The stars burned faintly in the void, smothered by a deeper shadow that stretched like a stain across the cosmos. Where the black fires of Apokolips roared, the universe seemed to retreat in dread. Its forges thundered day and night, feeding machines of war older than empires. Smoke pillars rose like the breath of titans, blotting constellations that had guided travelers for millennia.

On the great obsidian spire at the heart of Apokolips, Darkseid sat upon his throne. Immovable. Eternal. His silhouette was carved from inevitability itself, as if even the stones of his palace bent under the weight of his presence. His eyes burned with the fire of omega, twin beacons of destruction. He did not pace, nor speak without reason. His silence was its own command, suffocating, shaping the will of billions.

Before him, his court assembled. Kalibak the brutish, slavering at the chance to unleash his rage. Granny Goodness, smiling with perverse delight as her Furies clanged their weapons in ritual rhythm. Virman Vundabar whispered logistics, numbers, troop strengths. Mantis twitched with insectile agitation, hungry for conquest.

Darkseid raised a single hand, and silence fell, save for the groaning of the molten world.

"Earth," he said. The word was ash and stone, final as a death sentence. "Its defenses grow bolder. Its champions may unite when threatened. They believe themselves strong."

Granny Goodness bowed low, eyes gleaming. "And in their arrogance, Great Darkseid, they gather the very power you seek. Their relics, their Mother Boxes… they will deliver them to you by resisting."

Kalibak roared, slamming his axe against the ground. "Then unleash me, Father! Let me break their cities, tear their armies, and bring their gods to heel!"

Darkseid's gaze flickered to him, a weight that nearly crushed Kalibak to silence. "You will have your war, my son. But you will not lead it."

Murmurs rippled. Darkseid rose, towering, and the chamber darkened as if afraid of his wrath.

"It will begin with the Parademons and my generals watching as the situation unfold. The world will break not with one blow, but a thousand wounds. And when their hope rallies… when their champions gather… then I will step forth and show them despair."

He paused, then added, "Do not engage if the Godslayer shows up. I will personally deal with him."

The court bowed, yet not all present found comfort in his vision.

At the edge of the gathering, half-shrouded in shadow, Grail stood. Daughter of Darkseid. Born of Amazon blood and Apokoliptian cruelty. Her crimson eyes glowed faintly, but behind them flickered something no one else there dared feel. Doubt.

Later, when the generals dispersed to marshal their legions, Grail lingered in the vast halls. Her footsteps echoed across black stone as she made her way to the outer balcony, where the burning horizon of Apokolips stretched in all its ruinous glory. She stared into it, and for a moment, she imagined another world — a green and fragile one she had glimpsed once before.

Edward.

His name slipped into her mind unbidden, a fracture in her otherwise iron will. She had seen him stand against the fury of gods, had felt the weight of his defiance echo even into her father's realm. Part of her demanded she scorn him, dismiss him as mortal arrogance given form. But the memory of his strength, his certainty, gnawed at her. And the last time they met. When he called her beautiful despite her ruthless and ugly heritage.

She sighed , trying to get the thought away from her mind. But a question kept ringing in her head.

Could he… truly challenge Darkseid?

She gripped the Calumn until stone cracked beneath her fingers. She hated the question. Hated that it even existed within her. Darkseid was inevitable. Eternal. No one could oppose him. Not the old gods, not even the New Gods. And yet… Edward's image would not fade.

If Earth's heroes united with him… if they stood not scattered, but together…

Grail's eyes burned hotter. "Then perhaps Father is not the only inevitability," she whispered.

***

Far away, on the small blue world that was about to be tested, whispers of doom spread in ways most did not yet comprehend.

At STAR Labs, technicians stared at their monitors with mounting panic. Energy spikes blinked across the globe in erratic bursts, gravitational distortions pulling at the tides. Satellites caught glimpses of shapes blotting stars, only for the feeds to die seconds later. One scientist muttered, "It's like… something's feeding on the void itself."

Mages too felt the tremors. In London, Constantine woke from uneasy sleep, muttering curses as his wards cracked like brittle glass. Clock Tower's head, Nostradamus kept checking to sense the location of anomaly. He ordered the executors to deploy and monitor Earth for any anomaly.

In Eternia and Vonarland, mages who had studied the hidden currents of magic for centuries huddled in prayer, sensing a storm unlike any before. They asked Edward for guidance, but the only thing they heard was, "An invasion is coming from the stars. Gather your soldiers and prepare for war." So they followed his words as always.

Eternias guardian M'kalun, the current White Lion; and the beast warriors who has been blessed with animal spirits gathered, watching the sky warily.

Even Zatanna, performing for an audience, faltered mid-illusion as her incantations backfired with sparks of raw, alien interference. She hesitated , then contacted Doctor Fate, Kent Nelson, her adoptive father who took her in after her father died fighting demons. But even Doctor Fate did not answer her doubts. He only spoke in his usual detached tone, "This is beyond your powers. Do not intervene."

People around the world laughed nervously at first, blaming climate change, freak weather, superstitious nonsense. But unease settled like lead in the bones of humanity.

In Gotham, Bruce Wayne read reports in the cave. Missing persons spiking in clusters across the globe, entire ships lost at sea with no trace, unexplained fires in forests and industrial zones. He charted them, pinning red markers across a world map, lines converging. Patterns only he could see. His jaw set as the picture became clear.

Clark felt it too. Not through data, but in the silence of the skies. When he flew at night, the stars he had known since boyhood felt… dimmer. Sometimes he thought he saw shadows moving among them, huge and formless, gone when he blinked. Faora noticed it as well, though she said little, only sharpening her blade against threats she could not yet see.

Elsewhere, Hal Jordan's ring pulsed warnings, cryptic and insistent. Impending incursion detected. No matter how he questioned it, the ring refused to give more than fragments.

Barry Allen dreamed of running through darkness so thick it choked even the Speed Force. He wole up with a startle and sighed. He looked at Caitlin sleeping soundly beside him and muttered, "Just a dream, huh?"

Arthur Curry, sitting on the throne of Atlantis felt something bad was coming. Mera, his wife now, stroked his face gently and asked," What's gotten you so worried my love?"

Arthur relaxed a little but his worries didn't vanish. "I feel something is coming. Something evl. My master often said it's like a premonition. Let's increase the guards around Atlantis."

Diana also felt a disturbance. She decided to investigate it on her own. Her father always told her to trust in her instincts and be prepared for anything.

She even thought about asking him, but she chose not to. She was already a mature woman, she couldn't keep relying on her father forever. She wanted to walk beside him and carry some of the burden he bore.

***

On Apokolips, the war engines roared. Billions of Parademons swarmed in the breeding pits, their shrieks rising like a stormwind. The generals sharpened their blades, tested their machines. Whole armadas began their march toward the dimensional gates.

Grail stood apart, watching. Every instinct drilled into her screamed to obey her father, to glory in conquest. And yet she hesitated, imagining Edward standing on a battlefield littered with the broken, raising his blade not just for Earth but against the tyranny of Darkseid himself.

If he fell, Earth would burn. But if he triumphed…

A thin, dangerous smile touched her lips. "Perhaps I will see for myself."

And so, as the heavens darkened and the first cracks between worlds began to open, the pieces moved into place. Earth's heroes felt the pressure building, though none yet knew the scale of the storm. Humanity lived its ordinary days, unaware of how close its nights were to ending.

And in the silence between heartbeats, in the pause before the plunge, the universe held its breath.

The invasion was about to begin.

******

The night sky over Gotham was a suffocating blanket of gray, clouds hanging so low they seemed to scrape the tallest towers. No stars broke through, and even the moon hid itself as if unwilling to watch what was about to unfold.

The city breathed its usual chaos: sirens blaring across districts like a constant pulse, the scattered screams of crimes unanswered, the mechanical hum of neon bleeding into the puddles on the streets below.

Yet tonight, something moved differently in Gotham's veins. The shadows felt thicker, crawling not just with the city's own filth but with something else—something foreign. Something that did not belong.

Batman crouched atop a gargoyle jutting from Wayne Tower, the stone beneath him eroded by years of weather and Gotham's acid rain. His cape swayed against the night wind, black as a void, cutting the skyline like a second set of wings.

He did not move, not even a twitch of muscle, but the cowl's white lenses tracked everything. The chaos below was familiar, almost comforting in its routine. What wasn't familiar was the tone of the voices hissing through his comm.

"Unit Four down! Unit Seven down! Jesus Christ! it had wings! It took Sanchez! It just...it just flew off with him!"

The panic was uncharacteristic of Gotham's hardened police. Bruce's eyes narrowed behind the mask. He had heard the whispers before—word of winged creatures disappearing into alleys, whole blocks blacked out as though smothered. Bruce kept investigating, and found some strange boxes which was clearly alien technology. His mind kept calculating the purpose behind it.

Gotham was a city of rumors, but he'd learned long ago that patterns of whispers usually led to something real.

And then the real revealed itself.

A shape burst through a skyscraper window across the street, glass shards raining down like ice. A man screamed, dragged helplessly by a clawed arm. The creature carrying him unfurled jagged wings, each beat slicing the air with unnatural sharpness. Its maw spat green fire, lighting its armored body in sick reflection.

Batman fired his grapnel instantly, no hesitation, swinging from the gargoyle with a precision honed through years of practice. He collided with the creature mid-flight, momentum carrying both into a rooftop in an eruption of shattered glass and metal debris. They rolled across the concrete, sparks scattering as talons scraped.

The Parademon rose first, mandibles snapping as it screeched. Its sulfurous yellow eyes locked onto him, an otherworldly glow radiating menace.

Batman rose without pause, cloak trailing like the wings of something even darker than the beast before him. His voice was low, unshaken."Speak. Who sent you here? What is your objective? Why are you kidnapping people?"

The creature lunged, no hesitation, snarling.

Batman sidestepped with surgical precision, driving a batarang directly into the exposed joint of its throat. Sparks exploded as alien armor cracked. The Parademon shrieked, writhing against the assault. Batman's gaze narrowed.

"Not from this world," he muttered, watching every twitch, every unnatural movement of its limbs.

The Parademon suddenly convulsed, its body shaking as if controlled by a force far beyond it. Then, through a warped voice, words scraped out:"For Darkseid."

The words were final. A pulse of energy surged through the creature's body before Batman could react. It detonated in a burst of emerald fire.

Bruce dove behind a vent, his cape wrapping tight around him like a shield as the explosion tore across the rooftop. The blast shattered glass, ripped steel, and sent a wave of heat crashing against him. When silence returned, only ash remained where the creature had been.

He rose, jaw tight, eyes already calculating. He tapped the comm inside his cowl."Alfred. Cross-reference this energy signature with STAR Labs. Quietly. Someone's testing Earth's defenses."

Alfred's voice came steady, though concern edged his words. "Of course, sir. Though if I may—whatever that was, it looked nothing like one of your usual rogues."

"No," Batman replied, voice flat as stone. "It's much worse."

Without realizing it, his gloved hand brushed the amulet at his neck, a habit since the incident with Joker. "Something big is coming, and Earth might not be ready for it. Maybe I should gather the others, form a team to protect Earth." He muttered absent mindedly, wondering if his master had the answers.

***

Metropolis basked in the golden light of afternoon, a world apart from Gotham's endless night. The city thrived with motion, laughter spilling from street corners. Phones tilted skyward, eager to catch blurs of blue and red streaking across clouds. Superman had returned after weeks of absence, and with him came the familiar security of knowing the city was safe.

But today, he was not alone.

Faora soared beside him, her black and silver armor gleaming like obsidian under the sun. The sight of her unsettled the people at first—memories of Kryptonian's destruction were still raw. Panic had rippled when she first appeared at Superman's side, but when they saw her working alongside him, saving lives, their fear slowly gave way to cautious curiosity.

"You don't need to stay glued to my side, Faora." Clark's voice was calm, reassuring, as they hovered near the Daily Planet globe. "You can do whatever you want. Maybe even find things that interest you. Make a life here. Metropolis isn't Krypton. People here… they'll take time to trust."

Faora's lips curved faintly, something near a smile. "You underestimate them. They look at you and see hope. They look at me and see what nearly destroyed them. That's fine. I'll earn it. I don't mind if it's for your sake."

Clark's chest warmed. He masked it with a grin. "You sound like someone I know. I still can't believe you asked my mom if we should have children."

A faint blush colored Faora's pale cheeks. "We are the last of Krypton. It's our duty to ensure our race does not perish."

Clark chuckled, watching the woman who had once been only a soldier blush like any ordinary woman. "Maybe I should get you a ring to make it official."

Their exchange was cut short by a piercing screech. Both turned sharply. Across the city, a shape dived like a missile, smashing into a commuter train on its raised tracks. The sound of twisting metal screamed through the air as cars tilted, threatening to crash into the streets below.

"Clark! Let's go!" Faora's eyes sharpened instantly.

Superman was already moving. A sonic boom cracked the sky as he shot forward, bracing the derailing train with both hands. Sparks showered across his shoulders as he held the cars steady, teeth clenched, muscles straining to keep hundreds of lives from plunging to their deaths.

Above him, Faora intercepted the diving Parademon with a strike so fast it blurred to the human eye. Their collision sent shockwaves rattling windows across Metropolis. She moved with lethal precision, each kick and punch calculated, but the Parademon's savagery matched her blow for blow.

Superman shoved the train back into place, forcing the mangled cars onto the rails with controlled strength. He didn't pause. He launched skyward, colliding with the Parademon from behind. His fist slammed into its armored back, sending it spiraling.

Faora caught it mid-spin, locking her arms around its neck in a chokehold. Her voice was low, almost pained. "These things… they're soldiers. Like I was."

Clark hovered close, his jaw tightening. But he reached out, steadying her with a hand on her shoulder. "Then someone's sending an army. We'll stop them. Together."

Below people cheered. "Superman and Superwoman! they saved us again!"

Faora smiled, happy that they were finally warming up to her. Clark also smiled watching her, but the worry still lingered in his mind.

***

Coast City.

Hal Jordan leaned against his jet, sunglasses perched carelessly on his head as the other pilots joked around. He wasn't laughing. The ring on his finger pulsed with a rhythm he'd learned to dread—warnings only it could sense.

"What now?" he muttered.

The air above the base rippled. Shadows streaked across the sky, blotting out the sun. Hal's eyes widened. Dozens of winged monsters descended like a swarm, blotting out light.

"Clear out! This is an emergency!" Hal barked, already lifting his hand. Emerald light burst forth, wrapping around him, forming the protective hard-light suit of the Green Lantern. He rocketed upward as the Parademons swooped in. "There goes my secret identity." He muttered with a sigh.

They came at him like wasps, claws and teeth snapping. Hal gritted his teeth, manifesting a construct machine gun, spraying the air with emerald bullets. Parademons shrieked as constructs shredded their wings, sending them plummeting.

"Yeah, come on! Plenty of Jordan to go around!" he taunted, weaving through the sky.

But for each one that fell, two more took its place. One slammed him into the sand below, claws screeching across his shield.

"Batman's gonna be pissed at me for this," Hal groaned, blasting it off with a massive emerald boxing glove. The creature flew, regrouping with others that veered toward Gotham.

***

Central City

Barry Allen was halfway through a cheeseburger when the first scream split the night. He sighed, stuffing the rest into his mouth in a blur. "Can't even finish dinner in peace…"

Caitlin chuckled and spoke warmly, "Go save the day, hero." Barry chuckled and kissed her before changing into his suit. In seconds, he was gone, a crimson streak cutting through the streets.

Around the corner, he skidded to a halt. Three Parademons had lifted a police cruiser into the air, officers inside screaming.

Barry's eyes widened. "Whoa! Discount gargoyles? Are these the aliens Edward warned us about?"

In a blur, he was on top of the car, pulling officers out one by one, setting them safely on the street. The Parademons screeched, confused by the red lightning darting among them.

Barry smirked. "Sorry, goth boys. Wrong city. Gotham's that way." He jabbed a thumb east, then unleashed a storm of punches so fast the air cracked.

The cruiser crashed harmlessly onto a rooftop as the Parademons spiraled, dazed.

Barry exhaled. "Okay… This is officially above my pay grade."

***

STAR Labs

Alarms wailed. People kept running around with urgency to find out waht's happening. Victor Stone stared at holographic screens, heart pounding.

"Energy spikes… gravitational distortions…" He turned to his father. "Dad, this isn't natural. It's coordinated. You need to get away from here"

Silas Stone frowned. "Victor, step back. Let the government handle this." But he didn't dismiss his son's worry.

Victor suddenly turned warily and spoke, "it's too late. They are here.."

But the walls shattered before he finished. Parademons poured through, claws reaching for the Mother Box suspended on its pedestal.

Victor lunged instinctively, placing himself between them and the artifact. Energy flared, exploding across his body. He screamed, collapsing as alien fire surged through every nerve.

When the smoke cleared, he was no longer entirely human. His body had changed, reshaped into living technology, battle systems activating instinctively. "They are looking for this." He looked at the motherbox.

***

Philadelphia

Billy Batson ducked into an alley, breath quick, nerves shaking. "Aliens? Seriously? Can't I just have one normal day?" He clenched his fists, calling the word that defined him.

"Shazame!"

Lightning split the night, and the boy was gone. In his place stood a man in red and gold, a god's power etched across every line. Shazame grinned, cracking his knuckles. "Alright, ugly. You picked the wrong planet."

He punched them with crackle of thunder and blasted their bodies. "I guess it's time to show I can also protect humans like Edward did." He grinned despite the situation.

***

New York

Diana strode into the light, sword in one hand, shield in the other, her expression hard as steel. She slashed at the parademons coming from the boomtubes, slicing them like butter. The people around screamed and ran away to safety.

"If war is what they seek," she declared, voice carrying like thunder, "then they shall find it."

The Parademon plague spread like wildfire, searing across Earth's cities. Each hero fought their own battles, each overwhelmed by the sudden tide. Many of them not yet grasped the scale of what was unfolding.

Only Batman realized the depth of the situation. He started hacking into the communication network and sent messages to the other heroes anonymously, telling them this might lead to a war that engulfs the planet.

Far above, in the void between worlds, Darkseid's generals watched from their warships. Mantis. Virman Vundabar. Granny Goodness. Kalibak. Kanto. The Female Furies. All sharpened blades and prepared for descent.

Earth's defenders were scattered, untested. Soon, they would learn what true war meant.

And from the clouds above, Edward watched with a grim expression.

"So it begins," he muttered. "Let them unite and fight together. I won't step in unless it's beyond them. I don't want them always looking toward me, halting their growth."

His voice was heavy with something like sorrow. "Sometimes, it's difficult being a parent. You have to watch your children stumble and fall, so they can pick themselves up again. But they need to feel the pain the grow as a human."

*****

Welp, here's where the fun stuff begin. Shit's getting real.

Btw guess who's dying next 💀