DC Universe, Earth 12.
Cadmus Headquarters.
The underground fortress, which once represented the highest level of human technology, is now completely reduced to ruins.
The several-meter-thick blast-proof isolation layer was violently torn apart, exposing the steel bars into a twisted skeleton, flashing a blinding red alarm light.
In the center of the battlefield, Superman Clark's feet sank deep into the alloy floor, carving out two furrows more than ten meters long.
His arm muscles bulged to their limit, his red cloak billowed wildly behind him, as he desperately braced himself against a thick metal tentacle.
The surface of the tentacles shimmered with a ghostly green Kryptonite light, and the deadly radiation was seeping into his bloodstream through his pores, frantically stripping his cells of their Sun energy.
Wonder Woman Diana burst in from the flank, her legs pushing off the supporting pillar, sending her soaring into the air.
The Lasso of Truth flashed with golden light and precisely entangled the joint of the enemy's right arm.
She used her waist to try and disrupt her opponent's balance, creating space for her teammate to counterattack.
The creature they were besieging was a monster formed from the fusion of Brainiac and Lex Luthor.
This composite entity stood silently in the center of the ruins, its blue skull riddled with data cables of varying thicknesses that extended into the massive golden armor behind it.
The armor's surface was covered in highly advanced energy shields, which blocked all of the Justice League's attacks.
"Your struggles are futile, Justice League." The synthesized voice of the hybrid echoed in the hall, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.
"My computing core has analyzed all your tactical models. The outcome was already decided in the third second of the engagement. I will never fail a second time."
Before the words were even finished, the armor blocks on the back of the hybrid flipped over, and dozens of miniature thrusters ignited simultaneously.
The Flash Wally into a red lightning bolt, racing around the composite at supersonic speeds.
The Speed Force created dazzling arcs of electricity through friction in the air, attempting to generate a vacuum storm and sever the combined entity's energy cycle.
Without even turning its head, the armor on its left knee suddenly popped open, releasing a capture device covered with a high-voltage anti- Speed Force net.
The computing core accurately predicted Wally's running trajectory, and the capture device landed precisely on his path.
"Bang!"
The red lightning came to an abrupt end.
Wally crashed headfirst into the electric grid, and tens of thousands of volts of specially designed current instantly severed his connection with the Speed Force.
He screamed in agony as the immense momentum sent him tumbling, along with the electric grid, into a pile of scrap metal.
A crisp cracking sound rang out, and his legs were folded together in an extremely twisted position, completely rendering him unable to move.
" Wally!" Clark roared, his eyes flashing a blinding red light, his Heat Vision surging forth, carrying an intense heat that could incinerate everything, aimed directly at the face of the combined entity.
The combined entity raised its free left hand, and a pale blue energy shield appeared in its palm, forcefully blocking the Heat Vision.
At the same time, the tentacle that was binding Clark tightened suddenly, its tip splitting open, and several sharp probes pierced directly through the surface of his steel body, injecting a high concentration of liquid Kryptonite into his blood vessels.
Clark groaned, all his strength drained away, and he collapsed to his knees, panting heavily.
Seeing this, Diana abandoned the Lasso of Truth, drew the divine sword from her back, and with its blade slicing through the air, thrust it straight at the combined being's throat.
The armor on the combined body's chest rapidly reassembled, and more than a dozen barbed mechanical tentacles shot out like venomous snakes, instantly binding Diana and her sword tightly.
The tentacles kept closing in, and the grinding sound of the bones straining under the weight was so grating.
Two golden laser beams shot out from the combined entity's eyes, striking Clark and Diana precisely on the foreheads.
Before they could even scream, they fainted on the spot and crashed heavily to the floor.
Batman, Bruce Wayne, leaps from the collapsed steel frame above, his black cape transforming into enormous bat wings.
He held three specially made high-explosive miniature bombs in his hand, aiming directly at the data interface at the back of the composite's neck.
This was the only flaw he found after observing for a full five minutes.
The combined entity swung its hand backhand, moving so fast that only a golden afterimage remained.
Bruce had no time to react before his neck was gripped tightly by that cold, metallic hand, and he was lifted into the air.
A strong feeling of suffocation surged into his brain. Bruce grabbed the metal arm with both hands, and the high-frequency stun gun and acid spray on his tactical gloves were released frantically, but they couldn't even penetrate the armor coating of the composite.
"Let him go!" Green Lantern John roared, his Green Lantern Ring shining brightly.
He hovered in mid-air, and the enormous green energy materialized into a spear more than ten meters long, which he hurled fiercely at the head of the composite being.
The combined entity raised its free left hand, and a dazzling golden light shone from its palm.
A thick laser beam pierced the air and collided with the Green Lantern energy gun.
Without any stalemate, the golden laser instantly shattered the Green Lantern energy, its momentum undiminished, and pierced directly through John's abdomen.
Blood mixed with fragments of internal organs gushed out, the green light on John's body instantly went out, and he fell uncontrollably from mid-air, crashing heavily to the floor.
Shayera had just regained her footing through the portal when she saw John lying on the ground, his abdomen pierced and covered in blood.
Her mind went blank.
The destruction of Planet Thanagar, the betrayal of the Justice League, and the argument during their breakup were all forgotten in this moment.
" John!" Shayera roared, her wings suddenly extending to their limit as she stomped on the metal plate beneath her feet.
She swung the heavy Nth Metal warhammer with both hands, her whole body turning into a blur as she headed straight for the combined entity.
The unique anti-gravity and anti-magic properties of Nth Metal caused silver ripples to spread across the Hammerhead.
Thor stood there, arms crossed, watching Shayera's headstrong charge, unsure of what to say.
This woman's brain is probably filled with nothing but muscles.
Didn't you see Superman and Wonder Woman lying on the planks?
Why is she, a nobody who can't even beat Superman, getting involved in this mess?
The combined entity looked at the newcomer, and a thin golden laser beam shot out from the gap in the armor on its back.
"Bang!"
The laser precisely struck Shayera in the chest.
She and her hammer were abruptly suspended in mid-air for a moment, then flew back at an even faster speed than when she charged, crashing heavily at Thor's feet, rolling several times, and then falling completely still.
Thor shook his head and nudged Shayera's wing with his toe.
Just as he expected, the woman directly handed the opponent the Seven Kills achievement, rendering the local guide's service useless.
The Justice League was wiped out as soon as they landed. Interesting.
Bruce was still struggling in the combined creature's grasp, desperately trying to pry open the iron-like hand, causing various gadgets from his tactical belt to fall to the ground.
The combined entity seemed to have lost patience, and with a casual wave of its hand, it tossed Bruce away like trash.
Bruce crashed through two load-bearing pillars and became embedded in the wall, his fate unknown.
The scene fell silent instantly, with only the crackling of electric current remaining.
The hybrid turned around, its blue face facing Thor, indicator lights on its skull flashing rapidly, and several invisible scanning waves swept over Thor.
There were no high-energy reactions, no special genetic fluctuations, and no residual magical energy.
The scan results showed that the tall man in front of them, dressed in casual clothes, was just a slightly stronger ordinary carbon-based life form.
The hybrid entity looked down at Thor, its mechanical voice echoing in the hall. "What? Seeing your idols defeated, have you lost even the courage to resist?"
Clearly, the combined entity viewed Thor as some insignificant, marginal member of the Justice League, or some reckless, fanatical fan.
Thor didn't bother to pay any attention. He stood there, closed his eyes, and focused his mind on his body.
Space, time, reality, power... more than thirty kinds of cosmic laws transformed into bands of light of different colors, operating smoothly deep within his consciousness.
He tried to manipulate a trace of the Law of Space, and the surrounding dimensional barriers immediately gave him feedback that he could move freely through them.
Next comes the Law of Reality; he can turn this ruin into a garden in milliseconds.
Finally, there was the Law of Thunder, and a faint yet extremely pure blue arc of electricity immediately leaped from his fingertips.
The destructive power contained in that electric arc was enough to raze the base to the ground in an instant.
Thor opened his eyes, stretched his neck with satisfaction, and his joints cracked.
It seems that laws, once thoroughly analyzed and mastered, will not diminish in any way, even when crossing the barriers of the multiverse or entering someone else's territory.
True strength comes from within.
Just then, Clark, lying in the rubble, twitched his fingers.
He forced himself to sit up, shook his somewhat dizzy head, and immediately searched for his companions.
Diana, leaning on her longsword, knelt down on one knee, panting heavily.
The two exchanged a glance and quickly rushed towards Wally, whose legs were twisted not far away.
Bruce, who was embedded in the wall, slid to the ground, coughing violently and spitting out a mouthful of bloody saliva.
Ignoring his broken ribs, he staggered toward John, who had a hole in his abdomen.
Shayera, who had been lying at Thor's feet, also recovered. Clutching the charred fabric of her clothes at her chest, she struggled to her feet and stumbled to John's side. Together with Bruce, they helped him up.
John's face was deathly pale, his breathing was weak, and blood was still seeping from the wound in his abdomen.
Bruce quickly pulled out a polymer nanomedical spray from his tactical belt and sprayed it onto John's wound. The polymer gel expanded rapidly, temporarily stopping the massive bleeding.
He raised his head, his gaze passing over John and fixed intently on Shayera's face.
" Shayera." Bruce spoke rapidly, his hoarse voice carrying an undercurrent of calm and pressure. "Where have you been these past two years?"
Shayera froze, her fingers tightening suddenly around John's arm.
She looked around blankly, glancing at Bruce, then at Clark and Diana in the distance.
"Two years?" Shayera looked utterly astonished, her jaw trembling slightly. "I... I only went to another universe, which should have taken only a few tens of minutes. How could two years have passed?"
Bruce didn't miss a single subtle muscle movement in Shayera's face.
He quickly processed the two completely different timelines in his mind.
A multiverse, with varying rates of time flow and dimensional jumps.
Bruce's gaze swept past the mess on the ground and landed directly on Thor was standing some distance away.
The man remained extremely relaxed throughout, standing casually with no sign of tense or defensive posture.
Faced with a monster capable of easily destroying the Earth, he neither ran away nor attacked; he even casually stretched his joints as if no one else was there.
Based on his years of combat experience, Bruce judged that this person was either terrified or had an absolute confidence in dominating the situation.
Bruce looked at Shayera again, his chin slightly raised, pointing in Thor's direction.
"Is this the helper you hired?"