Chapter 3 - MY HOUSE IS AWESOME! Also Exposition Dump Incoming!

Alex

… why is the Secret Lair option worth 10 CP?

Because HOLY SHIT this was SOOOOOOO much more than worth it!

"Holy shit…" I mumble to myself. I change back to my human form and take off my mask.

As a Vancouverite, I instantly recognized the location; Grouse Mountain, the Peak of Vancouver (#notspon). The large cabin had been replaced with a modern super home that reminded me of The One in Bel-Air, California. I think the Youtuber Enes Yilmazer had a video showing off its majesty well. If I remembered correctly, the house had 21 bedrooms, 49 bathrooms, and was over 100,000 square feet. If there was a house that was supposed to represent luxury, this would be one of the ones on the shortlist.

About 50 meters in front of the house the Olympic Fireplace was fully lit. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Grouse Mountain hosted a few skiing and snowboarding events, and the lodge even had the old Olympic torch. I wonder what happened to sports in the world of Earth-Bet.

10 meters behind the Olympic Fireplace, the outdoor ice rink, which was only available during the winter months, was there. Usually, the ice is chippy, and uneven, but it looked pretty clean. I had to check it out after my conversation with Taylor.

Up the mountain, I saw snow, which was jarring, as the area around us was heated to at least Pacific-Northwest summer levels of heat. Wait, does that mean I could snowboard on- shit I forgot my snowboard!

For some reason, I instinctively reach into my pocket and find a note.

From the Olympic Flame, this pocket dimension has a radius of 75 km. Also dropped off your snowboard gear. No cost, especially since you left possessions kind of blank. You're welcome. -ROB

Today, ROB stands for Random, Omnipotent, Beautiful person.

Thanks! is magically written onto the note. I walk towards the entrance and toss the note into a recycling bin where it instantly disappears.

"Wow…" Taylor said. "Where are we?"

I snap out of my daze and grin at the girl who is gawking at the sights around her.

"A pocket dimension that serves as my hideout! It's based on Grouse Mountain, in Vancouver, my hometown!" I responded gleefully.

"Cool right? I didn't expect my benefactor to set me up with something this awesome!"

Taylor looks confused. "Benefactor?"

I make a noise of agreement. I then offer my hand, for a shake.

"Alex Tian, the chosen one of an omnipotent being to help save Earth-Bet from itself."

Taylor freezes and just stares, gaping.

Awkward silence is awkward.

Eventually, Taylor does take my hand, and she does shake it.

She presses a button on the side of her visor, and her face is visible.

"Taylor Hebert."

I smile and invite her in.

God this place is way too big. I transform into Zubat real quick, so I can echolocate where the kitchen is.

I motion for Taylor to follow me in. Among the various appliances, there's another note, the same colour as the previous note the ROB gave me.

Food's free, and I decided to Beauty and the Beast-ify your house staff :)

I grin. Clearly, my ROB is a man-

A dodgeball flies out of a portal and hits me in the face.

… woman? I look down at the note.

Yup. }:(

Woman of culture then. Also please don't traumatize Taylor?

No promises.

Well… shit.

Anyway, I turn to the guest of honour, who's looking around, probably looking for dodgeballs that would be launched out of portals at her.

"Soooooooo… got any food preferences?"

…

As a Canadian, it is sacrilegious that Taylor has never had poutine.

She liked it too; I needed to give her another half-serving to satisfy her hunger. I actually felt pretty full after my own first one, but I would never allow a fellow poutine enjoyer to not enjoy the food of the Northern Gods.

Northern ones, because as far as I'm concerned, the food for the Gods, period, is sushi. And for the record, I'm Chinese, not Japanese.

Anyway, once she's done, and the plates magically float back to the sink to be washed, I decide to ask her a question.

"So… what do you want to know?"

Taylor

Where do I begin?

I just - okay.

"Did you mean it when you said I would get to keep my powers?"

He stares at me. "Yes."

"Okay, Taylor, I'm going to be honest with you. This is going to sound crazy, but I need to get this off my chest if we are going to continue. Kay?"

I nod numbly. What else could he pull out that would surprise me now?

"I know the future. More specifically, a future where you are a supervillain."

…oh.

"When you got locked in the locker, if you were in there long enough- do you know what a trigger event is?"

As I move to respond, he cuts me off.

"Wait, of course, you don't know, Lisa had to explain to you in- okay so, think of your worst day ever, multiply the shittiness factor of the day by 1000, and you have a trigger event. These events result in powers, but there's a catch."

"First off, normal parahuman powers enjoy conflict; this results in them warping their users after their trigger in a manner that forces them to use them in a combative manner."

"After the locker, you would have triggered with bug control."

I deadpanned at Alex. Bug control? Really?

"You give me that look, but you had the entire criminal world of Brockton Bay running scared at the height of your powers. There is no exaggeration; you are, without a doubt, one of the scariest people in the st-future. Somebody who can take a limited power, and use it to hold off Levithan, kill members of the Slaughterhouse 9, and other feats that I won't say for now."

I open and close my mouth.

"If you're wondering why I gave you other powers; first, you only went that path because you encountered some friendly villains, did something kinda stupid, and ended up throwing your lot in with them."

"… are there any more shocks you're going to give me?" I ask meekly.

"Only that I've taken enough steps that you won't go down that road."

Alex gets up and puts his hands on my shoulders. He looks down at me, and I feel nothing but empathy and truth radiating from his eyes.

"Taylor. Pardon my language, but you got fucked. I have… a code I live up to."

He closes his eyes as if recalling something.

"We should celebrate his decision. Not because he did the right thing, because who cares about that? Because he did what he wanted to do."

He opens his eyes.

"I'm going to be honest. I didn't help you because it was the right thing to do, although it was. I did it because I wanted to. I like helping people, and I don't want to see you suffer as you did in the future I saw. So I'm going my best to help you. But I need you to trust me. Can you?"

I reach up to my face. Tears. He cared. He actually cared-he-he-

I start bawling into his shoulder, and after about 5 minutes I manage to compose myself enough for us to move to one of the oversized modern couches.

I look out the window. Vancouver really is beautiful, huh?

"Yeah. It is."

I turn to my right and notice Alex staring out the window. Of course, I said it out loud again. I needed to get a handle on it.

Alex had a look of nostalgia on his face. It felt rude to interrupt him, but after the emotional breakdown I had, I needed to say something.

"Sorry for, um, crying into your shoulder… I…" My throat dries up, and I have no idea what to say.

A glass of water floats over to me and adds to my embarrassment. Alex has a patient look on his face.

"Hey, I get it. Sometimes you just need someone to cry on. For me, that was my sister. I guess you'll have to settle for a random dude, eh, stranger?" he comments with a lopsided grin.

I snort. "Is that what you're calling me now?"

He grins. I feel myself perk up as he does; he has an infectious energy to him, bringing up the mood in the room when he walks in.

"Hey, one of my childhood heroes gives everybody nicknames; might as well follow her path."

I roll my eyes.

"Okay, can I ask some questions about my powers?"

Kicking up his feet on the coffee table, Alex responds: "That's what I brought you here for, Stranger."

I sigh at my new nickname, before asking my first question:

"How does my power work?"

Alex closes his eyes, then opens them again a few seconds later.

"This is going to take a while. SO!" he says while clapping.

He points at my wrist, where the Omnitrix was lying.

"That is the Omnitrix. An unspecified time ago, a Galvan scientist - uh, alien, you have one in the Omnitrix - made it as an ambassador's device."

My confusion must have been visible because Alex winced and scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, Azmuth - that's the scientist by the way - didn't do a good job of ensuring it would be an ambassador's tool. The point was that with it, you could literally take a walk in another species' shoes, and feel what they felt. Unfortunately, most of the species had very destructive capabilities, especially due to the Prime Synthesiser function, and it became more of a weapon than a tool."

"Prime Synthesiser function?"

Alex winces again.

"God, I'm not smart enough for this conversation. Okay, the Omnitrix works by shifting the user's DNA between different forms. Azmuth added a function that allows the Omnitrix to find the "prime" variation of a species, and then use that as its DNA sample."

"For a human, let's say it scanned a druggie in the Merchants. Well, the Omnitrix would mess with the druggie's DNA until it became a cross between an Olympic athlete and a supermodel."

I blink. "Can the Omnitrix do that to my current body?"

"User requesting Prime Synthesiser function to be run over DNA sample A-000?"

"A-000?"

"Listing alternate titles for DNA sample A-000; human, Homosapien, base form."

I instantly look at Alex, and with a touch of desperation, ask him:

"Can I?"

Alex looks distinctly uncomfortable, but shrugs and says:

"It's your power."

I look back at the watch.

"Uh… execute task?"

"Acknowledged."

Alex

As somebody who is used to being heckled, (gotta love insecure hockey players) I don't know what to feel.

I understand feeling uncomfortable with who you are, as my lack of good grades in high school definitely took a hatchet to my self-esteem.

I'm Asian, and the stereotypes are very real in my household.

I also think that sometimes, you just have to get over it. Taylor's lucky that she has the easy fix, but a lot of people can't change their appearance to get over their insecurities. I did to myself when I entered this universe, so I can't really complain about being a hypocrite, but I don't want to reinforce the wrong lessons about solving problems.

Well, to follow my own advice, just get over it, eh? There's going to be plenty of time to hammer morality into Taylor's bra-

FLASH

As the light dies down from Taylor's body, I lower my arms and look at oh my god.

Taylor was cute before the Omnitrix got involved, but now?

Her face was cleaned up, and most of the acne and growing pains of puberty just disappeared. Her lips were full, and her nose, which was cutely oversized before, shrunk to attractive levels. Her body curved out, with what I think are C-cups on her chest, an hourglass figure, and a bubble butt that caused Alex Jr to stand upright like a North Korean soldier.

Fuck, her thighs were thick enough to fill out most of a filing cabinet. The rest of her legs, her previous best feature, looked like they were begging me to get hard. Which I did.

I cross my legs to cover my erection (never thought I wouldn't like having a bigger dick), and stutter out:

"Well.. yeah... Uh… it definitely worked!" I say trying to remember how to speak.

Taylor smiled, making my heart swoon, and asked me another question.

"So… the watch-"

"Omnitrix," I say, my arousal being replaced by annoyance. While I am definitely going to start simping for her at some point, I was not going to allow my fandom to be disgraced by improper vocabulary.

"... Omnitrix." She amended.

"It can turn me into aliens. How? I remember blacking out and just waking up as... Uh… the smelly tree thing."

"The species is known as a Methanosian. If I were you, I would give names to the transformations. Easier to remember, and for PR purposes."

"PR?" Taylor asks curiously.

A give a hum of agreement.

"Originally, after it was made by Azmuth, the Omnitrix ended up on another Earth - not this one - and accidentally bonded to a young boy. Whenever he transformed, he shouted out an affection he gave to each alien."

"In my world, many people remembered the affection, rather than the actual name of the transformations. I've memorized most of the names, so I can give you ones, or you can make your own."

Taylor looked unsure, but then twisted her face into a look of resolve and nodded.

"Mind giving me those names?"

"Nope."

I reach over and tap the interface. A hologram of a wheel shows up, showing multiple heads, with the one at the top of the wheel also having a checkmark and X appearing below it.

"Okay, so the one you turned into, the Methanosian, was known as Swampfire," I say as I gesture to the head at the top.

"In addition to pyrokinesis, he can control plants, and is a high-end regenerator - you could get cut in half and be perfectly fine."

Taylor nods and looks impressed. Regenerators are hard to find in Worm if I remember correctly.

"If you press the checkmark, you'll ready the transformation sequence, which is triggered by pressing the button that-"

Taylor hits the checkmark, and a dial springs out of the device.

"-yeah. That one."

She presses down on it, and in a green flash, is replaced by-

"SWAMPFIRE!" she roars out… before immediately igniting her head in embarrassment.

I snicker and tell her to revert to base form by hitting the dial again, now located on her chest. She obliges.

"What was that!?" she screamed, face flushed. Cute.

"Honestly no clue, there were a few old theories that say that the Omnitrix implants words for the user to say when they transform, but… well, at least everybody will know what the transformations are called!"

She glares at me. Still cute.

"All right - mind showing me your other transformations?"

We huddle over her wrist. Besides Swampfire, she had:

Blitzwolfer - Loboan. Based on a werewolf, average Brute, with powerful sonic howls.

(Taylors comments: "Reminds me too much of Hookwolf")

Diamondhead - Petrosapien. Humanoid that is made completely out of a crystal-like substance that's near impossible to break, unless exposed to high sonic frequencies. Diamondhead can launch these crystals, and shape them.

Upgrade - Galvanic Mechamorph. Looks like a blob with arms and legs. An organism made out of nanobots, that can fuse with technology, and, well, upgrade them.

Jury Rigg - Planchuke. Looks like a little red gremlin. You know how tinkers sometimes enter fugues that end with them waking up, and boom new invention? Imagine if that process was voluntary, and the tinker-tech didn't need maintenance. Although said tech is prone to malfunctioning.

XLR8 - Kincelerean. A very streamlined velociraptor. Super speed.

NRG - Priprytosian-B. On the outside, it looks like a giant metal armour that can shoot laser beams. In reality, that's not armour, that's a containment suit, that's hiding the true alien beneath it. Without the suit, radiation would spill into the environment, giving everybody in a 50-meter radius cancer. However, it can also absorb radiation, giving it a decent matchup into Behemoth.

(Taylor looked nervous when I mentioned an Endbringer.)

Lodestar - Biot-savartian. Humanoid, but the head is detached from the body, and floating. Do you know how Magneto lifted the Golden Gate Bridge in that X-Men movie?

(Taylor: …no?)

Well, you can do it now. Lift the Golden Gate Bridge with pure magnetism, I mean.

Astrodactyl - Pturbosaurian. A humanoid pterodactyl that can hit speeds just over those of sound. Comes with some ability to generate energy whips. Kinky.

(Taylor seems the happiest hearing this one's power. Makes sense. Wanted to be Alexandria right?)

"Also, after 6 months, you'll get 10 new transformations and unlimited transformation time. 12 months after that, you'll be able to transform with a thought, with all transformations available to you."

Taylor

"How many transformations do I have?"

"Omnitrix contains 1,002,296 transformations."

… what?

As my brain tries to comprehend my new powers "limits", Alex, that (handsome) bastard is rolling on the couch- wait no he fell off- the floor, cackling at my reaction.

I glare at him until he finally composes himself enough to look at me, turns to look behind himself, and collapses in another fit of laughter.

I glance behind him. There's a security camera. Damn it.

Eventually, he's able to compose himself to answer my questions about other things.

Apparently, the Omnitrix can cure cancer, along with all my transformations. He mutters something about "Case 53's" and then his eyes widen.

"Oh, I should tell you about the failsafe."

"Failsafe?" I ask.

"If the user is in a critical condition, the Omnitrix will force you into a transformation, recharge be damned. This includes, and is mostly limited to, death."

I wince, and remember the watch speaking after it attached itself to me after the locker. So that's what that was. Wait, does this mean I'm invincible?

"Just… don't be suicidal, okay? Trying to force the Omnitrix to give you new transformations and extra time, it's been tried, and nearly ended in the planet being destroyed."

I glance down at my wrist, silent in thought, and terror.

"The power of the sun, in the palm of your hand," Alex says with a melancholic grin.

"If it makes, you feel better, besides Legend, there's no one else I trust with this power."

I stare at him. Confused doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling.

"Why me?"

"Because you're a victim," Alex bluntly responds. "You know what it's like to be the little guy, who can't do anything to get out of his, or her, increasingly worse situation. That empathy for the weak, is required to be a great hero."

"I know you can be great. I've seen you make Brockton Bay your personal kingdom."

I cringe at the reminder, that, in another life, I would've been a villain.

"I don't know whether or not you can be a hero," he admits, looking down. I start to feel fear. What if-

Alex then stares me dead in the eye, a sharp red iris glaring into my soul. He puts a hand on my shoulder.

"But I believe that you can."

I already cried on his shoulder once, I sure as hell didn't want to do it again, even if it got me closer to his bod-

BAD TAYLOR!

I compose myself with a sniffle and smile at Alex. He grins back.

He removes his hand, then he morphs his face into a serious expression.

"Now that I've told you everything, you have a job to do; tell your dad. Everything."

I wince.

"Do I-"

"Unless you want somebody else to tell your dad you're a cape powerful enough to take on an Endbringer, one-on-one."

I groan.

"Call it a favour for saving you from the locker?" asks Alex hopefully.

"You really want me to do this?"

"Yes."

"Fine."

Alex smiles, and holds out his hand, palm up. A ball of energy forms. He lobs it at my face.

I throw my hands up to cover my face, and feel the ball hit my hand… and dissipate?

Looking at the spot where the ball dissipated, a mark that looks like an orca whale glows blue on my hand before fading.

"If you put your hand on a door, and will yourself to my base, you'll be here. You can exit from any point, back at the place you entered from, by willing yourself there" Alex explains.

I nod and- wait how am I getting home?

Alex seems to realize the same problem as his eyes widen as I raise a hand.

"Uh… gimme a sec."

He transforms back into Porygon-2 quickly, and disappears into a nearby TV. He then reappears behind me. I do not yelp.

Ale-er Pokedex- snickers. He then Teleports me again to… my room.

"How did you know where I lived?" I ask apprehensively.

"The internet is a wonderful, and horrible place." Pokedex- I'm just calling him Dex- remarks.

"Wanna come with me to the PRT building tomorrow?"

Uhh…. "Sure. What time?" Why is my mouth opening faster than my brain can move?

"You going to school tomorrow?"

"I- don't really want to."

Dex shrugs. "Then don't. Pick you up at 10 am?"

I nod. "Sure."

"Great!" Dex says, eye-smiling again.

"It's a date."

As both my brain and mouth stutter, he teleports away.

I groan. God, he's absolutely insufferable…

And really, really nice.

I blush, before taking some deep breaths and going downstairs.

"Dad?"

He looks up from dialling a number into our landline.

"TAYLOR!"

He runs up and hugs me, before pulling back.

"Where were you? Are you okay? Also, what are you wearing?"

I blink at the last question. Shoot, I didn't change out of my costume yet.

Wait…

"Omnitrix, replace my costume with, uh, casual wear."

"Acknowledged."

A green flash and I'm wearing what I was wearing before I was pushed into the locker. Clean of the gunk, which is nice.

Dad is stunned. "Taylor, you're… a cape?"

I nod, and motion for him to sit down. This is going to be a long story.

Author's Note: Please don't get pissy that I basically turned my secret lair into my dream home :/

Also, I'm using 5 Years Later lore for my aliens. It's a fan comic crossover between Ben 10 and Danny Phantom, made by the Youtube Channel - The Ink Tank. If you haven't read it, go read it. If you don't like it, well you'll be sad to know that outside of Echo Echo, I'm also changing the majority of the Ultimate transformations to those ones as well. Sorry. My fanfic.

Finally, the Orca logo that ends up on Taylor's hand is the Vancouver Canucks logo.