Waking up after getting home, I had realised my mistake.

Going to bed so soon after getting in when I didn't even feel tired left me feeling like shit, my brain rejecting any thought and preferring to remain in bed, but my body was unwilling to go back to sleep. Finally, moving over to look at my phone and check the time, I decided to go and do something.

It was 10 in the evening, which meant Mom would home from tennis practise shortly, which was good. I needed someone to talk to that wouldn't bring up what had happened.

A beeping drew my attention to my phone, the caller ID and image were a tell-tale sign that Melissa was trying to contact me. I didn't want to ignore her but at the same time, there was only one thing she would want to talk about and I couldn't right now.

I made my way over to the monitor and pushed the bright green answer button and placing the speaker over my ear and the microphone at my mouth. "Thank god!" I heard her yell over the line "I've been calling you for hours, Uncle Might told me what happened…" she started, but I interrupted her.

"I'm fine.." I told her, though she was smart enough to see the obvious lie. "NO YOUR NOT" she cried "YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME YOU GOT LIKE THIS" the sound of sobbing could be heard on the other end as my girlfriend tried to make me see what was wrong. "… we both know I'm never going to stop blaming myself" I finally admitted, slopping down back onto my mattress. "Everything that happened, all of it, because I was too stupid to see the writing on the wall" my hand was over my eyes not, as if that would stop the onslaught of tears going down my eyes.

"It's nobody's fault" Melissa began after a moment of silence "You didn't know that what happened would happen, you were just doing what any kid would do in your situation" she continued, her tone taking on the one that had made me fall for her. "You don't blame yourself, or anyone, understand?" she finished, leaving the air silent as she waited for an answer.

I had to think about it, for so long I had blamed myself without knowing, All Might had been so powerful, and it had been because of my actions that he… that he was now losing that power.

December 10th, 2010 – 6 years before Ben joins UA

"But why not?" I'd whined, my voice being that of a child at the time. "Because I said so" a younger looking All Might had told me, but I didn't listen. I'd stormed off to my room in the I-Island hotel, the door slamming closed behind me. I was only 10 years old at the time, this behaviour was to be expected. Didn't mean that anyone who looked at the kid with a time bomb on his wrist with fear whenever he threw a tantrum. A young girl, about the age of 10, was sitting on the bed. She had bright blonde hair and glasses. This was Melissa Shield, six years ago. "What was that about?" she asked innocently "leave me alone!" I yelled at her, anger flowing off of me like bad breath on a hobo. "Let me guess, you asked Uncle Might if you could use his powers again and he said no" she stood up off the bed and walked over to me "you know, I might be able to help you with that".

This shocked me, I had been asking All Might if he would let me use his power through the Omnitrix for years, but he'd always said no. I would be the greatest hero, the powers of both All Might and Ben 10,000 in one person. I'd be unstoppable. But I always got the same answer, "it's too dangerous" or "your body wouldn't be able to handle it", or even just "I can't" if he was tired of asking.

If I had known what would happen then I would never have asked, but there was no way I could have known.

Melissa and I had gotten to work shortly after, she'd found the files to the Omnitrix's design and how it worked, then developed the software to design the transformations I became. She also implemented the scanner that, when in contact with a new quirk, would store it away for later.

Our plan was simple, challenge All Might to a spar and get him to start sweating, as back then it had to be something more than just skin cells, and scan him while he isn't looking. It went almost too perfectly, the spar had ended with me on the ground and All Might not noticing the yellow glow the Omnitrix seemed to be giving off.

I had almost sprinted to find Melissa and get to work on creating the new form. She'd been waiting in her lab for my arrival, the equipment and software ready to be used. I ran and laid my wrist on the panel and Melissa plugged the Omnitrix into the computer. The DNA had a warning but neither of us payed it any attention, why would we?

Melissa showed me the screen and what I saw had me smiling like I'd just been told I was getting the best Christmas present. The computer was showing a tall, muscular humanoid with three points coming out of it's forehead, but the body was the part that amazed me. It looked like it was made up of space. Hundreds, maybe thousands of stars could be seen through it's body. "What should we call him" she asked, the same look on her face as on mine.

I thought about this for a minute, he looked awesome and would make me the greatest hero to ever exist… I knew what I would call him.

"Captain Japan"

…

…

…

The look on Melissa's face said it all, that was a really bad name. "Yeah, okay" I admitted, slumping back into my chair "how about-" Melissa began, putting her fore-finger and thumb on her chin in a thinking pose.

"Alien-X"

That was how it started.

Shortly after, All Might fought All for One, he got really badly hurt in the fight but still managed to win. We later found out that when I'd extracted his quirk, his power had started to weaken and now he couldn't even use his powers for more than five hours. And all because I'd been greedy and wanted more power than I deserved.