The moon was bright, and only a few stars dotted the sky.
In a secluded patch of woods, the Rustbucket was parked beside a clear little stream.
The sound of flowing water echoed through the moonlit night.
Everyone sat gathered around the table.
On the table were several bowls of live mealworms, still wriggling and hopping, enough to make Lucian's scalp crawl.
At the moment, Grandpa Max and Xylene were still chatting, as if they had an endless amount to say.
Ben rested his chin on his hand with his elbow on the table, looking annoyed. "She's been here for three whole hours and hasn't said a single word to us. Is she treating us like air or what?"
"Oh, Ben, are you jealous?" Gwen covered her mouth and laughed softly.
"Kids, look over here. Let me introduce her properly." Grandpa Max smiled kindly, holding Xylene in his arms.
And Xylene played along, gently stroking Grandpa Max's arm with the tendrils beside her head.
The two of them were all cuddly and affectionate.
Ben watched through gritted teeth, goosebumps almost rising all over him.
"Heh heh. Xylene and I met when we were both working as Plumbers, and we used to partner up all the time."
A look of nostalgia appeared in Grandpa Max's aged eyes.
"And you made me an honorary female Plumber," Xylene added, nestling into Grandpa Max's arms.
"We've been apart for so long. Did you miss me?" Xylene suddenly asked.
Grandpa Max's expression changed. "Ahem, Xylene, let's not talk about that right now. The kids are here. It's not really appropriate..."
"Oh."
Xylene sat up straight, looked at the lively mealworms on the table, and stretched out her soft tongue like a nimble little snake, wrapping it around one mealworm and pulling it into her mouth to chew.
Ben and the others could only stare in awkward silence.
"Mmm. Max's cooking is really delicious," Xylene said without hesitation.
And she meant it sincerely. She was a lizard-like alien, after all, so this kind of food was exactly to her taste.
"Hahaha! Finally, someone likes my cooking!" Grandpa Max was absolutely delighted, grinning from ear to ear.
Ben curled his lip. "Of course the lizard lady likes Grandpa's cooking. Her dinner was crawling around on the ground a second ago!"
"Ben, don't be rude," Grandpa Max said.
"By the way, Xylene, why did you suddenly come to Earth?"
Xylene sighed and explained.
"When I brought the Omnitrix to Earth, I was attacked by an old enemy."
"Vilgax?"
"That's right. I couldn't beat him, so I sent the Omnitrix down to Earth." She paused, then continued, "But it seems the Omnitrix's trajectory shifted off course."
"After the crash, my body automatically entered hibernation. I only woke up not long ago..."
"It's alright now. Vilgax has already gone bye-bye." Grandpa Max stroked Xylene's back and comforted her.
"Really?" Xylene found it hard to believe.
Vilgax was that powerful. Who could possibly have defeated him?
"It was Lucian. He personally sent him into the Null Void." Grandpa Max smiled.
"Oh? This boy is really that capable?" Xylene tilted her head and carefully sized Lucian up. "I can't see anything special about him."
"And besides, why are there two Omnitrixes? That's a serious problem."
Grandpa Max scratched his head. "I'm not sure either. According to Lucian, he found two Omnitrixes in the same place."
"Impossible. Absolutely impossible." Xylene shook her head. She simply did not buy that explanation.
She was not stupid. There was no way she could mistake one for two.
"Forget it. There's no point dwelling on it now." Xylene shrugged and kept eating mealworms. "Let Azmuth sort that problem out himself."
"Azmuth? Who's that?" Ben could not help asking.
"The creator of the Omnitrix. The wisest mind in the entire universe," Xylene replied.
Even Lucian felt a headache coming on. Just thinking about Azmuth left him unsure how he was supposed to explain any of this.
Forget it.
He would deal with it when the time came.
Bang! Bang!
Suddenly, a spider robot appeared on top of the Rustbucket.
It extended a dark gun barrel and unleashed dozens of crimson laser shots, sweeping over everyone like a raging flood.
Everyone scattered at once.
"This is bad. It must be one of Vilgax's robots. It woke up when I did," Xylene said through gritted teeth.
Back when Vilgax had attacked Xylene's ship, he had sent several robots aboard.
After Xylene crashed on Earth, the robots had come down with her.
She had assumed they were all destroyed, but apparently one had survived...
The spider robot extended a frenzy of tentacles and started ripping parts off the Rustbucket, attaching them to itself.
"It's tearing the Rustbucket apart!" Gwen cried anxiously.
"I'll handle it."
This time, Lucian did not choose to transform.
Instead, he pulled a pendant out from under his collar.
The pendant was silver all over, shaped like a snowflake, with intricate patterns engraved across its surface.
It was the gift Future Lucian had given him during that trip to the future timeline.
"What's that?" Xylene asked.
"Snow White!"
As soon as Lucian spoke, he pressed the pendant.
In an instant, a towering mech appeared before everyone. More than ten meters tall, pure white from head to toe, with magnificent mechanical wings, it shone with a cold gleam beneath the moonlight.
The visual impact was incredible.
"What a dazzling mech. Who built this?" Xylene could not help asking.
By then, the spider robot had already dismantled the Rustbucket and grafted every single part onto itself.
The whole process took less than five seconds.
Now the spider robot had grown from just one meter tall to more than ten meters high, outfitted with heavy cannons and machine guns, its blood-red eyes blazing with terrifying killing intent.
"Four Arms!" Ben transformed on the spot and charged in.
The spider robot swatted him with one claw and instantly sent Four Arms flying.
"My weapons were all on the truck! It rebuilt them into itself!" Grandpa Max panicked.
Xylene used her purple telekinesis to control a large tree and smash it at the mechanical beast.
But a torrent of laser fire shredded it to pieces.
"Let me do it."
Lucian sat in the cockpit and guided Snow White forward.
[Ding~ Alien Hacker mission triggered.]
[Destroy the mechanical beast.]
[Upon successful completion, obtain a random alien hero.]
Snow White's cyan eyes flashed, firing two laser beams that struck the mechanical beast and exploded in dazzling fire.
The mechanical beast reacted at once. It raised its machine guns, aimed at Snow White, and opened fire in a storm of bullets...