Martian Manhunter glided ghost-like through the levels of the Watchtower, his body intangible, immune to gravity or obstruction. He passed through reinforced steel bulkheads and flickering, damaged corridors as if they were mist. Alarms shrieked around him in a discordant wail, casting the station into a pulsing rhythm of red emergency lights.
J'onn J'onzz's eyes burned with psychic energy as his mind expanded outward like a net cast across a battlefield. He sent waves of telepathic signals sweeping through the Watchtower, latching onto familiar mental patterns..
"Aquaman, Hawkgirl, Green Arrow. This is J'onn. Respond."
A pulse of raw mental energy surged outward like a beacon.
Aquaman's thoughts snapped back first, panicked and strained.
"J'onn! Something's gone wrong with the aquatic containment! I'm trapped near the pressure hull. Water's flooding in, and something is in here with me, and the failsafes aren't responding! I need help NOW!"
Even through the telepathic connection, the force of Arthur's fear was palpable. J'onn began calculating routes, protocols, and solutions.
Then Hawkgirl cut in, her psychic voice crackling with desperation and obvious panic.
"We're under attack! Villains, dozens of them, Black Adam's tearing through everything like paper! I tried calling for backup. WHERE is Superman? Diana? They're not responding!"
J'onn's voice was calm and cold in contrast. "I'm on my way. Stay mobile. Stay alive."
Suddenly, a psychic scream tore through the link.
"SHE'S TOO FAST! I CAN'T GET A SHOT GODDAMN IT! SHE'S RIPPING ME TO SHREDS HELP!"
Green Arrow.
The mental imagery was violent and vivid, slashing claws, blood, the glint of fangs. Cheetah.
J'onn sharpened his focus like a scalpel.
"Green Arrow, disengage and link up and assist Aquaman. Once settled, Head towards the west teleporter. I will intercept."
"She's not letting me move! There's no clear—AHHHH " The link crackled with pain. "I'm hit. Arm's torn open. Bleeding bad."
J'onn's body pulsed as he accelerated downward, cutting through level after level. The scent of fire and scorched insulation thickened with every floor.
He passed a corridor where a League sentry drone had been torn limb from limb. A streak of blood smeared across a monitor. Smoke slithered from a melted console. The taste of psychic warfare was in the air—tainted minds, fractured thoughts.
J'onn swept his senses again.
He felt them.
A gathering of minds, lurking like predators in the dark. Some were masked, twisted to hide their intent. But the impressions were unmistakable: rage, arrogance, hunger, bloodlust.
And something more.
Cold.
Empty.
"The Martian, it seems, you will be a thorn in our side in the future, and we can't have that, can we?" a voice echoed.
Something felt wrong. The area began to heat up, uncomfortably so, and only then did it truly click in his mind what was happening. But even then, his reaction time was too late, and his world was set ablaze.
J'onn J'onzz, the Manhunter, found himself in HELL.
Vandal Savage sat upon the desecrated throne of the Watchtower's central control chamber, his posture relaxed and composed.
The control consoles flickered with sparks and static, wires exposed like nerves, screaming silently. Bodies, heroes, and villains alike lay on the floor, some dead while others were unconscious.
Vandal paid them no mind.
He sat reclined in the command chair like a warlord on his blood-stained dais, one leg draped over the other, a goblet of red wine in hand.
The ancient conqueror swirled the liquid, his expression calm, serene.
"Magnificent," he whispered, eyes flicking lazily between monitors showing pure mayhem.
Explosions rattled the eastern wing. Sinestro's brutal takedown replayed on a loop—paused at the moment Batman drove a sonic emitter into his ear, blood streaming from every orifice. Another screen displayed Deathstroke being flung like a ragdoll, Wonder Woman standing over him, grim and resolute.
Savage chuckled.
"Some of them are starting to realize..." he murmured, the rim of his goblet kissing his lips. "That they're not my only pieces on this board."
Behind him, Ultra-Humanite silently observed from the shadows, arms folded. He said nothing, but a small smile found itself placed on his lips.
Savage turned slightly, still seated.
"I've ruled over mankind many times, and not once have I done something like this," he whispered. "I always sought to elevate humanity, but how blind I truly was at the time." He raised his glass in salute. "For order cannot be established without a touch of chaos."
Kai wandered.
His feet moved, but his mind didn't register the steps. Each footfall echoed within the empty hallways of the Watchtower, driving a sense of dread deeper into his heart.
The silence around him was not peaceful; it was oppressive, suffocating, like standing at the bottom of the ocean with lungs full of smoke. Now and then, the station trembled beneath him, distant explosions, tremors, screams, but he kept walking.
Then he turned a corner—
And the world froze.
Blood.
So much blood.
It slicked the floors in puddles that reflected the emergency lighting. Handprints panicked, smearing, clawing at nothing, decorated the walls. Gore was splattered like confetti. A shredded torso slumped against a support beam. A headless body was sprawled across a broken machine. Organs had become décor.
Something wet and heavy slid down the wall with a grotesque squelch.
Kai's legs gave out. He dropped to his knees with a choking gasp, hands trembling violently.
His vision swam.
The bus... the screaming... the broken glass... the flames...
He could still smell the burning leather, the perfume of the girl in the seat in front of him, the acrid tang of melted metal. Their faces. Their eyes.
His body heaved, retching violently.
Nothing but bile and watery spit splashed onto the blood-slick floor.
"You truly are a pathetic sight."
The voice was silk wrapped around steel, venomous in tone.
Kai looked up, eyes wide with dread.
Floating just above the carnage was a god dressed in malice.
Black Adam.
He hovered like a judgmental wraith, his black-and-gold armor flecked with blood. In one hand, he held something limp.
No, someone.
It was Hawkgirl.
Her helm was gone, hair matted with blood. One wing ripped off at the joint lay crumpled behind him. Her left leg was broken in two places, bone jutting from skin. One eye was swollen shut; the other fluttered, unfocused.
He dropped her like waste.
She hit the ground with a wet crack.
Kai screamed inside his mind. His mouth wouldn't move.
Black Adam sneered.
"She was in my way. Birds are meant to soar, not bleed."
Kai curled forward, mouth twitching, bile dripping from his lips.
He had no powers.
No courage.
No hope.
He was just a kid.
And this man? He wasn't just a man. He was a monster cloaked in human flesh.
The war god descended slowly, one hand reaching toward Kai's face.
"I offer you mercy, child," Adam said, cold and regal. "The same mercy the weak deserve swift, painless, and complete."
His hand inched closer—
THWAM!
A meteor struck his jaw.
No, a man.
A legend.
Superman rocketed from the corridor like divine retribution, his fist crashing into Black Adam's face with the force of a collapsing mountain.
The thunderous shockwave split the wall behind them. Panels exploded. Wind screamed.
Black Adam was launched, his body cartwheeling through two bulkheads before vanishing in a cloud of debris.
Kai gasped, flinching.
Before him stood Superman.
His suit was torn, clinging to him in strips. Blood soaked his chest. One eye was swollen nearly shut, the skin around it purple and bruised. His hands were cracked, skin flayed along his knuckles. His cape was gone, replaced by ribbons of red.
And his eyes.
His eyes blazed with a fury that made Kai sink deeper into himself, trying to hide, but on closer inspection, Kai noticed that what was in Superman's eyes was something different, something he had seen in the protagonist's eyes of some of his favorite movies.
Not anger.
Not wrath.
Something colder.
Justice, unrestrained.
Black Adam emerged from the rubble, groaning, wiping blood from his lip. He hovered once again, chest heaving.
"You look worse than I imagined, Kryptonian," he spat.
Superman didn't speak.
He moved.
In a blink, the two titans clashed once more—fists shattering air, impacts splitting walls.
Kai could only watch, paralyzed by awe and terror.