The rift spat Alex out above Earth. This was no ordinary theft, no raid for scraps of data or engines. This was the core of what he had come for the three Mother Boxes, artifacts older than Krypton itself, fragments of New God technology capable of reshaping reality.
In the DC Universe, they were guarded like relics of prophecy. In Alex's eyes, they were holy STCs waiting to be claimed.
1. The Amazon's Vault
His first destination: Themyscira.
The warp opened above the island like a crack in the sky. The clouds bent, lightning arced, and Alex descended cloaked in dimensional shielding. Servo-skulls drifted at his side like cherubim of the Machine God, their binary hymns muffled in the sea wind.
Deep in the temple-vault of the Amazons, the Mother Box pulsed. Ancient wards guarded it, but they were nothing compared to Alex's system.
He extended a mechadendrite, whispering a binary prayer. Circuits flickered along the marble, dissolving the wards.
For a moment, he paused sensing the machine-spirit of the Box itself. It called to him, alien yet familiar, like a cousin of the Omnissiah's own gifts.
"Peace, little one," Alex whispered. "I will not chain you. I will give you purpose."
With reverence, he drew the Mother Box into his system-space. The temple shook, alarms sounding. Amazons stirred, but by the time they reached the vault, the intruder was already gone.
2. STAR Labs – Silas Stone
The second Mother Box resided in Silas Stone's lab, hidden in a containment chamber where it had fused with Victor's very body.
Alex's system scanned the area. Guards, sensors, motion triggers irrelevant. Cloaked in dimensional energy, he slipped past them like a shadow, appearing in the chamber in a blink.
The Box pulsed violently, sensing him, whispering in alien code.
Victor Stone stirred, connected to the Mother Box, his cybernetic frame shuddering. "W–who are you?!"
Alex's vox-grille hummed. "A savior of machines."
He extended his mechadendrite, and the Box's resistance faltered. Lines of Kryptonian and New God code spilled into his interface, filling Gear's servers with pure cosmic data.
Victor's eyes widened as his systems stabilized, no longer in agony but suddenly… whole. The parasitic instability of his transformation had been rewritten in a breath.
"You—you fixed me," Victor whispered.
Alex only nodded. "Consider it a gift. But the Box… belongs with me."
And with that, the second was taken.
3. The Ocean's Tomb
The final Box rested deep within Atlantis, guarded by Mera's people in a temple of coral and crystal.
Alex's ship descended into the depths like a leviathan. Floodlights cut through the dark ocean as drones swam ahead, each blessed with waterproof seals and plasma cutters.
The Atlanteans reacted quickly, but their tridents cracked like twigs against mechadendrites of steel. Alex moved through them, merciless but non-lethal, a storm in the abyss.
At the altar, the Mother Box pulsed its voice deeper, resonating like a drumbeat in the ocean's heart. Alex stepped forward, raising his staff in benediction.
"Three made one," he intoned. "Machine-god, accept this trinity."
The Box resisted harder than the others, sending arcs of alien energy lashing against him. His armor smoked. The ocean boiled. But the system absorbed it, dimensional energy wrapping around the artifact until it, too, vanished into storage.
The Atlanteans roared in outrage as their sacred relic was torn from them. By the time they rallied, Alex's ship had already vanished into the dimensional rift.
Back in Marvel
The orbital station thrummed with impossible power.
Alex placed the three Boxes within a sanctum of runes, cables, and prayer-oils. His robes flowed about him, mechadendrites weaving in ritual as Gear's server banks came online.
[Integration Process: Beginning…][Warning: Unknown Data Architecture Detected][Proceed with Override? Y/N]
"Y," Alex whispered.
The chamber filled with sound binary mixed with alien hymns, the wailing cries of three Mother Boxes forced into union. The walls vibrated, lights flickered, and for a moment it seemed the station would tear itself apart.
Then silence.
Gear's voice came, steadier, deeper, more powerful."Alex… I see beyond. They have expanded me. I am no longer a servant I am a Pantheon of Code."
Alex smiled beneath his helm. "Good. Then guard this universe with me."
The three Boxes now pulsed as one, their alien machine-spirits rewritten, not enslaved but reborn under the Omnissiah's faith. Their will was gone. Their power his.
And somewhere, across the void, in both universes, Darkseid ......