Chapter 184: Manny Blows Up the Gas Station
The grainy footage flickered on the monitor. Pierce stood near the edge of a dimly lit rooftop. The heavy metal door groaned open, revealing Helen and Manny stepping out into the cool night air.
"Helen, what is with you? You drag yourself up here every single night."
"Sometimes I just want to look at the stars," Helen murmured, her gaze fixed on the night sky. "I like imagining what it looks like out there, in deep space."
"Deep space, huh?" Manny scoffed, crossing his massive arms. "That is exactly why we wipe out those mutated freaks. We have to fight the aliens so nobody else ends up looking like us!"
Pierce turned around, his face twisting with exhaustion. "Would you two knock it off? You argue every single day! I cannot play peacekeeper forever!"
The video cut to static.
"I get it," Helen whispered. She stared at the handheld device, her fingers trembling slightly as the emotional weight crashed down on her again.
Heavy footsteps echoed behind her. Manny lumbered into the room. "Hey. Come here. I want to show you something."
Helen wiped her eyes, stood up, and followed him into the main surveillance hub, a room plastered with glowing monitors.
"What is that?" Helen asked, tilting her head at the main screen.
"I fed the thermal images we picked up from the Sewage Treatment Plant into Pierce's computer," Manny grunted, tapping a few keys.
Suddenly, the screen dissolved into a mess of fuzzy static. Manny had clearly pressed the wrong button.
"Wow. You are a regular tech genius," Helen deadpanned, rolling her eyes.
Embarrassed and instantly enraged, Manny slammed his heavy red fist onto the console. "Stupid machine!"
Miraculously, the brute-force troubleshooting worked. The static cleared, and the thermal imaging of Klein's group popped back onto the display.
Helen leaned in, studying the glowing silhouettes. The features were blurry, but the shapes were unmistakable. "They are aliens? But they look exactly like Earthlings."
"They have to be wearing disguise masks," Manny growled, pointing an accusatory finger at her. "And it is entirely your fault I didn't catch them!"
Helen bristled. Manny was always like this—stubborn, self-righteous, and completely lacking in tact. It was a miracle they hadn't killed each other yet. If Azmuth had low emotional intelligence, Manny was just a pure, unfiltered idiot.
"There were four of them!" Helen snapped, her voice rising. "I just stopped you from charging in blindly and activating—"
"Pierce wouldn't have stopped me!" Manny interrupted, jutting out his chin.
The room went dead silent. Manny had just stepped on a landmine.
"Right! He wouldn't!" Helen exploded, jabbing a finger hard into Manny's chest. "And I forbid you from using him as a shield ever again!"
Manny took a step back, stunned by her fury.
"Pierce found all this useful alien tech! He formed this team!" Tears welled in Helen's eyes, her voice cracking but fierce. "We were so careful when Pierce was leading! It was just that one time..."
Because of that one careless mistake, Pierce was gone.
Helen glared at Manny, her eyes wet but blazing with absolute determination.
Manny froze, panic washing over his rugged face. His teammate was crying. What was he supposed to do? Apologize. Right. He needed to apologize.
"Look, I am sorry, okay?" Manny raised his hands in surrender. "Tomorrow, we will track their signal. We will take our time. We will handle it carefully... just like Pierce would."
Idiot. He had been trying to win her over for years, and he just shot himself in the foot again. Mentioning Pierce right now was the worst possible move.
Helen didn't say another word. She spun on her heel, stormed out of the room, and slammed the heavy metal door shut behind her.
Manny sighed, turning his attention back to the thermal images of Klein's group on the monitor. His eyes narrowed. "When we find them, we are handling this my way."
The next night.
Kevin gripped the steering wheel of his green sports car, cruising down the neon-lit streets. Klein, Gwen, and Ben rode along as they resumed their hunt for DNAlien activity.
The hum of the engine filled the quiet cabin until Klein broke the silence.
"Have you guys felt like we are being followed recently?" Klein asked, his tone casual, almost bored.
Gwen turned around from the passenger seat, her brow furrowing. "No. Why do you ask?"
"Last night, at the Sewage Treatment Plant. I noticed someone spying on us."
Klein leaned back against the leather seat. He didn't bother mentioning the real reason he hadn't dragged the spies out of the shadows right then and there: he wanted to see what they were plotting. He had waited around all day hoping for an ambush, but nobody showed up. It was incredibly disappointing.
"Do you think it was a DNAlien?" Ben asked from the back, leaning forward.
"Not sure, but probably not," Klein replied, stifling a yawn. "If it were a DNAlien, they wouldn't have waited this long to make a move."
A few blocks back, a heavy-duty truck was tailing Kevin's sports car.
In the passenger seat, Helen pressed a pair of headphones to her ears, her eyes glued to a handheld thermal imager and audio receiver. She was listening in on every word Klein's group said.
"What are they doing?" Manny grunted, keeping his eyes on the taillights ahead.
"I can't get a solid lock on their plans," Helen replied, adjusting the dial. "They are discussing something. I think they might know we are following them."
"Well, we will know for sure if we just ask them," Manny sneered.
Without a second thought, Manny drew his heavy blaster, rolled down the window, and fired a concentrated energy blast straight at a massive fuel tanker turning the corner ahead of Kevin's car.
The blast shredded the tanker's front tires. The massive vehicle swerved violently out of control, tires screeching against the asphalt. It plowed over the curb, smashing directly into a brightly lit gas station before grinding to a halt. Thick, pungent gasoline immediately began pouring from the ruptured tanks, pooling around the pumps.
"If that tanker overturns, this whole block is going up in a massive explosion!" Kevin yelled, slamming on the brakes. The sports car screeched to a halt.
The four of them threw open the doors and sprinted into action.
"I will get the driver!" Kevin shouted, bolting toward the mangled cab of the tanker.
"I am going to stop that truck!" Ben yelled, his eyes locking onto Manny's vehicle speeding around the corner.
"Gwen, run crowd control. Don't let any civilians get close to the blast zone," Klein ordered, already moving toward the leaking gas station.
Meanwhile, inside the pursuing truck, Helen ripped her headphones off, her face flushed with absolute rage. "I cannot believe you just did that!"
"So what?" Manny barked, gripping the steering wheel. "They were about to get away!"
Helen let out a scream of pure frustration. Her body blurred into a streak of blue and black as she activated her Kineceleran speed, vanishing from the passenger seat in a gust of wind.
Back at the intersection, Gwen's eyes glowed a brilliant magenta. She thrust her hands upward, channeling her mana. Thick slabs of concrete tore themselves from the street, forming a massive barricade that shielded the chaotic scene from the eyes of terrified onlookers and blocked off the incoming traffic.
"Alright, I got the easy job," Kevin muttered as he reached the tanker. He slapped his hand against the damaged steel hull. The cold metal instantly crept up his arm, encasing his entire body in a dense, metallic armor.
With a grunt of effort, Kevin ripped the crumpled door off its hinges, reaching inside to haul the unconscious driver out of the crushed cabin.
Just as he pulled the man free, the pooling gasoline reached the sparking engine block of the tanker.
A spark caught. The fuel ignited.
A wall of fire raced along the ground, heading straight for the main gas reserves.
Seeing the impending detonation, Kevin dropped to a crouch, shielding the driver with his own body. He slammed his metallic hand into the pavement, absorbing the properties of the stone. His metal skin shifted into thick, impenetrable rock armor, and he extended that petrification over the driver, encasing them both in a protective earthen shell.
A split second later, the gas station erupted.
A deafening roar shook the street as a massive fireball swallowed the station, sending a shockwave of heat and debris flying in all directions. Thanks to Kevin's quick thinking, the driver remained completely unharmed beneath the rock dome.
Klein stepped right into the edge of the inferno. He didn't even flinch at the blistering heat.
He casually raised his wrist and slapped his hand down on the faceplate of the Another Omnitrix.
"Arctiguana!"
A flash of eerie blue light pierced through the thick black smoke.
Helen, who had just skidded to a halt nearby, widened her eyes. Through the haze of the fire, she saw the impossible. The human boy hadn't just put on a mask—he had physically transformed into an alien right before her eyes.
Arctiguana planted his clawed feet on the melting asphalt. He opened his reptilian jaws wide, taking a deep breath.
A concentrated, roaring beam of absolute zero energy blasted from his mouth, crashing head-on into the raging inferno.
The intense flames were snuffed out in a fraction of a second. The roaring fire was replaced by the sharp crackle of rapidly forming ice. Within moments, the entire gas station, the ruined tanker, and the surrounding street were encased in a thick, glittering layer of frost.
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