Chapter 3 - Encounter

As night began to fall, Gwen began to prepare for the final spell to seal in the energy the Keystone had absorbed. The spell was very similar to the first spell, so it would be easy compared to the one she had cast that morning.

As she was walking towards the circle, she heard a voice from somewhere nearby. "You did much better than I thought you would, but I'll be taking the Keystone back now."

"Ben did you..."

"Yeah. That was Hex wasn't it?"

"I've been waiting for this day since our last encounter," Hex's voice echoed.
"How did you get out of jail this time?"

"You thought the backlash from that spell drained me of my magic didn't you? If that was true, why weren't you drained too? Because, you can't drain the magic from a person. All that was drained were the spells I had protecting me. Between Charmcaster and myself, we escaped from the police on the way to jail. Since then I've been watching you, waiting for my chance. And now, while the Keystone is unusable..." he said with a wav of his staff. A portal appeared near the circle and Hex stepped out.

"Ben!" Gwen cried.

"Right. Come on. Work this time. I need XLR8." However, when the Omnitrix activated, he found himself as Heatblast. "Stupid watch! Oh well, good enough," he mumbled as he threw a fireball towards Hex.

"Ben, can you keep him busy while I finish the spell?"

"Sure."

Gwen ran over to the circle and began her incantation. Hex turned on her, but was distracted by another fireball. Ben charged him, trying to tackle him, but Hex dodged and, with a wave of energy, pushed Ben off balance. A cloud of steam arose as he hit the edge of the water.

Hex once again turned his attention towards Gwen, but before he could interrupt her, Ben managed to distract him again. He couldn't use his full force while Hex was so close to Gwen, so he had to make due with littler fireballs. Unfortunately, Hex was easily able to defend against them. At least it was keeping him distracted.

Hex and Ben were left in a standoff. As long as Hex focused on Ben, neither could do anything. If he tried to attack Gwen, he would be vulnerable. Suddenly, something hit him in the side of the head. He turned to see Max preparing to throw another hot dog at him. Ben saw his chance and threw a fireball, knocking Hex off his feet.

Hex stood up in a rage. "Enough!" He waved his staff over his head.

Ben decided to try charging again, but this time he ran into some kind of barrier. He tried to burn it down, but it wasn't working. He still couldn't risk using too much power so close to Gwen so he had no choice but to go around it. This isn't good. Gwen... Where's Gwen?

Hex turned back towards Gwen, but she was gone, and so was the Keystone!

"Looking for me?"

When he turned around, he saw Gwen standing there with the Keystone around her neck. "Blast you!"

He hurled a wave of energy at her, but she easily deflected it. She hadn't neglected defense during her studies, and now, with the power of the Keystone, it was all so easy.

Ben managed to get over the barrier and landed behind Hex. He has trapped. "I'll be back. Count on it."

"Oh no you don't!" Ben shouted, but it was too late. Hex leapt through a magical portal, which quickly closed behind him. Shortly afterwards, the Omnitrix deactivated.

"Ah! It feels good to have this back!" Gwen said proudly.

"I guess this means I can expect to see Lucky Girl again?"

"Count on it," she said happily.

"You know, I've been thinking. With the Keystone restored, I could cast the spell to recreate the other Charms of Bezel."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Max asked.

"It was just a thought. It would probably be too dangerous for me right now. Plus, I'm not sure it's safe for the Charms to exist. The Keystone is just one small stone, so it's easier to keep protect."

"Well, at least the Keystone can't be used to level an entire city on its own," Ben said from the back.

"Not that we know of," Max said.

"Yeah," Gwen said thoughtfully. "I don't think I'd trust anyone with that much power. Not even me."

"What about me?" Ben asked as he walked up from the back.

"Especially not you!"

"What's that supposed to mean? I already have that kind of power!"

"No, you don't Ben. And it's probably a good thing too," Max said. "Even if you meant well, power like that can be hard to control."

"I guess you're right Grandpa."

Suddenly there was an explosion beside the road ahead of them. Max stepped on the brake. Ben was already activating the Omnitrix and Gwen was already running off to change.

The explosion had come from a jewelry store. The thieves were already shoveling all of the gems and debris together into a large bucket.

Ben leapt out of the RV as Four Arms and charged into the jewelry store. A few seconds later, Lucky Girl leapt out and ran in too.

Inside the store, two of the thieves were keeping Ben distracted enough that the third managed to grab the bucket and make a break for it. Gwen kicked at a piece of wood lying at her feet. It flew towards the guy, knocking the bucket out of his hands, which he then tripped over. When he fell, he collided with a partially destroyed wooden column and was knocked out. The column began to fall towards Ben.

Gwen kicked a piece of loose stone towards Ben, which hit him behind the knee, causing him to kneel down, just as the column was about to hit him. Instead, the column hit one of the other thieves, knocking him out too. Finally, the column hit the ground, sending a piece of debris crashing into the ceiling, knocking more debris down onto the third thief.

"Sorry about that... uh... Four Arms."

Ben brushed himself off and took a look around. All three thieves were unconscious. "Yeah... well... we should leave the rest to the authorities."

They could already hear sirens approaching.

"We should go. The cops always ask too many questions," Ben said.

"Alright."

They ran back to the RV and hid inside. Gwen hurried into the bedroom to change and Ben hid in the bathroom.

When the cops arrived and found the thieves unconscious, they were certainly confused. As best they could tell, one of them had tripped on a piece of debris and knocked loose a damaged column, which had knocked the other two out. Some of the witnesses reported seeing a large, red man with four arms trying to stop the thieves before someone dressed as a black cat took all three out with two kicks.

One of the police officers approached the RV. "Excuse me sir, I'd like to ask you a few questions about what happened here."

"Of course, officer. I'd be happy to help."

Gwen walked up from the bedroom. "Hello, officer."

"Is there anyone else in here?"

"Just my grandson, Ben. He's in the restroom. He's been in there the whole time, so he missed all the action. I don't think he's feeling well."

"Alright. Well, can you two tell me what you saw here?"