Chapter 19
Family Matters, Part 2
"Here you go," Ken said as he slid a drink over to Midoriya. "It's a smoothie. Mom told me the best stories of how Dad lobbied to get a smoothie-maker installed up here—and then the weird dance he did when it finally happened."
Midoriya took a cautious sip, and nodded when he tasted strawberry. "This is good. Thank you."
"Treating people to smoothies is a Tennyson thing." Ken chuckled. "Well, Dad likes to say that it is. Mom would argue that being stupidly lucky is a Tennyson thing."
"Speaking of your dad," Midoriya said, "is he going to be okay?"
Ken sighed. "I hope so. The smartest guy in three galaxies is working on it, and if necessary, he can call on anyone from the League or the Titans to help him. We've got everything from science to sorcery, plus whatever Amazo has up his golden sleeves." His expression grew flat. "I mean, we tried all that to save Dad with all that already, but apparently the poison evolved to be resistant to freaking everything."
Midoriya blinked as he tried to process Ken's words. "What?"
Ken nodded. "Right, you only have metahuman powers on your Earth. Here, our superheroes cross off all the boxes—we've got everything from humans with powers, robots with powers, people with magic powers, aliens with powers, and people without any powers at all!"
"I was t-talking about the poison that evolved to resist m-magic, but…" Midoriya latched onto the topic he was most familiar with. "Wait, you can be a Hero on this Earth without a Quirk?"
"Quirks aren't a thing here, remember? Also, we don't do the license thing, so we're all vigilantes." Ken shrugged. "Oh, and my girlfriend doesn't have powers, and she's widely regarded as the third-scariest human on this Earth."
Midoriya swallowed nervously. "Who are the two above her?"
"I maintain that second place is her dad, but I'm in the minority; the number-two spot shifts around, depending on who you ask." Ken looked over Midoriya's shoulder. "Here comes the top dog right now, though; or, top bat, I should say."
Midoriya turned to see a tall man dressed in formfitting grey body armor, with a long black cape, complete with a pointy-eared cowl that covered the upper half of his face. He had a belt with plenty of compact containers, and on the center of his chest was the silhouette of a bat. He only gave Midoriya a single look, but there was enough intimidation there to send a chill down his spine.
"Ultiman," he said in a deep, gruff voice, "I assume Azmuth has the Ultimatrix and is working on an antidote for Ben?"
Ken nodded; somehow, he was completely unaffected by the man locking eyes with him. "Yeah, he is, Batman. If he doesn't show up again in an hour, I'll check in on him."
Batman didn't react to Ken's words, and instead gave Midoriya another piercing look. "Make sure to keep an eye on your guest. The Watchtower isn't for tourists."
"Technically, I didn't invite him, I kidnapped him," Ken said, but Batman had already turned and left, so he shrugged. "He doesn't show up for days, and that's how he acts? Rude. He's probably worried about Dad."
"That was worried?" Midoriya paused. "How did he know about everything if he hasn't been around for days?"
Ken laughed. "I'm not surprised he knows. He's Batman." He stopped and tilted his head, as if he was listening for something. "Oh, good, they're back. We should be expecting company in about three seconds."
Sure enough, Midoriya had barely reached the count of three in his head when several blurs shot into the cafeteria and came to a halt in front of their table. One was a man wearing a black bodysuit that only exposed his mouth and hair, and red goggles over his eyes; his costume was decorated with red lines and a red lightning bolt on his chest. Another was a young woman with long black hair, and wore a loose white shirt and skirt, along with a short cape; her costume had gold edges and a gold lightning bolt on her shirt. The last blur was a young man with short black hair; he wore combat pants, boots, and a black shirt with the same S-shield that Midoriya had seen on Ben's wife and the man with a similar costume to her.
Come to think of it, this younger man looked almost exactly like that man in the infirmary… though the black and red Ultimatrix on his arm stood out.
How many people here have an Ultimatrix? Midoriya thought.
"Ken, you're back!" The redhead kept darting between Ken and Midoriya so quickly that it looked like he was in two places at once. "Hey, is this the kid who had the old watch? Is everything okay? How's your dad?"
Ken stood up and managed to catch the man by the shoulders. "Zoom, calm down. You're going to create a friction fire again." He looked at the other two. "Did someone give him coffee?"
The other man held up his hands. "Hey, we know better. He's just worried." He frowned. "We all are. Is Uncle Ben okay?"
Ken sighed, and then picked up Zoom as easily as Midoriya picked up his smoothie and moved him to the side so that he could speak to the one who was presumably his cousin. "Azmuth has the Ultimatrix and is working on the antidote. Until then, we wait; I'm assuming M'gann is still connected to you, so if you could give her the update, I'd appreciate it, because I don't want to repeat myself a dozen times."
At that point, Midoriya was glad he was sitting down. So much was happening, and he was starting to get dizzy. He just wanted to drink his smoothie, and hoped that everyone just ignored him for a while; he couldn't take that kind of attention from strangers.
I wish I had my friends here, he thought. Or at least the Ben I know to tell me it's going to be okay. Oh, man, I hope he isn't mad that I just gave him over to Azmuth without even talking to him about it.
Silently worrying as he was, he didn't notice that the woman had sat down next to him until she tapped his shoulder. He would have jumped to his feet in surprise, but she kept a grip on his arm that was much stronger than her appearance suggested.
"Hey there," she said kindly. "Rough day, I'm guessing?"
Midoriya nodded shakily. "I h-have no idea w-what's happening."
The woman laughed and patted his shoulder. "Yeah, you got thrown into the deep end. Did Ken steal you right out of your school?"
Midoriya looked down at his uniform. "Uh, n-no, I was outside my home. S-sorry, I d-don't know who any of you are."
She smiled at him. "I'm Sergeant Marvel. The guy with way too much energy is Zoom, and Ken's cousin over there is Superboy. We're all part of the Titans, but those three are some of the founding members."
Midoriya nodded again. Hero teams. I can understand that. There are two on this space station, the Justice League and the Titans. Maybe I can handle this.
"Hey, Marvel?" Ken glanced at her over his shoulder. "Where's your boyfriend? He's one of maybe two people on this Earth that Azmuth enjoys spending time with, and he could help with Dad."
"Actually, Brainiac called me about twenty minutes ago," Sergeant Marvel said ruefully. "He said that he forwarded some analysis to Azmuth—some science-y stuff that went over my head—but he can't be here now. He's still working on containing the radiation leak in Ireland."
At that point, Midoriya felt brave enough to speak. "W-what's happening in Ireland?"
Sergeant Marvel smiled at him again. "Some terrorists managed to steal an old nuclear submarine and ran it aground on the coast of Ireland. It started leaking radioactive materials, so some of the Titans were sent to contain it, while Captain Atom actually fixes the problem. He absorbs radiation."
"You guys seem really busy," Midoriya commented.
Superboy chuckled. "Oh, this is an easy day. Half the League is on standby today, but more times than not, it's a skeleton crew up here. We just got back from busting some drug-runners in Florida, which was a nice change of pace."
"My friend helped catch some drug smugglers a few days ago," Midoriya said, in an effort to actually be part of the conversation. "She told me how they were caught. Were the ones you went after on the water, or did they make it ashore?"
"They weren't smugglers from out of the country, just guys moving their product from one spot to another." Superboy paused and looked off to the side. "Looks like everyone else is finally here." Midoriya followed his gaze, but there was no one there; Superboy smirked. "Super-hearing; they'll be here in a few seconds."
More and more people trickled into the cafeteria; some only stayed for a little while, just to hear that progress was making on saving Ben, while others stuck around. Most of the latter, Midoriya noticed, were around Ken's age or younger, and were part of the Titans, while the Justice League's members were all much older, though they didn't look it. When he commented on that, a young woman with green skin, orange hair, a black bodysuit with a red X across the chest and a long blue cape smiled.
"Oh, that's a long story," she said. "The short version is that a spell was cast on the League that affected them and everyone they consider family."
"It wasn't something we wanted," Superboy chimed in as he sat next to her.
"Right; anyway, everyone ages one day for every year now." When she saw Midoriya open his mouth to speak, she cut him off. "It only affects people when they stop growing."
"It was all part of an elaborate plot by an immortal who was losing his immortality to steal all the years we all would have gotten," Ken added. "It didn't work, and he ended up dying."
Midoriya was starting to get overwhelmed again; he could feel his arms and legs losing strength, and he might have even fallen backwards if not for a very large wolf that suddenly filled his vision. Midoriya froze, completely unsure what to do, especially when the wolf put its head in his lap.
Superboy smiled proudly. "I've been training Wolf to be a therapy dog. He's way smarter than most dogs, so he's good at knowing when people need him. Just hold onto him until you're okay."
The green girl glanced at everyone else; Midoriya swore her eyes glowed for a second, and then everyone else took a few steps back to give him some space.
"Th-thanks," he mumbled as he scratched the ear of the wolf—who was apparently named Wolf. "Sorry, I'm n-not good with strangers. Or crowds."
"You should probably work on that," Ken said, not unkindly. "Unless you want to be like Batman and stay in the shadows. You don't seem to be the broody type, though."
"I d-don't th-think I'm cut out for all-black clothes," Midoriya tried to joke. It earned him a few laughs, for which he was thankful.
Another woman sat down across from him. She wore a black coat over formfitting armor, and a belt that held several weapons. She also had a silver helmet that completely hid her face, with only a hold in the back to let her black braided hair fall down to her back. Strangely, the helmet was completely blank, so Midoriya had no idea how she saw out of it.
"So, you're from another universe," she said, and Midoriya was surprised that her voice wasn't muffled in the slightest by her helmet. "Ultiman didn't tell us much about it, other than most people have powers on your Earth. What's it like over there?" The woman paused. "I'm Seeker, by the way."
"Don't mind the questions," Ken said. "She likes to know things."
Seeker nodded. "Speaking of knowing things, where's Azmuth?"
As if on cue, Jen rushed in in a blur. "He's back! Come on!"
Before most of the others could blink, Jen grabbed her brother and ran off again. Even though he had met the siblings less than an hour ago, they were the closest to being people he knew; now, he was alone. Wolf decided that now was the best time to put his head in Midoriya's lap again and huffed.
"This is always the hard part," Seeker said quietly. "The waiting. It's even worse when it's someone you know."
"H-how long have you known Ben?" Midoriya asked.
"I had his file memorized by the time I was seven," Seeker replied. At first, Midoriya thought she was joking, but the side-eye she was getting from everyone else suggested otherwise. "But I've been close to the family for a long time."
"And then Ken found out you were a superhero," Superboy commented. "How did he not recognize your voice?"
Seeker turned her head towards him. "How do people not figure out who Superman is? His disguise is a pair of glasses."
"I… you…" Superboy looked away. "Shut up."
As the group traded lighthearted barbs, Midoriya slowly started to relax again. He even managed to keep his stutter mostly under control when Seeker asked him about his Earth. Some of the things he told them earned him envious stares.
"You get paid to be a superhero," Zoom said, and a young woman wearing an orange and black outfit and armed with everything from guns to a sword patted him on the back. "Most of us have to balance this stuff with another job. Speaking of which, Ravager," he stood up and looked at the woman. "You're teaching class in a couple of hours, and I've gotta run some evidence through the crime lab."
Ravager sighed. "Yeah, I wanted to see if the school could get a substitute, but no dice. Superboy, could you let Ken and Jen know we're pulling for them?"
"No problem." Superboy waved them off. "I'll keep you updated."
"Thanks, dude." Zoom picked up Ravager in his arms and vanished in a red-and-black blur.
Sergeant Marvel sighed. "I miss their old costumes."
"I think Zoom was tired of being called Kid Flash, and Ravager…" Seeker shrugged. "I don't know, she got a little too attached during that undercover op with Deathstroke."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Midoriya complained, though he kept his voice quiet.
"Ravager used to be called Artemis," Seeker explained. "She was undercover with Red Hood, and helped us expose an alien conspiracy. Zoom used to be Flash's sidekick, and now he does his own thing. Actually, a lot of us were sidekicks."
"Being a Sidekick is also a job on my Earth," Midoriya said, desperate to turn the conversation back to something he knew about. "Some of them only stay there until they can form their own Agencies, but others stay with a Hero their whole careers."
"Again, we never get paid," someone further away grumbled.
Midoriya ducked his head. "S-sorry."
The conversations continued, and after a while, Midoriya was able to learn the aliases of everyone present; none of them gave their real names, but they assured him that it was nothing personal. Most heroes on this Earth kept their identities secret, to prevent their enemies from attacking their friends and families. He only knew Ken and Jen by name because they had addressed themselves that way, but everyone emphasized how important it was to keep that to himself.
"How do you deal with that on your Earth?" Miss Martian asked. "If you're a state employee, doesn't that mean that that information is available if someone tries hard enough?"
"Actually, it's harder than you'd think," Midoriya said. "Even though a lot of Heroes' names are known, the government keeps personal information very secret. There aren't many specifics, but a team of people with intelligence-enhancing Quirks use some of the best computers around to keep hackers out."
What Midoriya didn't say was that there was an unspoken agreement between the Heroes and the criminal underworld—no going after families, on either side. For a Villain to attack a Hero's family meant never getting help from other criminals, and for the Heroes and police to come crashing down on them. Heroes, on the other hand, didn't go after a criminal's family because of the potential retribution on their own. The entire 'arrangement' kept conflict limited to those directly involved; doing otherwise meant triggering a war with no winner.
That had been one of Hawks' more sobering lessons during the last days of his internship.
…
Another two hours passed before Ken came back for Midoriya. "Sorry, guys, Dad just wants to thank the kid who saved his life."
Those words were enough for everyone to breathe a sigh of relief, including Midoriya, who was unceremoniously pulled from his seat and taken to the infirmary in a blur of super-speed. More people were inside, including a woman who seemed to be made of purple energy with pink light for hair. She held a small green-and-black slug creature in her arm; from the grip she had, it looked like she was under a great deal of stress, and was taking it out on the poor thing.
What lifted Midoriya's spirits, however, was Ben; he was still weak and pale, but he was awake. He sat up, one hand holding his wife's, while the other was being scanned by a device held by Azmuth.
"The treatment is going well," Azmuth said, oblivious to, or deliberately ignoring, Midoriya's presence. "I'd say that you'll make a complete recovery in another five days. Just don't transform for that time."
Ben's wife smiled and tightened her grip enough to make him wince. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he stays in bed."
A few others in the room chuckled, and Jen made a face. "Mom! Phrasing!"
Ben laughed. "Yeah, you really should have thought about that one, Kara." When his wife glared at him, he held up his free hand in surrender. "I'll be good, I promise."
Azmuth scowled. "If the treatment didn't rely on the Ultimatrix properly dispersing the antidote through your DNA, I'd deactivate it to make sure. I'll have to hope your family can keep you in line, for once."
"I know exactly what to do," Supergirl said, and hugged Ben tightly.
"Kara! Air!"
"Nope, not letting go this time."
Jen tugged halfheartedly at her mother's arm. "Mom, he's turning blue!"
Midoriya leaned a little closer to Ken to whisper. "Is this normal?"
Ken grinned. "You should have seen them when I technically died a couple years back. They didn't let me do anything unsupervised for six months." At Midoriya's incredulous stare, he shrugged. "Long story. Let's just say that us Tennysons are really protective when it comes to friends and family."
Azmuth finally turned to regard Midoriya. "Ah. You're back. Unitrix, give him the Mark One."
A blonde-haired woman in a white, silver-trimmed bodysuit sighed. "It's been almost thirty years, and you still won't call me Eunice?"
"Unlikely."
The woman, Eunice, walked over and held out the Ultimatrix Midoriya was so used to. "Here you go. Thanks for holding onto this; we wouldn't have been able to save Ben without it."
Midoriya took the watch, but he was confused. "How did I do anything? You needed the Ultimatrix, not me."
"The Ultimatrix was in complete standby-mode," Azmuth said gruffly. "If it hadn't found a user that matched its parameters, it would have self-destructed to keep it out of the wrong hands. If that had happened, all hope of a cure would have been lost."
Eunice smiled. "In other words, you being a hero is what saved Ben's life."
Midoriya blushed as he put the Ultimatrix back on. "There would have been other people who deserved the watch."
Holo-Ben flickered into view. "I disagree. There were plenty on your Earth who would have been heroes with the Ultimatrix, but they weren't you." At that point, Holo-Ben noticed that everyone in the room was looking at him. "Oh, right. Hi?"
Ben stifled a laugh. "I totally forgot that I made the hologram look like me."
"Thanks for that, boss," Holo-Ben said.
"Um… 'boss'?"
Holo-Ben crossed his arms. "It's either that, or Dad."
"Boss is fine."
The purple woman, who had seemed to be torn between laughter and tears, finally chose the former. "Oh, this is good. This is almost worth being worried sick."
Ben gave her a look. "I'm so glad, Grandma."
Midoriya did a double-take, and then turned to Holo-Ben. "That's his grandma!?" he hissed. "And why didn't you tell me about all of this!?"
Holo-Ben held up his hands. "Hey, I didn't know! Ben never programmed me with any personal information, just some basic stuff from before he turned eighteen! It's not like knowing his grandma was an Anodite was going to help you be a hero."
Midoriya had to admit that Holo-Ben was right. It wasn't really his place to know Ben's personal life. He was about to apologize, but the door opened, and the archer from earlier rushed in.
"Glad to see Ben's awake, but we have a situation," he said. "Mister Terrific needs as many hands on deck as possible."
The man who looked like Superboy frowned. "What's going on?"
"A major seismic event around Metropolis; if the readings are right, the whole city could turn into a giant sinkhole!"
Ben tensed, but then sighed and leaned back. "You guys go. I'll be fine, I promise."
Everyone except Azmuth and Eunice nodded and began heading out, but then Midoriya raised his hand, like he was back in class.
"C-can I help?"
Ultiman and Ultragirl shared an amused look. "Well, I have been telling him that we don't do the whole license thing here," the former said, and then patted Midoriya on the back. "Come on, kid; it's Hero Time!"
…
There were two things Midoriya noted as he arrived at the Justice League's base in Metropolis, the Metro Tower. First, the city was a shining symbol of progress, with clean streets, gleaming buildings, and state-of-the-art technology. The second thing was that he did not like teleporting.
"Seriously, this again?" Ultragirl helped him out of the way as more Leaguers and Titans arrived on the scene. "What is it with you and instant travel?"
"I don't know," Midoriya groaned as he struggled to keep the contents of his stomach in place. Only a few seconds after he succeeded, the building shook, and more than one person was knocked off their feet. "What do I need to do?"
Ultiman stepped in at that point. "Right now, our job is to help civilians, and find out what's causing those tremors. After that, we'll move in to deal with it. Ultragirl, take Midoriya and patrol the perimeter of the city; Mister Terrific just told me that whatever is causing this is surrounding the city, and I want you two to see if you can get ahead of this."
"You got it." Ultragirl gently elbowed Midoriya. "You might want to stay as an alien. Secret identity and all that."
"Oh, r-right." Midoriya sorted through his aliens, and then turned into Jetray. "Okay, I'm ready."
Ultragirl nodded. "All right, just stay with me." She floated into the air and started flying west. "Don't fly ahead, I can't fly that fast."
Jetray and Ultragirl were among the dozens of Leaguers and Titans; at first, Jetray didn't want to say anything, but after a few minutes, the silence became unbearable.
"So, um… what are your powers?" he asked. "I know that Quirks aren't a thing on this Earth, but you have more than one ability."
"Blame my parents," Ultragirl said as she flew; Jetray noted that her eyes were glowing softly as she looked at the ground. "My mom, Supergirl, is a Kryptonian, and she gave me some of her powers—strength, speed, durability, healing, enhanced senses, and X-ray vision. But Dad's DNA got some additions that passed down to me from his aliens—invisibility, water jets, seed bombs, magnetic powers, and Way Big's cosmic ray."
"How does that work?"
"The Ultimatrix was leaking alien DNA." She smirked at him. "The same Ultimatrix you're using now."
Jetray looked at the dial on his chest in alarm. "Does that mean—"
"No, Azmuth fixed that issue when he rebuilt the watch."
"Oh. Good." There was too much going on in Midoriya's life for him to be thinking about possible kids getting alien powers.
The silence resumed for a little while, but Ultragirl was the one who broke it next. "I guess I owe you an apology."
"F-for what?"
"Assaulting you, for one." Ultragirl looked uncomfortable. "I'm not usually like that. It's not an excuse, but I was just so worried about Dad."
"I get it," Jetray assured her. "If something happened to my parents…"
He shook off the thought before he could finish the sentence. The idea of anything happening to those he loved was too terrible to even consider.
"A-anyway, you don't have to apologize," he said.
"Yeah, I really do." Ultragirl frowned and hovered in place, staring down at something on the ground. "I'm seeing something with my X-ray vision. Hang on." She put her finger to the earpiece she had. "Ultiman, I've got eyes on something underground. Looks like a giant subway train, but it's carving a tunnel around Metropolis; at this rate, it could cause the whole city to fall into a sinkhole!"
Jetray's eyes went wide; from what he could see, Metropolis was huge, and millions of lives were at risk. What was causing such damage?
As if to answer his question, there was an eruption of earth and metal, and an enormous mechanical monster emerged. It was huge, almost a hundred feet wide and several hundred feet long; its 'head' was tipped with a giant drill, while much smaller drills dotted its flanks. There was an electronic screech, and then the monster slammed into a building on the outskirts of Metropolis. To Jetray's horror, the half of the building that wasn't immediately crushed started to tilt and fall towards several more skyscrapers.
Fortunately, Superman flew in and put his hands against the collapsing building, stopping its fall. Jetray stared at the display of power.
Not even All Might could do that! he thought. I mean, he could do the strength part, I think, but he'd never be able to hold the building up at that location, because he can't fly.
Ultragirl brought her hand back up to her ear. "Yeah, I saw that. Where do you need us? Okay, got it. Will we have backup? Fine, we'll make do." She turned to Jetray. "Everyone else is tied down with damage control and rescue efforts. We're going inside that thing and taking it down. Can you handle this?"
Jetray nodded after a moment's hesitation. "Y-yes, but how are we going to get inside that robot?"
Ultragirl looked down at the machine, and her eyes glowed again. "First of all, I just X-rayed it, and it's some kind of vehicle; the cockpit is lined with lead, so I can't see who's driving. Second of all, can you use any aliens that can go intangible?"
"Oh, right." Jetray would have facepalmed if he didn't need both wings straight out to fly. "What about you?"
Ultragirl grinned. "Oh, I'll be keeping this thing busy from the outside."
"Your magnetic powers can hold something that big?"
She laughed. "No, I've got something a little more… direct, in mind." She held her hand over her Ultimatrix. "It's time to go Ultimate!"
Ultragirl slammed down the dial on her Ultimatrix; there was a flash of green light, and the watch vanished from her arm. Though nothing seemed to outwardly changed, Jetray could feel a pressure in the air around Ultragirl.
"I love doing this." Ultragirl flew back a short distance, and unlike before, when she seemed to focus to use her power, this was completely effortless. "I'll keep it busy for a bit, and then I'll join you. Get to the control center, I think it's in the segment just behind the head!"
With that said, Ultragirl flew at the machine with unbelievable speed. She drew her fist back and punched it square in the drill, rocking it back. Even from several hundred feet away, Jetray could see the sizable dent in the metal.
Holo-Ben materialized and let out a low whistle. "I am reallyglad she never did that when she fought you."
"Y-yeah, me too." Jetray tapped his own Ultimatrix and turned into Ghostfreak. "Okay, let's do this."
…
Ultiman held up one hand, and formed a dome of green Mana to shield a small group of civilians from falling debris. "Keep going! There are Leaguers a block away to move you to safety!"
Most of the terrified people left, except for a beautiful woman with black hair. "Ken, how are you holding up?"
Ultiman smiled. "Don't worry, Aunt Lois, I'm fine. And before you ask, Uncle Clark is working to make sure the Daily Planet doesn't get knocked over." He paused, listening for something, and then laughed. "He says he loves you, by the way."
Lois Lane-Kent smiled back, and turned in the direction of the Daily Planet. "Love you too, Smallville." The words were quiet, but they both knew Superman would hear her. "Hey, where's your sister?"
"Fighting a giant metal worm the size of Poland." Ultiman's smile faded. "She went Ultimate; either she's still got some anger to work out, or she's worried."
Lois looked concerned. "She hasn't gone Ultimate since the fight on Apokolips."
"She hasn't needed to," Ultiman assured her. "And she seems to be handling it well. I'll send some backup her way as soon as we evacuate this sector."
"And that won't happen until I'm gone, I get it." Lois gave her nephew a wave. "Just promise to give me a few statements after this is done?"
"Don't we always? You know you're the superhero community's favorite reporter." Ultiman kept an eye on Lois until she turned a corner. "Okay, now we need to get this mess under control."
…
Ghostfreak passed through the metal skin of the machine, and then turned into Diamondhead. He barely got a few steps towards the control room when he was attacked by a dozen robots. At first, they moved too fast for him to really see what he was fighting, but Holo-Ben had no such issues.
"Dude, you're fighting robot monkeys!" Holo-Ben laughed from inside the Ultimatrix. "That is so weird, but also awesome!"
Diamondhead's arms turned into blades that he used to hack apart one of the monkeys. "Easy for you to say, they're trying to kill me!"
The monkeys fired beams of green energy at him, but they only refracted off, hitting the ceiling, walls and floor. Diamondhead retaliated with a barrage of crystals that shredded most of the robots; the remaining few were smashed apart with his fists.
"This is a weird day," he muttered.
"This is only your third time doing anything in the field," Holo-Ben reminded him. "Fourth, if you count the entrance exam. I'm sure this sort of thing will be boring in a few years."
"That's not actually helping." Diamondhead marched up to a thick door that blocked his way; his arm shifted into a thick blade. "Let's see who's on the other side."
The door shrieked as Diamondhead tore through it; sitting in a chair, pressing at buttons and pulling levers, was a short man with red hair. If it weren't for the robot monkeys hovering protectively around him—and the giant death-machine he was driving—he wouldn't have looked like more than a stressed college professor.
The man glanced back at him. "Oh, it's you. I got out of prison a week ago, and you're already going to put me back?"
"He thinks you're Ben," Holo-Ben said. "Just fake it until you take him down."
Right. I can do that. Diamondhead put his fists on his hips. "Looks like it. How about you surrender, and I won't have to hurt you?"
"I'd rather take option two." The man pressed a button, and a wide-barreled cannon emerged from the floor; a cluster of explosives fired out, catching Diamondhead in the chest and sending him tumbling back. "Oh, that felt good!"
A moment later, Ultragirl crashed through the top of the machine and landed on the controls, destroying them.
"Not as good as punching you is gonna be for me, Ivo," she said, and cracked her knuckles, even as red beams shot from her eyes and destroyed the cannon that had shot Diamondhead.
The man, Ivo, sneered. "Well, if it isn't the half-Kryptonian! How is life living in Supergirl's shadow?"
If he was trying to get a rise out of Ultragirl, he failed miserably. "How's life in Morrow's?"
Whoever Morrow was, mentioning him set Ivo off. "That cretin's designs are obsolete compared to my own! His name shouldn't even be spoken in my presence!"
Ultragirl laughed. "Nice to see your inferiority complex is going strong." She looked over at Diamondhead, who got to his feet. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," he said. "Watch out for cannons in the floor; there might be more than one."
"I don't need a full cannon to deal with you," Ivo said to Ultragirl. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a rock that glowed a sickening green. "This will do nicely."
As soon as the light touched Ultragirl, she gasped in pain and fell to the floor. "W-where d-did you—"
"You'd be amazed at what I found in some of Luthor's caches," Ivo gloated; there was a flash of green light behind him, and he turned. "Try anything, and the girl—"
XLR8 didn't reply as he tore through Ivo's monkeys, and then planted one foot in the man's face. At the speed he was going, Ivo flew through the air and into a monitor on the far side of the room; several teeth and a line of blood showed exactly where he'd come from.
"What's wrong?" XLR8 asked Ultragirl, not caring about the unconscious criminal.
"K-Kryptonite," Ultragirl said weakly, and pointed at the rock. "The radiation…"
"I'll take care of it." XLR8 slapped the Ultimatrix dial again, turning into a tall alien with black and yellow skin, pincers for hands and feet, and a metal head that floated between his spiked shoulders.
Lodestar held out one hand, and a panel of metal tore out of the wall; he then wrapped it around the Kryptonite, sealing it up. Ultragirl took a few deep breaths, and Lodestar helped her sit upright; color was already returning to her face, but she didn't look ready to go anywhere just yet.
That was unfortunate in Lodestar's eyes, because the mechanical worm shuddered, and the hole in the roof was torn open wider. A moment later, Superboy dropped in, along with Seeker, Wolf, and a girl who seemed to be made of fire; the latter quickly shut off her power, revealing a teenager with red hair, who wore black pants and a midriff-baring top, both of which were decorated with red flames.
"Everything okay in here?" Superboy asked, looking at his cousin with concern.
"Yeah, feeling the aster," Ultragirl said as she rose to her feet. "It was Ivo; he had some of Luthor's Kryptonite."
Superboy tensed. "Where is that little weasel?"
Lodestar pointed. "Over there. I, uh, may have hit him a little too hard."
Seeker walked over to the small man and nudged him with one boot. "Eh, he's been hit worse. Also, he put an entire city at risk, so I doubt anyone will care."
Lodestar nodded, and then held up the ball of metal that contained the Kryptonite. "Um, what about this?"
The other girl grabbed it. "I'll take it to someone, maybe Green Lantern; he'll throw it into the sun, problem solved."
Midoriya wasn't sure what scared him more—that someone could actually take something close enough to the sun to throw it in, or that that statement had been made so casually.
Seeker nodded. "Thanks, Bonfire. We'll wrap things up here."
Bonfire covered herself in flames once again, and then rocketed back the way she'd come. While Seeker put restraints around the unconscious Ivo, Wolf rested his head against Ultragirl until she started to pet him. Superboy chuckled at the sight, and then patted Lodestar on the shoulder.
"Thanks," he said. "Looks like the family owes you twice."
"Y-you don't owe me anything," Midoriya protested as he turned back to normal.
Superboy smiled. "Too late for that, kid."
…
To Midoriya's surprise, the cleanup and repair of Metropolis took little time at all. Ultiman and Verdona—the purple woman, who also turned out to be Ben's grandmother—snapped their fingers, and the city was fixed in a matter of seconds. Most of the heroes headed back to the Watchtower after that, including Midoriya, who was brought to the infirmary to speak to Ben.
"So, this has been a busy day for you," Ben said with a grin. "You jumped universes and fought a supervillain, all on a school night. Not bad."
Midoriya found the floor very interesting at that moment. "Th-thanks."
"You've had the Ultimatrix for about a year, right?" Ben nodded to himself. "I think you might be ready for the Ultimates soon. What do you think, other Ben?"
Midoriya perked up; Holo-Ben had told him a few times that the Ultimatrix was capable of sending some of his aliens into the most powerful stages of their evolution for short periods of time. Midoriya had been excited by the prospect, but Holo-Ben had told him in no uncertain terms that he needed more experience in the field before he'd unlock that function.
Of course, that had been before he'd fought real Villains, a serial killer, and now, a giant mechanical worm controlled by a mad scientist.
Holo-Ben flickered into view. "Definitely. He's improved a great deal faster than your original parameters suggested. He picks things up fast; I've already had to accelerate the guidelines twice." He paused and looked at Midoriya curiously. "His grasp on all this is almost too good."
Supergirl, who looked far more relaxed than before, reached out to ruffle Midoriya's hair. "Maybe it's because he's smart? If I remember correctly, Ben, you weren't exactly a good student at his age."
"I have the third-highest grades in my class," Midoriya offered.
"See what I mean?" Supergirl laughed. "Aren't you glad that the watch ended up on the wrong planet?"
Midoriya blinked. "Wrong planet? Oh, right, the Ultimatrix ended up on my Earth by accident."
Ben nodded. "Yeah, my plan was to give the watch to someone from the Earth I originally came. I kinda wanted to give my Earth a protector. Still, I wish I knew why the Ultimatrix ended up on your Earth. From what Ken and Jen told me, you've got a lot of heroes to protect your planet." He paused. "No offense, I'm sure you'll be great."
At first, Midoriya was just relieved that Ben didn't want to take the Ultimatrix and go with his original plan. Then, he started to get more curious. Why had the watch come to his Earth?
"I believe I can answer that," Azmuth said, looking up from a holographic screen in front of him. "Like is drawn to like; the Ultimatrix was lost in the void between universes, too far away from ours, Ben Tennyson, but close to another that was similar."
Ben frowned. "How are our Earths similar in energy?"
"Not our Earths," Azmuth said, "but the life in the Ultimatrix, and the life on the boy's Earth."
"What are you talking about?" Midoriya asked.
"Tell me something." Azmuth looked up at him, and Midoriya thought he saw regret and sadness in his eyes. "Have you ever wondered where Quirks come from?"