The heat was suffocating.
Kai groaned as he stirred awake, his head pounding and skin coated in a fine layer of sand. The air was dry, thin, and every breath felt like inhaling smoke. His ears rang faintly, like the remnants of an explosion that had already passed. When he opened his eyes, all he could see was desert.
Rugged mountains, endless sand dunes, and an empty sky.
He slowly sat up, trying to recall what had just happened. One moment, he was back home—messing around in his friend's garage, inspecting the strange green device they'd found buried in an old lab. The next, a blinding green light had consumed him, and now…
He looked at his wrist.
"…Still there," Kai murmured.
The Omnitrix. Black chassis. Green hourglass symbol. Sleek, alien, and unmistakable. The same device he'd seen in Ben 10: Alien Force—but now it was real. Strapped to his wrist. Not a toy. Not fiction.
"Okay," he whispered. "This is… this is happening."
He stood up and scanned his surroundings.
The desert stretched endlessly, but one thing stood out: smoke. A thick column rose from a nearby canyon, staining the sky with black. Then came the unmistakable sound of metal scraping against rock. And footsteps. Heavy, clanking footsteps.
Curious and cautious, Kai moved toward the sound, keeping low.
As he reached a dune overlooking the canyon floor, he saw something that made his heart skip.
A man—encased in a crude metal suit—was stumbling out of a fiery wreck near a cave. His armor was dented, smoking, cobbled together from scrap. It looked barely functional, but somehow still standing.
Kai's breath caught in his throat.
"…That's Tony Stark. That's the Mark I."
He couldn't believe it at first, but it was undeniable. The goatee. The voice. The flamethrower arm that spat fire moments later, driving away panicked attackers. It was the scene. The iconic escape. The moment Tony Stark became more than a billionaire arms dealer.
And Kai was watching it happen in real life.
Just then, a blast rocked the cave behind Stark—one final detonation to collapse the evidence. Stark flinched but kept moving, each step heavier than the last. He finally collapsed to his knees in the sand, the suit's power giving out completely.
This is it, Kai realized. He doesn't have much time. Reinforcements could be on the way.
The moment called for action.
Kai looked down at the Omnitrix, its faceplate quietly glowing.
"I guess it's showtime," he muttered, flipping the dial open with a click.
Silhouettes flickered across the green interface—alien forms he knew by heart. He spun the dial quickly, thinking fast. He didn't need raw power. He needed speed. Mobility. Someone who could get Stark out of here and away from danger.
XLR8.
Perfect.
Kai took a breath. "Let's hope this works."
He slammed the dial down.
A surge of green light engulfed him, and in an instant, Kai's body transformed. His limbs lengthened, skin turning sleek and black with blue stripes. A helmet formed over his head, and blades jutted from his heels. The desert around him slowed as he perceived the world in near-freeze-frame.
He was XLR8—a Kineceleran, born for speed.
In the blink of an eye, he dashed down the hill and skidded to a stop beside Tony Stark.
The man groaned, trying to sit up.
"What the hell…" Tony muttered, blinking through smoke and pain. "Who—what are you?"
"No time to explain," Kai said in a fast, distorted voice. "I'm here to help."
Tony stared at the alien speedster. "You don't work for the Ten Rings, do you?"
"Nope. Definitely not. Hang on."
Before Stark could object, Kai scooped him up with surprising care and darted across the desert, sand exploding beneath his clawed feet. Within seconds, the burning cave was far behind them, reduced to a distant smudge of fire and dust.
---
Somewhere Beyond the Canyon – Temporary Shelter
Kai set Tony down beneath a cluster of rocks, shaded from the scorching sun. The metal suit groaned as Stark fell against the stone, exhausted.
"Alright," Tony panted. "Now what the hell just happened?"
Kai tapped the Omnitrix symbol on his chest, and a burst of green light returned him to human form.
He knelt next to Stark, breathing heavily. "I'm Kai. And that thing on my wrist? It's called the Omnitrix. It lets me transform into different alien species."
Tony raised an eyebrow. "So you're telling me you're a shapeshifting teenager who saved me from a war zone?"
"More or less."
Tony groaned, shaking his head. "I've been through a lot in the last three months, but this… this takes the cake."
Kai chuckled lightly. "You just escaped captivity in a metal tank you built in a cave. I think weird is your new normal."
Tony leaned back, smirking despite the pain. "Touché."
Tony blinked. "Excuse me?"
Tony looked at him with a mixture of suspicion and awe. "That thing on your wrist… is it alien tech?"
"Yeah. Not from around here. Honestly, I don't even know how I ended up in this universe."
Tony nodded slowly. "You're not the only one out of place, kid. I've been feeling like that for years."
They sat in silence for a moment, the desert wind whistling past.
Then Kai asked, "Do you think you can walk?"
Tony flexed his leg with a pained grunt. "I'll manage. Might need a crutch. Or a miracle."
"I've got ten of those," Kai said, holding up his Omnitrix. "Just say the word."
---
Later That Day – Edge of the Desert
By the time the sun dipped low, Kai had guided Tony through miles of rough terrain. They finally saw the shimmer of a U.S. military convoy in the distance—sent after Stark's GPS beacon had briefly reactivated during the suit's final moments.
Tony squinted at the soldiers approaching in Humvees.
"Well, this is going to be an interesting debriefing," he said. "Any chance you want to stick around and explain things for me?"
Kai smiled. "I think I'll hang back. Don't want to shock the world too early."
Tony held out his hand. "Thank you, Kai. For everything."
Kai shook it. "You're welcome. And Tony? You're going to do great things. Just… be careful who you trust."
With a flash of green light, Kai disappeared into the dunes, the Omnitrix glowing softly on his wrist.
Tony watched him go, a thousand questions swirling in his mind.
"Aliens," he muttered. "Huh. That's new."
And so, the desert turned silent once again.
But something had changed.
The universe had just gotten a little bigger.