Smoke curled through the air.
Trees cracked and fell in the distance as the earth trembled.
Max slammed on the brakes. The Rustbucket screeched to a halt just off the forest path. Birds scattered. Somewhere deeper in the woods, something roared.
Something huge.
"Gwen! Ben! Stay in the RV!" Max shouted as he grabbed his Plumber tech case and jumped out.
But Ben was already out the door, the Omnitrix glowing faintly on his wrist.
His eyes were locked on the smoke trail ahead.
Whatever was coming… wasn't small.
---
They found the source within minutes.
A mutated wild boar, nearly the size of a truck, crashed through the trees. Its skin glistened with purple bio-fluid. Its tusks sparked like Tesla coils.
"A rogue mutation," Max muttered. "Tennyson luck…"
The beast roared and locked eyes on them.
Ben stepped forward, raising his arm. Gwen tried to stop him.
"Ben, wait! We don't know what this thing can—"
> "Neither does it," he said, twisting the dial.
The Omnitrix core popped up, waiting.
Ben didn't scroll. He already knew which form he'd use.
Heatburst.
His first custom alien. His proof of concept. His first Prime Form.
He slapped the core down.
> WHOOSH.
Green light exploded, and Ben's body erupted in fire and shadow.
The transformation wasn't like the old Heatblast.
His silhouette was taller, armored in obsidian plating that cracked with flowing magma. His face was smooth and angular, with radiant white-hot eyes. Massive flame-like wings flared out behind him, folding and flexing as he landed, molten claws digging into the dirt.
"W-What the heck?" Gwen whispered.
Even Max stepped back. "That's… not Heatblast."
Ben — or rather, Heatburst — opened his hands. Twin streams of plasma trailed like liquid sunlight.
"I call this," he said in a deep, echoing voice, "Heatburst Prime."
The boar charged.
Ben didn't flinch.
In a flash, he leapt — wings propelling him into the air.
Then he dropped, slamming into the beast's back with an explosion of superheated shockwaves. Dirt and fire erupted in every direction. The mutated boar howled in pain, its back scorched.
Ben spun midair, launching a spiral of plasma that pinned the creature's legs to the ground in rings of burning glass.
"New ability," he muttered, "plasma binding. Efficient."
The boar struggled, but Ben was already moving.
He raised both hands to the sky.
Solar energy crackled, drawn from the atmosphere, condensing into a single white-hot lance.
Then he threw it.
The plasma lance hit the boar square in the chest — not to kill, but to stun.
> BOOM!
The shockwave knocked trees flat in a radius of twenty feet.
The mutated creature slumped to the ground, unconscious but alive.
Smoke hissed from its body — but it would live.
---
Ben floated gently back down, wings of fire folding behind his back.
He turned toward Gwen and Max.
Their faces said everything.
Disbelief.
Shock.
…Fear?
He tapped the Omnitrix, and the flames vanished.
Ben stood once more in human form — eleven years old, messy brown hair, calm green eyes.
But nobody was calling him "normal" anymore.
---
Max approached first. His Plumber instincts were screaming.
"What was that form?" he asked carefully.
Ben shrugged. "A new one. I modified Heatblast."
"Modified?" Max repeated. "How did you even—?"
"Let's just say I've been learning. The Omnitrix is more versatile than Azmuth wanted us to know."
Gwen stepped forward, still staring at him.
"Ben… you didn't just use fire. That was plasma control. You were flying. You made that lance out of sunlight!"
Ben nodded. "Correct. Heatburst isn't just an upgrade. It's an evolution."
Gwen shook her head, blinking. "Since when can you do any of this?"
Ben looked at her.
And this time, he didn't hide it.
"Since I decided to stop being a cartoon character," he said, "and started rewriting the script."
---
Later that night, back at the Rustbucket, Max tried to act normal. He grilled fish. Gwen helped with dishes. But the tension in the air lingered.
Ben sat on the roof, legs crossed, eyes closed, the Omnitrix glowing faintly.
> They don't trust me yet. Not fully. But now… they know they shouldn't ignore me either.
He reviewed the fight in his mind.
Every move.
Every variable.
Heatburst had performed at 68% maximum efficiency. More than enough for this level of threat. But nowhere near full power.
> I didn't just build a new form. I built a system. A branching tree of evolution. Heatburst is the seed. The fruit… that's coming later.
---
Inside the Omnitrix, deep within the code he had unlocked, a new menu blinked.
Prime Form Progression: 1/10
Warning: Custom Evolution Pathway May Destabilize Root Integrity.
Ben smirked.
> "Let it."
---
Tomorrow, he would start working on XLRX. After that, Diamondshift — his upgraded version of Diamondhead. And beyond that?
He'd build fusion templates.
Hybrid genomes.
Unlock Alien X under his own conditions — and tame it.
---
For now, though?
He had made his first move.
And the galaxy didn't even know it had been challenged.