Shin took out the Mother Box in his hand. The device instantly emitted a wave of light, sweeping across the entire Batcave like a living searchlight.
A moment later, the floor beneath them rippled as though reality itself had been sliced open. From this dark, gaping hole, Batman's own prized collection, a Mother Box, rose slowly into view. It drifted forward almost ceremoniously before docking with Shin's Mother Box.
The connection sparked a torrent of data, a flood of information flowing from Batman's device into the far more advanced Mother Box in Shin's grasp. Streams of light flickered in complex sequences, then faded away. When the glow was gone, Shin narrowed his eyes for a heartbeat before the faintest smile curved his lips.
"Got it! I now have the coordinates of Apokolips."
...
"So, he went directly to Apokolips?" Superman's tone was a mix of disbelief and concern. "That's their base camp! He actually went there alone?"
Batman let out a slow, helpless breath. "There wasn't much I could do. The second he extracted the coordinates, he opened a boom tube without hesitation saying he was going for a quick victory."
He gestured vaguely toward the now-quiet Batcave. "Do you think I could stop him in that moment? Or are you suggesting I should've followed him into Apokolips?"
Wonder Woman raised a brow and shook her head. "Of course not. You'd only be a burden there. After all, your ability is to turn into a bat."
Batman stiffened, and if it weren't for his mask, they all would have seen his eyes roll.
Barry, standing nearby, tried to ease the tension with a grin. "Hey, maybe we should—" He caught Batman's blank expression and quickly toned it down. "I mean… I was just trying to lighten the mood."
From his seat in a corner, the Ancient One calmly stroked an American bobtail cat in his lap. "Don't worry," he said with quiet assurance. "You should have confidence in him. From everything I've learned, our friend never takes action unless he's sure of himself."
He paused, eyes narrowing slightly in thought. "And even if the plan fails, he has the means to escape intact."
"If you don't believe him," Scarlet Witch chimed in, "just look at me. I'm not worried at all." She spoke with the ease of someone who had traveled with Shin across worlds. "After our trip to the underwater realm, he took me to other planets… and let's just say he treated the enemies there like playthings."
If they were in the Flashpoint timeline, or even in their own Marvel universe, Wanda might have had reason to worry. There were entities there that could outmatch even her formidable powers. But here, in this cinematic DC world, Shin's overwhelming abilities were beyond anything the current world could offer.
"Still," Wonder Woman said, her arms folded, "charging into Apokolips alone is reckless. Confidence is one thing, but does he really think he can handle the entire planet by himself?"
"Maybe he can," the Flash muttered under his breath. He still remembered how, during the Brother Eye crisis, Shin had caught him mid-run as if plucking a bird from the air. From that moment, Barry knew Shin's speed was at least ten thousand times the speed of sound, three times faster than Superman's current best.
Pure speed didn't define combat power, but as a speedster himself, Barry understood its terrifying advantage.
Green Arrow sighed. "Either way, we should prepare. Batman, can you get us the coordinates of Apokolips?"
Batman lifted his own Mother Box. "Possibly. The one in Shin's possession has already dismantled this one's defenses, but the coordinates are fragmented. I can narrow it down to a general area."
With the first Mother Box already cracked, the second fell with less resistance, its internal data relatively intact.
"How long?" asked Green Lantern.
Hal already knew that the Green Lantern Corps once had the exact location, but after Darkseid's forces crushed them utterly, the Guardians ordered the coordinates erased from every ring. As was often the case, the Corps' history held as many dark chapters as heroic ones, and ordinary Lanterns only knew what the Guardians wanted them to know.
"More than two weeks," Batman said in his usual gravelly tone.
Two weeks. By then, whatever outcome awaited Shin on Apokolips would already be decided.
Batman understood this perfectly, but kept the thought to himself. Superman exhaled heavily. "Looks like we wait."
...
"Is this Darkseid's lair?" Shin's voice carried in the strange stillness.
The space around him was unlike anything in the regular universe. The most striking difference was its emptiness, aside from the colossal, fortress-like planet looming in the distance, there was nothing. No neighboring worlds, no asteroid fields, only an endless void.
"This must be the so-called Fourth World," Shin mused aloud. "A higher dimension, they say. But it doesn't feel all that different. Maybe this 'higher' reality just follows the same physical laws as ours."
He gave a small shake of his head, dismissing the philosophical thread. Now wasn't the time. Instead, he extended every sensory advantage he possessed, super vision, super hearing, and the far-reaching scope of his Observation Haki, blanketing the entire planet below.
The sight was grim. Apokolips was a world of metal and fire. Enormous fire pits scarred its surface, each as vast in proportion as Australia was to Earth. Given that Apokolips dwarfed Earth by a factor of ten in diameter, those pits likely matched the landmass of Earth itself.
They were power furnaces, feeding the planet's endless war machines. The landscape was devoid of greenery, devoid of rivers or oceans, only molten pits and industrial wastelands.
Even without knowing its ruler, the very design of Apokolips screamed malice. The people here couldn't possibly live good lives, and they didn't.
Through the layering of his senses, Shin perceived every detail. The planet was a sprawling arsenal. Its inhabitants were either monstrous soldiers forged through brutal transformation or slaves chained by the will of their masters. The only exceptions were the so-called New Gods of Apokolips, Darkseid's ruling elite.
Shin took it all in silently, his expression unreadable. He had stepped into the enemy's heart, and he was ready.
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