Jayden Stark's POV
The blackout had changed everything.
The media exploded with footage of the chaos—burning cars, shattered streets, terrified civilians. Headlines screamed about a "new threat in New York," a monster in a hoodie who had appeared out of nowhere.
I tried to stay hidden, but it didn't matter. The world had seen me.
And SHIELD was watching.
They came at night. Black vans, armored agents, weapons drawn. The Omnitrix was still in cooldown, its glow faint, its power drained. I couldn't transform.
But I wasn't helpless.
Enhanced strength, speed, reflexes—side effects of the device embedding itself into me. I fought back, fists flying, bodies hitting the ground. For a moment, I thought I could win.
But there were too many.
They swarmed me, tasers crackling, restraints snapping shut. I roared, struggling, but eventually they pinned me down. My face hit the pavement, the cold bite of steel cuffs locking around my wrists.
I was captured.
The facility was sterile, cold, suffocating. White walls, humming lights, the smell of disinfectant. Scientists in lab coats circled me like vultures, eyes gleaming with curiosity and fear.
They ran tests—blood samples, scans, psychological evaluations. Every result came back the same: unstable.
The Omnitrix wasn't just fused to me. It was alive, drawing energy, feeding off something they couldn't identify.
They tried to hack it, connecting wires, running programs. Nothing worked. The device resisted, its systems unreadable, alien.
Then they tried something worse.
Dissection.
Scalpels, lasers, machines designed to cut through anything. They pressed them against my arm, trying to separate the Omnitrix from my flesh.
That's when I lost it.
Pain surged, my vision blurred, my body convulsed. The device screamed—an unearthly hum that rattled the walls. My mind fractured, instincts taking over. I fought, lashing out, breaking restraints, sending scientists sprawling.
It wasn't just me resisting. It was the Omnitrix.
Together, we refused to be separated.
With no other choice, SHIELD locked me away.
A cell deep underground, reinforced walls, devices aimed at suppressing the Omnitrix's energy. No light, no freedom, just silence and the hum of machines draining the device, keeping it dormant.
Days turned into weeks. My mind unraveled.
The Omnitrix whispered in the dark, alien voices bleeding into my thoughts. My emotions swung wildly—rage, despair, euphoria, paranoia. I couldn't tell where I ended and the aliens began.
The scientists declared me mad.
To the world, life moved on. Tony Stark built his empire, Iron Man rose, heroes began to emerge.
But me?
I was forgotten. Buried alive in a cell, my brain mumbled by the device fused to my flesh.
I wasn't Jayden Stark anymore.
I was something else.