The Rust Bucket pulled up in front of the mansion, tires screeching slightly as it came to a stop. The front doors of the place were already wide open, and before the engine had even fully settled, Ben had jumped out, bringing up his Omnitrix and starting to dial it in.
Lucky Girl rushed past him, already suited up, pushing him aside as she moved.
"Back off. I'll handle this," she said without slowing down.
Ben blinked, caught off guard for half a second before frowning. "We're the real heroes here!"
He was about to follow her inside when Evan reached out and grabbed him by the collar, stopping him in place.
"You heard her," Evan said calmly.
Ben turned, confused. "What?"
"If just having that power makes her act like this," Evan continued, glancing toward the mansion, "then let's see how she handles it."
Max stepped out behind them, clearly not liking that idea. "Evan, this isn't the time for one of your tests."
"It's better she learns now instead of later," Evan replied, his tone steady. "Don't you think?"
Max paused for a moment, weighing it, then let out a tired sigh. "…Let's move."
The three of them headed inside after her.
The moment they stepped in, the situation was already out of control.
The foyer was in chaos. Tourists were screaming and rushing for the exits while parts of the structure moved on their own. The chandelier swung violently overhead, balconies shifted and tilted without support, and several people were stuck on them, unable to get down as the entire structure shook.
From an upper window, Gwen stared in shock at everything happening.
Then, as if on cue, Hex appeared nearby, stepping out from the shadows with his hood up and arms crossed.
"I knew you couldn't resist… Lucky Girl."
"…He's seriously aura farming right now," Evan muttered under his breath.
Ben and Max both glanced at him, clearly not following, but there was no time to ask.
Hex raised his staff, and the moment he did, the stairwell and balconies began to shake even more violently. Pieces of the structure broke loose, hovering in the air under his control as the people trapped on them panicked even harder.
"Help us!"
"I'm gonna fall!"
"This thing's gonna collapse!"
Lucky Girl pushed forward through the chaos, brushing past Ben, who was still trying to lock in his transformation.
"Everyone, stay calm! Lucky Girl's here!" she called out, sounding far more confident than the situation deserved.
She ran straight toward the center, completely ignoring Hex's position above.
With a flick of his hand, Hex activated the Levitation Charm. The air shifted instantly, and parts of the stairwell tore free, launching toward Ben and Max.
They ducked for cover, but Evan stepped forward instead, using Royal Guard to knock away a few of the stairwell, while the Proto-Tool adjusted itself, the head barrel moved and fire small controlled energy bursts, destroying a few of them.
"You don't just need luck," Ben said, finally slamming down on the Omnitrix. "You need skill to back it up."
A flash of green light engulfed him.
Up above, Lucky Girl was already moving, climbing onto the unstable structure just as the balconies finally gave way completely, breaking apart and floating through the air with people still clinging to them.
Hex stood at the center of it all, levitating everything around him while keeping his focus locked on the charm around her neck.
Lucky Girl grabbed onto a floating board, holding on tightly as it spun unevenly through the air. Her grip slipped, and she was thrown off, but the charm glowed again, shifting her fall just enough for her to land on a nearby column. She stumbled slightly, regaining her balance.
Below, one of the tourists lost their grip and fell.
Max moved instantly, stepping into position and catching her before she hit the ground. He adjusted his footing just in time to avoid debris crashing down around him.
Nearby, Four Arms had already taken form, grabbing onto a large support beam to steady it.
"I got it!" he called out, holding it in place.
Lucky Girl looked up at the remaining people still stranded above.
"…But who's got them?"
The column beneath her suddenly cracked and shifted, forcing her to react. She jumped, grabbing onto the chandelier overhead and swinging with it before releasing at the right moment and her foot landing on one of the floating balconies.
"Everybody grab on!" she shouted.
The tourists didn't hesitate, jumping and grabbing onto the chandelier as it swung back with their weight.
The sudden shift caused Four Arms to lose his grip, and the floating balcony flicked, sending him flying backward into the wall.
The chandelier cable snapped under the added strain. They barely had time to react before everything dropped.
A golden glow flashed.
"Sludge!"
His body spread out instantly beneath them, cushioning the fall as everyone landed safely. The tourists scrambled to their feet, covered in mud but unharmed, and rushed toward the exits without looking back.
Lucky Girl pushed herself up, looking down at the mess clinging to her.
"…Ew."
"Rude," Sludge replied.
Before anything else could happen, yellow energy suddenly wrapped around him, lifting him up and throwing him straight out through the front doors as they slammed shut behind him.
At the same time, that same energy wrapped around Lucky Girl's hands, lifting her off the ground and pulling her toward Hex.
He smirked as she struggled.
"Give me my charm."
He reached for it, but before he could grab it, Four Arms launched forward, slamming into him and knocking him to the ground.
The force broke Hex's focus, and Lucky Girl was thrown aside. She grabbed onto a curtain to stop herself, but it tore free, dropping her back onto the floor.
"You should've said please," she shot back. Then she turned and was about to run into the hallway.
Hex recovered quickly, raising his hand and sending Four Arms crashing through a nearby window. Without pausing, he redirected the torn curtain, wrapping it tightly around Gwen and dragging her back toward him before ripping the Luck Charm off her neck.
He tightened the fabric around her, cutting off her movement.
Then the window behind him shattered.
A figure burst through, slamming straight into him and sending him crashing into the wall. The charm slipped from his grasp and hit the ground.
"I'll be taking this," Crashhopper said, already picking it up.
He tapped his Omnitrix, shifting forms into Fasttrack.
Hex pushed himself up, glaring.
"I'm going to destroy this. Catch me if you can."
Fasttrack smirked, then vanished in a blue blur, darting out of the room.
Hex immediately followed.
With both of them gone, the room finally settled enough for the others to move. Four Arms and Max rushed to Gwen, working quickly to free her from the curtain as the chaos slowly started to die down around them.
Bursting out of the mansion and into the open, Fasttrack kept his momentum going without slowing down, already aware that Hex was right behind him.
From what he had observed earlier through the window after getting thrown out, he had a pretty clear read on how Hex's magic operated, and that made this a lot easier to handle than it looked.
Hex's magic wasn't overwhelming, at least not in execution. It was strong, sure, but it was slow, focused, and required his full attention to control properly. Even when Evan had been Sludge, Hex had the opportunity to interrupt him but simply didn't react fast enough, which told him everything he needed to know.
With that in mind, Fasttrack was practically the perfect counter.
"What's the matter? Can't hit a moving target?" Fasttrack called out as he dashed to the side, easily slipping out of the path of a fireball.
He pivoted, backflipping smoothly before circling around Hex at high speed, his movement turning into a blur as he looped around him once, twice, then abruptly stopped, leaning casually against a stone tombstone nearby like he had all the time in the world.
"C'mon, step it up," he added, tilting his head slightly.
Hex turned sharply, raising his staff, but by the time the magic gathered, Fasttrack was already gone. He reappeared on the roof of the mansion, sitting at the edge with his legs dangling, looking down at him with an easy, almost bored expression.
"You're too slow."
The moment the words left his mouth, he vanished again, just as a bolt of lightning struck the exact spot he had been sitting seconds earlier.
Fasttrack reappeared a short distance away, now leaning against a tree, casually holding two chili dogs in his hands like he had picked them up mid-run.
"You know," he said between bites, completely unfazed, "maybe you wouldn't have had such a bad day if you'd just waited a little longer."
He took another bite, talking through it without much care.
"Timing matters."
He chewed, swallowed, and finished the last one before Hex could even properly reposition.
The moment Hex turned toward him, energy already building again, Fasttrack disappeared from view. The next attack hit the tree instead, setting part of it ablaze.
Hex barely had time to register movement before a chunk of stone struck him across the side of the head, immediately followed by a sharp kick that landed squarely on his butt and sent him stumbling forward and crashing onto the ground.
"Man, this must be your unlucky day," Fasttrack said as he appeared right behind him, casually dropping down and sitting on Hex's back like he was a chair.
"SILENCE!" Hex roared, his magic flaring outward in a burst of yellow energy.
Fasttrack was already gone before it could reach him.
He reappeared in front of Hex and drove a clean, fast punch straight into his face, sending the sorcerer skidding back across the ground before running off.
Hex tried to recover, pushing himself up, but now he didn't have the luxury of picking his pace. Fasttrack stayed in motion constantly, never giving him a clean moment to focus, never staying still long enough to be targeted.
Every time Hex tried to cast a spell, Fasttrack would either interrupt him or just toy with him.
"Seriously," Fasttrack added, tilting his head slightly, that same easy grin still there, "you should work on your reaction time."
Hex lunged again; frustration couldn't fully describe his true feelings right now, but the result didn't change.
"Wow… that's actually really cool," Four Arms said from the side, watching the whole thing play out with clear interest.
He shifted his weight, ready to jump in and help, but Max reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. Four Arms glanced back, only to see Max shaking his head.
"There's no need to step in right now," Max said calmly. "Just watch and learn."
Four Arms hesitated for a moment, then nodded, turning his attention back to the fight.
Watching Fasttrack handle Hex so easily made things feel a bit different. Not long ago, they had been the ones struggling against him, getting thrown around by his magic without much room to fight back. Now, seeing him getting completely outplayed like this, it was hard not to feel a little embarrassed.
"Oh man… if I knew speed was his weakness, I would've gone XLR8," Four Arms muttered, clearly a bit jealous as he watched Fasttrack practically run circles around the sorcerer.
Hex was having a hard time keeping up. Every time he tried to cast something, the glow from his staff barely had time to build before Fasttrack was already there, landing a hit and breaking his focus. The few instant spells he managed to throw out didn't connect either, missing as Fasttrack kept moving without pause.
"Why is he acting so cocky all of a sudden?" Lucky Girl asked, watching from the side. It wasn't exactly how she recalled Evan's way of fighting.
Right as she said that, Hex's gaze snapped toward them, frustration clearly building.
He didn't get the chance to act on it.
Fasttrack flicked his shoulder from the side, just enough to pull his attention back, then reappeared on the other side and landed a clean punch across his face.
"Evan is antagonizing him, keeping all of his focus on him," Max explained. "If Hex looks away even for a second, he gets hit. He doesn't have the space to think about anything else. He won't be able to harm anyone else as long as Evan kept this up."
That became even clearer the next moment.
Fasttrack slipped in again, this time grabbing hold of Hex's staff and yanking it out of his grip before driving a knee straight into his stomach. The impact forced Hex to bend forward, and before he could recover, a sharp uppercut sent him off his feet.
While Hex was still in the air, Fasttrack moved again, faster than the eye could follow, stripping the charms off him one by one before letting his body crash down into an open stone coffin nearby.
"Four Arms, give me a hand," Fasttrack called out.
Four Arms didn't hesitate this time. He rushed over, grabbed the heavy stone lid, and dropped it into place, sealing the coffin shut with a solid thud.
The area went quiet for a moment as everyone looked toward Fasttrack.
He stood there holding Hex's staff in one hand and the charms in the other, taking a second to look them over before casually dropping the torn cloth they had been attached to.
He tried snapping the staff across his knee, but it didn't budge.
"Yeah, figured," he muttered.
He tapped his Omnitrix, shifting into Shellblade.
With a single clean motion, he swung his blade arm and sliced through part of the staff, cutting off a section before immediately tapping the dial again and returning to human form.
Crouching down, he picked up the cut piece along with the five charms, holding them for a moment before activating his Another Omnitrix. The dial popped up, briefly displaying a hologram, as he pulled the dial up and turned it, causing the hologram to disappear as the interface shifted, openning up.
One by one, he dropped the items into the open interface. Each piece was absorbed instantly.
A soft, feminine voice echoed from the device.
[Data Upgrade Detected. Probability Engine is now available.]
[Data Upgrade Detected. Pyretic Overdrive is now available.]
[Data Upgrade Detected. Electromagnetic Pulse is now available.]
[Data Upgrade Detected. Phoenix Protocol is now available.]
[Data Upgrade Detected. Zero-G is now available.]
[Data Upgrade Detected. Eldritch Core is now available.]
A red flash erupted from behind him as Evan straightened up and turned back toward the others, only to see all of them staring at him.
"Wow… how did your Omnitrix do that?" Ben asked, stepping forward with clear curiosity. "Can mine do that too?"
Evan shook his head slightly. "My Omnitrix is a bit off."
He glanced at the device on his wrist for a moment before continuing.
"I figured this out a while ago. It can absorb objects, break them down, and turn their functions into upgrades. Of course, the objects must have some kind of functions that can be converted into upgrades for it to work." He shrugged lightly. "Yours probably can't do that, seeing how they are different."
After all, the Omnitrix is a grade 20 tech, while most of Earth's tech created by humans is only grade 2-3. Even with Brainstorm's genius mind, he could only create grade 4-7 techs with the limited resources he had. Normally, adding random upgrade chips shouldn't be able to upgrade the Omnitrix, but since the Another Omnitrix and Evan both appeared in this world, probably by some bored Celestialsapien finally made a decision.
Back at his home, after he unlocked Brainstorm and tried to hack it and failed to obtain Master Control, he found out that his Another Omnitrix could absorb objects, extracting their function and turning them into upgrades.
Ben looked down at his own Omnitrix, then back at Evan's, clearly wishing his could do the same. "…Man, that's not fair."
...
Back on the road, the Rust Bucket rolled steadily past the graveyard, its engine humming as police lights flickered faintly in the distance behind them. A few officers were already gathered Hex and taking him into custody, the scene shrinking further away as the RV continued down the highway.
Inside, the mood wasn't nearly as lively as before.
Max glanced up at the rearview mirror, catching the expressions on his grandkids' faces. Both Ben and Gwen looked less than pleased, each dealing with things in their own way, while Evan sat off to the side, quiet as usual.
"I think you three actually make a great team," Max said, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
"Made," Gwen corrected without looking up. "My power's history. These two are the heroes now."
Her tone wasn't angry, just annoyed, like she hadn't fully decided how she felt about it yet.
"Team? What team?" Ben added, leaning back in his seat. "Evan practically solo carries everything again. And why can't my Omnitrix be as cool as his?"
Evan glanced over at him briefly.
"I'm pretty sure if you had mine right now, things would get worse before they got better," he said. "You'd probably try to test everything at once and break something important."
Ben opened his mouth to argue, then paused.
"…Okay, maybe a little," he admitted.
Evan gave a small shrug. "Besides, your Omnitrix isn't worse. You just haven't figured out everything it can do yet. Once you get used to it, you'll probably be able to do things that aren't that different from mine."
Ben blinked, then sat up a bit.
"Really? You actually think so?"
Evan nodded once.
Ben immediately jumped out of his seat, reaching into some boxes under the cabinet and starting to dig through them with renewed energy.
Gwen watched that for a second, then shifted her attention back to Evan.
"So… the charms," she said. "They're just… inside your watch now? Can you take them back out or something, or are they just stuck there?"
Evan shook his head slightly. "I don't know."
Gwen frowned a little at that, her fingers brushing lightly against where the necklace used to be.
Evan noticed, then spoke again, his tone still even.
"Gwen, you might not like hearing this, but if all you have is luck, that doesn't really make you reliable in many situations. Even Ben, without the Omnitrix, would still make a better hero."
She didn't respond right away.
"I'm not saying you shouldn't use something like that," he continued, leaning back slightly. "But overly dependence on it isn't a good idea either. You should probably figure out what you actually want to do first, and how you want to improve, instead of just relying solely on an object for momentary gain."
Gwen puffed her cheeks slightly, turning toward him with a glare. "You sound like an old man."
Evan didn't reply.
"I'm not talking to you anymore," she added, before turning away and pulling the curtain shut around her space.
Evan just let out a small sigh and didn't push it further.
A few seconds later, he noticed Ben had stopped digging through the boxes and was now holding a screwdriver. Without pause, Ben started poking at his Omnitrix, trying to wedge the screwdriver into a small gap like he was planning to pry it open.
Evan stared at him for a second, then he face-palmed, before turning away.