(The next morning, Ben groaned as he woke up and stretched.)
Ben: "Oh man."
(he said.)
Ben: "What a weird dream."
(He then gasped as he looked around and saw that he was sleeping on a bulldozer that was parked next to the Rust Bucket.)
Ben: "Ah! Are you kidding me?!"
(He then found himself surrounded by a pink aura as he looked down and saw the girls standing close by as Jen used her telekinesis to set him down on the ground next to them safely.)
Jen: "So, bro."
(she said.)
Jen: "Steal any good clocks lately?"
(Inside the Rust Bucket, the kids were watching a news report on the television on what happened the previous night.)
reporter: "Despite last night's strange attack from Omni-Green and other robberies that happened throughout the mall, the representative had this to say."
the representative: "This was an isolated incident."
(the representative said.)
the representative: "The mall is open for business. Shopper safety is our Number One priority."
Ben: "So."
(Ben said.)
Ben: "Why would I go alien in the middle of the night and steal a bunch of stuff like a roller coaster motor and a big clock?"
Allison: "Your guess is as good as mine, Ben."
(Allison said.)
Max: "Well sleepwalkers are in a hyper-dream state."
(Max explained.)
Max: "Nothing makes sense in a dream."
Gwen: "Yeah."
(Gwen said.)
Gwen: "But most sleepwalkers don't have a watch that lets them turn into alien heroes at their control."
Jen: "This doesn't make sense in reality either."
(Jen said.)
Jen: "Ben and I have shared the same house every day since we were born. He's never been a sleepwalker."
Becky: "Oh."
(Becky said.)
Becky: "And how would you know that, Jen?"
(Jen then felt all eyes peering at her as she immediately felt the pressure and immediately lost control of herself.)
Jen: "Alright, I'm guilty! I stay up to get a midnight snack every night!"
Becky: "I knew there was less in the cookie jar!"
(Becky scolded.)
Max: "Girls, focus."
(Max said.)
Max: "Gwen's got a point. We need to keep you awake and away from people until we can find a way to stop your midnight strolls."
(Ben dozed off briefly before he felt a splash of cold water hit him in the face as he immediately shot awake.)
Ben: "Hey, what was that for?"
(he shouted as he saw Becky with an empty glass in her hand.)
Becky: "Sorry, cuz. It's for your own good."
(she said.)
Ben: "sigh Alright."
(he said.)
Ben: "You can prank me as much as you want. Do what you need to do."
(The hours went on and the girls did everything they could to keep Ben awake every time he dozed off.)
(From Gwen plugging his nose so he would shoot up, to Becky dumping some ice cubes down his back to Allison pulling the sheets off of his bed so he would fall on the floor.)
Ben: "You guys are enjoying this, aren't you?"
(he yawned before Jen blew an airhorn in his face.)
Ben: "Okay, maybe a little."
(That night, the rest of the girls had finally dozed off from exhaustion in various sections of the Rust Bucket and Gwen walked over to Max, who fell asleep at the wheel.)
Gwen: "Grandpa, wake up."
(she yawned.)
Gwen: "It's your shift..."
(She finally dozed off and fell asleep by the front seat with a snore as Ben finally dozed off too, leaving everyone asleep.)
(Meanwhile, Sublimino stood where the tower used to be with a smirk.)
Sublimino: "Awaken my slaves."
(he said, reaching into his coat pocket.)
Sublimino: "Awaken and serve your master Sublimino."
(He then pressed the button on his pocket watch, releasing the sonic pulse out once again, awakening all of his sleeping slaves into a trance-like state, including Ben who activated his Omnitrix and slammed it down.)
Max: "Ugh."
(Max said.)
Max: "Allison, turn up the A.C. I'm cooking over here."
(That was when Jen felt the heat too and awoken along with everyone else as Heatblast walked out of the Rust Bucket and shot off using his jet propulsion.)
Becky: "We'd better follow him."
(Becky said.)
(At the mall's hardware store, Heatblast was melting a hole in the wall and fused a cable to a forklift.)
(When he finally broke through the wall, the elderly thieves from earlier drove through on the forklift, taking the cable with them as the others came into the area, Jen having transformed into Water Lily.)
Allison: "Ben, listen to us!"
(Allison shouted.)
(But Heatblast didn't listen as he tossed a fireball at them, which they all avoided.)
Gwen: "You're under some kind of hypnotic spell!"
(Gwen shouted.)
Becky: "He can't hear you, sis."
(Becky said as she readied her spear.)
Becky: "Maybe a bump on the head will wake him up."
(No sooner than she said that, the Special Weapons And Tactics team burst through the roof and glared at Heatblast.)
Allison: "Or that."
(Allison said.)
(The S.W.A.T. team aimed their weapons as Water Lily joined them and fired her water jets at Ben as he tossed a wave of fire at her and the team, which the water quickly extinguished.)
officer: "You guys get out of here!"
(An officer told the others as they nodded and ran away.)
(The S.W.A.T. team immediately tossed in some smoke grenades, blocking Heatblast's vision of them as Water Lily stepped up.)
Water Lily: "Leave it to me, guys."
(she said.)
Water Lily: "What's the best thing to deal with fire? Water."
(She fired her water jets again, blowing Heatblast away, but not before he tossed out a few more fireballs, which hit the ground and started spreading.)
(They then looked behind them to see arow of propane tanks.)
Water Lily: "Oh boy."
(Water Lily said.)
S.W.A.T. Leader: "Run!"
(the S.W.A.T. Leader said.)
S.W.A.T. Leader: "Everybody out! Move! Move! Move!"
(The S.W.A.T. team and Water Lily immediately turned and ran out of the store as fast as their legs could carry them before it went up in a fiery explosion.)
mall manager: "This was an isolated incident."
(the mall manager said the next morning at the scene of the crime.)
mall manager: "The mall is open for business. Shopper safety is our Number One priority."
(In the Rust Bucket, which was parked nearby, they watched the recording of Sublimino's performance on Gwen's camera, the solution finally hitting them.)
Max: "So."
(Max said.)
Max: "Sublimino plants post-hypnotic suggestions in his volunteers, turning them into his army of thieves."
Allison: "But the sound of the Omnitrix timing out snaps Ben out of the trance."
(Allison realized.)
(They then looked to see Ben dozing off again.)
(Becky blew the airhorn in his face, waking him up.)
Ben: "But why have me steal all that stuff?"
(Ben asked, stretching and groaning.)
Max: "I don't know."
(Max said.)
Max: "But Sublimino sure does. We need to find him and fast."
the manager: "This was an isolated incident."
(the manager said with his chair turned to Max.)
the manager: "The mall is open for business. Shopper safety is our Number One priority."
Max: "Yes, yes, you said that already."
(Max said.)
Max: "But I'm saying your shoppers are in danger."
the manager: "This was an isolated incident. The mall is open for business. Shopper safety is our Number One priority."
Max: "Okay, this is getting us nowhere."
(Max said before he turned and walked away.)
(That was when Sublimino walked out, wearing a helmet with a video camera attached.)
Sublimino: "Well done."
(he said to the manager, who was under his control.)
Sublimino: "All the preparations are complete! It's showtime!"
[To Be Continued...]