Ben 10 Transformed - ISSUE 6; One Hex of An Entrance ( 3 of 4 ); I Fear What Comes Next
More reviews here, responses may be considered spoilers, .
1 of 3 from c1shriramasokan:
It would've been interesting if Charmcaster was more or less redeemed, but had a moral compass that just didn't quite mesh with the crew. Which... we do see in this series, in how self-serving Charmcaster tends to be in most of her goals and motivations such as how she is willing to put others at risk or in harms way or exploit them for her own ends. She might be willing to work with the heroes if it furthers her goals, and some of her goals might be noble, but she isn't intrinsically heroic.
That way she could remain a separate entity doing her own thing most of the time, and team up with Ben or Gwen whenever more traditional, non-alien magic-y stuff is going on in which they need her help. And then in turn, they owe her a favor which she comes to collect on later for... morally questionable assistance that leads to yet another confrontation between Ben/Gwen and Charmcaster. It would've been a way to leave the story open to more plot threads.
my theory: charmcaster, as well as hex and most of the humanoids in ledegerdomain are part anodyte. anodytes are living mana, mana originates in ledgerdomain so anodytes may have come from or settled in ledgerdomain and when early humans as well as those of other species accessed ledgerdomain they interbred creating descendants that were some small percentage anodyte. adwaitcha I think is a dangerous combo. geochelone aero makes him immune to mana/magic and anodyte makes him a powerful user of mana. the other inhabitants of ledgerdomain had become so reliant on magic that any attempt to stop him was a foregone conclusion.
Response:
Interesting theory they are well controlled in mana so pergaps a being could, if mastered and retained enough mana, become a newborn anodyte. Therefore, foregoing the need to be an anodyte, who i'm referring to I won't tell. Feel free to use the idea in a serues that updates more than once a month if you wish, I wanna expand on that idea, but it may be too theoretical.
2 of 3 from c1shriramasokan:
One thing I don't like about Charm Caster in UA and AF is how they just retconned her age. They like to act as if Caster and Gwen are the same age, but when you look at classic, they CLEARLY aren't. Which makes moments like the excited happy hug a little awkward. Remember, gwen is like 16, 17 and Caster is like 26, 28. A tax payer and a teen minor. I feel like if they stuck to the original depiction of how much older she is supposed to be, this relationship would look alot different.
Apparently it was 10 to 15 in classic and 16 to 21 in UA, so perhaps the huge visual gap in classic is more-so the error rather than this rendition from AF and UA. We could also just blame UA/AFs art style making all teens look like full grown adults :/ That's one thing I appreciated with UAs art style, it did make the characters ages more accurately pronounced visually speaking.
Charmcaster is or might be the only villain to actually kill Ben Tennyson, Gwen and kevin at the same time. It wasn't vilgax, Dr animo or even ma vreedle to put them 6 feet underground, it her and her alone.
The only reason they're still alive was because her ressurected father understood how he was brought back to life and refused the offer.
Response:
Ironic? Debatable, definitely, but i think Charmcaster *in* ledger *with* a motivation could effortlessly take out ben and Kevin in Ulitimate Alien.
Omniverse Kevin still doesn't have the range making power inapplicable, ben has the greater power and range (I genuinely hate how powerful the death failsafe, but enough me), last of the trio Gwen confirmed the most powerful mana user. But would she be the best magic user?
Well, she has low resistance to other magic, ranged, or blunt attacks of seemingly any element. Think the sparker torch or whichever that was near the end of Ultimate Alien. She's smart but has low level knowledge of spells, encantations and any advanced magic languages, when we see her as a main character for the last time in ultimate alien. Charmcaster just out does her in everything but sheer control, debatably even overall control.
3 of 3 from c1shriramasokan:
Charmcaster is one of those villains you love to hate but since ultimate alien expanded on the ledger domain, now I kind of understand why her and her uncle hex became so power hungry to conquer earth.
Also since after the failed sacrifice she made with the 600 thousand souls including Ben, Kevin and Gwen's to ressurect her father, something broke in her. Now I just feel pity.
Charmcaster and Azula:
Both have worked for power-hungry guardians.
Both were reoccurring threats to the main cast.
Both have killed at least one of the main cast.
Both are fan faves.
Both have moments of being in moral grey areas and could be harboring redeeming qualities.
Both have worked with the main cast at one point.
Both were intended to have redemption arcs form the writers room.
Both, unfortunately, were viewed to be crazy for the sake of crazy. At least for the time being.
Response:
No clue who Azula is, so no speaking on that front, sorry. Personally, what I can say is I love to love Charmcaster. She's an easy top character for me along with Kevin and I've never felt a shred of hatred. sure the writing has been shaky as fuck for both of them but there were no hard retcons until omniverse.
Also no comment on the reboot. It butchered her and Kevin is… different, really goddamn different I might go further into that if prodded, it's messy. Just stories changing in the background, unless you consider the comic book episodes canon in some way. Which I doubt I need to explain how much that breaks Ben 10 Classic's established into pieces. potentially worse than season 3 of Alien Force.
- End reviews
There is a TL; DR for this chapter at the end for those who don't want to read hurt n comfort, and combat here that is almost entirely slow and methodical, not as exciting as other issues also i called it a chapter early, mistake from Ao3, i'm keeping for sake of authenticity note this is two short issues together so just skip to the next big section in bold .
'I feel like god damn m### e#####tion is above my pay grade so take this note instead' - Signed, Ben
'And to think I'm thrown aside by my injuries again when I would comment,' Ken thought.
"I can read both your minds and you're both idiots." Xylene said.
(Yeah nothing to say that isn't spoilers will probably cut this from chapter 1.2)
"Hope, you came, only you left helping the others to themselves. The first half will only carry the first half." Hex spoke slowly, "I expected you to help the full - way."
"Uncle, I'm trying to transfer my conscious to a golem."
"Mmm," Hex looked away. "Hope, let me go, instead." He sounded somber.
"Uncle Hex? Are you going alone?" Hope looked up at her Uncle, "Hex… You must let me come, You're vital to the plan."
"And I don't intend to die in battle with simple minded scum such as those damn drones. Shall I o so by sheer brute force. You know what it takes to become Charmcaster."
"Hex, that's…" Hope stuttered. "Genocide. Mass goddamn genocide, I can't simply kill off entire species."
"Allow me to briefly explain suffering, Hope" He breathed in. "Xenocide is a daily occurance in this universe at least. In this hellscape and… And in ours. The Ledgerdomain, it's strongest comes out on top for all my years. Spellbinder accepted the lack of immortality, and even my future seems bleak. I'm old, Hope." He floated cross legged to the edge of the building. Allow me to go out with a bang stealing energy from the graves, some mana, and I should be enough to revitalize Ledgerdomain. We fight for a better tomorrow, Spellbinder fought for an equal tomorrow."
"That's-"
"Sometimes the taboo is necessary, Hope."
He flew off and disappeared into the night.
"It's that freak, uncle of hers." Ben pointed Hex.
"No, I thought it was a normal citi- Fuck!" Xylene was cut from her teasing as a small but red hot laser burned at her self healing slime and it was spreading quite fast for a burn.
Xylene grabbed a large bladed arm. "No! Xylene you can-" The large hunk of iron slashed through the goopy flesh, she bit her lip on her knees. Max was still staring at her in a world that spun silently around him, slow yet fast like a fevre dream.
Her words were, "On the contrary this was likely the only way." The stub rehealed fast, but the full arm would take a couple months, still way faster than a plumber shipment. Yet having experienced the most life by far she'd be willing to sacrifice in a moment she'd be getting old even for a Uxorite.
"Grandpa." Ken said a few times. Max arose from his daze and got cruddilly readied for combat, "She's destroyed 8 military officers and the peacekeepers, like Reuben can only throw smoke bombs to slow her. We need you now, Grandpa, the rounds only caused light denting."
"And think, there's other soldiers, officers, men, women, whatever, than just him look at how few she's taken out and how many are on here." Looked into the crowd and smirked, "Watch and learn son. He flashed his proto tool and Reuben gave master access to his squads, Peace Keeping team divide into groups of two or three throw when I speak. Military team grab mid damage fast fire rate materials, wait for it to be brought by any of us without a dedicated team. One of the peace keepers nodded, half of you will fire these near her legs to cripple her." Max showed a pre set proto tool, easy enough to use if already set. "Just dodge and fire off shots until I say."
Aye sir's, yes's, and gotcha's alike were exchanged.
"Wait," Max repeated this as the groups dodged and fired distraction "Go!" they did severe damage but she jettisonned herself into the air with damaged boosters. "Stop! Max said a second later. "Team A." he pointed, "Continue. Edward, gather. Ben, wait for something. Jonathan, contain. The weapons, no point containing her when Hex took everything else, too much risk for too little reward."
Stinkfly goop hit the red lady on the way up a few times, waying her down somewhere and when all was said and done Hex disappeared before the focus was turned onto him
There were rumbles of listening to a badge that none of them in years had ever come across, even with a couple decades of experience on a couple. Max simply ignored them and walked inside. He turned around looking at the dead bodies, but stopping for only a second before asking if the kids and Xylene were all coming.
Ben was stirred up, there was too many deaths for his liking, and Gwen knew magic for what it really was, a fight for your own life by conquering others. Ken being older had seen worse as a kid. Natalie and Frank, being unaware and thinking boys needed to be toughened at the time were unable to control what he was seeing through his screen. The scars did shape Ken to be temporarily tougher than most boys his age but not without scarring at a rather youthful age as well. Later it just led to his tough guy facade.
He felt sad and empty, not distraught as the others did.
Max looked at The Billions' Tower in the distance and spoke "You Police and Military have taken too much of a toll today stop now I fear what comes next, but beyond that hell lies peace and quiet. Let me go with a few partners, limits are important." He stepped out looking at the gold studded tower for a second. He heard a voice ask if he was gonna bring the kids. "Come Ben, don't use the omnitrix on the way up, Gwen you two, we may get info. Specifically on mana."
He got screams from the public. They hadn't seen what they're capable of or what greater threats he took on when he was younger. "Just walk!" His calm demeanor broke, "If they see you, you're dead."
"We'll carry them away if we have to." A police officer spoke calmly, "Just go."
Max stood still "Not 'till it's completely clear." He said harshly. "No risk, means no loss. Period. Ya see now, Officers, it's just better for us all to take things slow." He looked at Ben who was ready to swing. "Easy, Ben. Worse things are still brewing in the back ground."
"Darn it, Grandpa! Don't you get it, it'll keep getting worse if not brought to the foreground." Gwen said.
"I think - And Maybe I'm wrong - But, this is the first time you said some thing that isn't entirely doofy,"
"Here I thought you'd finally compliment her. I guess some things take time.
The crowd was backed off, partially by force, then Ben and Gwen followed Max inwards. Inside were orange and blue. "We're much more skilled than Purple. Back down now. And that's a threat." The blue one's voice spoke out notably flatter than Purple's, especially with the harsh stops that early Gwen had noticed Blue slipped on that aspect of their image from time to time.
"Yeah? Well, that Rojo girl is better than the three of you combined. Who the hell created you four - and all those combat drones?"
"Rojo, eh? Why should I speak on someone who once was human filth like you." Orange said.
"Let's just say I was the only one who saw her get turned into a cyborg. And Orange, this is my place to answer."
"So she's an old lady?" Ben asked.
"Not exactly," Orange answered, "Quite young actually. Let me speak though." He paused and added. "Our creators are different. If I had not cast away my emotions I would be offended."
"Did you cast away contractions with them or are you angry under that metallic excuse for flesh? Be honest."
"Trying to pick a fight. Interesting." Blue responded, "Can't get under skin that doesn't exist."
"What about Purple?" Ben hissed after going Ghostfreak. Ghostfreak was sprayed with sludge that limited his phasing ability and denied him any kind of possesion. "I can't phase!" He hissed loudly. "Crud, useless already. I'd let this crappy alien go if I could."
"Why would you want that?" Gwen asked, weilding her shovel in the process.
Ben was sprayed by a proto tool. Seeming just pressurized water but he could phase through it. "I'm ghosty again."
"Grammar like you're dorky too." Gwen slammed down into Blue's neck seemingly sending it fritzing slightly.
Not enough to be vital though as she was thrown towards the wall "No way… tossed around by that hunk of junk?" A feminine voice sang out. Hope. "K, I don't wanna see Uncle Hex win much either but I can't just backstab him. Umm, he's focusing all his mana on "breaking" time so to speak."
"The hell's that even mean?"
"He's splitting Ledger's clock system from ours. Allowing him and only him, err, I think only him anyway, and only him to transport directly from Ledger, I mean the mana, y'know magic make spell me abd Gwen are fucked if we tried fighting him. Even theoretically speaking if Addwaitya through the time barrier he'd be powerless."
"Explain where time comes in this."
"Mana takes an indefinite time to pass through dimensions but can be sped up
"Just wait a bit then," Ben said bluntly
Idiot, it isn't that simple or I'd be training Gwen with Hex." She closed her eyes, "Just imagine Hex taking it all for me and him, alone, and the fact that will eliminate certain species all together. Y'know reliance on magic n' all."
"Intense,"
"Elimination sounds tasty," Orange said "For if I had emotions life in of itself would disgust me,"
"Uncle Hex is on a lower floor, come on,"
"The prisoners were early, Hex." She said calmly with the three in mana cuffs.
"Only these 3?" He stated untrusting of his niece.
"Uncle… Hex, whatever, the others were too injured to put up a fight either way, if you'd just look away from that spell and-"
"I am not checking," Hex snapped back.
-TL; DR
Rojo slams down to gather intel during a fight wherein Xylene loses an arm due to having experienced the most of her life expectancy. A group of military officers and the core of Team Tennyson head to Billion's Tower. Xylene stays back with a healing Ken teaching him the ins and outs of proto tool and proto truck basics. Ben, Max, and Gwen climb up the empty tower after dispatching orange and blue. Approach Charmcaster inquiring to find Hex is on a lower floor off to the side to buy time.
ISSUE 7 - One Hex of an Entrance ( 4 of 4 ); True Intentions
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Responses Again
So kashiramji left a review, some ideas to improve Julie and some weird questions considering this was based on chapter 5 which barely had anything to do with Cooper or Julie.
Cool idea in theory \[for Cooper\] but this pretty much just makes Julie less compelling \[useless\].
Although I do have some ideas on improving Julie \[including her outfit\]:
1. Give her a consistent personality \[I like the fact that she plays the caring gf but also clashes with Ben. I feel like UA Gwen's personality toned down a bit would suit her better. Like for example how some short girls switch between being cutesy and fierce\].
2. I'd switch her interest in Tennis to something like Women's Netball \[to make it more in line with Ben's\].
3. Instead of Martial Arts what if she has some fighting capabilities due to how she was raised? Idk. Maybe Julie learnt how to fight by having her multiple brothers around to teach her.
4. What if Julie was a Alien-Human hybrid as well? The biggest plot twist would be turning a main character into an Antagonist sorta. This is just an older idea of mine that I revamped \[basically Julie as the Nanochip Queen instead of Elena\]. Personally, I think Julie would be part [Invincible] and then he / she put a wiki link here based ToS I'm pretty sure I can't do that, so check the review page for a link. [originally thought ChamAlien then I realised someone in Ben 10 already had a alien lizard gf\]. I chose Invincible cuz that guy's one of my fav fanmade aliens.
5. How funny would it be if Julie already knew the Galactic Enforcers? I'd probably make Ultimos her Godfather.
6. Y'know I really liked Julie and Ben as a couple but CN and the writers just had to ruin it. In a perfect world she'd probably be Mrs. Tennyson.
Response;
1. I dunno what's up with your back slash usage, however she'll obviously have a consistent personality, at least to the best of my writing capabilities.
2. Unlikely, I'm pretty happy with the contrast.
3. She'll probably have low level training by the plumber kids. Whether or not I write it out I haven't decided.
4. No comment, she'll be what she'll be. Don't keep hopes up or down, hun.
5. That's a writing decision. No, probably not. However, I would write something yourself it's an interesting idea, hey I might read it based on the genre.
6. And as for her being Mrs. Tennyson, I doubt I'll write a wedding while they're together. If I write one it'll take a minute, and maybe some help. I'm shit with romance. Maybe off screen if they're end - game.
Reviews End
Max and Xylene we're trying not to get caught as they had a telekinetic conversation.
'Max here, and well being this old and a bit of a daredevil throughout my time on Earth and taken out of the atmosphere itself it may not come as a surprise that I've been arrested before. Now, however, I can now state that mana cuffs are less comfortable than energy cuffs and more comfortable than standard Earth metallic cuffs.'
'Oh, hi max, I guess that leaves Kenny and I, Xylene if you couldn't tell, as the only two not arrested. It's just that it's nice to know we're freer than some other caged birds even if they were only technically arrested. Speaking of, watch yourself Max. In human years you're getting quite old for this whole shindig.'from
Max could only send out a chuckle careful not to verbalize it however.
Foreword 5; I was a bit late to cross - posting issue 5 because I forgot didn't allow it over mobile devices. Of course it's the one time I didn't have a computer or laptop on me … Fuck's sake, Fiction Press.
Foreword 5 Continued; I guess if you're reading that you're probably reading via Ao3 anyway. Whatever, sorry for making these last 2 chapters short as hell anyway man, I'll put reviews on anyway to help with convenience since all my reviews are there anyway as of writing this.
Foreword 5 Continued Again; I realize I accidentally put foreword 4 in which I usually don't do; along with delayed review responses and chapter updates to give a reason to view on Ao3, solely because I prefer it, and I'm just that petty. Consider these bonuses.
"The prisoners were early, Hex." Hope said calmly with the three in mana cuffs.
"Only these 3?" He stated untrusting of his niece.
"Uncle… Hex, whatever, the others were too injured to put up a fight either way, if you'd just look away that spell and-"
"I am not checking," Hex snapped back, almost turning his head to make sure he didn't miscount. But knew Hope would hold it against him.
Ben, Gwen and Max hit the ground beside Hex rather hard. Max immediately realized the situation and played it up.
"Crap! That hurt Charmcaster, could've placed us down."
"You think?" Gwen said, catching on quick as get out.
Charmcaster attempted to trick Hex further by winking outside his vision and smacking Gwen and Max with Gwen's shovel. "Oh. Shut the hell up."
"Put mana blockades on their mouths for now -" Hex's lips curled into a grin barely visible to most of the quartet's view. Though it quickly jolted back around plainly in vision. He had eyes that screamed the devil had devoured any pleasantry his soul had years ago. "- Traitor."
"How'd? - I mean you were focusing on your Mana transfer, Uncle." Hope looked meek.
"To be fair you could've effortlessly backstabbed me, ehh, I saw through though, Boy's slow on the uptake. Ben, if I recall. Well, kiddo, if you were like your Cousin, my Niece, or half as good as your grandfather. It'd be a homerun. Might I recommend lessons.
Ben was decked in the face and ironned knuckles dug into his skin. A blast in the gut and he puked bile and blood, collapsing to the ground off his knees.
Max got up quick and pretended to swing a kick for Hex's head and miss. "Pathetic!" He spat quickly as Charmcaster released a mana blast at him that dispersed and undid the cuffs on all three.
"Gwen!" She tossed the shovel to her newly met female companion. At the same time the faked out kick was completed with a double hand pound on top of his head.
The bonk was only boosted in power by the breaking mana cuff dispersion sending waves of uncontrolled mana through his brain, stunning him a short while well he fumbled his footing.
Ben selected Wildmutt and got exactly what he asked for, however immediately tripped over having his non - humanoid frontal legs caught over Hex's legs. He let out a somewhat long bellow before two quicks barks supposedly shaking off any pain and biting Hex's arm.
Hex used his free arm to poke ben with the beak of his bird - headed staff Wildmutt's thick hide protected him from one arm and uncharged mana amounts of leverage.
Ben's jaws grappled harder which kept causing his teeth to continue burrowing in more and more so. Ben let go and Gwen swung one final time causing a gash down his leg, they all stopped at once.
A new stronger psychic presence told them that anything more would kill Hex where he stood. They all knew it was true as it strengthened as Xylene neared the scene. Being an Uxorite she was naturally good at sussing out when people lied to.
"I don't think Charmcaster told the full truth." Xylene stated.
"She has no witch's name." Hex hissed. "For starters she's far too weak, proof enough there, but she hasn't -"
"She hasn't an Uncle who'll shut up?" Gwen spoke sarcastically, with an infuriatingly sly smirk. "Face it, you're at our whim right now."
Wildmutt roared. Seemingly more agreeable than Ben, and his standard personality forms. They'd argue just to argue.
"I'd like for us all to understand one another. For Hex the clearer Mana channeling outside of Mana's home, Ledgerdomain was a bonus. Committing real life Xenocide, Genocide, and Homocide was merely a price to be payed for those to reliant and stopping using Mana for a few weeks was small potatoes to him, he'd just tell his friends to stop using magic temporarily." She looked at Hex's feet and laughed. "So seriously with this? It's just not very well thought out and yet, at the same time, seemingly brilliant. I can't tell if I love or hate it, but a stupid sorceress is one for the history books."
"Cut the sarcasm."
"I'm being quite literal. Our species is perfect for documentation, better than humans anyway." It was true, Uxorites, and not just herself, were often used for documentation. Back in the the plumbers it was her full - time job and she still did it somewhat often for feeling a grand desire to keep up with things.
"Hex," Gwen furrowed her brows and sassilly placed her hands on her hips. "I'm a kid and even I'm aware that you must know folks would've ignored your warnings on mana manipulation for those day." Hex tensed his glare.
"And you must have Mana reliant friends or whatever." Ben said.
Hex spoke up, "If they die I suppose they shouldn't have been so foolish."
"Uncle."
"I suppose I'll stop for now." His eyes drifted off the disapproved face of his niece. "More accurately, Hope, I'll find an alternative or be killed in the process. Get strong enough to kill me for I'd never you. I believe you can be like Charm's desired goals, girlie. Become the strongest witch, and make your disciple surpass you. It's this girl, right? Just train her - with her, rather."
"Can I get you in private." Hope signaled Hex to the other room. "I always wanted to be like her. Why kill you, however?" Hope asked, "Yes, it's true, Uncle Hex. I do desire to take the name Charmcaster as it sounds better than Hopecaster or Hope Cast … whatever other variation, but it isn't the same Charmcaster, and that requires pure evil."
"You still doubt my evil?" Hex asked, he sighed. "You know killing me would add power via Mana reserve expansion."
"Yes, just let me live my life. Hex. I care about you."
"I'll go with Gwen if you so desire."