The red light from the alarms filled the room, pulsing like a frightened heart under the threat of death. The mechanical footsteps approached steadily, terrifying more than threatening.
"The door won't hold much longer!" Green Arrow said, aiming a magnetically explosive arrow at the entrance.
"Let them come," Diana muttered, her eyes fixed on the closed door.
Peter stood before the comm screen with the Martian. But the connection began to break up, and the monitor filled with static symbols.
"They've started jamming the signal... We won't get any backup from here on," Batman said coldly.
"Then we continue alone. As usual." Peter rolled back his jacket to reveal a new control device, a small button pulsing with blue light.
"What's that?" Diana asked.
"A backup surprise. But I only use it if all other options are gone."
A brief silence was followed by a metallic screech as the door was torn from the inside.
The other version of Wonder Woman was the first to enter, her armor ripping the chamber door in a half-circle arc. She was followed by the alternate Batman, expressionless eyes advancing silently like a ghost.
Green Arrow fired his arrow. The magnetic explosion thundered, causing a giant spark that threw the other version back for seconds, but she got up quickly as if uninjured.
Peter shot an electric web at his double, but the double jumped into the air, pushing off the wall before lunging with bared teeth in wild fury.
"You know what's worst about you?" the dark Spider-Man version said. "You still believe in things... that don't exist."
The blows kept coming. The command room turned into a small battlefield. Diana versus Diana, swords gleaming beneath sparks from explosions. Batman versus Batman, minds clashing before fists.
But what no one expected... had started in the corner.
Shazam, who seemed unconscious, began murmuring. His lips moved in inaudible words.
Peter, between punches, noticed.
"Diana!" he shouted while dodging a blow. "Shazam is moving!"
Diana looked quickly. A magical force started surrounding Shazam's body, like silent trembling lightning.
"He's gathering his power..." she muttered, eyes widening.
"He needs time!" Peter said. "We have to give it to him."
Diana understood the equation. The goal wasn't victory... but delay.
"Batman!" she shouted. "Plan to blow the back door!"
Batman did not answer. He was busy trying to decrypt internal interference attempting to exploit the room's system against them.
"I need thirty seconds."
"You have twenty!" Diana said, then turned back to face her double again, her sword emitting a sharp metallic sound.
The light in the room began to flicker. The Martian screen went completely dark.
All that remained now... was the fight.
Peter, face bleeding, suit torn, turned toward Shazam who was beginning to open his eyes.
"Peter..." Shazam murmured, voice weak but clear.
"We're here. Take your time. Just say the word when you're ready."
At that moment, one of the pillars was broken through. The superpowered alternate Superman landed in the center of the room, the ground shaking beneath his feet.
He smiled.
"Enough is enough."
The alternate Superman landed at the heart of the room, and as he did, all sounds paused for a second. It wasn't peaceful calm, but the calm before the storm. The air itself seemed to hold its breath.
A cold smile appeared on his face, his gaze passing over them as if they were mere insignificant details in a picture of ruin.
"Finally... you're here, gathered as I wanted." His voice was heavy, not as if speaking but as if delivering a verdict.
Diana looked at him, a small blood line running from a wound above her forehead. "If you seek an easy victory, you're late."
He responded with a deadly smile. "I'm not after victory... but an end."
He raised his hand, and the air around began to tremble. The fabric of reality wrinkled for a moment, as if his mere presence was distorting the laws of physics.
Peter was the first to move. He fired his web shooter toward Superman's eyes, but the latter caught the web in midair and tore it apart as if it were dust.
"You're the first to die this time, Spider," he said, moving with nearly invisible speed, punching Peter in the chest. Peter flew back, hitting the iron wall, creating a deep dent.
"Peter!" Diana shouted, but before she could reach him, her double intercepted, sword gleaming with a dark hue.
In the corner, Shazam was rising slowly. Lightning still crackled around him, but his face was pale.
"No… it's still too early…" he whispered, pressing on his knee to stand.
The alternate Batman tried to circle behind the Martian, but the real Batman threw a smoke bomb mixed with a jamming device. The double screamed and staggered.
"No one touches my allies while I live." Batman said in a low voice, like a spell.
The fight had reached its peak.
But Peter, despite the pain, stood up from the rubble. Nothing in his body was unscarred. But in his eyes… something was different.
He took from his belt a transparent device containing a glowing green substance.
"Lex Luthor was right about one thing…" he muttered, aiming the device at the alternate Superman and pressing the button.
A faint green light emitted, and through it, they heard a grinding sound... not from outside, but from inside Superman himself.
The latter froze for a moment; the arrogance vanished from his face, replaced by eyes wide open.
"Kryptonite... inside the air?" he asked, stepping back.
Peter spat blood and said, "You still have a heart, even if you deny it."
But Superman did not fall. He roared, pushed his body forward, grabbed Peter by the neck, and lifted him in the air.
"You will die with me then."
Before he finished his words, a voice came from the corner, shaking the room, filled with pure power.
"SHAZAM!!"
Lightning thundered inside the room, a heavenly bolt tore the ceiling and struck Shazam's body.
The light was blinding, the shock electric, and with the return of silence… Shazam was no longer himself.
Standing before them now was the man of lightning... taller, stronger, with eyes shining pure white.
The alternate Superman turned to him, but his gaze was no longer confident.
"You..." he murmured, "you are not just Shazam."
"No." the new voice replied. "I am what happens... when you give light a reason to be angry."
Shazam dashed, his body cutting through the air, hitting Superman's chest with a blow that split the ground beneath them into two layers.
---
END OF CHAPTER