A new day dawned over the misty forest. Beyond the tree line, a vast lake shimmered, dotted with the silhouettes of early-morning rowboats. Tyler sat on the rocky shore, watching the water.
System, open the status panel.
Host: Tyler
Template Mastery: 7/100
Unlocked Protocols: Apex Predator Mode
DNA Roster: Classic Ten + Snare-oh, Frankenstrike, Blitzwolfer, The Sunder-Sphere (Cannonbolt), The All-Seeing Terror (Eye Guy), Wildvine, Ditto.
Physique: Peak Human (Strong Adult Level)
Tyler noticed a detail: the System only updated the alien names once Ben had officially dubbed them in this world. Until then, they remained placeholders.
Sizzle.
Beside him, a humanoid figure made of living magma stood facing the lake. A pillar of steam rose from the wet sand beneath his feet.
"Ben," Tyler said, closing his panel with a sigh. "Next time you transform into Heatblast, make sure you've used the bathroom first. You're literally boiling the lake."
"Ah, sorry! Nature called, and it was an emergency!" the flame-man replied sheepishly. He took off, a streak of fire trailing behind him as he zipped across an uninhabited stretch of the water.
Later that morning, Max led them to the docks to meet a local guide named Captain Shaw. They boarded his weathered fishing boat and headed for the center of the lake.
As Shaw spun yarns about the "Kraken," he suddenly slammed the throttle into reverse. The boat lurched, nearly throwing the Tennysons overboard. A massive research vessel had cut them off, blocking the path to the deepest part of the lake.
"What's the big idea, you lunatics?!" Shaw bellowed, leaning over the rail. "You trying to sink us?!"
"Apologies, Captain!" a man with a red buzz cut called out from the larger ship. He looked friendly enough in his sky-blue protective suit, but his build was that of a mercenary. "We're with the Friends of Fish Association. Environmental research. This sector is temporarily closed."
Behind the man, several figures in tactical helmets shifted silently. Their "aura" wasn't that of scientists; it was the cold, disciplined stillness of soldiers.
"Research, huh?" Ben stood up, pointing at a massive disturbance in the water. "Then what's that 'research' doing with twenty-meter tentacles?"
The legendary Kraken erupted from the depths—a bioluminescent, prehistoric predator that looked like a cross between a plesiosaur and a nightmare.
"Tyler, I've got the big guy!" Ben said, slamming his watch. In a flash of green, a muscular merman with a massive, hinged jaw full of obsidian teeth dived into the water. "Ripjaws is on the case!"
"Ben! Watch where you're aiming that fishtail!" Tyler shouted after him.
While Ben wrestled with the Kraken in the depths, Tyler turned his attention to the "scientists." He saw them pulling crates from the deck—harpoon guns, submachine guns, and high-yield grenades. These weren't fish-lovers.
"They're poachers," Max whispered, lowering his phone after a quick call to an old contact. "Armed and dangerous, Tyler. They're going after the Kraken—and Ben."
"I've got them, Grandpa," Tyler said, his voice hardening. He dialed the Carnitrix to a new icon—a torso covered in ocular slits.
BANG!
A burst of blood-red light filled the boat. Captain Shaw turned around to complain about the glare, but the words died in his throat. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed into a dead faint.
"My god..." Gwen whispered, her skin crawling. Even Max broke out in a cold sweat.
Standing on the deck was a deep-yellow, hulking humanoid. His shoulders, chest, and limbs were covered in jagged, everted lacerations—raw, bleeding gaps in his flesh. Within those wet, pulsing wounds, dozens of independent eyeballs squirmed and rolled, tracking every movement in 360 degrees.
This was the glitched variant of Eye Guy: The All-Seeing Terror.
Tyler took a deep breath and looked down at his own arms. He saw the twitching eyes embedded in his own meat. "Holy... crap."
Even after weeks of transformations, Tyler almost lost his lunch. He looked like a walking surgical disaster.
"If I'm this scared of myself," Tyler rasped, his voice echoing from multiple throats, "then these guys are in for a long night."
He leaped from Shaw's boat, clearing the gap to the poachers' ship in a single bound.
"The nightmare has arrived!"