Zombozo lowered his head, staring down at the three unconscious figures sprawled on the clown house floor. His voice came out slow and deliberate. "When I'm staring death in the face, sure, I'll beg for mercy. I'll surrender. Whatever keeps me breathing. But once I'm out of that immediate danger?" His lips twisted into a cruel smirk. "My perspective changes dramatically. The idea of actually following through on that surrender? Gone. Completely forgotten!"
He'd laid it all out with brutal honesty.
"You think you've won just because I can barely move?" Asher kept his voice steady, forcing confidence into his tone despite the situation. He gestured at Zombozo's battered, burned body. "Look at yourself! You're falling apart! What exactly are you planning to fight me with?!"
"Wow!"
Zombozo didn't bother with a verbal response. Instead, his hand moved in that familiar theatrical flourish, that signature magician's gesture that made objects appear from nowhere. Several syringes materialized between his fingers, each one filled with a luminous golden liquid that seemed to glow from within!
His face contorted as he grabbed his own arm. Without hesitation, without even flinching, he drove those needles directly into his veins, one after another, plunging them home with methodical precision!
"What kind of drug is that?!" Asher's eyes widened as he watched the syringes empty into Zombozo's bloodstream.
"AHHHHH!!!"
The answer came immediately, and violently.
Zombozo's scream ripped through the air, primal and raw. His weak, depleted aura suddenly erupted outward! Malicious energy flooded the entire clown house, thick and suffocating, pressing against everything in the room like a physical force!
At the same time, the extensive burns covering his body began healing before Asher's eyes. The charred, blackened skin regenerated at a speed that defied all logic, flesh knitting back together, color returning, wounds sealing themselves completely. Within seconds, the damage had vanished entirely. Aside from some minor surface scrapes and bruises, he looked almost like he'd never been injured at all!
"You had a secret stash of performance enhancers this whole time?!" Asher's expression shifted, his earlier confidence cracking. The sudden reversal was beyond anything he'd anticipated.
There were so many incredible things in this world!
"Just a heavy-duty combat stimulant. Nothing special." Zombozo casually brushed dust from his jacket, examining his newly healed skin with satisfaction. His eyes suddenly blazed with excitement, and when he spoke again, his voice dropped to a threatening growl. "Asher, I took every single stimulant from my personal emergency supply and shot them all into my system at once. Now I want to see, what are you going to fight me with?!"
"Ben! Give me the air gun!"
Asher spun toward his cousin, urgency sharp in his voice.
Zombozo's sudden recovery had triggered Ben's fear all over again. He was back in that crouched position on the ground, head down, shoulders hunched, trying to make himself as small as possible. That defensive posture of someone who desperately wanted to be anywhere else.
Even when Asher called out to him, Ben could only lower his head further. His hand trembled as he held up the air gun, not daring to actually look at what he was handing over.
Asher snatched the air gun from Ben's shaking grip. Without a word, without even a second of hesitation, he aimed directly at Zombozo and started firing!
THWIP! THWIP! THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!
He emptied the entire magazine in rapid succession, invisible compressed air bullets screaming toward their target!
"HAHAHA!! What is this? A child's toy?!"
Zombozo threw his head back and laughed, that piercing, high-pitched cackle that made something in Asher's chest tighten uncomfortably. His hands moved with casual disdain, swatting the air bullets aside like they were nothing more than annoying flies! Every single projectile was deflected or knocked away, not one made it through his defense!
Finally! It was his turn to be on the offensive!!
"Damn it!" Asher kept reloading and firing, his hands moving on autopilot, but the speed was nowhere near fast enough. "These air guns are too weak against non-human monsters like him!"
Zombozo started walking forward, deliberately taking his time. Each step was slow and measured, calculated to build that sense of overwhelming dread, the predator closing in on cornered prey. He continued swatting away every air bullet Asher fired, his movements almost lazy in their efficiency.
This tactic only made Asher retreat faster, constantly backpedaling to maintain distance. His expression remained calm and focused, no trace of fear showed on his face despite the deteriorating situation!
Which only made Zombozo more frustrated!!
How?!
How could this kid still look so composed after everything?! Earlier, he'd been genuinely terrified!
"When I tie you up and turn you into my personal living puppet, then you'll understand what real fear feels like!!" Zombozo's grip tightened on his knife, his patience finally snapping. He suddenly accelerated, his stimulant-enhanced body moving with cheetah-like speed! In an instant, he closed the distance, appearing directly in front of Asher!
SLASH!
Zombozo's blade came down in a vicious arc, aiming for Asher's wrist, specifically targeting the hand holding the air gun. He intended to destroy that last weapon!
Asher's reflexes kicked in immediately. His wrist jerked backward, pulling the air gun out of range, but he wasn't quite fast enough. The cold edge of the knife still caught the weapon's barrel, cleaving through it with surgical precision!
The top half of the air gun went spinning through the air before clattering to the ground several feet away!
The bottom half remained clutched uselessly in Asher's hand, severed clean through.
His last weapon. Gone.
Asher didn't need to look down to know the Omnitrix wasn't ready. He could feel it, that absence of the familiar green glow, the watch still in its recharge cycle!
"Come on! Didn't you have those big, brave eyes when you transformed into that ghost monster earlier?! Let me help you open them wider!!" Zombozo's grin stretched impossibly wide across his pale face as he raised his knife again. The blade came slashing toward Asher's face, aimed directly at his eyes!
Cold steel flashed in the dim light!
The sensation hit Asher's face before the blade even made contact, that icy, cutting feeling of wind pressure preceding the knife edge! It made his skin crawl, made every hair on his body stand straight up!
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!!"
Asher's reaction was pure instinct. He roared the words and desperately hurled the destroyed bottom half of the air gun straight at Zombozo's face!
Because of the close range, the broken weapon connected solidly!
WHAM!
"OWWW!!"
Zombozo's already burn-damaged face took the impact full force. He couldn't hold onto his knife anymore, his hands flew up reflexively, covering his injured face as he staggered backward, wailing in pain!
CLATTER!
The knife slipped from his grasp mid-swing. It tumbled through the air, the blade stopping mere millimeters from Asher's cheek, so close he could feel the metal's cold presence against his skin, before falling harmlessly to the ground with a metallic ring.
That icy sensation that had brushed across his face...
Asher stood frozen in place for what felt like an eternity but was probably only two or three seconds. Finally, his brain processed that he was still alive. Still intact. He sucked in a deep, shaky breath.
Goosebumps erupted across every inch of his skin in that single moment of delayed shock.
He'd been that close to getting his face carved up!!
"Asher! Asher! I'm going to kill you! KILL YOU!!" Zombozo's voice came out hoarse and ragged, even worse than before. His already damaged vocal cords strained with the effort of screaming.
Asher couldn't help but glance down at the Omnitrix on his wrist. When he saw that telltale red glow, the watch still charging, still unavailable, he immediately abandoned any hope of using it!
Zombozo would recover any second now!!
"BEN!!"
Asher's head snapped toward his last hope. He sprinted over to where Ben was still crouched on the ground and physically grabbed him, hauling him to his feet!!
"A, Asher, I'm scared of this clown!" Ben's voice came out small and trembling as he looked up at his cousin. He was staring directly into Asher's eyes, deliberately keeping his peripheral vision from catching even a glimpse of Zombozo.
"Ben! You're the only one who still has the strength to fight! Even if you can only hold him off for a few minutes, that would help me so much!" Asher gripped Ben's shoulders tightly, his voice urgent and intense.
"You two, one of you is a battle suit warrior, the other is an alien shapeshifter, and you're friends! So you can just die here together!!"
Zombozo's vision cleared enough to see the two cousins. He decided he was done wasting time on psychological warfare. His drug-enhanced body launched forward, charging straight at Asher with murderous intent!
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The sound of heavy, rapid footsteps came from behind Asher, getting louder, getting closer! He could actually feel the killing intent radiating from Zombozo, that suffocating murderous aura wrapping around both cousins like a noose!
There wasn't any time left!
Asher's hand shot out and slammed down on the reactor embedded in Ben's chest armor. Since Ben was too paralyzed by fear to activate the transformation himself, Asher would do it for him!
FLASH!
Immediately, layers of armor began materializing across Ben's body, sleek metal plates covering his skin piece by piece! At the same moment, Asher grabbed his cousin's armored form and jumped backward, putting Ben's body between himself and the charging Zombozo!
By the time Zombozo reached the position where Asher had been standing just a second ago...
Standing in front of him now, blocking his path, was Ben's fully transformed battle suit form!
But Ben's head was still bowed. His body language screamed fear and submission despite the powerful armor surrounding him!!