Chapter 11

It took some searching, but thanks to Supergirl's advanced senses, they located Green Arrow. What they hadn't expected to find was the archer firing explosive arrows at the source of the radiation, which turned out to be a several-hundred-foot-tall robot. A robot with giant cannons for arms, and a metal skull wreathed in flames. The machine was about to vaporize Green Arrow, but was saved when Lantern flew in and picked him up.

"There's some people over by that cliff!" the archer pointed to where some civilians and soldiers had indeed been cornered at a cliff. The only thing stopping them from escaping to the adjacent hillside was an enormous crevasse.

"I'll try to drain it!" Captain Atom flew off, with Supergirl right behind him.

"I'll work on getting those people out of there!" Jet Ray flew in low, before landing at the edge of a cliff. He slapped the Ultimatrix dial.

"BLOXX!" the building-block alien stretched himself out, creating support struts and handrails along the way, until he made a perfect bridge. His head grew out of one side of the bridge and he yelled at the closest man. "Go! Run for it!"

The man In question put a tentative foot on the bridge, but when it held, he smiled and waved the others forward. Green Lantern and Arrow stayed nearby, in case the robot returned from its battle with Supergirl and Captain Atom. As the people ran across him, Bloxx noticed Captain Atom pulling the fiery energy out of the robot. The metal monster tried to attack him, but with more energy drained than generated, it fell to its knees. Unfortunately, Captain Atom must have reached his limit, because a small explosion erupted from his hands, and he fell to the ground.

Supergirl flew down to check on him, then attacked the robot. Surprisingly, it was able to withstand her attacks, then smacked her into a hill. She shook her head to clear it, but instead of returning to the fight, she flew back to where people were still streaming across Bloxx, and lifted a truck full of soldiers to the other side.

In a few colossal steps, the robot was upon them. It was now a race to see what would happen first: whether the innocent people would get to safety, or the robot would vaporize them all. The robot pointed one of its cannons straight at Bloxx and fired. Green Lantern created a shield to block the energy beam, and for a moment, it held. But the shield began to crack, then shattered, just as the last person made it to safety. Even though he was only grazed, the beam's power was more than enough to leave him unconscious and covered in radiation burns.

The rest of the beam, however, struck Bloxx. The bridge shattered, and as it fell into the crevasse, the largest piece reforming into Bloxx's normal form. Before he could turn into something that could fly, he bounced off of the cliff wall and shattered. Before his pieces fell onto the ground below, the last thing he heard was Supergirl's voice.

"BEN!"

…

Ben awoke with a terrible headache. "I've got to stop falling off of high places; it's really bad for my health."

He glanced up. It was completely dark; he must have been out for a while. Then he remembered: he'd shattered into pieces! How was he still alive? Had he regenerated as Bloxx before transforming back? That was odd; usually, he transformed back when he was knocked out. Maybe it was an ability of Bloxx's species or something. He pushed that thought aside; now he needed to find the others. Activating the Ultimatrix, he selected Jet Ray and slammed down the dial.

"ASTRODACTYL!" Ben had turned into what looked like a red pterodactyl with a jetpack. "Okay, Astrodactyl works too, I guess." Activating his jetpack, he flew up and, once he got his bearings, headed towards where the Javelin was. Thanks to Astrodactyl's speed, he reached it in only a few minutes; thankfully, it was still there.

When he reached the base of the ramp, the Ultimatrix dial began to blink, signaling that it was almost out of power. He quickly slapped it, transforming back into Ben.

Maybe fixing me when I was unconscious drained the power, thought Ben, oh well, it'll recharge soon enough. Another fun upgrade of Azmuth's was that when the Ultimatrix ran out of power, it only took a few minutes to recharge; if Ben transformed back to normal before his hour was up, it only took about a minute.

He considered waiting for the power to recharge, but then he heard shouting. Concerned, he rushed up the ramp and saw Green Arrow and Captain Atom face-to-face, only barely separated by Supergirl.

"Hey!" she shouted, "There's a giant robot on the loose and we've got a teammate missing, so either stop playing alpha-male smackdown, or I'll take care of this myself."

"Wait, who went missing?"

The three heroes froze, then turned to find a grinning Ben Tennyson leaning against the wall. To Green Arrow and Captain Atom, there was a young man in a green jacket that they'd never seen before. To Supergirl, there was a friend that she'd begun to think was gone forever.

"Ben…" she whispered, then flung herself forward. "BEN!"

Ben prepared himself for another one of Kara's bone-crushing hugs, but it never came. Instead, while she wrapped her arms around him tightly, it wasn't an uncontrollable hug of enthusiasm; it was as if she held him just to make sure that he was real, that he wasn't a ghost. He gently returned the embrace.

"Don't worry," he said soothingly, "I'm okay."

Supergirl let go, then wiped a few stray tears away. "Don't ever scare me like that again!"

"I'll do my best to avoid getting blasted by giant radiation-robots and getting thrown off cliffs." Kara punched him in the arm. "Ow! What was that for?"

Supergirl rolled her eyes, but said nothing. Green Arrow, on the other hand…

"Who the heck are you?"

Ben sighed. "Okay, short version: that shapeshifting guy with all the different powers is me; I can turn into aliens from another universe." Ben tilted his head, as if in thought. "Don't tell anyone, would you?"

Arrow gave a lazy salute. "Superhero's honor."

"So," said Ben, looking around, "where's Lantern?"

The mood instantly changed. The smiles turned into depressed frowns. Captain Atom stepped to the side; lying in the infirmary bed was Green Lantern. His body was covered in bandages. Anything not wrapped in gauze showed cuts, bruises and burns. Ben's eyes widened; he hadn't expected the Lantern to be that injured.

"What do we do now?" Captain Atom's question snapped Ben back to the others.

"Well, we know that a head-on attack isn't going to do squat; we need to find who built it. If they can create something that powerful, they would need a way to stop it, right?" Ben's question seemed reasonable to the others.

"I saw some guys in hazmat suits in the village nearby," said Green Arrow, "They should know something."

"Thought you weren't on the team?" growled Captain Atom.

"Hey," interrupted Ben before another fight broke out, "we could use all the help we can get."

Captain Atom stared at the archer for a moment. "Okay, but I'm gonna be too busy to cover your sorry…"

"Wouldn't ask you to." Came Green Arrow's response.

Ben sighed. He could only hope that the two would stop butting heads; either that, or stay far away from each other.

…

In the smoking ruins of the village, soldiers kept watch over men in hazmat suits checked the area with Geiger counters and muttered to each other in worried tones. They took a step back as Supergirl, Green Arrow, Captain Atom and Chromastone stepped forward.

"What are we up against?" Captain Atom asked a hazmat-wearing man.

When he didn't answer, Supergirl said, "He asked you a question!"

Before the man could say anything, a soldier barked, "Don't answer them! That's classified inform-ah!" He was interrupted when Supergirl lifted him up by the front of his body armor.

"I've just about had it with you guys!" She glared at the soldier. "You've got to the count of five. One. Four." Her eyes began to glow red as she charged her heat vision. The soldier's uniform began to smoke.

"I'd speak up if I were you." Said Captain Atom.

"Yeah," added Chromastone, "it might be better for your health."

"It was supposed to be our protector." The hazmat-wearing man sat down and pulled off his helmet. His face was covered with radiation burns. "It was supposed to protect us from the foreigners." Seeing as they were finally getting some answers, Supergirl lowered the soldier, who ran off in fear.

Green Arrow knelt in front of the burned man. "But then you lost control of it, is that what happened?"

The man nodded, then looked in the direction of several other men in hazmat suits. One of them pulled a gray rod out of a crate. "We have carbon rod dampeners. But we couldn't get close enough to put them in."

Captain Atom looked down at the man. "Where's its reactor?"

"The front of the upper torso. But it's too hot; you won't make it."

"I'll worry about that."

Chromastone rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hey, guys," the three heroes turned to him. "I think I've got a plan."

…

The heroes flew in the direction of the robot, Green Arrow being carried by Supergirl. They landed far enough away that the rampaging machine couldn't see them. Chromastone turned back to normal.

"So," said the archer, "what's this plan of yours, kid?"

Ben smiled. "Okay, first I'm getting behind it; once I do, I'll hold it still for as long as I can. While I'm doing that, Captain Atom flies up to the reactor and shoves the carbon rod inside; that should kill it. Supergirl, stick with the Captain; whatever he needs you to do, do it."

"Got it." Supergirl's cocky smile was back. She was certain that they'd win.

Ben turned back to Green Arrow. "As for you, take a couple of the rods from Captain Atom; if something goes wrong, you're our backup. If you have a shot, take it."

Green Arrow considered this as he accepted a couple of the carbon rods from Captain Atom; it seemed like a good plan, except…

"How are you gonna hold something that big?"

Ben only smiled. "You'll see." Then he activated the Ultimatrix, twisting the dial until he found the alien he wanted. "It's Hero Time!"

The others shielded their eyes from the green flash. Now, there was a blue-and-black velociraptor with a strange visor covering its face and wheels for feet. The Ultimatrix symbol was displayed on its chest.

"XLR8!"

Green Arrow raised an eyebrow. "How are you gonna stop it with that?"

XLR8 smiled behind his visor. "Oh, this is just to get me behind it without it noticing me." He turned to look at the robot, which was destroying everything around it.

"Are you two sure about this?" Green Arrow asked, "If you get too close, the heat could fry you."

"I know." Was all that Captain Atom said.

"I've been through worse." Said XLR8, shrugging. As the three superpowered heroes prepared to move out, Green Arrow called out.

"Captain!" Captain Atom turned to see the archer holding out his hand. He stared at it for a moment, then shook it.

XLR8 smiled at the solidarity. "Let's go!" In a blur of motion, he rushed towards the robot.

Captain Atom and Supergirl flew towards the robot, the carbon rods tucked under Captain Atom's arm.

"Try to distract it!" he called out, "It'll give Ben more time to get into position!"

"Roger that!" Captain Atom raised an eyebrow when she repeated his own words from earlier. She, in turn, winked at him and flew ahead. She moved in front of the robot's eyes. "Hey! Butane-breath!" The robot fired one of its cannons at her, which she dodged. Captain Atom hovered out of its line of sight, ready for XLR8 to do whatever he was planning.

Speaking of XLR8, he had actually run farther ahead than he'd needed to. He hadn't been expecting to move so quickly! He must have gone twice as fast as normal! What the heck is going on? He wondered. Deciding to put his questions on hold again, he rushed back until he was only a couple hundred feet away from the robot. Now's as good a time as any, he thought, as he slapped the Ultimatrix dial.

A flash of green light, bigger than any seen thus far by the heroes, illuminated the area. Once it faded, the biggest living creature they'd ever seen pumped a fist. It was huge, even taller than the robot! It was white, with red running down part of the chest, shoulders, arms, legs and part of the face. A massive crest or horn rose out of the top of its head.

"WAY BIG!" The creature's voice alone was enough to shake anything near him.

"Whoah." Supergirl stared. She couldn't believe it; Ben had had something like that up his sleeve the entire time?

"Okay, scrapheap, let's go!" Way Big lunged forward, wrapping his enormous arms around the robot's cannons from behind, ignoring the intense heat coming from the thing. "Captain! Do it now!"

Captain Atom nodded, then flew at the monster's reactor. The guy from the village had been right; the heat was so intense that the air around the Captain's body began to ignite. He fought through the pain, until he was right in front of the reactor; he raised a carbon rod. However, the robot looked down, and shot a short blast of energy from its eyes; the blast sent Captain Atom to the ground. Then the robot jerked its head back, slamming Way Big in the throat.

As the giant alien fell backwards, the robot pointed one cannon at him, and the other at the downed Captain Atom. It fired both beams simultaneously; Way Big was knocked a hundred feet back, while Captain Atom was left at the bottom a crater.

As Captain Atom crawled out of the crater, his eyes widened in fear when he saw a rip in his containment suit; he knew what would happen next. He flew into the air, trying to put as much distance between himself and his teammates. He managed to reach the lower atmosphere… and then he exploded. An enormous ball of blue energy lit up the sky, while Supergirl, Green Arrow and Way Big looked on in horror.

In a rage, Supergirl charged at the robot, not caring if her attacks had been ineffective the last time she'd fought the thing. In response, the robot slammed its arm into her, knocking her into a hill.

Green Arrow gritted his teeth, then looked at the carbon rod in his hands. This thing is never gonna fly straight, he thought. Thinking quickly, he snapped it in half. Taking one half, he used some spare bowstring in his belt and wrapped the rod to one of his arrows. He looked up just in time to see a very large cannon pointed in his direction. He began to run…

Way Big saw the cannon fire, and a massive explosion lit the area. His eyes widened. In the span of just a couple of minutes, he'd lost two teammates. For a moment, he was back in his own universe, back in Bellwood; he saw his destroyed home, saw his dead friends and loved ones. He looked at the robot, but all he saw was him.

"NO!" Way Big rushed the robot again, slamming both massive fists against its shoulders; the robot was driven to its knees. Way Big began punching the machine over and over. "Not again!" he shouted, "NOT AGAIN!"

"Kid, move!"

Way Big turned his head to see a dead man. Standing on a tall rock, his costume torn and his hat missing, was Green Arrow! Somehow, he'd been able to stay out of most of the blast. He drew back his bowstring and aimed his carbon-rod-tipped arrow; Way Big dove to the side.

"Say 'ah', dirtbag." Green Arrow took the shot. The arrow flew straight and true, directly into the reactor. The robot let out a final roar as it powered down.

With a roar of her own, Supergirl flew up and delivered a powerful uppercut, while Way Big drove his fist towards the robot's chest with all of his strength. The robot was decapitated just as its heart was ripped out. Both aliens looked down at Green Arrow, who fell to his knees and gave a tired wave. It was over.

…

The three made their way to the Javelin, where Ben turned back to normal. After letting a now-conscious Green Lantern know about what happened, Ben flew the Javelin back to the Watchtower.

"The controls are pretty close to the ones on the Rustbucket Three." Was his only explanation.

Once onboard, Ben transformed into Diamondhead, while the two Greens were taken away for medical treatment. Diamondhead sat at the base of the ramp, Supergirl next to him.

"You okay, Ben?"

Diamondhead said nothing for a moment. "No, I'm not. It's never easy to lose people, Kara; not even people you've only known for a day."

For a few minutes, the two said nothing, lost in their own private thoughts. The quiet didn't last long, as Green Lantern showed up. He was battered and in a hoverchair, but his condition had definitely improved.

"Come with me," he said, "there's someone who probably wants to see you."

Supergirl and Diamondhead looked at each other, curious, but obediently followed. They traveled to the science wing of the Watchtower, where any technological or chemical needs were met for any Leaguer that required it. Once there, they looked through a window to see several men in radiation suits and a large machine that was pumping blue energy into a suit; a very familiar suit…

"Captain Atom?" Diamondhead asked, not daring to hope.

Green Lantern nodded. "J'onn had a team pick him up right after it happened, so he didn't lose much of his energy."

Diamondhead let out a huge sigh of relief; he hadn't lost anyone else. He hadn't failed again. He saw a half-filled containment suit lift an arm and give a weak thumbs-up, which he and Supergirl returned.

"At least he got a new suit out of it." Said Supergirl.

"Yeah," agreed Diamondhead, "let's just hope that the new one is more tear-proof."

"All right, Ben, you've had a long first day," said Green Lantern, "why don't you head home and get some rest. We'll bring you back up tomorrow."

Diamondhead nodded. "Okay, sure; I'll see you both then. Good night."

"Good night!" Called out Supergirl. She turned to Green Lantern with a smirk. "So, aren't you gonna give me the 'you did good' speech?"

Green Lantern glared at her. "You're headstrong, unprofessional and overconfident. If Ben hadn't been around, what do you think might have happened? For all we know, you could have started an international incident; you could have gotten someone killed! If you ever act like that on a mission again, I will personally see to it that you are kicked out of the League. I don't care who your cousin is." He turned his chair and moved away, then stopped. He looked at Supergirl's crestfallen face.

"And incidentally," he added, "you did good." Then he left. Supergirl looked stunned for a moment; then a bit of her smile returned.

…

As Diamondhead headed to the teleporter, he passed by the locker rooms and noticed Batman leaning against a wall. Curious as to what the Dark Knight was doing, he did his best to stay out of sight. The door to the showers opened, and Green Arrow walked out in a towel.

"Well, if it isn't the monster-killer." Batman had a small smile on his face.

"I was lucky," said the archer, looking down, "so was everybody else. Still don't think I belong up here."

"That's the point," replied Batman, "someone like you will keep us honest."

"Gee, Bats, I don't know; don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good radiation burn as much as the next guy, but I don't think… that…" Green Arrow's voice trailed off.

Diamondhead followed his gaze, until his eyes landed on a beautiful woman on the women's side of the locker room. Black Canary was her superhero name, if Diamondhead remembered correctly. Right now she was slowly putting on her boots. Glancing back, Diamondhead could swear that Arrow was drooling.

"So," said Batman, "see you around?"

Green Arrow smiled. "You just might."

Diamondhead smiled as he resumed his way to the teleporter; to him, joining the Justice League was looking to be a better choice all the time.