Chapter 8: Side Effects: Part 2

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 8 of CWN Version II!

* Before we get into the chapter, I have something that I need to go over. So, starting the morning when this chapter goes live (August 7th), I will be out of town for a few days and will be unable to write for that time. So, instead of posting one chapter, I will be posting two chapters. This will most likely be a one-time thing. And I'm not saying that you guys have to read both chapters in one sitting (obviously, read them whenever you feel like it), but go nuts.

* Alright, that's everything, so I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Ben

Thursday, February 1st, 2018

Downtown Bellwood, Abandoned Apartment Building

I was never able to drum up enough strength to lift the debris off of me. As I stated earlier, not even Fourarms could lift it. My cold was sapping my energy physically and altering my powers while in alien form. All I could do was wait until the watch reverted me back to human form. Once that happened, I was able to wiggle my way out from under the debris. Once I was out, I realized that the man had fled while I was pinned down.

"God damn it, where'd he go?!" I exclaimed in a frustrated tone.

I tried to think about what the man had said, racking my brain for any hints to where he'd go or what he'd do next. I remembered what he had said about five minutes ago:

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

Before I could even think about what he had said at that point, I recalled how the entire floor began to shake after I collapsed that section of roof. By accident, of course. It was probably best that I get out of here now, before the entire building fell apart or something.

Sometime Later

I had escaped the building and the site along with it. I was currently trying to figure out what he meant by taking care of the whole city as well, quote unquote.

What exactly did he mean by that? How would he "take care of the whole city"?

I honestly had no idea what he had in mind. And even worse, I had no way of tracking him. He clearly had some ability over bugs, but just think about that for a moment. How exactly track someone by following a trail of bugs? Sounds stupid, doesn't it? I had no other ideas. I also noticed that my previous encounter had drained me more than I had thought. I needed food. So, while I tried to think of something, I went to get something to eat to recharge my batteries.

I found myself at Mr. Smoothie's Diner for a early dinner. I ordered a cheeseburger with a basket of fries and a vanilla milkshake, with whip cream and cherry, of course! Unfortunately, that was all the good news I had at the moment. I still hadn't come up with any sort of plan for how I was going to track this guy down. And I still had no way to track him. I had no idea where he could have gone next.

As I sat there enjoying my milkshake, I heard something on the T.V. to my left and ahead of me that piqued my interest. I looked up in that direction and saw a live feed coming from Bellwood's nuclear power plant. That's when it finally hit me.

That's how he plans to take care of the whole city! He's broken into the nuclear power plant and he's going to make the core go critical! I have to stop him!

I started paying some attention to what the reporter on the T.V. was saying.

"All personnel have been ordered to evacuate the plant after its been invaded by what appears to be a swarm of hundreds of insects."

Fuck.

As I was watching the T.V., one of the diner's waitresses stopped by my table.

"Is there anything else I can get you, young man?" she asked.

I changed my focus to her and shook my head.

"No, I'm okay, thank you. But can I pay now? I need to be on my way."

"Of course. Give me a minute and I'll be right back with that."

She then walked off and I turned my attention back to the T.V. in the corner. Soon thereafter, the waitress came back and I was able to pay for my meal. I then left the diner.

Sometime Later

Bellwood Nuclear Power Plant

Upon arriving at the plant (after leaving my car a way's away), the first thing I noticed were the swarms of insects in the early evening sky. The second thing I noticed, much to my surprise, the place really had been abandoned. That struck a nerve with me.

Why is no one here? I understand that they've been invaded by a crazy guy with the ability to control bugs and they had to evacuate, but shouldn't the military be here to try and regain control of the facility?

Seeing as no one was here, I had a perfect opportunity to access the plant. They even left the gates open! I found my way into the main building and as I had a hunch that the man would be in the reactor room, I began to follow the signs that pointed in that general direction. However, I stopped running once I heard an alarm going off, followed by flashing red lights.

That can't be good... right?

I immediately wanted to hit myself for thinking that.

It's an alarm, of course it isn't good!

About a second later, I heard a computerized voice over an intercom that confirmed my thoughts.

"Core temperature rising. Approaching critical."

I didn't waste any more time and began running in what I assumed was his direction again.

"That can't be good... right?" You know Tennyson, for someone who's gotten smarter over the years, you still act stupid sometimes!

He was clearing messing with the reactor's controls and I may have a little bit more time to act, but probably not much. So, I had to move. As I ran, I began to formulate a plan that I could hopefully use to defeat the man and keep the plant's core from going critical. After a little bit more running, I finally made it to what looked like the control room. I saw a bunch of broken control panels that had electricity and smoke billowing out from them.

"Core temperature critical. Meltdown imminent."

I then noticed the man who was standing in front of the window overlooking the reactor core. He didn't appear to notice me yet. I did my best to quietly dial up the alien watch and prepare to engage my plan. I turned the dial on the watch until I came to the silhouette of the first alien form I used: a fire-based alien called "Heatblast". I quietly pushed down on the ring to initiate the transformation.

If my calculations are correct then I should—

There was the typical green flash and I was then standing there as Heatblast. But something was different about this alien form now. Normally with Heatblast being a fire-based alien, he would have "veins" of molten lava running between the red hot charcoals that composed his body and his hands, feet and head would be on fire. That's not's how it was this time. Instead, the molten lava was now ice that was as hard as a rock, same with my hands, feet and head. When I looked at my hands, I saw an icy mist slowly rising from my hands.

Yes, I was right! Because of my cold, instead of having Heatblast's normal abilities, I have ice powers now!

I didn't know how this man hadn't noticed me yet (or if he knew I was here, maybe he just didn't care), but that was about to change.

"Did you come for a front row seat?" the man asked without turning to look at me.

Now, seeing as he was trying to make the core go critical, I should have been doing everything in my power to deescalate the situation. And I didn't exactly know what I was doing.

"I don't know what you expect to accomplish here, mister, but this isn't a good idea! If you let that reactor go critical, you're going to go bye-bye along with the rest of Bellwood!"

He turned his head ever-so-slightly so that I could see a disturbing grin on his face.

"We don't think so."

We?

The man held out his hands on either side of him and I saw dozens of cockroaches begin to crawl out from his coat sleeves. They also came out of his pants legs and began to swarm up his body. After that, wasps, cockroaches and other insects continuously swarmed his body, until a giant bug-filled figure had formed where the man once stood. Then, he began to approach me.

"Once that reactor goes super critical, we'll be as snug as bugs in a rug! And you're not going to stop me!"

The reactor will go super critical and you'll be fine? Sure, there's that stigma that cockroaches can survive nuclear blasts or nuclear meltdowns, but even if that is true, what about him? Surely that bug suit of his wouldn't protect him, right?

He now began to charge me and before I could even react, he backhanded me across the room as if I were a ragdoll. I managed to recover pretty quickly, getting back on my feet.

"Easy there, bug boy!" I exclaimed as I threw a ball of ice his way.

The ice ball impacted his chest and I was surprised when I saw some of the bugs recoil and retreat, exposing part of his body, before a new wave of bugs covered that spot back up almost as quickly as they had left.

Huh.

Before I could try that again, the man punched me and once again sent me off my feet. Just at that time, the computerized voice came back on the intercom.

"Meltdown in five minutes."

Great, as if this situation couldn't get any worse!

Before I could get back to my feet, the man approached me and picked me up, before throwing me across the room.

"You can't stop us! Nothing can!"

I rolled onto my feet and sprang back up into a standing position. He was approaching me once again.

"What's this 'we/us' shit?! What are you, Venom?"

He attacked once again, raising his hand and unleashing a swarm of insects without a word. I lifted my hand in response and blasted the swarm with a beam of cold air. I then flipped backwards, putting some distance between me and bugsy.

"Oh sorry, you don't get that reference!"

He tried the same attack again, even though it didn't work the last time he tried it. I froze the swarm of bugs as I had done last time.

"Dude, you're not thinking this through! If that reactor goes critical, then it'll take the whole city with it!"

"That's exactly what we plan to do!"

Again with the "we"! What does—You know what? I don't have time for this! I need to finish this up and stop the reactor from going critical before it's too late!

"Dude—" I exclaimed as I put my hands out in front of me and conjured up all the energy I could. "—you really need to chill out!"

I then shot a beam of ice at him and maintained the fire for as long as I could. Once I needed to take a breath, I stopped the flow of ice and saw the results of my handiwork. I had completely frozen the man over in a block of ice. I let out a sigh of relief.

Good, I thought as I ran to the window overlooking the reactor room. That should hold him while I try to stop the reactor!

I jumped through the window, shattering it without a second thought. I looked up at the reactor (which granted, under normal circumstances, I doubt that it'd be safe to be this close to this thing) and took a deep breath.

I only have one shot at this, I thought.

I put out both of my hands and began firing ice directly at the reactor core. After maintaining my fire for a few seconds, I began to see steam being emitted from the core. Upon seeing this, I did my best to intensify my fire on it. After a few more seconds, I heard the computerized voice come over the intercom again.

"Core temperature falling."

I didn't let up with my fire. I continued still and eventually, a few more seconds later, I heard the intercom come on again.

"Returning to below critical limits."

I kept up the fire for a few more seconds, until I heard the beeping sound that came before me reverting back to human form. I then quickly turned and jumped back through the window to the reactor control room so that I wasn't this close to the reactor once I timed out. Once I was back in my human form, I turned around to look at the iced over reactor.

Hopefully that'll keep the reactor until they can get it back under control themselves. I can't believe that worked. That totally shouldn't have worked.

I looked around the room and my eyes came to rest on the man that was now frozen in a block of ice.

And hopefully he won't go anywhere until the authorities can come pick him up. That guy is a very dangerous man and I hope that he gets the help he needs. And now I have to get out of here before the authorities get here.

I vacated the facility and upon making my exit, I saw that the authorities/military had still not arrived. Just some dumb luck, the fact that I was able to slip out of here without being seen. I made it back to my car and once I was in, shut the door behind me. I finally allowed myself to sigh with relief. I briefly rested my head on my steering wheel.

"First a dwarf who uses hypnosis to rob people." I muttered to myself. "And now a man who can control bugs. Where are these guys coming from?"

Author's Note:

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

* So, this chapter was based off of the remainder of the Side Effects episode that I didn't use for the last chapter. I hope you guys like my rendition of it here.

* Anything in particular stand out? What do you think of Ben's quips so far, like how he told Clancy that he really needs to chill out before freezing him? I hope I'm doing good in the humor department.

* Over the course of the story, we'll be seeing the villains who make up the Negative Ten (some of whom will be swapped around to make the story feel fresh), with most of the villains having a few appearances before the group actually forms. It's going to be a late game thing. But so far, we've seen one of the members and that is Clancy (although, he will be one of the few villains to only have one appearance prior to The Negative Ten).

* On a final note, I just want to address an issue that I have. And this is directed to a reader in particular. Um, Shriramasokan is their name and if you're reading this, I just want to point out that you've been leaving reviews on some of my Ben 10 stories just going over stuff about the old canon and nitpicking the old canon here and there, I think? That's totally cool, you can do that if you want to, I guess. But my issue is that your reviews aren't really talking about my story itself, so I won't be putting you in the review responses. That's not what they're for. The review responses were made for me to respond to the readers who comment on my work and that just isn't what you're doing with your reviews. I hope you understand and I apologize for any inconvenience.

* 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

adriandragonus (Chapter 7): with the media still labelling himinterfering with police" and the post break-up mood,it makes sense for ben being so hard with anybody. i just wish he'll get over the bad moods and start,or come back,being... positive? i want to say cheerful,but i don't think ben is the "sun and fun" kind,even in his best day.

and i get the feeling that you'll have the minor villains keep coming to keep ben occupied,when it was school activities (more like school problems,if my memories are correct)that did so for ben in the previous version. i prefer this version already! school stuffs can be a bit tedious... and keep up the supportive gwen,please! i really like her role here!

Thank you, Adrian. Yes, it would make sense why Ben is being hard with everybody. Well, his blue funk won't last much longer. Um, if my story road map serves, then yes, I believe it's just minor villains for the time being. Though, there may be a tease to a certain squid-headed alien here and there... It makes me really happy that you prefer this version and how supportive Gwen is being. Thanks for the review, as always.

Slayer 606 (Chapter 7): Good chapter. Since the timeline almost hits Valentines Day. It makes me wonder are you going to write anything on it or just ignore it this time. Anywho keep up the work as always.

Thanks, Slayer. Yes, there will be a chapter for Valentine's Day, however, it will be much different than the original. I think that would be obvious, but that's just me. Thanks for the review, as always.

jasongd (Chapter 7): And another great chapter congrats I'll be waiting for next chapter I'm curious how Ben will manage to defeat the bugs in your version, in the original version he managed with the help of Max's flu potion if memory serves me right BWEN FOREVER

Thanks, Jason. Yes, it was Max's flu potion that defeated the bugs in the original version. But I had to work around that since Ben didn't have that here.

Next Chapter: Ben and Gwen spend some time together on Valentine's Day while Ben's parents go out for the night.