Change in hope
Chapter one, The Fools
It was about half way through their summer vacation road trip, it was quite an eventful summer vacation for ben tennyson so far, it started with an alien watch that did what it did it stuck itself upon his wrist. So, he was no longer an ordinary kid, he became ben ten the barer of the omnitrix, an alien made device that allowed him to transform into a series of different aliens species, but he mainly could only transform into 10 specific ones, which to him made him a borderline superhero. he got to play hero in a since and he had to save the day from threats that kept popping up, villains being other aliens, people using advanced alien technology, or even magic. From six six, dr animo, ghost freak, the circus freak trio, rojo, the forever knights, Vilgax.
Yet there was one villain that made him question for a bit, she was a young girl only a couple years older than him, probably sixteen to seventeen years old by the looks of it, rather pretty to with pink eyes and long silver colored ponytail, cool outfit as well it was combination of practicality and her expression. but it is obvious now that is how she tricks so many people, because She doesn't seem like she is dangerous or even a bad person, that is how she was able to trick people. His cousin Gwen, his grandpa max, himself and even her own uncle saw that when they fought the first time in las vegas. charmcaster that she was clearly a vain, self-serving, power-hungry girl. They supposedly lost their powers or were weakened a bit.
Ben didn't really expect to see either of them ever again and so when she returned it was in a way he never saw coming.
This all started in Salem Massachusetts, grandpa max brought ben and Gwen to see the sights even making them dress up as pilgrims. The site of the infamous Salem witch trials, gwen seemed to be into it, so did grandpa max, maybe it wouldn't have been as bad for him if they didn't dress up. He looked like a deeb one of the times his cousin was right to call him, and the tourist taking photos of him didn't help. He was wishing for anything to get him out of this situation. Then an explosion happened, he looked around it was off in the distance, he could see the Firey smoke clouds.
He got the go ahead from his grandpa to transform, It was hero time, he gleefully searched through the Omnitrix for stinkfly, one of the aliens that allowed him to fly and headed toward the explosion. charm caster was at that roof looking off into the distance seeing stickfly heading her direction.
"that's it closer. Come to my parlor said the spider to the stink fly" charmcaster muttered to herself. but she also she noticed Gwen who appeared trying to catch up to ben. She knew it would take some time to do the body switch spell she thought keeping a long distance would have slowed his family down enough for her to perform the spell unnoticed. Regardless She decided to use a mind control spell on the horse to send her in another direction.
When ben arrived at the building, he cleared the flames in the front entrance so people could run out, started putting out the burning building, he thought he rescued everyone then heard sounded like woman on the top of the roof, in the middle of the smoking clouds. She then said "immobilis" It was timed perfectly he got directly hit by some kind of spell. And then as the smoke cleared for good and he saw charmcaster starring at him.
"ah, I love being a witch" the battle went in her favor, she decided to go which the plan of slow downing ben down with a spell. Ben he tried putting some distance, but he was moving slower than normal making it to street level.
"nope, you entered my web, your not going to get far" charmcaster then started performing the spell creating the magenta sphere around herself and chanting.
"transfera identica, transfera identica"
all while the pink sphere enveloped ben as stinkfly. ben continued to try to get away while making fell very little progress. then there was a tingling sensation and he felt like he was being pulled in one direction. The magenta sphere he was in then head towards charmcaster and wham the spheres collided.
Ben was so confused of what just happened, he saw charmcaster in front of him. from what he could tell she must have hit him with a spell because he remembered moving really slow, then a pink bubble formed around him which was heeded directly towards charmcaster. Then just flash, he didn't feel like he was flying anymore so he thought the omnitrix timed out, in which case he was in trouble.
ben felt odd though smoke started to clear he thought he saw charmcaster in front of him, which cause him to jump back a bit in fear, but he noticed she appeared to be scared. he adapted quickly and decided to try and tackle her so he could retrain her before she tried to do another spell so he leaped forward in a sort of punch only to hit glass, which hurt obviously.
Ben body felt weird, even when he transformed into aliens he didn't fell this weird the center of balance was off, he felt heavier in especially in the chest. Then in hand felt was different his skin felt very soft and the skin tone was lighter he thought it was from the dust in air but no it wasn't.
Ben looked around even more and notice the long pink sleeve. he started to touch him all over and felt the long hair and its color. The reflection in front of him as he move around it mirrored him.
he switched bodies with charmcaster, and then a sound of wings flapping along with a horrible smell confirmed it. He turned around and saw stinkfly in the air. A sense of fear confusion ran through him.
"It worked the omnitrix is mine now" charmcaster proclaimed with glee. The stink fly then charged directly at him and slam threw him into the wall knocking him unconscious.
At that moment the omnitrix ran out, the stinkfly transformation revereted her into bens form. charmcaster was a little upset but realized that she had to act fast. but since ben landed where she had planed in this hardware store there was rope and duct tape around to tie him up.
By the time that gwen and grandpa max arrived at the scene, charmcaster already had ben mostly bound and gagged.
"ben what happened" max said as he approached, charmcaster was a bit confused why they were dressed as pilgrims. But that was short lived since gwen pointed out.
"charmcaster, makes sense so she is responsible for all this mess" charmcaster trying to play the role of ben responding with.
"Yeah, she caused all that destruction, and I took her down." Charmcaster stated with some pride. after-all she was able to outsmart nd beat ben Tennyson. now she was mock him in front of his own family with out them knowing.
"That was fast, wow. She is weaker than I thought she was" Gwen stated, for a second charmcaster wanted to punch gwen, but her revenge can wait for it will make it that much sweeter in the end. max then asked.
"what's with the gag and rope" Ben was yelling out grandpa, but the tape muffled his voice. charmcaster was really glad she decided to put it on ben because even through tape ben was trying to call out. To her she could tell what he was saying but to Gwen and max it was just gibberish.
"it is so She does not try to do another spell. Don't want her to destroy everything" charmcaster responded.
Ben looked up and tried to call out to gwen and max about what happened but the ducktape on current mouth didn't let him so he started squirming violently to break free.
"well, better hand her over to the police before she manages to get lose" charmcaster says while trying to lift her old body up.
"I got her" max said as picked up ben who still in charmcaster form and put her over his shoulder. They then started to leave, since both gwen and max were facing forward they didn't see charmcastor still in ben form taunt ben silently.
Ben was put into the back of a police car still trying to break free. it seemed as a final taunt charmcaster got close to him and secretly quietly stated.
"Oh, don't worry ben, I will take care of your family and your watch" the deep implication of everything was really starting to hit ben, it was really at that moment he felt like he was about to lose everything, and his life would be eternally worse. He was doing anything to break free to even just to get the tape off so he could scream out, starting to slam his face into the window of the car, in which case the cop sitting in the front seat pepper spray him threw the sliding window barrier of the car.
Charmcaster watched as ben writhe in her form, he looked so hopeless. The first version was in the form of someone fighting, like someone who knows they are in a horrible desperate situation trying to get out of it and then the other version when they realize they are doomed. Ben even appeared to be starting to cry, although that could have been from the pepper spray. which was odd for her to see, because she was seeing herself like that. It Didn't last too long since at that time the other cop entered the car and they then drove away.
Charmcaster stood there for while after ben was driven away, his cousin gwen had to in a sense shake her out of her stooper. Telling her that they are leaving, part of her wanted to end Gwen then and there but she had to be smart, first she would find out everything she could about the omnitrix and end her with the very way she tells her. She stares at the omnitrix as she follows behind them mentally thinking about how with her magic and this device, she will stand at the top of everyone, no one will ever be able to defeat her.
The group ended up getting in their rv, which she found out they called the rust bucket. It is accurate now but was it always called that. Charm caster wanted to find out as much as she could about the omnitrix, she seen news reports of the aliens. Ben no doubt could transform into those. The fire one in particular interested her the most with her magic she could easily burn all Salem to the ground with in ten minutes.
Granpa max, gwen and charmcaster got out of their pilgrim outfits. It seems these two were only going to stay in salem for a day and camp out outside the city. Which is good, because when she finally does attack them she would want to make them suffer longer, not that they could attack her back, since if they did they would be attacking ben's body.
While in the rustbucket Charmcaster spent time talking to gwen about the omnitrix. askingher about the aliens and what she thought about them.
"I would say of the ten aliens we know XLR8 would be the best in my opinion" Gwen responded.
"a speedster great so, all I have to do is slam it down" charmcaster responded.
'Yeah, what you did that fight knock your one brain cell out of your head." Gwen retorted. Charmcaster was thinking about using this XLR8 to drag gwen on the floor as she ran the pavement would splatter her. Her thoughts were broken when a phone on the seat in front of the rv started to ring.
"Ben your phone is ringing it is probably your mom" grandpa max stated while motioning to her. charmcaster went to the side passenger seat of the rv. Deciding to play along when she picked up phone, she heard what sounded like her voice on the other side of the phone.
"Hello, grandpa, this is ben, charmcaster switched our" charmcaster hung up the phone before max or gwen could hear it.
"You hung up on mom like that" grandpa responded. Which causes charmcaster to quickly have to come up with an excuse.
"No, it was just someone selling long distance. Oh no" charmcaster made it look as like the phone accidentally fell out her hand and out the window, falling in a way the back tires of the rv would run it over.
"Great going doofus, Aunt Sandra is going be worried and mad at you for losing a perfectly good cellphone."
"It was an accident" charmcaster responded acting like a doof to draw attention away from herself.
"Well, I'm not buying you another one, you're going to have to work that with your parents when you get back home after vacation."
As charmcaster, gwen and max were leaving the town limits of Salem and heading towards woods. The tv they had was reporting that there was a breakout at a maximum-security juvie center. On the news report it appeared like a bunch of girls were fleeing, one of which was charmcaster, at least untill some of her rock birds attacked the camera that captured them leaving.
"Looks like charmcaster broke out" gwen saying with a bit of annoyance.
"Are we going to go after her?" charmcaster asked with genuine concern.
"no, she could be anywhere by now, the police can handle her" max stated, which caused charmcaster to sigh in relief.
"Besides she is not the strong really, the police can handle her" gwen remarked. Charmcaster was mentally thinking to herself "just wait until we are alone."
the rustbucket was parked in a wooded area where they would be spending the night. charmcaster went out the rustbucket, Turned the dial of the omnitrix into what she thought was heatblast judging by the silhouette, but accidentally got greymatter. Gwen came out noticed the transformation and sated.
"what are you doing dweeb, time to go to bed" charmcaster tried to perform a spell using this alien, but nothing. Charmcaster was in shock. Then grandpa max came out and told her.
"Ben, if you're going to stay up longer to play with the omnitrix just know your still waking up early tomorrow to fill the tank" they both went back inside to sleep. While charmcaster was still standing there in shock, this time she was going to put all her effort into and while she did get a spark. The reality of the situation was hitting her, she fell backwards onto the ground.
As she laid there It was at this moment she was starting to realize how foolish she was.