BEN 10 DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. JUSTICE LEAGUE DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. MY THERAPIST SAYS THAT THE POWER OF A GOD DOES NOT BELONG TO ME, BUT I KNOW BETTER.
Just a heads-up, I'm changing the order of chapters around a little, mostly because if I don't address what Ben did last chapter, you will all murder me. Besides, this chapter is a filler, so it doesn't affect the arc.
Something I'd like to define: In my stories, I have two types of "worlds". There are universes, like Ben's universe and the DC universe. Then there are timelines, which are just the infinite possibilities that may happen in a given universe, like seeing Ben 10,000 and Ultimate Ben.
One more thing; the Legion of Superheroes look the way they do in their own show, not from the JLU episode. They looked kind of lazily drawn in JLU.
Ben 10: Unlimited
Chapter 26
Far From Home
The Fortress of Solitude
Superman sat back in his chair, staring at Ben Tennyson, his eyes wide with shock. Ben had just asked for his permission to marry his cousin, Kara, and was now waiting for his response. Lois Lane, who'd been standing next to him, gently poked him, trying to get him out of his stupor.
"Smallville," she whispered, "say something."
Superman blinked several times, then looked at Ben closely; the young man looked nervous, but at the same time, had a look of resolve in his eyes that said he truly meant to propose to Kara. As protective as he could be of his cousin at times, Superman had very high standards for anyone who'd wanted to date her. Ben, however, was everything he could hope for his cousin; he was responsible, caring, and willing to do anything to help people.
How could he say anything but…
"Yes," he said, smiling.
Ben's face lit up. "Really?"
"However," Superman said, standing up, "I have two conditions."
"And those would be?" Ben asked nervously, as Lois looked at Superman suspiciously.
What are you gonna say, Smallville? She thought.
"First," Superman said, "you'll wait until Kara's twenty-one before you propose; that's next month, so I don't see a problem there."
"Sure," Ben agreed, "and what's the other condition?"
Superman grinned. "I get to be the best man."
Ben smiled back; he'd been planning to ask Clark to be his best man from the beginning.
"No problem."
Superman walked up to him and wrapped him in a bear hug. "Then let me say, welcome to the family."
Lois smiled, trying to subtly wipe away a tear; she normally wasn't terribly affected by such sentimental stuff but, once Ben had told her the story of how he'd ended up in their universe, she was so happy that he could find such happiness. She moved up and, after Superman let him go, gave Ben a hug of her own.
"Of course," she whispered into his ear, "you not only have to get a ring, but you have to find a way to keep it hidden from a girl with x-ray vision."
Ben looked at her for a moment, then slapped his forehead.
"Didn't think that part through, did you?" asked Lois, laughing.
"No," Ben moaned.
"Don't worry," Superman said, "you've got time to figure it out."
…
Alternate Timeline, New Metropolis, the Year 3,000
Inside of their base, the Legion of Superheroes were in dire straits; their greatest enemies had escaped prison, and they didn't have the manpower to stop them this time.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" asked Phantom Girl, a young woman who wore a formfitting outfit of black and white, as well as a long white cape.
The person at whom she'd directed her question stood up. He was a mechanical being, with his face and hands covered in green "skin". The rest of his body was covered in purple armor. His blond hair poked out in uneven spikes, which failed to conceal the three circles in a triangular pattern on his forehead.
"I am a twelfth-level intellect," Brainiac 5 responded archly, "I know what I am doing."
"Okay, okay," Phantom Girl said, holding up her hands defensively, "I get that you're smart, but we've never done anything like this before."
"The Fatal Five have us at a disadvantage," Brainiac 5 said, "and with so few of us available, we must seek out allies from another timeline."
"Why can't we just take heroes from our timeline?" asked a confused Phantom Girl.
"Because if we did that, we'd alter our own history," Brainiac 5 explained, "but getting assistance from a separate timeline won't change anything in either."
"Oh," Phantom Girl seemed satisfied with that answer, as Brainiac 5 resumed his work.
"Now please leave," he said, "I have to get this to work correctly, and we don't have much time left."
…
Watchtower, 1 Month Later
"You think she's ready?" Green Arrow asked as he, Ben and Superman sat in the control room for the station's training area. Below them, Supergirl waved, signaling that she was ready.
"She's been practicing for this for a while," Superman replied, "I'm sure she'll do fine."
Ben only nodded, confident in Supergirl's skills. What she was about to attempt was rarely done by anyone in the League. The training room was going to send waves upon waves of hard-light constructs of supervillains at her, and her objective was to defeat each successive group. So far, only Superman, Wonder Woman and Ben had actually succeeded at beating the five waves needed to pass. Supergirl was hoping to be the fourth.
From an opening in the floor came three Z-8 combat robots; each one was surrounded by a flash of light, before turning into Queen Bee, Dr. Cyber and Silver Banshee. Supergirl grinned and cracked her knuckles; she rocketed forward, punching Queen Bee in the face.
"She seems pretty cocky," Green Arrow commented.
"It's not like those three are that big a threat," Ben replied, "of all of them, Silver Banshee might be the biggest threat, and she's…"
Ben stopped when the robot Silver Banshee was decapitated by Supergirl.
"No longer a problem?" Green Arrow finished; Ben nodded.
"Speaking of problems," Superman said, as the next wave of robots entered the room, "how have you been keeping the ring a secret?"
A week earlier, Ben had gone shopping for an engagement ring, but had needed a way to keep it away from Kara's x-ray vision. He'd ended up taking a piece of lead and shaping it into a ring case, and made sure to never mention it or his upcoming proposal out loud, unless he was in a sound-proofed room like this one.
Ben grinned. "If she does know, she's not letting on."
"So, when are you gonna pop the question?" Green Arrow asked; he was one of the only people besides Superman who knew what Ben had planned, and Ben had only been able to tell him via text-message.
"I was actually thinking about tonight," Ben admitted, as he pulled the ring case from his pocket, "when we went out with you and Dinah for Kara's birthday."
"Really?" Green Arrow clapped Ben on the shoulder. "Guess Dinah and I get to be witnesses, huh?"
"Speaking of Kara," Superman said, pointing at the training room, "she's on the last wave."
"Already?" Sure enough, Supergirl was standing over the bodies of the robots, barely breathing hard; Green Arrow looked amazed, while Ben only grinned.
That's my girl, he thought proudly.
The floor to the training room opened one more time, and five robots emerged. One, however, was different; it was nearly three times the size of the other four, and was bulkier. Ben turned to Superman.
"I've never seen that model before," he said, "what does it turn into?"
Superman looked a little ashamed. "I should have told you about that one, Ben; Batman designed it after we came back from your universe."
Ben was about to ask him to clarify, when the holograms around the robots activated, turning into some the heaviest-hitting supervillains on Earth. Bizarro, Atomic Skull, Sinestro, a traitor to the Green Lantern Corps; there was also the original form of Brainiac and…
Vilgax.
Neither Superman nor Green Arrow failed to notice Ben's hand twitch in the direction of the Ultimatrix; he might have had the Master Control, but old habits die hard. For a moment, the older heroes thought Ben was going to lose it, but he only took a deep breath, then turned to Superman.
"What?" he asked, "Did you think I was going to freak out? Vilgax is gone; that thing is just a robot."
Both Superman and Green Arrow were impressed with Ben's maturity; they had thought that he might yell at them for putting in a program of the being that had killed Ben's family, but it looked like they were wrong.
Down below, Supergirl was having similar thoughts; this wasn't the real Vilgax, just a robot, so she wasn't furious, like when she fought the real Vilgax. She flew forward, ducking underneath Bizarro's fist as she froze Brainiac with her arctic breath; she delivered an uppercut to Bizarro, putting her fist through the robot's torso, then blasted Atomic Skull with her heat-vision. She narrowly dodged a yellow energy-blast from Sinestro, then threw the frozen Brainiac at him, shattering the ice and sending them both crashing to the ground. She smashed into them feet-first, crushing them both, then turned to face Vilgax. The warlord raised a fist, but Supergirl flew over it and kicked the robot in the face. While it was reeling back, she grabbed it by the foot and spun around and around, creating a small tornado, then released her hold, sending the robot across the room and crashing to the ground. With a last blast of heat-vision, the robot's chest was torn open.
"I'm just glad that Ship can fix those things," Ben commented to Green Arrow, as they walked to the training room, "otherwise, we'd be flat broke replacing them."
As they entered, Green Arrow waved, "Great job, kid; I think you set a new record for the program."
Supergirl flew over and grinned. "Is that jealousy I hear, Ollie?"
"Please," Arrow scoffed, "Dinah puts me through worse than a bunch of robot supervillains every night."
Both of the younger heroes gave him a look.
"What do you two…" Ben shook his head, "Never mind, I don't wanna know."
Further conversation was halted when a blue sphere suddenly engulfed the trio. They tried to escape, but whatever the material was made out of was impervious to even Supergirl's strength. Superman, who'd been working on the computers above, saw what was happening and rushed to the training room at blinding speed. However, even he was too late; in a flash of light, they were gone.
…
New Metropolis, Legion HQ
The blue sphere appeared in a flash of light, depositing its passengers unceremoniously on the ground. Supergirl and Green Arrow got up without difficulty, but Ben was on his hands and knees.
"Ben, are you okay?" Supergirl asked, gently rubbing his back.
"Ugh, I haven't felt like this since that thing with Chronos," Ben groaned.
"Temporal displacement," a new voice said, "the side-effect should fade soon."
The heroes looked up to see a green-skinned man with purple armor walking towards them, accompanied by a young woman with a black-and-white outfit, a man with a black outfit with lightning-style designs across it, as well as a silvery prosthetic arm, a blond-haired woman with a pink and white costume, a rotund man with a blue outfit and yellow goggles, and a woman whose costume and hair were equally divided into parallel stripes of white, purple and orange.
Supergirl helped Ben to his feet, but did a double-take when she noticed the three circles on the green man's face; there was only one person who had marks like that, and she'd faced a robot duplicate of him just a few minutes ago.
"Brainiac!" she growled.
"Yes, how did you…" then the Brainiac-like being saw Supergirl flying towards him, "uh-oh."
Supergirl threw a punch, which the Brainiac deflected with a hastily-raised energy-shield; still, the shockwave generated by the blow was enough to send the other people flying. Supergirl pulled her fist back for another strike, but a large hand wrapped around her wrist; she turned to see Ben, who'd turned into Humongosaur.
"Supergirl," he said, "these guys didn't look like they were gonna attack us."
"Yeah, Sparky," Green Arrow added, "let's hear 'em out first."
Supergirl huffed, but relaxed, as Ben turned back to normal. The strangers got back to their feet, while the Brainiac walked up to them.
"Thank you," he said to Ben, before addressing all three of them, "Yes, I am a Brainiac, but I am not like the one you have fought; I am Brainiac 5, and I have dedicated my life to doing good, unlike my predecessors."
"And your friends are…?" Green Arrow asked, gesturing to the others.
"I'm Phantom Girl," the young woman in black and white said with a smile.
"Lightning Lad," the man with the prosthetic said.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," the blond said, "I'm Saturn Girl."
"I'm Bouncing Boy," the rotund guy said, shaking Ben's hand, "and it is such an honor to meet all of you!"
"I'm Triplicate Girl," the girl with parallel colors said, "and please forgive Brainy here, he doesn't know how to ask for help, only take it."
"It's cool," Ben said, speaking for all of them, "but why did you bring us here?"
"Let me explain," Brainiac 5 said, "we are members of the Legion of Superheroes, a group not unlike your Justice League."
"Never heard of you," Supergirl commented, still glaring at Brainiac 5 in suspicion.
"That's because we don't exist yet," Brainiac 5 replied, "We've brought you into the year 3000, in an alternate timeline; we needed help, and we couldn't bring heroes from our own past, as that would change history."
"Why is it," Ben asked, taking the whole thing in stride, "that whenever I time-travel with Paradox, I feel fine, but if something else takes me time-travelling, I get sick?"
"Maybe it's just you?" Lightning Lad said snidely, before Saturn Girl elbowed him, "Ow! What did I do?"
"You were being rude," she replied, then turned to Brainiac 5, "Please continue, Brainy."
"Thank you," Brainiac 5 said, before turning back to the Leaguers, "Anyway, a group of villains, known as the Fatal Five, broke out of prison and are heading here. The last time we fought, it took every member of the Legion to stop them; this time, however, the only Legionnaires available are right here. The only recourse we had was recruiting help from another timeline; your present was close enough to our own past to make an educated guess on who we would be recruiting."
"What do these Fatal Five guys want?" Green Arrow asked.
"They used to bully the leaders of the various planets to do whatever they want," Triplicate Girl explained, "and now that they're out of prison, they'll probably try to do it again. So, will you help us?"
The Leaguers looked at each other, before Ben asked, "Can you give us a minute?"
Brainiac 5 nodded, and the three Leaguers huddled up.
"What do you think?" Ben asked, "Should we help them?"
"They seemed pretty desperate," Green Arrow said, "They wouldn't do something like this unless they really needed our help; I say we help them."
Supergirl shook her head. "Just because he's with a bunch of heroes doesn't mean we should trust a Brainiac; I don't care what number he is."
"I don't know," Ben argued, "for a machine, he sounded genuinely worried about this whole thing."
"Yeah," Green Arrow said, "besides, I'm not getting a bad vibe off the guy, or any of the others, for that matter."
Supergirl thought about it for a minute, then nodded. "Fine, we'll help, but the second that Brainiac does something, I'm gonna smash him."
On the other side of the room, the Legionnaires were also having a quiet counsel.
"If you ask me," Lightning Lad said, "asking for help from a bunch of old heroes makes us look kinda desperate."
"That's because we are desperate," Phantom Girl told him, "We've never been this unprepared before; we need all the help we can get!"
"She's right," Bouncing Boy added, "I've studied their timeline almost as much as Brainy has. Supergirl alone might be enough to tip the scales in our favor; with the other two, our odds get even better!"
Lightning Lad didn't look convinced. "Isn't there anyone else in the Legion who we can call?"
Brainiac 5 shook his head. "Even with the fastest ships in the universe, it would take six hours for the closest members to get here; the Fatal Five will be here in three."
Lightning Lad sighed. "Fine, but I'm not babysitting these fossils."
"Hey, those 'fossils' have done more than all of us combined!" Bouncing Boy argued, "In fact, from what I've learned, that Ben guy saved his entire universe three times in just one year!"
The Legionnaires were stunned; even Lightning Lad was impressed. The only one who remained unfazed by this information was Brainiac 5, and only because he'd already learned about this. They were then brought back to the present situation when they heard a cough behind them; they turned to see the Leaguers.
"Okay," Ben said, "we're in; what do we do?"
"For now," Brainiac 5 said, "we prepare."
…
During the time they had, the Legion brought the League up to speed about the people they would soon be fighting against, as well as the people they would be fighting alongside.
Brainiac 5 was incredibly intelligent, of course, but he also possessed a variety of weapons, as well as the ability to transform into a much larger and more powerful version of himself. He could also fly, as could every other member of the Legion, thanks to a flight-ring that he had developed.
Phantom Girl had intangibility powers, and was well-versed in close-combat.
Lightning Lad could blast people with bolts of electricity; his mechanical arm, which he'd gotten after losing the original in a fight against his brother, augmented his power even further.
Bouncing Boy could morph his body into a ball, and was pretty similar to Cannonbolt in the way he used that ability.
Saturn Girl was a telepath and was adept at attacking her enemies' minds.
Triplicate Girl could divide into three different people, all connected as one person, yet were also slightly different in their personalities.
In all honesty, the Leaguers could see why the Legion needed their help; their powers seemed fairly weak, the exception being Brainiac 5 and maybe Lightning Lad. They were more impressed with their enemies.
First was the leader of the Fatal Five, the Emerald Empress; she had a floating eyeball that followed her around, called the Emerald Eye of Ekron, which used energy attacks and could control the minds of others.
Next was Tharok, a cyborg that had the entire left half of his body replaced with machines, granting him an impressive arsenal, as well as enhanced strength. It didn't help that he was one of the smartest beings in the galaxy.
Then there was Validus, a giant, eyeless monster that was almost as strong as Superman, and could also shoot blasts of energy from his exposed brain. Ironically, even with his brain as large as it was, he was incredibly stupid.
There was also Persuader, an armored brute with an axe that could cut through any material, even Kryptonian flesh. On top of that, his body had been genetically altered to be physically superior to most beings of comparable size and weight. Since he was already almost ten feet tall, that was saying something.
Finally, there was Mano, a strange being whose face was concealed by a purple helmet; his right hand could disintegrate any material with a mere touch. Of all the members of the Fatal Five, he scared Ben the most.
I'll just stay out of range, he thought, as he looked at the other heroes; Green Arrow was chatting with Bouncing Boy and Phantom Girl, while Supergirl seemed to be getting along with Triplicate Girl. Lightning Lad was off to the side, getting an earful from Saturn Girl. Brainiac 5 was working at a computer, ignoring the occasional glare from Supergirl. Finally, Ben walked up to the mechanical being.
"So," he said, "you aren't mad at me, are you?"
"Why would I be mad?" Brainiac 5 asked, not looking up from his work.
"Well, you said you've studied our timeline," Ben explained, "so you know that I destroyed the original Brainiac, right?"
"I'm aware of that."
"And you're not upset?"
Brainiac 5 stood up. "The original Brainiac was a force of destruction, who thought that perfection could be realized by preserving all knowledge and then making sure that no new knowledge would come about by destroying the universe. I am glad that you destroyed such a being."
Ben blinked. "Oh; well, you're welcome, I guess."
Neither of them knew it, but a certain Kryptonian heard every word, and it made her think.
Supergirl wasn't the only one who was thinking; though Ben did want to make sure that Brainiac 5 wasn't mad at him, he also needed to take his mind off of his frustration. Most of the time, Ben didn't mind being a hero; in fact, he liked it. The problem was that today was the one day that he didn't want to have to fight villains or save the world; he had planned everything about today out, ending with his proposal. Of course, with his luck, he should have known that that plan would go out the window.
Well, at least now I have time to think about how I'm going to reschedule this, he thought.
Of course, then the alarms throughout the base began to go off; the heroes gathered around Brainiac 5, who had adopted a neutral expression, probably to disguise any fear he might have felt.
"Is it them?" Lightning Lad asked.
Brainiac 5 nodded. "They're headed straight for us."
…
The nine heroes stood waiting outside the Legion's headquarters; the Legionnaires themselves looked a little nervous, but the Leaguers had faced worse odds. Green Arrow calmly drew an explosive arrow from his quiver, Supergirl did a few stretches, and Ben turned into NRG.
They didn't have to wait long before the Fatal Five arrived; they flew down and landed a few yards away. The Emerald Empress stepped forward, a cocky smirk on her face, as the giant eyeball followed.
"This is it?" she taunted, "This is all the mighty Legion has to offer? I'm a little insulted."
"Don't be too insulted," Lightning Lad retorted, "We beat you guys before, and we'll do it again."
The Empress' smile faded into a snarl, obviously not happy remembering her previous defeat, then turned to her team.
"Take them down, boys!"
Validus made the first move, rushing forward with a bellow, but received a beam of radiation to his face, courtesy of NRG. He was joined by Lightning Lad, who fired a bolt of electricity from his prosthetic; together, they pushed the giant back.
"Not bad," Lightning Lad admitted, then added, "for a fossil."
"You're not so bad yourself," NRG replied, "for a stuck-up battery."
Meanwhile, Green Arrow kept up a barrage of explosives against Persuader; the axe-wielder tried to close in, but Phantom Girl and Bouncing Boy ran interference, striking quickly before retreating, always keeping out of the villain's range.
Supergirl and Triplicate Girl were fighting Mano; Supergirl made sure to keep the villain off-balance, using her super-breath to knock him over, where Triplicate Girl would attack from three different directions, further disorienting him. During the fight, however, one of the Triplicate Girls noticed that Brainiac 5 was losing ground against Tharok.
"Supergirl," the Triplicate said, "do you think you could help out Brainy?"
"Are you sure?" Supergirl had finally decided that while Brainiac 5 wasn't trustworthy, at least, not yet, he also didn't deserve her scorn, either.
"I'm fine," the Triplicate said, "just go!"
Brainiac 5 was only barely holding his shield steady, as Tharok's arm-cannon was threatening shatter it and then him.
"Now we'll see who's the best tech-user!" the cyborg crowed.
"I don't know who the best is," Brainiac 5 said through gritted teeth, "but I know who the one still standing is."
Before Tharok could figure out what that meant, Supergirl's fist connected with his face, sending him flying. Brainiac 5 fell to his knees, then looked up to see a Kryptonian hand held out to him.
"Need some help?" Supergirl asked. Brainiac 5 accepted her help, then gave her a smile.
"Thank you; now, if you'll excuse me, I have some payback to deliver." His body then doubled in mass, thick armor covering him, and he flew towards Tharok, who was rising to his feet, and blasted him with a bolt of energy that created a thirty-foot crater in the ground.
Despite their successes, NRG could see that the heroes might be overwhelmed; no matter how many times they were knocked down, the Fatal Five kept getting back up, and the Emerald Empress hadn't even joined the fight yet. Neither had Saturn Girl, but she was hanging back, using her telepathy to give her teammates an edge. If they were going to win this fight without anyone on their side getting hurt, Ben was going to have to use something with a little more 'oomph' to it.
"Supergirl!" NRG yelled, "Get everyone out of here right now!"
At first, Supergirl was confused, but then she remembered one of Ben's latest transformation; it was incredibly powerful, even more so than his Ultimates, but there was a good chance that anyone close would get hurt by it as well.
"Guys, if he's going to do what I think he's going to do, we need to move!" Supergirl grabbed Green Arrow and flew a good distance away.
Seeing someone of Supergirl's power so quick to retreat, the Legionnaires followed suit, though Lightning Lad grumbled a bit.
"What's he going to do?" he finally asked.
"You'll see," was Supergirl's only answer, as they viewed the battle.
The Fatal Five, now surrounding NRG, were laughing; the Emerald Empress stepped forward, her hands on her hips.
"What, are you trying to buy time for your friends to escape?"
"Nah, not really," NRG replied, "I just wanted to make sure I didn't put the wrong people in the hospital." This confused the villains.
"What are you going to…?" The Empress started to ask, before NRG disappeared in a flash of green light.
In his place stood a thirty-foot tall, robot-like being made of white armor; his forearms, shoulders and chestplate, which was shaped like the Ultimatrix symbol, contained what looked like green, bubbling energy. His arms were much larger in proportion to the rest of his body; the Ultimatrix dial was the buckle of his belt; all in all, he looked like a cross between a robot, a knight and a lava-lamp.
"ATOMIX!" he cried out in a synthesized voice.
"So you have a new form," the Empress sneered, "so what? You're still going down; take him out, Validus!"
The giant roared and leaped at Atomix, one hand drawn back to punch him. In response, Atomix met the opposing fist with his own; as soon as his oversized hand connected, an enormous blast of green energy sent Validus flying. When he landed, he didn't get back up.
"Someone is indeed going to lose, Empress," Atomix said proudly, "but it is not going to be me!"
With a yell, the other villains charged; Atomix moved his arms in a circle, green energy gathering in front of him.
"Ha-ma-na, ha-ma-na, HA!" at the last syllable, Atomix released the energy, sending it at his enemies. In the resulting blast, the remaining villains were knocked senseless, and a fifty-foot crater was added to the city. Atomix pumped a fist.
"Outrageous!" he yelled, as if it were some sort of victory-cry. He turned back into Ben as the other heroes showed up. "Hey guys, enjoy the show?"
"Enjoy it?" Green Arrow echoed, "Kid, that was fantastic!"
"Geez, man, why didn't you use that earlier?" Lightning Lad complained.
"I didn't know they'd be so tough," Ben explained, "but now, I think the three of us wanted to go home, so I thought I'd wrap this up."
"Great," Supergirl said cheerfully, "no offense, but I was missing home already."
…
An hour later, and the Leaguers were saying goodbye to the Legionnaires, after making sure that the Fatal Five would stay locked up this time. Several members of the Legion had offered them rings that named the honorary Legionnaires, but Brainiac 5 shot that idea down; even though they were in an alternate timeline, the rings were still future-tech, and could corrupt the Leaguers' time-stream. Still, everyone was on good terms, even Supergirl and Brainiac 5 were able to shake hands.
After the farewells were said, Brainiac 5 summoned the time-bubble that would take them back to their own timeline.
"I hope this thing doesn't make me sick again," Ben muttered, causing his teammates to laugh.
Still, Ben thought, when we get back, there's something that I have to do, before something else happens.
The three Leaguers waved as a light built up around them, until it was too bright to see anything else. A few seconds later, they were gone.
…
Watchtower
Superman wasn't showing it, but he was starting to panic; his friend, cousin and cousin-in-law-to-be had been missing for over an hour, and not even the best instruments the League possessed could tell them what happened. At the moment, Steel was doing one last sweep with his scanners at the spot they'd vanished.
"I don't know what to tell you, Superman," he said, "whatever abducted them didn't leave any traceable energy-trail."
"Maybe it wasn't technological at all," Superman reasoned, "maybe we need Dr. Fate or Zatanna, or maybe Verdona, if we can get a hold of her…"
Before he could finish, a blue light appeared in front of them, and a sphere that was identical to the one that had taken Ben, Supergirl and Green Arrow materialized. It then unceremoniously dumped those three heroes on the floor and vanished. Supergirl and Green Arrow quickly got up and dusted themselves off, but Ben staggered and fell to one knee.
"You're back!" Superman rushed over and wrapped his cousin in a hug, as Steel left to tell the rest of the League that their missing members were back.
"We're fine, Clark," Supergirl said, then turned to Ben who was still on the ground, "are you okay?"
"Just… just give me a sec," he grunted, "I am never travelling by time-bubble again!"
"What happened?" Superman asked Green Arrow.
The archer shrugged. "Eh, alternate timeline, supervillain fight, nothing to worry about." The two men turned at the sound of the door opening, and saw the founding members, Steel and Black Canary rush in, the latter of whom wrapped her husband in an embrace.
"Never scare me like that again, Ollie!" she snapped, then looked at Ben, "Is he okay?"
"He'll be fine," Green Arrow said, "he just found out that if it isn't Paradox that's taking him time-travelling, he doesn't do so well."
The other heroes moved in closer, wanting to know more, as Supergirl helped steady Ben.
"I didn't know you'd be so affected this time around, Ben," she said, concerned for his health.
"Actually," Ben admitted, "right now, I'm not on my knee because I can't stand, but because I want to be like this."
The other Leaguers now had mixed expressions of confusion, for those who didn't know, or shock, for those that did. Supergirl was one of the former.
"Ben, what are you talking about?"
Ben gave her a loving smile, as he pulled out a lead-lined case. "I love you, Kara; I love you more than anything in the world. I can't imagine a life without you.
"Kara Zor-El Kent, will you marry me?"
The room was utterly silent; even Batman had slightly-widened eyes, while the female Leaguers were starting to tear up. Kara felt herself trembling.
"Are… are you serious?"
Ben opened up the case, revealing a gold, diamond-topped ring. "Very serious."
Kara stared at the ring for a long moment, before falling to her knees and wrapping her arms around Ben, tears of joy falling down her face.
"Um, is that a yes?" Ben asked.
"Yes," Kara said, once she got a little more control over herself, "that was a yes."
The Leaguers all cheered as Ben slid the ring onto Kara's finger; even Batman gave a soft round of applause. Ben stood up with Kara, their fingers intertwined.
"So, now what?" Kara asked, "We live happily ever after?"
"Well, yes," Ben said, "but we're also probably doomed to my grandmother demanding great-grandchildren."
Kara laughed. "One thing at a time."
Ben and Kara sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a sequel carriage!
Now, this isn't the end of Ben 10: Unlimited, far from it. Still, I wanted Ben to propose this chapter, but geez, this one was tough to write. Not because of the proposal stuff, that came pretty easily to me. The problem was combining elements from the JLU episode, as well as the stuff from the Legion of Superheroes show! I just had so much trouble writing this!
And now, I leave you, my faithful readers, with a choice: should I have the marriage chapter next, while putting in a time-skip, or wait a few chapters? Leave your answer in the reviews, but I will only accept non-Guest votes. In addition, I'd like a well-written reason for why you'd like that choice. It doesn't have to be long, but I'd like a good reason.
Now, as a bonus, I have just posted the first chapter for my Ben 10/Fairy Tail crossover, "Ultimate Fairy". Please go and read it, tell me what you think!
Hood: Master Chief, you mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?
Chief: Sir, finishing this muffin.