CHAPTER 24: Where All Roads Lead To
Kara groaned as she finally regained consciousness, struggling to put together what happened and where she was now. Suddenly, it all came flooding back to her: storming the Hall of Doom, rescuing Ben, Luthor's monstrous transformation, Ben being carried off by the bad guys . . .
Ben!
Kara snapped awake and bolted upright, but winced and fell back down. That's when she realized she was in the Watchtower's infirmary, bandages wrapped around her body, and IV bags connected into her.
"I strongly recommend against it."
Kara looked up and saw Batman standing in front of her, also with bandages wrapped around his bare chest and his arm in a sling. "You've taken quite the beating from Luthor, and you still need time to recover."
"Forget that!" she snapped, struggling to tear away the IV tubes, but Batman stopped her. "Where's Ben?" she asked, tears gathering in her eyes.
"We've been doing all we can to find him, but so far no luck."
"What? How can a guy with a powerful energy signature on his wrist suddenly go missing? How have you not found him? How . . ."
"Kara!"
Kara looked up once more and, this time, found Clark limping into the room, bandages across his body and leaning on a crutch.
"You should be in bed," said Batman.
"It's kinda hard to rest when I can hear Kara yelling from the next room," he smirked. Kara sadly looked down, but Clark said, "Okay, sorry, I guess that wasn't as funny as I thought it'd be. Look, the point is, you need to calm down. I know how much Ben means to you, and I know you're still feeling guilty about what happened, but you need to calm down and stop dishing out your frustrations on us. Be patient and trust that when we say we're doing all we can to find him, we're doing our best to find him. Also . . ." Clark suddenly grunted and clutched his side in pain, almost stumbling to the ground, causing Batman to hurry over and support him. " . . . I know you and Ben will make things right. You always do."
Kara smiled and said, "Thanks, Clark. Now, get back to bed before I make you wish you were still fighting Luthor!"
"Heh, yeah, right!"
With that, Batman escorted Superman out from the room, and Kara tried to go to sleep. However, her thoughts were swimming with what happened to Ben, what may be happening to him now, and what will happen between them after this is all over.
Meanwhile, Ben was finally stirring as well.
"Oh, good. You're finally awake. I was beginning to worry that you were going to miss the show," he heard Eon say.
Ben snapped awake but found that he couldn't move, which is when he noticed he was sitting in a large metal chair with his arms and legs in large restraints. He tried to activate the master control on his omnitrix telepathically, but nothing happened.
"Oh," chuckled Eon, "That's not going to work. The device I put on your head blocks the link between your mind and the omnitrix, so you won't be using the master control anytime soon."
Ben tried to look up at his head, but couldn't see the crown-like device wrapped around his head, glowing brighter and then dimmer like a heartbeat. Then Ben looked around and noticed that he was in a large office room, with clear windows granting access of a view of Metropolis, and Luthor was standing off to the side, still and mute as a statue.
"Where are we?" asked Ben.
"LexCorp," replied Eon, "Besides serving as the perfect strategical location for my plan, it also serves as delicious spite for Luthor. Personally, I have nothing against him, but there's something about mind-controlling your opponent, and then forcing him to stand back while you use his own headquarters as if they were your own, that just brings a smile to my face."
"How does that even work, anyway? I thought the omnitrix was supposed to resist mind control! Gah! What's this all about? Why go through all this effort just to get to me? You have your time powers, you could've easily just walked in and grabbed me while they locked me up!"
Eon chuckled again and said, "Funny, that's pretty much what Luthor told me." He turned around and continued, "But still, I suppose I do owe you an explanation. Your mind must be filled to the brim with questions."
"Um, I'll say! You were never like this when you teamed up with Vilgax or Maltruant!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, come on! Don't play dumb! You worked with Vilgax to kidnap evil versions of me, then you worked with Maltruant to recreate the universe!"
"What? Why on Earth would I ever lower myself to work with the likes of them, and with such ridiculous plans? Wait . . . (chuckle) Now I see."
"See what?"
"You really thought that was me working with Vilgax and that insane Chronosapien? I'm insulted. I've heard the stories about Maltruant, I know better than to align myself with him!" When he noticed Ben was still gawking, trying to piece together what he just said, Eon continued, "Ugh, fine. I suppose it's not your fault that you don't know, since your knowledge on this kind of stuff is limited. Look, when you destroyed the Hand of Armageddon in the desert, you destroyed my only anchor to your reality. The Eon you saw working with Vilgax and Maltruant wasn't actually me, but a me from a reality that branched off my own based on a decision I've made in my youth, explaining why this other me acted so childish and impulsive, barely thinking before striking.
"Now that that's explained, allow me to put the final pieces together. As I was saying, when you destroyed the Hand, I was thrust from your reality and thrown back into the void between all dimensions. In all that time since then, I've been regaining my strength and power, building up enough so that I would no longer need a Hand of Armageddon to travel to or stay in any reality. I knew that I still had a destiny to fulfill: to replace all timelines with one where I am the only Ben Tennyson that exists, and where I reign supreme over everything!
"However, I knew I couldn't use the same methods as I did before, so I did some research and discovered that I could still accomplish my goal using two key ingredients. One is from a strong temporal anomaly like no one's ever seen. Then, as if on cue, the aftermath of your encounter with Maltruant spread across the multiverse, sparing me the trouble of finding one so I could focus on the last ingredient . . ."
Eon stepped closer and said, " . . . The life force of the first Ben Tennyson." Ben gasped, and Eon smirked under his helmet and continued, "Absorbing the life force of the original Ben Tennyson, the one who started this whole multiverse of Bens, is important because energy from the first of anything from the prime dimension gives you the ability to bypass all dimensional and temporal barriers and recreate the multiverse as you see fit. But, like I said, I can't do it without the energy from the anomalies you caused, which is where this comes in . . ."
Eon pressed a button on his gauntlet, causing a trap door to open several feet away, and a large machine rose up. The machine looked like a small tower, with a control dial at the front and a couple rods like the ones on the machines Vilgax and Aggreggor used to absorb powers.
"Even Luthor didn't know I was hiding this thing under his nose the whole time I was here. This machine was built to attract the anomalies to this dimension all at the same time, which will then draw them to the device, and then I absorb that power, plus your life force at the same time!
"Anyway, after I made the discovery about the anomalies and your life force, I searched for you, but the anomalies made it near-impossible to find you until it was too late. By the time I got here, I saw you were already buddy-buddy with the Justice League, and I knew that, even with all my power, I couldn't defeat them all since I couldn't even defeat you and your friends before, not even when you were alone. So, I devised a plan to defeat you and all your friends, which is when I came to Luthor. It was hard convincing him to help me, of course. But, after a long chat about where I come from, the knowledge I had, among other things, he came around and our alliance was set. From then on, we worked to create our own omnitrix that could turn its wearer into the perfect super soldier to take the entire Justice League down.
"But, of course, I wasn't stupid enough to just hand all that power over to a mad but genius individual known to betray their own partners, whether he would have or not. Therefore, when we were finishing up the omnitrix when your friends stormed the Hall of Doom, I used the time between each time Luthor blinked to use my time-powered hyper speed to add a failsafe to bypass and grant full control over Luthor's mind. At first, I had to build it one small piece at a time to avoid suspicion, but after we finished scanning the device and approving it for use, I quickly added the rest of my failsafe before Luthor could notice."
"Well, that was probably the longest bad guy speech I ever had to sit through," said Ben.
Eon laughed and said, "Don't think I don't know what you're doing, you're obviously trying to stall for your friends to come and save you." Ben didn't answer, so Eon said, "Don't deny it, I am you after all, I know how you think. Your teammates are battered to where they can't recover, and even if there are any heroes outside the League, they'll never be able to find you in time."
"Um, what about when these stupid anomalies come here? I've seen this before in movies: there's always a giant spaceship or red sky or wormhole that reveals the bad guy's location and the heroes always come in and save the day, yada yada, it's how it works every time."
"Oh, Ben, you need to spend less time in fantasy world and more in reality. Have you seen what my monster did to your friends? Suppose that there are other heroes left and they find us, they'll never be able to defeat my creature. All I need to do is say one word and he'll fry your friends before they reach the door!"
Suddenly, the ground rumbled and the whole building shook, and the sky became a blood red. Storm clouds filled the newly colored sky, red lightning flashed across it and even struck the ground below, causing screams to rise up.
"Guess that's my cue," said Eon. Then he pushed another button on his gauntlet and the ceiling opened up until they were completely exposed to the ferocious temporal elements above them. "In mere hours," yelled Eon over the howling wind and lightning, "The rest of the anomalies will arrive, and I will achieve ultimate power and finally fulfill my destiny!"
"It doesn't matter what you do, Eon!" shouted Ben, "My friends will find me! And together, we'll all stop you!"
"There is no chance of that ever happening!" Eon shouted like a madman, "I have all the cards! Nothing can stop me now!"
Eon let out a loud, long, and insane laugh.
Despite how hard it was at first, Kara finally managed to drift off to sleep a short while after Batman and Superman left. However, a couple hours later, a loud alarm brought her out of her slumber. Kara groaned as she woke up, then she noticed a bunch of Watchtower staff rush by her room.
"What's going on?" she wondered to herself. She tried getting up, but winced at the pain. "Come on, Kara, it doesn't hurt that bad anymore! You can do this!"
Kara ripped out the IV tubes, thrust aside the blankets, and slowly got herself out of bed. She winced again as she stood up but shook it aside and flew out of the room, zooming her way to the large assembly area, where holographic screens were showing the blood-red sky and the storm that came with it. Lighting was striking buildings, sending rubble to the ground and narrowly missing civilians. Meanwhile, strong winds were lifting cars, streetlamps, and even toppling other buildings as well! Batman was monitoring on the control console as best he could with his one good hand.
"Attention, all Justice League members!" said Batman over the PA, "This is an omega level threat! I repeat: an omega level threat! Any members who are in the infirmary, if you're recovered enough, make your way to the common area so you can be teleported down there. Any other members who are uninjured and available, make your way to Metropolis, now!"
As soon as he was done, Kara flew over to the command room and landed next to Batman, groaning and wincing as she landed.
"Kara, what are you doing here? I told you to get some rest!"
"Can it, Wayne! What's going on?"
"It happened a couple hours after we started our search for Ben, a giant storm of some kind has appeared over Metropolis and it's only getting worse every minute."
Kara thought for a minute and said, "'You think this might be related to Ben?"
"Kara, I know you miss him, but you need to have a clear . . ."
"Just hear me out! When that Professor guy showed up in the infirmary that day, he said something about temporal and spacial anomalies. What if this storm is the anomaly? Or a group of the anomalies, or something?"
Batman went back to the console and said, "I'm readjusting the scanners for any unusual energy readings." After a second, he said, "You're right, the Watchtower is detecting strong amounts of temporal energy, nothing I've ever seen even with encounters with villains like Chronos."
"Then Ben has to be at the center of this! We have to find him! If we do, the threat might be there and then we'll be able to stop them!"
After a moment's thought, Batman replied, "You make a good point. I'll call for some reserved members and backup from the Teen Titans. Until the others have completely healed or have finished rescuing the civilians, I'm afraid that's the best I can do."
"What if I go?"
"Out of the question, you still haven't even recovered a fourth of your strength."
"Well, then a sixth will have to be just as good."
"Kara, this is serious!"
"So am I! Look, I know I may seem desperate and obsessed with making things right with Ben, but he roomed with me and dated me! He's my responsibility! And I'll never be able to forgive myself if I let anything happen to him just because of a few small injuries! I . . . I . . . I love him, Bruce! And I will go out there and save him, even if every bone in my body is broken!"
There was a moment of silence, and Batman was about to say something, until . . .
"You better let her go, Bruce, we both know we can't change her mind," said Superman's voice over the comms.
"Wait, you're serious?" asked Kara.
"I figured it was about time I started trusting you to handle yourself."
Kara teared up again and laughed a little. "Thank you, Clark!"
Then she looked at Batman, who sighed and said, "Fine. But you're not going without backup! You're going to wait until the reserved members and the Titans have assembled! Understand?"
"Yes, sir!"