Chapter 6: Water Park Aftermath

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 Six of the reboot!

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

* 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

I let out a groan as I rolled onto my back.

"Who was that guy?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

I tried to sit up and pull my knees in toward my chest a little bit. But before I could get up, I fell back onto the concrete, letting out a hiss of pain as I did. After I fell back down, I laid there for a few minutes and eventually my eyes shut. Eventually, I heard Gwen's voice.

"Ben?" she asked, her voice full of concern.

I opened my eyes and looked up at her, to see her cocking her head at me.

"Where are our things at? And did you see what happened?"

I let out a sigh.

"I lost hold of our things while I was running from cover to cover, hiding from those... things. And no, I didn't see what happened. So, what did?"

"It was Alien Guy! He was fighting some kind of monster that looked like it had an octopus for a head! I think he lost!"

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks that Vilgax looks as though he has an octopus on his head. And yeah, he definitely lost.

"I see." I replied.

"Come on," she spoke as she stuck out her hand. "let me help you up. Then we'll go find our things together."

"Okay." I said as I took her hand.

She helped me up, however, as soon as I stood back up, my legs began to feel like they were made of jelly.

"Oh, uh-oh."

"What is it?"

"I can't feel my legs."

After that, I fell over backwards, back into the pool.

Six Hours Later

The Tennyson House

It was only a few hours later that I finally was able to feel like I could walk around without my legs crumbling beneath me every few minutes. Gwen was currently on the phone with her Mom, telling her and my parents about the attack at the water park earlier today.

"No, Mom, I already told you." she spoke. "Ben and I were not hurt. We're both fine."

I continued sitting on the couch in the living room as I listened to her speak from down the hall in her room. A moment or two passed before she spoke again.

"Yes, Mom. I'll call again in case something else happens. Now, I have to go and help Ben get dinner ready."

Wait, who said anything about me helping with dinner?

"I love you, too, Mom."

A few seconds later, she walked out of her room.

"I think they know we're okay, they're still just a little worried about us."

I nodded.

"That's understandable. Something like what happened today doesn't usually happen when one goes to a water park."

She chuckled.

"Ain't that the truth?"

The amused look disappeared from her face and after a few seconds, she looked at me with a more serious look.

"Ben, what was that thing? At the water park?"

I shrugged.

"I don't know. But someone has to stop it."

She nodded.

"You're right. I don't think that Alien Guy has ever faced something like this. The only thing that I can think of is that attack by that mad doctor on Downtown a few months ago."

Animo, I thought. And so, I'm inadvertently reminded of the events from yesterday.

I shook those thoughts away and looked back at Gwen.

"So, do I really have to help you with dinner?"

She smirked at me, as she flung her hair out of her face.

"Relax, Doofus. I just said that because mom hates the idea of me doing something by myself. Besides, I know that you don't know how to cook."

I sat up a little more straight as she walked into the kitchen.

"Hey, I take offense to that!"

"I was only teasing you. I thought you knew how to take a joke?"

I said nothing in response and she didn't say anything else after that. A few seconds later, I cleared my throat and spoke.

"Okay, so what are we having for dinner tonight?"

"Spaghetti. I know that we still have a couple pieces of leftover pizza, but I thought we'd mix it up a little."

"Okay. And what movie are we watching tonight?"

"Twilight."

"Um, what?"

I thought Gwen was being serious, but after a few seconds, she spoke again, with a bit of a chuckle at my reaction.

"No, I'm just kidding. I want to watch James Cameron's Titanic."

"Um, okay. I'm a little confused."

"What's so confusing?"

"You picked Finding Nemo to be the movie that we watched the other night. So, shouldn't it be my turn to pick?"

"Please, Ben? Please?"

As she said that, her emerald eyes became much more noticeable than usual. I sighed and gave in.

"Go put it on the T.V."

She squealed with delight and ran over to hug me.

"Just go." I said in a grumpy tone, not returning her hug.

As she was setting it up, I went into the living room with her and slumped down onto the couch, resting my head against the pillow on the couch.

Thirty Minutes Later

We were sitting down at the kitchen table to eat dinner, just as the movie was starting. I could see the screen from the table. Brock and his team were taking submersibles down to the wreck site to search for that necklace that Rose wears towards the middle of the movie.

"I'm switching to your school in the fall." Gwen said.

"What?" I asked as I continued eyeing the screen.

Gwen looked up at me from her spot at the table.

"I'm transferring to your school in the fall."

"Why?"

"Because I was fed up with going to a private school. I wanted to go to your school and see you. I talked my mom into letting me go to your school. And she finally accepted and let me make my decision."

"Good for you, I guess."

Sometime into the movie, we both finished our dinner and she took both of the plates. I got back onto the couch and went back to resting my head on the pillow. I was exhausted from the water park and I couldn't sit through that long of a movie. Little did I know that I wasn't going to be able to make it anywhere near to the scene where the ship hit the iceberg.

Author's Note:

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

* What did you guys think of this one when 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 in regards to this version of Chapter Six, even as short as it was.

* 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 talk about a change in the title of this chapter. In the original version of Volume One, this chapter was titled "After". I felt like "After" is a very good title descriptively speaking, so I changed it to "Water Park Aftermath".

* Next, obviously because of how bad it was, I cut any scenes or references to Ben being egged into kissing Gwen or the Omnitrix speaking to him. With this version of Volume One, this just doesn't make sense to be in here. In place of this scene, I added a scene where Gwen is on the phone telling their parents about the attack earlier in the day, as well as she and Ben talking about what that thing (Vilgax) at the park was. Seeing as I never did something like this in the original cut, it seemed like a good addition.

* And finally, to wrap up this installment of Director's Commentary, I did cut the part from the original chapter in which Ben wakes up in the middle of the night, to find Gwen asleep on top of him. Just like with the last point, this scene just doesn't make sense here. Most scenes like this from the original version will be cut. I will only keep scenes or implement new ones where they feel appropriate in context to what's currently going on in the plot. You guys may have to wait a little while longer for any feelings to surface between Ben and Gwen, as in the original version of Volume One, the mechanics and "foundations" of there relationship were not based in realism and I'm taking a heavy emphasis on realism for this version. With that said, it's time to wrap this up. Thanks for reading.

Review Responses

Patjeeson (Chapter 5): Yeah sorry I may have misunderstood something in that chapter ,thanks to clarifying about the symbiote and the game ( I though it was implemented through the story in some chapters). Thank you for the chapter ; with Ben's reactions being more realistic and natural I feel this chapter is smooth and I hope the story continue this way

Thanks for the review, Pat. No worries, everyone can get confused sometimes. No harm, no foul. Ben's reactions being realistic is what I'm aiming for with this version of Volume One and the ultimate goal is for the story to continue flowing as smoothly as it has up to this point. Thanks for the review, as always.

Hamzah haha (Chapter 5): This is definitely a solid improvement right here... I'm already loving this story now... seeing how this one finally seems to catch up with all the enigma of the previous one was supposed to have but didn't... this one is nice.. let's hope no batman shit in this version tho... honestly that sucked... and the OP-animo

Thanks, Hamzah. I'm glad that you think this story is a solid improvement over the old one, that is what I'm going for with this. "This story finally seems to catch up with all the enigma of the previous one was supposed to have but didn't"? What does that mean? Though, with the last little bit of your review, while I am trying to do things a bit differently, there is every possibility that you'll be disappointed still. Thanks for the review, as always.

Marshman101 (Chapter 5): This is pretty cool.

Thanks Marshman, glad you like it. Thanks for the review, as always.

Next Chapter: After reflecting on the events of the past few days, Ben goes to visit his Grandpa Max for advice. Meanwhile, Gwen becomes aware of something about herself that she didn't know about.