Just as Heisenberg was masking his inner malice with his usual magnanimous smile, the faint hum of engines suddenly echoed from the distant sky.
Heisenberg looked in the direction of the sound. An unmanned Batwing was flying toward them from the waters beyond Themyscira.
"What's going on with Bruce?"
He was a little curious. After all, he had been too busy enjoying the sheer thrill of beating the crap out of Clark to pay any attention to the others.
Did this plane's arrival mean Bruce was planning to leave?
Did he feel bad about making me open the Bifrost?
With that in mind, Heisenberg turned back around, dismissing the aircraft.
Gotham was probably acting up again.
That damn place stirred up trouble every other day; it was absolutely one turf Heisenberg had zero interest in cleaning up.
Most other places were just barren wastelands where birds didn't even bother to crap.
But Gotham... whenever a bird flew over, even its crap smelled sweet by comparison!
Far sweeter than the Joker's halitosis, the Penguin's B.O., and especially the Riddler's riddles!
With that thought, Heisenberg accepted a piece of fruit from Diana and shoved it into his mouth in two bites.
By then, Diana had heard the engines too. Grabbing a fruit for herself, she took a bite and asked softly, "Why is Bruce's plane heading this way? Is he planning to leave?"
"Probably. Let him go attend to his own business."
Heisenberg nodded, offering a noncommittal response.
Diana nodded in agreement.
"Fair enough. His current combat level isn't suited for our intensive training anyway, so if he's leaving, so be it. I need to go inform my sisters. If I don't let them know what's going on, I'm worried their arrows might accidentally shoot the plane down!"
"Go on. We'll resume sparring after a thirty-minute break."
"Of course! I will hold out longer than last time, Your Eminence!!!"
Diana immediately let out a thrilled roar. Her progress over the past few days made her feel like she could take on two of her past selves at once.
For a girl raised among the Amazons, growing stronger was infinitely more thrilling than growing prettier, or even bagging a rich, handsome sugar daddy for her collection!
With that, Diana turned and left, presumably to brief her warriors about the aircraft.
Shortly after, Batman's plane came to a hover above the great library a few kilometers away.
As Batman departed Themyscira, Clark finally stirred from his unconsciousness.
Victor had finished repairing his body, and the Flash was bouncing on his toes, loosening up his legs.
Mera took a deep breath, rose from beside Heisenberg, and gave her trident a fierce shake.
"Your Eminence, we're ready to begin!"
With a flick of her right hand, endless torrents of water cascaded from the distant clouds, sweeping across the arena and washing away every trace of blood.
At the same time, she slapped Arthur out of his battle trance and transported the battered Amazon warriors to the spectator stands.
This was a feat she absolutely couldn't have pulled off three days ago. Hydrokinesis was an ability tied to the mind; now that her mental fortitude had grown exponentially, Mera's power naturally scaled with it.
In the stands, the Amazon warriors quickly snapped out of their battle-hardened frenzy upon realizing their surroundings had changed.
Casually stuffing their intestines back into their bellies and snapping their severed limbs back into place, they turned expectant eyes toward the freshly washed arena.
At the center of their gaze, Heisenberg offered a faint smile and spoke.
"Let me rest a bit longer. This time, the four of you will take on Clark together!"
"Take me on?!!"
Hearing this, Clark blinked in surprise before a grin quickly spread across his face. But he was nowhere near as thrilled as Lois standing nearby.
"Thank God! I finally don't have to watch Clark die over and over again. You can do it, honey!!!"
Hearing Lois's cheers, Mera and the other three sported awkward expressions. Was she looking down on them?
But a second later, they were cheering right along with her.
A new opponent! Hah, switching opponents was great!
No matter how strong Clark was, he surely couldn't be as utterly broken as Heisenberg, right?
Watching Clark rise and float to the center of the arena, Mera, Barry, Victor, and Arthur visibly brightened.
In the blink of an eye, the five of them erupted into an all-out brawl!
No, six—because Diana had returned!
...
While Heisenberg sipped champagne and watched the brawl on Themyscira...
While Batman, having left Superman's side, headed into Metropolis to conduct his investigation...
A mysterious, butterfly-shaped spacecraft slipped through a wormhole and arrived near the Moon.
...
Steppenwolf gazed through the viewport at the drab lunar landscape, then turned his eyes to the distant Earth—a planet that should have been a vibrant blue, now stained a sickly grayish-yellow by smog.
He furrowed his brow, staring intently and deeply at the planet.
His hands gripped the armrests of his chair so tightly that his fingers left shallow dents in the solid metal.
His lips twitched for a moment before he murmured in a low voice,
"This planet forced him to retreat in failure once before. This planet keeps the separated Mother Boxes from daring to emit their activation tones. Without a doubt, there is an enemy up there that even the Mother Boxes—and perhaps even Desaad—would find troublesome!"
At this, Steppenwolf licked his lips and let out a sinister chuckle.
"Naturally, they will be no match for Darkseid. All I need to do is announce his impending arrival to this world! Before he ultimately descends to bestow the fate of destruction upon this planet, I will use victory and glory to prove my worth and loyalty to him!"
With that, Steppenwolf rose from his seat and retrieved his battle-axe.
"Since this planet harbors warriors of sufficient caliber, a frontal invasion is clearly unwise. I must keep a low profile first and prioritize assessing the strength of its protectors!
Kryptonians are a nuisance to me, and the Old Gods are equally troublesome. Therefore, when facing a hybrid entity of Old Gods and Kryptonians, the absolute priority is to avoid being detected by him."
As he spoke, he swiped his right hand through the air, and the mothership immediately deployed a small scout vessel.
He walked over to the scout vessel. Its doors hissed open, and Steppenwolf stepped forward with a grim expression.
But before he could board, his entire mothership violently shuddered.
Boom!!!
Bzzzzzt!!!
A deafening roar was immediately followed by violently intense shaking and the screech of tearing metal. The sheer abruptness of the impact made Steppenwolf's eyes bug out!!!
Staring at the colossal spacecraft that had just emerged from the wormhole, and then looking back at the mangled remains of his own ship as it was sent flying, Steppenwolf's grip on his axe began to tremble.
"I've been spotted!!!"
...
Just moments before, Fiona stood tensely in the command center, listening to the feverish report of an exuberant scholar.
"Commander Fiona, after jettisoning most of the ship's habitation modules and converting them into fuel, we've barely managed to restart the warp drive. However, because the engine's energy reserves are so critically low, we can only utilize pre-existing stable wormholes near Earth to jump!
Based on my analysis, there are only two wormholes that would leave us with enough energy to reach Earth after the jump. One is located over the ocean at an altitude of 6,400 meters above the Earth's surface. According to the data we gathered on Earth's civilization during our last visit, the locals call that area the Bermuda Triangle.
The other is in space, 2,600 meters above the lunar surface! Please choose our drop point quickly; Elder Heisenberg is waiting for us!"
Listening to the scholar's briefing, Fiona nodded and without hesitation pointed to the wormhole near the Moon.
"We'll drop out near that satellite. We don't yet know if any special changes have occurred on Earth since we left. Elder Heisenberg's attitude toward Earth may not necessarily align with General Zod's past stance, and we have no right to do anything that might displease His Eminence!
So we will park near that natural satellite. His Eminence, the Elder, will find us and determine our future course! And all we need to do is follow his orders!"
"Yes, Commander!"
Acknowledging the order, the scholar eagerly pressed the warp initiation button.
A moment later, space warped around them. They traversed the endless cosmos, arriving near the Moon in the blink of an eye.
Thud!!!
The instant they dropped out of warp, Fiona felt the entire ship jolt. Her brow furrowed instantly.
She shook her head to dispel the mild vertigo from the jump, then glared at the holographic readout in the command center.
In the three-dimensional projection, Steppenwolf's ship—currently hurtling through space after being rammed—was glaringly obvious.
"What the hell is that!!!"
Fiona barked. Immediately, the scholars began furiously analyzing the data.
Within moments, the scholar who had proposed the jump route replied with poised precision.
"That vessel does not exist within the data we compiled on Earth. Its technology far surpasses the human realm—it's on par with, or perhaps even exceeds, our own! Based on the structural and data analysis of the ship, I must conclude that it is an Apokoliptian vessel!!!"
"Apokolips... the domain of that terrifying Old God, Yuga Khan, from Krypton's ancient records a hundred thousand years ago?!! Why is their ship parked here?!!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Fiona clenched her right hand into a tight fist.
"Warriors, prepare for combat! Any creature bearing the name of Apokolips has always been our enemy! The fact that they've stationed themselves just outside Earth gives me every reason to suspect their target is our great Lord Heisenberg!
Follow me into battle! We will offer the skulls of these Apokoliptian wretches as our first tribute to our god! We will paint the first tapestry of our glory in the hearts of Rao's bloodline with their blood!"
"Yes, ma'am!!!"
Over thirty Kryptonian warriors within the ship instantly surged with killing intent. Their armor immediately generated a layer of invisible aura, and their heads were enclosed in transparent helmets.
A moment later, the main doors of the Kryptonian ship flew open. Having long since burned through their ship's weapon systems for fuel, the Kryptonians now turned their own flesh and blood into the perfect weapons to strike the enemy!
Thud!
Thud-thud-thud!!!
A series of heavy booms echoed as their launching footsteps completely shattered the metal flooring near the airlock.
The Kryptonian warriors' dark armor instantly blurred into dozens of streaks of light, shooting straight toward Steppenwolf's ship!
Meanwhile, Steppenwolf's eyes widened to an unimaginable degree.
"Even with every stealth function on my ship engaged, I still got sniffed out by these Kryptonian barbarians? This brazen tactic of ramming a spaceship with their bare bodies... they certainly live up to Krypton's reputation as the savages of the universe!"
His expression turning grim, Steppenwolf's armor—a jagged, shifting mass resembling shattered blades—began to writhe. Hefting his axe, he forced open the ship's airlock.
"Parademons, follow me! I have to break through this Kryptonian blockade if I want any chance of reaching that tantalizing planet! I will return to the world that birthed and raised me! I will go back, and no one is going to stop me—no one!!!"
Boom!!!
Steppenwolf launched himself into the void, swinging his axe with devastating force.
Opposite him, the agile Fiona held her left arm forward, her right arm pulling back as she channeled power like drawing a bowstring.
The war between Krypton and Apokolips was on the verge of erupting!
/-\
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