Chapter 27

Watchtower

A lot had changed for Ben in the month since his grandmother visited. For one thing, the founding members of the League had been giving him more authority on missions, often giving him command of a team. Another change was having Ship in his life; the little alien spent most of the time on the Watchtower, keeping systems at peak efficiency. He would sometimes stay at Ben's house, but he got bored quickly, since he couldn't go outside.

The final thing that had changed was the matter of his secret identity; most Leaguers now knew that the shapeshifting alien was, in fact, a human named Ben. They didn't know his last name, for security reasons, but they felt honored that Ben trusted them enough to show them what he really looked like.

Right now, though, the Watchtower was being emptied of many of its heroes; a distress call had been received from deep space, and most of the League was being deployed to assist. Ben was saying goodbye to Supergirl before she left.

"Don't worry," Supergirl said as she gave Ben a quick kiss, "I'll be back before you know it."

"Did I say that I was worried?" asked Ben playfully, "It's Ship who gets worried; he likes you."

"Ship ship." Agreed the Symbiote as he rubbed his head against Supergirl's leg.

"Aww, don't worry, Ship," said Supergirl; she thought that Ship was the cutest thing in the world. "I'll be back soon, I promise."

"Ship ship!"

"See you soon, Kara." Ben gave her one last kiss before he and Ship left the Javelin bay. They watched the small fleet of vessels take off into space. They stood there for a moment, Ship sitting on Ben's shoulder, before Wonder Woman raced past them.

"Come on, Ben!" she shouted, "We have a situation!"

Ben looked at Ship. "Of course we do." Then he took off after her, saying to Ship, "Come on, buddy, let's show 'em what you can do!"

"Ship ship!"

…

Atlantic Ocean

An oil rig was under attack, literally from under. Strange, humanoid lava-monsters were crawling up from the cracks in the seabed, and were attacking the rig and its crew.

Aquaman, King of Atlantis and part-time member of the Justice League, swam underneath, giving his report to the other heroes.

"The new Bermuda platform is under attack; if it collapses, we're gonna have the worst oil spill in history on our hands." He sighed. "I've told those idiots to stay out of my ocean."

Superman, flying overhead, decided not to comment about that last part. "ETA is three minutes, Aquaman."

"We're right behind you, Superman." Said Ben, sitting next to Wonder Woman inside of a transformed Ship. True to his name, Ship could transform into an alien flying weapon. He was boxy in shape, with flat wings that held a multitude of weapons. The expressions on the League when they'd first seen Ship transform had been priceless, but this was the first time any of them had seen Ship actually fly.

"See you there, Ben." Said Batman over the communicator, as he flew the Batwing to the platform.

On the platform, Aquaman was fighting the lava-monsters, kicking away any that didn't see him coming, and slicing any others with the wicked hook that replaced his left hand. One monster almost hit him, but a batarang struck it in the back. Aquaman turned to see Batman jump out of the Batwing and onto a monster. The two heroes fought until they were back-to-back.

"These 'geniuses' dug right into the Earth's magma." Said Aquaman, "It never occurred to them that there might be anything living down there."

Both heroes covered their eyes as Ship arrived and cut down a number of monsters with his weapons.

"SHIP!" he said in a deep voice. His hatch opened up as Wonder Woman and Ben, now transformed into Chromastone, flew out to join them alongside Superman.

The five went into a defensive circle as the monsters approached. Before they fought, however, a massive gust of wind threw the creatures into the air.

"Not to worry, fellow heroes!" the Leaguers turned to see who'd helped them. A young Asian man, the one who'd created the tornado, spoke up again. "The Ultimen are here!" he and the four other heroes with him struck poses.

"Not them again." Muttered Aquaman.

…

Ben knew about the Ultimen; they'd been all over the news, and were apparently government-sponsored, unlike the League, who relied on donations and private funding, courtesy of Bruce Wayne.

The young Asian man, Wind Dragon, was the leader, and could create massive gusts of wind. The African-American next to him was Juice, and could both generate and turn into electricity. The Native American behind them was Long Shadow, who could grow to massive sizes, although Ben had seen that Way Big was bigger. The last two members of the Ultimen were Downpour and Shifter. They were twins, both having paper-white skin, red eyes and pointed ears. Downpour could transform his body into water of any kind of volume, while Shifter could turn into any animal, real or imaginary.

They didn't seem that bad to Ben, although they did come off as a little annoying, what with their constant support of everything popular. Being a hero wasn't about doing what was popular; it was about doing what was right.

…

Superman punched aside several creatures, seemingly uninterested in the fight. That changed when one of the monsters vomited up magma, covering the Man of Steel. Soon, that vomit was joined by more, as other monsters did the same to him. Soon, he was trapped as the magma hardened.

"Now, is that nice?"

The monsters turned to see Wind Dragon and Juice behind them. Juice placed his hand against a wall and transformed into living electricity. He traveled down to the metal floor and electrocuted the monsters closest to Superman. Wind Dragon walked up to Juice after he turned back into his human form.

"You know, Juice, Superman was my hero when I was a lad; it's not his fault he's getting old." Wind Dragon didn't seem to care that his childhood hero was five feet away as he said that.

A vein throbbed on Superman's forehead. "Old!?" he flexed his arms and the magma shattered like glass.

"Old but spry, sir," apologized Wind Dragon, "old but spry."

Wonder Woman flew forward, slamming into a small group of monsters and knocking them off the platform. Behind her, Long Shadow was wrestling with two more.

"It's… argh… it's a real honor to be working with you, Wonder Woman." Long Shadow had something of a boyhood crush on the Amazon Princess.

The princess in question smiled, even as she punched another monster into oblivion. "Likewise, Long Shadow."

Downpour and Shifter leaned against a railing, seemingly amused by the fighting.

"Shall we lend them a hand, sister?" asked Downpour.

"Of course, brother." Replied Shifter. "Would you help Wonder Woman and our colleague, while I help Chromastone?"

"What is it with you and shapeshifters?" asked the male twin. Before his embarrassed sister could answer, he jumped off the railing and yelled "River!" his body became a snake-like tendril of water, knocking over a dozen monsters.

Shifter ran towards Chromastone, who was blasting several monsters with rainbow-colored energy. Unlike Long Shadow, Shifter didn't have a crush on Chromastone; after all, she had no idea what he looked like or what his personality really was. She just found it interesting to meet other people with shapeshifting powers. The fact that this one shouted the name of his transformations, just like her, was a bonus.

"Hi there!" Shifter said cheerfully as she moved back-to-back with Chromastone.

"Hey," said Chromastone casually, as he blasted another monster, "how's your day been?"

"Oh, you know," she replied, "saving lives, fighting monsters. You?"

"Same here." Chromastone looked around, seeing how they were outnumbered, and slapped the Ultimatrix dial.

Shifter covered her eyes from the green light, and looked down at the new form. It was only about two feet tall, pale-white, with green eyes and mouth.

"ECHO ECHO!" the creature yelled in a mechanical voice.

"What can you do with that?" asked Shifter; this new form didn't look that impressive.

"I. Can. Do. This!" said Echo Echo. He replicated himself, until there were twenty of him. All of the Echo Echo's took a deep breath, then released a sonic wave that shattered many of the monsters into pieces.

"Nice work!" complimented Shifter, who then saw a creature heading towards one Echo Echo. "Triceratops!" she yelled, as her body turned into the dinosaur. She barreled into the monster, smashing it.

"Thanks. For. The. Save." Said Echo Echo; seeing no other creatures in their area, the Echo Echo's merged into one, while Shifter turned back into her normal form.

"No problem; hey, do you think you could tell me how you do your shapeshifting? It looks really cool."

Echo Echo scratched his head. "Um. Maybe. We. Can. Talk. About. This. After. We. Win?"

"Oh right, sorry, of course." Shifter was embarrassed. Here she was, trying to have a chat in the middle of a mission. It was a rookie thing to do. Then she saw her brother transform into a tidal wave. "Look out!"

"Don't. Worry. Shifter." Said Echo Echo, "I've. Got. This!" he slapped the Ultimatrix dial again.

"BIG CHILL!" the blue mothman flew into the air.

"Eagle!" shouted Shifter, and they both flew up above Downpour.

As they watched dozens of creatures get washed away, Big Chill said, "Maybe you should talk to your brother about where he turns into a tidal wave."

"He was only trying to help." Defended Shifter.

"And I appreciate that," replied Big Chill, "really, I do. But if he's gonna do that, just make sure there isn't anyone around that he doesn't want to drown." Big Chill then tapped his chin in thought. "I wonder what happens when he goes swimming."

Shifter grinned, or tried to; she was an eagle, and they don't have lips. "I've seen it; it isn't pretty."