5. Twenty Years to Midnight

Complete story — includes the ending

As Brock discovers an old camera with a message from Jonas in it, an alien descends to Earth. Jonas explains that at midnight tomorrow, Rusty needs to assemble pieces of a machine to save the world. The Ventures travel to Spider-Skull Island so Rusty can steal the X-2 but are caught by J.J., who offers to help. The boys go to Colonel Gentleman's place in Tangier and find the machine piece, as well as his dead body. J.J. and the pirate captain, now his employee, find the second piece in a bathysphere inhabited by "Action" Johnny, a former boy adventurer turned addict. Brock and Rusty go to New York City to infiltrate Impossible Industries, where Rusty manipulates Sally into helping them. They are caught by Impossible, who has already captured the other two groups, but Sally saves them and Brock defeats him by tying him to a subway train. The assembled machine activates at midnight just as the alien catches up with them and Jonas steps through the machine to kill it, explaining that it was going to destroy the world. Rusty tries to talk to him, only for him to reveal that he is an alien using Jonas's face to hide his horrifying true form. Post-credits scene: J.J. introduces himself to an infatuated Sally, while Brock and Rusty stare at a stretched-out Impossible and wonder if they should help him.