Ricochet suddenly sprang forward, curling his body tightly into a ball before rolling straight toward the alien werewolf like a living boulder. The creature reacted instantly, leaping out of the way and narrowly avoiding the spinning mass of spikes. Ricochet did not slow down. Instead, he shifted his weight mid-roll, using the spikes on his shell to grip the cave wall and swing himself into a quick U-turn.
The sharp points dug into the stone just enough to keep him anchored as he rolled along the side of the cavern, circling right back toward the alien werewolf.
The beast's mouth split into four jagged sections, and it unleashed another piercing sonic howl directly at him.
Ricochet lunged forward, trying to force his way through the blast, but he had not built up enough momentum yet. The force of the scream slammed into him and sent him crashing back into the wall with a heavy impact.
Ricochet hit the cave wall hard, kicking up a thick cloud of dust and loose debris. For a moment, his shape was completely swallowed by the haze.
Then, from within the dust cloud, golden light erupted.
A beam of energy suddenly shot forward, tearing through the dust and striking the alien werewolf, sending it tumbling backward.
"Skullbase!"
A rough, heavy voice rang out from the settling cloud as a massive humanoid gray rhinoceros stepped forward. His broad, powerful frame was covered in heavy brown and gray armor, and his huge body looked built for brute force and endurance. Sharp black claws tipped his hands, and dark black toes grounded him with every step. Grey spikes jutted from his elbows, shoulders, and back, while a large cannon-like structure extended from the back of his head beneath a pointed metal horn at the top.
The golden Omnitrix dial sat at the center of his chest, glowing faintly in the dark cave.
Skullbase raised both hands in front of him. His claws retracted into his palms, revealing four smaller holes around a central one. Then, with a deep mechanical hum, his hands began to spin.
A rapid stream of golden energy bullets burst out toward the alien werewolf.
The creature howled in pain as the shots pounded into it, forcing it to dart wildly from side to side in an attempt to avoid the barrage. Its frantic movement made Skullbase's attack miss more often, and the stray blasts slammed into the surrounding cave walls instead, making the entire cavern shudder with every impact.
Off to the side, the Tennysons and the Greens stood back and watched, waiting for the dust to settle. In the middle of the chaos, they noticed more lava beginning to creep through the cavern from deeper inside the mountain. And just like before, it moved at the speed of molasses.
Gwen stared at it for a second before looking at Wes. "Should we be concerned about that?"
Wes barely even glanced at the lava before answering.
"No, not really," he said with surprising calm. "Lava isn't as dangerous as movies and cartoons make it out to be. It's actually fairly easy to avoid."
Gold Ship blinked. "Really?"
Wes nodded. "Deaths by lava are uncommon unless someone's foolish enough to get too close and fall in."
"You learn something new every day." Gold Ship said.
Since the lava was moving so slowly, it was not much of an immediate problem. That gave Skullbase enough room to keep pressing the attack.
This time, instead of staying back, the giant rhinoceros alien lowered his arms and charged forward instead.
His massive feet hammered against the ground as he charged directly at the alien werewolf.
But the beast was much faster than he was. Its agility let it slip away with ease, while Skullbase's heavy frame made him slower and easier to predict.
The alien werewolf's mouth split open again, preparing for another sonic blast.
Before it could fire, golden energy suddenly flared from the spikes on Skullbase's back and launched him forward, giving him a sudden burst of speed. He closed the distance in an instant and drove a devastating uppercut into the creature's jaw, snapping its head sharply toward the ceiling just as it released its howl.
The sonic blast shot upward instead of forward, ripping through the stone above them.
The ceiling exploded. The impact triggered a chain reaction that destabilized the cavern, sending stalactites and huge boulders crashing down in every direction.
"Everybody move!" Max shouted.
Huge rocks crashed down from above.
Max reacted quickly and grabbed Gold Ship by the back of her dress, yanking her out of the way just before a massive rock flattened the space she had been standing in less than a second earlier.
Ben screams before barely being able to roll to the side, avoiding a falling boulder coming toward him.
Gwen and Kai screamed as more rocks rained from above.
Orfevre lunged forward, her instinct taking over; her clacker balls spun in her hands, suddenly erupting with a dirty golden aura.
She threw it toward the massive rocks, the two metal balls spun through, and to everyone's surprise, it somehow smashed through the falling rocks, shattering them into pieces.
The force of the hit shocked even her.
"Wait, what was that?" She questions.
For a split second, Orfevre just stared at her own hands, as if she could not quite believe what she had done.
The alien werewolf realized the cave was beginning to collapse and tried to unleash another sonic howl at the humans, but Skullbase moved first. He slammed into it from the side, knocking it off balance and causing the attack to misfire yet again.
More boulders crashed down from above, piling up into a wall of debris that separated the Tennysons and the Greens from Skullbase and the alien werewolf.
"EVER!" Orfevre cried, trying to rush toward her brother.
Kai grabbed her before she could make it any farther and pulled her back just in time to keep her from being crushed beneath another falling rock.
"Are you crazy?!" Kai shouted.
Orfevre roars, easily breaking free from Kai's grip. "Let go!"
"Go, I'll be right behind you!" Skullbase shouted.
But before he could move, the alien werewolf unleashed another sonic howl straight at him. The blast slammed Skullbase into the already unstable wall, making it crack even further and sending more lava spilling out from the broken stone.
Skullbase pushed himself back up and raised his hands again. His claws retracted once more, and he began firing energy bullets at the alien werewolf through the collapsing cavern.
Before the humans could see how the rest of the fight went, a fresh wave of boulders came crashing down and completely blocked their view.
Though Max, Gwen, Ben, Orfevre, and Gold Ship hesitated to leave him behind, Wes and Kai urged them onward through the cave. Ahead of them, they spotted an opening at the very back, likely an exit.
They ducked, rolled, and scrambled around falling debris until they finally made it through the opening and emerged back into the canyon, where the boys had tracked the alien werewolf hours earlier. Kai was the last one out before the entrance collapsed behind them, sealing the cave under a wall of rubble.
"Evan's still inside there!" Ben said urgently. "We've gotta get him out!"
Seeing his Omnitrix turn green, Ben did not hesitate. He reached for it immediately, ready to transform and help.
Even though he knew Evan would probably be fine, the thought of a possible future where his cousin had been willing to sacrifice himself for everyone else still twisted at his heart. That kind of loyalty stuck with him, and not in a good way.
Then the ground shook hard beneath them.
The already panicked group tensed even more as Gold Ship's eyes narrowed toward the top of the mountain.
"LOOK!" she shouted.
Everyone turned and saw that the volcanoes, which had seemed inactive not long ago, were now erupting.
Red-hot magma shot out from the top like a geyser, splashing molten rock into the air before the lava began pouring down the mountainside.
"We can't let that lava flow reach the village," Wes said urgently.
Ben looked down at his Omnitrix and spun the dial frantically, searching through his available aliens. But no matter how quickly he checked, he could not find a single transformation that looked like it would be able to deal with an erupting volcano.
He currently possesses no aliens with the power to generate ice or water, nor does he have a powerful alien that can stop a natural disaster. The power to prevent part of it, maybe, but not stop it.
Suddenly, a transparent, ghostly moth-like alien burst up from the ground and floated into view right in front of them.
"What the? I was gone for, like, ten seconds," Big Chill muttered, looking up toward the erupting magma with visible annoyance.
"Evan!" Gwen and Ben shouted at the same time.
"Ever!" Max and Orfevre called.
"Big Bro!" Gold Ship cried out.
The moment they saw Big Chill standing there, relief washed over everyone all at once. For a few tense seconds, they had all been worried sick that he had been crushed, trapped, or worse. Seeing him unharmed instantly eased the panic hanging over them.
Max was the first to recover.
"No time to explain," he said sharply, snapping out of his shock as soon as he realized there was something far more important to deal with. His eyes lifted toward the top of the mountain, where red-hot magma continued spilling out like an open wound in the earth.
"Can you handle that? If not, we evacuate the village and deal with it later," he said, trying not to sound too forceful. He knew better than to push Evan too hard, especially when there was a chance he might overdo it just to prove he could help.
Big Chill looked up at the eruption for only a moment before nodding.
"I can handle it."
He tapped the Omnitrix on his chest. Causing three spikes to pop out.
Golden light began spreading through his body.
His frame started to change, growing slightly larger and more muscular. His claws lengthened, his feet broadened, and the shape of his wings shifted as they expanded behind him. Thick white fur spread across his chest and neck, then down from his wrists to his elbows and from his ankles to his knees. The wings themselves changed too, the inside of them turning into a deep dark blue dotted with countless white spots, making them look like pieces of the night sky stretched across his back.
"Super Big Chill!" He announced.
Even before he moved, the air around him seemed to drop in temperature. A chill ran through everyone nearby, enough to make them feel like winter had suddenly dropped straight onto the mountain, even though they were still standing there in the middle of summer.
With one powerful flap of his wings, Big Chill shot upward and headed straight for the flowing magma without even flinching.
The heat should have been unbearable. Instead, he barely seemed to notice it. He flew directly into the molten rock, shoved his hands into it, and then pushed deeper into the stream as if he were diving into water.
A few seconds later, the people below watched in amazement as the lava began to cool and harden before their eyes.
The glowing red flow lost its brightness. Then it turned dark before becoming solid. Then the rumbling from inside the volcano slowly faded before it stopped.
"Big Bro actually did it!" Gold Ship cheered.
"It seems you worried too much again, Grampa," Gwen said with a small smile.
Max let out a breath and crossed his arms, looking oddly proud despite himself. "It's only natural for me to worry about my family's safety."
"He truly is amazing..." Kai murmured softly.
Ben immediately glanced at her, a little jealous that she had said that out loud. He definitely wanted praise like that from her too.
Orfevre, however, wasn't looking at anyone else. She was staring at the mountain.
As her expression slowly changed.
"I'm going up there to check on the idiot," she said.
Without waiting for anyone to respond, she started moving.
The others could hear the worry in her voice, even if she was trying to hide it behind annoyance. And even though they all knew Evan was probably fine, they followed her anyway.
It took them hours to scale the mountain.
By the time they reached the upper slopes, the sun had already started rising over the horizon, painting the sky with warm light. Still, there was no sign of Evan anywhere.
The silence up there felt strange after everything that had happened.
Then Gold Ship suddenly pointed. "Look! Strange path of ice!"
Everyone turned to where she was pointing and spotted a long frozen trail cutting across the side of the mountain.
The group immediately moved toward it and crouched down to inspect it.
The ice looked unnatural. It didn't belong there.
"Do you think he's in here?" Gwen asked, now sounding worried again.
"Only one way to find out," Orfevre murmured.
She pulled out her other set of clacker balls, spun them once in her hand, and then smashed the ice as hard as she could.
The surface cracked instantly. A strange greenish liquid burst out from inside.
Orfevre immediately jumped backward, and the liquid splashed across Gwen and Kai's faces.
"Eww! What is this stuff?" Gwen shouted, wiping at her face with Ben's shirt before he could stop her.
"Hey!"
Before anyone could say anything else, a blue orb about the size of a basketball flew out from the green liquid.
Everyone stared.
Then another orb came out. Then another. And another.
Until there were twenty-one of them floating there in a cluster.
The first orb suddenly unfolded. Tiny limbs emerged, small wings spread outward.
The orb transformed into a miniature version of Big Chill.
"Aww!" The girls blurted out at once.
The little one was too adorable to ignore.
The tiny creature blinked. Its oversized eyes looked around curiously.
Then more blue orbs unfolded. One after another, twenty-one miniature Big Chills floated around the mountain.
"Wow," Ben said. "What is going on?"
He looked around in complete confusion. "Where did all these Little Chills come from?"
No one answered him, because the other kids also didn't know anything about it.
Then, from inside the ice, Big Chill finally rose up holding a metal cube in his hand.
His golden eyes locked onto the swarm of baby aliens immediately.
The twenty-one baby Necrofriggians immediately noticed him. Their eyes lit up and happily flew in his direction, circling around him excitedly as if they recognized him right away.
Big Chill glanced down at the cube in his hand, then opened the interface of his Another Omnitrix.
The metal cube vanished into it.
[Data Upgrade Detected. Genesis Ark Engine is now available.]
"Omnitrix, explain Genesis Ark Engine." Big Chill said after hearing the name.
[Genesis Ark Engine, also known as the Cosmic Preserve Module, is a specialized high-tier infinite pocket dimension. This allows full-sized, willing, living alien refugees to step directly inside the Another Omnitrix and live in a flawless, self-sustaining paradise.]
Big Chill narrowed his eyes at the twenty-one baby Necrofriggians flying around him.
Then he lifted one hand and opened a small rift in space.
"Go on," he said. "You can choose to stay with me, or go out on your own."
The little ones stared at the portal for a moment.
Then, one by one, they flew into it.
When the last one disappeared inside, he closed the rift, turned back toward the others, and tapped his Omnitrix dial again.
Golden light flashed.
A moment later, he was human again.
"What?" Evan asked when he saw everyone staring at him.
"Dude! What was that?" Ben demanded, still confused by everything that had just happened.
Max and Wes already had a pretty good idea of what it meant, but they kept quiet. The kids hadn't learned about that kind of thing yet, and there was no reason to throw it at them all at once.
"You'll understand when you're older," Evan answered without missing a beat, not bothering to explain.
That only made Orfevre more annoyed.
"Oi! Just because you're five minutes older doesn't mean you have to rub it in every time!" she snapped, rushing at him and throwing a kick straight toward his head.
"Best five minutes of my life!" Evan shot back, ducking just in time.
Seeing the two of them fighting again, Max could only sigh helplessly while the others laughed.
Some things, apparently, never changed.
...
The Tennysons and the Greens returned to the Navajo village an hour later, just as the sun finally rose above the horizon. The first light of morning spilled across the quiet homes and the dusty paths between them, washing the village in a soft gold glow after the chaos of the night before.
Wes spoke with the few villagers who had remained behind to protect their homes from the Yenaldooshi, then spread the word about the creature's defeat. The men listening to him looked visibly relieved, and as soon as they heard the news, they quickly moved off to inform the others.
"The people should be returning soon," Wes told the others. "Now that we're no longer under the threat of the Yenaldooshi, or should I say, 'space werewolf'."
He paused, then gave a small, dry chuckle. "Yeah, I think it's wise to keep that last part to ourselves. Either way, the village is safe thanks to your help. Thank you."
"Yeah, it was nothing," Ben said, puffing himself up with obvious pride.
"What do you think that alien wanted anyway?" Kai asked curiously, still trying to make sense of everything they had seen.
"Since we never found any of that satellite equipment or your receiver," Gwen said, folding her arms, "it's impossible to tell what it was planning. I still can't even guess what it would've needed them for."
"Who cares?" Ben said confidently. "We kicked its butt, and I got a new alien out of it. That's a win-win."
"Don't you mean Big Bro kicked its butt?" Gold Ship asked from the side, her tone teasing.
"Hey, I helped too," Ben shot back immediately. "If it wasn't for me, we never would've found it."
Gold Ship only grinned at him, clearly unconvinced.
Wes then turned toward Max with a warm smile and threw an arm around his old friend's shoulder. "Come by the museum later. I can't send you on the road without a few souvenirs."
"I wouldn't mind a few of those dreamcatchers," Max said with a good-natured smile of his own.
"You know," Ben said, glancing hopefully toward Kai, "it's a long summer."
Gwen rolled her eyes so hard it almost looked painful, then made a gagging motion at the same time.
Gold Ship, meanwhile, pulled out a bag of chips. That she absolutely had not stolen it from her Big Brother, according to her, you have to believe her. And casually started eating while watching everything unfold.
"Maybe I'll see you again," Ben added, trying to sound smooth about it.
Kai looked at him for a second with a flat, unimpressed expression.
"The thing is, Ben," she said, "you seem like a nice guy, but you're just not my type."
Ben looked absolutely crushed.
Gold Ship burst out laughing, while Gwen stared in stunned disbelief at how blunt Kai had just been.
"B-But I thought you really liked me," Ben sputtered, visibly devastated.
"No, no," Kai said quickly, bowing her head a little. "I do, I really do... but only as a friend. It has nothing to do with you, Ben. It's me."
"What do you mean?" Ben asked, still looking confused as she bowed her head.
"Well..." Kai hesitated, rubbing her arms awkwardly. "I kinda already have someone else in mind."
"Oh ho? Then who might this special person be?" Gold Ship asked, instantly sensing drama.
"W-Well, it's Ev- I mean, it's a secret!" Kai blurted out before she could finish, suddenly feeling a very chilling stare on the back of her neck.
In the background, Orfevre was glaring at Kai's back while casually spinning a stone in her hand.
Gold Ship leaned in, clearly not ready to let it go. "Oh, c'mon now, I promise I won't snitch on you."
"What's wrong with me?" Ben demanded. "I can turn into all kinds of cool aliens. I bet this special secret dude can't do that!"
Somewhere in the junkyard filled with thrown-away loots, Evan suddenly sneezed.