CHAPTER 5: DOUBLE THE DATE, DOUBLE THE DANGER!
KENT'S FARM, SMALLVILLE, KANSAS
Kara couldn't contain her excitement as she rushed to her room, and immediately used her phone to contact her best friend, Barbara Gordon. Then Barbara picked up.
"Hey Kara, what's up?" replied Barbara at her phone
"You are not gonna believe what just happened, Babs." said Kara with excitement.
"Please, I've seen monsters, aliens, and magic." replied Babs. "Nothing you'll say will sound crazy."
Kara is taking a deep breath, then explains to Barbara, "Ben asked me out."
"I KNEW IT! I knew you two would be going out for a date! Hey, where's Tim, he owes me ten bucks; I told him that you two would get together!" Barbara sounds excited when she hears her best friend finally gets a date.
"Oh, come on Babs," said Kara, a little embarrassed, "Well, I just kissed him, and then we're going out this Saturday to see a movie and then go to dinner."
"You kissed him!?" Barbara screeched, "Wait, was there tongue?"
"Babs!" Kara complained, feeling very annoyed.
"Right, right, sorry. I'll leave the excitement to you. I'm really happy for both of you."
"Thanks Babs." Kara smiled.
Then Barbara had an idea. "I know, how about we'll make a double date between you and Ben, with me and Dick."
"That'll be great!" Kara agrees with Barbara's idea.
"Love to chat, but I gotta go help Batman on a mission," said Barbara. "See you on Saturday! Good night!"
"Good night." Kara hung up, then collapsed on her bed; between the incident with her clone and being asked out by Ben, she was feeling a little drained. Still, she couldn't stop smiling, even as her eyelids become heavy.
'I can't wait for Saturday,' she thought, as sleep claimed her.
TENNYSON'S RESIDENCE, ROW HOUSE, NEW YORK
Ben walked tiredly through the door to his bedroom. As he locked the door, he heard a tap of glass from his bedroom, revealing to be Superman. floating outside the house. Ben felt he already knew why Superman went to visit Ben.
"Uh, hi Clark, what's up?" Asked Ben nervously.
"Hello Ben." Clark's eyes were completely serious. "I heard that you asked Kara out on a date."
Ben nodded. Clark walked up to him; Ben had never realized just how much taller Superman was compared to him.
"I've always been protective of my cousin; after all, she is the only blood-relation that I have left. I want nothing but the best for her."
Ben nodded, trying to act calm, but deep down he's still nervous in front of Superman. However, the Kyptonian gave a smile as a reply.
"And I think she'll be fine with you."
Ben's surprised. "Seriously?"
Superman placed a hand on Ben's shoulder. "You're a good person, Ben. I have no problem with you dating Kara. And I'm happy for you, too."
Ben nodded again, relieved that Clark wasn't angry at him. The Kryptonian turned to leave out the window that he'd come in through, but stopped.
"Oh, Ben, one more thing."
"Yeah?"
"If you break my cousin's heart," warned Clark in a dangerous tone, "You and I are going to have a serious talk."
Ben paled considerably, but before he could respond, Superman flew away. After a few minutes, Ben went to bed. At first, he was restless; and he was even more determined to not break Kara's heart. Thinking of her helped calm him down, and soon he found himself getting sleepy.
I can't wait for Saturday, thought Ben, as he went back to sleep.
(SATURDAY) TENNYSON'S RESIDENCE, ROW HOUSE, NEW YORK
Ben was wearing his usual clothes; wearing his black jacket, white shirt beneath his jacket, with blue jeans, and a pair of black and white sport shoes, as he feels he doesn't need to wear anything too dashy.
"Look at you champ." teased Ben's uncle, Frank Tennyson. "You've arrived back to Earth for a few days, and yet you've managed to get a girlfriend."
Ben's just groaned.
"Kids, they grew up so fast." teased Ben's aunt, Natalie Tennyson.
"Don't forget to kiss." teased Gwen.
Then Ben fired back to Gwen, "For someone who doesn't have a "lovelife", I think you're the one who needs to sit down and shut up."
Gwen responded with her tongue out.
Then Frank looks towards her daughter, Gwen. "Remember Gwen, you need to let us know whoever the boy you're hanging out with is."
"DAD!?" Gwen responded with embarrassment, while Ben, Rook, and Ester giggled.
"And remember about the rules of dating." as Natalie approaches her nephew, Ben. "No drinking. No drugs. And no sex."
Ben was only sitting down on a couch while having a face-palm to hide his embarrassment, while Gwen, Rook, and Ester couldn't hold their laughter anymore.
"Well done, mom." Gwen was satisfied that now it's Ben's turn to be embarrassed.
"That goes the same for you too, young lady." said Frank.
Gwen only responded with a groan.
*KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK*, as the door knock was heard. It was revealed to be Kara, Barbara, and Dick who appear in front of the door as Ben opens the door. Kara was wearing a red and black jacket, white shirt, black pants, black shoes, a brown wig and glasses to keep her secret identity. Barbara was wearing black shirt, grey skirt, and black shoes. And Dick is wearing a dark blue jacket, black shirt, and jeans.
Then Natalie Tennyson appears behind Ben. "Have fun you guys."
"We will Mrs. Tennyson." replied Barbara.
"Yeah, thanks Aunt Natalie." said Ben, as he hugged his Aunt.
As Ben, Kara, Barbara, and Dick are walking towards Dick's car, which is a black, blue and silver 2021 Camaro.
Dick drives the car as Barbara sits at the front seat, while Ben and Kara are sitting on the backside of the car.
ITALIAN RESTAURANT, NEW YORK CITY
Ben and Kara are eating spaghetti with meatballs, while Dick and Babs are grabbing slices of pizza. While they ate, Ben was telling a joke.
"- and I say, that's what I call a risk-taker." joked Ben, as Kara, Dick, and Babs giggled.
After Ben's joke, Dick says, "Ah, Ben, you are such a card!" and then, he begins to ask Ben questions. "So how did you get that watch?" Dick was referring to Ben's Ultimatrix.
"It all started when I was ten years old when a pod crashed into a park from the sky. I was curious, so I decided to get close to the pod." He explained to them. "So it was revealed to be a watch from outer space, the Omnitrix. The watch jumped on me and stuck onto my wrist. Then a couple of years later, I was given the better version, the Ultimatrix."
"So why didn't you return back to Earth?" asked Barbara, she never got a chance to ask Ben and the Galactic Guardians are still at the Wayne Manor after the Triceraton's invasion.
"Because, I was too far away from Earth. I don't like the idea of getting my family in danger after I got the Omnitrix. Besides, my parents died after the car crash, so I stayed with Tetrax and Rook in space."
The lot of them were all taken back on that.
OUTSIDE CINEMA, NEW YORK CITY
As Ben, Kara, Barbara, and Dick finished watching movie from a cinema, they hear an explosion *KABOOM*, then Kara uses her super-vision to locate the origin of the explosion. "There, it's in a museum!" Kara uses her super speed and flies away.
"Kara, wait!" Ben tries to halt Kara but she's too quick, but then turns his attention to Dick and Babs. "I'll go for a head start." as Ben activates his Ultimatrix, then transformed into Big Chill, a moth-like alien whose four wings and antenna can fold up into a hooded robe (much akin to a poncho), giving him the appearance of a phantom. He has a black body with cyan patches on his arms, shoulders, legs, the back of his wings, and the back of his neck that resemble ice chunks. Each patch has thick blue outlining except for the ones on his wings, which are outlined in black. There is also a black line that runs on the edge of the outer margin on the back of each wing.
So Big Chill flew away to follow Kara to the museum, while Dick and Barbara are heading towards Dick's car, donning their superhero outfits as Nightwing and Batgirl.
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK CITY
Kara, now donning her Supergirl outfit, arrived inside the American Museum of Natural History. Then, Big Chill, appearing from behind, touches Supergirl's shoulder.
"Kara, you should've waited for us." Big Chill said it in a worrisome tone, trying to be gentle with his date. "You know Dick and Babs are hardly able to keep up with us."
"I'm sorry." Supergirl apologizes. "I just didn't want to let the bad guys get away again."
"Next time, stick with a group, okay? You're not alone in this anymore." Big Chill told her gently.
Supergirl responds with a smile, as she knew that Ben, currently as Big Chill, cares about her very much.
"Now let's go." said Big Chill, as he and Supergirl flew inside the museum.
Inside, it was revealed to be Chronos, who's stealing some sort of gemstone on one of the exhibits.
"Alright, whoever you are, drop the gem and surrender!" said Supergirl.
"The name's Chronos!" he said, introducing himself. "And sorry, but I'm afraid it's a NO-GO!" he shot at them with his blast and they dodged it, by rolling out of the way.
As Supergirl and Big Chill are about to charge towards him, Chronos fires at them again, but they duck out of the way and it hits a lamp post outside, causing it to short out and deactivate.
Big Chill attacks with his cold breath but Chronos hops over and dodge it. "As you can see, I have the power to see the future, so I can predict and see everything on what's coming next." as Chronos sounded arrogantly.
As Supergirl charges, Chronos throws a red solar grenade and tosses it towards Supergirl. As a result, Supergirl fell over as her powers were shut down temporarily. Then Chronos turns his attention towards Big Chill. As it's Big Chill's turn to attack, Chronos uses his time grenade to throw towards Big Chill. Then Big Chill began to fly in slow-motion, which gave Chronos time to attack with his time gun and fired it towards Big Chill and knocked him off.
"So long suckers." teases Chronos, as he opens the portal and runs away.
After Chronos got away, Nightwing and Batgirl finally arrived at the museum.
"Are you both alright?" asked Batgirl
"We're fine." replied Supergirl.
"So what did we miss?" asked Nightwing.
"Some time-traveling guy shows up, steals a gemstone, and anticipates every one of our moves." explained Big Chill. "He opened a portal and got away."
"Great, now we have no way of tracking him," said Nightwing.
"Not exactly." a voice out of nowhere came and appeared in a flash of light. It appears to be a man wearing a white lab coat over a white shirt with a brown vest and black tie, black pants, and black shoes. He also wore goggles with green lenses around his neck. "Professor Paradox, at your service."
Then the heroes are on guard. "Easy on violence, I'm here to offer assistance. Especially for Ben."
The heroes are surprised that the professor actually knew Ben's name.
"How did you know my name?" asked Big Chill.
"I'm a time-travel, I see everything from the past, present, and the future." explained the Professor. "Besides you've got problems of your own Benjamin."
Big Chill slapped his Ultimatrix dial, and transformed back to Ben. "What do you mean…", then Ben realised that his voice was changing. "Whoa, why do I sound weird?"
Supergirl, Batgirl, and Nightwing are surprised that Ben turned into a kid.
"Ben, you're a kid now." explained Supergirl.
Ben quickly notices as he realizes his friends are much taller and his voice is changing. "Aw, man…"
The lot of them all looked at him in shock and Batgirl pulled out a mirror from her utility belt and showed him what was wrong. Ben now looked like his 10 year old self. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed in horror. "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!" he repeated over and over before he gasped. "I….I've been turned back into a 10 year old!" he said, feeling bummed.
Supergirl knelt down and held him close to her, making his face turn a little red. "Chronos' blast must have reverted you back to the age you were when you got the Omnitrix." she said, pointing out the obvious. "We have to find a way to get you back to how you were before."
"You're right, Kara." said Ben. "Only how?"
"Perhaps I can be of some assistance to you," the professor interrupted.
"Who are you?" asked 10 year old Ben, as he's about to activate his old Omnitrix, while Supergirl, Batgirl, and Nightwing are on guard.
"Oh, you haven't met me yet, but you will in the future, which is right now in my eyes and your own." he said, making them feel very confused. "Sorry, time travel makes verb tenses so confusing. I am called Professor Paradox, for ironic reasons we needn't go into."
"Why are you here?" asked Nightwing suspiciously.
"Obviously, to warn Chronos about the consequences of his action." answered the professor.
"Warn him? Why not just stop him?" demanded the 10 year old Ben.
"I'm afraid there are things that I can or can't interfere with." explained Paradox.
"So why was that Chronos guy able to interfere?" asked Supergirl suspiciously.
"Chronos does not think about his consequences of messing with time and space continuum" Paradox continues to explain. "He stole the Temporal Quartz, a gemstone that if used correctly can allow someone with time travel or teleportation powers to travel to any particular time by saying the exact date out loud. But he'll break the time stream itself if he tries to use it together on the Chronologger."
"Okay, Professor Paradox, can you try and turn Ben back to his old self?" asked Batgirl.
"Unfortunately no." said the man, now called Professor Paradox. "Re-aging will break the chrono-laws of space time."
"Okay enough!" demanded 10 year old Ben. "I want answers, now!"
Paradox just replied with a smile. "Same old Ben Tennyson, even as a 10 year old you're still as mature as ever."
"What can you tell us then, Mr. Paradox?" asked Supergirl
"Very well. I'll tell you my story with beginning, middle, and end." as the professor pulls out his gold-colored pocket watch from his pocket. "Let's start from the middle."
(FLASHBACK) LOS SOLEDAD, 1950's
"Los Soledad was built entirely because of my ingenious theory. A time tunnel utilising a property I've discovered in Quartz crystal, which allowed me access to pass through future events." narrated Professor Paradox
Paradox was working on a time tunnel made from Quartz crystals, but a few miscalculations caused Paradox to suck to the tunnel when it was activated.
"Lemme guess. A few miscalculations caused you to get sucked inside the tunnel?" asked Ben, trying his best not to diss people off, especially not in front of his date, Supergirl.
"Very good, Benjamin. Some tiny miscalculations on my part destabilized the experiment and ripped to hole in the fabric of reality. I was hurled into the event horizon."
Paradox was sucked into a huge hole of fabric of reality.
"I must have spent about one hundred thousand years there. Didn't age, didn't need to eat, or sleep, just exist." as Paradox continues to narrate.
Paradox surrounded himself with clocks.
"Now that's torture." Nightwing replied sarcastically.
"At first I went mad of course, but after a few millennia, I got bored with that too and went sane. VERY SANE."
Then Paradox began to learn about all the equations of time and space.
"I began to learn, then I finally have a complete understanding of the space time continuum."
(BACK TO THE PRESENT), WAREHOUSE, LOS SOLEDAD
"-allowing me to travel anywhere and anytime I want. Within reason." as the professor teleports the heroes to Los Soledad.
"Wait, we're in Los Soledad are we?" guessed Batgirl, after seeing Paradox's flashback along with 10 year old Ben, Supergirl, and Nightwing.
"Yes, but I'm afraid this is the part where you stop Chronos before he's making a huge mistake." told Professor Paradox in a serious mode.
It appears that they found out Chronos is about rebuilding the Chronologger, a piece of powerful technology developed on Earth and known throughout the universe. It is used to generate enough energy to weaken the time-space continuum. It is a ring of Quartz crystals. The Chronologger was previously built by Professor Paradox, now it appears to be rebuilt again by Chronos.
"You're too late!" Chronos grinned, as he held the Temporal Quartz, as he put it on the gemstone on the Chronologger, then the portal opened.
"Yes… YESS!" Chronos grinned with happiness. However, the portal begins to create an earthquake as the floor crumbles, then a wind blows over, and sparks of lightning are sparking all over the place. Chronos began to feel shocked as well as the other heroes.
"What's the meaning of this time-walker?!"as Chronos blames Paradox. "You've tricked me!"
"On the contrary I've warned you!" warned Paradox. "Stop this now or all of existence will be lost!"
"NOOOO!" Chronos began to get frustrated. "If I can't rule the cosmos, then I'll be the one who'll destroy it!"
As Chronos keeps letting Chronologger keep destroying the fabric of time space.
"Any suggestions?" asked Ben.
"I would suggest Clockwork for this situation." said Professor Paradox.
By the professor's recommendation, Ben quickly transforms into Clockwork and begins to fire his time beam from his chest to disable the Chronologger, while Supergirl, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Professor Paradox are against Chronos.
"No matter what you do to me, I can see the future. I know every move you can throw at me." Chronos replied smugly.
However, Paradox then uses his pocket watch and zaps Chronos with it. He then made him stumble a little bit. "Not this time!" he said.
Chronos tried to see into the future, but could not predict anything. "You made me lose my power!" he ranted. "That's cheating!"
"Says the guy who can see the future." Nightwing shot back.
Then the heroes began to strike back. As Chronos tries to fire with his time gun, Nightwing quickly disarms Chronos with his birdarangs. Finally, Batgirl and Supergirl began their combo moves towards Chronos. As Batgirl punches Chronos in the jaw and then in the ribs, and Supergirl finishes it off by a flick of her finger, knowing that she's too strong for Chronos physically.
On the other hand, Clockwork manages to destroy the Chronologger.
After Nightwing tied up Chronos, he began to ask the professor. "So what are we going to do with him now, we can't wait for the authorities to come here. Los Soledad is like in the middle of nowhere."
"I'll be the ones who'll take him," replied Paradox "To make sure he won't cause any more damage over time and space continuum." As the professor opens a portal and brings Chronos along with him, he then remembers something. "Oops, almost forgot."
Then in a flash of light, 10 year old Ben turns back into 18 year old Ben again. "Hey, you said you couldn't age me."
But the professor just smirks as he walks through the portal along with the tied-up Chronos.
Ben knew the professor's smirk meant a yes, as he can actually re-aged Ben Tennyson. But Ben realized Paradox was just teasing him.
"We should do this more often." says Batgirl as the double date turns out to be a superhero team-up.
"Agreed." smiled Ben.
KENT'S FARMHOUSE, SMALLVILLE, KANSAS
As Barbara and Dick already returned back to Gotham and Bludhaven, Supergirl and Ben, now as Jetray landed on the Kent's Harmhouse. Then Jetray transforms back to Ben.
"Kara, I just wanna say, I'm sorry." Ben apologized.
"For what?" asked Supergirl.
"Well, the date was interrupted by that Chronos guy and we didn't get a chance to have an actual, normal date." explained
"Don't be." replied back the Kryptonian, then surprisingly kissed Ben, leaving him blushing. "We're heroes, it's our job to stop the bad guys and it was a lot of fun".
Ben smiled while still blushing. "I'm glad you're having fun."
Then Kara thought of something. "Ben, we may need to have some ground rules for us."
"Okay, what is it?" Ben began to be curious about Kara's rules.
"First, I always need to tell the Kents about my plans with you." she said to him.
"Got it, let the Kents know. What's number two?"
"Second, when we're working, we have to act as teammates. Not a couple, okay?"
"Got it. We're teammates when we do our hero gig, but we're couples outside this hero gig."
Supergirl smiled with relief. "I'm glad you understand, Benny-Boo."
Ben doesn't mind if Kara calls him by his cute-name. "Hey, if that's what you want, who am I to deny you?"
Supergirl just replies with another kiss. "See you at the Watchtower?"
"Yeah, see you later." Ben says his goodbye to Kara, as she walks inside to the farmhouse while Ben transforms into Jetray and flies back to New York.
Meanwhile far away, Professor Paradox was watching both Ben and Kara earlier. "Good for you, Benjamin." he said, as he stepped inside to the portal and in a flash of light, it was gone.
THE END OF CHAPTER 5