Ben had to admit she looked good for a woman who was supposed to be in her late sixties. He was well aware that she was much older than that, but her new passport said she was 67. Azmuth was to thank for those, as he had given Ben a whole new identity also.
"Today is the first day of school, honey," Verdona reminded Ben.
The boy flinched. He remembered what school was like back when he was 11, and since he was 11 again, he could only imagine it would be like that again. Besides, he had only been on this new Earth for three days.
"What if I'm not ready yet?" he asked nervously.
"Oh hush," his grandmother scoffed.
"You fought alien invasions, supervillains and the paparazzi. You can handle school."
"If you say so…"
"And if someone bullies you, I'll take care of them."
"NO! I'll do that myself, I swear!" Ben shouted worried.
"I mean, last week I was 16. I'm sure I can handle it maturely."
"I know you can, but what's the fun in that?" Verdona asked chuckling.
In a flash of bright pink light, verdona disappeared. Ben rolled his eyes and stood up. Not at all interested to go to school, he dragged his feet towards the bathroom to get ready. In his own Universe, he only had to go to school for another two years. Now, he wasn't even in Middle School yet.
After about half an hour, he walked down the stairs of his new house and walked into the kitchen, giving a lazy wave in greeting at those who were already present and petting a happily barking (shipping) Ship on the head. Paradox raised a brow and looked at his watch.
"Curious," he said.
"I was expecting you here three seconds ago."
"Seconds?" Azmuth scoffed.
"He should have been down thirty minutes ago! The brat is going to be late for school."
"I don't see the problem," Ben shrugged.
"If I'm late, I'll just use XLR8. No biggy."
"No big- YOU ARE NOT GOING TO USE MY OMNIMATRIX FOR SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"
Ben was honestly shocked at the outburst of the small alien. He knew he should have seen it coming though. Azmuth was rarely ever in a good mood.
"I switched that faulty 'Ultimatrix' my ex-assistant made for a proper, better Omnitrix," Azmuth said.
"And you are not going to use it for racing to school and back, understand?"
It was true, Azmuth had given Ben a new Omnitrix only two days back to replace the Ultimatrix. This one actually was a proper watch where Ben could read of the time and it wasn't as bulky as the Ultimatrix had been. Ben had been a bit apprehensive about the switch. This one didn't have the evolution function, so he wasn't sure if it was an improvement or a setback. Then again, the Ultimatrix was badly made and threatened to poison Ben in the long run.
Frowning, Ben sat down at the kitchen table and started eating his breakfast. Grandma Verdona had turned out to be an amazing cook, which really surprised Ben since he was used to Grandpa Max's food. He wondered how it was possible that an alien was better at making human food than the human. Maybe Verdona used to cook for his dad and uncle Frank.
The honking of the school bus arriving had Ben jump off his seat. He shoveled the last bites of pancakes in his mouth before grabbing his schoolbag and rushing to the door. As he opened it, he waved at the people still in the kitchen with a wide grin on his face.
"See you guys later!" he called before he slammed the front door closed behind him.
Verdona chuckled amused at her grandson's antics and looked over at the other two still in the room.
"They grow up so fast," she joked.
.
School was pretty boring, especially since Ben had already done the exact same course five years ago. The bonus of that of course, was that he already knew the stuff. Even if he had forgotten most things, he could still easily understand everything, so he didn't need to worry too much about his grades for the next few years. Besides, living with a centuries old alien, a million years old Time Traveler, and the most intelligent alien in three Galaxies (arguably five), he dared to guess that grades would never be a problem again.
He decided to walk home instead of taking the bus, seeing as he didn't live that far away and it would be interesting to get to know the city a bit better. He had only seen his neighborhood until now, and he definitely needed to find out if there was and arcade or a smoothie bar nearby. Those two were extremely important if he were to live in this city. A bonus would be finding a place with good chili fries too, but he could live with his grandma's cooking if necessary.
He was only half way home when he heard screaming. Several people came running past him as they tried to get away from whatever fight was going on. Curious, Ben ran the opposite way of everyone else and towards the battle sounds.
When he reached the fight, his eyes widened. Though he had heard of the superheroes on this version of Earth, he hadn't seen one until now. In the air above the man with a metal helmet over the top half of his face, was an brown haired man in a green and black costume. Ben had heard about the Green Lantern from the news and he had personally looked up as much as he could about the Justice League. Still, seeing one of them in person was something entirely different.
The red dot on the villain's helmet lit up, and a laser beam shot out at Green Lantern. The hero was only just in time at creating a shield with his power ring, but the force still pushed him back some. Seeing that Green Lantern was having some trouble, Ben grinned and activated his Omnitrix. After making sure no one was around to see him transform, he slapped down on it.
"Diamondhead!" the Petrosapien yelled.
He aimed his hand at the villain's back and shot a few rounds of pale green crystals at him. The man, he was pretty sure it was some guy named Professor Ojo but he couldn't be sure, staggered and turned around. The villain's mouth fell open as he saw the stony creature.
"Why don't you try and take me on, asshole!" Diamondhead spoke with great confidence.
If the bad guy had eyes, Ben was sure he would've glared at him, but as things were now he only grimaced. A beam of his laser came Ben's way, but he easily deflected it with his arms and sent it back. Ojo ducked to the side to prevent himself from being hit by his own weapon. At the same time, Green Lantern charged, but Professor Ojo was on his feet fast enough to shoot at the hero. This time, Green Lantern was hit before he could protect himself, and he flew backwards against a tree.
By the time Ojo turned back to Ben, he was met with a crystal fist to his face. The villain flew several feet in the air and landed closely to where Green Lantern was still recovering. Ben grinned and approached, grabbing the bad guy by the collar of his suit and lifting him off the ground.
"People should really learn that being bad isn't gonna pay off," the Petrosapien chuckled.
He lifted his free hand and pulled it back, ready to hit the villain in the face again to knock him out, but he paused as he heard a terrifying sound: the Omnitrix timing out. He dropped Ojo and took a step back, eyes wide as he went from Diamondhead back to being Ben.
"A kid?!" Professor Ojo shouted shocked.
"I just got beaten by a little kid?!"
"Look, I'm sure we can talk this out," Ben muttered nervously.
Ojo grinned and charged up his laser again. Ben gulped, staring at the villain fearfully as he took a few steps back and tripped. He heard the man in front of him laugh in victory and he closed his eyes, holding his hands out in front of him as if trying to block the attack. He heard the laser beam go off, but nothing hit him. A shout of pain followed shortly and Ben opened his eyes to see what was happening. Ben blinked at the green shield spreading out in front of him as it slowly disappeared again. He saw Professor Ojo lying unconscious next to a frowning Green Lantern. The hero walked up to Ben and held out a hand to help him up.
"Thanks for the help, Kid. You alright?"
"Y-yeah," Ben replied shakily.
"Thanks for the save though. Stupid watch is trying to kill me."
Green Lantern raised a brow and crossed his arms, staring questioningly at the boy.
"That shield wasn't me," the hero confessed.
"Then who-…"
Realization dawned on Ben, making his eyes widen at first before grinning deviously.
"Oh! I gotta tell Grandma!"
Ben scrambled to his feet and started running away, an eager grin splitting his youthful face. Green Lantern quickly went after the boy and stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder. Ben turned around and raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Need a lift kid?" the hero asked.
Ben looked at his watch, which was still flashing red and shrugged.
"Stupid thing's still out, so why not?" he replied grinning.
Green Lantern lifted the boy into the air using his power ring and flew towards the house with Ben's directions. as they arrived, Ben lead him towards the front door and slammed it open, a large, eager grin still lighting up his entire expression.
"I'm home!" he called.
"Tell your friend to take off his superhero boots and come to the kitchen!" the voice of Verdona called back.
Green Lantern was pretty shocked, but Ben didn't give him any opportunity to question anything, as he grabbed the hero's sleeve and led him to the kitchen where Verdona was setting down five plates at the table. As Ben and Green Lantern entered, she looked up and smiled.
"You'll stay for dinner, won't you dear?" she asked.
"I wasn't planning-" Green Lantern muttered, taken aback.
"Oh nonsense!" Verdona quickly shut him up.
"I have been expecting this day for quite some time now. Just sit down and we can talk. The other two should be here shortly, but you know how Azmuth is, right Benny? Never leaving that basement…"
"Yeah… I should ask him to upgrade this thing though," Ben muttered, glancing down at his watch.
"So!" Verdona clapped her hands, grinning towards Green Lantern.
"What brings you here today?"
"Your grandson," the hero replied slowly.
"He has… some unique abilities."
"It's called the Omnitrix."
Green Lantern and Ben both turned around to see Professor Paradox walk into the room with the small, grey skinned alien sitting on his shoulder. The hero was really shocked right now, his mouth wide open and eyes wide behind the dark green domino mask.
"I created it so peace may befall on the Universe," the Galvan continued.
"That… didn't work out as well as I had hoped."
"I'm sorry to hear," the hero spoke, voice unwavering but hesitant.
"I am Green Lantern, a member of the Justice League and the Green Lantern Corps. This… Omnitrix and Ben could be of great use in our goal to protect Earth."
"Does that mean I can go in space and do hero stuff? Because I've got my own spaceship, but they don't let me fly it yet," Ben jumped in eagerly.
"Also: check this out Grandma!"
All attention was brought towards the young boy as he lifted his right hand. A look of pure concentration shone in his eyes as he stared at his palm until a small, softly glowing green orb appeared there. Verdona's eyes widened and she clapped her hands in excitement.
"You have the spark!" she announced.
"A small one… but a spark none the less!"
"As I was saying, I think it would be interesting for Ben to be trained to become a hero someday," Green Lantern continued.
"I don't need training!" Ben replied cockily, smirking up at the adults.
"I've got six years of experience already, which I bet is more than most heroes can say."
"Six? You mean you were five when you started using that thing?" Green lantern asked shocked.
"Not quite," Professor Paradox replied.
"How about we sit down and discuss this over dinner?"
"Sounds good to me," the hero agreed.
With a flash of green light, Green Lantern's uniform turned into regular clothes and his mast disappeared as well, for the first time showing his blue eyes. Ben stared in awe, before he started grinning like a maniac.
"Cool!"
The hero chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair as they both sat down at the table. Azmuth huffed annoyed, but didn't speak as he jumped off Paradox's shoulder and landed on the table, sitting on the for him readied highchair.
"Ship!"
The Galvanic Mechamorph jumped on Ben's lap and started pawing at the boy's arm, who laughed happily and patted the creature's head. At this point, Green Lantern decided that it would be useless to keep being surprised at the things he saw in this house and simply raised a brow.
"Nice pet," he commented.
"You should see what he could do," Ben replied grinning.
"My guess, change in a Spaceship?" the hero shot back with a smirk of his own.
"Among other things, yeah," the young boy nodded.
"He likes the toaster best, but he still burns the bread."
"Well then!" Verdona smiled.
"I guess we all have a lot of explaining to do, right Mr.?"
"Jordan, ma'am. Hal Jordan."