In the middle of the desert, the Rust Bucket was driving through the hot, empty landscape with nothing interesting in sight.
Inside were the adventurous family of Tennysons.
Because of the heat, Ben was slumped onto the sofa, nearly melting into it, while Gwen was washing dishes at the sink.
And Rio?
He was busy finding and getting some boxes he had hidden in various places of the Rust Bucket.
"When Grandma Vera said she wanted to get away from it all, she really meant it. Who actually lives in the desert with summers like this? If you want to be left alone, just go live in a forest like a hermit. At least it's cool there."
Out of the blue, within the silent, Ben commented with his usual sarcasm.
"Oh, man," Ben complained again before sighing in defeat. "This summer was supposed to be about F-U-N. Not hanging out at some old lady's house."
"I like Grandma Vera—not the pinching part, though."
"And who knows, maybe we can get a normal meal when we go to Grandma Vera's place," Gwen countered Ben's words out of habit, but this time she didn't get any resonance.
"Meals..."
The second she said 'meals,' both Ben and Rio reacted, but for totally different reasons.
Ben had an expectant expression as he whispered the word softly; he was hopeful that what Gwen said would be true and did not choose to blow up the matter.
The exact opposite, memory flashed across his mind Rio's as a bittersweet expression appeared on his face.
He coughed, and reported to both Gwen and Ben:
"Sorry to burst your dream bubbles, but Grandma Vera is truly the sister of Grandpa. The last time we went to her house, she served us octopus ink jelly."
The sentence made both Ben and Gwen's faces go pale!
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At the retirement complex, Vera was happily talking to her neighbor, Marty, who was standing outside with a cane in one hand after watering his garden.
"It's been years since I've seen Max and the kids," she said excitedly, smiling and clasping her hands as her plump face made her squinting eyes even smaller.
"I'm not sure I'll even recognize them. Stop by and say hello whenever you've got the chance."
"I'd like that. I still remember the kid named Rio; he was very lively then," old man Marty said, smiling politely before opening the door and going inside his apartment.
There, he sat on his sofa, with a bowl of snacks on his lap as he started watching a movie. Just as his fingers dipped into the bowl for a handful—
A slimy, dirty-green formless mass shot up and stuck to his hand. Before he could even yell, the slimy mass covered his arm and then moved forward to black out his face, making him faint.
The old man, because of his age, was unable to do anything as it attacked him.
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(Rio's POV)
The RV rumbled down a desert road that just… didn't end. Heat waves shimmered off the asphalt, making the horizon look like a wobbly mirage stretching endlessly. Nothing but sand, sky, and us.
The AC inside was on full drive but even that couldn't help with the desert heat.
As we drove through the desert heat, I finalized what I needed to do.
After the whole mess with the kraken attack and even the ATM thieves, one thing became painfully clear:
-My family's way too vulnerable…. -
-Or was it me who was too weak to protect them?-
Shaking off the negative thoughts, I began reviewing the situation.
any situation involving high-level technology. Even simple guns, or some second-rate thug with a decent weapon could pose a considerable threat.
Although they all have martial arts training—Ben and Gwen from training with me, and Grandpa already from his Plumber days—at the end of the day, it's just basic hand-to-hand skills.
They could use some weapons, but do ordinary weapons even cut it against high-tech robots or aliens? For the better part of our forward journey simple tools won't cut it.
If I'd seen all this happen in the show on TV, I would have felt nothing, but when it's your own family sinking in the water, flailing helplessly with their limbs tied up... Reality slaps the truth in my face.
I'd been treating it like fiction, treating this whole summer like some fun road trip arc. Like we were just characters on an adventure.
-Hah… the irony almost made me laugh.-
-Maybe the universe was trying to send a message. Or maybe it's just messed up like that.-
-But then again, does the universe even have a consciousness?-
Still, the timing feels cruel.
Now, back to the pressing question at hand: how to safeguard my family?
The solution is quite simple: I just had to make them prepared and equipped enough to handle most situations, even if I am not around.
So I pulled out all the tools and weird alien junk I'd stashed around the Rust Bucket. Time to get to work.
Same old routine: shrink down as Grey Matter to design the thing, then morph into Upgrade to actually build it. Half an hour later, I had four shock pistols in my hands. They looked like ordinary, sleek black tasers. But I actually used several alien components.
I installed parts from Vilgax's robots and some car circuitry. Despite its simple appearance, it can even knock out Four Arms. Although the entire charge would be used, it's still—pretty cool.
They even recharge from a normal outlet. But the bad side is they suck power like crazy and take forever.
The whole time, Gwen and Ben were watching me like I was building a time machine, though they didn't interrupt.
Now that I'd finished, the questions came with Ben piping up first. "What's this?"
"Taser guns,"
In my head, I was already planning the next upgrade. These'll do for now. But I'm gonna need to make something stronger soon.
"Why did you make it?" Gwen asked, not seeing the logic in creating a simple shocker when we could have brought it.
"Because we keep running into trouble," I explained. "And you're not always gonna have me right there, so I made these for both normal humans and other creatures."
"You saw how I handled those two with the ATM, right? I had to throw them into a pole. If I miscalculated even a little…" I trailed off, letting that hang.
"So I thought that for those like them, Just a quick way to shut things down before they get ugly. You just need to point and shoot. And there are several modes, some even for monsters like that kraken we saw at the lake."
I walked them through the settings—stun mode, safety lock, even a manual override if the tech glitched. Better to have options than not having any.
We were just finishing up when the retirement complex gates came into view.
—
[RETIREMENT COMPLEX]
The desert air was dry with heat, with not a single breeze in sight, pressing down on the quiet retirement complex like a weight. Grandma Vera really picked the middle of nowhere to retire—just sand, sun, and a whole lot of quiet.
Even though it was just the beginning of summer, the temperature was already baking past 35°C.
Inside the RV, Ben was practically playing with his shock pistol like it was a new video game controller, twisting it in his hands and tweaking some buttons as he beamed with joy.
Ben didn't have much thoughts about why Rio would suddenly build these things, or how he managed to whip up high-tech gear from spare parts.
The "why" was obvious to Ben: because it was awesome. The "how" was just one of those Rio-things, like him being weirdly good at everything including his ability to fix anything. The result was a cool piece of tech, and that was all that mattered.
Across from him, Gwen was also quietly busy, turning her pistol over carefully. A heavy, uneasy feeling settled in her stomach. This wasn't like Rio's usual projects—the gadgets meant to make life easier or more fun. She traced the line of the barrel, her fingers noting the seamless construction; she wasn't sure if whatever Rio was doing made her feel safer or just… more aware of the danger.
Unlike Ben, her mind was a whirlpool of questions. Why now? What does Rio know that they don't?
Her mind raced as she began pondering. He's preparing for something. Something bad.
Was it the kraken attack? The men at the lake? How much danger did he think they were? The pistol didn't make her feel protected; it made her feel like a soldier being handed a rifle before being sent to the front lines.
Nearby, Rio grabbed the last two shockers from the table and made his way up front.
Just as he reached the passenger seat, out the side window, something caught his eye.
An elderly man slipped from his roof. But before anything could happen, he saw the old man somehow backflip off the edge and land perfectly on his feet.
There were multiple old people at the road but no one even batted an eye on such a stunt by the falling old man.
Rio narrowed his eyes at the sight, but he ignored the incident, knowing full well what was going on.
Nearing Max, he held the shocker, waiting for the RV to reach its destination.
The RV slowly came to a stop outside Grandma Vera's place.
As the Group stepped down the RV, Rio was greeted by the neighbor, as he instinctively looked into the window of the neighbor's house.
Rio remembered the man to be Marty from when he had come here last time. Marty had treated Max and him to some normal sweets.
But now he had his mouth wide open toward them, and stretched his neck rather disturbingly before closing the blinds.
Rio understood, it was probably one of those aliens that have started to take over this town.
"Kids, be sure to watch your cheeks. Heh," at the same time Max told everyone, completely oblivious to the strange occurrences. "Vera's a pincher."
"Don't remind us," Ben groaned, all the earlier excitement of getting the shocker draining from his face.
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Hey there! Thanks for reading my work! I hope this chapter is to your liking. Sorry if you expected more details. Also sorry if you felt it was still too much detail.
If these chapters are a mess of grammatical errors, please point it out and I will try to fix it.
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