Chapter 10: Diamond vs. Diamond
The morning sun beat down mercilessly, baking the desolate wilderness where the Rustbucket was parked. The air shimmered with heat over a landscape of cracked earth and shifting sands, the only signs of life being the stubborn cacti that dotted the horizon.
Grandpa Max stood beside a rickety wooden contraption he'd cobbled together, a series of levers and pulleys designed for target practice. Inside this makeshift training ground stood Ben, transformed into the crystalline alien, Diamondhead.
With a grunt of effort, Max yanked the first lever on the left. A volley of empty soda cans shot towards Diamondhead, who casually fired off a spray of razor-sharp diamond fragments from his hand. The shards sliced through the aluminum with a series of satisfying pings, cutting each can cleanly in half.
Max pulled the second lever. A row of targets popped up from the ground a short distance away. Diamondhead dropped into a forward roll, landing smoothly on one knee in a classic marksman's pose. He fired another volley of shards, each one embedding itself dead center in a target.
Lounging on a sun chair beside the Rustbucket, carefully applying sunscreen, Gwen rolled her eyes. "Such a show-off."
Max grinned and pulled the first lever on the right. A hidden mechanism sprung, launching a heavy tire from behind. Diamondhead had just pushed himself to his feet when it slammed into his back, sending him stumbling forward. He pinwheeled his arms, completely losing his balance, and accidentally fired a wild spray of diamond shards straight towards the Rustbucket—and his cousins.
The crystalline projectiles, glinting with a dangerous purple light, froze in mid-air, inches from Gwen's and Klein's faces.
"Dweeb! What do you think you're doing?!" Gwen shrieked, her protective instincts flaring.
"My bad! Sorry!" Diamondhead called out, regaining his footing.
Sitting calmly next to Gwen, Klein didn't even flinch. He simply turned his head and said, "Ben, you really need to start using your brain."
Klein had initially considered training with Ben himself, but he'd quickly discovered a significant disparity. It wasn't just that his base physical condition was far superior to others his age; even when they transformed into the same alien, Klein's version was exponentially more powerful than Ben's. The whole exercise felt pointless. 'If I use an alien on his level or stronger, I'd just crush him,'Klein mused.'And if I use a weaker one... what am I supposed to do, turn into Grey Matter to fight his Four Arms? That's just insulting.'
"Ben, listen to your cousin," Grandpa Max added, his tone firm but fair. "Transforming into these heroes isn't a game. You can't just think about raw power; you have to consider each alien's unique abilities and control."
"Relax! Relax!" Diamondhead boasted, puffing out his crystalline chest. "Four Arms and Diamondhead can handle any alien freak that comes our way." His confidence was so absolute that the advice went in one faceted ear and out the other.
A short while later, Max had intended to pack up and head to their next destination, but the Rustbucket refused to start. With a heavy sigh, he resigned himself to another delay.
After tinkering under the hood for a few minutes, he emerged, holding up a severed pipe. "Found the culprit," he announced, a hint of exasperation in his voice. "A leaky fuel line." He shook the pipe, and a single, familiar-looking diamond shard fell out and clattered onto the sand.
"Heh heh..." Ben, now back in human form, offered a weak, awkward laugh.
Since they were stuck for the time being, Klein, Ben, and Gwen decided to stretch their legs and explore the barren surroundings. They wandered aimlessly through the Gobi-like desert until a harsh, grinding sound, like a massive drill boring through rock, echoed from just ahead.
BOOM!
The ground erupted, and a hulking, golden, crab-like mechanical monstrosity burst from the newly formed crater. "Hand over the Omnitrix!" it screeched in a metallic voice.
"A freak! You want this?" Ben grinned, his earlier boredom instantly forgotten. "Come and get it! It's hero time!" He slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix.
A flash of green light later, Diamondhead stood in his place once more, leaping towards the robot.
Seeing this, Klein gave a slight sigh. He was bored, after all. He casually slapped his own Another Omnitrix. 'Honestly, I wouldn't normally bother fighting Ben for these mass-produced toys,' he thought. To him, this "Crab Monster" was functionally identical to Vilgax's drones, differing only in color and size. In a word: weak.
"Big Chill!"
A flash of red light, and Klein transformed into the spectral, moth-like Necrofriggian.
"Two Omnitrixes!" the crab-bot squawked, momentarily surprised. Its surprise quickly turned to greed. 'Two bounties for the price of one!'
In truth, Klein's Another Omnitrix was a far more advanced model and shielded its signal from detection. The bounty hunters' scanners had only picked up the single dot representing Ben's watch. The previous robots hadn't even had detectors; they'd simply been drawn to the general vicinity of an Omnitrix landing. On a planet as large as Earth, an entire state in America counted as "nearby."
Before Diamondhead could even reach the golden robot, a burly figure clad in black armor shot out of nowhere and tackled him to the ground. "He's mine!" Diamondhead yelled indignantly at the crab-bot, thinking it was a contest.
The crab-bot, Kraab, had never been so thoroughly ignored. Bristling with indignation, it was about to turn its weapons on its supposed teammate when a visible plume of white, freezing mist washed over it. In an instant, it was encased in a thick layer of ice, frozen solid in a pose of outrage.
"As expected of a mass-produced model. Pathetically weak," Big Chill's ethereal voice drifted down from the air, where he hovered with casual disdain.
"Cousin, watch out!" Gwen cried out. She was already moving, but it was too late.
A second figure, the lanky bounty hunter Sixsix, shot out from behind a rock, twin energy blades ignited in his hands as he rocketed towards Big Chill.
Big Chill merely glanced at him. His body turned transparent, becoming completely intangible. Sixsix passed harmlessly through him, his own body instantly coated in a thin layer of frost from the Necrofriggian's chilling aura. The frost wasn't as thick as the ice encasing Kraab, and Sixsix managed to shatter it after a moment of struggle.
Just as Big Chill was about to deal with the minor annoyance, Gwen's voice cut through the air, vibrating with fury. "Cousin, he's mine!"
Klein turned to see Gwen glowing, her entire form shifting into the brilliant, magenta energy of her Anodite heritage. She was clearly furious. Seeing this, Big Chill wisely decided not to interfere. He didn't know what had set her off, but provoking an angry woman—especially one made of pure energy—was never a good idea.
Sixsix was not so lucky. Though Gwen had only recently awakened her Anodite powers, she was still tapping into the might of one of the most powerful races in the universe. She unleashed a torrent of raw mana, overpowering Sixsix with sheer force and making him scream in pain as energy blasts slammed into him again and again.
Nearby, Ben's Diamondhead was receiving a harsh "education" from the armored Petrosapien, Tetrax. The bounty hunter was systematically dismantling Ben's every move, countering his attacks with superior skill and strength. Ben was in the exact same boat as Sixsix—completely outclassed.
With a sigh, Big Chill decided he might as well step in and help.
"You want a beating too, kid?" Tetrax sneered, clearly disdaining this second child who had somehow stumbled upon an Omnitrix.
And so, Tetrax was "educated."
The fight was brutally short. If Ben hadn't started shouting, "Cousin, wait, he's not an enemy!" it's entirely possible the Petrosapien race would have become well and truly extinct. Klein, hearing Ben's pleas, had briefly wondered if his cousin had developed a masochistic streak and was asking for the beating to continue.
It's worth mentioning that Kraab was still a solid block of ice. Even under the scorching desert sun, the ice generated by Big Chill wasn't about to melt anytime soon.
"Cough, cough..." Tetrax climbed painfully to his feet, clutching his chest. "Alright... you're Klein, right? I believe you can protect the Omnitrix. With you around, that kid over there probably won't lose his, either."
He limped over to Ben's Diamondhead form. "You're Ben, right? No matter what, you saved my life back there. This is for you." He handed over his personal hoverboard. Then, trying to look graceful, he turned to leave, though his gait was more of a wobbly stagger.
"A hoverboard! Cool!" Ben, back in human form, held the device excitedly. A thought then occurred to him, and he shouted after the retreating figure, "Hey! Without a hoverboard, how are you gonna get off Earth?"
"I have my ways," Tetrax called back without turning. "Until next time!" And with that, he vanished over a dune.
In the end, everyone seemed to have gotten what they wanted. Tetrax had completed his assessment, Klein had found a moment's entertainment, Ben had scored a cool new toy, and Gwen had successfully vented her anger. It was a win-win-win-win situation.
Well, almost everyone. Sixsix was not so happy. He lay broken on the ground, struggling to raise a hand towards his departing partner. To his despair, Tetrax never once glanced back. Sixsix's arm fell limp, and his battered body seemed on the verge of giving out.
"Everyone, we're hitting the road!" At that moment, Grandpa Max pulled up beside them in the now-repaired Rustbucket, blissfully unaware of the chaos he had just missed.
Before they left, Big Chill flew over to the frozen Kraab, blasted it with another layer of ice for good measure, then casually tossed the frozen statue into a nearby abandoned warehouse. Out of sight, out of mind.
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