The first thing I noticed was that my bed had a lot more room than usual. I could stretch out farther, still under the blankets with my feet still comfortably resting on the mattress instead of hitting the footboard. Spreading my arms wide I could barely hang my fingertips off the edges. I relished in the space, not questioning it as sleep beckoned me to return with newfound comfort.
Yet since I was partially awake, I could tell that daylight was bleeding into the room due to a gleam of red overtaking what should be pitch black darkness. Great, the blackout sheet must have fallen from my window. I'll have to tape it back up in order to get some better sleep if I was to be awake for work tonight.
WORK!
I flung my arm out, to the side, bounding myself across the bed to reach the nightstand where my phone should be. I was always paranoid about possibly missing a day of work, and I didn't want to get fired after just getting this job! I needed that money for the wedding!
My hand slapped the wood where the smartphone would normally be, and after a few unsuccessful attempts I had to reach farther until my hand bumped something unfamiliar. Finally risking opening my eyes, the stinging light taking its revenge on my avoidance of the sun due to working grave shifts, I didn't recognize where I was.
"Optimus?" I saw the poster of the transformer on the wall across from me, where the walk-in closet was supposed to be. There were so many unfamiliar posters and spaceship models hanging from the ceiling in a room that wasn't mine. The door was in the wrong place, the walls too light a shade, and the smell…ugh don't get me started on the-
"Smell?" I could smell? I regretted giving a couple of test sniffs as a putrid odor assaulted me. Sitting up and giving a few whiffs into my nostrils just to make sure, I was disgusted but curious how my sense of smell returned after it had been gone for years. Now granted I haven't heard of anyone else getting hit by a car and losing a sense with no other injuries, but why was it back? Whose room was I in?
And why was it such an awful mess with an even worse scent?
A dream, maybe I'm in a dream. Wasn't the first time I dreamt I was in someone else's shoes. But usually when I become this aware I naturally wake up. Sliding out from the blankets, I registered the world in a much shorter perspective.
I was a whole two feet shorter!
"Ok dream, I-woah, what happened to my voice?" This was getting weirder and weirder, but if it was a dream I knew how to wake up. Shutting my eyes as hard as I could, I tensed as I fought to take control over my real body and open my real eyes. 3, 2, 1-Nope, still here.
I still believed this was a dream because it was one thing to wake up in an unfamiliar room, but to have an unfamiliar short body with a scratchy voice that didn't really sound like a real person's? Yep, dream.
I first opened my palm towards the absolute mess, trying to control the realm of imagination and clean up a little. Nothing, it stayed there mocking me with the disorder.
I tried to grow, to regain my height but nothing changed.
Come on, I had learned to control my dreams ever since I was ten! But I was stuck, trapped in whatever conjuration my mind had decided it needed me to experience.
My body became alert as I heard footsteps approach from outside, if this wasn't a dream it had to be a nightmare. The monsters were coming and I had to fight back.
"Oh Ben." A woman's voice, not cruel or dangerous but gentle and kind. "Are you awake already?"
I didn't answer, because she probably wasn't talking to me. Maybe someone in a room next door.
This dream was getting pretty complex.
The knob on the door twisted, every muscle in my dwarfed form tensing as I readied myself. A blonde woman, maybe in early thirties, peeked into the room. "You're up early. Have you got everything packed for your trip yet?"
Trip?
She looked over, spotting a poor attempt at a packed gray duffel bag and sighed. "Ben, your grandpa will be picking you up straight from school so you won't have time after to pack. If you don't want me to pack for you then make sure to put everything you want and need inside. Breakfast will be ready in half an hour."
Then she left, leaving me stupefied over the whole thing.
Not knowing exactly what my own goal was, I decided to just play along and begin sifting through everything in the room to identify what exactly I would need. Where was I going? For how long? Were there even any clean clothes I could find? Did I have access to anything I could wash my clothes with?
What could even fit me?
So many questions ran through my mind as I began to identify all the basics. I had moved around a lot in my life, and sometimes I had to live out of a backpack that needed to have space for school supplies as well. It was easy to find the bare necessities, but I was unfortunate that the room had hardly any real camping gear in case we were going outdoors.
The mess annoyed me so much as I was packing that I ended up cleaning while I was trying to put together a basic travel kit. Clothes were easy, they could be reused several times so long as I had access to some cleaning supplies regularly. I came across a lot of shirts with the same vaguely familiar design. A white t-shirt with black lines around the holes with a solid one running down the shoulders and the front. Still, most of what was on the floor were binders, old assignments with discomforting low grades.
As I looked through to identify what was still needed and what could be trashed, I saw the same name on the homework.
Benjamin Tennyson.
By the time I got dressed and tried to find my way through the unfamiliar, rather nice looking home, I followed the trace that my working nostrils brought me to. Breakfast, a rather nice looking spread of eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, you name it.
"Morning Ben." The man sitting with a steaming cup had brown shaggy hair and brilliant green eyes, wearing a business casual outfit of slacks and a polo shirt. I always hated wearing polos. "Excited for the last day of school?"
Ugh, school dreams. I still had them even though I hadn't been to school in years. But if it was the last day, it wouldn't be as bad. Fond memories of snacks, classroom parties, movies, and activities rushed through my mind.
"Can't wait." I said as I had to practically hop into the full sized chair instead of sitting down like a real person. Gosh I forgot what that was like. My feet didn't even touch the floor, they just hovered a good six inches from the ground. Seeing how both of the adults had already served themselves and were eating, I found the casual relaxing air calming my nerves despite the disgusting smell of coffee beside me.
I always hated the taste of coffee flavored things, and now that I could smell again it reminded me how I could never stand being in a cafe when I was a kid.
Dishing myself up, questioning how much my smaller body could eat, I could feel the woman's eyes on me as I was spreading peanut butter along my pancakes. It was probably my hair, I almost always had bad morning hair but I hadn't gone to the bathroom yet because I usually took care of all of that after breakfast.
"I'll clean up after I eat." I assured as I sliced some strawberries to finish my nutritional balance on the plate.
"Oh it's just, nothing Ben." She smiled proudly as she began to eat from her own fruit bowl. "I'm just happy you've finally decided to start eating better instead of drowning your plate in syrup."
"You may want to bring some for the road though." The man teased. "Something to cover up the taste in your Grandpa Max's cooking."
I could feel the cogs spinning in the back of my mind, there was something so very familiar about this dream and my head was doing its best to recall critical information. Not that it mattered, eventually I would wake back up.
A bark came from behind me, startling me from how close it was. Snapping around, I saw a german shepherd with a spiked collar in the backyard eagerly wagging its tail and staring at me.
"Would you let the dog in?" The man of the house requested, making me believe this was their dog. I slid down from the chair, walking to the glass door and sliding it open to let the canine in.
It paused when it got close enough to touch, and I knew that it was reexamining me with hesitation. It didn't eye me with joy like a family member, he was gauging me like I had suddenly become a stranger to it.
I stepped out of the way, giving it the space it would need to get past me and enter the house but it still lingered in the grass.
The moment I saw the hairs on its back stand on edge, I sought safety back next to the owner of the dog. If I was in my real body, I would be hesitant to pick a fight with a grown german shepherd, but not when it was nearly as tall as me.
The creature let out a short growl, earning the instant attention of the adults.
"What is up with you? You love Ben!" The woman tried to calm it down as it refused to get anywhere near me.
It knew, and I knew it knew, that I did not belong. I looked like Ben but I wasn't. Who knows how frightening that would be to a dog when someone is disguising themselves as someone you know?
I might as well be a skinwalker to it, a monster, an alien that had invaded its home and no one else could tell.
"I uh, better eat my breakfast and finish getting ready." I said, as I had no idea what time school started or what time I would normally leave.
The dream continued, and I felt so lost.
It was hard enough to fight the silent answer my mind was puzzling together on how this was all familiar, but I had enough to try and solve as is. I felt confident enough to not believe I would need a backpack or have any homework to turn in for the last day of school. Getting ready earlier I saw the face of a young boy, one who was probably in late elementary or early middle school. I had worked in a couple schools before to guess a kid's age pretty accurately.
But the hardest part was that I had no idea where my classroom was, I could just follow kids that looked my age but after that it was a guessing game. I tried to wait for someone who was a friend of mine to try talking to me and help me out, but no such luck. Ben must not have anyone close to him at school.
Luckily one teacher, a woman in a blue sweatshirt over a white button up shirt called out to me. "Benjamin, you don't want to be tardy on your last day. You can't afford to have another one on your record otherwise you might be held behind."
While I complied without argument, I didn't feel like thanking the woman. She seemed to have a decent grudge against me, or Ben, and hardly felt happy with my presence. I wasn't oblivious to say she decided to single Ben out just to vent frustrations, kids could be brutal, but she was still a teacher and I knew that sometimes you just had to take it because they were just kids.
Parents needed to do the disciplining, and I'm not sure how much Ben received given he was allowed to have such a stinky smelly room.
I mostly kept to myself as the tradition of the last day of school began. No kids bothered me much which made it easier. Junk food buffet, a movie, thankfully no yearbook signing which was apparently yesterday. Can't imagine how Ben would feel if I didn't get anyone to sign it.
No, that's not how it would work. This was a dream, none of this was technically real.
That's what I constantly had to remind myself because of how real it felt, how normal it was, any detail I could think to look for was there and it didn't waver in its existence in the fog of a dream.
"2006" I said as I read aloud the calendar. To be back in 2006, I can't say I recall everything about the year but I can say it felt like a simpler time as a kid for me back then. A lot had changed from 2006 to my time in over a decade. As I got older I was made more aware of all the cogs in the machine that was the world, the ignorance and joy I had as a kid to not even need to worry about it all and simply live in the moment and have fun with adults to provide my needs for me.
Eventually when the last recess ended, I picked myself up from the spot on the jungle gym I was sitting in contemplation on and walked back with my obnoxious classmates. I could see the fights over the water fountains, teachers hollering to those still lingering at the four square area to put the ball away, the dozens of otter pop wrappers littering the grass from the treats shared for the end of the year.
I picked up whatever I could, avoiding slobber around the ends and seeing all the wasted sugar water. I felt my stomach lurch at the sudden idea of guzzling as much as I saw some kids eat.
"Benjamin." My teacher, no, Ben's teacher approached in a much calmer, more curious attitude than when I first met her. "Was today fun?"
"Um, yeah." I still wasn't used to the sound of my own voice. It was so weird because it didn't sound like any kids' that I ever met.
"Ok, well thank you for helping clean up." She said as I threw away the many wrappers into the large black garbage bins. "Please make sure to wash your hands."
"Oh I intend to." I said, trying not to think about how much slobber of spit and sugar that still managed to get on my fingers. Guess my response was not what she expected because I instantly recognized the concerned teacher's look. She was glancing around at other fellow adults, needing someone to confirm her worries were warranted before she even decided about calling parents or sitting me down to talk.
Hopefully someone else would ease her worries given how you would expect a kid to be a little different on the last day of school. Trouble makers usually had more patience and less resentment towards school knowing that it was a day full of fun before three months of avoiding an environment they didn't like.
Everyone just wanted to be done, to have a break. Me? I just wanted to finally wake up. Sure remembering what being a kid was like was fun but I didn't have that filter anymore, I wasn't the same age as all these kids and I couldn't play with them like I used to.
After a quick stop to the bathroom, thoroughly washing my entire arms and checking myself over for anything that might have gotten on my face, I went back to the classroom for the last twenty minutes of class. We had all cleaned out our storage areas, cleaned our desks, and tidied up for the next year students. When some kids had done the bare minimum of cleaning (aka just brushing everything into the trash or their backpack) I had silently moved over with my clorox wipe and hard scrubbed every surface of their desk when they were chatting with friends.
The teacher who had been trying to round up the noisy ones like cattle, trying to squeeze a few more ounces of cleaning out of them so that she wouldn't have to, noticed my furious scrubbing and utter disgust towards finding all the booger filled corners. I was aware that she was taking special interest in my need to clean, but it didn't matter because I just couldn't stand a mess.
And Ben was one messy kid if his desk was anything to judge by.
Once the bell rang, they rushed from the classroom, the teacher not bothering to try and get a few words in. They wouldn't listen, no kids would listen to a teacher now that summer break had officially begun. I briefly thought about it too, but I was going to get picked up right? Ben I mean, who was me at the moment.
There were still things to clean, and in my experience of getting picked up from school and working at them was that at the end of the year a family member other than parents would find a place to park and go to the front office to ask directly for the child.
"Benjamin? The bell rang." The teacher reminded me as she began throwing away all the empty paper plates stained with sugar and grease on the table in the back.
"I know." I said as I located the powerless vacuum, rolling it back and forth to eliminate the crumbs. I knew a janitor would come through anyways with a better one but I wanted to do what I could while I had the time. "Ben-My Grandpa is going to pick me up so I'll help before he shows up."
"Uh huh." I couldn't tell if she accepted my answer or not but she was certainly filing that information away. "Do you like your grandfather?"
Ah, I saw where this was going. I used the same tactics to gauge if a kid was being neglected or abused when I worked at a school. This body that I was in didn't have any bruises, and I doubt the parents I met would really force him onto a solo trip with his grandfather if he was that bad.
"He's not bad." I answered. I didn't know much more about the guy that I never personally met but if he really was bad news I felt confident to spot the signs. It was amusing to entertain the idea like this dream was going to go on for that long, but I just couldn't help but feel like I needed to start thinking more long term than just what I was doing in the moment.
Dreams didn't have consequences, so why did it feel like this one did? Was it because it was so real? So detailed? So consistent? So normal despite me having no control over it?
When I was done, she insisted on walking me out while grabbing her belongings and locking the door behind her. It had been fifteen minutes since the final bell rang and the huge bustle of traffic in the front had started to die down to something more manageable.
"Benjamin." She called out to me again as I looked up. She couldn't have been taller than five and a half feet but I still had to look up to meet her eyes. I hated the perspective, my height stolen away as I felt a lot more vulnerable to the world. "I may have been a little more strict with you than you would have liked, but if there's something that's upsetting you I want to help you get through it."
"Thanks, but I'm fine, really."
"Then why aren't you excited for summer?"
To me summer vacation stopped existing for a long time. If I wanted a vacation I would have to plan it months in advance and constantly check with my boss to make sure my days off get approved only to watch my bank account drop at every gas station, every restaurant, every trinket or experience. I enjoyed my trips but it was still a lot of work, not like when I was a kid.
"I'm just making sure I don't have any unrealistic expectations."
"That's a very….mature perspective."
Then it got awkward, the longer that cars filtered out the more tense the air began to build up between us. This was starting to become a little unsettling, not waiting with a teacher outside like I'm in trouble but this day had been so mundane. None of my dreams were like this, not even the most boring ones. After a minute the scenery usually changed, someone new entered something happened.
It wasn't fifteen minutes of standing and waiting as parents kept picking up children.
I couldn't claim this could be a dream because it felt like anything but one.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of my classmates, a pudgy kid with glasses trying to walk home but getting cornered by two other bigger kids. I saw the two others playing rather rough earlier with the dodgeball, one skinnier one with thick eyebrows that almost connected and a shorter stockier kid with shaggy hair and glasses.
I watched, listened because it was the only other thing happening as the woman kept eyeing cars trying to find Ben's grandfather.
"Normally we'd take your money and beat you up." I barely managed to hear them, questioning if I heard that right. "But since it's the last day of school, we're going to give you a break. Now just fork over the cash so we can get out of here."
I had the small hope that this was just a game of cops and robbers or a variation, but when you worked at schools for a few years you could spot the bad eggs pretty fast. As one of the few guys, it was usually my responsibility to confront these tense situations because kids would shut up and listen to an angry man rather than an angry woman.
"Hey!" I yelled out in a deeper, more authoritative tone that had been well practiced in my life. It startled everyone, including the teacher at my side as I stormed over. "What do you think you're doing?"
The two kids who were some stereotypical brats quickly got over the fear that normally shook any small child when a grown man got angry with them. It quickly reminded me that even if it was a shock how my actions of being reserved and quiet suddenly turned to outright fury, I was still a small boy with a weird voice. No matter how mature or angry I sounded, these two were not threatened by me in the slightest.
"Oh is someone playing hero?" The taller one teased.
"So you realize what you're doing is completely wrong if you see me as a hero?" I accused, noting how the two had much more mass than I and were priming their fists. It seems that the last day of school didn't tucker them out yet.
"And?" The smaller one, who could probably still sit on me to pin me dared as he got up to my face. "What are you going to do about it Tennyson?"
Is this a bit? Are they really this flat that they just adopted your average view of a bully? Usually most kids see themselves as in the right or justified in their actions. These two knew exactly what they were doing and didn't bother to deny it.
Was this just how 2006 was and I just forgot? While I remember some kids being real jerks back then I can't say any of them even realized they were on the wrong side of the fence.
While this would normally be a moment where I see just how in depth this dream is, there was already a figure of authority keeping an eye on me due to my odd behavior all day.
I could tell by the way they looked up past me and ignored me in favor of just booking it that my teacher was intervening. They were two delinquents who were kids as well, and no kid wanted to be held after school during the first day of summer.
Turning back up to her as the true victim rushed to get home, all of that tension that I had bottling up just fizzed out. "Thanks."
"You sounded so angry with them." She mentioned as she looked me over for any injuries a little more closely. "Have they been the reason you didn't feel like playing today?"
"Nah, but they didn't help that's for sure."
I could hear it before I could see it, a rickety metal clattering as its engine kept hitting itself over to propel an old rusty RV into my sights. The driver in a red Hawaiian floral shirt pulled up rather fast, clearly in a hurry but was nevertheless cheery.
"Come on Ben!" He called out while making eye contact with me, that nagging feeling in the back of my mind banging against my forethoughts. "We're burning daylight! I want to make it to camp by nightfall."
"Are you Benjamin's grandfather?" My teacher asked, the relatively old man addressing her with some concern.
"I am, did something happen today?"
"I'd like to talk with you for a moment-" She glanced down to me, clearly I was the subject of whatever conversation she was about to have with him. "Privately?"
He made a short grumble, either to clear his throat or some form of thought but his face was completely neutral. "Ok then."
Ben's grandfather took it seriously enough to put the motor home in park, the one that I kept staring at because I knew that vehicle. As he stepped out of the side door, he gave a curious eye towards me as he walked up to us. "Ben, why don't you head on into the Rust Bucket and get yourself settled?"
"Ok." With no arguments I made my way, step by step towards the object of my attention. Whatever my mind was trying to tell me or memories that were being brought to light it was all screaming at me and I knew it. Something was so familiar about all of this but it wasn't snapping together yet despite having more than enough pieces of the puzzle.
A small head of red caught my eye through the window, another reminder demanding that I place whatever is happening to my focus. Glancing back and seeing my teacher making sure to keep her tone to a whisper to Ben's grandfather, I entered inside the RV and felt my brain threaten to strangle me.
"I swear-" The young girl sitting at the small dining area gave me a stink eye with familiar green eyes, that blue cat shirt, the condescending tone. "-if you couldn't stay out of trouble on the last day of school there's no hope for you."
Then she got oddly cheerful. "Or better yet, maybe you'll get grounded and I'll get to spend the whole summer without you!"
Come on, what is this place?! How do I know it?!
Sitting down across from her, pressing my hands into my forehead, I diverted all my thinking power towards finishing this mental obstacle course.
"Woah, was it that bad?" She sounded almost concerned, almost. "Did you try pulling an end of year prank on the principal or something?"
I couldn't think, correction I was thinking so hard that I couldn't formulate a proper thought other than remembering this whole day and analyzing every bit of it.
"Hello, Earth to dweeb?"
Dweeb.
The cat shirt, the rv, the grandpa wearing a red floral shirt, a summer road trip.
Ben, they called me Ben Tennyson.
Ben 10.
"AGH!" Shooting up while smacking my head out of sheer self frustration, I completely freaked out the ten year old girl across from me.
"Woah calm down Ben it was a joke!"
"Ben!" I yelled as I rushed towards the bathroom, throwing open the door to reexamine myself in the mirror. There it was, a face not from a cartoon but a real ten year old boy. "That's Ben! I'm Ben!"
"Um, yeah?" The girl, Gwen nervously nodded.
"And you're Gwen!"
"Yes?"
"And that's Grandpa Max!" I pointed towards the man approaching.
"Your point?"
"This is the first episode! Where it all begins!"
She didn't even retort, just staring at me like I was some mental case. Which at this point I was given how it took me THIS LONG TO REALIZE! It didn't click at first, everything looked real not like some animated show where the background is a still undetailed frame. The only thing that was the most true to the show was the voices, they were all the same.
Finally figuring it out, I slumped back down into the cushion where Gwen eyed me like I might bite if she made a sudden move.
"Ok kids." Grandpa Max entered giving a joyful smile. "Hope you two are ready to hit the road!"
"I think Ben needs to hit the hay." Gwen mentioned, still very cautious of my presence. "He's acting all kinds of stupid today."
"Hey now." He leaned down slightly, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder. "Listen, it sounds like Ben has been feeling distant from everything today. Let's make sure he feels welcome on this trip."
A whole summer, visiting a multitude of national locations across the United States back in 2006 before the crime rate in so many popular cities really skyrocketed. Honestly, I should probably be more focused on the fact that aliens and monsters were about to become a regular thing but as a kid it used to be a dream of mine to pull a trip exactly like the one that Grandpa Max had originally envisioned.
Just a trip to the next state over for a week took months of savings and planning, and now I don't have to worry about any of the logistics. I could sit back and enjoy it all! If this weren't a dream.
Was it?
The moment the road trip kicked off I elected to get a number one spot to see it all by taking the passenger seat. I imagine I'll want to enjoy walking around or taking frequent naps as someone else drives for a change. Not that I didn't like driving, I loved it, and once I got my own car I practically demanded to be the one driving. It's just that when you're driving you have to focus more on the road than the scenery, and America was filled with so much of it. I wanted to see it all, so that's why I sat in the front instead of the more comfortable backseat where Gwen was double checking everything she packed.
Wish I knew we would be camping right off the bat, I would have packed a little differently. Then again, we're in an RV. I've never gone on a trip in an RV. Almost all my camping experience was in a shabby tent or just laying under the stars.
This was going to be a whole new level of adventure and I was so ready. Again, I wasn't really all that focused on the whole alien thing. Because while I recognized who I was with and where it would lead it still didn't feel real. I couldn't properly imagine all the alien battles and the craziness that I would have to face head on because that was all cartoons, a make believe story.
It seemed more likely that I would run into a few drug dealers than extra terrestrial invaders, not that Cartoon Network would ever air those.
"Someone seems chipper." Grandpa Max noticed I seemed much happier than the teacher earlier had mentioned to him. "I thought you might be reluctant given you and your cousins uh, disagreements."
"How many people get to visit practically every state in America in one summer?" I voiced as I could never imagine myself budgeting for that. "This is going to be a road trip to remember for life."
"Well, I'm not sure we'll get to every state. Alaska and Hawaii are a little harder to get to." Grandpa Max admitted as he pulled out a folded up map. "But I do have quite the route laid out."
Eagerly wanting to see how it was all laid out, I was thrown into a whirlpool of confusion when I saw all the intersected lines going back and forth across the US. This was his grandmaster master road trip plan? We would be going back and forth zig zagging to states that were already planned out. "Uh, Max-er, Grandpa? How come we aren't doing a sweep?"
Literally, after heading over to a campsite in California we were supposed to go straight over to the other side of the continent? Then head back towards Arizona only to head back East?
"Well that's a good point Ben." Grandpa Max agreed in a general sense. "If our main goal was just to visit every state then this would be one of the worst maps to follow."
I could already tell that this wasn't the goal then. If I remember the show right, they ended up visiting lots of events throughout the US. "So it's not the states, it's what's happening in them that you're planning."
"Bingo." He congratulated with enthusiasm, as he would a child. "You figured that out pretty fast Ben."
"Yeah." Gwen actually contributed to the conversation. "Way to point out the obvious Ben."
Oh like she was paying enough attention to know what we were talking about. Ignoring her jab, I just looked at all the notes along the map about the various things there were to do. I guess it's not far off from how I would plan my trips. Usually the goal was an event or a person in mind, then everything else was planned around that. Still, if I was to attempt what Grandpa Max had planned I would be in debt forever based on gas prices alone.
Grandpa Max had to be loaded to be able to afford all of this. Does being a 'Plumber' pay that well? Or did he not have to worry about gas given there's probably all sorts of alien tech running this thing?
Now that this wasn't a cartoon, I couldn't help but start to try and figure out how this road trip was feasible. There had to be some logic to it, some way for this to all work out if this was all real.
IF, it was real. Why am I even bothering to consider if this is real or not? Well simply put, I think I accepted the fact that this wasn't a dream much earlier today.
I tried not to think about it too hard, I had done enough for the day and it was supposed to be summer. So I sat back and enjoyed the expanse that was the open road heading through California towards one fateful campsite.
The sun was already setting by the time we arrived at the dense forest, my butt feeling a little sore from all the sitting. I was eager to stretch my legs in the small clearing that was the campsite and use my functional nose to take in the smell of nature.
"Ahhhh." I felt myself relax for once today, the immersive setting of the woods warming my nomadic soul. It was the start of summer, but I could already feel the bristling cold winds of the night starting to build up. Without a second thought I began looking around for some firewood, circling the perimeter for some tinder and other things to start with. I expected the immediate area to be picked clean but there was actually some good stuff that was overlooked.
"Hey Grandpa?" Gwen asked a question I didn't consider yet. "What's for dinner?"
The mention of it gurgled my stomach.
"I'm glad you asked Gwen." The man went to his kitchen to grab some grub that he had prepared for the three of us. Dropping what little I had collected so far next to the burnt remains of many campfires before us I went over to the picnic table that was fixed to the ground provided by the park. He emerged as Gwen and I eagerly awaited our first meal of the road trip.
"Marinated mealworms!" Grandpa Max was thrilled to place a large bowl of still very alive worms squirming in place. How did he keep these things alive this whole drive?! Did he pick these up today?! "Hard to find them fresh in the states."
It may not have died yet but I don't think I would call this fresh. "Uhm, are we gonna cook them or fry them with some eggs?"
"Eeewww Ben!" Gwen couldn't hide her disgust any longer. "You want this in your food?!"
I never said I wanted it, but if this is the price I had to pay to have an endless summer of adventures so be it. So long as I could keep it down that is.
"Not a bad idea." Grandpa Max had clearly done so before, but to my horror he just grabbed one of the escapees and slurped it up as is. "But they're good as is, just like lots of fruits and veggies."
I think Gwen and I both agreed that we felt a sudden loss in appetite seeing how bold the man was with food. Gwen might have found it purely gross as is but I couldn't help but be paranoid about something alive wiggling around my gut. I saw too many videos about parasites and just how awful they were to have. These might not have been parasites, but knowing that something was moving through me and I was helpless to do anything to stop it didn't sit right with me.
"I think I've got to ease into this." I hoped he would accept my plea for mercy. "Maybe we can grill it in a cheese sandwich?"
"Hmmm." He considered the idea, imagining how they would turn out the way I suggested. "You might not be able to distinguish their unique texture and flavor that way."
That was the goal! Please let me score!
"But I guess since this is supposed to be an adventure for your taste buds I'd be willing to try things a new way too."
VICTORY!
I could finally stop panicking, my stomach working its way back to hunger imagining a grilled cheese sandwich. Glancing up at Gwen she still seemed iffy about the whole thing.
"What? You think he might use some kind of pig milk cheese or something?" I asked.
"Don't tell me that's a thing."
"With him, I wouldn't be surprised."
Turns out, it was goat cheese. A far cry from the classic cheddar but honestly it was infinitely better than what he originally had planned. My sandwich might have ended up a little more burnt than I would have liked but I was not risking having one of those things try to climb back up. Once we were done eating, Gwen was quick to wash up and grab a laptop from her bag.
I guess I remember her having one, but a kid with their own laptop? I thought tablet babies were bad but that was at least a decade into the future. How rich were Gwen's parents to just buy her a laptop when she's ten years old?
How rich were Ben's parents? The room I woke up in wasn't that big but the house was still really nice.
"Anyone want to tell scary stories?" Grandpa Max offered, seeing how Gwen was distracting herself and I was messing with the fire.
I don't know if I had any good campfire stories to tell, but if this was 2006 then maybe I could try to use some horror movies they wouldn't have seen. Though looking at the pitiful amount of firewood I had barely collected for our meal wasn't going to last another thirty minutes. Hardly enough time to try and come up with a better way to retell Nope.
"Ok then, how about we roast some marshmallows?" So he did have real food!
Then it hit me, he switched to something else because he's trying to get us invested. I never noticed when I was a kid, but the older I got the easier it became to see when one of my parents or grandparents were trying to find a way to spend some quality time with us. Max was doing the same, and I just ignored him.
"Both sound really fun." I said as I got up from the stump I had claimed. "Let me just get some more firewood so we don't run out mid roast."
He perked up, seeing how willing I was to engage with him. "Good idea Ben. You know you've got a knack for camping that I didn't see in you before. You got that fire lit before I even grabbed a lighter."
Guess that wasn't a normal thing for a ten year old, unless Ben was a pro boy scout. Was Ben a boy scout? Another question to add to a world that I was still trying to juggle the logic of as I waved to the both of them as I went further into the woods to find some good, thick and dry branches.
That's where it got harder, while I had just found enough to get a fire going and for us to have some coals to cook with for a simple meal it looks like previous campers did end up grabbing the better firewood. I searched deeper, traveled farther, glancing back up at the stars every now and then to confirm my general direction.
That's when it happened, the shooting star that was clearly something falling hard and fast with fiery determination.
"The omnitrix." I uttered. Though maybe it's just a great flaming meteor, I had seen an awesome one before breaking up and burning bright.
The omnitrix wasn't really real, it was in a cartoon.
As if to correct my thought, the flaming orb snapped itself towards me. I took off in a sprint to escape the blast, the thundering clap of it slamming into the ground right behind me threw me onto my belly. Trees were uprooted from its descent, the dirt and rocks flying all around me as I shielded the back of my head.
Waiting for everything to settle and my ears to stop ringing, I pushed myself up and thanked the heavens that I wasn't injured after being targeted by a cosmic event.
Checking the crater before me, seeing the still hot glowing sphere resting in the center, I could deny it no longer as it cooled at a supernatural rate. This whole day I had been living in denial of the reality of the situation. I can't say how many had dreamed of this, myself included, to have an omnitrix of their own.
Yet here I was, not as myself but Ben, reaching out out towards the same unearthly green glow emanating from the alien device. I flinched as it leapt out, clasping onto my wrist, and with a resounding ping it all settled in.
I was in Ben's shoes, body and all, living his life in his world that wasn't my own.
"Ok ok, what's next." Knowing that events were still unfolding as I had seen them on television, I kept running my fingers over the unusual metal that encircled my wrist. It acted fluid just a minute ago, like it was more flexible and made of living rubber. That wasn't the case anymore, but it still felt so foreign. That was accurate I suppose. "Next uh, Ben goes Heatblast and burns down the forest."
Yeah, no, I wasn't repeating something as stupid as that. Screw canon I'm the one calling the shots now!
"Then, the drones attack." I looked back up to the stars, wondering how long it would be until they came for the device. "The two disc ones, and the big one."
There was another thing, Grandpa Max and Gwen were still back at the campsite unaware of what was unfolding. Should he go back and have them involved? While in the show they were necessary to Ben's many victories, it was different seeing them as real people.
A retired old man, and a ten year old girl. Who in their right mind would get them involved in the front lines of intergalactic warfare?
Another question I shoved to the back of my mind, still planning my next move because either way I was the one with an army of aliens at my command. Could I try to destroy the evidence and make it look like the omnitrix burned up on entry? Unlikely, but I still considered it.
What about if I just don't use it until after we're away from the crash site? No, Vilgax had a way to track it whenever it was active. There's no way the alien warlord who nearly died for this thing would leave the solar system after not finding it immediately. Never using it was out of the question, because while Vilgax was the 'big bad' of this universe he wasn't the only threat on this road trip.
There's also the fact that there wasn't anything stopping the drones just shooting everyone in the area if they couldn't find a trace of the omnitrix immediately.
Guess it was back to plan A then, which meant one thing.
I felt my mouth go dry as I held up my wrist, eyeing the green hourglass symbol as a new reality was just a push of a button away. It still wasn't that far off from reality, yeah a weird thing fell from the sky and now it's on my wrist….but to turn into an alien was beyond just daydreaming.
"Guess it was inevitable." Pressing in the green button, the dial popped up while releasing a short bling of noise while glowing intently, begging me to press down on the silhouette of Heatblast. "Please don't accidentally start a forest fire."
I pushed, and the next thing I knew I was seeing the world in a new pair of eyes for the second time today. Only this time, I was tall again. I'm not exactly sure how I was seeing with sockets of fire spewing out, or how my body was even working, but it was.
Raising my hand, I examined the four digit appendage that was HUGE. My forearms weren't just logs, my hands were so large they could grasp bowling balls like they were softballs. The heat flowed through me, under the sections of volcanic rock as energy was swelling inside of me.
"Huh." My new voice, deeper and more masculine spoke. "I don't really feel cold, or hot, just…active." It wasn't the right word but I didn't have a better one.
Still, had to make this count. I was burning valuable time by just standing here. Curling my fat flaming fingers, I was shocked by how natural it was to conjure a flaming orb. Letting it build up heat and pressure, I walked back through the trail of destruction to try and get a similar angle from how the pod crashed. I wanted this to look as authentic as possible, to stall Vilgax for as long as possible on if the omnitrix was still intact or not.
Taking a stance of a classic baseball pitch, I burned brighter and hotter as I condensed my attack into something that could rival the power of the pod upon its fall.
"HA!" I put a lot of strength into my throw, heaving outward while twisting myself with the momentum. The result would have blinded me if I still had human eyes, a powerful blast that scorched the Earth all the way to the impact zone, leaving molten metal shrapnel to fly all over the area.
It was so hot and so fast that my fear of starting a fire was soon extinguished as nothing was burning, only vaporized.
"Guess that takes care of it." I muttered as I walked away from the site, only for paranoia to begin working its way into my mind. Glancing back, I saw my footprints, more specifically the ones burned into the spot that I had lobbed the rocketing meteor. I was so hot that I etched my footprints into the spot I stood at.
So just like a good boy scout, I made sure to leave no trace of my presence.
And grab some extra firewood, like I originally promised.
I had to stay clear of the campsite until I turned back, doing my best to keep my flames low and my natural light dim to where no one would notice. After what I counted to be somewhere between ten to fifteen minutes I returned to my shorter stature.
No wonder Ben went alien as much as he could, being short sucks.
Hefting a stack of recently broken branches, I made my way through the trees and back into the opening where Gwen was still on her laptop with Grandpa Max keeping the coals alive in the fire pit.
"There you are Ben." The man got up, aiding me in carrying the wood that put a strain on my underdeveloped arms. "I was worried you might have gotten lost."
"No way." I almost took offense to that comment. I took pride in my sense of direction and general survival skills. "Just had to go a little farther to get the good stuff."
"Well you sure know how to pick em." Grandpa Max noted as he sat the wood beside the dying campfire. I placed my pile next to his, peeling off the old dry bark from the larger sticks and crushing them into flakes that I used to toss onto the subtle red glow in the pile of ash. With a few breaths it ignited, where I quickly got to work stacking smaller sticks to rekindle the flames.
"Hey Ben."
"Yeah Max?"
I winced at my error, hoping he wouldn't be too surprised by how casual I was with the older man. Sure I might have never have gotten as old as him but I had coworkers around the same age. It was out of place to refer to them as 'Grandpa', and Max wasn't my Grandfather. He was Ben's, who I was still was trying to pretend to be for some reason.
Luckily, he didn't comment on it. But he probably wasn't forgetting it for a while. "Where did you learn to build a campfire?"
"Oh uh, just a book I read at school." Was my only excuse of an answer.
I almost forgot Gwen was there until she piped up. "Since when do you read books?"
"When are you going to start camping instead of glamping?" It was meant to come out as light teasing, but the way those two stared at me with oddity made me feel like I said something weird.
"What's glamping?" Grandpa Max asked.
"Probably Ben just scrambling up words because he doesn't know enough." Gwen was not giving me a break. I knew she bickered with Ben plenty of times in the show but I don't feel like I've done anything to warrant this kind of attitude.
"Glamorous camping." I answered, doing my best not to give her a reason to treat me as a verbal punching bag for the whole summer. "It's for people who can't live an hour without electricity but still want to claim they're 'outdoorsy'."
She took that as a personal attack, which I swear I was not targeting her specifically.
"I bet I could last way longer than you. How many video games did you even bring with you?" Gwen challenged.
"None." Hiding a smug smile, I did consider bringing one or two of the video games that Ben had in his room. But after growing up I made it a point to not bring any games with me on vacation. I went on vacation to enjoy where I was going, not to stare at the same screen just somewhere else.
Of course, having my choice music player would be nice for the longer drives.
"Get real. You won't last a day without your Sumo Slammers." Gwen didn't believe me, but nevertheless she still put her laptop away and marched it back into the RV. Once she was gone, I turned back to the only person I feel like I could have a real conversation with. The only other adult present, Max, who was placing a couple marshmallows on a stick.
"I can see you're putting in some effort not to tease your cousin." He noted as he held one out to me. "I appreciate it, a lot. And I'm sure she will too before you know it."
"Thanks." I began slowly roasting the marshmallow, patiently cooking it on all sides to get that crisp golden layer. But for how long was I going to experience….whatever this was. I stared into the fire, remembering the being that I just was moments ago.
It was so different, but no way could I ever have imagined all the new sensations that the body brought with it. At this point I couldn't believe this was a dream, but I didn't know what else it could be.
How long until I would find myself back in my own life?
When we eventually got our tents set up, or tent, as Gwen elected to sleep in the RV instead of outside, I found myself unable to sleep. In my mind I was fully alert, waiting for the distant stomping of machinery, a pillar of black smoke rising somewhere around us, the hum of a drone seeking to locate the omnitrix.
It never came, did my plan work? Did I somehow manage to fool Vilgax himself into believing that it had burned up when falling through the atmosphere?
I highly doubted it, but it was still hard to accept that there was a device on my wrist that could turn me into aliens. So far I could only truly process what I had just experienced, fighting robots or aliens was still something that I could only imagine.
I'm not sure when I eventually fell asleep, but I did know when I woke up. The side of the tent brightening with the rays of the sun leaking through the thin material, the smell of morning dew wafting through my nostrils, the lingering smoke of the campfire that had stuck to my clothes. It was all too real.
Sitting up, I noticed that Grandpa Max was still sleeping soundly, and a quick check at my wrist proved that the omnitrix was still present. It was tempting to use it, all those powers, all the things I could do with it.
Yet, I couldn't guarantee Vilgax wasn't keeping a close eye on the area. At what point is he able to track the omnitrix being activated? Did the original drones when battling Ben manage to send enough data to him for him to trace or was it something else?
Either way, I elected not to use the omnitrix here unless absolutely necessary.
But then when could I use it next? I didn't exactly tell Gwen or Max about it when they would already know by now.
A prolonged yawn came from the man beside me, Max rubbing his tired eyes as the morning woke him up as well. "Morning Ben, you're up early. Did you sleep ok?"
Not really, but I didn't want to make him worry. He was a good man at heart just trying to give his grandchildren a nice summer vacation. "I might take a nap in the Rust Bucket on our way to the next destination."
"That's fine." He began stretching his back as he slumped upwards. "How does sheep tongue sound for breakfast?"
"Um, could we make bacon out of it?" My goal was to try and bring some vague normalcy to the food, at least enough to trick my mouth.
"Huh, never tried that." Grandpa Max's curiosity won, letting me savor another victory. "We could have some scrambled lizard eggs to go with it."
"Sure." I agreed, rolling up my sleeping bag while I tried to imagine how many lizard eggs it would take to fill one person's stomach.
Morning came, we went on a short hike on a trail nearby, and passed by locals who seemed well and fine. Guess no one got attacked last night, good. By the time we got back, packed up, and were about to head out, Gwen noted that something was different.
"Hey Ben."
"Yeah?"
"Where did you get that watch?"
Should I tell her? Tell Max and her now before I kept it secret too long and broke their trust when I revealed I kept a secret this big and this dangerous from them? Well, I always saw how that played out.
No one likes being lied to, and while I would like to keep things a bit more normal for now I knew I should tell them to avoid further conflict.
"It fell out of the sky and turned me into a flaming alien."
But the truth of this world, was so very hard to believe.
"Fine, don't tell me." Gwen carried the cooler back into the RV, completely dismissing my revelation.
I didn't blame her, I still was having a hard time believing it myself.
"Did you hear that Grandpa?" I turned around where Max was putting away the last of the cooking supplies. "I got a watch from outer space that turned me into an alien."
He seem stumbled for a moment, actually considering if the child before him had just had a taste of the universe. Still, aliens by most people were considered fiction, and he elected to believe I was still naive. "Wow Ben, you sure have the most unique dreams."
There it was, I told them and they didn't believe me. I could have sold it a little more or even turned into an alien right then and there to show I wasn't just making stuff up. Caution won out, I didn't want to start a fight and reveal myself this soon to other worldly threats.
So I decided to enjoy as normal of a summer road trip as I could, after all, it's not every day you're ten years old again.
Alright, I'm in a writing funk and I decided to write something completely different from what I normally do to try and pull myself out of it. As you can tell, this story isn't about 'how I would be a better Ben 10 in his shoes', it's about how absurd it would be to wake up in a child's shoes again outside your own life. Now this could very well be a one shot, or maybe just a way for me to get an idea off my chest. This wouldn't be the only story I've written to do that.
If I decide to proceed to continue with this story, I'm going to end up switching the episode order around. Because looking at where the episodes take place, the order doesn't make sense. In one episode, they're in the west, in the next on the east coast, and two episodes later it's like they're back in the west, then a few later in New York.
While I added in a little something to explain some back and forth traveling, in the end the only kind of people who travel this far this often have their own private jets to get them there in a few hours.
Also, I'm solely basing this off of OG Ben 10 lore, no Alien Force, no Omniverse, and definitely no reboot.