CHAPTER 23: Monster

Ben could only stare in shock as Lex screamed while his body twisted and mutated before his eyes: His chest, legs, and arms expanded until his uniform shred to pieces. Veins bulged as his muscles grew, large spikes emerged from many places along his arms and legs, and many more erupted from his back. His skin grew darker until it was a deep grey, his face contorted until his jawline was larger and his left eye grew larger than the other, but both of them turned a deep red like Darkseid's. Enormous sharp teeth jutted out from his mouth, and the corrupted omnitrix symbol appeared on his chest, protected by a smaller set of spikes.

The creature roared and made the entire room quake.

"This is our endgame," said Eon. "This is finally the moment where I finally best the ever-so-great Ben Tennyson . . . ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

Luthor roared once more, charging at the heroes!

"Scatter!" yelled Ben.

The entire group split into different directions before Luthor could pummel them into the ground, but Luthor quickly recovered and used his newfound super speed to grab Captain Atom by the throat and slam him into Mr. Terrific and Dr. Light. Hal, John, and Guy hovered near each other and combined their energy beams to create a gigantic one that engulfed the monster. However, Luthor blocked it with one arm and pushed his way through to them, which is when he grabbed Hal while the other two flew away, but then Luthor unleashed two large omega beams from his eyes and shot the other Lanterns, sending them crashing to the ground. Then he grabbed Hal and slammed his back into his knee, where everyone could hear a loud crack followed by Hal's screams.

Shazam zoomed into Luthor and punched his face, sending him back a few feet. Meanwhile, Ben and Batman ran over to Hal's crippled body and Ben held him while Batman scanned him with his mask.

"Thankfully, his injury isn't fatal," said Batman, "But it's possible he will be paralyzed for the rest of his life."

Ben growled and looked back at Eon. "You're gonna pay for this, you psycho!"

Ben transformed into Astrodactyl and flew over to Eon, but he teleported away just as Ben was about to reach him.

Ben squawked and looked around but couldn't find him. "What? Too chicken to take me on again?"

"And miss observing the test of our latest creation?" echoed Eon's voice from the PA system. "I think not. Don't worry, your time is coming, Tennyson, but I promised Luthor revenge on his enemies. What kind of man would I be to dishonor such an agreement?"

Ben growled again, but Batman shouted, "Forget him, Ben! Right now, the real threat is Luthor and his new powers. We need to take him out before he can hurt anyone else! I'll get GL back to the Watchtower for emergency treatment and rejoin you shortly. Until then, help the others!"

"Got it!" Then Ben transformed into Humungousaur, then Ultimate Humungousaur.

As Luthor was beating Shazam with S.T.R.I.P.E, Ben shouted, "Hey, ugly! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

Luthor looked over and snarled, tossing S.T.R.I.P.E. aside and charging at him. Ben transformed his hands into missile launchers and fired hundreds of bone-fragment missiles directly at the monster. There were multiple explosions and the creature was engulfed in smoke, then silence. As Ben started to lower his hands, Luthor charged out and tackled him to the ground, then the monster roared and repeatedly punched Ben's face. Ben raised his fist and shot Luthor's face at pointblank, but the attack didn't even phase him and he continued to beat Ben until his face started to bleed.

Then Supergirl charged into Luthor, yelling, "Get off of him!"

But no matter how hard she pushed, he wouldn't budge. It was only when Superman zoomed into him that Luthor finally got knocked off. That's when Fate fired a huge energy beam at Luthor while J'onn transformed into a monster Luthor's size and tackled him to the ground.

Meanwhile, Ben changed back to his human form and the Kryptonians landed near him.

"Ben, are you okay?" asked Supergirl.

"Oh man . . ." groaned Ben, then he spat out a tooth and said, "It was like I was getting beaten by a freight train! Seriously, of all the beatings I took, this is ten times worse!"

"That must be because he has Darkseid's powers," said Superman.

"What do you mean?" asked Supergirl.

"Think about it: those energy beams he used to shoot down John and Guy, and how they followed their exact movements? Those were omega beams!"

"Okay, but how do you explain the spikes and endurance? I mean, Darkseid is pretty strong, but I don't think even he could take a bunch of missiles to the face like that. And I don't remember Darkseid having spikes anywhere on his body."

Ben gasped and said, "Doomsday! That has to be it! They must've somehow gotten Darkseid and Doomsday's DNA to power their omnitrix!"

"That must be why Eon attacked Apokolips! To lure Darkseid here to get his DNA! Do you think he was behind luring Doomsday here too?"

"I'm not sure," said Superman, "But I do know that beating him is gonna be far more difficult now that he has Darkseid and Doomsday's powers combined!"

"Ben, I know you said that turning into the alien you don't want to use would be risky, but you might have to consider it."

Ben uncomfortably looked down, then looked back up at Kara. "If all else fails, I promise I'll use him, but I can't guarantee that I'll be able to control him if I turn into him now."

"But you said you controlled him once before!"

"That was different!"

"How?"

"It just was! Okay?" Then Ben breathed and said, "I honestly don't know what made those other times different. But, I don't know . . . I'm scared. Scared I won't ever return to the real world . . . to you."

Kara smiled and hugged him. "You don't have to worry about that," she softly spoke near his ear, "If you get lost, I promise I'll pull you back out just like you did for me."

Ben smiled and hugged back.

Suddenly, J'onn was thrown across the room, while Luthor slammed both of his hands on both sides of Fate's helmet before sending him skyrocketing into a wall.

"Guys, I hate to ruin this moment," said Superman, "But I think we're out of time!"

Kara and Ben separated, then she said, "Okay, he'll be our last resort then."

Ben kissed Kara on the cheek and said, "Let's do this!"

Then the trio, along with the remaining members of the League, let out a battle cry as they charged toward Luthor once more!

Hawkgirl flew up and whacked Luthor in the face with her mace, followed by Flash running in circles until he could generate a lightning bolt to throw at him. The attacks made him stumble backward a little, but didn't seem to do much, but that's when Ben transformed into Rath and then Ultimate Rath and delivered a powerful uppercut to his jaw! Before Luthor could even recover from that blow, Stargirl and Blue Devil combined their energy attacks and made him fall to the floor. Then Zatanna hurried over and chanted a spell that made arms of metal come out from the floor and entangle the monster, giving Ben the opportunity to back up, run forward, and then jump high into the air, elbow aimed directly at Luthor's chest as he crashed down into him.

Luthor roared in pain, and U-Rath got off and shouted, "Let me tell ya somethin', freaky monster Luthor thing! That's what you get when you mess with the U-Rath! This is what ya get when ya take on the U Rath and his crew! This is what ya get . . ."

Luthor suddenly broke free of his restraints and whacked Ben aside! Then he unleashed more omega beams that shot down Stargirl and Blue Devil, then proceeded to hit Zatanna, but she teleported out of the way and launched an energy attack at Luthor. However, the attack did nothing and the omega beams changed course until they shot into her back and knocked her unconscious. Plastic Man charged up to the brute and wrapped his body around him, restraining him like a strait jacket, once again giving Ben the opportunity to run up and deliver a series of super-charged punches!

"Let me tell ya somethin', Luthor monster! You think you can just beat Rath like that and not get a beating?! THINK AGAIN!"

U-Rath continued to beat him, but Luthor blasted him away with his omega beams and struggled to get himself loose, with Plastic Man struggling to keep him restrained. However, Luthor soon broke free and held the hero close to his face, burning him with his omega beams until smoke started to come from it!

Then Superman charged shoulder first into the monster and knocked him off. Supergirl flew over and tended to Plastic Man, while S.T.R.I.P.E. flew up and unleashed a bunch of missiles that exploded on impact and created smoke. This distracted Luthor long enough for J'onn to run up and beat him in his previous monster form, but Luthor soon recovered and fried J'onn with his omega beams until he caught fire! Superman hurried over and used his freeze-breath to put out the fire, while Cyborg rushed and shot a powerful plasma blast to the face!

Then Ben turned into Ultimate Grey Matter again and said, "If brute force won't work, then I'll use the next best thing! Hmm, a direct hit from my third eye would normally immobilize such an opponent, but with such enhanced endurance from two of the most powerful creatures in this reality, I fear it will be largely ineffective."

"Well, what do we do then?! We're getting creamed faster than we can blink!" shouted Supergirl.

"I believe our only chance is to deactivate Luthor's omnitrix manually. We'll have to immobilize him long enough for one of us to touch the symbol and change him back to normal!"

"On it!"

With that, Supergirl flew up to Luthor and delivered a series of blows to his face, and then moved out of the way for Superman to deliver a devastating blow that knocked him far backward. Shazam charged his fists with lightning and delivered more punches, and Wonder Woman brought down her sword and stabbed Luthor in the leg, then stabbed his other leg. As the monster roared in pain, WW quickly jumped onto one of his arms, while Shazam took the other. Superman and Supergirl helped keep the arms down, and J'onn and Cyborg held down his legs. Then the Atom ran up and shrunk down to avoid the small spikes surrounding the symbol, and pressed down on it. However, Luthor still remained in his monster form.

"Ben, it's not working!" said Atom.

"Plan B then!" Ben charged up his third eye and shouted, "Move!" After Atom jumped off and grew back, Ben fired an energy beam at the symbol and said, "Perhaps I can hack the watch remotely with my energy beam and then . . . wait, something's wrong! I'm feeling a large amount of resistance! I . . . I . . . I can't keep my hold!"

Suddenly, a beam of purple electricity shot from the symbol and into Ben's eye, shocking him terribly until he fell to the floor! Then Luthor shot more omega beams that shot all the heroes off of his limbs and stood back up, smacking Atom into a wall and grabbing Superman and slamming him into Supergirl.

"How the heck can that guy stand?" asked Cyborg, "Wonder Woman stabbed both his legs!"

"Maybe he's got a healing factor," said Flash, "But either way . . ." He sped toward Luthor and said, "We're taking him down!"

Flash ran in circles around Luthor, trying to suck away his oxygen, but Luthor fired more omega beams that quickly caught up to the speedster and shot him down.

Meanwhile, Supergirl hurried over to Ben just as he changed back. "Ben! Ben! Talk to me! Are you okay?"

Ben groaned and woke up. "Oh man, I was not expecting that!"

"What happened?"

Eon's laughter echoed throughout the room. "Did you really think I wouldn't have planned for that?" he said over the PA system, "Unlike that oaf, Azmuth, I made proper defenses to keep the omnitrix from being easily deactivated! Just surrender, Tennyson! You've already lost! Accept it!"

"We haven't lost yet, Eon!" said Ben. Then he transformed into Diamondhead and nodded at Supergirl, who smiled and nodded back.

The two charged at Luthor once more, who already defeated the rest of the League and was holding Superman by the throat and shooting him in the face with his omega beams. Supergirl screamed and sucker punched him in the face, catching Superman as the monster let go. Then Ben charged up and punched the ground, making huge diamonds shoot out of the ground and slam into his chest, sending him flying backward. Then he lifted his hands and made large diamonds rise out of the ground and float, and when he waved his hands forward, the diamonds went forward and crashed on top of him! As Luthor struggled to climb out of the rubble, a batarang came out of nowhere and lodged itself into Luthor's chest, sending massive green and red electricity surging across his body.

Ben looked behind himself and saw Batman standing there.

"Where the heck have you been?" cried Ben, "We've been getting our butts handed to us!"

"After getting Hal to the infirmary, I realized Luthor was too powerful and scanned his new biology from the Watchtower. That's when I took a weapon I made for Superman in case he ever went rogue, and modified it according to what I found. If my calculations are correct, it should completely immobilize him and deactivate his omnitrix."

"Wait, you made a weapon to use against Superman? And why would he ever go rogue?"

"Call it insurance."

As Ben blinked in surprise, Luthor roared, ripping the batarang from his chest and firing more omega beams that shot Batman down! Supergirl flew up and delivered more punches, but Luthor grabbed her and repeatedly slammed her into a wall until she lost consciousness. Ben screamed in rage and turned his fists into balls with spikes, then whacked Luthor with all his might, but Luthor backhanded him to the other side of the room. Before Ben could get up, Luthor landed on top of him and kept punching him until his face and body cracked.

Ben changed back, his face and body black and blue from the beat down, one eye swollen shut. He groaned as he looked up at the beast, who roared triumphantly. Then, Luthor raised his fist and was about to land the final blow, but suddenly . . .

Luthor's omnitrix symbol started glowing, then purple electricity surged out of it and spread across his body, making him roar in pain and drop to his hands and knees. As the monster dropped, Ben could see Eon standing behind Luthor, a finger pressed on a button of his gauntlet.

"Thank you, Luthor. You fulfilled your purpose beautifully," said Eon.

Luthor looked behind him and roared. "What . . . did you . . . do?"

"You really thought I was going to give you absolute power and not have a leash for you? And here I thought you were the smart one in this dimension."

"YOU TRAITOR!"

Luthor got up and was about to charge at Eon, but he pressed the button again, making the watch zap him once more, except it grew more intense until it stopped all at once. Then Luthor's eyes glowed purple and his expression became blank.

"Stand up," said Eon.

The monster stood up as ordered.

"Bow to me."

Luthor got down on his hands and knees and bowed.

Ben groaned and managed to utter, "What . . .?"

"Oh, don't worry, Tennyson, all will become clear in time. For now, we have a schedule to keep, so I suggest we get moving. Luthor, get Tennyson."

The monster rose and trudged over to Ben, picking him up with one hand. Eon walked over and started typing on his gauntlet.

"You'll . . . never . . . get . . . away with this!" groaned Ben.

Eon stopped typing and sneered up at Ben. "I already have!" He pressed a final button, and the trio vanished from the ruins of the Hall of Doom and the battered heroes and villains within.