"What is that?!" Grandpa Max looked up at the rocket shooting skyward at incredible speed, a bad feeling instantly rising in his chest.
Dr. Viktor burst out laughing. "The mummy has already taken the chromite to the space station. Soon, Earth will undergo a grand biological evolution!"
"Impossible. Snare-Oh is already dead," Feedback said.
Back at the Digby Dairy factory, Lucian had transformed into Softbody and swallowed Snare-Oh whole, digesting him into nutrients for his own body.
No matter how tenacious Snare-Oh's life force was, there was no way he could have survived that.
"Unless... that was another mummy!" A sharp glint flashed through Feedback's blue eyes.
"You're right." Dr. Viktor nodded. "But it's too late. There isn't enough time left. You'll never stop my plan."
"The Benwolf and mummy I sent before were both killed by you, but that doesn't mean I can't just capture another one."
Dr. Viktor's tone was icy, like a machine without emotion.
"Awoo!"
The red wolf beast shoved aside the rubble on top of it, then leaped to Dr. Viktor's side.
"Talking won't solve anything. Let this hero teach you a lesson!"
"Hero Time!"
Ben pressed the Omnitrix, switched to the Four Arms symbol, and slammed it down.
A mummy wrapped from head to toe in bandages appeared in his place.
"A mummy?" Ben froze. "How am I supposed to use this thing?"
Dr. Viktor did not panic at Ben's transformation. Instead, he looked at him with contempt. "I've heard of the Omnitrix, but you two aren't the only ones with transformation powers."
As soon as he finished speaking, Dr. Viktor let out a low growl and his body rapidly swelled.
His white lab coat was ripped apart by his terrifying muscles, and his skin turned a sickly green.
His mismatched eyes shifted into an eerie purple, and two tower-shaped coils grew from his back, faint arcs of electricity flickering around them.
In an instant, Dr. Viktor changed from a scientist in a white lab coat into a hideous alien monster.
"Stop them!"
Dr. Viktor ordered the red wolf beast to stay behind, then turned and charged into NASA.
"Awooo!"
The red wolf beast let out a shrill howl, spread its sharp claws, and lunged forward like a crazed animal, radiating savage bloodlust.
"Ben, you deal with the red wolf beast. I'm going after Dr. Viktor."
As soon as he said that, brilliant electricity flared beneath Feedback's feet, and he vanished in a flash.
"Got it," the mummy said with a nod.
But in the very next second, he was tackled to the ground by the red wolf beast and savagely mauled.
Bandages flew everywhere. It was a miserable sight.
"Oh, man!"
The mummy stretched out his bandages, wrapped them around the red wolf beast, and hurled it away.
The red wolf beast showed no fear and charged right back in, its vicious fangs enough to make anyone's blood run cold.
"%#@%... Chains of Gold!"
Gwen chanted a spell, summoning two golden chains in midair that wrapped around the red wolf beast's wrists like lightning.
"Roar!"
The red wolf beast gave one violent yank.
The golden chains shattered instantly.
Gwen's face went pale. Gritting her teeth, she chanted another spell and summoned dozens of earthen spikes that shot up from below.
Stab! Stab! Stab!
Even with its thick hide, the red wolf beast felt the pain. It was trapped for the moment inside a cage of earth spikes, howling madly.
Grandpa Max pulled out his handgun and fired blue laser blasts at the red wolf beast's head.
But it did very little.
Only the mummy could deal effective damage to it.
Unfortunately, this was Ben's first time turning into a mummy, and he was not used to it yet, so he got beaten up pretty badly...
...
Inside NASA's main control room, Dr. Viktor stood atop a raised platform, his purple eyes fixed on a large rectangular chunk of stone.
The stone had been taken from the Golden Gate Bridge, because both Zs'Skayr and Qyskaar had died there.
By hacking into the surveillance footage around the Golden Gate Bridge, Dr. Viktor had learned that Ghostfreak had died in that location, so he secretly removed that section of stone.
Because of the Ectonurites' natural traits, as long as even a tiny bit of their cells remained, they could come back to life.
Even the blazing sun could not always completely destroy Ghostfreak. That was how it worked in the original story.
There would always be some dark corner left to nurture darkness and evil.
Feedback chased him into the control room and faced Dr. Viktor alone.
"I'm not the one in charge. The Big Boss is. He always has been!"
Dr. Viktor now stood in front of an enormous machine.
The machine was covered in a dense tangle of wires. Under Dr. Viktor's control, several plugs extended outward.
Then they stabbed into his back and began pumping energy into him at a frantic rate.
Instantly, the tower-like coils on Dr. Viktor's back crackled with violent purple lightning. He thrust out a massive hand toward the rectangular stone and released a surging wave of purple energy.
"Rise again, Big Boss!" Dr. Viktor's expression was utterly crazed, yearning for the moment Ghostfreak returned.
With his arms folded, Feedback said calmly, "It's useless, big guy. Your Big Boss isn't coming back."
"Impossible." Dr. Viktor shook his head. "The Big Boss's life force is far too tenacious for a lowly creature like you to understand."
But half a minute passed.
And the rectangular stone still showed no reaction at all.
"How can this be?!" Dr. Viktor was stunned.
Feedback spread his hands. "Your Big Boss isn't just dead. I erased his consciousness too."
Last time, after Lucian defeated Zs'Skayr and Qyskaar on the Golden Gate Bridge, the system recovered the genes of both Ghostfreaks and wiped out all of their consciousness.
In other words, Ghostfreak would never come back to wreak havoc again.
And that chunk of Golden Gate Bridge debris did not contain any Ghostfreak cells at all.
Because the system had already taken them back.
"No... Big Boss!" Dr. Viktor clutched his head in both hands and let out a cry of despair.
"You killed the Big Boss. I'll avenge him!!"
Dr. Viktor completely lost his mind. His eyes blazed with deep violet light, purple lightning coiling around his body as he prepared to fight to the death like a wounded beast.
"Then come on."
Feedback's eyes turned cold. He raised a hand, and blue-white electricity burst from the plugs, gathering into a ferocious electric dragon.
"Go."
Feedback pointed forward, and the savage electric dragon shot out at once, wreathed in dazzling light as it slammed straight at Dr. Viktor.
With a furious roar, Dr. Viktor unleashed all the power in his body and fired a thick purple beam...