Ben 10 : Unlimited

17

The Once and Future Thing, Part 2

Neo-Gotham, 50 Years in the Future

It had been one of those days for Ben Tennyson. First he, Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman had followed a time-travelling thief back into the Old West, where they teamed up with heroes from that era to help stop a criminal who'd been using future-tech. Then, when they thought they were going home, the thief, David Clinton, had tricked them, and escaped into another time. The heroes had followed, and now they were in an unfamiliar timeline, being attacked by clowns.

All in all, Ben had been happier.

Things could have been worse, however; they'd gotten aid from other heroes, one of whom was a much older version of Static, a reserve-member of the Justice League in their time. The man in the black suit and the other with black wings, however, were a mystery.

"We need to get out of here," said the man in black.

"Leaving so soon?" asked one of the clowns, a guy wearing black and orange, and looked like he'd been stitched together out of corpses, "You didn't even take any party favors!" with that, he threw a pumpkin into the air, which began depositing small, but very powerful explosives on the heroes.

Green Lantern threw up a shield, but already it was beginning to weaken.

"That's not gonna hold!" Warned the winged man.

Sure enough, the shield failed, and the heroes split up to deal with their opponents. Wonder Woman faced off against a fat clown in a pink shirt and mask, his lower body replaced by a large ball. He drew a double-bladed energy sword and swung; Wonder Woman blocked it with her bracelets, but was thrown into bouts of unbelievable agony.

Green Lantern the man in black fought identical twin sisters, wearing clown makeup and wielding energy-whips.

"Look, Dee Dee," said one, "another Green Lantern."

"He's much cuter than the last one we killed," said the other, "don't you agree, Dee Dee?"

The heroes fought them off as well as they could, but every time they hit one of the twins, they divided into two more. If they didn't end the battle soon, they'd be facing an army.

The winged man fought a true freak; he looked like a humanoid hyena, only with mechanical arms. The battle wasn't going well for the winged hero; the hyena was too fast and too strong.

Ben, now transformed into Big Chill, was fighting a big, red-garbed clown with a hammer for an arm alongside Static. Ben had met the hero in his own timeline; he was a pretty good kid, if a little cocky at times, but Ben had been like that himself, so he wasn't one to judge. Besides, he, Static, and his best friend Gear, had become good friends.

"So, Static," said Big Chill, as he phased through the clown's attack, "what's new?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," said Static, as he used his electromagnetic powers to slam a dumpster into the clown, "stopping bad guys, saving the world, meeting dead people, the usual."

"Ah, just a normal day at the office, then."

"Would you two hold still so I can pound you!?" roared the clown.

"Now, why would I do that?" asked Big Chill, as he sent a breath of frost at the clown. He was only frozen for a second, before he broke free.

Batman was fighting the stitched-up man, and was doing a fairly good job of avoiding his blows, but it was only a matter of time before one of the freak's hands, which had turned into buzz-saws, hit him.