Ben 10 : Unlimited

30

The person at whom she'd directed her question stood up. He was a mechanical being, with his face and hands covered in green "skin". The rest of his body was covered in purple armor. His blond hair poked out in uneven spikes, which failed to conceal the three circles in a triangular pattern on his forehead.

"I am a twelfth-level intellect," Brainiac 5 responded archly, "I know what I am doing."

"Okay, okay," Phantom Girl said, holding up her hands defensively, "I get that you're smart, but we've never done anything like this before."

"The Fatal Five have us at a disadvantage," Brainiac 5 said, "and with so few of us available, we must seek out allies from another timeline."

"Why can't we just take heroes from our timeline?" asked a confused Phantom Girl.

"Because if we did that, we'd alter our own history," Brainiac 5 explained, "but getting assistance from a separate timeline won't change anything in either."

"Oh," Phantom Girl seemed satisfied with that answer, as Brainiac 5 resumed his work.

"Now please leave," he said, "I have to get this to work correctly, and we don't have much time left."

…

Watchtower, 1 Month Later

"You think she's ready?" Green Arrow asked as he, Ben and Superman sat in the control room for the station's training area. Below them, Supergirl waved, signaling that she was ready.

"She's been practicing for this for a while," Superman replied, "I'm sure she'll do fine."

Ben only nodded, confident in Supergirl's skills. What she was about to attempt was rarely done by anyone in the League. The training room was going to send waves upon waves of hard-light constructs of supervillains at her, and her objective was to defeat each successive group. So far, only Superman, Wonder Woman and Ben had actually succeeded at beating the five waves needed to pass. Supergirl was hoping to be the fourth.

From an opening in the floor came three Z-8 combat robots; each one was surrounded by a flash of light, before turning into Queen Bee, Dr. Cyber and Silver Banshee. Supergirl grinned and cracked her knuckles; she rocketed forward, punching Queen Bee in the face.

"She seems pretty cocky," Green Arrow commented.

"It's not like those three are that big a threat," Ben replied, "of all of them, Silver Banshee might be the biggest threat, and she's…"

Ben stopped when the robot Silver Banshee was decapitated by Supergirl.

"No longer a problem?" Green Arrow finished; Ben nodded.

"Speaking of problems," Superman said, as the next wave of robots entered the room, "how have you been keeping the ring a secret?"

A week earlier, Ben had gone shopping for an engagement ring, but had needed a way to keep it away from Kara's x-ray vision. He'd ended up taking a piece of lead and shaping it into a ring case, and made sure to never mention it or his upcoming proposal out loud, unless he was in a sound-proofed room like this one.

Ben grinned. "If she does know, she's not letting on."

"So, when are you gonna pop the question?" Green Arrow asked; he was one of the only people besides Superman who knew what Ben had planned, and Ben had only been able to tell him via text-message.