Chapter 19: Ben Tennyson No More: Part 1

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 Nineteen of the reboot!

* Sorry for no chapter yesterday. I just kind of needed to take a personal day, but here we are now. Anyway, I don't really have anything to say in regards to this chapter, so let's get right into it!

Earth Prime

Sunday, June 3rd, 2018

The Tennyson House

Ben

Eventually, I got to sleep the previous night. I woke up early the next morning, before Gwen woke up. Right now, I was currently eating cereal for breakfast at the kitchen table. I was sitting there, eating in silence for a few minutes, before I heard footsteps down the hall from me. A second or two later, Gwen came around the corner and entered the kitchen.

"Hey, how long have you been up?" she asked.

I shrugged.

"Half an hour maybe." I replied. "Why?"

"Just curious. Hey, can I ask you a question?"

I'll admit that I was taken aback by her trying to immediately question me about whatever was on her mind this early in the morning.

"Can it wait until after I'm finished with my breakfast."

"I guess so, but I don't really want to wait."

I sighed.

"Fair enough. What do you want to ask me about?"

"So, all I've done for the Bellwood Post is freelance work. And seeing as I've taken pictures exclusively of him, I want to interview Alien Guy if I ever get the chance to. I think it would be a nice change of pace, instead of the monotony of just shooting the same types of pictures over and over again."

"Okay."

After I said that, she just stood there, looking at me expectedly. She continued to do this and following a few seconds of this, I spoke up.

"What?"

"How exactly do I get Alien Guy to notice me?"

That's where I was stumped.

"Oh, um..."

"What is it?"

"I don't exactly know how to help you there."

"Oh, come on! Shouldn't you know what girls should do to get someone to notice them?"

"Okay, I don't like the way you're speaking."

She made a face.

"How I'm speaking? What do you mean by that?"

"Look, why don't you just attend his next 'event' or whatever you'd call it. Once all the action is over, make him notice you. Approach him and express your interest in interviewing him. If he's as nice of a guy as he expresses himself to be, then I would assume that he'd entertain your idea."

"Thank you. Was giving me an answer really that hard?"

"Whatever."

Another second or two of silence passed between us before she spoke again.

"So, did you really run off like you said you did yesterday, when Alien Guy showed up?"

I nodded.

"Like I told you yesterday, I guess I didn't have the guts to fight my own lookalike. So, I let someone else handle it."

"If you say so. But how can a lookalike—a clone, for lack of better word—exist?"

I shrugged once again.

"I don't know any more about it than you do."

I continued eating my breakfast in silence after that as she just stood there. I could tell that she was still looking at me, but I opted not to look up at her and engage in conversation with her any further. I was still caught between the two choices I had. Either I could throw away my super hero career as Alien Guy or I could throw away my normal life as Ben Tennyson, in hopes that all of my friends and loved ones would be safe from the danger of my super hero life. As I sat there in thought, Gwen spoke up.

"Are you okay? Something about you seems off today."

I looked up at her to see the look of worry on her face. But that's not all I saw. I saw her, someone who hadn't fully grown up yet, someone who was still somewhat innocent, someone who didn't deserve any of what had been happening as of late. I think that's when I made my decision. As I looked at her, she cocked her head a bit to the side.

"Ben, is something wrong?"

I shook my head at last.

"No, nothing. I'm just glad that everything that happened yesterday is over."

Moreover, I thought to myself. I'm just glad you're safe.

After that, she shrugged and told me that she'd leave me alone for a while, before leaving the room. Following that, I finished up my breakfast, cleaned up the table and kitchen, and then retreated to my room.

I can't do this, I thought as I entered my room, shutting the door behind me. I can't continue living this life knowing that Gwen could be in danger from the enemies that I've made. I can't live this life knowing any of them could be in danger. I have to leave, for everyone's sake. Leaving will make her unhappy, it'll probably hurt her feelings. But at least I know that they'll all be safe without me in their lives.

I got out of my pajamas and put on a pair of jeans, along with a T-shirt. After that, I pulled out a duffel bag from my closet and placed it down on my bag, opening it once it had been set down. I then returned to my closet and began grabbing shirts off of the hangers, one by one, until I had a dozen or so. I returned to the bag sitting on my bed and neatly put them inside. After that, I walked over to my dresser and grabbed two extra pairs of denim blue jeans.

I put those into my bag, too. I returned to my dresser to start grabbing pairs of boxer briefs and socks. I would need as much as I could get, so I grabbed as many as I could carry and returned to my bag to put them inside. I returned to my closet to grab the top portion of my black suit Spider-Man costume that I wore for Halloween a couple years ago. Following that, I grabbed the mask and gloves to the costume, as well.

I returned to put those in the bag, too. And lastly, I walked back to my closet to grab my light brown leather jacket that I got for Christmas last year. I folded that up as best I could and put it into the bag along with everything else. After that, I zipped up the bag and put it on the floor next to my feet. I also made sure that I had my wallet, so that I would be able to pay for any food that I would need.

I then walked over to my desk, where I sat down to begin writing a goodbye note addressed to Gwen. I couldn't say goodbye to her, she wouldn't let me leave if I tried to. Plus, she'd be curious about why I'd want to leave and I'd have to come up with a reason, to which she probably wouldn't be convinced by. I got out a piece of paper and pencil, then started writing.

Gwen,

I'm sorry to leave you out of the blue like this, but I have to go. I have a lot of stuff going on right now, a lot on my mind. I'm stressed out and I can't focus on spending these three weeks catching up with you. I need some time to get away from everything and figure myself out. I'll come back once I've found a way out of the rough spot that I'm in.

Love,

Ben

After finishing my goodbye note to Gwen, I stood up from my desk and left the note on my bed. Even though I had said so in my letter, I didn't intend to return. It was just too dangerous for me to be around, on the account of my super hero activities. I then made sure that my door was unlocked so that she could find the note later, when she'd inevitably come to check on me at some point. I walked over to my window to open it. I then turned around to look at my room one last time, before I slipped out the window.

A Few Hours Later

Downtown Bellwood – Old Tenement Building

After spending a few hours trying to figure out what to do first, I finally decided to set up shop in the old tenement building that Kevin had been using as his hideout last week. I stood in one of the abandoned apartments, wearing a costume that I had put together from some materials in my room back at home. I was wearing my blue jeans, tennis shoes, the top of the black suit Spider-Man costume, along with the mask and gloves. Over that, I wore the light brown leather jacket that I had pulled from my closet.

As I stood there, I heard police sirens outside. I looked through the window, to see what looked like a car full of thugs speeding down the street below, followed by a police car chasing after them. I stepped up onto the windowsill, before jumping out and dialed up the alien watch to assist the police.

"Let's get to work." I muttered to myself as I transformed.

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 of Chapter Nineteen? Did anything stand out to anyone? 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 thought of this version of Chapter Nineteen.

* Okay, so we're heading into controversial territory with the next arc that started in this chapter. I think a couple of weeks into the reboot's life cycle, I got a review that basically told me that they didn't like Ben becoming an anti-hero. Well, unfortunately that arc was part of the original story and I am trying to keep the original story intact, so here we are. However, I feel like I wrote this version of this arc better than the original. So, if you didn't like the original version of this story arc, all I ask is that you just give it a chance.

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

Director's Commentary

* Okay, just like the last couple of entries of Director's Commentary there's not as much stuff to talk about in this installment. With that said, let's get started. So, in the original version of this story, there's a scene where Ben creates his wrist gauntlets and other stuff for his costume. I decided that it was best to cut that entire scene. Even if Greymatter makes him smart enough to craft the gauntlets, I doubt that he would actually have the financial means or the materials to pull it off.

* Next, in the original version of this chapter, I don't recall giving a very good reason for Ben deciding to leave. So, for this version I tried to do that whole thing a bit better. I think with him reasoning that no one deserves the danger that his super hero stuff puts them in, I did that well. Or maybe I'm not making any sense. Sorry if that's the case.

* Next, in the original version of this chapter, Ben just kind of took off without saying goodbye to Gwen in any way. So, I had him leave a letter for her, telling her that he was leaving because he had a lot on his mind and he just needed to figure himself out. Better than nothing, I would say.

* And lastly, I decided not to have Ben leave through his bedroom window in broad daylight while wearing his first costume. Instead, he just packed it up into his duffle bag and I had him change into it once he had gotten to the old, abandoned tenement building. I think that makes much more sense than the former. With that said, it's time to wrap this up. Thanks for reading.

Next Chapter: Ben gets used to a vigilante lifestyle after one day and Gwen gets her interview. Meanwhile, Albedo resurfaces.