Bromega2477: I say that every day.
DuckBoi: Thank you for your support I hope to not disappoint you.
Darkpheniox343: Thank you, and I'm pretty sure she will pop up sometime later, but not until later.
Ghost500098: Because of two reasons, one Ben is holding back a bunch since a serious punch from Swampfire would snap his neck and two Ben is 'playing with his food' so to speak, he's having a little fun punching around the assassin and embarrassing him. This has also been proven in Ben 10 as well, that when he fights humans it's usually one of these two scenarios. His fights with Fistrick for example.
bookwormjohnny2: That will be soon, I wanted to make it when the Team had time but with everything that's been happening there wasn't but trust me he has ideas.
Reviewmonkey4u: I want to do the Big Chill thing, I don't know about adopting one though since I'm pretty sure in the show they said they were going to feed off the sun's energy or something around those lines but I do hope to do that kind of chapter in the future.
Exactly! So people should stop giving me shit about the Harem. lol.
Thepinksky18: Great to hear!
Nitro zeus: Due to recent events and decisions I have been making... you may have your wish...
Mount Justice
September 23, 4:12 EDT
Green Lantern, John Stewart, was helping fix the damage that was made by the so-called 'Tornados siblings'. Androids that, like Tornado, could control elements and look almost exactly like the android. Martian Manhunter, Captain Atom, and Captain Marvel were assisting in repairs.
"So let me get this straight…" Ben started, looking at the Team with some concern in his eyes. "Red Tordano's brother and sister came into the Mountain and started taking you all hostage before you guys shut them down with an EMP." He said reviewing what happened with only half the team giving confirming nods while the others were either too angry or tired to respond. "Then Red himself came and betrayed you all out of nowhere?" Again more nods. Ben started to caress his chin in thought before Superboy spoke next.
"Where were you?" Superboy asked with a surprisingly calm tone, but Ben noted the anger that held in his eyes.
"I was at the Tower of Fate, I didn't expect to be gone for so long," Ben said which calmed the clone down a little before he sat down.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ben could see the Dark Knight himself walking over. "Can anyone confirm where you were?" He asked, the rest of the League members started to listen in and momentarily stop what they were doing.
Ben scoffed, "Beside Kent himself, Zatara, he was there too." Ben spat out in venom, it didn't take a scientist to figure out what he was insinuating with that but he decided to fake ignorance. "Why do you ask?"
"The League picked out this place for the Team because it was an abandoned headquarters. There should have been no reason for the androids to come here, much less with such powerful ones."
Ben narrowed his eyes slightly. "So you're saying someone told them where our base is."
"Yes, after all, you already know that there is suspicion of a mole on the Team." Ben made it point to glare at Robin slightly, who stiffened under the gaze, before turning back to Batman.
"There is no mole on the Team,"
Surprisingly he got back up from the other members. "I don't believe there is one either, Batman," Aqualad said with certainty.
"Yeah," Superboy spoke up next. "I mean, wasn't it, Red Tornado? He did almost suck the life out of all of us then ran off with those other two androids."
This got Ben thinking, what was the goal in all of this, was it merely to kill the Team? No, they said they were being used as hostages. So then who were they trying to lure and then use? Tornado? If that was the case why did he suddenly betray the Team?"
"Maybe he is the mole," Batman said but then glared back at Ben. "But that still doesn't change the fact that you withheld information-"
"From who? I told the Team-"
"From the Justice League!"
"Sportsmaster was the one to tell me that information. Sportsmaster! The guy that nearly killed us on Santa Prisca, do you not get that maybe I thought he just said that to catch me off guard or to try and trick me? To tell the Team later so that it could rip a hole right through it, which might as well happened anyway." 3 specific members of the Team, Kid, Aqualad, and Robin all cringed at Ben calling them out. They knew they had been distant from their other team members for a while. "Also I was under the impression the Team was its own thing, not supposed to be the 'Junior Justice League' as Red Arrow puts it."
Batman narrowed his eyes, giving Ben his famous 'Bat-glare' one that has made villains quake in their boots but to the teen that has fought Vilgax, the glare meant nothing to him.
"That doesn't change the fact you should have told us-"
"I like how you, YOU, can preach about holding information. Isn't this 'Team' based upon the fact that you withheld information from your proteges?" Batman didn't say a word as Ben stared him down. The Team and League members present visibly gulped loudly. "Or what about the fact that you 'held the information about setting up contingencies for me in case I ever went 'rouge'." That actually got the Bat to widen his eyes for a moment before glaring at the teen.
"How-"
"Oh please, it took me three days with Brainstorm to get through League systems and I find out that you guys have set up multiple contingencies for me."
Amongst the low amount of League members that were present that were quiet, Black Canary decided to step up in the conversation to try and ease both Ben and Batman.
"Ben we only did that because-"
"I read the file, Canary!" Black Canary instantly stopped in her tracks at hearing the boy spit out those words. "I know WHY you did it. But that doesn't change the fact you went behind my back doing this, and you know what, maybe you should have those contingencies!" He yelled which surprised everyone.
"I'm not an idiot! Maybe I can't be mind controlled or even drugged but on the off chance, I do go rogue it probably would be for the best to have something for backup. But my problem isn't that you made them, it's that you didn't tell me, that was a complete breach of trust and you know it. So don't you dare bitch and whine to me about 'holding information.' You preach about trust, how WE have to give YOU it while not realizing that it's a two-way street and you've done nothing to earn mine and have only made me not trust the League at all."
Batman still was silent. He could argue, but what's the point, he'd only be repeating what Ben had already said. Ben already accepted if it were to ever happen that he switches sides, to have something in place to defeat him.
Sure he couldn't figure out the Omnitrix, how to operate it and he defiantly didn't know how to deactivate it. But he could set up plans for taking down his alien transformations, which is what he did.
But even still he couldn't keep up this argument since Ben was right. Why should he trust them when they didn't trust him? Batman didn't offer anything else but a nod and walked away.
The Team was left shocked at seeing the great Batman left speechless in an argument. "You all!" The Team stiffened at Ben's voice, leaking with anger, yelling at them to look at him. "Come with me," He said walking into the halls of the Mountain. "We're going to get to the bottom of this."
Mount Justice
September 23, 5:44
"Now that you mention it, it doesn't make sense," Robin said as the whole Team inspected the crime scene. "Why did they take us hostage instead of just offing us one by one."
"That's what I was thinking," Ben stated looking at the spot the Team said Tornado was before he betrayed them. "They wanted someone to be here…"
"Who though?" Artemis asked, crossing her arms. She had to admit, it was strange how even when she was hiding the 'Red twins' decided to give out a countdown instead of just using one of the Team members as an example and just killing one.
"Do you think it was Tornado?" Aqualad spoke to Ben and the shapeshifter gave him a nod.
"No way, we saw him walk up to his brother and sister, turn around, and start sucking away our oxygen." Kid stated.
Ben narrowed his eyes at the scene before looking back at them all. "Did you see everything?"
The Team had looks of confusion on their faces before Ben got up from the ground and smiled. "Bout time I get to use this trick. Been meaning to test it out for a while."
Ben turned the dial on his watch and pressed it down transforming. "Clockwork!" The alien said in a thick German accent. "Let's do a little rewind on the situation." The key on his head glowed slightly green and twisted around. The whole area becomes a tint of green before reversing all of what transpired in the last couple of hours.
Finally, it came to the Team being betrayed by Red Tornado, spawning two tornados from his arms to suck out the air making the whole team fall unconscious.
"See," Connor scoffed "He betrayed us."
"Did he?" Clockwork asked pointing in the direction of Red Tornado, crouching down next to his siblings a reaching out a hand towards one.
"Wait stop here!" Wally cried out before zooming in front of the green projection of past events and seeing a spark journey from the girl android to Tornado. "Seems like some kind of electrical charge was sent from the girl android to Red."
"Do you think it could have reprogrammed him?" Miss Martian asked hoping that wasn't the case.
"Perhaps it just took over him for a bit," Clockwork says transforming back into Ben.
"So if Red isn't a mole, then how did they know where to attack?" Superboy asked which left the whole room silent.
Questions left unanswered.
Mount Justice
September 23, 6:34
The Team and League were now all in the main room in the mountain, a few members of the League had left, Superman being the first. But the Team was more focused on figuring out how the Red family knew they were located in the Mountain.
However, the Dark Knight was the one to break everyone's thoughts. "With Red Tornado missing, you will be overseen by rotating supervisors. Captain Marvel has volunteered to take the first shift." Batman says as the man with the power of God's stepped forward.
"I'm looking forward to hanging with you guys" The Team looked at each other in thought. His response was not was any of them were expecting.
"Also I have a new mission for you all." He says motioning toward a newspaper article on the monitors.
"Gotham Mayor attacked by Guerilla Gorilla?" Wally stated sounding annoyed.
'Was this the only thing he could find to distract us?' Superboy spoke out to the team via the mental link that M'gann had put up.
'He doesn't want us going out and finding Tornado. Which just makes me want to find him even more.' Ben thought with his teeth grinding against each other behind his lips. It surprised the Team just how angry he sounded since these types of moods just seemed to roll right off the shapeshifter. 'Team or not, I'm still going to hash an investigation in finding Red.'
'We will.' Wally thought with a smirk which made Ben look back at him in confusion.
'You will not do it alone my friend we will all be by your side.' Aqualad spoke next. Ben looked at him in surprise it was some of the few times he would see the Atlantian actually go against authority. Ben smiled and nodded his head to his teammates.
Batman looked between them all deducing they were having some kind of psychic conversation and narrowed his eyes. "Is there a problem?"
"No." They all spoke as one. Batman stared at them until nodding.
"This attack was not random. Mayor hill's encounter is only the latest in a series of incidents." He turns to Ben. "Omni, you and your team will depart for India and check this out."
Ben nods as they all turn to leave.
In the hangar, the team is met with two people who apparently wanted to come along. The first was the Sphere they saved in Bialya and… Captain Marvel… for some reason. Superboy sent off the Sphere not believing it could fight and it would be too dangerous for it but for Captain Marvel they couldn't exactly say no.
Northern India
September 23, 21:36 IST
'So… why is CM here again?' Wally asked the team in their mental conversation.
'Maybe he's just here for helping us out.' M'gann spoke up trying to be optimistic.
'Yeah, I doubt that…' Superboy thought with a sigh, everyone took a quick glance at the hero to see he was just standing next to Ben looking out the window humming some tune that none of them recognized.
'Maybe he's here to spy on us? Make sure we're doing a good job.' Artemis said in annoyance having been reminded of how much the league didn't trust some people, especially Ben, kind of ticked her off. Although she was happy Ben put so much faith in them as to not even think of any of them as the trader especially after he already figured out she was related to or close to a villain.
'Or he's pissed and blames us for Red getting captured and doesn't trust us to not mess this up.' Robin brought up the idea but Ben hummed in thought.
'Nah, he seems too innocent for that. Although his attitude is… weird for his age.' Ben added as they arrived at the location.
Robin and Artemis leave the ship first and sweep the perimeter. Soon after the rest of the team land and exited the ship.
"Alright let's-" Ben started to say but was instructed by a beeping from the Omnitrix.
"Genetic Damage Detected!" The Omnitrix spoke out a beeping green light showing up on the dial.
"Dude, your watch is… talking…" Captain Marvel said in confusion.
Ben looked at him with a deadpan for pointing out the obvious until he looked back at the Omnitrix. "Where is the genetic damage?" Ben asked as the Omnitrix pulled up a holographic image of the area with multiple red dots appearing.
"That is a lot." Kid Flash says looking at all the dots on the holographic screen.
"Wait, so what does this mean?" M'gann asked as they stared at the screen.
"It means we have to be more careful," Aqualad stated.
"He's right, I don't know what kind of genetic damage this is, however, the fact there are so many things with genetic damage can not be a coincidence. This has to be some kind of play to separate us and take us down one by one." Ben turned off the holographic screen and looked back at his team. "So well stick together, and take whatever is thrown at us together."
The team plus Captain Marvel nodded as they headed off towards the jungle.
As they headed off towards the jungle and used the Omnitrix as a guide for them. They went to each patch of damaged DNA that was on the Omnitrix's map. Each patch has animals of all kinds being mutated and deformed.
They realized soon enough how they were mutated. The cobra venom and Blockbuster formula, the same thing that made that big bulky guy in Sokovia, Mammoth. To Ben it was kind of gross seeing all their exposed muscle and guts on full display it was also obvious that it made the other Team members uncomfortable, hell Captain Marvel nearly threw up. But that didn't stop them from helping them.
They all saw the collars on their necks which Superboy and Miss Martian recognized as the ones they have at Belle Reve thanks to the mission they went on a while ago. Most of the Team distracted the animals as Robin and Artemis used their projectiles to knock off the collars. One wolf for some reason stayed close to Connor and followed the Team as they went further into the jungle.
They followed the Omnitrix's map to a large building holding most of the mutated animals. Everyone was still a bit apprehensive of the mutated Wolf's presence but Superboy assured them that he was good now. Wolf seems to have grown attached to Connor. Ben had to admit it was adorable.
"I'll fly over," M'gann said, seeing the machine lined up in front of the base.
"Negatory, the barrier stands like a dome over the whole compound." Kid Flash announced.
"Pylons are insulated. One good shot could cause a momentary gap." Robin informed Artemis hearing that got into position to shoot her bow.
"I see a target," Artemis said, pulling back her bowstring
"Be ready to hit it. Aqualad go." Ben said. Aqualad ran forward and used his electricity against the dome. A hole soon opened in the barrier. "Now Artemis," Ben said to her and she fired an arrow at the button dead on and the force field went down. The Team plus Captain Marvel all walked forward, but Robin stopped and looked at the top of the compound.
A baboon was sitting on top with an inhibitor collar. It cried out, and the alarms went off. More baboons jumped off the roof and attacked.
They all got in position, Ben transforming into Grey Matter. Baboons, tigers, elephants. All the above were trying to attack them. All of them detaching the collars. The Wolf even helps in all of Superboy's blind spots. Grey Matter while small was very easily able to jump and move around with his frog-like appearance. His small stature was able to jump from animal to animal and disarm the collars.
Inside the compound, two people watched the fight take place from a security camera. One is a giant ape known as Mallah and the other is a brain in a small robotic body with the only thing about him being human in the fresh brain in the jar above the machine.
"Go Mallah, deal with the intruders." Mallah took off the apron and the mask and started growling.
Outside
"Remove the collars," Grey Matter told the team as he ripped off one from a baboon.
Mallah makes his appearance with a Gatling gun in hand. Miss Martian tries to sneak in behind the ape using her camouflage, but thanks to Mallah's sense of smell he could track her. He then grabbed her and threw the Martian to the ground, knocking her out.
Mallah, once again, started to fire his Gatling gun at the Team but he suddenly felt like something was on top of his shoulder. He turned his head slightly to see Grey Matter waving at him before he placed his four-fingered hand on the ape's shoulder and slightly gripped it. A crack sound echoed through the ape's ear. The ape's eyes became heavy and he lost his center of balance before falling to the ground.
The Team quickly ran up to him looking at the ape then back at the small alien, going back and forth between them.
"How did you-" Robin asked before he was interrupted by the small alien.
"Hephaestan Neuro Grip." Grey Matter says wiping his hands against each other looking very proud of himself. "Capable of subduing all manner of prey."
The Team blinked collectively Captain Marvel and Wolf being no exceptions no one spoke until Artemis suddenly asked. "Can you… teach me that?"
"Sure."
"You will all die for this!" The Brain, an evil super genius who put his brain in a jar and the jar in a small robotic body, screamed out through his robotic voice box.
"It's the Brain!" Kid Flash yelled out to the Team.
"Uh, I can see it's a brain!" Artemis said annoyed, thinking he was just stating the obvious.
"Not a brain, the Brain!" Kid Flash explained.
"In the flesh, so to speak." The Brain says before a large blaster appears from the side of the small body and shoots at them. Then giant pylons came out of the ground and started emitting strong vibrations that made the Team fall to the ground.
"You stupid fools really thought you could take moi?" The Brain asked rolling his machine body to the fallen heroes, plus the few animals that came with them.
"Stupid!" The Brain heard a voice come from his own body and he started to look around. "Why I- the stupidest Galvan is still way smarter than you, you knockoff cyborg."
The Brain furiously looked all over the base for his opponent but still couldn't find anyone besides the fallen heroes. "Where are you?"
The Brain started to panic as he heard wires being detached from his metal body and his suit shut down. Grey Matter then crawled over the Brain's jarhead and smirked. "The superior of you and me."
Everyone began to head back to the Bio-Ship.
"What are you grinning about?" Artemis questioned Kid Flash as they are walking.
Kid Flash held up Mallah's beret. "One word: souvenir!" He then placed the beret on his head.
Artemis walked a lot faster. "Two words: gorilla lice!"
Kid Flash quickly took it off, muttering "Ah man!" Robin and Ben start to laugh at him. Wally just sticks his tongue out at them. Ben looks around to see Superboy petting the Wolf as if it was a normal house dog.
"The rest of the pack is gone. What are you still doing here?" Superboy asked the white wolf who was content with his petting.
Ben commented on the display. "I think he wants to stay with you."
"Can I keep him?" He asks while looking at Ben.
"He seems like a good addition to the team," Ben said as he petted Wolf.
"Well, he's gonna need a name." Kid Flash said, breaking into the conversation. "How about Krypto?" Wolf growls at that.
"Pass," Superboy says dismissively.
"I think that's taken," M'gann adds.
"Let's leave it at Wolf for now until a better name is made," Superboy suggested. Wolf seemed to agree.
Ben starts to head back to the ship Captain Marvel approaches him. "You did a good job today," he tells him as he shakes his hand "See you tomorrow"
"You are not coming back with us," Aqualad asks him
"Nope gotta fly," he says as he flies away.
Mount Justice
September 24, 21:18
Batman waited for them all to land and come back to the main room of the mountain so that he then can brief him on the mission. After they finished explaining the mission and how they dropped both the Brain and Mallah at iron heights the Team started to leave to either their rooms or their homes. Batman called out to Ben to stay and talk which Ben complied.
"First off, I would like to say-"
"Save it. We both know you're not sorry, you would only be saying it if the League was forcing you. And even if that wasn't the reason for talking to me I don't want to hear anything else either. The fact of the matter is we both don't trust each other, you don't trust me because of my power and I don't trust you for your… well- trust issues. I can understand needing something just in case some gets mind controlled or go to the other side, but not telling them is another thing." Ben stated before walking off to his room.
Batman narrowed his eyes. "I don't know how they do in your world, but this world isn't as trusting. If I had told you then you could have come up with countermeasures."
Ben looked back and glared at him. "And the fact that you think like that is exactly why I can't trust you. If I wasn't the leader of this Team I would have left already and gone on my own." Ben then left the Dark Knight to his own thoughts and walked into his room.