Trixie stared across the table with an expression that was somewhere between disgust and curiosity.
For some reason or another, Ben was pressing his face against the Rust Bucket window, contorting his features into a rather odd face. The green-haired girl also observed the boy in the car in the next lane over make equally disturbed faces at Ben. Trixie felt that she should have intervened at some point, but the strangeness of this human ritual was very unsettling for her. So instead she turned to Gwen, who was fiddling with her laptop on the couch.
"Is this normal human interaction, Gwendolyn?" asked Trixie. "It is rather…what is the word…bizarre."
"That's just stupid boys being stupid," said Gwen without looking up from her computer. "I would tell you your face would freeze like that, Ben, but in your case, it can only be an improvement."
The boy in the other car had turned his back on Ben, noticeably eating a sandwich much faster than recommended. When devoured the whole thing and faced Ben again, he opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue, the contents of his lunch now a visible mushy mess; Trixie slapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from hurling.
"Oh man, the seafood special," groaned Ben before smirking. "Time to pull out the secret weapon."
Ben held up a finger telling the boy to wait a moment before he disappeared under the window. There was a bright green flash and suddenly Rath jumped up, pressing his face against the window with his tongue smudging against the glass. The boy stared at the Appoplexian, stunned beyond words, then screamed for his father to hear, who turned his head to see what had gotten his son so excited. One look at the gigantic tiger beast and the father slammed his foot on the gas pedal, taking off down the road with the dust kicking in his wake.
Rath fell backwards on the floor holding his gut and kicking his feet in the air while he laughed his head off. Gwen finally looked up from her laptop and shook her head in disapproval.
"There is such a thing as taking a joke too far, you know," said Gwen.
"Let me tell you something, Gwendolyn Tennyson!" Rath yelled while still laughing. "There's no such thing as taking a joke too far! Funny is funny!"
"Ben, better get up here," Max called from the driver's seat. Without warning, Max hits the breaks and sent Rath sliding up to the front, slamming is head on the console. "Oh, good, you're all ready to go. We got trouble ahead."
Just further ahead, the road was blocked off by a propane truck that had smashed headfirst into a cargo truck with the driver of the propane truck stuck inside his vehicle; the door seemed to have been smashed inward, jamming it in place. And to make matters worse, a fire seemed to have ignited upon impact as was creeping its way to the fuel tank.
"If that propane he's hauling catches fire," said Max, "then that truck will become a rocket to the moon."
Rath immediately ran back and kicked the door open, which was really unnecessary since it was already unlocked and nearly took the door off its hinges.
He ran over to the crash site, ignoring all the screams and gasps from the pedestrians that had gotten out of their cars, and stopped at the edge of the fire. The Appoplexian took a few steps closer to the wreckage, but was balked when the flames flared up.
At the same time, Max was trying to direct the panicking drivers away from blast zone.
"Come on, folks!" Max shouted over the confusion. "Give the…tiger guy a chance to work."
"Let me tell you something me!" yelled Rath, raising his arms protectively as the flames flared again. "These fires are way too intense! Rath is really wishing he was Heatblast right now!"
"Move," Trixie commanded as she appeared next to Rath. "Accessing Polar Manzardill Sequence."
Trixie's black and green hair melted into a shade of icy-blue as black stripes molded around her eyes. The human Omnitrix took a deep breath and exhaled a crystalized mist that washed over the roaring flames like a rolling tide. The temperature rapidly dropped and the flames were snuffed out by the thick layer of ice that covered the road and the truck.
Once the fire was dead, Rath walked over and grabbed the truck door, bending the metal with his fingers, and tore it clean off. After throwing the trashed door away, the Appoplexian reached inside, dragged the trucker out of his vehicle by the back of his shirt, walked back to the crowd circling the site, and dropped him in the middle of the road.
"Let me tell you something Mr. Truck Driver!" Rath screamed. "Rath just saved your life because Rath is awesome like that! RECOGNIZE!"
"Uh…okay," said the truck driver awkwardly.
"Ahh, that's the monster that ate that kid!" The seafood special boy just happened to be in the crowd, pointing at Rath.
"Oh yeah, let me tell you something, little boy!" yelled Rath. "Rath completely lost track of time and now has to run away without any excuse so Rath doesn't have to explain - !"
A puff of crystalized mist blew in Rath's face, sealing his mouth with ice.
"Why don't we keep conversations to a minimum from now on," said Trixie smugly.
The Tennysons were soon back on the road, still driving through the desert lands of Kansas. After saving old people from being eaten in Nowhere and escaping mechanical bounty hunters in Slattersville, Max thought it would be nice if they made a relaxing pit stop at one of his favorite towns. Though he was eager to get there, he was very mute on the details of this supposed great town, only saying he wanted to keep it a surprise. So as they kept driving, the kids looked out the windows and stared at the passing sign that only made them more curious.
"You'll have a ball with it, next exit," said Gwen aloud.
"C'mon, grandpa," Ben begged. "At least give us a hint of what 'it' is."
"Uh-uh, no hint," said Max excitedly. "I've been planning this stop all summer."
The pattern continued for another twenty minutes until Max finally stopped the Rust Bucket at their destination. The old man was practically buzzing with excitement as he got up from the driver's seat, walked over to the door, and turned to the children that gathered around him.
"Now, I want all of you to close your eyes," said Max. The children complied and closed their eyes as they heard Max opening the door. Together Ben, Gwen, and Trixie stepped out of the Rust Bucket. "Okay, open 'em up!"
Their eyes flew open – Gwen looked curious, Ben looked excited, and Trixie looked nonplussed. But in exactly two seconds, their expression all transformed into looks of disappointment as they stared up at the sign that said: "Ta-da! Welcome to Sparksville!"
Ben, Gwen, and Trixie shared a look with one another, almost afraid to say anything that would hurt their grandfather's feelings. Just one look down the street and they could already tell that it was probably going to be the worst stop on their entire summer, even counting all of the aliens and cryptids that had to endure since the start.
Every building in the small, rural town was topped with some kind of oversized prop from a gigantic fish bowl, to a bottle of ketchup, to an oversized hotdog, to a glass of toothpicks, and even some kind of horned animal. While the Tennyson children grimaced, Max looked around with joy and wonderment like a kid visiting Disneyland for the first time.
"Is this place great or what?" asked Max excitedly.
"Um…it is in my semi-professional opinion that I must say…or what," said Trixie bluntly; she was never one for filtering herself.
"Come on," said Max, still grinning from ear-to-ear. "What's more exciting than the world's biggest fishbowl?"
"Well, I was particularly favorable of the giant Krakken," answered Trixie. "At least they had good food there."
"You ate a bucket of live worms," Gwen pointed out.
"What's your point?" asked Trixie.
A man in a well-dressed western suit but with a permanently blank face walked up to the Tennysons, speaking in a monotonous voice not too dissimilar to when they first met Trixie, but this one sounded like it was well-worn from years of boredom.
"As the mayor of Sparksville, I welcome you, O' seekers of wonder."
"….I know you guys are probably excited to see 'it'," Max broke the awkward moment and handed the children three tickets. "So I'll go check us in at the motel."
And with that, he left the children to their own devices. Not knowing what to do with themselves, Ben and the girls decided to check out the exhibits, though each of them were mentally wishing for an alien attack of something to make this day a little more exciting – Trixie had a very colorful image involving a harem of Twi'leks.
They decided that their first stop would be at a run-down looked building only covered by a white sheet with a handmade sign that said 'Jackalope' out front with no other reason than it was the closest one. Ben rang the bell on the rickety ticket booth when the mayor suddenly showed up wearing a staff hat.
"Tickets please," said the Mayor monotonously.
"I thought you were the mayor," said Ben, raising his brow though still handing over the tickets.
"He who wears the crown is burdened with many hats, son," said the mayor, ripping the tickets and letting them through the turnstile. "Mind the signs."
What happened for the next hour could only be described as a montage of many moments inside the building filled with boredom and some small sparks of funny:
Ben pretended to fall asleep next to the jackalope while Gwen cringed and Trixie looked it over like she was trying to discern if it was real or not. Ben and Gwen stared with bored expressions through an American Gothic cut out while Trixie walked in front of them in the middle of the shot. They caught a worker at the planetarium replacing the "sun" with an oversized lightbulb, which Ben cracks a joke that makes Gwen snort behind her hand. Ben and Gwen lean back pretending to look up at the giant house of cards while Trixie was making a copy of smaller cards on the ground. And when they stopped off for hotdogs for lunch, they somehow got involved in a food fight that ended with them covered in a mixture of ketchup, mustard, onions, and relish. They stopped off at the gift shop where Ben bought Jackalope horns, Gwen got some googly eye glasses, and Trixie found a shirt that said "I went to Sparksville and all I got was this lousy t-shirt". Ben and Gwen puffed out their cheeks in front of a giant fish bowl while Trixie poked them each.
And now, after a long day of traipsing through Sparksville and seeing everything it had to offer, the children decided to end their day by seeing "it". The sign had led them to an old, rickety barn near the outskirts of the town, and unsurprisingly, the mayor just happened to be there.
"Through these doors lies the weirdest, wildest thing to ever find its way to Sparksville," said the Mayor in his usual monotone as the doors behind him creaked ominously.
"Please tell me this is 'it'," Ben complained as the trio walked inside, past the multiple luminescent signs. Ben turned his head and read one: "Do not touch it."
"Do not photograph it," Gwen read another sign.
"Do not use batteries or electrical equipment anywhere near it," Trixie read the last overhead warning sign.
Ben and the girls looked skeptical; this was a lot of paranoia for something that they never seen before, especially the part about no photography – taking pictures was all that this…tourist trap was good for. They reached the other end of the barn and found a giant wall with flashing light (completely contradicting the signs) and a bold label that said: THIS IS IT. The wall was raised by some unseen mechanism and revealed…a giant rubber band ball.
"This is it?" Ben complained.
"It's a big ball of rubber bands," said Gwen blandly to the mayor walking up behind them.
"And who knows what secrets lie within?" said the mayor in what could only be described as a poor attempt to be mysterious.
"I'm guessing more rubber bands," said Trixie sarcastically.
"Stay for as long as you like," said the mayor monotonously, not even noticing Trixie's obvious barb. "Mind the signs."
And with that, the mayor left them with the majestic wonder that was the rubber band ball (again, that was sarcasm).
"Look at this place!" Ben complained when the mayor was out of earshot. "These guys are full of 'it'! We've been punked!"
"I have no idea what that expression means, but I can't help agreeing," said Trixie, crossing her arms in a huff.
"It is pretty lame," Gwen agreed. "I can't believe grandpa was so excited about this place." But despite their complaining, Ben suddenly had a mischievous grin on his face as he started walking around the rubber band ball. "Uh-oh, I know that look, Ben. What are you thinking?"
Instead of vocalizing his plans, the young Tennyson boy decided it would be better to show them. He walked around the rubber band ball until he was out of sight, the girls heard a familiar ring of the Omnitrix being activated, and flash of green light filled the barn. A couple seconds later, the giant rubber band ball was lifted off the ground by Arctiguana with both hands over his head. The Polar Manzardill stretched his long lips in a wide grin, white puffing of cold breath escaping his mouth.
"One good prank deserves another," said Arctiguana.
"…For once, I agree with you," said Gwen after a moment of thought.
"And somehow it falls upon me to be the voice of reason," said Trixie aloud. "You two, we should really stop this before someone – mainly us – gets hurt."
"Got something special in mind?" Gwen asked Ben, completely ignoring the third party.
"Should I use my new found powers of invisibility for good or for evil?" Trixie spoke to herself sarcastically.
"Hmm, I was thinking something along the lines of…," said Arctiguana, tossing the rubber band ball between one hand to the other, "the world's largest snowball and then throwing it at the mayor's office."
"Okay, you two have had enough fun with this," said Trixie over Gwen and Arctiguana's amused laughter while the Polar Manzardill continued to toss the rubber band ball in the air. "Benjamin, I am being serious. Put that down now before you drop it."
"Not a chance," said Arctiguana arrogantly, raising the elastic ball higher in a single paw while putting the other behind his shell. "I could lift this thing with one hand tied behind my – "
Unfortunately, just as Trixie predicted, the Polar Manzadill lost balance in his right hand and dropped the rubber band ball on the ground. Trixie managed to push herself and Gwen out of the way before the rubber band ball bounced and smashed through the ceiling. The trio gaped at the hole in the roof and swiftly dashed outside.
They spotted the rubber band ball as it smashed a random hot dog cart and bounced across the street into the world largest stuffed llama. The rubber ball bounced off the exhibit and was flung back towards the Tennysons – Gwen and Trixie once again dived to the ground while Arctiguana instinctively breathed a barrier of ice to deflect the ball in some other direction (not his smartest move, Ben would admit). The giant rubber band ball finally came to a stop when it smashed through the world's largest house of cards, getting the comedically large card's corner's stuck under the rubber bands.
Gwen, Trixie, and Arctiguana approached the wreckage with similar horrified expressions until Trixie spun around and slapped Arctiguana across the face.
"Ow!" whined Arctiguana. "You're still gonna do that?"
"Of course I'm still gonna do that!" Trixie shrilled. "I told you we should have left it alone! Now we're gonna be criminals! I haven't even had my first tattoo yet!"
"Don't get your panties in a twist," said Arctiguana calmly. "I'll just put everything back to the way it was. No problem."
And as luck would have it, the Omnitrix chose now to power down and turned Ben back into his human form. Gwen and Trixie gapped at Ben, who leaned against the rubber band ball with a grimace.
"Okay, maybe a little problem," he said.
What none of them noticed was that while Ben was leaning up against the rubber band ball, two things were happening with the Omnitrix:
The first thing was that a small discharge of the Omnitrix's red electrical energy arched off the alien tech and coursed through the surface of the rubber band ball. While at the same time, a small surge of yellow electricity bounced off the rubber band ball and went into the Omnitrix. The shapeshifting device suddenly went from red to yellow – a color that Ben had never seen the Omnitrix take before. The young boy looked at the watch curiously and was about to ask Trixie what it was about when Gwen's panicked rant cut him off.
"What are we going to tell grandpa?" Gwen squeaked as they walked back to the motel just down the street from the destruction.
"Nothing," Ben answered immediately. "Just play dumb."
"That's easy for you to say, Benjamin," Trixie interjected. "You're already mentally insufficient by comparison to us."
Ben had no idea what she just said, but he was pretty sure it was an insult.
They found the room they were staying in after asking the front desk and ended up stopping at a door that was strangely sideways. Gwen hesitantly turned the knob and let gravity open the door for her. The three children looked around their room, wondering why anyone would think of a motel room that was completely sideways – how were they even supposed to get in the beds or reach the bathroom? Trixie shuddered to think of what the toilet was like here and considered spending the night in the Rust Bucket. And in the middle of the room was Max, looking just as chipper as when they left him.
"Hey, there you are," said Max gleefully. "Isn't this place a riot?"
"Why? What'd you see? We don't know anything about it!" yelped Gwen quickly. Trixie face-palmed; figures Gwen would be the first to crack.
"She means it's great, grandpa," Ben interrupted, jabbing his cousin in the rib and putting on the best smile he could muster. "Can't wait to check out the bathroom."
"Oh sweet Galvan Prime, no," Trixie shuddered.
But while the Tennysons tried to get settled in their rooms (and figure out how it worked), something strange was occurring back at the rubber band ball.
The electric current that had jumped off the Omnitrix was freely flowing around the elastic ball, growin larger and wilder, until it shot into the air. It climbed the nearest powerline, looped around the wires down to the other end of the street, and circled around the giant jackelope, and punched a hole through Sparksville's welcome sign. The electric bolt suddenly stopped in the air after changing the sign to "We Come to Sparksville" and revealed it true form.
The creature was short and had a mostly black body that resembled a battery with a yellow lightning bolt-shaped marking on its chest and back, a pair of plus and minus signs, and a pair of bolts on its arms. The energetic creature expelled large amounts of electricity from its eyes and head as it laughed in amusement of its personal destructive force.
Ben and Gwen managed to somehow figure out how to fall asleep in the sideways motel beds, but the whole thing drove Trixie crazy and she decided to sleep on the floor…wall…whatever. They all managed to get a semi-good sleep during the night until morning came around and Grandpa Max's voice slipped in through the open door, just loud enough to rile Ben and the girls out of their sleep.
"What the heck happened here?"
Ben and Gwen literally fell out of bed, which would have amused Trixie if she didn't think they were in trouble.
"Ah, he knows everything!" squeaked Gwen. "We have to come clean, tell grandpa everything!"
"Sometimes it hard to believe you're really a kid," said Ben, rolling his eyes. "Never admit anything until you absolutely have to. Got it?"
"Benjamin! Gwendolyn! Omnitrix! Get out here!" Max called them together, sounding very serious.
"Please tell me he was just talking about the watch," Trixie pleaded in a small voice.
Ultimately, they reluctantly got up and walked out through the sideways door ready to take their punishment. Only when they were outside, they were in complete disbelief when they saw what had happened to the tourist trap known as Sparksville overnight.
It was way worse than anything Arctiguana had done by a thousand times. Dozens of cars were heaped in smoking wrecks, powerlines had been ripped apart and knocked over, nearly every window in town had been broken, and they weren't old enough to know what was going on with the giant jackelope and the llama statues.
"Whoa, what happened?" asked Ben in shock.
"I don't know," Max shook his head. "Looks like a tornado tore through here overnight."
"Good," said Ben in relief; they didn't have to worry about the rubber band ball anymore. Unfortunately, this earned a look of suspicion from his grandfather. "I mean, yeah, it was just one of those freaky nature things, right, Gwen?"
The redhead didn't trust herself to say anything and simply nodded along with Ben's half-baked explanation. Grandpa Max still looked suspicious, but he decided to let it go and looked away from the children; Ben and the girls exchanged worried glances behind his back. And just wouldn't you know it, right when the kids though they were in the clear, the mayor of Sparksville – AKA the last guy to see them with the rubber band ball – walked up to them.
"I think it's pretty clear who's responsible for these juvenile acts," said the mayor in his usual monotone.
"Juvenile acts, huh?" Max repeated, once again throwing suspicion on the children. "If I didn't know better, that sounds like – "
"Oh, I'm not talking about these youngsters," the mayor cut in.
"You're not?" The Tennyson party said in surprised unison. Grandpa Max looked back at the kid, who smiled nervously.
"Yeah, well, if they didn't do it, who did?" asked Max.
Just then, a bolt of electricity shot from out of nowhere and formed into the strange battery creature around Trixie's leg.
The children shouted in surprise as the little alien bounced back and forth between each kid, making silly poses and childish faces as it climbed higher. The little creature grabbed Trixie by the arm and started spinning her around until she got dizzy and ended up falling flat on her face with her butt sticking up and her dress slipping down – if Trixie understood the concept of embarrassment, she would certainly be dying of it. The little creature then moved on to Gwen, blowing a raspberry in her face, before pulling her shirt over her head.
The little creature was about to make a move on Ben next when the Omnitrix beeped as it approached and release a yellow pulse of energy that shot it back into the air. The electric creature jabbered angrily at Ben, shaking its tiny fist, and took off.
The young boy blinked in confusion until he realized that his Omnitrix was green again and the core activated on its own. The display casing showed the silhouette of a new alien that Ben had never had before – it looked like the weird lightning monster that just flew by.
"What the heck was that?" asked Gwen when she finally pulled her shirt down.
"Megawatt," said the mayor blandly.
"Mega-what?" Gwen repeated strangely.
"Exactly," said the mayor. "Normally wrapped up tight inside of 'it', that is until last night. Some say it's a ball of lightning come alive, others think it's static cling run amok. Tough to say."
"Actually, it's a Nosedeenian," said Trixie, righting herself up and straightening her dress. "They are an alien race of mischievous little creatures composed of electrical energy who share a similarity in appearance to your Earth's batteries. They come from the Nosedeen Quasar, which emits billions of discharged energy every second."
"Alien?" said the mayor, looking at Trixie like she was the weird one. "That's just plain kooky talk."
"Hey, check out the watch," Ben called the other's attention, somehow managing to ignore the electric alien buzzing around. "I think that Megawatt thing just unlocked a new alien in the Omnitrix."
"Hmm," Trixie hummed, grabbing Ben's arm and examining the device thoughtfully. "It seems the Nosedeenian may have activated the Omnitrix's capture mode."
"Capture mode?" Max repeated, scratching his head.
"It's a feature of the Omnitrix that unlocks a new DNA sample when it comes into contact with foreign alien DNA," Trixie explained. "Or when it captures new DNA not already encoded in its systems. It seems when the Nosedeenian made contact, it accidentally unlocked the Nosedeenian DNA already in the Omnitrix."
"If Ben could unlock aliens by just touching the watch," asked Gwen, "then why didn't it work with those Limax things back in retirement village or those bounty hunters at Slattersville."
"Hey, I'm just telling you what I know," said Trixie, holding her hands up defensively. "You can't expect me to have the answer for everything."
But while the Tennysons were focused on the Omnitrix, the Megawatt found a nearby soda machine and had a mischievous thought that brought a smile to its face.
The electric alien deformed into a bolt of lightning and shot inside the soda machine through the slot, making it shake and rattle loud enough to get everybody's attention.
"What's it doing?" asked Ben.
"It eats electricity," answered the mayor before Trixie could get a word out; Trixie glared at the man. "The more it gobbles, the more powerful it gets."
The soda machine finally stopped shaking, but then started firing cans of soda at the humans like bullets from a gatling gun. The Tennysons duck their heads as the cans shot over, but the mayor didn't move, seemingly unconcerned for his own personal safety.
"It's also got a dangerous sense of humor," he said in the same bored tone.
The soda machine started shooting at them with a lot more accuracy – one of the cans brushed against Trixie's long hair – and the Tennysons knew they needed to find cover. Luckily, there was an overturned car nearby that they were able to rush to before the Megawatt could turn the machine on them again. The mayor also joined them, but at a more casual pace, somehow inexplicably dodging all of the projectiles without trying. The soda machine then started to bombard their hiding place with soda cans, making them explode and splash sugar-filled drinks all over the street.
"You left that thing inside a rubber band ball all this time?" Max asked the mayor. "Isn't that kind of dangerous?"
"Not so long as people minded the signs," the mayor repeated for the umpteenth time.
Max and the mayor turned their gazes on the children. Trixie was good at keeping a secret, but Gwen looked like she was about to break any –
"All right, we did it, we're guilty," Ben confessed.
"So much for admit nothing," said Gwen, glaring at her cousin.
"We're gonna talk about this later, you three," Max promised. "But for now, how do we stop this thing, Mr. Mayor?"
"Whatcha mean, we?" said the mayor dryly, casually sitting back on a bench that wasn't there a minute ago. "You let it out, you catch it."
Ben and Trixie both were tempted to go alien on the mayor, but decided against it – they were already in enough trouble as it is.
It was a long time before the soda machine finally ran out of ammunition and the Megawatt decided to move on to its next target, wherever that may be. The Tennyslons decided to look around the ruined remains of the town searching for the Nosedeenian menace.
"Should we try to lure it out with some batteries or something?" asked Gwen nervously.
"This town has its own power grid, I highly doubt to Nosedeenian would be satisfied with mere batteries," said Trixie.
What they didn't realize was that the alien menace they were chasing…was actually chasing them.
The Megawatt zipped along the powerlines above their heads and took shape on top of a street light overlook the search party. The Megawatt giggled insanely as it zipped down to ground level, slid along the road, and up Max's pant leg. A few seconds passed and everything was all right…and then the Megawatt zipped into the air lifting Grandpa Max several feet off the ground by the back of his underwear. The Megawatt giggled; Max hissed and wheezed.
"That's not funny," Max grunted. "It's just painful."
"It shows," said Trixie, wincing sympathetically.
"Don't worry, grandpa," said Ben, activating the Omnitrix and turning the dial until it landed on the recently unlocked code. "Time to see what this new alien can do."
"I don't think that's a – " Gwen started, but Ben ignored her and slammed down on the Omnitrix's core. One quick transformation sequence later and Ben looked like an exact copy of the Megawatt, but was green instead of yellow and the Omnitrix symbol was on the top of his flat head. "Great, now we have two electrified maniacs buzzing around instead of just one."
"Hey…that's a great idea, Gwen." Ben-Nosedeenian complimented; his voice was very high-pitched and crackling like static. "You can just call me…Buzzshock!"
The Megawatt dropped Grandpa Max when the Omnitrix flashed in its eyes and cackled wildly when it saw another of its own kind. Despite the others believing he didn't have a plan, Ben thought that maybe by looking like one of them, he would be able to convince the Megawatt to stop its rampage.
But instead, the knowledge that there was another Nosedeenian seemed to make the Megawatt even more excited and flashed back into the world's largest bottle of ketchup, heating the contents with its electrical energy and causing it to spew like a volcano. The gigantic ketchup cap flew across the street and decapitated the world's largest stuffed chicken, which rolled into the street and started chasing some bystanders. The Megawatt watched the scene play out from the top of the ketchup bottle, cackling insanely, until it noticed Buzzshock flying off down the road…toward the giant rubber band ball.
"All right, twinkle toes!" Buzzshock chirped wickedly, stopping in front of the giant rubber ball and stretching his three fingers eagerly. "Time to send you back home."
"Benjamin, don't touch that!" yelled Trixie, cutting him off before he could grab the rubber. "You'll be trapped inside like the Nosedeenian was!"
The realization of the hole in his plan made the green-tinted Nosedeenian back up as if the rubber band ball were its natural predator (which wasn't too far out of the realm of possibility). Unfortunately, his tiny feet stepped on a corner of one of the fallen cards from the destroyed house and made it shoot up, cutting one of the rubber bands with the edge. Without that single rubber band to hold it together, the other rubber bands suddenly started breaking apart in clusters and snapped in every direction. The broken bands smashed into the motel, several of the remaining functional cars, and nearly took out the pedestrians gathered on the street. Gwen barely dived out off the way when one of the bands shot at her head.
"Hey, doofus, whose side are you on?" yelled Gwen.
All the while, the mayor was still on the bench, now with a bag of popcorn and some random kid sitting next to him.
"Is it just me or is there a lot of excitement today?" asked the Mayor in his standard monotone.
The Megawatt zipped up in the air behind Buzzshock and started cackling obnoxiously, pointing at the green-tinted Nosedeenian and kicking its tiny feet in the air like it was rolling around laughing. Buzzshock grinded his teeth together in frustration, threw out his hand at the Megawatt, and shot him with a green bolt of lightning. The Megawatt wasn't laughing any more when the green bolt blasted it in the chest, sending it flying into the world's largest fish bowl like a bug on a windshield.
"Whoa, I hit it!" shouted Buzzshock excitedly. "But wait, I thought that thing ate electricity."
"It's because you have the same electric charge!" Trixie called from a safety distance. "When two fields of the same electrical charge meet each other, they are repelled by one another. You share the same electrical field as the Nosedeenian, so your electric blasts can hurt it!"
"Don't get it, but still awesome!" cheered Buzzshock.
The Megawatt ripped itself off the glass bowl and shook its head, still reeling from the blast, and narrowly dodged another of Buzzshock lightning bolts. Now that the Nosedeenian knew it could be hurt by Buzzshock's attack and the green-tinted battery was flying toward it, the Megawatt yelped in fright and zipped away with Buzzshock close on its tail.
All around the town, Gwen, Max, and Trixie could only see flashes of yellow and green lightning zipping up and down the street, sliding along telephone poles and spiraling around buildings. There were brief moments when the opposite-colored charges would stop and clash, resulting in a localized EMP blast that shut down every appliance nearby. There were times when the two Nosedeenians dived into the powerlines, met each other midway, and snapped the cable with an electrified burst.
These kept going on for several minutes until the lightning duo smashed into each other head-on, dropped to the ground, and slid to opposite ends of the street. Buzzshock and the Megawatt quickly shot up to their feet and glared at each other – the Megawatt didn't look like he was having fun anymore.
"I hate to admit it, but he's good," said Buzzshock, shooting a bolt of lightning that barely missed his opponent. "I'm having a hard time keeping up with this crazy thing."
"How are we going to ground that electric devil?" Max pondered out loud.
"If only we had a water-based alien or even a Conductoid," said Trixie.
"I have a better idea in mind," said Gwen before running off.
"Well, that can't be good," Trixie commented.
The Megawatt zipped down the street, Buzzshock chased after it, and then the yellow Nosedeedian shot back the way it came. Buzzshock shook his fists and grinded his teeth in frustration.
"That's it!" growled Buzzshock. "I'm pulling the plug on this guy's prank." The green Nosedeenian looked down at a manhole cover, zapped the metallic lid with his lightning, and pulled the disk out of the ground with his electromagnetic powers. "Hey, sparky, catch!"
Buzzshock did a quick spin with the manhole cover before tossing the lid with all his strength.
The Megawatt stopped to see what its green counterpart was doing, but this proved to be a critical mistake as the manhole cover sliced it directly in the middle, dividing the Nosedeenian into two equal parts. Buzzshock pumped his fists in the air in celebration…until the two halves of the Megawatt regenerated themselves into two whole Nosedeenians; Buzzshock's jaws dropped in a comedic fashion.
"I probably should have mentioned," called Trixie, "Nosedeenians are capable of cellular division."
"That would have been nice to know ten seconds ago!" yelled Buzzshock agitatedly.
And at the worst possible time, the Omnitrix beeped and flashed red, transforming Buzzshock back to Ben. The young boy looked over himself nervously and then looked up at the pair of Nosedeenians. The alien batteries did not look happy to see him, especially after all the trouble he had caused them.
Both Megawatts fired bolts of electricity at the ground, barely missing Ben, when a truck horn blared from down the street. Ben and the Megawatts looked over as a large truck carrying what had to be the world's largest thermometer suddenly stopped next to Ben and the driver's door opened. Ben only briefly saw his grandfather reaching out before he pulled him into the truck next to Gwen and took off…. Then they stopped a short distance away, set the truck in reverse, and opened the passenger door for Trixie, who had her arms crossed and looked peeved.
"Thanks for remembering me," said Trixie sarcastically as she climbed in and then they took off.
"Grandpa, what're you doing?" asked Ben curiously.
"Giving these sparklers a science lesson they won't forget," said Max dramatically.
The elderly man slammed his foot on the accelerator when the Nosedeenians started chasing them – they weren't about to let Ben get off that easily. It only took a few seconds for the Megawatts to catch up, but it looked like Max and Gwen had a plan after all.
"Hey, Mega-weird!" Gwen called out insultingly, shifting a lever on the console. "Come and get us!"
The flat bed of the truck raised at an angle, sliding off the world's largest thermometer and stabbing into the ground. The Megawatts were going too fast to stop themselves and smashed headfirst into the giant thermometer. Grandpa Max stopped the truck when he saw the Megawatts crash in his rearview mirror and hopped out with the children. They saw the electric current of the Megawatts sparkling off the top of the giant thermometer before it slowly dissipated into the ground.
"What happened?" Ben asked, very much confused.
"We just used the biggest thermometer as a lightning rod," said Gwen smugly. "Who needs an alien superhero when you got good old fashion brain power?"
"Yes, brain power is an amazing weapon," Trixie nodded, though her comment seemed more on the sarcastic side. "And if you had enough of it, you might have realized that the ground beneath the lightning rod is one massive conductor."
"What does that mean?" Ben asked again; science always went over his head.
"Oh no," said Gwen, suddenly realizing the error in her judgment. "It means the Megawatts are just zipping underground until they find some way to get back to the surface."
As if proving her point, every telephone within range started crackling with electricity while ringing nonstop on their hooks. Charges of visible electrical energy shot across the ground, melting and puncturing the tires of any cars that hadn't been flipped over before climbing up telephone poles and blowing the power boxes. One charge found its way around a fire hydrant and blasted the cap off, spraying water into the street. The chaos did not seem to stop until the Megawatts finally found a way to escape their underground prisons through the power lines, only this time it wasn't limited to two. Somewhere along their underground trip, the Megawatts had continually divided until there were now at least two dozen Nosedeenians zipping through the air.
And the whole time, Ben couldn't stop smirking at his cousin.
"Ben Tennyson, don't say a word," Gwen commanded.
"Hey, I'm just glad I wasn't the one that screwed up this time," said Ben happily.
"Well, the day is still young," commented Trixie as a shop exploded in the background; Ben and Gwen frowned.
All of the newly spawned Megawatts clustered together on top of the world's largest (inedible) hot dog like they had just finished gorging themselves on a big meal. In perfect unison, the Megawatts let out a sonic shriek that caused everyone to hold their ears and cringe (except the mayor for whatever reason). Unfortunately, the sonic screaming shattered the glass cup holding the world's largest toothpicks and caused them to fall onto the pedestrians below.
"Everybody move!" Max shouted urgently.
Everyone quickly ran for cover, except for the mayor, who once again disregarded his own safety and chose to remain on the bench eating his popcorn. There was no explaining how even when the toothpicks were falling so close to him that not a single one had managed to hit him – Trixie was starting to suspect he either had psychic powers or magic.
"There goes the world's largest toothpicks," the mayor monotonously spoke. "Oh, the humanity."
The Megawatts giggled incessantly before they zipped off somewhere else.
"Those creeps idea of good clean fun is going have us pushing up daisies," said Max.
"Don't just stand there, doofus," Gwen said to Ben. "Dial up some help."
"Duh, like I haven't been trying," Ben snapped, showing her that his watch was still in the red. "Instead of riding on me, why doesn't Trixie help? She can go alien too, you know."
"If you can't deal with then in a full-alien transformation," Trixie retorted, "what makes you think I could do any better with partial transformations?"
There was a loud boom echoed from down the street and everyone turned to see that the Megawatts had knocked over the giant jackalope statue on top of the motel. One of the Nosedeenians (possibly the original) was standing on top of the statue while the rest were watching from below, all of them chittering in what could only be assumed was the Nosedeenian language. After a few seconds of chatter, the Megawatts suddenly zipped away out of sight, leaving the street completely empty.
"Uh, where'd they go?" asked Ben, scratching his head.
"I don't know," said Max suspiciously. "But I don't think it's good."
Then, the ground started rumbling ominously and suddenly one of the buildings nearby exploded, opening a massive hole in the wall. What came out of it was Sparksville's planetarium exhibit, only now it was walking upright like a human and was no doubt Nosedeenian powered. The monster-sized exhibit paused, seemingly looking down on the Tennysons, then marched mechanically towards the outskirts of the tourist town.
"Well, that's something you don't see every day," said Trixie. "And that's saying something considering how hectic our day-to-day lives are."
"Come on," said Max, running ahead. "We'll head it off in the – "
No doubt he was going to mention the Rust Bucket, but they only ran a few feet before they found out that the Megawatts had already beaten them there. The Rust Bucket's tires had been taken off and left on cinderblocks while the Megawatts had found green paint and drew smiley faces on the windows along with a tag:
"U am lame," Ben read, laughing mockingly. "That's weak."
"And don't even get me started on the grammar and the spelling," Gwen added.
"So neither of you are concerned that they wrecked our only means of transportation?" Trixie asked them.
"I reckon they'll head for the big hydroelectric dam to power up," said the mayor, finally getting up from his exclusive bench. "After that, they'll just wipe out the next town and so on and so on. They think it's funny. Yep, Megawatts got a real twisted sense of humor."
If Ben and Gwen didn't feel bad about causing this whole mess before, they sure did now (Trixie didn't of course – she's just an innocent party in all this, or at least that's what she keeps telling herself). Gwen looked around the town as if the answer to all their problems would just appear out of nowhere when her eyes fell on the world's largest fish bowl. Ben also noticed his cousin looking up at the fish bowl and somehow seemed to understand her thought process as they both exchanged knowing looks.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Gwen asked Ben.
"Yeah," Ben nodded. "Beat those pranksters at their own game."
The hydroelectric dam was several miles north of Sparksville, which wasn't easy to get to when you didn't have a ride.
The Megawatt-infused planetarium was at the base of the dam trying to smash its planet-fists through the concrete, leaving large dents in the stone while simultaneously cracking its "hands" for lack of a better word. The Planetarium was about to punch the dam again when a column of flame suddenly blasted down on top of it, making the exhibit stumble. It tilted its Saturn-head back, peeking at the top of the dam to see Heatblast posing heroically with his hands on his hips.
"This is your only warning," said Heatblast. "Knock off the funny business or I'll fry your twinkling butts."
The Megawatt-Planetarium ignored the Pyronite's warning and slammed both of its fists into the wall with all its strength, finally succeeding in creaking a wide crack that started to spread along the wall as water began to leak through.
The rumbling of the dam caused Heatblast to lose his balance and fall forward, forcing him to descend down the structure at a running pace. Unfortunately, he was headed towards the water leak which would no doubt nullify his powers upon contact. Heatblast leaned back and tried to slow his descent by scraping his hands and feet against the wall until a small explosion erupted beneath him. When the smoke cleared, Heatblast suddenly found himself riding on top of a fiery meteor like a surfboard through the air.
"Whoa, I didn't know I could do this," said Heatblast excitedly. "Trixie's been holding out on me." Heatblast rode over the water leak and glided over until he could jump to safety a short distance away. The meteor dissipated in the air and the Pyronite turned back to the leak. "Better seal that up fast."
But while Heatblast went to work on sealing the dam, the Megawatt-planetarium was climbing the ledge to reach the turbines that were generating the energy, not noticing the giant object covered by a tarp only a few feet away.
As the planetarium walked up to the turbines, a jolt of electricity shot out from the side and struck it in the head, breaking off Saturn's ring. The living planetarium turned and saw Trixie standing next to the tarp-covered object; her hair had turned sharp and jagged like lightning bolts while green electricity sparked around her eyes and crackled in her hands.
"Ben was right," said Trixie, her voice crackling from the Nosedeenian DNA she was borrowing. "Trying out new aliens is fun."
The planetarium monster turned and marched toward Trixie when another meteor flew by in the background, and Heatblast was riding along the air like he was surfing a wave. He felt pretty confident as he curved the meteor around and flew toward the Megawatt-power machine…until the meteor snuffed itself out and dropped the Pyronite into a building on the opposite side of the chasm. Trixie facepalmed
Heatblast staggered out of the wreckage, looking disoriented, and dropping hopelessly to his knees. The pyronite was so out of it that he was barely aware of the planetarium walking up to him. He looked up at the last second before the planetarium punched him across his flaming jaw, sending him across the dam and flopped on his back; if the Pyronite had eyes right now, they would be spinning.
As the Megawatt-powered automaton stood victoriously over his fallen foe, Trixie remind them that she was still present. The human Omnitrix snuck up behind the planetarium monster and slapped her hand on the machine's "foot" discharging a large amount of electricity that flowed through the machine. The planetarium fidgeted and sparked until a portion of the machine's head blew off. The Megawatt giant turned around and would no doubt be glaring if it had eyes.
"I know, shocking, isn't it?" said Trixie jokingly.
The planetarium raised it foot to stomp Trixie, but she had already zipped away with an electrified dash. The machine paused and then turned around to see Heatblast forming a massive fireball equal to the planetarium in size.
"What's the matter?" said Heatblast. "Can't take a joke?"
The pyronite hurled the fireball into the planetarium and watched the machine explode into a thousand pieces. With their favorite toy now destroyed, the Megawatts had no choice but to leave the machine and none of them looked happy to be there.
"You really got burned with that one," Heatblast taunted. "You guys should really quit while you're behind."
The Nosedeenians crackled angrily and charged at Heatblast, but the Pyronite released a cloud of smoke around him. The Megawatts passed through the smokescreen unharmed, but they were scratching their heads when they couldn't find the fire-starting alien that had just been there a second ago.
They followed the smell of burning material that the Pyronites gave off and found him leaning against the giant tarped object, blowing kisses at them mockingly. Now the Megawatts were furious – the horde screeched as they deformed into lightning bolts at charged at Heatblast together. As started rushing him, Heatblast ducked underneath the tarp and the Megawatts followed him inside. When the last of Nosedeenians were in, Max and Gwen appeared from behind the object.
"Ben did it," said Max. "They took the bait."
Max grabbed a bundle of the tarp and pulled it off, revealing that the Nosedeenians had recklessly followed Heatblast inside the world's largest fishbowl. By the time the Megawatts realized they had been tricked, Heatblast came around and breathed a current of fire that melted the opening shut, permanently sealing the Nosedeenians inside. The Megawatts screamed against the glass, though their chatty voices were muffled. And of course, Ben had to get the last laugh in by sticking his flaming tongue out childishly – the hero of the hour, ladies and gentlemen.
"Nice touch using the fishbowl," Trixie complimented them when she zipped up to the group. "With nonconductive glass sealed up tight, the Nosedeenians won't be able to escape for a very long time."
"Once again, science saves the day," said Gwen proudly just as the Omnitrix timed out.
"With a little help from science fiction," Ben included.
By the time they returned to Sparksville with the trapped Megawatts in tow, the town had mostly been able to repair the damage that the electrified aliens had done in their short time of freedom. For some reason, everyone in town seemed to be extraordinarily gifted in repairing broken buildings and busted streets as if this were an everyday occurrence. Either way, the children were happy to have the Rust Bucket fixed and were ready to leave at any moment, but first the mayor wanted a word with them in the town square next to something hidden underneath a tarp.
"You folks done right by us," said the mayor monotonously.
"Hope this adventure wasn't a big setback for Sparksville," said Max in concern.
"More like a giant step forward," said the mayor, shrugging his shoulders uncaringly. "What with our new attraction, soon we'll be raking 'em in."
He pulled off the tarp and flashed a bright light that temporarily blinded the Tennysons until their eyes adjusted. When they saw what it was, the children came close to laughing while Max looked on in awe.
"World's biggest lightbulb," said the mayor. "It'll be a humdinger."
The nosedeenians inside the newly converted lightbulb were zipping around fruitlessly trying to get free, beating each other up, or was just pouting silently. They were getting restless and knew it was gonna be a long, long time before they could ever hope to get free again – if there ever did at all. Ben felt the most satisfaction out of all this knowing he was the one that put them there, but the mayor had to rain on his parade by reminding him how all this trouble started.
"Just as long as folks mind the signs," said the mayor, leaning closer to Ben in particular.
The mayor then walked away with a signpost planted in the ground in front of the lightbulb to emphasize his point:
"In case of emergency, do not break glass," Ben read the sign aloud. He knew that the sign was made specifically for him in mind, but Ben couldn't find it in him to care anymore as he and the rest of his family walked back to the Rust Bucket. "Ah, I think I'm pranked out for a while."
"There is a time and a place for a practical joke, Ben," said Max sagely.
Ben stared at his grandpa for a moment, not really caring for what he had to say, until he opened the RV door when the most classic prank of all landed on top of Ben's head: a bucket of water. The young boy pulled up the bucket and glared at his relatives, who were starting to crack up.
"But funny is funny!" Max guffawed. "Especially when it's not on you!"
Ben dropped the bucket back down in defeat as Gwen, Trixie, and Max laughed at his expense.
This chapter is a huge stepping stone in the story as the Tennysons now know the existence of the Omnitrix's capture mode and the ability to unlock new aliens like Buzzshock. Of course, there are going to be some limitations. Having Ben being able to unlock a new alien every time he fights a new species is unrealistic and would defeat the purpose of him learning, so the new aliens will only come within reason. And as demonstrated, with every new alien that Ben unlocks, Trixie can also access their powers as well, but this will also be the beginning of a new problem centered around her that will be explained in the future.
Next episode: Kevin 11