Hey again! Second chapter is UP!!! Review and enjoy! WARNING: Spoiler for NSMBW end. P.S. from now on, any reviews I get, I will respond to them at the end of every new chapter. Sorry if I don't respond to yours, this darn mobile app sometimes doesn't show all the reviews.
Ben 10 Season 5 Episode 1 Part 2: The Truth is in the Game
Gwen, Max, and Zoe all gasped when Ben collapsed on the ground, eyes closed, a pained expression on his face. Bowser just began to laugh.
"Oh, come on!" Bowser cackled. "I would've thought Vilgax would've been able take care of that piece of deadweight easily. Oh well. His loss, my gain." He began to stomp over to where Ben lay.
"No Koopa is going to lay their scaly hands on my grandson!" Max said, stepping in front of Ben, eyes narrowed, hand gripping the laser gun tightly.
"Oooo, I'm soooooo scared. Old grandpa is gonna get me," Bowser taunted in a mocking tone.
"Oh please! Some overgrown turtle isn't gonna get past us!" Gwen shouted, a blue glow emitted from around her hands from her mental magic.
"Oh, now we're getting cocky, eh? Alright, if it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get!" Bowser inhaled sharply and breathed fire in Gwen's direction. She jumped, dodging the blaze and she flung her magic blasts at the Koopa. He spun and dodged the blasts, but then he roared in pain. Zoe, now half dragon, had blown fire all over his tail, and now Bowser was running around, clutching his spiked tail, roaring. Gwen couldn't help but laugh a little.
"Let's fire at him while he's distracted!" Max shouted.
"What about Ben?" Zoe said. "Someone should stay with him."
"You're right. Do you want to?" Max asked.
"Sure. You two to deal with the overgrown Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle," she replied, smiling. Then she went back to being human and knelt beside Ben. She felt her heart beating faster as she gazed at him. She felt genuinely scared for him. She really did like him. A tear came to her eye as she continued to look at his pained expression. She quickly wiped it away and looked over to see how Gwen and Grandpa Max were doing. They seemed to be pretty evenly matched against Bowser, trading blow for blow. Part of her wanted to help them, but the other part kept her by Ben. She knew she had to stay here just in case Bowser decided to come and do who knows what to Ben. She placed a hand on one of his outstretched arms as she watched the fight between heroes and villain. She really hoped today would end up being alright.
————10————
Ben regained consciousness and opened his eyes a little. He saw Zoe beside him, a hand in his arm, watching something to her left. Ben's stomach did a flip. She looked back at him, a worried expression on her face. Ben decided to get up as he heard a small explosion.
"Mmm," he mumbled, moving a little. Zoe immediately let go of his arm and put her hand on the concrete. He sat up on his knees, surprised he felt no more pain in his head.
"How are you feeling?" Zoe asked.
"A lot better than I expected to," he replied. "What's going on?"
"Gwen and Grandpa Max are fighting Bowser," Zoe replied. Then she shifted to her dragon form. "Let's help them."
"You can say that again. It's hero time!" Ben set the switch to Diamondhead and slammed his hand down onto the Omnitrix. In a flash of green light, Homo Sapien became Petrosapien, and Diamondhead stood next to dragon Zoe.
"Let's do this," Diamondhead said. The two leaped into action, Zoe flying right for Bowser, claws outstretched, and Diamondhead shaping his right fist into a sharp crystal spike. Bowser spotted what was coming for him and leaped a lot higher than anyone expected. Zoe stopped abruptly as not to run into a tree. When Bowser came down, the ground shook. Everyone was knocked down except Zoe, who was in the air. She readied a breath of fire and blasted it at Bowser. He was hit in the face and he roared in agony, stumbling around, clutching his burnt muzzle.
"Aaaaagh! You're going to pay for that, you half-human freak!" Bowser roared. Zoe's eyes narrowed. So did Diamondhead's.
"Nobody calls my friend a freak!" he shouted, shooting crystalline spikes at the oversized Koopa. Bowser spun around just in time to protect himself with his shell. But as he did so, Zoe scratched him across the nose, her black claws glistening with blood at the tips. She was mad, and nothing was going to stop her from giving Bowser what he deserved.
Diamondhead ran over to Bowser and grabbed his head, forcing Bowser to look at him.
"Give me one good reason not to rip you to shreds," Diamondhead growled, his voice dripping with rage. Bowser looked afraid for a minute, but then he smiled. He retracted his limbs and head into his shell, forcing Diamondhead to let go of him and began to spin rapidly. He knocked Diamondhead off his feet and went for Max next. He jumped out of the way and Gwen did the same when the shell came towards her. Zoe remained in the air, avoiding Bowser's spinning altogether. Bowser stopped spinning and got back out of his shell, anger burning in his eyes. Suddenly the sound of the Omnitrix timing out filled the air. Zoe, Gwen, and Max all looked towards Diamondhead as the flash of red light turned him back into Ben.
"Aw man, not now!" Ben exclaimed, looking at himself. Bowser smirked and started to stomp over to where Ben stood. Ben backed up, a scared expression on his face as he looked st the angry Koopa.
"Ben!" Gwen, Zoe, and Grandpa Max shouted. Ben gulped, turned, and ran as Bowser came running after him. Bowser roared in rage and blew fire at Ben. Luckily Ben was fast and he avoided the blaze. Zoe swooped in to pick Ben up, but as she did so, Bowser grabbed her tail and yanked her towards him. Suddenly she wasn't half dragon anymore. She landed on the ground with a thud! at Bowser's feet. Then Bowser grabbed the back of her shirt, hoisting her in the air like a sack of potato chips. Ben gritted his teeth as Zoe stuggled in Bowser's grip. He ran up to Bowser and punched him as hard as he could. But Bowser simply turned his head towards Ben, an eyebrow raised like Gwen had done so many times. He picked Ben up in his other hand, smirking as the two kids struggled to get free from his grip. Gwen fired more magic beams at Bowser and Max fired more lasers at him. Bowser was unfazed by this and he simply turned towards the two, grinning evilly.
"You two really do like playing with fire, don't you? Well, I'll show you why you should never, ever mess with me!" He turned Zoe and Ben to face each other, and the two kids looked up at Bowser quizzically. Then Bowser slammer the two kids' foreheads together.
"OW!" Ben and Zoe chorused. Bowser tossed them over into the grass of someone's road verge. The two kids sat up, clutching their foreheads, clearly in pain. Gwen narrowed her eyes and gathered magic into a large ball and blasted it at Bowser's chest. He toppled over and Max jumped on top of the Koopa king, pointing the laser gun at Bowser's head.
"You hurt my grandkids. And now you're going to pay," an icy coldness was in Grandpa Max's voice as he glared down at Bowser.
"Pfft. Riiiiiiight. And pigs can fly," Bowser replied. He gathered a fireball in his mouth and blasted it at Max. Max jumped off the Koopa just in time. Bowser stood up.
"I'll be back. Soon, you'll see. This entire world will belong to me," Bowser sang, and with a snap of his fingers, he was gone.
"Ben! Zoe! Are you okay?" Max ran over to where the two kids sat. Both had their eyes closed tight, tears welled in them, still clutching their foreheads.
"I think. It just hurts a lot," Ben stammered.
"It doesn't seem like anything's broken," Zoe added.
"When Bowser comes back, I'm going to make sure I end him," Max promised.
"Me too," Gwen said. "Nobody hurts my cousin and friend and gets away with it."
"And NOBODY calls me a freak and gets away with it!" Zoe growled, opening her eyes a little, curling her hands into fists.
"We'll end Bowser, we will!" Ben agreed. "But for now, I just need an ice pack."
"Me too," Zoe said.
"Let's head back to the Rust Bucket. I have some ice there," Max said. The kids stood up, a hand on their foreheads, and everyone walked towards the Rust Bucket. When everyone got what they needed, Ben, Zoe, and Gwen sat at the table. Gwen spoke up as Ben and Zoe put the ice packs to their foreheads.
"So where did Bowser go?" she asked.
"I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure he went back to his home planet, Helebron," Max replied. "Most people call Bowser's planet the Dark Lands because it's dark all day long."
"So what are we going to do now? School should be canceled because it's already 10:30, and Bowser got away," Gwen said.
"That's the one thing I'm afraid of," Max replied. "Knowing Bowser, he's going to bring an army of his minions here to try to capture us first then take over the world."
"So why are we just sitting here? Let's go beat Bowser!" Ben suggested.
"It's not quite that simple, Ben. Helebron is light years away, over in the next galaxy. And even though I have a device that could teleport us there, Bowser has defenses that could vaporize us in a flash. Plus Bowser might be prepared if we were to go to Helebron, so he may have extra defenses up. It's just too risky," Max sighed.
"So we're just supposed to wait until Bowser tries to take over the world?" Zoe asked.
"I'm afraid so," Max replied. "But there is a way to monitor what Bowser's up to." Max opened a cabinet above the radio, revealing a small screen with a dial next to it. Max turned the dial until the screen showed a scene of dark red ground and purple clouds with bipedal turtles roaming around on lookout. Ben recognized the turtles; they were the same ones Zoe had drawn the previous day.
"Koopa Troopas!" Zoe said, surprised. "And Goombas!" A sort of brown mushroom-like creature waddled onto the screen, it's mouth in the shape of a snarl and eyes full of anger.
"Yes. The plumbers put a hidden camera on Helebron to keep an eye on Bowser," Max explained. "It's been up for years and Bowser has never noticed it."
"Neat," Gwen said. Then she looked as if she got an idea. "Hey Grandpa, are all the enemies in the Mario series the same as the ones on Helebron?"
"Yes. They all behave the same way too," Max replied. "Why?"
"Well, Zoe, you're an expert in Mario, so you could give us more intel on what we might be up against."
"That's a great idea! And yeah, I know a fair bit about Mario enemies," Zoe said.
"So what can those, uh, what do you call them? Koopa- something?" Ben started, setting his ice pack on the table.
"Those are Koopa Troopas," Zoe replied. "They just wander around. You can jump on their heads to force them into their shells. Then you can kick the shells into other enemies to knock them out."
"That's helpful," Gwen said. "Is there any really hard enemies we might come across?"
"The Koopalings might be a problem, and Bowser Jr might be too," Zoe said, thinking.
"Wait, there's a Bowser Jr?" Ben asked.
"Yeah. Bowser's only son."
"So what can the Koopalings do?" Gwen asked.
"It all depends on which game you play," Zoe replied. "So I really don't know what to expect if Bowser brings the Koopalings."
"That could be a problem," Ben said.
"What about Bowser Jr?" Max jumped in. "It's been awhile, so I don't know a lot of this stuff."
"Well, Bowser Jr usually rides in his Koopa Clown Car," Zoe said.
"Koopa Clown what?" Ben asked, cocking his head.
"Koopa Clown Car. I have my notebook in here somewhere because I figured it might help when you asked me a question about Mario, so I can show you what it looks like." Zoe went to a cabinet towards the beds and opened it. After fishing through it, she finally pulled out a black sketchbook and pencil. She flipped through the notebook as she walked back towards the screen.
"Ah, here we go," she said as she flipped to the page she was looking for. She showed the page to the Tennysons. On it was what looked like a miniature version of Bowser inside a sort of white fish bowl. It had a green rim around the top, and propeller on the bottom, and a face on the side.
"That's Bowser Jr," Zoe said, pointing to the mini Bowser. "He's riding in his Koopa Clown Car."
"Interesting," Gwen commented. "So, what can the Koopa Clown Car do?"
"Well, it has 4 wheels that can be put out to make it an actual car, and it can fly. It also has robotic arms that can mimic what Bowser Jr does with his arms," Zoe replied.
"Oh man. That would be pretty hard to fend off," Ben said.
"How exactly do we defeat these guys?" Gwen asked.
"You jump on their heads a certain amount of times, usually 3. Then they just collapse and disappear," Max chimed in.
"Yup," Zoe agreed. "Does anyone want to do something other than worry about the future?"
"Yeah. We've had enough fighting for one day. Let's just relax until I have to take Ben and Zoe home," Max replied.
————10————
For the next few hours the quartet spent their time playing cards, playing video games, drawing, and reading. During that time, Zoe and Ben seemed to be back to normal; they didn't need the ice packs anymore. Finally the time came for Grandpa Max to drive Ben and Zoe to Zoe's house. They got there in a few minutes, and Gwen smiled as she saw her cousin's cheeks get pink.
"Have fun," Max said to the kids.
"We will. Thanks again!" Zoe replied. Ben waved and got off the Rust Bucket. It turned out that Zoe only lived two blocks away from Ben. They walked up the grassy lawn to the wooden front door. The two story house was made of bricks, with a stucco garage next to it. As the kids walked in, Ben saw an adult sitting on a couch watching a tv. He turned as Zoe shut the door.
"Hey guys," he greeted.
"Hi dad," Zoe replied.
"You must have found the source of those weird earthquakes. What was it?"
"Tell you later. First I want to introduce you to Ben. Ben, that's my father, Arthur. Dad, this is Ben."
"Hi," Ben said, giving a wave.
"Hello," Arthur replied. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Tennyson."
"You too." He knew his grandpa and Arthur were great friends, so he figured Grandpa had probably mentioned him from time to time.
"Alright, you kids go have fun. I'll tell you when we have to take Ben home," Arthur said and turned back to the tv.
"Okay. Come on! Let's go play some Mario!" Zoe said.
"Yeah!" Ben agreed. He followed Zoe down a flight of stairs to her basement. There was a tv, a keyboard, a few shelves, and a storage unit. Zoe sat down in front of a shelf filled with game cases.
"So which one should we play first?" Zoe asked.
"Um," Ben started. He looked through all the games Zoe had. Most of them were in the Mario series, which was quite a lot. Finally his eyes rested on a red case.
"How about this one?" he suggested, pointing to the red case. It read "New Super Mario Bros. Wii".
"Sure. This is one of my favorites. I think it's also a good starter game," Zoe said, taking the case off the shelf. She turned on the console, ejected a disk that was in it before and popped the NSMBW disk in. Then she turned on the tv, and the home screen for Wii U popped up. She selected the game after she turned on one of the Wii remotes. The title screen of NSMBW popped up and she turned the Wii remote sideways so the arrow pad was on the left and the 1 and 2 buttons were on the right. She gave Ben a Wii remote and he turned it like she did.
"I'll explain how you play," Zoe said. "You use the arrow pad to move your character. If you press the left arrow, you go left, and same with the right. If you press down, you duck. You use 2 to jump and if you have a power up like the fire flower, you can press 1 to throw a fire ball. Also, if you hold 1 while pressing left or right, you'll run. Does that make sense?"
"I think so," Ben replied. "Let's do the first level."
"Okay." Zoe selected a world in which she had 99 lives, and up popped the character select screen.
"You can be Luigi, Yellow Toad, or Blue Toad," Zoe said.
"So that's what Toads look like," Ben said. "Huh. Interesting." He chose Luigi, and Zoe started the game. She went to World 1 Level 1 and selected it.
The first couple levels were a bit difficult for Ben. He kept falling down pits and running into enemies. But on level 3, he started to get the hang of things. By the time they reached the end of the world, Ben was better than most would be on their first Mario game.
"Nice job," Zoe said as Ben finished Larry, one of the Koopalings, off.
"Thanks," Ben replied. He felt his cheeks get warm, and he saw Zoe's were pink too.
"Let's try up beat all the Koopalings and Bowser Jr," Zoe suggested. "There are 3 airship levels where you have to defeat Bowser Jr, just FYI."
"Let's do it. It'll give me more info on what the Koopalings and Bowser Jr might do it they come here," Ben agreed.
————10————
A couple hours passed, and finally they made it to the last level. Zoe was happy.
"This is my favorite level of all time," she said. "It has my favorite music."
"Let's do it!" Ben replied. Zoe selected the level, and they started. Once they made it to Bowser, Ben and Zoe both put on determined faces. The pressed the ! button and Bowser fell down the seemingly bottomless pit.
"Haha! In your face, Bowser!" Ben shouted triumphantly.
"Just wait a minute," Zoe said, smiling.
"Huh?" Ben said and looked back at the screen. As Princess Peach turned around in her cage, Ben perked up. It wasn't Peach at all! It was Kamek! He cackled and turned the cage into a broomstick. He sprinkled his magic dust down the pit in which Bowser had fallen, and the setting on the screen began to rumble. Ben looked utterly baffled as a huge Bowser rose from the pit, knocking Kamek aside and gave a loud roar.
"Oh man," Ben mumbled.
"I know right?! Best turning point ever!" Zoe exclaimed as the music to the boss started. The two kids played their way through to the end of the level where the real Princess Peach stood in a cage. All the while the music played, Ben had a determined expression, like he was facing Kevin or Vilgax. He looked satisfied when he and Zoe pressed the final switch that sent Bowser tumbling down the pit. After the end credits, Zoe turned the console off; she checked the clock and it was almost time to leave.
"Let's head upstairs," she said.
"Yeah," Ben agreed. "Thanks for having me. That was really fun!"
"You're welcome. I'm glad you could come," Zoe replied. They emerged into the living room and saw Arthur get up from the couch.
"I was just about to come get you two," he said. "How was your time?"
"It's was awesome!" Ben and Zoe chorused. They looked at each other and laughed, their cheeks flushed.
"Alright, let's get you home, Ben," Arthur said. The kids nodded and headed out the door. They climbed into Zoe's car and they were off to Ben's house. They were there in just a few minutes.
"Thanks again for having me over," Ben said.
"Any time," Zoe replied. The kids' cheeks flushed as they waved goodbye to each other. Ben stood outside his door and watched Zoe's car disappear around the corner before going inside his house. She does like me, he thought happily. He felt his cheeks get warm, but he was alright with that. Finally he had found someone to like and someone who liked him.
Well, there ya go. I'll put the next chapter up soon. See y'all later!
Responses:
ReyYoshiSM: Thanks!