253It was the middle of the night as Gwen felt something was off. She called Ben, Kevin and Star and told them something was wrong. Kevin quickly got into his car and picked up Gwen up, then Ben and Star. Kevin drove them to a big hole in the desert. Once they got there Gwen looked in the back and saw Ben and Star were taking a nap.
"Ben? Star? Ben! Star!" said Gwen trying to wake them up.
They woke up after they were called the second time. "I'm on it." said Ben and Star as the woke up
"You two were asleep!
"Well yeah! It's like 1 am." said Ben
"More like 3 am." said Kevin
"I felt a ripple in the manna. I thought we should check it out."
"I would like to be in my bed. I had a late nigh already. So you investigate without me." said Star
"I'm with you on that." said Ben
But Gwen just stared at Ben and Star. "Fine!" said both Ben and Star
Then Kevin opened his door. "You're not driving down?" asked Ben
"The gravel will chip my paint." said Kevin
"We're setting the hero bar kind of low tonight." said Gwen
"Told you to take Ben's car." They soon found a area with a drill and a big stone with caves in it. They went into one of these caves. Ben, Kevin, Star and Gwen saw tons stuff from the Forever Knights on the ground. Including some armor and weapons. "Forever Knights threw a party." Kevin said as he picked up a helmet of the Forever Knights.
Ben then noticed some of the dirt was disturbed in a trail. "With an uninvited guest." said Ben
"A friend of yours, no doubt." said a voice as five Forever Knights walked in the cave.
"Hey, it must be Monty Python week." said Kevin
"So, which group are you guys with Urian, Patrick, the Forever King?" asked Ben
"Frauds and apostates the lot of them. I am Sir Cyrus, and ours is the true path, faithful to the ways of our founder, the First Knight." said Cyrus
"Another faction? I'm gonna have to start keeping notes." said Gwen
"I already started one. Just remind me to add this group." said Star
"What tried to break into your vault?" asked Ben
"To the best of our knowledge, you did." said Cyrus
"Sire, actually..." said the one of the five of them that didn't have armor.
"Silence, Squire. Your king speaks."
"You think we did this?" asked Gwen
"Two of my men are missing and you're here. Now you'e going to tell us where you took them, even if it's with your last breath." The other three armored knights started to blast at them. Gwen quickly put up an energy shield to block the blasts. Gwen charged forward knocking them back with the shield. One of the knights lost there helmet. Kevin picked it up and adsorbed the metal. One of the knights fired on Kevin. But thanks to absorbing the metal the blasts just bounced off him. Kevin ran up to him and lifted him up. Star ran up and fired a blast from her wand hitting one of the armor knight knocking him back."Right. Nobody move! Or the changeling suffers." Cyrus said as he pointed a blaster at Ben. "Raise your hands above your head."
"If you say so." said Ben. He raised his hands up and hit the ultimatrix. "Humongous... oh!" Ben said as he hit is head on the drill as he was saying his transformations name.
"Stay back!" Cyrus said a bit of fear in his voice.
Ben then grabbed Cyrus's blaster from him. "Hey, it's the middle of the night, I just hit my head, and you are really annoying me!"
"Hold fire!" But when Cyrus looked all three of the knights he brought with him were already knocked out.
Ben hit the omnitrix symbol and turned back to normal. Then Ben gave Cyrus back his blaster. "We have a situation here, which, by the way, you caused. If you want to help fix it, great. If not, stay out of our way."
"Sire, if I may be so bold, these people didn't cause the accident. It was Sir Reginald. He tried to open it with the laser drill, and then there was an explosion." said the Squire
"Then, for now, we shall declare a truce." said Cyrus
"How made that thing?" asked Gwen
"The First Knight forged the sacred seal 17 centuries ago. As to why, well, I was trying to translate the inscriptions, but I didn't finish in time." said the Squire
"Maybe I can help. Gwen."
"Winston. Sir Reginald's Squire. I mean, I was." said Winston as he shock Gwen's hand.
"Okay, Sir Reginald's Squire, you got an explanation for what happened here?" asked Kevin as he got in between Gwen and Winston.
"Perhaps the laser struck an explosive on the other side of the seal?"
Ben went to check it out. "That tracks. It looks like it's cracked from the inside." said Ben
"So, the explosion took down my knight? Is that what happened, Squire?" asked Cyrus
"I'm not sure. When the energy began to build up, I, uh... I ran, sire." said Winston
"Guess we're setting the hero bar kind of low tonight, huh?." said Kevin. The Gwen elbowed him.
"You're telling me that even though It's got a big Forever Knights symbol on it, you don't know what's inside?" asked Ben
"Any records were long since lost to time." said Cyrus
"Sir Reginald thought it was a weapons cache filled with captured alien technology." said Winston
Gwen's eyes started to glow purple as used her powers to check out the seal. "I don't think this is about technology. That seal is infused with magic." said Gwen
"Preposterous! A Forever Knight would never use magic." said Cyrus
"Well, one of them did."
Then a Knight started to whisper to Cyrus. "Police are reporting several locals have gone missing after a blinding light."
"Let's go check it out." said Ben
"Maybe I should stay here with Winston try to translate those inscriptions." said Gwen
"What?! No. Bad idea. I mean, were gonna need all of our firepower with us if we have to fight. Whatever we're fighting." said Kevin
"The dangerous bright light." Gwen said sarcastically.
"Maybe Kevin is just jealous." said Star
"No I'm not. Why do you think I'm jealous?" asked Kevin
"They why don't we call some Plumbers for backup."
"Come on, Gwen. Kevin has a point." said Ben
"Then we'll all go on the hunt together." said Cyrus
The Forever Knights were on hover bikes as Ben and them where in in Kevin's car with Kevin and Gwen in the front.
"That was so rude!" said Gwen
"Me, rude? To whom Squire Whiffle?" said Kevin
"Winston."
"Whatever! I can't bother to remember. He's not important enough."
"Like i said before you're jealous." said Star
"I think Star is right. You are jealous." said Gwen
"Of what his dumb name, his dumb accent, or his dumb dress?" asked Kevin
"It's a tunic."
Why ar they stopping?" asked Ben
Kevin pulled over near them. They got out of the car and joined up with the Forever Knights. "We've detected an alien life-form." said Cyrus
"Huh. My ultimatrix isn't interested." They headed into the ally way and saw a green creature on a policeman attached to two of of his tentacles. "I haven't beaten anybody up in about 20 minutes. If you don't let that policeman go right now, that's gonna change." The creature let out a loud shrieks.
"Fire!" Cyrus ordered
"No!" The Forever Knightas fired but Gwen quickly put up a shield to block the blasts. Ben the activate the ultimatrix and hit it. "Swapfire!" Then Ben tossed out a few seeds. The seeds grew into vines that grabbed the blasters of the Forever Knights and pulled them away. Cyrus was about to blast Ben but he melted his blaster. "Hey, when I say no, I mean no!"
"You could've hit that guy!" said Kevin
"He's as good as dead already." said Cyrus
Gwen charged the creature. It started to blast at her. but she used her powers to make a shield to block the attacks. She tried to pull the policeman but he grabbed Gwen. Then the creature attached two more tentacles on to Gwen's head. That it grew out of it's head. Gwens eyes turned green. "How may i serve the great one?" asked Gwen sounding like she is being controlled.
Then Kevin absorbed the metal from a trash bin. "Yo, freak show, let her go!" said Kevin. He morphed his hand into a morningstar and charged at the creature. He hit the creature several times. Then it let go of the policeman and Gwen.
"Don't let it touch you." said Gwen as she held her head with her hand. The creature launched two tentacles from its head. Kevin dodged first but not the second. But unlike Gwen this caused pain to the creature and quickly removed the tentacles from Kevin. Then both Ben fired fire ball and Star fired magic blasts. The creature started to run for it as Ben and Star kept firing on it. The creature knocked to the side the Forever Knights and grabbed Winston. Then soon the creature was gone.
"This is not gonna go over well." said Ben. Ben and Star went over to check on Gwen. "Are you..."
"Lousy. Thanks. Did you notice..." said Kevin
"That the creepy crawly couldn't mind control Kevin? Yeah."
"Squire Winston, where are you?" said Cyrus calling out for Winston
Ben picked up Winston's bag. "He's gone. That creature grabbed him."
"Lucubra! That's what it calls itself." said Gwen
"By whatever name, the evil has taken my man, and it's your fault!" said Cyrus
Ben, Kevin, Star and Gwen waited by Kevin's car as the Forever Knights looked around.
"It was awful. I could feel it in my head, fishing around." said Gwen
"For what?" asked Ben
"Kevin's attack broke the connection."
"You're welcome." said Kevin
"I know, right? I feel like driving my brain through a car wash."
The Forever Knight got back. "No trace of the beast. If you four hadn't interfered..."said Cyrus
"You'd all be in jain for shooting a cop, and the Lucubra would still have your Squire." said Ben
"You don't know that."
"Sure, I do. Our way, the innocent policemangets to go home to his family tonight and we still have a chance to catch the bad guy."
"Witch would be a lot easier if we knew more about that seal your knights found." said Gwen
"Here's the lad's rucksack. It has his notes and the pictures he took." said Cyrus as he gave the bag to Gwen
"We'll do our best."
"I'm sure you will Sorceress."
"While she works on that, how about you take the north side of the city, we take the south? Either of us runs into the Lucubra, let the other one know. "
"Agreed."
"And nobody moves in 'til we're all there." said Kevin
"If my Squire is endangered, I will do whatever needs be done." Cyrus and the other Forever Knight got on there hover bikes and flew off.
Ben turned into Cromastone and Star in her butterfly form. They flew off so they could search from the air. As Kevin and Gwen were in his car with Gwen checking out Winston's notes and photos about the seal. Kevin was search as well as he drove along.
"Any luck with those papers?" asked Ben over there communicators.
"Winston's notes are pretty useless. They're mostly about some First Knight forging the vault 1,700 years ago. They're all pretty high on him. Unfortunately, Winston couldn't read the tunes properly. He really thought it was full of captured alien technology."
"But it turned out to be a monster jail." said Star
"This First Knight must've trapped the creature in there." said Ben
"And they opened the door and let him out." said Kevin
Gwen looked at picture of the seal. "I don't think it was a vault door. I think it was a mystic seal to prevent a demon from crossing between two worlds." said Gwen
"A demon?"
"Lucubra is a creature from another dimension."
"Good. So, we know where to send him back, if we can find him." said Ben
"That stuff all belongs to Winston, right? Maybe you could track him." said Kevin
"Maybe." said Gwen. Gwen started to track Winston but she started see a strange vision.
"You found him?
"I accidentally connected to the Lucubra."
"You okay?"
"Fine. I think I saw it escape through the seal."
"But no Winston?" asked Ben
"Oh, I found him, too. Intersection of Roeper and Hawthorne get here fast."
"Meet you there." Ben and Star turned around as the headed to where Gwen told them.
Kevin and Gwen got there first with Ben and Star getting soon after them. Then they returned to normal. "I guess we'd better let the knights know where we are."
"Seriously?" asked Kevin
"Well, I did say I would." said Ben
"Yeah, but you didn't say when."
"Good point. We'll call them after it's all over."
"You two should be in politics." said Gwen. She used her powers to destroy a section of the fence so the could get to the building. They quickly got to the building
"There's never a way in when you need one."
"I could always blast a hole." said Star as she got out her wand
"Can we not go straight to the nuclear option?" said Gwen. Then Gwen used her powers to make energy steps for them. Gwen went first followed by Ben, Star then Kevin. Once they got to the top set of windows the looked inside and saw the Lucubra with the knights and policeman from earlier all were connected to it by the tentacles on its head.
"That is so wrong." said Kevin
"Let's get in there. Gwen? Gwen?!" said Ben. Gwen's eyes were green like before. As she was in a trance. Ben tried to shake her. Then the step they were on disappeared. They started to fall, Ben then activated the ultimatrix and hit it. He turned into Goop to save Star, Gwen and Kevin from the fall with his gooey body. Once they were safe Ben reformed and turned back to normal.
"You okay?"
"Of course she's not okay. She's not complaining how disgusting Goop is."
"The Lucubra in my head again. It feeds on people's thoughts." said Gwen
"I got some thoughts for it right here." said Kevin
"It wants energy from the parietal lobe, the part of the brain you use when you pray or meditate."
"So you bliss out and it has lunch?"
"Until there's nothing left."
"We have to save those people, now." said Ben
"Okay, only Gwen stays out of it." said Kevin
"Says who? I can hold my own." said Gwen
"Until you space out like you just did." said Star
"I got out of it."
"But what if next time you can't." said Kevin
"I'll be okay."
"Listen, Gwen, I can't... I mean... We can't afford to lose you, the team, you know?"
"Oh. I, um... Help me out here Ben."
"How about you go around back? If we get into trouble, but only if, then you jump in." said Ben
Gwen started to walk to the back a bit depressed. "I still don't think she should be in on this." said Kevin as he absorbed metal from a door.
"Me either. That's why we're going to do this fast." Ben activate the ultimatrix and hit it. "Armodrillo!" Ben punched the wall causing a big hole in it. The Lucubra released the people from its tentacles. The people started to walk towards Ben, Star and Kevin. "Kevin, don't hurt anyone."
"They started it!"
"Come on, people! Back off!"
"We don't want to hurt you!" said Star
"To be honest, I am considering it." The people under the Lucubra control attack them. But there attack were weak so they were more in the way then anything." After a bit they was a crash as Cyrus and his knights went through a wall. Gwen ran into the hole she just made. "Gwen get out of here!"
The Lucubra let out s screech. Then Gwen's eyes turned green. Then Ben hit the omnitrix symbol and changed forms. "NRG! Hey, Lucubra, you hungry? How about a taste of this?!" said Ben. Then he fired a blast from his face. Once the Lucubra got hit it was knocked back a bit. This caused the Lucubra to lose control of Gwen. The Lucubra got up and jumped on Ben.
"Ben!" said Star and Kevin worried what happened to Gwen was going to happen to him
"No, I'm good." Ben said as he tossed the Lucubra off himself. "Just like Kevin was when he was wrapped in metal."
Kevin ran over to Gwen and as she got up Kevin morphed a metal dome around her head. "Tinfoil hat keeps them from controlling your mind."
Star was right behind Kevin. "Hey don't forget about me. I don't want to be controlled by it." said Star
"Oh right." Then Kevin made a metal dome for Star.
"Ben, I need a hole, a deep one." said Gwen
Ben got on some crates and fired a blast at the Lucubra. This send it deep into the ground making a deep hole at the same time. "How's that?" asked Ben
Then Gwen used her magic to create a seal like the one in the cave and sealed the Lucubra in there. The control of the Forever Knights and policeman was gone. Kevin went to check them out.
"They're okay." said Kevin
Ben returned back to normal as some started to wake up. "Steady there, Squire." said Gwen as she helped Winston up.
"Uh, I tried to fight it." said Winston
"Well, hooray for you. Now go buy yourself a cookies." said Kevin
"We call them biscuits."
"Squire Winston, step away from the alien scum." said Cyrus. Then Winston stepped back form Ben, Kevin, Star and Gwen.
"I think he's talking about us." said Ben
"After all we've meant to each other." said Kevin
"Did you destroy the beast?" asked Cyrus
"I sent it back where it came from." said Gwen
"You got a problem with that?" asked Ben
"No. For now, our work is done and our truce remains in force." said Cyrus
"Except for that part out back where you ambushed me." said Gwen
"A minor misunderstanding. Nevertheless, take heed. When we next meet..."
"Yeah, yeah, we will know your righteous vengeance. Can we call it a night? I could use some sleep." said Ben
Then the Forever Knights left the building.