Zs'skayr glared down at Big Chill with pure hatred burning in his single eye. The moment their gazes locked again, both ghost-like aliens shot toward each other without hesitation and collided midair with enough force to rattle the rooftop.
The impact sent a freezing gust across the rooftop.
Their claws crashed against each other as they phased in and out of tangibility during the fight, each trying to catch the other off guard.
Zs'skayr clearly was not trying to overpower Big Chill anymore. Instead, he fought defensively, constantly retreating and forcing Big Chill to chase him while searching for an opening.
"You're stalling," Big Chill said coldly.
"And you are predictable," Zs'skayr hissed back.
Thumbskull suddenly charged in from the side, roaring as he tried to intercept Big Chill. But the moment Big Chill phased through his body, Thumbskull instantly froze from the inside out. Ice spread across his chest and shoulders as he stumbled backward, shivering violently before collapsing onto the ground.
"T-too cold!"
The two ghostly aliens continued their clash without stopping. They burst through the rooftop doorway, flew down the hallways, and smashed through the academy library windows, scattering papers and books everywhere.
Students screamed and ran as dark shadows and icy mist tore through the room.
Big Chill suddenly stopped in the middle of the library and looked around carefully.
Zs'skayr had vanished again.
"That slippery ghost," Big Chill muttered in annoyance before immediately turning intangible again and phasing through the floor toward where his family had been moments ago.
The second he arrived back outside, he paused.
Gwen was hauling herself up to the rooftop with her bare hands, almost effortlessly. Four Arms was climbing after her with his fingers dug into the wall, while Max, Orfevre, and Gold Ship took the easier route through the maintenance scaffolding.
Big Chill's eyes narrowed after Gwen finally pulled herself onto the rooftop.
Or rather, after seeing Zs'skayr standing there inside Gwen's body.
Four Arms climbed onto the rooftop just as the familiar beeping sound of the Omnitrix timeout warning echoed through the air.
"Music to my ears," Zs'skayr said through Gwen's mouth, the twisted grin on her face looking deeply unnatural.
The Omnitrix flashed red before Four Arms dissolved into red light and Ben returned to human form.
Zs'skayr immediately stepped forward while Ben instinctively backed away.
Then cold mist suddenly swept across the rooftop.
"Back off, Ghostfreak." Big Chill landed directly between them.
"Evan!" Ben shouted in relief.
"You again…" Zs'skayr hissed before an ugly smile crossed Gwen's face. "Drop your transformation, and I will settle for your cousin instead. Whether you can stop me afterward is your problem."
"Fat chance," Ben and Big Chill answered at the same time.
Zs'skayr's smile sharpened as he forced Gwen to the edge of the rooftop. She stumbled and nearly lost her balance, with only the edge of the roof keeping her from falling. The thirty-foot drop below made the threat much more real.
"Then I guess you'd better hope your cousin knows how to fly," Zs'skayr said coldly, making Gwen dangle one foot over the side to prove his point. "Or how to resist frostbite. It is your choice, heroes."
Ben hesitated. That hesitation was all Zs'skayr needed to push Gwen even farther until only her heels were on the edge.
"Choose quickly," he said. "Or the next thing you hear will be your cousin screaming while she takes a very long fall."
Ben did not want to do it, but he had no choice. He glanced toward Evan, hoping he had some kind of plan, some kind of trick, anything that could get Gwen out of this safely.
Then Big Chill's body erupted in golden light. Evan reversed back into human form.
The second he appeared, Zs'skayr immediately abandoned Gwen's body.
Gwen nearly collapsed from weakness, but Ben lunged forward and grabbed her arm before pulling her back to safety.
Zs'skayr ignored them completely and flew directly into Evan.
Evan cried out in pain, and his eyes shifted to purple. Then he slowly lifted his head and looked at everyone with a strange smile that was not his own.
A laugh escaped him as he began trying to merge more with Evan, wanting to become one with him.
"I've done it!" Zs'skayr said through Evan's body, lifting his left hand as if ready to activate the Another Omnitrix. "Now no one can stop me!"
He tapped the dial down, causing golden light to flare, but nothing happened.
The soft female voice echoes out from the Another Omnitrix.
[Error! Biometric data does not match Ever Gold.]
"What is going on?!" he snapped, the confusion in his voice was real.
[Error! Vocal pattern does not match Ever Gold.]
The others had been bracing for the worst the second Zs'skayr got into Evan's body. After all, Evan's transformations were far stronger than Ben's, and unlike Ben, he also had access to Alien X. Nobody wanted to imagine what would happen if Zs'skayr got full control of that kind of power.
Before anyone could react, a tiny voice suddenly cut through the tension.
"Begone, ghost! Get out of my big brother!"
Everyone turned toward Little Gold Ship, holding up a cross that nobody knew where she had found from absolutely nowhere, and was dramatically pointing it at Zs'skayr. She looked very serious for someone so small, and for one brief second, the entire roof went quiet.
The sheer randomness of the situation distracted everyone for one perfect second.
Orfevre instantly took advantage of it and launched herself forward, kicking Evan directly in the back of the head with all her strength.
"GET OUT OF MY BROTHER'S BODY!"
Evan's possessed body slammed face-first into the rooftop hard enough to crack the stone underneath him. This briefly snapped Evan out of Zs'skayr's possession, his right hand quickly moved to activate his Another Omnitrix, twisting the dial and opening the interface.
Then a soft female voice suddenly echoed from the Another Omnitrix.
[Authorized! Ever Gold's fingerprint detected.]
Zs'skayr screeched in pure rage and pain, feeling that his body was being torn apart and dragged into the Another Omnitrix.
[Error! An unknown mutation has been detected in Ever Gold's genetic code. Beginning record protocol and genetic recovery process.]
He hurriedly ripped himself free from Evan and flew backward, but not before losing his left hand in the process.
Evan groaned painfully and slowly pushed himself upright while holding his head. Orfevre and Gold Ship immediately rushed over to help him.
"Big bro, are you okay?" Gold Ship asked at full speed, already sounding worried and excited at the same time. "Did the ghost alien lay eggs inside you? If so, tell Gold Ship immediately so she can make alien omelette."
Evan stared at her for a second, then let out a tired laugh. "What the hell are you talking about?"
He reached up and ruffled her hair anyway, which made her grin instantly.
The Another Omnitrix spoke again.
[Genetic recovery process complete. Recorded DNA mutation successfully added to Playlist #2.]
[Two new DNA samples acquired.]
Evan looked down at his Another Omnitrix and activated it, turning the dial to see what had been added. The first hologram immediately made his eyes widen slightly.
Ghostfreak. Or more accurately, Zs'skayr's DNA itself had been copied into the watch.
Evan turned the dial once more and paused after seeing the next hologram. It was himself, or at least something that looked like him. The hologram showed a floating version of Evan with no legs.
Despite being curious about using Ghostfreak against Zs'skayr directly, Evan found himself more interested in this strange new transformation that looked like a ghost version of himself.
Without overthinking it, Evan pressed the dial down.
Golden light erupted around him.
His violet-gold eyes shifted into bright green, his long hair turned snow white, and his skin turned pale blue. His white shirt became black, his black pants turned white. Even his old brown coat now looked ragged and ghostly while glowing faintly with ominous energy. The golden Omnitrix symbol rested in the center of his chest.
He floated slightly above the rooftop before looking down at his own somewhat transparent hands.
"Wow," he said slowly. "I actually became a ghost of myself. Or, like... half-ghost."
Then his gaze lifted back to Zs'skayr, and a smirk crossed his face.
"You can call me Specter."
He tilted his head a little, the new form already feeling natural. Then he pointed directly at the Ectonurite.
"Round two?"
Without waiting for a response, Specter flew forward and slammed a fist straight into Zs'skayr's face, sending the ghost alien crashing backward through the air.
Zs'skayr hissed and snapped his claws forward in retaliation, but Specter was already moving. He raised one hand, now covered in a layer of green ecto-energy, and caught the strike head-on before driving a second punch directly into Zs'skayr's chest.
The impact made Zs'skayr recoil again as the ecto-energy burned across his body.
He tried to pull away, but Specter reacted faster. His arm stretched outward unnaturally, reaching the distance in an instant as he grabbed Zs'skayr by the wrist and yanked him back in. Even Zs'skayr looked caught off guard by the sudden shapeshifting, and Specter took full advantage of it by slamming another fist into his face.
The fight between the two ghost aliens erupted across the air above the campus once more, both of them moving fast enough to leave only blurred outlines in the dark.
Meanwhile, on the ground below, the connection between Specter and Ah Puch finally broke once he drifted too far away from the guardian spirit. Ah Puch paused for a second, then melted back into the shadows like he had never been there at all.
The group below noticed it immediately. And they also noticed the Circus Freaks starting to get back up after taking a beating.
"We have to get them!" Ben shouted, pointing toward the three of them.
He had already agreed with Evan that Ghostfreak was his problem, while he would focus on keeping everyone else safe. That included the other students, the staff, and anyone else in Bancroft.
The others moved quickly.
Ben glanced down at his Omnitrix while running and saw that it was still in timeout, by now he had started to understand how it recharged. As long as he stayed in danger, the timer seemed to recover faster.
Up in the sky, Specter and Zs'skayr kept trading blows.
Zs'skayr slashed with his claws, but Specter suddenly split apart and duplicated himself, turning into four separate copies that surrounded the ghost alien from every side. Zs'skayr snapped his head around in frustration as the four Specters boxed him in and pushed him higher and higher into the sky.
Then they broke through the Earth's atmosphere.
Zs'skayr suddenly froze in horror as he realized what had happened. Direct sunlight hit him immediately, and his body began to smoke.
He screamed in pain as his skin blackened and started burning.
He tried to bolt back down toward the safety of the shadows, but the four Specters closed in on him at once and grabbed onto his arms, his back, and anything else they could reach, keeping him from escaping.
The Ectonurite let out a horrific screech as the sunlight burned through him even faster. His body turned black as charcoal, his voice climbing into a shriek as he thrashed helplessly in their grasp.
Then, just like that, his form crumbled into ash.
Zs'skayr was gone. Dead, at least as dead as a ghost could be.
The four Specters merged back together and began descending toward the Earth again.
...
A few hours later, the police received an anonymous tip about the Circus Freaks being captured at Bancroft Academy.
By then, the damage was done and the danger had passed. The police escorted Thumbskull away in a metal body cast, Frightwig in a straitjacket with her hair restrained under a hood, and Acid Breath wheeled out on a dolly while wearing a mask to keep him from spitting acid at anyone.
Tiffany walked by with the same snobbish expression she had worn earlier and gave Gwen a quick, dismissive humph before turning away.
Apparently, even after Gwen and the others had saved her life and helped protect the school, she still had enough attitude left to look down on them.
"Ugh, something tells me I am so not getting into Bancroft Academy," Gwen groaned in disappointment.
"Tch, you do not need that school to prove you are smart," Ben scoffed. "You think any of those posers could have taken down those circus freaks? If they do not want you at their dumb school, then that is their loss."
Gwen looked at him for a moment, then let out a small breath and smiled.
"…Yeah, I guess you are right," she said gratefully before pulling Ben into a quick hug. "Thanks, Ben."
Ben immediately pretended to roll his eyes, but he could not keep the smile off his face. "Whatever…"
...
Later, the Rust Bucket was parked in an open field beside a lake, with Max setting up camp nearby while Gwen and Orfevre helped him out. Little Gold Ship was nearby too, supposedly helping with the fire, although it looked more like she was building a tiny wooden house out of sticks than actually doing anything useful.
A little farther away, Ben and Evan stood face to face.
Ben activated his Omnitrix, turned the dial, and slammed it down.
A green glow covered him as he transformed into Diamondhead.
He raised one hand and formed a crystal shard, then handed it to Evan. He took it, opened the interface of his Another Omnitrix, and dropped the shard inside, letting the device absorb it.
[New DNA sample acquired!]
Evan closed the interface and activated his Another Omnitrix again, turning the dial and bringing up a hologram that looked almost identical to Diamondhead.
"Just as I suspected..." Evan murmured, looking down at the watch for a moment before glancing back up at Ben. "My Another Omnitrix can absorb alien DNA too."
"Aw, man," Diamondhead said with a sigh. "Why can't my watch be as cool as yours?"
He already knew their watches worked differently, but seeing Evan unlock new aliens this way still made him feel a little jealous. The only thing that really made his own Omnitrix feel special was that the alien playlists were different, but even that did not help much once Evan showed that his watch could copy transformations too.
"Don't get too down about it, Ben," Evan said. "I'm sure your Omnitrix can probably scan alien DNA too."
"You really think so?" Diamondhead asked, his tone a little more hopeful now.
"Yeah," Evan replied. "We just do not know exactly how it works yet."
That was true. Evan had touched Ben's Omnitrix a few times before, even while transformed, and it had never given him any of his aliens. Not even something like Feedback, which Ben would later unlock, then lose afterward. Evan honestly had no idea what was going on inside Ben's watch. The scanning function had to be bugged or something.
Then Evan looked at Ben thoughtfully and asked, "Say, when you transform, do you get any kind of basic information about what your alien can do?"
He remembered how things had been when Ben first became Cannonbolt. He had not known how to use the form properly at first and only figured it out after accidentally curling up into a ball and rolling around.
Diamondhead raised one hand and let the crystal on it sharpen into a blade as he thought about it. "Uh, no, actually. I usually just learn by practice. Pretty much everything I can do with my aliens comes from training and experience."
"I see," Evan murmured.
He turned the dial on his Another Omnitrix once more and selected the familiar hologram again.
Then he pressed it down.
A golden light erupted outward, and when it faded, aquamarine crystals had formed across his body. His suit now had black pants and leggings with a white chestplate, while four crystal shards rose from his back and a sharp crystalline head completed the form. The golden Omnitrix symbol sat in the center of his chest.
"Diamondhead!" he announced, then turned his glowing golden eyes toward Ben.
"Since you do not get the natural instinct of your alien forms the moment you transform, I'll help you train."
Ben's face lit up immediately.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah," Evan said with a small nod. "Might as well make this useful."
And with that, Evan started helping Ben train with Diamondhead all the way until his Omnitrix timed out.