Chapter 117: Grandpa Max's Harem is on Fire
The cool night breeze whipped off the harbor, carrying the harsh scent of salt and rusted iron. Ben shot across the dark water on his hoverboard, banking sharply toward the deeper, shadowy sections of the pier. A rhythmic, grinding crunch echoed through the thick fog.
Click, click, crunch.
A colossal mechanical monstrosity loomed in the distance, its massive metallic limbs casually scooping up heavy shipping containers and shoving them into its gaping chassis. Pinned against the cold steel of the machine's outer hull was Grandpa Max, tightly bound by thick metallic cables. Despite his age, the veteran Plumber was thrashing wildly, fighting the restraints with every ounce of his strength.
Seeing his grandfather in danger, Ben slammed the brakes on his hoverboard. He thrust his left arm forward, fully exposing the Omnitrix dial.
"Let my grandpa go!" Ben shouted, his voice echoing across the empty docks. "Isn't this what you want?! I'll trade you right now!"
The giant machine paused its mindless consumption. Glowing red optical sensors slowly swiveled, locking onto the boy. A deep, mechanical grinding noise vibrated from its speakers before a chillingly familiar voice boomed out.
"Give it to me!!!"
It was Vilgax.
Meanwhile, in the cold void of outer space, the atmosphere on the Chimerian Hammer was incredibly tense.
"Lord Vilgax, you must maintain your composure," the spindly alien advisor pleaded, wringing his hands nervously. "If the enemy senses your desperation, they will undoubtedly lay more traps for you to fall into. You must be reserved."
Vilgax did not take the advice well. A massive, booted foot lashed out, sending the advisor skidding violently across the metal floor of the command deck.
"What do you know?!" Vilgax roared, his tentacles flaring with intense irritation. "Time is running out! I have a terrible premonition that the brat is coming back!"
Vilgax trusted his instincts above all else. If he didn't secure a victory immediately, that monstrous anomaly would return, and he would walk away with absolutely nothing.
Back at the pier.
"Vilgax?!"
Ben nearly lost his balance on the hoverboard. He hadn't expected the galactic warlord to be speaking through a glorified trash compactor, but he quickly forced himself to focus.
"First, you let my grandpa go! Then I'll hand over the Omnitrix!"
"You take me for a fool!" Vilgax's voice crackled through the machine's vocalizer. "If I release the one called Max, I will be left empty-handed! Besides, you do not even possess the knowledge to remove the Omnitrix from your wrist. Here is the deal. You come over here, let my drone restrain you, and then I will release the old man."
Vilgax was pragmatic. Releasing Max Tennyson first was a guaranteed way to lose his use.
Ben had already anticipated this exact demand. He planted his feet firmly on his board, keeping his distance. "No way! I don't believe you'll actually..."
"Then neither of us gets what we want!" Vilgax interrupted, his voice dripping with sudden, uncharacteristic impatience. "I am taking the one called Max with me! You can keep that broken watch!"
Ben blinked. His jaw dropped slightly. The script in his head completely derailed. Wait, didn't this guy obsess over the Omnitrix? Why was he giving up so easily?
Vilgax was simply pushing the boy's limits. If the Omnitrix proved too difficult to secure in this narrow window, taking Max Tennyson was a highly acceptable consolation prize. He could humiliate his oldest nemesis. Perhaps he would find ten or eight vicious aliens to thoroughly torture the old Plumber, record the entire ordeal, and broadcast it across the galaxy.
The truth was, Vilgax was genuinely panicking. Klein had been gone for a while, which meant the terrifying boy's return was imminent. Grabbing Max was infinitely better than fleeing empty-handed.
Seeing Ben frozen in sheer confusion, Vilgax made his move.
"Drone! Bring the one called Max back to my ship!"
The massive thrusters beneath the mechanical beast ignited, spewing a torrent of blue fire as it began to lift off the concrete pier.
"Vilgax, wait! Stop! I'll do what you want!" Ben yelled, panic finally breaking through his bravado as he watched his grandfather being hoisted into the sky.
Tucked away behind a stack of rusted shipping containers, Gwen and Xylene watched the chaotic exchange. They had planned to stay hidden, but the sudden escalation forced their hands. Xylene, in particular, was deeply bewildered. She wondered just how much the universe had changed during her long cryogenic slumber. The feared conqueror Vilgax was acting like a frantic, cornered animal!
Back in the open, the giant mechanical monster had barely cleared the harbor lights when it suddenly began to descend, its thrusters sputtering.
"Wouldn't it have been better to just cooperate earlier?" Vilgax mocked through the speakers. "This is... Oh my god!!!"
Ben and the others instinctively whipped their heads around at the sudden shriek from the drone's audio feed.
A brilliant crimson afterimage tore across the night sky.
Moving with blinding, lightning-fast speed, the soaring Jetray closed the distance to the mechanical monster in a fraction of a second. A flash of faint blue light illuminated the clouds, and the crimson alien smoothly transformed into Big Chill mid-flight.
The moth-like alien phased directly through the thick metallic tentacles binding Max. As he passed through, a wave of absolute zero energy followed. The metal cables instantly froze solid and shattered into a million glittering ice crystals.
Freed from his restraints, Max plummeted toward the unforgiving concrete below.
The entire rescue took less than three seconds. Nobody on the ground even had time to draw a breath.
But Max never hit the ground. A glowing, translucent purple barrier materialized out of thin air, catching the heavy-set man with the gentleness of a feather bed.
Max looked down at the familiar, shimmering mana construct supporting his weight. "Gwen?!"
"That wasn't me!" Gwen shouted back, her eyes wide as she stepped out from behind the containers, Xylene right beside her.
Hearing Gwen's denial, Xylene's expression shifted into something deeply suspicious.
Before anyone could process the situation, a brilliant streak of violet energy descended from the horizon, touching down gracefully right next to Max.
"Max Tennyson! Who exactly is Gwen?!"
The newcomer stood tall, her body composed entirely of crackling purple mana. It was Verdona.
An Anodite?!
Recognizing the distinct facial features glowing within the energy being, Ben and Gwen exchanged a rapid glance. A spark of realization hit them, and their faces lit up with pure excitement.
Xylene, however, remained dead silent. Her eyes narrowed into dangerous, glowing slits.
Max slowly turned his head, his eyes widening in sheer disbelief at the voice that had haunted his dreams for decades. "Verdona?! Is that really you?"
"Do not change the subject!" Verdona snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. Her glowing eyes flared with a fierce, terrifying intensity. She looked ready to tear the veteran Plumber limb from limb.
Max, relying on his decades of diplomatic experience, answered as naturally as he could. "Gwen is your granddaughter."
Verdona's aggressive posture didn't shift an inch, but Ben and Gwen practically vibrated with excitement.
"She really is Grandma Verdona?!" they whispered to each other, thrilled to finally meet the legendary woman.
Xylene's reaction was the polar opposite. The air around her began to hum with barely contained hostility.
Verdona scoffed, clearly unimpressed by the family reunion. "Oh? Is that so? Then who is Xylene?"
"Ah, Xylene is... Huh?!"
Max froze. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead. What was happening? How did Verdona know about Xylene? Wait a minute. Who had Verdona arrived with just now? Could it be...?!
Flashing back to the flawless alien transformation and the perfectly timed rescue, Max instantly understood exactly who had orchestrated this entire nightmare. Klein! That little troll had set him up!
But the realization came far too late.
Still, Max Tennyson was a man of action, a legendary charmer even in the face of certain doom.
"That bitch is... Mmph!"
Verdona had leaned in, her mana flaring as she prepared to interrogate him further, but Max completely short-circuited her attack. He stepped forward, wrapped his arms around the glowing Anodite, and kissed her deeply.
A short distance away, Xylene watched the embrace. Something inside the alien woman snapped.
Pure, unadulterated telekinetic fury erupted from her form. The air pressure around the pier dropped drastically. Massive steel shipping containers, wooden crates, and abandoned machinery began to levitate, groaning under the sheer force of her psychic rage.
"Whoa!" Gwen yelled, quickly forming mana platforms to fly up and away from the expanding danger zone. Ben didn't hesitate; he slapped the Omnitrix dial, transforming into a durable form just to survive the incoming collateral damage.
Perched comfortably atop a distant, untouched shipping container, Big Chill watched the chaos unfold. He nodded slowly, a dry, amused smirk hidden beneath his icy cowl. This was exactly the explosive result he had engineered.
Down below, the giant mechanical monster was quietly playing dead.
Vilgax, watching through the drone's visual feed, knew his machine couldn't escape the psychic storm. He had fully intended to cut the feed and abandon the drone, but the sheer spectacle of Max Tennyson's romantic apocalypse caught his attention.
Back on his ship, Vilgax, who had been halfway out of his command chair, slowly sat back down. He leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand. Drama, it seemed, was a universal language.
Back at the pier, the storm was reaching its peak.
"Max Tennyson!!!"
Xylene's voice echoed with terrifying psychic resonance as she slowly floated toward the embracing couple, surrounded by a maelstrom of floating steel.
Max and Verdona, whose romantic reunion had just started to gain momentum, broke apart instantly.
Verdona turned, a playful but deeply dangerous smile curving on her glowing lips. She eyed Xylene up and down. "So, you are that bitch?!"
"You % $ @ & · $..."
Xylene unleashed a string of alien curses so vile they defied translation. Her psychic aura flared blindingly bright as she prepared to launch a barrage of heavy containers.
Verdona simply stood her ground, completely unflustered. As an Anodite, she could easily sense that Xylene's raw power was vastly inferior to her own.
Max, however, was sweating bullets. He had faced warlords, cosmic horrors, and interdimensional conquerors, but he had never, ever been trained for a situation like this.
"Um, Xylene, please..."
Max raised his hands in a placating gesture. Before he could finish his sentence, a blast of pink mana slammed into his chest. Verdona had casually flicked her wrist, sending him flying backward until he crashed heavily into the side of a corrugated steel container.
"Why did you say her name first?!" Verdona glared at him, her eyes burning with fierce jealousy.
"No, Verdona, wait..."
Max wheezed, clutching his bruised ribs. Verdona had clearly held back her lethal strength, but the impact still rattled his old bones.
As Max struggled to his feet and opened his mouth to explain, Xylene's eyes narrowed. The telekinetic energy swirling around her surged like a tidal wave.
Oh no. Not again.
A massive invisible force slammed into Max just as he climbed out of the dented metal. He was violently thrown right back into the container, the steel buckling around him.
This impact hurt significantly more. Xylene was practically blinded by rage, and even though she subconsciously pulled her punch, the sheer force of her anger made it a heavy hit.
Groaning in the wreckage, Max finally understood the golden rule of his current predicament: breathing was a mistake, and speaking was a death sentence.
But he couldn't just let them fight. If an Anodite and a high-level telekinetic clashed, it would end with the pier destroyed and one of them severely injured, or worse. He desperately wanted to prevent that.
The problem was no longer about whether he could stop them, but whether he physically possessed the means to do so. He knew Verdona's terrifying capabilities; she was leagues above Ben and Gwen's current levels. Xylene was no pushover either. Without his heavy Plumber gear, he was just a squishy human caught in the crossfire. Even with his gear, he wouldn't bet on his odds.
Ben and Gwen were equally useless in this specific domestic dispute.
There was only one person present with the overwhelming power to shut this down.
Max slowly turned his head, peering out from the dented container. He locked eyes with Big Chill.
Klein was still sitting comfortably on his high vantage point, his icy wings folded around him like a cloak, watching the disaster with immense, unapologetic interest.
This little bastard!
Max's brow twitched violently. Just you wait, kid. When you grow up, Grandpa is going to find you ten or eight wives. Let's see how you handle the crossfire. Don't blame Grandpa when your time comes...
The thought of Klein eventually suffering this exact same fate brought a faint, vindictive smirk to Max's bruised face.
But revenge was for the future. Right now, he had to survive the present!
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