Chapter 17 – In Charm's Way

The Bunker; Bellwood; New York; January 5th, 2012; 12:43PM

After discovering part of the nefarious plot going down underneath Los Soledad with the Highbreed, it took a few weeks to get back to truly feeling normal for Ben and Gwen, with school ramping up for mid-terms neither of the sixteen year old high school students had any time left for vigilante activities. Having spent the majority of their winter break studying for exams, they hadn't even gotten around to scanning the Plumber badge Labrid gave to Ben on his death bed. Though they didn't have time for actual training or missions, the young couple still used the Bunker as a neutral ground to simply hang out unbothered by parents or prying eyes.

Gwendolyn tried her best to multi-task as the Danger Alert was hooked up to small ports embedded in the base of the hour-glass emblazoned badge, while also having her calculus textbooks open in front of her. Memorizing quadratic equations and deciphering complex code at the same time, sometimes it even surprised her at how well she could absorb information. Ben sat on the training mat with his legs crossed, holding a black and emerald trimmed bass guitar, his fingers tried their best to strum the proper chords but, every fourth note was untuned distracting her from her studies. It wasn't as though he was doing it for a pass time though, he had a music class mid term coming up on the following Monday, and he needed to get this song perfect to get a decent grade.

The fiery red head twirled the pencil in her hand as she heard the misaligned notes sounding from behind her, along with the occasional 'damn it' before he started the song over. "Why did you pick that music class, again? You haven't played an instrument in years." Gwen groaned spinning around in the high-backed computer chair, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear to give air to her triple piercing propping her cheek up on her hand to stare at him. Her hair had grown out in the last month or so, dancing down to where it grazed her shoulders, "I was hoping you'd pick something quieter."

Ben scoffed sarcastically, "Fourarms rocked the bass guitar against that weather monster, it's just been a few years is all," he stuck his tongue out as he gave even more effort into playing the chords, staring intently at the musical instrument, "Besides, it was supposed to be an easy A," he got the first part of the instrumental down before fumbling his fingers over the chords, cursing at the guitar again.

"How's that working for you?" As she watched him groan exasperatedly and fall back flat onto the mat, she couldn't fight a light giggle rising to the surface from deep in her chest, she just found it absolutely adorable how he struggled with something so simple yet, mastered things like complex jui-jitsu moves and alien super powers.

Ben stared up at the ceiling, gazing at the white paint unenthusiastically and in utter defeat, he wasn't afraid of the Highbreed but, this frightened him more than he cared to admit. Gwendolyn slid the yellow wooden pencil behind her ear, standing up and nonchalantly approaching the training mat where he laid; today she was wearing a long sleeved teal shirt with a feline-logo similar to the brand she wore when she was ten on the chest, coupled with white capris and matching sneakers, her outfit was a throwback to the past.

Ben glanced up at her as her head leaned over blocking the light beaming into his eyes from the rafters, he raised a brow but, didn't sit up as her smile wasn't infectious enough to get him to drop his guard. "What? I thought the guitar was bothering you, so I stopped," he was so cute when he was thinking of others, which was practically always, she needed a distraction and formulated the perfect plot.

Gwen reached down gripping his shoulders as she got to her knees, pulling him off his back as the guitar slid into his lap again, she sat behind him with her legs spread out so that he was in the her arms reach, "Give me your hands," she asked with either of her palms opened upwards on either side of him.

"For what?" Ben chuckled as the heat started rising into his cheeks though, he was facing away so that he couldn't see that her own face was already flushed rosy red.

"Don't be a doofus," Gwendolyn grabbed his hands and settled them on the neck and base of the guitar, resting his fingers over the notes, "You just have to relax, don't try so hard, let the momentum do the work," she leaned over his shoulder where her breath ticked his ear, glancing down at the book of notes in front of him, "Here." His fingers slowly danced up and down with the gentle guidance from her own daintier fingers, the notes sounded smoother now as he allowed the instrument to do its work without anxiously hitting the wrong chord.

"Hey, I'm doing it," Ben announced as he kept his eyes focused on the notes in the book laid out before him but, was snapped back to his senses when he felt Gwendolyn's chest push up against his back, gliding her fingers up his arms until she could hug his torso. He tried to stay focused but, she was relentlessly charming, and he couldn't stop picturing her lips in the forefront of his thoughts, she laid her chin on his neck, pressing her head up against his ear. She enjoyed the sound of the music; he was actually quite good though she didn't think he'd ever put enough effort into it to get as well versed as this. Pressing her warm cheek against his was soothing enough, but the heat she felt from his skin just having her arms wrapped over his chest felt like she was hugging a giant blanket.

Suddenly, he stopped strumming prompting Gwen to turn her head to look at what might've prompted him to stop, however; she wasn't expecting to find him staring right back at her. Ben's emerald pupils were simmering with a green luminous energy, staring right back into her own eyes, his lips only a few short inches away from hers.

She felt the heat of his breath over her lips as her eyes fell a bit low, humming her words like a song with a deviously curved grin, "What're you looking at?" she asked innocently.

"My girlfriends cute freckles over her nose," Ben sang back to her, bopping the tip of her nose with his finger as she crossed her eyes to stare at the assault, "The same girlfriend who is very obviously trying to distract me from studying so that she can avoid doing her calculus work sheet." She closed her eyes sighing over dramatically as she dug her button nose into the crook of his shoulder.

"Don't make me go back!" Gwen shouted pulling Ben backwards by the collar of his black t-shirt, falling back on top of her, keeping her arms wrapped around his torso tightly to keep him from getting up. Ben was forced to chuckle when his head landed right in between her breasts, deciding to make the obvious move of turning over so that he was face first in her bosom. "Ben!" she giggled out letting go of his chest to look down as he refused to pull his face out of her cleavage, even she could admit her breasts were growing in the last few months but, this was not the way to point it out. Though it was a bit immature, her smile couldn't possibly fade when she could still smell his cologne wafting over her, feeling his warm breathing through her shirt, it wasn't until she felt a wet kiss on the skin peeking out of her shirt that her smile was quickly flushed with heat, instinctively biting her lower lip, "D-Don't, you doofus!" she muttered as the kisses only became more frequent over her chest, she put her hands on his head but, made no moves to push him away, instead digging her hands through his mess of brunette hair.

Ben opened his eyes, peaking out of her breasts to look up at her, the pencil behind her ear had all but fallen out of place, her hands slipped to either side of his face, and her face was as red as a tomato, "I didn't mean stop…" Gwendolyn muttered finally after a moment of silent staring.

He couldn't help himself, slowly pushing himself up by planting a hand down on top of the one she was supporting herself with, leaning his face closer to hers where her hands followed, sliding behind his neck to intertwine together locking them in an embrace, "You're really cute when you're embarrassed, red," he leaned in placing sweet gentle kisses down her chin and across her neck.

Gwendolyn couldn't fight the urge to lean her head back, giving his mouth full access to her neck, her arms instinctively tightened around his neck as she responded through her breaths, "I'm not… embarrassed… my cheeks just… turn this color… sometimes," she bit her lip again as soon as her sentence ended, finding his face pulling back up to level with hers.

"Sure thing," he leaned in as his lips brushed against hers softly, interlocking slowly as she was allowed time to completely melt into the taste of him, the scent of his body that drifted in the air around her, she was completely enthralled by it just like she had planned from the moment she stood up. Falling backwards, Ben ended up on top of her managing to keep their lips connected, only separating for brief seconds at a time to change the angle of their kiss and breathe.

Their kiss intensified as he grabbed both of her wrists, smiling into her eyes as he saw a look that ached for the pleasure he knew rose into her with the same heat that flooded her cheeks, he pinned them to either side of her head and deepened the kiss further. His tongue made its way into her mouth slowly at first but, when it met hers it quickly wrapped itself around it, locking their tongues together in a dance that prompted her to moan into his mouth.

They were unfortunately interrupted when an alarm sounded from the Danger Alert only a few dozen feet away, at first nothing could have disturbed them but, after nearly three minutes of the beeping sounding like a phone alarm, they both sighed separating from the embrace. Ben rolled off of her and back to his position flat on his back facing the ceiling, giving Gwen the opportunity to stand up and stretch her back, "For the record, I was serious about not being embarrassed, I have a light complexion, my face just heats up." Sitting at the computer chair and spinning it back around, her fingers flew across the glass keys as she silenced the alarm and checked several surveying satellite scans she had running in the background.

Ben reached his hand out, grabbing the pencil that was once behind her ear but, must have fallen out during their quick roll around, so he naturally decided to balance it between his lip and nose, "What is it?"

Gwendolyn leaned back in the chair, looking over the large screens to decipher the information it produced, as a particular algorithm triangulated the location of two wanted criminals, "I've managed to narrow down Albedo and Charmcaster's location, they're somewhere in Bellwood but, I should have an exact location by tonight." Without hesitation, she pulled out her phone from the pocket of her capris, grabbing a cord hanging from the keyboard, and quickly plugging it in.

Ben dropped the pencil upon hearing this news, sitting up quickly and catapulting it off his face in the process, "We should go after them tonight then, we can go back to your house and leave from there once we have it."

"I'm downloading an alert to my phone now, when we pinpoint their location, I'll get a ping on my phone with the coordinates," Gwen stood up and faced the glass case with her suit wrapped carefully around its mannequin, "I'll pack a change of clothes and finish things with Charmcaster tonight, I'm a far better sorceress than I was when we last met," her hands tightened by her side as she glared at the suit thinking on how much she had improved since the witch had last attacked them.

"You'll do great, babe," Ben said standing up from the rubber mat and strutting over to her, grabbing her hands into his, looking into her glimmering emerald eyes as she noticed his were no longer glowing with energy. She still wasn't used to the way they did that, "You were totally out of practice the last time you fought, with your new charms you'll totally kick her ass and we can stick her in the Null Void for good this time."

Gwendolyn shook her gaze from his eyes, looking down at their hands held together, smiling sheepishly as she lifted their intertwined fingers up so that she could kiss his hand, "Y-You're right, I should stop worrying so much, look at you being all supportive," she punctuated her sentence by reaching up with her right palm over his cheek, caressing it with her thumb, "How cute."

Ben closed his eyes, pulling away entirely as he spun around, "I know, I'm pretty amazing, have I mentioned how I saved the Earth from Vilgax?" he turned around with his nose up in a mocked smug expression.

Gwen grabbed her phone off the table with a light chuckle, shaking her head in shame to call him both her cousin and her boyfriend, "You are such a doofus!"

…

Bellwood; New York; January 5th, 2012; 1:55PM

Ben and Gwen had all but become totally accustomed to keeping their relationships a secret from anyone who truly cared enough to pay attention; they would hold hands when they walked through town but, only until they reached a two block radius of their individual houses or school. As they approached Gwendolyn's driveway from around the corner, they unlocked their fingers and Ben took a step away from her, walking with a little less connectivity.

It wasn't until they turned the corner entirely, slowing down their strut as they noticed a different car parked in her parents drive-way, "Is that… your Dad's car?" she asked with a bit of confusion in the tone of her voice.

Ben glanced over to the license plate, noticing the small green marijuana-leaf sticker juxtaposed to it on the bumper, giving out a long sigh before turning to her, "Yep, that would be his," he shrugged trying to think of the reasons his father would visit his Aunt and Uncle on the weekend without any sort of holiday. Especially since they had just seen them for their birthdays a week or two prior, "Maybe he forgot something on Christmas Day?"

Gwendolyn shrugged as they walked up the steps and onto her porch, not daring open the door just yet to face parents she had to fake her feelings around; instead, she turned and trust-fell back into Ben's arms, the latter of whom scrambled to catch her at the last second, pulling her up by the shoulders. "I don't wanna go in…" she reached her hands out and up to caress the sides of his chiseled jawline gently, "I just wanna lay with you."

"We can always do that upstairs, ya know? Why are you such a strange dweeb?" He chuckled glancing back to the closed door between them and the rest of her house, before looking back into her eyes.

Gwendolyn huffed as he helped her back to her feet, pouting the whole way even when he turned her back around to face him, her eyes darted to their feet in dismay, "Really though, can't we just walk around the block again, one more time? They always talk about how I need a boyfriend and how much of a slacker they think you are," she felt his firm hand gently brushing the side of her face before trailing up to the top of her head, squinting and furrowing her button nose as he ruffled his hand through her fiery orange hair.

"They don't bother me, and as long as I have you, I don't really care where we go," Ben was being surprisingly mature if only because of how sensitive the subject was for both of them, though his confident eyes and almost charmingly smug smile enchanted her, "If you want to keep walking, we can do that," he reasoned.

Gwendolyn reached her hand up, grabbing the one he left on her head and intertwining her fingers with his, the heat rising into her cheeks again only for an entirely different reason, remembering now exactly why she fell for him in the first place, "No, if it doesn't bother you, than it doesn't bother me," she gave him a warm smile and took a step closer into his close quarters, placing her free hand on his chest as he leaned down to lock his lips with hers one last time. He could taste the strawberry of her chapstick as he consumed her bottom lip in his mouth, tugging ever so gently on it with his teeth when pulling his head away.

The kiss lasted only a second and yet it made her knees weak almost every single time, though, what shocked them both to the core were the gasps they heard coming from the other side of the closed door. Gwendolyn raised her brows and shoved him back suddenly, "Oh, crap," she muttered leaving Ben still confused.

"What?" He responded rubbing the back of his head, trying to figure out what was going on in the seconds before the front door to her house swung open furiously.

"Dad?" Gwen took a step back from the door as Frank was standing only a foot or two away holding it open and staring at the two teenagers with an utterly shocked expression. It seemed they likely heard the two talking from the living room and glanced through the peephole to spy on them.

Ben and Gwen turned to give each other frightened looks, expecting the other to say or do something that would fix things, make things the way they were just a few minutes ago. Though it seemed that slowly they would realize things could never go back, their lives would be completely different from this point forward. Whether good or bad remained to be seen.

"Both of you, inside now!" Frank pointed into the house where Natalie stood by the door folding her arms with a scowl at Ben that could petrify medusa.

…

Gwendolyn sat on the couch in the living room with Ben sitting across from them in one of their leather recliners, Frank and Natalie were absolutely furious with their daughter considering the low opinion they already had for the boy beforehand; "Gwendolyn, what are you thinking?!" her father shouted as Carl and Saundra had remained quiet thus far.

She stuttered, barely looking up at them as every instinct in her body told her to teleport away, open a portal to another dimension and live the rest of her life as an isolated sheep farmer, though no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get the courage to form a single spell, she couldn't leave him here to face their family alone, "I-I don't know, it's not what you think it is!"

"I'd be more inclined to believe you if I didn't just catch him sucking on your face!" Frank retorted, running his hands through his thinning brown hair. Carl massaged the bridge of his nose in frustration, fighting off the headache he could feel coming on any second now.

Natalie sat down next to Gwen who planted her face firmly into her hands propped up on her thighs, she couldn't bear to look anywhere right now, especially not at them, "Honey, you can be anything you want to be with your intelligence and beauty, you shouldn't let some dumb fling like this ruin your reputation," she continued without thinking, "I mean even if he wasn't your cousin, it's Ben!" she waved a hand out at him without looking.

Gwendolyn nearly popped a blood vessel, looking up and right into her mother's eyes, "Don't you mean your reputation? And it isn't just a dumb fling, ugh!" she groaned looking back at the ceiling before face planting into her hands again.

Carl turned to face Ben who seemed both unamused and uninterested, he wasn't one to take kindly to authority to begin with so, to be told by anyone who to love, and that his love was simply deemed wrong? It irritated him to no end, "Son, what on Earth has gotten into you? You were doing so well in school and at the house," He sighed realizing that while his studying with his cousin clearly helped his grades, it was obvious now that studying wasn't all that was going on, "What part of this seems okay?"

Saundra folded her arms and shook her head, almost wiping an oncoming tear with her index finger, "We clearly gave him too much freedom, we didn't ask him enough questions, for all we know he could be on hardcore drugs!" even Natalie and Frank thought that was a bit much but, it didn't mean they respected the teen any more.

"Really, Sandy?" Ben retorted at her over dramatic assumptions.

Saundra stomped her foot on the carpet, pointing at Ben with her finger in his face to show that she was more than serious about the current situation he was in, "That is 'Mom' to you, mister! Mother, Mommy, Madre…" she insisted loudly.

Ben rolled his eyes and leaned back in the recliner, glancing at the Omnitrix lying dormant on his wrist, wondering how fast he could transform into Big Chill or XLR8 to disappear from this nightmare. Though he figured he could never get away with that bright flash of light that accompanied his transformations, he still wouldn't have left her there alone, even if he could have.

"To think that all of these family events we've gone to, you two have been sneaking off and… and…" Frank couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence, suddenly remembering all of the times his daughter said she was simply going to hang out with her cousin, all the time they spent alone flashing through his head at once, "How long has this been going on between you two?" he finished frustratedly.

Gwendolyn looked up at his judgmental expression, firing back before she even answered, "Not that long!" turning her head away though, she knew they were looking for an answer and habitually tapped her index fingers together nervously, "Almost two years now," she muttered it under her breath only barely loud enough for them to hear her.

Her mother stood up and placed a hand to her own head, ensuring she wasn't getting a fever and hallucinating all of this, "Two whole years, Gwendolyn?!" she shouted, turning back toward her kitchen, where she would aimlessly pour herself a glass of water to simply calm herself. Still deep in thought over how this could have happened to her daughter, in her family, such taboo nonsense was just too much for her to handle.

Carl glanced over at Frank and back to Ben, shaking his head with a shameful expression, he wasn't sure exactly what to say at this point, he was sure he was wrong before but, now it was proven and neither of the two even denied it, "You know, I came here today to try and convince Frank and Natalie they were being ridiculous, because I mentioned how close you two were getting and they shared that it might be unhealthy. I was going to have your back," he pointed out to the young changeling who didn't seem too impressed with his effort to relate, only looking up into his eyes with a raised brow.

"Thanks?"

Frank scoffed, looking back to Carl, and folding his arms once again in disapproval, "What did you expect? You two raised him to be a mannerless slob, I'm surprised he's not a pothead by now with the amount of times he's been exposed to it 'on accident' since he was eight years old," Natalie reentered the room with a glass of water, sipping some of it as she listened to her husband make all of the points they had already discussed behind their backs, in private.

Saundra gasped and put a hand on her chest, obviously offended at her brothers-in-law's comment, "Look here, we raised Ben with more freedom because its conducive to a healthy environment; and he is not a mannerless slob," she pointed out defending her abilities as a parent and not her actual child, "I mean, if we kept Ben in as many extra curriculars as her, he might have gone crazy from the isolation! It's no wonder Gwen has trouble making friends!"

Natalie placed her cup down on the coffee table between the couch and the recliner, looking up to face Saundra who was the last to speak, "He may not be quite the slob he used to be but, the fact remains that if he spent less time playing videogames and slacking off, and more time on his studies, maybe he wouldn't be frenching his cousin!" trying to hurt Saundra's feelings more than anything else.

"Mom!" Gwendolyn shouted in shock finally as Ben simply dropped his head in embarrassed despair, running his hands through his hair and trying to quell the remarkable volley of emotions building beneath the surface.

"Don't sit here and blame this all on Benjamin," Carl started back in a raised voice, looking back at Gwen before refocusing his attention on his brother and sister-in-law, "Last I checked, it takes two to tango! And I didn't see Ben forcing anyone to do anything!" Though they continued to talk about them as though they weren't sitting right in front of them, now it felt incredibly hurtful for his own Aunt and Uncle to be saying such horrible things about him. Ben just wanted to burry his head in the dirt and never come up for air at this point.

Frank turned and raised his brow only for a second, mumbling back to his daughter over his shoulder, "He never forced you to do anything did he?" this question simply defeated the Tennyson boy, what a low blow for his family to have dealt to him, and after all the things he had done for the planet that he couldn't even tell them about. He hung his head and closed his eyes, just trying to forget everything that was happening around him, and desperately keeping his eyes from shinning bright emerald.

"Daddy!" Gwendolyn cried out once again, trying to silence their parent's awful judgmental tendencies, not even dignifying his question with an answer.

He shrugged at her with a furious expression, tightening his folded arms in anger, as Natalie took a few steps closer to stand next to him, "Don't give me that look, young lady, you've been lying to us for years now!" he looked back across the room at the boy in question, frowning at him as he strutted across the room, "How can we be sure of anything they say!" he knelt down looking into the sitting boys eyes.

Ben collected himself and took a breath, opening his eyes to look back up at his Uncle with totally ordinary pupils, thankfully keeping the massive amounts of genetic energy building within from flowing out through his pupils, "You're the parent, you tell me," he chided with a frown.

Frank scoffed and turned back to Carl who only gave an understanding expression, having dealt with Ben's sarcasm and attitude for many years now, "See what I mean? Gwendolyn would never talk to her elders with such disrespect." With her empathic abilities, Gwen could feel the rage and anger boiling inside of him but, also the shame and guilt he felt from being ridiculed, he was on the verge of tears and she couldn't even tell if it weren't for her powers. One thing he had gotten good at over the years was keeping his emotions in check, even when he didn't want to.

Ben stood up slowly, standing tall enough now to look Frank in the eyes, not letting a single tear form but, putting every ounce of emotion he had into only three words, "I'm… not… Gwen," standing tall and refusing to back down, his Uncle was forced to take the first step back.

This left most of them in total silence, not even his girlfriend could find a decent sentence or subject to follow that up with, the only thing they could do was wait for Frank's response, if he had one at all. He turned towards his brother instead to assert the only form of power he had left, "That's it, I'm sorry Carl, but I think it's time you three left," he insisted such before he did something he would regret, like punching his nephew in the face.

Gwendolyn sat down in defeat, sighing miserably as a vibration erupted from within her jean pocket accompanied by a light ding; she reached into her pocket as her parents noticed it as well. Ben was crossing the room to approach the door with his parents not far behind him when they spoke up to her, "You are grounded, missy! Hand over the phone," though she almost always complied when her parents demanded something of her, Ben noticed she was fixated on whatever notification had reached her phone.

He stopped in his tracks when Gwen tilted her head at the phone in her hands with a confused expression, saying nothing to either parent, instead showing the screen directly to Ben who hadn't passed her yet. He had no other choice than to apprehensively read it, it was a geolocation ping for Albedo's Omnitrix core, the signal Gwen was tracking from the Bunker, and it was displaying a red dot over the house they were in right now.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"What is it?" Natalie announced with her hands on her hips making her way to reach for the phone as Ben glanced up into Gwen's emerald eyes, narrowing them as though he didn't understand at first.

It was only a brief second or two before his eyes widened and they both simultaneously looked back at the front door before Gwen quickly and seriously grabbed his short sleeve, "Lock the door, now!" she practically shouted, being totally sure that this was no mistake, as she too stood up while he crossed the room reaching for the handle and the lock to the front entrance.

"What are you two doing?"

Ben had wished now more than ever that he left the Master Control engaged on his Omnitrix, finding that times like these were only more stressful when he had to rely on the watches ability to function as designed. He grabbed hold of the handle but, before he could lock it, he noticed the light from the outside shinning through the cracks in the doorframe turning a hot-pink shade. "Shit," He managed to utter as the door was blasted off its hinges, knocking him forward through the room, propelling him back first into the kitchen table. Snapping it in two with the force of his impact as the tablecloth and bowl of decorative fruit landed on top of him.

Through the smoke and debris from the miniature explosion, Charmcaster strutted through in a bright purple trench coat, sporting a witch's hat on her head, and the Staff of Ages in her right hand, "Hello, Tennyson family! Am I interrupting something?" she announced with a wicked smile, crunching wooden debris under her black leather boots.

Natalie analyzed the destroyed door and shattered surrounding doorframe, almost feinting at the sight of it and either braver or dumber than most, she stomped toward the intruder with a stern attitude, "Do you have any idea how much that's going to cost to fix, young lady? What do you think you're doing-" she shouted at the witch who only snapped her fingers in the woman's face, with pink electricity surrounding her thumb and index finger.

Gwendolyn stood up quickly as a pink smoke enveloped her mother, "Mom?" Lili looked over as the mystical fog started from her feet and slowly rose up over her body, even as she struggled to move, the mystical energy transmutated her entire body including her clothes into a pink gemstone statue of some kind. The bust of her body toppled over now completely made of stone, luckily not shattering on impact with the carpet as Frank quickly gasped moving to kneel beside her though, he could feel no pulse or heartbeat.

"Now, where was I?" Charmcaster turned her attention back to the teenage mage still standing by the couch, returning with her sinister grin, "Oh yea, revenge!" from the Staff of Ages' beak and eyes emanated a bright yellow glow that signified a concussive energy gathering.

Gwen looked back down to her father still kneeling by the statue of her mother, she couldn't out-right give up her secret now, it would only make things worse for their situation but, that same hesitation was going to get them killed. Without time to make a crucial decision, she threw her hands up in fear as the blast shot out from the skull embedded at the end of the witch's staff. Between the instant the beam left Caster's staff and before it struck Gwendolyn head on, a flash of emerald light exploded from behind her with a familiar sound; a massive humanoid made entirely of teal crystals landed in front of her intercepting the blast with his thick forearms.

"I got you," Diamondhead announced as the beam reflected off his skin bouncing back, carving into the wall by Charmcaster's head, burning a basketball-sized hole in the dry wall.

Gwendolyn smiled up at him as he covered her, realizing that he made the sacrifice to give up his secret to save her without hesitating, something she couldn't do; it was clearer now more than ever what made him so worthy of her, not his intelligence or his athleticism, certainly not his manners but, the courage that dwelled deep within to do what was right no matter the personal sacrifice. "Thanks," she muttered back with a warm grin.

Charmcaster groaned loudly, rolling her eyes upwards as her blast did no harm to either of them, she pulled back her staff stomping the end into the ground at her feet, "I thought you might get in the way of my payback again so, I brought a little treat for you," she finished her sentence by sticking two of her free fingers into her mouth, blowing air through them sounded a loud whistle that echoed through the house and into the yard.

Diamondhead glanced around, expecting her mystically controlled rock creatures to pull themselves out from the ground at his feet but, instead a massive animal burst through the wall beside him. Shattering the mounted tv, a display case of trophies for Gwen, and tearing apart the wall itself as Negative Wildmutt's weight knocked the Petrosapien through the room, hitting the wall and toppling over a row of decorative porcelain plates that broke apart on the ground at his feet. If it weren't for his diamond-exterior, Albedo's claws would be digging lacerations into his shoulder, as his hands were the only things keeping the Vulpamancer from chewing his head off.

Saundra and Carl had watched the entire thing and, while they were entirely speechless to say the least, they knew at bare minimum that their son was inside the crystal monster that was fighting the intruders. And so, it was only natural that his mother attempt to run into the fray, only for Carl to keep her hugged close to him, "Ben!" they shouted with unfathomable concern.

"You have your watchdog, and I have mine," Charmcaster gloated, twirling her Staff behind her back before turning on a dime and aiming it back at her, "Ignis Trabem!" a heated beam of molten energy scorched the air with a high pitched whine as it was aimed directly for the Tennyson girl.

While her Father had pulled the statue of her mother over towards the corner, he could still see the entire fight as could her Aunt and Uncle but, if Ben was willing to let go of his secret life for her, than how could she really be expected to do anything less in return? "Transuerso!" by shouting this, her palms formed a small blue energy platform in front of her that reflected the beam of heat back in Caster's direction. The witch leaped out of the way, rolling to her feet on the ground, and launching small stone totems from her coat sleeve that exploded with a pink sparkling smoke screen at Gwen's feet. "Turbo!" she shouted as a whirlpool of wind flooded the room, becoming a vortex around her until the fog had dissipated.

Though she had successfully countered her both times, the fog did enough to distract the sixteen year old mage for Charmcaster to swing in with a right-hook to the left cheek swinging her head to the side in pain, twirling her staff around to smack Gwen across the face in the other direction forcing her to spit blood as she toppled to her hands and knees. "Oh, I've waited too long for this, to see you defeated at my feet!" she brushed a lock of silver bangs out of her eyes and adjusted her pointed hat while Gwen wiped the blood from the side of her mouth.

Just as she might've wondered how Ben was fairing in his fight, Diamondhead flew through the air passing both mages and putting an even larger hole in the wall juxtaposed to the destroyed doorframe, toppling into the front yard as Negative Chromastone ignored them both to sprint passed them and continue fighting, following Ben outside. Frank kept his hands above his head as debris flew out across the carpet, there were small fires erupting across the room now though, they were the least of his concerns. His daughter's pupils were glowing with a bright sparkling blue aura that trailed out of her eyes with metaphysical energy, exactly like he recalled his mother's doing on occasion in his youth. She traced something on the carpet with her finger while Charmcaster took only a second to look out at the crystal fist fight starting in the yard. Gwendolyn managed to form a makeshift Bezelian portal in the ground, plunging her arm deep into it, "Hey, Charmcaster! You should really keep your eyes on the fight in front of you!" when she yanked her arm back out, it was clad in her kevlar armored sleeve embedded with the Charms of Bezel. Immediately firing a concussive blast of yellow energy into Caster's abdomen from her palms without hesitation, knocking her back first into what was left of the wall, and sending her Staff of Ages clattering to the ground as drywall rained down around her.

"I am so going to kill you!" Charmcaster shouted as she recovered with her hot-pink aura igniting with cackling purple sparks over her palms and a rageful pink fire engulfing each of her hands.

Gwendolyn gave a confident smile, finally feeling like she was in her element again after that horrid conversation, she retorted, "Take your shot," her own aura was already burning over her fists with a blue light, tempting her opponent to advance.

They both prepared the same destructive spell at almost the same time, "Merchucus Verditis!" Both sorceresses shouted with an echoed tone, shaking the remaining foundation of the house around them with the colliding force of two fearsome bolts of pink and blue lightning. The flashing lights forced Frank to cover his eyes, blinding both Carl and Saundra who were more focused on the two shapeshifters fighting outside.

Albedo was transformed into an alien form Ben had only seen once before, in the future he visited and fought Vilgax in; shooting beams of ice up into the sky as a five-foot-tall bright blue lizard creature sporting sharp fangs and a trail of frost drifting from either sides of his mouth. Big Chill dodged through the air, avoiding blasts of ice-cold energy from Negative Artiguana by phasing through them or countering with his own cryokinetic beams. With a flash of crimson light exploding around him, the evil twin emerged as a bolt of sentient blood-red electricity that shot upwards into Big Chill even as he went intangible to avoid it. The electricity being pure energy managed to bypass his phasing ability, sending hundred of thousands of volts through his body in just a few seconds.

Big Chill fell from the sky with his wings smoldering as he slammed back first into a car parked in the driveway across the street, luckily it didn't seem his neighbors were home at the moment. He groaned sitting up as a familiar electronic cackling came from the living battery that formed on the asphalt in front of where he landed; Negative Buzzshock staggered before firing another jolt at him, conducting it through the metal of the car and into the Necrofrigian at twice its usual capacity. Ben shouted in pain, screaming as he was practically fried from the voltage, there wasn't much either of his parents could do but watch.

Frank adjusted himself, glancing down at the statue of his wife solemnly before turning back to shout at his brother, "Carl!" he cupped his hands around his mouth to project his voice across the roaring lightning that still collided only a few feet away, "Remember that thing Dad kept in the attic that we always hated!"

At first, being over twenty-five years since he'd even thought about that type of stressful memory, it suddenly hit him what his brother must be talking about in a time like this, "What? You still have it?!"

"I couldn't think of a way to get rid of it!" Frank finished his sentence by pointing at the hallway where the entrance to his attic was pultruding from the ceiling with a string to pull down a set of stairs.

Big Chill suddenly transformed back into Ben with a flash of crimson light as the Omnitrix needed at least a few seconds before he could bypass the safeguards and select a new form; though it didn't seem like Albedo was inclined to give him that extra time. Buzzshock shifted his forms instantly, clearly having never reinstated his safeguards, appearing as Negative Wildmutt again, which seemed appropriate considering he had no more intelligence than a dog while under Charmcaster's hypnotic influence.

Snarling as he advanced slowly towards the totaled car with a groaning teenage boy still lying on the hood, catching his breath from the stinging he felt still shooting through his body. Albedo was prepared to chew the hero apart, limb from limb like a mindless animal when suddenly he was struck in the side by a bolt of yellow plasma energy. It forced him through their neighbor's front yard and into their living room, digging a trench in the dirt with his body before yelping as he hit a china cabinet that toppled over on top of him.

Carl stood in front of his own car in Frank's driveway, holding a large high-tech green rifle in both hands with black trim and a smoking wide barrel, his aim was still good enough even though he hadn't been to a shooting range since Ben was born, and only under the insistence of his father did he ever go in the first place. Ben turned his body and slipped off the hood of Mr. Bauman's truck, rubbing the back of his head as his blurry vision caught sight of who fired the weapon, "D-Dad? Where did you get that thing?!"

"It's just as long a story as how you and your cousin managed to get super-powers," Carl retorted with a judgmental look as Saundra came running up behind him from the shelter of their station-wagon, quickly embracing her son who still smelt faintly of burnt rubber.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?! How are you feeling?" Saundra placed her hand over his forehead in an attempt to see if he had a fever when she noticed that he was looking down at her with bright luminous glowing pupils, "What happened to your eyes?" she caressed his left cheek under his eye with concern before he swatted her away.

Negative Wildmutt shook the debris off himself before refocusing his attention on the target his mistress had set him on, "I don't have time to explain, just find some shelter so we can finish this, and I promise we'll explain everything," he turned around so that his back was facing them, popping the dial on his fully charged Omnitrix, not bothering to twist it before slapping the faceplate, blinding both of them with a bright transformation. Wildmutt caught sight of the three Tennysons and lunged at them with its enhanced agility and ferocious claws, the animal yelped as it was right hooked in the gut and sent tumbling back into the street by Frankenstrike. He turned as his fists vibrated with emerald electricity, looking down at his parents, and speaking up with a thick Russian accent, "I was serious, go now!" he sprinted back into the street toward Albedo as they backed away slowly.

"They did not teach a class about this at that parenting seminar in mid-town all those years ago," Saundra commented as they found shelter behind a pair of cars in the driveway juxtaposed to Frank's house.

Meanwhile, Gwendolyn managed to break the beam struggle she was in with Charmcaster and use her telekinetic prowess to pull the Staff of Ages from the ground into her hands. Twirling it as her sensei had taught her a thousand times during weapons demonstrations, she aimed the skull at her opponent with a coy smile, "Remember when you told me only a master magician could wield this properly?" turning on her heels she fired a blue beam of sparkling energy from the open beak on the skull.

Charmcaster easily formed a pink platform of energy that stopped the blast of mystical energy before it did any damage, "I found out the hard way it also works for idiot savants like you!" using her magic, she dispersed the beam as her eyes flooded with pink energy, "Incendia Absum!" she clapped her palms together creating a powerful hurricane force of wind that forced Gwendolyn to cover her eyes. "Facio Gravis!" using her hands once again to direct the spell, her words created a gravitational pull that brought Gwen back to her knees.

"Ergh!" She struggled to push herself off the ground with the staff but, failed as she collapsed back into the burnt carpet, dropping it to her side.

Charmcaster approached and knelt down to look into Gwen's eyes with a gloating smile, she used a short ranged telekinetic pull to force it through the air back into her right hand, before standing back up again, "Look at you, humiliating, isn't it?" using the blunt end of her staff to prop the mage's bloody chin up, "Well, now you know how it feels. All that's left is to drain you dry!" she raised her boot prepared to step on Gwen's head and rub her face into the floor.

Gwendolyn had spent more time than she cared to admit reading through different spells and incantations, she stored her Charms here on multiple occasions, and slept in the bed upstairs every single night. It was only common sense that she would have a plethora of security spells cast over her house to, at the very least, give her peace of mind, however; this time would prove those spells more useful than she's hoped they'd ever need to be.

"H-Hatrium Securitatum!" Gwen finally managed to shout over the painful weight pinning her down, as she activated the spell, Charmcaster let out a short gasp as the entire house was consumed by a blue energy field that extended into the yard. The gravity keeping her down was suddenly lifted, the indoor wind tunnel died down, Natalie was instantly transmutated back into flesh, and the Staff of Ages was thoroughly depowered, now just a decorative wooden stick.

"Y-You had a security enchantment over the whole house?!" She shouted glancing around at the four corners around her, even backing away in fear as Gwendolyn stood back up slowly with a confident smirk, "How?"

She only shrugged in response to the villain as her fists were reignited by a bright blue glittering flame, "I still have your old spellbook, none of your magic will work in here anymore!" slipping back into a fighting stance, she could never have been more relieved to be as paranoid as she needed to be to enchant the entire building beforehand.

Charmcaster glanced back the staff in her hands, twirling it to wield it as a physical weapon instead, "I wont lose to you again!" she shouted advancing with a swing that the martial arts expert easily ducked under, catching it in her hand as it passed overhead.

"Sorry," Gwen muttered with truly little concern, firing a bolt of blue mystical energy into her opponent's abdomen thrusting her through the air, breaking the last bit of drywall behind her as she flew out into the front yard. She laid only for a brief second face down before pushing herself up and flipping her long mane of silver hair out from over her face. Gwendolyn held onto the Staff of Ages and twirled it into a proper stance as she stepped over the chunk of plaster still connected to the ground.

Turning around, she noticed the entire front side of her house was in ruins, the window was shattered, the door blown in, the rest of the wall littered with massive holes, and fire slowly breaking out in the middle of it all. While a bit guilty, she was only relieved to find that her Mother was back to normal, holding her head as Frank helped her back to her feet inside.

Charmcaster could feel her magic being nullified by the enchantment but, she also knew there was no way the range could extend very far passed the street, and so she stood backing away onto the sidewalk, "It's over, Charmcaster, give up now and I wont have to hurt you!" Gwendolyn announced approaching with her fists ablaze and eyes flowing with intense mystical power.

Taking another step back, Charmcaster could feel the enchantment weakening but, could also tell that if she backed away any further without some form of distraction, her enemy would finish the fight before she could make her move. Just at that moment, Albedo and Ben flew through the street with intense speed sending a gust of wind through the mystical battle, Gwen's eyes darted to the side to follow them giving Caster the opportunity she needed to continue her strategic retreat.

XLR8 was in the midst of heated battle at unfathomable speeds with yet another form that they had never seen before, a bipedal alien with feline-like facial features and a tight black friction-proof suit with blue trim, flashing bright crimson eyes, Negative Fasttrack seemed to have the advantage over the Kineceleran. XLR8 ducked under a swing that moved at nearly a thousand times the speed of sound, countering with equal or greater speed that fueled his clawed fist to uppercut the speedster backwards. Fasttrack and XLR8 darted away again, circling Gwen and Charmcaster so fast that all they could perceive was the blur of their movements.

The wind picked up as Gwendolyn tried her best to keep up with their fight, not being able to tell who was winning or losing, though that question was answered when both blurs finally collided at near the speed of light sending out a shockwave of sound omnidirectionally shattering every window left in the neighborhood. XLR8 flew up through the air, losing the struggle between their nigh-equal speeds, hitting the roof of Gwen's house, and slowly toppling face first into the ground. A crimson light exploded around him returning him to his human form, groaning as he was too weak to pick himself up now.

"Good boy!" Charmcaster shouted to Negative Fasttrack while Gwendolyn was distracted running back through the yard toward her downed partner, "Now bring him to me!" she announced backing away step by step until she was standing on the street, feeling her power return to her.

Before Gwen got to his side, a black and blue blur of speed rushed passed her scooping Ben up by the neck and dashing to stand next to Charmcaster once again, holding the sixteen year old boy up by the throat, "What will you do without your precious hero?!" she shouted with a more confident grin now than only a few minutes ago.

Gwendolyn formed two orbs of sparkling mystical concussive energy, ready to fire at a moments notice until Charmcaster shook her finger at her, "Ah, ah, ah!" she scolded, manifesting a sharpened blade of pure pink energy pultruding from her fist, raising it up to his throat.

Saundra gasped, covering her mouth in shock as her baby boy was both pummeled and strung up by the mindless shapeshifter before her eyes, blood dripped over his lips, down his chin uncontrollably as he coughed it up. He could barely hear anything, and the sky itself seemed to be spinning from his perspective though, that's bound to happen when you struck in the face at the speed of light. Frank comforted Lili as all four parents watched the two super powered teens lose to what seemed to be their villainous counterparts.

"Charmcaster, don't!" Gwen immediately depowered her attack, allowing her aura to simmer down and fade away, "We can still work this out!"

She only scoffed in return, pressing the blade gently against his neck, forcing Gwendolyn to cringe as a small trickle of blood dripped down, "Now you want to work things out?"

"I'm begging you, take me, kill me!" Gwen pleaded, taking a step forwards with her arms open as Caster raised a brow at her offer, glancing back up at the nearly unconscious Ben.

"No!" Frank shouted as Lili pulled him back from exiting their destroyed house.

Charmcaster finally turned back to her mystic rival, narrowing her eyes, "You really love him, don't you?" she asked referring to the boy she currently held her blade up to.

Gwendolyn gulped, tears welling up in both of her pupils, hidden behind a furiously passionate expression, "With everything that I have, so please, let him go!" she took a step forwards, tossing the Staff of Ages out in front of her as a sign of surrender.

"Fine," Caster announced, snapping her fingers and somehow prompting Negative Fasttrack to drop Ben who landed on his knees, toppling over onto his side, "You're going to let me drain your essence dry, then you're going to let me kill you, or I'll have my puppet break your boyfriend's neck at mach five."

Gwendolyn lowered her head and darted her eyes to her shoes in shame, taking one last step forward onto the street where Charmcaster's magic would work on her again, "Okay, you win," the witch approached her slowly with an almost seductive strut.

"Awe, poor perfect little Gwen Tennyson, always so sure of herself," Charmcaster lifted her hand placing her palm flat on Gwen's chest, dragging her black painted finger nails over her smooth skin above her bright blue lowcut shirt, only inches from flat out caressing her breasts, "So smart, so talented, so naturally beautiful," she hooked one of her hands around her lower back and perched her lips taking a step even closer, basking in her victory by brushing her dark purple lips over Gwendolyn's. She placed her hand on the back of the mage's neck, forcing her deeper into the kiss, though she furrowed her brow in disgust, she was helpless as she felt the spell taking hold. Gwen tried keeping Charmcaster back, placing her hands on the silver hair witch's shoulders but, instead of pulling away it seemed she only took a sick pleasure in it, sticking her tongue into her mouth forcing more passion into their exchange; their energies connected in a way that allowed Caster to grab hold of her opponent's spiritual essence. Charmcaster finally pulled her mouth back, leaving a small trail of saliva connecting their bottom lips as pink sparks started erupting from their bodies. She shoved the weakened girl back, stumbling as a suction of energy suddenly gripped her very soul, groaning as she felt it slipping from her control, "So dead."

Frank and Natalie watched as their daughter's blue mystical aura enveloped her, only to pour out and change colors, funneling into Charmcaster's purple-pinkish aura. At first it seemed harmless enough, but as the seconds passed they noticed Gwen's expression changing from simple disgust, to utter agony as she tried her best to ignore the pain, "Aghh! AGH!" screaming louder while the pink lightning struck her body over and over, cascading back into Caster with every single bolt.

"Wow," Charmcaster looked over the aura encompassing her hands and arms, surrounding her entire body with more energy than she could know what to do with, "Wow! Even I could have never guessed you had this much latent potential stored inside of you! I could rule the Earth with this much raw power!"

Gwendolyn's teeth were clenched tight, trying to ease the pain that shot through her body like something was setting her nervous-system on fire; though, even through that unbearable pain, she still managed to speak, "R-Reverto… M-Meus Ops… Mihi!" without warning, she lifted off the ground in a standing position as a bright flash of white light engulfed their vision briefly.

"What?! No!" Charmcaster shouted as the spell she cast on Gwendolyn reversed itself onto her instead, slowly returning the power she'd stolen and beginning to drain her own reserves of magic as well, all of it funneling into Gwen who landed on the ground unharmed just as Caster fell to her knees, "This isn't possible!"

"It is, the problem with you is that magic is all you're about, but for me, mysticism is only one aspect of who I am!" Gwendolyn outstretched her hands with open palms as the energy directed itself into a more concentrated form, not bothering to touch Charmcaster's soul.

Negative Fasttrack had been standing mindlessly next to the groaning and recovering Benjamin until Gwendolyn finally turned the tables, causing Albedo to shout in pain clutching his head, letting a fog of pink energy leak from his ears, mouth, eyes, and nose. With Charmcaster's magic being sucked into her opponent, her influence over the shapeshifter was lifted, leaving him weak, confused, and likely missing over a year of time. He transformed in a forced explosion of light, returning to the unmistakable inverted twin body of Ben Tennyson before collapsing into the street.

Charmcaster looked up at Gwendolyn from the ground, opening her hand and thrusting her palm forwards but, finding that nothing happened at all. "M-My power! Give it back!" she shouted with her hair splaying over her face, clearly starting to lose her composure. Gwen ended the battle by approaching her, looking shamefully into the evil sorceress' eyes, before turning on a dime to roundhouse kick in her in the face. Caster's chin hit the asphalt as she finally fell unconscious, drooling into the street, though without thinking twice, Gwen simply leaped over her body to sprint towards her downed lover.

"Ben, please be okay," She spoke softly as she dropped to her knees in front of him, propping his head up on her lab, and holding either side of his head with her hands, "Perfectam Sanitatem," her fingers illuminated with a bright blue hue of energy. Frank and Lili stepped out of their destroyed living room slowly, still utterly confused as to what just happened, however; they were more focused on their child than anything else.

Saundra finally yanked herself from Carl's arms, sprinting through the destroyed grass and into the street where she stood over Gwen, "Is he going to be okay?!" she asked frantically.

Gwendolyn didn't answer though, staring at Ben's calmly unconscious face still held in between her hands, though she had added all of her foe's power to her own, she still wasn't sure what to expect casting a spell she'd never used before. She waited to sigh with relief until his eyes finally snapped open, looking around nervously with shinning pupils, "Did we win?" he said this before catching a glance of his entire family standing above him.

"Depends on what you consider a victory," Gwendolyn responded as the heat rushed to her cheeks, giving him a warm smile, he sat up rubbing his throat where there had been a small cut just a few seconds ago.

Carl shoved his hands into his pockets, noticing his son awake and alive, before turning to his brother's demolished house as Lili ran towards Saundra and Ben to wrap her daughter in a tight hug, "I think I speak for everyone," Ben's father started, "When I say that we need to have a very long talk," he watched Gwendolyn reach over, clasping Ben's hand in her own, practically by habit.

"But, first," Frank spoke up, approaching both Ben and Gwendolyn still sitting on the street; they heard sirens in the distance, and while they wanted to get back up, it was just too exhausting, "I realized something while watching you two," Lili backed away to stand next to him, with Saundra doing the same to support her husband.

They tightened their grasp on each other's hands, looking up at the four adults who were bound to judge them about one thing or another that they just witnessed firsthand. Though, Frank seemed to be almost at a loss for words, as though he didn't want to say what he was about to say, "I think I may have jumped to anger before even bothering to ask how either of you two felt," he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly before continuing, "After watching Gwendolyn nearly sacrifice herself for your life," he referred to his nephew sitting next to his daughter, gripping her hand for dear-life, "You two are really in love with each other, aren't you?"

Saundra and Carl gave each other a single glance while waiting for their response though, the answer seemed pretty obvious to them before they said anything. Gwendolyn stood up first, dusting her jeans off with one hand, and helping Ben up by their intertwined fingers, "That's what I was trying to tell you," she answered with a flustered expression, it was nice that they finally understood but, it still was no easier to talk about.

"And you," Frank spoke up, with a raised brow as though he was recognizing someone he hadn't seen in years, "You're the shapeshifter hero that's been running around saving lives for nearly three years now?"

"No…" Though Ben's lie didn't get far when Gwendolyn scoffed, elbowing him in the ribs, "Ow," forcing him to rub the back of his neck mumbling an appropriate answer this time, "Yea, I guess I am."

"You risked yourself to save her, you could have been killed!" Saundra shouted, with an almost enraged concern in her voice, but instead of scorning him into feeling guilty, he responded without hesitating.

"And I'd do it again," he asserted.

Frank kept a disapproving frown at first, looking into the teenager's radiant emerald eyes, slowly curving his lips into a smile, "You would, wouldn't you? Alright, I can't say that I totally agree with what you two are doing but, if it makes my baby girl happy than I guess I can't argue with that."

Saundra's concern faded as the realization that her boy was healthy and standing started to set in, she allowed herself to fawn just a bit, "It was pretty romantic the way she was ready to give herself up for him," she pointed out, glancing back to Carl without turning her head.

"Look, I've never been the type of guy who would stand in the middle of real love, so long as you two are responsible, I guess it's not such a big deal," he was shocked when his son actually closed the distance between them, locking his arms around his father's torso.

"Thanks, Dad," Carl was sure that was the first time he'd called him anything other than his name since he was ten years old.

Lili turned back around with an exasperated sigh, the police and fire department weren't far away now as the flashing lights were visible in the distance; staring at her demolished house, the evil witch unconscious in her front yard, and the teenage boy who looked identical to her nephew lying in the street. "So, you don't happen to have a magical house repairing spell, do you Gwenny?"

…

To Be Continued…