Stark Mansion – Malibu
The mansion clung to the cliffside like a glass-and-steel fortress. Waves below thundered against the rock, and sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Kai stood in the middle of Tony Stark's lab—hands in his pockets, the Omnitrix glowing faintly under his sleeve—watching as Tony manipulated a floating hologram of the Gamma Aberration that had nearly leveled Midtown.
"So let me get this straight," Tony muttered, sipping coffee while spinning the 3D model, "this thing wasn't just a mutated Hulk clone. Its DNA wasn't just gamma-irradiated. It was… something else?"
"Not fully human," Kai said quietly. "Not fully Hulk, either. It felt—wrong. Like something spliced."
Tony zoomed in on the cellular breakdown. The cell structures shimmered with unnatural yellow and green energy pulses.
"There," Tony pointed. "That energy pattern. Not gamma. Not any Earth-based radiation. That's alien."
Kai looked up, his face tight. "I knew it."
"You've seen this before?" Tony asked.
Kai hesitated, he had seen this in 'Ben 10 Alien force' he said, "It's not human. And HYDRA used it to create a monster."
Tony rubbed his forehead. "If HYDRA's mixing alien genes into their failed gamma experiments… that's a whole new level of stupid."
"Or desperate."
Tony glanced at him. "Which means someone's feeding them alien DNA."
Kai nodded slowly. "We need to find out who."
---
Later That Day – Briefing Room, Stark Mansion
Tony walked to the front of a small projection screen while Jarvis dimmed the lights.
"Three days ago, a HYDRA base hidden in the Balkan Mountains pinged one of our old S.H.I.E.L.D. satellites," Tony said, tapping a remote.
The map lit up with a red circle over a remote region of Serbia.
"Intel from some old friends—let's call them mutually annoyed associates—says the base went dark after a single encrypted burst. Contents: coordinates. Destination: unknown."
"Coordinates to what?" Kai asked.
Tony clicked again. An image appeared.
It was a container—glassy, tube-like, glowing with faint greenish-blue fluid. Inside floated something that looked like a blood sample.
"Not from Earth," Tony said flatly. "And whoever sold it to HYDRA didn't send it as a gift."
Kai frowned. "Who sold it?"
Tony turned to him, expression serious. "That's your new mission."
---
Serbian Wilderness – Night
Cold wind cut through the mountains like knives. Snow drifted across pine-covered cliffs as a stealth jet glided silently through the clouds.
Inside, Kai checked his gear. Not that he needed much.
The Omnitrix pulsed once, selecting Humungousaur by default. But tonight, Kai didn't plan to make a scene—not unless he had to.
He touched down via drop-pod a few miles from the coordinates, landing softly between thick trees. The only sounds were the rustle of the wind and the distant howling of wolves.
A black drone zipped ahead of him, mapping the terrain and feeding visuals back to Friday.
"Two entrances," came Tony's voice in Kai's earpiece. "Main doors, locked. Rear tunnel—old supply route. That's your ticket."
"Got it," Kai whispered, already moving.
---
Inside the Base
The tunnel was barely wide enough for Kai to move quietly. Faint green emergency lights blinked along the ceiling. A rusted HYDRA symbol painted decades ago flaked on the walls.
It was dead quiet.
Too quiet.
Kai activated night vision in the Omnitrix lens and crept forward, pressing his back against the wall.
As he turned a corner, he stopped.
Bodies.
Several HYDRA soldiers—armed, uniformed—slumped in piles, burned, melted, some partially crystallized.
"What the—"
He stepped closer. Their veins were glowing faintly blue.
"Jarvis," he whispered. "What's going on in here?"
"Reading non-terrestrial particles. Trace match: hydra archives. Xenocite exposure."
Kai's heart dropped.
Xenocites. Alien parasites.
But these weren't alive. These were—wasted. Experimental. And now he knew.
Someone had sold them Xenocite blood.
---
Deeper Into the Base – The Terminal
Kai reached the central command room. Screens still flickered dimly. He plugged in the Stark drive and let Friday do the digging.
"Pulling encrypted logs… Wait. This is big.
"How big?"
"The sample wasn't stolen. It was traded."
"Traded for what?"
"Coordinates… to a dormant alien ship beneath Eastern Europe. Seller identified as: 'Vendor X.' No photo. No name. Just a voiceprint."
A faint voice played through the comm: oily, casual, and cruel.
"Always happy to do business, gentlemen. Power is universal… just depends who's brave enough to grab it."
Kai clenched his jaw.
"Can you trace him?"
"Negative. Signal was bounced through eight black market satellites. But… the ship they wanted? It's active now. And it's moving."
Kai's eyes narrowed. "Where?"
"Heading toward Northern Africa. Underground. Estimated time of emergence—less than 36 hours."
Escape and Aftermath
Alarms suddenly blared.
"Warning: self-destruct protocol activated."
"Of course," Kai muttered, sprinting back toward the rear tunnel.
He tapped the Omnitrix and muttered, "Hero time."
Click. Spin. Slam.
He transformed into Jetray, bursting through the collapsing tunnel and shooting out the side of the cliff just before the entire base exploded behind him.
Flames lit the sky.
He soared into the cold night, wind rushing past, mind spinning.
HYDRA had bought alien blood.
The seller had vanished.
And now… something beneath the Earth was waking up.
---
Back in Stark's Lab – Early Morning
Kai stood with Tony, watching the logs Friday had salvaged.
"Vendor X," Tony muttered. "Sounds like a Netflix villain."
"He's not just selling tech," Kai said. "He's selling biology. Gene samples. The stuff that made the Omnitrix possible."
Tony turned to him. "You think he's from your world?"
Kai nodded slowly. "Or another like it. But he knows what he's doing."
Tony leaned against the table, jaw tight. "Then we find him before the next monster shows up on the 6 o'clock news."
Kai looked down at the Omnitrix, glowing with unreadable potential.
Alien genes on Earth. HYDRA experimenting again. Vendor X hiding in the shadows.
A war was brewing—not just for Earth, but for what made beings like him possible.
And Kai wasn't going to let them twist it into a weapon.