CHAPTER 17: Finish Line

Eon shot more and more time beams behind him, turning more of the monsters to dust. He stopped to take a breath, but when he noticed the monsters gaining on him, he frantically looked around and noticed a control panel. Then he smashed his hand on the button and two hangar doors immediately cut the monsters off.

Eon released a sigh of relief.

"That will not help you." A deep voice echoed throughout the hall.

Eon started walking down the hall. "Azmuth, I presume? You might as well drop the fake voice, I know you're Galvan."

"Impressive, there aren't many who know of my identity or my race."

"Guess I'm one of the lucky few."

"I am further impressed that you and your associates not only managed to find Xenon, but get past all my defenses. However, I will not yield my secrets to the likes of you, so I'm warning you one last time. Turn. Back. Now."

Eon chuckled. "You must not have any idea who you're talking to."

"Nor do I care. Leave now or suffer a fate worse than death."

"You may be the smartest being in five galaxies, but I know a bluff when I hear one."

Eon finally reached a large pair of doors. A large hologram of what looks like a large man inside a suit while holding a large staff appeared.

"You are making a grave mistake." The voice boomed.

Eon stepped closer to the hologram and stared defiantly back. "I do not make mistakes." Then he blasted a part of the door that made the hologram disappear.

Then Eon created a HUGE energy sphere and then launched it, knocking the doors down in one blow! He stepped inside to find a large laboratory, filled with tubes that contained parts of aliens or their bones, large computers, and various kinds of devices scattered around the room. The figure from the hologram was standing with his back to Eon, but he turned around in surprise.

"That is not possible! Those doors could withstand a fleet of Thanagarian destroyers!"

"There's one thing that contrasts me from that pathetic civilization . . ." The figure pointed his staff at Eon and unleashed a humungous laser blast, but Eon created a forcefield and deflected it away. " . . . They're not me."

"You may have gotten this far, but this is where your journey ends!"

Electricity surged upward from the ground and socked Eon until he dropped to his knees, then small weapons came from the ceiling and unleashed powerful lasers that pinned him down.

"I gave you chances to walk away with your life. You are more foolish than the rest of any species in the known universe."

"Underestimating me . . . is a grave . . . mistake!" Eon shot the weapons, created a sword from his gauntlet, then attempted to thrust it into Azmuth's suit.

Azmuth dodged, then whacked him with his staff and sent him back to the ground. Eon soon recovered and rushed around him, blasting him with energy beams but they bounced off of his suit.

"Do you really think you can defeat me with that tactic?"

"Of course not, only to distract you."

Azmuth quickly looked behind him, but there was nothing there.

That's when Eon shocked him with a large amount of purple electricity that sent Azmuth to his knees. Eon chuckled and said, "The oldest trick in the book."

Then Azmuth pushed a button on his wrist, causing hundreds of small drones to come out from the ceiling and start blasting Eon. He did his best to dodge all of their attacks, but some drones managed to shoot him and make him fall down. All the drones gathered around him and unleashed powerful energy blasts that engulfed him, but Eon managed to crawl out from the blasts and make his way toward Azmuth. Just as the suit was getting himself back up, Eon rushed up to him with the drones in pursuit. That's when Eon hid behind him and incapacitated him with more electricity. "I'm guessing your drones won't attack you, right?" The drones immediately stopped when they hovered in front of their master. "What do you know? I was right. What people like you think to be their greatest defense, turns out to be their greatest weakness."

Suddenly, he thrust an energy blade through the suit, causing it to twitch violently until it exploded. What remained of the suit collapsed to the floor, and Eon quickly blasted the computer console Azmuth was standing in front of, causing all the drones to shut down. Then Eon flipped the suit over to its front and ripped it open, pulling out a small alien that was trembling in his grasp.

The alien looked exactly like the Azmuth from Secret of the Omnitrix, except he was wearing a black robe and silver pull strings.

"The great Azmuth. Honestly, when I saw your defenses outside, I was impressed. But seeing how it was so easy to defeat you and draw you out, I'm now underwhelmed."

Meanwhile, back in the room, the aliens pinned the trio of villains in the middle of the area. They were about to claim victory over their prey, until they all stopped, twitching until they dropped dead.

"Uh, what just happened?" asked CS, "I mean, not that I'm complaining or anything, but . . ."

"I've got Azmuth," said Eon's voice over the comms, "Get down here as soon as possible."

The villains complied and flew down the hallway that Eon went down, soon encountering him in the lab, triumphantly holding Azmuth.

"Wait, how did you manage to take down the smartest alien in the galaxy so quickly?" asked CS.

"I guess with so much confidence placed in his other defenses, he didn't bother improving his inner defenses since no one could get this far, until today." Then he turned his head toward Azmuth and said, "Now, you're going to give me what we came all this way for."

"You . . . may have defeated me . . . but I will never . . . divulge my secrets!"

Eon squeezed him, making him groan and making some cracking noises occur.

"Maybe I can provide a less . . . drastic solution," said CS as he walked up to Eon.

Then CS reached out a cybernetic hand, and then wires eerily creeped out from his fingers and snaked toward him. Suddenly, the wires plunged into his head, making Azmuth scream in agony.

"And how is this less drastic?" asked Eon.

"I meant that it was less drastic for me," smirked Eon.

Azmuth continued screaming louder and louder, until his eyes looped upward and he fell limp. The wires came out from his head and retracted back into his fingers.

"The power source and the polymorphic crystal for your science project is in that vault over there," CS pointed over to a large door on the left wall, "But it's biologically locked to his DNA, but don't worry, we don't need him alive."

Eon looked at Azmuth and scanned him. "Then it's a good thing he's already dead, otherwise I would turn you to ash."

The villains walked over to the door and held Azmuth in front of a scanner, which beeped and turned green. The doors opened, and Eon tossed Azmuth aside to the floor and walked in with the others following behind. The room lit up to reveal an omnitrix, exactly like Ben's when he was 10, sitting on a pedestal. Eon approached the pedestal, took the watch, and began carefully pulling it apart until he finally reached its center. He tossed aside the extra pieces and held the crystal and the small power source in his hands.

"Mission accomplished," said Eon.

Kara ran throughout the park. After finally sorting through Ben's mess at the restaurant, she ran out to search for him. Thanks to her super-hearing, she found he was generally in the park, but had yet to find his specific location. That's when she noticed a lone boy sitting on a bench, back slumped as his head rested in his hands.

She stormed over to the figure, now revealing Ben under the streetlamp. "What were you thinking?!"

He didn't answer.

"It was one lousy reservation and you flipped out! And if you knew the consequences, then why did you even make reservations to a place like that in the first place?"

"BECAUSE I WAS GOING TO PROPOSE!" Ben jumped to his feet. Kara's eyes widened in shock and stumbled backward, leaning on a trashcan for support. Ben's eyes began tearing up but he continued, "I wanted to show you how amazing you are, and repay you for all you've done for me! I wanted to do what I was so scared of for so long: make a commitment to a relationship! Something I've always failed at back home! I wanted to do all this somewhere special, like that ridiculous excuse for a restaurant!" Tears flowed like rivers down his face. "Now . . . now it's all gone. I wanted it to be perfect for you."

"Ben, I'm extremely flattered, but . . . I . . . I don't know if I should."

Ben looked up in surprise. "Wha-why?"

"Because, we don't know when Paradox will come back. And when he does, he'll take you back to your dimension. I will have to stay here because my duty is to this planet and the Justice League."

"But, if that's the case, Paradox can always transport me in between dimensions, or something!"

"I don't know, Ben . . . this is all just . . . happening too fast. I . . . I need some time to think."

Kara turned away from him. Ben stared at her in disbelief, but wiped his eyes and slammed onto his watch harder than usual, transforming into Chromastone and flying away.

Kara just stood where she was, tears crawling their way down her face.

Meanwhile, back at Lexcorp, we see Lex typing on a laptop in his dimly lit office.

Mercy Graves soon stepped inside and said, "Apologies, Mr. Luthor, I know you said you didn't want to be disturbed, but there's a visitor who insists on speaking with you."

"Who is it and why should I care?" Lex didn't even look up from his computer.

"It's Superman, sir."

Lex stopped typing.

He looked up at Mercy for a moment but put on a friendly face. "Of course, of course! Send him in!"

Mercy nodded and closed the door. Lex closed his laptop and shoved it to the side, then clapped and turned on the lights.

Superman soon entered the room.

"Ah, if it isn't the Man of Steel!" he beamed, "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Then he got up and walked to a wine bottle sitting on a small table, with two glasses to go with it. "Would you care for a drink? I had this shipped in from Portugal, best in the country." He poured the wine into the glasses and walked over to Superman, giving him one of the glasses.

He raised his own glass to him as if to toast and then started drinking it. When he noticed Superman was staring suspiciously at it, he said, "Oh, don't worry, I didn't put any Kryptonite in it, those days are behind me."

"Yeah, about that," said Superman as he put it down on a nearby desk, "That's what I came here to talk about."

Lex sipped some more of his drink and put it on his desk, then he sat back down behind it. "Look, I know we've had our . . . differences in the past, but I am a changed man now. I am working as hard as I can to regain the trust of the public."

"Oh, really? Then how do you explain this?" Superman pulled out an iPhone and displayed some documents. "I had Batman do some digging as to why S.T.A.R. Labs had Gold Kryptonite without telling me, and it turns out that they received a shipment from your company."

Lex looked at them for a moment before saying, "Those are classified! You could be arrested for this!"

Superman slammed onto his desk, causing it to crack a little. "Cut the crap, Luthor! You secretly sent this to S.T.A.R. Labs to set a trap didn't you? That's why Metallo and Cyborg-Superman knew about it!"

Lex took a deep breath to regain his composure. "Okay, fine, I admit it, I did send them the Gold Kryptonite, but not for what you think."

"Well, this should be interesting."

"A few months ago, scientists from my company discovered a chunk of Gold Kryptonite buried in the Sahara Desert while scouting for valuable minerals. I thought S.T.A.R. Labs could use it to find new ways to benefit society, such as using it as a power source or possibly for weapons against invasions like Darkseid's."

"Then why haven't you told me or anyone?"

"Well research like this must be kept secret from the general public. And besides, look at how you reacted. Why do you think I withheld this information from you?" As Superman continued to suspiciously gaze at him, Lex said, "Go ahead and listen to my heartbeat if you don't believe me. I have nothing to hide."

Superman looked down at him for a moment, then relaxed some. Lex gave a smug look.

"This doesn't change anything," said Superman, "I know you're up to something. I've got my eye on you!"

"Consider myself warned, now get out of my office before I change my mind about not pressing any charges." Then he pressed a button and opened a window.

Superman glared at him before finally flying out the window.

Soon after, he closed the window. "You could've been discovered."

Eon suddenly teleported into the room with the components in hand. "But I wasn't."

"So, by the looks of things, I'd say your little excursion was successful?"

"More than successful," said Eon, "Now we can finally move onto the final phase of our plan."