Phantom 29[if there was a name for chapters, I would call this...SHIT GOES DOWN]

“Superman, Apollina,” the Green Lantern, John Stewart, greeted with a nod as he floated down slowly, giving the ship behind them a glance before it was camouflaged away from him and his ring. “I wasn’t aware that Kryptonians shared their spaces with other species.”

“And now you are,” she crossed her arms over her chest, her face hidden beneath the hood of her battlesuit. “What do we owe your presence to, Lantern Stewart?”

“I detected an unidentified signal coming from the surface of Earth, and I traced three emissions once I entered the sector,” the man answered, raising his ring for a moment as a projection formed before them, depicting the planet, and a single blinking spot near the top of the Arctic. “By the time I reached close enough to perform a detailed scan, two of those had vanished, and the last one was coming from…this place.”

“The Fortress hasn’t sent out an interstellar signal for years, or at least, not one that would be detected by anything other than a receiver encoded to the same frequency and encryptions,” Kal frowned next to her, and Kara nodded mentally at that. The Fortress hadn’t been active for years at this point, at least, not in the communications department. Even the signal that had led to her escape pod landing on Earth had come from Kal’s escape pod, the ship sending out a beacon for others of House of El.

“Are you sure about that?” Stewart raised an eyebrow, his eyemask dissolving away in sparks of green light, and he nodded towards the camouflaged ship behind them. “The Lantern’s ring has some of the most advanced sensors in the universe, and even if it was malfunctioning—which is highly improbable, why would it lead to your ship, which has never been seen or located by any Green Lantern before?”

“That…seems a good question,” she paused for a moment, looking at Kal’s equally confused face. She hadn’t even gotten around to studying the schematics of the Lantern rings that the Kryptonians had managed to salvage, but it was a known fact across the galaxies that the Lantern rings were the most powerful weapons in the whole universe. Channeling the very willpower of its user, that small article of space metal and crystal was somehow outfitted with everything one could imagine. Sensors, life support, FTL travel capabilities, and an individual artificial intelligence to boot.

And that was without talking about how every ring was connected across the various sectors, acting as a node in one giant network of Lanterns.

And if the ring had detected something on Earth, then there was something here that had flagged its sensors. But yet, it was not the Fortress of Solitude, for Jor-El would not do something as stupid as sending out an intergalactic signal without Kal-El's knowledge. Her own escape pod wouldn’t do it, as she had sent it into hibernation months ago, and there was no other pi- “The Martian,” she muttered, remembering the green-colored man that had fought against the Imperium, and eventually carried their leader into the sun. “Could it be his work? A piece of his tech?”

“That still doesn’t answer why it would ping the exact location of the Fortress,” Kal muttered, turning his head to look at the Fortress. “Has your ring told you anything else, John?”

“It hasn’t,” Stewart shook his head, and his eyes turned towards the projection of the Earth floating between them, where the blinking dot signifying the fortress was still active. “The signal is still going strong, and it is still coming from your ship. I would use Earth’s satellites and telecommunication systems, but I doubt they get better than my Power Ring here.”

“Let's try Kryptonian technology then, maybe it will detect something your ring didn't?”

“KAL-EL!” her uncle’s voice echoed in the cold tundra as Jor-El suddenly manifested himself at the entrance of the Fortress, the ship uncloaking itself. However, before she or Kal could question him about his presence, the artificial intelligence continued. “The Fortress’ systems have detected an abnormal fluctuation in the planet’s core. Something is sucking at the geothermal energy fast, and in large quantities. Enough to destroy multiple cities at once, and they are acting as a locator. Something is coming to the Earth.”

“Can your ship pinpoint the locations from where it is sensing these things?” Stewart asked, and Kal-El turned towards the projection, only for Jor’s consciousness to shake his head and fade away. Sighing heavily, the man looked at them both as his eyemask materialized again, and the Lanterns’ signature emerald aura appeared around him. “Well, that seems like a no. Guess we gotta wait for whatever it is.”

The Lantern nodded with respect at Kal-El, before giving her one too, as he floated off the ground and shot into the air in a comet of green. Besides her, Kal too rose off the ground, and as she prepared herself for whatever was coming...Kara couldn’t help but think that maybe they had just jinxed themselves by discussing the Sword of Rao minutes ago.

It was a bit too on the nose, wasn’t it? But still, how much trouble could this be? With a Green Lantern by their side, and Kal-El and her fighting together. She wouldn’t even need to disturb Harry for this one.

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“What is this?” He muttered, floating before the chained cube, his eyes shifting visions to X-ray, only for him to shout as a lancing pain shot through his head. “Fuck! That hurts! Alright, no X-Ray it seems.”

“You can view through objects?” Mera asked, the skepticism and arched eyebrow telling him exactly what the Queen of Atlantis was thinking as she shifted slightly towards Arthur before stopping herself. “Can you view through all objects?”

“Well, lead stops the x-rays, so no, not all objects,” he muttered, shifting his eyes to look at the nanoscopic details on the cube before him, eyeing the miniature indents and grooves upon it. “But other than that? I haven’t come across anything that stops my vision. And well, if something troubles me, I can just turn it transparent with magic, like th-huh?”

“It is resistant to your magic too?” Nuidis asked, floating back at a respectful distance behind the royal couple, “it is almost like i-”

“It has its own magic,” he completed, taking a step back from the cube, feeling out the energy that was being emitted by the cube. It was familiar to him, just like that taste you had once experienced—so impressionable that you couldn’t forget it, but so slight that it was rememberable either. He racked his brain for any hint of what it was, scrolling through every memory in his head at lightspeed, from his own to those of Tom Riddle. Hogwarts flashed by in an eyeblink, and so did the years after, before he was back in Phantom Zone, getting tortured by Zod and Nam-Ek and Faora, after which came the twisted events that led to him and Faora becoming a thing. Metropolis was next, his brief tussle against Kal-El and Zod, and the Phantom Zone projector being thro- “Fuck!”

“What, do you have something?” Arthur asked, sending away the swordfish he had been chatting to, all serious as his trident materialized in his hands. “Everyone who cannot handle, well, one of my punches easily, move away.”

“I am no-”

“That was an order from your King, Mera,” Arthur cut her off, his eyes glazing at her momentarily before he looked back at the cube before them, planting his trident in the floor, and a visible wave of emerald green traveled out in all directions, and at once, the few large fishes that had been lingering amongst the corals swam off instantly, while the Atlanteans that were guarding the entrances too moved off at once. Nuidis gave both of them a glance before moving away, and while Mera looked like she was going to resist stubbornly, a look from Arthur culled off any protests before they could begin. “Go, and reinforce the barriers around the vaults. And order everyone to take shelter in the bunkers.”

“You have bunkers here?” Harry asked, raising his hands as his magic poured out of him, and he shaped it into barriers strong enough to stop a dragon as he once again reached out for the cube. “This cube, it is not using magic, or at least, not the kind I know of. But it is intelligent, and somewhat organic too, in the sense that it is alive. It is pulling up on the space-time around it, gathering energy to rip open a wormhole, and the fluctuations in its energy as well as the electromagnetic field around it are being caused due to this. That is why you have been feeling the tremors, as well as the lowering of the temperature around Atlantis. It is absorbing the geothermal energy from the planet itself, and large amounts too, to sustain itself, as well as reach the threshold necessary for opening that portal. But how exactly is th-from where exactly did Atlantis get this advanced technology, Arthur?”

“There are no records about it, but it has been here since the time of King Atlan himself,” Arthur shook his head, only for his eyes to widen as the cube before them suddenly glowed a white hot. “Oh shit, that doesn’t look good!”

“Aegis!” Harry shouted, casting another shield to protect both him and the King of Atlantis as his barriers shattered in an instant, the water around them boiling to hundreds of degrees in an instant as the pressure around them dropped, everything being pulled towards the cube as if it was a black hole of some kind. 

Or a forming singularity.

His shields held, but barely, and Harry grunted as he poured more power into the barrier, his eyes starting past the churning, swirling waters at the glowing piece of alien technology. Fractures of icy white color developed around it, floating in the bubbling depths like they were nothing but specters, and he grimaced as he realized what they were. Actual tears in the reality around them. The portal was going to open, and he had no means of stopping it.

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“Dr.Stone!” Hillary’s voice shouted from behind him, and Silas whirled around, his eyes widening as she followed her raised hand to look beyond the glass separating them from the Cube’s chamber, “The energy, its reaching critical levels! The whole power grid of Detroit is sucked dry, and it is still feeding on the electricity! We are seeing power outages in Troy and Birmingham! It is already at 4000 Megawatts, and it is still going strong!”

“Sound the alarms, and send a notice to DPD to begin evacuation immediately,” he snapped, walking towards the monitors, only to do a double take as he saw the readings on the screens. “What the…how is this possible?!”

“What is happening here Dr.Stone?!” His assistant asked, coming to a stop by him, her eyes moving towards the cube as the metal constraint it was held in began to deform, bending before their very eyes as the lights around them flickered. “What is this?!”

“The Cube, it is converting all that electrical energy into some kind of…mass, for the lack of a better word,” he whispered, staring at the phenomenon before them, sweat trickling down his forehead as he hit the killswitch, and lights all over the facility switched off, along with the generators and ventilation systems. “There, that should do it.”

“But what exactly is this thing doing? We knew that it was a computer of some kind, but it had always been inert, beyond automating some of our machines to unexpected new levels,” she muttered, staring at the energy readings on the monitors before them. Currently, the Cube had absorbed enough energy from Detroit and the surrounding cities that it was a few multitudes away from being equivalent to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. “It has not gained dimensions, but its weight has increa-what is happening?!”

“I think, that this is beyond our understa-” Stone began, only to blink as the light around them once again powered on, and the Cube resumed to feed on the power it was drawing from the power lines across the whole city, the process somehow even faster than before. For a second, Silas could only blink in dumb shock at the sight of the white lines beginning to appear on the Cube, which was still slowly folding its supports into scrap as it lowered to the floor. The next moment, his hand slapped against the red button, only for nothing to happen. Panic overrode his thoughts, and he pushed past a bewildered Hillary, hitting the button that was supposed to cut off the whole building from Detroit’s power grid, but nothing happened. “What the hell?! I can’t operate anything here anymore!”

“Sir, Victor is here!” Hillary shouted, and he turned around, finding his son standing by the doors, his school bag still slung over his shoulder.

“Ms.Johnson, please leave the building, you need to get your kids too,” he said, shaking his head as he saw the woman open her mouth. “I can handle things here Ms. Johnson. I am just going to try the experimental EMP ray next. I can’t leave things here as they are, not with a scope of preventing whatever calamity this is turning into.”

“I…very well,” she shook her head, her grey falling over her eyes before she pushed them back and gave him a somber nod. “I am going to Birmingham then, the energy department ought to have something we can use.”

“Do that,” he smiled, and the woman hurried off towards the exit instantly, before his eyes moved to his son’s. Victor dropped the illusion over his body immediately, his left eye turning into a glowing red as his left half was replaced by metal, smoothly shifting and seamlessly merging into his bone and flesh. “I hadn’t expected you to arrive so fast.”

“Well, your message did say ASAP,” Victor answered, shrugging as he moved forwards, his left arm shifting at the fingertips to grow cords as he laid it flat on the screens, and the little wires attached themselves to sockets. “Damn, I knew that the box was the one sucking the energy out of the whole damn city, but it is leeching off the surrounding ones too? Have you sent out the warning to disconnect their power grids from ours? At least it won’t lead to them being blacked out too…and maybe stop whatever this Cube is trying to do.”

“I did it minutes ago when I saw it was reaching well over what Detroit’s power grid had flowing through it, but they ignored my warnings,” he muttered, leaning against the wall as he watched his son work, sighing heavily. “By now, half of Troy must be blacked out, and no matter if they disconnect it, I think the Cube is manipulating the computers and the very wires to get that power. I hit the killswitch here, but it restored the power connections on its own a minute later.”

“Well, we established months ago that it was highly intelligent, though unable to communicate in an understandable form,” Victor snarked, giving him a look over his shoulder as his cords retracted. “You are lucky it didn’t turn hostile in any noticeable way. Now, open that door please, I need to get a closer look.”

“You are thinking of directly connecting to that thing?!” Silas raised an incredulous eyebrow, pointing at the warped metal inside the room. “That thing just gained hundreds of tons of virtual mass, is still draining a city’s worth of electricity, and is somehow storing that power inside 8000 cubic centimeters, and you somehow think that directly connecting to it is the smartest thing to do right now?!”

“I can reroute any power that bleeds into me,” Victor shook his head, coming to a stop by the door and tapping on it. “Besides, I am made of that thing. If it has gone active like this, maybe I will be able to understand what is going on better than human technology could. It's better than watching it develop into a bomb at least.”

“Holy mother of GOD!” a shout echoed in the room as a flash of light came next to them, and Silas turned around with his son, only blink in shock as he saw the Superhero from Central City, the Flash panting before them, his eyes staring at the glowing cube. “Damn, that’s the thing that has been sucking in the electricity like Count Dracula?! And holy shit dude, you have a traffic signal for an eye! And you are all metal, well not the cool one, but actual metal!”

“Can you help?” Victor asked, pushing off his jacket as Silas silently opened the door, the cyborg looked back at the Flash as he nodded at the Cube. “Do your powers only give out electricity or you can absorb it too?”

“Nope! Can’t absorb it,” the Flash shook his head, before he looked at him, “Dr…Stone, do you mind if I carry you to the edge of the city. This place doesn’t look very safe for a civilian, even if you are the head of this la-”

“Do it,” Victor nodded, and before Silas could even turn to look at his son, his world blurred into a flash of white and passing greys. Before he could even properly register the fact that he was being carried by the Flash at supersonic speeds, they were at the edge of the city, and he was being lowered to the ground like a Disney Princess.

“Flash! Good to see you here,” an unfamiliar voice greeted from..above them, and Silas blinked at the sight of the glowing green man floating six feet above them. But considering that his own son was a cyborg, and superpowered individuals were running around and lifting submarines, it wasn’t that big a shocker in hindsight. “Batman is also a few miles out I think. Have you gotten a look at what is sending out those signals?”

“Signals? I just got to the STAR labs building,” the young man shrugged, before nodding a thim. “Got the doctor out of the premises, but there is a cyborg there, trying to sort things out. Can you believe it, a Cyborg!”

“I am an Intergalactic Police Officer kid,” the glowing man answered, and Silas had the distinct impression that the man was smirking, before his eyes shifted toward him. “Dr. Stone, I would urge you to wait for a moment here. My partner will be here shortly to take you towards the evac buses.”

“Oh, I can drop him there,” the Flash raised his hand, only for the intergalactic police officer to shake his head softly.

“You can help by checking the whole city for the stragglers. The evacuation began only a few minutes ago, and there are thousands still in the danger zone. Jordan is helping out where he can, but he can use a hand.”

“I assume Jordan is your partner?”

“Yep,” the man nodded, before shooting off towards the labs in a trail of emerald, and Silas blinked as the Flash gave him a salute, before he was gone in a…well flash too.

“I miss the days when the craziest thing was a new team of Power Rangers,” Silas sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets as he caught sight of police helicopters flying a block away, and he began to walk towards them, giving one last look at the distant building of STAR labs. “Intergalactic police of all things…fucking hell.”

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Diana’s eyes snapped open, and she splayed her fingers open on the ground beside her. Barely an eyeblink after she felt the tremors, she was off toward the city bells. On the way, she caught sight of the Amazons by the Vault running away, as the trembling in the ground grew worse, reaching enough strength to shake the leaves in the trees by her.

“By the Gods!” she whispered, as a sudden tremor shook the Earth strong to send her stumbling, and Diana righted herself barely in time to catch the tree falling straight on ehr head, her eyes widening as she saw the whole city of Themiscyra get rocked to its core. Sand and loose stones fell on the from as far as the Arena itself, and the daughter of Zeus once again took off in a sprint, her destination switching to the place.

For not the first time, she cursed the fact that her sword wasn’t charmed to come to her hand with just a thought, and that she had to retrieve it every time physically.

“Diana!” Donna’s voice reached her ears, and she looked up, finding her sister dropping from the sky, her sword adn armor glinting in her hands. She landed on the ground swiftly, cratering the already shaking ground and raising her ornaments towards her, “The Vault, Mother is saying that something inside it is the cause…and she has ordered us to go towards the temples.”

“Has Mother lost her senses?!” she cried out, shrugging off her toga and slipping on her armor in one seamless motion, her sister connecting the clasps of the corset behind her. Placing her sword at her hip, she tapped her left vambrace, and instantly, the shield of Athena, Aegis appeared in her grip. Giving the palace a fiery glare, she turned towards her sister and raised an eyebrow, “What makes her think we are going to leave for shelter when our home is being attacked?!”

“She was shit scared,” Donna shook her head, unsheathing her own sword as both of them started to run towards the vault, jumping over the falling trees and avoiding the debris from the shaking houses, “Whatever it is, I have never seen Mother so out of it. She was nearly catatonic as she put on her armor. By the Pit, I heard her muttering to Callisto about asking the Atlanteans for help!”

“That sounds-” Diana shook her head, her raven tresses flowing behind her as they picked up speed, and in the distance, she could spot the cracks running up the Vault. Another tremor shook Themiscyra a moment later, and Diana grimaced as she saw the storm clouds roll over the island, Zeus' displeasure shining through the lightning that began to thunder through the dark clouds. Jumping over the ballista carried by the amazons ahead, Diana landed right by Cora, the Amazon who oversaw the vault. Giving the armored woman a glance, Diana looked at the company of Amazons behind her, each holding a bow in their hands, while they planted a spear in the ground. Chainmail and vambraces covered their torsos, while Corinthian helmets protected their heads, “Is it one of the summoning pools? Or has a dimensional breach opened in Themiscyra?”

“I am not sure the Queen would app-”

“The Queen’s approval means nothing when there is a calamity at our doorstep,” she cut her off, eyes narrowing in a fierce glare as she pointed her sword at the tower before them, the cracks beginning to glow from within as the shaking grew worse, and around her, every Amazon stumbled as another shake wen through the earth below them, “Now what is it that is endangering our home so, that not even the protections woven by the very Gods can keep it at bay.”

“It's a Motherbox, a device from another world,” Hippolyta's voice echoed over the quaking field, adn they all looked up, finding the Queen of Amazons dressed in her battle regalia, flying steady on her armored Pegasus. But despite how battle-ready she looked, Diana could hear the apprehension, the horror in her voice clear as day, her voice grave and her eyes haunted as she stared at the Vault, lightning arching up and down the marble tower, “It is not of this world, my daughter.”

“From where does it come then, Mother?” she shouted,” and why is it destroying our home? Should we not destroy it while we have the chance?”

“It, comes from Apokolips. A world far, far away from our own,” her mother shook her head, looking down at her, and Diana almost missed the somber smile on her face as Hippolyta unsheathed her xiphos with a sound that rang clear over the clamor and tremors going around them, “and it, cannot be stopped.”