Ben drove the Rustbucket for a while until he finally made his way to his next destination, Washington D.C.
"Alright, my ass is sore from sitting all day, time to look for a parking spot and take a walk." Ben.
After finding a public parking lot, Ben got out of the Rustbucket and began to walk the streets of the city. His most pressing concern was the fact that he doesn't have any money.
He has everything stocked up in his camper, sure, but those were simple spoils of the destruction from another supervillain. He's not that righteous but even he knows better than steal.
So, in order to prevent that, he must find some way to make money, as legal as possible would be better.
'I could also "borrow" some money with Upgrade's help but I believe the JL is already on my back waiting for me to screw up. If I wasn't aware I could disguise it as a youthful screw up, but they know that I know how dangerous/powerful this thing is.' Ben.
As he walked the streets, he looked at the news on a newspaper on the floor.
'Central City, the home of The Flash. Definitely avoiding that guy, unless it's for the plot, killing a speedster seems almost impossible. Or at least according to what I know.' Ben.
Since we're on the topic, let's discuss how much does Ben 'knows' about the DC universe as a total.
He knows the identities of Batman, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman but not their backstories.
The rest are fair game but he's been doing some research on them. The bad thing with having a hero team is that Wikipedia makes a mint out of your information, information that Ben is hoping to obtain tomorrow.
Why not today? Drive for over 5 hours straight and tell me how your butt feels, my guess is that it's not that good.
Suddenly, Ben's phone rings, he checks it and found out it was Dick calling him.
"Yellow, Richard?" Ben.
{Ben, nice to hear from you, I haven't heard anything since we split off the hospital yesterday.} Dick.
"Well, there was a giant radioactive monster there so I decided to split, from Gotham in general. How about you? Still living in billionaire paradise?" Ben.
{I see, well, I just wanted to call you to see if we could hang out again but seeing you're out of town.} Dick.
"What can I say? Sorry? I'll be back when my adrenaline starts running low. In the meantime, tell me about how things went with that so called father of yours." Ben.
{Oh, well I'm grounded and all but he apologized to me and was quite lenient. Alfred however, wasn't to either of us.} Dick.
"Wow, he did raise both of you, well, raised Bruce and is raising you, but you get the point." Ben.
{You can almost forget that he's a WWII veteran.} Dick.
"Wow, he's THAT old?" Ben.
{Nah, he served while being young. All those grandiose dreams of fighting wars at that age.} Dick.
"Never understanding that. A boring life equals a peaceful life, if you're that bored just get a girlfriend or something." Ben.
{Right… anyway, what's up with you? Where did you go?} Dick.
"Oh, I'm in Washington, quite the neat place if I do say so myself." Ben.
{Wow, already that far? If I didn't know any better, which I don't, I would assume you were running from here.} Dick.
"Right, running. The fucking radioactive monster wasn't enough of a sign to get the hell out of there?" Ben.
{Never pegged you as the vulgar type.} Dick.
"You'll never peg me. Besides, just because I'm chill with you, that doesn't mean that I'm chill with everyone. For example: those guys who try to force you to say their pronouns." Ben.
{I still think that's gonna land you in some trouble sooner or later.} Dick.
"Troubles can bite me, speaking of troubles, do you know a way for a homeless kid to make money legally?" Ben.
{Have you tried getting adopted by a billionaire?} Dick.
"Fuck you." Ben said playfully.
{Just kidding, hmm… I don't have something that could realistically work. Kids are supposed to be in school, causing troubles to the principal.} Dick.
"Wouldn't you know Mr. honor student?" Ben.
Ben kept walking until he found a very interesting place, a casino.
"Yo, Dick. I'm gonna talk with you later. I've got something to handle right now." Ben.
{Alright, don't do something I wouldn't.} Dick.
"Can't and won't, goodbye." Ben hung up.
He looked at the casino with bills in his eyes as he wondered how to enter. After brainstorming, he decided to return to the van and make something up.
Transformed into Grey Matter, he devised a device to change his appearance and also made himself a fake ID. The finishing touches were made by Upgrade but Grey Matter had already made the plans as perfect as they could be.
After cooking dinner and making some preparations, he decided to go to the casino. Midway, he saw an interesting ad on a T.V.
'Sumo Slammers! The all-time favorite card game for kids of all age! For a limited time, a special rare card can be found in the limited time cereal in your stores! Buy now, before the card is lost in time forever!'
Ben looked at the ad and felt something resonating deep within him. A deep desire to GET that card.
"Ok, screw the casino, time to get diabetes from sugary cereal." Ben.
He changed directions and ran towards the nearest convenience store.
(Meanwhile)
On a rundown apartment complex, the landlord, Roger, was knocking on the door impatiently calling out for one of his tenants.
"Yo! Animo! I know you're in there. Open up!" Roger.
With his patience reaching its peak, he uses his keys and enters the room. The room was filled with various newspapers about biologic research and different interviews about an award and several animals, from reptiles to mammals, Animo had at least five of everything.
He then hears a sound behind him and gets tense, only to realize that it was his tenant, Animo.
"HOW did you get in?!" Animo asks angrily.
"Pass key. I am still your landlord, remember? Maybe not, since your rent is six months pass due..." Roger explains while adjusting his tie but Animo cuts him off mid-sentence.
"All my funds go into my research. Now GET OUT! You're disturbing me!" Animo looks into a cage.
Roger looks around the so-called lab, clearly not impressed.
"Hmm. Looks like you were "disturbed" long before I got here, pal! Listen, Doc, you and your furry friends are out on the street, unless you pony up the green."
Animo smirks.
"'Pony up'... *He picks up a frog from one of the cases* Interesting choice of phrases... You must be an animal lover! Then you're gonna love this." Animo.
Animo sets a frog inside a cage down and puts on an odd-looking helmet with two horn-like protrusions.
Roger pauses before laughing mockingly.
"What's that? You a member of the 'moose lodge' or something?" Roger.
"This is my Transmodulator; phase number one. It creates and accelerates mutations at the genetic level. Observe." Animo.
Animo twists a dial on his chest, activating the Transmodulator. Beams shoot out from its horns and to the frog on the ground, severely mutating it into a gigantic version of itself. Roger looks up and screams as the frog opens its mouth an engulfs him. All is heard from him are some muffled grunts.
"I'm sorry! I can't hear you. Sounds like you have a frog in your throat! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Or is that - the other way around?!" Animo laughs wickedly.
He continues to laugh maniacally as the frog spits out Roger. He falls to the floor, groans, and passes out. Animo checks a slip of newspaper.
"So close to having what is rightfully mine... All I need is a FEW LOUSY COMPONENTS to finish my work!" Animo.
The T.V. interrupts him.
{Whatever your need, from hair spray to state-of-the-art electronics, you'll find them under one roof at the grand opening of the district's newest Mega Mart!}
"Ah! Just what the doctor ordered…" Animo.
He puts his red glasses on before reverting his monster frog and checked some of his belongings.
[Belwood, 7:30 PM. New Hope Orphanage.]
The dark knight walks through the empty halls of a now abandoned orphanage. The very same orphanage Ben was once part of, only problem is, that it doesn't makes sense. Batman has been backtracking Ben's footprints ever since he knew that Zsasz's crime scene was in his possession.
And, the more he looked into it, the stranger it got. Yes, that's right, Batman has been doing research about Ben ever since they last met. He deduced his identity based on the files of an orphanage that suspiciously lost a child, that being Ben.
But Ben admitted that he was kicked out so, what was the big idea? Batman had to know and is now investigating.
His investigations so far about Benjamin Myers Tennyson informed him that his biological parents left him at the orphanage due to them having economic instability.
Trying to ensure the future of their son, they left him at New Hope since it was a newly opened orphanage. Here begins the strange things.
The orphanage was opened in the year 2001 but Benjamin claimed that he was there for 6 whole years. Given that timeline, and given that the current year is 2010, this indicates that Ben was delivered at the orphanage in the year 2000.
Batman looked around and found some old documents, it seems that when the orphanage was about to be closed the owners, David Copperfield and Matt Kreuger, had to rush out of here. Leaving one question lingering: why?
The documents are about Benjamin. It seems that one of his family members actually made contact with this place. They were planning to take care of him, the date is April 12th 2006.
Taking into account that Ben was kicked out theoretically around this year, then Batman assumed that this had something to do with Ben's expulsion.
Batman inspected the paperwork of the orphanage beforehand and everything seemed to be right in place. He kept looking around but found nothing, when he was about to leave the orphanage, he saw a small photo of a kid with some resemblance with Benjamin.
He did some facial recognition and it was suspected that the picture was about a Benjamin presumably 4-5 years old. He looked behind the photo and found traces of an address.
24-35-63-Belwood.
Batman immediately looked up the address online and found his next place to look for clues. He took the picture and every information related to Ben before leaving.
But he still couldn't help to wonder, what was going on with Benjamin Tennyson? Why such a complicated background for just an orphan? Is there something or someone else behind this?
(24-35-63-Belwood 8:00 PM.)
The address Batman was thinking about belonged to a single man. An elderly man wearing a Hawaiian shirt is sitting on a sofa looking at a family picture.
The picture is of a normal family of three and he sighed with a saddened tone. Looking at the time he decided to turn the T.V. off and walked towards the stairs. He pressed a button behind the handphone in the wall and a secret passage was revealed.
The man entered, barely fitting due to his bulky size, and pressed a button. The door closed and the secret passage descended into the depths of the man's home.
The walls looked more technological and walls were adorned with various weapons of sci-fi appearances. The man finally sat on a big chair and typed on his computer into different news.
One that caught his eyes was one with the Justice League and a supposedly alien device that came from an unknown planet. The man sighed defeated and looked at the remains of the capsule landing spot.
"Azmuth, I'm sorry but I won't be able to recover your gift. I need to find that unfortunate child." The man spoke to no one in particularly.
As time passed, the man kept looking through the files in the computed, praying that he would find something that'll guide him to his missing child, grandchild.