I don't own DC or Ben 10
Chapter 33 – The Fix
…
Pacific Ocean; April 8th 2019; 5:44PM
"How could things go so wrong so fast?"
Artemis stared up at the metallic ceiling from her bunk in Manta's submarine, ever since M'gaan encountered Kaldur on the Reach ship and shredded his mind, she'd never felt more alone in this world of evil. She stood up and looked down at her hands, knowing she'd have to continue using them for horrible things and now her only friend is a zombie.
Walking up to the sink in her cabin, she stared into the reflection of the mirror above it; the glamor-charm changed her appearance so everyone sees an entirely different person when they look at her, the only people it doesn't effect are Wally, Dick and herself. Being that, she had to watch as every single time she committed some horrible crime against humanity, the face staring back at her in the morning was still her own.
She wasn't even sure if she recognized herself anymore, she had it made with Wally and she gave it all away for this life. She couldn't say yes fast enough when Dick first made the call and now she was knee deep in shit without a shovel and things were only getting worse.
She sighed tightening her fist, looking back into her reflection as tears welled behind the surface, she couldn't stand to look at herself so she shattered the mirror with her gloved-fist. Regaining her composure, she took deep breaths as she heard her superior shout for her from Kaldur's room.
"Yes boss?" she announced herself as she entered moments later, finding that being alone was soon going to become impossible.
Manta stood above his son's bed with a silver-metallic seat pulled up, in it sat M'gaan shamefully looking to the ground, only noticing her when she walked forwards.
"Thank you for coming," he said as he turned around and faced the Martian in the chair, "Let me make myself perfectly clear, you are here to repair the psychic damage that you did to my son, nothing else."
He reached out and grabbed her by the collar, pulling her off the chair onto her knees in front of him, "This collar negates all of your Martian abilities but, in a moment, we will selectively reinstate your telepathy, before we do that though, understand," he looked back pointing to a camera mounted to the ceiling looking down on them, "Deathstroke is on a ship beyond your psychic range watching your every move, and with a single button, he can activate a substantial explosive charge in your collar."
She ground her teeth, pulling her head away from his grasp, "So don't lose your head," he turned ominously as she got back in her chair beside the bed, "Deathstroke, reinstate her telepathy," he said directly to the camera.
One of the three lights on her collar faded away as M'gaan could feel her inhibitor allowing her thoughts to travel again; she could feel the sensation of the limiter being lifted.
"Now, save my son or die," he grabbed hold of the exit door, pulling it open with a loud metallic creak, "Tigress, make sure she stays on task at all times."
"On it, boss," Tigress turned and grabbed M'gaan by the shoulders, pushing her toward Kaldur rudely, "Get to it, you don't have all day."
M'gaan looked down at Kaldur, blankly staring off into the distance, "Artemis? That is you, isn't it?"
"Yea, it's me."
"I'm so sorry… What do I do?" she asked, leaving the question open as if she didn't know the answer, frustrating Artemis.
"Look, shit happens but we have to think really smart to get out of this one; first things first, you need to fix Kaldur, the rest we can figure out later, the three of us."
M'gaan closed her eyes, lowering her head, "I'm not worried about the rest; I'm worried that I can't fix Kaldur, breaking a mind is easy but, restoring one? That might not even be possible."
"And what if I make things worse? My mere presence in his mind could be seen as another attack."
Tigress looked off into her own reflection in the metal wall across from her, "Take me, he knows me and he won't see me as a threat, I can help."
"Maybe… or maybe I lose you too."
"Look we don't have time for you to throw a pity party, right now, we need to do everything we can to get through the day, do you think this has been a walk in the park for me? We don't have any other choice."
M'gaan gave a long sigh, opening her eyes again as they flashed bright green, "No… we don't…"
…
Gotham City; April 9th 2019; 11:35PM
Dick put the milk back in the fridge after having taken a long gulp, he wiped his mouth and shut the door walking into his small efficiency hallway, he shuffled into his room and sat on the bed, scrolling through social media on his phone.
The Reach were trending on Twitter and Instagram, very popular with children and even more popular with politicians who use the aliens for good press, although, it's becoming apparently obvious who is using whom. He sighed and shut his phone off, placing it on the nightstand; he was about to turn over and get some shut-eye when he heard a loud banging on the door.
He shot up immediately, glaring at the hall as he reached over and pulled open his nightstand drawer, grabbing an escrima-stick from within which lit-up bright blue at the end. He skulked through the hall, slowly approaching the door as the pounding came again, this time louder.
He put his back to the wall and looked through the window, pulling back a small curtain, "Oh, shit…" he swung the door open as fast as he could, "Ben!?"
He was holding his shoulder, which was bleeding profusely as the shapeshifter toppled into his arms, "I escaped," he muttered as he hobbled into the small apartment.
"Were you followed?" Dick asked without looking as he peeked his head out the door, looking around before shutting and locking it, sliding the deadbolt shut.
He stumbled into the kitchen grabbing a bottle of whiskey from the counter-top, popping open the cork and pouring it over his wound to sterilize it, "Shit!" he shouted as he turned the bottle on himself, chugging down several gulps of alcohol.
Dick watched as Ben knocked everything off the kitchen table with a sweep of his arms and laid his back on it, he then touched his shoulder as he approached quickly, rifling through the kitchen drawers, "No-AGH," Ben touched his shoulder where a high caliber hollow-point bullet was lodged, "I'm n-not that r-rusty."
Dick quickly ran to his side taking the alcohol and analyzing the wound, "Yea," he showed Ben what he had in his hands, "This is going to hurt, a lot."
Ben rolled his eyes and groaned loudly, "You don't have a first-aid kit?!"
Dick frowned as he handed a wooden-spoon to Ben and rushed back into the kitchen, "This isn't exactly the Bat-Cave!" Ben rolled his eyes one more time in frustration before sticking the spoon in his mouth, biting down hard.
Once he came back into the room, Dick was holding a long, sharp, steak-knife and a roll of paper-towels, "Now, I need you to hold still," he set down the papers, pushed Ben's shoulder down and held the knife a few centimeters from the wound, "Try not to pass out."
"AGH!"
…
Two hours later
"She said she was who?"
After washing and bandaging up his wound, Dick decided to use this time to fill his friend in on what's been happening in the last week since his abduction from the Hall of Justice.
"Well, is it true?"
Ben rubbed his goatee and laid back on the small couch in the corner by the door, "Sunny exists but, I don't know about everything else she says, I mean, time travel from an apocalyptic future?" He almost scoffed but, Dick continued his explanation.
"Actually, the night you were abducted Jamie and Bart announced that in Bart's future the Reach have completely subjugated at least half of Earth," he sighed and handed Ben a glass of water as he was still dehydrated and malnourished from being captured for so long, "So, it may actually substantiate everything she's been saying."
Ben chugged his glass of water and handed it back to Dick, "So now we have two future apocalypse prophecies hanging over our heads?"
Dick sighed, "Yea."
"That's like… two more than I'm used to, Dick."
"I know," He walked around the couch and sat next to him, "What about M'gaan?"
Ben looked away, down to his feet and the carpet, "Vilgax said she was taken to another facility, I don't know where, I'm going to go looking for her in the morning."
Dick stood up, "No, you're coming with Kara and I to the hospital in the morning, we need a game-plan."
"I can't wait around knowing she's with the Light," He almost shouted, trying to stand as his injury caused immense strain, pulling him back into the couch.
Dick scoffed, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "And what're you going to do then? In the middle of the night, with that injury slowing you down," he walked into the kitchen and grabbed the whiskey off the counter, popping the cap and walking up to the sink, "Go to sleep, in the morning we can talk fighting back against all of this but, let me tell you something…"
He poured the contents of the bottle out into the garbage disposal, placing the empty bottle down, "We need Ben Tennyson smack in the middle of his god damn right-mind if we have any chance; sober the hell up, we've got work to do."
…
Metropolis Central Hospital; April 10th 2019; 12:34PM
"So," Conner started looking up at everyone from his bed in the recovery bay, "Let me get this straight; we've got a Reach apocalypse, Vilgax apocalypse, and Light apocalypse to stop and we don't even have the Justice League on Earth to help us."
"That sums it up pretty well," Kara muttered, folding her arms up at Dick and Ben, "And we're divided, spread thin."
"We need to keep putting the pieces back together," the former Robin walked over and closed the door to the hospital room, "And to do that I need to be honest."
They all turned to him, raising the brows in confusion, "What do you mean?"
Dick pulled from his pocket a small silver device, like a marble, rolling in his palm and with a single touch it floated from his hand, scanning the entire room with a sweep of blue-light.
"Scanning for foreign communicative signals."
"I need to be sure we aren't being eavesdropped in on before I can talk freely," the device finished scanning quickly dropped back into his palm.
"Scan complete."
"Okay, we're good, talk." Ben took a few steps back, standing next to Kara beside Conner's bed.
"M'gaan was abducted by Albedo and according to Ben, the Light has her; I have reason to believe it has something to do with Aqualad."
"Yea, so?" Kara propped her chin up on her hand.
"So… Aqualad isn't actually a traitor," he looked away not making eye contact with any of them but, this news wouldn't hold very well.
Ben tightened his fist, "What the hell are you talking about?"
Conner exclaimed, "He killed Artemis!"
"No… he didn't," Dick explained, "He faked her death so that she could join him on a deep-cover operation, infiltrating the Light for the League."
Ben grabbed Dick by the collar of his shirt, quickly pushing him up against the wall, "I mourned Artemis! I tried to kill Kaldur! I almost killed Kaldur! Are you out of your mind?!"
"It was Kaldur's idea to use the revelation of his father's identity to take his place under Black Manta in the Light," Dick grabbed Ben's wrist slowly pulling him away, "He's been giving us vital information but, he went dark after the rescue op two weeks ago."
"Duh!" Conner shouted, "Are you stupid?"
Dick blinked, looking over to the Kryptonian, "What?"
"M'gaan believed Kaldur had killed Artemis so when she saw him on that Reach ship, she fried his mind!"
Dick was shocked, his eyes widening, "She's never used her powers like that before."
"Which is why she didn't put up a fight when Albedo and Vilgax showed up," Ben muttered under his breath, "I knew something was up."
"I had a feeling but, I didn't know it was that bad."
"That must be why the Light want's M'gaan then, to fix what she did to Kaldur," Kara announced putting the pieces together in her head.
"M'gaan is good but, not that good," Ben stroked his goatee passively, still thinking about everything and trying his best to maintain his composure.
"Then we start looking for her, they've got to have her captured somewhere."
"Manta is the hardest to track, he's always moving underwater, like a shark," Conner added, "He's usually in the Pacific though."
"You don't get it, you have no idea what your secrets have done to us!" Ben interrupted rudely, stepping back towards Dick aggressively, "M'gaan believed Kaldur was a cold blooded murderer so she shredded his psyche, she doesn't know how to fix something like that! So, Manta may just kill her and kill Tigress if she blows her cover trying to save her!" Ben shoved Dick into the wall lightly, "And we'll have lost all three of them because you thought it was a bad idea to share!"
Conner sat up in his bed, "Hey, I'm sure Dick wouldn't have kept a secret like that without a good reason."
"Whatever, I've got a love interest and a long lost relative to find," He stormed out of the room leaving them in silence.
Dick exhaled sitting down and looking to the ground, "Thanks for having my back there."
Superboy scoffed, "You don't give a guy a lot of options! We are entering the final steps of the enemies plan, so you'd better put all your cards on the table, right now."
…
Taos; Star Labs; April 10th 2019; 1:00PM
"What was my mother's name?"
"Sandra."
"When Gwen was twelve, she had a favorite book she carried everywhere, which was it?"
"The Archamada: Book of Spells."
Ben stood in the center of a ring of heroes surrounding them on all sides, standing across from him was Sunny, back in her energy form, answering question after question in boring monotone.
Captain Atom stepped up besides Ben and put a hand on his shoulder, "What do you think?"
"I'm gonna ask you a question only you could possibly know, in any Universe," he leaned in closer to Sunny, shrugging Atom away, "When I was eight we went to a family barbeque and you made fun of me for bringing a stuffed bear with me, what was its name?"
She took a moment to think back, putting a finger to her chin, before acting as though a lightbulb had just appeared above her, "Furry fucking Freddy?" she started laughing hysterically slapping her knee.
Ben's eyes widened, he sat back in his chair and folded his arms, leaning back up to Captain Atom, "She's legit."
Captain Atom cleared his throat before motioning for Black Canary, Aquaman, and Dr. Fate to gather with Blue Beetle, Impulse, Ben Ten Thousand, Sunny, and Veronica.
"Where's Dick?" Dinah asked immediately, him being acting leader of the team.
Sunny took a serious expression and stood, "We have no more time to waste, I don't know exactly how long until it happens and-"
Ben put a hand up interrupting her, "Why don't you back track for those of us just getting into the theater, huh?"
She scoffed, "Humans are so slow…" she stood and projected a cloud of pink smoke which quite vividly displayed an image for everyone to see, "Ten years ago, in my Universe, my people felt a disturbance in the Universe… something frighteningly powerful, something so incredibly dangerous that it could stand over the Universe itself."
"What could possibly be so dangerous?" Captain Atom folded his arms in disbelief, the pink cloud displayed the image of Vilgax silhouetted and standing over a spinning celestial disc like a Galaxy.
Sunny looked down in disappointment, shame, or even guilt, "I don't even really know for sure… my people aren't warriors, we have no military so we sent our mages to investigate, thirty of the most experienced Anodites I've ever encountered," the imagery showed this, the mages coming face to face with something incredibly powerful, over taking them like a tsunami of negative energy, "I never saw them again…"
"And so how does Vilgax play into this?" Ben asked impatiently.
The cloud dissipated above her, dispersing like real smoke, "I discovered our Grandmother's secret library, it had all of Gwenny's spells in it and more; I used those to see into the past and I discovered it was Vilgax who slaughtered my people," a tear slipped down her cheek, crossing her chin and dropping onto the clean porcelain floors.
"I don't care what power boost he got, he isn't taking on an entire group of Anodites," Ben turned around with a chuckle.
Dinah grabbed his arm, "Wait a minute, we can't discount her story just like that."
Veronica was silent, listening to her story, about her mentor's supposed secret library… and the mages of Anodyne were… dead? "This just isn't possible!"
"Anodyne is a planet with thousands of beings with enough power to put out stars like we blow out candles; Vilgax, no matter what alien he sucks dry, can't match that," Ben's reasoning was solid but, the facts were already presented, the future was proof enough that this was going to happen.
Silence encompassed the room, filling it with great tension as Dr. Fate interjected, catching everyone's attention with the synchronized voices of Nabu and Zatara, "Before reality existed there was nothing… and before there was nothing, there were monsters. Abstract primordial beings of infinite power, existing on higher dimensional plains; treating our reality as we treat drawings on paper."
Aquaman spoke up, "And so what does that mean?"
"It means its not impossible to surpass a fully-grown Anodite, just improbable," Ben finished still thinking deeply, not contributing too much to the conversation at hand, "Vilgax has absorbed inter-dimensional powers before, it was the only time he ever really almost beat me, he might be looking for another dose of god-hood."
Fate floated forwards and closed in on Sunny, "Did you find any sign of which reality bending creature he may have absorbed?"
She shook her head with disappointment, "I didn't even consider it… I've never been outside of my home Universe before so I'm not the best judge for something like this-"
Ben took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair, "Yea, she's not going to be any help, trust me," he turned around to face the League as she scowled at the back of his head, "For now I think it's best we leave Dr. Fate to…" he looked around and found the sorcerer floating facing the opposite direction, "Fate?"
"I'm traveling deep into the Tower of Fate, infinite history is stored within its walls, if I can narrow down our search we may be able to disclose which power he absorbs," Opening an ankh-shaped portal in front of him, "Or perhaps even devise counter measures to-" the portal closed behind him, leaving them without even finishing his sentence, it was quite obvious that he was more in his own head than anywhere else.
"Okay… yea," Ben looked over to Captain Atom, "He'll do that and we can focus on the Reach while he does!"
"That simple, huh?"
"Yep," Ben looked around, trying to figure out if he'd missed anything, "Sounds pretty cut and dry to me."
Sunny stood frustrated, walking up behind Ben and grabbing him by the shoulders, "This is more serious than you're letting on; I did say the Multiverse was at stake, right?"
Ben scoffed, "You've said a lot of things and there's always something at stake; the Galaxy, the Universe, Multiverse, whatever," he pounded his fist into his palm, "The way I see it this just means I get to beat Vilgax, again!"
"No…" Sunny caught their attention once again as she turned around, "The fact that I'm here means you lost."
Ben's eyes widened, she had a point, "And the warning I gave you didn't change anything, and if that's the case than I should just leave," she turned around completely pretending to hide tears and walking away.
Canary put a hand on his shoulder, "Don't you think you should go after her?"
"No."
Captain Atom stepped forward, "But, you will because she knows more about this than anyone, right?"
Veronica chuckled, taking a few nonchalant steps over to Ben as he raised his voice, "She won't be going anywhere… because she thinks we don't know that she doesn't have any way to get back."
She froze, stiffening up like a board, humans were so frustrating.
"Look, I know you might be used to your spoiled life-style but, we have other pressing concerns on Earth," Ben stepped up and put a finger in her chest, "We don't have time to play your games."
She stomped her foot, slightly cracking the tile with her heel, "I wasn't trying to play games! I was just trying to get a little compassion from my favorite cousin…"
"We're barely cousins and you definitely aren't my favorite," Ben narrowed his eyes as she smirked with a coy expression.
Her body started glowing as Caucasian skin shun through the energy, "Oh yea?" the human form she used back at the farm in Kansas reappeared; long raven-black straight hair down to her hips, piercing blue eyes, and a purple blouse, "I modeled my human form after her because I was jealous in my teens but, it really does suit me."
Ben couldn't believe what he was seeing, he took a step forwards reaching out and grazing her cheek with his hands, "You look… you still look just like her…"
Captain Atom rubbed the bridge of his nose, fighting off the headache he knew was coming on as Dinah came from behind and placed a consoling hand on his upper-back, "Change back," he demanded.
"I can't change my human form; I don't know how to do that yet."
Ben immediately turned around, pulling his hand away and walking back towards the teleporters, "Than I can't stand to look at you…"
"I came all the way here just to give you this warning and you can't even look at me? I haven't seen you in who knows how long, and you can't even manage to look at me?!" She followed after him, as the heroes split a path between them for them to walk.
Bart chuckled, "Family drama, sweet."
Jamie and Veronica both shushed him aggressively as the argument continued.
"We don't have time for this," Captain Atom reiterated his point.
Ben looked back pointing at him, "I know! If you couldn't tell, I'm dealing with an issue here."
"So, I'm just an issue?!" Sunny shouted as her eyes and hands were suddenly engulfed in pink flames, "Just another problem to deal with?!"
"Yes!" Ben finally turned around and shouted, "And when Paradox shows up, I'm having him take you home!"
She scoffed sarcastically, waving her hands in the air at the Leaguer's, "Does Paradox suddenly carry a cellphone I don't know about?"
"Yea, but you'll have to make the call because I think he only answers for inconsiderate dweebs!" Ben and Sunny were head to head in the middle of the room, as his own eyes were suddenly lit ablaze with blue flames.
Aquaman took a position next to Captain Atom, "Batman wouldn't have let this happen."
Atom groaned, "But, Batman isn't here, is he?"
…
In the deepest, darkest, most sacred reaches of Kaldur's mind; two figures manifested in what seemed to be the ocean floor, surrounded by the shattered ruins of Atlantis. Once there, Artemis, in her traditional emerald costume, immediately grabbed her throat, choking on herself as she assumed she'd need air underwater.
M'gaan formed with her only, her experience with psychic dives allowed her to see what was real, "Artemis!" she cried floating over to her, "You don't need air, this isn't real!"
She continued to choke, slowly taking skipped breaths as she realized the situation, "None of this can hurt you but, if you let yourself be consumed by your emotions, your brain can suffer permanent damage!"
Artemis huffed, fully coming to the realization, "Right, right; it's all in my head…" she looked around at the destroyed remains of the lost city, "Well, Kaldur's head."
They took a long look around as M'gaan explained where they were, "This is how Kaldur perceives his psyche; Atlantis, his home, in ruins." She looked down in regret, in disappointment, in guilt and shame and several other colors of emotion that she couldn't express enough. She did this to him, without even checking his mind first, she did this to someone she called a friend and didn't even give him the benefit of the doubt, "I don't even know where to start…"
From around the corner of a massive shard of marble, from some temple or another, an aggressive shout echoed impossibly through the waters. A beam of concentrated water mystically smacked them both in the chest sending them into the ground, some sort of stadium grounds, also shattered like the rest of the world around them.
A familiar woman with light-red hair, freckles across her cheeks, and traditional Atlantean garb fired water-based energy attacks at them using her skills as a sorceress; Artemis floated up, narrowing her eyes, "Tula?" another beam headed straight for her but, before it did it passed right through her like a ghost.
"Not really there… not really there… not really there…" she whispered to herself with closed eyes, trying to remember in her mind that she wasn't truly being attacked.
Her eyes snapped back open when she heard M'gaan crying out for help, screaming in agony as she was bombarded by mystical attacks; each one hitting as she could only mutter, "All my fault… all my fault…"
Artemis floated down to her, getting in front of the blast but, it just passed through her hitting the Martian again; "M'gaan, you just told me it's not real! Snap out of it!"
"It's all my fault," she fell to her knees as she was blasted in the chest again, pinned against a boulder, "All my fault," she felt like the biggest hypocrite on Earth, scolding Ben for using his powers so ruthlessly and not even checking Kaldur's mind before attacking it on sight. She drowned in her emotions as Artemis frantically floated up to eye-level with Tula, Kaldur's first love.
"Tula! Aquagirl! Listen to me, you have to stop! It wasn't her fault!" She waved her hands about and tried her best to stop her but, only phased through her ethereal body like everything else, "Oh, duh, you aren't real either!"
She couldn't stop the attack from here so she followed the only thing she could, her thoughts; she was no telepath but, in a place like this she could only really feel three people being herself, M'gaan, and, "Kaldur!" she shouted as she swam through the walls of a destroyed temple.
He sat alone, on a pedestal in the center of the temple; he was silent, looking down with his forearms propped up on his thighs, staring at the ground, "Kaldur, we need you t-"
She grabbed his shoulder and he quickly turned to her, revealing his face had vanished along with all of its features and from every single direction at once his voice echoed as she gasped, "Kera ko? Kera ko? What is left of Kaldur'Ahm? O dama se kera, telle so?"
She facepalmed, turning back around to look at his body, "Knew I should have paid better attention in freshman Atlantean class."
…
"You left your home to rot without you!"
"You never cared about a home to begin with so I guess I can't go below the belt like that, can I?"
The kids were the only ones sticking around to watch them argue as the less involved heroes decided to discuss their options in a huddle away from the two bickering family members.
Veronica floated between them, putting her hands out stopping them from fighting, "Come on guys, we really don't have the time to be arguing like this."
"He can't help it; he hates that I'm wearing this face," she put a finger in his face as he closed his eyes.
Veronica looked over, having finally gone over the edge, pushed her back with a ferocious glare, "She meant the world to him, do you think he just jumped into another reality and forgot about it all?"
Sunny looked away, "I mean I guess-" Veronica pushed her a bit harder this time.
"And where were you when Vilgax absorbed your grandmother, my mentor, and destroyed Earth?!"
Sunny became flustered, a blush creeping up onto her cheeks from embarrassment and shame, "I… I didn't know… I was…"
"Now you think you're so brave! Finding one little spell that managed you across dimensions and everyone should praise you like a hero?!" Veronica shouted, "Is that it!?"
Sunny backed away, tears welling in her eyes, "Enough!" her shout caused the entire facility to shake; Captain Atom, Aquaman, and Canary all looked at once over to the scene as the quake caused dry wall to rain down from the ceiling. As things quieted down the only ones unaffected were Ben and Veronica waiting for her to make her point, "The last time I saw someone I cared about, they were leaving to try and shield Earth from Vilgax before I was even eighteen."
They listened but, only because she brought up Verdona's sacrifice. She turned around as her energy-form shun through her skin and she reappeared in her full Anodite form with tears now streaming down her eyes, "That was well over a decade ago and I guess I forgot what it was like to have family obligated to care about you."
Ben gave a long sigh, putting his hands on his hips, looking around at everyone staring at them, "Sunny… look I-"
"Save it," she interrupted, "I've given you all the information I have on the crisis so I guess you don't need me around anymore," she floated thirty feet up, inches from the ceiling, "Just let me know when you get a hold of Paradox, I'll go willingly," she phased through the building and vanished, leaving them to continue to stare.
Ben took a few seconds looking around at the kids and the heroes, "Take a picture! It'll last longer!"
…
Artemis floated out in front of Kaldur, grabbing his hands in her own and pleading with him, "You have to understand, we're here to help you! M'gaan and I are here to make you better!"
"Lo so mei, Artemis? Lo so mei!" behind her manifested a portal, physically appearing as a vortex of energy, slowly sucking everything around it in like a black hole, "Kero ko, I am alone, there is no one here!" the temple began to crumble above them, breaking down even more as it all went into the vortex, "Nothing… ruins…" he drifted up, slowly floating into the vortex.
"No!" She shouted grabbing his arm and pulling him back, until she was pulled with him, using the pedestal as solid footing, she yanked him towards her, "You're not alone, we're here and we want to help you! We can help you together!"
"Kera ko, kera ko!" he shouted in a dreary timid voice.
She mentally facepalmed, again, kicking herself for not remembering the simplest of terms in high school foreign language electives, "Whats the word, whats the word?! Symbiosi! Together! Help us save you! Symbiosi!"
The vortex slowed down as they both fell to their feet, watching it vanish slowly, "A-Arte-mis?"
M'gaan cried out in agony as Tula used another mystical technique to swirl her into a tornado of water, spinning her around and slamming her into the wall again, followed by several blasts of hydro-mystical might.
Aquagirl landed in front of M'gaan whom whimpered, "All my fault," this made the apparition cringe, using her magic to lift a massive pillar and finish the fight by dropping it on top of her. However, before she could get it in the right position, she vanished into thin air; dissipating as Artemis floated towards her with someone on her arm.
They landed as Kaldur looked up at M'gaan with his face completely in-tact, "You wanna blame yourself? Fine! But you better be prepared to do something about it!" Artemis forcibly grabbed her hand putting Kaldur's in her own.
M'gaan looked up at him, putting a hand on his chin, "Kaldur, I'm… I'm so sorry…"
"Kaldur'Ahm? No… ruins… all ruins…" he muttered looking away as she took him by the chin pointing him towards a shattered observatory.
"Tigress?" a voice shouted from everywhere at once; she watched as M'gaan helped Aqualad reconstruct a broken building but, the voice called out again, "Tigress?"
…
"Hm?" she muttered, suddenly back where she was standing behind M'gaan sitting over Kaldur's comatose body; her head was a bit fuzzy from the entire experience but, she didn't let her senses get too mixed up or else blow her cover, "Sorry," she told Manta, "Feels like I've been standing here for hours…"
He turned his head a bit, the helmet made it difficult to tell if he was emoting within it or not, "You have been… for six hours…" he stepped passed her and grabbed M'gaan's shoulder, "I came to check on your progress."
"We've only just begun…" she sighed with a depressed tone, "I told you this could take weeks."
Suddenly, a blade appeared from within his armored forearm, "If you're stalling for time, Martian, I'll-"
"F-Fath-er?" Kaldur sputtered, taking a slow glance over to Manta who immediately popped the blade back into his suit.
"Son? Kaldur'Ahm, can you hear me?" He shouted grabbing Kaldur's shoulders.
"He's not there yet, not really anyways…" she looked down shamefully.
Black Manta analyzed the situation for a few seconds before standing back up and facing the door, "No, but clearly you are making progress. Forget about the seven days, so long as you continue helping my son, you live."
He opened the door and stepped into the hall, "Tigress, a word."
She stepped out with him as he closed the door behind them, "The bitch is being more cooperative than I imagined…"
She scoffed, "Meaning you're having second thoughts about killing her?" trying to maintain her cover and get information at the same time was not as easy as Dick and Kaldur made it seem.
"Of course not, as soon as my son is healed, I'll run a harpoon through her skull," he turned and walked away, speaking over his shoulder as he did, "Make sure this progress continues, I'll be back to check on you again in the morning."
"Perfect," she said aloud seriously, "Perfect," she said mentally as full of worry and sarcasm as she could muster.
…
Ben casually paced through the Star Labs facility, he wasn't sure what he was looking for he just knew he needed to think; he was passing the secure testing area where three boys and one girl were running on treadmills with wires across them, scanning their vitals. Ken and Cassandra were sitting awfully close together, watching and talking casually on a bench against the wall, interacting with the test subjects as though they were getting closer together.
One of the scientists was passing him when Ben grabbed his arm, not taking his eyes off the kids, "What is all this?"
The scientist adjusted his glasses, looking up to meet his eyes even though they weren't on him, "T-these are the children who were recovered from their abductions with super-human powers…"
"Why haven't they gone home yet, that was weeks ago?"
"Their parents get visitation rights every other week, they signed off on the testing, we just need to make sure their powers are controllable before releasing them into society."
"They aren't wild animals, they're kids!" he almost shouted, trying his best to maintain himself.
But, he wasn't going to let the rudeness get to him as he explained the situation, "One of those kid's now has the ability to generate and channel electric currents; wouldn't it be a tragic day if he were to accidently fry one of his family members alive when… upset or sad?"
Ben couldn't argue that, the scientist pulled his arm away and shuffled off, "Everything being done here is for the safety of them and those around them, I promise."
Ben narrowed his eyes at the clone of himself, touching shoulders with Cassandra whom obviously reciprocated whatever was going on but, he didn't even know the boy was here, let alone involved with someone.
The doors slid open as he entered the room; Ken's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree after making eye contact with him, "Ben! You escaped!"
"Yea, I do that…" He didn't mention that he escaped and he started calling him by his first name, interesting, "Hey guys," he shouted over at the glass where scientists were observing, he swiped his hand across his neck signaling them to cut the training short.
"Alright, I suppose that's enough for today, we'll pick it up first thing in the morning."
Ben approached them as they gathered around him in awe-fashion, "So, who do we have here?" he gave Wonder Girl a short glance, her blush evident over her nose and cheeks, "I know you, obviously," he chuckled.
"I'm Virgil," he reached out and grabbed Ben's hand, shaking it quickly, the African American boy who was trapped on the ship during the battle with him, he got powers? "And I gotta say, it's an honor, man."
"I'm surprised kids even know who I am these days," he rubbed the back of his neck still analyzing the situation, something didn't feel right.
Tai, a Native American boy wearing a bandana around his forehead laughed and spoke up, "Dude, you were front and center fighting that squid-faced creep five years ago!"
"I'm sure you guys would have done the same but, anyways, how've you been since I… left," He knelt a bit towards Ken who only came up to his chin.
"Kidnapped, you mean?" He corrected, "I'm fine I guess, I figured out some Omnitrix codes, no biggie." He said it all very nonchalantly, almost forced.
Ben narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Oh yea? What kind of codes?"
"More battery life, switching transformations in battle; small stuff compared to your 'Master Control', right?"
"Right…" He watched them pass him.
"Thanks for getting us out early but, we were going to play air-hockey in Tai's Dad's office," Ken said as he walked towards the exit, everyone following close behind Tai to his father's office in the building.
Ben sat dumbfounded, his attitude had changed completely, he figured out Omnitrix command codes? Is that even possible for a fourteen-year-old human? He could have used Grey Matter but, the watch insignia is in the center of the Galvan's back, making it impossible to tamper with while in that form. Leaving instructions for a human in Galvan mechanics and mathematics would be like handing a toddler an exam on quantum-physics. He hated feeling like this, like Dick, like he couldn't trust anyone, as if everything around him is a conspiracy.
He still had Sunny to deal with and he knew where she went, he could sense her aura from almost any distance at this point, so he figured he'd have to rip that band-aid off sooner or rather than later. He took a glance around for a moment before closing his eyes, focusing his mana as it suddenly overtook his body, summoning his full alien form with a bright blue flaming head to match. The light emanating from his body sent a quick pulse of energy outward, shattering all the lights and glass in the room on his way out at light-speed. Teleporting on a whim and in an instant.
…
Earth's Moon; April 10th 2019; 8:54PM
Ben appeared where he could most strongly feel her presence, he floated behind her disturbing the dirt and dust below; she may be from the future but, Anodite's aren't like humans, they don't mature at the same rate, in fact he was quite lucky to be mostly human and still have this gift without a spark. She sat pouting, staring down at the planet as it spun, her knees tucked into her chest and her hair spilling across the ground.
"Hey," he said, keeping his Anodite form up to both avoid dying of suffocation and relate to his cousin at the same time.
"Hey."
She responded coldly but, only because she was probably twice his age and still thinking like a teenager, "Ya know, I didn't have the spark so, to get this kind of power, I had to train really, really hard."
She was quiet, she just listened as he explained himself, they were family after all, "And Gwen trained way harder than I did, I had a mystical guide, she was self-taught! Which is incredible for a human, believe me."
"Do you have a point?" She said longingly, still depressed about the whole situation.
He landed next to her and took a seat, staring down at the planet a hundred-and-eighty-thousand miles away, "The point is you always upstaged us with natural talent and we resented you for it; you weren't exactly nice about it but, that was probably wrong for us to do too."
"I was born on Anodyne… of course I'm going to be better than you at everything."
He rolled his eyes, turning away, "See? That's called being pretentious!"
She looked down in shame, "Sorry…" looking away at the void of space, the darkness, "I don't have anywhere to go…"
"I'll use Clockwork to get in touch with Paradox, we can get you home," he turned back to her grabbing her hand as she quickly pulled away, standing up and floating back with tears streaming into zero-gravity.
"You don't understand, I can't go back there; Vilgax is everywhere, he's everything, he's…" she began to hyper-ventilate which was obviously just her nerves and anxiety considering there was no air. Ben floated forwards grabbing her shoulders as she whimpered, "I just barely escaped him the last time… don't send me back, please!" she threw herself into his arms.
She looked up at him with whimpering tears and a begging expression, he'd only ever seen her a few times but, never like this before. This combined with what he told him during their brief conversation, this confirmed the danger Vilgax was presenting.
…
Rimbor System; April 11th 2019; 1:31AM
A distant moon drifted through space at ninety-thousand miles per hour, crossing the Solar System unnaturally; this moon was no celestial object, it was a ship crafted millions of years ago for the sole purpose of war. Who built it? Why? Doesn't matter, as over the eons it fell into the hands of one tyrant after the next, in this case, it was not in friendly possession.
Miles deep below the surface, deep near the core of the ship was a control room, massive in size and only seated for one; in that massive seat was a twelve-foot tall figure, yellow skin and red eyes, a purple jumpsuit and black gauntlets. He pulled the crown from his head, the one that so clearly linked him to the ship, as he heard footsteps from behind. Approaching from down the ten-mile-hall.
"Mongul…" the deep, pounding voice was completely unfamiliar to him yet, he knew his name, "Normally, I would allow you to keep your vessel for respect to another war-lord, however; I am going to need possession of it if my goals are to be completed."
"This ship answers to I and only I; who are you?" Mongul was impatient, turning around and stepping toward the entrance where the bulky squid-faced figure stood challenging him.
"I am Vilgax the Conqueror and you are worthy opponent."
Vilgax stepped forwards adjusting his armor, as Mongul took the invitation to fight and picked up his pace, as they got into close quarters, they stopped, "War World is the property of Mongul."
Only one person has bested Mongul in the last two-hundred years, and he was currently on route to see him executed on Rimbor for crimes against the Universe. He wasn't going to let some nobody talk down to him or presume to be superior, taking a good look at him up and down, he wasn't impressed.
"It wasn't a question," with blinding speed Mongul was backhanded, skidding back on his heels through the ship as Vilgax sprinted after him.
The titan stopped his momentum and ducked under a wide-swing haymaker, sending a left jab into the invader's lower-back, he followed this up with right hook that sent Vilgax off his feet and onto his back. What felt familiar for Mongul was discovering that his opponent possessed the ability to shoot beams from their eyes hitting him square in the chest. The impact knocked him through the air, hitting the wall of the room with a loud thud; he recovered quickly enough continuing the fight.
Vilgax used the Shield of Zegal to block Mongul jumping into the air and sending a downward punch that released a shockwave, shaking the entire ship itself. Vilgax used this to his advantage, ducking down and sweeping Mongul off his feet and onto his back, hitting his head in the process.
He shun the Ruby Ray of Ulo down on the yellow-beast who got to his hands and knees, his skin started to burn but, it wasn't enough to keep him pinned. He grabbed Vilgax's arm through the rays, shattering the ruby and tossing it aside; he proceeded to throw wild punch after punch, missing entirely.
Vilgax was a seasoned warrior, a born prodigy in hand-to-hand combat, there's nothing Mongul could really do to surprise the conqueror. He lashed out as best he could, but the fight ended with a swift backhand, much harder than the first one, knocking the tyrant out cold.
"At last, the first step to achieving my goal is complete," he approached the throne and grabbed the metallic-silver crown, putting it over his head, as he did, he felt every neuron firing at a thousand times the normal speed. He was instantly connected to everything on the ship, like it was part of him now; drones whisked Mongul away, to lock him in stasis and throw away the key.
"Now, obtaining the power to bring order to this chaotic Multiverse is within my grasp…"
…
I work too fast sometimes, it's a gift and a curse.
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