Flash and Superman had already gone to Metropolis, where the Parademons were still wreaking havoc across the city.
That left Bruce, Victor, Diana, and Daniel inside Wayne Manor, standing around the third Mother Box on a reinforced platform in the center of the room.
Daniel looked at Victor. "Hey, can you do anything to this? Like putting it into a permanent sleep mode or something."
He remembered that Victor's cybernetics had been created using Mother Box technology. If anyone on Earth could communicate with one, it would be Victor.
Victor looked at the cube for a moment. "I don't know. I've never tried."
"Then try. If you can shut it down permanently, we won't have to worry about it anymore."
Victor nodded and stepped forward. Mechanical cables extended from his arm and connected to the Mother Box. Streams of data immediately flowed across his vision as his red cybernetic eye flickered rapidly, attempting to interface with the alien technology.
The moment the connection was established, Daniel's expression changed. He immediately pulled Bruce and Diana several steps backward and raised a spatial barrier with the Space Element of the Mark of Nexus, surrounding the three of them.
He still remembered the energy discharge from before — Bruce was only human, and if the Mother Box released another blast like that, he wouldn't survive it.
Victor continued concentrating. "I... almost have it..."
For a brief moment, it seemed to be working.
Then the Mother Box came alive. Its outer plates unfolded, and a violent burst of crimson energy exploded outward. Victor was thrown across the room as though hit by a speeding truck.
The shockwave slammed into Daniel's barrier, and cracks immediately spread across the spatial shield.
Daniel gritted his teeth and poured more energy into it.
"Why the hell are these Mother Boxes so destructive?"
As he struggled to hold it together, something suddenly clicked in his mind — one of the Fragments had been hidden inside this Mother Box. That would explain why it was reacting so violently.
The barrier finally gave way.
The explosion tore through Wayne Manor. Walls collapsed.
Support pillars snapped. The floor beneath them shattered as the entire section of the mansion caved in, burying everything beneath tons of rubble.
Before the dust had even settled, a Boom Tube opened in the middle of the destroyed hall. Steppenwolf stepped through, his eyes immediately falling upon the third Mother Box.
"Hmph... foolish humans. You cannot stop the inevitable."
He picked up the Mother Box as the Boom Tube behind him began closing.
"Fuck, no!"
Daniel blasted out of the rubble and shot toward Steppenwolf at full speed, reaching out for the Mother Box.
His fingertips were only inches away when the Boom Tube closed. His hand passed through empty space.
"...Fuck!"
He landed among the rubble, staring at the place where Steppenwolf had disappeared.
Diana pushed aside a massive slab of concrete and climbed out of the wreckage. Bruce emerged a moment later, covered in dust, his left arm hanging at an unnatural angle. Then his expression changed.
"Alfred."
Without caring about his own injuries, Bruce immediately turned toward the collapsed section of the manor and began moving rubble with his good arm. Alfred was the only family he had left.
Daniel placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let me handle this."
Bruce looked at him without a word.
Daniel slowly raised his hand. Time itself began to reverse. The collapsed walls lifted from the ground. Broken pillars reassembled.
Dust returned to shattered stone. Within seconds, the room had returned to the moment just before the Mother Box released its energy.
This time, before Victor's connection could trigger the explosion, a gigantic black hand formed from dense death energy burst out behind Daniel.
It shot forward, grabbed the Mother Box, and hurled it upward with tremendous force — straight through the ceiling of Wayne Manor and high into Gotham's sky.
High above the city, the Mother Box activated on its own. A Boom Tube opened directly in its path. On the other side, Steppenwolf's eyes widened as it flew toward him.
Without hesitation, he caught it with one hand. The force of the impact pulled him through the Boom Tube, and he dropped toward the ground with the Mother Box still clutched in his grasp as the portal closed behind him.
Daniel appeared high above Gotham's skyline, his eyes fixed on where the Boom Tube had disappeared. Without hesitating, he raised his hand again. The Mark of Nexus glowed as he forced time backward once more. The flow of time around him distorted for an instant.
Then a sharp pain shot through his body.
"Cough!"
Daniel spat out a mouthful of blood. The glow of the Mark of Nexus immediately dimmed.
[WARNING]
[Temporal Overload Detected]
[Consecutive jumps through the past exceed current synchronization limits.]
[Further activation may result in irreversible damage to the host.]
Daniel wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and lowered his hand. "It seems... I can't keep jumping through the past continuously."
*****
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