Cracks suddenly split across the smooth surface of the eggs, spreading outward like a spiderweb.
A tiny head poked out from one shell. Its clear, bright eyes blinked now and then as it stretched out its delicate little claws and slowly crawled free.
The baby crocodile looked adorably clumsy. After glancing at the crowd around it, it turned and started crawling back toward the deep swamp.
The other two baby crocodiles soon hatched as well. They looked around, then shuffled their little claws and slowly crawled into the swamp.
"Wow, they're so cute~" Gwen sighed, her heart instantly melting.
"Hahaha, this is a once-in-a-lifetime sight. Getting to watch baby crocodiles hatch with your own eyes isn't easy. You kids are really lucky," Grandpa Max said with a hearty laugh.
After all his decades as a plumber, even he had never seen crocodiles hatch before.
"Huh? Why are they coming back?" Ben froze.
Following Ben's gaze, everyone looked over.
Three baby crocodiles came scrambling back out of the dark swamp, their eyes full of fear and their little claws paddling frantically, as if they were terrified of something. They fled from the shore as fast as they could and dove into the grass.
Grandpa Max raised an eyebrow, puzzled. "That's weird. They're crocodiles. What could scare them off?"
In this swamp forest, crocodiles were already close to the top of the food chain. Ordinary animals weren't a match for them at all.
And as far as Grandpa Max remembered, there weren't any other large animals in the swamp besides crocodiles. Just small fish and shrimp. No matter how little those baby crocs were, they shouldn't have been afraid of that.
Could it be some kind of invasive species?
"Ah! Look, a giant gross frog!" Gwen cried, pointing toward the swamp ahead.
Boom!
A giant frog as big as a hill, dark green all over and covered in bumpy, patterned lumps, slammed down onto the shore with a terrifying crash.
Its four blood-red eyes blinked nonstop, and sharp horns stuck out from both sides of its head. It really did look like some kind of monstrous "bullfrog."
The surrounding crowd instantly broke into shrill screams and scattered in every direction like an anthill that had just been kicked apart.
"It's Dr. Animo's frog!" Ben recognized it immediately.
"But why would that frog suddenly show up here?" Gwen's face went pale.
"There's only one answer." Lucian's gaze darkened as he pressed the Omnitrix. "Dr. Animo is here too."
"Hahaha, smart. Just what I'd expect from you, Lucian!"
An old man with white hair stepped out of the grass nearby.
He was hunched over, with yellowish wrinkled skin and a sickly, undernourished look.
But Dr. Animo had clearly come prepared today.
He wore a pair of infrared goggles, and huge mechanical arms were fixed onto his own arms. Crawling on all fours, he looked like some kind of giant ape.
"Dr. Animo, so it really is you!" Grandpa Max frowned. "Why aren't you staying in prison where you belong?"
"Obviously I'm here for revenge!" Dr. Animo snarled, his face twisted with madness as he pointed at Lucian, Ben, and the others. "It was all because of you that I got thrown in prison last time. This time, I'm making every single one of you pay, with interest!"
Seeing things go bad fast, Gwen cast the Water Bubble Spell and fired two jade-colored water arrows straight at Dr. Animo.
"Heh, cheap tricks."
Dr. Animo raised one of his mechanical arms, and a crimson beam shot from his palm, instantly wiping out the water arrows in midair.
Then he turned to the mutated giant frog. "Go! Kill them!"
"Croak!"
The mutated giant frog let out a bizarre cry and exploded upward with terrifying jumping power, shattering the ground beneath its feet and blasting out a violent shockwave that sent dirt flying everywhere.
Its massive body blocked out the sun overhead as it came crashing down, intent on flattening everyone into meat paste.
Ben hurriedly jumped aside and ducked behind a nearby drink stand.
Clink...
The Omnitrix casing, still stuck on with gum, popped loose and fell to the cold ground with a crisp sound.
Ben didn't notice at all. He slammed the button, popped up the Omnitrix core, and brought his hand down hard.
Thunk!
A strange green flash burst out.
A hulking figure charged out from behind the drink stand.
Its skin was crimson, it had four arms, sharp wings on its back, and the Omnitrix symbol embedded in the center of its face.
A blade-like insect tail hung awkwardly behind it, making the whole thing look completely wrong.
"Four Arms...fly?" Gwen stood there frozen, disbelief written all over her face.
What was going on here?
It was a hybrid of Four Arms and Stinkfly.
Lucian and Grandpa Max exchanged a look, both equally shocked.
The hybrid stood there staring at the wings on his back, then burst out laughing. "Hahaha! Now I'm not just super strong, I can fly too! Dr. Animo, you are so doomed today!"
Even Dr. Animo was briefly caught off guard by this bizarre "mutation."
But with an enemy right in front of him, he had no time to think about it.
"Get moving! Crush that four-armed bug freak!" Dr. Animo shouted.
Boom!
The mutated giant frog leaped again, its enormous body looming directly above the Four Arms-Stinkfly hybrid as it came smashing down.
"Bring it on, loser!"
The hybrid threw up his arms and caught the mutated giant frog.
But the instant he did, his expression changed. His breathing became labored, as if a mountain were pressing down on him, leaving him unable to move.
His thick legs began trembling uncontrollably.
"You giant dumb frog, why did you suddenly get so heavy...?" he gasped, then shook his head. "No, that's not it. You didn't get heavier. I'm just not as strong as I used to be."
Bang!
In the end, he couldn't hold on. Crushed beneath the mutated giant frog's terrifying weight, he was pinned flat with only half an arm still visible.
Lucian's gaze sharpened. He immediately pressed the Omnitrix Calibration Edition, switched aliens, and slammed it down.
A jade-green Wildmutt made entirely of crystal appeared in front of everyone.
"Diamond...mutt?" Grandpa Max froze, his eyes full of shock.
How had Lucian's alien gotten mixed up too?
Was there some connection between the two?
The crystal beast stared at his own hands with golden eyes, stunned.
At that moment, he had Wildmutt's senses, but he had also grown eyes and inherited Diamondhead's abilities.
Still, his senses weren't as sharp as before, probably only about half as strong.
"Roar!"
Diamondmutt roared, baring its crystal fangs. Its body bristled with sharp spikes as it slammed into the mutated giant frog.
Boom!
The beast's ferocious strength, combined with its hardened crystal body, sent the mutated giant frog flying sideways and crashing into the swamp in a spray of mud and water.
The Four Arms-Stinkfly hybrid scratched his head. "Oh, man~ I didn't expect my powers to get nerfed!"
Diamondmutt spoke. "Ben, what exactly did you do last night? You didn't take the Omnitrix apart, did you?"
The hybrid froze and stared at Diamondmutt in shock. "Awesome! Wildmutt can talk now?!"
Splat!
A thick giant tongue suddenly shot out from beneath the water and stuck to the Four Arms-Stinkfly hybrid's back.
Then it yanked hard, dragging him straight into the muddy swamp...