"Behind this unbreakable glass, a recently discovered relic, the only extant copy of Archmada's Book of Spells."
The Tennyson and Hayden family were on a stopover in New Orleans and were currently taking part in a guided tour of a museum.
"It contains witchcraft secrets dating back to the late 17th century." Gwen and the tour guide declared at the same time.
The old tour guide glared at Gwen.
"Maybe you should work here, my dear." She said coldly and led the group to the next exhibition.
Ben approached his cousin.
"Don't let the mummy head get to you, it's probably older than this spell book." He said, pretending to go stiff as a corpse, making Gwen laugh.
Hayden looked at the book in the display case, then around him.
"What's the matter, Hayden?" Max asked.
"This book of magic was discovered recently. And I've got a bad feeling about it." Hayden declared.
"Are you still paranoid about that crazy witch girlfriend you met in New York?" Ben asked.
"Then she's not my girlfriend, she wasn't really crazy, and I'm just worried she's going to screw up again." Hayden corrected.
"Are you still talking about that? Stop it, now." Gwen scoffed.
"Oh, if you knew all the weird stuff that's happened to me, you wouldn't be so closed-minded about magic." Hayden said, causing Gwen to roll her eyes.
Suddenly, there was a dull roar and everything in the room rose into the air. A puff of red smoke rose through the window above and then materialized into a pale, emaciated man with tattoos on his face that made him look like a skeleton and a girl with silver hair and violet eyes.
"Charmcaster..." Hayden murmured in shock. "She's not supposed to be here..."
Charmcaster looked up at him and her face immediately darkened into a scowl.
"You again..."
"Uh... Hi." Hayden said casually as he floated through the air.
The man looked up at Hayden.
"Is this the man you told me about, Enchantress?"
Charmcaster flinched visibly at the man's words.
"Yes... Uncle Hex." She said in a small voice.
Hayden was abruptly moved forward and found himself face to face with the pale man.
"Because of you, my niece failed to bring me the Alpha Rune. What do you have to say for yourself, boy?"
Hayden noticed that Charmcaster no longer looked as confident as she had in New York, throwing nervous glances at her uncle as if she were afraid or something.
"Uh... I'm sorry?" He said with a shrug, not really having another option at hand at the moment.
The man didn't look amused. His eyes, as well as the orbits of the bird skull on his stick, began to glow.
"Wait, Uncle Hex..." Enchantress began, looking downright panicked.
"Silence!" Hex shouted, silencing her immediately. His eyes sparkled with energy as he raised his staff to Hayden.
Hayden turned to Ben.
"Uh... a little help wouldn't be a luxury?"
"I thought so!" Ben said, activating his watch. "It's hero time!"
He struck the watch violently and transformed himself into XLR8. Using his powerful legs, he dropped a leap nearby and planted his foot directly into Hex's forehead.
All the objects and people floating in the air began to fall. XLR8 grabbed one of the tapestries hanging on the wall and gathered them up to use as a cushion for the falling people.
"Everybody out!" XLR8 shouted.
Hayden, freed from the magical grip, activated his own Omnitrix.
"Time to break out the scrunchie." He murmured, pressing down and transforming into Big Chill.
"Charmcaster! Seize them!" Hex roared.
"Y-Yes, Uncle Hex." Said Charmcaster as he unzipped his bag.
Big Chill thought quickly and spat frost on his bag, freezing the opening.
One of the strange medallions on Hex's chest glowed and he floated above the ground and launched a fiery blast with the staff at XLR8. The speedy alien climbed back up the wall to avoid the heat, while the skeleton man continued to fire more magic at him.
Big Chill spread her wings and flew towards Charmcaster. She fired mana beams at him, which he easily sidestepped.
"You're really annoying, you know that?" Said Charmcaster, creating a magical shield to block Big Chill's sharp claws.
"I assure you, it's not intentional. And why are you still stealing things from museums?" Said Big Chill-Hayden let out a blast of ice, freezing the shield and blowing through it.
"It wasn't my idea! My uncle said he needed me to get the Archamada Book of Spells. After failing to get the Alpha Rune, I can't fail again!" Charmcaster declared.
"But I gave it to you, and I let you go with it."
"What..." Charmcaster's face turned slightly red. "Shut up!"
"Please, stop it. I really don't want to end up having to hurt you." Said Big Chill-Hayden, unsettling Charmcaster for a few seconds, before he exploded the frost created by his breath to create a dust cloud made of ice, temporarily blinding Charmcaster.
He looked at the others and saw that they were standing over an unconscious Hex.
"Well, that's it."
Charmcaster, distracted, pulled something out of his sleeve and threw it to the ground. There was a cloud of smoke and she disappeared.
"And she got away. Great." Sighed Big Chill-Hayden.
"At least we got him." Says Gwen.
"Good job, Ben," said Max.
XLR8 bent down and picked up one of the strange charms Hex had on him.
"I just do what I have to do and keep a low profile." Said XLR8-Ben before placing himself in front of camera flashes and a jubilant crowd. "Who's your hero?!" He shouted as the others remained on the edge of the field.
Meanwhile, Charmcaster could be seen watching Hex being led away. She took a step towards him but stopped. She seemed to be thinking before slowly retreating into the darkness of an alleyway.
As the Rust Bucket made its way down the street, Ben put his recently obtained trophy, a Hex charm, in the box in which he kept his other trophies he'd obtained during their trip.
"All I'm saying is, you didn't exactly manage to stop that creep on your own today, okay? I'm helping you save your ass, but does anyone notice me?" Gwen asked.
"Hey, being a hero isn't about getting attention," said Ben.
"WHO'S YOUR HERO?! Does that ring a bell?" Asked Gwen, frowning.
"I noticed you, Gwen." Max said, trying to put his little girl into perspective.
"We're related, so it doesn't matter." Said Gwen.
As the two continued to argue, Max sighed and then looked at the teenager sitting in the passenger seat, staring out the window.
"Something wrong, Hayden?"
"It's Charmcaster. I'm worried about her." Said Hayden, after a pause. "She called this guy 'her uncle,' but I got the impression she was afraid of him or something. She wasn't like she was when I met her in New York."
"Well, you can't know a person just by looking at them at first sight," Max Declared.
"I know. But I still worry about her. She's not bad, she just obviously has her family making her go down the wrong path." Hayden sighed.
"Oh, don't worry. If you're right, your girlfriend will probably take a better path the next time you meet." Max teased, which exasperated Hayden.
"Aren't you going to start too?!" He said, looking at the old man as his face flushed profusely, which didn't fail to amuse Max.
He then turned his gaze to the window, his Omnitrix flashing a violet light, unknown to all.
"The only reason you're a big hero is because of this watch! If I'd found it instead of you, I'd be the one getting all the attention and all the cool memories!" Gwen shouted before slumping into her seat and starting to sulk.
Ben looked at her and sighed. He rummaged in his box and pulled out the medallion.
"All right, here. Take it." He said.
Gwen's eyes widened.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I've got plenty of other stuff." Said Ben with a shrug as Gwen took the charm.
"Gwen? Don't you have something to say to Ben?" Max asked.
Gwen looked at Ben. "You know that doesn't change the fact that you're really lucky. But thanks." Said Gwen.
"You're welcome."
They stopped at a restaurant for dinner, while Hayden savored his food, Ben and Gwen argued again.
"I counted. You ate eleven crawfish to my nine."
"Looks like it's time for a twelfth." Ben said, grabbing the last crayfish.
Gwen's medallion began to glow. "I don't think so." She said, snatching the fork from his hand.
The fork flew across the room and landed on the foot of a passing waitress. She let out a cry of pain and threw the tray in the air.
A glass of water flew and caught in the chandelier, which spun and hurled the glass into the open kitchen window, hitting the chef in the back, forcing him to drop a cart with a bowl of raw crayfish into the restaurant.
The cart sped across the room where it hit the Tennysons' and Hayden's table, sending the bowl flying before landing directly on Ben's head.
Hayden and Max simply looked at Ben, who had wriggling crayfish falling from his hair, while Gwen took the last crayfish from the plate and put it in her mouth.
"Okay, now I'm full." She said with a smile.
"But I'm not... AHHH!" Howled Ben as one of the crayfish crawled up one of his nostrils, knocking him off his chair.
They laughed, but Gwen noticed that the sparkle on her medallion was disappearing.
Meanwhile, in another part of town, Charmcaster was walking the streets alone. She looked around, a little lost.
"Charmcaster."
She froze and turned slowly to see Hex floating there.
"Uncle!"
One of his medallions began to glow and Charmcaster found herself drawn towards it.
"Did you get the book back?" He asked.
"I tried, Uncle Hex! I really tried..." Charmcaster tried to say.
"ENOUGH!" Hex shouted. "You've lost the Rune, and now you've lost the book!"
Charmcaster visibly trembled as she looked up into her uncle's face.
"You'll help me get the book back. Then we'll have to retrieve the charm that the fast creature stole from me." Said Hex, looking into an empty hole in his belt where one of the charms was supposed to be. "Is that understood?"
"Yes, Uncle Hex..." Charmcaster said weakly.
Back at the Tennyson family and their traveling companion, they left the restaurant still laughing about the crayfish incident.
"You know, in all my travels, I've never seen a crayfish climb up someone's nostril until today!" Max says, laughing.
"I'm glad I could brighten your day, Grumpa." grumbled Ben.
"By the way, thanks again for the medallion. I think I should get you something in return." Said Gwen as she spotted a hot dog vendor in front of her and ran over to him. "A hot dog, please."
Suddenly, a shout echoed down the street.
"Help! They've stolen my purse!"
Three teenagers were running down the street, the one in front holding a handbag. Max blocked their path.
"Stop!"
"Yeah? Who's going to make us? You are. "Papi?" Giggled the teenager.
"I'd advise you to back off, man." Hayden said as he passed Max.
The teenager laughed stupidly as he pulled out a pipe. He noticed Gwen.
"Hey-hey-hey, that's a pretty necklace you've got there, little girl!" He said, reaching for the charm.
Gwen stepped back as her charm began to glow slightly again, but this faded when Hayden came a little closer to them.
"You want to be a hero, man? No problem." Said the man holding the pipe and purse, raising his arm to attack him.
Then Hayden perfectly executed Pattinson's punch sequence from the first trailer for The Batman. This knocked out the teenager while disarming him, without punching him while he was on the ground.
This shocked the Tennysons and the public as he caught the other two teenagers on the run.
He then took the purse and returned it to its owner, who thanked him warmly
"Wow, that was so cool." Said Gwen.
"Why did they run away?" Ben asked.
"The group effect. They felt powerful because there were three of them and they had a pipe. And since their strength is cowardice, the other two preferred to flee when they realized that their opponent was stronger." Max replied, looking down at the unconscious teenager. "And I'm glad to see he's really holding back now."
Ben pressed a pillow against his head as Max and snored loudly and Hayden had the comforter pulled up over his face as he tried to conceal sunlight.
"Hey, Gwen? You got any giant corks on you? Gwen?"
He looked down at the bunk beneath him and saw it was empty. Outside, Gwen stood on a basketball court near the RV park. She held a basketball and turned her back to the net as her charm shone.
She threw the basketball over her head and it fell through the net.
"Right in the mile, again!"
"Okay... that's really weird." Said Ben as he caught the ball and walked over to her.
"What can I say? I'm charmed." Said Gwen, holding up the charm. "I noticed it glowing in the restaurant just before the chain reaction with the eccrevisse. So I did some tests with the baskets, and now I'm sure. Every time it shines, everything turns out the way I want it to."
Max got out of the Rust Bucket and stretched.
"Nothing like a good night's sleep. Who wants breakfast?"
Their peaceful morning was suddenly interrupted by a loud noise coming from a nearby construction site.
They rushed to the scene, only to discover that an elevator cable had snapped as two construction workers clung on for dear life.
"Time to watch a real hero at work." Said Ben as he began to turn the dial on his Omnitrix.
Gwen looked down and saw that his charm was shining.
"Yeah, me! I'll be right back!"
Ben crushed the dial and transformed into a Savage before running toward the construction site.
"Over here! Somebody!"
Max noticed that a metal beam had fallen onto the top of a truck, and on the crushed driver's seat was a man.
He turned and saw Gwen running along wearing a mask, black overalls and gloves.
"Gwen?"
"It's Lucky Girl, Grumpa." Said Gwen.
She ran toward the crushed truck.
"Stay calm!" she shouted, looking around. She spotted a half-cut plank on a cutting board as her charm began to glow.
She jumped on the board, which sent the cut piece flying through the air, shattering the control glass of a wrecking ball machine and hitting the lever, causing the ball to fall and sending the metal beam flying into a control panel.
The elevator started up and exploded in the direction of the savage who was climbing the building towards the construction workers. The elevator hit him and sent him flying.
"Uh-oh."
Sauvage crashed into the elevator, sending debris tumbling towards Gwen.
"Gwen! I mean, Lucky Girl! Move!" Max shouted.
She rushed to the safety of a nearby tanker truck, putting it into reverse. The truck backed up and hit a chute that tipped it right under the suspended construction workers, throwing Sauvage into the cement mix in the process.
"Slide down the chute!" Max shouted to the workers, who did as they were told and slid to safety.
Spectators applauded the workers' rescue thanks to the mysterious masked girl, and soon gathered around her as Sauvage emerged from the cement mix and shook himself.
"How did you manage this incredible rescue?" A reporter asked Gwen.
"With style of course. Who's your hero?!"
In another part of town, Hex floated down the street, followed by a seemingly effete Charmcaster, as they passed a store displaying televisions.
"You heard it here first. - Live. An exclusive, on-the-spot interview with our town's very own."
"Lucky Girl!"
Hex stopped and squinted at the scene, then his eyes widened when he recognized her charm.
"I compared Archamada's Book of Spells with black magic charms, and look. It's part of a set called Charms of Bezel." Said Gwen, showing her laptop to Ben and a very sleepy Hayden who didn't even have his hair tied back.
"This charm represents luck. There are also charms for fire, levitation, reincarnation..."
"Whoa. These are the charms that guy was wearing at the museum when XLR8 kicked his ass!" Says Ben.
"That's why he wanted the spell book. But it says that all of Bezel's charms must be used for the spells to reach their full power." Said Gwen before looking at the charm. "Oh, well. Too bad for him."
"I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. If he manages to escape the police, they'll be looking for him." Hayden said, yawning. "Kind of like the guy who sends drones and bounty hunters after Ben and me for our watches."
The radio suddenly crackled.
"And in weird news, reports are coming in that the town's famously haunted historic mansion has come alive, trapping dozens of visitors inside."
"Grumpa!" Ben and Gwen shouted in unison.
"I'm going." Max says, stepping on the gas pedal.
They pulled up in front of a smart old gray house. Ben jumped out of the Rust Bucket, activating his Omnitrix.
"Back off! I got this!" Said Gwen, pushing Ben aside and running toward the mansion.
"I'm the real hero here!" Ben shouted, running after him.
They ran into the mansion and saw a group of people clinging to the second-floor railing while the floor beneath them shook and squirmed as if alive.
At the top of the ceiling window, Hex and Charmcaster watched the Tennyson family.
"I knew you couldn't resist... Lucky Girl." Hex said in a low voice.
Charmcaster simply bit his lip nervously.
"Everyone stay calm! Lucky Girl is in the haunted house." Announced Gwen.
"That sucked. I think even in the '70s in comics that was hackneyed." Said Hayden.
She ignored him and headed for the stairs. As she climbed, the floorboards shattered and flew toward Ben, Hayden and Max, who quickly took cover as the second floor ripped away from the walls and began to swirl around Hex.
Hayden looked up at Hex and Charmcaster beside him.
"You want to play this Hex..." He muttered as he activated his Omnitrix, noticing its new color but deciding to focus on it later, and turning into Mummy and untangling himself.
Gwen and Ben, as Four Arms, were able to save everyone and lead them outside when Hex magically slammed the door.
"Give me my charm!"
"You should have said 'please'!" Gwen shouted as she ran deeper into the mansion.
"Get it back, Charmcaster!" Hex ordered.
"Yes, Uncle Hex." Said Charmcaster, running after her. Hex soon floated in pursuit as a disentangled Mummy-Hayden glided after them all.
The two mages entered an empty room, looked around and found a secret passageway open to a dark, damp catacomb made of stone contrasting with the mansion's polished marble and wood.
They ventured into the darkness, hearing the soft echo of rat races.
They walked, or rather floated, through the winding stone tunnels until Hex stopped, a mischievous grin appearing on his face as he raised his staff to the wall, yellow energy surrounding it.
But before he could pull the trigger, Momie leapt up and wrapped herself around Hex's arm, pulling it back as the energy blast went off and trailed along the ceiling until it hit Charmcaster square in the chest, causing her to cry out in pain and fall to the floor.
Hex grabbed Momie-Hayden and yanked her off his arm just as the ceiling above his head began to collapse in front of him.
Hex quickly erected a mana shield around himself to block the falling debris. He looked around to see that the wall had also collapsed, revealing Gwen. A twisted smile appeared as his vision looked at the charm around her neck.
Gwen ran as Hex pursued her, casting more magic spells. Mummy-Hayden emerged from the debris and was about to follow when he noticed Charmcaster, still unconscious, lying under a pile of stones.
He looked directly at Gwen and Hex, then turned to Charmcaster before letting out a sigh. He wrapped his bandage around the rocks and began to move them carefully, trying his best not to crush the unconscious witch.
Then, after removing the last of her debris, he became himself again.
"Leaving your only family in a dark, dank dungeon to chase a necklace. You really need to review your Hex priorities." Said Hayden as he lifted Charmcaster in his arms and carried her out of the basement through a giant hole in the wall, probably left by Hex.
The hole led to the grove of trees outside where he saw Max and Four Arms helping an exhausted Gwen.
"Why did you bring her?" Four Arms asked, pointing to Charmcaster in Hayden's arms.
"I wasn't going to leave her dead in those catacombs either." Hayden said with a shrug.
"Where's Hex?" Gwen asked.
They looked around and saw him hovering over the city, all his charms illuminated and the spellbook floating in front of him.
"That's not good." Hayden declared.
"You think?" Said Four Arms.
"It's time to turn this town into an old memory." Said Hex as he began to chant an ancient incantation.
The clouds swirled above and the light roared. The wind began to swirl as everything in the city below began to float in the sky.
Four Arms leapt towards Hex. Before the mage could react, he was hurled through the air into a nearby cemetery.
Gwen and Max ran after them.
"Wait, wait, wait! What about..." Hayden shouted after them, but they were long gone. He looked down at Charmcaster, still unconscious, and groaned, "You've got to be kidding me..." he muttered, running after them.
He ran all the way to the cemetery and found Hex floating in the air, staring at the Tennyson family.
"You dare to defy me?"
Hayden heard a slight groan and looked down to see Charmcaster coming back to her. She looked up at Hex.
"Uncle... ? "
Hex looked at her and raised his staff.
"My niece, you've disappointed me for the last time..."
Hayden stepped aside as Hex unleashed a salvo of mana.
"First you leave her in a dungeon, now you're trying to kill her? How far can you go?"
Hex ignored the remarks as he chanted another incantation, reviving the stone statues in the graveyard.
Hayden quickly put Charmcaster down.
"Okay, your uncle is a psychopath who left you for dead and has now tried to kill you. Stay here and don't move. I'll take care of everyone." said Hayden before running to join his friends.
"Wait!" Charmcaster shouted.
Hayden ran to one of the stone statues while activating his Omnitrix, which turned green again upon activation, and pressed the core after turning the dial a few times without really looking at it.
"Hey!" Hayden shouted, drawing his attention.
He then struck the statue and felt himself absorb something as part of the statue shattered on impact and the rest became still again.
"What was that?" He asked himself before seeing his reflection on a puddle.
He was turned into a white creature with a purple orb on his torso and a purple jewel in his eye dans the omnitrix symbol on his chest.
"Why do I look like a mythical version of freezer with a crescent moon head?! And why do I sound like Freezer in original dub?!"
The nearest statue roared and lunged at Hayden, but was intercepted by an explosion of mana before it could reach him. Hayden turned to see Charmcaster, his hand outstretched.
"Back off." Charmcaster told him as the stone statue let out an angry roar.
It charged them again. Charmcaster reached into her bag and pulled out a handful of pebbles, which she threw into the air and transformed into a swarm of stone bats that swirled around the statue. As the statue stumbled, she aimed and fired a blast of mana, piercing it right through the head and knocking it to the ground.
Then she looked at Hayden.
"You absorbed the mana in the statue you hit." she said. "Now we're even."
Hayden was too stunned to say anything, but his attention was drawn to his Omnitrix and saw that it had finished recharging. He looked up at Hex and saw that he was singing to the sky.
"Time to close the curtain on this magic act." Hayden said, concentrating on all the statues in the living room.
The latter went into a short spasm before the mana in them came out to be absorbed into the purple stone on Hayden's torso, where his Omnitrix symbol was located.
"Now it's down to us two Hex." He said before flying off.
Hex looked up and saw the alien flying towards him. Hayden now stood face to face with Hex, and finally concentrated on him.
He tried to struggle, but then felt his mana being sucked away, his consciousness dissipating.
They all looked at Hex on the ground, unconscious but still breathing.
"What did you do to him?" Gwen asked.
"I sucked out enough of his mana that he was too exhausted to stay alive. But to do that I had to get rid of his loot, sorry." Hayden replied, back to his old self, pointing to the empty charm slots.
"And since when do you have an eleventh Alien?" Four Arms-Ben asked.
"No idea, it just appeared. And it's a good thing we were able to stop it without going too far." Hayden replied. "But since it can absorb mana, why not give it a cool name... why not... Carbuncle."
"If you say so. Too bad the charms are destroyed. Farewell Lucky Girl." Gwen commented.
"Oh don't worry. I'm sure one day you'll have a new way to be a heroine." Hayden smiled, ruffling her hair as he discreetly patted her jacket.
"And what do we do with her?" Four Arms-Ben asked, pointing at Charmcaster.
Hayden looked at her, hesitating whether what he was about to do was a good idea regarding the good of his acquaintances. But, wishing to offer her something better than what would happen to her later, he approached her and held out his hand.