Chapter 242: Missing Aliens, Weird Town
"An alien is missing?"
Deep inside a secluded, heavily fortified structure in Bellwood, the Plumbers' secret base hummed with quiet energy. Cut off from all external civilian networks, banks of advanced extraterrestrial technology pulsed with a cool, bright blue light, casting long shadows across the room.
"That's right..."
Grandpa Max nodded grimly. He tapped a few keys on the console, and the massive holographic screen behind him flared to life, displaying several grainy images. They showed a sprawling, luxurious town, followed by chaotic footage of bizarre extraterrestrials partying in the streets.
"This is Walton Town," Max explained, his voice carrying the weight of his badge. "Every seventeen years, college students from a neighboring star system land there to party wildly for a solid week."
Ben leaned forward, stroking his chin with genuine interest. "Aliens have spring break too?"
"Come on, even you get spring break... So yeah, I guess you could say that." Kevin crossed his arms, about to throw out another sarcastic jab, but he caught the serious atmosphere in the room and quickly shifted gears. "Speaking of which, our school's spring break is coming up pretty soon, right?"
Seeing Ben's attention immediately drift toward vacation plans, Gwen shot him a sharp glare. "Ben!"
"Oh, right, sorry..." Realizing his mistake, Ben noticed his grandfather's grave expression and rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward laugh. "Let's shelve the spring break talk for a minute."
Klein leaned against the metal table, his eyes fixed on the monitors. "Grandpa, what's this about a missing alien?"
Seeing his grandson cut straight to the chase, Max couldn't help but nod with a faint look of relief. "A short while ago, one of the visiting students contacted me on a secure Plumber frequency. He reported that his best friend had vanished without a trace."
Max brought up a holographic mugshot of the missing extraterrestrial. The creature was barely three feet tall and covered entirely in coarse, brownish-gray fur. It possessed the digitigrade, hoofed hind legs of a gazelle, but the razor-sharp teeth and wicked claws dripping from its forelimbs made it abundantly clear this species was strictly carnivorous.
Kevin smirked at the screen. "He's furry. Kind of cute, actually, if you ignore the murder-claws."
Max ignored the quip and continued. "He asked the rest of his frat brothers who made the trip, but none of them had seen his friend since last night."
"Then why not ask the locals?" Gwen asked, her brow furrowing. "With a town that packed, surely one or two people would have noticed a furry alien wandering around, right?"
"He tried," Max sighed heavily. "He went straight to the local mayor. The mayor brushed him off, claiming his friend probably just got bored of the festivities and hitched a ride back home early. But according to Plumber records, these students never leave until they've partied for the full week on Earth. Especially since their academic semester starts the second they touch back down on their home world..."
Max let the implication hang in the air.
Klein's eyes narrowed. "So, Grandpa, you're saying..."
Max's expression hardened into stone. "In my many years of experience as a Plumber, the odds of a partying college kid just going crazy and running off into the woods, or abandoning a once-in-a-decade rager early... it exists, but it's astronomically low."
"And since he reached out to the Plumbers directly for help, we can't exactly pretend we didn't get the call," Max finished, looking at the four teens. "I need you all to head out there and investigate."
The drive from Bellwood to Walton Town dragged on for hours. By the time Kevin's dark-green muscle car rolled past the welcome sign, the dashboard clock read well past three in the afternoon.
The sky above hung low and oppressive. Thick, bruised storm clouds choked out the sun, casting a heavy, suffocating gloom over the landscape that practically screamed of an impending downpour.
"Whoa, look at this place. Nothing but mega-mansions and luxury rides." Ben pressed his face against the glass, staring longingly at a sleek, cherry-red sports car parked carelessly by the curb. He had only ever drooled over that specific model in online car forums; seeing it in person was incredible, and he wanted to get behind the wheel immediately.
Too bad he didn't even have his learner's permit yet.
Gwen scanned the pristine sidewalks. "This place doesn't exactly scream 'alien spring break hotspot'." She watched the locals strolling by. "And the residents here all seem... weirdly happy."
"I'd be smiling 24/7 too if my bank account had that many zeroes." Kevin kept his eyes on the road, seeing no issue with the scenery. In this entire town, every visible building was a sprawling palace. Heaven knew how these wealthy elites could possibly be miserable living in such an environment.
Klein rested his chin on his knuckles, his gaze sweeping over the pedestrians. "Honestly? Something feels completely off."
He watched a woman walking a pristine poodle, her smile stretched wide. The expressions on the locals' faces didn't look artificially plastered on, but the energy radiating from them was entirely hollow. There was a distinct, chilling lifelessness behind their eyes.
Klein frowned, a faint sense of déjà vu prickling at the back of his mind. He felt like he had seen this kind of eerie, Stepford-like perfection somewhere before.
Before he could place the memory, chaos erupted.
SCREECH!
The agonizing shriek of burning rubber tore through the quiet street. A battered white sedan blew past Kevin's muscle car, swerving violently across the double yellow lines. The vehicle fishtailed, entirely out of control, driven with the erratic desperation of a madman. It was hard to imagine anyone driving like that unless they were blackout drunk.
Whoosh— CRASH!
The white car plowed over the curb and slammed headfirst into the towering brick wall of a nearby estate.
Crack! Rumble...
Chunks of masonry rained down on the crumpled hood. The wall had been built like a fortress; had it been any weaker, the sedan would have barreled straight into the courtyard and caused a massacre before finally coming to a halt.
"Hey! Is that a guy?!" Ben bolted upright, pointing out the window.
Barely two feet from the smoking grill of the wrecked car, a young man stood frozen against the rubble. He looked like a fresh college grad, his face still carrying that naive, bright-eyed innocence unique to students just entering the real world.
By all logic, surviving a near-death experience by mere inches should have triggered a massive adrenaline dump. He should have been screaming, crying, or dragging the driver out of the window by his collar.
Instead, the young man simply brushed brick dust off his sweater. He showed zero fear. No anger. No shock.
He just threw his head back and burst into a fit of bright, cheerful laughter, as if he had just watched a hilarious stand-up routine.
He almost got turned into roadkill... and he was laughing?
Inside the muscle car, Klein and the others exchanged deeply unsettled looks.
Even the driver of the white sedan seemed horrified. The crumpled door groaned as it was violently kicked open from the inside. A middle-aged man, blood streaming down his forehead, practically tumbled out onto the pavement with unsteady steps.
He staggered to his feet, his chest heaving. He looked at the young man—who was still giggling and now stepping forward to offer a helpful hand—and shrank back in absolute terror.
"Crazy... You're all crazy!" the bleeding driver shrieked, his voice cracking with hysteria. "I'm getting out of here! Yes! I'm getting out of this damned place!"
Scrambling on all fours like a frightened animal, the man found his footing and sprinted down the asphalt, his desperate screams fading as he disappeared around the corner.
A heavy silence settled inside Kevin's car.
After a long pause, Ben swallowed hard. "Should we... follow him?"
"Follow him for what? To play ambulance?" Kevin shifted the car into park, his grip tight on the steering wheel. "Forget it. Let the local cops deal with the crazy guy."
Klein kept his eyes locked on the street. "We haven't even spotted our missing alien yet, but I can already guarantee this town is rotten to the core."
He gestured out the window. The rest of the pedestrians on the sidewalk hadn't even broken their stride. Despite the explosive car crash and the screaming driver, the locals just kept walking, their wide, vacant smiles completely undisturbed. Not a single person stopped to gossip, take a photo, or call for help.
If a crowd of rich suburbanites lacked even a shred of morbid curiosity, something far more sinister was pulling the strings.
Pitter-patter...
The sky finally broke. Torrential rain crashed down against the asphalt, washing over the wreckage and casting a thick, gray-white veil over the deeply unsettling town.
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