Chapter 2: A New Tennyson
'Where am I now?' That's all I could think of at the moment that I managed to gain consciousness, after mom sent that glowing ball into my chest.
I could feel something soft under me, probably a blanket, so that means I've already been born. But, that doesn't really explain where I am, or how old I currently am, maybe I'm at a point where the Tennyson's already adopted me?
Sitting up from the blanket I was laying on I saw that the room I was currently in was dark, so it might be nighttime, or they just have good black out curtains here. Well, if I can't see where I am, I can at least try to speak, because maybe my new voice can tell me how old this body of mine is.
"H-hello?..." That sounded a lot softer and younger than my old voice, so it feels kind of weird to hear that voice come from me, though I can at least tell that I'm younger than ten, but I'd need to see myself to figure out a better guess for my age.
After I spoke to try and figure out my age, I started to hear the sound of large footsteps, and a smaller set following it, heading in my direction. I guess someone managed to hear me, but I barely said anything, are the walls here paper thin, or is there a baby monitor here?
As the steps got closer I hoped that whoever came into the room was a Tennyson, because if not then that meant one of two things, one I will eventually be adopted, but not now, or two, mom screwed up and sent me to the wrong universe.
The two sets of footsteps stopped behind, what I could only assume was, the door of the room I was in at the moment. After a second the door opened, and light came into the room, which blinded me, until after a minute my eyes adjusted to the light to be able to see. And, thank fuck what I saw was not a random person in the doorway.
"Ah, look Penny, I told you he would wake up soon." Said the blonde woman, who I could tell was Sandra Tennyson.
'Wait.... Did she say Penny?' Who the hell is Penny? Are they a relative of Ben's that the show never talked about? I was completely confused on whom this person is that I never learned about, briefly forgetting that I'm not in original Ben 10 world, but in a variant of it.
It wasn't until a small brown haired, and green-eyed girl popped out from behind Sandra's legs, that I realized who the hell Penny is.
'Oh shit, Ben got born as a girl in this world.' I mean, I know that each variant of the worlds has its differences, but I've never seen one where Ben was a girl, instead of just looking slightly different. Though Benzarro is a good example that they can look vastly different each other.
I think I was staring at her for too long, because Penny hid back behind her moms legs. Fuck, I hope she doesn't think I'm weird now, that could be bad to deal with later on.
"Oh, let me introduce myself, I'm Sandra Tennyson, and this darling girl behind me is my daughter Penelope Tennyson, or Penny for short." Looks like Sandra decided to break the silence that was lingering in the room. Good, this means I can at least try to not seem weirder than I've already made myself seem.
"I'm Nicholas, but you can call me Nico." Best to just introduce myself with my first name, because I don't think I should use the name Levin.
"Well, hello there Nico, can you tell me how you ended up on the road last night?" Huh, so they found me on the road, what the fuck happened before I was put in this body?
"I-I don't know..." That isn't even a lie, I don't know why the hell this body was on a road in the first place. Though it seems my words stumped her, or maybe that's shock, I can't fully tell at the moment.
"Well that's an issue, maybe Max can help, since he was the one that found you." Huh, I wonder why he brought me here then, wouldn't it be better to take me to a hospital or something?
She left the room, I assume to go get Max to help, how he would help in this situation, I have no clue whatsoever. Though, Penny didn't follow her, instead the little brunette came closer to me, I don't know why she is coming closer to me though.
"H-hi..." Oh, I guess she wanted to try introducing herself, she must be shy. Though I could never imagine any version of Ben to be shy in the slightest, but to be fair not all of them have the same personality or upbringing as the original.
"Hello, Penny, right?" It feels kind of weird to be talking to someone that's an alternate version of one of my favorite characters.
"Call me Penn!" Ah, so shy, but upfront when it comes to her nickname. I guess Penny is the nickname that only her parents are allowed to use, or maybe she prefers to be called Penn, but her parents just continue to call her Penny.
"Okay Penn, it's nice to meet you." If she prefers to have her nickname be Penn, then I'll call her Penn. Well, she's smiling at me not saying calling her Penny, so at least she doesn't think negatively of me right now.
For a couple of minutes after that Penn and I talked a bit, it was mainly stuff involving shows or games that she liked, as I don't know much about the stuff in this world yet. Surprisingly Sandra and Max didn't come into the room the entire time we were talking, even though I swear I saw them peeking in from the doorway.
I guess they thought we could be good friends, or something, I don't know, maybe Penn doesn't talk to a lot of people that are even somewhat close to her age. Though that's assuming that this body is currently around her age.
"Hello there, Nico, I heard you're having trouble remembering what happened to you?" General Kenobi? Anyway, looks like Max thought it would be a good time to enter the room, which is good for me, since Penn was probably going to start asking things about me.
"Yeah, I can't remember what happened last night, or anything before I woke up here...." Which also isn't a lie, since I know next to nothing about what happened to this body before today.
"Hmm, you might have amnesia then. Tell me, do you remember who Devin Levin is?" Huh, so he's already mentioning Devin, I guess that means he knows I'm a Levin, which means there's a possibility he didn't find me on the road.
"Who?...." When in doubt, deny everything, they can't prove you know something if you act like you know nothing about the topic.
"He was your father, though I guess now it doesn't matter, since you don't have a home to go back to..." Christ Max, take a class on breaking bad news to people or something, seriously even the doctors had better skills dishing out news.
Wait, I feel something wet going down my cheeks, this seriously can't be what I think it is, right? I didn't even personally know the Levin's, so how can I cry for people I never knew.
"Oh dear, you're crying. Max you shouldn't have been so blunt!" Sandra said this as she came forward and hugged me. Tears still fell from my eyes as she tried to comfort me, my mind might not remember the Levin's, but it seemed my body remembered them vividly.
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out that way!" Has he never heard the term, 'think before you speak'! You'd think he'd learn how to properly speak to people in the Plumbers.
It took several minutes of the three of them trying to calm me down before I stopped, subconsciously, crying about not being able to see 'my' home ever again. I don't think I've even cried this much in the entirety of my past life.
"How about this, Nico, once Carl gets back we can see if we can adopt you, so this could become your new home?" Okay, I'm no professional on this stuff, but is adoption supposed to be this simple? Or, is this just something that happens in this world?
Well, either way I nod to her suggestion, 'cause it seems this is the way to get adopted by the Tennyson's. Hm, it seems Penn is a bit happy at the thought of me becoming her adoptive brother, well if my thought that she doesn't talk to many people close to her age is true, then it makes sense that she would be happy for me to stick around.
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(One Year After Nico Was Reincarnated)
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So, it's been a full year since I met the Tennyson's, and they did actually end up adopting me. Turns out it was easier than I thought, though it might be isolated to this world. But, it may have been that easy due to Max having evidence that he was a family friend of the Levin's. Oh, and the current date is January 15th, 2001, yeah, I forgot that Ben was born in 1994, and Penn just so happened to be born the same year too.
I also found out that I'm now seven, instead of brown eyes mine are red, my skin is the same shade as it was in my past life (darker than Kevin's), and that I was apparently born the same day as Penn and Gwen, who I met a couple of weeks after I was reincarnated. Gwen wasn't exactly happy at the time that she had to share her birthday with an extra person, but I'm slowly becoming friends with her, just like I did with Penn.
Turns out its pretty easy to befriend her if you just read enough, and don't use a limited vocabulary. It also helped that I helped convince her mom get her a cat plushie that she had her eye on. I wonder how being friends with both of them will impact stuff in the future?
I also found out why Kevin, probably, fell in love with Gwen so quickly. It might be due to her Anodite heritage, but whenever I'm around her it feels like there's a calming energy around her. But, surprisingly there's no desire to absorb that energy, it feels more like I want to protect it, and keep it to myself. Hopefully that won't massively affect me later on when the plot starts.
Anyway, right now, I'm hanging out with Penn as she plays a Sumo Slammers game, seems that franchise exist in this world just like the original. Though, it is surprisingly entertaining, I can see why Ben like it in the first place.
"You sure you don't want a turn on the console, Nico?" I know that I said it's entertaining, but more so to watch someone else play it, rather than play it myself, kind of like watching someone skydive.
"Yeah I'm sure Penn, you don't need to worry about me." Shouldn't she want to play the game more, rather than wanting me to play it? I would probably play if I wasn't worried that I would absorb the electricity in the controller the second I touch it.
I've been training my abilities a bit with small batteries, though I've only been doing it once a week, this way I can slowly build a tolerance with smaller amounts of energy before I eventually try to become a living Omnitrix. But, don't think I forgot about the cryokinesis, I've been trying to make ice cubes and things like that to practice for making bigger things.
So, far I've found out just how addicting absorbing energy can be, to the point that I would be constantly agitated if it weren't for cryokinesis. Turns out when I create ice my body cools down depending on how much I make, and the cold really helps with calming down my nerves.
I've even had to make sure that my shirts don't have sleeves as an extra precaution to keep my nerves in check, so my body can at least be 30% colder at all times. It may seem dumb, or whatever to do this, but I'm not taking any risk, I don't want to end up like Kevin.
Now that I think about it, I don't think anything interesting is going on today, other than watching Penn play Sumo Slammers.
While Penn was in the middle of the 35th level, there was a knock at the front, which Sandra immediately went to go answer. I guess she was expecting someone to come today?
Looking over at the door I could see her talking to someone, but from the angle I was at I couldn't see who it was. Oh, it looks like they finished talking, and she's letting them in, I wonder who.... holy shit, it's the prankster Lenopan!
"Wassup Penn, your favorite cousin is here to visit! Oh, and is that your boyfriend?!" Lucy Mann, the character that was introduced in 'Big Fat Alien Wedding' she is best known for playing pranks on people with her Lenopan abilities, and apparently she thinks that I'm dating Penn for some reason.
"W-what! N-no, Nico is not my boyfriend!!" Hm, why is Penn blushing and stutterring so much? Is it really that embarassing for someone to think we're dating, I mean I can kind of understand since I'm supposed to be her brother, but still.
"Oh? So, does that mean I can date him? Because he's kind of cute!" I'm cute? Wait, that isn't the point here, is she trying to get a reaction out of Penn, or does she honestly mean that?
"Shouldn't I have a say in who I date, also I barely even know you." That last part was technically a lie, but also not, because I do of Lucy Mann, but I don't know that much about this version of her.
"Oooh~ So, if you knew me better you'd consider dating me?" Okay what is with her and dating, though honestly, I kind of would consider it, but only when we're all older.
"Maybe when we're older, all of us are too young to date anyways." Lucy started to pout at my words, I wonder why? Hm, Penn looks relaxed now, did I say something to calm her down?
"Now that, that is over. Nico, this is Lucy Mann, who is now, technically, your cousin. Lucy, that's Nicholas Levi Tennyson, but we all call him Nico!" She said cousin, I guess that means the wedding already happened in this version of the world. Also, yes my middle name is apparently Levi, I tried asking Max once why it was that, but he just said it was the name of someone that Devin and him knew as plumbers.
"Wait, what do you mean cousin? He looks nothing like any of the other Tennyson's I've met!" Hm, I guess other than Gwen's side of the family, the rest don't know that I was adopted by Carl and Sandra.
"Well I'm adopted, so of course I don't look like the rest of them." Okay now Lucy looks relieved, what the hell am I saying that's making these girls relaxed?!
"In that case, hi I'm Lucy, your current cousin, but future girlfriend!" Lucy reached out her hand towards me for a handshake, honestly I'm just waiting for her to eventually say psyche, and that she was just joking. Since I think in her species culture it's taboo for cousins to date, even if they aren't related by blood.
"I'm just going to assume that you're joking, Lucy." I shook her hand, as it was just the polite thing to do. But, the second I touched her hand a burst of energy knocked me back into a wall.
"Owww..." I think I made an indent in the wall, but fucking hell, what was that energy? What could cause an Osmosian and an Lenopan to make that energy... Oh, oh I absorbed some of her DNA didn't I?
"Nico, are you okay?!" Penn, I appreciate the concern, but can you please not yell, I'm only a couple of feet away from you. I don't feel like I'm going crazy, or like I desire more energy, so maybe I didn't absorb enough to cause me to go as insane as Kevin, at least yet.
"What the heck was that? That's never happened when I touched anyone else!" Yeah, no shit it's never happened with anyone else, I'm probably the first Osmosian you've ever met.
"Here Nico, let us help you out of there." I pulled myself out of the wall, with help from Casandra, and Penn, but I felt weird, maybe it was from the DNA that I absorbed. Standing up it felt like my legs had grown weaker, or softer I guess is a better word for it.
Before I could even think of taking a step forward my legs turned into a material similar to mud, but it was most likely the sludge that makes up the real body of a Lenopan.
"Wait, you're like me?!" Fucking hell, looks like the rest of the Tennyson's are going to learn about aliens sooner than originally planned. My existence is already changing this world, or maybe this was going to happen even without me in this body. I'll probably never know for sure.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone