Chapter 3: From Hero to Zero

I Don't Own Ben 10 or Any of the Respective Characters, The Rights Belong to Man of Action Studios and Cartoon Network

Author's Note:

* Hello and welcome to Chapter Three of the reboot!

* So, this chapter will feature the first appearance of Animo in this story. That's all I will say on this.

* Also, I'm aware that I didn't have an author's note at the beginning of the last chapter. That was my fault, I forgot to put one in.

* I don't really have anything else to say in regards to this chapter, so let's get right into it!

Earth-Prime

Friday, May 25th, 2018

The Tennyson House

Gwen

Since Ben had gone to his room to lie down, I had gone upstairs to watch the news in the family room. If he wanted to be left alone for a while, I respected that. However, it had been maybe an hour since he went to his room and I was beginning to get bored from just sitting here, watching T.V. I wanted to do something with him, anything that would get rid of the feeling of boredom.

No, I thought. He's trying to rest, so I should leave him alone. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm bored...

I let out a sigh as I got up off of the couch. I walked down the hall to his room. Once I got to his door, I knocked.

"Ben?" I called out his name.

A second or two passed before he answered.

"Come in." he said from the other side of the door.

I turned the doorknob and gently pushed his door open. I peeked my head into the room to see him lying on his bed, arms crossed behind his head.

"Are you feeling better?"

"I guess."

"Did you feel sick?"

"No, just tired." He said with a yawn. "Getting up at six every morning eventually takes its toll."

"You're on summer break, Ben. You don't have to get up at six every morning anymore if you don't want to."

"I guess it's just habit."

"Do you want to do something? I'm bored."

"Not right now. Maybe in a little while."

"Okay, I'll leave you alone, then. Do you want me to shut the door?"

"You can leave it open a crack if you want."

So, I did that and walked away from his door, back to the family room. I had tried and it appeared that Ben wasn't interested in doing anything right now. I sat back down on the couch, just as something of interest to me came on the T.V. It was a news report and the reporter covering the segment was currently standing outside of a burning apartment building in what looked to be Downtown Bellwood. The headline on the screen said something about a fire having been started in an apartment building and how there were suspected sightings of Alien Guy.

This would be a great opportunity for me to go take more pictures of Alien Guy, I thought. And if Ben isn't wanting to do anything, there's no reason why I shouldn't go!

I got up from the couch and walked back over to the door to his bedroom. I knocked once again. I heard him sigh before speaking.

"What is it?"

I pushed his door open and little bit, before looking into the room once again.

"There have been reported sightings of Alien Guy at a fire Downtown." I said. "I'm going to go try to take more pictures. Do you want to come with me?"

"No, that's okay. You go on ahead. I'll stay here and try to get some more rest."

I was slightly disappointed by his response, but I understood what he said.

"Okay, then. I'll see you later, then."

"Bye."

So, I went to go get my things before leaving the house. I was a little disappointed that Ben didn't want to come along with me, but I couldn't do anything about that.

Ben

Once I was sure that Gwen had left the house, I sat up and moved so that I was sitting on the edge of the bed.

Why, did there have to be, on today of all days, something happening Downtown? And Gwen is going there, suspecting that Alien Guy may make an appearance.

I got up from my bed as I let out a sigh.

"Well, I should probably go to follow her to the location of the fire and make sure that she doesn't do anything that would put her at risk."

I walked out into the living room and turned the T.V. back on. It was still on the news channel and after watching for a few seconds, I got a good idea of where the fire was at. So, I got going.

Sometime Later

Downtown Bellwood

When I left the house, I had seen that Gwen had taken her car. So, there was no doubt in my mind that she would beat me to the location of the fire. I wasn't going to use the alien watch and risk it timing out before I could even get there, so I took my bike. I had arrived at the scene and the fire was inside of a three or four story apartment building.

Damn, the place has really gone up in flames, I thought. If only I had an alien form that could use ice or water-based abilities. But maybe with Heatblast, I can get into the building and start absorbing the flames! It's worth a shot.

I got off of my bike and ran with it into a nearby alley, just to make sure that I wouldn't be seen transforming. I then brough the alien watch out of its camouflage mode and dialed it up. I turned the ring until I reached Heatblast's silhouette and pressed it down. Once I had transformed into Heatblast, I ran into the building through a back entrance and started absorbing flames. I concentrated as hard as I could and sucked the flames into my body. I did this as I walked throughout the building, listening for anyone who could be trapped in here.

"Hello?!" I called out. "Is anybody in here?!"

I didn't get an answer at first, but a few seconds later, someone called out to me.

"Help!" I heard a female voice calling out. "Help me, please!"

I ran towards a flight of a stairs as I called out in return.

"Where are you?!"

In response, I heard what sounded like sobbing coming from the floor above me.

"Don't worry, I'm coming! Everything's going to be okay!"

I stopped to absorb all of the flames around me. Once I began to move again, I immediately stumbled, almost falling to the floor.

I've never tried absorbing so much fire in one sitting before, I thought. It's like absorbing so much of it is leaving me out of breath, as if my energy is being sapped! I have to find that woman!

I regained my composure and somewhat staggered toward the flight of stairs.

"I'll be right there!" I called out once more, my voice sounding lower than it should have been.

I finally made it to the top of the stairs, where I found myself in a medium-sized common area. Before I could do anything, however, I was immediately blasted by water. I was knocked back up against the wall, as all of the fire on Heatblast's body was extinguished. Once the water ceased, I got up slowly to see a tall, armored figure standing just a few feet away from me, with a water hose in their hand, like the kind of hose that they kept in apartment buildings in case of emergencies like this.

"Why?!" I exclaimed as Heatblast's body reignited. "Get out of my way! I have a person to save!"

The armored figure just laughed in response, as he sprayed me with a wide stream of ice cold water, dousing the flames on my body once more.

"Really?" the figure asked as I slowly recovered. "You mean this civilian?"

I looked up to see the figure twisting a knob on their suit and moments later, I heard a voice.

"Help! Help me, please!" the same female voice I had heard just a minute or so ago played through a set of speakers on the figure's armor.

It was the same exact tone and pitch, as well. So, there was no doubt in my mind that the woman who had screamed out to me didn't even exist.

"But why?" I asked.

"You sent me to prison and it's payback time."

The figure twisted another knob on their armor and the helmet retracted, revealing their face. I recognized the person's face almost right away to be that of Doctor Animo.

"Animo!" I exclaimed as my form began warming up again. "How'd you get out of prison?"

Doctor Animo laughed as he blasted me with water again. I got back up, but before I could do anything, my hand had frozen over. No, I mean literally frozen over, now adhered to the wall. Animo had dropped the hose and was now holding a blaster of some kind in his hand, with another hose attaching it to a decently-sized tank on his back. I was just now noticing this. Whatever was in the tank must have been kept cool at subzero temperatures, because it had frozen my right hand to the wall and even with Heatblast's powers, I couldn't reignite my hand.

"Why are you doing this, Animo?" I asked, as I tried to thaw the ice with my other hand.

Before I could get far however, don't ask me why I did it, when I slapped my left hand against the wall, he froze that hand against the wall, too. Then he froze a good amount of my arms to the wall, as well.

"There, that should hold you long enough so that I can talk to you."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you sent me to prison. And I have a score to settle with you, Tennyson!"

My eyes widened.

He knows my name?! How can he know who I really am?!

"How do you know me?!" I exclaimed as I attempted to reignite my arms, to no avail.

I let out a sigh as I failed again.

"Please, Maxwell! Did you really think that after so many years, I would forget that you busted me? And even if you thought it'd be hard for me to recognize you with that new alien transformation ability of yours, you fight exactly like you did twenty years ago! I don't forget people! Especially not you, Maxwell Tennyson!"

Animo thinks he's talking to my Grandpa Max Tennyson! But why would Grandpa know Animo? How would they know each other? Could it be possible, that Grandpa Max was a cop back in the day?

For my sake, I had to play dumb. I had to play along and make Animo believe that I really was Max Tennyson.

"I guess it has been a while, hasn't it, Animo?"

He must have bought it, based on his response.

"Yes, it has, hasn't it?"

"I guess I'm in trouble now, aren't I?"

Animo laughed as he shot me with his blaster, freezing my feet to the wall.

"Yes, you could say that. Maxwell, have I ever told you what my favorite thing about a hero is?"

I shook my head.

"No, you didn't."

He fired his blaster, completely freezing my legs to the wall.

"The thing that people enjoy the most about heroes, more than anything else, is that they love to see them fall. Die trying."

"From a psychotic point of view, sure."

Animo continued on with freezing me, this time with my lower body.

"Why do you continue being a hero, Tennyson?"

"Because it's the right thing to do. And because I enjoy doing good things."

In response, he blasted my chest, completely freezing it over, as well.

"Here's the real kicker, Tennyson. There are thousands, if not a couple million people in this city. And you help out a lot of them. You help them and you brighten their days, time and time again."

"What's your point, Animo?"

Animo approached me and pointed his blaster directly at my face.

"My point is that after everything you've done for them, eventually they will hate you."

Animo fired his blaster, freezing my face completely. My entire body had been completely frozen over now. I couldn't move any part of my body and Animo didn't seem to care. After that, Animo walked away from me and began to freeze the entire area around us. The walls, the ceiling, the floors, everything. Eventually, he made his way back over to me and waved his hand in front of my frozen face.

"Think about what I said, hero! It won't be long until your heart stops and freezes over, along with the rest of your vital organs!"

I was able to hear his voice, but it also sounded faint, as if he were far away from me. It must have been the sheets of ice covering my head. Animo turned away from me and walked down the flight of stairs and froze them over, so that it would be difficult to get down that way.

He's right! I probably don't have very long until I'm reverted back to my human form! I have to concentrate! I have to heat up!

I concentrated as hard as I could, trying to summon the heat. I had to work up enough heat to thaw me out but I also had to make sure that I wouldn't overdo it; I didn't want accelerate the fire and burn the building down faster. I tried for a little while, but stopped once I had realized that it wasn't working.

Animo was right, I thought. I'm going to freeze to death! Even as Heatblast, it feels like I'm outside in temperatures twenty or below! No, I can't give up now! I have to keep trying!

I concentrated harder than I ever had before, so hard, that it hurt to do so. Then, I let out a gut-wrenching scream as a wave of fire came over me.

Minutes Later

I was still alive, thank God. That was the good news. And the bad news? Well, let's start with me having regained my strength and now being able to push the rubble off my back. Once I was back on my feet, I looked down at my hands to see that they were completely made of fire, that I was completely made of fire. The body that Heatblast had, possibly made of volcanic rock? No, forget that. My body was completely made of fire! I don't know how it was possible. Maybe it had something to do with absorbing all of the flames beforehand.

I kept looking down at my hands and was surprised when the fire eventually began to die down, revealing Heatblast's normal form again. From out of the corner of my eye, I detected a flash of light and in response, I looked up and began looking around me.

Damn it, I thought. I failed. I burned the entire building down.

There was barely anything left of the former apartment building. I looked ahead of me and saw a red-headed, young lady. When she lowered her camera, I wasn't at all surprised to see that it was Gwen. Apparently, there had been firefighters that had arrived while I was in the building talking to and getting subdued by Animo, but just now, there were cop cars that were starting to show up.

Once they stopped, four officers from each car stepped out and some of them began ushering the civilians, including Gwen, out of the way as they began to started to contain the scene. While some of the officers did that, the other half of the officers approached me and eventually stopped, drawing their weapons, whatever good that would do against me.

"Stay right where you are!" one of the officers exclaimed. "Don't move a God damn inch!"

I did what they said and didn't move, not because they told me to, but because I was thinking.

I can't stay here, I thought. I'm not going to be viewed as a hero anymore. I'm definitely going to be viewed as a menace after this.

I don't know why I hoped that my plan would work, but I guess all I could do was hope. I began to back up a bit, going against the officer's orders and then turned, running as fast as I could back in the direction of where I had left my bike. Just as I had assumed they would, the police officers followed in pursuit of me. I ran from them and once I was far away enough to the point that I thought I could hide effectively, I ran into an alley way and dove behind a dumpster, as the alien watch began to time out.

I was reverted back to my human form and I stayed there for a few seconds, too afraid to move. After some time, the officers ran past the dumpster and paid no attention to me. Just in case there were any others that I wasn't aware of, I stayed at my current position for a few seconds. Once I realized that there weren't any more officers coming, I got up and ran back the direction I had come from, now heading for my bike.

I have to try to get home before Gwen does, I thought. I don't want her to worry if she gets home and sees that I'm not there!

Later That Evening

The Tennyson House

Somehow, I managed to get back before Gwen did. And I did so right before she got home. After my humiliating bit of hero work, I just went back to my room once I was home and she eventually came to ask me if I had gotten any rest. I said no and asked how Downtown had been, as if I hadn't already known. She told me that the apartment building had burned down and she had gotten a picture of Alien Guy in Heatblast form, but before she could get anymore, she and the rest of the public were escorted away from the scene by police.

After that, she told me that she was leaving again to go up to the Bellwood Post's building so she could submit her pictures. I told her that was fine and that was that. We were currently sitting together in the living room watching the news as we ate the leftover pizza from last night. As I lifted my slice of pizza to my mouth, the reporter on screen spoke.

"There are still no reports of where 'Alien Guy' is hiding. His actions today have convinced the people that he is not hero, but a public menace. If you see him, you are to report where he is. If you know where he is, you are to report where he is hiding. We now go live to the Chief of Police, Chief Andrew Simmons, with his report on the situation."

As the news coverage changed its point of view, Gwen turned to me and spoke.

"Ben, do you think that Alien Guy burned down that building on purpose?"

Well, I can tell you right now that it wasn't on purpose, I thought.

I shook my head in response.

"No, he'd never do that."

The scene on the T.V. screen shifted and now we saw the titular Chief of Police, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, outside of the Bellwood Police Station.

"Chief Simmons! What do you and your police force plan to do about the 'Alien Guy'?" a member in the crowd asked.

"The 'vigilante', "Alien Guy", burned down an apartment building today." Chief Simmons spoke. "And if you see any of these ten "aliens", you are to report them to the authorities."

It's a short statement, I thought as I finished off my slice of pizza.

After he said that, pictures of all my alien forms popped up on screen. I wouldn't have been surprised if a couple of the pictures were ones that Gwen had taken. Wildmutt, Fourarms, Greymatter, XLR8, Upgrade, Diamondhead, Stinkfly, Ripjaws, Ghostfreak and Heatblast. They were all there.

"We will catch this 'Alien Guy'. And we will bring him in for questioning. For any assistance that can be offered in our efforts to catch him, we will be offering a monetary reward."

Why doesn't that surprise me?

Gwen turned to look at me once again.

"If you don't think he burned down the building on purpose, then why are the police saying otherwise?"

I let out a sigh as I got up and walked toward the kitchen.

"No one is perfect, Gwen." I replied. "Not even your hero."

I entered the kitchen and turned the light on, before throwing away my paper plate. I came back to the kitchen table, to where today's edition of the Bellwood Post was sitting. Gwen had went out about an hour ago to buy a copy. If they were able to get out an article on the same day of an incident involving Alien Guy, then their workers must be pushed hard. It might be bad there.

But it was like that. The paper had managed to keep a record similar to this ever since Alien Guy showed up. A new edition on the day of an event or the following day, at the very least. I just stared down at the newspaper, as I picked it up with shaky hands. I read the headline again, whispering it to myself.

"Alien Guy: Hero or Menace?"

I sighed, putting it back on the table as Gwen walked past me to throw her plate away.

After everything you've done for them, eventually they will hate you, Animo's words from earlier today echoed in my mind.

He was right, I thought. The public hates me after what happened today. I was supposed to be a hero, but now I've gone from hero to zero! What have I done?

Two Hours Later

At some point, I just decided to go to my room for the night. I told Gwen that I was just tired and that I was going to bed early. She understood. I was currently sitting on my bed, still wearing my day clothes. I ended up having a rough day, you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know that. And to make matters worse, I seemingly had a bounty on my head.

We will catch this 'Alien Guy', the Chief of Police's words echoed in my mind. And we will bring him in for questioning. For any assistance that can be offered in our efforts to catch him, we will be offering a monetary reward.

Somehow, Doctor Animo knows my Grandpa Max. I don't know anything about that or how they know each other. I wanted to figure out how they knew each other. I let out a sigh.

I had a really bad day, today, I thought. I thought this hero gig was pretty cool and maybe it's not. It's tough doing this all by myself. Even though it may put her in danger and she'd worry about me, maybe I should tell Gwen that I'm Alien Guy, even prove it to her if she needs to see proof. And I can. It would just be nice to have someone to talk to about all this.

I shook my head and my thoughts went away as I looked down at the alien watch on my wrist, currently in its camouflage mode. I took it off and set it on my nightstand next to my bed, not wanting to wear it to bed for a change. I stood up from my bed and went to shut off the lights. Once I had done that, I went to lie down in my bed.

You know what, I thought as I got situated under the covers, still wearing my day clothes. I think I'll hold off on telling Gwen about me. Especially with what happened today, it may be too soon. Too dangerous now and she'd worry about me.

I yawned and tried to think about it more, but by then, I was on my way to dream land.

Author's Note:

* And that's it for this chapter, I hope you all enjoyed!

* How did I do compared to the original version? Give me any comments or questions that you may have in either a review or a private message, please. I am very curious on what you all are thinking with the reboot so far.

* Anyway, that's going to do it for me. I'm going to go, so have a great day and bye.

Director's Commentary

* So, to start off this installment of Director's Commentary, I have something that I've wanted to say about the title of this story for a while. So, as you all know, the title of this series is Ben 10: Bride to Be. However, this title is just what I came up with at the time of posting the very first chapter back at the beginning of 2017 and I had every intention of eventually changing it once I came up with something better. But I never did change the title. Eventually, too much time went by to warrant a title change, so I stuck with it, despite how much I dislike the current title of this story.

* Now onto stuff related to the original version of this chapter. Obviously, all of the references to the argument that Ben and Gwen had in the original version of Chapter 2 were cut from this version of Chapter 3. So, the beginning had to be rewritten to incorporate the fact that they didn't fight, but it's clear that there is some tension currently between them.

* A good amount of grammatical stuff was changed in Ben's conflict with Animo, but stuff like that is a given, so we'll move on. And at the end of the chapter, I cut the fight that Ben and Gwen got into, as well as the fact that Ben tries to tell her that he's Alien Guy, but she doesn't believe him. That was replaced by them watching the news together.

* And at the very end of the original chapter, we have Ben taking off the Omnitrix and throwing it across his room out of anger. Due to it being kind of edgy and not making a lot of sense, that was cut and so instead, we have him just taking it off for the night, due to him not wanting to wear at the moment. With that said, it's time to wrap this up. Thanks for reading.

Review Responses

Cesar D. Sizun (Chapter 2): And the improvements keep on coming! The difference in quality is abysmal, man. Though I think I should point out; as a little criticism; while for the most part, you got rid of it, you still put too much detail and emphasis on small, mostly irrelevant stuff, such as overexplaining the process of Ben prickling his finger, and disposing of the tissue.

If I could give you some advice, is that you should try and apply what i like to call the "Shintani method of conservation of detail. small rant ahead, feel free to ignore: i named it that way in honor Toei Animation's character designer Naohiro Shintani, whose design philosophy is that of "flexibility." His designs are created with the purpose of being extremely simplistic in slice of life animations and easy to detail in action sequences). Tl;Dr: for small stuff, don't worry detailing. Save that for plot important things, or action sequences.

Sorry for rambling. Read ya in the next chapter, and have an awesome New Year!

Thanks, Cesar. Well, I'm sorry that the difference in quality is abysmal. I'm trying, just know that. I understand where you're coming from with putting too much detail into small things that aren't relevant. But that's really a "me thing". Going back and cutting stuff out that doesn't work leaves gaps in places and can possibly make the chapter shorter than I'm comfortable with.

I don't want to be delivering a short chapter and putting in details that aren't necessarily relevant to the plot to fill those gaps are my solution to that problem. It may not be the best decision, but it's what I got. And I'd rather not add in plot points that take away from the original story. I am however going to add new, original chapters here and there, but those chapters will exist for good reason. Thanks for the review, as always.

Patjeeson (Chapter 2): I think that Gwen knowing for Ben is a bit too soon , since he doesn't know if she can trust her with his secret identity,and after showing the photo she must know how dangerous could it be (meaning telling his parents or Max, and only in one possibility it could go good). But telling her has a dangerous effect on her since she would want to be involved and be in harm's 'way, unless she can prove to be trustworthy ( he know her only when she was 10 and she was known to follow rules by that age) and defend herself it is better to lie . I really hope Max make an appearance and maybe be left in the dark about the secret identity of "Alien guy". Since I don't remember much I hope the fight between Ben and Gwen when they were 10 can be expanded and be a plot device to develop their relationship,since conflict and understanding is what drive their relationship in the show. Good chapter and I hope for more!

Thanks, Pat. Well, if you've read the original version of the story, then you will know that it takes some time for Gwen to find out and that will remain the same here. Max will make an appearance soon, but that's all I will say about it. And as for their fight, more light will be shed on that in the future. Thanks for the review, as always.

Guest Review (Chapter 1): :Bring on the chapters lad!

Thanks, the chapters are coming. Thanks for the review, as always.

Guest Review (Chapter 2): :Wonderful work! Im very glad to see that someone is still writing ben 10 fan fiction. Your story is fascinating and I hope you keep working on it

Thanks, I'm glad you like the story. You can rest assured knowing that this story will continue to be worked on. Thanks for the review, as always.

Next Chapter: After their friendship is left in an odd spot, Ben and Gwen try to get back on track the following day.