Boom!
With an earth-shaking crash, Doomsday smashed through a skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles. The building snapped in two at the middle, its upper half tilting west and burying an entire shopping street beneath glass and steel Ruins.
Dust billowed from the break like a gray beast roused from sleep, rolling outward until several blocks vanished beneath a choking haze.
Natasha landed atop the wreck of a bus at the street corner, its frame baked down to a metal shell. Ash and dried blood covered her silver-blue Asgardian armor.
The Square Hammer hung at her side. Arcs of lightning had temporarily sealed the fine crack across its face, but its blue glow was less than half as bright as it had been five days ago.
Ash had turned her Kurenai hair dark brown, plastering it to her neck and temples. Bone-deep exhaustion churned in her light-brown eyes.
She watched Doomsday's dark green back recede. Her knees buckled, almost sending her to the ground, but she forced herself to stay upright.
Not far away, Tony crawled out from behind the roll-up door of a half-collapsed shop.
The right arm of his Mark XVIII armor was completely wrecked. It dangled at his side, with only a few severed data cables still sparking.
Half his faceplate was shattered, exposing a face smeared with ash and streaked with blood. His stubble had nearly grown over his chin.
He leaned against a broken wall, panting. His gaze swept over the blocks Doomsday had ground to rubble, and the muscles at the corners of his mouth twitched as he cursed.
"Fuck, I'm dying!"
"Back in the day, I dated five cover girls in one night, and even that wasn't this exhausting!"
Thor rose from the Ruins on the other side. His long blond hair clung in