Screech—
The Rustbucket suddenly slammed on the brakes, fishtailing hard across the road and carving dark tire marks into the asphalt, nearly tipping over.
Fortunately, Grandpa Max reacted in time, forcing the vehicle back under control and continuing down the road…
Gwen's face turned pale.
"Grandpa, what just happened just now?"
Grandpa Max let out an awkward chuckle.
"It's nothing. A skunk suddenly ran out. Almost hit it…"
Even as he said that, his heart was pounding with shock and confusion.
Why would Ben know about Vilgax? What was really going on here?
Seeing Ben still frowning as he rummaged through the cabinets nonstop, Gwen chuckled softly and walked over.
"Dweeb, let me help you look. That watch you keep talking about, what does it even look like?"
Ben rolled his eyes.
"Oh, come on. You've been seeing it for almost half the summer already. It's the Omnitrix! What's wrong with you guys? Did everyone lose their memory or something?"
Gwen pouted and shot her dweeb cousin a look of pure disdain.
"What are you even talking about? Omni-what? I don't understand a word you're saying. Did you pick up another weird term from some game?"
"It's an alien watch! It lets me turn into ten different aliens!"
"You big dummy. Your tiny brain must've overheated," Gwen snapped, clearly annoyed and unable to figure out what had gotten into Ben.
Grandpa Max kept both hands on the steering wheel, eyes fixed on the road ahead.
"Ben, stop fooling around. Your cousin just came back from studying abroad and plans to spend the summer with us. Don't leave him with a bad impression…"
Ben froze for two seconds, then suddenly shouted,
"Oh, come on! Two weeks ago I used the Omnitrix to beat Vilgax senseless and saved everyone here! That stupid tentacle freak was insanely strong. He even took my cousin hostage to threaten me! And in the end, I still blasted him straight into outer space! Have you all seriously forgotten?"
Grandpa Max's expression changed instantly, the corner of his mouth twitching.
"What Vilgax? Don't talk nonsense, Ben. I think it's time we cut down your gaming time…"
Gwen spread her hands and stopped paying attention to him altogether.
Lucian sat quietly in the passenger seat, his mind racing at full speed.
From what Grandpa had just said about him returning from studying abroad and planning to spend the summer with them, it seemed that in this quadrant of spacetime, Lucian had never gone missing.
Combining that with what Ben had said earlier, Lucian formed a bold guess.
The Ben in front of him did not belong to Lucian's original parallel universe, nor did he truly belong to this one. Instead, he likely came from yet another parallel universe. In that universe, Lucian had never obtained the Omnitrix, and this Ben was the true protagonist. That was why he had been able to defeat Vilgax and save Lucian.
The reason Lucian was certain this Ben did not come from his own universe was simple. The watch Ben had used was not a replicated Omnitrix, and Ben had clearly emphasized earlier that it was he who had rescued Lucian from Vilgax.
Give me a break. In Lucian's original timeline, he had transformed into Rath and beaten Vilgax senseless himself. Since when did he need Ben to save him?
What made things even stranger was that this Ben, like Lucian, seemed to have crossed into this parallel universe for some unknown reason. Both of them retained all their memories, and both of them had lost their Omnitrix.
Either out of boredom or mild curiosity, Gwen yawned and walked over to her cousin.
"Hey, big dweeb. That Vil-something you keep talking about, who exactly is he?"
"It's Vilgax," Ben muttered as he rummaged through his treasured box, lips pursed. "A terrifying galactic supervillain. Good thing I had the Omnitrix. Back at Mount Rushmore, you and cuz were both scared out of your minds."
"At the critical moment, this great hero stepped in, turned into Four Arms, beat Vilgax into the ground, and even destroyed his spaceship…"
Gwen rested her chin on her hand, nodding now and then, clearly treating it like a bedtime story.
After thinking it through, Lucian had more or less figured out his situation.
His soul, or rather his memories, had crossed into the Lucian of this parallel universe. But at this point in time, Ben and the others had just started their summer vacation, which meant the Omnitrix had not yet appeared.
Perhaps tonight…
That meteor falling from the sky would crash into the forest.
...
In the vast cosmos, countless brilliant stars hung suspended, glittering against the darkness.
A colossal warship, wrapped in crimson energy, tore through the pitch-black universe like a monstrous steel beast.
It was chasing a blue spacecraft, firing relentlessly and bombarding it without pause.
Inside the command chamber sat an alien with an octopus-like head.
"The Omnitrix. I must have it," Vilgax growled, clenching his fist with determination.
At that moment, the blue spacecraft ahead unleashed dozens of green beams, raining down like a violent storm and engulfing the warship.
Boom!
A thunderous explosion echoed through the control room, the entire ship shuddering violently.
Vilgax snorted coldly and slammed his fist against the armrest.
"Increase power. Don't let her escape!"
"Yes," a robot replied flatly, nodding as it rapidly operated the console. "Activating high-output engine system. Firing cosmic laser cannon."
"Target locked. Blue spacecraft ahead…"
Before the sentence had even finished, the bow of the warship began rapidly condensing crimson energy. A thick, blood-red beam burst from the dark cannon barrel, slamming directly into the rear of the blue spacecraft.
In the next instant, the blue craft opened its hatch and dropped a metal sphere, sending it plummeting toward the blue planet below…
...
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