WATCH AND LEARN
CHAPTER 1:
ROUGH LANDING
Benjamin Kirby Tennyson ached all over, every fiber of his being felt like a bruise. It hurt to move and to breathe, even the wind on his face felt like a series of scattered punches.
"Hold up a moment, wind?" Ben thought. He opened his eyes to find that he was in free-fall. The revelation shocked him awake as he let out a yell. The last thing he remembered was diving after the Annihilargh from the Contumeliea's ship, right before the big bang went off. Ben expected to see a white void or a whole new universe, but instead, he was greeted to the sights of a city. Street traffic, the hustle and bustle of city life.
And he was about to splatter all over it if he didn't do something soon. With the wind pushing against his flailing arms, he mustered all his strength to reach for the Omnitrix.
"Come on, watch! Give me something with wings!" He pleaded. Straining against the wind, Ben tapped the faceplate. The holographic selection ring popped up and cycled through various icons. After finally landing on one, the smooth faceplate slid back to reveal a cylindrical core with a green and black insignia on top resembling an hourglass. With all his might, Ben slammed his hand on it. His body was enveloped in a blinding green light, becoming wider and stockier. Smooth, round yellow armored plates adorned his back, hips, shoulders and the back of his hands. A single black line resembling a nose extended down from his forehead between his green eyes, and a black stripe from his chin went down to his lower body. A badge-like protrusion was centered on his chest with the same hourglass insignia as the core.
"Aw, man. Cannonbolt?" Ben complained. "I wanted flight, not enhanced falling!" He braced himself against the wind, gritting his teeth and squinting. Not time to complain with the ground coming up fast.
"Well, at least I can work with this!" Cannonbolt curled up into a ball and braced for impact. He slammed into the rooftops below with force, bouncing from building to building. Not wanting to cause too much damage, he unfurled and landed on his feet when momentum was cut down enough. However, his stubby legs and top-heavy form made it hard for him to balance, and he fell flat on his face.
"Aaaaaand stuck the landing." Cannonbolt groaned. The hero picked himself up and took a look at his surroundings. While it was nice to be in civilization again, the Arburian Pelarota noted that this wasn't anything he knew. He noticed signs and billboards on various buildings, all of which were adorned with familiar yet unintelligible symbols to him.
"Oh man, am I in Japan?" Cannonbolt asked himself. "Man, this would be sweet if I had any idea of what was going on. This'll make communicating a bit hard.." The hero muttered. As if in reaction, the Omnitrix badge began to beep.
"Foreign language detected." The badge stated in a digitized version of Ben's voice. "Parameters recognized. Universal translator; activated." As soon as the command was given, the symbols on the buildings became readable to him. They were still distinctly Japanese, but their meaning was clear and concise.
"Huh, well that's convenient." Cannonbolt muttered. "Skurd must've unlocked it when he was messing around with..." A realization hit him mid-sentence. He looked down at his chest to find that the badge was bare, no sign of the slimebiote in sight.
"Skurd! Where are you buddy?" He asked, patting himself down. Ben looked all over his person, as much as he could anyway, but there was no sign of the little slimebiote anywhere. Ben could feel his breath hitch in his throat. Oh man, Skurd wasn't... gone was he?
"Maybe he was detached during the fall... No, that's not it. It took Azmuth's know-how to pry him off my wrist at first..." The sound of a large impact roused Ben out of his thinking as he could see dust rise in the distance, followed by a bigger boom. His musings would have to wait.
"Looks like trouble. I'll get to the bottom of this later. Right now, it's hero time!" Cannonbolt said. He slammed his hand on the Omnitrix badge. In a flash of green light, his body slimmed down and gained height. His skin turned to a bandage-like material, and his head and shoulders resembled a pharaoh's headdress. Black bands with golden trim wrapped around his arms with green v-shaped patterns around them. A green belt with a white stripe adorned his waist with the omnitrix badge placed prominently on the center.
"Snare-Oh's on the job!" He shouted, striking a pose. The hero whipped out his hands, his bandage-like fingers shooting toward the street in front of him. His bandages latched around whatever they could, gripping tightly. With a grunt, he pulled back until the bandages stretched to their limit and shot himself forward in a slingshot-like manner.
Snare-Oh nimbly maneuvered his way around the urban jungle with ease, dodging and weaving through telephone poles and billboards as if it were second nature.
As he shot through the skyline, he caught the attention of multiple people.
"Whoa, who's that?" A young man said
"Looks like a newbie's on the scene!" another replied excitedly.
"I'm digging the Egyptian vibe!" A lady commented.
"GOOD LUCK, MR. MUMMY!" A little kid yelled, waving. Snare-Oh waved back as he swung by. If he had a mouth, he would've smirked. While his ego toned down considerably over the years, he still loved the attention and cheers of the public.
Now wasn't the time to bask, however. He arrived at the scene to find a gigantic shark-man making a mess of a train station. All the while, a man made of wood was fighting him.
"Gonna go out on a limb here and say that shark-face over there is the bad guy." Snare-Oh told himself. "Let's see if I can lend a hand! Or, bandage. Handage? Whatever. Time to give an assist!" Ben said, launching himself toward the villain. He didn't know it yet, but Ben was about to make his inter-dimensional debut…
(X)
One of the lessons Kamui Woods learned under his mentor was that when you fight a villain, always be prepared for the unexpected. A hero's greatest ability isn't their strength or speed, but how well they can adapt to the situation at hand. Heroes constantly get flung into the unknown, or more accurately, the unknown gets flung at them.
It looks like he was well off in this situation, however. This wasn't a mastermind, just a panicked ruffian with a strong quirk.
The shark-faced man swatted at Kamui who easily avoided the attack. His arm caught and wrapped around the villain's blow, flinging him to the roof of the station behind him. He landed with grace and poise.
"I've got just the right amount of distance. Time to put on a show!" Kamui thought, a grin forming beneath his lacquered mask.
"Illegal use of a quirk during rush hour, robbery, and assault? You're the embodiment of evil." Kamui shouted.
"STAY BACK, I'LL BREAK YOU, TOOTH-PICK!" The robber yelled at the hero. As soon as the words exited his mouth, something decidedly unexpected happened. Bandage-like bindings flung out from above Kamui and latched around the villain's arms, taping his arms behind his back.
"What?!" The villain yelled, his voice breaking in shock.
"I think you've broken enough stuff already, shark-face!" A muffled, high-pitched voice called out. A new figure landed in front of the ruffian…
"A… mummy?" Kamui muttered, a bead of sweat rolling down his face. The newcomer turned to face Kamui, giving him a thumbs up.
"Don't worry, tree-guy! I've got this from here." The mummy said.
"I had the situation well in ha- LOOK OUT!" Kamui shouted. The villain managed to tear through the newcomer's bindings! The villain swiped at the mummy knocking away with tremendous force.
Straight toward the path of the onlooking crowd.
(X)
Ben was sent hurtling toward the crowd at alarming speed! Determined not to have anybody get hurt on his watch, he turned himself upright and shot out multiple bandages at the surrounding buildings; hoping to latch onto something, ANYTHING to break his momentum. His bandages caught on the sides, stretching and separating until Snare-Oh was just a mask attached to a tangled-web of stretched-out gauze. He surveyed the civilians, making sure nobody was injured.
To his relief, there were no injured among the crowd, but upon inspection, these were some really ODD looking civilians. There was one guy with a lizard-head, a guy with rocks over his hands, and an old man with three star-like protrusions on his head and hexagonal eyes. His eyes locked onto a civilian in particular: a green-haired, freckled boy who was clutching onto a notebook. Ben breathed a sigh of relief. The kid was rattled, shaking from head to toe, but he was unharmed.
"Are you okay?" Snare-Oh asked.
"Y-yeah! No damage done!" He stuttered out. That was good, The Thep Khufan sighed in relief as he recoiled his bandages back to form his body. His thoughts then turned to the jerk who swatted him.
"Well, now that everyone's safe…" Ben slapped the omnitrix badge. His body condensed, turning from pliable bandages to hardened crystal. His squared head angled diagonally back in a singular point. His shoulders were broad, with massive spikes protruding from his back. He looked back at the shark villain, a scowl forming on his squared jaw.
"It's time to teach this shark punk a hard lesson courtesy of Diamondhead!" Ben crouched low to the ground as a massive crystal shot out of the ground beneath him. The Petrosapien rocketed through the air, his fists forming hammers
(X)
Be prepared for the unexpected. If Kamui's master saw him now, he's sure he'd get a slap upside the head. That is, if the villain didn't break him first. The massive shark man gripped Kamui Woods like a vice, the wood that made up Kamui's body creaked and cracked under the intense pressure.
"I told you that I'd break you, toothpick!" The villain growled, a twisted grim spreading across his bestial face. Kamui winced in pain, but pushed it aside
"I… am a seed of justice… and I REFUSE TO BREAK! OFFENSIVE SHIELD: BRIAR ARMOR!" Wooden spikes jutted out from the hero's body, digging into the palms of the villain. He roared in pain as he slammed the hero into the ground. The force of the impact caused Kamui to bounce forcing the air out of his lungs. He tried to steady himself up, the cracks slowly fading and his spikes retracting.
"This isn't good. I've backed him into a corner and now he's behaving wildly. I need to put some distance between the two of us." Kamui thought. He whipped out his arm behind him, latching onto the roof of the building. The villain wasn't going to take this lying down, however, as he grabbed onto Kamui's leg.
"Where do you think you're going, hero?" Kamui's leg began to splinter, causing him to cry in pain. The villain clenched his hand, causing blood to trickle onto the tracks beneath him. "I guess you guys aren't all you're cracked up to be."
"Then how about you try me on for size, you fish-faced freak!" A new voice shouted. The villain looked to the source of the voice. A being made of crystal rocketed into the fray, delivering a flying uppercut to the villain. Shark-face reeled backward from the blow, causing him to loosen his grip on Kamui. The pro hero pulled himself out of the villain's grip and onto the roof. He observed the crystal man take a combative stance as the villain steadied himself.
"Another new hero? Where did this one come from?" Kamui Woods observed the newest combatant. He wore a sleeveless black bodysuit with a green stripe going down the middle, around his waist was a green belt with a white stripe, and in the center of it was…
"The same emblem as the mummy. Are they some sort of new hero team?" He mused.
"Hey, tree-man!" The crystal man shouted, snapping Kamui out of his musings. He was being shoved back by the ruffian, his massive forearms shaking against the force. "If you've got some sort of finishing move, now would be the time to whip it out!" He groaned.
"I do, but you'll get caught in it!" The stranger merely grinned at this
"Don't worry about it, I'm sturdy!" He grinned. "It'd be best if we ended this sooner rather than later, you know?" Kamui steadied himself, the cracks on his wooden body creaking shut. Rejuvenation took a lot out of him, but he needed to assist this stranger…
no... this colleague.
"I couldn't agree more." Kamui said, pulling back his fist. Branches began to protrude from his arm.
"Pre-emptive binding... LACQUERED CHAIN PRISON!" A flurry of branches shot out of his arm toward the villain. The villain winced in preparation for the attack while the crystal man seemed to tighten his grip around the foe. The branches were about to uproot the seed of evil when suddenly...
"CANYON CANNON!" A female voice boomed. Without warning, the rookie hero known as Mt. Lady dive-kicked the villain in the side of the head, launching him off the tracks. Unfortunately, the unknown ally was still latched onto the villain and was sent hurtling into the pavement under the now-unconscious shark-face.
"Hello all." The rookie said in a husky voice. "I'm Mt. Lady, and you don't need to worry about this bum anymore." Without hesitation, the media surrounded her, taking pictures of her curved figure that she flaunted. The blow was so sudden that Kamui had to stand there for a solid second...
What was with rookies getting in the way of his operation?
Wait a minute...
The newcomer!
Kamui immediately leaped down to the crater where the villain lay.
"Mt. Lady! Move him immediately! You just took out a colleague as well!"
"A colleague, what are you talking about…" The heroine peeled shark-face out of the pavement to reveal the crystal man embedded into the pavement, his emerald eyes forming spirals. Mt. Lady yelped in shock before shrinking down to her normal size.
"Oh my god! Please tell me he's okay, I can't kill a fellow hero on my debut! I'll be ruined!" She cried, fanning herself with both her hands.
"Seriously? THAT'S what you're worried about?" Kamui shouted. He turned to the emerald being in the crater.
"Are you okay?" He asked, flustered. The stranger shakily raised his massive forearm, giving a thumbs-up to the two pros.
"Y-yeeaah, I'm fuhgh-fiiiine... uugh." The crystal man weakly replied. He strained to pick himself up, his body rattling. "It's gonna… gonna take more than being crushed by a shark guy… to stop… Ben.. Tennyson… uugggghhh." He collapsed face-first into the floor.
Kamui then noticed a green flash of light coming from the icon on the stranger's belt. A beeping noise emitted from the badge in a decrescendo. Suddenly, the being was bathed in an emerald light. What once was a living prism was replaced with a teenage boy, no older than fifteen. He had shaggy brown hair and wore a white hoodie with green accent marks all over, much to the shock of the pro heroes.
"He's… he's just a kid?"
Kamui, fearing the worst, put two fingers under the boy's neck. He released a sigh of relief at the sign of a strong pulse.
"Good. Still alive and well." Kamui said. He turned to face the rookie with a glare under his mask. "No thanks to you."
"He survived, didn't he? I mean, he was made of DIAMOND for hell's sake." Mt. Lady snapped back.
"Oh, that makes things so much better! You're lucky this didn't turn ugly." Kamui Woods lectured. He was about to go off, but was interrupted by the flash of multiple cameras. In an instant, the media swarmed around Mt. Lady. As if turning on a switch, she went from panicked newbie to media darling. Kamui let out a sharp exhale from his nose.
"Oh good, a glory hound." He thought bitterly. He looked at the young man that he picked up out of the pavement. After witnessing the boy shift from diamond to flesh and bone, his mind raced with questions. How did he transform? It was unlike any quirk that he'd ever seen. And the mummy from earlier… he disappeared without a trace to be replaced by the crystalline man. Were they both him? Or was he a part of some new hero group that...
"Kamui Woods, sir!"
The shout knocked him out of his daydreams as he noticed a female officer by his side.
"Ah, yes officer?"
"We're currently on the lookout for two unknown quirk users. A mummy-looking one and a man made of crystal. Since you were the one that had the most contact with the two, we were hoping that you would be able to give us insight on their potential whereabouts."
"While I don't know about the mummy, your diamond-headed culprit is right here." Kamui replied, showing the boy to the officer. The uniformed woman leaned in, an incredulous look across her face.
"This kid? Are you sure?" She asked.
"I am. I saw him transform into what you see now after being accidentally knocked unconscious by my colleague, Mt. Lady." Kamui stated. The officer sighed, exasperated.
"Great... another stupid kid trying to play hero..." The officer muttered under her breath. "If I had a dollar for every wannabe All-Might I had to deal with, I could pay off my car." Kamui couldn't help but agree. Kids could be so impatient, jumping into the fray of hero work before getting proper certification. Thankfully, he never had to deal with a vigilante incident.
Well, until now, that is. This child, Ben Tennyson, was his first encounter with vigilante antics.
But...
The way he acted. Jumping in with no hesitation, no doubt. Not only that, but the skill and assuredness of a pro, and that power of his... Kamui had met heroes and villains with transformation quirks in the past, but nothing like what he witnessed today. Questions flooded his mind as he handed the boy off to the EMT workers that approached him.
He needed answers.
"If you'll permit me, officer, I'd like to accompany you back to the station. It would be easier to fill out the paperwork there than wait for it to be mailed to my agency." He requested. The officer blinked.
"Oh? Well, certainly." She replied. "I'll give you a ride there."
"Much appreciated." Kamui nodded. As he entered the car, he looked at the young boy getting loaded into the emergency vehicle.
"What exactly are you, Ben Tennyson?"
WHOOF okay, we got that part done! Honestly the hardest thing here was figuring out where to cut this chapter off. As I'm typing this up, I've got trimmed content from this chapter to headline the next one. Not to mention I feel the transition from this chapter to the next one was a bit sloppy, so I figured it'd be best to cut it here and then pick it up with a new chapter. I may come back to edit this later...
SO what's next? Why, interrogation of course! How's Ben gonna explain himself? And can his lies hold any water against a trained pro hero? Well, we'll find out next time! I'll try to get the next chapter up before January. We've got some setup to get through before Ben gets introduced to the My Hero Academia storyline proper...
Stay beautiful, errybody!
-PencilyFace