New York
In an old apartment, a youth of high school age was sleeping, but from the sweat on his face, you could tell he was having a nightmare.
"No, NOOO!" the guy shouted as he woke up. He looked around the old room, with its cracks on the wall, and felt both familiar and unfamiliar. "Where am I? Was I saved from that accident?"
Just then, he suddenly felt a severe headache. Memories of a guy named Jack Walker started to play in his mind, as if they were his own: growing up in an orphanage, becoming a high school senior, and finally leaving the orphanage as an adult to live alone in a cheap apartment.
"So, was I transmigrated or reincarnated?"
It took him a while to process the supernatural situation he had found himself in. As he tried to make sense of what had happened, he noticed a mirror nearby. Looking at his reflection, he saw that he now had black hair, sharp eyes, and a lean build.
Not bad. At least I look handsome now, unlike my ordinary face and skinny body in my past life. I wasted that life eating unhealthy food and watching anime and movies all day. Since I've been given a new life, I should at least take good care of this body and live a good life. There's nothing to regret about my past life. Now that I have a healthy body, I have nothing but advantages. Besides, we even share the same name, Jack, so not much has changed except for the place. And since it's only 2008 in this world, I can easily become a rich guy and live a happy life with a wife and kids.
Feeling optimistic about his future, he turned on the TV. The face that appeared on the screen belonged to Robert Downey Jr.
"Familiar face! Did Iron Man already get released?" Jack thought casually. But as he changed the channel, he thought of something, and suddenly his face changed. He switched back to the previous channel and looked at the Stark Industries logo and the name TONY STARK.
Jack had just gotten a very important piece of information from his eighteen years of memories in this life. He had learned about Captain America in history class, and Tony Stark was really Tony Stark, not some actor named Robert Downey. This made Jack realize a hard truth: he was not in some parallel world, but in the Marvel universe, where superpowers and magic exist, mortals can fight gods, and ordinary people can die at any time.
Just as Jack was thinking, should I leave New York and go somewhere remote to live, or find some way to become powerful? He remembered that it was only 2008. Iron Man was still a playboy, Captain America was sleeping on the ice somewhere, and nothing extraordinary had come to the public's eyes.
As Jack panicked about the future, a blue screen suddenly appeared, floating in the air in front of him.
Jack froze.
"What..."
The screen flickered. Then text appeared.
[ Player Memory Detected ]
[ Reincarnation Confirmed ]
[ Karma Reward — Initializing... ]
"...A system?"
Before he could say anything else, a burst of green light flashed, and something heavy landed on his wrist. Jack looked down. A black and green watch sat on his arm, with a glowing white hourglass symbol on the dial.
His heart nearly stopped.
"...No way."
"Omnitrix."
The device was created by the greatest mind in the universe, Azmuth, from a cartoon named Ben 10. A watch that could turn the user into any alien species stored in its database, powerful enough to change the fate of an entire universe.
Jack stared at it. His brain went blank for a few minutes, and he couldn't believe it. Am I in a dream? Only after pinching himself and feeling the pain did he believe he wasn't dreaming.
The system screen came back.
[ Omnitrix Bound to Host ]
[ Starter Alien — Available ]
[ Unlock more aliens through Hero Points ]
Jack looked at the last line.
"Hero Points."
He tapped the screen in his mind, and more information loaded. Hero Points were earned by doing heroic things like stopping crimes, saving lives, and protecting people. Anything that brought positive karma could earn him Hero Points, and he could spend them to unlock new aliens.
Clear enough.
He pushed that aside for now, because the Omnitrix was sitting on his wrist, and it was very real. It looked different from the classic cartoon version, sleeker and smaller, more like the Alien Force model.
Jack touched the dial carefully.
KRR-CHAK!
The Omnitrix lit up, and a green hologram appeared. One alien was available, a dark silhouette. He didn't recognize it.
He looked around his room. The door, windows, and curtains were all closed.
Good enough.
His heart was pounding and his hands were shaking slightly, but his face had a huge grin on it. He raised his arm, pressed the dial, and shouted the words.
"IT'S HERO TIME!"
The dial slammed down, and green light filled the entire room. His bones shifted, his shape twisted, and everything changed at once. Then the light faded.
"...Did it work?"
His voice sounded wrong, too high and too strange. He walked to the mirror and froze.
Looking back at him was not a human. It was a tiny blue alien, fish-like, with small fins for arms and thin legs. It had a dorsal fin on its back, and big green eyes blinking at him.
Jack stared.
"...Seriously?"