The night passed without incident.
After returning from the clearing, the three Gold siblings quietly climbed back into the loft of the barn house without waking the others. Orfevre and Gold Ship wasted no time collapsing onto their bunks, exhaustion finally catching up to them after everything that had happened.
Evan, however, remained awake. He sat alone beside the open window overlooking the farm, resting one arm on his raised knee while the cool night breeze drifted through the barn. His violet-gold eyes quietly swept across the moonlit fields again and again.
Sleeping when there was an alien mummy somewhere out in the dark countryside simply didn't sit right with him.
So while everyone else slept soundly, Evan kept watch throughout the entire night.
Fortunately... Nothing happened.
...
"Rise and shine, sleepyheads!"
Joan's voice rang through the barn house like a cannon blast, followed immediately by the snap of lights turning on all at once.
The Tennyson kids groaned in perfect unison.
Ben, Gwen, Gold Ship, and even Orfevre all reacted the same way, burying their faces in pillows, blankets, or whatever else was closest as bright light flooded the room and blasted away the last traces of sleep they had managed to cling to.
"Uhhh…" Gwen muttered, shielding her eyes with one arm. "You've got to be kidding me. It's five in the morning."
"And those cows aren't going to milk themselves," Joan replied with the kind of cheerful tone that should not have been possible at that hour.
Ben let out a long, miserable noise that sounded halfway between a groan and a dying whale.
"Whyyyy..."
Nearby, Orfevre slowly sat up, blinking the sleep from her eyes before rolling her shoulders. A series of satisfying pops echoed from her back and neck as she worked out the stiffness that had settled in overnight, as if her body had spent the entire night packed away in a box and was now being unfolded for the day.
Gold Ship also managed to sit up.
"Haaah..."
She yawned loudly, blinked once, then immediately sunk back under the blanket with only the top of her head visible.
"Five more minutes," she mumbled.
"Golshi," Orfevre said flatly.
"Nope."
"Golshi."
"I'm unconscious."
To emphasize her point, Gold Ship folded her hands neatly across her chest and closed her eyes.
"I have passed away."
Orfevre stared at her for a moment, expression unreadable. Without saying another word, Orfevre grabbed the edge of the blanket.
"Nooooooo!! Wryyyyyyy!"
Gold Ship's muffled cries echoed throughout the room as she was mercilessly dragged back into the land of the living.
A moment later, Max climbed down from his bunk looking as refreshed as if he had slept through a luxury vacation instead of a chicken-scented farm loft. He stretched his arms overhead, gave a satisfied grunt, and then turned toward the others with a broad grin.
"Now aren't you all glad you went to bed early?"
The only response he got was a collection of exhausted stares.
Max nodded once, completely unfazed.
"Right. I'll take that as a yes."
That was when his eyes moved toward the bunks again and he noticed something missing.
Evan wasn't there.
His expression shifted from cheerful to curious in an instant. Max scanned the room, then turned toward the open barn window, where he finally spotted Evan seated on the edge of the sill, gazing out at the fields with a quiet, watchful look.
...
The morning routine after that moved quickly. A breakfast that was more practical than filling was shoved into their hands before they were sent off to start the day's work. The food was warm, simple, and enough to keep them going, but it definitely did not qualify as a feast. Still, no one had the energy to complain for long.
Soon enough, the whole group was headed out to the barn with Todd leading the way.
The young farm boy gave the Tennysons a brief explanation of how the milking process worked.
"Just squeeze and pull," Todd said, gesturing to the cow stall. "Squeeze and pull. Easy, right?"
Ben stared at him with immediate discomfort. "Ugh, don't they have machines for this?"
Todd shook his head. "Ma doesn't believe in them. Says they spook the cows."
"Great," Ben muttered. "Now the cows are apparently delicate."
While Ben and Gwen were busy talking with Todd, Evan, Orfevre, and Gold Ship had already gone off to find Max and tell him about what had happened the previous night.
The old Plumber listened carefully as the three of them explained everything, from the mutated animals to the glowing footprints and the mummy-like creature that had attacked them with the strange purple crystal, the living tractor, and the mysterious metallic insect.
Max listened without interrupting once. He never once questioned their story.
Gold Ship certainly caused enough chaos to make people doubt almost anything she said, but Evan and Orfevre were a different matter entirely. The two simply were not the kind to invent a story like this for attention, and Max knew that well enough to take them seriously the moment they began talking.
When they finished, his expression had gone from relaxed to grim.
After a moment of thought, Max gave a single nod.
"Alright," he said in a lower, more serious voice than before. "I'll grab some equipment first. You three go check up on Ben and Gwen."
"Got it."
"Okay!"
The twins were already turning to leave when Gold Ship suddenly followed after Max instead.
"I'm following you."
Max blinked. "Huh?"
"Last time we left her alone," Evan said in a deadpan tone, "she somehow declared war on chickens."
"I said I was sorry!" Gold Ship protested immediately.
"You also scared the cows," Orfevre added.
"They looked at me funny."
"And traumatized the pigs," Evan continued.
"That one wasn't my fault!"
Neither Evan nor Orfevre looked even slightly convinced.
Max looked between them, then toward the livestock nearby, which had somehow begun edging away from Gold Ship whenever she came close. He didn't need much more explanation after that. Whether she had meant to or not, she had apparently managed to offend the entire farm in the span of one afternoon.
At this point, keeping her away from the livestock wasn't a suggestion.
It was a necessity.
As Gold Ship followed Max off, both twins exchanged a glance and silently let out a trace of killing intent toward the nearby animals.
The effect was immediate.
The chickens backed off.
The cows shifted away.
Even the pigs seemed to understand on some instinctive level that approaching the Gold siblings was a bad idea.
During their time as Vergil and Dante, the twins had absorbed far more than just combat experience. Their instincts, their battle awareness, their mastery over weapons... even subtle things like controlling killing intent had somehow become second nature after returning to their own bodies. It was the kind of change that could not really be explained in any ordinary way, but at this point, no one in the family was especially surprised by the Gold siblings' way of doing things.
It was, in every sense of the word, unique.
Meanwhile, out in the barn, Ben had apparently decided that subtlety was overrated.
"Huh?"
The Gold twins blinked as they watched from a distance.
There was Ben, actually using his alien form to handle the farm work without making a scene about it.
Evan stared for a second, then let out a breathy laugh in disbelief.
"Damn," he said. "We got Ben using his brain before we got GTA 6."
Orfevre turned toward him with a raised eyebrow and a flat look.
"We haven't even gotten GTA 4 yet," she said dryly. "Where are you even getting six from? And what happened to five?"
Evan gave a small shrug. "Future prediction."
Orfevre just stared at him for a moment, unimpressed.
She wasn't unfamiliar with the series.
Dream Journey had been hopelessly addicted to Grand Theft Auto, usually spending hours intentionally earning five wanted stars just to see how long she could survive before immediately doing it all over again.
Deciding there was no reason to expose Ben's clever shortcut, the twins quietly returned to Max.
Soon after, the Gold siblings led him out to the clearing where they had found the mutated farm animals the day before.
The strange corpses still lay scattered across the field, the purple corruption long since faded but the damage still unmistakable. Max knelt beside one of them and took out a small handheld alien device, scanning the remains with practiced ease.
"Well," he said after a moment, "This explains your mutant cattle."
Gold Ship tilted her head. "That sounds like the least reassuring sentence you've said all week."
Max stood, his expression turning grimmer as he examined the readings on the device.
"But we've got a bigger problem."
Gold Ship tilted her head. "Bigger than a rampaging alien mummy and monster farm animals?"
Max nodded. "I'm picking up trace readings of Corrodium."
Orfevre folded her arms. "That's bad, isn't it?"
"It's very bad," Max said. "Corrodium is a high-energy mineral that doesn't naturally occur on Earth. My guess is that a meteor hit this area thousands of years ago and scattered the stuff across the land."
He glanced down at the scanner again, his jaw tightening slightly.
"And whoever that mummy is, it's probably been digging around in it."
Orfevre folded her arms. "So... What exactly does this stuff do?"
"It's a powerful energy source," Max explained, "but it's also radioactive. Long-term exposure twists living organisms, mutating them into... this."
Gold Ship blinked once. "So it's basically evil space rock?"
"That's one way to put it," Max said.
Evan, who had been quiet until now, looked down at the device with a thoughtful expression.
"...Hypothetically."
Max immediately turned to him.
"No."
"I haven't even asked yet."
"I know exactly what you were about to ask."
Max's voice sharpened just enough to make the warning clear.
"Don't even think about it, Evan. If normal humans are exposed to it, they'd be mutated beyond saving. That is not something you just poke at because you're curious."
Evan quietly nodded. "Right."
Then his gaze flicked back to the damaged ground, the torn-up dirt, and the lingering trace of purple energy.
"But if that mummy gets its hands on more of this stuff…"
Max finished the thought for him, his expression hardening.
"It could turn every living thing on the eastern seaboard into the same kind of monsters."
For a moment, nobody said anything.
The wind moved through the field. The wheat rustled softly. Somewhere nearby, a cow made a low sound in the distance, completely unaware of how close it had come to being part of a much bigger disaster.
After that, they went to get Ben and Gwen, with Orfevre and Evan filling the two in on the overall situation.
Little over half an hour later, the Rust Bucket pulls up to a factory called the Digby Dairy.
"Scanner indicates that the Corrodium readings are highest right over there," Max said, referring to his device and turning his attention to the factory.
"Digby Dairy?" Ben said. "They make my favorite ice cream!"
"There'll be time for unhealthy snacks later," Orfevre replied without even looking at him. "Right now, we need to figure out how we're getting inside without attracting security."
"You mean..." Evan pointed toward the entrance. "...that security?"
Everyone turned.
Inside the small guard booth sat an elderly security guard whose chair had been reclined so far back it looked ready to collapse. His mouth hung open as thunderous snores echoed across the empty parking lot. A tiny portable television beside him displayed nothing but static. Even the flies buzzing around him seemed bored.
"Is it just me," Orfevre stared silently. "or does every place we visit always have the worst security?"
"Never look a gift horse in the mouth, Oru," Max said as he exited the RV. "C'mon, let's get inside."
After effortlessly walking behind the snoring security guard, the Tennysons wandered through the factory, following Max's scanner for guidance. The device led them halfway through the building before Max took a sharp left and took the stairs down to the basement. As they went deeper underground, Max's device started sparking dangerously until it fizzled out. Before the scanner died, Max noticed that it had pointed to a patch of concrete below.
"I'd say there's a big chunk of Corrodium buried right here," Max said, highlighting the area with his flashlight. "Beneath the concrete."
"I'm on it!" Ben said, already activating his Omnitrix and slapping down the faceplate.
Diamondhead emerged from the burst of green light and jumped over the railing to the ground floor, once again not listening to Max when he told the alien hero to wait.
Diamondhead morphed his hands into blades, using them as pickaxes to dig up the concrete and dirt underneath. Despite potentially being buried over thousands of years, the Corrodium was buried in a surprisingly shallow place. Diamondhead was able to unearth the glowing purple stone in under ten seconds.
"Found it," Diamondhead told his family as they came down the stairs.
"Dude, did you forget your brain or something?" Evan asked in annoyance. "You just did the mummy's work for it."
"Oh…yeah…," Diamondhead said lamely.
And as luck would have it, that was the exact moment when the mummy suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the room, appearing and disappearing as the overhead lights flickered for one apparent reason other than dramatic effect. The mummy's glowing purple eyes narrowed on the Tennysons, then traced down to the chuck of exposed Corridum in the ground.
"We've got company," Max said.
Gwen took a step back, eyeing the creature with visible unease. "And I don't think he's here for the chocolate zoomies."
"…What?" Orfevre shot her a look.
"Nothing," Gwen said quickly. "Never mind."
Gold Ship, on the other hand, pointed at the glowing crystal with alarming sincerity. "Or that banana chocolate sundae!"
Nobody had time to ask what she meant.
Diamondhead and the mummy lunged at each other. The Petrosapien struck first and stabbed his silicon blade through the creature's chest, which amounted to nothing because the mummy was just pure bandages with no internal organs.
The mummy wrapped said bandages around Diamondhead's extended arm, lifted him into the air, and threw him into the wall. With that little annoyance out of the way, the mummy unraveled its hollow chest, revealing two more pieces of Corrodium, and reached out to collect the third before the Tennysons could stop it.
Max's eyes widened. "It's got the Corrodium!"
The mummy gathered the third piece into itself, sealing all three pieces inside its chest as if it had finally recovered something it had been searching for all along.
With its mission complete, it turned to leave… a golden flash erupted.
Spiderthing appeared and, with his hands pointed forward, spider webs shot out from the small hole on his wrists.
The strands slapped into the mummy's back and yanked it off balance, making it stumble just enough for Diamondhead to rise from the wall behind it.
The Petrosapien slammed one hand into the ground. Crystal surged upward in a wave. Sharp crystal spikes burst from the concrete and raced toward the mummy like a jagged line of spears.
The mummy reacted by leaping upward, clearing the attack with a surprising amount of agility. It caught hold of a set of overhead pipes and swung across the room like a monkey, bandages whipping through the air as it crossed above Diamondhead's head.
It dropped straight down on top of him a second later.
Diamondhead rolled away at the last possible instant, and the mummy slammed both fists into the floor where he had been standing. The impact sent a heavy crack through the pavement, strong enough to make everyone feel it under their feet.
The creature hissed and began snapping its arms outward in long, whip-like lashes.
Spiderthing and Diamondhead both moved at once, dodging and weaving through the bandage strikes as they tried to close in again. The mummy's limbs blurred through the air in a violent rhythm, making it impossible to get a clean approach without timing it perfectly.
Spiderthing chose a different angle.
He leapt past the mummy's head, fired a quick burst of webbing, and caught one of its thin arms mid-swing. Using the momentum of his jump, he planted his feet against the wall and twisted sideways, hanging there for a split second while he pulled both of the mummy's arms upward over its head.
The creature struggled, but Spiderthing had already created the opening.
Diamondhead slammed into it shoulder-first.
Together with the force of the tackle, he drove the mummy through the wall and into the next section of the factory, where rows of metal instruments and machinery filled the room beyond. The impact sent the monster crashing into one of the machines, triggering a bright explosion that filled the air with smoke and sparks.
When Spiderthing and Diamondhead followed, the smoke had already swallowed half the room.
A few moments later, Max, Orfevre, Gold Ship, and Gwen arrived behind them.
Gold Ship peered through the haze with obvious curiosity. "Did you guys get it?"
"Oh, we got it," Diamondhead said, straightening up with a hard edge in his voice. "But whether it took is a different question."
The mummy emerged from the smoke, lurching forward with the Corrodium still glowing in its chest. Then it opened itself. The wrappings across its torso shifted apart, exposing the three pieces of Corrodium inside like a terrible secret laid bare for everyone to see.
Max's face changed instantly.
"It's trying to expose us to the Corrodium!" he shouted.
Before anyone could react further, a new voice suddenly rang out from above. "What in blazes is going on here?"
And at this moment, the security guard finally woke up to do his job when he heard noises coming from the factory. He appeared through a door on the upper level, getting a bird's-eye view of an old man, three preteen girls, a walking chandelier, a very big spider, and a horror movie monster with glowing rocks.
"Get back!" Max shouted, realizing what was about to happen too late.
But the mummy wasn't letting him go anywhere. The creature snatched the security guard from the upper floor and lifted him closer to experience the full exposure of the Corrodium.
The security guard screamed in pain, his body twisting with bone-snapping noises, his cries transforming into beastly snarling. When the transformation was complete, he didn't look anything remotely human, just a twisted, purple-skinned monster.
AN: Guys, what do you think about Evan being isekai'd into the Uma Musume world? Where his existence is not needed, but because of him, the once peaceful world becomes dangerous. I have this idea, but I feel like it might ruin the flow of the story, seeing how it will happen later on when he is older, and it happens in the middle of an arc to create room for Ben's development. Although this also gave me an idea for an Uma Musume story, I'm currently writing it and want to hit myself for it.