Next week is a three part finale. That's all I really have to say.
[MEGAMALLOPOLIS]
If someone had told the kids that one day America would create a sprawling city state dedicated to consumerism… they would believe it. Megamallopolis was every capitalist's wet dream, with sprawling postmodern architecture, multiple skylights, and floors upon floors of commerce. If a brand was worth its salt, it was somewhere here, just waiting to take your money.
After spending a full day in that whirlwind of bright lights, sounds, and overall capitalism, the Tennysons and Ruby walked out to the parking lot. Gwen kept one eye on her brochure, rattling off mall facts.
"500 stores, 72 restaurants, 48 movie screens and an indoor rollercoaster?" Gwen breathed, in total awe.
"Someone could live there for the rest of their life," Ruby mused. "You know, if they were rich or weren't opposed to the five finger discount."
Max sighed. "I dunno. The food market was kinda disappointing. There was nothing there that I would have liked to cook tonight...I suppose these hamburgers will have to do."
The kids all coughed, giving faux "sorries" to make Max feel better.
"Seriously though," Ben said, changing the subject. "I love it here! This place has everything!"
Suddenly, a few store alarms went off. The Tennysons turned their attention to a robbery in progress, literal masked thieves running off with a bags of loot. A few security guards chased after them.
In a frantic rush, a single mall security guard yelled to stop them. "HALT! IN THE NAME OF MALL SECURITY!"
"Including their own police force, by the looks of it," Max snarked.
Ben stretched a bit. "Looks like they could use some help too. A hero's work is never done," he said cockily.
Ben scrolled through the watch and stopped on Blitzwolfer's icon. He slammed it down, and started chasing after the thieves and security on all fours. However, the thieves jumped from a lamp post to a floor on a parking structure, halting the chase...at least for the security guards. Ben jumped up and swung around the lamp post onto the same floor, landing in front of some elderly people. They stared at Ben.
Ben blushed. "Uh, nothing to see here, folks! Just...chasing after some crimina-"
One of the elderly people kicked Ben in the face, knocking him back. They then proceeded to do a triple backflip, and land in a rather overdramatic kung fu pose.
" ...I'd be lying if I said this was the first time I've encountered ninja old people," Ben sighed.
Ben struck a fighting pose and lunged at the two, but they easily ducked under him. Ben got back up, but one of the elderly attacked him with a perfectly executed "teeth of the tiger throw", grabbing his neck between their legs and slamming him into the ground with a midair twirl. Ben groaned as another elderly delivered a sinister downward roundhouse kick to his head, but Ben blocked with his metal gauntlets just in time. The elder jumped off of him and rejoined his partner.
Ben growled as he stands back up, flashing his teeth. "I'm just gonna make this easy for myself."
Ben roared, before his teeth were coated in the same metal as his gauntlets. He took a deep breath and barked. His shouts reverberated off of the metal in his mouth and created a powerful sonic blast that sent the elderly flying back and into a wall. They fell over in a pile, unconscious. Ben walked over to the bag of stolen goods and sifted through it. There was some jewelry and money in it and little else.
"Something tells me the retirement homes' pricing are a bit too high," Ben quipped.
Suddenly Ben's ears perked up, and he jumped up onto the ceiling, right before a taser hit him. He looked down upon the scared shitless mall security.
"S-stop in the name of-"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll totally listen to you," Ben said sarcastically.
He took off running on all fours. Mall security chased after him, just as the watch started to time out. Ben grinned before he ducked behind a car and reverted. One of the security guards ran over and pointed his taser at what he thought was the beast.
"HANDS UP, SCUMBAG!" the security guard shouted.
...but instead it was Ben, pretending to be scared and helpless.
"Ahhh! Please don't hurt me!" Ben stood up and looked around. "Ohhh? Is that crazy dog thing gone?"
The mall security guard scratched his head.
[NEXT DAY]
Ben, Ruby, and Gwen were walking around Megamallopolis, communicators on hand in case Max needed them for something- or if aliens showed up, since that was more likely. They stopped on the second floor, standing before a directory and deliberating on where they wanted to go next.
"It's nice that those security guards gave us these passes. Now we can get half-off on almost anything in the mall. Nice acting, Ben!" Ruby said, impressed. She pulled hers out of her pocket, marveling at the simple laminated sheet and reveling in the power it gave her.
"Years of lying led me to that moment," Ben said proudly.
"Yeah, thanks! I did want to check out something while we were here yesterday, but I never got to it. Got distracted by a bookstore," Gwen said gratefully.
Ben raised an eyebrow. "Really? What was so interesting?"
Gwen palmed a flyer off a blond man with weird hair, tinted glasses and a scar over his left eye. She gave the paper to her cousin, who read it over skeptically.
"'Sublimino, Master of the Mind'?" Ben asked disbelievingly.
"I wanna debunk this guy! He's gotta be a huge fraud. I've seen real magic first hand, and believe me, if this guy thinks he can make a quick buck off this, then I'll gladly shut him down," Gwen said, puffing out her chest in righteous indignation.
"And how exactly are you gonna do that?" Ruby asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You'll see~" Gwen said mischievously.
The three soon walked to the fourth floor, joining a small crowd gathered around a small stage. Purple smoke wafted from the stage, and a small man matching the image on the flier walked out. He bowed before swinging around a pocket watch...only to trip on his coat tails and fall flat on the ground. A few people chuckled at that. Sublimino fixed himself and walked back on over to microphone.
"Behold, for I am Sublimino! I am about to take you on a journey through that mysterious realm called...THE MIND!" Sublimino said enthusiastically.
Someone in the audience coughed.
"FIRST I SHALL REQUIRE SOME VOLUNTEERS!" Sublimino announced.
Gwen forced Ben's hand up.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Ben snapped, snagging his hand away.
"Testing my theory. Do the reverse of everything he says."
"Really? You know this stuff only works on people with half a brain, right?" Ben pointed out.
"Then what's the matter? Afraid you've got less than half of a brain?" Gwen said teasingly.
Ben frowned, his pride hurt. He walked on stage, joining two other people, as Gwen pulled out a camera.
"Really? You're filming this?" Ruby said disapprovingly.
"For review purposes only," Gwen retorted.
"I really don't appreciate seeing Ben used for something like this. What if Sublimino makes him do something...embarrassing?" Ruby said, concerned.
"Come on, Ruby. It's all fake," Gwen reassured her.
"NOW...Clear your mind! Focus on my pocket watch as it swings back and forth...your eyelids are feeling heavy...you are falling into a deep...sleep…" Sublimino lulled.
Ben and the others shared a confused glance with each other. Ben just shook his head.
"Your voice makes it incredibly hard to even fall asleep, let alone listen to you," he quipped.
The crowd laughed, before Sublimino hissed at them to shush. Ben shook his head and walked off stage.
"You were right, Gwen! He is a fraud," Ben called out.
Sublimino suddenly grabbed Ben's arm and tugged on it. Ben shook his arm away, but Sublimino touched a dial on his pocket watch that released a quick flash. Ben yelped as he covered his eyes. Gwen stopped recording and ran over to him with Ruby.
"OW!" Ben exclaimed, opening his eyes and trying to blink away the spots in his vision.
"Woah, are you ok?" Ruby worriedly asked.
"What did he do to you?" Gwen asked, glaring at Sublimino.
A few people in the crowd murmured in shock, but Sublimino smiled reassuringly at them, his pocket watch flashing different, calming colors.
"Dunno...just a headache, probably. But I'm so out of here. Come on, there's better things to do than waste time on a fraud," Ben said irritably.
The group walked away, along with the rest of the subdued crowd. Sublimino just smiled creepily as he swung his pocket watch around, before he caught it and shoved it back in his pocket.
"And I'll see you tonight, kid."
[RUSTBUCKET, 9 PM]
Gwen was reviewing the footage from earlier on her laptop, Max looking over her shoulder.
"So, you're saying he 'flashbanged' Ben somehow?" Max inquired.
"Yeah, it was really weird! What the heck kind of fraud just casually carries around a flashbang?" Gwen huffed.
"We'll tell mall security in the morning. What about you, Ben? You ok?" Max asked, concerned.
Ben's eyes were glued to a tablet screen, headphones in his ears.
"Ben?" Max asked again.
Ruby, who was casually cleaning her weapon, sighed heavily.
"Don't bother. He's too busy watching Sumo Slammers right now. They just dropped an entire new season on Netflix, so he's kinda binge watching it right now. Watch." Ruby threw a tennis ball at Ben's head, who ignored it.
"It's so sad that a computer is a better hypnotist than that freak," Gwen snarked.
[4 HOURS LATER]
Everyone was asleep, including Ben. He drifted off somewhere between episode 19 and 30. He was snoring loudly, but it was cut off as he got out of bed and quietly walked out of the RV.
Something was calling to him- it wasn't a voice necessarily, but a siren's call that was constantly in his head, urging him to keep walking. He reached for the Omnitrix and scrolled past a few icons...before reaching a more humanoid one, with three horns sticking out of its head. He slapped down the faceplate and stars and galaxies appeared on his skin-
[MEGAMALLOPOLIS, 1 AM]
People were sleep walking around, clad in their pajamas and breaking into closed shops and stealing money or necessary tech. Sublimino chuckled as he stood in the center, happily eating some popcorn.
"That stupid kid isn't here yet. He got flashed briefly, but still. It should be enough to get him over here and do my dirty work," Sublimino grumbled. Any annoyance he had disappeared as he gave a mischievous grin. "...maybe he can take the fall for me!"
Sublimino laughed as a soft glowing light appeared behind him. Sublimino turned around to see a tall, muscular humanoid alien that was almost entirely black, his hands and body outlined in silvery white. Pure white galaxies and star-like spots were all over him, giving the alien the appearance of a nighttime sky. His eyes glowed green, and he had three small horns jutting out from his forehead like some sort of crown.
"AH! I-it's one of those aliens on the news! Get away from me!" Sublimino panicked, dropping his popcorn.
The alien flickered, soft light emanating from him, and in the blink of an eye he was a few meters away. Sublimino adjusted his glasses in shock.
"Uh...fetch me a drink!"
The alien warped away and returned with a pina colada. He silently handed it to Sublimino.
Sublimino took a sip and bounced in place with excitement. "Ohh, you're fast! I like fast servants! Now, how about you go grab me a screw from...the rollercoaster on the first floor?"
The alien warped away once more.
"...wonder how I even hypnotized one of them."
The alien returned with an important screw from the rollercoaster. He silently handed it over to Sublimino. "Excellent work, my puppet! I expect great things with y-"
The screeching noise of sirens echoed throughout the mall; someone must've broken into somewhere they really weren't supposed to.
"Oh, just wonderful! An entire evening wasted!" Sublimino sighed. "STARMAN! GO BACK TO WHEREVER YOU CAME FROM AND MAKE YOUR PRESENCE UNKNOWN!"
The alien quickly warped away, sitting in Ben's bunk on the Rustbucket. He twisted the Omnitrix disc on his chest.
"OVERRIDE CODE ACCEPTED. OMEGA TRANSFORMATION LOCKED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE." Ben reverted back to human and covered himself in blankets, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
[Megamallopolis, 10 AM]
Ben and Ruby were walking around aimlessly. Ben yawned, exhausted from last night. "I'm so disappointed I fell asleep during that arc last night! And they finally dubbed it!"
"So? Just rewatch it," Ruby told him bluntly.
"That's the thing!" Ben complained. "I can't remember anything! I gotta rewatch it ALL!"
"Well, mind if I join you? We can sneak a marathon tonight, especially if we take a nap somewhere around...oh, three-ish?"
"Oh absolutely. Think we can sneak a few snacks and drinks? It's not a proper binge watch without 'em."
Meanwhile, Gwen and Max were in the office of the owner of the mall, explaining the situation.
"...and that's all that happened," Max finished up. "We don't know if you have any ties to this Sublimino, but I feel like he shouldn't be allowed on the premises."
"This was an isolated incident. The concern of our shoppers are our number one priority," the mall owner said sternly.
"So, I assume you'll be taking care of this?" Max asked hopefully.
"This was an isolated incident. The concern of our shoppers are our number one priority," the owner repeated.
Gwen and Max shared a look. "Y-yes, yes, you said that already."
"This was an isolated incident. The concern of-"
Gwen huffed. "Ok, this is getting us nowhere. Let's just go." The two of them stormed out of the office and to the elevators. "That dude was so robotic, it was kinda like…" Gwen paused. "Like he was...in a trance…"
Max gave her a look. "Something wrong?"
"Y-yeah! Everything's fine," Gwen lied, before she peered back at the office. "Hey grandpa, can I go check out a bookstore on one of the higher floors?"
"I don't see why not." Max smiled. "Just meet us down by the food court around one, ok?"
Gwen nodded. "Got it. See you then!"
Max took the elevator down to a lower level, while Gwen pretended to wait for one going up. A minute later, Gwen walked back to the office and forced her way into the manager's room...and gasped loudly. Sublimino was sitting behind the desk, smiling wickedly.
"I'll give you credit, girl. You're sharp," he said smarmily.
"W-wait, so...are you actually a real hypnotist?" Gwen stuttered out. "Was yesterday just a show or something?"
Sublimino scoffed. "Seriously? You think hypnosis is real? You've suddenly decreased from sharp down to keen. No one wants to be keen."
"Oh," Gwen said, furrowing her brow.
"But yes, it's machinery." Sublimino confessed, before he pulled out a small pocket watch and grinned. "Of course, I'll never reveal my tricks willingly. And it would simply be terrible if my boss found out about all of this. So good night, girly!"
Sublimino pressed a button on the side of the pocket watch and Gwen forgot what happened. She found herself in the bookstore, reading some random young adult novel by some nobody named S. Laughter. She shook her head in confusion.
"When did I get here?" Gwen thought hard for a second, before remembering what she told Grandpa. "Oh, right...I guess I spaced out."
She set down the book and glanced at the giant clock in the center of the square; it was almost one.
Gwen sighed tiredly. "Well, better go meet with Grandpa and the others. I have this weird feeling that I'm going to be the only one eating a salad."
She walked off, none the wiser.
Late that night, tucked into one of the bunk beds and with a blanket covering them, Ruby and Ben were engrossed in the world of Sumo Slammers. It was 2 AM, their eyes hurt, and yeah, it was a mistake to stay up this late. But who cared? Someone was getting his ass handed to him by Ishyama using his ultimate techniques.
"It's kind of a shame that he doesn't use the ultimates more often," Ben whispered.
"Yeah, kind of defeats the whole gimmick of the series. And even when he does, they're usually small. Remember when he used it against the Lord of all Evil during the Hero Generation finale?" Ruby asked. "That was a cool time to use it. Not during some stupid battle in a tunnel."
"Yeah. Plus, when anti-Ishyama used it against him? Totally awesome. Seeing the Jurassic techniques at their fullest were some of the coolest moments of Hero Generation." Ben smiled, remembering.
"I'm glad someone sees where I'm coming from! Mega Sumos is just a lame continuation of Hero Generation," Ruby said, shaking her head.
Suddenly, something moved. Ben and Ruby peered up from the tablet screen to see Gwen in her pajamas, quietly walking towards the RV door.
"Gwen?" Ben asked. "Where are you going at this time of night?" Gwen did not respond. Her grimoire floated towards her. "Uh, Earth to Gwen? I asked you a question."
Again, Gwen did not respond. Her eyes were glowing an intimidating shade of blue as she started to levitate off the ground. The door swung open for her as she hovered outside. The lamp post lights flickered and sparked, parked cars began to move away and the sound of the night went silent.
"Kids?" Max asked sleepily, rising from makeshift bed from the front of the RV. "What's going on?"
"I dunno," Ruby said worriedly, "but I feel like we should find out."
The three of them snuck outside, making sure to stay out of Gwen's line of sight. "Might be sleep walking," Max theorized, watching Gwen carefully. "Your cousin was always a heavy sleeper."
"Do you think this is, like, some effect of her using magic?" Ruby asked.
"Maybe," Max guessed. "Who knows how many times she's done this before."
Ben activated the watch. "Then I guess I better help wake her up." He smiled as he turned the dial to Water Hazard. But when Ben looked up again, Gwen was gone. "Huh? Where'd she.."
"Oh my god," Ruby gasped. "Look at the clock tower!" Ben's eyes darted over to the tower; Gwen was floating above the structure, carefully studying the thing. Blue energy suddenly enveloped the clock entirely, and Gwen ripped it out of the tower like it was giant bandaid.
"Ok, why's she stealing that?" Ben asked incredulously.
"Dunno," Max said pointedly, "but I think that Astrodactyl should go check it out."
Ben nodded as he slapped down the watch. A bright green light enveloped his body, and fully transformed him into the space pterodactyl. "Hop on!" He squawked as Ruby got his back. The two took off, soaring towards Gwen, who was already flying away with the clock.
"Hey, dweeb!" Ben yelled as he got closer to her. "What's the big idea stealing the clock? Analog watch not working for you?" Gwen didn't respond, instead forming multiple shards of blue light and launching them at Ben. He quickly evaded the daggers and watched them soar through the air and hit some random cars. "You know, you just ruined some people's mornings."
Gwen just continued on her way, not a care in the world.
"Dude, what are you waiting for?" Ruby asked, knocking a closed fist on his head. "Fire back!"
"Alright, fine. But only cause she struck first!" Ben inhaled and released a rapid fire stream of bullet-like star bolts from his mouth. Gwen spun around and let the blasts hit her.
"Woah! Is she crazy?" Ben yelped. The dust quickly cleared and Ben could only stare, gobsmacked. Gwen was covered by a strange piece of armor; it was hollow, composed of a headpiece, two large shoulder pads from which hung two long, branching straps, and a shell on its back. The star bolts Ben had fired seemed to have dug into her armor, before they dissipated into the air.
"Ooooookay," Ruby drawled out. "That was weird." She then pulled her scythe out of nowhere. "But I bet it can't stop everything!"
Ruby launched herself off Ben's back and jumped onto the roof of the mall. She switched Crescent Rose to rifle mode and leapt onto the roof of another building. Running across rooftops, Ruby fired up at Gwen. The bullets flew through the air before abruptly bouncing off of the flying girl like they were nothing.
"Seriously, what is up with the magic?" Ben asked, pointlessly blasting Gwen some more. "I've never seen her use stuff like this!"
"Maybe she's in some kind of Zen Mode," Ruby said with a frown. "Like that one Pokemon!"
"You're gonna have to be more specific," Ben said flatly.
"Hey, focus! She's getting away!" Ruby snapped, pointing at Gwen. She was moving in closer to the ground, near some hardware store.
Ben and Ruby chased after her, hiding in the shadows, and silently watched her set the clock down on the ground. A man stepped out of the shadows and clapped.
"Excellent work, kid." Sublimino grinned. "Honestly didn't expect this from you. I was going to make you take the fall, but this is better."
"Holy shit, he isn't a fraud!" Ruby gasped.
"Shame that Starman couldn't show up again," Sublimino grumbled. "Oh well, must of sent him to wherever he came from."
"Starman?" Ben asked, as he reverted back to human. "Is he talking about me?" A worried look spread across his face. "When...when did he get me?"
"Maybe when he flash banged you," Ruby pointed out. "I guess you're not affected now cause you're awake."
"Guess Sumo Slammers saves the day again," Ben chuckled. "But now that we know he hypnotized me, I got an idea."
"Is it gonna be stupid?" Ruby asked.
"Absolutely."
"I'm in."
Ben blended in perfectly amongst the crowd of "zombies". It felt weird to walk with all these blank faced people; poor things had no idea what they were doing. Ruby was jumping around from shelf to shelf, remaining undetected. Their plan was easy; Ben would stalk out and look for Sublimino and take him out, while Ruby would keep an eye on Gwen. It wasn't like anyone could hurt her with that strange armor on her, but still, the girl was in the center of danger.
Ben followed a group of people down the hall and to the back rooms, where the shop held all their forklifts and other fun construction things. Ben decided it was best to piggyback on one of them, since he sure as hell couldn't drive them. Ben hopped on the back of a tow truck and rode through the halls of the mall, looking for Sublimino.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw his target, lurking by the entrance, creepily rubbing one of his victim's shoulders. She looked to be 16, 17...and it filled Ben with a dangerous, cold fury. He popped up the faceplate and scrolled to Eatle's icon.
"About time we took care of this bastard!" Ben snarled, slapping down the icon. He went to take a bite out of the cart and screeched as he hurt his teeth. He shook his head and looked down at his furry hands. "Spidermonkey?! Ugh, fine. Guess I can work with this." Ben silently hopped off the cart and grouped up with Ruby.
"Sublimino's over there," Ben motioned over to the entrance. "So, how about a standard pincer attack?"
"You mean I go from the front and you go from the back and bite him," Ruby said flatly.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Gotcha!" Ruby leapt forward, then extended her scythe into a war scythe to perform an overhead swing. Except Gwen leaped in front of her and boredly blocked the attack with that strange piece of armor.
"Seriously, what is up with this magic armor?" Ruby yelled as she landed on the ground.
"You take care of Gwen!" Ben yelled as he ran on the walls. "I'll be taking care of Sublimino over here!" And then he pounced at the guy and bit his arm-
And Sublimino surprisingly went down without a fight. In fact, he went down like a house of cards. What an anti climax, Ben thought, as he webbed Sublimino down to the ground. He reverted back to human and snagged Sublimino's pocket watch from him. "I'm guessing this is what makes the magic happen," he declared. And then he threw it on the ground and stomped on it, shattering it completely.
Except nothing happened. Ben expected people to stop and wake up, not knowing where they were, but no, they were still looting the mall and destroying it. "Ok, what the fuck."
From the shadows, someone one began clapping. "Bravo, bravo," the voice spoke as someone slowly sauntered into the spotlight. "Took him right down...but, did you ever consider that there was a different ringleader?" And then, Ben saw him. His face went pale and his throat closed up.
It was Zombozo.
"Y-you…" Ben stuttered, taking a shaky step back.
"Yeah, that's right, kid," Zombozo sauntered out. His body looked mangled and undead, and flies flew around his moth-eaten top hat. "What? It's rude to stare. Last time I buy a teleporter."
"Thought Ghostfreak scared you away," Ruby snarled from the side, aiming her scythe at him.
"That creep did and he did this to me!" Zombozo yelled, gesturing to his rotting form. "I just wanted to raise some funds so I could invest in some machinery so I could regain my beautiful form. Had to use this weirdo as a puppet for the time being." Zombozo weakly kicked Sublimino.
"...is that a joke?" Ben mumbled.
"Whatever." Zombozo smiled with all his rotten teeth, as he put his hand on Gwen's head and gently combed his fingers through her red hair. Ben felt his stomach churn before ice cold fury overtook him.
"Now, thanks to this brat, I can easily take you and your little friend down!"
Ben scratched his head ever so casually. "...I know I'm forgetting something, but I don't know what it is..."
"What's that, kid?" Zombozo sneered.
"Oh, yeah, it's coming back! I think I said I'd kill you if I saw you again!" The joy on Zombozo's face turned to utter horror. "Yep, that is DEFINITELY what I said!" Ben turned the dial to Ghostfreak. "I think I also said I'd never forgive someone as vile as you. Someone who takes hostages, someone that's dumb enough to screw with my family..."
"L-let's just hold on a second! This girl is related to you?" He shoved her away. "I just wanted to make some quick dough! That's all! I just wanted to fix myself up a b-" Zombozo stammered.
"So what? You could build another machine and drain more people's happiness, you damn leech?" Ben spat. "Maybe I'll won't kill you if you don't pull anything stupid."
"I-I'm sorry for my actions, kid! See? I'll release your cousin and everyone else!" Zombozo pulled out another version of the watch and deactivated it. Everyone instantly collapsed to the floor, sleeping softly.
Ben grinned sweetly. "Good." He slapped down the watch and shifted into Ghostfreak. The monstger closed in on Zombozo, slowly unraveling his skin.
Zombozo fell to the ground and crawled away. "B-But you promised you wouldn't..."
"KNOW YOUR PLACE!" Ghostfreak's raspy voice echoed through the mall. "A deal like that...is too good for a man like you!"
Ghostfreak released a barrage of punches, all of them lightning quick and devastating and made it look like he had multiple arms. But it wasn't enough, it was nowhere near enough. Tentacles ripped out of his chest and wrapped around Zombozo so tightly it felt his ribs would collapse and his lungs would pop. Tentacles pierced his zombie-like body before they whipped him around like a ragdoll, his body hitting the walls and floor with enough force to shatter bones.
Zombozo had never felt pain this bad before; at least last time he just got scared, but this time, he fucked up.
His body landed on the ground in multiple pieces. Zombozo's head tried to roll away, but someone's foot stopped him. He looked up to see Ruby, menacingly holding her scythe and looking down upon Zombozo like he was some sort of insect.
"Did I ruin your life too?" he whimpered.
"Well, you nearly killed me," Ruby growled. "So this feels fitting." She fired a bullet right into his forehead and Zombozo's head was encased in ice.
"Nice," Ben laughed.
"Was that a pun?"
"No, I was just a comment, why would it be a pun?"
"...how tired are you?"
"...very."
Gwen stared at the new spells in her book. They were never there before, and quite honestly she didn't know how to cast them. These were "S" tier spells that really weren't for beginners. They always mentally drained Gwen by the time she was done with one.
"So, any idea where these came from?" Gwen looked up, but Ben and Ruby were both fast asleep, slumped against the dining table. She rolled her eyes and decided to join Grandpa in the front.
"So, where to next?"
Grandpa Max chuckled. "Home. End of the summer, kids."
Ben shot up, wide awake. "WHAT?!"
