Chapter 7: Side Effects: 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 everyone and welcome to Chapter 7 of CWN Version II!

* Before we get started with this chapter, I have something I need to say. I messed up a little bit again. In last chapter's "Next Chapter" segment, I teased that Ben and Gwen's class were taking a field trip to the museum. That is not this chapter, as I got my chapters mixed up. The museum trip won't be for a few more chapters. I just misread my road map and that usually doesn't happen, so this should only be a one-time thing.

* Anyway, that's all I got, so I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Ben

Monday, January 1st, 2018

The Tennyson House

When I woke up the following morning, it all came right back to me, almost immediately. The break up with Julie, fresh in my mind. However, the one thing that had changed was that I felt well rested. One interesting thing is that I didn't exactly recall going to bed at any point last night. I kicked the covers off of me and swung my legs over to the side of the bed, where I rested them on the floor. It was then that I noticed a note on my nightstand. I grabbed it and began to read what it said.

Ben,

Sorry I had to deceive you like that, but you needed sleep. I understand if you want to be angry with me, but I at least ask that you try to understand from my point of view. I don't want to see you being miserable and sleep deprived. I want you to know that I'm here for you if you need me. Please call me if you need anything, even if it is just to talk.

- Gwen

I just stared down at Gwen's handwriting, before I sighed. I will admit that part of me wanted to ball up her note and cast it across my room. But I didn't. I knew that she really just wanted to help make me feel better and I just had to admit to myself that I understood that fact. So, I just put her note back on the nightstand where she had left it. I checked my phone and saw that it was past eleven in the morning.

Damn, I slept that long?

I finally got up from my bed and left my room. I walked down the hall to the kitchen, where I saw Mom getting something to drink from the fridge. As I entered the kitchen, she turned to look at me as she shut the refrigerator.

"Well, there you are!" she spoke with a smile on her face. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead!"

"Good morning." I replied in a monotone voice.

"Are you feeling any better after getting some sleep?"

No, not really.

"No, I don't. But I feel well rested. So, there's that, I guess."

"Well, I had to ask. Um, there's a plate of scrambled eggs, sausages and hashbrowns in the microwave for you if you want to warm it up."

"Okay. Thank you."

She then moved to the counter and picked up a rolled up newspaper.

"And there's this, too. I know that you've liked to collect the paper recently."

I nodded.

"Thank you." I repeated.

She then left the room and I was left alone to reheat my breakfast. Once my breakfast had been reheated, I took my plate along with the rolled up newspaper down to the basement. Once I was down there, I turned on the T.V. to have something going in the background while I looked at the paper. I put my plate down in front of me and unrolled the paper to look it over.

Alien Guy Interferes With Police Investigation, I read to myself.

I just stared at the headline on the paper for a few seconds.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" I finally muttered to myself.

I let out a sigh as I tossed the paper away from me and reached for my plate of food sitting on the coffee table in front of me. "Alien Guy" was the name that the newspapers decided to refer to me as once I started fighting crime in the city. And most often, I'm put in a negative light whenever I did something good or I just don't get mentioned at all. I take care of the Sublimino situation all by myself and that's what the media decides to say about it. To be completely honest, it was kind of bullshit.

A Few Weeks Later – Thursday, February 1st, 2018

Winter break had ended and we had gotten back to school. We had been back in school for almost a month now, actually. Quite the time jump I know, but nothing interesting has really been going on. Gwen and I had a couple of classes together, them being World History, Team Sports (which was basically just a hybrid of Physical Education) and English IV. I noticed that we also had the same lunch period, but we hadn't really interacted since New Year's Eve.

I know that she would have liked me to talk to her, but I just haven't yet. It wasn't that I was mad at her for what she did a few weeks ago, because I wasn't. What happened between me and Julie really fucked with me and even though it had been two weeks, I still wasn't over it. I didn't want to talk about it with anyone, it wasn't just Gwen.

I opened my eyes on a new day. I sat up in my bed and almost immediately, I sneezed. I felt congested, my head was killing me and I felt a coughing fit coming on. Once I recovered from said fit, I let out a sigh.

"Oh, great." I muttered in a hoarse voice.

I'm sick.

Later That Day

Madison High School

Once I left my room this morning, Mom noticed that I was sick. However, was we figured out that I wasn't running a fever, she fixed me a little breakfast and gave me some Ibuprofen for my headache. Then she sent me to school. I got through the first half of the day and in the couple of classes that we had together, Gwen noticed something was off about me. However, I didn't really feel like talking today, so I kept my distance.

It was lunchtime now and I was sitting at a table by myself. Even though I wasn't running a fever and seemingly was not contagious, I still wanted to keep my distance from my friends. After sitting at the table, picking at my food and not really being hungry for about five minutes, I heard someone pull out a chair across from me and sit down.

"Hey, I'm kind of sick and don't want to get anyone sick if possible." I said to the person who just sat down. "So, please. I would appreciate it if you get up and pick another table."

The person across from me said nothing in response.

"Hey, I just asked you to—"

I looked up from my tray and saw Gwen sitting across the table from me.

"What do you want?"

She looked back at me with surprise.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked in a confused tone of voice.

What do you want? Way to greet her, Tennyson. You jackass.

I sighed.

"Sorry, I'm just not in a talking mood right now. I don't really feel good."

"You're sick?" she asked.

"Yeah. Woke up with a pounding headache and congestion this morning."

"Running a fever?"

I shook my head.

"No. If I was running a fever, Mom wouldn't have let me come to school today."

"I notice that the school food seems particularly unappetizing to you today. Do you want me to come over after school today and make you some chicken soup?"

I have to admit, the idea of chicken soup was very tempting. But ultimately, I would turn her down.

"No, that's alright. I'll be okay. I appreciate it, though."

"You sure?"

I nodded.

"I'm sure, but I really do appreciate the gesture."

"Okay. If you say, so."

After that, a few seconds of silence passed between us.

"So..." she finally broke the silence. "You never called me."

"No, I didn't."

Another moment of silence passed between us.

"And you aren't mad at me? For real?"

She really isn't making this easy for me.

"No, Gwen." I said at last. "I'm not mad at you."

"But you haven't called me..."

"I didn't want to talk about anything."

In response she gave me a hurtful look.

God damn it, Ben. Say something nice for a change!

I sighed again.

"I promise that I'm not mad at you. But I'm just not ready to talk about this thing yet. I'm not even in a condition to be doing any talking. So, please just let it go. At least for now."

She continued staring at me, before she sighed herself.

"Okay. If that's what you really want."

I nodded as I stood up.

"Thank you. Now, if you don't mind, even if I'm not running a fever, I don't want to run the risk of getting you sick if I am actually contagious. So, I'm going to go. I'll see you later."

I began to walk away with my tray, but I was surprised when Gwen grabbed my arm, stopping me from leaving.

Okay, you're making it very difficult for me to keep my distance.

"Wait!" she said.

I just stood there, looking back at her as I raised my eyebrows, beckoning for her to get on with it. She let go of my arm.

"I know that we've already established the fact that you're not the same person you were when we were kids."

Where is this going?

"Okay..."

"If we were still kids, you would have blown off my concern for you and just snapped at me that you're fine, but seriously I guess I'm just not used to you being nice. So, I have to ask. What changed you?"

I looked down at her and thought about it for a few seconds. I cleared my throat.

"I suppose we all have to make a choice in life. I learned that a long time ago."

She just stared at me.

"That's not an answer."

"No, I suppose it's not. See you later."

Gwen

I put my elbow on the table and rested my chin in my hand as I watched him go.

Doofus, why do you have to be so cryptic with me? Is the thing that changed you embarrassing or something?

Ben

Later That Day

The Tennyson House

After school that day, the first thing that I did upon getting home was take some cold medicine and eat something. I then went down to the basement to watch T.V. Or flip through channels, more accurately. After some amount of time, I found myself on one of the news channels. They were talking about some older man who was refusing to vacate his apartment even though they were going to demolish the building.

Well, that sounds like something I could help out with.

I got up from the couch and shut off the T.V. I left the basement and went to my room to grab my keys. Once I had my keys, I returned to the living room.

"Hey, I'm going to go out for a while." I said to my mom.

She gave me a confused look.

"Are you sure that's a good idea with you being sick?"

"Mom, I'll be fine. I'm just going out for a little bit. I'll be back before you know it."

She continued to look at me uncertainly, before she sighed.

"Okay, just be careful."

I nodded.

"I will."

I walked to the door and left the house. I got into my car and started for the building's location.

Sometime Later

Downtown Bellwood

I couldn't actually park within the building's vicinity, as it was fenced off by the demolition team. The demolition team themselves were nowhere to be found. Apparently the tenant had been terrorizing them somehow and to the point that they just abandoned their posts. I had to park a block away from the area. And once I was there, I had to climb over the fence. The building looked really old, as if it had been built in the fifties or sixties. And it probably was.

I entered the building, wondering to myself if it was actually structurally sound. The entire building was silent. I found that weird. If there really was a tenant refusing to leave the building, I thought that there would be more noise. But no, there was nothing. I began making my way up the flight of stairs to the next floor. When I didn't find any sign of anyone, I moved on to the next floor. And so on and so forth.

Eventually I came to the top floor. The whole building seemed abandoned, no tenants in sight. And I was beginning to wonder if I had gotten myself into a wild goose chase. But then I heard it. A noise from a unit just down the hall. I followed the noise and found myself at a door that was just cracked open. I peaked through the door and just could barely see a person. His back was to me and he was wearing a dark brown winter coat and denim jeans. He looked dirty and I could smell him from here.

Well, looks like I found my perpetrator. I just hope that he comes quietly.

I then began to think about which alien form of mine that I should use for this. After I came to a conclusion, I picked a four-armed alien that I simply called "Fourarms". Once I had pressed down on the ring and transformed, I opened the door the rest of the way and entered the room. He spun to look at me as I did.

"Are you the tenant that's been refusing to leave the building?" I asked him.

"Who the hell are you? And what's wrong with your voice?"

I quickly realized that something was off about Fourarms' voice.

I sounded sick, just like I did when I was in human form! I really hope that wouldn't affect me while I was Fourarms...

"Um, nothing's wrong with my voice. But I'm going to be the guy who forces you out of here if you don't agree to cooperate with the authorities."

That didn't seem to please him.

"You will do no such thing! My grandfather built this apartment and I will not see his building destroyed!"

"Mister, I don't think you have a choice. Sometimes you just gotta let go."

He really didn't like that.

"You're just like all the rest! Once I take care of you, I'll take care of the whole city as well!"

He lifted up his arms and if it makes sense, it's like I began to feel vibrations in the air. I then saw several lines of bugs enter the apartment through the open windows.

Wait, is he doing that?!

The man looked at me with a look of malice as he spoke.

"Farewell, four-armed man."

Four-armed man?

He then seemingly signaled his bugs to surge toward me, as they did just that. Once they started stinging me, I deduced that they were either bees or wasps. Which one, I couldn't tell. When they started to swarm me, I tried to swat them away with my fist. That didn't end well. I ended up punching right through the ceiling. And when I tried to swat them away again, all I ended up doing was punch another hole in the ceiling.

After that, I felt the entire floor begin to shake. And a few seconds after that, a small section of the roof collapsed on top of top of me, pinning me to the floor. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. Due to Fourarms immense strength, I would normally be able to lift the debris off of me. However, when I tried this time, I found that not only was it too heavy for me, but I was quickly out of breath.

I can't do it! This debris feels like it weighs a thousand pounds! I may as well be in my human form! It's like just being sick is sapping my abilities!

As I laid there, continuing to struggle, some of Mom's last words to me rang fresh in my mind.

"Are you sure that's a good idea with you being sick?"

I grunted and narrowed my eyes as I realized that I had probably screwed up this time.

Maybe I should have listened to Mom after all!

Author's Note:

* And that's it for this chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed.

* This chapter was of course based off of the Season One episode Side Effects or at least a modified version of it, anyway. I hope I did at least an interesting job in adapting this episode for my story.

* So, is there anything in this chapter that stood out to anyone? What are your thoughts on how the newspaper currently perceives Ben's vigilante guise? What did you think of the conversation between Ben and Gwen at the lunch table in this chapter? And lastly, when Gwen asks Ben what changed him, he cryptically replies with: "I suppose we all have to make a choice in life. I learned that a long time ago.". Does anyone have any thoughts on what Ben meant with that?

* Is there anything I haven't mentioned that any of you would want to talk about? Please, let me know your thoughts about anything that comes to your mind in a review if you want or if you'd rather do a PM, that's okay, too. Anyway, that's all I got. That's going to do it for me, so have a fantastic day and bye.

Review Responses

jasongd (Chapter 6): And another great chapter congrats I'll be waiting for next chapter BWEN FOREVER

Thanks, Jason. Glad that you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for the review, as always.

Slayer 606 (Chapter 6): Sounds like this time Gwen's the one motivating the relationship this time. She seems to be putting the pieces together for everything to set into place. Since Gwen is extremely intelligent it would make more sense for her to create and push the relationship. It wouldn't be too surprising is she was to a degree manipulative and trying to groom him into it.

Ben obviously isn't the brightest bulb in the room, but eventually he would figure it out and try to tread carefully on the thin ice he's pushed onto. Not to say Gwen is the type to be jealous or scheming, but give her brains and a bit ambitious, it wouldn't be too surprising if she went to not extreme, but heavy links to cement her romance for him. Keep up the work though.

Thanks, Slayer. I will be honest with you and say that Gwen will be the one who's motivating most of their relationship. And I have to say that Gwen will most likely not be manipulative nor will she try to groom him into it. I also can't say that Ben isn't the brightest bulb in the room. If this were the original series, then yes, I would agree with that sentiment.

Ben is a bit smarter in this story, I'll say that. About Gwen being the jealous or scheming type, I'll say that she may appear to be a bit jealous in the future. But I won't say how that will play out. Anyway, that's all of my answers. Thanks for the review, as always.

adriandragonus (Chapter 6): i really hope ben understand that gwen meant well to put the sleeping pill. i'm not sure i can take another story with ben lashing on gwen...

Thanks, Adrian. Well, from this chapter I think that you saw Ben understood and took it well, for the most part. And what I will say about your other comment is that Ben won't be lashing out... Thanks for the review, as always.

Next Chapter: Ben eventually manages to free himself and figures out a plan to take down the now homeless man who attacked him.