Chapter Text
The summer went on in a way Ben, Gwen and Max Tennyson could not have expected. The very first night that the three of them had gone camping his cousin Gwen had found a strange alien watch that latched on to her arm and let her change into ten different aliens. Both Ben and Gwen had freaked out when Gwen had accidentally turned into a fire monster that the girl started a small forest fire. Luckily they had called their grandpa quickly and were able to snuff it out before it became more than they could handle.
Ben was extremely curious while Gwen had just wanted the watch off of her arm, until she began to transform into more and more aliens to test out what the weird watch had. Ben had thought that the thing was too cool, and that maybe Gwen could use her powers to help people and be a hero. His cousin hadn’t nearly been as enthusiastic as him.
That hadn’t been the end of the weirdness either. They had some guy named Dr. Animo who can control mutated animals, a kraken, some monsters or aliens that replaced all the old people in the small town where their aunt Vera lived, and some battery spark alien and the day by day criminals that they could meet.
Ben was excited for the summer, and he loved when his cousin could go hero and beat the bad guys, but the thing is, he couldn’t help much, if at all, and it didn’t set well with him in the least. It was not fair, he should have gotten the cool watch, why did his dumb cousin got to have it? It was not helping Ben’s self esteem at all. He has nothing to compare himself to Gwen with, she was the smart one, the polite one, the talented one, and now she was the hero. And Ben … he would never say it out loud but he was jealous of Gwen.
Many of their relatives, even his parents would sometimes compare the two, and they would wish that he was more like Gwen, with her high grades, her talents, her smarts, and it was driving him crazy even more now. He had no real talent, no real skill to call his own, he was a loser. And he hated it!
What was more was that he had gotten hurt through the summer. He would head into danger head first and try to help his superpowered dumb cousin without a second thought, but that hadn’t ended well for him. Parts of his arms were even bandaged, having been wounded, scratched, shocked, burned, you name it, odds were Ben had been harmed by it at least a bit. And his grandpa kept a close eye on him as if he was too fragile to help.
Now the three of them were visiting a witchcraft museum, with Ben looking around at the strange things all around them. Gwen had said word for word what their tour guide spoke before the woman gave Gwen a dirty look and a snide remark, which made Gwen’s shoulders and head drop.
“Don’t let mummy face get to you,” Ben said, elbowing Gwen playfully. “She’s probably older than that Spellbook.” He made a funny face, crossing his eyes and blowing a raspberry before crossing his arms over his shoulders mimicking a mummy, trying to cheer her up. Gwen laughed. Mission accomplished. He might be a little jealous of her, but no one was allowed to dismiss his cousin like that.
Suddenly the entire museum began to shake, and the two of them began to float up into a wall. Many of the civilians screamed in fear and panic and tried to run but all of them got pinned up into the ceiling.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Ben asked, struggling against whatever force was holding everybody up while Gwen began to fiddle with the watch.
“Ah something tells me, this is not on the tour,” their grandpa said, looking around, ready for something to appear.
Suddenly from the round window, crimson fog flew inside of the museum before turning into a man. He looked as pale as a ghost with black face tattoos and red and black attire, and stood before the book of spells. He murmured something before the glass case around said book exploded.
The man then looked back up, and the strange wand in his hand glowed yellow, letting everyone fall down. Screams of panic filled the room, as everyone expected to hit the floor painfully. There was a green light as Gwen had finally reached the alien that she wanted, and had turned into XLR8.
She quickly ran around the room, untying a tapestry to act as a soft landing for the falling people. “Everybody out! Now!” Gwen yelled, and no one was about to argue as they all ran to the doors still screaming.
“Gwen, be careful,” her grandpa yelled before he and Ben began to run away as well. Gwen nodded. However with all the commotion Hex had turned around and spoke a few words that Ben couldn’t make out, and suddenly, his wand began to breathe fire, aiming it at the tapestry, burning it down.
XLR8 ran up walls to avoid the flames, shards of red crystals fire out from the staff, which also shoots a blinding light at Ben as he's in the midst of charging at the man, causing her to slip and crash into display cabinets.
Before his grandpa knew Ben had run towards the man, jumped up and body slammed his back, which unfortunately hadn’t done much but got his attention. The man turned towards Ben, who looked slightly scared as he instinctively took a step back. He raised his arm and Ben rose in the air, letting the boy get a good look at the strange rocks around his chest. The man wiped his arm through the air and threw Ben into a wall, making him yell in pain as he hit it and then fell into the ground.
“Ben!” Max yelled, worried about his grandson, and ran towards Ben checking if the boy was alright.
That had been enough time for Gwen to get up however and as the man turned to deal with XLR8, he was met with an onslaught of punches inside a whirlwind of blue and black. Unbeknown to him, one of his charms was dislodged and tossed across the room in the fray, and soon enough, Gwen had knocked the man into the ground reeling from the attacks, and passing out, the fight finally being over.
“Good job, hero,” Max said, making Gwen grin.
Ben rubbed the back of his head, trying to alleviate the pain, his back was going to kill him later. Suddenly he saw something on the ground and quickly grabbed it, noticing the strange markings on the stone, placing it in his pocket.
As they left the museum, reporters and camera men surrounded them taking pictures and trying to talk to Gwen, who soaked up all the attention. Ben let out a sigh and bit his lips, stopping himself from doing anything stupid, and began to walk towards the RV.
(~~~~~~0~~~~~)
“If I told you once, I told you a thousand times Ben,” Grandpa Max had begun to say as he drove the RV around. “You can’t just rush into a fight without thinking your actions through, and without me there.”
“Gwen needed someone to distract the creep so she could do her hero thing,” Ben replied, crossing his arms and pouting.
“You got hurt !” His grandpa countered. “I understand that you want to be a hero but you can’t just charge recklessly when you can’t even protect yourself.”
“It wasn’t that bad grandpa,” Ben whined.
“You were thrown into a wall , Ben,” Gwen said gently, trying to bring some reason into Ben. Her cousin always wanted to help. That much she knew without a doubt. He loved the idea of being a hero, and he wasn’t content to watch from the sidelines. He would usually help her in small ways, and she was grateful for it, not that she would tell him that, no way. She had no doubt that if Ben had gotten the watch that he would have been a real hero too, using the aliens just as he encouraged her to every time. But it seems that she was the lucky girl here, not Ben.
“It wasn’t just this time Ben!” His grandpa replied, a little frustrated. “Over and over this summer, you have been thrown through windows, at walls, got zapped, even had some crooks shooting at you. I’ve patched you up, some of those injuries aren’t even healed yet!” he pointed at the bandages around Ben’s arms, which were the most visible at that moment.
Ben couldn’t help but to look at the bandages around his arms and hand. “Look, I might not be a real hero here, but I can’t help but want to help, okay?”
“I never said that you weren’t a hero, Ben,” Max said.
“Of course I’m not!” Ben replied. “I don’t have any powers, I’m not as smart as Perfect Gwen here, and the best I can do is be a distraction and get hurt, right? That’s not hero work, that’s just a useless sidekick.”
“Hey,” Gwen interrupted. “Let’s just find somewhere to eat okay?” She wanted to defuse the situation. Ben was not going to listen to reason, so they might as well move on already.
“Yeah, that might be a good idea,” Max said softly. He hadn’t meant to insinuate that Gwen was in any way better than Ben, he never did, but Ben seemed to always take things the wrong way. He was powerless and defenseless, and despite that he always wanted to help others. Max found that admirable, and he was completely proud of both of his grandkids, but the world was more dangerous than Ben could ever know or be able to handle, and Max needed Ben to understand and be careful, to think of his own capabilities before he ran into the danger, or he could one day be lost… and Max would never be able to face himself again if that day ever came.
They finally agreed to head to a restaurant in town, they sat at a table looking at the menus to decide what to order. Ben had removed the stone from his pocket and began to run his thumb absentmindedly over the carvings as his eyes skimmed through the menu.
That was the moment something strange began to happen, before they could decide on anything many of the dishes on the other tables around them began to float, small murmurs and screams sounded, before those dishes were sent flying around the restaurant, randomly, hitting the walls. The floors, the ceiling, most of the dishes had been thrown near their table, but no one had noticed through the choas.
Gwen, Max and Ben stood up and began looking around for whoever was causing the chaos. As soon as they did everything had stopped flying around, which surprised the three of them. Ben suddenly began to feel slightly weightless seeing himself float slightly off the ground, he looked down with a gasp before noticing that the stone in his hand was glowing. He frowned, placing it back in his pocket, and it immediately stopped glowing and was immediately placed on the ground. “Wow,” Ben whispered, eyes widening as he realized what had happened.
“What. Was. That?” Gwen asked, eyes wide. “Did that guy from the museum come back here and just decide to screw around with everyone?”
“That doesn’t seem likely,” Max replied looking around, some of the food was even stuck on the ceiling and raining down on the patrons.
“Seems everything is back to normal… for now.” Gwen murmured. “Do you think that maybe the watch had something to do with this?”
“I… honestly don’t know,” Max replied, not sure where to look or what to do. This was bizarre, even for their standards.
“Maybe we should head to another restaurant,” Ben said. “This place has seen… better days.” And with that a plate of food fell down into the ground and shattered, making the three Tennysons flinch out of reflex.
“That might be a good idea,” Gwen replied, and the three of them left the restaurant to look for someplace else to eat.
…
…
…
Their next place was a more successful try, the three Tennysons ate their dinner each ordering a dish of seafood. Max ordered an octopus while Ben and Gwen ordered some fish with a helping of some fried shrimp. The dinner was satisfying and delicious, relaxing all three of them and getting the event at the last restaurant out of their minds for a bit.
Later the three of them walked down a street, Ben’s hand in his pocket as he kept running his hand over the magical charm. The idea of magic being real had never really occurred to the ten year old before. As a comic lover he had of course had his fair share of magical based Superheroes, The Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange, Zatanna Zatara, Raven and many others.
Could he learn magic and become a magical superhero? He knew magic was not easy, it always took some research and dedication, but wouldn’t it be worth it? If he could actually use magic…
A yell broke Ben out of his thoughts. “Help!” A woman yelled “He stole my purse!” A man quickly ran past them with a purse on his arm.
The three of them frowned as Gwen hurried into an alley to transform. “XLR8 will help!” Gwen said and began to turn the dial and look for the alien.
Ben thought quickly and raised his hand slightly focusing on the man’s leg before making a slight pulling motion and to everyone’s surprise the man’s leg was pulled back making him fall on the ground painfully and drop the purse. XLR8 had run and passed them like a blur, only to stop into a hult and almost trip herself.
“Guess your heroes weren’t needed after all,” Ben said. “Guy’s too clumsy to even run right.”
“Guess so,” she said. “Too bad I already turned into this alien.”
Max took the purse before running to the woman, and gave her the purse. “Here you go, miss,” he said. Making the woman smile.
“Thank you so much,” she said, taking her purse back.
“Don’t mention it,” Max replied. “We didn’t do much.” He returned to his grandkids to see Gwen still XLR8 crossing her arms and almost pouting.
“If I knew the guy would be this clumsy I wouldn’t have bothered transforming,” Gwen said.
“Well, you can always run around and-” Ben said with a mischievous tone.
“Ben, no,” Max stopped Ben in his tracks, crossing his arms. “What did we say about trying to use your cousin’s aliens for personal gain?”
Ben sighed, crossing his arms. “Not to do it,” he said with a small eye roll.
“That’s right,” Max nodded.
“I probably wouldn’t have done it anyway,” Gwen said with a shrug.
“You are so lame,” Ben said with a groan.
“I heard that!” Gwen yelled.
“You were meant to,” he replied.
Max sighed and shook his head. “Let’s just go back to the RV kids, it’s getting late.”
“Yes grandpa,” both cousins said. Gwen then looked at the thief before she started running and grabbed him, disappearing into the night before coming back a few minutes later. “I got him to a police station, if nothing else he would at least be scared to steal for a while.”
“Good thinking, Gwen,” Max said with a big smile.
(~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~)
Ben woke up the next day with an itch in his mind to scratch. Neither Gwen nore his grandpa Max were awake yet, so he looked through the Rustbucket until he finally was able to find a pen and some paper and began to draw, recalling the strange carved stones and putting them to paper, before taking another page and redrawing the one he had, then placed a few notes on the paper. Ben’s hand stopped for a second as he suppressed a shiver of disgust. “It’s like I’m turning into a dweep like Gwen. Ugh, she can never find out, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
He hid the second paper between his things, so Gwen and grandpa Max would never find it, but he still wanted some answers about the other stones. As soon as Gwen was awake, he would ask her to look them up through her computer.
After breakfast he grabbed Gwen and showed her the sketches before asking her to look up the information about the ‘weird glowing rocks that weirdo was using’. Gwen raised her eyebrow, looking at Ben like he had grown a second head, which odds are Gwen was more likely to do so with one of her aliens.
“...There is no way that that’s how they looked,” Gwen finally said.
“Why is that?” Ben asked, offended, crossing his arms.
“Because you only got one look at these stones,” Gwen said. “Do you really expect me to believe that you completely remembered what all five look like?”
“It’s all I needed before” Ben replied with a shrug. “Can’t you just look?”
“Okay fine,” she said reluctantly with a sigh. “But only because that thing at the restaurant was a major freak zone, and I think it has something to do with that wizard guy somehow.”
“Works for me,” Ben replied.
Gwen opened her laptop and began her research. Their grandpa walked closer, having listened in on their conversation, and waited for Gwen to find the information. As soon as she found the charms her eyes widened as she kept glancing back and forth between Ben’s sketches and the actual photo. “Okay,” Gwen said. “Aside from the major weirdness that you actually drew all of the symbols correctly…”
“Told you,” Ben replied.
“I cross-referenced the Archimedes Book of Spells with dark magical charms, they’re a part of a set called the Charms of Bezel.”
“What the heck are the Charms of Bezel?” Max asked.
“They’re magical talismans that grant the wielder different unique powers and abilities depending on the charm,” Gwen replied. “There’s one for fire control, electricity, telekinesis, and even luck, and a keystone which Increases all of the natural powers, abilities, and skills of the possessor, and amplifies the power of the charms tenfold.”
“So that's why he wanted the book of spells? To be even stronger?” Ben asked, looking at the computer screen and reading for himself.
“It seems so,” Gwen said with a nod.
‘It says all the Charms of Bezel must be used for the spells to be at their full power,’ Ben thought. ‘And I have one of them, so he might start looking for it.’
“We should probably notify the police so that they take them away from the guy and get them to a museum,” Max said.
“That might not be a good idea grandpa,” Gwen replied. “What if they were stolen? People who could use these charms might create a catastrophe.”
“You do have a point Gwen,” Max said, deep in thought.
“But… what if someone else…” Ben started. “Someone good got them instead? Wouldn’t it be good to use them then?”
“What? Someone like you?” Gwen asked with a snort.
“That’s not how this is gonna work Ben,” Max said. “Each one of those charms are dangerous on their own. We can’t risk it.”
Ben looked down “Right…”
Max gave a sigh and placed his hand on Ben’s shoulder “I understand that you want to do good Ben, but somethings are too dangerous to be used.”
“Besides deweep, do you really think that you can use magic when you can’t even pass English class with more than a C?”
Ben gave her a glare, and blew a raspberry at her. Before mockingly repeating her words back to her in a whiny voice. “You know,” he said with an annoyed sigh. “I think I’ll take a walk.” He headed towards the door of the Rustbucket.
“Ben…” Max called, and Ben stopped for a moment.
“I’ll stay close,” he said with annoyance. “I don’t need a babysitter for everything I do.” And with that he left the RV and walked deeper into the park. When he was sure that no one was around, he grabbed the charm from his pocket. “Now let’s see what else I can do with you.”
Ben moved the charm between his fingers, and ran his thumb over the markings once more. “I levitated before didn’t I?” He whispered to himself. “Let's see if I can do it again.” Ben focused on the charm in his hand, looking at it, narrowing his eyes and glaring, but nothing happened. Ben frowned then he began to shake it. “Um hello,” he said. “Magical charm, why aren’t you working anymore?!” He asked as if he expected the charm to respond, which it didn’t.
“Come on, come on,” Ben whispered almost desperately. “You can’t just stop working!” he shook the charm again “abra kadabra!” He yelled and yet nothing happened. “Alakazam!” he said desperately but once more, nothing happened. “No, no, don’t be like that,” Ben pleaded. “You’re my only chance to be useful, to be a real hero.” Frustration began to build inside of him. He gritted his teeth as his eyes began to wet with tears of hopelessness and frustration. “Just work and let me fly!!!”
Ben’s words reverberated through the park, almost like a small invisible sheen of energy. as he felt a small spark of something inside of his body, and the charm lit up again. Ben gasped as he felt his body become weightless and his legs began to hover over the ground. “Wow, I did it,” he whispered. “I DID IT!” He yelled in excitement and began to laugh, his hands punching the air up in excitement. “Okay, okay,” he whispered, looking down at the charm after a minute to collect himself. “Let’s figure out how to get you to work perfectly instead of accidentally.”
Ben set himself down and grabbed the charm with the other hand, which made it stop glowing. It took a few tries until Ben figured out that it was a combination between concentration, a split second of imagination or thought, and a certain something that he couldn’t give a name to, like a small spark of lightning that flickers inside of him. He wasn’t only levitating at well anymore, he was flying perfectly, as far or as low as he wanted, and even doing some flips in the air.
“That’s so awesome!” Ben yelled. He felt so light and free in that moment, like it was something so natural to him, that it should be natural, and he loved every moment of it. Magic was awesome, wonderful, and he didn't want to let go of it. “Can I make other things fly while I’m in the air too?” Ben looked around for something that can also be levitated, a trashcan here, a few leaves there.
As he continued to practice with the Charm, he often fell down when he tried to levitate something while he was flying. Which gave him more things to practice doing, and he made a note to at least be closer to the ground while he did so.
Ben couldn’t help it, he loved every minute of it, whether he succeeded or failed in what he was trying to do he at least knew that he had the ability to do it, and in that moment, he couldn’t be happier.
…
…
…
Ben returned to the Rustbucket a few hours later in a way better spirit, a huge smile on his face as he rummaged through his things and looked for his handheld video game console. He sat across from Gwen who was typing a few things on her laptop and began to play.
“You seem in a better mood,” Gwen said, raising her eyebrow.
“Yeah, I just needed some time for myself to clear my head,” Ben replied, not bothering to even glance up at Gwen.
“That’s good to know, Ben,” Max said, and ruffled Ben’s hair. Glad his grandson could see reason and get over wanting such dangerous powers.
Suddenly a report came through the radio. “...and in the news of the weird, reports are coming in that the city's famed "Haunted History Mansion" has come alive. Trapping dozens of visitors inside.”
Ben and Gwen exchanged a look before quickly coming to the same conclusion. “Grandpa!” They both yelled.
“On it,” Max replied and stepped on the gas pedal, driving faster into the mansion.
Gwen was the first to jump out of the RV and head inside, followed by Max, but as soon as Ben took a step down the stairs Max stopped him. “Stay in the Rustbucket, Ben.”
“What?!” Ben yelled, outraged. “But grandpa!”
“No buts!” Max cut him off. “This is dangerous and you’ve shown again and again that you leap before you think, and you would get hurt the moment I take my eyes off of you. So for once Benjamin, stay here, away from danger.”
Ben couldn’t believe his ears. His grandfather had never outright stopped him from joining the fight, he couldn’t say no, at least not directly. He looked down at the floor and gave a defeated sigh. “Yes grandpa.”
“I’m really sorry, son,” Max said. “But this is for your own good. Leave the dangerous situation for your cousin and me, I’ll watch her back.”
Ben nodded, and Max smiled, before turning around and following Gwen into the house. Ben narrowed his eyes as he went inside the RV. He clutched his hands into fists. He wanted to help, and he could help with the charm now. But… If his grandpa knew about the charm, then he'd take it away from him, he already said that he would. That they should destroy them. He won’t trust Ben with it. Therefore he needed to be someone whom grandpa Max had no authority over. He needed to be someone else, he needed what every hero needs, a secret identity. And for that he needed something to hide who he was.
He rummaged through his own clothes and the RV, he would upgrade his outfit later, but for now, it was sufficient he needed to hurry.
…
…
…
When Max reached the haunted house, Gwen had already transformed into Four Arms, and was trying to dodge or shield herself from Hex’s spells.
“Tell me where it is, now!” Hex demanded, his voice echoing around through the walls.
“Where is what?!” Max questioned looking at Gwen as she was trying to shield herself from the crystal attack from the wizard’s wand.
“He thinks we stole his levitation Charm!” Gwen yelled, before jumping up to avoid an oncoming lightning bolt.
“What?!” Max yelled, before looking for something to grab so that he can help his granddaughter.
“The good news is,” Gwen said, grabbing a big rock from a broken wall and throwing it at Hex. “At least we know he can’t use the Archimedes Book of Spells yet.” Gwen stood beside her grandpa, readying herself for another spell as Hex began to advance towards them, raising his wand, and chanting darkly.
Only for a door flew towards him at lightning speed and threw him into a wall, leaving some dust trails behind it. They heard Hex make a painful groan.
“Uhh… What just happened?” Gwen asked.
Max looked around to figure out where the food came from, only to see a kid in all back wearing an oversized jacket with its hood up, and a cloth around the lower part of his face, hiding his identity, black tight pants and fingerless gloves. “There, that kid,” Max said, before the figure began levitating, and raising his arms up.
“Are they on our side or do we have two wizards to fight now?” Gwen questioned.
The door exploded from a fireblast. The older wizard recited another spell which made fire fly from the wand’s mouth and it began to follow the kid.
Ben flew away quickly from the fire, and away from Gwen and his grandpa. His cousin took advantage of the distraction and ran towards the wizard aiming a punch at him, which sent him flying back. Unfortunately for her, and fortunately for Hex, the fire from his hand scraped one of her arms, which made her flinch back and crash into the wall behind her.
“Gwen!” Max yelled, and was about to run towards Gwen, when Hex aimed the wand at him and began to recite a spell. However, as soon as lightning was cast and aimed towards Max, he felt himself being pushed back, and raised up into the second floor before being dropped gently.
Max gasped and looked around to see the kid still floating in the air. The kid raised his arms up, and several rubles, wood, and even furniture flew up in the air. He pushed his arm forward and the floating things were hurled towards the wizard.
“What troublesome children,” Hex growled. “It is time to end this!”
“We need to take the Charms from him,” Max yelled, making both ten year olds look at Hex.
Ben extended his arm, making Gwen float up. “Wh-wha hey! That feels weird, what are you doing?!” She yelled. Ben jerked his head towards Hex as he made sure that both he and Gwen avoided all the blasts.
Gwen’s eyes widened as she realized what this stranger was thinking and nodded, agreeing to the plan. The kid gave a harsh push to Hex using his magic, which the old wizard seemed to easily counter.
“Fool, your powers are nothing compared to a Master Sorcerer!” Hex aimed the wand at Ben, forgetting Gwen for a moment, and just before the spell could hit, Ben made a throwing motion, and sent Gwen down, who aimed a kick towards Hex. It painfully landed on the old sorcerer, sending him flying out of the house completely, hitting a few rocks in the graveyard.
Gwen and Max ran towards Hex while Ben flew behind them. Max quickly grabbed the charms from around Hex’s neck, and placed them down against a rock slap. The watch timed out and Gwen transformed back. She looked around and found a shovel. She ran to grab it and gave it to her grandpa, who told both kids to back away. The two of them did as Max raised the shovel up and brought it down on the stones. They exploded and the remains flew into the air in a purple smoke.
“There, now no one will be able to use these ever again,” Max said, turning to his granddaughter and the other kid.
“So, I don’t think that I got your name,” Gwen said, turning to Ben.
He looked around then noticed something on the ground, he grabbed a rock and began to itch something on it like it was a piece of chalk.
“ Rune,” Gwen read, “Your name is Rune?” she asked. The kid nodded, and Gwen smiled at them in return. “Thanks for the assist.”
Max walked closer to the two of them. “Are you kids okay?” He asked, concerned.
“No permanent damage grandpa,” Gwen replied. “Oh, this is Rune.”
“It’s good to meet you son,” he said. “Are you okay, if you’re hurt I can patch you up in our RV.”
Rune shook his head before floating up, he gave Gwen and Max a two finger salute and began to fly off, wanting to get out of sight. Leaving the two of them to wonder who the kid was, and why he was there.
…
…
…
“ Rune ?” Ben asked, raising his eyebrow, as Gwen and his grandpa recited what had happened from their point of view.
“Yeah,” Gwen said with a nod. “They really came in clutch and helped big time.”
“Great,” he said sarcastically. “Another person who gets to be a hero instead of me.” Although he was quite proud of himself for actually helping like that for once. He would have been celebrating if not for the fact that his grandpa might actually take the only source of power he had.
“Ben,” Gwen sighed.
“Although, that still raises the question,” Max said. “Who was that kid, and why did he help us?
“Wouldn’t you know him the next time you see him?” Ben asked. “You can just ask him then.”
“Nah, his face was hidden,” Gwen said. “Only his eyes were visible and I could barely see those. I’m just glad that he was on our side. Heck the clothes were so baggy, I’m can’t even be sure that it was a boy.”
“Seriously?” Ben asked, raising his eyebrow.
“They didn’t even talk, so yeah I really couldn’t tell,” Gwen said.
“Now that you mention it neither could I,” Max said.
“...And start saying ‘they’?”
“It would be a little rude to assume I think, wouldn’t you say?” Max asked.
Ben blinked a few times. “I guess, yeah… Just never heard a single person being referred to as they before.”
“Well there are a lot of people who… actually never mind, this is probably a discussion for later.”
“...kay?” Ben replied in an uncertain tone. How complicated could this be?
“Also One charm is still missing,” Gwen said in thought. “We didn’t destroy them all. Maybe Rune had it, considering their powers.”
“Or it was lost in the museum under something or the other,” Ben suggested.
“As long as it’s out of the bad guy’s hands, I think it’ll all be good now,” Max said with a relieved smile. “Should we head out now then?”
“Actually,” Gwen said. “We should probably stay here one more night, I don’t think that you’re in any shape to drive grandpa.”
“Yeah you might be right,” Max said. “It has gotten pretty late. We’ll leave tomorrow after breakfast.”
“Sounds good to me,” Gwen said.
(~~~~~~~0~~~~~~)
They did end up staying one more night. Both Ben and Gwen had voted on eating breakfast at a nearby cafe –else they’ll have to eat their grandpa’s cooking again–
As they ate Ben excused himself and headed towards a nearby shop, a few minutes later he came back with a small bag in his hand. “What did you get Ben?” Max asked, making Ben shrug.
“Just something I’m gonna need,” he replied, which made Gwen raise her eyebrow. Her cousin is being cryptic, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about it at all.
“Hey Gwen,” Ben called as they continued to have their breakfast, surprisingly in peace for once. “I wanna make a deal with you.”
“A deal?” Gwen asked.
“I wanna use your laptop,” Ben said.
“Umm, not a chance,” she replied, dismissing Ben. She didn’t want her dweep of a cousin using her computer for whatever game that he wanted to play on.
“Listen, just hear me out okay,” Ben insisted.
Gwen narrowed her eyes at him but nodded and gave him the go ahead.
“You give me your laptop for one to two hours a day,” Ben said. Gwen was about to refuse on principle. “And I’ll do one of your chores each day that I use it.”
“Wait Seriously?” She asked, surprised. Considering they both hated to do chores in the RV that was kind of a generous offer.
“Yep, completely serious,” he said with a nod.
“Are you up to something?” His cousin asked suspiciously.
“No,” Ben replied. “That's my deal, what do you say?”
“Any chore?” she repeated “Of my choosing, for you to do instead of me.”
“Yep,” Ben reassured her.
Max blinked, looking back and forth between his grandchildren like a ping pong tournament was happening in front of him.
“Okay, cousin, you have a deal,” Gwen said and the two of them shook their hands. They finished their breakfast and paid for it before heading to the RV and began driving towards a new location.
Ben sat across from Gwen and opened the bag, then took out a small journal with what seemed to be a lock, opening it with the key that came with it, Ben took a pen, and began to sketch. If he was going to really learn magic, in whatever little way he could, he might as well start right, even if it makes him a dweep like his cousin.Not that she’d ever find out if Ben has anything to say about it. He’s just not going to give her that fodder to make fun of him.