Just as May pushed the door open to enter the room, a piercing green light flashed, forcing her to instinctively shut her eyes.
The light came and went quickly. Blinking uncomfortably, May saw Ben lying on the bed. The covers were bulged up high like he'd hidden an elephant underneath, with only his head peeking out.
"Hey, Aunt May," Ben greeted, trying to sound natural.
"Are you... okay?" May had plenty of questions she wanted to ask.
Like, what was that flash of bright light just now? What was that sound coming from his room? And did he stuff a two hundred pound hog under his comforter...
But she ultimately held her tongue. A child always needed a bit of privacy.
She just walked to Ben's bedside with a trace of worry, placing her age worn hand on his forehead.
"You don't seem to have a fever, but I'd better take you to the hospital just in case." May looked ready to start packing immediately and drag him there.
But Ben gripped the comforter tightly, shaking his head vigorously. "Wait, Aunt May, I'm fine. There's no need for the hospital."
The hospital?
In this land of the free, healthcare wasn't exactly cheap.
Ben didn't want to add any unnecessary financial burden to Aunt May and Uncle Ben.
"You've missed several days of school already, little Ben," May said, her voice serious with concern. "Ever since the day you and Peter came back from Osborn, both of you have been a bit off. At least Peter recovered quickly, but you... Ben and I are very worried about you."
"I just... didn't want to go to school, so..." Ben clutched the comforter even tighter.
"Didn't want to go to school?" Aunt May's voice rose in surprise and a flicker of anger. She wanted to lecture him properly, but just then, the sound of Uncle Ben's car came from downstairs.
It was an old clunker. Whenever it started or stopped, it inevitably made noises that seemed out of place in this century.
"Uncle Ben's back? I thought he had work today," Ben said, quickly changing the subject.
"Peter got into a fight at school," Aunt May said, her face full of distress.
Then she sighed and walked to the doorway, turning back to look seriously at Ben. "Right now, I need to go check on Peter. Later, Ben and I will talk with you, okay?"
Ben nodded obediently. Only after May closed the door and he heard her footsteps fade away did he let out a sigh of relief and throw off the covers.
His body still retained some features of the spider creature. The Omnitrix hadn't immediately fully restored his human genes. This was why Ben had buried himself under the comforter.
[Omnitrix energy insufficient. Energy replenishing... Estimated time for genetic repair: 1:37.]
"Incredible. It can destroy the universe via self destruct in a few days if charged, but now it's low on energy?" Ben looked disbelievingly at the watch on his wrist, which was still rotating its interface. Simultaneously, he felt the mutations on his body slowly fading away.
After the genetic repair, he probably wouldn't get Spider Man's powers either.
But Ben wasn't too bothered. "As long as this little watch can activate, Spider Man's superpowers aren't that big a deal."
Among the one million alien DNA samples stored in the Omnitrix, countless alien heroes had abilities similar to Spider Man's. The most typical were the Arachnichimps from Arachna.
The minute and a half passed quickly.
Ben could no longer feel any abnormalities in his body. But before he could inspect himself closely, the Omnitrix on his wrist automatically switched from green to blue. On its surface, countless strangely shaped black silhouettes rapidly cycled through.
[Entering Calibration Mode]
"Calibration Mode? Did the Omnitrix successfully re establish a link with Primus?" Ben was instantly excited!
The original Omnitrix didn't directly store over a million alien DNA samples; it was more like a cloud based system, needing to download the transformations from Primus. After entering Calibration Mode, the watch would randomly acquire ten alien DNA samples.
"I wonder which aliens I'll get."
Among the million plus alien DNA samples, the most powerful were undoubtedly the omnipotent Celestialsapiens Alien X!
However, Ben wasn't too keen on getting that one. The limitations of an Alien X transformation were too great. If he wasn't careful, he could get trapped in the consciousness universe by its two arguing personalities, unable to transform back.
In the instant Ben was pondering this, the Omnitrix finished calibrating.
The initial calibration didn't seem to change its external appearance, but many new icons had indeed appeared inside the watch.
Ben pressed the two buttons on the outside of the watch. The core module popped up. Two triangular blocks, shaped like an hourglass, overlapped and formed a square frame. Inside the frame was a humanoid black silhouette.
"Heatblast?"
Ben recognized it immediately as the icon for a Pyronite. Rotating the core module, other familiar silhouettes like Wildmutt and Diamondhead all appeared before his eyes.
"It's the original ten."
The superpowers of the original ten alien heroes were mostly very strong, and as a set of ten, they could handle a wide variety of situations. Not to mention, among these ten was Grey Matter!
Grey Matter's DNA came from the Galvan.
The same species as Azmuth, the creator of the Omnitrix and one of the five smartest beings in the galaxy.
In theory, Grey Matter's intellect could bypass all the Omnitrix's restriction protocols. Of course, that still required a certain knowledge base. In the cartoon, young Ben initially had trouble even fixing the air conditioner in the Rust Bucket.
Ben didn't attempt to transform immediately. Instead, he pulled his sleeve down to cover the watch because he heard someone coming up the stairs again.
"Sounds like Peter," Ben immediately pictured Peter walking up the stairs.
Then he froze. "Strange, since when is my hearing this good?"
Before he could ponder this, the door opened once more.
"Hey, Ben, are you feeling any bett " Peter walked in and started his greeting, but his words got stuck. The moment their eyes met, a strange feeling surged from the depths of their souls.
It felt like a circle of divergent lines appeared around each of their heads, like hairs standing on end.
"Wait, you too?!" Peter's eyes widened!
"Don't tell me you got bitten by a spider too!"
A few days ago, Peter had been bitten by a spider at Osborn. The next day, he found himself changed in extraordinary ways. And now, some instinct was telling him that his good cousin seemed to have gained the same abilities.
Ben was actually a bit surprised too. He thought the Omnitrix had completely removed the spider DNA. He hadn't expected it to be retained. Now, even without the watch, he had some ability to protect himself.
But as for Peter's question, Ben thought for a moment before answering:
"To be accurate... I ate the spider."
Peter: ????