Welcome back everyone! This chapter is the last one before the big ones!

Responding a few comments:

1: I have 1 character who could be a good paring for Ben, but I'm still not sure if I should do it. But I already decided on some other characters pairings. Don't worry, this won't be a romance fic, but like the actual Ben 10 show, it is going to have some couples.

2: Really guys, I understand not liking Ben scanning quirks, but trust me, you WILL be surprised by some transformations, maybe not now, but soon. And I'll also draw some of them for you all to see on my DevianArt page!

And with that, enjot this week's chapter!


CHAPTER 4: Into a New Life


Darkness.

The void between universes was really dark. And cold.

But familiar blue and white lights appeared, swirling around.

In the middle of it, was our teenage hero, floating aimlessly, opening his eyes. For a moment he thought he was in deep space, but it felt more like he was falling in an endless abyss, surrounded by blue energy. Very familiar blue energy.

-'Am I… going back home?' thought Ben. But this didn't feel real, it felt like… like a memory.

He looked down and saw a great light approaching, almost like he was reaching his destination.

But then he felt it again, the feeling he got right before passing out inside the vortex, Like his body was disintegrating and being put together again, atom by atom. It hurts, but not as much as when he experienced it before.

He knew he was going to pass out again, but right before that, there was a shape inside the light at the end. No, two shapes. But not just any shape…

-'Those look like… people.'

And just like that, his body jerked fast to the side and he let out a tiny scream.


-Ben's New Bedroom-

Turns out, he had fallen from his bed in the middle of a dream. The sun was shining through the window, hitting the teenager, who became very annoyed at being woken up by this, especially after falling head first into the ground. Groaning loudly, he opened his eyes and shielded them from the light with his hands.

Noticing that this wasn't his bedroom, he shot up the bed, thinking that someone had kidnaped him or something, but as soon as he remembered the events from the last day, Ben calmed down.

-'So… yesterday wasn't a dream huh?' thought Ben. He didn't know if that was a good sign though. At least he didn't hallucinate, even if he wished that was the case. -'But… the dream I had just now… what was it?'

He was about to question it, but his stomach growled in hunger -"It's too early to think about this."

The teen hero changed into his usual outfit, since it was the only one he had at the moment and got out of the bedroom to talk with the only other person in the house…

Which currently, was loudly talking on the phone and fastly typing at a laptop.

-"No no! Luther, I need you to keep quiet about this. It's a very delicate operation and if you say anything to your superior, the entire thing could collapse. Can you just trust me on this?"

The detective was clearly not in the mood for small talk, so as soon as he saw Ben enter the living room, he just mouthed that 'There's food in the fridge'.

Understanding he was busy, Ben just nodded and went to get it for himself, even if he didn't feel comfortable with this arrangement just yet.

He could still hear the detective talking on the phone, -"I know I know, but you already own me one from that deal with the Skycrawler, come on."

There was a pause before Luther responded: -"Fine! But if someone starts going around asking me too many questions about this boy, I can't promise anything! But I will warn you at least."

-"Got it. Thank you again, I'll call you later." With that, he hung up. Tired already and it wasn't even 1pm. Naomasa then went to the kitchen to eat… and have a serious talk with Ben.

-"Hey, good morning kid."

-"Hey. So I hmm… I wanted to thank you again for letting me stay here for the time being."

-"It's no problem, you would have gotten into more trouble if I just let you out there by yourself."

The hero ate some bread with butter while talking, -"So… how does this whole hero school deal work?"

-"Well I already called All Might today. It was the first thing I did actually, after seeing that you were still in that room."

Ben picked up what he meant, -"You thought it was all a dream as well right?" he responded with a nervous smirk.

Naomasa just let out a chuckle in response at the irony that they both hoped for the same thing, -"Yeah, I just had to check, haha." He then continued talking about the school while drinking his coffee: -"All Might said that he would talk with the principal and explain the whole situation as soon as he arrived at U.A."

Right then and there, Naomasa's phone rang. He picked it up and saw that it was the very same number 1 hero calling him, -"Hi All Might, I just told Ben about your meeting with the principal."

-"Well…" The hero sounded uncertain about something -"...that's what I wanted to talk about with you. The principal didn't really believe much of the story I told, mostly because I was also not very sure about it when saying it to him."

Both adults agreed that they would give minimal detail about Ben to others until they could get a full cover story and documents for him. The story for now was that Ben was an exchange student from a small town in the United States that always wanted to study in Japan and All Might knew him from his days of heroism there, so after winning some money in the lottery he rent the detective's spare room to live until he got his bearing in the country.

The story was faulty, but since both the entrance exam and the recommendation exam had already passed, they needed to talk with the principal as fast as possible before class started.

This worried the detective greatly -"So then did he say he wasn't going to let Ben in?"

-"Not… exactly. He wants to talk with Ben personally. Today."

-'Oh no…' This was not good at all. If a police officer got caught lying about something this big by the principal, there would be consequences.

-"We didn't even tell the kid the cover story we made for him, having Ben talk to him today is not gonna go well. We'll find anothe-"

-"I'll talk to him, no problem." interrupted the teenager with a stern face.

Naomasa looked at him as if he just said that he was going to jump off a cliff, which wasn't a bad description since this WAS a big leap of faith. -"Ben, if I figured out that you were lying about where you came from, the principal definitively can too." He wasn't about to mention that his quirk was detecting lies, but he didn't want to take the risk of Ben slipping some important information.

-"Then I'll tell him the truth. If you guys were able to believe me and still help, then he will too."

-"Me and All Might knowing about you are different. You basically stumbled into him and he called me."

-"You said that All Might was going to be a teacher at this school right? Even then, having the principal know about me in case someone from outside questions my presence there is good to help keep my secret. And since All Might's still a hero, I'm assuming that he won't spend all of his time just teaching students. Also… I don't like to lie to anyone, especially those who are helping me like this."

All Might heard Ben and whispered through the phone, -"He's right, my limit is only three hours now and I'll be spending most of that teaching the students… and my eventual successor as well."

The detective really was in a tough situation, but he could see their points very well and they were right. -"Alright." he relented with a sigh, -"But instead of telling everything there, you can say the truth to him All Might, while we get ready to go. Ben can prove the truth in person by transforming."

-"Okay, Naomasa. I'll see you here."

They both hung up. This was going to be a stressful day.

He turned to Ben -"Are you really okay with telling him the truth?"

The teenager, as if it was common sense, answered sincerely: -"I've had this kind of experience before and it never goes well for the people who don't know what's going on." He then looked down at the Omnitrix, reflecting on the choices that led him here. "I have a lot of enemies because of this watch, if there's even the smallest chance of one of them finding me before my friends do, I want the principal to be prepared for anything. I'll be at his school after all."

Naomasa could only look at the boy with a face that told he was… sorry for him, -'For someone who's only 16 years old to be this afraid of- No, not afraid, prepared. He must have fought a lot of villains already and with no school to teach him how.' He looked at Ben's Omnitrix, -'That watch feels more like a burden than a blessing.'

-"Alright, I understand Ben. Let's finish here and get ready to go out."


-Outside of U.A. High-

The car trip felt like a short one, except for when they had to go up a small hill to reach the school, but this is because Ben wasn't paying much attention to the way there because Naomasa was trying to drill into his brain information about this different world.

And Ben was very confused about most of it.

-"So… how many people in the world have superpowers, I mean quirks, again?"

-"About 80%. Though most of them are older than 20 years old. Your generation barely has quirkless people."

-"Quirkless…" Ben repeated the word, it sounded somewhat… wrong in his mind, -"How did the people come about with this term?"

-"Well, while this is the official title, not everyone uses the term. Some time ago, a woman gave birth to a baby with power. She was discriminated against, but claimed that her son's powers were simply a "quirk" of his nature. Unfortunately an anti-meta group that existed at the time killed the woman. When her son grew up, he became against this control system put in place to better manage the powers, claiming that the government seized and misrepresented his mother's words to restrict the use of Quirks, believing that free use of Quirks is a basic human right. He gained movement, even wrote a book about it, calling the term Meta-Abilities instead of Quirks and wanted people to be free to use them however and whenever they want. And as you can guess…"

-"That would create chaos in society." Ben finished his sentence, thinking what would happen if really that many people were simply going wild with their powers.

-"Exactly. Luckly, most people who accepted that ideology don't exist anymore after the arrest of the leader of the movement. Now, quirks are seen as normal, but there are still a lot of laws restricting their public and even private use."

Naomasa noticed they were arriving at the school -"And that is why, if you want to become a hero, you'll have to enlist in this school." he then pointed forward.

Ben followed his gaze and had his jaw hit the floor, the school was simply giant! It looked more like an office building than anything, but the sheer size of the school grounds was what surprised him the most.

The detective parked the car near the entrance. They both got out, with Ben still being impressed that such a big school for superheroes could even exist, especially after getting a look from the inside of the large entrance gate that had the letters "U.A." at the front. The place was bigger than he thought.

Naomasa was clearly amused at Ben's reaction to all of it -"Hehe, yeah, that was my face as well."

The teen noticed that he zoned out for a second and snapped out of it, -"The main question in my mind right now is how much budget does this whole thing get?"

-"Oh trust me… Not even I know."

Now that… that got Ben excited and more determined to study here for a while.

When they walked towards the principal's office, Naomasa would keep explaining more things about hero society as a whole, but Ben kept his attention towards the many buildings he could see outside and rooms inside the large main building. Classes hadn't started yet, so no students were roaming the halls, making it easier for the teen hero to see everything.

While the Plumbers Academy was WAY bigger than this, the reasons for it were different. This school just had a different feeling, it was like… it was calling to Ben itself.

They stopped for a moment because Naomasa seemed lost. -"Damn, I think we took a wrong turn, there are some many corridors and it has been some time since I came here."

-"Better call All Might?" suggested Ben.

-"Yeah, let me tell him where we are so he can tell us the way to the principal's office."

A new voice came from behind the two, -"Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite police officer.."

Naomasa reconized that voice, but for Ben it was new... and very seducing.

When they both turned around, they saw a tall, curvaceous woman with sky blue eyes, framed by a set of rather long eyelashes. She had long thick spiky dark purple hair, which was made up of layers of varying lengths. She also had a small beauty mark below her left eye, as well as red-painted nails.

Her costume was very similar to one of a traditional dominatrix. She wore a breastless, black leather leotard—similar in style to a corset—over a thin, skin-tight, white bodysuit, which accentuated her voluptuous figure. The center strip of her leotard was embellished with red gemstone-like accessories in a vertical pattern, extending from her collar to her midriff. She also wore translucent, black, thigh-high garter stockings, which were attached to a burgundy utility belt decorated with gold studs around her hips, a matching pentagonal buckle in its center, and black knee-boots. She had a small red mask outlining her eyes, and a handcuff on each wrist.

Ben was absolutely stunned seeing that woman, especially in school grounds! -'What kind of school is this?! Do they have beauty classes or...'

Naomasa simply smiled at Ben's reaction, most teenagers would make the same face when meeting her after all, -"Midnight, nice seeing you here. Preparing for classes to start?"

The hero now known as Midnight responded with a small laugh -"You too, detective Tsukauchi. Yes, some teachers have already been called to prepare their scheduals and lessons." She then looked at Ben with interest -"And who's this young soul I see? Some illegitimate child of yours?"

-"WHAT?! No! We don't even look alike." defended Ben.

The detective could only sigh at the interaction, Midnight always seems to like to mess with people first, -"I believe introductions are in order. Ben, this is Midnight, a teacher here at U.A, and also known as the R-Rated Hero..."

-'Put R-Rated in that! It doesn't even look like she's wearing anything!' screamed Ben in his mind, trying not to get flustered.

-"Midnight, this is Ben Tennyson, a exchange student from the U.S. possibly coming in next semester here."

-"Nice to meet you Miss Midnight." He raised his hand to shake hers.

-"What a gentleman, nice to meet you too Mr. Tennyson." she said, teasing him a little.

-"He's staying on the same apartment building as me, so I decided to give him a ride here to see the school and talk with the principal." Naomasa explained, -"but it seems that we're lost." he rubbed the back of his head.

-"I can help you with that, the principal's office is on the next floor. You just take those stairs, turn right, go to the hallway next to the conference room and then left. You should see his big doors."

-"Thank you Midnight, hope to catch you again some day."

-"Me too detective." she offered him a friendly smile -"Oh, and I hope you get in, young man. U.A. High is open for all, no matter the country." She responded giving a nice smile. -"I can't stay long, I have my own schedule to plan, just came in to greet you but I do hope I see you in my class next semester." she gave him a seducive smile.

-"I uh... hope so too... Miss Midnight." Ben really felt flustered and... kind of uncomfortable at the moment. A woman like her trying to seduce him? He tried to get any unwanted thoughts out of his mind.

-"Goodbye to you too then." said Midnight, leaving.

-"Goodbye Midnight." responded Naomasa.

-"Yeah uh... good-goodbye you." said a flustered Ben.

Naomasa noticed Ben's confused face -"You'll get used to it kid, she does that to everyone, it's her thing. Just don't fall in love with her or something"

-"Oh? Yeah totally, of course, I was just... surprised you know." answered a sweating Ben.

-"Ha, sure." with that, they went their way.


-Outside the Principal's Office-

The number 1 pro-hero might be the strongest person in the country, if not the world, but even HE was susceptible to feeling anxiety and stress at times, he just didn't show it much. If young Tennyson couldn't get into U.A, he would most likely turn to vigilantism. The hero recognized the conviction in his voice when he told him and Tsukauchi that he would still be a hero, no matter in whose universe.

The constant pacing back and forth at the door, waiting for them to arrive, was stopped when All Might noticed his friend and the possible new student just turning around the corner.

They also noticed him, and that instead of his usual hero outfit, he was wearing a yellow business suit with black stripes and a white undershirt with blue tie.

The pro-hero was so relieved -"Thank Goodness, I was about to call you."

-"We had a run in with Midnight." Naomasa responded.

-"And asked for directions since you got lost." remarked Ben.

-"And you got lost in the appearance." rebutted the detective, smirking.

-"No, I didn't!"

-"Ok, not important right now. I already told what I know about you Ben to the principal, he's just waiting for us inside, I had to catch some air."

-"Alright." said Ben.

-"Thanks again for this All Might." Naomasa then took the lead alongside Ben in front of the door. -"Let's go in."

As soon as all three entered the office, with All Might closing the door behind them, the tension could be cut with a knife, but only because the principal's chair was facing to the window, making them not see him just yet. Only when All Might talked they realized he was there in the first place.

-"Sir, they're here."

-"Thank you All Might." said the principal, who Ben noticed had a thin calm voice. -"It's a pleasure to talk with you again Detective Tsukauchi."

-"With you as well Principal Nezu."

-"So…" the chair turned, so that he was speaking directly to the teenager, -"... you must be this Benjamin Tennyson, correct?"

Whatever Ben expected the principal of the most prestigious hero school in the country to look like, that image got shattered as soon as he saw the man. Or should he say, the mouse, or bear, or… dog? Ben didn't exactly know what to make of him, he appeared to be a combination of all three.

He had the head of a mouse with circular black eyes, a large scar over the right one, relatively rectangular-shaped ears with pale pink insides slanting outwards from the top of his head, and an elongated muzzle with a small round nose. His fur was white and he had large, dog-like paws with pink pads and a thin tail like that of a cat.

Once the man jumped on the table, Ben could see the rest of him clearly. He sported a white dress shirt, a dark red tie around his neck, a black double-breasted waistcoat and matching dress pants and wore orange lace-up sneakers with incredibly thick soles which seem to be quite large on him.

The only face the teenager could make was confusion and surprise. All Might noticed he wasn't answering Nezu's question, -"Are you okay young Tennyson?"

Snapping out of his trance, Ben answered with some hesitation, -"Huh? Yeah, yeah, I was just… not expecting him to be so… small."

The principal raised his eyebrow, -"Do you have a problem with my appearance?"

Ben rubbed the back of his head at the mistake he made -"Oh no, sorry sir." he then answered with a smile: -"You actually just remind me of someone from my universe funny enough."

-"From your universe… That's exactly why I called you here today. I do not believe this story All Might told me, even if it is backed up by the trustful word of the detective." he gestured to Naomasa.

-"I understand. It's a very hard story to believe, but trust me, it is all true. What can I do to prove it to you?"

The principal took a pause, seemingly in deep thought, before saying something that none of them expected.

-"I want you to surprise me."

That… what?

-'How do you prove something like that to someone who lives in a world of superpowers?' thought Ben.

-"Uhmm… What do you mean sir?"

-"Exactly what I said All Might. Surprise me." he said again with a slight smile.

Ben put a hand on his chin in deep thought, looking around the room to try to think of something. That was, until he realized he could do something that would surprise even the other two adults there.

He approached the principal's desk, -"I think I know how, but I need you to trust me on this one. Just some temporary trust."

Nezu made a pause, but then gave Ben a smile, -"Alright, just this once."

-"Thank you sir." he then touched his watch.

-"Ben, what exactly are you doing?" Naomasa questioned.

-"Don't worry detective, you're gonna be surprised as well." Ben then directed his voice to the watch: -"Omnitrix, re-activate scan mode."

To the initial surprise of two adults in the room, the Omnitrix responded in a mechanized copy of Ben's voice, -"SCAN MODE ACTIVATED. SCANNING FOR NEAREST UNKNOWN DNA."

It took about a minute for the Omnitrix's usual display to pop up again. -"SCAN COMPLETED, NEW DNA ADDED TO EXISTING DATABASE. CURRENT PLACEMENT ON PLAYLIST 5."

-"You can deactivate the scan mode now." Ben did not waste time before bringing up the watch's holographic interface, searching for the new head display in playlist 5, selecting it and slapping the device. The Omnitrix's usual green light filled the room, making all residents cover their eyes, but when it died out, instead of an unknown alien creature, standing on Ben's place was an exact clone of Principal Nezu, except he didn't have the scar, was using a variation of green, black and white for his suit and had the Omnitrix symbol on his chest instead of a tie.

If it was possible for eyes to jump out of their sockets, all the eyes in the room would already have done that due to how wide they were. They knew about turning into aliens, but being able to duplicate someone's DNA, and quirk in its entirety on the spot like that, was entirely new information.

All of them were obviously on edge, thinking that maybe had stole Nezu's quirk or body, but they calmed down once he talked normally -"H-How… How have you done this? Not many people are able to impress me. I watched the camera footage from yesterday, this is the third form I see you turn into."

-"Yuperss!" Answered Ben in a high pitched voice with excitement -"Wow, I feel so smart right now! Like I know even the most intricate details of human anatomy, hahaha!"

-"This is indeed very impressive Mr. Tennyson." Nezu responded, still amused at seeing himself like that.

-"Please…" said Ben, in a courteous manner, -"... Mr. Tennyson is my father, call me B- actually…" he stopped himself before giving it some thought, -"In this form, call me Hobbie-J."

They were a bit confused, -"Why Hobbie-J?" asked Tsukauchi.

-"I have knowledge both from this world and my own now, though anything from this world is still very limited. I also have access to memories I had forgotten, and Hobbie-J is the name of the smartest rat from my world a few years ago, though I am unsure who holds the status as of this moment. I saw a documentary about it on TV, but I wasn't paying much attention at the time."

But this only served to worry Nezu more about accepting him. Sure, the boy had great potential, but could he actually be from where he claimed and become a true hero? These questions were running into the principal's mind, but the only way to answer them was to ask the cause of all in the first place.

-"Benjamin…" Nezu started, -"...while I am impressed at your abilities, I want to know from you. Why do you want to enter my school?"

The teen hero saw how serious this question sounded. Making sure to pass the right impression, he slapped the symbol on his chest, turning back to Ben to give his honest answer. -"I don't know for how long I'll be here, and there's a good chance it'll take way longer than I want to. But this does not mean I stop being a hero. I want to help people here like I do in my home and be the best hero I can be, your school is just the place that can teach me that. And also… I promised to my cousin that I'd try to live like a normal teenager for a while, and since the only way to be a legal hero here on this Earth is to have one of these licenses, then that's what I'll work towards. Then there's also the fact that I don't want to fight any heroes or cops by trying to do good in vigilantism." he rubbed the back of his head a little when saying this last phrase.

Even though he had just witnessed an incredible display of power versatility, this was what truly shook the principal. He had talked with such conviction in his voice that he could even feel remorse for the alleged promise the boy had made to his cousin. It reminded him of when the teacher and hero Midnight had convinced him to allow Eraser Head to also be a teacher at the school.

The detective was on the same boat, but instead of Eraser Head, he was remembering when he himself was applying for the Police Academy. But Ben's idea of heroism reminded him more of what he read in his sister's paper for university years ago about the topic.

And while All Might had a knee-jerk reaction to Ben transforming into the principal, because it reminded him of an old nemesis that had similar power, he too became more relaxed and inspired by Tennyson's reason to become a hero at this school. He also thought he looked a lot like his own protégé.

Nezu thought again about this whole situation. The number 1 hero and a trustworthy detective at the police force were both vouching for this boy to enter his school in a crazy story. There must be some good reason for this. And he couldn't sense any malice or lies from Ben since he entered.

-"Hmmm… after careful consideration, I'll allow Mr. Tennyson to enter my school, under the conditions that he does not partake in acts of heroism or use his watch at all outside of school grounds, and that both of you will be responsible for him inside and outside here. He also must respect the school rules, whether that is aligned with his personal beliefs or not. Are we clear?" he said, looking at all three of them with stern eyes.

Ben really couldn't believe it, he just entered a school of heroes from another universe! -"YES! Very clear sir, I won't cause any problems for you."

For some reason, that did not seem true in Naomasa's mind, -"Don't worry Nezu, we'll be keeping an eye on him all the time."

-"You can count on us sir!"

-'This is shaping up to be an interesting year.' thought the principal. -"Well then…" he stood up and raised his hand towards Ben while smiling, -"...Welcome to U.A. High, Ben Tennyson."

The teenager simply smiled back and shook the principal's hand. He couldn't wait until he told Kevin, Gwen and Grandpa Max about this.


END.


And SCENE! Now presenting to you, Ben's first quirk transformation! It's also his most useless one and I don't even know if I'll ever use it again, but just know that there are quirks that can do things Ben's aliens can't (Alien X doesn't count of course), and those will be the ones I'll be taking from now on, this was just a test.

Now, Midnight and Principal Nezu in this chapter were fun to write. Kayama's friendship with Naomasa goes back to Vigilantes (which is awsome, by the way), but don't worry, they won't be a couple. At least I don't have any plans to make them one.

Be sure to follow my DevianArt page for character arts, the wiki page and the mycast page of the story.

Well, have a good weekend and see you all next friday!