The night was quiet, with a warm breeze drifting by.
Suddenly, a fierce burst of purple light shattered the stillness.
Right after that, a small figure was blasted out through the RV door by a terrifying sonic wave and went tumbling onto the roadside.
"Echo Echo!"
A small white alien quickly ran out of the RV and stopped in front of the fallen Gwen.
He had glowing green eyes, headphones on his head, and something like an MP3 player hanging from his back. He was short, with the Omnitrix symbol right in the center of his chest.
The last time Lucian defeated the Bull Giant and the Diamond Giant, he obtained a random Alien Hero chest. After opening it, he unlocked Echo Echo's gene.
[Echo Echo: Derived from the Sonorosian DNA of Sonorosia. His true body is a massive living speaker, but in reality he is a form of "living sound" stored inside a white silicon-based suit.]
[Abilities: Powerful sonic attacks, duplication, echolocation, sonic barriers.]
[One thing worth noting is that every Echo Echo duplicate has its own independent consciousness and is not linked to the others.]
[Unlike Ditto, even if all of Echo Echo's duplicates are destroyed, it does not affect the original body.]
[Weakness: Too small in size, making direct confrontation unsuitable.]
Echo Echo, known as the undefeated war god, never lost a single fight in the original story.
Just now, the instant Gwen cast the spell, Lucian immediately transformed into Echo Echo and blasted Charmcaster away.
Grandpa hurried out. "Lucian, what in the world is going on?"
"Gwen!" Ben was about to run over and help Gwen up.
Echo Echo stopped him. "Don't go over there. She's not Gwen."
His voice was cold and mechanical, yet still carried a human tone, like a voice processed through an electronic filter.
"What?" Grandpa Max thought he had misheard. "If she's not Gwen, then who is she?"
"She should be Charmcaster. She swapped Gwen out while we weren't paying attention," Echo Echo said.
"Huh? If she's Charmcaster, then Charmcaster turned into Gwen?" Ben asked.
"Probably. Maybe." Echo Echo scratched his head.
"I'm over here!"
Charmcaster suddenly appeared, running over from the far end of the street.
At that moment, Gwen stood up, pointed at Echo Echo, and shouted, "Grandpa, don't listen to him! He's Charmcaster! Back during that explosion, Cuz got his body swapped by Charmcaster! You've all been fooled!"
"Huh? What is all this? I'm completely mixed up now." Grandpa Max had a headache coming on and was caught in a complete dilemma.
Echo Echo let out a cold snort. "Spouting nonsense to confuse everyone. You looking for a beating?"
Gwen's face stiffened in fear. "Grandpa, look. He can't argue with me, so now he wants to hit me..."
"Grandpa, don't listen to him. I'm the real Gwen!!" Charmcaster shouted as she ran over to stand beside Echo Echo.
At this point Grandpa Max was totally lost. His brain was practically overheating.
He had been sleeping soundly in the middle of the night, and now suddenly he was faced with a real-and-fake-granddaughter situation. He couldn't process it.
"Grandpa, Charmcaster swapped bodies with me, then framed me and got me thrown in jail. You absolutely can't believe her lies!" Charmcaster paused, then pointed at Gwen in the distance. "Give me my body back!"
"You say I'm the fake one, so what proof do you have?" Gwen began arguing back.
"Then tell me this. Last time in the Null Void, besides the Barbarian Dragon, what other monster did we run into?" Charmcaster said with a slight smile.
Gwen stammered, "Th-that... how would I know? It was so long ago!"
"Wrong. It hasn't even been half a month," Echo Echo said with a laugh.
Grandpa Max and Ben exchanged a glance, then looked at the exposed Gwen with strange expressions.
Gwen flew into a rage and simply dropped the act. "Since I've been exposed, then I'm done pretending!"
As she spoke, Gwen condensed another purple orb of light.
"Give me your body. Now!"
The surging purple orb, dense with magical power, rushed toward Echo Echo at incredible speed.
Echo Echo's body flashed, and he appeared behind Charmcaster.
Whoosh.
A powerful sonic blast instantly shoved Charmcaster backward and sent her straight into the purple orb.
"Oh no!!!" Gwen screamed in terror.
Boom.
The two purple orbs collided, engulfing Charmcaster and Gwen in endless light.
A moment later, the purple light slowly faded.
"Oh no!!" Charmcaster clutched her head and screamed hysterically. "I turned back into myself again!"
Gwen looked at her hands and clothes, her face full of delight. "Cool! I changed back!"
Charmcaster gritted her teeth and thought to herself, There's only one dose of the Mind Swap potion left. Next time I have to hit the right target. I can't swap with the wrong person again!
"Hey, Charmcaster, I still haven't settled the score for what you did to me last time!" Ben pressed the Omnitrix, switched heroes, and transformed into Crocodile.
He had a strong, muscular body covered in golden scales, like a standing crocodile, with a long snout and sharp fangs. He looked extremely ferocious.
Seeing Ben transformed into Crocodile, then glancing at Echo Echo, Charmcaster's gaze sharpened and she decided to swap bodies with Ben.
Lucian was too strong. She had no confidence in swapping with him.
Besides, Lucian was an adult and probably knew a lot. What if he used her body to do something bad...
Charmcaster quickly shook her head. What was she even thinking about? She needed to focus on the fight.
She pulled several magic stones from her magic pouch and threw them to the ground.
Bang!
The magic stones immediately turned into several stone boars, wrapped in purple markings and radiating a savage aura, as they charged straight at Echo Echo.
Then Charmcaster rushed directly at Crocodile.
She planned to use the stone boars to hold Echo Echo back, giving herself a chance to swap minds with Crocodile.
"Trying to hold me back? Naive." Echo Echo knew he was being underestimated.
With a single thought, he instantly split into another Echo Echo.
Two, four, eight!
All the Echo Echos unleashed powerful sonic attacks at the same time. The terrifying force instantly tore all the stone boars to pieces, turning them into countless fragments of rubble that scattered across the ground.
At the same time, Charmcaster had already cast her spell, surrounding herself in a sphere of light, and was just about to fire another orb at Crocodile.
Crocodile knew how dangerous that move was and didn't dare take it head-on, so he turned and ran.
"Don't run!!" Charmcaster shouted.
The next second, a powerful invisible sonic wave struck from the side.
Bzzzz!
The purple orb, as thin as cicada wings, shattered apart, revealing Charmcaster's stunned expression.
Before she could react, Echo Echo transformed into Spidermonkey and tied Charmcaster up tightly.
After that, Grandpa Max called the police and had Charmcaster sent back to prison.
...
Inside the prison.
The moment Charmcaster returned to her cell, she was surrounded by a crowd of vicious women.
"Welcome back, missy..." The boss lady cracked her knuckles, a wicked smile curling across her lips.
End of chapter.