Ben 10 the Justice Leaguer

A Promise Kept

He gives a stiff nod of thanks to Alfred and enters the mansion, bypassing the three older brothers and settling himself next to Damian in the protective pet circle.

Krypto joins in no later, letting himself in through an open window nearby and settling himself beside Johnathan.

The front door is knocked once more and Alfred opens it to meet a younger boy, Billy, looking the same as Damian and Johnathan. He lets himself in and ignores the three boys as well, plopping down and taking a sit with Damian and Johnathan in the circle.

" Fawcett? " Johnathan asks, his voice lacklustre as he shifts his eyes slightly to look at Billy, " Good. " The younger answers void of energy as he absentmindedly pets Krypto on the head.

" This is the fifth time this week they've done, whatever this is, are you sure there's nothing we can do? Cause I'd rather demon child over there chase me with his sword than do whatever that is. " Jason says, looking to Dick for an answer, Timothy nodding along worriedly as he sips on his cup of coffee.

" I've asked Bruce what to do, but even he's lost on how to bring their mood up. " Dick answers, hand placed on his chin as he wrecks his mind to try and think of something.

" How about we find Ben? " Timothy suggests, earning weird looks from the other two.

" How? He's not even in our dimension. " Jason says, eyebrow arched and foot tapping the ground as he waits for an answer.

Timothy takes out his computer and types inputs some codes in, " I've been trying some things ever since Bruce told me about the connections the weird energy spikes and the portal in Metropolis have since three days ago. I've got the calculations down on what to do so all we've gotta do, is create a device to make the portal. Easy. " He gets a blank stare from Jason when he looks back up and shows his screen.

" I know I've been hit with a crowbar and shot by guns one too many times, but I'm pretty sure what you said isn't easy. "  

" Or, we could go to where the strange signal is coming from and try our luck? " Dick says, pointing at the blinking red dot on the screen.

Timothy and Jason looks to each other and shrug their shoulders in agreement.

" Shouldn't we be bringing the three brooders? " Timothy asks, nudging his head to the direction of the three in the middle of the circle of pets.

" I nominate Jason for the task. " Dick immediately says, nudging Jason by the shoulders to the living room. Horrified sputters immediately leave Jason's mouth as he attempts to escape Dick's hold, but to no avail.

" I nominate Jason too! " Timothy happily agrees as he helps Dick gently nudge Jason into the living room.

Three stab wounds, four bite marks, and a lightning strike later, Jason's got Damian, Johnathan, and Billy up and out of the mansion and onto the streets.

Dick and Timothy happily guiding the small group to an alleyway in Metropolis.

" Father? What are you doing here? " Damian asks, questioning eyes narrow in as he spots Bruce hiding in the shadows.

" Same reason you are. "

It's a tense silence as no one speaks, the beeping on Timothy's computer getting louder and faster each passing second until, a small blue spiral appears in midair.

" It can't be. " Johanathan gasps, recognition dawning him as the blue spiral increases in size.

No other words are said as the blue spiral grows from a coin sized spiral, into a human sized vortex.

" Ha! It worked! " A celebratory voice comes from the portal, a voice they are all too familiar with.

The three youngest eyes light up with anticipation and eagerness at Ben's voice.

" I'll be honest, I did not think that was going to work. I thought it would blow up like the last three times. " Kevin says, sounding not at all sorry for his complete lack of trust in Ben's skills.

" Hey! Building a device based on Celestialsapien powers without overloading and blowing it up is harder than you think! " Ben quips, and a foot steps through the portal.

" Congratulations, you've got two hours before Azmuth figures out where you are. " Kevin reminds, earning a sound of confirmation from Ben.

Following the foot, comes the rest of the body and after that, it's that stupid smug grin gracing Ben's face the moment he sees the familiar faces.

Billy and Johnathan burst into overjoyed laughter, breaking into a run and body slamming him into a suffocating hug, they've really missed their friend ever since he went back.

Damian stands in place stiffly as he looks at Ben, processing everything that's going on in his brain like a broken recorder.

The two release Ben from their hug soon after, backing up to give the teen space to take back some much needed and lacking air into his lungs.

Bruce, Dick, Jason, and Timothy just suddenly have this nagging feeling that something stupid is going to happen, so they've confiscated Damian's sword while they still can.

Ben regains his breath and pats Billy and Johnathan on their shoulders in greeting, smug and happy grin still on his face.

Ben's smug grin turns into a smug and happy smile as he greets the rest, " Hey there guys, I'm here for my cookies as promised. "

A kick from Damian is the second thing that greets Ben after stepping out of the portal.

                            FIN