Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 or Young Justice
Chapter 46:
Apokolips
"You mucks don't get it, even with his powers Ben doesn't stand a chance against Darkseid, nobody does…" Constantine assured them, trying to appeal to their most primal instinct of survival, "The most he can do now is buy us the time to save ourselves!"
"You're wrong," Gwen spoke up for the first time, "Anodite's get most of their power from deep emotions, their sorrow can suffocate Supernovae and their rage can shred star-systems," Gwen was clearly regaining her thoughts and senses, relief flooding through her like an open-dam, she felt so loose after being stiffly under-control for so long, "If Ben is an Anodite and he really thinks we're all dead, I'm not sure that there's anything that can stop him."
"Sounds like Ben," M'gaan muttered which Gwen noticed, contemplating how well they actually knew him, were they just friends? With sorcerers, a mind reader, and a machine man she had to assume they were some type of heroes, she had to stop thinking too much about it because of the pain in her head.
"Bloody hell," John chuckled a bit, pulling another cigarette from his coat-pocket and lighting it with a flame from his thumb, "Well if you lot are stickin' around, what kind of Hell Blazer would I be if I ran now?" jutting his hand into his pockets as he puffed smoke from his nose, holding the cig with his lips.
Zatanna approached him, wrapping an arm with one of his, as they both looked up into the sky to get the best look at the battle they were going to get for the time being. The atmosphere shook with immense shockwaves every few seconds, neon-blue lightning crackled in the pitch-black clouds above; every few seconds those clouds would light up with bright crimson-red light streaking across the sky like a beam. Another thundering boom echoed from above, vibrating the ground beneath the heroes' feet, Gwen narrowed her eyes up as her mana-sense slowly returned to her.
Suddenly, they all watched a blue beam of energy fly down from the choked skies, carving a massive trench in the ground, as it slowed down they could see it was Ben who had been knocked out of the sky by his opponent. The air around him was scorching with a heat-shimmer mirage, blue flames spewed from his mouth as the rage consumed him in fire. His eyes immediately darted back up into the sky to stare down Darkseid who floated back down towards the ground, there was a trickle of blood coming from his left eye and the right-side of his stone-lip.
"I have to help him- agh," Gwen tried to take a step but felt pain shooting through her entire body from her mind, reaching up to place her hand on her head.
"No dice, love," Johnny puffed his smoke and continued, "Granny's brainwashing brutally forces every part of your mind to obey her, just making a decision for yourself should hurt like hell right now."
M'gaan pulled her back a step, "I don't think any of us are in any position to help him and based on what you said about Anodite power?" she watched as Ben animalistically groaned and roared with fire billowing up the sides of his blue silhouetted face. "I think he'll be best off if we don't tell him we're not dead, just for the next five or ten minutes."
With nobody disagreeing with her observation, Zatanna stepped forwards in front of them and raised her hands in the air, whispering, "Thgis morf su dleihs," from her white gloved hands fired a golden beam of energy which cascaded over all five of them present. "Now we're all imbued with a perception barrier, low level sorcery so it doesn't drain me."
Gwen raised her brow, she'd never seen anyone cast magic by receiving gibberish, though her mind was still a bit too clouded to decode whatever she had said as some other language or not.
They all tuned back into the battle about to continue in front of them, Ben crouched down into a similar position to a sprinters starting position, hands on the ground in front of him with his fingers digging into the bedrock, feet placed behind him building up power in his legs to kick off from the ground. Steam began radiating from his glowing blue skin, huffing breaths of unusually bright turquoise flames even through his teeth which were clenched tight from the rage boiling over inside of him.
"Come then, boy, there will be honor in your death, unlike your pitiful friends, at the hands of Darkseid!" the mighty New God actually stepped into a fighting stance, a very small sign of respect given and understandably not appreciated. The others could see the battle taking its toll on the supposed Omnipotent ruler, his armor was scorched and tattered plus the sight of blood dripping down his stone-cold face was something not seen for tens of millennia.
Ben's blazing skull whipped in the air above his head, his entire body vibrated furiously as if building up energy inside himself for something big; his aura once again consumed him in vibrant blue flames casting a shadow over his silent eyes. The only one who was able to perceive what happened next was Cyborg with his scanners, the others never saw the way Ben bolted from his starting position with such force that he tore a molten crater in the bedrock with his take-off. Flying at much faster than light speeds, Ben blitzed over the battlefield and around Darkseid as a bright blue laser striking him over and over again from every direction. Swarming him with blows from all sides too fast for him to counter as he swatted at the air and missed repeatedly. Each blow shook the ground, one after the other so consistent they reminded M'gaan of a rapidly beating heartbeat. She couldn't see the attacks themselves sometimes he appeared to be in multiple places at once, but she could pretty easily register each time Darkseid recoiled from a blow to the face.
Darkseid growled, clapping his hands together sending an omnidirectional shockwave that blew Ben back through the air, a shockwave of pressure and ash shrouded the observing heroes briefly forcing M'gaan to shoot her hands out in front of herself, using her telekinesis to keep their vision clear.
Ben skated back on his feet, using them to stop his momentum leaving two parallel tracks carved into the bedrock, when he stood up straight, he dropped a piece of navy-blue plated armor to his feet. Darkseid huffed a heavy breath and glanced to his right, his shoulder-plate was indeed missing, snapped clean off. Ben was furious and planned to completely dismantle this false-god piece by piece before killing him for what he'd done. Without M'gaan here to hold him back, there wasn't anything he wouldn't do to get revenge for the life he never got to live… with his family, with his friends, with his teammates, and most importantly with M'gaan. Ben heaved back, "AGHHHHH!" and roared into the sky with a wild-torrent of flames stretching into the sky. His voice boomed as though there were a thousand of him screaming at the same time; an unbelievable shockwave tore through the landscape exploding outward around him, when he was finally finished, the flames still billowed from his lips passively.
Gwen's expression softened, a sadness apparent in her eyes at the sight of Ben going through such emotional turmoil all just to save her, she wasn't sure just yet how long it had been since they saw each other last but, she knew it had been years just from his appearance. Even after all that time, he never gave up on her, although she had a strangely comforting thought that she'd never live this down with him if they survived.
Within a thirty-seconds, Ben was on the move again, vanishing from his position standing in his self-made crater, this time leaving a long molten trail from his crater. Moving so fast, much faster than even before, that his kinetic energy traveling so close to the ground superheated the bedrock hotter than lava within nanoseconds. Darkseid, on the other hand, was fully capable of seeing the Anodite rushing in within that miniscule timeframe; the New God attempted to land a right-straight haymaker to his face. Ben used his far superior speed to duck under his swing, getting into his close-quarters before he could counter; he used all of his strength and speed to begin a rapid-fire flurry of powerful jabs into Darkseid's torso. His fists moved so fast they were imperceivable to the naked eye, Ben's entire arms seemed to vanish with only brief flashes of his punches striking and recoiling every few seconds. His aura exploded around him again as he continued his volley of strikes with an unfettered rage the likes of which was impressive even to an Apokoliptan.
The others still watched from the side-lines while cloaked as Ben seemingly dominated the battle, though it was far from a time to celebrate, not all was well with the scene Gwen was watching.
"He can't keep going like this…" she muttered to herself but, M'gaan heard her, turning her head.
"What do you mean? Is something wrong?" she questioned.
Gwen glanced back to her, still not entirely sure who she was but, she seemed to care a lot about her cousin and that was enough for her, "If Ben keeps raising his power to match Darkseid's at this pace, his heart will give out…"
Miss Martian glanced back at the battle where she took a closer look at Ben's body, he was vibrating intensely, his entire body was producing steam from his very pours, "Ben and I are only half-Anodite, even if he learned to control the power… Anodite's don't have organs, Ben does, he could literally cook himself inside out like this."
Zatanna spoke up, "Well, I guess we have to hope and pray that he finishes this before that happens."
"Benji is a smart boy, but right now he's not exactly working with a full deck of cards…" John added, still smoking his cigarette.
Cyborg narrowed his eye, reading his scanners more carefully only to discover he wasn't seeing things, "My equipment is telling me Ben's body is almost as hot as the surface of our Sun… how long do you think he can even keep this up?"
Darkseid finally managed to regain his composure even in the midst of being struck thousands of times with enough force to fragment a large country, firing his Omega Beams out in front of him, he turned them around striking Ben floating in front him in the center of his back forcing him to stop his attack long enough for the villain to counter. He was so stunned by the beams that he let Darkseid grab him by the ankle and swing him face first into the ground, stomping on his back before he could stand up. While his armor was littered with numerous fist-shaped indents and there was more blood than before dripping over his chin.
"Do you see now how futile it was to face me? In the end what have you accomplished here? Nothing but insuring your own collective demise," Darkseid pressed his boot down further, forcing his body to break apart the bedrock beneath him.
Ben closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, "RAAAAAAARRRGHH!" his hands cracked the rock underneath him even further by forcing himself with even more unprecedented power, Darkseid stumbled back as he floated back up and uppercutted the tyrant in the bloody-chin sending him hundreds of feet back. The strike echoed through the empty battlefield and across the planet sending Darkseid into a large mountainous plateau where his body carved through and shattered it on impact due to the sheer force he was struck with.
As Ben lowered himself back down closer to the ground, he huffed breathing with a heavy strain in his chest, the steam that continued to billow off his skin began to swirl in his frighteningly powerful aura.
Cyborg spoke up once again, this time with even more concern in his voice, "His heartbeat is already two-hundred-and-fifteen beats per minute, that's seriously not good, he's gonna go into cardiac-arrest if someone doesn't do something."
"Is Darkseid down?" Zatanna asked, looking off into the distance it was hard for them to see much of where he landed from their position, "If he is maybe we can just get the hell out of here already!"
"SHH!"
Even in Ben's animalistic state of rage, he heard a voice just now he was certain of it, turning his head in their direction, he stared directly at their group. M'gaan was hoping he was staring at her but, at the same time she could tell he didn't see them standing there at all. They all watched as he narrowed his eyes at them, floating towards them as they backed away still cloaked in by Zatanna's spell. He was about to reach his hand out to them when a loud boom echoed across the planet once again from miles away, Darkseid had leaped into the air towards them.
He flew passed them narrowly missing the group as he tackled Ben into the ground mercilessly punching his head into the ground repeatedly, "Look at you! More animal than man! How easy it was to break you!" Darkseid clutched his hands together and slammed his fists into Ben's head with even more force than before. He reeled back to repeat the process once more, only this time both of his bulky fists, each larger than Ben's head, were caught before they struck him in only one hand.
"You think you've broken me?" Ben muttered up at the New God struggling to force his fists down into their intended target; Darkseid was launched back when Ben's body exploded with an immense turquoise glow sending a thick-beam of energy the same shade of sparkling blue up into the atmosphere. This beam of mana effortlessly pierced the immensely thick polluted cloud-line that even Atomix's self-destruct couldn't breach. Ben slowly strutted out from the crater in a nonchalant manner, the middle of his forehead was wounded and bleeding slightly but he didn't seem to notice. "You have no idea what I've survived."
Darkseid landed on his back a few hundred feet away, getting back to his feet but slowly as Ben approached with a much tamer aura lining his features, "I've seen things as a child that would make most warriors cower, I have lost so much even before today, people I loved!" he walked slowly up to Darkseid who was uncharacteristically quiet, listening to his speech most likely because he now had the power to actually challenge him. "And I've faced worse nightmares than you, SO COME ON THEN!" he shouted with his arms out in a vulnerable stance, "Give it your best shot," He whispered the last part, narrowing his unsettlingly calm yet furious expression.
Gwen, M'gaan, Zatanna, Cyborg, and John were all stunned not just by his conviction and determination, but the fact that he likely had this control over himself this entire time. It was Gwen and M'gaan that felt the most emotional from his speech, hearing speak with such passion in his voice about the trauma he still suffers through. Gwen in particular was shocked that this was even her cousin at all, he sounded nothing like the egocentric airheaded doofus she remembered saving the day all the time. This Ben was far darker but, more serious in a good way, she always thought he made most missions more difficult by simply getting in his own way with his arrogance; this was a real hero, one she knew Grandpa Max would be proud of. Her thoughts strayed as she realized the longer she spent actually thinking the easier it got, she could even feel the mana inside herself again.
Darkseid reacted violently to this conviction, reeling back with all of his strength, "Argh!" sending a fist down meeting the force of Ben's much faster counter punch, the physical power of their connecting blows vaporized a perfectly spherical crater beneath. Firing his Omega Beams to hit Ben in the chest as soon as their clash disconnected, he defended himself with a squared platform mana shield however he was still forced back on his feet. As soon as Darkseid ceased his blast, Ben reshaped the shield into a sphere of energy which he quickly floated into the air several feet above the New God and launched into his face. The explosion over his head knocked him back but not down, even as Ben fired repeated shots of mana energy beams from either hand, his arm swung up and defended against the blasts.
Darkseid reached through the smoke with a glowing crimson fist, opening his hand and firing an energy wave from the palm of his hand, surprising Ben with its speed he only barely protected himself with his forearms. The blast detonated on his arms with an enormous force sending him flying through the air, he slammed back first into something that tumbled into the dirt with him as he landed.
Ben stood up slowly, rubbing the back of his head, "What the hell was that?" he looked around, but couldn't find anything that would have felt like what he'd hit but in this form it was hard to tell. He glanced down to his forearms and realized they were badly burned, blood dripping down his hand and off his fingertips, "That can't be go-" he stumbled to one knee, holding his chest tightly. Steam began to drift off his back and into the air above him once again, his heart was speeding up to an almost unbearable degree; his jaw wired shut, growling through clenched teeth, "Dammit, not yet, come on heart I'm not through with you yet!" he inhaled a deep breath and exhaled, flexing his muscles once again summoning a powerful aura around himself before darting back into the sky towards Darkseid.
Zatanna held a hand over John's mouth, keeping him quiet as he cursed through her gloves at him for practically slamming into him at half the speed of sound forcing him to drop his cigarette, "I guessed we weren't telling him just yet, did I guess right or?" she finally unclasped Johnny's mouth as he pulled away from her and rubbed the lump on his head from the fall.
M'gaan nodded her head, turning back to the battle, "We'd only distract him telling him that right now, what we need to do is find that other slave-girl and get her ready to bounce as soon as Ben finishes this," she turned around only to feel a hand reach out and grab her shoulder, to her surprise it was Gwen.
"He's going to kill himself out there, I don't know who you are and maybe this hero stuff is different where I come from but, I can't let him just drop dead in a pointless fight!" After finally finding her way back to life, she wasn't in any mood to lose the only person left of her old life.
"Ben can handle it, I've seen him handle much worse than a heart attack," M'gaan's eyes darted to the ground as she turned once again to walk towards where Blackfire or Starfire was knocked unconscious by John's spell, "We need to move."
"No, we need to stop this, all of us together can do something to help him at least, I wont let you abandon him," Gwen's words cut deep like a knife into the Martian's back, forcing her to respond with all her pent-up frustration.
"Abandon him? I spent the last eight-years by his side, even when he didn't want me there! I loved him even when he was destroying himself that's why I agreed to marry him!" M'gaan stepped forward with an attitude, planting a finger into Gwen's chest with every point, "I nursed him back to sleep when he woke up screaming with night-terrors, I fought to resuscitate him when he was hit with a nuclear bomb! And I'm the one whose been keeping him from falling off the edge on a daily basis because I have never loved anyone else as much as I love him! You weren't even here!" She huffed, retracting her finger but still staring into her now emerald eyes, turning around once again to face the opposite direction, where the Tamaranian was.
John, Cyborg, and Zatanna all stayed completely quiet and appeared John had lit yet another cigarette while she was ranting; Gwen only blinked in response, "I'm sorry, I should have asked who you were but… that wasn't my fault."
"I'm sorry, that was probably uncalled for..." M'gaan said sheepishly not entirely sure where the outburst came from.
Gwen spoke up once more before following behind her, "How are you so sure that his heart can take this?"
"I'm not…" she said in a somber tone, "but if that man has taught me anything about loving him for the better part of a decade? It's that, he's Ben Tennyson," she turned her head over her shoulder to look back at the half-Anodite girl, showing off a confident smile. "And, whether I want to admit it or not, he can do anything."
…
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