Chapter 20: Ben Catches a Cold, and the Bug Man Appears
A bright morning, crisp fresh air, and the screeching tires of a classic American car chase.
Ben had transformed into Upgrade, his black and green techno-organic circuitry completely overtaking a heavy-duty motorcycle. He roared down the asphalt, weaving through traffic in hot pursuit of a convertible packed with fleeing robbers.
The Rustbucket and a handful of wailing police cruisers trailed a safe distance behind. Klein leaned against the window, watching the chaos unfold with mild amusement. Nobody in the RV was particularly worried. Ben loved playing the hero, and handling a few street-level thugs was entirely within his wheelhouse.
Gwen sat at the table, turning a plastic cat-face mask over in her hands. She had bought it from a roadside gift shop earlier that morning, claiming it looked mysterious. Occasionally, she liked to step out and play the hero too, and a mask was exactly what she needed for a secret identity.
For now, the Rustbucket was simply acting as the cleanup crew, following along to pick Ben up once the robbers were securely in handcuffs.
Up ahead, the chase reached its climax. Upgrade manipulated the motorcycle's chassis, extending a row of sharp metal spikes from the front wheel guard. He swerved sharply, driving the spikes directly into the convertible's rear tires. The rubber shredded instantly. The getaway car spun out of control, slamming into a row of water barrels before grinding to a halt. Within seconds, the trailing police officers swarmed the vehicle, dragging the dazed robbers into the back of their cruisers.
When Grandpa Max finally parked the Rustbucket and stepped out, he looked around the chaotic scene. "Where is Ben?"
There was no sign of Upgrade, nor was there a ten-year-old boy standing triumphantly among the police.
Gwen crossed her arms, her eyes scanning the street. "He was complaining about being tired and hot earlier," she noted, knowing her cousin's habits perfectly. Her gaze locked onto a parked ice cream delivery truck. "I think he is over there."
Max and Klein followed her to the back of the truck. Max unlatched the heavy insulated doors and pulled them open. A cloud of frigid white vapor rolled out.
Ben was squatting on the metal floor between boxes of frozen treats. He had his arms wrapped tightly around his knees, shivering violently. His nose was bright red, and he was sniffling loudly while stubbornly clutching a half-eaten popsicle in his right hand.
Back in the living quarters of the Rustbucket, Max pulled a glass thermometer from Ben's mouth and squinted at the numbers.
"Thirty-nine and a half degrees Celsius," Max said, his brow furrowing. He looked down at Ben, who was now buried under a thick woolen blanket. "I am absolutely sure you have a severe cold."
Gwen immediately popped open the first-aid kit. She pulled out a bottle of fever reducers, a sleeve of cold medicine, and two thick medical masks.
Ben peered out from under his blanket, his teeth chattering. "I do not need that junk."
Gwen snapped the elastic band of a mask over her ears, her voice muffled but sharp. "They are not for you, Dweeb. They are for Klein and me." She tossed the second mask to Klein. "Your cold is spreading easily contagious germs everywhere, and I refuse to catch whatever you have!"
Max patted Ben's blanket-covered shoulder. "What you need is my personal specialty. A fresh brew of Sangju Tea. It is the ultimate cold medicine." He moved toward the driver's seat. "Let us get moving. Chinatown is just a few blocks ahead."
The streets of Chinatown were bustling, filled with the rich scents of roasted duck and burning incense. Max stepped out of a traditional Chinese medicine shop, holding a sealed glass jar filled with dried roots. Klein, Gwen, and a miserable-looking Ben followed close behind.
"They did not have any fresh bellflower root here," Max muttered, inspecting the label on the jar. "Only the freeze-dried variety. It will have to do."
Ben dragged his feet, looking completely listless. He coughed into his elbow. "Oh, my throat hurts so much." He looked up at Max with pleading eyes. "Grandpa, can I just have a milkshake instead?"
"Absolutely not," Max rejected the request without a second of hesitation. "Sangju Tea will help clear the phlegm from your chest and stop that coughing. You will thank me later."
Across the street, a local female politician was standing on a raised wooden platform, delivering a passionate speech about urban redevelopment to a small crowd.
A low, vibrating hum interrupted her words. The sound grew louder, drowning out the microphone. A massive, dark cloud swept over the rooftops, descending rapidly toward the square. It was a swarm of locusts, thousands of them, moving in perfect unison.
Standing in the very center of the swirling insect tornado was a man dressed in ragged, dirt-stained clothes. His skin was pale, and his eyes were wide with frantic anger.
Clancy glared down at the politician. "Do not even think about tearing down our home!"
The crowd erupted into panicked screams, scattering in all directions as the locusts began diving at their faces.
Klein sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He really just wanted a quiet afternoon.
"Heh heh! Time for a hero entrance!" Ben pushed his blanket off, his eyes lighting up despite his fever. He slapped the dial on his wrist.
A brilliant green flash illuminated the street, and Wildmutt hit the pavement with a heavy thud.
The giant orange beast let out a roar, but it quickly turned into a wet, messy sneeze. Wildmutt shook his massive head, disoriented. Instead of leaping toward Clancy, he charged in the wrong direction, crashing headfirst into a wooden breakfast cart and sending steaming buns flying across the sidewalk.
Max watched the alien beast stumble blindly into a streetlamp. "It seems Ben's cold has completely ruined Wildmutt's sensory gills. He cannot smell or track anything." Max turned quickly. "Gwen, Klein!"
"Relax, Grandpa," Klein said, his voice calm and entirely unbothered. "Gwen, you go pull those people out of the swarm. I will deal with Mr. Bug."
Klein raised his wrist and slapped the faceplate of the Another Omnitrix.
A surge of glowing blue light washed over him. The light faded, revealing a tall, ethereal figure wrapped in dark blue wings that resembled a tattered cloak. Big Chill floated above the pavement, his breath pluming into icy mist.
Big Chill spread his wings, turning completely intangible. He flew straight toward Clancy, passing directly through the thickest part of the locust swarm. Everywhere his ghostly form touched, the air temperature plummeted. The buzzing insects froze instantly, dropping from the sky and shattering against the concrete like tiny, lifelike glass sculptures.
Below them, Gwen extended her hands. Bright pink Anodite mana flared around her fingers. She cast streams of Celestial Energy into the chaos, wrapping the glowing tethers around the panicked civilians and pulling them safely out of the insect cloud one by one.
Clancy noticed the bright pink flashes of light below. He whipped his head around, his face twisting in rage. "Who is doing that!"
The moment Clancy turned, he found himself face-to-face with a beautiful, humanoid moth. Big Chill did not waste a single second on banter. He pulled back his fist, coating his knuckles in a thick layer of dense ice, and delivered a devastating punch directly to Clancy's jaw.
Clancy, who possessed nothing more than the physical durability of a normal human beggar, went entirely limp. He plummeted from the sky, hitting the ground unconscious.
Back inside the Rustbucket, the air was thick with a pungent, earthy odor.
Max handed a steaming mug of dark brown liquid to Ben, who was once again wrapped tightly in his blanket. "Alright, Ben. Drink up."
Ben leaned forward and took a tiny sniff. His face immediately scrunched up in pure revulsion. He pushed the mug as far away from his nose as his arms would allow. "Ugh! Grandpa, who taught you how to make this?"
"A monk," Max answered truthfully, completely ignoring the disgusted looks he was receiving from all three kids. "What is wrong with that? Monks also encounter plumbing and electrical problems, you know."
Knowing he had no way out, Ben pinched his nose. He forced himself to gulp down half of the bitter, sludgy medicine. It tasted exactly like boiled dirt and old leaves.
Just as Ben was preparing to gag, the RV's radio crackled to life. An emergency news bulletin announced that the insect-controlling criminal had managed to escape police custody during his transfer to the precinct.
While Max and Gwen turned their attention to the radio broadcast, Ben seized the golden opportunity. He quickly slid the mug containing the remaining half of the Sangju Tea into a nearby overhead cabinet, shutting the wooden door softly.
Klein leaned back against the counter, entirely unsurprised by the news. He never expected the local police to hold a superpowered weirdo for more than an hour anyway. He did not particularly care, either. As Max always said, once the villain was handed over to the authorities, it was no longer their problem.
Gwen, however, was already flipping open her laptop. Her fingers flew across the keyboard.
"Found it!" Gwen announced, turning the screen toward Max. "That bug guy kept yelling about his home. I checked the city zoning records. The only old apartment building in the city center that has not been demolished yet is located at 86 Tanches Street."
Max nodded grimly. He dropped into the driver's seat and fired up the engine, steering the Rustbucket toward the city center.
When they arrived at 86 Tanches Street, the situation had escalated into a full-blown warzone.
Several armed police helicopters circled the airspace above a towering, dilapidated apartment building. A dozen police cruisers formed a barricade on the street below. The sky was black with insects.
Clancy hovered high in the air, standing atop a dense, writhing platform of locusts. He waved his arms wildly, directing waves of hornets and beetles to attack the barricade. Screaming police officers dropped their weapons, clawing frantically at their uniforms as insects crawled over their skin.
"You will not destroy our home!" Clancy shrieked, his voice echoing over the buzzing horde.
Ben threw off his blanket, his hand hovering over the Omnitrix. "Hero time! Hero—Achoo!" He sneezed violently, his knees buckling slightly.
Before Ben could press the dial, Klein stepped in front of him, pushing his cousin's arm down.
"Sit this one out, Ben. I will do it," Klein said.
His eyes locked onto Clancy. A deep sense of annoyance washed over him. Why couldn't this guy just learn from the villains who came before him? He had a chance to sit quietly in a jail cell, but he just had to break out and cause more trouble. Klein hated having his lazy days interrupted. He made a quiet, ruthless decision right then and there. He was going to make sure this Bug Man suffered a fatal accident today.
Klein slammed his palm onto the Another Omnitrix.
A blinding blue light erupted, washing over the street. When it faded, Heatblast stood in Klein's place, his magma-cracked body radiating intense, shimmering heat.
"Mr. Bug!" Heatblast called out, his voice echoing with a deep, crackling resonance. "Are you ready to enjoy a delicious roasted insect feast?"
Heatblast raised both hands, his palms glowing white-hot. He unleashed a towering, roaring pillar of fire directly into the sky-filling swarm. The flames tore a massive, glowing hole through the cloud of bugs. Thousands of charred insect corpses rained down onto the pavement, filling the air with the sharp, acrid smell of burnt ash.
Clancy shielded his face from the intense light. "Where did you come from, you weirdo!" He pointed a trembling finger at the flaming alien. "Tear him apart!"
The swarm shifted direction, diving straight toward Heatblast like a black waterfall.
Heatblast stood his ground. He had originally considered using Swampfire for this fight, but looking at the sheer number of locusts, he decided against it. Plant-based aliens and hungry bugs were a bad combination. Pure, unadulterated fire was the only answer.
Heatblast planted his feet and let out a low shout. Fierce, roaring flames erupted from every inch of his rocky body, creating a massive dome of fire. The insects that could not stop their momentum plunged directly into the inferno, instantly vaporizing into gray dust.
The ambient temperature of the entire street began to skyrocket. The asphalt softened under Heatblast's feet. The surviving insects broke their formation, terrified by the overwhelming heat. They scattered wildly, refusing to obey Clancy's commands. Even the bugs that had been tormenting the police officers fled into the sewers to escape the rising temperature.
If there had not been innocent people standing nearby, Heatblast would have gladly raised the temperature high enough to melt the surrounding buildings into slag.
The blistering heat wave rolled upward. Clancy gasped for air, his face dripping with sweat. Unable to withstand the suffocating temperature, he commanded his remaining locust platform to retreat, flying backward through a shattered window into the dark interior of the dilapidated apartment building.
Heatblast narrowed his eyes. He raised his hands, firing a relentless barrage of fireballs at the retreating insect swarm.
One of the massive fireballs sailed through the broken window. It bypassed the bugs entirely and slammed directly into a primary, load-bearing concrete pillar on the ground floor.
The explosion shattered the reinforced concrete. A deafening crack echoed through the street. The entire apartment building groaned, the foundation shifting violently.
Clancy, whose attention was entirely fixated on the flaming alien outside, never saw it coming. The ceiling above him buckled and gave way. Tons of concrete, steel rebar, and brick collapsed inward, burying the Bug Man instantly under a mountain of heavy rubble.
With Clancy dead, the remaining insects completely lost their collective mind. Driven purely by survival instincts and terrified by the lingering heat, they scattered in all directions, disappearing into the city's cracks and crevices.
Heatblast lowered his hands, the flames along his arms dying down to a quiet simmer. He looked at the smoking pile of rubble, entirely satisfied with his handiwork.
Later that week, Ben realized his severe cold had completely vanished. Whether it was the terrible taste of the Sangju Tea, or the fact that standing near Heatblast's localized sauna had literally sweated the fever out of his system, he was back to full health in just a few days.
[Akarin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/AkarinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/AkarinTL
🔗 All My Links: linktr[.]ee/AkarinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]