Max sat on a log that had been placed at the long since dead camp fire, he exhaled as his prosthetic arm began to quiver before quickly hitting it to stop. "Max.", the bigger bodied old man turned to see Oscar with a cigarette.
"What is it Oscar?"
"I want you to take Alex with you on your roadtrip across the United States.", Oscar stated casually, much to Max's surprise.
It took a second for it to settle in for Max before actually giving a response. "Are you sure about this? Wouldn't-"
"I've already informed his mom about this, she wants him to go to.", Oscar stated as he held his phone in hand. "Called her and everything."
"Well- that's good to know, but why? He seemed capable even though he just got it.", Max cocked an eyebrow, eager to know more about what his friend was thinking.
"Because staying in one spot wouldn't be the best choice for him.", Oscar stated. "He's already gotten in trouble with teachers and the police several times, thankfully some were ex Plumbers so it was erased from his record. He's... in the wrong crowd, is what I'm trying to say."
"Geez, he sounds like quite the handful. Why can't you do this?", Max asked...
"Because you're better at understanding emotions than I am, and that's by a considerable amount.", Max was not all expecting this from Oscar, not from the Oscar he had known anyways. "He's a good kid, I've seen it, he just needs a positive influence to let that part of him grow."
Max stood up after taking a second to process this, standing in front of his old friend. "I'll do my best to keep him on the right path."
"Good, I'll keep your word on that.", Oscar stated with a smirk. "I on the other hand... I need to get everything prepared if he's alive in the meantime."
"You have my word."
Max watched Gwen and Ben fishing by Tenaya Lake, they were on their way out until Max needed to restock on food for the next couple of days. He simply watched his grandchildren as he had his own fishing rod...
"Ugh, this is so boring.", Ben threw his rod down to the wooden dock with a frown. "I can't get a bite."
"Maybe if you didn't cry about it then you'd get something.", Gwen taunted, which seemed to anger Ben even more.
"You're one to talk! You don't have a single fish either!", Ben exclaimed annoyed by the apparent hypocrisy. Gwen just scoffed, but before they could continue.
"Hey, where's Alex at anyways?", Max stood up from his folded lawn chair as Alex was no where to be seen. "Didn't he say he was gonna take a leak in the woods?"
"I think so- ", Gwen let out a shriek of terror as a large creature roared as it leapt out of the water with dozens of fish of many kinds in its hands. It let out a laugh as they got a full glimpse of the creature.
It was a humanoid creature with a hunched back and a larger, more muscular upper body with long arms that ended in webbed, three fingered hands with black claws. It had murky green scales with a white interior on his biceps, torsos and thighs with it turning completely black around his waist, extending into a loincloth. He had long, green fins around his arms, hips, back and even chin. It resembled a multitude of aquatic life, primarily an alligator, shark and anglerfish given the blue lure extending from his forehead. He wore a black and white arm band with the Omnitrix nodule on his right bicep.
This was were Alex went, now in an alien he currently calls Lakelurker.
"Alex! You jerk!", Gwen screeched as she threw her fishing rod at the tall humanoid fish. Who simply stared at her with his pale purple eyes, he slowly smiled as he held up dozens of fish in both hands.
"Oh so you're the reason we haven't been getting anything?", Max sighed slightly disappointed by this. "Well, we at least saved a lot of bait for later.", the elderly man said as he picked up a wiggling worm before slurping it up like a noodle.
"Ew...", both ten year olds muttered in disgust as Lakelurker plopped the fishes down in the bucket they had.
"Yeah I was never a fan of fishing anyways, that was WAY more fun!", Lakelurker spoke finally, his voice was very hoarse, almost as if he had a sore throat. "You should try it out sometime.", he said as he grabbed a fish before throwing it in his gaping maw and swallowed it.
Gwen shivered as Ben thought about it. "Yeah let's try that!", he exclaimed as Lakelurker walked past them and towards a tree. The humanoid fish grabbed it by the trunk and shook it violently, expertly catching a digital camera. "Wait- how long has that been there?"
"Few minutes, you won't believe it.", Lakelurker sighed as the warning sound erupted from the Omnitrix before he was enveloped in a bright flash of red light. He stood there in his human form looking at the camera. "I had to use Lakelurker to climb onto that tree, walked five minutes away towards the edge so you guys couldn't see me and then I-"
Max halted him by putting the butt of his fishing rod on his head. "What are you exactly planning on doing with that recording?", he says as he attempts to snatch it from him, to which Alex placed in his pocket.
"Gonna upload this to the internet of course, oh yeah I'm borrowing your computer Gwen.", Alex says as Gwen's mouth dropped but before she could reply he shushed her.
"YEAAAAAAA- dude, we should film you as Extinction just destroying stuff!", Ben seemed unnaturally excited at the prospect, but he was indeed 10 years old so...
Max simply grabbed Alex's arm then used his free arm to grab the digital camera from his pocket. "Absolutely not, you are not going to be showing off your aliens like that."
"Oh cut the bullshit old man.", Alex was tempted to reveal Max's entire secret at that very moment, but a pit forming in his stomach along with the sudden feeling of nausea forced him to stop. "You- fuckin, whatever, Max.", he scoffed before taking the bucket filled with fish and walking into the RV.
Many religious practices and myths alike actively paint the idea of an afterlife. The Underworld, Heaven, Hell, Valhalla, Purgatory, Limbo, all the same in concept, that doesn't mean they're real in the slightest. Lucio Grange can attest to that confidently.
A professional nascar driver that had won the year prior, simply enjoying the summer days on his way to Vegas. However, he made the choice to illegally street race, which earned him being rammed by an oncoming truck... but he didn't die. He wished he did die however.
He laid there on a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around his face that was completely torn open by the shrapnel, his arms and legs suspended by wires as they were covered in thick casts. The pain was still there, he laid there in silent agony as he stared into the eternal abyss.
And by abyss, it was quite literally an abyss. There was nothing, no one, no paved roads, clouds that led to a gate or anything. Just solid darkness, the darkness that existed before the universe and will wait until all life dies so they can rejoin the endless emptiness.
"I'm going to die... I'm going to die.", the reality slowly settled into his consciousness. He could still hear the beeping of the heart monitors echoing throughout this endless emptiness. "I... don't want to die. I can't die right now! I-I'm not finished! I got what I wanted."
The heart monitor flatlined for a split second, the moment this happened was the same moment a nurse had walked in to replace the empty plasma bags. She immediately walked out and exclaimed for a doctor, he couldn't even understand as the beeping was ear piercing now.
"I can't die! Fuck no! I won't ever die! I refuse to!", he exclaimed into the void as the beeping had stopped and started sporadically before stopping completely.
An elderly doctor stormed into the room he was being held in. "He must be going into cardiac arrest, do inject him with the Epinephrine. Now.", he said as he slowly got out a box as the nurse nodded and used a syringe to carry the Epinephrine.
But she jumped back as she saw something, a blood red eye with a bright blue pupil. "He's... he's looking at me!"
"What-?!", they were stopped from further treatment as a powerful gust of wind launched them back. They looked at the hospital bed and immediately noticed he was gone, like something just swooped him up.
In reality, something happened to him on a genetic level. As if his inability to accept his own mortality forced his body to react to such a thing, the bedridden man was now running through the streets at speeds no man could achieve. To him everything was moving like they were trapped in molasses
Suddenly stopping in the middle of nowhere, he had noticed his hospital gown had caught fire so he quickly waved it off, leaving him completely naked. Lucio was a handsome man with a toned muscular physique with platinum blond hair and bright blue eyes. "C'est incroyable."
"I'm healed... completely healed.", Lucio was still too shocked to be ecstatic about his recovery. White electricity surged from his hands before vanishing. He had moved at such impossible speeds just seconds ago and almost instantly healed from his injuries... what could he do? What couldn't he do. "I... I know exactly what I must do, I understand it perfectly."
Lucio had a spectacular idea... a spectacularly awful idea.
The Rust Bucket had pulled into a parking lot of the Days Inn Motel, Max stood up and stretched a little bit. "I'll be back in a second, I have to go talk to the front desk about our room keys.", Max told his two grandchildren as he exited the RV, briefly being seen walking past the window.
"Hey, you don't sulking back there-", Gwen stomped to the back of the RV that had a curtain attachment, she was then surprised Alex had been sleeping there the entire time. "Oh." She pinched his nose closed which caused him to spring open gasping for air a few seconds after.
"Fuck was that for you, little gremlin?!", Alex snapped annoyed before stopping himself from smacking her, he stood up and popped his neck.
"How was your beauty sleep?", Gwen asked tauntingly.
"Pretty great, you should try it sometime, you'll need it when you're older.", Alex shot back with a smug smirk before he walked over to the fridge.
"So, what did you name that fish alien?", Ben asked curiously. "He looks like a Ripjaws to me."
"Lakelurker, after you tried calling Pummel dumb shit like Four Arms you're not allowed to give out names.", Alex pointed at him accusingly before shutting the fridge. "Eh, fuck it, I'm gonna check out that burger place my sister told me about."
"With what money?", Gwen cocked her eyebrow as Alex shot back with a smirk. "Oh- oh don't you even think about it-"
Alex activated the Omnitrix, scrolling through the aliens he had currently before having to hold Gwen by her head. "I said- don't!", Ben just watched this with amusement as Alex just shrugged before slamming it down with a headbutt.
After the green flash appeared, a disgusting and foul stench filled the air . What stood in his place was a large and green insectoid like creature; he had a tube shaped body with four, crab like legs, his front legs being much larger than the ones behind him. Possessing a large stinger and a massive set of wings that were famed with a dark brown carapace and possessed a massive stinger. With four eye stalks that had bright orange eyes, his finger tips, legs and the tip of the framing were orange and red. Wearing a black and white striped suit, his head particularly being completely black with the Omnitrix on his forehead. "Just watch me."
With that, the mega insect simply stepped out of the rust bucket and flew away with a powerful leap.
Ben and Gwen looked at him fly away in silence for a second. "We are so busted are we?", Ben asked, the ginger just sighed at the question with an obvious answer.
Alex in his current form, Bugbreath, flapped his powerful wings to keep him in the air as he effortlessly soared through it. "Should be right there.", he squinted a bit to see a car in the drive thru of a fast food restaurant simply called Hamburger Stand. "Heh."
A young man in his car tapped the wheel impatiently as window to the restaurant slid open, an employee holding up a bag. "Sorry for the wait, here you-", she shrieked in fright as the young man almost fell to the passenger seat, a large glob of slime had lurched down and stole the bag from her hand.
"Uh... we'll get you another one.", the young woman said nervously as she closed the window.
Bugbreath sat ontop of a building overlooking the Hamburger Stand with a smile evident. "That was a lot easier than running.", he took out a burger and took a bite out of it... only to immediately spit it out as it tasted... wrong. "Oh... so that's what karma is."
Sitting there for a moment, he did the same thing despite his new form's anatomy processing food being... bizarre. If it hadn't had a trail of dust following behind it, a red and black creature sped by at impossible levels of speed. The aftershock shattering the glass of stationary cars. "Huh..."
Unfurling his wings, he leapt into the air with a powerful gust of wind. Flapping his wings even harder to gain more speed, he stopped and allowed the wind to carry him. Of course he wouldn't exactly say he was a speedster, his flight speed was rather impressive, despite this.
The creature was still ahead of him and seemed to be getting even faster. "Huh. Let's try this.", he quickly dived through the air and turned a corner.
The black and red blur kept zooming through the streets, effortlessly dodging the cars that to it, looked like they were completely still. Which suddenly, it almost tore its own legs out of their sockets by the sudden casing of disgusting sludge with the consistency of wet cement wrapped around his ankles.
"Nice get up.", the speedster looked at the mega insect creature floating next to him. The air around him suddenly being bombarded with a horrible stench.
"I- y'know what? I don't care.", the speedster scowled. He wore a red and black suit that was most commonly popular amongst race car drivers, his mask seemingly made out of black cloth with a pair of red goggles. He had a distinct white lighting bolt emblem on his shoulder.
"Wow, dick.", Bugbreath remarked as he picked at his jagged teeth with his slim and sharp fingers. "I always wanted to fight a super villain, so thanks for volunteering!", he inhaled before unleashing a torrent of green slime.
Within a flash of white lightening, the speedster was now ontop of a nearby car. The spot he was originally in now being covered with dangerous spikes made of ice. "Villain? Comme c'est naïf."
"Oh great, you're French.", Bugbreath groaned as he started coughing before unleashing blasts from his eyes again. "Stay still so I can cripple you!", he lunged at him and jabbed it within the spot he once took up. "Did he just get faster?"
"Sorry, but I have business that I can't let you interfere in.", the speedster smirked as he seemingly teleported again as quick dry sludge were sent speeding at him.
"Who the hell do you think you're talking too jackass?!", Bugbreath hissed before ripping off a car door and threw it at incredible speeds, slicing right through a building that the speedster used to redirect the door. Putting both arms forwards, he began performing a counterclockwise circular motion that quickly became a miniature wind tunnel that sucked him into it.
"What the fuck is this??"
"Call me...", Bugbreath was suddenly met with a hand to one of his stalks, he was suddenly dragged through the asphalt at high speeds before being tossed into a parked motorcycle. "La Grange!"
La Grange suddenly dodged a blast of sludge, he stumbled back only to be met with the end of a sharp stinger, La Grange smirked as he vanished, the same car door wrapped around his stinger.
"Huh-?!", faster than he could notice, Bugbreath was suddenly hit with a powerful punch on the side of his stomach. He grits his jagged teeth as he was sent stumbling to the ground, his large wings falling limp as La Grange laughed maniacally.
"Hold still!", he inhaled before he unleashed a torrent of sludge that was so dense and heavy it dented the cars it landed on. La Grange laughed as he effortlessly dodged the constant stream of these shards. Flying into the air, he still trailed the speedster with the slime to make it impossible for him to run.
La Grange smirked before flipping onto a car and bouncing off of it like a springboard. Bugbreath stopped in his tracks before flying off in the opposite direction, much to La Granges amusement. "Fuckin coward! Eh whatever.", he shrugged before speeding off.
Alex completely ignored the insult, something he could easily retaliate with something clever but he decided not to. "15 minutes, almost forgot about that. Would've been bad if I didn't get that second wind.", Bugbreath exhaled as he scratched his head, it didn't take long for him to return to Days In. with one thought on his mind. "Grange... grange."
It sounded so... familiar.
Max was still waiting outside with a key as Days Inn was essentially one of the motels that weren't upgraded with key cards. "Don't tell me he ran off already."
"Eh he'll be back, probably.", the brunette ten year old chimed in as he turned his head and pointed at Alex's approaching figure. "Told ya."
"Where have you been-!", Max was going to berate him as he just shushed him.
"Where's Gwen at, I need her to search up something for me real quick.", Alex says abruptly as he looked around for her.
Max sighed before putting his hand on his shoulder. "Where could you have gotten off too? I thought you ran away."
Alex thought about it for a second. "Well... I was tempted. Instead, I went to go steal some food from some loser and then I dealt with this fucker that went really really fast and-"
"Woah there, slow down.", Max shook him in place to get him to quickly quiet down. "We'll talk about your kleptomania later, tell me about the speeder."
"Yeah did it look like Topgear, it would be kinda cool if it was.", Ben chimed in once again, the two looked at him. "What? I'm being honest."
Alex tilted his head before nodding in agreement, but he knew Max would rather not hear any news about aliens. "Anyways, yeah this dude wore some race suit with a goofy ass mask and was running SUPER fucking fast.", this partially put Max at ease. "I need Gwen's computer to search up the name Grange."
Almost as if on cue, Gwen poked her head out of the room next to them. "You said guy in a race suit... right?", she asked curiously.
"Yeah? Why."
"Get over here.", Gwen gestured them to come forward, the three did and entered her room. Which was relatively small but had two beds. The TV had been on static, occasionally flickering between a familiar figure before snapping to show La Grange with a wide smile on his face.
["Hello! People of America, it's I, the fastest man alive La Grange!", the speedster appeared to be in an empty, outdoor racetrack, gesturing around him he grinned as he showed off a group of people, all some wore similar uniforms and some wore casual business attires, bounded by what looked like wire. ["These .. filthy creatures that caused me to lose so many races here will be a demonstration to those who want to mess with me. So if you like live executions, we'll be right back after these messages! So unless you want me to break your fingers, stay tuned.", he ended the transmission by shattering the camera.
"Yeah that's him.", Alex said as he popped his shoulders. "Better get going then.", he said as he looked at the omnitrix, which was still red. "... amazing."
"Yeah, nice try.", Max smirked as he patted his back roughly. "Let's get going. We might not have much time."
The Rust Bucket sped through the streets of Wyoming quickly as the quarter were conversing on what they would do once they found where it was. That was until Gwen perked up finally. "I cross referenced the background and it's a racetrack in Montana."
"Good to know.", Max says with a smile as Ben was somewhat giddy at the idea of fighting a super villain.
"This is awesome, it's like I'm living through my superhero comics!", Ben exclaimed much to Max's dismay. "I know it's serious but I never thought in a million years I'd get a front row seat for this."
Alex looked at Ben before patting the bizarre child's head. "You are a weird one, anyways, Gwen, what about the name Grange?"
"Oh that one was easy.", Gwen stated much to his surprise as she turned her computer to an article. "His name is Lucio Grange and he's this Uber famous racer... well famous for how many times he lost. This racetrack being one of the loses. He was in this accident recently too."
Ben looked at the article with confusion. "How'd he get his powers anyways? Did he get struck by lightening when he crashed?"
"Nope, nothing but clear skies."
"Oh."
Max looked at Alex in the mirror who shrugged. "Or he didn't get his powers like that at all, with aliens existing, who's to say more of La Grange don't exist either?", with this logic, Ben and Gwen couldn't help but agree.
"Aliens and mutants, cool.", Alex smirked as he popped his shoulder, he looked at the Omnitrix as it had finally turned green. He activated the omnitrix and ticked through the aliens before stopping at a particular one.
"You gonna show that red freak what actual speed is?", Ben inquired with a smug look on his face. To which Alex responded with a grin and pressed down on the core.
After the green flash had erupted, he now stood as a slender, blue, semi armored humanoid reptilian creature with a helmet-like shape surrounding his head, he had sharp growths emerging from his elbows with dark blue talons extending from his hand, almost similar to fingers, he had dorsal fins trailing from the back of his neck to the start of his thick, blue tail with dark grey patterns. He wore a black and white jumpsuit with a black armband. The omnitrix nodule resting on his chest, weirdly enough, he had orbs attached to his feet.
"P-Please Lucio, let us go.", a larger older man with a red hat pleaded as Lucio was sitting in a lawn chair with what looked like some exotic drink in one hand. "It- it wasn't our fault."
"Correction, it's La Grange now and it was your fault. Hiring shitty mechanics costed me the first few races with how they moved like molasses.", La Grange said with his mask slipped over his head.
"Hey fuck you man-!", a mechanic that worked on the team was immediately met with stitches around his mouth that silenced him.
La Grange snarled as he sprinted around the area instantly before appearing again. "You don't understand how humiliating that is! After nearly seventeen goddamn years I finally got a fucking win?! Me! Lucio Grange! I should've been winning! But no, you disgusting freaks kept robbing that from me."
"That's not it at all man what the hell are you talking about.", a woman that looked like she was kidnapped in the middle of diner hissed. "Hell I didn't even do anything! I deal with the finances!"
"Well too fucking bad bitch.", he slipped his mask back on before appearing next to the camera in a red and black blur. "Ready for your live executions?", the speedster grinned as their eyes shot wide open as he turned the camera on. "And welcome back ladies and gentlemen! Now-"
Suddenly the camera was on the floor thanks to a black and blue blur, La Grange scowled as the hostages were shocked at the presence of another speedster. "Who. The hell. Are you?"
La Grange turned to the speedster, which was Alex. "Don't worry about that.", TopGear's visor slid up, revealing a blue face with orange eyes and black markings. "Gotta say, pretty lame set up you got here. A fuckin camera and a stand for it? Nothing more extravagant for shit like this?"
"Listen here you fucking freak, I deserve this! You can't take this away from me!", he exclaimed, for some reason TopGear couldn't help but compare this to a child having a temper tantrum. "These fucking losers screwed me over, I only got a win after I threatened those fucking freaks into throwing the race!"
TopGear stood there as the fully grown man threw a tantrum like a child as he could vaguely see Ben, Gwen and Max standing behind the bleachers waiting for their que.
"HEY!", TopGears attention was snapped back to him. "Are you even listening."
"Nah I can't hear you with that pity dick in your mouth.", TopGear smirked as this seemed to anger the rouge speedster, white electricity surged from his body as TopGear's visor slid down as he clicked his pearl-like orbs. "Let's dance, chickenshit!"
The two suddenly vanished into blurs of black, blue and red streaks that quickly trailed the entire area of the racetrack within moments. The captives looked in horror as they could barely even register what was even happening as the gust of wind that followed them almost knocked the people off.
With this, the Tennysons sprinted over as fast as they could. La Grange getting launched past them, he quickly attempted to get back up and attack only for him to be grabbed by TopGear. "Go go go!", Max exclaimed as he and the two children, now holding wire cutters.
With the speedsters, their fight was far... different in their almost shared perspective of the world. "Why are you stopping me! I earned this!," La Grange said as he pushed the reptilian speedster off of his body and got on all fours to boost himself at the Tennysons. "I'll fucking kill you!"
Once again he was grabbed by the thick tail before being thrown over the group and immediately tackled by TopGear. "C'mon you were talking so much shit earlier!"
"Get off!", La Grange hissed before he unleashed a beam of electricity from his mouth, knocking the speedster back before he quickly recovered. The two immediately started zipping around the area again, TopGear keeping him at bay as the Tennysons tried to get them out.
"Go! Run!", Ben exclaimed as the group of hostages immediately sprouted forward immediately. He trio running along with them.
But to them, they moved as if they were trapped in a block of molasses, which thoroughly annoyed La Grange. "No!", the speedster launched another bolt of electricity at his fellow speedster who quickly flipped over and rushed at him. Snaring his neck with his tail once more he exploded out of the racetrack.
"Let me go!", La Grange attempted to rub his tail hard enough to burn him but realized it was almost like touching a smooth surface. "He can't get friction burns?!", he was eventually tossed forward at high speeds but he immediately caught himself.
The raced across Montana within seconds, bolts of white electricity flying as TopGear simply dodged under them with ease. And it was just then that he noticed... La Grange was slowing down, the electricity flickering as his running form began to degrade as well.
"There we go.", Alex smirked as he rushed at speedster, scooping up a stray rock before slamming it against La Grange's face. His limp body stumbling backwards, his body vibrating as he struggled to stand.
"What's... happening...", Lucio's vision began to blur before looking up at TopGear.
"Looks like you're out of gas, loser.", TopGear mocked before kicking him hard enough to knock him unconscious. "Well, that was fun!", he popped his shoulder before grabbing him and speeding off.
The Tennyson trio sat in the Rust Bucket after the captives were given the time to run to a nearby police station. Of course they sped out of there, Max wasn't willing to deal with any cops that weren't aligned with him in the past.
"He's taking a little bit.", Max stated casually.
Gwen shrugged. "He hasn't tried him in fights like this, he'll be gone for another few minutes.", a red flash erupted outside as she immediately corrected herself. "Second. Few seconds."
Alex opened the door to the RV with a smug face. "Wasgud everyone?", he said rubbing his sore jaw.
"That was so cool! How did it look for you guys?! Were we slow because you guys were so fast like in the Thunderrush comics?!", Ben shook Alex violently before he was then grabbed by the teenager.
"Yea."
"YEAAAAA!"
Max looked at him with a smile. "Not bad, Alex.", he said with a smile as Alex gave a measly thumbs up. The older man turned on the RV before pulling out and driving off back to Wyoming.
/End/