BEN 10 DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. WHENEVER SOMEONE TRIES TO ILLEGALLY OWN THEM, SANTA PUTS THEM ON THE NAUGHTY LIST… THEN RUNS THEM OVER WITH HIS SLEIGH.
Happy Holidays, everyone! This is my holiday present to you all, so if you have a Christmas tree, you can put your computer (or phone or whatever) underneath the tree and pretend it's a gift.
Ben 10: Unlimited
In the Interim
An Unlimited Christmas
San Francisco
Ever since moving in with Ben, Kara had only one wish for the holidays: to sleep in on Christmas day. Ben, however, seemed determined to deny her that wish, if the gentle shoving she felt was anything to go by.
"Kara, wake up," Ben whispered, "It's Christmas!"
"Ugh," Kara groaned, trying to bury herself in the covers, "Santa should give you coal for waking me up this early."
"But Kara," Ben whined, "it's Christmas!"
As mature as Ben normally was, and as much as Kara loved him, Ben had a tendency to act like a child on Christmas, a trait that her fiancé shared with her cousin.
At first, Kara tried to ignore Ben's gentle nudges, but Ben noticed, and pulled out his ace in the hole; Kara felt another nudge on her other side.
"Ship ship," Ship softly called out, and then Kara caved; she couldn't say no to the little alien.
"Okay, I'm waking up," she said as she sat up reluctantly, then gave Ship a hug; after doing so, she gave Ben a glare. "You fight dirty."
"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Ben shrugged, "Now come on, we've got presents to unwrap and a party to get ready for!"
With that, he dashed out to the living room, where a tree stood with presents underneath. Sighing, Kara put on a robe and followed, where she found Ben almost bouncing in excitement.
"Has anyone ever told you to act your age?" Kara asked.
"All the time," Ben replied with a grin, "but I just ignore them."
Kara couldn't help but smile as she sat next to her fiancé, who slid a present towards her.
"Merry Christmas, Kara," Ben said, "but you should also thank Clark for this present, too."
Curious, Kara ripped the wrapping off of the small box, then opened it up to find a necklace; it was a simple silver chain, with a black, polished stone pendant on the end. The stone was pretty, but it didn't look like anything special; she looked at Ben in confusion.
"Clark and I took a little trip a couple of weeks ago," he told her, "and we stopped at… Argo."
Kara was surprised that Ben and Clark had visited her dead homeworld, considering there was nothing there, save for ice and corpses.
"I remembered that you still miss your home," Ben went on, "So I took a piece of stone and polished it and… here you are; you get to carry your home with you from now on."
Kara stared at the necklace, trembling slightly as tears welled up. It was true, she'd occasionally mentioned how much she missed her family and her people, but Ben had gone through the trouble of finding the planet, then making a necklace with a piece of her home on it? Kara gently placed the box on the ground and wrapped Ben in a hug.
"Thank you," she said, then kissed him, "I love it."
Kara held her hair out of the way, allowing Ben to place the necklace on her.
"It looks good on you," Ben said, earning himself another kiss, "but, then again, everything does."
"Flatterer," Kara said, one hand touching the pendant, while handing Ben his present, "Merry Christmas, Ben."
Ben opened up the package and found a large picture frame, with several pictures in it. One had Ben standing next to Kara, both of them grinning and holding hands, with Ship sitting on Ben's shoulder; another had a picture of Ben and Kara, as well as the founding members of the League, though Shayera's wings were blocked, along with Ollie and Dinah. All of them were in civilian outfits, and were just having a good time; Ben remembered how Wally had used a high-speed camera to take a picture before anyone noticed what he was doing, and it had taken a lot of convincing to keep Bruce from taking the camera.
The last picture, however, caused Ben to choke up slightly; standing together, smiling, was Ben, Gwen, Kevin, Julie, Ship and Grandpa Max. Ben remembered this photo, too; it had been taken only a month before Ben ended up in this universe, and it was probably the last photograph of his friends and family alive. Ben leaned over and gave his fiancé a hug.
"Thank you, Kara," Ben managed to say, "this is great."
"Thank your grandma, too," Kara said, "she got that last one."
"Well, she said she'd be at the party," Ben said, "so I'll have a chance… as long as she doesn't get distracted by trying to trap J'onn under the mistletoe."
"Who says J'onn won't let himself get trapped?" Kara asked impishly.
"We'll find out," Ben said, "but we've got a while before then; want to go see if there are any Grinch wannabe's today?"
"Sure," Kara said, before kissing Ben again and rushing off to change, "let's go; it's Hero Time!"
"Hey!" Ben ran after her, "That's my line!"
…
The Watchtower
Even on Christmas, a hero's job is never done, though League duty was optional for most, unless a true emergency occurred. Ben, Supergirl and Ship arrived at the station because, other than watching Christmas movies, there wasn't anything for them to do.
There weren't that many Leaguers present at the moment, only the ones that were going to end up at the Kent Christmas party later that night. Superman was obviously going to go, as was Lois; Green Lantern and Shayera had been talked into coming. Flash was coming, though he asked if they could add Fire to the guest list. Green Arrow and Black Canary were also coming, as was Batgirl and Nightwing, who had previously been the first Robin; J'onn was also coming, but he only agreed to do so when Ben said that Verdona was coming too.
The biggest surprise was that Wonder Woman had somehow convinced Batman to come, but the Dark Knight refused to talk about it. As Ben, Supergirl and Ship walked to the observation deck, they found J'onn, Flash and Fire on monitor-duty.
"Hey guys," Ben called, "nobody tried to steal Christmas, right?"
"Not yet," Flash replied, "and I'm hoping that no one does."
"Hey, Fire," Supergirl said, "I thought you and Ice celebrated Christmas together; where is she?"
Fire shrugged. "She said that she wanted to visit some friends in Norway this year, and this is my first Christmas with Wally."
"Fair enough," said Supergirl, just as alarms began to blare.
"What's going on?" Superman asked as he, Batman and Wonder Woman arrived on the scene.
Flash dashed throughout the deck, checking various screens. "There's a robbery in Las Vegas, being committed by… oh, man, it's Ultra Humanite, and a nuclear reactor going critical in China."
"All right," Superman said, "Flash, Ben and Batman go handle the robbery; everyone else will go with me to handle the reactor."
As the heroes rushed to the teleporters, Ben muttered, "And here I thought that we'd have a quiet Christmas; I should really know better."
…
Las Vegas
"What does Ultra Humanite get from committing crimes on Christmas?" Flash asked as he, Batman and Spidermonkey arrived at the scene, where they found several police officers taking cover from a large apelike creature with an enlarged cranium that was firing at them with a laser-rifle.
"Maybe he needs a visit from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future?" Spidermonkey joked.
"Bah humbug," Flash said.
"If you two were paying attention," Batman said, "you'd notice that Humanite isn't actually aiming at the police."
Batman was right; though he was firing in their general location, Ultra Humanite wasn't hitting anywhere near enough to be a real threat.
"Is his aim always that bad?" Spidermonkey asked.
"No, so what else does he have in mind?" Flash asked, before zipping forward and yanking the rifle out of the ape-man's hands.
"Give that back, you simpleton!" Ultra Humanite raged, before Spidermonkey used his webbing to yank away the bag of money that the villain had slung over his shoulder.
"You know," Spidermonkey said as he placed the money on the ground, "to give is the spirit of Christmas, not to take."
"I am giving!" Ultra Humanite shouted, before throwing a grenade at the blue alien, "I am giving to me!"
"Who didn't see that line coming?" Spidermonkey asked himself, before leaping away.
Ultra Humanite prepared to throw another grenade, but Batman hurled a smoke pellet at his head, blinding the villain; Flash ran in and delivered a hundred punches in less time than it took to blink. As Ultra Humanite roared in pain, Spidermonkey swung in and gave a double right hook, knocking him back; still, he wouldn't go down.
"Enough of this," Spidermonkey said, and disappeared in a flash of green light; in his place was a creature reminiscent of the Frankenstein, save for two large Tesla coils on his back, and metal gauntlets over his hands.
"FRANKENSTRIKE!" he roared in a deep voice. Frankenstrike then pointed his hands at Ultra Humanite and sent bolts of lightning into him, shocking him into unconsciousness.
Flash looked at the downed villain and gave a low whistle. "Glad you got him to see reason," he said sarcastically.
Frankenstrike shrugged. "I like to think it's because of my electric personality."
Flash laughed, but it took all of Batman's self-control not to roll his eyes.
"We should question him when he wakes up," the Dark Knight said, "I want to know why he acted the way he did."
…
When Ultra Humanite woke up, he found himself in his usual cell, but this time, he had three guests; Flash, Batman and Frankenstrike had their arms folded and glared at him with narrowed eyes.
"Strange," the villain said, "I only expected Batman to give me that kind of look, not you, Flash."
"Yeah, well, what you did was pointless and stupid," Flash said, his usual good cheer gone for the moment, "You want to tell us what it was all about?"
"I needed the League's attention," Ultra Humanite explained calmly, as he sat up, "I was actually hoping for you, Flash, but anyone else is a bonus."
"Why?" Batman asked, his voice dangerously low.
"I wasn't sure if you would come if I simply called you," Ultra Humanite admitted, "and I'm not sure the League takes calls from convicted criminals."
"Yeah, I don't think we do," Frankenstrike admitted.
"What do you want?" Flash asked.
"Do you remember the last time you and I fought?" Ultra Humanite asked; before Flash could answer, he continued, "You and I helped each other, and then I returned to my cell peacefully."
"Well, you're already in your cell," Frankenstrike pointed out, "so you can't use that as a way to get our help."
"No, I can't," Ultra Humanite admitted, "but I can offer you a way to keep several hundred children from having their Christmas ruined."
"What are you talking about?" Batman demanded.
"There is a telepath," the villain said, "called Psimon; he approached me with an offer to get me out of prison, in exchange for helping him. He wants to use his telepathy to force all of the police in Star City to commit a mass suicide; revenge for when he was locked up."
"Why would you help us?" Frankenstrike asked, "Why would you care about what happens to the police?"
"In truth, I don't," Ultra Humanite said, "but their children are uncorrupted by our current society, and I would not see so many innocent souls be tarnished at such a young age; that was why I refuse Psimon's offer."
Batman turned away for a moment. If only someone had been looking out for me… He shook off the thought; they needed to act immediately.
"When is it happening?" Batman asked.
Ultra Humanite looked at a clock. "Twenty minutes."
Eyes wide, Frankenstrike tapped the Ultimatrix dial. "Ship, I need an emergency teleport to Star City for me, Batman, Flash and Ultra Humanite!"
"Ship!?" Ship asked in disbelief.
"Just do it, I'll explain later!" he said. In a moment, the three heroes and the villain were gone.
…
Star City
As the four arrived in Star City, Batman looked at Ultra Humanite.
"Do you know where Psimon is right now?"
The villain shook his head. "No, but I know that the attack is to take place at the Police Station, and Psimon will have to be close by in order to affect that many people at once."
"I know the layout," Batman said, "We're not far; come on!"
The group made it with less than a minute to spare, to find hundreds of police officers in the street, starting to draw their weapons.
"It's starting!" Ultra Humanite warned, "We have to find Psimon now!"
The group scanned the area, until Flash pointed at a nearby rooftop. "Over there!"
On top of the building stood a pale man in a trench coat; he looked fairly human, save for the strange lines on his face, and the transparent upper half of his head, which showed his brain.
"Stop him!" Batman barked at Frankenstrike, "Flash, disarm them!"
"I'm on it!" Frankenstrike disappeared in a flash of green light. "WATER HAZARD!" Then there was another flash of green light. "ULTIMATE WATER HAZARD!"
The Ultimate alien pointed his pincers at the telepath, then surrounded the rest of his body in water, launching himself at the rooftop. He crashed directly in front of Psimon, forcing the man back.
"How dare you!" Psimon shouted, "Psimon says for you to…" he was interrupted by a blast from Ultimate Water Hazard's cannon.
"Go soak your head!" Ultimate Water Hazard yelled, "Better yet, let me do it for you!"
The Ultimate bombarded the villain with short bursts from his cannons, thoroughly soaking the telepath, as well as hitting him with enough force to knock him across the rooftop and onto an adjoining one, then didn't get up. Once it was clear that Psimon was out, Ultimate Water Hazard looked down at the street and saw that the police were all shaking off Psimon's hold over them, while Flash was now returning their weapons.
"Another Christmas saved," Ultimate Water Hazard said, "and another bad guy who's getting coal this year."
…
Once the situation was resolved, the three heroes returned an unresisting Ultra Humanite to his cell.
"Thanks for what you did," Flash said.
"I didn't do it for any of you hero-types," Ultra Humanite said, "I did it for the children."
"Still," said Ultimate Water Hazard, "you did a good thing, and you have our thanks for that."
Batman said nothing, only nodding in agreement. Ultra Humanite nodded back, then leaned under his bed and pulled out an aluminum Christmas tree and set it up on a table in his cell.
"You still have that?" Flash asked, surprised that the villain had kept his gift from so long ago.
"It's a reminder of better times," Ultra Humanite said, "and now that I've done my good deed for the year, I ask that you leave."
The three heroes left, but not before Flash turned back for a moment.
"Merry Christmas."
…
Smallville, Several Hours Later
"Merry Christmas!" Martha Kent said as she ushered Ben and Kara into the house, "Come in, dears, it's freezing outside!"
"Come on, Ma," Kara said, "I've been in space, and even that was barely chilly!"
"Speak for yourself," Ben muttered as he dusted some snow off of his shoulders before coming in, "I can't feel my feet anymore."
"Ship ship," Ship whined from Ben's shoulder, before spotting the fireplace and darting towards it, curling up in front of it and quickly falling asleep.
"He got comfortable fast," Clark said as he came into the room with Lois, "Merry Christmas, you two." Then he noticed the necklace that Kara was wearing. "I see that Ben gave you your gift, Kara; how do you like it?"
"It's perfect," Kara said, giving her cousin a hug, then stepped back and placed her hand on the pendant, "Thanks for helping Ben to get it."
"Come on," Lois said, smiling at the display, "everyone's waiting."
As everyone made their way into the living room, Ben saw that there was only one person missing. Bruce and Diana had come, though Bruce looked like he wanted to be somewhere else, which was probably why Diana had her arm looped through his, so that he couldn't bolt. Wally had come with Beatriz, the real name of Fire, who was stroking the now-sleeping Ship. John and Shayera were talking near the kitchen, ignoring the mistletoe that Wally had placed over their heads. Barbara had come over as well, along with Dick Grayson, or Nightwing. J'onn stood away from the others, looking slightly uncomfortable.
"Well then," Jonathan Kent said, "now that Ben and Kara are here, all we're missing is Verdona."
As soon as he said that, a violet glow appeared next to Wally, causing him to jump and accidentally land in Beatriz's lap.
"Speak of the devil," Ben said, as Verdona appeared.
"Hello everyone!" Verdona said, smiling, though she looked confused when she saw Wally sitting in Beatriz's lap, "Shouldn't you two be the other way around?"
Everyone laughed, but Wally rolled with it. "Eh, I kinda like it here." Then he kissed Beatriz on the cheek. When she blushed, Wally laughed.
"Hey, red and green," he gestured to her emerald hair, "You're definitely in the holiday spirit!"
"Do you want to roast on an open fire?" Beatriz asked in mock-anger, "If not, get off." When he did so, she placed herself on his lap. "Much better."
Verdona floated over to Ben and hugged him. "Merry Christmas, Ben!" Then she grabbed Kara and brought her into the embrace as well. "Just think; next year will be your first Christmas as a married couple! Ooh, I'm so happy for you!"
"Thanks, Grandma," Ben said, smiling, "but I think that someone else was hoping to have your attention today."
Verdona looked across the room and spotted J'onn, who suddenly found the ceiling very interesting. Smiling, the Anodite flew over to the Martian.
"Hello, J'onn."
J'onn gave her a nervous smile. "Hello, Verdona; Merry Christmas."
"Why don't you and I let the kids have fun," Verdona suggested, "while the adults talk?"
J'onn's smile grew less nervous, since Verdona was right; both of them were much older than anyone else in the room, even Martha and Jonathan. As the two walked off, Ben turned to Clark, who reluctantly handed him a five-dollar bill.
"What was that about?" Lois asked.
"I bet Clark that Grandma would get J'onn away from everyone else in five minutes or less," Ben explained, getting a laugh out of everyone else.
"I heard that, Ben!" Verdona's voice called out, causing Ben to jump, "And I do not approve of you gambling over my love life!"
"Busted!" Barbara said, which made Ben stick his tongue out at her.
"All right, everyone," Martha said from the kitchen, "time for lunch!"
…
On the porch of the house, J'onn and Verdona sat and talked, mostly small-talk, though J'onn had shapeshifted into his human alias of John Jones, and Verdona had used her powers to turn into a young human woman with red hair.
"Does this holiday make you uncomfortable?" Verdona asked, "When I arrived, you looked like you'd rather be elsewhere."
"This time of year no longer bothers me," J'onn answered, "I worked through those issues several years ago." Then his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "And I believe that you know why I looked the way I did."
"Possibly," Verdona said playfully, but then her face grew somber, "Were you uncomfortable with this time of year because of what happened to the Martian people?"
J'onn wasn't surprised that Verdona knew that he was the last of the Martians; she seemed to know almost as much as Professor Paradox.
"I am just reminded of the family that I lost," he admitted, "I find myself missing my wife and children, as well as my nieces and nephews; there were so many children lost…"
Verdona placed a hand on J'onn's shoulder comfortingly as the Martian composed himself.
"I am sorry," J'onn said, "this is meant to be a happy time, yet I am still burdened by loss."
"It's understandable, J'onn," Verdona said, "And I have similar feelings; aside from Ben, I have no family left, and not a day goes by that I don't miss them, too. The day that we stop missing them, even a little, is the day that we stop being people."
J'onn smiled and placed his hand over Verdona's. "Thank you; it seems that I have had to be reminded of many things lately."
"See, that's why you need a woman in your life!" Verdona said, laughing, "So that only she can tell you what you need to hear!"
J'onn would have responded, but something caught his eye; he looked up to find…
"Isn't that mistletoe?" Verdona asked, following J'onn's gaze.
"It would appear to be," J'onn said.
"Who do you think set this up?" Verdona asked, "Wally, or Ben?"
"It would be safe to assume that they both had a hand in this," J'onn answered, "Though this might backfire on them, considering that kissing under the mistletoe is a human tradition, and neither of us are humans."
"Why, J'onn," Verdona said in mock-hurt, though her eyes suggested it might have been real, "don't you want to kiss me?"
"On the other hand," J'onn said, quickly realizing his mistake, "we both look human, and we must keep suspicion off of us."
With that, J'onn leaned forward and kissed Verdona, who soon found herself wrapping her arms around the Martian. Once the kiss broke apart, Verdona looked up at J'onn.
"Merry Christmas, J'onn," she whispered.
"Merry Christmas, Verdona," J'onn whispered back.
"Aww, that's so sweet," Ben's voice called out, causing the two aliens to jump apart; behind them, everyone else who'd been at the party was either smiling at the two or snickering.
"Oh, way to ruin the moment, Ben!" Verdona huffed in a childish manner.
"Hey, don't stop on our account," Ben said, enjoying teasing his grandmother too much, "Please, continue."
"All right, Ben," Verdona said, her eyes glowing violet, "you asked for it!"
Behind her, a shovel made of Mana appeared, which scooped up a pile of snow and hurled it at Ben, who barely dodged in time; instead of him, the snow hit Shayera who, after picking herself up, calmly grabbed some snow, shaped it into a snowball and hurled it at Verdona, hitting her in the face.
"It's on, now!" the Thanagarian shouted, as everyone took part in a giant snowball fight. Ben struggled to get a snowball formed, he was laughing too hard.
"Now this is a Christmas party!"
Annnnd… done! Sweet, my first Christmas special! I hoped you enjoyed it, as well as the references that I put in to the Justice League episode "Comfort and Joy", which was actually one of my favorite episodes.
On a side note, I have no idea if Psimon is a common villain in Star City, but I wanted to use a lesser-known villain.
I also hoped that you enjoyed the first bits of romance between J'onn and Verdona; they seem to match each other in terms of their losses, but the balance each other out in terms of personality. J'onn is serious, while Verdona is playful, but both can be the opposite when the situation demands.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my Christmas special; Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and happy whatever-holiday-you-celebrate!
Next up is the moment you've all been waiting for:
The Wedding
You better watch out, you better not cry; you better not pout, I'm telling you why: Muffin Claus is coming to town!