They had been at this for more than an hour now, trying to help Superman come back to his senses.
The tower trembled… again.
The Walls groaned, Steel warped and strained against the pressure. Outside, High above the scorched plains of Apokolips, the once-proud citadel. Darkseid's nerve center shook as if the world itself cried out in agony.
In the tower's dim war room, the remaining undamaged glowing consoles flickered wildly as seismic alarms blared. Dust and embers fell from the ceiling.
Superman was on his knees, Wonder Woman's glowing lasso wrapped tightly around him. His body trembled with strain his fists clenched, and his teeth gritted as he fought the foreign influence that still lingered in his mind. A faint green shimmer still flickered across both his eyes, the residual trace of mind control.
Suddenly, without announcement, a gentle gust stirred the room as Ctoneri's figure flickered in.
He walked in Silently and untouched by the pandemonium around him, he stood with a hand loosely tucked at his waist. His white robe fluttered despite the still air, eyes calm like a frozen lake azure with soft floral patterns that should have seemed beautiful, yet held unsettling serenity.
Batman was the first to notice. His eyes narrowed behind the cowl.
"What the hell is going on out there?" he demanded, his voice sharp and low.
Green Lantern followed immediately, tension brimming in his voice.
"Yeah, what's with the ruckus and this... constant shaking? It feels like the entire planet is about to collapse in on itself."
Ctoneri's eyes drifted to the kneeling Superman, who was shaking his head slowly, as if trying to clear away webs spun inside his mind.
"I was merely being introduced,"Toneri said with a faint smile, "to Darkseid's forces… his elite warriors."
He stepped toward Superman, boots whispering against the floor as the room continued to tremble.
"They were entertaining," he added, gently, almost as if to himself. "But only by a bit."
Batman, unsatisfied, stepped forward. His cape swayed with the tower's lurch.
"That doesn't answer the question." His eyes locked onto Ctoneri's, unflinching. "What is happening out there? What was that thing we heard a while ago?"
Ctoneri didn't respond immediately. Instead, he crouched down before Superman, who looked up, sweat lining his brow.
"Which one are you?" Toneri asked softly, studying the fluctuating green in one of Superman's eyes.
And then—
KRKOOOOOMMM!!
The entire top of the tower ripped open, like a tin can being peeled back by invisible fingers. Debris spiraled into the air as blinding light flooded in from above. The team reflexively shielded their eyes.
Wonder Woman gasped, her voice a whisper of disbelief.
"By Hera..."
They all looked skyward.
Up above, what should have been the atmosphere now held a horrifying new sight a satellite a blackened, shifting mass hovered against the dark heavens. But it was not a construct. It grew, pulled and formed from chunks of Apokolips itself. Structures, engines, mountains of burning debris. All were being devoured by a gravity well, spinning and coalescing into a spherical body high above, climbing toward space.
Hal's ring began flashing violently.
"Warning," the ring chimed in a mechanical tone. "Gravitational anomaly detected. Two unique gravitational signatures intersecting. Primary anomaly artificial satellite forming via controlled singularity. Core density exceeding safe planetary thresholds. Secondary anomaly residual planetary gravity… being overridden."
Hal's jaw clenched. "Uhh, guys thing is not just pulling the surface off... it's replacing the core with itself. That thing's becoming Apokolips' new moon."
He looked over at Ctoneri.
"Shit. Is that what you've been up to, dude?"
Batman's jaw tightened. For a split second, his eyes widened in realization. Then the calm mask fell back in place.
"We need to get out of here. Immediately."
But Ctoneri didn't even turn toward him.
His attention remained on Superman, whose breath had slowed. One eye was now fully blue again, the other dimming the mind control was finally influence receding as he began to regain himself. Awareness returned to his face.
Ctoneri's lips curled into a subtle, satisfied smile.
"Good," he whispered, then rose and turned finally to face Batman.
"We proceed as planned."
There was absolutely no urgency or concern for the trembling tower or the new satellite steadily drawing in more and more of Apokolips with terrifying force. No acknowledgment of the doom looming just beyond the walls.
The others stared at him, caught between awe and alarm of the situation.
———-
Metropolis was in ruins.
The city that once bustled with life now lay decimated smoldering buildings torn in half, streets reduced to craters, and fires painting the skyline orange. The air reeked of scorched concrete and ozone, while the cries of survivors had long gone silent. All that remained now were parademons. Darkseid's feral foot soldiers scattered throughout the rubble like vultures in a graveyard.
A flash of white streaked across the sky twice in quick succession lighting up the broken skyline like miniature suns.
From above, Shazam hovered, lightning crackling faintly around his frame. His eyes squinted toward the heavens where the illumination had come from.
"What the hell was that?"he muttered, scanning the horizon. His voice crackled over comms, tense and wary.
Below, a streak of yellow zipped through the city like a living lightning bolt. Barry moved in a blur, weaving between ruined buildings, uprooted pavement, and fallen wreckage. Every time he encountered a parademon, he delivered a devastating momentum-fueled blow. The speed at which he traveled turned even a simple punch into a concussive detonation each hit snapping bones, ripping wings, or vaporizing the creatures against solid stone.
"That's probably Lunaris," Barry said between breaths, reappearing in less than a second at another block. "Those bursts… definitely him."
"Confirmed," Cyborg's voice came over the comms. "He's taken Darkseid far from Earth to avoid collateral. Based on satellite telemetry and long-range scans..."
He paused, a blast firing from his arm and incinerating three parademons attempting to flank him in the air.
"They passed Mars ten minutes ago. Now? Somewhere between Saturn and Jupiter."
"Jeez." Shazam landed hard beside a crushed bus, punching a parademon into the pavement before it could lunge at him. "They're playing tag across the solar system now?"
From the comms, Barry's voice chimed in again. "We're clear here." His blur reappeared at the center of the broken city in a gust of wind and displaced dust.
"Clear here too," Shazam added, cracking his knuckles with a grin before taking flight to join the others.
Above, hovering on a fractured concrete slab reinforced with cybernetic plating, Cyborg looked down. Beneath him stood six of the seven clones Toneri had created before his battle with Darkseid.
The seventh clone had left earlier, accompanying the main team to Apokolips for the Superman extraction.
As Flash and Shazam landed beside him, Cyborg's gaze swept the ruined streets one last time before nodding at the clones.
"Alright," he said. "Let's begin."
The six clones nodded in perfect unison each movement eerie in its precision. Without another word, they vanished in silent bursts, phasing out like light disappearing through a lens. One to the north, one to the south, one to the east, and the others to the remaining quadrants of the fractured city.
Watching them go, Barry turned to Cyborg, concern etched in his expression.
"You sure you can do this?"
Shazam scoffed before Cyborg could answer. "Are you kidding? He's Victory Stone, man!" he shouted, pumping a glowing fist into the air. "Vic's got this."
Cyborg sighed, rubbing his temple. "Don't call me that."
But the faintest smile betrayed his amusement.
With a mechanical hiss, his right arm folded inward, transforming seamlessly into a small, glowing cradle. A hum filled the air as a Mother Box slid up from his forearm, hovering gently above the mechanical port. It began to pulse in sync with the red light on his forehead.
"Let's find out then," he said, voice calm but focused.
The red glow intensified.
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