Chapter 7: The Plumbers

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 Seven of the reboot!

* So, once again just like with the last few chapters, this chapter will have a good amount of differences from the original version.

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

Earth-Prime

Sunday May 27th, 2018

The Tennyson House

Ben

As my eyes began to open, I noticed sunlight shining through the blinds and shielded my eyes with my hand, as the sunlight nearly blinded me. Once I had allowed my eyes to adjust to the sun light coming in through the open blinds, I looked at the alien watch, currently in wrist watch form and saw that it was eight o'clock.

I sat up on the couch, realizing that I must have fallen asleep during the movie last night and I slept through the night, as well. As I did this, I picked up the smell of bacon and eggs, coming from the kitchen. I stood up from the couch and walked into the kitchen, where I saw Gwen making breakfast. After standing there for a few seconds, she noticed me and turned in my direction.

"Hey, you're awake." She said. "Good morning."

"Good morning." I replied.

"How'd you sleep?"

"I slept well, thanks for asking."

"You must have been really tired last night. When I tried to wake you up last night, I couldn't get you to budge."

"I was really tired last night."

"Well, just sit tight. Breakfast will be ready soon, okay?"

I nodded and waited around for breakfast to be ready. After a few minutes, she told me that it was ready and we sat down at the table.

"So, why were you so tired last night?"

"Well, I mean, we kind of did spend the day at the water park. And not to mention I did slip and fall on the concrete pool deck before we left. My body was just fatigued is all."

She nodded.

"Fair enough, makes sense."

"So, you said that you tried to wake me up last night? How exactly did you try? Because if you just shook me, I don't see why that wouldn't have woke me up."

I looked at her and in response she had a light pink tint on her cheeks.

"What is it?"

She put her fork down and continued saying nothing.

"What? Come on, Gwen! Talk to me!"

"After the movie was over, I laid down on top of you to try and get you to wake up, to see if you wanted to do something before bed. But like I said, you never did wake up."

"That's it? There's nothing bad about that! It's a little weird, but it's nothing to get embarrassed about!"

"If you say so."

We finished up our breakfast and after that I returned to the living room, where I just paced around the room, thinking about Vilgax's warning from yesterday.

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?

I continued pacing around the room as I thought to myself.

Who is Vilgax? What does he want with the watch? And... Animo? Animo thought I was Maxwell Tennyson, my grandpa. Well, Gwen's grandpa too. Could Vilgax know my grandpa, too? Only Grandpa Max will know the answer for that... He would know what to do in this situation. I need his advice. For reasons unknown to me that twisted nut Animo knows my Grandpa Max and it's possible that Vilgax knows him, too. And I need to know why that is.

I decided that I was going to pay him a visit and walked down the hall toward my room to get my things. Once there, I slipped my phone in my pocket and grabbed my key ring, clipping it to my jeans. I put my shoes on, walked out of my room and almost ran right into Gwen.

"I'm sorry, I have to go." I told her.

Instead of taking me seriously, Gwen just laughed.

"Go? Go where? Your mom never told me you had anything to take care of while we were going to be spending two weeks together."

"I need to go talk to Grandpa Max. It's important."

"Oh, okay. Can I go, too?" Gwen asked, as her emerald eyes lit up.

"No."

"What? Why not?" Gwen asked with disappointment.

"Because I need to have a talk with Grandpa. Just me and him." I said. "Like I said, it's important."

"Oh. Well, okay."

"I'm leaving now. Catch up with you later."

"Yeah. See you later."

I walked past her and back to the living room. I opened the door and walked outside.

"Lock the door after I leave." I said as I closed it.

I walked down the concrete path that led away from the front door and towards the garage, where my bike was. I got onto it and pedaled off away from the house.

Gwen

I walked into the kitchen after locking the door behind Ben. I opened one of the cabinets to get a glass out. I sat down the glass, as I bent over the sink, trying not to think about how annoyed with Ben I was.

"Damn it!" I muttered "Why does Ben always have to make things about hims-?"

My voice trailed off, as I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I directed my full attention to what I saw. I was looking at the glass I had sat down, which was levitating above the counter, with a hot pink outline around it. Just as I looked at it, the outline disappeared and it slowly descended back to the countertop. Once I realized that it had actually happened, I spoke.

"Wait, what just happened?" I asked myself in a surprised tone.

Fifteen Minutes Later

Grandpa Max's House

Ben

I had made it to Grandpa Max's RV, the "Rustbucket", which was located in a suburban neighborhood. Funny thing was, Grandpa had his own house in this neighborhood, but he kept the Rustbucket as a sort of "second home". I got off of my bike, which I parked just outside his house. I walked over to the Rustbucket and knocked on the door. I waited around for an answer, but never got one. I then looked around and noticed that the gate to his backyard was wide open. Instead of waiting around any longer, I decided to go see if he was in the backyard. Once I was in the backyard, I saw that he was indeed back here, using his grill. He wore his signature red Hawaiian shirt, worn over a white T-shirt, slightly baggy tan cargo pants and hiking boots.

"Hey, Grandpa Max!"

He turned away from his grill to look at me.

"Ben! It's so good to see you!" he exclaimed as he walked away from the grill, towards me.

"Likewise, Grandpa Max. What are you doing back here?"

"Oh, I'm just slow cooking some ribs. Anyway, what did you come all the way here for, Ben?"

"Um, do you have a place we could just sit down? This might take a while."

"Of course, we can sit at the picnic table. Follow me."

I followed him over to the picnic table, where we sat down.

"Okay, what's on your mind, my boy?"

I thought about what I should start with.

"Grandpa, do you believe in aliens?" I asked after a couple seconds.

Grandpa Max just stared at me for a few seconds, before beginning to laugh.

"Oh, is that what you came to ask me about? Oh, don't tell me the teachers at your school have been feeding you a bunch of crap about Roswell."

"Grandpa, just answer the question, please."

"Benjamin, listen to me. That was in 1947. That was still Harry S. Truman's time. All of that Area 51 crap is just a bucket of lies! And even in the 60's. Anything about time travel, men in black, alien spaceships are all lies. So, no. I don't believe in aliens."

I smirked.

"Oh, that's really interesting Grandpa. So, you wouldn't recognize the name, Vilgax?"

Grandpa's eyes widened and after a few seconds he got up. It only took him a few moments to grab me by the shoulder and after that he started pulling me toward the backyard gate.

"We'll have to continue this in the Rustbucket." He said in a serious tone.

"What about your ribs?"

"I don't care about them right now. This is more important."

Once we reached the Rustbucket, he lightly pushed me inside, before stepping in himself. From there, he closed the door and locked it.

"Now, where did you hear that name?" he asked, as he started shutting the blinds in the Rustbucket.

"I asked the question, Grandpa." I replied. "You answer mine and I'll answer yours."

"Fair enough. Vilgax is an alien overlord, obsessed with gathering all kinds of weaponry and genetic technology. Now, I'll ask you again, where did you hear that name?"

"Grandpa, I hate to ask another question, but have you been following the news?"

He nodded.

"Well, besides yesterday. Why?"

"Gwen and I are spending three weeks together while our parents are out of town. And yesterday, we went to the new Riptide Rapids Zone water park. A giant alien calling himself 'Vilgax' attacked the park and said something about an 'Omnitrix'."

"What do you know about the Omnitrix?"

"He said that this thing is the Omnitrix."

I then took off the alien watch and switched it out of its camouflage. When Grandpa Max saw it, he let out a gasp of surprise.

"Son, what have you gotten yourself into? You're that 'Alien Guy' on the news, aren't you?"

I nodded with a look of uncertainty on my face.

"Well, in any case, I'm glad that you didn't Gwen with you."

That's when his eyes widened.

"Speaking of Gwen, she takes pictures of your alien forms. I've seen the papers! We have to warn her! She doesn't know what she's getting herself into by following you around!" he said as he moved for the driver's seat.

I got up from my seat at the table and rushed towards the driver's seat, quickly blocking him from getting to it.

"Grandpa, you can't tell Gwen! I think she'll be safer for now by not knowing about my identity."

He tapped his chin for a few seconds.

"Perhaps you're right. Fine, we'll let her be. For now."

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you. Can I ask you another question?"

"Of course."

"Who is Doctor Animo?"

"He was a biological terrorist back in the day." He replied as he stood there in thought.

He passed the alien watch back to me. After that, I put it back on my wrist and switched it back to camo mode.

"Biological terrorist? What is going on? What else have you hid from me all these years? What the hell is the Omnitrix?!"

"Calm down, young man. And watch your language."

After that, he stood there for a few seconds, thinking to himself, most likely.

"Ben, I think it's time that I introduce you to the world of the plumbers." he said at last.

An Hour and a Half Later

I had left Grandpa Max's house, after having a lengthy conversation with him. I was currently riding my bike home past Madison High. Grandpa Max lived in the same direction as the high school from me, so I had to ride past it to get there. As I rode past one of the alleys behind the school, I heard something clattering from somewhere in the alley. I stopped my bike and got off of it.

"What the hell was that?"

I just stood there, looking down the alley, debating if I should go search for the source of the noise.

What if it's someone who needs help?

I left my bike where it was and entered the alley. As I got to where I thought the noise came from, it suddenly happened. I was it on the back of the head by something and after that, everything went black.

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 Seven, 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 cut that I made to this chapter. There was a segment where Ben and Gwen started arguing in the original chapter and due to them being on mostly positive terms in the story so far, that was cut.

* Next, the portion at the end of the original chapter, where Ben arrives back home and Gwen askes if they can go to the park, you may have noticed that portion was missing and has been replaced by something else. Don't worry, the story is still going to end up going where it ended up the first time, this was just a change that was needed. And next chapter will hopefully explain a good few things. With that said, it's time to wrap this up. Thanks for reading.

Review Responses

Patjeeson (Chapter 6): The pacing was so good in this chapter and I wish this chapter was a tad bit longer but overall it was engaging and well written. Keep it up!

Thanks, Pat. The changes made to the original chapter just called for a shorter revisal here, that's all. Thanks for the review, as always.

Guest Review (Chapter 5): Dialogue is weird. Definitely doesn't feel like two teenagers talking. Neither does the way they act, sometimes. Kinda cringy and awkward at some points. And not the teenagers being teenagers kind.

Thanks for the review. I'm sorry that you think the dialogue is weird. Keep in mind that Ben and Gwen aren't thirteen or fourteen here, they're both seventeen years old, nearly adults. If you read the original version of this story, then you'll hopefully know that you'd have worse issues with that one. I'm trying here, okay? I really am. I would like to think that this story is a better version of the original. Thanks for the review, as always.

Next Chapter: Ben finds himself in an unfortunate predicament.