Chapter 43: Ball Weevil Appears, Chase in the Iron Mine
Mochana hoisted the massive piece of mining machinery over his head, his muscles straining under the immense weight. He was just about to make his next move when a group of figures suddenly blocked his path. His eyes darted across the newcomers, instantly locking onto the mechanical, gear-covered alien standing at the front. It was Clockwork.
Mochana did not recognize the specific alien species, but the faint blue glow radiating from the hourglass symbol on the creature's chest triggered an immediate, visceral spike of panic in his brain. He knew that color. Anyone operating in the criminal underworld who valued their life knew the color of Klein's Another Omnitrix.
The moment his brain registered the threat, Mochana hurled the multi-ton machinery directly at the group. He did not wait to see where it landed. He snatched up a heavy lockbox packed with refined iron ore, spun on his heel, and sprinted in the opposite direction.
A few yards away, Kraab had not even gotten a clear look at the heroes. But the moment the crustacean bounty hunter saw his imposing employer abandon ship and run for his life, Kraab's survival instincts kicked in. His mechanical legs clattered against the rocky ground as he followed suit. Whatever Mochana had just seen, running first and asking questions later was absolutely the correct tactical decision.
A deafening crash echoed through the cavern.
Ultimos and Tini lunged forward in unison, their fists colliding with the thrown machinery. The massive hunk of metal crumpled like tin foil under their combined strength, shattering into harmless shrapnel that rained down around them.
A faint blue light washed over the cavern walls. Klein stood where Clockwork had been a second prior, casually brushing dust off his jacket. He offered a lazy shrug as he watched Mochana and Kraab kicking up clouds of dirt in the distance, both villains desperately trying to outpace the other.
"What do you say?" Klein asked, his tone entirely unbothered.
"Chase!" Ultimos declared, his cape billowing dramatically.
The group reached a silent consensus. They could not let Mochana and Kraab escape with the materials to build a high-yield explosive.
Ben immediately reached for the Omnitrix dial on his wrist.
Tini's eyes lit up. She leaned in, her four massive arms twitching with anticipation. "Are you finally going to turn into a Tetramand?"
"No!" Ben shot back, keeping a wary distance from the towering alien woman. "I'm going XLR8 to run them down."
Ben raised his hand, fully intending to slam the dial down.
"XLR8 your head, Dweeb. Can you really bear to disappoint a lady?"
Klein's hand shot out, catching Ben's wrist mid-air. A mischievous smirk tugged at the corner of Klein's mouth. Before Ben could react, Klein twisted the Omnitrix dial a few precise clicks and forced Ben's hand down onto the core.
A brilliant flash of emerald light blinded the group. When it faded, the hulking, four-armed, red-skinned form of Four Arms stood in Ben's place.
The moment Tini saw the Tetramand, she let out a delighted squeal and practically pounced on him, wrapping him in a suffocating, four-armed embrace.
"Cousin, you..." Four Arms wheezed, struggling to push Tini's face away from his chest. He glared at Klein, his yellow eyes wide with absolute betrayal.
"No need to thank me," Klein said smoothly, waving a hand in the air. "This is simply what I, as your older cousin, should do to support your happiness."
Klein did not give Four Arms a chance to argue. He tapped the dial of his Another Omnitrix.
A faint blue light erupted. In Klein's place stood a bizarre, insectoid alien barely half a meter tall. It was mostly yellow and brown, sporting four spindly legs and a prominent, curved horn protruding from its head like a rhinoceros beetle.
Ball Weevil opened its mandibles and spat out a glob of glowing, volatile green plasma. The tiny alien hopped onto the sticky sphere and began pedaling its four legs rapidly, rolling the plasma ball forward like a circus performer. It shot off after Mochana and Kraab at a terrifying speed.
Gwen sighed, her body dissolving into the glowing, purple energy of her Anodite form as she took to the air. Four Arms, finally managing to peel Tini off his back, reached down and scooped up Grandpa Max, tossing the older man onto his broad shoulder before charging after the bugs.
"Galactic Enforcers! Attack!" Ultimos shouted.
The three alien heroes struck a synchronized, highly exaggerated pose that looked incredibly awkward to everyone except themselves, before finally joining the pursuit.
Dust kicked up in thick clouds as Mochana sprinted across the uneven terrain, the heavy box of iron ore digging into his shoulder. He risked a glance backward.
"Holy crap!" Mochana yelled.
Ball Weevil was gaining on them. Worse, the plasma ball under the tiny insect's feet had acted like a giant, sticky snowball. It had absorbed loose rocks, scrap metal, and dirt along the way, swelling to over two meters in height. It hummed with unstable green energy.
Mochana gritted his teeth and pushed his legs to move faster.
Hearing the panic in his employer's voice, Kraab curiously glanced over his own shoulder. He saw the massive, glowing sphere of destruction rolling toward them, followed closely by a very angry Tetramand, a glowing purple energy being, and the Galactic Enforcers. Kraab's optical sensors zoomed in, catching the green hourglass symbol on Four Arms' chest and the blue one on the tiny bug riding the bomb.
Sparks literally flew from Kraab's mechanical joints as he overcharged his servos. He did not need to outrun the heroes. He just needed to outrun Mochana.
Ultimos flew overhead, his eyes glowing crimson before unleashing twin beams of heat vision. Mochana zigzagged, the lasers scorching the dirt inches from his boots. Desperate, Mochana grabbed a discarded, rusted mining drill from the path and hurled it blindly behind him.
Four Arms did not even break stride. He threw a massive punch, shattering the drill into a dozen jagged pieces.
However, instead of falling to the ground, the metal fragments were instantly magnetized to the rolling plasma ball beneath Ball Weevil's feet. The sphere absorbed the mass, glowing brighter and expanding even further.
The chase spilled out of the mining quarry and into the rocky badlands.
Mochana spotted a massive boulder precariously balanced on a ridge. He fired a blast from his gauntlet, shattering the rock face and sending tons of debris crashing down into the narrow pass behind him. He grinned, thinking he had finally bought some time.
It was entirely useless.
Ball Weevil simply rolled his plasma ball directly into the avalanche. The sticky green energy swallowed the boulders whole, expanding the sphere until it was the size of a small building. The humming sound of the plasma was now a deafening roar.
Mochana was completely out of ideas. His lungs burned. He focused solely on putting one foot in front of the other, secretly trying to angle his path to put more distance between himself and the bounty hunter.
Kraab noticed the shift in direction. He looked at the towering ball of explosive plasma closing the distance, then looked down at Mochana's thick, running legs.
Kraab's large mechanical pincer slowly opened. A strange, metallic cackle escaped his vocal processor.
A chill ran down Mochana's spine. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He snapped his head around and saw Kraab aiming his weaponized claw directly at his knees.
"What are you doing!" Mochana screamed, his eyes bulging. "No! If you do that, you won't get a single penny from me! I'll cancel the contract!"
Mochana tried to appeal to the bounty hunter's greed, hoping cold hard cash would override the instinct for self-preservation.
Kraab's targeting laser flickered as he hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then, he made his choice. The claw snapped open, and a searing red laser blasted out, striking Mochana dead in the calf.
Mochana's leg gave out. As he tumbled face-first into the dirt, time seemed to slow to a crawl. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind, but as his face smashed into the gravel, only one coherent sentence remained.
"Kraab, you fcker!"
Mochana lay in the dirt, his furious eyes locked onto the retreating back of the cackling crab alien.
He braced for the impact of the giant plasma ball, but Ball Weevil simply shifted his weight. The massive, house-sized sphere of explosive goo swerved smoothly around Mochana's fallen body, completely ignoring him as it continued its relentless pursuit of Kraab. Gwen and Synaptak flew right past him a second later.
Kraab let out a synthesized sigh of relief, thinking he had successfully offered up his boss as a sacrifice. He looked back to check his handiwork.
The plasma ball was now looming over him, casting a sickly green shadow over the canyon.
"Holy cow!" Kraab blurted out, followed by a string of harsh, untranslatable curses from his home world.
He truly had not expected the heroes to ignore the primary target just to chase down the hired help. It was far too late for regrets now. He should have just taken a different job. Kraab pumped his mechanical legs, running for his life.
Back at the crash site, Ultimos landed heavily next to Mochana, pinning the groaning villain to the ground with a single, immovable hand.
"Mochana!" Ultimos declared, his voice booming with righteous authority. "According to the public authority granted to me by the Galactic Enforcers' code of conduct, section four, paragraph two, I hereby order you to surrender! Do you agree to these terms?"
Mochana just grunted, thrashing weakly against the superhero's grip, refusing to speak.
Four Arms stomped over, his shadow falling over the two of them. Without a word, he pulled back his lower right fist and slammed it directly into Mochana's jaw. The villain's eyes rolled back into his head, and he went entirely limp.
"Agree? Why are you asking him these things?" Four Arms grumbled, shaking out his knuckles. "We should just knock him out directly so he can't pull any more dirty tricks."
Ultimos stared at the unconscious Mochana, then looked up at Four Arms. The rigid, rule-abiding leader of the Galactic Enforcers fell completely silent. His brow furrowed as if he were processing a complex mathematical equation. Slowly, a strange, unhinged smile began to stretch across Ultimos's face. The corners of his mouth curved higher and higher. He looked entirely too excited by this new concept.
Tini took the opportunity to slide up next to Four Arms, draping two of her massive arms over his shoulders and resting her chin near his neck. "Hey there. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. We really are a perfect match, you know."
Four Arms stiffened, his eyes darting around frantically for an escape route. He looked at Grandpa Max, silently pleading for an intervention.
Max simply crossed his arms and smiled, thoroughly enjoying the show. Living with Klein had long since corrupted the older man's sense of propriety. If there was harmless drama to be watched, Max was going to sit back and enjoy the entertainment.
Seeing that his own grandfather was leaving him to the wolves, and knowing Gwen and his troll of a cousin were currently off chasing a crab, Four Arms realized he was entirely on his own. The toughest alien in Ben's arsenal let out a pathetic, muffled sob, shedding a single manly tear.
"Hey! What's wrong?" Tini asked, her tone softening with genuine concern as she pulled him tighter.
"Nothing," Four Arms choked out, shaking his heavy head. "Just a sudden, sharp pain in my heart."
A few feet away, Ultimos had fully embraced his new interrogation technique. He grabbed Mochana by the collar, hauled him up, and began slapping the villain awake.
"Will you tell me!" Ultimos shouted, shaking Mochana violently. "Will you tell me!"
Mochana's eyes fluttered open, his brain rattling in his skull. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ultimos immediately punched him in the face again.
"Tell me!"
Mochana spat out a tooth, desperately trying to form words while dodging the superhero's fists.
"You... you didn't... you didn't ask me anything!" Mochana finally managed to scream, covering his bruised face with his hands.
Ultimos froze, his fist hovering inches from Mochana's nose. He awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Uh. Right. I was too excited, so I accidentally forgot." Ultimos cleared his throat, trying to regain his dignified posture. "Ahem. Mochana. Where did you hide the Element X?"
"In my spaceship! It's in the hidden cargo bay right under the—" Mochana rattled off the exact coordinates and access codes without taking a breath, absolutely terrified that a single second of hesitation would earn him another beating from the newly unhinged superhero.
Satisfied, Ultimos dropped Mochana back into the dirt. He decided it was best to wait for Klein and the others to return with Kraab before deciding their next move.
With nothing else to do, Ultimos floated over to Four Arms, completely ignoring Tini's aggressive flirting.
"Ben, honestly, you were right!" Ultimos said, his eyes shining with revelation. "It is incredibly liberating not to follow the Galactic Enforcers' code! No tedious planning, no boring monologues, no giving the villains a chance to counterattack..."
Boom!
A shockwave rattled the canyon, followed immediately by a blinding flash of green light. A massive, emerald mushroom cloud erupted into the sky several miles away, painting the clouds with a sickly, radioactive glow.
Four Arms, Max, and Ultimos stood frozen, staring at the towering pillar of plasma smoke.
"Uh," Ultimos muttered, his cape drooping slightly. "I think they must have caught Kraab by now, right?"
A sudden gust of wind whipped through the canyon. XLR8 skidded to a halt in front of them, the friction from his wheels kicking up a shower of sparks. He was holding Gwen under one arm, while his long, prehensile tail was wrapped securely around Synaptak's floating mechanical shell.
"Alas! I was of no assistance whatsoever," Synaptak said, his large brain pulsing with deep, melancholic depression. "I merely watched."
"It's okay, buddy. You'll get used to it," Max said, walking over and patting the floating brain's glass casing in a comforting manner.
Ultimos glanced past XLR8, noting the distinct absence of a certain crustacean bounty hunter. He knew Kraab was likely scattered across three different zip codes, but he wisely chose not to ask any questions.
"Alright, how do we deal with him?"
A faint blue light flashed, and XLR8 transformed back into Klein. He stretched his neck, looking down at the tied-up Mochana.
"Hmm. We will escort him to the Galactic Enforcers' maximum-security prison," Ultimos declared, regaining a bit of his formal tone.
Klein gave a noncommittal shrug, entirely indifferent to the villain's fate.
The three Galactic Enforcers helped carry Mochana back to the Rustbucket, securing the area before preparing to depart.
Standing outside the RV, Ultimos turned to the group, his expression earnest. "I would like to officially extend your appointment time. I formally invite you all to join the Galactic Enforcers. Will you accept?"
Klein, Ben, and Gwen exchanged a quick look.
"No thanks," Klein said smoothly. "We're already the best partners we could ask for."
Ben reached into his pocket, intending to hand back the honorary Enforcer badges Ultimos had given them earlier. Ultimos held up a hand, refusing to take them.
"Keep them. You never know when you might need to call upon the authority of the Enforcers."
Klein did not bother declining a second time, slipping his badge away.
However, before the Enforcers took to the sky, Tini deliberately stepped into Ben's path, blocking his route back to the RV. Ben's face went pale. He shot a desperate, pleading look at Klein.
Klein met his cousin's eyes. He gave Ben a warm, reassuring smile that instantly put Ben at ease.
Then, Klein opened his mouth. "It looks like Ben and Tini want some private space to say their goodbyes. Let's head inside first."
Ben's jaw dropped. Absolute despair washed over his features. He whipped his head toward Gwen, his eyes begging for salvation. Gwen, however, was looking at Klein with a soft, admiring smile. She did not even glance in Ben's direction as she followed Klein toward the door.
Panicking, Ben looked to his last line of defense. Grandpa Max.
Max met Ben's eyes, gave a slow, solemn nod that clearly communicated, 'You're even fiercer than your grandpa was in his prime,' and turned around, stepping up into the Rustbucket and shutting the door behind him.
The Galactic Enforcers eventually left Earth's atmosphere. Exactly what Ben said to Tini to make her leave peacefully that day remains a closely guarded secret, one that Ben absolutely refused to talk about.
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