Author's Note: Hey all! Long time, no see. Seems like I say that a lot these days! Well, anyway, I wanna give a huge shout out to all of you who are still reading my stories, and especially those leaving encouraging words. It means a lot, even in just my normal day to day. That being said: there's gonna be some changes to the structure of the Danger Watch Universe going forward!

You'll notice that this chapter is a bit shorter than normal. In the future, I intend to make chapters smaller, and to have more of them. That way, I can write them more quickly, but you get the same amount of story getting told in each installment. Looking forward to bringing you more Ben soon, and more of Phase 2 just around the corner~

Chapter 06

As the Rustbucket rumbled its way into the nearest small town, Gwen got a shiver down her spine. It was odd, as the weather was fine, but something had made her shudder. She frowned slightly, before Max parked the R.V. in front of a local market.

"It's not exactly a grocery store, but it'll do," Max remarked.

"Local markets are the future of sustainable living," Gwen said, although her comment was unenthusiastic.

As the two of them got out, Gwen's head was on a swivel. Squinting against the afternoon sun, she scanned every market stall and unsuspecting local. She couldn't shake this feeling that something wasn't as it was supposed to be. Gwen made sure to have the charm in her pocket, and she also brought along her leatherbound book, tucked into a small satchel.

Max, meanwhile, was hunting for deals. They waded between stalls, the old man mulling over every price difference and comparing the quality of every item to its counterparts. Gwen couldn't help but grin and roll her eyes. It hadn't been easy for she and Ben to get used to Granpda Max being a retired secret agent. However, now that they had, there was something amusing about seeing him act like an ordinary grandpa.

"Between you and me, that guy's strawberries were looking pretty mushy," Max murmured to Gwen, as they left a fruit stall.

Gwen snorted. "Tell me about it."

Then, Gwen sighed.

"Grandpa?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think that this Azmuth guy is who he say he is?" Gwen asked.

Max turned a watermelon over in his worn hands. "He better be."

"But what if he's just trying to get to the Omnitrix? Like that Animo guy?" Gwen said.

Max glanced over at his grandaughter. It was clear by her stance; one arm rubbed her other elbow nervously. It was even clearer by her eyes, cast towards the ground and cloudy with confusion and fear. The incident with Animo had been weighing heavily on her mind. They had trusted Max's judgement, and been betrayed.

Max sighed, and put an encouraging hand on Gwen's shoulder.

"I know," he said. "I don't like it either. Every bone in my body is telling me to rush back there and make sure Ben is alright… but Tetrax trusts him. And she didn't kill Ben, so that's something."

"How cool for us that "didn't kill Ben" is a selling point," Gwen snarked half-heartedly.

Then, something caught her eye. Max gave her more encouraging words, and then tried to make a grandfatherly joke about watermelons, but Gwen's focus was on this movement. She watched it slither alongside the eaves of a rooftop. It shimmered, there one moment and then gone the next. Gwen couldn't determine its exact shape or features, but she knew that it was big. Not any normal animal.

"Grandpa," Gwen breathed, never taking her eyes away from the creature. "What is that?"

"Hrn?" Max turned to follow her gaze, squinting. "What is what?"

"You don't see it? On the edge of that roof," Gwen said, not daring to point in case this creature might realize she had spotted it.

Max turned to Gwen, puzzled. Then, his expression became harder to read. "I don't see anything on the roof, but…"

"But what?" Gwen asked.

"Your eyes," Max said. "They're… glowing."

Gwen's eyes were glowing, just gently, around the iris; a neon pink color. Something clicked in her mind. She thought back to what the sorcerer had said. Something about her having witch's blood, that if she was lucky she might begin to develop the power to do magic. Magic? Could that explain the tingling sensation she had felt on the back of her neck?

If she was lucky…

Gwen's hand went to the charm in her pocket. Then, she looked to Grandpa Max seriously. "I think it's one of Animo's mutant thingies."

"You think it tailed us this far?" Max asked skeptically.

"That's just what it reminds me of. It could be alien. Either way, it's probably after the watch. It'll spot us sooner or later. We can't lead it back to Ben." Gwen said.

"Well, we can't risk it attacking in a market full of civilians," Max said, his tactical brain kicking in. He handed a bag of groceries to Gwen. "Let's head for the Rustbucket. You just tell me if you see that thing start to follow us."

It did follow them. It was after them faster than they anticipated, and soon Max was driving like a madman, spurred on by Gwen's frantic shouting. The R.V. shot off the main road, heading towards a junkyard at the edge of town. Max skid the vehicle to a halt. Then, he flipped several switches on the dashboard. Mechanical whirring roared to life inside the cabin of the R.V., and Gwen could see hi-tech weapons emerging from the side window.

At the first barrage of stun blasts, the creature's cloaking failed it. They could see it full view. One part oversized coyote, one part gorilla, one part sabretoothed tiger. It was covered in jet black fur, and green ooze dripped from its maw like drool.

"I think its a mutant!" Gwen squealed.

"Whatever it is, it's about to go to sleep," Max grunted. A pair of joysticks emerged from the steering wheel and an aiming reticle dropped down from the rear-view mirror. Max pulled the trigger, and a barrage of heavy, sonic pulses were fired from the Rustbucket. For a brief moment, the engined failed and the lights flickered, before correcting tiself and roaring back on.

Gwen glanced out the window. The creature was on its side. She couldn't tell if it was breathing.

"Is it… dead?" Gwen asked.

Max got out of the driver's seat, and opened the door to the R.V. He produced a baton that had been disguised as a cane, holding it ready. "Only one way to find out."

"Grandpa, wait!" Gwen said nervously, hesitating only a second before running out behind him.

"Get back in the R.V., Gwen," Max said as he inched towards the downed creature.

Gwen watched as Max began to reach out with his foot. Before Max could prod the mutant, Gwen saw a flash of something. A thump of red light. A heartbeat? She could… see its heartbeat? She saw Max's as well, raised with adrenaline.

Suddenly, the mutant's heartbeat quickened.

"Grandpa!"

It was all Gwen could shout before the mutant sprang into action, scrabbling to its feet and using its hulking mass to knock Max to the ground. Max cried out in surprise, and missed a poorly angled swing with his stun-baton. The creature snarled, shaking off the drowsiness. Its keen, green eyes locked onto Gwen. The creature bolted.

Gwen hauled butt.

As the monster lunged after her, Gwen maneuvered through the towering piles of junk. She was hoping to lose the mutant in the maze of discarded waste. She zagged left, and then right, but glancing behind her she found that the creature was still gaining ground. She took a hard right, doubling back the way she came, but she heard the enraged snarling behind her. She wasn't sure if she was only imagining the hot breath on the back of her neck.

Then, something lucky happened. Gwen darted beneath an archway of suspended trash, held up by a rusty old ladder. However, just as she passed through, there was a groaning noise, followed by a loud crash! Gwen didn't stop running, but she dared to throw a cautious glance behind her. To her utter surprise, the sound of straining metal was matched by more beastly straining noises. The junk had collapsed on top of the mutant, stopping it at least for a moment.

"That was lucky," Gwen said, with something between a nervous laugh and an adrenaline fueled exhale.

Then, not counting her lucky stars just yet, Gwen circled back to Max. The two of them nearly ran headlong into each other. Max quickly took the startled Gwen into a hug, and she reciprocated.

"Where is it?" Max asked.

"It got stuck under some junk, but I don't think that'll stop it," Gwen said, suddenly digging around in her satchel.

"It'll do for now," Max said. "We gotta get back to Ben."

The two of them rushed into the Rustbucket, careening away from the junkyard before the mutant could gather its wits. As they drove away, the rush of euphoria and adrenaline Gwen had felt died down. Glancing at the charm that she had unconsciously gripped in her palm, she noticed that the yellow glow had faded. The carved stone was lifeless.

"Grandpa," Gwen said, a hunch forming in her mind. "Think of a number between 1 and 100."

Max snorted. "Oh, so now you want to play road trip games. All it took was a life or death experience?"

"I'm trying to test something," Gwen said, unshaken from her experiment. Max sighed.

"Alright. Got it."

Gwen waited for the confident rush to appear, for a number to present itself in her subconscious: but there was nothing. She found herself fumbling for a number, and settled on the first one that seemed right.

"17?"

"Nope. 100," Max said.

There it was. The charm's magic had faded: at least for now. Her supernatural luck had been used up escaping from the mutant. She was, so to speak, out of luck.

"Great timing," Gwen muttered ruefully.