|| Bellwood, EarthThe creature kept growing.
Its body ballooned outward in uneven pulses, swelling into a massive, round, baby‑like blob. Limbs thickened into clumsy paddles. Its skin stretched tight and pale, glowing faintly from within as cold vapor poured off it in rolling waves. Within seconds it was towering over the lot, easily the size of a house.
The ground shook under its weight and its shadow stretched across the lot, swallowing crates, vans, and fleeing silhouettes. The three remaining refugees were scrambling to get clear. The Kree hauled the blobby alien upright, both of them stumbling away from the creature’s expanding mass. The young Tetramand tried to follow but collapsed, clutching his injured arm.
Rath’s jaw tightened. He still had the last Forever Knight pinned against the van, claws dug into the man’s chestplate. These guys belonged behind bars. They were slavers, traffickers, the kind of people he wanted to drag in himself. Letting them go felt wrong in every possible way.
But the people around them needed help.
He held the Knight there for one more heartbeat.
Gwen’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp with urgency.
“Ben…!”He didn’t look at her, but he knew she had seen it. The hesitation. The anger. The part of him that wanted to finish what he started.
After what felt like an eternity, Ben shoved the Knight away and turned his back, leaving him to scramble off without a word.
Rath sprinted toward the Tetramand. A chunk of concrete had fallen across the kid’s leg. Rath grabbed it and hurled it aside like it weighed nothing, then helped the Tetramand upright with one arm around his back.
“Get the others out of here” He commanded as he guided him behind a stack of crates before turning back toward the creature.
The nearest limb swung sideways, smashing a stack of crates into splinters. The shockwave rattled Rath’s teeth.
Gwen shouted from across the lot.
“Ben, it’s heading for the warehouse!”It was moving now, albeit slowly, towards the nearest warehouse. If that thing brought the building down, anyone still inside was done for. It may have been empty given it was the dead of night, but he didn’t want to take any chances.
Rath charged.
He slammed both fists into the creature’s side. The blow sank into soft, rubbery flesh with a dull thump. The creature barely reacted. Rath tore a chunk free, but the creature only shuddered and kept moving the mounds of meaty flesh that made up its limbs.
It slammed its body into the warehouse wall with a slam. Metal buckled inward. Support beams groaned.
Rath leapt onto its back, claws sinking in.
“Rath said STOP!” He yelled, swiping madly with the claws on his right paw.
The creature bucked violently, sending Rath flying. He was launched across the lot and into a parked car, denting the roof before rolling off with a grunt.
Gwen moved quickly past his sprawled body, waving her hands forward as she fired a blast of energy up at the creature’s face. The bolt splashed across its skin before fading into nothing.
“It’s not even feeling it!” She cried, conjuring a quick shield to block some rubble.
Rath pushed himself up, shaking off the impact. She was absolutely right. They needed something else.
“Fine. New plan.” He annoyed, his paw moving towards the omnitrix symbol on his check.
The following flash of green replaced the orange feline form with a towering man built from glistening crystals. His angular form shone in the moonlight, as Diamondhead veered forward into the fray.
His arms erupted as they formed into a series of crystal spikes before being launched into the creature’s side. They embedded deep, piercing its flash like glass stuck in rubber. The creature wobbled, then kept moving.
Diamondhead formed a massive crystal pillar beneath it, trying to lift part of its bulk. The flesh sagged around the spike, deforming without rising.
The creature simply rolled off and crushed the pillar flat.
“You have got to be kidding me.”He hit the Omnitrix again.
Cannonbolt curled and slammed into the creature’s side. The impact sank in, the creature’s body deforming around him like a mattress. Cannonbolt bounced off and skidded across the ground.
He uncurled, groaning. How were they supposed to beat this thing?
The creature dragged its bulk along the warehouse wall, tearing metal and concrete away in chunks. A section of the roof sagged dangerously.
A horn blared.
The Rustbucket skidded into the lot. Max jumped out with a bulky handheld device, its screen lit up and beeping rapidly.
“Ben. Gwen.” He called, moving toward the two.
“Please tell me that thing has a ‘make it stop’ button.” Ben asked, watching the creature with caution.
They all watched as the device beeped faster as Max approached it.
”I think it’s reacting to the nitrogen in the air.” Max stated as he looked over the readings.
Gwen’s eyes widened.
“That is why it was frozen. She theorised.
”They were keeping it dormant.”Ben stared at the creature, watching vapor pour off its skin. The air was full of nitrogen. They couldn’t exactly get rid of that.
“Okay, so how do we get it away from the air? We kind of need that.”Max hesitated, studying the readings.
Gwen looked between the creature, the vapor, and Ben. Then she snapped her fingers.
“Ben. We need a vortex.”Ben nodded in affirmation. Sure. No pressure.
For hopefully the final time, he hit the dial, his rounded limbs barely reaching it.
Emerging from the light, XLR8 hit the ground in a low crouch. His body was lean and angular, built for speed, with dark blue armor plates running down his limbs and tail. The twin wheels on his feet spun once as he shifted his weight forward. His visor snapped down over his eyes with a sharp click, narrowing into a focused, predatory slit.
“You want a vortex, I can give you a vortex.”He shot forward, circling the creature in a widening ring. Dust, frost, and debris whipped into a spiraling wall.
The air roared as he ran faster and faster.
The circle tightened.
The wind sharpened.
The world smeared into streaks of color as he pushed himself harder, faster, until the vortex rose like a twisting column around the creature.
The nitrogen rich vapor peeled upward in long ribbons, dragged into the spinning funnel. The creature’s glow dimmed. Its swollen body began to shrink in uneven pulses, each one smaller than the last.
House sized became truck sized. Then truck sized collapsed into something closer to a large dog. Ben felt the pull of the vortex ease as his circles grew smaller and smaller.
It was working.
Just outside the spinning wall, Gwen stepped forward, shaping her mana into a shimmering sphere. She waited for the exact moment the creature reached its smallest size, then fired. The bubble expanded and snapped shut around the creature, sealing it inside. The blob thrashed, limbs pressing uselessly against the barrier.
XLR8 skidded out of the vortex path, letting the winds collapse behind him. The air settled in a rush. Dust drifted back to the ground.
He panted, visor snapping up to reveal his face as he caught his breath.
The refugees stood at the edge of the lot, shaken but safe. The Kree had an arm around the Tetramand boy, steadying him. The young Tetramand gave Ben a small, grateful nod.
Ben felt a swell of relief. They were alive. They were all alive.
But the feeling soured almost immediately.
The Forever Knights were gone.
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