Chapter 45

San Francisco

Ben paced his living room; he hadn't been this nervous since the first date he'd had with Kara. He'd called her earlier and asked her to come over, but hadn't said why he needed to talk to her, only that it was important. Finally, he heard a knock on the door. He opened it up and let Kara inside.

"Ben? What was so important? Is everything okay?"

Instead of replying, Ben gave her a long kiss, then led her to the couch. He took a deep breath. "Kara, I'm going to tell you what happened today, and I don't want you to freak out, okay?"

Ben then proceeded to tell her everything that had happened; the Old West, Tobias Manning, the future, the new League, and about Ken. Through it all, Kara remained silent, though at the mention of a son, she gasped. Finally, at the end of the story, Ben took her hands in his.

"Kara? You okay?"

Kara slowly shook her head. "You met our son. Yours and mine."

Ben nodded. "Yeah; he was about thirty-something. He seemed like a good guy. He had your hair."

"And he… he had powers from both of us?"

"Uh-huh, some Kryptonian powers, though not as powerful as yours, and he got some additions from me."

Kara looked Ben in the eye. "Why are you telling me this?"

Ben thought about it; he hadn't known why, it just seemed natural. "Because I love you, Kara; isn't sharing important things what people who love each other do?"

Kara finally shook off her shock, then smiled at Ben; she snuggled in close and wrapped her arms around him. For a long time, they just sat there.

"Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"I've made a decision."

"About what?"

"I…" Kara took a deep breath. "I want to move in with you."

Ben looked at her in shock. "Kara, if this is about Ken…"

She shook her head. "No, it isn't; if there's a child in our future, then fine. For now, though, I want to move in with you because I love you; I can't see anyone else in my life but you."

Ben smiled and hugged her tightly. "And I feel the same way."

Doomsday Sanction

The Watchtower

While everyone in the League knew that Ben and Kara were dating, only a select few in or out of the League knew that they were now living together. That small circle included the founding members, Green Arrow and Black Canary, whom Green Arrow had finally started a relationship with, and the Kent family. Most of the people in that group were actually very happy for the couple; the only ones who didn't say anything were the Martian and Batman.

When Kara had broken the news to Clark, Ben had, at first, been afraid that he would burst a blood vessel, fry him with heat-vision, or both. Instead, he wrapped him in a bear-hug, and gave them his blessing.

Afterwards, the founding members had given Ben a promotion of sorts. He was given the status of "senior member", with only a founding member having more authority. His new position meant that if one of the seven founders were killed, he would take their place. He was also allowed to attend and voice his opinion on meetings with League leaders. If all the founding members were unavailable, Ben was to take operational command until a new group of leadership was formed.

Two months had passed since the two heroes moved in together, and one month after Kara's 19th birthday, they had been planning on celebrating their first year together as a couple, when they received an emergency summons to the Watchtower; the life of a superhero was full of sacrifices, it seemed.

Most of the League was on the island of San Baquero, helping to evacuate the populace from an erupting volcano; due to the electromagnetic energy being cast off from the eruption, communications were spotty, at best, and the teleporters couldn't get a lock anywhere near the island.

Thankfully, Ben had a solution, at least for the first problem; the communicator in his Ultimatrix didn't rely on the League's communication's technology, and was unaffected by the volcano's interference thanks to its alien design. The other members of the League could use the Ultimatrix to bounce their signals to each other. Still, in order to be used as a relay effectively for the others, Ben had to remain on the Watchtower. Wonder Woman pointed out that one more hero on the ground wouldn't be as useful as someone who could help everyone at once.

His Inability to help, however, did allow him to attend an important meeting. Earlier today, Batman had met with the leader of Project Cadmus, Amanda Waller, and now had important information to share.

"How long is this going to take?" asked Flash, once all 8 of them had been assembled, "I thought we had an island to evacuate?"

"The first teams are already down there," said Wonder Woman, "and we'll join them as soon as we're done here." She turned to Batman. "What did you learn?"

"Project Cadmus is in the business of developing weapons," Batman said without preamble, "specifically to fight us."

"I could have told you that after the incident with the Supergirl clone." Said Ben. When the other Leaguers looked at him, he added, "Who else would have done it? I mean, they were capable of creating the Ultimen, why not a Kryptonian clone?"

J'onn nodded. "They're worried we've grown too powerful, and they want to even the odds."

Batman went on to tell them about how Cadmus had made simulations about what would happen if the Justice League ever went rogue, and how just the original 7 would have been able to conquer the world in just a few weeks. Their evil counterparts, the Justice Lords, had done just that in their own parallel timeline.

"That's crazy!" said Flash, "We'd never try to take over like that!"

"If the Justice Lords did," countered Batman, "why couldn't we? We have more than eight times the numbers as them; we could take over the world in a weekend."

"The only reason that those guys went overboard was because their Flash died," said Flash, "so as long as you all focus on keeping me alive, that'll never happen here."

The others looked at him for a long moment, before the Martian spoke up again. "Let's put a pin in that theory to explore another time."

"I've seen the Federal budget," said Superman, "and there's no funding for a 'Project Cadmus'. Where's the money coming from?"

"We're all thinking the same thing." Stated Shayera.

"Luthor." Wonder Woman spat out the name like it was a curse.

Luthor had popped back onto the League's radar after he regained control of LexCorp, and again after he announced that he was running for President of the United States, and raised even more red flags when his campaign started to gain momentum.

"He's the obvious suspect," said Batman, "after all, he funded General Hardcastle's rogue operations. But if he is bankrolling Cadmus, he's doing an excellent job of covering his tracks. I've got The Question looking into it and…"

Everyone else, save for Ben, who'd come to trust the faceless man after he helped with the Supergirl clone incident, groaned.

"Not that kook!" whined Flash.

"I admit, he's wound a little too tightly…" Batman began.

"But if there is a connection, you can bet that he can find it." Finished Ben.

Batman took up the reigns again. "In the meantime, I'll be following the trail from Waller's end."

Superman stood up. "If that's all, we have work to do; we all know our stations, let's get to it."

As the heroes filed out of the room, Wonder Woman caught Ben's arm. "Hey, Ben, can I talk to you?"

"Uh, sure Diana, what's up?"

"Well, I guess I want to apologize on behalf of all of us for a couple of things." By "all of us", she meant the founding members.

"What do you have to apologize for?"

"Well, I know how you like to be in the thick of things, but…"

Ben sighed. "But I'm needed here the most right now. I may not like it, but I've made peace with that."

"Also, I know that it's yours and Kara's anniversary as a couple…"

"And she and I both knew that we'd have to make sacrifices; it's part of being a hero. It stinks, but we both know that we have to do the right thing."

Wonder Woman's smile turned coy. "I just hope that we didn't interrupt any… plans that the two of you might have had for later."

Ben glared at her, even with his face turning red. "Don't you have an island to evacuate?"