"Alright. It's your turn now." Ben raised the repulsors mounted in his palms, golden energy crackling between his armored fingers as he approached the fallen Dr. Animo and Clancy. "Do you surrender? Or do I need to come over there and make you?"
"If you've got the guts, then kill us!"
Clancy was particularly defiant, his bluish-green skin flushed with rage. He threw his arms wide in an exaggerated gesture of surrender, his sharp teeth bared in something between a grin and a snarl. "Come on! Do it! What are you waiting for?!"
"What a lunatic," Ben muttered under his breath.
The declaration caught him off guard, making his expression shift uncomfortably beneath his helmet. His feet ignited with jets of flame as he activated his boot thrusters, propelling himself toward Clancy with controlled acceleration.
BZZZZZZZZ!
Before he could reach the insect controller, a terrifying swarm of flies and mosquitoes materialized from seemingly nowhere, emerging from cracks in the pavement, from behind debris, from the shadows themselves. They converged on Clancy's body in a writhing, buzzing mass, gradually forming a grotesque exoskeleton around him.
Within seconds, he'd become a towering insect giant, seven or eight feet tall, his humanoid form completely obscured beneath the living armor.
WHAM!
Ben flew directly into the mass, colliding with Clancy and driving him backward across the pavement. They crashed to the ground in a tangle of metal and insects, fighting in the most primitive way possible, trading punches and kicks without technique or finesse.
Clancy fell behind again and again!
When Ben took a punch, his armor absorbed most of the impact. His body shook slightly from the force, but he could keep fighting without hesitation!
When Clancy took a punch, chunks of his insect armor shattered and scattered across the pavement in a spray of wings and broken carapaces. Each hit tore away dozens of insects, leaving gaps in his protection that leaked and bled. The damage was mounting fast!
"I'm coming to help you!"
Dr. Animo watched Clancy losing ground and couldn't sit still any longer. He raised the gene variable device still clutched in his hand, a belt-mounted apparatus that pulsed with ominous red light, and aimed it directly at Clancy's insect-covered form!
His plan was brutally simple: mutate the flies and mosquitoes covering Clancy's body, transforming them into giants. A person wearing seven feet of insects would become a monstrous colossus thirty or forty feet tall, as massive as Way Big himself. At that scale, nothing could stand against him!
CRACK!
A smaller figure exploded from behind a parked car nearby, tackling Dr. Animo with shocking speed and force!
THUD!
Asher's body, several heads shorter than the scientist, somehow generated outrageous power, smashing Dr. Animo to the pavement with bone-jarring impact!
The gene variable device tumbled from the scientist's grip, bouncing away across the street without triggering its mutation beam.
"Eight Extremes Collapse!"
Without hesitation, Asher unleashed a devastating punch straight into Dr. Animo's face, pursuing his advantage with ruthless efficiency!
CRACK!
The blow connected with Dr. Animo's cheek, and his body, which had just started to rise, was hammered back down against the pavement. His vision swam, unfocused and disoriented.
How can this kid's straight punch be so heavy? The thought flickered through Animo's dazed consciousness. It's almost comparable to an adult man's full-force strike!
Meanwhile, the mosquitoes and flies forming Clancy's armor began falling away in droves, stripped from his body by the repeated impacts of Ben's attacks. The insect controller staggered backward, clearly losing this battle of attrition!
"This time, I'll hit you properly!" Ben's voice carried absolute confidence through his helmet's speakers as he drew back his fist. "No hesitation!"
Victory was within easy reach.
FWOOOOSH! FWOOOOSH!
Then, without warning, two of Vilgax's signature drones descended from the sky, sleek red-and-gray mechanical units that moved with eerie silence. They hovered above the battlefield for just a moment before raising their weapon turrets, taking aim at Asher and the others below!
"Watch out!!"
Gwen, possessed by what seemed like precognitive luck, suddenly threw herself at Asher, tackling him to the pavement just as the drones opened fire. They hit the ground together in a tangle of limbs, rolling away from where Asher had been standing.
Ben immediately released Clancy and rocketed upward toward the attacking drones, raising his repulsors as golden light built between his palms!
BOOM!!
The golden repulsor beam and crimson laser fire collided mid-air, generating a violent explosion that produced thick smoke. The blast covered a massive area of ground in roiling darkness, forming multiple shock waves that rippled outward through the air. Ben's golden energy was clearly dominating, pushing the red laser backward inch by inch!
Vilgax didn't care what the outcome would be, his drones had fired purely to create an opening for his real objective.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
It was one of the oldest strategic principles in warfare.
The two drones that engaged Ben were merely distractions. Under cover of the smoke, two additional drones swooped down into the chaos, seizing Dr. Animo and Clancy in their mechanical manipulators before any of the Tennysons could react!
BOOM!
At the same moment, Ben's relentless repulsor fire finally overwhelmed the two distraction drones' defenses. They exploded in brilliant flashes of light, transformed to ash and scrap metal by the sheer power of the blast!
Ben lowered his smoking repulsors and looked around angrily. "Damn it! If I hadn't activated the lightning core earlier and exhausted most of my energy, those little robots would've been blown apart instantly instead of taking so long!"
The smoke below gradually dissipated, revealing the aftermath.
Ben floated down to rejoin Asher.
Asher could feel a faint, pleasant fragrance surrounding him, something that made him feel unexpectedly relaxed despite the tension of the moment.
"Asher, are you... are you okay?" Gwen asked hesitantly, carefully extracting herself from where she'd landed on top of him. Her face was flushed with embarrassment.
She'd thought the laser fire would strike the ground where they stood, necessitating the desperate tackle. But it hadn't hit the pavement at all, just produced smoke and distraction. Her rescue attempt had been completely unnecessary.
This was mortifying.
"I'm fine, Gwen. Thank you for trying to help me." Asher didn't seem bothered by the awkward situation. Instead, he thanked her seriously, his expression genuine.
"Um... although I really don't want to interrupt whatever this moment is," Ben's amplified voice cut through their conversation, carrying a note of frustration that couldn't be entirely suppressed, "I think it's more important that we locate Dr. Animo and Clancy first. If we can't find them, this is going to turn into a huge problem!"
Asher stood and quickly scanned the blue sky above them. The retreating forms of the mad scientists and their robotic escorts were nowhere to be seen against the clear azure expanse!
Ben also flew several circles through the air, searching desperately for any sign of the enemy. But he couldn't locate those villains anywhere!
The whole situation left him bewildered and angry. "It's only been a few seconds, why did Vilgax's robots take those two away? And how did they disappear so fast?"
"What's certain is that they're definitely not here anymore." Asher smiled grimly, addressing Ben overhead. "Ben, you should come down quickly and release your transformation. My instinct tells me your armor's transformation time is almost up."
Following Asher's reminder, Ben slowly descended and deactivated his armor. The lightning core mounted in his chest reactor glowed noticeably dimmer than before, its light had faded significantly compared to its initial brilliance.
A satisfied smile crossed Ben's face as he rejoined Asher on the ground. "How was that? I'm strong enough now, right? Those guys were completely beaten up by me!"
"And I helped," Gwen reminded him pointedly, making sure to include herself in the victory count.
"Yeah, thanks to both of you this time." Asher answered somewhat evasively, his mind clearly elsewhere. His expression didn't match the mood of celebration the other two were displaying.
Vilgax capturing Dr. Animo and Clancy again...
Adding in Kevin, who'd been taken previously...
That means there are at least four enemies on the opposing side now, plus countless mechanical drones!
And on their side? Only three humans and their auxiliary support, Grandpa Max, who provided intel and backup but rarely engaged in direct combat.
The disparity in their forces was significant!
But thinking about it more carefully, something didn't add up. Did Vilgax's robots really manage to transport those two completely off Earth so quickly?
Impossible. They couldn't fly that fast...
Somewhere in a dark, foul-smelling place buried deep beneath the city.
"It's perfect! The sheer number of bugs down here is incredible, we'll definitely be able to fight our way back to the surface!"
"I agree completely! All the insects in the entire city must be gathered in this location!"
The excited voices of Dr. Animo and Clancy echoed through the darkness.
Of course, they couldn't have escaped from Earth, or even from Asher's general pursuit. But hiding in this particular location was brilliant strategy!
Dr. Animo immediately activated his gene variable device, targeting the area with the highest concentration of insects in this putrid underground chamber.
ZZZZAP! ZZZZAP! ZZZZAP!
Red mutation beams lanced out repeatedly, striking insects by the hundreds!
Back at the restaurant, after the group had reunited with Grandpa Max.
Asher's ear suddenly registered a sound,
DING!
The notification was crisp and clear, cutting through his thoughts like a bell.
His entire body went rigid.
What?!
The check-in reward triggered?!