Marvel’s Omnitrix

Chapter 19: Ghost Town Encounter

Note: We met the goal once again, we're on a roll! Here's your two chapters!!!! Enjoy.

—

The Rust Bucket rolled into Rodney, Mississippi just as the afternoon sun cast long shadows across the abandoned buildings. 

Weathered wooden structures lined what once must have been a bustling main street, their paint peeled by decades of desert winds. Tumbleweeds skittered across the dusty road, completing the perfect ghost town aesthetic.

"Well, here we are!" Grandpa Max announced, pulling the RV to a stop in front of what used to be a general store. "Rodney. Population: zero."

"Creepy," I muttered, peering through the window at the forgotten mining town. 

Despite the eeriness, something about abandoned places always fascinated me. The stories they might tell, the secrets they might hold.

Gwen pressed her face against the glass beside me. "I read about this place. Silver mine dried up in the 1950s, and everyone just packed up and left. Supposedly some buildings still have furniture and stuff exactly where people abandoned them."

"Nerd," I said with a roll of my eyes, earning an elbow to my ribs.

"Children, behave," Grandpa Max said, opening the driver's side door. "I need to properly repair that fuel line Gwen patched up. That crystal bandage is holding for now, but we need something more permanent before we hit the road again."

He climbed out and circled to the back of the RV, pulling out his toolbox. "You two can explore if you want, but stay together. This place is old, and some of these buildings might not be structurally sound."

"Yes!" I pumped my fist in the air. "Ghost town adventure!"

"And no aliens unless absolutely necessary," Grandpa added, giving me a pointed look. "We don't need any more property damage, even if this place is abandoned."

I raised my hands defensively. "What? When have I ever been reckless with my transformations?"

Gwen snorted. "Should I make you a list alphabetically or chronologically?"

"Very funny," I muttered, already heading for the door. "Come on, dweeb. Let's check this place out."

We stepped outside into the dry heat, dust immediately swirling around our sneakers. 

The town stretched before us like something from an old western movie – storefronts with faded signs, a rusted water tower in the distance, even an old-timey saloon with broken swinging doors.

"Perfect ghost town aesthetic."

I folded my arms, deliberately scanning the dusty horizon. Nothing on the Plumber frequencies, is the timeline different? I re-ran the cartoon episodes in my head. At about the same situation in the cartoon, after Diamondhead accidentally damaged the TV, Grandpa drove them to Slaterville, New Mexico. But this was a different town entirely, far from there.

Would Vilgax's goons still come?

"Hey Ben, don't you think this place is perfect for training?" Gwen said once we were out of Grandpa's earshot. 

Her eyes glinted with excitement as she looked down at the charms hanging from her neck. They pulsed with energy against her skin.

"Training? That's what you think about when we're in a literal ghost town?" I shook my head. "No sense of adventure."

"Oh, I've got plenty of adventure planned," she replied, a mischievous smile spreading across her face. "Watch this."

The charms glowed brighter, and to my lack of surprise, Gwen slowly rose from the ground. She hovered about three feet in the air, her auburn hair floating around her face like she was underwater.

"Whoa, wow, no way, crazy" I said dryly, watching her grin transform into a scowl. "Telekinesis can lift a person, what a shocker."

"You idiot." She grumbled, scoffed, and looked away. She twirled in midair, the movement causing her purple shirt to ride up slightly, revealing a sliver of pale skin at her midriff. "I've been practicing while you were sleeping last night. Pretty cool, right? Just admit it."

My expression remained nonchalant. "I guess it's not bad. For amateur magic."

Gwen huffed, then suddenly shot upward like a rocket, ascending fifteen feet into the air. "Sorry, can't hear you from down there, Ben!" she called, cupping her hand around her ear. "What was that about amateur magic?"

I crossed my arms, watching as she glided effortlessly between two buildings. 

The late afternoon sun backlit her figure, highlighting her silhouette in golden light. She definitely filled out over the past year, I noted for the umpteenth time since this trip began. 

The way her body curved in all the right places was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. If there was a hell for cousins with wandering eyes, I had a front-row ticket.

"Showing off now, huh?" I called up, masking my distraction. "Let's see how smug you are when you're racing a bug that can break the sound barrier."

"Oh?" She floated down closer, hovering just above my head. "Is that a challenge, Tennyson? Do you even have a flying alien?"

I hesitated one heartbeat—long enough to picture Kraab or SixSix dropping out of the sky. Would they come even though this was an entirely different town? We'd skipped out on the Kraken episode, and given this was a mixed world, who knows what else would be skipped? 

I relaxed a little. If I let myself be paranoid, I won't be able to sleep in the super fucked Marvel Universe. Calm down. Grandpa's outer perimeter scanner is live, Omnitrix still green, I reassured myself. 

Then the old competitive itch won. "You're on, bug boy…" I was already twisting the dial on the Omnitrix. I scrolled through the silhouettes until I found the one I wanted. 

The familiar green light engulfed me as my body transformed. My skin hardened into a yellowish-green exoskeleton, four insect wings sprouted from my back, and my head morphed into an alien dragonfly-like shape with four eyestalks and a sharp tail.

"Stinkfly!" I shouted, feeling the strange new body respond to my commands. The wings buzzed to life, lifting me off the ground with surprising ease.

Stinkfly's wings weren't built for elegance, but in a ghost town like this? The open air and wide corners gave me the edge. Gwen's telekinesis might give her smooth turns, but I had raw speed and combat reflexes. Let's go.

"Ugh!" Gwen pinched her nose, backing away through the air. "You smell like week-old garbage marinated in sewage!"

"All part of my natural charm," I replied, buzzing around her in circles. "Race you to the edge of town? Or are you scared your little magic tricks can't keep up?"

Gwen narrowed her eyes, competitive fire burning in them. "You're on, bug boy. Three, two, one—"

She shot off before finishing the countdown, zipping between buildings with surprising agility.

"Cheater!" I called after her, wings beating furiously as I pursued. 

This new alien's flight was intuitive – I didn't have to think about how to maneuver, my body just responded naturally. The four independently moving eyestalks gave me incredible peripheral vision, allowing me to track Gwen while simultaneously watching for obstacles.

We weaved through the abandoned town, ducking under clotheslines still hanging between buildings and slaloming around rusted water towers. Gwen maintained her lead, her telekinetic flight less powerful but more precise than my wild buzzing.

"Too slow, Ben!" she taunted over her shoulder, skimming just inches above a dilapidated roof.

"We'll see about that!" I fired back, banking sharply around a corner. 

I spotted a straight shot between buildings – a shortcut.

Tucking my limbs close to my body, I dove through the narrow alley, wings beating at full speed. Wind rushed past my alien face as I burst through the other side, overtaking Gwen just as the edge of town came into view.

I crossed the invisible finish line a split second before her, victory surging through me.

"Ha! Who's slow now?" I crowed, hovering triumphantly above the last building.

Gwen floated to a stop beside me, panting slightly from the exertion of maintaining her magical flight. "You got lucky. These charms are still new to me."

"Excuses, excuses," I taunted, circling around her. "Face it, Gwen. Even with magic powers, you can't beat the master of—"

I didn't finish my sentence because suddenly, my entire body was frozen in midair. A purple glow surrounded my insectoid form as Gwen held one hand outstretched toward me, eyes narrowed in concentration.

"What was that?" she asked sweetly, wiggling her fingers. My body jerked up and down like a puppet on strings.

"Hey! No fair!" I protested as she spun me in circles. "Put me down!"

"Magic's not looking so amateur now, is it?" She flicked her wrist, sending me tumbling backward through the air before catching me again with her telekinesis.

That telekinetic strength… she's getting better. Way better than she should be in just a few days. Are the charms accelerating her growth? Whatever it was, I felt relieved seeing her getting strong. She could protect herself now. Still, isn't she having too much fun? I had to retaliate somehow.

I aimed my head toward her and squeezed the muscles in my neck – a motion that somehow felt absolutely natural in this form. A stream of viscous green slime shot directly at Gwen, splattering across her chest and breaking her concentration.

"Eww! Gross!" she shrieked, the telekinetic hold dropping instantly. She tried to wipe the slime away, her disgust evident. "I can't believe you just did that!"

"All's fair in love and cousin warfare," I laughed, buzzing around her head tauntingly.

Gwen's eyes glowed purple as she gathered her magic again. "Oh, it's on now."

She flung a telekinetic wave that I barely dodged, only to be caught by a second one from behind. The invisible force knocked me toward the old saloon, my trajectory sending me straight through a dust-covered window with a resounding crash.

Glass shattered around me as I tumbled into the building, my wings momentarily tangled as I hit the floor. 

Before I could right myself, Gwen flew in after me, not expecting to meet resistance from the half-broken window frame. She caught her foot and tumbled forward with a yelp.

I instinctively reached out to catch her, but my watch gave out right then. Omnitrix buzzed and red light flashed around me, replacing Stinkfly's protective exoskeleton with my vulnerable human body. 

But the transformation messed with our momentum which sent us rolling across the dusty floorboards in a tangle of limbs. 

When we finally stopped, I found myself hovering directly above her, four arms braced on either side of her body, our faces inches apart.

Back to my human body, I was acutely aware of the softness of her body beneath mine, the way her chest rose and fell with rapid breaths, the slight flush that spread across her cheeks.

"Get off me," she whispered, her voice oddly strained. Her green eyes, so similar to mine, were wide and locked on mine.

"...Yeah? If you really wanted me off, why haven't you just used your telekinesis to push me away already?" I countered, genuinely curious about her reaction. Perhaps because I was back to being a hormonal teen, her closeness had quite the dangerous effect on me.

This close, I could see the fine dusting of freckles across her nose, the way her lips parted slightly as she processed my question.

"I... I forgot I could," she admitted, the blush deepening across her cheeks.

Something about her expression made my heart skip a beat. The flush of her cheeks, the slight dilation of her pupils, the way she seemed frozen beneath me – it wasn't just embarrassment. It was something else entirely.

"You... forgot?" I repeated slowly, a teasing smile forming on my face. "The great Gwen Tennyson, who never forgets anything, suddenly can't remember her own powers that she was using seconds ago? Interesting."

"Shut up," she muttered, avoiding my gaze. "It happens when I'm... distracted."

"Distracted by what exactly?" I pressed, enjoying her discomfort perhaps a bit too much. "By my dashing good looks? My charming personality? My natural alien musk?"

Before she could respond, a deafening crash shook the building.

Like always, good things didn't last for long.

The far wall of the saloon exploded inward, showering us with splinters and debris. I instinctively shielded Gwen with my body as dust filled the air.

A massive figure emerged through the rubble – metallic, gleaming, and decidedly not human. It resembled a robotic crab with a humanoid torso, its right arm ending in a massive orange pincer. Yellow eyes glowed from within its helmet-like head.

"Target located," it announced in a mechanical voice that sent chills down my spine. "The Omnitrix has been found."

The name Kraab flashed through my memories. This was one of Vilgax's bounty hunters in the original timeline.

So much for peace and quiet, I cursed myself. Should've listened to the paranoia.

"Gwen, move!" I shouted, pushing myself off her as my hand instinctively reached out to the Omnitrix.

But there was no use.

The interface was red. It was in recharge mode! The timing couldn't have been any worse. I quickly ran through the options. No watch. Gwen not ready. Saloon's structure too old for cover. Only choice… Stall.

Kraab's mechanical eyes locked onto my wrist. "Primitive defense systems. This will be easier than anticipated."

He raised his pincer, its inner mechanism glowing as it charged.

"Ben!" Gwen scrambled to her feet beside me, her charms glowing brightly as she prepared to defend us.

While I appreciated the gesture, her powers were still developing, still unpredictable. 

We were in serious trouble.

**

**

**