Chapter Text
“Get away from me, you freak!”
That was the last thing Jen ever heard from Megan.
Her best friend for the past two years. And they just had to end things off on a misunderstanding, of all things, on the last day of school before summer vacation.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Megan had a crush on Travis, a classmate of theirs, and decided that this was the day she was going to impress him—by leaping clear over a pile of mud. Or at least, that was the plan. Instead, she tripped on her feet right before she could jump and landed face-first in said mud puddle.
Jen knew she had to do something—anything—to save her best friend from the embarrassment of the disaster that had turned into. In a snap, she figured that the best way she could was to jump right next to her in said mud puddle and show everyone watching that it didn’t have to be something worth humiliating her over.
So then why…?
Why did Megan say that…?
The 10-year-old girl buried her head in her arms as she sat down next to the side of the school building, waiting for her grandfather to come pick her up. Normally, she would get on one of the school buses, but after what happened at recess today, she was glad that today would be the exception.
Even if she wouldn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her parents on account of them being too busy to do so.
It wasn’t long before the familiar RV pulled up and out came her grandfather; a jovial old man in a Hawaiian t-shirt. The one family member who seemed genuinely happy to see her. The only one who listened to her whenever she had a bad day and needed someone to talk to.
Such as today. He had stepped out of the RV, sat down next to her, and listened as she described everything that had happened earlier.
“…I’m sorry to hear all that, sweetie,” he said, patting her back. “Don’t worry. I’m sure Megan will realize that you were just trying to help. She’ll forgive you by the time you both get back in the fall. If not within the next few days.”
“Really!?” asked Jen.
“Of course. These things will pass. Trust me on this.”
As he led her to the Rust Bucket sitting there in the school pickup line, her mood began to improve. If her grandpa said so, then he must be right. And besides, there were more important things for her to focus on now, like their upcoming cross country road trip.
They’d travel across all of America, seeing the nation’s most famous landmarks—places that she had learned about at school, but never had the chance to see in person. Admittedly, she would rather stay at home watching anime and reading manga, but her parents had insisted that she needed to get out of the house for once, and she wasn’t able to convince them otherwise.
At least Grandpa Max was nice. Surely, he’d give her a break every now and again if she needed it—
“Ah…”
Jen immediately noticed a familiar redheaded boy her age sitting at the table and window seat of the RV. One who was wearing a vest and shirt combo that looked way too formal for someone going on a road trip.
The same one who gave her a dirty look and a humph before turning back to the book he was reading. Lord of the Flies, by the looks of it.
Jen turned to her grandfather, pointing at the boy in question accusingly. “What is HE doing here??”
“I know you and Glen don’t get along…” Max said, giving her a sympathetic look. “But your Uncle Frank and Aunt Natalie insisted that this would be a wonderful experience for him, and improve his chances of getting into Bancroft Academy.”
“More like, they got sick of Mr. Perfect dunking on me every chance he got,” Glen explained, finally deigning to talk to his cousin.
Jen blinked in confusion. “Who?”
“My older brother, Ken,” he explained, looking as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I suppose I must thank them. It’ll be nice to be the one doing the dunking for once. Speaking of which, are you bringing several copies of those overalls with you? I’m really curious to know.”
Jen looked down at her jean overall dress and frowned, crossing her arm as she sat down in the seat across from him and glared.
She didn’t feel like explaining that she happened to prefer wearing the same outfit over and over again if she really liked it. If anything, it was strange that everyone else insisted on changing their clothes every day. But the last thing she wanted was to give this jerk more ammunition to use against her.
She already knew how different she was from normal people. She didn’t need someone else to rub it in her face every chance he got.
Max sighed, seeing the writing on the wall. “Something tells me this is going to be a long summer.”
Meanwhile, high in the atmosphere above Earth, a fierce battle raged between two spaceships. The larger orange spacecraft shaped like a chainsaw, otherwise known as the Chimeran Hammer, was chasing the smaller blue one, but the latter had plenty of firepower on its own. It shot into the orange ship, landing a blast close to the bridge.
“Hull damage is now 20%. But we’re still operational,” reported a robot drone on board the bridge. It turned around to face its master; to a terrifying alien warlord sitting on the command chair that looked like a throne.
“No matter,” he replied, sneering at the blue ship on screen. “We’ve taken down their hyperdrive and their propulsion systems. Now prepare to board!”
His robot servant bowed. “Yes, Master Vilgax. We shall begin momentarily.”
“Excellent.”
Vilgax stood up from his throne as his beard-tentacles quivered in anticipation. “The Omnitrix shall be mine, and there is no one in the galaxy who can stop me.”
Meanwhile, in the smaller blue ship, an alien woman was panicking. She knew it was her job to transport the Omnitrix, but it was just her luck that somebody found out her transport route. And not just anyone, but the infamous Vilgax of all people.
Xylene knew this job would be dangerous when she took it. Her employer went to every effort possible to keep her assignment a secret; but unfortunately, to no avail, and now, her ship was so badly damaged that she would never be able to make it to Sector 9-R4 before Vilgax boarded her ship.
She turned to her control console and thought about what to do. Her hyperdrive system was down, and so were her engines. But there was a planet below. A planet she felt like she had been to before…
A quick run of her scanners confirmed her suspicions. This was Planet Earth! Home to the one and only Max Tennyson, whom she still missed after all this time. She wasn’t sure if he had retired or not, but she had few options at this point.
As she ran to the Omnitrix’s pod and programmed its escape coordinates, part of her wondered if maybe she could use the device herself and fight off Vilgax that way. It was a tempting thought, but the risks were far too great. She wasn’t sure if she could figure out how to use it, let alone master it, in the mere minutes—possibly seconds—she had left before Vilgax would board.
She prepared the device for launch as she made up her mind. Max had always shown himself to be far more resourceful than her, despite being just a human. He could surely make better use of the Omnitrix than she ever could, and had a history of fighting off Vilgax himself. And to help him out, she programmed the Omnitrix to not only lock onto Max Tennyson’s DNA, but automatically transform him into a Pyronite. That way, as soon as the Omnitrix landed, he could fight Vilgax right then and there.
Xylene then heard a thud, and knew her ship had just been slammed into. But then she saw her chance. At this angle, she had a clear shot at the bridge on Vilgax’s ship. She took it.
Direct hit!!
She wasn’t sure how much damage that caused to Vilgax—or if it even hit him at all—but she had a bigger problem to deal with. Her ship was now in a free fall towards the planet’s north side below.
She only had one choice—jump into the ship’s cryostasis pods and hope they were enough to help her survive the fall. Her last thoughts before the cryosleep sapped her consciousness was that she hoped that her efforts wouldn’t be in vain, and that Max would be able to stop Vilgax for her.
By the time the Rust Bucket had arrived at their campsite at Yosemite National Park, the sun was already starting to set, so everyone still had some light left to work with.
Jen and Glen were all too happy to clamber out of the RV after being cooped up in there for practically the whole day. Especially Jen, who steadfastly ignored Glen’s attempts to “dunk on her” and focused on reading a manga series she brought along with her the whole time.
Glen, for his part, got tired of her unresponsive nature and eventually relented, becoming even more bored than ever.
As for Max, he was excited to be able to provide dinner for his grandkids. Which just so happened to be…
A bowl of…mealworms??
Jen and Glen stared at the writhing mass on the picnic table that Max had apparently called food.
“…You’re kidding, right?” said Glen, looking concernedly at Max.
“What even is that, anyway?” asked Jen.
“I’m glad you asked,” said Max, looking happy. “It’s marinated mealworms! You know, they’re considered a delicacy in some countries.”
“Yeah. So I’ve heard,” said Glen. He wrinkled his nose and turned away. “…But I’ll have to pass. I’m afraid I’ve already had lunch.”
“Uh…so have I!” added Jen, surprised to see that there was something she had in common with her cousin. Although to be honest, she was at least a tiny bit curious to see what they tasted like. But she didn’t need to give Glen any more reasons to look down upon her than he already did.
But aside from that exchange, the two of them continued to refuse to speak with each other, much to Max’s dismay.
After dinner (where Max was the only one eating much of anything), he watched as Glen set his laptop on a nearby stump and began furiously typing on a journal of sorts. Meanwhile, Jen sat on a log on the other end of the campsite, grabbed a nearby stick, and started digging lines in the ground all pointing in jagged, random directions, still pouting all the same.
“Hey, uh…” Max hesitantly spoke up. “Anybody want to roast some marshmallows?”
“MARSHMALLOWS?” shouted Jen, dropping her stick and standing up in excitement at the prospect of actual food she could eat.
Glen scoffed. “Hmph. As if I would ever be that excited over a bunch of marshmallows of all things. You can let the peasant handle it, Grandpa. I’ll be over here, enjoying only the finest of Japanese baseball PC games.”
Max scratched his head, and gave Glen a stern look. “Glen, the whole point of coming on this road trip is to enjoy the great outdoors. I’m sure roughing it a little would be a good way to help you build character—”
“It’s fine, Grandpa,” said Jen, stepping forward. “You still need firewood, right? I’ll go get it myself. I am a peasant, after all.”
She gave Glen a disapproving look and walked off into the woods in a huff.
As she trudged through the leaves and roots, Jen couldn’t help but grumble over how disastrous this start to her summer vacation had been so far. Not to mention the complete and utter disaster the end of the school year turned out to be…
And even back at home, she had never been able to match up to her mother’s high standards either as of late. In grades or in looks…
Her mind then wandered over to how beautiful her mother was—and how jealous she was that her cousin Glen got to inherit Aunt Natalie’s red hair, but she didn’t even get any of her mom’s blonde hair. No, she had to get stuck with this drab brown from her dad. Even Megan had blonde hair. It just wasn’t fair.
Before she could drown in any more self-pity, a streak of light suddenly shot across the sky, startling her into looking up towards it. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be…
“A shooting star!” she exclaimed, taken aback; particularly so over how close it seemed.
She stood there, transfixed, for several seconds before she realized, wait. Didn’t she hear a story about how if she made a wish before the star disappeared, it would come true? She couldn’t remember where she heard this particular legend from—maybe it was from a manga she read a while back—and besides, there was no guarantee it was even close to being true. But she figured, hey. Her life was as bad as it could possibly be. It was worth a shot.
She clasped her hands and began to pray to the star, closing her eyes.
“Please help Glen be nicer to me, please make me prettier, please make my classmates like me, please help Megan forgive me…”
Jen cracked one eye open, and saw that the star was still in the sky. If anything, it sort of looked like it was getting closer…
“…And if you could, please help me meet a cute guy or something,” she blurted, before she suddenly shook her head, blushing furiously. “Uh, just kidding, forget that last part! Okay, that’s all!”
She then opened both of her eyes…
…And saw that the meteor had suddenly changed direction, making a beeline straight for her face.
“AAAAAAAH!!” she screamed, leaping out of the way for dear life.
The meteor crashed into the ground behind her with a mighty thud as the dirt and debris sent her flying through the air.
“Oof!” She landed on the ground, scraping her elbows and knees. “Ooowww…”
Once she made sure she was still alive, and could stand up, for that matter, she quickly turned to the meteor in a panic. “OH MY GOSH, IS THIS BECAUSE OF THAT LAST THING I WISHED FOR? I AM SO SORRY, I DIDN’T MEAN TO—”
Just then, the dust cleared away to reveal a small, round metal sphere with grooves along its upper half, prompting her to quit her panicking and take a good look at it.
“What’s that…?” she wondered out loud.
The grooves on the sphere’s top half suddenly opened to reveal what looked like a glowing watch sitting inside of it. The watch looked black, white and green, and was adorned with what looked like an X shaped pattern on its face.
“A watch…?” she said. “What’s a watch doing from outer space…?”
Completely befuddled, as well as wanting to take a closer look at it, she carefully made her way down the crater and walked up to the sphere. She leaned down to take a closer look at the glowing green alien wristwatch…
And as if it had a mind of its own, the watch jumped up and clamped itself onto Jen’s right wrist.
“AAAAAH! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!!” she screamed, waving her arm wildly in a vain attempt to try to do just that. She swore she didn’t even reach either of her hands out even remotely close to try to touch it. How did this thing attach itself to her to begin with? Was it a parasite? Was it going to suck her blood until she—?
Just then, the watch beeped, and a whole bunch of sounds emitted from it as its face lit up. The lid raised itself up by an inch, and the X shaped pattern opened up to reveal a silhouette of some kind. It looked humanoid, but with what looked like…fire on its head?
Jen didn’t even have time to process it before the watch made a sound as if it was confirming something…and then suddenly, it emitted a light so bright, it completely engulfed her vision.
She thought she could feel her entire body transforming into something different…becoming slightly taller, with less fingers, and more…fiery?
Wait…was she on fire?
It sure looked like it. Her hands were glowing with molten magma, and her entire head…was encased in an active flame!
“AAAAAH!” she screamed, desperately clambering out of the pit and running as fast as she could. “I’M ON FIRE! I’M ON FIRE! GRANDPA! HELP!!”
Meanwhile, at the campsite, the impact from the meteor that had landed in the woods bowled over Max, and he was struggling to climb back to his feet.
“What was…?” He placed a hand on his head. “Glen, did you feel that…?”
He turned to see Glen sitting perfectly in the same place on the tree trunk, furiously playing a game on his laptop while having his headphones on.
“Glen…?” Max called out, walking towards him. “I think a meteor landed in the woods where Jen was headed!”
Glen shrugged as his eyes were still glued to the laptop screen. “Eh, maybe a bear ate her.”
“Glen! Are you even listening to me!?” Max marched angrily towards his grandson. “Turn off that game and listen to me for a change! A meteor just…!”
He trailed off as his nose caught a whiff of something suspicious.
“…What’s up, Grandpa?” asked Glen, taking his headphones off.
Whatever Max was going to say was lost as he sniffed the air. “…Do you smell that?”
Glen placed his laptop to the side and stood up. “Yeah, I do. Smells like smoke. Actually…”
He pointed to the smoke he could see coming from the trees in the distance. “…Is that a fire?”
Max turned to see where his grandson was pointing. “…It is. It has to be from that meteor!”
“I’m sorry, it’s from what now…?”
It took them both a second for them to realize what the bigger problem was.
“…Jen!” they both exclaimed at the same time.
“I’ll explain along the way. Grab a fire extinguisher!” shouted Max, pulling out one of the two in his toolbox. “We’re going after her!”
For once, Glen didn’t even think twice, and quickly followed suit.
As the two of them made their way through the woods, extinguishing fires wherever they went, they used some wet washcloths that Max brought along to keep themselves from suffocating along the way. Glen was surprised at how hard it was to breathe even when they were far away from the fire’s source. He couldn’t imagine how hard Jen must be having it now.
It didn’t take them too long to find where the fire was coming from. If anything, they heard it first; a female voice screaming, “AAAAAH! GRANDPA! HELP! I’M ON FIRE! I DIDN’T MEAN TO DO IT…!”
Max bent down and squinted his eyes through the fire. “Is that…?”
Before either of them could react, a humanoid fiery creature burst out the clearing, running straight towards them, screaming her head off.
Glen was the first to react. “Grandpa, look out…!”
He jumped right in front of his grandfather and swung his fire extinguisher as if it were a baseball bat, knocking the fire monster right in the face. He then grabbed the nozzle and squeezed, spraying fire retardant all over her.
She coughed and sputtered, trying to reignite the flame on her head.
Glen stepped over her, holding the nozzle threateningly. “Stay back, you foul beast! What have you done to Jen!?”
“Glen…? GLEN, IT’S ME, JEN!!” the monster shouted, holding her arms above her head. “You have to believe me!”
Max, on the other hand, dropped his fire extinguisher in disbelief and stared at the humanoid fire creature that was barely taller than he was. “You’re a…Pyronite…”
Glen quickly turned to his grandfather. “Wait…she’s a what now…?”
Max quickly shook his head and continued addressing the creature. “Jen!? Is that you!? You’re not on fire, sweetie, you’re a Pyronite! Now tell me! How did this happen!?”
“I DON’T KNOW!” she wailed. “SOME ALIEN WATCH FROM A METEOR THAT ALMOST HIT ME JUMPED ONTO MY WRIST AND TURNED ME INTO THIS…THIS…THING!! AND NOW THE FOREST’S ON FIRE! I DIDN’T MEAN IT, I SWEAR! WHAT DO I DO!?”
“Now, just calm down, Jen,” said Max, with a serious look on his face. “You can absorb the fire all around us, no problem.”
“Wait…really?” asked Jen. “How??”
“And how exactly do you know that?” asked Glen, looking suspiciously at Max.
Max ignored him to focus on Jen. “I think all you have to do is mentally imagine all the flames here going back into your hands. See if that works.”
“Okay…I’ll give it a try,” she replied.
She stood up to her full height, and took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She then held out her hands in front of the brightest part of the blaze, envisioning as her grandfather instructed.
Much to her surprise, every single flicker of flame from it made a beeline for her molten hands, eliminating the fires from each spot and energizing her. The pain she felt when Glen sprayed fire retardant all over her started to go away.
“Yes! That’s it, Jen!” cheered Max. “Just keep doing that until the fire’s all gone!”
“And hurry,” added Glen, covering his mouth with his washcloth. “Not sure how much more smoke I can take.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she replied, already heading for the next strongest blaze.
Within minutes, Jen had absorbed all of the fire in the forest, leaving a bunch of charred, smoldering trees behind. She was worried she accidentally scorched everything, but Max assured her that since she absorbed the fires before they reached the crowns of the trees, that her fire would actually be beneficial for the forest since it cleared out all the rotting debris on the ground below.
Most importantly, it was a good thing their campsite wasn’t anywhere near the giant Sequoia trees Yosemite was famous for. Jen would never be able to forgive herself if she ended up burning down any of those multi-thousand year old majesties of nature.
Soon, the three of them returned to camp. But they didn’t need to bring any firewood anymore since they had a walking candle to help out with that.
So there they were, sitting on the logs surrounding their new campfire…toasting marshmallows over the flame emanating from Jen’s head.
“…So let me get this straight,” said Max. “You were walking through the woods when you saw a shooting star, made a wish on it, found out it was a meteor aimed right at you, dodged out of the way, and saw that there was an…alien wristwatch inside of it?”
“Yeah!” she nodded. “I only walked up to take a closer look, I really did, but then it jumped up and clamped itself down on my wrist! All by itself!”
She held out her arm as if to demonstrate, but then realized that it was still made of molten rock with magma-veins coursing through the cracks in her skin.
“Umm…”
She then glanced down and suddenly noticed what looked like a badge on her chest. Said badge was round, and shaped exactly like the initial “X” design she saw on the watch from earlier…
“This! It looked like this!” she said, pointing to the badge. “I don’t know what’s going on, but you’ve gotta believe me!!”
“Jen, I believe you,” said Max seriously, trying to get her to settle down.
Glen furrowed his brow and frowned. “...I don’t get it. You didn’t even walk that far away. How come we never even noticed a METEOR landing right next to us?”
“Speak for yourself, son. I noticed the impact. You were too busy playing that Japanese baseball game on your laptop with your headphones on,” replied Max, giving Glen a look of admonishment.
“Hey, for a game from the 80's, its graphics are surprisingly good. Can you blame me?” he replied sheepishly.
He tossed a marshmallow into Jen’s mouth with perfect accuracy, which she hungrily gulped down.
Max shook his head in disappointment before turning back to Jen. “…Anyway, you said that the watch turned you into a Pyronite automatically?”
“Yeah! I didn’t even touch it, and it just…!” She trailed off as she processed what Max just said. “…Grandpa, what’s a Pyronite? Actually, how do you even know that? I thought you were just a plumber.”
“Yeah, isn’t she just some fire monster?” added Glen.
Max narrowed his eyes on them both. “She’s not a monster. She’s an alien. A female Pyronite, to be exact. And a child, on top of all that. When you consider the fact that she also knew both our names, it wasn’t hard to figure out she was really Jen…who had somehow been forcibly transformed.”
“Well, when you put it that way, I feel dumb,” said Glen, looking downcast, before then shaking his head furiously. “Wait, no! How exactly do you know all that, anyway!?”
“…I was just about to get to that, son,” replied Max, sighing.
He then turned to his grandkids and gave them a serious look.
“…I hoped I never had to tell you kids, but…I am indeed a plumber. But not the garden-variety kind, no. We were the Plumbers; an interplanetary organization charged with keeping peace throughout every planet in the galaxy. When I was 18, I discovered an alien spacecraft during my time in the Air Force, and from there, I was recruited to be a part of the Plumbers.”
“Wait…that was during President Kennedy’s term!” exclaimed Glen as soon as he did the math in his head. “Does that mean you could have been the first man on the moon!?”
“Could have been, yes,” said Max, with a sad smile. “But the Plumbers aren’t officially recognized on Earth. The public doesn’t know we exist. So while I am the first human to set foot in places far, far beyond the moon…it’s off the record. I had to give it up to Neil Armstrong.”
“Ooh…so you guys were kind of like the Men in Black. Got it,” concluded Glen, before winking. “Hope you don’t have to mind-wipe us.”
“That’s so sad…” said Jen. “And you had to keep this secret from your family this whole time…?”
“Not everyone,” he admitted. “For one, your grandmother Verdona was aware. But to our sons—that is to say, your fathers—and everyone else in our family…we couldn’t breathe a word. It was all for the sake of avoiding a mass panic. At least, until the world is ready to know. So I’m afraid…”
He turned to Jen.
“…We’re going to have to figure out what to do about you.”
She stumbled to her feet. “What do you mean, figure out what to do about me!? Am I going to be stuck like this forever!? Are you going to send me to, like, Area 51 or something!? It’s not fair!”
By this point, the flame on her head was starting to flare up dangerously close to the tree around them. Max got up too, trying to defuse the situation.
“Jen, calm down…! If you go into a panic, you could start another forest fire!”
But she wasn’t listening. “It’s not fair! I just wanted to spend the summer with you, Grandpa! Instead, I’m now an ACTUAL freak, and I’ll be locked up for the rest of my life! I can’t do this! I don’t WANT to do this! I—!”
Right then, a beeping noise emanated from the symbol on her chest, causing her to stop talking and look down at it. She saw that it was flashing red every time it beeped, and after a few more times…
A bright red light emitted from her body, causing the three of them to shield their eyes. When the light cleared away, and they could open their eyes safely, they saw…
Jen as a human again, but this time with a large alien watch attached to her right wrist. Its faceplate even looked like the same pattern on her Pyronite form’s chest, just like she said.
“I’m back…!” she exclaimed, touching her face to make sure she was all in one place. “I’m me again!”
“Jen!”
Max hugged her, glad to see his granddaughter was all right.
Glen, on the other hand, couldn’t help but analyze the state of Jen’s outfit. Or rather, how unaffected it was. As soon as Max let Jen go, he couldn’t help but comment, “Huh. That watch is amazing. I’m surprised your clothes didn’t get burned.”
“Huh, you’re right…” She looked at her green overall dress, and sure enough, it was still intact, much to her relief. “Guess I got lucky~.”
Max then took a hold of her right arm. “May I take a closer look at this, Jen?”
“Oh! Of course, Grandpa,” she replied.
“Let me guess,” said Glen. “You dealt with a whole lot of alien tech during your time with the Men in Bla—err, I mean, the Plumbers, right?”
“I have,” he replied. “Which is why I’d like to see if I can figure this thing out.”
High above the clouds of Planet Earth, the orange and brown chainsaw-looking ship floated in orbit. Repair drones scuttled all over the hull, trying to fix the damage that it had sustained during that previous battle with the smaller blue ship.
At the bridge, instead of sitting at his throne like before, Vilgax was now strapped inside a life support tank, with wires connected all around his mangled body. He struggled to speak through a breathing apparatus attached to his mouth.
“It can’t be…” he rasped. “That battle nearly cost me my life…and you say the Omnitrix is not there…?”
“Sensors indicate that the Omnitrix was jettisoned to the planet below right before we boarded it,” replied one of his drones.
“Has it been activated…?” Vilgax asked.
“Yes, sir. Transferring coordinates now.”
Within moments, the screen brought up an image of the continent of North America.
“Excellent…” said Vilgax, before addressing a large red war robot that stood at his command to the left of him. “Lock onto those coordinates. Bring the Omnitrix back to me. And as for the life form it’s attached to…”
He smiled wickedly as best as he could under his current circumstances. “…Eliminate them.”
“…I see,” said Max as he twisted the dial on the mysterious watch on Jen’s wrist, observing how the face changed silhouettes every time he turned it.
“So did you figure out how it works?” asked Jen anxiously.
“More or less, I think,” he replied. “From what I can tell, you press this to make the dial pop up…”
He gestured to the small green button on the side of the dial. “…then turn it to select any one of these ten forms. I see a Pyronite, as expected, but I also see a Petrosapien, a Tetramand, and…”
He narrowed his eyes at a certain silhouette, and frowned. “Is that a Sludge Puppy…?”
“Sludge Puppy…?” Glen raised an eyebrow. “Why does that sound different from the rest?”
“Erm…” Max’s eyes widened, and then darted to the side. “I—I meant a Lenopan. Yeah. I just got my aliens mixed up, that’s all.”
Seemingly accepting that explanation, Glen nodded before moving onto his next question. “So what do you do to make her transform into, well…any one of those things…?”
“That’s what I’m not sure,” replied Max. “Jen, you said it transformed you automatically the moment it clamped onto your wrist, right?”
“Yeah, and so far, we haven’t figured out how to get it off,” she replied, before then suddenly shouting and throwing up her arms. “Which is what I want to know! At this rate, I’ll NEVER be friends with Megan again!!”
Max placed a hand on her shoulder to try to get her to calm down. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. I’ll figure this out, all right? We’ll get this off of you, no problem.”
“Really…?” she asked.
“Really,” replied Max. “As soon as I can, anyway. This tech looks as high as Level 20, so this could take some time. Just hang tight, okay, sweetie? And don’t touch it.”
“…All right,” said Jen as her grandfather pressed one of the green buttons to the side to make the dial go back down.
“Level 20, huh?” remarked Glen. “What level is Earth?”
“Two,” said Max. “So as you can see, it’s beyond anything our planet could hope to handle in our lifetime. I’ll have to call in some help from my Plumber colleagues from above. But in the meantime…”
He turned back to Jen and Glen. “You two, go rest in the Rust Bucket. I’ll go to the crash site and look for clues as to how this watch got here.”
They both nodded.
Shortly after Max went off into the woods, with flashlight in hand, Glen turned to Jen, looking at her in awe.
“I can’t believe it…you get to turn into TEN DIFFERENT ALIEN HEROES WITH SUPERPOWERS!” he exclaimed as his eyes glistened in excitement.
Jen gave him a confused, glum look. “Heroes? Superpowers? Grandpa just said these were aliens. How did you get any of that?”
“Aw, come on!” Glen threw up his arms. “You can’t say you aren’t a little bit curious about what they could do! I mean, your Pyronite form alone can control fire! Think of how many people you could help! THINK OF HOW COOL IT WOULD BE TO FIGHT AS THEM WHENEVER YOU WANT!!”
“…I wish I could…” she said, turning away sadly. “…But the last time I tried helping someone…well…”
She then stepped into the van, but turned back to him one last time, with a look of venom in her eyes. “...She called me a freak.”
Glen’s mouth opened in surprise, but no sound came out of it as his brain tried to process what Jen just said. He could only watch as his cousin disappeared inside, presumably to flop down on the bed and wait for their grandfather to come back with any sort of news on how to get her out of the horrible nightmare she found herself in.
Max made his way to the crash site Jen described, which wasn’t too hard to find, despite all the ashes and burnt foliage surrounding it. He aimed his flashlight at the crater; specifically over the open container in the center.
“That has to be it…” he muttered.
Before he could even take another step towards the crater, however, he suddenly noticed a streak of light falling from the sky. A streak of light…
That was rapidly making its way towards him!
The good news was, the object in question landed far enough away so that he didn’t have to dodge the way Jen did. The bad news was, he had a fairly rough landing…
And when he clambered up to finally see what it was, he saw that it was a giant robot with red armor. Its limbs were tucked in.
But it wasn’t long before the robot extended its arms and its three legs, pushing itself upright. It then used its eyes to scan the crash site of the watch that Max had intended to investigate…
And then it promptly shot a laser from one of its hands, blowing up the pod that the watch came in.
Max gasped. Wherever this giant robot came from, it was clear it didn’t want him finding out any information about the mysterious watch. Could it have come from its creator? Or maybe someone else…?
He didn’t have the chance to think it over, though, as the robot then turned its head in the direction of the campsite. It ran its scanners again…
And it instantly started tearing its way through the burnt-up trees on its three legs, making a beeline for it. As it did so, it knocked Max away, almost trampling him in the process.
“It can’t be…” Max gasped, trying his best to climb back upright. “If it’s here for that watch, that means…!”
Jen laid on her side on the bottom bunk at the back of the RV as she dejectedly tried to pull the watch off her wrist. She knew it would most likely be futile—after all, her grandfather already tried it earlier when he was taking a look at how it worked. But she figured it was still worth the effort. It was better than giving up and doing nothing.
Her trance was interrupted when she heard her cousin shout, “JEN! GET OUT HERE NOW!!” in a desperate tone she had never heard him use before.
Not sure what was going on, she quickly sprang into action, leaping out of bed and running out the door to Glen just outside.
“Look at that!” He gestured to her and pointed towards somewhere in the sky in the direction she found the watch.
She turned to see what he was pointing at…and she gasped, falling on her rear in shock.
A giant robot in crimson armor towered over the treeline…and was quickly heading right their way.
“Get up!” shouted Glen, helping her up. “Run! RUN!!”
Jen didn’t have to be told twice.
The two of them made a break for it, running into the woods in the opposite direction, hoping that they’d be able to lose it in the foliage around them.
“What’s going on!?” shouted Jen, “Is that a giant robot!? Don’t tell me it’s after us…!”
“I don’t know…but if I’d guess, it’s after your watch! I hope I’m wrong, but if I’m not…!”
Suddenly, a laser blast cut in front of them, taking down the tree in its place. The tree started to fall…
Right over Jen!
“Look out!”
Glen pushed Jen out of the way just in time.
But by the time Jen recovered enough to realize what just happened, she saw that Glen’s leg was now stuck under the tree trunk instead, close to the thinnest part. The good news was that it looked like he didn’t have any of his bones broken. The bad news, though…
“My foot’s stuck…I can’t get out!” he exclaimed, straining as best as he could against the tree trunk in question.
“Hold on, I’ll help you!” said Jen, grabbing a hold of the top of the trunk near Glen’s leg. She strained as hard as she could, but couldn’t make the tree budge no matter what she tried. And it was only a matter of time before…
The rest of the trees fell behind them, and Jen turned around to see the giant robot having cornered them both. It leaned down to aim its eye scanners at Jen—and the watch on her right arm.
“Turn into an alien, Jen!” roared Glen, desperate. “Any of them! Hurry!!”
As much as Jen didn’t want to, it was clear she didn’t have a choice. Otherwise, they would both die horribly. She tried to remember how Max activated the watch, and pressed one of the buttons, causing its face to pop up.
The robot seemed to have found what it was looking for, as it leaned back up, and reached one of its arms out to aim a laser at Jen herself.
Jen stared at the silhouette on the screen—the one with four slim tentacles, the one that her grandfather called both a “Sludge Puppy” as well as a Lenopan. She had no idea how to actually activate it—after all, her first transformation was completely automatic—but if she didn’t do something fast, she would be vaporized to smithereens. Not only her, but Glen along with her.
Her summer vacation had just begun. She couldn’t die here and now. So while she had no idea whether or not it would work, it was the only thing she could do.
She slammed the dial as hard as she could.
That familiar sensation returned again as green light filled her vision, except that instead of transforming into a being with a fiery body, she was instead turning entirely into mud and sludge. Although she retained her limbs, her body became gooey and amorphous, and she gained two sets of feeler-like tentacles around her head.
By the time the light cleared, and she realized what was happening, she noticed that there was a dry, burnt crisp in the center of her body. But the rest of her was still viscous, gooey liquid—and it barely hurt at all, for that matter.
“I can’t believe it…” gasped Glen. “You stopped that laser from vaporizing us both!”
She turned around to face him and shouted, “Glen!”, not registering how her voice sounded like it was passing through a low, warbly filter. Instead, she moved to get the tree off of him, and as if by instinct, she knew exactly what to do.
She hardened her left hand into a long, flat wedge, and slid it underneath the tree trunk, using all her strength to lift it up. As for her right hand, she formed a handle set to pull Glen out by his collar.
“I’m out…!” he gasped before clambering to his feet. As much as he wanted to comment on Jen’s now muddy appearance, he knew there were more important matters, such as the fact that the robot was now charging up to launch another laser blast at Jen.
“Look out!” he exclaimed. “It’s going to blast you!”
She quickly formed a shield with her body and hardened up the section in front of the laser—just in time to take the blast.
“Oww…” She winced as the now charred up section of skin fell off, but she was glad to know that her tanking that previous blast wasn’t a fluke.
Still, she knew she couldn’t keep this up forever. She had to figure out how to disable the blasters. If only there was some way she could cut off the robot’s arms…
Wait a minute…
Right before the robot could aim another blast at her, she morphed both of her arms into the largest, sharpest buzz saws she could muster. She swung at the robot’s thinnest looking joints, and one by one, sawed them both clean off. They dropped to the ground and exploded, forcing Jen to shield Glen from the blast.
“Yeah! Go Jen!” he cheered. “Can you make, like, a hammer!?”
“Like this…?” she asked, forming both of her arms into one giant looking hammer.
“YEEEAAAH!” Glen fistpumped the air.
Jen was all too happy to oblige as she slid along the trunk of one of the trees that were still upright, allowing her a perfect angle to leap onto the robot from. She hissed at the robot menacingly as her head tentacles undulated, and Glen thought he could hear some cricket noises coming from her body everywhere.
“RRRRAAAAAAGH!!”
She roared as she leapt from the tree, bringing the hammer down on its head.
With that, she not only crushed the robot’s cranium, but split its entire body clean down the middle. It broke into two pieces, falling down on either side.
At long last, the two of them could relax, now that the killer robot had finally been destroyed. For her part, Jen reverted her limbs back to sludge, and started melting into the ground, as if she was deflating.
“Jen!”
Much to her surprise, however, Glen had already run up and started hugging her before she had completely deflated. Feeling awkward, Jen instinctively changed her body shape into that of a humanoid one, with a build that was basically identical to her original human form; slightly shorter than that of Glen himself.
“Glen…!” she gasped. “Are you okay…?”
“Yeah! Thanks!”
He hugged her once more before finally letting her go and getting a good look at her.
She had sludgy, purple skin with pink stripes lining through her body, as well as those two pairs of feelers; one over her eyes, the other next to them. Her head shape was so long that the back of it seemed to approximate the long hair she originally had, if not even longer. And of course, her striking, pink eyes were hard to miss. And then of course, there was that symbol of the watch resting squarely in the middle of her chest, just like with her Pyronite form.
She noticed him staring, and looked down at the ground sadly, knowing he was about to make a nice comment on how ugly she was. “…I…”
“That…was…AWESOME!!” he shouted. “I can’t believe it! You fought a giant robot! AND WON!!”
“Huh…?”
Jen was taken aback. Glen, her jerk of a cousin, was…complimenting her??
“I’m serious! You saved our lives! You were like…a superhero, just now!” he gushed. “How does it feel, by the way? To be a mud…sludge…Lenopan…whatever Grandpa called you earlier?”
Jen still wasn’t sure what to make of it all, but one thing was for sure…it didn’t feel bad. Being praised like this, for once.
After Jen explained how it felt to be a Lenopan the best she could, the two of them headed back to the RV, where they found that Max managed to crawl his way back from the original impact site. As Glen helped him up, Max explained to them about his encounter with the robot, and how worried he was about the two of them.
Glen explained how Jen turned into a giant sludge alien and saved them both from the robot, as well as how awesome she looked doing it. But there was still the matter of her still being stuck in her current form for a while now.
“It’s fine,” she said. “I’ll sleep out here if I don’t turn back soon. I know it’ll be a pain to clean all that mud out of the RV. Actually, Glen, I’m surprised you aren’t even more upset about me getting mud all over your fancy vest.”
He shrugged. “It’s washable. Besides, I brought several changes of clothes. We are on a camping trip, after all.”
It was at this point, however, that Jen noticed that Max was looking at her suspiciously.
She turned to him and asked, “...Grandpa? Is something wrong…?”
“Huh?”
The old man seemed to snap out of a trance as he blinked and rubbed his eyes. “Oh, nothing! Nothing’s wrong, sweetie. Just…surprised, that’s all. That the second alien you’ve turned into was a Sludge Pup—er, I mean, a Lenopan.”
By this point, even Glen was starting to pick up that Max was acting strange. “...Are you sure about that? It almost sounds like you’re not supposed to call this thing a Sludge Puppy. Grandpa, did you have a bad experience with—?”
“Just a slip of the tongue, son,” Max cut him off, trying his best to look good-natured. “Like I said, I’ve met a lot of aliens as a Plumber. Some of them start to blend together, that’s all.”
Just then, Jen’s stomach started to growl, distracting everyone.
“Oh man, I just remembered!” She slapped her forehead. “I haven’t eaten anything all evening!”
Max blinked. “What about those marshmallows from earlier—?”
“I’M HUNGRY AGAIN, OKAY,” she interrupted. “Speaking of which, do you still have any of those marinated mealworms?”
Max’s face suddenly lit up. “Wait right here. I’ll be out in a flash.”
As soon as Max came back and placed the bowl of writhing worms on the picnic table, Jen scarfed the entire bowl of worms down like a starved vulture.
“Mmm…tastes like chicken!” she commented between mouthfuls of worms. She wasn’t sure why they appeared appetizing to her in this form to begin with, but she wasn’t going to complain.
“Glad to see someone finally enjoys my cooking!” said Max.
As for Glen, he did his best not to barf at the sight.
Instead, he sat on the logs nearby and contented himself with eating from the rest of the bag of marshmallows. After he had cleaned the mud off his clothes, of course.
“So Jen…” began Max as his granddaughter finished her bowl. “…I promised you I would find a way to remove that watch from your wrist. But like I said…it could take some time. I hope you can bear with me until I do.”
Jen thought for a moment, thinking back over her battle against the robot from earlier, and how amazing she felt now as a Lenopan. In a weird way, it was almost as though this form was meant for her all along.
“It’s fine, Grandpa.” She smiled, folding her arms on the table. “…I don’t think this’ll be so bad.”
She might have been stuck with this strange device for now, but if it meant Glen would finally be nicer to her for a change…maybe it was worth it.
Meanwhile, far away, in a spaceship floating around an unknown sector of space…
“Gluto. Come take a look at this.”
A heavily armored bounty hunter gestured for the pink, gelatinous blob that was his pilot to wheel closer to examine a job posting he had found on the Extranet.
The pink blob chirped affirmatively in his own language, doing just that.
Gluto settled next to his employer and best friend, taking a look at the console screen in question. His three eyes then widened, and he chirped in surprise.
“I know…” replied the hunter. “We can’t pass this up.”
Tetrax Shard had been searching around for any information regarding the warlord Vilgax, as well as powerful weapons the man could potentially be after. And according to this announcement…
Vilgax had claimed that the Omnitrix had landed on a relatively unknown, faraway planet called Earth. But for some reason, he was hiring bounty hunters to retrieve it for him.
Tetrax frowned. If Vilgax was so powerful—strong enough to personally slaughter all of their comrades over the course of many encounters—why was he hiring other people to retrieve a superweapon for him?
The armored crystal man could only think of three reasons as to why. The first—and most obvious—was that this was a trap set up for people like him who were trying to stop him. The next was that the Omnitrix had landed on the wrist of a being too dangerous for even Vilgax to fight.
And the last…would be if, for whatever reason, Vilgax was in no shape to retrieve it himself. But that would only be possible if he were injured while trying to do so. And if whoever was responsible for transporting the Omnitrix was smart, they’d at least fight him with everything they had.
Trap or not, however, there was no way Tetrax would let this go.
He and his former comrades had heard rumors of the Omnitrix while it was being created, and did their best to find out as much as they could about it. After all…
Gluto then gave the crystal man a sympathetic look, making a sad sound, as if he could tell what he was thinking.
“…I know, Gluto,” he replied somberly. “…I miss them too.”
A silent agreement passed between them both as they knew they had to accept this job, regardless of the risks. They had all sacrificed so much in their fight against Vilgax…and now, out of their original group of ten, they were the only two left.
For their sake, and to ensure that their friends’ lost lives wouldn’t be in vain…they knew they had to keep the Omnitrix out of Vilgax’s claws at all costs.