Chapter Text
Chapter 01.
Benjamin Kirby Tennyson so far was hating his summer vacation. It wasn’t bad enough that he had to spend time with his cousin Gwen, who always liked to lord over his head how much better she was than him. To make matters worse she had recently come into possession of a device, a special watch that let her transform into aliens! Ten different aliens all with unique powers and abilities that she got to use how she deemed fit.
Since getting that watch Gwen had started fighting crime, she’d taken down a mad scientist, finished fish hunting poachers, and aliens that tried to eat their Grandpa’s sister, she even got to face down alien bounty hunters who were sent after her by some guy from space who wanted the watch!
Of course, it wasn’t all bad, he got to meet Tetrax who was there to ensure that his cousin survived the ordeal with the bounty hunters, and he also managed to give Gwen a good dress-down about how she was acting concerning her usage of the Omnitrix. Plus he gave Ben a sweet hoverboard! So that was a plus.
Then there was Kevin Levin, Ben had met him under unique circumstances. They were staying at a fancy hotel, with so much luxury and awesome events including laser tag. Kevin had snuck into the hotel using his powers, he wanted to play laser tag, but couldn't get past security. That is until Ben vouched for him. The two hit it off right away, working together in the laser tag zone, and kicking all kinds of butt. Maybe too much as the hotel's owner's son Billy was playing, and when he got his ass kicked he got pissed and had them thrown out.
Kevin showed off his powers, by frying the system and shutting down the whole floor. Ben was stunned at Levin's ability, the raven expected Ben to call him a freak, but he didn't. Ben needed out about his powers asking all manner of questions. Many of which Kevin couldn't answer because even he didn't understand his abilities completely. They went wild in the hotel and ended up getting Ben's family kicked out. Ben took the fall and let Kevin get away.
Gwen snitched to Grandpa Max, and the two blew up having a crazy fight. Max was worried about the company his grandson was keeping. He ended up leaving to go speak to the hotel manager to try and get some of his money back. Ben grabbed his hoverboard and snuck off to find Kevin. The two reunited and Kevin took Ben for a night on the town. He's been living on the streets so he knew all the "unique routes", as the night went on Kevin used his powers, and each time he absorbed energy something happened...he got...weird...
Things did take a sour turn when all their fun games were brought to a halt as Kevin had wanted to pull a heist involving a train and a lot of innocent people. It came out of nowhere, and Levin had this mad look in his eyes. "Once we have money we can go anywhere, and do anything we want, together!"
Ben had managed to talk Kevin out of going through with the heist. "Kevin we don't need to do this!"
"Ben...come on...one little heist and we'd be set for life." He took Ben's hands. "I'll treat you to everything you want, everything you deserve, I'll be all you need!"
"I don't want you to do this, not for me, not for any amount of money." He squeezed Kevin's hand, and the two had a moment. "I was happy, just hanging out with you, eating vendor hot dogs, exploring the city, watching the view on a fire escape."
Kevin blushed. "I know you are a good guy!"
"You don't...if you knew...what I've done, you'd hate me, you'd think I was a freak or a monster!" Something made him wig out. "If I pull off the heist I can change all that I..." he tried to yank his hand free, but Ben held his hand tighter.
"I don't care. Even if you've made mistakes, what matters is right now. So please for me...don't do this..." Kevin relented, some clarity coming back in his eyes.
"For you..."
Little did Ben know Gwen was hunting him down. She asked around and got the 411 on Kevin. He was Trouble with a capital T. He had stolen things(food), fought other gangs and thugs, worked with other no-good types, and dined and dashed. She quickly got on her high horse and felt she had to save Ben from Kevin. She used Wildmutt to track Ben down, and just when Ben was about to offer him a chance to come with them on their vacation.
Ben tried to stop her but she wouldn't listen, in her mind she had decided that he was no good. Of course, Gwen couldn't be wrong...
She was so smart she even figured out how to change between forms, shifting from Wildmutt to Four Arms. "Don't try to stop me, Ben, if you aren't gonna stay away from him, I'm gonna drag this little criminal to the police."
A fight broke out between them and despite Ben’s protest Kevin had ended up taking some of the power of the watch. "I won't let you take him from me!"
"He's not yours you sick freak!" That set him off. Drunk on the power, Kevin wanted the watch for himself.
"I'll take that watch, and then no one will get in my way!" Ben put the pieces together, the energy was making Kevin go nuts. He had fought Gwen to a standstill, the two struggling before the watch released some weird energy wave that seemed to have taken away Kevin’s powers.
"It's over for you freak!" Beep Beep Beep Boop! Gwen changed back.
Kevin ran off, and Ben had to go back to the Rustbucket with Gwen who continued to lecture him on how stupid and reckless he was. He was so wound up he even snapped at Max when he tried to lay into him. "None of you knew him as I did, you didn't see what I saw, he wasn't a bad guy he needed help, and now he's out there all alone!"
Max was taken aback when he saw Ben he couldn't help but remember himself as a kid when his parents tried to tell him who his friends could or should be. Reasons aside he'd done what he always swore to never do, be like his parents in that way. He got into trouble and made mistakes when he was a kid, but he learned from those mistakes. If Kevin was a run away he did need help. Max apologized for jumping the gun and said he'd give Kevin a chance, but if he blew it, he'd do what he must to protect Ben. Tough but fair.
Gwen couldn't believe this and listed off the reasons why Kevin was in trouble. Ben was so angry with her that he didn't talk to her for a whole week.
~Scene Break~
Within that week that neither Ben nor Gwen, were talking to one another a lot managed to happen. The most recent stop on their summer vacation had brought The Tennysons to a witchcraft museum.
Now Ben had always been impressed with superheroes, but he was an even bigger fan of the supernatural! Monsters, magic, spells, witches, and wizards, he loved it all. So coming to the museum wasn’t too bad.
They had been partway through the tour when their guide was describing a book called the Archamada Book of Spells, said to contain exceedingly powerful ancient spells, rituals, witchcraft, and incantations, dating back to the sixteenth century.
“I wonder if those spells work.” Ben had seen plenty of false advertising about “real” magic books containing “spells” that could make a person stronger, faster, richer, all that jazz. But, he knew those were fake, and yet looking at the Archamada Ben felt a shudder go through his body.
“Get real doofus, of course, it's not real.” Like always Gwen had to rain on his parade and just outright insult him. Whereas Ben was a firm believer in magic, Gwen was the opposite, preferring hard facts, logic, and science, even the fact that aliens were real didn’t change that as it was because her watch was a piece of technology that let her become aliens.
Ben refused to give her a response, not that he was given one as their tour was interrupted by an attack from a man that was wearing a red-and-black-colored robe. He used a strange staff to pin everyone to the ceiling while he moved to collect his prize.
“Finally, with the Archamada Book of Spells in my grasp all of its imme power shall be mine.” He used a spell to break open the glass containing the book and used another to summon it to him.
“Not on my watch skull face!” With his attention on the book the man’s guard had slipped and his spell holding them in place broke allowing Gwen a chance to change into XLR8 and get ahead of everyone. She ties off a large hanging banner to act as the slide, catching everyone before they fall to the ground. “Everyone out now!” She hissed before moving to fight Hex.
Not that it was much of a fight, Hex proved to be a master magician as he claimed to be every attack that Gwen threw at him Hex had a counter for it.
“I tire of these games child!” When XLR8 tries to face Hex head-on, he's met with a bright light from Hex's staff, causing him to slide by and slam into some cases on the wall.
“Gwen!” Max and Ben tried to help, but Hex simply used a spell to throw them across the room. However, this gave Gwen the moment she needed to make a move and attack Hex repeatedly attacking him until he was knocked out.
She never noticed how she knocked off one of Hex’s charms and sent it rolling across the ground at Ben’s feet who quickly snatched it up.
The paramedics had taken Hex away and while that was happening Gwen still as XLR8 was allowing people to photograph her outside the museum while she called herself a hero.
The entire time Ben was glaring at her hand clenching around the charm he’d picked up. Getting fed up with her arrogance, Ben moved stomping back towards the Rustbucket, never once noticing how the museum’s owner was complaining about how the Archamada was missing.
~Scene Break~
Throughout the rest of the day, strange things happen to Ben though it was mostly good things in his favor. In a restaurant they had been eating at, Ben and Gwen had been fighting for the last crawfish when suddenly the charm glowed yellow, and through an “accident” Gwen ended up with a bowl of crawfish to the face and one up the nose and Ben got the last one.
Another instant was at the local street market when a woman had her purse stolen. During this time Gwen’s watch refused to work and once again the charm glowed yellow and Ben found himself stopping the thug completely by accident.
It wasn’t long before Ben discovered the charm was more than it seemed, seeing as how when he had been practicing with a game of basketball against Gwen the charm had become active glowing brightly and he tossed the basketball at the hoop behind Gwen without looking and through a series of impossible and improbable events the ball landed directly in the net.
“How are you doing that?!” Gwen was finally beginning to get fed up with this, it didn’t make sense that Ben had managed to do something like this. “You have to be cheating.”
“It’s not cheating, it’s magic.” Smiled Ben.
Just then at a nearby construction site, an explosion causes the cables on a lift to break, leaving two workers stranded hanging on for dear life. Knowing it was hero time, Gwen moved to use the watch. “Whatever, just sit back and watch a pro show you how it's done.” Ignoring Ben and transforming into Wildmutt.
As Wildmutt set off to save the workers, Max had gotten to go and help a person trapped in his truck by a giant steel bar. “Hang on Grandpa.” It was then that Ben arrived dressed in a Ben wore a tight-fitting sleeveless black V-neck shirt and had an emerald green scarf wrapped around his neck, fingerless black gloves that cut off just above his wrist, a pair of tight black pants that made the entire costume look like a one-piece it was- the entire outfit showed off his body in more than one way seeing as how it was form fitting and left nothing to the imagination. Wrapped around his waist was another scarf, this one a matching green that trailed behind him dangling above the ground and looking like a tail, he had his pants tucked into a pair of black silver-toed boots. Lastly, on his face was an emerald green face mask that covered his upper face and appeared like a demon.
“Lucky boy is here to save the day!” Using the power of the Charm, Lucky Boy was able to save the man, and through a series of events he managed to not only free the man trapped in the truck, but also managed to save the workers, all the while Wildmutt somehow found herself ending up falling into a thing of cement.
With everyone saved, Lucky Boy found himself being interviewed by reporters, all of them curious about who he was and just how he was able to save everyone. “What can I say? I'm just lucky I guess.” He smiled, striking a pose before the camera. “Who’s your hero!” He smiled mockingly, waving at Gwen who walked away annoyed.
When they had managed to leave, and make their way back to the Rustbucket they were met with a shock, as laying there on the table was none other than the Archamada Book of Spells. “Whoa! What’s this doing here?” To their surprise they watched as the book seemingly lifted itself from the table and floated over towards Ben orbiting around him and rubbing against him. “Wait, did you come for me?” The book dipped up and down as if nodding.
“No way, that thing is going back.” Gwen, fed up with all this magic nonsense made an attempt to try and grab the book, only to be rebuffed by some sort of barrier that pushed her back. “What? Why you little!” She tried again only to be rebuffed once more, and then again and again.
The book moved and lodged itself into Ben’s arms, the cover opening and pages flipping open to a certain chapter in the book. “The Charms of Bezel?” Upon reading it, Ben found that the charm was one of five Charms created by the powerful sorcerer Bezel, the one Ben had was the Charm of Luck.
“Wait, this means Hex has the other charms!” It made sense, the other Charms were Charms of Fire, Levitation, Reincarnation, and the last one was the Charm of Quintessence It is said that all five charms are required for all of the spells and incantations to be used all their full power and potential.
Max thinks that they should turn the charm and the book back to the museum. Both Ben and Gwen would rather not, though for different reasons.
Gwen suddenly wants to try it out herself, and Ben wants to remain a superhero. The two get into a quick fight about how it is not really them doing the work, but rather their respective items. “You’re only a hero because of that dumb charm!”
“The same can be said about you and your stupid watch!”
A news report cuts them off. It seems that a famous haunted house museum has come to life, trapping dozens of visitors inside. The trio head there at once.
~Scene Break~
Turns out the Haunted house had ended up being a trap, Hex was indeed there, but he had used this as a means of luring the Tennyson Family into his clutches. More importantly, to lure Lucky Boy to his clutches in order to get back his Charm of Luck. “The charm isn’t yours! Its mine now, and you can’t have it!”
“Then you will die foolish child, and shall suffer dearly!” Hex brought more of the objects to life aiming to attack and subdue Ben or do serious harm on top him. However, Ben proved to be very lucky with the Charm on his side, Gwen however wasn’t faring all that well as while Ben was having all the good luck, all the bad seemed to transfer over to her.
Thankfully Max and Gwen managed to get people free from the traps that Hex had them ensanred in and set them free, thankfully Gwen was finally able to transform into Four Arms and managed to get even more people to safety.
Ben was being kept on his toes, even more so as the charm continued to do it's magic in keeping him being lucky while at the same time he was doing his best to save as many people as possile before he was captured by one of Hex’s spells. “Give me the charm, child!”
“How about I keep the charm, and you get lost!” The Charm flared to life and unforunetly for Hex he happened to have a Chadiler fall right on top of him knocking him out. “Should’ve said please.” Ben said now free as he bolted down the hall.
However, Hex was far from finished as he was healed via the Charm of Reincarnation and follows. Rushing through the halls Ben let the Charm lead him to a switch for a secret door and he quickly heads down the passage, one which Hex happened to follow him through. Time and time again, Hex tries to attack, but the Charm keeps Ben safe from harm and prevents him from being attacked or harmed. “I’ve had enough games, boy!” Hex fired a blast at him, luckly the charm drags Ben down to the floor into a opening to a graveyard,
And yet, Ben’s luck soon ran out as using the trees Hex managed to restrain him. “The. Charm!” Hex’s hand reached out to rip the Charm from Ben’s neck when suddenly he was rebuffed by a blast of magical power. “What is this?!” Floating in the air before Ben was the Archamada Book of Spells. “Impossible! None can use the book without all five charms!” He attacked again firing a blast right at Ben and the book but the barrier it produced held strong.
At the same time, the Charms around Hex’s neck glowed in response to the book's appearance. “What? What is this?!” The charms flared with mana, causing Hex’s magic to become unstable. “The charms! My powers! This can’t be!” To add insult to injury, Gwen as FourArms came rushing in tackling Hex into a nearby mausoleum. Annoyed, Hex brings some of the animal statues to life - two gargoyles (one small, one large) and a Minotaur - to attack Four Arms.
“Leave her alone!” As much as Ben was angry at Gwen that didn’t mean he wanted to see her hurt, two vs one wasn’t fair. To his surprise, the Archamada flipped open and revealed a spell to Ben, one that would put a stop to this madness. “Are you sure?” The book fluttered in response as if saying yes!
Seeing Gwen being attacked by the large gargoyle that had jumped onto her, its tail wrapped around her head, and bites her left shoulder. The minotaur tackled her to the ground. The statues prove to be somewhat effective, succeeding in taking Four Arms away from the scene.
As Hex starts to get back up to attack Ben, he sees him casting a spell. “I cast this spell into the night.” Ben began causing hex to narrow his eyes. “To bind my enemies! To limit his fight!” Hex’s eyes widened, he knew those words were a binding spell! Ben was attempting to bind his magic!
“Enough!” From his staff, a beam of mana erupted from the tip splashing harmlessly against the barrier and scattering the beam in all directions.
“By earth and wind! By water and fire! I will stop his evil desire!” Hex continued to bombard the barrier, throwing spells and shield breaking incantations, but there was no immediate indication of damage.
“The evil words and actions he’s spread, shall only cause him to feel great fear and dread!” Seeing his attacks were useless, Hex attempted to fly away and escape the area of the spell to save himself. “To lead the fight against his deeds! As will I do mote it be!” But it was too late!
Hex screamed out in agony as he felt his powers being bound, a sudden surge of weakness drove him down to his knees, taking his magical strength with it. His staff felt heavy in his grasp, near impossible to lift. “My magic…” he gasped, reaching up towards his charms only for Ben to come in with a drop kick, knocking him back and tearing them away from him and knocking him into a coffin just as Max shuts the lid on him.
“The charms.” Ben looked at the Charms that Hex held, the Charms of Fire, Electricity, Telekinesis, Reincarnation, Luck, they were all right here before him.
“They need to be destroyed.” Gwen said having dealt with Hex’s animated minions. “These things are way too dangerous.”
“And yet you have your watch,” Ben countered as the Archamada book of spells floated right next to him as if waiting to see what Ben would do as did Max. They watched as Ben looked at the necklace and then looked at the book. “I’m going to keep them.”
“Ben!”
“You got to keep your watch! Besides, magic is my thing and I’m good at it. Besides, with the book and the charms I can do so much more as Lucky Boy.” He smiled and held them close as the necklace glowed before it changed right before their eyes.
Gone was the necklace and in it's place was a belt, the belt was made of six medallions of strong steel connected by fine steel chains, with each of the medallions containing one of the charms. “Cool! I didn’t know it could do that!” The belt fashioned itself around the boy's waist hanging loosely around him as the charms gave off a soft hum before going dim, with the Charm of Luck still glowing softly.
It wouldn’t be until later that the cops arrived at the Graveyard collecting the now bound Hex and carting him off to jail none of them the wiser that the Tennyson's had left previously before they had arrived. Of course, right before leaving Ben collected one last thing.
“That staff! Really?” Gwen couldn’t believe her cousin had managed to get his hands on such powerful magical artifacts, the book, the charms, the staff that Hex had used. It honestly pissed her off that he was just so lucky, completely ignoring her own hypocrisy about having a power artifact that gave her so many different abilities.
“What? If I’m gonna use magic, I might as well have a staff to go with it.” He smiled, giving the magic staff a twirl enjoying how light it felt in his hands. “Sides its better than leaving it with Hex.” The staff hummed with power before shrinking down becoming what looked like a pen. “Cool!”
“It’s not that cool.” Gwen mumbled fiddling with her watch as they drove on down the road.