Chapter 101: I'm Really Impressed! A Natural Enemy Right From the Start
"Purple lightning?"
The words slipped from Klein's mouth before he could stop them. Ben and Gwen had tracked him down the moment they finished listening to Todd's bizarre account, their faces painted with matching expressions of confusion and concern.
Klein leaned against the wooden fence of the ranch, his fingers drumming a slow rhythm against the timber as he digested the information. He pushed himself off the fence with a soft sigh. "Let's go find Grandpa."
He didn't suggest finding Max because the older man was strictly necessary to solve the problem. He suggested it because if Max didn't know about this impending disaster, Klein would end up being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to deal with it. He valued his sleep far too much for that.
"Purple lightning?" Max echoed, his brow furrowing. He drove his pitchfork into the pile of manure he had been shoveling and leaned heavily against the handle, listening intently to Ben and Gwen's rapid-fire narration.
Klein stood a few paces away, arms crossed over his chest, deliberately keeping himself upwind of the pungent smell.
Ben waved his hands animatedly as he spoke, pausing as a sudden realization hit him. "Wait a second. The last time the Yenaldooshi showed up, there were purple flashes of lightning too, right?"
"This can't just be a coincidence." Gwen crossed her arms, her green eyes narrowing as she pieced the puzzle together. The air around the farm felt entirely too heavy for a simple animal attack.
"It's highly unlikely." Max abandoned the pitchfork entirely, wiping his gloved hands on his trousers. "You kids fill me in on the rest of the details. I need to grab some equipment." He turned and marched briskly toward the Rustbucket.
By the time the four of them arrived at Old Man Jason's farm, the sun had dipped below the horizon, casting long, eerie shadows across the grazing fields.
Max wore a heavy-duty tactical belt around his waist. In his hands, he held a bulky, walkie-talkie-like instrument with a glowing green display screen. He crouched low in the grass, sweeping the scanner over the massive, unconscious form of a mutated cow. It was one of the two grotesque, black-and-purple beasts that had ambushed Klein and the others the previous night.
The scanner emitted a rapid, high-pitched clicking. Max's expression darkened. "There are traces of Corrodium here."
Gwen leaned over his shoulder, eyeing the pulsing screen. "What exactly is that?"
"It's a highly radioactive, extremely unstable mineral," Max explained, his voice grim. "It doesn't occur naturally on Earth. Based on the isotopic decay, it was likely brought here by a meteorite shower thousands of years ago."
Ben punched his palm. "So that's it! The Mummy is digging around looking for those old meteorites?"
"What happens if it actually finds a large deposit of this stuff?" Gwen asked, taking a cautious step back from the mutated cow.
"If it gathers enough," Max said, rising to his feet and staring out toward the distant city lights, "it will have the capacity to mutate every living creature on the Eastern Seaboard into mindless monsters just like this cow."
"Then we better go find it first."
Klein finally spoke up from the shadows. He stepped into the moonlight, his blue eyes cold and flat. "Find the Mummy. Break it."
He clearly held a deep, personal grudge against the bandaged alien. Anything that forced him to lose a night of sleep and deal with mutated livestock was automatically placed on his immediate hit list.
Max nodded in agreement. "We will. But our first priority has to be locating the main Corrodium deposit. We have to secure it before the Mummy gets its hands on it."
The night air grew colder as they drove.
The Rustbucket eventually rolled to a quiet halt outside a massive, industrial ice cream factory. The neon sign buzzed faintly overhead, casting a sickly pink glow over the asphalt.
Max sat in the driver's seat, tapping the glass of his scanner. The needle on the display was practically vibrating off the charts. "The scanner indicates that the highest concentration of Corrodium in the entire state is right here."
Ben pressed his face against the passenger window, his eyes going wide as he read the glowing neon sign. "No way! That's my favorite brand of ice cream!"
Klein walked up behind him and clapped a heavy hand onto his cousin's shoulder. "I'd cut back on the snacking if I were you, Dweeb. Unless you want to grow a second head and start mooing."
Given that the Corrodium radiation was peaking directly beneath the factory, there was absolutely no guarantee the dairy supply hadn't been contaminated.
"It... it wouldn't actually do that... right?" Ben's face drained of color. He usually ate those specific ice cream tubs by the gallon.
Panic set in. Ben spun around and threw his arms around Klein's leg, looking up with wide, teary eyes. "Cousin! Am I going to mutate?! Am I going to turn into a giant purple cow?!"
Klein looked down at him with utter disgust. He lifted his leg and unceremoniously kicked Ben off. "Do you honestly think the watch strapped to your wrist is just a plastic toy? The Omnitrix has an automatic genetic failsafe. You're fine, idiot."
Gwen usually would have laughed at Ben's pathetic display, but her face remained pale and tight. She had eaten her fair share of that exact ice cream over the summer.
Klein caught the subtle tightening of her jaw. He knew exactly where her mind was going. He walked over and gave her a reassuring nudge. "Relax, Dork. This stuff won't do a thing to you."
The Corrodium radiation only seemed to aggressively target standard terrestrial biology. Gwen's latent Anodite genetics were overwhelmingly dominant. Biologically speaking, she barely qualified as an Earthling anyway.
Leaving the Rustbucket behind, the group moved silently toward the factory entrance. They strolled through the front gates completely unhindered, largely due to the fact that the night security guard was currently snoring loud enough to rattle the glass of his booth.
Following the frantic beeping of Max's scanner, they handled through the sterile, stainless-steel corridors of the factory, eventually descending a flight of concrete stairs into the subterranean levels.
The basement was cavernous, filled with towering refrigeration units and massive churning machines that hummed with deep, mechanical vibrations.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
The scanner in Max's hands suddenly shrieked, the display flashing a violent, warning red.
"This is the spot!" Max shouted over the roar of the machinery. "There has to be a massive chunk of Corrodium buried directly beneath the foundation!" He swept his flashlight across the concrete floor, searching for any structural weak points.
"Stand back! I got this!"
Before Max could even formulate a plan, Ben slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix dial.
A brilliant flash of emerald light illuminated the dark basement. Where Ben had stood, the towering, crystalline form of Diamondhead now crouched.
"Ben, wait!" Max yelled, reaching out a hand.
He was entirely too late. Diamondhead launched himself into the air with a powerful leap. Gravity pulled him down like a meteor. He morphed both of his arms into massive, razor-sharp diamond wedges and drove them brutally into the concrete floor.
The foundation shattered like glass. Dust and debris exploded outward as Diamondhead ripped a massive crater into the earth, exposing a glowing, jagged cluster of purple Corrodium crystals.
"What's the problem?" Diamondhead pulled his arms free from the rubble, turning back to look at Max with a completely clueless expression.
Gwen dragged a hand down her face, groaning loudly. "Oh, you are just brilliant! An absolute genius! You literally just did the Mummy's job for it!"
Diamondhead blinked his yellow eyes, looking down at the massive, glowing rock he had just conveniently excavated. "Oh. Right."
Above them, the heavy fluorescent lights of the basement began to flicker violently, buzzing with static before popping into darkness.
"Looks like our uninvited guest caught the scent." Max dropped into a defensive stance, his hand hovering over his utility belt.
The flickering emergency lights cast strobing shadows across the room. In the brief flashes of illumination, they saw it. A towering, skeletal figure wrapped entirely in ragged, ancient bandages, dropping silently from the ventilation shafts above.
"It's here!" Max barked.
Diamondhead didn't hesitate. He let out a battle cry and charged straight at the creature. "Take this, rags!"
He thrust his right arm forward, the diamond blade extending rapidly. The crystalline spike drove cleanly through the center of the Mummy's chest.
"Bet that stings!" Diamondhead smirked, twisting his arm for good measure.
The Mummy didn't even flinch. It didn't possess internal organs to damage. Instead, the ragged bandages around the wound suddenly slithered to life like vipers. They wrapped tightly around Diamondhead's crystalline arm, locking him in place.
The Mummy braced its feet against the floor and violently yanked itself backward, pulling the diamond blade free. Using the momentum, it swung its entire body weight, whipping Diamondhead through the air.
The Petrosapien crashed heavily into a massive refrigeration unit, denting the steel and showering the floor in sparks.
Ignoring the downed alien, the Mummy turned its hollow gaze toward the crater. Its chest cavity unraveled, revealing several smaller, glowing shards of Corrodium already stored inside its hollow body.
Thick tendrils of bandages shot out from its torso, wrapping securely around the massive Corrodium boulder Diamondhead had dug up. With a sickening, tearing sound, it hoisted the heavy rock into the air and dragged it directly into its chest cavity, sealing the bandages shut over it.
Gwen's hands glowed with pink mana. She stepped forward to blast the creature, but a hand clamped down firmly on her shoulder.
She looked back in confusion. Klein stood there, his face an mask of absolute boredom. He gently pushed her behind him and stepped forward, his hands shoved casually into his pockets.
He looked at the towering alien. "Are you quite finished packing your luggage?"
The implication hung heavy in the air: Are you ready to die now?
The Mummy snapped its head toward the voice. Its glowing purple eyes locked onto the boy.
Hmm? A human child? Black hair... blue eyes...
The creature's internal thoughts ground to a sudden halt. Wait. I know that description. That stupid Loboan wouldn't shut up about a terrifying kid matching that exact look!
Staring down at the supposed 'demon' its colleague had warned it about, the Mummy felt a sudden, inexplicable chill. It cautiously took two steps backward, its bandages twitching nervously.
"I'm feeling generous today," Klein said, his voice smooth and polite as he raised his left wrist. His fingers danced over the dial of the Another Omnitrix. "I'll give you exactly three seconds to start running."
The Mummy paused. Run? Do I really need to run from a child? The Loboan was just weak. I am far superior. It scoffed internally, bracing itself for a fight.
Klein slammed his palm down on the dial.
A blinding, ghostly blue light erupted through the basement, dropping the ambient temperature to freezing in an instant. The light faded, leaving behind a tall, aristocratic figure draped in a high-collared, bat-like cape. Pale skin, pointed ears, and a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs.
"Whampire."
The Vladat hissed, the sound echoing off the metal walls like a death knell.
The Mummy stared at the apex predator of the Anur System standing before it, its glowing purple eyes widening in sheer, unadulterated terror.
Is it too late to take that head start?
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