Ben knocked on the door again as hard as he could, making the flimsy thing shake.

"Come on, Mia! I need to use the restroom," he pleaded.

I could hear Gwen scolding him on things like etiquette or whatever. I didn't pay attention. My reflection on the mirror was a lot more important to me.

Day 3 of the road trip and just one day after getting an Omnitrix stuck on my wrist and I was barely bringing myself to check my reflection. My hair had been able to survive without any interference and my clothes still hadn't gotten smelly. Probably some cartoon logic. Though I'm not sure how that would apply here since everything seemed normal to me. Actually, how would I know if I was in a cartoon or not if my eyes would adjust to the world?

That was a bit freaky to think about. Just like wondering whether the universe was a simulation or not.

With a shudder, I turned my thoughts back on the reflection. My hair no longer stopped at my chin. It was actually long reaching my shoulder blades. It was styled in the way I used to have my hair when I was eleven—two small braids that connected at the back of my head forming what I called a braided crown.

I was wearing a normal white shirt underneath a styled purple button cardigan. I've never liked skirts so I wore jeans instead. And around my neck was my favourite necklace. A book shaped locket. My first boyfriend gave it to me before he moved when I was 14. That was last year.

I'm a bit pale, no longer tanned liked I used to be. Then again that was when I was older. My hair was blonde and my teeth gave a straight white smile. Brown eyes looked back at me reflecting the judging stare I had.

I took after my dad a lot. He was large, white, and had light hair like me. What I didn't match in his looks were his blue eyes and crooked teeth. I was pretty sure I was better off without the latter.

Before I came out of the bathroom, I grabbed my phone. It was the only thing I had on me when I came along for the road trip. It was buried underneath a few articles of clothes in case I needed a change. There was a long list of numbers on it. And worst of all, it was a flip phone. So that meant no internet connection. However, there were a couple of memos and notes written that helped me understand this world's version of me better.

I also took advantage of that feature and wrote up a couple of my own notes about what I remembered from the entire series. I still wasn't done writing everything down since there were just too many episodes. But I already wrote down the essentials just in case I forgot about them. I just wasn't sure if this phone was going to survive everything. Maybe I should improve on this phone once Ben turned into upgrade and thereafter, me.

Another knock on the door startled me this time.

"Mia, not to be brash, but we really do need to use the rest...room," I opened the door to allow her to see me. "Are you okay?"

I looked at her confused, "What?"

"You look, sad," she explained.

Ben nodded in agreement.

"It's nothing," I said hoping that they would drop the subject.

The Rustbucket's tires screeched to a stop as we were knocked off balance and fell on top of each other.

"Ben, there's a fire going on right now," Grandpa Max called.

Gwen and I quickly got off of Ben as he activated the Omnitrix. I looked at the one on my wrist and found relief that it was still recharging from the last time it was used. Though being an alien was awesome, I didn't like the idea of being trapped as one forever.

"It's hero time," Ben exclaimed before green light washed over him as he exited the RV.

"Nice going dweeb. A walking candlestick for a fireplace," Gwen insulted.

"Hey Ben," Ben turned to me. "If you can create fire with that alien, maybe you can also suck it back in."

"Got it."

While Ben was in the burning building, Max, Gwen and I were helping the fire dept and other Samaritans keep the watching eyes at a safe distance. It was actually harder than it looked. Movies made it seem easy but all the people pushing made it extremely difficult for an 11-year-old to keep them back.

A small explosion of fire rocked the ground and sent flaming debris into the sky. After this, it was much easier pushing people back a bit. Unfortunately, that didn't last long. As soon as Ben arrived with his rescues in a tornado of fire, all the people began pushing forward to get a better glimpse at him with their cameras flashing bright lights.

"Thank you! Thank you all! It's all just in a day's work for a hero!" He pumped his arms in the air as he gave out flying kisses.

He was so full of himself I thought with a sigh.

Luckily, the Omnitrix decided to start timing out at that moment. He cut his display short and blasted off into the air, probably headed off to some building or alley to allow the Omnitrix to fully time out.

Once our help wasn't needed and the Firefighters had finally put out the burning building, we decided to go looking for Ben. But he showed up right in front of us before we could get into the Rustbucket.

"What the hell, Doofus? Where were you? We were just about to go looking for you."

"Calm down, Gwen. I had to look for some empty place where I could transform. You guys are the ones who don't want anyone to know that all the aliens are me after all. And the closest empty place was a roof where the door was locked," Ben explained.

"Good. Keeping your identity a secret is important, Ben," Max said before climbing in.

We all followed in after him. I sat on the table across from Ben while Gwen took her place riding shotgun. So far, Ben hadn't tried to argue with his cousin over who got to ride shotgun. He was always content with sitting on the table actually.

"What do you think, Mia?"

I looked at Ben confused.

"What do you think about having a secret identity?" he repeated perhaps picking up on my confusion.

"Oh, I don't know. From the comics, I've read, and shows, I've watched, I think it depends on the person."

He raised an eyebrow intrigued.

"But what do you think about it?"

"Uh. Well," I gave it a bit of thought. "I want to protect my friends and family. Especially the ones I love. So I'd try my best to keep myself a secret I guess. But I wouldn't hide it from friends and family. I don't see a point to that. It just puts them in more danger since they won't know what's going on behind their back."

After my explanation, everything fell silent.

It was midday when we were all hungry. Max was thankfully running on an empty fridge and so he decided that a trip to the market was necessary. If we worked together we might not be eating worms for dinner or lunch.

While Gwen and I distracted Max and tried to convince him to view the world as a kid would, Ben went off to find appropriate items to turn into food.

"So, Max. I'm curious about why you love so much exotic foods," I implied my question.

Gwen gave me a death glare and I realized what I had done. Max was going to remember about the real foods he was here for and all we did would have been for nothing.

"Well, you see Mia," Max began oblivious to the conflict arising between me and his granddaughter. "When you're away from home in foreign territory. You learn to appreciate what locals call food. All the adventures you experience with your taste buds soon begin to feel familiar and in the end, it begins to become home." Gwen and I looked up from our glaring contest as we saw Max begin to tear up a bit. "And when your time away is over you start to yearn for those exciting times. For me, these things you call exotic foods are as close as I can get to being among those places."

Now we knew why he enjoyed the grubs and octopi and pig legs so much.

My Omnitrix recharging broke the atmosphere that had been built by Max's explanation. I looked at it curiously.

The faceplate suddenly popped up and scrolled all the way to Grey Matter.

"Gwen, find Ben…" I began to order as I realized what was going to happen.

Green energy enveloped me. Once it was gone I was exaggeratedly shorter than I was. Around twice the size of a shoe. And Gwen was gone leaving me alone with Max.

He crouched and picked me up into his palm. As I explained what I "thought" was going on, he ran quickly to the aisle Ben would surely be in.

My frog eyes had eyelids close in horizontally as I scanned the mess. Gwen stood there holding Grey Matter in one hand and a paper in the other.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Max cleared his throat at my language. "Sorry. What I meant to say is, Ben, is an idiot." I leaned my head on my arm which was propped against Max's hand.

"Sorry, Mia. I forgot you also transformed with me," Grey Matter croaked.

"Grandpa." Gwen gave the slip of paper to Max after giving me a worried glance.

As Max and Gwen collected all of the destroyed boxes of cereal, Ben and I fiddled around with my Omnitrix.

"You know. After I finish with your watch, maybe you can help me figure out mine?"

"I don't know. We're only doing this with me because my Omnitrix seems to be busted. Yours, on the other hand, seems to be just fine," I replied.

"Omnitrix?"

"Yeah. That's what squid face called it."

Ben's watch started to beep and flash.

"Come on hurry up now please," I pleaded. I so didn't want to be stuck as an alien for the entire day again, especially not Grey Matter. He was smart and all but he was just too small to be any hands-on help.

"Just a few more...done."

Red light changed Ben back into his normal self but I was still Grey Matter.

"I'm pretty sure I…"

My Omnitrix began to beep this time interrupting him. But instead of timing out, I heard it pop out and start to spin before closing back into itself.

"What's going on?" I asked Ben.

Gwen and Max came as they noticed what was happening. Max repeated my question.

"I'm not sure. Mia's watch just started to spin and glow purple kind of."

"Well, what's happening now?" I asked.

"It looks like it turned off. The part that's usually gray is black now," Gwen answered.

"Is that bad?" Ben asked.

"I think," I gulped.

"Well. We can't do much about it right now. Gwen and I will go off to buy something to snack on. Ben, I expect you to take care of Mia in her current state."

I road on Ben's palm as he walked through the store. He was probably looking for that gold sumo slammers card. I can't believe that he was still worried about that thing after what he did to me again. I know he's just a kid, but even a child should be able to see how bad the situation I was in was.

"I don't get it. What Grey Matter was doing should've fixed your watch, Mia," Ben surprised me as his comment revealed that he wasn't really thinking about what I thought he was.

"Grey Matter? You're starting to name the aliens?" I smirked.

"Well. Yeah. I can't just call them Diamond guy or smart guy. And you guys need to call me something when I transform if you guys really want me to keep a secret identity," he smiled.

We held each other's gaze awkwardly for a while when a large crash stole our attention. We looked at the wall that had been knocked down and when the dust settled a sickly green man on a giant toad came into our view.

"Hey, Greenie! Have you ever heard of a door?" Ben stood defiantly in front of the two as I quickly jumped down into one of Ben's pockets.

"You should really respect your elders, Little One. Especially when they are smarter than you. Now run along and don't try to be a hero." The toad's throat expanded quickly knocking Ben off his feet and into a shelf. I was nearly crushed in his pocket but I managed to avoid it.

"You are so lucky I can't go Hero," I heard Ben groan as the floor shook.

"Ben you gotta go after him," I jumped out onto his knee.

"How? I misused the watch for a stupid card and trapped you as an alien again, timed myself out and now I can't even save the day," he asked in defeat.

"It's not the watch that makes a hero, Ben. It's the user. You were already a hero before you found the watch. Remember when you tried to help that kid who was being bullied? You didn't have any powers back then and you knew you were weaker than JT and Cash, yet you still tried to help them."

"Easy for you to say," Ben spat, "You don't have to have a watch to be a hero. You chased them off that day and you already helped me stop two robberies yesterday without transforming. You're well-liked and brave, you don't have to ever worry about others not liking you."

I fell quiet. Those last comments were not true at all. Not for me at least. I don't know what sort of life Ben 10 Mia had but I was never the most popular girl at school.

"It wasn't always like that. But I worked hard," I began a mix of a lie and truth. "Enough of this. Are you going to save the day and be a hero? Or are you going to let people die?" At that moment we heard Max and Gwen's screams. "Or your own family?"

I screamed in fear as Ben wildly rode a scooter around the trashed market. He called out to the giant mutated bird that was harassing his family and scared it off by throwing several heavy items at it. I'm not sure how he managed to do that while keeping his balance though.

All I could do was offer advice on what and where to throw. Which routes to take. Other than that I wasn't much help.

I'm the end, Ben managed to drive off Doctor Animo and while Ben and the others talked to the manager, I went off to try and make up Ben's imminent disappointment.

"Where have you been?" Ben asked as I came hopping back into the RV.

"Somewhere."

Once I was inside Max pulled off into the roads. Galvans were surprisingly good jumpers. They almost seemed like frogs. That's how I was able to get on top of the counter to hide the golden sumo slammers card that I snagged from the store. I doubt they would miss one of this from their storage rooms.

"But where would Animo go?" I heard the three arguing.

That's where I jumped down and into the conversation. After plopping myself onto Gwen's shoulder I said, "If Animo is an animal lover that wants to take over the world with mutated animals, I would think that he would also try and bring older animals back from the dead."

"Well he did make some comments about the past and even made a BC pun," Ben commented.

"Then he would go to the museum!" Gwen finished my thought that was interrupted by her cousin.

I nodded my small head in agreement.

I used the time it took to get to the museum to prepare myself for the fight. Since I couldn't use brawns only brains, I fashioned myself a nail gun for defence and possibly to fight if I wanted to.

Gwen carried me in to face Doctor Animo together.

"You may not be as smart as I thought you were," he taunted.

"Then you might not be very smart yourself," Ben smirked.

"Since we're definitely smarter than you," Gwen joined.

Animo snarled making Max step in front of us protectively.

"Your insolence will not go unchecked. You will be taught your place by your intellectual superior," he threatened. "You see, I have built this machine…"

I aimed and fired my nail gun at Animo before he could bore us all to death. The man yelped in pain as he clutched his shoulder where a nail was now embedded. I hope he got his tetanus shot because I'm not sure how old that thing was.

"Ben! Four Arms now, before he can."

Animo's helmet fired a laser that hit two dinosaur skeletons.

"You fools, had you let me explain you would've known that my helmet doesn't just mutate animals, it can also bring the dead back to life!" he cackled as Max tackled him to the floor.

"Time to go hero," Ben turned on his Omnitrix and slammed the dial down.

I braced myself expecting to change too. But while Ben turned into the red four armed alien, I just stayed the same as Grey Matter.

"What? Why didn't you change?" Gwen came to me as Ben went off to face against the two prehistoric creatures.

"The Omnitrix. It must not be working anymore. Whatever Grey Matter did to it shut it off. But it can still be fixed. It has to. For now, we have to focus on the fight." I looked around and noticed that there was something missing. Max was holding an unconscious Animo underneath him as he tied his hands together and Ben was keeping the T-rex and woolly mammoth busy. "Didn't Animo have a mutant hamster, parakeet, and frog?"

"Now that you mention it," I hopped onto Gwen's shoulder as she dashed off before Max could say anything.

In the next room, we stumbled onto a robotic crab that was surrounded by the three mutants. They were all on the ground with blood pooling around them. The crab himself had stains on his metal body indicating that he was the culprit.

-Interesting, a Galvan on earth,- his robotic voice was directed at us as he turned to see us.

"Who are you?" Gwen asked.

-My name is Kraab. I have come for the Omnitrix. But it seems to me that you and the wielder are a bit busy at the moment. So I shall take my leave. Though, Galvan, do be a dear and give the wielder my regards. Your services as a protector will be in vain if you don't.- with that Kraab just flew out of the building through a hole in the roof. I had no clue as to how I should have reacted.

There were a lot of things that were happening out of order than from canon. This was going to be troubling since I wouldn't be able to use my knowledge of the show for everything.

"I guess we should go tell your cousin?" I squeaked.

"No. We've already got enough problems. Besides, he would try to challenge him immediately. How? I'm not sure but you already know Ben."

Her explanation made sense. So when the police came to apprehend Animo and take care of the grisly scene inside of the museum, we kept our mouths shut about the alien we saw. He would be returning soon anyway. But we could deal with him when that time came.