Ben 10: My Cousin is an OP Slacker — Chapter 212

Chapter 212: Omnitrix Exposed

The streetlights of Bellwood cast a warm, rhythmic glow over the asphalt as a yellow station wagon cruised down the quiet suburban road. Inside the vehicle, the atmosphere was thick with oblivious, self-congratulatory parental pride.

“He really is a good kid,” Carl Tennyson mused from the passenger seat, leaning back with a contented sigh.

Sandra Tennyson kept her eyes on the road, a fond smile gracing her lips. “Ben isn’t just a good kid, Carl. He is explosively good. An absolute angel.”

Carl chuckled, turning to look at his wife. “Does saying that out loud count as bragging, Sandra? Because I have to admit, we really are excellent parents. We raised him right.”

“I completely agree,” Sandra replied, her tone dripping with maternal satisfaction. “We never restricted him. We gave him the space to freely explore this world, to grow at his own pace, and look how well he turned out…”

Her words were violently cut short.

A deafening roar shattered the peaceful evening. A massive explosion erupted just half a block ahead, sending a shockwave that rattled the car’s windows and painted the night sky in harsh, flickering orange.

Sandra gasped, slamming her foot onto the brake pedal. The tires screeched against the asphalt, burning rubber as she swerved sharply to the side. The vehicle jerked to a violent halt mere yards away from the expanding wall of fire and debris.

Hearts pounding, Carl and Sandra scrambled out of the car, coughing as thick smoke drifted across the street. They squinted through the haze, desperately trying to make sense of the sudden warzone.

Before they could even process the destruction, a towering, nightmarish silhouette rose from the center of the flames. The creature was massive, easily standing over ten feet tall, with pale, plant-like armor and a regal, terrifyingly alien physiology. The Highbreed commander turned its cold, crimson gaze toward the two stunned parents, its posture radiating absolute disdain.

Carl froze, instinctively stepping in front of Sandra.

But before the Highbreed could advance a single step, a blur of green and black shot out from the alleyway. A humanoid plant creature, reeking of methane and burning vegetation, launched itself through the air. Swampfire slammed a fiery fist directly into the Highbreed’s jaw with the force of a freight train, sending the towering alien skidding backward over thirty feet.

Swampfire paused, the flames on his shoulders flickering as he turned his head. He blinked in surprise at the sight of Carl and Sandra standing by their car.

The Highbreed roared in fury, digging its claws into the pavement to arrest its momentum. It pushed itself off the ground, but the counterattack was relentless. A blinding beam of pure, purple mana tore through the smoke, striking the Highbreed square in the chest. The concussive force lifted the massive alien off its feet, sending it crashing backward through the brick wall of a nearby abandoned storefront.

A second later, a teenage boy entirely encased in solid, gleaming steel sprinted past the wreckage, his heavy metallic footsteps cracking the pavement as he charged after the downed alien.

Carl grabbed Sandra’s hand. “We need to move! Now!”

They abandoned the car, sprinting toward the safety of a nearby alley. But as they rounded the corner, fleeing the chaotic crossfire, Sandra caught sight of a painfully familiar figure jogging in the exact opposite direction.

A teenage boy in a green jacket was running straight toward the epicenter of the explosion, frantically twisting a bulky, watch-like device on his left wrist.

“Hey! Kid!” Carl shouted, waving his arms frantically. “You’re running the wrong way! Get out of here!”

The boy ignored them. He slammed his hand down on the glowing dial.

A blinding flash of emerald light illuminated the entire street. Carl and Sandra shielded their eyes, stumbling back in sheer disbelief. Where their fifteen-year-old son had just been standing, a colossal, bipedal dinosaur covered in thick, tan armor plates now towered over the intersection.

Humungousaur let out an earth-shaking bellow.

Carl’s jaw went entirely slack. Sandra gripped her husband’s arm, her eyes wide with a mixture of absolute terror and world-shattering realization. Their explosively good angel of a son was currently a thirty-foot-tall prehistoric monster.

The battle, however, did not pause for their parental crisis.

Humungousaur clenched his massive fists, the muscles in his thick arms bulging as he charged toward the ruined storefront. Inside the rubble, the Highbreed had managed to pin the metallic Kevin to the ground, raising a fist to crush him.

The dozen meters separating them vanished in three massive strides.

With a deafening crack, Humungousaur drove a devastating right hook directly into the Highbreed’s face. The sheer kinetic impact forced the aristocratic alien to stagger backward, releasing its grip on Kevin.

But the Highbreed commander was a seasoned warrior. Recovering instantly, it lunged forward, grabbed Kevin by his metallic head, and hurled the heavy, steel-coated teenager directly at Humungousaur like a massive bowling ball.

Caught off guard and unable to clearly see what the Highbreed had just thrown at his face, Humungousaur reacted on pure instinct. He swung his massive arm, casually swatting the incoming projectile away like a pesky fly.

Kevin sailed through the air, crashing violently into the hard concrete street. The impact shattered the pavement, leaving a perfectly human-shaped crater in the road.

“Ben… Tennyson…” Kevin groaned from the bottom of the pit, his voice a fragmented, metallic rasp of pure hatred. “I… hate you…”

Humungousaur froze, looking down at his hand and then at the crater. He awkwardly scratched the back of his scaly head. “Oops, my bad, man. I didn’t see… Ow!”

Exploiting the momentary distraction, the Highbreed closed the distance in a blur of motion. It delivered a brutal, concentrated punch directly into Humungousaur’s right eye socket.

The Vaxasaurian roared in pain, immediately clutching his right eye with both hands and stumbling backward, his heavy footsteps shaking the ground.

Watching from the shadows of the alley, Sandra couldn’t contain herself. “Ben!” she screamed, her maternal instincts overriding her fear.

Hearing the shout and seeing Humungousaur temporarily blinded, the Highbreed decided not to press its advantage. Its mission was already compromised. It turned on its heel, preparing to make a tactical retreat.

Unfortunately for the alien commander, escaping was rarely that simple.

A massive, roaring fireball illuminated the street, hurtling straight toward the Highbreed’s back. The creature barely had time to glance over its shoulder before a sphere of golden-red flames completely engulfed its towering figure. The intense explosion scorched the pavement, sending a shockwave of heat rippling through the cool night air.

Swampfire stepped out from the lingering smoke, flames dancing casually across his left hand. “Trying to leave without saying goodbye?” Klein’s voice echoed from the plant alien, laced with a dry, mocking amusement. “Isn’t that a bit rude?”

The Highbreed, severely scorched but far from defeated, had no intention of trading banter. Using the thick curtain of fire and smoke as cover, it unfurled a pair of massive, bat-like wings from its back and launched itself violently into the night sky.

“Don’t even think about leaving!” Gwen shouted, stepping into the open. Her hands glowed with intense pink energy as she condensed her mana, telekinetically ripping a dozen heavy chunks of concrete from the ruined building and hurling them at the ascending alien.

But the Highbreed’s aerial agility was staggering. It banked sharply, weaving through the incoming barrage of rubble with terrifying precision. Within seconds, it had gained too much altitude, escaping far beyond their immediate reach. Catching it now would require far more effort than they could afford in a populated area.

“Alright, Gwen, let it go. He can’t escape the city anyway,” Klein said, his tone entirely unbothered.

A faint, cool blue light washed over the street. Swampfire’s form dissolved, leaving Klein standing casually on the cracked pavement. He walked over to the crater, reached down, and effortlessly hauled the groaning, human-fleshed Kevin out of the dirt.

A familiar flash of green light illuminated the area a few yards away. Ben, now back in his human form, jogged over to join them. He kept one hand pressed gingerly against his face.

“Where do you think he’s going?” Ben asked, wincing slightly as he spoke.

Klein shoved his hands into his pockets, his gaze fixed on the distant skyline where the Highbreed had vanished. “That way. The Waterfront Pier. It’s the only logical staging ground for their operation.”

Ben opened his mouth to suggest a plan, but his words were cut off by a sudden, booming burst of laughter.

“Hahahahaha!” Kevin doubled over, clutching his ribs as he pointed a finger directly at Ben’s face.

Ben frowned, dropping his hand. “What’s wrong with you?”

Klein and Gwen simply stared at Ben in absolute silence. Gwen bit her lower lip, clearly trying to suppress a smile, while Klein’s expression remained perfectly deadpan.

“The Highbreed…” Kevin wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye. “He gave you a massive black eye!”

Ben blinked, reaching up to touch his right eye socket. He hissed in pain. The entire area around his eye was already swelling, painted in vivid shades of reddish-black and deep purple. He shot Kevin a withering, deeply unhappy glare.

“Alright, enough,” Klein intervened smoothly, turning toward where Kevin’s car was parked down the street. “Let’s all go home first. Eat dinner, finish your homework, and then we’ll meet up at the pier to finish this.”

As the group of teenagers walked away, bickering under the streetlights, two figures remained hidden in the shadows of the alleyway. Carl and Sandra Tennyson watched the children leave, their faces pale, their expressions locked in a state of deep, horrified contemplation.

Later that night, the front door of the Tennyson household swung open.

“Dad, Mom, I’m home!” Ben called out, tossing his jacket onto the rack. He rubbed his aching eye, hoping the dim lighting would hide the worst of the bruising. “What’s for dinner?”

Silence greeted him.

Unlike the usual warm, bustling atmosphere of the house, there was no gentle response from the kitchen. No smell of cooking food. The air felt heavy, thick with a suffocating tension.

Ben swallowed hard, stepping into the living room.

Carl and Sandra were standing side by side in the center of the room. Their arms were crossed tightly over their chests. Their expressions were deadly serious, their eyes locked onto him with the intensity of a laser beam.

“Is… something wrong?” Ben asked, forcing a confused, innocent smile.

“Where did you go?” Sandra asked, her voice dangerously quiet and stern.

“Uh, I went over to Kevin’s house to watch a movie,” Ben lied smoothly, falling back on his practiced excuses. “I know I should have called and told you first, but we lost track of time and…”

“Carl, look at his eye!” Sandra interrupted, her strict facade breaking as genuine maternal panic flooded her voice. She stepped forward, pointing at the massive, swollen shiner dominating the right side of Ben’s face. “If that hit was three inches higher, he could have gone blind!”

Ben took a step back, raising his hands defensively. “Alright, alright, I admit it. I got into a little fight. It’s no big deal, really. It’s just normal high school stuff. You know how classmates roughhouse sometimes.”

He recited the excuse perfectly, waiting for the usual lecture about responsibility and walking away from trouble.

But Carl didn’t launch into a lecture. Instead, his father’s brow furrowed deeply, his face a mask of absolute, terrifying disbelief.

“Are you sure about that, Ben?” Carl asked, his voice trembling slightly. “Was it really a fight with a classmate?” He took a slow step toward his son. “Or was it a fight with… a giant alien monster or something?”

The blood drained completely from Ben’s face.

His heart stopped. The carefully constructed double life he had maintained for years shattered into a million pieces in a single second.

He was exposed.

His mind raced frantically. Where did they hear about it? Did someone tell them? Or worse… did they see it with their own eyes? It didn’t matter. The reality of the situation crashed down on him like a ton of bricks. This time, he was truly, undeniably screwed.

If he couldn’t bluff his way out of this, there was only one option left. He had to call Grandpa Max for help. Grandpa always knew how to handle them.

Wait.

A cold sweat broke out on the back of Ben’s neck.

Grandpa Max had disappeared weeks ago.

‘Oh, no.’