Chapter 48

The last of the refugees made it off the island, just as the volcano erupted; however, neither Superman nor Doomsday noticed. Superman was on his last legs, literally; he could barely stand. As Doomsday began to choke the life out of him, Superman blasted him in the face with his heat-vision; Doomsday roared in agony, but slammed his fist into the Man of Steel, sending him flying.

"Ah ah ah," mocked Doomsday, "can't beat me the same way twice."

Superman struggled to his feet. "Then I guess I'll need a bigger fire."

With the last of his strength, Superman unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks, stunning Doomsday long enough for him to pick him up and hurl him into the open mouth of the volcano. With his energy spent, he fell to his knees; he couldn't even think about escaping the oncoming lava. He was completely spent.

So it was with great relief for him that Wonder Woman flew in and pulled him out, just in time.

…

Upgrade approached the missile as carefully as he could, then gave the hull of the Javelin an opposing charge. Just before he connected, he withdrew to the escape pod and launched; he'd given autopilot instructions to move the missile away from the island, or the path of refugee ships. That would have to be enough.

As he flew back, the nuke went off. The blast of energy was so great that Upgrade turned back into Ben. For a moment, all he saw was the explosion; then, he saw nothing at all.

…

The Watchtower

News about the missile had spread quickly through the League, and the members who'd been on the station rushed to the observation deck to see what could be done, or at least find out more information. When they arrived, they discovered what Ben had done. The entire League, save for the injured Superman, had been scrambled in a desperate search for their teammate and friend. Ben had indeed been found, and was rushed to the Watchtower's infirmary. However, the search party had found one other thing.

They'd located Doomsday.

The creature was encased in lava so dense that not even he could break out, at least for now. Two days after the battle, the founding members, save for Batman, sat in front of him.

"Did Cadmus create you?" asked Superman, now recovered from his injuries. Doomsday said nothing. Superman turned to the Martian. "J'onn?"

J'onn's eyes glowed for a moment. "I can't read his mind; his brain's been altered to be immune to my methods."

Superman continued. "You don't owe anything to them; they manipulated and tried to kill you."

Finally, Doomsday spoke. "So I keep hearing."

"From who?"

"All you need to know is that I will get free… and I WILL kill you."

Superman sighed. "If that's your final word." He pulled up a strange device that looked like a cross between a vacuum-cleaner and a computer. "I only use this as a last resort. It's going to send you to another dimension; you won't be hurt, but you also won't hurt anyone else again."

Doomsday glared at him. "You'll wish you'd killed me."

Without another word, Superman activated the Phantom-projector, sending the monster to the Kryptonian prison-dimension.

…

For the last two days, Ben had remained unconscious; everyone had been assured that he would recover, but he needed rest. While every member of the League checked in on him at some point, Supergirl had stayed at his side for the entire time. She wouldn't let Ben wake up and wonder where she was.

Outside the room stood a brooding Batman, who turned when he saw Superman and Wonder Woman walk up to him.

"How's he doing?" asked Wonder Woman.

"He's predicted to wake up soon, maybe in a couple of hours." Batman spoke without looking at them. "You sent him off to the Phantom Zone, didn't you?"

"He left us no choice." Said Superman.

"Spoken like a true Justice Lord."

Superman reeled back, as if he'd been struck. "What!?"

"Passing judgment like gods? With our super-powered army and our orbiting death-ray? Cadmus is right to be scared. The human race wouldn't stand a chance."

"We'd never go there," argued Wonder Woman, "it isn't in our nature, and nothing can change that."

"Nothing?" Batman turned to Superman. "What if Luthor does become president, like he did in their world? What would stop you from killing him, just like that Superman did?"

Superman shrugged. "There's always that Kryptonite you carry around."

"You don't get to joke!" snapped Batman, "Not today; Ben just took a bullet for you." He began to stalk off, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Bruce. You're right. But you don't have to worry about the Justice League, trust me; you know me."

Batman stared at them for a moment. "Yeah; I do."

"Come on," said Wonder Woman, "let's go; we don't want to wake up Ben by accident."

Batman finally nodded, and the three walked off.

…

Inside the room, Ben began to stir; he slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He recognized this place; he was in the infirmary, which meant that he was alive. He heard soft breathing nearby; he turned his head to see Supergirl sitting on the chair next to his bed, asleep. He slowly reached out and took her hand in his. She must have been sleeping lightly; her eyes shot open at the touch, and she stared at him.

"Ben?"

Ben smiled. "That was my name, last time I checked." Supergirl gently moved forward and gave him a gentle, loving embrace, which he returned.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" she buried her head into his shoulder; Ben could feel tears wetting his shoulder, and could feel a few of his own building as well.

"I promise." Normally, he'd make a joke about the whole thing, but not today. They had come too close to losing each other for that.

Supergirl let out one more sob, then took a deep breath and sat up; she wiped her eyes, then an impish smile crossed her face.

"Good." She said. "You can't die yet; we still haven't celebrated our anniversary."

Ben's face went red; and here he thought that it was too soon for jokes.

In The Interim

Veiled Threats

San Francisco

After the incident on San Baquero, Ben had been sent home for a much-needed break. Even before getting injured, he had been putting in more hours than most of the other heroes. Ben had tried to object, but he'd been overruled by the senior members, and was thus back home in San Francisco. Of course, that didn't mean that he couldn't do his job and protect his city, but since he was rarely needed there, it was more of a part-time job than anything else.

For the first few days of his temporary exile, Kara had stayed with him, and they enjoyed being a normal couple for that time. Unfortunately, Kara was soon needed elsewhere; the League required her to help end a dispute between two neighboring star systems, and that left Ben alone. So Ben ended up doing what he normally did when he wasn't with Kara or being a superhero.

He was making money In the stock market.

Since coming to this universe, Ben had never spent much money to begin with, save for his car, but he knew from experience that heroes needed resources of some kind, and almost all resources cost money. Ben might have been wealthy, thanks to Bruce Wayne, but he had decided to make some extra, just in case he needed something expensive. He had turned into Grey Matter and, using his vast intelligence, figured out what to invest in. It wasn't insider trading or anything illegal; he was just being smart with his money.

After a few hours of that, Ben went on patrol, spending more time than usual to make sure that everything was fine. Normally, he'd be happy that everything was quiet, but after spending so much in the League, and going from one crisis to the next, he found himself getting restless without something to do. He remembered telling Supergirl to enjoy the downtime, and now he saw the irony.

Still, he wanted something to happen.

…

Cadmus Headquarters

Amanda Waller sat in her office, reading the latest report on the members of the Justice League; while she wasn't responsible for finding out their weaknesses, she did review their files, in case they were updated and something new was to be learned. Knowledge was power, and Waller considered herself very powerful.

"Excuse me, ma'am." Waller looked up and saw a Cadmus soldier in her doorway. "Professor Hamilton would like a word with you, ma'am."

Waller sighed, then nodded; she had a feeling that she knew what Hamilton wanted to discuss. It had moved beyond scientific curiosity and into a disturbing obsession. Waller had to constantly keep the professor busy with other projects in order to distract him; sadly, Hamilton was able to complete every task presented to him with incredible speed, and always returned to his most-discussed topic.

Ben Tennyson and the Ultimatrix.

Cadmus had easily discovered the identity of the shapeshifting hero; if Batman's identity had been uncovered, there was no way that Ben could hide his own. Still, they had no reason to try to blackmail Ben with this information; at least, not until he did something to warrant such an action.

As Waller made her way to Hamilton's lab, she reflected on just how worrying the wielder of the Ultimatrix was. He had dozens of different alien forms, and more powers than the entire Justice League put together, and Waller had a sneaking suspicion that they hadn't seen all of Ben's transformations yet. It was entirely possible that he had even more powerful forms that he'd yet to reveal; something more powerful than Way Big was a terrifying prospect.

Waller entered Hamilton's lab, only to be greeted by a horrible noise; it sounded like nails on a chalkboard, mixed with a chainsaw against wood.

"Hamilton!" Waller shouted over the noise, "Turn that racket off!"

After a moment, the noise died down, and the professor stepped around a large machine that he'd been behind. The machine looked like a massive microscope, but instead of a lens, the device had laser cutters, saws, and other instruments attached.

"Ah, Mrs. Waller," said Hamilton, "I'm glad that you're here; I've made a few interesting discoveries since you were last here."

"This better be good, professor," Waller growled, "and it better be about that new Kryptonite delivery-system." After the debacle of San Baquero, Kryptonite-laced missiles had been declared off-limits, and thus Cadmus required a new way to fight Kryptonians.

"Oh, that," Hamilton waved dismissively at a bulky rifle lying on a table, "the prototype is ready for testing; once it passes inspection, we can begin construction of at least two-dozen more with the resources available."

Despite Waller's dislike of Hamilton's obsession, it did motivate him to finish his projects faster, if only to return to his pet project.

"If it's finished, then what do you want to show me?"

"This." Hamilton led Waller over to his computer, where he brought up a series of statistics on all of Ben Tennyson's aliens. "I've been going over our data on these alien forms, and I believe that we might be able to incorporate some of their abilities into our genetics program; we might be able give our soldiers incredible regenerative abilities, or invulnerability. If I could get that device, the Ultimatrix, the possibilities are endless!"

Waller didn't show it, but she was becoming decidedly uncomfortable with what Hamilton was suggesting; she had no problem with creating artificial humans with superpowers, like the Ultimen, but she didn't like the idea of changing a normal human into a monster. She would order such a thing, if necessary, but that was one line she hadn't crossed, at least, so far.

"Professor, I appreciate your enthusiasm," Waller lied, "but I'm not going to have our soldiers getting combined with alien DNA unless we have no other choice. We have another plan to take down the League if it becomes necessary, and unless something happens to that plan, I see no reason to change it!"

"But the Ultimatrix is still a wild card!" Hamilton protested. "As long as that many powers exist in one person, there are too many variables to rely on only one plan!"

Waller tapped her chin in thought. "From our observations, it seems like Galatea could fight him one-on-one; she was able to fight one of those Ultimate forms; still, you do have a point. I have another plan, however; one without risk to a team of soldiers."

"You do?" asked Hamilton, surprised, "How are you going to obtain the Ultimatrix so easily?"

"Simple." Waller smirked. "I don't know if we can obtain the device; but maybe we can do something about its user."