One Year Later – Earth, New Mexico – 12:03 PM
The heat of the desert rolled like invisible waves across the rocky expanse, baking the highway in golden shimmer. Cicadas buzzed lazily, unaware that a ripple in the timeline had just passed them by.
In the distance, a trail of dust rose behind the Rustbucket.
Inside, it was as chaotic as ever.
"Grandpa, are we seriously driving four hours to see a ghost town?" Gwen groaned, arms crossed as she sat beside her cousin, who had his feet up on the seat.
Ben grinned. "Come on, Gwen. Ghosts. Towns. What part of that doesn't sound awesome?"
Max chuckled from the driver's seat. "Trust me, kids—there's more to this place than old wooden shacks and legends. Plumber chatter's been picking up. Something strange is happening near Diablo Canyon."
Gwen rolled her eyes. "Of course it is."
Ben leaned toward the window, watching the scrubland pass. For a year now, things had mostly gone back to normal. Mostly. Sure, aliens still cropped up now and then, but the massive cataclysms—the kind that involved collapsing tunnels, mutated beings, and interdimensional firestorms—had cooled off.
But there were scars. Beneath the Earth. In memories. On maps they didn't share with the world.
Ben still remembered the crater at Tokyo Bay. They never found Sharim. Not even the Plumbers' most advanced seismic scanners could find where the collapsed tunnel led. As far as the universe was concerned... he vanished.
But Ben knew better.
Somewhere Remote – Plumber Outpost Omega-X9
Classified Black Site | Orbiting Saturn's Rings
Scorch stood at the viewing platform, arms crossed, the soft pink gleam of her armored claws catching the faint glow of Saturn's light.
The Elementrix had been upgraded. So had Hikaru.
But it didn't feel like victory.
"Still quiet," Hikaru said, walking up beside her. He tapped a few keys on the monitor beside them. "No breaches. No spikes in radiation. No fear signatures. Nothing."
Scorch narrowed her eyes. "That's the problem."
Hikaru looked over. "Still believe he's alive?"
Scorch didn't respond. Her fingers traced the glass.
She didn't need to believe.
She knew.
Earth – Mount Diablo Ghost Town
1:17 PM
Ben stepped off the Rustbucket and stretched. "Okay! Let's go find some cowboy alien ghosts."
"Could you be less mature?" Gwen muttered.
Max chuckled as he unloaded gear. "I don't expect trouble, but stay sharp. There's been residual energy readings. Not recent—but strange enough for HQ to flag."
The town was everything the name promised—wind-bitten structures, creaking doors, a collapsed water tower, and that unsettling silence that comes when something is too still.
As they explored, Gwen noticed odd scorch marks near a well. "Hey… Ben. This look like plasma to you?"
Ben bent down. "Looks almost like when Heatblast loses control. But… it's not. It's colder."
Max knelt beside them, running a portable scanner over the marks. His brow furrowed. "Negative thermal reading. That's not plasma."
Gwen looked around. "Then what caused it?"
That was when the wind stopped.
And the ground shivered.
Ben instinctively hit the Omnitrix, but it blinked red. "Seriously?! Every time!"
A moment later, a shrill buzzing noise filled the air—high-pitched, like an electric scream coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.
They turned toward the town's old chapel.
The sound was coming from beneath it.
Max drew his Plumber badge. "Kids, back to the Rustbucket. Now."
But before they could move, the chapel doors exploded outward in a burst of black ash and splinters.
A shape—small, but wrong—lurched out from the dark.
Ben shielded his eyes. "Is that a Sotorian?!"
"No," Max said quietly, "It's worse."
The creature screeched and fled—not toward them, but away—scrambling into the desert like it was escaping something far more terrifying than the humans behind it.
Ben stepped forward, breath caught in his throat. "It was afraid."
Elsewhere – Unknown Location
Visual Log: Feartrix Signature 000
There were no eyes.
No heart.
But something awoke.
A pulse.
Like teeth in the dark, testing silence.
Plumber Outpost Omega-X9 – Same Time
Scorch flinched. Her claws dug into the railing.
"What is it?" Hikaru asked.
Her breathing slowed.
"I… don't know," she whispered.
But her eyes glowed faintly.
Something ancient had stirred.
And somewhere beneath the layers of memory and mission… she felt a familiar, haunting rhythm.
Mount Diablo – That Evening
Ben stared up at the stars. He couldn't sleep. Neither could Gwen.
They sat on the hood of the Rustbucket as Max filed reports nearby.
"You think it's starting again?" Gwen asked.
Ben nodded slowly. "Yeah. But this time… it feels different."
Just beyond the canyon ridgeline, buried deep under rocks no one touched for centuries…
Something waited.
Something watched.
It had no name in their files.
No signal.
No heat signature.
But it knew them.
And it was patient.