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Ben 10: Justice Incarnate Chapter 43 (Early Preview)
🕑 Added 2025-09-13 13:47:19 +0000 UTCChapter 43: Denying Your Demons Part 3
Outside the theater, Kent Nelson, Abra Kadabra, the kid, and his cat came into view. Just as Abra Kadabra pushed Kent forward harshly. As Kent got within feet of the door, ankh appeared on the door, and it unlocked itself to reveal a staircase within. The teen smiled mischievously.
All three entered the tower, and once again, the door slammed shut behind them. Only this time it disappeared from the outside too.
Inside the Tower, Kent looked to Kadabra. "The Tower may not appreciate trespassers."
Kadabra raised his wand. "Mute," he commanded.
Choking Kent, a collar appeared around his neck, and a red light glowed in the center.
Kadabra placed his hand on Kent's shoulder, and they all walked forward; the wall divided to let them in. They stopped in a living room where Inza's portrait hung over a large fireplace.
Kent's magical projection appeared in the center of the rug. "Hello, Kent," he greeted. "How unlike you to bring guests to the Tower, especially one with such potent mystic power."
Kadabra raised a hand and placed it on Kent's shoulder as the collar spoke for Kent. "My friends come to help me." It was mechanical, but definitely Kent's voice. Silently, the man glared heavily at Kadabra.
Kent's projection smiled, and the wall opened once more. Revealing stairs that ran in all directions, regardless of gravity, as if from an M. C. Escher painting..
Kadabra smiled smugly as all three began up the stairs, and the wall closed behind them.
#
Superboy was falling the fastest, but changed his course to get to one of the walls, while M'gann grabbed Wally, bringing the two of them closer as well. While Artemis pulled out a small crossbow, turning on her back to shoot higher into the rock, then swung to grab Kaldur as both of them planted their feet solidly on the wall.
Superboy clawed at the rock. His grip was slowing him down, but not stopping him, even as he dug the balls of his feet into the rock.
Before he could reach the lava below, there was a massive green flash from above. A large, brown, and black rock-like alien with a glowing red center dove past them all.
"What the…" Superboy started, surprised to find himself floating.
"Gravity manipulation," Gravattack explained as he expanded back to his humanoid form while maintaining his gravitational pull. "This is one of my versatile transformations."
"Thanks. These are my favorite boots," he breathed heavily. "This Kent better be worth it."
"Please hurry here!" M'gann and Wally were slowly falling, slowing and speeding up as M'gann's power waned and waxed. "Having trouble... maintaining altitude..." She wiped sweat from her brow. "Ugh, I'm so hot."
"You sure are," he says, not even thinking.
"Wally!" Artemis both gasps at and reprimands him.
"Hey, inches above sizzling death, I'm entitled to speak my mind!" he snaps back.
Kaldur also wipes the sweat off his brow. "My physiology and M'gann's are susceptible to heat; we must get out quickly."
M'gann, who had been struggling to keep herself and Wally aloft, sighed in relief as they were caught in Gravattack's orbit. Artemis and Kaldur, who had managed to secure themselves to the wall with Artemis's grappling arrow, were also pulled into the gravitational field.
"Everyone okay?" Gravattack asked and carefully moved them upward. As he lifted them toward the top, Kaldur was the last one he pulled into his orbit. The moment Kaldur left the wall, a loud grinding sound filled the air as the opening at the top sealed shut.
Superboy immediately tried punching the sealed opening, but his fist barely made a dent. M'gann attempted to use her telekinesis, while Artemis fired explosive arrows at the barrier, all to no avail.
"That can't be good," Artemis muttered as they floated near the now-closed exit.
"Let me try," Gravattack said, positioning himself directly below the sealed exit. He extended his arm, intending to use his enhanced strength to push through, but to everyone's surprise, his rocky arm phased right through the barrier.
"What just happened?" Wally asked, eyes wide.
Gravattack pulled his arm back, looking confused. "It seems the door is charmed to only let me through." He tried pushing his whole body against it, and sure enough, he began to phase through while the others remained trapped below.
"Wait!" Kaldur called out. "Don't leave us!"
Gravattack pulled back. "I won't. There should be another way…"
His words were cut short by a low rumbling sound. The team looked down to see the lava below beginning to rise rapidly.
"That's not good," Wally said, his voice rising in panic. "That is definitely not good!"
“You just had to piss off projection…” groaned Artemis.
Wally glared back. “All I said was that we were looking for Doctor Fate! I didn’t know that the security’s first line of defense was to try to kill us.”
“Ark must have said something correct, because he was the only one
“Yeah, and the rest of us failed by association…”
"Hello, Megan," M'gann said through gasps. "We never… truly answered the question."
“You didn’t?” questioned Ark.
She turned her head slightly. "Red Tornado… sent us… to see if… Mr. Nelson and the Helmet… were safe."
The lava stops rising, and a panel slides shut over the pool.
Thinking that it was safe, Gravattack descended onto the new floor to make sure it was safe. The platform beneath them remained surprisingly cool despite the magma that had been below them moments before. Feeling no heat, he allowed the others to drop from his gravity field before returning to human.
Wally falls, landing on his butt, while M'gann falls next to him on her knees. Artemis and Kaldur lay down on the panel.
"This platform." Kaldur realizes, touching it with both his hands. "It should be red hot, but it is cool to the touch."
"Don't worry, Megalicious, I gotcha," Wally says, helping the green girl to her feet.
Artemis blows a gasket. "Enough!" She shoved Wally into the wall. "Your little 'impress M'gann at all cost' game nearly got us all barbecued."
Wally glared at the blonde half-Vietnamese girl before him. "When did this become my fault? Again, I clearly told the projection that we were looking for Doctor Fate."
"When you lied and called yourself a true believer." Artemis snaps, Superboy and M'gann looking at the redhead from behind her.
“How was I supposed to know the security here cared about my personal beliefs?” Once again, all the attention in the room was on Wally.
Gravattack shrugged. “To be fair, I’m surprised it cared about that too.”
"Wally?" M'gann questions, stunned. "You don't believe?"
Wally glares at Artemis before speaking out in exasperation. "Fine. Fine! I lied about believing in Magic! But Magic's the real lie, it's all a major load!"
"Wally, I studied for a year at the Conservatory of Sorcery in Atlantis." Kaldur prompts his hand still on the floor. "The Mystic Mages created the skin icons that power my WaterBearers." Now he is looking at Wally.
"Dude, you ever hear of Bioelectricity?" he asks, seeming annoyed.
"As much as we might want to, we don’t live in a fantasy. This is the real world. There is no Easter Bunny. There is no Tooth Fairy. And there is no Queen of England."
The other blinked at that remark. “Uh, what was that last one?”
Kid Flash shook his head. “Sorry. Scratch that last one. I was remembering a movie.”
Artemis frowned. “You're pretty close-minded for a guy who can break the sound barrier in his sneakers."
"That's science," Wally speaks simply. "I recreated the Flash's laboratory experiment, and here I am!" he says with a sarcastic hand gesture of grandeur. "Everything can be explained by science."
Ark hummed. “Kid, please tell me you’re not the kind of guy who would tell people that their gods or whatever don’t exist, right?”
Kid Flash put his hands up. “What?! No! I wouldn’t do that!”
Artemis huffed. "I dunno. Have you ever discussed Wonder Woman's supposed origin story with her? Being born from clay and all.”
Wally crossed his arms. “I don’t know enough about her interactions with her… gods to give a judgment. Men aren’t allowed on her island, you know.”
She scoffed. "Right, that's the reason."
The group stood on the cool platform, relieved to have escaped the rising lava. As they caught their breath, the conversation turned back to their earlier debate.
Ark seemed to stifle a laugh. "Just to clarify, Kid, you also believe that if something can't be tested through science, it's not real?"
Kid Flash nodded. "Pretty much."
Ark crossed his arms. "So if I were to say that you were a soul-less ginger with no free will, could you prove me wrong with scientific proof?"
Out of the other teens, Artemis was the only one to burst out laughing. It seemed that the implied stereotype was unknown to those still new to surface culture.
"What's so funny?" M'gann whispered to Kaldur, who simply shrugged, equally confused.
Wally was gobsmacked for a few seconds. There was no current scientific method to prove the existence of a soul. He couldn't argue for free will because Wally also leaned toward the determinism camp. "I hate that I can't disprove that... so much right now..."
Artemis wiped a tear from her eye, still chuckling. "Oh, that was perfect."
Ark shook his head. "See? That was hurtful. How do you think the others feel when you demean what they think?"
Wally opened his mouth to retort, then closed it again, glancing at M'gann. He seemed to be at a loss for words.
"Some things exist beyond what we can currently measure or explain," Kaldur added thoughtfully. "In Atlantis, we understand magic as another form of energy manipulation, not unlike science."
Superboy crossed his arms. "Can we focus on finding a way out of here?”
Ark raised his hands. "Alright, let’s put a pause on this. Kid Flash, I feel like this is similar to that cocaine god situation that happened a while back."
“Alleged cocaine god…”
“Whatever…” Ark turned to face Wally directly. "We can talk in circles later about what it means for something to be magic, but right now, it doesn’t matter. From the sound of it, the Tower only cared that you lied. Period. Just don’t lie while we’re in the tower, okay?”
Kid Flash sulked. “Fine…”
Kaldur started inspecting the floor and smirked as he grabbed an unseen handle. "I think I found our way out."
"Wait, the backdraft from the lava will roast us alive!" Wally protested, but Kaldur opened it anyway.
The door opened, however, with a snow flurry. Accompanied by gusting winds and an expansive tundra space beyond.
"It's snow!" M'gann cried cheerfully.
Artemis looked up at Wally's angry face with a smirk. "Do you ever get tired of being wrong?" His frown deepened.
The Team jumped through, but what was originally a downward jump spun so the gateway was now floating in mid-air from their point of view. Until it disappeared in a golden flash. Wally turned away from where he was watching it, to find the whole Team looking at him.
"Well?" Artemis asked with a confident look on her face.
"Ever hear of String Theory?" he questioned sarcastically, though with slightly less edge than before. "We're in a pocket dimension."
"Ugh," Artemis growled, angered by Wally's denial.
#
While the others continued surveying their surroundings, Ark grabbed Kid Flash by the arm and pulled him a few steps away from the group.
"Kid, listen. I get it, this is your opinion on Magic, but don't be an ass about it. It doesn't end well. Trust me. I should know. I did the same thing to my girlfriend before."
"Oh, how'd that happen?" Wally asked, surprised by the sudden intervention.
"She joined this secret cult called The Flame Keepers' Circle."
"Seriously?"
"I know. I know. Just listen. They believed that thousands of years ago, mankind was visited by benevolent aliens who gave us the beginnings of technology. A being named Dagon, according to them, visited Earth at the dawn of mankind to bring knowledge of fire and promised to return to bring Earth to a Utopia."
"Oh... I mean, considering the long history with aliens and the Green Lantern Corps, it's not implausible that one might have come to Earth and said that."
"Yeah..." Ark avoided saying that his Earth's history was different. "In any case, I didn't believe any of that, and I may have laughed in the leader's face during one of their charity events. That really pissed her off."
"I mean, were you right?"
"Was I right about the squid cult being a load of bull? Yes. Did I have to act like an ass to her? No. Our relationship got a bit rough after that." Ark sighed. "Just stop being an ass to your friends, okay. We're on a mission to stop Karkull. Do you want me to tell Flash about how you've been acting lately?"
"No..."
"Good. Then keep your opinions to yourself until it becomes relevant."
"Okay..."
When they regrouped, they continued walking through the snow until they came across an object.
"What's that?" M'gann questioned. What she was looking at was Kent Nelson's cane floating above the snow.
Ark approached it cautiously. "It looks like Nelson's cane. Let me check if it's safe." He reached out and grasped the floating object.
The moment his fingers wrapped around it, the cane began to glow with intense golden light. "Whoa!" Ark exclaimed as the cane tugged upward, lifting him slightly off the ground.
"Ark!" Kid Flash shouted, speeding over to grab his arm while Artemis, being the next closest, lunged forward and caught hold of Ark's other sleeve.
"It's pulling me up!" Ark warned as the cane's glow intensified.
The three of them began to rise higher, the cane's power lifting them with increasing speed. "I can't let go!" Ark called down to the others as Kid Flash and Artemis similarly found themselves unable to release their grip on him.
"Neither can we!" Artemis yelled, her eyes wide with alarm.
In a brilliant flash of golden light, all three disappeared from view, leaving M'gann, Superboy, and Aqualad staring upward with worried expressions.
"Did that just happen?" Superboy asked.
Aqualad nodded grimly. "We need to find them."
#
The teen, Abra Kadabra, and Kent walked along a staircase that appeared to be upside down.
"Are we there yet?" the teen drawled, his cat lying behind his neck. "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"
Kadabra grabbed Nelson's shoulder and brought all three to a stop. "Tell us how to find the Helmet," he demanded, clearly becoming aggravated.
Kent glared, but couldn't say anything due to the collar around his neck. In a second, Kadabra removed it, throwing it over his shoulder with a smug look. "Can't," Kent said, though his voice was hoarse; he was smiling. "Having too much fun."
Kadabra's face contorted in anger, then electrocuted Kent, knocking him to the ground. "Still having fun?"
The teen chuckled. "I am! Zap 'im again!" Another idea came to his mind as his fist met his open right hand. "Or dump him off the side and watch him splat!"
Kadabra raised his "wand" again. Zapping Kent.
The teen laughed once, enjoying the pain before him. Until his cat meowed and grabbed his attention. "Ah, yes, yes," he seemed to agree with the cat. "I suppose we might still need him," though he looked back at the pain Kadabra was causing Kent with vicious glee.
#
Superboy, M'gann, and Kaldur walked through the snow in almost silence. Until M'gann finally spoke up. "I don't understand Wally. It's almost like he needs to believe the impossible can't happen."
Kaldur approached it calmly, having known Wally for a few years, which meant he could understand how he thinks. At least a little bit. "Wally uses his understanding of science to control what he cannot comprehend. Acknowledging Magic would relinquish the last vestige of that control."
"I wonder if he believed in magic once," Kaldur added thoughtfully. "Perhaps something happened that made him lose faith in anything outside the scientific method."
M'gann nodded slowly. "That makes sense. I've watched many Earth shows before coming here. It seems common for human children to learn that stories like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny aren't real." She glanced between her teammates. "Even on Mars, adults tell children stories that may or may not be true. Finding out they're just stories can be... disappointing."
"My flash training covered some of this," Superboy said unexpectedly. Both turned to look at him. "The Genomorphs taught me that it doesn't matter what the underlying cause of 'magic' is. All that matters is if it gives a working result." He shrugged. "Whether it's quantum physics or mystical energy, if you can use it, it's real. That’s all that matters."
M'gann looked away from Kaldur, thinking about what he said. Until something creaked and thudded in the distance.
Turning towards the sound, the three found a doorway sitting on top of a nearby ridge with a few steps leading up to it. They exchanged no words as they headed towards it.
#
On a nearby platform, where the teen was watching Kadabra torture Kent, Ark, Artemis, and Wally came into existence. Ark was gripping the glowing cane firmly, while Artemis and Wally were holding onto his arms, all three of them shifting from lying on their sides to kneeling on one knee. Kent saw them instantly.
Once Wally was looking in the right direction, he recognized Kadabra almost immediately. "Abra Kadabra," he growled.
Kent relaxed, and a slight smile formed. "Well, would you look at that."
The cane glowed brighter in Ark's grip, and in response, Kent's whole body began to glow the same gold. Kadabra and the teen barely glanced at the newcomers as Kent began to float and fly past them. As Kent approached, he grabbed the cane with both hands from Ark, which allowed Artemis and Wally to finally release their grip on Ark's arms as Kent's bonds came undone.
"In here," Kent said, standing up and using his cane to create an elevator in the wall. All four rushed in.
"No! No! No!" the teen working with Kadabra shouted angrily. "I want that Helmet!" he raised his hands, red magic gathering as the door to the elevator began to shut. "I want it! I want it! I want it!" The red lightning only hit after the doors were fully shut.
#
Elevator music played in the background as the number shown increased. All three teens looked to Nelson, unsure who should say something first.
"I'm Kent Nelson. By the way," Kent finally spoke up.
"No duh," Wally mumbled. Only to be hit by an elbow to the chest by Artemis. "Ow!" he hissed in pain.
"I'm Artemis," she told him. "Miss Manners here, is Wally."
"And I'm Ark," he said, stepping forward. "Actually, Flash and I were looking for you before all this happened. It's clear you've got other problems at the moment though."
Kent raised an eyebrow. "What would you and Jay Garrick's successor need from me so badly?"
"An entity named Karkull has holed up in Central City and set up some sort of protective barrier," Ark explained. "We've been having trouble breaking through."
Kent's eyes widened in surprise. "Karkull has been released? After all these years?" He shook his head. "It was quite difficult sealing him away in the first place. The JSA had their hands full with that one." He sighed, looking at the elevator numbers climbing. "We can talk more about Karkull later. Right now, we have a Lord of Chaos to deal with."
Turning back to all three teens, Kent smiled. "Well, Artemis, Wally, Ark, we're up against an opponent with tremendous mystic power."
"Abra Kadabra?" Wally questioned rhetorically, then scoffed with an eye roll. "Flash proved that he uses futuristic technology to simulate Magic." He said directly to Kent. "Guy's all show and no biz."
"Right you are," Kent agreed.
Much to Artemis' shock. As Wally smiled proudly, looking at her shocked expression with a little too much pride. "He is?" she asked, stunned.
"Abra is a charlatan," Kent admitted. "But Klarion, the Witch Boy, kid with the cat, he's an actual Lord of Chaos.
“How much of a threat are we talking here? Destroy the planet, solar system, galaxy, or universe?”
“Potentially, the universe if they try to restart the Kali Yuga again.”
Lords of Chaos are the ultimate enemies of the Lords of Order, like Doctor Fate."
Wally raised a brow. "You're a Lord of Order?”
"Oh, no. Not me," Kent said with a smile. "I'm just an old coot Fate used to put on.
“Until my wife Inza convinced me there was more to life." He opened his watch and looked down at the picture of her. "Ah, she was a real pistol, that Inza." Then snapping it shut and getting back on track. "Anywho, Klarion's after the Helmet. If he gets his sticky little mitts on it, he'll turn the planet into his own personal playground of pandemonium."
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. The four walked out, seeing a giant golden tower bell hanging on the platform before them. Following Kent, Artemis, Wally, and Ark ascended the stairs.
#
Behind them, on the ceiling, a door opened, Superboy and Kaldur falling to the floor hard enough to hurt, while M'gann levitated downward.
As Artemis ran to the three of them, Kent turned to Wally. "Friends of yours?"
"Yup."
After a quick exchange of what had happened to each group, Kent looked at the assembled team. "We need to move quickly. Klarion won't be far behind."
"Is the Helmet nearby?" Kaldur asked.
Kent shook his head. "Not directly. To reach the Helmet of Fate, we have to pass through the artifact vault first. It's a security measure I put in place years ago."
"Artifact vault?" M'gann asked.
"You'll see," Kent replied with a slight smile, tapping his cane against what appeared to be a blank wall. The surface rippled like water, then parted to reveal an ornate doorway.
The team followed Kent through the doorway into a vast chamber that stretched further than seemed physically possible. The room was filled with rows upon rows of glass cases and pedestals, each containing objects surrounded by glowing magical seals. Ancient weapons, scrolls, crystals, and devices of unknown origin lined the pathways.
"Don't touch anything behind the glass," Kent warned, moving briskly down the central aisle.
Artemis paused by a sealed case containing a strange golden arrow with a beetle design on the arrowhead. "What's this one?" she asked, admiring its craftsmanship.
Kent glanced over. "That was crafted several hundred years ago by a man who wished to acquire the power of a god. Supposedly, those pierced by the Arrow shall gain strange powers should they have sufficient spiritual strength. If not, the wound will prove fatal."
Artemis stepped back from the case. A part of her felt that she wasn’t spiritually strong after everything that had happened back home.
Further down the aisle, Kaldur had stopped to examine a three-pronged trident, similar in size to his king's. The weapon gleamed with an otherworldly shimmer.
"This trident was a mage's attempt to copy Poseidon's Trident," Kent explained. "It was one man's first weapon of mass destruction, causing large fissures in the earth. That trident was actually the reason Julius Caesar attacked Egypt."
Kaldur frowned. “Should this not be in the archives within Atlantis?”
“In my younger years, I reached an agreement with the prior King of Atlantis when this was first recovered to keep it out of public reach, but still accessible to the current King.”
Kaldur supposed that it made sense. If this trident had power that tried to copy the gods, caution was warranted.
Superboy wandered to another display, inspecting a large red shield with gold trimming and an eye symbol at its center. Next to it lay what appeared to be a shattered Egyptian stone tablet, from which it seemed that seven now-broken golden items had once been embedded.
"The shield belonged to an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh," Kent said. "Legends tell of its power to block any strong attack. And those fragments," he gestured to the broken tablet, "are the remnants of artifacts forged by human sacrifice."
Many of them cringed at hearing of what seemed like a dark magic sacrificial ritual. “Why would they do that?”
“With Egypt under threat from invading armies 3,000 years ago, the Pharaoh sought to protect his land through mystical means, and laid down the command for the seven magical Items to be forged. To achieve this, 99 human sacrifices were required. The village of Kul Elna became the victim of the Pharaoh's unwitting decree. Their blood, bone, and flesh melted in with the gold that was cast in the mystic rite that formed the items.
Many immediately backed away from the tablet and gold.
“Using the Items' combined power, an army was summoned which repelled the invading foes of Egypt. Thankfully, now, they are inert, and the souls within are freed.”
Wally gestured to the remnants. “Another reason why I refrain from supposed magic. Crazy people doing stuff like this.”
#
M'gann floated to a small glass case containing what appeared to be a small golden beehive.
"That belonged to the second female Pharaoh of Egypt, Hatshepsut," Kent said, noticing her interest. "She infused the artifact with pheromones of real honey bees. Hatshepsut would sting herself with the bee in order to manipulate people with the same pheromones that a queen bee uses to control other bees." Kent sighed. "It was unfortunate that I didn't get to the artifact sooner. I retrieved the golden beehive from a facility in Bialya years ago. I fear the local government attempted to replicate its effects."
M'gann looked disturbed by this revelation and rejoined the group.
In a different section, Wally walked past weird salt masks and a strange ram-horn trumpet before finding an unprotected pedestal with what seemed to be a pile of carved rocks. He picked one up, trying to figure out what was supposedly special about it.
"This is just an ordinary rock," he complained to the others. However, to everyone else, he was speaking gibberish, composed of mismatched language fragments.
Artemis raised a brow and picked up another stone. "What's wrong with him now?" she asked, but to everyone except Wally, she was speaking incomprehensible gibberish too.
Kent rolled his eyes and plucked the stones from their hands, placing them back on the pedestal. "The effects of the Babel Stones may be mundane, but they are of historical significance."
Both Artemis and Wally raised their brows at the mention of Babel. "You don't actually mean 'that tower', do you?" Wally asked skeptically.
Kent smirked. "I believe the stones speak for themselves."
As the others continued through the artifact vault, Ark found himself drawn to a small pedestal near the edge of the chamber. On it rested what appeared to be a strange-looking die, glowing with shifting blue and purple light.
Unlike any gaming die he'd ever seen, it seemed almost globe-shaped, yet its surfaces were constantly changing between different geometric patterns with varying numbers of sides. White symbols and markings continually appeared and disappeared across its surfaces.
"Careful with that one," Kent warned, noticing Ark's fascination. "That's the infinity-sided die." Kent walked over, motioning for the others to join them. He glanced at Wally specifically and added, "An apeirohedron die, if you will."
Wally's eyes widened slightly at the mathematical reference.
"Its effects vary on the result of the roll," Kent explained, his tone becoming more serious. "However, because of their infinite sides, anything can happen when one of these dice is rolled. And I do mean anything, from something as harmless as flowers sprouting from your ears to rewriting reality itself."
Ark raised a brow. “Really? Anything?”
Kent shrugged. "That’s what I’ve been told at least. We had to contain a pocket dimension that formed when a gambling wizard rolled one in Vegas back in '77," Kent added. It took the JSA three weeks to clean up that mess. Since then, I never bothered to test the limits of the die myself."
Kent was soon several yards ahead. "The Helmet's chamber is not much further."
Comments
Marsala
I absolutely love all the references in the vault! My favorite being the stand arrow!
DJC (MagicLover2128)
I wonder what would happen if Ben/Arc wore the Helmet?
