"Aunt Vera's house?" Asher looked curious, he wasn't very familiar with this particular relative.
"Well, Ben and Gwen visited her more often. Asher, you rarely see her, so it's normal you wouldn't know much about her. Today's a good opportunity for you to get acquainted," Max replied from the driver's seat.
"No way, Aunt Vera's house is really boring," Ben sighed dramatically. "If I'd known we were going there, I would've preferred to stay at that lake, catching fishing!"
"Look on the bright side, Ben. Maybe at Vera's place we can get a normal meal for once," Asher quietly lowered his voice, casting a surreptitious glance toward Max at the wheel.
"Meals..."
A flash of distant memory crossed Ben's eyes. The last time he'd visited his aunt's house had been quite a while ago, and the details were fuzzy.
"Doofus, when we get to Aunt Vera's house, you can't say such rude things," Gwen teased her cousin with obvious superiority.
Ben shot back, "Please, nerd, I'm not the kind of person you think I am! Besides, we're only staying for one day anyway, no big deal!"
Not to mention...
Ben glanced at Asher with growing enthusiasm.
With a friend like Asher around, even if they really had to stay in that boring place, the two of them could still have fun together.
"If there's no emergency, I can use the Omnitrix to transform into an alien hero and show you what real power looks like," Asher said, shaking the device on his wrist with a confident grin.
"Awesome!" Ben raised his hands and cheered with obvious satisfaction.
The three cousins spent the next several dozen minutes of driving time in this atmosphere of casual banter and friendly conversation.
When the Rust Bucket finally turned off the desolate highway and entered a small town, the surroundings became noticeably more populated.
Charming two-story houses dotted the landscape everywhere, not modern high-rise buildings, but quaint structures that gave the area a distinctly old-fashioned character.
It was comfortable and quiet, with birds singing and flowers blooming throughout the pleasant neighborhood.
Elderly grandmothers and grandfathers walked along the street, along with some rare middle-aged residents, all appearing industrious and purposeful.
Some were simply taking strolls, and the town seemed quite harmonious.
"It's still as boring as ever," Ben muttered, resting his chin in his hand as he gazed wearily at the people outside, his voice carrying obvious complaint.
His casual gaze swept past the residents one after another, his eyes remaining lazy and disinterested until...
SNAP!!
He witnessed an elderly man whose neck suddenly stretched like rubber, his head detaching and bouncing upward unnaturally!
"What the...?!" Ben immediately sat up straight, his energy returning in a rush. Because the RV was still moving, he pressed against the window to look back at the old man with the impossibly extending neck!
However...
When he stared at the grandfather who was getting smaller in the distance, he found that the elderly man's body had returned to normal proportions. The old man was calmly watering his flowers as if nothing unusual had happened.
Then, as if sensing Ben's shocked stare...
The old grandfather slowly raised his head bit by bit, moving like a walking corpse, and displayed a deeply unsettling expression directly toward Ben through the RV's window!
"That's creepy!" Ben yanked the curtains shut, cold sweat beading on his forehead as his heart pounded!
"What's wrong, Ben?" Asher looked at his cousin with a puzzled expression, immediately sensing something was off.
"I, I saw an old man whose head flew off his body!!" Ben's tone carried uncontrollable panic as he addressed both Asher and Gwen.
"A old man with a flying head?" It sounded like pure fantasy, but Asher didn't immediately dismiss Ben's claim. Instead, his expression became cautiously alert.
Gwen's face showed complete disbelief. She crossed her arms and spoke in a patronizing tone, "I think your head must be overheated from the sun!"
She had perfectly recreated her signature dismissive attitude! as if she was truly worried that Ben had been addled by the summer heat!
Ben immediately stood up, his expression full of protest, "What do you mean my head is overheated? I really saw an old man with a flying head!"
"Don't make up stories, Ben. It's not funny," Gwen said with obvious skepticism.
"Alright, Ben, you'd better open those curtains and let us see for ourselves, otherwise we won't believe you," Asher suggested diplomatically, trying to mediate between his cousins.
After hesitating for just a second, Ben yanked the curtains open in frustration, and all three of them peered out the window together.
Outside in the town...
Everything appeared harmonious. The neighbors seemed very friendly, just a group of kind-hearted elderly folks going about their business. There was no sign of any grandfather with an extending neck.
"See, doofus? I told you to stop making up stories!" Gwen had just finished speaking when,
SPLASH!
An elderly man outside accidentally triggered a lawn sprinkler, and the water sprayed directly toward his clothes.
None of the three cousins took this scene seriously at first. After all, accidentally getting sprayed by water was a completely mundane occurrence, as common as breathing air.
WHOOSH!!
However, what happened next was absolutely eye-popping!
That old man performed three perfect backflips like a professional stunt performer, landing firmly on the ground five meters away, completely avoiding the spray with impossible agility!!
His expression remained eerily blank throughout the entire acrobatic display!
"This town..." Asher's eyes widened as realization dawned. "Something's definitely wrong here!"
At that moment, all three cousins finally understood the disturbing truth, they had just entered somewhere very strange indeed.