Chapter 244: The Only Alien Not Affected
Seeing the utterly unimpressed expressions plastered across the faces of Klein and his crew, Zombozo faltered. His painted smile twitched.
To the twisted clown, Zs'Skayr was the ultimate pinnacle of terror and dark majesty. The ghostly overlord had pulled him from the brink, twisting his very essence to make him infinitely more lethal. In the old days, Zombozo sustained himself by draining joy and laughter from his victims. Fear had been a mere appetizer. But now, the dark blessing coursing through his veins had flipped the script. Terror was his main course. With every passing second in this panic-stricken town, he could feel raw, dark energy surging through his bloated form, amplifying his power.
Yet, looking at these teenagers, the clown felt a creeping sense of uncertainty. They clearly recognized the name of Lord Zs'Skayr, but instead of trembling in despair, they looked like they had just heard the name of a minor nuisance. They didn't take the ghost seriously at all.
"Wretched little brats..." Zombozo hissed through clenched, yellowed teeth. A vicious glint flashed in his sunken eyes. Still, a sliver of cunning held him back. He hadn't absorbed enough ambient terror to reach his absolute peak. Engaging them now was too risky.
Making his decision, the clown inhaled sharply. His pale, bulbous body began to inflate like a grotesque parade float, expanding rapidly outward.
"Hey! Don't even think about bailing!" Kevin barked. He lunged forward, his hands reaching out to grab the infuriating jester by the collar.
He was a second too late. With a deafening, comical pop, Zombozo's inflated form violently ruptured.
"Hehehe... Hahahaha..."
A shrill, echoing cackle bounced off the alley walls. Where the clown had just stood, a massive cloud of cheap confetti and tangled colored ribbons rained down, settling over the damp pavement. From the center of the mess, a single, bright red balloon floated upward, drifting lazily toward the rusted drainpipe.
Klein watched the balloon bob in the air with half-lidded eyes. Without changing his bored expression, he casually produced a long silver needle from his pocket. With a flick of his wrist, he jabbed the latex surface.
Pop.
The balloon burst into a puff of foul-smelling gray smoke.
"Right. Let's go track down those aliens again," Klein muttered, turning on his heel.
Ben brushed a stray piece of confetti off his jacket, entirely losing interest in the bizarre encounter. The group fell into step behind Klein, making their way back toward Kevin's sleek, black-and-green muscle car parked at the end of the street.
The moment the roar of the car's engine faded into the distance, the dark, murky water inside the storm drain began to bubble. Zombozo's painted, grinning face slowly breached the surface, his eyes tracking the direction they had driven.
"Heh heh... looking down on me, are we? What delightfully arrogant little pests..."
A sinister idea seemed to cross his mind. His grin stretched unnaturally wide before his face sank back beneath the foul water, vanishing into the subterranean maze of the town's sewer system.
It took a fair bit of driving and a few wrong turns through the strangely quiet suburban streets, but Klein and the crew finally located their targets. They pulled up outside the sprawling, luxurious estate belonging to the town's Mayor.
Peering through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of the villa's recreation wing, they spotted the chaotic extraterrestrial tourists. The little aliens had completely taken over an enormous indoor swimming pool. Only, instead of water, the basin was filled to the brim with buttery, golden popcorn. The creatures were swimming through the snack food, gorging themselves by the handful.
Yet, something was off. Despite their frantic eating, their wide, bulbous eyes looked entirely vacant. They chewed with a sluggish, mechanical rhythm, completely dazed.
Kevin leaned against the glass, raising a skeptical eyebrow at the bizarre feeding frenzy. "You think this is the clown's handiwork too?"
Given what they had pieced together about Zombozo's new abilities, it was obvious the mutated villain had siphoned away the town's capacity for fear and caution, leaving the residents—and apparently the tourists—in a state of mindless, vulnerable apathy.
"Maybe," Gwen replied, crossing her arms as she studied the scene. "But according to the Plumber files Grandpa Max showed us, these specific aliens always go completely overboard with their partying whenever they visit Washington Town. This might just be their normal vacation behavior."
Ben nodded slowly, pressing his face closer to the window. "Yeah, they do look like they're just in a massive food coma."
"Speaking of the locals..." Klein drawled, turning his head to look at the others with a mild expression of confusion. "What was the Mayor's name again?"
Gwen tapped her chin, searching her memory. "I think the townspeople called him Mr. Wayne."
"Right, Wayne," Klein muttered. "Does anyone happen to have Mr. Wayne's phone number? We need to get inside his house to poke around."
He casually scanned the perimeter of the massive estate, his eyes sweeping over the security gates and high walls as if searching for a polite way to ring the doorbell. Naturally, this was purely for show. Klein preferred doing things the easy, legal way whenever possible to avoid unnecessary paperwork. But if politeness failed, he didn't actually need a door. He had half a dozen alien forms that could phase through walls, tear off the roof, or simply teleport them straight into the living room.
Ben, Gwen, and Kevin exchanged blank looks. They had only crossed paths with Mayor Wayne briefly upon arriving in town, and exchanging contact info hadn't exactly been high on their priority list. Mostly because they had completely forgotten to ask.
Klein sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly. "In that case... Gwen. Do the thing."
Catching her cousin's lazy drift, Gwen rolled her eyes. Her hands glowed with a vibrant pink mana. Drawing upon a spatial displacement spell she had memorized from Charmcaster's spellbook, she enveloped the group in a flash of bright light, instantly teleporting them past the locked doors and directly into the villa's recreation room.
"Man, this guy's house is huge," Ben whistled, looking around the lavishly decorated interior with genuine interest.
"They've literally eaten themselves into a stupor," Kevin grumbled, walking right up to the edge of the popcorn-filled pool. He reached down, grabbed one of the sluggish little aliens by the shoulders, and gave him a firm shake. "Hey. Wake up. How are we supposed to find your missing buddy if you're all brain-dead?"
The rough handling did absolutely nothing. The little alien's head bobbled back and forth, his glassy eyes staring at nothing.
"Still... still want more... popcorn..." the creature mumbled, a piece of chewed kernel falling from his lips.
Kevin dropped the alien back into the pile with a look of utter disgust.
"Are... are you guys here to find Dika?"
A timid, trembling voice echoed from the far corner of the room. The group turned to see another small alien stepping out from behind a stack of folded pool towels. Physically, he looked identical to the rest of his popcorn-stuffed brethren, but his eyes were sharp, fearful, and entirely lucid.
"And you are...?" Ben asked, walking over and crouching down to eye level with the nervous extraterrestrial.
"My name is Opu," the alien squeaked, wringing his small hands together. "The one you're looking for... Dika. The one who went missing. He's my best friend."
Opu's shoulders slumped, his voice cracking slightly. The sorrow and helplessness radiating from him were painfully obvious.
Klein and Gwen exchanged a quick, silent glance before stepping closer to join Ben.
"We're Plumbers," Gwen said, softening her voice to a gentle, reassuring tone. "You've probably heard of us, right? We're here to help you find your friend. Can you tell us exactly what happened to Dika? When did he vanish? Have you tried asking anyone else in town?"
Klein gave a brief nod, backing up Gwen's claim to establish a bit of official authority. Earning the little guy's trust was the easiest path forward. Of course, Klein internally noted that if the alien clammed up, he could always transform into Pesky Dust and extract the memories directly from Opu's dreams. But playing the friendly neighborhood space cop was less messy.
Fortunately, Opu was more than willing to cooperate, saving Klein the trouble of a forced interrogation.
"I know the Plumbers," Opu said eagerly, looking up at them. "Grandpa Max is famous. My family strictly told me that if anything went wrong while visiting Earth, I had to find him. I'm the one who sent the distress signal to the Plumber base."
Having established their credentials, Opu quickly steered the conversation back to the crisis at hand. "It happened the day before yesterday. Dika and I had a plan. We were supposed to sneak into the Mayor's house to feast on this giant pool of popcorn. But... he never showed up. I waited up for him all night."
The little alien's fists clenched, a spark of anger cutting through his fear. "The next morning, I went straight to the Mayor to ask for help. He just brushed me off! He told me Dika probably got homesick and took a transport ship back early. But that's a complete lie! Dika would never just abandon our vacation without saying goodbye! So, I went looking for him myself. I searched every street, every alley, and even checked the woods outside of town."
Opu shivered, wrapping his arms around himself as a fresh wave of terror washed over him. "I couldn't find a single trace of him. And worse... when I came back from the woods, the whole town had changed. Everyone was acting like mindless zombies. Honestly, I was terrified."
He glanced nervously at his popcorn-stuffed friends in the pool. It was glaringly obvious the little guy was telling the truth. "That's when I managed to contact Grandpa Max's channel. After that, I just hid behind my dazed friends in here, pretending to be out of my mind, just waiting and praying for the Plumbers to show up."
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