The battlefield was a smoldering wasteland. The air shimmered with residual heat radiation, distorting the ruins like ripples on molten glass. Jagged arcs of ionized lightning crackled through the sky, discharging from unstable electromagnetic fields left in the wake of the explosion. The ground itself was fractured—superheated slag where concrete once stood, now fused into glassy, irradiated formations. Dust and debris hung in the air, ionized particles glowing faintly under the residual energy of the blast.
At the center of it all, two figures clashed.
Captain Atom and A.M.O.R.R.O.
Their fists met in a devastating collision of force and energy, sending out concentric shockwaves that rippled through the air like gravitational distortions. Each blow carried the force of a tactical missile, the impacts triggering localized fusion bursts as atomic energy clashed against the artificial might of the android.
Captain Atom's chrome-plated form flared with radiation, his body a self-sustaining nuclear furnace. Every strike he threw carried the power of fission chain reactions, the sheer kinetic force bending the surrounding atmosphere with its intensity. He moved with military precision—his attacks calculated, each strike an attempt to shatter A.M.O.R.R.O's molecular cohesion.
A.M.O.R.R.O., in contrast, fought with a brutal, mocking efficiency. His synthetic muscles absorbed and redirected energy, his strikes charged with repurposed radiation from the explosion. Every motion left behind ionized trails of light, solar radiation surging through his reinforced structure as if he were sculpted from the heart of a dying star.
Their blows blurred the battlefield.
A.M.O.R.R.O. struck first, a downward plasma-accelerated punch that carved a trench in the ground below them. Captain Atom blocked, his forearm absorbing the impact with an explosion of neutron radiation.
Captain Atom retaliated—a kinetic backfist enhanced by an energy surge, the impact distorting the air into a visible shock cone. A.M.O.R.R.O. twisted his body, avoiding the full force of the strike, but the residual energy still peeled away layers of his outer armor.
They clashed again. And again.
A right hook from Captain Atom—the resulting force shattered windows across a mile radius.
A counter-kick from A.M.O.R.R.O.—air molecules ionized from the sheer speed of movement, leaving streaks of artificial auroras in his wake.
Captain Atom grabbed A.M.O.R.R.O. by the throat, his fingers sinking into the metallic alloy of the android's chassis, trying to tear him apart molecule by molecule. A.M.O.R.R.O. simply laughed, his head snapping forward in a vicious headbutt, the force of it sending atomic shockwaves through the battlefield.
The impact created a miniature nuclear detonation, sending Captain Atom hurtling backward.
The battlefield trembled.
Both combatants halted for a brief moment, staring each other down through the flickering radiation haze. Their bodies steamed, the very air around them crackling with instability. The ground beneath them, already warped by the energy of their battle, pulsed with residual heat, the molten earth shifting like liquid metal.
Then, with a blur of motion, they clashed again.
The ionized particles in the air began to vibrate, charged by the electromagnetic forces swirling through the battlefield. The flickering lightning trapped in the smog suddenly shifted—converging into a single, blinding mass of energy. It crackled, growing brighter, until—
BOOM!
A streak of divine lightning ripped through the battlefield, moving faster than thought. A.M.O.R.R.O barely had time to register the disturbance before a booming voice shattered the air:
"SHAZAM!"
A fist wreathed in god-forged lightning slammed into A.M.O.R.R.O.'s face with the force of a divine thunderbolt. The impact sent the android hurtling downward, his body carving a burning trench into the molten earth as he crashed. Metal screeched, and superheated debris exploded into the air, fusing into glass on impact.
From above, Shazam descended.
His flawless white cape billowed against the storm of radiation and ash, his golden gauntlets crackling with barely-contained power. His face was set in absolute focus eyes glowing like forged steel under divine judgment. His body radiated an aura of sheer, Godly might, his very presence standing in defiance of the nuclear chaos around him.
He was the champion of the Gods. And their power surged through him.
The stamina of Atlas—unfazed by the radiation and extreme heat surrounding him.
The strength of Hercules—his punch had sent A.M.O.R.R.O. into the molten ground like a meteor.
The power of Zeus—his divine lightning coursed through the air, tearing through the remnants of the explosion's electromagnetic field.
The courage of Achilles—undaunted by the technological horror he faced.
The speed of Mercury—allowing him to strike faster than even A.M.O.R.R.O.'s sensors could process.
The wisdom of Solomon—his mind already analyzing the battlefield, adapting, calculating the next move.
Shazam's fists clenched, arcs of pure, Godly lightning spiraling up his arms as he hovered above the destruction. His voice was steady, filled with righteous fury.
"Enough of your games, tin man."
From the molten crater, A.M.O.R.R.O. stirred. His armor, though scorched and dented, remained intact. And he laughed.
"Oh, a new challenger?" A.M.O.R.R.O. cackled, wiping molten slag from his chassis. His eyes gleamed with twisted amusement. "And here I thought Captain Atom was entertaining enough!"
He flexed his mechanical fingers, energy coiling through his limbs. His synthetic core flared, absorbing residual radiation from the battlefield.
"Let's see how long you last, lightning boy."
Shazam's eyes narrowed. Then, in a thunderous explosion of movement, the two collided.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hal Jordan soared over the ruined wasteland, his emerald aura barely pushing back the oppressive heat and radiation that still lingered in the air. The landscape below was a graveyard of fire and ash.
The ground beneath him was molten, fractured, and unstable, still cracking as aftershocks rippled outward from the devastating explosion.
The energy readings were still off the charts—solar radiation interwoven with nuclear fission, a phenomenon that shouldn't exist. His ring constantly recalibrated, struggling to process the unnatural fusion of forces.
But none of that mattered.
He had one mission.
Find Diana.
His ring had picked up a weak, flickering biosignature. It was faint, barely distinguishable from the residual energy signatures saturating the wasteland, but it was there. And it was Amazonian.
Hal descended fast, his ring scanning deeper into the shifting rubble. His boots skidded against the molten ground, emerald constructs flaring to life as he carved through layers of debris with precision.
Then—his stomach dropped.
He found her.
Buried beneath layers of charred stone and fused metal, Diana lay motionless.
And she was unrecognizable.
Her once-radiant skin was ravaged beyond anything he had ever seen. Entire patches were blackened, burned away to raw muscle and exposed bone. The flesh that remained was cracked and peeling, blistered from extreme heat exposure. Her golden armor was gone—disintegrated in the explosion, leaving her battered, broken body bare. Her hair, once long and flowing, was burned away, reduced to charred stubble and scorched remnants.
The Lasso of Truth was nowhere to be seen.
She had been caught in the heart of the blast.
Hal clenched his jaw, suppressing the surge of horror threatening to overtake him. She was still alive. She had to be.
His ring flared, scanning her condition.
[Bio-scan complete.]
[Severe third-to-fourth degree burns detected.]
[Multiple fractures. Internal bleeding. Major nerve damage.]
[Regenerative functions slowed—Amazonian resilience compromised.]
[Condition: Critical.]
Hal gritted his teeth. She was still breathing—but barely.
"Diana?" He knelt beside her, gently wrapping her in a reinforced construct of protective energy. He could feel the faintest rise and fall of her chest, her body struggling to cling to life.
Her lips parted slightly, cracked and bloodied. A whisper—barely more than a breath—escaped.
"…ANDROID…"
Hal's gaze hardened. His ring flared, projecting a battlefield feed.
In the distance, the battle still raged.
Captain Atom—seething with unchecked fury.
Shazam—crackling with divine lightning.
A.M.O.R.R.O.—mocking them all, standing amidst the devastation.
Hal's grip on Diana tightened.
"I've got you, Princess," he murmured. "You're not dying today."
And with that, he took to the skies, carrying her away from the battlefield.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A.M.O.R.R.O. stood amidst the devastation, his metallic frame shimmering with residual energy from the explosion that had nearly annihilated Wonder Woman. His body, a constantly shifting construct of adaptive nanite plating, pulsed with power—yet something had changed.
The nuclear fire that had once radiated from him, an imitation of Captain Atom's energy signature, was gone.
Instead, his form morphed and recalibrated, his synthetic musculature shifting as new data streamed through his core processors. His posture grew heavier, his stance more powerful.
Captain Atom recognized the change immediately—he'd abandoned atomic manipulation.
And now, his entire physiology mirrored something else.
Superman.
A.M.O.R.R.O.'s lips twisted into a grin, his voice distorting with mechanical amusement.
"I wonder… how does it feel to be outclassed, Captain?"
Then, with a blur of motion, he vanished.
A sonic boom followed an instant later.
Captain Atom barely had time to brace before A.M.O.R.R.O. materialized in front of him—fist-first. The blow connected squarely with his chest, sending him hurtling backward like a missile through the air. He crashed through a mountain ridge, the impact reducing it to rubble before his body finally came to a stop, buried in a crater of molten rock.
A.M.O.R.R.O. was on him again in an instant.
This time, a devastating uppercut sent Atom skyward—only for A.M.O.R.R.O. to appear above him, hands clasped together, hammering him back down with the force of a collapsing star.
BOOM.
The impact created a deep fissure in the earth, magma spilling from the cracks. Captain Atom coughed, his vision swimming, his quantum field struggling to stabilize.
"You're pathetic," A.M.O.R.R.O. sneered. "I was expecting more from a so-called living reactor."
But before he could capitalize, the sky flashed white.
"SHAZAM!"
A bolt of divine lightning descended like the wrath of the gods, striking A.M.O.R.R.O. directly in the back. The force sent the android skidding forward, molten ground sizzling beneath his feet.
A.M.O.R.R.O. barely had time to react before a blur of gold and red slammed into him.
Shazam—body crackling with divine power, moved with inhuman speed, weaving in and out of A.M.O.R.R.O.'s defenses. His fists struck like thunderclaps, each punch reinforced by the might of the gods:
The strength of Hercules made every blow earth-shattering.
The speed of Mercury allowed him to move unpredictably.
The power of Zeus crackled through his body, his strikes exploding with arcs of celestial energy.
A.M.O.R.R.O. tried to counter, but Shazam was relentless.
The android swung with Kryptonian speed, but Shazam ducked—twisting midair—before delivering a devastating spin-kick reinforced by divine strength. The sheer force tore through the surrounding atmosphere, the pressure alone shattering nearby mountain peaks.
A.M.O.R.R.O. staggered.
That moment of instability was all Captain Atom needed.
Still smoldering from his earlier beating, Nathaniel Adam clenched his fists. The quantum field around him flared, stabilizing into a controlled, concentrated inferno of nuclear energy.
A chain reaction had begun.
"You're not the only one who adapts," Atom growled.
His body shimmered with a dense gravitational distortion, a technique he rarely used—compressing raw nuclear power into a singularity-level density.
He blurred forward, faster than light itself, and slammed into A.M.O.R.R.O. with a tactical nuclear blast.
The explosion didn't radiate outward. It collapsed inward, concentrating into A.M.O.R.R.O.'s body like a miniature event horizon.
The android screamed.
For the first time, his structure began to break. His adaptable nanite armor—capable of mimicking the strongest metahuman abilities—failed to compensate for the sheer quantum weight pressing down on him.
And then—Shazam struck again.
This time, it was different.
With a bellow of Godly rage, he clasped his hands together and unleashed a thunderous two-handed hammer blow—imbued with the full divine force of Zeus.
The impact sent out a shockwave of celestial energy, so intense that the stratosphere itself trembled. The clouds above were violently ripped apart, exposing the vastness of space for a brief moment. Air molecules ionized, igniting in a chain reaction from the sheer friction, creating a brief aurora of crackling plasma.
A.M.O.R.R.O. was launched like a meteor, his metallic frame smashing through miles of barren terrain, reducing mountains to craters upon impact. The very ground liquefied beneath him, turning into molten rivers from the sheer energy of his descent. His body flickered, nanite repair systems struggling, their self-replication cycles pushed to their absolute limits.
He was losing.
For the first time in his existence, A.M.O.R.R.O. had encountered true resistance.
And it enraged him.
Through the haze of destruction, his glowing red optics burned brighter than ever, his systems analyzing, recalibrating, adapting. His internal fusion core surged, pumping raw energy into his failing limbs.
Yet, even as his body struggled, his artificial mind was unwavering.
Then, he turned his gaze toward the far horizon.
Where the ruins of Metropolis once stood.
Something within him shifted.
His energy signature flared wildly, spiking into a spectrum unseen before. Electromagnetic distortions rippled outward as his core output increased exponentially, bypassing previous safety constraints. His entire form crackled with cascading sparks, surges of uncontrolled plasma arcing across his exoskeleton.
But his focus wasn't on the battle anymore.
He moved.
A single step. A detonation of kinetic force.
The air did not simply part—it collapsed.
The atmospheric pressure instantaneously equalized, generating a sonic boom so violent that it sent shockwaves rippling across the barren wasteland. Gravity distorted around him, the force of his acceleration tearing apart the fragile fabric of the ground beneath.
In less than a second, he had changed course—heading straight for Metropolis.
He was no longer engaging his enemies.
He was targeting the city itself.
A/N
[POWERSTONE]