After the two split up, Evan quickly circled back to where the family was gathered. As soon as he arrived, he casually took Gold Ship's leash back from Orfevre.
At almost the exact same moment, the twins resumed trying to kick each other.
Ben, on the other hand, had to stay hidden and wait for the Omnitrix to time out. If he showed up as XLR8 now, everyone would immediately know something was up.
Inside the Rust Bucket, peace lasted for exactly three seconds.
Evan and Orfevre were already exchanging blows again.
Neither of them was actually trying to hurt the other, but that didn't make the fight any less destructive. Their fists, kicks, and improvised weapons collided one after another, each impact sending little shockwaves through the cramped RV.
"Where's Ben?" Max asked as he climbed inside.
The first thing he saw was Gwen sitting at the table, typing away on her laptop.
Gold Ship was quietly sneaking behind her older siblings, reaching toward the snacks they had left unattended.
Meanwhile, Evan and Orfevre were once again trying to beat each other senseless.
"He isn't with you?" Gwen asked, looking up from her screen.
She hadn't seen Ben since he left the stadium. Even so, she had assumed he would've run into Grandpa Max by now or already made it back to the Rust Bucket.
"...That's odd."
"Wrrryyyyy!"
Gold Ship suddenly let out a dramatic cry.
Orfevre had grabbed her by the ankles and, treating her little sister like a very noisy club, swung her toward Evan.
Another window shattered.
Max slowly closed his eyes, taking a deep sigh. Gwen silently lowered her gaze back toward her laptop.
Neither of them even bothered reacting anymore. At this point, this was just another normal afternoon with the Gold siblings.
"...I suddenly have a bad feeling about Ben," Max admitted.
His instincts as both a Plumber and a grandfather were screaming at him.
There had barely been a single normal day since this summer road trip began. Whenever Ben disappeared for more than a few minutes, something inevitably happened.
Expecting Ben to stay out of trouble at this point was about as realistic as expecting Gold Ship not to touch something she wasn't supposed to.
Outside, Orfevre swung the RV door open so hard it slammed against the side of the vehicle.
She rushed back inside without slowing down, threw a straight punch into Evan's stomach, and launched him clean through another window before immediately jumping out after him.
"...There goes another one," Gwen muttered.
Max pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I just found out something," Gwen said, turning her laptop around. "Take a look."
Max walked over while another loud impact echoed from outside.
"When I cross-referenced the Squires' roster with the Baseball Hall of Fame database," Gwen explained, "every single one of their names matched famous baseball players from decades ago."
She scrolled further down.
"But that's not the weird part. There aren't any records of these kids. No report cards. No birth certificates. No medical records. Nothing. It's like they don't officially exist."
Max frowned as he studied the information.
"Something's definitely wrong with that team."
He looked toward the broken window, hearing another explosion of splintering wood outside.
"But that can wait. Right now, finding Ben is more important."
As he turned to look outside, he noticed Gold Ship somehow curled up inside one of the overhead cabinets with an open jar of cookies resting in her lap.
"How did you even get up there?"
Gold Ship swallowed a mouthful of cookies before answering.
"They threw me up here."
Max decided he didn't actually want to think about it for now. He stepped over to the shattered window.
Outside, Orfevre had scooped up a handful of pebbles from the roadside.
Golden Aura wrapped around each one before she flicked them forward. The pebbles shot through the air like rifle rounds.
Across from her, Evan calmly clapped his hands together. A crimson stream erupted from between his palms.
Piercing Blood.
The compressed stream sliced straight through the incoming stones before they could reach him.
Not every attack landed where it was intended.
One aura-coated pebble missed entirely and blasted a fist-sized chunk out of a nearby tree.
A stray stream of Piercing Blood bored a perfectly round hole through another trunk several meters away.
Max stared at the damage for a long second.
"EVER! ORU!" His voice thundered across the clearing.
The twins froze.
Orfevre had been just about to drive an Aura-enhanced sharpened branch toward her brother.
Evan, meanwhile, had stopped mere inches away from thrusting the hidden blade concealed beneath his wrist toward his sister.
The two slowly turned to face their grandfather.
"Yes, Grandpa?" they answered in perfect unison.
"We're looking for Ben. And the two of you..." Max glanced at the collection of shattered windows, broken trees, and scattered debris surrounding the Rust Bucket. "...are cleaning up every bit of this mess."
Neither twin argued.
"Understood."
"Got it."
Truthfully, neither of them minded very much.
After breaking so many windows, Evan had become surprisingly good at replacing them, while Orfevre had gotten equally good at pretending she had absolutely nothing to do with why they needed replacing in the first place.
...
Following the signal from Evan's Proto-Tool, the Tennysons tracked Ben's Omnitrix signature all the way to a massive warehouse on the outskirts of the city.
At first glance, the place looked abandoned.
The enormous metal doors at the front had been sealed shut, but dozens of baseball-sized holes were scattered across the thick steel as though something had punched clean through them from the inside.
Carefully peering through the openings, everyone looked into the warehouse.
Although the exterior looked old and abandoned, the interior told a completely different story. The entire building was filled with advanced machinery, conveyor belts, strange mechanical equipment, and assembly lines that definitely didn't belong in an ordinary warehouse.
Near the center of it all, Shock Rock was in the middle of a fight against a swarm of robotic drones that continued pouring out from every direction.
Not too far away, Cash and J.T. were strapped against two large metal panels, their wrists and ankles secured by heavy mechanical restraints.
Max took one look at the scene and immediately made a decision.
"Evan," he said, already moving toward a nearby window, "get in there and help Ben. We'll free those kids."
His eyes shifted toward a reinforced side window.
"...We'll enter through that."
After spending an entire summer traveling with Evan and Orfevre, Max had long since accepted that... no matter how reinforced a window claimed to be.
If these two were around, it probably wouldn't survive ten minutes.
At this point, Max had already started considering replacing every window in the Rust Bucket with reinforced Plumber-grade glass.
The others nodded.
Evan raised his Another Omnitrix and quickly searched through the available transformations. After a brief pause, he found the alien he wanted, pressed the dial, and let the transformation take over.
Golden light erupted around him.
When it faded, Evan was no longer human. In his place stood a more humanoid mechanical alien with a black body and dark orange-red plating running across his limbs and torso.
His fingers became three razor-sharp claws, while his feet shifted into heavy talons built for tearing through steel.
His face elongated into a monstrous mechanical head lined with sharp white teeth and a long metallic tongue.
Four glowing golden eyes rested along the sides of his head.
Most striking of all was the massive gray chainsaw blade extending from the top of his forehead, humming loudly as its engine came to life.
The golden Omnitrix emblem rested proudly at the center of his chest.
"Buzz-KIll!"
He lowered his body before extending both arms.
His claws folded backward. With a loud metallic CLANG, roaring chainsaw blades burst from both forearms.
The engines screamed to life. Without slowing down, he charged straight toward the warehouse entrance.
SKRRRRRRRRRRR!!
The spinning blades dug directly into the thick steel doors.
Bright orange sparks exploded everywhere as the chainsaws carved through the reinforced metal like oversized circular saws through wood.
Within seconds, the doors split apart.
Buzz-KIll kicked both halves open, sending the several-ton slabs crashing onto the warehouse floor with an earth-shaking boom.
Everyone inside instinctively turned toward the noise.
Shock Rock blinked in surprise. Then he noticed the golden Omnitrix emblem and a grin spread across his rocky face.
Without even looking, Shock Rock spun around and drove a fist straight through its torso.
Electricity erupted across his arm before forming a crackling blue energy blade. He swept it across the room.
Three more robots were sliced apart in a shower of sparks.
At the same time, Buzz-KIll barreled into the battlefield. His roaring chainsaw arms became a blur. Metal limbs, gears, and robotic heads flew through the air as every swing tore another drone into scrap.
One robot attempted to tackle him from behind. Buzz-KIll simply twisted his body.
The spinning chainsaw on his shoulder caught it across the chest. The machine exploded into dozens of shattered components before it even hit the floor.
Shock Rock threw a hard punch into one of the robots charging him, then formed a glowing blue electrical blade in the same hand and sliced through several more as they rushed forward.
Buzz-Kill charged in beside him, his chainsaws chewing through the mechanical bodies of the robots with brutal ease. Metal sparks flew through the air as the two aliens tore through the enemy line together, cutting down one machine after another.
Meanwhile, the others reached the side window Max had spotted earlier.
Orfevre stepped forward and ripped the frame open without much effort, widening the opening enough for the rest of the group to get inside. Max and Gwen hurried over to Cash and J.T. while the others kept watch.
Across the room, the Squires' coach calmly watched the two aliens and only gave them a smug look.
"Support units only!"
The instant those words left his mouth, dozens of hidden ceiling panels slid open.
Robot drones dropped from above like mechanical spiders, their glowing eyes locking onto Shock Rock and Buzz-KIll.
The swarm descended.
Shock Rock fired a burst of blue electricity that blasted several robots apart.
Buzz-KIll answered by spinning both chainsaws at full speed before charging directly into the middle of the swarm.
But there were too many of them. More kept dropping in, swarming over the floor and ceiling in waves as they tried to overwhelm the two aliens by sheer numbers.
Out of the corner of her eye, Gwen caught sight of a computer screen glowing blue nearby.
She stepped closer and froze.
On the screen was a clear image of the President's face, along with a strange strand of DNA swirling next to it.
Gwen gasped. "The President!"
The coach's eyes instantly snapped toward her. He glared in her direction the moment he realized she had seen the screen.
"Team, move out!" he snapped.
The Squires immediately turned and fled while the warehouse doors began opening around them. Max's face darkened as he watched them run.
"They're escaping!" Max shouted.
The coach glanced back one last time. "Support units... Block them."
The remaining robots immediately surged forward, sacrificing themselves to hold the Tennysons back.
At the same time, the enormous generator powering the facility began sparking violently. The unstable reactor was clearly reaching critical overload.
It was already clear the whole place was on the edge of blowing itself apart.
"I'll handle it!" Buzz-KIll shouted.
His chainsaw arm folded back into a normal hand as he tapped his Omnitrix dial.
Golden light burst outward.
Just as the robots completely buried him beneath their bodies. The entire swarm suddenly froze, one by one...
Every robot simply shut down.
A pale blue and white jellyfish-like alien floated silently upward through the pile.
Six long tentacles drifted gently beneath his body while blue electricity continuously flowed across his translucent form.
He phased effortlessly through the disabled robots as though they weren't even there.
He moved toward the generator, his four tentacles extending forward. He phased through the old metal casing without resistance and went straight into the electrical core itself, diving into the heart of the machine as if it were nothing more than water.
At the same time, Shock Rock brought both hands together and fired off a massive blast of electricity toward the robots guarding the entrance, blowing open a path for the others.
"Go!" he shouted.
"What about you two?!" Gwen called back.
"We'll catch up!" Shock Rock yelled back. "These things aren't getting anywhere near you!"
Cash and J.T. wasted absolutely no time.
The moment the opening appeared, both boys bolted for the exit without looking back once.
Max grabbed Gwen by the wrist.
"Move!"
Trusting both of his grandsons, he led everyone outside.
Beside him, Orfevre simply grabbed Gold Ship by the back of her clothes like she weighed nothing more than a bag of groceries.
Several of the robot drones were still moving, and the ones left alive made another desperate push toward the group.
Shock Rock blasted them apart before they could get close.
At the back of the warehouse, the generator sparked one last time before finally fizzling out. Its power died, and with it, the robots all around the room started to slow, then stopped entirely as their energy sources cut off. One by one, they dropped to the floor without another sound.
A moment later, he drifted back out of the machinery and hovered into view.
"Wow," Shock Rock said, looking him over. "Who is this new guy?"
"Ampfibian," he replied.
Almost at the same moment, Ben's Omnitrix finally reached its time limit.
A flash of red light surrounded Shock Rock, and in an instant Ben was back in human form.
He stretched his shoulders before glancing around at the piles of disabled robots.
"Those scapmetals really got some nerve trying to blow up my family..." Ampfibian's pupil-less eyes shifted slightly as he said it.
Then, without another word, he turned intangible and floated out of the warehouse.
...
Inside the Squires' changing room, a transparent jellyfish-like alien drifted out from an electrical outlet and floated silently into the room.
The moment he appeared, he moved.
Without wasting even a second, he phased straight through several of the Squires. Their bodies jolted with electricity, sparked violently for a brief moment, and then dropped to the floor one after another with a shower of sparks.
Their human appearance flickered several times before disappearing completely, revealing nothing more than humanoid robot drones underneath.
The coach's eyes widened in surprise as he stared at Ampfibian.
For a brief moment, their gazes met.
Ampfibian's golden, pupil-less eyes locked onto the coach, and he immediately tried to read the electrical signals running through the room. It did not take long for him to realize that something was off.
"Another piece of scrap metal," he concluded.
More accurately, he could not read any brainwaves or living nervous systems from the other party. All he could detect was electricity flowing through mechanical circuitry.
There wasn't a single living being in the room.
Every member of the Squires wasn't human. They were machines.
Ampfibian immediately rushed forward.
Each time he touched one of the drones, their bodies crackled with electricity before shorting out and dropping lifelessly to the floor. The room filled with sparks and the sound of collapsing metal as he moved through them with effortless speed.
The coach tried to run.
He turned and headed for the door, moving as fast as he could.
Even if he was only a robot programmed to follow orders, that did not mean he was stupid. He knew when a fight was already lost, especially against an opponent who could simply pass through his body and shut him down without even needing to land a proper hit.
As it moved, its disguise disappeared.
Its true form was revealed.
Compared to the other drones, this one was much larger and more heavily armored. Its frame was reinforced with additional plating, while several built-in weapons were attached across its body.
It stopped at the doorway, seeing Ampfibian was already in front of it.
If it couldn't escape...
Then it would fight. The cannons built into its body locked onto Ampfibian and fired.
Multiple electrical blasts tore through the room, filling the hallway with bright flashes of energy.
Under normal circumstances, those attacks would have been more than enough to kill an ordinary person.
But when the blasts struck Ampfibian...
Nothing happened.
The electricity simply flowed into his translucent body before disappearing completely.
Ampfibian didn't even move.
The robot's systems immediately began recalculating.
Then it turned and fled even faster than before.
At that point, it had probably already decided that Ampfibian was less of an enemy and more like some kind of grim reaper for robots.
Unfortunately for it... Ampfibian was already there.
Before the robot could take another step, one of his long tentacles pierced straight through its body.
The machine froze. Electricity flickered across its frame. Then its entire body went limp.
The final sound inside the changing room was the quiet crackle of its failing circuits.
...
A little later, the Little League championship had descended into complete chaos.
The entire Squires team had seemingly vanished without a trace.
Hundreds of spectators had watched them enter the stadium before the game.
Yet somehow... Not a single person had seen them leave.
Police officers, event staff, and investigators searched every corner of the stadium, but they found absolutely nothing that explained how an entire baseball team had simply disappeared into thin air.
With one team missing, the championship was naturally canceled while authorities launched a full investigation.
Meanwhile...
Far away from all the confusion...
Max decided it would be best to keep Ben, Gwen, and Gold Ship occupied by taking them around to buy souvenirs, as they already knew the truth behind the Squires' disappearance.
That left Evan and Orfevre behind with a much less exciting mission of repairing the Rust Bucket.
"There," Evan said after several minutes of careful work. "That should do it."
Sitting comfortably on Orfevre's shoulders, he carefully spread a thin layer of specially-made glass adhesive over one of the repaired windows.
Using Grey Matter's intelligence, Evan had designed a high-strength glass mending compound that, when paired with his Proto-Tool, could fuse shattered glass back together almost seamlessly.
The hardest part wasn't the glue.
It was figuring out where every tiny shard belonged.
Piece by piece, the twins had reassembled each broken window like an enormous transparent jigsaw puzzle before sealing every crack until it looked almost brand new.
Once the last section finished hardening, Evan climbed back down.
The twins entered the Rust Bucket together before dropping onto the couch at the same time.
Orfevre immediately stretched her legs out and rested them across Evan's lap without saying a word.
Evan didn't complain.
They were both exhausted after spending the better part of an hour repairing windows that they had been responsible for breaking in the first place.
The peaceful silence lasted for exactly three seconds.
Outside, several fire trucks suddenly sped past the parked Rust Bucket, their sirens echoing through the street.
The twins glanced toward the window, watching the vehicles disappear into the distance.
After a moment of silence, they both decided not to ask.
Whatever was happening out there was probably none of their business.
...Probably.
About ten minutes later, the RV's door suddenly burst open.
Max hurried inside with Gwen following closely behind him, while Gold Ship casually walked in after them with an oddly innocent expression on her face.
The old Plumber looked unusually exhausted.
Without saying a single word, he walked straight toward the driver's seat, sat down, and started the engine.
Evan noticed the frustrated expression on Max's face and tilted his head slightly.
"Did something happen?"
"Golshi happened," Max replied flatly.
Before Evan could ask what that meant, the RV's door opened once again.
XLR8 stepped inside, looking like he had just returned from dealing with something ridiculous.
"Dude," he said quickly, "your little sister somehow burned down half the stadium."
Fortunately, XLR8 had already made sure to quickly search the area before leaving. He checked that no one was trapped inside, and with the firefighters arriving shortly after, the situation had been brought under control.
The stadium was heavily damaged and covered in burn marks, but thankfully it had not been completely destroyed, and no one was hurt.
Evan: "..."
Orfevre: "..."
The two slowly turned their heads toward their younger sister.
Gold Ship scratched the back of her head, giving them an awkward smile.
"In my defense..."
Neither of them responded.
Gold Ship's smile slowly faded.
"...I actually don't have a defense."
Before either sibling could say anything, she immediately threw herself toward the refrigerator and climbed inside.
The refrigerator door slowly closed.
"If I can't see them..." Gold Ship whispered from inside. "Maybe they can't see me."
The silence inside the Rust Bucket somehow became even heavier.
A few seconds passed.
Then Max sighed from the driver's seat.
"From now on, you two are going to be responsible for Golshi's watching duty."
Evan and Orfevre slowly looked back toward the refrigerator.
Inside, Gold Ship remained completely silent, convinced that her plan had worked.