He ran into the forest, branches snapping under his shoes. Smoke curled between the trees. The air smelled like burnt metal.
In the middle of a scorched clearing was a strange metal pod, cracked open from the impact. Inside, resting in a beam of flickering green light, was a watch.
Not a normal watch.
This one pulsed. Glowed. Almost like it was alive.
Ben stepped closer. “Okay… that is officially the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
The device suddenly sprang out of the pod and snapped onto his wrist.
“Whoa! Hey! I didn’t say you could—”
It locked tight.
Green energy shot up his arm. Symbols flashed across the face. Ben tried to pull it off, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Uh… Grandpa?!”
The dial rose from the surface with a strange hum.
Curious — and maybe just a little reckless — Ben twisted it.
Images appeared inside the watch face.
Silhouettes. Creatures. Not human.
“Okay… that’s new.”
He slammed his palm down on the dial.
The world exploded into green light.
Pain? No.
It felt like power.
Bones stretched. Muscles shifted. Heat rushed through his body.
When the light faded, Ben looked down — and instead of his small human hands, there were hands made of living fire.
He gasped. Flames flared brighter with his breath.
“NO. WAY.”
He lifted his arms and accidentally shot a stream of fire into a tree.
“Whoa! Okay! Note to self — don’t sneeze!”
Footsteps crashed through the bushes as Gwen and Grandpa Max arrived.
They stopped.
Staring.
Where Ben once stood was a blazing alien figure, glowing in the night.
“Ben?” Gwen whispered.
The alien looked at his reflection in a shiny rock.
He grinned.
“Yeah. And I think… I just got way cooler.”
⸻
And that was the night Ben Tennyson stopped being just a kid on summer vacation…
And became a hero.
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7 months ago
en
Female
Middle Aged
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High
Animated
Anime
Dramatic
This road trip is seriously becoming a total drag. Between Gwen's complaining and Grandpa's weird bug-omelets, I'm gonna lose it! But wait, did you see those lights in the woods? It looks like something crashed. Finally, things are actually starting to get interesting! It's hero time!
