Fanfic / Ben 10: Unlimited

Ben 10: Unlimited is a Crossover fanfic between Ben 10 and Justice League, though later evolves to be a Fusion Fic with Young Justice (2010).

"Ben Tennyson has lost everything. Now, in a new universe, he must decide: will he return to the role of hero?" Simple summary, but it works. After losing all his family in an attack, Ben is Driven to Suicide, but finds himself thrust into the world of the Justice League during the Thanagarian invasion. After driving them away, Ben finds himself adjusting to a new world with new enemies. All the while, Ben works to heal through his traumatic experience and make new friends and family.

Has two sequels: Unlimited Justice: Part 1 and Unlimited Justice: Part 2, the latter of which crosses over with the remake of Bleach: Ultimate Alien. Discontinued, but now adopted by chidoriprime, and the remake can be found here.

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Ben 10: Unlimited and its sequels provide examples of:

• Adaptation Dye-Job: Ken is blonde haired in this version, since his mother is Supergirl rather than Kai Green.
• Adaptation Name Change: Ben's daughter briefly seen in the future, originally also named Gwen, is renamed as Jen here.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • By the time of the Young Justice events depicted, Wally West and Barry Allen switch roles as Kid Flash and Flash (thanks to Wally's DCAU depiction as Flash being used), making Wally be Flash and Barry be Kid Flash. Fire thus fills the role that Iris West-Allen filled as the aunt, and Barry receives Wally's romantic interest in Artemis Crock.
  • Jason Todd and Tim Drake switch roles as the second and third Robin, as Tim (being based on the DCAU) was the second Robin, and Jason is shown to be the third.^note This was before Batman: The Adventures Continue would later introduce the actual DCAU incarnation of Jason Todd, however, and explicitly state he was Tim's predecessor.
  • Damian Wayne is still Batman's child, but his mother is Wonder Woman rather than Talia al Ghul. Using DNA samples, Talia was able to have a child with Batman anyway, but that child is a girl named Cassandra Cain, who had been another Batgirl and the daughter of David Cain and Lady Shiva.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Ben's past in the DCAU is much darker than canon, as it directly involves his family dying, him blaming himself and being Driven to Suicide, and finding himself in the middle of another alien invasion. A good chunk of the first story focuses a lot on the healing process of Ben's psyche, learning to forge a new network of friends and family.
• Adaptational Friendship: Because Ben is able to reverse the genetic degradation in the Ultimen, Long Shadow is able to join the Justice League. While he isn't a major character for the rest of the fic (minus the brief return to Bellwood, of course), the rest of the League treats him like a friend.
• Adaptational Karma:
  • Ben unveiling Alien X during the final battle with Darkseid changes both his and Lex Luthor's fates. Rather than both being subjected to a Fate Worse than Death from the Anti-Life Equation trapping them in the Source Wall as in the ending of Justice League Unlimited, a subversion occurs as Alien X banishes Darkseid to Apokolips and erects a barrier to keep him from leaving it, leaving him alive but not able to do as much manipulation as before. An inversion also occurs, as Lex thus escapes from the battle, and is recruited into the Light by Vandal Savage and Klarion the Witch Boy.
  • Boston Brand (aka Deadman) is hit with a positive version of this. Because he uses Ben to non-lethally subdue Devil Ray rather than having Batman shoot him, he is finally given the peace he desires at the hands of Death. Rama Kushna and the Master both note how he succeeded in balancing the karmic scales.
• Adaptational Secrecy Downgrade: Zig-zagged. By the end of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Ben's secret identity had been outed (something that led to all of his problems at the start of this fic). When he ends up in the DCAU, no one knows him. By the end of the Thanagarian invasion, the only people who know who he is are the founding members of the Justice League, Kara, the Kents, and Alfred. He keeps his true identity secret from most of the Justice League for a while, but slowly opens up to the rest of the League as time goes on. By the end of the fic, the whole Justice League (and CADMUS) knows that the mysterious alien shapeshifter is a young man named Ben, but the general public doesn't.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Ultimate Rath had few powers shown in canon, but here, he becomes something of a fusion of a lion and saber-toothed cat. He has three claws on each wrist and his tail develops a battle-axe, and can even launch his wrist claws like missiles.
  • In canon Fairy Tail, Angel was a summoner, using Celestial Spirit Magic to summon various Spirits to do her bidding, but her New God counterpart instead has a floating mechanical eye that can shoot energy beams and morph into various weapons, like swords and shields.
• Adapted Out: A few cases of this with Atlantean characters happen due to the fic writing around Aquaman's disappearance from Justice League Unlimited, and therefore his absence from the fic's version of Young Justice.
  • Aqualad is completely absent, his roles as the serious one and leader taken by Warhawk and Ken 10, respectively.
  • Owing to this (and presumably his canon fate in the DCAU), Ocean Master is not a member of the Light and they are only shown to have six members. This also caused a Xenocyte to take the place of Starro in the Light's plot to mind control the Justice League, as the absence of Atlantis from the fic meant Black Manta's involvement in stealing Starro is replaced by Klarion acquiring the Xenocyte.
• Age Lift: Barry Allen, the most famous incarnation of the Flash, is a teenager and thus Kid Flash due to Wally West being the Flash in this canon (like in the DCAU).
• And Call Him "George": Kryptonian Super-Strength + The Glomp = this trope, to the point of a being a running gag.
• And I Must Scream: Ben uses Toepick to put Galatea in a coma that lasts for twenty years, which may explain why they've gone completely off the rails after waking up.
  Galatea: (to Dr. Emil Hamilton) Did you know that I was aware of what was happening around me when I was taking my little nap? I have spent twenty years doing absolutely nothing, and I know who was responsible for putting me through that hell!
• Babies Ever After: A number of couples end up having children in the Unlimited Justice series:
  • Ben and Kara have Ken and Jen Tennyson.
  • John and Shayera have Warhawk.
  • Vixen and Vigilante have Samantha Saunders, aka Safari.
  • Question and Huntress have Valerie Sage, aka Seeker.
  • Batman and Wonder Woman have Damian Wayne.
• Battle Couple: Quite a few couples also work well as allies in combat.
  • There's the main canon examples of Green Arrow with Black Canary, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl, Huntress and Question, and Kid Flash and Artemis.
  • Newer examples original to this are Ben 10 and Supergirl, Batman and Wonder Woman, Vigilante and Vixen, Ken 10 and Seeker, Raven and Warhawk, and Starfire and Robin.
• Big Damn Reunion: When Ben, Kara, and Long Shadow go to Ben's old universe (thanks to Verdona), Ben gets to reunite with the Plumbers and his old (still living) friends. The same for Long Shadow with the rest of the Ultimen, who he hadn't seen in over a year.
• Big Brother Instinct: The members of the Justice League see Ben as a little brother and for good reason: they find out early on that an enemy of Ben's (later revealed to be Vilgax) murdered Ben's entire family and team, leading him to try to kill himself, but he was saved thanks to Professor Paradox, and he ended up in the midst of the Thanagarian invasion with barely any time to grieve his loss before being thrust into another fight. As such, they do what they can to deal with his trauma, and end up becoming a surrogate family for him.
  • This is strongly demonstrated in three major examples:
    • Superman has Ben stay with Pa and Ma Kent for a week to give him some time to grieve his family (with Kara giving him a friend his own age to talk to). During that time, Batman creates an entire identity for Ben, along with giving him a house and enough resources for him to start a new life.
    • When Ben ends up afflicted by the Black Mercy, he sees all his family alive again, and being forced to acknowledge they're gone leads to him breaking down. Even despite her injuries, Wonder Woman quickly moves to try to comfort him.
    • They become especially infuriated when Amanda Waller attempts to recruit Ben into Project Cadmus. This is when the story explicitly states that Ben is like a little brother to them. They would be mad if any member of the Justice League was given such an offer, but it's more infuriating that they would try to recruit Ben into their ranks.
  • In the sequel, Ben and Kara's son Ken holds a massive protective instinct of his little sister Jen, and develops a similar instinct to Secret, becoming absolutely furious when he learns Harm killed her to become pure evil and wield the Sword of Beowulf. When Harm insinuates that Ken could be like him if he killed Jen, it pushes the normally soft-spoken half-Kryptonian into an Unstoppable Rage, brutally beating him so badly that Raven and Artemis are left in complete shock. Afterwards, Ken works to specifically assure Jen and himself that he will never hurt her.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Invoked, then subverted. In Chapter 12, while celebrating Ben's nineteenth birthday, the original Justice League members and Kara are called to the Watchtower because a being from another universe (an Anodite) has been sighted in Gotham. It turns out to not be a threat; it's Ben's grandmother, Verdona, who's finally found him after almost a year. While he's angry with her at first for not saving their family and forgetting about him, they bury the hatchet, with Verdona promising to be there for him more often from then on.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Question tells Ken, after a date with his daughter Valerie, that if he ever breaks her heart, he may not kill him, but he will make him a warning for anyone else trying to date his daughter.
  • A cousins version happens after Ben asks Kara out on a date. Clark shows up at Ben's house and tells him that he knows that Ben is a good guy. He then warns him that if he does anything to hurt Kara, not even Batman will find his body.
• Broken Bird: Ben is a male example of this. Forced to Watch his family get butchered by Vilgax, he's driven past the Despair Event Horizon and attempts to commit suicide to reunite with them, only to end up on the DCAU earth during the Thanagarian invasion with little time to grieve. He's also shown to believe that it was because of his life as a hero that put his family at risk, and has nightmarish flashbacks and is reduced to Inelegant Blubbering when he's made to look back at their deaths. What does he ultimately want at first, as revealed by the Black Mercy? To be back with his old family.
• Canon Immigrant: The team later includes Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven into their ranks.
• The Cavalry: The Highbreed serve as this, destroying Vilgax's fleet and killing Psyphon when Vilgax orders them to level Bellwood.
• Character’s Most Hated Song: Ben upon returning to his old universe and defeating Vilgax once and for all with the help of his Kryptonian girlfriend and Found Family, learns that he's become fairly famous in the years since he disappeared, and that someone wrote a song about him. Said song embarrasses him and makes everyone else (even Kara) laugh, but Flash admits to liking it. This is serves as a Take That! because it was Diegetic Soundtrack Usage of the original theme song of the original cartoon.
• Combo Platter Powers: Each of Ben and Kara's children inherit certain abilities from their father's Ultimatrix forms while each has the Kryptonian strength of their mother.
  • Ken has pyrokinesis (Heatblast), Energy Absorption (Chromastone), intangibility (Ghostfreak / Big Chill), electrokinesis (Brainstorm / Shocksquatch), Mana (Anodite powers inherited directly from Verdona), and radiation blasts (NRG).
  • Jen has size changing (Humungousaur), hydrokinesis (Water Hazard), magnetokinesis (Lodestar), Invisibility (ChamAlien), seed grenades (Wildvine / Swampfire), and cosmic rays (Way Big).
• Composite Character:
  • An item example, but owing to the lesser presence of Atlantean characters, the Starro arm's role in being used to make the mind control technology used to control the Justice League is given to a Xenocyte (the parasites used to create DNAliens).
  • The role of Miss Martian's Bio-Ship as the Team's Living Ship is filled instead by Ship, the late Julie Yamamoto's pet Galvanic Mechamorph.
• Crazy-Prepared: Ben has failsafes in the event that someone else takes control of his body, gets the Ultimatrix, or something similar. As such, when he and Luthor switch bodies, Luthor is unable to fully exploit the Ultimatrix's powers because Kara puts it on lockdown with a password Ben gave her.
• Crossover Couple: Ben and Supergirl, Martian Manhunter and Verdona, and Shifter and Cooper all exist in this story.
• Dead Guy Junior: Ben's children have middle names that refer to his dead relatives. Ken's full name is Kenneth Max Tennyson, while Jen's full name is Jennifer Gwendolyn Tennyson, after Ben's grandfather and cousin respectively.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Gwen, Max, Kevin, Julie, Ben's parents, and Gwen's parents all suffer Death by Origin Story here.
  • Psyphon is ultimately killed by the Highbreed as they prevent him and his fleet from leveling Bellwood.
  • While Dr. Hamilton was ultimately imprisoned in Justice League, here he ends up killed by Galatea when he tries to get her to drop her vengeance against Ben and Kara.
• Decomposite Character:
  • As Dick Grayson and Wally West are too old to fill the roles as the Robin and Kid Flash of Young Justice, Jason Todd and Barry Allen replace them in this regard. Aqualad's roles are also divided among Warhawk (the serious one) and Ken 10 (the team leader).
  • While Jason and Starfire did have a brief fling in the comics, here, Jason is also the Robin that Starfire kisses to learn English.
  • Thanks to being based on the DCAU version, Zatanna is shown to be the resident sorcerer of the Justice League by the time events from Young Justice take place, replacing her father Zatara (as his DCAU incarnation was a Posthumous Character like in the comics) and ultimately becoming the one to be trapped as Doctor Fate. Her role in Young Justice as a young sorceress mentored by an older sorcerer is transferred to Raven.
• Depower: What Vilgax does to Ben just before near fatally thrashing him.
• Downer Beginning: Hard to be much lower than the main protagonist losing his entire family and being Driven to Suicide while being sent past the Despair Event Horizon.
• Empowered Badass Normal: During one fight, Ship realizes that Batman (having no powers) is in danger from a horde of robots. So (much like he used to do for Julie) he turns himself into a mecha suit for Batman (a "Bat"-tle suit). He even includes Batman's ears and logos. Batman has no complaints about this.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted with Galatea. She calls Dr. Emil Hamilton "Daddy", appreciates his willingness to treat her like a person instead of a test subject, and he truly sees her as his daughter. But when he tries to convince her to let go of her feud with Supergirl and move on, she brutally kills him and doesn't seem too torn up about it. Then again, Ben put her in a coma for twenty years, during which she was well aware that she was essentially a prisoner in her own body, so her mind had no doubt snapped.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Just as in canon, there are lines that Ultra-Humanite refuses to cross. When offered the chance for escape by Psimon in exchange for helping him make the police undergo a mass suicide, he refuses the offer because he doesn't want their children to suffer the loss of their parents, and even works along Batman, Ben, and the Flash to stop him.
• Expy: Porkuspike is partially based on Zampano from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
• Family of Choice: Ben with the Justice League. He lost everyone he'd ever loved thanks to Vilgax, and now he's been sent to another universe. After he helps them end the Thanagarian invasion (despite having no reason to), the League instantly decides to help and support him through the grieving process, and help him start a new life in their universe. All of the founding members become surrogate older siblings to him, with Superman's parents becoming surrogate grandparents for him. The League reciprocates this, as they all come to view Ben as a little brother.
  • The Ultimen (minus Long Shadow) develop this with the Plumbers, as they help them adjust to Bellwood and become the heroes they always wanted to be. They still clearly see Long Shadow as family, too, as they welcome him with open arms when he, Ben, and Kara visit Bellwood.
• Fantastic Racism: Because of her experiences with Galatea, Kara holds a low opinion of clones, being fairly hostile to Superboy as a result. Once he fights against Galatea, though, she drops this and takes steps to reconcile with him.
• Flashback Nightmare: Ben suffers from these, and he even admits to wanting them due to them being the only way he can see his old family. While time does help reduce them, it's not until he visits their graves that he finally achieves closure of his past.
• Future Badass: Ben's first meeting with Ken was with a future incarnation (codenamed Ultiman) that he encountered in the Batman Beyond time period during the Justice League's confrontation with Chronos, one who had a lot of time to practice with his new powers and is more experienced than his eventual present day self.
• Give Him a Normal Life: What Batman gives an option to do. Batman recognizes that Ben blames himself for his family's death, so by forging a new identity for him, he can decide if he wants to continue being a hero or live an ordinary life. Ben considered it, but it barely lasted a week before he decided he wanted to be a hero again.
• The Glomp: Jen is this, but combined with Kryptonian super strength, and you get a variation of And Call Him "George", much to Barry's misfortune. She seems to inherit this from her mother, as Kara was exactly the same way to Ben when they were younger.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Ben and Kara's children Ken and Jen are half-Kryptonian, though they also incorporate powers from transformations of Ben.
• Happily Married: Oh so much with Ben and Kara. The two are very much in love with one another, with Ben wondering how he ended up married to someone as wonderful as her even as Ken takes his first steps into the hero business.
• Heal the Cutie: Many chapters following the end of the Thanagarian invasion show Ben recovering from the death of his family and his suicidal ideation via spending time with the Kent and Bat families. He's still grieving them years later (not fully learning to let go until he officially defeats Vilgax in his home dimension and visits his family's graves), but he does get better and becomes one of the Justice League's strongest fighters.
• Heroic Resolve: While Ben does think about retiring to a normal life (an understandable path, considering the Trauma Conga Line he went through), he ultimately chooses to join the Justice League, wishing to help more people if he can. It's this that surprises, and impresses, Superman and Wonder Woman, with the latter noting that any Amazon would be proud to fight alongside someone like him.
• Hero with Bad Publicity:
  • Like in canon, Superman (and later the Justice League as a whole) become this after CADMUS and Luthor manipulate them so that the public starts to lose faith in/fear them. Fortunately, once Luthor's and CADMUS' crimes are revealed, the Justice League regains the public's trust.
  • Before he went to the DCAU, Ben (who didn't keep a secret identity) was the victim of a smear campaign by Will Harangue, which basically made everyone (minus the Plumbers and his family) hate him and see him as a menace. However, after Ben's disappearance, the Plumbers released unedited footage of Ben's actions, revealing how many times he's saved Earth, other inhabited worlds, and the universe. It also revealed that Harangue had committed slander and falsified news stories out of pettiness, which gets his TV show taken off the air and eventually leads to his arrest. By the time Ben visits his old universe, he's gone from the most hated hero on the planet to the most celebrated.
• He's Back!: Ben spends a week on the Kents' farm working through his grief. After helping Superman take down Bizarro and Metallo, he decides he wants to be a hero again. He says this trope more or less word-for-word when he puts on his trademark jacket again.
  Ben: Hello, world. Ben 10 is back!
• Impossibly Delicious Food: Ben is clearly in love with Mrs. Kent's pancakes. Justified in that his grandfather made him live on a steady diet of bugs and similar things for a while, so actual food tastes like heaven in comparison.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: The Justice League is immediately ready to recruit Ben, and only put his recruitment on hold when he tells them that he's in the middle of grieving his family. This actually makes them want to look out for the teen even more, and the members of the League become surrogate older siblings for him (with Batman ^note  Yes, folks, he metaphorically adopted another child buying him a house and giving him everything he'd need to start a new life and Superman introducing Ben to the Kents, who quickly become surrogate grandparents for him).
• Inelegant Blubbering: What Ben is reduced to after a nightmare involving his family's death, necessitating Supergirl to give him a Cooldown Hug.
• Interspecies Romance: The canon Superman/Lois pairing (Human and Kryptonian) is there, but there's also the Crossover Couple of Ben and Kara, with the same key species but gender reversed. There's also Green Lantern and Hawkgirl (Human and Thanagarian) and Verdona and Martian Manhunter (Anodite and Martian).
• Interrupted Suicide: Professor Paradox managed to stop Ben when he tried to kill himself by catching him in a portal and sending him to the DCAU.
• It's Personal: Seeker is particularly vicious to the members of Kobra because they blew up her friend Victor, necessitating his conversion into Cyborg.
• Kidnapped for Experimentation: When Hamilton becomes obsessed with the Ultimatrix, Waller considers bringing Ben there (as he's the only one who could possibly explain the Ultimatrix). She internally considers this trope for about ten seconds before realizing that Ben has several alien forms that are simply too powerful for kidnapping to work. She then tries to simply recruit him instead.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The League is so willing to help Ben when they learn how much he's been hurting partially because he was willing to help them save the Earth even though it wasn't his world and no one asked him to do that. His selflessness earns him a place in the Justice League and a surrogate family of superheroes.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: When Morded temporarily took over Earth, he turned Etrigan into a baby so he could serve as the monster in his dungeon. This leads to the kid!Justice League taking care of him until they manage to break the spell. Diamondhead says this trope word for word when everyone becomes an adult again:
  Diamondhead glanced at Etrigan. "So, we're never talking about the whole diaper or mommy thing, right?" If looks could kill, then the glare Etrigan gave would've murdered Diamondhead several times over.
• The Lost Lenore: Julie for Ben. He watched her die alongside his friends and family, and when he's breaking away from the influence of Black Mercy, he is forced to let her go again. He admits to Kara that he'll never stop missing Julie, even though he's willing to move on and form new relationships.
• Licked by the Dog: When Raven heads to Mount Justice for the first time, Superboy's pet wolf named Wolf excitedly greets her, sniffing her and licking her face, showing that despite her calmness she is good at heart. When Raven is blackmailed by Klarion in a similar fashion to Superboy, Miss Martian, and Artemis, and she comes clean, Wolf licks her to show he still trusts her.
• Limited Wardrobe: Ben gets a funny look from the cashier at the clothing store when he buys nothing but jeans and black t-shirts.
• Master Actor: When Ben accidentally switches bodies with Luthor, he does a much better job of pretending to be Luthor than the Flash did in canon. Even Grodd admits that his performance was impressive. ^note  That could be because he's already so used to switching bodies/acting like different aliens that pretending to be a normal (albeit Badass Normal) human was easy.
• Mental Health Recovery Arc: Several chapters after the Thanagarian invasion are this for Ben, as he's helped by the Justice League (as well as Kara and the Kents) to start working through his grief.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Superman, upon learning that Ben is going on a date with Kara, is supportive of their relationship. He also tells Ben that, if he breaks Kara's heart, he'll destroy him so thoroughly that even Batman won't find him. Ben gulps, because he knows Superman can and will deliver on that promise.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Superman brings up the events of "Mean Seasons" to showcase Batman's Jerk with a Heart of Gold nature.
  • Hawkgirl relates the events of "Wild Cards" when Ben feels it wouldn't be fair to go to Las Vegas with his luck.
  • Jimmy Jones reveals that a documentary series was made of Ben's adventures, using the Race Against Time version of the Ben 10 theme song.
• Noodle Incident: Like in canon, Batman brings up the time he had to freeze the Gotham River. He still refuses to explain why.
• No-Sell: Darkseid shrugs off Toepick's Nightmare Face with mild amusement, even as his Parademon army start screaming and clawing their eyes out around him.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Downplayed. Due to a spell gone wrong, the members of the Justice League now age one day every year, but this won't affect the development of any children they have, but once they reach maturity, they too will age at the same rate. This also affects their families. The Light intended to make use of it for themselves, but it didn't go as planned for them. In story, this is also used to explain how the DCAU heroes are able to live long enough to fill their roles in Young Justice.
• Original Character: Several, both in terms of new transformations and heroes for the Young Justice crew.
  • New Aliens
    • Porkuspine, a southern-accented pig with spikes on its back that it can launch at will.
    • Ultimate Water Hazard: A more crab-like form of Water Hazard with the ability to rocket forward due to a cannon on his back.
    • Head Case, a French-accented Brain in a Jar with enhanced intelligence, intangbility, and telepathic assault.
    • Hypnotick (unrelated to a Nemetrix alien with the same name), a giant tick capable of hypnotizing enemies before crushing them in his bulk.
  • New Heroes:
    • Valerie Sage aka Seeker, the daughter of Question and Huntress. She's skilled in hacking, information gathering, and using a nightstick in combat.
    • Samantha Saunders aka Safari, the daughter of Vixen and Vigilante. She's equipped with a rubber bullet shotgun and has enhanced strength, durability, and agility due to her mother using her animal powers while pregnant.
• Parents as People:
  • Or, rather, grandparents as people. Verdona tried to come and help her family when Vilgax attacked, but arrived way too late, finding the house destroyed, Ship injured, the family dead, and Ben missing. She spent some time grieving her husband, children, and grandchildren before she realized that she needed to find Ben, searching several universes before finally finding him in the DCAU. She admits that it was wrong of her to wait so long to look for Ben, and once he accepts her apology, she makes an effort to be more accessible to him, giving him a Mana crystal so he can contact her, returning Ship to him, and arriving as fast as she can whenever he calls.
  • Also shown with several of the parents (or surrogate parents) in the League. While many of the kids and teenagers in the League are metas and Badass Normals capable of amazing things, there are moments where the heroes wonder just how much world-saving the kids should be doing, and where exactly they should set boundaries. Batman is the first to show this, as he cares about his foster kids and mentees greatly, to the point that he goes to unnecessary lengths to protect them (such as having Ben spend a week patrolling Gotham with his sidekicks so he could be sure they'd be safe) that leave them feeling like he doesn't trust them.
• Patchwork Fic: Ben 10: Unlimited's depiction of the DC universe is based on the DC Animated Universe, with the sequel story adding in Young Justice (2010) elements and a few characters from Teen Titans (2003).
• Plot Divergence: Because of Ben's presence, he's able to avert the fight between Superman and Captain Marvel in Clash, and is able to get the two heroes to reconcile by pointing out how stupid they'd been in not communicating with each other. Because of this, Captain Marvel remains on the Justice League rather than leaving as a result of a Broken Pedestal.^note Although Justice League Beyond would confirm that he eventually buried the hatchet with the Justice League and rejoined them in the future in canon. This also lines up with Captain Marvel's presence in the fic's Young Justice material, being present there in that show's canon.
• Promoted to Love Interest:
  • Flash's brief fling with Fire in Justice League Unlimited is expanded upon, and they are married by the time of the fic's version of Young Justice.
  • To resolve the love triangle involving John Stewart, Hawkgirl, and Vixen, Vigilante becomes a love interest for Vixen.
  • Raven becomes a love interest for the teenaged version of Warhawk, since Beast Boy's Young Justice depiction is too young.
  • Jason Todd is the Robin that Starfire falls in love with, rather than Dick Grayson. While the two briefly dated in Red Hood and the Outlaws, this is chalked up to Dick being much older in this canon, and Jason filling his role as the Robin of Young Justice, complete with Starfire's language kiss being applied to him.
• Revenge Before Reason: Galatea is so obsessed with killing Ben and Kara that she kills her creator, Dr. Hamilton, when he urges her to let it go and just live a normal life as his daughter.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves:
  • Hawkgirl first betrayed the Justice League during the Thanagarian invasion, then she betrayed her people when she learned that they intended to destroy Earth. She resigns from the League, and doesn't return for roughly half a year. Even though she's welcomed back (although Wonder Woman still wasn't happy for a while), she feels conflicted. It doesn't help that a rogue team of Thanagarians eventually try to kidnap her, Ben, Vigilante, and Vixen for Hawkgirl's betrayal.
  • Dr. Hamilton betrayed the trust that Superman and Supergirl had placed in him when he joined CADMUS, stole Kara's DNA and created Galatea. He mostly did it out of fear of Superman attacking the Earth again (ignoring the fact that Superman did so against his will). However, he isn't given too much respect from the rest of CADMUS, he eventually realizes that they're more concerned with ending the Justice League than protecting the Earth, and he's ultimately killed by Galatea.
• Running Gag: "Kara, AIR!"
• Second Love: What Kara becomes for Ben, as while he admits there's always a place that'll love Julie, it doesn't mean that he can't love anyone else as much, and it's ultimately her who wins.
• Self-Made Orphan: Galatea kills Dr. Hamilton.
• Shout-Out: After defeating Harm, Ken asks if Secret will turn into blue butterflies.
• Spanner in the Works: Ben showing up out of nowhere and breaking the League out is this to the Thanagarians, as they have no idea who he is or where he came from, and he tore through a platoon of soldiers like it was nothing. Other than that, though, he doesn't really change what happens in that episode.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Because of the Ultimatrix's genetic repair ability, Ben is able to fix the genetic issues of the Ultimen, preventing them from dying early. Thus, Long Shadow is able to stay with the Justice League while the other four Ultimen go to Ben's dimension and align with the Plumbers' Helpers.
  • Because Ultimate Humongousaur's strength was needed to rip the Black Mercy off of Superman, it latches onto him next, rather than Batman.
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: All of Vilgax's actions inevitably relate to making Ben suffer in whatever way possible, whether it be slaughtering his family, trying to burn down Bellwood, or attempting to desecrate the graves of said family.
• Tears of Remorse:
  • Verdona sheds these when she apologizes to Ben for neglecting him when she was grieving for the rest of her family, feeling that she otherwise would have lost Ben forever.
  • Seeing Conner risk his life against the released and vengeful Galatea leads Kara to regret how badly she treated him, and she sheds these as she apologizes to him.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Ben is shown to be fond of smoothies.
• Trapped in Another World: Ben, right after losing everyone he's ever loved, is trying to kill himself when he finds himself transported to Metropolis during the Thanagarian invasion. He rolls with it surprisingly well, using his alien forms to vent his anger on the Thanagarians and break out the Justice League (although he needs someone to reassure him that he's helping the good guys). Even after Verdona finds him and he has the opportunity to return to Bellwood, he refuses, as he's built a new life.
• Trauma Conga Line: Ben first ends up losing all his family to Vilgax and driven to the Despair Event Horizon. He's then Driven to Suicide and tries to kill himself so he can be Together in Death with them, but that fails, and he's sent to another Earth being occupied by hostile alien forces, all without any opportunity to mourn his loss.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Each of Ben and Kara's children can gain new powers through this, but in different fashions.
  • Jen has to undergo massive emotional stress and be completely consumed by an emotion to get new powers, and gains Way Big's cosmic ray after being exposed to Scarecrow's fear toxin.
  • Ken has to undergo massive physical stress and be critically injured or near death to gain new powers, and gains NRG's radiation blasts after being almost fatally poisoned by Cobra.
• Trespassing to Talk:
  • Batman, of course, pulls this a few times (mostly on CADMUS).
  • Amanda Waller pulls this when she tries to recruit Ben (who warns her against doing it again).
  • Verdona, being one of the most powerful beings in existence, doesn't let something like doors or walls keep her from going where she wants.
• Villain Takes an Interest: While most of Project Cadmus show more concern at the possibility of more transformations unknown to them, Dr. Emil Hamilton suggests using the Ultimatrix to help create Super Soldiers with regeneration and other abilities. This leads to Amanda Waller attempting to recruit Ben into CADMUS. Ben tells her where to shove it and tells her he'll never betray the Justice League. Waller, to her credit, seemed to know that this would be his answer as she's not particularly shocked and doesn't see it as a huge loss. Dr. Hamilton, however, is near tears when told he won't get to see the Ultimatrix.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: While he certainly can defend himself, Supergirl is very protective of her boyfriend and eventual husband Ben, and one way to make her absolutely furious and lose control is to harm him, as Galatea and Vilgax find out, much to their painful expense.
• We Can Rebuild Him: After getting blown up in a bombing by Kobra cultists, Ken's friend Victor Stone is rebuilt into Cyborg.
• Wedding Episode: Or rather, wedding chapter. Chapter 33 sees how Ben and Kara finally get married, much to everyone's jubilation.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Right down to the antagonists and their plan, the "Gods, Demons, and Heroes" arc serves as one to the Oracion Seis arc from Fairy Tail, though replacing Jellal with Brainiac and Wendy with Ms. Marvel. Also, the Oracion Seis are known as "The Six Demons of Apokolips".

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