Chapter 7: Omnitrix, Anodite
Late at night, under a star-studded canopy.
Within the eerie silence of the sprawling forest, a black and blue afterimage darted back and forth, a living bolt of lightning that left crackling air in its wake.
"Hm? It should be right around here," the blur of motion skidded to a halt, resolving into the form of a sleek, velociraptor-like alien. The visor on its helmet-like head retracted, revealing a reptilian face etched with confusion.
After a moment of hesitation, XLR8 decided to press on. His curiosity was a powerful motivator, and he couldn't just leave without discovering the source of the strange energy signature he'd detected.
...
Whoosh!
XLR8 stopped again, the rush of wind he generated finally catching up to him as he stood before a massive, derelict spacecraft. It was half-buried in the earth, its hull scarred and pitted from a long-ago crash.
He zipped around the vessel, tapping and probing its surfaces for a few moments before the main hatch hissed open with a groan of protesting metal. Without a second thought, XLR8 slid inside, his wheeled feet granting him effortless speed even in the cramped corridors.
"Hmm? What is this place?" He came to a stop before a large, circular door. His instincts screamed that something extraordinary lay beyond it.
The room was filled with beyond understanding alien machinery, humming with dormant power. In the very center stood a circular platform. Driven by a mix of boredom and intuition, XLR8 used his incredible speed to press a random sequence of buttons on a nearby console.
The platform whirred to life. Its center split open, rising to reveal the prize nestled within. It was indeed something extraordinary.
"Hah?! This is...!" A flicker of genuine surprise crossed his alien features. He carefully picked up the device, gave it a quick once-over, and then vanished from the ship as quickly as he had appeared.
"Hnnngh..."
Long after XLR8 was gone, a faint, groaning sound echoed from the deepest, darkest recesses of the crashed vessel.
...
The next morning.
The Rustbucket rumbled along a deserted highway that cut a lonely path through the sun-baked desert. Cacti stood like silent sentinels on either side of the road, the only other signs of life for miles around.
Stare~
"Uh... Cousin, why are you staring at me? Is there something on my face?" Ben Tennyson, who had been deeply engrossed in his handheld game, finally squirmed under Klein's intense gaze. It was so unnerving he couldn't even focus on his favorite Sumo Slammers game.
Even Gwen was getting a little annoyed. Was Ben really that much more interesting to look at than she was?
Klein continued to stare for another long moment before suddenly asking, "Ben, do you want to be a hero?"
"Of course! Who doesn't want to be a great hero?" Ben's initial enthusiasm quickly deflated. "But I know I'm just an ordinary kid. I don't have powers like you, Cousin. I don't have what it takes."
A wave of disappointment washed over him.
"What if you did?" Klein reached for the backpack resting on the sofa, pulled out a metallic, spherical object, and held it out to Ben.
"Cousin, what is this... Wait, could this be...!" Realization dawned, and Ben's eyes went wide with shock and a burgeoning, uncontrollable excitement. "Is this really for me?!"
"It's exactly what you think it is. Open it and see." Klein placed the sphere on the small table in front of Ben.
With a trembling hand, Ben gently touched the sphere. It hissed open, revealing the device nestled inside: a strange, oversized watch—the Omnitrix.
Pure joy erupted on Ben's face. He thrust out his left arm, and the Omnitrix seemed to leap from its pod, clamping itself securely around his wrist.
"Woohoo! Who's the hero now? I'm the hero!" Ben shot his left arm into the air, pumping his fist as he shouted with glee. "Cousin, thank you!"
"Don't get a big head, Dweeb!" Gwen snapped, her voice sharp. She wasn't upset that Ben got the watch, but a sting of jealousy pricked at her. Klein had given Ben something amazing, and she'd gotten nothing.
"Sorry, Gwen," Klein said, easily picking up on her mood. He assumed it was just about the Omnitrix. "I'll definitely find something suitable for you in the future."
"Oh, right. Gwen, I do have something for you, actually." A memory, dormant for days, finally clicked into place, bringing a crucial scene to the forefront of his mind.
"But before that... Grandpa?"
Max Tennyson, who had been staring blankly at the road—in truth, he was trying to figure out when Azmuth had found the time to build a second Omnitrix—snapped back to reality.
He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the look on Klein's face, an expression that screamed, 'You're so awesome, Grandpa, I knew it!' A nervous sweat broke out on his brow. "Wh-what is it, Klein?"
"Grandpa, the first time I met Ben and Gwen, my watch had a... special reaction," Klein began, his tone meaningful. "But the reaction it had to Gwen was even more pronounced. Do you know what that means?"
Hearing this, Max knew the game was up. If the Omnitrix could detect latent alien DNA in humans, there was no hiding it anymore.
"As expected of you, Grandpa," Klein's simple praise was the final nail in the coffin of Max's secrecy.
"Sigh... Ben, Gwen, there's something I need to tell you," Max said, his shoulders slumping slightly, feeling a bit cornered by Klein's knowing gaze. "Actually... your grandma wasn't from Earth."
"Aliens!" Ben and Gwen shouted in unison, their jaws dropping.
"That's right. The story of your grandma and me goes way back to when I was a young..." Max was about to launch into a detailed explanation when Klein cut him off.
"Alright, Grandpa, just tell us what kind of alien Grandma was first. You can tell us the story later," Klein urged.
Max didn't seem to mind, figuring kids these days had little patience for an old man's stories. "Ah, right. Your grandma is an Anodite, one of the most powerful energy-based species in the entire Milky Way Galaxy."
"Okay, Grandpa, got it." Having achieved his goal, Klein turned his attention to his wrist. "Omnitrix, activate voice control mode."
"Voice control mode activated," a distinctly feminine, mechanical voice replied from the device.
"Omnitrix, gene selection: Anodite." The dark blue light of the Another Omnitrix shifted, glowing a brilliant, fiery orange-yellow. 'Interesting,'Klein thought.'So even pure energy beings like Anodites have a genetic marker the Omnitrix can lock onto. It must work the same way it does for a Pyronite or a Transylian.'
"Gwen, shake my hand," Klein said, raising his left arm and extending his hand toward his cousin.
"Ah, okay, Cousin." Shaking herself out of her stupor, Gwen quickly raised her own hand. Her trust in him was absolute.
The moment their hands met, the Another Omnitrix erupted in a blinding orange-yellow light that filled the entire Rustbucket.
When the light faded, the watch had returned to its usual dark blue. Gwen, however, was completely transformed. Her body was now composed of shimmering purple energy, her hair and eyes glowed with a brilliant magenta light, and she was floating a few inches off her seat.
"Gwen, I only helped you activate the latent Anodite genes in your body," Klein explained calmly. "Your human DNA is still there. You can change back whenever you want."
"Oh, okay, Cousin." Hearing his reassurance, Gwen focused, and to her amazement, her energy form receded, returning her to her normal human appearance. A wide, grateful smile spread across her face. "Thank you, Klein! Now I have the power to accompany you, too."
Klein just waved a hand, completely misreading the undertone of her words. "Don't worry about it. Those weirdos we run into are pathetically weak. I can totally protect you."
A deep blush crept up Gwen's neck and colored her cheeks.
Watching the entire exchange in the rearview mirror, Max Tennyson's face broke into a sly, mischievous grin.
'It's finally my turn to laugh at you, you little brat,' he thought, thoroughly amused.
[Akarin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/AkarinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/AkarinTL
🔗 All My Links: linktr[.]ee/AkarinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]