Chapter 9

San Francisco

The two heroes landed at the coordinates that Batman provided, which turned out to be an alley. Superman was only there for a minute before he had to leave, saying that Batman had asked for Ben to come alone; plus, he still had a meeting with the other members of the Justice League to go to. Once Superman left, Jet Ray turned back into Ben. He stepped out of the alley to see a limo drive up to him. The window cracked open wide enough to reveal its occupant.

"Get in." said Bruce Wayne.

Ben complied, and the two rode in silence for a while, until Ben couldn't take it any longer.

"Where are we going? Why did you call me here?"

For a moment, Bruce's face stayed in its normal, impassive expression; then his mouth turned in a small smile.

"Your new home."

"What?"

"You'll see."

After a few minutes of driving, the limo pulled into the driveway of a nice house. From the outside, it looked like a normal, two-story home. There was nothing unusual about it. Bruce and Ben walked to the front door, where Bruce produced a key. He opened the door, and Ben's jaw dropped. The outside of the house might have been ordinary, but the inside was not! It looked like the homes of millionaires that he'd seen in movies!

Bruce gestured for Ben to go inside. Further into the house, he saw an incredible living room, complete with a beautiful fireplace and an enormous television; there was a great kitchen, and through a glass door he could see all the way to the San Francisco Bay. He turned back to Bruce, but it took a moment for him to get his ability to speak going again.

"How did you get this? Why?"

Bruce smiled again. "I didn't get this for you, Ben; your parents did."

"Come again?"

"I've been spending the last few days constructing your identity in this universe; birth certificate, insurance, medical records. Everything that you will need if you're going to live here, including your parents' last will and testament."

Ben frowned. "How the heck did you get all of that stuff? I never even told you my parents' names; how could you have written up their will?"

"When you told J'onn to read your mind, he picked up more than just the memory of the two previous days. The pain was so fresh that you'd subconsciously focused on any and all information about your family, in order to keep them close, and J'onn read that too."

Ben's frown deepened. "Okay, next time I see that guy, he and I are going to have a little talk about personal boundaries."

Bruce shrugged. "It got you a home faster. Does it really matter now?"

"I guess not." It didn't mean that Ben was any more comfortable with the idea of someone seeing all of his personal information, though.

Bruce smiled, the turned around, heading for the door. "Take some time off. See what's around the city; after all, if you are going to live here, you'll need to see what you need to protect." He paused in the doorway. "Oh, I almost forgot; here's something else that you'll need."

He handed Ben a small package; inside was a cell phone, a couple of bank cards and a drivers license. Ben looked at Bruce curiously.

"Another gift from 'your parents'. The cell phone has the numbers of everyone in the League, as well as the Kents'. The bank is a few blocks away. You might want to see just how much money you have; I have a feeling that you won't have to work for a long time."

With that, he closed the door. Ben stood frozen for a moment, then jumped in the air.

"THIS IS AWESOME!"

Bruce, who had been about to enter his car, heard the shout and allowed himself a grin before getting inside.

…

Ben spent a couple of hours exploring his new home, which included several more televisions throughout the house, a small room with a home gym in it, a large bedroom and a basement. Oddly enough, the basement was the only thing that wasn't decorated; it was just a basement. Ben had no idea why Bruce would leave that room untouched, but he figured that he'd have a use for it at some point.

There were a couple of computers that Ben quickly set up thanks to Grey Matter. All in all, there wasn't anything that he didn't like about his house. Ben smiled. His house. Two weeks ago, he was still living in his parents' house, now he had a place of his own.

After checking out everything in the house, he used his new phone to call the Kent home to let them know what was happening. Though he'd only known them for a week, but they'd become almost like surrogate grandparents to him. When he'd called them, he'd also asked for Kara's phone number to let her know as well, but they told him that Kara had a bad habit of accidentally holding her phone too tightly and crushing it; they did say that they would tell her when she came back the next day.

After that, Ben walked over to the bank; he was curious to find out just how much money his "parents" had left him. Once he did, a security guard had to ask Ben if he was OK. Apparently, he'd spent about five minutes not moving, just staring at the screen on the ATM.

As Ben walked away, he kept muttering to himself. "Twenty million… what, does Bruce keep that kind of money in a petty cash drawer or something?"

Two stops on his way back home were a supermarket and a clothing store. The cashier gave him a funny look when he bought nothing but black T-shirts and jeans, but he'd only shrugged.

"It's my style." He'd said.

Once he'd stocked up his kitchen, and his closet, he went back out to do a little exploring; he'd spent more time out in deep space than actually seeing his own home state, even if it was in another universe. He wandered around the city, not really looking for anything in particular, until he spotted something familiar; a very large sign showing a smoothie. Ben couldn't stop a very large grin from spreading over his face. A smoothie place; considering how many alien worlds he'd been to over the years that didn't have smoothies, he was actually a little surprised to find that this universe had his favorite drink.

He would have gone Inside, but a fire truck sped by, its sirens blaring. Ben sighed; smoothies would have to wait. He ran to the nearest alley, then activated the Ultimatrix.

"It's Hero Time!"

…

One Month Later

Ben kicked back on his couch, flipping through channels on his TV. He hadn't been that busy over the last few weeks. San Francisco didn't really have much in the way of super villains, not that Ben was complaining. In fact, aside from the occasional accident, fire or robbery, the city was pretty quiet, at least by the standards of a superhero. It was San Francisco, after all, and that city is not quiet.

Maybe that was why Batman got me a house here, mused Ben.

Still, he'd become a popular hero; at least, his aliens had become popular. He had no intention of people discovering his secret identity a second time.

Further thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Ben got up, wondering who it might be; aside from members of the League visiting him every once in a while, he didn't really have visitors. Usually, he'd just patrol around the city, then stop by the smoothie joint he'd discovered; it was the one routine from his old universe that he'd held onto.

He opened the door to see Clark Kent and Diana with very serious looks on their faces.

"Hey guys," said Ben, "what's up?"

Ben stood alongside Martha, Jonathan and Clark Kent, cheering for the graduating class of Smallville High School. Their applause was specifically directed at one graduate that wasn't exactly normal. It was with a grin of self-satisfaction that Kara Kent accepted her High School diploma. After the graduation ceremony, Kara rushed over to her family and friend.

"Thanks for coming, Ben; it means a lot that you came here."

Ben smiled at her. "Hey, on a day as important as today, how could I miss it?"

She had been pleasantly surprised to find Ben attending her graduation. He had apparently been trying to stay hidden in order to surprise her, but it's rather difficult to hide from someone with superhuman senses.

After receiving hugs from all four of her personal audience, the Kent family plus one returned to the farm. Most of Kara's graduating class was planning a party later that night, but Kara had a much bigger event to attend. Clark and Kara went upstairs to get into their costumes, while Ben began cycling through his various aliens. Upon finding the form he wanted, he slammed the dial of the Ultimatrix. Superman and Supergirl came back down the stairs in time to be greeted by the familiar flash of green light.

"SHOCKSQUATCH!"

The alien that Ben had turned into looked like a large ape, and had primarily yellow fur, with black fur covering the forearms, lower legs, waist and head. The face, feet and hands were grey-skinned, and a yellow, trident-like crest emerged from its forehead. The Ultimatrix symbol appeared on a belt around his waist.

Supergirl gave a thumbs-up, while Superman chuckled.

"You're going to make quite the impression with that one, Ben."

Shocksquatch shrugged. "Hey, if you're gonna meet people, make sure that they don't forget ya, eh?" Oddly enough, the alien spoke with a Canadian accent.

Martha Kent approached Superman. "Now, Clark, you take care of your cousin and Ben, all right?"

Clark smiled at his mother. "Don't worry, Ma, they're gonna do fine."

Martha smiled back, then rejoined her husband at the table.

"Have fun, kids!" Jonathan waved at them. The three heroes nodded, and Superman put a finger to the communicator in his ear.

"We're ready."

A white light surrounded the trio, growing brighter by the second. When it became too bright to look at, it cut out altogether. When the light disappeared, the heroes disappeared with it.

Three Months Ago

"Ben," said Clark solemnly, "there's something we need to discuss with you."

"Sure." Ben felt a little uneasy as he let Clark and Diana into his home; both of them seemed very serious, almost grim. He tried to remember if he'd done something wrong. Had he broken some law, or disobeyed a rule that superheroes had to follow? So far, no one had mentioned any wrongdoing on his part.

"What's going on, guys?" Ben gestured for the two heroes to sit at his table, which they did.

"There's something we need to ask you, Ben." Diana looked briefly at Clark, who nodded at her. "Do you remember what happened the day after we defeated the Thanagarians?"

Ben shrugged. "I remember getting a little snappish with you guys; sorry about that, by the way."

Diana smiled. "It's perfectly understandable, given what you went through; however, before we found out what had happened to you, we had been planning to offer you membership in the Justice League."

Ben's eyes widened. He remembered Superman telling him that the world needed more heroes like him, and then interrupting him; had he really been about to offer him League membership? Looking back, Ben realized that immediately taking them up on that offer would have been a bad move; he had needed the time to grieve, which had led to him staying at the Kent home for a week.

Clark took over for Diana. "I know that it still hasn't been that long for you Ben, but we'd like to extend the offer again: will you join the Justice League?"

"Absolutely." Clark and Diana were slightly taken aback by Ben's lack of hesitation.

"Are you sure that you don't want to think about it?"

Ben smiled at them. "Aside from me, the only other real superheroes in my universe were Gwen, Kevin and Professor Paradox." Ben decided not to mention the Galactic Enforcers; those guys were decent heroes, but they could be downright silly. "Joining the Justice League is a chance for me to be part of something greater, to do more to help people; how can I refuse?"

Thanks to her empathic abilities, Diana could feel the resolve in Ben's spirit, just as she could feel the pride in Clark's. She felt the same pride for this young man; he had been hurt badly, but he was still willing to fight on. Any Amazon would have been proud to fight alongside someone like him.

"So," said Ben, rubbing his hands together in anticipation, "when do we start? I'd love to start smacking down some supervillains right now."

Clark laughed at his young friend's enthusiasm. "Not yet, Ben; actually, we invited you pretty early, as sort of a thank-you for helping us during the invasion. In about another couple of months, we'll start sending invitations to other heroes around the world; then, we'll bring them all up to the Watchtower."

Ben tilted his head. "Wait, I thought the Watchtower was destroyed."

"It was, but we're in the process of building a new one; it'll be better than ever, and can be a permanent home for any full-time heroes."

Ben grinned. "Cool. So, who else are you inviting? How many other heroes?"

Superman shrugged. "Batman is still looking over his files on them to see who's qualified, but I can tell you that there'll be a lot."

Diana interrupted him. "And I can tell you that you were the first on the list of candidates."

If someone had told Ben that a few years ago, he would have let that sort of pride go to his head. Now however, he only felt honored. He was going to be part of something bigger.