Chapter 17: Big Time Super Hero

Disclaimer: I Don't Own Ben 10 Or Any Of The Characters. I Don't Own The Rights To Nathan Black Or Any Associated Characters, The Rights Go To annihalator2015

Disclaimer: This Series/Story Has Nothing To Do With The Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Cartoon Series. Any Similarities That May Pop Up Aren't Intentional

Author's Note:

* Hello and welcome to Chapter Seventeen!

* So, this is the chapter where everything begins to really kick off! I won't say anything else than that, but believe me, this chapter's going to be a big one!

* Anyway, I don't have anything else to say. Let's get right into the chapter!

Earth-6101

About A Month Later – Tuesday, October 17th, 2017

Grandpa Max and Grandma Verdona's House

Ben

About a month had passed since that day and my life had significantly improved. I had made a point to distract myself from the fact that my parents were dead and it seemed to be working. I had continued to spend time with Gwen and Nathan, and they had been able to significantly take my mind off of my parents. But most of my free time was devoted to finding out as much as I could about Vilgax and the Sons of Dagon.

Well, you'd be surprised how little information about them was publicly available. Even so, I was determined to track down Vilgax and make him pay. But that was going to take a while. And in the event that I timed out after tracking him down, wearing a black ski mask to remain unidentified wasn't going to cut it. I needed a costume. And so, using the materials in Grandma Verdona's sewing kit, I had sewn myself a costume.

The costume in question, which sat on one of the tables in the basement, was completely black, with the alien watch's hourglass symbol embroidered in red fabric on the chest and back of the costume and had lenses sewn into the mask that I had made, along with boots and gloves I had sewn as well. I admired it, pretty proud with what I had been able to do. Sure, I had never sewed anything in my life before hand and I had stabbed myself with the needle a few times, but I had gotten something done that I was proud of.

I took a step or two to the right and took a look at a couple of devices sitting next to my costume, which I had built myself, with a little research here and there. I grabbed one of the devices and slipped it onto my left wrist. Both devices were to be worn on the wrist, had a nozzle on them and a pressure device that could activate the nozzle with your ring and middle fingers.

I had given it some thought and concluded that I couldn't rely on the alien watch to get me around, from place to place. What if I timed out upon arriving to a location and I couldn't use it when I really needed to? That's what these devices were for. Seeing as the unstable molecules had failed to serve their medical purpose, I repurposed them into something else. I finetuned the formula a bit and made cartridges to put the repurposed fluid in.

And now, when loaded into the wrist devices, a somewhat thick line of the fluid can be fired when activated by the pressure triggers, like so. I pointed my left hand at the ceiling and fired a line of the fluid at the ceiling. It stuck to the ceiling just like I thought it would, before I detached it from the nozzle, leaving it hanging from the ceiling. I grabbed ahold of it and flipped myself, so that I was hanging upside down from the ceiling.

The tensile strength on these things are pretty impressive! If I can hang from one of these, even with how light I am, I should definitely be able to swing from them!

As I hung from the ceiling, I heard the basement door open.

"Ben," I heard Grandma Verdona call down to me from the living room. "are you down there?"

Thankfully, she didn't come down the stairs, otherwise she would have seen me hanging from the ceiling. I quietly readjusted myself and dropped back down to the floor.

"Yes, Grandma!" I responded.

I heard her sigh from the stairs.

"Ben, go to bed. You'll be a wreck at school!"

I looked over at the digital clock sitting on the desk where Lucy's PC sat. It was just after eleven o'clock.

"I will, Grandma!" I called back up to her.

I heard the door shut and I let out a sigh of relief. I grabbed the line hanging from the ceiling and maneuvered myself so that I was hanging upside down from the ceiling again.

Go to bed, yeah right! This'll never get old!

Gwen

The Following Day – Wednesday, October 18th, 2017

Madison High School

It was your average typical day in Physical Science at Madison High today. Well, it was almost your average typical day. The thing that was different? The whole room was silent as Ms. Vaughn was standing in front of my table, impatiently tapping her foot against the floor. Why was she impatiently standing in front of my table? I looked to my left as Ben continued snoring in his seat next to me, with his head slightly inclined so that his face directed to the ceiling. Ms. Vaughn continued tapping her foot for a few more seconds, before she finally lost the last of her patience.

"Tennyson!" she exclaimed as she hit the table with the ruler she had in her hand, emitting a banging sound on the table.

Ben let out a scream of surprise as he woke up, springing upright a bit and knocking his textbook, notebook and a few other things off of his side of the table. Everyone in class started laughing in response to this. Well, everyone except for me, that is.

"Mr. Tennyson, this is the second time this month that I've caught you sleeping in my class." Ms. Vaughn spoke in a stern tone. "If I notice you sleeping again, you'll be issued a detention."

Ben got up from the table and moved to clean up his things that were on the tile floor.

"I'm so sorry, Ms. Vaughn!" he said in a hurry. "It won't happen again!"

The class continued laughing as he muttered his apology. This wasn't the first time that he had said this. Ms. Vaughn considered what he said.

"I sincerely hope you're telling the truth, Mr. Tennyson." She said as she turned and returned to her desk. "When you're finished cleaning your things off of the floor, excuse yourself and go splash some water on your face to wake yourself up."

"Yes, ma'am."

She stopped in her tracks and turned her head before speaking again.

"And don't let me catch you sleeping in my class again, you hear?"

"Yes, ma'am." He repeated himself.

Ben

A Couple Hours Later

Madison High School Cafeteria

I took my sweet time in getting to the lunch table that day. For the last month I had basked in the glory of walking the halls of Madison High without being targeted by bullies and I was just now getting used to it. I walked into the cafeteria with my tray of food and headed to our usual lunch table, where Nathan and Gwen were already sitting.

"Hey, there you are." Nathan said as I sat down at the table across from him and to the left of Gwen. "We've been waiting for you?"

"Why? What's going on?" I asked.

"Today's news. Look at this."

He put down the newspaper that he had been holding on the table and slid it across to me so that I could see it better. The picture on the front page was of me in my newly sewn costume, dealing with a group of thieves from the other night. The headline of the article read: Masked Mystery Man Foils Robbery.

So, the story here? The other night, I had gone to the library to study for a few hours and on my walk back to Grandma and Grandpa's House, I walked past a convenience store that was in the middle of being held up. But it wasn't just any convenience store. It was the Mom and Pop store that I had passed the night my parents died, the one where I had failed to stop the thief who had robbed them. Seeing them being held up once more, I don't know, it just made me think, "No, not again".

So, hoping that they would run into the alley after they were through robbing the place, I ran into the alley to change into my costume and waited for the thieves. I was lucky that they actually came down the alley. So, I dealt with them there and left them knocked out cold, where they could be seen from the street. When I watched the news later that night, the owners of the convenience store told the newscasters that if the "masked mystery man" hadn't of stepped in, that this would have been the second time they were robbed in a month. Hearing that made me feel good.

"That's... interesting." I said as I slightly pushed the paper away.

"Interesting?" Gwen asked as she leaned in to get a better look at my face. "Something that's actually newsworthy happens and you say that it's 'interesting'? That's the best you can say?"

What else could I say? I couldn't tell them that the person under that mask was me! Or at least, not yet...

Before I could answer, Nathan spoke again.

"If you think that's the best part, there's one last thing."

Gwen looked away from me and back at Nathan.

"Take a closer look at the picture."

Gwen took a closer look as he asked, as did I. Underneath the picture on the front page, were the words: Photo taken by Benjamin Tennyson. Gwen looked at me with surprise.

It was true. Maybe I was still being selfish, but I thought that if I could somehow take pictures of myself while in action, then maybe I might be able to help pay the bills for Grandpa Max and Grandma Verdona, or help with amenities around the house. That and I had another idea for what I could do with the money. And at the same time, I had another idea for what I could use the money for.

As for how I was able to photograph myself in the act, it was a bit of a complicated matter. How does one take a picture of themselves, while they're preoccupied with something else? It turned out to be a pretty complicated task. After I thought up a few concepts, which all ended in failure, I decided to take a different approach.

I developed a tracking chip that I put into my suit, which my camera would track with a Bluetooth connection. Before you say how cool that is, don't start gawking just yet. It took a lot of work to get it to where I was happy with it. I made it from spare parts that I had around my basement and I had no idea how reliable it would prove to be. The signal on the tracking chip was good for a distance of about twelve feet or so, before the connection began to waver and get staticky. It had worked pretty well the first time I had used it, but how did I know that it would continue to work without fail?

"No way. You took that picture?" Gwen asked me as her emerald eyes lit up. "That's soooo cool!"

I just shrugged in response, trying not to make it obvious that there was more too it than just me taking the picture. Just then, Nathan spoke up, saying something that I actually hadn't expected him to say.

"It is pretty cool."

I turned my head to look at him and just shrugged again.

"I guess." I replied in a slightly indifferent tone.

"Did the people at the Bellwood Post pay you for the picture you took?"

"Of course, they did."

"How much did they pay you?"

"About a hundred bucks."

"That seems a little low." Gwen chimed in.

"Take it up with someone else, then." I said with a chuckle.

Gwen didn't seem to get the joke that I was trying to make, as she didn't laugh and I was instead asked another question.

"What are you going to do with the money?"

"Um, I'm actually going to donate it. All of it."

Her eyes lit up with intrigue as I said this.

"Really? Are you donating to a charity?"

"Um, no. I'm not." I said as I shook my head. "But I am donating my money to a good cause."

Both Nathan and Gwen looked a bit confused, but they didn't press on as to what I meant. Before either of us three could say anything else, a hand reached past me and grabbed the newspaper from the table.

"No way! Little Tennyson got his picture featured in the paper?" a familiar voice said from behind me.

I let out a sigh of annoyance. Even after he had quit bullying me, Kevin was still bugging me every now and again.

"How'd you get the picture, Tennyson?" he asked.

I turned around in my chair and grabbed the newspaper, pulling it out of his hands.

"And just why should I tell you that, Kevin?" I retorted.

I turned back around and placed the paper back on the table where it had been beforehand. Kevin didn't take the hint and take off like I had hoped he would.

"Hey, I want to know how you got that shot, so I think you should—"

Before Kevin could finish his sentence, Nathan spoke up and interrupted.

"Who the fuck invited you, exactly?"

Kevin looked dumbfounded in response, but eventually he walked away. Once he had done so, Nathan gave a small smile of satisfaction. As he momentarily smiled to himself, Gwen spoke up.

"Can I see that for a second?" she asked, gesturing to the paper that I had taken back from Kevin.

"Sure, here you go." I said as I passed it to her.

"Thanks."

After I passed the newspaper to her, she placed it down on the table in front of her and then turned to begin rifling through her bag, which hung on the back of her chair. She took out a pair of scissors and turned back around in her seat, before going to work on the picture on the newspaper's front page.

"Hey, I just bought that this morning!" Nathan interjected in a slightly annoyed tone of voice.

"Whine, whine, whine." Gwen remarked as she continued cutting out the picture on the front page. "I'm just cutting out the picture, it's not like I'm going to cut the entire thing into shreds. Besides, newspapers are practically a dime a dozen! If you want one with the picture so badly, just buy another one! Or, you can see the article on their website! Not right away, mind you, but they eventually post all their articles online."

Nathan grunted, but didn't say anything in return.

"Don't listen to her, man." I reassured him. "If it means that much to you, I'll buy you a new copy after school today."

"Fine, fine. Whatever."

After that, we all grew silent. Gwen quickly finished up with cutting out the picture of me in costume and she then passed the newspaper back to Nathan, who took it even though he had seemed to be irritated about what had just transpired. I didn't really understand. Why did he make a big deal over such a small thing? It's almost like he's making a big deal over it just for the sake of making a big deal over it! Anyway, seeing as my friends didn't know that I was the "Masked Mystery Man" that the paper referenced, I decided to humor them about it.

"So, what's the big deal about this guy?" I asked. "He's just a man in a costume that did a good thing! So, why are people treating this like it's the second coming?"

Nathan looked at me, annoyed glint in his eyes now gone.

"He's front page news, Ben! The city has never seen anything like this and he just popped up overnight!"

"I understand that, but I just don't understand the why. I mean, Rome wasn't built in a day."

Immediately after saying that, Gwen started laughing and Nathan chuckled a bit, as well.

"What has that got to do with what we're talking about?" he asked.

I shrugged.

"I don't know. It just sounded right."

Thankfully, both of them let it go after that, as Nathan changed the topic from me back to the newspaper.

"Like I said, he just popped up overnight. No one's ever seen him before or know anything about him, no less. He just randomly appeared to stop a couple of thieves in their tracks and that's that."

"Do you know anything else about him?" Gwen asked. "Have you heard anyone talk about him? On the news or...?"

I don't know if she was talking to me or Nathan, but as she finished her question, he let out a sharp breath before speaking again.

"I've heard a... conflicting rumor. A few people here and there have taken to calling him a 'human spider' because there's been talk about him running up walls and climbing along walls like a spider would. The only issue with that is there isn't any photographic evidence or footage to prove this."

While he was right, that rumor wasn't true, there was actually some truth to that claim on my side of things. Along with repurposing the unstable molecules, I had sewn miniature devices into the fingers of my gloves and the bottoms of my boots, as well. The idea is the devices in my gloves and boots would allow me to stick to walls via static cling. But of course, I hadn't tested it yet. Realistically, I had no idea if I would be able to run or crawl along a wall like a spider could. Only time would tell. Meanwhile, Gwen had a funny look in her eyes following what Nathan had said.

"Guy with eight hands," she spoke with that look in her eye still. "sounds hot."

Nathan and I both looked at each other with weirded out looks on our faces in response to what she had said. After a few seconds of waiting, she eventually started laughing.

"I'm just kidding." She replied in between giggles.

While Nathan arched an eyebrow at Gwen before turning his attention back to the paper, seeming mighty interested in it, I didn't laugh. I didn't find it to be funny. I just thought it was weird. Anyway, life for the last month or so had been pretty good. Life had been pretty good, indeed.

Wednesday, September 27th, 2017

Madison High School

About a week and a half or so after my parents' funeral, I had to stay after school to catch up on some work. I was headed to the classroom that I was going to be catching up on the work in when it happened. It was almost like fate.

I was walking down the hall and as I was about to turn the corner, I heard a voice coming from around the corner. It was Kevin's voice.

"What do you mean, 'we're done'?"

"I mean, 'we're done'." I recognized the other voice to be Gwen's. "I don't want to be with you anymore!"

"Why, though? Why would you possibly want that? You have everything—"

"There's no affection in this relationship, Kevin! You like me for my looks and my popularity, not for the kind of person I am!"

Kevin was silent now and so, Gwen continued on.

"I don't want to be your trophy girlfriend, Kevin! And you're not even a nice person in general, which I just can't stand. So, we're done."

This time, Kevin did speak in return.

"Fine. Your loss, bitch."

After he said that, I just stood there for a second or two, just taking in what he had said. Hearing him call her that really made me angry. I turned the corner at last and walked past Gwen, as she said my name in surprise, towards Kevin who had already turned to walk away.

"Hey, Kevin!" I exclaimed as I grabbed him by the shoulder.

He started to say something as I turned him to face me, but I kept him off by punching him in the face and hard. My strike sent him backwards and onto the floor. He laid there for a few seconds, hissing with pain as he held his hands over his face.

"What the hell,—?"

"I better not hear you call her that ever again, Kevin!"

He didn't respond, so I turned to Gwen who still looked just as surprised when she had said my name upon my stepping into the situation. I approached her and grabbed her hand, causing to her to blush.

"Come along, kid." I said as I gently pulled her along. "I'm buying you an ice cream!"

Sometime Later

I don't know why I had insisted on taking her out for ice cream. Hearing what Kevin said to her just gave me the urge to try and make her feel better, even if she hadn't verbally said that her feelings had been hurt.

Gwen and I sat at a booth inside the ice cream parlor, both of us drinking from our respective cups, me having a vanilla milkshake and her having a strawberry one. Eventually she put her cup down on the table and looked up at me.

"Thank you for this, but this really wasn't necessary." She said.

"I know, but I want to. You deserve someone a hundred times better than him, Gwen."

Her face turned a bit pink as she gave me a look of surprise, but she eventually smiled. She eventually surprised me when she reached forward across the table and rested her hand on my free hand. I felt my face heat up, but before it could get awkward, she slightly tilted her head to the right and spoke again as the look on her face slightly changed. However, what she said only made me feel more flustered.

"Hey, you have green eyes! I never noticed with your glasses. Did you just switch to contacts?"

I felt my face heat up.

My eyes are green again? Will they ever go back to their natural color?

She was right. This was the first or second day wearing contacts instead of glasses. Somehow I managed to just barely get over being flustered and spoke.

"Um, yeah! As a matter of fact, I did."

It only took a second or two for her to start laughing, making it clear that she was aware of how embarrassed I was. Eventually, I gained the courage to start laughing with her, albeit nervously and that was that.

Present Day – Wednesday, October 18th, 2017

Madison High School

For a week following that day, Kevin had a black eye. And he didn't even try to start anything with me or anyone else. Anyway, after finishing lunch for the day, Gwen, Nathan and I left the cafeteria. For the past few weeks, Gwen had walked with us back to our English class, before she went back to her class.

"So, what are you guys doing this weekend?" Nathan asked as we walked.

"I'm going to see one of the new scary movies since it's that time of year again." Gwen replied. "Either of you interested in going with?"

I shook my head.

"Unfortunately, if I go, it's likely that Lucy will want to come. And I think she's a little too young for scary movies."

Gwen briefly looked at me before turning to Nathan. She was likely going to ask him if he wanted to accompany her, but before she could do that, I stopped dead in my tracks, as I felt that familiar pain in the back of my head and neck. Once they noticed that I stopped, they stopped too and turned to look at me.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

I was about to respond with a "I don't know", when it happened. An explosion from several feet down the hall behind us ripped through the building and caused us to stagger on our feet. Once we recovered and after I helped Gwen regain her balance, she spoke.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Don't know." Nathan replied in a hurry. "But we have to get out of here. Come on!"

"He's right," I said as I followed them. "the school has always drilled us about scenarios exactly like this and where to go in the event of one!"

Nathan nodded.

"The west parking lot. Looks like everyone else is headed that way, let's get a move on!"

Both of them started jogging in that direction and I was about to follow them, but as I did, I stopped in my tracks.

Even though I put on the costume to find my parents' killer, what's happening now could put everyone here in danger! If I can help, then shouldn't I?!

I turned back to look at the blaze of fire and heat at the other end of the hall, blocking access to that side of the school, at least from that approach. I turned my head to face the direction my friends had gone. I then turned to look the other way one last time. At last, I hung my head with a sigh. I took a deep breath, before I turned and began sprinting down an alternate path, a detour that would take me around the back of the west parking lot.

Oh man, why do I have a feeling that this isn't going to end well?

A Few Minutes Later

I ran across the small field just behind the west parking lot, with a row of thick bushes obscuring anyone's view of me.

Couldn't just change into my costume while I was still inside. People would begin asking questions about how I got in there.

I came to a stop in the middle of the field and made sure that no one else was looking. The only other area beyond the west parking lot was the football field and of course, no one was down there right now, so it seemed like I was in the clear. I began to pull off my shirt, making sure to move quickly.

I'm really glad I decided to wear my costume underneath my clothes today, I thought to myself.

I hurried to get the rest of the way undressed and stowed my clothes in a neat pile in the bushes. They might be covered in specks of dirt when I came back for them, but I didn't have time to think about that now. I quietly made my way over to the bushes and peaked through just enough to get a small peep at the parking lot. It was full of students, but I couldn't see Gwen or Nathan. I took a deep breath.

I guess I'm actually doing it. This is it, the first day of the rest of my life.

I pulled my mask down over my face and then prepared to spring forward out of the bushes.

Nathan

I was looking around the parking lot to see who had made it out, along with the occasional glance at the school, where a fire could be seen brewing inside, when it happened.

"Heads up, big time super hero comin' through!" a male's voice exclaimed.

The male in question, wearing a black costume with a touch of red, soared through the air, before coming to rest just briefly on the hood of a nearby car. If I wasn't mistaken, it could have been the "Masked Mystery Man" that the newspaper talked about. But as he bounded away, I looked on in confusion as a thought ran through my head.

Was that Ben?

I eventually shook my head and cast those thoughts away.

No, it couldn't be.

It was then that I looked around me, with Gwen still standing next to me among the group of kids in the area.

"Hold on," I whispered to myself. "where is Ben, anyway?"

All of this happened while apparently, the costumed individual made his way into the school.

Ben

I felt on odd thrill when I bounded off of the car and used my wrist device to fire strands of the solution, to propel me through the air. That's how I got myself high enough to shoot through a broken window. I somehow managed not to snag part of my costume on broken glass, thank God.

Man, I really need to come up with a better name for this stuff, then "projectile solution". That's a dumb name.

I started running through the school, back toward the epicenter of the explosion. I came to a stop after a minute or so of jogging, finding myself at the edge of the affected area. I cupped my hands over my mouth and called out.

"Is anyone still in here?! Can anyone hear me?!"

I got no response from anyone. I took another deep breath before I started walking further into the area, getting gradually hotter the farther I walked. I began coughing and found myself having a small difficulty with breathing. Eventually, I came to a stop. Not because it was too much, but because I thought I saw something.

I squinted, but among the flames and smoke, it was difficult to see if I had actually seen something. As I walked closer still however, it became clear that there was in fact someone or something standing several feet ahead of me. So, I started jogging again, however, this time I didn't get very far.

I came to a complete stop as I got a good look at the figure ahead of me. It was easily a foot taller than me, if not two. The figure seemed to be wearing some kind of purple and black armor, with dashes of dark gray here and there. And as weird as it may sound, I couldn't tell if I was looking at another person. The thing had a bit of a purple X symbol on the visor of its helmet, if you could call it that. And yes, it seemed to be staring right at me.

Oh, God, I thought as I felt myself go a bit limp. I am not properly equipped to deal with this! What do I do here?! Was this actually a bad idea?

Next Chapter: After a short altercation in the school with the assailant, Ben ends up chasing the intruder across the city.