Pale skin, a single purple eye embedded in his face, and a body that looked torn apart and stitched back together like some grotesque monster.
"Ghostfreak!"
There was no time to think. Ghostfreak lunged forward, grabbed the stunned Ripjaws, then secreted an invisible slime that wrapped around both of them and dragged Ripjaws into the submarine.
Ripjaws, dripping wet, was thrown onto the floor by Ghostfreak with a loud clang.
Thunk!
Ripjaws' Omnitrix burst with a crimson flash, reverting him to Ben.
"Oh, come on! Which side are you even on, you stupid watch?!" Ben snapped angrily.
Eddie stood there frozen, staring at Ben in shock. "My God... what did I just see? That big buck-toothed guy was Ben?"
"Uh, hehe... you know, he's not exactly normal sometimes..." Gwen said with an awkward laugh.
"How did he even do that?" Eddie had barely finished speaking when his eyes suddenly widened, and he stared at Ghostfreak beside him in horror. "Ah! Th-there's a ghost over there!!"
Ben and Gwen exchanged a glance and shrugged.
"Don't be scared, it's me~" Ghostfreak said in a hoarse voice. Then he tapped the Omnitrix and changed back into Lucian.
Realization dawned on Eddie. "...It's you? You're Ben's Cuz."
"That was way too close. If Ghostfreak hadn't shown up, Ben would've been crushed into a pile of meat paste," Gwen said, still shaken.
"All right, no time to chat. We need to get back now, or those monsters are going to catch up with us."
Lucian's expression turned serious as he looked at the tide of monsters closing in from behind.
Eddie nodded and immediately ran to the controls, rapidly pressing buttons as he steered the golden submarine at top speed toward the underwater resort.
Behind the submarine, a dense swarm of glowing green dots shone like stars, chasing after them without letting up.
...
Underwater Resort Control Center.
Donovan, his graying hair disheveled, stared in shock at the empty warehouse.
"My Undersea Manta Ray... Eddie must've taken it!" Donovan trembled with anger. "I just hope he didn't go there..."
Beep, beep!
A red dot suddenly appeared on the control screen, indicating that a vessel was approaching.
"If I'm not mistaken, that should be Ben and the others," Grandpa Max said with a faint smile.
But the next moment, his expression changed.
A huge cluster of green lights appeared behind the red dot, flashing nonstop as they rapidly closed the distance.
"This is bad. Those monsters are coming!" Donovan cried out in alarm.
"Open the gate, now! Let that submarine in!" Grandpa Max shouted sharply. He had no intention of letting Ben and the others come to harm.
Donovan rushed to the console and personally operated it, opening the sealed gate.
He didn't want anything to happen to his grandson either.
Soon, the Undersea Manta Ray drew near.
But the monsters were even faster. They were already about to catch up.
Donovan immediately gave the order to launch dozens of depth charges.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The explosions ripped apart the monsters in the front ranks, buying the submarine a little time.
As the Undersea Manta Ray entered, the gate slowly shut, sealing out the freezing seawater along with the thousands of monsters outside.
The moment Eddie rushed out of the submarine, he glared at his grandfather in anger.
"I knew we shouldn't have taken that thing! Look what happened now, we brought all those terrifying monsters here!"
Donovan's face darkened, and he gritted his teeth. "Eddie, I did all this for you! One day all my property will be yours, and you're still not satisfied?"
"Oh yeah? We almost died in the hands of those monsters!" Eddie shot back.
Watching the grandfather and grandson argue, Grandpa Max looked a little awkward, but he still couldn't help asking, "Wait a second. What exactly is that thing Eddie was talking about?"
Everyone turned to look at Donovan.
Under the doubtful gaze of the group, Donovan let out a helpless sigh and slowly revealed the truth.
It turned out that when he was building this underwater resort, Donovan had run into one enormous problem.
Power.
This place was located right in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle, far from land. Trying to route electricity all the way from shore was basically impossible.
So Donovan tried to use undersea volcanoes to generate power. But because those volcanoes were unstable, the plan ended in failure.
Without electricity, the underwater resort would be nothing but a giant dark shell. There was no way it could ever open.
Just when Donovan thought he was about to become a laughingstock in the business world, a chance discovery led him to a purple energy body hidden on the seafloor.
The energy contained within it was incredibly vast, practically endless, making it the perfect solution to his power problem.
So without hesitation, Donovan stole the purple energy body and placed it inside a specially designed machine, extracting its power and converting it into electricity to supply the resort.
Grandpa Max frowned. "So the electromagnetic pulse you mentioned before was a lie?"
"That's right. But I had no other choice. I invested a full two billion into this underwater resort!" Donovan clenched his fists unwillingly.
While they were talking, the glass dome outside became covered with Tentacle Troopers.
They spread their tough tentacles and clung tightly to the surface, their teeth slamming into the protective barrier over and over, creating spiderweb cracks across it.
Streams of freezing seawater forced their way through the tiny fractures and came pouring inside.
"This is bad! We have to get back to the surface platform right away!" Donovan's face changed drastically.
"Quick, let's get to the elevator!" Grandpa Max shouted.
No one dared waste even a second. They immediately ran toward the elevator.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
More and more Tentacle Troopers smashed through the glass dome and rushed inside all at once.
...
But when the group reached the elevator, they found the buttons completely dead.
Donovan's face looked awful. "The seawater must've gotten in and ruined the elevator wiring."
"Is there any other way?" Grandpa Max asked.
"No." Donovan shook his head miserably. "The submarines are all in the warehouse, but that area's already flooded. We can't get there."
Eddie's face went pale. "Is there really no way out?"
He was still young. He didn't want to die.
Looking at the group's worried faces, Ben broke into a grin. "This is exactly when a hero's supposed to show up!"
He raised the Omnitrix and started cycling through aliens, but Lucian immediately grabbed his hand.
"Ben, don't just pick randomly." Lucian's eyes shifted slightly as he said, "This time, you need to turn into Ghostfreak."
"Why?" Ben asked, confused. He'd wanted to turn back into Ripjaws and beat the crap out of those monsters.
"You'll see in a second."
Lucian turned to his cousin. "Gwen, use the Water Bubble Spell and cover Grandpa and the others."
Though confused, Gwen still did as she was told.
The sight left Donovan and Eddie staring in shock.
Grandpa Max smiled and gave them a brief explanation, and only then did they barely manage to accept it.
"Gwen, keep the Water Bubble Spell going so it blocks the seawater. Then Ghostfreak can use telekinesis to carry all of you safely to the surface. That way, nothing can go wrong," Lucian said calmly.
"What about you, Cuz?" Ghostfreak asked, scratching his head.
"Me?" Lucian smiled, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes. "I'm staying behind... to deal with them."