On top of the Rust Bucket, Evan had transformed back into Fate Weaver and settled into a meditative stance atop the RV, his focus narrowed entirely on improving his control over Aura.
Aura was the manifestation of the soul. It carried burdens, reflected the heart, and acted as a shield for those strong enough to shape it.
Naturally, anything with life-force had the capability to use Aura. It was simply another form of life-force, an invisible etheric phenomenon that surrounded living beings and even objects, whether they knew it or not.
Evan wanted to see if he could use Aura without relying on his transformation. After all, if the base him improved, then his aliens would improve too.
That was the goal, at least.
Beside him, Gold Ship was pretending to meditate as well, though the occasional twitch of her ears and the way she kept tilting her head proved she was not nearly as focused as she wanted everyone to think. Orfevre sat nearby with a bored expression, looking like she would rather be anywhere else, though she still stayed close enough to keep an eye on them both.
Inside the Rust Bucket, the other children were gathered around the table, waiting for the adults to finish preparing for the upcoming ritual.
Gwen sat with her laptop open, searching through information while trying to make sense of everything the adults had told them. Ben, meanwhile, had taken it upon himself to gather every egg they had into a bowl and drown them in milk, which was strange even by his standards.
Then the budding werewolf launched himself face-first into the bowl, splashing milk and bits of eggshell in every direction. Somehow, despite the mess he made, Kai ended up being the one who got hit the worst.
She sat there with a blank stare while milk dripped from her face and little pieces of eggshell clung to her hair.
Ben lifted his head a moment later and gave her an awkward grin as he held out a napkin with his teeth.
"Uh, hehe... napkin?" he said.
Kai just kept staring at him.
Gwen rolled her eyes and went back to typing, refusing to get involved in whatever disaster Ben had created this time. After a few more clicks, she finally pulled up the page she was looking for. It had information on the Árbol del Matrimonio cactus, including what it looked like and where it was usually found. Gwen began taking notes right away, reading carefully and copying down anything that seemed useful.
While she was focused, her dweeb of a cousin wandered off and went rummaging through the fridge again.
"Let's see what else I can wolf down," Ben said with a laugh, clearly pleased with himself. Then he snickered at his own joke. "Get it? Wolf down? I'm a riot."
Gwen let out a quiet sigh and went back to her notes, ignoring him.
That lasted until everyone heard a horrible noise that sounded far too much like cracking bones.
The girls both turned around.
Ben had grown again.
He was now the size of an adult, his body much more muscular than before, and his face had become even more wolf-like, with canine ears on his head and a longer, more pronounced nose. He still did not seem bothered in the slightest, which somehow made the whole thing even more unsettling. Without hesitation, he grabbed an entire turkey and swallowed it in only a few bites.
Kai stared at him with a strange mix of terror and awe.
"You're looking more and more like a Yenaldooshi," she said.
Ben blinked, then shrugged a little. "Well, I still feel like just me."
His voice now sounded like two voices overlapping at once, which was not reassuring at all.
Then his ears twitched. His nose lifted slightly.
He suddenly froze, as if he had caught a scent no one else could detect. A second later, he bolted straight out the door, grabbed the top of the threshold, and flipped himself onto the roof in one smooth motion.
The sudden movement startled Gold Ship so much that she lost her balance and fell off the RV.
Fate Weaver reacted instantly and moved to catch her before she could hit the ground.
On the roof, Ben's new sense of smell and sight had already locked onto something outside. A white rabbit had caught his attention, which was odd, considering brown rabbits were far more common in the desert.
The rabbit squeaked in alarm the moment it realized Ben was coming for it, and it immediately dived back into its burrow. Ben pounced after it, digging his claws into the ground and flinging dirt in every direction as he tried to follow. Once again, the flying dirt only managed to hit Kai when she came over to see what was happening.
The Navajo girl slowly wiped the dirt from her face, clearly not amused.
"Guess you can teach a new wolf dumb tricks," Gwen said, half-joking.
Ben looked sheepish. "Uh, sorry?"
Before anyone could say anything else, Wes and Max suddenly appeared nearby as if they had simply stepped into the scene from nowhere.
"The NASA tracking station on the north ridge was just destroyed by some sort of werewolf," Wes informed them grimly. "It almost ripped apart the guards there."
"What did it want?" Max asked.
"It took some satellite equipment," Wes replied.
Max paused at that, then his gaze shifted toward Fate Weaver, who was standing beside the Rust Bucket with his sisters.
Fate Weaver noticed the look immediately. "What?"
"Nothing," Max said.
It was the kind of answer that made it very obvious it was not nothing.
Ben pointed toward the damaged receiver nearby. "And it ripped down that receiver you had here too. What do you think it wants?"
"Obviously, it's angry that technology has invaded what it considers its sacred land," Wes said sternly.
Fate Weaver walked toward him. "Look, Mr. Green, I respect your people and your beliefs, but that's a bit absurd. This Yenaldooshi is targeting specific pieces of equipment."
"Yeah," Gold Ship said from the side with an earnest nod.
Orfevre folded her arms. "The radio receiver and the satellite parts. That is not the behavior of a wild beast. It sounds more like something Ever would do."
That earned her an immediate reaction from Evan, whose leg bumped into her side by accident and sent her stumbling backward a few steps.
Before she could even recover, Wes continued with a severe expression. "Still, we need to find the Yenaldooshi, and we need to find it fast."
Orfevre charged back at once and drop-kicked Fate Weaver.
The two immediately started fighting again in the background, with Fate Weaver holding back only because he was transformed, while Orfevre did not hesitate at all, fully aware that her brother could take it. They exchanged a few fast blows while everyone else kept trying to continue the conversation as if this was normal.
"You won't be able to look for both the Yenaldooshi and the cactus," Kai pointed out, deciding to ignore the fighting behind her.
"So let me and Kai look for the cactus," Gwen volunteered.
"When we find it, we'll give a call," Kai said confidently.
"Good idea," Max agreed, then his eyes drifted toward the three Gold siblings in the background.
He let out a sigh. "Ever, Oru, stop it! Now is not the time."
At that, the two finally stopped. Orfevre sat Fate Weaver back upright, though not before pulling on his ears, while Gold Ship still clung to his fluffy gray-white tail as if she had no intention of letting go.
Max had not expected the Gold siblings to take things seriously anyway. Stay Gold had difficulty taking thing serious for very long, and her children inheriting at least some of those habits was hardly surprising by this point.
"Ever, you will be going with us to find the Yenaldooshi."
Fate Weaver nodded, though he still did not look especially serious.
"Oru and Golshi will go with the girls to look for the cactus."
Both girls nodded.
"Come on, let's get moving," Max said, sounding hurried now, probably because he wanted to get everyone in motion before one of the three got distracted again.
"Be careful," Ben and Kai said to each other at the same time.
Gwen made a face immediately, looking like she wanted nothing more than to be anywhere else.
"I think I'm gonna puke." She said.
...
The NASA station is west of here, Wes explained to Max as he used a stick to draw a crude map of the terrain in the dirt. It was rough and simple, but still clear enough to show the surrounding area. The station sat in a kind of natural trap, with lakes stretching to the north, south, and east. Which meant the Yenaldooshi had only one real direction it could have come from.
"Let me see if I can help," Ben said.
He was crouched low on all fours atop a cropping of rocks, looking far more animal than human by that point. With his new sense of smell and hearing, he lifted his head and let out a howl that sounded like a young pup trying to imitate a full-grown wolf. For a moment there was nothing, and then a much deeper howl answered from somewhere in the distance.
Ben's ears perked up immediately.
"He must be this way," he said, already sounding more certain.
Without waiting for anyone else, Ben took off at a sprint, leading the way with his enhanced speed. He dashed across the terrain with ease, moving fast enough that the others had to hurry just to keep him in sight. The distant howl drew them toward a set of ancient cliff dwellings that Wes identified as Keet Seel.
The ruins rose up out of the landscape in weathered stone, old and silent, with narrow openings and steep ledges that made them seem almost hidden by the canyon itself. Ben didn't slow down at all. The moment he reached the base of the cliff, he climbed straight up using his claws, digging into the stone as if it were nothing.
Evan rose up beside him, floating upward instead of using the stairs, while Max and Wes were forced to take the longer route. By the time they reached the top, Ben and Evan were nowhere in sight.
Max swept his flashlight across the ruins as Wes moved in front of him with his rifle raised, both of them immediately becoming more alert. The beam of light landed on a large set of two-toed footprints pressed deep into the ground.
"The footprints end here," Wes said, keeping his voice low as he turned slowly to scan the area. His rifle stayed trained ahead of him. "I can sense its presence."
Max followed the trail with his light, glancing around the ruins when something suddenly caught his eye. In the shadows ahead, there was a faint green glow.
He stiffened.
"There!" Max shouted, pointing toward it so Wes could see.
Wes pivoted quickly and aimed his rifle at the glowing shape. Whatever it was, it was moving, and it was moving toward them from above. Max raised his flashlight higher, and the beam finally caught the creature clearly.
It looked like a perfect copy of the Yenaldooshi.
Only this one had green eyes. And it was wearing Ben's clothes.
Ben's voice cut through the tension with a panicked howl of his own.
"No, it's me, Benwolf!" he cried, sounding much deeper now, his words carrying a strange reverberating echo that made him sound even more monstrous than he probably intended.
Wes lowered his rifle at once, though his expression stayed hard.
"The transformation is complete," he said grimly. "We need the cactus."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his flip phone, clearly intending to call his granddaughter right away, but before he could even open the thing, the side of the cliff burst apart with a sudden explosion of rock and dust.
The Yenaldooshi came crashing through first, followed by Green Gale.
"Get down!" Green Gale shouted.
The humanoid grasshopper lunged forward with a powerful kick, slamming the Yenaldooshi in the chest and sending it flying backward before it could recover. Wes and Max both dropped low immediately, ducking just in time to let the creature fly over them and slam hard into the ground behind them.
Ben reacted too, shifting out of the way before the Yenaldooshi could collide with him. A second later, he and Green Gale moved at the same time, both of them jumping the werewolf and pressing the attack before it could regain its footing.
Wes straightened just enough to grab his phone again, only to see a message blink across the screen.
No Service!
He frowned and snapped the phone shut.
"No reception," he said. "We'll have to summon them another way."
Without wasting any more time, he reached into his backpack and pulled out a flare gun.
...
"Canyon de Chelly is a sacred place," Kai explained as she led Gwen and the two Gold siblings through a wide field of cacti.
She kept glancing around as they walked, trying to match the cactus in front of them with the one in the picture on Orfevre's phone, while the others did the same and compared every cactus they passed to the image over and over again. The desert around them looked endless, all pale sand, dry brush, and sharp little silhouettes stretching out in every direction.
"It's where our spirits go."
"Well, maybe the spirits can help us find that cactus," Gwen complained, dragging her feet through the sand. She wiped sweat off her forehead and looked at what felt like the hundredth cactus they had checked. "Because I'm about ready to give up."
"You've only been walking for a few hours," Orfevre pointed out.
"Only?" Gwen repeated, sounding offended by the idea.
Gold Ship nodded with complete seriousness. "Big Sis is right. That's barely enough time to get lost."
"We're not trying to get lost," Gwen muttered.
"Not with that attitude," Gold Ship said proudly.
The search dragged on for several more minutes with absolutely no progress. Every cactus looked just similar enough to make them second-guess themselves, and every patch of desert seemed to stretch into the next.
Eventually, Gwen let out a long, exhausted groan.
"My legs are officially filing a complaint."
Before anyone could stop her, she dropped down to sit for a moment and rest.
Unfortunately, the thing she chose to sit on happened to be a cactus.
The second she realized it, it was already too late.
"OW!"
Gwen shot straight back up with a yelp, nearly launching herself into the air before landing face-first in the dirt.
Kai jumped in surprise. Orfevre blinked. Gold Ship stared for a moment.
Several cactus needles remained stuck to Gwen's rear.
The silence lasted for exactly one second.
Then Orfevre quickly covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking as she fought not to laugh. A muffled chuckle still escaped anyway.
Gold Ship had no such restraint.
"Hahahaha!"
Before Gwen could even recover, Gold Ship reached for Orfevre's phone.
"Evidence must be preserved for future generations."
"Don't you dare!" Gwen shouted.
Gold Ship already had the camera open.
A flash went off.
"Perfect."
"GOLD SHIP!!"
Kai's eyes suddenly widened. "Wait!"
Everyone turned toward her at once.
Kai pointed at the cactus Gwen had just attacked with her backside.
"Árbol del Matrimonio!" she exclaimed, and the relief in her voice came out almost immediately. "I guess the spirits work in strange ways."
Gwen groaned as she pushed herself upright. "And painful ones."
"Mostly funny ones," Gold Ship added.
"Of course it does," Gwen muttered, still wincing. "The universe apparently decided my suffering needed to contribute to the mission."
Orfevre finally managed to stop laughing. She took her phone back from Gold Ship before the younger girl could do any more damage.
"Well, that's all fine and good," Orfevre said, checking the screen, "but we still have a problem."
She turned the phone around.
The signal icon was empty.
Gold Ship leaned over to look. "No bars."
Kai frowned. "We're pretty far from the nearest town."
"Which means we can't call Ever and the others," Orfevre said. "And we have no idea where they are."
"We could keep walking until we find them," Gold Ship suggested.
Before anyone could answer, a bright red flare suddenly shot into the sky beyond the cliffs.
It streaked upward, then burst into a brilliant red bloom that hung against the night sky like a signal fire.
Everyone immediately turned toward it.
"There!" Kai exclaimed, pointing. "They must be sending us a signal!"
"Convenient," Orfevre said, slipping her phone back into her pocket.
Then, without warning, she reached over and casually plucked a chunk of cactus from Gwen's backside.
"OW!" Gwen practically jumped out of her skin.
Orfevre didn't even look sorry. "Let's go."
Without another word, she broke into a run toward the flare.
Gold Ship immediately followed, full of energy. "Adventure awaits!"
The two sisters tore across the desert far faster than Gwen or Kai expected.
For a moment, the two girls just stood there watching them go.
"...Are they always that fast?" Kai asked.
"I don't know," Gwen answered. "This is the first time I've seen them run like that."
The two girls took off after them.
Ahead of them, Gold Ship waved both arms enthusiastically. "Hurry up!"
"Slow down!" Gwen shouted back.
"Running slower is against my religion!" Gold Ship shouted back.
"That isn't a religion!"
...
Now that Wes had fired the flare and given the girls their location, he quickly turned his attention back to the Yenaldooshi and Green Gale, rifle still raised as he braced himself for whatever came next.
The Navajo werewolf had been knocked clean across the face by Green Gale's kick, sent flying through the air before slamming hard into the dirt below. It skidded across the ground, rolled once, and then pushed itself back up with a low, angry growl. It shook its head a few times, as if trying to clear the impact from its mind, before slowly lifting its gaze again.
Its glowing purple eyes narrowed when they landed on the group nearby.
For a brief moment, there was something almost confused in the way it stared at Ben, as if it had only just realized it was not the only creature of its kind in the area.
Ben noticed the look right away and frowned.
"What're you looking at, ugly?" he snapped.
Wes kept his eyes locked on the beast. "Ben, we need the cactus to destroy it."
"I don't think it's planning on giving us the chance," Max said, already tense as the werewolf lowered its body again, preparing to strike.
Green Gale dropped down from above with another hard kick, but the Yenaldooshi reacted just in time and sprang backward out of the way. Green Gale's foot slammed into the ground instead, cracking the earth beneath him and sending a burst of dust and broken stone into the air. The werewolf wasted no time backing away, putting a little distance between itself and the others before it could get cornered again.
Then it turned its full attention back to Green Gale.
Its mouth suddenly split open into four parts, and before anyone had time to react, it unleashed a piercing howl powerful enough to shake the very air around them. Purple sound waves rippled outward in a visible blast, crashing into everything in front of it.
Ben, Max, and Wes were all knocked off their feet and thrown back against the wall behind them.
Green Gale crossed his arms and tried to brace himself, but even he was forced backward by the force of the scream.
"Ugh…" Ben groaned a moment later, pushing himself up and shaking his head. "Guess its bark is worse than its bite."
Wes looked genuinely unsettled as he got back to his feet. "I… I've never heard of the Yenaldooshi being able to do such a thing."
"Guess they left some stuff out of the old legends, huh?" Max said dryly, still recovering from the impact.
Green Gale, meanwhile, had gone very still.
His gaze sharpened, and his expression changed slightly, as if something had just clicked in his mind.
"Omnitrix absorbs all items in Sample category," he murmured under his breath, already sensing that something about the current situation was not right.
A second later, his Another Omnitrix confirmed it.
[New DNA sample acquired!]
Green Gale looked down at the device on his waist, then tapped it without hesitation. Golden light burst outward almost immediately.
When it faded, the tall black alien now stood in his place.
"Blink!" he announced.
Ben grinned in spite of everything, his fighting spirit remain as he stepped beside his cousin.
"Let's go, partner!"