Chapter 12: Caught the Bug

Ben's POV

Today, Dustin sent me on my first solo mission. I was chasing down a crook in his getaway car as Upgrade melded with a motorcycle. Normally I'd be XLR8, but this isn't a horrible idea either, and my favorite land vehicle is a motorcycle, so why not?

Crook: "Ah, how easy it can be to make a getaway!"

Upgrade: "This guy is starting to get on my last nerve!" I shot a laser at the back of his car, making his trunk blow up, and he was losing the money.

Crook: "No! Not my stolen loot!"

Upgrade: "Some people just can't watch their cash well enough, eh?" The crook kept speeding through, and I sped up to the side of him, grew a spike on my front wheel, then made him spin out, and he collided with a street light. I stopped in front of him, turned so my rear was facing him, and made him taste rubber by starting up the motor, then keeping myself in place while blowing dirt in his face. He was coughing, and I left when the police showed up, and hid behind a truck nearby. The police put him in cuffs.

Crook: "The motorcycle was driving itself man! It even shot laser beams!"

Officer: "Tell it to the judge, like they all do."

Crook: "I swear to God!" I separated from the motorcycle, and parked it right behind the truck.

Upgrade: "That dude's out of the way. Now to… whoa!" I looked at the truck, and by the logo there, it was transporting ice cream.

Upgrade: "Cool! I haven't had ice cream for a while!" I went Ghostfreak, and phased through the back, then went normal, and started chowing down on the ice cream.

Dustin's POV

Once the RV parked off to the side, Me, Gwen, and Max came out, looking for me. I sent him on his first solo mission and I prayed he wasn't doing anything stupid.

Max: "Where could he be?"

Dustin: "Look for a motorcycle."

Gwen: "Found him." She pointed to a motorcycle parked right behind an ice cream truck.

Dustin: "Of course he'd be there. And on his first solo mission too!" I said with a look of annoyance and a facepalm.

Max: "We'd better get to him." We headed over to the truck, then Max opened the back, and found Ben shivering in the back of the truck, smiling.

Ben: "Hey guys… achoo!"

Dustin: "Seriously Ben?" I asked with a furrowed brow.

Gwen: "Couldn't resist, could you?"

Ben: "No. Not really. Sorry." Ben inhaled through my nose.

Dustin: "Ill let you slide this once." I said as Ben stepped out, and sneezed again. I was abit concerned.

Dustin: "Ben, you feeling okay dude? You don't took so hot." I said with a worried tone as he sneezed once again.

Max: "We'd better check your temperature. Now." We quickly brought him back to the RV, and sat him in the couch to check my temperature.

Max: "101 degrees. Not good. You got a cold."

Ben: "You're telling me… ACHOO!" Ben said inhaling through nose and shortly after he started picking at my nose after that.

Gwen: "Eww."

Dustin: ""Ahhh dude! Not while you got a runny nose man!" I said looking away.

Max: "All boys pick their nose, but that's beyond the point. We need to get your cold dealt with. Take this medicine." Max handed Ben a jar with green stuff in it. He smelled it, then immediately pushed it away.

Ben: "What is this?"

Max: "San Ju Yen Pien. I got the recipe from a monk in Guangdong, China."

Dustin: "China? Lucky!" I said feeling a bit jealous.

Gwen: "Plumber mission?"

Max: "Yeah. One of our guys got sick, so we learned this recipe to help cure him. But don't worry, Ben. It smells worse than it tastes. Or was it the other way around?"

Ben: "I'll take it later, when I get used to this ugly smell…"

Max: "You'll get used to it after 10 or so doses of it."

Ben: "Oh man…" Max went back to start the RV up again, and I went back to watching Animal Planet. Gwen sat next to me.

Gwen: "You watch documentaries?"

Dustin: "Yeah. I watch this along with history channel, discovery channel and travel channel. And River Monsters is on! Sweet."

Gwen: "One of your favorites?"

Dustin: "Oh yeah. This guy is an extreme angler and a marine biologist. He catches many freshwater terrors to simply get some facts about some of the most gruesome case caused by fish."

Gwen: "Cool."

Dustin: "And it looks like the episode where he catches a giant freshwater stingray. The ending is something you'll enjoy, which you'll see very shortly." I said as me and Gwen watch the stingray watch bring little stingray pups to the world.

Gwen: "Aww! How adorable!"

Dustin: "I know! Its an adorable sight."

Ben: "Wait! I thought stingrays lay eggs?" Ben said still stuffed up.

Dustin: "Not really. Stingrays give birth to live young.

Gwen: "But still that is a bog stingray though."

Dustin: "Oh trust me. Ice when I was a kid, I was in daycare and we were on a field trip to Moody Gardens. It was into he rainforest pyramid and I saw a massive stingray. If I remember correctly it was a big as this one on TV."

Ben: "Lucky…ACHOO!"

Max: "Our next destination is Chinatown for more ingredients for my San Ju Yen Pien."

Dustin: "Sweet. My first visit to Chinatown! I just love Chinese food!"

Ben: "Oh man…" Ben lied down in what I thought was Ben's bed in the back, and closed my eyes to take a nap.

15 minutes later…

We made it to Chinatown, and Ben was out in the open, looking at different things, with a tissue in my pocket just in case, and Gwen and I was walking with him, holding a tissue box.

Dustin: "Well, while Gwen and Max get the ingredients, I'm sticking with syou so you don't get lost."

Ben: "I'm of a baby you know!"

Dustin: "Well, someone had to stay with you to make sure you were okay, and Max forced me to bring the smelly stuff. And I'm here so you don't spread the cold to someone else.."

Ben: "Whatever!" Ben said inhaling through his nose"

Dustin: "And with my hospital mask and rubber gloves, I won't catch your cold. Plus I got hand sanitizer to be on the safe side."

Ben: "Whatever." We continued on walking, looking at the Chinese buildings.

Ben: "Y'know, if I didn't know better, I'd say we were in China."

Dustin: "Me, too. One of my many favorite places I always wanted to travel. Especially to see the great wall of China."

Ben: "You like it that much huh?"

Dustin: "Definitely dude. The décor, the food, the architecture, everything about it is just so amazing."

Max: "There you two are."

Geen: "We found the ingredients."

Ben: "And that doesn't make a difference to me."

Max: "By the way, I was wondering if you wanted to see the parade later on, then there's the speech from the councilwoman."

Gwen: "I'd like to."

Dustin: "Oh yeah! Count me in!" I said in excitement.

Ben: "Yeah sure." Ben said a bit unamused.

Dustin: "Trust me Ben, you'll enjoy it." I said with a pat on his back.

We were at the parade, watching it go through, and it was really cool. Ben turned the Omnitrix on, but Max and I caught me.

Max: "No."

Dustin: "Try it Ben, and a cold won't be the only thing you'll be suffering from."

Ben: "But seeing Heatblast start up fireworks would be awesome!"

Max: "They're good enough with them."

Dustin: "And I have this remember?" I said holding out the Omnitrix remote and Ben was wide eyed.

Ben: "Fine!" Ben turned the Omnitrix off, and continued watching the dragon parade around with other things. After the parade, we got to hear the speech from the councilwoman named Councilwoman Liang.

Councilwoman Liang: "We are going to tear down one of the older buildings to replace it with a new building. It will be a hotel."

Dustin: "Woo-hoo!"

Ben: "AC-BBBPBPBPBBPBP!" I handed him a tissue, which he sneezed into, then blew his nose on it. Ben handed it back to me, and I put it in the nearest garbage bin.

Councilwoman Liang: "This will make more people want to come to Chinatown and possibly live here instead of just for a vacation, but regardless, it will bring in more money for Chinatown."

Dustin: "I know I would wanna live here."

We then saw some bugs fly out, and try to kidnap her, but she ran off, along with the other people in the audience.

Councilwoman Liang: "You're the freak that wouldn't leave the building! Clancy?"

Clancy: "You are right!" He had blue skin, and wore what looked like a winter coat, a hoodie, and bell-bottom pants.

Dustin: "Oh great! Its this bug brain!"

Gwen: "You know who this guy is?"

Duatin: "Yup! Clancy! He has the power to control insects. Any bugs liie ants, cockroaches, hornets, spiders, you name it!"

Ben: "It's hero time!" I turned the Omnitrix on, then became Wildmutt.

Gwen: "Wouldn't Heatblast have been a better choice?"

Wildmutt: "ROAR!" Ben now noticed he was completely blind, and didn't have much to see. He ran, but right into some fireworks. I also looked paler, and my claws were green.

Gwen: "What's up with Wildmutt?"

Dustin: "The sickness! It spreads to his alien forms! Gwen, Max, make sure everyone else is safe." I said turning on my Omnitrix 2.0 and turning into Diamondhead.

Gwen: "What about you,?"

Diamondhead: "I'll be his eyes." I jumped on Ben's back.

Diamondheds: "I'm driving, dog-boy!"

Wildmutt: "ROAR!" Ben transformed into XLR8.

XLR8: "Well, as Wildmutt, I'm useless, so I'll just use speed!" He took off, but his feet made huge clangs on the ground. Instead of wheels on his feet, Ben feet looked like blocks of steel.

XLR8: "What the? Lead feet? You've got to be kidding me!"

Diamondhead: "Well, XLR8 is crap, um, try Stinkfly then." Ben took my decision, and he was red instead of green where Stinkfly's green colors were. I transformed into Stinkfly as well.

Dustin Stinkfly: "Can you at least fly?" Ben and I took off, and Ben flew straight for Clancy. He saw us, and sent his flies at us, and we retaliated, I shot slime at them. Ben however shot flame out of his mouth.

Dustin Stinkfly: "Wow! Talk about dragon breath!" I said with amazement as I never seen this in the show.

Ben Stinkfly: "Wow! Being sick makes Stinkfly amazing!" He breathed even more fire at him, burning some of his flies to a crisp. Clancy made a fist out of beetles, then socked us with it. We were sent flying, then we then went Diamondhead to absorb the impact. I was normal as Diamondhead, but as for Ben, instead of being diamond, was a pile of slime.

Ben Diamondhead: "Oh man!" He splattered against the wall, then went Ghostfreak. Ghostfreak looked white instead of gray, and when I tried to turn intangible when Clancy went after us with his beetle fist again, but Ben turned into solid steel, and he didn't do a thing to him, so Ben went Stinkfly again while I turned into Heatblast, then I shot flames while Ben shot laser beams from my eyes, burning more of his bugs off. I then tackled Clancy, and he crashed into a building s Ben flew afterwards.

Stinkfly: "Wait! I have heat vision now? Cool!" Ben used the heat vision again while I launched fire at him, and Clancy dodged the shots.

Stinkfly: "Time for a bug zapper!" Ben and I went Buzzshock. I was normal as Buzzshock, but Ben however wasn't glimmering with electricity, so, we couldn't tell what was going on with him. Ben tried shooting electricity at him, but instead of that, he got methane.

Ben Buzzshock: "Buzzshock farts? Just great!"

Dustin Buzzshock: "Allow me! Time to do the electric boogaloo!" I said as I shocked Clancy as he twitched and collapsed.

Buzzshock: "Try something else." Ben went Upgrade, only to find out hewas solid instead of feeling rubbery, like we usually feel as Upgrade.

Clancy: "You really don't get what's happening, do you, kid?"

Upgrade: "Mind your powers, and I'll mind mine!" Ben was about to shoot an eye beam at him, but instead of that, he got sparks.

Upgrade: "Sparks? Oh, I get it now!" Ben shot even more sparks at but he dodged each one with mosquitoes.

Bizzshock: "Oh hell no! I love all kinds of bugs but Mosquito's arent one of them!" I said as Ben went Stinfly again, and shot eye beams, causing the sparks he shot out to make a huge explosion. Ben then went XLR8, ran in, and socked him. It made a huge banging noise, and he flew into another building.

Buzshock: "I get it now! You're strong as steel, but slow as a hell as XLR8!" I said as Ben tried to run up to him, but Clancy let his bugs carry him and the councilwoman off. Ben went Stinkfly and I went Heatblast to try and catch up with him, but he sent some wasps at us, and all we could do was burn each one with our fire breath/flamethrowers. We turned back to normal when we landed back on the ground.

Dustin: "Dammit! He got away! Well at least we know that your aliens have aome advantages when their sick."

Ben: "Yeah… ACHOO!" The sneeze landed on the ground, and he inhaled up my nose again, and started picking at it.

Dustin: "Ugh dammit dude!" I said gagging a bit.

Gwen: "Could you please stop that?"

Ben: "Sorry, oh… ACHOO!" Ben inhaled up my nose again.

Max: "Maybe it's time for some San Ju Yen Pien. We need to go after Clancy anyway."

Dustin: "We''ll go after him! You guys use the RV." I went XLR8 while Ben went Ripjaws.

Gwen: "Why Ripjaws?"

XLR8: "Funny thing is, Ben's cold changed his alien powers, so, why not?"

Ripjaws: "Lets see what happens." Ben said as he concentrated on making his tail, but instead, he grew wheels at the bottom of my feet.

Ripjaws: "So Ripjaws is the speed guy now, huh?" We took off, but Ben only went, like half as fast as XLR8 would have. The RV followed from behind, and we stopped at an abandoned building with the plans Councilwoman Liang was talking about.

Ripjaws: "He'd be here."

XLR8: "Looks like we gotta pest problem to handle." We both wemt Grey Matter , but there was something very strange with Ben.

Grey Matter: "OUCH! My head hurts!"

Gwen: "Your head hurts?"

Dustin: "How bad is it?"

Grey Matter: "Too much going on! Have to use Amoeblob!" So he became Amoeblob, and what we immediately noticed was, he was a hunk of diamond.

Amoeblob: "Amoeblob and Diamondhead switched powers?"

Grey Matter: "Looks like it."

Amoeblob: "Then I should be able to get all of us in right now." I grew diamond quills, and shot them at the lock, breaking it, and Ben slithered in. I wnet back to human form and me, Gwen, and Max followed him.

Amoeblob: "Maybe we should split up." Ben went XLR8 and Four Arms, and started walking through. Ben went with me, and Gwen went with Max.

XLR8: "XLR8's as slow as a snail now, but he's still really strong."

Four Arms: "Clancy could be any were in this dump."

Ben: "Then let's speed things up a bit." Ben went Diamondhead, who was still a slime puddle, and continued slithering along the ground and I followed him, until we found a new room, where there were a bunch of newspaper clipouts pinned to a wall, and we both went normal to read them.

Dustin: "No wonder this guy's a freak. He doesn't want his home torn down."

Ben: "Makes sense. I'd be freaky if my home was being torn down without my permission." We then heard some voices, and I went Ghostfreak to hide behind the wall, then Ben went Four Arms, who was paler, and had hives under his arms.

Four Arms: "What's the plan, Dustin?"

Ghostfreak: "This." I put my pointer fingers out, and against my head. Ben did the same thing. Max and Gwen walked by the door, and we freaked Gwen out.

Gwen: "Mega Bug!" She jumped, and saw me and Ben come out.

Gwen: "Very funny, doofuses!"

Four Arms: "But the look was still priceless!"

Ghostfreak: "No kidding." I said laughing my ghostly tail off.

Max: "Let's hurry up and find her, alright? She could be anywhere around here."

Four Arms: "We didn't forget about her." We continued and found her and Clancy together.

Clancy: "You dare invade our home? You must die!" He sent out his ants at us, and Ben proceeded to try and squish them, but they got up his pants. Councilwoman Liang was covered in spiders. Max, Ben, and Gwen went to help her, but, she stopped them.

Councilwoman Liang: "Stop! There are black widows on me…"

Gwen: "Great!"

Dustin: "I got this!" I came flew over, and once I touched her, we became intangible and the spiders fell off. Then we flew over to the others and became tangible again.

Councilwoman Liang: "Thank you."

Ghostfreak: "You are most welcome Madame." I said performing the Chinese bow, leaving her blushing

Councilwoman Liang: "What a gentleman."

But then Ben accidentally sneezed on her, but luckily I made us intangible again to avoid he getting sick as well , and be came tangible again once he was done.

Ghostfreak: "Watch where your sneezing will you?" I said with my hands on my hips and glaring at Ben.

Fourarms: "Sorry. As for you…" Ben charged towards him, but he moved out of the way, and he slammed into the wall.

Clancy: "No! You'll destroy our home!"

Four Arms: "You're going down!" He went Stinkfly, and shot heat vision beams at him. He dodged them, and he set the building on fire. I went Four Arms again, and grabbed Gewn and Max and jumped out while I grabbed Councilwoman Liang and became intangible and flew out the building. The place got burned down, and Clancy took off towards the northern direction.

Councilwoman Liang: "Thank you all for saving me from HIM."

Ghostfreak: "No problem miss councilwoman. All in a days work." I said with another bow.

Four Arms: "Yeah. Al in a… ACHOO!" Ben sneezed at the rubble of the building.

Gwen: "I'd recommend taking a nap at home for you, Councilwoman."

Ghostfreak: "A Lady such as yourself needs some rest after today."

Councilwoman Liang: "That's just what I was going to do." She started walking off, and me and Ben went normal again.

Ben: "Now what?"

Max: "We have to figure out his new plan." Gwen was using her laptop to search for data on the bugs, and came up with an idea.

Gwen: "Considering cockroaches can't be killed by radiation, he's headed for the nearby nuclear plant!"

Dustin: "Then let's go there!" Max started up the RV, and set out in that direction. When we made it, we had to track him down. I went Wildmutt and started searching for him with his super smell. Ben, Gwen and Max followed suit as I sniffed Clancy out.

I found Clancy near the reactor, and he noticed me.

Clancy: "You! What are you?" I went roared, but he shot wasps at, bit I went Heatblast to burn them into crisps. Ben then became Nessie, then when he sneezed again, we noticed that Ben spat out an energy beam.

Heatblast: "Oh sweet!"

Clancy: "Uh oh." Ben shot the beam at him, and he was trying to dodge it. He got hit right when it ended, and Ben tried stepping on him. He used beetles to stop me, and he became Stinkfly, and shot eye beams at him again. He dodged each shot, then I flew in for tackling him, but missed, then I launched fire at him. As Ben and I were fighting against Clancy, Gwen, and Max were near the control panel for the core.

Max: "Ahh! It's to hot to control the thing from here manually!"

Gwen: "Then we're toast!"

Gwen: "No we're not!" Bem breathed fire into Clancy's beetle fist, and melted it, then I tackled him again. And Ben went Four Arms right after to charge him. He stopped him with a swarm of ants again as he threw me off. Ben started itching himself all over, then jumped up and down.

Clancy: "You keep picking bad forms." Ben went Heatblast as well, and noticed he was blue instead of orange.

Ben Heatblast: "Oh yeah! Burning even hotter than ever!" Ben shot blue fire at him, but instead, there was ice. I froze him solid.

Ben Heatblast: "Okay… ACHOO!"

Dustin Heatblast: "Talk about fire and ice."

Gwen: "We need to stop the reactor! It'll explode any second! guys!"

Ben Heatblast: "I'm on it!" Ben shot ice at the reactor, and the overheating noise it made stopped it.

Dustin Heatblast: "Phew!" I said in relief.

Gwen: "You did it again! Yay!"

Ben Heatblast: "Now let's get out of here before bug-man here unfreezes."

Later, in the RV, Ben was now better than ever.

Dustin: "You feeling better now dude?"

Ben: "That San Ju Yen Pien really does work. Too bad it smelled so horrible!"

Max: "That would be the monk's fault. Not mine."

Gwen: "At least it worked."

Dustin: "Yeah! At least your fit as a field now dude!"

Ben: "Hey, Dustin, want to uh…" He found a bug, then a whole swarm of bugs got in the RV, and Clancy broke down the door.

Ben: "Whoa! How the heck did you unfreeze?"

Clancy: "My little secret, kid!" He used a beetle fist to punch Ben again. He flew into the back of the RV, and I turned on the watch for Diamondhead.

Diamondhead: "You're getting out of here!" I socked him, and he fell to the floor. Gwen then got an idea, and grabbed what was left of the San Ju Yen Pien off the table, and the bugs smelled it, got off of Clancy, and chased it.

Clancy: "No! My brethren! Stop!"

Clancy looked around, and saw me clench my knuckles.

Clancy: "Um…" Clancy nervous laughs as I socked him out of the RV, and we continued on our way. We heard a sneeze, and everyone looked at Ben. He shrugged, I felt fine, and we noticed Gwen got sick.

Gwen: "How? How did I get sick?"

Ben: "You were near me the whole time, Gwen. Guess you needed more protection."

Dustin: "Well so was I yet I feel fine. I guess that hand sanitizer did the trick I guess."

Gwen: "I'm so gonna kill you when I feel better… ACHOO!" Ben laughed.

Dustin: "Want me to fix you some soup Gwen?"

Gwen: "Please."

Authors note

Just so you know, the side effects o the aliens are by DriveMaxUltraDynamoZord, not me. I'm adding this to avoid any copyright.