Max displayed driving skills that defied his age, drifting the Rustbucket around tight D.C. corners and overtaking traffic with a reckless roar. Inside the cabin, Tyler and Ben were "working overtime"—shoving bug-burgers down their throats. As Max put it: "Eat 'em while they're hot, then go to war!"
The Rustbucket screeched to a halt blocks away from the Smithsonian. The road was a graveyard of abandoned cars and fleeing tourists.
"Land route's dead," Max growled, pounding the steering wheel.
"Then we take the sky," Tyler said, wiping grease from his chin. He dialed the Carnitrix to a spindly, winged icon.
Whoosh!!
A pillar of gore-colored light filled the RV. Tyler kicked open the back door, and a foul-smelling, oversized insectoid stepped onto the asphalt.
Four long, twitching stalks protruded from his face, serving as both eyes and cannons. His mouth was a jagged row of dagger-like teeth that dripped a viscous, neon-green fluid. Where the fluid hit the road, the pavement sizzled and melted instantly.
"Let's call you... The Putrid Glider," Ben said, stepping down from the RV.
"Ben, let's go!" Tyler buzzed. He lunged forward, snagging Ben's shoulders with his serrated claws, and hauled him into the night sky.
"Whoa! I'm flying! This is actually cool!" Ben flailed his limbs, a thrill-seeker's grin on his face. "This beats a roller coaster any day!"
The main gates of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History were gone.
A Tyrannosaurus Rex, its eyes glowing with a chemically induced crimson rage, strode onto the lawn. Flanking it were two Mammoths—living mountains of fur and tusk—and a Triceratops with skin like reinforced tank armor.
Dr. Animo sat atop the Triceratops like a conqueror, gripping its horns. "Soon, the Truth Prize committee will witness my genius! They'll have no choice but to bow!"
Animo scanned the dark sky, muttering to himself about "monster organizations." After seeing Tyler's earlier forms, his own prehistoric army felt... quaint. Almost "five-star citizen" levels of normal.
Whoosh!
A shadow passed over him. Tyler, carrying Ben, circled high above.
"Ready to make an entrance?" Tyler's voice was a wet, buzzing rasp.
"Born ready!" Ben shouted.
Tyler released his grip. As Ben plummeted toward the ground, he slammed the core of the Omnitrix. A deep green halo bloomed in the night sky like an emerald firework.
BOOM!
A four-armed, twelve-foot-tall red giant slammed into the museum lawn in a superhero landing. He stood up, his four eyes narrowing at the doctor. "Hey, Animo! I'm here to play with your pets!"
Animo blinked. "You? Wait... you're actually almost... cute." After the visual trauma of Tyler's "flayed pharaoh" form, the classic Four Arms looked like a friendly neighborhood superhero.
"Cute? I'm a wrecking ball!" Ben roared, charging the Mammoths.
The two prehistoric beasts trumpeted, lowering their heads to gore the red giant. Ben flexed every muscle, meeting the charge head-on and grappling with their massive tusks.
"Something's wrong," Animo muttered, watching the fight. "The demon-monster from earlier knew exactly how to kill. This one... this one fights like a kid playing in a sandbox."
"You're sharper than you look, Animo!"
A voice dripping with killing intent rang out from above. Animo looked up.
Pfft!
The Putrid Glider whipped his eye-stalks forward, spitting a glob of concentrated acid at Animo's head. A mutated cockroach flew into the path of the bolt, protecting its master, and was instantly dissolved into smoking slag.
"Cockroaches? That's your backup?" Tyler drifted lower, his wings humming like a chainsaw.
"It's you! You're part of the same group!" Animo snarled. "Rex! Bite him out of the air!"
The T-Rex launched its fifteen-meter body upward, its jaws snapping toward Tyler's wings. Tyler didn't flinch. He reached for the dial on his chest and gave it a sharp twist.
Apex Predator Mode Activated.
Just as the Rex's teeth were about to close around him, Tyler erupted in red light.
RUMBLE!
A massive, golden sphere, rotating at hypersonic speeds, slammed into the T-Rex's skull. The force was so immense that sparks flew from the Rex's bone-plating, and its teeth shattered like glass.
The Rex hit the ground, concussed and reeling.
The sphere uncurled, revealing a hunched, armored figure. The Gilded Slasher (Cannonbolt) was covered in golden, bone-like plates, but his skin was stained with dark blood and he emitted a pungent, metallic odor. When he flexed, thousands of tiny, needle-like spikes protruded from his golden armor.
"That watch... it's the source!" Animo's eyes widened with greed and fear. "Everyone! Attack! Tear that golden demon apart!"
Tyler looked at the incoming swarm of insects and the dazed Rex. "Hey, Four-Arms! Give me a name for this one!"
"Workin' on it!" Ben yelled while suplexing a mammoth. "Naming is an art form, Tyler!"