Chapter 14

The Fortress of Solitude

Wonder Woman's invisible plane emerged from the clouds, heading for a massive chunk of ice that seemed out of place in the otherwise-featureless frozen plain. The plane made a dive into the water at the edge of the ice, and headed into a tunnel carved into the wall.

"A little sharp on the turn, don't you think?" asked Batman.

"Sorry if I scared you." Wonder Woman's apology was filled with sarcasm.

Ben only laughed, which he quickly silenced as Batman gave him one of his infamous Batglares. Ben had learned that whenever Batman did that, you stopped whatever earned it.

As the plane surfaced in an icy cavern, the cockpit opened and the three hopped out. Wonder Woman stopped to pull out a box that was covered in wrapping. Ben had a small disk, similarly wrapped.

As they walked up a flight of stairs, Batman asked, "So, what'd you get him?"

Ben shrugged. "Something I made with Grey Matter; I thought he could use something to have fun with."

Wonder Woman shook her head. "I'm not saying anything; he'll hear you and spoil the surprise."

"You do realize," said Batman in a stage-whisper, "He can hear that too."

Wonder Woman shook her head. "What did you get him?"

"He isn't the easiest person to buy birthday presents for." Batman pulled out an envelope.

"Bruce…" Began Wonder Woman.

"Dude, did you get him a gift certificate!?"

"No!" Batman snapped at Ben, "…Cash."

Both Ben and Wonder Woman struggled not to laugh.

"I mean," continued Batman, "what do you get for the man who has everything?"

As they reached the top of the stairs, they froze. Standing in front of them was Superman; however, he was in no shape to greet them. A strange purple plant had its vines wrapped around his body, and he had a blank look in his eyes. The three rushed towards him.

Batman examined the plant closely. "It seems to be growing through his costume and into his body."

"Is he breathing?" asked Wonder Woman worriedly.

"Barely." The Dark Knight responded.

"How could something like a plant pierce his skin?" asked Ben, "I've seen the guy shake off energy weapons and crash through solid metal and not take a scratch."

"A question for another time," said Batman, "we need to help him, and find out who did this."

"Someone must have breached the Fortress!" Exclaimed Wonder Woman.

"Agreed. You and Ben have a look around."

Wonder Woman flew on ahead while Ben activated the Ultimatrix, selected his alien, and slammed the dial down.

"XLR8!" The blue-and-black alien sped off in another direction.

Batman took out a flashlight from his utility belt and shined it in Superman's eyes. "Pupils aren't contracting even slightly," he muttered to himself, "he must be cut off from all sensation. Kent, where are you?"

Batman looked down at the container at Superman's feet. It was two halves of an oval-shaped package. Batman swiftly figured out what happened. "So it was a gift," he surmised, as he picked up one of the halves, "teleported here by some alien culture or some grateful world. Or someone who wanted you to think that they were grateful."

"How remarkable," commented a voice. Batman turned to see a massive alien standing in the entrance to the hallway that Wonder Woman had flown through. He was huge, yellow-skinned and wore a purple jumpsuit. Wonder Woman was clutched in one hand. "You animals are really almost intelligent. That's exactly what happened."

XLR8 sped in. "Hey, Batman, I didn't see anyone else here and holy crud who is that!?"

"Mongol," Batman growled.

Behind his visor, XLR8's eyes widened. In the couple of weeks since joining the League, Ben had been using the mission logs in the Watchtower's computers to get himself better acquainted with the League's past accomplishments, as well as get to know the villains better. Mongol's file had called the alien strong enough to be a threat to Superman.

"You recognize me," Mongol's voice had a sadistic tone to it. "I'm flattered. I'm sure that Superman told you about our previous encounter."

Batman raised an eyebrow. "You mean how he humiliated you?"

Mongol marched up to him, the triumphant smirk now gone. "A jaundiced account."

"I don't know," mocked XLR8, "Supes does seem like the honest sort."

Mongol shot a glare at him, then held up Wonder Woman as if she were an insect to be studied. "What inferior specimens he surrounds himself with. I took her down before she even knew I was there. And I'll take this whole planet just as easily."

Wonder Woman's eyes snapped open, and slammed both of her feet into Mongol's face. The shock of the impact caused him to release his hold on her.

"Maybe not as easily as you think." She said. Mongol rubbed his jaw and glared at her as she continued, "We 'inferior specimens' call it 'playing possum'."

As both Wonder Woman and Mongol were about to engage, and XLR8 was about to turn into a different alien, Batman stepped between them.

"No." he said.

Wonder Woman stared at him in shock. "No!?"

With his superior smile on his face, Mongol stepped up to her. "Clearly the males on this planet are the smart ones." XLR8 snarled behind his visor; he was beginning to hate this guy more and more. "He wants to know about the plant." He walked up to Superman. "The Black Mercy is a telepathic species; it reads the heart's desire and feeds the individual a totally convincing simulation of it." It didn't seem possible, but Mongol's smile became even more evil.

"So he's dreaming." Batman summarized.

"That is all kinds of twisted." Commented XLR8.

Mongol almost looked offended. "Oh, this is far deeper than any dream." He tilted Superman's face up to look into his eyes. "I wonder where he thinks he is? Sitting on a throne, ruling the universe? All you human garbage fawning at his feet? More honest, don't you think, than this pretense of being a selfless hero?"

"HUMONGOSAUR!" the enormous alien charged forward at the same time as Wonder Woman. He punched Mongol in the face as Wonder Woman slammed into his abdomen. After striking him, Wonder Woman nearly collapsed; Mongol was so strong that she'd nearly broken her hands hitting him. While Humongosaur's endurance prevented that much of a setback, it still hurt his hands a little.

Mongol wiped his mouth, then stood back up. "You don't understand," he said, "Superman was the only one who could have stood in my way. The rest of you? You're already dead."

"No way," said Humongosaur, "I didn't save the universe just to get taken down by a guy whose head looks like a peanut. It's time to go Ultimate!" Humongosaur twisted the Ultimatrix dial, then slapped it. Four spikes popped out. His skin turned green, while a blue, spiked shell covered his back and head. The end of his tail grew a spiked mace, and small silver plates covered his knuckles.

"ULTIMATE HUMONGOSAUR!"

Mongol's eyes widened as Ultimate Humongosaur delivered a punch that sent him flying into a wall. This time, Mongol felt pain. This form was magnitudes stronger than the previous one!

Determined to get back into the fight, Batman and Wonder Woman attacked. Unfortunately, Mongol was more prepared for these two. He backhanded Wonder Woman into a wall, and threw Batman into Superman; in this case, hitting a wall would have been less painful for Batman. Before he could crush Batman, Ultimate Humongosaur wrapped an enormous hand around the alien and threw him into another wall. Mongol expected him to charge him, but instead, he just pointed his hands at Mongol. Then Ultimate Humongosaur's fingers morphed into a multibarreled cannon. Both cannons unleashed a barrage of energy blasts that pummeled Mongol even further.

Mongol decided he needed a different tactic; he'd kill the weaker heroes first, then focus all of his energy against the big one. However, Batman had a different idea.

"Diana! Can you keep him busy for a few minutes? I think that Ben's form might be strong enough to rip this thing off of Superman!"

Wonder Woman nodded, then tackled Mongol, knocking him through a wall, and followed after him.

"Will she be okay?" asked Ultimate Humongosaur.

"She knocked him into the Hall of Weapons; that should buy her a few minutes." Batman waved a hand at the Black Mercy. "If you want to help, get this thing off of Superman."

Ultimate Humongosaur nodded, then wrapped his hand around the plant. At first, it wouldn't budge; gritting his teeth and bracing himself, he pulled as hard as he could. Slowly but surely, the Black Mercy began to come off. Ultimate Humongosaur thought that it would come off slowly, but to his surprise, it detached itself and jumped right at him! He had not time to react as the plant wrapped itself around his throat.

"No!" cried out Batman, as Ultimate Humongosaur fell to his knees, a dopey smile creeping across his face.

Bellwood

Ben strode out of his parents' garage and towards his car. He hurried his step after looking at the time on his phone; he didn't want to be late. He drove out to Kevin's house, barely making it in time. As he stepped out, he saw three of the most important people in his life.

First was Gwen Tennyson, his cousin. One-quarter Anodite, magic-user and black-belt, she waved to him in her jeans, red shirt under her black vest, and her long red hair tied up in a ponytail.

Next to her was her boyfriend and Ben's best friend, Kevin Levin. He wore a smirk and crossed his arms as Ben drove up. He wore a black t-shirt over a grey, long-sleeved shirt and jeans. His long, black hair was messy, as usual.

Standing in front of them was Julie Yamamoto, Ben's girlfriend. Her smile was full of love as she waved. As usual, she wore her pink sweatshirt over a white polo shirt and white skirt. Her short, black hair was, as always, perfectly straight.

"Hey, guys, told you I'd get here on oomph!" Ben didn't finish his sentence as Julie wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. When they parted, Ben gave a goofy grin. "If that's what I get when I get here on time, what do I get when I get here early?"

"Oh, you'll find out later," said Julie, a playful smile on her face.

"If you two are done, we do have a job to do." Though her tone was serious, Gwen's smile said otherwise.

"Come on, Gwen," said Kevin, "let the kids have their fun; it's not like the Forever Knights are gonna go anywhere. They live in big castles, remember?"

Gwen rolled her eyes as she got into Kevin's car. Julie got into Ben's car, followed by Ship, her pet Galvanic Mechamorph symbiote. Ben and Kevin got into the driver's seat of their respective rides and drove off.

Fortress of Solitude

Superman slowly shook off the effects of the Black Mercy; his eyes fell upon Batman trying to pull the plant off of what could have been one of Ben's aliens. Then he remembered: Mongol! He'd done this to him! He'd made him see the end of his world, the end of his family! He heard the sound of fists against flesh; that meant that Mongol was fighting someone else. Ignoring Batman, he flew off. Mongol needed to pay.

…

Wonder Woman was lying on the ground, her body nearly broken by Mongol's savage beating. She was barely conscious as the alien warlord picked up a spear from the Hall of Weapons, and prepared to drive it through her heart.

Mongol's sadistic smile was back in full force; he prepared to drive home his weapon, when a noise made him pause. He only had a moment to look surprised before Superman collided with him, crashing through room after room of the Fortress. The two eventually landed in Superman's "zoo", a place he kept the animals he'd rescued from an alien collector.

In his rage, Superman threw punch after punch, for the moment not caring how much damage was done to his Fortress. "Do you have any idea what you did to me?"

Mongol had to endure another minute of savage beating before he was able to kick Superman backwards. Though he was in pain, he still kept up his grin. "I fashioned a prison that you couldn't leave without sacrificing your heart's desire." He cracked the tendons in his neck. "It must have been like tearing off your own arm."

Then he reached out and grabbed Superman's head.

…

Wonder Woman slowly crawled to where she had last seen Batman and Ultimate Humongosaur. She was in no shape to continue fighting, so the best she could do was stay away from the battle. After a few minutes, she made it back. However, the scene before her was enough to distract her from her pain.

She saw Batman pulling futilely at the Black Mercy, now wrapped around Ultimate Humongosaur.

"Hera, no."

Batman heard her and turned around; his eyes widened as he witnessed her battered state. "Are you alright?" he asked as he helped her up.

"I've been better," Wonder Woman admitted weakly, "what happened to Ben?"

"He pulled off the plant, but it latched onto him. We either need Superman to pull it off, or else Ben has to somehow snap out of it himself."

"Well, Superman is fighting Mongol; we're stuck with the second option." She looked at Ultimate Humongosaur. "Can you get me to him?"

Batman nodded, and he helped her limp over to the colossal alien.

"Ben," she said quietly, "I don't know if you can hear me, but whatever you're seeing, wherever you are, it isn't real. Come back to us, Ben; please, come back to us."

Bellwood

As he drove, Ben frowned and rubbed his head.

"Ben, are you okay?" asked Julie, concerned.

Ben shook his head, then smiled at her. "I'm fine," he assured her, "just felt a little weird for a second, that's all."

The two cars pulled up to the entrance of a huge castle. Gwen and Kevin got out, stretching stiff limbs; it had been a long drive, after all. Before Ben could get out of the car, he felt lips pressed against his cheek. He turned to look at his girlfriend.

"Was that because you wanted me to feel better, or did you just want to kiss me?"

Julie smiled. "Maybe a little of both."

They got out of the car and walked up to Kevin and Gwen.

"I don't know why they think that we won't find them," said Kevin, shaking his head, "I mean, they live in a giant castle, for crying out loud!"

"Maybe they know their gonna get their butts kicked, they just figure they might as well lose in a cool location." Offered Ben.

Kevin rolled his eyes. "Only you would think that living in an old castle would be cool, Tennyson."

Gwen shook her head. "Come on, guys, let's just beat these guys and go home; I don't want to spend too much time cleaning Forever Knight off of me before we go out on our double date tonight."

Ben laughed. "No problem, Gwen." He activated the Ultimatrix. "It's Hero Time!"