The void rumbled again.
Kai narrowed his eyes, trying to make out the approaching mass. It was shifting, slithering, walking—and crawling all at once. Eyes, limbs, and snarls in shapes that didn't belong in any dimension he'd seen.
He clenched his fist.
"Alright, time to even the odds."
He flipped the Omnitrix's dial, the green glow intensifying against the endless black. The faceplate popped up with a soft hiss and began to cycle through familiar alien silhouettes.
XLR8.
Four Arms.
Diamondhead.
"No… not flashy. I need power."
He stopped at the fiery silhouette of Heatblast, the flame-headed Pyronite with plasma claws and firepower that could melt tanks.
Kai smirked.
"Let's cook."
He slammed the dial down.
CHAK!
A pulse of energy surged through his arm as the Omnitrix flared—green light bursting out around him. His body lifted off the invisible floor, limbs glowing as the transformation began.
Spine arched.
Fingers extended.
Chest expanded—
But something was wrong.
The flames didn't ignite.
Instead, his body twisted… melted… warped into smoke and shadow.
The fire vanished.
And in its place…
Ghostfreak.
Wisps of transparent cloth trailed off his arms like torn fog. A massive, single eye blinked from his chest, tail spiraling into the air.
Kai's voice echoed with a strange, dual-tone rasp.
"What the—? I picked Heatblast…"
He paused.
Looked at the swirling darkness.
Then at the approaching monster forms.
The realization hit instantly.
"The Omnitrix… chose Ghostfreak on purpose."
The void. The creatures. The alien atmosphere.
Fire would be useless here.
But intangibility, shadow movement, fear aura?
Perfect.
Kai's smile twisted.
"Clever little watch."
The creatures were close now. Dozens of them.
Grotesque silhouettes. Bent. Broken. With limbs that dragged behind and glowing eyes that pierced the gloom. Some had mouths that opened the wrong way. Others skittered sideways, barking in static.
One lunged.
Kai—now Ghostfreak—floated up and phased through it like smoke.
It howled and crashed into another behind it.
Kai's eerie whisper echoed through the black:
"You want me? Come and get me."
A creature lashed out with a tendril.
Kai twisted mid-air, his body breaking into ribbons of mist, reforming just behind it. With a swipe of his ghostly claws, he slashed across its back.
The creature screeched, sizzling as its form leaked some strange black liquid.
Another pounced.
Kai dove straight through it, spun behind, and delivered a psychic shockwave through its skull. The beast collapsed, twitching violently.
But more kept coming.
Ten. Twenty. Fifty.
A swarm of darkness.
Kai let himself drift upward, raising both clawed hands. From his eye, a purple beam of ghost energy burst outward, carving through two of the charging monsters.
Another leapt toward him from the side. He twisted and cloaked himself completely—vanishing from sight. The beast slammed into nothing and roared in frustration.
Suddenly, Kai reappeared behind it and slammed his claws into its back, sending it crashing into the ground.
He panted—though Ghostfreak technically didn't breathe.
"Too many…"
A thick brute twice his size barreled forward, mouth gaping like a furnace. Kai phased just in time, then dug his claws into the back of its neck. He rode it for a few seconds as it shrieked and writhed—then tossed himself off and hit the ground running.
Another creature clawed at him. He dropped into the floor, passing through the surface, and shot back up behind it.
"Half an hour," he thought.
"Still going."
But his energy was draining. The Omnitrix wasn't built for endless ghost combat. And this dimension was… hungry.
Even the shadows seemed to pull at his form.
"Okay. Five more minutes…"
He hurled a final wave of psychic force into the horde, scattering the front line of beasts. They howled, twitching, several retreating into the blackness.
That was enough.
Kai dove backward, flickering into invisibility, and spiraled high into the void.
He reformed on a floating platform of light—a strange construct that seemed to react to his thought—and collapsed onto his back, panting.
The Omnitrix beeped rapidly.
Then—
FLASH.
The transformation ended.
Kai gasped as his human body returned. He clutched his chest, sweat dripping down his face.
He lay flat on the strange, floating surface, staring up at the shimmering darkness.
"That was too close…"
He sat up slowly, the Omnitrix still glowing dimly on his wrist.
A soft breeze passed by—though there was no wind.
The creatures had stopped—for now.
He let out a long, shaky breath.
"Okay. This place sucks."
He looked into the distance.
The creatures were still out there.
Waiting.
Watching.
He cracked his neck.
> "Guess it's not delivery boy hours anymore."
And with that, he lay back again, eyes open.
Waiting.
Surviving.