BEN 10 DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. SADLY, NEITHER MAN OF ACTION NOR DC COMICS WILL GIVE ME THE RIGHTS TO THEIR SHOWS; SOMETHING ABOUT ME NOT HAVING ANY EXPERIENCE RUNNING A COMPANY, OR SOME SUCH NONSENSE.

Okay, just a heads-up; the episode that I am basing this chapter off of is 32 flavors of AWESOME! I get pumped just watching it, and it continues to be one of my favorite episodes, just for its awesome factor. Also, it adds a new antagonist to the conspiracy, so that's fun.

Ben 10: Unlimited

Chapter 11

Dark Heart

Watchtower

"Do you think it will work?" asked Wonder Woman.

"The Galvan are the smartest people in my universe," replied Grey Matter, "of course it will work!"

The two Leaguers were in the science wing of the Watchtower; Wonder Woman was watching Grey Matter work on a device that he planned to install into the Ultimatrix. When he finished, all the Amazon Princess saw was a silver bead.

"That's it?"

Grey Matter snorted. "As you should know by looking at me, size doesn't matter; once placed into the Ultimatrix, this device will allow me to communicate with the League no matter what form I turn into."

The issue of Ben's aliens lacking any long-range communication had been brought up in several meetings; in past missions, especially ones where Ben was in command, orders had to be relayed through other Leaguers. Today, Ben had decided to do something about that.

"Would you hand me that pen and paper, Diana?" asked Grey Matter, holding out a small hand.

As she did so, Ship entered the room. "Ship ship?" he inquired.

"In a moment, Ship, I'm almost done." Grey Matter sketched out a diagram for his human self to follow, making sure to label the directions in a way that a non-genius could follow. He then slapped the Ultimatrix dial and turned back into Ben.

"Okay," he said, "let's see if this works." Following the directions he'd left himself, he placed the silver bead onto the bottom of the Ultimatrix; with a buzzing sound, the device actually went into the gauntlet.

"Did it work?" asked Wonder Woman.

"Only one way to find out." Replied Ben; he held the Ultimatrix close to his mouth and spoke into it. "Ben to Supergirl; are you there?"

"Yeah Ben, I'm here," came Supergirl's voice from the Ultimatrix, "what's up?"

"Just testing a new feature of the Ultimatrix; now I should be able to communicate to other Leaguers, even if I'm an alien."

"Sweet!"

"Yep; hey, Ship needs something, I'll see you in a sec." Ben turned to Ship. "Okay, buddy, what's the matter?"

"Ship ship ship!" Ben's eyes went wide, while Wonder Woman, who still couldn't understand what the little alien was saying, raised an eyebrow.

"What did he say?"

Ben looked at her. "Ship says that he detected an alien presence landing on Earth."

Now it was Wonder Woman's eyes that widened. "Is he sure?"

"Ship's never been wrong before."

"All Justice League members and associates, report to the Javelin bay for deployment," came J'onn's voice over the PA, "we have an omega-level threat; this is not a drill."

As Ben, Wonder Woman and Ship rushed to the Javelin bay, Ben said, "See what I mean?"

…

Nevada

"Containment has failed and we are taking heavy losses," came the voice of a US army commander over the radio, "requesting emergency support; I repeat, we cannot contain them!"

"Sounds like the commander could use a little reassurance." Said Superman, as he flew towards the conflict.

"Let's hope we can give it to him." Said Batman from the Batwing.

"We'll give it to him all right, and then some." said Wonder Woman, piloting a Javelin with a dozen other heroes in the back, "Strength in numbers and all that."

Next to her Javelin was Ship, piloted by Ben, who had another team of heroes inside; outside the vessels was every other hero in the League.

"Ah, alien invasions," said Ben, nostalgia in his voice, "finally, something I'm used to!"

Long Shadow, sitting in the copilot's seat, looked at him funny. "You're used to this?"

The League had welcomed Long Shadow with open arms, and although he'd only been a member for a few weeks, he was already trusted and liked by most of the more veteran Leaguers. The fact that he had the trust of many of the founding members certainly didn't hurt.

Ben shrugged. "I stopped my first alien invasion when I was ten; after a few years, it got to the point when I was doing that every other month." The other heroes inside of Ship laughed a little.

Zatanna, who was sitting behind them, shook her head in amusement. "I still can't believe that you've been a superhero since you were that young."

Further conversation ended when they reached the mesa that the aliens had landed on. The Javelin and Ship touched down, and the Leaguers rushed out; Ben activated the Ultimatrix and turned into Diamondhead. When they got outside, the heroes got their first look at the invaders; they appeared to be bulbous mechanical spiders. They were silver, red-eyed things with four, pointed legs. They were only about a foot long and tall, so it would be difficult for the heroes who specialized in hand-to-hand combat to fight them.

The main vessel, a massive, blob-like thing, sat at the top of the mesa, spilling forth hundreds of spiders. It seemed almost organic in nature, and yet Diamondhead could see parts of it that looked like a factory as well.

"It's growing bigger," noted Batman, still in the air, "and it's somehow devouring everything around it, then converting it into mass."

"And those spider-like things?" asked Diamondhead.

"The same," answered Batman, "and once they're done with the debris from the army's attempt to beat them back, they're going to spread out to the three nearby towns."

Diamondhead sadly noted the wreckage of several helicopters, as well as the bodies of several fallen soldiers. If only they'd gotten there sooner… he shook off the thought; it wouldn't do anyone any good if he started saying "if only". He'd feel bad after they'd saved the Earth.

"Diana," came J'onn's voice in Wonder Woman's ear, "I have the communications feed from the general on the ground, and I'm patching you through."

"This is Wonder Woman." Said the Amazon into her comm-piece, "Go ahead, General."

"This is General Eiling, USAF." Came an authoritative voice, "We're in the process of evacuating three towns in the immediate vicinity; we need those… things locked down."

"Then the first task is containment." Decided Wonder Woman.

"I've got something onboard that might buy us some time." The Batwing flew over the main vessel and dropped a large bomb. Instead of an explosion, a thick layer of ice creeped across the blob, keeping most of it locked up.

"Batman?" asked Wonder Woman, "What was that?

"Thermionic gas," explained Batman, "cooled to a few degrees of absolute zero."

"Um, why would you have something like that on your plane?" asked Diamondhead.

"I needed to freeze the Gotham River once; long story."

When the main vessel froze, the spiders had turned to look at it; after a moment of staring, they turned as one and resumed their march towards the towns. The only thing standing in their way was the Justice League.

"Move in!" shouted Superman from the sky. The heroes charged; energy blasts, missiles, magic, even bare fists were used.

The flying heroes went to the side of the mesa, blasting or smashing the spiders on the wall, to try to cut off reinforcements to the ones already on the ground.

As Diamondhead turned his arm into as large blade and sliced a spider in half, he noted that they were actually pretty weak; the only problem was that there were hundreds, maybe thousands more to go.

Alongside him, other ground-based heroes held off swarms of spiders; in order to give his ranged comrades, like Green Arrow, an advantage, Diamondhead made a ramp of diamond emerge from the ground, to give them the high ground.

At first, the battle on the ground looked like a stalemate, until Superman and Supergirl arrived and added some heat-vision-based support. Then the robots began to be pushed back. Supergirl landed next to Diamondhead.

"Did you miss me?" she asked impishly, even as she vaporized a score of robots.

Diamondhead smiled. "I always miss you when you're gone." Then he fired shards of diamond from his hands to impale a dozen more spiders.

Further flirting was interrupted when Wonder Woman approached, kicking a spider into the air before saying, "Good job; surround them and close in."

"Hold on a second." Said Superman, as he used his x-ray vision to look underneath the main ship. To his shock, he saw tunnels leading through the mesa and leading straight to… "They're right under us!"

His words came too late, though, as hundreds of spiders jumped out from the ground. The heroes were surprised, but they'd spent months building up their teamwork, and looked out for each other. The ambush was thwarted, but not before the Javelin was covered in spiders and dragged underground. Diamondhead looked up at Ship, who'd been hovering over them, firing his weapons.

"Ship!" he yelled, "We can handle things on the ground; go to the air team and provide support!"

"SHIP!" the alien left to obey his friend's orders. It turned out that he didn't have to go far, because the air team had fallen back to aid the ground team. As one group, the League's power was devastating, especially against groups of weak enemies like the spiders. Long Shadow and Atom Smasher, both having grown hundreds of feet, were especially effective, able to crush a hundred robots with a single step or punch.

However, it still wasn't enough to stop the silver tide.

"Wonder Woman, can you hear me?" came the voice of General Eiling in Diana's ear, "I'm in the town of Goldhanger, two klicks from you; we're not going to get everyone out in time."

"You won't have to, General." Said the Martian, high above inside the Watchtower, "The Watchtower is now in stationary orbit over the sight; I am clearing the binary-fusion generator for firing."

"The what?"

"It converts our station's entire energy output into a single shot; it's a gun with the punch of a small nuclear weapon, General."

"You can't be serious!" Eiling was more than a little shocked; the League was going to use a weapon of mass destruction over American soil?

"We're very serious." Was the Martian's reply. "Now pull your men back. We can't hit the aliens directly, because it could scatter them for miles; so, we're going to burn a trench around them."

On the ground, Eiling ordered the men that had joined the League in combat to withdraw; the heroes themselves joined them soon after. It was a good idea, as a massive beam of energy fell from the heavens, carving a trench around the main ship, just past the line of spiders. The light was so bright; save for the heroes who had some sort of shielding over their eyes, everyone had to turn away, for fear of being blinded.

When the light faded, there was a fifty-foot wide, half-mile deep trench in the ground. Everyone present, even the heroes, who'd been briefed about the weapon, were left in awe. It was an incredible display of power.

…

Watchtower

The Martian looked around at the darkened station; use of the fusion cannon had temporarily disabled all systems onboard, save for life-support and a few other key systems. He looked at a panel, showing that there were 59 minutes left until the power came back online.

"An hour until we find out if it worked."

…

Nevada

When they had been told about the capability of Watchtower's effectiveness as a weapon, the League found its opinion divided; some didn't think it was a good idea, while others saw it as both a weapon of last resort and a deterrent against aggression. Personally, Ben was against the weapon; he didn't like how the founding members seemed so comfortable with having such a device, nor how confident they were that no one but them could use it. In Ben's mind, people tended to use a last-resort weapon as a first-resort; also, when someone was confident that something couldn't be used against them, that tended to be right when someone did just that.

Still, he couldn't help but feel that, in this case, using it had been the right call.

"That should buy us some time until they get the townspeople out," said Superman, "now I want to learn about these things." Using his x-ray and microscopic vision, he examined the spiders, which were now trapped at the top of the mesa, peering deep into their systems, looking for weak points to attack. At the center of each one was a purple and red core, suspended by black veins.

After looking at the main vessel and finding the same core, he said, "I think the main spacecraft is replicating; there's some sort of near-microscopic machine at the center of each one, a kind of… dark heart, building around itself."

Above, inside the Batwing, Batman thought about this. "We need Ray Palmer, in Boston. Superman, you'll get there fastest; get to him, explain the situation, and get his help."

Batman would have preferred to bring Ray Palmer, known to the League as The Atom, to the battle directly, but he'd broken his leg a few days ago while fighting a nanobot. All he'd be able to do would provide advice. They would have simply called him, but with the Watchtower temporarily down, so were their long-range communications; their communicators only had a 50-mile range without it.

"Good idea," said Superman. As he took off, he told the others, "Hold the line!"

…

Boston Hospital

Ray Palmer was lying in his hospital bed, mourning his fate of being given hospital-food, when he heard a commotion from outside his room. He sat up as Superman came in.

"Hello Superman," Ray said as he shook Superman's hand, "what brings you to Boston?"

"An omega-level situation."

Ray's eyes went wide. "Tell me everything."

…

Nevada, 1 Hour Later

As Batman made another strafing run, he noticed Superman's signal appear on his instruments. "Got an ETA yet?" he asked, "We need you!"

"Soon." Replied Superman, "How's the trench holding up?"

"What trench?" as Batman flew over the swarm of spiders, he glanced down at what was the trench. A few minutes after Superman had left, the spiders had spent a half-hour using their own bodies as a series of bridges, allowing their brethren to scurry across them. The League had destroyed the bridges several times, but they were swiftly rebuilt.

On the ground, many of the Leaguers were getting tired; Ben had had to pull back for a few minutes to allow the Ultimatrix to recharge. It was actually the first time he'd ever had to do that in a fight before.

The Batwing fired a pair of missiles, destroying a pack of spiders, before banking off. "That was the last of my useful armaments," Batman said, "I can't do anymore."

As he pulled away, several tiger-like robots burst through the ice and landed atop the Batwing; after securing themselves, they began to tear at the plane. Batman opened the cockpit and knocked a tiger off, then threw a pair of explosive batarangs, destroying two more. Only one was left, and it was inches from ripping off his face. In response, Batman pulled the eject-lever, launching himself out of the plane. Before he could get far, the last tiger fired lasers from its mouth, destroying his parachute. Now, Batman was in free-fall.

"Batman to all points," he said as he fell, "I could use some air-support. Since I can't fly. At all." He was only a hundred feet from the ground. "Now would be good."

At merely twenty feet from the ground, Batman was picked up by a familiar green alien.

"SHIP!"

"Find Wonder Woman and get us down." Ordered Batman.

The two landed next to Wonder Woman, Ben, now as Brainstorm, and Supergirl, who were fighting a pack of spiders just as Superman landed next to them.

"The spiders are forcing us back," Batman explained to Superman, "and the mothership is releasing mechanical attack-tiger to protect them. Tell me that The Atom gave you something useful."

"This is a losing battle," added Wonder Woman, "if we destroy one, the main vessel breeds three more!"

Superman nodded in understanding. "These things build copies of themselves, using whatever material is around; they'll only stop when everything is gone."

"It would be a probable implication that these monstrosities will not cease once they arrive at the trio of neighboring towns." Suggested Brainstorm.

Superman nodded again. "Right; they'll go coast-to-coast, then across the seabed. They'll use rock, metal, plastic, plant life…"

"People." Finished Batman.

"Yes, and destroying the spiders, or even damaging the main ship won't be enough; we'll have to shut down the core itself."

"Hmm," said Brainstorm, "I do believe that I have discovered a way to facilitate that option!"

"How are you going to do that, Ben?" asked Supergirl. In response, Brainstorm slapped the Ultimatrix dial.

"HEATBLAST!" the fiery alien looked at the others. "All I have to do is get close; once I do, I can get inside and take care of the core. Once I'm inside, I'll need Superman to guide me to the core, since I won't know where I'm going."

"Are you sure you can do this?" asked Wonder Woman.

Heatblast gave her a thumbs-up. "Nothing I haven't done before, I'll just need to be a lot smaller."

Batman nodded, then reached for his communicator. "All points, this is Batman; we have a new plan. We have to get Heatblast to the main vessel. Superman and Wonder Woman will get him there; half of us back them up. Everyone else: we draw a line here. No one is going to die because of us!" he turned to Heatblast. "Go!"

Heatblast nodded, then shot flames from his feet and launched into the air.

"Let's go to work." Said Superman as he, Wonder Woman and half of the Justice League joined him. As they smashed apart packs of spiders, Superman saw that they would soon be overwhelmed. "We need more cover!"

Batman destroyed a spider before reaching for his communicator. "Supergirl, Green Lantern: more air-support for Heatblast!"

Heatblast and the others had some of the pressure taken off when Supergirl and Green Lantern rained down heat-vision and energy blasts respectively. Heatblast gave a mock-salute, then continued on his way.

Batman was about to be overrun by dozens of spiders before Ship arrived, blasting them apart with a myriad of alien weaponry. Before Batman could order Ship elsewhere, the alien turned into a blob and enveloped the Dark Knight. After a moment, Batman stood in a green-and-black battlesuit. Just for his new pilot, Ship had added pointed ears to the helmet section, and a Bat-symbol on the chest.

After getting over his surprise, Batman let a small smile creep across his face as he turned to fight another pack of spiders. Two blades emerged from the forearms of the armor as he charged, slicing them apart as he ran.

Seeing victory so close, the other Leaguers pushed forward, putting all of their energy into one final counteroffensive. So great was their attack that the spiders were actually pushed back for a time.

As Heatblast's team approached the base of the mothership, a pair of attack-tigers emerged, pouncing on both Superman and Wonder Woman. The two were knocked down; Heatblast turned to help them.

"We're fine!" yelled Wonder Woman. "Take care of the core!"

Nodding, Heatblast flew towards the mothership; he was joined by Supergirl and Green Lantern a moment later. They eventually made it to a small opening in the ship; Supergirl could see that it was too small for even Grey Matter, so how was Ben going to get inside?

Heatblast slapped the Ultimatrix dial, and after a flash of green light, disappeared.

"Nanomech!" yelled a tiny voice.

"Ben?" asked Supergirl.

"Down here!" Supergirl looked down to see a tiny, silver-and-green cycloptic creature waving at her. He looked like an armored fairy.

Supergirl nodded. "Go!" she yelled, as she smashed another spider.

Without another word, Nanomech jumped into the belly of the beast.

…

After a few minutes of sliding down what could only be described as veins, Nanomech spread his wings and began searching for the core; with Superman in battle, and Supergirl not knowing what to look for, he was going to have to get lucky. Thankfully, he was, and after a few minutes of crawling through more veins, stumbled across the core of the Dark Heart, as the League now referred to it.

"I'm at the core." Said Nanomech into his communicator, not really knowing who was receiving, if anyone was at all.

"What's your status?" came Batman's voice from the Ultimatrix dial.

"I'm approaching the core and I-whoa!" Nanomech cried out as he tripped. As his hand slid across the floor, an image popped up next to him, slowly turning into some sort of documentary.

"What happened?" asked Batman.

"It looks like this thing carries its own history." Said Nanomech as the history played out. As he watched, he came to a realization. "Batman! This thing is actually a weapon!"

"What was your first clue?" said Batman sarcastically.

Nanomech explained as the images played out. "There were two planets at war; the Dark Heart's creators launched it at the other side." Nanomech's eye widened in horror at what he saw next. "It ate an entire planet. And then it kept going; it would reproduce, go to the next planet and reproduce again. It's possible that this war was fought across an entire galaxy." Then Nanomech looked at the code being played out at the bottom of the image. "But I think the war ended a long time ago; if I'm reading this right, the original ship is over fifty-thousand years old."

Nanomech saw a shadow behind him and dodged just in time to avoid several metal tendrils, covered in what was probably a very painful energy field. He kept dodging, but one of the tendrils slammed into him, knocking him under the Heart.

"ARGH!"

"Ben? BEN!?"

Nanomech stood shakily. "I'm okay, Batman, just a little stunned by the defenses. Okay, I'm gonna try to destroy this thing now." He raised his hands and fired bolts of green electricity at the Heart.

For a moment, the core flickered and dimmed. A slot opened in the side of the Heart, but then the systems went back to normal.

"Okay, what was that?" Nanomech walked over to the slot and discovered that it opened to the very heart of, well, the Heart. He must have triggered some sort of maintenance hatch. Shrugging at his apparent good fortune, he poured all of his power into the inner core. The Heart began to shake. Nanomech figured that he was like a reverse-defibrillator; instead of reviving a heart, he was killing it.

The veins holding up the Heart began to spasm, and the liquid inside them began to boil; some of them were even starting to leak. After another few seconds of sustained power from Nanomech, the Dark Heart exploded.

…

Outside, the battle was going badly; there wasn't a single Leaguer who wasn't injured, and some were on the verge of being killed by the overwhelming numbers. While Nanomech had been inside the ship, the spiders had been supported by much larger versions, dubbed mega-spiders, which went after the more powerful members, such as Long Shadow, Atom Smasher, Wonder Woman, Superman and Supergirl. All of those heroes were on the ground, weighed down by sheer numbers.

Wonder Woman in particular was barely keeping a bladed limb from impaling her face; the mega-spider lifted its leg for one more blow, when the Dark Heart erupted. Purple liquid flowed out of every orifice, and the structure itself seemed to sag. When it did so, the spiders, mega-spiders and attack-tigers all stopped; some froze, others flopped onto their sides, but the result was still the same.

The Justice League had won.

…

Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Ship (now in his normal form) and Supergirl approached the Dark Heart, searching for Ben. So far, they'd been unsuccessful; other Leaguers had offered to help, but aside from the five who were searching, everyone else was too injured to do much. After a while, the heroes were getting worried, especially Supergirl.

Another small stream of purple liquid began to pour out of the dead husk; Superman paid no attention to it at first, but then he noticed a ripple coming from the pool forming around the leak.

"There," he said, pointing, "is that…?"

Before their eyes, a familiar green light flashed, and they saw Ben Tennyson, covered in purple slime and looking weak, but very much alive. He glanced up and stared at them; they stared right back.

"That," he said after a moment, "was disgusting."

The Leaguers smiled and walked up to him; Supergirl, on the other hand, rushed forward and wrapped him up in a tight embrace.

"Kara! Air!"

"Sorry!"

…

A few hours later, Ben was fine, though he greatly desired a shower. The other members of the League were quick to congratulate and thank him after he told them what happened; after all, by destroying the Dark Heart, he'd saved all their lives as well.

As the Justice League recovered from their injuries, and Ben turned into Diamondhead, the Army arrived and began removing the dead robots and the Dark Heart itself. The process was overseen by General Eiling.

Superman approached him. "I don't suppose you need any help destroying that. Wouldn't want that technology falling into the wrong hands."

"We could learn a lot from this." said Eiling, "It almost beat the Justice League, after all."

"Why would you need something to do that, General?" asked Wonder Woman, her arms folded over her chest.

"Oh, I don't know," said Eiling, "maybe because it turns out that the Justice League has had a secret, space-based weapon of mass-destruction all along." He glared at her. "And we're going to be talking about that soon, believe me." He saluted. "Ma'am." Then he got onto a helicopter and left, just as the Justice League was gathering together.

"Amazing," commented Green Arrow, "show him weapon that destroys everything it sees, and he wants to play with it." He turned to Diamondhead. "What's to stop history from repeating itself right here on Earth?"

Diamondhead gave him a determined look. "We are."

…

San Francisco

Ben sat on his couch, relaxing after a long day of saving the world; like the rest of the League, he was wiped out. Considering what had happened just a few hours earlier, the League had been given a mandatory three days off. Anyone who'd been seriously hurt during the battle had been given a longer vacation, but Ben was just glad to have a few days without being a superhero.

He was about to doze off when he heard a knock at his door. Suppressing a groan, he dragged himself over to his door and opened it. He was surprised to see his girlfriend standing there.

"Kara?" he asked, "What's up?"

Kara shrugged. "I don't know; I guess, after today, I just wanted to spend some time with you."

Ben smiled. "Sure, come on in."

They both walked over to the couch and sat down heavily; Ben stretched out his arms, while Kara pulled her legs close to her chest and leaned into Ben's side. Ben wrapped his arm around her, and the two just sat there. Neither said anything for a while.

"I was worried about you." Said Kara.

Ben looked at her. "And I was worried about you, too, but danger is part of the job."

Kara nodded, but still looked upset. "I know, but still… I lost my whole world once; I don't want to lose anyone else that I care about."

Ben tilted her face towards his and gave her a gentle kiss. "You won't."

While Kara enjoyed the kiss, she wasn't convinced. "How can you know that?"

Ben smiled. "Look at it this way: You're practically indestructible, and I've got more powers than the entire League put together. I think we can handle ourselves, and we can take care of those who can't."

Kara felt a little better, but she didn't want to let her boyfriend out of her sight for at least the next couple of days.

"Can I stay here for a couple of days?" she asked as she closed her eyes.

Ben would have been a little shocked at Kara's request, had he not known that she just needed to be with him; it had been a close call today, after all.

"Sure thing, Kara." Ben then thought of something. "Uh, what about Clark?"

Kara smiled, even as she felt more tired. "Don't worry Ben… he knows, and he said… he'd bring my stuff over… tomorrow morning."

Ben smile returned, even as his own eyes became heavy. "Okay, Kara, good night; I love you."

Then both of them realized what Ben had said, and they returned to full wakefulness; neither had ever actually said the words I love you to the other; it was a step in their relationship that they hadn't taken yet.

"What did you say?" asked a wide-eyed Kara, as if she couldn't believe what she'd heard.

Ben, equally wide-eyed, looked back at her. "I. Love. You." He said slowly.

A tender smile spread over Kara's face as she snuggled back into Ben's side. "I love you, too." She whispered.

Both fell asleep soon after, happy being in each other's arms, and in each other's hearts.

Like I said, I love this episode. It showed how dedicated the League is, willing to do anything to keep the people of Earth safe. That being said, that sort of dedication could lead to them going "Justice Lord" on us, which is a scary freaking thought. You might be wondering why the Atom was in the hospital; if he wasn't, he would have done exactly what he did in the episode, and Ben would have been given a much smaller role, so I had to shunt Atom to the side, while still giving him a way to contribute, especially since I removed him entirely from "Return".

Once again, Ben and Kara's relationship has taken a new step forward; it might be moving along a little fast, but superhero relationships probably move faster than normal ones, considering their next mission could be their last. It's a "life is short" thing.

Next chapter brings back a couple of old friends and a bit of sadness. Thankfully, though, it isn't like what happened the last time.

Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Super-Muffin!