Tyler ignored the pull of gravity, his spectral form drifting upward toward the five Drone Sentinels hovering in the night sky.
The machines whirred, their optical sensors locking onto the massive, gore-streaked Ectonurite.
Zap! Zap! Zap!
Crimson laser beams lanced through the darkness, shimmering with enough heat to melt reinforced steel. Tyler's bloated, terrifying form wasn't built for nimble dodging, but he didn't need to move.
"Let's see how you handle this," Tyler rasped.
He reached into the jagged rift in his chest, pulling it wider. A dozen blood-red tentacles exploded outward, lashing through the air like whip-cracks. They didn't just block the lasers; they struck them mid-air, shattering the concentrated light into harmless sparks.
"Those tentacles... they're tougher than rebar," Max muttered from below, his eyes narrowed in professional appraisal. "Unbelievable."
"No way," Ben whispered, his jaw hanging open as he watched from the ground. "Don't tell me... the monster that scared me to death earlier was actually the cute one on your watch, Tyler."
High above, Tyler's control sharpened. The tentacles ceased their chaotic flailing, weaving together into a pulsing, red shield. Not even a wisp of smoke from the drones' barrage reached his skin. He was an impenetrable fortress of nightmare biology.
As he leveled his flight with the drones, Tyler suddenly slumped, retracting the tentacles and letting his guard drop. Seeing an opening, the Sentinels surged forward, dumping their remaining energy reserves into a final, desperate volley.
"You can't touch what isn't there," Tyler whispered.
Whoosh.
His body dematerialized. He became a translucent shadow, a flicker in reality. The laser beams passed through his chest as if he were made of mist, exploding harmlessly in the forest behind him.
Warning: Target signature lost. Ghost-signal detected.
The drones drifted, their turrets spinning uselessly. They couldn't find him.
"Game over," Tyler's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere.
He solidified directly in the center of their formation. Before their sensors could reset, his chest cavity burst open again. The tentacles surged out like massive fly-swatters, slamming into the drones with bone-crushing force.
The high-tech military machines were swatted like gnats. They spiraled out of the sky, slamming into trees and cratering into the dirt before erupting into brilliant orange fireballs.
One drone head landed inches from Ben's feet, its eye flickering before going dark.
"Hey! Watch it, Tyler! You almost took my head off too!" Ben yelled, jumping back in fright.
Tyler's horrifying visage drifted down, his inverted skull tilting toward Ben. "My bad," the monster croaked, sounding genuinely apologetic.
"..." Ben's spine went stiff. He stared at the rows of needle-teeth and the bleeding eye. He bowed his head instinctively. "No... my bad for being in the way."
Why am I apologizing to him? Ben wondered, his legs shaking. Right. Because he's a Demon God and I'd like to keep my skin.
Tyler looked around the clearing. The silence was absolute. The five drones had been erased in a matter of seconds.
[Ding! Host has decimated the Drone Sentinels and caused Vilgax to grow wary. Progress: +1%]
[Template Mastery: 3/100. Reward Unlocked: Permanent Physical Function Enhancement.]
A physical buff? Tyler's interest piqued. System, I don't feel any different.
[The reward will be applied upon de-transformation.]
Tyler nodded. He didn't want to waste the remaining 'Ghostfreak' time. He turned to Ben—still in his XLR8 form—and flashed a smile that stretched from ear to ear, revealing too many teeth.
Ben stood at attention, his body vibrating with nervous energy.
"Ben, let's practice," Tyler rasped. "We need to get used to these bodies so we don't freeze up in a real fight."
"Sir, yes sir!" Ben blurted out, before taking off in a blue streak of sheer panic.
Minutes later, the crimson and green lights faded. Tyler stood on the grass, his human form returning.
Suddenly, a surge of heat rushed through his veins. He felt his bones densify, his tendons tightening like coiled springs. His posture straightened, and he could feel his muscles bulging slightly beneath his shirt. He walked over to help Max up, lifting the heavy-set man with a single hand as if he weighed nothing.
"Grandpa's fine, don't worry," Max said, looking at Tyler with a strange new respect. "Your strength... it's growing fast, kid. You're hitting harder than I did in my prime."
"That strong?" Tyler pulled up his status.
Host: Tyler
Physique: Peak Human (Strong Adult Level)
Holy crap, Tyler thought. If my human body is this strong, my alien forms will be even more lethal. This is a total force multiplier.
"Wait," Ben asked, looking over at the still-unconscious girl. "Why is Gwen still out?"
"She... had a front-row seat to the nightmare," Max said, choosing his words carefully so as not to hurt Tyler's feelings.
"I'll wake her up," Tyler said, walking toward her with a look of intense focus. "I'll use... the secret technique."
"Don't you dare give her mouth-to-mouth!" Ben shouted.
Aboard The Chimeran Hammer, deep in the vacuum of space.
Vilgax, his body a ruin of wires and healing tanks, stared at the monitor. His face, normally a mask of cold conquest, was pale. The screen looped the footage: five of his elite drones being swatted into scrap metal by a creature that shouldn't exist.
"What... what kind of monster is that?" Vilgax hissed, his voice trembling with a rare thread of fear.
He had expected one Omnitrix. He hadn't expected a second, darker twin. One that felt less like technology and more like a curse.
"Azmuth," Vilgax growled, his fists clenching until the glass of his tank cracked. "You hypocritical old fool. You claim to be a man of peace, yet you secretly forge a weapon of pure slaughter? You were playing us all along."
Behind him, his subordinates whispered in hushed, frightened tones, cursing the "Great Creator" for building such a demonic fail-safe.
"Send more," Vilgax commanded. "I need to see the limit of this beast. I need to know how to kill it."