Chapter 21: Vilgax Appears, A Terrified Grandpa Max
In the dead of night, the Rustbucket sat quietly parked in the desolate suburbs.
"Ah!"
Ben bolted upright in his bunk, a sharp gasp tearing from his throat. His chest heaved violently, his pajamas completely plastered to his skin with cold sweat.
The sudden commotion instantly woke the other occupants. Klein and Gwen leaned over the edge of their respective bunks, peering down at the trembling boy as he scrambled out from under his tangled blankets.
"What is wrong, Dweeb?" Gwen asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
Grandpa Max stepped out from the shadows of the kitchenette, his brow furrowed with deep concern. "Did you have another nightmare, Ben?"
Ben clutched the sides of his head, his breathing still ragged. "Grandpa, I dreamed of that flower-headed freak again. He said... he said he is coming for me."
Max had initially assumed it was just a standard child's night terror. He had been fully prepared to offer a warm glass of milk and send the boy back to sleep. But the moment those specific words left Ben's mouth, the older man froze. The gentle, grandfatherly warmth vanished from his face, replaced by a hardened, grim mask.
"The situation has changed," Max declared, his voice dropping an octave. "We are hitting the road. Right now."
Without waiting for a response, he spun on his heel and marched straight for the driver's seat.
Gwen groaned, glancing at the digital clock on the dashboard. "But it is only three in the morning! I can never sleep properly when the RV is bouncing around."
Max ignored the complaint. The engine roared to life, and the Rustbucket peeled out onto the highway, tires squealing against the asphalt.
...
Hours bled into the morning. The sun crested over the horizon, casting long shadows across the desert highway, but the Rustbucket showed absolutely no signs of slowing down.
Ben, having spent the last several hours staring blankly out the window, finally broke the tense silence. "Hey, Grandpa, where exactly are we rushing to?"
Max kept his eyes locked on the road ahead. His knuckles were stark white against the steering wheel, and the deep frown lines etched into his face had not relaxed since three in the morning. "I plan to reach Mount Rushmore before dark."
"Mount Rushmore?" Ben leaned forward, his curiosity piqued. "What is even out there besides a bunch of giant stone faces?"
"Weapons," Max answered bluntly. "Plumber equipment and heavy ordnance."
He did not bother sugarcoating it. His grandchildren already knew about his past as an intergalactic law enforcement officer; there was no point in hiding the severity of the current threat.
Gwen exchanged a bewildered look with Klein. "Grandpa, are you still hiding things from us?" She had genuinely believed the whole secret space cop revelation was the absolute limit regarding his hidden past. If he suddenly needed to raid a hidden armory, things were escalating way beyond a simple summer road trip.
"Yeah!" Ben chimed in, leaning over the passenger seat. "Is this all because of that flower-headed guy from my dream? Are you actually scared of—"
A deafening metallic screech tore through the air.
The Rustbucket lurched violently to the side. Ben was thrown backward, his interrogation cut short by a yelp as he tumbled onto the floorboards.
Gwen scrambled to the nearest window, her breath hitching. Swarms of mechanical monsters were tearing through the sky alongside the highway. They were sleek, deadly, and armed to the teeth. But the drones were not the worst part. Looming high above the clouds, casting a massive, suffocating shadow over the entire landscape, was a colossal, heavily armored battleship.
Max glanced in the rearview mirror. The blood drained entirely from his face.
"It really is him..." he whispered, his voice barely audible over the roaring engine. He slammed his foot down on the gas pedal, pushing the heavily modified RV to its absolute limits.
Ben scrambled back to his feet, his hand instinctively hovering over the Omnitrix dial. "Grandpa, let me deal with these guys! It is hero time—"
"Wait! Ben, no!" Max barked, his voice cracking with a raw, uncharacteristic panic. He threw an arm back to block the boy. "Trust me! You do not want to go head-to-head with Vilgax!"
Sitting quietly in the back, Klein had been observing the mounting panic with his usual detached calm. Hearing Max's terrified warning, the corner of his mouth twitched upward into a faint, dry smirk.
'Grandpa, trust me,'Klein thought, leaning back against the cushions.'Vilgax is the one who will not want to go head-to-head with Way Big.'
Granted, Klein had no actual intention of using his Tok'ustar form just to swat a single warlord. That would be overkill of the highest order. He kept the thought to himself. Looking at the old man's white-knuckled grip and wide eyes, Klein knew Max was already scared stiff. Even if Klein explicitly reminded him about the towering cosmic giant sitting in his watch's database, Max's deeply ingrained trauma would not let him relax.
Max already knew about Way Big. But right now, the old Plumber's mind was completely hijacked by the terrifying, blood-soaked memories of his past encounters with the galactic conqueror. Logic had fled the building, replaced entirely by survival instinct.
It was a clear indicator of just how monstrous Vilgax's reputation truly was. After all, Max Tennyson had cemented his status as a legendary Plumber precisely because he was the one who had barely managed to defeat the tyrant all those years ago.
"Alright, Grandpa. We cannot outrun a warship in an RV," Klein said, finally standing up from the sofa. He stretched his neck, popping a joint. "Ben and I will stay behind and stall Vilgax. You and Gwen keep heading to Mount Rushmore."
"Awesome! Finally!" Ben cheered, practically vibrating with excitement as he leaped onto the cushions. "Let's go beat the snot out of this Vilgax guy!"
Gwen gripped the edge of the table, her eyes flashing with determination. "Klein! I am coming too—"
"No, Gwen," Klein cut her off smoothly, his tone leaving absolutely zero room for argument. It was a rare instance of him flatly denying her request. "You are going to Mount Rushmore with Grandpa. He needs your protection."
He was not about to risk the alternative. If both of Max's precious grandchildren ran off to fight the most dangerous warlord in the galaxy, did anyone honestly believe the old man would keep driving to get weapons? Max would turn the RV around and try to fistfight Vilgax barehanded. Keeping Gwen in the passenger seat was the only way to ensure Max actually went to the armory.
Gwen pursed her lips, her shoulders slumping slightly. She understood the tactical logic, but she still stared at her older cousin with deep, unconcealed worry.
Klein met her gaze, his expression softening just a fraction. "Trust me, Dork. We will be fine."
"Wait! You boys cannot—" Max yelled, tearing his eyes away from the road for half a second.
It was too late. Klein and Ben had already kicked open the side windows and hurled themselves out into the rushing wind.
Helpless and grinding his teeth in frustration, Max slammed the gas pedal all the way to the floorboards. His only option now was to secure the heavy ordnance as fast as humanly possible and double back to save them.
Outside the speeding RV, two distinct flashes of blinding energy erupted against the desert backdrop. A quiet blue light and a brilliant emerald green light illuminated the highway.
When the light faded, Klein had transformed into Jetray, his red, aerodynamic body gliding effortlessly on the wind currents. Beside him, Ben had morphed into Heatblast, his magma-cracked body radiating intense, scorching heat.
Jetray banked sharply, accelerating to extreme speeds. He tore straight into the heart of the mechanical drone horde. His eyes glowed with volatile power before unleashing a barrage of devastating neuroshock lasers. The piercing green beams sliced through the air, tracking multiple targets with terrifying precision. Every single mechanical monster clipped by the lasers detonated into a shower of sparks and twisted shrapnel.
Heatblast took a more direct approach. Blasting twin pillars of fire from his palms, he propelled himself upward like a rocket. He crashed directly into a dense cluster of drones. With a wild laugh, he unleashed a localized volcanic eruption, sending a shockwave of pure, blinding fire outward. A heartbeat later, he casually flew out from the expanding cloud of thick black smoke, leaving nothing but molten slag raining down onto the asphalt.
"Ben! Let's go dismantle the big guy!" Jetray called out, his voice echoing with a slight aquatic warble. Seeing that the drone vanguard was practically reduced to scrap metal, he adjusted his flight path, aiming straight for the colossal battleship looming above.
"You got it!" Heatblast casually lobbed a few concentrated fireballs over his shoulder, incinerating the last three stragglers without even looking. He cranked up his thermal output, riding a roaring column of fire to catch up with his cousin.
Jetray halted in mid-air, hovering just a few dozen yards from the battleship's massive armored hull. His eyes and the stinger on his tail flared with intense energy. He unleashed a continuous, sweeping barrage of neuroshock lasers, dragging the concentrated beams across the ship's metallic surface like a plasma cutter.
Heatblast surfed upward on a solid board of condensed fire. He planted his feet, drew his arms back, and unleashed a massive, sustained torrent of white-hot flames. The inferno blasted against the battleship's flank, melting through the outer plating and leaving a glowing, bubbling scar from the bow all the way to the stern.
"Man, I am definitely importing raw materials from this Vilgax guy when I get my own car," Heatblast muttered, genuinely impressed. Despite the combined assault of high-yield lasers and superheated plasma, they had only managed to cripple a few of the external thrusters. The hull's durability was absurd.
"No! You will not live long enough to need it!" a booming, mechanically amplified voice roared from the ship's exterior speakers.
Suddenly, a massive, spiked spherical drop pod, resembling a gigantic meteor hammer, was violently ejected from the battleship's underside. It plummeted through the sky, hurtling directly toward Heatblast with crushing velocity.
"Whoa!" Heatblast cut his thrusters, dropping out of the sky just in time to avoid getting flattened.
A thunderous crash shook the earth.
The spiked pod slammed into the dense forest bordering the highway. The sheer kinetic impact triggered a massive shockwave, uprooting trees and carving out a crater over thirty feet wide. Dust and splintered wood rained down as the heavy metallic sphere hissed, venting pressurized steam.
The pod split down the middle, the heavy mechanical doors groaning as they peeled open. Heavy, thudding footsteps echoed from the shadows within.
A towering, ten-foot-tall figure stepped out into the sunlight. His massive, steroid-pumped physique was clad in heavy cybernetic armor, and thick, tentacle-like appendages dangled from his face.
Vilgax glared up at the hovering Pyronite, his red eyes burning with absolute malice. "Because your future ends today!"
Hovering above the crater, Jetray stared down at the galactic conqueror. Despite the supposed great enemy finally making his grand entrance, Klein could not help but internally mock the villain's sense of aesthetics.
'Who travels in a giant spiked ball? So dramatic.'Still, fashion choices aside, the sheer physical presence radiating from the warlord was heavy. This squid-faced freak was notoriously strong, which meant he was going to be incredibly durable. Klein could actually put some weight behind his hits.'Let's test the waters. Have a laser.'
Jetray's eyes flared, and twin beams of highly concentrated green energy lanced downward, striking Vilgax with explosive force.
Seeing his cousin initiate the attack, Heatblast raised both hands and hurled two massive, spiraling fireballs right behind the lasers.
"Yeah! Who do you think you are, you stinky flower-head?!" Heatblast taunted, crossing his arms as the flames descended. "If that is the best threat you've got, then my answer is: come up here and make me!"
A second, even larger explosion rocked the forest, sending a massive plume of fire and smoke into the sky. When the dust finally settled, the crater had been blown several feet deeper. The spiked drop pod was completely obliterated, reduced to scattered, glowing slag.
Standing in the epicenter of the destruction, Vilgax had not moved an inch. He had simply raised his right arm to block. Two clean, cauterized holes had been punched straight through his thick forearm by Jetray's lasers. Yet, horrifyingly, the alien flesh around the wounds was already wriggling and knitting back together. His cybernetic enhancements were rapidly accelerating his healing factor.
Vilgax slowly lowered his arm, his terrifying gaze locking onto the two aliens.
"You insolent brats," Vilgax growled, his voice vibrating with lethal intent. "I do not know how a second Omnitrix came into existence. But since there are two... I will simply carve them both from your corpses!"
The warlord bent his massive knees, the cybernetic servos in his legs whining as they compressed. With a deafening crack that shattered the ground beneath him, Vilgax launched himself into the air. He cleared over three hundred feet in a single, terrifying bound, hurtling directly toward Jetray like a freight train.
...
Miles away, on the other side of the state, Max and Gwen finally arrived at Mount Rushmore.
The Rustbucket tore up the winding access roads, finally screeching to a halt near the summit of the iconic monument. Max hit a sequence of hidden buttons on the dashboard.
Suddenly, the solid rock beneath the RV groaned. The ground itself began to descend, acting as a massive, concealed elevator. As they sank deep into the subterranean depths of the mountain, Gwen pressed her face against the glass.
She gasped in surprise. The cavernous space below was massive, easily stretching dozens of feet high. The walls were lined with rows upon rows of heavy, high-tech vaults and metallic cabinets.
This was the armory. These were the weapons Grandpa had mentioned. And they were going to need every single one of them.
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