"Six stories of twists and turns," said Ben excitedly.
"Hurdling down a two-hundred-foot plunge," Gwen continued with glee.
"At speeds of over twenty-five miles per hour!"
"Then splashing down in a churning three hundred-thousand-gallon wave pool!"
"You've entered the Riptide Rapid zone!" Ben and Gwen shouted in unison with a high-five.
"Seriously, you two, it's just a waterslide," said Trixie blandly.
The next stop on the Tennyson national tour was sunny Florida where the temperature was humid, the people were topless (men and women), and had the highest number of sea monster attacks in the country, not including the occasional Aquaman villain.
Rather than visiting the offshore city of Atlantis and study it technological marvels like Trixie wanted to, Ben and Gwen outvoted her and instead chose to spend the afternoon at a waterpark, which really made no sense to Trixie. If the wanted to play in water, why not do it in the ocean? But nonetheless, they were now standing in front of one of the waterparks main attractions – the Riptide Rapids – wearing swimsuits they had just bought since Trixie didn't have any; Ben in his blue swim trunks, Gwen in a pink and gray one-piece suit, and Trixie wearing a matching green and black suit.
"It's not just any waterslide, it's THE waterslide," said Ben, turning to Trixie like she had said something offensive.
"Reviewers online say it's the number one waterslide in the country," added Gwen.
"I still don't see the appeal of sliding uncontrollably down a plastic tube into a body of water miles below with the possibility of breaking a bone or getting cramped and drowning," said Trixie bluntly.
"Geez, why did we even bring her along?" Ben asked Gwen, frowning. "She's such a killjoy. Well, she did get your DNA – OW!" he yelped when Gwen slapped him.
"Well, Trixie, it's completely up to you whether you want to join us or not," said Gwen understandingly, grabbing Ben and pulling him by the wrist. "If you change your mind, we'll be riding the rapids all day."
"Yeah, you do that," said Trixie dryly, waving to the Tennysons cousins as they ran up the stairway excitedly. When they were out of sight, Trixie looked around cautiously and ducked behind the nearby concession stand so that nobody would notice her. "Meanwhile, I'll be spending my time doing something worthwhile. If I transform into an Aerophibian, I should be able to reach Atlantis, study of its technology, and return before any of them noticed I left. Accessing Aerophibian sequence!"
She had been expecting green eyes and yellow palagium connected to her wrists and ankles. What Trixie had NOT been expecting was to look up and see that the concession stand was a hundred times larger than normal, or for her skin to feel moist and slimy, or her eyelids to blink in the wrong direction.
Fear started to creep up in Trixie's chest; she needed a mirror or something similar. She spotted a puddle nearby and padded over, looking into the reflection on the surface to see –
"A Galvan," squeaked Trixie; her voice was incredibly high pitched. "Are you kidding me? Screwing up is supposed to be Benjamin's thing, not mine! Ugh, and it's a full transformation, too! My first real full transformation and I get stuck being a micro munchkin!" She took a deep breath, calming herself down. "It's okay, Trixie, it's okay. All you have to do is deactivate the transformation; simple as that. Okay…Initiate Omnitrix Deactivation Sequence – Code 10!"
She waited for the code sequence to activate…and nothing happened; Trixie frowned.
"Well, that's not good," she remarked
Suddenly, the ground began to quake, nearly knocking Trixie off her webbed feet. She looked around and spotted a group of at least a dozen children stampeding in the direction of the Riptide Rapids attraction…and headed straight towards her!
"I knew we should have gone to Atlantis!" screamed Trixie.
Trixie barely ducked out of the way of the first set of feet from a particularly…rotund child, sidestepped a couple of girls after, tapping in circles around an unnaturally pimply boy, and ducked between the legs of the last child. Once she was in the clear, Trixie scrambled to her feet, running after the swarm of children, and threw herself to latch on the edge of one of the children's swim trunks. The boy thankfully didn't notice the frog-like alien hitchhiking on his leg as he carried Trixie up the steep stairway to the top of the waterslide.
"I need to get to Benjamin and Gwendolyn quickly," Trixie muttered to herself.
By catching a lift with the swarm of chattering children, Trixie was able to make it to the top of Riptide Rapids in a couple minutes. She let go of the boy's swim trunks once she reached the top and ran around the edge of the clustering group of children waiting for a turn on the waterslide, keeping her wide eyes peeled for a redheaded girl and a boy with a watch.
While she was looking for her friends, Trixie was oblivious to the nerdy man in a life vest talking to the obviously bored attendant.
"In 1951, when this waterpark was a cornfield," said the nerdy man. "Recently declassified documents suggest an alien spacecraft crash landed right here. So, if you could get someone from upper management down here so I could start checking soil samples."
"Uh, hold on while I call someone who cares," said the attendant mockingly, making a phone gesture with his hands. "Ring, ring, ring – oh, guess what, dude? No answer. Next in line!"
The nerdy man glared at the attendant when he notices a hint of movement in his peripheral vision. At the last second, he managed to catch the smallest glimpse of Trixie in her Galvan form before she disappeared into the crowd.
"Did you see that?" gasped the nerdy man, pointing to where Trixie had been. The attendant looked back, but Trixie was already hiding behind the pole. "An alien! Maybe a remnant of that faithful crash."
"Dude, you've been in the sun way too long," said the attendant.
Annoyed by the attendant, the nerdy man shoved him out of the way and tried to make a run at Trixie, who made a run for Ben and Gwen, who were arguing which of them should go down the waterslide first.
"I should, I'm the oldest!" argued Gwen.
"Dude we're the same age – we have the same birthday!" snapped Ben, getting up close to his cousin's face.
"But I was born first!" retorted Gwen.
"By twenty seconds," growled Ben.
"Benjamin, Gwendolyn, help me!" yelped Gray Matter-Trixie, bouncing up to their shoulders.
The Tennyson cousins screamed in surprise, unintentionally tripping backwards and falling into the waterslide together with Trixie just as the nerdy man reached them. Ben and Gwen smacked against each other repeatedly as they shot through the curving pipe – this ride really was only meant for one person at a time – while Trixie struggled to keep her head above the rushing water. Thankfully, the waterslide was just as fast as advertised and spat Trixie into the wading pool in eight seconds flat. Trixie splashed and sputtered when she surfaced.
"Okay, I'll admit, that was a little fun," said Trixie.
Trixie noticed the large shadow looming over her and looked up with a gasping scream as the combination of Ben and Gwen started to fall on top of her. The trapped Galvan girl managed to dive out of the way in time before they both splashed down. The cousins shot up out of the water, groaning at their sore bodies, and looked down at Trixie with odd stares.
"Uh, Trixie, why're you a Gray Matter?" asked Gwen.
"If you wanted to go on the slide, you coulda just come with us," said Ben."
"I wasn't trying to sneak on the stupid waterslide!" snapped Trixie, splashing her fists in the water. "I was trying to sneak out and visit someplace I would actually like to spend my day at. But when I tried to transform, I somehow ended up as a Galvan, and a full-body transformation at that. I had no idea what to do, so I went looking for you two."
"Can't you just change back?" asked Gwen.
"I tried that, but it didn't work," said Trixie, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "This has never happened before. I've never had any difficulties accessing the Codon Stream through the Omnitrix's receiver…. Unless someone was tampering with the selection matrix and ended up screwing the navi-processor." She and Gwen immediately turned to Ben, who was whistling nonchalantly. "BENJAMIN!"
"Okay, okay, I admit I was messing with the watch last night," said Ben, holding his hands up in surrender. "I just wanted to see if I could change between aliens while transformed." Gwen and Trixie glared even harder. "Look, the watch is on a timer, right? Maybe we can just wait it out and Trixie'll go back to normal."
"Well…it's probably the best idea we got," Gwen admitted. "We should probably towel off and find grandpa, or in your case, napkin off."
Ben and Gwen waded to the stairs on the side of the pool, which took a bit longer for Trixie to accomplish since she had shorter limbs than them. But before she reached the first step, Trixie was suddenly pulled up by her nape and came face-to-face with the nerdy man from the top of the slide.
"There you are, my little alien ticket to fame," said the nerdy man.
"Benjamin! Gwendolyn!" Trixie called out for help.
Ben and Gwen, who were toweling themselves off, quickly spun around and spotted the man holding their friend in his clenched fist.
"Let her go!" demanded Ben, holding up the Omnitrix in view "Or you're in for the beat down of a lifetime!"
The Nerdy man paused for a few seconds…then started splashing to the other end of the pool.
"Oh, this guy just made a huge mistake," said Ben threateningly. "Let's see how he likes it when Arctiguana turns him into an ice sculpture." He pressed the activation button…and nothing happened. He tried again, but still nothing. "Oh, come on, why do you always have to bug out on me at the worse times, you stupid watch! Gwen, can't you - "
"I left my charm back in the RV!" yelped Gwen.
"Then I guess we got no choice," said Ben as he started running around the edge of the pool. "We'll take him down the old-fashioned way."
The nerdy man jumped out of the pool as the Tennysons came around the bend. He ran over to a nearby table where there just happened to be an open cooler for no explainable reason and stuffed Trixie inside before taking it with him. He ran past Grandpa Max, who was just coming back with ice cream for everyone, when his grandchildren suddenly run up to him.
"Grandpa, that guy's got Trixie!" shouted Gwen urgently.
"What? How?" asked Max confused.
"She accidentally turned into Gray Matter and now he's stealing her!" said Ben quickly. "We gotta save her!"
Max didn't need any further explanation than that, dumping the ice cream cones in the nearby trash can and leading the way after the kidnapper. Trixie continued to shout for help, much to the nerdy man's irritation, when he looked back and realized that the children had enlisted the help of an older man that looked like he could snap him in two. The nerdy man doubled his speed as he shoved his way through the crowds at the front gate.
Meanwhile, Grandpa Max suddenly stopped and leaned over on his knees, breathing very hard, as Ben and Gwen stood around him in concern.
"I keep forgetting I'm not as young as I used to be," said Max tiredly. "Go – get Trixie."
Ben and Gwen nodded in acknowledgement and continued the chase.
Unfortunately, by the time they reached the parking lot, the nerdy man had already slammed the trunk of his worn-out and slightly rusted car shut with Trixie still pounding her fists against the cooler, demanding freedom. They heard the engines turning over and the sound of screeching tires before they watched helplessly as the kidnapper zipped out onto the main road. Out of desperation, Ben tried to activate the Omnitrix again, but the watch refused work for him and Ben raised his arm prepared to slam the device into the wall.
"Hey, easy there," said Gwen calmly, grabbing his wrist before he hurt himself. "Don't worry, we're gonna find Trixie…somehow."
"I just hope it's not too late," said Ben worriedly.
It was not known how far the nerdy man had driven until he reached the safety of his own home, which had an unnecessarily elaborate security system if you asked any normal people.
When he rode up the driveway, the security camera over his garage zoomed in on his face before the doors automatically shut behind him. After that, there was a very wide security laser grid that covered almost every inch of the house from the hallways, to the kitchen, to even the upstairs toilet. This man was beyond paranoid, and he didn't have anything worth taking that required this much protection – everyone just though he lost touch with reality given all of his alien conspiracy theories.
"Security system off," said the nerdy man.
The laser grid deactivated and he stepped through the hallways with his shoes tracking water all over the floor; it was cleaned up shortly by a pair of vacuum robots. He walked into the kitchen, where he set the cooler on the counter.
"Lights on. Prepare dinner."
The kitchen lights flicked on and the microwave started cooking a pathetic-looking TV dinner. A white cat then jumped on the counter and wandered curiously to the cooler, smelling the contents inside, then hissed and started swiping at the box with its claws. The nerdy man turned back and snatched the cooler away.
"No, no, this one is all mine," said the nerdy man.
The Rust Bucket was tearing through the streets looking for the car that drove away with Trixie based on the description Ben and Gwen had given, but they had had no luck thus far finding it in the past twenty minutes.
"Okay, so if she's Gray Matter now," said Ben hopefully, "she'll just turn back into Trixie, then just go Rath or something and escape."
"But if she went alien when you said she did," Max said with a hint of doubt in his voice, "Trixie should have changed back before she was taken."
"Which means something must be wrong with her transformation," said Ben worriedly.
"And we all know who to thank for that, don't we?" said Gwen, leering at back from the back as she put on her lucky charm.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay," said Ben exasperatedly. "I want to find Trixie more than anyone, so I already feel bad enough."
"Well, at least as Gray Matter, she's smart enough to take care of herself," said Gwen optimistically.
Gray Matter-Trixie sat cross-legged in her new glass container/prison, narrowing her bulbous eyes with every ounce of hate she could muster in her tiny body at the nerdy man examining her from overhead with an excited smile and his hands clapping eagerly.
"Incredible," said the nerdy man. "Truly incredible. A perfectly miniature alien being."
"Who're you calling miniature?" spat Trixie. "I'll have you know, I'm the size of an average Galvan."
"A Galvan, huh?" said the nerdy man enthusiastically. "Is that the name of your species? Which galaxy do you come from?"
"If you must know, this species comes from Galvan Prime in the Abell 2667 cluster," explained Trixie snidely, who was starting to feel very uncomfortable with the man staring very closely at her. "You know, you are really creepy just looking at me like that without blinking for the last two minutes. What's that expression you humans have? 'Take a picture, it'll last longer' or something like that?"
"You know, that's actually a really great idea," said the nerdy man with a confident chuckle.
The nerdy man whipped out his smartphone and took a quick picture of Trixie's heated glare while the Galvan crossed her arms, kicking the glass despite knowing it wouldn't do any good.
There was a mansion further up the state that looked more like a medieval castle rather than any home. The lawns immaculately trimmed, the windows made from stained glass, and the décor made up of fancy woven tapestries of knights and dragons and heavy suits of armors standing at attention in the halls.
Deep inside the castle was a spacious and mostly barren room where only a lonesome mahogany desk stood and a man sat in front of the open laptop in front of it. The man dressed in old fashioned knightly garbs with an ancient coat of arms on his chest while his face was concealed behind a cowl and a golden mask.
Though his face could not be seen, but voice only showed his displeasure at the video call he was receiving.
"Mr. Howell," said the knight, "we've more than had enough of your fuzzy claims and blurry photos of supposed alien spaceships. I'm not someone you want to annoy."
"I – I know that," said the nerdy man, know identified as Howell, nervously. "But – but this one's different. I promise you." He brings up the image of Trixie in her Galvan form. "See? She's only about six inches in size and converses fluently in English. Perhaps the Forever Knights would consider?"
"…I'm sending a car," said the knight after a moment of thought, much to Howell's elation. "You better not be wasting our time, or our resources."
"Great," groaned Trixie, slumping against the glass wall, pouting. "A thousand people at the waterpark and the UFO freak spots me. I didn't even want to go to the waterpark in the first place."
Resting her chin on her palm, Trixie's eyes wandered the room under she heard a soft meow. Howell's cat was sitting underneath her, staring at Trixie intently.
"Wait…this could work," she hummed. "Just need to channel my inner Benjamin." She waved her arms and yelled as loudly and annoyingly as she could. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty! C'mon! You know you want a taste! What are you, a cat or a mouse?"
The cat took the bait, jumping up on the desk and swiping at Trixie with its paws. The jar was knocked over the edge and smashed on the floor; Trixie was lucky enough that none of the glass shards touched her.
"I knew mimicking Benjamin's annoying habits would come in handy one day," said Trixie.
Unfortunately, the cleaning robots responded to the mess and started sweeping towards her. A the same time, the cat jumped down from the desk and blocked up Trixie's escape route.
"I guess this is what humans refer to as 'between a rock and a hard place'," she said, grimacing.
Not liking her odds about running at the cat, Trixie hopped over the first cleaning robot and then the second robot that came after that, safely making it to the doorway undusted. However, the vacuum's seemed to have a developed motion sensor as they swiftly turned around and started chasing the Galvan. Trixie turned down the hall with the machines right on her tail just as Howell walked out of his room, holding his smartphone like it was a microphone.
"Howell Wayneright, alien discoverer," said Howell dramatically. "Let the fame and fortune begin!" But when he walked into his office and saw the Galvan missing, he cried out. "NOOOOOO!"
Meanwhile, Trixie ran into the kitchen, still being chased by the mechanical vacuum monsters.
The roaming cleaners were starting to catch up to her until Trixie hopped on the handles of the far side cabinets and bounced on top of the counters out of the sweeper's reach. And as another stroke of good fortune, Trixie just happened to have found a landline phone only a few inches away. The Galvan pulled out the phone and started dialing a number she had memorized. She pressed her ear against receiver, listening for the first two rings, until a familiar voice came through.
"Hello?" Gwen answered questionably, not recognizing the number.
"Gwendolyn, it's me," said Trixie.
"Trixie, you're still Gray Matter?" asked Gwen in concern.
"Yes, the selection matrix still hasn't repaired itself from Ben's tampering," answered Trixie. She could hear Max and Gwen scolding Ben over the phone.
"Where are you?" asked Gwen.
The Galvan looked around, spotting the nearby window, and had to lug the device all the way across the counter. She set the phone on the windowsill while narrowing her eyes at the scenery outside.
"Uh – there appears to be a mountain peak thirteen-point-two miles due west with a vertical angle of forty-five degrees- "
"Brainiac, how about a street?" said Gwen impatiently.
"Oh yeah, it's Ripley," answer Trixie, narrowing her eyes on the street sign and leaning forward against the glass.
Unfortunately, a blaring red alarm triggered the moment Trixie's hand touched the glass, ringing madly throughout the whole house (was this guy paranoid or what?)
The Galvan flipped back when a pair of shutters dropped from the top of the window and slammed shut. Unfortunately, she unknowingly knocked into the phone and ends up throwing the device off the counter, where it smashed on the floor. Trixie grimaced at her own clumsiness when she noticed that the alarm suddenly clicked off and Howell pounced from out of nowhere, slapping a hand on top of Trixie before she has a chance to make a break for it.
For a brief moment, Howell looked relieved…until he felt something crawling up his shirt and a bulge sliding in circles around the man's body (Galvans didn't have a gag reflex, which Trixie was ultimately grateful for as she was forced to crawl through his sweaty pits).
Howell slapped at the areas where the bulge was crawling, only result in him hitting himself, when Trixie hopped out from his collar and landed on the floor. She ran towards the corner of the room and hopped into the air vent, hoping to put some distance between herself and the alien fanatic. Unfortunately, Howell didn't seem to have screwed the vent cover properly as he was able to rip it off without trying.
Howell reached inside and took a swipe at Trixie. He missed at first, but ultimately caught her when she tried to run away again. Before he could pull her out, Trixie bit down on Howell's thumb and forced him to let go while the man's pathetic whine echoed behind her. When reaching the end of the vent, she started crawling upwards using the Galvan's ability to cling to any surface, grumbling under her breath as she did so.
"How does Benjamin always manage to get me into these situations," she said. "Only he could malfunction the selection matrix, probably by tampering with the DNA splicing replicator cupping an amino acid sequence. When I find him, I'm gonna give him a firm lecture on handling the Omnitrix properly…. Ah that's not gonna work. I've already tried that sixteen times."
Trixie reached the top of the ventilation system in short time, but before she could decide which direction she should go next, she heard a clinking noise at the end of the vent followed by the whirling of fan blades. Howell must have turned on the air conditioner.
The tiny Galvan stood little chance against what may as well have been gale force winds compared to her size and was sent flying through the ventilation system, smacking very loudly against the paneling. After being throw backwards, forward, left, and right, Trixie manages to catch a ventilation grate at the last second. Struggling against the wind, Trixie pulled the grate latch, causing the bars to flap open.
Trixie let out a relieved sigh until she realizes that not only was she back in the kitchen, but Howell had been waiting for her with a broom in hand.
"Gotcha!" he shouted, taking a swing at her.
"You are persistent, I'll give you that much!" shouted Trixie as she leapt out of the way.
She landed on the counter and jumped away as Howell took another swing at her, bouncing over to the sink. Howell ran at her in a panic when the Galvan jumped inside and cried out when Trixie slipped into the hole.
"If she gets away, the Forever Knights will come after me!" said Howell nervously. "Come on, think, Howell."
He tilts his head up when he noticed the faucet and smiled cunningly. He turned the water on and the flow drowned the tiny Galvan inside, pushing Trixie through the rusty pipes until she came out of what appeared to be a large body of water. Trixie quickly surfacec, taking a desperate gasp of air, and looks around her new environment. She shudders disgustedly when she realizes that the body…was actually the bowl of Howell's toilet.
"Benjamin is so dead when I see him again," Trixie promised.
Though Trixie had given them a street name to follow, it didn't help since there were at least four different Ripleys in the city. Having no other choice but to search every one of them, Max parked the Rust Bucket on Ripley Avenue and everyone promptly got out.
"Everyone spread out," ordered Max. "If you find Trixie, call out."
They split up and started searching the different houses.
Max runs through the yards of one of the closest homes and peered through the front windows just as the sprinkler system comes on and splashed him in the face, effectively driving him off. Gwen went around the side of another house and tried peeking through a basement window when a spider drops in her line of sight and frightened the young girl away. Ben poked his head over a high wooden fence, checking the backyards, when a dog suddenly popped up and barked in his face, causing the boy to fall flat on his back.
All three of them end up running back to the Rust Bucket, looking pathetically defeated.
Back at Howell's home, the nerdy man had finally escalated from freaky alien weirdo to full-blown stalker creep.
Apparently, he had installed security cameras in every corner of his house: in the closest, under the bed, in his sock drawer, and even in the shower faucets. He was watching every camera's feed on the monitors of his barren, darkened bedroom.
"You can run, but you can't hide," said Howell like a stereotypical villain. After a few minutes of searching, he spotted the Galvan crawling along the wall of the basement, throwing open the panel for the main power switch. "Wait? What?"
Trixie grinned smugly at the camera before she pulled the switch down, shutting off all the power in Howell's ridiculously high-tech house and throwing everything into darkness, much to Howell's distress.
With the house in a total blackout, Trixie found the perfect opportunity to plan her escape. She made her way to the living room where she found a place to hide inside the branches of the potted plant. Unfortunately, Howell was very determined not to let Trixie get away, emerging from his room waving a flashlight around.
Trixie slipped back underneath the branches as the light waved across her hiding spot, thankfully going unnoticed by the nerd. She poked her head out again and spotted the small chimney on the opposite side of the room, noting the narrow pipe that went straight to the ceiling.
"Ah, my ticket out of here," said Trixie softly.
She dived out of the plant and went along the back of the tacky orange couch. Unfortunately, she somehow managed to attract Howell's attention as he flashed his light at her spot, only just missing her when she ducked out of sight.
"Don't make this hard on yourself," said Howell threateningly.
After a few agonizing minutes, Howell finally moved on, giving Trixie the chance to run for the chimney.
She crawled into the mouth and climbed her way up when she realized her path was blocked off. Trixie looked around, spotted a small latch, and threw her body against it to push the panel open. Her plan worked as the pipe was now opened, but the noise quickly caught Howell's attention as he turned back around, and flashed his light on Trixie just as she started crawling up the tube. Howell gritted his teeth in annoyance, running back to the kitchen for a few seconds before coming back with a box of matches.
"I'll smoke you out if I have to!" he yelled.
The nerdy man struck a match and set the logs aflame, creating great plumes of smoke that climbed up the pipe. Trixie was hallway up the chimney before she felt her breathing becoming more restricted and her eyes watered irritably. Galvans were amphibious by nature and did not take well to heat and smoke.
Trixie stared hopelessly at the opening just ahead – she was only feet away from freedom – but the smoke clouded her vision and her head started to feel fuzzy; the smoke insulation was addling her brain. She lost her grip on the pipe and fell down the chimney. Thankfully, she was saved from being burned to a crisp by Howell holding out a butterfly net to catch her.
The nerdy man carried Trixie back into his workshop where he stuffed her into a glass compartment before she could regain her sense. She blinked to relive herself of the disorientation and took another look around her newest prison…and the dozens of creepy alien figurines and collectable that only nerds would buy.
"Something tells me you don't have a whole lot of friends," said Trixie snarky.
"Who needs friends when you have the fame I'm about to have," retorted Howell aggressively. Just then, they heard the front door slam open; Howell gasped. "They're here."
"Who's here?" asked Trixie curiously.
Her question was soon answered when the door was kicked open and three men dressed in armor with silver masks very poorly disguised underneath trench coats and fedoras clanked into the room. One of the armored men was carrying a small, electrified container that Trixie couldn't help noticing was just about her size.
"Oh, you don't know how long I've waited to meet you people," said Howell in both relief and excitement, holding his hand out. "It's truly an honor."
"Where's the alien?" asked the minion impatiently.
Howell is slightly put off by their antagonistic words, but still turned to the compartment where Trixie is being contained. The knights saw the alien, shoved Howell roughly out of the way, and snatched Trixie out of her prison before throwing her inside their electrified container. The entire time, Howell just stood on the sidelines as the Forever Knights took Trixie away.
Back with the Tennysons, the Rust Bucket drove down the third Ripley street when Ben gasped and pointed out the window, spotting a familiar green car on the side of the road.
"Grandpa, that's his car!" shouted Ben urgently.
Grandpa Max slammed his foot on the break, bringing the Rust Bucket to a screeching halt in front of the house. Ben was the first to jump out of the RV, having grown more restless the longer Trixie was missing, with Gwen and Max bringing up the rear. They ran up to the door and Ben went for the handle, unsurprisingly finding it locked.
"Maybe we should ring the doorbell," suggested Gwen.
"I'll knock," said Max as he raised his foot off the ground. "Hard."
He kicks the door in, nearly busting it off the hinges, but they are surprised to find that instead of a nerdy alien-hunting freak waiting for them, they are greeted by an elderly woman in a wheelchair with a very angry, very snarling attack dog.
"Brutus, sick, boy!" snapped the old lady.
The snarling attack dog leapt at Grandpa Max with its amazingly clean and very sharp teeth snapping at the elderly man's face, pushing him down on his back in the walkway.
While her grandfather wrestled with the attack dog, Gwen spotted a trio of non-discreet people dressed in armor coming out of the house across the street getting into the polished black car in the driveway. With her sharp eyes, she also spotted the kidnapper from the waterpark being dragged into the vehicle by one of the knights and Trixie in Galvan form trapped inside an electric box before being thrown in the car.
"It's him!" yelled Gwen, pointing in that direction. "The guy that's got Trixie!"
The Forever Knight's car pulled out of the driveway and screeches down the road.
"They're getting away!" shouted Ben. He tapped the Omnitrix's activation button for what must have been the hundredth time that day, but it core still wouldn't work. "C'mon, you stupid watch. Give me Fasttrack!"
"Ugh, down, boy!" grunted Max, shoving the dog off and tapping him lightly on the top of his head, putting the dog to sleep.
"Whoa, where'd you learn to do that?" asked Gwen impressively.
"You'd be amazed how many dogs don't like plumbers," said Max, gently setting the dog in the grass before standing up. "Come on, we need to find out where they went."
Trixie sat in uncomfortable silence in the Forever Knight's car, unable to move more than a couple inches without shocking herself on the electrified walls. She noticed that Howell looked very excited to be here – he was fidgeting recklessly in his seat – but the Forever Knights barely moved at all since they got in the car. They must have had a strong amount of discipline to be still as statues, something that Trixie knew was not normal human behavior.
"I have a very bad feeling about this, as you humans like to say," said Trixie.
"That's because you're the one in the cages and I'm not," said Howell mockingly.
In no time at all, they arrived at the Forever Knight's castle mansion where the car parked at the front entrance. They all stepped out as the Forever Knights carried Trixie and shoved Howell inside.
Max poked his head through the vertical window of Howell's garage, spotting the nerdy man's rusty and broken-down car, commenting how he and the old lady had similar tastes in cars. Ben wasn't paying attention though; he was worried about Trixie and where those creeps in the armor might have taken her.
He started pacing around Howell's front lawn when his foot connected with something solid, knocking it out of the grass and sliding in the driveway. It was Howell's smartphone which he somehow inexplicably dropped when he was dragged out of his house. Ben picked it up while Gwen and Max looked over his shoulder, somehow able to turn it on without needing a password (which seemed unusual for a paranoid guy like Howell.) They immediately found the picture of Trixie he had taken for the Forever Knights.
"She looks so sad," said Gwen.
"They can't do this to her!" said Ben angrily. "When I find this creep, I'm so gonna kick his butt!"
"Check his call history," suggested Max. "If we can figure out who he last talked to, we might be able to get a reverse trace on their number and get an address."
"Grandpa, there's a sneaky side to you I'm starting to appreciate," said Gwen in amazement.
The silver-masked henchmen guided Howell and Trixie until they reach the office of their golden-faced leader (somehow masks determined rank, or Trixie thought that way at least). They set the electrified cage in front of their leader, who stared at the Galvan with his fingers steepled like a villain. Trixie didn't like the fact that she couldn't see his face; it made her feel even more powerless than she already was.
"Remarkable specimen," said the golden-masked leader.
"Isn't it?" Howell chuckled with glee. "So, how're we doing this? Joint news conference? Bidding the major talk shows?"
"We prefer to keep our discoveries private," said the golden-masked leader.
"B – wh – h – What're you talking about?" sputtered Howell. "We've got to tell the world about this."
"Actually, we don't have to do anything," said the golden-masked leader.
It is at that point a pair of scientists in armored hazmat suits walked into the room pushing an electronic cart, shoving Howell out of their path. The scientists took Trixie's cage off their leader's desk and locked it firmly in the slot on the electronic cart.
"Wha – Where're you taking her?" asked Howell, actually showing some concern for a change.
"Our scientists have a few tests to run," the golden-masked leader explained simply as his men carried the Galvan out of the room.
"I found her!" said Howell forcefully. "She belongs to me!"
"She's ours now," said the golden-masked leader coolly. "And you just became disposable."
Without a moment's hesitation, the remaining armored henchmen grabbed Howell, dragged him out of their leader's office, and threw him down the stairs. Howell cringed in pain as the two goons watched him from their position at the top of the stairs, cautiously getting up to his feet.
"They can't do this," said Howell, gritting his teeth. "To either of us."
Just then, a third armored henchman came through the door behind him, but Howell slammed his shoulder into the door, throwing the minion back where he came from while the nerdy man ran down the hall.
Outside the Forever Knight's castle, several guards were patrolling the grounds around the building, carrying weapons that looked like spears, but were obviously improved with high-tech equipment. With a little bit of stealth and a lot of luck from Gwen's charm, the Tennyson's managed to make it to the edge of the castle undetected. Gwen had slipped into her Lucky Girl outfit, expecting to have to fight a lot of goons to break inside, but Ben's Omnitrix still refused to work for him, meaning he would have to rely on his own skills if he wanted to help.
"Whoa, this isn't a house, it's a fortress," said Ben. "Are they having a costume party or something?"
"They call themselves the Forever Knights," said Max seriously. "A well-financed secret society dedicated to collecting alien technology." Ben and Gwen were staring at their grandfather skeptically. "Uh – hey, when you've been around as long as I have, you pick up a few things."
Ben and Gwen decide to ask questions later. Right now, they needed to focus on saving Trixie.
Once again, through the power of Lucky Girl's charm, they were able to luck their way through the guards undetected and climbed their way up a tall tree just on the side of the castle tall enough to reach the roof. They ducked their heads underneath the foliage when a guard came by and waited for him to pass before they sidled along one of the thickest branches to the nearby rampart.
Ben and Lucky Girl had no trouble walking along it, but Grandpa Max's weight put a lot of pressure on the branch, threatening to break at any moment. Thankfully, the branch managed to hold out long enough for the three of them to climb over the wall. Ben and Lucky Girl landed on their feet, but Max was less gracious and ended up falling on his side…right in front of a roaming guard.
"Uh, hi there," said Max.
The guard raised his spear to slam down on top of Max's head, but the elderly man rolled out of the way at the same time that Lucky Girl's charm glowed.
The butt of the spear wedged itself in a crack on the floor, keeping the knight from pulling his weapon out. Max used this chance to right himself and tried fighting the guard hand-to-hand, proving to be a very adept fighter as he to caught the knight's leg and threw him at the wall. Unfortunately, the guard was much quicker than him even underneath that heavy armor and tackled Max in the stomach, knocking him on the floor.
Ben was tapping his Omnitrix furiously even though he knew it was useless at this point when Gwen's lucky charm activated again. Somehow, the guard's spear dislodged itself out of the crack and fell sideways into Ben's open arms. The young boy blinked for a moment…then ran straight at the guard carrying the spear over his shoulder.
"Hey, metal head!" shouted Ben.
The guard turned around moments before Ben's swung the spear across his face, his helmet ringing, and the knight dropping unconscious on the ground, much to Max's relief.
The armored scientists dragged Trixie into a desolate room where only a single spotlight shined down from the ceiling onto what looked like a heavily modified surgery table with lots of winding coils and sharp, pointy objects on movable arms.
Trixie didn't even have to ask what they were going to do to her when one of the scientists moved around and strapped something to the table. It was a wooden doll bearing a scary resemblance to her Galvan form. The scientist then moved a lens-like device in front of his face and three cables separated from the main machine, each one shooting a small laser. The cables seem to come to life as they seamlessly sliced through the wooden doll with great precision; Trixie gulped audibly.
"Prepare the subject for dissection," one of the scientists commanded.
"What is with you creepy scientists and dissections," said Trixie. "You know, this is what leads people to becoming serial killers."
The scientist grabbed Trixie from her container and strapped her to the table despite her feeble efforts. All the while, neither of them noticed the other scientist being knocked out by a shadowy figure the moment he opened the door. The unknown assailant slipped inside the darkened chamber as the remaining scientists started to initiate the surgical sequence of the machine.
"Y-y-you know, if you want to know what a Galvan's insides look like," stammered Trixie fretfully as the cables came to life, "I can just tell you in extreme detail. Trust me, you don't need do bother with the whole cutting me open thing."
The lead scientist ignored the Galvan's protests and started to turn on the lasers when someone jumped out of the shadows and hit him over the head in with a fire extinguisher. When the scientist was unconscious, the man revealed himself to be Howell Wayneright, the very man who put her in this situation.
"What're you doing?" questioned Trixie.
"Getting you out of here," said Howell.
He fumbled with the controls of the surgery machine for a quick moment, making Trixie fear that he would bungle it up somehow and do the Forever Knight's job for them. But thankfully, he proved to be mildly adept at the mechanics and managed to slice off the braces holding down her arms when the doors opened again and more scientists carrying glass jars (no doubt to hold her organs) came through the door. Seeing Howell tampering with their machines, the scientists drop the jars and charged the man.
"Back off!" yelled Howell. "Aliens are people too…well, sorta."
He fiddled with the machine again and used the extended arms to lift the scientists off the ground up to the ceiling. While they were busy, Howell helped Trixie loosen the restraints holding down her legs and then carefully carried her in his hand. Trixie was suspicious that Howell might be planning to betray her again, but it was better than being sliced open, that much was certain.
Just when they thought it was safe to escape, one of the scientists that Howell knocked out regained consciousness and hit the nerdy man over the head. Howell hit the ground hard and Trixie rolled out of his extended hand. The scientist stepped over Howell's body and chased the Galvan when she started running, but Howell suddenly grabbed him by the ankle and wrestled him to the ground. This provided Trixie with ample time to escape.
The pint-sized alien slipped into the hall through a sliding wall, having no clue where she was supposed to head for next. Feeling rather indecisive, Trixie just ran in any direction and ended up smacking into someone's legs. For a brief second, Trixie feared she might have run into one of the Forever Knights. But relief washed over her when she gazed up and saw Ben's face with Lucky Girl and Max hanging over his shoulder.
"Trixie!" yelled Ben happily.
"Benjamin!" said Trixie, surprised. The young boy carefully picked her up, holding her close to his face…which she immediately slapped with her tiny hand. "That's for causing this mess in the first place!"
"Ow!" whined Ben, rubbing his cheek. "How can that hurt when you're so small?"
"Let's save that for after we get out of here," said Lucky Girl urgently.
Ben and Trixie silently agreed as the Tennysons turned back the way they came, slipping into another hallway between a pair of suits of armors. They paused for a moment when a group of security guards passed overhead before slipping down the side corridor. Unfortunately, a group of guards were heard clanking at the end of the hall. Max quickly opened the nearest door, gesturing Ben and Lucky Girl inside, and shut it behind them as the guards passed by.
The room they entered was dark at first, but a light glowed underneath their feet and started to spread in a spider web patter, revealing several display cases with dozens of machines and devices that didn't look like they could ever be created by earth technology.
"Look at all this alien tech," said Trixie, looking just as astonished as the Tennysons as they wandered through the display cases. "Sweet Galvan Prime, this is…incredible. All of this technology, it's…I can't exactly remember what all of them do because of my missing memories, but my Galvan intelligence tells me that each one of these devices is extremely valuable and extremely dangerous. Do these Forever Knights even know what they have here?"
"Somehow, I get the feeling they might have clue," said Lucky Girl.
"Whatever the case may be, we have to destroy everything," said Trixie urgently. "If they ever found out how to use these, it could be disastrous."
And speaking of disastrous, the golden-masked leader of the Forever Knights entered the storage chamber from a side door with half a dozen guards in tow, each one carrying an advanced version of a medieval weapon.
"Spread out and find them," commanded the golden-masked knight. While the soldiers searched the chamber, two of his knights dragged Howell into view. "As for you, Mr. Howell, you're suffering will be just as great, if not worse, as the alien's when I find it."
Ben, Lucky Girl, Max and Trixie ducked behind the largest device on the pedestal in the center of the room as the foot soldiers spread out, cautiously blending into the shadows. They were fortunate enough that the Forever Knights did not see them at first, but they knew it was only a matter of time. It was a very small storage chamber, several guards were combing the area, and there were only so many places they could hide.
Gwen was hoped that her lucky charm would take effect and they could slip out undetected like before, but this wasn't a type of situation where luck could save them. Ben felt so useless without having the Omnitrix working so that he could bust his way through them like he usually did. But while her friends were busying worrying, Trixie was scoping the scene, thinking to herself with her advanced Galvan intellect.
"Lucky Girl, grab that pulse hyper core," said Trixie, pointing to the objects so as not to confuse them. "Ben, the dilennium capacitor." Ben and Lucky Girl exchanged uncertain looks and turned back to Trixie. "Hey, I'm the smart one, remember?"
"She's got a point," said Ben, shrugging his shoulders.
Ben handed Trixie off to Max while he and Lucky Girl quickly and silently worked their way through the room, collecting the parts the Galvan requested. They made it back to their hiding spot as Trixie jumped on the central pedestal when a blast of energy hits the stone between Ben and Lucky Girl. One of the guards had spotted them.
"They're over here!" he called out to his allies.
Max tackled the guard and took his spear, but the other Forever Knights had already heard the call.
They were marching over when Max took the spear and shot a laser from the tip, making the Forever Knights duck out of the way. Grandpa Max backed up to his grandchildren and tried to provide cover fire for them, but they were severely outnumbered and overpowered.
"Get out of here!" said Trixie.
"What about you?" asked Ben.
"You see this thing behind me?" said Trixie, gesturing over her shoulder. "If I can get inside the power grid, I can hook the hyper core and the capacitor up to it. This is where being small comes in handy. Now get out of here; I'll meet you outside."
Ben looked hesitant to agree – Trixie cursed his stubborn nature – but ultimately, he decided it was better to follow the smart one's orders. He and Gwen rushed out of the room back through the door they came from while Max provided cover for them before chasing after his grandchildren.
Once the Tennysons were gone, Trixie grabbed the parts they collected and jumped inside the machines. The Forever Knights heard the rattling noises, deciding to forgo the Tennysons in favor of investigating the sound.
Inside the machine, Trixie was sliding the capacitor into a slot that conveniently fitted the part and unhooked a set of wires before reattaching them to the hyper core. The machine begins to whir to life, releasing a massive amount of electrical energy into the ceiling and causing the Forever Knights to step away fretfully. The golden-masked leader, on the other hand, calmly approached it and examined the situation.
"That reaction will decimate the mansion and everything in it," said the golden-mask leader coolly. "Everyone out…except you, Mr. Howell." He spoke very slowly as he turned on the nerd, lifting him off the ground by the collar with one hand. "You and your alien have been nothing but trouble."
He promptly threw Howell on the floor at the foot of the machine and calmly walked away, disappearing into the darkness with his followers.
Trixie was climbing out of the machine, ready to make her escape, when, without any warning, her body suddenly grew in size, hair sprouted on the top of her skull, and her wide, bulbous eyes became smaller. She had finally returned to her human form. And it was at a very inconvenient time as well. Trixie's hand had still been inside the machine when she transformed back and now her wrist was jammed inside the mechanism.
"Aw man, now I know how Benjamin feels," groaned Trixie.
Howell groaned weakly as he picked himself up, shaking his head lightly, and looked up at Trixie, surprised to find a green-and-black-haired little girl in the middle of all this madness.
"Huh? Where'd you come from?" asked Howell in confusion.
"I'll tell you later," Trixie grunted, tugging her arm harder trying to break free. "But right now, could you help me get out of this before we all blow to kingdom come?"
Howell quietly accepts her answer; he wasn't gonna let a little girl get hurt just because he was curious. With Howell's added strength, they managed to pull her hand out safely.
"Thank you," said Trixie gratefully. "Now, if you care to heed my advice, I would suggest we run out of here like a couple of frightened school girls."
"That's something I have a lot of experience in," Howell admitted.
Together, they raced out of the storage room, through the hallway, and out the front doors just as the machine's energy was beginning to circulate through the entire castle. Ben, Lucky Girl, and Max were waiting for them outside. Trixie and Howell only just made it off the final step before the entire building started to collapse behind them and fall inwards into what appeared to be a miniature black hole. When all the matter in the castle was absorbed inside, the black hole exploded and released a pulse of energy that nearly knocked everyone off their feet.
Finally, a moment of silence passed as the group of five stared at the empty pasture where the mansion once stood.
"Uh, did anyone see where that little alien went," Howell was the first to speak up.
"Nope," Trixie answered quickly.
"Not a clue," Ben reaffirmed.
"Well, I am done with anything alien," Howell declared with a tightened fist. "I'm going back to law school."
That would be the last time they would ever see Howell Wayneright, which, if Trixie was being honest with herself, she was really grateful for. Just spending one day with him felt like spending ten years with a dozen Bens, she thought to herself once they were back out on the road.
Trixie sat at the table opposite to Ben, stretching her normal-sized limbs for the first time in a while. Somehow being trapped as a Galvan for hours made her feel really cramped when she returned to her human form.
"Ugh…," Trixie groaned as her bones popped satisfyingly. "Feels good to be normal again."
"Good to have you back, Trix," said Ben. "I swear, I'll never mess with the watch again." And right at that moment, the Omnitrix released a brief electrical charge as the core popped up for the first time all day. "I swear, I'm not doing this on purpose!"
"Hmm," Trixie hummed thoughtfully, taking a closer look at the Omnitrix. "I think the glitches may have something more to do than just Benjamin's tampering…. Honestly, I don't know how to fix it…or if it can even be fixed."
The golden-masked knight sat in his car, surrounded by multiple monitors as he gazed at what remained of his former mansion. Rather than be furious for his loss, the golden knight almost seemed…happy.
He brought up two monitors and stared at their displays. On one screen was the security footage of the storage room before it exploded, catching Trixie transforming from a Galvan to human before the screen went black. One the other screen was detailed dossiers of Max, Ben, and Gwen, but he noticed there was absolutely no information on the green-haired girl to be found – as if she didn't even exist.
"Find out all there is to know these people," he said to the driver. "And contact the Forever King about this development. I'm sure he'll find the girl most…fascinating."
Next Episode: Side Effects