The weather was clear.
A golden sun hung high in the sky, radiating waves of heat.
Culture Square.
There were all kinds of play equipment set up here, like swings, parallel bars, and more.
The grass was lush, and the trees were full and green.
A lot of adults often brought their children here to play.
At that moment, Gwen was flying a kite.
"Roar!"
Suddenly, Wildmutt pounced from behind, snatched Gwen's kite, and clamped it in his jaws.
"Hey, doofus, give it back already!"
Gwen stamped her foot in anger.
The Omnitrix symbol was on Wildmutt's shoulder, so she could tell at a glance that Ben had transformed.
Wildmutt refused to give in. He pawed at the ground and kept teasing Gwen.
"Doofus, just watch what I can do!"
Gwen pulled out her spellbook and began chanting.
The last time she swapped bodies with Charmcaster, she had not only learned a lot of magic, but also taken Charmcaster's spellbook.
On the surface, Wildmutt did not look any different.
But the little dogs around them definitely did not see it that way.
At that moment, in the dogs' eyes, Wildmutt was irresistibly charming, like a flower blooming in spring, so captivating it was almost intoxicating.
"Woof! Woof!"
Every dog in Culture Square started giving mating calls like wolves spotting prey, all scrambling to charge at Wildmutt.
Wildmutt was so scared he bolted.
Seriously, if they caught him, the consequences would be unthinkable.
"Hahaha, serves you right, doofus." Gwen doubled over laughing, her laughter as crisp as silver bells.
Wildmutt scrambled up a tree and clung helplessly to the thin trunk.
Below, he was surrounded by dogs in heat, all wagging their tails as they waited for him to come down.
Crack. Crack!
The branch could not bear Wildmutt's weight and started to break.
Beep. Beep!
Just then, the Omnitrix flashed, and he changed back into Ben.
Thud!
Ben fell out of the tree.
"Why am I actually happy I changed back?" Ben thought he had narrowly escaped disaster.
Instead, the dogs pounced on him and started licking him like crazy...
A moment later, Ben was covered head to toe in dog slobber, sticky and gross.
Drip. Drip.
"Hahaha, Grandpa, look! Ben turned into a slobber monster!" Gwen laughed loudly.
Grandpa Max kept his hands in his pockets and did not turn around, as if he were lost in thought.
"Oh, man... Gwen, I really don't think you should be messing around with your magic like that."
Ben looked utterly miserable. He could not have felt worse.
"You started teasing Gwen first." Lucian gave a faint smile.
"Exactly! Cuz is the reasonable one!" Gwen folded her arms.
"You kids go play by yourselves. I want some time alone."
With that, Grandpa Max walked off by himself.
"Grandpa's acting really weird today," Ben could not help saying.
"I heard Grandpa met Grandma in this city. Maybe he's thinking about her," Gwen said.
"Relax. With us around, Grandpa won't feel lonely!" Ben grinned, completely carefree.
Gwen's mouth twitched. "You really could not be more clueless, doofus."
"Ahhh! Help!"
"There's a monster!!"
Suddenly, shrill screams rang out across Culture Square.
Tourists started fleeing in terror, snatching up their children and running for their lives as though they had seen something horrifying.
Lucian's gaze sharpened. At the entrance to the square, he saw a female lizard alien.
She had green skin and three eyes glowing with a purple sheen. Her figure was slender and shapely.
Two soft tendrils grew from the sides of her head, almost like twin ponytails.
Her long pointed tail swayed in the wind, but the power hidden inside it was impossible to measure.
Lucian remembered her.
This was Grandpa Max's old lo... ahem, old friend from the original series, Xylene!
Xylene noticed Lucian too. With one sharp glance, she spotted the Omnitrix on his wrist.
"Why is the Omnitrix on your arm?!"
Lucian spread his hands casually. "Found it."
"Impossible. I already set the Omnitrix's launch coordinates. There is no way there could have been an error!" Xylene shook her head, clearly not believing him.
"Cuz, stop wasting time talking to this lizard lady. Let me beat her up, and she'll behave!"
Ben slapped the replica Omnitrix and instantly transformed into Heatblast.
Xylene was completely stunned.
"Why... are there two Omnitrixes?"
"I only brought one."
Heatblast raised his hand, formed a blazing fireball, and hurled it without another word.
"Ben, wait." Lucian was about to stop him.
But the two were already fighting.
As the fireball flew at her, Xylene's eyes flared purple. All the play equipment nearby instantly broke apart into pieces and floated into the air.
Then, with a single thought, every mechanical part shot forward like cannonballs, all of them blasting toward Heatblast at once.
Heatblast unleashed a pillar of fire, melting the cold metal parts into a puddle of molten iron.
"Water Dragon Soul!!"
Gwen joined in too, releasing a deep-blue water dragon that coiled and roared as it charged at Xylene.
Xylene fixed her violet eyes on the water dragon.
In an instant, the Water Dragon Soul was covered in a strange purple glow and froze in midair.
"Good. I'll borrow your magic for a moment."
As she spoke, Xylene took control of the huge Water Dragon Soul and slammed it straight into Heatblast.
Boom!
Heatblast flew back like a kite with its string cut and rolled across the lawn, his whole body extinguished.
Even the flames on his head were gone, leaving him completely bald.
"Oh, man, I'm soaked!"
Heatblast got to his feet and tried to release more fire, but not even a spark came out.
"Everybody stop." Lucian stepped between both sides and looked at the lizard woman. "I'll explain the Omnitrix. Don't force me to do this."
He only had not made a move because of Grandpa Max. Otherwise, the fight would have ended a long time ago.
"Give me back the Omnitrix! It wasn't meant for you!" Xylene's chest heaved with anger. She had already lost control.
Boom!
A thick blue laser blasted in from the side and hit the ground at Xylene's feet, instantly blowing her backward.
"That was just a warning."
Grandpa Max was standing there in his blue Plumber uniform, the cannon in his hand still trailing wisps of smoke.
"That voice... it sounds so familiar..." The lizard woman quickly turned around, her body trembling slightly. "Max? Is that you?"
"Xylene?" Grandpa Max was stunned too.
Ben and Gwen looked at each other, both full of confusion.
Grandpa knew this lizard woman?
What exactly was their relationship?
"Xylene is an old friend of mine." Grandpa Max's face lit up with a smile.
He looked like a completely different person from the gloomy man just moments ago.
Xylene looked at Lucian and the others. "These kids are with you?"
"Yeah. Let's get in the Rustbucket first. This isn't a good place to talk," Grandpa Max said.
"Alright."
One by one, everyone got into the Rustbucket...