Ben dropped into a run on all fours and charged straight at the Yenaldooshi, which met him halfway. The Navajo werewolf leaped forward at the exact same time, only for its position to suddenly shift with Ben's.
The confusion in the werewolf's body language was immediate.
Blink appeared directly in front of it and drove a fist into its head before it could understand what had just happened. The creature staggered, then shoved itself upright and swung one claw toward him.
Blink vanished, avoiding the attack. Then he reappeared in the exact same spot he had just left, only to disappear again and switch with Ben.
The sudden switch threw the Yenaldooshi off as it hadn't even had time to pull its arms back. Ben instantly understood what he needed to do, and slammed both fists down onto its head sending it crashing into the dirt again.
Its body crashed onto the ground, then bounced up, as the three of them shifted. The airborn-Navajo werewolf was on the ground again, and Blink dropped down with an axe kick to its head.
The beast didn't even get to recover as its position got switched again, as Ben appeared and drove an uppercut right to it jaws, sending it rolling across the ground in pain
Blink teleported ahead of the rolling creature and threw another punch downward, but the werewolf jerked its head aside just in time and lashed out with another sonic scream.
Blink vanished before the sound could hit him.
The scream passed harmlessly through the space he had occupied, but the two retired Plumbers behind him were not as lucky. The blast slammed into them and sent them tumbling off the cliff's edge.
Ben's eyes widened the moment he saw his grandfather falling.
He reached instinctively for the Omnitrix.
"Going StinkWolf-" he began, only to freeze. He looked down at his wrist in confusion. "Wait, what? Where's the Omnitrix?"
Before he could even react further, the Yenaldooshi pounced on him.
It tackled Ben to the ground and immediately proved that, for all his courage, he was no match for its raw strength in hand-to-hand combat. The werewolf grabbed him, threw him around like a rag doll, and slammed him against the ground with enough force to shake the dust loose from the surrounding rock.
Blink reacted instantly.
He teleported, swapping places with Wes so quickly that the older man reappeared on solid ground while Blink vanished from the cliff edge with Max. He reached toward Max, grabbed him, and teleported them both back up onto the cliff before either of them could fall any farther.
Seeing Ben still getting beaten down, Blink swapped places with him and appeared beside the Yenaldooshi just long enough to punch it hard in the side of the head.
At that exact moment, Orfevre and Gold Ship slid down from the cliff face in a rush of loose dirt and pebbles, landing below in a small cloud of dust before immediately running toward the others.
Orfevre reached them first, still holding the cactus piece they had found.
"Did you get the cactus?" Wes asked at once, his tone serious even now.
"Right here," Orfevre said, holding it out to him.
Wes took the cactus and quickly squeezed the juice onto the silver pendant he had pulled from his pocket. The pendant bore an etched wolf design, and he moved with practiced urgency as he worked.
At the same time, Max charged the Yenaldooshi, tackling it before it could regain its footing. The werewolf turned its head toward him and slashed out with a claw, but Blink swapped places with it and Max at the last moment, causing the attack to miss completely.
Max turned and shoulder checked it, causing it to stumble.
Ben then rushed forward and brought both fists down onto the Yanaldooshi's skull.
The creature was still too stunned to properly defend itself as Blink swapped places with Ben and kicked hard into its ribs, forcing it back again.
Ben rushed in with a shoulder check and shoved it farther away, then Blink appeared behind it, grabbed the back of its head, and slammed its face into the ground before hauling it back up again.
Ben rushed over and grabbed one of the Yenaldooshi's arms, twisting it behind its back. Max did the same with the other arm, and together they held the flailing werewolf in place just long enough for Wes to approach with the pendant outstretched.
In a burst of blind panic, the Yenaldooshi threw its head back and headbutted Blink square in the chest, forcing him back. At the same time, it shoved with all its strength and overpowered Ben and Max enough to break free. Once loose, it snapped toward Wes and unleashed another sonic scream.
The blast forced Wes to drop the pendant.
It hit the ground with a sharp clink.
Orfevre, who still didn't believe in any of this sacred-ritual nonsense but was apparently willing to help anyway, rushed forward and snatched the pendant off the dirt before anyone else could react.
She broke into a sprint toward the Yenaldooshi, moving faster than most children her age should be capable of. In seconds, she closed the distance and pressed the pendant firmly against the creature's chest, or at least where she thought its heart should be. She had no idea how ancient werewolf anatomy worked, and nothing happened.
"Uh... is something supposed to happen?" Orfevre asked as she and the Yenaldooshi stood there exchanging awkward stares.
The creature simply blinked back at her. I look just as confused as everyone else.
The Yenaldooshi suddenly raised one of its sharp claws and slashed downward at Orfevre's face. Before the attack could connect, however, the creature abruptly vanished and reappeared several feet away.
Blink had swapped places with it. The claw cut through empty air.
The Yenaldooshi let out an irritated growl. After being thwarted again and again, and now finding itself outnumbered by opponents it couldn't easily deal with, the creature finally seemed to reach its limit.
Without hesitation, it unleashed another sonic scream toward the group, forcing them to brace themselves as it turned and sprinted toward the edge of the cliff.
Blink turns back after shielding his sisters using his body, only to see that the creature has vanished.
A few moments later, Gwen and Kai finally arrived, gasping for air, only to find both families scattered around the cliffside and no sign of the Yenaldooshi anywhere.
"You okay?" Blink asked, turning toward his sister.
"Yeah..." Orfevre replied, releasing a long sigh she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Thanks."
"What happened?" Gwen gasped as she hurried over to help her grandfather back onto his feet.
"The pendant failed," Max answered, slowly straightening up and cracking his sore back. "We're back to square one."
"I don't understand!" Wes exclaimed. Frustrated, he snatched the pendant from Orfevre's hand and stared at it. "That should've worked!"
"Actually, I think there's a misunderstanding here." Blink's sudden comment immediately drew everyone's attention.
Without another word, Blink tapped the Omnitrix on his chest.
A burst of golden light erupted from the device, forcing several people to shield their eyes.
When the glow faded, Blink was gone. Standing in his place was a creature that looked remarkably similar to both Ben and the Yenaldooshi.
The differences were subtle but noticeable. His fur was fluffier and slightly longer, and he wore a sleek black-and-white bodysuit with golden edges. At the center of his chest rested a golden Omnitrix symbol.
"Subwolfer!" he announced proudly.
The reveal left everyone frozen in shock.
Kai was the first to recover.
"Grandpa," she said slowly, piecing everything together. "I think the pendant didn't work because we're not dealing with a Yenaldooshi."
"What!?" Ben blurted out. "But it bit me. Isn't that why I'm like th-"
He suddenly doubled over. A painful groan escaped his throat as his body began convulsing again. Everyone immediately stepped back.
Ben collapsed onto his hands and knees while another transformation swept through him. Fur spread across his body as his clothes seemingly dissolved and merged into his form. Moments later, the Omnitrix symbol materialized on his waist.
The transformation finished, leaving a stunned silence behind.
"Ben, we're not some Navajo werewolves," Subwolfer explained. "We're alien werewolves."
"That would explain that howl of it," Wes muttered, still trying to process everything.
"And why the Omnitrix isn't on my wrist anymore," Ben added, staring down at himself. Then his eyes widened. "Wait a minute."
Everyone looked at him.
"Now I remember!" Ben exclaimed. "When we were fighting, that werewolf scratched the Omnitrix."
Max rubbed his forehead.
"An alien werewolf," he groaned. "Just when I thought this summer couldn't get any stranger."
Gwen folded her arms and looked toward Subwolfer (Evan). "If that thing was an alien this whole time, why didn't you tell us?"
"I didn't know it was an alien," Subwolfer replied. "I only suspected it after seeing its mouth split open and release a sonic scream."
To demonstrate, his mouth suddenly separated into four distinct sections. A second later, it closed back to normal.
"I confirmed it was an alien after unlocking its DNA," he continued. "But I was a little busy beating it up to explain that to everyone."
With another tap of the Omnitrix, golden light flashed around him.
Subwolfer vanished, returning to his human form.
"Then why did it take me so long to transform?" Subwolfer (Ben) asked. "It took me hours to turn into this."
"Maybe when it scratches your Omnitrix, it causes it to glitch out," Evan suggested. "Kind of like that time you smashed your Omnitrix and got stuck as Grey Matter for hours."
Subwolfer nodded thoughtfully. "I see..."
He rubbed his chin for a moment. Then he suddenly turned toward Evan with hopeful eyes. "Hey Evan, can you do me a favor?"
Evan immediately didn't like where this was going. "Elaborate..."
Subwolfer scratches the back of his head a little awkwardly. "You know, can you turn into your aliens and scratch my Omnitrix?"
Evan: "..."
"Worry about that later," he deadpanned. "Besides, I don't think unlocking even more transformations is a good idea when you haven't fully figured out what your current new aliens can do."
Due to the differences between their Omnitrixes, Evan already knew giving Ben additional forms right now would do more harm than good.
Ben needed time to practice and learn to use his aliens. Throwing more transformations at him would only make things harder.
Not to mention that every new alien increased the chances of him mistransforming into something he barely understood or isn't right for the situation. Unlike Evan, Ben couldn't freely switch between forms whenever he wanted, making unfamiliar transformations even more problematic.
Before Ben could argue, the ground beneath them suddenly trembled.
The entire cliffside shook violently. The group stumbled as loose rocks rolled across the ground.
"Something tells me," Wes said as another tremor rumbled beneath their feet, "that we may have other worries as well."
...
The Tennysons and Greens followed the werewolf's trail deeper into the ancient town until they reached the farthest wall at the back of the settlement, where they found a tunnel carved directly into the cliffside below.
The opening looked rough and hurried, as if it had been dug out in a desperate rush rather than built with any real care. Jagged edges lined the mouth of the tunnel, and loose stone still clung to the sides, making it clear this passage had not been there for very long.
As they stepped inside, a sudden swarm of bats burst out of the darkness overhead.
Gwen and Kai immediately ducked with startled yelps as dozens of wings flapped past their faces. The two of them flinched instinctively, nearly stumbling into each other in the narrow passage, but Subwolfer was the only one who didn't react at all. In fact, he looked more amused than startled, and even laughed when Gwen let out a sharp, embarrassed scream.
Orfevre and Gold Ship simply clung to their older brother's back, knowing that he would protect them.
With the bats gone, they continued farther into the cave, the darkness growing thicker around them with every step. To help light the way, Evan raised a hand and conjured a small sphere of fire that floated above his finger, casting a warm glow across the tunnel walls. The flickering flame bobbed gently in the air, illuminating the rough stone and making the shadows dance.
"How are you even able to do that?" Kai asked, staring at the flame with open amazement.
"Big bro, Golshi wanted cool power too!" Gold Ship added from the side, sounding more impressed than annoyed.
"I can do more," Evan said simply, as if that explanation was enough.
As they walked, Wes examined the tunnel walls carefully.
"This was dug recently," he noted.
Fresh claw marks lined both sides of the passage. Chunks of loose stone still littered the floor, and the walls looked far less weathered than the surrounding ruins. The tunnel was crude, but wide enough to suggest the creature had been working nonstop to carve it out.
"The werewolf must've been digging nonstop for hours to make something this large," Max concluded.
The deeper they traveled, the warmer the air became.
Then Gwen suddenly wrinkled her nose.
"Do you smell that?" Gwen asked.
"What?" Subwolfer replied at once. "My wolf breath's not that bad."
A few snickers escaped the group.
"She's talking about the sulfur smell," Wes explained. "That usually means lava. But the volcanoes around here have been inactive for millions of years."
Before anyone could comment further, the tunnel behind them suddenly glowed orange. The group immediately turned around. A bright light was rapidly approaching from the darkness, and it did not take long for everyone to realize what it was.
"So then… that's not real lava?" Subwolfer asked, pointing at the glowing orange wave creeping toward them.
The tunnel walls cracked, and a flood of lava spilled out of the opening behind them. It surged across the floor with all the dramatic menace of a disaster movie, except it moved at a painfully slow pace, crawling forward at a snail's speed because real lava does not move very fast.
Since the molten rock was hardly an immediate threat, the Tennysons and Greens kept moving deeper into the cave system anyway.
"That alien werewolf must have reactivated the volcano somehow," Max said after a moment.
"Maybe it wants everyone off its land, one way or the other," Wes muttered.
"Oh, c'mon now, this isn't its land," Evan said with an eyeroll. "It's an alien. An alien."
"Great," Gwen groaned, clearly exasperated by everything happening around her. "Alien werewolves from somewhere in the universe. Just once, I would like to have one day where the worst thing that happens to us is running out of toilet paper."
"You sure about that, cus?" Gold Ship asked innocently.
Gwen immediately looked worried. "Why?"
Gold Ship instantly smiled, placing her hands on her hips. "Because Golshi can make that a reality for you."
"Please don't," Gwen muttered.
Then Kai tilted her head.
"Hey, does anyone else hear that beeping noise?" She asked suddenly.
Once everyone paused long enough to listen, they heard it too. A familiar beeping sound. One the Tennysons knew all too well.
All eyes turned to Subwolfer as the Omnitrix dial on his waist flashed red. A moment later, he was engulfed in red light and transformed back into Ben's human form. Ben immediately looked himself over, checking his arms, his legs, and even behind him as if half-expecting to find a tail. Once he confirmed that he was completely human, he threw a fist into the air.
"The Omnitrix finally timed out!" Ben cheered.
He immediately reached for the dial, but the device was red and in recharge mode, which meant he couldn't show off whatever new form he had been hoping to reveal.
Ben visibly deflated. "…Aw man."
"Well, that's one problem solved," Max said. "Now we just need to find our alien werewolf and figure out where it took all that satellite equipment."
A few small pieces of gravel dropped from the ceiling and landed on Evan's shoulder. He glanced upward, then frowned.
There, staring down at them from above, was a pair of glowing purple eyes looking straight back at him.
Evan met those glowing purple eyes directly and called up to it, "Yo, gonna just stand there?"
The others stopped, then followed his gaze.
The alien werewolf was hanging above them, its claws buried deep into the cave's stalactites. Then, with a horrible twist of its jaw, its mouth split apart into four sections once again.
"Oh, that's not good," Gwen gasped, her eyes widening.
The alien unleashed its supersonic howl.
The tunnel shook violently. The sonic blast slammed downward like an invisible hammer.
"Move!" Max shouted.
As everyone scattered in different directions. The ground where they had been standing exploded into rubble as cracks spread through the stone floor, shattering the ground and spraying fragments of rock in every direction.
The alien werewolf let go of the ceiling and dropped to the ground, landing heavily before turning its snarling gaze toward the Omnitrix wielders.
Ben glanced at his watch and went pale when he saw it was still stuck in recharge mode.
"Oh c'mon! Work already, you stupid watch!" Ben said, slapping the top of his Omnitrix in frustration.
Evan did not hesitate. He activated his Another Omnitrix and pressed the dial down without even looking.
Golden light exploded around him, forcing everyone to cover their eyes and turn away for a moment.
When the light finally faded, Evan was no longer human.
In his place stood a heavily armored, bipedal creature that looked like a strange mix of an armadillo, a tortoise, and a porcupine. He was only about five feet tall, but there was nothing small about the presence he gave off. His thick, muscular legs held up a compact, sturdy body, while his broad arms ended in sharp claws built more for crushing and digging than for delicate movements. His skin was a deep earthy green, rough and wrinkled like stone worn smooth by years of wind and impact. A massive domed shell covered his back, and long golden-yellow spikes stretched out from it, pointing backward like the spines of a living fortress.
A dark helmet-like structure covered the top of his head, and beneath it, his small, bright yellow eyes glowed brightly in the dark cave. The golden Omnitrix dial rested in the center of his belly.
The alien looked down at himself for a second.
"Hm." He paused. "Okay."
"Should have paid attention before transforming," he muttered under his breath, though he did not make any move to switch forms.
Then he straightened up, set his stance, and pointed toward the alien werewolf.
"Okay, let's do this. Get ready to be run over by Ricochet!"