Out in the suburbs, trees grew thick and wild, and almost no one ever came this way.
Then, all at once, a huge buzzing roar came from the sky, shattering the silence.
A violent gale pressed the surrounding flowers and grass flat, leaving them bent and scattered in every direction.
A giant spinning clock came hurtling down from above.
Several long claws planted themselves into the dark soil, gouging deep pits each time they scraped the ground.
After landing, Upgrade did not linger. He strode straight into the warehouse.
Unbeknownst to him, a ghostly, insubstantial figure was following close behind...
Inside the warehouse, Sublimino stood with his hands behind his back, like some inscrutable master directing his puppets at work.
Among them were the two old people who had robbed the jewels earlier. They were now carrying gold, their eyes vacant as they worked in perfect order.
Click, clack!
The sound of machinery shifting came from behind.
Sublimino turned and saw the giant clock already set down on the floor, with a strange creature standing beside it.
It looked like jelly, but also like a robot.
Still, as long as it had helped him steal the giant clock from the bell tower, that was all that mattered...
"Good work, Big Jelly. Now get out of here before the police spot you," Sublimino ordered.
Upgrade said nothing and turned to leave.
Whoosh.
A sharp wave of freezing air swept past, instantly encasing Upgrade in ice and turning him into a sparkling blue statue.
"What?" Sublimino gasped and quickly looked toward the source of the cold.
Standing in the warehouse doorway under the icy moonlight was a blue moth-like alien with dim green eyes and enormous wings on his back.
Every breath he took released wisps of freezing air, cold enough to chill the bones, like a ghost from the depths of the underworld.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Sublimino shouted, forcing himself to sound brave.
"Return all of them to normal, and I might consider letting you go," Big Chill said in a hoarse voice.
Sublimino froze for a moment, then a sly smile curled across his lips.
So this thing had come for Big Jelly. It had probably followed him all the way here just to save Big Jelly.
"All right, I'll restore them right away. Just wait a moment."
Sublimino pulled the pocket watch from his coat and slammed the button.
Thunk!
A golden shockwave burst out like ripples spreading across water and rushed straight toward Big Chill.
"Your eyelids are growing heavier and heavier. Soon, you will drift into a deep sleep..." Sublimino's voice turned airy and hypnotic as he began his spell.
Nothing inside the range of those hypnotic waves could resist his hypnosis, except plants...
But the creature in front of him clearly was not a plant. It looked more like some kind of moth-like being, and Sublimino was certain it would fall under his control.
"You've planned this out pretty well. Too bad you still don't know enough about me."
Big Chill laughed, his body fading until only a blue humanoid outline remained.
Intangibility.
In that state, Big Chill was immune to all physical attacks and most forms of energy attacks.
Those golden shockwaves were powerful, sure, but to Big Chill, hidden in another dimension, they were nothing.
In his intangible state, Big Chill slipped past every hypnotic wave perfectly. One beat of his wings later, he flashed straight to Sublimino's side.
Sublimino's face drained of color. His eyes widened, and his legs shook uncontrollably. "You... what kind of monster are you? How can you dodge my hypnotic waves?!"
"I am... Big Chill."
A gust of icy wind swept through, and Big Chill's phantom-like body passed right through Sublimino, freezing him solid into an ice statue.
The frozen expression on the statue's face was full of terror and disbelief.
And the golden pocket watch was already in Big Chill's hand.
"You're all free now," Big Chill said, pressing the button on the watch.
Thunk!
Another golden hypnotic wave rolled outward.
All the humans nearby who had been hypnotized returned to normal.
With a wave of his hand, Big Chill undid Upgrade's freezing.
Beep beep beep!
The moment he thawed, Upgrade's transformation time ran out, and he changed back into Ben.
"Achoo! It's freezing... What happened to me?" Ben sneezed, hugging himself and shivering.
"You're fine. You just took a nap," Big Chill said, then started cleaning up the aftermath.
The others, now restored to normal, left the warehouse one by one and returned home.
As for Sublimino, the police had already taken him away and locked him up in prison. The stolen gold and jewelry were all returned to the mall.
And Lucian, as the one who had exposed everything, received both the Warmhearted Citizen and Act of Bravery commendations, along with a reward of one million dollars.
The incident was posted online by all kinds of media accounts and quickly became a hot topic.
People were full of praise and amazement.
They said heroes had always come from the young, and now that saying seemed truer than ever.
Lucian's photo was even printed in the newspaper. It was the first time he had appeared before the public as a human, and he was given the title of Little Hero.
Quite a few girls became fascinated with him, praising not only his character but also his looks, and many openly said they wanted his contact information...
Of course, Lucian did not care about any of that.
The thing he was happiest to get was the hypnosis master's pocket watch. It was an item that could throw most living beings into a trance.
Weaker creatures had practically no resistance to it at all.
If he pressed it in the middle of a city, he could instantly hypnotize millions of people and turn them into obedient puppets.
At the same time, it was also a powerful weapon against enemies.
Lucian looked at the pocket watch in his hand, carefully put it away, locked it inside the storage cabinet next to Diamondhead's skateboard, and secured it.
And just like that, the group set off once again...