With the drone's location known, the family had to split up and search through the 46 different docks spread across the St. Louis Port.
They split into three groups to cover more ground, knowing they were running on a timer.
Gwen and Gold Ship formed the first team, followed by Ben and Xylene, while Evan and Orfevre took the last section.
"I forgot to ask," Ben said, turning toward Xylene as they walked. "Why did you send Evan a better Omnitrix?"
Xylene looked at him for a moment before answering.
"That Another Omnitrix... I didn't send it to Earth."
"Wait, what?"
"I'm only responsible for transporting the Omnitrix on your wrist." She pointed toward the device on Ben's wrist. "Just like you, we don't know where the Another Omnitrix came from. We only know that Evan Gold somehow sees himself and that watch as one."
She hoped the explanation might get some useful information out of Ben.
Since Ben and Evan were around the same age, Evan might have told him something that the adults couldn't figure out. Even if Ben didn't understand what Evan meant at the time, he might remember something important now.
"Evan... and his watch are one..." Ben murmured, rubbing his chin.
Then his eyes widened slightly.
He remembered their encounter with that evil Alien X and the multiple Omnitrixes.
He remembered what happened to Evan when the Another Omnitrix was ripped from his wrist.
The moment the watch was separated from him, Evan's entire body went limp. He looked completely lifeless, as if whatever kept him moving had been taken away with it.
Ben stared ahead as the realization slowly settled in.
It was like taking the battery out of a phone while it was still running.
Just then, the two stopped when they spotted the mecha droid tearing through the shipping containers. It ripped pieces of metal apart and added them to its own body, constantly making itself larger and stronger.
Ben quickly pulled out the walkie-talkie to relay the information to the others.
Both he and Xylene kept their eyes on the mecha droid. As it turned around, they finally saw Max strapped to the front of its body. Several tendrils were wrapped tightly around him, while more metal parts had been built around his body, nearly encasing him inside the machine.
"Grandpa!" Ben couldn't help but shout when he saw Max struggling as the mecha droid continued adding more parts to itself.
"Ben, get out of here!" Max shouted back. He tried to resist, but there was little he could do when his entire Plumber suit was made from technology the droid could control. "This thing's got control of the nanotech in my Plumber's Suit!"
The droid suddenly moved Max's arm, forcing his arm blaster to fire at them.
Ben immediately rolled behind a nearby shipping crate for cover, while Xylene flew into the air to avoid the attack.
"Do whatever it takes to take this thing down!" Max shouted. "Even if it means taking me with it!"
He didn't want Ben holding back because of him and getting himself killed in the process.
"Sorry, Grandpa! That's not an option!" Ben shouted back. "You aren't Evan!"
He raised his left hand from behind the crate, showing the Omnitrix on his wrist.
"Hey, you bucket of bolts!" Ben shouted toward the droid. "Is this what you want?! How about a swap?! My Grandpa for the Omnitrix!"
"Ben, don't!"
Xylene flew through the air, using her telekinesis to rip several shipping crates from the ground and hurl them toward the mecha droid.
The crates slammed into the machine from multiple directions. Xylene carefully controlled their movements, making sure they stayed away from Max. She had no intention of accidentally hurting her former partner while trying to stop the machine.
The mecha droid responded by shifting several cannons on its body and firing a barrage of missiles toward her.
Xylene quickly flew out of the way.
The missiles struck several shipping containers behind her, exploding against the metal and sending pieces flying across the dock.
While Xylene kept the droid distracted, Ben activated his Omnitrix and began cycling through the available aliens, searching for Upgrade.
The silhouette of an alien appeared on the display.
Ben raised his other hand and slammed it down onto the Omnitrix as hard as he could.
Green light burst outward.
When it faded, Ben was no longer standing there in his human form.
Instead, a much smaller alien stood in his place.
He had green skin, six sprout-like growths sticking from the back of his head, and a dark-green patch covering the top of his head. His face and belly were a lighter shade of green, with whisker-like markings across his face and a crooked overbite. A green tail extended from behind him, while the Omnitrix symbol sat in the middle of his stomach.
"Oh, man. Why can't this stupid watch ever work properly?" Ben complained, looking down at his tiny arms. "What's this thing supposed to do?"
He looked back toward the battlefield.
The mecha droid's attention was still focused on Xylene, while its remaining tendrils continued tearing apart shipping containers and attaching the metal pieces to its body.
The machine had already grown to nearly twice its original size, and Max was still trapped at the front of it. The droid was deliberately using him as a human shield, knowing Xylene wouldn't risk attacking it directly while Max was in the way.
Ben wasn't entirely sure what his new alien could do.
Then his stomach growled.
He looked down, confused, as a sudden hunger hit him. Ben placed his tiny hands against his stomach and rubbed it.
"What the?"
Before he could finish, he felt something strange move inside his mouth.
Ben's eyes widened.
Four green tongues suddenly shot out from his mouth and stuck firmly to the wall beside him.
Just then, Specter soared through the air, appearing some distance away above the docks. He looked down at the growing mecha droid, which was still occupied with Xylene, before noticing the ghostly figure floating in the sky.
After hearing that they had located Grandpa, Evan took off his Air Shoes and handed them to Orfevre, along with the high-tech bracelets he usually wore around his wrists.
This piece of moving junk had really dared to use his Grandpa as a hostage. Something even Vilgax wouldn't dare to do.
Evan had officially dropped the gloves. He selected an alien from TheBlade playlists.
After all, TheBlade playlists were made up of his heavy hitters, aliens powerful enough to level an entire country. There was no reason to use something like that just to beat up a few street thugs.
Specter turned invisible and flew down toward the mecha droid, heading straight for Max's location. As he got closer, he focused his Telekinesis entirely on his grandfather.
He didn't try to move the droid or any of its weapons. He only targeted Max. Specter's telekinetic force pulled against Max's body before expanding outward, pushing against the tendrils wrapped around him and forcing them to loosen.
Then the mecha droid's entire body suddenly spun. The movement pulled Max away from Specter as the tendrils rotated with the machine, slamming into the ghostly alien and sending him flying backward.
Specter was thrown toward the ground before he could crash. Orfevre suddenly leaped from one of the nearby shipping containers and caught him with both arms.
She had been relying on the speed boost from the Air Shoes, and thanks to her synchronization with her brother, she had quickly figured out how to use them without accidentally crashing into a wall at high speed.
She spun around and dug her heels into the ground, the Air Shoes scraping against the concrete as she finally managed to stop.
"Dumbass, don't just leave me like that!" she snapped at her brother. "You aren't alone in this!"
She could feel just how cold Specter's ghostly body was in her arms. That only made her more irritated.
"Sorry," he said without thinking.
Then Specter simply slipped out of her arms and floated back into the air.
The two looked toward the mecha droid. It had already noticed them, as several cannons shifted across its body, turning toward the twins.
The cannons fired; Specter immediately reached out and grabbed Orfevre as the two turned intangible. The missiles passed through them as they phased into the ground, avoiding the explosions that followed.
Several seconds later, the two phased back out of the ground some distance away, landing safely on the other side of the dock.
Seeing and directly feeling Max's pain from being forced to fight against his own family, the ghostly alien felt a deep ache in his chest.
The Ghost Core inside him pulsed with green energy, beating like a living heart.
Ghosts were "odd manifestations of ectoplasmic energy and posthuman consciousness." Rather than simply gaining abilities based on how they died, their supernatural traits were often connected to what they cared about most deeply. Their powers, obsessions, and even appearances were shaped by their core personality traits, unfulfilled desires, and emotional attachments from when they were alive.
And Specter was no different.
He was a half-ghost version of Ever Gold, meaning the unique abilities he possessed were tied directly to the parts of himself that defined him the most.
With a heart of glass and a deep desire to protect his family, Specter's unique power revolved around that very desire.
His passive trait, Empathic Tether, created an invisible bond between him and everyone he considered family. Through it, he could always sense their exact locations, their emotional states, and whether they were in physical danger.
Max, Ben, Gwen, Orfevre, Gold Ship. He could feel all of them. Their fear, anger, frustration, and pain flowed through that connection, and their intense negative emotions could empower Specter even further.
Right now, however, one feeling stood above the rest.
Max's pain.
Specter could feel it clearly as the mecha droid tightened its grip around his grandfather. If it kept squeezing him like this, Max could eventually be unable to breathe.
Specter's eyes narrowed.
"When I'm finished, throw Ben toward it," he said to his sister.
Orfevre turned toward him in confusion.
"What?"
Specter didn't explain. Instead, he took a deep breath, as ectoplasm gathered inside his lungs, building up with each second until his entire body began to tremble from the pressure.
Then, a powerful Ghostly Wail erupted from his mouth, sending an enormous sonic blast across the docks.
Everyone's eyes widened as the attack raced toward the mecha droid. The machine reacted immediately. Its body shifted, placing Max directly in front of itself.
Seeing what it was doing, Max didn't blame Evan. Instead, he smiled. If this was what it took to stop the machine from using him as a hostage, then he would rather take the hit than watch his grandchildren hold back and get killed because of him.
"NOOOOO!!!"
Everyone else shouted as the Ghostly Wail crashed into both Max and the mecha droid. The massive sonic wave engulfed them, tearing huge sections of metal from the droid's body and sending its various parts flying across the dock.
Then Specter suddenly coughed. Green ectoplasmic blood spilled from his mouth, while smaller traces escaped from his nose and ears.
His entire body weakened at once, and he dropped toward the ground.
"N-ow!" His voice came out distorted and weak.
Orfevre's body tensed when she heard her brother's voice. But her sharp eyes quickly noticed something else.
Max was fine. He looked completely unharmed. And he looked just as confused as everyone else.
Orfevre immediately grabbed Ben and threw him forward with all her strength.
"Hey! Woahhh!"
The small alien flew through the air toward the remains of the mecha droid, which were already beginning to move as the machine attempted to rebuild itself.
Ben shot his tongues forward. They wrapped around several broken pieces of the droid and pulled them straight into his mouth.
His stomach immediately began to stretch out like a balloon, glowing green.
Xylene noticed Max was unharmed as well and quickly flew down to grab him.
The mecha droid reacted by sending several tendrils toward them. Before they could reach either of them, a blue magical blast slammed into the tendrils and knocked them away.
From a distance, Gold Ship was carrying Gwen on her back while the orange-haired girl continued firing magical blasts at the machine.
Ben suddenly felt something building up inside him. He couldn't hold it anymore. He opened his mouth and released a glowing green ball of energy. It flew straight into the mecha droid and exploded on impact, blowing apart another section of its body.
"Cool! Exploding loogies!" Ben shouted excitedly. "I've got Upchuck power!"
The newly named Upchuck continued eating pieces of the damaged machine before spitting them back out as explosive green energy.
One after another, the blasts tore apart more of the droid while Gwen continued firing her magic alongside him.
"Now for dessert!"
Upchuck's eyes landed on the mecha droid's head. His four tongues shot forward, wrapped around it, and pulled the entire thing into his mouth. With its head disappeared, the droid's entire body dropped on the ground.
Xylene flew down and carefully lowered Max back onto the ground. A moment later, Upchuck spat the mecha droid's head back out.
It exploded on impact, reducing the last major piece of the machine to ash.
"Good job, Ben," Max said.
Upchuck simply licked his fingers. Then the Omnitrix beeped. Red light flashed around him as the transformation timed out, returning Ben to normal.
"Ever!!"
Orfevre's scream rang out across the docks, immediately drawing everyone's attention toward her.
They quickly moved over, their eyes widening in horror when they saw Specter lying on the ground. His entire body was glitching. Visible cracks had spread across his ghostly form, with green ectoplasmic blood continuing to seep from them as his body shook violently.
The reason was tied directly to his core obsession and personality.
One of Specter's strongest unique abilities had developed from it.
The Ultimate Sacrifice.
It was the defining power of his obsession with protecting the people he loved.
Through the bond he shared with his family, Specter could instantly absorb any damage meant for them. The person he considered family would remain completely unharmed, while Specter himself took one hundred percent of the damage in their place.
And that was exactly what had happened.
The Ghostly Wail had been an emotional boost attack, empowered by everything Specter was feeling at that moment. Its destructive power had been enough to tear apart the mecha droid. But against a ghostly entity, the attack carried an even more devastating effect.
Specter had taken all of it. His entire body trembled as green ectoplasmic blood continued to flow from the cracks in his form.
"Evan! Can you hear me?!"
"What's happening to him?!"
"Ever! No! You aren't allowed to die before me!"
"Big Bro, don't leave Golshi! Please!!"
Everyone was panicking. They could see Specter was in pain, but none of them knew how to help him. And without realizing it, their fear and distress were only making things worse. Their emotions became another source of pain for him.
Specter's powers were fueled by his desire to be loved and protect his family. Because of that, his abilities reacted strongly to the emotions of the people connected to him.
He could feel their fear. Their worry. Their pain. And most of all, the fear of losing him. Every cry of distress reached him through their bond, making his ectoplasmic form grow more unstable.
His body cracked even further. Waves of ectoplasmic energy spread outward from him, disturbing the air around his body as his shaking hand slowly reached toward the Omnitrix on his chest.
He slammed his hand down onto the dial.
Golden light erupted from his body.
Specter's ghostly form disappeared as the transformation ended, leaving Evan lying on the ground in his human form.
The golden light faded.
Evan lay in the pool of his own green ectoplasmic blood.
His eyes slowly closed. And his consciousness faded into darkness.