Chapter 5: Water Park Attack

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 Five of the reboot!

* So, once again just like with the last chapter, this chapter will have a good chunk of differences from the original version. And I may have a bit more to talk about in the Director's Commentary section, too. We'll just have to see about that.

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

Earth-Prime

Saturday, May 26th, 2018

The Riptide Rapids Zone

Ben

Gwen and I left sometime after ten thirty, but we didn't head for the water park right away. First we went to Denny's for a late breakfast and after that we went to the water park. As we pulled into the parking lot, I was surprised by how big the place was. Once we got out of the car, I was able to get a closer look.

"Wow, this place looks fantastic!" I said as I shut the car door.

"Did I tell you?" Gwen asked. "Or did I tell you?"

I just chuckled.

"No, you told me."

We walked through the parking lot and approached the gates. Just beyond the gates, was a medium-sized building, which had a sign above the door, which said: "Reception Building". After a short chat with one of the ladies in the building, we had bought two tickets to the park. But of course, in true amusement park fashion, we both had to wear one of those stupid wristbands around our wrists.

We walked into the park and looked around in awe. Well, I looked around in awe, I'm assuming that Gwen did the same. I saw a long lazy river that ran through the edge of the park, multiple water slides, a wave pool, two swimming pools with diving boards if you weren't feeling any of the rides or other attractions and a little play area for smaller children, with one of those structures with a big bucket at the top that would tip over once it was full of water.

"Wow." I said.

"Ditto." Gwen replied.

I continued to look around.

"Where do we start?"

She pointed in the direction of one of the swimming pools, that had deck chairs in the vicinity.

"First thing's first, we need a place to put our stuff. We'll go over there first before we decide what to do. Let's go."

"Okay." I replied, following her as she started walking in that direction.

Once we got over there, we put our stuff down beside two vacant deck chairs. Gwen started digging through her bag, probably looking for sunblock. She came back up and turned to look at me with a mixed expression of annoyance and amusement.

"You snuck your goggles into my bag?" she asked with a light chuckle.

I shrugged.

"Um, sorry?"

She turned back to her bag and tossed my goggles to me as she spoke.

"It's fine, though I would have appreciated you asking me first."

I caught them and held them at my side. She started going through her bag and eventually stood back up with the sunblock in her hand.

"Here hold this, please." she said as she turned to face me.

I took the sunblock from her as she turned away from me again. She took off her shirt, revealing that she was wearing a bikini. A bikini with a design of alternating blue and orange stripes. After that, she sat down in one of the deck chairs and began taking off her shorts. She stood back up and held out her hand for the sunblock. I handed it to her and she began applying it to her arms. I turned my head and looked elsewhere as she continued applying the sunblock. About half a minute later, Gwen said my name.

"Ben?"

I turned to look back at her.

"Yeah?"

She handed the bottle of sunblock to me.

"I need you to apply this on my back."

I took the bottle from her hand.

"Okay."

She turned around once again and I applied the sunblock lotion onto her back as she asked. Once I was done, she turned to face me and I handed her the bottle.

"Now let me do you."

"What do you mean?"

"You can't reach your back. I have to apply this to your back so you won't get sun burnt."

"No, that's okay."

She gave me a look of confusion in response.

"What do you mean, 'that's okay'?"

"I don't need the sunblock."

"Why? Would you prefer to get sun burnt?"

To be truthful, I didn't really get sun burns anymore. Ever since I had gotten the alien watch, it was like I was immune to getting sun burns, if that made sense.

"You'd be surprised with how sun burnt I am by the end of the day."

"If you say so. Alright, what do you want to do first?"

"I want to stick around the pool for a few minutes."

"How come?"

"I want to see how my lungs are holding up."

"Um, what? What does that mean?"

"I've been on the swim team for the last couple years in school and I'm great at the underwater relay. I just want to see if I'm still good at it."

"The underwater relay? What's that?"

"It's an event that they do towards the end of every season, where selected team members compete in a race to the other end of the pool. Oh, and did I mention that this entire race is underwater? If you surface, you and your team will be disqualified."

Her eyes widened.

"Wow. So, it's basically just the teams racing under the surface of the water to the other side?"

"Yes. Doesn't your school have a swim team, Gwen?"

She shook her head.

"Really?"

"I told you that I've gone to a boarding school for the last few years, an all-girls boarding school to be exact. We've never had a swim team or a pool."

"I remember that you told me about going to a boarding school, though you didn't tell me that it was an all-girls school. And that's an interesting thing, that the school doesn't have a pool or swim team."

She shrugged.

"I guess. Well, anyway, go on and prove me right?"

Prove you right? What are you talking about?

"What do you mean?"

She chuckled.

"Ben, I know that you can't swim from one end of the pool to the other without coming up for air. So, prove to me that you can't!"

"Well, I'm about to prove you wrong, Dweeb."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I said as I put on my goggles. "You just watch me!"

I stepped off the pool deck and shot down through the water, to the bottom of the pool. I put my feet against the wall of the pool and pushed off, though not too hard, as shooting through the water upon starting would kind of be cheating. I started to do breaststroke as I moved through the water, sometimes alternating to a dolphin kick to get to the other side. I made it to the other side as I was beginning to run out of air. I put my feet on the bottom of the pool and pushed up through the water. I surfaced and removed my goggles, placing them up on the pool deck. I looked up at Gwen as I sort of gasped for air.

"Well?" I asked as I caught my breath.

She just smirked as she stared down at me.

"I knew you could do it." she replied.

I brought my foot out of the water, placing it on the pool deck and pulled myself out of the water.

"What? You totally denied my ability to do it!"

She chuckled.

"I was just teasing you before. Now, come on, it's my turn to pick. And I want to try one of the bigger waterslides."

I grabbed my goggles as she started off without me.

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered as I stood up. "Don't wait for me or anything."

One Hour Later

After an hour had passed, we had gone down the slides for a while and we went around the lazy river twice, where we ended up playfully splashing each other halfway down the river, on our second loop. After we were done at the lazy river, we decided to go to the wave pool for a little bit. As the waves started up for a second time, I decided to slip below the surface of the water, just to think in silence for a minute. I held my breath before slipping underneath the surface of the water and sinking down to the bottom of the wave pool.

As I reached the bottom, I drew my knees up to my chest and sort of sat down. I'll be completely honest. Ever since I got the alien watch, it seems as though my lung capacity has increased. So much so, that I can hold my breath for a minute longer than I usually could. As I was sitting there, considering just throwing in the towel, regarding the whole super hero thing, I noticed Gwen slowly sinking down to the bottom in front of me. She looked back at me, with a smirk on her face and I returned her gaze, looking into her emerald-colored eyes.

I don't know what it was, maybe it was her eyes or how her hair seemed to float around her face, but she looked beautiful, like a princess. Yes, that came from a seventeen year old boy. As I continued to sit there, a questionable look appeared on Gwen's face, as if she were questioning what I was doing. I then got up from my sitting position and kicked off from the bottom of the wave pool. I burst through the water's surface, the waves still in full effect. I started fighting against the waves, as I made my way to the exit of the pool.

After half a minute, I finally made it to the edge of the pool and I felt the slope of the ground below me. I walked out of the water, before I turned and just sat down on the concrete. A couple of seconds later, I felt water splashing at my feet and I noticed that Gwen had exited the wave pool, too. She lightly kicked my shin and I looked up into her emerald-colored eyes once again. She bent down slightly with her hands on her hips as she flung her wet hair out of her face.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" I answered in return.

"What made you leave the wave pool like that? Is something wrong?"

I shook my head.

"No, I just felt like getting out of the pool for a while."

"Really? You're sure?"

I narrowed my eyes as a more serious look came onto my face.

"I really did leave the wave pool because I just felt like getting out. Nothing's wrong, Gwen."

She continued giving me that look, but it did ease after a few seconds.

"Okay, if you insist."

I cleared my throat, getting ready to change the subject.

"Okay, what's next? Want to go on the waterslides again?"

"Actually, I want to do something else. After we're done, we can go back to the lazy river, come back here, go do waterslides again, or whatever you want. I just want to do this thing first."

"Alright. What is it?"

A blush appeared on her face as she spoke again.

"I want you to take me through the tunnel of love."

I just stared back at her in response and after a couple seconds of silence, she turned her head to avoid my gaze, as she began to nervously twirl a couple strands of her hair around her finger.

"Why?" I asked. "And can you look at me? I don't know why you're acting all embarrassed."

She did as I asked and turned her head, looking at me once more.

"I've never been through a tunnel of love. And I would just like to try it at least once in my life."

I let out a sigh as I pushed myself back up onto my feet.

"Alright. Come on, then. Let's go."

I began walking in the direction of the tunnel of love as Gwen followed. It was a good few minutes away and when we got there, I was surprised to find that there was no line. It looked like we were the only ones there. The employee who was standing at the console, getting the ride ready, kept eyeing us every few seconds. Eventually he said something.

"You guys make a cute couple."

I just stood there with surprise, as Gwen started giggling next to me.

"We're not a couple." I told the guy.

"Yes, that's what they always say."

I said nothing this time, while Gwen started laughing in response to what he said. The boat that Gwen and I would be sitting in finally came around.

Good, I thought. I don't have to listen to this guy's claims that Gwen and I are a cute couple. Weirdo.

We both sat down in the swan-shaped boat and we were on our way into the tunnel. After we entered the tunnel, Gwen spoke.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"I guess."

"Do you remember the fight that we had? The one from seven years ago, when we were ten?"

Why is she asking if I remember this? That fight is the main reason why we stopped seeing each other!

"Of course, I do."

"Well, we both have our regrets from back then. That fight is on both of us."

I said nothing in response.

We were dumb kids back then, I thought. Of course with age we're both going to look back on that event with regret.

"It's partly my fault, by continuing to egg you on, antagonizing you further. But it's also your fault, too. After all, you said the words that drove us apart for seven years."

I shut my eyes as I felt a shudder run down my spine. I heard the voice of my ten year old self, clear as day as if I were back there, instead of here in the present.

I hate you! I never want to see you again!

I shook the unpleasant thoughts away and opened my eyes. I turned my head to look at Gwen and in the dim light, I saw a playful smirk on her face. That helped ease the situation.

"I suppose you're right." I finally spoke again. "I just hope all of that is behind us now."

She nodded.

"It is. I know all of that stuff is behind us now. Words like that won't be said between us anymore."

Before either of us could say anything else, the boat suddenly jerked to a stop. The force of the boat stopping made me fall out of my seat and over the low wall that acted as the boat's edge. I fell out of the boat and into the stream below me, to find that it was remarkably shallow. I hadn't even been under the water's surface for a second before I felt myself touch the bottom. I put my feet on the bottom and pushed myself into a standing position and I came back up, finding that the water was only waist deep.

"Oh my God!" Gwen called out in worry. "Are you okay?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm okay. The water's only waist-level deep."

"I wasn't talking about that. Did you hit anything?"

I shook my head as I approached the boat.

"No, I just fell out of the boat."

"What caused that?"

"I guess the force of it stopping just made me tip over."

"Tsk-tsk. You should be more careful."

"Oh, stop it."

Gwen offered me her hand.

"Here, let me help you up."

I took her hand and she pulled me up out of the water. After that, we sat back down.

"What do you think made it stop like that?" she asked.

I shrugged.

"I have no idea. Maybe it's a problem with the console at the start of the attraction?"

"I don't know anything about that. Your guess is as good as mine."

"So, what do we do now?"

"We should probably stay here until the boat starts again."

"I don't like that idea. I think we should leave and exit the tunnel on foot."

"Well, I don't like that idea. What if we get in trouble?"

Gwen was trying to persuade me otherwise, but I was already getting back out of the boat.

"If we get kicked out, we get kicked out. In the very least, we can explain that the ride malfunctioned."

"Wow, glad you have so much faith in your plan."

Gwen followed me in getting out of the boat and we began wading through the water in the direction of the tunnel's exit. We walked in silence, as we didn't see anything to talk about. As we began walking though, I heard a low rumbling sound from behind us. I stopped and turned my head to look at Gwen.

"Did you hear that?" I asked.

She nodded.

I turned to look behind us as she did the same. Then, no joke, a chunk of the tunnel's ceiling fell onto the boat, destroying and submerging it.

"Well, that was close." I spoke as I tried not to show how much that had spooked me.

"Oh, you think?" Gwen asked with sarcasm in her voice.

We didn't see any point in sticking around inside the tunnel, so after that we started moving again. After a minute or so, we reached the end of the tunnel and I think I figured out what had caused the tunnel of love to cease its functions. There seemed to be an alien spaceship of some kind, floating a way's above the ground outside the gates of the park. And it looked like people were currently fleeing from the park.

"I think our day at the water park is over." I replied. "We should probably leave, too."

She turned to look at me.

"What about my bag? I can't just leave my bag here!"

I sighed.

"Fine. You get out of here and go start your car. While you're doing that, I'll go and get your bag and the rest of our things from where we left them."

"I'm not going to leave you! What if something happens to you?"

I chuckled.

"Gwen, will you let me have my moments, too?"

I thought she wouldn't understand what I meant with that, but when she spoke a few seconds later, she didn't argue any further.

"Fine. Just don't do anything stupid!"

"I'll be fine." I told her as she began running in the direction of the gates.

After she left, it only took me a few minutes to get back to the swimming pools and get our stuff. After doing that, I also started to make my way for the park's exit. However, before I could get to the exit, I noticed a creature with a lot of mass quickly heading toward me.

Shit, I thought. I think I'm going to have to transform for my sake. Leaving will have to come later.

I brought the alien watch out of its camouflaged mode and dialed it up. I transformed into Fourarms but before I could even do anything, the creature rammed me into the wall of a nearby building. As I was charged into, Gwen's bag and the rest of our things were cast aside.

Well, I guess I'll have to find those again later, I thought.

After I was rammed into the wall, the creature began to hit me. And the strikes hurt, more than anything I had experienced to this point. I was also able to clearly see my attacker now. For one, it looked like he had an octopus for a head. His skin, if that's what it was, was a sickly green color. His chest area was heavily armored, but his arms were completely bare, except for some kind of harness that connected from his shoulders, I guess, to his hands. The armor was a dark red or dark maroon color; I couldn't really put my finger on it. He also had glowing red eyes.

"What is your species doing on Earth?" the giant asked.

I was surprised that this thing could speak English, but nevertheless, I answered as I gathered the strength to kick away from him.

"Who said that I'm this alien's species?"

Before I could attack again, the giant surprised me by picking me up, with one hand, too!

How can this thing be strong enough to pick up Fourarms?!

"Ah, now I see."

He pointed one of his talons at me and pressed the hourglass symbol that all of my aliens had. Somehow, him doing that caused me to be reverted back to my human form.

"What the hell?" I asked. "How did you do that?!"

The giant laughed in response before speaking.

"You are just a human child? How humorous!"

"Hey, there's a difference between a child and an adult! Who are you?!"

"I am Vilgax, the conqueror of worlds! And that device on your wrist is rightfully mine!"

"I don't think so." I replied with a smirk. "Finders keepers, losers weepers!"

"You will hand over the Omnitrix to me, now!"

"Omnitrix? That's what you call it? Meh, I prefer my version. That being the alien watch."

After I spoke, I made an unwise decision and attempted to punch Vilgax. He kicked me back, but surprisingly, he didn't put a lot of force into his kick, so I wasn't really harmed. I flipped backwards after I ended up on my back and got back to my feet. Before I could do anything, Vilgax picked me back up and actually took a small piece off of the alien watch.

"What did you just do?!"

"It doesn't matter what I just did. You'll still be able to activate the Omnitrix and you're lucky that I allow you to do that."

Just then, the alien watch turned green, letting me know that it had recharged. It was a little too quick for it to have recharged by now, but I didn't care. I took the chance, dialed it back up and transformed into Diamondhead. After I transformed, I charged into Vilgax and pushed him to the ground, where I attempted to fire diamond shards into his face, but he easily pushed me off of him.

"So inexperienced." He said as he picked me up. "Now, it's my turn."

I don't know how to explain it, but when Vilgax wanted to leap, he could really leap! He leaped to the top of one of the tallest waterslides in the park, in only a single bound. Once we were up there, I struggled against his grip. I tried to kick away from him, but seeing how high up we were, that probably wasn't a wise idea.

"You are very persistent." Vilgax said. "I hate persistent."

"I get that a lot." I said.

"Not anymore." Vilgax said, before head butting me.

My ears rang after he head butted me. I shook my head a little bit, but that didn't really help the pain.

"Now, I'm going to speak. So listen, and listen well."

"I'm all ears, squid face."

"Good. Listen, kid. I admire you. You remind me a lot of when I was your age. You have a lot of—oh, what is it that you humans call? Oh, yes. Moxie. You have a lot of moxie. Like I said, I like you kid. And you may or may not have made a new enemy today. So, I'm giving you a choice."

"A choice? What choice?"

"You stay away from me kid; you let me do what I need to do. Or, I will kill everyone you love and then you. How does that sound?"

Before I could answer, he kicked me off the top of the waterslide. Sending me soaring towards one of the pools.

"Think about it, hero!" was all I could hear him say.

I landed in the water and sank all the way to the bottom. And just as I touched the bottom, the watch timed out and I transformed back to human form. I mustered all the strength I could to swim up to the surface. My arm was the first thing that came up out of the water, touching the concrete of the pool deck. I pushed myself up and out of the water, with the help of my other arm.

"Ugh, that sucked." I groaned in pain, as I rolled over onto my back.

Gwen

Seconds Earlier

After I departed from Ben and made it to my car, I waited for him. After sometime passed of me just looking around the area, I noticed one of Alien Guy's forms, the one Ben called "Diamondhead", struggling with a monster of some kind at the top of one of the park's waterslides. Eventually Diamondhead lost the fight and was kicked across the park by the monster. It was at that time that I realized how long I had been standing there, along with the fact that Ben had not returned to me yet.

Oh my God, I thought. I forgot all about Ben! I should go find him and make sure that he's okay!

And without a second thought, I started running back towards the park's gates.

Author's Note:

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

* How did I do compared to the original version? What did you think of the interactions between Ben and Gwen in this chapter? How did I do with debuting Vilgax this time around (even if it may appear identical 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 in regards to this version of Chapter Five.

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

Director's Commentary

* To start off this installment of Director's Commentary, we're going to go over something that was cut when adapting this from the original version. In the original version, Ben had a "different reaction", I'll say that, to seeing Gwen in her bikini and it made him a bit flustered when she asked to apply sunblock to her back. Both of these things were cut from this version, as they don't really have any place here in this version.

* Next in a scene that came just a little bit after this, in the original version of this chapter, when Ben tells Gwen about the underwater relay, Gwen tells him that her school didn't have a pool or a swim team. That part stayed. What didn't stay is the fact that during that conversation, Gwen says that she's never kissed a guy. This was cut due to the fact that it just doesn't really make sense for her to say that here.

* Next up is the scene at the wave pool. In the original version when Gwen joins him underwater and looks at him with her playful glance, Ben gets this sudden urge to kiss her. This was cut for obvious reasons. If you don't see what those obvious reasons are, well, I'll just say that it's a way too early for Ben to be catching feelings for Gwen, real or otherwise. You can tell me what you think about this change if you want to or not. And this also called for a bit of a change in the scene where they're waiting in line at the tunnel of love. This time, Ben isn't flustered when the employee assumes that he and Gwen are a couple and he's just more confused than anything else, and he also thinks that the guy is a weirdo.

* Second to last thing here, is a big scene from the original cut being axed here. In the original version, Ben turns into Ripjaws when he falls out of the boat and as a result, Gwen has a conversation with Ripjaws. This scene in its entirety was cut, due to the fact of it being unrealistic (that Gwen wouldn't be suspicious of Ripjaws just magically being here) and I also want Gwen to be a little less involved with Ben's alter ego this time around. Whether or not you guys like this change is up to you.

* And lastly, we have a scene that is actually original to the reboot! The scene at the very end, with Gwen witnessing the final moments of the Alien Guy v. Vilgax fight, before realizing that she forgot all about Ben, before running back into the park to find him. I added this in because in the original version, Gwen seems to not really care when Ben just randomly disappears and I'm going to try to do better in that regard. This scene (and another coming in a few more chapters from now) is here to show that Gwen does worry about Ben. With that said, it's time to wrap this up. Thanks for reading.

Review Responses

Patjeeson (Chapter 4): I am liking the twenty question game ,it has a way of showing some lore of the characters without being forced ,and if over time the question escalates even better. The way the Omnitrix feels is like a symbiote with no drawbacks except the slight possessiveness of it towards Ben...exciting! Good chapter

Thanks, Pat. Um, I don't mean any offense when I say this, but I think you may misunderstand a little bit. Or maybe I'm the one who's misunderstood what you've wrote here. Anyway, regarding the "twenty question-like" game, I'm not sure what you mean with "...if over time the question escalates even better...". I would like to clarify that this is the only time that we will see this type of "game" between Ben and Gwen. There just isn't any time for me to implement another version of this into the story. It was a one and done type of thing, I'm sorry to say.

And about the Omnitrix feeling like a symbiote? This has me confused, too. I'm actually trying to make the Omnitrix feel like the opposite of a symbiote. I wrote it to have similarities (a lot of similarities) to a symbiote in the original version of Volume One and I now see that doing that was a mistake on my part. It was bad writing and I don't want the Omnitrix to come off as being possessive of Ben. This was not the message I was trying to convey, nor was I trying to convey a message, I apologize. Either way, I think one of us has misunderstood something, here. Thanks for the review, as always.

Next Chapter: Following the events of the water park attack, Ben and Gwen try to relax for the rest of the day, while Ben tries to consider the events of the day.