Grey Matter

Grey Matter is, technically, the first alien DNA sample to be added to the Omnitrix. He’s a member of device’s creator, Azmuth’s species, the Galvan, which are some of the most intelligent species in the galaxy, but also one of the physically weakest aliens to come across, even when compared to the relatively weak human species. Ben first turned into Grey Matter to search through several entire shelves of breakfast cereal to find the rare golden Sumo Slammer card as part of a gag, but would be later used as an instrumental alien in him defeating the likes of Sixsix and Kraab while he was being attacked by the two bounty hunters. In general, though, Grey Matter is one of the most common “joke” transformations, where Ben is trying to turn into one of his heavy-hitters and the Omnitrix decides to randomly transform him into the little guy. Like most OS Aliens, Grey Matter was absent for the duration of Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, but made a welcome return in Omniverse for regular appearances. And, even the smallest of aliens hopped in to cameo/help Ben when he was containing the Anihilaarg. Grey Matter is small. Grey Matter is weak. However, like the story of David and the Goliath, there’s nothing that stops a little ingenuity from overcoming a gap in physical abilities. By utilizing his enhanced intelligence, Grey Matter usually engages evasively in direct combat, and will either try to manipulate the environment to incapacitate his enemies, or find ways to turn their own weapons and tools against them (especially effective in fights against robotic / high-tech opponents). That’s not to say Grey Matter is actually impressive in fights, but hey, sometimes Ben’s got to work with what he’s given. Outside of combat, though, give Grey Matter a problem that raw brainpower can fix and he can probably fix it. While a lot of the situations he’s useful in are novel and rare, it can’t be said that physical power is the solution to every problem.

Strength

• Ripped some clusters of wire in a robot bounty hunter. (source)
• A regular human can trap him in his hands. (source) (Limitation)
• Gets trapped in a glass jar. (source) (Limitation)
• Struggles to open the hatch to a fireplace. (source) (Limitation)
• Lifts a small piece of rubble off of himself. (source)
• Rips open a coolant pipe. (source) (Best feat)

Speed

• Managed to search through several entire shelves of breakfast cereal in the time it took Gwen to walk over to his aisle. (source)
• Climbed up to the roof of a room in a fairly short amount of time. (source)
• For his height, he can jump surprisingly high. (source)
• Rolled around to avoid being trampled by a bunch of excited kids. (source)
• Performs what’s probably the Galvan equivalent of gymnastics. (source)
• Runs out of the way of a falling stuffed-animal robot. (source)
• Performs miniature parkour. (source)
• Jumps out of the way of an automatic window shutter. (source)
• Reacts in time to a broom. (source)
• Reflects a Null Void Projector beam back at the guy who fired it with a car mirror thrown from Gwen. (source)
• Hops between two German Shepherds before they could pounce on him, causing them to run into each other. (source)
• Defeats a bunch of Ghostfreak’s mooks by hopping between them before they can attack him, making them attack each other. (source)
• Reacts in time to a broom. (source)

Durability

• Gwen accidentally walking into him knocked him back. (source)
• Gets thrown by Enoch hard enough to knock over some items on a desk. (source)
• Gets kicked by a boot hard enough to send him flying, although he was inside of a present. (source)
• Has a power generator explode right in front of him and is fine. (source) (Potential Outlier, Best feat)

Intelligence

• Defeated Kraab by locating his “nerve cluster” and ripping it out. (source)
• Caused Sixsix’s jetpack to malfunction by ripping out a wire. (source)
• Can calculate exact distances, cardinal directions, and angles by just looking at things. (source)
• Figures out some of the workings of the Omnitrix without even taking it apart or messing around with it. (source)
• Evades a hyper-paranoid guy’s home security system, locating his power generator and shutting it off. (source)
• Understood the names and functions of alien tech he’d never seen before by looking at them once, then used them to make a high-power explosive. (source) (Also see https://gfycat.com/whisperedneglectedfruitfly for explosive creation.)
• Located a Null Guardian’s sweet spot, allowing him to “trigger the right sequence of synapses” in order to control its flight. (source)
• Hacks into an alien robot to manipulate its movement and short-circuit its shock devices, doing so within moments of entry. (source) (Also see https://gfycat.com/idealisticcheerfulcentipede for speed of hacking.)
• Cracks a combination lock in a few seconds. (source)
• Makes a shark attack another shark by hitting it a certain way. (source)
• Knows what a piece of alien tech does by looking at it, and intuitively figures out how to turn it off. (source)
• Navigates the interior mechanisms of a truck, and finds/removes a specific wire that impaired the driver’s ability to steer it. (source)
• Calculates the number of jelly beans in a large bell-shaped container by just looking through it for a few seconds. (source)
• Figures out the whydunit and howdunit of Ghostfreak’s plan by going through his computers. (source)
• Builds a Sun Gun (a weapon that shoots energy beams that have sunlight-like qualities that harm Ghostfreak) with spare computer parts in less than a minute. (source)
• Managed to ride/control Ben’s hoverboard, making it slam into Dr. Animo’s face. (source)
• Figures out the controls for an alien ship he’d never seen before by looking over it once. (source)
• Uses the Hephestan Neuro Grip on a Tyrannopede, an attack that instantly knocks out a large variety of aliens including humans, Appoplexians, and To’kustars. (source) (Effectiveness on humans: https://gfycat.com/homelypartialgalapagospenguin; Effectiveness on To’kustars: https://imgur.com/a/am4bhtJ.)
• Intuitively understood the language of a ship’s computer he previously thought was speaking gibberish. (source)
• Repairs various systems in a spaceship while Rook and co. face off a group of Incursians. (source)
• Fixed an error in the Omnitrix that caused Prime Ben and Ben 23’s devices to transform the other into the chosen alien. (source)

Other

• Grey Matter is ~ 6 inches tall. (source)
• Galvans have sharp teeth that can cause pain to regular humans. (source)
• Grey Matter’s “intelligence” is more often (but not always) based on intuition than based on conscious reasoning; he usually knows “the what” but not “the why”. (source)
• When transformed into an alien, Ghostfreak can’t possess/merge with Ben; turning into Grey Matter prevented this even as Ghostfreak was entering Ben. (source) (Also see https://gfycat.com/negativeidlebushsqueaker for prevention during entry.)
• His enhanced intelligence doesn’t make him hyper-competent, and still occasionally makes mistakes like breaking the Rust Bucket’s AC unit. (source)
• Ben’s transformations resist exposure to Corrodium, a crystal that mutates living things. (source) (Corrodium effect details: https://gfycat.com/innocentmessykatydid.)
• Due to having a small body, falling from great heights has a significantly reduced effect on him. (source)
• Galvans can climb up walls and hang upside-down. (source) (Also noted as a ‘fun fact’ since original series: https://imgur.com/a/xXgIkHr.)
• Galvans can breathe underwater, as they have gills. (source)