Chapter 1: The Fall Beyond the Stars
The sky was tearing apart.
Ben Tennyson hovered above a burning planet, his chest heaving inside the cracked armor of **XLR8**. Explosions rippled in the distance as alien fleets clashed, and a colossal rift in space spiraled open above them — a black hole that didn't belong to this galaxy... or this reality.
"Ben!" Gwen's voice screamed through the comms, distorted by static. "Get out of there! The gravitational pull is destabilizing everything—"
"I can't!" Ben shouted, eyes narrowing. "If I run, this whole system goes down. I need to end this—**now**."
He slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix, spinning it until a green silhouette shimmered into view — **Way Big**. The transformation began, but halfway through, the light flickered.
*BZZZT—ERROR.*
The Omnitrix sparked violently. A pulse of energy exploded from it, shattering a nearby asteroid and pulling Ben into the gravitational pull of the black hole.
"No—no, no, NO!"
Stars warped. Time stretched. His body felt like it was being twisted inside out, every molecule screaming. Then, with a final burst of light—
**Everything went dark.**
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Ben gasped.
He awoke lying flat on solid earth, the sky above him filled with unfamiliar constellations. The air was heavy, rich with something strange — something **alive**.
He tried to stand, but his limbs ached. The Omnitrix on his wrist was smoking, flickering a dull orange. His surroundings weren't metal, or urban, or alien-tech filled.
They were... ancient.
Stone temples jutted out from misty mountains. Cherry blossoms drifted through the air. He heard the distant clash of metal — swords? — and shouting in a language he didn't understand.
"What the heck… where am I?" Ben muttered.
A sudden roar echoed from the forest. A massive beast — tiger-like, with three glowing eyes and jade horns — leapt out from the trees. It radiated power. **Spiritual power**.
Ben instinctively hit the Omnitrix.
"Time to go hero—!"
But the interface glitched. The alien silhouettes flickered, then shifted into **strange new forms** he didn't recognize — humanoid shapes clad in robes, swirling with elemental energy.
Before he could process it, the watch locked onto one.
**TRANSFORMATION INITIATED: FORM UNKNOWN.**
Green light exploded around him — but this was different. He didn't just change. He felt his **inner core shift**, his chest burning with energy unlike anything he'd ever known.
His body morphed, fusing alien speed with flowing martial qi. His skin shimmered with scale-like patterns, and wind swirled around him like a living blade.
The beast lunged.
Ben moved — faster than thought, guided by instinct and something new inside him. He struck with a spinning kick that cracked the beast's jaw and sent it crashing into a tree.
He landed silently.
Eyes glowing green, breathing steady.
"What... was that?" Ben whispered, staring at his hands. "That didn't feel like any alien. That felt like... me."
From the shadows, hooded figures emerged — robes flowing, swords drawn.
They had seen the transformation. Their leader stepped forward, his eyes glowing with a strange hunger.
"Seize him," he said coldly. "The artifact on his wrist… it belongs to the heavens."
Ben stood tall, the Omnitrix pulsing with unfamiliar power.
Lost in a world of martial arts, cultivation, and ancient secrets, one thing was clear:
**This wasn't Earth. This wasn't the galaxy.**
This was something else.
And Ben Tennyson was about to become something no one had ever seen before.
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End of Chapter 1