Later, they walked through the halls of the underwater resort, surrounded on every side by massive glass walls that gave a clear view of the ocean outside. Fish swam past in colorful schools, coral reefs stretched into the distance, and the deep blue water above them made it feel less like they were inside a building and more like they were walking along the ocean floor itself.
"The official grand opening is still a week away," Donovan explained proudly as they moved through the halls.
Ben and Gwen immediately ran ahead to look around, while Edwin followed behind them with a bored expression like he had already seen everything here a hundred times.
A little further back, Edwin glanced over his shoulder and spotted Evan and Orfevre chasing after a now completely unrestrained Gold Ship.
The moment they released her, chaos resumed immediately.
Gold Ship was currently sprinting through the hallway with a hammer in one hand and a screwdriver in the other while charging directly toward one of the giant glass walls.
"Golshi, stop running toward the expensive glass!" Evan shouted while chasing after her.
"IT NEEDS IMPROVEMENTS!" Gold Ship yelled back.
Orfevre narrowed her eyes and sped up. "Give me the hammer before I use you as one!"
For the first time since they met, Edwin actually looked mildly interested.
Behind the kids, Donovan continued speaking to Max as they walked together at a slower pace.
"Only a few special VIPs are getting a sneak peek," Donovan said proudly. "Sure beats that rusty old bucket of bolts you sleep in."
Ahead of them, Ben and Gwen pressed closer to the glass to admire the sea life swimming outside. Edwin walked behind them with his hands in his pockets while the older men caught up.
At the same time, the other three members of the Gold family turned the hallway into a disaster zone.
Gold Ship had somehow acquired a bucket and was now running around with it over her head like a helmet while Evan chased after her trying to grab the tools away. Orfevre followed behind both of them carrying a mop like a weapon, fully prepared to beat them if necessary.
A poor janitor desperately ran after the entire group in near tears.
"Please stop running!" the man cried out. "Those are resort properties!"
"I found it fair and square!" Gold Ship shouted.
"I literally watched you steal it!" Evan yelled back.
"I found it emotionally!"
Ben looked over at the chaos for a moment before deciding to ignore it. "Good thing I don't have a sibling."
"I read about your resort in Pacific Monthly Oceana, Mr. Grandsmith," Gwen said while adjusting her glasses slightly. "Very cutting-edge. Isn't the glass reinforced with-"
"Butt-kisser," Edwin muttered under his breath.
"Micro-titanium threads capable of withstanding ten atmospheres of pressure." Donovan smiled proudly. "Nobody gets wet here unless it's in one of the nine pools."
"Very impressive, Donovan," Max admitted with a nod.
"Well, for two billion dollars, it ought to be," Donovan replied smugly. "Still, money isn't everything."
"Did we change the family motto, Grandpa?" Edwin asked dryly.
That was when Ben noticed the Sumo Slammers pin attached to Edwin's collar.
His eyes immediately lit up.
"Wait, you like Sumo Slammers too?" Ben asked excitedly. "Where'd you get that pin?"
"Sumo Slammer Slamdown Five in Helsinki," Edwin answered casually. "Grandpa flew us there on his private jet."
"And Edwin says the pin already tripled in value," Donovan added proudly. "Kid's got a real head for business. I'm grooming him to take over the empire someday. Gotta keep it in the family."
"You know, we've kinda been following in our Grandpa's footsteps this summer too," Ben said with a grin while glancing around, trying to locate Evan somewhere in the chaos.
That was when alarms suddenly started blaring throughout the resort. The lights flickered on and off for a second.
Everyone stopped moving immediately.
"What happened?" Gwen asked.
They looked outside the glass and saw one of the diver employees cleaning the exterior windows suddenly lose his balance. The hose attached to his equipment twisted around him awkwardly while the nearby filtration system seemed to reverse direction.
Then water suddenly started flooding into his suit.
"A power surge must've recycled the water systems," Donovan said, his confident expression slipping slightly.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Ben asked.
Edwin looked out at the water calmly as several sharks slowly swam into the area. "If the sharks don't get him first."
Ben and Gwen immediately looked horrified.
"I can't have an employee turned into fish food before opening day!" Donovan panicked. "The press would destroy me!"
He hurried off with Max right behind him while Ben and Gwen exchanged a quick look.
Gwen immediately understood. She stepped toward Edwin to distract him while Ben quietly slipped away toward a nearby open access platform connected to the water systems.
"It's time for Ripjaws to finally get the respect he deserves," Ben muttered confidently.
Then he slammed down on the Omnitrix. A burst of green light flashed brightly, briefly catching Gwen and Edwin's attention.
When the light faded, Grey Matter stood there instead.
He stared at himself for one second. Then groaned loudly. "Dang it! The one time being me would've actually been useful!"
Without wasting any more time, Grey Matter jumped into the water anyway.
While he struggled to save the trapped diver outside...
Further down the hall, Evan and Orfevre were once again throwing hands with each other.
Apparently, they had reached an agreement. Whoever lost the fight had to babysit Gold Ship for the next hour.
This explained why both twins were currently fighting. Meanwhile, Gold Ship stood on top of a luggage cart with the screwdriver raised dramatically toward the massive glass wall.
"You know," she said thoughtfully while staring at the ocean outside, "I really wanna know what happens if this cracks."
"NO!" Evan and Orfevre shouted at the exact same time before immediately abandoning their fight to tackle her together.
...
The newly rescued diver was escorted away to the medical area while the rest of the group slowly recovered from the chaos that had nearly turned into a disaster.
"Well, I'll probably have to double his salary now, but at least he won't say anything," Donovan said while adjusting his suit. "Besides, who would believe him anyway? He said some six-inch rat with two legs saved him."
Behind him, Ben and Gwen exchanged smug grins.
Nearby, Gold Ship was currently sitting on a luggage cart completely wrapped in duct tape again to prevent her from escaping and causing another incident. Even then, she was somehow still inching the cart forward little by little using only her feet.
At the same time, Evan and Orfevre had already resumed fighting.
Apparently nearly flooding the resort had only paused things temporarily.
"Buy him off. Now that's the Grandsmith way," Edwin scoffed.
Donovan immediately cleared his throat. "Edwin, why don't you take the kids on a tour while Max and I catch up a bit?"
"Oh man," Ben groaned dramatically while Gwen brushed some loose hair away from her face.
As Donovan and Max started walking away together, Donovan sighed lightly.
"You know, Max, it's still a shame you never accepted my offer thirty years ago when we were both broke," he said. "You wouldn't have spent your life unclogging drains and fixing toilets while I traveled the world."
Max only smirked. "You'd be surprised. Being a plumber has its moments."
Donovan laughed, clearly assuming Max was joking.
Behind them, Edwin glanced toward the back of the hallway where Evan and Orfevre were still fighting each other.
Currently, Orfevre was using the broken remains of the mop from earlier and was now swinging it like a spear while Evan dodged bare-handed.
"Should we be worried about them?" Edwin asked.
"Grandpa said they fight all the time," Gwen explained while watching the twins casually destroy resort property in the background. "As long as it doesn't get too out of hand, it's apparently normal."
Right as she said that, Evan ducked under the broken mop and accidentally kicked Orfevre into a decorative plant.
Edwin stared silently for a moment. "That's considered normal?"
"At this point? Kinda." Ben said, shrugging alongside Gwen.
The tour eventually led them into a massive indoor water park section of the resort. Water slides twisted overhead while artificial waterfalls flowed down crystal walls into enormous pools.
Ben looked around with wide eyes. "Okay, this place is awesome."
"Not bad," Edwin admitted casually as he walked ahead of them. "Every morning I train here with my personal swim coach and fitness instructor."
"You're a swimmer?" Gwen asked.
"Long-distance," Edwin answered proudly. "Grandpa says it builds character."
As he walked away, he made a smooth swimming motion with his arms.
The second he turned around, Ben copied him with an exaggerated expression.
"'Grandpa says it builds character,'" Ben mocked while doing the same swimming motion.
Gwen burst out laughing. Edwin looked mildly offended.
The tour continued through several more sections of the resort until they entered a massive chamber with a submarine suspended overhead.
The sleek vehicle hung from reinforced supports near the ceiling, its smooth metallic body reflecting the lights around the room.
Ben immediately stopped walking. "No way..."
"It's called the Undersea Manta Ray," Edwin explained proudly. "It belongs to my grandfather."
"Well... it definitely looks cool," Gwen admitted while staring up at it.
Even she had to admit the submarine looked incredible.
"You wanna take it for a ride?" Edwin suddenly asked.
Ben immediately answered before Gwen could even process the question.
"Definitely."
Gwen snapped toward him in shock. "Ben!"
"What?"
"Are you sure that's okay?" Gwen asked cautiously as she turned toward Edwin.
Edwin smirked slightly.
...
Meanwhile, after Max and Donovan find out that the Undersea Manta Ray was taken by Edwin for a drive with Ben and Gwen.
And after hearing they were attacked by some kinda of underwater robot squid.
Donovan gets even angrier until Max calls out to him.
"It's no joke, Donovan," Max said as he ushered his friend to the window of the control room and they gasped when they saw a glowing light from the sea below as several creatures swarmed up into the resort through the hole in the garage.
...
Meanwhile, with the Gold siblings, Evan tackled Orfevre straight through a stack of pool chairs while Gold Ship, still wrapped head to toe in duct tape, rolled away on the luggage cart like some kind of absurd runaway missile.
"I'M FREEEEEE!" she screamed proudly while speeding down the hallway.
The twins quickly got back to their feet after crashing through the chairs, only to realize Gold Ship was escaping again.
But before either of them could chase after her, a loud metallic slam echoed through the resort.
Another impact followed immediately after.
The three siblings looked up toward the massive glass walls surrounding the underwater halls and saw several strange robotic squids smashing themselves against the reinforced glass.
Each impact caused large cracks to spread further across the surface.
"What the-"
Before Orfevre could finish, one of the cracks widened dramatically.
"Get Golshi!" Evan shouted immediately as he and Orfevre rushed forward at the same time.
They both rushed toward their younger sister just as the glass finally gave way.
The wall shattered with a huge crash, and water surged into the hall.
"AAAGHHHH!" Gold Ship screamed while helplessly wiggling around in her bindings as the luggage cart tipped over.
Seeing his little sister about to get swept away, Evan's expression changed instantly. Without wasting another second, he activated his Another Omnitrix and pressing it down without looking.
A golden flash burst across the hallway, and before it even faded, a dark blue alien with a slender frame and six wide wings was already flying forward through the flooding water.
"Big Chill!" he announced as he breathed out a wave of freezing air.
The rushing water stopped before it could reach Gold Ship, turning solid and holding back the flood for the moment.
Orfevre shielded her face from the cold wind while staring at the frozen wall of ice now blocking the flooding corridor.
"…Okay, that's still weird to watch," she admitted.
Big Chill's glowing golden eyes shifted upward toward the other robotic squids still attacking nearby sections of the resort.
More robot squids were crawling and smashing against the other panels, trying to force their way inside.
Without hesitation, he fired another freezing blast through the wall, letting the ice spread to the water outside, coating the machines in thick ice, spreading to them, and stopping them mid-attack.
The frozen robots drifted motionlessly downward into the ocean depths, their bodies frozen and shut down by the extreme cold.
Big Chill then floated downward toward Gold Ship.
She was still rolling slowly across the floor while struggling dramatically.
"Big broooo! The ocean is trying to murder Gold Ship!" she cried.
With a careful movement, Big Chill floated down, reached out, and froze the tape solid before shattering it cleanly with a quick motion.
The moment she was free, Gold Ship immediately latched onto Big Chill's leg dramatically while pretending to sob loudly.
"We almost lost Gold Ship to the cruel sea! I thought I was gonna dieeeee!"
Orfevre walked over while staring at the frozen hallway around them.
"What the hell is going on here? What even are those things?"
She did not really react much to Evan turning into an alien. At this point, the entire family already knew about his powers. Evan had transformed at home several times before, and after their mothers told Stay Gold about his situation, Max suddenly ended up volunteering to take Evan away for a "summer vacation."
And Stay Gold personally came home to drop him off with his grandfather.
"Aliens..." Big Chill said in his cold, echoing voice. Then he glanced toward one of the frozen machines outside. "Or artificial robot squids."
He then shook his leg, dropping Goldshi off him.
His six wings folded inward until they resembled a cloak draped around his slender frame.
Then his hand moved up beneath the cloak and tapped the Omnitrix. In another flash of light, he shifted back into Evan.
"We need to find Grandpa and the others and get out of here," Evan said quickly.
Orfevre nodded immediately. Even Gold Ship stopped joking for once.
For all the chaos the Gold siblings caused on a daily basis, they still understood when things were serious. They could fool around constantly, but the second actual danger appeared, all of them became surprisingly reliable.
The three siblings quickly ran through the hallways together, avoiding areas already flooding with water. Emergency alarms blared overhead while guests and staff hurried past in panic.
Along the way, Gold Ship kept trying to "borrow" emergency equipment until Orfevre physically dragged her away from a fire axe cabinet.
Eventually, they finally spotted the others further down the corridor.
"GRANDPAAAAA!" Gold Ship wailed dramatically the moment she saw Max before running over and hugging his leg tightly. "Big bro and big sis bullied me!"
Evan and Orfevre both stopped dead.
"Heh!?" they said together.
Max looked down at the crying Gold Ship hanging onto his leg and sighed like a man who had already accepted this was his life now.
"Alright, alright, calm down, Golshi," he said gently while patting her head. "Grandpa will deal with them later. Right now, we need to get out of here first."
Gold Ship sniffled loudly and pointed accusingly toward the twins.
"They abandoned me to the scary water!"
Orfevre leaned a little closer to her brother and muttered under her breath, "We should have left her."
"Don't worry," Evan whispered back. "No one will hear her scream down here."
The problem was that both of them said it loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear perfectly clearly.
"SEEEEE!?" Gold Ship shouted while pointing accusingly at them.
Edwin stared at the three siblings silently for a moment before finally speaking.
"I honestly can't tell if your family loves each other or hates each other."
"Both," Ben answered instantly.
"Definitely both," Gwen agreed.
Soon, the staff and crew had made it back to the opening area, where the boats were being lifted back up toward the surface. The whole place was a mess now, with alarms still sounding and damage control teams moving around in a hurry, while Donovan looked out at the destruction with a deep, disappointed frown.
"Look on the bright side, Grandpa," Edwin said. "You still have fifteen resorts worldwide."
Donovan gave a small sigh and reached for the lift controls, starting the mechanism again so they could head back up.
But then the whole thing suddenly jerked and stalled.
Gwen's eyes widened. "Uh-oh."
Before anyone could react, massive metal tentacles suddenly slammed down and tore into the boat, splitting the group apart. The kids ended up on one side while the grandparents were left on the other, with the lift still trying to haul the wreckage upward despite the giant machine attacking it from below.
Without hesitation, Evan jumped from his seat, light gathering around his fist, and lunged straight at the robot squid's metal head.
The glowing energy sharpened around his fists as he started hammering down on the robot repeatedly, each strike spreading more cracks across the metal shell.
At the same time, Orfevre rushed forward and grabbed onto one of the massive tentacles wrapped around the transport platform.
With a fierce pull, she started ripping at the metal limb alongside her brother.
The machine screeched loudly as the twins forced it loose together.
For one brief moment, it actually worked.
Then the damaged platform shifted violently beneath them. The alien then did its last struggle, dragging them both over the edge along with it.
"Donovan, stop this thing!" Max shouted while reaching toward his grandkids.
But the rising platform was already too far away from the falling children.
"I can't!" Donovan yelled back helplessly.
Below them, Evan reacted immediately. The moment he saw Orfevre falling beside him, he grabbed her and pulled her tightly against himself.
Then he twisted midair. Instead of letting her hit first, Evan turned his own body into a shield.
The two of them slammed hard against part of the metal support structure, bounced off the cracked glass surface nearby, and finally crashed down into the water below.
The impact knocked the breath out of both of them.
Cold water swallowed them instantly.
A moment later, Orfevre surfaced first and grabbed Evan by the arm, dragging him upward through the water.
The twins broke the surface together, both coughing and gasping for air.
"You okay?" Evan asked between breaths.
Orfevre looked furious. "I should be asking you, dumbass!"
Even soaked and exhausted, she still sounded ready to punch him.
Before Evan could answer, something suddenly wrapped around both of their legs and yanked them back under the water.
A golden flash burst through the dark water, and the alien robot squid's remains were flung upward, cut cleanly in half.
A moment later, Shellblade rose out of the water with Orfevre clinging to his back, both of them dripping wet but still moving.
The sleek stone-bodied alien climbed upward with sharp blade-arms digging directly into the metal walls of the lift shaft.
More robot squids were rising after them, causing him to turn back and fire a jet of water from his mouth, throwing them back.
"We need to get out of here!" he said.
Using his blade-hands, he rapidly climbed the now-empty lift shaft while the remaining alien robot squids chased after them from below like predators closing in.