Chapter 149: The Eternal Demon
Knoxburg Vault.
The Rustbucket idled to a halt outside the massive, reinforced perimeter of the vault base.
Inside the RV, Grandpa Max cast a concerned glance at Bo. "Bo doesn't have any special abilities," the older man pointed out, his brow furrowed. "It might be safer if he stays here in the Rustbucket."
Ben scoffed, leaning against the door frame. "No way, Grandpa. I'll keep an eye on him."
He cast a sidelong glance at Bo. Ben's real motivation was entirely self-serving: he needed to rack up some serious goodwill. If Bo flaked on giving him that ticket he had been promised, who was Ben supposed to cry to?
The group piled out of the vehicle and slipped into the sprawling facility. Klein shoved his hands into his pockets, his sharp eyes sweeping the area. The cavernous warehouse was stacked high with wooden shipping crates, but the silence was deafening. Not a single soul was in sight.
"Where did everybody go?" Ben asked, scratching his head.
"Cluck... cluck, cluck, cluck..."
The moment the words left Ben's mouth, a bizarre sight rounded the corner. Several uniformed security guards were squatting, flapping their arms like wings, and pecking at the concrete floor.
Grandpa Max sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "They've been hypnotized. They think they're chickens."
Ben blinked, utterly bewildered. "Since when did the Circus Freaks learn how to hypnotize people?"
"You just don't get it, Dweeb," Klein drawled, his tone laced with dry amusement. "It's always good to pad out your resume with extra skills." He paused, his gaze narrowing slightly. "Unless, of course, the Circus Freaks didn't come alone."
They followed the trail of destruction straight to the main vault. The massive, multi-ton steel door had been blown wide open. Thick, bubbling pools of corrosive green slime dripped from the melted hinges. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Acid Breath had sneezed his way through the defenses.
Gwen wrinkled her nose, stepping carefully to avoid the puddles. "Ugh. That is so disgusting."
Zzzzt! Pew!
Without warning, searing red laser beams sliced through the air, scorching the metal wall inches from Gwen's head.
She reacted instantly, throwing her hands forward. A shimmering pink mana barrier flared to life, absorbing the volley of energy blasts with loud, crackling hisses.
Bo ducked behind Klein, his eyes wide with panic. "Why are they shooting at us?! We're the good guys!"
"Yeah, you'll get used to it," Gwen deadpanned, straining slightly against the barrage. "Just a normal day on the job."
Klein leaned casually against a pristine section of the wall, observing their attackers. "They're still under the hypnosis," he noted. The guards were actively firing their standard-issue laser rifles, all while drooling heavily from the corners of their mouths and staring blankly ahead. "Completely mindless, but their trigger fingers still work. Annoying."
"I'll take care of them!" Ben grinned, eager to show off his heroics in front of Bo.
He slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix faceplate. A blinding flash of emerald light illuminated the corridor, and in his place stood the sleek, feline form of Fasttrack.
In a blur of blue and black motion, Fasttrack vanished. The air whipped into a miniature cyclone. Less than a second later, the rapid-fire sound of thuds echoed through the hall as every single guard collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
"Looks like that's handled," Fasttrack smirked, skidding to a halt. "Let's go."
Grandpa Max took the lead, stepping over the melted threshold into the vault. Klein and the others trailed closely behind.
Inside, the sight was staggering. Countless gleaming gold bars were stacked carefully on endless rows of reinforced shelves. Not a single brick was missing.
Gwen crossed her arms, her brow furrowing in suspicion. "All the gold is still here. If they didn't come for the money, what exactly were the Circus Freaks after?"
"I'm guessing they came for that," Klein said, pointing a lazy finger toward the far corner of the room.
Behind a heavy iron grate that had been violently torn off its hinges, a massive, jagged hole gaped in the floor. The gold bars in that specific section had been carelessly shoved aside and scattered across the tiles, making it painfully obvious that the fortune was merely a decorative cover to hide the tunnel beneath.
The group approached the opening. A set of dusty, descending concrete stairs vanished into the pitch-black depths.
Taking the initiative, Klein stepped onto the first rung, leading the descent.
As they reached the bottom, the air grew stale and heavy. The underground space resembled an old Cold War air-raid shelter, choked with thick layers of cobwebs and the distinct smell of rusted metal.
Fasttrack zipped to the front of the group, stopping right beside Klein. A flash of crimson light washed over the dim room as he reverted back to his human form.
Ben rubbed his arms, looking around the eerie bunker. "What is this place?"
"A place that takes you back to the past," Grandpa Max murmured, his voice echoing softly as he stepped off the final stair. He ran a hand along a dust-caked console. "This is an old Plumber base."
Gwen tilted her head. "Like the one hidden inside Mount Rushmore?"
"Not entirely," Max explained, his eyes reflecting a hint of nostalgia. "During the Plumbers' golden age, we built several satellite communication outposts in strategic locations, just like this hidden bunker. But after we repelled Vilgax the first time, the threat level dropped. We simply didn't need this much infrastructure anymore, so they were eventually decommissioned and shut down."
Klein wandered over to a bank of dormant servers, wiping away a thick layer of grime to reveal advanced alien circuitry. "There's still a lot of extraterrestrial tech down here. The Circus Freaks must have been hired to retrieve something specific."
"But how did a bunch of two-bit criminals know there was a classified Plumber base buried under a bank?" Klein mused aloud, genuinely intrigued.
"I don't know," Max admitted, his expression grave. "I can't figure it out no matter how I look at it."
Meanwhile, inside a derelict, rusted-out factory on the outskirts of town.
"What is this useless piece of junk supposed to do?" Acid Breath grumbled, his raspy voice echoing off the corrugated metal walls. He held up a strange, oversized metallic device that vaguely resembled a high-tech key, squinting at it with utter disdain.
Before he could inspect it further, a mechanized whip lashed out from the shadows. It coiled tightly around the alien tech and violently yanked it right out of his grasp.
The three Circus Freaks snapped their heads up.
Standing on a high steel catwalk in the distance was a menacing figure. It was entirely clad in crimson armor, with two deadly samurai swords strapped to its back and glowing, V-shaped optical sensors. The Forever Ninja. It held the stolen alien key firmly in its robotic grip.
Without a word, the Forever Ninja leaped from the catwalk, landing silently on the concrete floor. It turned, dropped gracefully to one knee, and offered the alien technology toward the suffocating darkness of the factory's deeper recesses.
Heavy, metallic footsteps echoed. A tall, imposing figure strode out of the shadows. He was clad in pristine, silver-white knight's armor, his face obscured by a helmet featuring a glowing crimson 'Y' across the visor.
This was Enoch's superior—the Forever King.
The Forever King looked down at the three Circus Freaks, his posture radiating absolute authority. Noting their scowling, disgruntled expressions, he spoke, his voice a cold, synthesized baritone. "Are there any questions?"
"Yeah, I got a question!" Acid Breath spat, jabbing a finger aggressively toward the shadows behind them. "You sticking us with that watch-dangling lunatic was bad enough!" He gestured toward Sublimino, who was lurking quietly in the background. "But after we successfully break into the biggest vault in the city, we don't even get to steal a single, tiny piece of gold?!"
"You are beginning to bore me, Mr. Acid Breath," the Forever King replied smoothly, his tone dripping with aristocratic disdain. "Or perhaps I should simply call you... Mr. Stinky."
Acid Breath's face flushed with rage, completely oblivious to the sheer danger standing in front of him. "From now on, you call me Boss! Because I say so! You listen to me!"
"Since only one of us can truly be the boss," the Forever King said, a dark amusement coloring his mechanical voice, "I believe we should put it to a vote."
The moment the Forever King's words hung in the air, the Forever Ninja moved.
Frightwig shrieked, whipping her prehensile, tentacle-like hair forward in a lethal arc aimed straight at the red-armored warrior.
The Forever Ninja simply pushed off the ground, executing a flawless, gravity-defying leap that easily cleared the sweeping attack.
Unable to halt her momentum, Frightwig's hair crashed forward with undiminished force—wrapping securely around Acid Breath's torso and binding him tight.
Frightwig gasped, momentarily stunned by her own friendly fire. She desperately tried to retract her locks.
It was too late. The Forever Ninja landed directly in front of her. With a swift, brutal pivot, it delivered a devastating roundhouse kick to her chest, launching her more than ten meters through the air. She crashed violently through two solid wooden shipping crates, splintering them into kindling.
Because he was still tangled in her hair, Acid Breath was violently yanked off his feet, dragging across the rough concrete floor like a ragdoll.
"Raaaargh!" Thumbskull bellowed. The massive, muscle-bound brute charged like a freight train, aiming to crush the mechanical ninja.
The Forever Ninja didn't even draw its swords. It simply stepped inside Thumbskull's guard, grabbed the brute by his oversized arm, and used his own momentum to execute a flawless, bone-rattling over-the-shoulder throw. Thumbskull hit the ground so hard the concrete cracked.
In less than a minute, the three notorious Circus Freaks were groaning on the floor, utterly defeated.
"Now that the leadership problem has been resolved," the Forever King said, a mysterious, chilling smile evident in his voice. "It is time for us to get down to business."
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