Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 or Young Justice
Bereft
Ben Tennyson was not a morning person, he hadn't had a full night's rest in months since he left his Universe so, he only very woke up groggy and exhausted. Only now, it was worse, his ears rang and his head pounded; he felt like his skin was over heating but, it wasnt too many blankets or not enough air. It was the sun directly pounding on his eyelids. His bed was shifty and loose unlike usual, he gripped his sheets but found none, he sat up as he looked around and noticed two important things. He noticed that he was in a desert for some reason with the sun in th center of the sky confirming it was the middle of the afternoon, and the second thing he noticed, which was undoubtedly more important; he had a girl with green skin and red hair lying unconcious in the sand next to him.
He backed up and tumbled down a dune, landing in a heap of hot sand with a shocked shout. This caused the girl to lift her head off the ground, she rubbed her eyes and looked around in confusion; "Hi?" Ben announced from the bottom of the dune startling her causing her fall backwards on her hands, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."
She tilted her head, "Patok? Eil Earth charalo?"
"Uh..."
She tapped her forehead with her palm and cleared her throat, "You're human so obviously you speak English."
"Are you an alien, then?" He asked climbing up the dune to get closer to her.
"A Martian, from Mars; Where are we?" She responded standing with hesitation and confusion
Ben looked around covering his eyes from the light, "Looks like the middle of a desert, do you happen to remember how we got here?"
She shook her head and looked deep into her mind but, felt clouded like something was blocking her way, "No," she sighed with a solemn tone, "Not at all."
He sighed and looked down to his wrist, he had a full charge which meant he hadnt used his Ultimatrix for at least several hours, "Do you have a name?" Ben asked as he turned to face her.
"It's M'gaan, and yours?"
"Ben Tennyson," He replied shaking her hand, she felt his warm skin and blushed; it was an odd sensation but, almost felt familiar. She finally allowed her senses to clear up and looked him in the eye as he stared out in the desert, the sun gleamed off of his skin from the sweat that had likely layered his body for some time outlining his every feature. Frankly, he was gorgeous.
"I dont see any structures in the distance, maybe if i got a bit higher up..." He quickly reached down to his wrist and pulled his sleeve back revealing the Ultimatrix. This caught her eye as it was nothing like anything she'd seen before, he squeezed the dial allowing a hologram to appear of a ghostly-creature.
"What is that? Some sort of cage for special creatures?" She knelt down and observed it closely while he scrolled through a playlist of other peculiar monsters.
"Not exactly, stand back a bit," He advised as she floated back about ten feet and watched him slam the face-plate of a stingray-like creature; a flash of emerald light blinded her for several seconds and when her vision finally adjusted, the boy was gone replaced by a six-foot crimson stingray with yellow flaps attached to his arms and a long tail swinging behind him, "Jetray!"
"Wow!" She smiled in amazement as he flew straight up into the sky, going several hundred feet before stopping and doing a three-sixty scan of the area.
"There's really noting out here for dozens of miles..." He said to himself as he threw his arms up straight and quickly floated back down exactly where he'd taken off from; after landing, M'gaan approached again.
"There's nothing around; no mountains, no cities, nothing..." He slapped the dial on his chest which was identical to the one he had on his watch earlier triggering a bright flash that brought the human boy back.
M'gaan was still in awe at what she'd seen, "Incredible," but, her gawking at his handsomeness would be interrupted by a loud roaring coming from nearby. They turned and Ben allowed his hand to float leisurely above his watch, M'gaan wasn't used to combat so, she instinctively got behind her new friend and cowered in fear.
Suddenly, a boom of sound echoed through the air around them signifying someone moving beyond that threshold from the sky. What came was some sort of projectile, only, it wasn't a projectile it was a person; a person who seemed very angry. He seemed to be yet another teenager around their age wearing a black t-shirt with a red 'S' emblazoned on it.
"Wait? Superman?" Ben said hoping for some sort of answers when the teen let out a fearsome scream and tore the shirt off his body and tossing it aside. The boy jumped at them attempting to grab Ben only to be dodged as he immediately dropped to the ground, he slapped the Ultimatrix as he jumped the Martian behind him only to be stopped by something metallic holding him back. He turned to kill whatever it was with a snarl but, was slightly confused when he saw a bulky yellow creature with jackhammers for elbows and small eyes and ears as his entire body was seemingly covered in bright-armor.
"Hey, hands off the lady," Armadrillo quipped before sending a ground shaking punch to the face causing the teen to be launched through the air, skipping across the sand like a smooth-pebble across water, hitting a large boulder and shattering it with his body.
The boy shook his head, dusting the rubble from his shoulders, before screaming again and jumping at Armadrillo who took a defensive stance; the boy only made it half way through the air as he was intercepted by some sort of explosive sending him sideways into the sand next to them.
The boy seemed to have the attention-span of an animal considering he completely forgot about Ben and M'gaan and immediately jumped into the air and towards the armed soldiers and tanks that shot at him, "What is going on?!" Armadrillo shouted in confusion as bullets rained down on them like rain; the Talpaedan had no choice but to step in front of the Martian as the bullets bounced off his armored-torso.
"Thank you," she said with an embarrassed blush as she heard the metal ricocheting off of his body.
"Don't mention it; can't leave a pretty girl out in the rain… or gun fire," M'gaan smiled at this comment while Armadrillo pounded his fists down on the ground using his jackhammer elbows to generate a massive earthquake directed at the tanks causing heavy machinery to topple over into ditches created by the shockwaves.
"Let's go!" Armadrillo slapped the dial on his chest as a green light covered his transformation into a black and blue velociraptor with wheel-like feet, sharp pincers for hands, and a visor over it's face.
"Who are you?" She questioned taking a step back as the alien picked her up bridle style and held her close.
"Same guy, different form," he talked in run-on sentences as he sped out of the area heading north leaving a blur of blue-black colors and trail of dust behind him.
…
He ran at Mach nine in silence for nearly fifteen minutes but, never saw any end to the massive desert they seemed to be trapped in; it must have been at least a thousand miles in area if even XLR8 couldn't run out in under twenty-minutes, his thoughts were soon interrupted by a beeping-noise sounding off from his chest-plate. The hourglass symbol illuminated red signifying its running out of power, he slowed down to only a few dozen miles per hour but, before he could come to a complete stop a bright red flash sent human Ben and M'gaan tumbling into a heap at 30MPH.
"Damn it," Ben held his head in discomfort as he stood, "That smarts."
M'gaan popped her head out of a bank of sand, looking around almost childishly, "What happened?" she asked as she brushed the grains from her long crimson-hair.
"I ran out of power; See I can change into different forms but, after about twenty minutes or so, i power down for a while," he tapped his Ultimatrix which glowed a silent red hue, charging for its next use.
"I take it that weird looking watch gives you your powers?" she pointed to his wrist causing Ben to sigh for a moment pulling his sleeve back.
"Yea, it was built by one of the smartest guys in the Universe; it allows me to transform into different aliens, over one-million actually but, I can only use, like, sixty of them so far."
"Aliens? Do you have Martians? Or Kryptonians?" M'gaan got closer looking at his watches design and curvatures.
"No, it's only programmed to scan aliens from my own Universe," Ben said as he held his wrist up and twisted the dial, "Although; now that i think about it, i guess it could be reprogrammed for any DNA that's not human."
"You're from another Universe?" She said highlighting the one part of his sentence he glossed over; he looked up from his watch and realized that she was only inches from his face, Ben rubbed the back of his neck for a second before she realized how close he was to her.
"Yea... i am..." He muttered as they met eyes, doughy-brown meeting neon-emerald; they felt a spark and grew closer, they had no idea why but, it felt as though they knew enough about each other so that this wasn't weird. In fact, it felt right, it felt perfect. Their lips were so close that they could feel their breaths against their skin; she wrapped her arms around his neck and he placed his palms gently on her waist, lowering their eyes slowly ready to close the gap. It was almost perfect until something fast approached, something too fast to be a vehicle; it hit them at almost a hundred-miles an hour and yelped like a school-girl as they all tumbled and rolled into a heap.
Ben turned and sat up quickly, hovering his palm over his his Ultimatrix out of instinct but, it was still out of power so, it was more for show than anything. What he wasn't expecting was more teenagers, two to be exact, one wearing full black and red friction-proof body armor with a lightning bolt symbol on his chest and the other was a tall girl nearly Ben's height, with long blonde hair tied-up into a pony-tail and a green, slightly provocative, skin tight body suit that covered the space around her eyes along with her cheek-bones. Her piercing brown eyes didn't distract from the emerald-green bow and quiver strapped to her back, Ben suddenly recognized the one wearing body armor.
M'gaan immediatly lifted them both in the air with her telekinesis to immobilize them, "Wait a minute!" Ben said as M'gaan looked in his direction, "You, you're Kid Flash, right?"
"The one and only, glad you're a fan and all but, can you tell your girlfriend to put us down?"
"Tell yours to stop pointing that arrow at us," he said as the ginger speedster turned and saw she had an arrow pulled back on her bow and one eye closed aiming right for Ben in-between his eyes; He gave her a stern look and she groaned rolling her eyes and lowering her bow.
Ben gave M'gaan a similar look and she too rolled her eyes and lowered them slowly to the ground with a hand still out-stretched. Kid Flash and Ben began talking about everything that had happened and how they had no idea where they were; M'gaan floated four feet off the ground in a meditative sitting position trying to recover her memories with her mental prowess.
"Okay, so neither of us have any idea where we are or how we got here? So mass-amnesia?" Ben said putting a finger to his chin, "Maybe we were kidnapped?"
"No!" M'gaan's eyes snapped open as she flew over to Ben and the others and announced her discovery after reaching into her mind for lost memories, "You're Kid Flash, Wally! And you're Artemis! And Ben, you're our leader!"
"I am? Sweet..."
Kid Flash narrowed his eyes, "Wait, how do you know my name?"
"Your name's really Wally?" Artemis asked as he groaned and hung his head in disappointment as he was thoroughly embarrassed in front of the blonde he found attractive.
"It's okay, we're teammates, I made you cookies!"
"Artemis folded her arms and turned to Wally, "You know her?" Almost sounding jealous with her tone.
"No, of course not, beautiful; never seen her before in my life!"
"Something happened that erased your memories too," she looked into the distance where more trucks approached, "I'll fill you in on the way, Robin and Superboy need our help."
Artemis sighed as she walked with her, "Right, Robin and Super-what-now?"
...
In the distance, far from the direction Ben and M'gaan had walked off to; Superboy roared and snarled as he pulled on his bounds tied to his wrist with two dozen men on one-side and another two-dozen pulling from the other, they just barely managed to hold him down until he yanked on one of the ropes pulling five men to the ground at once.
A single man in the back with a rifle cocked his weapon and approached the man before yet another unknown hooded figure placed a hand on his shoulder stopping him, "You must control his mind!"
"There doesn't seem to be much mind left for me to control," he stated with a raspy voice, "Simon Says," as he approached Superboy with his finger outstretched pressing it to his forehead, "Sleep."
The Kryptonian's rage vanished and he collapsed to the ground unconscious in seconds groaning as he did so; the men eventually gained their second wind and grabbed Superboy by the shoulders and dragging his sleeping body into a caravan where they took off protected by multiple tanks.
...
Bialya; September 5th; 7:44PM.
After hours and hours of walking in the hot sun, M'gaan nearly collapsed as Ben knelt next to her with a comforting embrace; he swung her shoulder around his neck and supported her across the sandy plain. After the sun went down and the Moon came out, the Martian recovered as they continued their trek through the sandy terrain they eventually stopped by a gesture from Ben holding his hand out.
"What? Now you want to stop?" Artemis chided as Ben stepped up and pointed into the distance where fighting took place with explosions of smoke expanding across the area.
Ben smiled and looked back at the half team he'd gathered, "That could be someone who can help us out of this desert, or at least a lead..." He dialed up a hologram and slapped the dial appearing as a dwarf green-chubby alien resembling a gummy-bear with large green eyes and a wide mouth.
"Upchuck? Well, better than nothing!" It waddled into the smoke looking around for any enemies he could spot but, they were sparse as he mostly felt concentrated fighting in one area. Like someone was taking on the entire group by themselves, he accidentally bumped into one soldiers shin; he shouted in a foreign language aiming his gun at Upchuck's face, on instinct he used his throat-tendrils to grab the weapon and eat it. The soldier backed away in shock, like he'd never seen anything like it before until he regurgitated the weapon as a green-mass of energy which exploded like a small grenade blasting the man onto his back.
The smoke-screen dissipated and Ben reverted to normal whilst the one boy in the center backed up; he finally caught sight of Kid Flash before giving off a long sigh, "KF? Man its glad to see a familiar face; introduce me to your friends?" Robin pointed his head towards the group of teens.
"How about we hog-tie these freaks and compare notes?"
…
After several minutes of introducing each other and themselves, M'gaan explained the situation to them using her Martian mental prowess to recall her memories far faster than the others.
"So, the last four months of our memory is just, gone?" Artemis surmised as she folded her arms in disbelief, "It can't be that simple."
Wally chuckled for a moment, "And we're a team?"
M'gaan nodded in agreement not even phased by his rude sarcasm or simply not understanding it, "Yea! Us five and Superboy!"
"This must be his then!" Robin held out a torn piece of shirt that had the famous 'S' emblazoned on it.
"Did you see him?" She asked curiously towards Robin as Artemis spoke up.
"I think we did," Artemis looked back to Wally whom rolled his eyes, "Some team mate, he tried to attack us a couple hours ago."
Ben stood closer to M'gaan in his defense, "He didn't know who we are… I don't know who we are!"
"I remember Batman ordering radio-silence; our team must work for him!" Robin exclaimed putting the pieces together.
Kid scoffed, "How do you know we don't work for my mentor?" he jabbed his thumb into his chest as his stealth-tech shifted the color of his suit from red and black to red and yellow, "Oh, sweet!"
Artemis stomped her foot on the ground looking at everyone in the group, "We look ridiculous!" She noticed Kid switching back and forth from stealth to regular armor, "Quit touching yourself!"
"We need our memories back," Ben confirmed as M'gaan sighed to herself out of simple exasperation, rubbing her wrists nervously she took a breath and built up the courage to allow her eyes to glow bright green.
"For my friends!"
...
Suddenly they all opened their eyes after witnessing a flash of light; they looked around and they were in some sort of odd dimension where their individual memories were scattered around them like a broken mirror.
"I've brought you into my mind to show you what I remember so far," a glowing entity appeared which soon formed into M'gaan, "But, I need your help to piece back together the full story, all four months."
Artemis whom was juxtaposed to Ben and on the other side of him was Dick and Wally on the other side of Artemis in that order; "Our broken memories can form a whole… if you open your minds to me…" M'gaan stuttered a bit trying her best not to be as nervous as she had been acting.
"You wanna prowl through our private thoughts?" Artemis exclaimed outraged at the mere implication.
"I have no wish to intrude!" M'gaan insured them all but continued, "But-"
"You need to hack our brains to get our memories back, go ahead, shoot," Robin grinned and gave a thumbs-up.
"My brains all yours, baby, dig through anything you like," Wally winced at the Martian who only smiled awkwardly in response.
M'gaan smiled with a nod looking towards Artemis, she held her arm being nervous about her past, "Only the last four months?"
"I promise!"
Artemis looked to her feet still unsure of her decision when she felt a warm hand grabbing her own; she glanced up at Wally whom didn't look at her but, tightened his grip ever-so slightly. She felt more secure with his hand around hers, they were strangers to each other but, if their memories were lost perhaps they were more than strangers? The only way to find out for sure was to go through with this plan, "Fine, let's do this."
From her hands outstretched glowing green appendages that expanded and encompassed them all as their memories flooded into their brains like a dam ready to burst and as it did they remembered everything.
The entirety of the last four months rushed through their minds engulfing them in experiences and memories they'd never pictured before, how they'd met, how their team formed, every single detail flushed through their entire psyche. They found out why they were here, it was some sort of power surge unlike anything Batman had seen and since Bialya wasn't a part of the Leagues charter, they decided that The Team was the best covert option to investigate this anomaly. The mission was specifically to discover what the high-power surge was caused by and then depart unnoticed. After arriving, M'gaan established the psychic link and headed out in camo mode; she arrived in a tent where Bialiyan scientists were testing some sort of device. "I'm in, they're testing something, no they're torturing it… it's- it's alive," M'gaan started as she reached out to the sentient machine; suddenly M'gaan heard a man's voice in enter their psychic link speaking ominously. "What's this? A Peeping Tom?" M'gaan looked around and noticed a man with paper white skin, and a visibly disgusting brain, she blinked at him and said "Who- Who's there?" The man responded by looking directly at the camouflaged M'gaan and saying, "Dear child, Psimon can't see you, Psimon can't touch you but, Psimon can make you all forget!" And with that last word his mind sent a mental attack that traveled through the link and threw everyone into an agonizing frenzy. Superboy leapt off into the distance, Wally and Artemis collapsed in their position at an observation point disguised as a shed, Ben whom was scoping out the tent collapsed with M'gaan herself floating away in pain before collapsing in the sand still fully camouflaged.
"Superboy!" They shouted in unison as M'gaan continued with her rant exiting her mindscape completely, "Four months ago Superboy didn't exist! He has no memories just pure animal instinct," She floated upwards, "I gotta find him, I can't abandon my friends!"
...
M'gaan landed first in her camouflage mode, peeking into a large tent with scientists typing away completely unaware of her presence; XLR8 appeared behind her placing his hand on her shoulder notifying her to his arrival, he slapped the dial on his chest and transformed into ChamAlien immediately going into his camouflage mode.
They noticed Superboy strapped to a horizontal table facing upwards with electrocution surging through his body; M'gaan flew in unnoticed by anyone as Ben followed suit spotting a sphere of some sort revving its engine as Superboy was shocked.
M'gaan rushed forwards and pushed several men out of the way shutting down the electro-therapy as Psimon mentally scanned the room and found a mental formidable opponent in the tent with him; "Well, someone is definitely glutton for punishment…"
"Psimon says, forget!" He spoke mentally to the camouflaged M'gaan and just before his mental prowess overwhelmed the Martian; Ben felt a surge in his mind but, it passed as M'gaan was seemingly fighting back. They locked eyes even with the Martian being invisible, they battled in a mental realm for dominance over their psyches.
"This doesn't look good," He immediately slapped the dial on his chest but, instead of transforming into yet another alien-form, he reverted into a human again catching the attention of the entire tent's occupants. Armed guards approached with their rifles pointed directly at him, "Not a good time for a time out..."
They shouted in a foreign language but, all he could think to do was finally use his magic in battle; he didn't do his training with Kent for nothing, one man grabbed a glock from its holster and aimed it for his forehead. Sweat dripped down Ben's temple but, he didn't panic, as soon as the gun fired he brought a turquoise mana-shield in the shape of a think-square between the shooter and himself. It didn't even crack as soon the entire squad of ten men were firing their automatic weapons at his defensive spell.
He used one hand to maintain the shield and another to form a mana-disc before launching it at his enemy, missing horribly, "Gwen always made this look easy..." Soon, his defense began to crack like glass slowly shattering to pieces; one solider tossed a grenade his way, rolling to a stop at his feet before turning and running out of the tent.
"Crap!" He quickly created a dome of mana around the orange-sized explosive but, the resulting detonation shattered it and sent Ben flying into a table knocking its contents to the ground; he stood holding his head as his eyes turned bright-blue, "No more Mr. Nice Hero..."
They all had their weapons trained on the tent's entrance waiting to see if anyone survived the explosion, not seeing smoke they became increasingly distressed; one solider approached the tents entrance, peeking through the flaps not seeing anything until he heard, "Adfishio-potentia!" With those words came a volley of mana-tendrils forcing the mana fifteen feet away onto his back.
"Turb-O!" A gust of wind formed right outside of the sent turning into a small cyclone slowly approaching the group of nine men, it was more of a distraction considering Ben didn't have the skill to summon anything as dangerous as a tornado, yet. He ran from the sent sending mana-discs at his opponents, knocking two out with direct hits to the face before being forced to form a shield to block the enemy fire now targeting him. He looked to his side and tossed a mana-bullet into the air quickly boomeranging back at a soldier knocking him into another solider; five left, "Uhh... oh yea, Somnus!"
All five soldiers fell over immediately, ceasing fire and dropping into a deep slumber; Ben lowered his shield and gave a long sigh, "That was close," Before he could rest though, a cyclone suddenly ripped apart the tent leaving frightened scientists grasping onto random equipment with M'gaan and Psimon staring at each other intently in the center. Ben trekked through the winds making his way to M'gaan's side, she was floating slightly in the air but, he could just barely reach out and grab her hand. As he made physical contact with her, he was suddenly transported into a floating amalgam of buildings where he was held in the center of a green bubble with Psimon shooting a massive beam of crimson mental energy at her barely defending shield. Everything around them began to fade as her memories began to erase themselves quickly; M'gaan furrowed her brow and shouted, "Not again!" her psionic waves exploded outwards returning everything back to the way it was. She continued to fire back with emerald mental energy bolts slamming into the psychic villain.
"Ben?" She was only able rejoice for a moment as she reeled back from another psychic attack from her opponent, "He's too strong, I can't beat him!"
"Yes you can!" Ben shouted as floated up to meet her eyes, "I believe in you!"
"But, he has so much more skill and experience and-" Ben interrupted by grabbing her hand in his own and tightening his grip.
"You are so much stronger than you think you are; you're one of the strongest, kindest, most beautiful girls I know; I believe you can do anything and that includes kicking this guys ass!"
"Touching," Psimon scoffed as he crossed his arms, "and by all means, kick my psychic ass," he sent a thicker wave of mental fire at her, being deflected by a blue-mana shield. She was dumbfounded but, she didn't lose her momentum. Ben frowned and turned his eyes back to the enemy letting his eyes glow blue, "Trust me!" he let loose a blast of mana at the man who went wide eyed as he was knocked away and began trying to re-balance himself.
M'gaan nodded to him and he nodded back with a knowing gaze, "Together!" they lifted their clasped hands and fired a blue-and-green massive wave of mental and mystical energy at the psychic-mad-man. Psimon, who had finally gained his balance, was knocked aback into the mental-space once again, this time he put up a shield of black energy which held for only a second against the enormous mental blast.
His shield begun cracking and withering away, "How? You shouldn't be capable of this!"
"You have no idea what I'm capable of!" M'gaan shouted before her eyes turned white and her forehead unleashed a beam of energy which pierced Psimon's clear-skull and connected with brain destroying his mental self in a massive explosion; He screamed in agony on the outside as his psyche was shattered to pieces.
"Artemis, Robin and Wally entered the collapsed-tent with shuriken flying across the room incapacitating scientists and destroyed equipment; one shuriken landed on the console that trapped the sphere like alien device releasing it from its bounds. It beeped happily at Artemis whilst Robin shoved an shuriken through the computer console unlatching Superboy's restraints and allowing him to fall to the ground with a breath of air.
He snarled backing away from them all just as Ben and M'gaan stepped through the tent supporting each other as best they could, "Trust me," M'gaan smiled, "You're one of my best friends!" She placed her fingers on his forehead and every single memory for the last four months rushed into his head one after the other as he suddenly remembered everything about the mission, "So, did we win?"
…
Psimon stood in the center of a room surrounded by screens; these screens each had a silhouette of another member of the Light, "The heroes escaped with the sphere and the Superboy," he said nervously.
"That hardly matters," a female voice spoke up, "What matters is our new partners delivery system…"
Behind Psimon, a screen appeared of a thundering boom opening a doorway across space and dropping equipment at the test site that was destroyed, "Don't worry, new technology will soon arrive that will put the Omnitrix to shame."
A male intervened, "Speaking of putting the Omnitrix to shame; how is Project: Ten coming along?"
Another man spoke from the far-left screen, "Quite nicely, in fact, we are on schedule for a debut in five years, give or take."
...
Chapter 8 Remastered 7/11/18
;)