Sorry this took so long, everyone. This chapter had to be written and rewritten a total of four times; usually I get a fanfic chapter done on the first or second try. Oh well, first time for everything. Here's Chapter 3.
Chapter 3- Attack of the Plant Monster
The first sign of an imminent alien attack was the sighting of an object flying down through the sky or when there was an explosion or any kind of chaotic event at a top secret research facility. At least, that was how Ben remembered it. This time though the only indication anyone in Bellwood got that there was a monster in the area was the loud rumbling caused it by it lumbering through the city streets. The rumbling was what had woken Ben up, and that had angered him. There were many various things that could annoy Ben Tennyson in the morning, all of which involved him being rudely awakened.
The alarm clock ringing so loud that it was penetrating to the inside of his head.
Being reminded by his mom on a weekday that school would be starting in a couple of hours.
A before-dawn phone call from either Kevin or Gwen that usually wound up being about something that was not totally important.
But it was not until this very morning that Ben was cheesed off about a monster attack, something he regularly greeted with wild anticipation, but this monster had done something so irritating that Ben was not yet ready to forgive.
It had interrupted his dream.
The dream had begun so well. It was close to Christmastime; the obligatory holiday decorations were hung up in Bellwood High's corridors and classrooms. Ben was enduring another horrible English lesson until it was announced over the school's public address system that due to the snowfall outside, school was cancelled for the rest of the day. Cheering with childish glee, Ben had run out of the room, along the corridors and out of the school building, heading towards home and planning to spend the wonderful day hanging out with Kevin and Gwen. It had turned a little nightmarish from there when he nearly ran into Gwen in an empty street and she, without warning, ambushed him. Ben avoided her flurry of attacks by leaping backward and he gaped surprisingly at her; and then he remembered about her promise to him of making him see sense about his relationship with Hope. He attempted to retaliate by using the Omnitrix to transform himself into Big Chill, but she flung one of her mana lassos at him, which looped around and restrained his right arm. Gwen twisted it, pulling his hand away from the watch.
"Break up with her," she threatened.
Knowing exactly who 'her' was, Ben met Gwen's demand with a defiant glare. "No."
Gwen scowled. "Then let's see if she wants you when you have no Omnitrix powers to offer her."
"It's not like that!"
She narrowed her eyes at his outburst. "Prove it," she said in a dangerous tone.
Almost at her word, a whip of blue energy lashed from out of nowhere, cracking down with a snap onto Gwen's conduit of mana. The line from her hand to Ben's arm spattered, fizzling into pink sparks and then into nothing. Ben and Gwen both turned to the figure neither of them had seen standing across the road. Hope jumped, levitating herself into the air, and floated over the street to land on the footpath between them. With a fierce temper burning in her eyes, she rounded on Gwen.
"If you threaten him like that again," she spoke harshly. "I will ensure that you won't ever try it another time."
Gwen did not listen; instead she glared pure hatred at her archrival. "Release him from the spell, Charmcaster."
"Get it through your head, Gwen. There is no spell. I love Ben."
"And I love her," Ben added in support, coming to stand beside Hope and gently taking her by the hand.
Gwen huffed in denial which, the more she looked at how serious they were, proceeded to change into a ferocious growl. She turned her blazing hate-filled green eyes to Hope and gradually faded away from her and Ben's sight.
Ben soon forgot about the altercation with Gwen as he hung out with Hope instead. As things had turned out, it had been her who had summoned the snowfall to occur in order to spend time with him. He had blushed at that, wondering how in the universe he had been so lucky to have her as a girlfriend. They walked through the city together, watching others enjoying the snow as they went.
They stopped when they arrived at a park near Ben's house to see a group of small kids playing in a snowball fight. From this, Hope thought of a sly idea. She moved discreetly behind Ben and magicked up a clump of snow on the ground to rise and form into a snowball. She giggled silently as it went higher and higher until it was above Ben's head and she pushed it an inch forward.
Then she let it fall.
Ben yelped in surprise as it landed with a wet splat on top of his hair. Immediately realising from the droplets of snow falling over his face what Hope had done, Ben turned to her with a wide grin. He put his hand to the Omnitrix and twisted the mechanism around until he had got it to the alien he wanted.
Arctiguana.
The Omnitrix plunger shot up. He slammed his hand down on it. In a green flash, he had turned into an alien. The problem was, like so many other times when he had used the Omnitrix in reality, it wasn't the alien he had in mind.
"Fourarms!" he exclaimed in the grunting tone of the tall red six-limbed alien. "Oh well, guess I can make do with the snow around here."
Hope smirked back at him and summoned multiple amounts to snowballs into the air in reply. Fourarms' face fell.
"Uh-oh."
By the time Hope was finished with her barrage, Fourarms was under a white heap of snow so large that it looked like a small hill could be chiselled out of it. Fourarms spat out a chunk of the soft frozen water, having nearly swallowed one of her throws, and shivered. He had moved to heave himself out of the mound when he heard the awful sound of the Omnitrix timing out.
Before Hope's eyes, and the eyes of the children who had halted their own game to watch Fourarms getting mercilessly pelted, the big red alien reverted back into Ben. Ben blinked in horror as he now felt the cold from the snow flooding through him and the moisture drenching his jacket and shirt, but that wasn't the worst thing about being trapped under the snow. What was the worst thing was, now that he was back to normal, he didn't have the strength to pull himself out of the snow.
"Uh," he glanced at his girlfriend. "Could you please get me out from under here?"
Hope raised an eyebrow in mischievous triumph. She waved her hand. The snow on top of Ben vanished. Ben sat back up, his hands flying to his arms and rubbing them vigorously to get some warmth back into them. Hope sat down next to him and placed her hand on his chest, quietly muttering an incantation. A slow soothing heat fluttered from her palm into his skin. The temperature of his body began to climb. Ben looked at Hope. She looked back at him. The two of them edged closer for the kiss.
:*:
Which was when the monster out in the city had interrupted the dream, bringing it to an abrupt conclusion.
Ignoring the disappointment he was feeling, Ben jumped out of his bed and pulled his pyjamas off of him, grumbling under his breath as he reached for the green jacket and the newly washed black t-shirt and single pair of blue jeans that he had slung over the foot of his bed as part of his preparation routine he had made in case a monster attack ever did happen this early in the morning.
How early was it, he asked. A glimpse towards his alarm clock and a glance through the window told him that it was five forty five and that the sun was only just coming up. As he put on his clothes, he stole another look through the window. His eyes ranged in on the monster. It was incredibly tall, seemingly made from some kind of vegetation given its dull green colour, and it was heading for the central business district.
"You have no idea what you just wrecked," he stated bluntly.
He moved away from the window to put on a fresh pair of socks and his favourite sneakers, and he started to plan on what alien he was going to use.
:*:
The battle could not have been going any more worse. Sure he and the others had reached the plant monster in time before it could do any serious damage, but that was not what was bothering Ben. It was the synergy of the team that had him worried, particularly the synergy between him and Gwen. Throughout the fight, there had been various occasions where Gwen did not respond to his efforts at teamwork like she usually did, or was not paying attention to him and performing attacks and counters on her own. This led to the issues of the battle going on for a longer period of time than they were used to and the Omnitrix timing out, causing Ben to transform from Heatblast back to himself. Gwen ignored this too, choosing to keep battling on her own front. Kevin reacted differently, calling out to Ben to throw him one of Heatblast's fiery rock attacks before the transformation was completed. Realising what he had in mind, Ben tossed a rock towards him just as the green indicator on the Omnitrix started turning red. Kevin absorbed the element and natural ability of the rock, changing his body into brick-red stone with bright yellow fire framing around his form. He opened his eyes, revealing that his normally black irises and pupils had been replaced with blazing sunlike flames. Kevin turned to Ben.
"Stay out of this until the watch recharges," he said.
Ben nodded to him. Kevin returned it and leaped farther into combat with the monster. As he did, Ben saw the very thing that he had noticed to be missing in the struggle. The minute Kevin sprang in to attack, Gwen acted instinctively and blocked the monster's melee strikes from slashing at him with smaller versions of her mana shield. Something inside Ben bristled with anger. Why wasn't she doing that for him when he had been the one busy dodging the creature's thorn-tipped tendrils? Why was she ignoring him like this?
The bristling stopped. Her behaviour right there and then suddenly appeared to be very similar to how she had seemed in his dream some hours ago. He had the answer. She was still furious with him for dating Hope without her knowledge, which also obviously meant that she still believed Hope had him under some kind of spell or was in the process of planning something devious and manipulative for him. Ben grinded his teeth together. Three days, he thought, three days since he had told her and she was still not letting up. He was going to have a serious talk with her once the fight was over.
As if it was agreeing with him that the battle should end, Ben's ears picked up the click-and-beep of the Omnitrix that signalled it was ready for use again. He glanced down at the watch and began revolving through the selection of aliens.
"Okay," he mused aloud as he searched. "Without Gwen covering me, Heatblast doesn't do too well. So, let's see how Swampfire fares."
He set the mechanism to lock onto the image of Swampfire, raised his hand up, and swung it down palmfirst onto the watch. The Omnitrix replied as its plunger slid back into its socket. A flash of green surrounded Ben's body. The molecules within his DNA received a charge of plant matter and sparks of flame. His blood cells pounded, forcefully mutating into the cells belonging to the species his blood was adapting to. His skin turned leaf green, except for the surface of his face which became as black as tar. His hair shot up, lengthening to a spiky height and switching in colour from brown to maroon and yellow. The Omnitrix disappeared from his arm; its indicator re-emerged from the centre of his chest.
"Swampfire!" Ben called out the alien's name in its voice as the green flash died down. He threw himself back into the fight, flinging four balls of fire into the monster's back. The plant monster roared loudly in rage and rounded on him. It directed its hand at him. Four of the thorn-tipped tendrils snapped out from its fingertips at lightning speed.
Ben did not have time to dodge.
The tendrils struck, tearing into Swampfire's body from shoulder to hip. Ben sucked in his breath as his nervous system registered the tremendous surge of pain. Hearing and sensing him, Gwen forgot her anger towards him and she turned to help. Her mouth fell open in shock as she found him impaled on the thorns.
"Ben!" she screamed.
Swampfire raised his hand and waved it wildly in the direction of the monster. "Never mind me! Focus!" he shouted at her. "Regenerative abilities, remember?"
He watched her face and eyes turn hard; he knew she had gone back to remembering that she was supposed to be feeling angry with him. Ben frowned and put his attention of the vines that were piercing into his body. With his right hand, he grabbed a hold of one of them and closed his eyes, mentally carving out a neural pathway through the tendrils in order to telepathically communicate with the monster's mind. He found nothing, except a single memory.
In the memory, he saw the monster's creation. Its life had begun as a drum of radioactive liquid, which was being taken to a disposal area for nuclear waste when the truck carrying it swerved roughly at a corner and the drum fell, tumbling out and rolled ceaselessly through the wilderness of the forest outside Bellwood until it came to a splashing halt and sank to the bottom of a pond. The drum had suffered a crack on its journey, a crack that exposed the water to its contents; but instead of resulting in the water's contamination, the liquid turned crystalline, evolving itself into a dense neon-green stone. The stone called for life, to which the underwater plants and pond scum answered, coating the stone with their forms and merging their lifeforces to create a body for it, allowing it to become the towering giant it now was.
Ben searched the creature's mind for what it wanted now that it was a biological life form. He grew horrified as he uncovered that it liked causing pain to others, that it thought its purpose in life was to destroy everything, and that it loved to feed on radiation. No, not just radiation, he surmised, otherwise it would be going to the disposal area. It wanted freshly made radiation.
Then it hit him. It was hunting for a nuclear power plant.
Setting his own mind into grim determination, Ben pulled the tendril he was holding onto free from his shoulder, cutting himself off from the monster's obsessive greed. He groaned from the pain as he tugged on the other three tendrils one at a time and wrenched them out of his body. The punctures they left behind in his flesh healed. Ben looked up at the monster again, this time in pity. He reasoned with himself that there was no choice; with it endeavouring to destroy a nuclear power plant to eat its fill of radioactive energy and in the process threaten the lives of millions of people, the monster had to be killed.
"Gwen!" he called over to his cousin. "Keep it distracted. I have an idea. Kevin, follow me!"
Gwen turned her head back to him and answered with a curt nod. Kevin withdrew from his close proximity to the monster and ran to Ben's side. Ben led him toward an alleyway and together they climbed the fire escape of the building to their left, making their way up to the roof.
"Going to let me in on your plan?" Kevin asked from just below him.
Ben answered him when they reached the rooftop. "It wants to feed on radioactive energy," he explained. "So it's looking for a nuclear plant to break apart."
Kevin's yellow eyes widened in fear. "Why the hell is it doing that?"
"I communicated with it and saw its mind. It was born from a drum of nuclear waste that ended up in a pond. Radiation is what powers it, but a lack of it isn't enough to stop it; it will just make it hungrier. And dangerous."
"What do we do then? Kill it?"
Ben did not speak another word. A temptation to let his mouth drop open sank into Kevin. "Whoa. You're really thinking about it."
"We don't have a choice. It's either that or the loss of millions."
The consequences of the latter scenario put a stop to any arguments Kevin was trying to bring up. "Yeah okay," he said. "How do we do it?"
"It's got only one weakness. When the waste was exposed to the water, it turned into a giant crystal. That crystal is both its heart and stomach. I'm going to burn through its chest. You are going to break the crystal."
"What about the radiation inside of it?"
"There's none of left, because it's hungry."
Kevin glanced at the monster, again considering what he and Ben were planning to do. It wasn't the first time he had killed someone, but it was a first for Ben to decide that killing a living being was their only option. That alone terrified him. Maybe Gwen was right after all, maybe Charmcaster was manipulating Ben, but then he weighed in on what would happen if the monster got what it desired. It would feed, satisfying itself as radiation leaked out for miles, devastating lives; and then sometime later it would get hungry again and move on to seek out a new feast, repeating its actions over and over until the whole world was suffering.
Kevin knew what had to be done. He agreed with Ben's plan, nodding definitively to him. Ben nodded back.
:*:
Ben and Kevin leaped over the rooftops, going further up along Main Street until they got to a vantage point that put them in front of the plant monster. Ben stretched out his arms and released twin vortex-shaped blasts of fire. The blast met the creature at its chest, charring layers and layers of plant life. The monster shrieked in cries of rage, pain and fear. Ben flinched at how human the shriek was sounding, but kept powering his energy into his barrage. Before long, the dim-coloured crystal was revealed to them. Kevin structured a fiery boulder between both of his hands and threw it towards his target. The boulder smashed the crystal apart, leaving only shards of it remaining. The plant monster shrieked again at a higher pitch, crumbling down to the ground in agony as its life left it and as the flaming boulder ignited a blazing inferno from inside its chest, which spread to combine with the flames from Swampfire's attacks and efficiently within minutes left no trace of the plant monster's existence.
The citizens who had fled from the monster when they had seen it coming re-emerged from the buildings they had sought sanctuary in and let out an awesome cheer. Swampfire reformed back into Ben, his heart lightening a little as he recalled that these people were some of the lives he had to save. Kevin smiled as his body was restoring itself to normal. He was obviously feeling the same way.
Gwen, on the other hand, was livid.
As the crowd cleared, continuing their daily lives, she levitated down to the ground and approached Ben furiously. "What was that?" she shouted at him.
Ben and Kevin turned to her, the both of them startled by her sudden rise.
"Gwen," Kevin said. "There was no other way."
"It was going to take down a nuclear power plant just for food," Ben added.
Gwen stared at them as if they had turned stupid. "No other way? We've always found another way!"
"Gwen, millions of people would have been killed," Ben objected.
"Vilgax has killed millions and you've let him live. The Highbreed slaughtered billions and you've let them live. The Forever Knights killed Pierce and a lot of other aliens, and you've let them live."
"I - - -
"Don't say a word!" Gwen coldly spat. "I know what's going on. That girl has been getting into your head."
"Don't start accusing Hope!" Ben snapped in fury. "She and I have never discussed changing any of our battle tactics, and I have never once even said a word on how she should be running Ledgerdomain."
"Because she's manipulating you and you're not realising it," Gwen argued.
"The only manipulation around here, Gwen, is you not letting yourself understand."
"Oh, I understand alright," Gwen replied, lowering her voice to a far more icy tone. "I don't know what she's doing to you or what she has planned for you, but I'm going to find out what it is and break you out of it."
Gwen turned on her heel and flew into the air, never looking back at either him or Kevin.
Ben glanced at his friend. "Aren't you going after her to say something?"
Kevin returned the glance. There was deep worry in his eyes. "No," he answered, shaking his head. "Like you, I've been trying to convince her that what you feel for Charmcaster is real and not some spell or manipulation, but every time I talk about it, she glares at me like I'm an enemy."
Ben blinked in shock. Gwen seeing Kevin as an enemy? That was not like her at all; she had always had faith in her boyfriend, even when he was at his worst. He looked in Gwen's direction again. She was reacting much worse than he had imagined she would. She was becoming a different person, someone unknown and dangerous. What was going on with her?
"Should we be worried?"
Kevin nodded slowly. "I already am. She's getting unhinged about this, Ben."
"You're thinking I shouldn't have told her, aren't you?"
"No. Holding off on it longer would have been way bad. I think you should have told her sooner, cause I don't know what she might do."
Ben's eyes tensed. Neither did he.
:*:
Gwen came in to land out on the front lawn and walked up to the door. It opened for her, revealing a black-haired girl of Asian descent and of her own age on the other side.
"Is she here?"
Julie Yamamoto, Ben's former girlfriend, nodded but sported a frown on her lips as she replied verbally, "Though I don't know why you asked her to come."
"You know why. It's in case it doesn't work out with you. What happened between you and Ben may still be too recent for him."
However Julie took her answer remained a mystery to Gwen as the girl's face did not betray any emotion, but it didn't end up mattering as she pulled the door open further, inviting her in. Gwen stepped inside.
"Your father at home?"
"No. Work," Julie answered, closing the door. "He's been more confident with leaving me alone lately, now that Ben and I have broken up."
"You mean when you dumped him?" Gwen corrected her bluntly.
Julie gave her a dark glare. "I wanted him to like dad."
"Your dad never liked him."
The glare softened. Julie closed her eyes in regret. "I know. I just wanted them to get along."
Gwen turned to her, eyeing her curiously. "Yet you only blamed Ben."
"I know, okay," Julie growled. "It turned out it was for the best anyway. We've broken up and got back together so many times it wasn't funny."
The curiosity in Gwen's eyes increased. "So why did you agree to help me?"
"Because I'm afraid of what it means if you're right. I don't love Ben that way anymore but I still think of him as my friend. If what I did to him hurt him so badly that he would fall under Charmcaster's spell, then it would be my fault."
Gwen found herself smiling. If it was in an ordinary situation, the manner of the smile that was being displayed on her lips would have disturbed her, but right then it did not as what Julie was saying meant to her that she could count on her help.
"Don't say it like that. It's nobody's fault but Charmcaster's in the first place. She would probably try something like this, even if you two hadn't separated. You remember how powerful she is."
Julie nodded glumly. Gwen's smile shifted into one of encouragement.
"Come on," she said, gesturing for Julie to follow her.
Julie did, walking carefully behind Gwen as she headed into the main room of the house. There, Gwen's eyes fell upon a dark-skinned girl also of her and Julie's age who had shoulder length black hair and soulful brown eyes that were looking up into her while their owner was sitting calmly on one of the sofas.
"Gwen," the girl greeted her.
"Kai."
Kai Green, Ben's onetime crush, stood up bearing a sly smirk on her face. "You know I'm surprised that you would ask for my help."
"After the many times I've caught you stalking Ben for the past two years? Believe me, I am too."
"She what?" Julie exclaimed, her eyes sparkling in apoplectic rage.
"Yeah yeah, if you can call it stalking," Kai said dismissively, shrugging her shoulders.
"Yeah, I would," Gwen snorted. "But never mind that now. You're both aware why I called you."
Julie did not speak, knowing very well why. Kai stiffened. "You mean it is true? Ben's dating the sorceress."
"Yes," Gwen answered. "Charmcaster. She's obviously got some kind of spell on him or she's setting him up for something."
"Must be a strong spell if he's not listening to you," Julie remarked.
Gwen scowled deeply. "Yeah. Somehow, she's hidden its aura from me."
Kai's thin black eyebrows rose in suspicion. "If you can't see it, what makes you so sure it's a spell? Or even manipulation? What if it's really just love?"
"Because it's impossible," Gwen hissed. "There's no way Ben could love her after what she tried to do to us and Kevin."
"Ben told me about that," Julie mentioned while also nodding in agreement. "Although, he said he could understand why she did that. When he, and you, believed that Max had been killed in the war with the Highbreed, he said he was thinking of all sorts of ways of using the Omnitrix to bring him back."
"Whether he understood her reasons or not is no excuse to fall in love with her," Gwen shot back hotly.
"Okay, okay, Gwen," Kai said, holding up her hands in an attempt to calm her down. "So you can't find the spell, right?"
"Right," Gwen answered.
"Then, what do we do?"
"Ben needs to experience an intense feeling that's stronger than Charmcaster's spell. That's why I've brought you two into this. Julie, you're his first love - - -
"Hold on," Julie interrupted. "I just told you that I don't have those kind of feelings for him anymore."
"I know, I remember," Gwen overrode her in a hurry. "You just have to make you him believe you do." She turned to Kai, resuming the explanation of her plan. "Kai, you're his first crush."
Kai grinned wickedly in reply. "Don't worry. I don't have to act. As you know, I've been wanting to ask him out for a while, but he was taken until recently."
"Well, you'll have to hold off on that," Gwen said, noticing the grimace on Julie's face. "Julie's getting the first try."
"What! Why? She's got no interest in him."
"Because, to Ben, all you were was a childhood crush of a ten year old. She was his girlfriend for nearly two years."
Kai looked as if she was about to argue against that statement, but then the expression in her eyes changed as she worked things out and her shoulders slumped in defeat. "Fine. But when this is over and it turns out you're right, I want my chance to have him."
Gwen looked from her to Julie and back again. "Done," she said. "Especially if you're the one to break it." She glanced toward Julie. "I'll see my self out. Tell me how things go."
Julie nodded in acknowledgement. As Gwen left the room, she turned to face Kai and waited to hear the noise of the front door opening and shutting. When she had, the two seemingly adverse girls breathed out in relief.
"Glad that's over," Julie sighed, her gaze wandering back to the door.
Kai sat back down on the sofa. "Tell me about it," she replied. "Kevin was right when he said she was gonna make trouble. She's getting deceitful."
"I didn't want to believe him, because I thought it wasn't likely that Ben would fall for Charmcaster."
"Neither did Kevin, but he's going the right way about it, making sure. He's a hundred percent positive from talking to Ben and Sandra that it's not manipulation, but there's no way for him to check if Ben's under a spell."
"Well, this way, by following Gwen's plan, we can confirm that as well as keep an eye on her," Julie suggested, turning her head back to Kai as she spoke.
"Good idea," Kai agreed. "I'll tell Kevin about it on my way back to the motel."
"Sure, but there's one thing."
"What?"
Julie answered first by regarding her with a suspicious look and then said, "Stalking Ben?"
Kai blushed in embarrassment and looked away. "Yeah. I've been following him ever since he started things up for the Plumber kids two years ago. I was hoping to apologise for the way I treated him when we were ten and try to ask him out. Of course, he was with you."
"And Gwen caught you at it," Julie concluded.
"Yep. Many times. Told me to stay away. I did, only coming back when I heard rumours that you and he had broken up. Except for the most recent time, whenever I got here, the two of you had gotten back together."
Julie's eyelids flew up. "Wait a minute," she almost shouted. "Did you know about him and Charmcaster?"
"No. After all the times with you two, I didn't want to make another false start. But it looks like I might have been wrong not to."
"You mean, if Ben's under a spell?"
"Yes," Kai replied, nodding. "Gwen's the only way we can be sure he isn't. If neither of us succeeds, then there is no spell and no manipulation."
"Okay, so we do this and everything turns out okay."
"Maybe. Kevin's thinking Gwen might not listen to us about it not being manipulation. Also, there's the fact that she might be right on the spell, and if she is, we'll know it's a fake and I'll finally get my chance to date Ben."
"And, if it's no spell?" Julie asked, concern swirling into her eyes. "What will you do?"
"I'll go back home, knowing that I've missed my chance, probably for good. By the sound of things, if it is real, the relationship between Ben and Charmcaster is very deep."
Julie considered Kai's answer, weighing both scenarios together; first of Ben and Charmcaster sharing a happy life as a couple, and followed it up with the second where Kai pursued Ben and achieved her desire of dating him. And discovered that she was indeed fine with either one of them being the reality. Then a third unwelcome thought troubled her.
"You'd accept it?"
"Yes."
"So will I. But the main question, what we should really be thinking about if she's wrong, is how will Gwen take it?"
Gwen's plan is set, but her co-conspirators have turned out not be entirely supportive on her views. Can Ben convince Julie and Kai that his feelings for Charmcaster are genuine, and if so, can he finally convince Gwen?
Wait and find out…
