"Ugh, who would've expected the fire to be a distraction?!" Gwen groaned, watching the situation unfold while Max pushed the Rust Bucket harder down the road.
Ahead of them, a stolen car was weaving through traffic while the robbers tried to escape. Max kept his hands firmly on the wheel, eyes focused as he followed them without letting the distance grow too wide.
"And Ben's taking care of the burning building," Gwen added with a sigh, clearly annoyed that everything had gone chaotic at once.
Max briefly glanced at the rearview mirror. His eyes landed directly on Evan sitting in the back.
"Hey, Evan," Max said. "We have to pick up Ben on the way, but we can't lose the robbers. Can you handle it?"
"Sure," Evan answered with some reluctance as he stood up from his seat.
After all, he was currently living under someone else's roof. Refusing something he was perfectly capable of doing would just feel awkward.
He raised his wrist and activated the Another Omnitrix. The golden dial popped up. Evan twisted it once before pressing it down.
A burst of golden light filled the back of the RV.
By the time the glow faded, the Rust Bucket's side door had already slid open. A black humanoid alien leaned halfway out into the rushing wind, his body sleek and streamlined. His skin was a mix of black and gold, and a single large eye sat in the center of his face. Two thin antennae extended upward from his head, while a long tail ending in plug-like connectors swayed behind him.
His eye locked onto the speeding car ahead.
"Feedback!" He called out.
Then he jumped.
The alien landed lightly on a nearby power line, his feet instantly sparking with bright blue electricity as he balanced on the cable and began sprinting along it.
Energy flowed into him through the line, crackling along his limbs as he absorbed it.
Using that stolen electricity, Feedback surged forward at incredible speed, racing above the road as he chased the getaway car.
The robbers didn't even notice him at first.
Only when Feedback dropped from the power line and landed squarely on top of their vehicle did they realize something was wrong.
"What the?!"
His plug-like fingers stabbed down into the car's metal frame.
Electricity surged.
Feedback began draining the vehicle's power directly from the engine and battery. The headlights flickered, the engine sputtered, and the car started slowing down as its systems failed one by one.
"I got this!" But just then, a familiar voice shouted from somewhere behind him.
Feedback turned his head.
Just in time to hear the loud screech of tires.
He looked back toward the road and saw the Rust Bucket racing straight toward the scene, with Ben, currently in his Heatblast form, leaning halfway out of the passenger window.
Before Feedback could even react, Heatblast launched a blazing fireball.
The attack slammed directly into the robbers' car. The explosion lifted the entire vehicle off the ground.
Feedback froze in stunned silence for half a second while the car flipped upward beneath him.
For a brief moment, he genuinely wondered if this Heatblast was actually Ben… or if someone had secretly replaced him with Gold Ship.
Still, instinct kicked in.
Feedback immediately jumped off the vehicle before it came crashing back down. The car slammed into a nearby wall with a loud crunch as smoke poured from the ruined engine.
Feedback landed lightly on a nearby power pole and looked down at the wreck. In the distance, police sirens were already getting closer. Several patrol cars sped toward the scene.
Seeing that the situation was now completely under control, Feedback quietly stepped back along the power line. There was no reason for him to stay here anymore.
Heatblast, on the other hand, came out to confront the robbers.
...
The group had come to the supermarket Max had talked about, the Megamart, M-Mart for short. The place was huge, brightly lit, and packed with shelves filled with everything from groceries to pet supplies.
While Max pushed the shopping cart down the aisle, the kids wandered nearby and looked around the store. Ben, however, suddenly grew excited the moment he noticed something interesting across the aisle, and that always screamed trouble. Quietly, without anyone noticing, Ben slipped away and snuck into a certain aisle on his own.
"Only canned octopus?" Max said while examining a can he had just picked up. "Huh, I thought this store prided itself on having a wide selection." After thinking about it for a moment, he shrugged and placed the octopus can into the shopping cart anyway.
"Then, Grandpa Max, I'll go browse over there," Evan said casually. He was honestly getting a little bored following the cart around, and with Grandpa Max's taste in food he could already guess they were about to head toward the pet section next. Rather than risk witnessing whatever strange ingredient might become tomorrow's breakfast, he decided it would be safer to look somewhere else.
"Alright, then let's meet at the counter later," Max replied. He then turned to Gwen and pushed the cart in another direction. "So Gwen, let's go check the pet section. I wonder if they have any sheep's bladders?"
"Grandpa, I also- Grandpa!" Gwen stopped mid-sentence as she realized what he had just said. "You're not thinking of buying tomorrow's breakfast there, are you? Grandpa, don't get mad when I say this, but can we please eat something normal? Not roasted tentacles or something like that?"
She had originally intended to go with Evan, but after hearing Grandpa Max's plan she immediately decided that convincing him to buy actual edible food was far more urgent.
Her attention was suddenly pulled away by a loud beep followed by a brief flash of green light somewhere nearby. The glow lasted barely a second before disappearing.
Gwen slowly turned her head.
"…Please tell me what I think just happened didn't just happen."
"You can choose to believe that it didn't," Evan replied calmly.
Without another word the two of them headed toward the aisle where the light had come from, leaving Max to continue searching for ingredients on his own.
When they reached the aisle, they immediately realized it was the cereal section. Or at least it had been. Most of the boxes were torn open, knocked off the shelves, or scattered across the floor, and colorful cereal pieces were spilled everywhere like someone had set off a sugary explosion.
Gwen gasped in shock at the sight, while Evan was quietly reminded of the kind of chaos his sisters used to cause whenever they went shopping together. After spending time with the Tennysons, he had begun to understand why people were so often annoyed with Ben.
"Ben?!" Gwen growled as she began searching the aisle for her troublesome cousin. She didn't have to look long. Inside one of the boxes of Sumo Smacks cereal, a tiny gray alien was thrashing around.
"Oh man… another red card," groaned Grey Matter from inside the box.
"Gotcha!" Gwen quickly grabbed him and held him up in front of her face. "What are you doing?"
"Uh, looking for the golden Sumo Slammer card, duh," Grey Matter replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"You're supposed to use your powers to help people, not to look for some stupid trading card," Gwen scolded him.
"And with Grey Matter of all forms?" Evan added from the side. Apparently turning into a super-intelligent alien didn't increase Ben's intelligence.
Before Gwen could continue the lecture, they heard someone cough loudly behind them. "Just what do you think you're doing, kids?"
The two immediately turned around and saw a shop employee glaring at them from the end of the aisle. Gwen instinctively hid Grey Matter behind her back and was about to start explaining when Evan spoke first.
"It wasn't us, sir," he said plainly, his bored expression not changing at all. "We were shopping with our grandpa when we heard something strange from this aisle, so we came to see what was going on. When we got here, it already looked like this."
"Oh really?" the employee asked skeptically.
"Yes, sir," Evan replied calmly.
"You mean you two didn't do this?" The man raised an eyebrow as he looked around at the mess, clearly not convinced. Meanwhile, Gwen quickly started nodding along and smiling, trying to match Evan's story. She was honestly a little shocked by how naturally he was lying.
In the Gold Family, whenever the kids caught trouble, blaming their siblings, mostly Gold Ship, was very natural.
"No, sir! I swear it wasn't us," Evan continued, shaking his head. "Our grandpa would absolutely kill us if we wrecked the store like this. And if we wanted something we would just ask him to buy it for us instead of stealing it."
"Huh… then who would have…" The old man scratched his head in confusion.
Evan walked over and picked up several cereal boxes that had only been opened but hadn't spilled everywhere. "Um, sir, how about this? It wouldn't really be fair if we paid for everything since we didn't do it, but we can still buy some of the boxes that can still be eaten."
"Well… huh… alright, kid," the man finally said with a small smile. "Thanks for not letting this stuff go to waste. At least the loss won't be so bad if someone buys a few of them. You're a kind child."
Evan lightly elbowed Gwen to signal her to play along. "Hehehe, happy to help."
Gwen smiled innocently, and the man sighed before stepping away. "You two can go then. Sorry for accusing you earlier. I'll bring some staff back to clean this place up."
"Alright then, take care," Evan replied with a friendly wave.
Later, when they regrouped near the checkout, Max looked down at the shopping cart in confusion. Five boxes of Sumo Smacks cereal had somehow appeared inside.
"So… why are we buying all this cereal?" Max asked.
Fortunately for Ben, Gwen and Evan haven't told him about Ben's action, so Max was genuinely confused.
"Well, we would have only needed to buy the one where I found the golden Sumo Slammer card if Gwen and Evan hadn't butted in with their big butts," Ben complained.
That only made Max even more confused.
Gwen glared at him immediately. "Hello, you were trashing the entire cereal aisle just to find some stupid piece of cardboard!"
"Ben, now, I understand that the card means a lot to you," Max said carefully after finally figuring out what had happened. "But don't you think you're getting a little obsessed?"
Ben lowered his voice slightly and tried to sound guilty. "Maybe you're right, Grandpa. I don't deserve a golden Sumo Slammer card. I mean… it's not like I rescued a bunch of people from a burning building or anything."
"Superhero guilt: pretty low," Gwen muttered.
"Then quit," Evan said calmly. "Being a hero isn't exactly rewarding. If you need a reward every time you save someone, then why don't you just turn away and wait for them to die instead?"
"I-I can't do that!" Ben protested immediately, raising his wrist and showing the Omnitrix as if it proved something. "Not when I have this!"
"Then prove it," Evan replied evenly. "You're only as good as the hero you think you are."
Ben didn't answer right away, his gaze dropping for a moment before a confident smile slowly spread across his face.
"I'll show you. I'll be the best hero there is!" he declared proudly, causing Gwen to sigh while Evan remained silent. Whether Ben truly understood the meaning behind those words or not, only time would tell.
A moment later, Evan suddenly turned his head when something massive crashed down nearby. A giant frog with four glowing eyes and curved horns landed several meters away from them, and standing on top of it was a man wearing a strange helmet and a circular device strapped to his chest.
Max and Gwen gasped at the sight.
The man reached toward the machine on his chest and twisted the dial. Electricity crackled between the horns of his helmet before a bolt of energy shot toward the group.
"Ahh!" Max shouted as he immediately shoved the kids out of the way, causing the beam to miss them and instead strike a hamster inside a nearby cage.
The tiny animal instantly began growing, its body mutating rapidly until it transformed from a small fluffy creature into a monster the size of a large dog. It landed heavily on the floor and stared at them hungrily, though it didn't attack right away.
Instead, it seemed to wait for instructions from the man who had mutated it, Dr. Aloysius Animo. Without hesitation, Animo fired another beam at a beautiful parrot perched nearby, and the bird expanded into a massive creature even larger than the frog.
"Arise to your full potential, my pets!" Dr. Animo cheered proudly.
"Huh? Oh man, what kind of pet food are they selling around here?" Ben said in shock.
With his mutated monsters gathered around him while he sat atop the giant frog, Dr. Animo looked extremely pleased with himself. "Behold the genius of Dr. Animo. Nothing can stop me from reclaiming what I deserve. Mark my words, today I will make history… or perhaps I should say… prehistory!"