Chapter 135: Ultimate Echo Echo
Ben slammed hard against the glowing purple mana barrier.
'I think I... understand... Enoch... This is... truly painful...'
Ben tremblingly raised his right hand, his voice strained. "...Thanks... Gwen..."
For some reason, Ben suddenly felt a twinge of sympathy toward Enoch. After all, the Forever Knight had fallen even harder the last time they pulled a stunt like this.
Seeing her cousin's undignified blunder, Gwen crossed her arms. A bright, thoroughly smug smile spread across her face as she graciously accepted his thanks.
But the mutated monstrous bird still had no intention of letting Ben go, not even after being bumped off course by Grandpa Max earlier.
Just as the screeching beast banked in mid-air, preparing to crash directly into Ben against the purple barrier, a searing blue energy projectile blasted through the sky and struck it dead center.
Caw!
The mutated monstrous bird cried out in pain, its feathers smoking. It immediately aborted the dive, fleeing toward the abandoned cruise ship to find Dr. Animo and complain.
Following the trajectory of the energy blast, Ben spotted his savior.
"Cool! Grandpa!"
Ben excitedly threw both hands in the air, but then his face scrunched in confusion. He definitely did not remember seeing Grandpa Max carrying a heavy blaster earlier. "Grandpa, where did you get that gun?"
"An old Plumber's trick."
Grandpa Max twirled the heavy rifle with practiced ease, flashed a confident grin at his grandson, and immediately sprinted after the fleeing mutant bird.
"Darn you, Ben Tennyson! It is all your fault!"
Dr. Animo's grating, furious voice echoed from the deck of the abandoned cruise ship.
'Huh? My fault again?'
Ben let his arms drop. He did not even know what to say anymore, and honestly, he was too lazy to try. He just silently made a firm decision right then and there. This time, he was going to personally deliver Dr. Animo to the absolute worst, most heavily populated all-male maximum-security prison in the entirety of the United States. Let him see how much he liked experimenting there.
"But thankfully, the experiment is complete!"
Dr. Animo's gaunt figure stepped up to the railing of the cruise ship's upper deck, his goggles gleaming with madness.
"Your alien freaks' DNA has granted the mutated creatures I created the ability to replicate infinitely!"
Dr. Animo excitedly threw his hands toward the sky. "Now! I shall lead this miserable planet into a glorious new era of species evolution!"
The steel deck behind Dr. Animo suddenly groaned and buckled. The metal cracked open, and giant, grotesque mutated insects began crawling out from the dark fissure.
They were entirely sickly green, resembling massive locusts, but their bulbous eyes and four-winged structures looked exactly like Stinkfly.
However, while these giant mutated insects shared Stinkfly's hideous appearance, their genetic structure had been spliced with Ditto's DNA.
The giant mutated insects spread their sticky wings in swarms, taking to the sky with a deafening buzz.
"Come on! My darlings! Help me conquer this planet!"
Dr. Animo waved his arms frantically like a deranged conductor.
The giant insects let out hoarse, clicking screeches. Then, their bodies began to violently split apart. One became two, two became four. In just a few agonizing seconds, the sky above the beach was completely blotted out by a massive, buzzing green cloud.
"Though I really do not want to say this..."
Ben stared up at the swarms of mutated giant insects, his eyes shrinking to tiny dots of sheer disbelief. "...But we are in big trouble."
"Relax. The immortal has a clever plan."
Klein, who had somehow casually strolled onto the deck of the abandoned cruise ship while everyone else was distracted, remained completely unperturbed. He simply waved his hand with a lazy, dismissive gesture.
"Damn it! When did you get up here?!"
Dr. Animo whipped around, his jaw dropping as he stared at Klein in absolute shock.
Klein completely ignored the mad scientist. He casually tapped the faceplate of the Another Omnitrix.
"Echo Echo!"
A ghostly blue light flashed, illuminating the dark deck, and Echo Echo stood in Klein's place.
Echo Echo's DNA was derived from the Sonorosians. His true form was nothing more than living, sentient sound waves. He appeared as a small, gray-white alien wearing a suit resembling a walking MP3 player with headphones, but this was actually a specialized containment suit designed to keep his sonic energy from dissipating.
Just like Ditto, Echo Echo was only about as tall as an Earth child.
The moment Echo Echo appeared, he did not waste a single second. He began to duplicate.
One became two. Two became four. Four became eight.
He only stopped when the entire deck of the abandoned cruise ship was packed shoulder-to-shoulder, leaving absolutely no room to step.
Dr. Animo did not even have time to scream before he was directly swarmed by five or six Echo Echos. They tackled him to the steel floor, delivering several swift, synchronized punches to his face.
The remaining massive army of Echo Echos tilted their heads back. They opened their large, green, horn-like mouths, revealing the black circular stripes inside, and aimed directly at the mutated giant insects swarming the sky.
"Ahhhhh!!!"
Countless super-powerful sound waves erupted simultaneously. The sheer kinetic force of the sonic blast swept through the air, hitting the mutated giant insects like a solid wall of pressure. The bugs ruptured and dropped into the sea like heavy dumplings, splashing violently one after another.
However, a few of the mutated giant insects managed to dive through the sonic barrage. In a desperate frenzy, they snapped their jaws and devoured a few of the Echo Echo clones.
"Oh no! If one alien clone dies, Cousin will die too!"
Ben, completely unaware of Echo Echo's unique biological traits, immediately grabbed his head in a blind panic.
"Relax, Ben. As long as one of us is alive, we will not die."
One of the Echo Echos standing near the edge of the ship called out, his synthesized, overlapping voice perfectly calm.
Upon hearing this, Ben froze. His jaw snapped shut. "..."
'Damn it, that is way more advanced than mine!'Ben suddenly felt a deep, burning wave of envy. He really did not want to admit it out loud, but looking at the absolute efficiency of the Sonorosian, he could not help but scream internally.'Ditto! Look at them! Then look at yourself! You are useless!'
"...Sigh."
But alas, in the end, all his internal frustration could only deflate into a heavy, defeated sigh.
He had originally wanted to rush up and help the moment his Omnitrix recharged and turned green, but now Ben just stared at his wrist. 'You had better not turn green right now. I do not want to embarrass myself.'
Gwen had no idea what new internal madness Ben was going through. She was entirely focused on carefully analyzing the chaotic situation above. "The genes inside these monstrous insects are derived from Ditto's DNA, which means..."
"As long as one dies, the rest will also die."
A group of Echo Echos finished Gwen's sentence in perfect unison.
"Since that is the case, then let me show you something fun..."
As the overlapping voices faded, the massive army of Echo Echos suddenly blurred. They rushed toward the center of the deck, merging smoothly back into a single entity.
The sole remaining Echo Echo raised his small hand and tapped the Another Omnitrix symbol on his chest.
A blinding, ghostly blue light instantly erupted, swallowing Echo Echo's entire body.
"Ultimate Echo Echo!"
The light shattered. Ultimate Echo Echo hovered above the deck. His main body color had shifted to a deep, metallic blue. His physique was now elongated, much closer to an adult humanoid, and sleek, disc-shaped speakers were embedded into his hands, feet, head, and shoulders.
"What?! It can even evolve?!"
Ben was completely utterly dumbfounded. He instinctively mumbled in a dazed stupor, "Ditto... you lost. Completely and utterly..."
At this moment, Ben genuinely believed that this evolutionary trait was just another unique, overpowered ability belonging to Echo Echo. He was completely unaware that this was actually a brand-new function Klein had unlocked in his watch.
Ben secretly made a vow right then and there. Later tonight, he was going to latch onto his cousin's leg, cry his eyes out, and shamelessly beg for Echo Echo's DNA. He was already mentally preparing himself. Even if Klein hit him or called him an idiot, he would absolutely never let go.
'Actually, I should probably handle Animo first,'Ben thought, his eyes narrowing.'No need to call the police. I will just turn into Fasttrack and drop Animo straight into that maximum-security prison. That will save everyone a lot of time.'
Thinking of this, Ben nodded slowly, deeply impressed by his own petty genius.
Meanwhile, down on the deck, Dr. Animo—bruised, battered, and tightly bound by the clones earlier—suddenly shivered violently.
"Ugh... What is this sudden chill?"
Dr. Animo shook his head, unable to figure out why a sense of impending doom had just washed over him. He decided to stop thinking about it. "It must be that hateful Ben Tennyson! He is projecting his negative energy at me!"
Back to the battle.
Ultimate Echo Echo hovered calmly in the air. He reached up, detached the disc-shaped speakers from his shoulders, and casually tossed them into the sky.
The two metallic discs activated instantly, locking onto one of the frantic mutated monstrous insects.
Before the bug could react, the two discs began to violently split apart. Two became four, four became eight, rapidly multiplying until more than a dozen floating speakers filled the air.
The swarm of discs quickly formed a tight, inescapable ring, completely surrounding the screeching mutated insect.
All the floating discs activated simultaneously. They unleashed a concentrated barrage of sound waves, exponentially more powerful and destructive than anything the original Echo Echo could produce.
Worse yet for the bug, the sound waves did not just hit once. They continuously bounced and propagated back and forth between the surrounding discs, creating a closed loop of sonic destruction that multiplied the destructive force with every single microsecond.
In just a few short seconds, the trapped mutated monstrous insect was literally shaken to death, its internal structure liquified by the sheer acoustic pressure.
Down on the beach, Ben and Gwen exchanged wide-eyed glances, both seeing identical expressions of absolute amazement mirrored on each other's faces.
High above, the shared-death genetic flaw kicked in. The remaining mutated giant insects froze mid-flight. Their bodies began to rapidly dissolve, melting out of the sky and turning into puddles of foul, yellowish-green slime before they even hit the ocean.
"No!!! My experimental results! You do not know how great my experimental results are! They could have led humanity to... Ah!"
Dr. Animo watched his life's work melt away with absolute despair. Unfortunately for him, his villainous monologue was abruptly cut short. Grandpa Max, having already dealt with the mutated monstrous bird, stepped up behind the mad scientist and delivered a swift, heavy strike to the back of his head.
Before completely losing consciousness and slumping against the steel deck, Dr. Animo managed to weakly shout one last time, "Darn you... Ben Tennyson..."
Because there was still plenty of daylight left, the group casually returned to the beach to salvage their vacation.
"Hey? Where did Ben go?" Max asked, looking around the empty stretch of sand.
"I do not know. Just ignore him," Klein replied, stretching out on his beach chair. He looked over at his cousin. "Gwen, can you help me apply sunscreen?"
Gwen sighed, wiping some sand off her hands. "Although I am a bit tired... alright. Turn over."
A few days later.
Deep inside the most heavily populated, all-male maximum-security prison in the United States.
Dr. Animo gripped the steel bars of his cell. His eyes were completely bloodshot, his prison uniform was disheveled, and his sanity was hanging by a very thin thread. He threw his head back and angrily shouted at the ceiling, "Darn you, Ben Tennyson!!!"
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