Chapter 10: Alien

Bennett's brain had been running on overdrive all day. Everything just clicked—equations made perfect sense, complex concepts felt obvious, like someone had swapped out his regular brain for a supercomputer. But the second that final bell rang, his thoughts immediately shifted to more important matters.

He was practically speed-walking toward the exit when Peter came crashing out of his classroom like his ass was on fire.

"Bennett! Perfect timing, man!" Peter's whole face lit up like Christmas morning. "I knew you'd come around about the Dr. Connors thing."

"What are you talking about?" Bennett stopped dead in his tracks.

"Dude, come on. You're obviously booking it to catch up with me so we can hit Oscorp together." Peter was already doing that thing where he bounced on his toes when he got excited. "I've got so many questions for Connors about my dad's research, and—"

"Peter, slow your roll." Bennett held up a hand. "I told you this morning—I'm not interested in your Nancy Drew investigation."

Which wasn't entirely true. Bennett was definitely interested in Connors' cross-species genetics work. The guy was basically playing with the same concepts that made the Omnitrix function. But trying to understand that level of science with his current knowledge would be like asking a kindergartner to explain quantum mechanics. Even if he cheated and used Grey Matter's enhanced intelligence, he couldn't risk transforming in front of Peter and Connors.

Especially not after his very public smackdown with Tony Stark earlier. XLR8 was definitely on someone's watch list now, which meant any other alien sightings would get connected back to the same source pretty damn quick.

Plus, Bennett knew something Peter didn't—the real breakthrough wasn't sitting in Connors' lab. It was gathering dust in Richard Parker's old briefcase, just waiting for Peter to stumble across it.

"Look, just remember you're supposed to pick up Aunt May tonight," Bennett said, giving Peter his most serious older-cousin look.

Peter nodded like a bobblehead, then froze. "Wait, how do you even know about that? You were gone before I even talked to her this morning."

"Don't worry about it," Bennett said smoothly. "Just make sure you tell Ben and May I'll be home late."

After ditching Peter, Bennett made a quick detour to Home Depot for some heavy-duty cleaning supplies. Industrial degreaser, the works. Then he found his favorite camera-free alley and got down to business.

He pushed up his sleeve, revealing the Omnitrix's now-familiar interface. The watch face projected its holographic display, cycling through alien silhouettes like some kind of extraterrestrial slot machine.

"XLR8 it is," he muttered, and pressed down.

Back at Stark Tower, Tony was having what he liked to call a "contemplative drinking session"—which was really just regular drinking, but with more staring at holographic displays.

The three-dimensional model rotating in front of him showed XLR8 in perfect detail. Every scale, every impossible mechanical component of those wheel-feet, every predatory angle of that alien skull.

"So he calls himself XLR8," Tony said to the empty room, swirling his scotch. "JARVIS, what's your professional opinion? Are we dealing with some kind of evolutionary throwback here? Maybe the dinosaurs didn't get the extinction memo after all."

Tony wasn't really expecting profound insights from his AI. JARVIS was useful as hell, but creativity and intuitive leaps were still firmly in the human domain.

"I'm afraid I have no definitive answers, sir," JARVIS replied in his perpetually polite British accent. "I've conducted extensive searches through every available database—governmental, academic, military, and several that officially don't exist. No records match this entity's physical characteristics or capabilities."

"There are some fringe communities claiming to represent 'original reptilian bloodlines,' but their documentation is... let's say scientifically questionable."

"Yeah, forget the lizard people conspiracy theorists," Tony waved dismissively. "This thing didn't crawl out of someone's basement. Too smart, too focused. He had a specific target and a clear agenda. Start building me a complete behavioral profile."

"Certainly, sir. Shall I designate the file as 'XLR8'?"

"Nah, I like 'Dinosaur Baby' better. Has a nice ring to it."

The hologram shifted and expanded, breaking down into multiple analytical displays as JARVIS began constructing threat assessments and tactical breakdowns.

"Preliminary analysis of the entity's locomotion reveals integrated wheel-like structures within the leg bones," JARVIS reported, simultaneously playing slowed-down combat footage. "During our engagement, the creature achieved sixteen distinct foot movements per second at what appeared to be casual velocity—approximately 300 miles per hour. Peak performance likely exceeds this significantly."

"The wheel structures appear to secrete a biological lubricant during high-speed movement, presumably to minimize friction and heat buildup."

Tony leaned forward, studying the frame-by-frame breakdown with professional interest. Even at quarter-speed, XLR8's movements looked impossibly fluid.

"Wheel-based locomotion," Tony mused, already seeing tactical applications. "That's actually exploitable. Doesn't matter how fast you are if you can't get traction. He's probably way more vulnerable to slippery surfaces than a normal biped would be."

For someone with Tony's background in physics and engineering, the implications were immediately obvious. Friction coefficients, momentum transfer, surface adhesion—this was undergraduate-level mechanics.

"Looks like the Mark V needs some new defensive features. Maybe deploy-able lubricants, or some kind of quick-hardening foam that can lock up those wheels."

With a potential countermeasure identified, Tony felt his confidence starting to return. But other aspects of the encounter raised bigger questions.

"What about this thing?" He pointed to the Omnitrix symbol clearly visible on XLR8's chest. "That's definitely not biological. Almost looks technological, like some kind of control interface."

The resemblance to his own arc reactor design was hard to ignore.

"What do you think the odds are that we're looking at a cyborg rather than a purely biological entity?"

From Tony's perspective, XLR8 seemed to violate every principle of evolutionary biology he'd ever learned. The wheel-feet alone should have been impossible, and that retractable faceplate looked more like advanced engineering than natural adaptation.

He was trying to understand an alien species using purely terrestrial assumptions, which naturally led to incomplete conclusions.

"I would estimate that probability as extremely low, sir," JARVIS responded. "X-ray analysis during the encounter revealed no evidence of surgical modification or technological implantation. The wheel structures appear to be natural bone formations, fully integrated with the entity's skeletal system."

"That can't be right," Tony said flatly.

"The data is quite conclusive, sir. While highly unusual, this appears to be a naturally occurring biological entity of unknown origin."

"JARVIS, completely unknown species don't just develop human-level intelligence in total isolation. And the damn thing spoke perfect English—better English than half the people I went to MIT with." Tony's voice carried the edge of someone working through an increasingly complex puzzle. "If it's not artificially created, then it's been evolving somewhere we haven't found it yet. For a very, very long time."

"Understood, sir. Shall I expand surveillance parameters?"

"Hell yes. Monitor every camera network in the tri-state area. Traffic cams, security systems, cell phone footage, satellite imagery—everything. I want real-time alerts if Dinosaur Baby or anything remotely similar shows up again. And dig deep into that criminal he killed. There's got to be a connection there."

"Very good, sir. Do you believe this entity represents a larger population, or a unique individual?"

Tony was quiet for a long moment, staring at the holographic display as the implications fully sank in.

"Earth's biosphere couldn't naturally produce something like that, JARVIS. Our evolutionary pressures, our atmospheric conditions, our gravity—none of it would select for those adaptations." He took a long pull of scotch before continuing. "If he's not some mad scientist's pet project, then he's extraterrestrial. Which means we might be looking at first contact."

"Shall I create a new classification system?"

"Yeah. Open a new file category." Tony's expression grew deadly serious as he contemplated what this might mean for humanity's future. "Call it 'Aliens.'"

The holographic interface shifted, creating what would eventually become one of the most critical databases in Stark Industries' classified archives. As the new file structure populated, Tony found himself staring at XLR8's rotating image with a mixture of fascination and growing concern.

If this creature represented advance scouts for a hostile alien civilization, then Earth was catastrophically unprepared for what might be coming. And if there were more of them already here, hiding among the human population...

"Time to start thinking on a planetary scale, JARVIS. This just became a lot bigger than one angry lizard with anger management issues."

300 powerstones for extra chapter.