The beginning of Adventure part-2

Three days had passed since the accident.

The hospital room was quiet, save for the steady beeping of the heart monitor and the occasional rustle of sheets. Sunlight streamed in from the window, casting soft golden rays across the sleeping boy's face.

Ben Tennyson, barely three years old, lay unmoving in the hospital bed. His small chest rose and fell gently. Machines monitored his vitals. Nurses came and went, but his condition remained unchanged.

Until something stirred.

His fingers twitched.

It was small—barely noticeable—but then his eyelids fluttered. His breathing shifted. Inside his mind, something was happening. A crack. A shift. A flood.

Then—chaos.

Images. Emotions. Memories.

Not of this life—but another.

An office cubicle. Long hours in front of a screen. Coding, debugging, sighing at deadlines. A small apartment. Late-night anime binges. Gym sessions. Depression. Loss. Laughter. The taste of instant noodles. The hum of city traffic. A friend named Tony. A betrayal. A death.

The truck.

"Oh God… no way…"

Ben's eyes snapped open.

He gasped, inhaling deeply as if surfacing from deep underwater. Panic surged through his chest, his tiny body trembling as he sat up abruptly, sweat beading across his brow. He clutched his head as a splitting headache pierced through him.

"W-What the hell… Where am I?!"

He looked down at his hands—small, soft, childlike. His voice was high-pitched. His body was tiny. Everything felt… wrong.

Or right?

Memories of cartoons. A green watch. A fiery alien. A blue speedster. A summer trip. Ben 10.

"No. Freaking. Way."

He stumbled out of the bed, barely managing to stay upright as his legs shook. A nurse who had just entered the room screamed, startled by the sight of the boy who was, just moments ago, in a coma, now fully awake and moving.

"Doctor! He's awake!"

But Ben wasn't listening. His heart pounded as the realization hit him.

"I died… I actually died."

He took a shaky breath, eyes wide as the memories pieced themselves together like a jigsaw puzzle falling into place.

"And I've been reincarnated as... Ben. Ben Tennyson."

His voice cracked with disbelief.

He turned to the mirror on the far wall and saw his reflection—those unmistakable green eyes, the tuft of dark hair, the familiar features from the show he once watched religiously.

"I… I'm really him."

The flood of emotions hit him hard—excitement, shock, confusion, fear, joy. This wasn't a dream. This wasn't a simulation.

This was real.

He was Ben Tennyson.

But this world… it didn't seem exactly like the cartoon.

There was something different.

Something deeper.

"I don't know what the hell is going on, but... if this is real, then the Omnitrix, the aliens, everything—it all might exist."

A grin slowly formed on his young face, the initial panic giving way to a wild surge of possibility.

"Truck-kun... you son of a bitch. You actually pulled it off."

Just then, the door burst open as a doctor and several nurses entered, followed closely by Gwen, Xylene, and Verdona, all visibly emotional and relieved.

Ben quickly wiped his expression and played along, pretending to just "wake up," feigning confusion like a child would.

As the doctor examined him, checking his vitals and flashing a light in his eyes, Ben sat quietly on the hospital bed, his expression calm on the outside—but inside, his mind was in turmoil.

Three years of childhood memories, now viewed through the lens of his regained adult consciousness, unraveled before him like a puzzle whose pieces were starting to fit—but not in the way he expected.

"This… isn't the same world," he thought, his emerald eyes trailing to the corner of the room where his grandmother Xylene stood, concern etched into her delicate features.

Yes—Xylene.

Not Sandra his mother.

But the same Uxorite alien from the classic Ben 10 series. The one who had once tried to deliver the Omnitrix to Max Tennyson. The one hinted to have shared something more than friendship with him.

But here… she wasn't just an old flame. She was family.

His grandmother.

And Verdona too—Gwen's grandmother—stood nearby, her composed expression barely hiding the flicker of maternal anxiety in her glowing, slightly ethereal eyes.

Ben's breath caught in his throat.

"If Verdona is Gwen's grandma… and Xylene is mine… then we're not cousins through the same bloodline," he thought, eyes darting between Gwen and Xylene. "That changes everything."

Then another memory returned—of that fateful day at the park. The ball, the street, the truck barreling toward Gwen. The fear. The desperation.

And then—power.

He had felt it. Not just strength. Not adrenaline.

Something… psychic.

A barrier. A pulse of energy that wasn't human.

"Did I really awaken Uxorite abilities? Telekinesis? Maybe even some precognition?" he wondered, recalling the blinding light and the moment Gwen was pushed to safety.

His thoughts were broken by a soft voice—one that tugged at his heart.

"Benny… are you okay?"

Gwen's voice was small, her lip quivering slightly as tears shimmered in her eyes. She clutched the edge of his blanket with tiny fingers, her head tilted to the side, curls falling across her cheek.

Ben blinked.

For all the confusion, the existential shock, the questions—this, right here, was something pure.

He smiled.

"Yeah, Gwen… I'm okay," he said, his voice gentle but carrying a strange maturity behind the childlike pitch.

Gwen sniffled, clearly relieved. "You were sleeping for so long. I got really scared," she admitted, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.

Ben gave her a reassuring look. "Thanks for being here. You're really brave, you know."

She giggled at the praise, cheeks turning pink.

From the corner of the room, Xylene stepped forward, her eyes gleaming as she crossed her arms. "My brave little starlight…" she murmured, her usual stern tone softened.

Verdona chimed in with a smile. "That makes two of them. You're both special in your own way."

Ben glanced at them both.

Alien grandmothers. Interstellar legacies. Genetic links to powerful races. This world was not just a cartoon anymore. It was real, and it was more complex, more alive than anything he remembered from the show.

And if the pieces were aligning like this, then…

"Is the Omnitrix already in development?" he wondered silently.

One thing was certain.

He wasn't just Ben Tennyson anymore.

As Ben lay back against the hospital pillows, trying to steady the whirlwind in his head, he turned to Xylene and Verdona, still processing the surreal truth of his lineage. Slowly, he shifted his gaze to Xylene and asked in a quiet but curious tone, "Grandma… where is everyone else?"

Xylene offered a warm smile, her arms folded elegantly behind her. "They're all waiting outside, sweetie. We didn't want to crowd you when you woke up. Your grandfather went out to buy ingredients to make you something special—a high-protein meal to help you regain your strength."

Ben's face immediately paled.

He sat upright just slightly, dread sinking into his bones. "High-protein…? Oh no. Not that meal…"

He remembered it too vividly now. That infamous alien-recipe stew Max Tennyson once swore by. Packed with the nutritional density of an entire ecosystem. A blend of mystery meats, green paste, and interstellar spices that could make a Xenomorph weep.

Before he could voice his protest, the door burst open with a loud thud.

A blur of blonde hair and raw emotion rushed across the room. The next thing Ben knew, strong arms wrapped tightly around him, pulling him into a tearful embrace.

"Benny!" the woman cried, voice cracking with both relief and exhaustion. "My baby… you're okay… thank the stars!"

Ben blinked, startled by the sudden affection, but quickly realized—this was his mom in this life.

Carl's wife.

Xylene's daughter-in-law.

His mother.

He hesitated only a second before relaxing into the hug. The warmth of it hit harder than expected. There was something profoundly comforting about being held like this, even if he was a grown man in a child's body.

"I'm okay, Mom," he whispered, allowing the moment to soothe his unease. "I'm really okay now."

She pulled back slightly, brushing his cheek with a shaky hand, her eyes red and puffy. "We were so worried. You've been asleep for two whole days. Gwen barely left your side, and your father—he hasn't stopped pacing."

Gwen stood by the bedside, her small hand resting gently on Ben's arm, her expression a mix of shy pride and deep affection.

Ben gave them both a reassuring smile. He didn't have all the answers yet, and his heart still beat with the echo of a thousand questions—but right now, this was enough.

He was surrounded by love.

By family.

Even if it wasn't quite the one he remembered.

Even if the world was different.

He would protect this version of his life.

No matter what.