Chapter 131: I Just Came In to Show Off... Crap! I Can't Get Out!
The fake Klein smirked, his voice dripping with mock sympathy. "What a pity, Ben. Wouldn't it be better to just stay here obediently?"
He tapped the faceplate of his Another Omnitrix.
A blinding flash of dark blue light erupted, washing over the dreamscape. When the glare faded, Ben, Gwen, and Grandpa Max were left utterly dumbfounded.
"Dweeb!" Gwen shrieked, her voice cracking as she stared upward. "I know this is your dream, but I didn't expect you to see our cousin like THIS!"
She couldn't really be blamed for losing her composure.
Looming over them was a colossal, twenty-meter-tall Four Arms.
The sheer scale of the Tetramand was absurd. What was even the point of fighting a mountain of red muscle?
Then again, dream logic dictated reality here. In Ben's mind, Four Arms was the ultimate symbol of brute strength, and Klein was undeniably stronger than him. Therefore, Klein's Four Arms had to be bigger. Much bigger.
"Uh... it's totally normal for his Four Arms to be a little bit bigger, right?" Ben offered, though his nervous chuckle made it clear he couldn't even convince himself.
"What 'little bit', you super big Dweeb?!" Gwen snapped, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "What exactly do you suggest we do now?! Can a normal human really fight that walking skyscraper?!"
She looked ready to strangle her cousin right then and there.
Ben took a slow step backward. "How about... we just go first?" he suggested cautiously.
"Go up and do what? Die?" Gwen shot him a withering glare that clearly communicated her thoughts: That is a great suggestion, never suggest anything ever again.
"Then our only option is a tactical retreat. We need to get back to the Rustbucket," Grandpa Max said in a low, steady voice. He crouched slightly, gesturing for Ben and Gwen to look past the dream-versions of himself and Gwen, where the familiar RV was parked.
It was a twisted stroke of luck. The dream-construct of Klein had perfectly inherited the real Klein's lazy, trollish personality. Instead of immediately squashing them like bugs, the giant Four Arms just stood there, crossing his massive arms, clearly intending to toy with them for his own amusement.
"Then let's do this!" Ben yelled, his fighting spirit reigniting. He slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix dial.
"Humungousaur!"
A brilliant emerald flash engulfed him, and the massive, dinosaur-like Vaxasaurian materialized with a heavy thud.
For once, the stubborn watch hadn't given him the wrong alien.
As soon as Humungousaur appeared, his ability kicked in. His muscles expanded, his armored plates shifting and grinding as he rapidly grew in size. Within seconds, the Vaxasaurian towered at a staggering twenty meters, standing eye-to-eye with the colossal Four Arms.
"Come at me if you dare!" Humungousaur roared, his confidence completely restored. The ground quaked beneath his heavy footfalls as he charged straight at the four-armed giant.
Meanwhile, the battlefield split.
Gwen, glowing with vibrant pink Mana, shifted into her Anodite form, hovering in the air to face off against the dream-version of herself, who mirrored the transformation.
On the ground, Grandpa Max squared up against his own dream-doppelganger, the two seasoned veterans immediately locking into brutal, efficient hand-to-hand combat.
"Ben, just hold him off! After we deal with these fakes, we'll come help..." Gwen called out.
Since this was entirely constructed from Ben's subconscious, the dream-Gwen wasn't nearly as skilled or powerful as the real deal. Gwen easily deflected a barrage of Mana blasts, leaving her plenty of breathing room to shout instructions.
However, precisely because this was Ben's dream... his deeply ingrained belief that Klein was an unstoppable monster took priority.
Before Gwen could even finish her sentence, a massive red fist connected with Humungousaur's jaw.
The twenty-meter dinosaur was launched through the air like a discarded toy, crashing into the dirt with a deafening boom.
"Ooh, that had to hurt," Gwen winced, casually swatting aside the fake Gwen and binding her in a tight snare of pink Mana.
"You don't need to tell me that!" Humungousaur groaned, spitting out a mouthful of dirt as he struggled to push his massive frame off the ground. "How about we switch opponents?!"
He didn't get the chance.
The colossal Four Arms stepped forward and casually planted a massive foot squarely on Humungousaur's chest, pinning the struggling dinosaur back into the crater.
"Looks like he needs backup," Grandpa Max noted. With a quick assist from Gwen's magic, he had just knocked out his dream-counterpart. He patted the dust off his Hawaiian shirt and stared up at the towering red giant pinning his grandson.
"Hmm... Is this really how Ben sees me?"
A clear, almost musical voice suddenly chimed in from above. It didn't sound like Klein's usual voice, but the dry, amused tone was unmistakably his.
Gwen and Grandpa Max whipped their heads around.
Floating just a few feet behind them, with tiny arms crossed in a posture of utter judgment, was Pesky Dust. The diminutive, fairy-like alien fluttered its delicate wings, radiating a soft, dreamlike aura.
"Klein?! How did you get in here?!" Gwen gasped, instantly recognizing her cousin despite the cute, sparkly exterior.
Meanwhile, in the waking world, deep within the Forever Knight Castle Version 2.0.
The grand halls were littered with the unconscious bodies of armored Forever Knights. The only ones left in the central laboratory were Ben, who was strapped to a medical bed with a strange, glowing helmet secured over his head, and Enoch, who was frantically monitoring the dream-machine's consoles.
"Nothing much. Just popped in to lend a hand," Pesky Dust said, waving a tiny hand with exaggerated casualness.
Instantly, the terrifying, twenty-meter-tall Four Arms dissolved into a cloud of sparkling mist, vanishing without a trace.
As a Nemuina, manipulating the very fabric of dreams was literally what Pesky Dust was born to do. Erasing a nightmare construct was as effortless as breathing.
"Alright, I have my own things to take care of out there, so I'll be leaving first. Try not to die of fright, Dweeb."
With a final flutter of wings, Pesky Dust faded from the dreamscape.
Grandpa Max and Gwen exchanged a long look, both of them offering a helpless shrug. Typical Klein.
A few yards away, the Omnitrix beeped, flashing red. The giant Humungousaur shrank down, reverting back into a very bruised and disoriented Ben.
Ben groaned, propping himself up on his elbows and sitting up from the dirt.
"Alright, what do we do now?" Ben asked, rubbing his sore jaw.
Because he had been pinned face-up to the ground, he hadn't actually seen Pesky Dust arrive. He was still entirely confused as to why the giant Four Arms had just evaporated into thin air.
But true to form, if Ben couldn't figure out a situation within three seconds, he simply stopped thinking about it. He wasn't exactly the brainy type anyway. That was what Gwen and Grandpa Max were for.
"We need to hurry. We can't let the Forever Knights' scheme succeed!" Grandpa Max urged, his expression hardening.
But the moment the words left his mouth, a chilling, all-too-familiar laughter echoed from the sky above them.
"Hahahaha..."
The sinister cackle distorted the very air. The grassy battlefield and the Rustbucket violently warped, melting away like wet paint. The environment collapsed into a swirling, chaotic void of shifting colors, leaving Ben, Gwen, and Grandpa Max suspended in an endless, illusory palette.
"Ben Tennyson!" Enoch's voice boomed from the swirling void before the Forever Knight leader materialized right in front of them, his metallic mask gleaming. "Since you are unwilling to enjoy a wonderful, peaceful day, then from now on, you will live in the most terrifying nightmare imaginable!"
"Run! Hurry and run!" Enoch taunted, throwing his arms wide in theatrical triumph. "No matter how fast you run, it is utterly useless! I am the absolute master of this world! Hahahaha!"
He raised his hands high, and the chaotic space violently shifted once more.
The swirling colors snapped into solid geometry. The trio suddenly found themselves standing on polished wooden floorboards inside a quiet, enclosed room. Through a nearby row of windows, the orange glow of a setting sun cast long, eerie shadows across the floor.
"Hahahaha!"
Enoch was still cackling maniacally, completely lost in his own villainous monologue.
Ben, Gwen, and Grandpa Max just stood there, staring at the armored man as if he had completely lost his mind. The silence in the room made his echoing laughter feel incredibly awkward.
"What is wrong with him?" Ben whispered loudly, leaning toward Gwen. "Why is he just standing there laughing like an idiot?"
"I do not know," Gwen whispered back, raising an eyebrow. "Maybe the power went to his head and he finally snapped?"
Enoch kept laughing. He laughed until his throat felt raw and his chest heaved, fully expecting to wake up in the real world, victorious.
But when he finally stopped to catch his breath... he was still standing on the wooden floorboards.
Enoch froze. Panic pierced through his arrogance. He spun around, shouting at the empty ceiling, desperately trying to contact his subordinates in the waking world. "Hey! What happened?! Pull me out!"
Only dead silence answered him.
He tapped the side of his mask frantically. Nothing.
Damn it. He couldn't get out.
The horrifying realization finally crashed down on the Forever Knight leader. He was trapped in the dream with them.
The room became painfully quiet. The tension evaporated, replaced by an atmosphere so thick with awkwardness you could cut it with a knife.
Enoch slowly lowered his hands, turning to look at the three Tennysons. They stared back, unblinking.
"Ahem..." Enoch coughed into his fist, adjusting his collar beneath his armor. "Alright. The conversation ends here. Let us quickly find the exit."
Ben, Gwen, and Grandpa Max didn't say a single word. They just exchanged a synchronized nod, cracked their knuckles, and rushed him.
A flurry of fists, kicks, and Mana constructs descended upon the helpless Forever Knight.
A minute later, Enoch was curled into a fetal position on the floor, groaning in sheer agony, his armor dented in several embarrassing places.
High above, hidden perfectly within the shadowy rafters, Pesky Dust sat cross-legged, munching on a conjured bag of dream-popcorn and watching the beatdown with absolute relish.
"You just said this was supposed to be Ben's most terrible nightmare," Gwen said, standing over Enoch with her hands on her hips, interrogating the groaning man. "So where exactly are we?"
Before Enoch could wheeze out an answer, a heavy, wooden thud echoed through the room.
Everyone snapped their heads up. All around them, the floorboards began to split apart as massive, towering bookshelves violently erupted from the ground, slamming into place row after row.
"No!" Ben's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated horror. He looked at the endless rows of textbooks, the chalkboards, the fluorescent lights flickering overhead. "This is... SCHOOL!!!"
He wailed loudly, clutching his head in despair.
Blind panic took over. Ben spun around and sprinted down the endless corridor of bookshelves, screaming at the top of his lungs. "Let me out!!! I can not take it! Let me out!!!"
Gwen sighed, rolling her eyes. She flicked her wrist, sending out a glowing tether of pink Mana that wrapped securely around Ben's waist, yanking him backward through the air until he landed unceremoniously at her feet.
"Only YOU would consider a library a terrifying nightmare, Dweeb."
"Shut up, it is annoying..." Ben grumbled, dusting himself off. Then, a spark of realization lit up his eyes. "Oh, wait! Gwen, you said this is MY dream, right? That means if I just force myself to wake up, I can leave this awful place!"
He grinned, giving himself a confident thumbs-up for his sheer tactical genius. "Gwen! Kick me!"
Gwen's eyes lit up with dangerous glee. She wasn't about to refuse a direct request like that. Without a second of hesitation, she pulled her leg back and delivered a vicious, full-force kick straight to Ben's shin.
"OW!" Ben shrieked, instantly dropping to the floor and clutching his throbbing leg, hopping around on one foot. "It is useless! I am still here!"
"Yeah, I know. Grandpa already told us physical pain will not wake you up from this machine," Gwen replied, laughing gleefully at her cousin's misery.
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