Chapter 118: Don't Think About Taking Gwen Away
Grandpa Max quietly approached Big Chill, leaning in close to whisper a few words.
Hearing the request, Big Chill let out a breath of freezing mist and dropped his shoulders in a helpless shrug.
Alright, playtime was over.
Generally speaking, Klein would still listen to his grandfather. He tilted his head, gazing up at the sky where the violent collision of Xylene's purple psionic power and Verdona's pink Mana painted the clouds in chaotic, neon hues.
He had to admit, it was definitely time to pull the plug on this brawl. Xylene was currently managing to trade a few blows with Grandma Verdona, but the strain on the Uxorite was obvious. She wouldn't last much longer.
With a swift motion, Big Chill slapped the Another Omnitrix dial on his chest.
"Clockwork!"
A ghostly blue light flared, and the bulky, copper-toned Chronosapien took his place.
'Grandpa wants me to stop them, right?'Klein thought, a heavy mechanical whir echoing in his chest.'The best way to stop them is... putting them in the time-out corner!''If I tell you to stand in a corner, you stand in a corner!'
The heavy brass gears atop Clockwork's head ground to life, spinning with a loud, metallic clank. A ripple of chronal energy washed over the pier. Instantly, the surrounding space slammed to a halt. The birds froze mid-flap in the sky. The splashing water droplets hung suspended over the river like glass beads. The falling leaves locked into place.
Naturally, this absolute stasis included Verdona and Xylene.
"Whoa... this is seriously so cool!" Ben stared at the frozen world, his eyes wide, practically vibrating with excitement.
Grandpa Max and Gwen looked around in absolute disbelief, waving their hands through the motionless air.
This was where Klein's version of Clockwork completely outclassed an ordinary Chronosapien. His mastery over the temporal flow was absolute. While a standard Chronosapien could only enforce a blanket time-stop, Klein could selectively allow specific aspects of time to flow normally within the frozen space.
This 'specific aspect'had a very entertaining application. For example... conscious thought.'What's wrong with me?! Why can't I move?!'
High above, Xylene and Verdona suddenly found themselves plunged into a waking nightmare. They were trapped in an endless, sensory-deprived abyss. They couldn't see. They couldn't hear. Every physical sensation had vanished, leaving only their active, racing minds locked inside paralyzed bodies.
Clockwork decided to let them stew in that void for exactly two minutes. A little forced meditation to cool their tempers.
In the meantime, he reached into some unseen temporal pocket, pulled out a deck of cards, and casually dealt a hand to Grandpa Max, Ben, and Gwen.
Two minutes later.
After wrapping up a quick round of poker, Clockwork gathered the deck. Ben and Gwen stared intently at his copper hands, trying to figure out exactly where the giant mechanical alien was stashing the cards, but came up empty.
The gears on Clockwork's head ground to a halt.
The world snapped back to life. The river splashed, the birds chirped, and gravity reclaimed the leaves.
Up in the air, Xylene and Verdona gasped for breath, their bodies trembling as their mobility abruptly returned. The lingering horror of the sensory void left them visibly shaken.
"Ladies. I think we can have a nice, civilized chat now, can't we?" Clockwork called out, his mechanical voice dripping with smug satisfaction as he looked up at them.
Hearing that tone, the two women instantly knew exactly who had messed with them.
But they swallowed their complaints. After all, they knew Klein's true nature. This kid didn't have a single bone in his body that respected his elders or coddled the young! They were absolutely certain that if they dared to say 'no,' Clockwork would snap his metal fingers and leave them hanging in that dark, silent abyss for another twenty minutes.
Xylene, of course, swallowed her anger out of pure survival instinct. Verdona, however, was a different story.
Ever since she discovered she was Klein's grandmother, she had been mentally logging every single one of his outrageous, disrespectful stunts into a little black book in her mind. She was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to pull the 'Grandma' card and lecture her eldest grandson into the dirt.
Seeing that the two alien women had finally stopped trying to murder each other, Grandpa Max shot Klein an approving look. He then walked over to Xylene and Verdona, attempting to smooth things over, though both women stubbornly refused to meet his eyes.
"Alright, Max. Tell this bi—tell this fellow to leave immediately, and then I'll leave too," Verdona snapped, shooting Xylene a venomous glare.
Xylene's brow twitched, a deep frown forming on her face.
Caught in the crossfire, Max sighed helplessly. He turned his attention to Xylene, speaking in a soft, placating tone to persuade her to step back.
He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. "Roswell will always be there."
Max leaned in, intending to give her a parting kiss, but a sudden, razor-sharp chill crawled up his spine. The murderous aura radiating from Verdona was so intense he immediately aborted the attempt.
Xylene, however, had no such reservations. She grabbed Max by the collar and planted a deep, passionate kiss right on his lips.
"Goodbye, Max. We will meet again."
Pulling away, Xylene tapped the wristband on her arm, summoning her cloaked ship to extract her from the pier.
Honestly, if Klein hadn't thrown them into a temporal time-out, Xylene and Verdona would have absolutely started blasting each other again over that kiss.
But sometimes, a little strategic anger was necessary.
Ben stood entirely frozen, staring at his sulking, terrifying alien grandmother. He didn't know her at all and absolutely did not dare to speak up.
Gwen, however, possessed a softer heart. She naturally stepped forward, offering a gentle smile to comfort the older woman.
It was only then that Verdona truly looked at her granddaughter. Her glowing eyes widened. She had never expected this little human girl to have awakened the Anodite spark!
The dark gloom hanging over Verdona vanished in an instant. Pure, unadulterated joy and excitement lit up her glowing features.
"Gwen! Come back to Anodyne with me! I can teach you how to properly manipulate natural energy—the real Mana!"
To prove her point, Verdona twirled her fingers, weaving brilliant, high-level constructs of pink Mana through the air, making them dance around Gwen like glowing butterflies.
Gwen watched the display, her eyes reflecting the pink light. She was incredibly tempted. The power, the knowledge—it was everything she had been struggling to learn. But her gaze drifted back to the Rustbucket. She couldn't bear to leave Earth. She couldn't leave her parents, Grandpa Max, Ben, and especially Klein.
Her face twisted in deep conflict.
Klein, standing just a few feet away, wasn't conflicted in the slightest. He crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing.
'She literally just got here and she already wants to kidnap the Dork?! You better ask if her cool cousin agrees first!'
To Klein, Verdona was his grandmother in name, and he accepted that biological fact. But she had zero actual history with him. She hadn't spent years raising him, feeding him, and protecting him the way Grandpa Max had.
Verdona was not Max. She didn't get a free pass.
Klein was just about to put on a spectacular, sarcastic performance of being the 'filial grandson,' but Max caught his eye and shook his head, stopping him in his tracks.
Max looked at Gwen with a gentle, supportive smile. He wanted Gwen to make her own choice, and he would respect whatever decision she made.
Klein scoffed softly. 'Fine. I can't use my hands, but I can still use my mouth, right?'
"I can teach her too," Klein announced, his voice cutting through the emotional moment. He glared at Grandma Verdona, openly displaying his dissatisfaction.
Hearing this, Verdona shook her head, offering him a patronizing, helpless smile. "Child, you are different from your grandmother and Gwen. You are not an Anodite. And even if you were, what you could teach Gwen wouldn't amount to a fraction of what I can offer her."
Klein rubbed his chin. 'Hmm... fair point.' Whenever he used Mana, he mostly just brute-forced it like a sledgehammer.
But that didn't matter. Even ignoring the absolute omnipotence of Alien X, he had plenty of other ways to teach Gwen how to use Mana. He could just fly out into space and kidnap a few high-level Anodite tutors. Problem solved.
Just as Klein finalized his kidnapping curriculum, Gwen finally spoke up.
"I'm sorry, Grandma. I... I want to stay on Earth."
After delivering her answer, Gwen secretly peeked over at Klein, a small, relieved smile tugging at her lips.
Verdona caught the subtle glance. Her glowing eyes narrowed, shooting daggers at Klein. 'This eldest grandson actually stole away two of my granddaughters!'Scratch. Grandma mentally logged yet another one of Klein's'crimes' into her little black book.
However, Verdona had more pressing matters at hand. She was not leaving without Gwen.
"You're far too young to know what's best for you, sweetie. So, let me help you make up your mind. I'll just destroy your physical body and release your Anodite soul! It's super fun, and your thoughts will be so much clearer once you're free of that meat suit!"
Verdona raised her hands, pink Mana flaring dangerously as she prepared to obliterate Gwen's physical form.
That was the final straw. Max and Ben didn't hesitate for a microsecond. They lunged forward, placing themselves directly between Verdona and Gwen, shouting at her to stop and listen to reason.
If this had been any other day, a single word from Max would have been enough to make Verdona reconsider and drop the idea.
But not today. Not after Max had just stood there and let that Uxorite hussy kiss him right in front of her.
Seeing Max actively blocking her path only poured gasoline on the fire. Verdona's temper flared, her Mana spiking aggressively.
The atmosphere on the pier instantly plummeted back into lethal tension.
Klein stepped forward, casually pushing past Ben and Max to stand directly in front of Gwen.
"Grandma. Gwen isn't going with you. I'll pack you up and send you back to Anodyne myself before I let that happen. And don't worry about her training—I'll figure out a way for her to learn Mana."
Verdona's glowing face darkened. Truthfully, the moment she saw her entire family stand against her, the impulse to destroy Gwen's body had already faded. No matter how angry she was, she was still the grandmother to these three kids, and she was still Max's wife. She would ultimately respect their wishes.
But her pride was wounded, and an angry Verdona was a stubborn Verdona.
"You can't teach her!" she snapped, pointing a glowing finger at him. "You're not even—"
"Then let's have a fight!" Klein interrupted, his voice dropping into a cold, challenging register.
Want to destroy Gwen's physical body? Not a chance. Not even if you're my grandmother!
Dropping all restraint, Klein slammed his hand down on the Another Omnitrix dial. He bypassed the standard roster, directly accessing the genetic database.
A blinding flash of blue light engulfed the pier.
When the light faded, Klein hovered in the air. His skin was a spectral, ghostly blue. His hair and eyes burned with a terrifying, blinding blue-white fire.
A monstrous shockwave of pure Mana erupted from his body, sweeping across the entire pier. The sheer pressure of his energy caused the massive steel shipping containers to groan and screech as they warped. The ocean below them violently churned, massive waves crashing against the concrete pylons, driven by the gravitational weight of his power.
An Anodite?!
Verdona stared, her jaw practically hitting the floor. This was the first time in her long life she had ever seen an Anodite of this color. And... this Mana... wasn't it far too terrifying?!
Feeling the suffocating, immense density of the Mana radiating from Klein—a level of raw power she had never even heard of, let alone witnessed—Verdona's anger completely evaporated. She was thoroughly shocked back into a calm state.
"You guys really know how to gang up on me."
Floating in mid-air, Verdona placed her hands on her hips and let out a long, defeated sigh.
"Verdona..." Max stepped forward, his voice softening as he reached out to her.
But Verdona wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of a pleasant goodbye. She haughtily turned her head away, her glowing pink hair whipping through the air.
"This old woman is leaving!"
Without another word, Verdona shot upward, a streak of pink light tearing through the atmosphere as she left Earth behind.
Silence fell over the ruined pier. Klein powered down, returning to his human form, and the four of them stood there, looking at each other amidst the dented shipping containers and churning water.
After a long moment, Grandpa Max let out a breath and smiled, a look of deep relief and amusement on his weathered face.
"Well. The life the four of us are living now is certainly never dull."
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