Chapter 50

Metropolis

The citizens of Metropolis did not normally fear for their lives, at least, not from things like supervillains, or falling airplanes. Superman was always there for them, and the people of Metropolis were his strongest supporters. The same support could not be said for the other heroes of the Justice League, which was why mobs of civilians fled in terror from the current brawl occurring downtown.

The supervillain Parasite, a mutated human that was purple with white stripes on his body, had escaped from prison, and was currently fighting several members of the League: Elongating Man, who could stretch his body into any shape, Metamorpho, who could turn his body into any kind of chemical reaction, Batman and Heatblast.

Elongating Man was currently unconscious; Parasite's power allowed him to absorb the energy out of people and, in the case of metahumans, their powers with just a touch. He could even use those powers just as well as the original wielders; it reminded Heatblast of Kevin, except that Parasite could do that without going insane.

Metamorpho tried to hit Parasite with a wave of acid, but the villain used his new rubber body to slither out of the way like a snake. Heatblast managed to contain him with a wall of fire, but couldn't risk getting close; the possibility of Parasite absorbing all of the powers of his aliens was too great a risk.

Before Heatblast could get another shot off, Parasite turned his lower body into a spring and launched himself over the flames, tackling Metamorpho as he did so. With a scream of pain, Metamorpho felt his powers being taken away, before he fell into unconsciousness.

Batman threw an explosive batarang at Parasite, but he merely turned his entire body into a gas, emerging unscathed. With Metamorpho's power, there wasn't much that either Batman or Heatblast could do; Metamorpho could respond to new situations just as fast as Ben could.

"J'onn, we're in trouble!" Batman said into his communicator.

"Are you asking for help?" The Martian's response was incredulous.

"Yes, we both are!" yelled Heatblast.

"Neither of you ever ask for help."

"Just get us some reinforcements!" Barked Batman, as he and Heatblast dodged a stream of acid.

…

In the skies over Metropolis, a passenger plane was going down; its wing had caught fire due to engine trouble, and it was headed straight for the city. As its wing sheared off, the passengers began to pray; one little girl, however, looked out the window next to her seat to see the prayers answered. Superman was coming to save them!

The Man of Steel used his super-breath to put out the fire, then flew underneath the plane to guide it to the airport. As he did so, he heard his communicator chime.

"Superman," came J'onn's voice, "you are needed."

"I'm in the middle of something," Superman replied, "can it wait?"

"Unfortunately, no; it's the Parasite."

Superman began to lower the plane. "Give me half a minute and I'll be right…" he didn't finish his sentence, as a red blur zipped past him, the wind knocking his cape over his head.

What was that? Superman wondered, as he landed the plane and took off to help his teammates.

…

Great, I'm gonna have to deal with an Ultimate Parasite. Heatblast thought, as Parasite jumped at him; there was no time for him to dodge, and he wasn't sure how to beat him in the first place. Just before the purple metahuman reached him, however, a red blur smacked the villain into a building.

"What the…" Heatblast was confused, until he saw who the blur was. "Hey, Captain Marvel, glad you could join the party!"

Captain Marvel was a tall, muscular man with a red costume that had a gold lightning bolt on the chest. He had a white cape with gold trim slung over one shoulder. He had short, black hair, and a confident smile.

"I wouldn't miss it, Heatblast," Marvel replied; he always called Ben by whatever alien he turned into, while most of the other Leaguers had trouble remembering the names of more than a handful of his forms, "but I don't think that Parasite is quite welcome to this party."

"Yeah, he's getting to be a pain. I can't get near him, or else he'll get the Ultimatrix; that Wisdom of Solomon got any ideas?"

Captain Marvel tapped his chin in thought. "Wisdom isn't the same as knowledge; hey, Batman, what could stop Parasite at this point?"

Batman glanced at Parasite. "He has Metamorpho's powers; however, all chemical reactions stop at sub-zero temperatures." He looked at Heatblast. "You might need something a little colder."

"Got it." Heatblast slapped the Ultimatrix dial and disappeared in a flash of green light.

"ARTICGUANA!" Heatblast had been replaced with a blue, bipedal lizard wearing a black bodysuit. He was hunched over, and had several large fins coming out of his spine. "This should help him chill out."

Batman didn't react at the joke, but Captain Marvel actually laughed. He was one of the only Leaguers who ever laughed at Ben's puns; even Kara only laughed occasionally. Articguana took a deep breath, and released a blue beam of light at Parasite; once it hit him, his entire body was covered in ice.

"Once he's unconscious, the powers and energy he stole will be returned to their owners." Batman said to Captain Marvel. Marvel, understanding, rocketed towards the frozen villain and hit him with a powerful punch. The blow was enough to instantly knock Parasite out. As Batman tied him up with one of his bolas, Elongating Man and Metamorpho came to, and made their way over to others.

"Good work." Metamorpho said to Marvel. He gave Articguana a light punch on the shoulder, his way of saying thanks to the younger hero.

"It was nothing, really." Captain Marvel said modestly.

Elongating Man stretched his neck, bringing his head closer to Marvel. "Hey, I think he's blushing." He joked. Sure enough, a hint of red had appeared on the Captain's face at the praise.

"Seriously, Marvel, you got here just in time." Articguana honestly complimented.

"I'm sure you would've figured something out." Said Marvel.

"Well, thanks for not making my brain work too hard!" The alien joked; he and the others, minus Batman, shared a small laugh.

"Don't be modest, kid," said Metamorpho, "I don't even think Superman could have done a better…" he trailed off as Superman landed next to the group, "hey, we were just talking about you!"

"And you are?" Superman asked, his question directed at Marvel.

"Oh, that's right," said Elongating Man, "you were on a space mission when we recruited him, and you never met before now."

"I'm Captain Marvel, sir." Marvel held out his hand to Superman. "And it is a real honor; you're my biggest fan."

"Excuse me?" asked a confused Superman.

"Sorry, um, I'm your biggest fan; it's a little overwhelming meeting you."

"It's a pleasure, Captain," said Superman, though Articguana didn't hear any enthusiasm in his voice, "a real pleasure."

With the introductions out of the way, the heroes began to make their way out of the area, but were stopped by a crowd of reporters, Lois Lane among them. All of them began to barrage the Captain with questions, while the others stood back; Articguana in particular wanted to see how Marvel handled being swarmed by the media.

"Please, folks, one at a time." Marvel held his hands out in a placating gesture.

Lois spoke first. "Lois Lane, Captain, from The Daily Planet; how does it feel to be part of the Justice League?"

Marvel smiled. "How does it feel? Like I've waited my whole life for this. I mean, being on the same team with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman…" he chuckled for a moment, "I still can't believe they actually let me join." All of the reporters gave a small laugh of their own.

"What is it you value so much about the League?" asked Lois.

"Golly," said Marvel, as if he'd never even considered the question before, "I guess it's all the good they do. Not just helping people—which is great—I mean, that's the reason we're all here in the first place, right? But they really make a difference; they change the world."

Articguana nodded; he couldn't put it better himself.

"How so?" Lois asked him.

"Well, just look at Lex Luthor." Said Marvel, "He used to be a supervillain, for Pete's sake, and now he's one of the good guys."

Articguana didn't necessarily agree with that, but he had to admit, despite Luthor's past, the man hadn't done anything to put him back in prison; he donated to charity, was researching cures for diseases and even building orphanages. He still doubted that he would ever trust Luthor, but even if he had some nefarious scheme in the works, at least some good was coming out of it all.

While Marvel was being interviewed, Articguana noticed Superman's hands clenching at his sides, especially when Marvel commented that it was good that Luthor was running for President.

"Let's go," ordered Superman. In a moment, he and the others, minus Captain Marvel, were teleported away.

…

Watchtower, The Next Day

It had been a month since Ben had been relocated to the Watchtower; in that time, he'd gotten to know each of his teammates better, though it did make seeing Kara a little difficult. They still went out, but both of them had gotten used to living together in Ben's house, though they had started to call it "their" house.

A lot had happened over the last month; five supervillains, under the command of Cadmus, had infiltrated the Watchtower while most of the League had been away, and had stolen the Annihilator, an indestructible, semi-sentient suit of armor forged by the Greek gods. Fortunately, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl had tracked the suit down into Tartarus, the Greek underworld, and destroyed it, with the help of Hades. As a result, the two female Leaguers found their friendship slowly beginning to rebuild.

Sadly, another Leaguer, Huntress, had been dismissed from the League; she'd tried to kill the man who'd murdered her family, and with the help of The Question, finally tracked him down. That search brought the two into conflict with Green Arrow and Black Canary, but the four managed to put aside their differences and stop the murderer from escaping US custody. As far as Ben knew, Huntress and Question now had a very passionate, but very weird, relationship.

Ben had actually been expecting a lot of teasing from the other Leaguers about his own love life, but surprisingly, he'd only received a few good-natured jokes from Green Arrow and Flash; everyone else knew that Ben had to be there for his own safety, and that any strain on his and Kara's relationship was completely Cadmus' fault.

At that moment, Ben was telling Kara about the recent battle with Parasite while they got lunch.

"Wait a second," said Kara, "Captain Marvel actually laughed at that stupid cold joke?"

Ben gave her a grin. "Maybe he appreciates my sense of humor."

"Or lack thereof." Said Kara with a smile, robbing the joke of any malice.

"So," said Ben as they sat down, "what do you think of the new guy?"

Kara though about it; though Captain Marvel had only been a part of the League for a short while, he'd already made friends with nearly every member, Kara and Ben included. He was nice, funny, and brought a sense of hope wherever he went. Kara had yet to meet someone who hadn't walked away from talking to the man without a smile on their face.

"I think he's a good guy," she said, "he's gonna be fine here."

"Of course he's a good guy," said Ben, "I don't think we'd let him in if he was a bad guy!"

Kara lightly punched his arm. "You know what I mean; he's just likable."

Ben gave a look of mock-hurt. "You're not going to dump me for him, are you?"

Kara gave him a quick kiss. "Never in a million years."

Further flirtatious banter was cut off when they noticed Captain Marvel walking across the room, a rather angry expression on his face; that worried both of them, as they'd only ever seen a confident, friendly smile on his face before now.

"You think something's up?" Ben asked his girlfriend.

"Yeah; I heard Superman bring him over for a meeting. I heard some raised voices, but I wasn't paying attention to what was said."

Ben looked at her, confused. "How did you hear a meeting going…?" He suddenly understood when Kara tapped her ear, reminding him of her super-hearing. With a gesture from Ben, the two stood up and walked after Marvel.