Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the cold vacuum of space a small cargo ship named The Roswell was fast approaching the atmosphere of planet Earth. In it, a pilot named Xylene carried a device known as the Omnitrix that allowed its yielder to transform itself into 10 different alien species. She sought to entrust the Omnitrix to Max Tennyson, a retired member of the intergalactic police force known as the Pumblers and an old flame of hers.

Normally she wouldn't want to force Max out of retirement, if it wasn't for the fact that Vilgax, a galactic dictator that Max once defeated, ruthlessly sought the power of the Omnitrix so he could continue his conquest.  

-"So far so good." - thought Xylene. However as she was preparing to enter the planet's atmosphere a beam of energy hit the ship's shields making the entire control deck tremble. Xylene fell on her face and as she was trying to get up the ship's artificial inteligence shouted "ALERT! ALERT! This shuttle is under heavy fire.". - "Yeah, you don't say."- said the alien with dry humor and a hint of pain in her voice.

-INCOMING TRANSMITION, INCOMING TRANSMITION!

Said the AI. Trying to regain the slightest sense of composure Xylene accepted the call and immediately heard the imposing voice of a tyrant.

-You have something that belongs to me, Uxorite. Surrender it or face the wrath of the Chimerian Hammer.
Xylene smirked.
-Try and catch me! - Defied the alien.

She knew the tyrant valued the cargo inside The Roswell way too much to let it risk be destroyed. She proceeded to activate the ships auto-pilot for evasive manouvers and ran through the deck as she made her way to the cargo bay.

Just as she entered the room she felt a different kind of tremble. The freedom fighter spoted a buzzsaw cut through her ship's hull as if it was butter. As drones invaded The Roswell through every wall imaginable, the AI desperatly fired back in an attempt to evade capture and, unbeknownst to it, managed to hit the control deck of the Chimerian Hammer.

Xylene was also panicking. She ducked out of a energy blast and instinctively defended herself using her natural ability of telekinesis to send her attackers hurdling towards each other. As the bots crumbled she directed her atention towards the escape pods.
Just as she placed the package on the pod she heard the sharp sound and felt the burning pain that came with being pierced by a energy shot. She quickly turned around sending a blade of pure psychic energy hitting the remaining drone. Noticing it had come from the deck, Xylene figured the ship was already taken over. She desperatly sent the escape pod to the planet below and immediately collapsed onto the ground.

Trying to even gather a coherent thought was a herculean task as the blood loss started to get the better of the Uxorite. Xylene silently prayed that whomever managed to get their hands on the Omnitrix would yield it better than Vilgax, before the drones surrounded her and opened fire.

Chapter Text

BEEP BEEP 

BEEP BEEP

BEE-

Jamie punched his alarm clock and woke up with what would have been a jump if he was sleeping in a bed . Instead he rolled down from the backseat of his 2002 Doblo and stumbled his way to the driver's seat. On the first official day of summer break he knew he couldn't afford a second to go to waste. He stopped by Old Man Cook's Diner, the sloppiest restaurant in all of Perez, Massachusetts, so he could get some breakfast. He munched the cheapest pancakes he had ever bought. 

As he was eating a waitress pulled over and asked: "Sir, would you like something to go with these pancakes?"

"Maybe something that doesn't taste like styrofoam, for starters"  he thought. As he was turning to answer he noticed he knew the waitress from somewhere. He stared at her for an awkwardly long amount of time before he took a guess. 

"Did... did we share classes in Perez High ?"

Now it was the woman's turn to stare. With sudden realization her face shone as she asked him:

"Oh my god, Jamie Affernack, is that you?!"

"Yeah, and you are..."

"Ashley! Ashley Smelley." She interrupted, quite exasperated. 

He immediately understood her jumpiness. He remembered how her mother was famously known around town as a drunk and as a serial smoker. He remembered how Ashley was given the not so kind nickname of Smelly Ashtray because of it. Lastly he remembered being particularly mean to her, which made him feel shame. He did feel happy for her though. It was noticeable that in contrast to her High School days, Ashley now took care of herself. Her hair used to be a long ass unmanageable mess, but now it was shoulder length and flipped out at the ends. She also had ditched her old round glasses for square and rimless glasses, which he thought looked so stylish and futuristic. (Note: the author does not share the character's opinions on square and rimless glasses.)

She also took note of how Jamie had changed (for the worse). It seemed like ever since he dropped out of high school 5 years ago he had aged twice that. He had been kicked out of his parents house and started living in his car, which meant his sleep had been severely impaired. Because of that dark circles had grown around his eyes. Living on a tighter budget also meant that he couldn't afford a trip to the barbershop, leaving his blond hair slightly before shoulder length and dirty with sand and his face had been covered up with a weird peach fuzz that was neither beard nor mustache. All in all he knew he looked like a hobo. 

"Oh right! How have you been?" He asked, trying (and failing) to not sound awkward.

"Great, actually." she answered, taking a seat on the opposite side of the table "College decided to start summer break a couple of days earlier, so I decided to spend it with mom. " 

"Oh, that's nice! What are you maj--"

"What about you?" She interrupted again.

“Wha-”

“How are you doing?”

"Well…" Jamie felt awkward. He didn't want to spill all the details about his homelessness into his acquaintance but he also knew lying would be pathetic. Instead he decided to do what he did best: sugarcoat it. 

"Currently I am practicing street camping."

"Is this that new Extreme Sport?" 

" YEP, IT SURE IS EXTREME HAHAH A h a ha hah ha "

Ashley briefly glanced at the customers that were staring daggers at her. "Shoot, I forgot I work here! Look I gotta go, nice catching up though!"

****

As he was leaving the diner he made sure to leave a good tip. He then made his way to Perez City Hall and sat by the Anchor Statue as he waited for his "business partner" to arrive. As he idly stared into the street watching people go by their day, he saw a grown man dressed as a cartoonish pirate cross the street. 

Oh no.

He saw the man looking around as if looking for someone, doing his best not stumble onto his comically large doublet

Oh god no. 

The man's eyes met Jamie's followed by a friendly grin and a hand wave. 

"Jamie! Buddy! Partner!"

Oh god, please no!

The pirate ran up to him. 

"Jamie! How 'yarr' doing, friendo? "

He stared at the pirate before asking the obvious question

“Wheaton, why are you dressed as a pirate?”

“Chillax dude! It’s just something I thought of yesterday. Trust me: the tourists are going to love it. I also brought you this costume! ”

Jamie examined what appeared to be a black and white striped shirt and a red bandana followed by what appeared to be a… an eyepatch?

“I can’t wear an eyepatch.”

“Why not?”

“BECAUSE I’m going to be driving the tourists around town while you feed them whatever half baked script about historical factoids the Tourist Guide Association gave you.”

“Oh riight...”

"Also I can't be seen dressed like that, man. It looks ridiculous."

"Alrighty then…" he took the costume back.  As Wheaton said those words Jamie noticed that the guide's speech was slurred and his breath had a distinct smell to it. 

“ARe you drunk right now? REALLY!? It's still 9 o’clock!”

“ I'd have to get up pretty early to be drunk by nine o'clock phahahaha”

“Don’t try to quote Arrested Development yourself out of this conversation, man! You have a serious problem!”

“And it’s because of my ‘problem’ that you have a job. So you’re welcome, I guess.”

“Listen here yo---!”

“Uhm, excuse me? Are you the tourist guides?” Said a woman’s voice. Both men turned around to see about seven people staring at them. 

“Yes, we are! Just hold on a moment please” Jamie pulled Wheaton over to the side.

“We have a problem.”

“What?”

“There are seven people waiting here and I only have 6 passenger seats on my Doblo." 

"My daughter could sit on my lap, she's only 7.” Said the woman again, eavesdropping.

“That’s settled then!” The drunk tourist guide said, giving Jamie a pat on the shoulder.

As the tour started Wheaton spoke the same overused script saying how Perez was named after the heroic pirate that gave his life stalling the British forces during the American Revolution and how the city decided to use his ship’s anchor as its symbol to show how much yada yada yadayada…  at some point Jamie always stopped paying attention in order to enjoy the soothing landscape that Perez’s provided.

He came back to reality one they arrived on the first beach around 9:20. Another 5 minutes of tedious blabbering led Jamie to take a quick nap while the tourists ran off to explore and take pictures. He didn’t manage to actually dream before Wheaton woke him up..With a nod they went back on the road. He noticed that the little girl was playing a video game. Was this the new gameboy? Why is she playing it with a pen? Are those two screens? Gosh I’m getting old…

As he continued to drive he noticed the loud sounds of the game she was playing. He guessed she was right behind him in the passenger’s seat. More blahblahbla was heard from the tourist group chatting with Wheaton while Jamie stayed focused on the road. That was arguably the most relaxing part of the job, with just him, the road and the nice sound of stories of people’s lives that were more interesting than his own. He did hear some mumbling between the little girl and her mom before the kid asked:

“Mister, I am feeling kinda sick, can I puke?” 

“Sure thing! Just let me stop the ca--- OH MY GOD, WHY!?”

He felt the warm jet hit his back in full force. Jamie did his best not to lose control of the car as he went to tears into the side of the road. As the car stopped Jamie got out of the car along with the rest of the tourists. As they all left the car Wheaton turned to Jamie and asked:

“Are you still sure you’re too good for the pirate costume?”

****

Later, after trading his jersey for a striped black and white shirt, Jamie and Wheaton spent the rest of their day scrubbing puke off in an effort to clean up the car. Afterwards during lunch at Wheaton’s apartment they managed to watch a rerun of a really mediocre sitcom. Not particularly good, but The Barenaked Ladies sang the intro so that was fun. They went their separate ways as the city fell on their siesta.  (Siesta is the habit of taking a nap after lunch, in case you amazing people reading this aren’t aware. It’s mostly common in Spain but I decided to incorporate it here because why the hell not?)

After such a stressful day Jaime decided he needed to unwind. He packed a water bottle, a lantern and a few snacks in his bag and went on to his hiding spot. Contrary to what most people knew, Perez harboured a secret beach of elusive access. Jamie had found it by accident during High School and made sure to not tell anyone as he made it into his happy place. “ So perfect... so immaculate...” Jamie thought to himself as he sat on the reclining chair he left there all those years ago. He watched as the sun set and the purple starry night took its place. He smiled at the sight of a beautiful shooting star passing by.  Although his life undoubtedly sucked, he at least had this place, and nothing could take that away. 

And then a meteor crashed 30 feet away from him. 

Jamie tried to maintain composure as his chair did a backflip because of the impact sending him face first into the sand. As he got up he felt a brief cold blast of wind pass through him making the smoking crater of melted sand into glass. Curiosity overpowered his fear as the young man approached the glass platform only to find a metal capsule of apparent alien origin. The capsule opened to reveal what appeared to be a bracelet. Carefully he tried to pick it up before the device jumped onto his wrist. He felt a sharp pain followed by a sense of tingling in his arm. Panicking he desperately tried to take it off which made him accidentally press a button. 

A dial popped up.

As if to try and make this situation less chaotic than it already is Jamie tried to push this dial back onto its original position, but just as he did that a blue flash of light engulfed him. A second later Jamie felt like he had shrunken down to the size of a baby. He looked down to see if the watch had fallen from his arm, but as he did that he noticed that in fact he had no arms at all.

“What tHE FU-- ”

To be continued

Chapter Text

Jamie spun around his own axis with surprising ease as he tried to understand what was happening to him. He noticed that he had grown shorter and he could barely see his feet. His vision had changed as well, he could see everything clearly from 180 degrees. Using this newly gained peripheral vision he spotted a mirror that had fallen from his bag. He saw in horror what appeared to be a small fish with legs staring back at him. Hyperventilation took over as all hopes of coherent thought were flushed away by his fear. 

He started running through the shrubland that connected the beach to town and stumbled a couple of times as he got used to this new pair of weak legs. He soon had to stop to catch his breath. Looking up he saw the brightness that could only come from a lamp post. This gave him the motivation he needed to rush forward. While in search of a familiar face that could help him out, he felt the immediate fear leave his conscience and be replaced by clarity. As if by instinct, Jamie noticed that he could cover a far greater length if he started sliding instead of walking. 

With the agility of an olympic ice skater, Jamie Affernack raced through the streets of Perez, Massachusetts, wind blowing against his face with a determination to find help. 

He stopped once he noticed a door opening. He looked up. The sign said "Old Man Cook's Dinner". "It must be Ashley getting out of her shift" he deduced in a fraction of a second before sprinting under a trash can, doing his best to hide.

"When I said I wanted to find a familiar face to help me out I didn't stop to consider what that person would think once they saw a fish with legs wandering about in broad day-- I mean nightlight. Shit!"

He waited a couple of seconds to sneakily spy on whoever had just left the dinner and lo and behold he was correct in his assumption that it was indeed his old colleague Ashley leaving her job. 

"Wait a sec! If she was working here during 9 AM, then why is she closing shop now, at 6 PM? Shouldn't her shift have ended around noon?"

His thoughts, however, were interrupted by the all too familiar sound of puking. Jamie looked behind to see just the person he was looking for. 

"Wheaton!" 

He saw the man, still dressed as a pirate, leaning his back against the walls of the dirty alleyway almost passed out from alcohol poisoning, as evidenced by the bottle covered by a paper bag that stood on the ground, wasting away whatever cheap beer he had bought. 

Jamie walked up to his friend that was almost falling asleep. 

"Psst!"

No answer.

"Wheaton!"

Still no answer. Jamie was about to give up, before he looked at his arm like flippers. 

With a slippery spin and the right momentum Jamie gave Wheaton the hardest slap he would ever receive. The young man was left in shock, both by the pain of the attack and by the sight of a fish with legs standing over him. Shock quickly turned into laughter.

"Hehehe… Heya Fishy Fishy…" he mumbled as he tried to figure out what kind of hallucinogen the barman had spiked his drink with. 

"Wheaton! It 's me, Jamie!" 

"Riiight…" 

"Yeah, it's weird, I know. But you gotta listen to me: A meteor transformed me into this fish!"

“I gotta lay off the booze hehehe...”

“I am not joking, man! Look at me! I have been turned into a freakin’ fish!”

“Aaand what exactly do you expect me to do about it? It’s not like I have a degree in marine biology. The only person that I know that could have any kind of clue on how to help your sorry ass is my former biology teacher, Mr A. Which, b’the way, makes no sense, the dude is a DOCTOR, why would he be teaching highschool biology classes, instead of, I don’t know, doctoring? What do biology doctors do anywa- Fishy? Where did you go? Fishy? Oh well...” 

As Wheaton fell asleep once again, Jamie ran as fast as he could to find his former biology teacher. Luckily he knew the man lived in the same street as his family lived when he was a child, and after a quick look around, lo and behold, he found a letterbox with Animo written on it.

-------

The sound of waves crashing against the rocks filled the chaotic scenery as the secret beach in which the Omnitrix had fallen laid deserted. From the sea a pair of crimson drones emerged. Roaming through the sand they shot out their scanners, analyzing the site of the crash. They examined the exploded container looking for the watch their master had instructed them to retrieve. Failing this task, the drones changed their scanners setting to trace residual radiation caused by the use of the Omnitrix. Suddenly, from the perspective of their visors, a set of small footprints became apparent. Footprints that lead directly into the city of Perez.

-------

Just as he was about finishing up setting the stove to heat up his tea, Dr. Aloysius Animo couldn't help himself but to let out a subconscious sigh of relief.

It had been a long school year, but summer vacation was finally here, which meant he could finally indulge in the simple pleasures of life without having to worry about grading papers and planning classes. It'd be just him, his tea and this curious penguin documentary he had rented earlier that day. No more dealing with moody teenagers and school bureaucracy and faulty equipment, Animo was finally free. 

It's not that he resented a teaching job on principle, but the thought that he was once Dr. Aloysius Animo, renowned veterinary scientist on track for a Verities Award, presently reduced to living on a teacher's salary made his blood boil if he thought about it for too long. Almost like… almost like his tea! Animo turned the stove off. 

Still– he couldn't exactly blame his peers for essentially blacklisting him from academic research. He had a damn near schizophrenic breakdown. He was hearing voices. He was building prototypes out of kitchen appliances. He had almost convinced himself that one of his sponsors served an ancient cabal of knights. 

Thankfully, his colleagues intervened before it was too late. Nowadays, Animo is under psychiatric monitoring and well medicated. Past are the days of being too scared to leave the house and seeing tiny gray men in the shadows. Which is why he found it extra weird when he saw what looked like a fish squeezing their body through the front door’s pet flap.

                                  -------

A jump through the pet flap later and he was inside the doctor's house. He looked around and took notice of how disorganized the place was. Countless pizza boxes were stacked inside the trash can, a box of antipsychotics was down on the ground and his carpet was full of weird stains over it. Unbeknownst to Jamie, however, a figure cautiously took hold of a net behind.

Without a sliver of fear for the unknown, Doctor Aloysius Animo observed this mysterious life form that had just entered his home. It was weird, he admitted, how even though he had purposefully tried to find a quiet life away from the bizarre mutated animals that tormented his mind, fate decided to send one right through his door.

The swing of the net was decisive. In one second Jamie was observing the place, and in the other he was being thrown inside a terrarium. 

“Yo, what the hell?!”

Animo mumbled something as he took notes in his journal.

"It knows how to talk… Where did it learn this vulgar vocabulary from?”

“I am not an it. And just so you know---” 

“You’re not a figment of my imagination, are you? Disregard that– even if you were you wouldn’t tell me… Drat!”

Jamie thought back to the spilled antipsychotics. “Maybe Mr A isn’t the best person to help me...” 

“What are you, exactly? And why did you invade my house?”

“Dr A, listen! It’s me, Jamie Affernack, you taught me biology in high school during senior year! You’re not crazy, what happened was that I was chilling on the beach and ameteorcraSHEDANDAWATCHCAMEOUTOFTHEMETEORANDTHENTHEWATCHJUMPEDINTOMYWRISTANDTHENIPANICKEDSOIHITTHEWATCHANDITTRANSFORMEDINTOAFISH! So please don’t kill me! ”

The man took less than a second to digest all the information that was shoved down his throat by desperate talking fish. With a sudden movement, the lid of the Terrarium was opened and Animo carefully picked Jamie up. Next thing you know the small fish man was standing on a table that was quite presentable in contrast to the rest of the messy house. Animo took a seat.

Now calmer, Jamie explained what had happened as best as he could, making sure to leave out the exact location of the secret beach, he still wanted some privacy afterall.

“I see… So this wrist watch… I wouldn’t happen to have the same symbol as the device wrapped around your tail, would it?”

“Device? What device?”

Jamie tried to look at his tail but as he did he heard a beeping coming from behind him.

BEEP 

BEEP 

BOOP

“James... The device is flashing some kind of red light… Do you know what that means?”

BOOP

Holy fuck, I’m going to explode. 

 BOOP 

Jamie once again without hesitating ran away from his teacher trying to protect the older man from the inevitable blast. He jumped from the table and…

BOOMP

Jamie suddenly felt taller. The beeping had thankfully stopped and while wiping away the tears from his eyes he noticed with relief that he had returned to his original body. The watch was still on his left wrist there.

“Jamie, are you okay?”

“No.” Said the young man face down on the ground, tears started to form in his eyes. HOW COULD THINGS HAVE GONE SO WRONG? HOW? He asked himself as if there was anyone capable of answering that question. As he ugly cried for a solid minute, he felt a blanket drop onto his back, followed by a warm cup of chamomile tea entering his line of sight.

“Here. I think you might need this.” Said the former teacher while directing the sobbing man to the nearest chair. 

Jamie took a sip and immediately did his best to resist the urge to spit it out. “Crap, I forgot to ask for sugar.” He noticed that his teacher was still staring at him, and felt too embarrassed to ask for the sugar now that he had already drunk the first sip. “I’d look pretty stupid if I backpaddled now. Besides, he didn’t offer me neither honey nor sugar. Maybe that’s how you’re supposed to drink the tea.” Jamie decided to bite the bullet, as he painfully took the second sip from the cup trying his hardest not to cringe from the bitterness.

Meanwhile, Aloysius stared at his student, puzzled by the young man’s capacity of drinking chamomile tea without the need of any sweeteners. “This boy isn't right.” He concluded. The teacher turned his attention to the window leading to the front lawn and was shocked to see two drones rapidly approaching his front door.

“Jamie--!”

Was the only thing he could say as the robots shredded the door open like a pair of buzzsaws. The drones stopped for a second to scan for the residual radiation but instead found the real article in the wrist of a human. They drew their weapons.

Jamie jumped and acting on pure instinct threw the mug into one of the drones. Hitting the target dead on, the robot fizzled and zapped as a tea induced shortcut took him out. The second one wasn’t having any of this and charged the man, lunging itself in his left arm. 

They wrestled in the living room as the scout droid threw Jamie against a wall. Still not letting go of the man’s wrist, it led him face first into the moldy carpeted floor. Lastly, it threw itself into a bookcase. The drone dropped its hold on the man as the furniture shook against the wall before falling completely over Jamie, leaving only his left arm exposed. The drone took this opportunity to use its laser saw and fulfill its prime objective. As it approached its target, however, it detected a second hostile presence. 

Animo swirled the broomstick against the robot with little to no avail. The machine shook a little before shooting a stunning shot straight into the man's chest. He tried his best to get up but his arms had gone almost completely limp. He crawled up just in time to see the drone once again attaching itself to James’ arm. 

Sparks flew off as a laser buzzsaw tried to cut out Jamie’s arm. He screamed in agony flailing his arm until a blue flash of light sent the drone flying across the room. From the debris of the bookcase Aloysius Animo witnessed the rise of a new inhuman entity.

It stood about 7 feet tall with a body covered in scales. A huge fin coming from the tip of his spine all the way to the back of his head, it was followed by an esca that illuminated his face, showcasing glowing white eyes and jaw full of razor sharp teeth. 

The creature let out an animalistic roar of pure rage before jumping against the drone. Both engaged as they were once again flung against the walls of the house, only separating once they both saw themselves facing each other in the hallway.

The drone shot. Jamie dodged. With a swift jump he clawed the robot, who in turn counterattacked with their saw. The two fell behind the couch, metal violently shredding against Jaime's razor sharp claws. Only Jamie got up.

The first drone suddenly rebooted, and immediately took shots at Jamie. Hitting him in the back, Jamie got right back down. It wasn't just the shot that hurt him, for some reason he was also feeling extremely fatigued, almost dehydrated. 

As the machine approached to knock him out for good, a blanket covered it's field of vision entirely. It was Animo, who had also gotten back up. The doctor swung the robot inside the blanket against the wall, cracking the drywall, before losing control of the machine again. This was all the distraction needed for Jaime to get back up and swiftly chomp down at the drone with his monstrous jaws. 

There. Both invaders had been repelled. Now all we needed to figure out is… 

“Affernack, just what the hell have you brought to my house?!”

“You know… Mr. A… I was thinking you could tell me… Is it just me or–

it's really hot in here? I could really use some… water–”

Those were the last words spoken before Jaime collapsed on the ground from dehydration.