Chapter 38: Klein's Twisted Game Begins
A blinding flash of crimson light engulfed the space. In the blink of an eye, both Kevin and Ben were violently teleported into the exact holding area Klein had occupied just moments prior.
"Hey! You bastards! What do you think you're trying to do— Ah!"
A pair of imposing robotic samurai flanked them, ruthlessly clamping triangular metallic emblems onto their chests. The devices immediately sparked with a vicious electrical current. Before either boy could recover, heavy energy shackles were locked around their ankles. A thick, glowing tether of plasma snapped into existence, chaining Ben and Kevin together.
Kevin snarled, his mutated fists clenching as he prepared to fight back, but the triangular emblem flared to life. A high-voltage shock ripped through his body, forcing him to his knees with a sharp gasp. Ben suffered the same fate, his teeth gritting against the sudden surge of electricity.
"Take them away."
A gloomy, synthesized voice echoed from the shadows behind a glowing red barrier just ahead of them. Another flash of crimson light swallowed the room, and the two boys vanished from the chamber.
Behind the fading red barrier, the cyborg octopus monster hovered in the center of the control room. However, its metallic surface was currently overlaid with the sleek, glowing green-and-black circuitry of Upgrade. The Galvanic Mechamorph let out a low, highly amused chuckle that echoed through the empty room. Klein was thoroughly enjoying his new vantage point.
...
The crimson light spat them out onto the cold, metallic floor of a dimly lit holding cell.
"We have to get out of here!" Ben declared, immediately scrambling to his feet and tugging at the energy shackle binding his ankle.
"There's no way to leave," Kevin shot back, his mismatched, mutated features twisting into a scowl. "We've all tried. There's absolutely zero way out of this dump."
Before Ben could argue, a four-eyed alien huddled among a group of defeated-looking prisoners pointed a trembling finger at them.
"This is all your fault!" the alien hissed.
Without missing a beat, Kevin swung his heavy, rocky fist and punched Ben squarely in the shoulder.
"Ow! Why is it my fault again?!" Ben yelped, rolling backward to dodge a second swing.
"I don't know, it just is!" Kevin snapped, raising his mutated arm to strike again.
Before the brawl could escalate, a sterile mechanical chime echoed through the cell.
[Dinner time. Dinner time.]
The exhausted alien prisoners immediately shuffled toward a long metal table, sitting neatly on both sides. A white rectangular tray rested in front of each seat. From a series of dispensers above the table, thick, purplish-black, stool-like clumps of sludge were ejected, splattering wetly onto the trays below.
Ben and Kevin reluctantly took their seats, staring down at the nauseating, foul-smelling lumps in front of them.
"Ugh... Thanks, but I'm not exactly hungry yet," Ben muttered, forcing a stiff smile as the four-eyed alien beside him gestured toward the slop, silently inviting him to eat.
The alien did not seem particularly surprised by Ben's disgust, but he leaned in close, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I advise you to finish it before Technorg arrives."
"Technorg? Who's that?" Ben asked, his brow furrowing.
"The reigning champion," the alien replied patiently, his four eyes darting nervously toward the corridor. "I highly advise you to show him respect when you meet him."
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Heavy, earth-shaking footsteps echoed from the adjacent passage.
A towering, burly gladiator emerged from the shadows. He possessed thick orange skin, a heavily spiked chin, and a massive meteor hammer in place of his left arm.
Every alien at the table—except for Ben and Kevin—instantly dropped to their knees, bowing their heads as Technorg approached.
The champion ignored their reverence, marching down the line and casually scooping up the purple sludge from every tray, shoving the disgusting food into his mouth. As he reached Ben's spot, Kevin's lips curled into a malicious smirk. Using his mutated XLR8 tail, Kevin whipped Ben's tray off the table, launching the purple slop directly into Technorg's face.
Splat.
"Oh, looks like someone's being disrespectful," Kevin jeered, leaning back in his chair.
"It wasn't me!" Ben yelled, throwing his hands up in frantic defense.
Technorg slowly wiped the sludge from his eyes. Thick white steam hissed from the circular exhaust pores lining his massive body. His jaw locked.
With a furious roar, Technorg lunged, his massive hand swiping at Ben. The boy barely managed to dive sideways, the plasma chain dragging Kevin slightly along with him.
"You want to fight, do you?" Ben shouted, scrambling to his feet. "Then find a guy your own size!"
Ben slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix faceplate. A brilliant emerald light illuminated the dingy cell, and in his place stood the towering, four-armed Tetramand.
"Four Arms!"
Before Technorg could react, Four Arms stepped into the champion's guard and delivered a brutal, bone-rattling uppercut, sending the massive orange alien flying backward into the wall.
Technorg shook his head, clearing the dizziness, and let out a deafening bellow, charging right back at the Tetramand.
Just as their fists were about to collide, the familiar red light flashed again. Four Arms, Technorg, and a highly entertained Kevin were instantly teleported away.
...
"Oh! Annoying! Again?!" Four Arms roared, his fists hitting empty air. He had just braced himself to dodge Technorg's counterattack, only to find himself standing in the center of a massive, brightly lit gladiator arena.
"Woohoo!"
Deafening cheers erupted from the thousands of spectators filling the circular grandstands.
Four Arms sighed, his broad shoulders slumping slightly. "Alright, at least I know where I am now."
Roar!
A vicious snarl echoed across the sands. Four Arms turned to see a pack of nightmarish, spider-legged alien beasts scuttling out from the iron gates, their mandibles clicking hungrily.
High above the arena floor, seated comfortably in a hovering command chair, the cyborg octopus monster—still fully possessed by Klein's Upgrade form—watched the spectacle with deep amusement. He tapped his metallic fingers against the armrest, enjoying the front-row seat.
Down below, the beasts launched themselves at the trio. Four Arms and Kevin immediately fell into a brutal rhythm, smashing, throwing, and blasting the creatures away. But for every beast they crushed, two more scurried out of the shadows. The swarm seemed absolutely endless.
To make matters worse, Technorg had zero interest in calling a truce. The towering champion swung his meteor hammer wildly, attacking the beasts, Kevin, and Four Arms indiscriminately.
Just as Four Arms grabbed a spider-beast by its legs to swing it like a bat, the Omnitrix symbol on his chest began to blink red. The high-pitched warning chime rang out, and in a flash of crimson light, the towering Tetramand vanished, leaving a very human Ben Tennyson standing in the dust.
"Oh! Annoying! Little broken watch!" Ben screamed, waving his fists impotently at the sky. "What country are you even from anyway?!"
A shadow fell over him. Ben turned slowly to see Technorg looming directly above him, his meteor hammer raised high, ready to turn the boy into a permanent stain on the arena floor.
Up in the VIP hover chair, Klein's glowing green eye narrowed slightly. He casually reached out and tapped a specific button on the transparent holographic interface floating in front of him.
"Ahhh!"
The triangular emblem clamped to Technorg's chest suddenly erupted with blinding blue electricity. The massive champion dropped his weapon, clutching his chest as he crashed to his knees, howling in agony.
Klein leaned back in his chair. He fully intended to enjoy the show and let the kids sweat a little, but he certainly wasn't going to sit back and watch his cousin get flattened.
Seeing the champion incapacitated, Kevin's eyes lit up. He lunged forward, raising his mutated, rocky fist to deliver a finishing blow. But Technorg was a veteran gladiator. Fighting through the agonizing shocks, he scrambled to his feet and threw a desperate, blind backhand.
The massive fist clipped Kevin's jaw, sending the mutated teen flying across the dirt. Because of the plasma shackle, Ben was violently yanked off his feet, dragging through the sand right behind him.
"Ow!..." Ben groaned, rubbing the back of his head as he sat up. He glared at his chained partner. "Kevin, we have to work together."
"Why should I cooperate with you?!" Kevin spat, wiping a streak of dirt from his mismatched face.
"Because of those guys!" Ben yelled, pointing frantically at the encroaching horde of spider-beasts and the heavily breathing Technorg.
Kevin stared silently at the approaching wall of enemies for a long, tense second. His jaw tightened.
"If you dare to hold me back, I'll kill you!" Kevin growled, shooting Ben a venomous glare.
Ben didn't waste time arguing. He scrambled directly up Kevin's back, perching himself securely on the older boy's broad, mutated shoulder to keep the plasma chain from tangling their legs.
Kevin charged back into the fray, his mutated limbs a blur of fire, crystal, and raw muscle. Ben acted as his spotter, calling out blind spots and warning him of incoming attacks. But even with their combined efforts, the sheer volume of enemies was pushing them to the breaking point.
Suddenly, Ben noticed something. A glob of sticky slime that Kevin had just fired from his Stinkfly eye-stalk splattered across the dirt. A second later, a stray blast of fire from Kevin's Heatblast arm grazed the puddle. The slime instantly violently ignited.
"Kevin!" Ben shouted, slapping the teen's shoulder. "First spray them with Stinkfly's slime, then blast them with Heatblast's fire!"
"Why should I listen to you?!" Kevin snapped, clearly hating taking orders from the kid he despised.
"Just trust me!" Ben yelled, his eyes locking onto Kevin's with absolute seriousness.
Kevin hesitated, his teeth grinding together. Finally, he gave a sharp nod. He took a deep breath, his mutated eye-stalks spewing a massive, wide-angle wave of highly flammable Stinkfly resin, completely coating the front line of spider-beasts and the charging Technorg.
Without missing a beat, Kevin thrust his fiery arm forward, unleashing a concentrated torrent of flames directly into the slime-soaked crowd.
BOOM!
A massive, deafening explosion rocked the arena. A shockwave of heat and concussive force shattered the stone pillars nearby. When the smoke cleared, half the arena was scorched black. The vast majority of the beast horde had been vaporized, and the few survivors were twitching weakly on the ground. Technorg lay groaning in the dirt, heavily singed by the blast.
"Awesome!" Kevin laughed, staring at his smoking, fiery arm. He was thoroughly intoxicated by the sheer destructive power he had just unleashed.
"Not just that," Ben said, a proud, confident smirk spreading across his face. "If you take Four Arms' strength, combine it with XLR8's speed, and add Diamondhead's indestructible body... what does that equal?"
Kevin's mismatched eyes widened in realization. A wicked grin stretched across his face. "Super Mighty Fist!"
Dropping into a sprinter's stance, Kevin activated his XLR8 speed. He became a blur, crossing the arena in a fraction of a second. Channeling all his Tetramand muscle into his Diamondhead arm, he drove a devastating, high-velocity uppercut directly into Technorg's jaw just as the champion tried to stand.
The impact sounded like a cannon firing. Technorg was lifted entirely off his feet, crashing back down into the dirt, completely unconscious.
"Woohoo!"
The crowd erupted into an absolute frenzy, their cheers shaking the very foundations of the arena.
"Who's the baddest?!" Kevin roared, throwing both hands into the air to bask in the glory. The sudden movement sent Ben tumbling off his shoulder, landing face-first in the dirt. Kevin didn't even glance down, completely absorbed in the intoxicating roar of the audience.
"Ah!"
A sudden, startled cry broke through the noise. Kevin snapped his head around to see one of the surviving spider-beasts leaping through the air, its razor-sharp mandibles aimed directly at Ben's throat.
Without thinking, Kevin pivoted, his rocky fist shooting out and smashing the beast out of the air before it could land. The creature crumpled into a broken heap yards away.
Ben stared at the dead beast, then looked up at Kevin, his eyes wide with genuine shock. "Kevin... you saved me."
Kevin scoffed, aggressively turning his head away to hide the slight shift in his expression. Ben had helped him win, after all. Plus, he was in a fantastic mood and just wanted to get back to soaking up the adoration of the crowd.
But to his immense disappointment, the deafening cheers had rapidly faded into an eerie silence. The audience was waiting for the final act.
Kevin's eyes locked onto the unconscious form of Technorg. If he finished the former champion off right here, right now... the crowd would go wild again. His fists clenched as he began to march toward the defeated gladiator, murderous intent radiating from his posture.
Ben instantly realized what Kevin was about to do. His grandfather's teachings echoed in his mind—he could never stand by and let someone be murdered in cold blood, not even an enemy.
As Kevin took another step, Ben yanked hard on the plasma shackle connecting their ankles.
Kevin's leg was pulled out from under him, and he face-planted hard into the arena dirt.
Ben had successfully saved Technorg's life, but in doing so, he had completely shattered Kevin's fragile truce.
"Enough!" Kevin roared, scrambling to his feet. He spun around, his eyes burning with pure, unadulterated rage as he glared down at Ben.
Before Kevin could unleash his fury, the familiar, blinding red light descended from the ceiling, completely enveloping Kevin, Ben, and the unconscious Technorg, sweeping them away from the arena floor.
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