"So, is this normal for you?"
"You were there when we stormed a castle with knights!"
The Rust Bucket sped down the road, following a speeding red sports car.
"Now would be a good time to turn you." Said Gwen from the front seat.
"What do I think I'm trying to do!" Hayden exclaimed, turning his Omnitrix's core dial several times as the jolts made him miss the alien he wanted every time. "It's not easy when the jerks are likely to make you pick the alien least suited to the situation!"
"When I agreed to go with you, you told me it would be chaotic. But I didn't expect it to be this chaotic." Says Charmcaster.
"Believe me, you haven't seen everything." Said Hayden, still turning the dial of his Omnitrix.
There was a deafening roar as a green and black riderless motorcycle took up the chase. Upgrade-Ben had merged into the bike, threaded his way through the gaps between dense traffic, then veered into the street, picking his way through startled pedestrians before using a semi-truck as a ramp and launching himself forward.
"Show-off!" Hayden shouted.
"Hayden!" Max shouted, giving him a stern look.
"What? I'm not wrong." Hayden protested.
After ducking under an RV, he got close enough to the car to fire a laser shot at the truck, opening it and sending the money flying.
"Some people just can't hang on to their money." Upgrade-Ben declared. He summoned a spike of energy to the side of the front wheel and slammed into the side of the car, blowing out one of the tires.
The car swerved and stopped, and the confused driver crawled to get out, but was hit in the face by a tire, falling to the ground.
Upgrade-Ben heard the sound of approaching police sirens and backed away from the corner, where he found himself facing a parked ice-cream delivery truck.
"Well, I just caught a bad guy..." He said slyly before detaching himself from the bike and opening the doors to be greeted by cartons full of ice cream. "Nice."
Max, Gwen, Hayden and Charmcaster watched the police take the bewildered thief away as he babbled about motorcycles moving by themselves.
Hayden looked down as his Omnitrix.
"Oh well, at least I didn't transform for nothing." Said he.
"Where's Ben?" Max asked, looking around.
"Long chase, hot day, I'll tell myself... ? " Said Gwen, indicating the ice cream truck behind her.
Max opened the doors and found a shivering Ben holding an ice cream.
"You okay?" Max asked.
Ben answered with a sneeze.
"I guess that means no." Hayden declared.
Max pulled a thermometer out of Ben's mouth.
"Well, 101, sorry, Ben, it's official, you've got a summer cold."
"Maybe from now on you'll think twice before grabbing a snack from an ice cream truck!" Says Gwen.
Ben grabs a blouse and uses it as a handkerchief.
"Hey! That's my new blouse!" Shouts Gwen.
Ben began sneezing into it.
"Maybe from now on you'll think twice before leaving your new clothes lying around!"
Hayden looked at Charmcaster.
"Do you have some kind of cold potion?" he asked.
Charmcaster pulled out a small spell book and began leafing through it.
"It's going to take a little time, but I think I could whip something up."
"All Ben needs is a dose of my famous San Ju Ten Pein cold remedy." Max declared.
Hayden shivered.
"Uh, Max. Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Of course it's a good idea. With this, his cold will disappear in no time." Max declared. "Let's go, Chinatown's just down the street."
Hayden laid a hand on Ben's shoulder.
"Cheer up, buddy. Right now, there's nothing I can do to save you."
After spending an hour in the pharmacy, they came out with Max holding a jar of green liquid.
"You know, it's so hard to find fresh potaikadon root. It's all freeze-dried these days." Max declared.
Charmcaster, who had his own little bags full of stuff, leaned toward Hayden.
"Is this stuff really a cure for the common cold?"
"With Max's culinary preferences, you never know what's food, poison, or a New Age witchcraft recipe." He murmured back.
"It's certainly not witchcraft."
Ben let out a hoarse cough.
"Can I have a milkshake or something? Argh, I've got one of those sore throats!"
"Don't worry. The stinking weed honey from the San Ju Ten Pien covers the whole area of your esophagus." Said Max, handing the jar to Ben.
He opened it, Ben took a breath and closed the lid.
"UGH! And that's a good thing... ? "
"So, where exactly did you learn to make this stuff, Grandpa?" Gwen asked.
"I picked it up from a monk in Guangdong, China." Max replied, earning a suspicious look from his granddaughter. "They have plumbing in China too, you know."
They passed the community center where a woman was giving a speech.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you all for your support of my downtown redevelopment program. It truly is a dream come true!"
As she delivered her speech, a wasp landed on the microphone. A deafening buzz filled the air and the crowd looked up to see what looked like a black cloud descending from the sky.
The crowd screamed as the cloud drew closer, revealing that it was in fact a swarm of wasps with a man in tattered clothes standing on top.
"This had better become a nightmare, councilwoman!" Said the man, raising his arms and seeing more and more wasps coming out of his sleeves.
"Wasps!" Gwen shouted.
The crowd dispersed in terror as the wasps descended on the center. The councilwoman looked up wide-eyed at the man.
"You're not demolishing our building. We won't let you!" he hissed.
"You're the weirdo who wouldn't leave!"
"It's nice to know we made a good impression."
The man's eyes shone again and the swarm surrounded the councilwoman and lifted her off the ground.
"What are you doing?!"
"Just taking you home for dinner... You're the main course!"
Charmcaster looked at Hayden.
"Yes, that's normal for us." Said Hayden as she activated her Omnitrix and transformed into Swampfire. She simply shrugged and began casting spells.
Ben wiped his runny nose and activated his Omnitrix.
"This looks like a job for... ah, ah, AH..."
He crushed the frame of the Omnitrix at the same time as he sneezed and transformed into Wildmutt.
Wildmutt began to snort in anger as he looked around, but his gills were too clogged with mucus, he couldn't sense his surroundings.
He began charging wildly in the direction of something he could faintly sense and propelled himself through Swampfire-Hayden firing fireballs from his palms to eliminate the insects, sending the alien flying and dislocating a limb on landing. But thanks to this alien's abilities, the limb was replaced without the slightest problem or pain.
The blind alien dog continued to run and bump into things.
Charmcaster turned and created a mana bond which he closed around Wildmutt's neck.
"Calm down."
The alien snorted and screamed as she tried to calm him down and direct him towards Bug Guy. He charged blindly forward, taking the witch with him as Swampfire-Hayden tried to save her.
Through the chaos, Bug Guy flew away, while the councilwoman screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Well done, Ben. For all we know, this guy could be eating that councilwoman." Said Hayden as he bandaged Charmcaster's skinned knees.
"Hey, a hero's work is never done." Said Ben before sneezing.
"But even a hero sometimes needs a sick day." Max says, handing Ben the jar.
"I don't need a sick day. I can do my hero work just fine." Said Ben, taking a sip of the green liquid before grimacing." It's horrible..."
"At least you're not throwing up." Said Hayden.
"I get it!" Gwen suddenly shouted, showing them the screen of her laptop. "Bug Guy said something about his building being demolished. Well, the only downtown apartment that hasn't been demolished yet is 8610 Chester Street."
While the others listened, Ben put the jar of cold remedy away in a drawer.
The Rust Bukcet stopped in front of an old abandoned building. They all got out and looked at the ruined apartment.
"It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here." Gwen declared.
"I've stayed in worse places." Said Charmcaster. She opened her handbag, took out a small pebble and threw it on the ground, where it transformed into a stone golem.
"Woah, how did you do that?" Gwen asked.
"Magic." Charmcaster said briefly, then looked down at the golem. "Sniff it out."
The golem made its way into the apartment, sniffing its surroundings. They crossed the old apartment, weaving in and out of the holes in the floor.
The golem let out a low moan and rushed to Charmcaster's side. She bent down to stroke his head. "You'll be all right, little fella."
Max walked over to a wall covered with old cut-up newspapers and skimmed through an article about how a cockroach had survived a nuclear explosion. "They've got to be here somewhere!"
Hayden and Gwen were looking at some kind of giant egg sack. The older boy picked up a piece of broken wood nearby and gave the object a gentle tap. Five large spiders emerged from the hole.
"Something tells me we're getting closer..." Gwen said.
Max looked around.
"Where's Ben?"
"Maybe a giant insect used him as a nest?" Hayden suggested, earning a stern look from Max. "Oh, it's okay. Just kidding."
Suddenly, they heard a low moan from the corridor. They turned and saw something large with four glowing eyes and a pair of antennae standing in the doorway.
"If I'm right, if we get out of this, I'm playing the lottery." Hayden commented.
Instinctively, Charmcaster launched a blast of mana at the creature, pushing it back with a loud bang. They looked at the creature and discovered Four Arms lying on the ground.
It prepared another explosion, but Max stopped it.
"Ha ha, I've got you." Said Four Arms-Ben tried to get up but chuckled and fell back down.
"Are you all right, Ben?" Max asked, helping him to his feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Said Four Arms-Ben, facing the wall.
"You're looking in the wrong direction." Hayden told him. As the big alien turned around, he held up two fingers. "How many fingers do you see?"
"Uh... three? Wait, no, four? One! Five!"
"Help!" A voice suddenly shouted.
"It came from right above us!"
"I'm on it!"
Four Arms-Ben crouched, ready to jump, but lost his balance and fell on his face.
"Truly heroic." Said Gwen, rolling her eyes.
Hayden used his own Omnitrix, transformed into an Amphibian and floated upstairs before lowering a tentacle to serve as a rope.
When they were all together, they saw the councilwoman curled up on the floor.
"Don't move!" She hissed as they tried to approach. "Black widows."
Indeed, they could see black spiders crawling all over her body.
"There must be some way to help her," said Gwen.
"Stay still." Said Amphibian-Hayden before wrapping a tentacle around her waist and sending a violent jolt of electricity through her.
All the spiders fell away from her, paralyzed by the electricity. She stood up and dusted herself off.
"Thanks."
"I could have done that." Four Arms-Ben scoffed.
"What were you going to do? Beat them to death?"
"You came in uninvited!"
They looked up to see Bug Guy sitting atop a ceiling beam. His eyes lit up and the insects gathered to form a giant mass that toppled Four Arms.
"We will rule mankind!" Bug Guy hissed.
The wave turned to Max.
"Grandpa, be careful!" Gwen shouted.
Max moved out of the way as the swarm crashed.
Amphibian-Hayden became invisible and passed through them, frying a few, knocking them to the ground.
"No!" Bug Guy hissed.
"Sorry, but you're looking at a live insect trap." Amphibian-Hayden declared as electricity spurted from his tentacles.
He began killing insects left and right while Four Arms-Ben squinted his eyes, trying to focus on Bug Guy. "You want to be king? Prepare to be crowned!"
He charged but in the wrong direction and almost trampled Charmcaster.
Charmcaster leapt to the side as Four Arms-Ben crashed into the wall.
"Watch where you're going, idiot!" she shouted.
Four Arms-Ben still had no idea where he was going and kept crashing into the already unstable building.
"You're destroying our home!" Bug Guy hissed as a tentacle wrapped around his belly. Amphibian-Hayden was about to electrocute him into unconsciousness when the whole building began to shake.
"The whole place is collapsing!" Gwen shouted.
"We've got to get out of here!" Charmcaster shouted.
The whole building collapsed, while everyone still inside was still there.
Four Arms-Ben rose from the rubble, pushing a large slab from his back as he held Gwen, Max, Charmcaster and the councilwoman in his arms. He let go of them and fell on his back just as his watch brought him back to normal.
"Hayden? Hayden!" Charmcaster exclaimed, worried.
"Here."
She quickly ran to where the voice was coming from and pushed aside the debris to reveal Hayden, covered in sawdust but still in good health.
"Hayden!" She said, taking the boy in her arms. "I was so worried about you!"
She realized what she was doing and let go of him.
"I mean, I'm glad to see you alive." She said with a little embarrassed cough.
Bug Guy got up from a pile of insects, scooped up a handful and saw that they were all dead.
"No, no, NO! You'll all be sorry. We're going to exterminate the whole town!" he hissed at them.
His eyes flashed and the sky suddenly darkened. They looked up to see clouds of wasps flying towards them. They gathered in a black and yellow whirlwind and engulfed Bug Guy before flying off into the sky.
"It's been a really strange day..." declared the town councillor.
"You're taking the words right out of my mouth." Charmcaster sighed.
"At least I don't have hives anymore." Said Ben, looking down at his armpits.
"Yeah, and that guy, too, while I was holding him before you shaved the place." Hayden declared.
Ben just let out a snort.
The counselor looked around.
"Where did that stinky four-armed guy and that flying jellyfish go? I wanted to thank them."
"I'll let them know." Hayden told her.
"Can you find your way back?" Max asked her.
She nodded and walked away.
"So, where do you think the bug brain went?" Ben asked.
"There's only one way to exterminate an entire city..." Said Max, looking at the local power station in the distance.
The Rust Bucket was rolling down the street. Ben sat in the passenger seat, shivering.
"Turn on the heater, Grandpa! It's a cold Big Chill out here!" Said Ben, chattering his teeth.
"It already is, Ben, but you're shaking like an earthquake! Gwen, give him another dose of my San Ju Yen Pien!"
"No!" Ben quickly replied. "I mean, I just finished it! He's gone! I'm sure it'll start working any minute now!"
Gwen was consulting a Web site about insects in the back seats.
"Wow, listen to this! Ants can lift 10 times their weight, grasshoppers can jump 100 times their length and cockroaches can hold their breath for over an hour!" she read.
"We don't need their resumes, we need to know how to crush them!" Ben declared.
"Well! I say insects are pretty tough little beasts! Barring a new ice age or a tanker full of pesticides, it looks like hosting a bug barbecue is our best bet!" Gwen exclaimed.
"And I know just the chef." Said Ben.
"No."
Ben looked at Hayden.
"What?"
"You're not going." Hayden told him coldly.
"What?!"
"We've faced this guy twice and both times you made a mistake and let him get away. You're way too sick to do your hero work right now, so I'm ordering you to sit this match out."
"I'm fine! I can easily squash that bug, man," Ben says.
"Admit it, dummy, your nose is running, your head is spinning and you're shivering in the summer heat, you're in no shape to fight." Says Hayden.
"You can't tell me what to do!" Ben shouted at him.
"Maybe Hayden's right." Said Max. "You've made a lot of mistakes since you caught that cold."
"Not to mention the fact that it's causing more collateral damage than usual." Added Gwen.
"Stop it! I keep telling you I'm perfectly fine. I can be a hero just fine and no stupid cold is going to stop me!" Ben says stubbornly.
"I say we break his legs so he can't move." Charmcaster suggested.
When Max looked at her, she simply shrugged.
"I'm just making a suggestion."
"I have a simpler one. I'll take care of it myself. And yes, I won't kill him." Hayden offered, rising to his feet before opening a drawer and pulling out the San Ju Yen Pien. "And you make him take all the medicine."
Everyone looked at Ben as he looked at Hayden with a horrified expression.
"If you want to act like a stubborn brat. Then we'll give you a hard time."
They arrived at the factory, clouds of insects lurking outside. Hayden was walking down an empty corridor when an alarm sounded, complete with flashing red lights.
"The core temperature is rising. Approaching critical threshold."
"Damn it, he's not wasting any time." Hayden said as he ran. "I hope they're doing better than I am."
Meanwhile in the Rust Bucket, Charmcaster and Gwen held Ben as he struggled while Max approached with a funnel and the San Ju Yen Pien.
"Stop moving, Ben!" Gwen shouted.
"We're doing this for your own good! Then you can play the stupid hero again!" Charmcaster added.
"Your mother sucks cigars in hell!" Ben shouted at his cousin, not daring to insult the woman who could curse him in two seconds, before Max slipped a funnel into his mouth while holding it in place.
"Come on, after this and a bit of rest you'll feel much better." Max said before pouring the mixture into the funnel.
Hayden ran into the control room and saw black smoke billowing from the broken control panels.
"Core temperature is critical. Fusion is imminent."
"Of course, otherwise it would have been too easy... even if I don't know how a nuclear power plant works. After all, I'm not as dumb as Homer Simpson." Hayden said before looking at the reactor core. "Although, logically in case of a big problem, they should have a backup system outside just in case."
A sound of flapping wings buzzed as Bug Guy entered the room.
"Have you come for a front-row seat?" he hissed.
"I've come to take care of you." Hayden said before transforming into Heatblast and rushing at him with a jet of flame. "I've got to neutralize him fast to cool down the reactor safely."
Bug Guy stretched out his hands and millions of cockroaches began to emerge from his sleeves. They encircled his body until he was completely covered in insects.
"When the reactor becomes more than critical, we'll be nice and warm!"
"Obviously, it's covered with a species that could potentially withstand an explosion of this caliber." Heatblast-Hayden said sarcastically. "So, plan B. I'll ignore the insect lover and take care of this." He said before transforming into Big Chill and turning away from Bug Guy for the reactor.
« La température du cœur est critique. Fusion dans cinq minutes. »
He began to use his breath to create ice around the reactor to cool it down, while Bug Guy sent him company to slow him down in his mission.
"Crisis in 30 seconds."
Big Chille-Hayden reacted quickly and blew as hard as he could at him, freezing him enough to immobilize him.
He then turned towards the core and began to explode alongside Big Chill, causing clouds of steam to billow out.
"Core melting in nineteen-eight-seven-six-five-four-three-two... Core temperature drops. Back below critical limits."
"Finally..." Big Chill-Hayden sighed as he landed on a platform, feeling almost out of breath, turning his gaze to the core completely covered in a thick layer of ice. "I could have left Ben to it. But he needed to be punished after dropping a building on us."
"The bad guy's on ice, the reactor's cooling, well done on that Hayden, and best for last I think my cold's gone." Said Ben as he leaned back and took a deep breath through snot-free nostrils after almost an hour when the cure had knocked him out.
"It's good to see you're feeling better. And next time you want ice cream, ask for it instead of locking yourself in an ice cream truck." Said Hayden, punching him in the shoulder.
"Don't you just love it when everything goes right?" Said Max.
Gwen was taking a carton of milk from the refrigerator when she saw a cockroach on the floor.
"Sorry, Mr. Cockroach. This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me." Said Gwen as she lifted her foot, ready to crush it.
Suddenly, thousands of insects began popping up from every nook and cranny of the Rust Bucket.
"AHH! We've got company! Lots of company!" She screamed as the insects swarmed.
The motorhome came to an abrupt halt as the door swung open, revealing Bug Guy.
"We didn't appreciate the indifference you showed us at the factory!" he hissed.
Max tried to punch him, but was thrown against the front window.
Ben played frantically with his watch, not thinking to press the button in panic.
"Anything?" He asked Hayden.
"I don't have an alien to deal with this guy without killing him or leaving the RV intact." Said Hayden, looking around for bug spray.
"What about Big Chill?" Ben asked.
"If he covers him in top ice, he'll die of hypothermia. And not enough and the second we get him out, the ice will break and he'll piss us off again."
"I'll take care of it." Charmcaster said, pushing them aside.
She raised a hand, her eyes glowing pink. The insects began to fly towards her, gathering in a ball above her hand. The insect-man's costume was torn from him as the insects formed a large, watermelon-sized ball above the witch's hand as she closed it into a fist.
There was a series of cracking sounds and the ball began to get smaller and smaller until it was the size of a marble. She dropped the ball to the ground and stomped on it with her foot, crushing it with the heel of her boot.
"Now go away." she growled.
The insect-man seemed to take the hint and ran off, terrified.
"You're scary sometimes." Hayden told her. "And it's kind of exciting." He thought.
"Thank you very much." She said, giving him a gentle smile.