"That doesn't make any sense," Orfevre said, leaning against the table with her head resting on one hand.
Perry gave a low growl from Gold Ship's side.
"Grrrr."
"Yeah, exactly!" Gold Ship said, nodding along with her sister. "You never had that watch when you were a kid, Big Bro. So how did it suddenly appear out of nowhere?"
Evan didn't answer immediately.
Throughout the years, even though their older brother had been somewhat of a jerk to most of them, the two sisters had never once seen him wearing the Another Omnitrix on his wrist before his sudden personality shift.
In fact, nobody in the family had.
For months, everyone had simply assumed that Evan's strange change in personality and his sudden appearance of strange abilities were somehow related to Stay Gold's genes finally acting up.
It was a strange explanation, but strangely enough, it was also the most logical one they had.
The entire Gold family was abnormal to begin with, so nobody found it particularly surprising that one of the Gold children inherited something unusual. Evan was simply a little more special than the rest.
"Mmm..." Gold Ship hummed, tapping a finger against her chin as she thought about it. Her eyes suddenly widened. "Could it be... that Big Bro is actually the watch on your wrist this entire time!?"
"Heh? Don't joke around; we are having a serious talk here." Orfevre reminded, reaching out and violently ruffling Gold Ship's hair.
Gold Ship: "Wryyyyyy!"
Perry: "Grrrr."
Evan stared at his little sister for a moment. He wasn't even sure how she had managed to arrive at that conclusion.
Yet, somehow, it wasn't entirely wrong.
Unlike the Omnitrix on Ben's wrist, which was essentially a piece of technology that could be removed, the Another Omnitrix was something completely different.
It wasn't simply attached to Evan's wrist.
It was actually a part of him. He and the Another Omnitrix were connected in a way that Evan himself still didn't fully understand.
Gold Ship had actually tried to remove it once, which she had failed miserably. Not only had the Another Omnitrix refused to move, but Gold Ship had also accidentally driven the screwdriver into Evan's wrist hard enough to hit the bone. Evan still remembered the look on her face when she realized what she had done.
Even back when he was still learning how the watch worked and constantly experimenting with it, Evan had already realized that it wasn't something he could simply take off. It was stuck to him, almost as though his flesh had grown around it.
When that weakened Alien X attacked them and directly ripped the Another Omnitrix from his wrist, it did so by tearing off his hand, and Evan's soul was ripped out of his body at the same time.
And when he first came to this world and discovered that he actually possessed the watch, just like the character sheet he had filled out had described, Evan quickly accepted his situation.
Both he and the Another Omnitrix were of unknown origins in this world. Evan didn't know where the watch had truly come from, nor how he had even managed to enter this world in the first place.
So, rather than trying to separate the two, Evan simply came to view himself and the Another Omnitrix as one. If one could not exist without the other, then there was no real reason to think of them as separate things.
Of course, all of that was something Evan had no intention of explaining to his family.
Those were his secrets.
He had taken the place of the original Ever Gold, and now, as far as this world was concerned, he was Ever Gold. There was no point in digging up unnecessary questions and creating problems for himself when things were already working out fine.
So Evan simply looked at Gold Ship and Orfevre, then gave them his usual smile.
...
"The youngsters," Xylene said as she and Max took a walk away from the campsite. "I never took you for the domestic type, Max."
"You remember Verdona, right?" Max asked. "We were together for a long while, but we never married. We did have two kids, though."
"Oh, so you got together with another Plumber after me?"
"We were partners on that mission when we had to rescue her," Max reminded her.
"Right, right," Xylene sighed, remembering. "I bet Asama and Speed were really supportive of your decision to get together with Verdona."
"Uh... well, you could say they weren't exactly happy about it," Max replied with an awkward smile as he remembered the day they found out.
How could he forget the look on their faces?
They had been heartbroken, yet they still managed to support him with somewhat bitter smiles. Even after they eventually went their separate ways, Max could tell that neither of them had completely given up on him.
It was complicated, to say the least.
Sometimes, Max couldn't help but envy his son's ability to somehow end up with four wives without getting herself killed or causing a falling-out between any of them.
Asama and Speed were rivals, and getting the two of them to agree on anything had always been difficult. Xylene was his ex, and even if they still cared about each other, their paths had simply been too different to walk alongside each other.
Then there was Verdona. She had been his wife, even if they weren't married, and even after they separated, Max knew she still loved him. But Verdona had her own plans and goals, and she couldn't spend the rest of her life on Earth with him.
Max had been heartbroken when he and Verdona finally went their separate ways, but he eventually came to understand that he couldn't stay stuck in the past forever.
Life moved on.
"Don't you ever miss your old Plumber days?" Xylene suddenly asked, bringing Max out of his thoughts.
"Well, we still get our share of excitement around here," Max said with a smile. "Especially since you dropped that little present of yours into our laps."
Xylene gave him an amused look.
"You really haven't changed much, have you?"
"I've changed plenty."
"You haven't aged at all since the last time I saw you," she said with a smile.
Max laughed softly.
"Well, I suppose that's one benefit of staying busy."
"Ugh, if this keeps up, I'm really gonna gag out sap," Wildvine muttered from somewhere inside the trees as he spied on the two old friends.
Neither Max nor Xylene seemed to notice him.
"Do you remember that night?" Xylene suddenly asked.
Max's smile faded into something quieter as he looked toward her.
"How could I forget?"
The two of them looked up at the moon hanging above the trees, their conversation fading for a moment as old memories returned.
"With Vilgax out of the picture and Verdona not being around, there's nothing keeping you here anymore," Xylene told Max; her gaze shifted back toward him. "I could really use your help out there, Max."
Hearing that, Max let out a quiet sigh.
"Another tempting offer."
"No way!" Wildvine suddenly gasped from nearby. He quickly slipped away through the trees to tell the others, completely missing everything afterward.
"I certainly don't mind helping," Max continued with a small, somewhat sad smile, "but I simply can't right now."
"It's because of that child, isn't it?" Xylene asked. "The one with the second Omnitrix."
Max gave her a small nod.
"Yeah. The appearance of the Another Omnitrix has been... unexpected." His expression became more thoughtful as he looked back toward the campsite. "We still don't know how it appeared, or why there even is another Omnitrix to begin with."
His gaze remained fixed in the direction of the camp for a moment.
"You already know how dangerous the Omnitrix can be if it falls into the wrong hands. I don't want Ever to walk down the wrong path."
His voice was soft, but there was a clear concern behind his words. He wasn't simply worried about what Evan could do with the Another Omnitrix. He was worried about what the power might eventually do to him.
Xylene watched him quietly before letting out a small sigh.
"It seems history really is repeating itself," she said. "You adopted and guided Stay Gold, and now you're doing the same for her son."
Max couldn't help but chuckle at that.
"He is my grandson," he said with a warm smile. "It's only natural for me to teach him the difference between right and wrong."
Xylene gave him a knowing look. "Even if he doesn't exactly make that easy for you?"
Max laughed. "Especially then."
Stay Gold could certainly help teach Ever Gold as well. Max knew that. She was his father, after all, and he trusted her to look after her own son.
But after seeing Evan's interactions with Vilgax and witnessing the fight between them, Max couldn't simply sit back and assume everything would be fine.
There was something about Evan that reminded him of Stay Gold when she was younger, but there were also differences that made Max cautious. The Another Omnitrix gave Evan an incredible amount of power, and Max had already seen how quickly that power could become dangerous when things went wrong.
He wasn't going to treat his grandson like a danger or assume the worst of him. But if he could guide Evan early, teach him when to use that power and, more importantly, when not to, then Max would gladly stay behind a little longer.
After all, being a grandfather wasn't something he could simply put aside whenever another adventure came calling.
He could trust Stay Gold and his daughters-in-law to guide Evan, but he still wanted to be there to keep his grandson from walking down the wrong path.
...
Ben walked over to Gwen as she continued cleaning up the remnants of their dinner.
"Don't ask," Gwen said before he could even open his mouth, looking back down as she swept up the broken dishes. "Just tell me what you learned about Grandpa and Xylene."
"We should've kicked that alien's scaly butt back into outer space when we had the chance," Ben scoffed, his gaze shifting toward the distance.
Gold Ship was currently trying to teach Perry how to do a backflip. The platypus didn't look particularly convinced.
"Grampa seems to like her," Orfevre said, crossing her arms as she looked back toward Ben. "Just give her a chance."
"Right, and the next thing you know, she'll want us to call her Grandma Lizard," Ben replied. "Forget it."
"Why are you so upset about this?" Evan asked from above them. He was sitting on top of the Rust Bucket, casually looking down at his siblings and cousins.
High above them, a massive robot hovered silently for a moment as its visor locked onto the Omnitrixes on Ben and Evan's wrists.
"Hey, does anyone else hear that?" Gold Ship suddenly asked.
Perry's eyes shifted upward. The platypus's expression immediately changed to one of concern.
Gold Ship followed his gaze and looked up just in time to see a massive, disk-like droid flying directly over them.
"Huh!?"
The machine opened several ports along its body and launched four rockets straight toward the Rust Bucket.
"Everyone, look out!" Gold Ship shouted.
Ben and Gwen were still trying to understand what was happening when Evan and Orfevre reacted almost entirely on instinct. Their heightened senses picked up the incoming rockets before they could even see them clearly.
Evan immediately jumped down from the Rust Bucket, only for Orfevre to grab him by the wrist. She spun on her heel and gathered her aura around her body, using her strength to throw her brother directly into the path of the incoming rockets.
Golden light erupted around him as the rockets collided.
A massive black cloud swallowed the sky, followed by a powerful shockwave that swept across the campsite and pushed everyone backward.
Gold Ship quickly grabbed Perry and ran for cover while Ben and Gwen shielded themselves from the blast.
Then, from within the black smoke, two glowing golden eyes slowly appeared.
"Skullbase!"
A massive humanoid rhinoceros emerged from the cloud; his gray body was slightly less than half the size of the drone. Relying on the thrusters on his metal body, he released a golden energy burst from them, launching himself forward with tremendous force.
His horn slammed directly into the droid.
The impact sent the machine tumbling through the air before it crashed into the ground a short distance away, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
Gold Ship peeked out from behind cover with Perry still in her arms.
"Did he get it?"
"What the heck is that thing?" Orfevre asked as she looked toward the crashed machine.
"Isn't that one of Vilgax's robot droids?" Gwen asked.
"Yeah, but I thought we took care of all of them when we blew up his ship!" Ben said. "He's supposed to be in the Null Void!"
Skullbase landed between them with a heavy thud, his golden eyes remaining fixed on the droid as it slowly began to pull itself back up.
"Must be some stray," he said. "Let's hurry."
He tapped the dial on his Omnitrix.
Golden light exploded outward around him.
When the light faded, the massive rhinoceros was gone.
In his place stood a humanoid figure made entirely of dark-gray and silver-gray metal. Red lines ran through his metallic body, giving him the appearance of a mechanical wolf with sharp claws and glowing golden eyes.
The golden Omnitrix dial rested in the center of his chest.
"555," He said, looking down at his new form.
The droid suddenly opened several launchers and fired a barrage of missiles toward them.
The crimson lines running across 555's body immediately began to glow. He dropped onto all fours and charged forward.
Rather than simply outrunning the missiles, he deliberately moved through their paths, knocking and redirecting them away from his family as he closed the distance between himself and the droid.
The missiles flew harmlessly past the campsite before exploding in the distance.
555 reached the machine and swung his claws into its armor. The metallic strike sent the droid stumbling sideways.
Ben then slammed his hand down onto his Omnitrix.
Green light exploded around him.
When the light faded, Frankenstrike stood in his place.
"Hey, Scraphead! Looking for this!"
Frankenstrike charged forward alongside 555. The two aliens attacked the machine from opposite sides, forcing it to constantly turn between them.
Max and Xylene soon emerged from the treeline and immediately saw the fight.
Frankenstrike had grabbed hold of one of the droid's mechanical limbs and was punching its armor repeatedly, green electricity crackling around his massive fists.
Meanwhile, 555 ran circles around the machine on all fours. The crimson glow across his body had faded for the moment as he focused on speed and movement, slipping around the mechanical tendrils that dragged across the ground in an attempt to catch him.
Xylene flew forward and raised a hand. Purple energy surrounded the droid as her telekinesis took hold of it.
"We've got this!" Frankenstrike shouted. "We don't need your help!"
"Oh, child, I believe you do," Xylene replied. She lifted herself higher into the air before using her telekinesis to rip several large chunks of earth out of the ground. With a flick of her hand, she sent them flying toward the droid. The chunks slammed into its body one after another, knocking it backward.
555 immediately leaped away from the machine and landed on the ground. Orfevre quickly climbed onto his back.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Weapon."
555 lowered himself, allowing Orfevre to settle onto his shoulders before reaching toward the dial on his chest. With a quick motion, he pulled a heavy metal greatsword from the Omnitrix and casually tossed it upward.
Orfevre reached out and caught the handle with both hands. Her aura immediately spread across the blade.
"Let's do this!"
Max raised his blaster and fired several shots at the droid while Gwen quickly flipped through her spellbook.
She stopped at a page and narrowed her eyes.
"Emocha Objectia!"
A blast of blue energy shot from her hand and slammed into the machine.
555 charged forward at the same time. Orfevre swung the blade in her hand, sliding off one of its legs, causing the machine to stagger.
Frankenstrike grabbed another section of its armor and let out a grunt as he tried to tear it open. Only for a purple energy to suddenly surround it and him.
"Uh-oh."
Xylene's telekinesis caught him before he could react and casually flung him alongside the robot, crashing directly into the Rust Bucket, causing the vehicle to shook violently.
555 immediately turned toward Xylene. "Why the hell did you throw it at the Rust Bucket!?"
"My apologies," Xylene said quickly, realizing what she had done. "I wasn't paying attention."
The droid suddenly took advantage of the distraction. Several mechanical tendrils shot toward the Rust Bucket and latched onto its frame.
"What is it doing?" Gwen asked.
The machine began pulling itself into the vehicle.
"It's taking over the Rust Bucket!" Gold Ship shouted.
555 quickly dropped Orfevre back onto the ground. His golden eyes narrowed as he saw that piece of junk really dare to dismantle the Rust Bucket before he could do it.
"Playtime's over."
The metal plating across his body began to shift. Several sections opened along his back and limbs as the crimson lines running through his body began to glow brighter and brighter.
555 lowered himself onto all fours. His posture changed completely, now resembling more of a mechanical predator preparing to hunt.
Everyone watched as the massive machine pulled itself free from the Rust Bucket and turned back toward them.
555 charged forward at a speed too fast for the normal eye to follow. The next thing anyone saw was a brilliant crimson photon-energy drill forming directly in front of the machine.
The drill slammed into the droid's body, causing it to explode, sending its mechanical pieces flying in different directions as smoke and sparks filled the area.
A moment later, 555 reappeared beyond the explosion. He dropped onto one knee, his metal plating slowly closing back together as the crimson glow faded from his body.
He took several heavy breaths. That attack had worked, but the strain it placed on his body was obvious.
"That..." 555 muttered between breaths, "took more out of me than I expected."
Nobody noticed the damaged robotic processor that had landed in the bushes nearby. Its casing was cracked, several wires were exposed, and one of its lights flickered weakly.
But it was still active.
The processor slowly turned itself around before crawling deeper into the forest, quietly moving away from the campsite.