BEN 10 DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. NOW, IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME, THERE'S A TOASTER SHOOTING BURNT TOAST AT ME, AND I'VE ONLY GOT ONE SHELL LEFT IN MY SHOTGUN… OKAY, GOT IT.

I'd like to thank all of you for the overwhelming amount of positive feedback from all of you; you are the reason that I keep going!

In this chapter, all hell will break loose, so bring an umbrella, bubble-shield, or whatever protection you might need, 'cause ****'s about to get real.

Ben 10: Unlimited

Chapter 22

Closure, Part 2

Declaration of War

Bellwood, Plumber HQ

Throughout the sprawling Plumber base, controlled chaos was the order of the hour; technicians ran to various stations, typing furiously at computers, while other Plumbers were speaking to other divisions across the universe. It had been a long time since the peacekeeping force was this frantic, but it was for a good reason; one of the most dangerous beings in the universe, Vilgax, had escaped his prison.

And he was headed to Earth.

At the center of it all, the heads of Earth's Plumber division listened as Rook Blonko, a junior Plumber agent, recounted once again all the information he had regarding Vilgax's escape from the Null Void; they hoped that there might be something useful that they had overlooked.

Out of the hundreds of people in the base, only two didn't move; one was Kara Zor-El Kent, who was standing next to the other, her boyfriend, Ben Tennyson. Since he'd heard that Vilgax had escaped, he'd only sat in his chair, staring at the floor. Nothing Kara could do could snap him out of it, and she had no idea who this Vilgax was. Finally, she'd dragged Jimmy Jones off to the side and demanded to know what was going on.

"Ben never told you?" Jimmy had asked, "He never told you just who killed his family?"

To his surprise, Kara told him no; Ben had never told anyone the name Vilgax before, not in all of the stories he'd told about his past adventures. Kara had once asked about the person that had killed Ben's family; when she did, Ben had frozen for a full minute, then simply shook his head.

"Please don't ask me that again," he'd whispered to her.

Jimmy went on to talk about how Vilgax had been Ben's first real archenemy; how it had been his ship that attacked the one carrying the Omnitrix. Without Vilgax, Ben would never have become a superhero, but his family would have still been alive. Jimmy also gave Kara a brief summary of a few of Ben's encounters with the alien warlord, each of which Ben had only barely survived.

When Vilgax had murdered Ben's family, Ben had nearly lost it; according to Jimmy, who'd only seen a part of the fight from a recording, Ben had used some of his most powerful aliens to beat Vilgax within an inch of his life. The only reason Vilgax had survived to be locked up was because the Ultimatrix had deactivated, needing to recharge after so many consecutive transformations.

The day afterwards, Ben had vanished.

Now, Ben was staring at the floor. At first, Kara had thought she was going to see that awful blank look on his face, but the reality was far worse; Ben's expression was turning into something she'd never seen before.

Absolute hatred.

Kara had seen people mad before; whenever someone mentioned Darkseid near Superman, she saw a flicker of anger cross his face, followed by whatever he was holding to suddenly shatter. Ben, however, looked even more frightening than an angry Superman.

Snapping back to the present, Kara noticed the Plumber officers walking away from Rook and whispering to each other; sadly for them, it was very hard to keep secrets from someone with super-hearing.

"So Vilgax had an army stashed away, right under his homeworld?" Manny asked, "How did we miss that?"

"We never even looked," Cooper admitted, "because Vilgax's people never did anything wrong; Vilgax has never placed his own people on the front line, only robots. Since his people as a society had never done anything, we weren't allowed to search the planet."

"Well, that's stupid," Manny groused.

"What is Vilgax going to do with that army?" Alan asked.

"What else?" Helen responded, "He's going to come for Earth." She turned to Jimmy, "Do we have any responses from our allies?"

Jimmy sighed. "I've got messages from the Galvan and the Highbreed; both are sending support, but they won't be able to intercept Vilgax's armada. At top speed, they'll be here in three days; until then, we're on our own."

"What can we do to help?" Kara asked, marching up to the Plumbers.

Cooper smiled. "If you're even half as powerful as Verdona said you are, you'll definitely be able to help fight off Vilgax's troops." He glanced over Kara's shoulder. "What about Ben?"

Finally, Ben's head snapped up, his eyes blazing in fury. "Don't worry about me; just tell me when that ugly freak gets here, so I can crush him with Way Big."

The others took an unconscious step back, trying to get away from Ben's wrath.

"Ben," Kara said gently, like she was speaking to a frightened animal, "you need to calm down; I can tell that you aren't thinking clearly and…"

"I am thinking clearly!" Ben snapped, "I know exactly what I'm going to do; Vilgax is going to come here, I'm going to destroy his robots, then I'm going to do the same to him!" He whirled to face Jimmy. "When is he going to get here?"

Jimmy glanced at a computer screen. "The lead element of his forces should be here within the hour; as for Vilgax himself…" he trailed off with a shrug.

Ben's eyes narrowed. "Good enough for me; tell me where they're going to land, and I'll head them off. Until then, I'll be waiting outside."

He began to walk away, but felt a hand on his shoulder. He glanced behind him to see Kara with a worried expression on her face. For a moment, Ben paused, then angrily shook her hand off and left.

Ship, who had remained quiet until now, crawled over to Kara and gently rubbed his head against her leg.

"Ship, ship?" he asked in a worried tone. Kara picked him up and held him close.

"I don't know," she told him, "but I think things might get worse before they get better."

…

Just Outside the Sol System

Vilgax sat, brooding, on his command throne aboard his flagship. His vessel was over a mile long, covered in orange plates of metal and red, almost organic-looking, spheres. The ship looked like it promised nothing but total annihilation, and it could make good on that promise. The vessel could level a continent on its own; sadly, for any who dared challenge Vilgax, it wasn't alone. Surrounding the ship were over three hundred other vessels; they were scaled-down versions of the flagship, each was only about half a mile in length.

The warlord himself was just as threatening; at over forty feet tall, and almost ten feet wide, Vilgax was a hulking brute of green muscle and red armor. His bare arms were threaded with red veins, and dotted with small cylinders; these implants could boost his already formidable strength to nearly unimaginable levels. His head was very similar to that of an Earth squid; it was covered in tentacles from about halfway down the skull. His mouth was covered by a large gas mask; the only part of his face that revealed any emotion was his eyes, which stared at an image of Earth with malice and hate.

"Finally," he rumbled, his voice deep enough to make the entire bridge vibrate, "the time of my vengeance has come."

The sound of footsteps behind him caused him to glance over, his eyes the only thing making any movements.

"Indeed, my master; soon, the humans will pay for their affront to you!"

The figure in question was not a member of Vilgax's species; while he had done many heinous things, he had never put his own people anywhere near battle. The alien that was now bowing in his direction was small, about the size of a human, with paper-white skin, sharp teeth, and a large crest that rose up from the top of his head. His body was covered in black leather and strips of armor.

"Is the project ready, Psyphon?" Vilgax finally turned his head to look his chief scientist and chief lieutenant. While Psyphon was only a toady, Vilgax would still be in the Null Void if it wasn't for Psyphon's technology, and thus, he was invaluable, though his sycophantic nature could get grating at times.

Psyphon nodded, a sadistic gleam in his eyes. "Indeed, master; Tennyson will not know what hit him."

Vilgax looked away, back to the image of Earth, thinking about the Tennyson boy. Ever since he'd first encountered the human, his plans had been set back time and again. Each time, fate conspired to give the human a chance, usually by unlocking a new alien in the Ultimatrix.

After his escape from the Null Void, Vilgax had heard that Ben Tennyson had gone missing shortly after his imprisonment. He didn't believe that his foe was dead, however. He couldn't be dead; Vilgax's revenge wouldn't be complete otherwise. Still, the human had been missing for almost three years, along with the Ultimatrix.

He growled softly; the Omnitrix, and later, the Ultimatrix was the only reason Tennyson had survived as many times as he had. Now, however, he had a plan to remove that obstacle.

"When will the vanguard arrive?"

Psyphon bowed again. "They will reach orbit in twenty minutes, master."

"Instruct them to begin their assault as soon as they hit the atmosphere."

"Where shall they strike, master?"

If it wasn't for the mask, Psyphon would have seen a sick smile cross his master's face.

"Keep Earth's greatest defenses contained; tell them to target Bellwood."

…

Bellwood

Ben stood outside Plumber HQ, staring up at the sky; it was almost completely dark, the sun only giving a slight glow in the distance as it set.

He'd been waiting for what seemed like forever, even though he knew that it had only been about twenty minutes. He knew that it was against every moral he'd been raised with, but he wanted revenge. The last time, pure chance had prevented him from killing Vilgax; the murdering freak wouldn't get away this time.

"It's not healthy to think about revenge, Ben." Ben turned to see the speaker, Professor Paradox.

"What do you want, Paradox?" Ben snarled, though inwardly, he sighed; he should have known the time-walker would show up eventually. "Here to try to talk me out of this?"

Paradox shook his head sadly. "That would be a waste of time; I know that you will continue on this path, regardless of what I or anyone else says."

"Then why are you here?"

"If I cannot prevent you from doing this, the least I can do is try to minimize the damage." Paradox put his hand on Ben's shoulder. "Be careful, Ben; that is all I can say."

Before Ben could respond, the Ultimatrix began to beep; Ben raised it up to his face. "What?"

"Ben, Vilgax's forces are on the move," came Jimmy's voice, "they'll be hitting the ground in five minutes; Supergirl and the Ultimen are going to back you up, while the rest of us work on getting civilians out of here. Do you mind if we borrow Ship for that?"

"Fine, whatever," Ben said dismissively, as he turned to the direction of dozens of falling objects, "just tell them to meet me there."

He turned around to say something to Paradox, but the time-traveler had vanished. Ben shrugged; he didn't have time to think about Paradox.

There was a war to fight.

…

Supergirl, now in costume, flew across the streets of Bellwood, towards the sound of battle, the Ultimen, rejoined by Long Shadow, hot on her heels. Shifter looked at her teammates nervously.

"Do you think Ben's all right?" she asked, "I mean, he seemed really upset."

"Wouldn't you be?" Wind Dragon asked, "I mean, I know that I'd be ticked off if the person who killed everyone I loved suddenly broke out of prison."

Further conversation was halted when a large beam of red energy forced them to scatter. Long Shadow looked for the source, and found a large, orange robot marching towards them. It was over twenty feet tall, with a thin, straight body that was supported by three legs. The arms were large at the forearms, ended in claws with an underslung cannon, one of which was still smoking from the recent discharge. Its head was insectoid, with large red eyes staring at them balefully.

The robot raised its other arm to fire again, but Supergirl was faster, slicing off the arm with her heat-vision, before freezing it solid with her arctic breath. Long Shadow grew to fifty feet tall, then shattered it into pieces with one massive blow.

"Well," said a smiling Downpour, "that wasn't so hard."

"Remember what Jimmy said?" Wind Dragon reminded, "Vilgax's fleet could have tens of thousands of these things; we're not even close to done yet."

Before a sheepish Downpour could reply, another robot fell over, with Wildmutt ripping the weak part of its throat out. Despite it only being a robot, the others were a little shocked at how brutally Ben had ended it.

Wildmutt's sonar detected a dozen of Vilgax's foot soldiers headed his way; the humanoid robots were only about four feet tall, and were very easy to destroy, but there were always a lot of them, and they had fairly powerful guns. Snarling, Wildmutt twisted the Ultimatrix dial, then slapped it. His fur grew red, while his claws grew bigger; a tail with a sharp talon on the end grew, while his body nearly doubled in size.

"ULTIMATE WILDMUTT!" he roared.

Supergirl blinked; she didn't know that Wildmutt had an Ultimate form, nor did she know that it could talk. Ben was still full of surprises.

Before she could say anything, Ultimate Wildmutt dashed across the street, tackling one robot soldier while simultaneously decapitating another with his tail-blade. Without missing a beat, Ultimate Wildmutt barreled into the rest of the robots, ripping them apart with ease.

"You guys just gonna stand there," Ultimate Wildmutt demanded, "or are you gonna fight!?"

Snapping out of their stupor, the other heroes charged in, the Ultimen laying waste to another squad of robots, while Supergirl destroyed a pair of the larger ones. In a few more minutes, the entire block was silent, save for the sparking sound from the trashed machines. Ultimate Wildmutt slapped the Ultimatrix dial, turning back into Wildmutt, then back into Ben.

"You know," Supergirl said, trying to lighten the mood, "you could have just turned into Lodestar and… um…" she trailed off at the glare Ben was giving her.

Without saying anything, Ben marched past them and up to the severed head of one of the larger robots; it was then that Supergirl realized that Ben had been glaring at the robot, not her. Still, it didn't make her feel much better.

Ben examined the robot head for a moment, then turned into Grey Matter and climbed inside. After a few minutes, the little alien climbed back out and turned back into Ben.

"Ben," said Wind Dragon tentatively, "what did you do?"

"Wait for it," Ben said, "just wait."

After a few more seconds, a light began to shine out one of the robot's eyes; the others readied themselves for a trap, but relaxed at a gesture from Ben. The light soon materialized into a life-sized hologram of Vilgax, who stared down at the heroes.

"Ben Tennyson," the warlord growled, "so the rumors are true; you have returned."

"Yeah, I'm back," said Ben, "and I'm here to end you."

Vilgax laughed. "What will you do, boy? Lock me up in the Null Void again? After all, it's what your grandfather would do."

"Grandpa Max is dead because of you!" Ben roared, his outburst even making Vilgax pause for a moment. "My parents are dead, my aunt and uncle are dead, my cousin, best friend, and my girlfriend are dead, all because of you!" Ben took a deep breath. "Enjoy the time you have, Vilgax, because you don't have much of it left."

Vilgax eyed Ben with a strange look in his eye. "Do you think that you can kill me, child? Very well; I will make planetfall in one of your hours. We will settle it then; shall we use the rules of the Hero's Challenge?"

The Hero's Challenge was a rule in the universe that stated that two champions would fight each other. If the invading champion won, he and his forces would be allowed to invade a planet unimpeded; if the defender won, the attacker and his forces would leave forever. Vilgax had used that rule to conquer ten solar systems.

"No," Ben growled, "we won't. The two of us will fight, and only one will walk away; and let me tell you a little secret, Vilgax. It's not going to be you."

Ben punctuated his statement by turning into Humongosaur and crushing the robot head. He turned to the other heroes.

"Ben, are you sure about this?" Long Shadow asked, "I mean, you're talking about killing this guy; I thought you wouldn't cross that line?"

Humongosaur barely looked at him. "If I only have one death caused by my own hands on my conscience, so be it; Vilgax is going down."

…

One Hour Later

There was still work to do before Ben's fight with Vilgax; plenty of robots patrolled the streets, looking for humans to destroy. Instead, they found Supergirl and the Ultimen, ready for battle; the machines weren't built to fight powerful metahumans like them, and were taken down easily. Ben, meanwhile, was letting the Ultimatrix completely recharge, while he waited for Vilgax at the one place that he thought he would show up.

The ruins of his house.

As he waited, Ben's mind went back to memories of his friends and family: his adventures over that first summer, meeting, then fighting, then befriending Kevin, that first date with Julie; all of those memories led back to one thing.

Their deaths.

Ben remembered the last time that he'd seen them; Julie had just arrived, and was hugging Ben's mom, while Gwen and Kevin nervously spoke to Gwen's parents about the couple moving in together at Kevin's new apartment. Grandpa Max was in the kitchen, making some sort of grasshopper stew; Ben had been grateful that a robbery was in the works, because it gave him an excuse to get some real food once he was done.

If he had known that that was the last time he'd ever see them alive… Ben shook his head; he needed to get back into the here and now, or Vilgax would walk all over him. He glanced up to see Supergirl and the Ultimen heading towards him, having finished destroying the robots, and felt a pang of guilt; he'd been terrible to them, and he resolved to apologize once this was all over.

Supergirl landed in front of him. "Ben, is there any way I can stop you from doing this?" she couldn't bear the thought of Ben staining his soul with murder.

Ben grimly shook his head. "I have to do this, Kara; I can't let Vilgax just get away with what he did."

"I'm not saying you should," Supergirl said, "but is killing him the only option?"

Ben's eyes narrowed. "He's been sentenced before, and he still ends up in the Null Void; there isn't a point anymore."

Supergirl shook her head. "I'm sure a lot of people have said something similar about the Joker." The psychotic clown was guilty of dozens, if not hundreds of murders, yet he was still alive. Ironically, it was because of his psychosis that he wasn't executed; they couldn't give an insane man the death penalty.

"Joker is crazy," Ben argued, "Vilgax isn't; he knows what he's doing, and he chooses to do it. And now, I choose to end him." Still, a part of him, a growing part, was disgusted with himself; could he step on everything that he'd been taught to believe in?

"Please, Ben," Supergirl pleaded, taking his hand in hers, "don't do something you'll regret."

Ben sighed, his desire to kill Vilgax suddenly wavering. "Look, I don't know what I'll do; I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."

Before they could continue, Wind Dragon pointed up at the sky. "Look out!"

The heroes scattered, Supergirl pulling Ben into the air, as a large sphere, pitch-black and covered in spikes, landed where they had been standing, making a large crater on impact. As the heroes regrouped, the sphere opened up with a hiss, and Vilgax stepped out. The warlord looked at the Ultimen and Supergirl, before resting his eyes on Ben.

"Tennyson."Vilgax spoke the name like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Vilgax." Ben said the name with equal venom.

"Tell your minions to step back,"Vilgax demanded, "so that we may finish what we started years ago!"

"Fine by me." Ben turned to the others. "Back up; he's mine."

The Ultimen began to move away, but Supergirl stayed.

"Kara, I don't want to argue with you right now."

"I'm not going to argue, Ben." Supergirl stared into Ben's eyes, inwardly smiling at the conflict that she could see going on in his mind; she'd reached the kind, caring part of him that had been buried by rage.

The part of him that was a hero.

Supergirl gave him a quick hug, and whispered into his ear, "Just be careful."

Remembering Paradox's words from earlier, Ben nodded, then turned back to Vilgax; as Supergirl flew back to join the Ultimen, the warlord threw a silver cylinder into the air that divided into eight disks. The disks spread apart, then generated a large, black rectangle, one hundred feet tall and wide that blocked the combatants from the outside.

"Hey!" Supergirl flew back towards the rectangle, trying to see through it, but not even her x-ray vision could pierce it, and her super-hearing couldn't make out a single sound. Frustrated, Supergirl fired a blast of heat-vision, Ben's request to not interfere be damned.

Instead of shattering the rectangle, or even piercing it, the heat-vision was absorbed! Before Supergirl could process this, a blast of black energy arced outward and slammed into her. She cried out in pain as she hit the ground.

"Supergirl!" Long Shadow ran up and helped her into a sitting position. "Are you all right?"

"Ugh," Supergirl moaned, rubbing her head, "whatever that thing is, it hit me with at least double what I hit it with!"

Long Shadow stood up, glaring at the energy-field as if it was offending him. "Maybe we need a… cruder approach."

Long Shadow grew to fifty feet tall, and slammed a tank-sized fist into the field; at first, nothing happened, but then Long Shadow was thrown back with a cry of pain. He shrunk down to normal size, nursing his now-broken arm. As the Ultimen ran up to their teammate, Supergirl stared at the field in worry.

Ben was on his own.

…

On the inside of the field, Ben watched as first Supergirl, then Long Shadow was thrown into the dirt. He couldn't communicate with them, and they couldn't see him. Behind him, Vilgax chuckled evilly.

"A little toy, courtesy of Psyphon," he explained, "the field takes any force, kinetic or energy-based, and redirects them at the attacker with double the force."

Ben glared at him. "Well, that's just one more reason to kick your butt, isn't it?"

Vilgax began to pace. "You have no idea how much I've wanted this, Tennyson. Over two years of imprisonment, of humiliation!"

"It's the least you deserve," Ben snapped back.

Vilgax stopped pacing. "Of course, I did take solace in one thing." Ben didn't have x-ray vision, but he knew that Vilgax had a giant, evil grin on his face. "Remembering the expressions of horror and pain, as I killed everyone you held dear!"

Ben saw red. "Enough!" he activated the Ultimatrix, "I'll kill you!"

Just as Ben was about to slam down the dial, Vilgax pulled a small black orb and hurled it like a grenade. When it landed at Ben's feet, bright red arcs of energy went everywhere, causing Ben to shield his eyes; when the light faded, he found himself unharmed.

"Well, it looks like only one of your toys is working today, huh, squid-head?" with a smug look, Ben slammed down the dial.

And nothing happened.

Eyes wide with shock, Ben tried activating the Ultimatrix again and again, but it didn't work. It wasn't like when he was ten, and got a red light over the Omnitrix; to Ben's eye, the Ultimatrix was dead!

"It appears that both toys are working, Tennyson." Vilgax stomped over to Ben, towering over the human. "It's called the Neutralizer; it was designed specifically to permanently disable the Ultimatrix."

Ben's eyes widened in fear, as Vilgax reached out towards him.

"Fear not, Ben Tennyson," Vilgax said, as he drew back his fist, "I shall not kill you; no, I shall break you, leaving just enough of you alive to see me put this entire world, and everyone on it, to the torch."

…

The Watchtower

"Thank you, world," said Flash, as he leaned back in his chair in the cafeteria, "for finally giving us a break!"

Wonder Woman shook her head. "Flash, try to remember that it's our duty to protect the world; don't complain."

"Come on, Diana," Green Lantern said, as he also leaned back, "we've been working nonstop for most of the day; let the guy relax for a minute!"

Wonder Woman sighed, even as she felt herself relaxing. Green Lantern was right; after such a long day of fighting crime and saving lives, the Justice League suddenly found itself with nothing to do. It was as if the world had unleashed all of its problems for the week into one day. Now, the League was taking some much-needed downtime, but no one was leaving the Watchtower, for fear that something might happen if they let their guard down completely.

Maybe Batman's paranoia was rubbing off on them all.

"All founding members," came J'onn's voice over the PA, "report to the conference room immediately."

Wonder Woman and Green Lantern sighed, while Flash put his head onto the table with a loud thunk.

"Sometimes," the speedster groaned, "I hate my job."

…

A few minutes later, the founding members were assembled, save for J'onn, but none of them knew why they were needed here. When the Martian finally came into the room, the others were surprised at who was with him.

"Hello, all," said Professor Paradox, "it's good to see you all again; or is this the first time we've met? I can get so confused sometimes."

"Paradox?" Green Lantern asked, confused, "What are you doing here?"

While all of the Leaguers knew of Professor Paradox, thanks to stories from Ben, only Green Lantern and Batman actually remembered meeting him. Thanks to Ben, however, they knew that Paradox only showed up when something major was about to happen.

"Ah, well, Mr. Stewart," Paradox suddenly grew grim, "Ben is in danger; in fact, his Earth, his entire universe is in danger."

"What do you mean?" a concerned Superman spoke up, "What happened?"

Paradox spent a few minutes summarizing all that had happened in Ben's universe, ending when Paradox tried to warn Ben.

"I'm afraid there are certain events that I am unable to interfere in," Paradox admitted, "but while I cannot interfere with Ben personally, I can send you all to Ben's universe to assist him."

"Wait a sec," Shayera said, "how is this Vilgax guy a threat to an entire universe?"

Paradox sighed. "Vilgax's armies are nearly infinite; had he not been so fixated, and subsequently stopped by young Ben, he would have taken over several galaxies at this point."

Shayera stared at him. "Oh," was her eloquent response.

"Well, of course we'll help out ," said Flash, "but I don't know how much good some of us are going to be right now; we're kinda beat."

Paradox smiled. "Not to worry." He snapped his fingers and the Leaguers shielded their eyes from a blue flash of light. When it faded, so did the heroes' fatigue; it was as if they'd taken a week off, and were now fully rested!

"What did you do?" Batman asked suspiciously.

Paradox shrugged. "I reversed time around your bodies, bringing you back to the condition you were in before you were tired."

The heroes stared at the man; he'd just told them that he'd altered reality around them like it was no trouble at all! Then again, it probably was for him.

"Now then," Paradox said cheerfully, "are you ready to go?"

The Leaguers looked at each other, then nodded as one; they weren't going to just ignore a fellow Leaguer in danger, nor would they ignore a threat to an entire universe.

"Let's do this," Superman said.

"Wonderful!" Paradox smiled, then pulled out a gold pocket watch. In another flash of blue light, the eight Leaguers disappeared.

…

Bellwood

Supergirl saw a flash of blue light out of the corner of her eye, and spun around to see the seven founding members of the League, plus a man with black hair, goggles around his neck and a white lab coat.

"Supergirl!" Superman flew over to her, "Are you okay?"

Supergirl nodded. "I'm all right, but Long Shadow's hurt."

While Wonder Woman took a look at Long Shadow, the other Leaguer examined the energy-field.

"My ring can't find a weakness," Green Lantern said, after scanning the field, "we're gonna have to wait for someone to open it from the inside."

As if on cue, the field began to fade, then disappear entirely; the heroes began to move forward, hoping that Ben was all right.

Their hopes were dashed by the horrible sight in front of them.

Ben Tennyson hung limply from Vilgax's clawed hand; in fact, the only reason that they even knew it was Ben was from the tattered green jacket that he wore. His body was covered in wounds, his face slashed apart, and it looked like both of his legs were broken.

The worst injury, however, was his left arm. Batman, as he was analyzing Ben's injuries, was amazed that it was still attached to the rest of him. Ben's arm was crushed and mangled; the Ultimatrix was shattered, tiny pieces of it falling to the ground.

Vilgax laughed triumphantly and hurled Ben's limp body at the heroes, where he was caught by a large pillow, created by Green Lantern's ring.

"Ben Tennyson has fallen," Vilgax roared, "this world, this entire universe, is mine!"

…

Please don't kill me.

Okay, so Ben's pretty messed up right now, but please don't hate me! *Dodges rock*

At least I didn't make Ben relive his family's death again! *Dodges arrow*

I know that I made Vilgax kind of overpowered, but I needed something that could take down the Ultimatrix; since Psyphon created a device that could steal power from a Lovecraftian GOD, I'm pretty sure that he could create a device that could wreck the Ultimatrix.

It'll get better, I promise! *Dodges RPG*

Next time, on Ben 10: Unlimited

Familiar faces, the Justice League goes to war, an Ultimate decision!

I'm the best at what I do, and what I do is make muffins.