"It's fine," Tyler grunted, pushing himself off the forest floor. He held the glowing Warp-Disk toward the space behind him. "I can just open another rift and go back... right?"
He wasn't sure. He poured his energy into the disk, purple light pulsing through his crystalline veins as The Prism-Sentinel. But after only a few seconds, the light flickered and died. Tyler collapsed, panting. "I need... to rest... too much energy..."
BOOM!
A localized earthquake shook the forest. A meteor strike. Tyler froze. The woods, the crash, the silence—it was exactly like his first night in the other universe. Except, as the green light flickered in the distance, Tyler realized he couldn't open a way home. Every portal he tried to manifest showed a distorted, alien landscape.
"System, retract the suit," Tyler whispered. He slumped against a tree, despondent. He was stranded.
"Ben... stop!"
"Let go of me!"
"AHHH!!!"
The blood-curdling screams of a young girl tore through the trees. Tyler's frustration vanished, replaced by a surge of cold, protective fury. "It sounds like I have a job to do."
At the meteor crash site, a creature made of jagged volcanic rock and roaring fire—a demon of the night—held an orange-haired girl by the face.
The girl's skin was already blistering from the heat. Her tears vaporized before they could hit the ground. "Ben... please... don't do this!"
"Gwen... I can't... I can't stop!" Prime-Ben, transformed into a feral Heatblast, snarled. His eyes were wide with a mixture of animalistic hunger and psychological terror. The Carnitrix was forcing his hand, overriding his mercy. He tightened his grip, his palm glowing white-hot. He was going to execute her.
WHOOSH!
A streak of deep crimson fire tore through the clearing. A fiery punch slammed into Prime-Ben's spine with the force of an exploding tank. Prime-Ben was launched into a tree, hitting the trunk with a sickening crack and falling motionless.
Tyler stepped into the light, his Pyre-Fiend form radiating a heat so intense it turned the nearby dirt to glass. He looked at the girl—Gwen—who was shaking on the ground.
"Grandpa...?" Gwen whispered, looking at the second fire-monster.
Tyler didn't have time for a reunion. He knew if he played nice, she'd linger, and the battle coming was too dangerous for a human. He bared his fangs and let out a guttural roar. "Get out of here, or I'll eat you next!"
Gwen's psychological defenses shattered. She scrambled to her feet and bolted into the darkness, fueled by pure adrenaline.
Behind him, Prime-Ben groaned, his body twitching as he stood up. He looked at Tyler, his malicious gaze shifting to confusion. "You are... me?"
The Core Carnitrix inside Prime-Ben was scanning Tyler, its AI pulsing with an error message. Unauthorized Unit Detected.
"Carnitrix?" Tyler whispered, his fists clenching. He realized the horror: this was the original timeline. This Ben didn't have a choice.
"You still recognize me?" the Core Carnitrix spoke through Ben's distorted vocal cords. "What are you... an Azmuth failure?"
Tyler didn't answer. He lunged.
Prime-Ben swung a fist, manifesting a giant beast made of living flame. It was a perfect execution of Pyronite power. But Tyler's fire was different—it was condensed, deep red plasma.
BOOM!
Tyler's blast shattered the flame beast and sent Prime-Ben flying through three rows of pines.
"To clarify," Tyler's voice was icy. "I'm not you. I'm the version that actually knows how to use this watch. You're just a puppet."
Tyler blurred forward, his speed vastly superior. He aimed a punch at Prime-Ben's head. Prime-Ben's body tilted instinctively—the Slaughter Protocol acting like a perfect "Observation Haki" to predict the strike.
CRACK!
But Tyler's fist was faster than the prediction. It slammed into Prime-Ben's cheek.
"AHHH!" Prime-Ben let out a high-pitched scream of agony. Why? How did I get hit? I predicted the move!
"Perfect prediction only works on the same rank," Tyler growled, raining down a barrage of critical hits. Every punch was a heavy-handed "lesson" in physics. Prime-Ben could see the attacks coming, but his un-enhanced body couldn't keep up with Tyler's Plumber-level reaction speeds.
It was a massacre. Tyler was the BOSS fight, and Prime-Ben was the level-one player.
"I'll kill you!" Prime-Ben screamed, his body trembling with pain. He condensed his fire for a final counter-attack.
Tyler didn't even flinch. Relying on his Alien Encyclopedia, he countered every move before it even left Prime-Ben's hands.
"Lord Azmuth... I failed you..." Prime-Ben whispered, falling to his knees as his fire dimmed. The original Carnitrix venture was collapsing.
"Ben... I'm sorry," Tyler said, his voice heavy with sorrow. "But I can't let this version of you exist." He raised a fist wreathed in deep-red plasma, aimed directly at the other's core.
Prime-Ben looked up, his face full of despair. But then, a cold, mechanical click echoed from his chest.
The dial on Prime-Ben's watch rotated on its own. It settled on an icon that made the air in the forest turn frigid.
The Null-Entity. Alien X.
Prime-Ben's broken face suddenly twitched into a secret, hideous smile. He just needed two more seconds. Two seconds, and he would become a God.